The trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025.
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 (although we anticipate a new contract to deliver HIV Peer Support in Northamptonshire in 2025/26).
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 and Loughborough) that are at or above the national average.
The 2021 Census data also help 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.
There were 25 new HIV diagnoses in Leicester in 2023 (the last year for which data disaggregated by local authorities is available). In total, there were 1071 people living with HIV resident in Leicester in 2023. Where these people live maps significantly onto the areas of the city with the highest levels of deprivation.
In 2023, there were 16 people living in Leicestershire who were diagnosed with HIV for the first time. 593 people were living with HIV in Leicestershire at this time. 50% of these people are White and 38% are Black African. 33% are thought to have been exposed to HIV through sex between men, and 56% through sex between a man and a woman. These figures highlight why our charitable objects treat people impacted by HIV as separate from (but overlapping with) the local LGBTQ+ population.
There was only 1 person newly diagnosed with HIV in Rutland in 2023, and 32 people living with HIV in that county.
In November 2024, the Emergency Department at Leicester Royal Infirmary introduced opt-out testing for HIV. In the four months between November 2024 and the end of March 2025, 22 new diagnoses were made in Leicester and Leicestershire.
The HIV service in Northamptonshire, who we will be partnering with to deliver HIV peer support services in 2025/26, currently support approximately 1400 patients in the county.
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 5702 people during 2024/25.
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 total, we provided information, advice and guidance to 746 individuals this year (a 9% decrease from 2023/24 – mostly as a due to the disruption to our ‘new arrivals’ work in Leicester).
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. Digital, online ‘netreach’ continues to be a cost effective and impactful 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. In 2024/25 we provided 150 hours of in-person outreach (33% less than the previous year); as well as, 512 hours of netreach time during this year (a 180% increase on the previous year), engaging with a total of 432 contacts through these outreach sessions (a 23% increase on outreach contacts in 2023/24).
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. In previous years, this programme of work includes anyone who had migrated, internationally, to Leicester within the last five years. However, during the current year, public health commissioners redefined this contract to only work with people who had arrived in the UK in the previous two 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.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. Last year was our busiest ever year at Pride, and more than 1200 people visited the marquee during the afternoon (more than double the attendance the previous year). For many years, our clinic colleagues from Leicester Sexual Health delivered in-person STI testing in the marquee at Pride. However, the uptake of this service had been declining for many years – largely, we believe, because more gay and bisexual men are testing regularly to access Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV transmission, and because home testing kits are more easily available. As a result, we did not organise in-person testing at Pride this year. Instead, we promoted the availability of home STI testing in the health marquee, across the Pride site, and in LGBTQ+ venues in Leicester over Pride weekend. The majority using this promotion were bisexual men and women (and the link has continued to be used throughout the year) demonstrating that this intervention has helped increase access to sexual health services for an underserved section of the community. We will continue to adapt our provision at Leicester Pride (and other similar events) in response to the changing needs of the local LGBTQ+ community.
Social and Support Groups
During 2024/25 we have doubled the number of social and support groups we host (with three more being planned to start early in the 2025/26 financial year). The Dosti group for LGBTQ+ people from South Asian and Middle Eastern backgrounds is now in its eleventh year of operation and meets monthly at our offices. Our NeuroQueer group for LGBTQ+ people who are neurodivergent is in its second year. We have started hosting Queercovery a peer-led support group for LGBTQ+ people in recovery from drugs and alcohol. We have also launched Walking Positively, a social walking group for older people living with HIV. This fulfils our ambition, stated in last year’s annual report, to relaunch peer support group(s) for people living with HIV.
Volunteering
We currently have 44 volunteers (including the Trustees, counsellors on training placements, and community volunteers committed to supporting various aspects of our work). This is a slight reduction on 2023/24 (when we reported 57 volunteers), largely because we have deregistered some volunteers who, having undertaken initial inductions and training were never able to undertake volunteering activities with us.
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. This approach is beginning to pay dividends – and the three new social and support groups due to start early in 2025/26 have all been proposed and developed by our volunteers.
We have been less successful, to date, in developing ways to train our most engaged volunteers so that they are not dependent on working alongside our staff, and can become more autonomous peer educators, health promotors, and community connectors within their own social networks. We will continue to address this strategic challenge in 2025/26.
DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Safer Sex Pack distribution
We continue to provide condoms and safer sex packs for distribution via local LGBTQ+ 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 3119 packs were distributed in 2024/25 (decrease of 8% from the previous year). We interpret this decrease as related to changes in gay men’s harm reduction practices because of wider reliance on PrEP to prevent HIV transmission). During the current year, we have implemented new, branded, packaging and distribution boxes for our safer sex packs and have increased the number of venues where our packs are available.
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 year. 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. A plan is in place for this service to return to being run weekly from April 2025. From this time, it will be delivered by a specialist sexual health doctor (rather than a nurse). This will allow us to start offering vaccinations, initial PrEP consultations, and appropriate contraception for trans masculine individuals, in addition to STI screenings, 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 2025. We held pop-up HIV Testing sessions at De Montfort University, Loughborough University, and the University of Leicester, in addition to health promotion stalls at Loughborough College, Turning Point and two LGBTQ+ venues. In total we provided 19 HIV POCT during National HIV Testing Week (at least half of these were for people who had never tested before). 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. Last year, following the appointment of a new Counselling Service Manager in January 2024, we focused on rebuilding the counselling team and expanding the service. This led to a 300% increase in capacity in 2023/24. This capacity has been stabilized and sustained throughout 2024/25. Our team of 9 part-time counsellors see a total of 28 clients at any given time.
