olunto ANNUAL REPORT 1 st April 2024- 31 st March 2025 Dinas Powys Voluntary Concern Murchfield Community Centre Sunnycroft Lane Dinas Powys Vale of Glamorgan CF64 4QQ Tel No: (029) 20513700 Email: dpvc@btinternet.com Dinas Powys Voluntary Concern is a Registered Charity No. 502496
OUR STATEMENT OF PURPOSE:
THE PRIMARY PURPOSE OF DPVC IS TO:
SUPPORT VOLUNTARY GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS WHO SEEK TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE:
FOR THE ELDERLY, FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OR THOSE OTHERWISE DISADVANTAGED AND LIVING IN OUR COMMUNITIES
AND TO ACT AS A FIRST PORT OF CALL FOR THOSE SEEKING HELP OR ADVICE
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Serving the Community – Our Community
DPVC was first established as the Council of Social Services in 1972 as a result of a meeting of services and voluntary organisations who elected Dr Haydn Jones as chairman. It was later renamed Dinas Powys Voluntary Concern (DPVC). A registered charity, it promotes charitable activities for the benefit of people living in and around Dinas Powys.
DPVC provides a service to individuals, groups and organisations, the elderly and people with disabilities. It does this in many ways such as by:
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Recruiting, inducting and training
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volunteers and holding an Annual Garden Party to recognise their work
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Organising a Good Neighbour Scheme and
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running a wellbeing and befriending scheme for the lonely or housebound for which there is a dedicated coordinator funded by the Integrated Care Fund and DPVC. Maintaining and running a Minibus/Ambulance used by many organisations in the village such as the RVS and The Wednesday Afternoon Club. It is also used by DPVC for supermarket visits and for conveying older people to various events. In addition volunteers provide a car ferry service for appointments with local hospitals, dentists etc.
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Health Centre Transport. Use of a VW
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Caddy, in partnership with Greenlinks Community Transport for transport to and from Dinas Powys Medical Centre.
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Organising and running, with the help of
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volunteers, a fortnightly “Community Club” at the Lee Hall in Dinas Powys. This is open to all residents of all ages.
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Producing and distributing a twice yearly
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newsletter, DEPEND, to every home in the community and producing other information booklets and leaflets
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Operating the DPVC office and providing a
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“first port of call” for those seeking advice and information
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Providing a Photocopying, Laminating and
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Comb-binding Service at the office.
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Cooperating with and supporting other
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Dinas Powys organisations and events
DPVC is managed by a Management Committee of Trustees, responsible for planning, development and financial control. The Committee is supported by five working groups:
Finance Community Services Publications Transport Services Human Resources and Policies
The DPVC office is the administrative base for all the activities of DPVC. The office is open every weekday to provide help, advice and information about DPVC and other voluntary and statutory services.
DPVC has two part time coordinators. Our DPVC Coordinator’s role is to organise and support the activities of volunteers in the Good Neighbour Scheme. Her role is also:
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to support DPVC and its administration
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to publicise DPVC services
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to manage the office.
The Wellbeing and Befriending Coordinator role is identify those who need support and to recruit, train and support befriending and digital volunteers; and to support the efficient running of DPVC
Our volunteers are key to all our activities and without them the organisation would not exist.
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CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
Dinas Powys Voluntary Concern has contributed to the wellbeing of residents in our local community for over fifty years.
Most of those we support are elderly or have mobility problems, although it has always been the policy of DPVC to offer help on the basis of need and on no other factor. Transport, either through the use of the minibus/ambulance for supported shopping trips or to community activities, or in our Medical Centre VW Caddy to medical appointments, is a core service, but wellbeing and mental health is an integral part of the charity’s services and befriending, in person or by telephone or through social groups has become more integral to the charity’s main aim of enabling residents to maintain independence. In this report it can be seen that Dinas Powys Voluntary Concern has introduced and developed activities and projects that enrich the lives of our local residents.
