Friends of Beechcroft Library Annual Report 2023-2024 Charity registration number: 1188953 ## **Annual Report for the period From 1[st] April 2023 To 31[st] March 2024** ## **Organisation name: Friends of Beechcroft Library** ## **Charity registration number: 1188953** ## **Objectives and Activities** This annual report has been created following guidance contained in the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) issued by the Charity Commission. ||SORP
Ref.|| |---|---|---| |Summary of the
purposes of the charity
as set out in its governing
document|Para
1.17|Purposes as defined in the Constitution agreed in April
2020:
The advancement of education for the public benefit in
particular by the provision of library facilities and services
for learning, for information, advice and other related library
provision for the benefit of the residents and the wider
community in Stratton St Margaret and the surrounding
areas.| |Summary of the main
activities in relation to
those purposes for the
public benefit, in
particular, the activities,
projects or services
identified in the accounts.|Para
1.17
and
1.19|The main activities undertaken to achieve the aims are:

Working with the Library Staff and Stratton Parish
Council to develop the library as a community hub

Meeting
with
Library
staff
and
Parish
to
agree
objectives, approach and activities

Running events and activities such as Basic IT skills,
social
groups
and
clubs,
developing/
displaying
Stratton History Archive material, organising regular
events

Promoting
the
Library
via
social
media,
posters,
displays, developing a community network

Raising funds to support activities, purchasing craft
materials, reference books, Refreshments| |Statement confirming
whether the trustees
have had regard to the
guidance issued by the
Charity Commission on
public benefit|_Para_
_1.18_|The Trustees assess each of their activities with regard to
the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public
benefit| FOBL Annual Report 2023-24 v5.docx Page 1 of 11 21 May 2024 Friends of Beechcroft Library Annual Report 2023-2024 Charity registration number: 1188953 |**Additional information (optional)**
You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:|**Additional information (optional)**
You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:|**Additional information (optional)**
You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:| |---|---|---| ||SORP
Ref.|| |Policy on grant making|Para
1.38|The Friends do not currently give grants to individuals or
other organisations| |Policy on social
investment including
program related
investment|Para
1.38|The Friends do not currently undertake any social
investments| |Contribution made by
volunteers|Para
1.38|There are no employees, all the Trustees are volunteers.
Library Volunteers are engaged by the Parish rather than
the Friends but are supported and encouraged by the
Friends.
Their contribution is vital in enabling the Library and the
Friends to undertake the numerous activities and groups
which take place| FOBL Annual Report 2023-24 v5.docx Page 2 of 11 21 May 2024 Friends of Beechcroft Library Annual Report 2023-2024 Charity registration number: 1188953 ## **Achievements and Performance** ||SORP
Ref.|| |---|---|---| |Summary of the main
achievements of the
charity, identifying the
difference the charity’s
work has made to the
circumstances of its
beneficiaries and any
wider benefits to society
as a whole.|Para
1.20|When Stratton Parish council took over running the library from
Swindon Borough Council in Sept 2017, it was for a trial period
of 18 months, and we expected at any moment that the library
would be closed.
However, over the last 12 to 18 months there
has been a remarkable transformation in Beechcroft Library.
The library is fast becoming a role model for a multi-functional
community library. The Parish councillors and officers are fully
engaged with the potential and opportunities afforded by the
library as a thriving community hub and we now feel the future
of the library is completely secure.
The Friends’ activities in support of Beechcroft Library are all
aligned to our four key objectives, namely:
1.
To improve health and well-being,
2.
To encourage community engagement,
3.
To improve skills and training
4.
To help support the library financially.
Our achievements this year are discussed under the relevant
objective below.
**Objective 1 - To improve health and well being**
The regular groups and activities supported by the Friends are
all well attended and help to mitigate the loneliness and
isolation experienced by some of our residents. These regular
groups include:

