River Thames Boat Project Annual Report 2012-13 RIVER THAMES BOAT PROJECT Annual Report and Accounts 2012-2013 Contents Report of the Directors 1 Review of the Year 5 Statement of Public Benefit 13 Statement of Risk 15 Statement of Disability Policy 15 Clients 17 Donors 19 Accounts for 2012-2013 A1 Notes to the Accounts A5 Independent Examiner’s Report on the Accounts A9 Photographs by Robert Cope, John Frye, John Humphries and Miranda Jaggers River Thames Boat Project Registered in England and Wales Company no: 3953201 Registered Office: 66 Hill Street Richmond Surrey TW9 1TW Registered charity no. 1080281 020 8940 3509 [email protected] www.thamesboatproject.org This report had been distributed electronically and is also available at: www.thamesboatproject.org. Any hard copies have been printed on recycled paper. Report of the Directors The Company The River Thames Boat Project is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee that is registered with the Charity Commission. The objects of the charity are to provide facilities for boating on the Thames for the purpose of social welfare especially for older people, people with disabilities and young people, and for environmental education and for other charitable purposes. The charity does this by running a converted Dutch barge, the Thames Venturer (Venturer), which takes out groups of people within the categories described above for voyages and activities on the Thames between Windsor and Putney, and provides environmental education on the boat and ashore. Patron David Suchet CBE Honorary President Sir Peter Harrop KCB The President may attend meetings of the Board but is not a member of the Board. Although no longer a director, Sir Peter Harrop continues to be actively involved. As well as representing the charity at local events, he gives invaluable guidance to the charity as a whole and particular support to the Friends of the River Thames Boat Project. We are very fortunate that we continue to benefit from his great experience. The Board of Directors The directors who served during the year were: Richard Robinson, re-elected 2011, Chairman to March 1st Paul Barry, Honorary Treasurer, re-elected 2010 David Bell, re-elected November 2009 Peter Low, re-elected 2009 Louise Sibley, re-elected 2010, Chairman from March 1st Byron Turner re-elected 2011 Keith Knox, Vice Chairman, re-elected 2011 Jane Newman, elected November 2010 Hilary Pickles, retired November 2012 Shaun Williams, resigned August 2012 Paul Boyd, elected November 2012 None received any remuneration from the company except for out-of-pocket expenses. 1 Chair of the Board of Trustees After giving over six years of dedicated and hard-working service as Chairman of the charity, Richard Robinson retired from the role in March 2013. The Directors wish to thank Richard for his solid contribution during a period of steady growth. We are delighted to say that he has agreed to stay on the Board where we continue to benefit from his sound advice, stringent attention to detail and great good humour. His role as Chair has been taken by Louise Sibley, who has been a trustee since November 2008. Louise Sibley, the new Chair of Trustees. Officers and Staff The company was well served during the year by: Miranda Jaggers, Executive Director (full-time) Peter Oldham, Skipper (full-time) Judy Cope, Project Administrator (part-time) to August 2012 Anne-Marie Fothergill, Project Administrator (part-time) from October 2012 Also by Sally Woodward, Sessional Teacher, School on the River Sarah Fahy, Sessional Teacher, School on the River And in a voluntary capacity: Wendy Moss, Company Secretary Membership The membership of the company was 109 at 31 March 2013. It is a condition of membership that members must contribute £1 if the company is wound up and has debts which cannot be met out of its assets. Under the company’s Memorandum of Association, in the event of the winding up of the company any surplus assets would be distributed to another charitable body with similar objects and rules of distribution. The Balance Sheet, which forms part of the accompanying Accounts, shows that at the end of the financial year there was a satisfactory surplus of assets. 