THE VOICE PROJECT LIMITED
ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST MARCH 2022
REGISTERED IN ENGLAND AND WALES COMPANY NO. 06571713
THE VOICE PROJECT LIMITED
COMPANY NUMBER 06571713 (ENGLAND AND WALES) MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE J.P.A. BAKER S.E. CROOSE SECRETARY S.E. CROOSE REGISTERED OFFICE 90 UPPER ST GILES STREET NORWICH NORFOLK NR2 1LT REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER 1127925 REPORTING ACCOUNTANT ACCOUNTANCY 121 56 ST WILLIAMS WAY THORPE ST ANDREW NORWICH NR7 0AP
INDEPENDENT EXAMINIER’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF THE VOICE PROJECT LIMITED
I report on the accounts of the company for the year ended 31[st] March 2022, which are set out on pages 1 to 5.
RESPECTIVE RESPONSIBILITIES OF TRUSTEES AND EXAMINER
The trustees (who are also the directors of the company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 43 (2) of the Charities Act 1993 (the 1993 Act) and that an independent examination is needed.
Having satisfied myself that the charity is not subject to audit under company law and is eligible for independent examination, it is my responsibility to:-
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examine the accounts under section 43 of the 1993 Act; to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission
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under section 43 (7)(b) of the 1993 Act; and
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to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
BASIS OF INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT
My examination was carried out in accordance with the general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair view’ and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S STATEMENT
In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:
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1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements:
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to keep accounting records in accordance with section 386 of the Companies Act 2006; and
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• to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records, comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the Companies Act 2006 and with the methods and principles of the statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities
have not been met; or
- 2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
ACCOUNTANCY 121 56 ST WILLIAMS WAY NORWICH NR7 0AP
THE VOICE PROJECT LIMITED
REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS
The Directors present their annual report and accounts for the year ended 31[st] March 2022.
PRINCIPAL The principal activity of the company is to advance the education of the public ACTIVITY in the arts and to promote health through involvement in health activity.
The Directors who served during the year were:-
DIRECTORS The Directors who served during the year were:J.P.A. Baker S.E. Croose STATUS The company is limited by guarantee and does not have a share capital. The company is a registered charity.
In preparing the above report, the Directors have taken advantage of special exemptions applicable to small companies. SIGNED ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
…………………………… J.P.A. BAKER DIRECTOR Approved by the Board:
6[th] July 2022
THE VOICE PROJECT LIMITED
Balance Sheet - 31[st] March 2022
| Notes | 2022 | 2021 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed Assets | |||||||
| Tangible Assets | 2 | 3,393 | 5,090 | ||||
| Current Assets | |||||||
| Debtors and Prepayment | 360 | 359 | |||||
| Cash at Bank and in Hand | 9,343 | 39,094 | |||||
| ______ | ______ | ||||||
| 9,703 | 39,453 | ||||||
| --------- | --------- | ||||||
| Creditors: Amounts falling | due | ||||||
| within one year | |||||||
| Creditors and Deferred Income | 11,592 | 30,616 | |||||
| --------- | --------- | ||||||
| Net Current (Labilities)/Assets | (1,889) | 8,837 | |||||
| ______ | ______ | ||||||
| Net Assets | £ 1,504 | £ 13,927 | |||||
| ______ | ______ | ||||||
| Financed by:- | |||||||
| Profit and Loss Account | 10 | £ 1,504 | £ 13,927 | ||||
| ______ | ______ |
For the year ending 31[st] March 2022 the company was entitled to an exemption from audit under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.
Directors’ Responsibilities:
The members have not required the company to obtain an audit of its accounts for the year in question in accordance with section 476.
The Directors acknowledge their responsibility for complying with the requirements of the Act with respect to accounting records and the preparation of accounts.
The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.
Signed on behalf of the Board of Directors:
……………………….
