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← Mac-Uk

2023-09-30-accounts

2022/23 MAC-UK ANNUAL REPORT

for the year ended 30 September 2023 for MAC-UK Ltd

Contents

Reference and administrative information // 3 Statement from the Chair and Vice-Chair // 4 Our funders and su orters // 6 pp Trustees report: achievements and activities // 7 Charity structure, governance and mana ement // 15 g Inde endent Examiner’s re ort // 19 p p Financial statements // 20

Reference and administrative information

// 3

The Trustees (who are directors of the charity for the purposes of the Companies Act) present their annual report together with the audited financial statements of MAC-UK (the charitable company) for the year ended 30 September 2023.

The Trustees confirm that the Trustees’ Report and financial statements of the charitable

company comply with the current statutory requirements, the requirements of the charitable company’s governing document and the provisions 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 (The FRS 102 Charities SORP).

Trustees

Independent Auditors

MHA McIntyre Hudson 6th Floor 2 London Wall Place London EC2Y 5AU

Co-Leadership Team

Bank

HSBC Bank Plc 122 Finchley Road London NW3 5JD

Company number

06693712

Registered charity number

1126144

Registered office address

40 Bowling Green Lane, EC1R 0NE

Statement from the Chair and Vice-Chair // 4

We chair are and no longer vice-chair, the having ‘new’ completed our full year and first learnt so much more about the workings of MAC-UK. We really value how the organisation tries to live its values and mission in the way that it operates and governs and have experienced the impact of this over the past year. The Co-Leadership team has modelled that it is possible to share the responsibility and power of leadership, valuing different backgrounds, experiences and knowledge and combining it to strengthen practice. This is also reflected in board meetings, where instead of ‘good news’ stories being the focus, challenges are shared and we work together to coproduce solutions to these; appreciating the diversity of the board and the leadership team in leading to quality solutions. We have been thinking about how to share this model externally, supporting others to move away from some of the problems of traditional models of leadership towards one that promotes equity.

MAC-UK turns the grand old age of 15 this year, and we have seen the impact of having worked in the field for this period of time. There are multiple ongoing relationships with those who have made MAC-UK what it is, from young people and previous staff, to partners who MAC-UK has worked with. This is an outcome of being an organisation with respectful, responsive, trusting relationships at the heart of its approach, with a mission that is shared by so many. This network of support around MAC-UK means it can remain small, while having a wider impact.

While appreciating just some of the strengths of MAC-UK, we have to acknowledge the impact of the national and global crises we have faced.

The purposes of the Charity as per its Memorandum and Articles are to advance in life and help young people through:

The escalating cost of living crisis has affected us all and has further highlighted the inequalities faced by the young people who we work with.

The impact of inequality and discrimination on all aspects of wellbeing and particularly mental health continues to show itself in our work with young people, grassroots organisations and statutory services. Young people face multiple challenges at home, at school, in community settings, and in getting help. So many of the aspects which support good mental health have been unequally reduced, such as sufficient income to pay for food and heating and sufficient, well-supported staff in schools. This is leading to an enormous increase in the numbers of young people attempting to access mental health support from the NHS, which in itself is under-resourced and managing its own response to the trauma of the covid-19 pandemic. Grassroots organisations are having to cover multiple gaps in basic needs including a place to feel safe. Statutory services are pushed to focus their very limited resources on crisis

Statement from the Chair and Vice-Chair // 5

response, leaving little room for preventative working. The criminal justice system then takes on the consequence of these unmet basic needs, while it too is under-resourced. As always, MAC-UK tries to work to support those facing challenges while also working to prevent the challenges occurring, working both responsively and preventatively, to create change for both individuals and systems. This multi-pronged/faceted way of working creates sustainable, systemic change and MAC-UK will continue to work to create this change despite the size of the challenge.

