## **The Mothers’ Union**
# **Southwell & Nottingham Diocese**
**(Registered charity, number 249878)**
## **Annual Report & Financial Statements**
## **for the year ended 31 December 2021**
**Page Contents** 2-6 Trustees’ annual report 7 Independent examiner’s report 8 Receipts & payments account 9 Statement of assets & liabilities 10-12 Notes to the accounts
# **The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese Trustees’ annual report for the year ended 31 December 2021**
**Full name** The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese
## **Registered charity number** 249878
## **Principal address**
Jubilee House, Westgate, Southwell, Nottinghamshire, NG25 0JH
## **Trustees**
S Baird-Smith, Diocesan President, from 1/1/2022
P Brewin, Diocesan President, until 31/12/2021 (no longer a trustee)
- J Hodson , Vice-President Newark & Nottingham A/D, from 1/1/2022
D Mellors, Vice-President Newark A/D, until 31/12/2021 (no longer a trustee)
- H Catchpole, Vice-President Nottingham A/D, until 31/12/2021
V Mellors, until 31/12/2021 (no longer a trustee)
S Bancroft M Pates E Toplis I Garratt S Massey S Brotherhood, deceased Feb 2021
The Board of Trustees meets three times a year. The Members of the Board of Trustees are: The Diocesan President, the two Archdeaconry Vice-Presidents, the Unit Co-ordinators, and the Deanery Leaders.
## **Independent examiner**
John O’Brien, employee of Community Accounting Plus, Units 1 & 2, North West, 41 Talbot Street, Nottingham, NG1 5GL
## **Governance and management**
The charity is operated under the rules of the Royal Charter of the Mothers Union charity number 240531, dated 15 June 1926 and last amended 4 July 2006. Overall management of the charity is the responsibility of the trustees who are elected and co-opted under the terms of the constitution. Deanery Leaders are elected by branch leaders, Diocesan President and Unit Co-ordinators by members of Diocesan Council, and each Vice President by Members of Council in their Archdeaconry. Day to day project activity is managed and carried out by volunteers.
## **Public benefit statement**
The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 17 of the Charities Act 2006 to have due regard to the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit, 'Charities and Public Benefit'.
## **State of the Diocese**
The membership of Mothers’ Union Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham is 525 plus 33 honorary life members for the year ended 31 December 2021 with 27 active branches.
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## **The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese**
## **Objectives and Activities**
The Mothers’ Union is a worldwide society whose aim is the advancement of the Christian religion in the sphere of marriage and family life. There are 5 objectives:
## **1) TO PROMOTE and support married life**
Several members are involved in Marriage Preparation and Marriage Enrichment courses in co-operation with their incumbents. Members meet regularly in branches, deaneries and archdeaconries. Meetings provide for social and pastoral needs of members, often including lunch or afternoon tea. Speakers are invited to speak on a range of subjects of general interest and to raise awareness of issues and
current and future projects. Diocesan Speakers' topics include this year’s theme, Rebuilding Hope and Confidence.
A team of volunteer’s co-ordinate hospital visits within the diocese. Services are held in local Care Homes.
The Mothers' Union diocesan website (set up in 2011) has kept members informed of local MU issues and has links to the Diocesan website. It also has links to the central Mothers' Union website. This enables members to access worldwide news and information about the organisation.
All members receive a triannual newsletter 'Link up' to keep members informed of Mothers' Union projects and news from around the Diocese. We also have a Linkup web page with all our latest news, events and uploaded reports and articles https://mulinkupsouthwellandnottingham.wordpress.com/
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## **The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese**
## **2) To ENCOURAGE parents to bring up their children in the faith and life of the Church**
Our trained Parenting facilitators continue to offer to facilitate parenting groups. Shorter half day workshops have also been well received.
Many members are involved in Messy Church, Sunday Schools and Toddler groups in their parish churches. Volunteers at Time Travelling! (a Diocesan project for school-age children run in the Cathedral and in several parish churches) include a significant number of MU members.
The Hand in Hand resource has continued to be promoted throughout the diocese. It is an ongoing resource to help parents share their faith in the home. Labelled for Life is a resource designed to give parents, carers and teachers the confidence to handle the commercial and sexualised influences that children might face.
Members receive the MSH Connected Magazine twice a year.
Incumbents have been signposted to MU resources for Mothering Sunday & Father’s Day.
## **3) TO MAINTAIN a worldwide fellowship of Christians, united in prayer, worship and service**
The Indoor Members Prayer Circle keeps in regular contact with elderly members who are no longer able to attend meetings.
