The trustees present their annual report and financial statements 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 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)".
Arts and Homelessness International (AHI) was founded at Streetwise Opera in 2016 to connect and strengthen the sector, worldwide.
AHI is a company limited by guarantee, governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association and incorporated on 15th Jan 2019. It is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission.
Appointment of trustees
As set out in the Board Procedure Policy, in the case of a new Chair of the Board, the exiting Chair should not be involved in the recruitment process except in an advisory role.
Existing Trustees are invited to put themselves forward as candidates to the Nominations Committee. If the successful candidate is already a Trustee, they should be elected as the Chair Designate for one board meeting and then installed as Chair at the next, upon the retirement of the current Chair. If the successful candidate is not already a Trustee, they should be formally invited and elected as a Trustee first and then as Chair Designate (this can happen at the same board meeting).
In the case of appointment of Trustees, the Nominations Committee is responsible, on behalf of the Board, for the recruitment process.
It is chaired by a Trustee other than the Chair of the Board and will include at least three Trustees, one of whom will chair the committee.
The Chair evaluates current skills, knowledge and experience (a ‘Skills Audit’) and, in light of this, prepares a simple description of the role and the capabilities required for a particular appointment or appointments.
Trustee induction and training
On appointment, Trustees will receive an induction pack which will include:
A copy of the Board Responsibilities and Procedures;
A declaration of the Register of Interests;
Details of particulars AHI needs for filing with the Charity Commission and Companies House, along with contact information for the staff team, and a Declaration of Eligibility to Act;
Governing Documents including the Articles of Association;
Most recent audited accounts;
Strategic Plan;
Organisation chart;
Current year annual budget;
Dates of important events or activities including any Board meetings, fundraising events, ‘Away-days’, performances and workshops;
The current Organisational Risk Assessment.
As part of the induction process, new Trustees can meet existing Trustees and others involved with the charity, such as members of staff, volunteers and beneficiaries, outside the board meeting. It is also encouraged that they attend activities, if there are any scheduled.
Organisation
The board of Trustees administers the charity. The board normally meets quarterly and there are sub-committees covering Nominations, Finance, Marketing and Representation. Directors are appointed by the Trustees to manage the day-to-day operations of the charity. To facilitate effective operations, the Directors have delegated authority, within terms of delegation approved by the trustees, for operational matters including finance, employment and artistic, performance-related activity.
A summary of the 2023-24 year
AHI continues to support and strengthen the arts and homelessness sector across the world, with particular focus on our three main communities: People who are/have been homeless; projects and organisations who work in the arts and homeless sectors (from grass-roots projects in homeless centres to major museums wanting to welcome and work with homeless people more effectively); and policy/systems change.
Some of the key highlights this year:
The company moved to a co-created leadership model with 2 Co-Directors and 2 Co-Chairs with equal numbers of people with lived experience of homelessness leading the company
We ran 2 Fair Pay and Lived Experience events with the government’s Department of Work and Pensions, the Central England Law Centre and the arts and social change sectors on Fair Pay, coming up with resources on benefits and fair pay which is being used extensively by the sector
We followed this by approaching the Charity Commission to give us permission to pay our trustees with lived experience – they agreed and we are helping other charities do the same
We delivered our biggest tour in our history – the Send a Smile exhibition went to 5 venues across England with a combined audience of over 10,000 people
We launched the first Awards for our sector which celebrated artists, projects, co-creation champions, policy makers and change-makers from around the world
We ran 98 events and engaged with a combined audience of 13,206 people
We launched our first regional Hub outside the UK in Latin America – knowledge exchange hubs will be launched next year in Middle East/Asia and Africa
We supported the Museum of Portuguese Language in São Paulo to stage the largest arts/homelessness festival in history. Pop Rua had a homelessness audience of 10k over 3 days and AHI trained 30 cultural orgs in the city to work with homeless people
We delivered two Legislative Theatre participatory democracy projects with Medway Council and Wolverhampton Council. The Medway project helped co-create the new Homelessness Strategy with local homeless people and the Wolverhampton project enabled co-creation of policies around the Supported Housing act
We launched the first University Peer Network for Homelessness – gathering academics, students and pastoral staff to share research and practice
Over half of the people the charity has paid and over half of the charity’s expenditure went to people who are or have been homeless
As usual, we are honest about where things have been challenging, which you will find at the end of this report. We relish the challenges particularly that come with being an authentically co-created charity which involves fighting against historic organisations power structures and working practices that are often at odds with our community.
