2025-08-31-accounts

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School-Home Support Service (UK) Report and Financial Statements Year ended 31 August 2025

Charity number: 1084696

Company number: 03991440

What we will do in About School-Home 23 2025/2026 3 Support 4 Message from ourChair 24 Financial summary 25 Financial review 6 Message from our CEO 30 8 Our strategy management What we did in 36 Independent auditor’s 11 2024/2025 report

Structure, governance and management Independent auditor’s report

18 Our impact onattendance 41 Statement of financialactivities Our work with Balance sheet 19 schools 42 Our funders Statement of cash flows 20 43 Notes to the accounts Our pro bono 44 21 partnerships Reference and Our culture 56 administrative details 22

School-Home Support’s objects, as set out in its Memorandum of Association, are to advance education by promoting, developing and assisting in the provision of services which contribute to the pastoral care of pupils and/or which foster links between school and home.

ABOUT SCHOOL-HOME SUPPORT

At School-Home Support, our remit is to improve attendance. We look beyond the school gate, working directly with children and families to understand and overcome barriers to education and learning. Our family support practitioners build trust, resilience and skills across the whole family, strengthening the bridge between home and school to create positive changes within families and communities.

We work with and through schools to help understand and tackle barriers to good school attendance. We provide training for school staff with pastoral duties, and campaign for a reformed education system that delivers a supportfirst, family-centric approach to tackling school absence.

We use campaigns and the media to amplify families’ voices so their concerns remain at the forefront of public debate. We work with policy makers to advocate changes to law, funding and practice in education.

Our vision and mission

School-Home Support’s mission is to get children in school, ready to learn, whatever it takes. Our ambitious vision is that every child will be in school, every day, by 2050.

Theory of change

Our theory of change guides our work with children, their families and their schools. It is a proven model for successful intervention that brings together the way we work, and how we measure our impact.

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What
we do
Work with children Work with schools Work with parents
How we
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Promote engagement between Find practical solutions to Develop relationships and
school and parents education barriers personal resources
Our
outcomes
Improved attendance and Improved parental Improved character
participation at school engagement in learning and resilience
Long term
outcomes
Improved wellbeing for Improved attainment of Improved life chances for
children from disadvantaged children from disadvantaged children from disadvantaged
backgrounds backgrounds backgrounds
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MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAIR

Despite the rising demand for our services, our determination to get children back to school, ready to learn is stronger than ever.

CHARLES GANNON Chair of Trustees

Across the charity sector, reduced funding, rising costs, and increasing demand for support have placed real strain on services. School-Home Support (SHS) has continued to stand alongside families, schools, and children through an exceptionally complex time.

Despite the challenges, the impact of our work has been remarkable. Our 2024–2025 Impact Report shows that we have reached 12,457 individuals overall and provided direct attendance support to 1,077 children. For the severely absent children, attendance improved by 29%, representing an additional term of learning back in school.

Like all charities, we are operating in uncertain times. However, we have a fierce ambition to reach more children and families, and this means we need to think carefully about how to best maximise our impact and reach.

The post-Covid landscape and cost of living in particular affected the families we support and increased the need for our services. We’ve also seen an increase in the number and complexity of issues families are dealing with, and all of this has meant a rise in demand for our services.

Thanks to financial reserves we built up in the pandemic, we’ve been able to meet this rise in demand for the last couple of years. However, recent financial challenges have had a significant effect on our organisation. As a result, we’ve had to cut costs and most recently that resulted in a restructure. We ensured that within this restructure we protected our direct service delivery. We reorganised teams to ensure we can continue to deliver our services with and for families, support schools with low attendance and campaign for change.

We have reviewed our strategy and decided that our focus for the 2025-2026 academic year will be to grow our practitioner service within our existing areas, allowing us to deepen our commitment to communities where we have already built networks and laid down roots. This will mean pausing our expansion to any new areas, and instead focusing on embedding and developing our services to reach more children and families in the areas we currently work: Birmingham, Sheffield, Blackpool, Bradford, Liverpool, Manchester, London and the South East.

We are welcoming new trustees to strengthen our already excellent governance team and have established a new strategic growth sub-committee to support the board’s future direction. Our teams will continue driving progress towards our three strategic goals.

As we say thank you and goodbye to our CEO Jaine Stannard for her exceptional leadership, we also look ahead with optimism. Our new CEO will bring fresh energy, direction and strategies to guide SHS into the future.

None of our achievements this year would have been possible without the dedication of our staff, trustees, and supporters, who live out the values at the core of SHS every day. We extend particular gratitude to Jaine, whose vision and commitment have shaped the charity through both challenges and successes. We wish her all the very best in her next chapter.

The year ahead no doubt will pose new challenges and opportunities, yet with our leading position as the go to charity for solving complex needs of children who are absent, we can look forward to another highly impactful year.

Year ended 31 August 2025

SCHOOL-HOME SUPPORT SERVICE (UK)

MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO

Our practitioners have been helping to turn the tide on lost learning through whole-family support, enabling children to regain more than 5,000 days of learning.

JAINE STANNARD Chief Executive

Across the country, too many children are still missing out on their education, not because they don’t want to learn, but because poverty, poor mental health, or family challenges stand in their way.

Lost learning through school absence remains one of the most urgent education issues of our time, and SHS has been at the forefront stemming the tide of lost learning for over forty years.

In 2024–2025, SHS has continued to make a difference in the lives of children and families most affected by school absence and disadvantage.

Our practitioners recovered 5,745 additional days of learning in school, reaching those who need us most and giving them a chance to reconnect with education, rediscover confidence, and rebuild belonging. They also provided 7,600 days of additional support in schools, giving teachers more time to focus on teaching and learning, while providing holistic whole family support to overcome the barriers that keep children out of education.

Our work goes far beyond improving attendance. Our practitioners take a holistic, relational approach, supporting the whole family to strengthen the bridge between home and school, improve wellbeing, and re-engage with learning.

By building strong relationships between parents, carers and schools, SHS helps to create the conditions children need to be ready to learn, not only attending school but feeling safe, supported, and part of a community that believes in them.

This inclusive, partnership-based ethos lies at the heart of SHS. Our work is grounded in co-creation and belonging, equity and barrier-reduction. These principles guide everything we do, helping to deliver sustainable solutions to the national school attendance challenge and contributing to better wellbeing, engagement, and attainment for children who need our support the most.

On a more personal note, after eight years of leading this fantastic organisation, I have made the difficult decision to retire from my role as CEO of SHS.

This organisation and its mission are incredibly dear to my heart, and while I am very sad about stepping away, I have the opportunity to begin an exciting new chapter.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to all my colleagues, our patrons, past and present trustees and all of our fabulous funders. Over the past eight years, we’ve achieved so much together, and it is largely thanks to the inspirational passion and commitment to changing children's lives. The incredible SHS staff team ensures we are able to help so many children and families who are experiencing very challenging times, supporting them to fulfil their potential and improve their life chances.

I am hugely excited and grateful to have the opportunity to spend more time with my wonderful family, particularly my fabulous grandchildren. SHS will always be with me through all that we have achieved together and of course through the stories I have read and had the privilege to hear first hand from the families we support.

As I step down, I do so with complete confidence in SHS’s future. We remain more determined than ever to build on the success achieved, continue the efforts to ensure children are in school, ready to learn, so they have the opportunity to thrive in education and life. The need for our support has never been greater, but neither has our determination. I know SHS will continue to grow, innovate, and reach even more children and families in the years ahead.

Thank you to everyone who made this journey possible.

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OUR STRATEGY

Good progress On target

School-Home Support aims to get children back to school ready to learn, whatever it takes. In 2022 we launched our highly ambitious five year strategy to reach more children and give them the best start in life. As we reached the halfway point in delivering our five-year strategy, we took time to reflect on our progress and review how we’re doing against each of our 3 goals.

