2023-08-31-annual-report - Holywood Family Trust

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

Holywood Family Trust (A company limited by guarantee)

Trustee Annual Report for the year ended 31 August 2023

Company Registration Number NI50431 Registered Charity Number NIC103344 (Northern Ireland)

HOLYWOOD FAMILY TRUST - 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

Holywood Family Trust (A company limited by guarantee)

Annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 August 2023

Contents	Page
Legal and Administrative Information	3
Trustees Report	4

Community & Family Centre 108-112 High Street, Holywood, Co Down BT18 9HW

HOLYWOOD FAMILY TRUST – 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

CHARITY NAME

Holywood Family Trust (HFT)

REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER

NIC103344

COMPANY REGISTRATION NUMBER NI50431 TRUSTEES/DIRECTORS

TRUSTEES/DIRECTORS C McWhirter (Chairperson up to 30.9.22) I Wilson (Director and Chairperson from 1.10.22) M Watson (Treasurer) E Smyrl (Deputy Chairperson) R McCullough (Director) COMPANY SECRETARY S Moore SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM N Dornan A Fitzsimmons REGISTERED OFFICE & 1 08 High Street BUSINESS ADDRESS Holywood County Down BT18 9HW AUDITOR Elaine Mulholland Johnston Graham Ltd 216 Holywood Road Belfast BT4 1PD BANKERS Danske Bank Donegall Square West Belfast Co. Antrim BT1 6JS

HOLYWOOD FAMILY TRUST - 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

TRUSTEES REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023

The trustees present their 19[th] annual report and the financial statements for the year ended 31 August 2023. In compliance with charity law, the Directors are referred to as trustees in this report.

Structure, governance and trustees

Holywood Family Trust (HFT), which is accepted as a charity by HM Revenue & Customs, was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee in Northern Ireland on 28 April 2004, registration number NI50431, with the objective of undertaking charitable activities for the benefit of the inhabitants of Northern Ireland.

In the event of the Charity being wound up members are required to contribute an amount not exceeding £10 each.

The first trustees were appointed by the members. Additional and replacement trustees are appointed by a simple majority resolution of the board or members. Trustees do not have a term of office and are not subject to retirement by rotation or re-election.

The trustees at 31 August 2023, who served for the entire year unless otherwise stated, are listed on page 3. One trustee resigned during the reporting period: Colin McWhirter (30 September 2022).

Statement of trustees' responsibilities

The trustees are responsible for preparing the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law the trustees have elected to prepare the financial statements in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards and applicable law). The financial statements are required by law to give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Charity and of the net income or expenditure of the Charity for the year. In preparing these financial statements the trustees are required to:

select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
make judgments and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
prepare the financial statements on the going-concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in business.

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper 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.

During this reporting period we have continued to experience the longer-term impacts of moving out of the COVID-19 pandemic, including a significant increase in mental health services being accessed by our service users. We have also experienced increased running costs along with our service users due to the cost of living crisis. HFT has supported the community in numerous ways including, providing additional mental health support, by providing food hampers and hygiene products to those in need and offering flexible affordable childcare.

We continued to diversify our services and provide innovative programmes, to meet the needs of our service users.

HOLYWOOD FAMILY TRUST – 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023 (CONTINUED)

We are thankful to our resilient, dedicated staff members and volunteers who have diligently, and consistently worked to ensure we continued to provide our services. We are also thankful to our funders, partners and supporters who have enabled us to have another successful and productive year.

Risk management

Area specific risk assessments have been undertaken that included, the fire risks faced in the premises, Child Protection and Adults at Risk of Harm procedures.

HFT Managers report quarterly to the Board of trustees, regarding issues of Adult and Child Safeguarding, Accidents and Incidents, Health and Safety checks and any legal requirements. A Risk Register is updated annually. Data Protection policies and procedures are reviewed annually and are in line with GDPR legislation that was introduced in 2018.

Contracts of employment with disciplinary and grievance procedures are in place for staff members. Trustee Indemnity Insurance was in place for the current financial year.

Review of year

HFT continued to develop programmes in line with its charitable purposes and public benefit statement as outlined to the Charities Commission NI.

