Trustees’ Report for the Year Ended 31 March 2026
Chair’s Report – WCTS Annual Statement 2025-2026
I am pleased to present this year’s Chair’s Report, reflecting on a year of positive change for WCTS. We continue to strategically pursue our mission to support disadvantaged and marginalised women and girls to recover from experiences of abuse violence, neglect, trauma and mental ill health.
Alongside this, we refreshed our organisational values to better reflect who we are and what we stand for:
Empowerment – We listen, encourage, and uplift women and girls to recognise their strengths and believe in their potential. We model confidence, celebrate progress, and support each person in taking steps toward the future they choose.
Compassion – We create safe, supportive spaces by showing empathy, kindness, and respect. We respond to challenges with understanding and help each other grow through care and connection.
Inclusion – We welcome everyone with openness and respect. We seek out diverse perspectives, ensure all voices are heard, and work together to build a community where everyone feels they belong.
This year we saw major change following the resignation of our longstanding CEO, Tessa Denham. As part of her departure, we sought new opportunities and this comes in the shape of joining Inspire North as a subsidiary in October 2025. This followed due diligence and extensive talks, and all agreed this was the best move for the future sustainability of WCTS, enabling the organisation to flourish.
This collaboration means the central services function of WCTS is now undertaken by Inspire North with Ruth Kettle, taking the reigns as the CEO. Kira Moxon-Lumb is overseeing the operational side of the organisation as the Director of Operations with the day-to-day service delivery managed by the Head of Service and her team,
Following the UK Supreme Court ruling around the legal definition of a woman in April 2025, we have continued to open our service to all women, including those who identify as such. We have done so to reflect the modern expansion of traditional binary gender categories and ensure our service reflects the reality of individual lives. We will continue to explore how to sustain a service that feels safe for females who have experienced gender-based violence and expand this sense of safety to more people who have experienced violence and discrimination around issues of sex and gender in the areas we work in.
The economic and political landscape continues to pose challenges that we will face head on, and with the news continuing to bring crisis and suffering into our everyday awareness, the work our service does is more essential than ever to ensure the wellbeing of women and girls.
As ever, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone — employees, volunteers, partners, and supporters — who have worked tirelessly to make a positive difference in the lives of our beneficiaries. I am also delighted to note that one ex-service user served on the Board of Trustees during the year offering a unique perspective from their experiences which was very much appreciated.
I am excited to see what our new partnership with Inspire North brings, and how we can work together to improve the lives for Women and Girls across Yorkshire and Humberside.
Thank you for being part of this journey.
Jackie Whittle
WCTS Board Chair
September 2026
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)".
Our objectives are to:
Provide advice and guidance, counselling and psychotherapeutic services, including self-help support, for women and girls of all ages (and their families where needed), who are suffering from physical and/or psychological challenges and stress living in North, South and West Yorkshire in addition to Humberside.
Advance the education of the public, psychotherapists and mental health workers, in the causes, effects, treatment and reduction of physical and/or psychological challenges and stress/ for women and girls.
We operate mainly in and around Leeds, particularly in areas suffering from economic deprivation, supporting women and girls experiencing multiple disadvantage. We are always actively looking for opportunities to expand our geographical reach and are also keen to open conversations with other charities about what greater collaboration could look like. Any discussion would be values-led, focused on impact, and rooted in a shared commitment to delivering life-changing support for the communities we serve.
Ultimately, our aim is to support marginalised and vulnerable women to recover from the impact of trauma and adverse experiences. Our goal is to improve their life chances by:
reducing their physical and/or psychological challenges and stress;
increasing their self-esteem, confidence and resilience;
empowering them with the skills necessary to navigate difficult or challenging situations and relationships.
Helping women achieve these goals takes time, and we do this by providing access to specialised long-term trauma-informed interventions. This can be for up to two years using psychotherapeutic models that are woman-centered. We also offer specific intersectional methodologies which take account of both gender and wider power structures in society. This ensures we can seek to mitigate the potential impact of severe and/or long-term adversity on development, capacity to form and sustain healthy relationships and develop resilience. Crucially, we provide a service that tolerates disrupted engagement, which is essential where issues of trust are critical, or where women are carers for children and or elders. We adapt to the needs of individuals by using texts and phone calls to carry out therapeutic work, when necessary, delivering therapy at the service users’ preferred pace, and by providing practitioners with the same or different cultural identity.
When appropriate specialised services for our client target group are not generally available, we aim to develop and pilot services to meet these needs. We are now successfully delivering outreach services to serve particularly marginalised and isolated women and have extended our age range to include 16- and 17-year-olds (supported by funding from the Pilgrim Trust). Thanks to the support of Leeds Community Foundation’s Strategic Grant, we were able to establish a new Wellbeing Group for unpaid carers, providing vital therapeutic support and meeting a key unmet need for this group.
Our work remains vitally important in supporting vulnerable women and girls. The ONS 2025 report showed that 3.2 million women experienced domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking in that year, including 1 in 3 pregnant women. 35% of black women who experience domestic abuse are victimised more than once, compared to 26% of white women and black women are also more likely to experience severe forms of abuse, such as strangulation, suffocation, and threats with a weapon. Our services recognise the intersectional impact of abuse and offer specialised holistic support to survivors which meets their needs fully.
We continue to work with around 12 external clinical supervisors during the year. These experienced women offer additional thinking and warmth to our work. Helping us to ‘see’ the women we work with more clearly particularly through the strong dynamic women bring into the work as a result of multiple traumatic experiences.
WCTS offers uniquely safe, confidential and culturally sensitive spaces where women can speak openly and fully about their experiences, feelings and thoughts. Crucially, we’re providing something women and girls usually can’t access in any other area of their lives. In a society where we are understanding more about the prevalence, insidiousness and impacts of for example racism, misogyny and multi-generational poverty, this is vital to mental health.
Unsurprisingly, in the face of growing demand and rising operational costs, and despite the commitment and generosity of partners, our funding limits the number of women and girls we can help. Consequently, our general counselling and therapy service in Leeds can only work with around 85 women at any time. Demand for our services continues to rise year on year with demand outstripping capacity, and, although we were awarded a grant from Garfield Weston which has provided support to help cover our core organisational costs, the harsh reality is that within our current budgets we can only help a few of the many women who need and seek support.
As part of our efforts to deliver the best possible service, we review our objectives and activities annually with ex- service users, staff and at Board level. These reviews look at the benefits we provide to women, and where we might achieve more. We refer to, and comply with, guidance from the Charity Commission on public benefit in these reviews, and whenever we plan future work.
The trustees have paid due regard to guidance issued by the Charity Commission in deciding what activities the charity should undertake.
Structure, Governance and Management
WCTS has operated continuously since 1982, initially as an Industrial and Provident Society with charitable objectives, and then as a charitable company limited by guarantee from 2011. WCTS is governed by articles of association.
On 20 October 2025 Inspire North (Community Benefit Society No. 9518) became the sole member of WCTS. Inspire provides governance oversight through formal governance arrangements, including a collaboration agreement and scheme of delegation which outlines the delegation agreement between the Board and the Senior Leadership Team. Day-to-day operations are managed by the Head of Service under the strategic oversight of Inspire North.
The Board comprises of between five and twelve trustees. We have a new Trustee Recruitment Policy in place to give clear guidance on this process. During this year, we have undertaken a Skill and Expertise exercise and compiled a matrix to identify gaps. This has led to recruitment of 2 new Trustees in June 2026.
Each year, one third of all trustees are retired and can stand for re-election. Charity Commission guidance suggests an overall limit of no longer than 9 years. One trustee, Cr Ann Walker, has remained a trustee since her appointment in 2011, due to her extensive clinical knowledge and expertise. Ann will be stepping down from Board within the next year following recruitment in June 2026.
Potential trustees are required to undertake obligatory checks including a DBS, references, UK right to work and a check on the Insolvency Register to ensure they can act as a Trustee. Trustees receive a full induction including induction meetings with our CEO, Chair, other members of Inspire North’s SLT and the Head of Service. They are provided with an Induction Pack which includes our new Board Code of Conduct, Charity Commission guidance and Mandatory Training. They also receive a copy of our Articles as well as our Declaration of Conflict-of-Interest Policy and requested to complete our skills and expertise matrix, code of conduct, declaration of interest form and declaration of their ability to act as a Trustee.
Since joining Inspire North in October, the Strategic Governance Lead has worked on ensuring board policies are in place, and all required information is signed and recorded. Going forward we look to do work around the Charity Commission Code of Governance and further recruitment to the Board. We have launched a new Declaration of Conflict-of-Interest Policy, and all trustees have added any interests to the WCTS Register of Interests. We have agreed the appropriate mandatory training for all trustees and set up monitoring of compliance.
The Board met seven times in the year and received assurance on financial, people, growth and operational performance as well as key indicators such as clinical service / therapy outcomes, complaints, and wellbeing. In December 2025 we made the decision to move to quarterly formal board meetings with at least one away day per year.
None of the trustees (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration or benefits from the charity during the year
A scheme of delegation (reviewed annually) is also in place, and day-to-day responsibility for the provision of services rests with the Head of Service, supported by the Clinical Lead with the strategic oversight of Inspire North the Head of Service is responsible for ensuring WCTS delivers the specified services, and that key performance indicators are met. The Clinical Lead has responsibility for the framework of clinical services. The management team meets fortnightly and comprises of the Head of Service, Clinical Lead and Service Managers.
We regularly review our employee remuneration to make sure we always attract and retain the best possible employees. WCTS is guided by local, regional and national policy and strategy, and informed by input and feedback from service users.
As mentioned above, demand for our service remains exceptionally high. During 2025/26 we recorded:
438 referrals received
48 women on the waiting list
94% of referrals accepted
26-week average waiting time for commencement of support.
75% of all service users identified as coming from areas of deprivation or were on a low income. 16% identified as disabled, 13% as LGBTQ+ and 18% as neurodivergent. 49% were parents and 23% were aged between 16 and 25 years old. 3% of service users identified as being of South Asian heritage, 4% as black and 12% of mixed heritage.
Women reported significant improvements in their wellbeing including:
81% of clients who came with suicidal thoughts saw a reduction of this risk to zero or "low "
79% of clients who came with self-harming behaviours saw a reduction of this to zero or "low "
93% improved in their coping strategies
85% were able to access practical help
85% improved their wellbeing
94% improved in their mental health symptoms
95% improved in their day-to-day functioning.
100% reported increased self-understanding
Feedback from women on the impacts of counselling is also excellent. 79% of women felt they understand other people better; 88% reported an improvement in their relationships with others; and 84% felt they have changed how they deal with problems.
During the year we continued to offer the open access service, specialised services for pregnant women and new mothers. We have continued to identify and establish therapy offers in key venues in ‘deprived’ areas of Leeds, alongside our city centre premises. Whilst remaining a deeply relational service, we also offer remote therapy sessions, as well as in-person, to support accessibility.
Almost all of women and girls we support have mental health problems in the ‘clinical population’. Before therapy, the average clinical score of the women we help is stable at 21 equating to Moderately Severe mental health problems. Over 50% of women have needs normally only addressed in secondary services, but the women who use our Service can find it hard to access, engage with or recover within more mainstream services because of their complex needs and particularly as a consequence of gender-based violence experiences, and / or are excluded from them by limited accessibility.
Case Study (Anonymised)
Referral Information:
Z is a 30-year-old white woman who was referred to the service from the NHS Talking Therapies service for support in relation to high levels of anxiety alongside the impact of managing long term health conditions including Fibromyalgia, Postural Tachycardia Syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Chronic Fatigue and Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder.
Assessment:
During her assessment, Z reported that she has been struggling with depression and anxiety for most of her life. However, she had experienced a decline in her Mental Health around 3 years ago when her physical health
deteriorated and she was unable to continue working. Z reported that she has been struggling to come to terms with the impact that her physical health has had on her life.
She identified a pattern of overthinking and labelled herself as “selfish” and “lazy” when she was unable to do things due to the pain and fatigue she experienced, contributing to her feelings of anxiety.
Z described herself as an all or nothing type of person which led to a sense of low self-worth and thoughts of “what is the point in being here”. This was most common when she was struggling with the impact of her physical health and unable to do the things she used to do. She said that this left her feeling low in motivation to engage in things such as socialising or her hobbies.
Z identified that her goals for therapy were to address her patterns of overthinking to help reduce her experiences of anxiety and find ways to help her feel more motivated.
Therapeutic Intervention:
Z attended 12 sessions out of the 15 therapy sessions she was offered, having to cancel 3 due to poor physical health.
Over the course of the sessions, Z spoke about her experiences growing up in a family where she, as the older sibling, was expected to care for her younger sister and Mum when her Dad left the family. She reported being labelled as strong and being praised for being this way. We were able to see how this resulted in Z developing expectations of herself to take care of everyone else before herself and push through, even when this negatively impacted on her due to the limitations of her physical health. Z identified a strong inner critic which she described as being like a Dementor from Harry Potter and we began working on ways to strengthen a new inner voice that is more compassionate and supportive.
We made space in our sessions for Z to acknowledge the loss she has experienced in relation to how she lived her life before her health changed as well as the loss of the life she had imagined she might have in the future.
Outcomes:
When we began working towards our ending, Z reported noticing several changes in how she felt. She was more accepting of her health difficulties and able to use pacing to enable her to rest when she needs to, holding back energy rather than engaging in the ‘all or nothing’ pattern of her past. She said this has allowed her to feel more motivated and engage in her hobbies and with friends whilst also recognising her limitations and being more accepting of these.
Z said that her Dementor is much quieter now and she is more able to offer herself compassion and understanding. She said she has changed “I’m lazy” to “I’m resting” and “I’m selfish” to “This is what I need right now and that’s ok.” She said she has noticed a significant reduction in her level of anxiety and a greater sense of peace and contentment in herself.
Z told me that when she had accessed CBT in the past it increased her anxiety and made her feel worse about herself, especially as she felt the approach didn’t take into account the impact of her physical health. She said that having integrative therapy which gave space for talking and reflection as well as strategies for coping that account for the levels of fatigue and pain she experiences has been much more helpful and has led to a greater sense of relief for her.
She said she had been living in the darkness for a long time but now she experiences much brighter days alongside the cloudy ones and she feels much more able to cope.
Client Feedback:
We are always keen to hear about women’s whole experience, the good and not so good. By actively seeking out the views of service users, our services become enriched by both receiving and acting on their feedback. This links back to one of our main values, that of empowerment, by seeking feedback we hope that both the clients and the service become empowered through this relational work.
“This is the best my mental health has been for many years. The therapist was very experienced, kind and thoughtful with my needs.”
“The sessions have allowed me to understand why I feel how I do and have helped me find solutions.”
“Even the people round me like friends have seen an improvement in my behaviour since doing these sessions and I have noticed it myself. I couldn’t have done it without her and she has played a huge part in my life”
"Fantastic service, has really helped me to find the tools already within myself to improve my look on life and how I respond to the things around me."
"I enjoy the counselling as it made me feel like I could deal with my emotions better I felt understood and felt that I could move on from what has happened to me"
Why Our Approach Works
Our support enables women to express and resolve painful experiences, which in turn changes their often-complex attitude towards themselves and others. This vital work reduces psychological distress and mental health challenges and also increases women’s resilience to cope with everyday ups and downs as well as more challenging life events.
Our services are 'trauma-specialised’, taking into account the potential impact of severe and/or long-term adversity on development, resilience, and the capacity to form relationships. They also address the frequent mis-labelling of people with histories of trauma as ‘uncooperative, hard to engage, non-compliant or treatment resistant, needy or aggressive’.
Essential casework support around wider health and social needs enables access to and engagement with counselling, supporting women to use the specialised therapy we offer to maximum benefit – it means they get ‘added value’ from their contact with us which has become even more important with the disproportionate severe impacts of cost of living on women.
Aiming to support women towards the ‘new skills, confidence, independence, security and/or agency’, identifying goals at the beginning of work together and checking in with these regularly (‘Are we talking about the things that matter most to you?’) focuses the work on the changes that are most important to each individual woman.
Our approach is all about responsiveness to individual need and flexibility in understanding individual circumstances. Within a clear psychotherapeutic framework, guided by the BACP's Ethical Framework for Counselling Professions, our focus is on the relationship between service user and therapist, or on relationships with other group members. It’s in the context of these safe, understanding and thoughtfully challenging relationships that real and lasting change takes place.
WCTS employs a wide range of highly skilled counsellors/psychotherapists from different therapeutic modalities, including psychodynamic, humanistic, analytic, Gestalt, person-centered, and creative arts therapies. Every modality acknowledges just how important establishing a sense of safety and trust is before the relationship between client and therapist can foster exploration, learning and change. Caseworkers sit alongside Counsellors to ensure the Service is as accessible as possible. Our receptionists play a vital role in making the service welcoming and accessible to distressed vulnerable women.
Importantly, providing a longer-term therapeutic relationship helps therapy progress at a pace that women with complex trauma histories can manage. It’s significant that many women only gradually feel stable and trusting enough to begin talking in intimate detail about formative life events, and that’s one of the key benefits of long-term therapy like ours. They identify and explore the ongoing impact of these experiences, and, over time, this enables them to make changes in their understanding of themselves and their behaviours. In turn, this helps them begin to make choices that contribute to improving their lives and those of their children, families and communities.
Our service is unique for its special mix of accessibility and long-term support. It’s free, delivered in venues women can reach easily and feel safe in, and personalised to their unique needs, even with some travel, interpreter and childcare support where necessary. It’s also long term, with counselling or psychotherapy lasting up to two years and delivered by fully qualified, accredited and experienced female staff. Both individual and group psychotherapy is offered, and some women complete a period of focused individual work before moving into group work to deepen their explorations of relationship with others. We offer 8-week psychoeducational courses too, designed to help women reflect upon their current difficulties, develop skills and strategies for managing their emotional wellbeing, and build their resilience to life’s ups and downs.
All women accessing this service are unable to access other services to meet their needs i.e. they cannot afford to pay for counselling, they need a female therapist, or they are only able to feel safe enough to speak of their experiences – often years or decades of neglect, sexual or domestic abuse and/or violence – in a women's service. WCTS is a service that recognises their strengths, is compassionate about their challenges, and supports them in their desire and efforts to make changes: together we celebrate them and their achievements, large and small.
We’ve successfully helped women deal with the consequences of fractured families, domestic abuse, children with challenging behaviours, traumatic labours and births, bereavement, and overcoming the negative impacts of aspects of their own childhoods, including multigenerational poverty. Our perinatal work, created within a partnership of seven local organisations, continues to see very positive results within the NHS Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service (LMWS) and supports a joined-up experience for service users.
Wider work
We continue to host the Visible project (www.visibleproject.org.uk) funded by Leeds ICB. Visible accelerates citywide system changes in organisational services’ responses to those with histories of sexual abuse / violence in childhood. This project is funded until March 2027 with an expectation that further funding will be reapplied for beyond this point. We are proud to be connected to this pioneering city-wide initiative to improve services with, and for, adult survivors of child sexual abuse. Visible carries out this work in close partnership with Leeds Involving People. Richard Barber, Director of Visible won the System Transformation and Leadership Award at the West Yorkshire Adversity, Trauma and Resilience Awards in March 2026.
We play a part in the strengthened and coordinated approach to mental health service provision for the women of Leeds through our involvement in key city-wide forums like Forum Central (the Leeds voluntary sector mental health forum), the NHS Perinatal Mental Health Group and the Leeds Strategic Mental Health Partnership.
WCTS works hard to maintain and further diversify its funding base, operating a diverse range of funding streams. Careful financial management means we’re increasingly able to respond flexibly in relation to emerging needs and opportunities – vital in such a complex and volatile operating environment. Incoming resources for the year were
£974,533 (2025: £1,212,156) and expenditure of £1,057,809 (2025: £1,181,308). Net movement of funds is a deficit of £83,276 (2025: surplus of £30,848). The reserves carried forward are £173,766 (2025: £257,042).
Principal funding sources
The largest single funding stream is a contract with Leeds Community Healthcare (for LMWS) of £330,468 (2025:
£480,539) of income. Other contributions are from NHS CCGs which total; £328,896 (2025: £317,527) and from charitable trusts and foundations; £315,469 (2025: £409,599).
The trustees continued to monitor progress against the reserves policy (i.e. that free reserves held by the charity should equate to 25-50% of agreed budgeted expenditure for the subsequent financial year). Budgeted expenditure for 2026/27 is £996,656.
The reserves target is £249,164 to £498,328.
The reserves are needed to meet the working needs of the charity in the event of a significant drop in funding, to maintain provision for redundancy and legal costs or other untoward events. At present the free reserves amount to £76,240 (2025: £245,377) which is below the target level. The Board is continuing to look at ways to build the reserves and has also considered contingency plans in the event of a significant reduction in finances in the short term.
The trustees, who are also the directors for the purpose of company law, and who served during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were:
Potential trustees attend an initial introductory meeting with the Chair and two Board meetings as a guest. New trustees receive an induction pack, which includes Charity Commission guidance ‘The Essential Trustee’ and are invited to attend an induction session with the Chair and Chief Executive. This session covers areas like legal responsibility; the Articles; services; and finances. Board responsibilities are reviewed annually. An experienced Board member mentors and works with each new Board member for up to a year, while a system of formal annual Board appraisals is undertaken biannually.
The Board met seven times in the year and receives regular reports from the Chief Executive, covering financial performance and other key performance indicators such as clinical service / therapy outcomes, complaints, and staff wellbeing.
A scheme of delegation (reviewed annually) is also in place, and day-to-day responsibility for the provision of services rests with the Chief Executive, supported by the Clinical Lead. The Chief Executive is responsible for ensuring WCTS delivers the services specified, and that key performance indicators are met. The Clinical Lead has responsibility for the framework of clinical services. The management teams meet fortnightly and comprise the Chief Executive, Clinical Lead and Services Managers.
We regularly review our employee remuneration and reward packages to make sure we always attract and retain the best possible staff for our work.
WCTS is guided by local, regional and national policy and strategy, and informed by input and feedback from service users.
Risk Management
The trustees have reviewed the major risks to the charity, the risk register is updated as risks change and at least annually. Appropriate risk mitigation strategies are in place, and areas such as health & safety, safeguarding and finance are standing items on Board agendas. Included in its current policies, WCTS has a serious incident policy, a beneficiary confidentiality policy, and child and adult safeguarding policies.
The trustees consider the Chief Executive, the Clinical Lead, and the Operations Manager as key management personnel, in charge of directing and controlling the charity, and running and operating the charity on a day-to-day basis.
The pay of the charity’s key management staff is reviewed annually and may be increased in accordance with national indicators like inflation or average earnings where financially possible and prudent. Remuneration is also benchmarked periodically with charities of a similar size and activity to ensure that it’s fair and in line with that generally paid for similar roles.
In accordance with the company's articles, a resolution proposing that BK Plus Audit Limited be reappointed as auditor of the company will be put at a General Meeting.
The trustees' report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
The trustees, who are also the directors of Women's Counselling and Therapy Service Limited for the purpose of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year.
In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:
- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
- observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
- make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
- state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.
The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Opinion
We have audited the financial statements of Women's Counselling and Therapy Service Limited (the ‘charity’) for the year ended 31 March 2026 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet, the statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
In our opinion, the financial statements:
Basis for opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
Other information
The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of our audit:
the information given in the trustees' report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared, which includes the directors' report prepared for the purposes of company law, is consistent with the financial statements; and
the directors' report included within the trustees' report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charity and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the directors' report included within the trustees' report.
