2024-03-31-accounts

Thames Valley Animal Welfare Registered Charity No 900616

Accounts for the year to 31 March 2024

1. Receipts and Payments Account Income Receipts Donations, Payroll Giving, Standing Orders, Charities Trust, give as you Live, Friends, Sales, Sale of Stock, Paypal, Gerry's Website, Recycling, Collecting Tins, Re- payments Legacies Interest HMRC Gift Aid repayments Other Total receipts Direct Charitable Expenditure Advertising Equipment Fosterhome and carer expenses Veterinary costs, Vet Grants, Neutering Scheme, Post Homing, Golden Oldie Scheme Other Expenditure Fundraising event costs Stationery/postage/printing/telephone/Newsletter Professional fees (PO Box/Bank Charges) Stock for Re-sale Public liability insurance Other (inc re-imbursement of income) Total payments Net receipts for the year Actual Cash & bank balances at 31 March Net Cash & bank balances at 31 March	2023-24 £ 63,166.96 30,000.00 6,706.38 8,437.27 3,617.53 111,928.14 0.00 16,163.40 20,224.04 109,208.28 145,595.72 477.13 4,165.58 819.20 870.93 396.41 406.50 7,135.75 152,731.47 -40,803.33 343,689.69 302,886.36	2022-23 £ 71,201.45 152,946.10 2,392.94 5,764.15 1,933.90 234,238.54 0.00 29,942.43 14,563.34 108,630.79 153,136.56 25.00 4,185.68 1,235.04 719.48 336.24 963.69 7,465.13 160,601.69
		73,636.85 384,492.99 458,129.84

2. Statement of Assets and Liabilities

2. Statement of Assets and Liabilities
	2023-24	2022-23
	£	£
Monetary Assets
Cash and Cash equivalents at 31.03.24	302,886.36	458,129.84
Total	302,886.36	458,129.84

Non Monetary Assets

15 Working Cathouses 1 Cathouse in storage 14 Traps 2 Remo Traps

14 Large Kitten Pens

33 Scanners 25 Microchip Application Guns

2 Laptop Computers

1 Panasonic Telephone 1 Canon TS5150 Printer

2023-2024 2022-2023 Dlreet ch*ritable ex ndilu Specific costs incurred Allowance for px)st knming treatment Allowance for Golda) Oldie Scheme Allowance for NeulLYing Scheme AllowÉu)ce for Vet Cjrants i 0,000.00 45,000.00 10,000.00 0.00 i 0,000.00 35,000.(M) i 0,000.00 15,000.(K) Totsl liabilities 65,1)00.00 65,000.00 70,0(M).00 70,000.00 Jean Phelan . Chair Dale ai iÉlo4 Flilary We5tgarth, Treasurer Dale For and on behalfofl1￿ trnslees

Registered Charity No. 900616

Thames Valley Animal Welfare

Annual Report for the year to 31 March 2024

Aims and Organisation

Thames Valley Animal Welfare (TVAW) is registered with the Charity Commission (No. 900616). The postal address is TVAW, P O Box 3139, Reading, RG1 9FQ. The e-mail address is [e-mail] or [e-mail] and the website address is www.tvaw.org.uk.

The Charity operates under a constitution approved by the Charity Commission and is administered by a Management Committee of Trustees, comprising at 31.3.2024. Chair Mrs J Phelan Vice-Chair Mrs C Laker Secretary Mr R Daniels Treasurer Miss H Westgarth Other members Mrs Y Room, Mrs P Parfitt, Miss A Wells and Ms Eva Slattery.

The object of the charity is to rescue abandoned, unwanted, ill-treated and neglected cats. Veterinary treatment is provided when necessary and all cats are spayed or neutered and microchipped before rehoming. The cats are cared for in individual foster homes until they are ready for rehoming. TVAW aims to find loving permanent homes with responsible people for all animals in its care and undertakes never to destroy any cat unless advised to do so by a veterinary surgeon on the grounds of ill-health. The work of the charity is undertaken entirely by volunteers working from their own homes.

Throughout the year the trustees have given due regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit and consider that its activities meet the public benefit requirement. Although we record our performance in terms of the number of cats helped, behind each case is an owner, relative, neighbour or member of the public who needs help, either with an owned cat or a stray.

Review of the year to 31 March 2024

We operate a waiting list for places in foster homes, with priority being given to the pregnant cats, kittens and sick or injured cats. We have noticed more owned cats and kittens needing to be handed into the charity this year, due to the cost-of-living crisis, evictions, deaths in the family, etc. We had over 70 cats on our waiting list between July and September, the waiting list peaked at 96 cats/kittens in October. We have helped several multi-cat households again this year, where breeding has become out of control. We have neutered and returned some of the adult cats and found homes for the kittens.

Foster homes

We started the year with 16 outdoor foster homes and 17 cathouses, 6 indoor foster homes and 3 kittens socialisers.

