2023-06-30-accounts

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

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21/11/2023

Business Disability Forum

Annual Report and Financial Statements

30 June 2023

Company Limited by Guarantee Registration Number: 02603700 (England and Wales) Charity Registration Number: 1018463

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Reports

Reports
Reference and administrative
information	1
Trustees’ report	2
Independent auditor’s report	31
Financial Statements
Statement of financial activities	37
Balance sheet	38
Statement of cash flows	39
Principal accounting policies	40
Notes to the financial statements	45

Business Disability Forum

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Reference and administrative information

Trustees	Rachel Blackett
as at 30 November 2023	Ian Callaghan
	Victoria Cleland
	Paulette Cohen
	Dr Shaun Davis
	Stephen Ingham
	Janet Hill
	Rebecca Hitchings
	Stephen Miller (Chair)
	Paul Smyth
	Iain Wilkie
	Angela Whitty
Company Secretary	Ben Kelly
Chief Executive Officer	Diane Lightfoot
Registered and Principal office	Nutmeg House
	60 Gainsford Street
	London
	SE1 2NY
Telephone	020-7403-3020
Website	www.businessdisabilityforum.org.uk
E-mail	enquiries@businessdisabilityforum.org.uk
Company registration number	02603700 (England and Wales)
Charity registration number	1018463
Auditor	Buzzacott LLP
	130 Wood Street
	London
	EC2V 6DL
Bankers	HSBC Bank plc
	69 Pall Mall
	London
	SW1 5EY
Solicitors	Bates Wells & Braithwaite
	10 Queen Street Place
	London
	EC4R 1BE

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

The trustees are pleased to present their statutory report together with the financial statements of Business Disability Forum for the year ended 30 June 2023.

The report has been prepared in accordance with Part 8 of the Charities Act 2011 and constitutes the directors’ report for the purposes of the Companies Act 2006.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out herein and comply with Business Disability Forum’s Memorandum and Articles of Association, the Companies Act 2006 and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).

Statement of trustees’ responsibilities

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

Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements, for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the income and expenditure of the charity for that period. In preparing these financial statements the trustees are required to:

select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
observe the methods and principles in Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing the accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS102);
make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Statement of trustees’ responsibilities (cont.)

The trustees are responsible for maintaining adequate accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. The trustees 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.

Each of the trustees confirms that:

So far as the trustee is aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the charity’s auditor is unaware; and
The trustee has taken all steps that he/she ought to have taken as a trustee in order to make himself/herself aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the charity’s auditor is aware of that information.

This confirmation is given and should be interpreted in accordance with the provisions of s418 of the Companies Act 2006.

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the charity and financial information included on the charity’s website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Trustees

The trustees constitute directors of the charity and company for the purposes of the Companies Act 2006. The board of trustees is known as the Council of Management (the Council).

Trustees take responsibility for monitoring the charity’s activities and care is taken to ensure that members of the Council have the necessary skills required to contribute fully to the charity’s development.

The following trustees served throughout the year and remain in office, except where shown.

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Trustee	Appointed/resigned Date
Jacqueline Beer Rachel Blackett Ian Callaghan Victoria Cleland Paulette Cohen Dr Shaun Davis Stephen Ingham Janet Hill Rebecca Hitchings Stephen Miller Paul Smyth Iain Wilkie Angela Whitty	Resigned 29 November 2022 Appointed 24 November 2022 Appointed 20 June 2023 Appointed 24 November 2022

New trustees may be appointed by the Council either to fill a vacancy or as an additional trustee. At each Annual Retirement Meeting (ARM) any trustees who have been appointed by a decision of the Council since the last Annual Retirement Meeting shall retire along with those trustees whose three-year term of office has concluded; they may offer themselves for re-election.

No trustee received any remuneration or expenses from the charity during the year (2022 - £nil). No trustee had any beneficial interest in any contract with the charity during the year (2022 – nil).

Other officers

Company Secretary

Ben Kelly

Senior executives

Senior executives
Name	Position
Diane Lightfoot	Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Members

The members of the charitable company, who are guarantors, are:

Barclays Bank plc. British Telecommunications plc. Cisco Systems. Royal Mail Group. Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd.

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Organisation and management of Business Disability Forum

Business Disability Forum is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association, most recently amended on 29 June 2020.

In order to achieve both Business Disability Forum’s vision and mission, a formal management structure is in place.

The Council is responsible for the general control and management of the organisation. At 30 November 2023, the Council comprises senior figures from business and the public sector, some of whom also have extensive experience of the not-for-profit sector. Beneath the Council four committees provide additional oversight on the strategic direction and operations of the organisation. Those committees are: Commercial, Finance and Audit, People, and Policy.

The Council meets regularly to review financial and other management information and longer-term strategic priorities for the organisation, corporate governance issues and other relevant matters. The committees meet prior to each Council meeting and update the full Council on their discussions. Further ad hoc meetings are convened as required.

An induction programme and governance manual are in place to ensure new trustees understand the vision, mission and management of the organisation as well as their responsibilities as trustees and company directors in accordance with the relevant guidelines issued by the Charity Commission and Companies House. The recruitment process for new trustees includes interviews with the Chair or another nominated trustee, CEO and Company Secretary with final approval by the Council at the Annual Retirement Meeting. Appropriate guidelines and information on the organisation’s governance, activities, products and services are also provided. The new trustee is also introduced to members of the Leadership Team and, where appropriate, to the wider membership. In addition, ongoing training is sometimes offered in the form of external courses and presentations to the Council.

The trustees appoint and employ a CEO to provide vision and leadership, achieve their strategic and charitable aims and manage the organisation.

Business Disability Forum produces an annual Business Plan. This year that plan formed the first year of our five-year strategy to “explore the road less travelled”, an intention to grow sustainably and to use our predicted surpluses to pursue non-core activities which advance the less in vogue, less commercial aspects of disability in business which nonetheless need attention and innovation, and which are part of our wider mission.

The annual Business Plan is submitted to the Council for approval. It sets out the vision and mission, reviews progress, achievements and the financial outcomes in the current year and sets out the action plan and budget for the forthcoming year.

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Organisation and management of Business Disability Forum (cont.)

Progress against the annual Business Plan is reviewed at Council meetings and, where appropriate, at committee meetings, with written updates also provided at regular intervals. The Council and committees receive brief, formal written reports covering Policy & Research (Policy consultations and member engagement and BDF led research projects), Disability Partnerships (Advice Service, Membership Recruitment & Retention, Sponsorship, Disability Smart product suite, Professional Consultancy, Learning & Development and Supplier relationships), Legal and Content (Development of our best practice guidance, Design, Legal and Training & Events), Communications and Marketing (Communications, Marketing, PR & media, Digital communications) and Finance & Resources (HR, ICT, Administration, Finance, and Corporate Governance). In addition, the CEO and members of the Leadership Team attend Council meetings to provide further verbal reports and more information, for example on new projects or strategic items. Other employees attend these meetings as required.

Key management personnel

There is a designated Leadership Team which includes the Chief Executive Officer, Head of Communications & Marketing, Head of Disability Partnerships, Head of Legal & Content, Head of Policy & Research, and Head of Finance. The Leadership Team is accountable to the Council and is responsible for the day to day running of the organisation. It has agreed objectives that correspond to the organisation’s vision and mission. Formal performance & development reviews are carried out annually, with Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) set six monthly and reviewed regularly, to ensure that objectives are met and that members of the Leadership Team have appropriate development opportunities.

The senior executives who form the Leadership Team are Diane Lightfoot, Adrian Ward, Angela Mathews, Bela Gor, Lara Davis and Ben Kelly (Company Secretary).

When personnel are appointed, the salary offered is benchmarked against roles with similar expectations and responsibilities in the not-for-profit sector, mindful that our business model also depends upon complementary skills required in the commercial sector. Key personnel were awarded the same annual cost of living increase that is given to all other employees in July, and this was reviewed and scrutinised by the People Committee for transparency.

When the responsibilities of the roles that the key personnel perform are increased, a review of the remuneration offered is undertaken and the salary is again benchmarked against roles with similar expected outcomes to decide if a pay increase is appropriate, again to be decided by the People Committee.

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Organisation and management of Business Disability Forum (cont.)

Key personnel are awarded our standard range of benefits; these are available to all employees. We use the XpertHR, Sendex, salary benchmarking tool and take part in their annual survey to ensure parity with comparable organisations. In 2022/23 a 5% cost of living salary increase was awarded to our team. Key personnel were also awarded the additional, interim, cost of living measures awarded to all employees in November 2022, namely an increase in workplace pension contributions of 3% to 8% meaning that our employees did not have to contribute towards the statutory minimum contributions for their workplace pension scheme thus increasing their net take home pay, and the passing on directly to our employees of the employers’ Social Care levy savings made when the social care levy was cancelled (1.25%).

Major risks

The trustees have reviewed the major risks to which the organisation is exposed. During the year the Covid-19 pandemic and its continued economic fallout together with supply chain issues arising from global Covid lock downs and the Ukrainian war remained the greatest risk that we face over the short term.

