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2022-03-31-accounts

Charity Registration No: 1116474

Annual Report 1 April 2021 – 31 March 2022

Supporting children, young people and their families living in North Devon and the Torridge area who have experienced the death of someone close to them.

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Contents Page
Legal and administrative information 3
Report of the Trustees 4
Family Service Analysis 16
Statement of Public Benefit 25
Note from the Chair 25
Statement of Financial Activities and Notes to the Accounts
Report of the Independent Examiner
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Legal and administrative information

Status

Families in grief was registered with the Charity Commission in October 2006 as a Charitable Trust with a trust deed as our governing document. It is governed by constitution.

Charity Number 1116474

Charity objectives

Organisational Structure

Trustees

The Trustees serving during the year were as follows: Tracey Elliot (Chair of Trustees) Alison Smith (Vice Chair) Toby Slater (Treasurer) Lesley Rolfe Alison Jackson Nicky Geddes Maureen Elsom (started in July 2021) Karen Hutton (Started in January 2022)

Employees

General Manager then Director - Emma Marston Administrator - Karen Hutton (Retired December 2021 and then became a Trustee in 2022) Communication and Administration Officer – Clare Maynard From January 2022 Family Service Coordinator - Abi Mandeville Family Service Coordinator - Ellie Mackay until July 2021 Family Service Coordinator- Bec Symonds October 2021

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All employees work part-time. Emma works 30 hours per week. Abi and Bec are a job share working in total 40 hours per week, and Clare works 30 hours per week.

Address:

Families in Grief (FiG), The Old School House, 13 Bridgeland Street, Bideford Devon EX39 2QE

Independent Examiner

Brian Buteano 5 College Green, Bideford, EX39 3JY

Bank

CAF Bank Ltd, 25 kings Hill Ave, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent, ME19 4JQ

Report of the Trustees

The trustees are pleased to present their report and the financial statements for the year ended April 2021.

Principal Activity

Families in Grief, or FiG as we are known in the local community, provides bereavement support for bereaved children and their families living in Northern Devon (North Devon and Torridge District Council areas). It also provides support to professionals in contact with bereaved children.

Many areas of North Devon contend with low salaries and high levels of unemployment. According to Devon County Council figures, at least one in five children live in income deprived families in Barnstaple and Ilfracombe. Without additional support from FiG the problems of bereavement on top of deprivation make these children especially vulnerable to poor outcomes. We offer this crucial bereavement support completely free to ensure that families, regardless of social-economic circumstances, can get the help they need.

We aim to continue to provide a credible and high-quality bereavement support service to all bereaved children, young people, and their families in need of our help, and to better educate

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and support professionals who come into contact with bereaved children, young people and their families.

We understand that all families are unique and have different needs when they are bereaved. We meet families wherever they are on their journey through grief by offering different individualised pathways of support to help them.

Our vision

To help all bereaved families living in North Devon and the Torridge area feel better and less alone in their grief

Our aims

Our objectives

The strategies, advice, and activities we offer families and professionals are devised over many years of being alongside bereaved children and adults. We use feedback from bereaved families to develop our service as well as the ‘Three component model of bereavement care’ (please refer to diagram below) as a guide to the different types of support we offer.

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What do bereaved families need?

Based on the ‘Three component model of bereavement care’ (NICE 2003)

We meet families at the point that they need us, individually assessing their needs and together planning the appropriate support.

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The following pathways are examples of how we help families and professionals:

Pathway for family through FiG Pathway for teaching staff and other
professionals through FiG
Type of Support
Offered:
General Info and
Guidance		 Pathway 1
1. Families become aware of our
service and the support it offers
via digital platforms, published
materials, presentations,
meetings
2. Download digital booklets or
resources from website and look
at FiG website for ideas and info.
Pathway 2
1. Enquiry: A family calls/emails us
2. Follow-up assessment call and
support from FSC.
3. Relevant digital resources sent.
Pathway 1
1. Professionals become aware of
our service and the support it
offers via digital platforms,
materials, presentations,
meetings.
2. Download digital booklets or
resources from FiG website and
look at FiG website for ideas and
info.
Pathway 2
1. Enquiry: A teacher or social
worker etc. calls/emails us
2. Follow up phone or video call
coaching/ supporting
professional.
3. Relevant digital resources sent.
Type of Support
Offered:
Further Support
through home and
school visits		 Pathway 1
1. Assessment call and signpost/
referral on to another service
where necessary.
2. Two or three follow up support
calls to parent/carer.
3. Relevant digital resources sent.
Pathway 2
1. Assessment call and referral on
where necessary.
2. Three or four follow up support
calls to a parent/carer.
3. Relevant digital resources sent.
4. One or two home visits to family.
Pathway 1
1. Assessment call.
2. FiG staff attend multi-agency
meeting.
3. Phone or video call coaching/
supporting professional working with
child, or working with them in situ
e.g. youth centre, school etc.
4. Relevant digital resources sent.

