2025-03-31-accounts

Period start date Period end date ~~a|~~ 01 April 2024 31 March 2025 From To

Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Section A Reference and administration details ~~a~~

Charity name Family Matters York

Other names charity is known by

Registered charity number (if any) ~~Po~~ 1088274 Charity's principal address St Chad’s Church, Campleshon Road, York Postcode YO23 1EY

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

~~ee~~	~~es~~
Trustee name ~~ee~~	Office (if any) ~~es~~ ~~ee~~	Dates acted if not for whole year	Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (ifany)
Mrs Jill Ross ~~ee ~~ ~~ee~~	Co-Chair ~~es~~ ~~ee~~ ~~ee~~ ~~e~~	~~ee~~
Mrs Joanna Bloss ~~e~~	Co-Chair ~~ee~~ ~~e~~~~e~~ ~~e~~ ~~ee~~	~~e~~
Mr Luke Hale ~~ee~~	~~e~~ ~~ee~~ ~~ee~~ ~~e~~	~~ee~~ ~~ee~~
Dr Linsay Cunningham ~~e~~	~~ee~~ ~~e~~~~e~~ ~~e~~ ~~ee~~	~~e~~ ~~ee~~
Mrs Ruth Dunlop ~~ee~~	~~e~~ ~~ee~~ ~~ee~~ ~~e~~	July 2024 onwards ~~ee~~ ~~ee~~
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Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of adviser	Name Address	Name Address
Accountant	Peter Taylor	36 Alwyne Grove, York YO30 5RT
Name of chief executive	or names of senior staff members (Optional information)
Mrs Kath Weston

Mrs Kath Weston

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Trust Deed Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) Trust How the charity is constituted (eg. trust, association, company) Appointment by trustees meeting in accordance with Declaration of Trust Trustee selection methods (eg. appointed by, elected by)

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

• You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:  policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;

• the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;

• relationship with any related parties;

• trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.

Section C Objectives and activities

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Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)

The objectives of the organisation are the advancement of public education in matters concerning marriage, parenting, family life and relationships, with a view to strengthening and enriching family life. The charity continues to work actively towards its objectives.

In setting the objectives and planning the activities for the year, the trustees have given careful consideration to the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit at the trustees’ meetings. The following activities for the public benefit in York and the surrounding area have been undertaken this year:  Eight different parenting course topics exploring: parenting in the primary years; guiding children through the teenage years; parenting children with additional needs (including a separate course specifically focused on children with autistic spectrum conditions); handling anger in the family; supporting child emotional wellbeing; being a dad; and managing children’s digital device use. All of these courses have taught parents how to reflect on their practice and connection with their children; to recognise problem areas; to use tools and strategies to improve communication, connection or the handling of difficult situations; and to enrich family life.  Our mentoring service (called Reconnect) supporting couple relationships, through which client couples have met with a support couple over five or six sessions. Couples have learned from the experience of their mentors and been shown, through role play and examples, how they can strengthen their relationship. Topics discussed included love languages and the importance of showing affection; how to recognise the causes of conflict and ways to resolve conflict more effectively; and strategies for improving communication.  Five events aimed at couples in committed relationships, which provided information and prompted private discussion between two partners on the following topics: commitment, connection, collaboration and cherishing each other.

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

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You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

• policy on grantmaking;

• policy programme related investment;

• contribution made by volunteers.

Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

This year has been a year of stability, exploration and growth. Our staff team has remained unchanged and our board enhanced by the appointment of a fifth trustee, Ruth Dunlop.

In total this year we have served 236 individuals. This has been achieved through the following:

• 16 parenting courses (3 of which were delivered online), covering 8 different topic areas, which directly benefitted 179 parents. We estimate that for every parent who attends a further 3 family members were impacted, making a total of approximately 540 indirect beneficiaries.

• Six couples embarking on our Reconnect mentoring service.

• Five Time Out for Couples events attended by a total of 45 individuals.

We continued to work hard to raise our profile and to meet local needs for support. To understand needs better we surveyed service users and supporters and connected with many other service providers and practitioners. We contacted every church in York to raise awareness of our provision and encourage signposting. To enhance our promotional campaign, we made a 2-minute video explaining what we do, the impact we make, and how people can contact and support us.

