The trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2024.
The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the accounts 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)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2016)
Purposes and Aims
Our charity’s purposes as set out in the objects contained within the company’s Memorandum of Association, which were updated in July 2023 to respond to the changing needs of the communities we serve and to remove the previous geographical restriction on our work). Our charitable objects are:
To preserve and improve the good health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ groups and those impacted by HIV; and
To promote such other charitable purposes as are for the community as the Directors shall from time to time determine.
The aims of our charity are to provide high quality, health and wellbeing services to the LGBTQ+ community and people living with HIV. Our aims fully reflect the purposes that the charity was set up to further.
Ensuring our work delivers our aims
We review our aims, objectives and activities each year. This review looks at what we have achieved and the outcomes of our work in the previous year. This review examines the success of each key activity and the benefits each activity has brought to those groups of people we are set up to help. The review also serves the purpose of ensuring that our aims, objectives and activities remain focused on our stated purposes.
The focus of our work
Our main objectives for the year continue to be to preserve and improve the good health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ community members and people impacted by HIV. The strategies we used to meet these objectives included:
Promoting health empowerment
Delivering services
Engaging in advocacy
Public benefit
We have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing our aims and objectives and in planning our future work. In particular, the Trustees consider and assess how new activities will further and contribute to the aims and objectives they have set.
Our main activities and who we deliver them to are described below. All our charitable activities focus on improving the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ people and people impacted by HIV, and they are undertaken to further our charitable purposes for public benefit.
Who used and benefited from our services?
Although there are no geographical restrictions set within our charitable objects, at present we are only funded to work with people who live, work, or study in Leicester, Leicestershire, or Rutland.
For the first time, the 2021 Census in England and Wales explicitly asked respondents about their sexuality and gender identity. Nationally, around 1.5 million people (3.4% of the population aged 16+) identified themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual (this includes people identifying as pansexual, queer, asexual, or not heterosexual in some other way). Nationally, a total of 262,000 people (0.5% of the population) stated that their current gender identity was different to the sex they were assigned at birth (with roughly equal numbers of people identifying as trans men and trans women, with a slightly smaller number identifying as non-binary).
In Leicester, 3.44% of the population identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual; and 1% identified themselves as trans or non-binary. These city-level figures hide very significant variations within different districts of Leicester. For example, nearly 1 in 10 people living in Leicester City Centre identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual. Similarly, although the numbers of people identifying as either LGB or trans/non-binary are lower in the rural areas of the Midlands’ counties, some towns still have concentrations of LGB people (e.g., Loughborough) and trans people (e.g. Coalville, Loughborough, and Mansfield) that are at or above the national average.
The 2021 Census data also helps estimate the size of different parts of the LGBT population across the region (although these data as still likely to represent an under-reporting of the LGBT population and do not account for those who have sex with members of their own gender, but do not claim an identity on this basis). Here are figures for Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland, by way of illustration:
Leicester’s population: 368,600 Leics & Rutland pop. 753,200
LGB pop. (3.44%): 12,680 LGB pop. (av. 2.32%) 17,474
Gay and Lesbian 3,291 7,409
Bisexual 5,303 6,233
Pansexual 1,108 905
Asexual 172 337
Queer 84 88
Trans/nb pop (1.00%) 3,686 Trans/nb pop. (av 0.31%) 2,335
Trans women 437 389
Trans men 496 381
Non-binary 210 288
In addition to these population estimates for the size of the local LGBTQ+ community, it is also important for us to appreciate the numbers of people living with HIV locally and to recognize the specific epidemiology of HIV in Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland. Leicester is designated as an area with a ‘high’ prevalence of HIV. It is the local authority with the 6th highest prevalence of HIV outside London.
In 2021 there were 897 people living with HIV resident in Leicester. Where these people live maps significantly onto the areas of the city with the highest levels of deprivation. In 2021, 28 people living in Leicester were newly diagnosed with HIV. However, in the period January-September 2023, the Jarvis Clinic at Leicester Royal Infirmary registered 110 new patients, most of whom were from Sub-Saharan Africa and have moved to Leicester for work.