Goal 1: Reach more children and families

We made excellent progress on delivering our organisational strategy and expanding our Practitioner services to three new locations that have higher than average rates of overall and persistence absence. This is a big step towards ensuring more children are in school, ready to learn.

Sustain current practitioner model - We continued to work with existing partner schools where we deliver our practitioner service. Limited school budgets, short-term contracts, and the end of external funding created challenges. We’ll therefore continue focusing on this model by strengthening partnerships and diversifying our income to ensure we reach more children.

Expand the practitioner model - We successfully started delivery in Birmingham, Sheffield and Hertfordshire. These areas have higher than average rates of overall and persistence absence.

Investment in a new IT system - We rolled out a new data portal across all of SHS. The system is now used by all practitioners as a way of recording activities with families they are supporting, along with inputting attendance data for the young people supported. The data portal is linked to a new live dashboard which is updated automatically once data is inputted to the portal, meaning staff across SHS have access to updated accurate data for all schools we deliver in.

Year ended 31 August 2025

SCHOOL-HOME SUPPORT SERVICE (UK)

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OUR STRATEGY

Work in progress Good progress On target

Goal 2: Support more schools to address persistent absence

To meet the varying needs from the education community we developed our training services to offer 3-level Attendance Development and Support Programme; supervision, which continues to be one of the cornerstones of the SHS service; and our membership which continues to develop and this year included the production of expert blogs and toolkits.

- Attendance Support and Development Programme We further developed

our Attendance Support and Development programme and now offer three levels of support to schools to improve attendance through proven, hands-on strategies. We are currently reviewing the Mastering Attendance course to respond to feedback.

Providing external supervision - We continued to deliver external supervision and support to individuals working with children and families.

Membership - Our membership engagement programme continues to develop. We are using stakeholder engagement to inform plans which include the development of expert resources including toolkits and blogs.

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OUR STRATEGY

Work in progress Good progress On target

Goal 3: Influence policy and practice

We have made significant progress towards our influencing goals - embedding support-first, family-centred approaches to attendance across schools and local authorities nationwide. Our national profile has grown considerably since our Goal 3 work began. We are viewed as a national thought leader in our areas of expertise, attendance and family engagement, as evidenced by our growing media and political profile.

Campaign for support-first, family centric approach to tackling absence -

Key campaign moments from last year include our first School Attendance Gap Day, Parliamentary amendments to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill and our call for the Government guidance for schools to improve attendance to be reviewed following it becoming statutory in August 2024.

Evidence School-Home Support’s credentials as a thought leader on

attendance and parental engagement - We were invited to contribute to national reports on attendance, to give evidence to the Education Select Committee and the Housing Select Committee, and invited to the Government’s launch of the civil society covenant.

Have strong strategic relationships with key stakeholders including the

new Government - We built relationships with Education Ministers and other MPs in the Government. We worked closely with senior officials to develop our Spending Review Submission.

Be seen as a go to organisation by the media for commentary and insights into the national debate around school attendance - We've surpassed our media mentions target and the number of requests we receive by the media is increasing.

WHAT WE SAID WE’D DO AND WHAT WE DID IN 2024/2025

In 2024/2024, we set out ambitious goals to strengthen our impact, deepen our influence, and ensure more children and families received the support they need to thrive in education. We have made meaningful progress against these goals, translating our strategic intent into practical action across our services, partnerships, and policy work.

This section outlines what we aimed to do and what we achieved, and shows how these commitments were brought to life in real terms.

Goal 1: Reach more children and families

What we said we would do

Sustain and grow our Practitioner Service.
Expand delivery into Sheffield and explore expansion into Birmingham, both areas with high rates of persistent absence.
Strengthen relationships with schools, multi-academy trusts, regional governments, parliament and local authorities to maximise statutory funding.
Embed the new data portal to strengthen impact, widen reach, and increase practitioner time spent with families.

What we did

Successfully expanded our Practitioner Service into both target regions: fe) Five practitioners began delivering in Birmingham and one in Telford.
fe) Two practitioners began delivering in Sheffield
Expanded into an additional area, Hertfordshire, after schools requested support.
Improved practitioner service by maximising practitioner time with families through improved systems and agile, impact-driven delivery models.

How we made it happen

A week of work experience after an aspiration session

When Ben, a pupil in one of our partner schools took part in one of our Aspiration Days, he met Managing Director, Chris Yiannakou (also SHS trustee). Inspired by their conversation, Ben proactively approached Chris to explore a career in finance and was offered a week-long work experience placement. Ben had a glimpse into a real workplace that gave him a sense of direction and possibilities he hadn’t considered before.

Year ended 31 August 2025

SCHOOL-HOME SUPPORT SERVICE (UK)

WHAT WE SAID WE’D DO AND WHAT WE DID IN 2024/2025

How we made it happen

Berna and Adem’s Story

When SHS practitioner Daniel first met Mr. Rahman at the school gate in Sheffield, he could tell he was struggling. A quick chat revealed that Mr. Rahman had recently lost his wife and was overwhelmed by grief, caring for his children alone, and supporting Adem, who has autism.

Although the children’s attendance was still good, Daniel could see the children were at risk of missing school and disengaging with learning. As Daniel built the relationship with the family, he saw there was an additional issue: their two-bedroom home wasn’t suitable for the family. Adem shared a room with his sister Berna, and his disrupted sleep meant no one was getting proper rest.

Daniel worked with housing services to help secure a more suitable home. Through the SHS Welfare Fund, he helped the family furnish their new home with essential items, creating a safer, calmer environment. With separate bedrooms, both children began sleeping better, and routines improved.

As life became more stable for the children, Mr. Rahman’s mental health also improved. He told Daniel how relieved he felt to give his family a fresh start after such a painful loss.

Looking back, Daniel says everything changed because he simply asked how Mr. Rahman was coping, opening the door for a conversation to understand the family’s hidden struggles and getting them the support they needed when they needed it most.

WHAT WE SAID WE’D DO AND WHAT WE DID IN 2024/2025

How we made it happen

Gary’s story

When SHS practitioner Sophie first met Gary, his attendance was just 26%. Gary is bright and energetic, but his ADHD made it hard for him to regulate his emotions, sometimes leading to outbursts that left his mum and younger sisters feeling unsafe.

His mum, raising three children alone, felt isolated and unheard by the school, especially after Gary was moved to an alternative provision with little communication.

Sophie’s first priority was to give both Gary and his mum space to talk openly. She supported Gary to recognise his triggers and use strategies to calm himself before things escalated. She also helped him re-engage with Maths and English so he didn’t fall behind academically.

Gradually, things improved. Gary’s attendance rose to 30%, and he began talking about his future with excitement. His mum gained confidence in setting boundaries, and the home became calmer and more stable. Sophie can see how much the family has grown. She will continue supporting Gary for a while as he’s making good progress. He is engaging better with trusted adults, and the whole household feels stronger and more hopeful.

WHAT WE SAID WE’D DO AND WHAT WE DID IN 2024/2025

Goal 2: Support more schools to address persistent absence

What we said we would do

Deliver a range of support options to help schools adopt a family-centred approach to attendance.
Implement the national rollout of the Attendance Support and Development Programme (ASDP) following its pilot year. Maintain and expand our Supervision service.
Develop our membership engagement programme and create expert resources including toolkits and blogs.

What we did

Responded to new 2024 statutory guidance requiring a support-first approach by schools to improve low attendance by further developing our ASDP to offer three levels of tailored support to schools.
Strengthened school support by sharing expertise in attendance, early intervention, whole-family support and parental engagement. Ensured supervision remained a core component of our services.
Continued development of the membership engagement programme, using stakeholder input to guide priorities.
Produced new expert resources, including toolkits and blogs aligned with current attendance challenges.

How we made it happen

Mile in my shoes exhibition

Mock interviews for year 10 pupils

SHS practitioner Daniel took part in a very special exhibition in partnership with the charity Health Equals. He donated a pair of shoes and talked about his work in schools. Visitors would step into his shoes while listening to his experience supporting families and children to get back to school.

A group of Year 10 students at one of our partner schools got a taste of the working world by taking part in mock interviews as part of their careers day at school. The students had the unique opportunity to be interviewed by professionals from a range of different industries.

WHAT WE SAID WE’D DO AND WHAT WE DID IN 2024/2025

How we made it happen

We provided bespoke training to 32 new schools

Impact Alliance Hub, one of our local hubs of collaboration, recently requested training for their school staff to build capacity and develop strategies to tackle low school attendance.

The training sessions focused on a whole family support approach to address absenteeism effectively, including boosting parental engagement to strengthen the relationship between home and school.

Additional support for schools

Beyond our practitioner and training services, we also provided essential support and resources for schools to address attendance issues, including bespoke training and supervision for school staff and leaders, and a membership programme for education professionals.

In 2024/2025, SHS practitioners provided 7,600 days of additional support in schools, giving teachers more time to focus on teaching and learning.

Attendance Support and Development Programme (ASDP)

This year was the first running our Attendance Support and Development Programme following its pilot in 2023/2024. The Programme is designed to help schools who are aiming for best practice in holistic whole family support, early intervention strategies and a consent driven partnership approach to working with parents/carers. We developed the programme to include three flexible levels. We reached 189 new schools this year.

94%

77%

participants said they gained the most benefit from the individual supervision sessions.

participants improved their knowledge of SEND related topics.

‘The Programme has helped me grow both professionally and personally. The care and attention I have received has had a positive impact.’

Attendance Lead, The Trinity Catholic Academy, Liverpool

WHAT WE SAID WE’D DO AND WHAT WE DID IN 2024/2025

Goal 3: Influence policy and practice

What we said we would do

Continue advocating for vulnerable children and families.
Ensure their voices inform policy and practice at local and national levels. Advise government and policymakers on evidence-based solutions to attendance and wider family challenges.

What we did

Made significant progress embedding support-first, family-centred approaches nationally, raising SHS’s profile as a thought leader in attendance and family engagement.

Engaged directly with Government:

A parliamentary question on the value of school-based whole-family support practitioners prompted a governmental response reaffirming the importance of services that prioritise holistic family support. Submitted evidence to the Education Select Committee inquiry “Solving the SEND crisis,” highlighting lost learning caused by unmet special educational needs and the role of family support workers in mitigating pressures.
Invited to the launch of the Civil Society Covenant, demonstrating growing recognition of our expertise within national policy circles.

How we made it happen

We launched our ‘School Attendance Gap Day’ campaign

School Attendance Gap Day was marked on 4 February 2025, this is the halfway point in the school year when ‘severely absent’ children and young people (with 50% attendance) effectively have their final school day and are absent for the rest of the academic year.

School Attendance Gap Day is a new Awareness Day led by SHS. It aims to promote positive collaboration between parents, schools and services to build an inclusive education system and encourage a laser-like focus on tackling the school attendance crisis.

WHAT WE SAID WE’D DO AND WHAT WE DID IN 2024/2025

How we made it happen

South Yorkshire Child Poverty Summit

We were part of a much needed conversation around child poverty in collaboration with Save the Children UK as part of their South Yorkshire Child Poverty Summit in Sheffield. Our Family Support Manager and Economic Wellbeing Lead Sarah Loy shared a platform with journalist Terri White in the Education & Aspiration zone, hosted by Save the Children UK's Margaret Kilner. Sarah shared our expertise about supportled, family-centred approaches to reducing school absence through inclusive practice - so that no child gets left behind.

Financial roundtable in Bradford

Our CEO Jaine Stannard joined a roundtable event to discuss financial inclusion and improving access to fair credit, hosted by Vanquis at their HQ in Bradford.

There were invaluable contributions from across the financial services ecosystem. Key takeaways included: Financial education & numeracy in schools to ensure all students develop essential financial management skills to prepare them for the future, access to benefits, increasing awareness and simplifying processes could help people claim their entitlements, early identification of financial distress and proactive intervention can prevent unmanageable debt.

We provided oral evidence to the education select committee

SHS was invited to give evidence and explain how practitioners have been delivering family-centered support to address absence. We continue to call for a whole family support worker for every school as central to addressing the root causes of absence and delivering on the Government's ambitions to improve school attendance and remove barriers to opportunity.

OUR IMPACT ON ATTENDANCE

5,745 days of gained learning in 2024/2025

SHS provided intensive support with attendance to 1,077 children and young people in 2024/2025. 6 in 10 children (58%) improved their attendance by an average of 13%, equivalent to an extra 26 days in school.

Our impact for ‘persistently absent’ children

We supported 750 ‘persistently absent’ children in 2024/2025. 59% of these children improved their attendance by an average of 14% , which is equivalent to an extra 29 days (or nearly 6 weeks) in school. An additional half term of learning at school.

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750 59% 14% 29
children improved their average extra days in
supported attendance attendance school
improvement
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Our impact for ‘severely absent’ children

We supported 161 ‘severely absent’ children in 2024/2025. 65% of these children improved their attendance by an average of 29% , which is equivalent to an extra 58 days (or nearly 12 weeks) in school. An additional term of learning at school .

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161 65% 29% 58
children improved their average extra days in
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Supporting the whole family

This year we directly supported 4,707 individual family members (children and parents/carers). This support included intensive, early response and group work support. A further 7,750 family members benefited from the wider reach of this support, making our total reach 12,457 .

The right support at the right time

In 2024/2025, only 14.7% of children required both intensive and early response support. Breaking this down, only 8.7% of children required escalation from early support to intensive support, and the remaining 4.8% were de-escalated from intensive to early support. Our practitioners step in at the right time to prevent issues from escalating, providing support that is tailored to each family’s specific needs.

OUR WORK WITH SCHOOLS

We provided 7,600 days of additional support in schools, giving teachers more time to focus on teaching and learning.

SHS works as a bridge between home and school, helping to build strong, trusting relationships between families and school. By working alongside parents, carers and schools, SHS creates a shared understanding of the challenges children and young people face, particularly around attendance, wellbeing and engagement in learning.

Primary Schools

We supported 327 primary school children in 2024/2025. Over half (53%) of the primary school children supported had a baseline attendance rate of over 85% at the start of support, demonstrating an emphasis on early intervention work with this cohort. For the 47% of children who had an attendance rate below 85%, they achieved an average attendance improvement of 8% , equivalent to 16 extra days in school.

Secondary Schools

We supported 474 secondary school children in 2024/2025. 89% of the secondary school pupils supported were ‘persistently absent’ at the start of support, with 1 in 5 (20%) of pupils being ‘severely absent’. Secondary school pupils who were ‘severely absent’ achieved an average attendance improvement of 19% , equivalent to 38 extra days in school.

Alternative Provision

We supported 93 children in alternative provision in 2024/2025. 91% of children in Alternative Provision were ‘persistently absent’ at the start of support, with 58% being ‘severely absent’. Children who were ‘persistently absent’ at the start of support, achieved an average attendance improvement of 7%, equivalent to 14 extra days in school. Children who were ‘severely absent’ achieved an average attendance improvement of 10% , equivalent to 20 extra days in school.

OUR FUNDERS

Raising aspirations

Our corporate partners hosted some fantastic Aspiration Days at their offices this year, giving children a taste of the working world and the future career opportunities available to them. This included a trip to our partner LSEG’s offices where children learnt from and connected with inspiring professionals in a new environment. The energy was infectious!

Thank you CIBC

This year marked the end of a memorable partnership with CIBC. It has been an incredible three years, raising over £180,000 to support our work. No challenge has been too great, including dressing up as Santa! We thank all CIBC employees for taking part and helping make a difference to so many children’s lives.

An exciting new chapter with The Julia Rausing Trust

In 2024/2025, we were delighted to be awarded £750,000 over the next three years from The Julia Rausing Trust to launch and deliver our Practitioner Service in Birmingham and expand our reach in Manchester. This grant will allow us to widen the support available to children and families across these areas, working with the whole family to solve the underlying causes of persistent absence, and get children back into school and ready to learn.

