The trustees present their report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006 and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)".
The Charitable Company’s objectives are to promote any charitable purpose for the public benefit by the advancement of education, the protection and preservation of health and the relief of poverty, sickness and distress in particular, but without limitation, for the benefit of the community in the Borough of Wigan and surrounding areas. The trustees have had regard to the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit.
Vision and Mission
Our Vision is that people can access our service easily and have the knowledge and confidence they need to find a way forward, whatever the problem.
What we will do to achieve this is set out in our mission statement which is:
To support our communities health and wellbeing through the provision of quality advice which empowers people to overcome their problems, and to speak up for those who are treated unjustly, championing equal, diverse and inclusive policy and practice.
Public Benefit
We review our aims, objectives and activities each year. We have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s Charities and Public Benefit document. All of our charitable activities focus on the promotion of research, charitable and youth projects for the benefit of the community.
Overview of Services
The Citizens Advice Service in the Borough of Wigan provides a Borough-wide advice service through a range of methods of delivery and seeks to make its services available for all sections of the community in the Borough and to provide services that are relevant to their needs. Services are the subject of Delivery Plans, agreed with the main funders.
The service is free, independent, impartial and confidential. It is accessible to anyone, regardless of age, race, sex, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability or religious belief.
The voluntary contribution
The Charitable Company relies on volunteers undertaking advice work, administrative support and governance to enable us to deliver our services. The continued commitment and dedication of our volunteers is recognised with appreciation.
The Charitable Company's volunteers provided 1,338 administrative support hours and 7,440 advice hours during the year. The monetary value of the voluntary contribution to the Charitable company is estimated at £105,554 for the year. This is not recorded in these financial statements.
The Charitable Company has met the performance requirements under contracts and service level agreements and good progress has continued to be made on the Business Development Programme.
During the year we have:
Feedback received from clients showed that:
90% respondents said we helped them find a way forward with their issue 99% respondents would recommend our services to others
As a member of Citizens Advice, the Charitable Company operates and implements the equal opportunities policies of the Association, and requests that all employees, volunteers and Board members accept and act in line with the policies. The Charitable Company operates an on-going cultural monitoring survey of its clients, covering disability, ethnicity and gender groups.
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A summary of the results for 2023/24 is provided below:
Client Profile for 2023/24
Ethnicity
89% White
3% Asian
4% Black
1% Mixed
3% Other
Gender
55% female
45% male
Disability / Long Term Health Condition
52% clients with a disability / LTH condition
Factors affecting the service
As we move forward, we continue to face some significant challenges. Residents are still struggling to manage financially and fuel debts were the top debt issue we supported clients with during 2023/24. Client queries are ever more complex and time consuming and more people are struggling to find affordable, quality housing which is suitable to their needs. Alongside this, static and reduced funding led to a large scale restructure at the end of the financial year, which saw a staff loss of 5. This raises concerns about the health and wellbeing of our staff, and a greater emphasis on supporting clients to self help where possible. We are also up against larger offices in the south of England who are able to afford higher salaries, impacting staff retention.
A number of long existing funding streams are due to cease at the end of March 2025 and we do not yet know of the recommissioning intentions of the funders. It is likely that we will be required to submit a regional bid with other local Citizens Advice offices in Greater Manchester. Additionally, we have less surplus reserves to rely on, which limits our ability to recruit additional staff.
Strategic priorities
Our priorities for the planning period centres around 4 key themes, which are Organisational Health, Advice, Advocacy and Inclusivity.
