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2022-09-30-accounts

9 ANNUAL REPORT

2021 - 2022

Annual Report for period to 30 September 2022

Charitable Incorporated Organisation – Registration No. 1192217

Country of Registration: England & Wales

Registered Office: 12A School Road, Newton Abbot, TQ12 2JU Trustee Board for reported period:

Barry Wadlan – Chair, John Leins, Donna Ridout and Linda Puryer

Chief Executive – Lindie Whitfield Director of Resources – Emma Warren

Bank: Lloyds Bank PLC

Financial Statement and Accounts prepared by: Sam Rigg ACS, Charity Accountant, and submitted appended to this report in accordance with Charity Commission requirements for small charities.

INTRODUCTION

Wellbeing in Action exist to remove and prevent the causes of harm to people’s physical, mental, financial, social and community health and wellbeing.

Our ethos is ‘if we can, we do’ and we use the power of practical social action to draw the community into a collaborative force to immediately bring relief to individuals and families whose wellbeing is suffering.

All that we do is conducted in recognition that all people have times they need a little help, and all people have opportunities to extend a hand to others. It is not necessary for a person to be perfectly ‘fixed’ to be valued for their skills and experience. We call this The Good Karma Club, and it is this transaction of equitable human kindness that restores balance, pride, joy, motivation and enables individuals to live their best lives on their own terms.

Structure, governance & management

The organisation is a charitable incorporated organisation operting across communities in South Devon. All Trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no benefits from the charity.

The Trustees review the aims, objectives and activities of the charity each year. This report looks at what the charity has achieved and the outcomes of our work for the year ending 30 September 2022. The Trustees report the success of each key activity and the benefits the charity has brought to those groups of people that it is set up to help as a way to both celebrate our work and check we have not drifted from our intended purpose.

Trustees usually serve for a term of three years and may be re-appointed for a second term. At the conclusion of our second operating year, all original trustees remain and the Board have been developed with the input from several expert Associate Board Advisors as we continue to develop our trustee membership and skills. Efforts have been made to analyse and identify the needs of the growing charity and target specific skill sets within individuals, with presentations to a number of local networks, business and Rotary Club presentations. We have continued to reduce risk during this early growth year by building strong working relationships with external professionals to provide guidance in matters such as HR, policy creation, legal advice and external clinical supervision for the Chief Executive who is, herself, a volunteer but with long standing experience in the voluntary sector. Better linking with voluntary bodies such as the Community Voluntary Service in Teignbridge have aided our task greatly. This second year has presented a huge increase in frontline delivery and as the social and financial crisis deepens in our community, so has the awareness of the charity and the relief it brings, which has escalated frontline delivery enormously, at a time when we need to continue to evolve steadily and solidly in our infrastructure and in managingour capacity so we do not ‘overheat’ beyond our abilities and capacity.

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS BY OBJECTIVE AND SERVICE AREA:

Wellbeing in Action set a three year plan, acknowledging our fledgling status as a registered charity, and the requirement to strengthen our infrastructure and quality of operations as well as deliver great work in the community. The plan contains clear statement of intent about:

The trustees have reviewed the plan against outcomes achieved this year and congratulate the operational team on delivering highly relevant, entirely needs driven activities that are entirely aligned with the objectives and ethos set in the initial mission statement. To achieve such tight adherence to the plan, within such a creative and responsive programme and to have done so against the voracity of the social crisis unfolding in our communities, and in a very slimly resourced year, is a credit to the leadership, volunteers and community of donors and supporters, as well as the many clients who have so positively engaged and provided their feedback to influence our work.

The following is our submission of key achievements and future priorities in line with our overall mission for 2021/22:

  1. Strategic Development:

  2. a) As a very small, locally delivering charity, with very small income streams, the charity has continued to aim high in its objectives and has been bold in forging strong collaborations with cross-sector partners across the South Devon area. Courage in leadership and collaboration have been key themes, not only in advocating and representing Wellbeing in Action, but also in placing ourselves (sometimes uncomfortably) in strategic arenas where we both assist the growth of less experienced small CIC’s and charities and also represent the small VCSE sector at County level. Showcasing our professionalism, experience and wisdom, even in the face of limited financial resources has earned respect and loyal partnerships. The team have achieved this in every day actions, from volunteers demonstrating this professionalism in the frontline services to our Chief Officer taking a back-filled position to assist development of the Countywide VCSE Devon Assembly – a challenging role in such a busy evolutionary year for the charity.

