2020-12-30-accounts

Registered Charity Number: 1188486

Trustees’ Annual Report and Financial Statements

For the period

11[th] March 2020 – 31[st] December 2020

Contents

Reference and Administration information

History

Objectives and Activities

Achievements and Performance

Trustee Statement

Financial Review

Structure, Governance and Management

Declarations

The Trustees of ELM Wildlife are pleased to present the financial statement and Annual Report for the charity for the period 11[th] March 2020 - 31[st] December 2020.

Reference and Administrative details

Name of Charity	ELM Wildlife
Other name the charity uses	ELM Hedgehog Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre
Registered Charity Number	1188486
Registered Office	Devon House Ruckamore Road Torquay TQ2 6HF
Rescue Address	Unit 5 Hayter Hames Seale Hayne Newton Abbot TQ12 6NQ

Names of the trustees who manage the charity:

Mr Richard Parker (Chair)

Mrs Jacqueline Parker (Secretary)

Mr Neil Langridge

Mrs Juliet Harvey

Mrs Emma Hickson (Treasurer)

There are no corporate trustees or directors or any trustees holding title to property belonging to the charity.

History

Before we start this report I would like to give a brief overview of the beginnings of ELM Wildlife and how it stands today with our first Charity commission report being filed.

ELM Wildlife (Every Life Matters Wildlife) was actually created in October 2018 by the Parker family, who are Richard (Rick) Parker, Jacqueline (Jacky) Parker and Emily Parker. They had rescued wildlife for many years and basically run by word of mouth until 2018 when they took on the void created by Devon’s then largest hedgehog rescue “Prickly Ball Farm”.

Since that time they have worked tirelessly to build ELM and rescue as many animals as possible. To this date in October 2021 it has been a gruelling slog with not one whole day off between them, without some sort of interaction with ELM and as part days off, there has only been about 20 days each over the last 3 years.

On the subject of dedication, Emily Parker really needs a special mention. She left university July 2018 and started working at ELM in the October, from that time until now, she has had no income at all; not even any state support.

The rescue centre gradually filled their house until they finally found it a new home at Seale Hayne in July 2020; within 6 months they had filled the 2000sqft and are now again looking for larger premises.

Not knowing how the rescue centre (ELM) would evolve they chose to financially support it until its registration as a charity in March 2020; they worried that if it did not work, they would have to fold the charity so felt it was better to wait for registration. They main triggers for registration were the rising costs of running the centre.

From the start in October 2018 to date, not one of the family have taken a wage from ELM, this is unlike other rescues, they have focused on the animals and building a foundation as their goal has been to get to a stage where ELM can employ staff so Jacky and Rick can take a lessor role. This is a massive goal to strive for with the three of them working 12-13 hour days, 365 days a year and without any major funding, but they are going to try.

Objectives and Activities

Aims and Objectives:

1. To promote humane behaviour towards animals, specifically hedgehogs, by providing appropriate care, protection, treatment and security for those who are in need of rescue, care and attention through sickness, maltreatment, poor circumstances or ill use.

2. To provide advice and education to the general public concerning hedgehog and wildlife welfare. Highlighting the need to alleviate cruelty and suffering by increasing the understanding of their needs.

Main Activities:

ELM Wildlife is open 365 days a year to rescue, rehabilitate and release native European hedgehogs in order to support and preserve the species.

We actively promote to the public hedgehog awareness and our ability to help when needed through social media. Members of the public contact us when they find an injured, sick or distressed hedgehog; advice is given over the phone in the first instance. If deemed necessary the hedgehog is brought to our rescue centre where they go through a triage process and if necessary, admitted for care.

