2025-03-31-accounts - Picker Institute Europe

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Report of the Board and Consolidated Financial Statements For the year ended 31[st] March 2025

Report of the Board of Trustees

The Trustees of Picker Institute Europe (Picker) are pleased to present their annual report together with the group consolidated financial statements of the charitable company and its subsidiary for the year ended 31[st] March 2025, which are also prepared to meet the requirements for a directors’ report and accounts for Companies Act purposes.

The financial statements comply with the Charities and Trustees Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended), the Companies Act 2006, the Memorandum and Articles of Association, 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).

Objects and activities

Our purpose

Picker was established to promote the idea and benefits of person centred care.

Our objects

The objects of the charity are:

to promote public health for the benefit of the community in particular by improving standards of treatment and care for patients of health care services;
to advance education in healthcare in particular by the provision of training for healthcare professionals in communication skills; and
to advance education in healthcare in particular by developing research tools and undertaking research into patients’ perspectives of health care services and to publish the useful results of the same for the public benefit.

Our vision

The highest quality person centred care for all, always.

Our mission

We are here to:

Influence policy and practice so that health and social care systems are always centred around people’s needs and preferences.
Inspire the delivery of the highest quality person centred care, developing tools and services that enable people’s experiences to be better understood.
Empower staff working in health and social care to improve experiences by effectively measuring and acting upon people’s feedback.

Our values

We are proud of the work we do, and are equally proud of the way we do it.

Our core values – excellence, integrity, valuing diversity and collaboration – underpin everything that we do, reflecting what we believe in and how we behave.

Excellence: Maintaining the quality and consistency of our work is our highest priority. We are not willing to accept the status quo and continuously look for new ways to understand, measure and improve the quality of health and social care.
Integrity: We ensure our independence using the best possible evidence to drive and support our decision making, our statements and our activities. Our behaviours match our words and we are accountable for all that we do. We only engage in activity which furthers our charitable aims.
Valuing diversity: We recognise all people as equals, valuing individual worth and diversity. Ideas and contributions are judged on their merit not their source.
Collaboration: We encourage ideas and knowledge to be shared freely. We believe that lasting change cannot be delivered in isolation and actively seek partnership opportunities to achieve greater impact.

Financial Statements 2024-2025

Report of the Board of Trustees

How we work

We pioneered the Picker Principles of Person Centred Care, which continue to be used as a world-renowned framework to support the delivery of consistent, high-quality care. We influence, inspire, and empower others to ensure that people are placed at the heart of health and social care provision. We believe advocating for the delivery of each of the Principles is crucial to achieving this.

We are experts in understanding and measuring people’s experiences. Our research provides the clarity, tools and data to achieve the buy-in needed to drive improvements in care standards.

We use our experience and expertise to help care providers, commissioners, and professionals engage and empower people to build a culture that consistently delivers person centred care for all, always.

Picker carries out a range of activities to further its charitable objects. Collectively, these include research and insight work around person centred care, as well as work to measure and improve staff and users’ experiences of care. Typical examples of our activities include:

Developing and implementing applied social research including surveys, interviews, and focus groups to gather feedback about the quality of care services.
Designing and conducting in-depth research to evaluate the impact of policy and practice on people’s experiences and service quality, and creating innovative new approaches to support better measurement.
Sharing research findings and best practice with the wider community of policy makers, professionals, researchers, and the public to inspire and enable improvements in the quality of services.
Working with providers, commissioners, and professionals to support them to understand and act on the things that matter most to their patients, populations, and staff, including through local and national workshops and events.
Running events such as our national Care Experiences Symposium and the Picker Experience Network Awards: the latter being the first and only awards programme to recognise best practice in patient experience across all facets of health and social care in the UK and around the world.

Our strategic priorities

Our four strategic goals are:

1. Advancing our vision

Picker is an international authority in how to understand, measure, and improve people’s experiences of health and social care. Our role is to influence, inspire, and empower policy makers, providers, and professionals alike to deliver the highest quality person centred care for all, always. Our work with individuals and organisation across health and care policy and practice in the UK and internationally gives us broad insight into the challenges that can limit the adoption of person centred practices and that can affect the quality of people’s lived experiences.

2. Delivering expert services

3. Diversification

4. Moving beyond measurement

To help us meet our goals, we will need to ensure that we have the right staff, resources, and ways of working to help us progress. We continue to identify four ‘enablers’: areas where supporting action will be required to allow us to deliver our strategy.

These are:

Our strategy for 2024/25 has focused on four distinct but interlinked goals designed to address key challenges and to support the achievement of our vision and charitable objectives. Collectively, these are intended to support the development of policy and practice in the health and care sector and to ensure our sustainable impact.

People Responsible governance Technology Portfolio, marketing and communications

Our overall strategy for 2024/25 is summarised below.

Advancing	Delivering	Diversification	Moving beyond
our vision	expert services		measurement
Achieving person	Our products	As a charity that	Person centred care
centred care requires	and services reflect	operates on	is broader than
services to understand	our mission and	a fee-for-service	experience of care:
what matters to	contribute to our	model, revenue	measurement is
users and to staff,	impact by providing	diversity is important	necessary but
and to measure	high-quality support	for our sustainability	not sufficient to
and act on this.	to clients.	and independence.	improve quality.
Goal: to advance our	Goal: projects and	Goal: to ensure our	Goal: to support
vision, we will continue	services are completed	sustainability and	lasting improvements
to be seen as leaders	to a consistently	independence, and	in care, we will
in how to use people’s	high standard; are	to allow us to invest	review our role as
experiences to	delivered on time and	in generating impact,	an improvement
measure, understand,	to budget; and create	we will increase the	practitioner and we
evaluate, and improve	value for customers	contribution of new	will define and launch
person centred care.	and stakeholders,	business outside	a clear offer to help
	meeting or exceeding	of NHS national	our partners.
	their expectations.	programmes.

Responsible Technology Marketing, and governance communications

People

Financial Statements 2024-2025

4 Report of the Board of Trustees

Report of the Board of Trustees

Public benefit

The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 17(5) of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.

The Trustees ensure that our work is carried out for the public benefit by delivering services that directly involve the public and, wherever possible, seldom heard communities, and ensure that those with responsibility to influence people’s care have both the information and tools to aid them in their role. Our beneficiaries are the public and all involved in health and social care (patients, service users, friends and families, and care staff). We promote public health to improve standards of treatment and care and by developing research tools and undertaking research into patients’ perspectives of health care services and publishing them for the public benefit. All our products and services are designed to deliver benefit for patients, service users, communities, care professionals, and the public regardless of whether they are undertaken under contract, are grant aided, or are an allocation of resources.

