Trustees’ Report for the Year Ended 31 March 2025
Chair’s Report – WCTS Annual Statement 2024–2025
I am delighted to present this year’s Chair’s Report, reflecting on a transformative and purposeful year for WCTS.
Over the course of 2024–2025, we finalised our new strategic direction, anchored by three core goals:
• Reaching women and girls who need support the most
• Building more holistic support through collaboration
• Growing stronger and more sustainable as an organisation
Alongside this, we refreshed our organisational values to better reflect who we are and what we stand for:
• Empowering – We support women and girls to take control of their futures.
• Strong and Kind – We balance resilience with compassion, enabling healing and growth.
• Inclusive – We foster a community where every voice is heard and everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
We continue to explore what it means to be a women’s service – open to all who identity as such – in a society where the traditional binary categories of gender are expanding to reflect more of the reality of individual lives. We will continue to explore how to sustain a service that feels safe for females who have experienced gender-based violence and expand this sense of safety to more people who have experienced violence and discrimination around issues of sex and gender in the regions we work in.
To ensure long-term organisational sustainability, we entered discussions with Inspire North this year. We anticipate becoming a member of Inspire North by autumn 2025, a partnership that will strengthen our ability to reach women and girls who need support the most.
Looking ahead, I am excited about the organisation’s potential and the opportunities that lie before us. I want to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone—employees, volunteers, partners, and supporters—who have worked tirelessly to make a positive difference in the lives of our beneficiaries.
While the economic and political climate continues to pose challenges, I remain confident. As society increasingly embraces counselling and therapy as vital tools for mental wellbeing, we will continue to focus on those excluded from mainstream services. Our work with the Leeds Women and Girls Alliance will remain central, as we strive to maximise the impact of city-wide strategies and respond to emerging opportunities.
Thank you for being part of this journey.
Jackie Whittle
WCTS Board Chair
October 2025
Our objectives are to:
Provide advice and guidance, counselling and psychotherapeutic services including self-help support for women and girls of all ages (and their families where necessary), living in Yorkshire and Humberside, who are suffering from psychological/mental health problems
Advance the education of the public and of psychotherapists and mental health workers in particular, in the causes, effects, treatment and reduction of psychological/mental health problems in women and girls.
We operate mainly in the Leeds area, and particularly in areas suffering from economic deprivation working with women and girls experiencing multiple disadvantages.
Ultimately, our aims are to support marginalised and vulnerable women recover from the impacts of negative life experiences and improve their life chances by: reducing their levels of psychological distress/mental health problems; improving their levels of self-esteem and confidence; increasing their resilience; empowering them with skills for dealing with problems or tackling difficult situations and relationships.
Helping women achieve these goals takes time, and we do it by providing access to trauma specialised long-term i.e. up to two years, psychotherapeutic services that are woman centred and increasingly intersectional specific: that is, services that take account of both gender and wider power structures in society, and the potential impact of severe and/or long-term adversity on development, capacity to form and sustain healthy relationships and resilience. Crucially, we provide a service that tolerates disrupted engagement, which is essential where issues of trust are critical, and where women are carers for children and or elders. We adapt to the needs of individuals too, by using texts and phone calls to secure therapeutic work, when necessary, by delivering therapy at the beneficiaries’ preferred pace, and by providing practitioners from the same or different cultural identity, and with the same mother tongue.
Where appropriate specialised services for our beneficiary target group aren’t generally available, we aim to develop and pilot them. These include outreach services to reach particularly marginalised and isolated women and extending our age range to include 16- and 17-year-olds (supported by funding from BBC Children in Need and the Pilgrim Trust). Supported by Comic Relief we continued to reach women aged 50+ at risk of violence and a core grant from the Ministry of Justice helped us increase capacity to work with survivors/victims of sexual harassment, abuse and violence as adults and or in childhood.
We continue to see how important the Service is. With the stark disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women and girls (including increases in gender-based violence) and particularly on those from diverse communities, services which recognise these intersectional impacts and offer specialised holistic support are essential.
Not surprisingly, in the face of growing demand and rising operational costs, and despite the commitment and generosity of partners, our funding limits those we can help. For example, our general counselling and therapy service can only work with around 85 women at any time. Demand for our services continues to rise, as rapidly as the previous year and the waiting list for our open access service was closed for more than three quarters of the year. A Leeds statutory service offering support to those with Moderate needs is currently holding a waiting list of over 1000 people. The harsh reality is that within our current budgets we can only help a few of the many women who need and seek support.