Our priorities over the next 12 months are:
Improving organisational sustainability and increasing staff retention
Retaining the Advice Quality Standard, through passing the Citizens Advice audit
Improving our ability to meet demand, through the recruitment of volunteer advisers
Supporting more residents to self help where appropriate
Roll out problem noticer training to partners across the borough, enabling them to support residents to self help or make referrals into our service when required
Increasing staff engagement with research and campaigning activities and sharing our knowledge with those who can effect change
To ensure that our engagement activities are accessible to all communities within the borough
Acknowledgements
The Trustee Board gratefully acknowledges the support of our funders. In 2023/24 these were:
Wigan Council
National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (in Partnership with the Money and Pensions Service, The Guardian, the National Grid and the Department for Business and Trade, BEIS and the DWP)
Atherton and Leigh Foodbank (funded by the Trussell Trust),
Macmillan
The Statement of Financial Activities provides a summary of the Charity’s Income and Expenditure during 2023/ 24
Whilst the economic environment remained extremely challenging in the past year, the Charity’s Management Team worked hard to secure and maintain sufficient funding to ensure that we could continue to provide high quality services to clients. This hard work paid off in January, when Wigan Council, our largest single provider of debt advice funding, awarded CAWB a new contract from 1 April 2024. For the year-ended 31 March 2024 our total income was £999,828, up by £18,191 on the previous year. The increase was driven mostly by additional one-off funding from Citizens Advice, resulting from a grant provided by The Guardian news, alongside the full-year benefit of funding from Macmillan and Atherton and Leigh Foodbank, as well as higher investment income as we were able to take advantage of the rise in bank interest rates. This additional income helped to offset reductions in income from key projects such as Pension Wise and Help To Claim. There were no new on-going project funding sources in the year-end 31 March 2024 but identifying new sources remains a priority into the new financial year.
The growth in annual income enabled the Board of Trustees to support an increased investment in charitable activities resulting in a rise in total expenditure of £16,445 to £1,026,153, with staff costs for the year growing by £47,479 to £867,243. An element of this latter increase related to redundancy and termination payments (£13,341) following the organisational restructure (See ‘Factors Affecting Service’ above) however salary costs relating to the direct delivery of services also increased by £34,138 (+4%). For the year ended 31 March 2024, employment costs represented 84.5% of Total Expenditure (2023: 81.2%).
Other expenditure decreased in the year by £31,034 to £158,910 as investments in IT infrastructure and office furniture made last year did not need to be repeated. Such investments to support the health and wellbeing of our staff and our quality service delivery will be kept under review in the new financial year.
Going forward we anticipate further pressures on social-funding budgets as the cost of living crisis and the wider global economic challenges continue to squeeze available investment in charitable activities. This, coupled with the need to keep staff salaries in line with market rates, means there remains a risk to both the Charity's income and profitability in the new financial year. The Board of Trustees and the management team remain committed to identifying new sources of funding and strategic investments in the Charity to ensure our business model is sustainable and that we can continue to provide our vitally important services to those who need them in the local community.
Citizens Advice Service in the Borough of Wigan is a charitable company limited by guarantee, and was registered as a charity on 10 August 1989. The Company was established under a Memorandum of Association, and incorporated on 29 March 1989. The Articles of Association were amended by special resolution dated 20 September 2022, superseding all previous amendments. Notice of these special resolutions have been filed at Companies House and the Charity Commission.
The Trustees, who are also the directors for the purpose of company law, and who served during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were:
National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (Citizens Advice) The Charitable Company is a member of the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (trading as Citizens Advice) and is subject to the terms and conditions of the Membership Agreement entered into with Citizens Advice.
Recruitment and Appointment of the Trustees The Articles of Association provide that the Trustees shall consist of members who are elected, representative and co-opted.
All elected Trustees must retire from office at the third annual general meeting following the annual general meeting at which they were elected, but then may be re-elected.
All co-opted Trustees must retire from office at the third annual general meeting following the meeting of the Trustee Board at which they were appointed, but then may be elected or re-appointed.
The Trustees retain overall responsibility and control of the process for recruiting members of the Board. Prospective trustees are selected for their ability to make an effective contribution to the Charitable Company through their skills, knowledge and experience. In addition, consideration is given as to how representative the Board is of the community. |
Organisational structure
The Trustee Board is responsible for:
the overall control and conduct of the affairs of the Charitable Company;
establishing the strategic direction and the strategic objectives of the Charitable Company;
the determination of the terms of reference and the composition of Committees;
the review of Board Membership in accordance with the Memorandum and Articles of Association;
the financial viability of the Charitable Company, including financial policies and control; and,
monitoring the performance of all the Charitable Company's functions, to ensure that it performs in accordance with legislative and regulatory requirements, and to the highest standards of probity, efficiency, effectiveness, and service.
