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← Solace Women's Aid

2025-03-31-accounts

Creating safe and happy futures Annual Report and Financial Statements 31 March 2025

solacewomensaid.org

Solace Women’s Aid is a charity registered in England & Wales. Charity Number 1082450. Company Number 03376716.

@SolaceWomensAid

“There is a safe, happy future waiting for you, even if you can’t see it right now. Solace taught me that.”

Survivor

solacewomensaid.org

What you can fnd
**nside. **
Why we exist.
A message from our Chairs and CEO Page 2
Our year at a glance Page 4
Who we support and their experiences Page 6
Our vision, mission and strategy Page 8
What we have achieved.
Long term recovery and lasting change Page 10
Empowerment, engagement and accessibility Page 12
Strategic infuencing, partnerships and leadership Page 14
Organisational development - internal
 Page 16
Organisational development - growth Page 18
Solace 50
 Page 20
Aspirations, Education & Employment Page 22
Children and Young People Page 24
Our Thanks Page 26
Looking to the future.
Priorities for 2025-26 Page 28
Financial information.
Financial review Page 30
Risk managment and principal risks Page 33
Reference and administrative information Page 36
Independent auditor’s report Page 42
Financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025 Page 46

What you can find inside.

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A message from our Chairs and CEO

Last year, we celebrated Solace’s fiftieth anniversary – fifty years of women working together to support other women. Fifty years of creating safe and supportive spaces in which women can not only survive, but also rediscover their strength to thrive. Fifty years of pushing back against dangerous stereotypes that numb society to the horrifying realities of violence against women and girls.

We are so proud of our achievements, our pioneering ways of working and the impact we have had. You can see in this report all the work we have done and the amazing commitment of our staff and volunteers – something that always warrants acknowledgement and praise. However any anniversary is bittersweet: after half a century, we cannot help but reflect on the extent to which our services are still so desperately needed. We are growing, but unlike organisations in the corporate world, we do not celebrate a rise in demand. Women and children are still living in fear; men are still abusing, harming and killing women because they are women.

So, while we look back at the immense amount of work we have done, and the many lives we have touched, we never stop thinking about the future. New challenges to our mission and vision emerge every day: new influences, new trends, new types of relationships, new ways of connecting and controlling that can be misused and abused to make others feel small.

Thoughts of the future are the basis of our preventative work with children and young people. Our education programmes continue to teach boys and girls about healthy relationships and the harm of gender stereotypes. In our refuges, we provide counselling, days out and play sessions to build children’s confidence and enable their healing – because at Solace, we believe that abuse should never be a barrier to anyone fulfilling their potential.

Our commitment to creating a better world applies to our organisation too. Through innovative equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). We continue to recognise systemic dynamics and reframe narratives within our ways of working. We are breaking down barriers to promotion and leadership within our workforce. We are thinking deliberately about the power of the language we use.

We have over 147 brilliant volunteers, and this number continues to grow and flourish through exciting new opportunities to support survivors. This inspiring group now boasts the amazing survivors who make up our Shadow Board. Far from a box-ticking exercise, the Shadow Board will truly inform our ways of working, ensuring the voice of survivors remains central and runs throughout everything we do.

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Alongside our new leadership programmes for women of colour and establishing our Shadow Board, our key achievements in 2024-25, include:

It has been a year of challenge, gratitude and change. As ever, we are honoured to work with the courageous community that is Solace.

Nahar Choudhury, CEO

Hannah Cane and Madeline Church, Interim Chairs of Trustees

Nahar Choudhury CEO

Hannah Cane Interim Chair of Trustees

Madeliene Church Interim Chair of Trustees

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Our year at a glance.

Our work touched the 17,264 adults lives of and children 24,394 supported in our people frontline service (2023/24: 18,862) of people (2023/24: 14,435)

We worked with 7,130 people in our 817 women prevention and children service across our 19 (2023/24: 4,427) refuges and 71 move on spaces (2023/24: 809)

Our 306 staff members We raised an work tirelessly to help income of survivors £15.6 million to run our vital services

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We trained 4,453 people to recognise and respond to abuse (2023/24: 2,418)

We worked in \ 4 partnership ‘ with 42 organisations 7 to end abuse Volunteers helped to support survivors through 7,280 hours of their time

93% stated there was a | continued 89% need for rated the Solace service as services good, very (2023/24: 93%) good or excellent (2023/24: 92%)

87% of respondents found it easy or very easy to make initial contact with Solace’s services

(2023/24: 85%)

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Who we support and their experiences

85% 71% 60% wv dd D of survivors we of survivors we support of survivors we support support experienced experienced jealous or experienced emotional abuse controlling behaviour physical abuse 23% 43% 37% y 8 >? of survivors we of survivors we support of survivors we support experienced experienced harassment support experienced economic abuse and stalking post separation abuse 9% 22% 22% OA 8 2 of survivors we of survivors we of survivors we support support experienced support experienced experienced so called sexual abuse tech-facilitated abuse ‘honour’ based abuse

of survivors we support experienced tech-facilitated abuse

55% 2536 34% 443 116 of survivors survivors we of survivors we women male survivors we supported supported had supported have supported (9%) were supported have children mental health a disability with insecure through our support needs status 336 with services no resource to public funds

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Adults supported in our services

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34%
32%
White British hs 28%
African/Caribbean/ PS 20%
Black British
Asian/Asian British PC 20%
12%
11%
White other Se 17%
5% 5%
Mixed/multiple = 8% 2%
ethnicity
Other ethnicities 7% 16-20 21-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56-65 66+
Ethnicity of adults Ages of adults
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Children supported in our services

39%

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White British a 12% 37%
Asian/Asian British | 22%
African/Caribbean/ hess 26% 23%
Black British
White other hs 11%
Mixed/multiple Loo 16%
ethnicity
Other ethnicities 11%
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23%
0-5 6-10 11-15
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Ethnicity of children

Ages of children

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Strategic report

The trustees present their report and the audited financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025. The reference and administrative information set out on page 36 forms part of this report. The trustees review the aims, objectives, and activities of Solace each year. This report looks at what Solace has achieved and the outcomes and benefits the charity has brought to those groups of people Solace is established to assist during the reporting period. The review also helps ensure the charity’s aims, objectives and activities remain focused on its stated purposes.

Vision, mission and strategy

Our key objective

The promotion of the physical, emotional, and psychological wellbeing and safety of victims of domestic, sexual, and associated abuse, in particular women, young people and children.

Our vision

A world where everyone is able to live safe and independent lives which are free from genderbased violence, abuse and exploitation.

Our mission

Our values

Solace exists to end the harm done through gender-based violence. Our aim is to work to prevent violence and abuse as well as providing services to meet the individual needs of survivors, particularly women and children. Our work is holistic and empowering, working alongside survivors to achieve independent lives free from abuse.

I feel so much better about the future now. It’s like I’ve entered a new phase of life.

Survivor

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We are committed to:

Social justice and human rights a[v]

Service users having a central voice within the organisation

Working in collaboration with other agencies

Continuous improvement

Our strategic priorities 2022-27

Following the launch of Solace’s 2022-27 strategy we have started to work towards our six strategic objectives to drive forward our ambitions of supporting more survivors on their journeys to recovery and beyond. Our six strategic objectives are:

1. Long-term recovery and lasting change

2. Strategic influencing, partnerships and leadership

3. Organisational development and growth

4. Aspirations, education and employment

5. Children and young people

6. Empowerment, engagement and accessibility

Solace is an invaluable service that has completely changed mine and my daughter’s life. We were able to grow in confidence as we are safe, no treading on eggshells. Survivor -

Solace has given me the skills to notice abuse, so I don’t repeat the pattern in the future. They have empowered me as a woman to be strong and capable and as mentioned by my worker ‘The AIM is to LIVE, not just EXIST.’ Survivor ) ae

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What we achieved this year: Long term recovery and change

Since our humble beginnings in a single refuge in Camden in 1974, we have known that full recovery from abuse requires a holistic approach and the most effective support will not be the same for everyone. Over the last 50 years of working with thousands of women and children, we have seen the life-changing benefits of our work to survivors by identifying and addressing the range and complexity of their needs. Our services and expert frontline teams support survivors from crisis to recovery, recognising that no one survivor’s journey is the same.

Safe accommodation is every woman’s right

Our refuges and accommodation services provide safe living spaces while helping women and children receive the psychologicallyinformed, specialist support they need to address their practical and emotional needs during this highly challenging time. In 24-25 with funding from seven London boroughs, the GLA and MOPAC, we supported 826 women and children across our 19 refuges and 71 move-on spaces across London (23/24: 809). We are proud to have expanded our support for survivors in accommodation through the opening of two new projects:

74%

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(23/24: 87%)
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Advice and advocacy services bring safety to survivors

Whilst our support for survivors started in a refuge, many of the women who receive our life-changing support do so in the community. Solace’s dedicated London Advice Line provides a first point of contact for survivors who need support at crisis point in 16 London boroughs. In 2024/25, our advice line answered 7,690 calls from individuals and professionals throughout London to offer free and confidential support on domestic and/or sexual abuse (23/24: 4,063). The line is staffed by trained advocates funded by London Councils and MOPAC.

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81%
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Our Community Advice and Support Teams continue to work with survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence in their

communities, often supporting those deemed ‘high risk’ and referred by local multi-agency risk assessment conferences (MARACs). This year we supported 17% more survivors in our advocacy services, recognising the continuing need for our support. We supported 5,827 survivors across seven London boroughs (23/24: 4,990).

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Therapeutic services provide space to heal from trauma

Our person-centred, strengths-based counselling and group work supports survivors of domestic abuse and wider VAWG to transition from surviving to thriving. The services operate within communities in Islington, Waltham Forest and via the panLondon Ascent Advice and Counselling service, for which we provide services to East, North East and South East London.

We also continue to deliver counselling to women and children in our refuges through MOPAC funding, helping 132 survivors to heal, empowering them to recover.

Solace helped me reconnect with my emotions and instincts as well as those of my children.

Survivor in a Solace refuge

Supporting sexual violence survivors

Our North London Rape Crisis Service’s free and anonymous helpline is open daily to provide specialist emotional support and confidential information to women and girls aged 13 and above. The Rape Crisis Service has 11 Independent Sexual Violence Advocates (ISVAS), all trained to address the needs of these survivors. 77% of survivors we With funding from MOPAC, we were able to answer 1,228 calls supported said on our helpline (23/24: 1,323), provide advocacy to 351 women it improved their who experienced sexual violence (23/24: 215) and support, and understanding of offer life changing therapeutic support to 401 women through their rights 1:1 counselling or group work (22/23: 269). As we continue to (23/24:78%) strive to improve our support, in 2024-25 our North London @ Rape Crisis Service has piloted the use of EMDR therapies to support survivors to be ready for a more traditional therapy process during their long-term recovery. We also piloted new groups for survivors to access after they have completed their therapy, as sources of peer support in the long term. Our psychologically informed framework Over the past year, we have fully embedded a psychologically informed framework (PIF) across all services to provide a service culture that is reflective, thoughtful and I feel safer now. Solace compassionate for survivors. A staff working group helped is someone you can trust and if anyone is in the embed the approach through the development of mandatory same situation as me, training on psychological approaches to working with I definitely recommend service users and each other. This training was developed that they reach out to in collaboration with our PIF service user working group the team. and in 2024/25 90 colleagues were trained. The framework Survivor consists of methods that support a better understanding of connections between thoughts, emotions and behaviour. _

Over the past year, we have fully embedded a psychologically informed framework (PIF) across all services to provide a service culture that is reflective, thoughtful and compassionate for survivors. A staff working group helped embed the approach through the development of mandatory training on psychological approaches to working with service users and each other. This training was developed in collaboration with our PIF service user working group and in 2024/25 90 colleagues were trained. The framework consists of methods that support a better understanding of connections between thoughts, emotions and behaviour.

