` ## **Trustees' Annual Report for the period** |**Trustees' Annual Report for theperiod**|**Trustees' Annual Report for theperiod**|**Trustees' Annual Report for theperiod**|**Trustees' Annual Report for theperiod**|**Trustees' Annual Report for theperiod**|**Trustees' Annual Report for theperiod**|**Trustees' Annual Report for theperiod**|**Trustees' Annual Report for theperiod**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**From**|Period start date|||**To**|Period end date||| ||1st|April|2025||31st|March|2026| ## **Section A Reference and administration details** **Charity name** Teesdale Day Clubs **Other names charity is known by** **Registered charity number (if any)** 1198857 **Charity's principal address** Woodleigh Flatts Road Barnard Castle DL12 8AA ## **Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity** |1
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6|**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not for**
**whole year**|**Name of person**
**(or body) entitled**
**to appoint trustee**
**(if any)**| |---|---|---|---|---| ||Gordon Thomson|Chair||| ||Peter McGuinness|Vice Chair||| ||Ann Dolphin OBE|Treasurer||| ||David Bailey|||| ||Susan Bainbridge|||| ||Hazel Rayner|||| ## **Name of Strategic Manager** Andrea Hobbs 1 ## **Section B Structure, governance and management** |Type of governing document|Constitution| |---|---| |How the charityis constituted|Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)| |Trustee selection method|Appointment by Board| We achieved registration as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) on 6[th] May 2022 but have a long-established history as a charitable association since 1994. We have celebrated 30 years of service in our community. This Annual Report covers the financial period 1[st] April 2025 to 31[st] March 2026, and includes activity delivered by our team during this period. Our staff team of 14 (0 hours to 36 hours per week) remained stable during this period. We maintain contract agreements with four people to provide casual cover on a freelance basis for periods of annual or sick leave. Our new General Manager post was developed and began on the 1[st] April 2025, and the Community Worker post-holder was employed in both roles, creating our first full-time staff member, albeit across 2 part-time posts. Our Strategic Manager reduced their hours to 10 hours per week to facilitate this role being more financially and strategically focussed. We continued to provide 9 weekly lunch clubs and further developed our growing activity programme. We have between 1 and 3 lunch clubs running each day of the week in 9 different communities across 10 venues, and various activities through the week (including evenings) and at weekends. The General Manager (20 hours per/wk) has responsibility for all operational line management, day to day roll out of services, volunteer recruitment and support, and assists the Strategic Manager with funding grant monitoring tasks. The Operational Club Coordinator (20 hours per/wk) is responsible for working with the team to support and coordinate the safe, smooth running of the lunch clubs. The Community Worker (16 hours per/wk) is responsible for all the one-to-one work of our community support service. This involves delivering support and help through home visits; contact at clubs and groups; phone calls; family liaison; and signposting. Our Finance Administrator, who also contributes time as a volunteer, is paid for 4 hours per/wk to administer our book-keeping, PAYE, and current account banking The Strategic Manager (SM) is line-managed by our Chair, supported by both the Treasurer and Vice-Chair. They have overall management responsibility for the safe, efficient, and effective delivery of our services, financial management answering to the Treasurer, delivery of Trustee-led strategic and operational plans, and supporting trustees with governance as required. The SM is also responsible for securing grant and other funding, managing our grant budgets, and producing clear financial reports to Trustees. The Finance and Risk Committee meets at least 6 times each year and comprises 3 Trustees (Chair, Vice-chair and Treasurer) and the SM. The Board meets every quarter end, with additional away day and specific task group meetings as required. The Management Account, cash flow, and funding dashboard are all overseen by the Finance & Risk Committee and presented to the Board every quarter end. Our Risk Register is reviewed every 6 months and presented to the Board annually. 2 Our Policy and HR task group meets as required and comprises the Chair and one other trustee, with the SM advising. Board meetings are usually attended by the SM, GM, and other staff as appropriate. ## **Section C** ## **Objectives and activities** ## **Vision** To enhance quality of life by offering supportive social opportunities to people who are socially excluded, or at risk of being socially excluded, including people facing social isolation, in Teesdale. ## **Mission** To provide social networks in Teesdale that offer friendship and hospitality as well as help and support with day-to-day challenges. ## **Aims** - Minimise the adverse impacts of social isolation and loneliness for adults in Teesdale. - Impact positively on people’s quality of life and health and wellbeing. - Support people to lead independent lives in their own home and remain in their own community. - Create a variety and choice of volunteering opportunities that enable people to contribute within their local community. - Increase the number of people accessing support by exploring different ways to evolve and encourage relationships across the wider community. ## **Objectives and activity** We