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← Hear Me Out Music

2024-03-31-accounts

HEAR ME OUT MUSIC

TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

INDEX

Page
Company Information 2
Purposes and Benefits 3-4
Artistic Programme and its Impact 4-9
Supporting and Sustaining Quality and Impact 9-12
Structure, Governance and Management 12-14
Financial Review 14-15
Statement of Trustee Responsibilities 15
Independent Examiner’s report 16
Statement of Financial Activities 17
Balance Sheet 18
Notes to the Accounts 19-24

Company number: 5943893 Charity number: 1119049

HEAR ME OUT: REPORT OF TRUSTEES, YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

HEAR ME OUT MUSIC TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

The Trustees, who are also Directors of the charitable company, present their report and the financial statements for Hear Me Out (HMO), formerly Music In Detention, for the year ended 31st March 2024.

COMPANY INFORMATION

REGISTRATION Company number: 5943893
Charity number: 1119049
BOARD OF TRUSTEES The following persons have served as members of the Board
during the year and up to the date of this report:
Clare Scott Booth
Lamin Joof
Kaveh Ghandizadeh (appointed 22/11/22)
Vebi Kosumi
Sue Lukes
Marie-Anne Mackie
Alastair Owen (resigned 7/6/23)
Bridget Rennie
Joanna Ridout
Kai Syng Tan (resigned 28/11/24)
Hannah Wilkinson
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER John Speyer
FINANCE OFFICER Wendy Lee
REGISTERED OFFICE Rich Mix
35-47 Bethnal Green Road
London
E1 6LA
BANKERS Co-operative Bank PLC
PO Box 101
1 Balloon Street
Manchester
M60 4EP
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER Tom Wilcox FCIE
Bank Chambers
Main Street
Hawes
North Yorkshire
DL8 3QL

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PURPOSES AND BENEFITS

Since 2006, Hear Me Out (previously Music In Detention) has been using the connecting, empowering medium of music to improve the situation of some of people held in the immigration detention and asylum system, or recently released from these places. Our delivery has historically focused on people detained in Immigration Removal Centres, and has now expanded to include people in asylum hotels and barracks. Our vision is of a society in which migrants are treated with dignity and humanity, confidently using the power of their voices to make themselves seen and heard, and finding common ground with the people around them.

Our programme of group music-making sessions and individual creative development offers creative outlets that support self-confidence, relationships and agency, and help develop resilience against the trauma of detention. Our work makes creative spaces and platforms in which people’s voices are heard and amplified.

We bring skilled artists together with people who are or have been detained, to create and share music, and connect them to communities who live nearby and/or have relatable experiences of marginalisation. We use the power of recorded sound and live events, to bring the creative work and stories of people who have undergone the detention experience to a wider public audience, for whom this encounter may be an entirely new experience.

PUBLIC BENEFIT

Hear Me Out’s work gives people held in immigration detention and asylum centres, and other marginalised groups in the UK, access to high quality music-making activities that improve their wellbeing and resilience. It helps them develop artistic lives and careers. It provides a platform for their original songs and music, recordings and performances which reach a wider public audience. It fosters good community relations and encourages empathy and understanding about migrants.

Hear Me Out’s activities thus deliver benefits to the public. We have reviewed these through the year, with reference to our strategic plan and the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.

CHARITABLE OBJECTS

Hear Me Out’s charitable objects, as revised in 2012, are set out in its governing document, the Articles of Association:

  1. The promotion and protection of the physical and mental health of immigrants and asylum seekers, with particular reference to those detained under immigration laws, through the provision of music and other activities.

  2. The advancement of education of the public about the position and experience of immigration detainees, and the promotion of good community relations between people from diverse backgrounds, with particular reference to those living in disadvantaged communities, through the provision of music and other activities.

  3. The advancement of education of the public, in particular, but not exclusively, current and former immigration detainees, in the creative arts.

VISION, MISSION & STRATEGIC AIMS

The charity’s vision and mission statements and strategic aims, as set out in its 2017 strategy, are:

Vision: Migrants and outsiders together create music which excites, challenges, and gets under the skin. Our society treats migrants with dignity and humanity, making detention obsolete.

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Mission: To bring people living in immigration detention centres together with professional musicians and people living in the surrounding community, to create and perform powerful music, increasing wellbeing and empathy, and helping change attitudes to migrants.

Strategic aims:

  1. Embed participatory music-making into life in the UK’s immigration detention centres, to improve the wellbeing and resilience of detainees.

  2. Use music-making to bring detainees’ voices to the public, build solidarity between them and people living near detention centres, and help change attitudes to migrants.

  3. Through high quality participatory music-making, enable detainees and other marginalised people to create powerful and challenging original music, and convey it to new audiences through live and recorded performance.

  4. Govern and manage Hear Me Out effectively, and secure the long-term continuation of its work by building a stable financial base, a resilient business model and dynamic local partnerships.

RACE EQUITY AND ETHICS PRINCIPLES

Hear Me Out’s values place the people we work with, and their wellbeing, at the centre of all our work. We engage with the detention and immigration system in its complexity, while carefully safeguarding our independence from it. We do not advocate for specific changes in the law on immigration or detention, but seek to provide a platform for the music and stories of those experiencing it, and increase public understanding of their experience.

We acknowledge the structural inequalities around race in the immigration system and society as a whole. We are committed to co-creation in our artistic programme and organisational structures, to share power with the people Hear Me Out exists to support, and improve our impact, through decision-making that draws equally on professional know-how and lived experience.

