Trustees’ Annual Report & Statement of Financial Activity for the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024
Trustees
Eleanore Hargreaves Diana Davies Pauline Saxby
Completed 10/07/2024
Mindful Surrey Charity No: 1187713
1. Introduction
1.1 Charitable Objects
The object of the CIO for the year ending March 31[st] 2024 was:
To advance education for the public benefit in Surrey and Sussex through the provision of courses in the study and practice of mindfulness training, particularly but not exclusively in educational settings, which enable participants to develop their understanding and awareness of the practice of mindfulness and the beneficial impact it may have upon good mental health and wellbeing.
1.2 Financial period
Our financial period lasts 12 months and runs from April 1[st] to March 31[st] .
1.3 Income and spending
Our gross income for the year was £11,833.
This is a decrease from the previous year which was £23,619.
In the previous year we received grant-funding which we did not this year. Also, as we had sufficient funds and there was an increase in demand, we have offered a lot more free support to people on low incomes and community groups.
The spending was £15,884.
Our accounts are prepared on a receipts and payments basis.
We started the year on 1.4.23 with cash funds of £11,866 End of year balance, 31.3.24: £7,815.
Full details of receipts and payments can be found in the accounts for the year.
We kept the price for the course at £195 for online and £225 for in-person, as the previous year. The weekly drop-ins cost £60 for two months.
Our charge to schools varied, according to their location and the length of sessions we provided.
1.4 Government contracts
Mindful Surrey did not receive any contracts from central government or a local authority during the financial period of this return.
1.5 Government grants
Mindful Surrey did not receive any grants from central government or a local authority during the financial period of this return.
1.6 Income breakdown
The total value of income received during the financial period of this return was as follows:
a) Donations and legacies £198 b) Charitable activities £11,635 c) Other trading activities Zero d) Investments Zero
1.7 Details of Any Funds Materially in Deficit
The Charity has no funds which are materially in deficit.
1.8 Investments Policy & Objectives
The charity does not make investments.
2. Spend
2.1 Grant making
Grant making is not the main way Mindful Surrey carries out its purposes. The charity does not award any grants or make social or programme-related investments.
2.2 Trustee payments
All Trustees act in a voluntary capacity and receive no remuneration or other material benefits from their services to the charity.
Out-of-pocket expenses necessarily and reasonably incurred by Trustees in promoting the purposes of the charity are reimbursed at cost.
2.3 Statements on liabilities
The trustees declare that:
The charity has given no guarantees where potential liability under the guarantee is outstanding at the date of this statement.
The charity has no debt outstanding at the date of this statement which is owed by the CIO and which is secured by an express charge on any assets of the CIO.
3. Activities outside of the United Kingdom
3.1 Income received from outside the United Kingdom
The charity did not receive income from outside of the United Kingdom in the financial period of this return.
3.2 Delivering charitable activities outside of the United Kingdom
The charity did not deliver charitable activities outside of the United Kingdom in the financial period of this return.
3.3 Spending outside the United Kingdom
The charity did not spend funds outside of the United Kingdom in the financial period of this return.
4. Trading subsidiaries
The charity does not have any trading subsidiaries.
5. Charity addresses and property
The public address details displayed on the Register of Charities are correct.
6. Structure and membership
The charity is not part of a wider group structure with a parent body and subsidiary bodies.
7. Employees and volunteers
7.1 Employees
At the end of the financial period of this return, one self-employed person was working for the charity, Catherine Nasskau; she did not work on behalf of the charity outside the UK. There were no permanent employees or people on fixed-term contracts.
7.2 Volunteers
Excluding trustees, approximately four volunteers carried out charitable activities on behalf of our charity in the United Kingdom during the financial period of this return.
Volunteers are used by Mindful Surrey to help with the website, marketing and Google Ads. We are in the Reach volunteering programme and this is the main way we find volunteers to help with aspects of running the charity that Catherine Nasskau does not have time or expertise to do. We worked with 4 people last year: a graphic designer, who designed flyers and posters, and who is in the process of redesigning the website. Also three digital marketing consultants helped with the Google Ads and SEO. Our Reach advert for assistance with fund-raising is still open and we hope to find someone with more time to assist in the future.
7.3 Trustee selection methods
There must be at least three charity trustees. The maximum number of trustees is 12. In accordance with the constitution, trustees are appointed or re-appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees.
In appointing trustees, due consideration is given to ensuring that the trustees have, between them, the skills and experience necessary to manage the charity effectively and in accordance with charity law.
