Company number: 2958336 Charity Number: 1040407 ## Yorkshire MESMAC Group report and financial statements For the year ended 31 March 2024 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Reference and administrative information for the year ended 31 March 2024 ## **Company number** 2958336 **Charity number** 1040407 **Registered office and operational address** 22/23 Blayds Yard Leeds LS1 4AD **Board of Trustees** Trustees, who are also directors under company law, who served during the year and up to the date of this report were as follows: Stephen Bridge Chair Kenneth Leigh Chair HR Committee Susan Pascoe Treasurer & Chair Finance & Business Development Committee Penny Brown Vice Chair Kirsten Foster Chair Governance Committee Colin Lea Eric Smith resigned November 2023 Adam Best Chris Kelly Adam Paver-Merrison Richard Holder Mike Eakins **Company secretary** Samantha Worrell **Key management** Tom Doyle Chief Executive **personnel** Ellen Hill Operations Manager - HR **Auditors** Slade & Cooper Limited Beehive Mill, Jersey St., Ancoats, Manchester, M4 6JG **Bankers** Virgin Money 94 – 96 Briggate, Leeds, LS1 6NP 1 ## Yorkshire MESMAC Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 The trustees present their report and the audited financial statements for the year ended 31[st] March 2024. Included within the trustees’ report is the directors’ report as required by company law. Reference and administrative information set out on page 1 forms part of this report. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, the memorandum and articles of association and the Statement of Recommended Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities: SORP applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS 102. ## **Charitable Objectives** Yorkshire MESMAC’s charitable objectives are; To preserve and protect health, physical and mental and in particular, good sexual health for the benefit of the community in general with an emphasis on those communities that shoulder the highest burden of poor health, including but not limited to; men who have sex with men, LGBT+ young people and adults, women, people of colour and other people marginalised because of their race, ethnicity or nationality, people using drugs and sex workers. To support and develop strong communities which create the environment for better health outcomes and the reduction of health inequalities. These charitable objectives describe the work we are undertaking and encompass our vision for the charity in the near future. ## **Activities** Our work is split into three broad workstreams; - Sexual Health - Mental health - Community Development. These workstreams are not silos rather they are a matrix that often overlap, inform and complement one another. ## **SEXUAL HEALTH** Key developments We were successful in securing the whole population sexual health contract in Hull. This contract will launch April 1[st] 2024. We have been awarded a grant from Gilead to co-design Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) resources for women, particularly women from marginalised communities. Our first information leaflet has been launched and a video is in the final stages of production. Leeds has become a ‘Fast-Track City’. Fast-Track Cities is an international initiative to end new cases of HIV by 2030. Over 200 cities across the world are part of this movement to get to zero new cases of HIV, zero preventable deaths, zero stigma and discrimination and a better quality of life for people living with HIV. In Leeds Viral Hepatitis (Hep B and Hep C) and Tuberculosis have been added to the initiative, because these conditions can be co-targeted with HIV. Our CEO is the vice Chair of the Leadership group and leads on the Testing and prevention group. 2 Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 ## **HIV and STI testing** Our testing service offers HIV testing and Chlamydia and Gonorrhoea screening in all areas except Bradford. Service users could also access Syphilis testing in Hull, Rotherham, Bradford, Our bespoke online booking system www.bookatest.com has been a useful means of enabling people to access testing more effectively. A welcome, result, of Book-A-Test has been a significant reduction in did-not-attends. In 2023-2024 we carried out almost **10,000** sexual health screening interventions. A significant increase on the previous year. |2,693|HIV tests| |---|---| |295|Pregnancy tests| |2,695|Chlamydia screens| |2,695|Gonorrhoea screens| |1,564|Syphilis tests| |9,942|Total| Some highlights from our Sexual Health services in our different locations for the year are described below. ## **Leeds:** The Leeds HIV Prevention & Sexual Health Improvement Service continued to thrive in 2023-24 delivering over 3000 sexual health tests one third of which were HIV point of care tests. The team works with a wide range of communities across the city with a particular focus on Most at Risk Populations (MARPs). The team have delivered a busy programme of outreach in 2023/24 with community groups/venues ranging from community centres, Leeds Refugee Football tournament, LGBT+ bars, Swingers venues, Northern men’s festival, Ukrainian ESOL class, Churches, Universities & Colleges, Forward Leeds Drugs & Alcohol service, Kirkgate Market, Women’s Asylum seeker groups, student accommodation, Leeds Carnival, Leeds LGBT+Pride & many more. We worked with Joanna sex worker project offering support around sexual health and promoting discussions around PrEP. To keep skills up-to-date frontline staff attended contraception training leading to an increase confidence navigating questions covering a wide range of contraception options and support with contraception advice. Staff delivered monthly sessions with Leeds University, Leeds Beckett University and worked with Leeds Trinity University & International Study Centre. Our experience with university sessions is that they are most successful when the universities & university unions support the outreach testing by sharing our posts on socials or signposting students directly from student support etc. The team have been encouraging this alliance by tagging the organisations and contacting them about working collaboratively. 3 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 ## **MSM & LGBT+** Yorkshire MESMAC (YM) Leeds continue to offer support for LGBT+ people’s sexual health and wellbeing. Gay men & Trans people in particular continue to be well represented in the service users YM Leeds see for testing. Gay Men accounting for 35% of all HIV POCTs & Trans people 9% at year end. The team continued to work with local MSM Sauna STEAM, offering testing & outreach on a monthly basis. YM Leeds continues to grow its presence at the local LGBT+ bars – offering testing at Queens Court & Viaduct every month. We have worked with the drugs & alcohol service Forward Leeds who support this outreach with harm reduction workers and refer to their specialist Chemsex worker. We ran _Queer Clinic_ at Wharf Chambers on a monthly basis. This drop-in sees high rates of gender nonconforming high-risk individuals accessing testing and seeking information/advice from our service. This service is delivered in collaboration with NHS Gender Outreach Workers. The team have worked with Woodhouse Community Centre running asylum seeker support sessions quarterly in collaboration with Micro Rainbow. These sessions are about a range of health topics such as: ‘accessing local health services’, ‘what is sexual health’ and ‘using technology to book an appointment’. The team are working with HMP Wealstun to support MSM prisoners with the goal of testing/information sessions to high risk individuals. ## **Ethnic Minority Groups:** HIV prevention activities/initiatives with ethnic minority groups and communities & women in Leeds demonstrate a proactive approach to addressing sexual and reproductive health needs in these demographics. Through emphasis on awareness creation and enhancing access to testing and PrEP through education, outreach, and partnerships, these initiatives are aimed at ensuring long-term impact and empowerment. At year end the number of Black African people accessing a HIV POCT was 132 (12% of all HIV POCTs performed at YM Leeds in 2023/24). The number of people from wider ethnic minority communities accessing testing made up 34% of the HIV POCTs delivered in Leeds. YM Leeds continued to support asylum seekers in Leeds hosted in hotels throughout 2023-24,. YM also continues to have a presence at PAFRAS which has moved to fortnightly, who support asylum seekers in Leeds. The team were able to work with PAFRAS to establish instant HIV testing on site this year with privacy screens to ensure confidentiality. Yorkshire MESMAC were proud to be supporting the attendees of Leeds West Indian Carnival 2023 – the previous year we were able to give out safer sex packs, this year we had a stall which allowed us to enrich our offer and we want to do more. We are in contact with Bevan healthcare about collaborating next year to use their outreach clinical van to offer sexual health testing at Carnival. Yorkshire MESMAC had a large presence and made some key community contacts by attending this cultural festival. For example – a worker met the leader of a Nigerian community group in Leeds which YM went on to work with at a Nigerian Celebrating event, staff also met with the Muslim Women’s Council developing a closer working relationship with this group. We have offered testing this year again at RETAS who support asylum seekers in Leeds & hope to develop this relationship further in 2024/25. 4 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 Staff have been relationship building with Women’s Health Matters (WHM) Rainbow Hearts, a group for asylum seeking women in Leeds. Staff delivered a health promotion workshop about MESMAC & Basic information about STIs & HIV. We also delivered a talk to the staff allowing for more effective referral and signposting, 14 staff membered attended, representing projects and groups from WHM. Our Connection, with Women Health Matters Leeds, resulted in 3 sessions summarised below: - Held a workshop session with the staff to highlight the shared objectives and the potential for collaboration with the various projects run by WHM. - Workshop session with Rosebuds women (mums whose children live elsewhere) on basic HIV and STI awareness - Session with Rainbow Hearts on basic HIV/STI awareness The CDWs also worked with Leeds Refugee Forum Wellbeing Group for asylum seekers & refugee women in collaboration with Leeds sexual health outreach team to deliver a women’s health and contraception workshop. 6 women were tested, 5 received information and support on contraception. To engage with a wider community of refugees and asylum seekers, a new link was made with a Meeting Point Leeds. There will be a drop-in session with the larger group once every quarter, and a women's group meeting once every month beginning in Q4 2023/24. A connection was established with the Nigerian community in Leeds which led to our featuring at their Independence Day event. The CDWs attended the Celebration event in Q3 with a stall at the weekend event –Over 150 people attended the event at the White Rose banqueting suit. The CDWs continue to deliver testing and outreach to the diverse crowds of Leeds market once a month. To boost attendance to this session we have arranged with the market to advertise our sessions during the last week of the month in the lead up to the market testing session. The CDWs have also offered testing and outreach at the Compton Centre Harehills to reach the local population around the centre. The team developed resources for PrEP for women in the form of a leaflets, animated video & recording in collaboration with a group of Black African Women in Leeds. These resources can be used to help tackle the underrepresentation of women on PrEP in Yorkshire & the wider UK. The leaflet seeks to support women who are interested in PrEP to make informed choices about their sexual health, raising awareness that PrEP can work for everyone as long as it is taken as prescribed. ## Case Study 1 _**Case Study: Peer Influence and Peer Education in HIV Prevention Among Black African and Migrant Communities**_ ## _**International Study Centre Leeds**_ _Introduction:_ _In the context of HIV prevention, cultural and religious backgrounds often play a significant role in shaping how people feel and behave towards HIV testing and other sexual health interventions. This case study explores the impact of peer influence and peer education in HIV prevention within African and other migrant communities, particularly among international students in the UK._ ## _Setting and Participants:_ _The study was conducted during an HIV testing session targeted at international students at Leeds International Study Centre. The participants consisted of students from diverse cultural and religious_ 5 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 _backgrounds, reflecting the complexities inherent in addressing HIV prevention within migrant communities._ ## _Observations and Challenges:_ _During the testing session, students gathered in clusters with their friends in the student lounge where the testing stall was set up. However, due to cultural and religious influences, many students hesitated to opt for the HIV test, fearing potential stigmatisation associated