Since the year end we have set out the principles below for our revised Ethics and Equity Framework, to guide everything we do in our work and our organisation:

ARTISTIC PROGRAMME AND ITS IMPACT

The 2023-24 year saw our largest ever programme of music activities. During the year we:

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Key events in the 2023-24 year included:

April Helped put on two Arts and Social Outcomes Network events on Fair Pay
Artist Care research: Rapid Evidence Assessment shared at academic conference
May Creative mentoring scheme now running for established artists, emerging artists and
artists with lived experience
Performance by music group at Napier Barracks
June _Band from the Barracks:_pop up band from Napier Barracks perform at Hastings
Sanctuary Festival
Asylum hotel programme successfully moves to new location in East London
July More Than A Label: co-created individual giving campaign, devised and produced by
people with lived experience
Rehearsals with The Unknowns (band formed at asylum hotel in 2022)
August Performance by children at asylum hotel in East London
September One of our participants publishes a blog in theMigrant Women’s Press
October Recording residencies for Hear Me Out Band and The Unknowns
Blog published on More Than A Label inSOFII fundraising magazine
_Story of Change_captures our work to date on organisational co-creation
November New role in team: support worker starts work
Practice Forum day for artists, focused on values, new practice and the bands
December New programme with children opens at a second asylum hotel in East London
Performance by children at asylum hotel in East London
Our first Christmas appeal on the Big Give raises £6,900.
January Jo Hudson-Lett joins Hear Me Out as our new Artistic Director
February Helped plan, and spoke at, Clinks “resilient workforce” event
Performance by music group at Napier Barracks
March _Arts for Impact_appeal on the Big Give raises £11,400.
Since year
end, 2024		 April: The Unknowns EP launch and gig at Union Chapel. Researchers in our Artist
Care partnership begin ethnographic study of current practice at Hear Me Out, Irene
Taylor Trust and Good Vibrations
June: Band from the Barracks: pop up band from Napier Barracks perform at Hastings
City of Sanctuary festival
June: The Unknowns play 3 gigs during Refugee Week, in Wandsworth, Richmond
and Tottenham
July: Hear Me Out Band play Leyton Carnival, HMO artists perform at Refugee Tales
opening event in Oxted, Surrey

WORK WITH GROUPS

In the 2023-24 year we delivered 104 sessions with children and young people in 3 different asylum hotels in East London, and 86 sessions with men at Napier Barracks in Folkestone. We estimate that these programmes reached 1280 adults and children (although the fluid nature of

participation in these settings means a margin of error on that figure). This level of delivery is our

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largest ever. We have moved from periodic single days and short projects to a series of programmes delivered almost every week.

Napier Barracks: The Napier programme is well-established, and we find people making their way across the windswept yard on wet winter nights to join our sessions. Dividing the programme into 6-8 week blocks, with breaks of 1-2 weeks in between, has given the work more shape and momentum, and helps strengthen its outcomes. In our choice of artists (who deliver the work in pairs) we have experimented with continuity and variety, keeping one lead artist for most sessions but varying the second artist. In June 2024, repeating a successful venture in 2023, a Napier ‘popup band’ called Band from the Barracks were an exuberant highlight at the City of Sanctuary festival in Hastings. So as well as supporting the men at Napier, we have also helped bring their music and physical presence out of the Barracks perimeter and into a public space, where their humanity and creativity were appreciated and celebrated.

Asylum hotels: Our work with children living with their parents in asylum hotels in East London grew. We continued regular music and arts sessions on Sundays with children at an asylum hotel in Newham, adopting the same block system as at Napier, for the same reasons. Activities included drawins, dance/movement activities, games, and making music together. Each block led to a ‘sharing’ performance for parents and hotel staff, a structure which helped to focus the children’s creativity. The participants in Newham were mainly aged 2 to 8. In December, with new funding from BBC Children In Need, we were able to expand the programme to another hotel back in Redbridge, where participants are pre-school children and teenagers.

Bands: We’ve supported three bands. The pop-up Band from the Barracks has now twice brought participants from Napier Barracks to perform at the Hastings Sanctuary Festival. The Hear Me Out Band has recorded its first EP (to launch soon), and is gigging at the Leyton Carnival this month. The Unknowns, formed by participants in our 2022 Islington asylum hotel programme, have held rehearsals and studio sessions, recorded their first EP, launched it live to a full house at Union Chapel in Islington, and played 3 gigs in Refugee Week. They have progressed from performing mainly covers to their own compositions, and are increasingly self-managing. We’re working out plans to build distinct band identities, profiles, audiences, repertoire and gigging opportunities, with potentially powerful effects around empowering band members, influencing audiences’ attitudes and offering role models to people going through the asylum/immigration system.

WORK WITH INDIVIDUALS

Group music-making has always been our central activity. In the last 2-3 years we have been gradually doing more 1:1 work, and in 2023-24, with the recruitment of a support worker and the launch of our creative mentoring scheme, work with individuals has become a significant and integral part of our programme. We’re devising individual packages to support people’s creative development, and they’re getting involved as experts by experience in delivery and decisionmaking in our organisation. And wrapped around this exchange of skills is the offer of practical and emotional support to help people deal with the many challenges they face.

In 2023-24 we mentored 11 people, supported 14 band members, and provided practical/emotional support to 13 people. 11 were involved in experts by experience work and 3 served on our Board and/or our Co-Creation Working Group. Some people were involved in more than one of these interventions. The total number of people involved in these activities was 24.