JPA Baker Director
Approved by the Board: 6[th] July 2022
The Notes on pages 3 to 5 form part of these Accounts
1
THE VOICE PROJECT LIMITED
Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31[st] March 2022
| Notes | 2021/22 | 2020/21 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Total | |||
| Funds | Funds | Funds | |||
| Income and Expenditure | |||||
| Incoming Resources | |||||
| Ticket Sales (Event Income) | 570 | - | 570 | 1,104 | |
| Participant Fees and Courses | 13,913 | - | 14,295 | 32,541 | |
| Grants (Trusts and Foundations) 1d | 23,995 | - | 23,995 | 81,705 | |
| Commission Fees | 34,940 | - | 34,940 | - | |
| Donations | 3,333 | - | 3,333 | 9,248 | |
| CD Sales and Downloads | 1,374 | - | 1,374 | - | |
| _ | _ | _ | _ | ||
| Total Incoming Resources | 78,125 | - | 78,125 | 124,598 | |
| _ | _ | _ | _ | ||
| Resources Used | |||||
| Direct Charitable Expenditure | |||||
| Artist Fees and Casual Labour | 28,434 | - | 28,434 | 23,377 | |
| Commission Fees | 728 | - | 728 | 12,500 | |
| Project Facilitation | 952 | - | 952 | 20,116 | |
| Directors’ Fees | 22,750 | - | 22,750 | 16,950 | |
| Production, Film & Stage Management | 1,250 | - | 1,250 | 6,000 | |
| Fundraising | - | - | - | 1,000 | |
| Merchandise Costs -Recording Choir CDs | 645 | - | 645 | - | |
| Travelling, Accommodation & Subsistence | 8,327 | - | 8,327 | 30 | |
| _ | _ | _ | _ | ||
| 63,086 | - | 63,086 | 79,943 | ||
| ----------- | ----------- | ----------- | ----------- | ||
| Other Expenditure | |||||
| Administration and | |||||
| Management | 3 | 25,765 | - | 25,765 | 30,633 |
| Depreciation | 2 | 1,697 | - | 1,697 | 1,697 |
| _ | _ | _ | _ | ||
| 27,462 | - | 27,462 | 32,330 | ||
| ----------- | ----------- | ----------- | ----------- | ||
| Total Resources Used | 90,548 | - | 90,548 | 112,273 | |
| _ | _ | _ | _ | ||
| Net Incoming Resources | (12,423) | - |
(12,423) | 12,325 | |
| Balances brought forward as at | |||||
| 1st April 2021 | 13,927 | - | 13,927 | 1,602 | |
| _ | _ | _ | _ | ||
| Balances carried forward as at | |||||
| 31st March 2022 | £ 1,504 | - | £ 1,504 | £ 13,927 | |
| _ | _ | _ | _ |
The Notes on pages 3 to 5 form part of these Accounts
2
THE VOICE PROJECT LIMITED
Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31[st] March 2022
1. Accounting Policies
- (a) Basis of Accounting
The accounts have been prepared under the historical cost accounting convention and in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities and incorporate the results of the principal activity which is described in the Directors' Report and which is continuing.
(b) Cash Flow
The accounts do not include a cash flow statement because the company, as a small reporting entity, is exempt from the requirement to prepare such a statement under Financial Reporting Standard 1 "Cash Flow Statements".
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(c) Depreciation
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Depreciation is calculated to write down the cost of all tangible fixed assets, over their estimated useful lives at the following annual rate:-
Office Equipment 25% reducing balance
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(d) Grants and Sponsorships Grants and Sponsorships are credited to the Profit and Loss account in accordance with the accruals concept.
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(e) Unrestricted Funds These are funds available to the charity for its general purposes, and use of such funds remains at the discretion of the charity’s management committee.
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(f) Restricted Funds
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These are funds subject to the conditions proposed by the donor or by the specific terms of the appeal under which the funds are realised.
2. Tangible Assets
| Tangible Assets | ||
|---|---|---|
| Office | ||
| Equipment | Total | |
| Cost - 31.03.2021 | 8,498 | 8,498 |
| Additions | - | - |
| _____ | _____ | |
| Cost - 31.03.2022 | 8,498 | 8,498 |
| -------- | -------- | |
| Depreciation - 31.03.2021 | 3,408 | 3,408 |
| Charge in the year to 31.03.2022 | 1,697 | 1,697 |
| _____ | _____ | |
| Depreciation - 31.03.2022 | 5,105 | 5,105 |
| -------- | -------- | |
| Net Book Value - 31.03.2021 | 5,090 | 5,090 |
| Net Book Value - 31.03.2022 | 3,393 | 3,393 |
3
THE VOICE PROJECT LIMITED
Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31[st] March 2022
3. Administration and Management
| Administration and Management | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | |
| Room and Venue Hire | 421 | 314 |
| Coordinator and Administrator Fees | 6,964 | 13,934 |
| Bookkeeping & Accounting Fees | 1,974 | 1,800 |
| Organisational Development | 10,800 | 4,825 |
| Insurance | 479 | 435 |
| Marketing & Promotion | 112 | 5,550 |
| Web Maintenance and IT Costs | 3,838 | 1,764 |
| Repairs and Renewals- Equipment | 510 | - |
| Bank Charges | 5 | - |
| Hire of Equipment | - | 486 |
| Sundry | 349 | 1,063 |
| Stationery, Postage and Office Consumables | 313 | 432 |
| _ | _ | |
| £ 25,765 | £ 30,633 | |
| _ | _ | |
| Surplus on Ordinary Activities is stated after Charging:- | ||
| 2022 | 2021 | |
| £ | £ | |
| Depreciation - Owned Assets | 1,697 | 1,697 |
| Directors’ Remuneration | - | - |
| _____ | _____ |
4. Surplus on Ordinary Activities is stated after Charging:-
5. Taxation
The company is a registered charity and is not subject to Corporation Tax.