Pears Foundation helps bridge the gap

Pears Foundation has been a vital partner to SHS donating nearly £1 million of unrestricted funding since 2012 to get children in school and ready to learn. In addition, when a funding contract in Bradford ended mid-school year, Pears Foundation provided crucial bridge funding to ensure our service could continue in two schools.

OUR PRO BONO PARTNERSHIPS

The support and generosity of our corporate partners

At SHS, our work is strengthened by the commitment and generosity of corporate partners who share our belief that every child deserves the chance to thrive at school.

Over the past year, pro bono support from these partners has provided specialist expertise that would otherwise have carried significant cost, freeing us to focus more of our resources on supporting the children and families who need us most.

We are especially grateful to Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, whose Real Estate team offered detailed, professional legal advice. Their guidance helped us navigate complex matters with confidence and clarity. This support not only saved us substantial funds but also demonstrated their genuine commitment to giving back to the communities in which they work.

We also received invaluable pro bono support from another legal partner, who provided thorough, expert advice enabling us to refresh our governing documents in line with current requirements. Their careful review and guidance has given us the confidence and reassurance that SHS has a solid and up-to-date platform upon which to build its future governance development in line with the Charity Governance Code.

This work saved SHS a considerable sum and ensured we could direct more of our time and resources to frontline support for children and families.

Alongside this, we benefited greatly from the strategic insight of our partners at Bain & Company. They provided a group of nine team members who dedicated three hours to working with our marketing and business development teams. Together, they helped us refine our messaging, strengthen how we position our services to schools, and improve how we communicate the impact of our work. Their focused, energetic session has directly shaped our approach and enhanced our ability to reach the school leaders and practitioners who rely on our support.

By sharing their expertise, our partners help us strengthen our organisation behind the scenes, expand our reach, and ensure we can remain focused on what matters most: removing barriers to education and helping children get back to school ready to learn.

SCHOOL-HOME SUPPORT SERVICE (UK) -[Year ended 31 August 2025]

OUR CULTURE

Equality, diversity and inclusion

At SHS, we are committed to creating an inclusive, equitable environment where everyone can thrive without fear of prejudice or bias. Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are central to our mission of ensuring every child has the support they need to succeed. We celebrate and value the full richness of human diversity including race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic background, nationality, sexual orientation, disability, religion, and diversity of thought.

Guided by our EDI Working Group and our EDI Lead Trustee, we work continuously to strengthen our culture and ensure our workforce and Trustee Board reflect the communities we serve. All staff complete EDI onboarding to support a shared understanding of our goals and responsibilities.

Our strategy focuses on three priorities:

Increasing representation across all levels of our organisation.
Fostering a positive, respectful environment in which every individual can succeed.
Removing barriers to engagement to make our services accessible to all.

LGBTQ+ Champions

Our LGBTQ+ Champions organised two engaging lunch-and-learn sessions this year, creating space for staff to explore important themes and celebrate inclusion. The team hosted a session about Octavia Hill, who was a housing activist and social reformer, accompanied by a “Back to School Bake - Pride Edition,” where colleagues brought in delicious homemade treats to share. A second session took place in March, marking International Women’s Day, offering an opportunity to reflect on the intersections of gender, identity and equality across our work.

Year ended 31 August 2025

SCHOOL-HOME SUPPORT SERVICE (UK)

WHAT WE WILL DO IN 2025/2026

Goal 1: Reach more children and families

Retain all existing relationships with current partner schools that have a SHS Practitioner.
Sustain and build a legacy of change in our existing geographical areas.
Further embed the new IT system and create reporting efficiencies to provide even better support for our families.

Goal 2: Support more schools to address persistent absence

Successfully deliver all three levels of the Attendance Support and Development programme to schools across England.
Provide more external supervision and support to more schools (and other settings).
Increase our membership

Goal 3: Influence policy and practice

Continue to advise Government on the delivery of its ambition to embed a support-first, family-centred approach to absence across schools and local authorities so all communities can benefit
Advocate for increased investment in whole family approaches to tackling absence and strengthening home-school relationships.
Work with opinion formers - the Education Select Committee, research organisations, think tanks and the media - to enrich national debate on school attendance and family engagement.
Support MPs in SHS communities who are willing to help us convene local partners who need support and expertise in developing support-first, family-centred approaches.

FINANCIAL SUMMARY

Year ended 31 August 2025

Total Income £2,981,554 (2023/24 - £3,362,622)

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Investments
1%
Charitable
Activities
34%
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Donations
and Grants
65%
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Total Expenditure £3,331,193 (2023/24 - £3,784,041)

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Raising funds -
support costs 3%
Cost of raising funds
15%
Charitable
activities - support Charitable activities
costs 59%
23%
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Donations and Grants: £1,939,959 (65% of total income) 2023/24 - £2,067,941 (61%)

Charitable activities: £1,967,090 (59% of total expenditure) 2023/24 - £2,415,300 (64%)

Charitable Activities: £1,025,060

(35%) 2023/24 - £1,275,975 (38%)

Investments (bank interest): £18,706 (1%) 2023/24 £16,535 (1%)

Charitable activities - support costs: £770,143 (23%) 2023/24 - £782,014 (21%)

Total cost of charitable activities £2,737,233 (82%) 2023/24 - £3,197,313 (85%)

Cost of raising funds: £480,704 (15%) 2023/24 - £486,470 (13%)

Raising funds - support costs: £113,256 (3%) 2023/24 - £100,258 (3%)

Total cost of raising funds £593,960 (17%) 2023/24 - £586,728 (16%)

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Voluntary Income

Income from donations and grants in 2024/25 decreased by 6% in comparison with the previous year with a total of £1,939K received (£2,068K in 2023/24). However, the underlying rate - when excluding two extraordinary donations in our Trusts (£75K) and Major Donor (£100K) lines in 2023/24 - increased by 2% (£1,939K compared to £1,893K) We are seeing the results of our investment in the fundraising team from 2023-2025 lead to increased levels of engagement with new and lapsed funders, high levels of activity with current partners and creation of new funding opportunities.

Voluntary income remained the primary source of income in 2024/25. As expected, voluntary income as a share of total income increased compared to the prior year as local government / DfE contracts that had boosted earned income over the last two years came to an end on 31 March 2025. Voluntary income as a percentage of total income is 65% in 2024/25 compared to 61% in 2023/24.

Trusts and foundations remain the largest income stream within voluntary income. However, we continued to see a high number of trusts and foundations reviewing their strategies, pausing giving or giving in other areas or territories, thus reducing the funding opportunities available to School-Home Support. However, income from this source increased by 18% compared to the previous year (£1,012K in 2024/25 compared to £857K in 2023/24) largely due to a very kind multi-year grant from the Julia Rausing Trust.

We continued to develop our corporate partnerships team funding stream with a continued focus on building the long term pipeline. Income of £722K was slightly lower (6%) than the previous year (2023/24 £769K) and we are continuing to find that we need to invest more time in this area than, for example, trusts and foundations, to yield similar funding value. The development and management of corporate partnerships also drives additional value in the organisation via engaging children in aspiration days, providing pro bono support and supporting our volunteering schemes. Our goal continues to increase the funding value of this income stream together with the other strategic elements of partnerships.

Income from major donors reduced by 50% from £342K in 2023/24 to £172K in 2024/25. However, this was largely due to the receipt in 2023/24 of the one extraordinary gift of £100K mentioned above, together with two one-off donations of £50K each. We are continuing to increase the underlying rate of this income line which in 2022/23 was raising less than £100K. Given that there is less of an established pipeline for this income stream compared to our other funding sources, our focus is very much on developing the long term pipeline and we will continue to develop this in 2025/26.

