## **THE ROSSWAY GROUP** # **Riding for the Disabled Association Incorporating Carriage Driving Registered under charity number 1188574** **Trustees’ Annual Report for the year ended 31 March 2021** ## **1. Administrative details** The Trustees are pleased to present their annual report of Rossway Group Riding for the Disabled Association incorporating Carriage Driving (“Rossway RDA”), charity number 1188574 registered at Shardeloes Farm Equestrian Centre, Cherry Lane, Amersham, Bucks, HP7 0QF. The Trustees who served throughout the year to 31 March 2021 were: Irene Purse Richard Allison Vivienne Bryan Caroline Hunt Sarah Embleton-Smith Heather James Anne Nobbs Malcolm Elderfield Anne Nobbs resigned as a Trustee on 6 September 2021 and Hazel Rymer was appointed as a Trustee on 6 September 2021. ## **2. Structure, governance and management** Rossway RDA is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation incorporated under its Constitution dated 16 March 2020. ## **3. Objectives and activities** Rossway RDA was incorporated to promote the objects of The Riding for The Disabled Association incorporating Carriage Driving, a national charity registered under charity number 244108, by providing disabled people with the opportunity to ride and or carriage drive to benefit their health and well being in the vicinities of Buckinghamshre and Hertfordshire. In accordance with the guidelines as per above, Rossway RDA’s aim is to give children and adults who have physical or cognitive difficulties the opportunity to learn to ride in a fun, safe and relaxed way. We uphold the strict guidelines as laid down in the Constitution and I can confirm that the Trustees are satisfied that we provide a useful public benefit and are operating in accordance with the objectives. ## **4. Achievements and performance** 2020 was a challenging year for Rossway due to the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdowns and re-starts. We attempted to keep everyone on board by creating our Newsletters. We started out in April 2020 with edition 1 and am now up to edition 17 which is a measure of how long the situation was uncertain. Last June 2020, we saw and took advantage of a new pattern of riding under tight controls laid down by the government and RDA UK, and with the grateful assistance from the riding school, Shardeloes, we managed to re-introduce riding to 6 riders during the summer term, and this was replicated during the autumn term. A further lockdown at the start of 2021 meant further delays to our plans to return to riding, but from April – July we have achieved a full term’s riding which has given all coaches and volunteers some hope and enthusiasm. In past years we have relied on our willing team of fund raisers to ensure the financial viability of the Group and to augment the fees from our riders. These days, rattling buckets outside Marks and Spencer isn’t going to fill the coffers as everything seems to cost so much more; vets fees gobble up a high portion of our funds, along with the dentist and other associated equine services. Added to that are the costs connected with running the group: the insurances, the training workshops, DBS checks and the like. So we have needed to put up our riding fees from September 2021 to bring us more in line with other RDA groups. This past year our main source of additional funding has been through the sale of the brilliant masks made by a friend of Viv’s. We are indeed very grateful for Jenny’s creativity and productivity. But to return to riding: since April 2021 in addition to our faithful core of riders, we have assessed and taken on 4 new riders – 2 adults and 2 children. All are making good and steady progress and they are all immeasurably grateful for our perseverance in the face of so many difficulties. Assessments have been made on 2 further adults who will be incorporated into our rides from September 2021. There are several children who are waiting for assessments; however, for them the principle factor is their availability on a Thursday afternoon as they need to rely on schools’ discretion to let them out before the end of the school day. Rossway was the first RDA Group to have a visiting County Coach over to assess our newest Coach, Hazel in June 2021. High praise was levelled at her abilities and we are delighted to welcome her to our team of instructors. In addition to having Hazel on our team, We are also grateful for the professional input of our helper/physiotherapist Hannah , who has been a wonderful support and advisor in all assessments of new riders. Pat has made a wonderful job of managing the rota of helpers and we are hoping that someone might step forward to help out with a few more administrative chores. The ponies are fit and well, and whilst they are all getting on in years they remain fit and healthy thanks to the good care and management of Shardeloes. Molly needed some time off work due to having a tooth extracted; Diesel is back to his old self and seems very much happier in his role as chief RDA pony; Coco has had some time off due to low-level lameness and plans are in place to look for a replacement which may take some time as she is a hard act to follow and many miles are travelled to source the perfect pony replacement. Shardeloes only use her very occasionally now, so it is all eyes on the pony advertisements….so often the ads are promising, when