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Type of Support
Offered:
FiG Groups and
Bereavement
Training		 Pathway 1
1. Assessment Call and referral on
where necessary.
2. Two or three follow up support
calls to a parent/carer.
3. Relevant digital resources sent.
4. One or two home visits.
5. Family attend a Children’s Group
or Teens in Grief: Including one
pre-group visit, six group sessions
and one post group visit.		 Pathway 1
1. Assessment call.
2. Two or three calls to professional and
family.
3. FiG staff attend multi-agency
meeting.
4. Phone or video call coaching/
supporting professional working with
child, or working with them in situ
e.g. youth centre, school etc.
5. Relevant digital resources sent.
Pathway 2
1. FiG advertises training session to
professionals.
2. FiG delivers 3 hour training session
for maximum 12 professionals
called: ‘Introduction to Supporting
Bereaved Children, Young people and
their Families’ or other training.

Our Team

We have a skilled staff team all with ‘lived experience’ of the issues our families face. Our Director was bereaved of her best friend when she was a teenager, our Family Service Coordinator and Administrator were both bereaved of their Mums when they were children, and our Family Service Coordinator’s family were supported by FiG many years ago.

Our board of trustees have a wealth of experience, including business management, accountancy, nursing, counselling and head teachership as well as half of the team having ‘lived experience’ of the issues our families face.

Our service

We are the only service in the local area to offer bereavement support to all families regardless of their circumstances and we tailor our support depending on need.

We are also the only organisation in the area that offers bereavement training to teaching staff and professionals. Our support and training is vital to help bereaved children, young people and their families adjust to their changed lives.

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We are also the only bereavement service in the area to provide free digital downloadable booklets to help bereaved families and teaching professionals.

We support children, young people and their families who have experienced the death of someone close to them. We offer support through phone calls, digital resources, home and school visits, drop-in sessions, and through our support groups which run throughout the year.

Our support can be separated into three levels, as follows:

‘ ’ The first level of our support is offering General information and advice . Many families or professionals seek advice or information by calling or emailing FiG for support or advice. We listen and offer reassurance, advice and resources where needed. However, not everyone will pick up the phone and call FiG or ask their parent or teacher for help. We believe everyone has a right to bereavement support so this year we created a website full of practical guidance and free downloadable guides for teens, teachers, and parents to access 24/7 to ensure those who need it can access support online.

Our second level of support is for families or professionals needing extra help or support. We do this by visiting and talking to family members at home or providing more further strategies and advice to teaching staff at school. During our home visits we reassure the child, young person, and their family that they are safe and have our support to say things out loud that they previously haven’t been brave enough to say. During these conversations children start to open, unlocking previously unheard feelings in front of their parent or carer. Children and their families talk to us about how their life has been impacted since the death. In response we tailor our support to suit the needs of the family in their home or at school. This can sometimes include arts and graft activities or going for a walk. We work closely with all our local schools, and should the family need extra support in other areas we have close partnerships with local services including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), the North Devon Hospice, Cruse, Pete’s Dragon’s, GP’s, Children’s Services, Social Services to put bespoke plans in place.

Here is an example of how we helped Molly aged 7 during a home visit: Molly was very quiet to start with. She had previously not spoken about the death of her Dad to her Mum. A member of FiG brought out her colourful ‘Worry Monster’ toy to help Molly to relax. Molly loved the toy and started to talk to it about her worries. She then rushed upstairs and brought down a letter she had written to her Dad, as well as photos of him. Following the visit Mum said, "My daughter has never spoken about her Dad like that, it was very moving to hear and she is now talking about him a lot at home, thank you FiG!”

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Our final level of support is for families to access through our support group sessions. Our ‘Children’s Group’ is for 5–11-year-olds and their carers. 'Teens in Grief' is for 12-18- year- olds and their carers. These sessions are held one evening a week for six weeks in a safe space, usually the Bideford Children’s Centre or the Bideford Youth Centre. We use venues with disabled access and with close links to public transport. If families attend with additional needs, we have a programme of adapted activities and offer extra 1:1 support. During the sessions we encourage children and young people to explore their feelings through creative and physical activities. The parents have their own support group in a room nearby. Together they share stories, and learn they are not alone.

