Prison Service Charity Fund.
Annual Report 2010.
It is my pleasant task to welcome you all to the meeting and to present the committee’s report on the activities of your charity, during the past year.It is particularly satisfying to open with the news that we are doing well, in spite of the credit crunch and the quite serious problems which that has caused for all of us. The treasurer’s report will show that 2010 was a year of good, steady growth for our organisation and many deserving applicants benefited from the work and dedication of our members.The continued success of the P.S.C.F. is totally dependant on such work and we, as your committee, offer our thanks to you all.
We must begin our formal review of the year, by thanking the Governor of HMP Hull, for the very good facilities he made available to us, for our last A.G.M. The arrangements were virtually faultless in every respect; the lunch menu was quite excellent - and the bag of ‘goodies’ which each of us received was really memorable. You will not be surprised to`learn that the committee members are still totally confused by the ‘magic’ mugs, which change colour when they are used. We would also like to give our thanks to our Hull rep, Alan Hughes, for his part in making it such a pleasant and successful day.
Most of you will recall that as far back as 2007, the committee declared their opposition to a proposal by the then government, that charities should join the ranks of a so-called Third Sector. We regarded the formation of that organisation as a rather brazen attempt to use and abuse the hitherto accepted role of national charities, by encouraging them to apply for employment contracts with government departments, on work which in fact had no charitable links or background. Although your charity steered clear of all Third Sector activities, some of the very large National Charities were attracted by the opportunity to engage in commercial enterprises, as a means of enhancing their emoluments.
We were disappointed, but not really surprised, when the incoming coalition government announced the formation of the ’Big Society’. In common with most interested parties, we soon identified the ’Big Society’ as little more than a redevelopment of the Labour Government’s Third Sector. We have received a good deal of correspondence, aimed at attracting us to Big Society activities, but you can rest assured that we shall not get involved. This committee has one principal aim in mind, at all times; to manage and support the declared aims of the P.S.C.F. , in the interests of the membership. We will not be diverted or influenced by any other extraneous activities.
Members will be interested to learn that Suzi Leather, The Head of the Charity Commission, has warned that the Government’s planned cuts in public spending will force many charities over a financial cliff. She revealed that for a quarter of all leading charities, public funding is their dominant source of income. The assumption we draw from this news, is that some charities are now paying an unfortunate price for becoming involved with government procedures.
For the committee, 2010 began with rather bleak weather, particularly in the North west. This resulted in a number of us being unable to travel to Liverpool, so Bob conducted the January business via the internet and the telephone. Fortunately, we had carried out a dummy run along those lines in 2009, so all went well. There were in fact twelve appeals listed for that meeting and we agreed donations amounting to £6,921.Three were in support of Help for Heroes, which is receiving considerable help from you all.
In April, staff at Ranby joined with colleagues in the Fire Service and the Police, raising funds to help a local child who suffers from brain damage. The PSCF rules limited us to supporting only the amount of money actually raised by our Ranby members, but we sent a cheque for two thousand pounds.We regard this inter-service unity as a very commendable venture and we congratulate those involved.
During the year, we heard of the death of one of our original members, Ronnie Adams. He joined the PSCF at its foundation at Liverpool prison in 1988 and he was employed at POA headquarters at the time of his death. Mrs Adams named the PSCF as a suitable charity for Ronnie’s colleagues to support, in his memory, and we received gifts from six people. We decided to allocate the money to cases which were still on our books as ongoing appeals, so we selected those which involved the health and welfare of children and young people, who would derive the benefit of extra funding.
It is our established practice to write to individual donors in such cases and express our appreciation of whatever help they give us. On this occasion, we had received cheques, but no donors’ addresses. We therefore spoke to officials at the respective Banks and they all agreed to forward our letters to the customers concerned. They, in turn, wrote and thanked us for our efforts. In a subsequent article in the Gatelodge magazine, Mrs. Adams expressed her personal thanks for the way your committee had dealt with the matter.
We had an appeal from a London prison, to assist with their contribution to the Association of International Cancer Research. This came as something of a surprise, as we had never heard of the organisation - and as you are aware, the PSCF constitution limits our activities to the UK.
Our enquiries revealed that the organisation in question is, indeed, a registered charity, functioning on a Worldwide basis. We were able to support the efforts of the prison concerned, when the charity agreed to ring fence our donation for use only in the UK.
In August we received another interesting appeal, from staff at a northern prison, to boost their fundraising efforts in support of an organisation called “Afghan Heroes”. As you may imagine, the very name gave us cause for concern and, once again, we were off on the enquiry trail. We discovered that Afghan Heroes is in fact a UK charity, supporting British military personnel serving in Afghanistan. On your behalf, we gave this appeal our full support.
We had another example of PSCF cluster activity this year, when staff at Cardiff, Usk, Whitemoor and Shrewsbury collected funds for Velindra Hospital cancer centre in Cardiff. The appeal was initiated by a retired governor, whose friend had been treated for cancer at the centre. He was impressed by the excellent help she received and he contacted a number of prisons, seeking financial support. He received donations in excess of £3,000 and we sent our cheque for a further £1,600.