Fun Art group,

Friendship Group,

Tea and Tech digital drop-in sessions,

Book Club,

Family History Research,

Chess Club

Lego Club.
These regular groups are supplemented by activities organised
by library staff, volunteers and the Parish team, resulting in a
very busy, welcoming and engaging feel to the library.
We continue to run the Home Delivery Book Service for local
residents who are housebound. This is proving more resource
intensive than anticipated and we have not rolled it out more
widely yet.| FOBL Annual Report 2023-24 v5.docx Page 3 of 11 21 May 2024 Friends of Beechcroft Library Annual Report 2023-2024 Charity registration number: 1188953 ||||Between April 2023 and March 2024 we continued to run the
self-service mini ‘café’ for library users, providing hot drinks and
biscuits. This is free to users and has supported the library’s
registration as a Welcome Space over the winter months.
This
service will finish at the end of March when the new community
cafe Brew Book is due to open.
Members of the Friends liaise closely with the Swindon Live
Well Hub, especially the Social Prescribers and Community
Navigators.
They direct their clients to the various services
provided by the library such as Stratton Advice Point, Tea and
Tech, Friendship Group and Art Group.
Members of the Friends also work closely with the local Primary
Care networks in particular to help with potential digital
exclusion as the NHS becomes oriented towards digitisation of
their services.
We also work closely with Stratton Advice Point which has
successfully claimed over £270,000 in welfare benefits for
service users during 2023-24.
**Objective 2 - To encourage community engagement**
The library has organised or taken part in various one-off
community events during the year such as coffee mornings,
raffles, book sales etc. These included:

Coffee Morning in May for Mental Health Awareness week
when we raised £300 for Swindon MIND.

Book stall, History display and Library information stall at
Stratton Community Fete in June

Book stall, History display and Library information stalll at
Stratton Festival in July

Book stall, History display and Library information stall at
Royal British Legion Fete in August

Coffee
morning
in
October
which
raised
£1000
for
Macmillan Cancer Support

Cake stall and book stall at Stratton Wellness Day in
November which raised £237 for Prospect Hospice.

Music and Mince Pies event in December which raised
£220 for Beechcroft Library

Coffee morning in February 2024 which raised £351 for the
Prospect Hospice .

We organised two children’s film evenings during the winter
months, but sadly these were poorly attended.