During our group sessions we bring bereaved families together to reduce feelings of isolation, build resilience by teaching them healthy ways to cope with overwhelming feelings. This empowers families to come to terms with their changed lives.

We also aim to educate and support professionals in contact with bereaved children and young people about grief, loss and strategies to support children in their classrooms. We offer training courses and resource packs to schools and next year launch our ‘School Bereavement Champion’ initiative. This programme aims to train one member of teaching staff in every school across North Devon and the Torridge area. This will create a network of ‘School Bereavement Champions’ ensuring there is one ‘bereavement champion’ per learning community or school. We will then support these champions following their training through regular ‘clinics’.

During the year 2020-2021 our service developed rapidly as we identified further needs of our bereaved families as well as changing our support to adapt to the challenges the pandemic brought with it. New staff have joined our team since then and in January 2021 we developed our new three- year strategic plan.

The Trustees

The Trustees are named on page 2. If they have served for less than 1 year this is indicated.

The constitution states that the Charity shall have a minimum of three trustees. Every trustee shall be appointed for a term of two-four years by a resolution of the trustees passed at a meeting of the trustees. Trustees may be re-elected at the AGM, we have had no trustees reelected in this last year.

Our constitution states that in selecting individuals for appointment as trustees, the trustees must have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the charity. Therefore, when recruiting this very new board of trustees this year, a skills audit was undertaken of the current trustees and particular attention was taken to recruit trustees who through occupation, employment, experience or by virtue of his or her personal or professional qualifications or experience can contribute in pursuit of the objects of the Families in Grief.

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Every new Trustee receives one introductory training session about Families in Grief, an In-house induction, a trustee pack, as well as training on safeguarding and GDPR.

The Trustees in January 2022 decided that meeting monthly was no longer necessary as new systems and structures had been implemented, instead bi-monthly meetings were set up. Strategic working groups have become more useful over the year and so grants, governance, evaluation and fundraising groups have and will play more of a role going forward. The trustees strategically manage FiG and have over the year moved towards the General Manager offering strategic oversight as well as having full operational management of the Charity. In recognition of this she has been promoted to Director.

Salaries are reviewed and agreed by the Trustees annually. Changes and proposals recommended by the Director are discussed and agreed at Trustee meetings.

Financial Statements

FiG’s income generation comes from a range of sources, including grants from the Lottery, charitable foundations, donations from both businesses and individuals. Our community have also supported us through fundraising and events. The charity’s financial sustainability relies on all these sources of income, large and small and we are very grateful for their generosity.

The majority of the charity’s expenditure is accounted for by the salaries of our small team of staff. Our second largest expenditure are overhead costs, however these remain relatively low. The trustees regularly review the finances in the trustees’ meetings to ensure the charity is operating both efficiently and within an appropriate environment of financial controls. This includes close monitoring of expenditure to ensure best value is achieved.

The results for the year and the financial position of FiG are shown in the financial statement (see below). However, in summary, the charity’s total income for the year was £121,872. Total expenditure for the year was £99,955.

The net movement in total funds for the year was a balance of £152,175.

The focus for 2022-2023 will be to:

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The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in ‘Notes to the Accounts’ and comply with Families in Grief’s governing document. The Charities Act of 2011 and the relevant version of the 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).

Reserves

The Trustees annually review the charity’s need for reserve funds in line with the guidance issued by the Charity Commission. It is highlighted that the greatest risk to the effectiveness of the charity is loss of Grant Income. It has been decided that a minimum of 4 months running costs should be held in reserves this increased to 7 months to help provide assurances for the continuance of charitable operations in the event of a large reduction in funding, redundancy costs or unexpected legal costs.

Amount currently held in reserves: £71,513.

Risk

Families in Grief has completed a risk register covering Governance, Financial and Operational matters as part of the overall business plan. We use this as a working document to assess and mitigate risks every trustee meeting. This is in accordance with guidelines issued by the institute of Risk Management and the Charity Commission and is available on request.

Staffing

FIG employ four part-time members of staff:

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In addition to staff, we have the following types of volunteer roles at FiG:

They all volunteer their time on a sessional basis. We currently have 20 volunteers including trustees.

We couldn’t do it without our volunteers. In the last year our volunteers have given 2,271 hours of their time and expertise.

