THE LIVEWIRE TRUST ANNUAL REPORT
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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Contents
- Front Cover
2. Contents
3. Partners and Friends
6. Letter from the chair
8. Annual programme 2021 - 2022
11. An Explanation of our work
13. Objectives
14. Creative Directors report
19. Organisation
15. Recruitment
20. Recruitment
21. Child Protection Policy
34. Basic Practical Measures
33. Charities Commission Accounts Submission
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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Partners and Friends
We would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank our partners, funders and friends for their support this year. It has been a difficult couple of years for a small charity such as ours and at several moments we felt we were unable to carry on. However, with the support from all the people and organisations below we have survived the storm and now stand steady, ready to continue working with Harlow’s young people and ready to respond to our towns needs. Thank you. - Sam Ashford, Creative Director
The Jack Petchey Foundation
Without the support of The Jack Petchey Foundation we would not be here today. We have taken advantage of the excellent achievement awards scheme which has been a very rewarding experience for our young people. We would like to thank Nikki Casey, in particular, for her firm support and encouragement which drove our fundraising efforts forward so we are more able to source funding and eventually be self sufficient.
Essex Community Foundation
We regularly deliver work funded through the ‘Essex Community Foundation’. Although in this Academic year we did not apply for funding we continue to value their support and look forward to working with them again this year.
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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Hare Street School continue to be a fantastic supporter of Livewire. Not only promoting our events to their students so they can take part and have been a key part in developing a Livewire project for the Royal Opera House Bridge.
The Harlow Playhouse is now our major partner, our big sister. We run workshops each week and holiday sessions all within this wonderful facility that is the heart of our community. Without The Playhouse we would not be able to deliver he programme of work to the levels we are at now, thank you
We run our Primary School sessions and our Yr7 and 8 group at Pemberley Academy. Without their donation of space, promotion to parents and all round support and enthusiasm we would not be able to run these sessions and reach 80 young people every week. A key part in developing a Livewire project for the Royal Opera House Bridge and we look forward to delivering our first Arts and Culture Theatre Challenge in the Autumn!
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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The National Lottery Community Fund / Reaching Communities Fund have been a major part of our year. The Community Fund funded a project to reach new areas of the town whilst Reaching Communities are a part of the biggest development in Livewire’s existence…..words really don’t do enough to state the impact this support will have on our organisation.
ECC ARTS AND CULTURAL FUND
Essex County Council funded our Primary Theatre Challenges this academic year allowing us to reach hundreds of young people and new perform to new audiences across our town!
Essex Music Hub
EMH have funded our Livewire Vocal Collective sessions meaning we are able to have Roisin Quinn on board as a key member of the Livewire delivery team! These sessions are already making a huge difference to the quality of our young peoples singing and the experiences they are having with us.
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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A letter from our Chair Person
This has been another fantastic year for Livewire! I still think back to when Livewire started out; with one 2-hour session at Brays Grove every Monday, and how it has grown to now running multiple sessions, for multiple ages across a range of dance, drama, music and choir weekly. This is a fantastic achievement, and we are so happy to be able to offer all young people in Harlow this great range of free workshops.
This year has continued to be packed with amazing theatre and original Livewire performances including the most recent Summer Livewire Theatre Challenge and the Playhouse Summer school ‘All alone together’. When I turned up to the Summer Livewire theatre challenge, I could not believe it when I saw over 70 young people from all over the town working together to put on a fantastic show all about war and time travel – this was the biggest number I had personally ever seen in one show! Then the Playhouse Summer School was my personal favourite, and we were so lucky to be able to combine the fantastic work we do with the light and sound production that the Playhouse could offer.
Through the hard work and dedication of Sam, Becky, Roisin and Steve, Livewire has been able to grow, yet again, beyond what we ever thought it could become, so thank you all for this. I would also like to send a huge thank you to our Board of Trustees for your support and passion that you give to Livewire behind the scenes to help keep it running. This has been another great year for Livewire, and I look forward to seeing what comes next!
Gemma Nicholson
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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Annual Programme 2023 - 2024 What do we want to deliver this year?
Primary and early secondary age Livewire Sessions every week (Playhouse/Pemberley)
LTC Livewire Sessions at The Playhouse every Thursday.
