2022-08-31-accounts

Chair’s report to the Annual General Meetings for Kew Neighbourhood Association on 9th March 2023

The AGM this year is different from previously as there are two AGMs on the evening. The first is our AGM for our current organisation and the second is an AGM for our to-be incorporated organisation. You may recall at our AGM last year, the meeting voted in favour of the proposal to pursue incorporation, approved the constitution and authorised the trustees to make arrangements for the transfer of the assets and liabilities including eventually the dissolution of the unincorporated association."

The reason for pursuing ‘incorporation’ is to ensure that the charity has a legal personality, in the same way as a company. This means that the organisation can, for example, enter into contracts in the charity’s name. In addition, incorporation means that trustees’ personal financial liability for the charity is reduced, and will allow KNA to continue to recruit trustees with the right skills to ensure the charity is governed well.

There will be no change to the services that KNA offers.

Part A: Report to Annual General Meeting for Kew Neighbourhood Association’s existing organisation (Charity Number 1034340)

Twelve months ago minus one day, in March last year, at our AGM we were thankful that our AGM was being held in person after many months of meetings held by Zoom. We were also just a few shocking weeks into Russia’s war on Ukraine and none of us were imagining that, more than a year on, the war would still be raging. Adding on top of that the cost of living crisis and it has yet again proved to be a challenging year.

I give thanks to Abi Palmer, our Director, our staff, office volunteers and those who volunteer their help for our clients. They have continued to respond to the changing situations over the last year to provide the best possible service to our clients, despite many facing these challenges themselves.

Operations

The biggest challenge we faced after the AGM last year was the balance between driving jobs demand and driver availability. By quarter 2 in 2022, KNA, and the majority of Neighbourhood Care Groups across Richmond, had concerns about having adequate numbers of drivers at that time. Prolonged driving volunteer absences to go on much deserved and needed trips, return to work, making life changes or moving out of Kew made driving jobs difficult to fill.

The challenge continued in particular with drivers for regular jobs: it’s not that we had less drivers, it’s more that we had fewer regular drivers carrying out the bulk of the work. In 2019 KNA had 15 regular drivers each week; in June 2022 KNA had just six.

The number of driving jobs in the last financial year (September 2021 - August 2022) increased by 671 to 1,584. The total number of clients driven in the year was 2,499 with a total of 11,799 miles covered. Non-transport jobs increased by 77 to 2,173.

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Vicky Griffin stepped down from the role of Administration Assistant last year and we are delighted that she is carrying on with her role as Communications & Marketing Assistant.

Linda Redding has resigned as Companionship Manager and she has kindly said she will continue with significantly reduced hours to keep the Companionship service going and handover to a replacement. If you are interested in knowing more about the role, please do contact us.

We were delighted to welcome Gail Adams as Operations Manager in December 2022, and thank her for the voluntary work that she did before that. Gail is also Abi’s deputy.

We have continued with appropriate training for our staff and volunteers. For example, in October 2022 we arranged a Moving & Handling Training session which was attended by seven KNA Volunteers, one KNA staff member, one Avenue Club staff member and three HANDS Neighbourhood Care group volunteers.

There have been some wonderful events and opportunities throughout the year:

• In May we had a stall with Richmond Good Neighbours at RCVS Volunteer Fair

• In June we held a successful Client Summer Party for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Invitations were sent to all clients (along with information on Where to get Financial Assistance and other advice). The event was attended by 57 KNA Clients and 45 Maids of Honour Tea Boxes were delivered to clients who were housebound. 28 Volunteers helped make the party a success by providing transport, setting/clearing up, looking after guests and/or delivered Tea Boxes. The event was attended by the Mayor of Richmond, Julia Cambridge and her consort, Cllr Nancy Baldwin. We were grateful for a donation towards the food from Kew College.

• In June we had a stall at Kew Fete.

• In July there was a Companionship volunteer coffee morning hosted by a trustee at their home, and nine volunteers attended.

• In October we worked in partnership with Broomfield School putting them in touch with clients to receive one of their beautiful Harvest Hampers

• In November we held a party for all our wonderful volunteers.

• In early December we had a KNA stall at Kew Sparkle

• In mid-December we provided Maids of Honour Christmas tea boxes to clients, providing a phone call to all clients plus delivery of 190 boxes

• Volunteers phoned / visited 15 KNA clients between Christmas and New Year.

