2023-06-30-accounts

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Company number: 05203237 Charity number: 1106864 Scottish charity ref: SCO48291

SafeLives

Report and financial statements For the year ended 30 June 2023

SafeLives

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Reference and administrative information ......................................................................................................... 1 Trustees’ annual report ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Independent auditor’s report ............................................................................................................................ 22 Statement of financial activities (incorporating an income and expenditure account) ..................................... 26 Balance sheet .................................................................................................................................................. 27 Statement of cash flows ................................................................................................................................... 28 Notes to the financial statements .................................................................................................................... 29

SafeLives

Reference and administrative information

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Company number 05203237 Countries of incorporation England and Wales Charity number 1106864 Scottish charity reference SCO48291 Countries of registration England, Wales, and Scotland Registered office and operational address Suite 2a Whitefriars Lewins Mead Bristol, BS1 2NT Patron HM The Queen Trustees Trustees, who are also directors under company law, who served during the year and up to the date of this report were as follows: Isabel Boyer (Chair) Alexandra Butler (Vice Chair) Eva Bari Shana Begum Zoe Billingham Liz Hughes Ursula Lindenberg Uzair Patel Resigned 6th December 2022 Kelly Rust Resigned 22[nd] September 2022 Rebecca Spencer Takki Sulaiman Tim Symington Key management Suzanne Jacob Chief Executive personnel Ellen Miller Chief Executive (parental leave cover) Jo Silver Director of Quality and Innovation Liz Thompson Director of External Relations Jo Gordon Chief Operating Officer Dawn Codrington Director of People and Culture (joined 1[st] August 2023)

SafeLives

Reference and administrative information

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Bankers	NatWest Bank PLC
	South West RCSC
	740 Waterside Drive
	Aztec West
	Bristol
	BS99 5BD
Solicitors	Ramsay Paterson
	Lynwood
	Newland Garden
	Sherborne, Dorset
	DT9 3AF
	Anthony Collins Solicitors LLP
	134 Edmond Street
	Birmingham
	B3 2ES
Auditor	Sayer Vincent LLP
	Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditor
	Invicta House
	108-114 Golden Lane
	London
	EC1Y 0TL

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

The Trustees present their report and the audited financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2023. This report also incorporates the strategic report disclosure requirements. This has been another very important year for SafeLives, as we have continued to develop and deliver existing and new work in line with our Strategy “The Whole Picture”. Our thanks go to all our staff, Trustees, Pioneers, Authentic Voice Panel, associates, funders, supporters and partners for another successful year of strong impact.

The reference and administrative information set out on pages 1 and 2 forms part of this report. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, the articles of association, the requirements of a directors’ report as required under company law, and the Statement of Recommended Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities: SORP applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS 102. The Trustees’ Annual Report includes a directors’ report as required by company law.

1. Objectives and activities

The objects for which the charity is established are to advance for the public benefit in the United Kingdom, or elsewhere, such purposes as are recognised as exclusively charitable under the law of England and Wales, and under Scottish law, and in particular to promote best practice and understanding among the public, voluntary and statutory agencies in all matters relating to domestic abuse and family violence, its causes, remedies, and prevention.

The Trustees review the aims, objectives and activities of the charity each year. This report looks at what the charity has achieved and the outcomes of its work in the reporting period. The Trustees report the progress of the activities that underpin each strategic priority and the benefits the charity has brought to those groups of people that it is set up to help. The review also helps the Trustees ensure the charity's aims, objectives and activities remained focused on its stated purposes.

The Trustees have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the charity's aims and objectives and in planning its future activities. In particular, the Trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives that have been set.

In 2018 we published our strategy: The Whole Picture, which sets out our five strategic priorities:

Act before someone harms or is harmed
Identify and stop harmful behaviour
Increase safety for those at risk
Support people to live the lives they want after harm occurs
Continue to be an effective and sustainable organisation

We believe that domestic abuse can be stopped. Stopped before it starts. Stopped before it ruins lives. Each year over two million people in the UK experience domestic abuse. Not one of them should have to wait until they’re in crisis before we pay attention. Domestic abuse is never all of someone’s experience or situation. We must see the whole picture – for the whole person, the whole family, the whole community, and the whole of society.

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

We work with organisations across the UK to transform the response to domestic abuse. We want what you would want for your best friend. We listen to survivors, putting their voices at the heart and start of what we do. We look at the whole picture for each individual and family to get the right help at the right time, so families everywhere can be safe and well. And we challenge perpetrators to change, asking ‘why doesn’t he stop?’ rather than ‘why doesn’t she leave?’ This applies whatever the gender of the victim or perpetrator and whatever the nature of their relationship. Every victim and survivor deserves the right response at the right time. SafeLives exists to make sure they receive that, and we will continue to drive change through our practice advice and guidance, our data and research and our influencing work.

2. Achievements & Performance

It’s been a challenging year for many. As the UK moves into a post-Covid environment, both survivors and the services who support them continue to face difficult times. Statutory and philanthropic funders moved fast to provide support during the pandemic, and we are hugely grateful to all those who reached in to offer help. As that funding came to a close whilst the cost-of-living crisis bites, we – like many other charities - have needed to draw in our spending, whilst being very aware that caseloads are still growing and that survivors are struggling.

Our focus in the coming year therefore will be on our core work – prioritising our multi-agency work to ensure a co-ordinated community response to the whole family, increasing the capability of those at the frontline line, making sure the authentic voice of survivors is integral in all that we do, and speaking out for better legislation and enforcement of victims’ rights.

There is much to celebrate too. There are visible signs of change – with thousands more frontline responders trained to understand controlling and coercive behaviour, a growing awareness of the value of the small specialist services who support marginalized and minoritized survivors, and a recognition in new and proposed legislation of the value of Idvas/Idaas (independent domestic violence advisors/ abuse advocates) and Maracs (multi-agency risk assessment conferences) in increasing survivor safety.

Building capabilities at the frontline

Developing knowledge and skills

Training those who might be involved in identifying or responding to adults and child victims of domestic abuse, and perpetrators of harm, is essential to ensure an effective, appropriate and consistent response and opportunities to intervene are not missed. We provide a range of accredited training for professionals working with adult, teen and child victims of domestic abuse, and perpetrators; general awareness training for employers; and the Domestic Abuse Matters cultural change programme for police forces across the UK.

In the last year we have trained 25,643 people. This includes:
Over 19,000 Police First Responders via DA Matters
Over 700 practitioners have completed our accredited training
Almost 800 people have completed our training on domestic abuse in the workplace

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

We’ve now delivered the DA Matters cultural change programme to 60,000+ police officers to date, to build capacity and understanding of the dynamics of domestic abuse. DA Matters has now been delivered to all of Wales and Scotland and 75% of forces in England. Just 9 of the 43 police forces across England and Wales are yet to adopt DA Matters, and 4 are already planning to work with us in 2023/24. Independent evaluation by Hull University indicates positive and sustained impact with a 41% increase in arrests for coercive control.
We continued to build workforce skills through our course, Engaging with Those That Harm, assessing the readiness for behaviour change. We’ve trained over 325 people to date; an evaluation of this training is underway.
We worked with H.O.P.E Training & Consultancy, supporting their leadership programmes to build capacity among professionals from racialised communities working across the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)sector, and to increase cultural competency amongst white leaders.

Progress against and achievements in our 5 key strategic priorities in 2022/23 has been as follows:

Strategic Priority 1: Act before someone harms or is harmed

To stop domestic abuse, for everyone, for good, we must intervene sooner, and prevent harm being caused in the first place.

To support this, we’re developing our understanding of how harming behaviour begins. We’re also equipping young people and adults with the knowledge and confidence to identify early warning signs of abuse, so they can enjoy healthier relationships.

Safe Young Lives (“SYL”)

Our Safe Young Lives programme is discovering, understanding, designing and developing learning and interventions which are informed by the voice and experiences of young people.
Three of the four projects within our SYL programme have been completed in the period: Your Best Friend (“YBF”), Relationships & Sex Education (“RSE”) and Verge of Harm(ing).
Young people have fed into all four of our SYL projects – YBF, Sound of Silence, RSE and Verge of Harm(ing). We’ve worked with ca. 100 young people in-depth. This includes ca. 20 young people who contribute their authentic voice as Changemakers. Overall, 700 young people have directly engaged with our work and a further 2,000 have had input such as responding to surveys and interviews .

Your Best Friend (“YBF”)

YBF is empowering girls, young women and non-binary young people with the knowledge and confidence to spot abuse in their intimate relationships.
Our YBF project had huge reach: Our #FriendsCanTell campaign reached over 5.2 million young women, girls and non-binary young people – five times our target of one million.
FriendsCanTell was part of our YBF project (funded by the Tampon Tax) developed in response to young people not knowing where to go, what to say or who to turn to if they are worried about their friend. The brilliant young people we worked with designed the application and assessment processes for our Your Best Friend Fund, and led on each and every funding decision taken, working together in a series of grantmaking panels.
We supported 38 diverse grassroots projects to create peer to peer support.

Relationships & Sex Education (“RSE”)

We worked with young people and schools exploring the impact of RSE curriculum, sharing findings with the Department for Education’s latest review.