Volunteers, and staff all undergo initial training, comprising of five evening sessions and one day, including an understanding of grief and its impact, the difference of grief depending on type of death, safeguarding training as well as practical exercises. All staff, trustees and volunteers have enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Barring service checks). Following their induction, volunteers receive regular in-house training at the quarterly volunteer meeting.

The impact of the pandemic…

It is helpful to remember what was happening across North Devon and the Torridge area (as well as worldwide) during this year with the challenges the community faced due to Covid-19 and the subsequent impact on the support needed by and offered to families. Below we try to set out how the service has had to flex.

April - June 2021

Children were back in school, but school was very restricted at this time and masks were being worn in secondary school. We found that the intensity of support that each family was needing was still more than pre-Covid. This could have been due to the social isolation felt due to experiencing a bereavement on top of lockdown, with each family receiving four or five support phone calls on average, as well as many more video calls (instead of our usual home visits) to meet and talk to the children.

We were able to run a ‘Covid safe’ Children’s group with a Parents group across six sessions as well as starting a Teens in Grief group at the beginning of June again, with a parent’s group alongside it.

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July - September 2021

At this time most of our secondary schools asked children to wear masks in crowded areas such as during assembly, but this was no longer enforced by law and so all schools or businesses/shops had their own rules, with many keeping face coverings and social distancing in place. Due to Summer holidays our support during these months was by telephone and home visits from our Family Service Coordinators (FSCs).

October - December 2021

This quarter started off positively with families now being able to meet up freely without restrictions placed on them. However, in November Covid infection rates in the local area became exceptionally high, with many children and young people becoming infected and taking time off school. The law changed again and wearing a mask became compulsory indoors in public areas. As we approached Christmas the area saw the highest infection rates since the start of the pandemic. Fewer people were going out to restaurants and so on for fear of becoming infected. Although schools continued face to face education, school plays and performances did not take place.

We continued to meet families face to face at home rather than on video call, which was welcomed by the families. However, the impact of Covid was felt across the community with many feeling nervous about meeting indoors or meeting in group settings. This affected our volunteer meeting, where illness and concern about meeting up in ‘real life’ meant that our Christmas social event had to be cancelled at the last minute.

January - March 2022

Covid infection rates at the beginning of January were the highest in the community since the start of the pandemic. However, there seemed to be less fear of the Omicron strain. The law changed again and during January there was guidance that people should work from home. Many of FiG’s volunteers and staff were unwell with Covid at the beginning of January, luckily this didn’t impact our support to families. Family Service Coordinators continued to support families at home and during these socially distanced home visits, the FSCs facilitated conversations between family members. Families were nervous about meeting up in groups, and so this increased the amount of time the FSCs spent with each family.

The year has been challenging to say the least! Our bereaved families have faced extra challenges, requiring increased support. Our team have also faced extra challenges adapting to the pandemic and family’s needs. We are so proud of our amazing team who have really ‘stepped up to the plate’ to meet need creatively and compassionately during this time.

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FiG’s help and support during 2021-2022

The following figures show that raising our profile in the community and to schools, in turn is raising awareness about our service and so helping bereaved families receive the support they so desperately need.

Here are the headlines from our 2021-22 figures:

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Family Service Analysis

2021-2022 2020-2021
Number of enquiries received from families 35 31
Number of enquiries received fromprofessionals 71 40
Number of referrals received 83 44
Number of support calls/emails offered to families 374 183
Number of support calls/emails offered to professionals 142 88
Number of home/video and school visits offering support 79 46
Number of times families/professionals downloaded resources
from FiG website, including booklets to help bereaved teens,
bereavedparents and teaching staff		 151 0
Number of support group sessions for children/young people 22 12
Number of drop-in sessions for young people aged 16-17 years
old		 6 0
Number of support group sessions for parents/carers 22 12
Total number of families we have supported 110 68
Total number of parents we have supported 125 94
Number of professionals we have supported 76 30
Total number of children and young people we have supported. 162 125

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Our Groups

In 2020-2022 we ran two ‘in person’ children’s groups including two parents’ groups and one ‘in person’ teen group including a parent’s group. Uptake of groups and our ability to put groups on was undoubtedly affected by the pandemic as we have already highlighted. However, we were the only service in the local area to offer face to face bereavement support for families throughout the pandemic. The feedback from these group sessions demonstrates how needed and worthwhile our groups were. To give an example of this, one young teen said “after seeing the amazing results and being accepted by other members of the group I now accept help when it is offered, which I never used to do. I felt understood by others in the group, and I could talk easily to everyone which felt nice” .