Fundraising

We do not engage in public fundraising, do no proactive fundraising and do not use professional fundraisers or commercial participators to fundraise on our behalf and as a result we are not reliant on voluntary donations or other fundraising income. We do observe and comply with the relevant fundraising regulations and codes. During the year there was no non-compliance of these regulations and codes and we received no complaints relating to our fundraising practice.

Volunteers

We actively seek input from patients and members of the public in much of the work we do, and opportunities are available for volunteers to contribute to the design, planning, and delivery of research studies that we conduct. Further opportunities are available for volunteers to gain experience at Picker and to help achieve the organisation’s objectives.

Environmental, Social and Governance

We continue to monitor our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) responsibilities to evaluate how effectively our behaviours and systems support sustainability. ESG principles are embedded across our organisation through key policies, processes, and practices, including our Environmental and Sustainability Policy, Carbon Reduction Plan, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Policy, and our commitment to continual improvement – particularly through our international standard accreditations.

We are proud to have adopted and to maintain a progressive approach to hybrid working. Most of our team works remotely, significantly reducing our carbon footprint from travel whilst also supporting a healthy work-life balance for our colleagues. This approach aligns with our broader sustainability goals and our aspiration to be an ethical, person centred employer.

Our mission reflects a strong commitment to public and societal benefit, as detailed in our annual Impact Report. Governance and organisational behaviours are outlined in this Annual Report, including the Matters Reserved for the Board, the committee structure and terms of reference, and our core values.

We recognise that ESG is a dynamic and evolving area. As such, we remain committed to ongoing reflection, learning, and development of our ESG strategy to ensure that we continue to fulfil our responsibilities as a caring, responsible, and mission-led organisation.

Achievements and performance

In the financial year ended 31[st] March 2025, we continued to support health and care professionals, providers, and regulators to understand, measure, and improve experiences of care. As always, we focussed on delivering projects and services that create impact for our beneficiaries: patients, service users, the public, and health and care staff. Below, we highlight notable examples of our achievements aligned to each of our four strategic goals.

Advancing our vision

We are passionate about promoting person centred care and encouraging policy makers, providers, and professionals to prioritise understanding, measuring, and using people’s experiences of care. Our work includes original research, thought leadership, events, and public affairs work to raise interest in and awareness of person centred care.

We have written and published widely throughout the year. Peer-reviewed publications have included a new taxonomy of examining under-representation in user experience surveys; a study on the management and improvement of quality

in Integrated Care Systems, developed with our partners in the Quality, Safety, and Outcomes of Health and Social Care Policy Research Unit (QSO PRU); and a paper describing the care experiences and support needs of adults with meningitis. We have also used our own website as a platform for original ideas – including a blog series discussing the importance of waiting as a component of people’s healthcare experiences, and how this can be improved with tried-and-tested interventions.

Colleagues have attended and presented at a wide range of relevant events to promote Picker’s work on person centred care. Key examples include the inaugural Global Conference on Person Centred Care, where we hosted a workshop and delivered two presentations, as well as the International Conference on Communication in Healthcare and the CCL Horizons Conference 2024.
We have engaged with developments in health policy, particularly in England – including by responding to national consultations on the NHS Constitution and the NHS Ten Year Forward Plan (both led by NHS England) and on Principles of Better Patient Safety (led by the Patient Safety Commissioner). In each case, we have advocated for a focus on person centredness.

Financial Statements 2024-2025

Report of the Board of Trustees

Delivering expert services

We use our expertise to support a diverse range of local, regional, and national organisations in their work on patient and staff experiences of health and care. Through these engagements, our goal is to deliver high quality, actionable insight to support improvements in the understanding and provision of person centred care.

Notable highlights in 2024/25 included:

Coordinating the NHS Patient Survey Programme for the Care Quality Commission (CQC). This was a particularly busy year, with surveys published on a number of topics including NHS maternity services; urgent and emergency care; and inpatient services. As well as working with CQC nationally, we partnered with nearly 70 NHS organisations to gather people’s experiences as part of this programme – and hosted a number of national and local workshops to support the use of the feedback collected for service improvement.
Continuing to manage the NHS Staff Survey Programme, which we have coordinated on behalf of NHS England since 2011. We have worked with our clients to develop and grow this programme to become the world’s largest single workforce experience evaluation: this year alone, 1.5 million people were invited to participate, and almost 775,000 responses were gathered from 263 NHS organisations. By coordinating a census across participating organisations we provide the opportunity

for all eligible NHS colleagues to share their experiences, and the subsequent insights are greatly valued and widely used at local, regional, and national levels.

Working towards improving the experience of people living with specific conditions remains a key theme of our work. This has been particularly notable in our partnerships with international charities. We were proud to partner with the Lymphoma Coalition, Acute Leukemia Advocates Network (ALAN), Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia Advocates Network (CLLAN), Myelodysplastic Syndromes Alliance, Cardiomyopathy UK and the International Kidney Cancer Coalition. Through this range of innovative projects, we were able to represent people’s care experiences in over 85 countries globally.
Overall, we supported more than 300 organisations to understand, measure, and improve people’s experience of person centred care all over the world – and we provided the opportunity for over 1.9 million patients, services users, and staff to report their experiences of care.
We have conducted original research and evaluations in a range of settings and with diverse partners and communities – including, for example, an evaluation of Scotland’s redesigned urgent care pathway, published by the Scottish Government in January 2025; and an ongoing evaluation of the impact of the Health Foundation’s Q Community.

Diversifying

This was the third full year of operations for Picker HWA, our subsidiary that works to build our impact with private health and with social care providers. We have worked with more new partners across different care sectors to develop our portfolio and we have maintained a steady and healthy position on which to build our diversified growth strategy. On the 1[st] of April 2025 the activities of the subsidiary were transferred to be part of the charity itself to simplify the structure and associated administration.

Additionally, we have sought to make our tools and methods widely available to support person centred practice around the world. Our evaluation toolkits were active in more than 30 countries – and we have been working closely with partners to develop these collections into a wide collaboration, the Picker International Experience Network.

Moving beyond measurement

We recognise that measurement is necessary but not sufficient for improvement: ultimately, we believe that the goals of patient experience research and evaluation should include delivering better, more person centred care, and it is important that our work reflects this. Accordingly, we work with providers, commissioners, and health and care staff to help them make effective use of experience information to drive improvement. We also recognise and celebrate best practice.

We have continued to provide direct action planning and improvement support to organisations involved in the collection of patient and staff experience information. This year, we hosted over 50 workshops and presentations – including six national workshops – to help service providers better understand national survey data and thus drive quality improvement.