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

We heard from more than 1,000 students and 60 RSE teachers in secondary schools in England through a series of surveys, interviews and focus groups.
Only 46% of students feel confident about who to talk to if they or someone they know is experiencing abuse.
Just 24% of young people recall being taught about ‘coercive control’ in RSE classes and as little as 13% believe this topic was taught well.
The majority of LGBT+ students (61%) disagree that LGBT+ relationships are being threaded throughout RSE, as is legally required by the guidance.
Young people told us that they want more from their RSE classes. Students want ‘more relevant examples’ (47%), ‘more open discussions’ (44%) and ‘more regular classes’ (42%).
Only 58% of teachers surveyed believed they have sufficient training to teach RSE effectively.

Verge of Harm(ing)

Verge of Harm(ing) is an ambitious research project that is exploring how and why people start using harmful behaviours.
We researched with young people on the very of harming behaviour and what might influence them, sharing findings with hundreds of practitioners.
30% of young people completing the survey said they had used harmful behaviours in a relationship. Of these, 41% said they had used harmful behaviours in a romantic relationship, and 47% said they had used harmful behaviours with a family member.

Changemakers

We involved over 3,000 young people, sharing their voices to influence change, including Changemakers panel of young advocates.
We organised a meeting between Changemakers and the Shadow Domestic Abuse Minister, Jess Phillips MP. The Changemakers brought with them a set of recommendations about how the police should respond to young people, and we are continuing engagement with the Shadow Minister on this point.

Care journey project

Our Incubator Team – our ‘engine room’ for new thinking – has included in its work further exploring the experiences of young survivors in the care system. Our Care Journey project found a lack of data around looked after children and harmful behaviours in intimate relationships, and how experience of domestic abuse impacted this. We have adapted our Insights outcome measurement tool so that our dataset includes questions around care experience; this data is the first of its type and will inform our work as we move forward.

Men and boys

To end domestic abuse, we need to bring men and boys into the conversation.
We explored how men and boys can help end abuse, engaging with ca. 40 organisations to develop an informal coalition of specialists who work from a perspective of boys and men’s wellbeing, development and support.

Strategic Priority 2: Identify and stop harmful behaviour

To stop domestic abuse, for everyone, for good, we have to tackle the behaviour of those who harm. We know that many move from one victim to the next, harming multiple families across different relationships.

To achieve this, we also need to change our societal narrative from ‘Why doesn’t she leave?’ to ‘Why doesn’t he stop?’ In the 21st century, it's outdated and unjust to place the onus on women, who are disproportionately affected by all domestic abuse, to exit relationships and disrupt family lives. Addressing abusive behaviour directly is the contemporary response we advocate for.

Drive

The Drive Partnership with Respect and Social Finance works with local systems to challenge and support high risk, high harm perpetrators of abuse to change their behaviour through intensive one to one work and case management, with Idva support for the victim/survivors to ensure joined up working and safety.
• We have continued the delivery of the Drive project across 10 Police and Crime Commissioner areas.

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

We have reached over 5,000 people through Drive to date, and over 15,000 adult and child survivors.
We secured further multi-year Home Office and Lottery funding for Drive, showing how highly this intervention is regarded.
We shared learning through two Drive Partnership conferences – July and November 2022 – and a Drive Restart event at London’s City Hall in May 2023.
We continued influencing for systems change and steps towards addressing perpetration – building on our Call for Action which was recognised in the Government’s 2022 DA Plan.

Restart

Restart is a systems change model which provides intervention for perpetrators causing harm in families working with Children’s Social Care, to prevent continued abuse via a co-ordinated multi-agency response that includes identifying and responding to patterns of domestic abuse at any earlier stage, improving safety and long-term outcomes for child and adult victim-survivors. The project is a partnership between the London Mayor’s Office for Police and Crime (“MOPAC”), Respect, SafeLives, Social Finance, DAHA and Cranstoun.
We have continued to deliver on our Restart pilot in London and are launching an independent evaluation of its first year in January 2024.

Strategic Priority 3: Increase safety for those at risk

Increasing safety for those at most risk from harm is where our work first began, and it remains at the heart of our strategic priorities. Building on this, our Whole Picture approach looks at the entirety of an individual's experiences, recognising the broader impact on families affected by domestic abuse, and the wider system that responds to them. Only by looking at the Whole Picture can we effect lasting change for future generations.

Risk-led response

In 2024 it will be 20 years since SafeLives started the lead on scaling up the training of Independent Domestic Violence Advocates (“Idvas”) and the setting up of Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (“Maracs”) in areas, all adopting the risk-led model of dealing with domestic abuse. There are now ca. 300 Maracs in operation across the UK, providing the backbone of the UK’s response to domestic abuse, but we still don’t have as many Idvas as we need to support people at high risk, despite recent Government commitments to increasing the number of Idvas by 300 by 2025. Maracs also vary widely in the way they function. Getting key policymakers to understand the processes of a well-functioning Marac is so important, so in January we ran a ‘mock’ Marac for Government officials to illustrate the importance of these vital systems. “Just want to give a huge thanks for this session; such a great way of depicting the intensity and what a massive task a Marac is to undertake and deliver effective actions for the victim. I can speak on behalf of everyone at the Home Office in saying how helpful this session was in our understanding of the complexities victims face and the range of support they really need.” – Home Office official
The Home Office confirmed our continued funding for 2023 – 2025 for our core Marac work and national practice, advice and guidance.
We also held a webinar in May with Louisa Rolfe, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, about the risk-led approach, and the DARA and DASH risk identification tools.

Scotland

It has now been 10 years since we delivered the first ever Independent Domestic Abuse Advisor (“Idaa”) training in Scotland – ensuring that high-risk victims of domestic abuse had someone to walk side-by-side with them as they accessed support and safety. We have trained almost 450 learners, from over 80 different organisations (nationwide as well as small and specialist services).
Ten years work paid off, and 2022 was also the first year that every single local authority area of Scotland had a functioning Marac in place. This can be very significantly attributed to the hard work of our Scottish team, who have engaged consistently and creatively with colleagues in the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, to get Maracs onto a solid and consistent footing nationwide.
We have been commissioned by the Scottish Government to map national Marac provision – this data will be used to inform the development of National Marac standards in Scotland, which is a major move forward in ensuring quality Marac provision across the country.

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

We are also creating national standards in Scotland for DA Court Advocacy and will deliver training on these, in a highly impactive piece of work funded by the Scottish Government Justice Directorate.

Public Health Approach

We are working with local authorities across England and Wales to map their local response to domestic abuse, helping them to improve their support for families – and to work closely and effectively alongside local survivors. A particular feature of this work concerns embedding local survivor voice and participation, especially within Domestic Abuse Partnership Boards. We are delighted that all the local areas we are working with now have survivor voice representation on these Boards. In many cases, this is the first time ever that local survivors have been meaningfully involved.
We launched our Public Health Approach Executive Summary Report in Parliament to evidence the need for whole family provision, an event which had 100+ MPs attending. The report tells us:
Systems are not always responding to the whole family affected by domestic abuse
- Too many people tell us survivors’ mental health needs are not being met, and poor information sharing arrangements with some public services are re-traumatising.
- Children are not being supported: of the 72% of survivors who had children, only 28% said their children were offered support.
- Perpetrators are not being held to account. Only 3% of survey respondents said that the person who caused them harm had received support for their behaviour.
We need to take a public health approach to ending domestic abuse for the whole family
- We want to ensure that every adult and child at risk from abuse has an effective, empathetic response that’s tailored to their particular circumstances, helps them become safe and well in the long-term, operates in a way that is right for them, and that there is provision for dealing with those who cause harm.
The approach is already having a positive impact in local areas
- Local areas are strategically prioritising domestic abuse as a result of thinking in this holistic way, which they may have otherwise struggled to do with existing capacity.
- Local areas are placing the authentic voice of survivors at the heart of strategies to shape a more effective response to domestic abuse locally.
- Local areas are getting a better understanding of gaps around multi-agency working, specialist service provision, and levels of awareness around domestic abuse.
- It is helping local areas work more cost effectively, making better use of the resources they have. Working with the Social Value Engine to measure social value, our first pilot is showing that their work on the first two steps is delivering a £7.72 return on each £1 invested.

Visually impaired people, Vision Foundation

1 in 12 visually impaired people in the UK is believed to be a survivor of domestic abuse, meaning that 188,000 of the 2.19 million blind and partially sighted people living in this country have experience of domestic abuse. We were commissioned by the Vision Foundation to undertake the first ever research into the scale and nature of domestic abuse among this particularly vulnerable sector of the population.

Strategic Priority 4: Support people to live the life they want after harm occurs

Even when relationships end, many victims of domestic abuse continue to be harmed. Too often, perpetrators continue abuse through stalking, harassment and child contact disputes. Money worries and the effects of trauma can take its toll on mental health. For parents harmed by adolescent or adult children, there is no ‘end’ moment to a family relationship. Our work in this area mitigates these challenges, emphasising the importance of sustained support for recovery so lives can be transformed. We also support survivors to drive the change they want to see for others going through the same experience.

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Authentic Voice

We are committed to ensuring the voices of survivors are sought, heard and have power. We have enabled a diverse range of survivors to use their voices to influence change, through opportunities to talk directly to decision makers. These survivors are called “Pioneers”.
In this period, we have supported our Pioneers to safely meet with representatives of the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Labour Party’s Shadow Frontbench, the Scottish Government and judges of the Central Criminal Court. There has been significant visibility for SafeLives 20 Pioneers in the period, including Pioneer Annie Gibbs’ powerful contribution to the Home Office’s Violence against Women & Girls campaign in December (see https://twitter.com/ukhomeoffice/status/1601147137856663552 ) and Trustee Pioneer Shana Begum meeting with The Queen Consort at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in October.
• Pioneer Shana’s top 100 event presentation was described by the Director General of the Defence Safety Authority as ‘the most powerful presentation he had heard in 20 years.’
Our Authentic Voice Panel in Scotland has helped to inform the development of the risk assessment tool Dash for people with learning disabilities, as well as feeding into research on how people with learning disabilities who are experiencing domestic abuse can access specialist support. They also helped create specialist racialised communities training for Police Scotland.

