Meet
the team
A core focus of support and building the local community.
Meet
The Brasshouse Community Centre is run on behalf of NSDT by a team of dedicated staff, who ensure the smooth running of the centre with a core focus of support and building the local community.
Jenn Harrison BEM
CEO & COMPANY SECRETARY
Jenn’s role is to provide leadership and be overall responsible for the organisation’s operations, administration and financial management. Working closely with the Board of Trustees, she ensures that the charity listens and responds to the needs of the community and develop the organisation’s long-term plan, budget and ensure it complies with the law and regulations.
Acting as ambassador for NSDT, she is the public face for campaigns and building of relationships with customers, and partners and plays a key role in motivating and engaging volunteers, staff, beneficiaries and prospective donors. She is also a qualified Mental Health First Aider and the organisations Designated Safeguarding Lead.
Jennifer was awarded the British Empire Medal in 2018 for voluntary service to Young People and to the community in Birmingham.
Pamela
FINANCE & ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER
Pamela works alongside the CEO to ensure the accurate preparation and maintenance of financial records for the organisation in accordance with policies and procedures and in accordance with legislative and statutory requirements.
She also supports the Trust, the Board and the wider staff team and volunteers. She also manages hire and use of facilities on behalf of the Trust.
Liane
Liane is currently taking a break after welcoming her first child, a keen volunteer in her spare time, a team player who strives hard to get the right result. She is ambitious with a creative flair and believes that if something doesn’t work out first time, think of different ways to make it work.
Paul
CENTRE CLEANER
Paul ensures the centre halls and office spaces including communal areas are clean and presentable for our team, customers and visiting public.
Harsh
CENTRE CARETAKER & CAR PARK TEAM LEADER
In his role as Caretaker, Harsh ensures the centre is opened and securely closed for out-of-hours bookings during evenings and weekends, providing assistance as required e.g. ensuring hire space including communal areas are clean and presentable for the next booking.
Harsh also leads the team in the safe operations of our match day car parking enterprise.
Kassim
MATCH DAY CAR PARK STEWARD
Kassim provides support to the Car Park Manager in the safe operations of our match day car parking enterprise.
Shuhib
MATCH DAY CAR PARK STEWARD
Shuhib provides support to the Car Park Manager in the safe operations of our match day car parking enterprise.
Fahim
MATCH DAY CAR PARK STEWARD
Fahim provides support to the Car Park Manager in the safe operations of our match day car parking enterprise.
Omar
MATCH DAY CAR PARK STEWARD
Omar provides support to the Car Park Manager in the safe operations of our match day car parking enterprise.
Nassim
MATCH DAY CAR PARK STEWARD
Nassim provides support to the Car Park Manager in the safe operations of our match day car parking enterprise.
Our board of Trustees
We are proud that our Board represents the diverse gender and ethic profile fairly typical of the area as a whole. Find out more about how we are governed.
The Board of Trustees is responsible for the governance and strategy of the NSDT. The Board is made up of 11 Trustees. The Trustees have full legal responsibility for the actions of the NSDT. Members are appointed for a renewable term of three years and are the directors of the company for the purposes of the Companies Act 2006.
The Board meets at least four times a year. They delegate the day-to-day responsibility for the running of the NSDT to the Chief Executive Officer. It has approved and adopted a Conflicts of Interest Policy and Code of Conduct.
The Chairman of the Board directly line manages the Chief Executive. The Trust regularly seeks input and engagement from local residents in its work through organising meaningful consultations which also act as an accountability mechanism for feeding back on the achievements of the Trust and to check whether we are making an impact.
Anthony McFarlane
Chairman & Director/Trustee
As Chairman, Anthony holds the Board and Team to account for the Charity’s mission and vision, providing inclusive leadership to the Board of Trustees, ensuring that each trustee fulfils their duties and responsibilities for the effective governance of the charity. As Chair, he also supports the Chief Executive and ensure that the Board functions as a unit and works closely to achieve agreed objectives.
