Phoenix Community & Youth Project - Charities report

REGISTERED COMPANY NUMBER: 07898625 (England and Wales)

REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 1152481

Report of the Trustees and

Unaudited Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 January 2026

for

Phoenix Community & Youth Project

Page

Report of the Trustees

1

to

6

Independent Examiner's Report

7

Statement of Financial Activities

8

Balance Sheet

9

to

10

Notes to the Financial Statements

11

to

16

This is the fourteenth Annual Report of Phoenix Community & Youth Project, more commonly known as The Phoenix Project. Since its inception on 5 January 2012, the Company has been registered as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and, in 2013, became a registered charity, No. 1152481.

The Phoenix Project was established due to the Government's austerity measures, which resulted in Sefton Council having to make savings of £44 Million in the financial year 2011/12 and further savings in every year since.

The Phoenix Project is now well-established within the North Sefton area, where it is based, and is regularly contacted by schools, colleges, Career Connect, children's homes, voluntary organisations and different departments within Sefton Council, including Social Care; Virtual School; the Early Intervention Project; Aiming High; and the Youth Offending Service to make referrals to us and to seek our expertise in a variety of areas.

We are also becoming better known across the rest of the Sefton Metropolitan area and hope to exploit opportunities for the Phoenix Project to expand specific aspects of its work further afield over the coming years, particularly the delivery of the Government's Youth Trailblazer Programme and other Government replacement ESF funded projects.

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

Objectives and aims

The aims and objectives of the Project, set out in our Memorandum of Articles, are:

1. to act as a resource for young people up to the age of 25, providing support, assistance and organising programmes of physical, educational and other activities as a means of advancing life;

2. helping young people by developing capacities, skills, and capabilities to enable them to participate in society as independent, mature, and responsible individuals;

3. advancing education and relieving unemployment;

4. providing recreational and leisure time activity in the interests of social welfare for all people living in the area, regardless of their age, sexual orientation, gender, race, disability or social and economic circumstances.

We are now into our second year at Unit 5, Shakespeare Centre, Shakespeare Street, Southport, PR8 5AB. The move has helped with attracting young people from across all the wards of Southport, as well as young people travelling from Birkdale, Ainsdale, Formby, and even as far as Maghull, to use our service.

Kew Ward, where we are based, has eight Lower Super Output Areas (LSOA's), five of which are in the lowest 30% nationally. Dukes Ward has two LSOA's within the lowest 10% nationally and Cambridge Ward has one LSOA in the lowest 20% of the Government's Multiple Index of Deprivation. All three of our main wards covered have a higher than national average Teenage Conception rate, based on current market research and community profiling.

We continue to focus more on the needs of young people and the community as a whole identified through community profiling and through our referral partners, whilst keeping abreast of regional and national trends and approaches, helping us to keep relevant and innovative.

Public benefit

The trustees are aware of the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit in The Advancement of Education for the Public Benefit and have had regard to it in the administration of the Project.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

Charitable activities

Phoenix has gone from strength to strength during the past twelve months; we have continued to deliver on the Government initiative called Multiply; our funding has come from the Liverpool City Region, through WEA and Sefton Council, although the funding will end this year.

Multiply is about reintroducing people to maths and can be for employed or unemployed local residents who don't currently have a Level 2 qualification. This funding is allowing us to expand into online support across the whole Liverpool City Region.

There is a continually growing need in the area for supporting young people and wider community members who are either Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) or pre- NEET. We secured short-term funding for The Progress Partnership (TPP) from the Liverpool City Region through a grant from the VOLA Consortium.

We have since secured funding for another year for TPP and we secured a third year of funding in April as we envisage that this is still an area of development and growth for the project long-term.

There are no other organisations in the area offering this service. Our partnership with Pathways 2 Phoenix ended when Pathways 2 Phoenix was liquidated. Our disability projects have continued to increase membership and we have continued to offer an excellent service to the young people, which has been made possible through the funding we have received to develop it.

Fundraising Activities

We have had mixed success in our fundraising efforts during the year, most of which has come in order to help deliver projects based on need, now that we have moved away from chasing funding, which we originally did in order to get the project established and recognised in the field. However, as predicted eight years ago, it has become increasingly difficult with many more bids being written due to the high number of rejections being received, so we have done exceptionally well to raise as much as we have.

