2021-08-31-accounts

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Crewe and Nantwich Gymnastics and Communities Activities Association (CNGCAA)

Report of the Trustees for the year ending 31[st] August 2021

The trustees are pleased to present their report together with the financial statements of the charity for the year ending 31/08/21

Reference and administrative details

Charity Number: 512109 Principal Office: The Camm Street Centre, Camm Street, Crewe Cheshire CW2 7DN Auditors Hardings, 8 Marsh Parade, Newcastle under Lyme ST5 1DU Bankers Nat West, Business Centre, PO Box 9, 36 High Street, Nantwich, CW5 5AJ

Solicitors Steven Park Walters and Plaskitt, Bews Corner, 4 Westport Road, Stoke on Trent ST6 4AW

Directors and Trustees

Trustees serving from Aug 2019 to Aug 2020 are: Mr Stuart Deeley Chair Mrs Caroline Hughes Treasurer Mr Phillip Hazell Vice Chair Mrs Michelle Hazell Secretary

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Structure, Governance and Management

( CNGCAA) is registered as a charity (512109) and open to anyone who wishes to take advantage of the facilities, in exchange of a minimal sessional payment currently set at £1.50 for some low level exercise classes

The articles of administration cover all aspects of the charity, the main object being as stated below:

The objective of the association shall be:

a) to promote the benefit of the inhabitants of Crewe and Nantwich and surrounding areas without distinction of sex or political, religious or other opinions by associating the local authorities, voluntary organisations and inhabitants in a common effort to advance education and to provide facilities in the interests of social welfare for the recreation and leisure time occupation with the objective of improving the condition of life for the said inhabitants.

b) To establish and maintain a centre for the promotion of the above objectives.

c) to advance the physical education and development of young persons under eighteen years of age and to ensure the development and occupation of their minds and the organisation or provision or assistance in the organisation or provision of facilities for physical recreation for such young persons in the interests of social welfare within the area of benefit.

In summary, we look to provide facilities for everyone to participate in physical activity to maintain and improve their well-being with a specific interest in developing an enjoyment for sport in children of all abilities.

Appointment of Trustees

The AGM is normally held in November each year and all trustees must apply for

re-election every year.

All members are encouraged to attend the AGM, and any member is eligible to stand with the exception those partners of employed staff who cannot be management trustees.

Trustee Induction and Training

Trustees are appointed to the committee based on the needs for skills. We encourage new trustees to make themselves aware of all aspects of the association before volunteering for nomination.

Trustees spend some time with each of the areas in the centre, meeting staff and gaining an appreciation of their respective roles.

New trustees are briefed on the following:

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1 The obligations of trustees under charity and company law including the operational framework and regulations within the structure of the charity and with reference to the Memorandum and Articles of Association. 2. The business plan and the last 12 months accounts with any salient points and how the present and future plans are linked to the financial performance

3 the staff appraisal scheme and the inter-linkage between the aspirations of the charity and how roles within the charity build into the future plans.

Organisation

The trustees meet monthly (in a similar manner to a board meeting) to discuss the past and future performance and plans of the centre. During the period of Covid these meetings have been supported by Zoom connections.

There is a structured framework to the meeting based on a standard agenda with periodic additions at times such as annual appraisals. Each trustee takes a responsibility for an area of the centre, covering finance, wages, maintenance, the gymnastics area and the fitness section with reception. At each meeting there is a report on any significant issues which have occurred during the previous month and items that may need to be addressed going forwards. Minutes are taken of every meeting and reviewed at subsequent meetings.

There is a second monthly meeting between two trustees and the senior members of staff, chaired by the chairman, again with a structured agenda covering

• 1 Health and Safety including accident reports and equipment reviews and any welfare issues.

• 2 Financial performance

• 3 Staffing elements such as recruitment and training

• 4 Repairs, renewals and maintenance,

• 5 Customer numbers and feedback received during the month

• 6 Planned purchases of equipment

• 7 Competitions and other similar activities such as display days.

There are senior employees for both gymnastics and non-gymnastics areas present at the meeting.

Financial transactions through cheques or bank transfers are controlled by the chair and treasurer. All investment spend is authorized through the trustees committee, and all running expenditure is cleared via either the treasurer or chair.