Hedgehogs are assessed upon admittance with all casualties initially going into an incubator while being monitored and given subcutaneous injection (subcut) fluids, when stable a course of treatment is decided; during the treatment assessment all casualties have a faecal sample tested, which gives an overall health picture. The treatment process can range from rehydration and food, flystrike removal (can take several hours), pain medication, a range of separate Internal parasite burden medications, trips to the vet for operations, hand feeding or nurturing care until he hedgehog is heavy enough to be released to raising new born hoglets. We have a mortality rate of between 25-30%, this rate reflects our policy of taking any casualty and not suggesting the finder to take to a vets before coming to us, this practice is used by some rescues so as not to incur more cost, but unfortunately a lot of vets are not familiar with treating wildlife and their first reaction is to euthanize (PTS). This is not a reflection on vets and vet practices, their actions are driven more by unfamiliarity and the ability to give long term care. Any casualty brought to us that is deemed beyond help or in too much stress and pain for us to cope with, goes straight to our vets and at our expense. Once the hedgehog is healthy and has been rehabilitated, we aim to release them as soon as possible to where they came from unless it’s not safe to do so, if the latter is the case, they go into our extensive rehoming program.

Our rehoming program starts with offering hedgehogs to finders that have brought in an animal from their property or nearby, if the animal has died from symptom not related to its original environment, we may offer another hog to them that needs rehoming. The next

option is to vet members of the public and their property/location who contact us to rehome a casualty. We constantly have request for rehoming, this is a difficult time consuming process and ultimately sometime leads to bad feelings when turned down; our focus is always on the animals safety and ability to lead a normal life. I wouldn’t call it our final option but we are working on creating small new communities in safe areas, this is not an easy process and does include a lot of work and angst to finding the correct sites, but we feel this is extremely important way to help aid the survival of the species. Our starting criteria for these sites are villages with no through roads, no badger population too close and a willingness from the community to want to help as a group.

Our first site was the village of Kingston in Devon. After contacting Kingston Parish council, we did a survey of the villagers on their willingness to partake and sightings of hedgehogs and badgers; this yielded 5 suitable households and no hedgehog or badger sightings in the last 3 years. All 5 houses prepared with one or two hedgehog boxes/house and the release went well with us taking 2 hedgehogs for each household. Unfortunately due to the heavy workload at ELM we lost contact with the village’s progress and it was with some trepidation that we remade contact in 2021. We were hugely delighted to hear that the original 10 hedgehogs were doing well and that they had bred, the news got even better when we found the village had become hedgehog friendly with road signs and highway holes. We have repeated the process again with another 10 in Kingston.

At present ELM’s Public interaction, guidance/information and support, is mainly via social media and telephone. We have a main Facebook page and several Facebook groups, from the main page we can impart information and the public can contact us on Messenger via the same page. We try to avoid contact from the public via email for animal issues as it is not as easy to share questions, messenger allows any of the staff to drop in and answer a question. The rescue/advice mobile number is manned by Rick; this is contacted roughly between 30 and 80+ times a day, with an average call length of 5 minutes. If the call taken was to rescue a casualty, a request via the ELM Ambulance group on Messenger is generated and hopefully waits for a driver to respond.

It is interesting to note that even though this mobile number is primarily a help line, there is a fair amount of abuse taken via this number from the public.

With the move to Seale Hayne and the much greater capacity we needed to increase our volunteer input, this meant an increased number of volunteers being allowed to join our Facebook group from where we organised the calendar and the day to day issues. The total of members fluctuates between 100 and 160, which is very fluid with people joining and leaving all the time. Motivating and organising the group and spaces on a daily bases has become a major task, so much so that it takes two trustees to manage it daily.

The unpaid staff positions are undertaken by Rick, Jacky, Emily Parker and Emma Hickson, each has their own particular role but there are crossovers on most of the tasks, as well as making team decisions on more complex issues.

• Rick Parker – Centre manager, general admin duties, only telephone contact for Help/advice/enquires and incoming casualties, rescue driver, purchasing and budget control, release site assessor, social media admin for Facebook pages, Admin for Volunteer group and responsible for calendar updates.

• Jacky Parker – Husbandry and volunteer manager, admissions/triage controller, release coordinator, release site contact/liaison, veterinary liaison, rescue driver, centre and food stores controller, rescue centre housekeeping, volunteer’s manager.

• Emily Parker – Animal welfare, admissions/triage controller, medication administration and control, treatment researcher, animal rescue legal advisor, longterm treatment controller, responsible for out of hour’s treatment, rescue centre housekeeping and volunteer’s manager.

• Emma Hickson – Public liaison/editor for ELM Facebook page, volunteer scheduler, Trustee and Working group meeting organiser, casualty update liaison, general ELM admin, public talk organiser and Speaker.