Creative mentoring: we piloted this new scheme with 11 mentees: 3 HMO Associate Artists, 3 new HMO artists from marginalised backgrounds, and 5 musicians with lived experience of detention or ‘quasi-detention’. Initial ‘diagnostic’ interviews identified creative ambitions and support needs, which in some cases were high. We then identified a development/support package for each

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mentee, eg instrumental coaching, purchase of equipment, developing workshop facilitation skills, advice from music industry professionals, counselling/therapy. This holistic approach goes wider than traditional mentoring. Evaluation now in progress will inform the next phase of this work.

Experts by experience: this work has grown and become a normal part of our organisational practice. People with lived experience have led and contributed to music workshops, communications and fundraising projects, performances, programme planning, practice forums and staff recruitment panels, and have joined our Board and co-creation working group.

Support: We’ve responded to people’s practical and emotional needs with a growing support repertoire, including:

Previously this work was shared across the team. Appointing a part-time support worker has added capacity and expertise, but relationships are part of the support so this remains a shared activity.

IMPACT

We devised games to elicit feedback from young children in asylum hotels on what they liked best in our music and arts sessions. Answers included: piano, piano and guitar, flute [recorder], guitar, marching. They wanted to do more of: painting, making boxes, watercolours, songs, dancing. Asked what else they would like to do, they said: assembly, guitar, dancing, hide and seek, singing, painting, jokes, drama, reading books, making bracelet, friends, football, piano. The range of answers perhaps illustrates how little activity is available to them. Children also told us:

[This piece of music] is a place I can fly away to and be in a dream.

We know you care about us because you come and see us every Sunday.

We also spoke with parents to gauge their opinions about our sessions. They told us their children had become more withdrawn/shy with others in their new surroundings, and there was not enough for them to do, so they were spending a lot of time just with their parents (some of them single parents) and cooped up in their family rooms. In this context our sessions were occupying the children, supporting their development, and reducing their parents’ stress:

So I remember this morning. She was having her breakfast, right? Her mum told that the people here came for those activities, the ones that you now do? So she just said, Oh, I'm going, I just finished up my breakfast.

So yes, we need the children to be involved in such activities, for their development, and also my own daughter, she was not able to engage a lot with the big children. She was too shy, she was hesitating to talk with others. But I can see the development.

Please don't underestimate what you have done for our families... you have brought so much joy and I can see them so happy. You do a lot. You give this to us here and we want to some day give this back to the UK.

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We also carried out some evaluation of our individual work with adults. Participants in this work identified as its most important effects:

The ‘Band from the Barracks’ gig at Sanctuary Festival in Hastings provided a unique opportunity to showcase our work and the people we work with to a public audience. This allowed us to reach new audiences and connect with them. One audience member said : "(The band was) definitely the highlight of the Festival. So rarely do we hear the individual stories from the people who arrive at our shores seeking refuge and safety. A young Ghanaian musician told us 'I was a human before I was a race' - it takes so much courage to bare your soul to a roomful of strangers - a soul that is trying to express itself and not be defined by the way others see them."

LEARNING

Children in asylum hotels: This work has been among our most challenging. The children responded enthusiastically, but over time began to show signs of stress and disturbance. We attributed this mainly to the stress and insecurity of their situation, which can only increase as stays lengthen without families’ cases progressing. We responded quickly by providing extra capacity artists and staff in sessions, taking and sharing specialist advice, introducing more physical movement (and a choreographer) into the sessions, and establishing a core group of artists who bring particular expertise and continuity to the work. Partisan, an innovative mental health practice that has been providing ‘clinical’ supervision and guidance on trauma-informed practice, have helped us respond in a psychologically informed way to the children’s needs and manage the stress and distress that comes from working with children with so many unmet needs. We’re exploring the possibility of doing this in a more structured and continuous way, through a partnership with the Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile.

Mentoring: our pilot scheme has not all been mentoring in the classic sense. Creative support has taken many forms and some people’s difficulties made us think in the team about how to respond and to what extent we could help. We’ve learned that when people face multiple challenges, we have to work holistically for support/development packages to be effective, be clear about what we can and can’t help with. One change in the next phase will be to improve the integration of creative mentoring and support/casework, to meet individual needs more effectively.

Bands: We’ve seen how the bands can act as role models to others with similar lived experience, help us reach our target audiences and support changes in public awareness and attitudes. This

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requires stronger repertoire, brand identities and promotion, and a business model suited to the music industry and not a straightforward fit for a charity. This is new work for us and unusual work in the sector.

SUPPORTING AND SUSTAINING QUALITY AND IMPACT

RACE EQUITY & CO-CREATION

People with lived experience have continued getting more involved in our organisation. The ‘experts by experience’ work has been knitting us together, their involvement in a range of organisational processes (that is still growing) now feels natural, and they’re much more part of the team. It’s good to see the distance between the charity and the people it exists for decreasing. The theory of change is that this will increase our impact, because decisions will be better, and the co-creation process has its own outcomes: developing talent, skills and new practices for all involved, and creating a safe and inclusive environment for more people to join.

Structures: We documented our process to date and key principles/values, and drew up a multiyear Action Plan, delivery of which is now in progress. The initial working group of people with lived experience, artists, staff and trustees has become a standing, externally facilitated Board subcommittee, meeting bi-monthly to oversee delivery of the actions and draw together learning. Structural change is taking time and the action plan is probably a 3-year project. Work is now progressing on reviews of Hear Me Out’s Ethics Framework and Recruitment procedures.

Recruitment and leadership: We recruited a new Artistic Director in December, moulding the process to attend not just to fairness between applicants, but to who would feel able or entitled to apply in the first place. More than half the applicants brought lived experience and migrant histories. We appointed Johanne Hudson-Lett, who among other things has worked for some years for us as an artist, brought wide relevant experience and is the child of Windrush migrants. Along with other recruitment, this has brought the team of 10 staff and regular freelancers from all white (2022) to 6 white, 4 global majority (2024), including 1 migrant and 3 children of refugees/ migrants. As time goes on we will look to ensure this feeds through into improved outcomes.

