BCJ's Annual Report and Accounts 2007
Below you will find a text version of our Annual Report and Accounts. Alternatively, you can click on the links in the left hand pane to view the pdf versions of the sections of the Annual Report and Accounts. If you wish to view the entire document please go to the Annual Reports tab.
Go to Reference and Administration
Go to Structure, Governance and Management
Go to Mission, Values, Objectives and Activities
Go to Chair's Statement of the highlights of the year
Go to Mission and Values reporting
Go to Objective One reporting
Go to Objective Two reporting
Go to Objective Three reporting
Go to Objective Four reporting
Go to Objective Five reporting
Go to Objective Six reporting
Go to Objective Seven reporting
Go to Environmental impact
Go to Economic impact
Go to What we found out
Go to Treasurer's Report
Go to Independent Auditor's Report
Go to Statement of Financial Activities
Go to Balance Sheet
Go to Note to the Accounts
Reference and Administration Details
Charity Name: Bloomsbury Cyber Junction (BCJ)
Registered No: 1087117 (From 1 April 2008 BCJ’s registered charity number will be 1122373).
Principal Address: Oliver Street, Bloomsbury, Birmingham, B7 4NY
Branches: Phoenix Learning Centre (PLC), 4 Towpath Close, Garrison Lane, Bordesley, Birmingham, B9 4QA
Trustee details and senior staff members: See Trustee & Staff details.
Bankers: Lloyds TSB, 22a Great Hampton Street, Hockley, Birmingham, B18 6AH
Auditors: Cairns Bailey & Co Chartered Accountants, 3 Beacon Court, Birmingham Road, Great Barr, Birmingham, B43 6NN
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Structure, Governance and Management
Type of governing document: Constitution adopted 24 August 2000, amended May 2001. The Charity is constituted as a voluntary organisation. From 1 April 2008 BCJ will be a company limited by guarantee (number 6426000). Click here to view the new Memorandum and Articles of Association.
All trustees are appointed by the members of the Charity and existing Trustees.
Trustees are provided with training appropriate to their role, including, where required, Governance, Budgeting, Management skills, Minute taking and Conducting meetings. The Charity has an Induction Procedure for staff and volunteers, which covers the training of trustees.
The Chief Executive has been appointed as the Senior Staff Member, with responsibility for making day to day decisions on behalf of the trustees.
The trustees have undertaken a risk assessment and consider that there are systems in place to manage all the risks the charity is exposed to.
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Mission, Values, Objectives and Activities
During 2007 BCJ undertook a review of its mission, values, objectives and activities, as part of the process of preparing its first set of social accounts, so the organisation could report on its social, environmental and economic impacts. Click to view the new mission, values, objectives and activities.
Chair's Statement of the Highlights of the Year
This year has seen continued progress on all projects and activities. It has also been a year in which BCJ has reviewed its mission, values, objectives and activities, and begun the process of incorporating as a company limited by guarantee (which will be completed at the end of March 2008). This was made possible by free legal support provided by Pinsent Masons. The organisation is now ready for the next stage of its development, and to maximise opportunities for self-generation of income.
This annual report incorporates the key findings from our first set of social accounts. The social accounts seek to demonstrate the added value BCJ provides, in terms of social, environmental and economic impacts.
The social accounts reflect the views of various stakeholders, including clients, partners, staff, volunteers and management committee members. The social accounts also include the key findings from the external evaluation of our training services that was carried out in November 2007. The social accounts were subject to independent audit in February 2008.
Once again I would like to thank the Management Committee, staff and volunteers for their hard work and commitment during the year. Thanks also go to our partners and to all our clients who continue to support and contribute ideas for BCJ’s development.
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Mission and Values
All of those surveyed agreed that the mission is appropriate and accurately reflects the work BCJ does.
Respondents agreed very much that BCJ lives up to its values. Clients felt BCJ provides a supportive environment, values each individual, and uses trust and honesty to build relationships, which reflects the way in which staff are developed and trained to interact and support clients.
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Objective One: To maintain and develop a sustainable organisation in order to provide a service for the local community
31 out of 43 stakeholders felt BCJ had been very successful at this objective.
Activities undertaken during the year included:
Participating in the Realise project (European Regional Development Fund project), as part of the Employment and Training Micro-cluster, in order to develop collaborative bidding amongst employment and training providers in Birmingham, support individual organisations to become more enterprising and to develop BCJ’s capacity.
BCJ has been involved in 6 collaborative bids through Realise and 2 other collaborative bids with partners to develop new services.
