The Trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the Church's trust deed, the Companies Act 2006 and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)".
The vision statement of the Church - We believe that God has called us to be a Church that raises the next generation.
To achieve this end the Church is engaged in numerous activities from Sunday worship to weekday meetings catering for all ages. The Church has also undertaken several stepstone events to appeal directly to those outside the immediate membership, some of these in conjunction with other churches within Brighton. The ongoing caring for all connected with Holland Road remains a high priority
The Trustees have paid due regard to guidance issued by the Charity Commission in deciding what activities the Church should undertake.
Senior Pastors Overview 2023
2023 has been an amazing year of seeing God’s goodness and provision. We have been so
thankful for the joy of seeing 14 Baptisms over the year and many lives transformed and being drawn to Jesus. As we continue to work out our vision for ‘Every generation to help raise the next generation to be FREE (Following Jesus, Reaching Out, being an Extended family and doing Everything in Love), a particular highlight of this in action was our church weekend away at Dalesdown in the summer.
The church has continued to respond with great generosity to needs locally and globally with both our gifts days exceeding our budgeted targets. As high inflation has led to a cost of living crisis across the nation, we have been so thankful for God’s provision for our needs as a church and His provision through us to others.
On Sunday mornings we particularly looked at the theme of ‘The King and His Kingdom’ as we looked at the life of King David in the Old Testament and the many ways that story speaks to us today and points to King Jesus and His kingdom.
We praise God for the many ways that what follows in this report speaks of His kingdom growing and bringing His hope and light to many. To Him be all the glory.
World Mission 2023
2023 was a year of much World Mission activity! We sent three teams on short-term trips - to Wales, Northern France and Ethiopia. We also sent 3 couples on longer-term assignments, including to Brazil and the valleys of Wales. At the end of 2023, we also reached the end point for financial support for one couple that we’ve been supporting in their mission activities for over 40 years.
Our trip to Ethiopia in October was a particular highlight as we took 6 teenagers as part of an
intergenerational team of 14. Together we each played our part in supporting and encouraging long-term partners at Joy Academy (a school) and Strong Hearts (providing practical support for the poorest of the poor, and running a network of churches).
Our annual ‘World Weeks’ in May saw various information and prayer events that culminated in our Gift Day, where £46,817.87 was given. From this, we were able to give gifts to the emergency response efforts in Libya and Morocco as well as organisations such as Open Doors (supporting persecuted Christians around the world) and DFN (working with the Dalits in India).
The Practical Team
The team continued to offer hope and practical help to people in our City in 2023. The main priorities continued to be:
1) To serve those experiencing or in danger of being homeless
The Monday Lunch Club continues to take place every Monday from 12-1 pm virtually every week throughout the whole year. This is a place of true community. It is also a vehicle to provide practical help such as signposting to other agencies including our own CAP centre as well as a source of grant applications e.g. Acts 435 and energy support grants.
The team also provides donations of small furniture items and kitchenalia to clients of St Mungos Housing First and Justlife moving into new accommodation.
Encouragingly two of our community volunteers having been part of a weekly discipleship group decided they wanted to be and were baptised.
We continue to offer our site/spaces to frontline charities working with the homeless and people with no recourse to public funds. For example, CGL Smart meetings take place in the hall every Thursday and Voices In Exile regularly uses a room to support refugees.
2) To help address food poverty
The church continues to be an emergency food (and household items) source. This is a non-refer / in case of need service. We also supplement the standard foodbank items with cooked meals made fresh and then frozen by some of our volunteer cooks.
3) Collaboration
The Practical Team continues to seek to work with other churches and organisations in the City that try to support those in need by sharing best practices and resources to avoid unnecessary duplication.
The team continues to be active in the support of Christian Action Brighton ( CAB)
https://www.christianactionbrighton.org.uk/.
We remain financial supporters of Street Support https://streetsupport.net/brighton-and-hove/.
For regular updates on the ongoing work of the practical team, you join the dedicated FaceBook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/practicalteam.