• We acquired the Patient Experience Network (PEN) in April 2024, building on a strong history of collaborative working to bring together two market leaders in person centred care. Following this acquisition, we developed the long-running Patient Experience Network National Awards event to hold the new Picker Experience Network Awards for the first time in October 2024. These awards are the first and only awards programme in the UK dedicated to recognising and celebrating best practice in patient experience across health and social care. This year’s event was the largest ever, attracting over 320 attendees, over 160 submissions, and 112 finalists.

We have worked with our partners at the Point of Care Foundation, an independent charity, to plan for the future incorporation of its ‘Experiences of Care Programme’ into Picker. The programme is a long-running set of learning and development offers that support health and care staff to build the skills and knowledge to improve people’s experiences of care: we have been a contributor to this for many years, particularly supporting the ‘Foundations in Patient Experience’ course and are delighted to be welcoming it to Picker. This will provide a key focal point for how we support improvement from 2025.
We are conducting a two-year evaluation of the Q Community on behalf of the Health Foundation. Working with two partners, we have undertaken qualitative and quantitative research to understand the impact of Q on its members and on improvement work and made recommendations on how Q may increase impact in the future.

Financial Statements 2024-2025

8 Report of the Board of Trustees

Report of the Board of Trustees

Financial review

The is the group financial review of the charitable company and the wholly owned subsidiary Picker HWA Ltd for the full year ended 31[st] March 2025. Total income for the group was £5.934 million which is an increase on the prior year of 13.8%. The Charity had total income of £5.697 million which was a 14.9% year on year increase. The principal sources of income (over £100,000) during the year were NHS England, the Care Quality Commission, The Health Foundation and the Lymphoma Coalition.

Expenditure for the group has increased by 22.4% year-on-year to £5.869 million (£5.586 million for the charity). This has resulted in a group surplus for the year of £65,000 (£111,000 for the charity) before corporation tax and has increased the unrestricted funds to £2.915 million (£2.805 million for the charity). This increases our reserves to meet the desired levels set out in the Reserves policy, which will in turn assist delivery of our strategy and allow us to have a bigger impact in delivering our purpose whilst ensuring sustainability.

Reserves policy

Picker has a policy of maintaining sufficient free reserves to enable the group to have between six and nine months of projected group operational expenditure. The importance of the level of reserves is to deliver our purpose, mission, and vision whilst remaining solvent and to maintain a going concern position despite the associated risks and uncertainties. Based on our projected expenditure over 2025/26, we estimate a minimum requirement of £2.127 million to meet operational costs for six months, with an upper target limit of £3.191 million for nine months’ expenditure.

At the end of March 2025, free reserves were £2.894 million or the equivalent of 8.2 months. This exceeds the minimum level required by the reserves policy and is within our target range. The Trustees regularly monitor and review the reserves held within the context of the funds required to fulfil the objectives of the charity.

Going concern policy

The Trustees have reviewed the status of the group’s funding arrangements and future plans. The group has a strong balance sheet and cash position at the year end with the expectation of managing cashflows over the coming twelve months.

In addition, detailed financial projections have been produced to enable the Trustees to evaluate a period of at least the next twelve months from the date of signature of these financial statements and, as a result, the Board are satisfied that it remains appropriate to continue to prepare the financial statements on a going concern basis.

Remuneration statement

The objectives of our remuneration statement are to:

reward staff appropriately and enable the recruitment and retention of high calibre staff;
ensure the proper use of the charity’s resources in accordance with its aims and within affordable limits based on the financial circumstances of the group;
be non-discriminatory, just and equitable in the evaluation of jobs and their remuneration by providing a stable framework for the remuneration of the team;
operate within the law; and
pay at a competitive level taking account of external market rates, with the aim being to set pay at comparable rates to posts in the voluntary sector, subject to the group’s financial position.

Remuneration policy is reviewed on an annual basis by the Appointments and Remuneration Committee and agreed by the Board of Trustees. When setting pay levels, the group gives consideration to external benchmark comparators, the cost of living, changes in the national average earnings index, equalities, affordability and other internal and external pressures including recruitment and retention.

The above policy applies to all staff, including the group’s Executive Team. Remuneration of the Executive Team is set by the Board of Trustees.

Principal risks and uncertainties

The Trustees have considered the principal risks and uncertainties for the group. The financial and operational effects and the control measures relating to them affect the principal risks and uncertainties facing the group during the reporting period and beyond the year end. As a good governance exercise and as standard practice, we have completed an annual review of the group’s winding up costs against its reserves.

A strategic risk register is maintained and presented at every ordinary Finance, Audit and Risk Committee and Board meeting. The top strategic risks assessed with the mitigating actions taken to address them are:

1. Abolition of NHS England

This was a surprise announcement on top of the existing changes in place but did follow the mass departures of the CEO and other senior staff. There is also potential for further changes to the structure of national and regional bodies involved in the experience of care landscape – especially with the apparently imminent Dash Review into the patient safety landscape and the muchanticipated ten-year forward plan. This creates uncertainty in the short to medium term given the transition may take up to two years. Our ongoing relationship management with NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care together with other key stakeholders is key to minimise surprises. Diversifying our portfolio of markets and income streams to deliver our value proposition will help diminish risk to funding.

2. Digital: New AI powered products and services disrupting our marketplace

This is especially true with the large language models (LLMs) that are available, some with open source or free access. There is also the opportunity for AI to supercharge our service offering by adding additional value. We have set up and are testing a LLM for use as free text analysis. We are also starting to use AI to draft reports from the response data to compare to the ones we have produced in house. Although it does not necessarily address the risk of disruption from challengers, we are also developing an AI policy for staff that we intend to ensure the safe use of AI whilst also encouraging innovation and learning within the organisation.

3. Government tightening of budgets

We are concerned over the reduced number of

new tender opportunities available for us to bid for and the consequential increase in competition as a result. Bolt ons from existing clients have been much sparser this year and so a heightened focus on our diversification of markets and income streams is more critical than ever. Our pricing and marketing approach is also key in delivering our value proposition.

The strategy for managing the key risks is by the Board instructing the key management personnel to put in place effective control procedures, plans, awareness raising, training, and reviewing the systems in place to manage the operations of the group. Regular reviews of the monitoring process are in place with individual accountability and responsibility for each risk and any further actions required.

Financial Statements 2024-2025

10 Report of the Board of Trustees

Report of the Board of Trustees

Plans for 2025/26 and beyond

We operate a rolling three-year strategy, which is subject to annual review. This ensures that we have clarity around our medium-term plans whilst being responsive to recent developments in health and social care.

For 2025, we have itreratively updated our strategy to reflect our developing goals and priorities. We have not made wholesale changes to our areas of focus – we will continue to prioritise the same four strategic goals, with a similar set of enablers – but there are important changes in emphasis to reflect the progress that we have made in 2024/25.

Advancing our vision

We will continue to develop our policy and public affairs work: in 2025, this will include building constructive relationships with close stakeholders, including third sector organisations with similar goals as well as policy makers. In anticipation of the publication of the new ten year forward plan for the NHS, we will advocate for the adoption of policies and practices that put patients and service users at the centre of care.

Events will continue to be an important part of how we draw attention to person centred care and advance the state of the art. In 2025, we will organise and host a national symposium on care experiences, supported by our colleagues at the Point of Care Foundation: this will provide a national forum for reflecting on the role of feedback in understanding, improving, and humanising care. We are also looking forward to continuing to develop the Picker Experience Network Awards, as well as attending and presenting at partner events around the world.

Treasury and Investment policy

The Board of Trustees review and approve the Treasury and Investment policy annually. We also have an Investment Policy Statement to provide more detailed guidance. The purpose of the policy statement is to provide a written framework for the investment risk appetite of the group, its investment portfolio, and the management of the group’s cash and near-cash assets (Treasury funds). The group has a low-to-medium risk appetite, with regard to investments and treasury funds. Its primary objective is to manage cashflow to remain solvent while looking at a reasonable income or capital investment growth rather than just capital preservation. This determines the type of investments it chooses, the institutions they are made with, and the total level of funds placed with any single institution.

Delivering expert services

Advancing Delivering Diversification Moving beyond our vision expert services measurement Achieving person Our products As a charity that Measurement is centred care requires and services reflect operates on necessary but not services to understand our mission and a fee-for-service sufficient to improve what matters to contribute to our model, revenue quality. We support users and to staff, impact by providing diversity is important professionals and and to measure high-quality support for our sustainability providers to learn and act on this. to clients. and independence. about and improve experiences of care. Goal: to advance our Goal: projects and Goal: for resilience and vision, we will continue services are completed to allow us to invest Goal: we will organise to be seen as leaders to a consistently in generating impact, high quality events to in how to use people’s high standard; are business outside celebrate and promote experiences to delivered on time and of NHS national best practice; offer measure, understand, to budget; and create programmes will high quality learning evaluate, and improve value for customers have substantial and development; and person centred care. and stakeholders, and growing revenue provide expert insight meeting or exceeding and net contribution. that supports clients their expectations. to use experiences for improvement.

People Responsible Technology Portfolio, governance marketing, and communications

We will work with clients and partners to ensure that our services offer high quality, actionable insight. As well as continuing with a rage of multi-year programmes, we look forward to the launch of a new national neonatal survey for England – a project that we will manage for NHS England and that will see us build on the legacy of Picker’s previous national neonatal surveys, conducted more than a decade ago.

Diversifying

For 2025/26, we will incorporate Picker HWA into the Charity, simplifying our structure and administration. But this will not reduce our focus on working with a broad range of different partners and populations – we will focus on growing our work outside of national programmes to help bring a focus on patient, user, and staff experiences to different sectors and territories.

Moving beyond measurement

As noted above, we have been planning for the incorporation of the ‘Experiences of Care’ learning and development programme into Picker – and we look forward to developing this programme in 2025 to provide high quality training. Similarly, we will be actively working on the development of the Picker Experience Network Awards – reviewing the entry categories, creating opportunities for new organisations to take part in the awards, and building on the success of the 2024 event.

Financial Statements 2024-2025

Report of the Board of Trustees

Structure, governance and management

The governing document is the Memorandum and Articles of Association dated 21[st] March 2014. The members of the Board of Trustees are the Directors of the Company. It has no share capital and the members of the charity are the Trustees, each of whom agrees to contribute such amount as may be required (not exceeding £1.00) in the event of the charity winding up.

Recruitment of Trustees is by open application to the Appointments and Remuneration Committee. The Committee shortlist prospective Trustees with advice from the Chief Executive Officer, and members form a panel to interview candidates. Appointment is by resolution of the Board of Trustees. Prior to appointing or re-appointing Trustees the Board of Trustees reviews the skills mix and tries to ensure that all relevant areas of expertise are covered.

Trustees serve for an initial three-year period after which they may be re-appointed for a further three-year term, with the exception of the Chair and Honorary Treasurer, who may be re-appointed by a resolution of the Trustees to continue in office for one year after the end of their term of office. Trustees who have served two consecutive terms of office may not be re-appointed for a further term until a period of one year has elapsed unless the Trustees resolve, by a 75% majority, that the Trustee may be re-appointed immediately for a further term of three years. The Chair and Honorary Treasurer are appointed by the Trustees from among their number.

The Board convenes at least five times per year and has a ‘matters reserved for the Board’ document that sets out the matters that will only be decided by the Board to meet legal requirements or in the interests of the Charity as a whole. The Board controls the Charity’s overall strategy and sections in the document cover:

1 . Strategy and management

2. Structure

3. Financial reporting and controls

4. Internal controls

5. Contracts

6. Communication

7. Board membership and other appointments

8. Remuneration

9. Delegation of authority

10. Corporate governance matters

11. Policies; and

12. Other miscellaneous items.

Matters which the Board considers suitable for delegation are contained in the terms of reference of its committees. Day-to-day managerial responsibility is delegated to the Executive Team led by the Chief Executive Officer.

On appointment each Trustee is given an induction pack that includes the Articles of Association, matters reserved for the Board, Charity Commission booklet “The Essential Trustee”, strategic plan, organisational chart, copies of the latest Report of the Board and Financial Statements, impact report, and current strategic plan. New Trustees meet with the Chair and Chief Executive Officer and are invited to take part in induction meetings with key staff. Training is offered on a continual basis to all Trustees to assist them in their role and governance of the charity.

Register of interests and people with significant control

The charity maintains a register of Trustees’ interests and a register of people with significant control at the registered office address. There is no person or legal entity with significant control.