Our Board has started to overhaul how it operates. Our governance is strong but the Board still has a more formal culture that is out of kilter with the more open, creative style that has grown in the rest of the organisation. We seek to distinguish between what is really needed for good governance and what may be just the result of professional or class conventions.

Practice: We’re finding more and more ways for people to collaborate and learn from each other. One band member, recently granted Leave To Remain, has been mentored by one of our Associate Artists and will soon co-lead with another some workshops for groups of asylum seekers and local people in Norwich and Derby. Experts by experience are now routinely involved in committee work, communications projects, recruitment and programme development.

‘More Than A Label’ was a public individual giving campaign devised and produced last summer by a group of people with lived experience, facilitated by an HMO fundraiser and one of our artists. Among other things it brought us nine new regular donors and boosted our online profile.

We’ve been working out aims and plans for the bands we’re supporting, and band members have been closely involved in that. The direction of travel is towards more independence and selfmanagement, and some band members are already taking up leadership roles.

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TRAUMA-INFORMED PRACTICE AND ARTIST CARE

Our partner Partisan continued to provide us with ‘clinical supervision’, generally at monthly intervals, and during the year we moved from staff-only supervision to sessions for artists and staff. Sessions included workshops on trauma-informed practice, reflection on challenges arising in our work, and support to handle the emotional toll the work can bring on those delivering it.

We are a partner in the Artist Care Project, which is researching how to look after the wellbeing of musicians who work in community and secure settings to improve the wellbeing of others. Improving the mental health and wellbeing of the groups these musicians work with can come at the cost of their own, risking secondary trauma and high attrition rates in the artistic workforce. Also at stake is its diversity, since people with privilege have more resources to cope with such stress, yet a sustainable, diverse workforce is vital for equity and strong outcomes. The project is a collaboration between three music organisations (Irene Taylor Trust, Good Vibrations, and us) and two research institutions (Royal Northern College of Music, University of Wolverhampton).

The first stage of the research consists of:

The first stage is now complete, and will greatly influence the design of the second stage. This will comprise 18 months of action research into the efficacy of different artist care interventions, and will take place when we have raised enough funds for it.

EVALUATION

Evaluation activities continued during the year in line with our growing range of activities. We carried out focus groups and interviews with participants, and questionnaires with audiences, to find out their opinions of our work and its impact on them. We adapted existing tools to new situations, such as music sessions with young children and 1:1 work (see p7-8).

Our evaluation review led by Dr Ash Brockwell, strategic evaluation specialist at Green Spiral and the London Interdisciplinary School, continued. With the updated framework now in place, we have focused our work on the accompanying system of indicators and tools, now greatly helped by the research expertise of our new Programme and Evaluation Manager, Lizzie Fort.

ETHICS & SAFEGUARDING

We have continued to use our Ethics Framework (see p3) to provide practical guidance to the team on the application of our ethics principles. It is now being reviewed in the light of our cocreation values (see p9) and other recent changes, to form a new Ethics and Equity Framework.

Safeguarding work puts our ethics into practice. We continued during the year to take up safeguarding issues when they arose. We delivered another round of safeguarding training for artists and staff, led by institutional safeguarding specialist Helen Holly, and revised to address safeguarding in new settings. Our trustees undertook safeguarding training focused on their role. A follow-up session will soon draw out learning and key issues for their future attention.

COMMUNICATIONS

Consistent and strong communications through the year increased our reach, for example:

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We have recently decided to leave X, in common with many others, due to the growth of racist and far-right content on the platform.

During the year we secured publication in Migrant Women Press of a blog by one of our participants. The ‘Band from the Barracks’ was mentioned in articles in Sussex Express and Hastings Online Times about the Hastings Community of Sanctuary Festival that the band performed at. Showcase of Fundraising Innovation & Inspiration published a case study of our ‘More Than A Label’ co-created fundraising campaign, which brought a 1,300% increase in Instagram reach, a 655% increase in Facebook reach, and a 268% increase in Facebook page likes.

We also promoted our group workshops, marketed The Unknowns’ EP gig, produced a video of our children’s workshops for a fundraising campaign, and began a review (which is ongoing) of our website content, brand narrative and language guidance.

FUNDRAISING

Fundraising continued through the year to be delivered by freelancers, working with our Director. We also created a small (1 day pw) grants fundraising role in the staff team. We appreciate very much the support of all our donors, without whom we could not operate.

Grants fundraising: In 2020-23 we had much stronger fundraising results than in previous years, probably because of improvements in our fundraising operation and budgeting in the few years before that. These have enabled Hear Me Out to grow significantly: our annual expenditure has risen in the last 5 years from around £200k to around £350k. In 2023-24 our results were still good – we raised 17 grants totalling £179k, from 52 bids totalling £732k, a success rate of 24% - but not as good as the averages of £321k raised, and a 50% success rate, over the previous 3 years. This meant a lower closing balance, with £30k carried forward for spending in 2024-25 (compared to £110k the previous year), necessitating a large but tight budget with reductions in core delivery and other key commitments, and a big in-year fundraising requirement.

