## **TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT** ## **2023** **The Forest of Dean Baby Bank (Charity # 1189302) Registered address: 12 Hillside Close, Bream, GL15 6LU** Registered Charity in England and Wales #1189302 Website: www.forestbabybank.org Email:yourbabyfod@outlook.com ## **The Trustees:** Sally Thomas Brown – Chairman Chris Hedges – Secretary and Logistics Manager Asiza Tait – Treasurer and Operations Manager Elkie Lonnkvist - Silent _Our Objectives:_ To be a safety net to families in the Forest of Dean who are experiencing financial crisis. We provide needed baby essentials, including many different types of baby related equipment to families that need our help. We also help provide good quality second-hand clothes to families, from size premature baby all the way to 14-year-old children. Each year we help families obtain uniform for a range of primary and secondary schools in the Forest of Dean. _Our Core Beliefs:_ The Forest of Dean Baby Bank believes that no child, individual, or family should be excluded from the charity’s activities on the grounds of age, gender, health or disability, pregnancy, maternity, sexuality, class, family status, means, ability, colour, ethnic origin, culture, religion, or belief. We aim to ensure that all who wish to work in, or volunteer to help with, our charity should have an equal chance to do so. We aim to create effective partnerships within all parts of our community, including schools, GP surgeries, children’s centres, health visitors, midwives and social care to provide services that are accessible according to need. _How we accomplish our objectives:_ We have five volunteers who assist with sorting our donations, packing parcels and delivering parcels when necessary. We have no paid employees, all our activities are run and managed by volunteers. We do recompense our volunteers for mileage when they do deliveries. The organisation does not undertake activities with children in the absence of their parents/carers but could observe the young person’s/children’s welfare within their family setting. Parents/carers remain responsible for their children’s welfare throughout all the work that we undertake to support them. There is clear hierarchy where volunteers are encouraged to use their initiative and feel supported in their role. Our volunteers are a precious resource and without them we would not be able to provide the help that we do. ## _**The 2023 in Review**_ Over this year we have received grants from FEED, Lydney Town Council, Monmouthshire BSOC and the Forest of Dean District Council. Our first grant from FEED was restricted to buying milk and food for babies. With the increased prices of formula there was a serious issue with parents being unable to afford the exorbitant prices. With media coverage and pressure for many sources the prices did stabilise, but for several months, families were pushed to approach charities for help to feed their babies. We spent £914.12 on purchasing formula for families. A huge increase from last year. Registered Charity in England and Wales #1189302 Website: www.forestbabybank.org Email:yourbabyfod@outlook.com The Forest of Dean District Council entrusted us again with even larger amounts of Household Support Funding. These funds were restricted to buying food and clothes and other essentials over a preset time frame of July 2023 – March 2024. The funding was supposed to finish the end of March 2024, but it ended on the 21[st of] March 2024 due to high demand for help. We used Tesco Corporate Gift cards again to distribute the funds for grocery help. We distributed about £28 000 in grocery vouchers and buying groceries for families. We spent over £8000 buying school uniform for families where our donated stock wasn’t enough to meet the need. This year we dedicated a portion of the school uniform budget to helping with buying secondary school uniform, something we had not done before. This help was clearly needed as it was taken up immediately and many parents were really struggling with the high cost of mandatory secondary school uniform for their children just starting their first year of secondary school. We also spent close to £5000 on purchasing warm clothes, coats, pjs and slippers where our donated stock was not enough. Over 2020 we provided 272 parcels, 2021 we provided 409, 2022 we provided 573. This year we provided **1057** a huge increase and a very clear demonstration of how families are really struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. This year we joined the Baby Bank Alliance (an excerpt from their website at About — the Baby Bank Alliance Baby Bank Alliance _A national Baby Bank Alliance – so that baby banks can come together with one voice, boost the impact of the incredible support they offer across the country and share the stories of the families they support. We want to ensure that all baby banks can access the funding, goods, volunteers and practical support they need to be the most effective they can be. The founding Alliance board members are Baby Bank Network Bristol, Little Village, Save the Children and Purposeful Ventures; we will soon be expanding our board and Advisory Group to include additional baby bank leaders, ensuring that the Alliance is always run by and for the baby bank community._ _The Baby Bank Alliance is jointly incubated by Purposeful Ventures and Save the Children._ In joining the Baby Bank Alliance, we are now including how many children we have helped in our statistics as that is a measure of data we need to report back to the BBA during yearly surveys. Registered Charity in England and Wales #1189302 Website: www.forestbabybank.org Email:yourbabyfod@outlook.com **----- Start of picture text -----**
Self- Families Children
2023 Referred Referred Helped helped Bundles
January 55 22 63 109 96
February 64 18 51 127 106
March 37 10 24 77 60
April 13 5 9 22 25
May 23 6 13 39 41