Reference and administrative details

Registered name: Picker Institute Europe

Other names: Picker

Registered Charity in England and Wales: Number 1081688

Registered Charity in Scotland: Number SC045048

Registered Company Limited by Guarantee: Number 3908160

Registered office address:

Suite 6, Fountain House, 1200 Parkway Court, John Smith Drive, Oxford OX4 2JY

Patron

Stuart Bell CBE

Directors and Trustees

The Directors of the charitable company are its Trustees for the purposes of charity law. The Trustees and officers serving during the year and since the year end were as follows: Dr Angela Coulter (Chair) Danby Bloch (Honorary Treasurer) Professor Alf Collins Clive Flashman Professor Gary Ford CBE (to 20[th] June 2024) Professor Tim Irish (to 22[nd] November 2024) Julia Levy Dr Magdalena Skrybant Dr Tahreema Matin Victoria Thomas

Company Secretary

Chris Graham

As well as the Board of Trustees, there are also the following two standing committees:

Finance, Audit and Risk Committee

The Committee is a joint Trustee/Executive committee with membership at the year end of:

Danby Bloch Honorary Treasurer (Chair of the Committee) Dr Angela Coulter Chair of the Board of Trustees Victoria Thomas Trustee Chris Graham Chief Executive Officer Mark Collins Chief Financial Officer Phillip Stylianides Chief Operations Officer Dr Magdalena Skrybant Trustee (Chair of the Committee) Dr Angela Coulter Chair of the Board of Trustees Professor Alf Collins Trustee Julia Levy Trustee Dr Tahreema Matin Trustee Chris Graham Group Chief Executive Officer Phillip Stylianides Chief Operations Officer Jenny King Chief Research Officer Mark Collins Chief Financial Officer Phillip Stylianides Managing Director, Picker HWA Ltd

Appointments and Remuneration Committee

The membership of the committee at the year end was:

Executive team who are the key management personnel:

Our advisers Auditors Main bankers Main solicitors

Sayer Vincent LLP, 110 Golden Lane, London EC1Y 0TG NatWest Bank, Willow Court, 7 West Way, Oxford OX2 0JB Wilsons Solicitors LLP, 4 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3AA

Financial Statements 2024-2025

14 Report of the Board of Trustees

Report of the Board of Trustees

Independent auditor’s report to the members and trustees of Picker Institute Europe

Trustees’ responsibilities statement

The Trustees (who are also directors of Picker Institute Europe for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing a Trustees’ Annual Report and financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 ‘The Financial Reporting Standard Applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland’ (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires charity trustees to prepare financial statements for each year that give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and the group and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable group for that period. In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are required to:

select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
make judgments and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
state whether applicable UK accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in business.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended).

They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and the group and hence taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

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

Statement as to disclosure

to our auditors

In so far as the Trustees are aware at the time of approving our Trustees’ annual report:

there is no relevant information, being information needed by the auditor in connection with preparing their report, of which the groups’ auditor is unaware; and
the Trustees, having made enquiries of fellow directors and the group’s auditor that they ought to have individually taken, have each taken all steps that he/she is obliged to take as a director in order to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditor is aware of that information.

The Report of the Board of Trustees including the Strategic Report has been approved by order of the Board of Trustees and signed on their behalf by:

Chair: Dr Angela Coulter Date: 24[th] July 2025

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Picker Institute Europe (the ‘parent charitable company’) and its subsidiary (the ‘group’) for the year ended 31[st] March 2025 which comprise the consolidated and parent charitable company statement of financial activities, the group and parent charitable company balance sheets, the consolidated statement of cash flows and the notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

Give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s and of the parent charitable company’s affairs as at 31[st] March 2025 and of the group’s and parent charitable company’s incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended.
Have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.
Have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulations 6 and 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulation 2006 (as amended).

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the group 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 Picker Institute Europe’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

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

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the trustees’ annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

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

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Independent auditor’s report to the members 17 and trustees of Picker Institute Europe

Financial Statements 2024-2025

16 Report of the Board of Trustees

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

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

The information given in the trustees’ annual report, for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared, is consistent with the financial statements.
The trustees’ annual report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the group and the parent charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the trustees’ annual report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 and Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

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

Responsibilities of trustees

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

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

We have been appointed as auditor under section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and under the Companies Act 2006 and report in accordance with regulations made under those Acts.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud are set out on the next page.

Capability of the audit in detecting irregularities

In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:

We enquired of management, which included obtaining and reviewing supporting documentation, concerning the group’s policies and procedures relating to:
Identifying, evaluating, and complying with laws and regulations and whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance;
Detecting and responding to the risks of fraud and whether they have knowledge of any actual, suspected, or alleged fraud;
The internal controls established to mitigate risks related to fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations.
We inspected the minutes of meetings of those charged with governance.
We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the group operates in, focusing on those laws and regulations that had a material effect on the financial statements or that had a fundamental effect on the operations of the group from our professional and sector experience.
We communicated applicable laws and regulations throughout the audit team and remained alert to any indications of non-compliance throughout the audit.
We reviewed any reports made to regulators.
We reviewed the financial statement disclosures and tested these to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
We performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of material misstatement due to fraud.

• In addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, we tested the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments, assessed whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias and tested significant transactions that are unusual or those outside the normal course of business.

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

A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 and section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Jonathan Orchard (Senior statutory auditor)

Date: 29[th] July 2025

For and on behalf of:

Sayer Vincent LLP, Statutory Auditor

110 Golden Lane, LONDON, EC1Y 0TG

Sayer Vincent LLP is eligible to act as auditor in terms of section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.

Independent auditor’s report to the members 18 and trustees of Picker Institute Europe

Independent auditor’s report to the members 19 and trustees of Picker Institute Europe

Financial Statements 2024-2025

Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities

(including consolidated income and expenditure account) For the year ended 31[st] March 2025

		2025	2024
		Total	Total
		funds	funds
	Notes	£’000	£’000
Income from:
Donations
In kind support		18	7
Charitable activities
Research and insight on person centred care and the measurement
and improvement of staff and user experiences of care		5,461	4,753
Other trading activities		427	437
Interest on deposits	2	28	17
Total income		5,934	5,214
Expenditure from:
Charitable activities
Research and insight on person centred care and the measurement
and improvement of staff and user experiences of care		5,333	4,336
Strategic investments		112	86
Other expenditure	11	424	371
Total expenditure	3	5,869	4,793
Surplus		65	421
Corporation Tax		3	19
Net movement in funds		62	402
Reconciliation of funds:
Total funds brought forward		2,853	2,451
Total funds carried forward		2,915	2,853

The notes on pages 24 to 35 form part of these financial statements. All the above results are derived from continuing activities. There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. All income in the current and previous years is unrestricted.