HeadSpace Sessions every week for every group.
LMC, LDC and LVC sessions for primary and secondary ages.
Development workshops during every half term holiday
Theatre Challenge Workshops during Easter and Summer Holidays.
The delivery of Theatre Challenges
A second successful bid and plan to deliver an interactive Theatre Tour of Primary Schools
A pilot open session for adults - parents and former members.
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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An explanation of our work
Theatre devising
All of livewire’s workshops are based around improvisation and the devising of new and original pieces of theatre. The Livewire ‘Theatre Challenge’, in particular, is a unique and intense programme where the young people are involved in all aspects of putting on a piece of theatre in a theatre for the public. This process allows the young people to:
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Explore different points of view around a key issue and turn them into a performance that is relevant and thought provoking.
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Be involved in a process, which would not normally be accessible to them.
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Be creative in their own way and on their own terms and for their enjoyment.
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Make new friends.
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Gain confidence in their own ability and learn to trust others.
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Improve upon or learn completely new skills.
Interactive theatre
Interactive theatre is partially controlled by the audience with the assistance of a facilitator. The audience are presented with a scenario, which ends with four key characters all having opposing objectives. The action stops at a key point of decision and the audience guide the characters through the rest of the play. This is done by separating the audience in to four groups and allocating one character to each group. The audience then have to tell their character what to do and say according to what the character wants. By being responsible for the actions of one character at a time the audience are required to understand how and why people make decisions that affect theirs and other peoples’ lives well beyond the moment of action. The process aims to;
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Free young people from the pressure to make ‘knee-jerk’ reactions,
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Demonstrate the consequences of different courses of action in a safe environment,
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• Help young people to re-assess their views by enabling them to stand in someone else’s shoes,
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Give voice to the full range of views in the group rather than predominant, ’cool’ opinions.
The interactive model provides young people with a ‘challenging’ but safe environment where they can experiment with and rehearse a wide range of behaviours in response to a multitude of social pressures. The process has to be based on the principle of ‘respect for all’ and the preservation of self-esteem. However, there is no attempt to ‘preach’ a right answer, ‘sloganise’ or even deliver a specific message, rather it allows young people to;
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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Explore different points of view around a key issue,
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Develop discriminatory skills that will allow them to come to informed decisions about their behaviour,
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Engage in a constructive dialogue about personal responsibility within a practical context.
Music Workshops
The Livewire Music Collective is open to young people who play instruments already and are ready to devise new, original music. Members are given opportunities to explore their own material, record and perform though gigs and as part of our theatre Challenge Projects.
Dance Workshops
The Livewire Dance Company is open to young people with zero experience or a lot of experience but who want to devise new, original dances. Members will take part in many performances and will work with Drama and Music closely to devise Dances that tell a story or highlight an important issue rather than commercial dancing (although this is still explored for technique purposes).
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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Livewire Objectives
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Create and sustain interactive educational theatre using young people from Essex in a tour of Harlow primary schools at least once every year.
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Bring interactive and other forms of theatre to people who may have had little or no contact with the arts before.
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Provide a safe working environment for young people to develop their theatrical, personal and social skills.
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Challenge intolerance and prejudice in all its forms.
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To always produce the highest quality of work possible, therefore promoting young people as talented, dedicated and engaging members of our community
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Use the frequent contact with young people as a basis for regular youth work.
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Use interactive theatre as a forum for discussion.
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As a charitable organisation, raise its own funds in order to provide a free, high quality service to all young people.
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Develop and sustain weekly music and dance workshops.
To maintain and care for all young people’s mental wellbeing
.
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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Creative Director’s Report
The academic year began with an explosion of attendance! popularity from our summer theatre challenges and our growing status within the community meant that each one of our groups was over subscribed. Immediately we began to adjust our time tables and groups to accommodate all of the young people making sure they had a quality experience when at a LW session.
We introduced a younger, year 1/2, group for LDC which was funded by a successful bid to the Coop by Dance Director Becky Gentry, This was fantastic for many reasons but especially as this is the beginning of a journey for Becky who wants to grow and develop the LDC and is researching funding to put together larger bids and projects in the future which is essential for the LDC to keep growing at the rate it has!