During 2024-25 results have also been slow. Like many others we are experiencing an exceptionally difficult fundraising climate, with possibly unprecedented pressure on grantmakers’ resources. We have navigated through the year with our expenditure budget intact (bar modest savings), but had not experienced the same uncertainty for 5-6 years. We can see a path to raising the funds we need for 2025-26, and the shortage of multi-year grants means we are used to replenishing most of the pot every year. But it’s difficult to say at this point whether we will achieve this. Accordingly we are also preparing for scenarios in which significant reductions in costs might be needed.

Individual giving: During the year we raised a total of £40k from individual donations, our best ever annual total by a margin of £10k. About 60% of these funds (including Gift Aid) came from a single anonymous donation of £6k, and two match-funded public appeals on the Big Give website – £7k from the Christmas appeal and £11k from the March ‘Arts for Impact’ appeal. We have trialled different methods in recent years and have found these tightly structured crowdfunding campaigns, with a clear ask, match and deadline, generate the most income. So we have

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continued to use this approach since the year end, and have been able to modestly increase the total raised in a single campaign.

By contrast, the More Than A Label campaign raised a modest immediate total of £900, but also brought very high engagement on social media (see p11), and £650 pa in new regular donations.

We continue to pursue online public fundraising, which helps build Hear Me Out’s profile and grows our community of supporters, and at the same time to appreciate and nurture that community and look for ways to bring them closer to our work, for example through online conversations with participants, artists and staff.

Income review: For the longer term, and in response to the challenging fundraising climate, we have started a review of our income strategy. We last did this in 2016 and it had substantial effects. We want to find ways to widen our sources of income, and growing our reserves to help us absorb better the ups and downs of fundraising. We’ll be assessing the potential of earned income, corporate partnerships and commissioning, as well as additions to our individual giving and grants fundraising, to help us sustain our work.

STAFF & VOLUNTEERS

The Trustees thank Hear Me Out’s small team of salaried and freelance staff for their hard work and great commitment. During and after the year there were 4.5 full time equivalent staff, as follows:

The trustees welcome Johanne Hudson-Lett, Lizzie Fort, Bekki Frost, who started working at Hear Me Out during/after the year, to the team, as well as Kate Fordham, who has rejoined us.

We also thank Emma Bracegirdle and Kirsty Gallagher for their pro bono work on fundraising and communications. The value of this pro bono work in the year (£750) is included in the Statement of Financial Activities on p17.

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

GOVERNING DOCUMENT

Hear Me Out Music, formerly Music In Detention, is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity. Incorporated on 22nd September 2006, its original Memorandum and Articles

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of Association were amended in 2007 and comprehensively reviewed in 2011. New Articles of Association were adopted at the Annual General Meeting on 31st January 2012 and continue to govern the charity’s work. An amendment, adopted on 12th February 2014, ensures a minimum annual turnover of Trustees. The change of name was registered with Companies House on 19th March 2021.

Music In Detention was registered as a charity with effect from 2nd May 2007. Its charitable objects (see p3) were revised during the 2011-12 year, approved by the Charity Commission on 25th October 2011, and included in the new Articles of Association referred to above. The name change to Hear Me Out was accepted by the Commission on 2nd June 2021.

BOARD & SUB-COMMITTEES

The charity’s Board of Trustees met four times during the year. Our Finance Sub-Committee and Co-creation Hub (see p9) also each met four times.

The Trustees all give their time voluntarily and received no benefits from the charity. During the year one trustee, Lamin Joof, was paid a total of £2000 in fees for work on HMO’s communications and programme development, carried out in his capacity as a person with lived experience of immigration detention. The rates of remuneration were the same as paid to non-trustees with lived experience of detention who provided similar services. The work was procured in accordance with clauses 6.3 & 6.5 of the Articles of Association, and was additional to his role as a trustee, for which he was not remunerated. No other remuneration or other benefit was paid to him or any other trustee in 2022-23.

STAFF & PREMISES

Through the year the charity employed 9 salaried staff and 5 freelances (listed on p12), not including freelance artists. The employed staff resource at the year end was 4.0 (full time equivalent). Including freelances the total resource was 4.5. The highest salary was 2.2 times the lowest. The charity continued to rent desk space at Rich Mix in central/east London.

RISK MANAGEMENT

The Trustees note their duty to identify and review the risks to which the charity is exposed and to ensure appropriate controls are in place to provide reasonable assurance against fraud and error. Its strategic plan contains a risk register which is reviewed periodically.

During the year the charity continued to operate robust safeguarding procedures and to deliver three rounds of training for artists and other personnel. A major review of safeguarding policies was completed.

Hear Me Out’s activities during the year were delivered by freelance artists engaged directly by Hear Me Out, under contracts and schedules of work.

During the year the charity continued to monitor and manage its finances closely. The Finance Sub-Committee met on a quarterly basis and made recommendations to the Board. Actions to support this work included income analysis, finance reviews, and detailed tracking of planned and pending bids, with bids for new projects separated from those for existing operating costs.

During the year the charity increased its contingency reserve (see below) in order to protect the charity against continuing uncertainty in its operating environment and fundraising prospects.

At the time of writing the charity has secured (subject to one remaining confirmation) all the grant income and individual donations required to cover all projected activities in the 2024-25 year, and

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so our grant fundraising efforts are focused on future years. The Finance Sub-Committee will continue to follow its established procedures to manage the funding available, continue effective operations, and (if necessary at any point in the future) make savings to ensure a positive closing balance for the year.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

RESULT FOR THE YEAR

The Board of Directors reports a deficit of expenditure over income of £78,594.

RESERVES

The accounts show reserves of £79,221 of which £23,591 are restricted funds and £55,630 are unrestricted. £49,037 of these unrestricted reserves were designated to a contingency reserve, which is managed according to the reserves policy set out below.

The balance of the unrestricted funds, £6,593, are not restricted in their purpose by the funder, but have been raised to further Hear Me Out’s planned activities and priorities, and will be spent on the artistic programme and operating costs in 2024-25, in accordance with those plans and the expectations of funders.

RESERVES POLICY

In line with best practice in the charity sector, Hear Me Out needs to build up a reserve. Hear Me Out’s reserves policy has five aims:

Reserves will only be expended in pursuit of the above aims and as a result of a decision by the Board.

When reserves are below our target we will normally manage income shortfalls by controlling expenditure and use reserves only for the above purposes. We will retain in the reserve sufficient funds to meet our legal obligations in the event of closure.

We aim to accumulate reserves equivalent to three months’ costs, defined (by a Board decision after the year end) by average expenditure over the current and previous two years. In 2023-24 (based on average expenditure 2021-24) that translates into £78,909 (2022-23: £68,709). On 31st March 2024 the amount held in the contingency reserve was £49,037 (2021-22: £47,730). We plan to meet target of three months’ costs by March 2027.

We will not divert to reserves any restricted income or donations towards specified activities. This reserves policy was reviewed in 2022.

During the 2022-23 year, investment income of £1,307 was transferred into the contingency reserve (2022-23: £564 of investment income).

14

HEAR ME OUT: REPORT OF TRUSTEES, YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

PRINCIPAL FUNDING SOURCES

Hear Me Out acknowledges with appreciation the financial support during the year of:

STATEMENT OF TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES

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 surplus or deficit of the charitable company for that period. In preparing those financial statements, the directors are required to:

The directors are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and to 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 responsible steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.

Signed: Sue Lukes Chair On behalf of the Board

Date: 13th December 2024

15

HEAR ME OUT: REPORT OF TRUSTEES, YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT

To the Trustees of Hear Me Out Music (charity number 1119049)

I report to the Trustees on my examination of the accounts of the charitable company for the year ended 31st March 2024.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND BASIS OF REPORT

As the charity’s Trustees (who are also its Directors for the purposes of company law) you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 (‘the 2006 Act’).

Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the Company are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of your charity’s accounts, as carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the 2011 Act’). In carrying out my examination I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5) (b) of the 2011 Act.

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S STATEMENT

Since the Charitable company’s gross income exceeded £250,000, your examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 2011 Act. I can confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination by virtue of being a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA), which is one of the listed bodies.

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

  1. Accounting records were not kept in respect of the Company as required by section 386 of the 2006 Act; or

  2. The accounts do not accord with those records; or

  3. The accounts do not comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the 2006 Act other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or

  4. The accounts have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice for accounting and reporting by charities applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).

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

Tom Wilcox FCIE Bank Chambers Main Street Hawes North Yorkshire DL8 3QL

The date upon which my opinion is expressed is: 15 December 2024

16

HEAR ME OUT: REPORT OF TRUSTEES, YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

HEAR ME OUT MUSIC

Statement of Financial Activities

(including income and expenditure account) For year ended 31 March 2024

Income
Donations
Income from charitable activities:
Investment income
Total Income
Expenditure
Costs of raising funds
Expenditure on Charitable activities
Total expenditure
Net income/(Expenditure)
Transfer between funds
Net movement in funds for the year
RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS
Total funds brought forward
Total funds carried forward		 Notes
2
3
4
5-7		 2024
Unrestricte
d funds
£
231,861
3,034
1,307		 2024
Restricted
funds
£
49,313
0
0
236,201 49,313
32,364
236,479		 0
95,265
268,843 95,265
(32,642)
0
(32,642)
88,272
55,630

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

The notes on pages 19 to 24 form part of these accounts.

17

HEAR ME OUT: REPORT OF TRUSTEES, YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

HEAR ME OUT MUSIC Registered Charity no 1119049 and Company Limited by Guarantee - Reg no 5943893

Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2024

2024 2024 2023 2023
Notes £ £ £ £
Current Assets
Debtors 13 16,115 12,045
Cash at bank 80,472 158,723
Total current assets 96,587 170,768
Current Liabilities
Creditors falling due within one year 14 17,365 12,952
Total current liabilities 17,366 12,953
Net Current assets 79,221 157,815
Total assets less current liabilities 79,221 157,815
The funds of the charity 21
Unrestricted funds
Designated funds - contingency reserve 49,037 47,730
General unrestricted funds 6,593 40,542
Total unrestricted funds 55,630 88,272
Restricted funds 23,591 69,543
Total funds 79,221 157,815

For the financial year ended 31 March 2024 the Directors are satisfied that the charitable company was entitled to exemption from audit under Section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 and no notice has been deposited under Section 476. The accounts have been examined by an Independent Examiner, in accordance with section 145 of the Charities Act 2011. His report appears on page 16.

The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for: (a) ensuring that the company keeps accounting records which comply with Section 386 of the Companies Act 2006, and (b) preparing financial statements which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company as at the end of the financial year and of its profit or loss (surplus or deficit) for each financial year in accordance with the requirements of Section 394 and 395 and which otherwise comply with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 relating to financial statements, so far as applicable to the company.

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions in Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies and constitute the annual accounts required by the Companies Act 2006.

Signed:

Name: Clare Scott Booth, Treasurer Approved by the Board of Trustees on: 13th December 2024

The notes on pages 19 to 24 form part of these accounts.

18

HEAR ME OUT: REPORT OF TRUSTEES, YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

HEAR ME OUT MUSIC Notes to the accounts

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

(a) Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charitable company's Articles of Association, the Charities Act 2011 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice – Accounting and Reporting by Charities (SORP (FRS102), second edition issued in January 2019)”, the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

Hear Me Out Music meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy notes(s).