As part of our efforts to deliver the best possible service, we review our objectives and activities annually with ex-service users, staff and at Board level. These reviews look at the benefits we provide to women, and where we might achieve more. We refer to, and comply with, guidance from the Charity Commission on public benefit in these reviews, and whenever we plan future work.
This year we continued to host the Visible project (www.visibleproject.org.uk) funded by Leeds NHS CCG. Visible accelerates citywide system changes in organisational services’ responses to those with histories of sexual abuse / violence in childhood.
The trustees have paid due regard to guidance issued by the Charity Commission in deciding what activities the charity should undertake.
Structure, Governance and Management
WCTS has operated continuously since 1982, initially as an Industrial and Provident Society with charitable objectives, and then as a charitable company limited by guarantee from 2011. WCTS is governed by articles of association.
The Board usually comprises between eight and twelve trustees, recruiting by open advertising, personal recommendation and direct approach, depending on the required expertise or skills. One third of trustees retires each Annual General Meeting and are welcome to stand for re-election. Officers in post during the year were the Chair and deputy, Treasurer and deputy. The CEO acts as the Company Secretary.
Potential trustees attend an initial introductory meeting with the Chair and two Board meetings as a guest. New trustees receive an induction pack, which includes Charity Commission guidance ‘The Essential Trustee’ and are invited to attend an induction session with the Chair and Chief Executive. This session covers areas like legal responsibility; the Articles; services; and finances. Board responsibilities are reviewed annually. An experienced Board member mentors and works with each new Board member for up to a year, while a system of formal annual Board appraisals is undertaken biannually.
The Board met eight times in the year and receives regular reports from the Chief Executive, covering financial performance and other key performance indicators such as clinical service / therapy outcomes, complaints, and staff wellbeing.
A scheme of delegation (reviewed annually) is also in place, and day-to-day responsibility for the provision of services rests with the Chief Executive, supported by the Clinical Lead. The Chief Executive is responsible for ensuring WCTS delivers the services specified, and that key performance indicators are met. The Clinical Lead has responsibility for the framework of clinical services. The two management teams meet fortnightly and comprise the Chief Executive, Clinical Lead and Operations Manager, and the Operations Manager, Services Managers and the Services Support Manager.
We regularly review our employee remuneration and reward packages to make sure we always attract and retain the best possible staff for our work.
WCTS is guided by local, regional and national policy and strategy, and informed by input and feedback from service users.
Summary
Women who use the Service – profile and demographics
Women’s Outcomes – CORE Outcome Measures, qualitative evaluation, beneficiary feedback
What the Service offers
Summary:
Without this service there would be no survival. FACT
My relationship with my counsellor was like finally finding a friend that knew me. I was always excited about seeing her. Her words often balanced my pain and altered my train of thought
This year was a good year for the charity continuing to reach significant numbers of women and girls and regain stability after the impacts of the pandemic on the UK workforce.
We worked with 418 women and young women in the year: a 6% reduction from previous year – due to the loss of some funding. Of these, 95% presented with clinical mental health problems: three quarters in the Moderate, Moderately Severe and Severe groupings. Over 80% of mental health problems / concerns have lasted over 12 months, recurring or continuous. These levels of psychological distress are profoundly debilitating affecting all areas of life. We continue to see significant proportion of women with experience of sexual violence.
A fifth of the women we work with are from Black, Asian, minoritised communities – a slight decrease from the previous year. This is due to reduction of funding that supports the additional costs of working in the community as well as our central premises (one bus ride away from anywhere in Leeds).
The length of support women engaged with, and their excellent mental health outcomes were maintained. Seven in ten showing clinical and/or reliable improvement i.e. significant recovery. Improvements across Psychological Domains average three (of four) clinical levels which is excellent particularly for this beneficiary group. Risk (of suicide or harm to self) reduced from clinical levels to non-clinical levels.
Feedback from women on the impacts of counselling is also excellent. With 99% of beneficiaries feeling they understand themselves better, 84% agreeing they tackle difficult situations better and 81% saying their relationships have improved and they cope better with their feelings.
She was empathetic, patient, She also challenges some of thinking which was helpful.
