2025-03-31-accounts

VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

CONSOLIDATED ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

for the year ended

31 March 2025

CHARITY REGISTRATION NO. 1068565

COMPANY REGISTRATION NO. 03512340

VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Legal and Administrative Information

Company name	Vision Enhancement Services (known as Vision Support)
Registered Charity No	1068565
Company Registration No	03512340
Principal Address and Registered office	Units 1 and 2
	The Ropeworks
	Whipcord Lane
	Chester
	CH1 4DZ
Governing Document	Memorandum and Articles of Association
Honorary Ophthalmologist	M K Tutton BSc, FRCS, FRCOphth, DO
Directors and Governors	Alan Allman (Chair)
	Geoffrey Homer (Deputy Chair)
	Sandra Massey
	Claire Caws
	Mark Thorp
	Miles Tutton
	Valery Ashbrook
Chief Executive Officer	Lowri Bartrum
Company Secretary	Lowri Bartrum
Bankers	Bank of Scotland
	33 Old Broad Street
	London
	BX2 1LB
Solicitors	Hempsons
	100 Wood Street
	London
	EC2V 7AN
Auditors	Mitchell Charlesworth (Audit) Limited
	24 Nicholas Street
	Chester
	CH1 2AU
Investment Advisors	Investec Wealth & Investment Limited
	2ndFloor, 3 Hardman Street
	Spinningfields
	Manchester
	M3 3HF

VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Contents

	Page
Report of the Directors and Governors	1 – 19
Independent auditor's report	20 – 23
Consolidated statement of financial activities	24 – 25
Charity statement of financial activities	26 – 27
Consolidated and Charity balance sheet	28 – 29
Consolidated cash flow statement	30
Notes to the consolidated financial statements	31 – 54

VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

Message from Alan Allman our Chair of Trustees

It gives me great pleasure to present this year’s Annual Report, reflecting a period of progress, resilience, and renewed commitment to our mission — We stand alongside people with vision impairments, offering comprehensive support that addresses immediate needs while challenging societal barriers and expanding opportunities for a more inclusive future.

Over the past year, we have continued to adapt our services to meet the changing needs of our community. Whether through rehabilitation, emotional support, practical advice, technology training, or social inclusion initiatives, our work has remained focused on empowering individuals to maintain confidence and independence at every stage of their sight loss journey.

We are proud to have reached more people than ever before through all of our services, - not only through direct support but also through our expanding digital resources and partnerships with care and community organisations. This growth has been made possible by the dedication of our staff, volunteers, and supporters, whose compassion and professionalism remain the heart of our charity.

Financially, this year has presented challenges across the sector, but prudent management and generous contributions from our donors and grants have enabled us to maintain stability and invest in future sustainability. Our focus remains on delivering high-quality, person-centred services while strengthening our capacity to meet increasing demand.

Looking ahead, we are determined to build on this year’s achievements. We will continue to advocate for accessibility, champion inclusion, and embrace innovation — from assistive technology to community collaboration — so that everyone affected by sight loss can thrive in a world designed for all.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I would like to thank our incredible team, our volunteers, our partners, and our supporters. Your commitment ensures that our vision — A society where people with vision impairments live fulfilled independent lives as active, valued community members with equal access to opportunities and resources — moves closer to reality every day.

A Word from Lowri Bartrum CEO

2024 to 2025 has been an important year for Vision Enhancement Services who operates under the name of Vision Support. During the year, we have maintained our excellent service provision, supporting over 1500 people with Vision Impairments.

As always, I am incredibly proud of our fantastic team of volunteers and paid staff who bring our vision and mission to life. Having a team of people who bring creativity, energy, enthusiasm, commitment and compassion delivering services to support people to thrive helps us to continue to deliver support in a way that makes sense to people. Following our time of being introspective over the last 2 years, ensuring that our foundations are solid, we are now beginning to look outwards. Building up our supporter base and allies within the wider community is our commitment for the coming year as we begin to prepare ourselves for our 150[th] anniversary in 2026.

Our organisational roots are based on the belief that every person with a vision impairment can make a valued contribution to society and whilst our methods around supporting are different, we continue to promote the valued contributions of people with vision impairments.

Whilst society has moved on over the last 150 years, there remains a lot of work to do to improve inclusion and to develop more awareness of the practical and emotional impact of vision impairment. Living in a sighted world is challenging for people, having high streets or public transport infrastructure change can make a familiar environment suddenly become difficult to navigate.

Our new Theory of Change addresses our continuation of providing timely and personalised support for and with people with vision impairments whilst also increasing societal awareness so that people can thrive.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

With our solid foundation of services that benefit people, good governance in the safe hands of our fantastic board of trustees, we are now ready to embark on bringing our Theory of Change to life.

In addition to our tried and tested delivery services, we want to ensure that people with vision impairments are referred to us as early as possible so that no one lives with sight loss alone. This will include working more closely with our colleagues in primary and secondary eye health care, developing relationships and referral pathways into our support services so we stop hearing the words, “ I wish I had heard about you sooner”

Loneliness and Isolation along with feelings of hopelessness are some of the biggest factors that impact on people’s mental health and wellbeing. Our services support people to connect, share experiences and build confidence which positively impacts emotional health and wellbeing. In order for us to do that, we need to be more visible and a natural step in people’s eye health pathway.

We will continue to stand side by side with people with vision impairments, ensuring that people’s voices are heard and together, we will be able to make a real difference across Cheshire, Halton and North Wales.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

About Vision Support

Who we are

Vision Support is a regional charity who supports people with Vision Impairments. We have a rich history spanning nearly 150 years across North Wales, Cheshire and Halton.

Our Biggest Asset

Our biggest asset by far is our amazing team of staff and volunteers. With their commitment, knowledge, expertise and empathy, we are able to look to the future with passion, enthusiasm and hope.

Our Team

We have 40 paid employees and 64 volunteers who deliver and support our services. We are proud that 25% (24% of our paid staff and 26% of our volunteers) of our team have a Vision Impairment. Employing people with vision impairments enhances our credibility and promotes inclusion.

Our Trustees

We have a team of 7 trustees who have a variety of backgrounds including 2 people with lived experience of vision impairment, local authority commissioning expertise, IT expertise, a retired Ophthalmologist, a retired business owner and someone with expertise in quality assurance.

A Big Thank You…

The success of Vision Support is reliant on funding and we are grateful for the financial support provided to us by all our funders, including individual donors, The Chester Lions, The National Lottery, Flintshire, Wrexham, Conwy, Denbighshire and Halton councils. We are also very grateful to our colleagues at Vision Support Trading who work exceptionally hard year-round and donate their profits to the charity.

We are also grateful to our delivery partners, Centre of Sign, Sight and Sound and Deafness Resource Centre and the Hearing impairment expertise they bring to our contracts.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

Our Team

Our Leadership team in 2024/25

Lowri Bartrum CEO Kate Hurst – Internal Operations Manager Karen Davies and Micheal Fearn – Vision Rehabilitation Managers Nia Greer, Josh Garland and Roisin Dunbar – Service Managers

Our Board of Trustees

Alan Allman – Chair of the Board Geoff Homer – Deputy Chair of the Board Mark Thorp – Chair of Finance Sub-Committee Clare Caws and Sandra Massey – Lived Experience Miles Tutton – Retired Ophthalmologist Valery Ashworth – Quality Assurance

Finance Support

Our finance support has been provided by Ann Smith for over 20 years. Ann is retiring early in the coming financial year, and she will be replaced by Lisa Fearn, our new Finance Manager.

Vision Support employs 40 paid staff and has 60 volunteers. We are proud that 25% of our staff team and volunteers have lived experience of Vision Impairments and lived experience is well represented within our board of Trustees

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Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

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Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

Our Impact

Over the last 12 months, we have continued to make positive impacts on the lives of people with Vision Impairments and within our communities. At the start of the year, we set ourselves the task of promoting our services more widely. Every day, people tell us, I wish I had known about you sooner. Too many people are leaving Eye Clinics feeling scared, upset and worried about their futures and one of our biggest challenges is reaching those people when they need us most.

We are delighted that our progress this year has been significant, we have successfully started our new Vision Rehabilitation contract that covers Wrexham, where we already provided the service and Flintshire. The people across both counties are supported by 3 rehab specialists, one trainee rehabilitation specialist and a Rehab Assistant. The contract in those counties also benefits from Vision Support’s wrap around support, enabling people to access peer support, learn how to use technology and receive support from our home visiting team and our counsellor.

As a result of our support, people have told us that they feel more confident with getting around at home and going out, using technology, that they have a better understanding of their eye condition and that they are managing their eye conditions more confidently. They tell us that the impact of spending time with other people with Vision Impairments has had a significant benefit through our social and activity groups. And people who have received counselling report improved mental health and wellbeing as a result of accessing the support.

Our measurements of our impact have been more anecdotal, capturing stories, however in the coming year, we will be formalising our impact measurement processes to enable us to more accurately track progress and impact on a broader scale. We hope that through capturing our impact on a more intentional basis, we will have more robust reporting that will highlight how our use of public funds is positively benefiting and impacting the quality of life of people with vision impairments.

Social and Activity Groups

We have 29 groups operating across North Wales, Halton and Cheshire. In the last year, the groups met 696 times across the region with 477 people being supported by the groups. We provide a range of groups from weekly bowls groups, swimming and gym groups held at the Brio leisure centre, coffee and cake catch ups and craft groups and walking groups. We hear from people about the emotional support and the positive impact that our social groups have on people, the power of being with other people who have similar experiences improves wellbeing.

With funding from Cadent and Cheshire West Voluntary Action, over the winter of 24/25, we were able to extend our groups, providing warm centres, a place for people to go to have a warm soup and roll and a drink and the warmth of companionship and shared experience. We were able to also deliver slow cookers, raise awareness about the dangers of carbon monoxide and provide free carbon monoxide alarms along with braille and large print information.

