Trustees. Annual Report 01 July 2023 to 31 June 2024 Charity name: Cockermouth Emergency Response Group Registered charity number.. 1205090 Chari rinci al address The Hub 2 Market Street Cockermouth Cumbria CA13 9NJ Names of the chari trustees who mana e the chari Name Brian Mitchelhill Paul Mo ford Ha le Bisho Robert Ellison Coles James Andrew Tumer Tenure 21109127 21109126 21109125 21109125 21109125 Ob"ectives and activities The purpose of Cockermouth Emergency Response Group (CERG) is to: Provide a volunteer led emergency response to the community as and when instructed to do so by the emergency services. Work together with other organisations, to help individuals and the community to plan and prepare for emergencies. Provide a volunteer led recovery programme for the community following an emergency. CERG also provides annual training for volunteers and run bi-annually emergency exercises to ensure that the Operations Team and volunteers are prepared to respond to an emergency where assistan￿ may be required from the organisation. Achievements and erformance Throughout 2023-24 CERG has undertaken the following to enable the organisation to meet its objective and activities: Re-organisation of the organisation's governan￿ structure- a new Operations Team in place of the board to distinguish between the Trustees and the existing board. Expansion of the Operations Team - Due to many of the Trustees also sitting on the Operations Team, there was a need to expand the Operations Team to increase resilience within the organisation and independence from the Trustees. Skills mapping was carried out to identify gaps within the team and 4 new members were recruited. Creation of working groups - To improve the efficiency of the Operations Team meetings. the following five working groups were created. Funding and finance Emergency planning Training and exercises Events and marketing Information and IT Trustee training - Introduction to Trustees training was provided by Cumbria CVS to ensure that the trustees were aware of their obligations. Recruitment of a new, contracted, self-employed, Co-ordinator- the existing Co-ordinator has given notice and will be leaving at the end of August. A recruitment process is Unde￿aY for their replacement. Training - annual volunteer training was carried out. This training provides a recap of the key objectives of the organisation along with health and safety and safeguarding messages. Exercise - the organisation ran an exercise based on a power outage ncident. A Power Outage plan had been developed due to this being one of the highest risks in Cumbria. The exercise was an opportunity to test the plan and adapt the plan following the learning. Strengthening - the organisation has been introducing new, and updating existing, protocols for safeguarding, health and safety, finance, employees, and GDPR to ensure the organisation are compliant and to keep volunteers and residents safe. Support with power outage incident - the organisation supported residents in an isolated incident of power outage. This involved phoning all registered householders in the affected area to ask if they required any support. Household audit- an audit was undertaken for all households registered with CERG to see if they still wished to remain registered and to remove anyone who has moved propety. Marketing - continuation of marketing to promote what the organisation does and to encourage householder and volunteer sign up. Weather assessments - the organisation continue to monitor the local rivers. becks and lakes during periods of wet weather along with using their Social Media platform to update residents. The organisation also engage with the EnvironmentAgency and the Council when required. Financial review CERG'S financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June. The financial statements in figures 1 and 2 set out the income and expenditure for the financial year 2023124. CERG'S ended the financial year in a healthy position with a total carry forward balance of £26,243.27. Income included a grant from EN￿[ and a donation from the Slater Trust. The organisation also received a donation from Cockermouth Chamber of Trade for the distribution of a local directory. CERG is predominantly reliant on grant funding. Due to not being in re￿ipt of a regular income stream, the Trustees committed to holding a minimum of £12,000 reserves. An annual budget of £12,456 was set at the trustee meeting on 20 March 24 for the financial year 2024125 to accommodate the expenditure of the organisation. The reserves figure is based upon one year's expenditure and would protect the organisation from a drop in income and would provide time to explore further funding streams. Trèasu CERG AGM ne 2024 Openlng balanee as of lJuly2a £11738A2 Intome: ENWL Z097.00 DonatlDns artk sèvin85 interest 467.27 Total I4￿1.17 ENpen