The Trustee Board/Management Committee may appoint committees to undertake various aspects of its work, but responsibility for matters that are so delegated remains with the full Board. The Board of Trustees/Management Committee ensures that the committee structure of the Charitable Company is appropriate to the scope and nature of its operations and is capable of ensuring that its responsibilities can be properly controlled and conducted. There are no separate committees at the present time.
The delegation of managerial authority
The Trustees Board has resolved that the operational management of the affairs of the Charitable Company shall be delegated to the Chief Officer of the Charitable Company (L Kidston) with the Chief Officer being responsible to the Board for the proper conduct of the Charitable Company's operations. The Chief Officer must assist the Trustee Board to ensure that the Charitable Company's objectives are achieved.
Risk Management
The Trustee Board has considered the significant risks which the Charitable Company faces. These are included in the Company Risk Register and Business Continuity Plans.
The Trustee Board recognises that a balance needs to be achieved between benefits and risks; that is, between being concerned not only to prevent adverse situations from happening, but also to ensure that worthwhile changes do happen and are not prevented by a disproportionate assessment of possible difficulties. The resources expended in mitigating a risk must be in proportion to its probable impact on the service.
In managing risks, the Trustee Board:
identifies the risks which apply to the charity
determines the likelihood and impact of the risk materialising
considers how they can mitigate against each risk
ensures effective controls are in place
regularly reviews its risks throughout the year
Statement of Internal Control
The board of trustees oversees the information security of all personal information of our clients, staff, funders and strategic partners which is processed. The Trustee Board holds joint responsibility for client data that is held in its case management system, with the national Citizens Advice Service. An information assurance management team exists to ensure that the confidentiality, integrity and availability of all personal and sensitive data is maintained to a level which is compliant with the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018.
Performance & Quality Management
The Charitable Company's quality programme is applied to meet its responsibilities to clients, the community and its funders and other stakeholders to provide good quality advice and support services for Wigan Borough which are cost effective, fairly delivered and relevant to the community's needs.
Reserves, Depositing and Designated Fund
The Articles of Association of the Charitable Company make provision for the Trustee Board to invest monies not immediately required in such investments or other assets as the Board in its complete discretion thinks fit, subject nevertheless to such conditions and consents as may be imposed or required by law.
In establishing its policy on the holding of reserves, the Trustee Board considers the following:
Income and expenditure forecasts for the year
Redundancy liabilities
A risk assessment covering financial and operational matters, including the dependability of income sources, and the level and nature of expenditure commitments
The Charitable Company's Strategic Plan and service developments arising under Citizens Advice requirements.
The Trustee Board has agreed to hold an amount in unrestricted reserves equivalent to three months salaries and other running costs (equates to £205,218 based on current known expenditure for 2024/25).
The Trustee Board has also considered its financial responsibilities for redundancy provision and has deemed it prudent to set aside an amount for redundancy costs of £84,728. In addition, an amount equating to £500 of unrestricted funds has been set aside as designated funding to help the Charitable Company meet its Health and Safety duties in respect of covering the cost of eye tests for those staff who spend a large proportion of their time looking at Display Screen Equipment.
The trustees report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
I report to the Trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Citizens Advice Service in the Borough of Wigan (the charity) for the year ended 31 March 2024.
As the Trustees of the charity (and also its directors for the purposes of company law) you are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 (the 2006 Act).
Having satisfied myself that the financial statements of the charity are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s financial statements carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act). In carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.
Since the charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000 your examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 2011 Act. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of ICAEW, which is one of the listed bodies.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 386 of the 2006 Act; or
the financial statements do not accord with those records; or
the financial statements do not comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the 2006 Act other than any requirement that the accounts give a true and fair view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or
the financial statements have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice for accounting and reporting by charities applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the financial statements to be reached.
