Company number: 03039668 Charity number: 1045623
## Age Concern Islington
(Operating as Age UK Islington)
Report and financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2024
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Reference and administrative information**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
Status
Age UK Islington is an operating name of Age Concern Islington. Age Concern Islington was first established in 1963. It is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 30 March 1995, and registered with the Charity Commission on 6 April 1995.
Purpose Age Concern Islington’s charitable object for the public benefit is the welfare of local older people in and around Islington.
Governing document Age Concern Islington was established under a Memorandum of Association, which established the objects and powers of the organisation. It is governed under its Articles of Association.
Company number 03039668 Country of incorporation United Kingdom Charity number 1045623 Country of registration England & Wales Registered office and 6-9 Manor Gardens operational address LONDON N7 6LA
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:
Mr Howard Sharman Chair Mr Clive Bowman Treasurer Mr Chris Faint Ms Alexandra Bryony Sears Resigned 16 August 2023 Ms Joan Adams Speers Ms Aisha Baker-Smith Ms Marcia McFarlane Ms Aisha Rehman Ms Elisabeth Rochford Ms Monica Douglas-Parris Resigned 3 July 2023 Ms Margaret Lennan Appointed 15 May 2023 Principal staff Ms Sally Miller Chief Executive and Company Secretary
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Reference and administrative information**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
Bankers HSBC plc 25 Islington High Street LONDON N1 9LJ Unity Trust Bank plc Four Brindley Place BIRMINGHAM B1 2JB Auditor Sayer Vincent LLP Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditors 110 Golden Lane LONDON, EC1Y 0TG
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
**For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## Chair’s Foreword
Reviewing my comments in the Foreword to the 2022/23 Report & Accounts, there is a strong element of Groundhog Day when it comes to the preview of the 2023/24 Report & Accounts.
The two key themes that I focussed on last year – the return to delivering services ‘in person’ and the growing levels of poverty that we are seeing – remain constants in the charity’s work and still merit a mention.
Whilst COVID-19 is very much around, and probably will be a health issue (particularly for the elderly) for the foreseeable future, winter 2023/24 was not the COVID-19 catastrophe that I feared at the time of writing the last report.
This meant that ‘in person’ events, which do a lot to relieve loneliness and other mental health issues in addition to the value delivered by the content of the events themselves, have continued to grow.
Over the year AUKI delivered 11 special events and 29 types of activities with 538 sessions of Get Togethers, workshops and events. Two thirds of the sessions were face-to-face and had more than 4,500 attendances in the year.
The charity is increasing its work in the mental health area. We do this through events, the Community Mental Health contract that we hold, and the launch of a new Befriending service that aims to address loneliness and isolation.
The bulk of the charity’s current work is contract-based, but we feel that it is important to extend the range of our support activities where we see a need that is not being filled either by the statutory providers or by other local VCS organisations.
To that end, the board has agreed to provide funds from reserves for three years that will enable the development of a Counselling service. Our experience from day-to-day interactions with clients shows that this is much needed and that there is a considerable gap in the provision of this type of service. The aim is that this three-year pilot will be a proofof-concept for the service and that it will provide both hard and soft data that will persuade one or more trusts or foundations that this is work that is worthy of their support.
As far as the Befriending service is concerned, we have raised £30,000 so far which has enabled the recruitment of a part-time befriending coordinator who is starting the process of recruiting and training volunteer befrienders.
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
We will start delivering both new services in the course of the 2024/25 financial year.
As mentioned above, poverty continues to be a major issue for our service users, always there under the surface, but now exacerbated and brought very much to the surface by the ongoing rises in the cost of living.
Combining my two themes of mental health and poverty relief, the most common requests for support during 2023/24 were for: grants and income maximisation; befriending; social activities and emotional support.
The ongoing cost-of-living crisis has meant that the Enablement team redirected support and resources to this area, with requests for grants and help managing money making up 16% of all external referrals to suppliers or providers.
The Information & Advice team (I&A) also saw an increase in queries relating to the cost-ofliving situation. Most of the 1,000+ clients who contacted I&A required financial support such as income maximisation, charitable grant applications, and help with fuel debt and housing related issues.
My thanks also go to the team at AUKI who have continued to perform at a very high level in delivering the services for which we are funded by our commissioners – London Borough of Islington (LBI), North Central London Integrated Care Board, Islington GP Federation and North London Mental Health Trust – and our various generous donors.
Financial support and excellent service delivery personnel are mutually dependent and necessary parts of the organisation that is Age UK Islington.
My thanks, and the thanks of all the board, go to all of you.
## Purpose
Age UK Islington (AUKI) is the operating name of Age Concern Islington (ACI), an independently registered charity and company limited by guarantee. We operate as a member of the national Age UK Brand Partnership.
AUKI’s charitable object for the public benefit is to promote the relief and wellbeing of older people in any manner which now or hereafter may be deemed by law to be charitable in and around the London Borough of Islington.
The charity has the power, in furtherance of this object, to encourage, promote, organise and run services and activities appropriate to the needs of individual older people or groups
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
of older people, together with, if considered appropriate, other individuals and groups who are not older people.
## Public Benefit
AUKI trustees confirm that the activities carried out by AUKI are in line with the organisation’s objectives for the benefit of the public. AUKI trustees also confirm that they have complied with their duty in Section 4 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the public benefit guidance published by the Charity Commission.
## Beneficiary needs and how we respond
The primary beneficiaries of the charity are people over 50 living in the London Borough of Islington. We also provide support to people under 50 who are living with long term health conditions, and we operate the Islington Carers Hub offering specialised support for family carers.
The work of the charity is focused on helping people maintain and increase their general wellbeing.
People’s needs and priorities vary widely and, as such, we aim to offer a comprehensive response, reflecting the diversity of both the individual and the wider community needs.
## Objectives and Activities
Age UK Islington supports all adults in Islington, not just older adults. All need to be an Islington resident or registered with an Islington GP; we also support unpaid carers. Our range of services provide support for people who may be at different stages of wellbeing. This may be by simply providing information about services available in the local area, plus opportunities and activities, through to more intensive one-to-one casework support for more complex issues.
During 2023-24 our team provided the following services:
Activities: activities, support groups, workshops and events which take place all over Islington and are hosted in a variety of venues.
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
Advice and guidance: One-to-one sessions providing clients with an opportunity to talk more about their needs and to discuss the various options available. We also provide and arrange peer support groups - people meeting to share support and advice.
Carers support: We provide carers assessments and carer information packs, and supported connections to events, breaks, income support and peer support groups.
Community Mental Health Key Workers : Working within the three locality core community mental health multidisciplinary/multiagency core teams, which integrates services across health, social care and the Voluntary and Community Sector. Their role is to support clients who have been traditionally hard to reach or engage in traditional mental health support services.
Enablement: One-to-one casework, helping people resolve issues around the home and with getting out and about.
Future Matters: End of life planning and assisting people to make plans for the future, including Lasting Powers of Attorney, so others know how they would like to be cared for.
Information, signposting and support: Our Helpline is usually the first point of contact for general enquiries, fact sheets, mailings to keep people informed about what is going on and information on a range of activities.
Navigation: One-to-one casework to enable people to take control of both their physical and mental health, coordinating with a range of other professionals who may be involved with the person’s care or support and exploring alternative ways for people to take control of their situation and build skills.
Primary Care Network Care Coordinators: Care coordinators within a PCN proactively identify and work with people, including the frail/elderly and those with long-term conditions, to provide coordination and navigation of care and support by jointly creating a personalised support plan.
Primary Care Network Social Prescribing Link Workers: These link workers receive GP referrals for one-to-one case work to assist with resolving practical barriers and issues and then supported with connections to, for example, community events and skills development.
Proactive Ageing Well Service: Supporting people who are frail with one-to-one case work and social prescribing to keep connected and active.
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
Volunteering: We have volunteers from all walks of life who utilise their many different skills to support our clients and staff in a wide range of roles.
## Our key achievements in 2023-24
Five strategic objectives have been set for the period 2021 to 2024. How we met these objectives in 2023-24 is as follows:
|Strategic objective|2023-24 achievements|
|---|---|
|Increase the client wellbeing
offer and meet unmet need|Success in raising funds for a befriending service and
mobilisation work taking place in order to launch this
service.
Increase in outreach provision for our client group,
also enabling more networking and community
connecting for clients.
Ongoing programme of shared events and activities
through partnership work with VCS organisations –
online and in person.
Continued provision of a counselling for carers service,
as part of the Islington Carers Hub.
Development of partnership with counselling training
establishments in the lead up to launching our
counselling service.|
|Maintain a viable organisation
and operate robust and effective
contracted services|Renewal of the Social Prescribing Link Workers contract
with two Primary Care Networks in Islington.
Renewal of Future Matters contract by Gentle Dusk.
Mobilisation of the Community Mental Health Key
Worker contract, commissioned by the North London
Mental Health Partnership.|
|Diversify and generate new
sources of income|Funding awarded through partnership with Peabody for
delivering our Let’s Talk peer events and targeting
Peabody residents along with the wider group of
clients.|
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
|**For theyear ended 31 March 2024**||
|---|---|
||Funding awarded by Hyde Charitable Trust also for the
Let’s Talk peer events targeting Hyde tenants and
delivering outreach sessions at three locations on a
fortnightly basis.
Funding awarded for information and advice work from
the Emanuel Hospital Foundation, enabling AUKI to run
our Lets’ Talk peer events.
Funding awarded from the Age UK Cost-of-living
Response Fund which supported maintaining and
increasing wellbeing events attendance, bringing in
partner organisations and providing information on
issues related to the cost of living situation.