provide: - Social groups that meet regularly in key town/villages, and connect people - Subsidised transport to ensure equal access to our services - Nourishing freshly prepared food - A valuable village ‘hub’ where anyone can access information and get help - A free one-to-one personalised ‘at home’ and remote community support service - Rewarding and flexible volunteering opportunities - Opportunities for varied social interaction (e.g. inter-generational) Our Strategic Plan (2024-2027) outlines our aims for both maintaining and developing our services during this period. Our Operational Plan details risks, priorities and actions and is updated and presented at all Finance & Risk committee and at Board meetings. A statistical quarterly report informs trustees on performance, numbers of beneficiaries and volunteers, and take-up of services and project activity. It includes outcomes for individual people benefitting from one-to-one support, updates on volunteer issues, communication, and how we work with our partners. 3 ## **LUNCH CLUB SERVICE** Our clubs are welcoming, warm, safe, and supportive places, for both lunch club members and volunteers, to make friends, and to catch up with old ones. We seek to make a difference to people’s lives by helping people to feel: - less isolated and less lonely, - increased feelings of happiness, and - increased feelings of belonging, connection, and involvement in their community - valued and that they are ‘giving something back’ through volunteering. We aim for everyone to experience an enhanced quality of life, improved health and wellbeing, and to be enabled and supported to live independently where appropriate. Our core lunch club service operates in 10 local venues across the market town of Barnard Castle and 8 surrounding villages. Clubs also raise their own small funds through raffles and ‘50p clubs’ that finance occasional trips out to different places for lunch. _Photo shows lunch club volunteers June 2025_ ## _**“If it hadn’t been for the lunch club, I probably wouldn’t be here now…”**_ _Quote from a longstanding lunch club beneficiary 2025_ ## _**“Teesdale Day Clubs helped my mental health, when I had mental health issues. I feel I am doing something useful in the community.”** Quote from a lunch club volunteer 2025_ ## **COMMUNITY SUPPORT SERVICE** All our lunch club members have free access to the one-to-one community support service. It provides a bespoke support to anyone who needs assistance with anything that impacts on their emotional, social, or general wellbeing. Interventions can be a home visit for a reassuring or encouraging chat; help to fill in a form; accompanying to health appointments; liaising with family to arrange at-home care; help with accessing specialist equipment; or referrals on to other support agencies including GPs. As a key preventative service in our area, we are regularly the first point of contact for older people and the frailest people in our community when someone doesn’t know where else to go for help, doesn’t have anyone else to turn to, or are too anxious to reach out. _**“I just wanted to let you know that H has now qualified for the Full Attendance Allowance, and they have backdated his money back to when we first claimed. Thank you so much for your help in sorting this out.”** Quote from the niece of a lunch club member_ 4 ## **COMMUNITY ACTIVITY PROGRAMME** Funded from 2023-2026 by the Know Your Neighbourhood Fund initial and continuation grants and supported by the Pioneering Care Partnership’s (PCP) Happiness Hub fund, we have been able to further develop and expand our successful activity programme. The rolling programme of art/craft groups, gentle exercise, afternoon teas, book club, and one-off seasonal trips has been added to and included sheep therapy sessions in partnership with GPs, coffee mornings, water sport evenings, and a cinema outing. This project has widened our reach considerably and offered diverse opportunities for friendship and volunteering. **“The course leader [was] very empathetic, understanding and good at explaining, it was a relaxed atmosphere, going at my own speed”** _Quote from Social Studio participant_ **“I really enjoyed the teamwork and laughter”** _Quote from water sports participant_ ## **TIME TOGETHER TEESDALE – PARTNERSHIP BEFRIENDING PROJECT** In 2023 we worked closely with a partner charity Upper Teesdale Agricultural Support Service (UTASS), based in Middleton-in-Teesdale, to secure funding and launch this exciting new service in 2024. Our SM continues to line manage the project coordinator, and chair the Steering Group, while UTASS handles employment, volunteer vetting and checking, and financial management of the grants. The project is funded to December 2026 and aims to alleviate the loneliness of those who are the most isolated through being housebound, frail, elderly, or restricted by caring duties. The project has gone from strength to strength following recruitment of our current Coordinator in October 2024. Over 40 volunteers have been recruited, with a waiting list having to be implemented to deal with demand, and a research project that is tracking evidence of impact due to be completed in June 2026. Beneficiaries range from those with dementia, to those who are well but chronically lonely. We are also providing respite for people in a family-carer role. ## **PARTNERSHIP WORK WITH AGE UK** Throughout the year we have worked closely with Durham Age UK to implement the hot meal scheme to individuals who otherwise would have to choose heating over eating. With support form Age UK through per head funding, we have provided free hot meals to 9 people on a regular weekly basis for over 12 months, and to over 30 additional