We have also noted that there has been an increase in the number of children attending our groups with additional needs such as ADHD and autism. We have now created a box full of resources such as fidget spinners specifically for children who may need these during our sessions. We have also as a staff team undertaken additional training and recruited staff with knowledge in this area to meet this need.

We also work in partnership with special school Pathfields and have had a member of staff from the school on our board of trustees for the past three years who can advise on helping children with additional needs.

Our impact on bereaved families

The main differences we would like to make to a child or young people:

The main differences we would like to make to parent/carer:

To evaluate what progress has been made in these areas by families we noted down conversations or feedback from family members, made observations and asked children, young people and parents/carers that we support to complete questionnaires.

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Improving Family Relationships

We help to improve family relationships by listening to parents talk about what has happened to them and how their children are behaving at home. If they ask for advice, we offer it either by suggesting strategies specific to their situation, or by offering resources via email after the call or by directing them to downloadable resources on our website. Parents then tell us that they start to feel better in their grief because we help them to understand it, and to ‘normalise’ it. Parents/carers start to implement what they have learnt and talk to their children about ways they can help themselves to manage their feelings better.

From questionnaire and verbal feedback from families it was clear to see that family relationships in many cases improved significantly, with an increased confidence to talk openly and to learn strategies to help children and young people better manage big emotions.

It is common for family members to want to protect each other from sadness or pain by not talking to one another about the person that died. We help to facilitate conversations between family members during home visits, sometimes separating a child from their parent to help them to talk more openly without the others overhearing. During this year it was challenging as we occasionally had to support families via Zoom due to an increase in Covid rates in the area. This meant that during the video call each family member could overhear what the other was saying, which meant that often they didn’t want to be honest about their feelings for fear of upsetting other members of the family. During these calls we used creative strategies to help to unlock conversations

During our group sessions parents and children gain confidence talking about their feelings and memories about the person that died. After the session, conversations between family members open-up and by talking more openly together they feel less alone in their grief and often family relationships improve as a result. One mum said ‘“FiG solidified other things that had helped us speak more openly as a family.”

We continued to run our group sessions this year and adapted all of the activities to be ‘Covid safe’. Another bereaved parent reported “ The children started to speak more openly about their bereavement, the group was an extremely useful tool”

Improving engagement with school

We talk to teachers about how they can help a bereaved child in their classroom and offer them resources and strategies to help the child feel more comfortable coming to school as well as during lessons. We have a new downloadable booklet specifically for teaching staff with tips and practical guidance about how to help a bereaved child in the classroom. We are getting some great feedback from this booklet.

“I have already downloaded the booklet and shared it on our staff info tile. It is brilliant and very useful. I am supporting a few teens at the moment, and it has been a fab resource so thank you.” Member of Safeguarding, Adolescent Mental Health Team, South Molton Community College

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We measure how we have improved a child's engagement with school by asking the family about school attendance, how it has changed with the bereavement and if any change has been observed working with FiG.

We call the school before and after a child or young person takes part in one of our group programmes, as well as help teaching staff where required at any point in a child’s journey with us.

During groups we improve a child or young person’s self-awareness with an activity called ‘body mapping’ where they draw pictures of their feelings on an outline of their body. We also help a child or young people to understand what they can do to help themselves when they experience ‘big’ emotions by doing an ‘emotional first aid kit’, so that they are more in tune with their feelings which can help to prevent feelings of overwhelm or anger.

Reducing social isolation

We generally offer support in groups, rather than 1:1. We do this by facilitating conversations between all family members during our home visits, bringing the family together so that they can start sharing their feelings with each other. We often unlock conversations previously unheard by family members which help them to feel less ‘alone’ with their feelings, and more confident to share them with each other in the future.

We also bring grieving families together in our support group sessions, to help families understand that they are not alone, and that what they are experiencing is often similar to other families. Many of the children, young people and their parents/ carers who attend one of our groups make lasting friendships which they tell us helps them to feel more relaxed and confident that they are not alone or the ‘only one’. Some groups continue to meet up after the sessions finish. Some have also arranged whole group outings to local attractions during the school holidays to continue their friendships. One parent said “I realised that not everyone is old when they are widowed so felt less isolated. Connecting with other people was so needed” and another said “The children definitely felt less isolated after FiG’s support.”

Many of the teens swap phone numbers during the second or third sessions of the TiG group and talk about meeting up between group sessions in town or messaging each other when they're feeling alone later in the evening. They talk about the fun they're having together outside our sessions and seem happier and more confident as the group sessions continue which in turn helps to reduce social isolation.