We received funding from The National Lottery
Community Fund which distributed the Community
Organisations Cost of Living Fund, using funds from
the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
This funding supported the delivery of information and
advice support.
We received funding from Cloudelsey which we used
for supporting older people in Islington.
Funding was awarded by A2Dominion and their
partners to run an event during Black History Month
which took place at Caledonian Park.|
|Extend the reach and increase
awareness of the organisation|Planning and development work for a new Islington
Carers Hub website.
Continued membership of the Bright Lives Alliance, an
early intervention and prevention initiative, facilitated
by the London Borough of Islington.
Continued growth of referrals to the Central Point of
Access, working in partnership with the London
Borough of Islington, Help on Your Doorstep and
Manor Gardens Welfare Trust, to receive statutory
sector referrals into the VCS.|
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
|**For theyear ended 31 March 2024**||
|---|---|
||Ongoing Cost-of-Living information and support
events facilitated in partnership with Help on Your
Doorstep and the Octopus Community Network, plus
the London Borough of Islington.
Creation of a borough-wide carers strategy in
partnership with the London Borough of Islington and
carer-supporting organisations.
Continued and evolving presence in the borough –
partnership working with NHS trusts, community
centres, GP practices, and our monthly Let’s Talk
events featuring many provider presentations.|
|Strengthen organisational
infrastructure.|Retained the ISO 9001 Quality Management
accreditation.
Awarded the Age UK Charity Quality Standard quality
mark.
Trustee with Human Resources expertise recruited on
to the Board.
Team Leaders have taken on training on coaching and
leadership through a government subsidised scheme.|
## Activities and events
Earlier in the year we hosted the first in-person First Aid workshop post-pandemic and the second Self-Advocacy Workshop, both at Islington North Library. For Mental Health Awareness Week, we organised a poetry taster workshop led by a client. This was our first activity at the Cat and Mouse Library and due to its success, the client and the library agreed on running a series of poetry sessions over the summer.
We hosted a Windrush Breakfast to mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the ship HMT Empire Windrush. Participants enjoyed a video with stories from clients about their arrival to Britain. We teamed up with Create once again to bring a series of six creative writing workshops for adults aged 50+ at Cally Clock Tower Centre where participants had the opportunity to write a range of flash fiction, poetry, prose, and personal essays.
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
More than 20 clients enjoyed London Children's Ballet’s Snow White at the Peacock Theatre, and a group of clients visited the Saatchi Gallery for a tour of their exhibition Beyond The Streets; they were later invited to take part in an art workshop.
With Arsenal in the Community, we organised a local history walk and stadium tour. Our second Staying Well Event took place in early November with a theme around Discovering Skills & Interests. Over 75 clients attended, and more than 12 partner organisations delivered talks and hosted information stalls. This event achieved the objective of encouraging participants to take actions, this based on a survey that we conducted afterwards: 35% of attendees who answered the survey said the event had encouraged them to look for a social activity or group; 15% to look into volunteering opportunities; 15% to look for a course; and 15% to contact an organisation for further guidance or support.
In partnership with Bright Start, Bright Futures, Whittington Health NHS Trust and Islington Ecology Centre, our regular intergenerational events continued with us involving many in a variety of activities for all generations. These activities encompassed a bats-themed event with a talk, storytelling, crafts, a walk, and refreshments. This quarterly event keeps growing as more partners are getting involved - Bright Lives, Islington Libraries and Mary’s Youth Club joined in for the first time.
Continuing with the partnership with Rethink, we hosted two Self Advocacy workshops and in the coming months we are starting a new partnership with iCope to deliver monthly workshops for adults 50 years old and over in stress and relaxation; managing worry; low mood; and sleep difficulties. Looking ahead, we have secured two 6-weeks workshops with Create for adults 50 years old and over, one to be delivered in the summer and the second one in the Autumn; and a concert by Connaught Opera to celebrate Silver Sunday in October.
In summary, we delivered 11 special events and 29 types of activities with 538 sessions of Get Togethers, Workshops and Events. Two thirds of the sessions were face-to-face sessions and had 4,559 attendances in the year.
## Care Coordination
The service providing care coordination in the South Primary Care Network continued into this financial year, running from April through to September. The number of people supported was just below 60 patients who were offered support with a range of needs including accessing health care and transport to hospital, scheduling appointments with community health care providers and support for the person to access that health care, referrals and connections to talking therapies and housing repairs and adaptations to properties.
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
The Care Coordinator worked with the social prescribing service as a standalone provider or in conjunction with the social prescribers in providing support as outlined as being required in the clients’ support plans. The service worked with a wide range of ages and ethnicities. Most of the care coordination clients had multiple long-term conditions, requiring very tailored individual support to meet their complex needs.
## Community Mental Health
Age UK Islington, in partnership with Islington Mind, successfully recruited five key workers to work with the NHS Core Mental Health Teams across the three localities – North, Central and South. Over the course of the past year the key workers have been embedding themselves within the teams and establishing the key worker remit, working alongside the many other core team roles, collaborating within the MDT approach, and joining the triage process to widen the offer of provision and support.
The numbers of referrals have been relatively low but due to the level of complexity the cases are open for a number of weeks. The types of support offered by the keyworkers varies from simple social prescribing requests through to coordinating with a range of professionals in order to ensure the right support is in place to enable the clients to improve and manage their lives.
## Enablement
The most common requests for support during 2023-24 were for the following: grants and income maximisation; befriending; social activities, emotional support; Resident Support Scheme; domestic support; housing related issues such as transfers, home repairs and maintenance.
The focus of support for the Enablement team has been around offering practical support for people managing their daily living activities. The cost-of-living crisis has, however, entailed redirecting support and resources to this area also, with the most common support area being grants and managing money which made up 16% of all external referrals to suppliers/providers such as the LBI Income Maximisation Team.
Midway through the year we had our first external case file audit of Enablement cases by LBI. The results highlighted that a more robust system of triaging needed applying to ensure that the needs of the clients are directed to the most relevant and optimum service. Staff were provided with ongoing training and guidance to ensure the work and support provided by the service meets all the Enablement service criteria.
During the course of the year, LBI required additional monitoring information relating to the numbers of council tenants accessing the service. Both quantitative and qualitative
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
information has been added and produced as part of our normal quarterly monitoring reports.
The number of people supported by our Enablement service for 2023-24 was 881 with 1,009 cases of which 35% people new to us. We continued our partnership working with the LBI Reablement Team; referrals from Adult Social Care made up just over 23% of the clients being supported. 41% of cases had an open duration of more than six weeks due to support needs being more complex in nature and therefore requiring additional time to be resolved.
## Future Matters/End of Life planning
Together with partners Gentle Dusk, the dedicated Future Matters Team, made up of committed professionals and Age UK Islington staff and volunteers, continues to increase and expand the scope of the service. Advice and support were extended to people in the early stages of Dementia and their carers in both Haringey and Camden, assisting them with Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) applications and other future planning.
Regular public awareness raising events were organised, offering information, advice and encouragement with planning for the later years of life. These events included in person presentations from the Future Matters team on LPAs both for Finance and Health and Welfare, and Advance Care Planning. This year also saw Will and Funeral Planning presentations being offered, which were well attended and resulted in an increase of requests for further information on these subjects.
Members of the team also presented at various Dementia related community events, throughout Islington and Haringey. Regular Death Cafés continued to be popular where people can discuss any end of life issues concerning them. In addition, information sessions with Health Care Professionals led to a total of 596 people being contacted during the year through outreach activities
Following these events, many people went on to talk to Future Matters volunteers on a one to one basis and put plans in place for the future. Others came to the service through referrals from their GPs, other health professionals, community organisations and Age UK Islington teams.
In the year 2023/2024 the number of end of life care plans completed by Future Matters’ clients increased to 200 from 183 the previous year, most of these plans were LPAs, both for Finance and Health and Welfare, the remainder being Advance Care Plans. Advice was also given to those wishing to complete wills and funeral plans. 148 one-to-one appointments were carried out face to face at Manor Gardens, through home visits, over the telephone or via e-mail making it the busiest year yet for the project.
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## Helpline and Wellbeing Checks
Despite the previous changes to our volunteer practices and policy that require office working only, we have maintained a steady number of Wellbeing Checking volunteers throughout the year however, the comparison from the previous year in terms of outputs was 25% lower in terms of Wellbeing Checks conducted. We continue to maintain and increase our volunteer numbers to help us deliver a higher number of checks. The number of Wellbeing Checks carried out was 1,873 of which 3.5% identified additional support needs.
Our Helpline enquiries have risen by 27% from the previous year. The Helpline handled 13,765 enquiries, of which 64% were from registered clients, 9% from non-registered clients and 15% from health and social care practitioners and other organisations. The remainder were from others such as volunteers, journalists and researchers. An additional 2,942 enquiries were handled relating to ongoing casework.
## Information and Advice
Following the support provided by our team, clients have reported feeling better able to cope financially to maintain their independence. This includes avoiding debt; having more money coming in to cover expenses and being better equipped to manage spending. Some clients reported feeling more secure in their home and keeping it safe and warm and being able to get the practical help and support they need. Many clients have reported increased mental and emotional wellbeing and connectedness to their community.
The Let’s Talk peer support events continues to grow in popularity. These are co-produced with clients and provide monthly group information and advice workshops to Islington residents. The reputation for these events has grown which has also resulted in many external organisations including LBI using these events to conduct their own resident engagement initiatives.