• A note of thanks to KNA’s Moments of Joy volunteer, Carim Seaborn-Johnson, who delivers homemade brownies, a pot plant and a card to our clients celebrating significant birthdays. Also, to Iain Mulligan, KNA’s personal postie, who hand delivers birthday and Christmas cards throughout the year.

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Many thanks go to Abi Palmer and her team for running the KNA stalls and to all those who took a turn on the stall or helped set up and take down, and for organising the events, and for all who helped at them.

Finances

As our Treasurer is doing a separate report, I will keep this brief. We are very grateful for all those who are able to contribute financially or otherwise to us.

Thank you to RPLC for granting us both core funding and funding for the Companionship service.

Thank you to St Anne’s for their financial donations to us as one of their supported charities this year and for gifting us use of the Church Hall for the AGM.

Thank you to all those individuals who have made donations to us, enabling us to provide gettogethers such as our Summer Party and personal touches such as Christmas tea boxes.

Thank you to The Good Wine Shop who donated the proceeds from all its four shops of the sale of plastic bags (Kew, Chiswick, Richmond and Teddington) and gave us a discount on the purchase of wine for the AGM.

Strategy

Back in 2019 and then more recently, we have been receiving pro bono consultancy and advice from Cranfield Trust. In September we held a (much delayed by Covid) strategy day which was facilitated by a consultant at Cranfield Trust. We covered four main topics:

• Our environment – what are we operating in, what are the trends. Examples included the post covid shift out of London; people retiring later so not available to help at KNA; increase in technology – everything moving online but some of our clients aren’t digitally equipped.

• Aspirations for KNA in 3-5 years – the consultant asked us to answer “If we were to read a newspaper article in 2026 – ‘How did KNA cope with the economic storm of 2022/23’ – what would it say?”. We discussed building financial strength, maintaining the number of volunteers especially drivers, creating links with other organisations.

• Issues and risks – aging population in Kew, demand for volunteers, increased regulations, digital safety, digital exclusion.

• Steps towards aspirations – including Incorporation, outreach strategy, companionship expanding to 1 to many as well as 1-2-1.

From this we agreed a number of actions, short term and long term, that we are executing. We are grateful for the work that the Cranfield Trust have done to support us.

Governance

There are four trustees leaving or retiring during this year: Gaye Russell resigned during 2022; Canon Brian Coyle, priest at St Winefride’s, has left Kew to assist at another church as requested by the Bishop - at our last trustee meeting we thanked him and wished him well; and Lindsey Cape; and Josie Adams will retire at the AGM from being our treasurer. This is

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the second time Josie has retired as our treasurer and we are very grateful to her for all the sterling work she has done and look forward to thanking her formally at the AGM.

There are three trustees that will be put forward for re-election at the AGM: two for the first time, Sharon La Ronde and Margaret de Fonblanque, and Martin Cross for the 2nd time.

This means that we have a number of vacancies for trustees. We are specifically seeking someone who can take on the role of Treasurer, and someone with IT skills, both hands-on with the sort of system we use in our KNA office and a good knowledge of policies and standards. We are also keen to hear from volunteers with any skills that are willing to be a trustee, in this changing world we don’t know what skills we may need in the future. Please do contact us for a chat if you might be interested, or know someone who would.

Incorporation

Since we received approval at the last AGM to pursue incorporation, we have been moving forward with this, albeit more slowly than we had hoped, principally because of a backlog at our bank, Barclays, in responding to requests for incorporation and then following through with this. We have reached the stage of being ready to stand up the new incorporated organisation and this will be covered in the AGM for the new organisation. I very much look forward to your support of the trustee appointments at the meeting. Thank you especially to Kirsty Gillan-Thomas and ex-trustee Alan Sandall for all the work done to get us to this point.

Lastly but not least

My thanks go to our staff, who again have kept KNA’s services going in still difficult circumstances. They have been proactive, positive, energetic and resolute, and Abi has led them brilliantly.

Thank you also to our office volunteers who do an amazing job keeping the services running and being a welcoming, helpful voice on the phone and on the WhatsApp group.

I thank our trustees for their support and their work for KNA, especially Sharon La Ronde as Vice-Chair and my deputy. A big thank you also to John Tatam (office volunteer) that volunteers as secretariat for the trustee board meetings.

Thank you too for Kew Community Trust and the Avenue Club for their partnering with us.

I give huge thanks to our volunteers, without whom there would be no services for our clients, for their continued support and their determination to provide the best services to our clients.

And finally many thanks to our clients, without whom there would be no KNA. Thank you for working with us, for being patient when we need to get back to you, and for your kind words of thanks.