We once again reviewed our fundraising successes and failures at a Trustee meeting, and we identified that nothing had changed from the previous year; we were still being successful with some funding bids but we were actually being turned down by more funders than we were securing funding from. Once again, our investigation as to why this was happening came to the conclusion that we were still writing really good quality bids but found that we had much more competition than in previous years, which was due to deepening cuts to Local Authority funding meaning that many more VCF organisations have been set up, chasing increasingly less funding available.

We decided, once again, to review our three-year funding strategy to reflect this downturn in available grant funding; to bring forward other funding opportunities; and to explore new avenues and funding streams. This also meant revisiting our Organisational Development Plan as they are both intrinsically linked to each other in terms of successfully achieving our development plan, depending largely on securing the funding identified.

It is extremely important for us to get the balance right between securing the restricted funds needed to meet the identified needs of the community, and unrestricted free reserves that will ensure that we can be flexible to respond to an immediate need or to contribute towards core costs that are difficult to secure through funding bids.

It has been extremely difficult to secure unrestricted funding this year, with the ticket sales from the Community Lottery being a source, which is very small indeed. We need to be able to secure enough reserves in order to be able to manage for a period of three months in the ever more likely event of having problems in securing funding. Since we have different end dates for different funders, it is unlikely that all our funding for salaries will have ended all at the same time as we will have found further funding for key posts.

Our membership of the VOLA Consortium continues to be worthwhile as it is likely VOLA will secure Government or Liverpool City Region funding that we will be able to apply for as part of the partnership.

Project Manager's report

I can't believe that I am writing my Project Manager's report for the fourteenth annual report. My, how time flies and what a very difficult and challenging year it's been!

We had no direct Government funding for our NEET Project and had to secure grant funding from charitable organisations and The Progress Partnership. We also delivered our final funding of the Multiply Project, funded through WEA and Sefton Adult Education Service as the Government has ceased funding for Multiply.

Staffing on our NEET project has stayed consistent throughout the year, which has had a positive impact on the young people, with some great results in terms securing employment and further education.

I have continued to have the opportunity of working with a great group of committed trustees. I have also worked with many other people who have given me some wonderful support and advice along the way, most notably the VOLA team and Fundraising experts at Sefton CVS who have always been on the end of the phone, emails and support meetings. The wider CVS team and I have also continued to have great support from all the staff at the Community Foundation for Merseyside.

The Project produced impressive outcomes through our Personal Development and Employability Project which operated over five days per week for young people who are Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET), aged 16-25. We have secured funding from the following charitable organisations: VOLA; Sefton Council; Police and Crime Commissioner; The Workers Educational Association (WEA); the National Lottery Community Fund; and The John Moores Foundation. We also had some carry over funding from VOLA from the previous year.

As predicted in last year's report, it has continued to be difficult to raise funds this year, with more applications being declined than in previous years. This is not just a problem for us; it is a wider issue of the difficulties being faced by all VCF organisations with an increasing number of organisations chasing a decreasing amount of funding, and we are finding we are continuing to being offered less money that we ask for and have to secure further funding to continue the project or reduce the length of the project.

Our two year funded project with the counselling organisation, Enlighten with Care, to provide a Mental Health First Aid Support Worker came to an end during the year. Despite this, we were lucky enough to continue to work with them through their provision of counselling students to the Project four days a week, instead of two.

2026/2027 and future years will continue in a similar vein as there doesn't seem to be any likelihood of increased Government funding and therefore more and more VCF organisations will continue to chase an ever decreasing amount of funding.

FUTURE PLANS

At the start of the new financial year, we had the opportunity to sit down with the trustees, young people and other service users to look at what we achieved during 2025/26; what we wanted to achieve as an organisation during 2026/27 and beyond; put them into a plan; and set about achieving them.

During 2025/26, we continued to take a balanced approach to what was needed in order to meet the organisational development plan for the year, continuing with a targeted approach to our fundraising and continuing to identify community needs and wants through our comprehensive Community Profile and Youth Forum.

With all this in mind, we once again revisited the business plan, financial predictions and our aims and objectives to ensure they were working documents that were fit for purpose, which they were.

Our aims and objectives of the Project, set out in our Memorandum of Articles, remained unchanged and are to act as a resource for young people up to the age of 25, providing support, assistance and organising programmes of physical, educational and other activities as a means of:

1. advancing life and helping young people by developing capacities and skills, capabilities to enable them to participate in society as independent, mature and responsible individuals;

2. advancing education;

3. relieving unemployment;

4. providing recreational and leisure time activity in the interests of social welfare for all people living in the area, regardless of their age, sexual orientation, gender, race, disability or social and economic circumstances.