with the infection._ _An interesting dynamic emerged during the session: when one student declined the offer to test, their peers within the same cluster followed suit. This collective hesitancy created a quiet atmosphere, hindering the effectiveness of the testing session and highlighting the challenges of addressing HIV prevention within culturally diverse communities._ _Impact of Peer Influence and Peer Education:_ _Despite initial setbacks, an opportunity arose when an individual from one of the clusters stepped out from the group and engaged in a conversation about HIV testing. This one-on-one interaction allowed the student to ask questions freely and consider the benefits of testing without the influence of peers._ _Upon deciding to undergo testing, the individual returned to their friends and openly discussed their decision, emphasizing the importance of testing and dispelling misconceptions surrounding HIV. Remarkably, all five friends expressed interest in testing after witnessing their peer's positive attitude towards it._ ## _Conclusion:_ _This case study emphasises the significant role of peer influence and peer education in HIV prevention within African and other migrant communities. It highlights how individual decisions to engage in testing can catalyse positive behavioural changes among peers, ultimately contributing to the success of HIV prevention efforts._ _By leveraging peer networks and fostering open dialogue about sexual health, interventions can effectively address cultural and religious barriers, empower individuals to make informed decisions, and ultimately mitigate the spread of HIV within vulnerable communities._ ## **Rotherham** Staff continued to work with Rotherham Sexual Health to deliver sexual health services to the community. For a large majority of this year the team have been working with reduced staff due to long term sickness, however have still managed to hit and exceed most KPI. Staff undertook a total of 2811 one to one interventions, delivered 795 chlamydia and gonorrhoea tests, 756 HIV and Syphilis point of care tests and 150 pregnancy tests. They also distributed over 26,000 condoms. Our social media presence continued to grow with our most viewed Tiktok, “Genital Herpes Misconceptions” reaching 248.7 thousand views. ## **Training delivered:** We deliver training to local professionals including **;** - LGBTQ+ Awareness - PrEP Training - STI Awareness - Healthy relationship 6 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 **Volunteer Inductions:** In this year we inducted 6 new volunteers into the service. **Events/campaigns:** We attended key events throughout the year including; - Rotherham Skate and Art festival - Flux WOW Rotherham LGBTQ+ event - Sexual health week - Rotherham Show - BBC Newsbeat article about condom use. The article is posted online here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-66917978 - World Contraception day online campaign - Freshers - Hate Crime Awareness Week - Rainbow Laces event at Rotherham United - Eastwood Early Help Family Event - PrEP rally event for PrEP week - World AIDS day - National HIV Testing week In addition, we have display board campaign in 8 locations across the district. ## **Case study** Rotherham worker supported a vulnerable young girl who was sexually active but not using contraception. During a 1-1 session the Rotherham worker was able to discuss contraception available and the importance of regularly STI testing. An STI screen was completed and the worker booked an appointment and attend this with her at Rotherham Hospital’s Integrated Sexual Health Service (ISHS). She reported that she would not have done this herself and was glad she had someone to support her through the process. ## **Young people 16-25** Staff continued to undertake regular target session with young people in clubs and learning environments including; - - Thomas Rotherham College - Rotherham College - The LGBTQ+ RMBC - Brampton Young Girls Club - Wales high - AMRC - Dearne Valley - Swinton Lock - Maltby 6[th] Form Rotherham workers have been able to work closely with early help works and young services users during regular monthly drop ins at The Place family and children's centre where 1-1’s can take place. This has also been an excellent way to engage young people that would not normally have access to services. 7 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report for the year ended 31 March 2024 ## **Women, CSW and vulnerable adults** We provided a confidential service at a Sex Workers private address for testing, bulk condoms, lube, period products and beppy sponges. We continued online outreach and word of mouth improved our numbers. We had regular contact and testing with around 30 sex workers. Two sex workers become volunteers for the service and we began to provide condoms for a local acting dungeon and testing and condoms at a local brothel. Regular drop-ins were run in; - Maltby Leisure centre - Lighthouse for Women - Probation - Maltby Stepping Stones - Brookfield Family hub We assisted numerous service users for sexual health appointments who otherwise might not have attended. We assisted a service user from Lighthouse for women to the hospital for an implant fitting, a second women from the Lighthouse for contraception, a GP visit and coil removal and replacement for a vulnerable young person, and a service user with limited speaking English from the Unity centre for an implant and cervical screen. ## **1-1’s** We provided a 1-1 service for sexual health and wellbeing through referrals from other services due to our great multi agency relationships. This included referrals from; - Evolve team (Social worker/exploitation team) to support at young women who had very little knowledge around sexual health and healthy relationships. This service user came into MESMAC for a 1-1 session and tests. - Dearne valley college – we went to the college to support - 1-1 via zoom to support a trans male young person with their Early Help team - We are with you – numerous referrals including sex workers - Looked After Childrens nurse – numerous young people referrals for joint visits - Rush house – provides a range of accommodation and support services including advice, independent living skills and training to young people aged 16-25. numerous referrals up at the service - Midwives - numerous young people referrals for joint visits ## **Boards** This year we increased the number of strategic boards we sit on including the Council’s Sexual Health Strategy Board Pause operational board the Violence Against Women and Girls Independent Advisory Group and South Yorkshire Sex Worker Strategy Group. ## **Mystery Shoppers** We conducted a mystery shopper event for Rotherham hospital sexual health involving our volunteers, finding have been feedback to the service and changes have been made as a result. 8 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 ## **Hull** For the past year Yorkshire MESMAC’s Hull services have met or exceeded all its KPIs. In total, MESMAC saw 37,522 service users over the 2023-24 period. This was made up of 31,957 first-time service users and 5,565 repeat users. The number of repeat service users has increased from 5,372 in 2022. A total of 114,858 condoms were distributed, almost double the target. This includes 31,513 condoms distributed to Commercial Sex Workers with another 2,416 distributed to CSW venues as part of static intervention, totalling 30% of condoms distributed. 31,928 (28%) condoms were sent to service users by mail. 4,200 condoms were left in MSM venues to be distributed to service users as needed and 1,900 were distributed to youth venues. 620 HIV/Syphilis tests were performed over the past year, a small increase on last year’s 606, in spite of the challenge of increased cost. 47 (8%) of these service users were aged 18 or younger. Over the year, 829 CT/GC tests were performed, a 14% increase compared to last year. Of these service users, 132 were People of Colour, 180 were MSM and 200 were CSWs. By age, they were split by 140 aged 18 or younger, 152 were 19-24 and 537 were aged 25 or older. ## **BAME** Throughout 2023/24 Yorkshire MESMAC has continued to support BAME community’s in Hull. This is done in a partnership attending sessions at Open Doors and Welcome House, which are hubs for Refugees and people seeking asylum. We offer free condoms and advice and links in to other services. Working with the BAME community and local partners, Yorkshire MESMAC offers drop-in’s sessions at the Royal Hotel. This is the Hotel being used in Hull to house asylum seekers. ## **Young People** The Hull project continues to provide drop-in services in all sixth form and further education setting in Hull. Our RSE support and delivery is now in every school in the area and we are developing and training Young People to become Sexual Health Champions for their schools and youth clubs. In addition, we now have regular drop-ins at 14-16 College, Kenworthy House, Strawberry Fields, Terry Street and numerous Youth Projects, including YDS, voluntary sector and The Warren. The joint contraception Clinic we host with support from local clinical service is going from strength to strength and is consistently fully booked. This service is used to specifically engage more vulnerable young people who would not attend clinical services without support. The outreach nurses provide the clinical interventions while our worker is on hand to do the screening and have more wholistic conversations with the young people. ‘This year we put on a Health Day for young people who attend Kenworthy House, young people attend appointments here for drugs and alcohol support, for homelessness or to see their social worker or the leaving care team. The aim of the event was to raise awareness of HIV and testing with young people – after a young person was recently diagnosed. We did myth busting quizzes and activities, lots of discussion, testing and free condoms. We also had an Outreach Nurse there to offer contraception and treatment. The day was a success, and we now plan to do this same event every three months.’ ‘I learnt loads about HIV, I didn’t know a lot to be fair – I was surprised when I was told about how it can’t be passed on if you take medications.’ ‘I liked the activities, and (learnt) that I can come to Kenworthy to see Mesmac on Wednesday’s’ 9 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 ## **MSM** MSM in Hull continue to be supported through scene outreach, we are currently making contacts with new bars that have opened in the city and providing them with information and condoms. Online outreach, joint delivery of LGBTQ+ Clinic at Conifer, PSE outreach and attendance at local events. ‘I have been supporting a man who recently move back to the area around his Chems use. He was living in London but moved back to his parents after losing his job and overdosing on Chems. We have been offering 1-1 interventions on how to best manage his Chems use and the triggers he may have to use in the future. The service user is was also coming to terms with his bisexuality and this was a factor in his use. Since I started supporting him, he has engaged with drug services and is 2 months clean of any drug use. He has applied and been accepted onto a Masters course in Manchester and will be moving there at the end of September. We have linked him up with LGBT Foundation, who offer Chems support in Manchester and will also be offering support as needed going forward. I also did some 1-1 support with his parents to help them better understand his Chems use and his sexuality at the request of the service user. Quote from Chemsex users mother. “I wanted to thank you for the help you have given Daniel over the last 3 months and your ongoing support. Thank you also for helping me deal with the issues which we had to face as a family. We were in a situation where we had no idea where, or who, to turn to. You and your organisation helped enormously and as a mother, I was incredibly grateful that you and your team could get us through, what was for all sorts of reasons, a very difficult time. Having you as a support for Daniel has helped him start to put his life into perspective and as parents we hope he can build on this to realise drugs do not need to be a part of his life. Thank you again and very best wishes for the continued success of the work of your organisation in Hull.” ## **CSW** The Hull project maintaining regular, weekly contact and good relationships with the massage parlours in Hull. During this year we have seen a rise in visiting independent sex workers. Some sex workers are leaving parlors and working for themselves. As well as offering testing during these visits we have also included a liaison from the Police who have been working with them around the safety issues of working alone. Also, since registering with ‘punter’ sites such as AdultWork and VivaStreet, we have engaged with sex workers who have had no previous contact with our service. The obvious advantage for them is the equipment and testing we provide but the women have also benefited from the information and support we offer. ‘I have been focusing on building relationships with sex workers with more complex needs. This includes the ones selling sex on the streets and those spending time in the city’s hostels. We regularly do night time outreach in the Hessle road area of the city with the women selling sex on the street. I have found it’s a really good way to build relationships with the women who are often reluctant to access health services. I do this outreach in partnership with the Lighthouse project in Hull, as well as other organisations such as Renew, Hull homeless and outreach nurses. This has continued to build, with streetworkers now accessing sexual health screening and support at our office and at the drop-in 10 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 we hold at Lighthouse premises. The strong relationships I have built with sex workers has been invaluable. One example of this is a recent incident in one of the parlours, they had a punter disclose to one of the women that he was sexually abusing a child he was related to. They wanted to report the incident but didn’t feel confident due to the work they did, they did not feel they would be believed so asked if I would contact the Police on their behalf. Once the incident was reported, I supported the woman involved to give a statement to the Police. This along with CCTV that was provided by the Parlour meant the individual was subsequently identified and arrested.’ ## **Bradford** This year the Bradford team managed to deliver all essential prevention services to the targeted most atrisk populations; MSM groups, African communities & commercial sex workers. Outreach and POCT was done at Pride events (Bradford, Keighley, Silsden & Ilkley), Refugee Week, refugee community groups, colleges, University and faith communities. We also continued our face to face outreach activities through online platforms targeting MSM, African communities and commercial sex workers. During National HIV Testing Week, our staff targeted African barbers with the aim of using them as distribution centers for HIV self-testing kits as part of the national HIV Prevention England campaign. We also conducted outreach activities at the Broadway Centre jointly with other sexual & public health service providers: Locala, Hale and Step2. Our staff continued participation in BIASAN women's group sessions enabled us to disseminate sexual and reproductive health information to migrant women. ## **Workshops at peer support groups** Structured workshops were delivered to people living with HIV (PLWH) & young LGBTQ+ peer support groups (BLAGY) covering topics around mental health, health and wellbeing strategies and safer sex practices. Fortnight peer support group sessions were conducted with People living with HIV, with sessions focused on workshop topics like; holistic wellness, nutrition, positive living, and goal setting. In BLAGY there was a positive rise in young people requesting safer sex and sexual health related sessions. Our workshops covered kink, navigating sex safely (including accessing sexual health), body confidence, negotiating sex and consent in queer relationships. We have discussed mental health regularly, with particular focuses on gender euphoria, and sharing feelings and tips on when the young people most feel affirmed in who they are. For many young people, they cited BLAGY as the space where they feel most affirmed and safe in their true gender. BLAGY sessions continued to run every Wednesday evenings in person and online alternatively. We delivered a total of **57 peer support** sessions during this period. ## **Outreach** Our targeted outreach activities were aimed at raising awareness (prevention), and reducing stigma and discrimination to the communities we support. We did outreach to key events like Prides, WAD, National HIV Testing Week, Refugee Week & Freshers. We also continued our outreach to faith organisation and through online platforms. We reached out to a total of **3427** people during these sessions, and **3742** through digital platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Grindr. ## **Training to professionals** This year our basic HIV & LGBTQ+ awareness trainings targeted nursing homes, barbers, and health, educational and social workers. In these trainings, all participants indicated an increase in knowledge in meeting the needs of people living HIV and LGBTQ+ communities. A total of **328** professionals who included health practitioners, social workers and those working education received training on these topics in Bradford. 11 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report for the year ended 31 March 2024 ## **Clinic in a box and sexual health hub** Monthly Clinic in a box session by the Locala nurses progressed steadily, with an average of 4 people seen in each session. In the last quarter, a new monthly LGBTQ+ one-stop hub was established to cater for various support needs of the members of this group in Bradford. This new group has brought together our LGBTQ+ team, GOW, Locala & Step 2, and its gaining momentum with numbers of people increasing in each session. In these sessions **55** people were attended to at our premises and **12** referrals made to sexual health services. ## **New developments** Bradford MESMAC started doing monthly drop-ins (Your Space) at Bevan House Healthcare Trust. Multiagencies are given space to address the needs of the migrant populations, and this has created a great opportunity for those in need of health, sexuality and gender support. In these sessions, we have met new people who needed support and have since been referred to relevant services. Our staff also started doing regular outreach to domestic violence groups to give service users information about safer sex practices. As to cater for the needs of young trans people, we had specific workshops delivered by the gender outreach worker (GOW) to give much needed information and advice and those over 18 have also attended the LGBT+ Hub to get advice and information too. This year we also had Mind Makers for ages 17-30 which is an art, hobby and creativity group which has had consistent attendance and service users have commented on how much they enjoy the group. Our group Neuro-Queer has also been very well attended and has had much interest both internally and from other organisations and services, overall it has been helpful for the service users to reduce health inequalities faced by Neurodivergent LGBTQ+ populations and to educate and advise this community on how best to advocate for their own needs as neurodivergent people but also to understand they are not alone in their situations. This year NeuroQueer focussed on positives and negatives of neurodiversity, managing burnout, navigating sensory triggers, self-advocacy and help with referrals for Autism and ADHD. Both Mind Makers and Neuro-Queer run twice per month and have consistent user engagement. A member of our team attended a STIF training with the view of expanding our testing service to deliver other STIs testing & screening. ## **COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT** Our community development projects aimed to increase our communities’ collective capacity to deliver services which improve health and wellbeing. ## **Older LGBTQ+ people** Sage supports older LGBTQ+ people in Leeds and Older and Bolder supports LGBTQ+ older folk in Bradford who are experiencing social isolation and loneliness through the provision of a drop-in service and other events, provision of volunteer support and developing opportunities to volunteer, while building the skills of the professionals who work with them. Although funding for The Sage project came to an end in 2021, The Board of Trustees, decided that at the height of a pandemic it was not acceptable to leave some of our most vulnerable service users isolated therefore they agreed to invest charitable funds to keep the group and service running. Sage is now a self-sustaining group that continues to meet in our Leeds office. Older and Bolder are now run by Bradford Equity Partnership. 12 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 ## **GOW - Gender Outreach Workers** Over the last year the team have implemented new aspects of the role. This includes direct outreach to people on the main GIS waiting list. From this we are getting positive feedback that it’s helpful. Those who can’t be reached by phone are being sent a letter inviting them to contact us which includes details of what GOWs can offer and groups the team run. Attendances at groups is increasing at a sustainable rate and is partially from the waiting list calls, but also because the numbers of people GOWs are having contact with is increasing and social media is being utilised in a more productive way. Outreach to statutory, community and 3[rd] sector organisations is ongoing, making people aware of the GOW service and what is on offer. This appears to be showing positive results through increased numbers of professionals contacting the GOW phoneline seeking support for their service users. ## **Healthy Communities Together:** Healthy Communities Together, (HCT) aims to encourage a cultural shift in how we tackle health inequality in Leeds. At its core, HCT is a collaboration between organisations dedicated to serving marginalised communities and addressing health inequalities. Specifically, it brings together the Leeds Asylum Seeker Support Network, Leeds GATE representing Gypsies and Travellers, BASIS Yorkshire supporting Sex Workers, and Yorkshire MESMAC advocating for Trans+ people. The partnership involves Leeds City Council Public Health and Leeds Health and Care Partnership. The project is funded by The National Lottery and is supported by The Kings Fund, who provide hands on consultation and policy advice. HCT Leeds was chosen out of 260 applications nationwide for its innovative approach and is the sole project of its kind among the five final funding recipients running across the country. Now well into phase 2 of the work. One of the defining aspects of HCT is its collaborative and positive exploration of partnership working. It bridges the gap between the voluntary sector and statutory organisations, seeking new and effective ways to benefit marginalised communities. By pooling their collective wealth of experience and knowledge, senior leaders from Leeds City Council Public Health, Leeds Health and Care Partnership, and the third sector demonstrate their commitment to moving beyond traditional divisions and silos and embracing a more inclusive narrative. Through its commitment to co-production methods and trauma-informed practices, HCT confronts the prevailing "us and them" narrative and paves the way for collaboration that transcends established boundaries. By disrupting patterns that perpetuate inequalities, HCT explores new possibilities for collaboration, sets an example for future projects and seeks to support other groups who may wish to work in this collaborative way; embracing complexities. What makes HCT valuable is our recognition of the vital contributions and experiences of marginalised communities. Rather than viewing them as passive recipients of support, HCT emphasises their agency and actively seeks their input. By championing the voices of these communities, HCT offers a powerful opportunity to reshape policies and systems based on their lived realities. It challenges us to revaluate the traditional power dynamics and place those who have been marginalised at the centre of decisionmaking processes. HCT's value extends far beyond monetary considerations. It fosters social value by embedding an ethos of social change in a system that often falls short. By identifying alternative access routes and improving early presentation in services, HCT enhances the overall well-being of marginalised individuals. The collaboration among the four VCS organisations, three of whom are previous GSK award winners, provides an exceptional reach into communities facing the most challenging health outcomes. Through HCT, these organisations have a direct line of communication with leaders, ensuring that the ideas and needs of these communities reach the right people. This is aided by the strength of 13 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 the partnership, who have active knowledge of current structures and connections to senior leaders, who can be held accountable for the changes that need to be made. HCT seeks to close the feedback loop, to make sure that the communities that we work with feel heard but also are reported back to on the progress that the system itself has made, just like any other professional working in this way. ## **MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING** In the final quarter of the 22/23 financial year, we employed a designated coordinator for mental health and wellbeing. The 23/24 financial year has seen the Coordinator in post supporting the delivery of our mental health services as well as driving the development of new mental health projects. This financial year has also seen our mental health team develop into a cohesive entity with the Coordinator, Peer Support Worker and Community Development worker support one another with their respective projects as well as collaborate on shared work such as provision of Mental Health resources for Pride. ## **Counselling:** Counselling continues to be delivered remotely via Zoom or telephone; The majority of service users and counsellors alike continue to prefer remote counselling options. In 23/24 72 people accessed our counselling service with each service user offered between 6 and 8 sessions. Our counselling in 23/24 was