Digitally Signed Document Document ID: CBBFBBF360199A
Document Details:
| Filename: | Faily Centre - Accounts to 31.03.23.pdf |
|---|---|
| Client of: | Haines Watts |
Signature Details
| Name: | Neil Curry |
|---|---|
| Email: | neil@fcdc.org.uk |
| Date & Time: | 23/07/2023 17:25:35 PM (BST) |
| IP Address: | 90.201.89.89 |
| Signing Statement: | Neil Curry agrees and approves the contents of this document. |
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| On behalf of: | Haines Watts |
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| PDF digital certificate: | IRIS Software Group Limited |
| Digital certificate issued by: | GlobalSign |
Please keep a copy of this document for your records.
REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 1196287
REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES AND UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 FOR THE FAMILY CENTRE (DEAF CHILDREN)
THE FAMILY CENTRE (DEAF CHILDREN)
Contents of the Financial Statements FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023
| Page | |
|---|---|
| Report of the Trustees | 1 to 5 |
| Independent Examiner’s Report | 6 |
| Statement of Receipts and Payments | 7 |
| Statement of Assets and Liabilities | 8 |
| Notes to the Financial Statements | 9 |
THE FAMILY CENTRE (DEAF CHILDREN)
Report of the Trustees FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023
The Trustees present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the period ended 31 March 2023.
REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS
Registered Charity number
1196287
Other Charity name
FCDC
Principal address
Elmfield School Greystoke Avenue Westbury-on-Trym Bristol BS10 6AY
Trustees
Neil Curry Chair/Treasurer (appointed 1 October 2021) Sonya Brewer Secretary (appointed 1 October 2021) Laura Hunter Trustee (appointed 1 October 2021) Sarah Evans Trustee (appointed 1 October 2021) Stephen Thompson Trustee (appointed 21 November 2022)
Bankers
Cater Allen 9 Nelson Street Bradford BD1 5AN
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT Governing Document
The charity is managed by a new constitution, as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) was approved by the Charity Commission on 27 October 2021. Our Charity was given a new Charity Number by the Charity Commission and we effectively merged our two Charity Numbers, on 22 March 2022, to ensure that the history of our Charity associated with our previous Charity Number was not lost to posterity.
The Constitution for the CIO was finally adopted at the AGM on 19 November 2022. This allows our Charity to operate in a more business-like manner allowing the Charity to enter into contracts, in its own right, rather than relying on the individual trustees to undertake these obligations and limiting liability to trustees in the event of insolvency. The new status also allows us to change the rules for membership and the numbers of Trustees required to allow us to be more streamlined.
The new Office Manager, Helen Davies, who was recruited in January 2021, has been a great success and during the COVID lockdown and the transition out of lockdown regular communication was maintained with members and wider deaf community through the Charity’s social media group. As the restrictions on face-to-face meetings and organised get togethers relaxed the holding of events and activities have increased back to normal levels and beyond historical numbers of activities.
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THE FAMILY CENTRE (DEAF CHILDREN)
Report of the Trustees FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
Recruitment and appointment of new Trustees
Trustees are appointed at the AGM and serve for a term of 3 years, after which they may stand for re-election. The constitution requires the Board of Trustees to consist of a minimum of 4 Trustees. Trustees used to be, what was classified as full members (full members being those who live with deafness in the family who are paid members of the Charity). Following adoption of the CIO Constitution, FCDC no longer has paid members. In addition, Trustees, as experts with relevant skills to offer, can be invited on to the Trustee Board if this would further the benefit to FCDC. These Trustees would then step down at the next AGM and could offer themselves up for election. Sub-committees can also be formed when required. Trustees of the previous unincorporated charity, Stuart Millar and Laura Orna officially stood down during this period, as did Wilson McKelvie, who had served 7 years as a Trustee. Also, we had Tanya Lewis and Sarah Mathews offer themselves as Trustees of the new CIO but before relevant paperwork was concluded both stood down due to realising that they could not commit to perceived levels of commitment. Going forward we continue to look to invite professionals to support Trustee meetings to improve the skills matrix of the team. This has resulted in Sarah Evans (specialist teacher of deaf children) being invited by Trustees to join the Trustee meetings in May 2021, to bring wider knowledge and support to the charity. A parent, Stephen Thompson, volunteered to become a Trustee at the 21 November 2022 AGM and was duly elected. The remaining Trustees agreed to continue their roles as Trustees, the number now remaining at 5 Trustees.
OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES
Objectives of the CIO are:
The promotion of social inclusion and the provision of education among deaf children and their families in Bristol and the surrounding area, who may be excluded from society, or parts of society, as a result of being deaf (where deaf is defined as mild to profound hearing loss) by:
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Providing workshops, forums, and general advice for deaf families.
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Providing social and emotional support, recreational facilities and opportunities for deaf families.
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Providing, or supporting access to the provision of, services supporting deaf families, by working with other relevant agencies.
We have further developed our aims to be:
To help enable parents, carers, deaf children, hearing sibling and Children of Deaf Adults (CODA’s) find friends. Specifically:
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To improve family cohesion within the families of deaf children.
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To improve communication methods within families.
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To develop children’s deaf identity, self-confidence, and self-esteem.
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To reduce isolation, increase socialisation and strengthen links within the community of deaf children and their families.
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To improve deaf awareness within families and the community.
Significant Activities:
Activities were largely undertaken via Zoom meetings either one to one, or in groups. As COVID 19 restrictions eased these were supplemented by face-to-face events, where this was possible and allowable under government legislation. We are now fully up and running with our activities, attendance is back or increased on pre-COVID numbers and we now provide many more activities than pre COVID.
Summary of main activities in relation to the objects of the Charity are;
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To provide a base for families and carers of deaf children to discuss, to meet, to interact freely with professionals and to have access to materials, information and training as required.
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For deaf children to find peers to share experiences and find support to help promote personal identity and confidence.
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For siblings of deaf children and children of deaf adults to find similar others to help promote personal identity and share experiences.
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THE FAMILY CENTRE (DEAF CHILDREN)
Report of the Trustees FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023
Significant Activities:
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To work in conjunction with other agencies and providers of services for the benefit of families with deaf children.
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To provide some support, including BSL courses to help with communication within deaf families.
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To promote, encourage or otherwise undertake organised research into the effects of deafness and the family, and to publish the useful results of such research.
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To arrange public meetings, lectures, conferences and seminars for the consideration and discussion of problems arising out of childhood deafness and the family.
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To promote and encourage the education and training of professionals, students and other persons for the furtherance of the education and support of the families of deaf children.
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To raise funds and to invite and receive contribution from any person or persons or body corporate by way of subscription, covenant, donation, affiliation fees, legacies, grants or otherwise to assist in fulfilling the purpose of the charity.
Public benefit
The Trustees confirm that they have complied with their duty under the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit when planning and reviewing the objectives and activities of The Family Centre (Deaf Children).
ACHIEVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE
Significant funding in addition to our major Lottery Community Fund Grant had been secured to fulfil 6 projects:
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Monthly coffee morning/support network for families supported by trained counsellor, space for workshops, talks, informal networking and advice between parents and professionals and opportunity for children to meet similar others in relaxed space;
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Family days out and seasonal parties, during school holidays and weekends to further support networking with similar others;
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A small counselling service for 3 parents of deaf children per week;
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Specialist support for deaf families at home, for those struggling with communication within the family;
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Introductory BSL courses for any deaf family; and
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Appropriate accessible outdoor activities for deaf children and their siblings providing the chance to meet similar others have fun, try out new activities, while improving confidence and wellbeing.
As soon as we were allowed to, we restarted outdoor activities with the children to help enable them to meet again and have fun and find friends. These activities also enabled parents to meet again outdoors as allowed, beneficial to everyone after such a long period of isolation.
Once allowed to again, we were able to have family days out and visits to local Zoos and animal farms.
BSL courses still take place via Zoom with very positive feedback and this allows much more flexible attendance and also allows more attendance due to additional family members can now attend. The commencement of these BSL course did take time to set up due to recruiting a qualified deaf tutor and an interpreter being required and course curriculum had to be redesigned for the medium of on-line tuition.
Our counsellor was available within a group Zoom call for all families each week initially for anyone who would benefit from informal support or more professional advice. All further one to one counselling took place via video link on a one-toone basis with a parent at their request. This service has been extensively used and its frequency of requests is testament to its success.
