## **Mothers’ Union Diocese of Leicester**
## **Registered Charity Number: 250038**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report & Consolidated Accounts**
**For the year ended 31 December 2023**
Mothers’ Union Diocese of Leicester, Charity Number 250038
## **Legal and administrative information**
**Registered Charity Name:** The Mothers’ Union (Diocese of Leicester Branch)
**Charity Number:** 250038 **Address:** St Martins House 7 Peacock Lane Leicester LE1 5PZ **Trustees:** Margaret Rouse Past Diocesan President Yvonne Smith Past Diocesan President Mary Clarkson Ruth Fryer Janice Lunn Eileen Payne Cynthia Thomson Faith Adviser Susan Wilson
The Trustees are constituted as follows:
Diocesan President elected by Diocesan Council Up to two Past Diocesan Presidents chosen by them Seven Trustees elected by Diocesan Council Diocesan Chaplain appointed by Diocesan President and Diocesan Bishop One Deanery Leader elected by Deanery Leaders **Administrator:** Kate Cooper **Honorary Treasurer** Susan Wilson **Bankers:** CAF Bank Ltd 25 Kings Hill Avenue Kings Hill West Malling Kent ME19 4JQ
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Mothers’ Union Diocese of Leicester, Charity Number 250038
**Independent Examiner:** Robert P. Appleby, MA, FCA Rutland House, 23–25 Friar Lane, Leicester, LE1 5QQ
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Mothers’ Union Diocese of Leicester, Charity Number 250038
## **Trustees’ Annual Report 1 January to 31 December 2023**
Mothers’ Union Diocese of Leicester is a charity federated to similar charities bearing the same name, and with the same Aim and Objects and sharing the same ethos and direction as the central charity. It is governed by its own constitution (last revised February 2011). The elected Board of Trustees makes major decisions and carries out or enables practical projects. The elected Chair of Trustees (Diocesan President) attends Provincial Conference and reports back to the Diocese. One part-time administrator is employed for 9 hours per week. All trading is channelled through Mothers’ Union Enterprises Ltd.
The aim of Mothers’ Union is to advance the Christian religion in the sphere of marriage and family life and this is focused on five objectives: to promote and support marriage; to encourage parents in their role to develop the faith of their children; to maintain a worldwide fellowship of Christians united in prayer, worship and service; to promote conditions in society favourable to stable family life and the protection of children; to help those whose family life has met with adversity.
There are over 600 Mothers’ Union members in Leicester Diocese. Most are members of branches in Anglican churches throughout the Diocese; others (Diocesan Members) pay their subscription and receive mailings direct from our Leicester office and have the option of meeting in groups but without the administration involved in a branch. Two opportunities for all Diocesan Members to gather together were arranged during 2023.
Members are involved in local projects and ministry as well as supporting the work of the central Mothers' Union charity. Involvement includes prayer, volunteer time, donating goods or money. All our events and projects welcome involvement from members and non-members alike. We try to encourage new membership wherever possible and keep our local work under review to try to be as effective as possible.
In 2023, we were, once again, able to organise and fund a holiday on the east coast for 10 Leicestershire families who had either never had a holiday or not had one for several years. In addition, we were delighted to be able to provide a holiday, in a specially-adapted caravan, for a disabled gentleman, together with his two carers and his dog. Our Away From It All Holiday Project provides a fully-funded holiday in self-catering caravans at Haven Golden Sands Holiday Park in Mablethorpe. This holiday park has free activities and amusements for families, as well as being close to the beach. We also provide the return
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Mothers’ Union Diocese of Leicester, Charity Number 250038
transport and a generous grocery pack for each family. Members of the organising committee accompany the families to provide friendly support throughout the holiday. The holiday provides families with a welcome break from their daily pressures. Families are referred to us by Mothers’ Union members, clergy, health visitors, teachers, social workers or other agencies. Mothers’ Union members, with occasional very welcome support from local charities, raise the money needed to provide the holiday and their funds are certainly put to good use. In 2023 we received very generous donations from Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service’s Rudolph Fund and from Barwell Poors Platt Charity.