(b) Preparation of the accounts on a going concern basis

The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charity's ability to continue as a going concern.

(c) Income

Income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the item(s) have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.

(d) Donated services and facilities

Donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item, any conditions associated with the donated item have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity is probable and that economic benefit can be measured reliably. In accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102) general volunteer time is not recognised but is referred to in the trustee's annual report.

(e) Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT

All expenditure is included on an accruals basis and is recognised when there is a legal or constructive obligation to pay for its expenditure. All costs have been directly attributed or proportionally charged to the functional categories of resources expended in the SOFA. Expenditure includes any VAT which cannot be fully recovered and is reported as part of the expenditure to which is relates.

(f) Fund accounting

Unrestricted Funds are funds received which have no restrictions placed on their use and are available to spend on activities that further any of the purposes of the charity. Designated funds are unrestricted funds of the charity which the trustees have decided to set aside to use for a specific purpose. Restricted funds are funds which are to be used for purposes specified by the funder.

(g) 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.

(h) 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.

(i) Creditors

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.

19

HEAR ME OUT: REPORT OF TRUSTEES, YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

HEAR ME OUT MUSIC Notes to the accounts

2. INCOME FROM DONATIONS
Grants received
29th May 1961 Charitable Trust
A B Charitable Trust
Alchemy Foundation
Arts Council England
Austin & Hope Pilkington Trust
Awards For All
Baring Foundation
BBC Children In Need
Bergman Lehane Trust
Bromley Trust
Charles S French Charitable Trust
D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust
Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust
Evan Cornish Foundation
Foyle Foundation
Garden Court Chambers Special fund
Garfield Weston Foundation
Hadrian Trust
Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation
Imagine Foundation
Kent Community Foundation
Lawson Trust
Leigh Trust
Lightbulb Trust
Lucille Graham Trust
Michael Guest Charitable Foundation
Network for Social Change Charitable Trust
Orange Tree Trust
Palca Stevenson Giving CIO
Parabola Foundation
Patsy Wood Trust
Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Peguera Trust
Schroder Charity Trust
Sir James Knott Trust
Thomas Sivewright Catto Charitable Settlement
Tudor Trust
Victoria Wood Foundation
Weinstock Fund
Whitaker Charitable Trust
Youth Music		 2024
£
Unrestricted
5,000
25,000
500
1,500
15,000
15,000
30,000
10,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
80,000
500
750
2,000		 2024
2024
2023
£
£
£
Restricted
TOTAL
TOTAL
5,000
5,000
25,000
0
500
0
0
27,000
0
1,000
0
10,000
0
1,526
11,000
11,000
0
1,500
1,500
15,000
10,000
0
4,000
4,000
4,000
3,000
0
3,000
0
7,500
15,000
0
0
1,500
30,000
0
1,000
1,000
0
5,000
5,000
5,000
10,000
20,000
0
5,000
2,000
2,000
0
3,000
0
0
30,000
5,000
5,000
3,000
2,000
0
0
20,000
2,500
2,500
0
1,000
0
0
20,000
0
2,681
80,000
80,000
500
0
3,000
3,000
0
0
5,000
750
0
0
20,000
5,000
5,000
3,500
0
3,000
2,000
1,000
10,813
10,813
29,222		 2023
£
TOTAL

20

HEAR ME OUT: REPORT OF TRUSTEES, YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

HEAR ME OUT MUSIC Notes to the accounts

2024
£
Unrestricted
2. INCOME FROM DONATIONS (cont’d)
Donations
34,475
Gift Aid Receivable
5,385
Pro bono contributions
750
231,861
3. INCOME FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES
Other income and contributions
3,034
3,034
4. INVESTMENT INCOME
Deposit account interest
5. EXPENDITURE ON CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES
Asylum hotels
Napier Barracks
Remote delivery - DIY radio
Young people
Hear Me Out Band residency no 1
Hear Me Out Band residency no 2 & gig
Hear Me Out Band
The Unknowns
Refugee Tales
Mentoring & individual support
Former detainees
Co-Creation
Quality & impact
Safeguarding
Artistic and audience development
Support costs (note 6)
Governance costs (note 7)
6. SUPPORT COSTS
Staff costs (note 9)
Financial management fees
Travel expenses and conferences
Office costs
Communications and website costs
7. GOVERNANCE COSTS
Board meeting and company costs
Trustee expenses
Independent Examiner		 2024
£
Unrestricted
34,475
5,385
750		 2024
£
Restricted		 2024
£
TOTAL
34,475
5,385
750		 2023
£
TOTAL
19,563
2,949
418
231,861 49,313 281,174 345,359
3,034 0 3,034 1,340
3,034 0 3,034 1,340
1,307 564
30,957
23,777
2,333
0
0
6,019
7,437
2,520
0
830
25
6,539
14,540
0
1,568
231,932
3,269		 16,802
27,930
714
24,436
11,478
9,747
0
0
1,933
0
257
0
2,729
8,291
10,163
200,112
5,206
331,744 319,798
191,785
7,356
4,841
25,282
2,667		 162,250
7,335
3,650
20,647
6,230
231,932 200,112
2,167
550
552		 3,969
778
460
3,269 5,206

Three trustees received reimbursement of expenses of £550 during the year (2022: 4 trustees - £778).

