2023-03-31-annual-report - Old Library Trust

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THE OLD LIBRARY TRUST

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

The Healthy Living Centre

The HLC is a model of good practice for the delivery of community-based social and health care services and programmes engaging people in community development processes aimed at reducing the inequalities in health by tackling the root causes of ill health.

The project is designed to improve community health, address local needs, build confidence and develop knowledge and skills supporting people to take greater responsibility for their own health and wellbeing. The HLC provides access to primary care services at the neighbourhood level by working in partnership with service providers in the community, voluntary and statutory sectors.

Human Resources

Staff and directors are viewed as valuable assets of the organisation and receive training and support to maintain and enhance their skills and motivation.

All staff have personal development aims and objectives written into their work plans with a minimum of three training and educational courses required to fulfil their job roles on an annual basis. All staff meet OLT minimum standard training requirements in areas such as safeguarding children and child protection, safeguarding adults and vulnerable adult’s protection, First aid at work, AED Training, mental health first aid & trauma informed practice. Individual 6 month reviews carried out by senior management & the Project director will investigate further issues associated with training and support.

Partnership

The ethos of strategic partnership underpins the OLT's working arrangements and emphasises the collective responsibility of all in tackling health inequalities by meeting the health and wellbeing needs of residents in the Triax area of benefit.

Statement of compliance with Charity Commission guidance

The trustees have paid due regard to guidance issued by the Charity Commission in deciding what activities the charity should undertake.

Achievements and performance

Key achievements of delivery for 2022/ 23

Programme and service activity:

Strategic Priority 1: Healthy Lifestyles: Tackling inactivity, poor nutrition, and obesity whilst lifting spirits through the delivery of several interventions, programme and services that included:

Exercise & wellbeing:

A weekly community exercise timetable of a wide variety of exercise classes seen over 150 local people attend over the course of the year for one of more of the classes on offer that included Boxercise, circuit, yoga and gym. The Addition of the biggest improver programme for beginners seen a further 63 people attend 12-week programmes to Improve their overall wellbeing with 15 new beginners learning swimming.

Our Men’s & ladies health programmes continued to gather momentum with 60 local people attend on a weekly basis for session specific sessions such as netball, football, gym, and circuit training, whilst our school outreach work promoting physical activity seen sessions delivered to over 300 local children.

Nutritional support to local families continued with our partnership with the Healthy Lliving Centre Alliance and SafeFood to ensure 150 adult parents received important messages, techniques, and tips around good food & nutrition.

THE OLD LIBRARY TRUST

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Communities in Transition:

The investment in Creggan by The Executive Office Communities in Transition Project enabled the organisation to continue to support those residents who are difficult to engage to get involved in community life and health and wellbeing activities. This support comes in the form of one-off engagement events, one to one specific mentoring and the promotion of volunteering, upskilling and training. Over 240 hours delivered in counselling and over 60 qualifications gained by those who took part in the programme.

60 Local people engaged in one-to-one support for poor mental and physical heath and associated long term conditions. Support included one-to-one mentoring, counselling, physiotherapy, nutritional support, and personal development. Over 4 large community engagement events seen 600+ people attend for information on community services and support with 35 of our partner organisations.

Strategic priority 2: Older Adults: Providing weekly physical, social and emotional support for older people and those people living with dementia. Support included the following:

Older adult’s wellbeing: Our Older adults support package during this period continued to engage older residents in health, wellbeing, social and uplifting programmes and services. Examples included exercise specific sessions in yoga and line dancing to 51 residents, classic film night to 30 people, community bingo evening with 57 players and our seasonal events of St. Patrick’s Day breakfast, Feile Bus Run, Feile Bingo and Christmas and Easter dance with 346 attendees.

THE OLD LIBRARY TRUST

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Dementia specific DEEDs work:

72 DEEDS members, their families, loved ones and carers were supported with bespoke intervention over this financial year. This included weekly activities and contact to assist those living with dementia to live better for longer within their own community.