The report below demonstrates how we have continued our work in responding to this, through working with individuals, in partnership with organisations and influencing wider systems, always with young people.

staff we work with in these organisations share a common ideology, together with a passion and commitment to the young people they work alongside.

One area of need increasingly being shared with us by young people, grassroots organisations and statutory services is the impact of housing, or lack of appropriate housing and the need for more psychologically-informed housing for those in need of supported housing, including those caught in the care system. We hope to bring our learning and approach more to this area in response to this.

We look forward to the MAC-UK team taking their work and learning to wider audiences in the coming year, through digital forums including the website, and presence at conferences and other events.

Moving Forward

Step by step we are working very hard to create the world we want to live in with bold and courageous practice and despite the challenges we encounter we remain committed to our approach and remain optimistic and dedicated to our mission.

We are very fortunate to have funders who have supported us to share the reality of the work, appreciated the limitations caused by the covid-19 pandemic and have been critical supporters. We look forward to continuing to work with them over the coming year. Fundraising during difficult financial times remains a challenge for MAC-UK and we are grateful for the longer-term support of funders which allow us to focus more on the direct work for young people and communities, and the systems-change work with organisations and wider policy.

Paula Harriott Chair, MAC-UK

We are so pleased that our relationship with previous partners continues, in particular with Camden and Islington NHS and local nonstatutory services, and Haringey and Enfield NHS services, and that our relationship with Partisan, AAK and Youth Realities continues to grow. The

Ama Afrifa-Tchie Vice-Chair, MAC-UK

Our funders and su orters pp

// 6

With sincere thanks to all of our funders, partners and supporters who make our work possible:

Trustees report: achievements and activities // 7

The relation main to activities the purposes undertaken of the in Charity and for the furtherance of Public Benefit have been discussed below.

Teaching and Training

As part of our objective to disseminate our learning and approach, the MAC-UK team have continued to provide teaching and training for clinical psychology doctorates, introducing community psychology in practice, public health approaches and co-production.

This year the team have delivered teaching to five clinical psychology doctorate programmes reaching 196 clinical psychology trainees. We have received positive feedback from the sessions including participants finding practical applications of community psychology useful as well as us involving multiple members of the team from different projects and professional backgrounds in our sessions. Trainees reported that the sessions and chance to connect has provided hope in working in different ways. We continue to seek feedback to adapt our training, and have valued ideas to put into practice next year when sharing our approach with clinical psychology trainees. The team delivered twoday training to 18 professionals within Children’s Services, 100% of those completing feedback reported the course was relevant to their needs (37% ‘relevant’; 73% very relevant), 100% of participants reported being very satisfied with the course. MAC-UK has also delivered training to several other small organisations. MAC-UK provided 10 6-12 month training placements for final year doctoral trainee psychologists.

Youth Employment

From October 2022, the youth employment team included two Youth Consultants, two Peer

Researchers, one Outreach Worker, one Clinical Psychologist, the Head of Youth Employment and Co-Production, and one Youth Engagement Practitioner. The team met weekly both in the office and virtually to work on projects (see below) internal to MAC-UK and externally as part of our partnership projects as well as opportunities for team connection and learning. The team co-designed 4-6 weekly team days, inviting in external speakers as well as internal learning spaces and project thinking spaces. This included MAC-UK’s Youth Engagement Practitioner facilitating a Tree of Life space, and external speakers providing introductions to ‘Thinking Environments’, international work and education opportunities. As well as bringing the knowledge and skills to projects and meetings there was a focus of rebuilding the youth employment team and supporting each other during our time together.

School Exclusion Project

Following on the work and research done with the mentoring project. Public Health and Prevention Lead and a Youth Consultant merged ideas from the mentoring project and policy work around the education system. We started off by thinking about writing a response to a paper that was published about school exclusions. Utilising some of our team’s experience of the school system, we had discussions as to whether school exclusions work. A member of the team took the lead in writing 5 stories which shared the negative impact schools and methods use such as exclusion could have on a young person that does not fit the status quo or come from a background where less opportunity and marginalisation is experienced. Our hope is to post our writing on our website in the near future.

