Glasgow Street Pastors SCIO
Trustees Report July 2023 – June 2024
NAMES OF CHARITY TRUSTEES
Names of trustees at date of approval of Trustees’ Annual Report
| Trustee Name | Office (if any) | Dates acted if not for whole period |
|---|---|---|
| Treasurer | Jul 23 to Jan 24 | |
| Jan 24 to Jun 24 | ||
| Secretary | ||
| Jan 24 to Jul 24 | ||
| Vice Chair | ||
| Chair | ||
| Jul 23 to Jul 24 |
Names of all charity trustees during the period and the dates they acted. All have been included above.
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STRUCTURE AND GOVERNANCE
Glasgow Street Pastors SCIO (SC050255 ), company number CS004696 is an incorporated association with a constitution.
PURPOSES AND ACTIVITIES
The purposes of the charity are:
The relief of those in need in Glasgow within the day time and night time economy or at an organised event in the city by an approach which offers listening, caring and helping in a practical and immediate way.
The saving of lives in Glasgow within the day time and night time economy or at an organised event in the city by directly cooperating and liaising with emergency services.
The advancement of religion by responding to spiritual needs and offering pastoral care; support is not dependent on an individual’s religious standpoint.
WHO ARE WE?
Glasgow Street Pastors began in January 2009. In 2023-24 around 100 volunteers operated in 8 Street Pastor teams in the city centre and 4 in the West End. There were around 15 playing supporting roles as Prayer Pastors.
Glasgow Street Pastors is an interdenominational Christian organisation, working in partnership with local churches, Glasgow City Council and Police Scotland. Street Pastors come from diverse backgrounds, a wide range of ages, many Christian denominations, and operate in mixed-sex teams. All volunteers doing regulated work are members of the PVG Scheme for work with Protected Adults. Volunteers are motivated and trained to demonstrate non-judgemental, compassionate care on the streets of the city by listening, caring and helping. The instantly recognisable uniform is welcomed by the public at the weekend on the streets of Glasgow and at major events.
Street Pastors engage with a variety of people who use the night-time economy in Glasgow, especially those who are excessively intoxicated, distressed, vulnerable and/or require support for a safe onward journey. We also work with homeless people and beggars. We provide support to Police Scotland, to door stewards and taxi marshals employed by the City Council. Teams are linked by radio to the CCTV control centre at Glasgow Operations Centre. We work in partnership with the Police; Homeless Project Scotland (which in the period reported opened an overnight shelter in the city centre); Glasgow Street Aid, which has uniformed volunteer paramedics in the city centre; and Glasgow City Mission, which has a number of services for those who are homeless, including an overnight housing support service in the winter of 2023-2024.
Glasgow Street Pastors is governed by a Management Team of Trustees drawn from volunteers who are actively involved in the charity’s work. As we are affiliated to Ascension Trust, a national charity, we follow their guidelines and protocols, use their training materials and wear the same uniform as other Street Pastor groups. In the year to June 2024 we had 3 paid part-time staff: a Co-ordinator, an Administration Officer and a Development Officer.
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ACTIVITIES JULY 2023 – JUNE 2024
The primary objective of Street Pastors is to listen, care and help. Our street teams do this by patrolling on the city centre streets between the hours of 2200 and 0400, between 2200 and 0100 in the West End and occasionally at other major events in the city. Our Safe Zone operates from St George’s Tron Church in Buchanan Street on a Friday and Saturday night during the same hours, staffed by SP volunteers. The Safe Zone offers support to vulnerable people, an opportunity to be inside in bad weather and the opportunity to recover before making arrangements for their onward journey. Police Scotland also use the facility thus saving time and valuable resources on the streets.
We are in no doubt that our work on the streets and in our Safe Zone is the reason we exist and is the most important thing we do. During the year we continued to have many significant encounters on the street and to meet people struggling with addictions, loneliness, mental health issues and spiritual searching. This is in addition to the shortterm problems of drunkenness, lost property, being separated from friends, and minor injuries. Flip-flops continue to be often required and much appreciated. As we address challenges of resource, organisation, finance and governance, therefore, it is always in this context – these are not the “main event”. Following the implementation of a new database system in January 2024, we are able to summarise our activity for the first half of 2024 as follows:
| follows: | |
|---|---|
| Shifts completed by individual Street Pastors | 434 |
| Number of observer shifts | 26 |
| People brought into Safe Zone | 157 |
| Instances of First Aid given | 19 |
| Significant conversations | 872 |
| Practical support given | 1045 |
| Safety support given | 195 |
| Requests to prayer teams | 498 |
| Requests for help to other agencies | 39 |
| Requests for help from other agencies | 28 |
| Glass items removed from street | 1395 |
| Flipflops distributed | 381 |
| Appreciation received | 487 |
Our Prayer Teams have been integrated with our operational teams and their support (from home) right through until the end of the shift is highly valued.
Although our recruitment, selection and training programmes have been busy, the natural turnover of volunteers in the period has resulted in little overall change in numbers. A typical week would see 1 patrol in the West End and in the city centre the Safe Zone being open on both Friday and Saturday nights with either 1 or 2 teams on the street.
Early in the financial year we were able to recruit a Development Officer: Fiona Kilpatrick, one of our Street Pastors. Fiona’s work has been invaluable to us: populating our database
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with details of church contacts; organising talks to churches, church groups and others as requested; promoting our work using the videos which were created last year; reaching out to churches where there are no Street Pastors; developing promotional materials and organising a couple of events specifically for church leaders. This development work is the precursor and foundation to recruitment of new trainees.