Investments
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.
Investments
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.
Citizens Advice Service in the Borough of Wigan is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales and a registered charity in England and Wales. The registered office is Magnum House, 33 Lord Street, Suite 2.1, Leigh, Lancashire, WN7 1BY.
The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the charity's Memorandum and Articles of Association, the Companies Act 2006 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (effective 1 January 2019). The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The accounts have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. In making this assessment the Trustees have considered contracts currently in place and the duration remaining and reviewed budgets and cashflows for the forthcoming year but as detailed in the Trustees report are mindful of and anticipate further pressure on social funding budgets. Thus the Trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.
Designated funds comprise funds which have been set aside at the discretion of the Trustees for specific purposes. The purposes and uses of the designated funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.
Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors or grantors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.
Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the charity has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.
Trading activities relate to student placements and reimbursements made from other Citizens Advice Bureaux for shared costs.
Bank interest is accounted for when received into the charity's bank account.
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement, and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.
Expenditure, including irrecoverable VAT is recognised on the accrual basis.
In particular, the policy for including items within charitable activities is as follows:
Charitable activities comprise those costs incurred by the charity in the delivery of its activities and services for its beneficiaries. It includes both the costs that can be allocated directly to such activities and those costs of an indirect nature necessary to support them.
All costs are allocated between the expenditure categories of the Statement of Financial Activities on bases designed to reflect the uses of particular resources. Costs relating to a particular activity are allocated directly, while others are apportioned on an appropriate basis.
Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost, net of depreciation and any impairment losses. Only assets with a value of £1,000 or more will be capitalised.
Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the statement of financial activities.
At each reporting end date, the charity reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).
Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.
The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.
Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.
Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.
Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.
Financial assets are derecognised only when the contractual rights to the cash flows from the asset expire or are settled, or when the charity transfers the financial asset and substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership to another entity, or if some significant risks and rewards of ownership are retained but control of the asset has transferred to another party that is able to sell the asset in its entirety to an unrelated third party.
Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.
Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
Financial liabilities are derecognised when the charity’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.
The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.
Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the charity is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.
The pension costs charged in the accounts represent the contributions payable by the charity during the period.
The charity has also entered into a deficit funding agreement and the company has recognised its liability for this obligation as disclosed in note 12.
Rentals payable under operating leases, including any lease incentives received, are charged as an expense on a straight line basis over the term of the relevant lease.
In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods. The trustees consider the company's share of the pension scheme to be a critical area of judgement and estimation as it is not possible for the company to obtain sufficient information to enable it to account for the scheme as a defined benefit scheme as detailed in note 12. The actuarial valuation, calculated by independent actuaries with input from management, includes assumptions such as discount rates, annual rates of return and mortality rates. These assumptions vary from time to time according to prevailing economic conditions.
The trustees have also assessed the estimated costs of future potential redundancies and have included this estimate within designated funds in Note 19.
Help to Claim
Money Advice Service
Pension Wise
Other income
Investments
Unrestricted funds
Restricted funds
Unrestricted funds
Restricted funds
Staff and volunteer costs
Office costs
Premises costs
Other
Age UK costs
None of the Trustees (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration, benefits or expenses from the charity during the year.
Redundancy and termination payments totalling £13,341 were made in the reporting period.
The company participates in the scheme, a multi-employer scheme which provides benefits to some 638 non-associated participating employers. The scheme is a defined benefit scheme in the UK. It is not possible for the company to obtain sufficient information to enable it to account for the scheme as a defined benefit scheme. Therefore it accounts for the scheme as a defined contribution scheme.
The scheme is subject to the funding legislation outlined in the Pensions Act 2004 which came into force on 30 December 2005. This, together with documents issued by the Pensions Regulator and Technical Actuarial Standards issued by the Financial Reporting Council, set out the framework for funding defined benefit occupational pension schemes in the UK.
The scheme is classified as a 'last-man standing arrangement'. Therefore the company is potentially liable for other participating employers' obligations if those employers are unable to meet their share of the scheme deficit following withdrawal from the scheme. Participating employers are legally required to meet their share of the scheme deficit on an annuity purchase basis on withdrawal from the scheme.