Public Benefit

The benefit from our first purpose is the provision of local (often free) services for socially disadvantaged or vulnerable adults, at risk young people and children within the North Down, Ards and Greater Belfast areas.

These lead to: improved child development/family support; better mental well-being and health; reduced anti-social behaviour; better social inclusion; cultural awareness and improved aspirations. The outputs and outcomes are independently monitored and assessed by a range of funding bodies including the Department for Communities, the Education Authority, the Public Health Agency and the South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust.

The benefit of our second purpose is improved: early years’ development; better parental support; reduced social isolation; better social and communication skills on the part of young people; improved cultural understanding; acceptance of diversity; greater community participation and environmental awareness through the provision of services to adults, young people and children in the wider North Down and Ards community.

This is demonstrated both by client feedback and a range of monitoring and evaluation reports provided to the grant funding bodies such as the Education Authority and the South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust.

The benefit of our final purpose is better mental health and emotional well-being, healthier lifestyles and enhanced personal development through the provision of local services to adults and young people within the wider North Down, Ards and Greater Belfast community. This is evidenced by client evaluations, monitoring and evaluation reports provided to and assessed by grant funding bodies including the Public Health Agency and the Department of Health.

HOLYWOOD FAMILY TRUST - 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023 (CONTINUED)

The charitable purpose and benefits continue to shape HFT’s strategic objectives and operational priorities of how we achieve our goals, which are summarised as:

Provision of high-quality childcare for families and youth activities for young people (including at risk young people).
Provision of activities and services which assist in the mental, emotional, spiritual and physical wellbeing of individuals.
Provision of educational learning activities to help socially disadvantaged people make healthier choices and to train Staff and Volunteers.
Facilitation of activities and events that promote social inclusion of the entire community and create reconciliation and community development opportunities.
Participation in networks and working in partnerships to achieve these aims.

1. Provision of high-quality childcare for families and youth activities for at risk young people.

1.1 HFT’s Childcare Project

Holywood After School Club (HASC) has continued its service, ensuring the delivery of a reliable and quality childcare provision.

We provided 5360 childcare places, through 255 sessions, over 48 weeks in the reporting year. This catered for 58 children from 40 families and we continued to support children with special needs whilst bringing together children and families from 2 Primary Schools.

During the year we continued to be part funded by and implemented the Education Authority’s Bright Start Programme, which aims to support families in need and increase childcare places. We have also received the Childcare Partnership Regional Small Grants Scheme.

Redburn & Loughview Parent and Toddler Group . HFT took responsibility for this project in April 2023 and is now managed under our Childcare project. The Group had run for 18 years in the heart of the community in Redburn Community Centre, but the charity trustees folded the charity and since then we have taken over the management of the group. The group caters for pre-school children and their parents/carers. The numbers attending have grown to 45 members. The group runs twice a week and offered 42 sessions.

1.2 HFT’s Youth project, Holywood Youth Centre (HYC) continued to maintain our provision of local Youth work services as a full-time centre, through securing Education Authority (EA) Area Funding. This report spans the second year of the funding scheme started in 2021 and the first year of a new funding scheme that started in April 2023. During this reporting period our youth staff team consisted of 1 full-time and 8 part-time staff members, which included 2 past Youth Centre members. Weekly the Centre delivered 4 evenings of generic/group work provision for young people aged 8-19 years old and afternoon provision across 2 days. Along with 2 evenings of streetbased outreach. This allowed HYC to provide young people from our catchment area, with safe, structured and supervised youth activities that allowed for healthy growth and development, regardless of race, class, or creed. We achieved this through:
Continuing to deliver and develop a generic provision that is relationship based and creates a safe environment for a wide range of young people.

HOLYWOOD FAMILY TRUST – 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023 (CONTINUED)

Delivering targeted programmes and opportunities that met the assessed needs of local young people and EA local assessment of need.
Providing opportunities that supported young people to live a healthier lifestyle.
Continuing to provide a centralised and accessible structure to our youth work provision, for a wide range of young people, especially those considered ‘at-risk’.