During the year we continue to offer the open access service, specialised services for pregnant women and new mothers, counselling for 16–25-year-olds and for those affected by Covid. Our service offering counselling supporting NHS Talking Therapies Step 3 work in the city continued. We worked hard to try and establish offering therapy from key venues in ‘deprived’ Leeds, alongside our city centre premises. Whilst, as a deeply relational services, we operate in the main face to face we do offer limited remote sessions to support accessibility.
We were very fortunate to be chose as Leeds Lord Mayor Charity of the Year from May 2024. Cllr Al Garthwaite a tireless activist for women and girls, and for communities led the fundraising efforts which resulted in over £64,350 being raised in the year.
The women we help: profile and demographics
Almost all of women and girls we support have mental health problems in the ‘clinical population’. Before therapy, the average clinical score of the women we help is stable at 21 (2024: 19 2023: 21, 2022: 20,) equating to Moderately Severe mental health problems. Over 50% of women have needs normally only addressed in secondary services, but the women who use our Service can find it hard to access, engage with or recover within more mainstream services because of their complex needs and particularly as a consequence of gender-based violence experiences, and / or are excluded from them by limited accessibility.
The women we help continue to have an average of six problems/concerns at assessment with over 80% lasting for at least 12 months and recurring or continuous. Most commonly: anxiety / stress and depression (100%), self-esteem (80+%), interpersonal problems (70+%), trauma/abuse (90+%). Of these problems almost all (80+%) of each is in the Moderately Severe band.
Worryingly, all these problems appear to be far more prevalent than in the 2011 Primary Care national database, and levels of trauma/abuse at assessment remain over three times higher than the national average.
Monitoring of beneficiaries accessing the service show excellent reach into target beneficiary populations:
• 28% of beneficiaries are from postcode areas LS7, LS9, LS10, LS14 and LS15 ranked in the lowest 3% of wards in England in the multiple deprivation index. A further 16% from LS8, LS11 and LS12, ranked within the lowest 10% and having the highest rates of suicide within the city. Overall, more than half of beneficiaries live in Leeds’s most deprived areas.
• 19% of beneficiaries are from BME communities
• 16% of beneficiaries who define their status consider themselves to have a disability and 11% of those who disclose their sexuality define as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
• The age range of women accessing the service is relatively stable with 15% aged 16-25 and 24% over 45 years old, 4% over 65.
• Of those who name a religious affiliation 18% are Muslim.
How women describe their goals at the start of counselling include:
Addressing self-harm as a coping mechanism for big emotions.
Managing coping strategies re catastrophizing with birth and having the new baby
To be able to make and maintain healthy relationships or at least have a healthy perspective on what relationships should look like
Being more certain of my own wants, needs and values.
Stabilisation of symptoms: flashbacks, panic, nightmares, hypervigilance, anxiety
Manage distress and anxiety better so that I can leave the house
To not have to live with anxiety every day
things without already having an outcome in place
I found the grounding techniques helpful and now don't worry as much. I'm also more reflective and present.
Changes in psychological Domains are:
• Commonly Experienced Problems: 26 (Severe) reducing to 14 (Mild)
• Wellbeing issues: 28 (Severe) reducing to 13 (Mild)
• Life/Social Functioning: 20 (Moderately Severe) reducing to 18 (Moderate)
• Risk: 4 (clinical population) reducing to 0 (non-clinical population)
Crucially, and equally positively, this recovery is also sustained. In 2012, we won an award from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy for conducting research which revealed that 60% of participating beneficiaries were still experiencing reliable and significant change four years after their therapy. The longevity of these recoveries isn’t just excellent for the individual service user herself: it also reduces their need for future interventions, which in turn frees up our services for other women.
Women attended for an average of 13 sessions with average of seven months contact with the Service – reduced from 21, due to the new NHS Talking Therapies Step 3 waiting list support work with a maximum of 16 sessions offered. 74% of all sessions were attended –excellent for the client group with their range of wider responsibilities and dependencies.
Analysis of Beneficiary feedback forms in March 2025 shows that 100% agreed or strongly agreed with the statements ‘I felt understood by my counsellor’ and ‘I felt able to work with my counsellor'. Within ‘Helpfulness of counselling’ 99% of beneficiaries agreed or strongly agreed with the statement ‘I feel I understand myself better’ and 90% ‘I cope better with my feelings’. 89% that they tackle difficult situations better; 90% that they had made changes in how they dealt with their problems, and 81% said their relationships have improved and the feel they have become a more effective parent.