Children’s Work Report
2023 was probably our first ‘normal’ year back following the Covid pandemic. It has been great operate things again without any restrictions.
Sundays
Holland Road Kids continues to run on Sundays alongside the service and we have averaged 25-30 children coming along in Primary School. We continue to offer the Early Years Room for ages 2-4 and have had about 6-9 children coming along. We also have the Family Room open for those with children under 2 years old to watch the service and have tea and coffee in a more relaxed setting with toys. We have also taken the opportunity mostly in the summer or school holidays to run a Family Space in the hall, which is available for parents to continue to watch the livestream of the service, along with their children, in a more relaxed environment when we are not running official children’s activities.
Primary School
Holiday Club
We ran the Incredible Heroes Holiday Club during the February half-term on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We had 134 overall attend over these 4 days. The highest-attended day was Friday with 93 children, and the lowest-attended day was Sunday (the final) with 39 children. We had an amazing team of volunteers, of all ages and generations helping to serve. We had a large amount of people attend the lunch after the Sunday service, and then we had a few new families come along to church in the weeks following the Holiday Club.
Easter and Christmas Bake and Share events
We were not able to run our usual Hub sessions this year but instead focussed on different times of the year when we could run something for children in Primary School outside of a Sunday morning. We ran two themed sessions - one in the Easter holidays and one in the Christmas holidays - which had the children bake different things that they would then get to eat and share with their parents/carers at the end. Both sessions were very popular and we had to limit to 24 children each time.
Year 5+6 Activities
One of the strands of the Children’s Ministry which we leant into in 2023 was for children in Years 5+6. We didn’t do a traditional residential weekend away to Carroty Wood as we did in 2022, but instead took the opportunity to change the rhythm of a residential from Autumn to Summer instead. We had a sleepover at the church in July, which was attended by 13 children. We also took the Year 5+6s to a Pizza and Bowling activity in September to start the year getting to know each other better.
Light Party
We ran a Light Party for children in Primary School as an alternative to Halloween on Tuesday, October 31st, 2023. It was not during the school holidays as Amanda and some of the Kid's team had been away in Ethiopia then, but we decided to still run something on Halloween itself. We had lots of different craft and game options, laser tag, a meal together, and a talk about Jesus being the Light. We had about 40 children attend (less than the previous year but this could be because it was on Halloween itself).
Kids’ Christmas Choir
We were not able to run these in an afterschool session like we had in 2022, but we instead taught the children a song on Sunday mornings in church. The children learned a song to sing at the 6pm Candlelight Service. We had about 12 children in the choir.
Under 5s
Fledglings
We continued to run our Toddler Group, with Amanda taking over the leadership of it once Becky moved to Wales in the summer 2023. This has proven to be a popular group and has on average 15-20 families attending each week, with some regulars and also some new people each time. As a link to the group, we ran a Baby and Child First Aid Course for the parents/carers in June 2023, which was attended by 7 families. We also ran two sessions over the summer, in August, to keep in touch with the families who attend Fledglings and to provide some much-needed social space for them during a time when most activities are not running.
Messy Easter and Messy Christmas
We ran two special events, especially for parents with children under 5, which allowed them to engage with the Easter and Christmas stories in an interactive way. We offer a variety of crafts and activities, a chance to hear the real Easter and Christmas story, and we always provide food at the end. These are very popular and we always have a good amount of people coming along.
Mission:
Kids’ Club Wales
Amanda once again led a team of people from our church to join up with the American team from New Hope Baptist Church to run school assemblies in Welsh schools and also some afterschool clubs and Sunday School sessions in the local churches. Our team also helped to put on a Family Fun Day at a local school. It was wonderful to be on mission in this way and to experience running these activities in a different setting. We reached over 1,000 children during our week there with the gospel!
Ethiopia trip
Amanda and Helen W both were on the team that went to Ethiopia in October half term, 2023. We ran our Incredible Heroes Holiday Club at Joy Academy for 3 days, which approx. 150 children got to experience. We ran a Parenting Session, Sunday School Training and Special Needs training, along with some PE lessons for children at Joy Academy.