We agreed that these aims and objectives were still fit for purpose, based on our priorities for the future, with the last paragraph sufficient to encompass potential expansion into working with the wider community, in particular older people and Eastern European families as both these groups have an extremely high representation in Southport.

Our meetings and consultations with the service users, staff, and the trustees identified the need to achieve the following in order to give us stability and growth:

1. redevelop our three and five year development plan;

2. redevelop our three-year fundraising plan for sustainability purposes;

3. explore further provision for older members of the community;

4. recruit and train volunteers to alleviate reliance on funding staff salaries, although we didn't find the time to do this;

5. continue to secure real life training opportunities for the NEET young people, making them more employable;

6. continue to explore other sources of funding such as sponsorship from local businesses. Once again, we didn't manage to find time to explore this fully.

It was agreed that we still needed two development plans and that both needed revisiting. The first, for three years, that takes into account the new building at the Shakespeare Centre meets our project needs. The second,a more flexible five year plan, was to include any new ventures.

All in all, we haven't achieved much identified in the Project Development Plan this year, but hope to make huge steps next year.

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Governing document

The charity is controlled by its governing document, a deed of trust, and constitutes a limited company, limited by guarantee, as defined by the Companies Act 2006.

Decision making

We have held regular trustee meetings during the year and a General Meeting was held for members of the community who might have a vested interest in the project on 9th January 2026, during which members were elected into roles.

Chair: Nicola Hives (formerly Williams)

Treasurer: Tracey Fiddler

Secretary: Emma Lynch (resigned 9.3.26)

The trustees reflect the local business/population and each of them gives up their time for the same reason, which is to provide an excellent youth and community provision in the area. The trustees meet bi-monthly; however the Chair and Treasurer meet more regularly with the Project Manager, Ray Moore, in order to support the fundraising to ensure the success of the Project.

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

Registered Company number

07898625 (England and Wales)

Registered Charity number

1152481

Registered office

Unit 5, Shakespeare Centre

Shakespeare Street

Southport

Merseyside

PR8 5AB

Trustees

Mrs N J Hives

Ms T Fiddler

Ms E L Lynch (resigned 9.3.26)

M Kenworthy (resigned 16.1.26)

S Moore (appointed 16.3.26)

F A McShane Secretary (resigned 17.7.25)

Independent Examiner

V & R Accountancy Services Limited

Chartered Certified Accountants

Cropton House

Three Tuns Lane

Formby

Merseyside

L37 4AQ

STATEMENT OF TRUSTEES' RESPONSIBILITIES

The trustees (who are also the directors of Phoenix Community & Youth Project for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Report of the Trustees and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice) including Financial Reporting Standard 102 "The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland".

Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law, the trustees have elected to prepare the financial statements in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards and applicable law).

Under company law the trustees must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that period. In preparing those 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;

-	prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in business.

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

This report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions of Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

Approved by order of the board of trustees on 16 October 2026 and signed on its behalf by:

Mrs N J Hives - Trustee

Independent examiner's report to the trustees of Phoenix Community & Youth Project ('the Company')

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Company for the year ended 31 January 2026.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity's trustees of the Company (and also its directors for the purposes of company law) you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 ('the 2006 Act').

Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the Company are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of your charity's accounts as carried out under Section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 ('the 2011 Act'). In carrying out my examination I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under Section 145(5) (b) of the 2011 Act.

Independent examiner's statement

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:

1.	accounting records were not kept in respect of the Company as required by Section 386 of the 2006 Act; or

2.	the accounts do not accord with those records; or

3.	the accounts do not comply with the accounting requirements of Section 396 of the 2006 Act other than any requirement that the accounts give a true and fair view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or

4.

the accounts 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 accounts 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 accounts to be reached.