Trustees report: achievements and activities

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Mentoring Project

The youth employment team thought about how we could support young people affected by lack of opportunities and support in the education system. Many members of the team had shared negative experiences of the school system and discussed ways of what needs to change. During the year research was completed as to where in London exclusion rates were high and a plan of action was put together as to how we achieve our goal of coproducing an intervention for young people who would benefit from a non-traditional, collaborative and strength focused approach from individuals with similar backgrounds and experiences. During this time what came to light was that the team wanted to not only engage with students but also those with the power in the local education systems. We devised a plan as to how we would approach meeting with key decision makers who were important in making positive changes in schools (see the school exclusion project).

Next steps

The Youth Employment team will continue to build and work on projects MAC-UK are part of and work with our youth consultants to build on their skills and aspirations for change.

Public Health and Prevention

Over the course of this year the Public Health and Prevention Team have continued their work in different areas of the socio-political context that impacts the young people we work with across London, at an organisational level, an interpersonal level, as well as at policy and systemic levels. The funding allowed us to work intensively with Youth Consultants on developing a campaign message focused around schools and school exclusions, allowed the Public Health and Prevention team to respond to political developments in real time, contributed to the direction of policy in advocacy forums, and continued to develop and contribute to embedding Public Health approaches in our teaching.

Recruitment and moving on

Over the course of the year, five new Youth Consultants were employed within the Youth Employment team. Previous Youth Consultants continued their progress within MAC-UK and some into new roles in the sector. A peer researcher role was developed to support a research project led by a partner organisation.

We would like to acknowledge the effort, experience and thoughtfulness that the Youth Consultants brought to MAC-UK. All of the team were vital to the work of the charity over the year and we are very grateful for your contribution.

We worked with ‘Leaders Unlocked’ on their research on education, stereotyping, youth violence and policing, we worked with Liberty to produce a book chapter on alternatives to policing, publishing this and campaigning in Parliament around its messaging, contributed to the CRAE report on the UN Rights of the Child[1] , and have continued to inform the content of DClinPsy courses across the country, both as part of finalising our report into Community Psychology in universities, and also at an individual level with course leaders.

1 Civil society alternative report 2022 to the UN Committee – England | CRAE

Trustees report: achievements and activities

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We continued our policy influencing work with the Alliance for Youth Justice, inputting heavily in the direction they are taking with regard to children and policing, moving away from a focus on ‘child centred policing’ to non-policing solutions around child safety.

The Public Health and Prevention Lead continued to work with Art Against Knives, one of MAC-UK’s charity partners, working with a group of young people to develop a podcast called One Mic Real Talk, and develop their work in public health and health inequalities. In this work they engaged the systems around young people, specifically young black men, alongside a group of peer leaders to research the ways in which mental health interventions can better serve their community. We also facilitated the creation of a chapter in the Liberty Holding Our Own guide, a book thinking about alternatives to policing when thinking about youth violence, launching this with the nine contributing organisations. The policy influencing around this continues. Over the course of the last year we have also developed partnerships with Lambeth Council, Juvenis, St Giles’ Trust and DePaul, as well as with Look Ahead. We worked with Lambeth Council commissioners to contribute to the design of a pilot service, developing a housing project as an alternative to custody for the most at risk young people from the borough.

Community Psychology

Over the course of this year we have been able to finalise our report into community psychology on the DClinPsy courses across universities in England. Following interviews last year, this period was spent transcribing and analysing the data, writing up the findings and developing our position. This work was done with the aim

of being able to transform the way in which clinical psychology is taught in this country and therefore transform the way mental health is thought about across the board. We are now ready to publish our report, which seeks to be a document that will be able to support doctorate courses, mental health services and community services to develop a deeper understanding of the history, the make-up and hopefully the future of mental health in this country. We have been showing it to relevant stakeholders who are excited to be able to use this document as a template to guide university courses, and we plan to disseminate it ourselves to the significant regulatory bodies that hold power over how mental health is not only taught, but conceived of in this country.