Meanwhile in North Wales, thanks to funding from the Millenium Stadium Trust, we were able to provide our Vision Sport project, enabling people to have a go at indoor rock climbing, accessible cycling and canoeing.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

The impact of these was greater than we believed, for one person who came to a climbing taster session, that was all he needed to feel confident enough to go back himself, without a group. 93-year-old Frank (pictured left) had always wanted to do indoor rock climbing but had never gotten around to it. When he lost his sight, he thought that the opportunity was gone so when he saw the sessions advertised, he immediately jumped at the chance to give it a go. He made it successfully to the top.

We have also delivered one off sessions including stone carving, a trip to Liverpool, a trip on the music train and a narrowboat trip.

When asked particularly what they enjoyed most about the activity, people mentioned spending time with other people and the peer support, having the opportunity to try something new or learn something and just getting out of the house and enjoying some fresh air.

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Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

Picture of our Chester Bowls Group waving at the camera. Our bowls group runs every week during the summer months and during the winter, they opt for coffee and cake instead

The group play matches against Wrexham VI bowls group and Cheshire East Eye Society’s bowling group

Rehabilitation Contracts

Our Vision Rehabilitation Specialists continue to receive positive feedback with people consistently reporting that that they have experienced improved wellbeing as a result of their rehab. The outcomes that people have achieved have proven to increase independence and quality of life for 95% of people supported. This is just one example of the feedback that we have received from people supported through our rehabilitation contracts, “Just a short message to say a very BIG THANK YOU for all your help and advice during your visit yesterday giving me the tools to enable me to meet my life challenges in a more positive way THANKYOU so much.”

Our Rehabilitation contracts work seamlessly with the rest of the service provision funded through charitable funds. This example gives a flavour of how we have provided a complete wrap around service to one person. Our comprehensive intervention combined practical mobility training with emotional support and modern technology solutions. A Vision Rehabilitation specialist provided long cane training, taught her to use assistive apps including Be My Eyes and Soundscape, and delivered public transport orientation training using Passenger Assistance. Our counsellor supported the lady to process the stigma she felt about using a white cane, whilst welfare benefits advice maximised her income and she accessed our social groups which expanded her support network.

Through our multifaceted approach this lady now travels confidently on trains using passenger assistance services, uses her long cane without embarrassment, and has developed strategies for managing glare and maximising her residual vision, she feels more connected and most importantly, she no longer allows perceived stigma to prevent her from leaving her home to attend the music events she loves.

Home Visiting

Our home visiting service continues to provide unique support to people who are experiencing isolation and loneliness and who might need help to navigate inaccessible information.

Over the last year, our home visitors have supported people to access benefits, develop confidence to begin to go out again, helped people to manage their correspondence, supported people to make and attend medical appointments. Their support is always entirely focussed on the person and what they need, so our home visitors have supported people with vision impairments through legal processes as well such as moving house.

Welfare Rights

The benefits process is confusing and daunting, even when you can access the information required. This can put people with vision impairments off from applying which leaves them with higher costs of living due to the added expense of living with a disability but unable to apply for benefits. In order to alleviate poverty as much as possible, people are supported to apply for benefits. Our benefits rights and financial welfare officer is able to support people from assessing eligibility through to applying for the correct forms and then completing the forms with the person.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

In the last 12 months, people received over £39,000 in back pay and every person who has applied for benefits has been successful. The feedback from people has been exceptional with most people expressing how grateful they are for the support they have received and commenting on how the additional financial support will go a long way in helping them.

Digital Skills

Our Digital skills team work hard every day to support people with vision impairments to use everyday technology, introducing them to the accessibility features on smart phones and helping people to download apps that will support their independence and navigation. The feedback from people receiving the service is always very positive. People have described the support as ‘life changing’ and that they have felt more confident as a result of the support.

Picture to the right is of our Digital Skills Team leader delivering a Tea and Tech session in our Halton Sensory Centre.

Counselling

We recruited a counsellor mid-year due to increased demand for mental health support among people with vision impairments. Alarmingly, around 90% of referrals had considered ending their lives—not from wanting to die, but from feeling hopeless about their futures.

Common themes included lack of empathy from eye care professionals, loss of independence, hopelessness, isolation, and changed identity. Using the Core 10 wellbeing scale, most clients began in the moderate to severe distress range. After five sessions, 79% had significantly reduced their distress levels to mild-low range and were referred to our social groups and other support services. The remaining 21% continue their counselling journey.

Cheshire Sight Loss Information Line

This was our second year delivering the sight loss information line, funded by The National Lottery. During the year, we have seen a significant uptick in the number of people contacting the information line and reaching out for support. The number of unique individuals contacting the line has more than doubled.

The impact of the dedicated information line has seen significant including improvements in people’s wellbeing, understanding of eye conditions and has enabled people to access support. The information line has also worked hard to raise awareness of preventable sight loss through promoting good eye health to more than 700 people.

Halton Sensory Services

Mid way through the year, our new Halton Sensory Services Manager took up post. She has had a focus on creating a more welcoming space in the centre, building relationships with our Sensory partners, Deafness Resource Centre and developing plans around increasing social and activity groups. We have also appointed a Community Engagement Coordinator specifically for Halton to help us to deliver more services and support in the area.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

Progress against key strategic objectives for 2024/25

• Review our mission statement to incorporate societal change as well as individual change.

We’ve created a comprehensive Theory of Change alongside refreshed vision and mission statements that reflect our bold ambition: to transform society into a truly inclusive space where people with sight loss thrive with confidence, build meaningful connections, and feel empowered to achieve their full potential within their communities.

• Remain the provider of choice for rehabilitation contracts across North East Wales.

We started our new Vision Rehabilitation contract with Wrexham and Flintshire alongside our existing contracts in Conwy and Denbighshire. We continue to work well with our commissioners, developing our relationships with them through transparent communication and delivering high quality vision rehabilitation. We have employed 3 trainee Vision Rehabilitation Specialists who are able to.

• Respond to the priorities of people living with a VI and increase our reach to people who are currently underrepresented within our database (e.g. people of a working age and children and young people and their families) and to develop new services in-line with our values and mission.

We have delivered a range of activities to be more appealing to people of different ages including indoor rock climbing, accessible cycling, day trips and walking groups. In addition, we have developed our social media offering, moving into Tiktok and increasing our posts on Instagram to attract younger people. As a result, we have seen a 57% increase in people aged 18-65 on our database.

• Ensure that people with VI have their voices heard and that they are supported to share their views and experiences to influence positive change across our area.

Our social groups have spoken to local councillors about things that they find difficult in their local communities, for example, talking to the councillor in Conwy about their safety when navigating pavements that are cluttered and have over hanging trees and branches that can cause injury. We have also worked with campaigning organisations around improving accessibility around voting and public transport. Both issues that are very important to people we serve.

• Continue to strengthen governance within the charity.

We have agreed a robust recruitment strategy and induction process for new board members. The board speak regularly with the chair of Trustees, to ensure that they are familiar with what is expected. The board receive reports on areas of risk within the group, including Vision Support Trading and the charity in order for them to feel comfortable with the risk and that the mitigation is robust.

• Focus on early intervention support to improve outcomes.

We have further embedded the Vision Support Pathway within our service delivery. Every person who is accessing Vision Rehabilitation should be signposted or directly referred into the charity for support whilst they are waiting for a full specialist assessment. Every person speaks to our triage worker in either the Cheshire Sight Loss Information line or in Head office (depending on where they live) and they are allocated to the appropriate team for the early support.

The image to the right is of Jess and Helen who attended a wellbeing event to raise awareness of the importance of good eye health and to promote Vision Support’s services.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

Partnerships and Sector Leadership

During 2024/25 we have strengthened our collaborative relationships across the sector. In Cheshire, our service manager has been instrumental in raising awareness of mental health and wellbeing support for people with vision impairments, working on a 'hard to reach' project that promotes inclusive support. We have also developed partnerships to increase opportunities for raising awareness of Vision Support throughout Cheshire, helping to boost referrals to our Sight Loss Information Line, which we are grateful to the lottery for funding.

In Halton, we have welcomed a new service manager and engagement worker who are building on the existing social group and the excellent support we offer through the sensory service to create more opportunities in the area. People with vision impairments are at the centre of plans for the area, with the team working responsively based on what people say they want locally.

Our Chief Executive continues to contribute to the Wales Vision Forum, ensuring the Welsh voice around vision impairment influences national policy and practice.

We have also strengthened relationships with Low Vision Assessors and optometrists in North Wales, increasing awareness of our services and referral pathways. Our positive relationships with Eye Clinic Liaison Officers continue to facilitate seamless transitions from clinical to community support.

Theory of Change

During the year, we developed our Theory of Change. We included the perspectives of our team, board of trustees, our steering group, and other stakeholders. People with Vision Impairments were well represented within the process as staff, trustees and our steering group. We considered the impact that we want to have over the next 5 years and the changes we wanted to make through our work.

The image below is a summary of our Theory of change.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

Our Vision

To build a society where every person with vision impairments feels Connected, Confident and Capable , live fulfilled, independent lives as active, valued community members with equal access to opportunities and resources.

Our Mission: Transforming Possibilities

Standing alongside people with vision impairments across Cheshire, Halton, Flintshire, Wrexham, Conwy, and Denbighshire, offering comprehensive support that addresses immediate needs while challenging societal barriers and expanding opportunities for a more inclusive future.

We will deliver this through

1. Individual Empowerment and Wellbeing including personalised support, helping people to develop their Confidence and Skills thereby increasing Independence.

2. Community Inclusion and Awareness through Education and training, promoting inclusive environments, providing opportunities for Increased participation and improved connection

3. Prevention and Early Intervention through raising awareness around good eye health, promoting early screening and treatment and empowering people to understand their eye conditions and to manage their conditions well and with confidence.