Our outreach advice sessions continue to be successful, and we are now offering appointments at The ARC, Brickworks Community Centre and Ringcross Community Centre. In addition to the outreach service, we provide one-to-one appointments at our office at Manor Gardens and continue to provide home visits to clients when needed throughout the borough.
During 2023-24 the team saw an increase in queries relating to the cost-of-living situation. We worked directly with clients delivering one-to-one advice sessions to 711 clients and an additional 1,115 through group advice sessions. Most of the clients required financial support such as income maximisation, charitable grant applications, fuel debt and housing related issues which are all very consistent with the current cost of living issues faced by many.
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## Islington Carers Hub
As part of the offer to carers we have partnered with Islington Mind who delivered counselling support through 10 or 20 weekly counselling sessions. Once again, this year LBI made additional funding available to run the same programme. As part of the contract, we also partner with Mobilise, a tech start-up run by carers for carers. Mobilise offer light touch support to carers and training and coaching programmes.
The provision for respite remains a main concern for carers with almost 400 carers being connected to providers such as Carefree, who provide any unpaid adult carer who cares for at least 30 hours a week with the opportunity to have access to a weekend break. Emotional support still ranks in the top three of carers’ concerns, which demonstrates the ongoing need for counselling support for which we secured additional funding. The desire by carers for social activities, which also provides a short break from caring, is regularly requested and makes up a third of desired goals for all carers.
We continued to deliver events to mark and celebrate Carers Week and Carers Rights Day and conduct our monthly Carers Talks and Get Togethers. We have also hosted the Carers Strategy Steering Group and other events to ensure continuity and delivery of support to carers. These are offered through a mixture of online, in-person and hybrid events. Throughout the year we have worked with Islington Council on the creation of the new Islington Carers Strategy. This has now been completed and is due to be launched during Carers Week in June 2024.
In the 2023-24 financial year, we engaged with 3,327 carers through 2,367 helpline queries and 960 cases involving complex casework. We have identified and registered 420 new or hidden carers to bring our total registered carers to 3,364. We have also delivered over 100 carer-specific activities, training sessions and events. We have connected carers via signposting and referring on 1,031 occasions to 144 different organisations and agencies.
## Navigation
The Navigation service continues to provide in-depth support to clients with significant health conditions and social care needs. We have seen a rise in the demand and complexity of needs, including financial hardship, debt, homelessness and housing needs, social isolation, managing health conditions, self-neglect, substance misuse and mental health needs. We support clients to achieve their goals through identifying their strengths, exploring options for support and connecting them to appropriate services.
We have found it has been more challenging to access appropriate support, where services have changed their referral criteria, or due to lack of funding or simply because a service is no longer available. We have found this especially so with befriending services, which are significantly reduced, meaning we no longer have access to as many resources, leaving a gap in service provision in a time where social isolation is a rising concern.
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
We continue to attend the Integrated Network Coordination (INC) meetings with GPs and Adult Social Care (ASC); this multi-disciplinary team is a key part of coordinating care and support. We have developed strong connections with ASC, mental health teams and various community services, which enables us to work more effectively to the benefit of clients.
Our outreach work included a presentation with the UCLH Discharge Service, exploring how we can support them. We have been joining the Personalised Care peer support sessions (including Social Prescribing Link Workers, Care Coordinators and Health Coaches) to improve our relationships so they have a better understanding of the Navigation offer and how we can support them. The team completed the Advanced Development Programme with Whittington Health which has helped us to reflect on and improve our work with clients around motivation towards change. We have been attending the Dementia Directory working group, putting together an online directory of relevant services and Dementia related information.
Over the year, the Navigation service has supported 1,021 individuals with 1,236 cases. We connected people to 300+ services and organisations and our average case duration is eight weeks. We now have regular volunteers and interns working with us who have supported us by contacting clients, shadowing and working alongside case workers to provide added value to our clients.
## Proactive Ageing Well Service (PAWS)
The PAWS Navigator role has established itself as a key role within the PAWS Multidisciplinary Team, enabling a more holistic assessment of needs and the involvement of support from a non-medical perspective. Having increased the number of NHS referralpartners we work with we now also support clients via a range of specialist medical teams.
The service worked with over 100 individuals over the past year, providing a wide range of support. The top five requests were for social activities, emotional support, befriending, transport and financial and benefits checks. A range of interventions were implemented to support the ever-increasing number of clients who were presenting with multiple social support needs and complex comorbidities. The PAWS Navigator also made links and connections to internal services at Age UK Islington, specifically the Future Matters service where clients had requested Lasting Power of Attorney support.
## Social Prescribing
This year the service has experienced an increase in referrals related to improving physical health and self-management of long-term health conditions, not only through medication and clinical intervention, but also considering diet and community exercise options. Some of the highlights during the year have been delivering proactive group work, not only one to one case work. This has helped us reach more residents and offer the same level of support and access to services but delivered in interactive model.
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
We partnered with London Metropolitan University dietetics students to support eligible patients who have been diagnosed with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. This workshop focussed on two elements: education and raising awareness of the conditions and improving self-management through available resources and activities in Islington. This was a huge success, and we secured more than 200 attendees, and we will offer further sessions in summer 2024.
We worked with asylum seekers, delivering sessions, raising awareness of NHS services and improving physical health through local provision for food, motivation and exercise at home and local activities. Options included green gyms, classes from community centres, access to free gyms and sport activities, creative classes, and social meet ups.
During 2023/24 we worked with 2,180 patients, who booked appointments with someone from their primary care team for social-economic issues or a wish to improve their wellbeing. Overall, this is a 13% year on year increase and the team managed to work without placing referrals on waiting list. These numbers have shown growth for the fourth year in a row.
## Volunteer involvement
We recruited 22 new volunteers in the past year and of those 20 were still active as of 31[st] March. The number of active volunteers at the end of March was 53 and they were spread between different services in the following roles: Get Together Hosts/Activity Tutors (13), Future Matters (11), Information and Advice (3), Wellbeing Callers (9), Communications (1), Navigation (2), Data Entry (1), Carers Hub volunteers (3) and promotions (2). The hours of volunteer and intern input totals approximately 194 hours each week, providing enormous assistance to the organisation.
We distribute newsletters and regular updates to our volunteers, including job opportunities and free training. We have also nominated volunteers to the Islington Volunteer of the Year Awards organised by Voluntary Action Islington, and we continue with the Tempo Time Credits scheme, a reward scheme where hours spent volunteering can be exchanged for credits which can then be used as payment at venues, courses and exhibitions across the UK.
Through our continual engagement with volunteers their feedback has highlighted some recommendations such as volunteer training subjects and the need for more in-person training sessions particularly for long-serving volunteers. Volunteers have also mentioned that they would like refresher training which we will facilitate on topics such as managing challenging behaviour, data protection, and safeguarding training. Some of our wellbeing callers mentioned they would like further information about support available, so they are better placed to inform and support the people they talk to.
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
Our Volunteer Recruitment Administrator attends the Volunteer Peer Support Network meetings organised by Age UK National and attended by Volunteer Coordinators from across the country. These gives an opportunity to discuss issues around volunteer recruitment and retention including how to get better organised and share resources regarding the training of volunteers, for example, a more unified training programme for volunteers.
## Partnership working
It has been another great year for partnership working where we have developed new partnerships and continue to embed and enhance our work with existing partners.
With an awareness that a large proportion of Islington residents are not online, we have introduced a new quarterly printed Get Together newsletter, featuring not just the activities and workshops delivered by Age UK Islington, but also a selection from some of the Islington Council teams that deliver activities.
Four Staying Well events have provided an excellent opportunity to bring to life the different areas of the wellbeing support that Age UK Islington provides – for both Islington residents, health and social care professionals and other community organisations. These have also served to build and consolidate partnerships within different wellbeing areas. These events provided the opportunity for the consolidation of a network of professional partners within key areas of Age UK Islington’s support (Housing, Mobility, Safety; Training and Employment; Social Connection; Health including Men’s Health).
We have developed partnerships with the Parks for Health team and Leisure and Islington Libraries teams, supporting the promotion of their activities including dedicated pages in the quarterly Get Together newsletters. This is particularly aimed at clients who are digitally excluded as we communicate through the post as opposed to online.
We have worked with the Islington Council Cultural and Inequalities team, helping to promote their Windrush events via Age UK Islington channels, featuring this on the back cover of the summer printed Get Together newsletter. We have liaised with library managers with regards to displaying our Get Together newsletters.
We continue to work well with Mobilise and Islington Mind who we sub-contract as part of our Carers Hub delivery. We have been working with mental health services in the borough and have bi-monthly meetings with North London Mental Health Partnership colleagues to discuss unpaid carer support and initiatives.
We have worked with British Red Cross on first aid training for clients, and with iCope for mental health advocacy workshops. Our Navigation team has been working with the
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust discharge teams on how we can support the discharge teams in enabling people to return home following a stay in hospital.
We regularly meet with Islington Council’s Reablement Service through their MDTs. This works to improve referral pathways, working in conjunction with them to enable earlier discharge from their service where we step in and take on the support. We have been working closely with Peabody and Hyde Charitable Trust in delivering information and advice outreach sessions at community centres and foodbank locations across the borough.
Members of our senior management team continue to be active members of the locality leadership teams and the Bright Lives Alliance which results in knowledge sharing and the development of joint initiatives. We have close working relationships with statutory services who use our Let’s Talk events as a platform for resident engagement on topics such as social care services, housing, future initiatives and a chance to feedback on service delivery.
We are regular attendees of the Adults Safeguarding Board, and we have been a key player in the consultation regarding the development of the borough’s carers strategy. With regards to our social prescribing work, we have connected with Race Equality London on the needs of BME groups who access social prescribing to make a comparison of need and how this compares to other groups.