NatWest Circle Fund

We delivered the final year of NatWest’s Circle Fund distributing over 3 years £0.9m in small grants to ca. 2,500 survivors via frontline services.
We worked with ca. 140 frontline services across the UK’s four nations to distribute these vital funds, and they have been a lifeline to the families receiving them. Relatively small sums have helped to transform lives, and been used for essentials such as clothes, food, heating, or hot water. It also responds to safety needs, such as the provision of CCTV/ring doorbells, or more complex cases such as covering the cost of crisis counselling for children or helping families to relocate. The fund has shown how acute the cost-ofliving issue is for survivors.

Victims Bill

We are continuing to influence the Victims’ Bill to ensure the value of Idvas is recognised. Our research findings constantly say that having an Idva is the most important service from the victim’s perspective.

Family court system

Survivors have told us loudly and clearly that the family court system is retraumatising and can actively facilitate perpetration of further abuse. The family justice system must be transformed to stop this happening and training is essential for all family court professionals so they better understand the dynamics of abuse and can respond to victims in a trauma-informed way.
We helped increase understanding of coercive control and trauma responses through training to 320+ family legal professionals across England and Wales:
We agreed a secondment to the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (“CAFCASS”) for 2023/24, so we can make change from the inside – and improve responses for survivors going through the family court system.

Non- Fatal Strangulation (“NFS”)

We worked collaboratively as a partner with the new Institute for Addressing Strangulation to support frontline responders, including police and prosecutors, to evidence the new offence of non-fatal strangulation.
We are developing training regarding how to respond to non-fatal strangulation which was made an offence under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 as a result of lobbying from SafeLives, survivors and other organisations in the sector. Our data (from Insights and Marac datasets) estimated that this affects 20,000 women every year in the UK, a figure that was used in discussions on this theme from the House of Lords to Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and ultimately influenced policy, including funding awarded to set up a new Institute for the Management and Prevention of Strangulation, which will help to ensure responders understand, and can support, the identification, charging and prosecution of non-fatal strangulation.
The first of a series of NFS webinars was held in April for a Police/Crown Prosecution Service audience of 500 attendees. Of 260 evaluations returned, 92% felt the webinar was very or extremely helpful; before the webinar 29% felt they had a good or very good understanding of NFS and after the webinar this

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

increased to 93%. 97% of the attendees agreed that the learning would impact them and their role, with just under half (47%) strongly agreeing.

Strategic Priority 5: SafeLives continues to be an effective and sustainable organisation

We are thankful to work with an amazing team of staff, Pioneers, Authentic Voice Panel members, Trustees, associates, partners, funders and supporters who all work towards ending domestic abuse, for everyone, for good.

Equity, equality, diversity and inclusion

We are implementing the recommendations from the independent, expert review of our culture that we have commissioned.
We saw a huge interest in the new post of Director of People and Culture, a role we created – with expert advice – to bring in additional focus in particular to help steer our EEDI work. Dawn Codrington joined us in August 2023.
We continue to support anti-racist practice through sharing tools and resources across teams for practical and cultural change.

Organisational Development

We are supporting staff through a climate of rising costs, maintaining our commitment to staff learning and development, and staff wellbeing through our employee assistance programme and clinical supervision.
In December 2022, Suzanne Jacob, our CEO since late 2017, started her parental leave. Trustee Isabel Boyer agreed to extend her term as Chair. Ellen Miller joined as interim CEO in January 2023.
Pro bono support from a management consultancy firm continues, with a particular focus on business development, including developing a training strategy and our practice consultancy offer.
Our new website will be launched in late 2023.

Staff, Associates, Trustees and Pioneers

Our staff are the heartbeat of SafeLives, working with expertise and commitment alongside Pioneers and the Authentic Voice Panel, valued associates, and partners on a wide range of activities that take us ever closer to ending domestic abuse. The team has grown in the past year, and we now have a staff team of 115 at year end.

In the past year we have been working on developing the SafeLives culture, to build an organisation that is inclusive and supports everyone to be their whole and best selves. We are adopting restorative practice as the way we want to work in SafeLives, to create a brave space that supports people to take responsibility for their actions and be considerate of others. We have introduced mandatory training on equality and diversity and are embedding a programme that shares knowledge and best practice to support continuous learning and improvement.

We are also proud to work with a fantastic team of associates who help extend our work and impact. A huge thanks to them for their hard work this year.

Our Trustees continue to have overall responsibility for the management of the charity and guide us with their wide experience from a range of fields. 2 of our Trustees are also Pioneers, bringing their unique and invaluable perspective and insights to the Trustee board. As well as our formal Trustees, we have grown our Scottish Advisory Group, and are extremely appreciative of their time and input.

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Partnerships

We continue to develop our partnerships and grow our strategic intent to be an ally to other organisations, including the smallest and most specialist.

Our supporters

SafeLives is extremely fortunate to have the support of many generous individuals and organisations to do our work, many of whom have funded us through multi-year and repeated grants. Our philanthropic funders often invest in our newest work, trusting us to be innovative in seeking out what works for families, and giving us valuable time and flexibility to build strong and trusting relationships with survivors, small and specialist organisations and other colleagues across the sector. They are generous in many other ways, from giving expert pro bono advice, or introducing us to other valuable contacts – and many make the time to join Round Tables and discussions, adding their own insight.

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported SafeLives’ work this year. We cannot end domestic abuse alone. Through the support of trusts and foundations, corporates, Governments and individual givers we have been able to help thousands of families affected by domestic abuse, saving lives and helping people to live the lives they want in safety.

Our principal funders and supporters this year include the following, as well as other organisations who chose to remain anonymous:

Aurum Trust
Bleu Blanc Rouge Foundation
Charles Russell Speechlys Foundation
City Bridge Trust, the funding arm of The City of London Corporation’s charity, Bridge House Estates
- Dulverton Trust
Epic Foundation
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Firebird Foundation
Private family foundation managed by Greenwood Place
Garfield Weston Foundation
Legal Education Foundation
Orr Mackintosh Foundation
Peter Cundill Foundation
Queen Anne's Gate Foundation
Julia and Hans Rausing Trust
Rayne Foundation
Kate Wilkinson & Harry Gaskell
The Home Office
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
The Scottish Government
The Welsh Government
The National Lottery Community Fund (England & Wales, and Scotland)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Tampon Tax Fund
Greater Manchester Combined Authority

If you would like to support our work, please get in touch – we’d love to hear your fundraising ideas! You can contact us at fundraising@safelives.org.uk

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

3. Plans for future periods

2023/24 will be a challenging year for us, as we adjust to post-Covid funding levels, but it’s also the opportunity to bring together our work and articulate what it looks like in practice when everybody in an area is working together, which will be our focus over the next 12 months.

Over nearly 2 decades SafeLives has worked with local and national organisations to develop the systems for responding to cases of domestic abuse, systems which have been implemented across the UK. We have defined the roles, developed and delivered the training, qualifications and quality standards and underpinned these with research and data. We have sought to amplify the voices of survivors and underline the importance of stopping harmful behaviour. This is the core of our work, and also reflects our Whole Picture strategy, making sure everyone is working together to End Domestic Abuse.

To achieve this, we’ve organised our work for the next year under 5 workstreams:

A. Develop models of multi-agency work to improve domestic abuse understanding, prevention and response
B. Increase capability of frontline professionals through training, quality frameworks and improving relationships
C. Make sure that the voices of survivors are integral in how domestic abuse is understood and responded to
D. Speak out for better legislation, regulation and enforcement of victims’ rights and the development of an effective whole picture response

E. We will also ensure we are an effective and well-managed organisation, to support delivery of these workstreams.

We also want to make sure the way domestic abuse is understood and tackled always recognises that the likelihood, response and impact are likely to be different for people with different characteristics. For example, because of different communities’ experiences of the police, or where survivors’ rights and credibility are diminished because they are disabled by society. All our work must start from this mindset of appreciating inequity, listening to the authentic voices of survivors and making sure we are consciously inclusive.

