Registered Charity No. 900616
~
Thames Valley Animal Welfare
Annual Report for the year to 31 March 2025
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 treasurer@tvaw.org.uk or tvawcats30@gmail.com 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 31.3.2025. Chair Mrs J Phelan Vice-Chair Mrs C Laker Secretary Mrs S Shearman Treasurer Miss H Westgarth Other members Mrs Y Room, Mrs P Parfitt, Miss A Wells, Miss E Bodonyi and Ms E 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 2025
We operatea waiting list for places in foster homes, with priority being given to the pregnant cats, kittens and sick or injured cats. We still noticed many owned cats and kittens that needed to be
1
handed into the charity during the year, due to the cost-of-living crisis, evictions, deaths in the family, etc. We have helped several cat colonies on industrial sites in Reading this year, where breeding had become out of control. Our fosterers have worked hard to socialise these cats and kittens and the majority have gone to domestic homes. Our waiting list increased in April and peaked at 90 cats in June, but we saw a drop in numbers from September onwards with a significant drop in January.
Foster homes
We started the year with 14 outdoor foster homes and 15 cathouses, 11 indoor foster homes and 4 kittens socialisers.
This year has again seen changes within our fosterers. We are grateful to Sarah Lawrence, who stepped down from fostering with a cathouse. However, our biggest changes have been within our indoor fosterers; Qahir Gulamani, Erzsebet Bodonyi and Philippa Faulkener all kept one of their foster cats, which meant they could no longer foster. Lisa Panesar and Pareesa Keeley fostered briefly in their homes. Caroline Churnside moved house. Caroline and Erzsebet are still involved with the charity. Jackie Ralph and Sue Duke both returned to fostering, Jackie took on a cathouse and Sue as an indoor fosterer. During the year we have welcomed Nicky Roberts, Caroline Pritchard and Jo Smith, who have taken on cathouses. Kaori Minami has joined us as an indoor foster home. We finished the year with 17 outdoor foster homes and 19 cathouses, 7 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
----- Start of picture text -----
J«2024/2025| 2023/2024 | 2022/2023 | 2021/2022 [2020/2021 |
Kittens rehomed
Returned to owner Cs ek ee0?Oe
9
cost
|Neutering Scheme-free |O = [of
which received vet
treatment
Homing
----- End of picture text -----
2
Notes
(a) One cat with advanced FIV, one cat with mouth cancer, one cat with pancreatic cancer, one with heart and renal failure, one cat with FIP, one cat with urinary and other problems, two kittens with congenital abnormalities and one kitten found dead - cause unknown. The decision to euthanise was taken, in conjunction with the veterinary surgeon, to end their suffering. (b)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.
Cats Helped
We have helped a total of 205 cats during the year through our Assistance Schemes — Golden Oldies, Post Homing and Neutering. During the last financial year, we ceased to operate the Vet Grant Scheme. 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 2024 - 31st March 2025
| Number | ||
|---|---|---|
| of | ||
| Amount | cats | |
| spent | helped | |
| Golden Oldies | £34189.54 | 34 |
| Vet Grants | £0. | 0 |
| Post Homing | £3080.78 | 12 |
| Neutering Scheme | £15447.15 | 159 |
| £52717.47 | 205 |
(Last year amount spent was £55,454.23. Cats helped 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
3
cats are now being rehomed under the scheme. For the financial year 2024-2025 we started with 69 Golden Oldies on our books. During the year, 12 of these were put to sleep or died. 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, once again over £34,000, (but is slightly less than last year which was £34,798.18).
More cats are constantly being added to the Golden Oldie Scheme, so, while the numbers may not increase, the vet costs certainly do.
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 over half the amount we spent on it last year and the number of cats has also reduced slightly (12 as opposed to 15). This may be due to many cats being treated whilst in foster care, rather than after they have been re-homed.
Low-Cost Neutering Scheme
~ TVAW have been running a low-cost neutering scheme since April 2000 and during that time has neutered many cats. The scheme is open to people on means tested benefits,
Many of the vets recommend us to clients who approach us for help. Those we help, are immensely grateful, proving how worthwhile this scheme is. The number of cats this year has rocketed, as has the cost, but has hopefully saved us having to take in many more unwanted unneutered and unchipped cats and kittens for re-homing.
The large increase in costs is partly because we have been offering microchipping in addition to the neutering, with no extra cost to the owner. It is now a legal requirement for all cats to be microchipped. 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 forthem.
Lost and Found Register
A few years ago, 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
4
found cats to us via email, phone calls and messenger. We can offer advice and frequently go out and scan cats. We can 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 560 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.
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 £8,411.90 for 2024-2025.
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. 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
5
years. To replace the smallest of our cathouses at current prices would cost from £6,000 per unit. We have been fortunate to have found someone who has moved and repaired cathouses — often at short notice — and who has also liaised with an electrician to co-ordinate all the arrangements with themselves and the fosterers involved.