We changed the dynamics of the LMC by removing the singing session and replacing them with hour long sessions for years 3/4 and years 5/6. We then lowered the age of the older group to yr7 and the LMC is now thriving and in need of more capacity and equipment to cater for its popularity. We were able to start the LVC (Livewire Vocal Collective) with funding from Essex Music Hub and we have just received word that they will be funding until the end of the summer in 2024!
EMH approached Vocal Coach Roisin Quinn to put together a choir and Roisin brought this to Livewire, we were then able to develop a programme of workshops run by Roisin that compliments the LMC and stands on its own two feet as a core part of our delivery.
As the term moved on we began to devise a Christmas show that would involve all of the LDC and all of Drama, at this point it was difficult to integrate LMC and LVC but we are looking to do that this year. We performed an original piece of theatre at Pemberley Academy to over 200 parents with 110 young people performing! It was a beautiful, festive, community spirited evening and we are looking forward to next years performance.
We also began our project for Essex County Council's Arts and Cultural Fund whereby myself, Steve and Becky worked one day a week in local primary schools delivering theatre challenge projects as in the previous years pilot project through ROHB.
The whole year was incredible with amazing ideas and talent shown by the young people taking part. We felt that we reached a large number of young people who have had little or no contact with the arts and this is where we want to be, this is what we want to be doing. We had many young people subsequently joining LW as a result.
The highlight was the Fawbert and Barnards performance at the Celebrate Harlow event. The pupils were amazing and it was an emotional performance for all involved, an experience that no one would forget and put Livewire in front of an important crowd at The Harlow Playhouse. On that evening LDC and LMC also performed “Make Up” - a song taken from our Easter theatre challenge “Man Up”.
Inspired by our workshops in the previous year by Essex Community Foundation; Man Up was an original piece of theatre that looked at Toxic Masculinity and the Gender discussions that are so often happening through our main stream media. We focussed our play on “Andrew Tate” a well known misogynist who’s views would form the basis for discussion through our play. As always, it was a huge success. The show itself was a classic Easter Theatre Challenge, with a slightly smaller cast to fit into Theatre 2 and a sense of fun and tragedy all rolled into one. The play fin-
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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ished with a song called “Pride” where our entire cast sang and danced with Pride flags in a grand finale, an epic and fitting ending to an incredible week.
The LMC had been working behind the scenes to make recordings of music to use and this year the process has been more successful (Make Up - being the best example) however we would like to develop this practice further in the future incorporating time in professional recording studios working with qualified sound engineers and producers, a target for the year ahead!
Throughout the spring and summer terms our members sustained and continued to grow, particularly in the primary areas. We even took part in Tanys Dell School Fete where the LMC performed a full set to a packed school field of hundreds of people. The LMC members were excellent, all age groups performed and we have been invited back next year. We will also look to be a part of other school fetes as this is excellent for promotion and a wonderful experience for our young people.
We also won a “Gas of Harlow” award and the ceremony was attended by one of our hardworking trustees, Jenny Fox. We are very proud to receive such recognition as this is a sign of our growing importance in within our community.
On to the summer holidays and our first theatre challenge! Theatre Challenge One was available to all secondary aged members including those who were about to start year 7. As a result we had 77 young people taking part throughout the week with 73 performing. It was an incredibly high energy week with lots of young people learning about the Livewire process and finding new friends whilst developing their confidence. The play itself was a livewire community performance full of war, time travel and politics. The members performed original songs including the emotional “I used to mean something to you” which was a highlight and drew gasps from the audience. Overall we were delighted with everyones application and progress and we were even more impressed by the kind words the young people said to our guest from The National Lottery.
“This is my family” - Logan.
The Playhouse Summer School was for school leavers only as we (and the playhouse) wanted to provide a platform for those older members who wanted to express themselves rather than just be there to support the younger members. We offered one space in each discipline for younger members and chose those who were the most dedicated and mature and who had applied via email. The performance itself was staggering, full of skill, originality and drama. “All Alone Together” looked at the potential impact of AI technology on our society and was viewed by a packed out Theatre One at the Playhouse. We were delighted with the outcome and are looking to use moments w=from within the play for ongoing performances at community events.