4. Service Integration and System Change by advocating for policy improvement, building stronger relationships with our colleagues in Health and Social Care, improving integration and responsive

Priorities for the coming year

Achieving the change we would like to see, we recognise that will take some time. We will endeavour to work through the changes systematically, building

Priority 1: Individual Empowerment & Wellbeing

Goal: Enhance the independence, skills, and wellbeing of people with sight loss through personalized support services.

Key Initiatives:

Enhanced Assessment Framework (Year 1)

• Implement our comprehensive Connected-Confident-Capable baseline assessment tool

• Train all triage staff in person-centred assessment techniques

• Establish digital recording system for tracking individual progress through Charity Log

Priority 2: Community Inclusion & Awareness

Goal: Create more inclusive communities through education, awareness, and accessibility improvements.

Key Initiatives:

Community Awareness Campaign (Years 1-2)

• Develop region-wide Vision Awareness program

• Develop an accessibility toolkit for community venues

• Implement targeted education initiatives in schools, businesses, and public services

• Create digital awareness resources for widespread distribution

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Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

Priority 3: Prevention & Early Intervention

Goal: Reduce preventable sight loss and improve early intervention through awareness, screening, and pathway integration.

Key Initiatives:

Eye Health Awareness Program (Years 1-2)

• Develop targeted eye health campaigns for high-risk groups

• Create educational materials for schools, workplaces, and community settings

• Establish annual Eye Health Week activities across all regions

Priority 4: Service Integration & System Change

Goal: Transform systems and policies to create more responsive, integrated support for people with sight loss.

Key Initiatives:

Clear clinical Pathway (Years 1-2)

• Strengthen partnerships with eye clinics and hospital eye services

• Create easy referral process from clinicians in primary and secondary care in to Vision Support

Priority 5:Framework

Goal: To have a robust impact measurement framework that will clearly demonstrate the impact our services have

Key Initiatives:

• Agree measurements and approaches that will work for the whole team

• Implement the measurement framework

• Review and evaluate our framework

• Report our impact

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

Legal Structure and Governance

Governing Document and Legal Structure

Vision Enhancement Services is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated under the Companies Act 2006 on 17 February 1998 (company number 3512340). The charity is governed by its Articles of Association, which were most recently updated by a vote leading to a special resolution on 10 May 2024 to change the terms of membership. The members are the board of trustees and the trustees form the membership.

The Charity’s objects remain unchanged and the Vision Enhancement Services (Vision Support) exists to relieve the needs of those persons with a sensory impairment, particularly but not exclusively vision impaired in Wales, the North West of England by the provision of support, advice, information and assistance

The charity is governed by a board of trustees (who are also the company directors) with between 3 and 12 members. Trustees serve three-year terms and are eligible for reappointment for up to three further terms. The trustees endeavour to appoint people with lived experience of vision impairment wherever possible.

Membership and Liability

As a company limited by guarantee, the members are the trustees themselves. Each member (trustee) has liability limited to £10 in the event of the charity being wound up.

Trustee Recruitment, Appointment and Induction

New trustees are recruited through a variety of channels including advertising, networking, and recommendations to ensure we attract candidates with the appropriate skills and experience needed on the board. We actively seek trustees whose expertise complements our existing board composition and supports our strategic objectives.

Our recruitment process involves completion of an application form detailing skills and experience, followed by an informal interview conducted by the Chair of Trustees and one other trustee. This approach ensures we understand each candidate's potential contribution while creating a welcoming environment. All appointments are subject to satisfactory references and DBS checks.

New trustees receive a comprehensive induction led by the Chief Executive, including visits to our services to observe our work firsthand and meet staff teams. Each trustee receives an induction pack containing current governing documents, key policies, risk registers, and previous meeting minutes. Given our trading subsidiary Vision Support, trustees also visit this operation and receive specific guidance on their responsibilities in relation to subsidiary oversight. The induction includes provision of our staffing structure to help trustees understand our operational framework.

The charity supports ongoing trustee development by funding any training required to enable trustees to carry out their duties confidently and competently. are specifically restricted to relieve the needs of those persons with a sensory impairment, particularly but not exclusively vision impairment, in Wales and North West England by the provision of support, advice, information and assistance.

The area of operation shall comprise of Wales and the North West of England, primarily (but not exclusively) Cheshire, Halton, Wrexham, Flintshire, Denbighshire and Conwy

Organisational Structure and Decision-Making Processes

Vision Enhancement Services is led by a board of 7 trustees at present. The Chief Executive reports into the Chair of the Board. The Chief Executive line manages seven managers: an Internal Operations Manager, three Service Managers, two Rehabilitation Managers, and a Fundraiser. Each manager oversees their specific area of responsibility, with Service Managers holding dual roles managing both their geographical regions and organisation-wide functions, ensuring effective coordination across our six-county area.

Decision-making operates through a comprehensive scheme of delegation that clearly delineates responsibilities between the board of trustees and operational management. This framework establishes what authority has been delegated to the Chief Executive (and managers), ensuring efficient day-to-day operations while maintaining appropriate board oversight.

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Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

The trustees and management team maintain regular interaction through structured arrangements. The management team attends one board meeting annually, while the Internal Operations Manager attends all board meetings to provide minute-taking support. We foster transparency and mutual understanding by inviting board members to annual staff team days for shared learning. Additional interaction occurs through meetings, email, and telephone contact as required.

The board operates a Finance Sub-Committee with two trustee members and establishes working groups as needed to address specific issues or projects.

The charity has a wholly-owned trading subsidiary, Vision Support Trading. The trading subsidiary operates with its own governance structure comprising three charity trustees who serve as company directors alongside the charity's Chief Executive and the subsidiary's Managing Director and Deputy Managing Director. The subsidiary maintains its own policies and risk management framework while remaining fully accountable to the parent charity.

Risk Analysis

Risk is inherent in all charities. Vision Enhancement Services maintains a formal risk register that is reviewed regularly by the Chief Executive, with key risks presented to the board of trustees at a minimum of two meetings annually, or more frequently as circumstances require. Risk management is a shared responsibility, with trustees providing strategic oversight while delegating day-to-day risk mitigation to the Chief Executive and management team.

Our risk framework addresses four main categories: financial risks including funding diversification and fraud prevention; governance risks ensuring appropriate board skills and expertise; operational risks particularly around staff retention and the shortage of qualified Vision Rehabilitation specialists; and reputational risks managed through transparency, timely complaint resolution, and consistent service quality.

The charity operates comprehensive internal controls including financial segregation of duties, multi-signatory requirements, regular budget monitoring and variance reporting. Operational controls encompass regular supervision and appraisal systems, incident reporting procedures, robust data protection measures, and systematic policy reviews. Governance controls include skills-based trustee recruitment, formal declaration of interests procedures, and regular governance reviews.

These control systems provide assurance to trustees that the charity's assets, reputation, and service delivery are appropriately protected while enabling effective oversight of our work across the six counties we serve.

	Risk	Mitigation
	The majority of the charity income is contract based through both the trading subsidiary and the charity and contracts can be lost	We maintain good working relationships with our customers, we provide high quality services and monitor our progress against SLAs and performance measures within our contracts. We maintain high levels of reserves to reduce the risk to the charity in the event of a change or loss in VST contracts.
	Loss of Key Personnel could have an impact on our contracts, the safe running of the organisation and on the success of Vision Support Trading. The result of a loss in key personnel could be significant	At both the charity and Vision Support Trading, we recognise that there is a high level of expertise, experience and knowledge. We continue to provide Employee benefits, good working environments, supportive supervisions, opportunities for continued professional development and fair salaries. Making the charity and the trading subsidiary positive places for people to want to work We currently have 3 trainee vision rehabilitation specialists undertaking the required qualification to ensure we are fully staffed within our Local Authority Contracts. Whilst we don’t have robust succession planning in place, this is something we will address in the coming years.
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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

Risk	Mitigation
Limited income streams due to high consolidated turnover, obtaining large grants to provide services can be challenging	We are looking at diversification of income, applying for small grants to support our existing work helps us to reduce some of our reliance on our unrestricted funding from Vision Support Trading. We recognise that we haven’t done a lot of fundraising or raising our profile as a charity and therefore, we have employed a fundraiser to help us to raise our profile as a charity and we are communicating our charitable status more to our supporters
Demand for support outstripping our resources due to an increase in people with vision impairments	With the long waiting times for eye treatment, people are experiencing irreversible, avoidable sight loss. We educate and empower people to look after their eye health, encourage people to monitor their vision whilst waiting for treatment and promote good self- management of people’s conditions. We also provide opportunities for peer support for people to share their learning and experiences.
Reputational Damage is always a key risk for charities. We know that people will only support charities who have good reputations so damage could have a significant impact to the charity	We ensure that all of our actions, within the charity and the trading subsidiary are taken with consideration to our reputation. We respond quickly to any complaints, resolving them as efficiently and effectively as possible. We report complaints to our board so that they are aware. Reputational risk forms a part of any fundraising risk assessment to ensure that we are operating within the fundraisers code.

Financial Review

Overview

Vision Enhancement Services have continued to thrive throughout this financial year. Vision Support Trading have continued to perform strongly, providing the charity with income of £769,197 from their performance in 2023/24. Throughout 2024/25, the trading subsidiary has seen a growth in their profits anticipated to be just under £1m which will be recognised in the charity’s accounts in the coming year. However, we don’t anticipate that the level of growth will continue and the Directors of the trading subsidiary have cautioned about a downturn in profits to around the current year reporting.

With the fluctuating income from Vision Support Trading, the financial risks to the charity have increased, exacerbated by the upcoming increases to National Insurance, the Real Living Wage increases and balancing our expenditure, our reserves and our income is being brought more sharply into focus.