people on an occasional basis. ## **THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND REACHING COMMUNITIES VOICE & CHOICE PROJECT** In 2025 we secured a new 5-year grant from The National Lottery Community Fund’s Reaching Communities programme. This project began in January 2026 and has enabled us to engage in more focused partnership working with key partners such as Durham 5 Community Action, Durham Age UK, and the Regional Crime Unit for frauds and scams, to address issues being raised by our beneficiaries on an increasingly regular basis around scams, meeting the cost of living (rising energy costs), and using technology safely for day to day needs (smart phones, tablets etc. These inputs will begin to see positive impacts on people’s wellbeing in 2026-27. ## **OUR NETWORKS AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY** We continuously seek to increase our network to provide added value for our members, and increase local benefit through using local supply chains, working in partnership, and providing more joined up activity. We also seek to reduce our carbon footprint where this is possible. To do this we: - work closely with all local statutory and voluntary agencies, - always buy local food and supplies where we can, - liaise and collaborate as closely as possible with key partners to deliver services, - network and work in a way that avoids duplication, needless travel, and wasteful use of resources. ## **IMPACT MEASURING** We evaluate our services through general and specific surveys collecting quotes, anecdotes, and case stories / testimonials. We involve our beneficiaries and volunteers in annual celebration and feedback events. Due to the long-term participation of people involved with us (beneficiaries and volunteers) we only formally survey people every other year to avoid survey fatigue. This provides us with an opportunity to use a range of evaluation methods. We have worked closely with funded consultants over the last 5 years to provide an independent overview of our impact and the difference we make. Small focus groups, phone calls, or attendance at activities helps to gather people’s views to inform reports. These supportive relationships have provided regular evaluation which assist us to review our work objectively and continue to improve what we do. The Know Your Neighbourhood project enabled us to trial a journey evaluation approach using start, mid and end point surveys. This approach had limited success, from which we have learned a great deal. We continue to use a start and end-point quick survey to approach with the aim of capturing change and improvements to how people feel because of accessing our services. In 2025 we surveyed our volunteers and people consistently tell us that because of their volunteering they feel more involved and connected with their community, and that volunteering helps to improve their mental health and wellbeing. _**“I enjoy volunteering, I've made new friends, I feel that**_ _**I put things back into the community.” “I very much enjoy my volunteering. It gives me a focus and the satisfaction that I'm giving something back to my community. Plus the bonus of a delicious lunch!”** Quotes from volunteer survey 2025-2026_ 6 ## **STATUTORY PUBLIC BENEFIT DECLARATION:** Trustees confirm that they have complied with their duty to have due regard to the commission's public benefit guidance when exercising any powers or duties to which the guidance is relevant. Our duties as a charity are met through the delivery of our aims and objectives and are evidenced by the activities and outcomes outlined above and detailed below. Our membership is open to any adult living within our area of benefit and our joining and referral pathways are easy to access. Most people are referred to or respond to our service offers through word of mouth, self-referral, by seeing our publicity, signposting by friends/family members, social prescribing team, Mental Health Team, Social Care, GPs, charitable, and similar organisations. ## **Section D Achievements and performance** ## **SOCIAL ACTIVITY GROUPS AND LUNCH CLUBS** During this reporting period, we have supported 245 people at our lunch clubs and benefitted from the support of 72 volunteers (does not include trustees). We have delivered 450 lunch club sessions and served 7582 freshly prepared meals at our lunch clubs. Only 6 sessions were unavoidably cancelled due to inclement weather, venues being closed, or staff shortages/availability of cover staff for holiday/sick leave. These figures show that we have supported more people than in the financial year 202525 (212 people supported at lunch clubs in 2024-25), with support from less volunteers, providing more sessions and meals, with significantly less closures (20 unavoidably cancelled in 2024-25). The average age of lunch club users remains around the same (75-82 averages across different clubs), based on available data taken from returned surveys in 2024. Our biannual lunch club members survey is due in 2026. We celebrated 90th and 100[th] birthdays again this year, We estimate that around 60% of people attending our lunch clubs live alone while a significant number (around 25%) have a known mobility or health issue. These % figures have remained consistent over the last 4 years reflecting that a significant number of people we support are more likely to experience isolation and feel lonely. As we operate in a deeply rural area, access and travel are significant barriers to why people do not participate or reach out for support. Between April and March 2025-26, 45 people took advantage of our subsidised travel provision, which is offered to reduce financial barriers to accessing what we offer. We estimate