The main deliverables under these 5 workstreams are planned in 2023/24 as follows:

A. Develop and deliver models of multi-agency work, will include:
Further refining, promotion and implementation the Whole Picture (Public Health) model for multi-agency responses to domestic abuse at a local level. We plan to work in at least 20 areas next year, and will also publish a Whole Picture national dataset and Annual Impact Report to encourage other areas to adopt this approach.
Providing continued support and development work with Maracs across the UK. This will include providing quarterly national datasets; further work to embed the Marac model in Scotland and embedding of learnings from Maracs into the design of future training. The Drive Project High Harm High Risk (“HHHR”) evidence base will be updated, repeating analysis undertaken in the pilot on an expanded dataset from the longest established operational Drive Project HHHR sites. In 2023/24 the Drive team will test and evaluate adapted versions of highharm, high-risk perpetrator services that build on learning from the Drive Project model (e.g. expanded Pan-London model, prison pilot, embedded practitioner model).
Producing specific practice guidance, research and materials for those working with victim survivors of domestic abuse. In particular, we aim to publish the following:
- co-designed training, guidance and resources for working with racially minoritised young people via pilot schemes in Bolton and Sheffield
- practice guidelines on support for Trans victims/survivors of domestic abuse

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

a toolkit for multi-agency professionals to better support visually impaired victims and survivors
research on Rethinking Domestic Abuse in Child Protection

B. Work to increase the capability of frontline professionals, will include:

Delivering our planned training programme and developing a new Training Strategy to 2025. The training plan for 2023/24 includes training over 450 Idvas/Idaas, and delivery of DA matters training to 5 of the remaining police forces.
Delivery of existing and new quality accreditation schemes for domestic abuse services. The Leading Lights accreditation process will be reviewed and streamlined and delivered to 50 services. We also plan to continue work on accreditation systems in Scotland, including the Domestic Abuse Court Advocacy Accreditation programme.
Delivery and facilitation of various sector discussion forums.
Continued delivery of the Insights service, to provide front line services with meaningful improvement data. We will be reviewing how Insights works, and what the future Insights offering might look like.

C. Planned work to support the Voices of survivors includes:

Sustaining, supporting the current group of Pioneers, and ensuring Pioneer and authentic voice involvement is central in all of our new projects and initiatives.
Delivery of specifically funded and targeted authentic voice projects in Greater Manchester and Scotland.
D. Speaking Out in 2023/24 covers a wide-ranging programme of planned tasks, including:
Updating and refreshing corporate narrative and key position statements, in line with board approved influencing priorities and Whole Picture strategy, and producing key content (e.g. core materials, web content)
Preparing and delivering a response to the Victims Bill.
Regular engagement with and lobbying of key Westminster government departments and the Scottish government on all the current issues facing the domestic abuse sector.
Developing manifesto asks for all the major political parties ahead of the general election in 2024/2025. Meetings will be sought with key ministers and shadow ministers to discuss the asks and get their support.

E. In ensuring we are an effective and well-managed organisation, we will:

Continue to work with the whole staff team on EEDi issues, and implement our new inclusion strategy.
Manage our finances for 2023/24 in line with the approved budget, and develop a balanced budget for 2024/25.
Develop and start to deliver on a new People Strategy.
Start to roll out the key elements of the new Internal Communications Strategy.
Do a full refresh of the Charity’s Strategy, ready in time for our 20[th] anniversary celebrations in the summer of 2024.
Continue to review and improve the Charity’s governance processes and systems, and recruit a new Chair of Trustees, and 3 new Trustees.

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

4. Structure, governance & management

SafeLives is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 11 August 2004, and registered as a charity on 18 November 2004. The organisation was established under a Memorandum of Association, which established the objects and powers of the organisation, and is now governed by its Articles of Association (as updated in 2018).

Apart from 2 Trustees who are remunerated for their services as Trustees and as Pioneers, all Trustees give their time voluntarily, and receive no benefits from the charity. The charity’s governing document permits the payment of Trustees, and this was also cleared with the Charity Commission. Details of this remuneration, and of expenses reclaimed from the charity are set out in note 7 of the financial statements.

Governance

Trustees are appointed for a 3-year term that may be renewed for another 3 years, and to a subsequent third term in exceptional circumstances. Trustees are selected on the basis of their skills and experience, and to ensure an appropriate mix of skills and diversity in the Board. There is a full induction programme for new Trustees and the chance to observe different activities of SafeLives.

The Trustees are responsible for the governance of the charity according to the terms of the Articles of Association. They have delegated authority for the day-to-day running of the charity to the Chief Executive Officer. They have created a Finance Committee that is responsible for overseeing the finances of the charity and for making recommendations to the full Board. The CEO, the Chief Operating Officer, the Head of Finance, and other senior managers attend the Finance Committee meetings.

The Trustees have also established a Remuneration Committee of three Trustees that is responsible for approving the overall remuneration policy of the charity and, in particular, the remuneration of the CEO and the Directors. The Remuneration Committee meets when necessary but at least once a year. The Remuneration Committee reviews the remuneration of the Executive team and key management personnel by reference to market rates and external benchmarks.

The Nominations Committee oversees and makes recommendations to the Board with respect to Trustee appointments, and reviews the size, mix and composition of skills and experience of the Board. This Committee also advises the Board on the recruitment of the Chief Executive, and on succession planning with respect to Trustees and key management personnel. Planning is currently underway for a new Chief Executive in the spring of 2024, when Suzanne Jacob plans to move on. 3 new Trustees and a new Chair of Trustees will also be appointed in 2024.

Full Trustee and Finance Committee Meetings are held on a quarterly basis.

Organisational Structure and Management

The charity is led by the CEO and the Senior Leadership Team of Executive Directors. We have a strong operational management team consisting of the heads of each team who are responsible for the creation and delivery of our operating plan, the tight oversight of our finances and development and support of our staff.

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

The average number of employees, on a full-time equivalent basis, for the year has increased from 98 to 108.

Risk Management

Risk management remains one of the most important responsibilities of the Board of Trustees. The charity maintains a Risk Register, which tracks a range of risks to the organisation, including those posed by changes in the sector, demand for services, levels of funding and staffing. The Register is reviewed at every quarterly Trustee meeting and any changes in risk levels are noted and a mitigation plan is in place for each.

The Risk Register considers the risks facing the charity grouped into 6 categories: organisational resilience – people; organisational resilience – systems; partnerships; environment; funding and delivery.

The highest risks currently on the Risk Register are the interlinked risks of environment, partnerships, funding and delivery. The impending election in 2024 could bring changes to both government policy towards and funding of the domestic abuse sector. We are also having to closely monitor our future funding, as we plan to continue drawing down our unrestricted reserves in 2023/24 down to the lower end of the target range. Partnership risk is always a relatively high risk given our reliance on partners to deliver many of our projects. We need to engage better with all our partners to ensure they fully understand our strategy and how we can best work with them.

The staffing risks noted in last year’s report have reduced this year, with a lot of work happening in all teams to help manage workload and issues around EEDI. This year we have also had to consult with teams over the planned reductions to our cost base and the overall size of the staffing team going into 2023/24. This exercise went well, with staff understanding why and how we managed the workforce numbers down to an appropriate and affordable level for the start of 2023/24. (see more in section 5 Financial Review below).

SafeGuarding, Serious and Critical Incidents

We continue to take our responsibility to the safety of those who are experiencing / have experienced domestic abuse and our staff, associate team, Pioneers and Trustees seriously. We know that many of us are in both groups. The Safeguarding Committee is made up of a Designated Safeguarding Lead (“DSL”), Jo Gordon, Chief Operating Officer, Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (“DDSL”), Melonie Senior, Senior Practice Consultant and a dedicated team of Safeguarding Champions who have the relevant knowledge, experience, training and confidence to provide support, advice and guidance to any other staff on an on-going basis and on any specified safeguarding issue as required. Designated Safeguarding Leads and Champions renew their training every two years. All other staff, trustees and pioneers renew their training every three years. The system works effectively, and we report to the Board any issues that have been raised on a quarterly basis.

We have a serious incident policy which sets out the SafeLives emergency response arrangements. This ensures we are prepared for, respond to, and recover from, a serious incident.

We also report on any serious or critical incidents to the Board quarterly and explain what action has been taken to review and learn. There has been one serious incident referred to the Charity Commission during the last 12 months. The Charity Commission was satisfied with our response to the incident and no additional action was required.

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

5. Financial Review

Income

Total income in the year to June 2023 was £8,824k, representing a decrease of £359k or 3.9% on the prior year.

The main year on year income changes are as follows:

Income £000’s		2022/23	2021/22	Change

Capacitybuilding	Training	2,763	2,483	280
	Practice	1,083	587	496
	Scotland	592	318	274
Innovation	Drive	2,676	2,556	120
	Beacons	-	77	(77)
	Your Best Friend	173	930	(757)
	Other	238	688	(450)
Research		317	328	(11)
Influencing		89	169	(80)
Unrestrictedgrants & donations		858	892	(34)
Investment income		35	5	30
Sub-total		8,824	9,033	(209)
Covid-19grants and donations		-	150	(150)
Total income		8,824	9,183	(359)

Income from our “traditional” sources was £8,824k or 98% of the previous year’s level.

The biggest increase in income this year was towards our Practice team’s work – although the Home Office have reduced our core grant, they awarded us a new 3-year grant of £1.465m to work in 2 areas looking in detail at the issues faced by children who are affected by domestic abuse. The first year of this new grant for the project called Children Affected by Domestic Abuse (“CADA”) was £508k of income in 2022/23.

We have also been successful in achieving record levels of training income in 2022/23 with delivery of our largest and most diverse training programme. Additionally, we have secured more funding from the Scottish government to work on a variety of programmes and initiatives in Scotland, and the Drive programme achieved a slightly higher level of income than the previous year.

The funding of our Innovation work (including work on Safe Young Lives projects) has reduced this year, principally due to the end of the Your Best Friend project at the end of September 2022.

Unrestricted grants and donations from philanthropic sources have fallen slightly to £858k – a drop of 4%. This income, together with the contribution from a record year of fee income earning activities, has meant that the final reduction to unrestricted reserves at the end of the year was much lower than was originally expected at the outset of the financial year.