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THE FAMILY CENTRE (DEAF CHILDREN)
Report of the Trustees FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023
The benefit of the Lottery Community Fund grant has enabled us to have achieved a remarkable increase in attendance at events:
People Engaged
| 2020 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 442 | |||||
| The Family Centre March 2020-October 2022 |
2021 | ||||
| 782 | |||||
| 2022 | |||||
| 970 | |||||
| Number of | Number | Families | Deaf | Siblings | CODAs |
| Events | Attending | Children | |||
| 2022/3 | |||||
| 24 | 1097 | 374 | 342 | 277 | 13 |
This illustrates how the Charity is growing from strength to strength and is becoming a tangible asset to the South West community and we also take part in quarterly Bristol Council community support meetings.
In July 2022 we held an Anniversary party to celebrate the 25[th] year of FCDC. The event had been delayed because of COVID, however it was a great occasion and some older members of the FCDC community returned to meet up with old friends, some returning from overseas.
Staff
The Family Centre employed three staff on contracted hours; Helen Davies (Office Manager) contracted to 33hrs/week, Marcella Wyatt (Events Co-Ordinator) contracted to 24hrs/week. In addition, we had one administrator, Anne Alderman, completing work as required. Anne Alderman moved away from Bristol in August 2021 and so left our employment. Marcella Wyatt left us in August 2022 and we recruited a replacement for her, Megan Wall, in October 2022. With only 2 staff, we had the flexibility to increase Megan’s hours to 32hrs/week, and this has worked successfully.
Operations
Operations continue to be run well within the limited resources that we have and with all restrictions being lifted the staff have worked tirelessly to build up our events activity base. The office staff have ensured that Policies and Procedures are being revised, improved and registered appropriately.
On advice from the Lottery Community Fund manager, we have engaged an Evaluation Consultant to assist in report writing and in the commission of our end of Lottery Grant Report due in March 2024. We submitted our end of 3[rd] year report to the Lottery by early May 2023 and we await the comment from the Lottery Fund Manager.
Governance
We have had two AGMs taking place during this period, 13 November 21 and 19 November 22. Trustee meetings continued to take place at 4 weekly intervals. These now take place via Zoom and this has resulted in easing the burden of Trustees to attend meetings.
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THE FAMILY CENTRE (DEAF CHILDREN)
Report of the Trustees
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023
FINANCIAL REVIEW
Reserves policy
Over the last few years, to allow for operations to continue, our reserves had been slowly depleted. Our recent income from activities has resulted in us being able to build up our reserves to cover any unexpected costs and we have now achieved 3 months’ worth of full activity expenditure as a reserve amount which equates to almost 5 months of reduced activity or base expenditure. Each activity generates a small income through donations from families and small donations and some unrestricted funds are received from both individuals and organisations throughout the year.
Contracted staff are currently on fixed term contracts and while we rent office space, we can keep unexpected costs to a minimum.
FUTURE PLANS
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Current Lottery funding running from April 2020 until March 2024 provide for the following projects:
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Family Activities, parties and days out throughout the year.
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Kids activities, both termly and during school holidays.
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BSL Courses.
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Deaf families at home – helping with communication within particularly struggling families, associated with both deaf awareness and BSL.
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Play Therapy.
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Counselling for parents.
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Monthly coffee mornings for all deaf families, friends and professionals, space for workshops, gathering information and meeting similar others.
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In addition, our careful management of the funds has enabled us to achieve an underspend in some areas and with the permission of the Lottery Fund we have been able to reallocate unspent monies on additional activities
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Parent and Carer Wellbeing Workshops.
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Easton & Bath Area Outreach Project.
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KS3+ Young People Activities and Workshops & Weekend Away.
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Play Therapy Project.
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Updating FCDC website and information flyers.
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Organising the FCDC Anniversary Party & Leaving Elmfield Party.
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Creating an FCDC Lending Library.
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Fundraising to continue to build up charity reserves.
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The plans to relocate Elmfield School to the rebuilt school within the Bristol Education Centre (BEC) as part of Upper Horfield Community School have moved at pace and we will be moving out of our present premises at Elmfield in July 2023. We will reopen after the summer holidays in our new premises in September 2023. This will give us more flexible accommodation for FCDC, with better facilities for shared deaf community use.
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By the end of the 3[rd] Quarter of this year we aim to have submitted a further bid to the Lottery Community Fund for a grant for us to continue to operate and we hope that the use of the Evaluation Consultant will stand us in good stead for a positive outcome.