The report highlights the role of inequality, neoliberal individualism and medicalisation in mental health, and calls for the resourcing of communities directly to allow them to provide the solutions to mental health challenges while drawing on national and international findings.

Anti-Racism

From October 2022, MAC-UK started a piece of work with an anti-racism consultant. This included them holding one to one spaces with all MAC-UK staff members, eight meetings with the anti-racism committee and two whole team spaces. The aim of this work was to support MAC-UK to identify and work towards anti-racism objectives. Following one to one meetings with the whole team, core themes relevant to anti-racism were identified by the team as needing to be addressed. These were:

1. A review of supervision internally and externally

Trustees report: achievements and activities // 10

2. The importance of including joy and celebration in and of our work and as a team

3. To examine the history of race in Psychology and how this reflects in MAC-UK’s and approach.

the impact to be for young people. From this we were able to create a plan for implementing changes. In addition to this, the team has also been working on content to put on the website and twitter.

Current Partnership Work

These themes were explored through whole team anti-racism spaces as well as within the smaller anti-racism committee. This led to the development of an action tracker which operationalised the themes into core objectives and tangible actions that enable us to embed anti-racism in the organisation. As a result of the anti-racism team spaces, a smaller working group formed to review MAC-UK’s supervision framework from an anti-racist lens to review and change our supervision policy and structures.

Within partnership project-based work, we are exploring how we embed anti-racist practice in each project as well as continuing this work internally.

We continue to consider the relationship between anti-racist and anti-oppressive practice to ensure that our work in this area is inclusive and considers the intersectional nature of oppression.

Innovation Hub

The Innovation Hub is a group that comes together to think about how MAC-UK evolves and develops as an organisation. This year’s focus has been how to share the work, learning and approach at MAC-UK more widely, particularly through social media. We held spaces throughout the year with the team to discuss various topics such as user journey, who is our audience and what we would want

Reaching Communities – NW9 Nails

Launched in 2022, Reaching Communities - NW9 is a partnership project with Against Knives (AAK) and Youth Realities (YR), funded by the The National Lottery Reaching Communities fund. The project aims to respond to the impact of Covid and lockdown on young people in Barnet from disenfranchised and socially excluded backgrounds, particularly on mental health, economic hardship, relationships and safety. The aims of the project are to expand existing service provision for NW9 Nails, a free drop-in space delivered by AAK for young women and gender-minoritised people that offers opportunities to learn professional nail care and art, graphic design, writing and other creative skills, complimenting the existing delivery with specialist support for individuals aged 17+ including young parents and those not in education or employment and on-site domestic abuse support (Youth Realities).

MAC-UK’s role in the project is to support the embedding of psychologically informed environments and support youth employment. Following a mobilisation and outreach period, the project has focused on developing a delivery space in Barnet.

Responding to the requests from staff working in the project, MAC-UK staff have established a reflective practice group for practitioners across AAK and Youth Realities involved in

Trustees report: achievements and activities

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direct delivery. The reflective practice spaces have been focused on developing the space, giving time to consider intersectionality and power, and have been responsive to the needs of the team.

To complement reflective practice, MAC-UK have also facilitated learning spaces that have centred on continued professional development for practitioners, in response to themes arising in the delivery space with young people and working with external organisations.

For example, we have worked together with the partnership to consider gender and inclusivity, to widen the reach of the space from historically being a ‘young women’s programme’, to now being a delivery space that is explicitly for cis women, trans, non-binary and gender nonconfirming young people. This has involved careful consideration of the complexity of gender identity, keeping in mind the current sociopolitical climate and ongoing discrimination and marginalisation for trans young people, and the need to ensure we create spaces for all who are affected by patriarchal violence.