Overall performance
AHI works to bring positive change to people, projects and policy in homelessness through arts and creativity. Our aims are to connect and strengthen arts and homelessness and advocate for the use of arts in the homeless community around the world. We are committed to co-creation and at least 50% of our board and staff are or have been homeless.
A) Outputs: We do this through a programme of events and exchanges and Advocacy, Research and Training including:
In 2023/24, AHI delivered 98 events/exchanges. This includes a monthly international network meeting with projects from around the world coming together. We also run Peer Networks for Councils interested in policy co-creation through the arts, a Cultural Spaces and Homelessness Peer Network and a new University Peer Network on Homelessness – for researchers, students and staff
The Associate Leadership Programme goes from strength to strength with a second cohort being selected from a public call out. The 2023-24 cohort were all women and delivered a powerful final showcase event called ‘When she’s at home’ at the Old Diorama Arts Centre
We AHI delivered 26 training events, 23% more than in 22/23
We worked with 864 homeless people, a slight decrease from the previous year but this was due to a spike in 2021/22 due to our global majority focus
We worked with 223 projects and orgs, 41% more than the previous year
Policy work continues with the culminate of a Legislative Theatre project with Medway Council and the homelessness community which resulted in a new homelessness strategy being co-created – and work with the Charity Commission and Department of Work and Pension on Fair Pay (more in impacts below):
Outputs and stats | Number of people/events | Notes |
Events and exchanges (regular online exchanges for the sector, the Arts and Social Outcomes Network, Council Scrutiny Groups) |
98 events |
116 in total in 2022/23 |
Training events (Co-creation, Cultural Spaces and Homelessness, How to Create an Arts and Homelessness Project, Professional Development for Creatives) |
26 events |
21 in 2022/23 |
People who are/have been homeless attending events |
864 people |
1,038 in 2022/23 |
B) Outcomes/impacts: We measure our aims through connections we make, how projects are strengthened or created and the policy change that results from our work. We also measure the impact of our interventions on the people we work with in terms of well-being, agency, resilience and skills (the areas identified in The Literature Review of Arts and Homelessness, Shaw, 2019).
Outcome | Result | Notes/quotes |
People |
|
|
Increase in knowledge and skills |
100% of those who attended our professional development training increased in knowledge and skills |
‘Being part of the leadership programme has increased my skill set in creative delivery, team management, co-creation, global collaborations, ethical applications, project administrations’
‘Through forum sessions and events such as the Fair Pay and Lived Experience event, I've broadened my knowledge of working in arts and homelessness’
|
Increase in well-being |
100% of Associates reported increase in well- being |
‘I am in awe for AHI identifying the need for this programme and delivering it in such a way that truly makes a difference for artists who are homeless. I became homeless because of my disabilities and I lost all my confidence. After my first contact with AHI, I felt I was there because I had something to offer’
|
Increase in Agency |
100% of Associates increased in agency |
‘I have had to mask my true self all my career and this was only the second space where I unmasked myself and the only time it has been a positive experience’
|
Increase in Resilience | 100% of Associates increased in resilience |
‘The programme taught me that there is no shame in my homelessness and my life experiences can be used in the art I make and that will be celebrated also’
|
Employment/paid opportunities |
100% of Associates gained professional work as a result of the programme
Of the 77 people AHI employed during the year, 40 were or had been homeless (52.6%); and 50.2% of AHI’s expenditure went directly to people who are or have been homeless |
Paid opportunities included for AHI, for Westminster Housing First, International Street Medicine Conference and Southbank Poetry festival.