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Costs

Costs have increased by £601k from £9,201k in 2021/22 to £9,802k in 2022/23, as per the table below:

Costs £000’s		2022/23	2021/22	Change
CapacityBuilding	Training	2,509	1,866	643
	Practice	1,027	567	460
	Scotland	593	357	236
Innovation in Practice	Drive	2,837	2,577	260
	Beacons	8	115	(107)
	Your Best Friend	166	901	(735)
	Other	701	562	139
Research		418	414	4
Influencing		468	434	34
Support		520	447	73
Governance		37	34	3
Cost of raisingfunds		258	179	79
NatWest Circle Fund		260	443	(183)
Covid-19 costs		-	305	(305)
Total Costs		9,802	9,201	601

The cost increase in training is reflective of the biggest year to date of training delivery (see also the income increase noted above).

Practice costs have increased this year due mainly to additional resource being used to deliver the CADA project (much of this is extra resource and cost with partner organisations delivering the work in the project’s 2 areas).

The additional funding we have been awarded in Scotland has enabled us to increase the size of the Scottish team, and to broaden and deepen the team’s work across Scotland.

The cost decreases on the Your Best Friend and Beacons project are due to these 2 projects finishing.

Following receipt of the £1m NatWest Circle fund in late 2019/20, a further £260k of the fund has been spent this year, split between £193k of grants to services (who in turn to make direct grants to survivors) and £67k of costs to administer the funds. The remaining funds of £6k will be used up on final project activity in 2023/24.

Project partner payments have been as follows:

Partner costs £000’s	2022/23	2021/22	Change
Drive	1,773	1,720	53
Beacons	-	75	(75)
Your Best Friend	97	688	(591)
CADA	275	-	275
Other	91	51	40
Total	2,236	2,534	(298)

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Excluding these payments to our partners, and income and costs on the NatWest Circle survivor fund, the income attributable directly to SafeLives own work was £6,395k (2022: £6,206k) and the related expenditure was £7,373k (2022: £6,224k).

Deficit for the year

The deficit for the year of £(978k), was allocated £(689)k to restricted funds and £(289)k to unrestricted funds. Unrestricted funds which had been built up in the previous 2 financial years, are now being deliberately drawn down to continue otherwise unfunded work, and to reduce unrestricted reserves to be at the lower and more prudent end of the target reserves range (see below). The deficit charged to restricted funds is down to timing - with much of the income funding this year’s restricted fund projects having been received in prior years

Surplus/(deficit) £000’s	2022/23	2021/22	2020/21
Unrestricted(incl. designated)	(289)	336	712
Restricted	(689)	(353)	215
Total	(978)	17	927

Reserves

SafeLives holds a mix of restricted and unrestricted reserves.

Restricted reserves represent the unspent balance of restricted income received by the charity, where the funding is allocated to specific charitable activities and projects. Restricted reserves will be applied to the future funding of those specific activities and projects for which the funds were intended.

Unrestricted reserves are held to fund and support the overall operation of the charity and can be applied by the charity to fund any aspect of the charity’s operations. Unrestricted reserves are also held as a buffer to enable the charity to (a) withstand any short term cashflow and working capital shortfalls; (b) mitigate against the financial impact of risks identified in the Risk Register, and (c) to cover any unforeseen expenditure.

A new designated fund of £294k was created in 2021/22 to ring-fence funds to enable planned work against strategic priorities, in support of the updated and refreshed strategic plan. This work has now largely finished, and the designated funds have now been fully utilised. Total reserves have reduced from last year’s £3,428k to stand at £2,450k this year. The main movements on reserves are as follows:

Reserves balances £000’s	30th June 2023	30th June 2022	Change
Unrestricted funds	2,063	2,218	(155)
Designated funds: strategic initiatives	-	134	(134)
Total unrestricted and designated funds	2,063	2,352	(289)
Restricted funds: NatWest Circle Fund	6	266	(443)
Restricted funds: Drive	169	379	(210)
Restricted funds: Other	212	431	(219)
Total restricted funds	387	1,076	(689)
Total funds	2,450	3,428	(978)

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Unrestricted reserves have reduced from £2,218k as at June 2022 to £2,063k at June 2023. As at June 2023, unrestricted reserves represented 4.15 months of core operating costs (2022: 5.3 months). The Trustees have set a target level of unrestricted reserves to be maintained at a level to cover 3 to 6 months’ of core operating costs. Core operating costs are defined as total costs excluding (a) grants made from the NatWest Circle fund (b) payments to project partners from restricted funds and (c) variable costs of paying associates.

Following 3 years of unrestricted reserves increasing, the Trustees decided to deliberately draw down unrestricted reserves during 2022/23 in order to maintain SafeLives at its current size and capacity, and to deliver on the operating plan for 2022/23. The closing reserves position of 4.15 months of core costs is higher than what was expected at the start of the year, and so this gradual managed reduction to unrestricted reserves will continue into 2023/24 and into 2024/25.

Reserves continued to be invested in cash, with cash balances being placed on deposits of varying terms. Cash balances have reduced this year to £3,059k (2022: £4,570k). This was expected and planned for, largely due to the final year of grants on the Natwest Circle fund, and the timing of costs on a lot of projects funded via restricted funds, with income and cash having been recognised in previous years.

Financial Outlook for 2023/24

The Trustees have carefully considered the financial outlook for 2023/24 and beyond. In the expectation that SafeLives will not generate enough new “in-year” income in 2023/24 to fund the cost base going into 2023/24, a process of reducing the size of the organisation, largely through natural staff turnover and a handful of voluntary redundancies, was completed by the end of June 2023. As noted above, in 2023/24 we will also need to continue with the strategy of using unrestricted reserves to fund operations, and also into 2024/25, before we will then have a strategy of funding in year costs from in year income.

Going Concern

The Trustees have reviewed the Charity’s plans and forecasts and the risk register and have concluded that there are no material risks or uncertainties which would bring into doubt the charity’s ability to continue to operate as a going concern into the foreseeable future.

In making this going concern assessment, the Trustees have considered how the Charity’s financial and operating model continues to change and respond in the post pandemic era, as well as looking at the current inflationary and funding pressures faced by the Charity.

The going concern assessment also takes into account the charity’s diverse income streams, flexible cost model and lack of any long- term borrowings or similar liabilities.

Best Practice in Fundraising

We strive to be open and transparent in our fundraising approach, and in how we obtain, store, and use donor information, with the consent of the donor. Most of our fundraising is done directly with donors and grantors, but a small proportion comes to us via other sources such as JustGiving.

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

We have a fundraising complaints procedure which can be found on our website: http://www.safelives.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/complaints

We also have an easy way to make a complaint directly on the fundraising area of the website. No complaints were received in 2022/23.

We strive for best practice in fundraising. None of our fundraising is aimed at potentially vulnerable people. Most of our funds come to us directly from large philanthropic and statutory funders, with a very small proportion coming to us as unsolicited funds, either from individuals directly or via sources such as Just Giving. We are registered with the Fundraising Regulator, complying with its Fundraising Promise: - https://www.fundraisingregulator.org.uk/code/fundraising promise We voluntarily signed up to join the Regulator in 2017.

Responsible use of personal data is at the heart of our fundraising practice

We conducted a full review and audit of how we use and store personal data, not just for fundraising, but across the whole organisation in readiness for the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), which came into effect in May 2018, and since then have continued to keep our data protection policies and procedures up to date.

Statement of responsibilities of the trustees

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

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

Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently
Observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP
Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent
State whether applicable UK Accounting Standards and statements of recommended practice have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements
Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation

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

S afeLives

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

In so far as the Trustees are aware:

There is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company’s auditors are unaware
The Trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditors are aware of that information

The Trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company's website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Members of the charity guarantee to contribute an amount not exceeding £1 to the assets of the charity in the event of winding up. The total number of such guarantees at 30 June 2023 was 10 (2022: 12) The trustees are members of the charity, but this entitles them only to voting rights. The trustees have no beneficial interest in the charity.

Auditors

Sayer Vincent LLP were re-appointed as the charitable company's auditors during the year and have expressed their willingness to continue in that capacity.

The Trustees’ annual report which includes the strategic report has been approved by the Trustees on 12[th] December 2023 and signed on their behalf by

Isabel Boyer Chair 12[th] December 2023

Independent auditors’ report

To the members of

SafeLives

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of SafeLives (the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 30 June 2023 which comprise the statement of financial activities, balance sheet, statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

Give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company’s affairs as at 30 June 2023 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended
Have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice
Have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulation 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended)

Basis for opinion

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

Conclusions relating to going concern

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

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

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

Other Information

The other information comprises the information included in the trustees’ annual report, including the strategic report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are

Independent auditors’ report

To the members of

SafeLives

responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

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

The information given in the trustees’ annual report, including the strategic report, for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
The trustees’ annual report, including the strategic report, has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

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’ annual report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) require us to report to you if, in our opinion:

Adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
The financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
Certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
We have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the statement of trustees’ responsibilities set out in the trustees’ annual report, 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

Independent auditors’ report

To the members of

SafeLives

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

We have been appointed as auditor under section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and under the Companies Act 2006 and report in accordance with regulations made under those Acts.

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 are set out below.