Charitable Company Statement of Financial Activities

(including income and expenditure account) For the year ended 31[st] March 2025

For the year ended 31st March 2025
		2025	2024
		Total	Total
		funds	funds
	Notes	£’000	£’000
Income from:
Donations
In kind support		18	7
Gift aid		50	50
Charitable activities
Research and insight on person centred care and the measurement
and improvement of staff and user experiences of care		5,601	4,883
Interest on deposits	2	28	17
Total income		5,697	4,957
Expenditure from:
Charitable activities
Research and insight on person centred care and the measurement
and improvement of staff and user experiences of care		5,474	4,467
Strategic investments		112	86
Total expenditure	4	5,586	4,553
Surplus		111	404
Net movement in funds		111	404
Reconciliation of funds:
Total funds brought forward		2,694	2,290
Total funds carried forward		2,805	2,694

Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities

Charitable Company Statement of Financial Activities

Financial Statements 2024-2025

Picker Institute Europe Consolidated and Charity Balance Sheets

As at 31[st] March 2025 Company number: 3908160

Consolidated and Charity Balance Sheets As at 31[st] March 2025 Company number: 3908160	Consolidated and Charity	Consolidated and Charity	Consolidated and Charity
		Group	Group	Charity	Charity
		2025	2024	2025	2024
	Notes	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000
Fixed assets:
Intangible assets	8	4	122	4	20
Tangible assets	9	17	36	17	36
Total fixed assets		21	158	21	56
Current assets:
Debtors	10	1,586	1,546	1,494	1,431
Investments	11	-	-	1	1
Cash at bank and in hand		2,118	2,118 1,964	2,068	1,951
Total current assets		3,704	3,510	3,563	3,383
Liabilities:
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year	12	810	815	779	745
Net current assets		2,894	2,695	2,784	2,638
Total assets less current liabilities		2,915	2,853	2,805	2,694
Total net assets		2,915	2,853	2,805	2,694
The funds of the charity:
Unrestricted funds	16	2,915	2,853	2,805	2,694
Total charity funds		2,915	2,853	2,805	2,694

The notes on pages 24 to 35 form part of these financial statements.

The Trustees have prepared group accounts in accordance with section 398 of the Companies Act 2006 and section 44 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.

The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue, by the Trustees on 24[th] July 2025 and signed on their behalf by Dr Angela Coulter, Chair.

Consolidated and Charity Statement of Cash Flows

For the year ended 31[st] March 2025

Consolidated and Charity Statement of Cash Flows For the year ended 31[st] March 2025	Consolidated and Charity Statement	Consolidated and Charity Statement	Consolidated and Charity Statement	Consolidated and Charity Statement	Consolidated and Charity Statement
		Group	Group	Charity	Charity
		2025	2024	2025	2024
	Notes	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000
Cash flows generated from/
(used in) operating activities:
Net cash used in operating activities	17	132	562	95	605
Cash flows generated from/
(used in) investing activities:
Interest on deposits		28	17	28	17
Purchase of tangible fixed assets		(6)	(24)	(6)	(24)
Purchase of intangible assets		-	(45)	-	-
Receipts from disposals of tangible fixed assets		-	-	-	-
Net cash used in investing activities		22	(4)	22	(4)
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year		154	510	117	598
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning
of the year		1,964	1,454	1,951	1,353
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year	18	2,118	1,964	2,068	1,951

The notes on pages 24 to 35 form part of these financial statements.

Consolidated and Charity Balance Sheets

Financial Statements 2024-2025

Consolidated and Charity Statement of Cash Flows

Financial Statements 2024-2025

Notes to the Financial Statements

1. Principal Group accounting policies

a) Basis of preparation and assessment of going concern

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards and under the historical cost convention with items recognised at cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant note(s) to the financial statements. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102), “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[st] January 2016) and comply with the Charities Act 2011 and Companies Act 2006.

The Parent charity and group constitutes a public benefit entity as defined by the Charities SORP (FRS 102).

The financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis. The group has a strong balance sheet and cash position at the year end. There was a positive operations performance for the current year which exceeded expectations. Detailed financial forecasts have been produced reflecting the expected impact on the business plan and budget for 2025/26 where the activities of the subsidiary Picker HWA Ltd were transferred to Picker on 1[st] April 2025. The Trustees consider that, there are no material uncertainties about the group’s ability to continue as a going concern. This is on the basis of the expectation of the group having sufficient cashflow, income and levels of reserves to continue for at least 12 months from the date of authorising these financial statements. There are no significant areas of judgement or key assumptions that will materially affect the position.

b) Group accounts

These accounts consolidate the results of the charitable company and its wholly owned subsidiary, Picker HWA Ltd which was incorporated on 24[th] May 2021. The activities of Picker HWA Ltd were transferred to Picker on 1[st] April 2025 and so is in the process of becoming dormant.

c) Financial instruments

The group only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value.

d) Basis of consolidation

The consolidated financial statements incorporate the financial statements of the charitable company and all group undertakings. Income and expenditure in foreign currencies is converted at the average exchange rate for the period. Acquisitions are accounted for under the acquisition method. The results of companies acquired or disposed of are included in the Statement of Financial Activities after or up to the date that control passes respectively. Both a group Consolidated and Charitable Company Statement of Financial Activities is published and some notes for the parent charitable company are omitted from the group financial statements by virtue of section 408 of the Companies Act 2006.

e) Legal status

The charity is a registered company limited by guarantee and has no share capital. The members of the company are the Trustees. Each member undertakes to contribute such amount as may be required (not exceeding £1.00) to the charity’s assets in the event of it being wound up.

f) Fund accounting

The charity holds the following funds:

Unrestricted funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity and which have not been designated for other purposes.

g) Income

Incoming resources are recognised to the extent that the group has provided the services and/or goods. For contracts in place at the year end the value of the contract that has been completed at the year end is compared to the invoices raised and adjustments made to include accrued income or deferred income as appropriate.

h) Donated services

Donated gifts, professional services and donated facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt. In kind support is recognised as income when the following criteria are met:

Entitlement – Control over the expected economic benefits that flow from the donation has passed to the charity and any performance related conditions attached to the donation have been fully met.
Probable – It is more likely than not that the economic benefits associated with the donated item will flow to the charity.
Measurement – The fair value or value to the charity of the donated item can be measured reliably.

i) Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT

All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all costs according to a category. Where costs cannot be directly attributed to particular headings they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with use of the resources.

Governance costs are those incurred in connection with the management of Picker’s assets, organisational administration and compliance with constitutional and statutory requirements.

The charity is registered for VAT and any irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred. Picker HWA Ltd is separately registered for VAT.

j) Tangible fixed assets and depreciation

Tangible fixed assets are stated at cost less depreciation. Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write off the cost less estimated residual value of each asset over its expected useful life, as follows:

3 years (33%) straight line

Computers

3 years (33%) straight line or length of lease

Office equipment

Individual assets with a cost more than £500 are capitalised as tangible fixed assets.

k) Intangible fixed assets and amortisation

Intangible fixed assets are stated at cost less amortisation. Amortisation is provided at rates calculated to write off the cost less estimated residual value of each asset over its expected useful life, based on the duration of the acquisition agreement and the client contact list that forms goodwill, as follows:

Website 3 years (33 1/3%) straight line Computer applications 5 years (20%) straight line Registered Trade Marks 10 years (10%) straight line Online research platform 3 years (33 1/3%) straight line Intellectual property 3 years (33 1/3%) and brand assets straight line Goodwill 10 years (10%) straight line

Individual assets with a cost more than £500 are capitalised as intangible fixed assets.

l) Investments

Investments in group undertakings are recorded at cost less impairment.

24 Notes to the Financial Statements

Financial Statements 2024-2025

Notes to the Financial Statements

Financial Statements 2024-2025

m) Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.

n) Creditors and provisions

Creditors and provisions are recognised where there is a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.

o) Leasing

Rentals payable under operating leases are charged to the statement of financial activities over the period in which the cost is incurred. Assets obtained under finance leases are capitalised as tangible fixed assets, depreciated and the liability is recognised at the point of purchase.

p) Pensions

The pension costs charged in the financial statements represent the contributions payable by the group during the year to defined contribution schemes.

q) Foreign currencies

Transactions in foreign currencies are recorded at the rate ruling at the date of the transaction. Monetary assets and liabilities are retranslated at the rate of exchange ruling at the balance sheet date. The resulting gains or losses are recognised within the statement of financial activities.

r) Judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty

There is a degree of judgement exercised at each period end in respect of client project contracts that extend beyond the year end, where recognition of income and related external expenditure is based on key milestones. The calculation for the consideration for the acquisition of the business for Howard Warwick Associates Ltd and the associated fair values of the assets acquired is based on the best estimate of the individual assets of value to the company and the expected purchase price based on the acquisition agreement. The balancing or residual number is the amount of goodwill of continuing a going concern business based on its client contacts and delivery contracts in place. The amortisation period for computer software is a key judgement for the economic useful life of the write off of Intangible fixed assets. There were no other significant judgements made in the process of applying the above accounting policies that have had a major effect on amounts recognised in the financial statements.

2. Interest on deposits

2. Interest on deposits
2. Interest on deposits	Group 2025	Group 2024	Charity 2025	Charity 2024
	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000
Bank interest received	28	17	28	17

3. Resources expended

a) Analysis of Consolidated				Other
total resources expended	Staff	Support		direct	Governance	Total
	costs	costs		costs	costs	2025
	£’000	£’000		£’000	£’000	£’000
Charitable activities:
Research and insight on person
centred care and the measurement
and improvement of staff and user
experiences of care	3,181	915		1,638	23	5,757
Strategic investments	80	32		-	-	112
Total charitable activities	3,261	947		1,638	23	5,869
				Other
	Staff	Support		direct	Governance	Total
	costs	costs		costs	costs	2024
	£’000	£’000		£’000	£’000	£’000
Charitable activities:
Research and insight on person
centred care and the measurement
and improvement of staff and user
experiences of care	2,643	742		742 1,292	30	4,707
Strategic investments	85		1	-	-	86
Total charitable activities	2,728	743		1,292	30	4,793

26 Notes to the Financial Statements

Financial Statements 2024-2025

Notes to the Financial Statements

Financial Statements 2024-2025

b) Analysis of Consolidated support costs	Total	Total
	2025	2024
	£’000	£’000
Support costs:
Travel	20	8
Premises	79	70
Exhibitions and conferences	26	40
Communications and IT	116	71
Financial, legal and consultancy	131	88
Postage and printing	74	58
Other administration	353	330
Depreciation and amortisation	148	78
	947	743

The strategic investments included on the face of the Statement of Financial Activities are one off costs that were incurred in year following the budgeting process to build a better and more resilient charitable company for the future. It includes the investment in the Picker Experience Network Awards and two new roles of the Product and Portfolio Manager and the Senior Policy Officer.

4. Total expenditure	Group 2025	Group 2024	Charity 2025	Charity 2024
	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000
This is stated after charging:
Amortisation	118	35	16	22
Intangible fixed asset impairment	86	-	-	-
Depreciation	26	43	26	43
Auditors’ remuneration - Audit fee	21	20	21	20
- Consultancy services	2	5	-	5

Group amortisation includes impairment of goodwill see note 8.

5. Trustees’ expenses

5. Trustees’ expenses
The Trustees’ of the charity and group neither received
nor waived any emoluments (remuneration or pension
arrangements) in the year or prior year. Out of pocket
expenses were reimbursed to the following number	2025	2025	2024	2024
of Trustees:	Number	£’000	Number	£’000
Travel and accommodation	5	1	5	1

6. Consolidated staff costs	2025 £’000	2024 £’000
Employees:
Wages and salaries	2,697	2,263
Settlements to leaving employees	-	12
Social security costs	292	243
Pension costs	145	86
Total	3,261	2,728
The group average monthly number of employees was 65 (2024: 58),
when calculated on an average headcount basis. When calculated on a full time equivalent basis (FTE), including casual and part-time staff,	2025	2024
the average monthly number of employees was:	Number	Number
The average number of FTE employees during the year was:	62	55
The number of employees whose emoluments as defined for taxation
purposes amounted to over £60k in the year was as follows:
£60,000 - £69,999	3	-
£70,000 - £79,999	-	2
£80,000 - £89,999	2	-
£110,000 - £119,999	1	2
£120,000 - £129,999	1	-

The total amount of compensation of key management, as defined in the Report of the Trustees, for the group was £468,000 (2024: £448,000).

28 Notes to the Financial Statements

Financial Statements 2024-2025

Notes to the Financial Statements

Financial Statements 2024-2025

7. Pension costs

The group operates separate defined contribution pension schemes with Standard Life. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the individual organisations in an independently administered fund. The pension cost charge represents contributions payable by the group to the scheme and amounted to £145,000 (2024: £86,000). Of this £35,000 (2024: £18,000) related to employees whose emoluments were over £60,000 as shown in the consolidated staff costs note 6.

b) Charity Intangible fixed assets	Software	Intellectual property	Total
	£’000	£’000	£’000
Cost:
At 1st April 2024	106	10	116
At 31st March 2025	106	10	116
Amortisation:
At 1st April 2024	91	5	96
Charge for the year	15	1	16
At 31st March 2025	106	6	112
Net book value:
At 31st March 2025	-	4	4
At 31st March 2024	17	3	20

8. Consolidated Intangible fixed assets

a) Consolidated Intangible fixed assets	Software	Intellectual property	Goodwill	Total
	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000
Cost:
At 1st April 2024	113	19	122	254
At 31st March 2025	113	19	122	254
Amortisation:
At 1st April 2024	97	13	22	132
Charge for the year	16	2	14	32
Impairment loss	-	-	86	86
At 31st March 2025	113	15	122	250
Net book value:
At 31st March 2025	-	4	-	4
At 31st March 2024	16	6	100	122

This note highlights the impairment loss of goodwill of £86,000 charged at the year end in the SOFA as a consequence for the activities of Picker HWA Ltd being transferred to the charity on 1[st] April 2025 and so writing off the remaining goodwill.

9. Consolidated and Charity		Office	Total
Tangible fixed assets	Computers £’000	Equipment £’000	funds £’000
Cost:
At 1st April 2024	195	7	202
Additions	6	-	6
Disposals	(4)	-	(4)
At 31st March 2025	197	7	204
Depreciation:
At 1st April 2024	160	6	166
Charge for the year	25	-	25
On disposals	(4)	-	(4)
At 31st March 2025	181	6	187
Net book value:
At 31st March 2025	16	1	17
At 31st March 2024	35	1	36

30 Notes to the Financial Statements

Financial Statements 2024-2025

Notes to the Financial Statements

Financial Statements 2024-2025

10. Debtors	Group 2025	Group 2024	Charity 2025	Charity 2024
	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000
Trade debtors	896	758	838	713
Inter organisational account	-	-	57	19
Accrued income	517	578	426	488
Prepayments and other debtors	173	210	173	211
	1,586	1,546	1,494	1,431

11. Investments

The group structure includes Picker HWA Ltd. The charity owns 100%
of the share capital. A summary of the results for Picker HWA Ltd	2025	2024
for the year ended 31st March 2025 is shown below:	£’000	£’000
Profit and loss account:
Income	427	436
Expenditure	423	370
Gift aid donation	50	50
Corporation tax	3	19
Retained loss for the year	(49)	(3)
Balance sheet:
Fixed assets	-	102
Current assets	201	278
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year	89	220
Net current assets	112	58
Total assets less current liabilities	112	160
Total net assets	112	160
Called up share capital	1	1
Profit and loss account	111	159
Shareholders’ funds	112	160

12. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year	Group 2025 £’000	Group 2024 £’000	Charity 2025 £’000	Charity 2024 £’000
Purchase consideration	-	44	-	-
Trade creditors	173	194	171	187
Taxation and social security	211	107	190	92
Accruals	146	220	138	216
Deferred income	280	250	280	250
	810	815	779	745
Deferred income comprises project related revenue for the
performance of activities that were not completed before
the year end and continued in the following financial year.
At 1st April	250	441	250	440
Released to income	(250)	(441)	(250)	(440)
Deferred in the year	280	250	280	250
At 31st March	280	250	280	250

13. Financial commitments

13. Financial commitments
At the year end the group had the following future minimum lease
payments under non-cancellable operating leases in respect of plant and land and buildings which fall due as follows:	2025 £’000	2024 £’000
Expiry date:
Within one year	69	42
Between two and five years	33	-
	102	42

14. Related party transactions

The charity had transactions with the subsidiary Picker HWA Ltd during the year of £190,000 (2024: £181,000) and had a year end balance owed of £57,000 (2024: £131,000).

32 Notes to the Financial Statements

Financial Statements 2024-2025

Notes to the Financial Statements

Financial Statements 2024-2025

15. Reserves	Group 2025	Group 2024	Charity 2025	Charity 2024
	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000
The movement on unrestricted funds
is as follows:
At 1st April	2,853	2,451	2,694	2,290
Income	5,934	5,214	5,697	4,957
Less expenditure	5,872	4,812	5,586	4,553
At 31st March	2,915	2853	2,805	2,694
Consolidated unrestricted funds			2,915	2,853
Less fixed asset reserves			21	158
Unrestricted general Funds			2,894	2,695
Represents in months the projected group operational
expenditure, adjusted for amounts covered by restricted
funds, for the next financial year			8.2	7.8

16. Corporation taxation

The charity is exempt from tax on income and gains falling within the Corporation Tax Act 2010 and the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to the extent that these are applied for charitable purposes. For Picker HWA Ltd tax is recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities. The current tax charge is calculated based on tax rates and laws at the balance sheet date.

17. Reconciliation of net income/
(expenditure) to net cash flow from operating activities	Group 2025 £’000	Group 2024 £’000	Charity 2025 £’000	Charity 2024 £’000
Net income/(expenditure) for the year
(as per the statement of financial activities)	62	402	111	404
Adjustments for:
Depreciation charges	26	43	26	43
Amortisation charges	118	118 35	16	22
Interest on deposits	(28)	(17)	(28)	(17)
Loss/(profit) on sale of fixed assets	-	1	-	1
(Increase)/decrease in debtors	(41)	259	(63)	280
Increase/(decrease) in creditors	(5)	(161)	33	(128)
Net cash used in operating activities	132	(562)	95	(605)

18. Analysis of cash and cash equivalents	Group 2025 £’000	Group 2024 £’000	Charity 2025 £’000	Charity 2024 £’000
Adjustments for:
Cash in hand	197	255	147	243
Notice deposits	1,921	1,709	1,921	1,708
Total cash and cash equivalents	2,118	1,964	2,068	1,951

19. Post balance sheet events

Experience Based Co-Design (EBCD)

During the year we had discussions with the Point of Care Foundation (POCF) to take over the running of their Experiences of Care Programme: a suite of learning and development offers that includes training courses on Experience Based Co-Design (EBCD) and Foundations in Patient Experience, as well as related communities of practice. Collectively, the Programme offers training and support for quality improvement in health and care services, with a particular focus on the use of people’s experiences to improve person centred care: it is therefore closely aligned with our charitable objects.

Picker’s acquisition of the Experiences of Care programme combines the Point of Care Foundation’s extensive expertise in teaching and applying person centred care methodologies with Picker’s broad suite of tools and services for improving patient experience across both public and private health and care sectors. It builds on a long history of collaborative working between the two organisations, including co-hosting the 2023 Care Experience Symposium in Birmingham.

Following due diligence, the Board decided to acquire the Experience of Care Programme from POCF. The contract was signed before the year end, with the acquisition and transfer of control taking place on 1[st] April 2025.

Picker HWA Ltd

Picker HWA has goodwill on the balance sheet. In the Intangible fixed asset note 8 above the impairment loss of goodwill of £86,000 charged at the year end in the SOFA is a consequence of the activities of Picker HWA Ltd being transferred to the charity on 1[st] April 2025 and so writing off the remaining goodwill. The company is in the process of transitioning to become dormant during 2025/26.

Notes to the Financial Statements

Financial Statements 2024-2025

Notes to the Financial Statements

Financial Statements 2024-2025