that 18% of people using the lunch club service are struggling financially, or just getting by, or cannot stretch to afford a regular weekly taxi to and from their social activity. **The new activity programme** delivered a total of 82 sessions, including 35 craft sessions, 11 gentle exercise classes, 3 coffee-mornings and 1 afternoon tea, 3 wellbeing events including sheep therapy, 3 outdoor water sports sessions, 5 wellbeing walks, 12 men only breakfast clubs, and 2 one-off trips to visit an Alpaca farm, and a cinema trip. The book club met a few times but failed to gain traction. The project attracted a total of sixteen (16) volunteers, of which one (1) was new to our volunteer register; and overall the activities programme supported two hundred and twenty (220) people as participants to the end of March 2026, with one hundred and sixty-four (164) of those being new to our beneficiary database. Together with the lunch clubs, this means that during this financial year, we supported a total of four hundred and nine people (409). 7 ## **COMMUNITY SUPPORT SERVICE** This service supported sixty-six (66) individuals on a one-to-one basis, either through home visits, personal conversations, or support whilst at lunch club, or by accompanying to an appointment. All recipients were already attendees of our lunch club service or other activity group. Many have received more than one intervention, and some individuals have received extensive and on-going support for complex issues. During the year, we had one safeguarding concern that was raised with Durham County Council’s adult social care safeguarding team. The concern was successfully responded to and resolved. ## **Three brief case study examples taken from the year** 1. A member who is very ill and has mobility issues was supported to get access to a Disability Key under the national scheme for access to public toilets. She provided feedback to say how valuable this was when she went on a coach holiday with her husband as it meant she felt more confident to go on the trip, improving her access and independence. 2. Following contact from the carer of a lunch club member asking for help, we were able to access funding for a new microwave and fire-retardant bedding, and also check the carer was registered with Durham County Carers (DCC), resulting in improved safety at home, and improved carer wellbeing. 3. A lunch club member was supported through their experience of anti-social behaviour (ASB) at their rented housing and was supported with housing applications to move her away from the situation, involving extensive liaison with DCC Housing Options, The Home Group and North Star, advocating for the member, and chasing registration for alternative accommodation. Eventually the person was moved and gradually had the confidence to return to her lunch club. ## **VOLUNTEERS** Our large volunteer team is critical to us achieving all that we do. We ask them for feedback every 2 years, and our latest survey was conducted summer 2025. 34 volunteers responded. The survey is aimed at finding out how volunteers benefit most from their volunteering, what their motivations are, why they volunteer, and how they feel about their volunteering. We also ask volunteers for feedback about what they think we do well, and what we could do differently, or areas where we could improve. Each year we also invite volunteers to come along to an annual event where we can celebrate their value and commitment. In 2025 we celebrated our volunteers with a cream scone and tea event where Trustees held an anonymous prize draw, and a luxury prize went to a lucky volunteer. _Picture shows Lynn receiving her prize from Vice Chair Peter McGuinness._ Slides below show feedback from our volunteer survey 2025. 8 ## **ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATIONS – SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES** Trustees are keen to continue to both develop our progress and maintain our core lunch club service at the centre of everything we do. Alongside this, our activity programme is beginning to gain traction, and we are starting to receive requests from beneficiaries and partners. The new programme continues to trial ideas, and we aim to continually grow in understanding what different communities in Teesdale want and need from our charity, to reduce their loneliness and improve wellbeing generally. Some activities have become regular and well-attended additions to the local social calendar. For example, the ‘Sisters in Stitches’ stitch drop-in held in Cotherstone Old Chapel community café has a regular and steady following reaching over 20 people each month, while the Blokes Breakfast and Banter club, held most weeks (as funding allows) in a small village reading room, has had a hugely successful start since its launch, attracting over 25 men. Both these activities are becoming new flagship services for us that we want to build on. _**“It was a very pleasant social experience amongst a friendly group and the chef is an absolute gentleman”**_ _**“2026 is a challenging time in terms of contact and physical interactions So this is a brilliant outlet”**_ _**“A friendly place to go and a great opportunity to meet people that I didn’t have before. The bacon rolls are a bonus!”