BCJ worked in partnerships with 11 local organisations to provide better services to our clients. Our partners strongly agree that BCJ provides:
· Good working relationships
· Value for money
· Essential service provider
· Positive contribution to local regeneration
· Good monitoring and control systems
They also strongly agree that they would work with BCJ again.
Comments from stakeholders included:
“We have an excellent partnership arrangement with the Bloomsbury Cyber Junction and wish them well for the future.” BVT (Bournville Village Trust).
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Objective Two: To provide access to learning and training which increases peoples’ qualification levels and skills
33 out of 43 stakeholders believe BCJ has been very successful at this objective, which is very positive. It also reflects the volume of training the organisation has provided and the new courses that were delivered during 2007.
Activities undertaken included:
· Internet drop in sessions twice a week, and BCJ became a UK Online centre during 2007.
· Workshops on using email, the internet, CV building and interview techniques.
· CLAIT courses (Level 1 qualifications) four times a week, Pre-CLAIT courses (Entry Level 1-3 qualifications) twice a week and CLAIT Plus courses (Level 2 qualifications) three times a week.
In addition to this BCJ also provided outreach computer courses at Employment Preparation Team for individuals with learning difficulties/disabilities, and provided ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) computer courses at the start of 2007.
These activities were funded by the Big Lottery Fund and Enterprising Communities, and the outreach courses were funded by Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales.
In total 163 qualifications were achieved by clients.
Read a case study on a student who is now volunteering and helping others.
Feedback from the questionnaire and external evaluation included the following comments:
“You are doing excellent work.”
“I’m glad I joined. It’s given me the confidence to look for office work.”
“I got stuck after my University studies, the Centre helped me to become motivated and develop necessary skills for employment, I can not thank the tutors enough”
“The atmosphere is great and the tutors were very supportive and understanding. I have completed Pre CLAIT at Entry Level 3 and I have learnt so much more from the Centre. I am able to move forward now with my disability because of the skills and knowledge I gained through the centre. I think the best thing about the Centre is the personal tutor and mentors that help you when you are confused or lost, or needing a bit of motivation and sometimes a push to get to the next level.”
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Objective Three To support young people who have been excluded, or are at risk of exclusion, and encourage their return to education
This year the organisation faced funding constraints in relation to the youth activities and was only able to provide limited activities through the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.
31 out of 43 stakeholders believe BCJ has been very successful at this objective.
Activities undertaken included:
· Kung Fu sessions twice a week
· 2 Football Tournaments
· Football training sessions twice a week
· Outdoor activities including Skiing, Archery, Go-Karting, Quad Biking, Off Road 4X4 Driving
· Supporting 6 young people who were not attending school via the training and advice services, and a further 8 young people who had left school and were not in education, employment or training.
As a result of this support three young people have returned to mainstream school and two young people have progressed on to further education courses. 8 young people obtained employment, of which only 1 has subsequently left that employment.
See the photos here.
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Objective Four: To help the unemployed and other disadvantaged people become active in the local community
32 out of 43 stakeholders believe BCJ has been very successful at supporting people to become active in the local community.
Activities undertaken included:
· Job search training for 47 clients
· Information on job vacancies for 73 clients
· Business start up advice
· Signposting and referral service
· Job interview techniques training for 47 clients
· Web search support
· Supporting 34 clients to develop their CVs
· Providing references and making telephone calls on behalf of 38 clients
· Support with housing, welfare and debt problems
· Offering volunteering and work experience opportunities
· Supporting 42 clients to gain employment
This activity was funded through the ACHIEVE project, (Birmingham City Council Co-financing) which finished in August 2007, having worked with nearly double the target number of clients. Nextstep funding has been obtained to provide advice to individuals on learning and employment opportunities, and the remainder of activities are not currently funded.
Read the case study.
BCJ received contributions from 5 volunteers during the year, covering a range of activities, including maintenance, IT networking and maintenance, website development, learner support, accountancy, fundraising, HR and legal support. These volunteers play an important role in ensuring the charity can deliver its day to day activities.
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Objective Five: To guide and support local people who need help with general information and personal issues
28 out of 43 stakeholders believe BCJ has been very successful at this objective.
Activities undertaken included:
· Over 250 advice sessions
· Responding to over 2400 information requests
· Help with letter writing, completing application forms and passport applications for 44 clients
· Supporting 288 clients to develop their soft skills
· Offering a referral service for 79 clients
· Support with IT queries for 43 clients
· 139 outreach sessions
This activity is in part funded by the Big Lottery Fund and nextstep. The remainder is not currently funded.