G J Rummens FCCA

V & R Accountancy Services Limited

Chartered Certified Accountants

Cropton House

Three Tuns Lane

Formby

Merseyside

L37 4AQ

16 October 2026

31.1.26

31.1.25

Unrestricted

Restricted

Total

fund

funds

Notes

£

INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM

Donations and legacies

2

65

-

65

175

Charitable activities

Youth Project

6,163

73,485

79,648

138,691

Total

6,228

73,485

79,713

138,866

EXPENDITURE ON

Charitable activities

3

Youth Project

10,776

74,427

85,203

134,475

NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE)

(4,548

)

(942

)

(5,490

)

4,391

RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS

Total funds brought forward

6,650

5,667

12,317

7,926

TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD

2,102

4,725

6,827

12,317

31.1.26

31.1.25

Unrestricted

Restricted

Total

fund

funds

Notes

£

FIXED ASSETS

Tangible assets

8

-

2,448

-

CURRENT ASSETS

Debtors

9

-

2,397

-

Cash at bank

3,029

842

3,871

14,530

3,029

3,239

6,268

14,530

CREDITORS

Amounts falling due within one year

10

(927

)

(962

)

(1,889

)

(2,213

)

NET CURRENT ASSETS

2,102

2,277

4,379

12,317

TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT
LIABILITIES

2,102

4,725

6,827

12,317

NET ASSETS

2,102

4,725

6,827

12,317

FUNDS

11

Unrestricted funds

2,102

6,650

Restricted funds

4,725

5,667

TOTAL FUNDS

6,827

12,317

The charitable company is entitled to exemption from audit under Section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 for the year ended 31 January 2026.

The members have not required the company to obtain an audit of its financial statements for the year ended 31 January 2026 in accordance with Section 476 of the Companies Act 2006.

The trustees acknowledge their responsibilities for

(a)	ensuring that the charitable company keeps accounting records that comply with Sections 386 and 387 of the Companies Act 2006 and

(b)

preparing financial statements which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company as at the end of each financial year and of its surplus or deficit for each financial year in accordance with the requirements of Sections 394 and 395 and which otherwise comply with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 relating to financial statements, so far as applicable to the charitable company.

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to charitable companies subject to the small companies regime.

The financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees and authorised for issue on 16 October 2026 and were signed on its behalf by:

N J Hives - Trustee

1.	ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of preparing the financial statements

The financial statements of the charitable company, which is a public benefit entity under FRS 102, have been prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102) '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) (effective 1 January 2019)', Financial Reporting Standard 102 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' and the Companies Act 2006. The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention.

Income

All income is recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities once the charity has entitlement to the funds, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.

Expenditure

Liabilities are recognised as expenditure as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to that expenditure, 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 accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all cost related to the category. Where costs cannot be directly attributed to particular headings they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources.

Tangible fixed assets

Depreciation is provided at the following annual rates in order to write off each asset over its estimated useful life.

Computer equipment

-

Straight line over 4 years

Taxation

The charity is exempt from corporation tax on its charitable activities.

Fund accounting

Unrestricted funds can be used in accordance with the charitable objectives at the discretion of the trustees.

Restricted funds can only be used for particular restricted purposes within the objects of the charity. Restrictions arise when specified by the donor or when funds are raised for particular restricted purposes.

Further explanation of the nature and purpose of each fund is included in the notes to the financial statements.

Pension costs and other post-retirement benefits

The charitable company operates a defined contribution pension scheme. Contributions payable to the charitable company's pension scheme are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities in the period to which they relate.

2.	DONATIONS AND LEGACIES

31.1.26

31.1.25

£

Donations and fundraising

65

175

3.	CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES COSTS

Direct

Support

Costs

costs

Totals

£

Youth Project

84,169

1,034

85,203

4.	NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE)

Net income/(expenditure) is stated after charging/(crediting):

31.1.26

31.1.25

£

Depreciation - owned assets

816

-

5.	TRUSTEES' REMUNERATION AND BENEFITS

There were no trustees' remuneration or other benefits for the year ended 31 January 2026 nor for the year ended 31 January 2025.

Trustees' expenses

There were no trustees' expenses paid for the year ended 31 January 2026 nor for the year ended 31 January 2025.

6.	STAFF COSTS

31.1.26

31.1.25

£

Wages and salaries

58,039

80,736

Other pension costs

905

1,263

58,944

81,999

The average monthly number of employees during the year was as follows:

31.1.26

31.1.25

Project staff

2

3

No employees received emoluments in excess of £60,000.