A continuing challenge is our ability to cover ‘core costs’, being those costs that fund our vital support teams (finance, data/IT, fundraising etc) and without which would render us unable to support children and families with our services. While our unrestricted funding fell from £1,012k in 2023/24 to £734k in 2024/25, largely due to the extraordinary and one-off gifts in 2023/24 mentioned above, we have increased income that specifically covers our core costs by 50% from £122k to £183k. This is as a result of our updated practitioner funding model overhead allocation beginning to show in earnest in the figures. We continue to prioritise unrestricted and core applications within the fundraising team who work closely with other teams in the organisation to model various scenarios and maximise core cost recovery.

Income from charitable activities

Earned income from charitable activities decreased by 20% on the previous year with a total of £1,025K received (£1,276K in 2023/24). As expected, our earned income decreased due to two major local authority / DfE contracts coming to an end during the year. The development of our new earned income streams, such as our Attendance Support Development Programme, has not progressed as quickly as we had hoped, however we expect that income from these sources will start to make a material contribution towards earned income in 2025/26 and beyond.

We have also worked with Trustees over the last couple of years to address the plateauing of income received directly from schools. We took the strategic decision to review school contributions both to attract new income to the charity and also to increase the sustainability of the service, as we know that schools that are making a more than nominal contribution to the service provision are more likely to continue with the service for longer. As a result, we have seen direct income from schools increase by over 78% over the last two years (£271K in 2022/23, £392K in 2023/24 and £483K in 2024/25). Constraints on school budgets however still continue to be a challenge to SHS’s ability to attract new business directly from schools.

Costs

Direct fundraising costs (not including support costs) decreased slightly to £481K (£486K in 2023/24, reflecting the continued investment in the Fundraising team that took place until the end of the year. These direct fundraising costs (not including support costs) represent 14% of our total expenditure (12.8% in 2023/24). The cost of charitable activity (not including support costs), which is made up mostly of salary costs, decreased by 19% from £2,415K in 2023/24 to £1,967K. This was as a direct result of the major local authority / DfE contracts coming to an end in March 2025.

Salary costs are by far the major component of our overall costs (81% of total costs in 2024/25 and 78% in 2023/24) and therefore the increase in costs resulting from the change in employers’ national insurance contributions was one of the challenges we faced during the year. However, because such a large proportion of our costs are salary costs, we were not significantly impacted by any increased costs of other goods and services during the year.

Balance Sheet

Overall reserves at £529k have decreased by 40% from £878K in 2023/24. Restricted reserves have increased by 32% from £356k to £472k. At the end of the year, our general funds stood at £66K. A fuller discussion on our reserve levels can be found below in the section on our Reserves Policy.

Challenges During the Year

Our Finance team prepares monthly management accounts, which include forecasts of future income and expenditure, together with monthly cashflow forecasts. These monthly management accounts are shared with the Senior Management Team, the Finance Committee and the Board. This monthly reporting, together with our work on creating the operational budget for 2025/26, highlighted early in the year that, mainly due to a reduction in both voluntary and earned income, as detailed above, we were unlikely to meet our target to breakeven in 2024/25, and that setting a break-even budget for 2025/26 would be a challenge.

We therefore embarked on a decisive cost mitigation strategy in order to reduce the forecast deficit for 2024/25 and enable us to set a balanced budget for 2025/26. This strategy concentrated mainly on reducing fundraising and support costs, and we were careful to ensure that we did not adversely affect the level of our direct service delivery. Our main cost savings came from a reduction in salary costs, and this regrettably resulted in a number of redundancies during the year in the Central Team. (The cost of these redundancies is included in Note 7 to the accounts). We were however, able to restructure our Central Team so that we could continue to support our direct work with children, families and schools as usual. A reduction in staff numbers within our Fundraising team means we risk losing some of the momentum generated by our previous investment in the team over the last few years, and we will therefore seek to re-establish this vital investment as soon as we can.

We took the difficult decision to restructure and disband our Policy and Engagement Team; this work is now continued and supported by others within the organisation and is led by the CEO, together with the Senior Development Manager and the Fundraising and Communications Team in support.

The important work already achieved by the Policy and Engagement Team has boosted our visibility and influence in the education sector and has provided a substantial platform upon which to base our future work in this area and to achieve our goal of influencing policy and practice.

Investment Policy

SHS had no investment activity in 2024/25 other than the receipt of bank interest.

Risk Management

The Trustees confirm that they have reviewed an assessment of the major risks to which the Charity is exposed, particularly operational and financial risks, and are satisfied that the controls and actions in place to manage and mitigate the major risks that have been identified are sufficient. The risk register is reviewed annually as a whole by the full Board. During the year, the risk register is reviewed quarterly by the Finance Committee ahead of the regular Board meetings and any recommendations for change are presented to the Board for review.

The UK economy is predicted to grow in 2026, but at a slower rate than previously expected. Continuing economic uncertainty, especially in light of global trade frictions and other geopolitical issues may impact negatively on funders and reduce the Charity’s ability to raise voluntary income. In addition, it is possible that we will see more Trusts and Foundations change their funding strategies or potentially pause their grant-giving plans. The Charity Commission, in its Charity Sector Risk Assessment 2025, reported that challenges in securing sustainable public funding were an area of concern in relation to financial resilience, with average contract values not keeping up with inflation. Continuing and increasing budgetary challenges in schools and local authorities and the consequential impact on maintaining existing contracts or achieving new business may further reduce the Charity’s ability to generate earned income.

On the expenditure side, persistent inflation above the Bank of England’s 2% target could be a continuing challenge in keeping costs within budget. However, salary costs are the most significant element, comprising 81% of the Charity’s total expenditure (78% in 2023-24). There is a risk that these costs will increase as the Trustees continue to review rates of pay in order to stay competitive amid increased overall wage growth and to reward staff adequately and fairly given increased costs of living.

In order to mitigate the risks identified, the Charity continues to review different scenarios and assess the Charity's ability to react and maximise opportunities to diversify income sources, absorb increased costs (especially salary costs), and expand the reach of its services. The role of its free reserves, as highlighted below, is key in mitigating the potential impact of the major risks identified.

Reserves Policy

The Finance Committee, on behalf of the Board of Trustees, meets quarterly and conducts an annual review of the level of unrestricted reserves by considering risks associated with the various income streams, expenditure plans and balance sheet items. This enables an estimate to be made of the level of unrestricted reserves that are sufficient:

To allow time for reorganisation in the event of a downturn in income or asset values;
To protect ongoing service provision; and
To allow the charity to meet its working capital requirements.

We reported last year that we needed to maintain free reserves of between £406K and £603K in order to ensure that the Charity was able to meet any challenges arising during 2024/25. As a result of our free reserves being within this range, we have been able to withstand the impact of an overall deficit for the year of -£350K (-421K in 2023/4), despite planning for a break-even budget.

In 2025/26, the Charity is again facing challenges to both its income and expenditure due to:

Income from Trusts and Foundations being adversely affected by pauses in giving, changes in strategy and increased competition;
Rising costs outstripping any increased funding for schools, reducing their ability to purchase services;
Continuing financial crises in local authorities, reducing opportunities for service delivery partnerships;
Continuing wage inflation leading to pressure on salary costs;
Persistent inflation within the 2-3% range, adding to the pressure on other costs;

As expected, the proportion of the charity’s earned income compared to voluntary income decreased in 2024/25 (from 39% in 2023/24 to 34% in 2024/25). We expect that this percentage will continue to reduce into next year as schools and local authorities continue to face funding challenges. We do however continue to develop and enhance our new earned income streams, such as our Attendance Support Development Programme. Staff and Trustees also work together as part of the charity’s new Strategic Growth Committee to identify and develop new ways in which we can generate income from our charitable activities.

With these issues in mind, the Trustees reviewed a number of different scenarios which reflected the major risks identified in the risk register, including the impact of the state of the economy on both voluntary and earned income and inflationary pressures on salary and other costs.

They determined that the Charity should ensure it maintains free reserves between £300K and £743K (2023/24 - between £406K and £603K). Maintaining free reserves within this range will ensure that the Charity is able to meet any challenges arising from the risks identified.