Capability of the audit in detecting irregularities

In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:

We enquired of management and the finance committee, which included obtaining and reviewing supporting documentation, concerning the charity’s policies and procedures relating to:
Identifying, evaluating, and complying with laws and regulations and whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance;
Detecting and responding to the risks of fraud and whether they have knowledge of any actual, suspected, or alleged fraud;
The internal controls established to mitigate risks related to fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations.
We inspected the minutes of meetings of those charged with governance.
We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the charity operates in, focusing on those laws and regulations that had a material effect on the financial statements or that had a fundamental effect on the operations of the charity from our professional and sector experience.
We communicated applicable laws and regulations throughout the audit team and remained alert to any indications of non-compliance throughout the audit.
We reviewed any reports made to regulators.
We reviewed the financial statement disclosures and tested these to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
We performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of material misstatement due to fraud.

Independent auditors’ report

To the members of

SafeLives

In addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, we tested the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments, assessed whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias and tested significant transactions that are unusual or those outside the normal course of business.

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 noncompliance. 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 is available 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 and section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. 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.

Fleur Holden (Senior statutory auditor)

4 January 2024

for and on behalf of Sayer Vincent LLP, Statutory Auditor Invicta House, 108-114 Golden Lane, LONDON, EC1Y 0TL

Sayer Vincent LLP is eligible to act as auditor in terms of section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006

SafeLives

Statement of financial activities (incorporating an income and expenditure account)

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Unrestricted £ 857,721 2,729,049 1,641 124,189 500 34,876	Designated £ - - - - - -	Restricted £ - 1,708,396 3,085,187 193,208 89,138 -	2023 Total £ 857,721 4,437,445 3,086,828 317,397 89,638 34,876	Unrestricted £ 891,844 2,552,230 - 88,394 150 5,645	Designated £ 150,000 - - - - -	Restricted £ - 835,214 4,251,358 240,067 168,525 -	2022 Total £ 1,041,844 3,387,444 4,251,358 328,461 168,675 5,645
3,747,976	-	5,075,929	8,823,905	3,538,263	150,000	5,495,164	9,183,427
269,403 2,882,353 249,835 271,532 364,009 - -	- - - - - - -	- 1,634,065 3,573,800 176,920 120,486 259,746 -	269,403 4,516,418 3,823,635 448,452 484,495 259,746 -	187,259 2,136,036 181,091 224,041 318,873 - -	- - - - - - 305,018	- 909,753 4,123,256 235,117 137,177 443,091 -	187,259 3,045,789 4,304,347 459,158 456,050 443,091 305,018
4,037,132	-	5,765,017	9,802,149	3,047,300	305,018	5,848,394	9,200,712
(289,156) 133,828	- (133,828)	(689,088) -	(978,244) -	490,963 530,215	(155,018) (530,215)	(353,230) -	(17,285) -
(155,328)	(133,828)	(689,088)	(978,244)	1,021,178	(685,233)	(353,230)	(17,285)
2,217,985	133,828	1,076,396	3,428,209	1,196,807	819,061	1,429,626	3,445,494
2,062,657	-	387,308	2,449,965	2,217,985	133,828	1,076,396	3,428,209

There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. Movements in funds are disclosed in Note 16 to the financial statements.

SafeLives

Company no. 05203237

Balance sheet

As at 30 June 2023

Note £ Fixed assets: 11 Current assets: 12 1,236,381 17 1,008,854 17 2,050,478 4,295,713 Liabilities: 13 1,845,748 16 16 16 Cash at bank and in hand Tangible assets Short term cash deposits Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Net current assets Total net assets Total charity funds Debtors Restricted funds Unrestricted fund The funds of the charity: Designated fund	2023 £ - 2,449,965	£ 843,035 2,108,854 2,461,513	2022 £ - 3,428,209
4,295,713 1,845,748		5,413,402 1,985,193

	2,449,965		3,428,209
	387,308 2,062,657 -		1,076,396 2,217,985 133,828
	2,449,965		3,428,209

Approved by the trustees on 12th December 2023 and signed on their behalf by

Isabel Boyer Chair

SafeLives

Statement of cash flows

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Reconciliation of net income to net cash flow from operating activities

			2023	2022
			£	£
Net expenditure for the reporting period			(978,244)	(17,285)
(as per the statement of financial activities)
Interest from investments			(34,876)	(5,645)
Increase in debtors			(393,346)	(6,640)
(Decrease)/increase in creditors			(139,445)	119,489
Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities			(1,545,911)	89,919
Cash flows from investing activities:
Interest from investments			34,876	5,645
Net cash provided by investing activities			34,876	5,645
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year			(1,511,035)	95,564
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year			4,570,367	4,474,803
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year			3,059,332	4,570,367
Analysis of cash and cash equivalents
	At 1 July 2022	Cash flows	Other changes	At 30 June 2023
	£	£	£	£
Cash at bank and in hand	2,461,513	(411,035)	-	2,050,478
Notice deposits (less than three months)	-	-	-	-
Overdraft facility repayable on demand	-	-	-	-
Short term deposits	2,108,854	(1,100,000)	-	1,008,854
Total cash and cash equivalents	4,570,367	(1,511,035)	-	3,059,332

SafeLives

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 30 June 2023

1 Accounting policies
a) Statutory information SafeLives is a charitable company limited by guarantee and is incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office address is Suite 2a, Whitefriars, Lewins Mead, Bristol BS1 2NT.
b) Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) - (Charities SORP FRS 102), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

In applying the financial reporting framework, the Trustees have made a number of subjective judgements, for example in respect of significant accounting estimates. Estimates and judgements are continually evaluated and are based on historical experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. The nature of the estimation means the actual outcomes could differ from those estimates. Any significant estimates and judgements affecting these financial statements are detailed within the relevant accounting policy below.

The Trustees do not consider that there are any sources of estimation uncertainty at the reporting date that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next reporting period.

c) Public benefit entity

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

d) Going concern The Trustees have reviewed the operating and funding environment of the Charity, and have considered the risks faced by the Charity, and have concluded that there are no material uncertainties about the charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern. The Trustees do not consider that there are any sources of estimation uncertainty at the reporting date that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next reporting period.
e) 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 from government and other grants, whether ‘capital’ grants or ‘revenue’ grants, is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the grants have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably and is not deferred.

Income received in advance of the provision of a specified service is deferred until the criteria for income recognition are met.

f) Donations of gifts, services and facilities
Donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item or received the service, any conditions associated with the donation have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity of the item is probable and that economic benefit can be measured reliably. In accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102), volunteer time is not recognised.

On receipt, donated gifts, professional services and donated facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt.

g) Interest receivable 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.
h) 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 unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular purposes.
i) Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified under the following activity headings:
Costs of raising funds relate to the costs incurred by the charitable company 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 comprises those costs incurred by the charity in the delivery of its activities and services for its beneficiaries. Income and expenditure is allocated to the following main charitable activities: Capacity Building; Innovation in Practice; Research; Influencing; NatWest Circle Fund and Covid-19 costs.

Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred.

j) Grants payable Grants payable are made to third parties in furtherance of the charity's objects. Single or multi-year grants are accounted for when either the recipient has a reasonable expectation that they will receive a grant and the trustees have agreed to pay the grant without condition, or the recipient has a reasonable expectation that they will receive a grant and that any condition attaching to the grant is outside of the control of the charity.

Provisions for grants are made when the intention to make a grant has been communicated to the recipient but there is uncertainty about either the timing of the grant or the amount of grant payable.

k) Allocation of support costs

Support costs include central functions and are allocated to activity cost categories 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.

SafeLives

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 30 June 2023

1 Accounting policies (continued)

l) Operating leases

Rental charges are charged on a straight line basis over the term of the lease. Rental incentives (such as rent free periods) are spread over the term of the lease.

m) Tangible fixed assets

Items of equipment are capitalised where the purchase price exceeds £5,000. 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

Over the minimum lease period

n) 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.

SafeLives uses all reasonable endeavours to collect debts in respect of fees charged for services. Where items are over 12 months overdue and payment is looking to be extremely remote, the debt is written off in full (but will continue to be pursued). Debts which are over 90 days overdue, but under 1 year are reviewed on a regular basis, and a bad debt provision of 50% of the outstanding debt is made where appropriate.

o) Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account. Short term deposits are cash deposits with more than 3 months' maturity.

p) 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.

q) Financial instruments

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.

r) Pensions

The charitable company makes defined contributions to personal pension plans for employees. The annual contributions payable are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities as they fall due. The company complies with the current requirements in respect of pensions auto-enrolment.

2 Donations & grants

Donations & grants
Esmee Fairbairn Foundation Julia & Hans Rausing Trust The Fidelity Foundation Oak Foundation Peter Cundill Foundation Julius Gaudio Foundation Other donations & income Garfield Weston Foundation Grants receivable: Epic Foundation Lloyds Bank plc	Unrestricted £ - 100,000 150,000 120,142 64,030 140,000 70,000 50,000 163,549 -	Designated £ - - - - - - - - - -	2023 Total £ - 100,000 150,000 120,142 64,030 140,000 70,000 50,000 163,549 -	Unrestricted £ 112,500 100,000 150,000 122,476 155,298 100,000 - - 151,570 -	Designated £ - - - - - - - - - 150,000	2022 Total £ 112,500 100,000 150,000 122,476 155,298 100,000 - - 151,570 150,000
	857,721	-	857,721	891,844	150,000	1,041,844

There were no restricted funds received in the current year, other than those allocated to specific charitable activities, as per note 3.