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 over the last year, at least a third of our clients have been trans and non-binary individuals 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 continued to receive funding (worth £13,690) from the local Sexual Assault Referral Centre to provide therapeutic support to such clients. This has had a particularly positive impact for non-binary and other gender non-conforming individuals who sometimes feel excluded by mainstream sexual violences services which, even when they are trans-inclusive, can largely enforce a binary understanding of gender.
ADVOCACY
World AIDS Day 2024
We, once again, took the lead in organising the local Red Ribbon Remembrance event to mark World AIDS Day on 1 December. This year, we organised a guided history walk around central Leicester, visiting sites that were significant in the local response to HIV – such as the former offices of the Leicestershire AIDS Support Service, Black Mesmac, and the Black HIV/AIDS Forum. The walk ended in Town Hall Square, where participants paused to remember people who had died of HIV related illnesses, and lit candles in the shape of a red ribbon in their memory. We used the World AIDS Day walk to launch our new social walking group for older people living with HIV, Walking Positively.
Street Smart
In January 2024, we 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 developed a community-based hate monitoring tool, to try and 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, 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.
Walking Positively
We secured a small grant (£5,000) from the Active Leicester Community Fund for a project called Walking Positively. This funded created a new social walking group for older people (aged 50+) who are living with HIV. The purpose of the walking group is to encourage older people living with HIV to engage in more exercise, so they stay fit, and reduce their risks of cardiovascular disease. But the group also helps to combat loneliness and social isolation, with resulting benefits for mental and physical health. A further purpose is for the walking group to function as a peer support group, so people can exchange information and encouragement about ageing well with HIV.
The walking group was launched on 1 December (World AIDS Day) with an HIV history walk through Leicester city centre. During January and February, we held a monthly walk on a Saturday afternoon; and, from March, the group will meet twice monthly (on a weekday evening and a Saturday afternoon).
HPV Project
We secured a small grant (£9,983) from the East Midlands Cancer Alliance to produce a booklet and associated health promotion and training events to raise awareness amongst the LGBTQ+ community about HPV-related cancers (such as cervical cancer, head and neck cancers, and rectal cancers) and to encourage the uptake of the HPV vaccine. To date, we have engaged with a group of volunteers to identify the information that people need and the most accessible ways of presenting this information to LGBTQ+ community members.
Access to Healthcare Campaign
Since August 2023, Trade have been playing an active role in a health advocacy campaign initiated by the Leicester and 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. Following a community engagement and listening exercise in 2023, the campaign developed three ‘asks’ of the Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland Integrated Care Board. 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.
Throughout 2024/25, the campaign team, including Trade staff and volunteers, have met every 4-6 weeks with the Chief People Office and other staff from the ICB to advise them and monitor their progress in implementing these asks. This project has significantly raised the charity’s profile amongst the local trans* population and driven greater engagement with a range of the services we provide. It has also enabled the voices of trans* people to be heard by local health providers – including through dedicated training to primary care staff across Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland.
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 12 summarises the financial activities for the year ended 31 March 2025.
The statement of financial activities shows a total income of £250,290 and expenditure of £278,821.
This provides a deficit of £28,531 and there remains closing reserves of £156,065 carried forward. These funds are split between the unrestricted funds, designated funds and restricted funds.
The loss generated was considered necessary in delivering our programme and was planned as a means of utilising reserves built up.
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 £29,818 and designated funds of £108,260 as at the 31 March 2025.
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 Office for the Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, the East Midlands Cancer Alliance, and the Active Leicester Community Fund.
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 £223,607 and spent £254,196, which meant there was a deficit on unrestricted activities of £30,589 for the year before transfers between reserve funds of £861. This meant there was an overall deficit of £31,450. We had reserves brought forward on our unrestricted funds of £61,268.
Therefore, we carry unrestricted reserves forward of £29,818.
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 surplus. The surplus amounted to £375. A breakdown of our restricted funds is shown in note 15 to the accounts.
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 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 Chief Executive Officer, Gavin Brown, currently serves as the Company Secretary, although there are plans in place to transfer this responsibility to one of the elected Trustees in 2025/26.
Trustee Induction and Training
Following a skills audit of our existing Trustees, we conducted a targeted recruitment exercise during the summer of 2024 to ensure that the Board of Trustees have a broad range of skills and experience to support their governance role and provide strategic advice to the charity as it grows.
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 regular contact with the CEO between Board meetings and provides formal supervision to the CEO monthly.
Trade has had a full staff team for much of the current reporting year, but the extended sick leave and subsequent departure of one staff member impacted on our operational capacity in relation to volunteer recruitment and management in the second half of the year 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: an Operations Manager (0.6 FTE), a Volunteer and Community Development Coordinator (their substantive post is 0.6 FTE, but for twelve months from January 2024 they were employed an additional day a week on the Street Smart project, meaning that the post was 0.8 FTE until the end of December 2024). Finally, we have a part-time Counselling Service Manager (0.6 FTE). We also have a team of 44 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), Voluntary Action Leicestershire 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.
As a result of our joint work on the Trans Access to Healthcare campaign, Trade is a member of Leicester and Leicestershire Citizens, and our CEO sits on their local leadership group. 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 Leicester and 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 2025.
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 ICAEW, which is one of the listed bodies.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 386 of the 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.
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.
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 (2024- £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 previous year Trade Sexual Health received £72,467 from East Midlands Sexual Health following its closure. Trade 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.