Worthing Animal Clinic

Registered Charity No. 211467

About Us

Charity Matters

(100% of all donations will reach us - no

 charges or commission are involved. 

Facility includes Gift Aid option.)

 

The Clinic, which celebrated its 75th anniversary on 17 November 2005, is an independent local charity registered with the Charity Commission, No. 211467.  (You can see our entry on the Register of Charities here.)  Its charitable, financial and legal affairs are overseen by its committee, who are also the charity's trustees.  The committee of currently six has two vacancies, having fallen from its full strength of eight over the last five years, and for quite some time falling as low as four.

 

We have been increasingly active in the past six years  - stalls, store collections and other flag days, this website, for some time a regular slot on Splash fm, entries in local and national directories, and contacts with solicitors, charitable trusts, funeral directors, local businesses and other animal welfare organisations.  Volunteers have come forward to help at collections but we need help to keep up the pace in other areas - to maintain the charity's profile and improve committee support, both essential to keeping funds coming in and the Clinic running and able to continue providing a full range of veterinary care to the pets of owners who may otherwise be unable to afford treatment.

 

The last two were significant and memorable years, with many important events and achievements.  In 2005/06, celebrating the 75^th anniversary of our foundation gave us welcome additional publicity and further opportunities to attract new members and supporters.  We were one of our Patron Nick John’s Mayoral Charities for his year of office as Mayor of Worthing, gaining us further publicity and culminating in his presenting us with a cheque for £4,400.  

 

Numerous ways in which you could help are posted on our 'Help Us' page.  Anyone interested in helping this vital work please contact the Clinic.

 

 

Finances

 

 Our net assets stood at around £660,000 at 31 December 2007.  The main assets are the Clinic premises and our investments.  The investments, re-positioned in 2002 and 2003 to take advantage of the correctly anticipated stock market recovery, are held to generate investment income with which to subsidise treatment costs.  The committee welcomes the progress made since 2001 (from net assets of £440,000) in boosting reserves, and aims to establish and maintain them at a level sufficient for the charity’s investment and fund-raising income to subsidise treatments at the current subsidy level of about 35% below the lower range of local private practice fees.  Ideally this should leave a small annual surplus to enable the purchase of new and replacement fixed assets (such as an electrocardiogaph, blood pressure monitor and new theatre lighting, which have in recent years been purchased from funds raised from donations). 

 

There are three designated funds to provide additional subsidies in certain circumstances.

 

Out total treatment costs in 2007 were £192,500, of which the main items were staff salaries, National Insurance and locum fees of £95,500 and drugs, tests and consumables of £51,800.  Our fund-raising and non-Clinic administration costs totalled only £2,600, meaning that 98.65% of our spending was on animal treatments.

 

These costs were partly covered by fee income of £137,000, the shortfall of £55,400 representing our subsidy to clients to be made good as far as possible by charitable income - donations, legacies and investment income.

After charitable income, we incurred a deficit of some £28,300 in 2007 (2006: £18,100), both the last two years being adversely affected by high locum costs in the absence of a permanent veterinary surgeon from June 2006 to June 2007.  With vet David Thomas now comfortably on board and our fees recently increased, the trustees anticipate a return to a more manageable underlying deficit of some £15,000 annually.  Although still of some concern, this figure represents an improvement on those for several earlier years of around £21,000.  The improvement has come about mainly as a result of higher investment income, following the receipt of significant legacies in 2002 and 2003, together with savings arising from conversion to the VAT flat rate scheme.  

The trustees are maintaining their efforts to increase the charity's profile, encourage legacies and further improve fund-raising income.  One important aim is that sufficient legacies will be received over time to cover our annual deficits.  Key to all these remain encouraging members and clients actively to support the charity, which in turn require able and industrious committee members to organise and motivate our support base.

The trustees record their thanks to the Clinic staff for their conscientious hard work and to the charity's collectors and other volunteers, without which groups the improvements in our finances and profile would not have been possible.

The above includes a brief outline of the charity's finances.  Further details are contained in the Treasurer's Report within the 2007/08 Annual Review, which is available from the Clinic.  The charity's statutory accounts for 2007, giving comprehensive information about our financial results and position, are contained in the 2007/08 Annual Report, also available from the Clinic.  The report and accounts will be accessible by clicking here as soon as they appear on the Charity Commission's website.  Earlier years' versions can be accessed on that site here.  You can access further financial, statistical and governance information about us from our Guidestar entry.

 

Patron

 

Nick John, a former Mayor of Worthing

 

 

 

Honorary Life Members

 

for service and support above and beyond the call of duty, over many years

 

Guy Freeland

Mary Freeland

Carol Millington-Pratt

Duncan Pratt

 

 

 

 

Trustees 2007/08

Chairman

 

Joe Kirk

 

Secretary	Treasurer
Megan Catalani	Ben Sheils

 

 

Present Committee Members and Trustees 

 

Megan Catalani*

Janet Goldsbrough-Jones

Joe Kirk

Ben Sheils

David Start

Emma Taylor

 

 

Committee Members and Trustees Resigning in 2007/08

 

Kath Diamond**

Guy Freeland**

Coun Diane Jones*/***

 

* Appointed 1.11.07; **resigned 23.5.07; *** resigned 29.11.07

Guy Freeland was Chairman throughout his period as a trustee

 

 

Advisers to the Charity

 

Legal Adviser	Independent Examiner of Accounts
Peter Bennett	John Till
Bennett, Griffin	Chartered Certified Accountant
11 Sea Lane	70 South Street
Ferring BN11 3DG	Lancing BN15 8AJ

 

               

Committee**/Volunteer Vacancies

 

There are vacancies for volunteers to act as Minute Secretary, newsletter editor, webmaster and for a veterinary surgeon to act as a Trustee.  We also need volunteers to help us develop and keep up contacts with local businesses and community groups and to seek grants from charitable trusts, community organisations etc.  (**If preferred, volunteers can take on some roles without becoming committee members.)  Please contact the Clinic if interested.