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2024-12-31-accounts

The Mothers’ Union

Southwell & Nottingham Diocese

(Registered charity, number 249878)

Annual Report & Financial Statements

for the year ended 31 December 2024

Contents

1

The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese Trustees’ annual report for the year ended 31 December 2024

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

H Catchpole until, 31/12/2024 M Pates S Bancroft until, 31/12/2024 I Garratt E Toplis S Massey A Hensby from, 01/01/2025 J Smith from, 01/01/2025

The Board of Trustees meets three times a year. The Members of the Board of Trustees are: The Diocesan President, the Newark and Nottingham Archdeaconry Vice-President, the Unit Co-ordinators, and the Deanery Leaders.

Banking

CCLA Investment Management Ltd, One Angel Lane, London, EC4R 3AB National Westminster Bank Plc, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 3NZ

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 348 plus 22 honorary life members for the year ended 31 December 2024 with 16 active branches.

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The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese

Objectives and Activities

AIM: A worldwide society whose Aim is the advancement of the Christian religion in the sphere of marriage and family life.

FIVE OBJECTIVES

Summary of the main achievements during the period:

TO PROMOTE and support married life.

Members are involved in Pastoral care in their marriages 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 and many include this year’s theme, Transformation Now.

A team of volunteer’s co-ordinate hospital visits

within the diocese. Services are held in local Care Homes.

The Mothers' Union Central website has kept members informed of local MU issues and has links to the Diocesan 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.

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The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese

To ENCOURAGE parents to bring up their children in the faith and life of the Church

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.

The letters of RISE UP stand for Respond, Inform, Support, Empower, Unite and Pray.

Domestic abuse can happen to anyone from any walk of life. It's our goal that Mothers' Union members and churches will work together to be a part of the change and will get involved with our RISE UP challenge.

riseup@mothersunion.org

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 Burundi Literacy and Financial Education Programme. ‘Make a Mother’s Day’ campaign sells ethical gifts for Mothering Sunday.

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The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese

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.

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.

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 & 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 14 families which included 55 individuals for the

Spring Bank Holiday week at Mablethorpe. This included 13 caravans. We were able to give the families who had caravan holidays a voucher for food for their holiday plus a Christmas Hamper and a Bag of Blessings for the children. This generated some very warm expressions of appreciation.

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The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese

During 2024 the management of the Contact Centre in Retford (where children can meet their non-custodial parent in a safe environment) passed into the control of Children’s Links. We continue to support the centre with volunteers and funds collected to help needy families access the service.

We support Police Aid Convoys.

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.

The charity’s policy on reserves

The charity aims to keep at least enough in the unrestricted funds to cover 3 month’s 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

6

Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese for the year ended 31 December 2024

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 2024.

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, FAIA, FCIE Employee of Community Accounting Plus

7

The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese Receipts & payments account for the year ended 31 December 2024

2023
Total
Unrestricted
Funds
Funds
£
Note
£
Receipts
11408
Subscriptions & donations
2
50
6921
Diocesan funds
5972
9468
Charitable funds
-
2788
Literature sales
1671
4175
Deaneries & branches
3
-
738
Bank interest
358
351
Sundry receipts
4
366
35849
Total receipts
8417
Payments
13071
Charitable funds
116
591
Diocesan funds
-
8579
Management & administration
5
9625
917
General expenses
6
343
1878
Literature
1524
101
Link Up & marketing
985
11103
Mary Sumner House
50
5954
Deaneries & branches
3
-
42194
Total payments
12643
(6345)
Net receipts/(payments)
(4226)
58710
Cash funds at start of this period
13547
-
Transfers between funds
9
1975
52365
Cash funds at end of this period
11296		 Restricted
Funds
£
11251
1592
14072
-
5922
905
-
33742
12330
102
-
-
-
-
13531
5986
31949
1793
38818
(1975)
38636		 2024
Total
Funds
£
11301
7564
14072
1671
5922
1263
366
42159
12446
102
9625
343
1524
985
13581
5986
44592
(2433)
52365
-
49932

