Bryson Group held their 111th Annual General Meeting

On the 9th October Bryson Charitable Group held their 111th Annual General Meeting in the Board Room of Bryson House.

Since 1906, the Bryson Charitable Group has been committed to tackling social inequalities, working with people and communities building better futures.

Hugh Crossey, Chairman’s Remarks

In this, my fifth year as Chair at Bryson Charitable Group, we, like the rest of society, have experienced more turbulence than we could have anticipated. During this fiscal year, we are faced with the uncertainty that Brexit brings, plus the collapse of our local Northern Ireland Assembly with no budget agreed, an unapproved draft Programme for Government and no political oversight of our public institutions. Despite this turbulence, we have weathered the storm and have shown some significant improvement in the Group’s financial performance, increasing operational turnover by 8.7% to £25.48 million and net fund movement of £700k.

We welcome the proposed significant shift in the draft Programme for Government Framework 2016-21, which promises to move away from the traditional input/ output model to planning towards an outcome-driven approach (OBA). This is more in line with our own social value framework, which was encouraged by the Chief Economist of the Bank of England, who visited Bryson FutureSkills during the year.

We hope and believe that this approach, along with our commitment to a Social Value Act in N. Ireland, will strengthen our local economy while maximising the social value we create. Despite the many challenges over the past year, we have remained focused on our social business model, delivering our range of services with a clear emphasis on monitoring the social value of everything we do. We continue to expand and roll out our innovative kerbside recycling collection service with over 170,000 households now availing of this service in Northern Ireland. We have delivered 3,000 support and advice sessions to people seeking asylum and to Traveller families and children, working to improve social inclusion. We have delivered over 201,000 hours of personal care and support to vulnerable adults in their own homes. We have advised 21,500 households across Northern Ireland about energy measures and, through the Oil Buying Clubs, have purchased almost 3 million litres of home heating oil at significantly reduced costs, helping to tackle fuel poverty.

Key highlights from the year also include:

  • Celebrating 20 years of supporting and delivering the European Voluntary Service to over 300 young people from across Europe
  • Coordinating support for vulnerable Syrian refugees to resettle and start a new life in Northern Ireland through the work of the Consortium
  • Expanding our domiciliary care services within the Western Trust area
  • Expanding our training for long-term unemployed with new contracts and partnerships with Housing Associations
  • Increasing our activities and customer base, approaching 10,000 users at Bryson LaganSports.

Other strong headline figures include:

  • 85% of income derived from service contracts held by the Group
  • 96 pence in every pound was spent on the delivery of our social objectives

We remain committed to innovation, service excellence, cost effectiveness and providing value for money. I would like to acknowledge the voluntary commitment and hard work of all my fellow Non-Executive Directors on our Group and Company Boards, who contribute so much to our ongoing success, and to all our hard-working staff. Our annual review provides an opportunity to highlight our work and impact in building better futures for all.   To view our annual review please click here 

Hugh Crossey thanked Brendan Mullan for his contribution to Bryson as Honorary Secretary for the past 10 years and as a Board member for a number of years prior to that. Hugh Crossey (right hand side) along with Stephen Curragh Honorary Treasurer (left of picture) with Brendan Mullan in the middle.

Hugh also welcomed the incoming Honorary Secretary Sarah Witchell pictured below with Brendan.

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