SafeLives

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 30 June 2023

3 Income from charitable activities

Unrestricted £ 2,411,088 -	Restricted £ - 351,886	2023 Total £ 2,411,088 351,886	Unrestricted £ 2,221,658 -	Restricted £ - 261,030	2022 Total £ 2,221,658 261,030
2,411,088 193,474 - - -	351,886 - 380,382 508,649 -	2,762,974 193,474 380,382 508,649 -	2,221,658 173,939 - - -	261,030 - 406,121 - 7,084	2,482,688 173,939 406,121 - 7,084
193,474 124,487 - - -	889,031 703 445,336 21,440 -	1,082,505 125,190 445,336 21,440 -	173,939 156,633 - - -	413,205 - 155,979 - 5,000	587,144 156,633 155,979 - 5,000
124,487	467,479	591,966	156,633	160,979	317,612
2,729,049	1,708,396	4,437,445	2,552,230	835,214	3,387,444
Unrestricted £ - - - - - - -	Restricted £ 104,078 1,247,968 171,903 159,092 896,656 8,750 87,503	2023 Total £ 104,078 1,247,968 171,903 159,092 896,656 8,750 87,503	Unrestricted £ - - - - - - -	Restricted £ 51,813 1,197,232 316,451 93,170 796,142 - 101,512	2022 Total £ 51,813 1,197,232 316,451 93,170 796,142 - 101,512
- -	2,675,950 -	2,675,950 -	- -	2,556,320 77,213	2,556,320 77,213
- - - - 1,256 - 385	- 100,000 172,787 - 18,250 - 118,200	- 100,000 172,787 - 19,506 - 118,585	- - - - - - -	77,213 75,000 929,528 154,546 5,000 330,000 123,751	77,213 75,000 929,528 154,546 5,000 330,000 123,751
1,641	3,085,187	3,086,828	-	4,251,358	4,251,358
Unrestricted £ 124,189 - -	Restricted £ - 178,358 14,850	2023 Total £ 124,189 178,358 14,850	Unrestricted £ 88,394 - -	Restricted £ 57,481 105,879 76,707	2022 Total £ 145,875 105,879 76,707
124,189	193,208	317,397	88,394	240,067	328,461
Unrestricted £ 500 -	Restricted £ 57,888 31,250	2023 Total £ 58,388 31,250	Unrestricted £ 150 -	Restricted £ 140,400 28,125	2022 Total £ 140,550 28,125
500	89,138	89,638	150	168,525	168,675
Unrestricted £ 34,876	Restricted £ -	2023 Total £ 34,876	Unrestricted £ 5,645	Restricted £ -	2022 Total £ 5,645
34,876	-	34,876	5,645	-	5,645

SafeLives

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 30 June 2023

5 Analysis of expenditure

5 Analysis of expenditure
2023 Capacity Building Training Practice Scotland Innovation in Practice Drive Beacons Your Best Friend Other innovation projects Safe Young Lives Research Influencing NatWest Circle Fund Covid-19 related activity Total expenditure 2023 2022 Capacity Building Training Practice & consultancy Scotland Innovation in Practice Drive Beacons Your Best Friend Other innovation projects Safe Young Lives Research Influencing NatWest Circle Fund Covid-19 related activity Total expenditure 2022 Support and governance costs Direct Staff Costs Delivery Costs IT Costs Office Costs Other Costs Charitable Activities Costs of raising funds Charitable Activities Costs of raising funds	Activities Grant funding Other funding Support undertaken of activities of activities & governance Total directly via partners via partners Costs Costs £ £ £ £ £ 257,950 - - 11,453 269,403 2,487,081 22,228 - 286,066 2,795,375 752,082 275,250 - 58,398 1,085,730 528,779 63,947 - 42,587 635,313 3,767,942 361,425 - 387,051 4,516,418 1,063,920 1,715,333 58,000 49,321 2,886,574 7,483 - - 1 7,484 68,688 97,215 - 7,050 172,953 438,030 - - 32,853 470,883 263,437 - - 22,304 285,741 1,841,558 1,812,548 58,000 111,529 3,823,635 418,205 - - 30,247 448,452 463,319 5,000 - 16,176 484,495 67,246 192,500 - - 259,746 - - - - - 6,816,220 2,371,473 58,000 556,456 9,802,149 Activities Grant funding Other funding Support undertaken of activities of activities & governance Total directly via partners via partners Costs Costs £ £ £ £ £ 179,042 - - 8,217 187,259 1,857,304 9,000 - 158,886 2,025,190 566,478 - - 65,147 631,625 337,387 19,074 - 32,513 388,974 2,761,169 28,074 - 256,546 3,045,789 856,699 1,687,996 31,997 70,986 2,647,678 40,745 - 74,813 526 116,084 213,100 687,753 - 28,509 929,362 338,844 - - 28,358 367,202 216,994 - 5,629 21,398 244,021 1,666,382 2,375,749 112,439 149,777 4,304,347 414,328 - - 44,830 459,158 416,138 17,900 - 22,012 456,050 43,091 400,000 - - 443,091 305,018 - - - 305,018 5,785,168 2,821,723 112,439 481,382 9,200,712 2023 2023 2023 Support & governance £ £ £ 391,743 13,914 405,657 25,955 4,306 30,261 87,002 - 87,002 14,696 - 14,696 - 18,840 18,840 519,396 37,060 556,456 Governance Support Expenditure Expenditure	Charged to
		Unrestricted Designated Restricted Total Income Income Income Income £ £ £ £ 269,403 - - 269,403
		2,440,667 - 354,708 2,795,375 207,709 - 878,021 1,085,730 233,977 - 401,336 635,313
		2,882,353 - 1,634,065 4,516,418
		- - 2,886,574 2,886,574 - - 7,484 7,484 - - 172,953 172,953 249,331 - 221,552 470,883 504 285,237 285,741
		249,835 - 3,573,800 3,823,635 271,532 - 176,920 448,452 364,009 - 120,486 484,495 - - 259,746 259,746 - - - -
		4,037,132 - 5,765,017 9,802,149
		Charged to
		Unrestricted Designated Restricted Total Income Income Income Income £ £ £ £ 187,259 - - 187,259
		1,749,832 - 275,358 2,025,190 209,665 - 421,960 631,625 176,539 - 212,435 388,974
		2,136,036 - 909,753 3,045,789
		- - 2,647,678 2,647,678 - - 116,084 116,084 - - 929,362 929,362 181,091 - 186,111 367,202 - 244,021 244,021
		181,091 - 4,123,256 4,304,347 224,041 - 235,117 459,158 318,873 - 137,177 456,050 - - 443,091 443,091 - 305,018 - 305,018
		3,047,300 305,018 5,848,394 9,200,712
		2022 2022 2022 Support & governance £ £ £ 332,265 12,480 344,745 19,887 4,518 24,405 81,975 - 81,975 12,917 - 12,917 - 17,340 17,340 447,044 34,338 481,382 Support Governance

SafeLives

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 30 June 2023

6 Net income / (expenditure) for the year

This is stated after charging:

This is stated after charging:
	2023	2022
	£	£
Operating lease rentals:
Property - lease	40,958	40,958
Other	1,724	1,825
Auditors' remuneration (excluding VAT):
Audit - current year	15,700	13,650

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

Staff costs were as follows:

Staff costs were as follows:
Salaries and wages Redundancy and termination costs (£47,240 settled and paid in year, £12,437 Social security costs Employer’s contribution to defined contribution pension schemes Costs related to self employed associates accrued and paid in next financial year)	2023 £ 3,948,346 59,677 410,894 237,258	2022 £ 3,398,241 - 343,804 192,800
	4,656,175 1,374,838	3,934,845 1,325,598
	6,031,013	5,260,443

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

		2023	2022
		No.	No.
£70,000	- £79,999	2	3
£80,000	- £89,999	2	1

The total employee benefits including employer pension contributions and employer's national insurance of the key management personnel were £410,321 in respect of 5 employees (2022: £343,691 in respect of 4 employees).

One Trustee, Ursula Lindenberg, received £330 remuneration during the year for services provided as a Trustee (2022: £495). The same Trustee and another Trustee (Shana Begum) also received remuneration for services provided as a Pioneer. The payment for services provided as a Trustee is permitted under the charity's governing document. The payment for services as a Pioneer were agreed on exactly the same terms as other nonTrustee Pioneers.

Ursula Lindenberg received £361 for fees and expenses as a Pioneer (2022: £444), and Shana Begum received £1,800 for fees and expenses as a Pioneer (2022: £926).

Trustees' expenses represent the payment or reimbursement of travel and subsistence costs totalling £1,476 (2022: £2,464) incurred by 6 (2022: 10) members relating to attendance at meetings of the trustees.

Pensions

Pensions
		2023	2022
		£	£
Pension amounts outstanding at	30th June	-	25,444

8 Staff numbers

The average number of employees (based on headcount) during the year was 120 (2022: 108).

The average number of employees (based on full-time equivalent of staff employed) during the year was as follows:

Fundraising Capacity building Innovation in practice Research Influencing Support	2023 No. 4 46 29 9 7 15	2022 No. 3 36 28 10 8 13
	110	98

SafeLives

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 30 June 2023

9 Related party transactions

As noted in note 7 above, Ursula Lindenberg and Shana Begum received remuneration during the year for services provided as a Trustee. Ursula Lindenberg and Shana Begum also received remuneration for services provided as a Pioneer. The payment for services provided as a Trustee is permitted under the charity's governing document. The payment for services provided as a Pioneer were agreed on exactly the same terms as other non-Trustee Pioneers.

There were no amounts owing to or from any related party as at 30 June 2023 (2022: none).

During the year, SafeLives received no donations from connected parties (2022: none).