This has seen change in language used in comms for the space, recruitment adverts and highlighted the need for ongoing consultation with young people who hold different identities to guide delivery.

Other learning spaces have also included working with young people who are refugees/ seeking asylum in the UK and developing the partnership’s values, shared expectations and working practices. Finally, we provided 1:1 supervision for staff members who are working on the project.

Barnet furthering relationships project – Barnet Berkley foundation

This project built on existing and new relationships with organisations in Barnet, supporting integration, creating reflective and learning spaces across services and working in their office spaces.

We also started the Youth Employment process, agreeing a shared plan for recruitment which took into account any considerations within young people’s context. Young people attended recruitment days sharing the opportunities in an informal and safe space. After a process supported by staff at Youth Realities and MACUK, three young people were employed by MAC-UK.

MAC-UK worked with three young adults who contributed in multiple ways and who also benefited from the flexibility and support provided by MAC-UK. The staff appreciated their contexts and any challenges they might be facing and responded with flexibility and understanding, appreciating what they were able to bring to their roles rather than focusing on particular outcomes as the priority. This approach was felt by the youth consultants, sharing, “...the people I’m working with are so understanding and I get MAC-UK is very flexible and supportive and all of this stuff, but it just felt that much more extra in those aspects of the Their thoughts and support and the flexibility”. opinions were welcomed and acted upon.

‘I feel appreciated and valued for the efforts that I can put in, that I am able to put in with the work that has been given to me, and if I can’t I’m not made to feel less than…the level of respect, the level of understanding and support’.

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When asked about the experience, one Youth Consultant recognised the impact they had been able to have, saying

‘The ideas that I’ve been able to still share are now embedded into you guys as well. And they’re there with you a lot as well. So it’s like I’ve left my mark somehow, even if I finished with MAC-UK soon. That there’s just going to be a little piece of me with MAC-UK’.

In addition to offering reflective space for staff, a learning space facilitated by MAC-UK staff allowed colleagues from different organisations to come together and think about the response to self-harming in Barnet. This project allowed MAC-UK to contribute to the integration of services within Barnet, creating longer-term change in the offer of support to young people in Barnet.

therapeutic conversations. We created and sent care packages to all young women so we were able to stay connected during the holiday periods. We also facilitated and enabled the young women to share their views and experiences of mental health services with NHS leads in Barnet.

When the group came to an end, we planned celebrations and trips to mark the ending of the therapeutic groups. When completing the coproduced outcome measures, all young women who took part reported positive outcomes as a result of being a part of therapeutic groups.

As a result of the young people feeding back their views and experiences to NHS leads in Barent, the NHS commissioners are exploring how to provide further funding to enable the therapeutic groups to continue.

Therapeutic Group

MAC-UK and AAK were successful in obtaining funding to run a therapeutic group in Barnet. This arose from AAK staff recognising the need and lack of appropriate therapeutic support for young women of colour in Barnet.

The therapeutic group was co-produced with young women between 11 - 25 years old, throughout the entire process. Co-production ensured the young women were involved, heard and able to create what they needed from a therapeutic intervention. An integral part of this was ensuring practice and activities were culturally appropriate, relevant and meaningful.

The therapeutic groups took place fortnightly, and facilitators planned in between. These spaces included trips, creative activities and a safe, confidential space for authentic

Camden and Islington-based Work

From April 2023, MAC-UK has collaborated with Camden and Islington (CANDI) NHS Foundation Trust. The collaboration has involved a MACUK member of staff working one day per week (for one year) to share MAC-UK’s learning and approach, and strategic consultation for the Young People’s Service and recently commissioned Vanguard Project (NHS England and Improvement Reduction Programme - Violence Reduction Unit).

The Vanguard project, from which Camden has been funded as a prevention site, is a community multi-systems violence reduction programme pilot, aimed at providing psychologically informed care to marginalised young people affected by, and at risk of serious youth violence and for whom traditional mental health services are out of reach.

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The work to date has involved a comprehensive mapping exercise to understand the network of support services in Camden and to identify gaps in service provision for young people who are socially excluded and who may have mental health and social needs and are not being reached by existing services. Alongside the operational lead in Camden, we have met with professionals from 12 organisations, the information and learning from which is being drawn upon to inform the developing strategy for young people’s services and Camden vanguard. Alongside the Vanguard team, MAC-UK are supporting to develop a service specification to define the working practice and values of the team, to be shared with the wider network of support services in Camden.

Youth Ink – SEJA

In 2022, MAC-UK formed a new relationship with SEJA. SEJA is an innovative organisation that supports local leaders to create change in their community. Originally founded in Brazil, the team has expanded to London and reached out to MAC-UK because of our experience of co-producing projects alongside young people. SEJA had already been working with an established charity, Youth-Ink. A small scale partnership project was developed alongside Youth-Ink, SEJA and MAC-UK for MAC-UK to facilitate some sessions with Youth-Ink to support them to work towards their longer term strategy of expansion and broader policy level impact.

MAC-UK met with Youth-Ink through ‘getting to know you’ days to understand more about each other’s organisations, values and approach and co-produce the plan for workshops. Youth-Ink outlined their hopes for:

MAC-UK delivered workshop days with the team introducing ideas from community psychology, public health, Tree of Life, stakeholder mapping and AMBIT, specifically working with networks,youth employment, and the leadership journey for members of the team. Staff joined MAC-UK team meetings to observe first hand how the values and culture are expressed in formal spaces.

Through this, Youth-Ink chose a specific policy that they hope to change within the Youth Justice system. MAC-UK staff then facilitated a session on how to effect policy change using an asset–based approach.

Formal feedback suggested that the sessions were appropriate, engaging, and the learning could be practically applied to their work at an organisation and policy level. Youth- “I didn’t realise how much Ink staff reported knowledge I had - I know it I couldn’t pinpoint it. Recognising what knowledge I do have and then how I can improve on that knowledge.”. Staff ended by sharing their plan for using their learning to further support their organisation’s long term objectives.

Trustees report: achievements and activities // 14

New Partnerships and Projects

Look Ahead

In 2022 MAC-UK were pleased began a partnership with Look Ahead, a supported housing association. For the 12 months prior, Look Ahead had been working in partnership with the Wates Foundation to research housing-related models of support for young people experiencing mental health crises. The research, along with anecdotal evidence from their services, highlighted a significant gap in service provision for young people experiencing a mental health crisis meaning that young people were being admitted to hospital rather than being supported in the community.

MAC-UK have been supporting with the set up of a new residential housing provision that is an alternative for those experiencing mental health crises, with learning from this guiding a future framework. To enable this, MAC-UK started by carrying out a research piece, finding out from staff working in Look Ahead sites and in other related settings to understand how staff are already supporting young people’s mental health to identify areas of good practice, as well as areas for change and additional resourcing.

We are thrilled that this work has led to a larger scale and longer term partnership project funded by St Martins In the Fields homeless charity to co-produce and embed preventative and contextualised mental health support into young people’s housing provision within Look Ahead. This work will take place over two years starting in 2023.

Lambeth Young People at Risk Housing Service

In 2023 MAC-UK became part of a four-part consortium, working with Lambeth Housing Commissioners to co-design and co-pilot a new residential service for young Lambeth residents. The specification for this service was based on research with young people in Lambeth as well as professional stakeholders. This service consists of three houses with 4-6 beds in each, each based outside of Lambeth. They will house young men aged 16-24 years who are facing significant risk of violence, exploitation and harm if they do not leave Lambeth.

MAC-UK have been invited to be part of the consortium to draw on INTEGRATE principles and using lived and professional experience to provide an innovative, flexible and creative mental health framework that places mental health within a context of deprivation, inequality and discrimination, and views co-production, social activism and environmental change as essential for well-being. The first house is due to welcome its first resident in early January 2024.

This project is being independently evaluated, and is of interest to many stakeholders including the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, and if successful will serve as a blueprint for future services offering an opportunity for young people facing significant risk.

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Charity structure, governance and mana ement g

The Trustees’ Annual Report contains a Directors’ Report as required by company law. The report and accounts comply with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS102 (effective 1 January 2019).

Company status

MAC-UK is a charitable company limited by guarantee. It was incorporated on 10 September 2008 and is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association dated 10 September 2008 as amended by special resolutions dated 17 May 2017 and 18 July 2019. The charitable company has no share capital, and in the event of a winding up, each member and those that have ceased being a member within the preceding twelve months, has undertaken to contribute £10.

Governance, internal control and trustee recruitment

MAC-UK is governed by a Board of Trustees who are responsible for the organisation’s strategic direction, providing challenge and support to the Co Leadership Team as well as ensuring compliance with charity, employment and other relevant statutory requirements. A skills audit is undertaken annually by the board which informs board recruitment and training.

As of August 2023, the board consists of 6 trustees with a wide range of relevant skills and experience. Page 4 of this report sets out the complete list of trustees who served during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements. The governing document does not set a maximum of trustees. The

minimum number of trustees is 3. The quorum for trustee meetings is 3 Trustees or 1/3 of the trustees, whichever is the greater.

The Board of Trustees delegate responsibility for day to day management to key management personnel, namely the MAC-UK Co Leadership Team. The trustees make clear the authorities which are delegated to the key management personnel through a documented schedule of responsibilities.

Induction and training

ln line with Charity Commission guidance, Trustees are made aware of their roles and responsibilities and carry out inductions into the many different activities and services provided by MAC-UK.

Prior to formal appointment, potential trustees attend a strategy and governance session, meet members of the team and observe a board meeting. Once appointed, the trustees have access to a drive of Trustee Resources, including relevant organisational documents, policies and procedures. Additionally, trustees attend an annual board away day and whole organisation away days.

Risks

Trustees have conducted a review of the major risks to which the charity is exposed. MAC-UK maintains an organisational risk register which is appraised dynamically and reviewed at least every 6 months, though more frequently if required.

Where appropriate, systems and procedures are in place to mitigate the risks the charity faces. Policies and internal controls have been reviewed during the reporting period. Procedures

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continue to be in place to ensure compliance with safeguarding, data protection, health and safety of staff, volunteers, young people and visitors to the MAC-UK’s projects and these are regularly reviewed.

Public Benefit

In setting objectives and planning for current and future activities, the Trustees have given due consideration to general guidance published by the Charity Commission relating to public benefit, including the guidance ‘Public benefit: running a charity (PB2)’.

Financial Review

During the year, total income was £334,720 (2022: £285,592), of which £271,795 related to unrestricted income. Total expenditure was £404,549 (2022: £418,864) resulting in a deficit for the year of £69,829 (2022: deficit of £133,272). The boost in income was largely because of a grant secured from new funders during the current financial year.

Since the Covid-19 restrictions eased and the upward trend in receiving funds from the donors after the end of year 2022, MAC-UK managed to compensate the previous year deficit to nearly half this year and therefore in this financial year the trustees agreed a deficit budget with a planned usage of our reserves same as the previous year.

Continuing the trend, from October 2023 we have received income from new sources and also significantly reduced costs in order return to a sustainable business model.

94.4% of the charity’s expenditure in the year was spent on the delivery of the charitable objectives, and 5.5% was spent on

governance. The trustees are satisfied that the level of fundraising costs is appropriate to the organisation.

MAC-UK welcomes, but is not reliant on, the occasional input of skilled volunteers to assist with projects from time to time. MAC-UK also hosts part-time and short-term student placements of individuals in further or higher education in a field of study related to our work.

Reserves Policy

The trustees have reviewed and agreed the reserves policy which requires sufficient free reserves (unrestricted funds less unrestricted fixed assets) to be maintained to meet three months’ operating expenses. Budgeted expenditure for 2022/23 is £389,699 and therefore the level of reserves to be maintained is £97,425 in general funds.

At the balance sheet date, free reserves totalled £125,461. Trustees note the reserves levels exceed the policy but they have agreed that in the current climate and owing to the ongoing challenging fundraising environment, that the excess amount remains appropriate.

Remuneration Policy

The trustees consider the Board of MAC-UK and the Co Leadership Team as comprising the key management personnel of the charity in charge of directing and controlling the charity and running and operating the charity on a day to day basis. All trustees give of their time freely and no trustee remuneration was paid in the year. There were no related party transactions in the year 2022/23.

Trustees are required to disclose all relevant interests and register them with the Head of Governance and in accordance with MAC-UK’s

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policy, withdraw from decisions where a conflict of interest arises.

MAC-UK has a salary banding structure in place for the remuneration of its employees, benchmarked with charities of a similar size and activity, to ensure that the remuneration set is fair and comparable with that generally paid for similar roles.

Periodic reviews of the salary banding structure take into account movement in average earnings. Pay reviews for any individual employee take into account the average salary of other employees. In 2022/23, the 3 highest paid members of staff earned between £49,242 - £56,815 full-time equivalent.

Trustees’ Responsibilities in relation to the Financial Statements

The trustees (who are also directors of MAC-UK for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006.

They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Audit Information

So far as each of the trustees, at the time the trustees’ report is approved, is aware:

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

a) There is no relevant information of which the independent examiners are unaware; and

b) They have taken all relevant steps they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant information and to establish that the independent examiners are aware of that information.

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Independent Examiner

A resolution to reappoint MHA McIntyre Hudson as Independent Examiners will be presented at the MAC-UK December board meeting.

MAC-UK Annual Report

The report of the Directors has been prepared taking advantage of the small companies’ exemption within the Companies Act 2006.

Signed on its behalf by trustees:

Paula Harriott Chair, MAC-UK Date: 26/07/2024

Ama Afrifa-Tchie Vice-Chair, MAC-UK Date: 26/07/2024

Stephen Hyams Treasurer, MAC-UK Date: 26/07/2024

Inde endent Examiner’s re ort // 19 p p

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the company for the year ended 30 September 2023 which are set out on pages 20 to 31.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity trustees of the company (and 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 company’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.

  1. 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

  2. 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.

Independent examiner’s statement

Since the 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 confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, 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:

Rachel Doyle FCCA ACA DChA

MHA Chartered Accountants MHA House Charter Court Swansea Enterprise Park Swansea SA7 9FS

  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

Date: 26/07/2024

MHA is the trading name of MacIntyre Hudson LLP, a limited liability partnership in England and Wales (registered number OC312313)

Financial statements // 20

Statement of financial activities (including income and expenditure account) for the year ended 30 September 2023

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Financial statements

Balance sheet as at 30 September 2023

Paula Harriott Chair, MAC-UK Date: 12/06/2024

Stephen Hyams Treasurer, MAC-UK Date: 12/06/2024

Company number: 06693712

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Financial statements

Cash flow statement for the year ended 30 September 2023

Financial statements // 23

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2023

Financial statements // 24

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2023

Financial statements // 25

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2023

Financial statements // 26

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2023

Financial statements // 27

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2023

Financial statements // 28

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2023

Financial statements // 29

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2023

Financial statements // 30

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2023

Financial statements // 31

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2023

40 Bowlin Green Lane EC1R 0NE g , info@mac-uk.or g www.mac-uk.or g @macukcharit y Re istered Charit No. 1126144 g y

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