2024-03-31-accounts

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BECOME CHARITY COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693
WORKING NAME: BECOME YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
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Become Charity

Trustees’ Annual Report and Financial Statements

for the Year Ended 31 March 2024

Company no. 2700693 Charity no. 1010518

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Contents
Message from the Chief Executive and Chair	3
Trustees’ Annual Report for the Year Ended 31 March 2024	4
Strategic Report	6
Financial Review	15
Principle Risks and Uncertainties	19
Plans for the Future	20
Structure, Governance and Management	21
Statement of Responsibilities of the Trustees	23
Report of The Independent Auditors to the Members of Become Charity Limited	25
Statement of Financial Activities	29
Statement of Cash Flows	30
Statement of Financial Position	31
Notes to the Financial Statements	32
Reference and Administrative details	42

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Message from the Chief Execu,ve and Chair

The care system has faced some of its biggest challenges this past year as the number of children in care con6nues to rise whilst local authori6es struggle to cope with a lack of foster and residen6al homes, soaring infla6on and budgetary pressures. With the system at crisis point, and children paying the price, the need to deliver meaningful and las6ng change is greater than ever and has con6nued to drive us forward at Become.

Amplifying the voices of care-experienced children and young people is at the heart of our work and this year we've created even more new opportuni6es to make sure these voices are heard. A real highlight was our first Voice Day when we celebrated the contribu6ons young people had made across Become.

In April, we launched our Gone Too Far campaign to keep children in care close to the people and places that ma<er to them. Our young campaigners have had a busy year on the campaign trail, crea6ng a film which they screened in Parliament, and mee6ng with poli6cians, including the Minister for Children and Families, to share the impact of distant moves first-hand.

In December, we were chosen by i News as its Christmas appeal charity partner, giving young people the opportunity to raise awareness of the challenges facing the care system. Hundreds of thousands of people read what they had to say, more than 3,300 donated to the appeal, and the Prime Minister and main party leaders all praised the campaign, placing the need to make care be<er firmly on the public agenda.

We know that reform is urgently needed to enable care-experienced children and young people to unleash their poten6al - a mission which underpins our support services. 1,134 young people have accessed our services this past year with 87% feeling more confident in taking their next steps. We are delighted to have begun suppor6ng young people into employment through our newly launched Propel into Work service.

Building the knowledge and skills of professionals working with care-experienced young people is another way we strive to effect change. With the help of our talented Young Trainers , we’ve trained 58 Personal Advisors, making a tangible difference for those leaving care.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, we want to thank all the individuals, Trusts and Founda6ons, and corporate supporters that have stood shoulder to shoulder with us this year. It's only by working alongside you that our fight for a be<er care system and be<er futures for care-experienced young people can be realised. Together, we are making an impact at a 6me when it’s needed more than ever.

Thank you.

Leslie Morphy OBE Chair of Trustees

Katharine Sacks-Jones Chief Execu6ve

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Trustees’ Annual Report for the Year Ended 31 March 2024

The Trustees present their report (which includes the Strategic Report) and the audited financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2024. The reference and administra6ve informa6on is set out on page 42 of this report.

The aims and objec,ves of Become

Charitable objects:

To promote the care, upbringing and establishment in life of children and young people who are or have been looked aFer or assisted by local authori6es or other public or charitable bodies charged with the care and upbringing of children or who are or have been in the care of foster or adop6ve parents.

https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/1010518/governingdocument

Our vision is that care-experienced people have the same chances as everyone else to live happy, fulfilled lives.

Our mission is to help children in care and young care leavers to believe in themselves and to heal, grow and unleash their poten6al. We work alongside them to make the care system the best it can be.

Ensuring our work delivers our aims

We review our aims, objec6ves, and ac6vi6es each year. This year has been the fourth year of our five-year strategy period (2020 – 2025) and we remain focused on delivering across our four strategic aims: suppor6ng children, improving prac6ce, challenging the system and changing aItudes. Work has already begun on designing our next five-year strategy covering the period 2025 – 2030.

We have con6nued to develop and deliver ambi6ous plans to reach children and young people through online and digital support as well as increasing our outreach and partnership work with other organisa6ons.

We have increased our capacity to support young people, develop professional prac6ce and to work with young people to campaign for change to the care system and to tackle s6gma. We con6nue to build our opera6onal and fundraising capacity to enable us to grow as an effec6ve and sustainable organisa6on able to deliver tangible change for children and young people in the coming years.

We are focused on ensuring we have the most meaningful impact on young people’s lives and have developed and implemented a revised approach to how we measure and report on impact across our strategic aims.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Our values

Honesty

We speak up, for, and alongside children in care and young care leavers. We always act in their best interests. We share a vision and purpose that we convey clearly to others.

Empowerment

We help children in care and young care leavers to be powerful agents of posi6ve change in their own lives, in the care system and in society.

Respect

We listen to care-experienced people and we work in partnership with them to improve the experience of being in care and their life aFer care.

Kindness

We care about the young people we work with and we help the care system to be more like a good parent. We look aFer ourselves and aFer each other so we can be our best for young people.

Op,mism

We are angry about the 6mes when the care system and society let young people down, but are determined, ambi6ous and op6mis6c about our ability to make things be<er.

Strategic aims

Suppor,ng children

We help children in care and young care leavers to believe in themselves and to shape the future they want.

Improving prac,ce

We develop and support the prac6ce of people who work with and care for children in care and young care leavers, so that they are able to do their best for young people.

Challenging the system

We ensure that the voices of children in care and young care leavers are listened to and acted upon – and we hold people and organisa6ons who have power, in and over the care system, to account.

Changing a;tudes

We improve society’s understanding of, and empathy with, children in care and young people and adults who are care-experienced.

How our ac,vi,es deliver public benefit

All our charitable ac6vi6es focus on care-experienced children and young people. We are commi<ed to meaningfully involving young people in every area of our work, wherever possible, including opera6ons and governance. We have had due regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Strategic Report

Achievements and performance

Become delivers a range of services to improve the lives and future life chances of care-experienced children and young people. These include the Care Advice Service , Coaching , Link Up , Propel into Educa"on and, newly launched this year, Propel into Work . Through these services we reached 1,134 children and young people this year (directly and via suppor6ng adults in their lives), up from 983 last year.

We also work to campaign for change and to support young people to par6cipate in policy making. This year young people shared their views, told their story, or fed into our policy and par6cipa6on work 505 6mes to influence change.

In April 2023 we launched our Gone Too Far campaign, which calls for na6onal and local ac6on to prevent children in care being moved far away from their support networks and communi6es and were very pleased that aFer lobbying the Educa6on Select Commi<ee they agreed to hold an inquiry into this issue and children’s social care.

We con6nued to influence the Government’s response to the independent review of children’s social care throughout the year.

Care Advice Service

The Care Advice Service (CAS) provides holis6c informa6on, advice and support for care-experienced children and young people, their loved ones and professionals who support them. We responded to enquiries from 488 children, young people and suppor6ng adults this year. Individuals contacted us from all regions of England, with the majority of enquiries coming from Greater London, followed by the South East, North West, and West Midlands. The service has been offered by freephone and email, and we introduced WhatsApp enquiries to support service accessibility during 2023.

We con6nued to hear from young people with complex issues and who were experiencing isola6on: our longerterm wellbeing support has remained important for these young people. The most common themes and areas of support have related to: general rights and en6tlements of care-experienced children and young people; housing and homelessness and accessing Personal Advisor support.

We have encountered young people facing challenges accessing their rights and en6tlements across the country, including care leavers’ support ending at 21 (rather than 25), obstacles accessing statutory advocacy, and young people being unaware of their rights and en6tlements as care leavers or of their Care Leavers’ Local Offer.

Our CAS team has provided signpos6ng informa6on and onward referrals to statutory services and voluntary and community sector organisa6ons to support access to specialist support. They work closely with Children’s Services and Leaving Care Teams to ensure young people can access the support they are en6tled to. Young people contac6ng the team are able to access other services and opportuni6es within Become.

“I am very thankful for the advice and support that I received [from staff] today. Not only has it provided me with some direc"on, in terms of next steps to take, her approach felt very comfor"ng. I am thankful that I came across the service and will definitely reach out again.”

(Feedback from care-experienced young person contac6ng CAS )

To reach care-experienced young people facing par6cular disadvantage, we delivered in-person Care Advice Surgeries, including at Queen’s Park Job Centre, South London Refugee Associa6on, and we expanded our prison advice surgeries from HMP Pentonville to HMP ISIS. Through monthly prison surgeries, we have advised 15

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

young people on their rights and en6tlements as care leavers, enabling them to access the support they are en6tled to in custody and on release.

“Rasheeda [CAS team] has shown dogged determina"on in suppor"ng the young people in obtaining the help they need. Where there has been a lack of Social Worker or PA support because “they are in Prison and are no longer their responsibility” and a5empts made to close the cases of the young men in our care, Rasheeda ensures this doesn’t happen, that their support and care to the young people is con"nued... [she] makes Social Services and the PA accountable to ensure the best possible support for each young person under the Care Experience System.”

(HMP ISIS staff organising care leavers advice surgeries)

We delivered 16 Rights & En6tlements Workshops reaching 195 young people, and delivered a Young Trainer programme enabling 9 care-experienced young people to become accredited trainers and begin co-delivering these workshops alongside our CAS team.

82% of young people said our Rights and En"tlements Workshops le: them feeling more posi"ve about leaving care.

Link Up Community

This year, we reviewed our Link Up model of weekly virtual meet ups and moved to a new model, with more inperson sessions. The aims of Link Up have con6nued to be suppor6ng care-experienced young people to meet others and feel a sense of community,

This year, we held 14 online Link Ups , and three in-person Link Ups , involving 41 young people. In July, nine young people a<ended an event involving giant games and ac6vi6es, with one young person commen6ng:

“I loved Link Up in person. It was so nice to see everyone and meet new people because some"mes life can get busy, and it's just nice to finally get together to catch up. I always love Link Up in person but I really liked the games and change of venue this "me. I'm just very lucky to be part of such an amazing charity in some small way."

Two further in-person Link Ups were held in February and April 2024, focused on bowling and karaoke, and a life-size Monopoly event. For some young people this was the first 6me they had travelled to London, and all appreciated the opportunity to make connec6ons and enjoy new opportuni6es together:

“I had fun. It was nice to meet new people.”

"[the best part of the day was] having food together and reuni"ng with people I haven't seen for a while.

(Young person a<ending Link Up sessions)

Propel

Our Propel service has developed significantly this year. We have con6nued to offer advice and 1:1 support to care leavers on applying to and preparing for Further and Higher Educa6on through Propel into Educa"on . This support has included iden6fying courses and ins6tu6ons, support applying via UCAS and for Student Finance, advice around local authority support, financial bursaries and grants, and connec6ng young people with dedicated support on campus. We advised and supported 142 young people (directly and via their suppor6ng adults, up from 93 last year) and delivered 15 workshops to 136 young people aged 16-25 on Higher Educa6on, working with partner organisa6ons including Virtual Schools, Local Authority Children’s Social Care Teams, and University Widening Access Teams.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Our Propel webpages, holding informa6on about each ins6tu6on’s offer to care leavers and courses available, plus careers advice, were accessed 26,038 6mes, helping young people to be<er understand the support available to them.

29 young people we supported secured a place at university.

In January, we launched Propel into Work to support care-experienced young people into work and voca6onal opportuni6es, including appren6ceships. Through this we have provided advice to 30 young people and their suppor6ng adults, and intensive 1:1 support to young people on tailoring CVs, searching and applying for jobs, accessing financial support including the appren6ceship bursary, and preparing for star6ng a new role.

We held workshops with employers, and with care-experienced young people early in their careers, to understand what work readiness looks like and what should be included in our Employability Workshops for young people. These workshops are now being developed based on these insights, and will be piloted in Autumn 2024.

Since launching, three young people have already secured paid employment.

“The support with CV wri"ng [was most helpful], especially when I've struggled to put things into wri"ng myself, we've been able to talk things through and get them down in the way I want them. [My support worker] is on top of the follow ups, and it all feels really consistent.”

(Young person supported through Propel into Work )

We’ve also worked with employers to develop and deliver training to help them be<er support care-experienced young people in jobs and appren6ceships.

Coaching

This year we worked with 31 care leavers through our online 121 Coaching offer, suppor6ng young people to iden6fy their personal goals – including around managing their 6me, building confidence, seIng up a business, managing workload, emo6onal wellbeing, and building social networks – and to create and implement their own plans to progress towards these goals. The focus has been on building mo6va6on as well as clarity around goals, ac6on, and self-belief.

In an a<empt to extend our reach and impact, we developed three standalone Group Coaching workshops on Confidence, Goal-seIng, and Time Management, all themes arising from 121 Coaching and that young people felt were founda6onal to being able to thrive. We trialled the first of these before year-end and have several scheduled in 2024. These group workshops will be reviewed using new impact tools and a decision taken around whether and how these are rolled out beyond this pilot. We an6cipate volunteers may be involved in delivery of Group Coaching in the future.

One young person supported through our Coaching programme commented:

“It’s been helpful as it’s supported in shi:ing my perspec"ve in a meaningful way that mo"vates me to take ac"on, whilst s"ll expanding on my own understanding of what’s most important to me.”

(Young person accessing 121 Coaching )

Outreach, in-person delivery and reaching target groups

We delivered more informa6on and advice in-person this year, via advice surgeries and workshops to young people. This has built our understanding of where in-person delivery adds greatest value for young people.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

We iden6fied groups of young people facing par6cular disadvantage, and increased our outreach capacity – through a new Par6cipa6on and Outreach role – to promote our services par6cularly to these groups. Through this targeted outreach and by partnering with specific external organisa6ons, we reached young people with experience of the criminal jus6ce system, in geographic regions with higher numbers of children in and leaving care, and young people who arrived in the UK unaccompanied, and we saw engagement in our services widen to include young people we had previously not reached. We also improved how we capture demographic informa6on about the young people we support, to help us understand who we are reaching and how this changes over 6me.

Young people shaping our services and organisa,on

We involved 23 young people in recruitment processes and shaping Become policies, and our new Senior Outreach and Par6cipa6on Officer is allowing us to engage young people in a broader range of opportuni6es through which young people can shape our services and our new organisa6onal strategy.

Impact

This year we strengthened our Impact Framework for Services and Training delivery. This involved developing Theories of Change, and designing non-intrusive, trauma-informed impact measures for use across our services. These were introduced at different points over the year, and have begun to generate more specific data and insight around the difference made by our Care Advice Service , Coaching , Link Up , Propel into Educa"on and Propel into Work .

Using these impact tools, we know that 94% of Care Advice Line callers said they found our advice and support helpful, and 86% reported knowing more about their rights and en6tlements following our support; within the first three or four sessions, 83% of young people accessing 121 Coaching said they already felt more mo6vated and had achieved a short-term goal they had set, and 80% of young people supported throughout our two Propel services felt more confident about taking their next steps into work or educa6on. Aggrega6ng across the new outcome tools, we can evidence that 87% of the young people we supported across all services felt more confident in taking their next steps.

This coming year we intend to further embed use of these impact tools, develop impact measures for new areas of service development – including employability workshops – and deliver an external evalua6on of our Care Advice Service , to support ongoing service improvement and demonstrate our impact to young people and funders.

Training

We con6nued our increased reach this year, delivering over 80 training sessions (double last year) and reaching 833 professionals from local authori6es, fostering agencies, staff within voluntary and community organisa6ons and mentors (up from 542 last year). We successfully delivered our first training targeted at Trainee and newly qualified Teachers, prison staff, and workers in supported accommoda6on for care leavers.

We delivered training on topics including ‘An Introduc6on to the Rights and En6tlements of Care-Experienced Young People’, ‘Language Ma<ers’ and ‘Suppor6ng Care-Experienced Young People on their Journey to Higher Educa6on’. We also developed and delivered new training 6tles, including Workplaces that Care – Employment Support for Care-Experienced Young People, and Suppor6ng Budge6ng and Finance. Whilst training was primarily delivered virtually, we delivered some in-person training. We also delivered bespoke training and training packages to organisa6ons to deepen knowledge across mul6ple areas. 97% of professionals trained reported the training changing the way they would work with young people.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

“[The training] will really support our confidence in developing a package of support that is relevant to CareExperienced Young People.”

“It has opened up a new way of thinking/approach for me in terms of trauma-experienced young people”

(Training par6cipants)

Through our Young Trainers Programme, we collaborated with care-experienced young people in the design, pilo6ng, delivery and evalua6on of the training we delivered, including our PA Learning Programme.

Personal Advisors Training Programme

This year we completed Cohort two of our accredited Personal Advisor (PA) Learning Programme , which aims to build knowledge and improve prac6ce among PAs who have a crucial role in suppor6ng posi6ve outcomes for care leavers, but for whom there is s6ll no standardized training or qualifica6on. Cohort two involved five Local Authority leaving care teams, and 18 PAs. Of these, 13 (72%) achieved the qualifica6on, a significant improvement on cohort one (29%), supported via addi6onal tutorial support .

We completed our external evalua6on of Cohort 2, which evidenced the programme's impact:

Increased knowledge amongst PAs of complex guidance and legislation relating to the PA role and former Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children, and of Local Authority support;
Increased confidence in navigating the system, advocating for young people’s rights and improved understanding of pathway planning;
Young people supported by participating PAs rated this support as positive, reported an empathetic approach and that their PA meaningfully involves them in planning;
Participants most valued connecting with other PAs, learning from Become’s Trainers and from careexperienced Young Trainers about their lived experience of the care system.

We applied learning from evalua6on to commence Cohort 3, which began during the year. We delivered nine of 10 training units by year end, with many PAs on track to secure the qualifica6on. During 2024/25 we will complete and evaluate Cohort 3, transi6on to delivering our first self-funded PA Programme , with par6cipa6ng Leaving Care Services paying for PA learner places, and explore more scalable delivery models with interested local authori6es.

“I really enjoyed delivering the course. It gave me the chance to interact with PAs in a different context, in ways I never did as a child in care. We had lots of support from Become before we actually got stuck into delivering training. We did prac"ce sessions with each other as Young Trainers, which gave us a chance to get familiar with the content and build our confidence. I was also the first Young Trainer to gain accredited trainer status
from the awarding body. I had to work hard to get that qualifica"on, but I’m so glad I did. There aren’t many opportuni"es where you can get a cer"ficate at the end, and it’s great to have it on my CV.”

(Young Trainer, PA Programme )

Influencing policy

At Become, we are commi<ed to challenging the system and shaping policy to make it the best it can be for children in care and young care leavers. We use our insight and exper6se and our plaTorm to ensure the voices and experiences of young people are at the heart of decision-making and help to improve outcomes and opportuni6es for care-experienced young people.

Despite ongoing instability in Ministerial appointments throughout 2023/24, with yet another change in Minister for Children over the course of the year, the reach of our poli6cal influencing has gone from strength

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

to strength, with more media coverage, par6cularly in mediums that are likely to influence poli6cal discourse, like Radio 4’s Today Programme or the House Magazine, more direct engagement and mee6ngs with poli6cians, more influence over Parliamentary discourse about the care system, and more opportuni6es for careexperienced young people to meet decision-makers.

This year, we launched our Gone Too Far campaign, which calls for na6onal and local ac6on to prevent children in care being moved far away from their local areas and communi6es. This included the publica6on of a policy report and new research, as well as a range of influencing ac6vi6es. Throughout the campaign we have worked closely with our young Gone Too Far campaigners and together we have met two Government Ministers, the Shadow Minister for Children and Families, and the Liberal Democrat Lead on children’s social care to discuss the campaign. The campaign has also been covered in na6onal media, including Channel 4 News twice, has been debated in the House of Lords, been the subject of several Parliamentary Ques6ons, and the campaign film was screened in Parliament where our young campaigners were able to talk more about the impact of this issue and the changes they want to see

We were pleased that we were successful in lobbying the Educa6on Select Commi<ee to hold an inquiry into children’s social care. This was announced in December 2023, following several mee6ngs that we had with Commi<ee members and the Chair of the Commi<ee. Terms of the reference for the inquiry included a number of elements that we had explicitly requested the Commi<ee inves6gate, including a focus on the causes and trends of out-of-area placements. We also developed and promoted a survey for care-experienced young people and shared the findings with the Commi<ee.

At the start of the year, we ran a short Corporate Paren6ng par6cipa6on project which culminated in us taking a young person from the group to share the findings with the Cross-Ministerial Board for Care Leavers which included the Secretary of State for Educa6on, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Cross-Government Ministerial Lead amongst others.

We organise the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Care-Experienced Children and Young People. Through our work, support for the APPG has grown and we now have 11 Parliamentary Officers of the APPG, represen6ng the three main poli6cal par6es in England and members of both the House of Commons and House of Lords. This summer, we carried out an APPG inquiry into the Government’s proposals to extend corporate paren6ng responsibili6es to a range of public sector organisa6ons. In total, we gathered evidence from over 200 individuals or organisa6ons, including over 160 care-experienced young people. We fed this evidence and insight into poli6cians and policy leads at the Department for Educa6on to ensure that reforms are informed and underpinned by the views and voices of care-experienced young people.

We a<ended the three main poli6cal party conferences in 2023 to raise awareness of our key campaigns about instability and the care cliff and throughout the year we produced a range of policy statements, reports, consulta6on responses, and briefings for parliamentarians and others to be<er inform decision makers and influence policy development and prac6ce. This included responding to the Government consulta6ons on social housing reforms, the Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance, on Advocacy services for children and young people, and to Ofsted’s consulta6on on supported accommoda6on. We sent briefings to all 20 MPs selected in the private members bill ballot, asking them to consider doing their Bill on our Gone Too Far campaign and responded to the DfE annual data on children in care in November, sharing our briefing with 119 parliamentarians.

In November, we analysed the government’s annual homelessness sta6s6cs to show there had been a shocking 33% increase in homelessness among young people leaving care over the past four years, and our ‘Se<led at Christmas’ research report con6nued to highlight how many children were facing instability over the Christmas period and this 6me also looked at how many children came into care over this period. We were pleased to see both of these issues picked up in the media and in parliament.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

We con6nued to influence the Government’s reform agenda, taking young people to meet the Children’s Minister on the first anniversary of the Independent Review’s report as part of #ItsOurCare campaign; we also held sessions with young people to inform our submission to the Government consulta6on on the reforms, supported young people to take part in workshops led by Ofsted on their proposed inspec6on framework for supported accommoda6on, and took young people to speak to a Ukrainian Government delega6on including the Ukrainian Minister for Social Policy on the importance of listening to the voices of care-experienced children and young people in reforming their care system.

As part of our commitment to being an evidence-based organisa6on, we moved into Year 2 of our 3-year research partnership with the University of Oxford’s Rees Centre to understand what success means to care leavers. Researchers are working alongside our care-experienced design group named ‘Future of Care’ made up of 12 young people aged 21-25 to co-produce research materials and outputs, gaining insights from a range of stakeholders including local authori6es and other young people. At the end of the project, we will have a new tool that can be<er measure the outcomes for care leavers.

Young people’s par,cipa,on in improving the care system

Our work to improve the care system is delivered alongside young people with experience of care and underpinned by our values. We believe strongly in the exper6se held by care-experienced young people and seek to create opportuni6es where their views can be shared directly with decision makers to improve policy and prac6ce, in ways that are both meaningful and safe.

This year we have grown our capacity to work with more young people and in different ways, and young people shared their views, told their story, or fed into our policy and par6cipa6on work 505 6mes to influence change.

Become The Movement is our growing network of care-experienced children and young people and through our regular newsle<er and WhatsApp broadcast group we share opportuni6es to engage in campaigning for change. We have made sure that their voices have been heard by decision-makers – whether that was arranging opportuni6es for young people to talk directly, or by colla6ng their input to share in briefings and reports. Examples over the past year include:

Being involved in groups focusing on a particular project such as:
The Corporate Parenting group
Our Gone Too Far Youth Campaign Group
Our research group Future of Care which is working with the University of Oxford Rees Centre to develop a tool that can measure what success means to care leavers
Meetings with MPs, Peers, Ministers and Civil Servants
Responding to surveys and consultations and joining focus groups

A big highlight this year, was running our first Voice Day , a celebratory event to amplify all the amazing projects and campaigns that care-experienced young people in Become The Movement were part of in 2023 – a wonderful space to reflect on the impact we are making together and to shine a light on all the opportuni6es care-experienced young people have been part of. We had some lovely feedback from the young people who took part:

“At Become, I feel heard – a unified voice is amplified and found a feeling of togetherness.”

“Become is a shared experience, empowering by being part of a posi"ve influence, part of a collec"ve, to make a difference in the lives of care-experienced young people.”

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

It’s important that professionals hear directly from young people on what good prac6ce looks like and this year we were delighted to support one of our network members to speak to an audience of 350 Ofsted Inspectors at their annual conference.

We con6nue to develop our processes and approaches to make sure that young people’s involvement is safe, meaningful, and rewarding and have updated policies and processes to support this.

Campaigning and Communica,ons

Our ongoing communica6ons and campaigns highlight specific issues with the care system and seek to drive change by raising public awareness and understanding, challenging aItudes, and speaking to those in power who can make change happen, always ensuring young people’s voices are front and centre.

We created over 75 opportuni6es for young people to share their views and experiences with professionals and poten6al supporters through our owned communica6ons plaTorms and earned mediaand ensured young people's voices are heard in an empowering way, exceeding our year-end target of 20 opportuni6es for young people to feature in the media with an incredible 51 opportuni6es!

We con6nued to achieve high levels of media coverage this year, more than doubling our target by appearing in 97 na6onal features including BBC News, ITV, Channel 4, The Today Programme and a range of newspapers including the Guardian, the Independent, the Express and the Sunday Mirror amongst others. In addi6on, we had 320 local newspaper and 29 sector trade publica6on men6ons.

A big highlight this year was being the i Newspaper’s 2023 Christmas Charity of the Year. We supported 18 young people to share their views and experiences in feature ar6cles, making sure it was a posi6ve experience for them and that they felt proud of their contribu6ons. Other stand out media pieces included:

Our Gone Too Far campaign getting several special features on Channel 4 News and other broadcasts such as BBC’s Newsround, with the launch also featuring across all national and local BBC stations. The campaign also featured throughout the year in various newspapers including the Independent, the Daily Mirror, the Observer and the Guardian;
Several features on profit in Children’s Social Care, including Politics Home, the Observer and in the Big Issue;
Our Settled at Christmas research in the Sunday Mirror and i Newspaper;
Various features on the increase in homelessness amongst care leavers across radio, TV and newspapers;
Care Leavers at University featuring on Woman’s Hour, a young person talking to Annie Macmanus on her ‘Changes’ podcast and taking part in a special edition of a Radio 4 Today programme talking about foster care.

We also con6nued our reac6ve media campaign to challenge s6gma by responding to resident complaints about planning permission for children's homes, calling for more understanding and urging residents to contact their MP to ask why more is not being done by Government to help children in care.

During the special days, weeks and months that celebrate the voices of care-experienced young people we ask young people to share their views and raise public awareness of issues in the care system:

For National Care Leavers Week (NCLW) in 2023 our theme was CARE (Celebrate, Amplify, Raise Awareness, and Encourage Change). As part of the week we hosted two webinars where our brilliant Young Trainers hosted a takeover, leading a session to train professionals in what changes need to be made to the care system.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Care Day is the world’s biggest celebration of children and young people with care experience and we have been leading the campaign in England since it first began in 2015. This year we encouraged people to learn about and challenge stereotypes and stigma around care experience as well as asking people to encourage their MPs to attend our film screening in parliament.

Signups to our supporter newsle<er con6nue to grow with over 9,000 now on our mailing list, a year-on-year increase of 33%. We also saw a 32% increase in followers across our social media channels, and started to test a Tik Tok channel. We launched our second impact report, highligh6ng what went well and what we would like to do even be<er next year.

Collabora,on

We collaborate and partner with voluntary sector organisa6ons and public bodies to ensure young people can access the support they need, and to strengthen our work to improve the care system and ensure careexperienced young people have opportuni6es to shape ac6vity in the sector.

We are members of alliances and coali6ons campaigning on issues in the care system, including:

The Alliance for Children in Care and Care Leavers;
Alliance for Youth Justice;
Maternal Mental Health Alliance;
Children’s Rights Action Group;
The Kinship Care Alliance;
KeepCaringTo18 campaign; and
The steering group of #ItsOurCare.

We also sit on Ofsted’s Social Care Na6onal Consulta6ve Forum and Na6onal Network for the Educa6on of Care Leaver’s Na6onal Strategy Group.

We collaborate by adding our voice to sector campaigns and our exper6se has also been welcomed through joining advisory boards and steering groups including Ofsted's Supported Accommoda6on Advisory Group, John Lewis Partnership expert group, and Na6onal Network for the Educa6on of Care Leavers Quality Mark, as well as speaking at events (and suppor6ng young people to speak at events) to share exper6se.

We also partner with academics such as our three-year programme with the Rees Centre at Oxford University looking at how to be<er assess outcomes for care leavers.

This year, we have partnered with leaving care services, local authori6es and other public service organisa6ons, employers and voluntary and community sector partners to jointly deliver our services, signpost and refer young people to specialist support, and to build professionals’ capacity through training.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Financial Review

Fundraising

We are dependent upon the generosity of individuals, trusts and founda6ons, and businesses to support our work and make a difference in the lives of children in care and care-experienced young people.

We’re deeply grateful to all our supporters for their dedica6on and commitment to improving the lives of careexperienced young people and transforming the care system. We extend our deepest thanks to all.

Here are just a few of the excep6onal supporters who enable our work:

AKO Foundation	Oso Foundation
Annie Macmanus	Peel Hunt LLP
Become Players	Raise Your Hands
Blagrave Trust	St James’s Place Charitable Foundation
Biking for Children in Care	Swire Charitable Trust
The Clothworkers’ Foundation	The 29thMay 1961 Charity
Dulverton Trust	The Allan & Nesta Ferguson Charitable Settlement
Fidelity Foundation	The Beatrice Laing Trust
Jacobs	The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
James Laughland	The Hedley Foundation
Jennifer Cook	The John Coates Charitable Trust
John Turner	The Leathersellers’ Company Charitable Fund
Leeds Building Society	The Listening Fund
Lincoln Private Investment Office Foundation	The Mark Leonard Trust
Liz and Richard Houghton	The Newby Trust
National Lottery Community Fund	The Patricia Routledge Foundation
Nationwide Building Society	The Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Milton Damerel Trust	The Tolkien Trust
Mint Velvet	The Will Houghton Foundation & Mint Velvet
Oak Foundation

In addi6on, we extend our thanks to those who gave anonymously and those who supported the i News Appeal, and we warmly remember John Crisp and Nancy Drucker.

In 2023, we set a new benchmark in income genera6on at Become, and we owe it all to our incredible supporters who went the extra mile for us. Huge thanks to everyone who undertook a challenge, made a dona6on, or fundraised on our behalf. Your efforts in raising funds and awareness are invaluable.

2023 also saw Biking for Children in Care surpass £1m in total funds raised over the last 21 years. We were thrilled to recognise their accomplishments and dedica6on at an event at the Houses of Parliament.

More than 60 individuals laced up their running shoes to run, walk, or jog in the Big Half, raising an impressive £16,500.

Our loyal #BecomePlayers reconvened, with 46 creators and gamers raising over £9,000.

Our fantas6c supporters also devised some innova6ve fundraising ideas of their own, going above and beyond for us once again. Here are a few standout moments:

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Elisa committed to running 7km a day for seven consecutive weeks, raising a remarkable £1,500;
Craig, a seasoned runner for Become, celebrated his birthday with a wing walk, raising an impressive £200;
Kirsten, from Axcis Education, completed the Rome marathon on our behalf, raising over £800.

i News chose to fundraise for Become as part of their ‘Together We Care’ Christmas appeal which generated over £270,000, inclusive of Annie Mac’s match-funded Christmas appeal which raised an excep6onal £41,000. Huge thanks to all those who showed such overwhelming generosity.

We secured over £1m from charitable trusts and founda6ons. Our corporate partners contributed over £100,000, and we were thrilled to develop partnerships with Leeds Building Society, Jacobs, and Peel Hunt amongst others.

Our high-value supporters con6nue to support care-experienced young people. They donated generous giFs, raised awareness through their networks, and dedicated 6me and energy to support us. Their support empowered us to assist children in care and young care leavers now and in the future. Over the past year, 50 companies, trusts and founda6ons, and philanthropists made a difference to the lives of children in care and care-experienced young people.

A massive thank you to all of our remarkable supporters for their generosity and commitment to our work.

All of our fundraising ac6vity is managed by our small in-house fundraising team.

We did not engage the services of any professional fundraising agencies to undertake direct response fundraising, solicita6on or cul6va6on, either by phone, online or face-to-face.

We plan our fundraising communica6on to ensure we don't create undue pressure to donate, and, where possible, we take ac6ve steps to avoid care-experienced young people being shown our fundraising requests. We seek to share the authen6c voice of the young people we support and never sensa6onalise their experiences. We record donor details and preferences on our secure database to ensure we contact them in the way they choose; supporters have the op6on to update their contact preferences at any 6me.

We act in compliance with the terms laid down by the Fundraising Regulator and data protec6on guidelines. We strive to achieve the highest possible standards of professional conduct and standards when fundraising and undertake several measures to ensure we are accountable for our prac6ces. We had no complaints this year with regard to our fundraising prac6ces. We carry out our ac6vi6es in line with our own values and commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.

Our principal sources of funding during the year con6nued to be grant funding represen6ng 54% of the total income of the charity (2023: 69%). Grants are recorded as income from charitable ac6vi6es. The other 46% is derived from voluntary dona6ons, challenge events, and investment income.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

----- Start of picture text -----
Income comparatives Income Sources
£2,500,000
Legacy
£2,000,000 4%
Investment
£1,500,000 income
Events
1%
£1,000,000 8%
£500,000 Sales
2%
£-
Voluntary Income from
Income Charitable
31% activities
54%
2023-24 2022-23
----- End of picture text -----

Overall income in 2023-24 was 36% higher than the previous year, at £1,916,794 compared to £1,407,743 the year before. Total expenditure increased due to demand on services and to reflect organisa6onal growth plans. This was up 16% to £1,708,840 compared to £1,471,449 in the previous year.

In the forthcoming year we are commi<ed to con6nue growing income. We will persist in our efforts to develop philanthropic and corporate fundraising. Our primary focus will be on crea6ng a las6ng impact for children in care and care-experienced young people. We will con6nue to foster innova6on and insights to tackle the challenges they encounter.

Restricted funds raised for par6cipa6on projects and informa6on support totalled £548,839 in 2024 (2023: £632,813). Spending against grants received amounted to £709,073 (2023: £526,987). Any restricted funds unspent are carried forward for use in following years.

This table shows the amount spent on charitable work in each of the past five years:

Charitable work/ Accounting year:	2023-24	2022-23	2021-22	2020-21	2019-20
Total charitable work	£1,278,488	£1,005,158	£971,436	£644,088	£498,601
Increase/(decrease) on previous year	27%	3.5%	51%	29%	(11%)

Reserves policy

At 31[st] March 2024, the total reserves of the charity were £1,032,730, of which £300,961 was restricted by funders for specific projects and £731,769 was unrestricted. The Trustees have decided that the charity should aim to retain an appropriate level of unrestricted free reserves, which are sufficient to cover between 6 to 9 months' core running costs. In 2024 this represents between £278,436 and £417,654.

The Trustees calculate the unrestricted free reserves as that part of the unrestricted funds that are freely available, and not including any designated funds which have been earmarked for specific projects.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

At 31[st] March 2024, the charity carried forward unrestricted free reserves of £721,340 (2023: £172,230) represen6ng around 8 months' core running costs on our general fund of £999,767; see unrestricted expenditure on page 29 as follows:

Unrestricted reserves Less: Net book value of unrestricted fxed assets (note 9) Total Unrestricted free reserves	£731,769 (£10,429)
	£721,340

Investment policy

The Trustees managed the investment porTolio in accordance with our governing document. Monies not immediately required for the objects of the charity may be invested in investments, securi6es or property as may be thought fit having regard to any consents and in accordance with any relevant laws. The Funding and Finance sub-commi<ee includes Trustees with sufficient specialist knowledge and experience of investments suitable to the present needs of the charity.

We held investments in cash deposits and the COIF Global Equity Fund at the year end. The investments are primarily held for income purposes, genera6ng £5,778 in the year – a return on investment of 2.3%. Although we do not have a specific target for returns on investment, we aim to have a posi6ve return.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Principal Risks and Uncertain,es

Strong financial controls are in place to mi6gate the risk of financial losses due to theF or fraud, and these controls are regularly reviewed. We also have in place a safeguarding policy that applies to all staff and Trustees, volunteers or consultants working on our behalf, alongside the young people that we work with.

Trustees monitor the charity's risk register and charge the Chief Execu6ve and senior leadership team to employ appropriate controls and mi6ga6ng ac6ons to manage the levels of risks. The Board is sa6sfied that the charity is managing its key risk areas:

Financial

Increased costs and insufficient income to deliver mission and plans, heightened by economic climate;
Risk of fraud leading to financial challenges for the organisation.

Opera,onal

Staffing issues meaning reduced capacity and loss of knowledge and skills;
ICT systems failures or other data breach leading to operational and data protection issues;
Failure to adapt to new technology leading to organisational inefficiency;
Failure to create a fully equitable, diverse, inclusive organisation leads to impact on mission and reputational risk.

Governance

Lack of good governance and strategic leadership leading to mission drift and reduced impact/or inability to adapt, meaning we fail to remain relevant.

Regulatory

Ineffective professional practice and safeguarding policies and procedures putting children and young people at risk.

External

Low external profile undermining potential to generate unrestricted funds, achieve influencing goals and reach care-experienced young people;
External forces (e.g. future pandemics, terrorist attacks, flooding etc.) leading to business continuity risks.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Plans for the Future

AFer a period of significant growth, the focus during the next 12 months is on developing our strategic planning in order to ensure that Become is in a healthy place to increase our impact and make a difference to the lives of more care-experienced children and young people over the long-term.

It is clear that there is growing pressure on the care system and we know that there will be more young people who need our support. We have therefore commenced detailed planning for our next strategy period, and are ensuring that we take account of the views of the Board, team members, care-experienced young people, funders, and various other stakeholders as we develop this.

In order to push forward with this revised strategy, we will be refreshing our brand to ensure that we are more visible and known amongst the key communi6es that we work with.

With a new Government in place, we will be working hard to ensure that children’s social care is high on their agenda and on the agenda of all poli6cal par6es that form part of the UK parliament.

We know that Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is key to achieving our mission and therefore we will con6nue to push forward with our commitment to crea6ng a culture where everyone feels valued, respected and empowered to achieve their full poten6al. We believe that by embracing the diversity of the young people that we work with, as well as that of team members, trustees, volunteers, and partners, we can enrich our insights and crea6vity, and have significantly more impact. As part of this we will be publishing our first EDI Annual Report which provides transparency and accountability on what we have done well, and what we s6ll need to work on.

None of our vital work can happen without much needed funding. We will con6nue to develop our income streams, with a par6cular focus on corporate partners and major donors.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Structure, Governance and Management

Governing document

The organisa6on is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 26 March 1992 and registered as a charity on 22 April 1992. The company was established under a Memorandum of Associa6on which established the objects and powers of the charitable company and is governed under its Ar6cles of Associa6on.

Members of the charitable company guarantee to contribute an amount not exceeding £1 to the assets of the charitable company in the event of winding up. The total number of such guarantees at 31 March 2024 was 10(2023: 10). The Trustees have no beneficial interest in the charitable company.

The legal objects of the charity

Our legal objects are to promote the care, upbringing and establishment in life of children and young people who are or who have been looked aFer or assisted by local authori6es or other public or charitable bodies charged with the care and upbringing of children who are or who have been in the care of foster or adop6ve parents and in par6cular (but without limita6on) by:

Providing education, training and advice to such children and young people and to their carers
Conducting and promoting research as to the most effective means of providing care, making available the useful results
Relieving poverty, sickness, hardship and distress and preserving and protecting the health of such children and young people.

Board of Trustees

The Board assesses its skills base on a regular basis and fills iden6fied gaps by adver6sing and recrui6ng new Trustees in an open, inclusive and fair process. Trustees are chosen for their complementary skills, breadth of experience and contribu6on to the charity in a range of ways. New board members are appointed by the Board to serve the period up to the next AGM when the appointment is put to the members for approval.

The Chair and Trustees are appointed on a three-year term, renewable for three terms, subject to considera6on by the Board in par6cular circumstances. The minimum number of Trustees is four and the maximum number is 12.

New Trustees meet with the Chair, Chief Execu6ve and the Senior Leadership Team as part of an induc6on process. As the charity works with vulnerable children and young people, Disclosure and Barring Service checks are completed as appropriate in accordance with our safeguarding policy.

In addi6on to regular board mee6ngs, the Board holds periodic strategic planning and review days to consider emerging issues and develop strategic plans.

We are pleased to have a diverse Board in terms of skills and experience and also diversity around race and age. We are proud that half of our Board are care-experienced.

The charity invests in board development to enable board members to be<er know each other and appreciate the different exper6se and perspec6ves on the Board and to enhance Board decision-making and effec6veness.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Organisa,onal structure

The Board of Trustees meets quarterly and is responsible for overseeing the strategic direc6on of the charity. Trustees review salaries on an annual basis as part of the organisa6on’s budget cycle. Salaries are set based on the requirement and responsibility of a role and sector pay benchmarking.

The Funding and Finance sub-commi<ee meet quarterly prior to board mee6ngs to inform, support and monitor key finance and risk areas, and report to the full Board on these areas.

Responsibility for the day-to-day running of the charity and delivery of ac6vi6es is delegated to the Chief Execu6ve and the Senior Leadership Team.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Statement of Responsibili,es of the Trustees

The Trustees, who are also directors for the purposes of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Annual Report (including the Strategic Report) and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom accoun6ng standards.

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 charitable company and of its incoming resources and applica6on of resources, including the net income or expenditure, for the 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 Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP);
Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
State whether applicable Accounting Standards and Statements of Recommended Practice have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in operation.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accoun6ng records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any 6me the financial posi6on of charitable company and which enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006 and the Memorandum and Ar6cles of Associa6on. The Trustees are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the preven6on and detec6on of fraud and other irregulari6es.

In so far as the Trustees are aware:

There is no information relevant to the audit of which the auditors are unaware;
The Trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditors are aware of that information.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Auditors

A resolu6on to appoint the auditor for the coming year will be put to a future Trustee mee6ng.

In approving the Trustees’ Annual Report, we also approve the Strategic Report included therein, in our capacity as company directors.

Approved by the Trustees on 19 September 2024 and signed on their behalf by:

Leslie Morphy OBE Chair

Frances Lang Treasurer

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Report of The Independent Auditors to the members of Become Charity Limited

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Become Charity (the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 31 March 2024 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, Balance Sheet, Cash flow Statement and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of 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:

give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2024, and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended;
have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and
have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

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 charitable company 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.

Conclusions relating to going concern

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 charitable company’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 Trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the Trustees’ annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. 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.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, 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 audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. 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 the audit:

the information given in the Trustees’ report (incorporating the strategic report and the directors’ report) for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
the strategic report and the directors’ report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of our knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the strategic report and the directors’ 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 directors’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Responsibilities of Trustees

As explained more fully in the Trustees’ responsibilities statement the Trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes 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 charitable company’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.

BECOME CHARITY WORKING NAME: BECOME

COMPANY NUMBER: 2700693 YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

The objectives of our audit are to identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements due to fraud and 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 noncompliance 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 Charities Act, Companies Act 2016, UK GAAP and Charity SORP FRS 102.
We obtained an understanding of how the charity is complying with those legal and regulatory frameworks and made enquiries to the management of known or suspected instances of fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations. We corroborated our enquiries through our review of board minutes, other relevant meeting minutes and review of correspondence with regulatory bodies.
We assessed the susceptibility of the charity’s financial statements to material misstatement, including how fraud might occur. Audit procedures performed by the audit team included:
Identifying and assessing the 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 and judgments,
Identifying and testing journal entries, in particular journal entries posted with unusual account combinations; and
Assessing the extent of compliance with the relevant laws and regulations.

There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures described above and the further removed non- compliance with laws and regulations are from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely we would become aware of it. Also, the risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery or intentional misrepresentations, or through collusions.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council's website. This description forms part of our Report of the Auditors.

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.

Susan Plumb ACA

Senior Statutory Auditor For and on behalf of Haines Watts, Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditors

Old Station House Station Approach Newport Street Swindon SN1 3DU Date: 26 September 2024

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

Statement of Financial Activities

(Incorporating an Income Statement)

Year ended 31 March 2024

Unrestricted

Note Income from: Dona6ons and legacies 2 Trading ac6vi6es 3 Charitable ac6vi6es 4 Investments Total Income Expenditure on: Costs of raising funds Charitable ac6vi6es Total Expenditure 5&8 Net Income/ (Expenditure) before gains and losses on investments Net Gain / (Loss) on investments 10 Net Income / (expenditure) Transfers between Funds 13 Net Movement in Funds Reconcilia6on of Funds: Fund balance at 1st April 2023 13 Fund balance at 31st Mar 2024 13	General Designated £ £ 826,284 - 43,175 - 489,114 - 9,382 - 1,367,955 - 430,352 - 569,415 - 999,767 - 368,188 - 33,243 - 401,431 147,460 (147,460) 548,891 (147,460) 182,878 147,460 731,769 0	Restricted £ - - 548,839 - 548,839 - 709,073 709,073 (160,234) - (160,234) - (160,234) 461,195 300,961	2024 Total £ 826,284 43,175 1,037,953 9,382 1,916,794 430,352 1,278,488 1,708,840 207,954 33,243 241,197 - 241,197 791,533 1,032,730	2023 Total £ 410,605 24,675 965,733 6,730
				1,407,743
				466,291 1,005,158
				1,471,449
				(63,706) (11,878)
				(75,584)
				-
				(75,584)
				867,117
				791,533

The statement of financial ac6vi6es includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

The income and expenditure derive from con6nuing ac6vi6es. See note 19 for an analysis of the 2023 compara6ves.

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

Statement of Cash Flows

Year ended 31 March 2024

Cash flows from operating activities: Reconciliation of net movement in funds to net cash flow from operating activities Net movement in funds (note 13) Add depreciation Less purchase of fixed assets Less interest & dividend income Less (gain)/Add loss on revaluation of investments Less increase in debtors Add increase in creditors Cash provided by operating activities A Cash flows from investing activities Income from interest & dividends Cash provided by investing activities B Cash flows from financing activities C Increase in cash and cash equivalents in the year (A+B+C) Total cash & cash equivalents brought forward Total cash and cash equivalents carried forward *	2024 £ 2023 £ 241,197 (75,584) 7,807 6,641 (7,587) (7,879) (9,382) (6,730) (33,243) 11,878 1,463 190,823 (17) (10,888)
	200,238 108,261
	9,382 6,730
	9,382 6,730

	- -
	209,620 114,991 619,992 505,001
	829,612 619,992

*refer to balance sheet, page 31

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

Statement of Financial Position (Balance Sheet)

As at 31 March 2024

As at 31 March 2024
		2024	2024	2023
	Note	£	£	£
Fixed assets:
Tangible assets	9	10,429		10,648
Investments	10	250,749		217,506
			261,178	228,154
Current assets:
Debtors	11	41,342		42,806
Cash at bank and in hand		829,612		619,992
		870,954		662,798
Liabili,es:
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year	12	99,402		99,419
Net current assets			771,552	563,379
Total net assets less current liabili,es			1,032,730	791,533
Net Assets			1,032,730	791,533
Funds
General funds	13		731,769	182,878
Designated funds	13		-	147,460
Total unrestricted funds	13		731,769	330,338
Restricted funds	13		300,961	461,195
Total funds	13		1,032,730	791,533

Approved by the Trustees on 19 September 2024 and signed on their behalf by:

Leslie Morphy OBE

Chair

Frances Lang

Treasurer

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

Notes to the financial statements

1 Accounting policies

The principal accoun6ng policies adopted, judgements and key sources of es6ma6on uncertainty in the prepara6on of the financial statements are as follows:

Basis of prepara,on : The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accoun6ng and Repor6ng by Chari6es: Statement of Recommended Prac6ce. This is applicable to chari6es preparing their accounts under the Financial Repor6ng Standards applicable in the UK (FRS102, Chari6es SORP FRS102) and the Companies Act 2006.

The presenta6onal currency in these accounts is sterling, rounded to the nearest £.

Become meets the defini6on of a public benefit en6ty under FRS102. Assets and liabili6es are ini6ally recognised at historical cost or transac6on value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accoun6ng policy notes.

Prepara,on of the accounts on a going concern basis: There are no material uncertain6es about the charity’s ability to con6nue. The accounts have therefore been prepared on a going concern basis. The charity has cash reserves of £829,612 and net assets of £1,032,730.

Income: Income is recognised when the charity has en6tlement to the funds, any performance condi6ons a<ached to the items(s) of income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.

Voluntary income is received by way of grants, dona6ons and giFs and is included in full in the statement of financial ac6vi6es when receivable. Grants, where en6tlement is not condi6onal on the delivery of a specific performance by the charity, are recognised when the charity becomes uncondi6onally en6tled to the grant and is not deferred.

Donated services and facili,es : Donated professional services and donated facili6es are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item, any condi6ons associated with the donated item have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity of the item is probable and that economic benefit can be measured reliably. In accordance with the Chari6es SORP (FRS102), the general volunteer 6me with the charity is not recognised.

Donated professional services and donated facili6es are recognised on receipt on the basis of the value of the giF to the charity, which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facili6es of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt, if applicable.

Interest receivable: Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity; this is normally upon no6fica6on of the interest paid or payable by the bank.

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

1 Accounting policies cont.

Expenditure, alloca,ons and irrecoverable VAT: Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or construc6ve obliga6on to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that se<lement will be required, and the amount of the obliga6on can be measured reliably. Expenditure includes a<ributable VAT which cannot be recovered. All costs are allocated between the expenditure categories in the Statement of Financial Ac6vi6es on a basis designed to reflect the use of the expenditure. Costs rela6ng to a par6cular ac6vity are allocated directly, others including support costs and governance costs, are appor6oned on an appropriate basis as set out in note 8, and as agreed with funders:

The costs of genera"ng funds relates to salary & support costs incurred in raising funds from both voluntary sources (including investment income) and restricted grants for charitable ac6vi6es.

Charitable expenditure comprises those costs incurred by the charity in the delivery of its ac6vi6es and services for its beneficiaries. It includes both costs that can be allocated directly to such ac6vi6es and those costs of an indirect nature necessary to support them.

Support costs are those func6ons that assist the work of the charity but do not directly undertake charitable ac6vi6es. Support costs include back-office costs, finance, personnel, payroll, IT costs, and premises costs which support the charity’s engagement programmes and ac6vi6es. These costs are allocated between the costs of raising funds and expenditure on charitable ac6vi6es. The basis of appor6onment is set out at note 8.

Governance costs include those costs associated with mee6ng the cons6tu6onal and statutory requirements of the charity and include the audit fees and costs linked to the strategic management of the charity.

Opera,ng leases : Rentals payable under opera6ng leases, where substan6ally all the risks and rewards of ownership remain with the lessor, are charged to the statement of financial ac6vi6es in the year in which they fall due and on a straight line basis over the term of the lease.

Tangible fixed assets: All assets purchased with a value of over £500 and a life of more than one year are capitalised at cost. Deprecia6on is provided at rates calculated to write off the cost of each asset to its es6mated residual value on a straight line basis over its expected useful life, usually 3 years. Leasehold improvements and the building of cloud and other IT infrastructure is amor6sed over the remaining length of the lease or over 5 years if shorter.

Investments: Investments are shown in the accounts at market value at the balance sheet date. Any unrealised gains or losses made in the year are recorded in the statement of financial ac6vi6es.

Debtors and prepayments : Trade and other debtors are recognised at the se<lement amount due aFer any trade discounts. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any discounts.

Cash at bank and in hand : Cash at bank and in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisi6on or opening of the deposit or similar account.

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

1 Accounting policies cont.

Creditors and provisions : Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obliga6on resul6ng from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount to se<le the obliga6on can be measured or es6mated reliably.

Fund accoun,ng :

Restricted funds are to be used for specific purposes as laid down by the donor or funder.

Designated funds are unrestricted funds that have been set aside by the Trustees for par6cular purposes. The aim and use of each designated fund is set out in the notes to the financial statements.

General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discre6on of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objec6ves of the charity and which have not been designated for other purposes.

Transfers between funds are made where the income for a project is exceeded by the costs incurred on the project, or where it has been agreed with the funder to use unspent balances at the end of a project on ac6vi6es with a similar objec6ve. Transfers may also take place where funds are designated or undesignated.

Pensions: The charitable company operates a group money purchase defined contribu6on pension scheme operated by Royal London. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charitable company in an independently administered fund. The pension cost charge represents contribu6ons payable under the scheme by the charitable company to the fund. The charitable company has no further liability under the scheme other than for the payment of those contribu6ons.

The charity made a 5% employer contribu6on to a money purchase pension scheme operated by Royal London under auto-enrolment. It acts as agent in the collec6ng and paying over of any employee pension contribu6ons. Employees who are part of the pension scheme make a minimum contribu6on of 3% towards the scheme. The employer’s contribu6ons made for the accoun6ng period are treated as an expense in the financial statements.

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

2 Donations and legacies

2 Donations and legacies
David & Ruth Lewis The Will Houghton Foundation & Mint Velvet Tolkien Trust Oak Foundation Esmée Fairbairn Events Legacy Regular Giving and Other Dona6ons Total	Unrestricted £ 2024 Total £ 2023 Total £ 50,000 50,000 40,000 70,000 70,000 30,000 50,000 50,000 - 212,500 212,500 - 75,000 75,000 - 161,950 161,950 130,984 74,202 74,202 - 132,632 132,632 209,621
	826,284 826,284 410,605

Dona6ons and incoming resources are separately iden6fied where single transac6on amounts are £5,000 or over, except for donors who wish to remain anonymous.

3 Income from other trading activities

Other Income Consultancy & Training Total	Unrestricted £ Restricted £ 2024 Total £ 2023 Total £ 1,711 - 1,711 724 41,464 - 41,464 23,951
	43,175 - 43,175 24,675

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

4 Incoming resources from charitable activities

Grant income: The Mark Leonard Trust The Blagrave Trust The Dulverton Trust The Big Ask (now The Considered Ask Foundation) Fidelity Evan Cornish The John Lewis Foundation The Allan And Nesta Ferguson Charitable Foundation The Prism Charitable Trust The Will Houghton Foundation & Mint Velvet BBC Children In Need The National Lottery Community Fund The Cloth Workers Foundation Alan and Gill Gray Philanthropy Tolkien Trust Esmée Fairbairn The Leathersellers’ Company Charitable Fund Newby Trust Ltd Swire Charitable Trust AKO Foundation Oak Foundation St James's Place Charitable Foundation Other	Unrestricted £ Restricted £ 2024 Total £ 2023 Total £ 20,000 12,000 32,000 50,000 - 66,470 66,470 60,700 35,000 - 35,000 35,000 - - - 14,400 - 86,238 86,238 91,250 - - - 10,000 - 57,523 57,523 - - 20,000 20,000 - 25,000 - 25,000 25,000 - - - 30,000 - - - 10,494 - 108,858 108,858 200,655 - 100,000 100,000 100,000 - - - 129,414 50,000 - 50,000 50,000 84,364 - 84,364 72,750 - 15,000 15,000 - - 10,000 10,000 - 20,000 - 20,000 25,000 - 25,000 25,000 25,000 212,500 - 212,500 - - 30,000 30,000 - 42,250 17,750 60,000 36,570
	489,114 548,839 1,037,953 965,733

Grant income:
The Mark Leonard Trust
The Blagrave Trust
The Dulverton Trust
The Big Ask (now The Considered Ask
Foundation)
Fidelity
Evan Cornish
The John Lewis Foundation
The Allan And Nesta Ferguson Charitable
Foundation
The Prism Charitable Trust
The Will Houghton Foundation & Mint
Velvet
BBC Children In Need
The National Lottery Community Fund
The Cloth Workers Foundation
Alan and Gill Gray Philanthropy
Tolkien Trust
Esmée Fairbairn
The Leathersellers’ Company Charitable
Fund
Newby Trust Ltd
Swire Charitable Trust
AKO Foundation
Oak Foundation
St James's Place Charitable Foundation
Other

Unrestricted
£
Restricted
£
2024 Total
£
2023 Total
£
20,000
12,000
32,000
50,000
-
66,470
66,470
60,700
35,000
-
35,000
35,000
-
-
-
14,400
-
86,238
86,238
91,250
-
-
-
10,000
-
57,523
57,523
-
-
20,000
20,000
-
25,000
-
25,000
25,000
-
-
-
30,000
-
-
-
10,494
-
108,858
108,858
200,655
-
100,000
100,000
100,000
-
-
-
129,414
50,000
-
50,000
50,000
84,364
-
84,364
72,750
-
15,000
15,000
-
-
10,000
10,000
-
20,000
-
20,000
25,000
-
25,000
25,000
25,000
212,500
-
212,500
-
-
30,000
30,000
-
42,250
17,750
60,000
36,570

489,114
548,839
1,037,953
965,733

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

5 Net income/expenditure

This is stated aFer charging the following expenditure:

		2024		2023
		£		£
Depreciation & loss on disposal			7,807	6,641
Auditors’ remuneration			4,656	4,922
Operating lease rentals:	Property		3,066	8,491
Trustees’/Directors’ remuneration	(note 7)		-	-

6 Staff costs and numbers

Salaries and wages Social security costs Pension contributions (defined contribution scheme) Total direct staff costs Outsourcing & consultancy fees Total costs	2024 £ 2023 £ 1,071,377 885,035 106,133 90,379 47,298 37,622
	1,224,808 1,013,036 96,211 94,053
	1,321,019 1,107,089

The key management of the charity comprises the Chief Execu6ve, Director of Finance and People, Director of Fundraising, Director of Services and Director of Policy, Campaigns and Communica6ons. Their total emoluments amounted to £339,087 (2023: £257,194) inclusive of employer’s pension contribu6ons of £15,930 (2023: £9,463).

The number employees with emoluments in the range were:

£60,000 to £69,999 £70,000 to £79,999 £80,000 to £89,999	2024 2023 2 0 1 1 1 0
	4 1

The average weekly number of employees (full-6me equivalent) employed by the charity during the year was as follows:

Genera6ng Funds Charitable Ac6vi6es Governance	2024 2023 5.8 6.4 18.8 15.9 0.2 0.2
	24.9 22.5

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

7 Trustee Remuneration and Related Party Transactions

No Trustees received remunera6on during the year (2023: nil).

No Trustee or other person related to the charity had any personal interest in any contract or transac6on entered into by the charity or reimbursed expenses during the year (2023: none).

8 Total Expenditure

Cost of generating funds £ Charitable expenditure £ Governance costs £ Support costs £ 2024 £ 2023 £ Staff costs and freelance consultants (note 6) 284,679 817,026 6,990 212,325 1,321,019 1,107,089 Related staff & volunteer costs 5,271 32,565 - 61,093 98,929 85,294 Participant travel & related expenses 392 35,476 - 80 35,948 21,807 Materials production, printing and activities 8,147 14,454 - 322 22,923 73,082 General office costs 46,011 62,676 - 49,414 158,101 117,275 Website development - 14,371 - 2,752 17,123 7,380 Premises costs 417 - - 5,166 5,583 8,491 Professional, legal and accounting fees - 27,082 4,656 9,669 41,407 44,389 Trustees' expenses - - - - - - Depreciation (note 5 & 9) - - - 7,807 7,807 6,641 Expenditure 344,917 1,003,650 11,646 348,628 1,708,840 1,471,449 Allocation of support staff & related costs 64,224 206,604 2,590 (273,418) - - Alloca6on of support costs 17,666 56,831 712 (75,210) - - Sub-total 426,807 1,267,085 14,948 - 1,708,840 1,471,449 Allocation of governance costs 3,545 11,403 (14,948) - Total expenditure reallocated 430,352 1,278,488 - - 1,708,840* 1,471,449	Cost of generating funds £ Charitable expenditure £ Governance costs £ Support costs £ 2024 £ 2023 £ Staff costs and freelance consultants (note 6) 284,679 817,026 6,990 212,325 1,321,019 1,107,089 Related staff & volunteer costs 5,271 32,565 - 61,093 98,929 85,294 Participant travel & related expenses 392 35,476 - 80 35,948 21,807 Materials production, printing and activities 8,147 14,454 - 322 22,923 73,082 General office costs 46,011 62,676 - 49,414 158,101 117,275 Website development - 14,371 - 2,752 17,123 7,380 Premises costs 417 - - 5,166 5,583 8,491 Professional, legal and accounting fees - 27,082 4,656 9,669 41,407 44,389 Trustees' expenses - - - - - - Depreciation (note 5 & 9) - - - 7,807 7,807 6,641 Expenditure 344,917 1,003,650 11,646 348,628 1,708,840 1,471,449 Allocation of support staff & related costs 64,224 206,604 2,590 (273,418) - - Alloca6on of support costs 17,666 56,831 712 (75,210) - - Sub-total 426,807 1,267,085 14,948 - 1,708,840 1,471,449 Allocation of governance costs 3,545 11,403 (14,948) - Total expenditure reallocated 430,352 1,278,488 - - 1,708,840* 1,471,449	Cost of generating funds £ Charitable expenditure £ Governance costs £ Support costs £ 2024 £ 2023 £ Staff costs and freelance consultants (note 6) 284,679 817,026 6,990 212,325 1,321,019 1,107,089 Related staff & volunteer costs 5,271 32,565 - 61,093 98,929 85,294 Participant travel & related expenses 392 35,476 - 80 35,948 21,807 Materials production, printing and activities 8,147 14,454 - 322 22,923 73,082 General office costs 46,011 62,676 - 49,414 158,101 117,275 Website development - 14,371 - 2,752 17,123 7,380 Premises costs 417 - - 5,166 5,583 8,491 Professional, legal and accounting fees - 27,082 4,656 9,669 41,407 44,389 Trustees' expenses - - - - - - Depreciation (note 5 & 9) - - - 7,807 7,807 6,641 Expenditure 344,917 1,003,650 11,646 348,628 1,708,840 1,471,449 Allocation of support staff & related costs 64,224 206,604 2,590 (273,418) - - Alloca6on of support costs 17,666 56,831 712 (75,210) - - Sub-total 426,807 1,267,085 14,948 - 1,708,840 1,471,449 Allocation of governance costs 3,545 11,403 (14,948) - Total expenditure reallocated 430,352 1,278,488 - - 1,708,840* 1,471,449
		344,917 1,003,650 11,646 348,628 1,708,840 1,471,449 64,224 206,604 2,590 (273,418) - - 17,666 56,831 712 (75,210) - -
		426,807 1,267,085 14,948 - 1,708,840 1,471,449 3,545 11,403 (14,948) -
		430,352 1,278,488 - - 1,708,840 1,471,449

The charity iden6fies costs to support its general charitable ac6vi6es and fundraising costs (costs of genera6ng funds). General management and support staff costs are allocated to the charitable ac6vi6es and costs of genera6ng funds on the basis of 6me spent per ac6vity. Central office costs, deprecia6on, establishment and other sundry costs are allocated to charitable ac6vi6es and costs of genera6ng funds on the basis of headcount, as an approxima6on of usage rates. Governance costs are allocated to the costs of genera6ng funds and charitable ac6vi6es propor6onally.

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

9 Tangible fixed assets

Computer Hardware & Software £ Furniture & Equipment £ Cost At 1 April 2023 75,163 18,324 Addi6ons 7,587 - Disposals - - At 31 March 2024 82,750 18,324 Depreciation At 1 April 2023 64,515 18,324 Charge for the year 7,807 - Disposals - - At 31 March 2024 72,322 18,324 Net Book Value At 1 April 2023 10,648 - At 31 March 2024 10,429 - 10 Investments COIF Charities Global Equity Income Fund Value at 1 April 2023 Additions/(Disposals) in the year Value at 31 March 2023: 84,718.31 @ 2.5674p Value at 31 March 2024: 84,718.31 @ 2.9598p Unrealised gain/(loss)	Computer Hardware & Software £ Furniture & Equipment £ 75,163 18,324 7,587 - - -	Total £ 93,487 7,587 - 101,074 82,839 7,807 - 90,646 10,648 10,429 2024 £ 2023 £ 217,506 229,383 - 217,506 250,749
	82,750 18,324
	64,515 18,324 7,807 - - -
	72,322 18,324
	10,648 - 10,429 -
		33,243 (11,878)

Based on the quarterly dividends paid, the income yield was 2.3% (2023: -2.66%)

11 Debtors Trade debtors HM Revenue & Customs – Gift Aid reclaimable Accrued income Prepayments & accrued income Other debtors	2024 £ 2023 £ 23,224 10,542 - 907 432 3,500 17,435 22,726 251 5,131
	41,342 42,806

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

12 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

Subscriptions in advance and deferred income Trade creditors Taxation & social security Accruals	2024 £ 2023 £ 12,985 12,225 11,085 16,007 40,282 34,220 35,050 36,967
	99,402 99,419

13 Movements in funds

The difference between incoming and outgoing resources is £241,198. This table breaks down the movement in funds.

a. Widening Par6cipa6on in FE/HE b. Care Advice Service c. Impact d. Personal Advisors' Training e. Policy & Par6cipa6on f. Workshops for Children in Care g. Capacity development Total Restricted funds General Funds Designated Funds Total Funds	At start of year Incoming resources Outgoing resources Funds transfer At end of year 13,335 117,523 85,691 - 45,167 102,714 148,858 155,830 - 95,742 682 - - - 682 95,005 100,000 117,481 - 77,524 23,882 66,470 74,090 - 16,262 8,330 - 8,330 - - 217,250 115,988 267,652 - 65,586
	461,195 548,839 709,074 300,961
	182,878 1,401,199 999,767 147,460 731,769
	147,460 - - (147,460) -
	791,533 1,950,038 1,708,841 - 1,032,730

Purposes of restricted funds

Restricted funds cover specified ac6vi6es, including employment, health and educa6on programmes, online services for children and young people and specific projects, as described below:

13a. Widening Par,cipa,on in FE/HE – The AKO Founda6on, John Lewis Founda6on, Allan & Nesta and The Leathersellers’ Company are funding a project to widen par6cipa6on in further educa6on for young people leaving care.

13b. Care Advice Service – grants were received from Na6onal Lo<ery Community Fund, St James Place and Newby Trust towards the Care Advice Service .

13c. Impact – Lloyds Bank Founda6on had funded a new monitoring and evalua6on database.

13d. Personal Advisors’ Training – The Clothworkers’ Founda6on are funding a five-year pilot PA training programme which aims to improve the skills and knowledge of PAs who are suppor6ng young people leaving care.

13e. Policy & Par,cipa,on – grants from The Blagrave Trust and The Listening Fund contributed towards Policy, Campaigns and Communica6ons team members salaries.

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

13f. Workshops for Children in Care – BBC Children in Need have commi<ed to 3 years of support in the development and delivery of healthy rela6onship workshops for children in care, helping them build posi6ve rela6onships, improve emo6onal wellbeing and increased confidence.

13g. Capacity development - funding from a three-year grant from Alan and Gill Gray Philanthropy to increase Become’s capacity to deliver direct support to young people, build an evidence base, develop an impact measurement approach and invest in future sustainability and from the Fidelity UK Founda6on for the role of Director of Opera6ons to support growth and impact.

Purpose of designated funds

The Morris Legacy had been designated by Trustees to fund two new roles to grow the policy and public affairs capacity and build a research & evalua6on func6on over a 2-year period. This has since been undesignated and transferred to free reserves.

14 Analysis of net assets between funds

Tangible fixed assets Investments Net current assets Net assets at 31 March 2023	Unrestricted Funds £ Restricted Funds £ Total Funds £ 10,429 - 10,429 250,749 - 250,749 470,591 300,961 771,552
	731,769 300,961 1,032,730

15 Operating lease commitments

The charity had no opera6ng lease commitments during the year.

Within 1 year Within 2-5 years After more than 5 years Total Operating Lease Commitments	Equipment Property 2024 £ 2023 £ 2024 £ 2023 £ - 173 - - - - - - - - - -
	- 173 - -

The lease for the franking machine was renewed at the end of December 2020, replacing the exis6ng contract from that date; the lease was terminated during 2023/24.

16 Restricted funds in deficit

Where a restricted fund is in deficit at the end of an accoun6ng period, the charity makes a decision on whether there is some prospect for the deficit to be reduced by funding receipts in subsequent accoun6ng periods. If there is a good prospect, the deficit is shown in full. Otherwise, the deficit is transferred to the General fund.

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

17 Legal Status of the charity

The charity is a company limited by guarantee and has no share capital. In the event of the charity being wound up, the liability in respect of the guarantee is limited to £1 per member of the charity.

18 Corporation tax

The charity is exempt from tax on income and gains falling within sec6on 505 of the Income and Corpora6on Taxes 1988 or sec6on 252 of the Taxa6on of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to the extent that these are applied to its charitable objec6ves.

19 Detailed comparatives for the Statement of Financial Activities

Notes Income Donations and legacies 2 Income from other trading activities 3 Income from charitable activities 4 Income from investments Total income Expenditure Costs of raising funds: Costs of generating activity income Expenditure on charitable activities: Total expenditure 5&8 Net (expenditure)/income before gains and losses on investments Net loss on investments 10 Net (expenditure)/income Transfers between funds Net movement in funds Reconciliation of funds: Fund balances at 1 April 2022 13 Fund balances at 31 March 2023 13	Unrestricted General £ Designated £ Restricted £ Total 2023 £ 410,605 - - 410,605 24,675 - - 24,675 332,920 - 632,813 965,733 6,730 - - 6,730
	774,930 - 632,813 1,407,743
	466,291 - - 466,291 461,442 16,729 526,987 1,005,158
	927,733 16,729 526,987 1,471,449

	(152,803) (16,729) 105,826 (63,706) (11,878) - - (11,878)
	(164,681) (16,729) 105,826 (75,584) 54,000 (54,000) - -
	(110,681) (70,729) 105,826 (75,584)
	293,559 218,189 355,369 867,117
	182,878 147,460 461,195 791,533

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

Reference and Administra,ve Details

Charity number	1010518
Company number	2700693
Registered office	To 18 June 2024:
	Become Charity
	Suite 151
	264 Lavender Hill
	London
	SW11 1LJ
	From 19 June 2024:
	Become Charity
	88 OId Street
	London
	EC1V 9HU
Patrons	Liz and Richard Houghton
	Karen Jankel
	James Laughland
	Gill Timmis
Board of Trustees	Leslie Morphy OBE	Chair (appointed 13/03/2024)
	Hugh Thornbery CBE	Chair (resigned 20/09/2023)
	Marvin Campbell	Vice Chair (appointed 13/03/2024)
	Frances Lang	Treasurer (appointed 20/09/2023)
	Eliot Lyne	Director (resigned as Treasurer 20/09/2023; resigned
		19/06/2024)
	Terry Galloway	Director
	Andy Harris	Director (Acting Co-Chair 20/09/2023 to 13/03/2024)
	Beth Taswell	Director (Acting Co-Chair 20/09/2023 to 13/03/2024;
		resigned 19/06/2024)
	Rachael Wardell	Director (resigned 13/03/2024)
	Ony Chima	Director
	Meera Mistry	Director (resigned 13/03/2024)
	Phillipa Uden	Director
	Tom Willets	Director
	Tim Aldridge	Director (appointed 19/06/2024)
Senior Leadership	Katharine Sacks-Jones	Chief Executive & Company Secretary
Team	Cerys Shepherd	Director of Fundraising
	Chloe Grant	Director of Services
	Clare Bracey	Director of Policy, Campaigns & Communications
	Andrew Lines	Director of People (resigned 31/05/2023)
	David Partridge	Director of Finance & People (appointed 04/09/2023)

Become Charity Working Name: Become

Company Number: 02700693 Year ended 31 March 2024

Bankers	Unity Trust plc
	PO Box 7193
	Planetary Road
	Willenhall
	WV1 9DG
	Triodos Bank
	Deanery Road
	Bristol
	BS1 5AS
Independent Auditors	Haines Watts
	Chartered Accountants
	Old Station House
	Station Approach
	Newport Street
	Swindon
	SN1 3DU

Become Charity

Message from the Chief Execu,ve and Chair

Trustees’ Annual Report for the Year Ended 31 March 2024

The aims and objec,ves of Become

Charitable objects:

Ensuring our work delivers our aims

Our values

Honesty

Empowerment

Respect

Kindness

Op,mism

Strategic aims

Suppor,ng children

Improving prac,ce

Challenging the system

Changing a;tudes

How our ac,vi,es deliver public benefit

Strategic Report

Achievements and performance

Care Advice Service

Link Up Community

Propel

Coaching

Outreach, in-person delivery and reaching target groups

Young people shaping our services and organisa,on

Impact

Training

(Training par6cipants)

Personal Advisors Training Programme

Influencing policy

Young people’s par,cipa,on in improving the care system

Campaigning and Communica,ons

Collabora,on

KeepCaringTo18 campaign; and

Financial Review

Fundraising

Reserves policy

Investment policy

Principal Risks and Uncertain,es

Financial

Opera,onal

Governance

Regulatory

External

Plans for the Future

Structure, Governance and Management

Governing document

The legal objects of the charity

Board of Trustees

Organisa,onal structure

Statement of Responsibili,es of the Trustees

Auditors

Report of The Independent Auditors to the members of Become Charity Limited

Opinion

Basis for opinion

Conclusions relating to going concern

Other information

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

Responsibilities of Trustees

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Use of our report

Statement of Financial Activities

(Incorporating an Income Statement)

Year ended 31 March 2024

Unrestricted

Statement of Cash Flows

Year ended 31 March 2024

Statement of Financial Position (Balance Sheet)

As at 31 March 2024

Notes to the financial statements

1 Accounting policies

1 Accounting policies cont.

1 Accounting policies cont.

Fund accoun,ng :

2 Donations and legacies

3 Income from other trading activities