delivered alongside HIV prevention work in Bradford and Leeds, to support people living with HIV in Bradford and as part of suicide prevention programmes focusing on reducing suicide risk and poor mental health in LGBT+ populations in Leeds and Bradford. ## **Wellbeing Support Sessions (Bradford)** Co-counselling Wellbeing Support Sessions are offered on-line through Zoom. Sessions are offered weekly for 1.5 hours. There is a strong demonstration of individual commitment to the group and peers through regular group attendance. Referrals to the group continued throughout the period. Reporting from the group has shown positive outcomes as service users have reported high satisfaction with the support they have found in the community around these groups. Total Sessions delivered: 52 Total Attendances: 193 Average attendance per session: 4 Newcomers: 3 ## **Online Therapeutic workshops (Bradford):** Therapeutic workshops this period included new and returning attendees. These sessions are open to the LGBTQ+ community and tailored around the emerging needs and requests from regular group members as to what they would find helpful to address. Workshop themes include: peer mentoring skills, ‘common’ issues experienced by LGBTQ+ people, destructive behaviours, eating disorders, gender identity, racism and LGBTQ+ issues, drugs and alcohol, asylum status impact on mental health. As attendees have become increasingly engaged in the service, they have begun to inform the topics of these workshops exploring topics that are personally pertinent to their experience. Total workshops delivered 12 Total Attendances: 49 Average attendance per session: 4 14 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report for the year ended 31 March 2024 ## **Keep Your Head** From November 2023, we began delivery of the new mental health project Keep Your Head, a program of work centered around supporting people living with HIV to stay engaged with HIV support services, thus far this has included the development of sessions to be delivered in partnership with our Bradford based peer support group and the creation of a survey to build information on what challenges there are that may cause people to become lost to care. As part of the development for this work our coordinator attended the HIV Stigma reduction symposium in Birmingham attending a range of discussions around how stigma affects people living with HIV and speaking on the closing panel about how best to combat this. This work continues into the 24/25 financial year with the goal to have a resource of the learning from this project to be released in time for World Aids Day 2024. ## **Peer support work** Yorkshire MESMAC are part of a carefully selected consortium of providers delivering towards the community mental health transformation programme in Leeds. These 4 voluntary sector organisations bring reach and specialisms to support the statutory sector work with those experiencing serious mental health. MESMAC employ a Peer support worker who provides one to one support to people referred into the program from primary care. In the past financial year delivery has begun on this project with the Peer Support worker providing 1 to 1 appointments throughout the Leeds area, furthermore Yorkshire MESMAC has proven a valuable part of the partnership sitting on service development meetings and providing our expertise around referrals and how best to reach communities who experience barriers to accessing mental health services. ## **Suicide prevention peer support in Leeds** In 23/24 we concluded our project with LCF to address suicide in LGBT+ communities. The project provided counselling to many LGBT folk in Leeds delivered by counsellors who were either LGBT+ themselves or had received training from us on how to support people from LGBT+ communities. Alongside the counselling our peer support group led by LGBT+ community members concluded however the attendees have since formed a network of engaged service users who have engaged with providing feedback and development of YM mental health services. With this project's conclusion, the mental health team is seeking further funding through Awards for All to continue providing counselling in Leeds, as this has proven an extremely valued service in local communities. ## **Bradford mental health services for LGBT+ people** Alongside our funding, which supports LGBT+ folk to access therapy (provided by our counselling services or through IAPT), we continue to deliver direct community development work for LGBT+ folk in Bradford and Craven NHS districts. In 23/24 our Community Development Worker for Mental Health and Young People developed and delivered a range of groups which continue into the current financial year. These groups work includes group work with LGBT+ young people, creative mindfulness groups for wider age ranges and a group for neurodivergent LGBT+ youth, these groups have a significant number of regular attendees. The CDW has also engaged in training and outreach for LGBT+ mental health throughout the Bradford area including an appearance discussing the group work they provide on local radio. 15 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 ## **FINANCIAL REVIEW** Income in 2023-24 was £1,449,784 which was below previous year’s income caused by a reduction in the value of contracts for Bradford. Our unrestricted net income increased to a surplus of £53,781, there was a deficit on restricted funds of £17,270 giving a net income for the year of £36,511. Unrealised gains on investments during the year were £181,359. Cash used in operating activities was £10,155. Our income from other trading activities decreased slightly to £54,776 as a result of changes in rental income in Bradford. We have continued to manage some small grants for emerging community groups. The income from our Trading Company allows trading income generated to be entirely ring fenced from grant funding. ## **Reserves** The Board of Trustees (BOT) regularly reviews the charity’s reserves requirement. Based on this our policy is to aim to maintain at minimum three months of budgeted expenditure as net current assets in reserves with the aim of reaching 6 months and to include monies to cover 100% outstanding commitments on our leasehold properties, calculating a minimum commitment on all leases of 5 years and including the cost of any required dilapidations and reparation works to the buildings. The overall target this year using our budgeted expenditure is £1,078,890 the present level of net current assets and fixed asset investments available to the charity is £2,353,875 which means we have exceeded our overall target this year. The Trustees aim to use funds from these cash balances to support the organisation’s development in particular our Mental Health and Wellbeing offer and supporting our properties. In the current economic climate, we feel it is essential that we maintain a strong reserve position and ensure the most appropriate use of funds. Our focus is on ensuring that investment in long term operational and financial sustainability has the highest impact on the needs of our service users. ## **Review of Reserves** |The charity had total reserves at the end of the reporting period of|£ 2,522,263| |---|---| |Amount restricted to specific use by funders was|£ 150,493| |Leaving unrestricted amounts designated of|£ 2,371,770| |With unrestricted funds are amounts designated of|| |Property & Leasehold Improvements|£ 168,388| |Mental Health & wellbeing Services|£ 36,131| |Rotherham Contract|£ 4,088| |Leeds Prevention Contract|£ 61,933| |Total|£ 270,540| |The general fund remaining after designations is|£ 2,101,230| 16 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 ## **Going Concern** As Trustees we consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern over the next reporting cycle. We have formed this view based on the following factors: - - Our current contract and financial performance plus cash and investments position together with our prudent reserves policy - We have multiple funding streams and, a well-developed management and governance structure, which has an inbuilt flexibility to adapt to mitigate potential loss of contracts which is further mitigated as employees working on such contracts would be covered by TUPE to transfer to a new service provider - We actively manage business risks. We adopt a planning process, including budget projections which takes into consideration the current economic climate and its potential impact on the various sources of income and planned expenditure. - Given the timeframes inherent in the main areas of our funding the charity would have time to plan and reconfigure the organisational structure in line with any radical change in income and potential geographical reach. ## **Remuneration policy for key management personnel** The overall goal of Yorkshire MESMAC’s pay policy is always to offer fair pay to attract and keep appropriately qualified staff to lead, manage, support and/or deliver the charity’s aims. Trustees are ultimately responsible for setting remuneration levels for the charity’s senior staff. In deciding levels of pay and rewards Trustees consider: - the purposes, aims and values of the charity and its beneficiaries needs - how this impacts on overall pay policy for all employees, and for the senior staff in particular, including whether a ‘discount’ compared with pay for similar roles in other sectors is appropriate - the types of skills, experiences and competencies that the charity needs from its senior staff, the specific scope of these roles and the link to pay - the charity’s current business plan and how the implementation of this plan may affect the number of senior staff the charity needs to employ or recruit and the nature of these roles - the charity’s ability to pay – this includes the cost to the charity of raising pay, and whether it is sustainable, and how appropriate the level of pay, and any pay increase, is in the context of the charity, as measured against the needs of its charitable purposes and beneficiaries - the likely impact on, and views of, beneficiaries, donors, funders, volunteers and potential volunteers, where appropriate Yorkshire MESMAC senior management team (currently Operations Managers, and CEO) are linked to the appropriate point on the NJC pay scale, decided by the criteria above. Trustees review of senior pay at regular intervals to ensure we offer fair pay to attract and retain skilled staff. 17 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report for the year ended 31 March 2024 ## **Principal sources of funding** Though principal sources of funding continue to be from government grants for example HIV prevention in, Hull and Leeds, are provided through local authorities, there is a growing move towards being subcontract via a ‘head’ contract held by a clinical partner. This is the model in Rotherham where we are sub-contracted by Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust and is the new model for Bradford going forward were we will be subcontracted by Locala. The psychological therapies part of our mental health work in Bradford is commissioned by Bradford District Care Trust. Bradford Districts Clinical Commissioning Group supported online outreach and resources developed by LGBTQ+ young people to improve mental health and wellbeing. Bradford local authority funds the Older People’s Day Opportunities Project and working to prevent suicide in LGBTQI+ communities. While Hull City Council funded the development of a BAME Health Network. Comic Relief funded the Men’s Total Health Project which this year saw us deliver the final product a short film, promotion the mental health benefits of sports and physical activity. ## **Investment policy** ## **Investment Objective** To hold sufficient unrestricted reserves to meet the reserves policy designed to maintain the charity through difficult financial periods and to maintain the real value of those reserves and to generate income from those reserves to supplement the costs of providing the range of services provided by Yorkshire MESMAC. To maintain sufficient liquidity in the form of bank deposits to cover any short-term liquidity requirements. To invest any additional reserves above a liquidity requirement with a total return investment objective seeking income generation with an additional aim of at least maintaining the value of those reserves over time after adjusting for RPI inflation. ## **Risk Profile** The Investments are to be managed at a medium level of risk. This means that there will be moderate risk to the invested capital but increased opportunities for longer-term growth in both capital and income. The prospects of short-term volatility are consequentially greater. The investment portfolio will be broadly balanced between equities and non-equities by the use of cash deposits and collective investments exposed to a diversified spread of equities and fixed interest investments. There may be some exposure to other asset classes within such funds. ## **Investment Restrictions** There are to be no specific investment restrictions. ## **Investment Management** The trustees have decided not to appoint a discretionary investment manager at this stage but to utilise collective investment funds to achieve diversification. It is felt that at this stage the likely overall value invested does not justify the costs of an external discretionary investment manager. 