6. Creditors Due within one year
| Creditors Due within one year | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | |
| Deferred Income | 8,560 | - |
| Creditors | 3,032 | 30,616 |
| _ | _ | |
| £ 11,592 | £ 30,616 | |
| _ | _ |
7. Contingent Liabilities
There were no Contingent Liabilities
8. Capital Commitments
At the end of the financial period the Directors have neither contracted for nor authorised the commitment of any capital expenditure.
4
THE VOICE PROJECT LIMITED
Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31[st] March 2022
9. Company Status
The company is limited by guarantee and does not have a share capital.
10. Profit and Loss Account
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Total | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funds | Funds | 2022 | 2021 | |
| Balance at 1stApril 2021 | 13,927 | - | 13,927 | 1,602 |
| Surplus/(Deficit) for the year | (13,923) | 1,500 |
(12,423) | 12,325 |
| ______ | ______ | ______ | ______ | |
| Balance at 31stMarch 2022 | £ 4 | £ 1,500 | £ 1,504 | £ 13,927 |
| ______ | ______ | ______ | ______ |
5
The Voice Project Directors !" report for the year to 31 March 2022
The Voice Project is an innovative organisation based in Norfolk, working locally, regionally and nationally. It has been creating large-scale, site–responsive performances since 2008, although the directors have worked together since 2003, premiering adventurous new choral works with openaccess choirs. We produce award-winning work (voted for by the people of Norfolk) engaging communities and inspiring audiences, in partnership with key arts organisations Each participant – from the experienced performer to the complete beginner – is invited into the process of making a new piece of choral theatre.
Our mission is to include and inspire, using the human voice as a starting point for collective acts of creative wonder and meaning. Post-pandemic, these offerings have increased in range and include creative writing, movement and Lilm-making; we are committed to sustaining and developing our organisation in order to achieve this. We run a programme of public performance projects and opeaccess music education workshops, as well as an associate artist community which employs and promotes the work of 10 other artists. We have managed to maintain a successful programme despite covid restrictions.
Every project is built around a choir of up to 150 singers with a team of professionals - singers, instrumentalists, choreographers, set, sound and lighting designers – all involved in an intensive process of rehearsal, resulting in the premiere of a new piece. The community is key, and regardless of geography, we see project participants returning to take part, either in person or now online.
We have learned a huge amount by collaborating with composers and musicians of international reputation including Barbara Thompson, Jon Hassell, Nik Bärtsch, Denis Rollins, Gwilym Simcock, Arve Henriksen. We now create all our work in house with our highly experienced team, while inviting new guest artists and collaborators to join us for each project.
Organisational development
Since working with Jo Marsh from Winster Marsh, we have reLined our systems to create a new funding and business plan. Our Project Coordinator Steph Potts has been working on course and project bookings, marketing, social media and day-to-day book-keeping. Steph has also been working closely with freelance web designer George Payne from Designed by George to create a brand new website for the organisation which launched in 2022.. Steve Forster has been working with us on marketing and
PR. Sal Pittman and Nathan Clarke have worked on Lilming and editing The Distance Between U #. Our Linancial management systems have worked to manage effectively all the variations in income, expenditure and cash Llow. Joseph Nemeth has been employed as Linancial consultant/accountant.
Funding
We had to devise a way of using recording choir money by creating a new online recording project in September 2021. We had two successful funding bids. We received Cultural Recovery support of £25,000, plus a successful Arts Council Project Grant of £17,250. Added to the previous years!" participants fees, these ensured that the organisation was able to offer a comprehensive programme, provide work for our associate artists and core team and undertake some really important development work and upgrade equipment.
The challenge for the coming year will be to maintain this level of support and continue to Lind new sources of revenue.
Sponsorship/Charitable giving/Support in kind
We have had generous donations from individuals as well as support in kind from local partners, Norwich Arts Centre and charitable support from the Leche Trust. We have continued to offer a
donation rate that participants can pay when signing up to a project and this has been a successful part of our fundraising strategy.
The Distance Between Us
This is a Lilm chronicle of autumn/winter 2020/21 that engaged over 150 community participants from across the UK over 6 months. As a sequel to Arc of the Sky it focused on how we spent our time during the second lockdown period. We included sessions with poet Esther Morgan and dancer/ choreographer Dane Hurst, as part of the programme of activities we provided for the choir. We compiled, edited, recorded and mixed the Lilm from April to June. The Distance Between Us was entered for the Richmond Virginia International Film Festival where it won a Best in show award in the experimental shorts category. The Lilm was screened at Norwich Arts Centre in October 2021 with some live singing from the soloists.
Highland Choral
In early 2020 we were approached by Ben Robinson, a director of the PR Lirm Proud Robinson, to recruit a small choir and make a musical arrangement of a traditional folk song for the launch of a new Scotch whisky brand for the Lirm Diageo. Ben had seen the Voice Project’s Arms of Sleep at the Brighton Festival in 2018 and wanted us to create a promenade piece for the brand launch in front of a live audience. As negotiations continued and the pandemic hit, plans were changed and it was decided that the launch would take the form of a Lilm live-streamed from the Scottish highlands. This took place in May 2021 with a small group of singers in Brora on the north-east coast of Scotland. Travel and accommodation was arranged by Steph Potts and the stage manager was Alex Lingford.
The Recording Choir
This was re-launched as an online project in September 2021. This Norwich and Brighton-based project had been suspended due to the pandemic. Recordings were recorded and submitted online by individual participants. These were pieced together and mixed. The resulting CD, The World on Either
Side , was produced mid December 2021 and has been well-received.
Open Voices
In January and February, we ran these courses online and subsequently a Harmony singing workshop live in the Friends Meeting House which brought people back to singing ofLline. We have continued to develop our online/digital offer, with free daily warm-ups as well as paid skills classes. Take-up is UK wide.
Arc of the Sky
Originally intended as a live performance project, the pandemic meant we decided to reimagine Arc of the Sky as a Lilm. From March 2022, and funded by the Arts Council Project Grant, we were able to make a live show at Blythburgh Church with the Norfolk/Suffolk participants and at Alfriston Church with the Brighton participants. Many
singers from Brighton took part in the Blythburgh show and vice versa. And singers who had rehearsed online came to perform in Blythburgh.
Each member of the group was invited to contribute original material, supported by expert artists, but with a creative licence that was born out of the circumstances we found ourselves in. The choir members became storytellers, Lilmmakers, and designers. Feedback from many of the group conLirmed that people realised creative potential they didn!t know they had, and the project encouraged them to continue to practise these new-found skills.
We believe that our project contributed signiLicantly to the lives of all its participants, in both professional and community terms. Accounts of the huge impact Arc of the Sky had, from the regular inspiring and supportive contact it provided, the exploration and acquisition of new creative skills and the expression and production of meaningful art, assure us that this work is vital and its provision essential.
' It has reduced my sense of isolation and increased my access to creative arts, singing and keeping connected .' (choir member)
We have continuity and evolution in our community: some people have been in every project, new members join each time, and online our choir is now nationwide, bringing people together from across the country to create together.
Future plans
We applied successfully to Caravan Assemble at the Brighton Festival; its preparation enabled us to meet international mentors with a view to take the Voice Project to international venues and audiences.
We will continue to offer opportunities for live singing in projects and courses while also keeping an online component to the organisation. Through the pandemic we have proved that the organisation can be Llexible and adaptable.
Participants and audience
Working online has offered us the possibility of extending our reach, nationally and internationally, and has brought us opportunities and connections that we would previously miss. As we return to in! person activity over the next few months, we aim to maintain these and expand the project s scope. As the Voice Project evolves, its singers have the opportunity to contribute and develop a whole range of skills and are becoming more involved in the creative process.
Conclusion
Despite the challenges we, and everyone, have faced over the 12-month period, we are really proud of the work we have produced and the connection we have maintained with our creative team, community of singers and audience members and supporters. We have strengthened our ties with the Brighton Voice Project Choir. We have fundraised successfully, worked with new artists, created a new website, committed to increasing the diversity of the organisation and developed an exciting programme for the future.
As a company, we are committed to continuing to provide innovative, life-enhancing creative adventures for our community - a community that expands, evolves and develops with each work of art we produce.
Sian Croose and Jonathan Baker Directors – The Voice Project OCTOBER 2022