Of the people diagnosed with HIV in Leicester between 2015-2019, 19% are thought to have contracted HIV through sex between men, 76% through sex between men and women, and 2% through injecting drug use. Of this cohort, 20% were White, and 60% were Black African. 60% of HIV diagnoses in people first diagnosed with HIV in the UK were made a late stage of infection in Leicester (in 2019-2021), higher than the England average (43.4%). These figures highlight why our charitable objects treat people impacted by HIV as separate from (but overlapping with) the local LGBTQ+ population).
For comparison, in 2021 there were 509 people living with HIV resident in Leicestershire and 25 people living in Rutland. In 2021, 4 people living in Leicestershire were newly diagnosed with HIV (there were no new diagnoses amongst people resident in Rutland that year).
The main areas of our charitable activity are:
Promoting health empowerment
Delivering services
Engaging in advocacy
These activities and the achievements that flow from them are set out below. In total, we worked with 4750 people during 2023/24.
PROMOTING HEALTH EMPOWERMENT
Information, advice, and guidance
We provide information, advice, and guidance about sexual health through our website, on the telephone, and to in-person visitors to our office, five days a week. Although we are commissioned to provide sexual health advice, we take a holistic approach to supporting community members with the range of issues that currently limit their capacity to look after their sexual health, and our health promotion team are experienced in providing basic support with mental health and wellbeing, as well as substance misuse issues. In line with our current strategy, we intend to seek funding in 2024/25 to expand the range of health issues about which we can provide specialist information, advice, and guidance to local LGBTQ+ community members. In total, we provided information, advice and guidance to 816 individuals this year (a 27% increase on 2022/23).
Outreach
To reach the widest possible cross-section of the communities we serve, we also conduct regular in-person and digital outreach sessions to promote our services and to offer information, advice and guidance. Our in-person outreach and health promotion sessions take place in schools, colleges and universities, community centres, LGBTQ+ bars and venues (including male-only saunas), and in outdoor cruising sites/public sex environments. Our use of digital, online ‘netreach’ accelerated, out of necessity, during the lockdown phase of the COVID pandemic, but we have continued to invest time and resources in it, as it has proven to be an effective way to reach under-served gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM), especially in the rural areas that we serve. Through these outreach activities, as well as providing health promotion information and advice relating to sexual health, we can also promote the range of other services that we offer. However, outreach sessions do not only operate in a ‘transmit only’ mode, and they are an excellent opportunity to listen to the concerns of community members, which can then inform our advocacy work. We were still able to provide 226 hours of in-person outreach (a 63% increase on the previous year); as well as, 182 hours of netreach time during this year (a 6% increase), engaging with a total of 352 contacts through these outreach sessions (a 34% increase on outreach contacts in 2022/23).
New Arrivals
In addition to the health promotion work we are commissioned to deliver with GBMSM in Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland, we are also commissioned to provide sexual health promotion and HIV prevention advice to ‘new arrivals’ in the City of Leicester, reaching 192 people through this work. This programme of work includes anyone who has migrated, internationally, to the city within the last five years. In practice, this work mainly focuses on work with asylum-seekers and with international students at the City’s two universities. We continue to be contacted by recently arrived people living with HIV who need assistance connecting with clinical care. These referrals have helped strengthen our working relationship with the specialist nursing team in the HIV clinic at Leicester Royal Infirmary.
In 2022/23 this strand of work was enhanced by us hosting a placement by a researcher from the European-wide ‘Solidarity in Diversity’ (SOLiDi) research network. As part of their placement, they produced two short animated videos to educate Chinese international students at local universities about how to access sexual health services in the UK. This year, we know that various departments at the University of Leicester and De Montfort University used these videos as part of their induction programmes for international students, and this continues to drive engagement with our services by locally-based Chinese international students.
Health and Wellbeing Marquee at Leicester Pride
Each year we organise and host the Health and Wellbeing Marquee at Leicester Pride. We use the marquee to promote our services, and those of close partner organisations, and clinical colleagues from Leicester Sexual Health provide free STI screening on site. Last year was one of our busiest years at Pride for many years, and more than 500 people visited the marquee during the afternoon. Despite this, the numbers of people accessing STI screening at Pride continues to decline year on year. We suspect that this is because more people are accessing home STI testing kits from SH:24, as well as the number of gay and bisexual men who have quarterly STI screenings to take PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) to prevent HIV transmission. Nevertheless, despite declining engagement by gay men, the marquee at Pride helped us reach increasing numbers of lesbians, bisexual women, and trans and non-binary individuals.