The Charity’s free reserves at 31 August 2025 were £65k (£512K 2023/24), being unrestricted reserves of £67k less fixed assets of £2k. This level of free reserves is not within the Trustees’ stated policy above. However, although this figure might initially give rise to concern, it does not, on its own, provide a true reflection of our situation at the end of the year, due to the large amount of deferred income on our balance sheet. We are showing £469K of deferred income, an increase of 75% compared to the previous year (£268K). £397K of this amount of £469K was received (as opposed to invoiced) by the end of the year and forms part of our healthy cash balance of £1.07m (£573K at the end of August 2024). Most significantly, £284K of the deferred income balance is unrestricted income relating to 2025/26 and was released to the Income and Expenditure account on 1st September 2025. In effect, although this amount was not in general funds at the end of 2024/25, the Trustees have the reassurance that, going forward into 2025/26, the charity’s unrestricted reserves are much more favourable than they appear as at 31st August 2025. Indeed, at 31st December 2025, cash balances totalled £1.35m and free reserves stood at £325K.

Structure, Governance and Management

Constitution

School-Home Support is a charitable company limited by guarantee and not having a share capital, incorporated on 9 May 2000 and registered as a charity on 24 January 2001. The Charity is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association as amended by special resolutions, with the latest amendment dated 29 January 2025. The governing body of the Charity is the Board of Trustees.

Trustees, who are also the Directors for the purpose of charity law, who served during the year and up to the date of this report are listed on page 56 of this report. The maximum number of Trustees allowed by the Articles of Association is fifteen and at the year-end there were eleven serving Trustees. During the course of the year, four Trustees resigned and three new Trustees were appointed. Annually, Trustees review the Board to identify any skills gaps and look externally for appropriate people in order to attract members with the relevant experience and skills needed to improve the Board’s effectiveness.

The Trustees meet four times each year with the Management Team. Meetings are extended or additional shorter meetings are carried out for specific focus such as Business Plan development and review.

Each Trustee is asked to complete a declaration of interest form which is reviewed and, if appropriate, amended, annually as well as it being a standing agenda item at Trustee meetings to ask Trustees to declare new interests.

As part of our 2022-27 strategy, we commit to continuous improvement in governance and risk management in line with the recommended practice and principles enshrined in the Charity Governance Code.

Committee Structure

As detailed above on page 27, we reluctantly disbanded our Policy and Engagement Team during the year as part of a cost-saving restructure. As a corollary of this, there is no longer a separate Policy and Engagement subcommittee and the work of this committee will be continued and supported by the Fundraising and Marketing Committee (formerly the Fundraising Committee).

At the start of 2025/26, the Trustees created a new Strategic Growth subcommittee, whose members include both Trustees and employee representatives, such as the Senior Development Manager and some members of the Senior Leadership Team. The remit of this new committee is to provide oversight, support and guidance to the staff team to develop meaningful growth and identify new areas of income that adhere to the SHS vision. This committee held its first meeting on 9th October 2025.

The charity has four other formal subcommittees with agreed Terms of Reference and appointed Chairs which report to the Board of Trustees. These four subcommittees are as follows:

Finance committee - meets four times a year to provide guidance on financial strategy, oversee all financial operations and risk management, to record policies and procedures and to report and make any recommendations to the Board.
Impact committee - meets formally a minimum of three times a year to provide oversight, support and guidance to the staff team in the measurement, evaluation, and communication of impact of its work with children, parents/carers, families, schools and wider society.

Fundraising and Marketing committee (formerly Fundraising committee)meets twice a year with ad hoc additional meetings for specific projects / issues as needed. Its focus is to review and advise on all elements of the fundraising and communications /marketing strategies and related activities and make any recommendations to the Board.
Remuneration committee - This committee meets twice a year with ad hoc additional meetings for specific projects or issues as needed. The Committee approves the remuneration policy for all employees and determines annually the pay and benefits packages of senior management.

Management

The Trustees are responsible for setting strategies and policies for the Charity and for ensuring that these are implemented. The Finance Committee ensures that all assets of the Charity are properly safeguarded, managed and used, and that funds are spent effectively and efficiently in the course of its activities. In addition, the Finance Committee reviews the effectiveness of internal financial controls and risk management systems. The Finance Committee meets prior to each Trustee Board meeting.

The day-to-day running of the Charity is delegated to the CEO and her staff. The CEO has responsibility for planning, developing and implementing policies and strategies within clear guidelines and protocols set by the Trustees.

The Head of Family Intervention, Head of Fundraising, Head of Finance and Compliance, Head of People and Culture, Head of Policy and Engagement and the Head of Impact and Digital Delivery all supported the CEO during the year. It was with regret that the roles of Head of Impact and Digital Delivery and Head of Policy and Engagement were made redundant at the end of the year as part of the restructure detailed in the section ‘Challenges During the Year’ above.

Trustee Induction and Training

Trustees are able to access a range of training to support them in their role and their understanding of the organisation. Training available includes such areas as governance, finance, safeguarding and inclusion. New Trustees access a comprehensive induction programme and are allocated a “buddy” trustee to support them in their new role. They are also linked with a relevant senior member of staff to support their understanding of the work of the organisation whilst also allowing them to support that area of work with their expertise and skills. Trustees access a programme of shadowing front line staff to deepen their knowledge of the complex issues the families the organisation works with face.

SCHOOL-HOME SUPPORT SERVICE (UK)

Disclosure of Information to Auditors

The Trustees who held office at the date of approval of this report confirm that, so far as they are individually aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the Charity’s auditors are unaware; and each Trustee has taken all steps that they ought to have taken as a Trustee to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the Charity’s auditors are aware of that information.

Public Benefit

In shaping our objectives for the year and planning our activities, the Trustees have considered the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit, including the guidance ‘public benefit: running a charity (PB2)’. The Trustees are confident that through its objects, School-Home Support meets those public benefit requirements. The principles of public benefit – that it is identifiable, that it must be to the public and that any private benefit must be incidental – are demonstrated by the outcomes of our work as set out in this report.

Pay Policy

The Charity has a robust remuneration policy in place which supports a structured pay-scale matrix to reflect the broad range of skill sets throughout the organisation. Pay scales are reviewed to ensure they are aligned with industry standards based upon the specific areas in which the Charity works.

They are also regularly reviewed in light of the increasing cost of living. SchoolHome Support seeks to recruit high performing individuals and sets remuneration levels taking into account a range of factors including:

An individual’s skills, performance and experience;
The size and responsibility of the role; and
External benchmark data for the charity and cultural sector.

Fundraising, Data Protection and GDPR

The charity’s main fundraising activity involves communications with corporates, trusts and foundations via telephone, email, fundraising events and sponsored events in line with the Fundraising Code of Practice set by the Fundraising Regulator. We continue to rely on voluntary income as an organisation and for the last three years the majority of our expenditure has been funded by voluntary donations.

Where members of the public have donated or joined our Membership programme, we adhere to tight guidelines informed by the DPA and GDPR legislation. Our privacy policy can be found on our website

(https://www.schoolhomesupport.org.uk/privacy policy)

Our School-Home Support Supporter Promise is available in full on our website. Key principles for fundraising activities with the public include the following:

We adhere to the Fundraising Code of Practice;
All our activities are open, fair, honest and legal;
If we are asked to change how we communicate with individuals, or stop, we will do so;

We do not sell contact details to anyone.

The charity is registered with the Fundraising Regulator and adheres to the standards of the Fundraising Code of Practice. No complaints about fundraising activity were received in the year.

Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities

The Trustees (who are also directors of School-Home Support Service (UK) for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). Company law requires Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of the affairs of the charitable company and of the 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: select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently; comply with applicable accounting standards, including FRS 102, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; state whether a Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) applies and has been followed, subject to any material departures which are explained in the financial statements; make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent; and prepare the financial statements on a going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in business

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the 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.

