Chair's Message 2024 - 2025
We continue to be successful at attracting funding thanks to our hard working staff’s success in applying for diversified sources of funding, against a challenging financial backdrop for the charity sector as a whole.
Our membership engagement continues to improve, for example we have a very successful blog, where the opening statistics are more successful than most others, looking at the marketing sector as a whole.
I would like to pass on my sincere gratitude to all of our staff, supporters and other stakeholders for their continued efforts and support. I look forward to working with all of you over the next year to continue this success and look to recruit new trustees to the board, strengthen our resilience and continue to support our brilliant staff.
It is a great pleasure to introduce the Annual Report of the Trustees of Equal Lives for the fiscal year 2024/25. This document presents an overview of the accomplishments and future directions of Equal Lives. It underscores the dedicated contributions of our employees, volunteers, and partners in advancing efforts to create a world free from disabling barriers.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the charity's 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 objectives of Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People (operating as Equal Lives), as set out in the governing
document, are:
'To relieve the disability of disabled people; to promote the welfare of disabled people; to promote and/or further the independence and social inclusion of disabled people; and/or to prevent and/or relieve the poverty and/or financial hardship of disabled people.'
Our vision:
A world free from disabling barriers.
Our mission:
To remove disabling barriers across East Anglia.
Our strategic priorities for 2021-25
Promote the rights of disabled people
Sharing living experience of disabled people
Our Values
Our work is based on the social model of disability, which states that people have impairments but are disabled by the barriers society places in the way of inclusion and equality.
Impairments are a normal part of life, discrimination is not.
Professionals should be on tap, not on top, meaning people should be able to draw on others' expertise but not be controlled by them.
There should be nothing about us, without us, meaning people who face disabling barriers should be involved in decisions and activities that affect them.
People have a right to equality, dignity and independence.
We support people to empower themselves and reach their potential.
Co-production work with disabled people and organisations must be the way of working to remove barriers and make services more accessible.
Under the social model of disability, we would consider an impairment to include people who have long term health conditions or mental health issues that means they experience barriers in society that others would not.
Our strategic aims
The strategic aims have been reviewed as part of a strategic planning process.
Promote the rights of Disabled people
People who face disabling barriers have access to information, advice, advocacy and other support they need to make informed decisions, to uphold their rights and live independent lives.
Sharing lived experience of Disabled people
People who face disabling barriers are united and able to use their collective voice to influence, educate and engage individuals, organisations and society as a whole to remove these barriers.
These aims and the work underpinning them demonstrate the Public Benefit as required by the Charities
Act 2011.
The Trustees confirm that they have had due regard to Charity Commission guidance on public benefit.
The trustees have paid due regard to guidance issued by the Charity Commission in deciding what activities the charity should undertake.
Suffolk Independent Living
Suffolk Independent Living (SIL) supported over 740 client this year.
We have started a piece of work to replace our current payroll software with a view to making our documentation more accessible.
Advice and Membership Team
The Advice and Membership Team helped address 774 individual issues from Disabled People in Norfolk over the course of the year.
It has been a challenging year as funding for hardship grants came to an end as well our Local authority funding was reviewed. We only go the reviewal late in the final month of the fiscal year and this put us in a situation where due to staff leaving and funding not confirmed we were unable to recruit replacements. Funding was confirmed for a further 2 years, but the service had to close from Jan 1st. We did surpass all our contractual targets, although we would have been able to support more people had our funder been more prompt in their decision making.
Shopmobility
The Advice and Membership Team helped address 774 individual issues from Disabled People in Norfolk over the course of the year.
It has been a challenging year as funding for hardship grants came to an end as well our Local authority funding was reviewed. We only go the reviewal late in the final month of the fiscal year and this put us in a situation where due to staff leaving and funding not confirmed we were unable to recruit replacements. Funding was confirmed for a further 2 years, but the service had to close from Jan 1st. We did surpass all our contractual targets, although we would have been able to support more people had our funder been more prompt in their decision making.
Advocacy
This year, the Advocacy Team supported 208 individuals, often with multiple issues. It has been a period of building due to some turn over in staff, but we end the year with a strong team and upholding a high standard of work.
