IfoAM Trustees. Annual Report April 2020 - March 2021
Table of Contents
Foreword from our Chair Financial Review
Objectives Accounts
Activities Reference & Administrative
details
Our Achievements Declarations
Structure, Governance & Management
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01 Foreword
Welcome, it is a privilege to invite you to share in all the success of ROAM in our inaugural year of being a registered charity, building on the two and a half years as a community group delivering fantastic opportunities for children in South West Birmingham. It has been a pleasure to support the Leadership Team in delivering our vision of creating a culture where all children can access their local green space to play independently.
When you were a child, it is likely that you were encouraged to roam-free. Sadly that is no longer the case for the majority of children today. Hence we made it our Mission “to facilitate children’s free play in nature with minimal supervision, to support others to do so, and to campaign for every child’s right to independent play”.
Before I begin, I would like to thank my predecessor Emma Woolf for all her hard work and in supporting the Executive Team as they transitioned ROAM towards charity status, which has been an important part of our evolution.
It is clear that these have been unprecedented times since Covid-19 first came to prevalence in 2020. This placed unique pressures on us all, but especially families and children, many of whom have struggled to adapt to the social changes that lock-down and restrictions on social interactions have enforced.
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The Leadership Team have successfully adapted to these challenges by identifying those parts of the community most in need of their support. This has provided a critical outlet for children and parents/carers alike to cope with the physical and emotional impact.
Some key successes to support those most in need included:
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The introduction of ROAM outdoor Stay & Play groups, which were in high demand and a vital support network for parents experiencing isolation at home, and for pre-school children who had very limited opportunities for social interaction.
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ROAM-IN was successfully piloted offering inclusive sessions for children with additional needs and their siblings.
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Working in partnership with a local school to help children that were struggling to return to their classroom environment due to social isolation during lockdown.
These opportunities have increased our connections to the local community and enabled us to engage with a more diverse audience, including those sections of society that are particularly vulnerable and had suffered the most from the impact of the pandemic. We were able to refine how we measure our impact on children, parents and volunteers in these new sessions and examples of these are shared on page 15.
None of this would have been possible without the tireless dedication of our outstanding Leadership Team, our enthusiastic session leaders and volunteers (in all weathers!), my fellow Trustees and finally, the generous support of our funders. A big personal thank you for your support this year and we hope you will continue to work with us to deliver on our shared vision.
As we look ahead, we look forward to building on our successes to date, by informally mentoring others to commence ROAM-inspired sessions in their local green spaces, refining the ROAM-IN model to breakdown any barriers to ensure ROAM is open to all (albeit adjusted to suit specific needs and to ensure safety of participants) and by continuing to build on our community connections.
Laura Smiley, Chair of Trustees
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02 Objectives
Our Objects
ROAM was set up with the aim of facilitating children’s freedom to explore nature unsupervised; something that was normal for primary school aged children until about 30 years ago yet has since almost disappeared in the UK.
Our Objects are:
To help children and young people especially but not exclusively through leisure time activities, so as to develop their capabilities that they may grow to full maturity as individuals and members of society.
To promote the good health of children and young people by providing facilities and/or organising opportunities for young people to participate in open-air recreational activities.
in each case for the benefit of the public.
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Our Mission, Vision & Values
Our Mission
Our mission is to facilitate children’s free play in nature with minimal supervision, to support others to do so, and to campaign for every child’s right to independent play.
Our Vision
Our vision is to facilitate a culture where it is considered healthy and normal for children to play unsupervised in their natural environment.
Our Values
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We are proactively inclusive; seeking ways to meet children’s rights to independently play outside irrespective of their physical ability or any disability, social or economic barriers, gender, ethnicity, access to appropriate clothing, and any other barriers that we identify through the course of our work. We strive to make our sessions accessible, embracing neurodiversity, and to embed a culture of inclusion in all of our work that is reflected in the actions of everyone involved.
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We foster a culture where imperfection is embraced; we learn through our mistakes more than our successes. We encourage the bravery in trying, and promote a non judgemental culture of supportiveness. We embrace a culture of learning and sharing the grey areas in order to make the experience more valuable for everyone and for no one to fear a consequence of a perceived ‘failure’.
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We are responsible and rigorous; acknowledging that whilst the participating children’s experience is rooted in freedom, the activities we run are underpinned by procedures that reflect the high level of responsibility in which we are placed. We are rigorous in the application of the procedures that we have carefully developed to facilitate this.
