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2022-05-31-accounts

Community Counselling Accounts for the year ended 31st May 2022

Community Counselling Index Accounts for the Year to 31st May 2022

Community Counselling Trustees Report Year to 31st May 2022

Reference And Administration Details

The name of the charity is: Community Counselling.

Charity registration number is: 1049519

The address of the charity is: St. Bartholomews Church & Centre, 292b Barking Road, London, E6 3BA

The Trustees who served during the year are:

Served during the year Sally Jane Higgs Rosemary Margaret Williams (secretary) Lova Rajaonarimanana (treasurer) Anja Frykegard Damian Castello (chairperson) Vincent Foxcroft Annabel Emma Jane Katherine Buck (resigned 05/03/22) Susan Kelly (vice chair) Marilyn Elizabeth Oscar (resigned 05/03/22) Lisa Marie Vann (resigned 05/03/22) Sharon Patricia Anderson Clare Hawes Jennie O'Connor Michelle Roddy Maria Spyrou

The Trustees have had regard to Charity Commission guidance on public benefit.

Aims and Objects

Community Counselling has been working in the London Borough of Newham for over 30 years. We provide one-to-one counselling for anyone in East London who is suffering from psychological distress that threatens their mental and emotional health and wellbeing, such as depression, anxiety, feelings of loneliness and isolation, bereavement, childhood trauma and low self-esteem. We are an independent voluntary organisation and are able to offer low-cost medium and long-term counselling, sometimes supporting clients over several years. We do not receive any public funding and our counsellors offer their time without charging. In the current year we have 24 counsellors working with us and currently see 80 clients a week.

Structure

We are a collective of qualified counsellors and counsellors in training who volunteer our services parttime. We are an organisational member of the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) and work within their guidelines for good practice.

Our structure is defined by the Constitution which was adopted on 13[th] February 2016. The quarterly meeting is our main decision-making body, supported by smaller Clinical Issues and Service Delivery groups. Our trustees are elected at our Annual General Meeting from our body of counsellors, who are given a detailed induction and introduction to our policies and procedures at their initial supervision session. We have a team of four qualified supervisors who provide monthly low-cost supervision. All our counsellors are further supported by monthly peer supervision groups and, when possible, by free quarterly continuing professional development workshops.

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Community Counselling Trustees Report (continued) Year to 31st May 2022

Activities, achievements and performance

In the year 2021/22 we assessed 100 clients and on average our team of 24 counsellors was seeing 70 clients per week. At the start of the year we were all working remotely, either by Zoom or by telephone, but in July 2021 some counsellors began to see clients in person at St Bart’s. We continue to work in all three methods, according to the preference of counsellors and clients. Six student counsellors completed their placements with us and qualified and of these, four moved on to work elsewhere. We are grateful to those qualified counsellors who continue to volunteer with us. We were able to offer placements to five new counselling students and took on one more qualified counsellor.

Financial review and funds

Community Counselling continues to support clients who are unable to meet the cost of counselling charged by private practitioners. We have been able to keep our fees low (most clients pay £15 per session) and we aim to be able to support a few clients who are unable to pay at all. We received a small grant of £3,920 from London Borough of Newham’s Covid-19 Community Grant in June 2021, which we put towards the cost of supervision for our counsellors. We have also been able to pay our experienced counsellors a token amount for some of their client work, since only a small number of clients are working face to face (currently 17 out of 79 clients) and there is not much rent payable for rooms. This has helped us to retain our experienced counsellors and support those counsellors who have also suffered financial hardship because of the pandemic.

The trustees have a policy to retain sufficient reserves to be able to fund activities for the year ahead. Reserves held at 31st May 2022 totalled £22,229.

Rosie Williams Secretary, Community Counselling 22nd March 2023

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£
£
£
Total
Restricted Unrestricted
28,939
28,939
1,000
1,000
3,920
3,920
0
33,859
3,920
29,939
860
860
216
216
340
340
420
420
338
338
0
0
0
0
3,380
3,380
9,395
3,920
5,475
23,007
23,007
60
60
38,016
3,920
34,096
-4,157
0
-4,157
Year to 31st May 2022		 £
£
£
Total
Restricted Unrestricted
28,939
28,939
1,000
1,000
3,920
3,920
0
33,859
3,920
29,939
860
860
216
216
340
340
420
420
338
338
0
0
0
0
3,380
3,380
9,395
3,920
5,475
23,007
23,007
60
60
38,016
3,920
34,096
-4,157
0
-4,157
Year to 31st May 2022		 £
£
£
Total
Restricted Unrestricted
28,939
28,939
1,000
1,000
3,920
3,920
0
33,859
3,920
29,939
860
860
216
216
340
340
420
420
338
338
0
0
0
0
3,380
3,380
9,395
3,920
5,475
23,007
23,007
60
60
38,016
3,920
34,096
-4,157
0
-4,157
Year to 31st May 2022
Year to 31st May 2021
£
£
£
Total
Restricted Unrestricted
25,793
25,793
12,006
12,006
2,415
2,415
0
40,214 2,415 37,799
0
0
264
264
0
0
0
0
336
336
10
10
75
75
4,083
4,083
10,881
2,415
8,466
11,651
11,651
0
0
27,300 2,415 24,885
-4,157 0 -4,157 12,914 0 12,914

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Community Counselling Statement of Assets and Liabilities At 31st May 2022

Assets
Bank account balances
Net assets
Reserves
Unrestricted Funds
As at 1st June 2021
Surplus/-Deficit for year
Restricted Funds (see note 2)
As at 1st June 2021
Surplus/-Deficit for year
Total reserves		 2022
£		 2022
£		 2021
£
22,229 26,386
22,229 26,386
26,386
-4,157		 13,472
12,914
22,229 26,386
0
0		 0
0
0 0
22,229 26,386

Accounts approved by:

Rosie Williams (Secretary)

Date of approval 22nd March 2023

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Community Counselling Notes to the accounts For the year to 31st May 2022

1 Accounting policies

These accounts are prepared on a receipts and payments (rather than accruals) basis.

The income and expenditure shown therefore reflects the cash/bank receipts and payments during the period.

Restricted funds
Reserves at 1st June 2021
Income
Expenditure
Reserves at 31st May 2022		 Newham
BC re
Supervision
0
3,920
-3,920
0

2 Restricted funds

3 Payments to trustees

During the year, some trustees were paid for services provided (at far below normal commercial rates) to the charity in respect of counselling, supervision and administrational work. There are now agreements in place between the charity and trustees who are paid for providing services and there have been changes to the board of trustees to ensure that the majority of trustees are not paid.

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Community Counselling Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of Community Counselling For the year to 31st May 2022

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the charity for the year ended 31st May 2022, which are set out on pages 1 to 5.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity's trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ("the Act").

I report in respect of my examination of the charity's accounts carried out under section 145 of the Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent examiner's report

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

  1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or

  2. the accounts do not accord with those records

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

R M Holland FCA BSc (Econ)

22nd March 2023

Holland Harper LLP Chartered Accountants 26 High Street Battle East Sussex TN33 0EA

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