He acts as an ambassador and the public face of the charity in partnership with the Chief Executive.
He is an established photographer – using photography as Artistic Documentary, specialising in evocative images of black and white simplicity in documenting the world we live in and creating bespoke photographic limited-edition books. Born in Yorkshire he first used the camera in the 80’s to begin documenting black British performers in the Birmingham area, capturing some very iconic images over the last decade.
During the last few years he’s developed his own photographic workshops, concentrating on using the camera as a tool for self-awareness and currently runs his own photographic business.
Pam Kaur Randhawa
Vice-Chairman & Director/Trustee
Pam is a local resident and currently serves as the Greets Green & Lyng ward Councillor and has been a Board member since 1999 and is former Chair of the Trust and also she is the Chair of Governors at the local primary. She has a passion for local issues and the local environment and believes in moving the area forward through regeneration and consultation.
Ashley Lewis
Director/Trustee
A Board Member since 2022 and with a passion about community connectivity and development, Ashley is keen to develop services for young people and working with communities to harness their talent to drive change.
With a background in third sector management and project development, Ashley brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his role as member of the Board of Trustees.
Ashley is also the Local Elected Member for the Smethwick Ward.
Rakesh Aggarwal
Director/Trustee
Rakesh has been a member of the Board since its inception in 1992. He is a local resident, local businessman and pharmacist and has a local pharmacy and properties in the area. He’s married with a family and very keen on environmental issues. Rakesh was recognised for 25 years service in the charity sector in the Volunteer Centre Sandwell Awards 2018.
How we are governed
North Smethwick Development Trust (NSDT) is a Charity (registered in England and Wales – 1035308) and Company Limited by Guarantee (Registered in England 02736636).
Since being established, NSDT has been locally led with most of our Directors made up of local residents. Being locally owned provides the strategic link between community and organisation. Here we use the term Management Committee to describe our governing body.
Overall responsibilities of the Management Committee
Broadly, the Board of Directors responsibilities are to ensure that our charity:
Does what it was set up to do – Manages its finances well – Works within the law – Works together and makes effective decisions – Has effective Fundraising practices – Recognises equality, diversity and inclusion across our team and in the services and activities we offer – Is compliant with Health and safety, safeguarding and insurance – Is compliant with Regulations and licences – Has appropriate policies and procedure in place to mitigate risk – Is compliant with Charity and Company Law – Legal liability of committee members – Is a good employer to paid workers and recognises our volunteers – Is compliant with the requirements of leasing premises
Following our governing document
We have to operate within our charity’s Memorandum and Articles of Association. This means keeping to the agreed aims of your organisation, and sticking to the rules we agreed about how our organisation is run. All policies are reviewed and then approved by the Management Committee either annually or bi-annually or when legislation requires. As a registered charity, our Memorandum and Articles of Association has already been approved by the Charity Commission. It states when we need to have our AGM, how many times our Management Committee will meet during the year, and how our accounts should be kept.
How we manage and report our Finances
As a charity, we prepare annual accounts and make them available to the public on request.
As we have an income above £25,000, we have our accounts examined by an Independent Person. We also keep our accounts for at least 6 years after their date. This means all the records – bank statements, receipts, cheque books – not just a summary of the account.
The Board is presented with the management accounts at every quarterly Board meeting, these reports provide details about the charities profit and loss, monies owed, cashflow and our balance sheet including Bank balances. Management accounts are presented at each bi-monthly Finance and Human Resources Sub-Committee meeting.
The day to day expenditure is managed by the Chief Executive Officer with the support of the Finance & Administrative Officer alongside preparing budgets they are presented to the Finance and Human Resources Sub-group for approval before being confirmed. The Finance policy states the requirement for Board approval by mid-February each year.
Trustees annual report and Annual Return
As a charity, we must produce a Trustees’ Annual Report. This report forms part of the Annual Accounts and is presented at the charity’s Annual General Meeting. An annual return is how we inform the Charity Commission of the work of a charity over the year. We have to ensure that this is done within 10 months of end of our financial year.