8. Governance
8.1 Policies and procedures
The charity had the following policies and procedures in place at the end of the financial period of this annual return:
Financial controls policy and procedures Safeguarding policy and procedures Risk management policy and procedures Privacy policy
8.2 Statutory Declaration
The Trustees confirm that they have paid due regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit in deciding what activities the charity should undertake.
9. Safeguarding and risk
9.1 Safeguarding
The charity provided services to children and adults at risk in the financial period of the return. The charity obtained the required level of DBS Checks for all roles which were eligible for them in the financial period of this return.
All required Standard and Enhanced DBS checks were obtained.
9.2 Serious Incidents
The charity is not aware of any serious incidents during the financial period of this return.
10.Activities & achievements
10.1 Overview
Over the year Mindful Surrey has continued to offer mindfulness training to help people with their mental and physical health and wellbeing. Our sessions have been in for the form of 8-week courses, drop-in sessions, one-to-one coaching and sessions in schools. Our sessions have been run online and in-person in Dorking, Surrey. Using Zoom has meant that local people who cannot travel can be offered support.
10.2 Outputs and outcomes
MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) courses:
We ran 8-week courses throughout the year. Our online courses were popular throughout the year, particularly in the autumn and spring. The MBSR course is the standard mindfulness course taught all over the world which helps people with a wide range of experiences and challenges.
Mindful Eating courses:
We ran two 8-week courses, online. The first was at a reduced rate as the course was new. Once we were confident of its value, we increased the price, although still kept it free for people on low incomes. Participants have found the course to be extremely helpful in dealing with all aspects of emotional eating, and has led to specific changes in their eating habit and overall physical and mental health.
Drop-in sessions:
We ran weekly, live online classes throughout the year. We ran week Tuesday morning sessions for everyone and monthly Thursday evenings for people who had taken the MBSR course, with us or elsewhere, or who had a similar level of meditation experience.
One-to-one sessions:
Demand for these continued to grow throughout the year. Some people prefer these to being in a group, or sometimes want to have a few sessions on their own before joining a group.
Schools and colleges:
We gave a second introductory session at Godalming Sixth Form College. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) based in Surrey employed us to run sessions for their staff. The Redoak Centre invited us to run a session for their Surrey Headteachers conference. We also ran sessions for teenage refugees at East Surrey College to help them with stress and improving their sleep.
Testimonials and feedback:
We request feedback following every course or class, which is shared with trustees. We also publish testimonials on the website. Mindful Surrey is registered with Coursecheck, an organisation that publish online, unedited feedback and reviews of courses. There is a link to Coursecheck on the website so the public can discover what participants have gained from our MBSR course and other sessions.
Conclusion:
Mindful Surrey is fairly unique as an organisation offering mindfulness training to individuals, schools and organisations who cannot afford to pay for it – not many mindfulness classes are delivered by charities and offered for free. It is worth spending time fund-raising in order to fulfil our mission of making our classes accessible to all.
There continues to be a great need to support people of all ages with their mental health, particularly younger people and children. The NHS waiting lists are long and many people are unable to pay for professional support.
Mindfulness training is very effective at helping people deal with stress, anxiety, depression, bereavement, sleep problems, as well as difficulties with relationships, and physical pain or illness. It is useful that it works so well delivered via live, online sessions.
It is rewarding to read people’s testimonials following our courses and to hear how beneficial people found them over the last year. Many people reported that coming to the sessions really helped them with the consequences of the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.
10.3 How the public have benefitted
We were disappointed not to receive a grant from the Community Foundation for Surrey (CFS), apparently due to an increase in demand from other organisations. However we continued to offer support to people on low incomes. We ran a free workshop with the Merstham Community Hub support group for people with depression. We also ran a free introduction event again as part of the Dorking Mindfest Fair, which served to inform local people about the different organisations and support that was available to help with mental health.
10.4 Performance
Although we had sufficient income to run effective courses and events for adults, this was only as we had money from last year. We plan to raise more funds through grants for the year ahead.
.
10.5 Looking ahead
It was gratifying to be able to help Surrey residents on low incomes who were in desperate need of help and who could not access any other professional support. We look forward to continuing with this in the future.
10.6 Principal risks facing the charity
The principal risk facing the charity would be if we were no longer able to participate in the Google Ads Non-profit programme, which gives us $10,000 worth of Ads a month. This allows us to promote our work online at no cost and results in around 100 website visits a day. There are certain things we need to do on a regular basis for Google to allow us to stay in the programme. Catherine Nasskau spends time working with the digital volunteer managing the ads. This is the most significant factor in maintaining and developing our online presence.
