2024-03-31-accounts - Music Action International

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MUSIC ACTION INTERNATIONAL LTD

ANNUAL REPORT

AND

UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR

THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 2024

Company number 6859113 Charity number 1136295

MUSIC ACTION INTERNATIONAL LTD ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 2024

INDEX

Administrative information	1
Trustees’ and Directors’ annual report	2 – 5
Independent Examiner’s report	6
Statement of financial activities	7
Balance sheet	8
Notes to the financial statements	9 – 15

MUSIC ACTION INTERNATIONAL LTD ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 2024

DIRECTORS & TRUSTEES

Daniel Diaz Vera Sepideh Amiri Jack Steadman Leena Sahloul

KEY MANAGEMENT

Lis Murphy – Creative Director Kayleigh Swanson–Development Manager Ramsey Janini- Creative Producer

REGISTERED OFFICE AND Bridge 5 Mill PRINCIPAL PLACE OF BUSINESS 22a Beswick Street Manchester M4 7HR

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER Stacy Mason FCCA & ACCOUNTANTS HGA Accountants &Financial Consultants Ltd t/a Chittenden Horley - Chartered Accountants Hyde Park House Cartwright Street Hyde, SK14 4EH

BANKERS The Co-operative Bank PLC PO Box 101 1 Balloon Street Manchester M60 4EP

MUSIC ACTION INTERNATIONAL LTD ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 2024

The trustees present their annual report together with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended March 31 2024 which are also prepared to meet the requirements for a directors’ report and accounts for Companies act purposes.

REPORTING FRAMEWORK

The financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Companies Act 2006, the Memorandum and Articles of Association, and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS102) (effective 1 January 2019), referred to as the Charities SORP (FRS 102) (second edition – October 2019).

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

Charitable objects

The charitable objectives are:

To preserve & protect the physical and mental health of those granted refugee status
To advance the education and training of those granted refugee status and their dependants in need thereof so as to advance them in life and assist them to adapt within a new community.
To advance the education of the public in general about the issues relating to refugees and those seeking asylum
The promotion of racial harmony for the public benefit by:
Promoting knowledge and mutual understanding between different racial groups
Advancing education and raising awareness about different racial groups to promote good relations between persons of different racial groups

Activities

Music Action International are people from across the world using the power of creativity to overcome the effects of war, torture and armed conflict.

We provide innovative ways to support children, young people and adults to overcome the debilitating effects of war-related stress and trauma and connect divided communities in a powerful way through creative music programmes.

Our specialist team, many of whom have themselves experienced the effects of war and armed conflict, are trained to support highly traumatised survivors, using music as a way of improving mental, emotional health and building trust through creative expression in physically and emotionally safe environments.

We seek to achieve our objectives through the following long term programmes:

Stone Flowers: Working with the survivors of torture

Harmonise : Increasing well-being & empathy in schools

Everyday People : With teenage refugees

Crisis Choirs : With adult refugees

Holiday/hotel programmes : With newly arrived refugees placed in hotels, and children in term breaks

Sierra Leone : With street homeless youth affected by war, creating their own programmes in partnership with WAYout Arts

Public benefit

The trustees have had regard to the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit in determining the fees for performances.

MUSIC ACTION INTERNATIONAL LTD ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 2024

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

2023-2024 saw the organisation take great steps forward in its strategy and development. Most notably, we were successful, for the first time, in an Arts Council England National Portfolio 2023-26 application. We secured multi-year core funding with other grant-makers as well, resulting in greater financial stability through to 2026, as well as a move towards a core funding financial model. These successes entail ambitious programme plans, for which we hired NW and Brighton Programme Coordinators to join the management team and will later hire a London programme manager.

We were able to deliver 246 online & face-to-face singing and creative music sessions with refugees, asylum seekers, torture survivors, Roma, young people and local people reaching over 2800 participants, and over 2300 audience members through live and online events with over 50 partner organisations.

Stone Flowers: our creative, therapeutic music project with refugee and asylum seeker torture survivors from countries including Iraq, Iran, Sri Lanka, Sudan, DR Congo, Cameroon. A documentary about the programme had a private screening for Stone Flowers members, won multiple awards including ‘Best National Documentary Film on a Social Issue’ at the Filmmakers United International Film Festival and ‘Best Director of a Short Documentary’ at London Film Fest International Awards and was shown by various festivals including being officially selected for the International World Film Awards. Plans are in place for further screenings nationally with Q&A Panel. Additionally, Stone Flowers formed a case study for a PhD in trauma-informed practice by Dr Catherine Birch at York St Johns University. The book with a chapter on Stone Flowers has been downloaded 1,200+ times and received many positive reviews including from BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy), Therapy Today and UKCP (UK Council for Psychotherapy). There is also a series of webinars which began in September, to share groupwork approaches with those working in mental health, community and humanitarian fields.

Harmonise: supports young refugee/asylum seeker and Roma children in schools, celebrating their music, background and culture within the classroom and in the wider community, bringing artists who are themselves refugees to raise awareness and create new music in a fully inclusive and engaging way towards performances in schools, communities and prestigious arts venues. We worked in 3 schools in Greater Manchester, writing 7 original songs with over 2000 young participants across 35 sessions and 5 performances, including at Bridgewater Hall. 111 children have received Arts Award certificates from Trinity College London and 10 teachers received mentoring and shadowing as part of the programme.

Everyday People: working with unaccompanied refugees aged 16-25, to overcome stress, trauma and isolation, and connect them with their new communities continued in collaboration with The Manchester College, Red Cross, Springboard Youth Academy, and Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit, with Young Roots and Compass Collective programmes initiated to run into 24/25. 33 sessions were delivered with participants co-creating 9 original pieces, including music videos. The Manchester College programme is set to be expanded across multiple ESOL classes in 24/25.

Crisis Choirs: supports refugees and asylum seekers in crisis who go to refugee drop-in centres for support. We continued our partnerships with City of Sanctuary, Rainbow Haven and Rainbows Across Borders, and initiated a new programme with All Saints Hove resulting in 58 sessions and 8 live performances reaching over 400 mostly Global Majority and asylum seeking audience members.

Holiday/hotel programmes: We delivered one holiday programme with children in Brighton, with 4 sessions culminating in a performance of original songs in Arabic, Ukrainian and English at Jubilee Library, and two programmes to benefit refugees and safety seekers housed in temporary accommodation hotels in Hillingdon, London.

We collaborated with IWM London to mark Roma Holocaust Memorial Day; our facilitators, Roma siblings Sindy and Ben Czureja wrote and performed an original song inspired by an object on display, as well as a more traditional Roma song. Our Creative Producer and 2 of our facilitators performed and spoke at Salford’s ‘City of Sanctuary’ designation event. Naeim Alnajjar, a Syrian refugee beatboxer, spoke about how his engagement with Music Action International led to his being awarded the RNCM’s firstever scholarship offered to a beatboxer.

Sally Fort, an external culture consultant, completed a report on our work with children and young people over the last three years and we were also featured in an article by Youth Music to celebrate the European Day of Languages. Our work was featured in the Counterpoints Arts/Baring Foundation report Creatively Minded and Refugees.

Sierra Leone: an initiative in partnership with WayOut Arts supporting street youth affected by conflict in Sierra Leone. The project delivered 2 weekly sessions across the entirety of 22/23 in a women’s and men’s prison respectively, as well as in a psychiatric institute. The sessions at the men’s prison regularly reach 200 participants, and 50 at the women’s. Prison guards report greater calm; some people who otherwise never leave their cell come out to join in and consequently are engaging more with others and feeling more confident. They gain self worth and see a potential future. The charity worked with 21 refugees as volunteers, trainees and lead facilitators.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Overview

The charity had a surplus on unrestricted funds for the year of £27,917 (2023 – surplus £8,179).

In addition to the income disclosed in the accounts, the charity enjoys “in kind” support from a range of volunteers and organisations. An attempt at valuing this “in kind” support suggested that this was worth approximately £25,000 to the charity in 2023/23 it is estimated that this is a similar figure to the previous year. This is mostly volunteer time but also includes other services from third parties. Due to the difficulty of valuing this support, this amount has not been included within the accounts.

MUSIC ACTION INTERNATIONAL LTD ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 2024 Risk management

The Trustees have undertaken a review of the major risks to which the charity is exposed, and systems have been established to mitigate those risks. Periodic reviews are made to ensure that the charity continues to identify and mitigate any major risk that may arise.

Reserves

The trustees have set a target for free reserves (unrestricted funds not invested in fixed assets or otherwise designated) of between three to six months core expenditure, approximately £37,500 to £70,500. At the year end the charity had free reserves of £62,257 within the desired range.

Going concern and Covid 19

The charity has taken action during the year to build the free reserves and to deliver the programme in new ways. It has been able to adapt to the challenges of COVID 19. Taken together with the free reserves position and funding secured for 22/23 and beyond, we do not believe that there is any material concern about going concern

FUTURE PLANS

We will continue to build the organisation around our 5 strategic pillars:

Connection: creating a sense of family, raising awareness about refugees, and building connections across geographical, political & religious borders. Investing in our communications capacity to amplify the messages of the people we work with, to counter government hostility towards refugees at a critical time when refugees face criminalisation and a loss of rights due to the Nationality and Borders Bill.

Collaboration: Sharing ownership, increasing diversity, and developing strong partnerships by using existing and new delivery and training partnership models to collaborate with more refugee, education and arts partners.

People: Focusing on the well-being of participants, staff, board, music facilitators and audiences by implementing a new capacity framework to ensure growth does not come at the detriment to sustainability, participant and staff welfare, or risk staff burn out. I think welfare covers burn out?

Quality: Continually improving the quality of our work by developing our impact measurement, evaluation, training, skill-sharing and

observation processes across the organisation.

Creativity: Being innovative in approaching our practice, partnerships and impact by delivering high-quality creative and training programmes to increase well-being with new and existing partners across the country and internationally.

The strategic pillars have been integrated into our Arts Council England NPO programme plans, which include prioritising the wellbeing and training of staff, the creation of pathways to employment for young refugee trainees and participants, and the continued delivery of our programmes supporting physical, emotional and mental health online and face-to-face. We are also focusing on improving our evaluation and impact measurement processes through the development and implementation of new CRM procedures.

STRUCTURE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Governing document

The charity is a company limited by guarantee and is governed by it Memorandum and Articles of association dated March 25 2009, as amended by special resolution dated May 15 2010. It is a registered charity with the Charity Commission, having been registered on June 10 2010.

Members of the company

The Directors have the power to admit any person or organisation to membership and also to remove them. There are currently 10 members of the company, including the directors, each of whom agrees to contribute a sum not exceeding £1 in the event of the charity being wound up.

Appointment of trustees

The Directors, who are the Trustees, are appointed by the members in general meeting. At each AGM, one third of the Directors, being the longest in office, retire by rotation are eligible for re-election. Other than those retiring by rotation, the only other people eligible for election are those recommended by the directors or nominated by the members. The members must give giving not less than 14 and not more than 35 days clear notice of the intention of nominating a person for election. The Directors have the power to co-opt directors, but they must retire at the next AGM, in addition to those retiring by rotation.

The number of directors must not be less than three, but there is no upper limit on the number.

The Directors who served during the year, together with any changes up to the date of approving this report, are listed on page 1.

Trustee recruitment, induction and training

Trustees are recruited based on the skills and experience required for successful governance of the organisation. All trustees receive a copy of all company policies, charity trustee handbook, a skills audit, a time commitments document to complete and a training DVD.

MUSIC ACTION INTERNATIONAL LTD ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 2024

Organisation

The trustees meet as required and not normally less than 4 times per year. The charity employs three part time staff as: Creative Director; Programme and Finance Manager; and Development Manager. The Trustees took direct responsibility for the management and direction of the charity, as well as its governance and strategy.

Related parties

Lis Murphy, the Creative director, was also a trustee until August 2019. Details of transactions with her are given in note 14 to the financial statements.

TRUSTEES’ RESPONSIBILITIES IN RELATION TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

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

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

select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP (FRS 102) (second edition – October 2019);
make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in operation.

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

SMALL COMPANY PROVISIONS AND APPROVAL

This report has been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies entitled to the small companies exemption.

Approved by the Board of Trustees and signed on its behalf by:

Daniel Diaz Vera – Director

Date: December 20th, 2024

MUSIC ACTION INTERNATIONAL LTD ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 2024

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the company for the year ended March 31 2024 which are set out on pages 7 to 15.

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.

Independent examiner's statement

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:

accounting records were not kept in respect of the company as required by section 386 of the 2006 Act; or
the accounts do not accord with those records; or
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
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.

Chittenden Horley

For and on behalf of: HGA Accountants & Financial Consultants Ltd t/a Chittenden Horley Chartered Accountants Hyde Park House Cartwright Street Sk14 4EH Date: 20/12/2024

MUSIC ACTION INTERNATIONAL LTD STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES (including the income and expenditure account) FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 2024

The notes on pages 9 to 15 form part of these financial statements.

MUSIC ACTION INTERNATIONAL LTD BALANCE SHEET AS AT MARCH 31 2024

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

For the year ending March 31 2024 the company was entitled to exemption from audit under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies and no notice has been deposited under section 476 requiring the company to obtain an audit of its accounts for the year in question.

Directors’ responsibilities

The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Act with respect to accounting records and the preparation of accounts.

The notes on pages 9 to 15 form part of these financial statements.