About Vision Support Trading

The charity has a wholly owned subsidiary ‘Vision Support Trading Limited, which is a Private Limited Company, incorporated on 20th August 1999 – Company number 3828782. It operates as a social enterprise and provides transcription services for commercial organisations. Transcription services involve the conversion of bills and communications of these organisations into alternative formats, including Braille, large print, and audio, as requested by their vision impaired customers.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

All profits acquired through the commercial activities of Vision Support Trading Limited are gift aided to Vision Support, who use the funding to reach their vision of a society where people with vision impairments live fulfilled, independent lives as active, valued community members with equal access to opportunities and resources throughout Northeast Wales, Cheshire and Halton.

Vision Support is indebted to a substantial contribution made by Vision Support Trading Limited. In 2024/25 its covenanted contribution to the unrestricted funds of Vision Support amounted to £769,197 (2023/24: £678,127).

Due to market volatility and uncertainty, income from Vision Support Trading Limited can fluctuate and income is not guaranteed. We have exciting plans to develop new services with and for people with vision impairments particularly to increase our volunteer support, raise awareness of vision impairments and to increase our activities that will appeal to different people and age ranges, including a transitional project for young people. To realise our future ambitions, we need to raise additional income from voluntary sources to meet the ever-increasing needs of our beneficiaries.

At the end of the financial year, we witnessed some of the volatility in Vision Support Trading, seeing a quick change in one of the contracts resulting unfortunately in a significant number of redundancies being made at the trading subsidiary. The impact on the charity will be reduced profit in Vision Support Trading in 2025/26 and it will have an impact in the charity’s accounts in 2026/27 due to the lag in reporting.

Reserves policy

The purpose of the reserves policy is to ensure the stability of the charity’s operations, to protect it from the impact of unplanned large expenditure and to enable it to plan for the future. Vision Support holds reserves to make sufficient provision for future cash flow requirements, to provide a cushion to deal with unexpected emergencies, to take advantage of new opportunities, and to build up funding for planned future capital projects.

The board of trustees are maintaining a close view of their reserves policy during this time of increasing volatility. The board aim to hold reserves equating to a full year of operating costs to enable the charity to maintain the current level of services and support, however they have agreed that reserves will be used to be able to provide stability within the charity whilst they undertake work to raise the profile of the charity status of Vision Support and work to increase fundraising and other funding streams

Vision Support reserves are held across different funds depending on the nature of the income (and related expenditure) the reserves are derived from.

Free Reserves

Free reserves are classed as the total of unrestricted reserves and restricted general reserves.

Level of Free Reserves

Vison Support has determined that an appropriate level of free reserves should be equal to 9 - 12 month’s average running costs. The trustees can confirm that the reserves held fall within the limits holding reserves of £1.6m of free reserves.

Designated funds

This year, the trustees have decided to add another £75,000 to the designated funds that will provide a cushion in the year that Vision Support Trading need to move premises. The costs of the move will have an impact on their profits and by designating funds for that time, the charity will be protected. This will equate to £150,000 in designated reserves. Funds allocated to specific capital projects are not included in free reserves as they are designated for a specific purpose.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

Expenditure against reserves balances

All expenditure against reserves will be reported to Finance & Sub-Committee and Trustees and a projected end of year balance provided.

Investment Policy and Performance

Some of our Surplus funds are invested through professional managers to generate income while limiting capital risk. Our investments have transferred from Investec to Rathbones during the financial year however our ethical investment policy continues to exclude tobacco and alcohol and anything that contraindicates good health. The investment portfolio performance meets agreed targets, and the Board has renewed the management mandate with no changes. Investment income of £9,330 this year is retained within the investment account to support capital growth while preserving longterm value.

Going Concern Assessment

The trustees have assessed the charity's ability to continue as a going concern and are confident in its financial sustainability. While the charity currently has significant concentration risk with heavy reliance on Vision Support Trading income, our strong reserves position and active strategy to diversify funding sources through strategic grant applications support this assessment.

In the 12 months to 31 March 2025, due to a significant reduction in volumes from a major customer, the going concern of Vision Support has been reassessed. In order to mitigate the fall in turnover from this customer, staff restructuring has taken place, and as a result the company is considered to be a going concern at the balance sheet signing date.

Future Financial Strategy

Our financial strategy focuses on three key areas: maintaining service quality during the t, diversifying income sources through strategic grant applications, and prudent reserves management.

Fundraising

Vision Enhancement Services has historically undertaken limited fundraising activities, generating £2,745 in fundraised income. In the final months of the year, we appointed a fundraiser to support our fundraising efforts in the coming years. We will be starting from the ground, and our first steps are generating a network of supporters. Fundraising will be a priority area for the charity over the coming years.

The charity did not engage any professional fundraising organisations or commercial participators during the year. We received no complaints regarding our fundraising activities. All fundraising is conducted in accordance with the Fundraising Regulator's Code of Fundraising Practice, and we are committed to ensuring all fundraising activities are conducted transparently and respectfully.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Report of the Directors and Governors For the year ended 31 March 2025

Statement of Directors’ responsibilities

The Directors are responsible for preparing the Directors’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company Law requires the Directors to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the group and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the group and charitable company for that year.

In preparing these financial statements, the Directors are required to:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

• observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;

• make judgments and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent; and

• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the group and charitable company will continue in operation.

The directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the group and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Provision of information to auditors

• Each of the persons who are Directors at the same time when the Directors’ Report is approved has confirmed that:

• So far as that Director is aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the company’s auditors are unaware, and

• That Directors have taken all the steps that ought to have been taken as a Director in order to be aware of any information needed by the company’ auditors in connection with preparing their report and to establish that the company’s auditors are aware of that information.

Auditors

A resolution proposing Mitchell Charlesworth (Audit) Limited be reappointed as auditor of the company will be put at a General Meeting.

The Directors and Governors’ report was approved by the Board.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

ALAN ALLMAN Chairperson of Trustees

............................................

11th December 2025 Date: ………………………

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Independent Auditor's Report To the Members of Vision Enhancement Services

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Vision Enhancement Services (the ‘charity’) and its subsidiaries (the ‘group’) for the year ended 31 March 2025 which comprise the Group Statement of Financial Activities, the Charity Statement of Financial Activities, the Group Balance Sheet, the Charity Balance Sheet, the Group Statement of Cash Flows and the notes to the accounts, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland ( United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s and the charitable company's affairs as at 31 March 2025 and of the group’s incoming resources and application of resources, for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

• have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis for opinion

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

Conclusions relating to going concern

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

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity’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.

However we draw attention to Note 1.4 whereby a redundancy commitment of £156,391 has been made in Vision Support. The significant reduction in volumes from a major customer at the year-end resulted in Vision Support Trading Limited's board concluding that a restructuring/redundancy program was required. This was formally announced to staff on 31 March 2025 and the program complete by 28th April 2025.

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

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the 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 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.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Independent Auditor's Report (continued) To the Members of Vision Enhancement Services

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

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

• the information given in the Trustees' Report, which includes the Directors’ Report prepared for the purposes of company law, for the financial year for which the accounts are prepared is consistent with the accounts; and

• the Directors’ Report included within the Trustees' 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 group and charity and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Directors’ Report included within the Trustees' Report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 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 accounts are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

• certain disclosures of trustees' remuneration specified by law are not made; or

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or

• the trustees were not entitled to prepare the accounts in accordance with the small companies’ regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in preparing the Trustees' Report and from the requirement to prepare a Strategic Report.

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the Statement of Trustees' Responsibilities, the trustees, who are also the directors of the charity for the purpose 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 directors determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the group and charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the group or 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, is detailed below.

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

We identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, and then design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, including obtaining audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Independent Auditor's Report (continued) To the Members of Vision Enhancement Services

Identifying and assessing potential risks related to irregularities

In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and noncompliance with laws and regulations, we considered the following:

• the nature of the industry and sector, control environment and business performance;

• the charity’s own assessment of the risks that irregularities may occur either as a result of fraud or error;

• the results of our enquiries of management and trustees of their own identification and assessment of the risks of irregularities;

• any matters we identified having obtained and reviewed the charity’s documentation of their 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 of fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations; and

• the matters discussed among the audit engagement team regarding how and where fraud might occur in the financial statements and any potential indicators of fraud.

As a result of these procedures, we considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the organisation for fraud and identified the greatest potential for fraud in the following areas:

(i) The presentation of the group's Statement of Financial Activities, (ii) revenue recognition and (iii) the charity's use of restricted funds. In common with all audits under ISAs (UK), we are also required to perform specific procedures to respond to the risk of management override.

We also obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the company operates in, focusing on provisions of those laws and regulations that had a direct effect on the determination of material amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The key laws and regulations we considered in this context included the UK Companies Act, and the Statement of Recommended Practice - 'Accounting and Reporting by Charities' issued by the joint SORP making body.

In addition, we considered provisions of other laws and regulations that do not have a direct effect on the financial statements but compliance with which may be fundamental to the company's ability to operate or to avoid a material penalty. This includes regulations concerning Data Protection Regulations.

Audit response to risks identified

As a result of performing the above, we identified the valuation of investments and revenue recognition as the key audit matters related to the potential risk of fraud.

Our procedures to respond to risks identified included the following:

• reviewing the financial statement disclosures and testing to supporting documentation to assess compliance with relevant laws and regulations described above as having a direct effect on the financial statements;

• enquiring of management and members of the Board of Trustees concerning actual and potential litigation and claims;

• performing analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of material misstatement due to fraud;

• reading minutes of meetings of those charged with governance and reviewing correspondence with relevant authorities where matters identified were significant;

• in addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, testing the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments; assessing whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias; and evaluating the business rationale of any significant transactions that are unusual or outside the normal course of business.

We also communicated relevant identified laws and regulations and potential fraud risks to all engagement team members and remained alert to any indications of fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations throughout the audit.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Independent Auditor's Report (continued) To the Members of Vision Enhancement Services

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: http://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 auditors' 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.