**_ _Quotes from the men only breakfast club_ Feedback from the breakfast club participants shows that for some people, a small amount of time with a friendly group can make a big difference to mental health and loneliness ( _N.B. HH refers to PCP Happiness Hub fund_ ) We have learned just as much from activities that have not done so well and consider every experience an opportunity for us to refine what we offer, where we offer it, and how we publicise what we do. 9 Funding for the core lunch club service remains a challenge but we continue to attract new people, and we have begun new projects to grow numbers at some of our smaller lunch clubs. Trustees remain committed to moving forward and not standing still. It is becoming more challenging to find ways to sustain our core service, and new project work certainly supports what we do across the charity. As our local population ages, it will become more imperative to continue to provide social networks that support people to stay connected and independent. ## **Section E Financial review** Funding opportunities have become noticeably tighter for us, and with a 30-year-old legacy of rural lunch clubs that deserve to be sustained, Trustees are conscious of their responsibility. For example, funding available directly from our local authority that used to be ring-fenced funding for Teesdale has dropped over the last few years from a reliable grant of over £15k to £0. Local Authority funding is still in circulation, but routed through 3[rd] parties, is not ring-fenced for our area, attracts increasing competition, and has narrow criteria. Our rigorous efforts to be more self-sustaining by reviewing and making small incremental increases to our weekly contribution from beneficiaries (during year set at £8 per session attended, rising to £8.50 from April 2026, with taxi journeys requiring a £3 per journey contribution) means that 30% of our expenditure was covered by raised unrestricted income from this source. Trustees task themselves with balancing this with ensuring that we do not exclude those that cannot afford to pay and maintain value for money. Our differential charging policy and our partnership with Durham Age UK have made a big difference to individuals who have needed financial support to attend in this financial year, and our chefs still manage to produce a 3-course hot, nutritious, and freshly cooked meal for less than £4 per head – no mean feat in the current economic climate. This means that the lunch club member contribution covers all food costs, rather than this being funded externally, and helps us meet venue rent costs and some salary costs, with their contributions towards travel constituting 42% of total travel costs. It is becoming harder to secure grant funding generally to meet shortfalls as the global and economic changes take hold and have their impact on us. Finance & Risk Committee Trustees have continued to monitor the cash flow carefully during this year, receiving reports from the SM monthly. Our cash position remained manageable, but this year we had to transfer funds from our deposit account to meet monthly outgoings. Our unrestricted reserves position has been impacted significantly, and we now hold unrestricted funds that are less than 50% of our forecast expenditure. Trustees maintain a close watch on both deposit account interest rates and regularly discuss where to find the best return for the small amount of funds we have to invest. It is testimony to our dedicated team that one of our oldest and longest serving team members hand-knitted several crafted items, along with her friends, and single-handedly raised over £1000 to support our core costs. 10 Our management account tracks use of individual restricted grant income streams in detail, as well as tracking the use of unrestricted donations and held reserves to ensure that Trustees have a full understanding of our actual deficit in year, alongside our cash position detailed in the Cash Flow forecast which is updated monthly. This is critical to Trustees having a full picture of our financial health as we have consistently used reserves to meet funding shortfalls over the last 4 years. The total balance of assets at the end of year is £164,172 of which £67,150 is restricted, with £30,478 of these restricted funds being held with Unity Trust Bank designated for redundancy and wind-up costs in the event of the charity having to close. Pat with her raffle prizes - 2025 The cash deficit in year was just over £31k based on our Receipts and Payments accounts. This is a significantly less positive outturn than last year. We are carrying over to April 2026 a restricted balance of just over £36.5k secured from grants awarded during or just prior to the end of the financial year ending 31[st] March 2026. Our usable cash balance at 31 March 2026 is therefore £133,694 net of the above redundancy restricted reserve, comprising of both restricted and unrestricted funds available to support our services, against a forecast expenditure for the year April 2026March 2027 of £198.5k. **In year updates** Trustees decided to apply a further 2% increase across all staff salaries to keep pace with the National Living Wage rises. Our Funding Strategy outlines our aspirational targets each year. Despite best efforts by our experienced SM supported by the new General Manager post, we were £30k short of our target, which is reflected in our deficit at the end of the year. A total of £68k gross was raised from lunch club member contributions (includes contributions for travel and cash for chefs to cover food). Some of the new activities attract informal income from donations (£941 in year) which evidence that most people are happy to contribute for an activity. However, when asked about us introducing a small charge, most were more reluctant to attend if a fixed fee was applied. The Funding Strategy is reviewed annually, and our funding dashboard continues to assist trustees to monitor which grant funders are consistently supportive, and the spread of restricted funds across multiple years. Funding targets will be reviewed in 2026 using SMART principles. 