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What we achieved this year: Empowerment, Engagement and Accessibility

At Solace, core values of being survivor-led, trauma-informed and empowering have steered our organisation for the last 50 years. In 2024/25, this has meant developing services to support survivors from intersectional backgrounds and focusing on support for those women who are not well served by existing services. We remain committed to embedding survivors’ voices in our decision making, ensuring survivors are part of a continued approach to raising awareness of violence against women and girls.

Our new Shadow Board

Whilst our organisation looks different to how it started 50 years ago, we remain committed to survivors’ voices being at the heart of what we do. To honour this, we have gathered a group of incredible experts by experience to form Solace’s very first Shadow Board which honours this commitment. Each expert member of the Shadow Board has experienced VAWG in various forms, at various stages of their lives. They are united in helping Solace bring about the day when no woman needs to fear male violence. Shadow Board members will input into organisational decisions; they will inform the work that we do, from service delivery to the language used in our communications; and they will be a touch point for all Solace staff to ensure we never lose sight of the communities for whom we exist.

‘No more injury time’ campaign

During the men’s Euros 2024, we held up a spotlight to the concerning fact that reports of domestic abuse rise by 38% when the England men’s team loses at a major tournament. To raise awareness of this issue and the support available to survivors of domestic abuse, we launched our No More Injury Time campaign, developed by Jungle Creations and in collaboration with FourNine and NCDV. The campaign achieved 96 pieces of coverage with a combined reach of 1.75 billion and increased traffic to our website by 50%. We were also delighted that the campaign was awarded Best Charity/Not for Profit Campaign at the Global Social Media Awards and a Silver Award at the Drum Social Media Awards.

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Our new ambassadors and expert advisers

In the second year of our survivor ambassador programme, this group of incredible women who have all accessed Solace’s services supported our work by featuring in our Euros 2024 campaign. They spoke at our All Staff Conference, shared their experiences at events for 16 Days of Activism and have featured in several press pieces. We were also thrilled to recruit three new survivor ambassadors this year.

We are also delighted to have appointed several new charity ambassadors this year: Jade Blue, who is vocal about the failings within the CJS for sexual violence survivors; Yvonne Roberts, an award-winning Observer columnist, Betsy Stanko, academic, and joint architect of Operation Soteria Bluestone and Judy Kawaguchi who leads fundraising organisation e-cubed.

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We are also delighted that Professor Katrin Hohl, joint academic lead of Operation Soteria Bluestone and Independent Advisor to the UK Government on criminal justice responses to sexual violence, is now supporting Solace as an expert advisor alongside specialist expert advisors who support our trustee sub-committees.

Our thanks go to all these women for their voluntary commitment to ending male violence against women and girls, alongside our trustees and wider expert advisors.

Supporting women experiencing multiple disadvantage

Solace specialises in providing vital support to the most vulnerable women in London, including those experiencing multiple disadvantages. Through our WiSER Project, three Housing First projects in Westminster, Islington and our new panLondon Ruby Project funded by the Oak Foundation, our new complex needs accommodation service and our multiple disadvantage refuge, we have supported 167 people who are frequently excluded from mainstream services and/or find it hard to engage with support (23/24:137). We are proud to have fully launched our pan-London Inclusive Housing First service, the Ruby Project, which has supported 14 women in 2024/25 and aims to increase access to Housing First support for women from the global majority.

75%

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Survivor stories

“The support I was getting just gave me this overwhelming sense of security and safety. I felt like I had someone there with me, every step of the way. The crisis intervention after I fled was incredible. I remember those first four to six weeks were just filled with so much care and compassion, and it was all so

validating. It was like I didn’t have to explain myself constantly because I was interacting with people who had the training to pick up on things that I didn’t even realise I needed. They recognised when I had complex needs or when I was struggling in ways that I couldn’t even articulate at the time. It wasn’t just emotional support; it was practical too. It helped me feel like I could move forward, even when everything seemed so uncertain. Being in a refuge run by Solace Women’s Aid was such a lifeline. The support was just incredible, and it gave me the space to work through things I had never been able to face before.” Survivor

“Before coming to the refuge, I was stressed and anxious, now I am here, I am relaxed and I can think about my future. I have the time and space to upskill my knowledge through courses and groups.” Survivor

“All the staff I have worked with have helped me in different ways. They have showed me that they care and will always listen to what I have to say and work at my pace.” Survivor

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What we achieved this year: Strategic influencing, partnerships and leadership

With over 50 years of providing support to survivors we know that they continue to face systemic barriers on their journeys to safety, whether this is through a lack of access to safe and affordable housing, or being failed by the criminal justice system. Ensuring survivors’ voices are heard at the highest level remains a core priority, not only shaping our internal decisions, but driving our advocacy efforts, influencing media narratives, and informing key policy and legislative change.

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Women’s Rough Sleeping Census 2024

Our work with Single Homeless Project delivers our ground-breaking Women’s Rough Sleeping Census. In 2024, the census continued to gain momentum and grow, expanding to include 88 local authorities across England. Support for the London Women’s Rough Sleeping Census remains strong with all 33 boroughs taking part and support provided by London Councils and Greater London Authority.

Through the 2024 census we heard the experiences of 1,104 women experiencing rough sleeping – 10 times the number counted by the Government’s snapshot. You can read the 2024 report here

Throughout the three years of the census, we have heard the experiences of more than 2,000 women. This work has led to positive changes across the country, including women’s spaces co-created for those with lived experiences, new accommodation services, more gender-informed outreach policies and training. Our findings were incorporated into new homelessness strategies in both local authorities and across London, and we’ve seen improved responses and services for women in many participating areas.

My gender definitely impacted on my experience of rough sleeping. I experienced sexual violence whilst sleeping in a stairwell.

Women’s Rough Sleeping Census Participant 2024

I think it would have helped if they [homelessness services] would have worked with us together, but also separately – it was the way they dealt with us, that made me keep running back to him, and him keep running back to me, because we could never both get housed at the same time.”

Survivor

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Housing First for Couples feasibility study

Our Women’s Rough Sleeping Census and services for homeless women highlight the risks women face on the streets, and these risks can be even higher for women in couples. Solace worked in partnership with SHP, funded by Commonweal, to undertake a feasibility study to look at providing a Housing First service for couples. The project aims to address gaps in housing support for homeless couples affected by domestic abuse. It focused on mitigating risks for survivors, while ensuring that both survivors and perpetrators can access stable housing, healthcare and specialist support. You can read our nine principles on delivering a Housing First for Couples service here.

2024 London Mayoral elections

With 1 in 8 recorded offences in London for domestic abuse, the 2024 Mayoral Elections were a crucial time for survivors. We worked with our advisory board to develop priorities for the new mayoral team focusing on access to safe and affordable housing, sustainable funding for specialist VAWG services and the desperate need to improve the Metropolitan Police’s response to VAWG.

Since the election of Mayor Sadiq Khan, Solace has submitted responses to the consultations on the London Rough Sleeping Plan of Action and Mayor’s Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Strategy and have been pleased to see some of our recommendations adopted.

Our partnerships

Partnership is one of our three key principles that steer our organisation, and they help ensure the expertise of the specialist violence against women and girls sector continues to provide life-saving support to all survivors and influence change for the most marginalised groups. We work with the wider voluntary sector and local services to challenge the barriers survivors face and make sure they get the support they deserve.

We are honoured to lead the Ascent Advice Plus Partnership, Casa Project, Ruby Project and the WiSER Project, and to be a member of the London VAWG Consortium. We are pleased to have added to our therapeutic services through the Healing Project, a partnership with sister organisation Refuge to provide counselling for women within their London refuges.

Partnerships run across all parts of our services and are integral to the support we provide to survivors. We continue to work alongside our sister organisations in the Ascent Advice and Counselling partnership, Ascent Specialist Refuge Project, Ascent Floating Support Service, Housing First VAWG Westminster Service, Angelou Project and CouRAGEous Project to ensure that women and girls across London can access the specialist services they need.

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(23/24:44)

2,730 calls taken from Plus partnership (23/24:2568)

485 (23/24: 591)

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What we achieved this year: Organisational development - internal

Solace staff are passionate, driven and committed to our mission, and this has driven our organisation for the last 50 years. For so many, working here is a calling, not just a job. That emotional connection, as well as the nature of the stories and situations we encounter, means we need to prioritise the wellbeing of survivors and staff. We know that looking after each other and ourselves is essential to doing our best work and have implemented several measures to support colleagues’ mental health and wellbeing.

Wellbeing and mental health support

We know that looking after each other and ourselves is essential to doing our best work and this year we have strengthened our sector-leading wellbeing support offer. Our staff volunteer Mental Health Champions foster a workplace in which colleagues feel safe to talk about their mental health and have a range of support services available to them. Building on our clinical supervision sessions and daily debriefs by trained British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) supervisors, our Mental Health Champions support the delivery of our mental health resources hub and create a regular newsletter for all staff. Mental health and wellbeing advice is regularly updated on our intranet, as are appointment slots for free and confidential counselling sessions, daily debriefs, free yoga classes and more. We are delighted that seven new staff were trained as champions in 2024/25.

Training on self-care is offered to all staff, including specific training for managers; our employee assistance provider is available to provide more intensive support when needed and we have a specialist staff counsellor who provided 13 staff members with free counselling.

Solace Together

Following on from last year’s Solace Together sessions, in which staff shared their thoughts on our culture, intersectional feminist practice and ways in which we can truly be an antiracist organisation, our CEO and members of SMT have spent the past 12 months planning and implementing internal programmes in response.

We’ve relaunched our Inclusion Networks, developed leadership programmes for people of colour and initiated six-weekly Town Hall meetings chaired by CEO Nahar Choudhury and other members of SMT. As well as creating space for colleagues to ask questions of SMT members, these meetings spotlight some of the great work from teams throughout Solace. We also have plans to launch a Next in Line initiative to break down barriers with managers and leaders, and our frontline teams. These meetings present opportunities to gain a more holistic view of the organisation, creating an informal space for discussion and relationship building.

Senior leaders will implement further Solace Together sessions to focus on key themes raised by colleagues in the last round of sessions and will launch an intersectionality task and finish group in 2025/26. We continue to learn and grow, together.

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Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

Over the last year, we’ve taken meaningful steps to improve inclusive practice for survivors and equitable career progression opportunities for staff.

We have established a strategic organisational steering group, our EDI and Culture Steering Group (ECSG), which co-designs and refines our two flagship development initiatives: a Mentorship Programme and a Leadership Programme called Inspiring Sisters specifically designed to support and elevate colleagues from the global majority. We are proud that 18 women from the global majority took part in the leadership programme and 18 took part in the mentoring programme.

100%

To ensure our work is mindful of colleagues’ lived experience and is informed by experts by experience, the ECSG helped redesign our staff survey, introducing new

questions to better understand the day-to-day realities and challenges our colleagues face. It also serves to shape our ongoing work to be an inclusive and anti-racist culture.

Our Courageous Conversations training runs 12 times a year to equip staff with the skills to recognise and appropriately challenge microaggressions and exclusionary behaviour. After the course 89% of participants felt better equipped to gently challenge microaggressions or provide support when they see someone being excluded.

We are proud to have launched a brand new internal podcast called EDI Unwrapped! This is a show focused upon empowering the diverse colleagues and survivors within Solace.

