Pargeter And Wand Trust
Charity 210725
Overview
Summary
Pargeter And Wand Trust appears to occupy a highly focused niche in local or wider charitable support: direct poverty-relief assistance for older women who have never married and are experiencing need, hardship or distress. Its role is distinctive not because it offers a broad service portfolio, but because it channels flexible, individual grants toward a narrowly defined group whose circumstances may be poorly served by universal provision. The evidence suggests a targeted financial-safety-net model, though its reach, geography and relationships with referral organisations remain unknown.
Operational geography
Evidence and reasoning
Supporting evidence
Stirchley
Confidence: medium
The Trust's registered contact information identifies Stirchley, and BCOP identifies a support-office head office there. BCOP's 2025 audited accounts confirm that BCOP is the Trust's sole trustee and that the Trust currently pays annuities to qualifying women. This supports Stirchley as a possible administrative base, but does not establish operational activity or a beneficiary-facing service site there.
- Charity Commission Register, Pargeter and Wand Trust (charity 210725), contact information
Lists the Trust's address in Stirchley, Birmingham, with a BCOP email address. - Broadening Choices for Older People, audited accounts for year ended 31 March 2025
States that BCOP became sole trustee of Pargeter and Wand Trust on 1 March 2015 and describes it as a grant-giving charity paying annuities to qualifying applicants. - BCOP, Contact us
Identifies a support-office head office in Stirchley, Birmingham.
Remaining uncertainties
- The available current evidence does not identify where annuity recipients live, where grants are assessed, or whether eligibility is restricted to Birmingham, a particular district, or a wider area.
- The Trust is a grant-making/annuity-paying charity rather than a provider of place-based services. Its registered address is therefore best understood as an administrative base, not evidence of a public-facing service location.
- BCOP's sole trusteeship is a material governance and administrative relationship, but the evidence does not show that Pargeter and Wand Trust's annuities are delivered through BCOP's nursing homes, housing schemes, or other sites across Birmingham.
- No current evidence establishes additional physical sites, neighbourhood operations, or partnerships that extend the Trust's own operational geography.
Additional evidence needed
- The Trust's current governing document or grant/annuity policy specifying any geographical area of benefit.
- Anonymised recent recipient data, or a current annual report, showing the local authority areas or Birmingham wards in which annuity recipients live.
- Confirmation from BCOP or the Trust of where applications and awards are administered, and whether any referral organisations currently participate.
Areas of work
- The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty
Who they help
- Elderly/old People
- Other Defined Groups
How they help
- Makes Grants To Individuals
Discoveries involving this organisation
The Atlas has not published any Discoveries involving this organisation yet.
Observations
A deliberately narrow eligibility model
The Trust appears to concentrate resources on a specific intersection of age, gender, marital history and financial hardship, rather than serving older people generally. This may reflect an intention to address a form of vulnerability understood as distinct from wider later-life poverty.
Why it matters
This focus helps explain the Trust's potential role in the wider support landscape: it may reach people who meet general poverty criteria but whose particular circumstances are not routinely recognised by broader schemes.
Show evidence
“The objects cover women aged 55 and over who are single, widowed or living alone and in need, hardship or distress.”
Source:Charity Commission“The Trust describes its beneficiaries as women never having been married, aged 55 and upwards, in need, hardship or distress.”
Source:Organisation
Direct grants may provide unusually flexible support
The Trust appears to operate primarily through grants to individuals and payment for practical items, services or facilities. This may allow it to respond to immediate, personal needs that standardised public or charitable programmes do not cover.
Why it matters
Flexible small-scale support can complement larger advice, welfare and care organisations, especially where a person's hardship is specific, urgent or unsuitable for a conventional service offer.
Show evidence
“The charity makes grants to individuals.”
Source:Charity Commission“The trustees may provide or pay for items, services or facilities calculated to reduce need, hardship or distress.”
Source:Charity Commission
The Trust may be designed to work through other organisations as well as directly with people
Its objects permit donations or subscriptions to institutions or organisations that provide support for eligible women. This suggests a potential intermediary role: the Trust may strengthen other providers' capacity rather than relying solely on direct individual awards.
Why it matters
This creates a possible connection point with advice agencies, older people's organisations or care providers, but the available evidence does not show whether such relationships are active in practice.
Show evidence
“The trustees may pay for items, services or facilities by donations or subscriptions to institutions or organisations which provide them for eligible persons.”
Source:Charity Commission
- It is unclear whether eligibility is for never-married women only, or also includes widowed or other women living alone.
- There is no evidence of the Trust's geography, grant size, number of beneficiaries, referral routes or current partnerships.
- It is unknown whether the Trust addresses recurring financial insecurity, one-off crises, or both.
Remaining uncertainties
- Grant-making policy, application criteria and recent examples of awards.
- Annual reports or accounts showing beneficiary numbers, grant values, locations and payments to other organisations.
- Information on referral partners and how eligible women learn about or access support.
Additional evidence needed
Charity Commission profile
Activities
The Trusts objective is to relieve either generally or individually, women, never having been married, of the age of 55 years and upwards, who are in conditions of need, hardship or distress by its activities of making grants of money or providing or paying for items, services or facilities calculated to reduce the need, hardship or distress of such persons.
Charity objects
(1) RELIEVING EITHER GENERALLY OR INDIVIDUALLY WOMEN, WHO ARE SINGLE, WIDOWED OR LIVING ALONE, OF THE AGE OF 55 YEARS AND UPWARDS WHO ARE IN CONDITIONS OF NEED, HARDSHIP OR DISTRESS BY MAKING GRANTS OF MONEY OR PROVIDING OR PAYING FOR ITEMS, SERVICES OR FACILITIES CALCULATED TO REDUCE THE NEED, HARDSHIP OR DISTRESS OF SUCH PERSONS. (2) THE TRUSTEES MAY PAY FOR SUCH ITEMS, SERVICES OR FACILITIES BY WAY OF DONATIONS OR SUBSCRIPTIONS TO INSTITUTIONS OR ORGANISATIONS WHICH PROVIDE OR WHICH UNDERTAKE IN RETURN TO PROVIDE SUCH ITEMS, SERVICES OR FACILITIES FOR SUCH PERSONS.