21

HEAR ME OUT: REPORT OF TRUSTEES, YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

HEAR ME OUT MUSIC Notes to the accounts

8. NET OUTGOING RESOURCES
The Operating Surplus is stated after charging:
Depreciation
Accountancy services
Independent Examiner fee
Trustee Emoluments		 2024
2023
£
£
0
0
7,356
7,335
552
460
820
1,085

One trustee, Lamin Joof, was paid a total of £2,000 in fees for work on HMO’s communications and programme, carried out in his capacity as a person with lived experience of immigration detention. The rates of remuneration were the same as paid to non-trustees with lived experience of detention who provided similar services. The work was procured in accordance with clauses 6.3 & 6.5 of the Articles of Association. No other remuneration or other benefit was pad to him or any other trustee in 2023-24. (2023: 1 trustee, Lamin Joof, was paid £1,085 for work on communications and the programme.)

9. ANALYSIS OF STAFF COSTS, AND TRUSTEE REMUNERATION AND EXPENSES
Salaries
140,558
Employer's National Insurance Contributions
12,393
Less - Employment Allowance
(5,000)
Employee salary sacrifice contributions to pension
2,373
Employer's pension contributions
8,572
Recruitment
3,530
Other costs
29,360
191,785		 143,063
12,091
(5,000)
2,186
8,264
1,156
491

Salaries
Employer's National Insurance Contributions
Less - Employment Allowance
Employee salary sacrifice contributions to pension
Employer's pension contributions
Recruitment
Other costs
162,251

No employees received employee benefits exceeding £60,000 (2023 - nil).

10. COMPARATIVE FOR THE STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

Income
Donations
Income from charitable activities:
Investment income
Total Income
Expenditure
Costs of raising funds
Expenditure on Charitable activities
Total expenditure
Net Income/(Expenditure)
RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS
Total funds brought forward
Total funds carried forward		 2023
£
Unrestricted
215,611
1,340
563		 2023
2023
£
£
Restricted
TOTAL
129,748
345,359
1,340
563
217,514 129,748
347,262
30,816
155,011		 30,816
164,787
319,798
185,827 164,787
350,614
31,687
56,585		 (35,039)
(3,352)
104,582
161,167
88,272 69,543
157,815

11. STAFF NUMBERS

The average monthly head count during the year was five and a half (2023: seven).

22

HEAR ME OUT: REPORT OF TRUSTEES, YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

HEAR ME OUT MUSIC Notes to the accounts

12. PENSIONS

Employees of the charity are entitled to join a defined contribution ‘money purchase’ scheme. The charity contribution is restricted to the contributions disclosed in note 9. The costs of the defined contribution scheme are included within support costs.

The designated money purchase plan is managed by NEST although staff may choose other plans. The plan invests the contributions made by the employee and employer in an investment fund to build up over the term of the plan. The pension fund is then converted into a pension upon the employee’s normal retirement age which is defined as when they are eligible for a state pension. The total expense ratio of the NEST plan is 0.3 % and this is deducted from the investment fund annually. The charity has no liability beyond making its contributions and paying across the deductions for the employee’s contributions.

13. DEBTORS
Grants Receivable
Trade debtors
Other debtors
Prepayments and accrued income
14. CREDITORS
Trade creditors
Taxation & social security
Other creditors
Accruals		 2024
£
0
400
227
15,488
16,115
7,675
3,209
612
5,868
17,364		 2023
£
0
10,000
1,815
230
12,045
5,446
3,857
3,169
480
12,952

15. COMPANY STATUS

The charitable company is limited by guarantee and therefore has no share capital. Each member’s liability under the guarantee is restricted to a maximum of £1.

16. POST BALANCE SHEET EVENTS

There were no significant post balance sheet events.

17. CONTINGENT LIABILITIES

The charitable company had no material contingent liabilities at 31 March 2024 (2023: none).

18. RELATED PARTIES

There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2023: none).

19. ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BETWEEN FUNDS

Cash at bank and in hand
Other net assets /(liabilities)		 General
Funds
Designated
Funds
Restricted
Funds
Total
Funds
£
£
£
£
6,343
49,037
25,091
80,472
250
0
(1,500)
(1,250)
6,593
49,037
23,591
79,222

23

HEAR ME OUT: REPORT OF TRUSTEES, YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

HEAR ME OUT MUSIC Notes to the accounts

20. STATEMENT OF FUNDS
Unrestricted funds
Designated funds
General funds
Restricted funds
Arts Council England
BBC Children In Need
Charles S French Charitable Trust
Craignish Trust
D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust
Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust
Evan Cornish Foundation
Hadrian Trust
Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation
Kent Community Foundation
Lawson Trust
Lucille Graham Trust
Network for Social Change Charitable
Trust
Orange Tree Trust
Schroder Charity Trust
Sir James Knott Trust
Souter Charitable Trust
Victoria Wood Foundation
Youth Music
TOTAL FUNDS		 Balance
at 31 Mar
2023
Incoming
Resources
Resources
Expended
Transfers
between
funds
Balance
at 31 Mar
2024
£
£
£
£
£
47,730
1,307
49,037
40,542
234,894
268,843
6,593
88,272
236,201
268,843
0
55,630
13,951
6,360
7,591
11,000
11,000
0
4,000
4,000
0
5,000
5,000
4,000
4,000
0
3,000
3,000
0
7,500
7,500
0
1,000
1,000
5,000
5,000
0
5,000
5,000
0
2,000
2,000
0
5,000
5,000
0
20,000
20,000
0
2,500
2,500
0
3,000
3,000
0
5,000
5,000
3,000
3,000
0
5,000
5,000
3,092
10,813
13,905
0
69,543
49,313
95,265
0
23,591
157,815
285,514
364,108
0
79,221

24