Members continued to support local initiatives to help families in need, including those of prisoners, vulnerable and elderly people in their immediate area throughout the year. We kept them regularly informed of current needs as they collected items such as clothes, toiletries and equipment for babies and mothers; Easter eggs; Easter and Christmas craft items; women’s underwear; hats, gloves, scarves and toiletries. We donated Easter eggs and craft items to HMP Leicester and HMP Gartree and to Women’s Aid. In the summer we collected items for Women’s Aid’s foodbank. In response to a request from a prison chaplain, we sent Christmas cards to prisoners at the new HMP Fosse Way.
Our Supporting Homeless in Leicestershire project fund enabled us to respond to many people who needed support during 2023. The level of requests continued to grow during the year as the financial strain on older people and families continued. Requests for items of clothing or shoes for older people and young children, along with bedding and blankets, were most common. Families with babies requested nappies and food. We are glad that Mothers’ Union was able to make a difference.
A trustee represents Mothers’ Union on the Diocesan Panel for Social Responsibility, and another member is involved in the Diocesan response to modern-day slavery.
We continue to maintain a prayer chain to support anyone in need. We keep contact with members who are housebound by sending greetings cards and letters. As well as information by email, we continued to produce our Diocesan newspaper three times per year; this is a very important method of communication as a good number of members do not have internet access, and many of those who do still appreciate a hard copy document.
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Mothers’ Union Diocese of Leicester, Charity Number 250038
We continue to work hard to establish and maintain contact with our five Mothers’ Union prayer partners in Kenya, Nigeria (2), Solomon Islands and Zambia. We continue to pray for them all, encouraging all members to particularly remember them at the end of June and beginning of July each year when our group appears in the Mothers’ Union Wave of Prayer schedule.
Following the 2022 visit from the Diocesan President of Kiteto, Tanzania, where she and her husband introduced their Mothers’ Union project to combat Female Genital Mutilation in their diocese, some of our members were keen to support them in prayer and with finance. We made this project a focus during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence in November/December. We were able to send £1,050 to the Diocese of Kiteto for the project in November and plan to send a further payment in 2024.
We continued to support the work of the central organisation by selling Mothers’ Union cards and gifts among our members and friends. Our Diocesan MU Enterprises Representative orders in bulk, but individuals can also put in orders. We received 10% commission on all our purchases.
We promoted events organised by central Mothers’ Union throughout the year. Online Midday Prayers Monday to Saturday each week, led by central staff or members, continued to be a great success, with members participating from all over the world. 11 members attended the Annual Gathering in York in September. We also encouraged members to support central fundraising appeals if they were able. Central Mothers’ Union have continued to provide resources for members on their website.
We are grateful to the Diocese of Leicester for accommodating our part-time Administrator in St Martins House, Leicester, where she works one five-hour day each week. Her remaining hours are flexible and worked at home.
Our assets at 31 December 2023 were £1,874 more than at the start of the year, most of the increase being seen in the General Fund. We are grateful to all our members for their financial support. The Trustees have examined the current level of unrestricted reserves, £27,450, and assess this to be satisfactory to secure the charity’s immediate future. However, in common with most other dioceses, falling membership remains a concern.
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Mothers’ Union Diocese of Leicester, Charity Number 250038
Assessment and mitigation of risk is undertaken by the Finance and Administration Working Group and reported to the Trustees. The Trustees are paying due regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit as we seek to meet our charitable objectives. We follow the Leicester Diocese Safeguarding Policy with the additional request that members make themselves aware of who the Safeguarding Coordinator is in the parish where they are working.
Prepared by Susan Wilson, Diocesan Treasurer.
The report was approved by the Trustees on 21[st] May 2024.