This year has again seen changes within our fosterers. We are grateful to Katherine Brewer, Michelle Grant, Stephanie Shearman and Vicki Hamer for all their hard work and dedication over their years of fostering for us. Halina Bohla fostered nervous cats/kittens in her home for six months. Stephanie Shearman and Katherine Brewer are still involved with the charity. During the year we have welcomed Lizzie Bennett and Tony Price, who have taken on a cathouse each. Silvia Campbell, Helen Walker, Lisa Panesar and Pareesa Keesley as indoor foster homes.

We finished the year with 14 outdoor foster homes and 15 cathouses, 11 indoor foster homes and 4 kitten socialisers.

We are grateful to all our fosterers, who work extremely hard caring from cute kittens to ferocious ferals. We would also like to thank all our transport volunteers, who travel far and wide collecting and trapping cats.

Statistics

Statistics
	2023/2024	2022/2023	2021/2022	2020/2021	2019/2020
Adult cats rehomed	171	167	155	154	161
Kittens rehomed	131	133	102	143	123
Returned to owner	11	13	6	14	3
Put to sleep/Died (b)	7	2	10	7	7
Neutering Scheme – low cost	60	36	34	38	76
Neutering Scheme-free	0	0	23	14	28
Golden Oldie Scheme cats which received vet treatment	37	36	22	30	31
Other cats helped (a)	47	53	59	47	46
Total	464	440	411	447	475

Notes

(a) These are cats which have been helped by TVAW in some way, usually by the provision of veterinary treatment when owners have been unable to afford it and have not come into a TVAW foster home, or Post Homing Treatment of cats homed from TVAW with an existing problem.

(b) One feral cat with FIV, one cat with advanced FIV, one cat with a mass in its stomach, two cats with multiple issues, one with renal failure and one with congenital abnormalities. The decision to euthanase was taken, in conjunction with the veterinary surgeon, to end their suffering.

Cats Helped

We have helped a total of 144 cats during the year through our Assistance Schemes – Golden Oldies, Vet Grants, Post Homing and Neutering. The table below shows a breakdown of the number of cats helped and the total cost. This is, however, continuing to rise and we are finding that more clients are requiring help. The notes below give an overview of these schemes.

SUMMARY OF CATS HELPED - 1st April 2023 - 31st March 2024

	Amount	Number of cats
	Spent	Helped
Golden Oldies	£34,798.18		37
Vet Grants	£7,141.28		32
Post Homing	£7,720.81		15
Neutering Scheme	£5,793.96		60
	£55,454.23		144

Golden Oldie Scheme

Rehoming elderly cats is never easy, but it is sometimes helpful if they are offered for adoption under the “Golden Oldie Scheme.” Often these cats have come into our care with ongoing health problems, such as hyperthyroidism, kidney, heart disease or diabetes. Therefore, prospective owners would be unable to take out pet insurance. People are encouraged to offer them a home if TVAW is responsible for future veterinary care. More cats are now being rehomed under the scheme and some cats, which were rehomed under the scheme several years ago, are now requiring expensive ongoing treatment for age-related health issues. Several generous owners do not take advantage of the scheme and opt to pay for their cat’s treatment themselves, which is helpful as the cost this year is almost £35,000.

The number of cats helped this year may not actually reflect the increase in Golden Oldies treated, because several on our register have sadly died this year but others have been added to the Scheme. So, while the numbers may not increase, the vet costs certainly do.

Vet Grant Scheme

During the year, we were finding that more people were contacting us saying that they were struggling with the cost of vet treatment for their cat/s. The Vet Grant Scheme was originally used to help struggling owners in emergencies, such as road traffic accidents, urgent infections, etc. However, we had reluctantly to decide to end the Vet Grant Scheme in the middle of the year because we found that we were receiving requests which we did not feel were consistent with the ethos of the scheme and for which we could no longer provide the funds required for the treatments requested.

Post Homing Scheme

We offer help with treatment for cats after homing because we are finding that more cats are requiring on-going medication, treatment or vet assessments after they leave foster care. If we do not help in this way, we would be unable to home some cats for long periods of time while their ailments are cured and that would result in the charity being unable to take in cats for care because the foster homes are full. This year, Post Homing has cost us approximately £2,000 less than last year, but the number of cats has nearly doubled. We feel that this is due to the fact that the cats concerned require treatment only temporarily after being rehomed. The issue they were suffering whilst in care has been treated and, once homed, is cured quite speedily.

Low Cost Neutering Scheme

Many of the vets recommend us to clients who approach us for help, as do several of the larger charities – the RSPCA and Cats’ Protection, particularly. Very few other charities offer this help nowadays and everyone we do help, is immensely grateful to us, proving how worthwhile this scheme is. The cost last year amounted to nearly £5,800, more than double the previous year, but has hopefully saved us having to take in many more unwanted unneutered cats and kittens for re-homing. Much of the neutering has been carried out thanks to our volunteers going out at all hours of the day and night to trap cats which reside in colonies and have become a nuisance to the local community. Sometimes these cats can be neutered and returned to the area but very many cats and kittens have been taken in for fostering, neutered, socialised and eventually re-homed as loving cats.