  3. b) We have had the benefit of the voluntary support of Mr C Wills to assist with navigating day to day legal issues – from mentoring over HR matters to legal guidance around building leases and as a muse for our CEO. This has been invaluable and led us to understand the importance of securing a legal expert to both the charity, and we have engaged Mr Phillip Debdin in early dialogue about supporting the charity, and our beneficiaries around their legal concerns, and the Chief Officer has been hugely grateful for the mentoring relating to leadership from Ms Simone Thompson from TTVS.

  4. c) We have continued to evolve our financial accounting systems, using a more complex recording of income and expenditure to give more data around sources and timing of income, and more precise intelligence about how we spend our funding. We have set a course to implement an accountancy package called Xero and we now have a settled accountant who is getting to know the charity from it’s early development which will help us to consistently evolve our financial health awareness.

  5. d) The Chief Officer and Director of Services roles continue to be fulfilled on a voluntary basis and we acknowledge the huge investment of personal time we have been so fortunate to receive from the post holders. As the organisation has grown in stature, this has increased the demand for us to sit at the table with other strategic players, commissioners and to contribute to complex dialogue about local and national strategic priorities. This requires core funding to enable this role to be properly fulfilled without having to rely on very time pressured situations for the post holders and we are prioritising this in the year ahead, particularly at a time when many grants are becoming very issue focused in their restrictive requirements, rather than paying for infrastructural security or core costs.

  6. e) Post-pandemic Devon is proving extremely challenging and this must be taken account of in strategic direction for the year ahead. The impact on volunteer availability, loss of public giving due to the cost of living crisis and the lack of donated goods after the glut of ‘tidying out’ during lockdowns, is having an impact on every area and method of our delivery. We aim to join national campaigns to incentivise volunteering and find ways to make this easier to access and appealing to local volunteers. We will seek some consultancy support of the local CVS organisation to drive this matter forward.

2. AID DISTRIBUTION PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:

To reduce harm to wellbeing caused by lack of essential human requirements of food, warmth, clothing and a decent home to be safe and function within.

Stemming the impact of adverse life effects such as poverty, financial crisis due to illness, redundancy, bereavement or incidents like flood or fire damage or fleeing violence and leaving possessions behind, by providing practical relief that enables individuals to have breathing space to re-balance and move forward into less vulnerable situations where they can absorb additional support effectively.

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS:

Ongoing work requiring development:

• The Good Karma Store continues to be well loved and used by the community but our worry about losing the building, in a central community location, has been compounded by lack of knowledge about the specifics of an impending development of the site which has been pushed back in timeline several times by the council. We continue to exist on a month by month license to hire and it is difficult to predict the right time and gambles to take in forward travel.

• Volunteering has been a continual pressure – with attitude to risk during covid having a big impact,

and general shift in patterns of giving, along with financial pressure for people to work longer hours, or be working from home so not as in touch with services in the community. We aim to secure funding for two consistent staff members to support volunteers in the next twelve months.

*Outcomes achieved since the Good Karma Store was created (over a 19 month period)

3. SUPPORT SERVICES

Primary Objective:

To enable people who are struggling to rebalance their lives to access emotional and practical support to begin the process of healing, rebuilding, balancing and re-designing their lives on their own terms.

Preventing unnecessary harm to wellbeing caused by being denied access to therapeutic input due to lack of finance, long waiting lists or postcode lotteries.

Draw together experts in mental health and wellbeing to get support faster to the community

Develop the opportunities for peer support to empower people to be part of the solution for themselves and others.

What we have achieved:

Acts435 for whom we remain an active and trusted South West partner. This scheme has enabled us to put the real action into our aspirations to assist people and the anonymous donors who make this possible have literally saved lives. We have distributed £7,250 in grant aided items to people in crisis and misery, making lives instantly better.

with women suffering greatly, to assist them find self-care strategies and approach their medical providers with concise personal plans to enable better communication with their GP. This work remains unfunded and we must concentrate effort to secure income for the year ahead if we are to ensure women without financial means can still get the parity with women who can afford to attend a private clinic. Funding has been difficult with many funders ring-fencing women’s funding for organisations with a specific women-only constitution, which precludes Wellbeing in Action, despite our majority female facing interventions

4. SOCIAL ACTION:

Primary Objectives:

What we achieved

for homeless people and large sacks of toys for babies and children – alleviating the burden from parents struggling financially and emotionally. We went the extra mile to engage with the community by forming teams of volunteers, dressed in elf costume, to visit doorsteps. A total of 237 individuals received gift packs worth an average value of £85 each. Many of the gifts were brand new, donated through a community post box we created within the Good Karma Store and the public added messages of hope on cards which were included in the parcels.