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We are action-orientated, and research backed. We embrace innovation through trial and refinement, but place this continually within the wider academic and research context; learning through the complementary work of other organisations too, and aiming to embed best practice of children’s play and freedom.
These values are embedded in our organisation and we are committed to promoting these values to all stakeholders; be they participants, parents/ carers, Board members, session leaders and volunteers.
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In January 2020, ROAM developed a Theory of Change to outline how we will deliver and measure the success of our intended social outcomes/ impact.
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03 Activities
ROAM Sessions
The delivery of ROAM sessions was significantly impacted by the pandemic during the period. There were six months (in two periods of three months) when no sessions could take place at all. Of the remaining six months, during one month (November 2020), only one session model was able to operate due to lockdown 2, but in the other five months, the frequency and number of sessions was exceptionally high due to a surge in demand.
ROAM ran five different session models during the period.
ROAM Free
The classic model that enables children under 11 to play entirely selfdirected with minimal supervision in a public park.
Rocking ROAM
Supervised session with (mostly younger) children not yet ready to access ROAM Free. It includes selfdirected play in nature, assessing own capabilities to run, jump, climb in the natural environment.
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ROAM-IN
Provides access to self-directed free play in nature for children with additional needs and their siblings, for whom ROAM Free may be considered too risky or inaccessible due to their play preferences, for example. Takes place in secure, private grounds.
ROAM in Schools
These sessions were delivered within the school day and in partnership with schools. The school chose a cohort of children that stood to benefit the most from our sessions. These sessions reached children who would not ordinarily be brought to our sessions out of school hours. They are similar to ROAM Free sessions but required higher levels of supervision depending on the specific needs of the children.
ROAM Stay and Play
Outdoor playgroups started during the pandemic to address both preschooler and parent isolation set against the context of very few facilities opening at all after March in 2020 nor in the first 4 months of 2021. Whilst targeting the same age group, these sessions reach families who would not ordinarily come to Rocking ROAMers (or similar groups such as Forest School/ Nature Play sessions) as the ‘Playgroup’ environment is much more familiar to some. These sessions run on weekdays.
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ROAM Reflecting, Analysing and Learning, Project Development
In accordance with our values, we are continually reflecting on our practice; looking to refine and improve our sessions, measuring the impact we are having, and finding new ways to enable a broader range of children to access our sessions where we notice gaps to be filled.
We also engage proactively cross-discipline in many forums and circles including child development, child psychology, the play sector, additional needs provision, nature conservation, urban design and sustainable travel, and occupational therapy.
We set our practice in these wider contexts and always strive to be pioneering new ways of realising social impact that is responsive to these contexts.
Promoting, Campaigning and Supporting
Promoting our mission and vision is at the heart of many of our activities, and spreading this message through the promotion of ROAM’s philosophy, campaigning for children’s freedoms and supporting others to enable ROAMing to happen in their communities is a critical component of our work.
This may include indirect and subtle ways of engaging people, such as DIY Forest School leaflets which raised our profile amongst Parks groups, Schools and Forest Educators, attracting them to our website to find out more. And also includes much more direct promotion of our mission by presenting at conferences and events.
We have informally started to support other groups who are wanting to start ROAM in their areas nationwide. This will be a great opportunity for learning for us too.
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Contribution from volunteers
ROAM has always had a healthy supply of parent volunteers. As we have grown, we have also become much more dependent upon volunteers who are not parents of participating children (though some do have children participating in other sessions).
In the period, we put policies and procedures into place to ensure that we have a robust system for the recruitment, registration, training and support for our volunteers. This included ensuring that we have an inclusive recruitment policy, that all volunteers are DBS checked (we offer this at no cost to them), that they receive consistent Volunteer Information relating to key policies, codes of conduct and job descriptions etc.
By the end of the period, we had around 30 registered volunteers. When we embarked on our most recent ROAM-IN programme, which involved recruiting 11 volunteers, we used the process to ensure that the systems we had in place were strictly followed from the outset. We recruited openly and with an application form, we followed up references for all accepted candidates and produced a manual specific to the ROAM-IN sessions and conducted face to face training in small groups.
We invite volunteers to feedback to us regularly, informally as well as formally. We also have young volunteers, under the age of 18. Some of these are former ROAM participants who still want to engage in the project and feel a great benefit from joining in, whereas others have joined us as teenagers. This is an area that we are keen to expand, especially as there is a lot of evidence surrounding the dip in levels of activity and engagement in nature amongst teenage girls in particular.