Many fund-raising events have taken place to support the Relief Fund, Literacy Projects and CCMP (Church and Community Mobilisation Process). 'Make a Mother's Day' campaign sells ethical gifts for Mothering Sunday.
We have 5 allocated overseas link Dioceses and we are building up these relationships to support their members in prayer and fellowship. We also maintain links with the Diocese of Matana in Burundi and Natal in South Africa.
MU Publications have been sold throughout the diocese to support our projects and also provide resources for use in branch meetings as well as greeting cards and gifts.
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## **The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese**
## **4) To PROMOTE conditions in society favourable to stable family life and the protection of children**
The diocese has embraced the national Bye, Buy Childhood campaign which seeks to protect children from excessive and inappropriate marketing. MU believes children should be valued as children and not targeted as adult consumers. The campaign challenges consumerism, seeks to empower parents in making positive choices in how they handle their finances and to challenge retailers, advertisers and the Government.
The Mothers’ Union is working in partnership and promoting a new website Parentport which gives parents and carers information on what they can do if they have seen or heard something in the media that is inappropriate for their children. The campaign 16 days of Activism against Gender based violence was once again well supported.
## **5) TO HELP those whose family life has met with adversity**
We provide caravan holidays for families who have difficulty in coping and cannot afford a holiday. The ‘Away from it All’ holidays are proving extremely beneficial to families and individuals who have not had any kind of break in the last three years, often due to difficult circumstances beyond their control. This year our AFIA team
arranged for 29 families which included 122 individuals for the Spring Bank Holiday at Mablethorpe. This included 27 caravans (15 from 2020 and 12 from 2021) and 3 dinner, bed and breakfast holidays for older ladies who had never had a holiday. We were able to give the families who had caravan holidays a £50 co-op voucher for their holiday plus a £50 Christmas Hamper. This generated some very warm expressions of appreciation.
We run a Contact Centre in Retford where children can meet their non-custodial parent in a safe environment.
We support National Police Aid Charity. We provide toiletries for homeless people and women's refuges. Many members use their knitting skills to make premature baby clothes, trauma teddies and vests for African babies. We continue to make 'Prayer Shawls' to be given to those who are sick to bring assurance of Prayer and God's comfort.
## **COVID-19**
As the restrictions were lifting, more meetings were able to take place towards the end of 2021.
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## **The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese**
## **The charity’s policy on reserves**
The charity aims to keep at least enough in the unrestricted funds to cover 3 months’ ordinary expenditure.
The main risk to the charity would be a severe drop in membership and/ or fundraising. We try to manage our costs effectively and encourage new members to join e.g. the increase in deanery and diocesan member numbers.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:
Signed _____________________________________________ Date __________ S Baird-Smith, Trustee
Signed _____________________________________________ Date __________ E Toplis, Trustee
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## **Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese for the year ended 31 December 2021**
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese (the charity) for the year ended 31 December 2021.
## **Responsibilities and basis of report**
As the trustees of the charity 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 2011 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 matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
1. 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.
Signed _________________________ Date ______________________ John O’Brien MSc, FCCA, FCIE Employee of Community Accounting Plus
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## **The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese Receipts & payments account for the year ended 31 December 2021**
|_2020_
Total
**Unrestricted**
Funds
**Funds**
£
**Note**
**£**
**Receipts**
15528
Subscriptions & donations
**2**
-
10431
Diocesan funds
11114
18386
Charitable funds
-
3177
Literature sales
3170
3874
Deaneries & branches
**3**
-
96
Bank interest
12
754
Sundry receipts
**4**
633
52246
**Total receipts**
**14929**
**Payments**
13540
Charitable funds
-
622
Diocesan funds
669
12534
Management & administration
**5**
12334
108
General expenses
**6**
1670
2088
Literature
2105
-
Link Up & marketing
16
15361
Mary Sumner House
-
6569
Deaneries & branches
**3**
-
50822
**Total payments**
**16794**
1424
**Net receipts/(payments)**
(1865)
62905
Cash funds at start of this period
13783
-
Transfers between funds
**9**
2000
64329
**Cash funds at end of this period**
**13918**|**_2021_**
**Restricted**
**Total**
**Funds**
**Funds**
**£**
**£**
13086
13086
126
11240
16566
16566
-
3170
53
53
-
12
-
633
**29831**
**44760**
15356
15356
-
669
-
12334
-
1670
-
2105
-
16
13846
13846
4235
4235
**33437**
**50231**
(3606)
(5471)
50546
64329
(2000)
-
**44940**
**58858**|
|---|---|
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## **The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese Statement of assets and liabilities at 31 December 2021**
|_2020_|||**_2021_**|
|---|---|---|---|
|£|**Cash assets**|**Note**|**£**|
|22293|Nat West current account||20992|
|22748|CBF deposit account||22760|
|19288|Cash & bank balances for deaneries & branches||15106|
|64329|||**58858**|
||**Other monetary assets**|||
|863|Stock (books & cards)||731|
|8530|Prepayments|**7**|999|
|9393|||**1730**|
||**Liabilities**|||
||Creditors:|||
|(912)|Independent examination||(720)|
|-|Management & admin||(403)|
|(7746)|Advance receipts - 2021 subscriptions||(5084)|
|(8658)|||**(6207)**|
These financial statements are accepted on behalf of the charity by:
Signed ___________________________________ Dated ___________ E Toplis, Trustee
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## **The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 December 2021**
## **1. Receipts & payments accounts**
Receipts and payments accounts contain a summary of money received and money spent during the period and a list of assets and liabilities at the end of the period. Usually, cash received and cash spent will include transactions through bank accounts and cash in hand.