We are extremely grateful to the Vale of Glamorgan Council for the support they give us, both financially and in kind. It is only through this financial support that our part-time coordinators, Wendy Lees and Judith Anderson, can be funded.
Our two Coordinators, Wendy and Judith are based in the DPVC Office. Wendy is usually the contact that many of our elderly, frail, vulnerable and often isolated residents meet first, and her efficiency and local knowledge ensures that appropriate support and advice can be offered to volunteers as well as those we help.
Judith is the Befriending and Wellbeing Service coordinator and recruits both volunteers and users for this invaluable service. The Befriending Scheme includes telephone befriending and digital support. Judith also coordinates the DPVC Wellbeing Garden - and deals with DPVC’s grant funding for new and existing projects.
DPVC has a great team of volunteers that we can call on, often at short notice. Their experience and local knowledge ensures that our users receive the help and support that we strive to give, including personal shopping, prescription collection and as telephone befrienders. Shopping trips to local supermarkets take place regularly through the week. The minibus is also used to transport elderly and frail passengers to the monthly Tuesday Games and Social Club, run by Wendy and her team of volunteers, held in Murchfield Community Centre.
My thanks go, once again, to our two coordinators, Wendy and Judith, for their dedication, resilience and professionalism in ensuring that community needs are addressed and dealt with.
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The DPVC Wellbeing Garden Project, in cooperation with the Church Council of St Andrew’s and St Peter’s Churches, and with generous grants from Community Foundation Wales and Keep Wales Tidy, was transferred to a new location in the grounds of St Peter’s Church (in Dinas Powys) during the Autumn. The new location is proving to be a great success. Although it is open to visit at any time, our dedicated volunteer, Angela, is present on two Friday mornings a month to assist those who wish to benefit from the garden. At the same time DPVC are opening St Peter’s Church at the same time to serve a range of teas, coffees and cakes – Coffee@StPeters.
The Monday Soup Club has proved a great success. Run by volunteers, a selection of soups and a bread roll, followed by a choice of cakes and bottomless tea and coffee, are served a reasonable cost in pleasant surroundings to a wide range of local residents. It has become a lively and popular weekly social occasion. In November, it was a pleasure to meet the CEO of the Charity Commission, David Holdsworth, who visited our Soup Lunch and new Wellbeing Garden Project location which were both initially funded through Community Foundation Wales who were also represented on the visit. During this visit, HTV Wales News filmed and featured the Soup Lunch on their daily broadcast
The Friday Morning Coffee Club continues to be a meeting place for those with memory problems and their family, friends and carers; a place of friendship, help and support. Jigsaws and other suitable activities are available and prove popular. A small art group, open to all, and led by Matthew Salisbury, runs alongside this club.
Thanks to the hard work, initiative and resilience of our coordinators and the willing and generous support from our volunteers and trustees, DPVC has helped to alleviate loneliness and isolation and has been able to meet many of the needs of our community in a changing society.
We are also extremely grateful for the financial support we have received from the Welsh Government, GVS, the Vale of Glamorgan Council, various charities and the Charity Commission, and from local community organisations including Dinas Powys Womens’ Institute who made us their charity of the year with generous donation of £2000, and Dinas Powys Welsh Society for their generous donation of £1500. Please refer to the co-ordinators reports and the financial report for more details about these. This support is vital to the charity and means that DPVC can look forward to yet another successful year.
John Fanshaw Chair, Dinas Powys Voluntary Concern
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COORDINATORS REPORT
The tables below show a breakdown of the number of enquiries and transport help we have provided over the last year.
Nature of enquiry Number of enquiries
Prescription collection 1 Practical help 38 Transport 22 (excluding Caddy) Shopping by volunteers 75 Befriending 7
Shopping by volunteers was still an important service for some residents who were unable to access the shops. Practical help included posting, Pension collecting and providing contact details for other organisation services.
Befriending
There are four different services within the wellbeing and befriending project. All are run by volunteers and a part time coordinator.
