Trustees' Annual Report 2021

Trustees’ Annual Report for the Year ended 30 April 2021

Charity Details Shaper Caper Limited Scottish Charity Number: SC047014 Company Registration Number: SC502566

Address

Bankers

Telephone number: +44 (0) 1382 413 007

Company Secretary

Unit 6, Manhattan Works, Dundonald St, Dundee DD3 7PY

Email address: hello@shapercaper.com Website: www.shapercaper.com Twitter / Facebook / Instagram - @shapercaper

Bank of Scotland, 65-69 Murraygate, Dundee DD1 2EA Yolanda Aguilar

Accountants

Ashton McGill, 25 Tay Street Lane, Dundee, DD1 4EF

Chairperson’s Statement Welcome to our 2020/2021 Annual Report which captures how Shaper/Caper continues to shape reality through creative adventures in dance, from the beating heart of Dundee Scotland. The board of trustees have been proud of the work the organisation has achieved over the 12 months, at the very start of the global pandemic. The resilience of the staff team allowed Shaper/Caper to reach new audiences and hit record breaking numbers of viewers.

Shaper/Caper was quick to diversify income streams and develop a digital programme, tapping into the family market viewing from home. Children’s Capers ran for 5 months and in over 100 episodes took in over 100 thousand viewers. This new digital approach applied to regular groups such as Dance for Parkinson’s and broke new boundaries undertaking the LGBT Youth Charter and founding the In/Out crowd. These informative discussions hit 5,553 households and laid the foundation of how LGBTQ+ work will grow.

We formed numerous new partnerships to allow us to creatively promote education and engagement to participants. Without key funds these programmes would not be possible, and we are grateful to all funders who supported our work this year.

We were thrilled when Shaper/Caper won the 2020 award from One Dance UK for Inspirational Work in Education and Outreach. With a total engagement of 127,400 in a challenging year - innovative and inspiring work was made by the core staff team. They led the organisation and indeed the cultural sector in Scotland through unprecedented times and have paved a path for a resilient future.

Hayley Durward Interim Chair

Objectives & Activities The company’s objects are:

/

The promotion and development of the arts and culture, with the focus on dance, as entertainment, a leisure pursuit or career; using creativity as a tool to connect communities and enhance social justice, encouraging appreciation and participation by all sections of society; and to provide and promote education and engagement of the public, both in dance and through dance, with a focus on creative learning.

The main activities of the company are touring dance-theatre productions and delivering participatory creative learning opportunities with people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds, with a focus on social justice.

The charity works in partnership with third sector organisations, as well as with the public sector’s education and health departments to achieve this. By networking with local associates such as Dundee Dance Partnership and with the wider Scottish cultural sector, we maximise our resources and the impact our programme has on our beneficiaries.

Our volunteers support the governance of the charity at Board and Youth Advisory groupThe Body, as well as the running of our day-to-day activities, such as the Dance for Parkinson’s dance classes. We value their contribution by investing in training and offering bespoke support within their chosen areas of professional interest.

Trustees • • • • • • • • •

Hayley Durward, Interim Chair Janet Robertson Allan McIntyre Dr Aleksandra Webb Drew McCusker Dr Tracey Connelly Jenny Rutter Thomas Small Yolanda Aguilar

“

“Tommy is an amazing talent. His skill and dynamism brings a whole new creative dimension to some of Radio 2’s most iconic output.”

Bob Shennan Managing Director, BBC

/

Structure, Governance & Management Description of the charity’s trusts:

1. Type of governing document: Constitution 2. How the charity is constituted: Limited Company 3. Trustee selection methods: elected by the Trustees and senior staff members, appointed by the Chair and Chief Executive. Directorship is open to all and no application for directorship will be refused, other than on reasonable grounds. There will be no discrimination on grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, gender, sexual orientation, political or other opinions.

4. Application for directorship: • Any person who wishes to become a director must sign, and lodge with the company, a written application.

• The Board shall consider each application at the first board meeting which is held after receipt of the application and the Board will, within a reasonable time after the meeting, notify the applicant of their decision on the application.

• If an application has been refused, an appeal may be made in writing to the Board, who shall consider the appeal at its next meeting after the appeal is received, and who shall respond in writing to the applicant within 21 days of the meeting. The decision on such appeals is final.