As our classes are delivered online as well as in-person, and what we offer can be adapted according to our income, the charity does not face any other major risks. Awareness of mindfulness as an effective intervention and tool to support good mental health and wellbeing continues to grow, as does our public profile, and we are steadily getting an increasing number of referrals, both from professional health practitioners as well as word of mouth. Therefore we have no concerns about Mindful Surrey as a going concern.
11.Reference and administration details
11.1 Charity name & registration
Name of the Charity: Mindful Surrey Charity No: 1187713
Mindful Surrey is not registered with HM Revenue & Customs
11.2 Charity’s principal address
13 Warrenne Rd, Brockham, Surrey RH3 7JY
e-mail: info@mindfulsurrey.co.uk website: www.mindfulsurrey.co.uk
11.3 Names of the trustees who manage the charity
Diana Davies, Eleanore Hargreaves, Pauline Saxby. The role of Chair is rotated between the trustees.
11.4 Names of advisors & senior members of staff
Catherine Nasskau, Director of Mindful Surrey, Mindfulness teacher
11.5 Bank
NatWest Bank 12 Station Road East, Oxted, Surrey RH8 0PR Depot code 063
12.Structure, governance & management
12.1 Type of governing document
Constitution
.
12.2 Policy on reserves
£200 is to be kept as reserves. Although our income forecast is uncertain, we are able to adapt our expenditure according to our income, and we rarely incur unexpected expenses. We have an arrangement with our usual venue in Dorking that if we are unable to run a course, we do not need to pay any charges as long as we give one month’s notice; the venue management are willing to make this a shorter period in exceptional situations, such as during the pandemic when our ability to run in-person sessions was not in our control.
In an emergency we can reduce all costs apart from annual expenses such as website, email, Zoom, insurance and perhaps venue hire. Our reserves would cover those costs for six months. We can always reduce service delivery on a temporary basis in an emergency too. There would be no costs incurred if we had to close down, such as redundancy and we have no outstanding debtors.
Catherine Nasskau is employed on a freelance basis and the agreement is that she would not be employed if there are insufficient funds to pay her quarterly salary. Most participants pay for sessions in advance, with people on low incomes sometimes paying in instalments; all final payments are made by the last session of a course. Therefore it is straightforward to budget and plan for emergencies.
Approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf.
Catherine Nasskau
10 July, 2024
| Charity Name Mindful Surrey |
Charity Name Mindful Surrey |
Charity Name Mindful Surrey |
Charity Name Mindful Surrey |
CC16a | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For the period from |
Period start date 01.04.23 |
To | |||
| Section A Receipts and payments | |||||
| A1 Receipts Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ |
to the nearest £ Restricted funds |
to the nearest £ Endowment funds |
Total funds to the nearest £ |
Last year to the nearest £ |
|
| Summer Intro, Kids course | 640 1,605 500 780 760 |
- | 1,330 | ||
| Autumn MBSR | - | 2,453 | |||
| Autumn ME intro | 2,850 | ||||
| SpringME, Summer 24 MBSR | 375 | ||||
| Drop-ins | 1,690 | ||||
| 1:1s | 1,730 | - | - | 1,737 | |
| JoyClub | 4,750 | 4,260 | |||
| Corporate, schools(Mocean, WWF, ESC, GC) | 870 | 1,830 | |||
| Grants, donations(Mole ValleyLottery) | 198 | 7,094 | |||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) | 11,833 | - | - | 23,619 | |
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). - - Sub total - Total receipts A3 Payments |
- - - |
||||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). | |||||
| - - - |
- | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| Sub total | - | - | |||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
|||||
