Social Circles CIC continued to deliver the Reclaiming Gardens Project until end January 2025, supporting those who because of age, ability or circumstances had lost control of their outdoor space to reclaim their gardens so they may enjoy the health and wellbeing benefits of spending time with nature in the safety and security of their own homes. We continued to act as a Gateway organisation, signposting and referring people who contacted us directly for additional support as required such as advice on debt, benefits, food and fuel poverty, and to other projects and groups to support with mental health issues. We also received referrals from Social Services, Housing Officers, Tenancy Support Officers, and Environmental Health teams. Between 1 April 2024 to 31 January 2025, 64 households were supported to reclaiming their garden, with 81 adults and 22 children enabled to use their garden space. Of those adults supported, 44 were elders and 16 were lone parents. Given it is estimated that the financial health and wellbeing value of being with nature is £356 per person (ONS Nov 2023), we estimate we have saved the local adult NHS and Social Care services around £28,836 over the reporting period. Of those households supported, we have worked with 7 people who were at advanced risk of eviction due to their garden being overgrown, which we estimate is an additional saving to local healthcare and social services of around £197,400 (Crisis, 2015) However, despite these successes, the Directors made the difficult decision to bring to an end the Reclaiming Gardens Project that we have delivered since April 2022. Starting at the end of the Pandemic, we have seen the number of people being referred to us, or asking for our help, reduce significantly whilst also seeing an increase in the number of self-employed gardeners offering affordable services. From the very beginning, we were adamant we did not want to compete with people who are supporting their own families by delivering horticultural and garden maintenance services. It is the role of every charity and charitable venture to provide service where there are gaps in provision and an identified need, and the Directors felt the project was no longer adding the same Value to the need we identified 3 years ago. We are now working with existing and new stakeholders to develop new projects that meet identified social needs, and in particular to addressing isolation and loneliness within our rural communities that our experience has shown are less well served than urban communities.

We are a ‘listening organisation’ and have consulted in depth with all our beneficiaries to understand both the value of our service to them and also to fully understand the broader issues they are facing in order to make referral or signpost to relevant support and activity. Our relationship with the wider stakeholder group has been incredibly successful in terms of discovering the community level support available, and building those referral options to add value to our service offering. We have reciprocated by supporting other projects including creating a community garden at Victoria Park Community Centre in Bridgwater, a community allotment at North Petherton to support asylum seekers accommodated locally, creating a useable outdoor space for an environmental charity in Glastonbury and lending physical support, signposting and referral services at various food projects. We recognise the financial challenges faced by local statutory provision, including NHS, the local authority and in particular social services and associated support projects, and social housing providers. As a small social enterprise we have been unable to increase capacity to provide a professional partnership relationship function and we feel that this is a priority area for improvement going forward.

Total remuneration paid to directors in FY 2024/25 is £8,520

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration