The trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 October 2025.
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 charity's objects are:
(i) The relief of people affected by blindness, partial sight or other disabling diseases of the eye.
(ii) The provision in the interests of social welfare of recreational and educational facilities for such people.
(iii) The relief in cases of financial distress of such people or of their dependants or of the dependants of deceased people.
(iv) The promotion of research into the causes and treatment of all diseases on the terms that the results are published.
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 the future activities.
Operation of the charity
Coventry Resource Centre for the Blind, now operating as Coventry Vision Hub (CVH), continued to operate with dedicated support of trustees of whom three offered regular days in leadership positions: Kenneth Taylor (chair), Anthony Fossey (financial management) and Julian Ballinger (safety and compliance). Other trustees volunteered in varying roles within the organisation, including strategic planning as well as day-to-day involvement with service users during weekly activities.
The trustee board comprised:
Julian Ballinger
Paul Brophy (appointed 3 July 2025)
Anthony Fossey FCCA
Mark Galvin
Patricia Griffiths BEM (Co-founder)
Matthew Horspool
Kenneth Taylor OBE (Chair)
Erica Young (appointed 3 July 2025)
Helen Young
The core management team of the charity comprised Hugh Sorrill, Chief Executive Officer, Tony Fossey and Ken Taylor.
The staff team remained largely steady in the financial year and comprised:
Hugh Sorrill (Chief Executive Officer)
Christopher Norman (Activities & Volunteers Manager)
Johanna Dickie (Fundraising & Development Manager)
Heather Cooper (Receptionist)
Gillian Coulson (Financial Administrator)
Carole Gowlett (Volunteer Receptionist)
Karen Jones (Outreach Officer)
Victoria Kenny (Housekeeper & Receptionist)
Claire-Louise Norman (Community Fundraiser) (contract expired 11th February 2025)
Karl Stafford (Transport Co-ordinator)
The charity would not be able to function without its tireless and compassionate volunteers who ensure that the daily activities run smoothly, are appealing and useful, and take place in an atmosphere of fun, care, and community. At the end of the year the charity was pleased to have 132 active volunteers.
Summary of the Year
Rebranding
In July 2025, following an extensive consultation with stakeholders and the involvement of an outside consultant, the charity rebranded as Coventry Vision Hub with the strap line ‘Support for People with Sight Loss’. Coventry Resource Centre for the Blind remains the legal name, however it had become evident over a number of years that the word ‘blind’, which is often misunderstood to mean no sight at all, was putting off people with varying degrees of sight loss from reaching out for support. The new brand is shorter and in three words aims to capture the essence of the charity’s objectives. It has been universally well received and has provided an opportunity to reintroduce CVH’s work to the wider community. Staff are no longer hearing from new service users that they thought the charity was not for them.
Preventative Support Grant
Coventry Vision Hub continued to receive the Preventative Support Grant from Coventry City Council and Coventry & Warwickshire Integrated Care Board, which supports a portion of the charity’s work, especially in providing casework, undertaking outreach and supporting activity development. Although due to reach the end of its three-year duration in March, budget discussions at the council and then restructuring at the ICB led to the grant being extended until March 2027 giving it a full five years.
Casework funded for the most part by the grant is a major pole of the charity’s activity. Staff undertook over 300 individual cases for service users ranging from advice on and support to complete benefits applications to intercessions with utility companies, from setting up individual technical support sessions to referrals to outside agencies – and anything and everything in between. The resolutions we help achieve can have transformative effects for our service users, especially when making sure they have the benefits they are entitled to.
Our Outreach Officer conducted 76 events resulting in more than 160 direct engagements – those who either took information about the charity for others or themselves and/or arranged for further support from CVH.
New intake increased the numbers on the charity’s books by almost 19 per cent in the year to 472. CVH is aware that this falls short of comparator organisations in other cities and is working to ensure that as many visually impaired people as possible are aware of the charity and that they know to turn to us when they need us.
Group Activities
CVH operated around 40 hours of groups activities each week during the year. Activities are roughly divided into four areas: skills, hobbies, exercise and social.
Skills activities are designed to help people manage their sight loss better, however they also help people to remain connected with modern world with more and more services going online.
CVH runs three IT sessions each week in which service users supported by volunteers learn how to use a PC with inbuilt accessibility features, specialise software packages and/or practical adaptations such as high-contrast or large button keyboards; some people come simply to get volunteer support to help with emails or other projects.
Devices Workshop runs twice a week providing peer support to use mobile phones and other specialist technologies for visually impaired people.
In this financial year and in part of the next, IT sessions and Devices Workshop benefitted from a substantial grant provided by Globals Make Some Noise.
Braille classes provide one-to-one tuition in braille reading and writing from beginners to intermediate. The group is led by experienced braille teachers and supported by expert volunteers.
Hobby activities offer the opportunity to take part in a diverse range of rewarding pastimes and use volunteers to help visually impaired people overcome any barriers.
Creative Writing remains a strong group led by an experienced tutor that allows people to express themselves in writing. Volunteer scribes help group members get their creative thoughts down on paper. A performance of pieces written by members took place in May 2025 as part of a new writing festival at a local theatre to warm reviews. The group tutor ran a workshop about the group, its benefits and how it works, at the annual Visionary conference of local sight loss charities in September.
The Music Group, and its performance incarnation Visibly Sound, is an inclusive music group with both singers and instrumentalists. They rehearse weekly and often perform at fundraising events, in concerts and for other community groups around Coventry and the surrounding area.
The Craft Group found a new leader during the year who is bringing new energy and drive to this active, but relaxed and chatty group. New work by the group decorates various activity spaces at the charity. Members can undertake a group or individual project as they wish, with or without volunteer support.
CVH’s Allotment Club is based at our plot about half a mile away from the Hub. The allotment is an exemplar for them to create an outdoor space that is accessible to visually impaired people, with raised beds, high-contrast path edging, brightly coloured installations and audio signals to allow better navigation. The group is run by highly experienced and knowledgeable volunteers who provide a consistently enriching environment that allows people who love gardening and vegetable growing to stay in touch with the soil.
Sight loss often causes loss of confidence in going out, so volunteer-supported or adapted exercise activities are extremely important to help with visual impaired people’s physical and mental wellbeing. Almost all the groups were started at the request of our beneficiaries.
CVH operates two walking groups, the second due to additional demand. Both groups remain well attended and highly valued. Members go with volunteers, as companions or guides, to walk around the local park at whatever pace they choose before having refreshments together in the park café.
T’ai Chi is – can be – a gentle martial art form, ideal for improving core strength to help prevent against falls, and to improve mindfulness. It is well suited to adaptation for people with sometimes limited mobility.
Showdown is a sort of hybrid between air hockey and table tennis. It is a VI-inclusive table sport where all players are blindfolded and the ball is audible. It is a popular game in many parts of Europe but much less known in the UK. CVH was fortunate to receive a table as part of the legacy of the IBSA World Games in Birmingham in 2023 and it has since become an extremely popular activity at the Hub, attracting both younger and older players. A general group session operates once a week during the day with additional evening sessions several times a week either for causal play or for team training. The Coventry Comets Showdown team takes part in national tournaments, and members of the team also attended international tournaments during the year.
The Bowls group is highly competitive and meets at a community centre in winter and in this year at an established bowling club in summer. The group is consistently popular and appeals to players across the age ranges.
Yoga is one of the longest-standing physical exercise opportunities offered at the Hub and continues to be popular offering a more intense level of exercise, although adapted to the needs of its group members.
During the year, CVH also trialled more intensive PT classes including cardio exercises and weight training. It remains to be seen if they will become a permanent part of offer.
All our activities have a vital social element to them: simply being in the same room as people with similar challenges has significant benefit.
Monday Club remains one of our strongest activity groups, with around 20 people meeting each week for a coffee morning with invited speakers, armchair exercises, entertainers and sometimes just a natter and a quiz. The group appeals particularly to older members of the community and for many represents the only occasion in the week when they go out.
For more than eight years, CVH and the local theatre have collaborated in a number of ways. A group from the Hub attends each production at the theatre preceded by a touch tour during which visual elements of the play are explained and the people can get up ton stage and understand the set, costumes and props. This greatly enriches the theatrical experience for visually impaired audience members.
Other social activities, including outings and fundraisers took place during the year.
Transport
Being able to provide a transport service to the Hub for users who live in Coventry is essential to allow them access the charity. This is especially true for those in the older age brackets. Our longstanding minibus service is supported by trained volunteer drivers. In this financial year there were two minibuses operating. Funding was secured for third, brand new vehicle, which was ordered in September and will go into operation January 2026.