Social and Support Groups
We currently host two focused social and support groups. The Dosti group for LGBTQ+ people from South Asian and Middle Eastern backgrounds is now in its tenth year of operation and meets monthly at our offices. This year we also started NeuroQueer a monthly social and support group for LGBTQ+ people who are neurodivergent. This group has quickly established itself with 12-15 people regularly attending its monthly meetings and activities. In 2024/25, our priority is to re-establish a social and support group for people living with HIV locally. We had previously hosted a group called Hi5 for gay and bisexual men living with HIV, but are now intending to create a group that can meet the needs of all people living with HIV in our area.
Volunteering
Like many charities, our capacity to support volunteers was impacted by the COVID pandemic. We have spent the last year rebuilding our volunteer cohort and now have 57 trained volunteers. We use volunteers to support many areas of our work, but most volunteers are interested in supporting our health promotion and HIV prevention work. Their voluntary labour helps expand the capacity of our small staff team to deliver this work. However, we are increasingly using our volunteering programme as a community building tool – we know that volunteering helps our volunteers to overcome social isolation, make new connections, and feel part of a bigger community. In this context, we don’t simply want our volunteers to do unpaid labour for us, we are looking for ways that we can harness and give shape to their passions and the ways they want to help build community. This is an import way to achieve our charitable objects and deliver public benefits, as we know that if LGBTQ+ do not feel they belong, or feel disconnected and isolated from community, it is harder for them to prioritise looking after their health and wellbeing. More than this, we are developing ways to train our most engaged volunteers so that they are not dependent on working alongside our staff, and can become (semi-)autonomous peer educators, health promotors, and community connectors within their own social networks. We will continue to address this strategic challenge in 2024/25.
DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Safer Sex Pack distribution
We continue to provide condoms and safer sex packs for distribution via local LGBT venues, for collection from our office, and postal orders sent to gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men living outside Leicester City centre. Through these orders, we were also able to provide additional information on testing services and other health promotion information. In total, over 3398 packs were distributed in 2023/24 (decrease of 13% from the previous year). We interpret this decrease as related to changes in gay men’s harm reduction practices as a result of wider reliance on PrEP to prevent HIV transmission). In addition to the safer sex packs distributed to gay and bisexual men, whenever possible, we also ensure packs are available within the local hotels where asylum-seekers are housed (as part of our ‘new arrivals’ work).
Clinic xtra
In partnership with Leicester Sexual Health, we operate a community-based STI screening clinic from our offices. The aim is to deliver the Clinic xtra service weekly, but staff shortages within the local Integrated Sexual Health Service mean that it has more frequently run fortnightly. This clinical service offers STI screening primarily for gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men who are not experiencing any symptoms of STIs. However, in practice, this service is available to all LGBTQ+ community members and we have seen increasing numbers of trans and non-binary individuals using the clinic. The Clinic xtra service helps promote regular STI testing as part of an integrated sexual health strategy in our area. The service is well-used by community members who are hesitant to approach mainstream sexual health services and feel safer access STI screening in an explicitly LGBTQ+ affirming space. Once the availability of the sexual health nurses stabilizes, we have a plan in place to start offering vaccinations and initial PrEP consultations as part of the Clinic xtra service.
HIV Prevention England (HPE)
Trade continues to be a Local Activation Partner for HIV Prevention England, delivering testing and outreach services for the national programme and disseminating national campaign materials locally. This work enables us to reach local communities that are disproportionately affected by HIV but to whom we are not commissioned to deliver services by the local Public Health departments (e.g. heterosexual people from Black Caribbean and Black African backgrounds).
National HIV Testing Week and Kwik Prick Rapid HIV Testing service
As a local activation partner for the HIV Prevention England programme, Trade played a leading role in National HIV Testing Week activities in Leicester in February 2024. We held pop-up HIV Testing sessions at two local universities, the local gay sauna, two Turning Point offices, and a local community centre. In total we provided 34 HIV POCT during National HIV Testing Week. We also continue to offer drop-in HIV testing from our office each week.