Equal Lives recruited a Norfolk Advocacy Partnership (NAP) Co-Ordinator in June 2023 on a 3-year contract, thanks to funding from the National Lottery Community Fund. We are now in the second year of funding.
In this financial year, funding was the biggest challenge for NAP. We had to renegotiate our contract with Norfolk County Council. The partners faced increasing pressure and complexity of cases, leaving them with less time to contribute to the partnership. We also gained a new commissioner, whom we worked closely with to ensure that they had a good understanding of our work and client groups.
We started working towards outcome-focused reporting, which would be more useful to both partners and commissioners. A lot of research went into this. We also continued to analyse trends across client groups. The partnership met quarterly and met reporting deadlines. We also attended multiple events to promote our services, including a co-production event, and events targeted to people with Learning Disabilities and neurodiversity. For Advocacy Awareness Week, resources about advocacy were published and promoted. We worked with other advocacy organisations such as Pohwer and the Leaders in Advocacy Network from NDTI.
Business Support
Our website
Website visits increased slightly but stayed around the same at 9660 (6% increase on last year). However, unique visitors to the website increased by 11% to 5530. This could be due to our ongoing recruitment drive, with ‘work for us’ being one of our most popular pages.
Our Shopmobility page had an incredible 25% increase in visits from last year.
Blog views were up again this period, increasing from 3000 in the previous year to 4285 this year – a 42.8% increase. Our most popular blog was about the inequalities of living with chronic pain:
https://www.equallives.org.uk/post/the-inequalities-of-chronic-pain
Disability Equality Training
This year, we undertook a significant refresh of our Disability Equality Training programme. Our Marketing Officer updated the content, particularly modernising areas such as 'representation in the media’ and transforming the format from exclusively in-person to being fully accessible online.
We also introduced a modular structure, allowing organisations to purchase the core session and select additional modules tailored to their specific needs. This flexibility enabled us to deliver more bespoke training to a wide range of organisations, including a recent session for the police.
To support the successful delivery of the programme, we engaged Disabled people as Disability Equality Trainers on zero-hours contracts, ensuring lived experience remains at the heart of our training.
Looking ahead, we plan to further develop our offer by exploring consultancy services, launching online versions of Disability Equality Workshops, and expanding our delivery across the UK to reach a broader audience.
Our reserves policy is reviewed annually. Our balance sheet as at 31 March 2025 shows reserves totalling £720,128 of which £16,171 are restricted and £703,957 are unrestricted. Designated funds of £117,750 form part of the unrestricted funds, these cover amounts set aside for the purposes set out in the notes to the accounts.
The Board has assessed potential risks facing the Charity and its future plans and as a result has agreed that approximately 6 months running costs is minimum level of general reserves that should be retained.
Conclusion and Future Outlook
In the fiscal year 2024/25, we have had stable funding. However, local authority reorganisation is presenting challenges in the sector, as contracts are often capped at the end date of the current structure. We also have a big grant ending at the end of the year and are looking to extend or replace this funding.
Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People (NCODP), operating as Equal Lives, is a company limited by guarantee and is governed by its Memorandum and Articles, dated 27 October 2000 and its subsequent revisions. It is also registered as a charity with the Charity Commission (No. 1084108). NCODP is a membership organisation with group or individual membership. Groups can join as full members (where groups are managed by a majority of disabled people), and affiliate groups. Only full member groups can vote with one vote per group and there are no membership fees.
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:
Appointment of trustees
All members meet each year at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) to, amongst other business, elect the Board of Trustees; of which at least 51% must be disabled people. Our rules (Memorandum and Articles) state that the chair must always be a disabled person and that there should be no fewer than four or more than fifteen trustees. All members are invited to nominate trustees prior to the AGM advising them of the retiring trustees and requesting nominations for the AGM. Trustees are elected for a three year term with the option to stand down at each AGM. Officers continue to be elected annually.
Trustee induction and training
Every trustee is made aware of their duties and responsibilities after they are appointed at our AGM, through discussion with the chair, an induction pack and trustee away days. Trustees take part in training sessions held throughout the year on various aspects of good governance, finance and management. In
addition, the trustees have portfolios of areas of the organisation they are responsible for getting to know in depth. They meet with the staff team and volunteers; take part in visits to services and team meetings. The trustees and staff have implemented formats for management information to the board, including easy read accounts.
