SHAPING OUR LIVES NATIONAL USER NETWORK COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Company limited by guarantee

Company Registration Number:
04382606 (England and Wales)

Unaudited statutory accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024

Period of accounts

Start date: 1 April 2023

End date: 31 March 2024

SHAPING OUR LIVES NATIONAL USER NETWORK COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Contents of the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 March 2024

Directors report
Balance sheet
Additional notes
Balance sheet notes
Community Interest Report

SHAPING OUR LIVES NATIONAL USER NETWORK COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Directors' report period ended 31 March 2024

The directors present their report with the financial statements of the company for the period ended 31 March 2024

Principal activities of the company

The principal activity of the company is creating better lives for all by involving disabled people and service users.



Directors

The directors shown below have held office during the whole of the period from
1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024

P Beresford
G Price
M Turner
C Cameron
R N Mehta


The director shown below has held office during the period of
1 April 2023 to 11 January 2024

M Lynes


The director shown below has held office during the period of
1 April 2023 to 1 August 2023

A Nutt


The director shown below has held office during the period of
26 October 2023 to 31 March 2024

F Springfield


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
13 November 2024

And signed on behalf of the board by:
Name: P Beresford
Status: Director

SHAPING OUR LIVES NATIONAL USER NETWORK COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Balance sheet

As at 31 March 2024

Notes 2024 2023


£

£
Fixed assets
Tangible assets: 3 424 960
Total fixed assets: 424 960
Current assets
Debtors: 4 33,850 44,323
Cash at bank and in hand: 113,353 139,895
Total current assets: 147,203 184,218
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year: 5 ( 11,857 ) ( 23,077 )
Net current assets (liabilities): 135,346 161,141
Total assets less current liabilities: 135,770 162,101
Total net assets (liabilities): 135,770 162,101
Members' funds
Profit and loss account: 135,770 162,101
Total members' funds: 135,770 162,101

The notes form part of these financial statements

SHAPING OUR LIVES NATIONAL USER NETWORK COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Balance sheet statements

For the year ending 31 March 2024 the company was entitled to exemption under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

The members have not required the company to obtain an audit in accordance with section 476 of the Companies Act 2006.

The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Act with respect to accounting records and the preparation of accounts.

These accounts have been prepared and delivered in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.

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 13 November 2024
and signed on behalf of the board by:

Name: P Beresford
Status: Director

The notes form part of these financial statements

SHAPING OUR LIVES NATIONAL USER NETWORK COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Notes to the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 March 2024

  • 1. Accounting policies

    Basis of measurement and preparation

    These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions of Section 1A (Small Entities) of Financial Reporting Standard 102

    Turnover policy

    Turnover comprises the fair value of the consideration received or receivable for the sale of goodsand provision of services in the ordinary course of the company’s activities. Turnover is shown net ofsales/value added tax, returns, rebates and discounts.The company recognises revenue when:The amount of revenue can be reliably measured;it is probable that future economic benefits will flow to the entity;and specific criteria have been met for each of the company's activities.

    Tangible fixed assets depreciation policy

    Tangible assets are stated in the balance sheet at cost, less any subsequent accumulateddepreciation and subsequent accumulated impairment losses.The cost of tangible assets includes directly attributable incremental costs incurred in their acquisitionand installation.DepreciationDepreciation is charged so as to write off the cost of assets, other than land and properties underconstruction over their estimated useful lives, as follows:Asset class Depreciation method and rate

    Intangible fixed assets amortisation policy

    Amortisation is provided on intangible assets so as to write off the cost, less any estimated residual value, over their useful life as follows:

SHAPING OUR LIVES NATIONAL USER NETWORK COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Notes to the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 March 2024

  • 2. Employees

    2024 2023
    Average number of employees during the period 7 7

SHAPING OUR LIVES NATIONAL USER NETWORK COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Notes to the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 March 2024

3. Tangible assets

Land & buildings Plant & machinery Fixtures & fittings Office equipment Motor vehicles Total
Cost £ £ £ £ £ £
At 1 April 2023 1,613 1,613
Additions
Disposals
Revaluations
Transfers
At 31 March 2024 1,613 1,613
Depreciation
At 1 April 2023 653 653
Charge for year 536 536
On disposals
Other adjustments
At 31 March 2024 1,189 1,189
Net book value
At 31 March 2024 424 424
At 31 March 2023 960 960

SHAPING OUR LIVES NATIONAL USER NETWORK COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Notes to the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 March 2024

4. Debtors

2024 2023
£ £
Trade debtors 27,044 43,562
Prepayments and accrued income 802 761
Other debtors 6,004
Total 33,850 44,323

SHAPING OUR LIVES NATIONAL USER NETWORK COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Notes to the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 March 2024

5. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year note

2024 2023
£ £
Trade creditors 8,103 3,369
Taxation and social security 2,164 12,153
Accruals and deferred income 1,433 7,279
Other creditors 157 276
Total 11,857 23,077

COMMUNITY INTEREST ANNUAL REPORT

SHAPING OUR LIVES NATIONAL USER NETWORK COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Company Number: 04382606 (England and Wales)

Year Ending: 31 March 2024

Company activities and impact

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.

Consultation with stakeholders

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

Directors' remuneration

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

Transfer of assets

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