Additional support services included a dementia friendly film show for 130 people. Large scale dementia friendly events with 337 in attendance, intergenerational schools work with 97 children and a Mellowdeeds concert with 59 people showing their full support.

Training and education numbers increased this year due to increased demand with training delivered to 41 student paramedics, 337 student nurses, 72 carers and 76 individuals with an interest in Dementia. The DEEDS project is also supported by and engages 30 volunteers on an annual basis. These volunteers are celebrated with an annual event and continue to prove invaluable to the organisation.

Debra and her mum Mary:

"Mammy loves coming to Deeds to meet new people . She relaxes and all anxiety is gone. It’s a great service. I came to Carers Education and decided to become a volunteer. My granny, 3 uncles and now mum have dementia and I just wanted to give something back to the community."

Strategic Priority 3: Long-Term Condition Management: Providing a holistic programme of wellbeing to those living within the community that have one or a combination of long-term conditions. Programmes examples included:

Step Forward group sessions: A twice weekly exercise maintenance programme normally delivered in the Healthy Living Centre with 60 active members taking part in exercise class sessions.
GP Exercise Referral: Supporting 45 local people in person for an intense tailored programme of exercise to suit their individual needs. Conditions supported included diabetes, arthritis, fibromyalgia, anxiety & depression.
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THE OLD LIBRARY TRUST

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Support groups: Like-minded people with similar ailments come together on a regular basis to share experiences and listen to health professionals, who offer advice and support on how to better manage living with a long-term condition. ‘Chronic Pain Programme’ engaged 21 local people whilst 34 local people took part in Falls Prevention sessions. Links to wellbeing initiative developed in partnership with the WHSCT seen 10 local people on long waiting lists present for full support.
Other activities: Walking groups, social events, golfing days, netball, chi me & swimming lessons seen over 70 people engage over the course of the year.

Strategic priority 4: Family support & the Family First Hub

The OLT is the employing body for the co-ordination of the Family First Hub in the Triax area. The Family First Hub works in partnership with WHSCT Family & Childcare Services. During this year face-to-face services to support families were inundated due to the increased needs in the local area. The cost of living pushed people to their limits also.

The Family First Hub supported 206 individual families this year through a range of services that included financial support, mentoring for children and parents, talking therapies and counselling as well as Christmas support and the impact of poverty.

Funding was received from Save the Children and the WHSCT and used to support local families in the form of small grants for food, electricity, presents at Christmas and white goods in winter.

In addition to this Fresh little mind was delivered to 41 local children with a further 30 children availing of child therapy, and 12 adults taking up counselling offered by the organisation.

Strategic priority 5: Positive Minds

82 People took part in structure Mindfulness programmes such as ‘Stairways’ Funded by CLEAR alongside 62 local people taking part in mindfulness and relaxation on a weekly basis. Positive minds funding was a challenge in year but a major need within the community as we move into the new financial year.

THE OLD LIBRARY TRUST

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Tenancy acitivity

The OLT provides facilities and space for other service programme delivery, and leases space for a range of local service providers in the statutory, community and business sectors. These include the following:

Surestart Edenballymore continue to lease office space, the Children’s Centre, and Social Economy Unit 3 to support their delivery of childcare services in the area.
Rosconnor Dental Services continued to operate as normal for the year
Hive Cancer Support Group continued to lease in the Social Economy Unit 1, providing support to local people and their families who are experiencing cancer in their lives.
Rubbers Barbers of Social Economy Unit 2 continued to operate
Physiotherapy & sports massage operated throughout the year and supported local people as some recovered from COVID too.

A word of thanks

Critical to all the achievements and developments over the last 12 months, has been the organisational leadership, the commitment and passion displayed by the Board of Directors, the Project Director, the programme coordinators, support staff, facilitators and volunteers and everyone involved in the community sector across the area. This, coupled with the flexible continued financial support of all our funders, ensured that we can support local people in whatever way we could and for that we are forever grateful.

Financial review

Against the backdrop of limited resources and insecurities over funding, OLT has exercised prudence and managed to make a small surplus for the year. OLT has ensured that the core services are sustained and has set out the following plan for the future sustainability of services.