Other:
Intergenerational gatherings
We ran an Intergenerational prayer time at Holland Road in January 2023 and a West Cluster gathering at Kings which included prayer stations and a litter-picking activity in September 2023.
Training for the team
In January 2023, Amanda and Helen W ran a team training event and lunch at church following a Sunday service for anyone on the children’s or youth teams. We covered a variety of topics in different sessions which they could choose from, and also ran the essential safeguarding training too.
Christmas - Nativity Experience
We tried a new, interactive way for families to come and engage with the Christmas story, and was especially for those who do not normally come to church. We had a wonderful team of actors/actresses who each acted out the different scenes from the Christmas story - 5 scenes altogether (Roman Soldiers, Mary, Joseph, Wise Men and Shepherds). They travelled around in groups to visit each scene, in order and then finished in our Christmas Cafe which was serving festive treats. We had a decent turnout but for the amount of effort that was put into it, we would have loved more people to come. It did encourage a few families to come to church who would not normally come along on Sunday. We had about 50 people come in total.
Youth
Youth Sundays
In 2023 we had, on average, 14 young people attending our youth programmes on a Sunday
morning. This does not include many of the young people who serve on different teams on Sunday mornings. We have 7 team serving the young people on Sundays. We have been following the adult sermon series except for the Autumn term where we looked at a series on influences.
HRY
We had on average 18 young people attending HRY (Holland Road Youth) each week during 2023, up from last year’s average. Our programme remains varied with most evenings happening
in the hall but some evenings doing events out of the church.
Our team changed significantly during the summer, with people moving on and by the end of the year was down to 6 leaders and 1 young leader.
Summer Camp
This year we attended Satellites again, but this time in Somerset. A team of 6 leaders took 10 young people from Holland Road and 6 young people from St Peter’s church. It was great to go away together again and meet with so many other young Christians.
Older Youth
It has been hard to get a good rhythm for meeting with the Older Youth group but we eventually settled on Sunday lunchtimes on the second Sunday of the month. We have met a few times to eat together and discuss a topic chosen by the young people. Although there is quite a large group of young people in this age group (year 10+), the attendance is sporadic.
Youth Band
Youth band has continued throughout 2023. The young people have led worship for the children on a Sunday morning once a month and led worship at the holiday club. This meets every other week and contains about 6 young people who have grown in skill and unity as they worship together.
Mentoring
18 young people were in mentoring relationships with various church members during this year. Mentors meet with a couple of young people every 4-6 weeks to chat, pray and study the Bible together.
Training
I attended a national youth training weekend with 1 other youth worker from Brighton & Hove City mission and a church member. I completed my JNC Youth work qualification and a PG Cert in Youth & Community work with merit.
Wider Youth Events
I have been working to encourage youth and children’s leaders to get together about once a term to eat together and chat and pray.
May Road
We have relet the property via Kendricks for a further academic year. The longer-term vision remains to partner with the council/charity to make the property available as affordable housing via a medium-term lease agreement.
There was a deficit on the unrestricted funds for the year of £36,479 before transfers. This left unrestricted funds of £1,034,667 at the end of the 2023 financial year.
The majority of the Church's funds are invested in land and buildings, which are utilised to carry out the Church's purposes. It is the policy of the Church to accumulate only an adequate level of cash and readily accessible reserves deemed sufficient to meet likely and unexpected capital expenditure needs. The Church has specifically set aside the sum of £85,000 as a reserve. Subject to any donor's wishes, restricted funds are generally held to meet specific purposes or capital projects.
The majority of monies are invested in deposit accounts with recognised financial institutions. The Church seeks to obtain the highest possible returns consistent with a cautious attitude to risk and short term availability of such monies.
Risk management
The Church has a risk management policy. The Trustees are satisfied that appropriate systems are in place to mitigate the Church's exposure to such risks, to safeguard the assets of the Church and should prevent and/or detect fraud and other irregularities.