Counselling
The Approach Counselling service is an integral part of Trade’s work. The service is led by a Counselling Service Manager, who is a fully-qualified and accredited counsellor. At present, all our other counsellors are volunteers and most of them are trainees undertaking placements as part of their Level 4 Counselling qualification. Our previous Counselling Service Manager died unexpectedly in July 2023 and this had a significant impact on the small counselling team in post at that time, and we had to close to new referrals for several months. A new Counselling Service Manager (who had previously been a volunteer trainee with us) was appointed in January 2024. She has focused on rebuilding and expanding the team – taking on a second, fully-qualified, counsellor, and four new trainees. They were ready to start seeing clients by the end of the 2023/24 reporting period (expanding our capacity by over 300%) and preparations are in place to reopen to new self-referrals at the start of 2024/25. When the Approach Counselling service was created in 2007, it primarily focused on supporting gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men with issues that were impacting on their capacity to look after their sexual health. This continues to be a concern for some clients, but we are seeing increasing number of trans and non-binary clients who are questioning their gender or dealing with the impacts of a hostile, transphobic political culture on their mental wellbeing.
Over recent years, the Approach Counselling service has developed expertise in supporting LGBTQ+ people who are survivors of sexual violence. This year, we won two-year funding via the local Sexual Assault Referral Centre to provide therapeutic support to such clients (worth £13,690 in 2023/24).
ADVOCACY
World AIDS Day 2023
Once again, this year, Trade took the lead in organising the local Red Ribbon Remembrance event to mark World AIDS Day on 1 December. This year, we organised an outdoor event in Orton Square in Leicester City Centre, which included poetry, song and speeches. The centrepiece of the event was a 3-metre tall woven red ribbon created by our volunteers, to which audience members were asked to attach a pledge, in their own words, about the actions they would take to help end new transmissions of HIV and challenge HIV-related stigma. This event was attended by over 60 people (for the second consecutive year) despite the freezing weather on the day. Although this was undoubtedly a successful event, we note that it mostly attracted members of the LGBTQ+ community, with very little representation from the City’s African communities. Given that, at least 50% of people living with HIV locally are from Black African backgrounds, this limits the impact of the event. We have concrete plans in place to collaborate with African-led organisations in Leicester to co-organise the event for World AIDS Day 2024.
Street Smart
In January 2024, Trade were awarded £9,678.46 from the Commissioner’s Safety Fund of the Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner for Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland for a project called Street Smart. The Street Smart project will develop and deliver a community-based hate monitoring tool, in an attempt to get a true picture of the extent, distribution, and nature of anti-LGBTQ+ hate incidents across Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland. Hate crimes can directly impact on the mental, and potentially physical, health of their victims; and a more broadly, being made to feel under threat and as if one doesn’t belong can significantly limit the capacity of LGBTQ+ community members to look after their broader health and wellbeing. In this context, we believe that playing an active role in monitoring hate incidents locally, supporting victims, and lobbying for more effective responses to this violence, is a crucial part of our mission as an LGBTQ+ health and wellbeing charity.
Trans* Access to Healthcare Campaign
Since August 2023, Trade have been playing an active role in a health advocacy campaign initiated by the Leicestershire Citizens alliance. This campaign has focused on improving the experience of accessing healthcare for trans and non-binary people in Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland, and has been led by trans individuals from the beginning. We provided space in the Health and Wellbeing Marquee at Leicester Pride 2023 for volunteers from Leicestershire Citizens to gather stories from trans community members about their experiences of accessing healthcare. On this basis of these stories, the campaign developed three ‘asks’ which we presented to the senior leadership of the Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland Integrated Care Board at their AGM in the autumn. These three asks were:
A ‘tell us once’ approach to changing individuals’ name and gender marker on their patient records, integrated across primary and secondary care;
A commitment to rolling-out trans awareness and inclusion training across ICB services (but, particularly, primary care); and,
The identification of a Trans Healthcare Champion in every local Primary Care Network.
