South Lakeland District Council Cabinet 9th April 2014 South Lakeland District Council Royal Wedding Fund-Future Options PORTFOLIO: Councillor Graham Vincent – Health and Wellbeing Portfolio Holder REPORT FROM: Shelagh McGregor - Assistant Director (Resources) and Chief Finance Officer REPORT AUTHOR: Matthew Neal - Solicitor to the Council WARDS: not applicable KEY DECISION NO: not applicable 1.0 EXPECTED OUTCOME 1.1 The purpose of this report is to seek approval from Cabinet to wind up the South Lakeland District Council Fund originally set up in Commemoration of the Wedding of His Royal Highness Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer (“the Trust”) and to pass the Trust fund to 3 other organisations with similar purposes as set out in the report. 1.2 A consequential amendment to the constitution would enable Audit Committee to take an oversight role in terms of ensuring that the money is spent for the appropriate purposes RECOMMENDATION Cabinet is recommended to give approval to the following: (1) The winding up of the South Lakeland District Council Fund in Commemoration of the Wedding of His Royal Highness Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer (“the Trust”); and (2) The assets of the Trust be passed to three charities in the following proportions: (a) One-sixth of the assets of the Trust to the Leeds Children’s Holiday Camp Association (otherwise known as the Leeds Children’s Charity); (b) One third of the assets of the Trust to Bendrigg Trust ; and (c) Half of the assets of the Trust to Brathay Trust; and (3) The Assistant Director (Resources) and Chief Finance Officer be authorised to take all necessary steps to give effect to the winding up of the Trust and (4) Full Council be recommended to approve that the Audit Committee’s terms of reference be extended to include, under the heading of Audit Activity, monitoring the expenditure of funds transferred from the Trust to the above charities. 3.0 BACKGROUND AND PROPOSALS 3.1 The Trust was set up by a deed of trust of 17th March 1982. It is duly registered with the Charity Commission. The charitable object is "for the purpose of promoting the benefit of children under the age of 16 years resident within the United Kingdom who are poor by arranging holidays for them within the District of the Council in such manner as shall from time to time determined by the Trustees." 3.2 Holidays were arranged annually, usually at Lakeside, Newby Bridge or at Bendrigg Trust, Old Hutton. The last holiday was at Lakeside to a value of £1,800 in August 2000. The Trust was inactive from that date until it convened a meeting on 19 July 2013 3.3 The Chairman of the South Lakeland District Council for the time being and the Assistant Director Social Services for South Lakeland are both ex officio trustees. Therefore Councillor Westwood and Lyn Burns are Trustees. Councillor Andy Shine was appointed as trustees in June 2013. On 19 July 2013 the Solicitor to the Council and the Assistant Director (Resources) and Chief Finance Officer were appointed as Clerk to the Trust and Treasurer to the Trust respectively 3.4 The Trust deed states that if at any time the Trustees shall decide that the purposes of the fund cannot continue to be carried out they may determine that the cash investments and any other property held on account of the fund shall be applied for any other similar charitable purpose. This purpose shall be determined by the Council in accordance with a scheme to be settled by the Council. In default the Council shall apply to the Charity Commission for a scheme. 3.5 At its meeting of 19 July 2013 the Trustees considered options for the future of the Trust. The Trustees considered that continuation of the Trust and the resources needed to manage it would be undesirable. Trustees expressed the desire that the Trusts funds should be transferred to an organisation or organisations that would keep to the original aims and objectives of the Trust, to provide holidays in South Lakeland for disadvantaged people under the age of 16. The Trustees therefore agreed that: “ (1) in principle the aim of winding up the Trust and the transfer of its funds to an organisation with similar aims and objectives be accepted; and (2) the Clerk to the Trust be authorised to identify and then invite suitable organisations with similar aims and objectives to make application to the Trust to received its funds (or part thereof); and (3) a subsequent meeting of the Trust shall consider applications made pursuant to (2) above and make recommendations to South Lakeland District Council that; a. the Trust be wound up; and b. an appropriate organisation or organisations shall receive the assets of the Trust, subject to conditions enforcing the original purpose of the Trust.” 