The Trust was formed on the 19 April 2010 and commenced activities on the 1 July 2010 with the transfer of the assets and work of Holland Road Baptist Church.
The Church was founded by a trust deed dated 19 June 1889 and is now governed by its Articles of Association and a new constitution, "The Governing Document of Holland Road Baptist Church" as agreed at a Church meeting on 13 March 2013, as well as being affiliated to the Baptist Union of Great Britain (a registered charity).
The Trustees who held office during the year to 31 December 2023 were as follows:
Deacons are those who serve in specific leadership roles in the church and are appointed by the Trustees as recommended by the elders.
The appointment of elders are nominated by the Pastor and voted on by the Church meeting.
Trustees are appointed by a Church meeting.
Newly appointed Trustees are provided with such induction and training as considered necessary for the role within the church which they are undertaking.
The Church is managed on a day to day basis by a core leadership team namely David Treneer and Tim Vellacott (the two Pastors) and other ministry leaders as required from time to time subject to the overall spiritual oversight of the elders. The Trustees are jointly responsible for the governance of the Church, especially for the operational, legal and financial aspects, referring some matters to a members vote as appropriate.
This report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions relating to small companies within Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006.
The Trustees, who are also the directors of Holland Road Baptist Church Trust for the purpose of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
Company Law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Church and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year.
In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:
- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
- observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
- make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
- state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Church will continue in operation.
The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Church and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Church and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
I report to the Trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Holland Road Baptist Church Trust (the Church) for the year ended 31 December 2023.
As the Trustees of the Church (and also its directors for the purposes of company law) you are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 (the 2006 Act).
Having satisfied myself that the financial statements of the Church are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of the Church’s financial statements carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act). In carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.
Since the Church’s gross income exceeded £250,000 your examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 2011 Act. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, which is one of the listed bodies.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
accounting records were not kept in respect of the Church as required by section 386 of the 2006 Act; or
the financial statements do not accord with those records; or
the financial statements do not comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the 2006 Act other than any requirement that the accounts give a true and fair view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or
the financial statements have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice for accounting and reporting by charities applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the financial statements to be reached.
Chartered Certified Accountants
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
Holland Road Baptist Church Trust is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales and registered charity, number 1136471. The registered office is 71 Holland Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 1JN.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Church's [governing document], the Companies Act 2006, FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (“FRS 102”) and the Charities SORP "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)" (effective 1 January 2019). The Church is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the Church. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention as modified to include freehold investment properties at fair value. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the Church has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the Trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.
Unrestricted Funds
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives unless the funds have been designated for other purposes. These include donations and other incoming resources receivable or generated for the objects of the Church without further specified purposes which are available as general funds or set aside by the trustees as designated funds.
Restricted Funds
These funds are to be used for specific purposes as laid down by the donor. Expenditure that meets these criteria is charged to the fund together with the appropriate management and support costs.
Unrestricted General
The General fund oversees the day to day work of the Church and incorporates the missionary work of the Church.
Designated
Legacies General - Monies from legacies not as yet allocated.
Legacies World Mission - Money set aside specifically for World Mission.
Reserve - The sum of £85,000 is set aside as a general reserve in accordance with best practice.
Restricted
Property Fund - The property owned by the Trust other than the Church.
Hall Flooring Fund - This represents money set aside for the works to the Church's hall flooring.
Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the Church has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.
Resources expended are recognised in the period in which they are incurred and allocated to the particular cost centre to which they relate, including support costs. These costs include irrecoverable VAT.
Property, plant and equipment are measured at cost, net of depreciation and any impairment losses. Details of the individual properties are given below:
Freehold property. Church Premises: 71 Holland Road, Hove, East Sussex
There is no record of original cost. In the opinion of the Trustees it is impractical to place a market value on the site. The property is held on Trust by The Baptist Union Corporation as custodial Trustee.
