The trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025.
The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the accounts and comply with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2016)
"The preservation and protection of good health and the advancement of education of women, girls, men and boys in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland who are involved in sexual exploitation, primarily but not exclusively through the provision of street outreach, a drop-in facility and practical care and guidance. The advancement of public education regarding prostitution and its impact on individuals and society."
Public Benefit
We have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on Public Benefit when reviewing our aims and objectives, and in planning our future activities. The trustees have paid due regard to guidance issued by the Charity Commission in deciding what activities the charity should undertake.
The charity believes it has provided a public benefit during the year. In the section of our report titled Achievements and Performance, we aim to demonstrate how we have provided a public benefit. As a Board of Trustees, we take our role seriously. The charity works extremely hard to make sure that it provides charitable services that are socially inclusive to our service users.
It has been another challenging and exciting year at the New Futures Project. The crisis counselling service has continued to develop, and we have recruited more volunteer counsellors, both qualified and trainee, to meet demand. The one-to-one work with women presenting or being referred requiring practical case work support continues to be busy. The Drop-In work has also increased with more women attending the Drop-In in a state of crisis. Managing the number and complexity of referrals we have received continued to be our biggest challenge. We continue to strengthen our safeguarding policies and procedures to take account of the additional risk the project is managing and this is working well. Crisis counselling hours continue to increase and most clients receiving crisis counselling also receive practical support giving them an effective and holistic package of support. Young people’s work continues to grow and develop.
We continue to monitor our direct services to ensure they are fully meeting the needs of the client group. The combination of social work support alongside counselling has proved to be effective in delivering a successful recovery package for all clients and this year we have improved how this is delivered in practice through better communication and systems.
This year has seen further growth and development of our income streams with our low cost counselling service and counselling course provision contributing to the charity’s income stream.
Drop In and Crisis Work
Our Drop-In continues to be busy. We provide a safe space for women to come in and relax. Our staff serve hot meals and drinks and encourage women to discuss their problems. Our social work students work 1:1 with women in Drop In addressing immediate need such as finding a hostel bed for the night, giving out food parcels, donations of clothing, bedding and sleeping bags as well as supporting women to access benefits, deal with housing and tenancy issues, addressing immediate health issues and making necessary medical appointments. Women attending Drop-In can access clean injecting equipment, condoms and care packages. We facilitate reporting to the police and National Ugly Mugs if the women feel comfortable to do so and support women who have experienced instances of domestic, sexual and physical violence.
The increased level of complexity in the referrals we are receiving means that women are presenting in Drop -In with multiple issues which typically include poverty and debt, housing issues and homelessness, drug and alcohol use and immigration difficulties alongside trauma caused by historic and ongoing sexual abuse and exploitation.
We have noticed a significant increase in women accessing the project who do not speak English as their primary language and alongside this we are supporting more women who do not have recourse to public funds. Referrals into our crisis service continue to increase. An increase in referrals from other organisations, including social services, GP’s, Turning Point, charities and other mental health services, means that we are still processing referrals daily. We receive an average of ten referrals per week, usually complex cases with extreme levels of abuse and violence. This year the charity supported 518 women and girls who presented to the project in crisis
We are increasing the time we spend working with clients as they often present in acute mental health crisis. This is then recurring whilst they are in service, due to the complexity of their mental health and their day-to-day living difficulties.
Although this is hugely time-consuming work, it is rewarding to see the results of the intense package of support we are providing. The success of the work is borne out by the results of our Star assessments undertaken with clients. This year we have recognized we need to improve our monitoring, and we have introduced new systems to achieve better and more accurate data. However, the monitoring has continued to demonstrate significant improvement in all domains of the Star outcomes, and we are satisfied that this evidences both the quality and quantity of the work we have undertaken.
Outreach
This year we have reduced the outreach service due to some internal and external factors. There have been some issues with increased policing in beat areas and the threat of prosecution and this along with changes in the way many of the street sex workers are meeting clients has led to adaptations to the service.
We have restructured this service and intend to increase the number of outreach sessions back to previous levels during the next year, targeting different geographical areas at different times.