In response to our learning about unmet needs, we expanded the number of courses offered to parents and carers from seven to nine, with our new courses focusing on children’s use of digital devices and support for parents of children with autistic spectrum conditions. Our offer to couples remained unchanged, with our mentoring programme ‘Reconnect’ and our ‘Time Out for Couples’ one-off events.

When our three-year funding from the National Lottery Community Fund ended in January 2025, we took the opportunity to take stock and

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Section D Achievements and performance

• appreciate the impact our services have made over the three-year funding period. Our evaluation, based on the feedback of 14 couples who completed Reconnect and 166 parents who attended courses (between January 2022 and January 2025) and completed surveys and/or in-depth interviews, showed that we have made an impact in the following areas:  improving and strengthening relationships;  increasing skills around effective communication, resolving conflict and recognising negative patterns of behaviour;

• improving confidence;

• reducing family breakdown and building resilience;  reducing a sense of isolation;

• improving emotional wellbeing;

• empowering parents of children with additional needs.

Some of the headline statistics from the evaluation were:

• 74% of parents surveyed (across all our courses) reported a stronger relationship with their child by the end of the course;

• 89% of parents felt that attending a FMY course had helped boost their confidence as a parent;

• 100% of people who attended Reconnect couples mentoring identified an improvement in at least one aspect of their relationship by the end of the programme.

Some of the participants’ own words about the difference made to their relationships and family life are presented below:

‘[The most useful thing about the Primary Years course was]...having a safe space to share with other parents and learn from them, and that I'm not alone in the challenges I'm facing and in my mum guilt. That's been so encouraging and has made me feel much more positive.’ (Parent)

‘[We are] more positive and understanding of [our] child with additional needs. [We have] increased confidence in pursuing their rights in education. More focus on boosting self-esteem.’ (Parent)

‘[The most useful thing about the Handling Anger course was] understanding that the focus should be on the child's emotions/feelings rather than always on their behaviour. Helping the child be happy, with high self-esteem and…understanding…their emotions will bring better results than punishing the behaviour and suppressing those emotions.’ (Parent)

‘We have better language to vocalise feelings/responses in/after conflict.’ (Couple)

‘We have started listening to each other better. Personally, I've started feeling more excited about time with my partner and hopeful that we're working 'on the same page' and together in the same direction.’ (Couple)

‘We have become more open and honest and listening to each other. The relationship has improved.’ (Couple)

In 2024-25, we sought to work more cohesively as one team, bringing together our two streams of work – with parents and with couples. This has involved promoting all our services at all our courses and events and volunteers or staff members attending each others’ events or courses to

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Section D Achievements and performance help ‘break the ice’ for people who might be interested in our other provision. Consequently, we have seen some crossover in take-up of both couple and parent support. Furthermore, in the Autumn of 2024, we delivered our Handling Anger in the Family course for parents with an extra session aimed at managing conflict in wider family relationships. This extra content was developed in response to needs expressed by a local headteacher about families struggling with multiple stressors and their detrimental impacts on relationships between parents and children, between partners, and with wider family members too. We feel that working together has helped to streamline our efforts, provide more comprehensive support to families, and to reach a wider audience. We continued to be well supported by our dedicated team of volunteers who work directly with parents/carers or couples and without whom we could not provide support to so many families. Their skills and time have been significant in supporting people to make positive changes. There was an overwhelming response to our recruitment drive for new Parenting Facilitators in the Autumn of 2024 and six new recruits undertook initial co-facilitator training in March 2025. We have also benefitted enormously from volunteers who have supported us administratively or with IT skills.