5. The structure of the Company consists of the directors who are also the Company’s only members and comprise the Board.

The Board have important powers under the constitution, take decisions on changes to the constitution itself, hold regular meetings, and generally control the activities of the Company.

Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the Board is responsible for monitoring and controlling the financial position of the Company.

The individuals making up the Board are referred to in these articles as directors. Additional governance issues: • There are policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees; these include the governance of our Youth Advisory Board, The Body.

• At the regular meetings and development days, the trustees consider all major risks and implement the system and procedures to manage them satisfactorily.

• The Company was formed in 2015 and incorporated as a limited company by guarantee, registered in Scotland, having no share capital and is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association. On the 25th of November 2016, we gained charitable status. We are confident in the constitution, relevance, and strength of our governing Board, although we are recognising that further work needs to be done to achieve inclusion with regards to race. At the moment, our Board excels in lived experience and representation of different socio-economic classes, cultures, ability and neurodiversity, gender, and sexuality, with a 78% lead from protected characteristics.

In line with our strategic planning for the next few years, we will continue to invest in a Board development scheme, providing its members with the skills to cultivate new opportunities that will attract income and develop knowledge, invaluable assets to the Company. Our interim Chair is Hayley Durward, and further consultation is currently undergoing at governance level to ascertain the charity’s needs with a view to recruiting additional members of the Board to address any existing gaps, and/or upskill the existing panel.

Embodying Vision, Mission, and Values Vision

Shaping reality through creative adventures

Mission

Dance with All

Values

Kindness, Respect, Collaboration, Humour

Achievement & Performance 2020-21 has been an extraordinary year. Upon reflection, we have diversified our income streams, reassessed our positioning within the arts and the third sector, developed digital means for internal processing and product innovation, and established the charity as a leading and innovative organisation in the cultural sector.

Shaper/Caper’s agility for swift pivoting, our previous incursion in digital skills development and experimentation, and a grounded and carefully crafted day-to-day management of the situation meant that from the first lockdown in March 2021, we were already delivering our services digitally, assessing our previous business plan to adapt it exploring new markets, and maintaining connectivity with our beneficiaries to upkeep their wellbeing and together, codesign fit-for-purpose programmes of support.

Accessing some initial funds to invest in equipment from organisations such as the Rank Foundation, NHS Tayside Community Innovation Fund, the Equality Network and the Scottish Government’s Digital Boost grant amongst others, ensured that we gradually acquired the necessary hardware and software tools to deliver our digital services, albeit at the time, we were still learning on the job.

Creative Learning & Participation Children Thinking of the 7,000 children we would have regularly met over the year to deliver our NHS Tayside funded project Well Good, we immediately took our dance classes and creative workshops online, live streaming them free of charge via our Facebook channel.

Thus, Children’s Capers was born, a new product to entertain and cater for the physical and emotional health of children and their adults that delivered Mon-Fri daily ½ hour long activities from April until August, 100 episodes viewed by over 100K people, some of these from different countries and continents. This digital experimentation has led to product development of services and a new market reach that we are currently exploring for income generation.

Dance for Parkinson’s After catering for the children, our attention then moved to our Dance for Parkinson’s Scotland group with whom we had enjoyed regular weekly classes since 2018, including a showcase at our local theatre Dundee Rep in November 2019. This group of 25 registered people was now at home and in need of upkeeping their physical exercise routine and the social opportunity that the classes provided to alleviate their symptoms. We got in touch with them to listen to their needs and with the seed support from the local Northwood Trust, some recovery funds thereafter, and other organisations such as Aviva Community Fund, J Macdonald Menzies, and RS MacDonald we managed to deliver a year-long service of weekly online classes, a digital Social Café to chat and support each other informally, and a befriending service that initially included telephone support and help with prescriptions’ collection and food shopping and delivery.

Soon thereafter, and on noticing a physical deterioration of the carers attending these sessions, since they were now full time responsible for their partners care and wellbeing, we fundraised for the delivery of dedicated sessions to pamper and boost their health in recognition of their efforts. Shared Care Scotland provided the support for this, although the original hands-on delivery of codesigned massage sessions had to be postponed due to long-term and recurring lockdowns.

