## THE LIVEWIRE TRUST ANNUAL REPORT
_Livewire Trust Annual Report 2023 - 2024 Registered Charity Number 1104838_
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## _Contents_
1. **Front Cover**
## **2. Contents**
**3. Partners and Friends**
**6. Letter from the chair**
**8. Annual programme 2024 - 2025**
_**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 2023 - 2024 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 2023 - 2024 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 2023 - 2024 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.
## The Foyle Foundation
FF gave provided 15k of funding to support our Primary School Theatre Challenges. Thisproject has ben integral to recruiting new members, introducing young pole across the town to devising original theatre, picking up instruments for the first time, dancing and acting and finding new talents.
_Livewire Trust Annual Report 2023 - 2024 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 2023 - 2024 Registered Charity Number 1104838_
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Annual Programme 2024 - 2025 What do we want to deliver this year?
Primary and 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.
A successful bid and plan to deliver an interactive Theatre Tour of Primary Schools
A pilot open session for adults - parents and former members.
Theatre Visits and trips for members development
The Development of a Livewire Music School
_Livewire Trust Annual Report 2023 - 2024 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:
- Explore different points of view around a key issue and turn them into a performance that is relevant and thought provoking.
- Be involved in a process, which would not normally be accessible to them.
- Be creative in their own way and on their own terms and for their enjoyment.
- Make new friends.
- Gain confidence in their own ability and learn to trust others.
- 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;
- Free young people from the pressure to make ‘knee-jerk’ reactions,
- Demonstrate the consequences of different courses of action in a safe environment,
- • Help young people to re-assess their views by enabling them to stand in someone else’s shoes,
- 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 2023 - 2024 Registered Charity Number 1104838_
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- Explore different points of view around a key issue,
- Develop discriminatory skills that will allow them to come to informed decisions about their behaviour,
- 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 2023 - 2024 Registered Charity Number 1104838_
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## **Livewire Objectives**
- Create and sustain interactive educational theatre using young people from Essex in a tour of Harlow primary schools at least once every year.
- Bring interactive and other forms of theatre to people who may have had little or no contact with the arts before.
- Provide a safe working environment for young people to develop their theatrical, personal and social skills.
- Challenge intolerance and prejudice in all its forms.
- To always produce the highest quality of work possible, therefore promoting young people as talented, dedicated and engaging members of our community
- Use the frequent contact with young people as a basis for regular youth work.
- Use interactive theatre as a forum for discussion.
- As a charitable organisation, raise its own funds in order to provide a free, high quality service to all young people.
- Sustain and Develop weekly music and dance workshops.
To maintain and care for all young people’s mental wellbeing
.
_Livewire Trust Annual Report 2023 - 2024 Registered Charity Number 1104838_
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## **Creative Director’s Report**
The entire school year has been incredible with each session we provide being over subscribed and incredibly popular. We have made adjustments and create a new online membership form to help us stay on top of the amount of new members.
On top of our sessions, which now average at 180 young pole taking part each and every week, we were able to engage in a variety of community projects. We were also able to grow and develop our work to get our name out there in the community.
Our main highlight was the success w had with our success of achieving five years of founding through the National Lottery. This was an incredible tough task but I would personally like to thank all the trustees for their support and help with the application. It must be noted that we had tremendous participation from our young people and our families and I would like to say a huge thank you, this really wouldn’t happen without their enthusiasm and dedication to Livewire.
We are run incredibly well and therefore our application just had to reflect this, our consistent hard work and our excellent evaluations throughout the year meant we had the proof that what we are doing works. Therefore our application was successful and we can now continue to grow, develop and deliver over the next five years!
It’s been a busy year:
**Christmas Performance** - The entire cast of Livwire involved in one performance
**Easter Theatre Challenge** - The Comet
**Livewire Forever** - The continuation of The Livewire Podcast
**Quiz Nights** - Raising funds for the youngest LDC group
**Open Mic** - Live Lounge sessions at The Playhouse
**Gig Night** - Fundraising event at Phoenix Live
**Celebrate Harlow** - LMC performance in Theatre 2
**Celebrate Harlow** - LDC / LMC performance on the Main Stag Harlow Playhouse
## **Jack Petchey Awards**
**Primary School Summer Fete** - LMC / LDC performance at Tanys Dell
**I’m Here** - LMC / Drama / LDC music video
_Livewire Trust Annual Report 2023 - 2024 Registered Charity Number 1104838_
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**Funding** - Success with the National Lottery
**Sing and Play** - Primary School sessions funded through Essex Community Foundation
**Primary School Theatre Challenges** - Funded by The Foyle Foundation, visiting 6 schools diving original theatre with Drama, Dance and music.