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Usually we measure social isolation by asking families about the or social interactions pre and post bereavement. However due to restrictions it was difficult to measure this in the normal way more emphasis had to be placed on their motivation to ‘reach out’ to others.

To further learn about grief and its impact

We offer information and guidance about grief and its impact through our digital booklets which we send out to all families and professionals who contact us. They are also free to download from our website 24/7.

New and Extra Projects

This year we have been developing some new and additional projects which we would like to share with you:

FiG drop-in sessions for young people (16-18 year old): Petroc College, Barnstaple

We noted an increase in the number of referrals for 15-18 year olds particularly now our new website is much more user friendly for teens. We have also been reaching out on social media specifically setting up an Instagram profile as well as regularly posting on Facebook and Twitter. The FiG team looked at whether we were missing others who may need us

In North Devon there are only three colleges for learners aged 16 and above: Ilfracombe, Bideford and Petroc, Petroc being the biggest. With students at college the staff often don’t know if a student has previously had a bereavement so

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we thought we would trial a regular drop-in with the aim of being more accessible to learners from 14 plus who attend the college. This has gone really well, and we plan to continue offering this annually. As from January to March 2022 we helped 28 students or professionals with enquiries or support and had 6 direct new referrals.

FiG Ambassadors

Throughout the year we have asked our families- our FiG Ambassadors- for feedback about any new printed materials we have designed and written as well as our new booklets that are available to download from our website. We have listened to their feedback and adjusted the content and images accordingly.

On top of this we have a group of ambassadors who we wanted to re-engage and get together to discuss how they could help us as well as ask them to give us feedback about ideas we have for the service. We will look to involve Ambassadors more in the coming year.

Looking Ahead

In 2022-2023 we are starting our Bereavement Champion Project. Our aim is to offer one member of staff from every school or learning community across North Devon and the Torridge area bereavement training to help and support children within their school communities. They will become their school’s ‘bereavement champion’. We hope to launch this in November 2022. The Bereavement Champion will be trained by us for free and will be in role until they leave the school they are employed at. They will be the first point of call when there’s been a bereavement in their school community, and they will be armed with knowledge as well as practical tools that will help them. Our hope is to team them up with a FiG Ambassador at their school so that they can work together in their school to influence and improve support for bereaved young people.

Fundraising

This has been an exciting year for fundraising with lots going on:

We are now consistently posting on social media to raise awareness of FiG and to create a larger social media presence this has led to more groups/ individuals contacting us. With the increase in marketing we have seen a rise in the number of small donations we’ve received via social media and through our website.

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Our new FiG website (launched in June ’21) with an extensive new section dedicated to fundraising, this has encouraged different ways to donate, including regular donations and fundraising packs for schools as well as families. The website was launched ahead of our 15[th] birthday in September.

A fundraising group was set up in May 2021. Together the group made up of volunteers came up with ideas to celebrate the charity’s 15[th] birthday in September 2021. They implemented the following things with guidance from the then General Manager, as well as support from the communications freelancer.

Online we:

In ‘real life’we:

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As part of our 15[th] birthday celebrations we planned to raise awareness of our service between JuneSeptember through local media platforms including press and radio. We wanted to raise awareness of our service to bereaved families in the community as well as encourage the community to fundraise for us. During this time the General Manager was interviewed on BBC Radio Devon, the Chair of Trustees on The Voice.

September was the biggest month for press Families in Grief as the charity had ever had as we celebrated its 15th birthday. We had unprecedented media attention with a front page story in the North Devon Gazette and story inside encouraging people to donate to FiG, a radio interview on BBC Radio Devon’s breakfast show, and an interview on North Devon’s radio station -The Voice. The birthday celebrations and promotion of FiG to the local community, saw an increase in donations through the website, as well an increase in the number of referrals to the service.

We were approached by the Appledore Book Festival, who had invited the Rev Richard Coles to the Festival to talk about his book ‘The Madness of Grief’. The Appledore book festival offered for the evening to be a fundraising event and for the then General Manager, Emma Marston, interviewed Richard about his book in front of 500 people. This was a wonderful evening both raising awareness of our service and funds as well as receiving a lot of press.

We had members of the community raising money for us as follows:

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We set a target of £10,000 for the fundraising team to raise over the year. We are delighted to report that this target was more than met by a total of £11,155. We are so grateful for all the amazing fundraising in 2021/2022 from our wonderful staff, volunteers and community. You are amazing!