Fighting for women for 50 years – our all staff conference

January 2025 saw our all staff conference, focusing on ‘Fighting for women for 50 years – what next for VAWG as a social justice issue?’ More than 200 staff attended and were joined by some exceptional speakers, including Independent Advisors to Government, representatives from the London Mayor’s Office and Solace ambassadors. Highlights included a thoughtful panel discussion on tackling VAWG as a social justice issue, our annual ‘Solace Stars of 2024’ award ceremony, and an introduction to our new Shadow Board.

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What we achieved this year: Organisational development - growth

At 50 years we have reflected on how our services continue to be in such demand, and that there are still women that are not reaching us. With this in mind, growth remains central to our mission, enabling us to reach and support more women and children in need of our services. The ongoing cost of living crisis and mounting pressure on public services have created a difficult climate for fundraising across our sector. Despite these challenges, we remain committed to our dual mission: supporting survivors and strengthening the support available 253 to our frontline staff.

In 2024/25, we generated £15.8 million in income. This vital work is of Solace only possible thanks to the generosity of individual donors, community groups, and corporate partners. We are in awe of the varied and creative ways people raise money for Solace and every pound raised has had a meaningful impact on the lives of survivors seeking safety and rebuilding after abuse.

Jazz Against Violence

In June 2024, the incredible E-cubed team hosted their third Jazz Against Violence event in support of Solace. Thanks to the amazing efforts of the team—and a talented group of jazz musicians—they raised over £15,000. The event featured a live jazz performance, a raffle, and an auction of generously donated items, all contributing to the total raised for Solace.

‘I see Maya’ Christmas campaign

This year our Christmas fundraising campaign #IseeMaya, focused on ‘Maya’, who represents the women in our lives who have experienced emotional or other forms of abuse at Christmas. To honour the women experiencing emotional abuse we produced a Christmas tree decoration of Maya, which were displayed in our supporters’ offices and homes, reminding us that there are still so many women we need to reach.

Transform a refuge days

Corporate volunteering days can help us to transform our refuges. We were delighted to have welcomed corporate volunteering teams from across London to bring to life our living rooms, 1:1 support spaces and play rooms in our refuges. Teams of up to 12 people joined us to help with seven renovation projects in eight of our refuges, which help our survivors to be settled and give children a bright place to play.

We were delighted to continue our work with Furnishing Futures to re-vamp the living spaces in Haringey Refuges to ensure they are psychologically informed. Following the passing of a much loved colleague, we were delighted to rename one of the rooms’ “Taiwo’s Room” and to be joined by her family, current residents and colleagues to open the new space. CIS Charity Trust also kindly provide us with upgraded CCTV in our Bexley refuges.

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Working with corporate partnerships

We are grateful for the new corporate partnerships we have formed and the continued support of existing partners. This year, Brown Rudnick supported our Children and Young People’s services by organising a back-to-school donation drive. Their team gathered essential school supplies and backpacks, allowing them to provide much-needed resources to children living in several of our refuges. We have also started a new partnership with the Hearst Network as part of their ‘End Abuse Against Women’ initiative.

Partners also provide invaluable support to Solace through their pro bono services – this year the support provided was valued at £50,072 (2023/24: £70,000) with a large proportion attributable to the generous donations we get each year from corporates and individual supporters at Christmas.

£50,072 of pro bono support helped power our work this year, with much of it coming from the generosity of our partners at Christmas. a | (2023/24: £70,000)) - OF omS

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We celebrated Solace’s 50[th] anniversary this year at a Parliamentary Reception. We were pleased to host so many colleagues from throughout the sector, sister organisations, survivors, politicians, donors and corporate partners. Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls Jess Phillips MP and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Victims Alex DaviesJones MP spoke alongside Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime Kaya Comer-Schwartz, our CEO Nahar Choudhury, and our Survivor Ambassador and Trustee Emily Florence Hutchings.

One of the survivors I spoke to tonight said Solace was their scaffolding. That’s the heart of the women’s movement: women need that scaffolding that holds them up for just that little bit longer. I do everything I can, but no matter what I design in fancy buildings, or push forward in Parliament, I will never create anything better than the women’s movement: women helping other women to keep themselves safe.

Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls Jess Phillips MP

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The women’s sector’s work is critical – it’s so important and it does inform the work that we do in government.

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Victims Alex Davies-Jones MP

To be able to do this kind of work across London has been the honour of a lifetime – tirelessly, an army of women that uphold a society of women. We stand on the shoulders of such giants, here with Solace. You support women who had nothing but fear in their eyes to become women who feel hope.

Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime Kaya Comer-Schwartz

I arrived at the refuge. I felt safe, I felt believed and I didn’t have to justify why I was there.

Survivor Ambassador Emily

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What we achieved this year: Aspirations, Education & Employment

Our staff and volunteers know that hope is not just feeling: sometimes, it is a choice. To devote our work to bringing about lasting change, we must have hope – even in the darkest times, working within the most challenging circumstances. Hope drives our mission and vision, has motivated our 50 years of support for survivors and it remains crucial that we spread that hope alongside our expertise knowledge: through our training and volunteering work, we empower others to do better in supporting survivors.

Expert training

It can be difficult to know what to say or do when someone tells you they are experiencing domestic or sexual abuse. And we know the initial response survivors receive can make all the difference in what happens next. Our training programmes raise awareness and provide stakeholders with the essential skills they need to understand, recognise and address domestic abuse in their workplace. We prioritise sharing this knowledge through our expert training team and frontline teams provide training. We developed bespoke training on sexual harassment in the workplace following legislative changes, and training for those supporting survivors of domestic abuse in housing.

4,453 people received expert training on violence against women and girls e Solace has equipped us with different trainings to help us understand the dynamics of the situations faced by service users and how to manage those dynamics…I am loving the growth and diverse job tasks. Solace volunteer =

Our volunteers

We could not have achieved all we have this year or over the last 50 years without the support and passion of our volunteers. In the year 2024/25, Solace has grown its average cohort of volunteers by more than a third compared to 2023/24: by the end of the year, we had 147 volunteers, up from 110 at the beginning of April 2024. This past year, volunteers provided an incredible 7,280 hours of work, via 52 roles, across 27 projects. These roles ranged from Refuge Support Worker volunteers, to Therapists and Tai Chi instructors, to ambassadors and trustees.

From volunteers to Solace staff

We know how important it is to give back to our volunteers, and support them to excel in supporting survivors. Our volunteers accessed three CPD- accredited training in psychologically informed practice, understanding domestic abuse and coercive control and Tackling and Preventing Domestic Abuse training (DAPA), with 92 learners taking these courses in 2024/25. Eight volunteers undertook the DAPA course, a Home Office recognised qualification for IDVAs, with four volunteers going on to become staff at Solace.

We also introduced CV and Cover Letter Workshops for volunteers, who also joined our Solace Together workshops, helping inform and enhance Solace’s working culture.

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New ways to volunteer

We have found new and innovative ways to involve volunteers this year, exploring an adhoc volunteering model for more specialised roles. We have piloted a new ‘Court Support Volunteers’ Programme as a resource open to all community advocacy teams and refuges. Ten knowledgeable volunteers were recruited from UCL’s Law programmes final years and master’s cohorts, to emotionally support service users in family courts when assigned IDVAs/ISVA’s were not available. The creation of this programme involved a collaboration across Solace staff to create specialised training.

Volunteering with Solace has been an incredibly rewarding experience, and it’s been a pleasure working alongside such dedicated and inspiring individuals. I truly appreciate the opportunities I’ve had to contribute and grow within the team.

Solace volunteer

To ensure we support as many women as possible, our new Volunteer Interpreter Directory provides access to free interpreting services for our refuge services. Our multi-lingual volunteers currently offer: Arabic, Dutch, Hindi, Kurdish, Punjabi, Turkish, Urdu. Even more languages will be available very soon, including: Azerbaijani, Bengali, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Sylheti and Yoruba. The model provides Solace staff with access to highly skilled volunteers, while the infrequency of volunteering means a wider range of women can give their valuable time to Solace and our mission.

Employment opportunities for survivors

Financial independence is key to the recovery of domestic abuse survivors and our frontline teams support women to access financial support and employment opportunities.

We’ve worked alongside our generous funders such as Glasspool, Catalyst and Cloudesley to provide survivors with access financial support for educational courses, study materials and transport to get to work, allowing them to start or continue their education and employment journey. These vital funds also support survivors to access essential items such as food vouchers, support for their energy bills and essential furniture when they access new housing.

Our corporate partners have also supported initiatives to help survivors 4 EA back into work. KPMG’s SheCan network hosted a successful CV and interview workshop, offering employment support and confidence-building for women across our services. Our focus on creating opportunities continues - we are working on a mentorship programme for survivors looking to enter or re-enter the workforce.

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What we achieved this year: Children and Young People

As an organisation turning 50, we have reflected on what is continuing to drive gender inequality and misogyny that creates the conditions for violence against women and girls. This has served to remind us why our preventative work is essential to reducing VAWG and know we will not reach our mission of ending violence and abuse without educating our children and young people. Solace’s children and young people’s services provide girls and boys with safe, non-judgmental spaces to unpack experiences, reduce risk, and develop healthy relationships.

Preventing VAWG

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Solace’s Protect Our Women Project (POW) continued to be delivered in Haringey schools, raising awareness about causes of VAWG, healthy relationships, and emotional wellbeing. We empower young people to build safer, healthier, and happier lives. We also support children and young people in refuge with their mothers, because no one’s future should be compromised by abuse.

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337 110 576
children and young children children and young
people supported by supported via our people took part
in the Protect
CYP services Advice Line
Our Women
(23/24: 270)
Project
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Supporting families in refuge

Solace’s STAR (Supporting Trauma Awareness and Resilience) programme is part of our whole family approach and supports trauma awareness and building resilience for mothers and children. The programme, available across three London boroughs, provides safe and confidential spaces to mothers and children in their respective groups to unpack their experiences of abuse and trauma while building resilience, supporting the healing process, and strengthening relationships. We, as parents, can rest for

We, as parents, can rest for an hour and the sessions help the children understand why they are in a refuge with mum. Still my children are mischievous, but the sessions have helped them a lot.

Despite a lack of ringfenced funding for children as victims, we continue to prioritise provision to support mothers and children. We provide counselling for children and younger people in our refuges; our family support workers play a crucial role in addressing the devastating impact that domestic abuse has on mothers and children and our sessional play workers provide respite for mothers in refuge.

Survivor in refuge

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Emotion Coaching pilot

We continue to seek new ways to reduce the harm that domestic abuse creates for children, and rebuild relationships between mothers and children. We were delighted to be funded by Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) for a feasibility study of the Emotion Coaching programme in our Solace’s refuges. Emotion Coaching is a parenting programme for non-abusive mothers and children exposed to domestic abuse. It involves 12 weekly skills-based group sessions to reduce children’s externalising behaviours, such as aggression, improve their mental health outcomes, and boost mothers’ confidence in their parenting abilities.

Raising awareness of peer-on-peer abuse

The young people we work with are so often the best advocates for the future we are seeking to create. As part of 16 Days of Activism 2024, we launched a series of CYP led videos on peer-on-peer abuse which were produced by our Young Change Makers and supported by the Rosa Fund. The aim of the films is to educate parents and teachers about the impact of peeron-peer abuse so that they are informed to have better conversations with young people and take positive steps to identify and address this behaviour. The films were launched alongside a toolkit and a webinar featuring experts from Solace, Everyone’s Invited and the NSPCC.

Before I was introduced to the service, I was shy, depressed and felt isolated, which made me lack trust and motivation to succeed with my career. However, after the key work sessions, I have changed dramatically. I speak confidently about my feelings, and I have a different mind-set, so I am willing to work towards my goals. I’m also now confident in speaking about my past experiences and I now want to be a voice to the younger generation who have also experienced domestic abuse.

CYP survivor

Whatever your abuser showed you in life, if he made you feel you cannot get help, Solace is here to help you. They will help you in your journey to become the person you want to be.