A sample of the work undertaken by HYC this year included:

Local area youth provision. We delivered 180 generic face-to-face youth work sessions, engaging 460 young people, aged 8-19 years over 48 weeks.
Parallel to generic provision, we delivered targeted programmes and workshops (98 sessions) in key areas, including:
Learning and achieving through: providing training opportunities; OCN level 1 in Youth-
- work; First Aid qualifications; Budgeting skills, Junior Leaders, Sexual Health Awareness and Online Safety.
Inclusion, diversity and equality of opportunity through: inclusion and diversity activities and awareness raising about local and global issues.
Participation through: Junior Leaders monthly programme; weekly volunteering opportunities for junior leaders; Junior Member’s Forum; summer volunteering opportunities and community activities.
Good relations through: providing CRED, opportunities to meet and learn from different local communities; taking young people on international exchange trips and hosting international groups.
Living in safety and stability through: one-to-one mentoring programmes, provision and access to food and hygiene products when needed.
Health and wellbeing through: arts, craft, creative activities; sports; fitness; outdoor learning opportunities; mental health/wellbeing activities; sexual health workshops; healthy relationships programmes and healthy eating.
Increasing our online provision through: Facebook (1000 followers); Twitter (412 followers) and Instagram (1058 followers). Sharing successes, delivered projects, positive messages, communicated with young people and promoted opportunities, totalling 263 online activities and 526 social media posts.
Conducting a local area Youth Needs Assessments. In January-March 2023, we gathered responses from 110 young people. This ensured we understood the needs of young people and the youth provision they require. From this we provided a varied, needs-based programme of personal development activities, workshops and support for young people who are considered most at risk within our community.
Delivering collaborative projects. 22 young people were involved with Holywood Men’s Shed and Youth Initiatives partnership projects, and we continue to explore the development of longer-term partnerships with them. We have developed relationships with EDEN Consultancy, Habinteg and Cara-Friend, and continued relationships with South East Trust, Parent’s Plus, Street Pastors, PSNI, local Politicians, Marmion Care Home and Connected for Life.

HOLYWOOD FAMILY TRUST - 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023 (CONTINUED)

Leading the delivery of an Education Authority funded T:BUC Summer Camps good relations project, engaging 26 juniors and 15 seniors from a variety of backgrounds, that included a 2- day residential opportunity.
Adapting and continuing to deliver our Junior Leaders Programme within HYC, giving 12 young people weekly opportunities to take on peer-leadership roles in our provision, collaborative monthly meetings, access to the Millennium Volunteer award scheme and training opportunities including: facilitation training, teamwork skills, first aid training and session planning workshops.
Securing Policing and Community Safety Partnerships (PCSP) funding for a 5-month streetbased outreach project (November 2022-March 2023). This consisted of 42 weekly street-based or online outreach session, engaging 19 young people and were involved in 13 weekly updates to PSNI and Street Pastors developing collaborative working in Holywood.
Engaging 40 young people across afternoon provision, weekly on a Wednesdays and Fridays between September 2022-March 2023.
Securing funding from the Police Property Fund to increase opportunities for young people to engage in active citizenship, improve their relationship with the local police and further engage with the community. Our project ran 4 offsite experiences for 94 young people and 8 weekly engagements with PSNI visiting our Youth Centre.
Continuing to deliver lunch-time outreach in Priory Integrated College to develop relationships with young people, engage them in discussion and promote our services. Throughout this year we delivered 105 outreach sessions and engaged 41 pupils.
Delivering Personal Development for Mutual Understanding curriculum classes in Knocknagoney Primary School, delivering 19 lessons for 2 classes, engaging 40 pupils weekly.
Providing one-to-one mentoring for higher risk young people at times of need. Over this year 8 young people have been provided with 40 mentoring sessions.
Securing additional funding through EA Small Grants to deliver additional, youth-led activities through the summer. We provided 32 activities and engaged 60 young people.
Achieving outstanding grading from EA Moderations across 4 quarterly visits.
1.3 HFT’s Youth ENGAGE project (EA Tackling Paramilitarism Programme TPP) has been running since 2019, targeting young people from Kilcooley, Clandeboye, Conlig and Holywood, who are at higher risk of paramilitary influence or impact. This report spans year one and two of funding secured in April 2021 and we will continue delivering and developing our TPP programme until March 2024. ENGAGE has 1 full-time staff member, 1 part-time staff member and has involved 1 casual youth workers from our Youth Centre. Activities we provided included:
Delivering 62 weekly group work session and programme sessions working with 20 individuals at risk of paramilitary impact of influence, in areas including mental health, wellbeing, justice, drug misuse awareness and lawfulness.
Completing 107 one-to-one mentoring sessions for 7 at-risk young people, focusing on areas including family, sleeping pattern, job seeking, broken relationships, drugs and alcohol, future and goal setting and mental health issues.