Telephone and face to face befriending continues, as does personal shopping on a weekly basis.
The weekly soup lunch reaches its third-year anniversary in October 2025. Numbers attending have risen to an average of 35 every Monday. It still benefits from the support of nine volunteers on a rota basis. The service provides a low cost, quality lunch and a space for people to meet.
The Community Wellbeing Garden has moved to its new, larger site at St Peter’s Church. Funding for the move was provided by UK Government through the Vale of Glamorgan Stronger Communities scheme. It opened on 29[th] March 2025. A lead volunteer is in place and the service offers a dementia friendly space for gardening on the 1[st] and 3[rd] Friday of the month with the garden being open to all ages every day. A small café, run by the befriending coordinator, operates within St Peter’s church alongside the DPVC sessions, catering for anyone visiting the garden.
The Memory Café has been renamed the Friday Coffee Club and continues to run on the 2[nd] and 4[th] Friday of the month at Murchfield Community Centre. The dementia friendly art group also continues.
As always, a number of informal social events throughout the year are organised by both coordinators and these included a Christmas Coffee Morning, with entertainment by the Dinas Powys Primary School Choir, the annual Strawberry Tea with music provided by the No Worries Uke Band and the spring coffee morning in May with the U3A recorder group.
Transport
The Transport service using a VW Caddy to and from the Dinas Powys Medical Centre continued Monday to Friday throughout the year. Volunteer drivers driving daily throughout the morning. September and October were very busy as lots of our service users had both flu and Covid booster vaccine appointments. We were able to provide over 19 lifts on “Flu Saturday” in October to the health centre for the flu vaccine. Despite the unpredictability of
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appointment times and traffic congestion the service runs well thanks to the patience and resilience of our drivers. The figures are shown in the following table.
- CADDY SUMMARY OF USE 1/4/24 31/3/25
| Mileage | 1993 |
|---|---|
| Passenger journeys | 932 |
Our other transport services, include our minibus, which was used for lifts for shopping and to social events. A twice weekly shopping run to Morrisons or Asda continued with the minibus now running at full capacity. The Marks and Spencer trips have resumed but have been limited due to driver availability. It was also used for some medical appointments when the caddy had reached capacity.
The Community Club held monthly at the Murchfield Community Centre uses the minibus to provide transport for some of our members. Our Volunteer Barbara helps serve refreshments and takes part in the board games when the numbers are needed to make up a foursome or chatting to some of the members. Some members enjoy completing jigsaws while chatting and a Dominoes table has become a regular feature. It is good to have a mix of men and women attending the club. The club is held on the 2[nd] Tuesday of the month at Murchfield Community Centre.
The table below shows the usage of the minibus by DPVC for the last year.
| ORGANISATION |
MILEAGE | PASSENGER |
|---|---|---|
| JOURNEYS | ||
| DPVC | ||
| All shops | 1183 | 1170 |
| Community club | 61 | 122 |
| Maintenance | 108 | 0 |
| Health appointments | 49 | 40 |
Wendy Lees Judith Anderson
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11. Fr .1 DPVC
Treasurer’s Report for the Financial Year ending March 31[st] 2025
The annual accounts for this financial year show a total cash balance of £61,773 represented by £8,518 in the current account and a combined total of £52,488 in the two deposit accounts, with £728 in unbanked cash/cheques on 31/3/25. The total of £61,773 compares with £60,744 the previous year, an increase of £989. Our reserve fund is required to replace the minibus every 7 or 8 years. We are still on target to do this. The new High Interest Savings Account accumulated £1,310 in interest over the year.
Our total income, from all activities, grants and donations for the year was £52,981 which is an increase of £8,908 on last year’s £44,073. This must be offset by a similar increase in our expenses, which increased by £7,539 from £46,552 to £54,091. This increase is largely due to our new project, The Community Garden, and an increase in our wages bill. The Community Garden received a total grant of £6,193, which has offset most of our expenses so far which have amounted to £6,382.