3.6 The Clerk to the Trust subsequently made enquiries of Cumbria CVS, and also utilised the Charity Commission web site to seek Charities with a similar objectives to that of the Trust. 3.7 After consultation with the Trustees, the Clerk to the Trust identified 3 charities which have objectives which are similar to those to the Trust and who have premises available for holidays in South Lakeland. The objectives, as set out on the Charity Commission website, are as follows (a) BENDRIGG TRUST THE BENDRIGG TRUST RUNS HIGH QUALITY COURSES FOR DISABLED AND DISADVANTAGED PEOPLE WHO COME TO BENDRIGG FROM ALL PARTS OF THE UK FOR A DAY, WEEKEND OR A WEEK. WE AIM TO PROMOTE INTEGRATION, ENCOURAGE INDEPENDENCE AND BUILD SELF-CONFIDENCE THROUGH THE USE OF RESIDENTIAL EXPERIENCE AND THE SAFE PROVISION OF ADVENTUROUS ACTIVITIES DELIVERED BY DEDICATED, QUALIFIED STAFF. Where it operates CUMBRIA (b) BRATHAY TRUST THROUGH OUR WORK WE SEEK TO INSPIRE CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE TO ENGAGE POSITIVELY IN THEIR COMMUNITY. WE DO THIS BY DELIVERING INNOVATIVE PROGRAMMES, SHARING OUR KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE AND WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH OTHERS THAT SHARE OUR VISION. Where it operates THROUGHOUT ENGLAND AND WALES, FRANCE, SCOTLAND (c) LEEDS CHILDRENS HOLIDAY CAMP ASSOCIATION TO PROVIDE FREE RESIDENTIAL SHORT BREAKS/RESPITE FOR UNDERPRIVILEGED CHILDREN OF LEEDS AND TO PROVIDE AND MAINTAIN A PURPOSE BUILT PROPERTY AT SILVERDALE NEAR MORECAMBE. THE CHILDREN ARE REFERRED BY HEAD TEACHERS AND SUPPORT STAFF IN THE LEEDS PRIMARY SCHOOLS TOGETHER WITH SOCIAL WORKERS, FOSTER PARENTS AND OTHER ASSOCIATED ORGANISATION Where it operates LEEDS CITY 3.8 On 30 December 2013 the Clerk to the Trust wrote to the organisations listed at paragraph 3.7 above and set out an introduction to the work of the Trust and the way forward that Trustees had agreed at the meeting of 17 July 2013. The Clerk to the Trust then asked for confirmation from each organisation as to: (a) whether it was interested in being a candidate organisation for the assets in the event that the Trust were to be wound up; and (b) whether it would be able to use the assets of the Trust (or part thereof) for a similar charitable purpose to that of the Trust in the event that the Trust were to be wound up. 3.9 Confirmation as to both (a) and (b) above was duly received from each organisation. Invitations to Bid were then sent out and bids were received from each organisation. All of the 3 bidders are seeking 100% of the Royal Wedding Funds. 3.10 On 13 March 2014 the Trustees considered all of the bids and concluded that all of the applications had considerable merit and should receive a share of the proceeds of the Trust. It was considered that Brathay Trust as the largest organisation should receive the largest share, with Bendrigg and Leeds Children’s Charity receiving progressively smaller shares of the Trust. The recommendations (1), (2) and (4) in the report are in accordance with the recommendations of the Trustees. 3.11 Winding up of the Trust require a formal decision by the Cabinet. Any such move would require some means for the Council to monitor that the transferred money is being spent in the manner that the accepted bids outlined. It is considered that this monitoring task could be carried out by the Audit Committee. This addition to the Committee’s terms of reference would need to be agreed by full Council. 4.0 CONSULTATION Bendrigg Trust 4.1 Bendrigg Trust is based near Old Hutton and its holidays would be at its Headquarters at Bendrigg Lodge. They previously hosted holidays for the Royal Wedding Trust. They run residential activity holidays and courses for groups of young people from all over the UK. Many of these young people are also socially disadvantaged. The majority of Bendrigg Trust user groups for 2012 were people with learning and multiple disabilities. Only 5% were disadvantaged. 4.2 They provide holidays for disabled and disadvantaged groups of young people from all over the UK. Their costs are higher than mainstream centres due to higher staffing ratios presumably due to their emphasis of on disabled people rather than disadvantaged people. 4.3 Bendrigg Trust’s proposal is to use the Royal Wedding Fund’s money as a sponsorship fund to help disadvantaged people who cannot afford the full fees. 4.4 For the financial year 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2012 Bendrigg Trust had unrestricted funds of £304,485 to act as a reserve fund.. They had an operating deficit of £99,000 for the year with Liquid assets balance of £266,630 at the year end. 4.5 Bendrigg Trust is a professionally based organisation with 25 members of staff (full time and part time).