HOLYWOOD FAMILY TRUST – 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023 (CONTINUED)

Supporting the delivery of 66 outreach sessions in Priory Integrated College, and 60 outreach sessions in Bangor, Kilcooley and Holywood, 13 of those outreach sessions were at times of heightened tensions and potential unrest.
Running a successful Friday afternoon Football Project (22 sessions), that engaged 23 young people.
Partnered with Invisible Traffick, Bangor Alternatives, Kilcooley Youth Centre, Carrickfergus YMCA and Bangor YMCA.
Had one placement student in their first year of study from Ulster University who completed 300 hours between January -May 2023.
1.4 HFT’s Young People Leading Change (YPLC) Project continued to deliver peer-led projects across NI and internationally, that provided young people with the opportunity to improve their leadership skills while building their understanding of how to deal with difference.
YPLC delivered 38 good relation themed projects, in partnership with Netball NI, Ulster Badminton and Ulster Hockey. This included facilitation of:
- 4 (4-hour) sessions for Netball NI in 14 different Primary and Post-Primary Schools, across Belfast, Derry/Londonderry, Craigavon, Lurgan. Delivered by 14 staff and volunteer facilitators and engaged with 800 young people.
- 30 (1-hour) sessions for Ulster Badminton in 15 different Primary Schools across Belfast, Lisburn, and Derry/Londonderry. Delivered by 8 staff and volunteer facilitators and engaged 700 young people.
- 3 (1 hour) sessions for Ulster Hockey in 1 Secondary school in Newry engaging 20 young people and 1 (4 hour) facilitation training session for volunteers engaging 10 young people.

The Childcare and Youth projects were supported by funders, grants and donations listed in the notes to the financial statements.

2. Provision of activities and services which assist in the mental, emotional, spiritual and physical well-being of individuals.

2.1 HFT’s Counselling Project, HFT Community Counselling (HFTCC) has sustained our service through another challenging year, and we have seen the longer-term impact of moving out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We have maintained our service accreditation with the British Association of Counsellors and Physiotherapists (BACP). The accreditation level is for organisations that operate to the high standards outlined for counselling service providers and was the fifth service in Northern Ireland to hold this accreditation.

HFTCC continues to be a vital resource for community and primary carers alike. Our Public Health Agency (PHA) funding was renewed in April 2023, along with additional Service Pressure funding. This has enabled us to provide services to improve the emotional health and well-being of many people in North Down, Ards and Greater Belfast areas. Moving out of the COVID-19 pandemic we were able to continue to support service users through a hybrid provision of face to face, telephone and online Counselling sessions.

HOLYWOOD FAMILY TRUST - 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023 (CONTINUED)

Through this reporting period we continued with the Department of Health, Mental Health Fund that started in January 2022 administered by the Community Foundation. The funding enabled us to increase our counselling sessions, develop wellbeing workshops, support the BAME community and volunteer and student counsellor development.

Some of HFTCC’s achievements this year included:

Provided 2169 counselling sessions for adults and youth counselling sessions in partnership with RelateNI. Client information/support calls were also provided.
Supporting clients, with a range of issues including depression, anxiety, bereavement, stress, trauma, abuse, relationships, self-esteem, domestic violence, anger management, self-harm and addiction.
Ensuring the development of our staff and volunteer team through a wide range of individual supervision, training and professional development opportunities. This included Autism, Stress and Anxiety, Reconciliation of Traumatic Memories, Suicide Bereavement Training, Keeping Adults Safe Training and Mental Health First Aid.
Supporting a dedicated team of 5 Staff Counsellors, 2 Volunteer Counsellors and 6 Sessional Counsellors.