Feedback around convenience and accessibility remained strong: 89% of beneficiaries found the venue convenient and accessible; felt that they were offered an appointment within a reasonable length of time; that they were offered appointments at convenient times; and found the written information helpful.
Some of the feedback from beneficiaries in 2024-25
Therapy has been very helpful and (Counsellor) has been understanding. I have been supported through my pain… I have a better outlook on life and don't have to worry as much.
More mindful of maybe how my actions could be perceived, and not doing everything, asking for help. Looking at things from objective view or from others' experience.
Being more forgiving of myself and stress I am under e.g. understandable that I had a chunk of time off post hospital stay.
It has been life changing having this space and support. EMDR has changed my memory to be less distressing and I'm so grateful.
We held two annual ex-beneficiary feedback events this year: one in person and one online. We are keen to hear about women’s whole experience, the good and not so good. We find that there are many benefits to this piece of work, but the main ones are that in asking for their views we are making ourselves easier to reach and that, then, we become enriched by both receiving and acting on their feedback. This links back to one of our main values, that of empowerment, by seeking feedback we hope that both the clients and the service become empowered through this relational work.
Women told us:
My counsellor was lovely, patient and knowledgeable in her field
Seeing same person each time and being in same room was positive
I felt seen, heard, and understood
It helped me work out my thoughts
I felt supported and cared about
We continued to work with around 12 external clinical supervisors during the year. These experienced women offer additional thinking and warmth to our work. Helping us to ‘see’ the women we work with more clearly particularly through the strong dynamic women bring into the work as a result of multiple traumatic experiences.
One ex-service user served on the Board of Trustees during the year offering a unique perspective from their experiences.
What the Service offers
WCTS has saved my life
It was life changing for me
A women-only service keeps it safe. It wouldn’t feel safe if it was mixed
WCTS offers uniquely safe, confidential and culturally sensitive spaces where women can speak openly and fully about their experiences, feelings and thoughts. Crucially, we’re providing something women and girls usually can’t access in any other area of their lives. In a society where we are understanding more about the prevalence, insidiousness and impacts of for example racism, misogyny and multi-generational poverty, this is vital to mental health.
I liked the building, everyone was kind. I felt heard and accepted.
The nature of working long term with trauma and the energies (powerful emotions, confused and confusing thoughts, strong often negative mind sets and self-beliefs, etc) can best be seen and ‘held’ in person. As the profession learns about the impacts of remote work in non-pandemic context, we believe it is safer for our client groups and staff to work face to face.
Our support enables women to express and resolve painful experiences, which in turn changes their often-complex attitude towards themselves and others. This vital opportunity reduces psychological distress and mental health problems, and it also increases women’s resilience to everyday ups and downs as well as more challenging life events.
Our services are 'trauma specialised’, which means they take account of the potential impact of severe and/or long-term adversity on development, resilience, and the capacity to form relationships. They also address the frequent mislabelling of people with histories of trauma as ‘uncooperative, hard to engage, non-compliant or treatment resistant, needy or aggressive’.
Therapy has helped me (and is continuing to) be kind to myself, understand that the way I perceive/react to a situation could have been the result of a past experience, reflect on it, acknowledge and address it. It has hugely improved my tolerance of myself and others.
Essential casework support around wider health and social needs enables access to and engagement with counselling, enabling women to use the specialised therapy we offer to maximum benefit – it means they get ‘added value’ from their contact with us which has become even more important with the disproportionate severe impacts of cost of living on women.
Working holistically with women facing on average six identified long-term problems mean working with significant complexity. Whilst counselling works primarily with ways of thinking, feeling and behaving as ‘processes’ there is always ‘content’ to the work i.e. the social, health and interpersonal needs women are living with resulting from their experiences and histories. Working at one level on the ‘what gets in the way (internally or externally)’ in relation to this issue that is causing you difficulty in your life’ counselling is always focused on supporting women live more of the lives they want / desire and so is intrinsically practical.
Aiming to support women towards the ‘new skills, confidence, independence, security and/or agency’. Identifying goals at the beginning of work together and checking in with these regularly ‘Are we talking about the things that matter most to you?’ focuses the work on the changes that are most important to each individual woman.
Our approach is all about responsiveness to individual need and flexibility in understanding individual circumstances. Within a clear psychotherapeutic framework, guided by the BACP's Ethical Framework for Counselling Professions, our focus is on the relationship between beneficiary and therapist, or on relationships with other group members. It’s in the context of these safe, understanding and thoughtfully challenging relationships that real and lasting change takes place.
