St Helens and Newton NASUWT
Financial Report – January 2014
2013(£) / 2012(£)Income
Imprest / 12464.40 / 13366.80
HQ Grant / 360.00 / 300.78
Other Income / 925.66 / 0.00
13750.06 / 13667.58
Expenditure
Regional Committee / 663.00 / 711.00
Travel / 3970.32 / 4118.47
Telephone / 1803.33 / 1772.48
Post / 1211.99 / 886.08
Printing / 455.63 / 375.48
Stationery / 1002.03 / 746.73
Meetings / 2318.78 / 2279.18
Conference / 2032.56 / 1936.13
Recruitment / 0.00 / 302.55
Affiliation Fees / 50.00 / 40.00
Donations / 75.96 / 208.72
Other Expenditure / 0.00 / 226.86
Capital Expenditure / 0.00 / 142.63
13583.60 / 13746.31
Surplus/Deficit / 166.46 / -78.73
2013 was a difficult year for the Local Association’s finances as activity increased due to both national and local disputes and imprest income fell as a result of a not yet fully explained fall in membership.
Income
The Imprest income for the Local Association was £12464.40, made up of 663 full time equivalent members’ subscriptions of £18.80 each. This is 48 members less than 2012 resulting in a decrease from the previous year’s income of over £900.
It is difficult to explain such a dramatic decrease in Local Association membership. In recent years membership has been stable as indicated by figures taken from recent annual finance reports:
Report Dated / Relating To Year / MembershipJanuary 2012 / 2011 / 711
January 2011 / 2010 / 729
January 2010 / 2009 / 712
January 2009 / 2008 / 690
January 2008 / 2007 / 712
Over these 5 years membership has remained within a narrow band between 690 to 712. Therefore, a sudden fall to 663 members is both unexpected and worrying. The loss of almost £1000 per year has obvious implications for Local Association spending for the coming year.
The fall in membership was as sudden as it was unexpected. Each time the Local Association submits an imprest claim to Rednal the confirmation of payment includes an updated membership total.
In March and April 2013 the figure was above 720, by early August it had fallen to 693 and by October had fallen further to 674.
The Local Association received a grant from National Executive of £360 to cover the hotel cost of a first time Conference delegate from an under represented group. We also received an Activity Grant of £500 from the North West Regional Committee to offset some of the cost of printing and distributing a glossy colour leaflet as part of our Appraisal campaign.
This £860 was most welcome and helped to mask what may otherwise have been a very difficult situation. A significant overspend in 2013 would have had major implications for our 2014 finances as it would have further reduced the funds available to the Local Association. Fortunately, that situation was avoided but there is no guarantee that additional grants will be available in 2014. Consequently, we will need to keep a tight control on spending until this situation is resolved.
The remaining items of other income were made up of payments from other Local Associations based at the Regional Centre (Wigan and West Lancs) towards shared stationery orders, a payment from Wigan Local Association of 50% of the cost of a shared meeting at The Queen Anne and small refunds from Conference delegates for the one occasion when the cost of an evening meal exceeded the allowance as per our Local Association Financial Rules.
Expenditure
The additional grants of £860 ensured that expenditure for 2013 was fully covered by income. However, without those grants expenditure would have exceeded income by almost £700.
Expenditure for the year was just over £150 or 1% lower than in 2012. This is surprising given the level of activity throughout the year. However, I reported last year that we had used some of our 2012 funds to cover 2013 expenditure through the bulk purchase of postage stamps ahead of a significant price increase and the full prepayment of the Conference hotel bill. Significantly, no capital spending took place throughout the year – a situation that cannot continue for a further year. All the IT equipment at our Regional Centre office is in need of replacement or repair. The 2 computers are many years old (both previously used by Wigan Local Association) and our Epson printer (original cost £1000) is 10 years old and in need of at least a service/repair. An IT upgrade will have to be a priority for 2014.
The Local Association staged a number of additional meetings during 2013. Our members at Newton Primary held several meetings at The Pied Bull to discuss progress on their dispute over the Appraisal Policy and members at St Teresa’s held 2 meetings at Ruskin Leisure to discuss the same issue. Members at Grange Valley held a meeting at The Queen Anne to discuss excessive workload and management practices. We held a large shared meeting with Wigan Local Association prior to the one day strike in June and another meeting at Ruskin Leisure to publicise the Appraisal leaflet. All of these meetings incurred room hire and/or refreshment costs.
The Appraisal leaflet was professionally printed and distributed to the home address of every Local Association member. This explains the increase to Postage, Printing and Stationery costs. As mentioned earlier, the North West Regional Committee generously agreed to provide £500 towards the cost as the design of the leaflet, art work etc was suitable for use by other Local Associations.
Despite increased levels of casework, travel costs were about £150 or 3.5% lower than 2012. Members attended rallies in Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds in the run up to the June one day strike and on the day of the strike members attended further rallies in both Manchester and Liverpool.
The Conference spending of marginally over £2000 included the cost of 3 delegates at the new North West Conference held at Blackpool and a prepayment for the 2014 Conference hotel bill of £950. I would like to thank all the delegates who attended the Bournemouth Conference in 2013 for their responsible approach towards the Local Association’s funds. All 4 delegates travelled to Bournemouth on public transport, shared taxis were only used to travel between the railway station and the hotel on arrival and departure, lunches often consisted of supermarket sandwiches or meals from the promotional menu at Wetherspoons and all but one of the evening meals fell well within the allowance contained in the Local Association Financial Rules. On the one occasion when the cost exceeded the allowance every delegate willingly refunded the difference back to the Local Association.
Donations totalled a little over £75, a lower figure than previous years. £30 was given as a retirement gift to a long serving colleague at the Regional Centre and a donation of tinned food was given to a food bank for the Mayor’s Appeal. I exercised the Treasurer’s discretionary powers to make donations on both occasions. No other requests for donations were received.
The Affiliation Fee of £50 was paid to Greater Manchester Hazards for their excellent work on Health & Safety.
Priorities for 2014
§ Identify reasons for the sudden fall in membership and, where possible, take steps to reverse the trend.
§ Keep a tight control on spending until this situation is resolved.
§ Upgrade the outdated IT equipment at the Regional Centre office.
§ Ensure that funds are available to meet all of the Local Association’s activities throughout 2014.
P J Nightingale 01/14