So here we are, in our final year of our Lottery funding and we begin the process again. We have made it past Stage One already which is a a massive step and we are now able to show the amazing progress we have made over the past two years because of regular scheduled sessions and exciting projects. We are able to show that our young people benefit highly from participation in terms of their confidence, attainment in school and their mental wellbeing.
I’d like to thank Becky, Steve and Roisin for all of their hard work this year, without them we wouldn’t be what we are today.
Sam Ashford Creative Director
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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Annual Averages
Drama 3up Pemberley Academy Drama 7up Pemberley Academy Drama 10up Harlow Playhouse LDC 3up Harlow Playhouse LDC 5up Harlow Playhouse LDC 7up Harlow Playhouse LDC 9up Harlow Playhouse LMC 3up Harlow Playhouse 8 LMC 5up Harlow Playhouse LMC 7up Harlow Playhouse LVC 3up Pemberley Academy LVC 7up Harlow Playhouse 8
Total weekly average attendance 243 (increase of 69 from last year)
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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Organisation
- Livewire’s working address for correspondence and day-to-day management is:
Livewire C/O Gemma Nicholson
Chair Person
Harlow Playhouse
Playhouse Square
Essex
CM20 1LS
- Livewire’s contact number is:
Sam Ashford - 07974 241647
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Livewire has its own email address which is managed by the Creative Director
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livewiretheatre@live.com
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www.livewiretheatre.co.uk
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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Recruitment
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Livewire have an open door policy allowing for a constant flow of members
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Livewire will continue to deliver and develop delivery in schools to promote Livewire as well as addressing key issues within our community
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Toxic Masculinity Workshops for Essex Community Foundation
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Primary Theatre Challenges for ECC Arts and Culture
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At the beginning of each school term Livewire will advertise to all of Harlow’s Secondary schools with posters and letters to the appropriate members of staff
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Livewire will recruit through existing Youth Work organisations in Harlow
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Livewire will recruit through existing Arts Organisations such as ‘The Harlow Playhouse’
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Livewire will recruit through connections within Local Secondary and Primary Schools
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If Required Livewire will recruit through Taster workshops within Local Secondary and Primary Schools
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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Child Protection/Safeguarding Policy
Livewire Theatre Company Safeguarding Policy Statement
The purpose and scope of this policy statement
Livewire Community Theatre Company is a non-profit community theatre charity offering free and accessible drama, dance and music workshops and weekly sessions to young people in Harlow.
The purpose of this policy statement is:
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To protect children and young people who receive Livewire Community Theatre’s services from harm.
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To provide staff and volunteers as well as children and young people and their families with the overarching principles that guides our approach to child protection.
This policy applies to anyone working on behalf of Livewire Theatre including senior managers and the board of trustees, paid staff, volunteers and sessional workers.
Legal framework
This policy has been drawn up on the basis of legislation, policy and guidance that seeks to protect children in England
Supporting documents
This policy statement should be read alongside our organisational policies, procedures, guidance and other related documents
We recognise that:
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The welfare of children is paramount in all the work we do and in all the decisions we take all children, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation have and equal right to protection from all types of harm and abuse
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Some children are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues
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Working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.