We hosted a visit from the local Brownies which was very|| |---|---|---|---|---| 21 May 2024 FOBL Annual Report 2023-24 v5.docx Page 4 of 11 Friends of Beechcroft Library Annual Report 2023-2024 Charity registration number: 1188953 ## successful and will be repeated each year The Friends maintain a Facebook business page and an up to date website to improve our visibility, engage with residents and widen the reach of the library. The Friends’ Web-site has been amended to clarify the role of the Friends and to remove overlap with information on the Parish Council Website. The website has been assessed for both Privacy and Accessibility and appropriate Privacy and Accessibility statements included on the site. Kingsdown School’s Art Department has generously provided another eight pieces of art to the Library, in addition to the eight provided last year. Each piece is the final outcome of a Year 10 or Year 11 student’s GCSE Art work. All 16 pictures are on display in the Library, Brew Book cafe and Grange Community Centre. We are very fortunate that the Stratton St Margaret History Society is based in the library and the history team work hard to maintain the history archive and curate the various history displays. Their detailed annual report is included in a separate section below. Several of our Trustees are active members of various local organisations including:  The Swindon Trustee Network,  Get Connected Swindon,  Stratton St Margaret History Society,  Local Primary Care Networks  Live Well Swindon  Wiltshire Building Records  Swindon and District Local History Society  Wiltshire On-line Parish Clerks **Objective 3 - To improve skills and training** The Library is a registered Digital Inclusion hub. This is an important service as there is only one other place in Swindon running digital inclusion sessions for residents. The Friends are also members of the Digital Inclusion Network within Libraries Connected organisation. As important providers of digital inclusion work in Swindon, members of the Tea and Tech team have been working with other local organisations to establish a Swindon forum to improve digital inclusion in the area. One of our trustees has produced the first Terms of Reference for this forum (called Get Connected Swindon) which has been accepted by the various FOBL Annual Report 2023-24 v5.docx Page 5 of 11 21 May 2024 Friends of Beechcroft Library Annual Report 2023-2024 Charity registration number: 1188953 organisations involved, including Swindon Library & Information Service, Live Well Swindon, Swindon Seniors Forum, Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership and Acorn Community Bank among others. We have purchased additional learning resources such as history books, and children’s non-fiction books in line with the national curriculum, which are available to use as reference books within the library. **Objective 4 - To help support the library financially** The library has organised or taken part in various one-off events during the year such as coffee mornings, raffles, book sales, etc and has raised £1,453 in donations and sales to support activities in Beechcroft library. |support activities in Beechcroft library.|support activities in Beechcroft library.|| |---|---|---| |**Stratton St Margaret History Society report**||| ||Following the Parish decision to locate a café|within the| ||library, the area allocated for the Society has been reduced|| ||and moved out into the rear vestibule. After discussion we|| ||now also have some shelving to also keep out|our books| ||for general viewing.|| ||The Society has been holding regular bi-monthly meetings|| ||which I’m sad to say have been poorly attended.|| ||The Facebook site membership has continued to grow and|| ||is now up to 1,181.
We are still receiving information from|| ||locals to update our more modern records.|| ||Current research from Clive is increasing our knowledge of|| ||pre-roman times.|| ||We did a ‘Stroll around Stratton’ physical and|slide show| ||events last year.|| ||Trolling through old newspaper records continues and a lot|| ||has been added during the past year.|| ||A number of new books and items have been added to the|| ||collection through the year.|| ||
The Railways & History of HMEF Stratton.|| ||
Diaries of William Hedges travels in India.|| ||
50 Years of Stratton Boys Brigade|| ||
Arkell’s memorabilia.|| ||
British Leyland memorabilia.|| ||Current
projects
by
Nigel
include
transcribing
1939|| ||Register records for Gorse Hill, completing|history of| ||Stratton
Workhouse/Hospital
and
a
photo|record
of| FOBL Annual Report 2023-24 v5.docx Page 6 of 11 21 May 2024 Friends of Beechcroft Library Annual Report 2023-2024 Charity registration number: 1188953 |||Kingsdown Crematorium burials.

About 12 Family Tree Sessions in last year
_Clive Carter (Archivist) & Nigel Chalk (Historian)_
**Charity Governance**
We have been working on improving our governance and risk
management in line with new guidelines issued by the Charity
Commission
during
2023.
Our
Safeguarding
and
Risk
Management
policies
were
updated
to
reflect
the
latest
guidance, and the following new policies were developed:

Serious Incident Reporting

Complaints Management

Internal Financial Controls

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
**Future Plans**
Our thanks go to all the staff, the volunteers and Stratton St
Margaret Parish Council who have supported the Library so
wonderfully over the last year.
Looking to the future, we are excited to be working with the
Parish and with Brew Book Cafe to develop Beechcroft Library
into an even more successful and vibrant community hub.| |---|---|---| ## **Additional information (optional)** You may choose to include further statements where relevant about: ||
SORP
Ref|| |---|---|---| |Performance of
fundraising activities
against objectives set|Para
1.41|Formal fundraising objectives were not defined other than
ensuring that the objectives described in the previous section
were supported financially where necessary.| |Investment performance
against objectives|Para
1.41|Not applicable| ## **Financial Review** |**Financial Review**||| |---|---|---| ||SORP
Ref.|| |Review of the charity’s
financial position at the
end of the period|Para
1.21|Our income for 2023-24 totalled £2,253.65, comprising:

A generous grant of £800 from Stratton St Margaret Parish
Council

£1,320 in donations

£133 from the sale of books and cakes
We have spent £2,090 on purchases for the library, including
new books and equipment. We also repaid £382 of unspent| FOBL Annual Report 2023-24 v5.docx Page 7 of 11 21 May 2024 Friends of Beechcroft Library Annual Report 2023-2024 Charity registration number: 1188953 |||grant from last year’s Parish grant.
Our net worth as at 31 March 2024 was £2,384, (£2.332 in the
Co-op Bank and £52 in cash).
Please see the Annual Financial Report for full details.| |---|---|---| |Statement explaining the
policy for holding
reserves stating why they
are held|Para
1.22|Our Reserves Policy states that we will only hold reserve funds
if we have formal financial commitments.
As we now have Public Liability Insurance premiums going
forward we will ensure that we have sufficient funds to cover
the premium and run-off insurance in the event that the charity
closes down.| |Amount of reserves held|Para
1.22|Sufficient to cover Public Liability Insurance Premium which
was £160 in 2023-24, and the estimated premium of roughly
£700 for run-off insurance for 7 years in the event the charity
closes down.| |Reasons for holding zero
reserves|Para
1.22|Not applicable| |Details of fund materially
in deficit|Para
1.24|Not applicable| |Explanation of any
uncertainties about the
charity continuing as a
going concern|Para
1.23|We are dependent on the continued existence of Beechcroft
Library.
There is little chance that the Library would close in
the near future as it is a popular resource for the parish.| ## **Additional information (optional)** ## You may choose to include further statements where relevant about: |
The charity’s principal
sources of funds
(including any
fundraising)|
Para
1.47|
We have received £800 in grants this year from Stratton St
Margaret Parish Council
We have received £1,320 in donations and £133 from sales of
cakes and books| |---|---|---| |A description of the
principal risks facing the
charity|Para
1.46|There are few risks facing the Friends charity and they are all
categorised as low, the highest risks are:

Activities where safeguarding risks may arise

Over-reliance on a few key individuals| ## **Structure, Governance and Management** ||SORP
Ref.|| |---|---|---| |Type of governing
document|Para
1.25|Constitution| |How is the charity
constituted?|Para
1.25|Charitable Incorporated Organisation following the Foundation
model| 21 May 2024 FOBL Annual Report 2023-24 v5.docx Page 8 of 11 Friends of Beechcroft Library Annual Report 2023-2024 Charity registration number: 1188953 ||Trustee selection
methods including details
of any constitutional
provisions|Para
1.25|The existing Trustees can select new Trustees as required
following the procedure described in the next section.|| |---|---|---|---|---| |**Additional information (optional)**
You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:|**Additional information (optional)**
You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:|**Additional information (optional)**
You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:| |---|---|---| |Policies and procedures
adopted for the induction
and training of trustees|Para
1.51|Recruitment of Trustees for the Friends should be in line
with the guidance given below:

There is a written job description / person specification
for the post

If a trustee wishes to volunteer for the Library they
should complete a Parish Council volunteer application
form and the Parish Recruitment policies be followed