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There is an appointed welfare officer who is fully trained in child support and is independent of the centre staff. Two trustees have also received welfare training.

All gymnastics activities are under the guidelines of British Gymnastics, and all members are insured through British gymnastics. All officers and employees who have contact with gymnasts have DBS clearance. This is being written as the first details of the Whyte report have been published. On first inspection of the recommendations, our gymnastics section complies with them all; however we await further guidance from British Gymnastics.

We (as we always have done) will comply with their requests and recommendations. Our concern is the potential damage the issues covered in the report may do to the opinions of parents. In recognition of this, we are preparing a statement to answer any questions parents may have. The report will have a positive benefit on the support in future, however the immediate affect is unclear.

Related Parties

The charity has a long-standing link with the local council (Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council – which changed to Cheshire East during 2009). Through a service level agreement, the charity works in the community introducing children to gymnastics through schools visits at all ages and skill levels. We organise two competitions where schools from the area are invited. There are enthusiastically supported by up to 10 schools and a total of 110 children. These were curtailed by the Covid issues, however they have recently been reinstated.

For adults, we have also created links with residential homes and have recently started fitness programmes for those who have mobility limitation. These have been well received and have added to our income in this area.

As a result of our increased activities towards relocating we have furthered our links with Crewe Town council and local MP, and have maintained our connection with the local Chamber of Commerce.

Risk Management

The committee has put in place all requirements for Health and Safety together with Fire evacuation procedures. Limits are put on total numbers in the centre at any one time. In Christopher Hughes (a previous trustee who is still linked to the centre) we have a qualified Fire Officer. Weekly checks of the effectiveness of the alarm system are undertaken. Daily checks of escape routes and weekly checks on all equipment are formally

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recorded. We also have an independent annual inspection of all gymnastics equipment.

The charity has been in existence for over 30 years and the major financial risk is that of competitive activity in the health sector and gymnastics areas. To compete we must offer a service which is significantly different. We offer a wide range of fitness facilities for all ages and gender and support this with well-trained personal instructors who monitor all participants on a regular basis. Gymnastically, we provide tailored training from preschool to adult and pride ourselves on integrating all abilities and giving equal access to all. We believe that success in competition across a wide front, together with increasing involvement with higher echelons of the UK gymnastics infrastructure is a key part of our strategy.

We are conscious of the need to build resilience into the finances and over the last twelve months we have assessed all major areas of spend and have restructured to improve the financial situation, however the loss of five months of income due to Covid closures has put back our plans in the section.

Objectives and Activities

It is our intention to continue to provide opportunities for all especially in gymnastics where we have a depth of experience and reputation. We are well established in the community and provide adult fitness and well-being through our personal trainers providing programmes and one to one support where necessary. With the growth in attention in adult health and wellbeing, we believe we are well placed to take advantage of this opportunity.

We provide specific facilities for ethnic minorities, with a women-only fitness area and focused training information in several of the locally based languages.

Our long-term aim is to continue our contribution to the community and to add to the success of all our gymnasts who have passed through including the many who have grown from gymnasts to coaches. We have a gymnast who is registered disabled who represents the club and currently is the British Women's Artistic champion.

We have provided a support to education in the borough for many years and continue to do so through visiting primary schools on a regular basis, helping to introduce a scheme of fitness and gymnastics skills with the assistance of the staff of the school and thereby contributing to improving staff awareness and participation in sport by the children.

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Our volunteers contribute massively to the running of the centre, without their support we would not be able to provide the quality of coaching at the minimal cost level.

Other sports clubs rent space from the charity to provide a similar service. We also provide fitness facilities for adults including dietary information.

We are reaching out to other sports and charitable groups to consider how we might be of help to their organisations.

We have invested money in researching the viability of moving the centre to a new property, which has always been a long-term aim. The report, written by Active Cheshire, independently demonstrated the need for our service provision in the local area, returning scores in the upper quartile on all key parameters. During this financial year we have researched options more closely, and believe we may have support to relocate within the Crewe town boundary

Achievements and Performance

By ensuring the fees are kept to a minimum, the usage of the fitness areas of the gym have increased which together with room rental has ensured a contribution to the health and well being of the population of Crewe and Nantwich. We have increased the number of our personal trainers and developed a range of individual training options linked to health programmes. We have significantly improved participation from ethnic minorities by developing our Women only section and encouraged links with the local Polish and East Timor populations, with increasing usage resulting from our efforts.

