Date: 8th February 2005
Norwood's Annual Review points to improved financial position in 2003/4
Norwood this week published its Annual Review for 2003/2004 which shows that the organisation's financial position has strengthened. Over the 12 months to March 2004, Anglo-Jewry's leading children and family services charity made a surplus of £1.4m overall, attributable to careful cost control and significant successes in the renegotiation of residential fees. The surplus included £0.8m recovery in the value of investments reflecting improved market conditions.
Norwood's total income for 2003/2004 was £27.7m. £19m was secured through statutory funding, representing an increase of £2.4m on the previous year. Overall fundraising income in 2003/2004 was £6.4m. Revenue income, which covers the day-to-day running costs at Norwood remained steady at £6.2m, whilst donations for specific capital projects were £0.2m. Norwood raised £2.3m in other income in the 12 months to March 2004.
Whilst the figures show that the charity has reversed the deficit of £1.7m in 2002/2003 to a modest surplus of income over expenditure in 2003/2004, Norwood's finances continue to be put under pressure by the costs of complying with the National Minimum Care Standards ahead of the 2005 deadline, for which the Government has not released any extra funding.
Norwood's Director of Corporate Services, Duncan Milroy, explains : "We fully support the introduction by the Government of the Minimum Care Standards. However, over the 12 months to March 2004 we have seen our staff costs rise by 5% and over the current financial year this trend has continued. In 2003/2004 the overall increase in the costs of our charitable activities was contained to 1.5% through stringent cost cutting in other areas of our budget, but this cannot be continually repeated. Norwood continues to be heavily reliant on voluntary donations to allow us to run our services at current levels."
According to Chief Executive Norma Brier , Norwood's improved financial position has been achieved "through a rigorous reappraisal of the true cost of providing our services and how we charge for them, successful fundraising, and reductions in central support expenditure wherever possible. We continue to apply sound business principles to ensure best value for money. The past twelve months have been a period of consolidation for the organisation which has seen us able to maintain our financial position. In 2003/2004, we restructured our senior management, recruited new members to our Trustee Board, reorganised our lay leadership structure and developed a new strategic plan to take Norwood from 2004 - 2007. The challenges over the next year are enormous."
For further information, please contact Ross Kester, Public Relations Manager at Norwood on 020 8420 6900 or email ronit.shebson@norwood.org.uk