Approved by order of the Board of Trustees and signed on its behalf by:
Chair/Treasurer – Neil Curry Date:
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Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of The Family Centre (Deaf Children)
I report to the Charity Trustees on my examination of the accounts of the charity for the period ended 31 March 2023 which are set out on pages 7 to 9.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the Charity’s 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 section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent examiner's 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:
- accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 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.
Andrew Jordan FCA Haines Watts Chartered Accountants Bath House 6-8 Bath Street Bristol BS1 6HL
Date
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THE FAMILY CENTRE (DEAF CHILDREN)
STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023
| 18 Unrestricted Restricted funds funds £ £ RECEIPTS Event income, donations and subscriptions 8,356 - Grants 109,935 - Transfer from previous charity entity 33,740 3,380 Interest received 43 - TOTAL RECEIPTS 152,074 3,380 PAYMENTS Event charges 24,584 1,465 Office costs 4,341 - Purchase of equipment 870 - Governance 720 - Staff costs 72,610 - Other support costs 537 - TOTAL PAYMENTS 103,662 1,465 NET OF RECEIPTS/(PAYMENTS) 48,412 1,915 Transfers between funds - - Total funds brought forward - - TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD 48,412 1,915 |
18 Unrestricted Restricted funds funds £ £ RECEIPTS Event income, donations and subscriptions 8,356 - Grants 109,935 - Transfer from previous charity entity 33,740 3,380 Interest received 43 - TOTAL RECEIPTS 152,074 3,380 PAYMENTS Event charges 24,584 1,465 Office costs 4,341 - Purchase of equipment 870 - Governance 720 - Staff costs 72,610 - Other support costs 537 - TOTAL PAYMENTS 103,662 1,465 NET OF RECEIPTS/(PAYMENTS) 48,412 1,915 Transfers between funds - - Total funds brought forward - - TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD 48,412 1,915 |
months ended 2023 Total funds £ 8,356 109,935 37,120 43 |
|---|---|---|
| 155,454 26,049 4,341 870 720 72,610 537 105,127 |
||
| 50,327 - - |
||
| 50,327 |
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THE FAMILY CENTRE (DEAF CHILDREN)
STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023
| 18 Unrestricted Restricted funds funds £ £ CURRENT ASSETS Cash funds - Cater Allen ending 6730 1,765 - Cash funds - Cater Allen ending 0972 27,797 1,915 Cash funds - Scottish Widows account 18,674 - Cash funds - Paypal account 176 - NET ASSETS 48,412 1,915 FUNDS Unrestricted funds Restricted funds TOTAL FUNDS |
months ended 2023 Total funds £ 1,765 29,712 18,674 176 50,327 48,412 1,915 50,327 |
|---|---|
The financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees and were signed on its behalf by:
Chair/Treasurer – Neil Curry
Date …………………………
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THE FAMILY CENTRE (DEAF CHILDREN)
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023
1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Basis of Accounting
The Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with the Charities Act 2011.
The Financial Statements are drawn up on the Receipts and Payments basis of accounting. All donations and other income are therefore accounted for when received and all expenditure is accounted for when paid.
Fund accounting
Restricted funds comprise amounts received for special purposes and used for those purposes during the year or held for those purposes at the balance sheet date. The use of donations and grants received for a specific purpose is restricted to that purpose. Restricted funds of £1,915 were carried forward at the end of the year.
2. TRANSFER FROM PREVIOUS CHARITY ENTITY
| Unrestricted Funds Quartet Community Fund |
33,740 3,380 |
|---|---|
| 37,120 |
3.
RESTRICTED FUNDS
| Quartet Community Fund |
Balance brought forward Receipts in period Payments in period Transfers Balance carried forward - 3,380 1,465 - 1,915 |
|---|---|
| - 3,380 1,465 - 1,915 |
The Quartet Community Fund was received from the Quartet Community Foundation ring-fenced for counselling activities.
4.
UNRESTRICTED FUNDS
| General Fund | Balance brought forward Receipts in period Payments in period Transfers Balance carried forward - 152,074 103,662 - 48,412 |
|---|---|
| - 152,074 103,662 - 48,412 |
5. TRUSTEES’ RENUMERATION AND BENEFITS
The Trustees all give freely of their time and expertise.
During the period to 31 March 2023, payment was made for website services to Digital Grapevine, owned by trustee Laura Hunter. Payments totalled £528.
Trustees’ expenses
During the year 1 Trustee had their expenses reimbursed by the Charity. Expenses of £8 were paid for postage.
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