10 Taxation

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

11 Tangible fixed assets

At the end of the year Depreciation Net book value At the start of the year Charge for the year At the end of the year At the start of the year Cost Additions in year At the start of the year At the end of the year	Leasehold improvements £ 36,237 -	Total £ 36,237 -
	36,237	36,237
	36,237 -	36,237 -
	36,237	36,237
	-	-
	-	-

All of the above assets are used for charitable purposes.

12 Debtors

Debtors
Trade creditors Taxation and social security Other creditors Accruals Deferred income (note 14) Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Accrued income Trade debtors Other debtors Prepayments	2023 £ 448,788 16,973 133,769 636,851	2022 £ 142,704 19,857 35,557 644,917
	1,236,381	843,035
	2023 £ 270,348 100,279 16,680 619,037 839,404	2022 £ 304,155 117,079 47,533 789,455 726,971
	1,845,748	1,985,193

13 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

SafeLives

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 30 June 2023

14 Deferred income

The deferred income balance relates to income received in respect of programmes to be delivered in the next financial year.

Balance at the beginning of the year Amount released to income in the year Amount deferred in the year Balance at the end of the year Deferred income is in respect of the following: Fee income (Training, Insights and Consultancy) Other projects (grants)	2023 £ 726,971 (726,971) 839,404	2022 £ 1,067,628 (1,067,628) 726,971
	839,404	726,971
	2023 £ 663,985 175,419	2022 £ 554,055 172,916
	839,404	726,971

15a Analysis of net assets between funds (current year)

Analysis of net assets between funds (current year)
Tangible fixed assets Net current assets Net assets at 30 June 2023 Net current assets Analysis of net assets between funds (prior year) Net assets at 30 June 2022 Tangible fixed assets	General designated £ - -	General unrestricted £ - 2,062,657	Restricted £ - 387,308	Total funds £ - 2,449,965
	-	2,062,657	387,308	2,449,965
	General designated £ - 133,828	General unrestricted £ - 2,217,985	Restricted £ - 1,076,396	Total funds £ - 3,428,209
	133,828	2,217,985	1,076,396	3,428,209

15b Analysis of net assets between funds (prior year)

SafeLives

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 30 June 2023

16a Movements in funds (current year)

At 1 July 2022 £ 48,024 - - - 1,918	Income £ 351,886 380,382 508,649 21,440 446,039	Expenditure £ 354,708 380,382 497,639 20,400 380,936	Transfers £ - - - - -	At 30 June 2023 £ 45,202 - 11,010 1,040 67,021
49,942	1,708,396	1,634,065	-	124,273
379,498 7,484 10,253 166 101,643 - 212,761 12,243	2,675,950 - 100,000 172,787 18,250 - 118,200	2,886,574 7,484 110,253 172,953 101,643 9,656 182,986 102,251	- - - - - - - -	168,874 - - - - 8,594 29,775 28,192
724,048	3,085,187	3,573,800	-	235,435
- - 4,950	178,358 - 14,850	158,358 18,562	- - -	20,000 - 1,238
4,950	193,208	176,920	-	21,238
31,348 266,108	89,138 -	120,486 259,746	- -	- 6,362
1,076,396	5,075,929	5,765,017	-	387,308
2,217,985 133,828	3,747,976 -	4,037,132 -	133,828 (133,828)	2,062,657 -
133,828	-	-	(133,828)	-

3,428,209	8,823,905	9,802,149	-	2,449,965

The transfer of costs from unrestricted funds to designated funds is in relation to costs incurred on the strategic initiative projects set up at the end of the prior year.

SafeLives

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 30 June 2023

16b Movements in funds (prior year)

At 1 July 2021 £ 62,352 - 8,755 53,374 - -	Income £ 261,030 406,121 7,084 - 155,979 5,000	Expenditure £ 275,358 406,121 15,839 53,374 154,061 5,000	Transfers £ - - - - - -	At 30 June 2022 £ 48,024 - - - 1,918 -
124,481	835,214	909,753	-	49,942
470,856 46,355 28,818 - 34,643 - - 15,274	2,556,320 77,213 75,000 929,528 154,546 5,000 330,000 123,751	2,647,678 116,084 93,565 929,362 87,546 5,000 117,239 126,782	- - - - - - - -	379,498 7,484 10,253 166 101,643 - 212,761 12,243
595,946	4,251,358	4,123,256	-	724,048
- - -	105,879 57,481 76,707	105,879 57,481 71,757	- - -	- - 4,950
-	240,067	235,117	-	4,950
- 709,199	168,525 -	137,177 443,091	- -	31,348 266,108
1,429,626	5,495,164	5,848,394	-	1,076,396
1,196,807 525,561 293,500	3,538,263 150,000 -	3,047,300 305,018 -	530,215 (370,543) (159,672)	2,217,985 - 133,828
819,061	150,000	305,018	(530,215)	133,828

3,445,494	9,183,427	9,200,712	-	3,428,209

Cost transfers have been made from unrestricted funds to designated funds (a) in respect of work and activity funded by Covid-19 grants, and (b) work undertaken on the strategic initiatives identified and set up at the end of 2021/22. The Covid-19 fund was fully used up by the end of 2021/22, and the strategic initiative fund by the end of 2022/23.

SafeLives Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 30 June 2023

16 Movements in funds (continued)

Purposes of principal restricted funds

Capacity Building

Training bursaries & grants

Grants have been received from the Welsh Government, the Institute for Addressing Strangulation and the Legal Education Foundation to develop and deliver various training courses.

Practice

The Practice team provides support and resources to help Maracs and professionals working in the domestic violence sector to improve their effectiveness so that all high-risk victims of domestic abuse receive a consistent, quality response. A significant part of the Practice team's work (and some of the Research team's work) is funded via the "Core Functions" grant from the Home Office.

The Practice team this year has been awarded a new grant from the Home Office to work in two areas looking into all of the issues faced by Children Affected by Domestic Abuse ("CADA").

Scottish grants

The Scottish Government continues to provide grants to support most aspects of our work in Scotland. The National Lottery in Scotland is supporting us on authentic voice work in Scotland.

Innovation in Practice

Drive

This project (run in partnership with Respect & Social Finance and several delivery partners) addresses and challenges the behaviour of perpetrators of domestic abuse - the project is developing and testing innovative and different approaches with perpetrators across several pilot areas.

Beacons

The funding for this project and the project has now ceased.

Incubator Team

This team was established towards the end of 2018/19 to come up with ideas with respect to professional practice, and to test those ideas internally initially, and then with selected partners, before seeking to go to wider audiences.

Your Best Friend Project

In 2020/21 The Tampon Tax fund awarded us just under £1.5m to work with partners across England and Wales over 2 years and develop knowledge and confidence within young people to recognise and respond to domestic abuse.

Safe Young Lives

Funding has been awarded from several grant making trusts to help us research the issues around young people and domestic abuse - and in response to those insights, to formulate ideas and policies to address the issues identified.

Research

A significant part of the Research team's general work is funded from the Home Office "Core Functions" grant. This grant is supplemented by other restricted fee income and grant income in respect of specific research projects, which are commissioned by partners from time to time.

Influencing

The Public Affairs team's work on influencing and shaping policy in our sector is funded by several grants and a recurring donation.

NatWest Bank PLC Survivor fund

At the end of 2019/20, NatWest Bank PLC granted us £1m to be used over the next 3 years in making sub-grants to frontline services, who in turn would use the funds to provide direct financial assistance to the victims of domestic abuse and their families.

17 Operating lease commitments

The charity's total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases, rental element excluding services charges, is as follows for each of the following periods.

for each of the following periods.
Less than one year One to five years	2023 2022 £ £ 42,504 42,504 88,550 131,054 131,054 173,558 Property		2023 2022 £ £ 1,858 1,858 3,870 5,728 5,728 7,586 Other
	131,054	173,558	5,728	7,586

18 Legal status of the charity

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

SafeLives

Contents

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Reference and administrative information

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Reference and administrative information

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

1. Objectives and activities

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

2. Achievements & Performance

Building capabilities at the frontline

Developing knowledge and skills

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Strategic Priority 1: Act before someone harms or is harmed

Safe Young Lives (“SYL”)

Your Best Friend (“YBF”)

Relationships & Sex Education (“RSE”)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Verge of Harm(ing)

Changemakers

Care journey project

Men and boys

Strategic Priority 2: Identify and stop harmful behaviour

Drive

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Restart

Strategic Priority 3: Increase safety for those at risk

Risk-led response

Scotland

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Public Health Approach

Visually impaired people, Vision Foundation

Strategic Priority 4: Support people to live the life they want after harm occurs

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Authentic Voice

NatWest Circle Fund

Victims Bill

Family court system

Non- Fatal Strangulation (“NFS”)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Strategic Priority 5: SafeLives continues to be an effective and sustainable organisation

Equity, equality, diversity and inclusion

Organisational Development

Staff, Associates, Trustees and Pioneers

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Partnerships

Our supporters

Trustees’ annual report

3. Plans for future periods

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

B. Work to increase the capability of frontline professionals, will include:

C. Planned work to support the Voices of survivors includes:

E. In ensuring we are an effective and well-managed organisation, we will:

Trustees’ annual report

4. Structure, governance & management

Governance

Organisational Structure and Management

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Risk Management

SafeGuarding, Serious and Critical Incidents

Trustees’ annual report

5. Financial Review

Income

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 30 June 2023

Costs

Trustees’ annual report