18 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 The investments are monitored and reviewed by the Finance Administration Manager, the CEO and the Finance Business Development Committee on a regular basis four times per year. ## **Investment Valuations** Investments are a form of basic financial instrument and are initially recognised at their transaction value and subsequently measured at their fair value as at the balance sheet date using the closing quoted market price. The statement of financial activities includes the net gains and losses arising on revaluation and disposals throughout the year. Our investment holdings were valued at £1,596,076 the balance sheet date. ## **Asset Collective Allocation (excluding cash deposits)** Charitable Investment Funds – 100% ## **Current Cash Assets** Current cash assets continued to be distributed across a number of unconnected banks to ensure the funds are secure and by managing these deposits carefully we have increased income modestly while managing risk. Our cash holdings at the balance sheet date were £697,361. ## **PLANS FOR FUTURE PERIODS (2024-25)** In order to meet our aims it is essential that Yorkshire MESMAC Group of Services protects current sources of funding and attracts additional and sustainable funding revenues. We know that local authorities’ Public Health Budgets are under continuing strain and will continue to be so as a result of Covid-19. Taken together with competitive tendering we will need to continue to identify and develop new ways of working and new strategic partnerships/joint ventures local, regionally and nationally. Marginalised communities that we work with shoulder a greater burden of poor mental health, than the general population, we see increasing our mental health offer as a key priority for the near future. In order to improve the sexual health offer across our area we are committed to working in partnership with clinical colleagues, to improve their offer and widen our own to Most at Risk Populations (MARPS). We know that HIV and STIs are not a static or stable epidemic; as it changes we must react in order to ensure that those at most risk and those in most need are properly served. As new technologies emerge and become financially viable we need to harness them and ensure that those who can benefit from these developments. For example, PrEP is now routinely available on the NHS. However, not everyone who would benefit from it are accessing PrEP. Therefore, we are committed to taking action that lowers institutional and knowledge barriers to access PrEP and we will redouble our efforts to ensure that women and Black African people in particular have equitable access to PrEP. We are delighted to host workers from the Leeds Gender Identity clinic; and are excited by the service’s growth in the pass year however, we know we can and must do more. Including better training for our people on Trans+ issues. We will continue to work with Trans+ groups across our footprint to increase access and capacity and appropriateness of local services. We will increase the scope and depth of the offer across our present patch. Including improving our mental health offer for Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Trans+ communities. Underpinning our growth is a commitment to using technology to communicate with and educate our target communities as well as making our services as barrier free as possible for users and potential service users. We will continue to 19 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 invest in technology and share our learning with other organisations across the sector; including what we have learned from Covid-19 in terms of blended delivery and staff work life balance. As Trustees we are confident that the Charity is an ongoing concern and we look forward to another year, marked by dedication, creativity and high-quality delivery. ## **STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT** ## **Governing Document** Yorkshire MESMAC is a company limited by guarantee, first registered on 12[th] August 1994, number 2958336 and was registered as a charity on 24[th] August 1994, number 1040407. The company was established under a Memorandum of Association. In the event of the company being wound up members are required to contribute an amount not exceeding £10. ## **Recruitment, Appointment and Induction of Trustees** The Directors of the Company are also Charity Trustees for the purposes of charity law and under the company’s Articles are known as members of the Board of Trustees (BOT). Potential Trustees are recruited via our website, through word of mouth and recommendations, the local voluntary sector volunteer units and recruitment via interested individuals and users of our service plus local relevant press. Health, finance, legal, administrative, personnel, training, strategic planning, safeguarding, local health commissioning and social care skills are represented on the Board of Trustees. The Trustees wish to ensure that the makeup of the BOT fully represents the breadth of the communities we serve and is actively recruiting to address this issue. The BOT have also reviewed the skills mix on the board and continue to develop a supportive and effective induction process for new trustees. Under the requirements of the Memorandum and Articles of Association Trustees are formally appointed at the Annual General Meeting, also at every Annual General Meeting one-third of the Trustees retire by rotation. The Trustees who retire by rotation are those who have been longest in office since their last appointment or reappointment. Other Trustees can be appointed throughout the year and have their appointment formalised at the Annual General Meeting. Our process of Trustee appointment and induction is. - 1) Potential new Trustees are asked to complete an Expression of Interest form along with our skills mix profile, which are sent to the chair. - 2) The chair then has a discussion with the interested person to explain what the role involves in terms of time and commitment and the skills they can bring to the organisation, and can benefit from in return. This meeting is also to give a potential Trustee the tools they need to contribute to the BOT (e.g. explanation of jargon, acronyms), and to discuss any needs they may have to allow them to participate fully in BOT (e.g. childcare, sign language interpreter). - 3) Potential BOT members receive an information pack and are invited to attend three meetings as observers, this gives them a chance to ask questions and gain an overview of the organisation and their potential role within it. - 4) If a Trustee is returning with less than a gap of three years, they observe at one meeting. - 5) All Trustees introduce themselves at the beginning of meetings when there are new people in attendance. - 6) Following attendance at three meetings the BOT make a decision whether to invite the potential Trustee to join the BOT, in the case of a returning Trustee (see above) the decision can be made after one meeting. 20 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 - 7) The chair contacts the potential Trustee to get their feedback, address any concerns expressed by them or the BOT, clarify the role of the BOT within the organisation and establish if they are still happy to join the BOT. - 8) When new Trustees want to visit any projects they make arrangements themselves via contact information given by Senior Management. - Enhanced DBS checks are carried out on all Trustees, before they are registered as a director at Companies House. - Within one month of joining as a Trustee there is a requirement to complete an online Level 1 Safeguarding course, for both Adults and Children. - A “Buddy” arrangement for new Trustees has been developed, which pairs them with an existing Trustee, who provides practical support, and answers any questions they have for example; about the organisation or specific agenda items. The “Buddy” relationship has no specified end date, and lasts as long as the new Trustee feels it is helpful. The Trustees are kept up to date with the practical work of the charity through their individual involvement in the work of the charity and their committee work. Yorkshire MESMAC has four regional offices in Bradford, Hull, Rotherham, Leeds. ## **Organisational Structure** Yorkshire MESMAC currently has a Board of Trustees (BOT) of 11 members from a variety of professional and personal backgrounds relevant to the work of the charity. They meet four times a year as a full Board and attend a further 4 Sub Committee meetings. They are responsible for the strategic direction, policy monitoring and development, employment procedures and proper fiscal oversight of the charity. They review strategic plans for the organisation in line with negotiated contracts in order to ensure that the highest quality services are provided for our target groups. Further aims of the BOT are to maintain an overview of the organisation, to safeguard the values and principles of the organisation. The Board appoints a Chair, Vice Chair and Treasurer and there is a Lead Safeguarding trustee. The Finance/Administration Manager sits on the BOT as Company Secretary but has no voting rights. The Trustees can appoint one or more committees of three or more Trustees to perform any function or duty, which the Trustees agree would be better carried out by a committee. At present the three core committees are Finance and Business Development (FBD) Governance (G) and Human Resources (HR). All Committees have a minimum membership of three Trustees and one senior staff member. This year, the Board has set up a separate sub group to develop and oversee the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED and I) strategy. This group will report directly to the Board and report progress at each Board meeting. Each Trustee is member of one committee and the committees report back, via their chair, to the main BOT meetings which are 4 times a year, including the AGM. This allows Trustees to have a greater chance to contribute to the governance of the charity. The Governance Committee leads on the policy review of the organisation, with input from the HR and FBD committees (where appropriate); reviews the organisational Risk Register and is responsible for maintaining the skills audit of the Trustees. The HR Committee has continued to streamline the procedures for recruitment of staff, volunteers and trustees and the Finance and Business Development Committee has continued its work overseeing the financial procedures and funding developments within the organisation. 21 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report ## for the year ended 31 March 2024 Annually the BOT has an Away Day to discuss the progress of the Business Development and Strategic Plan for the organisation. The Senior Management Team are invited join them for the latter part of the meeting. A Scheme of Delegation is in place within the organisation and day to day responsibility for the provision of the service rests essentially with the Chief Executive, who has regular 121s with the Chair of the BOT. The Chief Executive takes responsibility for negotiating contracts, ensuring that contract obligations are met and works closely with the Operations Manager and Service Co-ordinators with relation to staff workload and implementation of agreed work plans and with the Finance/Administration Manager (FAM) on financial management. The CEO and Operations Manager have responsibility for the day to day operational management of Yorkshire MESMAC and the overall management of staff supervision. The Operations manager ensures that the team continues to develop their skills and working practices in line with good practice following the departure of one operations manager the lead on systems including property and IT infrastructure sit with the CEO with support from the Admin and finance team. The FAM has responsibility for the day to day financial management of organisation and manages the Admin/Finance Team. Given the ongoing development of Yorkshire MESMAC group of services, the Trustees in partnership with staff continue to review our aims ensuring that they reflect the needs of our expanding service user groups. ## **Risk Management** The major risks, to which the charity is exposed, as identified by the Trustees and staff, are managed through the remit of the Committee system which regularly updates the Organisational Risk Register in partnership with the Senior Management Team. Areas of risk assessed and mitigations put in place include: - **Governance** - **Operations** - **Financial** ##  **External Factors** Procedures are in place to ensure compliance with Health and Safety of staff, volunteers, service users and visitors to the Yorkshire MESMAC buildings. The Serious Incident Policy ensures that any risks are managed effectively, in a timely manner and with the involvement of all senior management, trustees and governing bodies. The Governance Committee is the main driver of the review of all policies and procedures and ensure that they continue to meet the needs of the charity. All BOT members and senior staff annually update their Declaration of Interest forms and all BOT meetings have this as a standing item on the agenda to ensure all potential clashes of interest are highlighted