Our ongoing and new partnerships continue to play a huge part in the delivery of services, activities and events during the year and we look forward to the continuation of these partnerships.
## Communications and marketing
Digital marketing is a core part of Age UK Islington’s communications. We send tailored newsletters to more than 5,000 clients as well as regular digital mailings. These mailings obtain a good level of engagement (open rates and clicks). The newsletters and mailings highlight the broad range of wellbeing support that Age UK Islington and Islington Carers Hub provide – promoting AUKI, ICH & partner activities and workshops, sharing tips and guidance related to day-to-day issues and showcasing a cross-section of the support provided by the organisation. This is supported by posts on social media channels and sharing information on the Age UK Islington website.
To help overcome the digital divide between those clients who are online and the significant proportion who are not, we made use of funding from Age UK to reach, by post, and invite clients to four in-person events across the borough to promote different areas of wellbeing. These events were promoted via targeted postal mailings to clients who are not on email, who are older and who live alone. The introduction of a new paid-for texting plan that
19
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
integrates with our CRM enables us to reach clients who are not on email but who have a mobile phone number.
Our campaigns have focused on national awareness days and key wellbeing areas to achieve increased awareness amongst the wider sector of the type of support we provide. Key campaigns have focused on Great Mental Health Day, Dying Matters Week, Dementia Awareness Week, Carers Week, Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, Silver Sunday and Carers Rights Day.
We worked towards the launch of a new website for the Islington Carers Hub, which includes content to help people to identify whether they are carers and to guide them through the process of getting support. It also has a new Help and Advice hub, with succinct content to introduce carers to the key things they need to know as carers, and links to additional sources of more in-depth content from local and national organisations. It also includes an events and news section, a section for professionals, information on the Islington Carers Partnership Network and referral forms to make it easier for someone to self-refer and for professionals to refer a newly identified carer to us.
## Plans for the future
We continue to work through the remainder of our 2021-24 organisational strategy. We are successfully sustaining current contracts and have now started to develop new services which will serve to support and complement our portfolio.
We have continued to work in partnership with Islington Mind in delivering counselling to carers and we are very much on the way to developing our befriending and counselling services which will enable us to make even more of a difference to the lives of isolated and lonely residents.
As we are in the final year of our current strategy, we are starting to consider the focus of our next one. This work will take place in the second half of the year with the intention of launching our new strategy early in 2025. We do know that a significant focus of our support for residents will be in the areas of isolation and loneliness, emotional support, long term health conditions and poverty.
The search for additional funding will continue and we are investigating the possibility of corporate support as well as continuing our efforts to secure voluntary income from trusts and foundations.
We will continue to work with our cross-sector colleagues as part of the Islington Councilled Bright Lives Alliance partnership, working on joint projects to meet the current need we are seeing in the borough such as poverty and mental health. As part of this we will aim to
20
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
continue running bi-monthly cost of living support events in partnership with the VCS and Islington Council. We are also involved with the initiative of integrated care across the health and social care sectors in the borough and will support joint initiatives and services wherever relevant and possible.
We will continue to expand our involvement of volunteers in our service delivery. We have two new roles currently being developed – counselling and befriending – and are positive that we will have no difficulty in recruiting people who wish to support these important services.
Outreach work has been hugely successful over the past year, benefiting many residents and informing organisations and professionals about how we can support their clients. We plan to proactively target a wider client group and deliver workshops on health inequalities and ways clients can make practical changes to their lives to improve their health. We aim to increase our presence across the borough by having our staff as regular attendees at council hubs, community centres and other sites, all with the intention of making those in the community feel they can easily access our services and support.
## Equality, diversity and inclusion
AUKI is committed to promoting equality of opportunity, celebrating and valuing diversity, eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, including cyber or e-bullying and harassment, and promoting good relations.
AUKI is committed to equal opportunities in employment and service delivery and will take every possible step to ensure that no person working for the organisation or seeking employment with us, or anyone using our services, will receive less favourable treatment or will be disadvantaged by requirements or conditions that cannot be shown to be justifiable on the grounds of their age, disability (including mental health), gender, gender reassignment, ethnicity, faith or religion, sexual orientation, marital or civil partnership status, socio-economic status or family status.
Our aim is to:
- work towards the elimination of discrimination
- create a positive culture where diversity, inclusion and respect are core values are at the centre of all our activities
- encourage positive action to overcome disadvantage and discrimination
- ensure the highest possible standards are achieved in the delivery of our services
- ensure equality, diversity and inclusion is promoted through our work, both internally and externally.
21
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
**For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## Financial Review 2023-24
Annual income for 2023-24 increased by £381,365, from £1,825,652 in 2022-23 to £2,207,017 in 2023-24. This was an annual increase of 21%. This follows an increase of 17% in the previous year.
Annual expenditure year-on-year increased by £408,764, from £1,659,895 in 2022-23 to £2,068,659 in 2023-24. This was an annual increase of 25%,
As a result, a surplus of £138,358 (2022-23: £165,757) was generated before considering gains on investments of £26,079 (2022-23: £18,500 loss).
This better than budgeted result was achieved through income for the core activities of the charity being c.£110,000 more than budgeted. Expenditure was c.£75,000 less than budgeted. The charity had budgeted for a small (£45,000) deficit for the year in its core activities.
Expenditure was lower than budgeted – but still up year-on-year – due to difficulties recruiting staff to run both existing and new contracts and replacing staff that left the organisation. Widely reported recruiting problems across the economy, especially in the health and care sector, also affected AUKI. It is to the credit of the staff that they continued to deliver both for our service users and against the contractual KPIs agreed with our funders.
Investments gained £26,079 in value, having fallen by £18,500 in 2022-23. When those gains are accounted for, the annual surplus becomes £164,437 (2022-23: £147,257) with £167,112 (2022-23: £141,932) contributed to unrestricted funds.
In the year, we invested £50,000 in COIF Charities Investment Fund managed by CCLA in addition to our c£275,000 invested with Rathbones. We continue to keep these investments under review – our aim is to generate both income and long-term capital growth for the charity.
The rapid rise in interest rates made deposit accounts more attractive than they were during the years of low interest rates and we responded to that by investing c.£550,000 in the COIF Charities Deposit Fund which has consistently paid interest rates of more than 4% throughout the financial year.
At the end of the year total funds were £1,279,624 (2022-23: £1,115,187) of which £1,243,047 (2022-23: £1,075,935) were unrestricted. After agreed designations for organisational development, general funds amounted to £926,297 (2022-23: £1,024,535).
22
**Age Concern Islington**
**For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## Structure, Governance and Management
Age UK Islington (AUKI) is the operating name for Age Concern Islington, a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity founded in February 1963. Its governing instrument is its current Memorandum and Articles of Association. The former was approved in 2006, and a revised version of the latter was approved in 2021.
AUKI has a diverse Board of Trustees, 67% of whose membership is made up of local people, 56% older people and 33% from a Black and Minority Ethnic background. We currently have six female and three male trustees.
The charity’s governing body is the Board of Trustees, whose members are trustees under charity law and directors for the purposes of the Companies Acts. Trustees and Honorary Officers are elected by the members of the charity at the Annual General Meeting for a term of three years and may be co-opted in between AGMs. Trustees can serve a maximum of three three-year terms.
Members of the Board of Trustees of the charitable company each guarantee to contribute an amount not exceeding £1 to the assets of the charitable company in the event of winding up. The total number of such guarantees at 31 March 2024 was 9 (2023: 10). Members of the Board of Trustees have no beneficial interest in the group or charitable company. Any potential conflicts of interest are recorded annually, and updated at every Board meeting, so that these can be monitored and managed as necessary.
Our subsidiary trading company, Islington Age Concern Trading Company, which provided consultancy and support services for other charities in data management and service redesign, operating under the trading name Outcomes Plus, is now dormant and there has not been any activity in 2023-24.
## Senior Management Remuneration
The senior management team comprises the key management personnel of the charity in charge of directing it on a day-to-day basis.
The pay of the senior staff, including the CEO, is reviewed annually. In view of the nature of the charity, the Trustees benchmark against pay levels in other charities of a similar size, taking advice from recruitment consultants where these are used, for example in the recruitment to the CEO position. The remuneration benchmark is the mid-point of the range paid for similar roles adjusted for a weighting of up to 30% for any additional responsibilities. If recruitment has proven difficult in the recent past a market addition is also paid.
23
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
**For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## Trustee recruitment and training
Trustees are recruited by various means. We contact local voluntary groups and companies from time to time setting out our needs and inviting applications. We also use online recruitment systems, social media, networks and sometimes interested parties approach us directly. We seek to cover a specified range of expertise and backgrounds on the Board of Trustees.
Normally the Chair or members of the Governance Committee will meet a prospective trustee to discuss their application. A trustee may be co-opted by the Board of Trustees before the AGM. Any appointment is put to the subsequent AGM for Members to vote on.
Each new trustee is inducted by both the Chair and the CEO. The topics covered are the organisational structure, an overview of services delivered, contracts and funding information, the governance structure, the annual report and accounts and the organisational strategy. Trustees also receive a Trustee Handbook and relevant policies such as the Trustee Code of Conduct, Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality. Other documents provided are previous Board of Trustees meeting minutes, Articles and Memorandum of Association and data protection information. Trustees have taken part in joint awaydays with the staff team and have also taken on individual pieces of work with some staff members.
## Statement of responsibilities of the trustees
The trustees (who are also directors of Age Concern Islington for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the report of the trustees 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 company and group and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the 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
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
**For the year ended 31 March 2024**
- Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.