One project we worked with in Lebanon used some experimental arts funding we gave them to employ a lighting designer who was homeless for some workshops – he used his fee to get himself and his family passports and he sought asylum in Switzerland where he is now living
|
Projects |
|
|
Connections made |
223 projects engaged in 98 events making potentially thousands of connections. |
Countless collaborations took place including transnational poetry collaborations between Argentina and UK for the Southbank Poet Stikes event; Associates ‘She’s at Home’ event, a project from UK and LA started working with each other
|
Projects strengthened |
223 projects engaged (41% more than the previous year)
100% of projects who won awards said it had positively impacted their project
Projects involved in training said that it had increased their skills and confidence to work with homeless people by 200%
|
The Barbican fed back the following after AHI trained them: ‘There was so much care, expertise and knowledge that went into the day and so many people spoke to me afterwards about how much they gained and how much food for thought it gave them. I can really feel this is the beginning of some more joined up and exciting work in how we support people who have experienced homelessness |
New projects emerging as a result of AHI |
Over 20 new projects started as a result of AHI |
New projects included 3 books published with Associates and 2 new companies and a new project run by Associates; the first Awards for the sector; poetry collaborations; 2 new peer networks; a new global hub in Latin America; the tour of a new exhibition
|
Policy |
|
|
Policy change / systems change | New Benefits Resource created for the sector with the Arts and Social Outcomes Network
|
Free on AHI’s website and used by many orgs |
|
Charity Commission gave AHI permission to pay trustees with lived experience
|
Many other orgs are following us including Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance. Our social media posts about paying trustees attracted 50k views
|
|
New Homelessness Strategy co-created with homeless people from Medway
|
This included 4 main policy changes |
Learning and what could have been better
Staff illnesses – this continues to be an issue for AHI and the individuals who are ill. Since we commit to having a staff and board half of whom are/have been homeless, it is not uncommon for people in the organisation to have to take extended periods of leave. This is ‘normal’ in the homelessness sector and we are committed to finding a way for people who are or have been homeless to excel. We want to create a charity that does not discriminate people for illnesses.
Funding continues to be a challenge for AHI and the whole charity sector. We are meeting this challenge by continuing to diversify income streams including through individual giving and earned income.
The charity ended this year with a temporary negative reserve as a result of a grant of £30k due in March 2024 being received in April, just after year-end. Once this grant was received, the reserves of the Charity were built up to the previous level of £18k. It is the intention of the Trustees to build the reserves further over the next 2-3 years so that they reach the level of 3 months running costs, which currently equates to £30k. The trustees consider that reserves at this level will ensure that, in the event of a significant drop in funding, they will be able to continue the charity’s current activities while consideration is given to ways in which additional funds may be raised.
The trustees have assessed the major risks to which the charity is exposed, and are satisfied that systems are in place to mitigate exposure to the major risks.
Looking Ahead
We have an exciting year planned in 2024/25 with our 3rd International Arts and Homelessness Summit; the next cohort of the Associates; a new Radical Governance Training programme and 2 of our Associate Alumni going to Venice Biennale for a British Council fellowship.
Conclusion
2023/24 has been a monumental year with more policy and systems changes, large- scale projects and AHI moving to a co-created leadership framework. Our Associates programme – a world first leadership programme for creatives who are or have been homeless – continues to flourish and we are reaping the rewards of the alumni who are now working for AHI in a freelance capacity and in the wider sector.
We continue to face challenges because of the way we work and our commitment to building a workforce of people who experience high levels of ill health because of their lived experience. But we are more committed than ever to make this work for them and the charity.
Thanks
We are incredibly grateful to our Board of Trustees and staff who work tirelessly; our partners and members across the world, networks for arts orgs, homeless orgs and individuals; our funders including our individual givers, especially David Wise, our Crowdfunders, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Linbury Trust, Albert Hunt Trust, Arts Council England. A special note of thanks to our friends at Old Diorama Arts Centre who have given us free office space from this year.
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:
The trustees' report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
I report to the trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Arts And Homelessness International (the charity) for the year ended 31 March 2024.
Having satisfied myself that the financial statements of the charity are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 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. In carrying out my examination I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act 2011.
Since the charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000, the independent examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the Charities Act 2011. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of the Association of Chartered Certfied Accountants, 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 Companies Act 2006.
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 Companies Act 2006 other than any requirement that the financial statements 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 financial statements 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.
Arts And Homelessness International is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is Union House, 111 New Union Street, Coventry, CV1 2NT.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006, FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (“FRS 102”) and the Charities SORP "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 charity has taken advantage of the provisions in the SORP for charities 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. 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. The charity has received sufficient additional donations after the end of the year to restore the balance sheet to solvency. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
The remuneration of key management personnel was as follows:
The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes.
Deferred income is included in the financial statements as follows:
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 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.
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.
There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2023 - none).