WCTS employs a wide range of highly skilled counsellors/psychotherapists, offering counselling in four community languages and from different therapeutic modalities, including psychodynamic, humanistic, analytic, gestalt, person centred, and the creative arts therapies. Every modality acknowledges just how important establishing a sense of safety and trust is before the relationship between client and therapist can foster exploration, learning and change. Caseworkers sit alongside Counsellors to ensure the Service is as accessible as possible. Our receptionists play a vital role in making the service welcoming and accessible to distressed vulnerable women.
I feel better than I did before I started therapy, with being calmer and thinking about the future with more hope.
Managing anger better. Looking at more strategies to manage anger and feelings better.
Understandably, women continue to highlight the importance of confidentiality in their feedback: their need to trust someone enough to speak openly, and the profound impact of feeling supported and understood. They talk about feeling welcomed and accepted at WCTS: about their relief at having someone they can regularly express their often troubled or troubling thoughts and feelings with.
Importantly, providing a longer-term therapeutic relationship helps therapy progress at a pace that women with complex trauma histories can manage. It’s significant that many women only gradually feel stable and trusting enough to begin talking in intimate detail about formative life events, and that’s one of the key benefits of long-term therapy like ours. They identify and explore the ongoing impact of these experiences, and, over time, this enables them to make both small and huge changes in their understandings of themselves and their behaviours. In turn, this helps them begin to make choices that contribute to improving their lives and those of their children, families and communities.
Our service is unique in Leeds for its special mix of accessibility and long-term support. It’s free, delivered in venues women can reach easily and feel safe in, and personalised to their unique needs, even with some travel, interpreter and childcare support where necessary. It’s also long term, with counselling or psychotherapy lasting up to two years and delivered by fully qualified, accredited and experienced female staff. Both individual and group psychotherapy is offered, and some women complete a period of focused individual work before moving into group work to deepen their explorations of relationship with others. We offer 8-week psychoeducational courses too, designed to help women reflect upon their current difficulties, develop skills and strategies for managing their emotional wellbeing, and build their resilience to life’s ups and downs.
I understand myself and other people a bit better, especially my family. I can recover quicker from my low days, and I'm more open to speaking to friends and my boyfriend when I feel upset.
I need to continue to practice the techniques that help me deal with feelings of anxiety + also have a journey to continue on regarding grief itself.
We offer an open access service for women in the beneficiary group. It’s funded by Leeds City Council Adults and Health, the Bromley Trust, and Leathersellers Company Charitable Fund.
All women accessing this service are unable to access other services to meet their needs. They’re not able to pay for counselling, they need a female therapist, and they’re only able to feel safe enough to speak of their experiences – often years or decades of neglect, sexual or domestic abuse and/or violence – in a women's service. WCTS is a service that recognises their strengths, is compassionate about their challenges, and that supports them in their desire and efforts to make changes: together we celebrate them and their achievements, large and small.
We’ve successfully helped women deal with the consequences of fractured families, domestic abuse, children with challenging behaviours, traumatic labours and births, bereavement, and overcoming the negative impacts of aspects of their own childhoods, including multigenerational poverty.
Our perinatal work continues to see very positive results within the NHS Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service (LMWS) and capacity was increased during the year. A partnership of seven local organisations which supports a joined-up experience for service users. We also delivered Step 3 Talking Therapies work to help bring down the waiting list which had climbed to over 4000 during the pandemic. This new element of our work is producing excellent outcomes with women attending the service.
We also continued working with 16- and 17-year-olds, funded by BBC Children in Need within the 16–25-year-old specialism provided by the Service. We offer an elastic engagement for young women recognising that shorter contracts of six to twelve sessions with the opportunity to return several times supports engagement and a long-term nurturing connection with the service.
Wider work
We are delighted to continue hosting the Visible project funded by the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board committing further funding into 2026. Visible is a pioneering city-wide initiative to improve services with, and for, adult survivors of child sexual abuse. Visible carries out this work in close partnership with Leeds Involving People, and there’s more information at Visible - improving wellbeing outcomes with adult survivors of sexual abuse.
We play a part in the strengthened and co-ordinated approach to mental health service provision for the women of Leeds through our involvement in key city-wide forums like Forum Central (the Leeds voluntary sector mental health forum), the NHS Perinatal Mental Health Group and the Leeds Strategic Mental Health Partnership. Our CEO acts as Third Sector Advocate on sexual violence services to the West Yorkshire Mayor’s Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Advisory from their experiences.