Counselling Service
The counselling service continues to develop. We worked with 68 counsellors working face to face or remotely with clients over the past 12 months, which increased the number of sessions we were able to deliver considerably. We are continuing to build a team of more experienced counsellors who can work with our more complex clients. We continued to develop our programme of specialist training for our in-house counsellors and as a result the counselling team report being more confident in working with sexual trauma, abuse and exploitation. Our induction process has improved with more counsellors gaining experience of our crisis, drop-in and outreach services which have meant more cohesive working between counsellors and key workers within the service. We have further developed our assessment, allocations and waiting list protocols which have become more efficient and effective.
Work with Young People
We have effectively engaged with and consistently worked with 170 young people this year, which has stayed consistent since last year; all continue to show positive outcomes through a combination of counselling and key worker support for practical needs. Our monitoring continues to demonstrate we are most successful in supporting young people to feel safer, to increase their self-esteem and to improve their mental health. This has been evidenced through Star Assessments completed by us, case recordings of individual sessions and from reports from other professionals such as social workers, accommodation providers, teachers, drug workers and the police. A lot of the work with young people in 1:1 sessions and counselling is about repairing 'damage' and trying to reinforce the understanding that the individual is not to blame for the abuse and trauma they have experienced.
Multi-agency work
The local drug and alcohol service, Turning Point have maintained their sessions in the building and have continued to be able to support our most vulnerable clients by getting them scripted and then maintaining that script. This is an excellent example of how sustained partnership working can achieve good outcomes, even for our most complex clients who find engaging with support hugely problematic.
Probation workers continue to regularly meet with clients in our building as do social workers, staff from Changing Futures, domestic abuse services, police, etc. We continue to partnership work with many organisations and agencies on a day-to-day and multi- agency basis.
Publicity
Our Friends of New Futures newsletter continues to develop and we are continuing to build a stronger social media presence. Our website is much improved and gives a better reflection of the work and achievements of the charity.
Monitoring and Reports
The introduction of Oasis, our cloud based case recording and monitoring system changed the way the charity works, especially in relation to safeguarding and we continue to see additional benefits every year. Although the system is expensive in terms of individual users needing licences to use it, the reports we can produce prove the quantity and quality of the work we are undertaking. We have identified some ways we can standardize and improve our monitoring to alleviate some of the gaps in data we are currently experiencing.
Client participation and ownership
This remains a priority and each year we conduct surveys of the client group to see what services they would like us to develop. Our intention is that we continue to develop new areas of work, co-produced with the client group and this year we have been partially successful in our attempts to gain funding for an additional development of work for our most ‘at risk’ clients e.g. those who self-harm, experience psychosis and suicidal thoughts. We will continue to look for funders to support our work in the next financial year.
Challenges
The housing crisis continues to have a huge impact in Leicester. Over the last few years it has become apparent that the current housing system is not fit for purpose and each year the situation gets more difficult.
The long-term impact of Covid 19 and the extended local lockdowns on the mental health of women and girls, particularly in the city is still apparent in both the number and the complexity of the referrals we continued to receive. Mental health services continue to struggle with high waiting lists for counselling. Many clients state they have waited months or years for counselling prior to being referred to us and this is obviously hugely concerning.
The cost of living continues to be an issue; we are seeing increasing numbers of people in significant debt who cannot afford to pay household bills or provide food for their families. The effect of these issues does increase the workload for charities such as ourselves because the time it takes to unpick and provide resolution to issues such as debt, rent arrears, lack of housing, etc.
Again, there has been an increase in people self-referring who are homeless and those who are requiring support around immigration and status. Again, this is hugely time-consuming area of work and is complicated by clients not having English as a second language.
Along with the increase in complexity, there has also been an increase in the numbers of women being referred and self- referring to us, most in significant crisis. We have continued to make applications for additional funding to cope with this increase in demand.
The project’s major challenge continues to be funding. All major funders are reporting an increase in applications and being so reliant on grant funding means this is a real concern for us.
Our plans to increase our earned income continue to develop as we believe this is a real necessity for the charity to remain sustainable in the future. Our low-cost counselling service and CPCAB counselling training are developing and this year are beginning to contribute to the income of the charity.
The most exciting news of the year is that we learned in November 2024 that our application to Reaching Communities had been successful and we were awarded a grant of over £600K payable over the next four years. This has given the charity a degree of stability and security which has been much needed.