Public Benefit
The Trustees have regard to the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance, taking this into account when exercising any powers or duties to which the guidance is relevant.
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04 Our Achievements
Delivery of Recovery in Play Project
ROAM launched its ‘Recovery In Play’ project in September 2020. The project, funded by the Government’s Covid-19 Emergency Fund (channelled through The National Lottery Community Fund) was aimed at specifically supporting people disproportionately affected by lockdown. Whilst we recognised that most children had been disproportionately affected, we set about identifying and targeting specific groups of children who we felt may benefit most from our sessions. These included primary school-aged children who had experienced particular disadvantage or impact, and pre school children who had
experienced little or no peer interaction or interaction with anyone outside of their families. We also recognised that the latter group would also reach parents who had been deprived of the usual support networks for parents with young children e.g. playgroups, and pre school activity groups.
The project had to be delivered to a tight program, so in order to reach our target audiences, we formed partnerships with a local primary school and a local playgroup.
The project was a huge success, and we delivered 40 sessions in Autumn 2020, approximately 30% more sessions than we had funding for, such was the demand. We just about achieved this within the budget by making some adjustments and thanks to the generosity of volunteers.
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ROAM in School
Prior to the pandemic, we had already engaged with the local primary school’s headteacher who had been very warm to the principle of running sessions during the school day in the local park. When approached again, in September 2020, the headteacher immediately identified a cohort of 8 children that he had recognised as needing additional support following their return to school.
They were from three different year groups and were already being taught away from their classes each morning in a ‘Nurture Group’. In the words of the headteacher ‘These children don’t need maths and English right now, they just need to play outside’. In close collaboration with the school, our ROAM in School model was launched.
One additional participant joined the group after three sessions. A total of ten sessions ran between October 2020 and December 2020. This set of sessions was also the first time that we undertook impact measurement from start to finish using a defined methodology.
‘These children don’t need maths and English right now, they just need to play outside’
We had always considered that partnering with a school would give us the potential to reach children who would otherwise be highly unlikely to attend a session, when dependant upon their parent/carer(s) bringing them. Based on the information the headteacher provided to us, this was almost certainly the case for all of the children. Only one child seemed familiar with the park at the outset, even though they all lived locally.
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ROAM Stay & Play
A partnership was also formed with a local playgroup Noah’s Ark, who were unable to reopen in September 2020 due to the restrictions of making their building ‘Covid-safe’. When approached, they immediately accepted the opportunity of transferring the playgroup to an outdoor setting in partnership with us, and could quickly advertise it to contacts they already had, particularly to those they felt would benefit most. ROAM Stay and Play launched in September 2020. It comprised 1 hour of play, followed by a half hour music slot, run by a local freelance children’s music practitioner who had had to cease all her sessions. Two session leaders ran the sessions, supported by 3 volunteers (2 from Noah’s Ark).
Places were limited to 15 children and their parents/carers and it immediately filled up. Interest grew as it spread by word of mouth, generating many enquiries. It was decided that an additional session would be run ‘back-to-back’ to the first with a half hour gap for sterilising all equipment/ toys. The new session was advertised and was booked up within a few hours.
When lockdown 2 was announced (November 2020), ROAM informed all parents that the Outdoor Stay and Play sessions would be suspended due to the restrictions on the gathering of groups. Birmingham City Council had given notice to all its parks that any organised outdoor activities would have to stop. There was huge disappointment amongst the families attending our sessions. Parents were pleading with us to continue and some exemptions were coming to light that it appeared could apply. The potential exemption was due to the support it was providing to parents and carers with very young children. Parents were writing to their local councillors, who in turn approached us and the Head of Parks for the City to enquire whether the exemption could apply. The Head of Parks was resistant at first but after spending some time putting together a justification document referring back to the actual Act of Parliament, our application was accepted, and sessions started back after missing only one week
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DIY Forest School Project
In September 2020, the Friends of Cotteridge Park (FoCP) approached us about partnering with them on their proposed DIY Forest School Project. They had made the decision not to restart their Forest School sessions due to concerns over the coronavirus restrictions, but instead wanted to encourage families to come down to the park on a Wednesday morning and do self-directed Forest School activities. The intention was that they could collect an activity sheet or access it digitally, to maintain the family’s connection with the park and nature based activities (ie not just to use the playground). We agreed to write and print 100 leaflets each week for 2 months to begin with. Any surplus activity sheets were given to local schools to distribute.
