Depden Care Farm is run by the Millennium Farm Trust which is a Charity registered with the Charity Commission (No: 1070145, memorandum and articles of association registered May 1998).  The Trust is also a Registered Private Limited Company (No: 03567659 incorporated in May 1998). The organization’s purpose is to provide opportunities for those with learning, physical and mental health needs to experience real work, to learn as part of a team where possible and to develop their self-confidence and work-based skills.

The farm is run by the Director and a staff team who report to the Board of Trustees. The policies and procedures of the organisation set out how the Director, staff and Trustees run the organisation and can be viewed here: policies.

The overarching responsibility of the Trustees is to act in the best interests of the Charity and do what will best enable the charity to carry out its purposes.  The trustees take ultimate responsibility for governance and management of the charity whilst delegating operational management to the Director and to Board  Subgroups.

The functions of the Board of Trustees include

1. Setting the strategic direction for the organisation.
2. Monitoring progress  against its strategic aims, objectives and financial targets
3. Ensuring that the organisation has the resources, both human and financial, to achieve its aims
4. Maintaining oversight of MFT’s operations and ensuring the maintenance of a sound system of internal control and risk management
5. Ensuring that the organisation functions within the legal and financial requirements of a registered charity
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The core duties of a Trustee at Millennium Farm Trust are to:

• Use independent judgement, acting legally and in good faith to promote and protect the Trusts interests, to the exclusion of their own and/or third-party interests.Attend meetings of the Board and sub groups adequately prepared to contribute to discussions and decision making
• Approve the Strategic Plan and Trust Policies and monitor and evaluate their implementation.Approve the annual budget and oversee the Trusts financial arrangements and monitor and evaluate progress.
• Ensure the effective and efficient administration of the organisation including compliance with agree policies and procedures.
• Provide support and challenge to the Director in the exercise of his delegated authority and affairs.
• Act as an ambassador for the Trust by promoting understanding and support for the organisation.
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Millennium Farm Trust operates devolved decision-making.  Terms of Reference set out the authority delegated by the Board to Sub Groups and to the Director.   All trustees are members of the Board and specific sub-groups and share collective responsibility for the management and administration of the trust. 

Profiles of our current trustees are listed here

The Board Subgroups cover the principle areas of business activity:

• Finance and Resources
• Quality, Risk and Impact
• People, Safeguarding and Culture
• Marketing, Communications and Engagement

They support the Director in delivering the operational business and support the Board in monitoring the delivery of those services.

The Director is the senior manager of MFT and is responsible for advising the Board when it is determining policies and priorities and to ensure that these policies and priorities are implemented effectively.  The Director has delegated authority to determine everyday policies overseen and supported by Board Subgroups. The Director operates within MFT’s policies and priorities agreed by the Board. The Director has delegated responsibility for the effective and efficient management of the organisation.

Tim Freathy

MFT are looking at the strategic direction for Depden Care Farm (DCF) for the next 5-10 years and the Board of Trustees have developed a strategic plan to serve as roadmap beyond the immediate operational plans and act as a guiding light for future activities and developments. The immediate focus will be to ensure that we complete all of the initiatives and development that we have started and to ensure that we maximise the utilisation of our assets within our existing framework of provision. Alongside this activity we will review how we can do more for our existing farm helpers, ensuring that we are stretching them enough and measuring their achievement appropriately with an eye to helping those who can transition into work.

Our longer-term objective is to use our learning and experience to expand the opportunities available to those who would benefit from spending time at a care farm. We recognise too that we need to develop a more comprehensive process for ensuring we have the right people and staffing structure in place to enable our farm workers get the best possible experience and MFT makes the most of the assets that it is entrusted with.

Our five-year strategic plan can be viewed here.

Our service supports Suffolk’s Joint Learning and Disability Strategy and its work for Suffolk County Council is managed and monitored through its framework contract with that authority.

We subscribe to the following voluntary codes and quality programmes.

• Care Farming UK accreditation
• Community Action Suffolk Quality Standards
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We  seek external verification of our key policies and procedures.

• Our accounts are audited by external accountant
• Our Health and Safety policy, risk register and practice is audited by an external auditor.
• Our farm helper progression process, RARPA is externally reviewed and verified. 
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The articles of association form a document that specifies the regulations for MFT’s  operations and defines our purpose. The document lays out how tasks are to be accomplished within the organization, including the process for appointing directors and the handling of financial records.  It’s quite a high level document and set up many years ago when the charity was first founded in 1998.

Millennium Farm Trust is legally obliged to send annual information, reports and returns to both the Charities Commission and Companies House. You can see our submissions to the Charities Commission here (search their database using our Charity Number:  1070145) and you can see our submissions to Companies House, including our annual accounts here (search their database using our Company Number: 03567659).

As a charity we are obliged to hold an AGM once a year.  The aim of the AGM is to provide MFT trustees and officers the opportunity to explain their management of the charity to our supporters, our customers and our members. It also provides people with an interest in the charity with an opportunity to ask questions before voting on business items on the agenda.