Survivor

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Our thanks .

We are incredibly grateful for the support that Solace receives from generous individuals and organisations which help us to work towards our mission of ending the harm done through gender-based violence. A huge thank you to all our supporters during 2024/25, including those who have chosen to remain anonymous.

We continue to be grateful for our partnership with statutory funders and want to thank:

The London Boroughs of Barnet, Bexley, Camden, Enfield, Haringey, Islington, Lambeth, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Westminster, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, Violence Reduction Unit, Greater London Authority, London Councils and Home Office.

We also want to thank our trustees, survivor ambassadors and new shadow board members who use their expertise and lived experience to shape the work Solace does and raise awareness for other survivors who need help.

Being in the refuge was a big turning point. They had a course that really helped me understand what I had been through. It helped me realise how trauma and stress had affected me, and how it had affected my children. It was amazing to see that, not just for me, but for them too. The foundation of support we got there made a huge difference. Having that support system, knowing they were liaising with other agencies to get the help I needed - it all really helped me start breathing again. It was like a whole new chapter where I wasn’t doing everything alone anymore.

Survivor

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. Our supporters

97 Ensemble

Above Difference

Acaster Lloyd Consulting Accenture Ali Meadows Fund Apt. London Avison Young Barclays Professor Betsy Sanko Blake Morgan LLP Brown Rudnick Charities Trust City Bridge Trust CIS Community Trust Cloudsley Concord Cripplegate Foundation DNNR London Douglas Household Corporation E-Cubed

Family of Ali Meadows Fight for Sight (formally Vision Foundation) Financial Lifestyle Management Ltd

Four Nine Furnishing Futures Garden Court Chambers Glasspool Charity Trust Goldman Sachs Hearst Network Hollick Family Foundation HSBC

H&M

Iceland Charitable Foundation

Iguano Trust Impulse Decisions Irish Youth Foundation Irish Government IWIRC London Network Jack Sealey Ltd Jade Blue Judy Kawaguchi Julia Rausing Trust Jungle Creations Karen Bryson Kirsty Malcolm KPMG

Leylands

Lewis Silkin LLP London Catalyst London Community Foundation London Designer Outlet Madigan Gill Neighbourly Foundation Oak Foundation Olwyn Foundation Orla Kiely Pretty Little Thing Professor Katrin Hohl Public Interest Law Centre PwC Rani & Co Rehema Muthamia

Rich Support Limited Rimes

Single Homeless Project Slaughter and May Southwark Charitable Trust Squire Patton Boggs Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse (STADA) TkMaxx

The Big Give Trust The Caring Family Foundation The Channel Company The Childhood Trust - Grants

The Glen Beg Foundation The Golden Bottle Trust The Rosa Fund The Screwfix Foundation The Tudor Capital Foundation

The Wogen Anniversary Trust

Trust For London

Urban and Mainline

Vanguard Veeam

Vitol

Willilam Grant & Sons Youth Endowment Fund Yvonne Roberts

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Looking to the future

Our core priority for 2025-26 is the ongoing development of the support we offer to survivors, including the development of responsive services that reflect the complexity of their experiences.

But after 50 years of providing lifesaving support, we are clearer than ever that we cannot solve this societal problem alone. Positively, more people than ever have recognised the epidemic of violence against women and girls with the National Police Chief’s Council calling it a “national emergency” and the new Government having set out their mission to halve VAWG in a decade.

Solace will continue to work with new people and organisations to help us end VAWG and improve the public services response through more partnerships, expert training, awareness raising campaigns and influencing for change.

We will review how we can continue to deliver inclusive services and develop new service models to meet the changing needs of survivors. We will also strengthen the way we collect and use data to demonstrate the positive outcomes experienced by survivors, enabling us to tell their stories more effectively and refine our services accordingly.

Our service users should be a key voice in all that we do – we will embed the views and voices of our new Shadow Board in our decision making and ensure they are a powerful tool for change, both within the organisation and externally.

We will build on our Solace Together workshops on cultural transformation through a new intersectionality working group and further training. Our EDI and Culture Steering Group will focus on developing an internal EDI health check and sharing EDI best practice across the organisation.

We remain committed to investing in the wellbeing and motivation of our staff and volunteers, so that they are equipped to deliver impactful and psychologically informed support. We will improve our induction process, develop management training and sustain our sector-leading wellbeing offer. We will continue to improve the ways of working in our infrastructure services such as HR, finance and business support, to enable our frontline to operate more effectively.

But we continue in a difficult external environment: the cost of living crisis and political uncertainty continues to affect survivors, staff and the organisation, and uncertainty around funding – particularly from public services –creates continuing challenges. We work regularly with sister organisations to secure sustainable funding for specialist services, and with our new fundraising team we will focus on the retention of existing services with full cost recovery, increased unrestricted fundraising and strong delivery partnerships.

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Goals for 2025-26

Our 2022-27 strategy set out our six organisational objectives, which help us to focus on our dual aims of supporting more survivors and improving our support of frontline staff working in the organisation – this remains as important as ever. Our CEO and board of trustees continue to focus on seven goals to sit alongside our five-year strategy:

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Financial Review

The financial results for the year ended 31 March 2025 are set out in the Statement of Financial Activities, balance sheet, cash flow statement and notes to the accounts on pages 46 onwards.

Income

For the financial year 2024/25, total incoming resources were £15.8m (2023/24 £14.4m). Solace was helped to maintain essential services this year thanks to funding from statutory partners, trusts and foundations, corporates and the public.

Solace has successfully focused on retention of services and securing new statutory funding with some new services beginning in 2025/26. Solace remains a trusted delivery partner for our commissioners successfully retaining 100% of our statutory contracts during the period.

The 10% increase in income compared to prior year is due in part to taking on the management of new accommodation services in refuge and community.

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2023.24
2024.25
Children & Young People
Therapeutic
Community based advice, advocacy & Support
Refuge accommodation - Service contracts
Refuge accommodation - Rent and Service Charges
Donations & Legacies
Ascent Plus and other partnership work
Other Services
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Refuge services grew by 24%. On the 1st April Solace took over management of the multidisadvantaged accommodation service in Haringey. In November a new move-on service opened in Enfield. The service contract and associated rents from these services increased income by £555k. Rent and service charge uplifts averaged 7.7% from the 1st April 2024 in line with inflation.

Community-based advice and advocacy services commenced two new services; the three year Ruby Project funded by the Oak Foundation, which delivers a Housing First solution for women affected by domestic abuse in London and from June we began delivery of a Peri Natal IDVA service funded by Standing Together.

Not all of our services have been as financially secure. Therapeutic services, which see us reach some of our most vulnerable service users suffered from cuts to services during contract extensions and recommissioning.

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Our work with Children and Young People saw a £67k drop in funding due to mobilisation funds being withdrawn in the second year of our highly impactful Major Trauma Centres project which provides crisis intervention support to young people of all genders who present in London’s Major Trauma Centres due to domestic abuse and sexual violence issues.

Our partnership work delivered consistent programming between years aligned with ongoing service delivery.

Voluntary unrestricted income from donations contributed 2% of our funding base through the support of the public, corporates and trusts and foundations. We continue to see reduced opportunities for core cost unrestricted funding through trusts and foundations. However we have seen an uplift in our restricted fundraising which we report within our programming components.

Staffing gaps in the fundraising team and no senior manager leading on fundraising for most of 2024/25 led to a reduction in funds. The new team is now embedding and we anticipate steady growth in upcoming years, whilst recognising that the fundraising environment remains challenging.

Expenditure

Our charitable spending on activities increased by 9% in line with the uplift in service delivery from £14.4m to £15.6m.

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Proffessional Fees & Other
Occupancy, Maintenance and Services
IT and Facilities
Children and Service Users
Partnerships
2023/24
Staff 2024/25
0 4000000 8000000 12000000
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Our biggest expenditure is on staff, 67% (2023/24: 70%). Our staff are at the heart of the financial decisions we have to make. In September the Government announced changes to employer national insurance. This resulted in Solace’s salary base increasing by 3% before the award of staff pay increases. In January 2025 Solace pay awards for all staff honoured our commitment to the London Living Wage awarding at least a 2.5% increase to our most junior staff (2023/24: 3.5%). We have not been able to recover the full impact of the NI increases through contracts placing Solace under further financial pressures in the future.

Occupancy costs are our second major expenditure as we seek to maintain our portfolio of owned and leased properties. The average maintenance cost per unit of our housing stock increased year on year from £7,868 to £8,947 as we incurred onboarding costs for our new sites and saw increased utility, and maintenance costs arising from general market pressures.

Central costs as a percentage of overall expenditure dropped from 15% to 14%. During the year Finance, Business Support and HR functions were restructured to reflect changes in organisational operations and strategic priorities.

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Financial position

Our charitable spending on activities increased by 9% in line with the uplift in service delivery from £14.4m to £15.6m. The overall result for the year was a surplus of £196k (2023/24: deficit of £2k). The current year surplus aligns with managing central costs in a very uncertain funding environment. Going into 2024/25 Trustees have approved a deficit budget as we have a number of award outcomes pending.

Achieving a surplus remains a key performance target to enable the charity to set aside funds towards reserves for contingency requirements, and capital improvements as further explained in our reserves policy note.

Total fund balances as of 31 March 2025 were £2.2m (2023/24: £2.0m) of which £1.0m (2023/24: £1.0m) were designated funds, £25k were restricted funds for service delivery and the remaining £1.2m (2023/24: £1.0m) represent general funds. Designated funds as at the balance sheet date represent the net book value of tangible fixed assets.

Reserves policy and going concern

The reserves fund represents unrestricted general funds which are not committed or tied to any tangible fixed assets held by Solace.

It is Solace’s policy to retain sufficient reserves to safeguard its financial commitments and to continue to provide essential services to women and children who are experiencing domestic and/or sexual violence, in the event of unforeseen financial problems for a length of time to enable those problems to be resolved.

The trustees have reviewed its reserves policy in March 2025 and agreed to build Solace’s reserves based on an analysis of the risks facing the charity. In determining the level of reserves required by Solace, the following factors are taken into account by the Board of Trustees:

This level of reserves is to protect the charity from having to make quick structural changes arising from the sudden loss of income, for example when contracts are not renewed or other unforeseen circumstances, to enable the charity to function during unexpected periods of financial difficulties. The Finance and Resources sub-committee reviews the level of reserves required by Solace annually and recommends the appropriate level to the trustees.

Based on the analysis of risks, the trustees have set a satisfactory reserve level and a target reserve level for the charity. A minimum satisfactory general reserves level of £1.6m was agreed as being satisfactory. The current unrestricted free reserves of £1.2m (unrestricted reserves less those related to tangible fixed assets and designations) are below the satisfactory reserve level.

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The desired target reserves level was set at £2.3m and at March 2025, there is a shortfall of £1.1m. The need to increase reserves to achieve the desired target levels will be a focus of the charity over the coming five years. In the coming financial year Trustees have weighed the need to increase reserves against managing NI increases and offering a fair pay award to attract and retain staff . In the coming year we have set a deficit budget with identified measures to return this to a surplus in year. Solace plans to generate surpluses over the next 5 years to achieve a satisfactory reserve level.

Further notes on our reserves are outlined in note 15 of the financial statements.

The trustees have considered the material uncertainties which may cast doubts on the appropriateness of the going concern assumption with regards to the 2024/25 financial statements. As noted above, these uncertainties are continually monitored by the board and the senior management team, and remedial actions are implemented in a timely manner. Having considered the risks of these uncertainties, the trustees have concluded that the going concern assumption remains appropriate for the coming year.