Robert Hall (Senior Statutory Auditor)

for and on behalf of Mitchell Charlesworth (Audit) Limited, Statutory Auditor

Accountants 24 Nicholas Street Chester CH1 2AU

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Group Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure Account) For the year ended 31 March 2025

Unrestricted Restricted funds funds 2025 2025 Notes £ £ Income from: Donations and legacies 2 26,183 20,480 Grant income 2 - 123,093 Charitable activities 3 514,766 - Other trading activity 4 4,265 - Investments 5 15,922 - Trading company income 13 5,126,464 - Other income 6 1,347 - Total income 5,688,947 143,573 Expenditure on: Charitable activities 7 1,201,654 151,594 Investment costs 11 27,575 - Trading company expenses 13 4,171,929 - Total resources expended 5,401,158 151,594 Net (losses)/gains on investments 12 (1,491) - Net income/(expenditure) 286,298 (8,021) Gross transfers between funds 20 - - Net movement in funds 286,298 (8,021) Total funds brought forward 2,880,457 26,418 Total funds carried forward 3,166,755 18,397	Total 2025 £ 46,663 123,093 514,766 4,265 15,922 5,126,464 1,347 5,832,520 1,353,248 27,575 4,171,929 5,552,752 (1,491) 278,277 - 278,277 2,906,875 3,185,152	Total 2024 £ 204,152 152,373 392,406 1,241 17,192 4,177,481 4,285
		4,949,130
		1,315,212 5,133 3,408,671
		4,729,016
		31,640
		251,754 -
		251,754 2,655,121
		2,906,875

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

The statement of financial activities also complies with the requirements for an income and expenditure account under the Companies Act 2006.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Group Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure Account) For the year ended 31 March 2025

Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows:

Unrestricted Restricted funds funds 2024 2024 Notes £ £ Income from: Donations and legacies 2 203,962 190 Grant income 2 - 152,373 Charitable activities 3 392,406 - Other trading activity 4 1,241 - Investments 5 17,192 - Trading company income 13 4,177,481 - Other income 6 4,285 - Total income 4,796,567 152,563 Expenditure on: Charitable activities 7 1,187,656 127,556 Investment costs 11 5,133 - Trading company expenses 13 3,408,671 - Total resources expended 4,601,460 127,556 Net gains/(losses) on investments 12 31,640 - Net income/(expenditure) 226,747 25,007 Gross transfers between funds 20 - - Net movement in funds 226,747 25,007 Total funds brought forward 2,653,710 1,411 Total funds carried forward 2,880,457 26,418	Total 2024 £ 204,152 152,373 392,406 1,241 17,192 4,177,481 4,285
	4,949,130
	1,315,212 5,133 3,408,671 4,729,016 31,640 251,754 - 251,754 2,655,121
	2,906,875

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Company Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure Account) For the year ended 31 March 2025

Unrestricted Restricted funds funds 2025 2025 Notes £ £ Income from: Donations and legacies 2 795,380 20,480 Grant Income 2 - 123,093 Charitable activities 3 514,766 Other trading activities 4 4,265 - Investments 5 15,922 - Other income 6 1,347 - Total income 1,331,680 143,573 Expenditure on: Raising funds 11 27,575 - Charitable activities 7 1,201,654 151,594 Total resources expended 1,229,299 151,594 Net (losses)/gains on investments 12 (1,491) - Net movement in funds 100,960 (8,021) Fund balances at 1 April 2024 1,932,731 26,418 Fund balances at 31 March 2025 2,033,691 18,397	Total 2025 £ 815,860 123,093 514,766 4,265 15,922 1,347 1,475,253 27,575 1,353,248 1,380,823 (1,491) 92,939 1,959,149 2,052,088	Total 2024 £ 886,279 148,373 392,406 1,241 17,192 4,285 1,449,776 5,133 1,315,212 1,320,345 31,640 161,071 1,798,078 1,959,149

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

The statement of financial activities also complies with the requirements for an income and expenditure account under the Companies Act 2006.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Company Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure Account) For the year ended 31 March 2025

Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows:

Unrestricted Restricted funds funds 2024 2024 Notes £ £ Income from: Donations and legacies 2 882,089 4,190 Grant income 2 - 148,373 Charitable activities 3 392,406 - Other trading activities 4 1,241 - Investments 5 17,192 - Other income 6 4,285 - Total income 1,297,213 152,563 Expenditure on: Investment costs 11 5,133 - Charitable activities 7 1,187,656 127,556 Total resources expended 1,192,789 127,556 Net gains/(losses) on investments 12 31,640 - Net movement in funds 136,064 25,007 Fund balances at 1 April 2023 1,796,667 1,411 Fund balances at 31 March 2024 1,932,731 26,418	Total 2024 £ 886,279 148,373 392,406 1,241 17,192 4,285
	1,449,776
	5,133 1,315,212 1,320,345 31,640 161,071 1,798,078
	1,959,149

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Group Balance Sheet As at 31 March 2025

			2025		2024
	Notes	£	£	£	£
Fixed assets
Tangible assets	14		328,473		379,266
Investments	15		580,641		571,430
			909,114		950,696
Current assets
Stocks	16	19,369		48,086
Debtors	17	1,683,151		1,402,464
Cash at bank and in hand		1,606,526		1,275,033
		3,309,406		2,725,583
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year	18	(1,033,008)		(769,404)
Net current assets			2,276,038		1,956,179
Total assets less current liabilities			3,185,152		2,906,875
Income funds
Restricted funds	19		18,397		26,418
Unrestricted funds	20
Designated funds		1,350,000		1,275,000
General unrestricted funds		1,816,755		1,605,457
			3,166,755		2,880,457
			3,185,152		2,906,875
The accounts were approved by the Trustees on _______	The accounts were approved by the Trustees on _______ 11th December 2025

Alan Allman Mark Thorp

Chairperson of Trustees Chairperson of Finance Committee

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Company Balance Sheet As at 31 March 2025

			2025		2024
	Notes	£	£	£	£
Fixed assets
Tangible assets	14		207,209		219,047
Investments	15		880,641		871,430
			1,087,850		1,090,477
Current assets
Stocks	16	4,655		3,453
Debtors	17	44,335		64,640
Cash at bank and in hand		990,051		879,534
		1,039,041		947,627
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year	18	(74,803)		(78,955)
Net current assets			964,238		868,672
Total assets less current liabilities			2,052,088		1,959,149
Income funds
Restricted funds	19		18,397		26,418
Unrestricted funds	20
Designated funds		1,350,000		1,275,000
General unrestricted funds		683,691		657,731
				~~—~~
			2,033,691		1,932,731
					~~_~~
			2,052,088		1,959,149

The accounts were approved by the Trustees on ____. 11th December 2025 es A,“” Alan Allman Mark Thorp Chairperson of Trustees Chairperson of Finance Committee

Company Registration No. 03512340

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Group Statement of Cash Flows For the year ended 31 March 2025

Notes Cash flows from operating activities Cash generated from operations 26 Investing activities Dividends, interest and rents from investments Purchase of Property, Plant and Equipment Net proceeds from movement on investments Net cash (used in)/generated from investing activities Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting period Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year Cash and cash equivalents at end of the year	2025 £ £ 388,701 15,922 (62,428) (10,702) (57,208) 331,493 1,275,033 1,606,526	2024 £ £ 90,195 17,192 (118,856) (12,060) (113,724) (23,529) 1,298,562 1,275,033

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Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

1. Accounting policies

The principal accounting policies adopted, judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty in the preparation of the financial statements are as follows:-

1.1 Basis of preparation of financial statements

• The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity’s Memorandum of Association, the Companies Act 2006 and “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) (effective 1 January 2019)”. The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.

Vision Enhancement Services meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. The accounts have been prepared under the historical cost convention, modified to include the revaluation of certain financial instruments at fair value. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.

1.2 Company information

The charitable company is a company limited by guarantee (registered number 03512340) incorporated in England and Wales. The address of the registered office is Units 1 and 2, The Ropeworks, Whipcord Lane, Chester, CH1 4DZ.

1.3 Consolidation

The statement of financial activities (SOFA) and balance sheet consolidate the financial statements of the charity and its subsidiary undertaking being Vision Support Trading Limited. Subsidiary financial statements are made up to 31 March 2025 and accounting policies used therein are in line with those used by Vision Enhancement Services. The results of the subsidiary are consolidated on a line by line basis after elimination of intra-group transactions.

1.4 Going concern

The charity relies on contracts and grants for income. Should any contracts which are up for tender over the next year be lost the organisation would look to reduce their costs accordingly. Staff directly employed on the contracts would be subject to TUPE leaving management and administration costs to be reviewed.

In addition, the charity relies on income received via gift-aid from its trading subsidiary. The income of the trading company also relies on contracts with customers. The income from the trading subsidiary is not restricted which enables the organisation to respond flexibly to any changes of income from other sources however, we do not subsidise statutory services.

In the 12 months to 31 March 2025, due to a significant reduction in volumes from a major customer, the going concern of Vision Support has been reassessed. In order to mitigate the fall in turnover from this customer, staff restructuring has taken place, and as a result the company is considered to be a going concern at the balance sheet signing date.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

1. Accounting policies (continued)

1.5 Incoming resources

Income is recognised in the financial statements as follows:-

Grants are recognised in the period for which they are awarded.

Specific grants and allowances Recognised in the period that the specific activity or project is completed and matched to corresponding expenditure. Excess income is carried forward to fund the activity in subsequent periods. Donations, legacies, covenants, fundraising Recognised when receivable. income and other income Investment income Recognised in the period when receivable. Gift aid from trading subsidiary Recognised on receipt.

1.6 Resources expended

All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all costs relating to the category.