OUR FINANCIAL POSITION

We continue to be very proud of the level of impact Wellbeing in Action has had by comparison to the very limited resources available. The Chief Officer and the Director of Resources – both volunteers, are dedicated and relentless in their creative ability to deliver outputs that mimic a mature charity whilst still battling to go through the growing pains of a fledgling organisation.

Increasing strategic engagement, putting time into networking and contributing to public sector engagement, along with dedicating time to meeting partners at business gatherings such as the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, Women’s Institute and the Devon Women’s Business Network have taken personal commitment but have brought great awareness of our aspirations and achievements. They have also generated an increase in referrals and cries for help. We recognise the need for appropriate paid resources to enable this volume and intensity of work to continue if we are to continue to live up to our already mighty reputation.

The charity still operates on a very ‘hand to mouth’ basis and, whilst prudently delivered so as to ensure the charity has very little obligations financially, and operates to the most streamlined of models, we know we could be more focused in our actions to secure much needed support posts and this still remains an as yet elusive goal. We have created a targeted grant sourcing plan for the next year to redress this now that we are crossing the threshold to a third year. We aim that the addition of some grant funding should be kept at a level that it supports professional delivery of services but does not take our eye off the ball in evolving our self-sustaining model for core costs. We want to make life more comfortable for the dedicated delivery team but not to forget our humble origins and become sucked into a more common grant dependency model where services are simply axed when financial streams dry up. Whilst we don’t advocate ‘floating on thin air’, much has been learned about how we can explore the impossibilities to do amazing things and we want this to continue. We expect to increase the number of enterprising individuals onto the trustee board to help us in this imaginitive approach.

Nevertheless, securing a small funding cushion may be relative to our small income but we aspire to work towards this as a baseline expectation so we meet our targets of 10% of total income or £5000, whichever is the greater, as a start to practising financial resilience next year.

We continue to use an online fundraising platform with People’s Fundraising (formerly Golden Giving) which has enabled us to use appropriate accounting systems for all manner of income, including donations, appeals, raffles and ticket sales. This is not as widely known as Just Giving, but yields more income with low fees and is user friendly as we develop our skills in this area.

We aim to introduce Xero as an accounting model next year to make our book keeping systems more sophisticated and give us greater analysis of our priorities and spending.

This year’s income has been unsophisticated in source, being from public donations, community fundraising and two small grants from the public health team at Devon County. We still require to make better use of schemes such as Gift Aid and have secured strategic support from an accountant to set this up.

We are proud of our delivery outcomes in relation to the small grants given by Devon County Council public health team and the NHS this year and aim to develop ongoing great relationships with commissioners to understand our value and worth.

We would benefit from a small capital grant to complete the Wellbeing Centre, particuarly for heating, kitchen items, a shower and stair lift. We continue to work with local enterprises to help us develop these.

Our appended accounts indicate our financial exit situation as we move into our third operating year. Whilst this is not a princely sum, it is a huge testiment to the delivery team when considering the small income streams, hugely difficult operating year against a context of massive delivery increase during the ongoing cost of living crisis and financial impact of the war in Ukraine, and managing these frontline increased costs whilst still continuing to successfully evolve the building bases and human resource investment. The trustees wish to thank all the contributors, supporters, donators and to the incredibly dedicated team of volunteers who have performed small miracles so economically.

Principal risks and uncertainties

Financial sustainability and the charity’s financial model remains a key risk, given its dependency on trust and foundation income. Deepening demand on provision due to the cost of living crisis and the pernicious impact of escalating homelessness means we must chart a brave course with an eye on the long term future whilst fire fighting at the frontline. We could be at risk of being consumed with the current needs and not innovating or using our wisdom to chart a clear path to future aspirations. We must also be nimble to see opportunity unfolding in the community and maintain strong networking to be in a position to respond swiftly. We are fortunate to have a very diverse skill and experience set within the leadership of the team, and very dedicated volunteers to enable this. However, this leads to our primary area of weakness in that we have been drawn deeply into beneficiary response a the expense of identifying essential core funding to engage our first paid staff to bring solidity and a core team to assist the Chief Officer who, whilst her skills and shoulders are broad, should not have the weight of the entire organisation upon them. As volunteering and public financial donation hits an all time low, it is even more pressing to be able to fund a professional, robust and reliable operating team and this includes administration to prevent the excellent work being at risk of not being adequately captured and used to strengthen our credibility with future investors. It remains essential to that we model our costing structures on an ‘acting as if’ basis – costing our projects at full cost recovery with an aspirational view to retaining a paid and skilled core workforce as soon as permissable. The following elements continue to be our strategy for building towards this goal:

OUR ACCOUNTS

As the charity trustees, we take responsibility for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011, in accordance with guidelines for small charities.