The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company 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 group 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 auditor is 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 auditor is 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.
## Going concern
The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern. In reaching that conclusion, the trustees have considered the effect of the ongoing cost-of-living situation on current and future activities and organisational cash flows.
Our funding is secure in the medium term and the service delivery model has been, and will continue to be, adapted to ensure the charity meets both the needs of its clients and the expectations of its funders. With the additional security offered by its balance of free reserves the trustees remain confident in the charity's ability to continue operating for the next 12 months.
## Principal sources of funding
AUKI is very grateful to all funders, donors, trusts and grant makers who have supported our work this year.
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
In line with the charity’s present strategy, the principal source of funding consists of commissioned service contracts from statutory bodies. During 2023-24 statutory funders included the London Borough of Islington, the North Central London Integrated Care Board and Noth West London Mental Health Partnership. We also undertook subcontracted service provision with the Islington GP Federation.
Other sources of funding include grant-making bodies and corporate donations. During 2023-24 the following organisations, grant-making trusts and corporate donors contributed funding to support our work:
A2Dominion, partnering with Peabody, Metropolitan Thames Valley, Sovereign Network Group, Clarion Housing Group and Hyde Housing Association.
Age UK National Archway Central Hall Methodist Church Cloudesley Emanuel Hospital charity Human Made Machine Hyde Charitable Trust Islington Giving Peabody
The National Lottery Community Fund has distributed the Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund, using funds from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
During 2023-24 the charity received £4,459.44 as unsolicited donations from individuals. We are deeply grateful to all those who provide funding to help us support the wellbeing of local people.
In carrying out funding-related activities we ensure that the charity is compliant with fundraising codes, specifically the updated Code issued by the Fundraising Regulator in October 2019.
Age UK Islington does not engage in public fundraising and does not use external professional fundraisers or commercial participators. Age UK Islington nevertheless observes and complies with the relevant fundraising regulations and codes. During the year there was no non-compliance with these regulations and codes and Age UK Islington received no complaints relating to its fundraising.
26
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## Reserves Policy
Unrestricted reserves comprise both designated and free reserves. The balance of free reserves is assigned to meet the requirements of the charity’s reserves policy. The free reserves held by AUKI on 31 March 2024 amounted to £926,297.
The aim of the reserves policy is to retain sufficient resources to ensure the sustainability of our charitable activities for the benefit of beneficiaries who depend on us for support for a range of situations and circumstances. The charity must be reasonably able to cope with the variations in income and expenditure that can easily affect charities.
The AUKI policy is to hold sufficient funds to cover all wind-up costs in the event of actual or pending insolvency or, in the event of the loss of one or more contracts or other sudden drop in income that falls short of insolvency, to cover core costs for a sufficient time to find new sources of income or make appropriate cost reductions.
As of 31 March 2024, and based on the current year’s budget, that range was £450,000 - £675,000. Should our reserves reach either of these points the board would have to consider what actions to take either to ensure the charity’s survival or to wind it up.
The balance of our reserves in excess of the stated range is held to cover financial uncertainties and make investments in new services or in improving the operations of the charity.
The board is aware of, and is in complete agreement with, the Charity Commission’s view that charity assets are there to be used for the benefit of service users and has agreed, for example, to designate £180,000 from reserves to cover the launch of our new counselling service over its first three years as a pilot service prior to seeking longer term funding from trusts and foundations.
The main uncertainties and possible future expenditure items against which the charity needs to hold reserves include the following:
- Service development in general areas or for specific projects
- General development of the organisation
- Improvements of premises and equipment
- Planning for structural changes in staffing
- Planning for our response to any future pandemic
- Late receipt of income from funders
- Interim financial cover
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**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
- Occasional, irregular expenditure.
These are ‘known unknowns’, but it is not sensible, in our opinion, to attempt to quantify them individually.
## Risk management
AUKI has a Finance Committee which is chaired by the charity’s Treasurer and meets six times a year. The major risks facing the charity are reviewed by this committee at least twice a year and are also reviewed by the Board of Trustees twice a year, so there is substantial consideration of the risks faced.
Each risk is identified, assessed, and scored for its likelihood of occurring and the level of impact should the risk event occur. Part of this process ensures mitigating measures are identified and agreed to reduce the higher risks to a level that is comfortable for the organisation and acceptable to the Board of Trustees. It is recognised that it is not possible to exist without any risk, but with the analysis and risk register in place, the Board of Trustees is comfortable that the range of measures and controls put in place means that we operate at an acceptable risk level.
The principal risks currently faced by AUKI are as follows:
1. Reliance on contract income from the London Borough of Islington, the North Central London Integrated Care Board, North London Mental Health Partnership and the Islington GP Federation.
To mitigate this, we ensure that the contracts continue the current high-performance levels as well as meeting and surpassing our targets and we continually strive to secure new contracts. Continued high performance on delivering on our contracts is the most effective control against targeted cuts. We also review priorities, trends, and the needs of our client group in conversation with our commissioners and plan according to the trends and issues that arise, whilst also considering population health and public health data to calculate the most effective way of supporting our client group.
We have, as part of a fundraising strategy, developed alternative income streams and are contracting a freelance trusts and foundations fundraiser to raise funds to develop a range of non-contracted services.
2. Reserves are at an historically high level but are in line with our reserves policy at present and this may be seen as a barrier to funding by grant-funding organisations.
28
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
We hold a considerable level of reserves and in the past year have continued to develop the organisation in line with our 2021-24 organisational strategy. This funding was put towards the appointment of newly created posts to support our Information and Advice service, and foundation work in supporting new service development. It also continues to fund the enhancement of the staff team on our Helpline service.
3. The withdrawal of contracts and losing contracts to competitors in and outside the borough or a change of emphasis and focus by statutory funders.
We are in regular communication with commissioners and discuss the funding situation and contracting environment and maintain a respected level of performance. We can adapt to a changing environment and can be flexible in responding to shifting needs and focus. We have reserves in place to continue delivering a service to our beneficiaries and through our ongoing contact with other VCS organisations in the borough and are able to respond, individually or as a partnership, to the situation. We have continued to work collaboratively with our statutory funders and have been flexible to adapt to changing needs, for example, in developing a cardiac rehabilitation social prescribing support service.
During 2024-25 we will continue to put funds into our investment accounts. We will also utilise a percentage of our reserves to develop additional and complementary services, such as a counselling service, and to fund continuing development.
## Auditor
Sayer Vincent LLP was re-appointed as the charitable company's auditor during the year and has expressed its willingness to continue in that capacity.
The report of the trustees has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.
Approved by the trustees on 30 September 2024 and signed on their behalf by
Howard Sharman Chair
29
**Independent auditor`s report**
## **To the members of**
## **Age Concern Islington**
## Opinion
We have audited the financial statements of Age Concern Islington (the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 31 March 2024 which comprise the statement of financial activities, balance sheet, statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
In our opinion, the financial statements:
- Give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2024 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure for the year then ended
- Have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice
- Have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006
## Basis for opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
## Conclusions relating to going concern
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on Age Concern Islington’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.
30
**Independent auditor`s report**
## **To the members of**
## **Age Concern Islington**
## 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. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
## Opinion 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’ annual report, for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
- The trustees’ annual report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
## Matters on which we are required to report by exception
In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the trustees’ annual report . We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
- Adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
- The financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
- Certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
- We have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or
31
**Independent auditor`s report**
## **To the members of**
## **Age Concern Islington**
- The trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in preparing the trustees’ annual report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.
## Responsibilities of trustees
As explained more fully in the statement of trustees’ responsibilities set out in the trustees’ annual report, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
## Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud are set out below.
32
**Independent auditor`s report**
## **To the members of**
## **Age Concern Islington**
## Capability of the audit in detecting irregularities
In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:
- We enquired of management which included obtaining and reviewing supporting documentation, concerning the charity’s policies and procedures relating to:
- Identifying, evaluating, and complying with laws and regulations and whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance;
- Detecting and responding to the risks of fraud and whether they have knowledge of any actual, suspected, or alleged fraud;
- The internal controls established to mitigate risks related to fraud or noncompliance with laws and regulations.
- We inspected the minutes of meetings of those charged with governance.
- We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the charity operates in, focusing on those laws and regulations that had a material effect on the financial statements or that had a fundamental effect on the operations of the charity from our professional and sector experience.
- We communicated applicable laws and regulations throughout the audit team and remained alert to any indications of non-compliance throughout the audit.
- We reviewed any reports made to regulators.
- We reviewed the financial statement disclosures and tested these to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
- We performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of material misstatement due to fraud.
- In addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, we tested the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments, assessed whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias and tested significant transactions that are unusual or those 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.
33
**Independent auditor`s report**
## **To the members of**
## **Age Concern Islington**
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities _._ This description forms part of our auditor’s report.