| - | - | ||||
Jan-March 23, CNsalary (pd in April) |
4,080 3,400 3,320 3,200 47 422 115 108 130 661 58 217 110 |
- - - - - - |
|||
| April-June 23,CN salary | - | 3,010 | |||
| July-Sept 23, CNsalary | 3,190 | ||||
| Oct-Dec 23,CN salary | 3,550 | ||||
| Postage | - | 40 | |||
| CPD(Sharpham,10PC) | - | 450 | |||
| Email& domain_(pd to Jan 25)_ | 66 | ||||
| Wix website | 141 | ||||
| Zoom | - | 120 | |||
| Venues | 660 | ||||
| Insurance | 53 | ||||
| Flyers,posters | - | 108 | |||
| Equipment,handbooks | - | 240 | |||
| Stripe bankingfees | 16 | 25 | |||
| **Sub total ** | 15,884 | - | - | 11,653 |
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
- - - 15,884 - 4,051 - 11,866 7,815 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - - - |
- | - - - |
|||
| - | |||||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | |||
| Total payments Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end **Cash funds this year end ** |
|||||
| - | |||||
| - - - |
- | - 11,866 |
|||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - |
| Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Categories B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B3 Investment assets B5 Liabilities B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees |
Details Details Details Details Details Signature Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) |
to nearest £ - - - Unrestricted funds |
to nearest £ Endowment funds |
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| OK | |||
| to nearest £ Endowment funds |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| When due (optional) |
|||
| Date of approval |
|||
INCOME
| Summer Intro | Sandra | 60 |
|---|---|---|
| Steven | 60 | |
| Hazel | 50 | |
| Nathan | 60 | |
| Sedgwick | 60 | |
| Lynch | 60 | |
| Mandie | 60 | |
| Elizabeth | 40 | |
| Jane | 60 | |
| Total | 510 | |
| Summer kids | 130 | |
| Autumn MBSR | Jillings | 225 |
| Dyson | 225 | |
| McLachlan | 225 | |
| Imogen | 225 | |
| Belsham | 225 | |
| Tracy | 225 | |
| Ros | 180 | |
| Elizabeth | 75 | |
| Total | 1,605 | |
| Aut ME Intro | Hanna | 125 |
| Olivia | 125 | |
| Zoe | 125 | |
| Hazel | 125 | |
| Total | 500 | |
| Spring ME | Krish | 125 |
| Michelle | 125 | |
| Imogen | 90 | |
| Amanda | 120 | |
| Elizabeth | 125 | |
| Total | 585 | |
| Balveen Summer MBSR 24, pd in Feb |
195 | |
| Drop-ins | Piquet | 30 |
| Unstead | 30 | |
| Laura | 30 | |
| Julia | 50 | |
| Hanna | 300 | |
| Wilkinson | 20 | |
| Hazel | 20 | |
| Liz | 50 | |
| Taylor | 20 | |
| Clare | 85 | |
| Tim | 55 | |
| Olivia | 10 | |
| Gardiner | 60 | |
| Total | 760 | |
| 1-1s | Boon | 850 |
| David PP | 520 |
| Amanda | 120 | |
|---|---|---|
| Unstead | 240 | |
| Total | 1,730 | |
| Corporate, colleges | WWF | 100 |
| Mocean | 280 | |
| East SC | 310 | |
| Godalming | 180 | |
| Total | 870 | |
| Joy Club | March | 450 |
| April | 450 | |
| May | 450 | |
| June | 450 | |
| July | 350 | |
| Aug | 270 | |
| Sept | 360 | |
| Oct | 360 | |
| Nov | 410 | |
| Dec | 400 | |
| Jan | 400 | |
| Feb | 400 | |
| Total | 4,750 | |
| MV Lottery | April | 22 |
| May | 22 | |
| June | 30 | |
| July | 20 | |
| Aug | 16 | |
| Sept | 14 | |
| Oct | 12 | |
| Nov | 15 | |
| Dec | 12 | |
| Jan | 17 | |
| Feb | 10 | |
| March | 8 | |
| Total | 198 | |
| Total | 11,833 | |
| EXPENDITURE | ||
| CN Salary | Jan-March 23_(pd April 24)_ | 4,080 |
| April-June | 3,400 | |
| July-Sept | 3,320 | |
| Oct-Dec | 3,200 | |
| Jan-March(pd April 24) | ||
| Total | 14,000 | |
| Other | Sharpham, 10PC (CPD) | 422 |
| 115 | ||
| Insurance | 58 | |
| Wix | 108 | |
| Zoom | 130 | |
| Stationery, equipment | 110 |
| Postage | 47 | |
|---|---|---|
| Flyers, posters | 217 | |
| Stripe banking fees | 16 | |
| Total | 1,223 | |
| Venue | Taylor Place | 210 |
| Pixham | 437 | |
| Event refreshments | 14 | |
| Total | 661 | |
| Total expenditure | 15,884 | |
| Total income | 11,833 | |
| Start year funds | 11,866 | |
| Total income, inc start | 23,699 | |
| End year funds | 7,815 |