**Livewire Vocal Collective** - Essex Music Services continuation of our choir.
**Summer Theatre Challenge** - “Poohnami” performed at Victoria Hall Theatre
**Playhouse Summer School** - “Play Dead” our most accomplished piece yet and booked to be performed again June 22nd 2025
All in all it has been the best ever year for Livewire and things look set to grow in the next academic year with The Livewire Music School and the Livewire Stow Project.
As we continue to expand and offer opportunities to our older members to develop their skills as tutors it is also important to remember who we are. We are here to make sure young people who may have little to no access to the arts can com to us to press themselves, find friends and have fun.
We will continue to support young pole s mental health and we will continue to develop their performance skills. Most of all, we will make sure they know they are important, they are valued and we will always be there for them.
……..Finally I would like to say thank you to “Eddy”. Eddy is a host at Harlow Playhouse, his wife was a dancer and he has a passion for the arts. Since giving up smoking Eddy has donated his cigarette money to Livewire to make sure our younger dancers will have a session every single week. Over the next year we would like to develop an award with Eddy, in his wife’s honour, for our most dedicated dancer……thank you Eddy.
Sam Ashford Creative Director
_Livewire Trust Annual Report 2023 - 2024 Registered Charity Number 1104838_
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_Annual Averages_
Drama 3up Pemberley Academy Drama 7up Pemberley Academy Drama 10up Harlow Playhouse LDC 1up Harlow Playhouse LDC 4up Harlow Playhouse LDC 7up Harlow Playhouse LDC 10up 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 250 (increase of 76 from last year)**
_Livewire Trust Annual Report 2023 - 2024 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
- Livewire has its own email address which is managed by the Creative Director
- livewiretheatre@live.com
- www.livewiretheatre.co.uk
_Livewire Trust Annual Report 2023 - 2024 Registered Charity Number 1104838_
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## **Recruitment**
- Livewire have an open door policy allowing for a constant flow of members
- Livewire will continue to deliver and develop delivery in schools to promote Livewire as well as addressing key issues within our community
- Toxic Masculinity Workshops for Essex Community Foundation
- Primary Theatre Challenges for ECC Arts and Culture
- 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
- Livewire will recruit through existing Youth Work organisations in Harlow
- Livewire will recruit through existing Arts Organisations such as ‘The Harlow Playhouse’
- Livewire will recruit through connections within Local Secondary and Primary Schools
- If Required Livewire will recruit through Taster workshops within Local Secondary and Primary Schools
_Livewire Trust Annual Report 2023 - 2024 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:
- To protect children and young people who receive Livewire Community Theatre’s services from harm.
- 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:
- 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
- Some children are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues
- 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:
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- Valuing, listening to and respecting them
- 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]
- Adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures and code of conduct for staff and volunteers
- Developing and implementing an effective online safety policy and related procedures
- 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
- Recruiting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made
- Recording, storing and using information professionally and securely, in line with data protection legislation and guidance
- Sharing information about safeguarding and good practice with children and their families via leaflets, posters, group work and one to one discussions
- Making sure that children, young people and their families know where to go if they have a concern
- 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
- Using our procedures to manage any allegations against staff and volunteers appropriately
- • 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
- Ensuring that we have effective complaints and whistleblowing measures in place
- 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
- 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 2023 - 2024 Registered Charity Number 1104838_
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## **Financial Report**
_Livewire Trust Annual Report 2023 - 2024 Registered Charity Number 1104838_
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## **The Livewire Trust**
## **Receipts and pay**
45022
## **For the period from**
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
||**Unrestricted funds**|**Restricted funds**|
|---|---|---|
||**to the nearest £**|**to the nearest £**|
|**A1 Receipts**|||
|Grants||**3,760**|
|Donations / Fundraising|**1,186**||
|Essex Community Fund||**5,460**|
|Harlow Council/ Harlow Rec Trust||**4,185**|
|Essex County Council
**-**|**-**|**4,500**|
|Foyle Foundation||**15,000**|
|TNL Reaching Communities||**73,980**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_|**1,186**|**106,885**|
|**A2 Asset and investment sales, (see**|||
|**table).**|||
|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**_Sub total_ -**|**-**|**-**|
|**_Total receipts_ **|**1,186**|**106,885**|
|**A3 Payments**|||
|Schools Tour, Workshops and Theatre challenges|||
|||**89,658**|
|Website|||
|Insurance|**467**||
|Consultant|||
|Essex CC||**75**|
|Music Equipment||**420**|
|Hall Hire|||
|**_Sub total_ **|**467**|**90,153**|
1
## **A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)**
|||**-**|**-**|
|---|---|---|---|
|||**-**|**-**|
||**_Sub total_ **|**-**|**-**|
|**_Total_**|**_payments_ **|**467**|**90,153**|
|**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ **||**719**|**16,732**|
|**A5 Transfers between funds**||**-**|**-**|
|**A6 Cash funds last year end**||||
|**_Cash funds this year end_ **||**719**|**16,732**|
|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of th**||||
|**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**||||
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the**
2
||**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|
3
**1104838**
## **ments accounts**
## **CC16a**
45387
**To**
|**Endowment funds**|**Total funds**|**Last year**|
|---|---|---|
|**to the nearest £**|**to the nearest £**|**to the nearest £**|
|**-**
|**3,760**
|**3,800**|
|**-**
|**1,186**
|**2,232**|
|**-**
|**5,460**
|**6,336**|
|**-**
|**4,185**
|**4,185**|
|**-**
|**4,500**
|**20,000**|
|**-**||**54,360**|
|**-**
|**108,071**
|**90,913**|
|**-**
|**-**||
|**-**
|**-**
|**-**|
|**-**
|**-**
|**-**|
|**-**
|**108,071**|**90,913**|
|**-**||**79,378**|
|**-**|||
|**-**||**441**|
|**-**|||
|**-**|||
|**-**|||
|**-**||**350**|
|**-**||**-**|
|**-**||**-**|
|**-**
|**90,620**
|**80,169**|
4
||**-**
|**-**||
|---|---|---|---|
||**-**
|**-**||
||**-**
|**-**
|**-**|
||**-**
|**90,620**
|**80,169**|
|**-**|
|**17,451**
|**10,744**|
|**-**|
|**-**
|**-**|
|**-**|
|**22,630**
|**11,886**|
|**-**|
|**40,081**
|**22,630**|
|**e period**|||
|---|---|---|
|**Unrestricted funds**|**Restricted funds**|**Endowment funds**|
|**to nearest £**|**to nearest £**|**to nearest £**|
|||**-**|
|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**719**|**16,732**|**-**|
|OK|OK|OK|
|**Unrestricted funds**|**Restricted funds**|**Endowment funds**|
|**to nearest £**|**to nearest £**|**to nearest £**|
|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**Fund to which asset**
**belongs**|**Cost (optional)**|**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||**-**|**-**|
||**-**|**-**|
||**-**|**-**|
||**-**|**-**|
5
**-**
|**Fund to which asset**
**belongs**|**Cost (optional)**|**Current value**
**(optional)**|
|---|---|---|
||**-**|**-**|
||**-**|**-**|
||**-**|**-**|
||**-**|**-**|
||**-**|**-**|
||**-**|**-**|
||**-**|**-**|
||**-**|**-**|
||**-**|**-**|
|**Fund to which liability**|**Amount due (optional)**|**When due (optional)**|
|**relates**|||
||**-**||
||**-**||
||**-**||
||**-**||
||**-**||
|Print|Name|Date of approval|
6
**Independent examiner's report on the accounts**
**Section A Independent Examiner’s Report**
**Report to the trustees/** Charity Name THE LIVEWIRE TRUST **members of**
**On accounts for the year Charity no ended** 2024 **(if any)** 1104838
**Set out on pages** 1-2 (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets) ~~Pe~~
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 05/04/2024 **DD / MM / YYYY** .
- **Responsibilities and** As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation of **basis of report** 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:** 25/11/24
**Name:** SARAH WHELAN ~~Ce~~
**Relevant professional** SBM **qualification(s) or body (if any):**
1
**October 2018**
**IER**
**Address:** 13 HAWFINCH CRESCENT HARLOW ESSEX CM17 0GB
## **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** .
2
**October 2018**
**IER**
IER
October 2018