8

The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese Statement of assets and liabilities at 31 December 2024

2023
£
Cash assets
Note
16491
Nat West current account
23798
CCLA deposit account
12076
Cash & bank balances for deaneries & branches
52365
Other monetary assets
347
Stock (books & cards etc.)
600
Prepayments
7
947
Liabilities
(840)
Independent examination
(344)
Management & admin
-
Payroll
-
Trustees expenses
(1184)		 2024
£
12858
25062
12012
49932
257
600
857
(876)
(178)
(65)
(119)
(1238)

These financial statements are accepted on behalf of the charity by:

Signed _____ Dated _____ E Toplis, Trustee

9

The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 December 2024

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
Transfers
to Centre
£
£
30817
24895
(30881)
(24895)
(64)
-		 Net
£
5922
(5986)
(64)

4. Sundry receipts

----- Start of picture text -----
£
Archdeaconry days receipts 366
366
----- End of picture text -----

5. Management & administration

Accountant payments
Secretary payments
Treasurer payments
Jubilee House Rent
Liability Insurance
Independent examination fee
PPS + Telephone
Printing & Stationery
Photocopying
Payroll charges
Trustees expenses - General
Trustees expenses - Travel		 £
1500
3178
1872
651
486
840
162
167
30
218
81
440
9625

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The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese

6. General expenses

----- Start of picture text -----
£
Archdeaconry days payments 178
Conference expenses 120
Sundry payments 45
343
----- End of picture text -----

7. Prepayments

Prepayments
AFIA caravan deposits £
600
600

8. Trustees’ and officials’ remuneration

During the year trustees and officials received the following sums:

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The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese

9. Funds analysis

Restricted funds
Charitable funds:
Action and Outreach
Access & Contact Centre
AFIA
Count Your Blessings
Prison Work
Time Travelling
Parenting fund
Subs & donations:
MSH Fabric
Overseas
Literacy
B+IDF
MSH Subs
MSH appeal
Diocesan Projects
Big Summer Appeal
Worldwide
Discretionary fund
Other:
Deaneries & Branches
Unrestricted funds
General		 Opening
balance
£
155
3484
15949
-
200
30
2278
-
557
95
-
968
65
2020
696
-
245
-
12076
38818
13547
13547		 Receipts (Payments)
£
£
8
-
384
-
11720
(11080)
2377
-
6
-
294
(1249)
116
-
50
(50)
1000
(1482)
263
(333)
21
(21)
10492
(9892)
(65)
97
-
692
(1388)
300
(300)
-
(103)
-
5922
(5986)
33742
(31949)
8418
(12644)
8418
(12644)		 Transfers
£
-
(500)
(49)
(2377)
-
951
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
(1975)
1975
1975		 Closing
balance
£
163
3368
16540
-
206
26
2394
-
75
25
-
1568
-
2117
-
-
142
-
12012
38636
11296
11296

The transfers to the Unrestricted and Time travelling fund from the Access and Contact Centre, the AFIA Funds and Count Your Blessings are to reflect the costs of managing these areas of work.

Description of funds

Charitable funds are run by the Diocese:

Action & Outreach – Funds to support the charity.

Access & contact centre - Supports the work of the contact centre. Where the separated parents meet with their children.

AFIA (Away from it all) – Supports families that are in need of a holiday and haven’t been on a holiday in 3 years.

Count your blessings – Each year members fundraise and share the funds between the chosen causes for the year.

Prison work – To support children in a crèche when spouse has visited a prison.

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The Mothers’ Union Southwell & Nottingham Diocese

Time Travelling – This project is led by Southwell Minster, to support children visiting and learning about the Minister.

Parent fund – Funds held are to run parenting courses

Deaneries and branches are funds held in the individual Deaneries and branches:

Diocesan Projects – Funds available to be spent by the Diocese. Discretionary fund – Funds to help pay subscriptions to Mary Sumner House. All the other subs and donation funds are to be passed onto the national headquarters of Mothers Union.

Other:

Balances held by the Deaneries and branches.

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.

13