Risk management and principal risks

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Trustees have overall responsibility for establishing and maintaining the system of risk management at Solace. The charity maintains a charity risk register which tracks key risks to Solace and is reviewed by trustees at quarterly sub-committee meetings and full board meetings. Unexpected and sudden changes in risks would be scrutinised by trustees over and above planned meetings.

The principal risks facing the charity are financial, operational, reputational, people and culture and regulatory as detailed below.

Financial

Solace operates in a challenging and demanding sector with uncertainties over longer term funding due to our reliance on services commissioned by local and central government.

External risks to funding have been reduced by implementing a long-term strategy to diversify our funding base.

Solace actively monitors our pipeline to ensure we remain informed of opportunities for new services and recommissioning of existing services. Financial risks arising from any contract renewals in 2025/26 are mitigated through TUPE (Transfer of Undertaking Protection of Employment) arrangements.

Financial risks are monitored through regular reporting to the Finance and Resources subcommittee and trustees with scrutiny of annual budgets, reforecasts, management accounts and cash flow projections. Scenario planning with prudent income generation activities has been prepared and reviewed with trustees to ensure that Solace continues to have sufficient resources to deliver its services and remain solvent in the foreseeable future.

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Operational

The nature of our service delivery, which provides support to vulnerable women and children suffering from domestic and sexual violence, increases operational risks associated with the potential provision of inadequate support for our service users due to unclear priorities, lack of quality oversight or inadequate staff resources.

Operational risks are managed through implementation of suitable policies and procedures including good practices for case management, appropriate caseloads, rigorous staff training, staff supervision and support and regular reporting to senior management. Procedures are in place to ensure compliance with health and safety regulations, risks assessments and data protection regulations in respect of service users, staff, trustees, volunteers, and visitors. Solace also has in place emergency procedures should we experience localized or national incidents. Appropriate insurance cover is in place.

Risks on IT systems and cybercrime are managed through the use of accredited managed IT providers using secure cloud-based technology. Monthly review of performance and IT risks are undertaken with senior management and reported to trustees. Staff receive regular training on IT and cyber security and induction training is provided to all new employees

Reputational

In line with our operational risks, reputational risks are heightened as we engage with vulnerable people in difficult circumstances. Service audits are conducted annually to review compliance with funder agreements and reported to trustees. The senior management team works closely with boroughs and other funder leads and attend meetings and events which enable issues to be dealt with promptly and manage reputational risks.

People and culture

Solace is committed to being an actively inclusive charity and has reviewed its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion action plan with trustees, staff and volunteers.

Risks and challenges on staff recruitment and retention are managed through continuous staff learning and development. Like others in the charity sector, we continue to see high turnover of staff. We undertake benchmarking of staff turnover and analyse leaver exit information to learn from the changing needs of our employee lifecycle. We continue to work with our teams to adopt agile working practices without compromising on the quality of client services. Our expert peripatetic team help to reduce the impact of gaps created by challenges in recruitment.

Regulatory and compliance

Safeguarding is at the heart of our operational services and a key governance priority, keeping women and their children safe is our primary responsibility and we take all appropriate steps to protect everyone from harm.

We deliver robust safeguarding training to all our staff and volunteers, as part of their induction training. This includes the legal framework, how to spot signs and symptoms, how to respond and what makes a good referral to social care. We also explain our whistle blowing policies to all staff and volunteers during the training. Annual refresher training on safeguarding is mandatory for all staff.

We have a suite of policies and procedures designed to manage this risk including those covering acceptance of donations, unauthorised fundraising, procurement, IT security, antifraud, data protection and social media. We undertake regular training on compliance and continue to review and strengthen our training to staff and volunteers.

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Reference and Administrative Information

The financial statements comply with the current statutory requirements, the memorandum, and articles of association, the Companies Act and the Statement of Recommended Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities: SORP applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS 102.

Company number 03376716 Country of incorporation United Kingdom Charity number 1082450 Country of registration England & Wales Registered office 9 Appold Street, London EC2A 2AP Website www.solacewomensaid.org

Board of Trustees

Trustees who served during the year and up to the date of this report were as follows:

Ms. Priyanka Devani Chair (resigned 27 March 2025) Ms. Hannah Cane Vice Chair (19 June 2024) Interim Co Chair (appointed 27 March 2025) Ms. Madeline Church Interim Vice Chair (stepped down 19 June 2024) Interim Co Chair (appointed 27 March 2025) Ms. Kerri Hartwell Treasurer

Ms. Kerri Hartwell Treasurer Ms. Emily Florence Hutchings Ms. Vivien Ma Ms. Natalie Lopez Ms. Meghan Roach Ms. Amy Pritchard (resigned 27 March 2025) Ms. Jo Jengo Dr. Alison McKinlay (appointed 9 July 2025) Ms. Katherine Couper (appointed 9 July 2025)

Principal staff Ms. Nahar Choudhury Ms Arati Patel

Ms. Nahar Choudhury Chief Executive Officer Ms Arati Patel Interim Director of Finance and Business Support (November 2023 to May 2024) Ms. Julia Rank Director of Finance and Business Support (appointed June 2024) Ms. Paula Murphy Interim Director of Business Development (appointed November 2023 to November 2024) Ms Rebecca Goshawk Director of Business Development (appointed December 2024) Dr. Jennifer Cirone Director of Services

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Bankers HSBC plc 1 Aldermans Hill London, N13 4YE

Auditor Moore Kingston Smith 9 Appold Street, London EC2A 2AP

Structure, governance and management

Solace is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 28 May 1997, and registered as a charity with the Charity Commission on 16 September 2000. The charity is formed under a memorandum of association which established the objects and powers of the charitable company and is governed under its articles of association.

Recruitment and appointment of members for the Board of Trustees

Solace welcomes women to the Board of Trustees who have the skills, dedication, and enthusiasm to take overall responsibility for the organisation. The charity advertises for members in a number of ways including recruitment websites and other relevant publications.

Trustees serve for a period of six years in aggregate. Officers (chair, treasurer and chairs of sub-committees) may serve for a period of 9 years. Solace has a diverse Board, ensuring that our trustees represent the women we support. One third of members must resign each year, with the longest standing members resigning first. Two Trustees resigned during the financial year. We have not looked for other members to step down as Solace is currently building the Board’s skills.

Induction and training for the Board of Trustees

All prospective members receive information regarding Solace including the most recent annual report and audited accounts, as well as copies of relevant policies and procedures. They meet with the CEO and principal staff who carry out an induction that includes training on key policies (including equality, diversity and inclusion, safeguarding, confidentiality, complaints, whistle blowing, financial regulation, risk assessments, data protection and DBS checks), a tour of our services and meetings with both staff and service users.

Trustees observe the Charity Code for Good Governance. A skills audit is conducted annually, and any gaps identified are met through training, guidance from the CEO and other members of the trustees and staff, as well as targeted recruitment.

Trustees are encouraged to attend relevant training in areas such as governance, human resource management and financial management. The cost of this training is met by the organisation.

Trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no benefits from the charity. Any expenses reclaimed from the charity are set out in note 6 to the accounts.

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Public benefit

The trustees have referred to the guidance provided by the Charity Commission regarding public benefit, including its guidance ‘Public Benefit: Running a Charity (PB2)’, when reviewing the charity’s aims and objectives and in planning its future activities. In setting the annual plan each year, the trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives of the charity.

Fundraising

Solace is a member of the fundraising regulator. We do not employ the services of any fundraising agencies or third parties, nor have we run a telephone or door to door fundraising campaign. Our relationship with our supporters is especially important to us and the charity does not wish for our supporters to feel under any pressure to donate to the charity. We have a close relationship with our fundraisers and support them in delivering their events and complying with relevant codes of practice. Where we work with commercial participators, contracts are exchanged so that we can ensure compliance with the code of fundraising practice, applicable laws, and adherence to best practice.

We received no complaints about our fundraising practices in 2024/25.

Quality Management

Solace prides itself on high quality support to our service users. Our staff team are committed to providing a high standard of support to our service users and we continually look at how we can improve our services. We continue to invest in accredited training for our staff and have a comprehensive internal training programme to ensure we deliver quality services. The organisation is supported by our business development, business support, HR and finance teams who have introduced new systems and procedures to better support our frontline services and the wider organisation. This helps us to continue to deliver excellent services and ensure value for money for our funders.

In 2024/25, we achieved and retained several accreditations and quality marks, demonstrating the high standard of Solace’s work, including:

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Organisational structure

The trustees meet every quarter and are responsible for the organisation’s overall management and strategic direction. The trustees also meet twice a year for Board Away Days. These women are drawn from a variety of professional backgrounds relevant to our work including those who have been impacted by domestic or sexual abuse. We are also committed to diversity and have a trustee board representative of our service users and staff.

The trustees delegate appropriate functions to the sub-committees listed below, of which at least two members must be from the Board.

Expert Advisors are selected to provide specialist advice to the sub-committees. They attend and scrutinise reports together with trustees at sub-committee meetings.

Business Development sub-committee: Oversees the overall strategy and business development plans for the charity, as well as Training and Consultancy, Fundraising, and Communications. Chair – Ms. Hannah Cane. Claire Geddie joined the committee as an expert advisor in 2024-25 and up to the date of publication Rosie Spigelhalter and Paula Murphy have also joined.

Finance and Resources sub-committee: Oversees financial management to ensure optimum use of resources. It scrutinises income and expenditure and regularly reports to, makes recommendations, and clarifies options available to the trustees. Chair – Ms. Kerri Hartwell. Two Expert Advisors joined the committee this year Becky Tobin and Holly Van Der Merwe.

Human Resources and Governance sub-committee: Oversees staffing issues including recruitment, retention, pay, equality and diversity, health and safety and environmental issues. It acts as the appeal body for any disciplinary and capability matters and is responsible for overall board governance. Chair – Ms. Natalie Lopez with support from Ms Madeline Church. Sian Elliot, and Rachel Galvin have continued to support this committee. Frances Gillies joined as an expert advisor in 2024-25 and up to the date of publication Claire Wright joined the committee as an expert advisor.

Services sub-committee: Scrutinises operational top-level reports and internal audits; discusses policy, devises, and reviews the service operations strategy. Chair – Ms. Madeline Church with support from Ms Meghan Roach. Frances Gillies joined the committee as an Expert Advisor this year.

Overall management is delegated to the CEO and Directors who are responsible for ensuring that Solace delivers high quality services, meets contractual obligations and conditions of grant aid. Principal staff are the CEO, Director of Services, Director of Finance and Business Support and Director of Business Development who convene regularly to oversee the organisational management of Solace. The Directors report to the CEO.

The wider Senior Management Team includes one Deputy Director of Services and nine Heads of Services who meet with the Directors and CEO on a monthly basis.

Team and Service Managers run the day-to-day activities with their staff teams delivering services in refuge, community-based services and from our Head Office. They report to Heads of Services and meet with the CEO and Directors each quarter.

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Related party transactions

Related party transactions during the year related to professional pro bono services and valued at Nil (2023/24: Nil), and donations from three trustees totalled £214 (2023/24: £676).

Remuneration policy or key management personnel

Solace awards a fair remuneration package to all staff including key management personnel. Both the Human Resources and Finance and Resources sub-committees undertake an annual review of salaries, and the trustees are responsible for setting the CEO salary, and with the CEO set the salaries of Directors. The salary of the highest and lowest salaries in the organisation does not exceed 1:4.

Statement of responsibilities of the Board of Trustees

The trustees (who are also directors of Solace for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the trustees’ annual report including the strategic report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

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

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

As far as the trustees are aware:

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.

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Members of the charity guarantee to contribute an amount not exceeding £1 to the assets of the charity in the event of winding up. The total number of such guarantees at 31 March 2025 was 8 (2023/24 - 10). The trustees are members of the charity, but this entitles them only to voting rights. The trustees have no beneficial interest in the charity.

