Devon & Exeter Medical Heritage Trust Trustees’ annual report For the period 10.08.2020 to 31.03.2021
Charity number: 1190793
Registered Address: 13 Victoria Park Road, Exeter, Devon, EX2 4NT
Trustees:
| Trustees: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Professor John Keith Crellin | Trustee | 05 August 2020 |
| Dr Christopher Gardner-Thorpe MD FRCP |
Trustee | 05 August 2020 |
| Drs. Elsbeth Geldhof | Trustee | 13 November 2020 |
| Dr Judith Morgane | Trustee | 05 August 2020 |
| Professor David John Radstone |
Chair | 05 August 2020 |
| Dr Shirley Jane Richards OBE | Trustee | 05 August 2020 |
| Ms. Megan Woolley | Treasurer | 2 October 2020 - 26 March 2021 |
The Trustees present their annual report for the period 10 August 2020 to 31 March 2021. The Annual report serves the purposes of both a Trustees' report and a directors' report under company law. The Trustees confirm that the Annual report and financial statements comply with the current statutory requirements, the requirements of the CIO's governing document and the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland.
Structure, governance and management
The Devon & Exeter Medical Heritage Trust is a CIO, registered with the Charity Commission (1190793). It is registered at the Companies House (CE023403).
The charity is managed by its Trustees and undertakes activities with a small number of volunteers. The only persons eligible to be members of the CIO are its charity trustees. As per our constitution, new Trustees nominated and seconded. Trustees recruited this year are: Drs. Elsbeth Geldhof, conservation specialist, on 13 Nov 2020, and
Ms. Megan Woolley, heritage professional and postgraduate student, 2 Oct 2020 - 26 March 2021, who continues to support the charity as a non-Trustee Treasurer.
The Trustees have met every other month during this period in order to plan and react to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Objectives and activities
The Devon & Exeter Medical Heritage Trust (DEMH Trust) was started informally in 2017/8 by a group of volunteer curators and cataloguers to hold, preserve, and care for a medical heritage collection. It was formally registered as a CIO on August 10, 2020, in order to better help us preserve these items and their stories, and bring them into public awareness.
The object of DEMH Trust is to advance education in the subject of the history and development of medicine and other areas of health care, in such ways as the charity trustees think fit, in particular (but not exclusively) by the establishment and maintenance of a museum, and the provision of other exhibitions and public events. DEMH Trust objects and activities have been set and given due consideration to general guidance published by the Charity Commission relating to public benefit, including the guidance 'Public benefit: running a charity (PB2)'.
Our vision is a community in contact with heritage and our collection, and an accredited museum that can highlight the abundance and diversity of medical history and heritage in Devon and Exeter. We will be applying for Working-Towards-Accreditation designation once the Arts Council Accreditation Scheme reopens.
Achievements and performance
In the current period, the charity has focused on setting up policies and procedures and planning for future activities. Registration during the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that many of our in-person activities stopped, and the charity has instead taken the time to evaluate its activities now as a registered charity. We have prioritised organising our public activities to create a sustainable annual programme, creating appropriate policies for cataloguing and caring for the collection, and have created a vision and mission for the organisation.
In February 2021, we were successful in applying to Heritage Compass, a business support programme launched by Cause4 and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This has given the charity and its trustees training in best practice, governance, financial management, audience development, fundraising, and other matters relating to managing a charity and heritage collection.
We also entered into a partnership agreement with Exeter Historic Buildings Trust and gained storage and exhibition space for the collection. Once COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, we have used this space to hold events and exhibitions for the public benefit. It has also enabled us to continue our cataloguing efforts.
Recently, we have also been notified of a successful partnership project application to the National Academy for Social Prescribing and Arts Council England ‘Thriving Communities’ Fund. This project will start in April 2021 and prioritise volunteering and wellbeing within heritage spaces. This project will enable us to grow our volunteering offer by training volunteers with specific and high level skills, support our volunteers better, and highlight the heritage of the St David’s ward in Exeter.
It has become a priority of the Trustees to work, where possible, in partnership with other organisations in order to learn from shared best practice and to create a better heritage offer for our shared visitors and audiences.
Financial Review
After review, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the Charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements.
In the current period, we have had no outgoing costs and no incoming funds. The reason behind this is a delay in opening a bank account during the current COVID-19 pandemic. However, we have made good progress in planning future fundraising efforts, drawing up a budget for the following financial period, and are therefore expecting to grow our activities and resources considerably within the next year.
The charity is currently refining a reserves policy that will match our current activities and planned expenditure. The drafted policy states that the trustees will build up unrestricted funds that can cover a minimum of three months operating costs plus close-down costs. It is the idea of the Treasurer to include an ‘aspirational reserves policy’ that will expand this to cover more than 6 months and cost an emergency plan, which we can work towards in the future. This aspirational policy has been brought up in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and after discussion with other small heritage organisations and financial experts within the Heritage Compass cohort. Due to delays with our bank account being set up, our reserves are currently zero. Once this issue has been solved, we will look to change this.
Assets currently held by the charity include the collection of historical medical instruments and other ephemera. The collection was donated to us by the Devon & Exeter Medical Society. We estimate this to be about 12,000 items. The artefacts are an eclectic mix of items – everything from Roman scalpels to a WWII portable anaesthetic machine, nurses’ uniforms to 18th-century medicine chests. Most of the pre-1900 manuscripts and books are now held at Exeter Cathedral’s library and Devon Heritage Centre. The trustees are responsible for its care and use in activities. We are currently cataloguing the collection in order to better understand its size, the age of items, their usage, condition, needs, and provenance. The value of the current collection is unknown at this time. The collection will be assessed and valued in the future once its size and condition is better understood. The collection is held securely at St Nicholas Priory, where we have a peppercorn lease.
Approved by the trustees and signed on their behalf by:
Megan Woolley, Treasurer. 25.01.2022
These accounts have been in accordance with the micro-entity provisions for Companies House and following the guidance for accounting for smaller charities issued by the Charity Commision.
Receipts and payments accounts
For the period 10 Aug 2020 - 31 Mar 2021
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Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Total funds
funds funds funds
to the nearest
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
£
A1 Income - - - -
A2 Asset and investment sales - - - -
Total receipts - - - -
- - - -
A3 Payments
A4 Asset and investment
purchases - - - -
Total payments - - - -
- - - -
Net of receipts/(payments)
Transfers between funds - - - -
Cash funds last year end - - - -
- - - -
Cash funds this year end
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Unrestricted Restricted
Categories Details funds funds
to nearest £ to nearest £
B1 Cash funds N/A - -
B2 Other monetary assets N/A - -
B3 Investment assets N/A -
B4 Assets retained for the N/A -
charity’s own use
Fund to which Amount due
Details liability relates (optional)
B5 Liabilities N/A -
Signed on behalf of all the trustees by: Signature Print Name
Megan Woolley
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