and acted upon. 22 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report for the year ended 31 March 2024 ## **Statement of responsibilities of the trustees** The trustees (who are also directors of Yorkshire MESMAC for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the trustees’ annual report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable group and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable group 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 the Charities SORP - Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent - State whether applicable UK Accounting Standards and statements of recommended practice have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements - Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable group and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. In so far as the trustees are aware: - There is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company’s auditors are unaware - The trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditors are aware of that information The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company's website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions. 23 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Board of Trustees’ annual report for the year ended 31 March 2024 ## Auditors Slade & Cooper Ltd were re-appointed as the charitable company's auditors during the year and have expressed their willingness to continue in that capacity. This report has been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies’ subject to the small companies’ regime of the Companies Act 2006. The trustees’ annual report has been approved by the trustees on 13[th] November 2024 and signed on their behalf by Steve Bridge Chair 24 ## Independent auditors’ report ## to the Members and Trustees of ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## **Opinion** We have audited the financial statements of Yorkshire MESMAC (the ‘parent charitable company’) and its subsidiary for the year ended 31 March 2024, which comprise the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities (including the income and expenditure account), the Balance Sheets of the group and the parent charitable company, the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows and the related notes. 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 group’s and charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2024, and of the group’s incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended; - have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and - have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Act 2011. ## **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 group and charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. ## **Conclusions relating to going concern** In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate. Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the group’s or parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue. Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report. ## **Other information** The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the trustees’ annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. 25 ## **Independent Auditor’s Report (continued)** In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard. ## **Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006** In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit: - the information given in the trustees’ report (incorporating the directors’ report) for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and - the directors’ report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements. ## **Matters on which we are required to report by exception** In the light of our knowledge and understanding of the group and parent charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the directors’ report. We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Act 2011 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion: - adequate accounting records have not been kept by the parent charitable company, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or - the parent charitable company’s financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or - certain disclosures of directors’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or - we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; 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 directors’ report. ## **Responsibilities of trustees** As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement set out on page 23, 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 group’s and parent 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 group or parent charitable company or to cease operations or have no realistic alternative but to do so. 26 ## **Independent Auditor’s Report (continued)** ## **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 specific procedures for this engagement and the extent to which these are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below: - enquiry of management and those charged with governance around actual and potential litigation and claims. - enquiry of the charity's staff, management and those charged with governance to identify any instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. - reviewing minutes of meetings of those charged with governance. - reviewing financial statement disclosures and testing to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations. - auditing the risk of management override of controls, including through testing journal entries and other adjustments for appropriateness, and evaluating the business rationale of significant transactions outside the normal course of business. Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation. A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report. ## **Use of our report** This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 and to the charitable company’s trustees, as a body, in accordance with Part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members and its trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the 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. 27 ## **Independent Auditor’s Report (continued)** Christy Yun Hing Lau FCCA CTA DChA Senior Statutory Auditor _for and on behalf of_ Slade & Cooper Limited Statutory Auditors Beehive Mill Jersey Street Manchester M4 6JG 17[th] December 2024 Slade & Cooper Limited is eligible to act as an auditor in terms of section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006 28 Yorkshire MESMAC Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure account) for the year ended 31 March 2024 Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Total funds 2024 Total funds 2023 Note Income from: Donations and legacies 5,812 5,812 3,329 Cha ritable activities: 1,133,532 246,841 1,380,373 1,393,190 other trading activities 54,776 54,776 62,164 Investments 8,823 8,823 3,426 Total income 1,202,943 246,841 1,449,784 1,462,109 Expenditure on: Raising funds 10,351 10,351 9,981 Cha ritable activities: 1,138,811 264,111 1,402,922 1,427,442 Total expenditure 1,149,162 264,111 1,413,273 1,437,423 Net income/ (expenditure) before net gains/(losses) on investments 53,781 (17,270) 36,511 24, 686 Unrealised gains/{losses) on investments 181,359 181,359 797 Net income/(expenditure) for the year io 235,140 (17,270) 217,870 25,483 Transfer between funds (4,689) 4,689 Net movement in funds for the year Reconciliation of funds Total funds brought forward 230,451 (12,581) 217,870 25,483 2,146,453 163,074 2,309,527 2,284,044 Total funds carried forward 2,376,904 150,493 2,527,397 2,309,527 The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities. A full comparative SOFA is available on the last page of the financial statements. 29 ## Yorkshire MESMAC Company number 02958336 ## Balance Sheets as at 31 March 2024 |Note
2024
_2023_
£
_£_
**Fixed assets**
Tangible assets
15
168,388
_179,171_
Investments
16
1,596,076
_1,414,717_
**Total fixed assets**
**1,764,464**
**_1,593,888_**
**Current assets**
Debtors
19
97,525
_79,668_
Cash at bank and in hand
697,361
_698,693_
**Total current assets**
**794,886**
**_778,361_**
**Liabilities**
Creditors: amounts falling
due in less than one year
20
(31,953)
_(62,722)_
**Net current assets**
**762,933**
**_715,639_**
**Total assets less current liabilities**
2,527,397
_2,309,527_
**Net assets**
**2,527,397**
**_2,309,527_**
**The funds of the charity:**
Restricted income funds
21
150,493
_163,074_
Unrestricted income funds
23
2,376,904
_2,146,453_
**Total charity funds**
**2,527,397**
**_2,309,527_**
The Group|2024
_2023_
£
_£_
168,388
_179,171_
1,596,076
_1,414,717_
**1,764,464**
**_1,593,888_**
95,513
_84,196_
694,812
_683,938_
**790,325**
**_768,134_**
(32,526)
_(61,533)_
**757,799**
**_706,601_**
2,522,263
_2,300,489_
**2,522,263**
**_2,300,489_**
150,493
_163,074_
2,371,770
_2,137,415_
**2,522,263**
**_2,300,489_**
The Charity|2024
_2023_
£
_£_
168,388
_179,171_
1,596,076
_1,414,717_
**1,764,464**
**_1,593,888_**
95,513
_84,196_
694,812
_683,938_
**790,325**
**_768,134_**
(32,526)
_(61,533)_
**757,799**
**_706,601_**
2,522,263
_2,300,489_
**2,522,263**
**_2,300,489_**
150,493
_163,074_
2,371,770
_2,137,415_
**2,522,263**
**_2,300,489_**
The Charity| |---|---|---| |||**_1,593,888_**
_84,196_
_683,938_| |||**_768,134_**
_(61,533)_| |||**_706,601_**| |||_2,300,489_| |||**_2,300,489_**| |||_163,074_
_2,137,415_| |||**_2,300,489_**| These accounts are prepared in accordance with the special provisions of part 15 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies and constitute the annual accounts required by the Companies Act 2006 and are for circulation to members of the company. The notes on pages 32 to 53 form part of these accounts. Approved by the trustees on 13/11/2024 and signed on their behalf by: Sue Pascoe (Treasurer) 30 Yorkshire MESMAC Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows for the year ending 31 March 2024 Note 2024 2023 Cash provided by/(used in) operating activities 26 (10,155) 9,512 Cash flows from investing activities.. Dividends, interest, and rents from investments 8,823 3,426 Cash provided by/(used in) investing activities 8,823 3,426 Increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents in the year (1,332) 12,938 Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year 698,693 685, 755 Total cash equivalents at the end of the year 697,361 698,693 31 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 Accounting policies The principal accounting policies adopted, judgments and key sources of estimation uncertainty in the preparation of the financial statements are as follows: a Basis of preparation The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102), second edition Ottober 2019 (Charities SORP (FRS 102)), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006 and UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice. Yorkshire MESMAC meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note. b Group financial statements These financial statements consolidate the results of the charitable company and its wholly-owned subsidiary Yorkshire MESMAC Trading Ltd, on a line by line basis. A separate Statement of Financial Activities and Income and Expenditure account are not presented for the charity itself following exemptions afforded by section 408 of the Companies Act 2006. c Preparation of the accounts on a going concern basis The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern. There are no key judgments whlch the trustees have made which have a slgnificant effect on the accounts. The trustees do not consider that there are any sources of estimation uncertainty at the reporting date that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amount of assets and liabilities within the next reporting period. 32 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) d Income Income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the item(s) of income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably. Income from government and other grants, whether 'capital' grants or'revenue, grants, is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the grants have been met, it Is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably and 15 not deferred. For legacies, entitlement is taken as the earlier of the date on which either: the charity is aware that probate has been granted, the estate has been finalised and notification has been made by the executor(s} to the charity that a distribution wil I be made, or when a distribution is received from the estate. Receipt of a legacy, in whole or in part, is only considered probable when the amount can be measured reliably and the charity has been notified of the executor's intention to make a distribution. Where legacies have been notified to the charityi or the charity is aware of the granting of probate, and the criteria for income recognition have not been met, then the legacy is a treated a5 a contingent asset and disclosed if material. Income received in advance of a provision of a specified service it is deferred until the criteria for income recognition are met. e Donated services and facilities Donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item, any conditions associated with the donated item have been met, the receipt of economlc benefit from the use by the charity of the item is probable and that economic benefit can be measured reliably. In accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102), the general time of volunteers is not recognised and refer to the trustees, annual report for more information about their contribution. On receipt, donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of recei pt. f Interest receivable Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the Bank. g Fund accounting Unrestricted funds are available to spend on activities that further any of the purposes of charity. Designated funds are unrestricted funds of the charity which the trustees have decided at their discretion to set aside to use for a specific purpose. Restricted funds are donations which the donor has specified are to be solely used for particular areas of the charity's work or for specific projects being undertaken by the charity. 