After a month, lockdown two was announced so printing the activity sheets ceased, and a publicly accessible folder on our Google Workspace cloud was set up, and every Wednesday, along with Friends of Cotteridge Park and Birmingham Open Spaces Forum, we would promote the week’s activity on social media.
Without the additional time and cost of printing, we agreed to extend our input in producing the activity sheets until Easter 2021. As the date drew close, FoCP secured some funding to commission us to continue until the end of September, so that we would have a full year’s worth of activity sheets.
We have had a number of people and organisations reporting back to us that they have been using the sheets including schools and other ‘Friends of…’ park groups. This activity has also generated interest in our brand, having had several enquiries through the website from people who first came across us via the leaflets.
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Measuring Impact
ROAM measured impact across all of our sessions in different ways. Our three areas of focus were:
Custodianship of local green space
Connection to Nature
Resilience
Project Example
The ROAM in Schools project that took place in Autumn 2020 was the first time that we implemented a structured and designed methodology for measuring impact. Prior to this, our methods had been rather ad hoc; using parental questionnaires, interactive visual ways with the children, and by asking questions to the children whilst recording their answers.
The methods were planned and session leaders and volunteers contributed to the process.
Below are some of the findings from the Schools project, we have just included a few examples.
Custodianship of Local Green Space
In the first session, children stayed within 100m of base, chasing squirrels and wanting to go into the playground, fast forward to the final session when they proudly showed their Head Teacher all the different parts of the 23 acre park which they had explored independently over the weeks and demonstrated their feeling of custodianship by naming different areas using their own terms which meant something special to them – such as ‘William’s Mount’ - the steep bank where William conquered his fear and got down with the support of his friend after getting stuck.
Connection to Nature
Child A crying on his first session because he got a speck of mud on his hands to session 5/6 being in the stream, splashing, throwing sticks, in the cold and full of joy!
Resilience
One child was significantly smaller and slower than the others. She was extremely shy and quiet and held hands with an older boy throughout the first 2-3 sessions. By the end of the sessions, she was laughing, giving her opinions to other children about how they should play, making her voice heard and definitely not being led anymore by the hand!
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Parents & Volunteers
We are also interested to measure how the ROAM sessions have impacted the adults involved. We also ask how we could improve the sessions. We ensure that the opportunity to give feedback is accessible to all by providing a variety of mediums such as online questionnaires, informal chats, engagement events (such as picnic), and notes in an anonymous feedback box.
Findings: The results were conclusive that there was a huge benefit to the adults involved as well as the children from parents in the Stay and Play to volunteers and teachers involved in the school’s project everyone, without exception, reported a significant positive difference to their wellbeing after spending time outside in nature.
Long Term
In the future we would love to follow up with the children who attended ROAM sessions for 6 months or more to ask them about the criteria set out above and see if the feeling of custodianship, connection and resilience has stayed with them after their time at ROAM. Ideally, we would revisit the children after five years to measure the long-term impact.
Wider Impact of ROAM
We wanted to also report on the ripple effect of ROAM, benefits that we would not have thought to measure or been intentional about but that have been reported to us and, we feel are significant.
For Stay and Play we aimed to make playgroups accessible during the pandemic by essentially taking an indoor playgroup outside. We were pleasantly surprised about how important and invaluable some parents found this. Having a baby in lockdown for some, has been incredibly isolating and frightening. One lady with a toddler and baby wrote to the council during lockdown 2 to implore them to allow us continue in the capacity of a support group which is how she and many other parents saw us. She used the word ‘lifeline’.
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The word ’community’ crops up time and time again when people talk about ROAM, the sessions have been described as ‘anchoring’ and has made us value the importance of the ‘whole family’ approach. In ROAM, all of your children can attend sessions, often run at the same time, regardless of ability and the adults can volunteer or grab a coffee - is it a cohesive whole family approach and a holistic experience for all.
We have also had many parents tell us that they feel much more empowered to allow their children to ROAM and are proactively looking for opportunities to do this. ROAM was always intended to be a philosophy not just a session so this reporting delights us. However what has surprised us is that many parents whose children have never attended a session have reported deliberately giving their children more freedom, including walking to school alone and credit this shift in mindset to ROAM.