There was a variation of the cluster appeal, when the staff at another Welsh prison decided to make a single collection and donate the proceeds to three quite different charities - Guide dogs for the blind, a mental health society and a pink ribbon (cancer) appeal. We responded to their somewhat quixotic request, by dividing their efforts into three equal amounts - and Cathy sent off the three cheques.
As in previous years, a number of National charities have written direct to the committee, seeking financial help. We replied to each of them, explaining that all requests for PSCF help must originate at a prison, not with the committee. Two prisons contacted us, asking us to augment collections which they had made, for Raleigh International and Mothers’ Union victim support. We were obliged to reply to them, explaining that the appeals did not meet our requirements of medical treatment or medical equipment.
Members will not be surprised to learn that the Help for Heroes charity looms large on our monthly lists of appeals. Frequently, H for H appears on the list more than once; in May we had five such appeals, which all received our help. There have been occasions during the year, when cheques we have sent to this charity, and others, have failed to appear on our bank statement, for a number of weeks. We would be grateful if those of you who are in direct contact with the receiving charities can ask them to hasten the clearance of our cheques.
At our June meeting, we had an appeal from prison staff, to supplement the funds they had collected, to help a colleague who had been attacked and injured while on duty.We supported this appeal by matching the sum which had been raised by the staff.
The PSCF membership at Frankland were involved in helping a local baby girl, who was born with a terminal illness. From the outset of her brief life, she had severe physical and mental difficulties, which meant that she would never be able to sit, stand, walk or speak.The parents borrowed a set of optic fibre lights and they were delighted when the child’s sensory system became highly animated by this new experience. The PSCF members and other local people then collected funds to install a sensory room in the family home. For the next twelve months, the little girl made quite amazing progress; she was able to stand, laugh and clap her hands. Sadly, the illness soon took her life, but that is not the end of the story. Those involved in giving the child that happiness, were so impressed by the relative success of the venture, that the equipment is now to be made available to other children with sensory problems.
John White has been hard at work, increasing the number of active PSCF reps, in various parts of the country. We regard this as very important work and John intends to make further progress in the year ahead. The work of an establishment rep is not too demanding, in itself, but it is a help, especially to Bob and the Walton duo, Paul and John G., if they have a named person they can contact at a prison, when they need to clarify something. Without a rep, even simple questions can be time-consuming and hard to finalise. So, if John W. seeks your help in this important work, please try to be of assistance.
Another of John’s tasks, has been reclaiming gift-aid from H.M.R.& C. for donations made by those of our members whose monthly donations are not made via the Prison department. Our 2010 income from that source amounted to over £400 and the system is now in place for the gift-aid to be paid to us on a regular basis.
A word of warning, to anyone planning to use online organisations to help you collect for charitable enterprises. We have looked at a couple of these and found that, although their systems are indeed helpful, their charges will reduce your income. As an example, the organisation known as “Just Giving” begin their charges with a fee of five per-cent. They then take another five per-cent from any gift-aid you receive, followed by a charge of £ 15 a month for having a place on their site. Their turnover for 2009 amounted to 8.9 million pounds and their profit from that sum was 3.3 millions, or 37 per-cent of total turnover. We then discovered that they were charging VAT on all their accounts, which the Treasury say is not necessary. The message from your committee, is a simple one - do your homework, before you commit yourself to any such arrangements.
Last year, most of you will remember that we commented on reports in the National newspapers, that charitable donations to NHS Trusts were to be counted as part of their overall income, with the Government reducing the Trusts’ budgets in line with that income. As we had anticipated, you found that news totally unacceptable and you expressed your hostility towards it. We had written to the then Minister of Health in an attempt to clarify the matter, but the reply we received came from a civil servant in the Customer Service Centre of the Department of Health - who completely failed to answer our questions ! A further letter to the Minister went unanswered and we concluded that, with a change of Government being very likely, he was dodging the matter.
In the meantime, the committee planned to create a scheme, whereby any assistance we gave to an NHS Trust, would be in the form of a loaned item of medical equipment. By doing that, we would then claim that the item in question, although loaned to the NHS free of charge, and not able to be reclaimed by us under any circumstances, did not amount to a gift. Our thinking was that, as the item remained our property, the Treasury could not deduct the cost from the hospital’s budget. Fortunately, as we shall now explain, we were not obliged to put our evil little scheme to the test.
With the arrival of the coalition government, we were soon in touch with Ben Wallace, the MP for The Wyre, who has a reputation as a reliable problem solver. He listened carefully to the problem and began his enquiries. Eventually, he was advised by the new Health Minister that the original reports in the National newspapers had been incorrect and that the proposed plan by the Labour government, related only to charities run directly by, or on behalf of, the NHS organisations. Therefore, funds donated by charities such as us, would have remained unaffected, if and when the charge had been introduced. The Ministerial reply was clear and to the point and we thanked Ben Wallace for his work. Copies of that reply are available to you all, today.
As you will have noted, today’s proceedings are being recorded, using a device which is the last word in technology. We purchased the item in December in due deference to Peter, our vice treasurer, who has so diligently recorded our monthly meeting for many years, using his own brand of speed-writing.
It only remains for us to thank you all for attending the Annual General Meeting, and to record our sincere thanks to our hosts, for their willingness to accommodate us in such pleasant surroundings.
Chairman.