June 37 14 30 69 92
July 122 25 135 256 214
August 77 12 52 162 75
September 48 16 27 67 51
October 38 18 54 85 106
November 85 54 135 276 103
December 82 33 69 245 88
681 233 662 1534 1057
Baby Bundles 230
Clothing Bundles 651
School Uniform
Bundles 176
1057
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **Families helped versus bundles given out.** **----- Start of picture text -----**
160 250
140
200
120
100
150
80
100
60
40
50
20
0 0
**----- End of picture text -----**
## Yours Sincerely ## **The Trustees Forest of Dean Baby Bank** Registered Charity in England and Wales #1189302 Website: www.forestbabybank.org Email:yourbabyfod@outlook.com **Rose's Way Foundation 1189623 Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period** 6/1/2022 5/31/2023 **To from** ## **Section A Receipts and payments** |**Section A Receipts and payments**||||| |---|---|---|---|---| |**A1 Receipts**
Donation
**6,320**
Merchandise Sales
**227**
Loans
**-**
Fundraising
**505**
Grants
**-**
Interest
**68**
**-**
**-**
**7,119**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total receipts_ 7,119**
**A3 Payments**
Purchase of merchandise
**2,842.57**
Office Equipment
**-**
Repayment of loan
**-**
Donations
**3,501.00**
Software
**248.00**
Subscriptions
**103.88**
Postage
**-**
Marketing
**207.99**
Fees
**216.00**
Insurance
**-**
Travel
**-**
**_Sub total_ 7,119**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total payments_ 7,119**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ - 1**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**-**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**20,519**
**_Cash funds this year end_ 20,518**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_
**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**
**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases,(see table)**|**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Restricted**
**funds**|**to the nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**6,320**
**227**
**-**
**505**
**-**
**68**
**-**
**-**
**7,119**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**7,119**
**2,843**
**-**
**-**
**3,501**
**248**
**104**
**-**
**208**
**216**
**-**
**-**
**7,119**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**7,119**
**- 1**
**-**
**20,519**
**20,518**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**| |||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**6,320**|**10,764**| ||||**227**|**1,124**| ||||**-**|| ||||**505**|**5,347**| ||||**-**|| ||||**68**|**2**| ||||**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**| ||||**7,119**|**17,237**| |||||| |||**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**|| ||||**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**| |||||| |||**-**|**7,119**|**17,237**| |||||| |||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**2,843**|**18,291**| ||||**-**|**2,041**| ||||**-**|**1,994**| ||||**3,501**|**1,848**| ||||**248**|**614**| ||||**104**|**48**| ||||**-**|**37**| ||||**208**|**116**| ||||**216**|**5**| ||||**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**| ||||**7,119**|**24,994**| |||||| |||**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**|| ||||**-**|| ||||**-**|**-**| |||||| |||**-**|**7,119**|**24,994**| |||||| ||**-**|**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**- 1**|**- 7,757**| ||**-**||**-**|**-**| ||**-**||**20,519**|**-**| ||**-**||**20,518**|**- 7,757**| ## **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**
Savings
Current
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
Loans
Signature
Ajeans
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))|**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**15,990**
**-**
**4,516**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**20,506**
**-**
Agreement Error
OK
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
0
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
Andrew Jeans
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**|**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**| |---|---|---|---| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||OK| ||||**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**When due**
**(optional)**| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||Date of
approval| ||Ajeans|Andrew Jeans|3/12/2024| ||||| CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section Independent Examiner's Report Raport to the Iwslefj$l I membgr5 of Thè Forestol Dean Baby Bank On •ccount8 lortho 7 month pertod ended 31 Décembpr 2023 Charlty no Illanyl 1189302 Set OLrt on pag08 Pagt 1 I rpport to the tru¥tO88 on myexamlna1￿n ofthe accounts ofthe above ¢halty llhe Trust") for the Yearending 31. Do¢emb6r 202> Respo*8lbllttles ifid As thanty Iru51ees of the Trust, you are r89pon5￿)le for the preparatir>n ba$15 of report of the a¢tr)unl$ in accordance with the raquirements of the Charitie5 Act 2011 Ilhe A¢VI. I feport in regp8cI of myexamination of the Tfu51'5 accoun15 carried out under$e¢lh)n 145 ofihe 2011 kl and in Carrying out my examination. I h8vo followed the applicable Dir8cb'ons given by the Charity CommisS￿n undersectk)n 14515llbl of the Act. I have ￿mp￿ted my examinallon. I confitrn that no material matters have coffle to fflyattenlion in connart￿n with the examinatkjn *h)l¢h gives me cau59 to b8lEve thatin. any matertal respect.. arxounling records were not kapt in a¢¢ord8n¢e with 98ctiDn 130 of the Act or Ihe awounts do wth tho 8¢ctyJnOng r￿r￿S Independent examlTrerf8 statèment I have no conc9ms and havo across no othar mattars in ty)nnect%)n the examviation to which att8ntlon should bg drawn in order to enab￿ proper understandlng of the a¢￿UnIS to b8 r8arJ)èd. Slgnod: Date: 17" January 202.4 Namo: Der8k m￿hael Broom FCCA Relevant prof•s$lon•l quallficatlonlsl or body Ilf anyl.. Chartered Cért4figd Accwntant Address.. Fanyays Lansdown Walk, Brgam Glouixster5hlro, GL158NE Odobor 2018