Finally, four teenage girls are included in our volunteer numbers. Research indicates that when girls reach their teenage years their interest and time spent in nature declines sharply. As the benefits of spending time in nature are so evident to mental health we are very happy to welcome these girls at what can be a difficult stage in life. They support and assist the younger children and those with additional needs, often very skillfully by taking into account their communication and sensory preferences. We hope that the duality of spending time in nature while providing a very useful service will increase feelings of well being and confidence. We will see how teenage mentoring organically develops but we are aware of the huge benefits and we feel it is something we would like to be more intentional about in the future.
Case Study
Through our sessions we have forged close connections with two sisters who are both registered blind. One lady, Sana always attends ROAM Free with her four and nine year olds and loved that she could feel so comfortable letting them ROAM within the session.
She introduced us to her sister Eeshma who had a baby and moved to the local area in lockdown. Eeshma was new to the area, visually impaired and a new mum. She reported feeling extremely isolated and in her words ‘incredibly guilty that Sofia hasn’t been getting enough sunlight or outdoor fun’ and so began to attend our Stay and Play.
We collected her and walked her home and after many sessions she messaged us to say that this was ‘an hour and a half that both Sofia and I look forward to all week round, the fresh air, The Buzz, the chatter of busy children and the lovely volunteers who made us feel welcomed and nurtured’.
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Campaigning & Events
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Birmingham Emergency Transport Plan- May 2020 Prior to this policy document being launched, we were invited to review it in its draft form and attend a small group seminar. Our comments on the importance of play and children’s autonomy in travel were incorporated into the final policy document.
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Our Future City Conversations, March 2021, Community representative on promotional video for discussion on City of Centres theme as part of a policy consultation from Birmingham City Council Planning and Regeneration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3SjWXkrPN0&t=558s
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ROAM was invited to be a guest interviewee at the WOW Global event in March 2021 (virtually held) for which we were paid.
Organisational Development
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Completed Mentorship Programme with Paul Hamlyn Foundation, covering a wide range of issues relating to our organisational development and business planning. This process of learning was invaluable at a time when we couldn’t run sessions and were uncertain what impact the pandemic would have on our future.
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Creation and Board sign off of our Vision, Mission and Values.
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Creating and Board sign off of comprehensive set of policies and procedures.
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Marketing &
Communications
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Commission and development of new website.
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Production of ROAM e-newsletter. The period saw a large increase in social media engagement. During the period, we established ourselves on three Social Media Platforms; Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN. As of March 2021, we had 600 followers on Twitter, 422 on Facebook and 56 on LinkedIN.
Systems
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ROAM registered for a free Google Workspace account in Spring 2020 (at the time called Google Suite) and have transferred all documentation onto G Drive; a cloud server. No fees are payable to registered charities to use Google Workspace.
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Commissioned new CRM System. (Macanta) to be ready by Summer 2021 Implementation of new Booking System (Bookwhen).
Grants
Since March 2020, three grants have been secured by application, totalling £31,900. In addition, £5000 was committed to this programme by PHF/SSE along with the time extension we were awarded. Two of the three grants secured were from funders new to us; DCMS’s Coronavirus Recovery Fund (£6950) and the Eveson Trust (£5000).
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05 Structure, Governance & Mana ement g
ROAM is a registered charity (CIO), charity number 1190230 (July 2020).
The Board of Trustees
The Board comprises the Leadership Team, four Non-Executive Directors and one Co-opted Board Member. The four Non-Executive Directors are all registered with the Charity Commission as trustees. All other Board members are non-voting. Board Meetings are held ‘termly’ (ie in alignment with academic terms; three times per year).
| NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS: | NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS: | |
|---|---|---|
| Emma Woolf | Chair | Appointed July 2020, resigned |
| September 2020 | ||
| Laura Smiley | Chair | Appointed as Non-Executive |
| Director July 2020, Chair from | ||
| September 2020 | ||
| Sumeer Aggarwal | Treasurer | Appointed 3rd November 2020 |
| Gayna Zargar | Secretary & | Appointed July 2020 |
| Safeguarding Lead | ||
| Jo Burrill | Appointed July 2020 | |
| Co-opted Board Member | ||
| Trina Jones | Co-opted July 2020 |
At any time there must be at least three charity trustees, If the number falls below this minimum, the remaining charity trustee or trustees may act only to call a meeting of the charity trustees, or appoint a new charity trustee. Every charity trustee must be appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees.
In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees, the charity trustees must have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO.