On behalf of the Trustees
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Mothers’ Union Diocese of Leicester, Charity Number 250038
## **Consolidated Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2023**
|||**General**
**Fund**|**Central**
**Funds**|**Local**
**Funds**|**Total**
**2023**|**Total**
**2022**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|
|**Income**||**12,076**|**17,107**|**10,182**|**39,365**|**35,231**|
|**Expenditure**||**10,868**|**16,785**|**9,838**|**37,491**|**31,987**|
|**Surplus/(Deficit)**||**1,208**|**322**|**344**|**1,874**|**3,244**|
|**Balances brought forward 1 January**||**26,242**|**-**|**21,510**|**47,752**|**44,508**|
|**Balances carried forward 31 December**||**27,450**|**322**|**21,854**|**49,626**|**47,752**|
|**Income**|Note|General
Fund|Central
Funds|Local
Funds|Total
2023|Total
2022|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||£|£|£|£|£|
|Subscriptions||3,160|13,299||16,459|17,280|
|Subscriptions to be allocated when balance received||-|||-|239|
|Insurance||124|||124|133|
|Diocesan General Fund||4,099|||4,099|3,340|
|Gift Aid Income Tax recovered||2,089|||2,089|2,390|
|Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme||110|||110|25|
|Legacy||-|||-|100|
|MU Enterprises sales commission|**1**|482|||482|418|
|Recycling||668|||668|757|
|Investment income||854||207|1,061|197|
|Travelgrant from central MU||-|||-|50|
|Diocesan events||490|||490|-|
|FGM Tanzania||||1,345|1,345|50|
|Other income||-|||-|50|
|Overseas Development Fund|||50||50|60|
|Relief Fund|||20||20|85|
|Britain & Ireland Development Fund|||770||770|656|
|MSH Summer of Hope|||140||140|-|
|MSH General Fund|||2,819||2,819|2,819|
|MSH Christmas Appeal|||9||9|-|
|MU Literature||||61|61|-|
|AwayFrom It All HolidayProject|**2**|||6,742|6,742|4,966|
|SupportingHomeless in Leicestershire||||1,827|1,827|1,017|
|Difference in funds held bybranches|**3**|||-|-|599|
|**Total income**||**12,076**|**17,107**|**10,182**|**39,365**|**35,231**|
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Mothers’ Union Diocese of Leicester, Charity Number 250038
|**Expenditure**|Note|General
Fund|Central
Funds|Local
Funds|Total
2023|Total
2022|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||£|£|£|£|£|
|MSH subscriptions|||12,977||12,977|13,835|
|Staff salary||5,101|||5,101|3,208|
|Insurance||450|||450|-|
|Stationery& equipment||34|||34|85|
|Postage||238|||238|341|
|Photocopying||27|||27|72|
|Bank charges||86|||86|81|
|Meetingroom hire & Zoom||365|||365|355|
|Website||13|||13|-|
|MUspaper||3,393|||3,393|3,434|
|Officials' expenses||19|||19|225|
|Training||116|||116|150|
|Diocesan events||848|||848|-|
|FGM Tanzania||||1,050|1,050|-|
|MSHpublications||78|||78|91|
|CanterburyProvince||100|||100|100|
|Other expenditure||-|||-|50|
|Overseas Development Fund|||50||50|60|
|Relief Fund|||20||20|85|
|Britain & Ireland Development Fund|||770||770|656|
|MSH Summer of Hope Appeal|||140||140|-|
|MSH General Fund|||2,819||2,819|2,819|
|MSH Christmas Appeal|||9||9|-|
|MU Literature||||61|61|-|
|Difference in MU Literature assets|**1**|||89|89|91|
|AwayFrom It All HolidayProject|**2**|||6,246|6,246|4,637|
|SupportingHomeless in Leicestershire||||1,888|1,888|1,017|
|Difference in SupportingHomeless in Leics funds||||266|266|595|
|Difference in funds held bybranches|**3**|||238|238|-|
|**Total expenditure**||**10,868**|**16,785**|**9,838**|**37,491**|**31,987**|
||||||||
|**Away From It All Holiday Project:**|||||||
|||||**2023**||**2022**|
|||||£||£|
|Income:|||||||
|Balance at 1st January||||9,691||9,326|
|Donations||||6,742||4,966|
|Interest on CBF account||||207||36|
|**Total**||||**16,640**||**14,328**|
|Expenditure||||6,246||4,637|
|**Balance at 31 December**||||**10,394**||**9,691**|
||||||||
|Expenditure breakdown:|||||||
|Accommodation||||4,162||2,837|
|Coaches||||1,440||1,300|
|Food||||500||500|
|Mobilityscooters||||144|||
|**Total**||||**6,246**||**4,637**|
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Mothers’ Union Diocese of Leicester, Charity Number 250038
|**Supporting Homeless in Leicestershire account:**|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||||**2022**|
|||||£||£|
|Income:|||||||
|Balance 1 January||||5,848||6,443|
|Donations||||1,888||1,017|
|**Total**||||**7,736**||**7,460**|
|Expenditure||||2,154||1,612|
|**Balance 31 December**||||**5,582**||**5,848**|
||||||||
|**FGM Project:**|||||||
|||||||**2022**|
|||||£||£|
|Income:|||||||
|Balance 1 January||||50||-|