The ICB have responded positively to these three asks, and we have continued to work with them to monitor and advise on their implementation. We believe these three simple, cost effective, actions will make a significant difference for trans people’s health, and trust in local healthcare providers. Citizens UK are now exploring how to replicate and roll-out this campaign to the other areas of the country where they have local groups.
LGBTQ+ Health Survey
Through the trans access to healthcare campaign, we inspired Healthwatch Leicester and Leicester to plan and conduct a survey of LGBTQ+ people in Leicester and Leicestershire to better understand their experiences of accessing health and social care in the area. Trade helped co-produce the survey tool, actively promoted the survey to local LGBTQ+ communities, and hosted a focus group so that Healthwatch could sense check their interpretation of the data and their resulting recommendations. A report setting out these findings and recommendations will be published early in 2024/25 and should be a useful tool to Trade to use in its advocacy work with local healthcare providers and commissioners.
After several years in which Trade’s financial position was quite precarious, our income levels have stabilized and grown modestly. Work has continued to develop on a new strategy designed to diversify our income streams, improve grant capture, and reduce our reliance on a small number of contracts.
The statement of financial activities on page 8 summarises the financial activities for the year ended 31 March 2024.
The statement of financial activities shows a total income of £259,325 and expenditure of £211,664.
This provides a surplus of £47,661 and there remains closing reserves of £184,596 carried forward. These funds are split between the unrestricted funds, designated funds and restricted funds.
Reserves in this financial year are up overall. In the current uncertain political and economic times, Trade needs to ensure healthy reserves, to minimise the impact of the austerity provisions on our service users.
Trade aims to keep a full 3 months running costs in reserves and is currently running at that level. In addition to 3 months running costs we have set aside a sum of money to reflect our legal obligations to fulfil our office lease and staff redundancy should the need arise.
It is the policy of the charity that unrestricted funds which have not been designated for a specific use should be maintained at a level equivalent to three months of normal expenditure to cover the running costs requirements as outlined above. The trustees estimate normal ongoing annual costs to be between £150,000 and £200,000 per year. This is reviewed annually. Therefore, the minimum reserves we believe we need is £50,000.
The charity had closing unrestricted reserves of £61,268 after transferring £252 to restricted funds and £50,000 to designated funds as at the 31 March 2024.
Therefore, the trustees are satisfied with the level of reserves held but will continue to implement careful financial stewardship to keep the reserves at an appropriate level. As we reported last year, we need to be constantly vigilant in reviewing the financial needs of the charity and the requirement to provide the charitable activities that our service users require.
Overall, the trustees are now content with the level of reserves at the year-end but would still prefer to have greater assets at their disposal, not just to cover liabilities, but to invest in new business development opportunities.
Core funding is provided by Leicester City Council and Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust (Integrated Sexual Health Services) to carry out activities governed by contracts procured through open tender.
In the current financial year, we hold contracts to deliver sexual health promotion outreach to GBMSM in the City of Leicester as well as Leicestershire and Rutland. Furthermore, we have a smaller contract to deliver sexual health promotion outreach to ‘new arrivals’ (of all sexualities) in the City of Leicester.
As previously mentioned, Trade is also an HIV Prevention England Local Activation Partner with funding following service delivery on that contract. Additional grants were awarded from local public health budgets and supported by MPFT to fund the Health and Wellbeing Marquee at Leicester Pride. We have also received funding from the SOLiDi project for our work with Chinese international students and UKHSA for our MPox vaccination campaign (as noted above).
Unrestricted Funds
During the year the charity reported a surplus on its general unrestricted funds.
The main unrestricted funds are financed from Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust. A breakdown of all income is shown in note 3 to the accounts. Overall, we had unrestricted funding of £253,401 and spent £201,598, which meant there was a surplus on unrestricted activities of £51,803 for the year before transfers between reserve funds of £252. This meant there was an overall surplus of £51,551. We had reserves brought forward on our unrestricted funds of £75,000.
Therefore, we carry unrestricted reserves forward of £126,551.