The complete signed accounts prepared by Samuel Rigg ACA are appended to this annual report as a separate document, with the original signed copy retained for inspection at our registered office address as shown.

The following summary provides an overview of our primary income and expenditure streams:

Income – We have increased grant funding this year to 44% though public donations, sponsorship and fundraising continue to be our primary income stream, added to by the personal beneficiary grant funding through schemes such as ACTS435 who are transformational in social impact through our partnership. We anticipate some growth in public donations in the next financial year with the development of the Good Karma Store as an accessible portal to our work. However, we expect the growth to be limited due to the cost of living crisis and time taken into crisis response work decreases our potential from public event fundraising in the community.

Barry Wadlan

Expenditure is still in line with our core objectives with spending directly on our beneficiaries through crisis aid, social action events, travel and provision of project activity resources and spaces utilising all but 14% of total. In reality, the percentage of core costs will run at less than 14%, envisaged to be as low as 6% in consideration of the large amount of set-up cost expenditure for establishing the Good Karma Store and separate Wellbeing Centre buildings in this year. We anticipate beneficiary crisis costs will exceed 24%, possibly doubling next year as the cost of living crisis bites.

Thanks & Gratitude

The effort to mobilise a credible, needs-responsive, instantly valuable service in a community of high needs and at a time of the most bewildering social circumstances as the pandemic has been nothing short of a breathtaking effort by the most dedicated people who have entirely lived and breathed their motto of ‘if we can, we do’. The volume and quality of contribution to public good through the eradication of harm to people’s wellbeing has raised the bar for frontline service providers in our locality, and Wellbeing in Action has instantly become known as an organisation who move swiftly, with compassion and deliver volume whilst going the extra mile without dropping the ball in relation to a highly personal service to the most vulnerable individuals and families.

As our work continues to grow, the trustees pause to acknowledge those who have generously contributed to our early success in this very embryonic and fragile first year. Without the support, generosity, goodwill and experience of many partners who have embraced our concept and enabled us to seek opportunities in unlikely places we would not have been able to achieve all that we have. We must particularly thank the following organisations for their support through resources, mentoring, guidance, encouragement and kind words:

Neil & Sharon Vaughan - Community Support Team Mr Chris Smith Teignbridge District Council Ms Simone Thompson – CEO TTVS Bernadette McCauley – Mental Health Alliance Rachel Shephard, Thrive Paignton Teignbridge Indoor Market Manager and Traders Wollens Solicitors Scott Richards Solicitors Mr Chris Wills Newton Abbot Rugby Club Councillor Jan Bradford Mr Paul White, e-Culture Solutions Rotary Club Newton Abbot Young Devon Women’s Institute Newton Abbot Thrive Project, Paignton Mr Keith & Mrs Carol Early – Lavendar House Hotel ACTS435 Sally Henley – Newton Abbot Town Council Ms Claire Lear – Phoenix Rising Project Forde Hall Social Club Mr Quentin O’Gormon – Q Ball Media Administrators of Spotted Newton Abbot and Torbay Sue Wroe, Elaine Musgrave and team at Teinbridge CVS Ms Aggie Szpinda – Devon NHS Richard Noyce, Louise Downes, Hollie Kidby & the Vaccination Team Kingscare and Do it for Deaks Charlotte King – The Pebble Ridge Practise HITS Food Bank and THAT Food Bank Salvation Army Newton Abbot Nick, Cheeky Cherry Café Mercy, Tiger Noodle Bar Mr Steve Holdup – Torbay Display The Vicars Relief Fund The Anchorage Hotel Tony and the team at Clearwaste South West

And to our incredible operational leaders, volunteers, community donators, referrers and supporters.

With deep gratitude and sadness in our loss of Mr John Leins and Ms Chloe Jenkinson whose footprint is part of our absolute foundation and whose memory cause us to keep our compass pointing true.

Most significantly, heartelt thanks to the people who have been brave enough to reach out for help and who, when they can, have so proudly contributed back in the smallest ways that have changed, and even saved lives. We continue the hard work relentlessly for and because of you. You matter and you are valued.

Annual Report Yr end 30 Sept 2022. Wellbeing in Action 1192217. The contents of this document are owned by Wellbeing in Action and available as a public document for reading and reference but may not be used for any other third party purpose or distribution without permission from the author in writing. wellbeingaction@gmail.com

Charity Number 1192217

WELLBEING IN ACTION

REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

Samuel Rigg ACA

WELLBEING IN ACTION REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

These accounts are appended to the annual report compiled by the Trustees and Chief Officer in relation to charity activity for the year ended 30[th] September 2022.