The Board of Trustees recognise that for several years the charity has been operating in an extremely challenging set of circumstances with the austerity cuts that have taken place in recent times, as a whole, impacting greatly on New Future Project and so ultimately our service users. These financial constraints imposed upon us over a number of years have impacted the charity and as a result of this has limited the scope of services we have been able to provide. In addition the uncertainty created by the Covid-19 pandemic has an impact on our financial well being. With the award from the lottery, we feel we have gained an opportunity to continue to develop the charity’s income streams with some of the pressure to obtain additional funding lifted. We are very grateful for the help and support from our grants officer and everyone else at Reaching Communities who have given our project such an opportunity.
Our Income Funds are split between the unrestricted funds, and restricted funds. The statement of financial activities on page 8 summarises our position for the year. It shows a total income of £470,274 and expenditure of £472,976. This provides an overall deficit of £2,702, This is largely due to timing differences on our restricted funds, detailed later. The timing differences is mainly because of differences between when we receive income and when we spend it.
We started the year with total fund balances of £5,693 and had a deficit of £2,702 in the year which means we report in credit funds to carry forward of £2,991 on our unrestricted funds.
Unrestricted Funds
We started the year with fund balances of £5,693 on our unrestricted funds and report a deficit of £2,702 in the year which leaves a balance to carry forward of £2,991. We received donations totalling £75,340 during the year. We continue to be indebted to our monthly appeal and other donations.
Restricted Funds
In respect of the total funds received a significant proportion of the charity’s income was derived from restricted funds. We had some significant grant funding in the year which totalled £394,934 and had expenditure of £394,934 which meant the restricted funds were fully spent, leaving fund balances carried forward at the year end of £nil.
We feel extremely fortunate to report we have 6 funders who support our work through restricted funds.
The National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund - several grants for projects.
The Samworth Foundation
Garfield Weston Foundation
Lloyds Bank
George Ernest Ellis
NHS
All funding was spent during the year. The long term financial position of the charity is looking far more promising thanks to the support of the above funders. The Board of Trustees are aware this funding will need to be supplemented in the future by other sources of income to enable the charity to continue into the long-term.
Reserves Policy
The charitable company's aim has always been to hold at least six months normal operational costs in reserves. Whilst the trustees wish to retain reserves of up to six months “normal costs” they acknowledge the difficulty in generating sufficient income in these challenging times and being able to maintain sufficient funds.
As a result of an internal review the charity has changed the policy to a desirable position where they are able to hold free reserves equivalent to three month’s expenditure, for use to cover the work of the charity in the event that funding should cease.
The trustees estimate normal ongoing annual costs to be between £300,000 and £400,000 per year. The trustees estimate that reserves at a level of approximately £75,000 would ensure that, in the event of a significant drop in funding, the charity would be able to continue the current activities while consideration is given to ways in which additional funds may be raised.
Therefore, the trustees believe the charity is not in a position of comfort to deal with any short-term financing problems resulting from a loss of funding because of the level of reserves currently held.
Due to the nature of the funding and the need to discharge our charitable activities we have been unable to retain the level of reserves we desire but we are working towards that aim.
The charity had closing free reserves of £2,991 as at the 31 March 2025 down from £5,693 in 2024 – all held in unrestricted funds. We do not count the restricted funds held as this has often occurred from a timing difference between receipt of funds and expenditure.
The trustees has assessed the major risks to which the charity is exposed, and are satisfied that systems are in place to mitigate exposure to the major risks.
The trustees have a risk management strategy which comprises: an annual review of the risks the charity may face; the establishment of systems and procedures to mitigate those risks identified in the plan; and the implementation of procedures designed to minimise any potential impact on the charity should those risks materialise. This work has identified only a few minor new risks but it has resulted in better emergency procedures and contingency plans and has given the impetus for better planning. Particular attention has focussed on non-financial risks arising from fire, health and safety and food hygiene.
A key element in the management of financial risk is the setting of a reserves policy and its regular review by trustees.
We will continue to approach funders to fund projects which significantly improve the lives of our clients, building on our considerable success in this area of work and developing partnerships with funders which are meaningful and support our preferred direction and priorities.
Now that the future of the charity is more secure, our plans are to take advantage of our more independent status and to continue to develop the organisation to deliver services most appropriate to our service users.