11 We continued to receive occasional donations via Just Giving from our website, and from local trusts, businesses, and the community. These small donations help us enormously, and we are very grateful to all our regular and one-off donors, some of whom we know well, and some remain anonymous. We maintained the loyalty and support of two regular Direct Debit donors who we wish to thank for their constancy of support. This kind of donating is something that we would wish to increase. ## **LOOKING AHEAD** Forecast running costs from April 2026 remain largely comparable to the forecast in April 2025 notwithstanding increase in salary costs as our largest single cost at over £140k including casual cover costs. This is largely due to careful budget forecasting and generous support from Barnard Castle Town Council for the low office rents, and the contribution some of our venues can make by keeping weekly rental low. The activity programme is being funded utilising several smaller funds available that are targeting specific health needs (e.g. for people who wish to stop smoking) or are only for specific activity delivery (e.g. one breakfast club), which makes grant management and monitoring time-consuming. We begin the financial year 2026-2027 with a forecast deficit of over £68k (based on assumptions of forecast _unrestricted_ receipts in year and secured grant income). If this deficit is not met through efforts in year to raise sufficient funds, then unrestricted reserves are likely to drop below £35k and the charity will be in a critical situation. The Finance and Risk Committee continues to analyse Cash Flow forecasts and grant spend monthly. Without additional funds being secured, Trustees will have to consider planning for a reduction of the charity's operations by Q3 with clear plans in place. At the same time, we want to continue to maintain organisational improvements and to maintain our reach through new activity as best we can. Trustees continue to annually review lunch club member weekly contributions, and this was increased in April 2026 to £8.50 per person per session which includes a freshly made hot 3-course meal, tea or coffee, and access to our free community support service. This remains very good value when compared to the high street and therefore retains our public benefit margins. To ensure that no one is excluded due to financial difficulty or poverty, we continue to operate a differential charging policy whereby a reduced or free service can be offered on a discretionary basis to any individual who would not be able to attend a club. We currently have 5 people under this policy. We resist becoming a means-tested service as our experience tells us that our longevity of success is based on people feeling that they are coming to a social occasion rather than a ‘service’ and enables us to keep an open-door policy to everyone who may be lonely or isolated regardless of financial means. 12 ## **RESERVES POLICY** Reserves are that part of our unrestricted funds that are freely available to spend on any of the charity’s purposes. Our policy is to maintain free unrestricted reserves to provide: - ➢ a level of working capital that protects the continuity of our work - ➢ a level of funding for unexpected opportunities - ➢ cover for risks such as unforeseen expenditure or unanticipated loss of income. Trustees aspire to maintain one year running costs of unrestricted reserve but find that unrestricted funds available in March 2026 (£97k) are less than 50% of our total forecast running costs for the year April 2026–March 2027 (£198.5k). Trustees ideally do not wish reserves to drop below this 50% level but are committed to using our unrestricted income when required to maintain our core service, especially considering having supported a higher number of people this year than the previous 12 months. Trustees have discussed the reserves position and have agreed in principle that, in the event reserves drop below 40% (£79.4k) of forecast payments, they will: - Review payments and give direction on where further savings could be made in the budget - Support the Treasurer with the regular monthly cash flow interrogation, being informed and ready to approve the draw down of funds prudently when required - Review current service levels and, in consultation with staff and volunteers, reduce our operations where possible without reneging on grant agreements - Communicate swiftly with current and trusted funders - Review staffing levels and communicate with staff in a timely manner about the possibility of redundancy - Double check that our restricted redundancy reserve is correctly reflecting current team structure, and raise or reduce funds held to ensure these funds are used to our best advantage (currently £30,478) - Consult with individual lunch club members and volunteers to take best advantage of individually held club funds that generally support trips and outings, and decide how these funds may be used to support lunch club continuation - Utilise volunteering as much as possible to maintain our services Our comprehensive Risk Register acknowledges the risks and impact of the financial deficit position and challenges of securing funding, against the knock-on risks and impacts on senior managers. They are responsible for raising funds, meeting rising operational costs, changes to our political and economic environment, balanced with growing and maintain services driven by need in the community _Photos showing Sisters in Stitches at Cotherstone, VE Day in May 2025, & Startforth lunch club service_ 13 **Our supporters** ## **Section F** We are grateful to all our supporters; our beneficiaries; our wonderful volunteers who give their time to help at lunch clubs and in other ways; and our funders