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
certain disclosures of trustees' remuneration specified by law are not made; or
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or
the trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies regime and take advantage of the small companies' exemptions in preparing the trustees' report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.
As explained more fully in the statement of trustees' responsibilities, the trustees, who are also the directors of the charity for the purpose of company law, are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, is detailed below.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.
Other matters
Our approach to identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, was as follows:
The engagement partner ensured that the engagement team collectively had the appropriate competence, capabilities and skills to identify or recognise non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
We identified the laws and regulations applicable to the company through discussions with directors and other management, and from our commercial knowledge and experience of the industry sector;
We focused on specific laws and regulations which we considered may have a direct material effect on the financial statements or the operations of the company, including the Companies Act 2006, taxation legislation and data protection, anti-bribery, employment, environmental and health and safety legislation;
We assessed the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations identified above through making enquiries of management and inspecting legal correspondence; and
Ensured laws and regulations were communicated within the audit team regularly and the team remained alert to instances of non-compliance throughout the audit.
We assessed the susceptibility of the company’s financial statements to material misstatement, including obtaining an understanding of how fraud might occur, by:
Making enquiries of management as to where they considered there was a susceptibility to fraud, their knowledge of actual, suspected and alleged fraud;
Considering the internal controls in place to mitigate risks of fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations; and
Understanding the design of the company’s remuneration policies.
To address the risk of fraud through management bias and override of controls, we;
Performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships;
Tested journal entries to identify unusual transactions
Assessed whether judgements and assumptions made in determining the accounting estimates set out in note 2 were indicative of potential bias; and
Investigated the rationale behind significant or unusual transactions.
In response to the risks of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we designed procedures which included, but were not limited to:
Agreeing financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting documentation;
Reading the minutes of meetings of those charged with governance;
Enquiring of management as to actual and potential litigation and claims; and
Reviewing correspondence with HMRC, relevant regulators and the company’s legal advisors.
There are inherent limitations in our audit procedures described above. The more removed that laws and regulations are from the financial transactions, the less likely it is that we would become aware of non-compliance. Auditing standards also limit the audit procedures required to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations to enquiry of the directors and other management and the inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.
Material misstatements that arise due to fraud can be harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
Women's Counselling and Therapy Service Limited is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is 43 Park Square North, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS1 2NP, England.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006, FRS 102 "The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland" and the Charities SORP "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)". The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. 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, with group support, if required. Inspire North have agreed to support the charity for at least the next 12 months. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.
Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors or grantors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.
Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the charity has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement, and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.
Expenditure is classified by activity. The costs of each activity are made up of the total of direct costs and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each activity. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs which contribute to more than one activity and support costs which are not attributable to a single activity are apportioned between those activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Central staff costs are allocated on the basis of time spent, and depreciation charges are allocated on the portion of the asset’s use.
Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.
Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the statement of financial activities.
Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.
The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.
Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.
Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.
Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.
Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.
Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
Financial liabilities are derecognised when the charity’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.
The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.
Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the charity is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.
Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due.
In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.
Other income
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
The remuneration of key management personnel was as follows:
The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes.
Amounts owed to the parent undertaking are unsecured, interest free and repayable on demand.
Deferred income is included in the financial statements as follows:
The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity in an independently administered fund.
The restricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used.
The unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.
At the reporting end date the charity had outstanding commitments for future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases, which fall due as follows:
There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2025 - none).
The charity had no material debt during the year.
Inspire North, a company registered in England and Wales, is the immediate and ultimate parent company. This is the parent of the smallest and largest group for which consolidated accounts including Womens Counselling and Therapy Service Limited are prepared. In the opinion of the trustees, there is no single ultimate controlling party. The consolidated accounts of Inspire North can be obtained from the charity's registered office: 3 Limewood Way, Leeds, LS14 1AB.