In presenting this report, the Trustees have complied with the Statement of Recommended Practice, Accounting and Reporting by Charities, the Companies Act 2006 and applicable United Kingdom Accounting and Financial Reporting Standards, including FRS102 and have given due regard to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit including the guidance ‘public benefit: running a charity (PB2)’.

The financial statements that follow later in this report comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet, and the Statement of Cash Flows and related notes.

The Trustees’ Report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions relating to companies subject to the small companies regime within Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006.

The Trustees’ Report was approved by the Trustees on 29th January 2026, and is signed as authorised on its behalf by:

Nikolai Petrou, Chair of Finance Committee Date

29th January 2026

Charles Gannon, Chair of the Board of Trustees Date

29th January 2026

Independent Auditor’s Report to the Members of School-Home Support Service (UK) For the year ended 31 August 2025

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of School-Home Support Services (UK) for the year ended 31 August 2025 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet, the Statement of Cash Flows and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company’s affairs as at 31 August 2025 and of the charitable company’s net movement in funds, including the income and expenditure, for the year then ended;
have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and
have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis for opinion

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

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate. Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the 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.

Year ended 31 August 2025

SCHOOL-HOME SUPPORT SERVICE (UK)

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

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the Trustees’ Report and the Chair’s 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.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, 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 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 or a material misstatement of the other information. 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.

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Trustees’ Report (which incorporates the directors’ report).

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion: adequate accounting records have not been kept by the charitable company; or

the charitable company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or
the Trustees’ were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small company’s regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in preparing a strategic report.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

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

the information given in the Trustees’ Report (which includes the directors’ report prepared for the purposes of company law) for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
the directors’ report included within the Trustees’ Report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

adequate accounting records have not been kept by the charitable company;
or
the charitable company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or
the Trustees’ were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small company’s regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in preparing a strategic report.

Responsibilities of trustees for the financial statements

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement [set out on page 34], the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

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

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

Based on our understanding of the charitable company and the environment in which it operates, we identified that the principal risks of non-compliance with laws and regulations related to charity and company law applicable in England and Wales, fundraising regulations, data protection laws and safeguarding regulations, and we considered the extent to which non-compliance might have a material effect on the financial statements. We also considered those laws and regulations that have a direct impact on the preparation of the financial statements such as the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Act 2011, employment law and payroll tax.

We evaluated management’s incentives and opportunities for fraudulent manipulation of the financial statements (including the risk of override of controls) and determined that the principal risks were related to the completeness and cut-off of donations and grant income and posting of inappropriate journal entries. Audit procedures performed by the engagement team included:

Inspecting correspondence with regulators and tax authorities;
Discussions with management including consideration of known or suspected instances of non-compliance with laws and regulation and fraud; Evaluating management’s controls designed to prevent and detect irregularities;
Identifying and testing journals, in particular journal entries posted by unusual users or with unusual descriptions; and
Challenging assumptions and judgements made by management in their critical accounting estimates.

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

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

Use of our report

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

Steven Harper (Senior Statutory Auditor) For and on behalf of HaysMac LLP, Statutory Auditor [date] 3 February 2026

10 Queen Street Place London EC4R 1AG

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

(Including Income & Expenditure Account) for the year ended 31 August 2025

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

All transactions during the year are derived from continuing activities. The notes on pages 44 - 55 form part of these financial statements. Comparative figures for the prior financial year are shown in note 18.

BALANCE SHEET - As at 31 August 2025

Company Number: 03991440

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the special provisions relating to companies subject to the small companies regime within Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006.

The financial statements on pages 41 - 42 were approved and authorised for issue by the Trustees on 29 January 2025 and signed on their behalf by:

Nikolai Petrou, Chair of Finance Committee Date

29th January 2026

Charles Gannon, Chair of the Board of Trustees Date

29th January 2026

STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS

For the year ended 31 August 2025

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

1. Accounting policies

Accounting convention

The accounts (financial statements) have been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (Second edition effective 1 January 2019) and the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Charities Act 2011. Assets and liabilities are recognised at historical cost or transaction value. The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest pound.

Public benefit entity

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

Going concern

The Trustees consider there are no material uncertainties about the charity's ability to continue as a going concern. The review of the charity’s financial position, reserves levels and future plans gives Trustees confidence that the company remains a going concern for the foreseeable future.

The Charity faces various risks including pressures on funders, schools and local authorities affecting its ability to generate income, together with economic uncertainty and persistent wage and cost inflation. However, at the date of filing these financial statements, the level of current and expected donations and controls in place, together with strategic plans to develop services and increase reach, all seen in the context of favourable cash balances mean that, even under a reasonable worst case scenario, the Trustees have grounds to believe that the charity is able to continue as a going concern for at least 12 months from the date of approval of these financial statements.

Income

Income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and that the amount can be measured reliably.

Income received for general purposes of the charity is credited to unrestricted funds. Income subject to specific wishes of the donor is credited to relevant restricted funds. Income received in advance of the provision of a specified service is deferred until the criteria for income recognition are met.

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.

Donations of gifts, services and facilities

Donations in kind are recognised on receipt and 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. Gifts in kind that are not material are not recognised.

Fund accounting

Restricted funds are to be used for specific purposes as laid down by the donor. Expenditure which meets these criteria is charged to the fund. Unrestricted funds are donations and other incoming resources received or generated for the charitable purposes. Designated funds are to be used for specific purposes as agreed by the Board of Trustees. Expenditure which meets this criteria is charged to the fund.

Expenditure

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

Costs of raising funds relate to the costs incurred by the charity in inducing third parties to make voluntary contributions to it, as well as the cost of any activities with a fundraising purpose;
Expenditure on charitable activities includes the costs of delivering support to schools, undertaken to further the purposes of the charity and their associated support costs. It also includes expenditure relating to our strategic aim of influencing policy and practice, advocating for change for the most vulnerable children and families. Where costs cannot be directly attributed (support costs), they have been allocated to the activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources;
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.

Operating leases

Where assets are financed by leasing agreements that give rights approximating to ownership ("finance leases"), the assets are treated as if they had been purchased outright. The amount capitalised is the present value of the minimum lease payments during the lease term. The corresponding leasing commitments are shown as obligations to the lessor.

Tangible fixed assets

Items of equipment are capitalised where the purchase price exceeds £1,500. 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.

Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write down the cost of each asset to its estimated residual value over its expected useful life. The depreciation rates in use are as follows:

Leasehold improvements Straight line over length of lease Fixtures & fittings Straight line over 5 years IT Straight line over 4 years

Intangible fixed assets

Amortisation is provided at rates calculated to write off the cost of each asset, less any residual value, over its expected useful life.

The amortisation rates in use are as follows:

Website costs Straight line over 4 years Software costs Straight line over 4 years

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.

Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less.

Creditors and provisions

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

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

Pensions

The charity operates one defined contribution pension scheme for employees. The pension charge represents contributions payable by the charity for the period, and the charity's liability is limited to the amounts of the contributions. The scheme is as follows:

A scheme administered by AEGON Scottish Equitable, the funds of which are separate from those of the charity.

Critical accounting estimates and areas of judgement

In preparing financial statements it is necessary to make certain judgements, estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts recognised in the financial statements.

In the view of the trustees in applying the accounting policies adopted, no judgements were required that have a significant effect on the amounts recognised in the financial statements nor do any estimates or assumptions made carry a significant risk of material adjustment in the next financial year.

2. Company Structure

The charity is a company limited by guarantee and not having a share capital. The members of the company are the Trustees named on page 56. At 31 August 2025 the number of members was 11 (2024: 12).

3. Income from Donations and Grants

4. Income from Charitable Activities

5. Total Expenditure

Prior year comparative figures are shown in Note 18. The major components of other support costs are IT-related costs (£51,528) and rent, including service charge (£81,662). Total support costs are allocated between the cost of raising funds and the cost of charitable activities on the basis of staff numbers.

6. Net income (expenditure) for the year

7. Staff costs and Numbers

The number of staff included in Redundancy and termination costs was 19 (2024: 8).