Auditors

Moore Kingston Smith LLP were appointed as auditors in 2018 and are deemed to be reappointed to under Section 487(2) of the Companies Act 2006.

The report of the Board of Trustees has been approved by the trustees on 1 October 2025 and signed on their behalf by

Madeline Church – Interim Co Chair

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Independent Auditor’s Report to the members of Solace Women’s Aid

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Solace Women’s Aid (‘the charitable company’) for the year ended 31 March 2025 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities (incorporating the Summary Income and Expenditure Account), the Balance Sheet, the Cash Flow Statement and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 ‘The Financial Reporting Standard Applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland’ (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion the financial statements:

Basis for opinion

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

Conclusions relating to going concern

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

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

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

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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 materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements 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.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

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

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the 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 where the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement set out on page 40, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

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

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intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s Responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

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

As part of an audit in accordance with ISAs (UK) we exercise professional judgement and maintain professional scepticism throughout the audit. We also:

We communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit.

Explanation as to what extent the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud

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.

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The objectives of our audit in respect of fraud, are; to identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements due to fraud; to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding the assessed risks of material misstatement due to fraud, through designing and implementing appropriate responses to those assessed risks; and to respond appropriately to instances of fraud or suspected fraud identified during the audit. However, the primary responsibility for the prevention and detection of fraud rests with both management and those charged with governance of the charitable company.

Our approach was as follows:

There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures described above. We are less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations that are not closely related to events and transactions reflected in the financial statements. Also, the risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery or intentional misrepresentations, or through collusion.

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 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 any party other than the charitable company and charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Shivani Kothari (Senior Statutory Auditor) Date: for and on behalf of Moore Kingston Smith LLP, Statutory Auditor 9 Appold Street

Date: 25 November 2025 London EC2A 2AP

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Statement of financial activities

(incorporating an income and expenditure account) for the year ended 31 March 2025

Note
Income from:
Donations and legacies
2
Charitable activities
Provision and Prevention
Refuge accommodation
3
Community based advice,
advocacy and support
3
Therapeutic
3
Children and Young People
3
Other services
3
Partnership work
Ascent Plus and other partnership
work
3
Investment income
Total income
Expenditure on:
Raising funds
Charitable activities
4
Provision and Prevention
Refuge accommodation
4
Community based advice, advocacy
and support
4
Therapeutic
4
Children and Young People
4
Other Services
4
Partnership work
Ascent Plus and other partnership
work
4
Total expenditure
Net Income / (Expenditure) for the
year
5
Transfers between funds
Net movement in funds
Reconciliation of funds:
Total funds brought forward
Total funds carried forward		 2025
Unrestricted
Restricted
Total

£
£
£
353,095
21,891
374,986
4,881,655
1,485,115
6,366,770
4,035,631
1,696,104
5,731,735
123,000
1,705,691
1,828,691
61,998
427,081
489,079
49,705
-
49,705
-
952,271
952,271
22,132
-
22,132
2024

Unrestricted Restricted
Total

£
£
£

451,093
-
451,093
3,712,652 1,434,959
5,147,611

4,016,559 1,362,948
5,379,507

164,700 1,727,647
1,892,347

67,078
494,098
561,176

22,061
-
22,061

-
920,648
920,648

11,467
-
11,467
9,527,216
6,288,153
15,815,369
8,445,610 5,940,300 14,385,910
273,083
-
273,083
4,488,731
1,493,156
5,981,887
4,283,306
1,711,546
5,994,852
128,982
1,706,075
1,835,057
84,680
427,081
511,761
45,771
-
45,771

24,964
951,771
976,735

284,854
-
284,854


3,648,345 1,434,959
5,083,304

4,215,315 1,362,948
5,578,263

155,060 1,727,647
1,882,707

61,485
512,465
573,950

42,154
-
42,154


-
942,512
942,512
9,329,517
6,289,629
15,619,146
8,407,213 5,980,531 14,387,744
197,699
(1,476)
196,223
(27,363)
27,363
-
38,397
(40,231)
(1,834)

(40,231)
40,231
-
170,336
25,887
196,223
1,999,267
-
1,999,267
(1,834)
-
(1,834)

2,001,101
-
2,001,101
2,169,603
25,887
2,195,490		 1,999,267
-
1,999,267

All of the above results are derived from continuing activities unless noted otherwise.

There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. Notes on pages 49 to 63 form part of these financial statements.

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Balance Sheet

for the year ended 31 March 2025

Company no. 3376716

Notes 2025 2024
Fixed Assets: £ £ £ £
Tangible Fixed Assets 10a 954,838 963,053
Intangible Assets 10b 33,844 57,728
988,682 1,020,781
Current Assets:
Debtors 11 2,519,760 1,842,492
Cash at Bank and in hand 1,696,223 2,074,933
4,215,983 3,917,425
Liabilities:
Creditors: amounts falling due within one 12 3,009,175 2,938,939
year
Net Current Assets 1,206,808 978,486
Total Assets less Current Liabilities 2,195,490 1,999,267
Total Net Assets 14 2,195,490 1,999,267
The Funds of the Charity are represented by:
Unrestricted Income Funds:
Designated Funds 15 988,683 1,020,781
General Funds 15 1,180,920 978,486
Total Unrestricted Funds 2,169,603 1,999,267
Restricted Funds 15 25,887 -
Total Charity Funds 2,195,490 1,999,267

The accompanying notes on pages 49 to 63 form part of these financial statements.

The financial statements were approved by the Board and authorised for issue on the 1st October 2025 and are signed on its behalf by:

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Madeline Church – Interim Co Chair
.......................................................................................................
<e.
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Kerri Hartwell - Treasurer ................................................................................................. Sinont

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Statement of Cashflows

for the year ended 31 March 2025

Notes 2025 2024
£ £ £
£
Cash flows from operating activities:
Net cash flows (used in) / provided by operating activities 16 (261,154) 1,222,278
Cash flows from investing activities:
Interest from investments 22,132 11,466
Purchase of property, plant and equipment (75,047) (216,744)
Net cash flows used in investing activities (52,915) (205,278)
Cash flows from financing activities:
Interest paid (345) (11,893)
Repayments of borrowing (64,296) (255,385)
Net cash flows used in financing activities (64,641) (267,278)
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year (378,710) 749,722
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year 2,074,933 1,325,211
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year 1,696,223 2,074,933
Analysis of cash and changes in net debt
1 April 2024 Cash flows 31 March 2025
CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS
Cash in hand 37,355 (6,902) 30,453
Cash in bank 1,255,954 (492,828) 763,126
Immediate notice deposits 781,624 121,020 902,644
Total cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year 2,074,933 (378,710) 1,696,223
BORROWINGS
CBILS loan falling due within one year (64,296) 64,296 -
Total 2,010,637 (314,414) 1,696,223

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Notes to the accounts

1 Accounting policies

a) Statutory information

Solace Women's Aid is a charitable company limited by guarantee and is incorporated in the United Kingdom. The registered office address is 6th floor, 9 Appold Street, London EC2A 2AP.

b) Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) - (Charities SORP FRS 102), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy or note.

The presentation currency of the Charity is British Pounds Sterling. The amounts in the financial statements are rounded to the nearest pound.

c) Key judgements and Assumptions

In the application of the company’s accounting policies, trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis and actual results may differ from these estimates.

d) Public benefit entity

The charitable company meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

e) Going concern

The trustees have considered the principal risks of the charity and the potential financial impact of these risks materialising in a range of adverse and worse case scenarios. The detailed cash flow forecast and the adequacy of cash resources under these scenarios have been reviewed by trustees. Based on these detailed scrutiny, the trustees have concluded that there is reasonable expectation that the charity is able to meet its obligations as they fall due for at least 12 months following approval of the financial statements. Accordingly the financial statements continue to be prepared on the going concern basis.

f) Income

Income is recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities on an accruals basis once the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and that the amount can be measured reliably.

Income from government and other grants, whether ‘capital’ grants or ‘revenue’ grants, is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the grants have been met, it is probable that the income will be received, and the amount can be measured reliably.

Income received in advance of the provision of a specified service is deferred until the criteria for performance related or other conditions of income recognition have been met.

g) Intangible assets

Computer software are capitalised when direct expenditure enhances or extends the performance of the software beyond its specifications and can be reliably measured as a capital improvement. These costs are amortised using a straight line method over the estimated useful lives of three to five years.

h) Donations of gifts, services and facilities

Donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item or received the service, any conditions associated with the donation have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity of the item is probable and that economic benefit can be measured reliably. In accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102), general volunteer time is not recognised. The trustees’ annual report describes their contributions in more detail.

On receipt, 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.

i) Financial instruments

Financial instruments are recognised in the company’s balance sheet when the company becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument to meet the requirements of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102. Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, where there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.

Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the bank.

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1 Accounting policies (Continued)

k) Fund accounting

Restricted funds are accounted for in accordance with the express or implied wishes of donors in so far as these are intended to be binding on the charity. Expenditure which meets these criteria is charged to the fund.

Unrestricted funds are donations and other incoming resources received or generated for the charitable purposes which are not subject to any special restrictions and are classed as unrestricted within the General fund. Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular purposes.

l) Irrecoverable VAT

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified under the following activity headings:

m) Allocation of support costs

Resources expended are allocated to the particular activity where the cost relates directly to that activity. However, the cost of overall direction and administration of each activity, comprising the salary and overhead costs of the central function, is apportioned on an estimate, based on staff time, of the amount attributable to each activity. Where information about the aims, objectives and projects of the charity are provided to potential beneficiaries, the costs associated with this publicity are allocated to charitable expenditure based on costs incurred with the publicity event.

Governance costs are the costs associated with the governance arrangements of the charity. These costs are associated with constitutional and statutory requirements and include any costs associated with the strategic management of the charity’s activities.

n) Operating leases

Rentals under operating lease charges are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities on a straight line basis over the term of the lease.

o) Tangible fixed assets

Items of equipment are capitalised where the purchase price exceeds £1,000 or groups of similar assets purchased in bulk exceeds £7,500. Depreciation costs are allocated to activities on the basis of the use of the related assets in those activities. Assets are reviewed for impairment if circumstances indicate their carrying value may exceed their net realisable value and value in use.

Freehold land and buildings are carried at cost.

Where fixed assets have been revalued, any excess between the revalued amount and the historic cost of the asset is provided at rates calculated to write down the cost of each asset to its estimated residual value over its life.

p) Stocks

Stocks are stated at the lower of cost and net realisable value. In general, cost is determined on a first in first out basis

q) 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.

Specific provision is made where it is probable that a debt is unlikely to be recovered but where Solace continues to actively chase for recovery.

r) Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account.

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1 Accounting policies (Continued)

s) Creditors

Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present or constructive 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 are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due. Provisions are made for obligations when there is a legal or other obligation as a result of past events. It is more likely than not that an outflow of resources will be required to settle the obligation and a reliable estimate of the amount can be made for the provision based on the expected settlement amount.

t) Pensions

Solace Women's Aid operates a defined contribution pension scheme. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charitable company in an independently administered fund. The pension cost charge represents contributions payable under the scheme by the charitable company to the fund. The charitable company has no liability under the scheme other than for the payment of those contributions. It provides a contribution at 3% of annual basic pay for those staff who have joined the scheme. The pension charge recorded in these accounts is the amount of contributions payable in the accounting year.