A suitable induction programme is provided

The applicant is given a copy of the Safeguarding
Policy and knows how to report concerns.| |The charity’s
organisational structure
and any wider network
with which the charity
works|Para
1.51|Charitable
Incorporated
Organisation
with
a
written
constitution. We are not affiliated to any wider network| |Relationship with any
related parties|Para
1.51|We work closely with Stratton St Margaret Parish Council
who run Beechcroft Library.| FOBL Annual Report 2023-24 v5.docx Page 9 of 11 21 May 2024 Friends of Beechcroft Library Annual Report 2023-2024 Charity registration number: 1188953 ## **Reference and Administrative details** |Charity name|Charity name|Charity name|Friends of Beechcroft Library|Friends of Beechcroft Library|Friends of Beechcroft Library| |---|---|---|---|---|---| |Other name the charity uses|||||| |Registered charity number|||**1188953**||| |Charity’s principal address|||188 Beechcroft Road, Swindon, SN2 7QQ||| |1
2
3
4
5
6
7
9
10|||||| ||**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**||**Dates acted if**
**not for whole**
**year**|**Name of person (or body) entitled**
**to appoint trustee (if any)**| ||LesleyHemingway|Chair|||| ||Richard Hemingway|Treasurer|||| ||Indra Robson||||| ||Lynette Dodson||||| ||GregBrowne|Secretary|||| ||Clive Carter||||| ||Linda O’Kane|DeputyChair|||| ||Nigel Chalk|DeputyTreasurer|||| ||Anne Chalk||||| |Corporate trustees–names of the directors at the date the report was approved|Corporate trustees–names of the directors at the date the report was approved|Corporate trustees–names of the directors at the date the report was approved| |---|---|---| |**Director name**||| |N/A||| |Name of trustees holding title to property belonging to the charity||| |**Trustee name**|**Dates acted if not for whole year**|| |N/A||| |Funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others||| |Description of the assets
held in this capacity|Not applicable|| |Name and objects of the
charity on whose behalf the
assets are held and how this
falls within the custodian
charity’s objects|Not applicable|| |Details of arrangements for
safe custody and
segregation of such assets
from the charity’s own assets|Not applicable|| ## **Exemptions from disclosure** Reason for non-disclosure of key personnel details Not applicable FOBL Annual Report 2023-24 v5.docx Page 10 of 11 21 May 2024 Friends of Beechcroft LibraryAnnu?l Report 2023-2024 Charlty registration number. 1188953 Declarations Th• trust￿$ doclar• that thoy hav• approvad tho tru8tO•8' roport above. Slgnod on b•half of tho charlty's tru•taos: Slgn•tur¢(•) Full nam•(8 ort NJ D-C£L.PKI H-eN i 446<)fjr 640 k2k)E Po8ltlon{• leg Secyetsry, Chair) I GLLr Dats(•) 21 May 2024 FOBLAnrrtsal Rewxt 202>24 v5.drLx Pa8e 11 of 11 11118r24, 7..07 PM CC168_BqeclKrrt Friends 202&24- G¢oyl8 Sh881$ CHARITY COMMISSIO FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Friknth of B¢•ch¢roft Ubrnry Receipts and payments accounts CC16a Fortho porfod To 0110412023 31103r2024 Section A Receipts and payments Llnmtrl¢tsd funds Endo%wn• funds R•¥ffittsd lund• Tolal fvndo Lnty•¥ ¢tyth•r￿￿t IDlh•r￿n)It£ A1 Re¢0 GrBni 000 1,B20 133 Sub tOt#l(Gft￿S incomè lorAR) A2 A8s•tAnd Inv•stmAnt salès. Sub tots rotalr8celpts 2,253 $3 A3P• Sub tot81 1.252 A4 A•¥•t and InYn*tsMnt sv• tab Sub tota 1,105 2,091 1,091 Net ofr8ce1p￿p8YffiontsJ AS Transfvrs b•tw••n funds A6 Cash funds la8ty••r •nd C85h funds thlsyearend 162 102 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrestrlrted fundB RestrFcted fvthds Endowment funds ltsfi•Jr•Bi£ 81 Cash fvnds CCXX Rl aco)unts ISSI 18111r2024 http8.'IldrK8.gooulB£omlspreB¢tshèttsld11B ￿Po￿(￿Bplk￿TO24TmK1fc2BOuUmDTzXS0saKAQIOdI¢9￿d=l89429468#9d=13g42g46fj 112 11118124, 7..07 PM CC16a Be2thuoft Fitnds2023-24- (knqle SheelJ Tot•l¢osh funds ZAll4 2.603 oxrf•ll Unre¥tslctsd R08trf¢t•d fund• De￿11¥ Dotails I￿on￿l B4 As$•ts rotslned forthe ¢hartty's OWIt US? d towhkh BS Uabllltlo1 SvJn8iur Prfnl Nam& Da￿ ol approval 12 CCXX R2 accounts ISS) 1811112024 hI￿￿.'1/(k￿gath)￿￿￿spr￿S￿0otvj￿v1B WBepofKd8pthuTo24Tnm1l￿BoUumDrzXaa5WedIyPQld=ls9I2S4G8IgIj-ls94294ee