Factors that we consider as part of the risk process include:

The impact global mitigation measures to Covid 19 have had;
The Ukrainian war and its impact on inflation and supplies;
IT and data security;
Financial and our status as a going concern;
Government attitudes to disability;
Competition and demand for our products and services/ market conditions;
Staffing and training;
Insurances and facilities;
Governance and statutory reporting;
Internal reporting and other compliance issues;
Processes, systems and quality control;
Our mission and objectives;
Opportunities and innovation;
Internal culture, capacity and decision-making processes;
Demand for international products and services;
Procurement;

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Major Risks (cont.)

Theft, fraud and business interruption/ continuity;
Failure to protect intellectual property;
The current and longer-term effects of the UK exiting from the EU;
Issues arising from increasing our prices; and
Issues arising from the increased costs of labour, goods and services (inflation).

Systems have been established to mitigate losses from such events where practical and are reviewed at each council meeting.

The top ten risks for the coming year have been identified as:

Insufficient capacity and capability to deliver what we need to achieve
Staff skills not keeping pace with changing customer demand
Our products and services do not keep up with developing demands from our customers
The ongoing effects to the economy of the fallout from Covid-19 and rising inflation
Impact and profile insufficiently communicated to make disability a compelling area for business investment with us
Growth in competitors
Key personnel leave to work for competitors
Business Disability Forum receives adverse publicity in the media
Disruption to our membership recruitment team following retirement of Membership Director
Income does not continue to exceed expenditure.

We are fortunate that unlike many not-for-profit organisations we do not carry life-threatening risks such as operating in dangerous countries and infectious areas or working with vulnerable individuals in unsafe situations, nor do we rely on statutory grants for our income. As a membership organisation, it is unlikely that any one event would be so impactful as render us non-existent overnight in the manner of Kids Company, nor do we minister directly to vulnerable people as do Save the Children and Oxfam. So necessarily, much of our focus is on our service delivery, income generation and operational effectiveness with further consideration for the social and economic environment in which we operate, guarding against events which will have a long-term debilitating effect on the organisation.

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Major Risks (cont.)

Review of our main risks

Our skills and capacity, including increasing capacity following our continued rapid growth, are our most pressing risk. There are numerous mitigations in place to minimise the risk and we have increased our roles in the year and will increase again in anticipation of need.

Navigating the post Covid landscape still presents a great challenge to many organisations at this time. We continue to operate mostly remotely but with increased in person attendance to boost collaboration and interaction. We have invested in audio visual equipment and increased meeting room space to facilitate a hybrid environment. This year we have also moved to a more blended approach of fully remote, fully in-person and hybrid events and are pleased to see good attendance at each and a growing appetite to meet face to face. We will continue to offer a blended approach to offer maximum choice and thus, maximum reach and impact of our content. We also continue to be mindful of the ongoing economic situation with ongoing higher interest rates and a recession likely on its way. Therefore, our membership’s ability to continue to finance their relationship with us presents a large risk.

Rising living costs will continue to impact our own costs in the coming year and we have increased our own prices accordingly. This rise is lower than inflation and we believe the new price still reflects great value to our membership.

Our General Fund is increasing healthily in line with our strong income performance this year, which makes finance and cashflow a less immediate risk. Income generation (or lack thereof) will always feature as a risk to our operations and the risk register lists our principal mitigations to ensure that the organisation’s income remains above its expenditure, this risk remains at number ten on the list.

To increase our income generating opportunities we need to continue to give business compelling reasons to invest in membership and our other products and services. Showcasing the benefits, financial and philanthropic, of getting it right on disability will make the case for its mainstream inclusion in budgets at board and departmental level.

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Objectives and activities

In shaping our objectives and activities for the year, the trustees have complied with their duty in section 17 of the 2011 Charities Act to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.

Business Disability Forum is a membership-based charity which promotes, through its Members and Partners, the economic and social inclusion of disabled people. At year-end, the organisation had 559 (2022: 480) Members and Partners from the private, public and third sectors and emergency and law enforcement services. The membership employs approximately 23.7% (2022: 20.7%) of the UK workforce in employment i.e., approximately 7.3 million employees (2022: 6.44 million).

There are 5.15 million disabled employees in the UK workforce (an employment rate of 53.7% for disabled people of working age) which is an increase of 325,000 from 4.82 million in the same period last year (employment rate was 53.7%; the number of disabled people of working age has increased by over 598,000 in the same period). The number of nondisabled employees in the UK workforce has reduced by 514,000 since last year, yet their employment rate has increased 0.8% to 82.7%.

The disability employment gap had begun to close post Covid-19. We continue to push to reduce this gap more rapidly and believe that disabled talent offers a compelling, though too often overlooked, answer to growing skills shortages that much of business is subject to, particularly in those sectors most affected by the UK leaving the EU and the loss of a migrant workforce in a wage inflationary environment. Nearly half of the total disabled workforce remains available for work if considered and provided with the practical and pragmatic adjustments we advocate. The disability employment gap has not moved year on year despite the number of disabled people in employment increasing and the number of non-disabled employees decreasing. There are now nearly 600K more disabled people in the workforce and 500K fewer non-disabled employees. The number of economically inactive disabled people has increased by 275K whereas the number of economically inactive non-disabled people has decreased by 410K.

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Table showing Disability Employment Gap

	2023	2023	2022	2022
	Disabled workforce	Non- disabled workforce	Disabled workforce	Non- disabled workforce
Employees	5,150,000	26,181,000	4,825,000	26,352,000
Working age population	9,582,000	31,650,000	8,984,000	32,164,000
Employment rate %	53.7	82.7	53.7	81.9

Business Disability Forum is a registered charity and its charitable objects are the promotion of equality and diversity for the benefit of people with disabilities, in particular, but not exclusively by:

The provision of advice, assistance and training aimed at increasing employment opportunities in industry and commerce for people with disabilities; and
The provision of advice, assistance and training aimed at increasing accessibility to goods and services for people with disabilities.

Creating a disability smart world together

Business Disability Forum is the leading business membership organisation specialising in disability inclusion, based in the UK, and with global reach. We are trusted partners, working with business, Government and disabled people to improve the life experiences of disabled employees and consumers, by removing barriers to inclusion.

Our Mission is to drive equity and remove barriers to inclusion for disabled people as employees and consumers, by partnering with business, Government and policymakers.

Our Vision is an inclusive world where disabled people can access employment, products and services equitably.

We do this by:

Advising, supporting and encouraging businesses (many of them global) to become more disability-smart.
Influencing policymakers by representing the voice of employers and disabled employees.
Providing evidence-based thought leadership on how business affects the lives of disabled people.
Helping effect changes in business practices, products, services and policies, that positively impact the life experiences of disabled people, and also benefit business.

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Our membership includes organisations of all sizes and represents a huge cross sector of UK and global business.

We provide our members with:

expert, tailored, trusted, advice and support on disability inclusion, as it affects business.
opportunities to share, learn from each other and collaborate.

We also use evidence from our membership – employers and disabled people - representing their voice to influence Government and policy makers and shape policy.

Our Disability-smart Framework drives best practice by providing the benchmark against which organisations measure their own performance on disability, as employers and service providers, as well as that of their suppliers and partners. We mobilise UK and global business behind the economic and social inclusion of disabled people. We bring business, government and disabled people together for mutual benefit.

Our values:

Purposeful – we are focused on removing barriers to disability inclusion.
Evidence-based – we are informed and driven by unique insights from our membership.
Respectful - we are supportive and approachable.
Pragmatic - we find practical solutions that business can implement.
Responsive – we are constantly evolving to meet our Members’ and Partners’ needs.
Bold – we are thought leaders and unafraid to challenge.

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23

It has been a busy and accessible year at Business Disability Forum and one which has seen us working hard to influence government and business to drive progress and effect meaningful change. Our membership has increased to over 550 companies employing more than 7.3 million employees within the UK (23.7% of the UK available workforce). Our rapid growth since 2020 has doubled our number of members and we have grown our own workforce substantially in the year to ensure we are able to deliver an excellent service to our members and continue to delight them in all we do. Our capacity to deliver has been identified as a risk for some time now and having the quantity and quality of employees that we now have in post is a considerable mitigation of that risk. Our employee numbers are budgeted to continue to increase in the coming year as we continue to recruit more companies joining us on their journey to becoming more “disability smart”. These organisations can reap the competitive benefits being disability smart bestows with access to a huge and, too-often untapped, talent pool and to new markets through the provision of accessible products and services.

As part of our five-year plan to “explore the road less travelled” we instigated a pilot for our designated fund initiative where we aim to allocate surpluses in excess of those needed to maintain our reserves into non-core discrete projects which advance our mission. These projects will be in areas where we identify a need which needs addressing but is less commercial, less in vogue or the approach is experimental. Our pilot project begun this year is called “Changing the image of disability” and aims to create an image bank to represent disabled employees and customers in the media much more holistically and positively than those currently available. The project will also create open-source guidance for businesses wishing to create their own bespoke images.

This year we also recruited a new Chair to replace our current Chair, Stephen Miller, who steps down in November 2023 following a total of nine years served as a valued Trustee and four as Chair. We thank Stephen for his long service during which we saw significant growth, weathered a global pandemic and developed into an organisation dedicated to delighting our Members and Partners, focussed on their needs and those of their employees and customers. We are very sorry to see him go but are delighted to be joined by Steve Ingham, formerly CEO of Page Group, who formally takes over the position of Chair in November 2023. We look forward to continued evolution under his tenure.

It has been a busy year in terms of delivery with the return of in-person events including our Partner dinner in September 2022, sponsored by HSBC, which considered where and how disability inclusion fits into ESG reporting, and our Disability Smart Awards, hosted by Freshfields and sponsored by Microlink. This was the first time we were able to hold our Disability Smart Awards in person since 2019 and we were delighted to receive an unprecedented number of entries and to have a fully booked (and oversubscribed!) event.

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23 (cont.)

Policy & Research

Business Disability Forum’s policy work brings together the voice of over five hundred businesses, of all sizes and all sectors, and collectively representing nearly a quarter of the available UK workforce. Crucially, all are working to make employment, consumer experiences, and access to services more inclusive for disabled people and those with long-term conditions.

Our policy and research team works closely with businesses and disabled people and those with long-term conditions to drive the disability inclusion agenda. Our unique position as the organisation that links disabled people, business, and Government enables us to gather original insight to inform independent inquiries as well as broader employment, health, social, and economic policymaking.

It is core to our mission to provide pragmatic solutions that work for disabled people, business, and the wider economy so our findings convert into practical business recommendations for change as well as evidence to influence and inform Government policy development; a direct feedback loop on what works – and what doesn’t.

Our policy remit includes the following:

Responding to Government or other calls for evidence to inform a debate or Parliamentary session.
Being an expert adviser to policymakers on aspects of disability, health, and employment.
Contributing to guidance or information development on topics related to health and disability as it affects the UK economy.
We are also part of various Government policy stakeholder groups, the Disability Charities Consortium (which we co-Chair), and we collaborate with disabled people’s organisations. Our CEO is also now Deputy Chair of the Disability Confident Business Leaders Group.

Our research underpins the policy positions we develop to ensure these are strongly rooted in a sound evidence base. We regularly undertake research on a wide range of business and disability related topics.

Substantive interventions this year included the second Great Big Workplace Adjustments Survey (GBWAS), building on the baseline of the original GBWAS survey carried out in 2018-19, and gathering the insights from nearly 2,000 managers, employees and graduates. We also continued our project on disability data monitoring in the workplace where we are leading the discussion on the value and rationale for the collection of data and the uses for any data collected.

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23 (cont.)

Activities this year include:

As written above our main project this year was The Great Big Workplace Adjustments Survey 2023. This iteration of the survey was expanded to include a focus on wellbeing and more. It also had more targeted promotion, and we received almost 2,000 responses (a significant increase from the 2019 survey). Findings showed greater expectations from disabled employees, improvements from 2019 and several new areas where we can suggest and lead on better practice.
The previously mentioned work on inclusive disability workforce reporting continues and will finish later in 2023, following the publication of our collaboration with the CIPD on key principles.
There were new collaborations with condition specific organisations.
Parkinson's UK, a roundtable hosted by the Minister for Disabled People on Parkinson's in the workplace
Several speeches at the APPG on Cerebral Palsy
The Up Movement exploring what our recommendations and advice for employers means for what employees with cerebral palsy could do to make relationships between employees and employers stronger
Employee networks and disabled people's groups sought us out for practical sessions about what disabled people should and shouldn't say when applying for a job or when telling their employer about disability and how to have good conversations about their disability and how they work. An aim for 2023/24 will be to scope more of these practical sessions with our university members, preparing disabled graduates to have conversations about their disability as they look for jobs and move into work.

Government work

We have been involved in DWP’s proof of concept group which has helped design the Access to Work Plus offer.
Further engagement with the team at DWP involved discussions about adjustments and health passports into job centres and for education leavers. We will be writing guidance for employers, universities, and disabled people on how to use the education leavers passport most effectively. Government is interested in using this guidance as well.
We are also part of the Office for National Statistics Assembly, a stakeholder group of senior researchers in the not-for-profit sector to help advise on inclusive research methodologies across government statistic collections that are used for policy development.

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23 (cont.)

Other highlights

We gave evidence at the Women and Equalities Committee about policies related to disabled customer experiences in the National Disability Strategy.
Radio 4's Law in Action programme sought us out to advise about employers’ practices of reasonable adjustments legislation, particularly in relation to people with physical conditions who work in manual roles.
Our Policy team has taken part in an increasing number of higher profile conferences. Organisers of those events have repeatedly reverted to seek the CEO and Head of Policy & Research for follow up appearances.

Advice Service

The Advice Service, and the many subjects it responds to, continues to provide valuable insight into the needs and concerns of our members. The Advice Service was even more busy this year.

We responded to 1,629 queries in the year (2022: 1,261). The 30% increase reflects our excellent engagement with the membership through our Business Partners team, highlighting the service and encouraging its use; the complexity of many of the queries was again greater than the previous year. Data monitoring and managing workplace adjustments processes continue to be the main ‘broad’ topics we are being asked about. The number of queries that we receive on data monitoring does support our policy position that companies are already collecting data and that they are best placed to decide what data to gather and how to use it to best serve their disabled employees.

Legal & Content

Content and resources

2023 saw us launch a new toolkit for the membership and two open-source toolkits for all visitors to our website. We updated five of our twelve existing toolkits and six further substantial online resources which were not included in the toolkits. These included:

A new Procurement Toolkit
A new Sight Loss Toolkit sponsored by Roche (open source)
A new SME Toolkit made possible by a grant from City Bridge Trust (open source)
The Mental Health toolkit was expanded to include supporting mental health of employees over costs of living
Welcoming disabled customers toolkit was expanded to advise on customers struggling to pay their bills.

Business Disability Forum

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Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23 (cont.)

Events

The Events team continued to deliver high quality online, in person and hybrid events for the membership and other stakeholders.

The team ran 53 online events attended by 2,985 delegates. The events included: ELEN (Emergency Services and Law Enforcement Network), Procurement, Inclusive Communication, Northern England, Customer, Scotland, New Member, Government, NHS, HEI and Legal networks, our Global and Technology taskforces plus the newly created Legal Ease webinars which provide insight into disability employment and the law. We ran three Legal Ease webinars in the year and attracted over 1,500 delegates, showing the demand for information in this area.

We ran six of our highly regarded flagship events; Global Conference (online, sponsored by HSBC), The Disability Smart awards (hosted by Freshfields and sponsored by Microlink), our Annual Conference (sponsored by NatWest), Leader to Leader Breakfasts (including an in-person event hosted by Shell) and our Partner Group dinner (sponsored by HSBC). These interventions bring our members together for networking and thought-provoking debate. The subjects covered included how to use ESG reporting to drive disability inclusion and "Back to the Future: how should employers respond to the new normal?”.

Business Disability Forum in the Press

We generated a substantial amount of press coverage in 2022-23 with 158 pieces published in the local, national and trade press including:

➢ Forbes
➢ BBC Access All
➢ HR Magazine
➢ People Management
➢ Personnel Today
➢ FT Adviser
➢ The Independent
➢ The HR Director
➢ Employee Benefits
➢ Lexology (legal news service with a reach of 1.8m)
➢ LBC Radio
➢ Press releases announced at the end of the year covering GBWAS, our conference and the appointment of our new chair announcement means there is still coverage coming in off the back of the releases we put out in 2022/23 and this will continue through the summer.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23 (cont.)

Speaking and profile-raising appearances

This year, our CEO, Diane Lightfoot has spoken at:

Open or invite-only external events:

➢ Government events: Support disabilities in the workplace 2022
➢ D&I Leaders Disability at Work 2022
➢ HR Summit Retail Bulletin
➢ BITC Opening Doors: prioritise accessibility and eliminate bias
➢ ISMTE 2022 Global event
➢ London Build 2022
➢ Institute of Government and Public Policy (IGPP)
➢ Public Policy Exchange: Improving disability services in the UK
➢ Bar Standards Board Disability Inclusion Taskforce launch
➢ New Financial: Focus on disability
➢ CIPD
➢ Diversity Network
➢ London Festival of Architecture

Our CEO is increasingly invited to be part of UK and global steering groups and taskforces. She is currently co-Chair of the Disability Charities Consortium, Deputy Chair of the Disability Confident Business Leaders Group, Co-Chair of the Bar Standards Board Disability Inclusion Taskforce. She also sits on committees including the ILO (International Labor Organization) Global Business Disability Network Steering Committee, the RSA Inclusive work, Disability and Ageing network, the Institute of Coding Diversity and Inclusion Board, the new “Everyone Economy” Advisory Committee Chaired by Sir Trevor Phillips and a range of other Government working groups.

Taskforces and Networks

Our taskforces and networks continued to remotely support the membership through a growing range of subject, sector and location specific groups. Taskforces are included in the Partner offer with Members who have an interest in the area invited to join for an additional fee, Networks are open to the whole membership. The list of regular support network meetings includes:

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23 (cont.)

Technology and Global Taskforces
Northern England Network
Construction Round Table
Scottish Round Table
NHS Network
Higher Education Network
Neurodiversity Taskforce
SME Network
Emergency and Law Enforcement Network
Customer Retail Network
Career Development Network
Inclusive Communications Network
Central Government Roundtable

Celebrating best practice

Our Disability-smart awards returned in 2023. The Disability-smart Awards recognise the work of teams and individuals who have gone above and beyond to improve the experiences of disabled people. The awards show what is possible and encourage all businesses to aim higher on disability inclusion.

Ten Disability Smart Awards were presented this year recognising excellence across the areas of workplace and customer experience and we again partnered with DWP to present three Disability Confident awards. We also awarded a special “Lifetime achievement award”.

The event was hosted by both our CEO Diane Lightfoot, and TV personality Simon Minty, a long-standing Ambassador of Business Disability Forum.

The full list of winners and finalists of the Disability Smart Awards 2023 (by category), include:

Disability Smart Accessible Built Environment
Winner: Avon & Somerset Police
Disability Smart Diversity and Inclusion Professional
Winner: Sat Jabanda-Wilson, Virgin Media O2
Disability Smart Inclusive Communication
Winner: HSBC

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23 (cont.)

Disability Smart Inclusive Customer Service
Winner: MAG East Midlands Airport
Disability Smart Inclusive Product Design Award
Winner: Proctor & Gamble
Disability Smart Inclusive Recruitment Award
Winner: KPMG in the UK
Disability Smart Inclusive Workplace Experience Award
Winner: EvenBreak
Disability Smart Leader Award
Winner: Claire Cookson, DFN Project SEARCH
Disability Smart Learning & Development Award
Winner: HSBC
Disability Smart Lifetime Achievement Award
David Oldfield – Lloyds Banking Group
Disability Smart Technology Award
Winner: Amazon

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Financial review 2022-23

Business Disability Forum began the year with a positive general fund of £1,483,449 (2022: £745,358). The target for the year was to generate £290,204 additional funds with the income generated in the year to further our mission (2022: £134,093).

Revenue generation exceeded the previous year as we continued to satisfy increased demand for our practical, pragmatic support from business and government. Our expenditure expanded to increase our capacity to satisfy that demand but remained well controlled. Consequently, and exceeding our most optimistic forecasts, the general fund increased by £747,032 (2022: the fund increased by £738,091) to £2,230,481 (2022: £1,483,449).

Most income strands performed well in the year considering the uncertainty within the UK and global economies, with Membership recruitment particularly notable and our Membership Income growing 19.9% in the year to £3,042,195 (2022: £2,536,029). That growth was supported by Consultancy and Other projects although Publications and Training Packages and Seminars and events delivered reduced income as we developed strategies in these areas to engage more fully with our membership and included more within the core membership offer. Overall income from charitable activities increased by £544,712; 16.9% (2022: £670,776 increase; (26.4%).

Throughout the year Membership continued to generate strong income as we delivered the services our membership expects remotely, digitally and a growing number hybrid or in person. We remain able to consistently delight them and exceed their expectations.

Our expenditure increased in the year by £514,314; (21.4%), (2022: increased by £512,334; 26.2%). Much of this increase was staff costs as we grew our head count by 14% in the year and increased remuneration packages to remain competitive and protect our employees against the consequences of the rising costs of living. We also invested heavily in developing a future proof digital strategy and increased recruitment expenditure to ensure we accessed the prime talent on the market. We will continue to invest charitable funds wisely to deliver our business plan, focus on keeping our profile high and to champion the awareness of disability as a business priority.

Reserves policy

The trustees have agreed the target level of reserves for the end of the 2022/23 financial year should be £1,488,339. This represents the level of funds in the upcoming budget year required to run the charity for five months. The reserves serve to provide funds for investment in service expansion or property if appropriate but also provide sufficient cash to close the organisation down in an orderly fashion while providing paid for services if required.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Reserves policy (continued)

Reserves for this purpose include the balance of the general fund which total £2,230,481 (2022: £1,483,449). The trustees can report that reserves at the financial year end exceeded our target while not preventing opportunities to deliver our mission.

The designated fund initiative is designed to use funds in excess of our required reserves. Once the pilot has been successfully completed, we will be able to expand the level of funding allocated to these mission-led projects and ensure that our general funds do not overly exceed the funds needed to meet the reserves policy.

Gender pay and other equality and inclusion metrics

At year-end 2022/23 we had 29 female employees and 15 male employees. Our median gender gap was negative with women paid on average per hour 3.5% more than men. Our disability pay gap was very small with our 18 nondisabled employees being paid on average 1.0% higher than our 26 disabled employees. Our ethnic minority pay shows that our 32 non-ethnic minority employees are paid 27.5% higher than our 12 ethnic minority employees.

Our other equal opportunity statistics for the full year are:

Percentage of employees with a disability or long-term condition: 63.4%;
Percentage of Leadership Team with a disability or long-term condition: 50.0%;
Percentage of employees from an ethnic minority: 27.0%;
Percentage of Leadership Team from an ethnic minority: 16.7%;
Percentage of female employees: 62.5%; and
Percentage of female employees, Leadership Team: 66.7%.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Membership

Our Disability Business Partnerships teams comprise: Senior Disability Business Partners, Disability Business Partners, the Advice Service plus a Taskforce manager and Learning and Development Team. These team members each have specialist knowledge and experience of disability best practice for productive workplace adjustments aimed at disabled employees and customers, but which can also benefit all employees and customers.

A strong membership base, with committed and engaged Members and Partners, is necessary to fulfil our mission to promote the economic and social inclusion of disabled people by ensuring our membership is equipped to recruit and retain disabled people and serve disabled customers. In 2022/23 we were able to improve our retention rates for all levels of membership, improve recruitment of Members and Partners (we recruited over 120 new Members and Partners in the year) and increase our total engagement with our members through events, account management, consultancy, the Disability-Smart product suite, online resources, policy and campaigns activity and advice.

Business Disability Forum wishes to enhance and develop our membership base. In 2022/23 we challenged ourselves to increase our membership numbers to 480. This was not only achieved but we outperformed our expectations by far, and membership increased to 559. The target of ten new Partners was exceeded (twelve were recruited) and only four of our Partners left in the year.

The recruitment target of 65 new Members was also exceeded; at year-end 101 new Members and one Emergency Services and Law Enforcement Network (ELEN) Members had joined, which was an outstanding performance and reflects the sustained growth in interest and awareness of the benefits of being disability-smart. The retention rate achieved in 2022/23 was 91.08% (2022: 90.46%); targeted retention rate was 87.75%. The total number of Members and Partners at year-end was 559 (target 480).

Membership income (£3,042,195) was £506,166 greater than 2022 (£2,536,029). Membership Income was £194,715 greater than the target, £2,847,480 These results reflect over performance in recruitment of Partners and Members and member satisfaction resulting in retaining nearly 2.5% more of our members than we had hoped we could achieve.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Membership (cont.)

A realistic yet stretching target has been set for 2023/24 given the uncertainties arising in the UK and Global economy from the supply chain issues and inflation. That target is eight new Partners and 80 new Members with an overall retention rate of 87.02%. This would result in 581 Members and Partners at year end, an increase of 22 which would build on our gains from this year and ensure a strong base for our policy positions and a draw for new Members and Partners who want to be part of a growing, relevant and dynamic movement. As always, we will seek to over-achieve on these figures; our past performance shows that we are not constrained by prudent targets in seeking to exceed them.

Business Disability Forum’s Disability Business Partner framework allows each Partner to work with one of our experienced Senior Disability Business Partners to assist in developing their overall approach to becoming disabilitysmart and sharing best practice. Our wider membership is served by our sector specific Disability Business Partners. This combined approach has seen improved Member and Partner engagement, giving our membership the support they need to drive change.

Support has continued in the year for sector specific networks, including the Emergency Services and Law Enforcement Network (ELEN), Construction Sector Network, HEI Network, NHS Network, Retail network, Neurodiversity Network, Peer Learning Network, Procurement Network, Legal Network, Central Government Network and the Communications Network. We have also maintained activity in regional (Scotland and North of England) networks. These meeting are aided by the adoption of video conferencing as the norm which increases attendance and engagement and reduces the time commitment required to attended. As a result, the networks are flourishing. The member offer is further enhanced by two taskforces; our Technology Taskforce and the Global Taskforce which are included in the Partner offer and available to Members to join for an additional fee.

To further support our membership offer and improve membership retention rates, we continued with a series of podcasts and webinars making Business Disability Forum accessible on a national and international basis through our contacts’ desktops and browsers (a large number of our contacts within membership organisations change every year and these are useful tools to showcase what is available to new contacts). New contacts each have an introductory telephone or video conference meeting to share the latest “best practice” guidance on disability management and to discuss how the Member or Partner can best use our guidance to achieve their objectives.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Membership (cont.)

The Disability-Smart Framework, our assessment and accreditation framework measuring how disability-smart an organisation is, continued to be available free to our membership as an online self-assessment exercise. All our members have access to the self-assessment process, a less evidencebased solution than our full Disability-smart audit, assessing ten criteria across business areas using a binary scale to measure their performance. At the end of the self-assessment a report is produced suggesting potential improvements (including legal risk) and highlighting areas of excellence.

The ‘Advice Service’, our service for best practice guidance on managing disability in the workplace and to welcoming disabled customers, has been widely used by our membership. In 2023, we increased the size of the team on the service by 66% and were able to assist with an average of 135 calls per month (2022: 105). Many queries are ever more complex, indicating the evolution of our membership’s knowledge of disability in the workplace and their subsequent requirements from this service. Users of the service have increased requests for policy reviews and Disability Confident valuations which often take longer to complete than ad hoc queries and the increase in capacity has enabled us to keep pace with requests and maintain the high level of member satisfaction with this much appreciated service.

Although the ‘Advice Service’ is essentially a service offered to fee paying companies from within the membership, non-member companies are provided with basic advice, invited to join the organisation or directed to other organisations that can provide them with more detailed advice. Disabled people or other stakeholders who call the ‘Advice Service’ are also able to take advantage of the “connect service” free of charge where they are put in touch with either the relevant company from the membership or other suitable organisations to provide them with assistance.

Further advice and information is provided to the membership through our monthly newsletter; legal update bulletin; weekly e-communications regarding our online and flagship events; products and services; online networking and webinar events and our website. Our membership and other website visitors also benefit from our online Disability Essentials toolkit which is an opensource product and freely available to all.

As part of our drive to improve membership engagement and value we made our People Manager toolkit available to all members as part of the membership offer and launched the Procurement toolkit (a Partner benefit), the Sight Loss toolkit sponsored by Roche and the SME toolkit made possible by a grant from by City Bridge Trust (both open source). Feedback and access of these resources suggest they are vital tools for our membership.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Membership (cont.)

We will continue to respond to the membership’s needs through active communication with them: anticipating any non-renewals; the needs of disabled stakeholders; and ensure the whole team is actively involved in membership retention. Member and Partner numbers and retention rates are key performance indicators that reflect the organisation’s ability to achieve its vision and mission. We are confident that the retention rates we have budgeted are achievable and realistic and that our membership will continue to thrive. In times of uncertainty, shared purpose and a sense of belonging can bring comfort and much-needed peer support.

Seminars & events

Our expectations for this year, reflected by our budget, included a return to inperson events and delegate sales. While an appetite for in person showpiece events has returned, willingness to pay for conferences and networking events remains low so we remained wholly reliant on sponsorship to provide funding for our whole programme including our extensive online offerings. Our in-person Conference in June was well attended and sponsored by NatWest including hosting and with the Sli:do platform allowing online comment and participation. Our Disability Smart awards sponsored by Microlink was hosted in person at Freshfields and also live streamed for remote attendees. The current expectation that events, webinars and roundtables will be delivered and attended online gives us greater scope to deliver more events and welcome more delegates from a broader range of locations, including globally.

We will continue for the foreseeable future with the current format of events using online, hybrid and in-person platforms as appropriate for the type and audience of each event. During the year our Legal & Content team delivered flagship events alongside seminars, podcasts, round table discussions, toolkit launches, Business Disability podcasts and events tailored specifically for individual Members’ and Partners’ needs. We hosted 4,115 delegates in 2023 (2022: 2,675).

This year we expected to deliver six (2022: nine) income generating events which would be complemented by 116 network meetings. We actually delivered six (2022: six) income generating events alongside 46 (2022: 57) engage events and network or Taskforce meetings generating income of £54,167 (2022: £95,814). This was less than the target of £125,000 (2022: £114,738) but the programme gave our membership plenty to engage them and to consider. Our events always aim to make delegates view the issues in a new way.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Publications

We have a large cache of online toolkits and resources available to our membership through our Knowledge Hub. Many of these resources are open source and available to all. Access to these resources, while contributing to the continuing increase in memberships and membership income, has diminished the appetite for sales of resources for our memberships’ intranets and Learning Management Systems. Toolkits do provide great opportunities to raise sponsorship income, but this stream has diminished as an income raising exercise and we now concentrate on the public benefit and engagement aspect of our guidance distribution rather than revenue generating opportunities.

We continued to offer our Partners all our guidance as part of their membership and to Members all but the newly released Procurement toolkit. Logged in Members and Partners accessed our Knowledge Hub over 19,000 times and downloaded 40,508 resources. The page views were many times that number. Our toolkits were accessed 50,406 times with the Disabilitysmart toolkit the most popular followed by Inclusive Communications and Sight loss.

Turnover on publications sales and projects was £130,613, a significant but expected decrease on the previous year (£171,806).

We have an extensive range of publications with fourteen toolkits (https://businessdisabilityforum.org.uk/knowledge-hub/toolkits/) available covering a comprehensive range of topics. Our distribution model has become almost wholly online although we do provide hard copy for accessibility purposes.

We have alliances with five companies to promote their accessibility products to our membership who pay us commission at varying rates for introductions. The purpose of these alliances is primarily to ensure we can offer our membership a fuller range of solutions. These strategic alliances delivered £11,700 (2022: £11,500) income in 2023.

The Publications projects delivered in the year were a Sight loss Toolkit sponsored by Roche and the SME toolkit made possibly by a grant from City Bridge Trust which together raised £104,725 revenue (2022: £95,333) at a cost (excluding support costs) of £0 (2022: £30,855).

Business Disability Forum continued to offer discounted rates on its publications for all charities and non-profit making organisations as well as its range of free publications and toolkits.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Disability-smart Framework, consultancy and other projects

The Disability-smart framework (formerly the Disability Standard) is the basis for all that Business Disability Forum does. Grounded in a long history of B2B work, the Disability-smart framework uses an organisation-wide approach to disability in a unique way that differentiates Business Disability Forum from other organisations working with employers and service providers on disability.

The framework was last reviewed in 2021 and we will release the latest iteration in 2024 as part of our website and Knowledge Hub update. The current iteration stretches the boundaries of best practice to reinforce the importance of a structured approach to planning for, and making improvements to, disability management as it affects all functional areas within an organisation. The Disability-smart framework provides an evaluation tool with participants answering a comprehensive on-line questionnaire on how disability is addressed and managed within their organisation.

The Disability Standard (as was) has generated interest around the globe and has provided a framework for much of our international consulting work and ongoing discussions. We want the new Framework to continue this and next year we plan to develop a global framework to complement the UK based approach. It has already been licenced for use in Australia, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and South Korea and used in the States of Guernsey, Dubai and Ireland to inform consultancy projects.

We continue to use a third party to deliver some of our consultancy services, which allows us to concentrate our efforts on delighting the membership and delivering the consultancy projects included within the Partner offer. Our outsourcing arrangement provides ideal solutions to those of our membership that need additional services. This has enabled us to deliver more internal and external projects and to continue to provide in house Learning and Development interventions. Interest in our product range continues to be encouraging.

Revenue generation of £441,268 (2022: £333,132) in 2023 exceeded our expectation of £281,000, with our direct costs increasing to £391,038 (2022: £218,134). The revenue and expense increases reflect the volume of outsourced work delivered and has maintained the income delivered while providing valuable solutions toa greater number of Members and Partners.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Strategic priorities

Our aim is to be the go-to organisation for guidance and advice on all aspects of disability as it affects business whilst striving to protect our core income streams.

2022/23 was a very productive year for Business Disability Forum. We expanded our reach nationally and internationally and continued to improve our profile and reputation particularly in the policy space while developing improved opportunities and capacity to recruit new members and income generating opportunities.

In this time of economic uncertainty, and while the disabled stakeholders who we serve are often more disadvantaged by the economic situation than most, Business Disability Forum’s main focus will be to increase our capability and capacity to deliver the services for which our membership pays.

We will be running the pilot scheme to designate some of our surplus funds into areas that have less commercial return, to reach some of the most disadvantaged disabled employment candidates and customers whose disabilities attract less focus than others. The pilot scheme is “Changing the image of disability”. If this is successful, we will use our surplus funds over and above the level of reserves to run these programmes in future.

Strategic priorities for 2023/24, driven by our new five-year plan are:

To improve life choices and experiences for more disabled people.
To sustainably increase the membership.
To deliver outcomes from our evidence-based policy and research programme that improve life choices and experiences for disabled people as employees and consumers.
To develop and share cutting edge thought leadership.
To extend opportunities for businesses to network and share best practice.
To create quality information and guidance content in response to business need.

To this end we will increase our capacity through careful employee recruitment, train our existing employees and develop new ways of working for the current environment. We will develop new products and upgrade our website as a medium through which to deliver to a wider audience.

To judge how we are performing against these priorities we will use a range of measures including anecdotal feedback, qualitative and quantitative research.

The ultimate OKR for our relevance is member numbers and by how much the disability employment gap can be reduced.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Financial objectives 2022-23

To release sufficient funding to enable recruitment of enough new employees to provide services paid for by the membership, but to ensure this remains sustainable.
To maintain the sustainability of Business Disability Forum’s business model. Increasing the volume and predictability of income and reviewing expenditure, to monitor the cashflow and working capital required to run the organisation.
Further develop OKRs and real time reporting, using real time data to monitor progress against budget and the new five-year plan.
Monitor and control expenditure ensuring a “value for money” approach to resources expended without missing any realistic opportunities for growth and mission delivery.
Report on income and expenditure in real time and provide sufficient information for management to make timely and informed decisions.
Carefully monitor membership renewals which are essential for cash flow.

Approved by the trustees and signed on their behalf by:

1/23/2024

Stephen Miller, Chair Approved by the trustees on: 30 November 2023

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Independent auditor’s report: Year to 30 June 2023

Independent auditor’s report to the members of Business Disability Forum

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Business Disability Forum (the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 30 June 2023, which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet, the statement of cash flows, the principal accounting policies, and the notes to the financial statements. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 ‘The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland’ (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company’s affairs as at 30 June 2023 and of its income and expenditure for the year then ended;
have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and
have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the Trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Independent auditor’s report: Year to 30 June 2023

Conclusions relating to going concern (continued)

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the Trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The Trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the Annual Report and Financial Statements, 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.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

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

the information given in the Trustees’ report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
the Trustees’ report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Independent auditor’s report: Year to 30 June 2023

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Trustees’ report. We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
certain disclosures of Trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or
the Trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies’ regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in preparing the Trustees’ report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.

Responsibilities of Trustee

As explained more fully in the Trustees’ responsibilities statement, the Trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the Trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the Trustees are responsible for assessing the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Independent auditor’s report: Year to 30 June 2023

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

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.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below.

Our approach to identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, was as follows:

the engagement partner ensured that the engagement team collectively had the appropriate competence, capabilities and skills to identify or recognise non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
we identified the laws and regulations applicable to the charitable company through discussions with management, and from our commercial knowledge and experience of the sector;
the identified laws and regulations were communicated within the audit team regularly and the team remained alert to instances of noncompliance throughout the audit;
We focused on specific laws and regulations which we considered may have a direct material effect on the accounts or the activities of the charity. These included but were not limited to the Charities Act 2011 and 2022, the Companies Act 2006 and the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland - FRS102, and also the Charities SORP FRS102, 2019; and
we assessed the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations identified above through making enquiries of management, inspecting legal correspondence and reviewing Trustee meeting minutes.

We assessed the susceptibility of the company’s financial statements to material misstatement, including obtaining an understanding of how fraud might occur, by:

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Independent auditor’s report: Year to 30 June 2023

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements (continued)

making enquiries of management and those charged with governance as to where they considered there was susceptibility to fraud, their knowledge of actual, suspected and alleged fraud; and
considering the internal controls in place to mitigate risks of fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations.

To address the risk of fraud through management bias and override of controls, we:

performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships;
tested journal entries to identify unusual transactions;
tested the authorisation of expenditure as part of our substantive testing thereon;
assessed whether judgements and assumptions made in determining the accounting estimates set out in the accounting policies were indicative of potential bias; and
used data analytics to identify any significant or unusual transactions and identify the rationale for them.

In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we designed procedures which included, but were not limited to:

agreeing financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting documentation;
reading the minutes of Trustee meetings;
enquiring of management and those charged with governance as to actual and potential litigation and claims; and
reviewing any available correspondence with HMRC and the Charity Commission.

There are inherent limitations in our audit procedures described above. The more removed that laws and regulations are from financial transactions, the less likely it is that we would become aware of non-compliance. Auditing standards also limit the audit procedures required to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations to enquiry of the Trustees and other management and the inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.

Material misstatements that arise due to fraud can be harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Independent auditor’s report: Year to 30 June 2023

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements (continued)

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.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Edward Finch, Senior Statutory Auditor for and on behalf of Buzzacott LLP, Statutory Auditor 130 Wood Street London EC2V 6DL

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Statement of financial activities incorporating income and expenditure account: Year to 30 June 2023

Notes	Unrestricted funds £	Restricted funds £	2023 Total funds £	2022 Total funds £
Income and expenditure Income from: • Investments • Donations • Charitable activities 1 Total income Expenditure on: Charitable activities 2 Total expenditure Net Income (expenditure) and net movement in funds Reconciliation of funds Total funds brought forward at 1 July 2022 Total funds carried forward at 30 June 2023	39,137 75 3,668,693	- - 12,125	39,137 75 3,680,818	1,215 7,056 3,210,656
	3,707,905	12,125	3,720,030	3,218,927
	2,896,338	25,937	2,922,275	2,466,643
	2,896,338	25,937	2,922,275	2,466,643
	811,567 1,496,106	(13,812) 25,937	797,755 1,522,043	752,284 769,759
	2,307,673	12,125	2,319,798	1,522,043

All of the charity’s activities derived from continuing operations during the above two financial periods.

The charity has no recognised gains and losses other than those shown above.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Balance Sheet: Year to 30 June 2023

Notes	2023 £	2023 £	2022 £	2022 £
Fixed assets Tangible assets 8 Current assets Debtors 9 Cash at bank and in hand Creditors: amounts falling due within one year 10 Net current assets Deferred income 11 Total net assets Represented by: Funds and reserves Unrestricted Funds General Fund Training Designated Fund 12 Image Designated Fund 12 Restricted Fund 13	516,188 4,142,695	11,009 4,235,709 (1,926,920)	531,186 2,994,006	11,599 3,144,515 (1,634,071)
	4,658,883 (423,174)		3,525,192 (380,677)

		2,319,798		1,522,043
		2,230,482 12,656 64,535 12,125		1,483,449 12,657 - 25,937
		2,319,798		1,522,043

Approved by the trustees and signed on their behalf by:

1/23/2024

Chair Name Stephen Miller

Approved on: 30 November 2023

Company Number 02603700

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Statement of Cashflows: 30 June 2023

Notes	2023 £	2022 £
Cash flows from operating activities: Net cash provided by operating activities A Cash flows from investing activities: Dividends and interest from investments Purchase of tangible fixed assets Net cash used in investing activities Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year Cash and cash equivalents at 1 July 2022 B Cash and cash equivalents at 30 June 2023 B	1,123,051	871,839
	39,137 (13,499)	1,215 (1,425)
	25,638	(210)
	1,148,689 2,994,006	871,629 2,122,377
	4,142,695	2,994,006

Notes to the statement of cash flows for the year to 30 June 2023. A Reconciliation of net movement in funds to net cash (used in) provided by operating activities

	by operating activities
B		2023 £	2022 £
	Net income for the year (as per the statement of financial activities) Adjustments for: Depreciation charge Dividends and interest from investments Decrease / (Increase) in debtors Increase in creditors Net cashprovided by operating activities	797,755 14,089 (39,137) 14,998 335,346	752,284 11,266 (1,215) (249,266) 358,770
		1,123,051	871,839
	Analysis of cash and cash equivalents	2023 £	2022 £
	Cash at bank and in hand Total cash and cash equivalents	4,142,695	2,994,006
		4,142,695	2,994,006

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Principal accounting policies: 30 June 2023

The principal accounting policies adopted, judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty in the preparation of the financial statements are laid out below.

Basis of preparation

These financial statements have been prepared for the year to 30 June 2023.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention with items recognised at cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policies below or the notes to these accounts.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland - FRS102, and also the Charities SORP FRS102 2019 and the Companies Act 2006.

The charity constitutes a public benefit entity as defined by FRS 102.

The financial statements are presented in sterling and are rounded to the nearest pound.

Critical accounting estimates and areas of judgement

Preparation of the accounts requires the trustees and management to make significant judgements and estimates.

The items in the financial statements where these judgements and estimates have been made include:

Our year end membership figure of 559 assumes that 40 Members and Partners (2022: 33) who have not yet confirmed they will continue in membership will do so. This has no effect on income which is not booked until confirmation is received.

Assessment of going concern

The trustees have assessed whether the use of the going concern assumption is appropriate in preparing these financial statements. The trustees have made this assessment in respect to a period of one year from the date of approval of these financial statements.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Principal accounting policies: 30 June 2023

Assessment of going concern (continued)

The trustees of the charity have concluded that there are no material uncertainties related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the ability of the charity to continue as a going concern. The trustees are of the opinion that the charity will have sufficient resources to meet its liabilities as they fall due. The most significant areas of judgement that affect items in the financial statements are detailed above. With regard to the next accounting period, the year ending 30 June 2024, the most significant areas that affect Business Disability Forum continuing as a going concern have been raised in the note on Major Risks in the Trustees Report namely:

Insufficient capacity and capability to deliver what we need to achieve
Staff skills not keeping pace with changing customer demand
Our products and services do not keep up with developing demands from our customers
The ongoing effects to the economy of the fallout from Covid-19 and rising inflation.
Impact and profile insufficiently communicated to make disability a compelling area for business investment with us.
Growth in competitors
Key personnel leave to work for competitors
Business Disability Forum receives adverse publicity in the media
Disruption to our membership recruitment team following retirement of Membership Director
Income does not continue to exceed expenditure

The continuing uncertainty over the effects on the economy of supply chain issues arising from Covid lockdowns and the war in Ukraine plus the inflationary impact of those supply chain issues, energy shortages driven by the drive for net zero and huge money printing programmes undertaken by Central Banks cast a shadow over all companies’ assessments of going concern at this time. We feel our stock of deferred income as reported in these pages (£1.9 million; note 11) provides more than half of the working capital and cashflow to fund us in the year to come. Our free reserves, totalling £2,230,480, have also increased from just £17,085 in 2019 and are budgeted to increase again substantially in 2023 following three years of rising demand for our services. We have begun 2023 performing ahead of budget expectations.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Principal accounting policies: 30 June 2023

Assessment of going concern (continued)

Further Comfort is provided across our core membership income by the historically high rates of member retention and recruitment that we achieve, the proposition and approach that delivers these high retention rates is continually reviewed and monitored using feedback from the membership, market conditions, advances in disability best practice and knowledge and perceived value. Indeed, our recent membership survey returned results which provided areas for continual improvement while confirming that overall our delivery exceeds expectations.

Our budget for 2023/24 has been designed to build on our current performance and is mindful of the likely recession that will come from Government action to combat inflation and consumer reactions. We have assumed greater attrition rates for the membership than we have seen in previous years, and used experience gained in 2008-2011 during the great recession to guide our income projections while allowing sufficient expenditure to deliver the services our membership expects to our usual high standards. We can expand as the economy contracts to consolidate our position as the go-to provider of advice on disability in business.

Our healthy cash position resulting from deferred membership, sponsorship and project income means that we will be able to meet all foreseen liabilities as they fall due. Our General Fund has been improved by this year’s sterling performance and our fixed costs are manageable for an organisation of our size and income.

Income recognition

Income is recognised in the period in which the charity has entitlement to the income and the amount can be measured reliably and it is probable that the income will be received. Income is deferred only when the charity has to fulfil conditions before becoming entitled to it or where the donor or funder has specified that the income is to be expended in a future accounting period.

Income comprises membership fees, income from seminars and events, income from publications and training, consultancy and bank interest.

Income from membership fees is recognised over the membership year with the unexpired portion of membership fees being included in the balance sheet as deferred income.

Income from seminars and events, income from publications and training, consultancy, disability standard and from the provision of training and workshops is recognised to the extent that it is probable that the economic benefits will flow to the company and the revenue can be reliably measured.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Principal accounting policies: 30 June 2023

Income recognition (continued)

Income is measured as the fair value of the consideration received or receivable, excluding discounts, rebates, value added tax and other taxes.

Interest on funds held on deposit is included when received and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid by the bank.

Expenditure recognition

Liabilities are recognised as expenditure as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.

Expenditure comprises the costs of charitable activities in respect to the charity’s primary charitable purposes as described in the Trustees’ report. Such costs include:

Events and seminar expenses;
Publication costs; and
External supplier delivery costs.

All expenditure is stated inclusive of irrecoverable VAT.

Allocation of support and governance costs

Support costs represent indirect charitable expenditure. In order to carry out the primary purposes of the charity it is necessary to provide support in the form of personnel development, financial procedures, provision of office services and equipment and a suitable working environment.

Governance costs comprise the costs involving the public accountability of the charity (including audit costs) and costs in respect to its compliance with regulation and good practice.

Support costs and governance costs are apportioned using staff numbers.

Tangible fixed assets

All assets costing more than £1,000 and with an expected useful life exceeding one year are capitalised.

Tangible fixed assets are depreciated at the following annual rates in order to write them off over their estimated useful lives:

Furniture and general office 25% per annum based on cost equipment
Computer and similar 33% per annum based on cost equipment

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Principal accounting policies: 30 June 2023

Debtors

Debtors are recognised at their settlement amount, less any provision for non-recoverability. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid. They have been discounted to the present value of the future cash receipt where such discounting is material.

Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and in hand represents such accounts and instruments that are available on demand or have a maturity of less than three months from the date of acquisition. Deposits for more than three months but less than one year have been disclosed as short-term deposits. Cash placed on deposit for more than one year is disclosed as a fixed asset investment.

Creditors and provisions

Creditors and provisions are recognised when there is an obligation at the balance sheet date as a result of a past event, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefit will be required in settlement, and the amount of the settlement can be estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are recognised at the amount the charity anticipates it will pay to settle the debt. They have been discounted to the present value of the future cash payment where such discounting is material.

Pension costs

Contributions by the charity in respect of the group money purchase pension scheme (workplace pension scheme) are included in the statement of financial activities when they are payable.

Fund accounting

Designated funds comprise monies set aside out of unrestricted general funds for specific future purposes or projects.

General funds represent those monies which are freely available for application towards achieving any charitable purpose that falls within the charity’s charitable objects.

Restricted funds are monies raised for a specific purpose.

Leased assets

Rentals applicable to operating leases where substantially all of the benefits and risks of ownership remain with the lessor are charged on a straight-line basis over the lease term.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Notes to the financial statements: 30 June 2023

1 Income from charitable activities

	2023 Unrestricted £	2023 Restricted £	2023 Total £	2022 Total £
Membership fee income Seminars and events Publications and training packages Consultancy Other projects	3,042,195 54,617 130,613 441,268 -	- - - - 12,125	3,042,195 54,617 130,613 441,268 12,125	2,536,029 95,814 171,806 333,132 73,875
	3,668,693	12,125	3,680,818	3,210,656

2 Charitable activities

(a) Analysis of costs of unrestricted charitable activities

	Costs allocated directly £	Support costs £	Total 2023 £
Membership Seminars and events Publications and training packages Consultancy and other projects	992,138 209,789 89,832 391,038	975,107 105,366 68,966 90,039	1,967,245 315,155 158,798 481,077
	1,682,797	1,239,478	2,922,275

	Costs allocated directly £	Support costs £	Total 2022 £
Membership Seminars and events Publications and training packages Consultancy and other projects	924,510 204,029 75,816 218,134	707,471 110,271 75,786 90,944	1,631,981 314,300 151,602 309,078
	1,422,489	984,472	2,406,961

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Notes to the financial statements: 30 June 2023

2 Charitable activities (continued)

(b) Analysis of support costs

	Staff costs £	Office expenses £	Depreciation £	Professional and legal £	2023 Total £
Membership Seminars and events Publications and training packages Consultancy and other projects	609,598 65,870 43,115 56,289	223,209 24,119 15,787 20,611	11,084 1,198 784 1,023	131,216 14,179 9,280 12,116	975,107 105,366 68,966 90,039
	774,872	283,726	14,089	166,791	1,239,478

Support costs are allocated to charitable activities on the basis of staff numbers assigned in each area. Since 2020/21 we have outsourced much of our Consultancy delivery to allow us to focus on deliver Membership services.

	Staff costs £	Office expenses £	Depreciation £	Professional and legal £	2022 Total £
Membership Seminars and events Publications and training packages Consultancy and other projects	432,410 67,398 46,321 55,586	210,963 32,882 22,599 27,119	8,096 1,262 867 1,041	56,002 8,729 5,999 7,198	707,471 110,271 75,786 90,944
	601.715	293,563	11,266	77,928	984,472

3 Governance costs

Governance costs
	2023 Total £	2022 Total £
Staff costs Legal and professional fees Other	29,652 16,480 3,731	27,977 16,280 1,816
	49,864	46,073

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Notes to the financial statements: 30 June 2023

4 Net income (expenditure) and movement in funds

This is stated after charging:

	2023 Total £	2022 Total £
Staff costs (note 5) Auditor’s remuneration •Statutory audit services •Other services Depreciation Operatinglease rentals	2,161,352 14,000 4,100 14,089 95,195	1,779,899 12,750 5,005 11,266 95,780

5 Employees and staff costs

Staff costs during the year were as follows:

	2023 £	2022 £
Wages and salaries Social security costs Other pension costs Payments to agency staff Staff training Other payments/benefits	1,660,961 178,614 170,053	1,363,212 157,194 154,736
	2,009,627 95,442 14,302 41,980	1,675,143 58,560 7,489 38,707
	2,161,352	1,779,899

The average number of employees during the year was 41 (2022:36).

The number of employees who earned £60,000 or more (including taxable benefits but excluding employer pension contributions or termination charges) during the year was as follows:

	2023 Number	2022 Number
£60,001 - £70,000 £70,001 - £80,000 £80,001 - £90,000 £90,001 - £100,000	1 2 - 2	2 - 2 -
	5	4

Total employer contributions to the group money purchase schemes in respect of the above employees during the year amounted to £67,207 (2022: £47,043). The increase in contributions in 2023 is due to some of these employees taking advantage of the salary exchange option for pension contributions that is open to all of our team. We contributed 8% of gross salary to all our employees for eight months in 2023 (2022 – 5%).

