The Principles of the Pastoral Services Scheme

Pastoral Services are those which;

• Provide Educational Opportunities
• Provide help in case of emergency.

What Pastoral Services can be included?

The following list provides some guidance on what can be included, based on the principles of the Scheme. Please note that in accordance with Concordia's charitable principles, expenditure on educational opportunities will be given priority and expenditure on sport, leisure, and social occasions, will only be considered if funds remain at the end of the season.

Providing educational opportunities to participants.

• Providing PC facilities and internet access.
• Providing study trips.
• Providing English language lessons.

Providing services to participants in an emergency.

• Providing interpreting services.
• Providing emergency telephone help.
• Providing counselling services.
• Providing emergency, out of hours services.
• Covering transport costs for participants travelling between farms due to a transfer that was not their fault (e.g. because work has stopped).
• Providing help with un-insured costs following a serious incident or accident.
• Ex-gratia payments to participants in financial difficult through no fault of their own.

Making an Application for Pastoral Funds

To apply for Pastoral funding, please contact the Finance Team (on 01273 426497 or e-mail jon@concordia-ysv.org.uk) as soon as possible in the season with details of your planned expenditure. It is important to inform Concordia prior to planned expenditure in order to receive an indication whether the expenditure will potentially qualify. However this does not guarantee that all or part of the expenditure will be reimbursed.

You may also apply for retrospective funding of qualifying expenditure or activities that have already taken place, so long as they are in the current calendar year and the claim is made before the year end. This will also most often be the case with respect to emergency expenditure that will be unplanned.

All qualifying receipts must be dated within the calendar year and submitted prior to 31st December at the latest (although see below for earlier deadlines). Concordia will not reimburse retrospective claims received after 31st December (if you have not heard from us by the end of the year please contact us to confirm your application has been received as we will be unable to repay claims lost in the post).

The farm should send (or fax to 01273 422443) copies of all relevant receipts for expenditure they wish to claim. Each application will be assessed on its merits and with reference to the total fund available for the year. Where total claims exceed the total fund available Concordia will need to allocate funds in a fair and proportionate way. Reference will also be made to a claimant's payment record as no funds can be made available where Concordia accounts are outstanding.

There is no longer an automatic entitlement to pastoral funding based on a per head allocation. Where feasible Concordia may give a farm an estimated range of funding available but it will not be possible to provide an exact budget to an applicant prior to the actual expenditure as this will depend on the total number of applications received in the year.

If successful, reimbursement for planned expenditure will be made at three times during the year as follows: the first week in July for applications received prior to 30th June, the first week in November for applications received by 31st October, and at the start of the new year for any remaining claims received up to 31st December if funds remain. It is advisable to submit your claim as soon as possible as no money will be available if the fund is already used up.

Emergency funds will be considered and reimbursed on receipt (as with planned expenditure Concordia can not guarantee that the full amount of emergency claims will be reimbursed as each claim will be assessed depending on its circumstances).

No funds are available in advance of expenditure as all expenditure must be verified to invoices.

Your Concordia Field Officer will be able to check that provision of the facilities paid for by the Concordia Pastoral Fund are available to Concordia participants.

VAT

A VAT registered farm will be reimbursed for the net amount of receipts excluding any VAT element. A copy VAT receipt or invoice should be provided (in the case of online purchases it is sometimes necessary to make a special request for a VAT receipt).

If your farm is not registered for VAT please let Concordia know.

Concordia only requires copies of relevant receipts or statements. The originals must be retained for your VAT records.