for the Period Ended 31 March 2024
Directors report | |
Balance sheet | |
Additional notes | |
Balance sheet notes | |
Community Interest Report |
Directors' report period ended
The directors present their report with the financial statements of the company for the period ended 31 March 2024
Principal activities of the company
Directors
The directors shown below have held office during the whole of the period from
1 April 2023
to
31 March 2024
The director shown below has held office during the period of
1 April 2023
to
11 January 2024
The director shown below has held office during the period of
1 April 2023
to
1 August 2023
The director shown below has held office during the period of
26 October 2023
to
31 March 2024
The above report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions in part 15 of the Companies Act 2006
This report was approved by the board of directors on
And signed on behalf of the board by:
Name:
Status: Director
As at
Notes | 2024 | 2023 | |
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£ |
£ |
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Fixed assets | |||
Tangible assets: | 3 |
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Total fixed assets: |
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Current assets | |||
Debtors: | 4 |
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Cash at bank and in hand: |
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Total current assets: |
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Creditors: amounts falling due within one year: | 5 |
(
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(
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Net current assets (liabilities): |
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Total assets less current liabilities: |
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Total net assets (liabilities): |
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Members' funds | |||
Profit and loss account: |
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Total members' funds: |
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The notes form part of these financial statements
The directors have chosen not to file a copy of the company's profit and loss account.
This report was approved by the board of directors on
and signed on behalf of the board by:
Name:
Status: Director
The notes form part of these financial statements
for the Period Ended 31 March 2024
Basis of measurement and preparation
Turnover policy
Tangible fixed assets depreciation policy
Intangible fixed assets amortisation policy
for the Period Ended 31 March 2024
2024 | 2023 | |
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Average number of employees during the period |
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for the Period Ended 31 March 2024
Land & buildings | Plant & machinery | Fixtures & fittings | Office equipment | Motor vehicles | Total | |
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Cost | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ |
At 1 April 2023 |
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Additions | ||||||
Disposals | ||||||
Revaluations | ||||||
Transfers | ||||||
At 31 March 2024 |
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Depreciation | ||||||
At 1 April 2023 |
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Charge for year |
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On disposals | ||||||
Other adjustments | ||||||
At 31 March 2024 |
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Net book value | ||||||
At 31 March 2024 |
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At 31 March 2023 |
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for the Period Ended 31 March 2024
2024 | 2023 | |
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£ | £ | |
Trade debtors |
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Prepayments and accrued income |
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Other debtors |
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Total |
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for the Period Ended 31 March 2024
2024 | 2023 | |
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£ | £ | |
Trade creditors |
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Taxation and social security |
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Accruals and deferred income |
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Other creditors |
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Total |
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Shaping our lives works with people, especially those facing the biggest barriers, to build better, more inclusive services and support. In 2023-24 we: Worked to elevate resources and support available for Disabled people who wish to learn more about involvement, as well as self-advocate for their needs, by launching ‘My Voice Matters’, a guide accompanied by a video for people who are interested in sharing their diverse lived experience. The resource received a warm reception from our colleagues at Disabled People’s Organisations and user-led groups, as well as organisations with a wide reach, such as the NIHR, the Health Research Authority, and the Patients’ Association. It takes forward understanding and practical support for inclusive involvement that addresses diverse involvement, which is always a difficult task to ensure. Our collective efforts and proactiveness in in ensuring ‘My Voice Matters’ is as widely spread as possible have successfully led to many one-of-a-kind record-breaking analytics, such as: our highest number of unique visitors on our website to date, which took place in October 2023 (over 2900 unique visitors); the number of people coming to the ‘Share your Lived Experience’ page (where ‘My Voice Matters’ is currently hosted) was 708 in October 2023; the average number of visitors to this page of our website in previous months was 39, marking a 1715% increase; our most downloaded resource, with 575 unique downloads between April 2023 and March 2024. Co-produced the ‘Involvement Pledge’, a free-to-download resource, alongside members of our National User Group that support our Inclusive Involvement Movement work funded by The National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF). The pledge is made up of 12 simple steps, which outline how people who are organising involvement activities can help and support people to share their lived experience in a positive, inclusive, and effective way. The Involvement Pledge was rolled out in conjunction with ‘My Voice Matters’ – we felt it was instrumental to have it included and promoted as part of this workstream, particularly as we wanted to ensure people (especially those new to involvement) are equipped with resources created to support them self-advocate for their needs, especially at the beginning of their involvement journeys (105 unique downloads between April 2023 and March 2024). Worked to strengthen our positioning as lived experience experts on inclusive involvement in the sector. We joined the Shared Learning Group on Involvement, which brings together various charities and non-profit organisations, with the overall aim of ‘enabling shared learning about the involvement of people with lived experience between charities working in the UK.’ We have been able to steer the work on involvement expectations that are asked of non-involvement staff who request support to involve people with lived experience. Succinctly, we worked with colleagues to identify top actions and behaviours that should be taken into consideration, as a minimum, when planning to involve people with lived experience. To do so, we reflected and provided feedback on various existing internal resources that colleagues from multiple organisations shared – we were therefore able to advise on best existing practice, and what would need to be put in place, as a minimum, for inclusive involvement to exist and thrive as part of project planning and delivery. In many ways, the resource can be seen as a complementary counterpart to the Involvement Pledge, we created and made available on our platforms – we also circulated this with members of the Group, to ensure that we broaden our reach and support organisations that are new to involvement. Remained actively involved and engaged with the work we had been delivering with our partners, primarily Hertfordshire University and King’s College London (formerly London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine). We continued to oversee and steer the involvement of people with lived experience, not only by directly supporting individuals we have recruited and trained, but through our contributions to core team project-related activities, too. Have also had means of involvement in consultancy-related activities, such as delivering workshops, being members of advisory groups, and providing ad-hoc training and support. Worked with members of our Inclusive Involvement Movement Working Group, as well as other members of our National User Group, to create a comprehensive pack for a co-production course, entitled ‘Co-production: what it is and how to do it’. This included the creation of a robust slide pack, post-session pack, agenda, a summary of the aims, content, and intended learning outcomes for the course. We have tested the overall delivery of the course with members of our National User Group. Raised visibility of our work through additional resources on our website, through ‘who we are and how we can help you’ infographics and flyers we produced and utilised to repackage our work streams and the ways in which we would be able to support external partners. Further added to the bank of resources available on our website. For example, we hosted a free webinar and book launch for The Future of Social Care: From Problem to Rights-based sustainable solution, by Peter Beresford (co-chair of Shaping Our Lives) and Colin Slasberg. The webinar was chaired by David Brindle, former public service editor of the Guardian. The final year of funding from The National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) has enabled Shaping our Lives to further strengthen output delivery – as a standalone, our website has become a one-stop-shop not only for service users, but for those wishing to organise involvement, and especially looking to do so in an inclusive and accessible way. We continue to host a network of 300+ user-led organisations on our website, involvement opportunities via our Involvement Opportunities Board, and various free-to-use resources available for all that are interested in inclusive involvement, and beyond that. Between April 2023 – March 2024, we have had 19.5K unique visitors on our website (9.9K between April 2022 – March 2023), marking a 96.97% increase.
Our stakeholders are Disabled people and people from marginalised communities who use health and social care services, user-led organisations and organisations who want to run service user involvement or user-led research. Gathering the views of Disabled people and people who are often excluded to influence our work is central to how we work and forms the basis of most projects. In 2023-24 we: Continued to consult and engage with our stakeholders through several online and social media platforms, which have seen a modest grow: Twitter followers: Jan 2024 – 4743, 3% increase year on year. Facebook followers: Jan 2024 – 461, 11% increase year on year. LinkedIn followers: Jan 2024 – 452, 137% year on year increase. Instagram followers: Jan 2024 – 260 (relaunched in Mar 2023) Newsletter subscribers: Jan 2024 – 1105, 13% increase year on year. Worked to segment our audience (predominantly our newsletter subscribers) to better understand their background in relation to involvement. We have introduced an optional survey to better understand their background in relation to involvement, whereby subscribers are invited to share whether they: Work in the field of involvement / co-production (59 responses) Are interested in involvement as a person with lived experience (19 responses) Both work in the field and are a person with lived experience (49 responses) (*responses registered between April 2023 – March 2024) Engaged with individuals who downloaded My Involvement Profile resources from our website (290+ unique downloads across all resources made available, inc. Easy Read, Word, PDF for April 2023 – March 2024) and agreed to be contacted. So far, we did this in two stages, having reached to people throughout August 2023 and January 2024, respectively. We aim to repeat this process again in the beginning of 2025 – when reaching out, we found that many people had not used it yet and have therefore concluded it may yield better results if we allow for more time to pass. Consulted people with lived experience who took part in our Mentor Programme in 2022- 2023 via Liverpool Hope University via three feedback-specific sessions (in April, May, June, respectively). We then reflected on the data and collated testimonials to be used for future work and reported back to our Inclusive Involvement Movement Working Group during our meeting in late November 2023. Created and deployed an optional demographic questionnaire, to better understand those who are engaged with us. Between July 2023 (when it was created) and Mar 2024, we received 39 entries, a modest number of responses which we hope to see grow over time. Continued to invest time and resources to ensure our website remains a one-stop-shop for both involvement organisers, and people with lived experience. Average monthly visitors between April 2023 – March 2024 have grown from 940 unique visitors to approximately 1600, marking an increase of 70%. Our resources have also seen over 1700 unique downloads over this period. Generally, our website remains an instrumental way for us to showcase our work and raise our profile, not just amongst potential partners and external organisations, but especially for people with lived experience who are looking to further their understanding of what inclusive involvement is, as well as how to get involved and self-advocate for their own needs. As part of our work this year, we have been consulting with service users to inform research and service provision as follows: 9 people in a Public Involvement in Social Care Research user group (through our work with Hertfordshire University) 5 people in a Lived Experience Reference Group (through our work with King’s College London) 6 people in a working group engaged in our National Lottery Community Fund-related work, the Inclusive Involvement Movement 8 people collaborating in a user-led project (through our work with Hertfordshire University) 6 people in our Mentor Programme Pilot (through Liverpool Hope University) Approx. 30 people with lived experience in focus groups, workshops and discussions (and over 60 colleagues trained via workshops, training days, lunch and learn sessions, etc.) Our 9 members who oversee our work as part of the National User Group
The aggregate amount of emoluments paid to or receivable by directors in respect of qualifying services was £3,365. There were no other transactions or arrangements in connection with the remuneration of directors, or compensation for director’s loss of office, which require to be disclosed
No transfer of assets other than for full consideration
This report was approved by the board of directors on
13 November 2024
And signed on behalf of the board by:
Name: P Beresford
Status: Director