who help us to continue providing our services for the benefit of the communities that we support. ## **Lunch club member contributions** Lunch club members continued to pay a weekly charge of £8 per person, which included their 3-course meal, hot drinks, access to the community support service, and all the additional support that comes from belonging to their club locally. ## **Donations** We received £36,407 in donations from individual supporters, small community groups/trusts, and lunch club members. **Donations over £200 included:** The Barnard Castle Lions Club ran a local raffle on behalf of the community and taking part raised £213. Barnard Castle School Preparatory school pupils raised £320 on our behalf. Our in-house raffle run by Pat Asquith raised £1,100. Our activities groups collectively donated £941. ## **Grant Funding** We benefitted from a total value of £120k of grant awards. We would like to thank the following repeat funders for their continuing support with ongoing grants, grant monies brought forward from March 2025 or secured in year - **The Ballinger Charitable Trust** - **Garfield Weston Foundation** - **Sir James Knott** - **Pioneering Care Partnership Happiness Hub Fund.** - **The National Lottery Community Fund, RC Northeast and Cumbria Region, and the Know Your Neighbourhood Fund** - **Point North Community Foundation** 14 **Section G Declaration** ## **The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.** **Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees** **Full name** Gordon Thomson **Position** Chair **Date** 6th August 2026 12 CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Roport to the trustees Teesdale Day Clubs On accounts for the year ended 161 April 2025 10 31, March 2026 Charity no (If any) 1198857 Sot out on pages 1to4 I report lo the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charty l.the Trust") for the year ended Responsibiliti0$ and basis of report As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of th8 accounts in accordance with the requirements ol the Charities Act 2011 I'the Act"). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under sectKJn 145 of the 2011 A¢t and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicabl$ Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 14515llbl of the Act. Indepondent I have complatad my gxamination. I confirm that no material mattérs havg oxaminer's ststemeni come lo my attention in connection wrth the examination which gives m8 causg lo believe that in, any material respect.. the accounting records were not kept in accordan￿ with section 130 of the Charf(ies Act., or the accoLJnl8 did not accord with the accounting re¢ords', OT the accounts did not comply wrth the applicable requirements concerning the forrn and ¢onlenl of accounts set out I￿ the Charlties (A¢￿unIS 8nd Reports) Regul81ion$ 2008 other than any requirernenl that the accounts give a 'true and fair. view which is not a mattel considered as part of an independent èxatninalion. I have no ￿nCernS and have Gome across no other matters in connection with the examination Its which attention should be drawn in this report in order lo enable a proper understanding of Ihe accounts lo be reached. Signed- Date: 20 July 2026 Nam•: Paul Howell Relevant profostsional qualificatlon{sl or body lif any>: Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants FCMA CGMA Address: 77 Coniscliffe Road. Darlington, DL3 7EH There were no Independent Examiner concarns IER Oct 2018 |**1198857**
**TEESDALE DAY CLUBS**|**1198857**
**TEESDALE DAY CLUBS**|**1198857**
**TEESDALE DAY CLUBS**|**CC16a**| |---|---|---|---| |**Receipts andpayments accounts**|||| |**For the**
**period from**|**01/04/2025**|**31/03/2026**|| |**Section A Receipts and pay**|**ments**|||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the**
**nearest £**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the**
**nearest £**||**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Last year**
**to the**
**nearest £**|**Notes**| ||||||**27930**
1
**5073**
1
**23822**
1
**4590**
2
**0**
**39302**
3
**38358**
4
**5000**
**15000**
**20000**
**712**
1
**7500**
5
**12000**
**995**
**0**
6
**3201**
7
**0**
8
**0**
9
**1210**
13
**3265**
10
**0**
11
**207959**
**207959**
**132618**
12
**9633**
12
**2200**
**174**
**129**
**753**
**1374**
**0**
**1386**
**16867**
**10614**
**750**
**1163**
**23822**
**0**
**2645**
**1576**
**89**
**4082**
**209874**
**209874**
**-5399**
**-5399**|| |Contributions from lunch club
members|**33737**|||**33737**|**27930**|| |Travel Contributions from
lunchclubmembers|**8922**|||**8922**|**5073**|| |Food Contributions (paid to
chefs)|**25592**|||**25592**|**23822**|| |Donations|**6208**|||**6208**|**4590**|| |GiftAid|**0**||||**0**|| |The National Lottery
Community Fund RC North
East and Cumbria Region and
Know Your Neighbourhood
Fund||**31351**||**31351**|**39302**|| |Point North Know Your
Neighbourhood and
Community Grants||**14169**||**14169**|**38358**|| |SirJamesKnottTrust||**0**||**0**|**5000**|| |TheBallingerCharitableTrust||**17000**||**17000**|**15000**|| |GarfieldWeston Foundation||**0**||**0**|**20000**|| |Age UK HotMeals Scheme||**5296**||**5296**|**712**|| |PCP HappineesHub||**7090**||**7090**|**7500**|| |DurhamCCAreaBudget||**0**||**0**|**12000**|| |DCC Neighbourhood Small
Grants||**0**||**0**|**995**|| |The National Lottery Awards
for All||**20000**||**20000**|**0**|| |UTASS - Time Together
TeesdalePartnershipProject||**3143**||**3143**|**3201**|| |Point North Thriving Together
(small)TimeTogetherproject|**0**|**5000**||**5000**|**0**|| |Small Grants - various funders|**5000**|**6200**||**11200**|**0**|| |UnitedTrustBank Interest||**1200**||**1200**|**1210**|| |RedwoodInterest|**3016**|||**3016**|**3265**|| |Refunds|**455**|||**455**|**0**|| |**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|**82930**|**110449**||**193378**|**207959**|| |**_Total receipts_**