the real thing is not! To sum up: our team of volunteers are brilliant. The committee is wonderful and we have stayed safe yet motivated this last year. Our riders benefit from our fun yet professional approach and we remain grateful to Shardeloes for their continued good care of our ponies. ## **5. Financial review** ## **The current account balance as at 31 March 2021 is £2,648 Savings account balance as at 31 March 2021 is £18,078** Rossway has a very conservative reserves policy, which is to keep two years’ running costs on deposit (approx. £10,000 per annum). However, this year has been unprecedented and so we will set aside £7,000 for buying a new pony. Some funding (from CALA Homes) has been earmarked for this provision, however, more is needed and plans are underway to apply for additional grants through various charitable funding sources. **Signed on behalf of the Trustees:** **Irene Purse** **6 September 2021** ||The Rossway Group|The Rossway Group|Riding for the Disabled Association Incorporating Carriage Driving|Riding for the Disabled Association Incorporating Carriage Driving|**1188574**|**CC16a**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||||**Receipts andpayments accounts**|||| ||**For the period**
**from**||16-Mar-20|**To**|31-Mar-21|| |||||||| |**Section A Receipts and payments**||||||| |**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**692**
**1,280**
**20**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**1,992**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**1,992**||**Restricted funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Endowment funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**| |
Donations|**692**|||**-**|**692**|**-**| |Ride money|**1,280**|||**-**|**1,280**|**-**| |Bank interest|**20**|||**-**|**20**|**-**| ||**-**|||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||**-**|||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||**-**|||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||**-**|||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||**-**|||**-**|**-**|**-**| |**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_|**1,992**|||**-**|**1,992**|**-**| |**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**||||||| ||**-**|||**-**|**-**|| ||**-**|||**-**|**-**|**-**| |**_Sub total_**|**-**|||**-**|**-**|**-**| |**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**||||||| |||||**-**|**1,992**|**-**| |||||||| |
Hir eof facilities|**148**||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**|**148**|**-**| |Tack|**263**|||**-**|**263**|**-**| |Vet fees|**1,402**|||**-**|**1,402**|**-**| |RDA insurance|**450**|||**-**|**450**|**-**| |Sundries|**115**|||**-**|**115**|**-**| ||**-**|||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||**-**|||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||**-**|||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||**-**|||**-**|**-**|**-**| |**_Sub total_ **|**2,378**||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**- **
**-**
**-**|**-**|**2,378**|**-**| |||||||| |**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**||||||| ||**-**|||**-**|**-**|| ||**-**|||**-**|**-**|| |**_Sub total_ **|**-**|||**-**|**-**|**-**| |**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**||||||| |||||**-**|**2,378**|**-**| |||||||| ||**- 386**|||
**-**|
**- 386**|**-**| ||**-**|||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||**-**|||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||**- 386**|||
**-**|**- 386**|**-**| ## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period** |**Categories**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B1 Cash funds**|**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))
Current account
Deposit account
**Details**|**Unrestricted funds**
**to nearest £**|**Restricted funds**
**to nearest £**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**| |---|---|---|---|---| |||**2,648**|**-**|**-**| |||**18,078**|**-**|**-**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**20,726**|**-**|**-**| |||Agreement Error|OK|OK| |||**Unrestricted funds**
**to nearest £**|**Restricted funds**
**to nearest £**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| CCXX R1 accounts (SS) 23/01/2022 1 ||||||**-**|||**-**||**-**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||||||**-**|||**-**||**-**| ||**Details**|||**Fund to which asset belongs**|||**Cost (optional)**|||**Current value**
**(optional)**| |**B3 Investment assets**||||||||**-**||**-**| |||||||||**-**||**-**| |||||||||**-**||**-**| |||||||||**-**||**-**| |||||||||**-**||**-**| ||**Details**|||**Fund to which asset belongs**|||**Cost (optional)**|||**Current value**
**(optional)**| |**B4 Assets retained for the**||||||||**-**||**-**| |**charity’s own use**||||||||**-**||**-**| |||||||||**-**||**-**| |||||||||**-**||**-**| |||||||||**-**||**-**| |||||||||**-**||**-**| |||||||||**-**||**-**| |||||||||**-**||**-**| |||||||||**-**||**-**| |||||**Fund to which liability relates**|||**Amount due**|||**When due**| ||**Details**||||||**(optional)**|||**(optional)**| |**B5 Liabilities**||||||||**-**||| |||||||||**-**||| |||||||||**-**||| |||||||||**-**||| |||||||||**-**||| |Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees||Signature||Print Name||||||Date of approval| ||Richard Allison|||Richard Allison||||||16/09/2021| |||||||||||| CCXX R2 accounts (SS) 23/01/2022 2