Charitable expenditure	Includes all expenditure incurred on the activities run
	in pursuance of the charity’s objectives.
Governance costs	Includes those costs incurred in the governance of the
	charity and are associated with constitutional and
	statutory requirements.
Support costs	Central costs incurred in support of charitable
	activities are apportioned over the appropriate cost
	centres and charged to charitable expenditure as
	support costs.

Support costs are allocated to charitable activities on the basis of total expenditure.

1.7 Provisions

Provisions are recognised when the charity has a present legal or constructive obligation as a result of a past event and it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits that can be reliably estimated will be required to settle the obligation.

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Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

1. Accounting policies (continued)

1.8 Tangible fixed assets

Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost to the charity. Tangible fixed assets are capitalised at a cost where their acquisition value is greater than £500.

Depreciation is provided at the following annual rates in order to write off each asset over its estimated useful life:

Leasehold property 2% straight line Visual aids 25% reducing balance Computer equipment 25% reducing balance Machinery, tools and equipment 25% reducing balance/25% straight line Vehicles 25% reducing balance Furniture, fittings & office equipment 25% reducing balance, 25% and 33% straight line

The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset and is recognised in net income/(expenditure) for the year.

1.9 Stocks

Stocks are valued at the lower of cost and net realisable value after making due allowance for obsolete and slow moving items. Cost includes all direct expenditure in bringing the stock to its condition and location at the balance sheet date. Cost is determined on a first-in, first-out basis. Net realisable value is based on estimated selling price less any further costs of realisation.

1.10 Investments

Investments are stated at market value at the balance sheet date. The SOFA includes the net gains and losses arising on revaluations and disposals throughout the year.

1.11 Cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.

1.12 Taxation

The charity is considered to pass the tests set out in Paragraph 1 Schedule 6 of the Finance Act 2010 and therefore it meets the definition of a charitable company for UK corporation tax purposes. Accordingly, the charity is potentially exempt from taxation in respect of income or capital gains received within categories covered by chapter 3 part 11 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010 or Section 256 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, to the extent that such income or gains are applied exclusively to charitable purposes.

The charity also benefits from property rates relief.

1.13 Pensions

The charity operates two pension schemes for the benefit of employees. The schemes are defined contribution schemes and the contributions are debited to expenditure in the year to which they relate.

Refer to note 24 for information on this scheme.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

1. Accounting policies (continued)

1.14 Operating leases

• Rentals applicable to operating leases where substantially all the benefits and risks of ownership remain with the lessor are charged against profits as incurred.

1.15 Funds

The charity’s funds consist of restricted and unrestricted amounts. The charity may use unrestricted amounts at its discretion. Restricted funds represent income contributions which are restricted to a particular purpose, in accordance with the donor’s wishes. Transfers arise between restricted and unrestricted funds where funds are required from unrestricted funds to support activities using restricted funds.

1.16 Financial instruments

• The group has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic Financial Instruments are initially recognised at the transaction value and subsequently measured at amortised cost using an effective interest method. Financial assets are held at amortised cost comprise cash and bank in hand, together with trade and other debtors. Financial liabilities held at amortised cost comprise bank loans and overdrafts, trade and other creditors.

1.17 Critical accounting judgements and estimation uncertainty

• 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 group makes estimates and assumptions concerning the future. The resulting accounting estimates will, by definition, seldom equal the related actual results. The estimates and assumptions that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next financial year are addressed below.

In the view of the Trustees, no assumptions concerning the future or estimation uncertainty affecting assets and liabilities at the balance sheet date are likely to result in a material adjustment to their carrying amounts in the next financial year.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

2. Donations and legacies – Company and Group Unrestricted Restricted funds funds 2025 2025 £ £ Donations and gifts 795,380 20,480 Grant income - 123,093 795,380 143,573 Donations and gifts Donations and gifts 3,796 480 Legacies 22,387 - Other - 20,000 Gift aid from trading subsidiary 769,197 - 795,380 20,480 Consolidated total without donation from subsidiary 26,183 20,480 Grants receivable for core activities Halton VRC - - Welfare and Benefits Brighter Outlook - - Wrexham Council Project 65 Worker Grant - - People and Places - 22,439 N Wales Com Dev - - RSBC Access Ltd - 4,087 Access to Work - 22,785 Millenium Stadium Charitable Trust - 2,197 Cheshire West Voluntary Action - 7,098 National Lottery - 64,487 Other Grants - - - 123,093	Total 2025 £ 815,860 123,093 938,953
	4,276 22,387 20,000 769,197 815,860
	46,663
	- - - 22,439 - 4,087 22,785 2,197 7,098 64,487 - 123,093

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

2. Donations and legacies – Company and Group Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows:

		Unrestricted	Restricted
		funds	funds	Total
		2024	2024	2024
	Donations and gifts	882,089	190	882,279
	Grant income	-	152,373	152,373
		882,089	152,563	1,034,652
	Donations and gifts
	Donations and gifts	10,588	190	10,778
	Legacies	193,374	-	193,374
,	Gift aid from trading subsidiary	678,127	-	678,127
		882,089	190	882,279
	Consolidated total without donation from subsidiary	203,962	190	204,152
	Grants receivable for core activities
	Halton VRC	-	4,000	4,000
	Welfare and Benefits Brighter Outlook	-	66,010	66,010
	Wrexham Council Project 65 Worker Grant	-	21,972	21,972
	People and Places	-	20,622	20,622
	N Wales Com Dev	-	6,000	6,000
	RSBC Access Ltd	-	-	-
	Access to Work	-	29,854	29,854
	Millenium Stadium Charitable Trust	-	-	-
	Cheshire West Voluntary Action	-	-	-
	National Lottery	-	-	-
	Other Grants	-	3,915	3,915
		-	152,373	152,373

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

3. Charitable activities – Company and Group Unrestricted Restricted funds funds 2025 2025 £ £ Rehabilitation services Contract income receivable 514,766 - Other rehabilitation services income - - 514,766 - Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows: Unrestricted Restricted funds funds 2024 2024 £ £ Rehabilitation services Contract income receivable 392,406 - Other rehabilitation services income - - 392,406 - 4. Income from other trading activities – Company Unrestricted Restricted and Group funds funds 2025 2025 £ £ Fundraising events 4,265 - 4,265 - Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows: Unrestricted Restricted funds funds 2024 2024 £ £ Fundraising events 1,241 - 1,241 -	Total 2025 £ 514,766 - 514,766
	Total 2024 £ 392,406 - 392,406
	Total 2025 £ 4,265 4,265
	Total 2024 £ 1,241 1,241

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

5. Investments – Company and Group Unrestricted Restricted funds funds 2025 2025 £ £ Dividend income receivable 14,590 - Deposit interest receivable 1,332 - 15,922 - Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows: Unrestricted Restricted funds funds 2024 2024 £ £ Dividend income receivable 15,633 - Deposit interest receivable 1,559 - 17,192 - 6. Other income – Company and Group Unrestricted Restricted funds funds 2025 2025 £ £ Other income 1,347 - 1,347 - Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows: Unrestricted Restricted funds funds 2024 2024 £ £ Other income 4,285 - 4,285 -	Total 2025 £ 14,590 1,332 15,922
	Total 2024 £ 15,633 1,559 17,192
	Total 2025 £ 1,347 1,347 Total 2024 £ 4,285 4,285

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

7. Charitable activities (expenditure) – Company and Group

Community Services 2025 £ Staff costs 327,137 Charitable expenditure 106,346 433,483 Share of support and governance costs (see note 8) 87,140 520,623 Analysis by fund Unrestricted funds 391,814 Restricted funds 128,809 520,623 Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as Community Services 2024 £ Staff costs 296,458 Charitable expenditure 71,219 367,677 Share of support and governance costs (see note 8) 104,203 471,880 Analysis by fund Unrestricted funds 374,178 Restricted funds 97,702 471,880	Rehab Services Technology Assistance 2025 2025 £ £ 399,029 87,095 99,338 2,733 498,367 89,828 136,881 23,910 635,248 113,738 635,248 113,738 - - 635,248 113,738 follows: Rehab Services Technology Assistance 2024 2024 £ £ 388,800 66,758 73,896 15,849 462,696 82,607 163,684 28,592 626,380 111,199 626,380 111,199 - - 626,380 111,199	Volunteer -ing 2025 £ 22,763 7,225 29,988 30,866 60,854 60,854 - 60,854 Volunteer -ing 2024 £ 38,989 - 38,989 36,910 75,899 75,899 - 75,899	Access to Work 2025 £ 22,785 - 22,785 - 22,785 - 22,785 22,785 Access to Work 2024 £ - 29,854 29,854 - 29,854 - 29,854 29,854		Total 2025 £ 858,809 215,642
					1,074,451 278,797
					1,353,248
					1,201,654 151,594
					1,353,248
					Total 2024 £ 791,005 190,818
					981,823 333,389
					1,315,212
					1,187,656 127,556
					1,315,212

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

8. Support costs – Company and Group Staff costs Personnel and training costs Depreciation Property and office costs Computer costs Repairs & maintenance Insurance Sundry costs Utilities Non-recoverable VAT Legal & professional fees Staff costs Professional fees Committee expenses Audit fees	Support Governance costs costs 2025 2025 £ £ 182,185 - 7,640 - 15,334 - 16,634 - 6,713 - 7,670 - 9,102 - 2,845 - 1,967 - 2,947 - - - - - - 9,847 - 42 - 20,850 253,037 30,739	Total 2025 £ 182,185 7,640 15,334 16,634 6,713 7,670 9,102 2,845 1,967 2,947 - - 9,847 42 20,850
		283,776

Auditors remuneration for the audit of the charity was £5,250 (2024: £5,000) other fees payable to the auditors for other services were £2,095 (2024: £1,995).

Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows:

Support Governance costs costs 2024 2024 £ £ Staff costs 188,868 - Personnel and training costs 22,609 - Depreciation 17,295 - Property and office costs 28,839 - Computer costs 20,261 - Repairs & maintenance 1,295 - Insurance 8,209 - Sundry costs 2,112 - Utilities 3,454 - Non-recoverable VAT 6,420 - Legal & professional fees - - Staff costs - 6,731 Professional fees - 22,029 Committee expenses - 267 Audit fees - 5,000 299,362 34,027

Total 2024 £ 188,868 22,609 17,295 28,839 20,261 1,295 8,209 2,112 3,454 6,420 - 6,731 22,029 267 5,000

333,389

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

9. Trustees

None of the trustees (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration or benefits from the charity during the year.

10. Employees

Employees
	Group			Company
Number of employees	2025		2024	2025		2024
	Number	Number		Number	Number
Number of paid employees	104		96	40		38
	2025		2024	2025		2024
Employment costs	£		£	£		£
Wages and salaries	2,870,676	2,482,520		954,679	907,928
Social security costs	255,893	188,271		81,802		55,340
Other Pension costs	74,395		72,883	22,458		16,605
	3,200,964	2,743,674		1,058,939	979,873
	2025		2024	2025		2024
Redundancy Payments	£		£	£		£
Redundancy payments made	156,391		-	-		-
	156,391		-	-		-

The number of employees whose annual remuneration was more than £60,000 is as follows:-

Number	of employees	2025	2024	2025	2024
		Number	Number	Number	Number
£60,001	- £70,000	1	1	1	1
£70,001	- £80,000	-	1	-	-
£80,001	- £90,000	1	1	-	-
£90,001	- £100,000	1	-	-	-

The key management personnel of the group comprise the CEO, the Internal Operations Manager, the Rehabilitation Services Manager, and the MD and deputy MD of the trading subsidiary. The total employee benefits of the key management personnel of the group were £485,660 (2024: £643,817). The group FTE for key management personnel during the year was 8.6 (2024: 7.2).

The key management personnel of the charity comprise the CEO, the Internal Operations Manager, the Rehabilitation Services Manager, the Halton Operations Manager, the Cheshire Operations Manager and the North Wales Operations Manager. The total employee benefits of the key management personnel of the group were £253,531 (2024: £291,904). The charity FTE for key management personnel during the year was 6.6 (2024: 5.7).

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

11. Investment management costs – Company and Group Unrestricted Restricted funds funds Total 2025 2025 2025 £ £ £ Staff costs 17,945 - 17,945 Support costs 4,979 - 4,979 Management costs 4,651 - 4,651 27,575 - 27,575 Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows (included in charitable expenditure): 2024 2024 2024 £ £ £ Investment management costs 5,133 - 5,133 12. Net gains/(losses) on investments – Company Unrestricted Restricted and Group funds funds Total 2025 2025 2025 £ £ £ Gain/(loss) on sale of investments (1,491) - (1,491) Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows: 2024 2024 2024 £ £ £ Gain/(loss) on sale of investments 31,640 - 31,640	11. Investment management costs – Company and Group Unrestricted Restricted funds funds Total 2025 2025 2025 £ £ £ Staff costs 17,945 - 17,945 Support costs 4,979 - 4,979 Management costs 4,651 - 4,651 27,575 - 27,575 Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows (included in charitable expenditure): 2024 2024 2024 £ £ £ Investment management costs 5,133 - 5,133 12. Net gains/(losses) on investments – Company Unrestricted Restricted and Group funds funds Total 2025 2025 2025 £ £ £ Gain/(loss) on sale of investments (1,491) - (1,491) Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows: 2024 2024 2024 £ £ £ Gain/(loss) on sale of investments 31,640 - 31,640	11. Investment management costs – Company and Group Unrestricted Restricted funds funds Total 2025 2025 2025 £ £ £ Staff costs 17,945 - 17,945 Support costs 4,979 - 4,979 Management costs 4,651 - 4,651 27,575 - 27,575 Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows (included in charitable expenditure): 2024 2024 2024 £ £ £ Investment management costs 5,133 - 5,133 12. Net gains/(losses) on investments – Company Unrestricted Restricted and Group funds funds Total 2025 2025 2025 £ £ £ Gain/(loss) on sale of investments (1,491) - (1,491) Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows: 2024 2024 2024 £ £ £ Gain/(loss) on sale of investments 31,640 - 31,640	Total 2025 £ 17,945 4,979 4,651
			27,575
		Total 2025 £ (1,491) 2024 £ 31,640

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

13. Trading subsidiary

Vision Support Trading Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of the charity which provides accessible information formats such as Braille, modified large prints and audio files.

Profit and loss account Vision Support Trading Limited Turnover Cost of sales Gross profit Other operating income Interest receivable and similar income Administrative expenses Profit before tax Tax on profit/(loss) on ordinary activities Profit for the financial year	2025 2024 £ £ 5,126,389 4,177,458 (2,687,235) (2,225,045) 2,439,154 1,952,413 - 23 75 - (1,484,694) (1,183,626) 954,535 768,810 - - 954,535 768,810	2025 2024 £ £ 5,126,389 4,177,458 (2,687,235) (2,225,045) 2,439,154 1,952,413 - 23 75 - (1,484,694) (1,183,626) 954,535 768,810 - - 954,535 768,810
		768,810 -
		768,810

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

14.	Tangible fixed assets
		Leasehold land	Leasehold	Machinery	Continued
		and buildings	improvements	tools and	below
	Group			equipment
		£	£	£
	Cost
	At 1 April 2024	298,529	58,179	359,070
	Additions	-	916	21,772
	Disposals	-	-	(53,112)
	At 31 March 2025	298,529	59,095	327,730
	Depreciation
	At 1 April 2024	113,442	53,530	257,657
	Charge for the year	5,971	2,677	52,997
	Eliminated on disposal	-	-	(53,098)
	At 31 March 2025	119,413	56,207	257,556
	Carrying amount
	At 31 March 2025	179,116	2,888	70,174
	At 31 March 2024	185,087	4,649	101,413
	Tangible fixed assets - continued	Furniture, fittings	Visual	Motor	Total
		and office	aids and	vehicles
	Group	equipment	computers
		£	£	£	£
	Cost
	At 1 April 2024	281,958	45,278	60,825	1,103,839
	Additions	36,244	3,496	-	62,428
	Disposals	(15,247)	-	-	(68,359)
	At 31 March 2025	302,955	48,774	60,825	1,097,908
	Depreciation
	At 1 April 2024	223,375	35,620	40,949	724,573
	Charge for the year	43,287	3,288	4,969	113,189
	Eliminated on disposal	(15,229)	-	-	(68,327)
	At 31 March 2025	251,433	38,908	45,918	837,762
	Carrying amount
	At 31 March 2025	51,522	9,866	14,907	328,473
	At 31 March 2024	58,583	9,658	19,876	379,266

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

14.	Tangible fixed assets
		Leasehold land	Leasehold	Machinery	Continued
		and buildings	improvements	tools and	below
	Company			equipment
		£	£	£
	Cost
	At 1 April 2024	298,529	-	8,278
	Additions	-	-	-
	Disposals	-	-	-
	At 31 March 2025	298,529	-	8,278
	Depreciation
	At 1 April 2024	113,442	-	8,113
	Charge for the year	5,971	-	41
	Eliminated on disposal	-	-	-
	At 31 March 2025	119,413	-	8,154
	Carrying amount
	At 31 March 2025	179,116	-	124
	At 31 March 2024	185,087	-	165
	Tangible fixed assets - continued	Furniture, fittings	Visual	Motor	Total
		and office	aids and	vehicles
	Company	equipment	computers
		£	£	£	£
	Cost
	At 1 April 2024	24,692	45,278	60,825	437,602
	Additions	-	3,496	-	3,496
	Disposals	-	-	-	-
	At 31 March 2025	24,692	48,774	60,825	441,098
	Depreciation
	At 1 April 2024	20,431	35,620	40,949	218,555
	Charge for the year	1,065	3,288	4,969	15,334
	Eliminated on disposal	-	-	-	-
	At 31 March 2025	21,496	38,908	45,918	233,889
	Carrying amount
	At 31 March 2025	3,196	9,866	14,907	207,209
	At 31 March 2024	4,261	9,658	19,876	219,047

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

15. Investments – Company and Group Listed investments £ Cost or valuation At 1 April 2024 556,295 Additions 164,678 Valuation changes (1,491) Income received - Disposals (151,807) At 31 March 2025 567,675 Carrying amount At 31 March 2025 567,675 At 31 March 2024 556,295	Cash in portfolio Other Investments £ £ 15,135 300,000 (164,678) - - - 10,702 - 151,807 - 12,966 300,000 12,966 300,000 15,135 300,000		Total £ 871,430 - (1,491) 10,702 -
			880,641
			880,641
			871,430

100% of the investments are held by Vision Enhancement Services, therefore none relate to Vision Support Trading Ltd. The group investments are made up of Listed investments and cash in portfolio listed above.

	2025	2024
	£	£
Other investments comprise:
Investment in subsidiaries	300,000	300,000

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

16. Stock Group 2025 2024 £ £ Stock 19,369 48,086 17. Debtors Group 2025 2024 £ £ Amounts falling due within one year: Trade debtors 1,484,666 1,292,608 Other debtors 6,614 9,231 Prepayments and accrued income 191,871 100,625 1,683,151 1,402,464 18. Creditors: Group 2025 2024 £ £ Amounts falling due within one year: Trade creditors 193,819 301,342 Owed to group companies - - Other taxation and social security 261,719 191,753 Other creditors 27,402 33,202 Accruals 550,068 243,107 1,033,008 769,404	Company 2025 £ 4,655 Company 2025 £ 8,250 6,978 29,107 44,335 Company 2025 £ 24,518 418 18,803 17,268 13,796 74,803	2024 £ 3,453
		2024 £ 28,305 9,231 27,104 64,640
		2024 £ 23,064 364 19,026 25,490 11,011 78,955

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

Restricted income funds Balance at 1 April 2024 Current Financial Year £ Halton VRC 4,000 Wrexham Council Project 65 Worker Grant 21,972 Other Grants 446 People and Places - RSBC Access Ltd - Access to Work - Millenium Stadium Charitable Trust - Vision Rehabilitation - Cheshire West Voluntary Action - National Lottery Chester Lions - 26,418	Movement in funds	Gains & losses Balance at 31 March 2025 £ £ - - - - - 266 - - - - - - - 1,106 - 12,118 102 4,805 - - - 18,397
	Incoming resources Resources expended Transfers £ £ £ - (4,000) - - (21,972) - - (180) - 22,439 (22,439) - 4,087 (4,087) - 22,785 (22,785) - 2,197 (1,091) - 20,000 (7,882) - 7,098 (6,996) 64,487 (59,682) 480 (480) - 143,573 (151,594) -

The charity provides services through four resource centres and a number of other projects including Rehabilitation Services, Digital Inclusion Training and Community Engagement.