Employability Sessions Another project supported the delivery of employability sessions for young women, a programme that delivered regular practical guidance on the legal responsibilities of becoming a freelancer, interview skills, how to approach potential employers, legal frameworks for the creation of new enterprises, finances, etc. This programme, funded by Foundation Scotland Women Fund, was successful in engagement and reach beyond our usual geographical scope. We are now developing a regular programme that can continue to deliver employability outcomes for this demographic, including a professional paid placement within the company on completion of the programme.

Creative Learning & Participation LGBTQ+ Young People The National Lottery Awards for All fund, followed by the Corra Foundation were key in supporting our work with LGBTQ+ young people, a programme that was developed after hearing some of our beneficiaries commenting on their feeling ‘unsafe’ to openly discuss their identity through digital meeting platforms due to having returned to environments that are not respectful of their identity. We spoke with the young participants and, supported by staff’s training on unconscious bias and the undertaking of the LGBT Youth Charter with LGBT Youth Scotland, the In/Out Crowd digital magazine was born, a vehicle for the discussion of global and local LGBTQ+ matters from an informative, creative, and humorous perspective to provide much needed uplifting spaces for the socialising of this collective. The In/Out crowd reached a total of 5,553 households and has contributed to a permanent area of work within our charity, with recent funds accessed for an LGBTQ+ festival in partnership with Dundee Pride in 2022.

Deferals We revisited our partners and services for older people in care homes and hospitals although the delivery of these activities had to be postponed many times to meet the government’s guidelines for H&S, as well as meet the capacity of the Royal Victory Hospital in Dundee. This deferral was also the case for the children and families’ project, A Day to Play sessions, which were moved online and/or postponed where possible.

New Productions Some of our theatre productions were transformed into digital outputs, such as The Snow Qween, Moon Capers, and other new films like Period. were created, all touring theatre venues across Scotland. In addition, Thomas Small has choreographed two new productions: Teeny Weeny, a new outdoor show for the under 5s in collaboration with Starcatchers, and a family pop-up show, Professor Bad Guy, supported by Lady Eda Jardine Trust, although these performances had to be deferred for health and safety reasons.

Award-Winning The combined efforts of our small team across all these projects and the public engagement at such a challenging time gained the recognition of a sector leader organisation, One Dance UK, with Shaper/Caper becoming the winners of the 2020 award in Inspirational Work in Education and Outreach.

Engagement

Social Media Reach

Top Moments

154,878 2,341 instagram 129,757 twitter

One Dance UK win announcement

direct participation

125,600

The In/Out Crowd Festival

Website

5,300 visits 4,200 unique visitors 69 countries YouTube

1,800

Finding Your Feet podcast launch with Mark Franks

34,700 impressions 4,800 views 266 hours watched

Village Hall

17 Village Hall subscriptions

Podcasts

1,099 podcast visits (via website) Favourite - Episode 9 with Clare & Lesley

Blogs

645 blog visits Favourite - 11001 Deciphering the Binary

artistic events and other digital reach

Marketing and Communications

127,400

During this time, we became acutely aware of the need of having specialist support to communicate externally the work of our charity. A plan to fundraise for this new post starts during this year and becomes a reality supported initially by some of the core funds received during this period, although again, recruitment gets delayed due to a low engagement of staff across the sector during this period, making the appointment of the right person somewhat challenging.

grand total beneficiaries

Currently in post, our new Marketing and Digital Content Officer analyses the communications data gathering during this period to highlight an increase in reach, engagement and geographical impact as follows:

Financial Review

Total Income: £156,818 Workshops £19,808

During this challenging period, we have been fortunate to be noticed and receive the financial support of many new funders with whom we expect to continue a relationship in the future due to values alignment. We have learnt the need to diversify income across a portfolio of supporters, as well as to explore new digital avenues for income generation.

Thus, our subscription platform, Village Hall, with access to numerous original classes for children and older people, relaxation and mindfulness sessions, and access to our resources was born and, albeit is currently undersubscribed and needs further attention to maximise its benefits, is a new product that has enormous potential for income generation and the sharing of our working practice.

Other revenue £5,148 Touring £6,065

Classes £209

Percentage Income Decrease: 16% Our income has decreased during the year due to Covid-19 and projects needed to be deferred as a result of long-term and repeated lockdowns. However, it is work noticing that our reserves level has dramatically increased due to accessing core support (see reserves notes over page).