## Use of our report
This report is made solely to the charitable company's members as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
Joanna Pittman (Senior statutory auditor)
Date: 25 October 2024 for and on behalf of Sayer Vincent LLP, Statutory Auditor 110 Golden Lane, LONDON, EC1Y 0TG
34
## **Age Concern Islington**
**Statement of financial activities** (incorporating income and expenditure account)
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
|**2024**
Unrestricted
Restricted
**Total**
Note
£
£
**£**
**Income from:**
Donations
30,460
32,347
**62,807**
Charitable activities:
Information, advice and support planning
3
541,110
111,133
**652,243**
Enabling independence
3
1,395,974
-
**1,395,974**
Activities and wellbeing
3
53,194
-
**53,194**
Investments
34,224
-
**34,224**
Other sources
8,575
-
**8,575**
**Total income**
2,063,537
143,480
**2,207,017**
**Expenditure on:**
Raising funds
4
15,294
-
**15,294**
Charitable activities:
Information, advice and support planning
4
574,901
102,156
**677,057**
Enabling independence
4
856,714
42,902
**899,616**
Activities and wellbeing
4
476,692
-
**476,692**
Capacity building
4
-
-
**-**
**Total expenditure**
1,923,601
145,058
**2,068,659**
139,936
(1,578)
**138,358**
Net gains/(losses) on investments
11a
26,079
-
**26,079**
166,015
(1,578)
**164,437**
Transfers between funds
16
1,097
(1,097)
**-**
5
167,112
(2,675)
**164,437**
**Reconciliation of funds:**
Total funds brought forward
16
1,075,935
39,252
**1,115,187**
**Total funds carried forward**
16
1,243,047
36,577
**1,279,624**
**Net income/(expenditure) for the year and**
**net movement in funds**
**Net income/(expenditure) before net**
**gains/(losses) on investments**|2023
Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
£
£
£
18,802
37,128
55,930
460,618
39,100
499,718
1,208,158
-
1,208,158
47,192
-
47,192
14,654
-
14,654
-
-
-|
|---|---|
||1,749,424
76,228
1,825,652|
||16,309
-
16,309
509,190
34,077
543,267
925,837
26,593
952,430
95,725
10,233
105,958
41,931
-
41,931|
||1,588,992
70,903
1,659,895|
||160,432
5,325
165,757
(18,500)
-
(18,500)|
||141,932
5,325
147,257
-
-
-|
||141,932
5,325
147,257
934,003
33,927
967,930|
||1,075,935
39,252
1,115,187|
All of the above results are derived from continuing activities. There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. Movements in funds are disclosed in Note 16 to the financial statements.
35
**Age Concern Islington**
**Balance sheet** Company no. 3039668 **As at 31 March 2024**
|Note
**Fixed assets**
Tangible assets
10
Investments
11
**Current assets**
Debtors
12
Cash at bank and in hand
17
**Liabilities**
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
13
**Net current assets**
**Total net assets**
15a
**The funds of the charity**
16a
Restricted income funds
Unrestricted income funds:
Designated funds
General funds
Total unrestricted funds
**Total charity funds**|**2024**
**£**
**-**
**332,808**
**332,808**
**131,555**
**995,849**
**1,127,404**
**(180,588)**
**946,816**
**1,279,624**
**36,577**
**316,750**
**926,297**
**1,243,047**
**1,279,624**|2023
£
-
256,729|
|---|---|---|
|||256,729|
|||116,469
839,314|
|||955,783|
|||(97,325)|
|||858,458|
||||
|||1,115,187|
|||39,252|
|||51,400
1,024,535|
|||1,075,935|
||||
|||1,115,187|
Approved by the trustees on 30 September 2024 and signed on their behalf by:
Howard Sharman Chair
36
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Statement of cash flows**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **Reconciliation of net income to net cash flow from operating activities**
|**Net income for the reporting period**
**(as per the statement of financial activities)**
Dividends and interest received from investments
(Gains)/losses on investments
(Increase)/decrease in debtors
Increase/(decrease) in creditors
**Net cash provided by operating activities**
Note
**Cash flows from operating activities**
**Net cash provided by operating activities**
**Cash flows from investing activities:**
Dividends, interest and rents from investments
Purchase of investments
**Net cash provided used in investing activities**
**Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year**
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year
**Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year**
17|**2024**
**£**
**164,437**
**(34,224)**
**(26,079)**
**(15,086)**
**83,263**
**172,311**
**£**
**£**
**172,311**
**34,224**
**(50,000)**
**(15,776)**
**156,535**
**839,314**
**995,849**
**2024**|2023
£
147,257
(14,654)
18,500
40,368
(21,698)
169,773
2023|2023
£
147,257
(14,654)
18,500
40,368
(21,698)|
|---|---|---|---|
||||169,773|
|||£
£
169,773
14,654
(50,000)
(35,346)
134,427
704,887
839,314||
|||||
||||134,427
704,887|
||||839,314|
37
**Age Concern Islington**
**Notes to the financial statements**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **1 Accounting policies**
## **a) Statutory information**
Age Concern Islington is a charitable company limited by guarantee and is incorporated in the United Kingdom.
The registered office address is 6-9 Manor Gardens, London, N7 6LA.
## **b) 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) - (Charities SORP FRS 102), The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.
Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy or note.
The charitable company is the parent entity of a wholly-owned subsidiary, Islington Age Concern Trading Company Ltd. These accounts do not consolidate the income and expenditure or assets and liabilities of the trading subsidiary as these are not material to the accounts.
In applying the financial reporting framework, the trustees have made a number of subjective judgements, for example in respect of significant accounting estimates. Estimates and judgements are continually evaluated and are based on historical experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. The nature of the estimation means the actual outcomes could differ from those estimates. Any significant estimates and judgements affecting these financial statements are detailed within the relevant accounting policy below.
No key judgements have been required to be made by the charitable company which have a significant 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 amounts of assets and liabilities within the next reporting period.
## **c) Public benefit entity**
The charitable company meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.
## **d) Going concern**
The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties regarding the charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern. In reaching that conclusion, the trustees have considered the impact of various scenarios on future activities and cash flows and are confident that, even in the worst case, the balance of free reserves and the charity’s adaptable service delivery model will ensure the charity's ability to continue operating for a period in excess of 12 months from when these accounts are approved.
38
**Age Concern Islington**
**Notes to the financial statements**
**For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **1 Accounting policies (continued)**
## **e) Income**
Income, including 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 income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and that the amount can be measured reliably.
Grants are credited to incoming resources when they are receivable as the charity's own money, unless they are for activities that relate to a specific future period, in which case they are deferred to that period. Income received under contracts for services is recognised in the financial statements in proportion to the percentage of completion of the contract.
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 will 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 charity, 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 as a contingent asset and disclosed if material.
## **f) Investment income**
Distributions from listed investments are included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity; this is normally the date on which the holding is first quoted ex dividend or the end date of the period for which it is accrued as notified by the fund manager.
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**
Restricted funds are to be used for specific purposes as laid down by the donor. Expenditure which meets these criteria is charged to the fund, together with a fair allocation of overheads and support costs.
Unrestricted funds are donations and other incoming resources received or generated for the charitable purposes.
Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular purposes.
## **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 relate to the costs incurred by the charitable company in encouraging third parties to make voluntary contributions to it, as well as the cost of any activities with a fundraising purpose.
- § Expenditure on charitable activities includes the costs of information and advice, independence enablement, activity and wellbeing and capacity building services 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.
39
**Age Concern Islington**
**Notes to the financial statements**
**For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **1 Accounting policies (continued)**
## **i) Allocation of support costs**
Resources expended are allocated to the particular activity where the cost relates directly to that activity. However, the cost of overall direction and administration of each activity, comprising the salary and overhead costs of the central function, is apportioned on the following basis which is an estimate, based on staff time, of the amount attributable to each activity.
|§
Costs of raising funds
§
Information, advice and support planning
§
Enabling independence
§
Activities and well-being
§
Capacity building
§
Support costs
§
Governance costs|**2024**
**2023**
**%**
**%**
-
-
27
27
37
58
25
5
-
2
10
8
1
-|
|---|---|
||100
100|
Support and governance costs are re-allocated to each of the activities on the following basis which is an estimate, based on staff time, of the amount attributable to each activity:
|§
Costs of raising funds
§
Information, advice and support planning
§
Enabling independence
§
Activities and well-being
§
Capacity building|**2024**
**2023**
**%**
**%**
-
-
30
34
44
49
26
14
-
3|
|---|---|
||100
100|
Governance costs are the costs associated with the governance arrangements of the charity. These costs are associated with constitutional and statutory requirements and include any costs associated with the strategic management of the charity’s activities.
## **j) Operating leases**
Rentals payable under operating leases, where substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership remain with the lessor, are charged to the statement of financial activities on a straight line basis over the length of the lease.
## **k) Tangible fixed assets**
Items of equipment are capitalised where the purchase price exceeds £2,000. Depreciation costs are allocated to activities on the basis of the use of the related assets in those activities. Assets are reviewed for impairment if circumstances indicate their carrying value may exceed their net realisable value and value in use.
Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write down the cost of each asset to its estimated residual value over its expected useful life. The depreciation rates in use are as follows:
Office equipment 4 years IT infrastructure 3 years
## **l) 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.
40
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Notes to the financial statements**
**For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **1 Accounting policies (continued)**
## **m) 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 acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account.
## **n) 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 obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.
## **o) Investments**
Investments in subsidiaries are at cost.
Listed investments are included in the balance sheet at bid price. Realised gains and losses on disposals in the year and unrealised gains and losses on investments at the balance sheet date are included in the Statement of Financial Activities for the relevant underlying funds.
## **p) Pensions**
The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity in an independently administered fund. The pension cost charge represents contributions payable under the scheme by the charity to the fund. The charity has no liability under the scheme other than for the payment of those contributions.