2 Principal Activities Our purpose is to provide educational, therapeutic and recreational cruises and activities on the Thames. We run two programmes that provide a choice of day and residential cruises for people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities and older people. These are: Accessing the Thames (ATT) This is our most popular programme, designed for people who have a physical and/or learning disability, suffer from a mental illness, or are elderly and/or frail. Although Thames Venturer is restricted by the terms of its licence to carrying twelve passengers while under way, this has proved to be particularly beneficial for these groups who often find it For the first time a group from Headley Court spent a day on the Venturer, just one of the 20 groups of disabled services’ difficult to cope when in large men and women the Lest We Forget Association booked groups of people. In 2012-13 onto our Accessing the Thames programme. we ran 83 ATT trips. “Our group had a fabulous day and were talking about it for the next week! Your hospitality and help was great and hopefully we will see you next year.” Age UK. Linking People Afloat (LPA) This programme, similar to ATT, is for isolated individuals who are not members of a support group. This programme is particularly valued by older people who live alone. We ran 3 LPA trips in 2012-13. We also run two educational programmes, mainly for younger people. These are: Living and Learning Afloat (LaLA) This programme is aimed at children and young people between the ages of 8 and 18 - including young carers who experience particular benefit from a break on Thames Venturer. We offer day trips, as well as residential voyages, with a strong emphasis on learning new skills. In 2012/13 we received a total of 9 bookings for LaLA cruises. 3 School on the River (SoR) This Key Stage 2 environmental education programme, designed for 8-10 year olds, is run at Teddington Lock and, because the boat is moored alongside, the Venturer can accommodate a class of up to 35 children, plus their teacher and helpers. Basing the course at Teddington enables us to demonstrate the differences between the fresh water river and the tidal estuary. The day includes, among other things, practical science experiments on board, visits to Teddington Lock for a demonstration of how a lock works and visits to the nearby island to observe and explore the effects of the tides. Over 26 days, we delivered SoR to 854 children, staff and helpers and 60 students during 2012-13. More information about our future plans for this programme is given in Thanks to grants from the City Bridge Trust and the Review of the Year as we received a BAA Community Awards we are updating and grant from the BAA Community Awards expanding our environmental education. activities. and in December a 3-year grant from the City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s Charity, to extend our environmental education programme. The feedback we receive from these programmes is very positive. A selection of passenger comments from the 2012 season is included in the Report. “The class really enjoyed the day and learned a lot. Many said it was their ‘best trip ever’. The visit really reinforced our topic of the Water / River and of the science topic “Solids, Liquids and Gases”. Thank you so much for the day.” School in New Malden. Community presence As part of building community links and for fundraising purposes, we also take the boat to a series of local river-based events and festivals every year. During the year, as well as attending the Great River Race, Kingston Regatta and Walton Heritage Day, additional opportunities were provided by the Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. We attended the Olympic torch flotilla, held open days during the Cycle Road Races and provided the boat to the Mayor of Kingston for a special beacon in celebration of the Jubilee. 4 Training We also devote several days a year to volunteer mates’ and crew training. This covers boat operations, health and safety, emergency drills, and disability awareness. In 2012 we ran 4 training days, including induction and safety training for new crew members and a special training day for the mates with the RNLI crew from Chiswick. Working in partnership with the RNLI on safety and Fund-earning Finally, we use evacuation training. Thames Venturer, when not on core client or community business, to help us earn funds in a manner which also fulfils the spirit of our charitable purpose. Venturer Photography is a linked enterprise run by volunteers which makes use of the boat on summer evenings to provide photography cruises for all-comers and helps earn extra funds for the charity. We also offer the boat for community hospitality events or meetings. In 2012 we ran 3 evening cruises and opened the boat for use by 2 local community groups. REVIEW OF THE YEAR Operational Highlights 2012-13 was again an outstanding year in terms of programmes and activities, with our boat out on the river or providing educational activities during the week for almost the whole of the 2012 boating season, extending well into the autumn. Our key statistics are given on page 13-14 under the statement of public benefit. New activities This year we tested two new outdoor learning programmes. The first was a set of pilot outreach Cubs working towards their programmes for 3rd Hampton Hill Scout group, Environment Partnership Award.