Feedback was obtained from 80 clients, who all said they were happy with the service they received. Comments from clients included:
“I really enjoyed the service. Thanks for the help.”
“Very happy with service.”
“The help I received today was very supportive. The advice I received was clear and very understanding. The adviser also comforted me by understanding my situation. Excellent communication - co-operating with me through the appointment.”
“I am very happy in this centre. All the staff are very good and helping all the local people.”
Read the case studies, Case Study A, Case Study F and Case Study X.
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Objective Six: To encourage the involvement and participation of the local community
28 out of 43 respondents felt BCJ was very successful at this.
Activities undertaken included:
· Attending 9 community events
· Community facilitation and cohesion activities
· Conflict management support for neighbour disputes
· Regular consultant with stakeholders
This activity is not currently funded.
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Objective Seven: To be a good employer
The staff believe that BCJ is a good employer, with all of them saying the organisation has been very successful at this. They also believe that BCJ provides a positive working environment and a good work life balance.
The organisation supported staff to undertake training in the following areas:
· NVQ Level 3 Information, Advice and Guidance for three members of staff
· NVQ Level 4 Information, Advice and Guidance for one member of staff
· 7407 Stage 2 Teacher Training for one member of staff
· Certificate of Education Final Year for one member of staff
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Other achievements
BCJ attended the Enterprising Communities Awards, which recognised the achievements of local people. Ceciel Harris, Chief Executive and Mark Ensor, volunteer and former training client, were both nominated and were successful in receiving awards, as pictured below. Ceciel received his award for the work he has undertaken in the local community to regenerate the area, and Mark received an award for overcoming personal barriers in order to complete two computer courses and start a further education course.
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Environmental Impact
The organisation’s carbon footprint calculations indicate that it is producing carbon emission below the good practice level. BCJ is working on reducing our emissions further, with a view to becoming carbon neutral.
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Economic Impacts
BCJ provides a range of economic benefits and adds value of £3.92m to its activities - nearly 20 times the income it receives.
Key areas where BCJ add values are:
· Employing people
· Supporting clients to gain employment
· Using volunteers
· Developing clients’ qualification levels
· Improving clients’ soft skills
· Supporting young people to return to education or gain employment
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What we found out and what we are going to do about it
The feedback and information obtained for the social accounts provided us with information on areas that need further development. During 2008 BCJ will be focusing on the following:
· Improving how we market our services to the community, and how we communicate with them by producing a regular newsletter
· Improving how we market our premises and room hire facilities in order to generate income for our charitable activities
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· Developing new partnerships and making more joint bids and funding applications
· Developing new sources of income in order to reduce grant dependency
· Seeking funding for all our activities as a large number of activities are currently not funded, but are in demand from the local community
· Developing a wider range of individually tailored training courses
· Developing more referral mechanisms with local organisations
· Improving the information that is reported to management committee members and volunteers
· Gathering more formal feedback and ideas from stakeholders, as opposed to informal feedback
· Reviewing our environmental policy and setting a target for when we will be carbon neutral
· Marketing the collection points we have for print cartridges and mobile phones
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Treasurer's Report
Financial position of BCJ
BCJ managed to maintain a similar level of income to that in 2006. The situation was similar to that in 2005 and 2006, as the funding BCJ received from Enterprising Communities, Realise, Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and Birmingham City Council Co-financing, was paid in arrears.
Once again this provided cashflow difficulties and a further loan was taken out to reduce short term cashflow fluctuations.
Financial Management policies
During previous years BCJ aimed to have sufficient reserves to cover six month’s revenue costs. As more of BCJ’s sources of funding has become payable in arrears, the organisation has not been able to achieve this. The organisation has begun work on generating its own sources of income to support the achievement of this reserve level, and will continue to develop this work further in 2008, through the Realise project.
Principal Funding Sources
BCJ’s principal funding sources in 2007 were the Big Lottery Fund, Enterprising Communities, Birmingham City Council Co-financing and Realise. The funding enabled us to develop the organisation further, and deliver new courses to the community.
Plans for the future
BCJ will continue to diversify its funding base and actively market its services in 2008, to increase income from all areas, so we have sufficient reserves to cover six month’s revenue costs. BCJ will also actively seek opportunities for collaborative working and bidding, through the Realise project and also with other existing partners.
Jane Whitmore, Treasurer
The trustees’ report above was approved on 08.04.08.
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Auditor's Report
Independent Auditor's Report
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Statement of Financial Activities & Balance Sheet
Statement of Financial Activities
See how the money was spent
Balance Sheet
Notes to the accounts
Notes to the accounts
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