Trusts and Foundations £73,575

Projects £52,013

Total Expenditure: £139,138 Wages and related costs (pensions, NI) £110,798

Overheads £5,099

Equipment and consumables £1,0541 Telephone £774

Development costs £1,901

Materials £2,013 Insurance £1,097

Accountancy £2,318 Legal £4,597

Statement of the charity’s policy on reserves It is the aim of the Board to comply with OSCR and best practice, ensuring that the charity has at least 3 months of reserves to cover the costs of staff and overheads. The charity holds reserves for the following reasons: 1. Contingency: unexpected expenditure in the event of an emergency 2. Cash-flow: situations where a bill has to be paid before the money to cover it has been received 3. Commitment: a commitment to occasional significant expenditure which cannot be covered by the annual income 4. Conservation: funds which the trustees cannot spend immediately without compromising their legal responsibilities to ensure that their charity’s resources are used necessarily, reasonably, and incidentally in fulfilment of their charitable objects 5. Closure: the charity becomes financially unsustainable and must be wound up.

Reserves: £16,512 Current reserves level: £17,594 Reserves percentage increase: 1800% The dramatic increase on reserves reflects the financial help received by Creative Scotland, The Rank Foundation, and The Scottish Government for core support, an income area usually hard to achieve as a project-based company with no regular support.

Donated facilities and services We operate according to the Scottish Government Place Principle and establish numerous mutually beneficial partnerships with organisations resulting in various in-kind exchanges of services to maximise investment and social impact.

Funders and Partners Funders and partners throughout the year were: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Creative Scotland The Scottish Government NHS Tayside Aberdeen City Council Leisure and Culture Dundee Turcan Connell Parkinson’s UK Foundation Scotland Hugh Fraser Foundation, the National Lottery Scottish Ballet Dance Base Creative Dundee St Ninian’s Stay and Play Longstone Trust SCVO Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust Moncur Trust Thomson & Sons

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

The Rank Foundation Surf the Wave Al Maktoum Pavilion Dance South D’Oyly Carte Equality Network Northwood Trust Shared Care Scotland Tillyloss Trust Women’s Fund for Scotland The Corra Foundation Lang Foundation Digital Boost RS MacDonald J McDonald Menzies Aviva Community Federation of Scottish Theatre Rob Anderson Fife Cultural Trust

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Glenkens Community & Arts Trust-Catstrand Honslow Arts Trust Limited Citymoves Dance Agency Aberdeen Performing Arts East Renfrewshire Culture & Leisure Trust Starcatchers Dunoon Burgh Hall Beacon Arts Centre Lady Eda Jardine C Trust Brunton Theatre Dundee Rep Creative Learning-Aberdeen City Council

‘There is such a broad scope to his work - it can span from mass participation events to high end performance at a major Arts festival. I was excited about spending time with Tommy on his amazing artistic journey throughout the year of events on BBC Radio 2.’

Claudia Winkleman, BBC Radio 2 Presenter

Future Plans We are currently developing our new Business Plan. In an environment that is hard to predict, likely over the next two years, we are collaborating with other organisations to develop long-term partnerships and strengthen the offer of services for the benefit of our audiences and participants. We continue to engage with multiple local, national, and international networks in the quest for improving the working conditions and multiplying the social impact through cross-sectoral collaborations. Our work is aligned with The Scottish Government’s National Performance Framework outcomes that consider a holistic approach to people and places’ wellbeing Declaration Signed on behalf of the charity trustees Print name: Yolanda Aguilar Designation: Executive Director Date: 15/12/2021

Additional Information We would like to thank all the funders that have supported us during this challenging time, financially and otherwise, most of them new to our workings. The core support received from The Rank Foundation, First Port, The Scottish Government and Creative Scotland meant that not only we did not furlough any of our employees but that we have since increased our staff capacity to deliver bigger and better services. We believe that this type of trusting relationship investment and its flexibility is key for small organisations like ours in the near future, as we have demonstrated a considerable social return on investment.

We would like to thank our stakeholders and volunteers, as none of this would have been able for a small charity with no core support without their continuous encouragement and assistance. Our young people from The Body Youth Advisory Board have become assertive performers, dance facilitators, and novel entrepreneurs, many of them currently launching their own businesses and creative ventures.

Our Board has phenomenally supported our growth and continues to nurture, challenge, and direct the charity to achieve excellence and purpose.

/