Reference and administrative details

Registered Charity Number: 1192217

Status: Charitable Incorporated Organisation (Registered 06/11/2020) Trustees: Mr B Wadlan (Chair), Mrs D Y Ridout & Mrs L Puryer (Mr J Leins, deceased having been in office during this administrative year but sadly having passed prior to completion of the report).

The power of appointment of new trustees is vested in the trustees. A new trustee would receive the training deemed appropriate to enable them to fulfil their role as trustee of the charity.

Treasurer: Ms E Warren (interim) Principal Office: 12A School Road Newton Abbot Devon TQ12 2JU

Objectives and activities

The object of the charity as given in the Constitution is to relive financial hardship amongst people whose financial circumstances are having a serious detriment on their physical, emotional and mental health.

The objectives of the charity are met by making charitable grants and donations and through the provision of services.

WELLBEING IN ACTION

STATEMENT OF TRUSTEES’ RESPONSIBILITIES

The trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

Charity law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity as at the end of the year and of its financial activities during the year in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards). In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

The trustees are responsible for ensuring that adequate accounting records are maintained that are sufficient to show and explain the charity transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity, and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and ensuring their proper application in accordance with charity law, and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

WELLBEING IN ACTION STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE 2022 2021
Unrestricted Unrestricted
£ £
Incoming resources:
Public Donations 9,232 3,012
Fundraising Events 4,310 1,480
Loans and Deposit refunds - 2,100
Beneficiary grants 4,505 1,448
Grants 16,165 1,220
Sponsorship Activities 2,618 -
Refunds and Miscellaneous 152 -
Pre-registration net income -
 12,665
Total incoming resources 36,982 21,925
Resources expended:
Charitable activities:
Beneficiary aid and Services 9,492 3,375
Beneficiary
Social
Action		 Events and 9,370 4,047
Marketing
Establishment renovation and Equipment - 6,755
Costs
Volunteers’ Expenses 1,308 468
Marketing - 423
Sundry Expenses - 217
Transport 3,094 894
Equipment - 1,761
Legal and Financial Fees 1,825 422
Office and Administration 3,578 188
Building Rental, insurance & Utilities 11,252
Total resources expended 39,919 18,550
Net movement in funds for the year (2,937) 3,375
Reconciliation of funds:
Fund balances brought forward at 1 October 3,375 -
2021
Fund balances carried forward at 30 438 3,375
September 2022

WELLBEING IN ACTION STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

2022 2021
£ £
CURRENT ASSETS
Cash at bank 438 3,375
Accrued Income 8,000 -
TOTAL ASSETS 8,438 3,375
CURRENT LIABILITIES
Accountancy - 240

The Trustees confirm, in accordance with the Charitable Incorporated Organisation (General) Regulations 2012, that at the year end the CIO did not have any outstanding guarantees to third parties nor any debts secured on the assets of the CIO.

Approved by the Trustees on 8[th] June 2023

........................................

Mr B Wadlan – Chair of Board

(original signed accounts available for inspection at Registered Office as shown)

WELLBEING IN ACTION NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

1.1 BASIS OF PREPARATION OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland (FRS102) issued on 16 July 2014 (the FRS102 SORP) and the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United kingdom and the Republic of Ireland (FRS102) and the Charities Act 2011 and UK Generally Accepted Practice as it applies from 1 January 2015.

The financial statements have been prepared to give a “true and fair” view and have departed from the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 only to the extent required to give a “true and fair view”. This departure has involved following the FRS102 SORP rather than the Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice effective from 1 April 2005 which has since been withdrawn.

1.2 LEGAL STATUS OF THE CHARITY

The Charity is registered in England and Wales and the registered office is 12A School Road, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 2JU. The registered charity number is 1192217. The charity has no share capital. Its principal activities are to provide services and relive financial hardship amongst people whose financial circumstances are having serious detriment on their physical, emotional and mental health.

1.3 INCOMING RESOURCES

All incoming resources are included in the statement of financial activities when the Charity is legally entitled to the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy. Income is measured at the fair value of the consideration received or receivable, net of discounts and value added tax. Major sources of income are recognised as follows:

Donations and gifts

Donations and gifts are recognised when the Charity is legally entitled to the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy.

1.4 RESOURCES EXPENDED

Donations and grants are accounted for on an accruals basis. Liabilities are recognised where there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the Charity to the expenditure. Other expenses are recognised in the same way.