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Officers
ROAM’s officers are Naomi Fisher, Strategic Lead and Lisa Walke, Operations Lead. Lisa Walke is also ROAM’s Designated Safeguarding Lead. Naomi Fisher is Deputy Safeguarding Lead.
Naomi’s key responsibilities include:
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Strategic oversight of the charity’s activities Business Planning
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Financial oversight and management Income and Fundraising
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Systems and data oversight
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Marketing and External Communications Campaigning and Events
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Partnerships: Corporate and emerging partnerships
Lisa’s key responsibilities include:
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Organisation and Planning of Sessions
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Management and Coordination of Session Leaders and Volunteers Customer Relations
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Safeguarding Training
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Policies and Procedures; Implementation and Review
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Impact Measurement
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06 Financial Review
Review Statement
Income for the period covered by this report totalled £48,716, of which £11,775 was restricted, which included £5000 from the Eveson Charitable Trust, £6,575 from the Department of Media Culture and Sport’s Coronavirus Emergency Fund and a private donation of £200. A total of two grants were received (in three instalments) from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation as unrestricted income in addition to a small donation and income from merchandising and bookings (unrestricted income).
Expenditure in the same period totalled £25,776 which included spending of restricted grants carried over in part from the previous financial year; £733.34 from Veolia Trust and £4792.21 from The National Lottery Community Fund’s Awards for All grant. Both of those grants were fully spent during the period, as well as the DCMS grant. At 31/3/21, £4682.89 remained of the Eveson Trust grant that has been carried over to the next financial year.
Income
ROAM’s income has largely been in the form of grants from trusts, either for ongoing growth and development, or for the delivery of specific programmes of sessions.
Moving forwards, a more sustainable mixed model of income is to be developed, recognising that some activities the charity delivers could be charged to some consumers without detriment to the mission, vision or values. This includes schools or other organisations as well as individual families.
ROAM recognises that some of its pioneering work or projects with children who may stand to benefit most, may still be largely dependent upon external grant funders. That said, opportunity for subsidising this through other work will be promoted in the form of voluntary donations for sessions (with tangible examples of what donations can help pay for), and profit on merchandising.
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Grants
Grants will continue to be a significant part of ROAM’s income, including for the organisation’s core costs and project development work. Given the reemergence of non-covid funding, a revised funding strategy will be put together, informed by researching new opportunities and trends that may be particularly relevant to particular areas of practice.
Donations
As ROAM’s profile increases through press attention or in local circles in new areas of the country, voluntary donations should be actively encouraged and resources produced to illustrate the impact donations can have.
Commissions and Consultancy
As ROAM’s expertise grows, it is intended that generating an income through consultancy to organisations including nature charities, local authorities or even nursery chains is likely to be a key opportunity for a small but important part of its revenue.
Other Income: payments, merchandise
Voluntary session payments were put in place in early 2021. This is considered to be a key component of ROAM’s sustainability, particularly to avoid the constant pressure of securing external funding to keep sessions running. Ensuring that finances are not a barrier to anyone’s participation must also be finely balanced with any ‘voluntary’ payments.
Merchandising provides a limited opportunity for raising some modest unrestricted funds for the business as well as using the logo to spread the message and attract interest in the charity.
Reserves Policy
Once a year the Board will consider the level of reserves that it is prudent for the organisation to hold. Consideration will be given to redundancy liabilities, lease agreements and any other significant factors that should be taken into account if the organisation were to close.
We will aim to build up reserves that represent a minimum of 3 months of typical turnover, by the end of Year 3 (April 2023) and 6 months of reserves by the end of Year 5 (April 2025).
Until we have built up adequate reserves, we have taken a low risk approach to taking on any liabilities including employment, leases, subscriptions or other regular commitments.