The environment that we are working in is challenging and the effects of the pandemic are still being felt and will be for many years to come. We will continue to adapt our service to meet our clients needs, which includes developing our counselling and mental health services and broadening the scope of the charity services to all women who have experienced sexual abuse and exploitation.
We will continue to research and develop appropriate ways in which the charity can generate income to lessen our impact on grant income and increase our sustainability.
The New Futures Project Limited is a company limited by guarantee governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association dated 3rd September 2003 and amended to allow for current governance arrangement on 25th November 2005.
It is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission.
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:
Membership of the Charity is open to any individual interested in promoting the Objects who applies to the Charity in the form required by the Trustees and is approved by the Trustees, has completed the prescribed training course, or is a consultant member or a female beneficiary, signs the Register of members or consents in writing to become a member.
The board of trustees, which can have up to 15 members, administers the charity. The trustees form a management committee that ensures the appropriate governance of the charity. They meet approximately every 6 weeks.
During the year the board welcome some external advisors to the management committee. We identified 3 consultants in Gloria Carr, Paula McManus, and Rose Nguku who will be invited to become trustees in the near future.
The management committee works closely with staff members.
All trustees, are elected by majority vote at the AGM. The trustees have the power to co-opt further members to fill specialist roles. Co-opted members may vote only up to the next AGM, where they must face election. When considering co-opting trustees, the Board has regard to the requirement for any specialist skills needed.
None of the trustees has any beneficial interest in the company.
The trustees report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
I report to the trustees on my examination of the financial statements of New Futures Project (the charity) for the year ended 31 March 2025.
Having satisfied myself that the financial statements of the charity are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s financial statements carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011. In carrying out my examination I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act 2011.
Since the charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000, the independent examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the Charities Act 2011. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of ICAEW, which is one of the listed bodies.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 386 of the Companies Act 2006.
the financial statements do not accord with those records; or
the financial statements do not comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the Companies Act 2006 other than any requirement that the financial statements give a true and fair view, which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or
the financial statements have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice for accounting and reporting by charities applicable to charities preparing their financial statements in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the financial statements to be reached.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
New Futures Project is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is 71 London Road, Leicester, LE2 OPE.
The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2016). The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The charity has taken advantage of the provisions in the SORP for charities applying FRS 102 Update Bulletin 1 not to prepare a Statement of Cash Flows.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, [modified to include the revaluation of freehold properties and to include investment properties and certain financial instruments at fair value]. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.
Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors or grantors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.
Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the charity has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.
Legacies are recognised on receipt or otherwise if the charity has been notified of an impending distribution, the amount is known, and receipt is expected. If the amount is not known, the legacy is treated as a contingent asset.
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.
Expenditure is recognised on an accrual 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 generating funds comprise the costs associated with attracting voluntary income and the costs of trading for fundraising purposes including the charity's shop.
Charitable expenditure comprises those costs incurred by the charity in the delivery of its activities and services or 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.
Support costs are those costs incurred directly in support of expenditure on the objects of the charity and include project management.
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 only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measures at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans, which are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
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.
Investment powers and policy
Under the Memorandum and Articles of Association, the charity has the power to invest in any way the trustees wish. The trustees, having regard to the liquidity requirements of operating the charity and to the reserves policy have operated a policy of keeping available funds in an interest bearing deposit account.
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.
Grants receivable
Software Costs
Governance costs includes payments to the independent examiners of £3,660 (2024- £5,472) for examination fees.
No trustee was remunerated for their services or were reimbursed any expenses.
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
No employee is allocated entirely to governance; an assessment of part of each employee's involvement in governance has been used as the basis for determining the above apportionment of costs.
The remuneration of key management personnel was as follows:
The charity's activities fall within the exemptions afforded by the provisions of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988. Accordingly, there is no taxation charge in these accounts.
The 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 include donations and grants from a variety of sources and they enable the charity to pursue its general charitable activities:
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:
New Futures Project is a company limited by guarantee and accordingly does not have a share capital.
Every member of the company undertakes to contribute such amount as may be required not exceeding £10 to the assets of the charitable company in the event of its being wound up while he or she is a member, or within one year after he or she ceases to be a member.