The company's current policy concerning the payment of trade creditors is to follow the CBI's Prompt Payers Code (copies are available from the CBI, Centre Point, 103 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1DU).
The company's current policy concerning the payment of trade creditors is to:
settle the terms of payment with suppliers when agreeing the terms of each transaction;
ensure that suppliers are made aware of the terms of payment by inclusion of the relevant terms in contracts; and
pay in accordance with the company's contractual and other legal obligations.
Organisation
The responsibility for the running of the organisation lies with the Board of Trustees which meets quarterly to set policy, monitor performance and overall direction. To assist with developing and overseeing this work the Board delegates this monitoring work to the Finance and Development sub-committee which generally meets two weeks before each Board Meeting. A Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ben Reed, implements policy and strategy, manages day-to-day affairs and reports to the Board. The CEO oversees the work of the various elements of the organisation.
Pay policy for senior staff
The salaries of senior managers and the wider organisation are reviewed annually. If a salary increase is awarded, senior management salaries are uplifted in line with the rest of the organisation.
Fundraising standards information
Equal Lives do not participate in public fundraising activities nor instruct anyone to act on our behalf in regard to fundraising. Therefore, we do not have the need to monitor the fundraising activities and have not received any complaints in regards to fundraising.
In accordance with the company's articles, a resolution proposing that Sumer Auditco 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 Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People 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 Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People (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 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.
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
the information given in the financial statements is inconsistent in any material respect with the trustees' report; or
sufficient accounting records have not been kept; or
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records; or
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.
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.
We have been appointed as auditor under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and report in accordance with the Act and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.
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.
Identifying and assessing potential risks related to irregularities
In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we considered the following:
Identifying and assessing potential risks related to irregularities
- enquiring of management, including obtaining and reviewing supporting documentation concerning the company's policies and procedures relating to:
- identifying, evaluating and complying with laws and regulations and whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance;
- detecting and responding to the risks of fraud and whether they have knowledge of any actual,
suspected or alleged fraud;
- the internal controls established to mitigate risks related to fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations;
- discussing among the engagement team including significant component audit teams and involving relevant internal specialists, including tax, valuations, pensions and IT regarding how and where fraud might occur in the financial statements and any potential indicators of fraud.
- obtaining an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the company operates in,
focusing on those laws and regulations that had a direct effect on the financial statements or that had a fundamental effect on the operations of the companies. The key laws and regulations we considered in this context included the Charities Act 2011, Tax legislation, and laws specifically applicable to sector in which the entity operates.
Audit response to risks identified
Our procedures to respond to risks identified included the following:
- reviewing the Financial Statement disclosures and testing to supporting documentation to assess
compliance with relevant laws and regulations discussed above;
- enquiring of management, concerning actual and potential litigation and claims;
- performing analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of material misstatement due to fraud;
- reading minutes of meetings of those charged with governance, reviewing internal procedures and reviewing correspondence with HMRC; and
- in addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, testing the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments; assessing whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias; and evaluating the business rationale of any significant transactions that are unusual or outside the normal course of business.
- Assessing compliance with relevant laws and regulations, including Equality Act 2010, Employers' Liability Act 1969 and Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, to which we found no material shortfalls or had any concerns.
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.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the charity’s trustees, as a body, in accordance with Part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity’s trustees 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 charity and the charity’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
Sumer Auditco Limited is eligible for appointment as auditor of the charity by virtue of its eligibility for appointment as auditor of a company under section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People is a public benefit entity and a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is St Vedast House, 5-7 St Vedast Street, NORWICH, NR1 1BT, United Kingdom.
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.
Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular future projects or commitments.
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 on an accruals basis as a liability is incurred. Expenditure includes any VAT which cannot be fully recovered, and is reported as part of the expenditure to which it relates:
Costs of raising funds comprise the costs associated with attracting donations, grants and legacies and the costs of trading for fundraising purposes.
Charitable expenditure comprises those costs incurred by the charity in the delivery of its activities and services for its beneficiaries. It includes both costs that can be allocated directly to such activities and those costs of an indirect nature necessary to support them.