33 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) h Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified under the following activity headings: Costs of raising funds comprise the costs of commercial trading and its asSOClated support costs. Expenditure on charitable activities includes the costs undertaken to further the purposes of the charity and their associated support costs. Other expenditure represents those items not falling into any other heading. Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred. i Allocation of support Costs Support Costs are those functions that assist the work of the charity but do not directly undertake charitable activities. Support costs include back office costs, finance, personnel, payroll and governance costs which support the charity's programmes and activities. These costs have been allocated between cost of raising funds and expenditure on charitable activities, The bases on which support costs have been allocated are set out in note 9. J Operating leases Operating leases are leases in which the title to the assets, and the risks and rewards of ownership, remain with the lessor . Rental charges are charged on a straight line basis over the term of the lease. k Tangible fixed assets Individual fixed assets costing £1,000 or more are capitalised at cost and are depreciated over their estimated useful econom ic lives on a straight line basis as follows: Freehold building Fixtures and Fittings Computer Equipment Leasehold improvements 2010 250/0 330/0 over the lease period At the date of first time transition to FRS102 (1st April 2014) the trustees have chosen to use an estimate of fair value as the deemed cost of the freehold bu ilding. There is no obl igation to periodically revalue. l Fixed asset investments Investments are a form of basic financial instrument and are initially recognised at their transaction value and subsequently measured at their fair value as at the balance sheet date using the closing quoted market price. The statement of financial activities includes the net gains and losses arising on revaluation and disposals throughout the year. The Charity doe5 not acquire put options, derivatives or other complex financial instruments. The main form of financial risk faced by the charity is that of volatility in equity markets and investment markets due to wider economic conditions, the attitude of investors to investment risk, and changes in senti ment concerning equitie5 and within particular sectors or sub sectors. m Debtors Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due. 34 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) n Cash at bank and in hand Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acqu isition or openi ng of the deposit or si milar account. Creditors and provisions Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obl igation can be measured or estimated rel iably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due. p Financial instruments The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial i nstruments are initially recog nised at transaction value and su bsequently measured at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans which are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method. q Pensions Employees of the charity are entitled to join a defined contribution 'money purchase, scheme. The charity's contribution is restricted to the contributions disclosed in note I l. There were no outstanding contributions at the year end. The costs of the defined contribution scheme are included within support and governance costs and allocated to the funds of the charity using the methodology set out in note 9. The money purchase plan is managed by Legal and General and the plan invests the contributions made by the employee and employer in an investment fund to build up over the term of the plan a pension fund which is then converted into a pension upon the employee's normal retirement year age when eligible for state pension. The total expense ratio of the plan is 0.50010 and this is deducted from the investment fund annually. The charity has no liability beyond making its contributions and paying across the deductions for the employee's contributions. There were no contributions outstanding at the year-end. Legal status of the charity The charity is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales and has no share capital, In the event of the charity being wound up, the liability in respect of the guarantee is limited to £10 per member of the charity. The reg istered office address is disclosed on page l. 35 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) Income from donations and legacies Unrestricted Restricted Total 2024 Donations 5,812 5,812 Total 5,812 5,812 Prevlous reportlng perlod Unrestricted Restricted Total 2023 Donations 3,329 3,329 Total 3,329 3,329 Income from charitable activitles Unrestricted Restricted Total 2024 Grants and Service Level Agreements HIV & Sexual Health Bradford MDC Gilead Hull Clty Councll Leeds City Council Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust Mental Health & Wellbeing NHS West Yorkshire ICB Bradford District NHS Foundation Tst Gilead Peer Support - Leeds MIND Community Development Bradford MDC DVA Voices NLCF & The Kings Fund Other Sundry Grants {below £IOk) 176,300 176,300 20,000 450,000 278,450 168,000 20,000 450,000 278,450 168,000 25,644 25,644 24,300 12,362 27,883 24,300 12,362 27,883 (14,504) 20,919 149,617 4,920 (14,504) 20,919 149,617 24,987 20,067 Subtotal for Grant5 and SLAS 1,117,117 246,841 1,363,958 Fees and Other Income Training, consultancy & other 16,415 16,415 Total 1,133,532 246,841 1,380,373 36 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) Income from charitable activities cont. Previous reporting period Unrestricted Restricted Total 2023 Grants and Service Level Agreements HIV & Sexual Health Bradford MDC Hull City Council Leeds City Council Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust UK Health Security Agency Mental Health & Wellbeing NHS West Yorkshire ICB Bradford District NHS Foundation T5t Leeds Community Fndn Touchstone Other Sundry Grants (below £1 Ok) Community Development Bradford MDC British Council NLCF & The Kings Fund Other Sundry Grants (below £1 Ok) 220,100 450,000 265,177 168,000 220,100 450,000 265,177 168,000 21,104 21,104 25,643 25,643 24,284 23,072 24,246 5,073 24,284 23,072 24,246 5,073 3,000 20,783 (26,294) 147,486 6,965 23, 783 (26,294) 147,486 15,307 8,342 Subtotal for Grants and SLAS 1,138,903 248,078 1,386,981 Fees and Other Income Training, consultancy & other 6,209 6,209 Total 1,145,112 248, 078 1,393,190 37 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) Income from other trading activities 2024 2023 Rental Income Commercial Trading Operations Yorkshire MESMAC Trading Ltd. 17,936 27,164 36,840 35,000 54,776 62,164 All income from other trading activities is unrestricted. Investment income All of the charity's investment income arises from money held in interest bearing deposit accounts. All i nvestment income is unrestricted, Cost of raising funds 2024 2023 Commercial Trading Operations Trading Subsidiary Direct Costs 10,351 9,981 10,351 9,981 All expenditure on cost of raising funds is unrestricted. 38 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) ## **8 Analysis of expenditure on charitable activities** |Community
Development
£
Staff costs
36,738
Overheads
67,669
Project costs
45,157
Depreciation
10,783
Volunteers
-
Governance
costs (see note
9)
8,858
Support costs
(see note 9)
34,631
**Total**
203,836
Restricted expenditure
Unrestricted expenditure
**_Previous reporting period_**
_Community_
_Developmen_
_t_
_£_
_Staff costs_
_40,082_
_Overheads_
_32,220_
_Project costs_
_37,254_
_Depreciation_
_11,040_
_Volunteers_
_791_
_Governance_
_costs (see note_
_9)_
_13,624_
_Support costs_
_(see note 9)_
_48,274_
**_Total_**
_183,285_|HIV & Sexual
Health
£
654,592
110,270
112,619
-
382
35,701
112,488
1,026,052
2024
£
264,111
1,138,811
1,402,922
_HIV & Sexual_
_Health_
_£_
_656,479_
_150,282_
_125,266_
_-_
_552_
_38,704_
_137,138_
_1,108,421_|Mental
Health
£
92,215
9,915
28,988
-
-
4,397
16,164
151,679
_2023_
_£_
_212,675_
_1,214,767_
_1,427,442_
_Mental_
_Health_
_£_
_64,225_
_16,661_
_24,947_
_-_
_30_
_3,001_
_10,635_
_119,499_|PASH
£
14,687
3,035
170
-
-
798
2,665
21,355
_PASH_
_£_
_10,034_
_4,644_
_273_
_-_
_7_
_282_
_997_
_16,237_|Total 2024
£
798,232
190,889
186,934
10,783
382
49,754
165,948
1,402,922
_Total 2023_
_£_
_770,820_
_203,807_
_187,740_
_11,040_
_1,380_
_55,611_
_197,044_
_1,427,442_| |---|---|---|---|---| 39 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) Analysis of governance and support costs Basis of apportionment Support Governance Total 2024 Time spent or by floor area Floor area Governance Governance Staff costs Office costs Aud it fees Accountancy service5 149,135 16,813 39,554 188,689 16,813 5,800 4,400 5,800 4,400 165,948 49,754 215,702 Previous reporting period Basis of apportionment Support Governance Total 2023 Time spent or by floor area Floor area Governance Governance Staff cost5 Office costs Audit fees Accountancy services 175,977 21,067 45,108 221,085 21,067 6,285 4,218 6,285 4,218 197,044 55,611 252,655 10 Net Income/(expenditure) for the year This is stated after charg ing/(crediting)'. 2024 2023 Depreciation Operating lease rentals: Property Other Auditor's remuneration audit fees Auditor's remuneration accountancy fees 10,783 11,040 53,400 3,510 4,833 3,667 44,651 4,960 5,050 3,515 40 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) li staff costs staff costs during the year were as follows: 2024 2023 Wages and salaries Social security costs Pension costs staff related costs Redundancy Holiday Pay 838,894 67,455 59,310 24,540 819,534 71,288 54,204 39,362 10,278 (2,761) (3,278) 986,921 991,905 Allocated as follows: Charitable activities Support costs Governance costs 798,232 149,135 39,554 770,820 175,977 45,108 986,921 991,905 One employee has employee benefits between £60,000 and £70,000 (2023.. Nil in excess of £60,000). The averaqe number of staff employed bv the qroup durinq the period was 34 (2023: 33). The average full time equivalent number of staff employed by the group during the period was 28 (2023.. 27). The average number of staff employed by the charity during the perlod was 34 (2023: 33). The average full time equivalent number of staff employed by the charity during the period was 28 (2023: 27). The key management personnel of the charity comprise the trustees, the Chief Executive Officer, both Technical & HR Operations Managers and the Finance Manager. The total employee benefits of the key manaqement personnel of the charity were £175,218 (2023.. £232,301). 12 Trustee remuneration and expenses, and related party transactions Neither the management committee nor any persons connected with them received any remuneration or during the year (2023.. Nil). (2023: 5) Members of the management committee received travel and subsistence expenses during the year of £45 (2023: £639). There are no donations from related parties which are outside the normal course of business and no restricted donations from related parties. No trustee or other person related to the charity had any personal interest in any contract or transaction entered into by the charity, including guarantees, during the year (2023: nil). 41 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) 13 Government grants The government grants recognised in the accounts were as follows: 2024 2023 NHS West Yorkshire ICB Bradford District NHS Foundation Tst Bradford Metropol itan District Council Hull City Council Leeds City Council Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust UK Health Security Agency 25,644 24,300 161,796 450,000 278,450 168,000 25,643 24,284 243,883 450,000 265, 177 168,000 21,104 1,108,190 1,198,091 There were no unfulfilled conditions and contingencies attachi ng to the grants, 14 Corporation tax The charity is exempt from tax on income and gains falling within Chapter 3 of Part I l of the Corporation Tax Act 2010 or Section 256 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to the extent that these are applied to its charitable objects. No tax charges have arisen in the charity. The charity's trading Subsidiary Yorkshire MESMAC Trading Ltd. gift aids available profits to the parent charity. Its charge to corporation tax in the year was: 2024 2023 UK corporation tax at 190/0125010 (2023.. 