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Notes to the financial statements: 30 June 2023

5 Employees and staff costs (continued)

The key management personnel of the charity comprise the trustees and the Leadership Team of six members, 5.7 FTE (2022: six members, 5.4 FTE). The total remuneration of the key management personnel for the year was £574,546 (2022: £500,276).

6 Trustees

None of the trustees received any remuneration in respect of their services during the year (2022: £nil).

During the year travelling expenses were incurred by the trustees in the course of their duties. Such expenses were not reimbursed to trustees during the year as a matter of policy. Our policies do allow for expense for any adjustments to be reimbursed but this has not been necessary in the year.

Business Disability Forum has indemnity insurance which covers actual or alleged breach of duty, breach of trust, neglect, error, misstatement, omission, breach of warranty of authority, libel and slander or any other act committed by trustees, officers and employees in the course of the organisation’s activities (subject to specified exclusions). The cost of this insurance was £3,859 (2022: £3,508).

7 Taxation

Business Disability Forum is a registered charity and therefore is not liable to corporation tax on income derived from its charitable activities, as it falls within the various exemptions available to registered charities.

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Notes to the financial statements: 30 June 2023

8 Tangible fixed assets

	Fixtures, fittings and equipment £
Cost At 1 July 2022 Additions Disposals At 30 June 2023 Depreciation At 1 July 2022 Charge for the year Disposals At 30 June 2023 Net book values At 30 June 2023 At 30 June 2022	70,377 13,499 (555)
	83,321
	58,778 14,089 (555)
	72,312
	11,009
	11,599

	Fixtures, fittings and equipment £
Cost At 1 July 2021 Additions Disposals At 30 June 2022 Depreciation At 1 July 2021 Charge for the year Disposals At 30 June 2022 Net book values At 30 June 2022 At 30 June 2021	86,119 1,425 (17,167)
	70,377
	64,679 11,266 (17,167)
	58,778
	11,599
	21,439

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Notes to the financial statements: 30 June 2023

9 Debtors

Debtors
Due within oneyear	2023 £	2022 £
Fees receivable Other debtors Prepayments and accrued income	457,839 2,576 55,774	453,475 3,616 74,095
	516,188	531,186

10 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
	2023 £	2022 £ 74,166 192,657 113,854 380,677
Expense creditors Payroll and VAT creditors Accruals and other creditors	110,352 199,083 113,739
	423,174

11 Deferred income

Deferred income
	2023 £	2022 £
At 1 July 2022 Invoiced in the year Released in the year At 30 June 2023	1,634,071 4,284,112 (3,991,264)	1,333,496 3,615,806 (3,315,231)
	1,926,919	1,634,071

Deferred membership income includes £1,343,906 (2022: £1,164,451) for the unused element of Members’ and Partners’ current membership year. The remainder of deferred income relates to the second year of certain Partners’ or Members' two-year membership fees and also income due from projects, publications, and events to be delivered post year-end.

12 Designated Funds

Training Fund

The Trustees recognised that following the restructure in 2020 it was vital that Business Disability Forum’s employees retain, share and improve their business and disability skills and knowledge. To ensure that was possible they designated £20,000 of funds to be used for training and development of employees. We were able to continue to routinely develop our staff as income remained strong, so we now use the fund for professional development and qualifications of our employees such as CIPD, legal, IT or accountancy qualifications.

	2023 £	2022 £
At 1 July 2022 Expenses incurred At 30 June 2023	12,656 -	15,901 (3,244)
	12,656	12,657

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Notes to the financial statements: 30 June 2023

Changing the image of disability fund

As written earlier a central aim of our five-year plan is to use our surpluses for less commercial, more philanthropic purposes by designating funds for non-core projects aimed at disability in business.

The first, pilot project launched in 2023 and aims to create an image bank of disabled employees and customers for use by business to better represent the image of disabled employees, customers and service users in the media. We will also release guidance on how business can create their own images with the same aims. This project will last for one year and if successful we will designate further funds for other projects in 2024.

	2023 £	2022 £
At 1 July 2022 Funds transferred form General Fund Expenses incurred At 30 June 2023	- 75,000 10,465	- - -
	64,535	-

13 Restricted Funds

City Bridge London SME project

City Bridge Trust committed to a five-year grant funded programme to improve the disability confidence of London’s SMEs. This project did not receive the traction that had been hoped, focus on survival following Covid lockdowns being a major cause. We agreed with City Bridge that this project should cease but that we would create a toolkit of guidance specifically for SMEs as a legacy of our involvement in the project. This toolkit is maintained on our website.

	2023 £	2022 £
At 1 July 2022 Grants received in the year Expenditure in the year At 30 June 2023	25,937 12,125 (25,937)	8,500 73,875 (56,438)
	12,125	25,937

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Notes to the financial statements: 30 June 2023

14 Leasing commitments

Operating leases

At 30 June 2023 the charity had the following total minimum commitments under non-cancellable operating leases as follows:

	2023	2023	2022	2022
	Land & buildings £	Equipment £	Land & buildings £	Equipment £
Operating leases: Less than one year Between one and two years Between two and fiveyears	95,000 19,950 -	195 - -	95,000 95,000 19,950	780 195 -

15 Related party transactions

Six organisations by which trustees are employed or who are members of the company paid to the charity £169,200 during the year in respect of membership fees and other services, (2022: seven organisations paid £139,331).

Of the 2023 related party transactions £49,200 was outstanding for payment at 30 June 2023 (2022: £24,000).

16 Liability of members

The charity is constituted as a company limited by guarantee. In the event of the charity being wound up, members are required to contribute an amount not exceeding £1.

17 Prior year statement of Financial Activities

Notes	Unrestricted funds £	Restricted funds £	2022 Total funds £	2021 Total funds £
Income and expenditure Income from: • Investments • Donations • Charitable activities 1 Total income Expenditure on: Charitable activities 2 Total expenditure Net Income and net movement in funds	1,215 7,056 3,136,781	- - 73,875	1,215 7,056 3,210,656	- - 2,539,879
	3,145,052	73,875	3,218,927	2,539,879
	2,406,961	59,682	2,466,643	1,954,309
	2,406,961	59,682	2,466,643	1,954,309
	738,091	14,193	752,284	585,570

Business Disability Forum

DocuSign Envelope ID: 361ED2FB-7F1F-424E-B390-3A83E7169183

Notes to the financial statements: 30 June 2023

Reconciliation of funds Total funds brought forward at 1 July 2021 Total funds carried forward at 30 June 2022	745,358	24,401	769,759	184,189
	1,483,449	38,594	1,522,043	769,759

Accessibility Statement

Business Disability Forum is committed to ensuring that all its information, products and services are as accessible as possible to everyone. If you wish to discuss anything in regards to the accessibility of the information provided in our Annual Report and Financial Statements, please contact us as follows: telephone: 020-7403-3020 or by email: enquiries@businessdisabilityforum.org.uk

Business Disability Forum

Business Disability Forum

Annual Report and Financial Statements

Contents

Reports

Reference and administrative information

Statement of trustees’ responsibilities

Statement of trustees’ responsibilities (cont.)

Trustees

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Other officers

Company Secretary

Senior executives

Members

Organisation and management of Business Disability Forum

Organisation and management of Business Disability Forum (cont.)

Key management personnel

Organisation and management of Business Disability Forum (cont.)

Major risks

Major Risks (cont.)

Major Risks (cont.)

Review of our main risks

Objectives and activities

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Creating a disability smart world together

Our values:

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23 (cont.)

Policy & Research

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23 (cont.)

Government work

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23 (cont.)

Other highlights

Advice Service

Legal & Content

Content and resources

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23 (cont.)

Events

Business Disability Forum in the Press

Trustees’ report: Year to 30 June 2023

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23 (cont.)

Speaking and profile-raising appearances

Open or invite-only external events:

Events for Members and Partners including:

Taskforces and Networks

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23 (cont.)

Celebrating best practice

Review of activities and impact in 2022-23 (cont.)

Financial review 2022-23

Reserves policy

Reserves policy (continued)

Gender pay and other equality and inclusion metrics

Membership

Membership (cont.)

Membership (cont.)

Membership (cont.)

Seminars & events

Publications

Disability-smart Framework, consultancy and other projects

Strategic priorities

Financial objectives 2022-23

Independent auditor’s report to the members of Business Disability Forum

Opinion

Basis for opinion

Conclusions relating to going concern

Conclusions relating to going concern (continued)

Other information

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

Responsibilities of Trustee

Independent auditor’s report: Year to 30 June 2023

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Independent auditor’s report: Year to 30 June 2023

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements (continued)

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements (continued)

Use of our report

Balance Sheet: Year to 30 June 2023

Statement of Cashflows: 30 June 2023

Notes to the statement of cash flows for the year to 30 June 2023. A Reconciliation of net movement in funds to net cash (used in) provided by operating activities

Basis of preparation