Judi Braddock 4[th] March 2023

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Part B: Report to Annual General Meeting for Kew Neighbourhood Association CIO (Charity Number 1196093)

We look forward to welcoming you at the first AGM of the new KNA incorporated organisation (CIO). At the KNA AGM for the existing organisation last year the meeting voted in favour of the proposal to pursue incorporation, approved the constitution and authorised the trustees to make arrangements for the transfer of the assets and liabilities including eventually the dissolution of the unincorporated association.

Election of officers and trustees

The first trustees of the CIO are listed on the registration document in October 2021 as Judi Braddock, Josie Adams, Kirsty Gillan-Thomas, Martin Cross, Claudine McCreadie and Alan Sandall. Claudine and Alan have stepped down as trustees since then, and confirmed that it was their intent to step down from the new CIO also.

The trustees leaving or retiring during this year are also stepping down from the CIO.

There are three trustees that will be put forward for re-election at the AGM: two for the first time, Sharon La Ronde and Margaret de Fonblanque, and Martin Cross for the 2nd time. The re-election will be for the CIO also.

It is our intent that all current trustees of KNA (who are not stepping down at the KNA existing organisation AGM) will be proposed as trustees for the new CIO and it is this that we will be proposing at the AGM for the CIO.

As the year progresses, under the CIO constitution the existing trustees can appoint new trustees to the board, whose appointment will last until the next AGM, when they will either step down or be elected at the AGM.

The first officers of the CIO will be proposed as Judi Braddock (Chair) and Sharon La Ronde (Vice-Chair).

Looking forward

In response to Big Help Out Monday, the 8th May Coronation Bank Holiday, we will ask our volunteers to collect KNA leaflets from The Good Wine Shop in the week before the bank holiday to deliver to their street parties over the holiday weekend. We ask our volunteers to make sure the clients they know about in their street(s) are invited to street parties, invite people to deliver leaflets on theirs and surrounding streets, and think about someone on their street they could talk to about KNA’s services.

As a new KNA CIO, we look forward to continuing to provide our KNA services to our clients through our wonderful volunteers and staff in 2023 and beyond. Thank you for your support.

Judi Braddock 4[th] March 2023

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Annual General Meeting – Thursday 9th March 2023 Brief review of Statistics for 1 September 2021 to 31 August 2022

Overview

	2021/22	2020/21	Difference
Driving Jobs - Medical	428	293	+135
Avenue Club & Other Destinations	1,156	647	+509
Non Driving Jobs	2,164	2,069	+417
Total Jobs	3,748	3,009	+739
Jobs per week	72	58	+14

Details:

Transport Jobs	2021/22	2020/21	Difference
Hospital Trips	181	115	+66
Doctors / Dentists	209	128	+81
Rehabilitation Clinics	38	23	+15
Avenue Club / Other	1,156	647	+509
Total Transport Jobs	1,584	913	-+653

Non Transport Jobs	2021/22	2020/21	Difference
Shopping	492	817	-325
Gardening	11	8	+3
Companionship (includes in person & phone) *	1,661	1,244	+417
Prescription Pick-up	9	27	-18
Total Non Transport Jobs	2,173	2,0	+77

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Minicab Fund	2021/22	2020/21	Difference
Take Up Rate	16%	48%	-32%

Number of Volunteers	2021/22	2020/21	Difference
Overall Total of Volunteers	160	158	+2
Drivers	62	50	+12
Shoppers	52	46	+6
Light gardeners	7	8	-1
Companions (face to face/phone)*	27	38	-11
Office Volunteers	11	10	0+1
Active New Volunteers	17	12	+5
KNA Alumni	47	38	+9

*There was a decline in active companions as some volunteers had only come forward during the height of the pandemic. Reduced need also meant some companions stood down.

Number of Clients	2021/22	2020/21	Difference
Active Current Clients	233	230	+3
Former / Inactive Clients	28	31	-3
New Clients	25	23	+2

Current data is collated using KNA's Lamplight Database operating since January 2016. The definition of 'Active Clients' includes accessing KNA's services, attending an event as well as letters and phone calls made to or received from clients in the last 12 months. Former / Inactive clients includes those that are deceased, moved away or have stated they no longer require KNA's services.

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KEW NEIGHBOURHOOD ASSOCIATION

Report and Accounts

Year ended August 31 2022

Charity number: 1034340

KEW NEIGHBOURHOOD ASSOCIATION

Report and Accounts

Year ended August 31 2022

Charity number: 1034340