Coventry Talking Newspaper
Outlook the talking newspaper for Coventry, which is sent out on USB and available as a podcast, reaches around 450 people each week and is a vital communication resource for many, especially elderly, people with a visual impairment. The number of people accessing it as a podcast and via their smart speaker continues to grow every year.
Charity Shops
At the start of the financial year, CVH operated two charity shops, one in Bedworth and one at the centre in Earlsdon. Both have made significant contributions to the charity since they opened. However, after review, the Trustees felt that the level of income being derived from the Bedworth shop was not sufficient for the effort required to operate it, and decided in early December 2024 to exercise the lease’s break clause and to close the shop, which it did in June 2025.
Rentals
The charity operates an HMO of nine rooms in a part of its premises that were once a care home: the rooms were full across most of the year, with only short gaps between tenancies. The HMO is an important income stream for CVH.
Grants
CVH is extremely grateful to the following charitable trusts and foundations for their valuable support in the last financial year:
Coventry City Council/Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board
Globals Make Some Noise
Harry Payne Trust
Coventry General Charities
Bernard Sunley Foundation
EH Smith Charitable Trust
WPH Foundation
CCC CovConnects Device Bank
Coop Helping Hearts Community Fund
Edgar E Lawley Charity
DMF Ellis Charitable Trust
FC Stokes Trust
Percy Bilton Charity
Eveson Trust
Beatrice Laing Trust
Ulverscroft Foundation
The Trustees have examined the charity's reserves in the light of the main risks to the organisation and future plans. They have established a policy whereby the free reserves, being general funds not committed or invested in tangible fixed assets, should be approximately six months operating expenditure. This level of reserves is needed to meet the working capital requirements of the charity and to ensure that the charity could continue for a year whilst further funding was obtained. At 31 October 2025 the free reserves after designations were £177,428 which is considered sufficient.
The charity is a company limited by guarantee, as defined by the Companies Act 2006. The company is controlled by its governing document, a deed of trust.
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:
Trustees are appointed by the existing trustees.
New trustees undergo an orientation day to brief them on: their legal obligations under charity and company law, the Charity Commissions guidance on the public benefit, and inform them of the content of the Memorandum and Articles of Association, the committee and decision-making processes, the business plan and recent financial performance of the charity. During the induction day they meet key employees and other trustees. Trustees are encouraged to attend appropriate external training events where these will facilitate the undertaking of the role.
The Trustees report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
I report to the trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Coventry Resource Centre for the Blind (the charity) for the year ended 31 October 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.
Coventry Resource Centre for the Blind is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is 33 Earlsdon Avenue, Coventry, West Midlands, CV5 6TH.
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 issued in October 2019 (FRS 102)". The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The charity has taken advantage of the provisions in the SORP for charities not to prepare a statement of cash flows.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The fair value of the investment portion of the Charity's freehold property cannot be measured reliably without undue cost or effort and therefore is accounted for on the basis outlined in 1.6. 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.
Clothing and other items donated for resale through the charity shops are included as incoming resources within activities for generating funds when they are sold.
Rental income is included when receivable.
Expenditure is recognised on an accrual basis as a liability is incurred. The charity is not currently registered for VAT.
All costs are allocated between the expenditure categories 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 consistent with the use of resources.
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:
Freehold land is not depreciated.
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).
Stocks are stated at the lower of cost and estimated selling price less costs to complete and sell. Cost comprises direct materials and, where applicable, direct labour costs and those overheads that have been incurred in bringing the stocks to their present location and condition. Items held for distribution at no or nominal consideration are measured the lower of replacement cost and cost.
Net realisable value is the estimated selling price less all estimated costs of completion and costs to be incurred in marketing, selling and distribution.
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.
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes.
The carrying value of land included in land and buildings comprises:
The long-term loans are secured by fixed charges over freehold property.
During the year CVH received £56,460 (2024 - £38,559) under a combined Preventative Support Grant from Coventry City Council and the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB). The grant is to provide support to visually-impaired people in Coventry to live more independently. This is delivered through ongoing help to people in several areas and includes an ongoing outreach campaign in the local community, to help extend access. Regular two-way communication and reporting demonstrate our obligations are met to the satisfaction of the grant-funding bodies
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 unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.
There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2024 - none).