Other expenditure includes all expenditure that is neither related to raising funds for the charity nor part of its expenditure on charitable activities.
All costs are allocated between the expenditure categories of the sofa on a basis designed to reflect the use of the resource. Costs relating to a particular activity are allocated directly, others are apportioned on an appropriate basis, as set out in the notes to the accounts.
Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.
Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the statement of financial activities.
At each reporting end date, the charity reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).
Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.
The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.
Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.
Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.
Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.
Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
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.
Information Advice and Advocacy
Social Prescibing
Information Advice and Advocacy
Social Prescibing
Grant funding
Included within income from charitable activities is Government funding of £462,006 (2024: £564,546)
Direct administrative costs
Outsourced project costs
Other
Premises costs
Administrative costs
Bad debt write off
Governance costs includes payments to the auditors of £6,560 (2024- £8,900) for audit fees.
None of the trustees (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration or benefits from the charity during the year.
The trustees are re-imbursed for expenditure expended on behalf of the charity in the year for travel and support costs. Trustees were re-imbursed a total of £27 for this expenditure in the current year (2024 - £64).
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:
Deferred income comprises of the advance receipt of income in respect of both payroll and supported account services and grants towards charitable activities.
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.
Social Prescribing - Funding has been received from Norfolk County Council in relation to Social Prescribing, which is a process of helping to improve health and wellbeing through the connection of people to non-medical sources of support.
Suicide Prevention - Funding has been awarded to the Norfolk Community Advice Network (NCAN) in respect of an accredited advice service to address suicide prevention.
Alan Boswell Group - Funding has been received towards the cost of a development officer.
Hardship fund - Funding received from Norfolk County Council to help those in need of advise and support in managing their finances
Henry Smith fund - to help provide a specialist child protection advocacy services.
Aviva Crowdfund - for the purchase of new mobility scooters
Norfolk Community Foundation - Funds received in relation to supporting vulnerable people over the winter months.
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.
Premises and Dilapidation Reserve Funds have been designated to cover moving costs and the adaptation of new premises and expected repairs to the existing Charity premises under a dilapidation agreement.
A New Projects fund has been created, in particular to cover the Disability Pride event and Shopmobility.
Covid Plans reserve, is in respect of funds having been set aside towards the purchase of new computer equipment and IT support to enable staff to 'Work from Home' during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Emergency fund, is a reserve to help cover unexpected rises in costs, including those in relation to IT and Shopmobility
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:
There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2024 - none).
The charity had no material debt during the year.
The aims of Independent Living Norfolk and Suffolk Independent Living are to assist people in the receipt of payments for services. In running these schemes, the charity receives the payments on behalf of service users and pays out expenditure based upon authorised timesheets and invoices received from the service user. Separate bank accounts in the name of the charity are maintained and the transactions are recorded outside of the charity's main accounts system. Most of the expenditure is in connection of employed carers who are employees of the users and the charity administers the individual payrolls for each employer for which a charge is raised. Due to the timing differences between receipts and payments the charity holds a balance for each of the service users. The income and expenditure in relation to this figure is not that of the charity and therefore it is not reflected in the charity's Statement of Financial Activities, neither are the balances held the charity's and therefore are not included on the balance sheet of the charity. The work of the charity is monitored by Social Services, who also monitor the validity of claims to receive the payments. The balance on any individual service user account is repayable to Social Services on demand.
The movement on the Independent Living Norfolk balances during the year was as follows:
2025 2024
£ £
Balance at 27 March 2024 / 28 March 2023 479,882 368,267
Receipts 7,928,744 7,667,670
Service user payments (8,150,838) (7,556,055)
Balance at 25 March 2025 / 27 March 2024 257,788 479,882
The balance carried forward relates to NHS funded individuals and those holding personal budgets.
The movement on the Suffolk Independent Living balances during the year was as follows:
2025 2024
£ £
Balance at 20 March 2024 / 21 March 2023 5,280,527 5,487,861
Receipts 9,174,280 10,474,272
Service user payments (11,181,899) (10,681,606)
Balance at 20 March 2025 / 20 March 2024 3,272,908 5,280,527