We also welcomed Elaine Moore to the office as our new Administration Officer, following the resignation of Lorna Johnstone, who was a valuable team member for many years and who is still volunteering as part of the prayer team. Elaine is already playing a key role in the administration of the organisation, including some recent developments. Alongside the implementation of the database, we have created 3 key teams (Operations & Training; Development and Finance) which support the work of our 3 staff members and provide a link to the Management Team.
Our wider links have been important to us in recent times. Following the visit of a Rwandan pastor in June 2023, we have had a visit from an American pastor, who completed a shift with one of our teams. We have been able to welcome trainees from nearby and smaller Street Pastor groups to our training; we have supported Paisley Street Pastors in prayer and by the use of our videos; one of our volunteers sits on the Board of Ascension Trust Scotland and another on their Safeguarding Team and we have been informally supporting the establishment of a Street Pastor group in Shetland.
During the year we were honoured by a visit from the Chief Constable of Police Scotland, who as part of a Friday night “walkabout” in the city centre popped in to our Safe Zone and chatted with our Coordinator the team leader for the evening.
Safeguarding is a standing item on the agenda of the Management team.
TRUSTEES AIMS FOR JULY 2024 – JUNE 2025
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Encourage and nurture teams, ensuring that new Street Pastors are well integrated
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and trained as they join us.
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Develop our selection and recruitment to be more effective both for us and for potential volunteers.
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Continue the focus on a “one team” culture, merging the work of Street teams, Safe Zone teams and Prayer Pastors to ensure that we have flexible and multi-skilled teams.
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Continue to recruit, train and deploy additional volunteers for all aspects of GSP work to ensure that we at least maintain volunteer numbers, but preferably see some growth.
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Continue to build and strengthen contacts with churches, particularly those who
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have not previously engaged with Street Pastors.
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Explore ways in which our financial strength can support and develop our work on the streets.
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Ensure that there is a smooth transition when a substantial number of our Management Team will step down in January 2025.
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FINANCIAL REVIEW We recognise and are very grateful for the ongoing generosity of individual Street Pastors, churches, Trusts and members of the public in financially supporting our work. Late in 2023 we received a substantial legacy from an anonymous source. This has given us a financial reseNe which will last for a few years and has also challenged us about how best to use it to support and develop the work of Glasgow Street Pastors. One of our initial actions was to put most of the funds into an account with a high rate of interest. In the following months we have begun to spend some of it, primarily on development activities (the work of Fiona Kilpatrick, our Development Offir> and some items of equipment for our Offi and for operational activities. Our Reserves policy is to retain sufficient money in the bank or other assets to cover all restricted funds, potential redundancy payments, three months, gross salary for employees and three months, rental payments to St George's Tron Church. TRUSTEES, DECLARATION The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees report above. Signed on behalf of the charity's trustees Signed Full Name Position Date .l-Dec-2024................................. Glasgow Street Pastors st George's Tron Church of Scotland 163 Buchanan Street Glasgow G12JX TEL: 07530 542631 SC050255
Glasgow Street Pastors Statement of Accounts to June 2024 Funds Legacy Total Prevlous year Receipts Donations & Gift Aid £ 37,415.32 £ 80,792.87 £ 118,208.19 £ 40,062.00 Payments Salaries & Pensions ATS Licence Fee IT other Operating Expenses Recruitment & Training £ 26.533.35 £ 5,064.79 £ 7.025.04 £ 9,971.00 £ 2,763.98 £ 51,358.16 £ 26.533.35 £ 17,125.85 £ 12.477.02 £ 9,971.00 £ 7,506.98 £ 73.614.20 £ 19,655.00 £ 7,508.00 574.00 £ 6,385.00 £ 3,323.00 £ 37,445.00 £ 12,061.06 £ 5.451.98 4,743.00 £ 22,256.04 Surplus l (Deficit) 13 942.84 £ 58 536.83 £ 44 593.99 £ 2 617.00 Statement of Balances Funds Reconcilation Cash at bank and in hand 1st July 2023 Surplus l {Deficit) £ 49,241.00 13,942.84 £ 35,298.16 £ 49.241.00 £ 44,593.99 £ 93,834.99 £ 46,592.00 £ 2,617.00 £ 49,209.00 £ 58,536.83 £ 58,536.83 Bank and Cash Balances Bank Accounts Cash in Hand £ 35.224.16 74.00 £ 35 298.16 £ 58,536.83 £ 93.760.99 74.00 £ 93 834.99 £ 49,167.00 42.00 £ 49 209.00 £ 58 536.83 Signed on behalf of the Trustees Chaii 1st Dec 2024
Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of Glasgow Street Pastors (SCIO) SCO50255 I report on the accounts of the charity for the 12-month period ended 30 June 2024 which are set out on pages 1 to 6. Respectlvg re8pon8lbllltles of trustees and examiner The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordan with the lerms of the Charities and Trustee Investment {Scotlandl Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. The charity trustees consider that the audit requirement of Regulation 10{1) (d) of thè 2006 Accounts Regulations does not apply. 11 is my responsibility to examine the accounts as required under section 44{1) {c) of the Act and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention. Ba818 of indopendent examiner's statement My examination is carried out in a¢¢ordance with Regulation 11 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations. 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 dixlosures in the accounls, and seeks explanations from the trustees Conrning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence Ihat would be required in an audit, and consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts. Independent examlner's ststement In the course of my examination, no matter has Come to my attention 1. which gives me reasonable Cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements.. . to keep aceounting records in aecordance wtlh Section 44(1) (a) of the 2005 Act and Regulation 4 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations • to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with Regulation 9 of the 2006 Accounls Regulations have not been met, or 2. to which. in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper undetslanding of the accounts to be reached.