The following number of employees received employee benefits (excluding employer pension costs and employer national insurance) during the year between:

The total employee benefits (including employer pension costs and employer national insurance contributions) of the key management personnel were £546,998 (2024: £479,222). Included within this figure is £39,304 (2024: £60,594) relating to costs paid whilst an individual was being paid via an agency.

Key Management Personnel include Trustees, the Chief Executive, and the six Heads of Department in post during all or part of the year - Head of Family Intervention, Head of Fundraising, Head of Impact and Digital Delivery, Head of Finance and Compliance, Head of Policy and Engagement and Head of People and Culture.

The charity trustees were not paid nor did they receive any other benefits from employment with the charity in the year (2024: £nil). No charity trustee received payment for professional or other services supplied to the charity (2024: £nil).

Trustees' expenses represent the payment or reimbursement of travel and subsistence costs totalling £nil (2024: £nil).

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

8. Related party transactions

There are no related party transactions to disclose for 2025 (2024: None).

9. Taxation

The charity is exempt from corporation tax as all its income is charitable and is applied for charitable purposes.

The charity is not registered for VAT and therefore irrecoverable VAT is included with the cost of the items to which it relates.

10. Tangible Fixed Assets

All of the above assets are used for charitable purposes.

11. Intangible Fixed Assets

All of the above assets are used for charitable purposes.

12. Debtors

13. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

14. Deferred Income

Deferred income includes both school fee income which covers future periods and voluntary income relating to future periods.

15. Analysis of Net Assets Between Funds

Prior year comparative figures are shown in note 18.

16. Movement in Funds

Purposes of restricted funds:

Core costs - Restricted to core day to day running costs excluding items such as capital purchases.
IT - For expenditure on hardware and software including website.
Family Intervention- To cover practitioner roles within schools or regionally based. Includes a grant of £250,000 from The Julia Rausing Trust and a grant of £20,000 from The Eveson Trust.
Welfare - For expenditure on welfare fund items including IT / data provision to families.

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:

18. Comparatives

Statement of Financial Activities (including Income & Expenditure Account) for the year ended 31 August 2024

18. Comparatives (continued)

Total expenditure

Analysis of Net Assets Between Funds

SCHOOL-HOME SUPPORT SERVICE (UK) Year ended 31 August 2025

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

Registered Name

School-Home Support Service (UK)

Registered & Operating O ce

Solar House - 3rd Floor 1-9 Romford Road London E15 4LJ

Company Number

03991440

Charity Number

1084696

Trustees

Charles Gannon (Chair) Chris Yiannakou (D eputy Chair - appointed 15/07/25) Carly Wickham (Deputy Chair - resigned 15/07/2025) Laura Bruce-Connolly Emma Fay David Dickson Joseph Howes Matthew Koster-Marcon

Michelle Loughrey (resigned 29/01/25) Dan O’Brien

Tatiana Panzeri (appointed 15/07/25) Alex Parker (appointed 29/01/2025) Nikolai Petrou Hazel Pitchers (appointed 21/10/2025) Yun Hui Teoh (resigned 29/01/2025) Alice Wilcock (resigned 29/01/2025) Faye Stevenson (appointed 08/01/2026)

Finance Committee

Nikolai Petrou (Chair) Dan O’Brien Emma Fay Chris Yiannakou (from 15/07/25)

Fundraising and Marketing Committee

Joseph Howes (Chair) David Dickson Matthew Koster-Marcon Dan O’Brien

Impact Committee

David Dickson (Chair from 15/01/25) Michelle Loughrey (Chair) (to 15/01/25) Laura Bruce-Connolly Emma Fay Matthew Koster-Marcon Alex Parker (from 29/01/2025) Nikolai Petrou Carly Wickham (to 15/07/2025) Alice Wilcock (to 29/01/2025)

Remuneration Committee

Dan O’Brien (Chair) Joseph Howes (from 12/06/2025) Michelle Loughrey (to 29/01/2025 ) Emma Fay Nikolai Petrou

Strategic Growth Committee

(from 09/10/2025)

Charles Gannon (Chair) Laura Bruce-Connolly Tatiana Panzeri Chris Yiannakou

Chief Executive Key Management Personnel Jaine Stannard (retired 31st Maggie Mitchell - Head of Family December 2025) Intervention Alec Raven - Head of Fundraising and Communications AJ Finn - Head of Finance and Compliance Catrin Doe - Head of Impact and Digital Delivery (until 31/08/25) Rachael Kenningham - Head of Policy and Engagement (until 25/07/25) June Bridgeman - Head of People & Culture (appointed 02/12/24) Bankers Aldermore Bank PLC Barclays Bank PLC Dockland Branch Apex Plaza Forbury Road 1 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf Reading RG1 1AX London E14 5RB

CAF Charity Deposit Platform (Flagstone Group Ltd) Clareville House 2-27 Oxendon Street London SW1Y 4EL

Auditors

HaysMac LLP Chartered Accountants & Registered Auditors 10 Queen Street Place London EC4R 1AG

Contact

Website

Telephone: 020 7426 5000 www.schoolhomesupport.org.uk Email: enquiries@shs.org.uk

School-Home Support Service (UK)

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schoolhomesupport.org.uk

SCHOOL-HOME SUPPORT SERVICE (UK) Registered charity number: 1084696

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT SCHOOL-HOME SUPPORT

Our vision and mission

Theory of change

MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAIR

MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO

OUR STRATEGY

Goal 1: Reach more children and families

OUR STRATEGY

Goal 2: Support more schools to address persistent absence

- Attendance Support and Development Programme We further developed

Legend

OUR STRATEGY

Goal 3: Influence policy and practice

Campaign for support-first, family centric approach to tackling absence -

Evidence School-Home Support’s credentials as a thought leader on

Have strong strategic relationships with key stakeholders including the

WHAT WE SAID WE’D DO AND WHAT WE DID IN 2024/2025

Goal 1: Reach more children and families

What we said we would do

What we did

How we made it happen

A week of work experience after an aspiration session

WHAT WE SAID WE’D DO AND WHAT WE DID IN 2024/2025

How we made it happen

Berna and Adem’s Story

How we made it happen

Gary’s story

WHAT WE SAID WE’D DO AND WHAT WE DID IN 2024/2025

Goal 2: Support more schools to address persistent absence

What we said we would do

What we did

How we made it happen

Mile in my shoes exhibition

Mock interviews for year 10 pupils

WHAT WE SAID WE’D DO AND WHAT WE DID IN 2024/2025

How we made it happen

We provided bespoke training to 32 new schools

Additional support for schools

Attendance Support and Development Programme (ASDP)

94%

77%

WHAT WE SAID WE’D DO AND WHAT WE DID IN 2024/2025

Goal 3: Influence policy and practice

What we said we would do

What we did

How we made it happen

We launched our ‘School Attendance Gap Day’ campaign

WHAT WE SAID WE’D DO AND WHAT WE DID IN 2024/2025

How we made it happen

South Yorkshire Child Poverty Summit

Financial roundtable in Bradford

We provided oral evidence to the education select committee

OUR IMPACT ON ATTENDANCE

5,745 days of gained learning in 2024/2025

Our impact for ‘persistently absent’ children

Our impact for ‘severely absent’ children

Supporting the whole family

The right support at the right time

OUR WORK WITH SCHOOLS

Primary Schools

Secondary Schools

Alternative Provision

OUR FUNDERS

Raising aspirations

Thank you CIBC

An exciting new chapter with The Julia Rausing Trust

Pears Foundation helps bridge the gap

OUR PRO BONO PARTNERSHIPS

The support and generosity of our corporate partners

OUR CULTURE

Equality, diversity and inclusion

LGBTQ+ Champions

WHAT WE WILL DO IN 2025/2026

Goal 1: Reach more children and families

Goal 2: Support more schools to address persistent absence

Goal 3: Influence policy and practice

FINANCIAL SUMMARY

Year ended 31 August 2025