Income Generation

OLT has significant capacity for income generation through agreement of service level agreements, rental of social economy and primary care units, programme delivery and sessional rental of space. The OLT will maintain prudence in the management and delivery of programmes and services and will work within the terms and conditions of each of its funders. It is anticipated that significant saving will be made in the year ahead through funding secured for facilitators fees which have previously been met through income generation activity. All of the charity's funds are to be spent in the short term as there has been no opportunity since incorporation to accumulate funds for investment.

Reserves Policy

The Board of Directors has examined the charity's requirements for reserves in light of the main risks to the organisation. It has established a policy whereby unrestricted funds not committed or invested in tangible fixed assets held by the charity should between 3 and 6 months of core staff costs and fixed overheads. Charitable activities would be significantly scaled back in this scenario until sufficient funding was obtained to revert to normal levels of programme activities. Based on current staff costs and fixed overheads, the target level of reserves for 3months costs is £80,000.

At the reporting date, the charity held unrestricted reserves of £472,871, which includes £123,553 invested in tangible fixed assets and therefore not available towards the reserves policy target level. Therefore the free reserves of the charity at the year end is £349,318. The strategy is to continue to build free reserves through planned operating surpluses. In the short-term the board has also considered the extent to which existing activities and expenditure could be curtailed, should circumstances arise.

THE OLD LIBRARY TRUST

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Risk Management

OLT carries out regular reviews of the major risks to which the organisation is exposed and is compliant with SORPs requirements including strategic risk management. A risk register has been established and is updated at least annually. Where appropriate, systems or procedures have been established to mitigate the risks the organisation faces. Internal controls are minimised by the implementation of procedures for authorisation of all transactions and projects. Procedures are in place to ensure compliance with health and safety for staff, volunteers, centre users and visitors. All policies and procedures are periodically reviewed to ensure that they continue to meet the needs of the organisation.

Plans for future periods

The 2023/24 year will no doubt be a challenging one as we reflect on the true impact of the pandemic to local people. The organisation will continue to adapt, innovate, and reach out to support the local community as we all try and navigate our way out of this unique situation. A real strength of this organisation is the commitment of staff and volunteers to support those in most need. Their efforts were nothing short of remarkable over the last year and there is no doubt that this will continue into the coming year.

Structure, governance and management

Governing Document

The company holds charitable status and is a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in July 2001. The company was established under a Memorandum of Association which sets out the objects and powers of the charitable company and governed under its Articles of Association. In the event of the company being wound up, members are required to contribute an amount not exceeding £1.

The trustees, who are also the directors for the purpose of company law, and who served during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were:

Mr Charlie O'Donnell (Chairperson) Mr Karol McCauley (Treasurer) Mr Damien Harkin (Vice Chair) Ms Anna-Claire Murray Mr George McGowan (Resigned 7 June 2023) Mr Sean Doherty Ms Yvonne Mullan (Resigned 7 June 2023) Ms Martine Mulhern Mr Maurice O'Donnell

Recruitment & Appointment of Board of Directors

The Board of Directors meetings take place on the first Tuesday of each month. The purposes of the meetings are to update directors on current activities, make strategic decisions, conduct business and discuss any issues relevant to the activities of the OLT. The first members of the Company are the subscribers to the Memorandum of Association.

THE OLD LIBRARY TRUST

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Statement of trustees' responsibilities

The trustees, who are also the directors of The Old Library Trust for the purpose of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company Law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year.

In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Auditor

In accordance with the company's articles, a resolution proposing that Moore (NI) LLP be reappointed as auditor of the company will be put at a General Meeting.

Disclosure of information to auditor

Each of the trustees has confirmed that there is no information of which they are aware which is relevant to the audit, but of which the auditor is unaware. They have further confirmed that they have taken appropriate steps to identify such relevant information and to establish that the auditor is aware of such information.

The trustees' report was approved by the Board of Trustees.

Mr Charlie O'Donnell (Chairperson)

Trustee

19 December 2023