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07a Accounts: Receipts & Payments Year End 31 March 2021
| Un-restricted | Restricted | Endowment | Total 2021 | Last year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| funds (£) | Funds (£) | Funds (£) | |||
| A1 Receipts | |||||
| Booking receipts | 174 | - | - | 174 | - |
| Donations | 10 | 200 | - | 210 | - |
| Grant funding | 36,595 | 11,575 | - | 48,170 | - |
| Merchandise sales | 121 | - | - | 121 | |
| - | |||||
| Refunds | 41 | - | - | 41 | |
| - | |||||
| Subtotal (Gross income for | 36,941 | 11,775 | - | 48,716 | - |
| AR) | |||||
| A2 Asset and investment | - | - | - | - | - |
| sales, (see table). | |||||
| Total Receipts | 36,941 | 11,775 | - | 48,716 | - |
| A3 Total Payments | |||||
| Session personnel | 8,561 | 9,265 | - | 17,826 | - |
| Session equipment | - | 1,769 | - | 1,769 | - |
| Session consumables | 41 | 309 | - | 350 | - |
| Computer costs | 151 | 5 | - | 156 | - |
| Professional services | 648 | - | - | 648 | - |
| Marketing & fundraising | 2,354 | 323 | - | 2,677 | - |
| Merchandise costs | 646 | 146 | - | 792 | - |
| Training | 650 | 168 | - | 818 | - |
| Insurance | - | 292 | - | 292 | - |
| DBS checks | 24 | 213 | - | 237 | - |
| Subscriptions and publications | 40 | 11 | - | 51 | - |
| Printing, postage and stationery | 97 | 62 | - | 159 | - |
| Subtotal | 13,213 | 12,563 | - | 25,776 | - |
| A4 Asset and investment | - | - | - | - | - |
| purchases, (see table). | |||||
| Total Payments | 13,213 | 12,563 | - | 25,776 | - |
| Net of receipts/(payments) | 23,727 | 788 | - | 22,939 | - |
| A5 Transfers between funds | - | - | - | - | - |
| A6 Cash funds last year end | 1,496 | 5,526 | - | 7,022 | - |
| Cash Funds this year end | 25,223 | 4,738 | - | 29,961 | - |
Accounts were not prepared for the previous period, and no comparative figures are shown. The opening bank balance has been split between the various funds.
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07b Accounts: Statement of Assets & Liabilities for the period
| Details | Un-restricted | Restricted | Endowment | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| funds (£) | Funds (£) | Funds (£) | |||
| B1 Cash Funds | Bank Current Account | 25,223 | 4,738 | - | |
| Total Cash Funds | 25,223 | 4,738 | - | ||
| B2 Other Monetary | Stock of Merchandise | 462 | - | - | |
| Assets | |||||
| Details | Fund to which | Cost | Current value | ||
| asset belongs | (optional) | (optional) | |||
| B3 Investment Assets | - | - | - | - | |
| B4 Assets Retained for | - | - | - | - | |
| the Charity's own use | |||||
| Details | Fund to which | Amount due | When due | ||
| liability relates | (optional) | ||||
| B5 Liabilities | Accrued Expenses | unrestricted | 3800 | - | |
| Signed by two trustees | on behalf of all the trustees: | ||||
| Signature | |||||
| Full Name | |||||
| Date |
ROAM - Trustees' Annual Report 2020-2021
25
Report of the Independent Examiner Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of ROAM I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the charity for the year ended 31st March 2021 which are set out on pages 24 to 25. Responsibilities and basis of report As the charitys trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the Act.). I report in respect of my examination of the charity's accounts carried out under section 145 of the Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section145(5) (b) of the Act. Independent examiners statement I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect-. l. accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section130 of the Act.. or 2. the accounts do not accord with those records. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Mark McLean FCA On behalf of Thomas & Young Limited, Chartered Accountants Corleton House 266-268 stratford Rd Shirley B90 3AD Date.. 25th January 2022 ROAM - Trustees. Annual Report 2020-2021 26
08 Reference & Administrative details
Charity Details
Charity name: ROAM
Registered charity number: 1190230
Charity’s principal address: 10 Ashmore Road BIRMINGHAM B30 2HA
Trustees
| NAME | OFFICE | DATES ACTED IF NOT FULL YEAR |
|---|---|---|
| Laura Smiley | Chair | 26 July 2020 |
| Sumeer Aggarwal | Treasurer | 3rd November 2020 |
| Gayna Zargar | Secretary | July 2020 |
| Jo Burrill | Trustee | July 2020 |
ROAM - Trustees' Annual Report 2020-2021
27
09 Declarations Th1& Annuol Repoll covering the period 1st Aprll 2020 ro ?wlst Morch 2021 was approv8d lly irurtees vl ROAM oi meir Board Ineeling, held on Monuay17th Jonuory 2021, 51gfied on behatt otthe chorlly's IrLssioes, Slgnoture Full Nome LAo£A SMILÉY Position CH*1£ f£uS7£gS Date 21191122 Ji /oila ROAM Trustees. Annual Rttporl 202Q-2021