• Neil Langridge – Although Neil does not interact with ELM on a daily basis, we would like to acknowledge his continued support from the start of the rescue in 2018. He has supported ELM financially from the start; he also sources many items for us to sell and is a valued member of ELM’s Board of Trustees.

During 2020 the COVID 19 pandemic has prevented us from going out to attend any community events as most have been cancelled due to Government Guidance. We hope to be able to get back out into the community to attend fairs, hold talks/presentations and visit schools to educate the public about hedgehogs as soon as restrictions allow.

We have a strong social media presence with several thousand followers on Facebook; whilst we have not been able engage freely face to face with members of the public, we have ensured we have important messages about hedgehog preservation available.

Achievements and Performance

During 2020 we have admitted more than 1000 hedgehogs into our care; this has been our busiest year so far. The last year has not been without its considerable challenges, especially with the COVID 19 pandemic and associated lock downs. We had to quickly adapt our way of working to suit the constantly changing situation, whilst enabling us to most importantly; still be able to take in admissions and continue with our team of volunteers. The lock downs had seen greater demand for us to go out and collect casualties as people were at home shielding or not prepared to travel to bring the animals into the rescue.

We relocated into our new rescue premises at Seale Hayne in late July and were able to increase our animal capacity from 80 – 200 hedgehogs. Numbers of admissions started to climb as we became better known in the area and several other smaller rescues were not able to cope with the COVID 19 restrictions or were full. By the Autumn/Winter of 2020 we were running over capacity with approx. 230 - 240 hedgehogs in our care and unfortunately having to turn casualties away.

We were extremely lucky to have a team of over 100 volunteers, which were massively important as ELM requires 6 volunteers per day to help with the hedgehog husbandry, many of whom joined us during this uncertain pandemic period due to being furloughed, or needing to do something to help their mental health. We also have a small ‘Ambulance’

group who have been willing to bring in casualties where possible saving us time going out on occasions.

A supply group has also been created; this group monitor food donations made to our network of drop off points. These drop of points have given ELM a health supply of donated food, which is a major improvement when compared to 2019 when a good percentage of food was purchased by ELM or the Parker family.

The Trustees would like to express their thanks to the volunteers for their ongoing dedication and support during this tough time for everyone; we couldn’t have done it without their help.

Trustee Statement

The trustees confirm that they have complied with their duty to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charities Commission in exercising their powers and duties. The public benefit of the Charity’s activities is to raise awareness of the endangered status of hedgehogs in the UK and to provide information about how to preserve the species.

Financial review for the period 11[th] March 2020 - 31[st] December 2020

Summary:

Total income for the year £34,244 Total expenses £13,351 Net Profit £20,893

Major sources of income:

Donations	£20,789
Fundraising	£1,200
Total	£21,989

Major expenditure:

----- Start of picture text -----
Rent £3,500
Veterinary costs and £1,238
medication
Vehicle costs £3,938
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Reserves Policy:

The Trustees monitor the financial situation throughout the year to ensure there are sufficient reserves to support the charity in case of difficulty, such as increased running costs, veterinary bills or a drop in donations. We aim to have 3 months running costs in reserve at any time. At the end of the last financial period 31[st] December 2020 ELM Wildlife had £7,185 in reserve.

Details of any funds mutually in deficit:

The trustees declare that the charity had no funds which were in deficit at the date of the statement of assets and liabilities.

Charity’s financial stability:

Like most charities, COVID 19 has affected our fundraising activities; however, donations have continued to come in at a reasonable rate.

All indications are that this will remain the case for the next 12 months.

Particulars of any outstanding guarantee given by the charity:

The trustees declare that the charity has not given any guarantee where potential liability is outstanding at the date of the statement of assets and liabilities.

Particulars of any outstanding debt:

The trustees declare that the charity has no outstanding debts on any of the assets of the charity at the date of the statement of assets and liabilities.

Remuneration of trustees:

All trustees act in a voluntary capacity and receive no remuneration or other material benefits from their services to the charity.

Reasonable out of pocket expenses incurred by the trustees in promoting the purpose of the charity are reimbursed at cost.

Structure, Governance and Management

Governing Document:

ELM Wildlife is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) Registered Charity Number 1188486, which was constituted on 11th March 2020.