Board and is Deputy Chair of the Leeds Psychology Board. During the year she also became a Governor at Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust
WTCS works hard to maintain and further diversify its funding base, operating a diverse range of funding streams. Careful financial management means we’re increasingly able to respond flexibly in relation to emerging needs and opportunities – vital in such a complex and volatile operating environment. Incoming resources for the period from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 were £1,212,156 (2024: £972,344) and expenditure of £1,181308 (2024: £1,021,396). Net movement of funds is a surplus of £30,848 (2024: deficit of £49,052). The reserves carried forward are £257,042 (2024: £226,194) :
Principal funding sources
The largest single funding stream is a contract with Leeds Community Healthcare (for LMWS) of £480,539 (2024 215,033) of income. Other contributions are from NHS CCGs which total; £317,527 (2024: £292,174) and from charitable trusts and foundations; £409,599 (2024: 461,331)
The trustees continued to monitor progress against the reserves policy (i.e. that free reserves held by the charity should equate to 25-50% of agreed budgeted expenditure for the subsequent financial year). . Budgeted expenditure for 2025/26 is £978,565
The reserves target is £244,641 to £489,282
The reserves are needed to meet the working needs of the charity in the event of a significant drop in funding, to maintain provision for redundancy and legal costs or other untoward events. At present the free reserves amount to £245,377 (2024: £226,194) just over the lower limit of target. The Board is continuing to look at ways to build the reserves and has also considered contingency plans in the event of a significant reduction in finances in the short term.
Our three Strategic Goals will be measured by
Reaching women and girls who need support the most
- Increasing access to long term support
o by at least 10 % annually
- Prioritising prevention and early intervention
o re establishing our fast access 1 - 4 session work by 2027
- Raising awareness and publishing self-help mental health resources
o at least one every year from 2025
Building more holistic support by working with others
- Addressing wider health and social impacts on mental health
o Doubling our casework capacity by 2026
- Increasing our innovative outreach community partnerships
o By at least one more each year
Growing stronger and more sustainable
- Expanding and diversifying our funding base
o Doubling funding from trusts and foundations by 2028
- Securing and retaining the best people; ensuring their wellbeing at work
o Undertaking a full review of benefits, terms and conditions in 2025
- Piloting services for unmet needs; influencing commissioning
o Starting at least two substantive pilots in 2026
Our updated Values:
Empowering
We provide support to help women and girls recognise their inner strengths, build self-confidence, and cultivate resilience. By encouraging them to make informed decisions rooted in their own values and aspirations, we empower them to take control of their futures.
Strong and Kind
We co-create a safe space where women can confront challenges with courage while feeling supported and valued. A balance of strength and compassion enables them to heal and grow.
Inclusive
We work to ensures that everyone feels welcomed and respected. By valuing diversity, we create a supportive community where all voices are heard and everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
I have more strategies for my anxiety and have more confidence in building connections to hopefully create my 'village'.
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:
Potential trustees attend an initial introductory meeting with the Chair and two Board meetings as a guest. New trustees receive an induction pack, which includes Charity Commission guidance ‘The Essential Trustee’ and are invited to attend an induction session with the Chair and Chief Executive. This session covers areas like legal responsibility; the Articles; services; and finances. Board responsibilities are reviewed annually. An experienced Board member mentors and works with each new Board member for up to a year, while a system of formal annual Board appraisals is undertaken biannually.
The Board met six times in the year and receives regular reports from the Chief Executive, covering financial performance and other key performance indicators such as clinical service / therapy outcomes, complaints, and staff wellbeing.
A scheme of delegation (reviewed annually) is also in place, and day-to-day responsibility for the provision of services rests with the Chief Executive, supported by the Clinical Lead. The Chief Executive is responsible for ensuring WCTS delivers the services specified, and that key performance indicators are met. The Clinical Lead has responsibility for the framework of clinical services. The management teams meet fortnightly and comprise the Chief Executive, Clinical Lead and Services Managers.
We regularly review our employee remuneration and reward packages to make sure we always attract and retain the best possible staff for our work.
WCTS is guided by local, regional and national policy and strategy, and informed by input and feedback from service users.