2 Donations and Legacies
Individuals
Community fundraising and events
Corporates
Trust and Foundations
Legacy Income
Other
Donated services		 Unrestricted
£
Restricted
£
206,463

9,948
-
38,029
-
47,000
-
-
21,891
1,583
-
50,072
-
353,095
21,891		 2025 Total
£
2024 Total
£
206,463
241,738
9,948
9,230
38,029
64,534
47,000
65,291
21,891
-
1,583
-
50,072
70,300
374,986
451,093

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3a Income from charitable activities

aIncome from charitable activities
Unrestricted Restricted 2025 Total 2024 Total
Provision and Prevention £ £ £ £
Local Boroughs 1,590,499 79,982 1,670,481 1,430,364
Core Rents 3,145,080 - 3,145,080 2,283,105
Personal Charges 136,001 - 136,001 103,543
MOPAC - 569,039 569,039 539,428
London Councils via Ashiana (note 3b) - 272,048 272,048 272,047
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government - 219,383 219,383 153,034
REFUGE - 125,556 125,556 102,969
Greater London Authority - 62,173 62,173 60,529
Hollick Foundation - 6,377 6,377 11,218
Gallaher - 55,000 55,000 45,000
The Youth Endowment Fund - 81,557 81,557 54,615
London Community Foundation (MOPAC PIE) - 14,000 14,000 79,116
Other 10,075 - 10,075 12,643
Sub-total for Refuge Accommodation 4,881,655 1,485,115 6,366,770 5,147,611
Prior year income from charitable Refuge Accommodation activities included £3,712,652 attributable to unrestricted
activities and £1,434,959 to restricted activities.
Unrestricted Restricted 2025 Total 2024 Total
£ £ £ £
Local Boroughs 4,034,123 18,750 4,052,873 4,029,951
Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) - 883,004 883,004 886,396
Southall Black Sisters - 148,950 148,950 160,592
Women and Girls Network - 195,432 195,432 188,562
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Emigrant 6,276 43,379 49,655 35,000
Support Programme
Olwyn Foundation - - - 18,356
Irish Youth Foundation (3,868) 14,535 10,667 8,715
Irish Government (1,750) - (1,750) -
City Bridge - 41,786 41,786 19,293
Peri-Natal Service - 62,171 62,171 -
Vision - 22,486 22,486 24,984
Ruby Project (Oak Housing First) - 265,611 265,611 -
Other 850 - 850 7,658
Sub-total for Community based advice, advocacy and 4,035,631 1,696,104 5,731,735 5,379,507
support

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3a Income from charitable activities (continued)

Prior year income from charitable Community based advice, advocacy and support activities included £4,016,559 attributable to unrestricted activities and £1,362,948 to restricted activities.

Mayor's Office for Policing and
Crime (MOPAC)
Local Boroughs
Women and Girls Network
Tri-borough Angelou
Counselling Partnership(Healing
Project)
Cloudesley
Other
Sub-total for Therapeutic		 Unrestricted
£
-
123,000
-
-
-
-
123,000		 Restricted
£
1,138,777
100,000
376,618
44,300
40,164
5,832
-
1,705,691		 2025 Total
£
1,138,777
223,000
376,618
44,300
40,164
5,832
-
1,828,691		 2024 Total
£
1,138,777
264,700
425,578
44,300
-
16,042
2,950
1,892,347

Prior year income from charitable Therapeutic activities included £164,700 attributable to unrestricted activities and £1,727,647 to restricted activities.

Mayor's Office for Policing and
Crime (MOPAC)
Local Boroughs
Women and Girls Network
Banham Family Fund
Sub-total for Children and Young
People		 Unrestricted
£
-
61,998
-
-
61,998		 Restricted
£
320,441
-
89,973
16,667
427,081		 2025 Total
£
320,441
61,998
89,973
16,667
489,079		 2024 Total
£
380,793
67,078
89,972
23,333
561,176

Prior year income from charitable Children and Young People activities included £67,078 attributable to unrestricted activities and £494,098 to restricted activities.

External training
Other
Sub-total for Other services		 Unrestricted
£
45,656
4,049
49,705		 Restricted
£
-
-
-		 2025 Total
£
45,656
4,049
49,705		 2024 Total
£
21,711
350
22,061

Prior year income from charitable Other services included £22,061 attributable to unrestricted activities.

Partnership work
Mayor's Office for Policing and
Crime (MOPAC)
Greater London Authority
Sub-total for Partnerships		 Unrestricted
£
-
-
-		 Restricted
£
731,258
221,013
952,271		 2025 Total
£
731,258
221,013
952,271		 2024 Total
£
695,722
224,926
920,648

Prior year income from charitable Partnership activities totaling £920,648 were fully attributable to restricted services

Total Income from charitable
activities		 9,174,121 6,266,262 15,440,383 13,924,827

Prior year total income from charitable activities included £7,994,527 attributable to unrestricted activities and £5,940,300 to restricted activities

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3b. Income from charitable activities (continued)

Grant Aid of £840,000 was received in 2024/25 from London Councils for the Ascent Specialist Refuge Partnership for YR3 Q4.

The following table illustrates how money was allocated across the partnership and that it has been used for the purposes outlined in the funding agreement.

Lead Partner: Ashiana Network
Delivery Partner: Solace Women’s Aid
Total
Section 37 Statement
Salaries
Beneficiary Costs:
Central Overheads:
Total		 Grant Income
£
272,048
272,048
Grant Income
£
230,922
21,840
19,286
272,048		 Grant Spend
£
272,048
272,048
Grant Spend
£
229,838
22,928
19,287
272.048

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4. Analysis of expenditure

Charitable Activities

Staff (Note 6)
Partnerships
Children and service users
IT and Facilities
Occupancy, Maintenance and Services
Professional Fees and Other
Support costs
Governance costs
Total expenditure 2025
Total expenditure 2024		 Provision and Prevention
Cost of
raising
funds
£
Refuge
accomo-
dation
£
Community
advice, advocacy
and support
£
Therapeutic
£
Children
and Young
People
£
Other
services
£
130,489
2,962,449
4,132,335
1,255,819
382,271
25,962
-
99,969
278,885
61,954
-
-
48,010
83,702
211,573
86,515
3,945
-
22,381
183,729
231,257
74,755
25,691
2,404

6,762
1,683,538
164,141
59,227
2,431
1,334
34,509
258,976
2,831
435
6,968
9,817		 Provision and Prevention
Cost of
raising
funds
£
Refuge
accomo-
dation
£
Community
advice, advocacy
and support
£
Therapeutic
£
Children
and Young
People
£
Other
services
£
130,489
2,962,449
4,132,335
1,255,819
382,271
25,962
-
99,969
278,885
61,954
-
-
48,010
83,702
211,573
86,515
3,945
-
22,381
183,729
231,257
74,755
25,691
2,404

6,762
1,683,538
164,141
59,227
2,431
1,334
34,509
258,976
2,831
435
6,968
9,817		 Provision and Prevention
Cost of
raising
funds
£
Refuge
accomo-
dation
£
Community
advice, advocacy
and support
£
Therapeutic
£
Children
and Young
People
£
Other
services
£
130,489
2,962,449
4,132,335
1,255,819
382,271
25,962
-
99,969
278,885
61,954
-
-
48,010
83,702
211,573
86,515
3,945
-
22,381
183,729
231,257
74,755
25,691
2,404

6,762
1,683,538
164,141
59,227
2,431
1,334
34,509
258,976
2,831
435
6,968
9,817		 Partnerships
Partnerships
£
Support costs
£
155,420
1,360,615
761,609
-
-
578
6,154
246,469
4,602
46,463
1,480
313,812		 Partnerships
Partnerships
£
Support costs
£
155,420
1,360,615
761,609
-
-
578
6,154
246,469
4,602
46,463
1,480
313,812		 Governance
costs
£
2025 Total
£
2024 Total
£
103,155
10,508,515
10,004,495
-
1,202,417
1,090,908
-
434,323
465,685
20,510
813,350
859,176
32,815
2,001,313
1,598,077
30,400
659,228
369,403
242,151
5,272,363
5,021,022
1,538,705
421,306
39,517
28,391
644,615
899,054
273,239
83,173
5,649
2,541
64,909
74,776
23,113
7,282
605		 929,265
33,816
13,654		 1,967,937
(1,967,937)
-		 186,880
15,619,146
14,387,744
-
-
-
(186,880)
-
-
273,083
5,981,887
5,994,852
1,835,057
511,761
45,771		 976,735 - -
15,619,146
14,387,744
284,854
5,083,304
5,578,263
1,882,707		 573,950 42,154 942,512 - -
14,387,744

Of the total expenditure, £9,329,517 was unrestricted (2024: £8,407,213) and £6,289,629 was restricted (2024: £5,980,531).

4. Analysis of expenditure (prior year comparative information)

Charitable Activities

Provision and Prevention Partnership

Provision and Prevention
Partnership
Staff (Note 6)
Partnerships
Children and service users
IT and Facilities
Occupancy, Maintenance and Services
Professional Fees and Other
Support costs
Governance costs
Total expenditure 2024		 Cost of
raising
funds
Refuge
accomo-
dation
Community
advice,
advocacy and
support
Therapeutic
Children
and Young
People
Other
services
Partnerships
Support Costs
Governance
costs
2024 Total
2023 Total
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
189,230
2,466,248
3,933,580
1,239,188
433,275
18,798
145,390
1,482,484
96,302
10,004,495
10,416,711
-
93,606
235,686
42,410
-
-
719,206
-
-
1,090,908
1,305,602
29,027
128,116
249,351
51,929
4,496
1,563
498
705
-
465,685
451,656
11,396
187,095
259,098
99,937
31,494
3,550
9,043
233,466
24,097
859,176
706,826
5,718
1,282,502
144,666
70,189
3,798
1,191
5,382
46,076
38,555
1,598,077
1,726,389
60
60,584
54,816
(1,672)
180
14,238
7,790
178,066
55,341
369,403
650,138
235,431
4,218,151
4,877,197
1,501,981
473,243
39, 340
887,309
1,940,797
214,295
14,387,744
15,257,322
46,509
790,722
615,321
354,223
92,356
2,120
39,546
(1,940,797)
-
-
-
2,914
74,431
85,745
26,503
8,351
694
15,657
-
(214,295)
-
-
284,854
5,083,304
5,578,263
1,882,707
573,950
42,154
942,512
-
-
14,387,744
15,257,322

5 Net (expenditure)/income for the year

This is stated after charging:

Depreciation
Interest payable
Operating lease rentals:

Property

Other
Auditors' remuneration (excluding VAT):
Audit (statutory audit)		 2025
£
107,146
345
1,066,951
20,960
29,985		 2024
£
104,711
11,893
876,727
17,416
28,000

Analysis of staff costs, trustee remuneration and expenses, and the cost of key management personnel

6 Staff costs were as follows:

Staff costs were as follows:
Salaries and wages
Social security costs
Employer’s contribution to defined contribution pension schemes
Redundancy and termination payments
Staff training, supervision, travel and volunteer costs
Sessional counsellors and self employed
Agency & locum staff
Other forms of employee benefits
Staff costs above have been allocated to expenditure as follows:
Cost of raising funds
Refuge accommodation
Community advice, advocacy and support
Therapeutic
Children and Young People
Other services
Ascent CRISIS and other partnerships
Support and governance
following number of employees received emoluments exceeding £60k (excl pension
ributions) during the year, between:
£60,000 - £69,999
£70,000 - £79,999
£90,000 - £99,999		 2025
£
8,097,546
762,773
225,671
(2,992)
294,254
365,067
703,164
63,032
10,508,515
2025
£
130,489
2,962,449
4,132,335
1,255,819
382,271
25,962
155,420
1,463,770
10,508,515
2025
No.
1
-
1		 2024
£
7,680,157
714,277
212,352
12,055
292,838
292,926
749,637
50,253
10,004,495
2024
£
189,230
2,466,248
3,933,580
1,239,188
433,275
18,798
145,390
1,578,786
10,004,495
2024
No.
1
2
-

The following number of employees received emoluments exceeding £60k (excl pension contributions) during the year, between:

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6 Staff costs (continued)

All higher paid staff are members of the key management personnel.