Section E Financial review	Section E Financial review
Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves Details of any funds materially in deficit Further financial review details Youmay chooseto include additional information, where relevant about:  the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);  how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;  investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.
	It is the current policy of the charity to maintain unrestricted funds at a level which equates to at least three months’ unrestricted expenditure. This provides sufficient funds to cover management and administration and support costs. Unrestricted funds were maintained at least to this level throughout the year.
	(Optional information)
	From April 2024-March 2025 our principal sources of funds were:  Grants awarded and spent this year: from The National Lottery Community Fund, The Albert Hunt Trust, the Feoffees of St Michael’s Spurriergate, York Foodbank, the Whitwham Family Charitable Foundation, Two Ridings Small Grants, Hillards Charitable Trust, The Anchor Foundation, York Community Fund and Yorkshire Housing.  Gifts from regular donors.  Gifts from donor churches.  Donations from service users.  Fundraising through Easyfundraising (online shopping).

Section F Other optional information

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Section G Declaration ~~ee~~

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s) Full name(s) Joanna M Bloss Jill R Ross ~~ee~~ Position (eg Secretary, Chair, Co Chair Co chair etc) ~~ee~~ Date 12/11/2025 ~~|~~

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Family Matters York	Family Matters York			No 1088274	No 1088274
Receipts andpayments accounts							CC16a
For the period from ~~ee~~	4/1/2024 ~~ee ~~		To ~~ee~~		3/31/2025
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted funds	Restricted funds		Endowment funds		Total funds		Last year
to the nearest £	to the nearest £		to the nearest £		to the nearest £		to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
General Income 10,839	-		-		10,839		12,033
Grants 43,665	-		-		43,665		23,000
-	-		-		-		-
-	-		-		-		-
-	-		-		-		-
-	-		-		-		-
-	-		-		-		-
-	-		-		-		-

Sub total(Gross income for AR)	(Gross income for AR)		54,504		-		-		54,504		35,033
- - - - - - - - - Sub total - - - - - Total receipts 54,504 - - 54,504 35,033 A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). ~~—_————~~
A3 Payments
Staff Costs			45,703		-		-		45,703		44,080
Office Rent			1,800		-		-		1,800		2,100
ParentingFacilitators			1,811		-		-		1,811		1,435
Marketing			137		-		-		137		700
Professional fees			1,032		-		-		1,032		839
Office Costs			763		-		-		763		2,543
			-		-		-		-		-
			-		-		-		-		-
			-		-		-		-		-
**Sub total **			51,246		-		-		51,246		51,697
- - - - - - - - Sub total - - - - - Total payments 51,246 - - 51,246 51,697 A4 Asset and investment purchases,(see table) ~~—————~~
Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end **Cash funds this year end **		3,258 - - 3,258 - 16,664 - - - - - 32,480 - - 32,480 49,144 35,738 - - 35,738 32,480 ~~SSS]~~

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

				Unrestricted Restricted		Endowment
Categories		Details		funds funds		funds
				to nearest £ to nearest £		to nearest £
B1 Cash funds	Bank Accounts 35,738 - - - - - - - - 35,738 - - Total cash funds ~~——~~
		(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))	(agree balances with receipts and payments	OK OK		OK
				Unrestricted Restricted		Endowment
				funds funds		funds
		Details		to nearest £ to nearest £		to nearest £
B2 Other monetary assets	- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~~===>~~
		Details		Cost (optional) Fund to which asset belongs		Current value (optional)
B3 Investment assets	Details ~~== ===~~		~~===~~	- - - - - - - - - - Cost (optional) Fund to which asset belongs Current value (optional) ~~===~~
B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use	- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~~===5=~~
				Fund to which Amount due		When due
		Details		liability relates (optional)		(optional)
B5 Liabilities	~~= ===~~		~~===~~	- - - - - ~~===~~
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees		Signature		Print Name		Date of approval
				Jill Ross		11/12/2025
				Joanna Bloss		11/12/2025

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees/ Charity Name members of Family Matters York

On accounts for the year 31 March 2025 Charity no 1088274 ended (if any) Set out on pages 7,8 (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/03/2025 .

• Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent examiner's statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention (other than that disclosed below *) in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

• accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or

• the accounts do not accord with the accounting records

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

• Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.

Signed: Date: 09/09/25 ~~| A [|~~ Name: Peter Taylor ~~Cs~~ Address: 36 Alwyne Grove York YO30 5RT

1

October 2018

IER

Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).

Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

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October 2018

IER