41
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Notes to the financial statements**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **2 Income from donations**
|Age UK - affiliation income
Trusts and foundations
Other donations|**2024**
Unrestricted Restricted
**Total**
£
£
**£**
10,000
-
**10,000**
16,000
32,347
**48,347**
4,460
-
**4,460**
30,460
32,347
**62,807**|2023
Unrestricted Restricted
Total
£
£
£
10,000
-
10,000
5,000
37,128
42,128
3,802
-
3,802|
|---|---|---|
|||18,802
37,128
55,930|
## **3 Income from charitable activities**
|London Borough of Islington:
Information and signposting
Islington Carers' Hub
Age UK: Cost of Living Response Fund
The National Lottery Community Fund
Emanuel Hospital charity
End of Life Care: Future Matters
Hyde Charitable Trust: Advice outreach
A2Dominion - Let's Talk
Hyde Charitable Trust - Let's Talk
Peabody - Let's Talk
Donations and other income, under £10,000 each
National Health Servcie:
Community Mental Health outreach
London Borough of Islington:
Community Mental Health outreach
Enablement service
NCL Integrated Care Board:
Care Navigation service
Frailty Navigation service
Islington GP Group Ltd:
Care Coordinators
Social Prescribing
**Sub-total for enabling independence activities**
London Borough of Islington:
Activities service
Green Social Prescribing
**Donations and other income, under £10,000 each**
**Sub-total for activities and wellbeing activities**
**Total income from charitable activities**
**Sub-total for information, advice and support**
**planning activities**|`
**2024**
Unrestricted Restricted
**Total**
£
£
**£**
141,100
-
**141,100**
348,985
29,976
**378,961**
-
29,703
**29,703**
16,485
27,475
**43,960**
-
12,500
**12,500**
21,160
-
**21,160**
-
-
**-**
-
1,000
**1,000**
-
3,705
**3,705**
-
6,774
**6,774**
13,380
-
**13,380**
541,110
111,133
**652,243**
270,000
-
**270,000**
-
-
**-**
298,432
-
**298,432**
387,030
-
**387,030**
47,552
-
**47,552**
22,248
-
**22,248**
370,712
-
**370,712**
1,395,974
-
**1,395,974**
51,100
-
**51,100**
1,990
-
**1,990**
104
-
**104**
53,194
-
**53,194**
1,990,278
111,133
**2,101,411**|2023
Unrestricted Restricted
Total
£
£
£
91,533
-
91,533
348,985
-
348,985
-
10,000
10,000
-
-
-
10,625
10,625
20,100
-
20,100
13,500
13,500
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
4,975
4,975|
|---|---|---|
|||460,618
39,100
499,718|
|||-
-
-
92,563
-
92,563
355,060
-
355,060
387,030
-
387,030
47,552
-
47,552
62,862
-
62,862
263,091
-
263,091|
|||1,208,158
-
1,208,158|
|||40,000
-
40,000
1,990
-
1,990
5,202
-
5,202|
|||47,192
-
47,192|
|||1,715,968
39,100
1,755,068|
42
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Notes to the financial statements**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **4a Analysis of expenditure (current year)**
|**Analysis of expenditure (current year)**||
|---|---|
|Staff costs (Note 6)
Other staff costs
Direct activity costs
Welfare payments
Premises
Office, communications and equipment
Compliance, legal etc
Support costs
Governance costs
**Total expenditure 2024**|Fundraising
Information,
advice and
support
planning
Enabling
independence
Activities
and
wellbeing
Support
costs
Governance
costs
**2024**
**Total**
£
£
£
£
£
£
**£**
10,260
414,348
556,552
351,545
184,568
14,558
**1,531,831**
33
9,064
6,622
4,131
10,739
63
**30,652**
3,509
115,946
101,341
3,314
2,980
178
**227,268**
-
222
43,911
-
-
-
**44,133**
253
20,515
27,916
18,654
7,492
397
**75,227**
322
25,486
30,761
21,394
11,987
503
**90,453**
11
5,847
6,264
4,199
27,953
24,821
**69,095**
-
Charitable activities|
||14,388
591,428
773,367
403,237
245,719
40,520
**2,068,659**
761
73,387
108,617
62,954
(245,719)
-
**-**
145
12,242
17,632
10,501
-
(40,520)
**-**|
||**15,294**
**677,057**
**899,616**
**476,692**
**-**
**-**
**2,068,659**|
43
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Notes to the financial statements**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **4b Analysis of expenditure (prior year)**
|**Analysis of expenditure (prior year)**||
|---|---|
|Staff costs (Note 6)
Other staff costs
Direct activity costs
Welfare payments
Premises
Office, communications and equipment
Compliance, legal etc
Support costs
Governance costs
**Total expenditure 2023**|Fundraising
Information,
advice and
support
planning
Enabling
independence
Activities
and
wellbeing
Capacity
building
Support
costs
Governance
costs **2023 Total**
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
**£**
14,294
348,444
707,404
59,593
26,766
134,431
5,688
**1,296,620**
128
5,738
23,112
639
3,171
27,156
34
**59,978**
145
73,176
5,350
10,380
1,105
2,194
2
**92,352**
-
600
25,346
-
-
-
-
**25,946**
710
18,542
40,121
2,890
1,659
5,035
186
**69,143**
979
25,668
53,841
5,309
3,348
7,335
250
**96,730**
53
5,694
2,998
216
111
376
9,678
**19,126**
Charitable activities|
||16,309
477,862
858,172
79,027
36,160
176,527
15,838
**1,659,895**
-
60,019
86,498
24,714
5,296
(176,527)
-
**-**
-
5,386
7,760
2,217
475
-
(15,838)
**-**|
||**16,309**
**543,267**
**952,430**
**105,958**
**41,931**
**-**
**-**
**1,659,895**|
44
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Notes to the financial statements**
**For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **5 Net income for the year**
|**Net income for the year**|||
|---|---|---|
|This is stated after charging|**2024**|2023|
||**£**|£|
|Operating lease rentals:|||
|Property|**74,336**|86,100|
|Other|**1,226**|1,971|
|Auditor's remuneration (excluding VAT):|||
|Audit|**9,000**|8,500|
|Other services|**1,025**|-|
## **6 Analysis of staff costs, trustee remuneration and expenses, and the cost of key management personnel**
|Staff costs were as follows:
Salaries and wages
Social security costs
Employer’s contribution to defined contribution pension schemes
Agency costs|**2024**
**£**
**1,343,676**
**130,938**
**57,217**|2023
£
1,139,907
110,711
46,002|
|---|---|---|
||**1,531,831**
**-**|1,296,620
16,254|
||**1,531,831**|1,312,874|
The following number of employees received employee benefits (excluding employer pension) during the year between:
|||**2024**|2023|
|---|---|---|---|
|||**No.**|No.|
|£60,000|- £69,999|**1**|1|
The charity considers that the key management personnel comprises the Director. Total employee benefits including pension contributions and employer's national insurance of the key management personnel were £75,917 (2023: £73,863).
The charity trustees were not paid or received any other benefits from employment with the charity in the year (2023: £Nil). No charity trustee received payment for professional or other services supplied to the charity (2023: £Nil).
## **7 Staff numbers**
The average number of employees (head count based on number of staff employed) during the year was 43 (2023: 37). The services of a freelance specialist were used for accountancy support in the year ended 31 March 2023.
## **8 Related party transactions**
There were no donations from related parties outside the normal course of business and no restricted donations from related parties in the year. No donations were received from Trustees (2023: Nil).
During the year the charity paid no costs on behalf of its subsidiary, Islington Age Concern Trading Company Ltd (2023: £Nil) and charged no costs to the subsidiary (2023: £Nil). The year end balance owed by the subsidiary was £Nil (2023: £Nil).
45
**Age Concern Islington**
**Notes to the financial statements**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **9 Taxation**
The charity is exempt from corporation tax as all its income is charitable and is applied for charitable purposes. The charity's trading subsidiary Islington Age Concern Trading Company Ltd gift aids available profits to the parent charity.
## **10 Tangible fixed assets**
|**Cost or valuation**
At 1 April 2023
Additions in year
Disposals in year
At 31 March 2024
**Depreciation**
At 1 April 2023
Charge for the year
Eliminated on disposal
At 31 March 2024
**Net book value**
**At 31 March 2024**
At 31 March 2023|Office
equipment
£
1,027
-
(1,027)|IT
infrastructure
£
51,744
-
-|**Total**
**£**
**52,771**
**-**
**(1,027)**|
|---|---|---|---|
||-|51,744|**51,744**|
||1,027
-
(1,027)|51,744
-
-|**52,771**
**-**
**(1,027)**|
||-|51,744|**51,744**|
||**-**
-|**-**
-|**-**
-|
All of the above assets are used for charitable purposes.
## **11a Listed investments**
|Fair value at 1 April 2023 (2022)
Additions at cost
Net gain/(loss) change in fair value
Fair value at 31 March 2024 (2023)
Investments comprise:
UK Common investment funds|**2024**
**£**
**256,727**
**50,000**
**26,079**|2023
£
225,227
**50,000**
**(18,500)**|
|---|---|---|
||**332,806**|256,727|
||**2024**
**£**
**332,806**|2023
£
256,727|
||**332,806**|256,727|
46
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Notes to the financial statements**
**For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **11b Investments - subsidiary company**
The charitable company owns the whole of the issued share capital of Islington Age Concern Trading Company Ltd, a company registered in England. The company number is 03001195, and the registered office is 6-9 Manor Gardens, London N7 6LA. Two of the trustees of Age Concern Islington are also directors of the subsidiary company.