Acknowledgements
Once 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 them 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 = “QOD
Hilary Westgarth, Treasurer
Yvonne Room, Co-ordinator For and on behalf of the trustees
Date: AwW\ aii. WA 26 Date: LbJ.|J.|| /2525 Date!) 264 4.2 Fe)
----- Start of picture text -----
Date: LbJ.|J.|| /2525
----- End of picture text -----
6
Thames Valley Animal Welfare
Registered Charity No 900616
Accounts for the year to 31 March 2025
| 1. Receipts and Payments Account : |
2024-2025 | 2023-24 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | |||
| Income Receipts | ||||
| Donations, Payroll Giving, Standing Orders, Charities | ||||
| Trust, give as you Live, Friends, Sales, Sale ofStock, | ||||
| Paypal, Gerry's Website, Recycling, Collecting Tins, Re- | ||||
| payments | 56,309.66 | 63,166.96 | ||
| Legacies | 46,260.85 | 30,000.00 | ||
| Interest | 8,328.35 | 6,706.38 | ||
| HMRC Gift Aid repayments | 8,411.90 | 8,437.27 | ||
| Other | 2,902.01 | 3,617.53 | ||
| Total receipts | 122,212.77 | 111,928.14 | ||
| Direct Charitable Expenditure | ||||
| Advertising | 0.00 | 0.00 | ||
| Equipment | 31,532.36 | 16,163.40 | ||
| Fosterhomeand carer expenses | 16,907.94 | 20,224.04 | ||
| Veterinary costs, Vet Grants, Neutering Scheme, Post | ||||
| Homing, Golden Oldie Scheme | 103,940.20 | 109,208.28 | ||
| 152,380.50 | 145,595.72 | |||
| Other Expenditure | ||||
| Fundraising event costs | 96.00 | 477.13 | ||
| Stationery/postage/printing/telephone/Newsletter | 2,668.45 | 4,165.58 | ||
| Professional fees (PO Box/Bank Charges) | 1,012.52 | 819.20 | ||
| Stock for Re-sale | 590.36 | 870.93 | ||
| Public liability insurance | 405.97 | 396.41 | ||
| Other (inc re-imbursement ofincome) | 123.75 | 406.50 | ||
| Total payments | 4,899.05 | 157,279.55 | TASSIS | 152,731.47 |
| Net receipts for the year | -35,066.78 | -40,803.33 | ||
| Actual Cash & bank balances at 31 March 2025 | 308,623.01 | 343,689.69 | ||
| NetCash&bankbalancesat31March2025 | 273,556.23 | 302,886.36 |
| 2. Statement ofAssets and Liabilities | |
|---|---|
| a | |
| , | |
| Monetary Assets | |
| Cash and Cash equivalents at 31.03.25 | |
| Total |
| 2024-25 | 2023-24 |
|---|---|
| £ | £ |
| 273,556.23 | 302,886.36 |
| 273,556.23 | 302,886.36 |
Non Monetary Assets
17 Working Cathouses
14 Traps 2 Remo Traps
14 Large Kitten Pens
33 Scanners
25 Microchip Application Guns
3 Laptop Computers
1 Panasonic Telephone
1 Canon TS5150 Printer
1 Motorola Mobile Telephone
1 Laminator
----- Start of picture text -----
L)
----- End of picture text -----
|
| 2024-25 | 2023-2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | |
| Direct charitable expenditure | ||
| Specific costs incurred | ||
| Allowance forpost homing treatment | 5,000.00 | 10,000.00 |
| Allowance forGolden Oldie Scheme | 45,000.00 | 45,000.00 |
| Allowance forNeutering Scheme | 15,000.00 | 10,000.00 |
| Allowance for Vet Grants | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Total liabilities | 65,000.00 | 65,000.00 |
| 65,000.00 | 65,000.00 |
ean Phelan Jean Phelan ,, ChaiChair TRAD\ _
HilaryO Westgarth, LGfaTreasurer For and on behalfof the trustees
Datate Jb Q LS Date26/1/25ba -
|
Independent examiners report to the trustees of Thames Valley Animal Welfare “TVAW”
Registered Charity no. 900616
I report on the accounts of TVAW for the year ended 31 March 2025
Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner
The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts.
The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this tear under section 144(2) of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act) and that at independent examination is needed.
It is my responsibility to
-
Examine the accounts under section 145 of the 2011 Act
-
To follow the procedures laid down in the general directions given by the commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act
-
To state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
Basis of independent examiner’s reports
My examination was carried out in accordance with the 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 you as 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 next statement.
Independent examiners statement
In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:
-
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 2011 act and
-
To prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the 2011 act have not been met OR
-
To which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Martin Tucker
Name: Martin Tucker Date: 14[TH] July 2025