**Payments**||||||| ||**82930**|**110449**||**193378**|**207959**|| |||||||| |Salaries including all costs|**46272**|**83256**||**129528**|**132618**|| |Additional time / cover
contracts|**9084**|**2606**||**11690**|**9633**|| |Staff expenses|**954**|**637**||**1591**|**2200**|| |Volunteer Expenses|**400**|**207**||**607**|**174**|| |Office Equipment / IT|**117**|**129**||**246**|**129**|| |Administration & IT licenses|**15**|**1122**||**1137**|**753**|| |Insurance|**1313**|**0**||**1313**|**1374**|| |Rent & Rates-office|**0**|**330**||**330**|**0**|| |BT & SAGE|**659**|**823**||**1481**|**1386**|| |Lunch Club Venue Rents|**9477**|**10497**||**19975**|**16867**|| |Lunch Club member travel|**8101**|**6593**||**14693**|**10614**|| |Training & Recruitment|**118**|**204**||**323**|**750**|| |Club equipment|**977**|**273**||**1250**|**1163**|| |Food costs (chef cash spend)|**25592**|**0**||**25592**|**23822**|| |Legal & Consultancy|**150**|**1000**||**1150**|**0**|| |Activity Programme|**0**|**7641**||**7641**|**2645**|| |Publicity|**0**|**173**||**173**|**1576**|| |Governance|**245**|**203**||**448**|**89**|| |Time Together Teesdale
project|**0**|**5488**||**5488**|**4082**|| |||||||| |||||||| |**_Sub total_**|**103473**|**121181**||**224654**|**209874**|| |**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**_Cash funds this year end_**||||||| ||**103473**|**121181**||**224654**|**209874**|| |||||||| ||**-20544**|**-10732**||**-31276**|**-5399**|| ||**-20544**|**-10732**||**-31276**|**-5399**|| 2 ## **Notes:** - **1** Lunch Club members paid £8 for each club visit. £3 per head given in cash to regular chefs for food, with £3.50 being given to cover chefs and for larger clubs when required. Age UK paid £8 per week for individually identified - **1** People using transport that we arrange pay a small £3 per journey contribution towards costs. Care is taken to maximise use of spaces/journeys in line with our environmental policy - **2** Donations received from: individual private donors (£1400.70), proceeds from coffee mornings (£211.9), donations from trusts and organisations (£2240), donations received at activities (£941.13), proceeds from raffles held by the Lions and Pat Asquith (£1313). Other small unrestricted funds were raised through cashback payments or contributions at participation events. - **3 The National Lottery Community Fund - North East & Cumbria Region 5 year grant January 2026 to December 2030 4 Point North** awarded two grants in year: an extension of the Know Your Neighbourhood fund (£13,669.34), an evaluation grant for this project £500), and a Community Grant (£5k). - **5 Pioneering Care Partnership (PCP) Happiness Hub** grant to support our activity programme - **6 The National Lottery Awards for All** grants programme awarded a grant to support our community support service over 2 years - **7** UTASS payments to cover costs of project and line management on the partnership project Time Together Teesdale - **8 Point North Thriving Together** - grant to support Time Together Teesdale befriending project from April2026 - March 2027 **9** Small grants received in year: Greatham Foundation (Hospital of God) (£1.2k), Barbour (£2k), GOFIbre (£3k), Phyllis Mewhort Trust (unrestricted £5k **10** Interest from the Redwood deposit account (unrestricted fund) **11** Refunds: Mickleton lunch club christmas meal £285, HMRC fine (£100), Waltons taxi overpayment (£70) |**12 Salary breakdown:**
Basic Salaries
125560
Sick pay
736
Additional and freelance cover
11690
Employerpension contributions
3232
**Total staff costs**
**141218**|The National Lottery
Ballinger
Garfield Weston
Point North
DCC Area Budget
Time Together (UTASS & DCC
PCP Happiness Hub
Other small grants
Member Contributions
Donations/reserves|**Basic**
**salaries**
36097
16367
10000
8477
1125
)
4008
3182
4000
28701
17571|**Additional**
**/ freelance**
**cover**
0
0
2554
0
0
52
2820
6264| |---|---|---|---| ||**Totals**|**129528**|**11690**| ||**Total staff costs**||**141218**| **13** United Trust - Restricted fund for redundancy costs. Deposit account reviewed annually. £1200.06 interest added October 2025. The End of Year Account was approved at the Board meeting on **6[th] August 2026** and signed on behalf of the Trustees ## **Signed by Chairperson:** **Full Name:** Gordon Jamieson Thomson ## **Signed by Treasurer:** **Full Name:** Ann Dolphin 3 ## **Teesdale Day Clubs Statement of Assets and Liabilities** ## **12 months to 31 March 2026 account** |**Current assets**
Virgin current account
Redwood bank savings account
United Trust Bank (wind-up fund)
**Total current assets**
**Financed by accumulated fund**
Balance b/f
Deficit
Balance c/f|**31/03/2026**|**31/03/2026**|**31/03/2026**|**31/03/2025**|**31/03/2025**|**31/03/2025**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**Total**|**restricted**|**unrestricted**|**Total**|**restricted**|**unrestricted**| |||||||| ||£65,678|£36,672|£29,006|£86,170|£53,737|£32,433| ||£68,016||£68,016|£80,000|£0|£80,000| ||£30,478|£30,478||£29,278|£29,278|£0| ||**£164,172**|**£67,150**|**£97,022**|**£195,447**|**£83,015**|**£112,433**| |||||||| |||||||| ||£195,447|||£197,363||| ||-£31,276|||-£1,915||-£1,915| ||**£164,172**|||**£195,447**|**£83,015**|**£112,432**| |||||||| The 9 clubs each hold individual bank accounts for member and volunteer donations towards club trips etc. These are checked by the Treasurer and Financial Administrator each year and have not been examined by the Independent Examiner. Funds held in these accounts at 31 March were £9,696. 4