Trustees Responsibilities in Relation to the Financial Statements

Charity law requires that the trustees prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of the affairs of the Charity and of the finances of the charity for that year. In preparing these the Trustees are required to:

Risk Assessment

The trustees have identified the major risks to which FiG is exposed and have established systems to mitigate these risks.

The trustees consider the financial position at the end of the year to be satisfactory. They also do not consider there to be any material uncertainties regarding FiG’s ability to continue as a going concern.

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Voluntary Help and Gifts in Kind.

The trustees are very grateful to the volunteers who support FiG to support bereaved families, volunteering at groups, raising funds and marketing, without them we could not provide the service we do to bereaved Families in North Devon.

Statement of Public Benefit

The trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 17(5) of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s General Guidance on public benefit.

GDPR

In order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, which came into effect on 25[th] May 2018, FiG has set out its approach to handling and protecting personal data in the ‘Data Protection’ policy available on request.

Note from the Chair

As you can see it has been quite a year with the pandemic. We have also had to say goodbye to much appreciated staff, volunteers and trustees, largely due to the pandemic or personal circumstances. Such losses and subsequent recruitments have also needed much time, care and consideration as we moved through the year. Despite so much challenge and change we have made fantastic progress. I have had the privilege to both volunteer for FiG and be the Chair so I have been able to see first-hand, in groups, the difference FiG makes to families who come. I feel so grateful that we have this small but valuable charity in North Devon to be there for families when they need us.

The care, creativity and hard work that our staff team and volunteers have put in this year, has been wonderful to see. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for all that you have given.

A note on governance, our aim last year was to really establish the charities foundations. The Trustee team working in conjunction with Emma Marston, the now Director have been amazing. We have made huge headway and now have a smoothly running, proactive and wellgoverned charity. This has taken an enormous amount of work to get all the systems and processes in place. We are extra grateful to Karen and Clare who have put so much effort and care into the administration of this behind the scenes. Thank you so much everyone! Emma has become director in recognition of what the charity has needed. She has grown from strength to strength in meeting that need and has done a fantastic job steering the FiG ship, with the trustees, through the waters of the last year.

In summary, I am pleased to report that we now have a strong staff team in place, a competent trustee board, effective administrative processes in place, a strong volunteer base and positive

25

relationships with referring agencies. We have amazing community support and awareness of our service continues to grow in so many ways. Through this we hope that families will know where to find us when they need us and that they will find the support they need when they face the sad tragedy of bereavement.

We have lots that we want to do and achieve in the next year and step forward with passion and compassion as a Charity to meet the road ahead. We look forward to reporting next year as to where we have got to.

Statement of Financial Activities and Notes to the Accounts – attached.

Report of the Independent Examiner – attached.

26

Grants
Donations
Fundraising
Other
Total		 ,rr,ii
911,155		 EgA,2g7 884,297
825,275
911,155
[L,]_55		 8126,635
84,935
82,J.L3
8734,622
Pqypgnts:_
Salaries
Direct Group Costs
Training
Travel
Fundraising		 Unrestricted Restricted
t73,g6B
E2,0g6
82,223
8647
g5		 Total
f,73,969
f2,096
82,304
8647
g5		 2020-2A27
858,746
82,136
[,85
885L
Office
Rent
Phone
lT and Support
lnsurance
Advenising and Marketing
Memberships		 t;;;
E;;
Et,24g		 82,342
82,7A0
81,,L27
93,19L
8L,478
9165		 82,611
82,700
83",127
93,515
81,?49
8L,478
9165		 87,620
82,700
8765
8L,0L4
€,1,0L4
E1_95
870
DBS fl_80 gL80 8315
Bank Charges s108 9108 869
Evaluations 95,000 95,000
Sundries
AssetPurchases: 8L,923 Egs,t20 897,A43 869,580
Equipment
Fixtures and Fifiings		 E2,g!2 92,912 8589
8L64
TotalPavments: 999.955
Netreceipts/Payments
Cash funds brought forward
Transfer between funds		 Unrestricted
€35,662
847,731
827,A00		 Restricted
-f,L3,7r15
882,527
-fl27,000		 Total2020-2a27
L2L,gt7
f,64,299
8130,259E65,g7A
Cashfunds carried forward: 9110,393 E4L,7g2 8L52,L75 8730,259
Cashatbank andinhand:
Cash Account
GoldAccount (Reserves)
PettyCash
T^l^I
A-^t^
F---^^r-
, r r,
.
TotalCash Funds atyearEnd:		 €38,975E4L,7B2
871,,513
€5
E4L,7g2
g1_10,393		 990,657
E7L,5L3
E5
8L52,L75		 [,L02,1_67
E28,0gg
E2
8L30