Approved by the Board and authorised for issue on: 20/12/2024

And signed on their behalf by:

Daniel Diaz Vera - Director

Company registration number 6859113

MUSIC ACTION INTERNATIONAL LTD NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 2024

1 ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared: under the historic cost convention; in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice – Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS102) effective January 1 2019 (second edition – October 2019); FRS102; and the Companies Act 2006. The charity constitutes a public benefit entity as defined by FRS102.

The accounts are prepared in £ sterling, which is the functional currency.

Estimates and judgements

The preparation of the financial statements requires management to make judgements, estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported. These estimates and judgements are continually reviewed and are based on experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances.

Income recognition

All income is recognised once the charity has entitlement to the income, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount of income receivable can be measured reliably. The following applies to particular types of income:

Grants , whether of a capital or revenue nature, are recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions have been met and it is probable that the income will be received.

Donations from individuals and other bodies (not being of the nature of a grant) are recognised when receivable.

Earned income is measured at the fair value of the consideration received or receivable for services and goods supplied, net of discounts.

Deferred income

Income is only deferred and included in creditors when:

The income relates to a future accounting period
A sales invoice has been raised ahead of the work being carried out and there is no contractual entitlement to the income until the work has been done
Not all the terms and conditions of the grant have been met, including the incurring of expenditure and the grant conditions are such that unspent grant must be refunded

Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that the settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified under the following activity headings:

Costs of raising funds

including those associated with fundraising activities, managing investments and commercial trading by the subsidiary company.

Charitable activities costs of undertaking the work of the charity.

The charity is not registered for VAT and cannot recover any input tax charged. Costs are stated inclusive of VAT were charged.

Allocation of support costs

Support costs are those functions which assist the work of the charity either by supporting the delivery of charitable activities or by supporting the generation of funds. They include office accommodation, back office functions and professional fees.

Pension contributions

The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for its employees, agreeing the contribution rates with each individual. The contributions are paid to a third party who invests the contributions in a money purchase plan. Contributions are charged to the SoFA as they become payable.

MUSIC ACTION INTERNATIONAL LTD NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 2024

1 ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Tangible fixed assets and depreciation

Individual fixed assets costing more than £1,000are capitalised at cost and are depreciated over their estimated useful lives.

The charity currently does not have any fixed assets.

Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due and prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid.

Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and 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.

Creditors and provisions

Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount.

Financial instruments

The charity has only basic financial instruments which are initially recorded at cost, subsequently measured at their settlement value.

MUSIC ACTION INTERNATIONAL LTD NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 2024

MUSIC ACTION INTERNATIONAL LTD NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 2024

9 STATEMENT OF FUNDS

01/04/2023 £ 37,428	2022/23 Income Expenditure £ £ 83,833 (85,361) 83,833 (85,361) 13,875 (4,605) 22,862 (43,242) 3,000 (9,379) - ) (4,417) - ) - ) _27,000 (21,995) 66,737 (83,638) 150,570 _(168,999) _	2022/23 Income Expenditure £ £ 83,833 (85,361) 83,833 (85,361) 13,875 (4,605) 22,862 (43,242) 3,000 (9,379) - ) (4,417) - ) - ) _27,000 (21,995) 66,737 (83,638) 150,570 _(168,999) _	transfers £ -)_	b/f and c/f 31/03/2023 01/04/2023 £ 35,900	Income £ 174,453	2023/24 Expenditure transfers £ £ (148,096) -) (148,096) -) (12,401) - ) (21,736) - ) (7,896) - ) (20,000) - ) (810) - ) - ) - ) (3,000) -) (65,843) -) (213,939) -)	2023/24 Expenditure transfers £ £ (148,096) -) (148,096) -) (12,401) - ) (21,736) - ) (7,896) - ) (20,000) - ) (810) - ) - ) - ) (3,000) -) (65,843) -) (213,939) -)	31/03/2024 £ 62,257
37,428	83,833	_(85,361) _	-)_	35,900	174,453	(148,096)	-_)	62,257
6,399 21,600 14,644 7,371 - ) -)	13,875 22,862 3,000 - ) - ) 27,000	(4,605) (43,242) (9,379) (4,417) - ) (21,995) _	- ) - ) - ) - ) - ) -)	15,669 1,220 8,265 - ) _2,954 - ) _5,005	16,109 28,661 2,600 20,000 - ) - ) -_)	(12,401) (21,736) (7,896) (20,000) (810) - _) (3,000)	- ) - ) - ) - ) - ) - ) -_)	19,377 8,145 2,969 - _) 2,144 - _) 2,005
50,014	66,737	_(83,638) _	-)_	33,113	67,370	(65,843)	-_)	34,640
87,442	150,570	_(168,999) _	-)_	69,013	241,823	(213,939)	-_)	96,897