|Donations||||1,345||50|
|**Total**||||**1,395**||**50**|
|Expenditure||||1,050||-|
|**Balance 31 December**||||**345**||**50**|
||||||||
|**Current Assets:**|||||||
||Note|General
Fund|Central
Funds|Local
Funds|Total
2023|Total
2022|
|||£|£|£|£|£|
|CAF Bank Cash Account||4,191|427|5,273|**9,891**|12,341|
|CAF Bank Gold Account||3,522|||**3,522**|3,457|
|CBF Deposit Account||19,736|||**19,736**|19,736|
|Nat West MU Literature account||||619|**619**|553|
|MU Literature cash in hand||||83|**83**|36|
|MU Literature debtors||||2|**2**|9|
|MU Literature stock|**1**|||571|**571**|766|
|CBF AwayFrom It All HolidayProject account||||5,405|**5,405**|5,405|
|SupportingHomeless in Leicestershire account||||5,581|**5,581**|5,848|
|Funds held bybranches|**3**|||4,320|**4,320**|4,558|
|Creditors|**4**||(105)||**(105)**|(4,957)|
|**Total Current Assets**||**27,449**|**322**|**21,854**|**49,625**|**47,752**|
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Mothers’ Union Diocese of Leicester, Charity Number 250038
## **Notes to the accounts**
|**Notes forming part of the accounts for theyear ended 31 December 2023:**|**Notes forming part of the accounts for theyear ended 31 December 2023:**|**Notes forming part of the accounts for theyear ended 31 December 2023:**|**Notes forming part of the accounts for theyear ended 31 December 2023:**||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||||
|**1. MU Literature**|||||||
|Stock is bought at retail price from Mothers' Union Enterprises Ltd. £64 of dated or damaged stock was written|||||||
|off during 2023.|||||||
||||||||
|**2. Away From It All Holiday Project**|||||||
|Fund balance at 31 December 2023 is £10,394.|||||||
||||||||
|**3. Funds held by branches**|||||||
|At 31 December 2023 Mothers' Union Diocese of Leicester had 10 deaneries and 27 branches. The|||||||
|total assets held at 31 December 2023 bythe 20 branches which submitted returns was £4,320.|||||||
||||||||
|**4.Creditors at 31/12/23**||General|Central|Local|Total||
|||£|£|£|£||
|MSH General Fund(for overseas)|||96||96||
|MU Christmas Appeal|||9||9||
|||**-**|**105**|**-**|**105**||
||||||||
||||||||
|This is the financialposition of Mothers' Union Diocese of Leicester as at 31 December 2023.|||||||
||||||||
|The accounts have beenprepared on the receipts andpayments basis under section 133 of the Charities Act 2011.|||||||
||||||||
|Prepared bySusan Wilson,Diocesan Treasurer|||||||
||||||||
|The accounts were approved bythe Trustees on 21st May2024 .|||||||
||||||||
||||||||
||||||||
||||||||
|On behalf of the Trustees|||||||
The accounts have been prepared on the receipts and payments basis under section 133 of the Charities Act 2011.
Prepared by Susan Wilson, Diocesan Treasurer The accounts were approved by the Trustees on 21st May 2024 .
On behalf of the Trustees
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Mothers’ Union Diocese of Leicester, Charity Number 250038
## **Independent Examiner’s Report on the accounts**
## **Independent Examiner’s Report to the trustees and members of Mothers’ Union Diocese of Leicester on accounts for the year ended 31 December 2023, set out on pages 8 to 11 of this document**
The trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The trustees consider that an audit is not required under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Charities Act”) and that an independent examination is needed.
It is my responsibility to:
- examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act,
- to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145 of the Charities Act), and
- to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
My examination was carried out in accordance with general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair’ view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.
In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention
1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that, in any material respect, the requirements:
- to keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; and
- to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the Charities Act
have not been met; or
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Mothers’ Union Diocese of Leicester, Charity Number 250038
2. to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Signed:
Robert P. Appleby, MA, FCA Rutland House 23-25 Friar Lane Leicester LE1 5QQ
14[th] October 2024
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