We will seek to keep children and young people safe by:
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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Valuing, listening to and respecting them
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Appointing a nominated child protection lead for children and young people, a deputy and a lead trustee/board member for safeguarding [check if two can be same person owing to our set up]
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Adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures and code of conduct for staff and volunteers
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Developing and implementing an effective online safety policy and related procedures
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Providing effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision, support, training and quality assurance measures so that all staff know about and follow our policies, procedures and behaviour codes confidently and competently
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Recruiting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made
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Recording, storing and using information professionally and securely, in line with data protection legislation and guidance
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Sharing information about safeguarding and good practice with children and their families via leaflets, posters, group work and one to one discussions
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Making sure that children, young people and their families know where to go if they have a concern
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Using our safeguarding and child protection procedures to share concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know, and involving children, young people, parents, families and carers appropriately
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Using our procedures to manage any allegations against staff and volunteers appropriately
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• Creating and maintaining an anti-bullying environment and ensuring that we have a policy and procedure to help us deal effectively with any bullying that does arise
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Ensuring that we have effective complaints and whistleblowing measures in place
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Ensuring we provide a safe physical environment for our children, young people, staff and volunteers, by applying health and safety measures in accordance with the law and regulatory guidance
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Building a safeguarding culture where staff and volunteers, children, young people and their families treat each other with respect and are comfortable sharing their concerns
Nominated child protection lead
Name: Abbie Cody Phone/email: abbie_cody@yahoo.co.uk
Deputy child protection lead
Name: Sam Ashford Phone/email: sam_ashford@live.com
Trustee/Senior lead for safeguarding and child protection
Name: Neil Coster Phone/email: head@harestreet.sch.essex.uk
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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Financial Report
Livewire Trust Annual Report 2022 - 2023 Registered Charity Number 1104838
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The Livewire Trust
Receipts and pay
4/6/2022
For the period from
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds
| to the nearest £ A1 Receipts Grants Donations / Fundraising 2,232 Essex CommunityFund Harlow Council/ Harlow Rec Trust Essex CountyCouncil - Main Grants 2,232 - - Sub total - Total receipts 2,232 A3 Payments Schools Tour, Workshops and Theatre challenges Website Insurance 441 Consultant T Shirts Music Equipment - Hall Hire 350 - - Sub total 791 - - Sub total - Total payments 791 Sub total(Gross income for AR) A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
to the nearest £ |
|---|---|
| 3,800 | |
| - | |
| 6,336 | |
| 4,185 | |
| 20,000 | |
| 54,360 | |
| 88,681 | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| 88,681 | |
| 79,378 | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| 79,378 | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| 79,378 |
| Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end **Cash funds this year end ** |
1,441 | 9,303 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | ||
| 1,441 | 9,303 |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the
Categories
Details
B1 Cash funds
Total cash funds
(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))
Details
B2 Other monetary assets
Details
B3 Investment assets
Details
B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use
Details
B5 Liabilities
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
Signature
VALUE!
1104838
ments accounts
CC16a
4/5/2023
To
Endowment funds
Total funds
Last year
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
| - | 3,800 | 8,600 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | 2,232 | 1,763 | ||
| - | 6,336 | |||
| - | 4,185 | 4,185 | ||
| - | 20,000 | |||
| - | 54,360 | |||
| - | 90,913 | 68,908 |
| - | - | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | - | ||||||||
| - | 90,913 | 68,908 | ||||||||
| - | 79,378 | 76,285 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | 172 | ||
| - | 441 | 462 | ||
| - | 70 | |||
| - | 725 | |||
| - | 1,773 | |||
| - | 350 | - | ||
| - | - | - | ||
| - | - | - | ||
| - | 80,169 | 79,487 |
| - | - | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | |||||||||
| - | - | - | ||||||||
| - | 80,169 | 79,487 | ||||||||
| - | 10,744 | 10,579 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | ||
| - | 11,886 | |||
| - | 22,630 | 10,579 |
e period
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Endowment funds
| to nearest £ - - 1,441 OK Unrestricted funds |
to nearest £ - - 9,303 OK Restricted funds |
to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| OK | ||
| Endowment funds |
| to nearest £ - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which asset belongs |
to nearest £ - - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - |
to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| Current value (optional) |
||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| Current value (optional) |
||
| - | - | |
| - | - | |
| - | - | |
| - | - | |
| - | - |
| - | - | |
|---|---|---|
| - | - | |
| - | - | |
| - | - |
| Fund to which liability relates |
Amount due (optional) - - - - - |
When due (optional) |
|---|---|---|
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| - |
| Print Name RoryDavies |
Date of approval |
|---|---|
| RoryDavies | 2/14/2024 |
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A."; ,Independeiit Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of On accounts forthe year ended 2023 Charity no lif any) Iioy 968 Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination ol 8 ounls of the above 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 Ihe Charities Act 2011 ("Ihe 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{5llb} of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confiTm thal 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 Independent examiner's statement I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in conneotion with the examination to which allention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Please d81ete th8 words in the brack8ts if th8y do not apply. Signed: Date: Name., Relevant professional qualifi¢ation{sl or body {If any).. S6Tr4 Address: Ch417 0 IER October 2018
Section. B Disclosyrp ' Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of Goncern (see CC32, Independent examination of charify a¢counls.' directions and guidance for examiners). Glve here brief details of any items that the examinerwishes to dSsclose. IER October 2018