The subsidiary company was used for non-primary purpose trading activities. The directors of the company took the decision to suspend trading from 31st March 2021 on the grounds that financial returns no longer justify the staff time and attention required for a trading operation. The company has since been dormant.
|Shares issued - 2 ordinary shares of £1 each
**Debtors**
Grant and contract debtors
Prepayments
Accrued income
Other debtors|**2024**
**£**
**2**|2023
£
2|
|---|---|---|
||**2024**
**£**
**103,977**
**6,930**
**16,925**
**3,723**|2023
£
89,201
3,352
18,512
5,404|
||**131,555**|116,469|
## **12 Debtors**
## **13 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year**
|Accounts payable
Taxation and social security
Amounts owed to group undertakings
Other creditors
Accruals
Deferred income (Note 14)|**2024**
**£**
**15,369**
**32,740**
**2**
**13,095**
**28,519**
**90,863**|2023
£
8,371
27,511
2
16,079
15,386
29,976|
|---|---|---|
||**180,588**|97,325|
## **14 Deferred income**
Deferred income comprises grants and contract income received to fund activity in the following financial year.
|Deferral at 1 April 2023 (2022)
Amount released to income in the year
Amount deferred in the year
**Deferral at 31 March 2024 (2023)**|**2024**
**£**
**29,976**
**(29,976)**
**90,863**|2023
£
(51,691)
51,691
29,976|
|---|---|---|
||**90,863**|29,976|
47
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Notes to the financial statements**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **15a Analysis of net assets between funds (current year)**
|Investments
Net current assets
**Net assets at 31 March 2024**|General
unrestricted
£
332,808
593,489|Designated
£
-
316,750|Restricted
£
-
36,577|**Total funds**
**£**
**332,808**
**946,816**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||**926,297**|**316,750**|**36,577**|**1,279,624**|
## **15b Analysis of net assets between funds (prior year)**
|**15b**
**Analysis of net assets between funds (prior year)**|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|Investments
Net current assets
Net assets at 31 March 2023
**16a**
**Movements in funds (current year)**|General
unrestricted
£
256,729
767,806|Designated
£
-
51,400|Restricted
£
-
39,252|Total funds
£
256,729
858,458|
||1,024,535|51,400|39,252|1,115,187|
||||||
|**Restricted funds:**
Carers' Hub flexible breaks
Cloudesley catalyst and crisis funds
Cost of Living Response fund
Information Outreach services
Islington Giving crisis fund
Mental Health Parks program
Welfare and Winter Warmth
Carer's Hub posts
Let's Talk
Emmanuel Hospital outreach
Information and advice service posts
Welfare grants program
Loos for Islington
**Total restricted funds**
**Unrestricted funds:**
Designated funds:
Organisational development
Information and advice service posts
Supporting future service provision
Total designated funds
**General funds**
**Total unrestricted funds**
**Total funds**|At 1 April 2023
£
10,473
9,073
2,623
3,000
8,924
549
4,610
-
-
-
-
-
-|Income and
gains
£
-
8,004
29,703
-
-
-
-
29,976
11,479
12,500
27,475
23,893
450|Expenditure
and losses
£
(222)
(13,913)
(32,786)
(4,201)
(7,186)
-
(2,000)
(20,587)
(8,106)
(9,427)
(26,827)
(19,625)
(178)|Transfers
£
-
(909)
460
1,201
-
-
-
-
(1,201)
-
(648)
-
-|**At 31 March**
**2024**
**£**
**10,251**
**2,255**
**-**
**-**
**1,738**
**549**
**2,610**
**9,389**
**2,172**
**3,073**
**-**
**4,268**
**272**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||39,252|143,480|(145,058)|(1,097)|**36,577**|
||51,400
-
-|-
11,750
-|(23,079)
-
-|(28,321)
-
305,000|**-**
**11,750**
**305,000**|
||51,400|11,750|(23,079)|276,679|**316,750**|
||1,024,535|2,077,866|(1,900,522)|(275,582)|**926,297**|
||1,075,935|2,089,616|(1,923,601)|1,097|**1,243,047**|
|||||||
||**1,115,187**|**2,233,096**|**(2,068,659)**|**-**|**1,279,624**|
48
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Notes to the financial statements**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **16b Movements in funds (prior year)**
|**Restricted funds:**
Carers' Hub flexible breaks
Cloudesley catalyst and crisis funds
Cost of Living Response Fund
Information Outreach Services
Islington Giving crisis fund
Mental Health Parks program
Older Londoners' program
Post-lockdown activity
Welfare and Winter Warmth
**Total restricted funds**
**Unrestricted funds:**
Designated funds:
Organisational development
Total designated funds
**General funds**
**Total unrestricted funds**
**Total funds**
**Purpose of restricted funds**
Carers' Hub flexible breaks
Cloudesley catalyst and crisis funds|At 1 April 2022
£
11,073
7,062
-
-
-
835
-
9,947
5,010|Income and
gains
£
-
17,128
10,000
18,475
20,000
-
10,625
-
-|Expenditure
and losses
£
(600)
(15,117)
(7,377)
(15,475)
(11,076)
(286)
(10,625)
(9,947)
(400)|Transfers
£
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-|At 31 March
2023
£
10,473
9,073
2,623
3,000
8,924
549
-
-
4,610|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||33,927|76,228|(70,903)|-|39,252|
||50,000|-|(5,196)|6,596|51,400|
||50,000|-|(5,196)|6,596|51,400|
||884,003|1,749,424|(1,602,296)|(6,596)|1,024,535|
||934,003|1,749,424|(1,607,492)|-|1,075,935|
|||||||
||967,930|1,825,652|(1,678,395)|-|1,115,187|
Grants received to support individual Islington residents who have health issues (mental and/or physical) or who are disabled and who are in financial need to make a tangible and immediate change to their circumstances and to support Islington residents to achieve their aspirations and personal development goals.
Cost of Living Response Fund
A grant towards the costs of supporting clients struggling with the increasing cost of living by organising cost of living support events, with partners in the borough, and communicating by post with those clients who do not access information online.
Information Outreach Services
Funding to support the Let's Talk Peer events which serve to reach out to Hyde Housing Association and Peabody residents in particular.
Islington Giving crisis fund
A grant to support clients experiencing hardship due to the rising cost of living.
Mental Health Parks Programme
To support the Mental Health Parks Programme by directing participants to the programme of activities as part of the PHE Mental Health Prevention Fund. Age UK Islington supports the engagement of older people to connect with activities and offer transport for those who need it.
Older Londoners' Programme
A grant received under Age UK's Older Londoners' Programme, with funding from the Emanuel Hospital charity, to support information and advice services.
Post-lockdown activity
A grant towards community activities that will bring people together out of COVID19 lockdown.
49
**Age Concern Islington**
**Notes to the financial statements**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **16 Movements in funds (continued)**
Welfare and Winter Warmth To provide grants to individuals in great need, to improve their quality of life, when no other source is available. This includes enabling people to keep warm in winter, and to promote the need for older people to keep adequately warm during cold weather. Carer's Hub posts Additional payment made by the London Borough of Islington to allow an existing part time staff member within the Carers Hub team to work an additional one day a week.
Combination of income from Hyde Charitable Trust, Peabody Housing and Emmanuel Hospital funding to deliver monthly Let’s Talk Peer Group sessions.
Let's Talk Combination of income from Hyde Charitable Trust, Peabody Housing and Emmanuel Hospital funding to deliver monthly Let’s Talk Peer Group sessions. Emmanuel Hospital outreach This has been combined with income from Hyde Charitable Trust and Peabody Housing to deliver Monthly Let’s Talk Peer Group sessions. Information and advice service posts Funds to cover costs for one full time and one part time staff members in the Information and Advice service. Welfare grants program Approved grants that have been secured on behalf of clients from external donors which are intended and to be paid for the requested purposes on the grant applications.
Loos for Islington Funds held for an organisation working on this campaign.
## **Purpose of designated funds**
Organisational development For development of the organisation and its service delivery portfolio in 2023-24.
Information and advice service posts Additional funds required to cover costs for one full time and one part time staff members in the Information and Advice service.
Supporting future service provision As noted in the Reserves section of the Trustees' Report, the charity is launching a Counselling service, which is unfunded. The budgeted cost is £60,000 per annum, and three years' worth of expenditure has been designated to cover this. In additional. there are budgeted deficits in the year ended 31 March 2025 for the Helpline service of £50,000 and the Social Prescribing service of £125,000, which have also been designated.
## **Transfers**
Cloudesley crisis fund - £909 transferred to general fund by way of agreed management fee of 10% of grants given
Cost of Living Response fund - £460 transferred from general fund to cover over-spent fund
Information Outreach services - £1,201 transferred from Let's Talk service as the activities are related and both funds are funded by the same funder
Information and advice service posts - £648 transferred to general fund to cover support cost allocation
Organisational development - £28,321 transferred back to general fund as costs covered from additional external funding
50
**Age Concern Islington**
## **Notes to the financial statements**
## **For the year ended 31 March 2024**
## **17 Analysis of cash and cash equivalents**
|**Analysis of cash and cash equivalents**||||
|---|---|---|---|
|Cash at bank and in hand
Notice deposits (less than three months)
**Total cash and cash equivalents**|At 1 April 2023
£
735,042
104,272|Cash flows
£
152,468
4,067|**At 31 March**
**2024**
**£**
**887,510**
**108,339**|
||839,314|156,535|**995,849**|
## **18 Operating lease commitments**
The charity's total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases for each of the following periods are as follows:
|
periods are as follows:|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|Less than one year
One to five years|**Property**||**Equipment**||
||**2024**
**£**
**77,354**
**159,517**|2023
£
73,599
236,116|**2024**
**£**
**960**
**1,840**|2023
£
1,226
2,800|
||**236,871**|309,715|**2,800**|4,026|
## **19 Legal status of the charity**
The charity is a company limited by guarantee and has no share capital. The liability of each member in the event of winding up is limited to £1.
51