Gymnastics has continued to be successful over 400 gymnasts have been attending the club, often more than once per week and for over 15 hours per week for higher level individuals. The numbers have reduced as a result of COVID, however, there are signs of a return to previous level of participation. After over 30 years of trading, we now are welcoming second generation users to the centre. We have representatives of the European Team gym team attending the club together with the Women’s’ Artistic British Disabilities Champion. The groundwork for success has been built this year, and further achievements will be reported in the next financial year.

Involvement in local, regional, and national gymnastics competitions contribute to the children gaining confidence in their own abilities. We aim to give every child the opportunity to attend a competition and hold internal challenges to ensure all gymnasts gain an achievement and have a record of progress in the sport.

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The Team Gym section continued to grow with success at the British finals. We continue to provide training facilities for the gymnasts of the national squad who are based in the north.

The Christmas open sessions were enjoyed by over 400 spectators in three sessions. It is a gala celebration of the achievements of every group of gymnasts throughout the club and is a fitting climax to the year.

We are providing display teams for charitable activities such as Ellie’s Wish which is a Cystic Fibrosis charity.

In Summary: We have actively increased our linkages with local charities and key opinion formers in the community, building the basis for investment in relocation.

Financial Review

The year to the end of August 2021 includes a period of closure due to Covid restrictions.

Like many other similar businesses, the Covid pandemic has significantly changed our financial performance. We were fully closed for November 2020 and reclosed from 1[st] January to 24[th] March. Numbers have slowly returned but up to the financial year end there was a clear reluctance to fully return to normal as we maintained some restrictions to protect staff and customers.

During the year August 2020 to August 2021 we continued to use Zoom to maintain activities but under the furlough scheme, we were not allowed to charge for the service. We received several grants to help support this activity and used the furlough scheme (with staff agreement) to the full. We had to lobby for grant aid from local council, but eventually received money through this channel as well. We took the maximum bounce back loan and have agreed to repay over 10 years at 2.5% (the best low-cost loan available).

This current financial year has seen a continuation of these activities which limited our income for the majority of the year.

The reorganization which was primarily aimed at separating children and adults has worked well and we have continued with the structure post Covid with the agreement of all centre users.

Our income was depleted due to being closed for 5 months of this financial year, but with the assistance of grants we recovered to 2020 levels of income (£203,169 in 2021 v £216,880 in 2020).

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However we reduced our costs significantly (£213,152 in 2021 v £264,918 in 2020).

In Summary: A significant downturn income, all Covid driven, has been mitigated by usage of grants and the support of staff and clients. Many other clubs have not survived. We have achieved a net expenditure of -£9,983 against the previous year’s result of - £48,038

The intention of the charity is to ensure all revenue is reinvested in the centre in some form. We worked hard to ensure we maximized the success of achieving grant contributions totaling £83,805. This money has been used for a combination of equipment purchase and contributing to training and coaching courses. The major source of revenue (£119,361) is from membership fees which are either on a fixed monthly amount or a flexible total based on the number of hours a gymnast trains. This is well down from the previous year’s £163,074 but reflects that Covid closures limited our opening to 7 months of the year.

Investment Powers and Policy

The trustees are empowered by the articles of memorandum to be able to invest and divest the charity of fixed assets. They also have the power to raise loans against the freehold of the property. There have been a small number of investments in new equipment.

It is the policy to consider all elements of an investment with respect to cost, longevity and whole life costs, alignment with the article of memorandum, environmental impact, safety and continuity of supply

Reserves Policy Plan for future Periods

The charity has the intention to increase the reserve fund to £ 30,000 to fund unforeseen expenditure. We spent much of the year following a plan to move to purpose designed premises and some expenditure has been incurred as a one off. Having been unsuccessful in the first instance we are continuing to research suitable partners and we believe that the forthcoming year may se some positive movement in the project.

Trustees responsibilities in relation to financial statements

The trustees recognise their responsibilities under the various Acts of Parliament and will provide audited accounts and take reasonable steps to prevent fraud and any other irregularities.

Auditors

A resolution will be proposed at the AGM that Hardings be retained as auditors for the forthcoming year.

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