Feedback from clients and service users has continued to be very positive, they have expressed their gratitude to all involved in the work, and indicated that the service has been a life line to them.

2.2 HFT’s Caring and Social Action Project

The project has supported individuals and families in Holywood, North Down and Greater Belfast, by providing food and essential supplies (supporting 80 individuals from 45 families). This has included providing Christmas Hampers to 19 families in need in December 2022. Over the period 2 volunteers have supported this project. The project has been supported by Fareshare (Tesco and Lidl), Storehouse Food Bank, Christian Fellowship Church (CFC) and Hygiene Bank NI.

3. Provision of educational learning activities to help socially disadvantaged people make healthier choices and to train Staff and Volunteers.

Educational Training: We continued to support and encourage developing a Learning Community and our three main projects also held a range of training and team building activities:

A number of Volunteers and Staff completed a variety of in-house and external training certificates including: First Aid, Safeguarding, Trauma/Resilience, Autism Training, GDPR, OCNNI Level 2 Youth Leadership, Risk Management, Fire Safety, and Food Hygiene.
We facilitated training to support individuals who have been unemployed into employment.

4. Facilitation of activities and events that promote social inclusion of the entire community and create reconciliation and community development opportunities.

Community Development through :

Staff members participating in a range of activities and sessions to help increase local capacity building and community development with statutory agencies and community/faith groups.

HOLYWOOD FAMILY TRUST – 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023. (CONTINUED)

This year we continued to act as an umbrella organisation for 3 groups requiring vetting and barring checks.
A range of networks and events were supported in the area during the year that included: The Education Authority’s Local and Regional Advisory Groups, Holywood Town Advisory Group, South East Trust Community of Interest for Mental Health Promotion and Promotion and Suicide Prevention Group.
Our projects engaged over 25 regular Volunteers and have continued to implement best practice when engaging volunteers, through our ‘Investing in Volunteers’ Accreditation. We facilitated an organisation wide Volunteer Recognition Week in June 2023.
We facilitated events to promote active citizenship and community involvement including a Collaborative Event and hosted a visit from the PSNI and a representative from Department of Justice to our Youth project. They spoke to young people about their experiences in HYC and living in the area. Staff discussed hotspots for Anti-social Behaviour in the area, issues within Holywood and how the PSNI can connect with the community.

5. Participation in networks and work in partnerships to achieve these aims.

Networks and Partnership working continued to help to increase our overall capacity in delivering services.

We continued to work with Government Bodies, Community Organisations, Schools, PSNI, Faith Based Organisations, Youth Groups, Churches and the Residents Association.

HFT’s trustees would like to recognise and acknowledge:

The generous donations, grants and funding support received during the year from the organisations referenced and listed in notes 2, 3 and 6 to these financial statements. These funds and grants have enabled the Staff team and Volunteers to make a number of significant achievements.
The fantastic contribution that our volunteers made during the year in every aspect of HFT’s work.
The kind receipt of donations from a range of supporters, many of which are listed in the notes to the financial statements.
The non-monetary gifts in kind that were given to provide regular weekly food, hampers and support to families and individuals in need or through outreach work carried out by HFT by:
Christian Fellowship Church
Tesco and Lidl Stores through Fareshare
Storehouse Food Bank
Hygiene Bank NI
Holywood Family Trust are grateful to Holywood Christian Fellowship Church for renting their premises to us to carry out our charitable work.

Unrestricted reserves

The Charity aims to maintain unrestricted funds and reserves that equates to between 25% and 50% of annual administration overheads. This provides sufficient funds to cover any unforeseen costs that may

HOLYWOOD FAMILY TRUST - 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

arise as well as allowing for the payment of any liabilities that would crystallise if the Charity ceases to operate.

Signed by order of the Board

S Moore, Company Secretary

Date 25[th] June 2024