## **2. Subscriptions & donations**
These comprise numerous donations and subscriptions from members, collected centrally or through the branches and deaneries.
## **3. Deaneries & branches**
|Receipts
Payments|**Gross**
**£**
35606
(39788)
**(4182)**|**Transfers**
**to Centre**
**£**
35553
(35553)
**-**|**Net**
**£**
53
(4235)|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**(4182)**|
## **4. Sundry receipts**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
£
Archdeaconry days 132
Diocesan members admin 81
Collections 320
Sundry receipts 100
633
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **5. Management & administration**
|**Management & administration**||
|---|---|
|Accountant payments
Secretary payments
Treasurer payments
Jubilee House rent
Gifts to Leaders
Insurance
Independent examination fee
Stationery & telephone
Payroll charges
Trustees expenses & travel|**£**
1500
5715
1500
651
298
438
912
837
205
278|
||**12334**|
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## **The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese**
## **6. General expenses**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
£
General meeting expenses 180
Archdeaconry days 600
Conference expenses 680
Donations payments 110
Sundry payments 100
1670
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **7. Prepayments**
|**Prepayments**||
|---|---|
|Insurance
AFIA caravan deposits|**£**
399
600|
||**999**|
## **8. Trustees’ and officials’ remuneration**
During the year trustees and officials received the following sums:
- J Hempstead, £1,500, as Diocesan Accountant;
- K McNish, £5,715 as Diocesan Secretary;
- G Noon, £1,500 for Treasurer’s services;
- 4 Trustees also received a total of £278 for travel and other expenses.
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## **The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese**
## **9. Funds analysis**
|**Funds analysis**||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Restricted funds**
Charitable funds:
Action and Outreach
Access & Contact Centre
AFIA
Count Your Blessings
Prison Work
Time Travelling
Parenting fund
Subs & donations:
Worldwide
MSH Fabric
Overseas
Literacy
B+IDF
MSH Subs
Diocesan Projects
Big Summer Appeal
Discretionary fund
Other:
Deaneries & Branches|**Opening**
**balance**
**£**
150
4768
20667
-
196
-
2210
-
-
180
-
-
920
1901
-
266
19288
**50546**|**Receipts (Payments)**
**£**
**£**||**Transfers**
**£**|**Closing**
**balance**
**£**|
|||-
50
12831
3425
-
200
-
360
56
813
295
4
11500
50
148
46
53|-
(798)
(10933)
(3425)
-
(200)
-
(360)
(56)
(643)
(295)
(4)
(12340)
-
(148)
-
(4235)|-
(1000)
(1000)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-|150
3020
21565
-
196
-
2210
-
-
350
-
-
80
1951
-
312
15106|
|||**29831**|**(33437)**|**(2000)**|**44940**|
The transfers to the unrestricted fund from the Access and Contact Centre and the AFIA funds are to reflect the costs of managing these areas of work.
## **10. Glossary of terms**
**Restricted funds:** These are funds given to the charity, subject to specific restrictions set by the donor, but still within the general objects of the charity.
**Prepayments:** These are services that the charity has paid for in advance, but not used during the accounting period.
**Creditors:** These are amounts owed by the charity, but not paid during the accounting period.
**Advance receipts:** These are amounts received by the charity in the accounting period, for use in a future period.
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