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2024-03-31-accounts

Annual report and financial statements 2023/24

Contents

Contents

Our strategic pillars

Reach

To ensure that everyone knows we are here for them – whether they need help for themselves or for someone they know.

Overview

Achievements and performance

Financial review

Research

To make best use of our expertise, our data and our insights to develop new strategies and interventions that make prevention real both independently and in partnership with others, sharing our insights about effective practice with agencies and the broader public.

Advocacy

To drive forward the preventing child sexual abuse agenda, shape the debate in constructive ways and contribute to domestic and global developments.

Auditor’s report

  - 132  Independent auditor’s report to the members of The Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Financial statements

Fundraising

Structure

102 Governance, structure and management

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Overview

Welcome

Overview

Welcome from our chair

Jane Leach, Lucy Faithfull Foundation chair

It was an absolute pleasure to take over as chair at our AGM in December.

At that meeting, Deborah, our chief executive, and I paid tribute to our outgoing chair, Mike Harris, who stood down after five years at the helm. Over this time, Mike provided inspiring leadership to the board and I am delighted that he continues to serve as a trustee.

I have been a trustee of LFF since 2013 and have always been so proud of the impact we have. The staff are an amazing group of people who are absolutely dedicated to the cause. They work so hard to achieve great things, and this year was no different.

In May, we announced our million-pound Project Intercept to revolutionise how we stop online child sexual abuse. Backed by Nominet, this ground-breaking initiative uses behavioural science, partnerships and innovation to position effective online warnings across the internet to prevent illegal behaviour. In July, we started our Circles project in the West Midlands, to support the rehabilitation of people who have committed sexual offences. Circles are interventions proven to reduce risk in people who might pose a risk of sexual harm. In September, we launched our Shore website and chat service, a confidential service for teenagers concerned about their own or someone else’s sexual thoughts and behaviour. In February, we published the independent evaluation of our chatbot project. The project involved us working with the Internet Watch Foundation and Aylo (owners of Pornhub UK) to pilot a chatbot and warning message aiming to deter online child sexual abuse. The evaluation demonstrated that the 18-month trial could reduce the number of online searches that are indicative of intent to find sexual images of children.

It has been an inspiring and ambitious year and we have another one coming up. We are moving into the last year of our strategic plan, which gives us an excellent opportunity to take stock and create a new strategy to outline where we will concentrate our efforts for the next five years. We are eager to take up the challenges ahead.

Thank you to everyone who has helped continue our work, including our funders and supporters who share our mission. Thank you also to the board for their dedicated service. We have had the pleasure of welcoming two new trustees to the board, Martin Kersey, an experienced HR professional, and Fred Langford, Director Technology – Online Safety, at UK communications regulator, Ofcom. We are thrilled they have joined us. We also said goodbye to Vic Baines who stood down after serving for five years. Thank you, Vic, for everything you did for the charity.

It is with a great sense of hope that I look to the year ahead. We have a lot to do but I know the team at LFF is up to the task. Thank you to all the staff who work so hard, day in and day out, to keep children safe from harm.

Jane Leach

I have been a trustee of LFF since 2013 and have always been so proud of the impact we have. The staff are an amazing group of people who are absolutely dedicated to the cause. They work so hard to achieve great things, and this year was no different.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Overview

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Welcome
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Overview

Welcome from our chief executive ofcer

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ie > key
Deborah Denis, Lucy Faithfull Foundation chief executive officer
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This year we continued to make a huge contribution to child protection and ensured children across the country stay safe.

In addition to starting new projects and interventions to prevent harm, our clinical team supported decision-making situations by delivering hundreds of assessments and interventions. Our Stop It Now helpline helped more people than ever, and hundreds of others were supported through our services to tackle online sexual offending. We work to reduce future risk in people who have caused harm, but we also support their families – the wives, partners, children, parents and siblings who have to come to terms with what a loved one has done.

In December, we launched our new visual identity. We worked with an agency to review how best to present ourselves and our resources, now and for the future, and I have been heartened by the response from those we support, and the organisations we partner with. We are working on even more improvements through a major digital project to ensure that people can quickly and easily find the help they need, when they need it. It’s vital we get this done, because our website visitors went up to almost 1.3 million this year, which is 13% more than the previous year. And our public profile is rising – we had phenomenal press coverage across the BBC, Sky, Woman’s Hour, The Guardian, The Times and The i, showcasing the whole range of our work.

Our research continues to have a big impact. We published three Faithfull Papers and the webpage was accessed more than 3,500 times. We published a book chapter and four academic articles with another two submitted for peer review

and five in draft. We developed a new evaluation framework for our work with adults who have offended online and their families. And our helpline and online self-help resources were selected as one of seven high-potential perpetration prevention interventions to be evaluated by Prevention Global, an initiative led by the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research, funded by the Oak Foundation.

We also ramped up our advocacy. We responded to multiple consultations and attended a host of roundtables and events on themes ranging from the Online Safety Bill (now Act) to the threat of artificial intelligence, to the Pornography Review which is investigating gaps in UK regulation that allow exploitation or abuse to take place online. We know the value of collaborating with others in our advocacy efforts and will continue to partner with organisations to drive the changes we need and ensure we work to prevent abuse at the very earliest opportunity. If society is to really keep children safe then we must all work to prevent abuse before it happens. For that, we need child sexual abuse to be seen, and treated, as a public health problem – and we will make this our advocacy focus in the year ahead.

All in all, it’s been a busy year, and the work cannot stop. Next year we will be just as busy, working just as hard to keep children safe and we will look to the future by developing our next strategic plan. As we do so, I say thank you to all our staff, funders, donors, supporters and trustees who help us deliver on our mission to protect children. Child sexual abuse is preventable, not inevitable.

Deborah Denis

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Overview

Overview

What we do

Everything we do protects children from sexual abuse. We keep children safe by:

Providing free and confidential advice through our helpline, enabling callers to take positive, preventative actions to protect children.

We help thousands of people each year who call, email or talk to us via live chat.

Helping people achieve positive change and offence-free living.

Our direct delivery services and online self-guided interventions help people make better choices and live a good life.

Creating safer environments in families, communities and online.

We work to prevent abuse from happening in the first place, or from happening again if it already has.

Equipping professionals with knowledge and tools to better protect children.

We strengthen the ability of professionals to identify, respond to, and prevent child sexual abuse.

Influencing social and political attitudes about how children can best be protected.

We advocate for a greater focus on preventing abuse before it happens and for taking a public health approach to preventing child sexual abuse.

Our values

The way we behave as an organisation is crucial for our success. Our values help guide our actions, and help ensure we achieve our purpose.

We act with integrity

We are ethical, open and honest. We are researchdriven and base our actions on evidence.

We follow through on our words and act with professionalism, show respect and consideration to all and do what is right.

We are collaborative

We are stronger and achieve more when we work together – with each other, with our beneficiaries and with our partners.

By sharing insights and opportunities, we can achieve the best possible outcomes for children.

We are innovative

Because the risks to children change, our response is always evolving.

Practice-based insights and evaluation drive us to develop innovative services and pioneering interventions for wherever they are needed, online or offline.

We are ambitious

We are brave in our efforts, ambitious for our impact and committed to contributing to the body of knowledge around protecting children.

We aim to be the best we can be, strive for excellence in everything we do, and encourage colleagues and beneficiaries alike to reach their full potential.

We have hope

We know child sexual abuse is preventable, not inevitable. So, we have hope.

Hope that inspires action. For a future free from sexual abuse for all children.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Overview

Overview

Overview

Our strategy: We said, we did

Our 2020-2025 strategic plan sets out our key aims to achieve greater impact and protect more children from sexual harm, building on our achievements over more than 30 years. The plan outlines our areas of focus, and our key objectives which are centred around the three pillars of reach, research and advocacy. This year, we made excellent progress against each of our strategic aims.

Reach

Imagine... if all adults who pose a sexual risk to children, get help before they harm a child. Imagine too that all adults responsible for children understood everything they need to know about child sexual abuse to prevent harm from occurring in the first place, and crucially, can access confidential help when they need it.

Aim 1

To ensure that everyone knows we are here for them – whether they need help for themselves or for someone they know.

Research

Imagine... if, through research and development, we could anticipate the next serious risk that children might face – and create preventative interventions and campaigns ahead of time.

Aim 2

To make best use of our expertise, our data and our insights to develop new strategies and interventions that make prevention real both independently and in partnership with others, sharing our insights about effective practice with agencies and the broader public.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Overview

Overview

Advocacy

2023/24 at a glance

Imagine... if government decisions put children’s safety first, and public policy and services were designed with the prevention of abuse – rather than the response after abuse – at their core.

Aim 3

To drive forward the preventing child sexual abuse agenda, shape the debate in constructive ways and contribute to domestic and global developments.

• In collaboration with the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA Centre), we ~~7~~ published new guidance for social workers and other professionals to support the whole family when a parent has offended online.

• We held a joint conference with NOTA in November on the public health approach to prevent child sexual abuse. • We published 28 blog posts. ~~——_—~~

April 2023

We issued a press release on our new deterrence campaign creative video ‘Triggers’, which generated 185 pieces of coverage in national and regional press.

As part of the campaign, we ran three parallel regional campaigns in the South West, North West and Wales to gain local coverage and reach people in these areas.

shows that 72% of survey respondents whose family member had been arrested for online child sexual abuse offences showed symptoms indicative of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Director of LFF Scotland, Stuart Allardyce, took part in the first-ever International #SiblingsToo Day event. Starting in Auckland, New Zealand, and finishing in Hawaii, USA, a series of three live online webinars covered just about every world time zone.

To support the publication of our Faithfull Paper, ‘The indirect harm of online child sexual abuse: the impact on families of people who ofend’, CEO Deborah Denis was interviewed by Sky News. She highlighted the data which

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Overview

Overview

May 2023

We attended PIER23 (the Policing Institute for the Eastern Region conference) with CEO Deborah Denis presenting insights from seven years of campaigning to deter online child sexual abuse.

We attended and presented at NOTA 2023 in Cardiff about our protective parenting interventions; our newly-developed safety plans to manage situations involving sibling sexual abuse, digital safety and harmful sexual behaviour in schools; and developing and testing deterrence campaign material targeting people engaging in online sexual communications with children.

We collaborated with over 64 organisations as IICSA Changemakers in inspiring a national mission to prevent child sexual abuse and to improve support to victims and survivors by urging the government to implement recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

Stuart Allardyce gave evidence at the Criminal Justice Committee at the Scottish Parliament on tackling online child abuse, grooming and exploitation.

Deborah Denis spoke to BBC News for their investigation into Artifcial Intelligence (AI) ~~a~~ being used to create sexual images of children. Deborah spoke about how this should be a wake-up call to us all – tech companies, law enforcement, child protection agencies and more. Deborah said: “The time to act is now.”

We announced three-year funding of £930,000 from Nominet UK to stop people from viewing sexual images and videos of children online. This ground-breaking initiative aims to disrupt and deter people from offending through warning messages which challenge behaviour and signpost to help to change.

June 2023

Tom Squire appeared on the Betrayal Podcast which told the story of a wife and mother to three children in Utah who discovered her husband had sexually offended. Tom spoke about the motivations of those who’ve offended and how we support people in similar positions to lead good lives and not offend. Betrayal was one of the highest-rated true crime podcasts in both the UK and the US following its release.

Vicky Young, senior helpline manager, alongside Ellen Janssen from Stop It Now! Netherlands, presented at the 39th Operational Meeting of the INTERPOL Specialists Group on Crimes against Children (SGCAC) in Lyon. They highlighted the need for prevention services that work with people who offend or have offended in the past.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Overview

Overview

July 2023

We started our Circles project in the West Midlands, which aims to rehabilitate people who have committed sexual offences to help them to not offend again. Adrian McNulty, director of operations, was quoted in an article in Stoke-on-Trent Live.

Claire Short, national manager for LFF Wales, highlighted our work around the prevention of child sexual abuse within marginalised communities to 145 delegates at an NHS Welsh Sexual Assault Services event.

August 2023

An exhibition was held at LFF Scotland titled ‘The Knock NOC: the lived experiences of non-offending partners and children’ curated by doctoral researcher Naomi McGookin. The exhibition was a collection of images, poetry and prose to show the impact of the arrest of a loved one for online sexual offending.

September 2023

Google welcomed director of Stop It Now, Donald Findlater, and helpline manager, Chris Pummell, for the first in-person Stop It Now Ireland conference in Dublin. The event, called Child Sexual Abuse Prevention: A Public Health Approach, brought together experts and key professionals responsible for child protection to discuss strategies to eradicate child sexual abuse and exploitation.

In response to increased interest in our training course on sibling sexual abuse, we made information on sibling sexual abuse available on our website.

We launched our Shore website, a dedicated resource and confidential chat service for teenagers concerned about their own or someone else's sexual thoughts and behaviour. Covered as a major news feature by The Guardian, Shore is a safe space for young people to learn about sexual relationships and behaviour, while receiving reliable information and advice to educate and protect them from harmful sexual behaviour, both online and offline.

Deborah Denis appeared on BBC Radio 4’s flagship programme Woman’s Hour to talk about the shame and guilt women feel when a family member is arrested for sexual offences against children.

LFF Wales attended the national Eisteddfod in Llŷn and Eifionydd, Boduan, Gwynedd where Julie Morgan, the Minister for Social Services visited the stand.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Overview

Overview

October 2023

We published a Faithfull Paper on our trailblazing Everyone’s Safer project to tackle harmful sexual behaviour in schools. With support from the KPMG Foundation and in collaboration with the University of Surrey, a three-year action research project was started. The findings from the first year were highlighted in this Faithfull Paper.

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By Laura Nott, Sian Meader, Erifili Efthymiadou,
Jessie Timmins and Emily Setty
August 2023
THE
LUCY FAITHFULL
FOUNDATION
Working to protect children
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The Online Safety Bill received royal assent on 26 October. During the passage of the Bill through Parliament, we supported briefings to parliamentarians with case studies and quotes about how pornography use can become problematic for some people. Through sector collaboration, the government amended the Bill to include highly effective age verification for adult sites and social media platforms, and announced the Independent Pornography Review. Deborah Denis attended an event in Parliament later that week, to celebrate the passage of the Online Safety Act, a key moment in the safety of children online.

November 2023

Our ' ~~Everyone$ Safer~~ ' project won The Children & Young People Now award for the best personal, social, health and economic education initiative that helped develop young people’s knowledge, skills and attributes in managing the challenges of modern life.

We updated our Get Help and Get Support self-help resources on our Stop It Now website to make them easier to access and more userfriendly.

Informed by research revealing that more than 28% of UK adults regularly speak with people they do not know online, we released a new online film “Spotlight” to warn adults engaging in sexual conversations with under16s that this behaviour is illegal and has severe consequences.

We hosted a joint conference with NOTA on preventing child sexual abuse. The conference covered a range of different aspects of prevention focusing on the public health approach and included keynotes speeches, workshops and an opening address by a survivor.

We launched another deterrence campaign ~~a~~ PR story to deter people from online grooming, which achieved 685 pieces of coverage.

Gill Jones was keynote speaker at a MedicaCPD/NOTA Wales professionals event in Llandudno, attended by 120 participants from Wales and North West. She spoke about technology assisted harmful sexual behaviour and young people growing up online in 2023.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Overview

Overview

December 2023

We unveiled our refreshed identity at our AGM. We updated our look to reflect our ambition to create a world free from child sexual abuse. It is bold, using a red line next to our name to denote a barrier that should not be crossed to ensure children are protected. We also brought our Scotland and Wales teams under the Lucy Faithfull Foundation umbrella.

January 2024

In response to a VKPP report that found that almost half of child sexual abuse crimes reported to police in 2022 were offences committed by children, Deborah Denis was interviewed alongside NPCC lead, Ian Critchley, by Vanessa Feltz. Deborah spoke about the impact of early exposure to pornography and our Shore website.

We launched a Faithfull Paper exploring how situational prevention plays a key role in preventing child sexual abuse, and how we all can identify risks in everyday situations and take steps to keep children safe from harm. It highlighted simple, practical and applicable steps that can be taken by professionals, parents, caregivers, and community members to actively contribute to child safety.

An independent evaluation was published about our work with the IWF and Aylo to implement a first-of-its-kind chatbot on Pornhub UK. The chatbot and warning message aimed to deter online child sexual abuse and the evaluation demonstrated that the 18-month trial could reduce the number of online searches that may potentially be indicative of intent to find sexual images of children. Wired magazine covered the story with the headline: “A Pornhub chatbot stopped millions from searching for child abuse videos”.

We responded to Ofcom’s consultation on illegal harms, the first major consultation from the new regulator. Our pioneering work with large search engines to deploy warnings was recognised and adopted in Ofcom’s recommendations for the first Code of Practice for search services.

We worked closely with The i newspaper for a special double-page spread feature all about our Stop It Now helpline.

We commenced work with the Welsh Government on the new National Action Plan for prevention of child sexual abuse using a theory of change model.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Overview

Achievements and perfomance

March 2024

We published a Faithfull Paper focused on one of our growing areas of work, protective parenting assessments and interventions, showcasing how our expert practitioners use their specialist knowledge to help professionals and families keep children safe.

We were proud to see the important issue of sibling sexual abuse covered as a full front page and multi-page spread for a Sunday Times Magazine special report. Stuart Allardyce was quoted in the report and he gave advice on what actions parents could take to better safeguard their children.

Achievements and performance

Anonymous advice and support: Stop It Now UK and Ireland helpline

Since 2002, our ~~__-_—s—_i(a“‘rl~~ Stop It Now helpline ~~+>; EEE~~ has been offering help, support and interventions to prevent child sexual abuse and exploitation. People who contact us do not have to give any identifying information like a family name, address or telephone number, and they can use our confidential chat or secure email services if they are not ready to speak to someone.

As part of our annual online child sexual abuse deterrence campaign media work, we launched a press story about the dangers of AI-generated sexual images of children. This generated 185 pieces of coverage.

When our advisors pick up the phone or answer a chat, they don’t know what type of caller* will be on the other end. Each caller is different, and our experienced and compassionate advisors handle il every contact with care and professionalism.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Achievements and performance

Achievements and perfomance

Our primary target groups

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50% of callers 26% of callers 6% of callers
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Adults concerned about their own sexual thoughts about, or behaviour towards, children: to encourage them to recognise their behaviour as abusive or potentially abusive and to seek help to change.

Adults concerned about another adult who may be a sexual risk to children: to encourage them to recognise the signs of abusive behaviour in those close to them and to seek advice about what action to take.

Parents, carers or others concerned about the sexual behaviour of a child or young person: to encourage them to recognise the signs of concerning or abusive behaviour and to seek advice about what positive action they can take.

Additional target groups

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9% of callers 2% of callers 2% of callers
Professionals seeking case People concerned that their Survivors of child sexual
advice and support. child has been sexually abuse looking to make sense
abused or is at risk. of what happened to them or
discuss present-day risk.
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Our reach in 2023/24

week, to six shifts across five. As a result, our advisor hours increased from 17,297 to 20,110. Despite this increase in advisor hours, missed caller data remained much the same as last year, with 5,410 people being unable to get through on their first attempt (2022/23: 5,402). The proportion of missed callers eventually getting through to the helpline on a subsequent attempt was also very similar: 54% (2,915 out of 5,410) in 2023/24 compared to 53% (2,844 out of 5,402) in 2022/23. We remain concerned that despite our increase in capacity and delivery, we are still not helping all the people who need us.

We helped 8,774 people who made 19,328 contacts between them (‘contacts’ includes calls, chats and emails). This is a small increase in callers (8,614) and a larger increase in contacts (16,764) showing the demand for repeat interactions with the helpline. While some people contact us just once, others will call multiple times, sometimes over an extended period. For example, a caller struggling with inappropriate sexual thoughts about children or worried about a family member’s behaviour around children will likely need ongoing support and therefore contact us more often than a professional calling for case advice.

While our opening hours remained the same, we saw the impact of staff recruited in the previous year and we extended the availability of the chat service from four shifts across three days of the

An upgrade to our telephone system will impact our ability to record missed caller data in the future, however, we will be able to continue to monitor the number of missed calls.

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Total contacts and callers/emailers/chatters since 2002
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
2002/03 2023/24
Calls, emails and chats Callers, emailers and chatters
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5% of callers fall outside our target groups and include, for example, people with general internet concerns, requests for general information, and inappropriate callers.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Achievements and performance

Achievements and perfomance

How people contacted us

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2023/24 18,997
2022/23 16,764
0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 18,000 20,000
Calls Emails Chats
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Absolutely amazing, so professional and understanding. Compassionate too. So happy with the service and communication here. So pleased to have found out about this website and helpline.

Fantastic, proactive, kind, impartial, thoughtful and understanding guidance. The advisors are selfless guardians of sanity. Thank you.

Adult male concerned about his sexual thoughts about children

Female concerned about her teenage son’s sexual behaviour

How we help people

We:

We are far more than a listening service

97%

of people we helped agreed on one or more actions to take to protect a child – reducing the likelihood of offending or reoffending

94%

of repeat callers tell us they had taken the actions they had previously agreed on

We protect children by preventing offending

There are few places people can go for help if they are concerned they might sexually harm a child. Just as there are few places people can go if they have concerns about someone they know. We are one of those places.

In 2023/24:

I am so thankful this exists... The advisor was so helpful and completely compassionate and non-judgemental which I’m sure will only help. I was beginning to get a bit overwhelmed about it all recently and shame is such a strong thing. Especially when you have already suffered yourself. I am so grateful for the advisor and for this site so far. Thank you much for the compassion and support on my first call to the helpline. I felt scared and anxious at first, but the advisor helped me to feel calm.

Adult male survivor

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Achievements and performance

Achievements and perfomance

Trends and themes

Artificial intelligence

This year, we started receiving calls from people concerned about the illegal use of artificial intelligence (AI). From mid-November to the end of March we spoke to 34 people who talked about AI.

We are collating anonymised insights and trends from these calls and sharing them with key partners who are looking at how to prevent AI from being used to cause harm, including the Home Office.

AI concerns: a snapshot of calls

Josie, 25, had found our helpline details on Google. She contacted us after her long-term partner, Steven, disclosed that he had been looking at sexual drawings of children created by AI. Josie was worried about the significance of this content and the potential consequences for Steven.

Jacklyn, 35, contacted the helpline with concerns about her 13-year-old stepson, Marcus. Jacklyn had found an image on Marcus’ mobile phone of her face merged, using an AI app, with a naked body. She reported feeling shocked as she had never had any prior concerns about his behaviour. She had not yet spoken with Marcus or her husband about this matter and was not sure how to broach the subject or whether it was best to say nothing.

Isaac, 56, contacted the helpline in January 2024 having recently been arrested for possessing AI-generated sexual images of children that he had sourced from X (Twitter). He said he had been struggling with “a long-term pornography addiction”, which was exacerbated by stress, mostly related to work. On further exploration, it became apparent that Isaac had a long-standing sexual interest in children, and that he felt exploring AI images was less harmful than seeking out images of real children – something our helpline advisors were able explore and challenge.

Further support

Some people we help need additional in-depth or specialist support. We can provide some of this through a follow-up service where callers can speak to an LFF practitioner. This could be, for example, in cases where young people have displayed worrying sexual behaviour and they and their parents need help to implement changes to prevent harm. Our range of online resources are also useful to callers, and our advisors often talk people through the help available, including:

‘ ’ - Get Help online self directed intervention

Self-help for people worried about their own or someone else’s online sexual behaviour towards children

‘ ’ - Get Support online self directed intervention

Self-help for people worried about their own or someone else’s sexual thoughts or behaviour towards children not involving the internet

Parents Protect

Information, support and advice for parents, carers and families looking to prevent child sexual abuse

The advisor was very helpful in listening to my situation and directing me to resources that will help assist me in understanding why it occurred and how to get the support I need.

Adult male who had committed online sexual offences

Concerns about online behaviour

There was a 34% increase (59 vs 44) in the number of adults calling us concerned about the online behaviour of another adult, but when no offence had been committed. Concerns ranged from worries about a loved one’s use of adult, legal pornography, to others who were not sure if the images they had seen their loved one viewing were illegal or not. We also spoke to 59 parents who were worried about their child’s online behaviour, up 44% on the previous year (41). We welcome this increase, which shows that people are recognising online risks and possible concerning behaviour in others and seeking help and support when they need it.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Achievements and performance

Achievements and perfomance

Collaboration across the sector

We work with others across the sector to ensure we and all those working to protect children from harm are aware of the support available from different agencies. Our helpline team keep an up-to-date library of resources to signpost callers towards and we regularly host presentations from partner organisations in our helpline advisor training schedule. We also provide training and awareness inputs for other agencies, including Nightline, the Crown Prosecution Service, Acts Fast, the Police and Crime Commissioners Association, Samaritans and Barnardo’s.

Technological innovations to intervene online

We completed our two-year project with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to implement and evaluate a chatbot targeting people trying to find sexual images of children on Pornhub UK, the adult pornography website operated by Aylo. The automated chatbot attempts to engage users in conversation and then points them towards our services for help to change their behaviour. In February, we published the independent evaluation of the project conducted by colleagues at the University of Tasmania. The evaluation was instrumental in building the evidence base for warning messages to be deployed in online environments where searches for illegal material can be made. Vitally, the report showed:

66

I am proud of our collaboration with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. Over the past year, their Stop It Now helpline has directed over a hundred callers to NAPAC – a testament to our joint dedication to supporting survivors of childhood abuse. This partnership allows us to offer a truly holistic approach, providing compassionate care that empowers individuals to heal and thrive. Together, we not only support survivors but also work tirelessly to prevent future abuse from happening.

Lucy Faithfull Foundation’s commitment and expertise are invaluable, making a tangible difference in the lives of those we support every day.

Crucially, the chatbot experiment showed that warning messages and chatbots have a deterrent effect on people looking for sexual images of under18s on adult pornography websites.

Gabrielle Shaw, Chief Executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC)

Given this promising data, we are now bringing the chatbot into Project Intercept, our Nominetfunded work to develop and scale up online warning messages (see section: advocacy and communications).

We really value our partnership with the Lucy Faithful Foundation and specifically the work of the Stop It Now helpline; we look forward to continuing our work together and strengthening the Met callback scheme.

We are grateful to the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children who originally funded the chatbot project.

Jo Lloyd, Detective Chief Inspector, Metropolitan Police Service

Working with the international Stop It Now family

Thank you

We remain grateful to our core funders, the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice, for their ongoing support, without which the helpline would not exist to help the thousands of people who call every year. We are also grateful to Indigo Trust who provided much-needed funding for the helpline this year.

We continued to work with partners who run Stop It Now projects across the world through regular meetings to discuss operational and strategic issues. We are delighted that the manager for Stop It Now Brussels joined the network, resulting in representation from all the projects across the world.

Case study: Stop It Now UK and Ireland helpline

Robert’s story

enabled devices, an advisor arranged to have our Get Help self-help modules sent to him by post. On a subsequent call it became evident that he was struggling to grasp some of the content of the modules to do with offending pathways, so a series of one-hour call-backs were arranged with a Lucy Faithfull Foundation practitioner to support his understanding after completing each module.

Robert, 42, contacted Stop It Now for the first time in early 2024, three days after being arrested and placed on police bail on suspicion of online sexual communication with children. During his police interview, Robert admitted fully to the illegal online behaviour. Robert works in retail, lives with his parents, and has no access to children. He is currently on bail until July and presented in a highly distressed state.

The outcome

Robert is continuing to keep in touch with the helpline and has completed 4 of his 5 allocated Get Help call-backs. He initially wrestled with the fact that responsibility for his illegal behaviour rests solely with him. He is clear that the call-backs with the practitioner have helped him apply what he learnt from the Get Help modules to himself and is now looking to attend our Engage Plus programme to continue to build a good life without offending. He remains anxious about the police investigation and subsequent court appearance, but receives continuing support from his immediate and extended family. In discussion with the police, he now has a mobile phone that does not have internet access and he has begun to use his parent’s computer, but only when under their supervision.

What we did

Initial advice from the helpline focused on stabilising Robert’s mental health. As encouraged by the advisor, Robert arranged an urgent GP appointment and called back to the helpline the next day, confirming that he had been prescribed antidepressants by his GP. Over the next month, Robert called the helpline every two weeks and reported improvements in his wellbeing and mental health. As he no longer had access to any internet-

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Achievements and performance

Achievements and perfomance

----- Start of picture text -----
Stop It Now UK and Ireland helpline
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----- Start of picture text -----
Last year we said we would… This year we will…
EE
1. Develop a diversity plan to extend our reach 1. Start the evaluation of the helpline under the
If your child is
and meet the needs of more people within Oak Foundation Prevention Global project
our key target groups. Our diversity plan was with Professor Elizabeth Letourneau at Johns being investigated
implemented. We offered a translation services Hopkins University and Professor Michael Seto for harmful
to callers and made navigation of our online at the University of Ottawa.
resources easier. Across the year we started sexual behaviour
to collect diversity data to help us understand 2. Develop a webinar to share helpline insights
our audiences better, and inform future service and make this available for as many
development. professionals as possible through networks
such as NOTA and the NWG Network.
2. Implement live chat for under-18s hosted on a
new website for young people, in partnership 3. Publish a Faithfull Paper looking at trends and
with the LFF young people team. website and live chat service launched inOur Shore insights from the helpline. We can support you
September. By the end of March, 25,596 users
had visited and 106 individual chatters and
emailers contacted us (see section: working with
young people and families: preventing harmful
sexual behaviour).
Call our helpline:
3. Complete a Cardiff University short-term
0808 1000 900
evaluation of our live chat service and agree
If someone you stopitnow.org.uk/helpYP
on evaluation items and methodology with
Professor Elizabeth Letourneau at Johns know is being
Hopkins University and Professor Michael Seto investigated for
at the University of Ottawa for a three-year sexual offences
evaluation project funded by Oak Foundation
(see section: research and international).
Cardiff University has submitted its article to the
Journal of Sexual Abuse, and we are delighted
that our collaboration with them will continue. We can support you
Our work with Professors Elizabeth Letourneau
and Michael Seto has progressed well, with the
evaluation due to start in the year ahead.
Call our helpline:
0808 1000 900
stopitnow.org.uk/gethelp You are not alone
If you’re being
investigated for
sexual offences
We can support you
Call our helpline:
0808 1000 900
stopitnow.org.uk/gethelp
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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

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Achievements and performance

Achievements and performance

Professional services: assessments, interventions and case consultancy

Our multi-skilled practitioner team provides expert assessments and intervention for the family court system, local authorities and others. We provide a national service and are approved by the Legal Aid Agency to provide expert witness testimony to the family courts.

We provide expert assessments and intervention for:

Specialist assessments

These include:

We also provide consultancy to support any professional or organisation working with individuals and families affected by child sexual abuse or harmful sexual behaviour.

Each case is different, but we always help people working with families to create safer environments for children by guiding statutory and third-sector organisations in safe decision-making.

This year, we started delivering psychological assessments and undertook two assessments for a local authority. We also trained our staff on using the Risk for Sexual Violence Protocol (RSVP) for assessments and some senior practitioners were trained in the Structured Assessment of Protective Factors against Sexual Offending (SAPROF-SO), a tool designed specifically for the assessment of protective factors in people with a history of sexual offending.

Case study: Professional services

Psychological assessments

What we did

We were asked by a local authority to assess a mother and father who had one child.

We assessed the father’s risk of sexual harm to his child, whether he could see his child unsupervised, as well as his risk of engaging in further domestic violence. The local authority further requested for him to be assessed on his insight into his offences, his ability to recognise unsafe relationships, and whether ongoing intervention would be required to manage any risks.

The father had a historical conviction for sexual offences against children from around 20 years prior, as well as a history of anti-social behaviour, substance misuse and domestic violence against the mother. Concerns were also raised regarding the mother’s relationship history, which involved a number of relationships with men with previous sexual abuse concerns and domestic abuse issues.

The request regarding the mother was to assess her ability to protect her child from any risks posed by the father or any other person; her awareness of the risk posed to her by the father; and her ability to co-parent with him. We were also asked to assess her understanding of safe and unsafe relationships and any intervention she might need.

Our assessments used clinical interviews, structured professional judgement risk assessments and psychometric measures focused on personality traits, mental health and experiences of relationships.

We produced a comprehensive assessment that contributed to decision-making by the local authority about child protection, and identified intervention work for both parents to increase the safeguarding of their child.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Achievements and performance

Achievements and performance

Our reach in 2023/24

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Assessments, interventions and case consultancy
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256

We delivered 256 risk assessments and 14 case consultancies (270 total), an increase compared to 2022/23 (243). We also delivered 84 pieces of intervention, an increase from 75 in 2022/23.

Interventions

Our interventions with individuals or couples include bespoke interventions with people who have perpetrated harm (or are alleged to have) and work with their family members – partners or parents and carers. Our protective parenting intervention aims to improve parents’ ability to protect their children from sexual harm. Our interventions for children and young people are bespoke and designed to respond to and support the child or young person’s individual needs.

Psychology

Our psychology team supports all areas of our work from training delivery to research and evaluation. This year, the team launched an internal research library and a quarterly research round-up, to ensure staff have ready access to the most relevant and up-to-date research. We also started mapping out a career path from trainee practitioner to practitioner, supported the development of a new evaluation framework for assessments and interventions, and finished the year ready to start providing psychometrics within assessments of young people.

----- Start of picture text -----
Types of assessments
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----- Start of picture text -----
Breakdown:
Gender of adult abuser/potential abusers =117
• [97% Male = 114]
• [3% Female = 3]
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Case consultancy

Our specialist staff provide expert child protection and safeguarding advice and consultancy to statutory and voluntary organisations. We assist clients to work through complex issues and develop clear and effective action plans for clients. We help frontline staff take a fresh look at a case, discuss key themes, provide input around formulation, risk management and safety planning, and signpost to further support or interventions.

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• [48% Adult abuser/potential abuser = 124]
----- End of picture text -----

----- Start of picture text -----
• [4% Adolescents 12-18 = 10]
• [2% Under-12s = 5]
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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Achievements and performance

Achievements and performance Types of interventions Case study: Professional services Assessments •[68% Family member of abuser/potential] abuser = 57 •[24% Adults where there are concerns] about their risk of sexual harm to a Mr and Mrs James have two children: child = 20 a boy aged five and a girl aged two. •[7% Adolescents 12-18 = 6] Mr James has not been living with •[1% Under 12s = 1] his family for over a year due to his arrest and subsequent conviction for online sexual communication with a 13-year-old. Police bail required that he not live at home, although he has maintained regular contact with his children throughout, supervised by either his wife or the children’s grandparents. With the criminal case Who commissioned assessments Who commissioned interventions now concluded, Mr and Mrs James are keen to resume life as a “normal family”, with Mr James living back at home. In light of the conviction, ~~Oo~~ Children’s Services regard him as a high-potential sexual risk who should not be allowed to live with children. They referred the couple to us to undergo specialist assessments concerning Mr James’ sexual risk to his children, Mrs James’ capacity to protect her children and the potential OO for family reunification. •[72% Children’s services = 154] •[89% Children’s services = 61] •[16% Legal services = 35] •[11% Self-funded = 6]

The assessments

Mr and Mrs James met our practitioner in person, both separately and together, with one overall report covering both aspects of the requested assessments. The practitioner spoke with the social worker involved with the family, and had access to the Crown Prosecution Service papers relating to Mr James’ conviction, including transcripts of the online conversations. The social worker was able to report on the children’s wellbeing, including the views of the school and nursery.

The interviews with Mr and Mrs James explored their views on and attitudes towards the concerns for their children’s safety in light of Mr James’ online behaviour. They also covered their respective backgrounds, upbringing and relationships, their relationship with one another, their boundaries, strengths and weaknesses, their views on parenting and safeguarding the children, and their hopes for the future. As well as using direct questions, the interviews included discussing a range of scenarios relevant to their current family circumstances. The assessment of Mr James’s risk to his children explored his online sexual behaviour, his motivation for offending, pornography use and sexual interests, his pathway to desisting from offending and his relapse prevention plan. It included utilising the Risk for Sexual Violence Protocol (Version 2) structured professional judgement tool. The assessment of Mrs James explored her insight into the concerns about her husband’s offending, her perspective on Mr James’ risk and her insight into indicators of concerns in him and in the children. It considered her ability to be a powerful adult protector, providing stability, open communication, and physical and emotional safety for the children.

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Achievements and performance

Achievements and performance

Assessments, interventions and case consultancy

The outcome

An extensive assessment report provided to Children’s Services concluded that Mr James posed a low risk of further sexual offending generally, including a low risk of sexually offending against his own children. There was no evidence of a primary sexual interest in children, he bitterly regretted his sexual offending behaviour and had undertaken an intervention programme with a psychologist with relevant expertise to explore his behaviour in detail and develop a robust relapse prevention plan. Moreover, he evidently had a strong and positive relationship with his wife and children, with various sources confirming the children benefited from their relationship with him.

The assessment of Mrs James concluded that she was a powerful protective presence in the household. She had also attended sessions with Mr James’ psychologist, and the couple had undertaken extensive work to repair their

relationship after the impact of Mr James’ offending on them as a couple. Mrs James had a good understanding of child sexual abuse and the warning signs of concerning behaviour in children and in adults. She demonstrated strength of character, independence, resilience and importantly, confidence in taking protective actions. Independent reports from the school and nursery were positive about their parenting. The couple engaged proactively in the assessment process, and it was clear that they were willing to take steps to actively safeguard the children and create a safe home environment.

It was recommended that with a clear safety plan in place, consideration should be given to allowing Mr James to return to the family home. Based on the assessments, the social worker involved in the case was able to close the Child In Need Plan and agreed to allow Mr James to return to his family home and live with his children.

Last year we said we would…

This year we will…

  1. Work to extend the range of interventions 1. Focus on understanding our impact, including we offer to protect children – including the implementing new ways of collecting feedback development of clear frameworks for the from people who commission our services. delivery of our interventions for adults. We 2. Train our practitioners in Compassion Focused

reviewed our existing intervention materials Therapy (CFT) – a trauma-focused way of

and implemented a standard set of objectives engaging with people we work with that also

supported by a range of resources. We has benefits for staff care and wellbeing. We will

also held internal training and development sessions for staff. review how we incorporate CFT methods in our

  1. Train our practitioners in Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) – a trauma-focused way of engaging with people we work with that also has benefits for staff care and wellbeing. We will review how we incorporate CFT methods in our assessments and interventions.

  2. Extend the reach and range of LFF consultancy work across adults, children and young people. Case consultancy numbers have increased from last year, with the majority involving children and young people. Building on the skills and experience of our practitioners, we will continue to promote our expertise to professionals.

  3. Review the assessment and interventions we offer for children and young people and their families. Our referral numbers decreased, so we will investigate why, and review what we can offer to ensure we are meeting the needs of these people.

  4. Publish a Faithfull Paper, sharing our unique expertise and practice insights into our protective parenting interventions. We published this in March: The role of protective parenting assessments and interventions in the prevention of child sexual abuse.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Achievements and performance

Achievements and performance

Achievements and performance

Circles of Support and Accountability

In July, we started a Circles of Support and Accountability project in the West Midlands region. One of a number of new projects across the country funded by a HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) contract, it saw our return to delivering Circles, having closed our last Circles in 2017/18.

Our reach in 2023/24

Circles are a proven intervention to reduce risk in those who might pose a risk of sexual harm. Circles are community-based initiatives, designed to reduce sexual offending. They are an innovative and successful contribution to child protection. Circles are made up of 4 to 6 trained volunteers from the local community who help to support one person who has sexually offended – the Core Member. They work in close partnership with criminal justice agencies, and the Core Member is subject to probation oversight throughout the process.

Circles of Support and Accountability

50

The Circle provides practical skills and support to the Core Member, according to their needs, which might include social skills, finding work or hobbies, or looking for suitable accommodation. This helps reduce the risk of reoffending and limits isolation where offending behaviour often starts.

We trained 43 volunteers, assessed seven core members and started three Circles, two in Stoke on Trent and one in Birmingham.

Volunteers commit to meeting with the Core Member for 12 to 18 months supporting them to recognise unhelpful thoughts, feelings and patterns of behaviour which might link to their risk of offending, and encourage them to develop more healthy strategies.

Antonia, a previous West Midlands Circle volunteer, said:

I started volunteering with Circles as I was interested in gaining experience working with people who had committed offences and preventing reoffending; what I gained as a volunteer was so much more.

The experience of being trusted to be part of a reliable support system, getting to know somebody who might struggle with trust and is fearful of rejection, and then watching that person grow and change was brilliant. It was also great to work together with other volunteers and professionals who were compassionate and from all walks of life. Overall, it was the inspiration for me to train to be a psychologist.

The best part was watching the Core Member make meaningful changes to his life. We know from research into sexual offending that social isolation and lack of healthy relationships can increase risk. We got to watch our Core Member improve his social skills and gain confidence in problem solving things like managing triggers and employment and accommodation difficulties.

To anyone wondering about getting involved, you won’t regret it and you get lots of training and support. I feel privileged to have been allowed to do it twice.

Looking ahead

We welcomed the opportunity to tender for the HMPPS contract and were delighted to start delivering Circles again. While we knew the twoyear contract would come with challenges and some financial risk, we were prepared to manage these on the basis that any losses in year one would be offset in year two. A slow start and changes to the referral process resulted in contract payments from HMPPS of £50,706 only covering 58% of our costs, with the remaining amount being supported by a £10,000 grant from Circles UK and £26,634 from our unrestricted funding. In addition, uncertainty around the longevity of the project meant we could not take on any new core members, which resulted in us not being able to generate further contract income. While we remain committed to delivering Circles, we cannot afford to sustain the project without confirmed funding for our core costs. At the end of the year the contract was placed on hold while we worked with HMPPS and Circles UK to achieve this.

Volunteers are supported by a professional Circle Coordinator, who liaises with other key professionals working with the Core Member, including police, probation, health and housing.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

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Achievements and performance

Achievements and performance

Tackling online child sexual abuse: services for those arrested and their families

Online child sexual abuse continues to be a huge problem with no signs of abating. Since 2019 the number of sexual images of children 1 reports have increased by 87% and each month, around 800 people are arrested in the UK for offences related to viewing and sharing those images, and having sexual conversations with children.

Of Inform Plus participants who completed evaluations:

While undoubtedly more needs to be done to prevent online offending in the first place (see section: advocacy and communications), we make sure services are available for people affected by an arrest. This includes those who have caused harm, to help them manage their behaviour in the future, and it includes their families, who struggle with the emotional and practical impact of the arrest of a loved one. We offer evidence-based psycho-educational programmes as well as online support services.

~~i~~ Inform Plus – to help prevent viewing sexual images of children

The course was immensely useful and has prevented me from finding myself in a much darker place. I feel that it has been the first stepping stone towards getting my life back on track. Many thanks to the team for their professionalism and understanding, which has improved my self-esteem substantially. 99

This programme is for men who are under investigation for, or have been arrested, cautioned or convicted of, viewing sexual images of children online. Delivered as a group or individually, it helps men understand their behaviour and implement strategies to avoid reoffending. It is mostly self-funded by participants, with some subsidised places for those in financial hardship.

Inform Plus participant

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Inform Plus
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211

Across England and Wales, 146 men attended the group programme, 34 completed the course on an individual basis, and an additional 31 men had a single assessment session.

That’s 211 men in total, an increase of i 23% compared to 2022/23 (171). |

1 WeProtect Global Alliance, Global Threat Assessment 2023

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Achievements and performance

Achievements and performance

Case study: Inform Plus

Josh’s story

Josh, 35, first contacted our Stop It Now helpline in August 2022 after being given our contact details by the police. He had not been arrested, but officers had attended his property, seized all electronic devices and told Josh he was being investigated on suspicion of possessing sexual images of children, stored on his Dropbox. On his call, he accepted full responsibility and admitted to viewing sexual images of children for sexual gratification, although he denied any attraction to children in real life. Josh worked as an engineer, lived with his wife who was supportive of him, and had no access to children. He said that since the arrest his mental health had “gone downhill” and he felt he was struggling to get through the day.

Over a series of calls, Josh was forthcoming during the exploration of his behaviour and able to offer lots of insight into his past. He had a history of trauma and is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. He shared that his understanding of sex had been shaped by this abuse, which affected his ability to form healthy relationships. Consequently, he said he often relied on online coping mechanisms such as gaming and pornography. He said his pornography use had escalated during the COVID-19 lockdowns and that the frequency of his viewing habits had “got out of hand”.

He reported that he had initially searched for sexual images of children online using Google and then through various social media platforms. He said he had exchanged images with other adults online. When thinking back on this aspect of his behaviour, he spoke about the welcome sense of “community” he had experienced.

What we did

On the first call, our advisors focused on Josh’s wellbeing. We recommended he visit his GP for a mental health assessment, which resulted in being prescribed antidepressants. We encouraged him to engage with our online self-help resources, Get Help, both for his wellbeing but also to develop a better understanding of his offending behaviour. Given the concerns about his pornography use, we recommended he read “In the Shadows of the Net”, to help him understand more about how problematic internet-based sexual behaviours can manifest. He was keen to take further steps to tackle his behaviour and went on to complete our Inform Plus programme.

The outcome

Josh responded positively to our support and diligently followed our recommendations. Commenting on the programme, he said he felt he had benefited most from exploring the impact on the victims. He said that seeing images through a screen had added a “distance and detachment from the children in the images” and that “it had been very easy to lose empathy”. He said that the programme had caused him to experience “a flood of empathy for them.” He said he had come to recognise that “these children were suffering the same abuse that I had once suffered myself.” He was adamant that he would never view sexual images of children again.

Josh was charged with three counts of possession of illegal images. He was sentenced to 100 hours of unpaid work, a three-year community order and was placed on the sex offenders register for five years. Josh lost his job as an engineer as a result of his conviction and it took some time to find contract work. He feels the future is still very uncertain and remains on medication for depression. However, he has greatly reduced his use of adult pornography and his wife continues to offer him support.

In 2023, Josh was invited back to an Inform Plus group as a guest speaker and he shared his journey, but especially what he learnt since his arrest. He said he was glad to do this as it gave him a sense of purpose.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

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Achievements and performance

Case study: Engage Plus

Engage Plus – to help prevent online sexual communication with children

This programme is for men who have had sexual conversations with children online, solicited sexual images from children online or attempted to meet with a child after communicating online, with the intention of committing a sexual offence. Like Inform Plus, it is designed to help men understand their behaviour and put in place strategies to avoid reoffending in the future. It is mostly self-funded by participants, with some subsidised places for those in financial hardship.

Engage Plus

----- Start of picture text -----
85
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Across England and Wales 43 men from completed the group programme, 23 completed the course on an individual basis, and an additional 19 had a single assessment session.

That’s 85 men in total, an 18% increase on 2022/23 (72).

Of Engage Plus participants who completed evaluations:

Just want to say thank you for listening, for giving an understanding and allowing a platform to install necessary change in life.

Engage Plus participant

Ben’s story

Ben, 40, came to us seeking support following a 2017 conviction for sexual communication with children. His conviction related to conversations he had with who he thought were 13- and 14-year-old girls, but who turned out to be police officers. Ben is subject to a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and is on the sex offender register for 10 years. The first six months of his sentence were custodial. He is now supervised by police, lives alone and has no access to children.

Ben contacted us as he recognises that loneliness is a risk factor for him, and he had recently secured a job as a long-distance lorry driver, resulting in him being alone a lot of the time. As a relapse prevention strategy, he wanted to revisit why he behaved as he did and to “be better prepared so that it will never happen again.” He said his time in prison had been “harrowing” and was determined not to go back.

What we did

Ben described how had engaged in online conversations with adults to reduce loneliness, but he acknowledged that this escalated to inappropriate and illegal interactions with individuals he thought were teenagers. He expressed regret that he had ignored the age of those he communicated with online, but also recognised he had found it easier to talk

with teenagers than with adults. The new job is important to him and he does not want to jeopardise it or risk another prison term. Thus, looking to make sure he has the necessary tools to manage his behaviour in the future. He enrolled on our Engage Plus Programme.

The outcome

Ben said he experienced a range of emotions before and after participating in the programme. Initially, he felt nervous and uncertain about what to expect, especially as his conviction was from years ago. But after completing the programme he reported feeling relieved, more knowledgeable, and more aware of the topic areas covered by the programme.

He said he found all sessions extremely useful, but particularly appreciated the sessions covering victim empathy. He said he had learnt more about his risk factors and the steps he should take to make sure he did not offend again. These steps included not using online platforms that are designed for young people and, with his renewed awareness of the law, checking the ages of people he engaged with online to ensure they are adults. He was keen to develop healthy, adult support networks, perhaps through the lorry driving community and with others he had met at the gym he had recently joined. He asked if it was okay to call the helpline every now and then to update on his progress.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Achievements and performance

Achievements and performance

Inform

This programme is for partners, adult family members or friends of people who have been arrested for online offending. They are often in crisis and Inform provides a much-needed safe space for people to talk about what they are going through and gain support from others. It can be delivered as a group or individually.

Inform

165

Across England and Wales, we worked with 165 family members or friends.

That’s a 53% increase compared to 2022/23 (108). In part, this is because we increased our capacity to deliver, and therefore the timeliness of starting groups. But we are also seeing increased demand. Between Inform, our Family and Friends Forum and our Stop It Now helpline, we are able to help families and friends at various stages in their journeys, enabling more people who need us to know about our services and make use of them.

Of Inform participants who completed evaluations:

66

Just want to say thank you for helping me get through an already difficult situation in a sensitive way and without judgement. I appreciate everyone that works hard to support the families involved.

Inform participant

Thank you for this course. I’m grateful for the support it has offered and has reduced my sense of isolation.

Inform participant

Case study: Inform

Martin and Josephine’s story

What we did

Martin, 69, and Josephine, 71, are both retired and first contacted our Stop It Now helpline in May 2023 after their son Caleb, 40, told them he had been arrested for viewing sexual images of children online. They said Caleb had moved back into their home – his bail conditions prevent him from living at home with his children, aged 9 and 13. Caleb works as an IT technician, and outside of his immediate family he had no access to children.

Martin and Josephine were referred to information for adults in their situation on our Stop It Now website. They were also given information about our Inform programme, completed separate initial programme assessments to explore their individual needs in more detail as well as their suitability for the course, and completed the programme together.

~~ao~~ The outcome

When Martin and Josephine completed the programme, Caleb was still living with them and was awaiting the outcome of the police investigation. They continued to supervise his visits with his children. Caleb’s wife had not yet felt able to speak with Caleb and she had not called our helpline. Caleb had called, and was attending our Inform Plus programme.

Martin and Josephine explained that Caleb had been happily married for 15 years and that his wife was struggling to come to terms with what Caleb had done. We suggested they pass our helpline details to both Caleb and his wife.

Martin and Josephine felt the course helped them understand their son’s behaviour and while they still struggled with what he had done, they felt better able to talk to him about what was happening. They said they felt better able to manage the emotional impact of the arrest, and had gained strength from being in a group with others going through a similar situation. They felt they had a greater understanding of the criminal justice processes and the involvement of children’s services, all of which resulted in them feeling more hopeful for the future.

Martin and Josephine described their distress on learning of Caleb’s arrest, mentioning sometimes feeling overwhelmed and isolated. They are now avoiding contact with friends as they feel ashamed of what their son has done. That said, they want to support him as best they can, including by supervising his contact with his children - their grandchildren, which involves a seven-hour weekly trip to collect the children and return them home afterwards. They wanted to try and understand why Caleb had done what he did, and what this meant for his immediate and longer-term future.

Our programme facilitator said Martin and Josephine actively engaged with the content and consistently came with questions. She said it was evident they were using the resources provided to better understand their son’s behaviour and help navigate future challenges.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

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Achievements and performance

Reducing waiting times for initial meetings across our programmes

This year, we recruited seven additional programme facilitators to help us respond to demand for our services, taking our team of sessional staff up to 22. At the start of the year, demand was high with people waiting up to five weeks for an initial meeting. We are now seeing people in one to two weeks. Our new recruits are highly skilled, with experience in social work, therapy, probation and the charity sector.

Focusing on quality and evaluation

We implemented a new quality assurance process. While we consistently receive positive feedback from people we support, we now have additional measures in place to ensure ongoing quality delivery. This includes a thorough induction for new programme facilitators, observation of delivery, and a regular group supervision forum where facilitators can access advice and support from the wider team and supervisors.

We finished the year poised to start using new evaluation measures for Inform Plus and Engage Plus, following the development of a new evaluation protocol for programmes. We identified new measures following a robust process including new theories of change for each programme and a literature review. For Inform, we worked on introducing pre- and post-programme data collection for the first time. The insights we will gather will not only help us measure the impact and evaluate the effectiveness of Inform, but also help us present different types of data to funders, the public, and partners working in this area. The introduction of these new measures across our programmes will ensure each programme achieves its core objectives.

Family and Friends Forum

This is an invaluable peer support network for family and friends of people who have sexually offended online. Users can register and post their own experiences, offering and receiving advice as they navigate their way through the distress and trauma of the arrest of a friend or family member. Running now for six years, the forum continues to go from strength to strength.

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Family and Friends Forum
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13,856
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13,856 posts were made by 957 active users across 1,664 new topics. The forum was viewed by 45,669 users, a 4.7% increase compared to last year (43,625), including over 240,900 sessions, a 5.7% increase. This shows that many people value reading the forum, even if they do not post on it themselves. Support offered by peers on the forum is a lifeline for many. It provides support that they cannot find anywhere else.

The people on this forum fill me with hope and the solidarity you offer gives me strength.

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Family and Friends Forum web users since it launched
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50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24
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Increasing engagement

I’m glad I have helped in some small way by sharing my story. I do pop in and read the forum from time to time. It’s strange, but even though I’m moving on, it’s still important at times, for me to feel part of this group, as no one else in my world can really relate to what I’ve gone through and continue to go through.

In April, we introduced direct messaging in response to recommendations from our 2021 external evaluation. The service allows registered users to message others privately. It was piloted for three months, with feedback telling us that users appreciated the ability to share information that might not be suitable for the public forum. Users also noted that the service enhances the ability to form more meaningful connections and fosters discussions on specific topics or everyday matters that may seem insignificant in the wider issues of forum users. We implemented it fully in July, and across the year 212 users sent 6,078 messages between them.

Forum user

We would like to thank all those who support our work to prevent online child sexual abuse including The Emmanuel Kaye Foundation, Porticus UK and The Dawes Trust.

Following requests, we piloted a virtual meeting of forum users and are planning more dates across the year ahead.

Forum user

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Services for those arrested and their families

Last year we said we would…

  1. Promote our programmes to both showcase our delivery and ensure greater sector awareness. We will work with the media and communications team to explore how we can promote the programmes and the forum across our websites and social media. Our chief executive, Deborah Denis, appeared on Sky News and Radio Four’s Woman’s Hour to talk about the impact on families when a family member is arrested for sexual offences against children. Our Family and Friends Forum, Inform and Circles programmes were highlighted in a special feature in The Mirror. Throughout the year, we have also trialled innovative new messages and content for social media to promote our programmes to drive awareness for both professionals and potential service users.

This year we will…

  1. Continue to ensure quality delivery, for example, through a review of our programmes’ quality assurance approach and the launch of a bi-annual forum user satisfaction survey on the forum.

  2. Take forward what we learnt from our

scoping exercise into how we can increase user engagement with the development of the forum, including through virtual meetings and a user steering group.

  1. Seek to take a more personal approach to our communications, to reach our audiences in the right way at the right time.

  2. Update the Inform manual using findings from the forum evaluation and incorporate trends, themes, and topics discussed/raised on the forum. For example, we will review how trauma-informed both the material and our delivery of the material are. This work commenced in 2023/24 and will continue into the year ahead.

  3. Scope out the involvement of users in the running of the forum, following the recommendations of our forum evaluation. We will explore a quarterly forum user steering group, to discuss the forum, for example, what works, what doesn’t, ideas to take it forward and ideas for the future. In addition, we will explore forum user moderation, which could increase our capacity to moderate and reply to messages on a more frequent and personal level. A scoping paper was produced, exploring possible avenues for user engagement, including concepts such as peer moderation and the creation of a user steering group.

Still from ‘The Knock’ , Stop It Now video

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Achievements and performance

Working with young people, families and professionals to prevent harmful sexual behaviour

Police data indicates that harmful sexual behaviour amongst under-18s accounts for just over half of all reported child sexual abuse and exploitation crimes2. We are dedicated to working to prevent harm, respond effectively, and help rebuild lives.

Since we launched: Since we launched: • more than 25,000 users have visited the Shore

Support for young people concerned about their own thoughts or behaviour

website

In September we launched Shore, our website for teenagers worried about their own sexual thoughts or behaviour, of that of a friend. This pioneering website provides a safe space to navigate the complexities of sexual relationships and behaviour, offering reliable information and advice on a range of topics including consent, the law, online risks and concerns about sexual thoughts or behaviours. The anonymous and confidential chat and email allow young people to get advice and support on issues relating to both online and offline sexual behaviour. The site also invites young people to engage via our ‘have your say’ page, where they can share feedback on the website, submit their own experiences to feature on our ‘real-life stories’ page or submit questions for the ‘your questions, answered’ page.

The website launch was covered in The Guardian, and we held a launch webinar attended by more than 200 people, with input from Deborah Denis (our CEO), Professor Elizabeth Letourneau (director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) and Rachel Haynes (our senior practitioner). This was followed up by a further story in The Guardian, which told one family’s story.

Shore: who contacted us?

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19% 17% 10%
Under 18s (U18s) who had U18s concerned about their Victims/survivors of child
committed an online offence own sexual thoughts about sexual abuse (n=11)
involving indecent images of children (n=18)
children (n=20)
8% 6% 5%
Professionals (n=9) U18s who are concerned U18s who have engaged in
about their general online harmful sexual behaviour
behaviour (n=6) offline (n=5)
4% 4%
U18s concerned about the Adults concerned about the
thoughts of behaviour of thoughts or behaviours of a
someone else (n=4) young person (n=4)
3% 24%
Adults concerned about a Other (n=26)
child or young person who includes adults who have
committed offences, adults
is at risk/showing signs of
concerned about another adult,
being sexually abused or and contacts that do not fall
being groomed online (n=3) within our remit
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Of the under 18s who contacted us, 72% had not yet spoken to an adult about what was worrying them in relation to their own thoughts or behaviour, demonstrating the value of giving young people a safe space to access information, advice and support.

A snapshot of contacts

Sanjay, 17, contacted us after seeing an advert for Shore on Snapchat. He disclosed he had inappropriately touched his younger cousin (aged 7) when he was 12 years old. Over a series of chats, it came to light that his behaviour may have been influenced by his experience of sexual abuse by his grandfather when he was a younger child. The Shore advisors were the first people Sanjay had ever shared these experiences with.

had started having sexual conversations with adults online, who shared illegal sexual images of children with him. He expressed a lot of shame around his online behaviours and had attempted suicide in the past. His family had been supportive and since his arrest, he started seeing a counsellor at school for support. Dean felt worried about being drawn back to the sexual behaviour online and wanted help and support to make sure this didn’t happen.

Luke, 14, told us he was concerned about sexual thoughts and feelings he was having towards younger girls. He said these thoughts started when he was 13, and he was struggling to understand where they had come from. He said he was feeling nervous about going to school, in case he experienced an inappropriate sexual thought and an urge to masturbate. He described feeling shameful and out of control of his sexual thoughts. He was worried his parents would judge him if he went to them for advice.

Alana, 15, was in foster care. She told us she had several friends who she felt only wanted to have sex with her. These relationships were impacting her self-worth and she spoke of smoking marijuana to deal with the difficult sexual encounters. She subsequently told our advisors that these ‘friends’ were adult men and it became clear she was being sexually exploited. Over time, advisors emphasised her right to safety, exploring how she might safely cut contact with these men and build trust with the adults in her life who are there to support and protect her.

Dean, 18, contacted us after being arrested by the police. He had been viewing pornography regularly since the age of 12 and over time

“I think Shore is so vital because there are very few good services in this sector – Lucy Faithfull [Foundation] is the only organisation I am confident and comfortable signposting others too for this type of work, with all ages.”

Shore has been visited by people in 138 countries. Although Shore is a UK resource, this highlights the global need for the service, which is one of very few of its kind in the world.

“This is the most impressive teen website I’ve seen to support and guide on this topic. Lots of great grounding language and tools for teens to navigate their thoughts, feelings, behaviours and needs.”

Feedback from a professional

We are grateful to the Home Office for supporting this work, and to the Charles Hayward Foundation and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation for their initial funding to develop the website.

Christina Knepper, Research Program Coordinator, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Mental Health, Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse

Everyone’s Safer: our project to support effective leadership responses to harmful sexual behaviour in schools

Our three-year project working to address harmful sexual behaviour in schools has completed its second year, meeting its target to directly support 10 schools across the West Midlands each year for three years. The project, supported by KPMG Foundation, aims to:

In each year we support ten schools across the West Midlands and surrounding counties, taking the total number of schools up to 20 so far. Each school engagement starts with research to help understand the context and circumstances of the school’s experiences of harmful sexual behaviour, which is followed by the development of a bespoke engagement plan. These can include a variety of activities and interventions ranging from providing direct support and educational input for pupils and parents to supporting decision-making amongst school leaders.

The project is being evaluated by Dr Emily Setty (senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Surrey) and following the report into the first year of the project, we published a Faithfull Paper.

By March 2024 we had identified the next ten schools to take part in the third and final year of the project.

Supporting a broader spectrum of schools

Across the year, our schools project lead gave additional support to 89 schools through a callback consultation service on our Stop It Now helpline.

The majority of callers required support with safety planning for individual students and a smaller number of schools requested support with their whole-school approach, such as teacher training or group interventions for students.

Examples of support delivered include a threesession twilight training package for a cluster of Staffordshire schools, an online assembly to address harmful sexual behaviour for Year 10 students, and work with a primary school in Worcestershire to tailor and apply their PSHE curriculum.

I advised a colleague to call your helpline when she was concerned about the sexual behaviour of one of her students. She received fabulous advice which has really improved dayto-day safety in school.

A designated safeguarding lead from one of these schools

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The Faithfull Papers
Everyone’s Safer: insights from a year tackling harmful sexual behaviour in schools 1
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Everyone’s Safer: insights from a year tackling harmful sexual behaviour in schools

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By Laura Nott, Sian Meader, Erifili Efthymiadou,
Jessie Timmins and Emily Setty
August 2023
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THE
LUCY FAITHFULL
FOUNDATION
Working to protect children
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Case study: Working with young people, families and professionals

Everyone’s Safer

A support worker from a large independent school called our Stop It Now helpline about Sam, a 12-yearold boy who had displayed harmful sexual behaviours towards numerous students in his year group through unwanted touching over and under clothing. Our advisor discussed how best to safeguard the children who have been harmed and also how best to support Sam, and arranged a onehour follow-up call with our schools project lead.

The support worker said:

“Thank you so much for the work you carried out this week. It has been hugely helpful and valuable for both the pupils and more broadly us, as a school.”

The school’s safeguarding manager said:

On the call, our schools lead and the support worker codesigned an engagement plan. The plan included an assembly on harmful sexual behaviour for the whole year group delivered by our schools lead and a specialist young people’s counsellor; one-to-one safety planning for six students who were directly affected, and drop-in counselling support for other students and staff.

“Thanks for all the fantastic work that you did whilst you were here. We are so grateful for all the work you have undertaken and the reflections so far have been enormously helpful.”

In completing this work, we were also able to test and evaluate new safety plan templates for students who have been harmed by sexual behaviour. These templates will soon be shared on our help for schools webpage.

After the engagement, our project lead and counsellor shared the following reflections with the school staff.

Inform Young People

This is a course for young people who have got into trouble for harmful or illegal sexual behaviour online. The course helps to:

It can also help family members find the best way to support their child at such a distressing time.

Inform Young People

94

We worked with 94 young people – 84 completed the programme and we had review sessions with another 10 (2022/23: 96). We also worked with 28 parents and caregivers (2022/23: 42).

We are increasingly seeing more complex cases coming through to our Inform Young People programme, for example, because the young person has additional needs or because of the behaviour itself.

It has become more difficult to find funding for our Inform Young People Programme, in part because of increased demand on charitable trusts and foundations. We will be exploring alternative funding sources, including statutory funding or commissioning opportunities to help increase the sustainability of the project.

In the year ahead, we will commission an independent evaluation of Inform Young People. We are grateful to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for supporting this.

Without Inform YP, I would never have been able to open up about my problem. They gave me the opportunity to turn my life around and plan a future for myself and I am 100% a better person because of it. Don’t be afraid to talk.

Training participant

We never ever thought we would find our family in this situation and the impact has had a huge effect on my son, my husband and my mental health. Having kind people listen to my worries and give advice was a blessing that we have not taken for granted.

Parent of young person

Helping others help young people

This year, we continued our project to equip other agencies to work with young people who have exhibited harmful sexual behaviour online. With arrests for viewing sexual images of children online growing and a substantial proportion of these being young people, we know we cannot reach everyone who needs help on our own. That’s why we’re grateful to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for funding us to train others in our Inform Young People programme.

We trained 171 people from 10 agencies across the UK and Ireland including those in health, education, the justice service, NGOs and care homes. This is a slight decrease compared to 2022/23 (185 people from 34 organisations).

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Case study: Inform Young People

Working with young people and families

Daniel’s story

Wendy, 43, contacted our Stop It Now helpline after her 16-year-old son, Daniel, was arrested for viewing sexual images of children. She was referred to us by CAMHS. Daniel has ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia, and lives at home with his parents and has one sister who lives away at university.

Wendy told us that Daniel’s illegal online behaviour started when he was 14 years old; he had been viewing adult pornography and found illegal images by accident. At first, he viewed images of children the same age as him, which then escalated to him viewing images of younger children.

Since his arrest, Daniel has been experiencing suicidal thoughts but says he has no intent of acting on them. He has been receiving professional support from a psychologist for this and his ADHD. He has also been prescribed antidepressants.

What we did

One of our young people’s practitioners met with Daniel and his parents to discuss the Inform Young People programme and assess whether this would be a good fit for Daniel. The programme was tailored to Daniel’s situation and circumstances and employed the Good Lives Model as the basis to help him understand his illegal behaviour and the needs he was seeking to meet. Danial was very motivated to learn how to prevent a repetition of the behaviour. The eleven sessions focused on helping Daniel understand more about the reasons

behind his offending behaviour, and developing knowledge and skills to prevent it from happening again. Areas we covered included the law and consent, ‘understanding my own behaviour,’ and the impact of pornography on young people. Daniel completed the Inform YP programme and developed a safety plan which included installing parental controls and filters on his devices and signing up to an agreement that he would not access pornography.

Our practitioner kept in regular contact with his parents and provided follow-up support via phone calls and email.

The outcome

Daniel expressed having a much clearer understanding of the law, legal/illegal behaviour, the potential consequences of offending behaviour and the negative impact pornography can have on young people. He had identified a number of coping strategies to deal with his emotions and he was committed to continuing to engage in self-care activities to soothe his anxiety. He agreed to focus on activities that made him happy, such as playing football, and continuing to spend more time with friends his age.

Daniel received a one-year community order and was not required to be placed on the sex offenders register. The Youth Court Judge and the Youth Offending Service commented that Daniel was in a much better place after completing the programme and that while he would be supported by the Youth Offending Services for the next year, he would not be required to complete any intensive, offencefocused interventions.

Last year we said we would…

This year we will…

  1. Launch our website for young people worried 1. Commission an external independent evaluation about their own or someone else’s sexual of our Inform Young People programme. thoughts, feelings or behaviour where they can 2. Build a meaningful and continuous programme of

receive trusted support and advice and pilot a youth engagement, to ensure the voices of young

chat facility enabling young people to get help people inform our work.

in real-time. We launched our Shore website in September and it logged 25,596 users to the 3. Work to ensure all young people know about the end of March 2024. help available through our Shore website.

  1. Collaborate with the University of Birmingham and Brook to create a UK evidence-based traffic lights tool to aid professionals in responding to incidents of harmful sexual behaviour among 13 to 18-year-olds. The first stage of data collection has been completed, and the project is ongoing.

  2. Secure funding for and maintain the current level of delivery of Inform Young People to children and young people. We managed to keep numbers steady across the year, but funding for our work with young people has been, and remains, a challenge.

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Achievements and performance

Advocacy and communications: infuencing policy and public debate, driving awareness

Advocacy

Our advocacy work aims to influence the systemic changes that are needed to keep children safe. We revisited our strategy, adjusting our five goals to include our work raising awareness of the harm suffered by families when a loved one has offended, and calling for better support. A key feature of our advocacy work is collaboration and we work with partners across the sector to be a collective louder voice. We are grateful to our funders The Indigo Trust, Oak Foundation, The Samworth Foundation and John Ellerman Foundation for supporting our advocacy efforts.

Goal 1

Goal 2

Raising awareness of child sexual abuse and how to prevent it

Promoting the public health approach

Whilst the Online Safety Bill continued to progress through Parliament, we worked in coalition with charitable partners to support briefings to parliamentarians with quotes and case studies and endorsed open letters. Following royal assent, Ofcom issued its first major consultation on illegal harms in which it recognised the preventative approach we pioneered with Google and Bing to deploy content warnings that signpost to our Stop It Now services. These warnings have been cemented as a recommendation in Ofcom’s first code of practice for search services and we used our response to the Ofcom consultation to encourage the new regulator to go further.

We held a joint conference with NOTA, in November, on the public health approach to prevent child sexual abuse. Prevention was considered through a multi-agency public health lens and attendees gained confidence in their roles to prevent child sexual abuse having acquired knowledge, skills and tools to use in their work. The conference was opened by Megan Hinton, victim and survivor advocate at the Marie Collins Foundation, and the voices of survivors were evident throughout.

Goal 3

Further understanding that those who offend can be helped to change

The government announced the independent Pornography Review and we have used the opportunity for scrutiny to ensure that the voices of those we work with are heard in relation to the contribution that pornography made in their pathways to offending. We attended a roundtable hosted by Baroness Bertin who is leading the review, participated in a coalition led by charitable partners and submitted a wide-ranging response to the call for evidence, drawing on insights from all areas of our work.

Goal 4

Raising awareness of the harm suffered by families when a loved one has offended

In collaboration with the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse, we published new guidance for social workers and other professionals to support the whole family when a parent has offended online. For families who find themselves in this situation, the impact can be devastating and the guidance provides practice-led information and resources so that professionals are better able to support families who suffer this harm.

Goal 5

Improve understanding of harmful sexual behaviour and ensure responses are childcentred

Following a recommendation from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, the government announced that it would be implementing mandatory reporting. We responded to both the call for evidence and consultation and continued our participation in IICSA Changemakers, a group of more than 60 members committed to ensuring that IICSA spearheads much-needed change. We emphasised in our submission, and through engagement with the government, the vital need to preserve confidential safe spaces for young people to come forward with concerns that they may have been harmed sexually or may have harmed someone else sexually. In considering the form of mandatory reporting to implement, we urged that consideration be given to the unintended consequence that young people might not reach out for the support they need, which would be a step backwards for child protection.

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Communications

There is no single approach to stopping child sexual abuse, so we have different projects and services for varied audiences. Our public communications represent all of our work to all of these audiences and support our three strategic pillars: ensuring we reach whoever needs us; making the best use of our research, expertise, data and insights; and advocating for a preventative approach to child sexual abuse.

Identity

Speaking to diverse audiences, helping them understand that we are there for them, and directing them to the right service became increasingly challenging as we have grown over the years. Following a review with the input of beneficiaries, staff and stakeholders, this year, we launched our new brand and rolled out the refreshed look and tone of voice across our communications. We have continued work to redevelop our websites to reflect these changes, and this work will be completed in 2024/25.

“Love the way you’ve used a visual line as a barrier, should be very impactful in your creative comms.”

Communications Manager, law enforcement

“Really striking, clever and iconic redesign. Inspiring stuff!”

Graphic Designer, Internet Watch Foundation

“This makes things much clearer to understand, particularly re Scotland and Wales. Really like this.”

Chair, Marie Collins Foundation.

Websites

Our multiple websites help our diverse audiences receive anonymous support whenever they need it. Combined, these websites had more than 1,292,379 users from across the world (an increase of 13% from 1,142,576) and high engagement.

Our Stop It Now website had 981,960 users from across the world (an increase of 23% from 796,880). This website includes our Get Help and Get Support self-help content for people concerned about their own behaviour and those concerned about another adult. This year, we tailored this content to better suit the audience and ensure it is specific to their needs, and based changes to our family and friends section on feedback through user surveys. We refined the layout and content organisation of all sections to improve accessibility and user journeys, making information about wellbeing and moving forward more prominent.

In June we shared Shore, our new website for teenagers, with key partners and stakeholders through a soft launch, followed by a public launch in September with press engagement (see below), an email campaign and a webinar. This brought nearly 3,000 users in five days.

Based on our refreshed identity and brand hierarchy, in the year ahead we will be integrating content from our Parents Protect website into our Lucy Faithfull Foundation and Stop It Now websites. To prepare for this, in the past year we have concentrated our efforts on the above websites and spent less time promoting Parents Protect.

In the middle of the year we transitioned to a new version of Google Analytics as they retired their old platform. Their two systems differ in data collection which means that data might not be directly comparable between different years, and this year’s data may not be completely accurate.

Our websites

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Creating a world free from child sexual abuse

75,216 users (3% decrease) 119,772 sessions

Get Support

Self-help for people worried about their own or someone else’s sexual thoughts or behaviour towards children

75,021 users (29% decrease) 83,638 sessions

Family and Friends Forum

Peer support for people affected by a loved one’s online sexual offending against children 45,669 users (5% increase) 240,900 sessions

Shore

A safe space for teenagers worried about their sexual behaviour

25,596 users (from 26 September – public launch) 35,680 sessions

Stop It Now

Support and advice for anyone when they need it most

981,960 users (23% increase)

Get Help

Self-help for people worried about their own or someone else’s online sexual behaviour towards children

451,795 users (17% increase)

542,419 sessions

Parents Protect

Advice, support and information for parents and carers

131,213 users (42% decrease)

162,130 sessions

Upstream

Helping adults in Scotland prevent child sexual abuse

7,398 users (3% increase)

8,239 sessions

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Press

With an increased focus on press engagement, our output has seen exceptional growth: we supported 29 separate press engagements, more than doubling the total from last year (14). This covered many different aspects of our work. Here are some highlights.

~~TT~~ The I Paper: Stop It Now helpline special feature

This piece provided an opportunity for a wide audience to hear from the people who work on the helpline, their motivations, their professionals skills, and how it feels to provide this type of support.

This piece also heard from two people who had been arrested for viewing sexual images of children and heard about how they worked with us to deal with their offending behaviour and live better lives. Following publication we received calls to our helpline specifically referencing this piece.

The Guardian: Shore

We worked with The Guardian for three major features about Shore, our new website for young people worried about sexual behaviour. This included a news story for the launch which was the lead article on The Guardian website, a follow up piece including testimony from law enforcement, and a powerful case study interview talking to a mother whose teenage son had been — arrested for viewing sexual images of children online.

The piece also included testimony from the son himself.

~~Ns~~ Sunday Times Magazine: Report into sibling sexual abuse

We provided data, research and expert testimony for a special report about the important issue of sibling sexual abuse covered, and were proud to see it published in March 2024, including on the front page. The prominence of the article, the radio coverage and the podcast helped shine a light on the issue of sibling sexual abuse which, despite being the most common intrafamilial form of sexual abuse, is not well understood.

Sky News and BBC Women’s Hour: Family and Friends Forum

The Mirror: exclusive feature

We worked closely with a woman whose husband had been arrested and convicted for viewing sexual images of children online to help tell her powerful story. This piece included links to Stop It Now, our clinical programmes and Circles. It gave an opportunity to help the general public understand the impacts of ‘the knock’ on families of people arrested for child sexual offences, supporting our advocacy goals to see them treated as secondary victims.

Deborah Denis was interviewed live on both Sky News and BBC Women’s Hour to support our research into the needs of the family of people arrested for online child sexual abuse offences, which found that 72% of survey respondents reported symptoms indicative of post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Blog posts

Last year we published 28 blog posts, a substantial increase from the previous year (16). On top of announcements, we published press statements, reflected on high-profile media events and conferences, and continued to shine a light on our key strategic goals.

Topics included: 10 years of delivering our services in Wales, communicating our position on Meta’s decision to roll out end-to-end encryption across more of its messaging platforms, launching our new initiatives Shore and Project Intercept, and announcing our latest research-based Faithfull Papers.

Marketing

Our emails to supporters, professionals and schools give them practical support and information about our services that can help them keep children safe. We sent emails 427,745 times with advice and information to supporters and professionals across the UK, 42.4% more than the year before. This increase is partly because we launched Shore, our new website for young people, and widened the reach for some of our Faithfull Papers.

427,745 We sent emails 427,745 times with advice and information to supporters and professionals across the UK.

An average of 13.1% of people clicked on the information in our emails, up from 12.7% in 2022/23 and higher than the 2.7% industry average.

Social media

Our social media performance has made great progress this year, backed by a refreshed brand identity and new content to promote, especially for Shore. Our strategic approach to content creation, audience engagement, and brand representation has yielded exceptionally positive results, driving increased reach, engagement, and brand visibility. A particular highlight was more than doubling our LinkedIn followers to surpass the 5,000 milestone.

Stopping online child sexual abuse

Deterrence campaign

Online child sexual abuse – viewing sexual images of children and adults having sexual conversations with under-16s – is a vast and growing problem. Our campaign to deter people from starting or continuing this illegal behaviour is supported by law enforcement and governments across the UK and has now run for nine phases.

Each campaign phase is independently evaluated, which contributes to the strategic planning of the next phase. Using analysis of helpline call records and online surveys, evaluation of phase 8 (which finished in May 2023) found:

Our ‘Triggers’ awareness film made in the previous campaign phase was shortlisted in the PR Moment awards in the Not For Profit category.

~~Dn~~

Project Intercept

This year, we launched Project Intercept, our new initiative working with tech companies. The aims of this three-year project are to scale the use of online warnings about the illegality of viewing sexual images of under-18s so they become the norm rather than the exception and build the evidence base for gold standard warnings in different online environments.

We recruited a programme lead and convened our consortium board, which brings together the expertise of the Internet Watch Foundation, the International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University, the University of Tasmania and law enforcement. With their help, we completed a literature review on pathways to online offending and developed a framework to guide how we conduct future experiments. We carried out health checks on our current interventions so that they are optimised and are building relationships across a broad range of platforms and services within the tech industry. This has resulted in one new intervention with OnlyFans, and we expect more to be implemented next year.

Running between November 2023 – May 2024, phase 8 of the campaign aimed to build on these results. To the end of March 2024:

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Following the completion of the evaluation of our chatbot (see section: anonymous advice and support: Stop It Now helpline), it has been brought into Project Intercept, where there will be opportunities to develop and improve it, as well as roll it out to more platforms. Between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, 68,346 global users clicked through to our website from warning messages on Aylo pornography websites (which include Pornhub), including over 1,956 from the UK.

We are grateful to Nominet UK for supporting this innovative project.

Advertising credits

This year, we spent over £79,000 in advertising credits from Google, Meta, Microsoft and Snapchat to help us continue our work in preventing child sexual abuse. Though we have spent less than last year because of staffing issues, credits have allowed us to further raise awareness of our services by advertising on their platforms to reach people who have or might offend, their families, professionals, and the general public. As a result of this funding, our adverts have been served over 15 million times in the UK and brought 51,583 users to our Stop It Now, Shore and Parents Protect websites.

Influencing policy and public debate, driving awareness

Last year we said we would…

This year we will…

  1. Roll out our refreshed identity and branding. 1. Continue our identity project by delivering Our new identity, branding and tone of voice new websites for Lucy Faithfull Foundation are being used across all of our internal and and Stop It Now, to ensure everyone who external communications. needs us can quickly find support.

  2. Restructure our websites to reflect our new 2. Renew our focus on advocacy in a general tone of voice and brand guidelines and deliver election year and with an update due to our on our aim to help our audiences easily find five-year organisational strategy. the support they need. We have agreed on a 3. Engage with new tech partners through

new structure focusing on three core websites Project Intercept to roll out new warning

(Lucy Faithfull Foundation, Stop It Now, Shore) messages bringing people to our online

and will deliver the changes in the year ahead. resources.

  1. Continue to tackle online child sexual abuse through our deterrence campaign and Project Intercept. The ninth phase of our deterrence campaign ran towards the end of the year (see above) and Project Intercept kicked off with a more intense focus on our engagement with the tech industry.

.

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Protecting children in Scotland

Our Scotland team runs the only service in Scotland exclusively focused on preventing child sexual abuse. The team works across multiple strands of work and with partner agencies, government departments and law enforcement to keep children safe. In December, Stop It Now Scotland was rebranded to Lucy Faithfull Foundation Scotland to better reflect the work carried out across the country (see section: advocacy and communications).

Working to improve outcomes for families impacted by online offending

We champion the voices of family members and children impacted by a loved one’s arrest for online offending, with the goal of helping the police and social work better respond to their needs.

Each year, there are around 800 investigations into adults viewing sexual images of children in Scotland. These people are more likely to be in a relationship and have children compared to other sexual offenders. For partners, discovering this offence is traumatic, bringing feelings of shock, fear and confusion. The impact on children can be devastating. For these family members, the fallout from investigations often leads to relationship breakdowns, being ostracised from their community and overwhelming shame.

Knock NOC exhibition

In August 2023, we hosted an invite-only exhibition at our offices in Edinburgh called “Knock NOC: the lived experiences of non-offending partners and children.” Naomi McGookin, a doctoral researcher at Glasgow Caledonian University, and family members of people who had been arrested curated the exhibition.

It featured a collection of images, poetry and prose of family members’ experiences as they navigated life after ‘the knock’ (a term used by families to describe the initial visit from police) and became NOCs (non-offending carers – a term used by social services). The exhibition also included children’s experiences through their drawings and journaling.

The exhibition highlighted the needs of family members to practitioners and policymakers and advocated for a more trauma-informed response. Thirty-five people attended the exhibition, including family members, representatives from the Scottish Government, statutory services, charity CEOs, and academics. In November, it was also shown in the Scottish Parliament.

Knock NOC exhibition, Edinburgh

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Family members speaking up for better public services

Over the last year, we have been leading a working group called the Scottish Indirect Victims of Indecent Images of Children group. On the group are representatives from key stakeholders such as health, law enforcement, education and people with lived experience. The group’s goal is to collaboratively understand more fully what services are required to support partners and family members impacted by the arrest of a loved one for online sexual offences. The group reports to Police Scotland’s Multi-Agency Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Group and will publish a report of findings and recommendations in 2024/25.

Case study: two siblings’ story

Caption: Last year we worked with two siblings who produced a diary in which they reflected on their own experience of their journey after their father was arrested. With their permission, it was used in the Knock NOC exhibition and is being used in training by the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse.

Our direct work with families

We worked with 97 family members of people who had offended, a 30% increase from the previous year (74). All were offered one-to-one support focused on safety and stabilisation responding to the trauma that many partners describe after finding out about their loved one’s behaviour. Seventeen progressed on to our Inform group work programme.

Children are particularly impacted when a guardian or parent is arrested for an online sexual offence. They often describe being terrified that their peers and adults will find out, as well as fears and anxieties about what will happen to their loved ones. We supported seven young people (under 18 years old) who were impacted by a parent or guardian’s arrest.

Working with families

97

We worked with 97 family members of people who had offended, a 30% increase from the previous year (74).

The [Inform] course was very reassuring and informative, it reassured me I was not alone in this situation and allowed me to understand more about why my son offended. It opened up conversations about my concerns and I was able to speak with people going through the same situation. 99 Family member

“Stop It Now does some tremendous work with offenders and also with families. I recently attended and spoke at an event in its offices …The harm that is caused by viewing indecent images of children is huge, and the crime is abhorrent. That should not be understated. However, we should not overlook the fact that there are secondary victims: the families who are traumatised by the investigations into a loved one. It is, indeed, a trauma. I want a justice and social work system that acts with more | care and sensitivity and that considers non-offending carers as people—as humans, often with children and with needs and hopes. We need to fund services to produce better outcomes for families and to help them to move on from the distress and trauma when a loved one is arrested.”

Willie Rennie MSP, Scottish Parliament debate on online child sexual abuse and exploitation, September 2023

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Work with adults who present a risk of harm to children

This is a critical part of our work to prevent child sexual abuse.

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We ran four Inform Plus groups with 46 people attending. On average, people who completed pre- and post-evaluation forms reported improvements in managing problematic behaviour (12% increase), in seeing a positive future (40% increase) and a reduction in suicidal thoughts (50% decrease).

Twelve people attended Breaking the Links, our adapted version of Inform Plus for adults who have experienced trauma. Those who attended reported on average, a 51% increase in knowing how to manage their emotions, a 50% increase in understanding why they had offended, and a 64% increase in understanding how trauma had impacted them.

We provided one-to-one support to 85 people who did not meet the criteria for group work or while waiting for a group programme to start in 2024/25.

“Your help, care and encouragement have been absolutely invaluable to me, thank you - and your colleagues - from the bottom of my heart. I wouldn’t have survived without you. I really appreciate everything you have done to help me and can’t thank you enough. Thank you again for taking the time to listen to me - it has changed my life. I do not know what I would have done without your assistance.”

50% increase

We had a 50% increase in adults who present harm to children access our services.

In total, we supported 143 people (up from 47 in 2022/23) worried about their thoughts, feelings or behaviours towards children, some of whom had been arrested for online offences against children.

Work with young people

We worked with 15 young people who displayed harmful sexual behaviour, helping them understand the impact of their behaviour and desist from further harm and move on positively with their lives. We also provided one-to-one support to the parents of these young people (numbers included in family data above).

We completed year one of a three-year project cofunded by the City of Edinburgh and RS Macdonald Charitable Trust to develop an evidence-based approach to prevent harmful sexual behaviour in school settings.

Young people engaging in harmful sexual behaviour is a very real and increasing problem. To help statutory services support young people appropriately we offered free training on how to deliver our Inform Young People programme. In total, we provided three training sessions to Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice, Mid and East Lothian Councils, and Perth Council, reaching 45 professionals.

“I contacted this service as I was looking for help for my 15-year-old child who was struggling with online stuff. LFF Scotland was amazing. They came to the house for the first appointment and to meet my son, and as a family we have never looked back...they helped him so much, with content online, showing him where he was making bad choices and how to not make bad choices in future. The confidence he has got from working with them is amazing...he even tells me stuff that I didn’t know! So thank you.”

Parent of a young person

Advocacy

One of the main barriers to tackling child sexual abuse is that statutory services typically focus on abuse after it has been identified. To make the country a safer place to grow up, we are advocating for a national strategy to tackle child sexual abuse that focuses on prevention.

During the year, we:

We would like to thank all those who support our in work in Scotland, in particular the Scottish Government for proving crucial core support.

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Last year we said we would…

  1. Evaluate Breaking the Links, our group work programme for adults involved with online sexual offences who themselves have a history of trauma. This work is almost completed and will be published in 2024/25.

  2. Work in two high schools in Edinburgh, working with young people, parents and staff to pilot and evaluate harmful sexual behaviour prevention strategies. We have now completed year one of this work.

  3. Make publicly available our programme for working with children and young people who have been affected by the arrest of a loved one for an online sexual offence. This has now been completed and will be published in 2024.

This year we will…

  1. Conclude the Scottish Indirect Victims of Indecent Images of Children group and make recommendations on how the police, social workers and other professionals can positively support partners and family members affected by the arrest of a loved one for a sexual offence.

  2. Provide training for counsellors and

  3. psychotherapists about working with adults who are worried about sexual thoughts, feelings and behaviours towards children.

  4. Deliver a campaign designed to deter online sexual offending against children in partnership with Police Scotland.

Breaking the Links participant

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Achievements and performance ~~—~~ Preventing child sexual abuse in Wales

Keeping children safe from sexual abuse In 2023/24 Lucy Faithfull Foundation Wales:

Lucy Faithfull Foundation Wales works across the country to make sure children are safe. Since 2008, we have worked with the government, charities, frontline services and the general public to make sure everyone is doing what they can to protect children from harm. In December, Stop It Now Wales was rebranded to Lucy Faithfull Foundation Wales to better reflect our work (see section: advocacy and communications).

For the last four years, we have been delivering a number of projects linked to the National Action Plan for Preventing and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse, and we are now entering our final year. We hope that the development of the new action plan will provide opportunities for our vital work with families, communities and people who work with them to continue. We are grateful to the Welsh Government for supporting our two main projects: Keeping children safe from sexual abuse, and Early intervention for vulnerable or at-risk families.

Keeping children safe from sexual abuse

This project aims to ensure parents, carers, professionals and volunteers working with children and families are best placed to prevent child sexual abuse and reduce adverse childhood experiences.

98% of attendees

to our public education sessions would recommend them to a friend and all attendees say they feel supported to protect the people that matter to them from abuse.

We reached 3,998 people

through our education sessions, training sessions, webinars, consultations and newsletters.

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Case study: LFF Wales

How we helped Plant Dewi

Impact

Plant Dewi is a project of the Diocese of St Davids, supporting families in their communities. With a particular focus on supporting fathers and young parents in rural isolation, it offers a range of community-based family support services across Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion.

Many parents said they were shocked to learn about the scale and nature of child sexual abuse, but felt it was better to know this and become a little more comfortable talking about it. They valued the practical tips about how to keep their children safe online, worrying behaviours to look out for, and healthy sexual development in children. They also appreciated tips on how to talk to their children in age-appropriate ways about respect, boundaries and consent. Some parents bought printed resources with others signing up to the library so they could all use these resources with children at home. We’ll continue to work with and support Plant Dewi, including running more sessions for more families.

Given their insights into the scale and nature of child sexual abuse, the Plant Dewi team wanted to ensure the communities they work with had access to information and resources to help keep children safe from sexual harm. We worked with the team to put together a range of events which covered information about understanding and preventing child sexual abuse, keeping children safe online, recognising and responding to harmful sexual behaviour in under-18s, and preventing child sexual exploitation.

“The sessions have been very beneficial. Parents have opened up and shared experiences and are now aware of the support available to them which is much needed. Lucy Faithfull Foundation Wales is an invaluable resource to parents and organisations across Wales.”

We delivered 20 education sessions to 132 people through their Families Together groups. Given the natural sensitivities about discussing matters of child sexual abuse and its prevention in an open forum, we introduced topics and themes gently, using books and video content to support learning, but also ensuring plenty of time for questions and breaks.

Families Together project co-ordinator, Plant Dewi.

“The last four sessions have been fantastic! It’s been interesting to have thought-provoking conversations around sensitive topics. I have found each session really informative. The facilitator has been a delight to speak with, I have enjoyed the time she has spent with us. I highly recommend that parents receive these sessions. They are a big eye opener to what goes on and the dangers around.”

As well as the work with the Families Together groups, we delivered an additional eight sessions to 39 people in the Young Parents group. The youngest parent was aged 18 and the oldest aged 26.

Parent, Families Together

Early intervention for vulnerable or at-risk families

We work with families identified by statutory or community services as at risk or as needing early intervention with regard to child sexual abuse. The interventions are tailored to participants’ needs, giving them the opportunity to voice their concerns, speak openly about their worries and shape content and delivery. Each family co-produces a family safety plan to help protect children in the future.

We completed interventions with 60 families, which often involved working with multiple family members, including kinship carers and foster carers. This is an increase compared to 2022/23 (50).

Complex cases

The referrals, this year, remained complex, with increasing amounts of time spent with each referral agency and family. Here are some examples.

Case study: LFF Wales

Historical sexual abuse within a family

We supported a family of four adults referred by children’s services. The agency had concerns about neglect and physical and historical sexual abuse within the family, but the referral centred around recent concerns about sibling sexual abuse by Daniel, 11, against his two younger siblings aged 3 and 4. Daniel was living with his grandparents who were going through the process of being granted kinship care for him. We worked with both of Daniel’s grandparents, as well his mother and father.

Over three months we provided educational and emotional support to all four adults. The family had lots of questions and welcomed the opportunity to increase their understanding of the boy’s behaviour and learn about strategies to put into place to support him and protect other siblings within the family. We also carried out an AIM under-12 assessment which recommended an intervention for Daniel.

The family co-produced a robust family safety plan to help them care for Daniel and protect his siblings. This included establishing clear boundaries, recognising and responding to inappropriate behaviours and knowing the warning signs to look out for in children and young people who might be being harmed.

“I’m so glad to be able to have been given the time to do this course. I believe it has changed my views and helped myself and my family for a much brighter future. Without this course, I don’t know what we would have done. I feel it has been essential to us.”

“Working with Claire has been very helpful. She was very reassuring. The sessions were useful and I walked away with lots of resources and knowledge. It is tough to talk about child sexual abuse but I feel that I have benefited massively from participating in sessions with Claire.”

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The Families First, Conwy Borough Council project

It is a testament to how much the work we do in Conwy is valued that 2024 was the tenth year that we were awarded a grant by Conwy County Borough Council. With funding from Families First, we delivered child sexual abuse prevention awareness sessions to parents and carers across the borough, with a focus on families with children who have additional needs. We delivered 15 sessions reaching 113 people, lower than last year (23 sessions reaching 106 people) reflecting a reduction in funding from £10,000 to £7,500.

When asked what they would do following the session, here’s what participants said.

Advocacy

Working with the government

We worked with the Welsh Government and key partners to start creating the next National Action Plan for Preventing and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse, and are delighted to have led on the prevention strand. Each workshop used a theory

of change methodology to identify the overall goal of the next plan, the strategic aims, the long-term and short-term outcomes, and we are working on the activities and outputs that will enable us to achieve these. We also continued to act as a joint secretariat on the Cross-Party Group (CPG) on Child Sexual Abuse Prevention.

Working with partner agencies

We hosted three Lucy Faithfull Foundation Wales Action Group meetings to facilitate information sharing, good practice and reflection on current trends and concerns, meeting on a quarterly basis with 13 key partners, including Survivors Trust Cymru, Children’s Society, Crime Stoppers UK, EYST, Cardiff University, NSPCC Cymru, Arch Diocese of Cardiff, Wales Police School Programme and Barnardo’s. Members have engaged in discussions on important topics, for example, recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, and the new national action plan. The group also reviewed resources including our family safety plan and our Shore website.

Working with the public

We attended the National Eisteddfod in Llyn and Eifionydd, Boduan in Gwynedd. We engaged in Welsh and English and met with 166 adults and 269 children and young people, gave out activity packs to 98 families, plus additional resources to professionals, young people and parents, and colouring activities for younger children. We were delighted that Jane Hutt, the Minister for Social Justice, visited the team and our information hub.

The team also spoke with people who chose to share their own experiences of sexual abuse including a 15 year-old-girl who told the team she thought our campaign and resources were wonderful – and so badly needed. She did not want other children to suffer the way she has and felt it was important to get messages out there, and the earlier the better.

Lucy Faithfull Foundation Wales

Last year we said we would…

This year we will…

  1. Continue our Keeping Children Safe project to 1. Deliver year five of our Keeping Children build the knowledge, confidence and skills of Safe project to build the knowledge, parents and carers in preventing child sexual confidence and skills of parents and carers abuse. We will increase our reach with parents in preventing child sexual abuse. We will and carers, and other community groups recruit more parent consultation groups to across Wales, for example, foster carers, ensure we continue to meet the needs of LGBTQ+ and ethnic minority groups. This will those we seek to reach. include attending the National Eisteddfod 2. Deliver year five of our early intervention

and resuming in-person multi-agency training project for vulnerable or at-risk families.

days. We have worked with parents in specific We will use insight from the work to date to

community groups, including foster carers support our holistic approach with families.

and extended our reach with families with children with additional needs. We attended the 3. Continue with the Cross-Party Group National Eisteddfod and in place of in-person steering groups, and work with the Welsh

training events delivered two half-day webinars Government and key partners on the and four keynote speaking events.

  1. Deliver year five of our early intervention project for vulnerable or at-risk families. We will use insight from the work to date to support our holistic approach with families.

  2. Continue with the Cross-Party Group steering groups, and work with the Welsh Government and key partners on the second national action plan in responding to and preventing child sexual abuse.

  3. Continue to promote our early intervention project for vulnerable or at-risk families. We will take a more holistic approach with families for better outcomes and develop more resources for families with additional needs. We supported 60 families following 99 enquiries from local services. We continue to have good relationships with children’s services and regularly hold case discussions and attend meetings, and case conferences/reviews when available.

  4. Continue with the Cross-Party Group steering groups, and work with the Welsh Government and the regional Safeguarding Boards on the second national action plan in responding to and preventing child sexual abuse. We continued to act as a joint secretariat on the Cross-Party Group on Child Sexual Abuse Prevention and participated in Theory of Change workshops to help create the second national action plan.

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Supporting professionals: training and consultancy

Who we delivered training to

Number of events we delivered

We know how important it is that people working with children and families have the knowledge, skills and confidence to identify, respond to and prevent child sexual abuse. We also know how hard this can be. That’s why our training and consultancy are designed with people on the frontline in mind.

Our courses are delivered by experienced, skilled, clinical staff who share their practice-based insights. Our materials are continually refreshed and updated to reflect the latest developments, research and evidence.

It will make me a better interviewer – more specific. Less impressionistic.”

Safer Recruitment in Education, participant

Our plans to help more professionals respond to and prevent child sexual abuse

This year, we were fortunate to benefit from some pro bono support from an MBA student who produced a strategic marketing plan for training. The plan detailed how we could shape our communications and approach to delivery to ensure we reach our audiences with the information they need. We are implementing many of the recommendations from the plan and will continue to do so in the year ahead.

Bedding in new courses

We refreshed and delivered two of our newer courses: “Working with families affected by sibling sexual abuse: a roadmap for safeguarding” and “Caring for children who display harmful sexual behaviour: a therapeutic, trauma-informed approach” (for foster and residential carers) and developed a third: “Women who sexually abuse children – an introductory course”.

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1,174

We delivered 86 training events to 1,015 professionals, a decrease compared to 2022/23 (125 events to 2,370 people). We also delivered 16 Safer Recruitment events to 159 people, an increase on 2022/23 (12 events to 123 people).

In total we trained 1,174 people, a reduction from 2,493 the previous year. It isn’t easy to pinpoint one single reason why our training output reduced so much this year, although it has returned to levels more akin to 2021/22 numbers (93 events for 1,472 people). We suspect that squeezed budgets within the sector will have had an impact, and training methods have evolved since COVID-19, with some organisations preferring shorter, online events and webinars.

I feel I have a more in-depth understanding of assessing protective carers and will be able to apply this in practice and assessment.

Understanding and assessing the protective carer in the context of child sexual abuse, participant

Feel more confident in talking about the subject, also more confident of knowing where to signpost the client for further support.

Understanding men who sexually abuse children, participant

Feedback from participants is consistently excellent and demonstrates the knowledge and expertise of our trainers and the relevance of the training we offer.

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Case studies: Training and consultancy

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Bespoke training for an organisation

We delivered training to a social enterprise which supports men subject to probation supervision in work, education and employment. Some of their client group have convictions for sexual offences, and this was not an area in which their staff had particular knowledge or expertise. Their objectives were:

  1. to understand more about the psychology of sexual offending, including the reasons why people commit such offences and the associated risks

  2. to gain a deeper appreciation of the challenges people face in rebuilding their lives

  3. to acquire skills in how best to support their clients to achieve these outcomes

We delivered our ‘Understanding men who sexually abuse children’ training and participants’ feedback was extremely positive. Comments included:

“Promoted healthy discussions and challenged our thinking around the subject.”

“Gave me skills on specific communication techniques”

“Better understanding and really useful ways of working with this client group.”

Open course

We hosted ‘Understanding and preventing online sexual abuse’ as an open course onto which organisations and professionals booked individual places, rather than a bespoke course for a specific organisation. The training focused on the range of sexual offences committed online; how the internet is a factor in understanding people’s decision-making; the relationship between online and offline sexual offending; and assessing and managing risk. Participants came from a range of professional backgrounds, such as independent social workers, counsellors and safeguarding leads. Discussions of the key topics were enriched byparticipants sharing their different experiences and perspectives, making for an engaging and impactful day.

Last year we said we would…

This year we will…

  1. Pilot delivery of training focused on assessing 1. Establish deeper collaborations with the risk posed by women who have engaged in those who require our training so we abusive sexual behaviour. We developed this can understand their needs and respond course and will pilot delivery in the year ahead. accordingly, for example through building longer-term relationships with partner

  2. Promote and deliver our newly created organisations.

  3. Promote and deliver our newly created organisations.

training events: ‘Working with children (under 12s) who display harmful sexual behaviour’ 2. Explore new methods of delivery so that and ‘Working with families affected by sibling we deliver training the way people want sexual abuse: a road map for safeguarding’. to receive it, for example through bitesize Both of these courses were delivered this formats or twilight sessions. year. We trained 15 people over two events 3. Focus on evaluation and build on the data

in working with children under 12 who display we already collect to help shape our training

harmful sexual behaviour. 47 people were offer.

trained in working with sibling sexual abuse across three events.

  1. Focus on evaluation and build on the data we already collect to help shape our training offer.

  2. Focus on the impact of our training through analysing evaluation and diversity data. We collect and collate evaluation and diversity data for all our training programmes which is reviewed by our training lead and director of operations, shared with our expert trainers and used to shape future delivery. We want to do more and will focus on a three-month follow-up evaluation process to look at the impact of our training on participants.

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Achievements and performance

Research, evaluation and international

Research is one of our three strategic pillars and we strive to make the best use of our expertise, our data and our insights. We use these to improve our service delivery and develop new strategies and interventions that contribute to the better protection of children from harm, and we share our insights both within the UK and overseas. This year, we have achieved some exceptional outcomes.

Our Faithfull Papers

We published three Faithfull Papers sharing with the sector our unique insights and understanding of what works to protect children.

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3,500+

This year, our Faithfull Papers webpage was visited over 3,500 times.

This year, our Faithfull Papers webpage was visited over 3,500 times.

To support the publication of our Everyone’s Safer Faithfull Paper, we hosted a webinar attended by 165 people. Presenters included Deborah Denis, Laura Nott (our schools project manager), and Dr Emily Setty, senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Surrey and research lead for the project. We also heard valuable insights from two school leaders who have been actively involved in the project.

Great example of proactive work

Webinar attendee

Recognising that this is happening in schools, without shame, is so important to moving forward on this issue

Webinar attendee

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Published papers

We published a book chapter and four academic articles with another two submitted for peer review and five in draft.

Research projects

We have an ongoing collaboration with Professor Pamela Taylor at Cardiff University who supervises undergraduate students. A paper exploring the implementation and evaluation of our helpline chat service has been submitted to the Journal of Sexual Abuse by the team in Cardiff. We have started a project to explore the role of bystanders in tackling and preventing child sexual abuse, at the end of the year a systematic literature review was underway and an ethics application was being drafted. In addition, we are working with the team to conduct a systematic literature review on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and sexual offending and analyse helpline data in relation to callers reporting ASD. The Cardiff team are also preparing to publish an article: “You don’t do this for the money, do

you? A qualitative study of experiences of call responders working on the Stop It Now helpline supporting prevention of sex offending against children.”

It has long been our ambition to enable an independent evaluation of our helpline and online resources, and we are excited to have been selected by Elizabeth Letourneau from Johns Hopkins University and Michael Seto from the University of Ottawa as one of only seven international perpetrator-focused prevention programmes for evaluation. The evaluation will investigate the impact of the helpline and online prevention resources in reducing risk and strengthening protective factors relating to online child sexual abuse.

Our research project funded by NOTA to explore the essential components of online child sexual abuse prevention programmes is nearing completion. The project included interviews and a Delphi study.

We commenced work with Professor Michael Seto at the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research to develop an evidence base for intrafamilial child sexual abuse prevention. We joined the steering group for the project and will support research activities including surveys and data provision and analysis.

We continue to work with Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and other partners internationally on a research project funded by the European Commission (EU PROTECH). The project aims to test the effectiveness of an app to prevent the use of sexual images of children among people who have already offended or who are at risk of doing so. We are also working with ARU through our Project Intercept and the team completed a literature review looking at pathways into viewing sexual images of children.

Evaluation of our services

A key ongoing project led by our head of research and evaluation focused on improving data collection and evaluation methods for our psychoeducational programmes for people arrested for online offences and their families (Inform Plus, Engage Plus, Inform, Breaking the Links, and Inform Young People). We developed a new evaluation framework based on theories of change, a review of current evaluation measures, literature reviews, and an assessment of available standardised measures. The new baseline, post-programme, and follow-up surveys were finalised for all our adult programmes. We are in the process of finalising the evaluation for our Inform Young People programme.

Supporting postgraduate research

We started collaborating on and/or facilitating three PhD research projects.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Achievements and performance

Achievements and performance

Sharing insights and collaborating across the UK and internationally

Sharing our knowledge and experience with our professional community is a vital aspect of our work. We delivered conference presentations and workshops throughout the year. Here are some highlights.

Our research and evaluation activities are supported by funding from Porticus UK, Oak Foundation, The Indigo Trust and The Samworth Foundation. We are incredibly grateful for their support.

Research, evaluation and international

Last year we said we would…

This year we will…

  1. Produce and disseminate four Faithfull 1. Work with our partners Elizabeth Letourneau Papers. This will include papers on supporting from Johns Hopkins University and Michael effective leadership responses to harmful Seto from the University of Ottawa on the sexual behaviour in schools; situational independent evaluation of our helpline and prevention of child sexual abuse; exploring online resources. our unique insights in assessing and working 2. Continue to improve the evaluation of our

with child sexual abuse, learning from our services. By next year we will be able to

long history of providing evidenced advice share insights relevant to the effectiveness

and delivering well-researched interventions, of our psychoeducational programmes, as

and an exploration of how pornography drawn from the implementation of our new

features across our work. We published three programme evaluation protocols.

Faithfull Papers this year, with a paper about pornography pushing into the year ahead. 

  3.   Recruit a PhD student, in partnership with The University of Edinburgh and co-funded by the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science, to co-produce with practitioners at LFF and young people with lived experience a strengths- and needs-based assessment framework for children and young people who display harmful sexual behaviours.

  1. We will complete a research project funded by NOTA to deliver improvements to our online self-help resources and work with international academic partners in relation to a longer-term evaluation of our helpline and online self-help resources. This work is ongoing and nearing completion at the end of the year. We look forward to sharing insights in the year ahead.

  2. We will establish a scientific advisory committee to steer our research and evaluation work in line with our research strategy. This has been placed on hold while we reassess our needs and the needs of the wider sector.

  3. Deborah Denis and Frances Frost, director of policy and advocacy, attended a parliamentary event to celebrate the passage of the Online Safety Act. The event, hosted by the NSPCC and chaired by Sajid Javid MP, featured the voices and experiences of young people who have campaigned for the Act.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

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Fundraising Fundraising
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Fundraising to support our work

We extend a heartfelt thank you to our amazing supporters. Our mission is clear: to prevent child sexual abuse. Their generous contributions and support play a pivotal role in turning this mission into a reality. Our ability to provide our vital services to protect children from harm relies on the invaluable support of our partners, funders, and private donors, including service users. Every donation, regardless of size, is not only deeply valued but also essential to our ongoing work. Together, we can continue making a real impact and create a safer world for children.

First thanks

A huge thank you to an anonymous donor who donated £10,000 this year – your support is truly appreciated.

Portsmouth Costal Marathon

Jack conquered his first marathon, crossing the finish line in four hours and thirty minutes. His effort not only marked a personal achievement but also raised over £1,300 to support our work. Thank you, Jack.

Generosity in action: fundraising highlights

As we reflect on the past year, the support of our fundraisers has been inspiring. From a coronation garden party to gruelling marathons, from swimming challenges to giving up chocolate, their dedication is incredible. Together, their collective efforts raised over £13,500, a fantastic achievement. We are eternally grateful for their support and dedication – thank you.

se

After going through something as a family, I realised how little support there is for this sort of abuse. That’s when I found the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. After researching, I decided I really wanted to help them by doing something so uncharacteristic, people would see what it meant to me.

Jack, fundraiser

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Jack, fundraiser
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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Fundraising

Fundraising

The long way round

Clare and Berni took on an extraordinary challenge, pushing their endurance to the limit by running 100 miles non-stop from Newport to Cardiff. This epic feat took them just over 29 hours to complete and in total they raised over £2,500 – thank you both for your amazing effort.

Child sexual abuse is not something we like to talk about, but it happens all around us. That is why we chose to support the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, as they are dedicated to preventing it.

Clare and Berni, fundraisers

Doncaster City 10k

Katy ran the Doncaster City 10k in one hour and ten minutes and raised £645. This is Katy’s second year fundraising for us, and we are honoured to have been chosen by her again. Thank you, Katy, for your continued support.

I am compelled to help the Lucy Faithfull Foundation and the incredible work they do, in the firm belief that such preventative education and awareness about child sexual abuse will spare other innocent children and families from the trauma my daughter and our family have experienced. Had I been more informed and aware of the signs 30 years ago, perhaps we could have had a different story to tell.

Katy, fundraiser

Clare and Bernie, fundraisers

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Katy, fundraiser
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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Fundraising

Fundraising

Friends of the Foundation

To our dedicated Friends of the Foundation, whether you have supported us for years or have recently joined, we extend our sincere thanks. We established the Friends of the Foundation scheme to convey how much we appreciate those who consistently support our work. All those joining the scheme receive regular communications including our newsletter, a lapel pin, a pen and a copy of our annual report. Our friends are an essential part of our work and we are deeply appreciative of their continued support.

“I would love to be a friend. I admire and believe the work that Lucy Faithfull [Foundation] and the Stop It Now helpline is so important.”

Friend of the Foundation

“It would be a privilege to be a friend of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation and I will be honoured to wear the pin and use the pen to show my support for such a worthy cause.”

Friend of the Foundation

“I would love to become a friend – thank you for all the amazing work you guys do.”

Friend of the Foundation

Faithfull Friends

We are enormously grateful for the generous legacy we received this year. We would also like to express our thanks to our Faithfull Friends, who have pledged a legacy to us. Our legacy programme was created to inspire supporters to become Faithfull Friends by leaving us a gift in their Will. Whether big or small, every gift ensures that our services will be here for everyone who needs them, and that we can protect children from harm long into the future.

Donations and grants

We are profoundly thankful for the continued support for our work from the UK, Scottish, and Welsh governments, charitable trusts and partners. Their support has been instrumental in furthering our mission and enabling us to deliver our services while innovating for the future.

We continue to appreciate the advertising credits donated to us by Google, Meta, Microsoft and Snapchat. This support has brought in over 51,000 users to our Stop It Now, Parents Protect and Shore websites.

Fundraising standards

We pride ourselves on upholding the highest standards of ethical fundraising. We continually review how we engage with our supporters and the public to ensure integrity and transparency in all our fundraising efforts.

It is paramount to us that our money and other assets are managed responsibly, and that we maintain our good reputation by being transparent, honest, and respectful. Our high standard of ethical fundraising includes adopting an opt-in-only communications strategy. We are aware of our obligations to the public in this area and are vigilant in our fundraising activities to ensure there is no intrusion on people’s privacy or any undue pressure applied. Our staff conduct all our fundraising activities, ensuring we follow relevant regulations. We do not commission external professional agencies to carry out fundraising activities on our behalf, therefore we do not have a requirement to monitor or manage any third-party fundraisers.

Fundraising activity is monitored by our senior management team, board of trustees, and fundraising subcommittee. We continuously strive to improve and to ensure we address new challenges and effectively adopt updated regulations.

As part of our commitment to transparency, we ensure that those who support us understand our work, how their money is spent, and our impact.

We have rigorous financial controls in place to ensure donated funds are spent on the right activities, at the right time. We remain committed to maintaining our high standards and promoting good practice throughout our fundraising activities.

Protecting vulnerable people

We are committed to ensuring our supporters are fully supported in the true sense of the word. We are especially careful and sensitive when engaging with vulnerable people, including those affected by child sexual abuse. We make sure that our engagement with those who may be considered vulnerable is sensitive and appropriate. Our commitment to this is demonstrated through our opt-in-only approach; we will not contact a person who does not wish to be contacted, and we ensure communications to those who have opted-in are reasonable and proportionate.

Complying with fundraising laws and regulation

We take our fundraising obligations extremely seriously and our small fundraising team keeps abreast of any amendments to relevant regulations. We are registered with the Fundraising Regulator and renewed our registration in 2023. We continue to review our compliance with the Fundraising Regulators Code of Fundraising Practice to ensure we fully adhere to the latest guidance. We are also registered with the Fundraising Preference Service. During 2023/24 we did not receive any complaints about our fundraising activities. Our trustees are satisfied that we adhere to the appropriate fundraising standards.

Supporter data

We are committed to being compliant with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Responsible use of personal data remains at the heart of our fundraising practice. This means that we will contact only supporters who have given unambiguous and explicit permission for us to contact them for marketing activity, including fundraising support.

Transparency is key. We are committed to protecting the personal data entrusted to us and strive to ensure our supporters know what we do with their personal data. By putting supporters’ wishes at the core of fundraising communications, we hope to achieve a greater level of engagement, loyalty and value in the long term.

Looking ahead

We are dedicated to building upon the achievements of the past year while also embracing new opportunities for growth and impact. Central to our plans is the goal of diversifying our income streams, ensuring greater sustainability for our vital work.

To achieve this, we will step up our public fundraising across the year. We will engage and inspire support for our Stop It Now helpline, as well as our broader work, with a goal of raising £15,000 and increasing awareness of our work.

We are committed to strengthening our legacy programme, encouraging supporters to leave a lasting impact by including us in their Wills.

We will continue to cultivate and nurture relationships with our existing funders while actively seeking opportunities to develop new partnerships.

Finally, our aim is to ensure that all our donors, both existing and new, feel valued and connected to our mission.

Fundraising is vital to us, and our work and we recognise the need to increase charitable giving and public donations to support our sustainability.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Structure

Achievements and performance

Structure

Governance, structure and management

Governing document

The trustees, who are also directors of The Lucy Faithfull Foundation (“the charity” or “The Foundation”) for the purposes of the Companies Act, submit their annual report and the audited financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2024. The trustees have adopted the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) “Accounting and Reporting by Charities” FRS102 and Financial Reporting Standard 102 in preparing the annual report and financial statements of the charity.

The Lucy Faithfull Foundation is a company limited by guarantee (company no. 02729957) incorporated on 09 July 1992. It was registered as a charity in England and Wales (charity no. 1013025) on 20 July 1993. On 23 September 2008, the charity was registered with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) (Scottish registered charity no. SC039888). The charity is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association which set out the charity’s legal objectives.

Our strategic plan

Our 2020-2025 strategic plan outlines our key areas of focus. The strategy centres around three pillars: reach, research and advocacy. A range of delivery plans sits beneath our organisational pillars to turn our ambitions into outcomes. Our strategy is reviewed annually to ensure we continue

to meet the changing needs of our beneficiaries – a diverse population with complex needs. Through our current digital project, our websites will feature more specific updates and key achievements, ensuring sure that our supporters, partners, funders and others can follow our progress and be inspired by our work.

Our key ambitions

Reach

To ensure that everyone knows we are here for them - whether they need help for themselves or for someone they know.

Research

To make the best use of our expertise, our data and our insights to develop new strategies and interventions that make prevention real both independently and in partnership with others, sharing our learning about effective practice with agencies and the broader public.

Advocac y

To drive forward the preventing child sexual abuse agenda, shape the debate in constructive ways and contribute to domestic and global developments.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Structure

Structure

Leadership

The board of trustees, listed on page 160, is responsible for governance, providing strategic direction and overseeing our performance. The board ensures that all activities are undertaken to further our charitable purposes.

The trustees use and implement Charity Commission guidance including public benefit and comply with the requirements of the OSCR. The trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to public benefit guidance published by the Charity Commission. The annual report highlights the significant activities undertaken to carry out our aims for the public benefit.

The board of trustees meets on a quarterly basis, and at such other times as considered necessary. In summary, they lead by example and support the chief executive in the delivery of our strategic plans and activities, regularly monitoring our performance against agreed aims and outcomes.

The board has a governance, finance and general purposes committee, which meets quarterly and at such other times as considered necessary and reports back to the board. Potential trustees are most commonly identified through existing trustees’ networks. All potential new trustees are considered for appointment by the full board. The balance of trustees is kept under review regarding skills and diversity. The board places particular emphasis on appointing individuals who bring specific identified skills, and an induction pack is in place for new trustees to ensure complete familiarity with the duties of a charitable trustee and the work of the charity.

Some trustees carry specific areas of responsibility including diversity, safeguarding and fundraising. There are currently ten male trustees and four female trustees. The trustees have ensured that all safeguarding policies and procedures are of a high standard, up to date and embedded within the charity. This has included the annual review of our safeguarding policy and practice.

The executive team

The board delegates responsibility for operational management to the chief executive, who leads an executive team. The executive team develops most of the organisation’s operational plans, policies and processes, and is responsible for their implementation, following the board’s advice and approval. Their names can be found on page 159. As a team, they are committed not only to focusing on the delivery of our core child protection activities, but also looking forward to ensuring we remain sustainable as an organisation, and able to respond to changing trends and external factors. There are four females and two males on the executive team.

Risk management

The board of trustees has the responsibility for ensuring that there are adequate and effective risk management protocols and systems of internal controls in place to manage the charity’s major risks and support the achievement of our strategic objectives. The board reviews and assesses the risks facing the charity on an ongoing basis.

A risk register is maintained and updated by executive management. It is a working document which is submitted to the general finance and general purposes committee and the full board at every meeting to ensure that we, as an organisation, manage risks within a changing environment. Each risk identified and the potential impact and likelihood are rated along with the mitigation strategies in place to manage them in line with the trustees’ risk appetite. Each risk has an identified director or trustee with lead responsibility for oversight of it.

Projects are regularly reviewed with attention to risk management, and a project review process ensures ongoing oversight. Quarterly reports are provided to trustees showing the progress of longer-term contracts, grant-funded projects, grant applications in progress and short-term contract activity.

Internal control risks are minimised by procedures for the authorisation of all transactions and projects. Procedures are in place to ensure compliance with health and safety, and for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and adults. Particular attention has been given to the potential risk around fraud. Policies relating to anti-fraud and bribery as well as whistleblowing are in place and already given special emphasis in staff induction.

Principal risks facing the charity include the variable nature of grants and the uncertainty of timing of renewal (see section ‘Reserves policy reflecting principal risks’ on page 129).

Staffing changes

We had two staffing changes within the executive team. In February 2024 we appointed Alison Dexter to the new role of director of people services (interim). This is a one-year post to work on a set of agreed HR and people services projects. Alison brings a wealth of experience into this new role, including 16 years in senior HR roles across health and education. She is a qualified coach and mentor and we look forward to working with her in the year ahead. In March 2024, Donald Findlater, director of the Stop It Now helpline retired after 29 years with the charity. We marked his retirement with a services of events, a blog post and a podcast. Donald has been a driving force behind the charity’s successes over the years. We thank him for his dedicated service and wish him well for his retirement.

This year, we increased our staff numbers by a net two full-time equivalent staff.

HR, pay and remuneration

The board of trustees has overall responsibility for our pay policy and the salaries of executive directors. This is exercised through the general finance and general purposes committee. The committee reviews terms and conditions of employment annually and recommendations are made to the board. The committee benchmarks executive pay against similar roles in the sector and approves pay and any annual pay awards in line with appropriate best practice standards.

We had planned to strengthen our pay processes in 2023/24, with support from external remuneration experts, however, this has now been wrapped into the work being done by our new director of people services (interim). We continued to receive HR support from Croner, HR consultants, who provide advice and guidance on policy development and implementation and include a support and advice helpline and we embedded the new HR software, Bright HR, which we purchased in the previous year.

Information security

We fully recognise the importance of defending our IT systems from malicious cyber-attacks and protecting the personal data we hold from unauthorised access and misuse. This year, we had a specific focus on increasing the technical measures we deploy to prevent and mitigate such attacks, as well as training our staff to be vigilant.

We have enhanced our system security measures to prevent unauthorised access to our systems and guard against phishing attacks. Implementing multi-factor authentication, alongside robust technical safeguards, has meant we have been able to secure cyber essentials certification. Our data protection training took our staff through the key principles of information security and had a particular focus on cyber security, raising awareness about the risks and how to counter them. All our data security policies and procedures are established and our teams are briefed.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Structure

Structure

General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)

We deal with very sensitive information and our trustees, managers and teams prioritise our compliance with UK GDPR. This year, we created a second phase data protection plan for LFF, building on the progress made in recent years and driving further improvements to keep our data safe. Our bimonthly UK GDPR committee oversees the delivery of that plan and is chaired by our data protection officer. The committee receives a report on any data breach and subject data requests, ensuring our systems work both to learn from any breach but also to ensure we share information in line with data protection legislation. We have created Records of Processing Activity (RPAs) which records our departmental data flows and assets. We have carried out legitimate interest assessments on any high-risk areas to evidence our reliance on that lawful basis. Work has continued to utilise cloud-based systems to store data where appropriate and plan to extend our use of such systems through 24/25.

This year, we had 29 personal data breach incidents reported on our internal system, all of which were assessed as either low or medium risk.

Our commitment to safeguarding

We are committed to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all those we come into contact with. All staff have gone through an annual safeguarding training programme, raising awareness of the principles underpinning good safeguarding practice and focusing attention on handling disclosures. Our safeguarding system is led by a Director with two deputies who staff a daily rota, ensuring our teams have access to safeguarding advice when they need it. Safeguarding reports are monitored by the safeguarding leads with regular reporting to the Executive team and Trustees.

Staff engagement and wellbeing

We recognise that our staff are our most important resource in preventing child sexual abuse. Our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is in place with Health Assured which gives our staff a confidential service able to assist with personal and professional issues that could be affecting home or work life, health or general wellbeing. This service includes a 24-hour helpline and counselling support.

We are committed to listening to staff views in shaping the future of LFF and throughout 2023/34 we held a bimonthly staff engagement forum to listen to our staff’s ideas, discuss future changes and how they could be implemented, make improvement recommendations to the senior management team, and communicate key messages. We also started an internal communications review process which will continue into the year ahead.

Protecting children from harm motivates all our staff in delivering the best service they can. Operating in this area brings its own challenges and we remain committed to supporting all our staff ensuring all have access to regular and responsive supervision.

Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)

Our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion is fundamental to our mission of protecting all children from sexual abuse. Children who are sexually abused, and the adults and young people who harm them, come from all backgrounds, communities and walks of life – and it is important this is recognised in our work and how we develop and deliver services. It is imperative that our services are accessible and inclusive to everyone who needs them.

How we ensure our services reach people who need them

We are proud that we have female representation at the highest levels of the organisation, where our Chair of Trustees, CEO and four out of six directors are women. The gender split of our board is currently four women and ten men.

However, we know we need to do more to be fully representative of the population, different communities and to reach everyone who needs our help. To address this, we have taken proactive steps to strengthen our commitment to EDI, including:

Activities to support EDI

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Structure

Structure

In the year ahead, we will aim to involve more stakeholders to help is create a more inclusive, responsive and effective organisation that better serves the diverse needs of our beneficiaries.

LFF governance and management structure

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Headquarters and offices

Service delivery

Helpline staff Practitioners Psychologists Administrators Project workers Volunteers

Bromsgrove Finance; Human Resources; Advocacy Epsom and Communications; Edinburgh Fundraising; IT; Referrals Cardiff and Training Administration

Chair and trustees

Management teams Chair and trustees Strategy implementation General Finance & Governance, Strategy, General Purpose Safeguarding, Finance, Operational delivery Committee Remuneration, Audit, Risk Governance Management, Diversity Risk management Fundraising subcommittee Safeguarding Quality and compliance

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Financial review

Financial review

Financial review

Overview

Note: The year references throughout refer to the financial year ended March of 2024 (and prior years ended March 2023 and March 2022).

The charity continues to expand, maintaining the high level of restricted income achieved in 2023 and growing unrestricted income by 19% to achieve overall growth of 8%.

The drivers of our growth this year have been the unrestricted grants that are up by 39% and our assessments and intervention work which increased by 20%.

From a starting point in 2021 of £79,373, our unrestricted grants in 2024 were £455,000, with the Indigo Trust increasing their grant of £110,000 for 2024 to £250,000 midway through the year. This funding enabled us to push forward with our strategic objectives, as well as support services with income gaps and avoid short term funding issues from impacting negatively on the helpline, our programmes delivery and Scotland beneficiaries.

Fee increases of 10% in April 2023 improved the margins on assessments and interventions. In addition, the demand for these services increased in 2024 in spite of the financial pressures on local authorities. Gains here have offset the 16% income reductions in training and consultancy income so that overall our professional services generated more turnover at better margins than expected. This has enabled us to end the year with an unrestricted surplus of £260,197 compared to the budget that was set at £115,000.

Whilst the downturn we have experienced in training income is to be expected in a tough economic climate, particularly as our high-quality training sits at the top end of the market, we will be looking to address this and plan to promote all our professional services more actively. We know there are key skills and knowledge gaps amongst professional teams

working in child protection and our training and consultancy offer has important contributions to make to improving the prevention, identification and response to child sexual abuse.

Income growth has been facilitated by the additional 6 FTE staff resource recruited during 2023 and the additional 2 FTE added this year.

Project leads were appointed for the three new projects that had just started at the end of last year. Whilst progress has been slower than planned, these projects are now well underway and enhancing the breadth of services we offer and the expertise and knowledge within LFF.

The Xledger business system that was implemented during 2023 continued to be developed during 2024 and the charity is starting to see the benefits with more efficient processes for producing monthly management accounts, more automation of data entry and approval workflows and speedy access to highly configurable raw data. There is still some way to go before reports can be accessed directly by staff in the way we had hoped when embarking on the system change, but we are impressed by the responsiveness of the Xledger support and development teams and continue to work with them to achieve these goals.

The combined increase in restricted and unrestricted reserves for the year was £360,077 taking our total reserves up to £2,175,809 of which 56%, £1,215,648, are unrestricted.

In line with previous years, the trustees have designated part of the unrestricted reserves to cover future year’s depreciation on fixed assets (£43,184) plus commitment to special projects, and this year £73,500 is set aside for digital developments, advocacy assets, a fundraising database, staff training and a conference.

One of our key financial objectives in recent years has been to replenish reserve levels and achieve our minimum target of three months’ expenditure held in reserves. We are delighted to have achieved this in 2024 with unrestricted, undesignated, free reserves of £1,098,964, equivalent to just over three months’ expenditure excluding gifts in kind.

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Financial review

Financial review

Financial review

Restricted income

Income growth

Following exceptional growth of 42% in restricted income last year it is good to see we held onto most of these gains with only a marginal change, achieving £2,460,909 (2023: £2,475,733).

Growth in restricted income 2020-2024

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In 2024, total income grew by 8% to £4,827,719 (2023: £4,472,771). £3m
Over the last five years, income is up 63% with growth of 43% in
restricted income and 89% in unrestricted income. £2.5m
£2m
Income growth 2019-2024
£1.5m
——— seams
£1m
£3m
£0.5m
£2.5m
0
£2m
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
£1.5m Government grants Charitable trust grants
£1m
Government grants increased by 11% to the level achieved is still 86% up on 5 years
£0.5m £1,615,942 (2023: £1,459,456). The Home Office ago, and if combined with the unrestricted
provided an increase of £60,000 for the helpline grants from charitable trust, in 2024, we have
as well as £100,000 for the development of
0 Shore, our website and chat service for young
people. Two Police and Crime Commissioners
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
and a Police Community Fund gave grants
funding, and a year of political uncertainty
totalling £10,000 to support the helpline, and the
al Unrestricted income Restricted income Welsh Government funding increased by a net
£4,148. Offsetting these gains was the £17,662
reduction in Scottish Government support for the
We remain committed to implementing mixed
work in Scotland.
with unrestricted sources providing us with
Although charitable trust funding reduced by
17% to £844,967 (2023: £1,016,277) this must
continuity.
be considered in the context of the prior year’s
income being exceptionally high. In 2024,
112 Annual report and financial statements 2023/24 Lucy Faithfull Foundation Lucy Faithfull Foundation
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the level achieved is still 86% up on 5 years ago, and if combined with the unrestricted grants from charitable trust, in 2024, we have achieved income from trusts and foundations of £1,299,967, almost triple the levels five years ago.

With increasing competition for charitable trust funding, and a year of political uncertainty ahead, it is good to see the balance of restricted and unrestricted funding getting closer to 50:50.

We remain committed to implementing mixed funding models across our projects and services, with unrestricted sources providing us with increased resilience and reducing risks to service continuity.

Annual report and financial statements 2023/24 113

Financial review

Financial review

Income split restricted vs unrestricted 2020-2024

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100%
80%
58 56 47 55 51
60%
40%
20% 42 44 53 45 49
0%
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Unrestricted income Restricted income
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Unrestricted income

Unrestricted income makes up 49% of LFF’s total income and grew by 19% in 2024 to £2,366,810 (2023: £1,997,038).

Unrestricted income split 2024

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• [60% Professional services]
• [2% Circles]
• [3% Gifts in kind]
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• [8% Participant fees]
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• [2% Investment income]
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• [19% Unrestricted charitable trust grants]
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Participant fees still account for 8% of unrestricted income with growth in fees of 19% to £182,049 (2023: £152,159.) We continue to encourage service user contributions through fees as well as donations. The bulk of the fees collected relate to Inform Plus and Engage Plus courses and in 2024 these fees funded 85% of the service costs.

Donations including fundraising, service user donations and legacy income totalled £148,901 an increase of 17% on the prior year and maintaining the share of total unrestricted income at 6%. However, without a legacy of £23,161, this income would have been down 1% reflecting the economic difficulties of the last few years on people’s disposable income, as well as the pressures on a small funding team, whose priority has had to be securing grant funding.

The composition of our unrestricted funding has shifted year-on-year.

Professional services now account for 60% of unrestricted income down on 2023 which was 63%. Assessments and intervention work increased by 20%, offsetting the reduction of 16% in training and consultancy. Combined income of £1,399,587 was achieved, an increase of 12% - £149,045 on the prior year (2023: £1,250,542)

Unrestricted grant funding now accounts for 19% (2023: 16%). The Indigo Trust provided a significant uplift midway through the year of £140,000 that enabled us to support the helpline and the programmes that respond to online offending, as well as significantly increase research and evaluation activities and invest in organisational development.

Unrestricted grant funding is still a relatively new income stream which started with £79,373 in 2021 and has grown to £455,000 in 2024. This funding is transformative. It enables us to continue to develop and implement our strategic plan, and the flexibility it affords takes us beyond the short-term goals that project-based restricted funding supports so well, into much more long-term strategic work to expand our reach, research and evaluation, and advocacy activities. As in previous years, it has also helped us avoid having to take precipitative action to cut back on services and projects when funding gaps arose.

Gifts in kind totalled £81,538 (2023: £150,537) resulting in this share of income more than halving from 7% in 2023 to 3% in 2024. All of 2023 and £80,038 of 2024 gifts in kind relate to advertising credits from Google, Meta, Microsoft and Snapchat. In recent years the credits available to us have fallen, as has associated agency support, and our own staffing capacity, resulting in a fall in total gifts in kind.

Circles is supported with contract payments from HMPPS that amounted to £50,706 and make up 2% of unrestricted income. This is a new income source that had been expected to fund the full costs of the service. In the end it has covered only 58% of the cost, the remaining amount being supported by a £10,000 grant from Circles UK and £26,634 from our unrestricted grant funds.

Investment income totalled £37,792 (2023: £6,290) and accounts for 2% of income compared to last year when it barely registered at 0.3%. The increase is mainly attributable to rises in interest rates but it is also a function of the increase in funds held. With many funders paying us in advance, we have increased our cash holding from £1,783,568 (31st March 2023) to £2,087,969 (31st March 2024).

With the exception of gifts in kind, all unrestricted income sources are showing good growth particularly professional services and unrestricted charitable trust grants that make up 79% of the unrestricted income.

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Unrestricted income – continuing growth 2020-2024

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1,400,000
1,200,000
1,000,000 |
800,000 ;
600,000 |
400,000 |
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Raising funds

In 2024 the cost of raising funds was £115,095 (2023: £109,333). This amounts to 3.8% of our grants and donations income excluding gifts in kind that totals £3,064,810 (2023: 3.8% of £2,913,242).

and contributing to funding bids and applications, as well as developing strong relationships with our funders.

The achievements in 2024 have been considerable and amount to £3,730,006 which includes donations and legacy income for 2024 as well as grants secured for 2024, 2025 and 2026.

Fundraising expenditure includes the costs of two dedicated fundraising staff, 1.6 FTE, plus the cost of time spent by other key staff in writing, costing

Expenditure on charitable activities

salaries proportionately more for lower-paid staff in the organisation. We had a modest 2% increase in staff numbers from 82 FTE to 84 in 2024 and the bulk of the increase in salary costs is attributable to the significant staffing additions during the prior year which are now impacting with a full year’s cost.

During 2024, charitable activity expenditure amounted to £4,352,547 (2023: £3,928,352).

Additional staff resource has enabled the charity’s activities to grow by 11% in 2024 and this follows good growth in the previous two years of 15% in 2023 and 17% in 2022. Over 5 years the charity’s expenditure has grown by 57%.

Other costs reduced by a net £75,096 to £914,256 (2023: £989,352) with the rebranding project and 30th anniversary event making other costs in 2023 particularly high.

Salary costs have increased by 17% to £3,438,291 (2023: £2,938,999) and make up 79% of the charity’s total expenditure in 2024 (2023: 75%). The April 2023 general staff pay award averaged at 5%, with a lump sum element designed to increase

All our service areas have seen growth year on year.

Expenditure on charitable activities 2020-2024

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Expenditure on charitable activities 2023 vs 2024

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Stop It Now helpline
Professional services
Tackling online
sexual abuse
Working with young
people and families
Advocacy,
communications and
campaigns
LFF Scotland
LFF Wales
Research and
international work
Circles
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2023 2024
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The Stop It Now helpline

Our helpline remains at the heart of LFF and accounts for 24% of what we spend. Commitment from the Home Office has enabled us to significantly expand the service in the last few years and we now have a bigger team of parttime and full-time helpline advisors and managers dedicated solely to helpline service delivery, as well as continued access to further clinical, media and research expertise that can be drawn from across the organisation.

Costs increased by 7% to £1,042,603 (2023: £970,882), over 5% of which is related to pay awards so there was not a significant increase in capacity, except in so much as staff joining in 2023 are now fully trained and able to answer more calls. It is testament to the hard work of helpline team that with minimal additional resources, the amount of calls answered increased by 15%.

Professional services

Overall, professional services increased by 7%, but it is a tale of two halves with our assessments and intervention work showing significant growth, whilst demand for training and consultancy reduced.

Assessments and interventions

In 2024, we realised the benefits of a number of changes made in 2023 to increase practitioner staff numbers as well as levels of management oversight, clinical supervision and administrative support.

Costs, which include the pay award averaging 5%, increased by 16% to £947,022 (2023: £818,201). Much of this is attributable to growth with 11% more assessments and 12% more interventions in 2024 compared to 2023.

We are pleased to see increased demand for these services, particularly considering the financial pressures on local authorities who fund a large amount of this work.

We implemented fee increases of 10% from April 2023, and consequently revenue was up 20%, well ahead of costs, enabling us to improve our margins

and generate additional surplus over and above the £115,000 that was set in the 2024 budget.

Training and consultancy

This is the one area of our work that did not grow in 2024. Costs reduced by 26% to £162,503 (2023: £220,443) reflecting the reduction in delivery and fee income was down 16% against the prior year. Training events were 31% down on the prior year and although the number of safer recruitment events was the same year-on-year, the number of participants dropped by 23%, and consequently fees earned were much lower.

Tackling online sexual abuse

This area of our work includes the Inform Plus and Engage Plus programmes we run for people who have committed offences online. In 2024, we increased beneficiary numbers by 22%, but only increased costs by 11% to £180,365 (2023: £162,625).

We also deliver Inform courses to the partners, other family members and friends of those who have committed online offences. Beneficiary numbers had reduced by 14% last year, so it is particularly welcome to see that participants numbers increased by 52% in 2024 and are now well ahead of 2022. Costs, however, have only increased by 35% to £68,591 (2023: £50,864).

We have been able to make cost savings per participant in these areas of work with more group delivery and continuing use of remote sessions. We have also been able to gain efficiencies due to experienced administrators, and the use of a dedicated project worker funded by the Emmanuel Kaye Foundation who has been with us for two years, enabling management and practitioner time on these projects reduce.

The other key service for friends and family members is our online forum, which also saw growth in 2024 with active users increasing by 17%. Costs, however, have remained almost static at £33,428 (2023: £33,909).

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Working with young people and their families

Costs for our Inform Young People programme remained stable at £93,926 (2023: £93,844) with 12% fewer beneficiaries, the April 2023 pay award and increasingly complex cases accounting for the difference in cost per beneficiary. Demand for the service continues and the capacity of the appropriately skilled staff creates the main constraint for delivery and meeting demand.

Extending the Inform Young People service by training others to deliver the programme is a 3-year project funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation that is now in its third year. After a slow start in 2022, there was a considerable amount of training activity in 2023, and this reduced substantially this year. 2024 costs were £17,870 (2023: £26,835). A balance of £34,652 remains on this grant at the end of March 2024 and plans to use part of this to evaluate the Inform Young People programme in 2025 have been agreed with Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

The KPMG Foundation-funded work in schools is now in its third year, with costs for 2024 of £91,437 (2023: £94,580) and £91,210 remaining for use in 2025.

The work on a website for young people made significant progress in 2024. The project began in 2022 with funding from Charles Hayward Foundation, and the balance remaining of £10,350 was fully utilised this year (2023: £17,516). A new £100,000 grant from the Home Office took the development work through to the launch of the Shore website, and a further investment of our unrestricted grant funding amounting to £8,915 enabled us to invest in additional animations for the site.

Overall, the expenditure on our work with young people and their families increased by 15%. The costs for 2024 are identified above and total £322,498 (2023: £280,509). There were additional funds expended in this area of work in 2023, being general development work on young people services, with £30,537 funded from the balance remaining on the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation grants, and £17,197 allocated from our unrestricted grant funds in that year.

Advocacy, communications and campaigns

This area of our work ended up in line with the prior year in terms of costs. Expenditure totalled £659,461 (2023: £660,289). Since 2023 had been a marked uplift of 32% on the prior year it is good to see the level of work in this area has been sustained in spite of the reduction in support from tech companies through gifts in kind.

We include free advertising from Google, Snapchat, Meta and Microsoft here. For 2024 it was valued at £80,058 (2023: £150,538), a disappointing reduction because of the amount of credits available, agency support, and LFF staff capacity. We continue to engage with the sector to advocate for more support as this advertising plays a key role in signposting people to our services.

Our campaign to deter online child sexual abuse offending online, which is supported by the Home Office, continued for another year utilising £193,711 of funding (2023: £198,319). Activity was funded by the balance of the 2023 Home Office grant, as well as most of the new grant for 2024 together with some NHS funding.

Our new project to develop and expand warning messages online, Project Intercept, funded by Nominet UK, has been gaining momentum over the year, with a project lead appointed mid-way through 2024. Due to the relationship building nature of the work, there have been delays in spending the year one funding of £330,000. Expenditure through in 2024 totalled £130,234 (2023: £29,278).

Advocacy activities have been undertaken by the director of policy and advocacy, the chief executive and other directors and staff with specialist knowledge as required during 2024. Costs amounted to £64,720 (2023: £73,801). The reduction attributable to the director of policy and advocacy spending more time on Project Intercept than in the prior year.

Investing in media and communications activities to extend our reach remains an important goal of our strategic plan and costs for 2024 totalled £190,758 (2023: £208,351). The 8% reduction relates to 2023 non-staff costs being particularly high due to the identity project agency costs and 30th anniversary activities to increase awareness.

LFF Scotland

In 2024, the cost of LFF Scotland activities increased by 21% to £476,020 (2023: £394,062), including some additional staff costs which arose due to exceptional circumstances and much higher than expected utility costs. An allocation of £42,998 was made from the unrestricted grant funds to cover the funding gap in Scotland.

Sourcing sufficient income to meet the demand for services in Scotland remains a struggle but we are very grateful to the charitable trusts, corporate donors and government civil servants who continue to support us and help us find funding for our work.

LFF Wales

LFF Wales has benefited greatly from the Welsh Government’s long-term approach and commitment to first a three-year grant, and then a two-year extension that will take us through to the end of 2025.

In 2024, we utilised £97,153 (2023: £97,152) on the Early Intervention grant activities and a further £94,612 (2023: 94,612) on primary prevention work under the Keeping Children Safe grant.

It is a testament to how much the work we do in Conwy is valued that 2024 was the tenth year that we were awarded a grant by Conwy County Borough Council. We spent £7,500 in 2024 (2023: £10,000) on delivering support to families and carers in the borough.

Research and international work

Spend here increased by 29% to £173,451 (2023: £134,544).

Our investment in research and evaluation continues to increase. We doubled our expenditure last year with the appointment of a head of research and evaluation taking costs up from £60,335 in 2022 to £128,180 for 2023 and in 2024 we increased this by a further 32% to £168,956.

Unrestricted grant funding totalling £71,430 covered 42% of our 2024 research and evaluation work. (2023: £50,162 - 39%) the balance is made up of grants and contributions as set out below.

We utilised £61,095 of the Porticus funding in 2024 (2023: £71,466).

The EU-funded Protech/Salus project to develop software to block access to child sexual abuse material on devices made progress in 2024. We have estimated that the grant funding will cover costs of £18,321 (2023: £3,988). This represents only 74% of the total project costs with the balance being covered by our unrestricted grant funding as the EU claim criteria does not achieve full cost recovery.

During 2024, the Stop It Now helpline and Get Help evaluation projects being implemented with Professors Michael Seto and Elizabeth Letourneau were still in the planning stages and the $5,000 (£3,925) upfront grant payment in 2023 to cover these early stage costs was not sufficient. (Funding allocated in 2024 was £1,873 and in 2023 it was £2,052.) Unrestricted grant funding was used to fund the remaining £9,488 of costs in 2024, but we expect to recover some of this when the grant agreement and funding is finalised in 2025.

We are working on a project funded by Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in collaboration with the charity Brook and the lead party, the University of Birmingham. The university paid us £11,237 in 2024 (2023: £512) for our contribution to the research project on “Understanding Sexual behaviours in Children and Young People in the UK”.

The NOTA funding received in 2023 was utilised to complete the Delphi Study and focus groups identifying best practice in online self-help resources for adults who have viewed child sexual abuse material. Costs were £7,147 for this research project, £5,000 covered by the NOTA grant and £2,147 covered by unrestricted grant funding

We are proud of the progress made in delivering our strategic objectives around research, evaluation and impact measures and the details on the many projects and initiatives that the

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unrestricted grant funding and the Porticus research and development grant have funded are covered on page 92.

Only £4,495 (2023; £6,364) was spent on the ECSA project, our international website which is currently being hosted and maintained with limited oversight whilst options for a more suitable long-term future for this resource is sought.

Circles

In November 2022, we secured a contract worth £469,677 with HM Prison and Probation Services (HMPPS) to deliver Circles of Support and Accountability across the West Midlands over the next two to four years. We welcomed the opportunity to resume provision of this service, as we have always believed in the effectiveness of the programme and had played a pivotal role in setting up the first Circles in the UK, based on the Canadian model, in 2002.

The trustees recognised that the contract would come with financial risk, not least due to the multiple variables in terms of control over the referrals of core members, the suitability of core members and the availability of volunteers. The project was closely monitored from a financial perspective, and from quarter two we appreciated that costs for the year would be running significantly ahead of budget and the contract income. However, the potential to recoup the losses and cover all the costs over the two to four years made the risk acceptable.

Contract income from HMPPS in 2024 totalled £50,706 whilst costs amounted to £87,340. Our thanks go to Circles UK who provided us with a grant of £10,000 that covered some of the additional set up costs, and we are holding a further Circles UK grant of £419 for specific purposes in 2025. The balance of the costs £26,634 have been covered from our unrestricted grants and we are particularly grateful to our funders for the funding flexibility that the unrestricted grants provides in enabling us to give important new initiatives like Circles, the extra time needed to get to breakeven.

We are currently committed to three core members and the running of their circles through to December, but no new Circles are being set up whilst we work with HMPPS and Circles UK on viable contract terms that will fully cover annual costs as a multiyear funding commitment from government is not achievable at present.

Where our funding came from in 2024

Charitable activities 2024

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How each area of work was funded

Looking ahead to 2025

Charitable activities expenditure and funding sources 2024

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Research and
international work
Circles
LFF Wales
LFF Scotland
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communications and
campaigns
Working with young
people and families
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sexual abuse
Stop It Now helpline
Professional services
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Government Charitable trust Invoiced Gifts in kind Donations Participant Allocation of
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Budget 2025

Our budget for 2025 expects income of £5,081,728 (2024: £4,827,719) and expenditure of £4,901,728 (2024: £4,467,642).

The expenditure increase is 10%. This rise relates to a 3.5% pay award to staff, inflation across other costs and the need to invest further in organisational development. We plan to provide additional HR support and fundraising resource, expand our advocacy work, develop staff skills, and increase our capacity to monitor and evaluate the quality and impact of our work in order to provide a resilient platform for growth.

Income is only increasing by 5%. We are expecting a reduced margin on our professional services with no fee increase planned for 2025 to compensate for the increase in costs. We also remain cautious around demand from local authorities, recognising the ongoing pressure on local government finances. We are budgeting for a 12% increase, which should come from an increase in staff resource with practitioners returning from maternity leave and new staff recruited mid-way through 2024 who will now be operational for the whole of 2025.

We plan to use a substantial portion of our unrestricted grant funding to support our strategic pillars of reach, research and advocacy together with organisational development.

Minimal growth in project income is expected. Increases in helpline funding being offset by cautious estimates on Scotland grant funding and Circles contract income for 2025.

Over 98% of our planned income from restricted and unrestricted grants for 2025 is already secured and with demand for our assessments and intervention work still coming through strongly we are confident that our budget is achievable and we expect to generate a surplus of £180,000.

Unrestricted grant income: secured funding for 2025-2028

We have secured unrestricted grant funding of £542,000 for 2025, £262,000 for 2026, £247,000 for 2027, £205,000 for 2028 and we are incredibly grateful to the funders who provide this support.

2025 marks the first year of a new four-year grant commitment from Oak Foundation of £931,000, providing us with £242,000 for 2025, £237,000 for 2026, £247,000 for 2027 and £205,000 for 2028. We are incredibly grateful for their continued support and confidence in our work to protect children from harm. Funding will provide much needed support across all our activities including frontline delivery, research and advocacy, as well as organisational development. We are thankful for Oak Foundation’s dedication to the cause, not only to us, but also to the sector more generally, including funding the Global Prevention initiative which will enable the evaluation of our helpline and online resources.

The Samworth Foundation, whose 3-year grant ended in 2024, launched a new funding strategy which means our work no longer fits with their funding criteria, however they awarded us an exit grant of £25,000 for 2025 for which we are very grateful.

During 2024 Indigo Trust increased funding from £110,000 to £250,000. The prevention of child sexual abuse remains a focus for the trust and we are set to benefit again from funding of £250k for 2025 with a further £150k committed for 2026.

An anonymous donor renewed our three-year grant in 2024, and we will receive year two funding of £25,000 in 2025 with a further £25,000 in 2026.

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Restricted grant income: secured funding for 2025-2026

At the end of March 24, we held £960,161 of restricted grant funding to support our activities. In addition to this, we have £2,344,426 secured for 2025 and £1,549,395 for 2026 and a further £6,000 for both 2027 and 2028. Details are set out below.

Home Office funding is confirmed of £1,286,727 for 2025 and 2026. Each year’s grant is made up of £170,000 for the online child sexual abuse deterrence campaign, £100,000 for Shore, our website and chat service for young people, and £1,016,727 for our Stop It Now helpline – of which £216,727 is the contribution from the Ministry of Justice.

The Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner have committed £5,000 for a second year in support of the helpline.

The Welsh Government’s support for our early intervention project and the Keeping Children Safe project goes into its fifth and final year with a total of £191,764. In addition, Conwy Borough Council has awarded us a further grant of £7,500 for the year ahead.

Our advocacy work in 2025 will be supported by £40,000 from John Ellerman Foundation with a further £40,000 due in 2026, being year three of a three-year commitment.

The Dawes Trust has awarded us a grant of £50,000 for 2025 to support the Inform suite of programmes.

The Emmanuel Kaye Foundation has been supporting the programme courses and their developments since 2015, and we are delighted that they have agreed another 2-year grant starting in 2025 for £50,000 per annum. This funding supports the Inform courses and a project worker who works across our Family and Friends Forum, Inform, Inform Plus and Engage Plus.

The 29th May Charitable Trust has agreed a threeyear grant of £18,000 providing £6,000 for 2025, 2026 and 2027.

In addition, the helpline is due to be evaluated as part of a research project being run by Michael Seto and Elizabeth Letourneau through John Hopkins University and funded by Oak Foundation. We expect our grant for contributing to this study will amount to £25,997 but amounts are still being finalised. There is a further amount due from the World Childhood Foundation for another joint research bid with Michael Seto amounting to £4,300.

The Scottish Government has committed funding for 2025 as follows: £105,000 to LFF Scotland core activities, £135,834 for the Inform Plus and Breaking the Links programmes and £19,950 for prevention activities. We have also been awarded a further £151,668 to support Inform Plus and Breaking the links in 2026

RS Macdonald has committed £15,000 as match funding for work in schools in Scotland in 2025, with the potential for a further £15,000 in 2026, and City of Edinburgh Council has agreed to support the schools project with funding of £9,354 for 2025.

Additional funding for work in Scotland has been secured from our regular anonymous trust supporter who has committed grant funding of £55,000 and from AB Charitable Trust who have awarded us £22,000 to fund work with young people and adults who present a risk of harm to children.

Nominet UK will go into its third year in 2025 and grant funding of £300,000 will be coming through to support Project Intercept.

Fundraising plans

Including the carry forward from 2024 of £960,161 we have secured a total of £3,846,587 in restricted and unrestricted grant funding for 2025. However not all of these grants will be fully utilised on their respective projects and some of this funding will be carried forward into 2026.

Whilst acknowledging the achievements of the last few years, the trustees are keen to increase our fundraising resources to enable us to diversify income, build unrestricted income from donations, legacies and fundraising events and continue to grow our charitable trust funding while maintaining a high level of government support.

Priorities

Our young people work, the Family and Friends Forum and the Inform courses for families of those who committed offences online continue to grow and remain fundraising challenges for 2025.

The multiyear funding in three important areas of our work ends in 2025 and securing the future for our activities in Wales and the education sector, as well as our research and development leadership are fundraising priorities for the year ahead.

In addition, we recognise the pressure on our funding in Scotland as we do not fit neatly into the individual government department objectives. Although the value of the projects run through our Edinburgh office are well recognised and acknowledged, the funding delays are currently leading to cutbacks, making it all important to secure multiyear grants and develop our charitable trust funding.

2025 will be year two of the two-year grant of £15,000 per annum from the Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner to fund the delivery of Inform Plus, Engage Plus and Inform Young People in Surrey.

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Reserves

the development of the chatbot project. This was fully utilised by March 24 when responsibility for the chatbot was transferred to the charity by the Internet Watch Foundation. We are delighted to be able to continue this work as part of Project Intercept.

Restricted reserves

Restricted reserves at the end of March 2024 totalled £960,161, up 12% on the prior year (2023: £860,281).

The increase of £99,880 is mainly attributable to the funding from Nominet UK for Project Intercept. We received the year two funding mid-way through the year and this combined with £170,488 of year one funding was still unutilised at the year end, resulting in the Nominet holding in restricted reserves increasing by £169,766 year-on-year.

Unrestricted reserves

One of the key financial objectives in recent years has been to replenish unrestricted reserves which had dropped from a high of £955,725 in March 2016 to a low of £456,554 by March 2019.

Whilst many of our grant balances at the yearend show positive and negative variances with the previous year, the most significant amount that offsets the gain on the Nominet UK holding relates to funding from the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children. Last year we held £73,346 being the remaining year two funding for

Since 2020, we have generated surpluses which have enabled us to rebuild reserve levels and in 2024 we have achieved unrestricted reserves of £1,215,648 (2023: £955,451) and met our target for a minimum 3 months expenditure holding.

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Review of reserves against minimum target 2016-2024
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Designated reserves

Included in the unrestricted reserves are designated reserves totalling £116,584 (2023: £85,254).

On an annual basis, the net book value of LFF’s fixed assets is designated so that the cost of future years’ depreciation charges is set aside. In 2024, this amounted to £43,084 (2023: £45,354).

The trustees have also set aside £73,500 to implement the following projects in 2025.

Reserves policy reflecting principal risks

The trustees keep the reserves under regular review and have set the target for unrestricted and undesignated funds to fall within a range of threeto-six months of total expenditure (excluding gifts in kind). This equates to £1,096,527 to £2,193,054 in monetary terms (2023: £971,787 to £1,943,574).

This reserves policy results from the trustees’ review of risk in light of the following issues.

responding to technological change, research and beneficiary demands.

Risk of cuts in professional services income (assessments and interventions, training and consultancy) leading to losses.

We have to be able to fund the costs of grantfunded projects for up to four months before payments are received as some grant funders pay only quarterly in arrears.

There can also be a significant time lag between grant-funded projects starting and the payments being finalised and received, so we need to be able to fund our work in the interim period.

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Consideration of the adequacy of current reserve levels

At the end of March 2024, we achieved unrestricted, undesignated, free reserves of £1,098,964 which put us slightly ahead of the minimum three months’ target by £2,437 (2023: £870,097 - 2.7 months).

Whilst we are pleased to have reached the minimum level, the trustees are mindful of the organisational growth and the fact that the target increases as expenditure levels rise. Therefore, the financial objective to make surpluses and build reserves remains until such time as our free reserves sit more comfortably within the range of the three to six months target.

The budget for 2025 expects expenditure of £4,816,728 excluding gifts in kind and we plan to make a surplus of £180,000. This would bring our free reserves up to 3.33 months.

Going concern

The trustees have reviewed LFF’s financial resources and are satisfied that these are sufficient to ensure its ability to continue as a going concern for the foreseeable future, therefore the financial statements have been prepared on this basis.

Risks are regularly reviewed by the executive team and the trustee board, with mitigation steps put in place and monitored on an ongoing basis.

Treasury policy

Funds are held in cash and deposit accounts, access to which reflects our operational needs and the interest rates obtainable. We maximise interest earned whilst minimising the risk and staying fluid enough to meet any eventualities, as authorised by the governance, finance and general purposes committee.

Related party transactions

There were several related party transactions in the year ended 31 March 2024 (2023: one transaction). Details are set out in note 23 to the financial statements on page 158.

Statement of trustees’ responsibilities

The trustees (who are also directors of The Lucy Faithfull Foundation for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Annual Report and financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards).

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the charitable company’s transactions, disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and the provisions of the Charity’s constitution. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. Insofar as each of the trustees of the Charity at the date of approval of this report is aware, there is no relevant audit information (information needed by the company’s auditor in connection with preparing the audit report) of which the company’s auditor is unaware. Each trustee has taken all of the steps that they should have taken as a trustee in order to make them self-aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the company’s auditor is aware of that information.

Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under company law, the trustees must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

Auditor

Crowe U.K. LLP is the auditor of the Foundation and will be proposed for reappointment in accordance with section 485 of the Companies Act 2006. In preparing this report, the trustees have taken advantage of the small companies’ exemptions provided by Section 415A of the Companies Act 2006.

The Trustees’ Report was approved by the Board of Trustees on 11th September 2024 and signed on

its behalf by:

Jane Leach BSc FCA Chair

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Financial review

Financial review

Independent auditor’s report to the members of The Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Opinion

Basis for opinion

We have audited the financial statements of The Lucy Faithfull Foundation (‘the charitable company’) for the year ended 31 March 2024 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet, the Statement of Cash Flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

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.

In our opinion the financial statements:

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 contained within the annual report. The other information comprises the information included in the 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.

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 this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

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

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and the environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the strategic report or the directors’ report included within the trustees’ report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement set out on page 131, 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.

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Financial review

Financial review

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

We have been appointed as auditor under section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and under the Companies Act 2006 and report in accordance with the Acts and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Details of the extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations are set out below.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of noncompliance with laws and regulations. We identified and assessed the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements from irregularities, whether due to fraud or error, and discussed these between our audit team members. We then designed and performed audit procedures responsive to those risks, including obtaining audit evidence sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks within which the charitable company operates, focusing on those laws and regulations that have a direct effect on the determination of material amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The laws and regulations we considered in this context were the Companies Act 2006, the Charities Act 2011 and The Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 together with the Charities SORP (FRS 102) (2019). We assessed the required compliance with these laws and regulations as part of our audit procedures on the related financial statement items.

In addition, we considered provisions of other laws and regulations that do not have a direct effect on the financial statements but compliance with which might be fundamental to the charitable company’s ability to operate or to avoid a material penalty. We also considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the charitable company for fraud.

Auditing standards limit the required audit procedures to identify non-compliance with these laws and regulations to enquiry of the Trustees and other management and inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.

We identified the greatest risk of material impact on the financial statements from irregularities, including fraud, to be with the completeness and timing of grant income and the override of controls by management. Our audit procedures to respond to these risks included enquiries of management, and the Finance, and the General- Purpose Audit & Risk Committee about their own identification and assessment of the risks of irregularities, sample testing on the posting of journals, reviewing accounting estimates for biases, reviewing regulatory correspondence with the Charity Commission, Scottish Charity Regulator, designing audit procedures over the completeness and timing of grant income, and reading minutes of meetings of those charged with governance.

Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that we may not have detected some material misstatements in the financial statements, even though we have properly

planned and performed our audit in accordance with auditing standards. For example, the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations (irregularities) is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely the inherently limited procedures required by auditing standards would identify it. In addition, as with any audit, there remained a higher risk of non-detection of irregularities, as these may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal controls. We are not responsible for preventing non-compliance and cannot be expected to detect non-compliance with all laws and regulations.

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, and to the charitable company’s trustees, as a body, in accordance with Regulation 10 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 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 and the charitable company’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Guy Biggin

Senior Statutory Auditor For and on behalf of Crowe U.K. LLP Statutory Auditor 4th Floor, St James House, St James’ Square Cheltenham, GL50 3PR

Date: 23 September 2024

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Financial review

Financial review

Financial review

Statement of fnancial activities

Financial review

Balance sheet

as at 31 March 2024

for the year ended 31 March 2024

Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
Funds 2024 Funds 2024 Funds 2024 Funds 2023 Funds 2023 Funds 2023
£ £ £ £ £ £
Income from:
Donations and legacies 2 230,439 - 230,439 278,047 - 278,047
Charitable activities 5 2,098,579 2,460,909 4,559,488 1,712,701 2,475,733 4,188,434
Investments 3 37,792 - 37,792 6,290 - 6,290
~~Total Income~~ ~~2,366,810~~ ~~2,460,909~~ ~~4,827,719~~ ~~1,997,038~~ ~~2,475,733~~ ~~4,472,771~~
Expenditure on:
Raising funds 4 115,095 - 115,095 109,333 - 109,333
Charitable activities 6 1,991,518 2,361,029 4,352,547 1,765,297 2,163,055 3,928,352
~~Total Expenditure~~ ~~2,106,613~~ ~~2,361,029~~ ~~4,467,642~~ ~~1,874,630~~ ~~2,163,055~~ ~~4,037,685~~
Net income (expenditure) and
movement in funds 260,197 99,880 360,077 122,408 312,678 435,086
Reconciliation of funds
Total funds brought forward 955,451 860,281 1,815,732 833,043 547,603 1,380,646
~~Total funds carried forward~~ ~~18, 19~~ ~~1,215,648~~ ~~960,161~~ ~~2,175,809~~ ~~955,451~~ ~~860,281~~ ~~1,815,732~~

The notes on pages 139 to 158 form part of these financial statements.

Registered number: 02729957

2024 2023
Note £ £
Fixed assets
Intangible assets 11 33,591 43,188
Tangible assets 12 9,493 2,066
Investments 13 100 100
43,184 45,354
Current assets
Debtors 15 551,438 507,529
Cash at bank and in hand 2,087,969 1,783,568
2,639,407 2,291,097
Creditors
Amounts falling due within one year 16 (506,782) (520,719)
Net current assets 2,132,625 1,770,378
~~Net assets~~ ~~2,175,809~~ ~~1,815,732~~
Funds
Unrestricted funds 18 1,215,648 955,451
Restricted funds 19 960,161 860,281
~~Total funds~~ ~~18, 19~~ ~~2,175,809~~ ~~1,815,732~~

The notes on pages 139 to 158 form part of these financial statements.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to small companies within Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006.

The financial statements were authorised for issue and approved by the trustees on 11th September 2024 and signed on their behalf by:

BeS bet Jane Leach BSc FCA Chair

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Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Financial review

Financial review

Financial review

Statement of cash fows

Financial review

Notes to the fnancial statements

for the year ended 31 March 2024

2024 2023
Note £ £
Cash flows from operating activities
Net cash provided by operating activities 25 276,316 303,565
Cash flows from investing activities
Interest received 3 37,792 6,290
Purchase of tangible fixed assets 12 (9,707) -
Purchase of intangible fixed assets 11 - (47,987)
Net cash used in investing activities 28,085 (41,697)
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting period 304,401 261,868
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period 1,783,568 1,521,700
~~Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period~~ ~~2,087,969~~ ~~1,783,568~~

The notes on pages 139 to 158 form part of these financial statements.

1. Accounting policies

(a) Basis of accounting

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice (FRS 102) applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS102 the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland issued on 16 July 2014, the Charities Act 2011, the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 and UK Generally

Accepted Practice as it applies from 1 January 2015. The Lucy Faithfull Foundation meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note(s).

Under section 405 of the Companies Act 2006, consolidated accounts have not been prepared as the inclusion of the dormant subsidiaries is not material for the purpose of giving a true and fair view. Therefore the financial statements present information on the parent entity as an individual undertaking only.

(b) Company Information

The Charity is a private company limited by guarantee (company no. 02729957) and a registered Charity in England and Wales (Charity no. 1013025), and in Scotland (Scottish registered Charity no. SC039888), which is incorporated and domiciled in the UK. The address of the registered

office is 2 Birch House, Harris Business Park, Hanbury Road, Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove B60 4DJ.

(c) Going concern

The trustees believe that the Charity’s financial resources and contingency planning are sufficient to ensure the ability of the Charity to continue as a going concern for the foreseeable future, being at least twelve months from the date of approval of these financial statements and therefore have prepared the financial statements on a going concern basis. The cash balance at the yearend was £2,087,969, (2023: £1,783,568) of which £1,222,931 was unrestricted (2023: £935,787 unrestricted).

Demand for our professional services remains high as measured by the trend on enquiry levels and the pipeline records of booked work, consequently, we are confident that the budgeted surplus of £180,000 for 2024/25 is achievable and that our cash flow will be positive.

(d) Financial instruments

The Charity has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement amount. Financial assets held at amortised cost comprise cash at bank and in hand, together with trade and other debtors and accrued income. Financial liabilities held at amortised cost comprise trade and other creditors. Investments in subsidiary undertakings are held at cost less impairment.

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Financial review

Financial review

(e) Fund accounting

General funds are unrestricted funds that are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the objects of the Charity.

Designated funds comprise general funds, which have been set aside at the discretion of the trustees for specific purposes.

Restricted funds are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by the donors or which have been raised by the Charity for particular purposes. The aim and use of the restricted funds are set out in note 19.

(f) Income

Income is recognised when the Charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the item(s) of income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.

Income from grants (including government grants), where related to performance and specific deliverables, is accounted for as the Charity earns the right to consideration by its performance.

Donations are recognised on a receipt basis.

Legacies are recognised at the earlier of estate accounts or receipt.

When funding has been specified by the funder as being for a future period, or the Charity has not yet demonstrated entitlement to the income, through performance conditions not having been met, then the income is deferred.

Work in progress at the year-end is accrued for and valued based on detailed timesheets indicating the level of work completed.

All other income is accounted for on an accrual basis.

(g) Expenditure

All expenditure is accounted for on an accrual basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all costs related to the category. Where costs, including support costs, cannot be directly attributed to particular headings they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of the acquisition, the proportion of staff

time spent, or as a percentage of the total direct expenditure on each type of activity.

Dilapidation provision – the Charity has provided for its possible liability in relation to its leasehold property which has been estimated as disclosed in note 22.

Governance costs comprise constitutional and statutory requirements incurred in the general running of the charitable company. Redundancy and termination payments are made in line with the terms of settlement agreements and accrued at the point of commitment when the amount of the payment can be reliably measured.

(h) Recognition and valuation of donated goods and services

Where material, the Charity recognises the value of donated services as income in Gifts in Kind (refer to note 2) and records the expenditure at the same value in the appropriate expenditure heading.

The valuation of these services is calculated at the normal rates applied by the donor for these goods and services, which is the price the Charity would pay in the open market for the item.

(i) Intangible fixed assets

Identifiable non-monetary assets (in excess of £10,000) without physical substance are valued at a realistic replacement cost and amortised over the expected useful economic life as follows:

Website and films 33.33% straight line Business system implementation 20% straight line

Amortisation is included in charitable activities expenditure.

(j) Tangible fixed assets

Tangible fixed assets are depreciated at rates calculated to write off the cost on a straight-line basis over the expected useful economic lives of the assets as follows:

Computer equipment 33.33% straight line Furniture and fittings 20% straight line Office refurbishment 25% straight line

The Charity has a policy of capitalising fixed assets where expenditure on such assets is in excess of £1,000. The amounts capitalised are net of recoverable VAT.

(k) Debtors and creditors

Debtors, with the exception of prepayments, are those amounts that satisfy the income recognition policy in note (f) above, and are recognised at the settlement amount due, where funds have not been received at the yearend. Prepayments are expenditure amounts in excess of £1,000 that have been paid in the current financial year relating to costs to be incurred in a future accounting period. These are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.

Creditors with the exception of deferred income are recognised where the Charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts.

Deferred income relates to income received in the current financial year for future events post-yearend where the terms and conditions imposed on this income have not been met.

Therefore, the income is not recognised but deferred as a liability until it is probable that the terms and conditions can be met.

(l) Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and cash in hand includes petty cash, and cash in bank accounts.

(m) Operating leases

Rentals applicable to operating leases, where substantially all the benefits and risks of ownership remain with the lessor, are recognised in the SOFA over the period of the lease.

(n) Investments

Fixed asset investments are stated at market value at the Balance Sheet date. Investments in subsidiaries are valued at cost less provision for impairment.

(o) Recognition of liabilities

Liabilities are recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation that commits the Charity to the obligation.

(p) Taxation

The company is a registered Charity, and as such is entitled to tax exemptions on all its income and gains properly applied for its charitable purposes.

(q) Volunteers

Volunteer time is not recognised in the accounts (as per the Charity SORP) as they cannot be reliably valued. We have forty three trained Circles volunteers of which twelve actively delivered in 2024. In addition, we have benefited from the support of another thirteen volunteers, students and interns who supplement our staffing resource with specialist clinical skills or administrative support.

(r) Pensions

With effect from May 2014, the Charity automatically enrols all qualifying new employees into the NEST contributory pension scheme. Employer contributions are accounted for when they fall due. Pension costs are apportioned to projects and services based on the allocation of staff time between activities.

The costs are split between restricted and unrestricted in line with the related income and funding for the activity.

(s) Critical accounting judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty

In the application of the Charity’s accounting policies, which are described above, trustees are required to make judgements, estimates, and assumptions about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and underlying assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised if the revision affects only that period or in the period of the revision and future periods if the revision affects the current and future periods.

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Financial review

Financial review

The key sources of estimation uncertainty that have a significant effect on the amounts recognised in the financial statements are described in the accounting policies and are summarised below (as applicable):

2. Income from donations and legacies

Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Funds 2024
Funds 2024
Funds 2024
Funds 2023
Funds 2023
Funds 2023
£
£
£
£
£
£
Donations
110,697
-
110,697
95,405
-
95,405
Gifts in kind
81,538
-
81,538
150,538
-
150,538
Service users’ donations
1,530
-
1,530
1,160
-
1,160
Fundraising events
13,513
-
13,513
30,944
-
30,944
Legacy income
23,161
-
23,161
-
-
-
~~Total income from donations and legacies~~
~~230,439~~
~~-~~
~~230,439~~
~~278,047~~
~~-~~
~~278,047~~

Gifts in kind includes the value of Google, Snapshat, Meta, and Microsoft advertising, which was £80,038 (2023: £150,538). The balance of £1,500 in 2024 is the value of training marketing consultancy provided probono by Felicia Willows (2023: £NIL).

3. Income from investments

Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Funds 2024
Funds 2024
Funds 2024
Funds 2023
Funds 2023
Funds 2023
£
£
£
£
£
£
~~Bank interest from monies on deposit~~
~~37,792~~
~~37,792~~
~~6,290~~
~~-~~
~~6,290~~

4. Expenditure on raising funds

Staf costs Support costs
Total Costs
Staf costs Support costs
Total Costs
2024
2024
2024
2023
2023
2023
£
£
£
£
£
£
~~Fundraising costs~~
~~97,638~~
~~17,457~~
~~115,095~~
~~90,643~~
~~18,690~~
~~109,333~~

5. Income from charitable activities

Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Funds 2024
Funds 2024
Funds 2024
Funds 2023
Funds 2023
Funds 2023
£
£
£
£
£
£
Government funding for:
Stop It Now helpline
-
886,727
886,727
-
816,727
816,727
Young people services including Inform
-
107,500
107,500
-
15,000
15,000
Tackling online child sexual abuse
-
7,500
7,500
Online CSA deterrence campaign
-
170,000
170,000
-
170,000
170,000
LFF Scotland
-
244,950
244,950
-
262,612
262,612
LFF Wales
-
199,265
199,265
-
195,117
195,117
~~-~~
~~1,615,942~~
~~1,615,942~~
~~-~~
~~1,459,456~~
~~1,459,456~~
Charitable trust grant funding for:
Stop It Now helpline
65,160
-
65,160
7,000
113,000
120,000
Tackling online child sexual abuse
30,803
75,891
106,694
25,000
102,238
127,238
Young people services including Inform
68,252
172,109
240,361
65,460
195,000
260,460
Advocacy and communications
126,901
340,000
466,901
104,974
330,000
434,974
LFF Scotland
42,998
160,000
202,998
-
108,000
108,000
LFF Wales
-
-
-
-
-
-
Research and evaluation
71,430
86,548
157,978
47,119
168,039
215,158
Circles
26,634
10,419
37,053
-
-
-
Strategic development & core activities
22,822
-
22,822
60,447
-
60,447
~~455,000~~
~~844,967~~
~~1,299,967~~
~~310,000~~
~~1,016,277~~
~~1,326,277~~
Other income generated from:
Assessments and intervention for the family
court, local authorities, DBS, faith groups
and individuals
1,158,746
-
1,158,746
964,328
-
964,328
Participant fees Inform, Inform Plus,
Engage Plus, Inform Young People and
other contributions
182,049
-
182,049
152,159
-
152,159
Training and consultancy activities for local
authorities, statutory agencies and other
organisations
240,841
-
240,841
286,214
-
286,214
University contributions to Research
11,237
-
11,237
-
-
-
Circles Contract
50,706
-
50,706
-
-
-
~~1,643,579~~
~~-~~
~~1,643,579~~
~~1,402,701~~
~~-~~
~~1,402,701~~
~~Total income from charitable activities~~
~~2,098,579~~
~~2,460,909~~
~~4,559,488~~
~~1,712,701~~
~~2,475,733~~
~~4,188,434~~

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Financial review

6. Expenditure on charitable activities 2024

Staf costs
Other costs
Total Costs
Staf costs
Other costs
Total Costs
Staf costs
Other costs
Total Costs
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
Stop It Now helpline
58,848
12,333
71,181
804,434
166,988
971,422
863,282
179,321
1,042,603
Assessments and interventions
810,503
136,519
947,022
-
-
-
810,503
136,519
947,022
Tackling online child sexual abuse
165,855
35,840
201,695
67,698
12,991
80,689
233,553
48,831
282,384
Working with young people and families
57,980
11,660
69,640
180,530
72,328
252,858
238,510
83,988
322,498
Advocacy and communications
176,349
139,167
315,516
237,946
105,999
343,945
414,295
245,166
659,461
LFF Scotland
53,003
9,918
62,921
347,982
65,117
413,099
400,985
75,035
476,020
LFF Wales
-
-
-
162,974
36,291
199,265
162,974
36,291
199,265
Training and consultancy
114,786
47,717
162,503
-
-
-
114,786
47,717
162,503
Research and international work
68,584
15,116
83,700
66,055
23,696
89,751
134,639
38,812
173,451
Circles of support & accountability
57,349
19,991
77,340
7,415
2,585
10,000
64,764
22,576
87,340
~~1,563,257~~
~~428,261~~
~~1,991,518~~
~~1,875,034~~
~~485,995~~
~~2,361,029~~
~~3,438,291~~
~~914,256~~
~~4,352,547~~
Unrestricted expenditure 2024
Restricted expenditure 2024
Total expenditure 2024

6. Expenditure on charitable activities 2023

Staf costs
Other costs
Total Costs
Staf costs
Other costs
Total Costs
Staf costs
Other costs
Total Costs
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
Stop It Now Helpline
9,698
2,527
12,225
763,294
195,363
958,657
772,992
197,890
970,882
Assessments and interventions
684,181
134,020
818,201
0
0
0
684,181
134,020
818,201
Tackling online child sexual abuse
130,481
34,139
164,620
63,791
18,987
82,778
194,272
53,126
247,398
Working with young people and families
54,498
11,242
65,740
152,514
62,255
214,769
207,012
73,497
280,509
Advocacy and communications
149,010
267,850
416,860
174,732
68,697
243,429
323,742
336,547
660,289
LFF Scotland
13,567
2,707
16,274
314,951
62,837
377,788
328,518
65,544
394,062
LFF Wales
220
41
261
169,793
31,971
201,764
170,013
32,012
202,025
Training and consultancy
155,639
64,803
220,442
0
0
0
155,639
64,803
220,442
Research and international work
41,120
9,554
50,674
61,511
22,359
83,870
102,631
31,913
134,544
~~1,238,414~~
~~526,883~~
~~1,765,297~~
~~1,700,586~~
~~462,469~~
~~2,163,055~~
~~2,939,000~~
~~989,352~~
~~3,928,352~~
Unrestricted expenditure 2023
Restricted expenditure 2023
Total expenditure 2023

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7. Support costs 2024

Finance
IT
HR
Total
2024
2024
2024
2024
£
£
£
£
Stop It Now helpline
44,146
14,321
18,007
76,474
Assessments and interventions
93,632
30,373
38,191
162,196
Tackling online child sexual abuse
11,190
3,630
4,564
19,384
Working with young people and families
12,780
4,145
5,213
22,138
Advocacy and communications
50,664
16,435
20,666
87,765
LFF Scotland
18,864
6,119
7,694
32,677
LFF Wales
7,892
2,560
3,219
13,671
Training and consultancy
19,107
6,198
7,794
33,099
Research and international work
6,873
2,230
2,804
11,907
Circles of support and accountability
3,461
1,123
1,412
5,996
Fundraising
4,561
1,479
1,860
7,900
~~273,170~~
~~88,613~~
~~111,424~~
~~473,207~~

7. Support costs 2023

Finance
IT
HR
Total
2023
2023
2023
2023
£
£
£
£
Stop It Now helpline
38,392
17,502
11,267
67,161
Assessments and interventions
83,278
37,964
24,440
145,682
Tackling online child sexual abuse
9,403
4,287
2,760
16,450
Working with young people and families
10,662
4,860
3,129
18,651
Advocacy and communications
45,519
20,751
13,358
79,628
LFF Scotland
14,978
6,828
4,396
26,202
LFF Wales
7,679
3,501
2,254
13,434
Training and consultancy
33,007
15,047
9,687
57,741
Research and international work
5,114
2,331
1,501
8,946
Fundraising
4,155
1,894
1,220
7,269
~~252,187~~
~~114,965~~
~~74,012~~
~~441,164~~

8. Net income is stated after charging

Staf
Support
2024
2023
costs
costs
total
total
£
£
£
£
Governance costs:
Auditor’s remuneration (inclusive of VAT)
for the audit of the annual fnancial statements
-
22,883
22,883
23,680
for other services
-
533
533
-
Trustees’ training and DBS checks
-
500
500
21
Trustees’ meetings
-
1,289
1,289
193
Company secretarial
6,693
39
6,732
7,083
Apportionment of management time
28,663
3,280
31,943
33,099
~~35,356~~
~~28,524~~
~~63,880~~
~~64,076~~
Depreciation and amortisation charges
11,877
10,700
Operating lease payments
117,613
108,473

9. Staff

2024
2023
full time
full time
equivalent no.equivalent no.
The average weekly number of persons employed by the group during the year was:
Charitable activities
83
81
Governance
1
1
~~Total staf~~
~~84~~
~~82~~
The average headcount for 2024 is 138 (2023: 137)
2024
2023
£
£
Staf costs for the group comprised:
Wages and salaries
3,178,256
2,718,503
Social security costs
279,482
245,242
Healthcare
10,702
8,413
Pension costs
67,489
57,485
~~Total staf costs~~
~~3,535,929~~
~~3,029,643~~

In 2024, one employee earned between £70,000 and £80,000 and two employees earned between £60,000 and £70,000 (2023: one employee earned between £70,000 and £80,000 and two employees earned between £60,000 and £70,000). The total employee benefits of the key management personnel of the Charity were £424,064 (2023: £381,284). There were ex gratia costs amounting to £11,075 in the year relating to two staff (2023: £NIL).

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Financial review

10. Trustees

There was £332 of reimbursed expenses to four trustees in the year (2023: £88 reimbursed to one trustee). No trustees received renumeration during either accounting period.

11. Intangible fixed assets

Business system
Internally developed
Total intangible
implementation
website and flms
assets
£
£
£
At 1 April 2023
47,987
269,340
317,327
~~At 31 March 2024~~
~~47,987~~
~~269,340~~
~~317,327~~
Amortisation
At 1st April 2023
4,799
269,340
274,139
Charge for the year
9,597
-
9,597
~~At 31 March 2024~~
~~14,396~~
~~269,340~~
~~283,736~~
Net book value
At 31 March 2023
43,188
-
43,188
~~At 31 March 2024~~
~~33,591~~
~~-~~
~~33,591~~

12. Tangible fixed assets

Computer
Furniture
and equipment
and fttings
Total
£
£
£
At 1 April 2023
82,449
58,044
140,493
Additions
9,707
-
9,707
~~At 31 March 2024~~
~~92,156~~
~~58,044~~
~~150,200~~
Depreciation
At 1 April 2023
80,564
57,863
138,427
Charge for the year
2,099
181
2,280
~~At 31 March 2024~~
~~82,663~~
~~58,044~~
~~140,707~~
Net book values
At 31 March 2023
1,885
181
2,066
~~At 31 March 2024~~
~~9,493~~
~~-~~
~~9,493~~

13. Investments

2024
2023
total
total
£
£
Unlisted investment in dormant subsidiaries
100
100
~~Total~~
~~100~~
~~100~~

The charity holds unlisted investments at a net book value of £100 (original cost of £100) in the following subsidiary undertakings, both of which are dormant:

Country of Proncipal Class of % of share
incorporation activity shares capital held
Stop It Now UK & Ireland Limited: Company No: 4197678 England Dormant Ordinary £1 100%
Lucy Faithfull Foundation Trading Limited: Company No: 3540721 England Dormant Ordinary £1 100%

14. Taxation

The company is a registered charity, and as such, is entitled to tax exemptions on all its income and gains properly applied for its charitable purposes.

15. Debtors

2024
2023
£
£
Trade debtors
261,166
364,331
Prepayments
87,323
80,686
Accrued income from charitable activities
52,826
50,012
Accrued grants income
150,123
12,500
~~Total~~
~~551,438~~
~~507,529~~

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Financial review

16. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

2024
2023
£
£
Trade creditors
117,751
144,688
Amount due to group undertakings
100
100
Taxation and social security
103,510
87,531
Accruals
190,665
216,924
Deferred income
94,756
71,476
~~506,782~~
~~520,719~~
Deferred income is made up as follows:
Deferred income at 1 April 2023
71,476
69,876
Resources deferred in the year
94,756
71,476
Amounts released from previous years
(71,476)
(69,876)
~~Deferred income as at 31 March 2024~~
~~94,756~~
~~71,476~~

As on 31 March 2024, the Charity was holding funds received in advance for work that will be undertaken in the year ended 31 March 2025.

17. Financial instruments

Assets that are debt instuments measured amortised cost
2024
2023
£
£
Trade debtors
261,166
364,331
Accrued income from charitable activities
52,826
50,012
Accrued grant income
150,123
12,500
Cash at bank and in hand
2,087,969
1,783,568
~~2,552,084~~
~~2,210,411~~

The impairment to trade debtors during the year was £10,584 (2023: £3,150).

18. Funds 2024

1 April 2023
Income
Expenditure/
31 March 2024
£
£
funds released £
£
Unrestricted
General funds
870,097
1,853,226
1,624,359
1,098,964
Funds held in Investments
100
100
Charitable trust grants
Oak Foundation
-
125,000
125,000
-
The Samworth Foundation
-
55,000
55,000
-
The Indigo Trust
-
250,000
250,000
-
Anonymous donor
-
25,000
25,000
-
Designated funds
Special projects in 2024
Digital investment to increase reach
40,000
5,377
15,377
30,000
Funds for advocacy assets e.g. materials and animations to
simplify and explain the public health approach to prevention
-
20,000
-
20,000
Fundraising database
-
10,000
-
10,000
Conference with NWG Network
-
5,000
-
5,000
Staf CFT training commitment
-
8,500
-
8,500
Future years depreciation
Ofce changes Epsom & Birch House
181
-
181
-
New business system
43,188
-
9,597
33,591
Scotland alarm system
1,885
-
481
1,404
Server
-
9,707
1,618
8,089
~~Total unrestricted funds~~
~~955,451~~
~~2,366,810~~
~~2,106,613~~
~~1,215,648~~
Total restricted funds(refer Note 19)
860,281
2,460,909
2,361,029
960,161
~~Total funds~~
~~1,815,732~~
~~4,827,719~~
~~4,467,642~~
~~2,175,809~~
Financial liabilities at settlement value:
Trade creditors
117,751
144,688
Amount due to group undertakings
100
100
Accruals
190,665
216,924
~~308,516~~
~~361,712~~

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Financial review

18. Funds 2023

1 April 2022
Income
Expenditure
31 March 2023
£
£
£
£
Unrestricted
General funds
679,976
1,642,038
1,451,917
870,097
Funds held in Investments
100
-
-
100
Charitable trust grants
Oak Foundation
-
125,000
125,000
-
The Samworth Foundation
-
50,000
50,000
-
The Indigo Trust
-
100,000
100,000
-
Anonymous donor
-
25,000
25,000
-
KPMG Foundation
-
10,000
10,000
-
Designated funds
Special projects in 2023
Branding recognition to increase reach
25,000
-
25,000
-
Digital development to increase reach
40,000
-
-
40,000
New business system transferred to depreciation**
45,000
-
45,000
-
Anniversary year campaigning
35,000
-
35,000
-
Future years depreciation
Helpline ofce changes
2,825
-
2,683
142
New head ofce set up
2,776
-
2,737
39
New business system
45,000
1,812
43,188
Scotland alarm system
2,366
-
481
1,885
~~Total unrestricted funds~~
~~833,043~~
~~1,997,038~~
~~1,874,630~~
~~955,451~~
Total restricted funds(refer Note 19)
547,603
2,475,733
2,163,055
860,281
~~Total funds~~
~~1,380,646~~
~~4,472,771~~
~~4,037,685~~
~~1,815,732~~

The general funds represent the unrestricted funds of the Charity that are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the objects of the Charity.

The designated funds form part of unrestricted funds but the trustees have specifically set aside £30,000 for further digital development to increase reach, £20,000 advocacy assets to simplify and explain the foundation’s public health approach to prevention, £10,000 for a fundraising database, £5,000 for the planned conference with NWG network and £8,500 for compassion focussed training (CFT).

In addition, £33,591 is set aside to cover the future years’ cost of depreciation on the business system implementation, £1,404 to cover the remaining depreciation on the Scotland alarm system and £8,089 for future years depreciation on the new server.

In the prior year, 2023, trustees set aside £40,000 for digital development to increase reach. In addition, £43,188 was set aside to cover the future years’ cost of depreciation on the business system implementation and £2,066 to cover the remaining depreciation on the refurbishments of the Epsom/helpline office, the setup of the new head office at Birch House and the alarm system in Scotland.

Restricted funds comprise funding received in relation to specified activities in furtherance of the objectives of the Charity. These grants support the Charity’s work in relation to practitioner-led tasks, offering clinical and other support on offence prevention programmes, assessment, intervention and consultancy related to adults and young people who abuse children. A breakdown of these is included in Note 19.

19. Restricted Funds 2024

1 April 2023
Incoming resources Resources expended
31 March 2024
£
£
£
£
Government Funding
Ministry of Justice
for Stop It Now Helpline - MOJ
-
216,727
216,727
-
Home Office
for Stop It Now Helpline
-
660,000
660,000
-
for IIOC Deterrence Campaign
28,956
170,000
188,956
10,000
for Shore website
-
100,000
100,000
-
NHS
for tackling child sexual exploitation - NHS
4,899
-
4,755
144
Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner
for developing prevention approaches
11,349
-
11,349
-
The Scottish Government
for LFF Scotland activities
10,550
224,950
232,200
3,300
City of Edinburgh Council
for LFF Scotland schools’ activities
-
20,000
14,354
5,646
The Welsh Government
for LFF Wales early intervention
-
97,153
97,153
-
for LFF Wales primary prevention
-
94,612
94,612
-
Conwy County Borough Council
for LFF Wales Parent Protect
-
7,500
7,500
-
Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey
for Inform Plus, Engage Plus and Inform for young people
15,000
15,000
12,159
17,841
Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria
for Stop it Now Helpline
-
5,000
5,000
-
Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales
for Stop it Now Helpline
-
2,500
2,500
-
Warwickshire Police Community Fund
for Stop it Now Helpline
-
2,500
2,500
-
~~Total Government funds~~
~~70,754~~
~~1,615,942~~
~~1,649,765~~
~~36,931~~
Charitable Trust Funding
Porticus UK
for Inform, the Forum, Inform Plus, Engage Plus
and Inform Young People
45,000
-
-
45,000
for International activity
3,462
-
3,462
0
for head of research & evaluation
68,887
87,623
61,095
95,415
Nominet UK
for online CSA warning messaging
300,722
300,000
130,234
470,488
EU (Protech)
for monitoring ofenders’ IT devices
67,945
-
18,321
49,624
Oak Foundation
for helpline evaluation work (with Seto & Letourneau)
2,948
(1,075)
1,873
-

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Financial review

19. Restricted Funds 2024 (cont.)

1 April 2023
Incoming resources Resources expended
31 March 2024
£
£
£
£
John Ellerman Foundation
for Advocacy
-
40,000
20,000
20,000
Circles UK
for COSA implementation
-
10,000
10,000
-
for COSA delivery
-
419
-
419
The Dawes Trust
for Inform, the Forum, Inform Plus, Engage Plus
and Inform Young People
-
50,000
50,000
-
Shanly Foundation
for Inform Young People
2,000
-
2,000
-
Henry Oldfield Trust
for Inform Young People
-
10,000
-
10,000
Austin Hope & Pilkington Trust
for Inform Young People
-
5,000
-
5,000
Paul Hamlyn Foundation
for Inform Young People partner training
19,522
30,000
14,870
34,652
for cost of living rises
-
3,000
3,000
-
Charles Hayward Foundation
for young people online resources
10,350
-
10,350
-
Emmanuel Kaye Foundation
for Inform, the Forum, Inform Plus, and Engage Plus
4,684
50,000
49,958
4,726
Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children
for online deterrence Chatbot
73,346
-
73,346
-
KPMG Foundation
for work in Schools
90,376
100,000
91,210
99,166
NOTA
for R&D
5,000
-
5,000
-
Anonymous Trust
for LFF Scotland prevention activity
4,191
55,000
59,191
-
The R S Macdonald Charitable Trust
for LFF Scotland Schools’ activities
-
20,000
14,354
5,646
Anonymous Trust
for LFF Scotland prevention activity
-
15,000
10,000
5,000
Baillie Gifford & Co
for LFF Scotland fundraiser
43,094
30,000
30,000
43,094
AB Charitable Trust
for LFF Scotland prevention activity
22,000
22,000
22,000
22,000
The Robertson Trust
for LFF Scotland prevention activity
16,000
-
16,000
-
The Volant Charitable Trust
for LFF Scotland prevention activity
10,000
15,000
15,000
10,000
Souter Charitable Trust
for LFF Scotland prevention activity
-
3,000
-
3,000
~~Total Charitable Trust funds~~
~~789,527~~
~~844,967~~
~~711,264~~
~~923,230~~
~~Total Restricted Funds~~
~~860,281~~
~~2,460,909~~
~~2,361,029~~
~~960,161~~		 1 April 2022
Incoming resources Resources expended
31 March 2023
£
£
£
£
Government Funding
Ministry of Justice
for Stop It Now Helpline - MOJ
-
216,727
216,727
-
Home Office
for Stop It Now Helpline
-
600,000
600,000
-
for IIOC Deterrence Campaign
67,215
160,000
198,259
28,956
for Media and Communications
5,832
10,000
15,832
-
NHS
for tackling child sexual exploitation - NHS
4,959
-
60
4,899
Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner
for developing prevention approaches
82,229
-
70,880
11,349
The Scottish Government
for Stop It Now Scotland activities
3,300
252,612
245,362
10,550
Perth & Kinross Council
for Stop It Now Scotland activities
-
10,000
10,000
-
The Welsh Government
for Stop It Now Wales early intervention
1,342
95,810
97,152
-
for Stop It Now Wales primary prevention
5,305
89,307
94,612
-
Conwy County Borough Council
for Stop It Now Wales Parent Protect
-
10,000
10,000
-
Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey
for Inform Young People, Inform Plus and Engage Plus
-
15,000
-
15,000
~~Total Government funds~~
~~170,182~~
~~1,459,456~~
~~1,558,884~~
~~70,754~~
Charitable Trust Funding
Porticus UK
for Inform, the Forum, Inform Plus, Engage Plus
& Inform Young People
29,948
47,738
32,686
45,000
for international activity
9,825
-
6,363
3,462
for head of research & evaluation
54,246
86,107
71,466
68,887
Nominet UK
for online CSA warning messaging
-
330,000
29,278
300,722
European Commission (EU Protech)
for software to detect CSAM on devices
-
71,932
3,987
67,945
Oak Foundation
for helpline evaluation work (with Seto & Letourneau)
-
5,000
2,052
2,948
19. Restricted Funds 2023
Continued next page

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Financial review

19. Restricted Funds 2023 (cont.)

1 April 2022
Incoming resources Resources expended
31 March 2023
£
£
£
£
The Dawes Trust
for Inform, the Forum, Inform Plus, Engage Plus
& Inform Young People
-
50,000
50,000
-
Shanly Foundation
for Inform Young People
-
2,000
-
2,000
Paul Hamlyn Foundation
for Inform Young People partner training
16,437
30,000
26,915
19,522
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
for young people services
30,537
-
30,537
-
Charles Hayward Foundation
for young people online resources
10,366
17,500
17,516
10,350
Emmanuel Kaye Foundation
for Inform, the Forum, Inform Plus, & Engage Plus
-
50,000
45,316
4,684
Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children
for online deterrence Chatbot
31,395
113,000
71,049
73,346
KPMG Foundation
for work in Schools
84,956
100,000
94,580
90,376
NOTA
for R&D
-
5,000
-
5,000
Anonymous Trust
for Stop It Now Scotland prevention activity
31,031
-
26,840
4,191
The Barcapel Foundation
for Stop It Now Scotland prevention activity
-
15,000
15,000
-
The R S Macdonald Charitable Trust
for Stop It Now Scotland prevention activity
8,680
-
8,680
-
Anonymous Trust
for Stop It Now Scotland prevention activity
-
10,000
10,000
-
Baillie Gifford & Co
for Stop It Now Scotland fundraiser
30,000
30,000
16,906
43,094
AB Charitable Trust
for Stop It Now Scotland prevention activity
20,000
22,000
20,000
22,000
The Robertson Trust
for Stop It Now Scotland prevention activity
10,000
16,000
10,000
16,000
The Volant Charitable Trust
for Stop It Now Scotland prevention activity
10,000
15,000
15,000
10,000
~~Total Charitable Trust funds~~
~~377,421~~
~~1,016,277~~
~~604,171~~
~~789,527~~
~~Total Restricted Funds~~
~~547,603~~
~~2,475,733~~
~~2,163,055~~
~~860,281~~

20. Analysis of net assets between funds for the year ended March 2024

Fixed assets
Net current assets
Fund balances
£
£
£
Unrestricted funds
43,184
1,172,464
1,215,648
Restricted funds
-
960,161
960,161
~~Total funds~~
~~43,184~~
~~2,132,625~~
~~2,175,809~~

20. Analysis of net assets between funds for the year ended March 2023

Fixed assets
Net current assets
Fund balances
£
£
£
Unrestricted funds
45,354
910,097
955,451
Restricted funds
-
860,281
860,281
~~Total funds~~
~~45,354~~
~~1,770,378~~
~~1,815,732~~

21. Members’ liability

The Charity does not have a share capital and is limited by guarantee. In the event of the Charity being wound up, the maximum amount which each member is liable to contribute is £5. There were 15 members at 31 March 2024 (2023: 14).

22. Commitments under operating leases

At 31 March 2024 the Charity had future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases as follows:

Land & buildings 2024
Land & buildings 2023
£
£
Not later than one year
111,201
101,493
One to fve years
331,697
143,413
~~442,898~~
~~244,906~~

The Charity has provided for its possible liability for dilapidations in relation to its two leasehold properties in Epsom and Bromsgrove. This has been estimated at £11,400 (2023: £11,400). The dilapidations liability for the Edinburgh leasehold office is £3,300 held in restricted funds (2023: £3,300).

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Financial review

23. Related party transactions

During the year we had the following related party transactions.

A donation was received from John O’Brien for £250 to fund design work on a major donor briefing.

Three donations were received that are associated with David Lundholm, £455 from his wife relating to running the London marathon, £500 from Legal and General as a result of a nomination from David Lundholm, and a further £252 in monthly donations from David Lundholm himself.

We received a donation from Mills & Reeve LLP for £500 and in addition we paid Mills & Reeve LLP for legal work costing £4,227. These transactions with Mills & Reeve LLP are deemed to be related party transactions as Jill Mason, one of our trustees, is a partner of the firm (2023: £1,332 being the value of pro bono legal advice from Mills & Reeve on our legacy campaign. The entity was deemed to be a related party as Jill Mason is a trustee of The Lucy Faithfull Foundation and a partner with Mills & Reeve LLP.)

We also paid NOTA £7,078 (2023: £9,371) for membership, conference attendance, training courses and recruitment advertising. NOTA is deemed to be a related party as Lynn Saunders is coopted as a NOTA Trustee and Chair of the NOTA training committee and Stuart Allardyce, Director of LFF Scotland has been Chair of NOTA since May 2023 and prior to that he held the post of Vice Chair.

24. Reconciliation of net income to net cash flow from operating activities

2024 2023
Note £ £
Net income for the reporting period 360,077 435,086
Depreciation and amortisation charges 8, 11, 12 11,877 10,700
Interest received 3 (37,792) (6,290)
Increase in debtors 15 (43,909) (179,647)
(Decrease)/increase in creditors 17 (13,937) 43,716
~~Net cash provided by operating activities~~ ~~276,316~~ ~~303,565~~

25. Analysis of changes in net debt

April 2023 Cashflow 31 March 2024
£ £ £
Cash at bank 1,783,568 304,401 2,087,969

Additional info

Ofcers and contacts

Life President

Senior management team

Dr Arnon Bentovim MB BS FRCPsych, FRCPCH, DPM

Ms Deborah Denis PGDip Dip CIPR, chief executive officer

Patrons

Mr Martin Brewer BA (Hons) Mrs Hilary Eldridge

Mr Stuart Allardyce MA (Hons) MSW, director of Lucy Faithfull Foundation Scotland Mrs Alison Dexter MInstLM MCIPD, director of people services (interim)

The Baroness Howarth of Breckland OBE Mr Richard Monk CMG, OBE, QPM Mr E M Nock OBE BA (Jt Hons) Dip IPD Ms Annie Shepperd OBE Sir Richard Tilt

Mr Donald Findlater,

director of Stop It Now helpline (retired 31/03/2024) Mrs Frances Frost,

Mr John Trotter LLB (Hons)

director of policy and advocacy

Trustees

Mrs Annabel Kroeger BAcc CA(SA), director of finance

Mrs Jane Leach BSc FCA

Dr Mike Harris BSc MB BS MRCS LRCP FRC Psych Dr Vic Baines PhD (resigned 08/12/2023) Ms Joy Chamberlain FCA

Mr Adrian McNulty CQSW Diploma in Probation Studies (DipProbation), director of operations

Mr Martin Kersey BSc FCIPD (appointed 15/09/2023)

Registered name

Dr Gopi Krishnan MRCPsych (resigned 16/04/2024) Mr Fred Langford (appointed 08/12/2023) Mr David Lundholm BA (Hons) MBA Dr Michael Marett-Crosby MA DPhil Mrs Jill Mason LLB (Hons)

The Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Registration numbers

Registered company number 02729957 Charity number 1013025 Scottish registered Charity number SC039888

Dr Paul Monks BA, MB. BChir, M.Sc. MRCPsych Mr John O Brien CBE

Registered office and principal address

Professor Derek Perkins BSc MSc PhD CPsychol AFBPsS

2 Birch House, Harris Business Park, Hanbury Road, Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove, B60 4DJ

Ms Lynn Saunders OBE Professor Alec Spencer BA (Hons) MA MRes Mr Paul West QPM DL

Independent auditor

Crowe U.K. LLP Fourth Floor, St James House, St James Square, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL50 3PR

Company Secretary

Mrs Annabel Kroeger BAcc CA(SA)

Bankers

HSBC Bank Plc Redditch Commercial Centre Church Green West, Redditch, Worcestershire, B97 4EA

Solicitors

Mills & Reeve LLP, 78-84 Colmore Row,

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Board of trustees

Jane Leach BSc FCA (Chair)

Jane is a chartered accountant and senior advisor at the Bank of England and has been a trustee of Lucy Faithfull Foundation since 2013, and our Chair since the end of 2023. She has over 30 years’ experience in finance and leadership, and spent much of her career at KPMG, where she qualified as an accountant and was a partner for 12 years. She was part of the global finance leadership at HSBC before taking on a strategic change program there. Following HSBC, Jane joined The Bank of England as Senior Advisor, leveraging her finance skills to support the financial health of the UK. She has significant commercial board and leadership experience and was a member of the Board of Trustees at HSBC’s pension fund. Alongside her Bank of England role and chairing LFF, she is also on the Board of asset manager JO Hambro Capital Management, and chairs Jupiter Asset Management’s main fund manager Jupiter Unit Trust Managers.

“It is an absolute privilege to chair this wonderful organisation. I never cease to be inspired by the people at Lucy Faithful who bring such energy, commitment, bravery, and research based depth of understanding to tackling the tragedy of child sexual abuse. They work tirelessly in often painfully difficult circumstances to make change happen, whilst getting the maximum from every penny provided by our funders. As a long standing Trustee I have seen the growing impact that the Foundation has, as well as seeing that there is so much more to be done.”

Joy Chamberlain FCA (Treasurer)

As a Chartered Accountant by background, Joy initially worked with PWC before stepping into the healthcare sector in senior positions at Partnerships in Care in 1997 before becoming their CEO in 2011. In 2016, she led the formation of Elysium Healthcare as a result of the sale of 22 hospitals from Partnerships in Care and Priory. Joy also took the company through a sale process in early 2022 with global provider Ramsay Health Care purchasing the business. Elysium now supports over 2200 service users in 87 specialist services in the field of mental health, learning disabilities & autism, neurological and child & adolescent mental health services.

With over 20 years’ experience in the specialist healthcare sector, Joy is a strategic leader who delivers on the core objectives of the business whilst ensuring that people remain at its heart. With a passion for quality, she leads services to deliver outcome-focused treatment and care whilst always ensuring that her teams retain the core values that she stands for.

“In the past few years since being a Trustee, I have seen The Foundation grow stronger, its strategy and leadership empowering the organisation to do everything they need to do in order to keep children safe and eradicate this social problem. ”

Professor Victoria Baines

PhD (Nottingham) MA (Oxon) (resigned 08/12/2023)

Victoria is IT Livery Company Professor of IT at Gresham College in the City of London, and a Senior Research Associate at the Intellectual Forum, Jesus College, Cambridge. She has held visiting fellowships at the universities of Oxford and Bournemouth, and has been a guest lecturer at Stanford University.

In 2019 and 2021, she was commissioned by the Council of Europe to assess responses to online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) in member states. For several years, Victoria was Facebook’s trust and safety manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She also led the strategy and prevention team at Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3). Prior to this, Victoria was principal analyst at the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre.

Victoria serves on the Advisory Board of Reliance Cyber and the Safety Advisory Board of Snap Inc. She is a Liveryman of the City of London, and Chairs the Information Security panel of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.

“The evidence is compelling: if we are truly to approach the problem of child sexual abuse as a public health issue, we need to provide support to offenders and those at risk of offending. In my time in both law enforcement and the technology industry, I have been a passionate advocate for the work of The Lucy Faithfull Foundation. Its expertise and services are held up around the world as the gold standard. I am thrilled to be able to contribute directly to its success.”

Dr Gopi Krishnan MRCPsych (resigned 16/04/2024)

Gopi is a psychiatrist who has worked clinically in secure psychiatry and prisons. He has held several leadership roles, including leading the development of personality disorder services in high security. He sits as a medical member on Mental Health Tribunals and consults as an independent expert to prisoners appearing before the Parole Board.

“Having worked in secure psychiatry and prisons for almost three decades, I have witnessed firsthand the pernicious consequences of child abuse. I have seen also how abuse permeates generations in a vicious cycle of destruction. The work of the Foundation is now more important than ever – preventive intervention before harm occurs.”

Dr Mike Harris

BSc MB BS MRCS LRCP FRC Psych (Chair from 12/11/2018 to 08/12/2023)

Mike is a consultant psychiatrist. He has previously been a medical director, operational director and chief executive in the NHS and the independent sector. He has been chair of Nottingham MIND, a sub-dean of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and treasurer of the International Association for Forensic Mental Health Services. He is currently chair of Improving Lives, a Nottingham-based mental health charity, and a governor of St. Andrews Healthcare. He is a Trustee of two local Jewish charities.

“It is a real privilege to be a trustee of this amazing organisation. The fantastic staff, led by an inspirational group of directors work with some of the most troubled people in the country, hearing their stories every day. They do this with grace, dignity and enthusiasm helping through their work to keep young people safe from sexual abuse”

David Lundholm

BA (Hons) MBA

David is an investment director, working in the Fintech team at Legal & General, where he has worked for the past four years. He serves as a non-executive director across portfolio investments. He is also the founder of Consistency Partners Ltd, a consultancy working with price comparison and private equity clients. David was formerly director, group corporate development, at BGL Group Ltd, owners of comparethemarket.com. Prior to that, David spent eight years at Aviva PLC in UK general management roles, after 10 years working in business development and marketing for Yum Brands across Europe. David has an MBA from London Business School.

“The work of the Foundation has never been more important. I’m delighted to be able to contribute to the essential work that the Foundation conducts in preventing and responding to child sexual abuse and exploitation.”

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Martin Kersey

BSc FCIPD (appointed 15/09/2023)

Martin is an experienced HR Professional having held Global, European and UK roles for Private and Not for Profit Organisations. Most recently he worked for St Andrews Healthcare one of the UK’s leading mental healthcare charities where he had responsibility for HR, Research and Education. He was a Charity Trustee and Board Member for nine years, Martin has also held senior HR roles for Rental Initial, Burger King and Hertz Car Rental. Martin is a graduate of the London School of Economics.

Outside work Martin can be found travelling with camera and back-pack, whilst following West Ham United.

Martin has been impressed with the caring and compassionate culture within LFF, the can do attitude and the professionalism displayed by LFF employees:

…it’s a workplace that staff are proud and passionate about the real difference they make to people’s lives everyday, and this is truly inspiring”

Fred Langford

(appointed 08/12/2023)

Fred is Director of Technology – Online Safety at UK Communications Regulator Ofcom, a Visiting Professor at the University of Suffolk and a member of the REPHRAIN (Bristol University) and INHOPE (International Hotline Association) Advisory Boards. He’s also a Non-Exec Director of the Games Rating Authority.

Previously, as Deputy CEO/CTO of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and President of INHOPE, Fred focused on Internet Policy, Cybersecurity, Child Protection, and Online Technologies. With 30 years of experience in Commercial, CSOs, Military, and Regulatory sectors, he has developed services to reduce the risk of illegal content online for billions of internet users. Fred has held leadership roles in various organizations, including Former Chair of the UK Council for Internet Safety and a Board Member of the UK Home Office Child Abuse Image Database Strategic Group. He serves as an expert advisor to governments, parliamentarians, law enforcement, and NGOs.

“As a technology leader with a deep commitment to using my skills for societal good, I am honoured to join the board of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. Their unwavering dedication to preventing child sexual abuse aligns perfectly with my passion for creating safe and secure digital environments. Together, I hope we will harness the power of technology to protect and empower the most vulnerable members of our society.”

Dr Michael Marett-Crosby MA D. Phil

Michael leads a group of healthcare, education and refugee relief charities that work for the people of Myanmar (Burma) with the UN and other agencies to deliver humanitarian support, human rights monitoring, healthcare and education. This work focuses on alleviating the impact of the 2021 military coup, and supporting a new democracy in Myanmar. His international and Burmese teams support scholarships, access to learning, health and inclusive federalism across the country. He was previously a Catholic priest and worked with young people in prison settings. He was interim CEO of The Lucy Faithfull Foundation in 2019.

“The Lucy Faithfull Foundation works to deliver on its promise to young people - a world in which they can live without the fear of abuse. To do this, our extraordinary staff show innovation and daily commitment to keep children safe, and to work with those who threaten young people’s safety. The charity is growing new ways of reaching those who need its help. Its work is vitally important in today’s world.”

Jill Mason

LLB (Hons)

Jill is a partner at national law firm, Mills & Reeve LLP, where she is head of the health and care sector. She is a healthcare lawyer with about 30 years’ experience advising NHS (commissioners and providers), independent sector providers and not-for-profit organisations on all aspects of the law relating to the care of patients, service users and residents. This particularly relates to the Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act, Inquests and risk management. Jill advises, writes articles and blogs and delivers training in all these areas. Jill also sits on the Audit, Governance and Oversight Panel at Mills & Reeve. Externally, she is on the Zero Suicide Alliance Governance Board.

“This is my third year as a trustee. I have been so impressed by the dedication of all the staff. Such vital work is undertaken by the Foundation. You can easily take for granted growing up without fear or exploitation, but one shouldn’t….”

Dr Paul Monks BA MB BChir MSc MRCPsych

Paul is a consultant in general and forensic psychiatry. He has worked in low- and mediumsecure inpatient settings as well as prisons, treating adult and adolescent patient groups, including mentally disordered offenders. For much of the last two decades, he has treated young people, many of whom have suffered serious psychological trauma including sexual abuse, and adult offenders, some of whom have perpetrated sex offences. He has been the clinical director responsible for child and adolescent mental health services for two independent sector mental healthcare providers. Paul currently works as a consultant community forensic psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

“I am inspired by the Foundation’s overarching purpose of preventing child sexual abuse and the dedication and resilience of its staff in pursuit of it, particularly over recent years. The foresight and expertise of the team mean that the Foundation is very much at the forefront of tracking and tackling new challenges posed by digital technology.”

John O’Brien CBE

John joined the civil service in July 2002 as Director of the Criminal Records Bureau. In 2006, he moved to the Home Office to lead the response to the Bichard Inquiry and subsequently as Director of Safeguarding. In this role, he was responsible for policy on safeguarding and public protection, public order and the sponsorship of the Disclosure and Barring Service and the Security Industry Authority. He was seconded, as Secretary, to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse on its establishment as a statutory inquiry in 2015. In this role, he was responsible for the effective management of the Inquiry and acted as the main contact between the Inquiry and the Home Office as the sponsor department. He also established the Truth Project to enable victims and survivors of child sexual abuse to share their experiences with the Inquiry and put forward suggestions for change.

“Having been involved in public protection policy for many years and hearing first-hand the accounts of victims and survivors during the Inquiry I have seen the lifelong impact of child sexual abuse. I have seen the work of the Foundation during my time in the civil service and its preventative work is critical to delivering a world free of such abuse. I am delighted to be able to support it in achieving this goal.”

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Professor D Perkins

BSc MSc PhD CPsychol AFBPsS

Derek is a chartered clinical and forensic psychologist with West London NHS Trust, and Visiting Professor of Forensic Psychology at Royal Holloway University of London, School of Law and Social Sciences. He was head of psychological services at Broadmoor Hospital (high secure psychiatric service for the South of England) from 1986-2013, having previously worked in the UK Prison Service and Midland Centre for Forensic Psychiatry. He is the co-director of the online Protect research group on internet-related sexual offending. He has worked clinically, carried out research and published on the assessment and treatment of those convicted of sexual offending, including the interface between mental health and sexual offending, internet-related sexual offending, child sexual abuse and sexual homicide.

“I have a long history with the Foundation, dating back to the 1980s with the establishment of the Gracewell Clinic, and then the Wolvercote Clinic, the only fulltime, residential UK facility at the time for the treatment of those who had sexually offended. From then, the Foundation has developed into a multifaceted and pioneering organisation at the cutting edge of child protection through the assessment and treatment of perpetrators, public information campaigns and most importantly its work on the prevention of child sexual abuse nationally and internationally.”

Dr Lynn Saunders OBE PhD MA BA CQSW

Lynn has been Professor of Applied Criminology and Head of Law and Social Sciences at the University of Derby since 2021. She previously worked in the criminal justice system for 35 years, most recently as the governor of HMP Whatton a large treatment site for people convicted of sexual offences. She qualified as a probation officer in 1986 and has a degree in Applied Social Sciences, an MA in Criminology, and a PhD from the University of Nottingham. She co-founded the Safer Living Foundation in 2014, a charity that helps prevent sexual offending, and chairs its board.

Lynn was awarded honorary doctorates from Nottingham Trent University in 2015 and Keele University in 2018, in recognition of her work with people with sexual convictions both nationally and internationally, to the ultimate aim of a reduction in victims. She was also awarded an OBE in 2017’s New Year Honours list and received the Guardian Public Leadership award in 2018. Lynn has been a trustee of the Foundation since 2018. She says:

“The Lucy Faithfull Foundation has a long

history in the research and treatment of child sexual abuse and is recognised as a world leader in this area of work. Its initiatives in sexual harm prevention, the development of the research base and initiatives to support practitioners working in this area are often considered to be best practice.”

Professor Alec Spencer BA (Hons) MA MRes

Alec is a former prison governor who established the first intervention programme for sexual offenders in Scottish Prisons (STOP). He later served as director of rehabilitation and care and was a member of the Scottish Prison Service Board. He was chairman of the Scottish Accreditation Panel for Offender Programmes, an adviser to the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament on their Inquiry into Child Sexual Offending and, for a temporary period, chief officer of a Community Justice Authority.

He has published a book on working with sex offenders, and was Scottish chair of the National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers (NOTA) and a member of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA). He founded and chaired the charity Families Outside to support families of prisoners and was Chair of Includem, a Scottish charity working with youngsters in trouble. He was chair of the Scottish Association for the Study of Offending and convener of the Scottish Consortium of Crime and Criminal Justice. He is an honorary professor at the University of Stirling, an expert member of their Ethics Panel, and a non-executive director of Community Justice Scotland and chair of its Audit and Risk Committee.

“My own links with the Foundation go back to 1992, the year LFF began. Since then, The Lucy Faithfull Foundation has built an enviable record in the research and treatment of child sexual abuse. In particular The Stop It Now helpline attempts to be proactive and help prevent child sexual abuse by reaching out to those worried about what they might do.”

Paul West QPM DL

Paul was a police officer for 32 years. His service included 13 years as a chief officer and eight years as the Chief Constable of West Mercia Police. Paul led nationally for the police service throughout England and Wales on all matters concerning the management of sexual offenders and violent offenders from 2007 until his retirement in 2011. He has been an independent member of the Judicial Appointments Commission since 2012, a member of the Prison Service Pay Review Body since 2016 and was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Worcestershire in 2019.

Since retiring, Paul’s many voluntary roles have included significant involvement in school governance, as chair of governors at a large Independent School in Worcestershire and as a trustee of a Worcestershire-based Church of England Multi-Academy Trust. In both settings, he was also the board’s nominated safeguarding lead. He is an honorary fellow of the University of Worcester, where he previously was a member of the board and vice-chair of governors.

Away from work, Paul’s passion has always been listening to and playing classical music. He is an accomplished amateur musician, plays both violin and viola in several orchestras in the West Midlands and has also been a member of a string quartet in Worcestershire since 2005.

“I have valued deeply my association with LFF throughout the last eleven years. Not only has it provided me with the opportunity to maintain an involvement in sexual offender management beyond the end of my police service, but in recent years it has also enabled me to apply the learning I have gained from experts in the field to help safeguard children in a wide range of educational settings. The Foundation really can and does make a huge and positive difference in so many young people’s lives.”

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With sincere thanks

The Lucy Faithfull Foundation would like to thank all of our supporters who make our work to protect children possible. Here are just some of them:

The A B Charitable Trust

Austin Hope and Pilkington Trust Baillie Gifford & Co.

Charles Hayward Foundation

Circles UK

City of Edinburgh Council

Conwy County Borough Council

The Dawes Trust

The Emmanuel Kaye Foundation

National Organisation for the Treatment of Abuse

NHS

Nominet UK

Oak Foundation

Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria

Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales

Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey

EU Commission

Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children

Google

Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner Henry Oldfield Trust Home Office

The Indigo Trust

John Ellerman Foundation

KPMG Foundation

Meta

Microsoft Ministry of Justice

Porticus UK

The Robertson Trust

The RS Macdonald Charitable Trust

The Samworth Foundation

The Scottish Government

Souter Charitable Trust

Shanly Foundation

Snapchat The Volant Charitable Trust Warwickshire Police Community Fund The Welsh Government

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

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Visit our website to find out more about our work or to donate and help us keep children safe lucyfaithfull.org.uk

Lucy Faithfull Foundation Scotland: lucyfaithfull.org.uk/scotland

Lucy Faithfull Foundation Wales: lucyfaithfull.org.uk/wales

Find out about our Stop It Now helpline (0808 1000 900) and campaign: stopitnow.org.uk

Our Shore website provides a safe space for teenagers worried about their own or a friend’s sexual behaviour: shorespace.org.uk

Facebook: ~~oo~~ @LucyFaithfullFoundation Instagram: @lucyfaithfullfoundation ~~a~~ X (Twitter): @Lucy_Faithfull_ ~~oe~~

YouTube: ~~oo~~ @Lucy_Faithfull_Foundation - - - LinkedIn: The Lucy Faithfull Foundation ~~Oe~~

The Lucy Faithfull Foundation 2 Birch House, Harris Business Park, Hanbury Road, Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove, B60 4DJ

Telephone 01527 591922

The Lucy Faithfull Foundation is a registered Charity No. 1013025, and is a company limited by guarantee. Registered in England No. 2729957. Registered office: 2 Birch House, Harris Business Park, Hanbury Road, Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove, B60 4DJ. Important note: All images within this document are for illustrative purposes only. The names of the individuals in our case studies have been changed in order to ensure their anonymity.