190/0) 42 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) 15 Fixed assets: tangible assets The charity Freehold Property Leasehold improvements Fixtures & Fittings Computer equipment Total Cost At l April 2023 230,341 128,847 39,703 5,468 404,359 At 31 March 2024 230,341 128,847 39,703 5,468 404,359 Depreclatlon At l April 2023 Charge for the year 62,108 1,786 117,909 8,997 39,703 5,468 225,188 10,783 At 31 March 2024 63,894 126,906 39,703 5,468 235,971 Net book value At 31 March 2024 166,447 1,941 168,388 At 31 March 2023 168,233 10,938 179,171 There are no fixed assets held by the subsidiary company 16 Investments The group The charlty 2023 2024 2023 2024 Market value at the start of the year 1,414,717 1,413,919 1,414,717 1,413,919 Additions to investments at cost Disposals at carrying value Add net gain/(loss) on revaluation 181,359 798 181,359 798 1,596,076 1,414,717 1,596,076 1,414,717 Cash held by investment broker pending reinvestment Market value at the end of the year 1,596,076 1,414,717 1,596,076 1,414,717 Investments comprised.. Listed investments Cash held in the investment portfolio 1,596,076 1,414,717 1,596,076 1,414,717 1,596,076 1,414,717 1,596,076 1,414,717 Investments are all carried at fair value and are all traded in quoted public markets. They are accumulation units in funds where investment income within the fund is reinvested in the fund. The increase in value is not shown separately a5 investment income but becomes part of the net unrealised gains or1055es in overall market values of the funds at year end. 43 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) 17 Subsidiary undertaking The Charitable company owns UK subsidiary company Yorkshire MESMAC Trading Ltd. a company registered in England, Co. No. 08432642. The company has no share capital and is limited by guarantee. It has one single member which is the charity Yorkshire MESMAC. The subsidiary is used for non-primary purpose trading activities. Accumulated profits from the previous financial year are gift aided to the charitable company. A summary of the results of the subsidiary is shown below: Profit and 1055 account 2024 2023 Turnover Cost of sales Administration costs Taxation Donation to parent charity 36,840 (30,436) (1,270) 35,000 (25,065) (897) (9,038) (9, 768) Net profit £ (3,904) £ (730) Balance sheet 2024 2023 Fixed assets Current assets Creditors due in less than one year Debtors due in less than one year 2,549 (1,060) 3,645 14,755 (5, 717) £5,134 £9,038 Called up share capital Profit and loss account 5,134 9,038 £5,134 £9,038 18 Parent charity The parent charity's gross income and the results for the year are disclosed as follows.. 2024 2023 Gross income Result for the year 1,443,337 221,774 1,452,857 26,212 44 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) 19 Debtors The group The charity 2023 2024 2023 2024 Trade debtors Other debtor5 Prepayments and accrued income Amts due from group undertakings 53,189 7,809 36,527 35,163 2,000 42,505 53,189 5,797 36,527 35,163 2, 000 42, 505 4,528 97,525 79,668 95,513 84,196 20 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year The group The charity 2023 2024 2023 2024 Short term compensated absences (holiday pay) other creditors and accruals Amts due to group undertakings 17,447 14,506 20,725 41,997 17,447 13,446 1,633 20, 725 40,808 31,953 62, 722 32,526 61,533 45 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) 21 Analysis of movements in restricted funds Balance at I April 2023 Balance at 31 March 2024 Income Expenditure Transfers Charitable Activities HIV & Sexual Health BAME Health Network No More Misses - Gilead See to it Yorkshire Mental Health & Wellbeing Living Well Bradford OPDG Counselling Donation5 CR - Men's Total Health CNET Creative Voices Keep Your Head - Gilead Leeds Community Fndn Peer Support - Leeds MIND Men in Health CommunSty Development Healthy Communities Leeds Older People's Forum Now Sage CVEW DVA Volces Sundry small grants 10,820 (10,820) (2,127) (11,341) 20,000 17,873 11,341 14,702 15,785 6,878 5,502 25,644 (14,504) (34,749) (1,281) (5,699) (5,502) (2,263) (7,020) (7,130) (7,423) (27,883) 5,597 1,179 4,920 2,657 7,020 12,362 5,232 4,754 12,177 27,883 2,154 2,154 66,286 149,617 (121,809) 94,094 (627) 6,753 2,933 1,350 (4,062) 4,689 6,753 8,900 1,300 20,919 (14,952) (50) Total 163,074 246,841 (264,111) 4,689 150,493 46 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) 22 Analysis of movements in restricted funds cont. Previous reporting period Balance at i April 2022 Balance at 31 March 2023 Income Expenditure Transfers Charitable Activities HIV & Sèxual Health BAME frlealth Network See to it Yorkshire 21,077 (10,257) (9, 763) 10,820 11,341 21,104 Mental Health & Wellbe Living Well Bradford OPDG Counselllng Donatlons CR Mert s Total Health CNFT Creative Volces Leeds Comrnunity Fndn Men in Health Community Development Erasmus 19-20 Healthy Communltles Leeds Older People s Forurn - Now Sage Sage donations CVEW Queer Stories Donation5 DVA Vol￿5 Sundry small grants 9,395 12,106 10,628 8, 988 4, 779 25,643 20, 783 (20,336) (17,104) (3, 750) (3,486) 14,702 15,785 6,878 5,502 (4, 779) 9,852 23,072 24,246 (2,832) (10,895) (22,092) 7,020 12,177 2,154 36,744 9,724 (26,294) 147,486 (10,450) (90, 924) 66,286 4,602 1,200 7,078 200 (5,229) (1,200) (325) (627) 6, 753 (200) 6,965 (4,032) 2,933 1,350 1,350 Total 127,871 248,078 (212,675) (200) 163,074 47 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) 22 Analysis of movements in restricted funds cont. Name of restricted fund Description, nature and purposes of the fund HIV & Sexual Health BAME Health Network To develop a BAME Health Network in Hull. No More Misses- Gilead No More Misses PrEP for women, is a tailored programme of work working with marginalised women to coproduce resources ensuring that they have the knowledge, ski Ils and information needed to access PrEP and that clinical providers take active steps to reduce barriers to PrEP faced by marginalised women. See to it Yorkshire To deliver a serie5 of tailored community based Mpox & STI screening clinic5 in partnership with clinical sexual health services in Bradford, Leeds & Rotherham, focusing on BAME LGBT+ folk, refugee & asylum seeking LGBT+ folk and GBT men. Mental Health & Wellbeino Living Well Project Bradford CCG grant funding for promoting social wellbeing for LGBT+ people living in the Bradford District. Bradford OPDG Day opportunities for older people in Bradford. Counsel ling donations Individual donations made to the counselling service. CR - Men's Total Health 3 year project for GBT+ young men to boost self esteem and confidence through workshops encouragi ng physical activity. CNET To improve the mental well-being of the LGBT+ Adult population fo Bradford through therapeutic self-awareness groups and peer mentoring. Creative Voices Creative project for members of SAGE group (older LGBTQ+ adults in Leeds aged 50 -85 yrs) to creates much deeper and sustainable impact and engage new members, exploring the challenges of living and integrating. Keep Your Head Gilead A programme to develop interventions to empower PLWH to keep accessing care and to support services in preventing people becoming lost to care at times of poor mental health, Leeds Community Foundation To improve the mental health of, and reduce suicidal ideation by LGBT+ folk in Leeds. Peer Support - Leeds MIND As part of Leeds peer support worker mental health transformation project, to provide one to one and group support for people with Serious Mental Illness within the LGBTQ+ community. Working in partnership with Leeds Mind, Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Services and Health for All. Men in Health In partnership with Touchstone, working with organisations in health & social care, to be the first point of contact for the Men's Action & Awareness Networks (MAAN) where they identify men who would benefit from further support and signpost/refer to VCSE organisations. 48 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) 22 Analysis of movements in restricted funds cont. Name of restricted fund Description, nature and purposes of the fund Communitv DeveloDment Erasmus Grant provided through the Erasmus higher education exchange programme for staff and organisation development. Healthy Communities To reduces early deaths among marginalised communities by addressing causal 5truttural ineq ualities, Leeds Older People's Forum - now Sage Grant from the age in Well programme and administered by Leeds Older People's Forum to develop opportunities for older LGB&T* people in Leeds who are experiencing social i501ation. To support engagement activities for older LGBT+ people in Leeds. Live Well Wakefield - Coronavi rus Resilience Grant. Sage donations CVEW DVA Voices In Partnerships with Leeds Women's Aid this aims to facilitate the Voices of victims and survivors to take part and co-produce activities within the Domestic Abuse Local Partnerships Board. 49 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) 23 Analysis of movement in unrestricted funds Balance at I April 2023 As at 31 March 2024 Income Expenditure Transfers General fund Designated property assets fund Mental Health & Wellbeing Leeds building work Rotherham contract Leeds Prevention contract 1,878,772 1,384,302 (1,096,783) (59,927) 2,106,364 179,171 (10,783) 168,388 88,510 (52,379) (32,660) 36,131 32,660 4,088 4,088 61,933 61,933 2,146,453 1,384,302 (1,181,822) 27,971 2,376,904 Previous reporting period Balance at I April 2022 As at 31 March 2023 Income Expenditure Transfers General fund Designated property assets fund Mental Health & Wellbeing 1,877,709 1,214,828 (1,224, 748) 10,983 1,878,772 189,954 (10, 783) 179,171 88,510 88,510 2,156,173 1,214,828 (1,224, 748) 200 2,146,453 Name of Description, nature and purposes of the fund General fund The free reserves after allowinq for all desiqnated funds The current book value of property and leasehold improvements. Designated property assets fund Mental Health & Wellbeing Leeds building work To increase the capacity of the Senior Management team and appoint a Coordinator, to drive forward our Mental Health services by early 2022. Building repair, maintenance and upgrade programme required in Head Office in Leeds. Rotherham contract Income budget reduced in order for monies to be used as income in latter years of the 5-year project. Leeds Prevention contract Specified budget lines (such as Marketing, Digital Apprentice salaries) are requi red over the term of the 5-year project. They have been designated so can be carried over to subsequent years if not spent. 50 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) 24 Analysis of group net assets between funds General fund Designated funds Restricted funds Total Tang ible fixed assets Fixed asset investments Net current assets/(liabilities) 168,388 168,388 1,596,076 762,933 1,596,076 510,288 102,152 150,493 Total 2,106,364 270,540 150,493 2,527,397 Previous reporting period Tangible fixed assets Fixed asset investments Net current assets/(liabilities) 179,171 179,171 1,414,717 715,639 1,414,717 464,055 88,510 163,074 Total 1,878,772 267,681 163,074 2,309,527 25 Operating lease commitments The charity's total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases is as follows for each of the follovving periods., Property Equlpment 2024 2023 2024 2023 Less than one year One to five years 38,000 16,000 8,324 23,999 3,340 10,640 1,360 4,080 54,000 32,323 13,980 5,440 There are no leases held by the subsidiary company. 51 Yorkshire MESMAC Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) 26 Reconciliation of net movement in funds to net cash flow from operating activities 2024 2023 Net income/(expenditure) for the year Adjustments for: Depreciation charge (Gains)/losses on investments Dividends. interest and rents from investments Decrease/(increase) in debtors Increase/(decrease) in creditors 36,511 24,686 10,783 11,040 (i) (3,426) 21,744 (44,531) (8,823) (17,857) (30,769) Net cash provided by/(used in) operating (10,155) 9,512 52 ## Yorkshire MESMAC ## Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (continued) ## **27 Prior year Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure account)** |Unrestricted
funds
Note
£
**Income from:**
Donations and legacies
3
3,329
Charitable activities:
4
1,145,112
5
62,164
Investments
6
3,426
**Total income**
**1,214,031**
**Expenditure on:**
Raising funds
7
9,981
Charitable activities:
8
1,214,767
**Total expenditure**
**1,224,748**
(10,717)
797
10
**(9,920)**
Transfer between funds
200
**Net movement in funds for the year**
**(9,720)**
**Reconciliation of funds**
Total funds brought forward
2,156,173
**Total funds carried forward**
**2,146,453**
Unrealised gains/(losses) on investments
**Net income/(expenditure) for the**
**year**
Other trading activities
**Net income/**
**(expenditure) before net**
**gains/(losses) on investments**|Restricted
funds
£
-
248,078
-
-
**248,078**
-
212,675
**212,675**
35,403
-
**35,403**
(200)
**35,203**
127,871
**163,074**|Total funds
2023
£
3,329
1,393,190
62,164
3,426
**1,462,109**
9,981
1,427,442
**1,437,423**
24,686
797
**25,483**
-
**25,483**
2,284,044
**2,309,527**|_Total funds_
_2022_
_£_
_27,708_
_1,442,202_
_35,000_
_501_
**_1,505,411_**
_10,950_
_1,477,133_
**_1,488,083_**
_17,328_
_128,996_
**_146,324_**
_-_
**_146,324_**
_2,137,720_
**_2,284,044_**| |---|---|---|---| The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities. 53