We received generous grants from The Vale of Glamorgan Council and a number of other organisations totalling around £31,000. The rest of our income is made up from the generous donations of many individuals and organisations, and from fund raising events that we organise. We have been particularly fortunate this year to have received substantial donations from Dinas Powys W.I. (£2,000), Dinas Powys Welsh Society (£1,500), DP Music Festival (£450), DP Art Group (£275) and DP Community Council (£300). The donations received from our minibus shopping trips amounted to £1,534, and £1,205 from the transport to the Health Centre.
Our very successful Soup Lunch, which takes place every Monday, cost us around £4,600 to provide. Against this we collected £4,124 on the door and a further £641 in donations. With this activity breaking even we will not need a price increase this year from the current £3.
There are many smaller donations, too numerous to mention here, from individuals and organisations. You can find a list of these on the detailed account sheets. We are sincerely grateful for the support we receive from these individuals and organisations.
Finally I would like to thank Colin Asbrey for formally examining and verifying our accounts.
Chris Bee Treasurer
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| Income £ | Income £ | Expenditure £ | Expenditure £ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2023-24 | ||
| Fuel Rebate | 1,712 | 1,712 | Staf wages and pensions |
35,441 | 32,667 |
| HMRC Gif Aid | 2,681 |
- | Ofce | ||
| Grants | BT/Spectrum-Ogi | 626 | 901 | ||
| Vale of Glamorgan Grants | 8,913 |
10,645 | Computer | 469 | - |
| RIF Fund | 11,380 |
11,380 | Ofce Rental/Insurance | 1,605 | 1,555 |
| Vale of Glamorgan | 1,200 |
- | Websites/Internet | 198 | 96 |
| GVS | 1,125 |
1,617 | Informaton Commissioner | 47 | 35 |
| CAF | 500 |
500 | Sundry Ofce Consumables | 395 | 699 |
| Community Garden | 6,193 |
- | 3,340 | 3,286 | |
| Community Transport | 2,000 | - | |||
| 31,311 | 24,142 | Caddy Fuel (Vale of Glamorgan) | 950 | - | |
| Misc | Minibus | ||||
| Online Ticket sales | 99 |
19 | Fuel | 454 | 531 |
| Salary Overpayment refund | 212 |
- | DPCC Garage rental | - | 1,032 |
| Printng | 50 |
172 | CTA Membership | 50 | 50 |
| BT Refund | - |
30 | Service Contract | 346 | 173 |
| 361 | 221 | Insurance | 1,360 | 1,502 | |
| Donatons | Service /Inspectons/MoT/etc | 311 | 907 | ||
| Cash and Cheque* | 13,203 | 12,764 | Sundry Expenses | 168 | 104 |
| Online | 2,235 | 4,299 | |||
| Regular Monthly Donatons | 1,092 | 972 | |||
| NGS Open Gardens | - | 385 | Events/Misc | 314 | 543 |
| Mark Thompson | - | 1,000 | |||
| Dinas Powys Art Group | 275 | 275 | Services | ||
| DP Music Festval | 450 | - | Community Garden | 6,382 | - |
| DP Community Council | 300 | - | Community Garden & Befriending | - | 249 |
| Parkman Funeral Donatons | - | 50 | Soup Lunch | 4,638 | 3,350 |
| WRVS | - | 718 | Misc/shopping | - | 66 |
| Carol Bunyan | 275 | - | Memory Cafe | - | 85 |
| Sundry Donatons | 1,322 | 1,834 | Coronaton Party | - | 349 |
| 3,714 | 5,234 | Printng of DePend | 337 | 1,658 | |
| 11,357 | 5,757 | ||||
| Sub Total | 52,981 | 44,073 | Sub Total | 54,091 | 46,552 |
| Transfer from reserves | 5,000 |
3,000 | Transfer to reserves | - | 5,000 |