All grants and relevant donations are set up as separate restricted funds. Further details of these funds are included below the prior year comparatives.

The above schedule illustrates the income and expenditure of each fund and the amount by which each is supported from the unrestricted funds of the charity. Transfers to and from unrestricted funds indicate the extent to which money from unrestricted funds is required to support these restricted activities.

Balance at 1 April 2023 Prior Financial Year £ Halton VRC - Welfare and Benefits (Brighter Outlook) - People and Places - N Wales Com Dev - Access to Work - Wrexham Council Project 65 Worker Grant - Other Grants 1,411 1,411	Movement in funds	Gains & losses Balance at 31 March 2024 £ £ - 4,000 - - - - - - - - - 21,972 - 446 - 26,418
	Incoming resources Resources expended Transfers £ £ £ 4,000 - - 66,010 (66,010) - 20,622 (20,622) - 6,000 (6,000) - 29,854 (29,854) - 21,972 - - 4,105 (5,070) - 152,563 (127,556) -

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Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Restricted income funds (continued)

Halton VRC

Funds from Halton VRC were used to support the Tuesday social group and community work in Halton, providing additional support outside of our contract with Halton Borough Council

Wrexham Council Project 65 Worker Grant.

This funding provided an additional income from Wrexham Borough Council to support the Vision Rehabilitation Contract in the area. We were commissioned to increase our capacity in the rehabilitation team to meet the needs of people who were over the age of 65.

People and Places

The project is to provide additional funding to increase the number of days for the mobile information unit to be on the road in North Wales. The project had originally been running for 3 days a week and with the additional funding, the charity has been able to expand to provide the service over 5 days to also cover Gwynedd and Ynys Mon. This means that the charity is able to reach more people in all areas of North Wales. The funding began in May 2021 and is a four-year grant.

Royal Society for Blind Children

Funds from the National Lottery were awarded to the Royal Society for Blind Children (RSBC) to deliver the Access Unlimited project in Wales. Vision Support are working in partnership with RSBC to deliver support and training to professionals and activity leaders to improve inclusion for people with Vision Impairments. in North Wales. Other partners in the project are Wales Council of the Blind, North Wales Society for the Blind and Boys and Girls Clubs in Wales.

Vision Rehabilitation

Our Vision Rehabilitation Contract began in 2024 and this funding of £20,000 provided by Flintshire and Wrexham County Council was to purchase equipment for service users’ to fulfil the contract.

Cheshire west Voluntary Action

We received a grant to deliver a Warm Centre Project, providing an opportunity for people who are vulnerable to come together for a warm meal, a hot drink and company. The funding originated from Cadent and as part of the grant, we were able to provide Carbon Monoxide Alarms, raise awareness of the dangers with Carbon Monoxide and support people to be added to the priority services register with their utility companies.

Millenium Stadium Charitable Trust

Vision Support were awarded money to provide a Vision Sport project, designed to provide opportunities for people with Vision Impairments to participate in activities that they may have otherwise believed something they would be unable to do. The project delivered indoor climbing sessions, accessible cycling sessions and some canoeing taster days.

National Lottery – Cheshire Sight Loss Information Line

We completed our second year of funding for the Cheshire Sight Loss Information Line, the funding it to provide information and guidance about support and services available for people with Vision Impairments. The line was set up following hearing from people that they struggled to find information about what was available for them. People also told us that they could leave eye clinic appointments feeling overwhelmed so the information line is available for people to gain more information about their eye conditions.

Chester Lions

Chester Lions have generously provided funding to support our annual narrow boat trip, enabling a group of people to experience a trip along the canal.

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Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Access to Work

Access to work is funding that staff with a disability can apply for in order for them to be able to carry out their work. The application is approved by Access to work and then the charity invoices for the funding on behalf of these staff. This covers any agreed travel, equipment or support that people need in order to be able to complete their job. The money is then paid out to staff through their expenses. There is no financial benefit to the charity from the arrangement.

Other grants

Other grants include funding received during the year to purchase equipment for service users to meet needs arising during the COVID 19 pandemic. £266 of this funding was unspent at the year end.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

20. Unrestricted income funds Balance at 1 April 2024 Current Financial Year £ Designated funds: Lease dilapidation fund 75,000 General contingency 1,200,000 1,275,000 General funds 657,731 Trading company reserves 947,726 2,880,457	Movement in funds	Gains & losses Balance at 31 March 2025 £ £ - 150,000 - 1,200,000 - 1,350,000 (1,491) 683,691 - 1,133,064 (1,491) 3,166,755
	Incoming resources Resources expended Transfers £ £ £ - - 75,000 - - - - - 75,000 562,483 (460,032) (75,000) 5,126,464 (4,941,126) - 5,688,947 (5,389,040) -

Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows:

Balance at 1 April 2023 Prior Financial Year £ Designated funds: Lease dilapidation fund - General contingency - - General funds 1,796,667 Trading company reserves 857,043 2,653,710	Movement in funds	Gains & losses Balance at 31 March 2024 £ £ - 75,000 - 1,200,000 - 1,275,000 31,640 657,731 - 947,726 31,640 2,880,457
	Incoming resources Resources expended Transfers £ £ £ - - 75,000 - - 1,200,000 - - 1,275,000 619,086 (514,662) (1,275,000) 4,177,481 (4,086,798) - 4,796,567 (4,601,460) -

Lease dilapidation fund

The board have decided to designate £75,000 per year for the next 5 years to secure the charity’s position when VST move premises at the end of their current lease.

General contingency fund

The board have also decided to hold reserves equivalent to approximately one year’s operating costs to provide stability for the charity, in case of any fluctuations to income from the trading subsidiary.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

21. Company limited by guarantee

The charity is limited by guarantee and as such has no share capital. In the event of the charity being wound up, each member may be called upon to contribute a sum not exceeding £10 towards the liabilities of the charity.

22. Related party transactions, including trustees’ remuneration

There were management recharges from Vision Support Trading Limited to Vision Enhancement Service for the service of administration and accountancy duties. The total recharge for the period was £12,000 (2024: £12,000). Vision Support Trading also paid £769,297 (2024: £678,127) in respect of donations under gift aid.

In accordance with the Memorandum and Articles of Association, one trustee has been reimbursed for expenses incurred of £12 (2024: £12) in attending board meetings throughout the period. The trustees received no remuneration from Vision Enhancement Services during the period.

23. Operating leases

The group had future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases as follows:

Within one year Between two and five years In over five years	2025 £ 112,307 248,102 - 396,409	2024 £ 111,150 395,923 846 507,919

24. Pension costs

The group operates two defined contribution pension schemes for the benefit of its employees. The assets of the schemes are held separately from those of the company in an independent administered fund. The contributions are charged to the income and expenditure account as they fall due. The charge for the year was £74,395 (2024: £72,883).

25. Controlling party

The group and charity are controlled by the charity’s board of directors and governors.

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

26. Cash generated from operations Surplus/(deficit) for the year Adjustments for: Depreciation charges Dividends, interest and rents from investments Loss/(profit) on the sale of fixed assets Fair value losses/(gains) on investments Movements in working capital: (Increase)/decrease in stocks (Increase)/decrease in debtors ( Increase/(decrease) in creditors Cash generated from/(absorbed by) operations 27. Analysis of net assets between funds Group – current year Unrestricted £ Fund balances at 31 March 2025 are represented by: Tangible assets 328,473 Investments 580,641 Current assets/(liabilities) 2,269,759 3,178,873 Company – current year Unrestricted £ Fund balances at 31 March 2025 are represented by: Tangible assets 207,209 Investments 880,641 Current assets/(liabilities) 957,959 2,045,809	2025 £ 278,277 113,189 (15,922) 32 1,491 28,717 280,687) 263,604 388,701 Restricted £ - - 6,279 6,279 Restricted £ - - 6,279 6,279	2024 £ 251,754 131,963 (17,192) 7 (31,639) 7,271 (392,181) 140,212 90,195 Total £ 328,473 580,641 2,276,038 3,185,152 Total £ 207,209 880,641 964,238 2,052,088

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VISION ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2025

27. Analysis of net assets between funds (continued)

Comparative information in respect of the preceding period is as follows:

	Group – prior year	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total
		£	£	£
	Fund balances at 31 March 2024 are represented by:
	Tangible assets	379,266	-	379,266
	Investments	571,430	-	571,430
	Current assets/(liabilities)	1,929,761	26,418	1,956,179
		2,880,457	26,418	2,906,875
	Company – prior year	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total
		£	£	£
	Fund balances at 31 March 2024 are represented by:
	Tangible assets	219,047	-	219,047
	Investments	871,430	-	871,430
	Current assets/(liabilities)	842,254	26,418	868,672
		1,932,731	26,418	1,959,149
28.	Analysis of changes in net (debt)/funds
		At 1 April		At 31 March
		2024	Cash flows	2025
		£	£	£
	Cash at bank and in hand	1,275,033	331,493	1,606,526

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