Risk Management
The trustees have reviewed the major risks to the charity, ;the risk register is updated as risks change and at least annually. Appropriate risk mitigation strategies are in place, and areas such as health & safety, safeguarding and finance are standing items on Board agendas. Included in its current policies, WCTS has a serious incident policy, a beneficiary confidentiality policy, and child and adult safeguarding policies.
The trustees consider the Chief Executive, the Clinical Lead, and the Operations Manager as key management personnel, in charge of directing and controlling the charity, and running and operating the charity on a day-to-day basis.
The pay of the charity’s key management staff is reviewed annually and may be increased in accordance with national indicators like inflation or average earnings where financially possible and prudent. Remuneration is also benchmarked periodically with charities of a similar size and activity to ensure that it’s fair and in line with that generally paid for similar roles.
In accordance with the company's articles, a resolution proposing that BK Plus Audit Limited be reappointed as auditor of the company will be put at a General Meeting.
The trustees' report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
The trustees, who are also the directors of Women's Counselling and Therapy Service Limited for the purpose of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year.
In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:
- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
- observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
- make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
- state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.
The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Opinion
We have audited the financial statements of Women's Counselling and Therapy Service Limited (the ‘charity’) for the year ended 31 March 2025 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet, the statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
In our opinion, the financial statements:
Basis for opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
Other information
The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of our audit:
the information given in the trustees' report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared, which includes the directors' report prepared for the purposes of company law, is consistent with the financial statements; and
the directors' report included within the trustees' report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charity and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the directors' report included within the trustees' report.
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
certain disclosures of trustees' remuneration specified by law are not made; or
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or
the trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies regime and take advantage of the small companies' exemptions in preparing the trustees' report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.
As explained more fully in the statement of trustees' responsibilities, the trustees, who are also the directors of the charity for the purpose of company law, are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, is detailed below.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.
Other matters
Our approach to identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, was as follows:
The engagement partner ensured that the engagement team collectively had the appropriate competence, capabilities and skills to identify or recognise non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
We identified the laws and regulations applicable to the company through discussions with directors and other management, and from our commercial knowledge and experience of the industry sector;
We focused on specific laws and regulations which we considered may have a direct material effect on the financial statements or the operations of the company, including the Companies Act 2006, taxation legislation and data protection, anti-bribery, employment, environmental and health and safety legislation;
We assessed the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations identified above through making enquiries of management and inspecting legal correspondence; and
Ensured laws and regulations were communicated within the audit team regularly and the team remained alert to instances of non-compliance throughout the audit.
We assessed the susceptibility of the company’s financial statements to material misstatement, including obtaining an understanding of how fraud might occur, by:
Making enquiries of management as to where they considered there was a susceptibility to fraud, their knowledge of actual, suspected and alleged fraud;
Considering the internal controls in place to mitigate risks of fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations; and
Understanding the design of the company’s remuneration policies.
To address the risk of fraud through management bias and override of controls, we;
Performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships;
Tested journal entries to identify unusual transactions
Assessed whether judgements and assumptions made in determining the accounting estimates set out in note 2 were indicative of potential bias; and
Investigated the rationale behind significant or unusual transactions.
In response to the risks of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we designed procedures which included, but were not limited to:
Agreeing financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting documentation;
Reading the minutes of meetings of those charged with governance;
Enquiring of management as to actual and potential litigation and claims; and
Reviewing correspondence with HMRC, relevant regulators and the company’s legal advisors.
There are inherent limitations in our audit procedures described above. The more removed that laws and regulations are from the financial transactions, the less likely it is that we would become aware of non-compliance. Auditing standards also limit the audit procedures required to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations to enquiry of the directors and other management and the inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.
Material misstatements that arise due to fraud can be harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
Women's Counselling and Therapy Service Limited is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is 43 Park Square North, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS1 2NP, England.
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" 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)". The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Other income
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.
At the reporting end date the charity had outstanding commitments for future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases, which fall due as follows:
Subsequent to the balance sheet date, the trustees have formally approved the commencement of legal and regulatory processes to become a subsidiary of Inspire North. Inspire North will become the sole member of WCTS. While the acquisition is not yet complete a collaboration agreement has been signed between both parties that outlines the services that Inspire North will provide WCTS in exchange for a management charge.
At the date of approval of these financial statements, the transaction remains subject to final contractual agreement. Accordingly, no adjustments have been made to the financial statements in respect of this event.
There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2024 - none).
The charity had no material debt during the year.