Constitution – based on the Charities Commission’s model governing document for Charitable Incorporated Organisation (where trustees are just members of the charity)

Governance:

The Charity is governed by the trustees who hold twice yearly meetings, or more frequently If deemed necessary. There must be at least three trustees. New trustees can be appointed at a Special Meeting following agreement from all the existing trustees and must be selected for their skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the charity.

New trustees are given access to the ELM Wildlife’s governing document, policies and copies of previous meetings minutes and reminded regularly of their responsibilities.

Organisation:

The trustees oversee the financial position and management of the charity, the day to day running of the charity is left to Richard Parker, assisted by Jacqueline and Emily Parker.

We do not pay any staff members and we do not hold any premises.

Future plans

• ELM Wildlife has exceeded its 220 cage capacity for total number of hedgehogs accommodate on several occasions, maxing out at around 240 casualties; there is no facility for expansion and development at ELM’s current location. Even when pushed to 240 casualties we still had to turn away animals, add to this that a local hedgehog rescue charity with a capacity of possibly 80 has closed down for 5 months; we estimate a capacity demand of 320. The plan is to either purchase land or a building to create larger premises or find larger premises to lease, apart from the internal space, exterior space will also be needed. This increase in internal space would also help weather any future COVID 19 restrictions.

• We hoped to move back into rescuing other species of wildlife; unfortunately this will need to wait until we can judge the impact of increased demand from hedgehog casualties.

• We also have plans to take on two paid staff members during 2021; this will help with any expansion and alleviate the pressure on the Parker family.

• There will also be further work on the existing release sites, plus more new locations to be found; this will be a continuous program so as not to overpopulate sites.

• To date we have not been successful with funding bids, this needs to be address either with internal bid writing or via external entities.

• Depending on COVID 19 we would like to start our education program in 2021, but this may have to be moved forward to 2022.

• The demand on ELM’s services during 2020 has been huge, which has created a permanent state of fire fight with many tasks being shelved. These are important tasks to be completed; the website and better interaction via social media are some of the examples.

• Four new mobile phone contracts to create a rota for answering public enquires/rescues.

• More equipment needed: cages, incubators, shelves, heat mats, IT equipment and multimedia equipment for talks.

Declardtions The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees report above. $18ned on behalf of the charW$ trustees Signatures Full name(s) Positlon (Chair etc) SEL Date /s

ELM Wildlife (Every Life Matters Wildlife) Charity number 1188486 Income & Expenditure account

For the period 11th March 2020 to 31st December 2020

Income General donations Just Giving Rent contribution Cash donations Bank balance pre registration Expenditure Rent Food, bedding etc Vet & medicines Repairs incl cages Insurance Incubators Office expenses & sundries Shelving etc paid cash Surplus for the period Statement of Assets & Liabilities For the year ended 31st December 2020 Bank balance Cash in hand Monies owed at year end Creditors	£ 8541 1200 8400 3848 12255
	34244
	3500 1010 1238 4729 217 736 441 1480
	13351
	20893
	18525 2368
	20893
	13708
	13708

Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of ELM Wildlife Registered Charity Number: 1188486 I report to the trustees on rny eXarnIt￿tiOn of the accounts of the abve charity ('%he Trust") for th¢ period ended 31. December 2020 as set out on the attached pages. Responsibilities and basis of report As the chaTity tnjstees of Ihe Tn￿ you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Chariti&8 Act 2011 ("the A¢t"). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts GThied out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have follos1'ed the applicable Directions giv¢n by the Charity Commission und¢r section 145(5)(b) of the Act. Independent examiner's statement I have Completed my examination. I confirni that no material nmttets have come to my attention in conne¢tAon with the exarnination which gives me Cause to believe that in, any ateriai respect: accounting r¢cords w¢r¢ not kept in a¢c4)rdanc¢ with s¢ction 130 of th¢ A¢t' or the accounts do not accord ￿'1th the accounting records I have no concerns and haN'e come acmss no rnatiers in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to b¢ reached. DAVID RUDALL FTrIAAT Greenwood Aecountancy Ltd S-7 Pellew Arcade Teign Street Teignmouth Devon, TQ14 8EB Date: 28th October 2021