The trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2023.
The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the accounts and comply with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2016).
Our Aims
We aim to
deliver significant, improved, and lasting impact and outcomes for local people who are in need and experiencing inequalities; and
enable the development and provision of services which provide a significant return on investment and value for money.
Our Values and Approach
We believe we are stronger together; more responsive, inclusive, and innovative. Member organisations share common values, trust, and transparency. Our approach values and respects our shared knowledge, learning, experience, and expertise. These are utilised with our ideas, resources, diversity and commitment.
Membership is a reciprocal process with members contributing to the partnership as well as benefitting from it. The consortium is an opportunity to develop a collective voice and lead strategic discussions. Co-support is available in an open, confidential forum. Members gain potential to take on new work and co-deliver. Our collaborative approach creates greater impact and strengthens our voice and contribution.
Objectives
We work together:
To strengthen our members and the VCSE through capacity building and shared learning to enable growth and improve provision and outcomes
To lead on and participate in initiatives that improve collaboration, co-operation and partnership, and share expertise, experience and resources
To support and enable communities to realise their capacity and capability, to influence and improve outcomes and services
To champion and demonstrate the vital contribution of the VCSE sector to tackling inequalities and delivering effective and lasting change through improved outcomes for individuals and communities, working with key strategic partners, including commissioners
To embed the learning from our work and build on it, to extend and diversify funding and income generation to support service delivery and improved outcomes.
The trustees have given due regard to guidance issued by the Charity Commission in deciding what activities the charity should undertake in line with our Articles of Association.
Review of the period
This year, Reaching People has continued to deliver effectively on several large projects for which it received funding. These included Moneywise Plus, Leadership, Health+ and Foodbank+ as well as a number of smaller projects such as Vaccine Confidence, Refurb IT, the Environmental project and acting as a Kickstart Gateway. We have also taken on a Food Bank coordination role and administered the Household Support Grants for Leicester City Council.
During the year Reaching People employed 19 staff directly, many of whom are part time. This includes one staff member who was seconded to a member organisation through the Kickstart scheme. Our full-time equivalent staffing during the year was 10. Our total income for the current trading year is £1,375,816.
Our members are diverse covering health, information and advice, training, housing, homelessness, youth work and equality. Members are also diverse in terms of their size and income reflecting the spread of the VCSEs work and the needs of our communities. During the year we had 32 member organisations with an aggregate turnover of around £259 million enabling us to reach the people in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland in most need.
Activity and projects
We have:
1. Strengthened our members and the VCSE organisations through capacity building and shared learning to enable growth and improve provision and outcomes
We delivered a range of free, innovative, high quality, locally designed leadership training opportunities to individuals from the sector (including those new to it, volunteers, aspiring leaders, a coaching programme, a regular CEO forum, trustee network and the Community Connector Programme). Through training, the individuals attending are able to build their own skills and capacity for growth as well as that of their organisations. They share learning and improve opportunities for sector beneficiaries.
We have shared our learning from delivering health literacy training and increasing awareness to improve the health literacy skills of patients and latterly staff. We are a capacity builder for the Good Things Foundation, and we supported their national digital project by delivering and supporting webinars on improving digital skills across communities.
We have facilitated knowledge sharing and coordination across the partnership of 22 food banks to enable improved outcomes across the network and offered a range of training and support for the food banks on fundraising, mental health first aid and modern day slavery.
Through the implementation of strong performance and quality systems, delivery partners were strengthened to overachieve on the project targets on Moneywise Plus.
2. Led on and participated in initiatives that improve collaboration, co-operation and partnership, and shared expertise, experience and resources
We continued our focus on digital inclusion during the year, with our IT refurbishment project (Refurb IT), providing access to IT equipment and data to those otherwise unable to afford it across and beyond the Reaching People partnership.
As a gateway for the Government Kickstart scheme, we continued to support member organisations supporting young people, providing training opportunities as well as valuable work experience.
Through the foodbank coordination we have led the development of a shared thinking and collaborative approach to tackling food inequality in the city.
Through the leadership programme we have trained 26 staff who are Aspiring Leaders or new to management in 15 city and 11 county organisations. This is a foundational 8 week course and is supported by mentors and the delivery of a project at the end of the programme. We have set up a trustee network that has brought together 18 Trustees from 16 city based charities and 2 county based. There have been facilitated discussions exploring issues as diverse as the role of the Trustees; boundaries, power and authority, and the Chair and CEO relationship and how to make it work.
3. Supported and enabled communities to realise their capacity and capability, to influence and improve outcomes and services
Towards the end of the year, in March, we began our ABCD Community Connector Programme, which is based on the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach. Over 10 months, 19 people have been trained, 13 from organisations based in the city and 6 from the county, building the skills and confidence of place based staff and volunteers to ensure that they can share a multitude of tools and techniques to actively engage and support the community of place in its own development. It’s a committed group focused on spreading the importance of creating and developing community champions.
Through our Health + work we have supported 142 people, 12 GPs surgeries and 48 community groups to improve their digital capability to engage with and use services and access health information.
We have provided advice, guidance and practical support to each of the 22 food bank network members and facilitated opportunities to share learning across the network through meetings, exchange visits and joint learning sessions. We continue to deliver benefits advice to foodbank users through our Foodbank Plus project.
Through Moneywise Plus we supported 301 new participants and helped 288 reach their employment or education goals. Its IT donation scheme, enabling better digital outcomes for people, was a finalist in the Furnley House, Environmental Project of the Year in the Leicestershire Community Champions Awards 2022.
4. Championed and demonstrated the vital contribution of the VCSE sector to tackling inequalities and delivering effective and lasting change through improved outcomes for individuals and communities, working with key strategic partners, including commissioners
Moneywise Plus (MWP), one of our flagship projects continued to support clients who joined the project.
Over 80% of the people Health Plus supported reported a positive return when we asked them whether our digital companions increased their digital skills confidence. The presentation of this evidence to the Integrated Care Board led to the current extension of the Health Plus project. Reaching People played a key role on the Public Health Community and Well-being Champions board and was instrumental in setting up the city VCSE Alliance.
Through the coordination of the Emergency Food Partnership Reaching People has established strong links with local MP and councillor leads on the issue of food security.
The Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) take a keen interest in our Refurb IT project. The project has been promoted to the business sector to increase awareness of the issue of digital inclusion, the impact we’d like to achieve through partnership with them and the VCSE sector.
The Leadership Programme has created the space to network and to share and embed good practice across the sector. We have held a range of seminars that have informed and supported dialogue with individuals and organisations from health, statutory authorities, as well as commissioners, funders and the corporate sector to benefit from a shared understanding of the needs within communities and the wider VCSE.
5. Embedded the learning from our work
During the year the outcomes of new projects were captured in outcomes reports. These reports are available on our website www.reachingpeople.co.uk and were used immediately to influence and secure extension funding and access new funds.
The support to people accessing advice services in food banks continued and led to a further extension of that project with additional funding to run the project into 2023 coming from Leicester City Public Health.
Our IT refurbishment project, based on learning from Moneywise Plus has continued, funded by the LLEP.
In October 2022, the Health Plus Project Manager presented a national seminar on our work for Health Literacy Month at the Health Literacy UK steering Group’s virtual conference. From July 2023, our Health Plus project was extended with funding provided by the Leicester City Better Care Fund through the NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (ICB). This extension supports digital inclusion for patients to access primary care services and NHS information and widens our delivery to community groups and surgery staff. Health Plus delivered a stakeholder event and shared our learning with the participating GP surgeries and ICB members and we embedded learning from this event into the Health Plus extension project. We listened to stakeholder feedback delivering small group sessions and lowering the age to 18 and then again to 16.
An evaluation was completed of our Moneywise Plus project and a learning event held with representatives from VCSE organisations, the National Lottery and the LLEP. This learning has informed the development of new projects and funding bids.
The Leadership Programme, continuously reflects on the learning from its programmes, embedding the learning in its courses.
Review of the finances and reserves
The results for the year ended 31 March 2023 are shown in the Statement of Financial Activities on page 12 and the position of the Charity as at 31 March 2023 is shown on the Balance Sheet on page 14.
There has been a small decrease in turnover as the Kickstart programme came to an end during the year, however trustees are confident that the financial model in place has enabled Reaching People to reach the people in most need.
The staff team remains relatively small and continues to use specialist external support where opportunities arise and need a quick turn-around, for example report writing. Sub-contracted arrangements with external consultants and with partner members are used for functions such as leadership training, report writing, proof reading, project delivery and facilitation. Staff are also directly employed to deliver specific projects giving Reaching People direct lines of accountability to the funders and ensuring that Reaching People maintains the appropriate quality assurance and risk management for projects delivered by member organisations on behalf of Reaching People.
Previously, designated funds were identified for use in the development of partnership opportunities including bid writing, management, and infrastructure development. This year these funds were not needed as some of the bids written during the previous year were successful and new bids written during the year were managed within the income generated.
Reaching People is a real living wage employer and the pension contribution for staff is set at 5%. For this financial year several projects continue to be delivered through membership organisations by way of Service Level Agreements.
Reserves Policy
The Trustees review the reserves policy not less than annually to ensure that all relevant risk areas are included in accordance with guidance issued by the Charity Commission. Thus, the relevant risks included are the impact of a loss of funding, and the potential impact of restructuring costs and liabilities required to downsize the organisation in an orderly manner, if an income reduction was anticipated.
The trustees’ current policy is to maintain reserves to meet its objectives:
· to pay for one-time, non-recurring expenses that build capacity, research and development and bidding expertise/capacity and staff development or investment in infrastructure
· to cover three to six months operating costs for use to cover any short-term funding issues
· to cover the cost of redundancy payments in the event of loss of contract(s), premises and utility costs etc.
This policy requires that free and unrestricted reserves are maintained at a level that would ensure Reaching People’s core activities could be maintained in the short to medium term in the event of a substantial drop in funding. The trustees consider that reserves at this level will ensure that they will be able to continue the Charity’s current activities while consideration is given to ways in which additional funds may be raised. This cover will help fund running costs and provide adequate working capital.
The board carefully considers the Charity’s commitments, taking into account their inherent risks and the activities generally. It monitors, on an on-going basis, the fund balances available relative to its financial plans and to the meeting of its objectives in both the medium and longer term.
Reserves Cover
The total reserves funds of the Charity at 31 March 2023 are £174,922. This is made up of:
· General unrestricted reserves: £20,000.
· In accordance with our reserves policy Designated Funds of £25,000 are set aside for three to six months operating costs and the balance of £117,780 is set aside for future business development.
· Restricted Funds: £12,142. Most of our projects fall within Restricted Funds.
Risk management
The trustees have assessed the major risks to which the charity is exposed and are satisfied that systems are in place to mitigate exposure to major risks.
The board regularly reviews the risks that the organisation faces and identifies the actions that need to be carried out over the year to either eliminate the risk, control and reduce the risk, or accept the risk. The trustees are satisfied that policies and procedures covering all the main areas of risk are in place and applied and a new process this year identifying Trustee leads for specific policies has been adopted.
Future Strategy and Plans
Trustees are confident that Reaching People’s current strategic plans, informed by our learning and expertise and partner and member organisations engagement, are effective in bringing organisations together and delivering services to more people with higher levels of need. Our approach to a small core staffing resource and diversification of funding through a range of funding bids is also key to future sustainability for Reaching People and the support we provide to our member organisations and thus our communities.
We will continue to focus on ensuring our key projects are delivered effectively and efficiently with lasting results. We will also continue to learn from our own and others practice with the aim of extending our reach and influence over the coming year. Moneywise Plus was extended until June 2023 and in October 2023 we were successful in securing UK Shared Prosperity Funds (UKSPF) to continue some of the financial and digital inclusion aspects of Moneywise Plus. Our leadership programme has been extended until March 2024. We have secured additional funding from the Better Care Fund (through the Integrated Care Board) to extend Health Plus until February 2024. We have secured funding from the Garment and Textile Workers Trust to set up two affordable food projects in areas with no local food aid creating a support centre for the community in these areas.
Constitution
Leicestershire Voluntary Sector Resource Agency (LVSRA) is a registered charity and is incorporated as a company limited by guarantee, registered in England. The charity trades as Reaching People following its merger with Reaching People in June 2013. LVSRA is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association which are on public file at Companies House and available at the registered office. The extent of each voting member's liability in the event of a winding up is limited to £10.
The trustees, who are also the directors for the purpose of company law, and who served during the year were:
Method of appointment or election of trustees
Trustees are recruited as independent individuals and from Voluntary and Community organisations operating in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland who are members of Reaching People.
No trustee received any remuneration for services as a member of the Board of trustees or had any beneficial interest in any contract with the charity during the year. Travel or other expenses incurred in discharge of the trustees’ duty are made available.
Organisational structure and decision making
The Board is responsible for all decisions by LVSRA Trading as Reaching People. Ruth Rigby was appointed directly by LVSRA as the CEO in April 2022. She has since retired in July 2023. Trustees, staff and members wish her well in her retirement and thank her very much for her dedicated leadership and action on behalf of Reaching People. In agreement with the Board, the two most senior staff, Finance Manager, Sarah Richards, and Moneywise Plus project Manager, Sangeeta Patel, have taken over as Joint Acting CEOs. Reaching People is also supported with a part time office manager. During the year, other staff working on the Moneywise Plus project directly employed by Reaching People covered the functions of project management, administration, finance support and project ambassadors. The manager and administrator for the Leadership project left Reaching People in the autumn 2023. The opportunity was taken to review the direction of the Leadership project prior to recruitment leading to an extension of the project by the funder.
In accordance with the company's articles, a resolution proposing that Thomas Mayfield BA ACA 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 Leicestershire Voluntary Sector Resource Agency 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 Leicestershire Voluntary Sector Resource Agency (the ‘charity’) for the year ended 31 March 2023 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet, the statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
In our opinion, the financial statements:
Basis for opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
Other information
The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 require us to report to you if, in our opinion:
the information given in the financial statements is inconsistent in any material respect with the trustees' report; or
sufficient accounting records have not been kept; or
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records; or
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.
As explained more fully in the statement of trustees' responsibilities, the trustees, who are also the directors of the charity for the purpose of company law, are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
We have been appointed as auditor under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and report in accordance with the Act and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, is detailed below.
The objectives of our audit are to identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements due to fraud or error; to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding the assessed risks of material misstatement due to fraud or error; and to respond appropriately to those risks. Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that material misstatements in the financial statements may not be detected, even though the audit is properly planned and performed in accordance with the ISAs (UK).
In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:
We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks applicable to the Charity and the sector in which it operates. We determined that the following laws and regulations were most significant: the Companies Act 2006, the UK Corporate Governance Code and UK corporate taxation laws and all applicable charity laws and regulations.
We obtained an understanding of how the Charity is complying with those legal and regulatory frameworks by making inquiries to the management. We corroborated our inquiries through our review of board minutes and papers provided to the Directors.
We assessed the susceptibility of the Charity’s financial statements to material misstatement, including how fraud might occur. Audit procedures performed by the engagement team included:
identifying and assessing the design effectiveness of controls management has in place to prevent and detect fraud;
understanding how those charged with governance considered and addressed the potential for override of controls or other inappropriate influence over the financial reporting process;
challenging assumptions and judgments made by management in its significant accounting estimates;
identifying and testing journal entries, in particular any journal entries posted with unusual account combinations; and
assessing the extent of compliance with the relevant laws and regulations.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the charity’s trustees, as a body, in accordance with part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity's trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charity’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
Thomas Mayfield BA ACA is eligible for appointment as auditor of the charity by virtue of its eligibility for appointment as auditor of a company under section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.
designated
designated
Other income
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.