A full actuarial valuation for the scheme was carried out at 30 September 2020. This valuation showed assets of £800.3m, liabilities of £831.9m and a deficit of £31.6m. To eliminate this funding shortfall, the Trustee has asked the participating employers to pay additional contributions to the scheme as follows:
Deficit contributions
From 1 April 2022 to 31 January 2025: | £3,312,000 per annum (payable monthly) |
Unless a concession has been agreed with the Trustee the term to 31 January 2025 applies.
Note that the scheme’s previous valuation was carried out with an effective date of 30 September 2017. This valuation showed assets of £794.9m, liabilities of £926.4m and a deficit of £131.5m. To eliminate this funding shortfall, the Trustee asked the participating employers to pay additional contributions to the scheme as follows:
Deficit contributions
From 1 April 2019 to 30 September 2025: | £11,243,000 per annum (payable monthly and increasing by 3% each on 1st April) |
The recovery plan contributions are allocated to each participating employer in line with their estimated share of the Series 1 and Series 2 scheme liabilities.
Where the scheme is in deficit and where the company has agreed to a deficit funding arrangement the company recognises a liability for this obligation. The amount recognised is the net present value of the deficit reduction contributions payable under the agreement that relates to the deficit. The present value is calculated using the discount rate detailed in these disclosures. The unwinding of the discount rate is recognised as a finance cost.
| 31 March 2024 (£s) | 31 March 2023 (£s) | 31 March 2022 (£s) |
Present value of provision | 281 | 601 | 943 |
ASSUMPTIONS
| 31 March 2024 % per annum | 31 March 2023 % per annum | 31 March 2022 % per annum |
Rate of discount | 5.31 | 5.52 | 2.35 |
The discount rates shown above are the equivalent single discount rates which, when used to discount the future recovery plan contributions due, would give the same results as using a full AA corporate bond yield curve to discount the same recovery plan contributions.
The restricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used.
Income
Expenditure
Income
Expenditure
Money Advice Service (Money and Pensions Service Debt Advice Project)
Money and Pensions Service funded debt advice project in partnership with Citizens Advice.
Energy Advice Programme and Big Energy Saving Network
Funded by BEIS and the Warm Home Discount Industry Initiative, this funding provides advice and support to individuals and groups on energy matters and income maximisation to fuel poor and vulnerable clients who are struggling to pay their bills.
Carbon Monoxide Advice Project
Funded through the Gas Network Vulnerability and Carbon Monoxide Allowance, this funding provides support to consumers in vulnerable situations, raising awareness of carbon monoxide and providing energy advice to them.
Pension Wise
Funded through the Money and Pensions Service in partnership with Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Manchester to ensure that users who are approaching retirement with defined contribution pension pots can access a guidance appointment on how to make informed and confident decisions on how they use their retirement savings.
Help to Claim
Funded by the Department of Work and Pensions in partnership with Citizens Advice, to provide an end to end Universal Support service to new claimants of Universal Credit.
Macmillan
Funded by Macmillan Cancer Support to provide welfare benefits advice and support to People Living with Cancer.
Atherton and Leigh Foodbank
This funding enables us to support foodbank users with their immediate and on-going social welfare advice needs.
The unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.
VDU Care
An amount of unrestricted funds have been designated as funds to help the Charitable Company meet its Health and Safety duties in respect of covering the cost of eye tests for those staff who spend a large proportion of their time looking at Display Screen Equipment.
NCP
An amount of unrestricted funds have been designated as funds to award as a non-consolidated award payment to those staff who have made an exceptional contribution to the Charitable Company.
IT equipment
An amount of unrestricted funds have been designated as funds to improve the IT within the organisation.
Redundancy
An amount of unrestricted funds have been designated for potential redundancy costs.
At the reporting end date the charity had outstanding commitments for future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases, which fall due as follows:
There were no related party transactions during the year (2023: none).
The charity is controlled by the trustees.