Trustees’ Annual Report for Help the Child for the year ending 2 January 2026
Registered Charity 297790
Registered address c/o Crossways, Gore Road, Burnham on Sea, TA8 2HL
Help the Child is a registered charity, which was set up by constitution dated 22 September 1987. At our annual AGM held in January annually, a Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer are elected for the forthcoming year, together with coordinators for Fund raising, Requests, Website and Events. The committee currently comprises twelve trustees, all of whom give their time on a voluntary basis.
The following were trustees for the period under report:
Louise Allen, Karen Brenner, Carol Hicks, Sally Holl, Sue Godfrey, Stephanie Sampson, Hazel Gough, Angela Webber, Nickie Wood, Nicky Sucksmith, Jenny Blackshaw, Claire Thomas
Objectives of the Charity and grant making
To relieve the sickness, suffering and distress of mentally and physically handicapped children in Somerset by providing, or assisting in providing, aids calculated to reduce the sickness, suffering and distress of such children
To this end the trustees meet approximately every 8 weeks to consider requests for assistance. Each request must be supported by a letter from a relevant health professional who works with the child. A minimum of seven trustees must be in favour for the request to be granted
For the most part, we provide children with equipment to help them in their daily lives that they would otherwise have been unable to access from the NHS or other statutory bodies. Helping individual children means that by extension, we are also helping their families
Activities of the Charity
This year our fundraising enabled us to help over 50 children. Our varied fundraising events included a fashion show, Somerset Art Weeks collaboration, various coffee mornings and workshops. We are fortunate to have this income boosted with donations from a loyal band of supporters, both individual and corporate.
Finances of the charity
We operate with an account at Barclays Bank which requires the signatures of two trustees. All funds raised go towards purchase of equipment for the children we help and our aim is to fund 100% of the approved requests, which has been achieved. Any surplus for the year is held so that we can make immediate grants on approval of suitable requests. We carry forward a balance of £21,508 and we are confident that the charity can continue as a going concern
Carol Hicks
Treasurer
3 August 2026
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR YEAR ENDING 2 JANUARY 2026
| Balance as at 2 Jan 2025 | 23758.76 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Closure no2 | ||||||
| account | 3931.20 | |||||
| 37786.1 | ||||||
| Purchases | 4 | |||||
| Donatons: | ||||||
| Various | 15753.31 | |||||
| re Skylar | 3826.95 | 19580.26 | ||||
| Christmas Cofee | ||||||
| 24 | 193.21 | Expenses: | ||||
| Insurance | 694.00 | |||||
| Fashion Show | 3935.24 | Bcard Fee | 32.00 | 726.00 | ||
| James Popham | 963.97 | |||||
| Café 33 | 802.00 | |||||
| SAW | 3993.16 | |||||
| Christmas Cofee | ||||||
| 25 | 2512.50 | |||||
| Wreaths | 350.00 | 36261.54 | ||||
| Bal as at 2 Jan | 21508.1 | |||||
| 2026 | 6 | |||||
| (Barclaycard 952.53) | ||||||
| 60020.3 | ||||||
| 60020.30 | 0 |
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