Freehold property. 65 Holland Road, Hove, East Sussex
The Charity elected to revalue the freehold property on the date of transition to FRS 102 SORP (1 January 2015) and to use this value as the deemed cost of the property in accordance with the transitional provision contained in section 35.10 (c) of FRS102.
Fixtures, fittings and equipment
Fixtures, Fittings and Equipment costing in excess of £2,500 are capitalised. All Fixtures, Fittings and Equipment are depreciated on a straight line basis over 5 years.
Depreciation
Freehold land is not depreciated. Freehold buildings are also not depreciated as it is the policy of the Trustees that they be maintained to such a standard that their residual value is not less than the carrying value at any given time.
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the statement of financial activities.
A freehold investment residential property in 17 May Road, Brighton was purchased in 2021 to earn rental income and/or capital appreciation and is shown at fair value.
At each reporting end date, the Church reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).
Recoverable amount is the higher of fair value less costs to sell and value in use. In assessing value in use, the estimated future cash flows are discounted to their present value using a pre-tax discount rate that reflects current market assessments of the time value of money and the risks specific to the asset for which the estimates of future cash flows have not been adjusted.
If the recoverable amount of an asset is estimated to be less than its carrying amount, the carrying amount of the asset is reduced to its recoverable amount. An impairment loss is recognised immediately in income/(expenditure for the year, unless the relevant asset is carried at a revalued amount, in which case the impairment loss is treated as a revaluation decrease.
Recognised impairment losses are reversed if, and only if, the reasons for the impairment loss have ceased to apply. Where an impairment loss subsequently reverses, the carrying amount of the asset is increased to the revised estimate of its recoverable amount, but so that the increased carrying amount does not exceed the carrying amount that would have been determined had no impairment loss been recognised for the asset in prior years. A reversal of an impairment loss is recognised immediately, unless the relevant asset is carried in at a revalued amount, in which case the reversal of the impairment loss is treated as a revaluation increase.
Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.
The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value. Basic financial assets include trade and other receivables and cash and bank balances. Basic financial liabilities including trade and and other payables where trade payables are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired on the ordinary course of operations from suppliers.
The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.
Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the Church is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.
The Church contribute to the defined pension contribution scheme of certain staff. The contributions payable for the year are charged in the Financial Statements as part of salaries.
Grant Making Policy
The Trust supports by the provision of financial grants to Christian organisations whose own activities are in accordance with the Trust's objectives. The Church also supports long term missionary partners connected with the Church or the Baptist Union.
Rental income - Cottage
Church Weekend income
Lettings income
Mission Trips Income
Investments
Pastoral expenses
Church Weekend and conferences
Premises for parking
Outreach
Music and drama
Books and purchases
Catering
Youthwork and other
Mission trips - Ethiopia
Training
Group ministries
Sundries
Church equipment repairs and renewals
Electricity, Gas and Water
Telephone
Bank Charges
Loan Interest
Trustees are reimbursed any expense costs directly incurred on behalf of the Church. These are not considered material to disclose.
The aggregate donations from the Trustees to the Trust during the year was £16,741 (2022:£38,860).
See also Note 24.
The average monthly number of full and part time employees during the year was:
Volunteers
The Trustees extend their thanks to numerous volunteers who give so sacrificially in both time and resource into the vision of the Church.
The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes.
Investment property comprises of the 17 May Road property, Brighton, East Sussex. It was revalued by Kendrick Property Services at 31 December 2022 and again in March 2024 where no adjustment was considered necessary.
The Church operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the Church in an independently administered fund.
The charge to profit or loss in respect of defined contribution schemes was 2023: £18,680, (2022: £19,607).
The restricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used.
The Properties are stated at cost of £1,200,000 within the balance sheet. The difference of £32,465 compared to the fund balance represents money raised through unrestricted funds.
The unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.
This is a loan from the Baptist Union to enable the Church to cover its contributions for the past deficit of The Baptist Pension Fund. The loan is repaid over a 15 year term from 5 March 2018 with interest charged at 4.25% p.a.