| Total Income | 57,982 | 47,073 | Total Expenditure | 54,091 | 51,552 |
*** Summary on separate page**
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*Cash and Cheque Summary
Account Summary
| Minibus Shopping Trips Health Centre Transport Soup Lunch Takings Soup Lunch Donatons Strawberry Tea Community Club Carrier Bag donatons Memory Café Printng/Copying Funeral Donatons Eileen Reynolds St Cyres School NGS Mo Jones Welsh Society Dinas Powys WI Butchers Mrs Meredith Carols round the tree Margaret Randall V Green Other Donatons Unbanked Total |
1,534 £ 1,205 £ 4,124 £ 641 £ 289 £ 223 £ 245 £ 211 £ 119 £ 40 £ 108 £ 250 £ 400 £ 100 £ 1,500 £ 2,000 £ 150 £ 177 £ 150 £ 50 £ 60 £ 354 £ 13,930 £ 727 £ 13,203 £ |
31/3 2024 Current Account Income Transfer from Business Reserve Expenditure 31/3/25 2025 Current Account |
£ 4,628 £ 52,982 £ 5,000 -£ 54,092 £ 8,518 |
|---|---|---|---|
| High Interest Reserve Account Balance on 31/3/24 Interest Transfer from Business Reserve Balance on 31/03/2025 |
35,601 £ £ 1,310 £ 8,000 £ 44,911 |
||
| Business Reserve Account Balance on 31/3/24 Interest Transfer to Main Current Account - Transfer to High Interest Account - Balance on 28/3/24 |
£ 20,439 £ 138 £ 5,000 £ 8,000 £ 7,577 |
||
| DPVC Assets 31/3/2024 Current Account Reserve Accounts Unbanked Cash/Cheques DPVC Assets 31/3/2025 Current Account Business Reserve Account High Interest Rate Account Unbanked Cash/Cheques |
£ 4,628 £ 56,040 £ 76 |
||
| £ 60,744 £ 8,518 £ 7,577 £ 44,911 £ 727 |
|||
| £ 61,733 |
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(HARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WAIES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the tru¥tee¥ Dinas Vc4untsry Concern On •eeounts fot th• y•ar •nd•d M8r¢h 3111 2025 Charity no Ill any) 502496 S•t twt on pag•s I reFQrt to the Irustees on examnation of the a(XA)unts of Ihe alve harty fthe Twusfi for ts year ended 3110312025. Responsibilities and basis of report As ihe charity's trustees, you are reSpCS11è forth8 preparation of the aco)unts in (XanLy Wrth the wuirements of the Charth5 Ai 2011 rihe Acri. I feport in restwl of my examinabon ofthe Trust'$ xwnts carrd out under sedK)n 145 ofthe 2011 Act and in (2rrying ¢yJt my examinatn. I have folljwed an the applicable Directions given ty the Charity Commission under seclKJn 14515Xbl of the h£t. Indewndent I have wmpw my examinatK)n. I ccffffirm that no matenal matters have oxam•nerfs statement come to my attenb'on in connecon with the examinatK)n lo# di$.) whKti gNes me cause to believe that in. any materral the a(wunting reeords not kept in aCran with tion 130 ofthe Charit5 Act: or the dhl not accord with the accounting records., or the e(JniS dKI not compty th the applicable requiremerrts cxjnoming the form and (x)ntent of acwunts Set (xrt in the chanb.es (Accounts and Reports) Regukth)ns 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts gNe a and fairf wew whth is not a matter consKlered as part of an independènt examination. I have no nInS arKI havè coy a¢x)ss no other matters Ni conne¢tKin th the examination to which attent*)n shoukd be drawn in this report in ordef lo enatrk a propw unde(standing ofthe ax1$ to b& reachgd. Slgn•d: 2. Y. 20zr Nam•: Relevant wolessional quallficatlon(sl or body {If any}= Addr8. IER Oct 2018 12