The large increase in costs is partly due to the fact that we have been offering microchipping in addition to the neutering, at no cost to the owner. We believe it will become law for all cats to be microchipped in 2024. So, this will eventually help TVAW because cats which are found as strays can be returned to their owners to avoid the charity having to take responsibility for them.

Lost and Found Register

A few years ago, year we made the decision to stop recording the lost and found cats, who were reported to us. There are now many ways to report lost and found cats – dedicated Facebook groups, local WhatsApp groups as well as local vets and rescue groups. People still report lost and found cats to us via email, phone calls and messenger. We are able to offer advice and frequently go out and scan cats. We are able to reunite some cats and others come into foster care, if we cannot find the owner.

Friends of TVAW

The Friends of TVAW was introduced in 1993 as a way of keeping people who are interested in our work informed of our activities. This is achieved by the publication three times a year of our newsletter “Paws for Thought.” We have more than 698 members and the newsletter is very well received. Subscriptions and donations from the Friends now form a substantial and very welcome proportion of our income.

TVAW’s Website

We are grateful to Pam Budd at Loud-n-Clear who updates our website for us on a weekly basis.

Financial

Thames Valley Animal Welfare is entirely dependent upon donations and its own fundraising efforts to finance its work. It does not own any land or buildings or employ any staff. Its work is carried out entirely by volunteers.

We should emphasise that the majority of expenditure by TVAW goes directly on the cats – very little is used for admin or office expenses.

Our main sources of income are donations, including Friends’ subscriptions, and our own fundraising activities – mainly sales and stalls at various local events plus the sale of our Christmas cards and calendars. We are grateful to Gerry Horrox and Claire Lawrence, two of our volunteers, who continue to raise funds by selling donated items for TVAW on eBay and Marketplace. Gerry also raises money through donations made via his own website. And to Ann Wells, who has raised much through organising sales in her local area.

In addition, £1,115.00 was raised from a 40[th] Anniversary of TVAW Disco, organised expertly by one of our supporters, Cheryl Wilde.

Reclaiming Gift Aid creates a lot of work in terms of record keeping. After a break without a Gift Aid Secretary, we were grateful to accept the services of Claire Lawrence who has worked tirelessly since she took on the role and we generated a most welcome income of £8,437.27 for last year

The fact that we still have healthy reserves due to the generosity of our supporters, has meant that we have been able continue to cover the increasingly expensive veterinary costs and maintain our commitments to our fosterers. However, with expenditure continuing to rise, we review our levels of expenditure monthly as this continues to be a source of concern.

Of particular concern, is the need to plan for the replacement of some of our older Lindee Lu cat houses. We have 15 Working Cathouses and 1 in storage. Some of these are over 10 years old. Even with regular timber treatment and maintenance the manufacturers do not expect them to last much beyond 15 years. To replace the smallest of our cathouses at current prices would cost from £6,000 per unit.

Acknowledgements on￿ again. very many people have helped TVAW financially with both large and small donations during the year and small legacies and donations in memory of relatives, friends or pets. Whilst it is not possible to list all of them individually in this report, we would like to thank thom all for their continued support. Our fosterers have been grateful for the cat food, litter and bedding which has been donated by many of our supporters during the year- this is a tangible way in which supporters can help us and fosterers find it very encouraging to receive such contributions. Jean Phelan, Chair Date: &isk Hilary Westgarth, Treasurer Date". Yvonne Room, Co-ordinator For and on behalf of the trustees Date: -Ip.r2oc

Independent exarninern report to the tNstees of Thames Valley Anlmal Welfare YVA Reglstered Charlty no. 91X)616 I report on the accounts of TVAW for the year ended 31 March 2024 Respectlve responslbllltles of tNstees and examlner The charitys trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charivs trustees consider that an audit is not ￿qUired forthis tear under section 14412} of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act) and that at independent examination is needed. It Is my responslbility to Examine the accounts under section 145 of the 2011 Act To follow the procedures laid down In the general dlrections glven by the commission under section 145{5){bl of the 2011 Act To state whether particular matters have come to my attention. Basis of independent examinerfs reports My examination was carried out in accordance with the general directions given by the charity commlsslon. An examination includes a review of the accounting record5 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 you a5 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 Vie￿ and the report is limited to those matters set out in the next statement.

Independent examlners stst*nent In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention: l. Which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any rnaterial respect the requirements: To keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the 2011 act and To prepare accounts which accord w7th the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the 2011 act have not been met OR 2. To which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in orderto enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Martin Tucker Name: Martin Tucker Date: 22 May 2024