All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
Leicestershire Voluntary Sector Resource Agency is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is First Floor, 42 Tower Street, Leicester, LE1 6WT.
The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2016). The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, [modified to include the revaluation of freehold properties and to include investment properties and certain financial instruments at fair value]. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.
Incoming resources made available for specific purposes as declared by the donor have been treated as restricted funds. Expenditure for those purposes is charged to the fund together with a fair allocation of overhead and support costs.
Unrestricted funds are donations and other incoming resources receivable or generated for the objects of the charitable company without further specified purpose and are available as general funds.
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.
All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all costs related to the category.
Support costs are those costs incurred directly in support of expenditure and the objects of the charity. Governance costs are those incurred in connection with administration of the charity and compliance, with constitutional and statutory requirements
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:
At each reporting end date, the charity reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).
Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.
The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measures at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans, which are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
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.
In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.
Grants receivable
Other income
Membership
Moneywise Plus Management Income
Charitable Expenditure Unrestricted
Charitable Expenditure Restricted
Equipment & maintenance expenses
Stationery & office expenses
Telephone
Travel & subsistence
General charitable expenditure
Moneywise Plus Partner costs
Project costs
Advertising
Project consultancy costs
Premises costs
Insurance
Sundry expenses
Bank charges
Governance costs includes payments to the auditors of £8,400 (2022- £8,400).
None of the trustees (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration during the year. Trustees were reimbursed £0 in total for travelling expenses (2022- £0).
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
In 2022 the total wage costs includes a sum of £32,054 paid to Vista (a member organisation) for the secondment of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Those figures include irrecoverable VAT of £5,342. Furthermore, the figure includes costs of £1,400 (2022: £2,500) paid to an external consultant.
No employee received remuneration amounting to more than £60,000 in either year.
The charity is exempt from tax on income and gains falling within section 505 of the Taxes Act 1988 or section 252 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to the extent that these are applied to its charitable objects.
Leasehold property and fixtures and fittings with no carrying value have now been eliminated from the accounts with all disposals accounted for.
This process has no material effect on the accounts.
Incoming resources
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Income
Expenditure
Income
Expenditure
Income
Designated reserve
This amount has been set aside to cover the work of the organisation in the event that funding should cease. This is set to cover approximately three-six months running costs. This amount may vary annually depending on business development.
Funds designated for future business development
This amount has been set aside by the Board of Trustees for future business development.
The remuneration of key management personnel is as follows.
CALS
Elizabeth Chahal a trustee of Leicestershire Voluntary Sector Resource Agency trading as Reaching People, is also in a position of influence at CALS a member of the Charity.
During the year the charity charged membership fees of £528. We were supplied with invoiced services from CALS to the value of £58,718. The outstanding supplier balance on the purchase ledger at the 31 March 2023 was £11,346.
The Centre Project
Eric Waweru a trustee of Leicestershire Voluntary Sector Resource Agency trading as Reaching People, is also in a position of influence at The Centre Project a member of the Charity.
During the year the charity charged membership fees of £70 to The Centre Project. There were no invoiced services. All amounts are settled in line with normal operating requirements, with no extended terms of credit provided.
Associate Members
The following trustees were associate members of Reaching People and were charged membership fees as follows:
Jenny Hand £240
Mandy Wardle-McLeish £72
Jenny Hand a trustee of Leicestershire Voluntary Sector Resource Agency trading as Reaching People, is also a trustee of the Leicestershire and Rutland Community Foundation (LRCF). During the year LRCF received £110,000 (including fees for services) to manage the Reaching People Environmental Fund.
The charity had no debt during the year.