The total employee benefits paid to the key management personnel (Chief Executive Officer, Deputy Director of Services Excellence, Director of Finance and Business Support and Director of Business Development) were £280,632 (2024: £249,7661). Employee benefits included employer pension contributions, on call payments and employer’s NI. Pensions costs paid in respect of the higher paid employees above amounted to £8,239 (2024: £6,536).

No charity trustee received a payment for other services supplied to the charity (2024: £NIL). Reimbursement of travel and other expenses to trustees in 2025 was £NIL (2024:£NIL)

7 Staff numbers

The average number of employees (head count based on number of staff employed) during the year was as follows:

Cost of raising funds
Refuge accommodation
Community advice, advocacy and support
Therapeutic
Children and Young People
Other services
Ascent CRISIS and other partnerships
Support and governance		 2025
No.
2.6
80.9
120.7
34.3
12.8
2.0
9.0
43.8
306.1		 2024
No.
2.5
68.3
101.4
24.8
12.1
0.6
4.0
52.0
265.7

Total donations from 3 Trustee were £ 214 in the financial year (2024: £676 from 2 Trustees)

9 Taxation

The charitable company is exempt from corporation tax as all its income is charitable and is applied for the charitable purpose.

10a Tangible fixed assets

0a Tangible fixed assets
Cost or valuation
At the start of the year
Additions in year
At the end of the year
Depreciation
At the start of the year
Charge for the year
At the end of the year
Net book value
At the end of the year
At the start of the year		 Play area
£
51,908
-		 Freehold
property
£
Fixtures and
fittings
£
961,662
328,024
-
68,722		 Head Office
£
141,995
6,325

Total
£

1,483,589

75,047
51,908 961,662
396,746		 148,320
1,558,636
51,908
-		 193,832
259,661
11,381
34,627		 15,135
520,536
37,254
83,262
51,908 205,213
294,288		 52,389
603,798
- 756,449
102,458		 95,931
954,838
- 767,830
68,363		 126,860
963,053

Land with a value of £480,831 (2024: £480,831) is included within freehold property and not depreciated. All of the above assets are used for charitable purposes.

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10b Intangible fixed assets

Intangible fixed assets

Cost or valuation
At the start of the year
At the end of the year
Depreciation
At the start of the year
Charge for the year
At the end of the year
Net book value
At the end of the year
At the start of the year		 Software
£
417,883
417,883
360,155
23,884
384,039
33,844
57,728

11 Debtors

Amounts due from Local Authorities and government agencies
Other debtors
Prepayments
Accrued income		 2025
£
1,590,809
137,076
152,734
639,141
2,519,760		 2024
£
980,024
96,087
111,150
655,231
1,842,492
12Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
CBILS Loan payable (see note 13 below)
Trade creditors
Taxation and social security
Other creditors
Provision- see 12a below
Funds held on behalf of clients
Accruals
Deferred income – (see 12b below)		 2025
£
-
417,856
274,825
189,218
250,000
116,801
787,807
972,668
3,009,175		 2024
£
64,296
348,240
236,379
96,978
250,000
15,379
825,066
1,102,601
2,938,939

12a Provision

The provision at the balance sheet date was the estimated settlement cost relating to the planned exit at one of our services. The timing of the settlement has not yet been agreed with the funder.

Balance at the beginning of the year
Balance at the end of the year		 2025
£
250,000
250,000		 2024
£
250,000
250,000

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12b Deferred Income

Deferred income comprises income received in advance on contracts
and projects which are delivered in the following year.
Balance at the beginning of the year
Amount released to income in the year
Amount deferred in the year
Balance at the end of the year		 .
2025
£
1,102,601
(1,102,601)
972,668
972,668		 2024
£
720,835
(720,835)
1,102,601
1,102,601

13a Loans payable

Loans payable includes £NIL(2024: £64,296) relating to the government backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, which carries interest at 6.5% and a final Scheme payable to Social Investment Business FM Limited (SIB). Interest is charged at 6.5% and monthly capital and interest payments commenced in July 2022. The loan was repaid in full in the financial year.

.

Capital repayments are due as follows:
- up to one year (see note 12)
Balance at the end of the year		 2025
£
-
-		 2024
£
64,296
64,296

14 Analysis of net assets between funds (current year)

Tangible fixed assets
Intangible fixed assets
Net current assets
Net assets at the end of the year		 General
unrestricted
£
Designated
£
Restricted
£
Total funds
-
954,838
-
954,838
-
33,845
-
33,845
1,206,807
-
-
1,206,807
1,206,807
988,683
-
2,195,490

14a Analysis of net assets between funds (prior year)

Tangible fixed assets
Intangible fixed Assets
Net current assets
Net assets at the end of the year		 General
unrestricted
Designated
Restricted
Total funds
£
£
£
£
-
963,053
-
963,053
-
57,728
-
57,728
978,486
-
-
978,486
978,486
1,020,781
-
1,999,267

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15 Movements in funds (current year)

Restricted Funds:
Fundraising
Provision and Prevention:
Refuge service
Community advice, advocacy & support
Therapeutic
Children and Young People
Partnership Work:
Ascent Plus and other partnership
Total restricted funds
Unrestricted Funds:
Designated funds:
Capital
Total designated funds
General Funds:
Total Unrestricted funds
Total Funds		 At the start
of the year
£
-
-
-
-
-
-		 Income
£
21,891
1,485,115
1,696,104
1,705,691
427,081
952,271		 Expenditure &
Losses
Gains &
Transfers
£
£
-
-
(1,493,156)
8,041
(1,711,546)
15,442
(1,706,075)
3,880
(427,081)
-
(951,771)
-		 At the end of the
year
£
21,891
-
-
3,496
-
500
- 6,288,153 (6,289,629)
27,363		 25,887
1,020,781
978,486		 -
9,527,216		 (107,145)
75,047
(9,222,372)
(102,410)		 988,683
1,180,920
1,999,267 9,527,216 (9,329,517)
(27,363)		 2,169,603
1,999,267 15,815,369 (15,619,146)
-		 2,195,490

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15a Movements in funds (prior year)

Restricted funds:
Provision and Prevention
Refuge services
Community advice, advocacy &
support
Therapeutic
Children and Young People
Partnership work
Ascent Advice and other partnership
Total restricted funds
Unrestricted funds:
Designated funds:
Capital
Total designated funds
General funds
Total unrestricted funds
Total funds		 At the start
of the year
£
-
-
-
-
-

Income
Expenditure &
losses
Gains &
Transfers
At the end of
the year

£
£
£
£

1,434,959
(1,434,959)
-
-

1,362,948
(1,362,948)
-
-

1,727,647
(1,727,647)
-
-

494,098
(512,465)
18,367
-

920,648
(942,512)
21,864
-

Income
Expenditure &
losses
Gains &
Transfers
At the end of
the year

£
£
£
£

1,434,959
(1,434,959)
-
-

1,362,948
(1,362,948)
-
-

1,727,647
(1,727,647)
-
-

494,098
(512,465)
18,367
-

920,648
(942,512)
21,864
-

Income
Expenditure &
losses
Gains &
Transfers
At the end of
the year

£
£
£
£

1,434,959
(1,434,959)
-
-

1,362,948
(1,362,948)
-
-

1,727,647
(1,727,647)
-
-

494,098
(512,465)
18,367
-

920,648
(942,512)
21,864
-
-
5,940,300
(5,980,531)
40,231
-
908,748 (104,711)
216,744
1,020,781
908,748
-		 (104,711)
216,744
1,020,781
1,092,353 8,445,610
(8,302,502)
(256,975)		 978,486
2,001,101
8,445,610
(8,407,213)
(40,231)
1,999,267
2,001,101
14,385,910
(14,387,744)
-
1,999,267

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15b Purposes of restricted and designated funds

p g

Fundraising Legacy income has been restricted for Mother & Baby Support.

Refuge Services are (via Ashiana lead partner) for the complex needs refuge in Camden; MHCLG funding for Family Support and Resettlement workers across our London boroughs. The MOPAC Tier 1 Accommodation funding supported several multiple disadvantage workers at our refuges. The GLA and L&Q Foundation funded the new move on accommodation NEST project across three London boroughs. The Youth Endowment Fund was used to pilot an emotional coaching Program to mothers living in refuges to exercise positive parenting skills and build healthy relationship with their children.London Community Foundation has been a pilot to transform the Haringey refuge into a psychologically trauma informed environment. Part of the work has been to create a multi-functional area in the lounge space for both the women to have a relaxing space, and the children to have a safe play area

Community advice, advocacy and support: This fund is for the advice, advocacy and outreach work to survivors of domestic violence. Women and Girls Network have channeled London Councils funding for our Advice hub. Other funders include Southall Black Sisters for women with no recourse to public funds, London Council for a Women's Homelessness project, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Emigrant Support Program, together with the Irish Youth Foundation for the Irish and Irish Traveller communities and Trust for London towards the Immigration advice lawyer. The Olywn Foundation provides service user grants

Therapeutic: The counselling service is free to residents and service users of the organisation and is accessed through Ascent counselling and the North London Rape Crisis services. The funders are MOPAC, Women and Girls Network, Tri-borough Angelou, and Richard Cloudesley.

Children and Young People (CYP): Our work in partnership with VRU is to provide crisis intervention support to young people in hospital emergency departments is funded by MOPAC. WGN fund our work with Black and minoritised young women who have experienced domestic and sexual abuse. The Banham Family Fund has funded counselling for children and young people in communities and schools.

Ascent Plus and other partnership: This fund was for the provision of Violence against Women and Girls services delivered through the partners from the Ascent Plus project funded by London Councils. Greater London Authority has funded our Casa Project giving women second stage accommodations delivered through different partners.

Capital : This fund represents the net book value of all tangible and intangible fixed assets. The expenditure reflect the movements in depreciation charges and transfers from unrestricted funds made to align the tangible and intangible fixed assets to net book value.

16 Reconciliation of net income/(expenditure) to net cash flows (used in)/provided by operating activities

Net income/(expenditure) for the reporting period
Interest received
Loan interest paid
Depreciation charges
(Increase) / decrease in debtors
Increase in creditors
Net cash flows (used in)/provided by operating activities		 2025
£
196,223
(22,132)
345
107,146
(636,188)
93,452
(261,154)		 2024
£
(1,834)
(11,466)
11,893
104,711
762,578
356,396
1,222,278

17 Operating lease commitments

The charity's total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases is as follows for each of the following periods

Up to one year
Two to five years		 Property
Equipment
2025
2024
2025
2024
1,045,084
865,504
18,868
32,398
150,219
211,656
9,434
40,065
1,195,303
1,077,160
28,302
72,463

18 Legal status of the charity

The charity is a company limited by guarantee and has no share capital. The liability of each member in the event of winding up is limited to £1.

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“Thank you the bottom of my heart for changing our lives for the better in every way possible.Thank you, thank you, thank ” Solace Women’s Aid you.

Solace Women’s Aid Registered Address Moore Kingston Smith LLP, 9 Appold Street London, EC2A 2AP

Advice line freephone | 0808 802 5565 Administrative phone | 020 7619 1350 For press and media email | media@solacewomensaid.org Website | solacewomensaid.org Social media| @SolaceWomensAid

Professional Advisors Auditors | Moore Kingston Smith LLP Solicitors | Anthony Collins LLP

To protect our service users, names & photos of service users have been changed.

Solace Women’s Aid is a charity registered in England and Wales. Charity number 1082450. Company number 03376716

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