Restricted Funds
In respect of our restricted funds, the Charity reports a deficit for the year purely because of timing differences between when income was received and when expenditure was incurred in the previous year. This year we see a deficit on this expenditure because of reversal of these timing anomalies. The deficit amounted to £3,361. A breakdown of our restricted funds is shown in note 16 to the accounts.
We had a further 8 other ongoing restricted funds projects.
Dosti Group funding shows income of £150 and expenditure of £144 enabling us to carry forward £461.
Pride funding shows income received of £5,294 an expenditure of £5,646 with a transfer to the fund from the unrestricted fund of £252 bringing the carry forward to £nil.
SOLiDi Project shows an expenditure of £3,267 enabling us to carry forward £3,141.
Aside from retaining an amount in reserves each year, the charity's funds are to be spent in the short term so there are no funds for long term investment.
Risk Management
The trustees actively review the major risks which the charity faces on a regular basis and believe that having 3 months running costs as reserves currently, with a view to increasing that, combined with an annual review of the controls over key financial systems, will provide sufficient resources in the event of adverse conditions. The trustees have also examined other operational and business risks faced by the charity and confirm that they have established systems to mitigate the significant risks.
Governing Document
The organisation is a charitable company limited by guarantee. The company was established under a Memorandum of Association which established the objects and powers of the charitable company and is governed under its Articles of Association. In the event of the company being wound up, members are required to contribute an amount not exceeding £1.
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:
Recruitment and Appointment of Management Committee
The directors of the company are also charity Trustees for the purposes of charity law and under the company's articles are known as members of the Management Committee. As Trade is an organisation with a remit to work specifically within communities that seek specialised equality, diversity, and inclusion, therefore the charity seeks to ensure that this is reflected in the membership of the Trustee body.
Our Company Secretary, Paul Trunkfield, had a period of extended sick leave in early 2024. This, indirectly, resulted in a delay in submitting our annual return for 2022/23 to the Charity Commission. Mr Trunkfield resigned as Company Secretary and left the charity in March 2024.
Trustee Induction and Training
During 2022/23 we had begun to expand the size of our Board of Trustees after a period of stagnation. During the current reporting period, we recruited and trained three new Trustees. Unfortunately, two existing Trustees resigned at our AGM on 13 December 2023. A third, Sylvester Harrison-Moran, resigned to avoid a potential conflict of interest, as he intended to apply for a vacant post on our Health Promotion team. Having been unsuccessful in his job application, he expressed an interest in rejoining the Board and it is likely he will be reappointed in early 2024/25. New and potential board members are subject to a rigorous application and recruitment process, including induction sessions regarding Trade’s services and the roles and responsibilities of being a Charity Trustee. They also have access to training delivered by local and national voluntary sector infrastructure organisations that Trade is affiliated with.
The Board of Trustees administers the charity and meets every six weeks to oversee the charity’s operations, provide governance oversight, and to drive the strategic develop of the charity’s work. The Chair of Trustee is in contact with the CEO on a weekly basis and provides formal supervision to the CEO monthly.
Trade has had a full staff team for much of the current reporting year, but two periods of extended sick leave and subsequent resignations impacted on our operational capacity at times. The charity has three full-time members of staff: the Chief Executive Officer, a Senior Health Promotion Worker, and a Health Promotion Worker. There are also three part-time members of staff: a Business Support Officer (0.6 FTE), a Volunteer and Community Development Coordinator (their substantive post is 0.6 FTE, but since January 2024 they have been working an additional day a week on the Street Smart project, meaning that the post is 0.8 FTE for the 2024 calendar year). Finally, we have a part-time Counselling Service Manager, this year we have expanded the hour available for this post to meet the demands of rebuilding the counselling service and the incumbent postholder has been working on a 0.6 FTE contract since January 2024. We also have a team of c.50 volunteers who contribute to all areas of the charities work – some are engaged on a weekly basis, whilst others offer specific, focused engagement once or twice a year. It is the role of the Chief Executive Officer to ensure the supervision of the staff and volunteers and ensure that the team continues to develop their skills and working practices in line with good practice.