7.	COMPARATIVES FOR THE STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

Unrestricted

Restricted

Total

fund

funds

£

INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM

Donations and legacies

175

-

175

Charitable activities

Youth Project

63,646

75,045

138,691

Total

63,821

75,045

138,866

EXPENDITURE ON

Charitable activities

Youth Project

61,534

72,941

134,475

NET INCOME

2,287

2,104

4,391

RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS

Total funds brought forward

4,363

3,563

7,926

TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD

6,650

5,667

12,317

8.	TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

Computer

equipment

£

COST

At 1 February 2025

1,080

Additions

3,264

At 31 January 2026

4,344

DEPRECIATION

At 1 February 2025

1,080

Charge for year

816

At 31 January 2026

1,896

NET BOOK VALUE

At 31 January 2026

2,448

At 31 January 2025

-

9.	DEBTORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR

31.1.26

31.1.25

£

Other debtors

2,397

-

10.	CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR

31.1.26

31.1.25

£

Social security and other taxes

927

1,373

Accruals and deferred income

962

840

1,889

2,213

11.	MOVEMENT IN FUNDS

Net

movement

At

At 1.2.25

in funds

31.1.26

£

Unrestricted funds

General fund

6,650

(4,548

)

2,102

Restricted funds

VOLA Consortium

5,667

(2,753

)

2,914

Sefton Council - Multiply

-

1,811

5,667

(942

)

4,725

TOTAL FUNDS

12,317

(5,490

)

6,827

Net movement in funds, included in the above are as follows:

Incoming

Resources

Movement

resources

expended

in funds

£

Unrestricted funds

General fund

6,228

(10,776

)

(4,548

)

Restricted funds

Police Crime Commissioner

1,800

(1,800

)

-

VOLA Consortium

27,131

(29,884

)

(2,753

)

John Moores Foundation

10,000

(10,000

)

-

Sefton Council - Multiply

11,516

(9,705

)

1,811

Workers Educational Association

4,940

(4,940

)

-

Lottery Community Fund

18,098

(18,098

)

-

73,485

(74,427

)

(942

)

TOTAL FUNDS

79,713

(85,203

)

(5,490

)

Comparatives for movement in funds

Net

movement

At

At 1.2.24

in funds

31.1.25

£

Unrestricted fund

4,363

2,287

6,650

Restricted funds

VOLA Consortium

-

5,667

LCR Cares - Digital Inclusion Fund

3,563

(3,563

)

-

3,563

2,104

5,667

TOTAL FUNDS

7,926

4,391

12,317

Comparative net movement in funds included in the above are as follows:

Incoming

Resources

Movement

resources

expended

in funds

£

Unrestricted fund

63,821

(61,534

)

2,287

Restricted funds

Liverpool One

15,000

(15,000

)

-

VOLA Consortium

32,795

(27,128

)

5,667

The Workers' Educational Association

18,575

(18,575

)

-

LCR Cares - Digital Inclusion Fund

-

(3,563

)

(3,563

)

Sefton Council - Multiply

8,675

(8,675

)

-

75,045

(72,941

)

2,104

TOTAL FUNDS

138,866

(134,475

)

4,391

A current year 12 months and prior year 12 months combined position is as follows:

Net

movement

At

At 1.2.24

in funds

31.1.26

£

Unrestricted fund

4,363

(2,261

)

2,102

Restricted funds

VOLA Consortium

-

2,914

LCR Cares - Digital Inclusion Fund

3,563

(3,563

)

-

Sefton Council - Multiply

-

1,811

3,563

1,162

4,725

TOTAL FUNDS

7,926

(1,099

)

6,827

Net movement in funds included in the above are as follows:

Incoming

Resources

Movement

resources

expended

in funds

£

Unrestricted fund

70,049

(72,310

)

(2,261

)

Restricted funds

Liverpool One

15,000

(15,000

)

-

Police Crime Commissioner

1,800

(1,800

)

-

VOLA Consortium

59,926

(57,012

)

2,914

The Workers' Educational Association

18,575

(18,575

)

-

John Moores Foundation

10,000

(10,000

)

-

LCR Cares - Digital Inclusion Fund

-

(3,563

)

(3,563

)

Sefton Council - Multiply

20,191

(18,380

)

1,811

Workers Educational Association

4,940

(4,940

)

-

Lottery Community Fund

18,098

(18,098

)

-

148,530

(147,368

)

1,162

TOTAL FUNDS

218,579

(219,678

)

(1,099

)

12.	RELATED PARTY DISCLOSURES

There were no related party transactions for the year ended 31 January 2026.