FixedAsset openingBalance: f,l-,703.75
Purchases 82,9LL.52
Total: 84,6L5.27
Less Depreciatian charge fartheyear: 81,313.98
ClosingNBVofFixedAssets: 93,301.29
Fixtures and Fittings €99.04
Total: t3,301.29

stateditcan only be used for
aspecificpurp
ose:
FundingBody: Opening
Balance		 Received Expenditure Transto
Reserve		 Closing
Balance
Morrisons
Torridge District Council		 €1,900.00
t2,7Bg.gB		 [0.00
[0.00		 990.00
€2,799.98		 €0
€0		 !1,810.00
90.00
Bideford Bridge Trust 8L,I77.62 f,o.00 €L,061.96 €0 €115.66
Devon Community Foundation
Lottery		 €L,350.00
L42,78A.41		 f2,000.00
949,674.00		 81,,921.42
€55,587.79		 g0
E27,A0A		 8L,428.58
19,866.62
Anonymous Donor 829,024.05 [,L6,41g.00 €27,690.80 t0 fL7,75L.?5
Northam Town Council 8262.57 €745.00 8L,A07.57 f0 f0.00
llfracombe Town Council E9B.B9 €0.00 fg8.89 f,0 80.00
Bideford Town Council 9547.30 t0.00 8547.30 e0 90.00
Barnstaple Town Council Et,!17.51, €800.00 8L,297.5t €0 9620.00
Fullabrook 8778.58 90.00 8778.58 g0 90.00
Devon County Council €700.00 s0.00 9700.00 EO 90.00
Tesco t0.00 €650.00 €650.00 m 90.00
Leathersellers 90.00 93,000.00 €0.00 g0 93,000.00
The Davie-Barnstaple Trust 90.00 €1_,200.00 f,,1,200.00 t0 90.00
The Postcode Lottery 80.00 f9,300.00 82,3L4.t4 g0 €6,985.86
Torrint
Total:
Cavaliers		 90.00
982,526.91		 €500.00
8U,297.00		 s29s.90
03L_84		 [0
g27,AgO		 L204.!A
782.07
Torridge District Council (1-)Websiteredevelopment costs (2) Resources
Lottery Salaries & associated costs&various evaluations
Anonymous Donor Salaries & associated costs
BidefordBridgeTrust Group Session (x2)
NorthamTown Council Family Journey (xL)
llfracombe Town Council Family Journey (x1)
Bideford Town Council Family Journey (x2)
Barnstaple Town Council Family Journey (x2)
Fullabrook Covid-19 response and rental
DevonCommunity Foundation Rental
DevonCounty Council
Tesco		 Digital Bereavement Resource Development
Family Journey (x1)
Leathersellers Operating Costs
The Davie-BarnstapleTrust Salaries and associated costs
ThePostcode Lottery Operating Costs
TorringtonCavaliers Family Journey (x1)

6.Othcr lncome:
OtherIncome for theyearis as		 follows:
Other Income Unrestricted Restricted Total
Training 90.00
GifrAid LL,L48,48 9L,L48.48
Banklnterest 96.24 96.24
__.&ryrL si,is*,.i2

7.Salaries and associatedcosts:
Salaries andassociatedcostsfortheyear		 is as follows:
Salaries Unrestricted Restricted Total
Salaries 871,437_64 L71,,437.64
Employer's Nl Contributions €5,078.19 €5,078.19
S;mpl',tgxr:f'&ffware -ia{+-!.-}UiJ-UU -94.ff.,*.#fi
Employer'sPensionContributions er,rae.sr El_,3_48.51
Payroll Charges 9204.00 1204.o0
rgl+[_ f,o 973,868,34 t?{C6ts4

8.Direetgroup costs:
ThedirectgroupandCovid-19 activity		 packcostsforthe yearisas follows:
Direct Group Costs Unrestricted Restricted Total
Child:VenueandActivities 9360.00 9360.00
Child: Resources t619.26 9619.26
Child; Food and Drink f,L14.55 €.1L4.55
Child:Travel €578.73 1578,73
Teen:VenueandActivities 90.00 €0.00
Teen:Resources €90.56 9,90.56
Teen:FoodandDrink 946.64 f46.64
Teen:Travel 8276.48 8276:44
g0 92,086.22 S2,086.22