Related Parties
In addition to the various contractual relationships outlined elsewhere in this report, Trade is a member of several local and national voluntary sector infrastructure organisations, including the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), the local VSCE Collaboration network and Reaching People in Leicester. These organisations provide us with access to information, advice and training to improve our work, and create opportunities for partnership working with other local charities, including collaborative funding applications. We are active participants in the VCSE Alliance organised by the Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland Integrated Care Board and are represented on their Better Mental Health for All group. We participate in the Response to Sexual Violence (R2SV) group organised by the local Sexual Assault Referral Centre, as well as the local Violence Reduction Network. These local networks raise our profile and help us to advocate for the needs of local LGBTQ+ people and PLHIV. We also participate in the Multi-Agency Forum for Asylum-seekers in Leicester, which helps extend the reach and impact of our ‘new arrivals’ work.
Each week, we host a member of staff from Turning Point, the drugs and alcohol service, who works out of our office for an afternoon. This allows effective joint working supporting the needs of LGBTQ+ people who have a problematic relationship to drugs and/or alcohol. This allows us to effectively cross-refer service users between our respective services, allowing joined up work to improve their mental and sexual health, whilst also supporting their recovery from addiction.
This year we have been working with the TREC – the Race Equality Centre on their community allotment project – bring our volunteers and some of the LGBTQ+ asylum-seekers we support to engage in growing food with asylum-seekers supported by TREC’s services.
As a result of our joint work on the Trans Access to Healthcare campaign, this year Trade has also joined Leicestershire Citizens, and our CEO now sits on their local leadership team. This brings us more centrally into the leadership of the trans healthcare campaign, as well as enabling us to support their other projects that align with our charitable objects. We have also developed stronger relationships with the schools, faith groups, and charities that are also members of Leicestershire Citizens and this has extended the reach and impact of other areas of our work.
The trustees report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
I report to the trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Trade Sexual Health (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.
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.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
Trade Sexual Health is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is 2nd Floor, 27 Bowling Green Street, Leicester, LE1 6AS.
The accounts have been prepared in accordance 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)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2016). The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The charity has taken advantage of the provisions in the SORP for charities applying FRS 102 Update Bulletin 1 not to prepare a Statement of Cash Flows.
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 financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, [modified to include the revaluation of freehold properties and to include investment properties and certain financial instruments at fair value]. 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. 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.
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.
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 is classified by activity. The costs of each activity are made up of the total of direct costs and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each activity. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs which contribute to more than one activity and support costs which are not attributable to a single activity are apportioned between those activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Central staff costs are allocated on the basis of time spent, and depreciation charges are allocated on the portion of the asset’s use.
All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all costs related to the category.
Support costs are those costs incurred directly in support of expenditure and the objects of the charity. Governance costs are those incurred in connection with administration of the charity and compliance, with constitutional and statutory requirements
Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.
Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation 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.
All assets owned by the charity have now been fully depreciated
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 only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measures at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans, which are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
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.
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.
Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due.
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.
Grants receivable
Staff and volunteer costs (including trustees)
Sundry equipment and computer costs
Rent, rates, light and heat
Miscellaneous expenses
Repairs and cleaning
Insurance
Printing, postage and stationery
Advertising and publicity
Condoms and other resources
Bad debts
Telephone
Travel costs
None of the trustees (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration during the year, and none of them were reimbursed for travelling expenses (2023- £nil).
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
The charity's activities fall within the exemptions afforded by the provisions of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988. Accordingly, there is no taxation charge in these accounts.
The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity in an independently administered fund.
The income funds of the charity include restricted funds comprising the following unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust for specific purposes:
These are unrestricted funds which are material to the charity's activities.
During the year Trade Sexual Health received £72,467 from East Midlands Sexual Health following its closure. Trade has allocated £50,000 from this donation to its designated ‘strategic development fund’ which will be used to underpin improvements to the charity’s digital infrastructure, and a seed funding for new initiatives in pursuit of the charity’s new strategic plan.
Bank interested received on our deposit account is specifically allocated to our designated fund as most of our designated funds are kept on deposit.
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.
Trade Sexual Health is a company limited by guarantee and accordingly does not have share capital.
Every member of the company undertakes to contribute such amount as may be required not exceeding £1 to the assets of the charitable company in the event of its being wound up while he or she is a member, or within one year after he or she ceases to be a member.