2025-03-31-accounts

Together for Short Lives

Trustees’ Report and

Financial Statements

For the year ended 31 March 2025

Registered company number: 7783702 Registered charity numbers: 1144022 (England & Wales) SC044139 (Scotland)

Together for Short Lives (a company limited by guarantee)

Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

Contents

Chair and Chief Executive’s Introduction ............................................................................................ 5 Trustees’ Annual Report ..................................................................................................................... 7 Independent auditors' report to the members of Together for Short Lives......................................... 35 Consolidated statement of financial activities (incorporating an income and expenditure account) ... 39 Consolidated Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2025 ........................................................................... 40 Charity Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2025 .................................................................................... 41 Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows for the year ended 31 March 2025 ...................................... 42 Notes to the Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2025 .............................................. 43

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Together for Short Lives (a company limited by guarantee)

Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

Trustees

Andrew Heywood Hughes, Chair (from 01 April 2025) Adam Smith (Resigned 01 September 2024) Bernie Watson (Resigned 30 November 2024) Jo Laddie Jeremy Evans Lisa Kauffmann (Resigned 09 May 2025) Mark Smith Rob Lightfoot Sarah Lorking, Treasurer Sarah Talbot-Williams, (Chair, resigned 31 March 2025) Stephanie Nimmo (Resigned 17 June 2025) Sue Hogg Tracy Tait (Resigned 17 June 2025)

Company registered number

7783702

Charity registered numbers

1144022 (England & Wales) SCO44139 (Scotland)

Registered office

Suite 1b, Whitefriars, Lewins Mead, Bristol, BS1 2NT

Chief Executive Officer

Nick Carroll (from 07 November 2024) Andy Fletcher (to 18 October 2024)

Executive team

Nick Carroll Martin Cordy (from 01 April 2025) Jo Killip (from 27 January to 04 April 25) Dr Helena Dunbar (to 28 February 2025) Mala Langdon (to 31 January 25) Andy Fletcher (to 18 October 2024) Kate McSweeney (to 29 April 2024)

Independent auditor

Haysmac LLP, 10 Queen Street Place, London, EC4R 1AG

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Together for Short Lives (a company limited by guarantee)

Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

Bankers

NatWest Plc, 32 Corn Street, Bristol, BS99 7UG CCLA, Senator House, 85 Queen Victoria Street, London, EC4V 4ET

Investment managers

Sarasin & Partners LLP, Juxon House, 100 St Paul's Churchyard, London, EC4M 8BU

Company Secretary

Martin Cordy

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Together for Short Lives (a company limited by guarantee)

Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

Chair and Chief Executive’s Introduction

Welcome to Together for Short Lives’ Annual Report and Accounts for 2024-25.

This year has been a testament to the dedication of our staff, supporters, and members, demonstrating what we can achieve together in the face of increasing demand and a challenging operating environment.

Seriously ill children and their families deserve the opportunity to live full and meaningful lives, supported by care that enables them to thrive. By working together, we make this possible.

However, for many families, the journey remains lonely and isolating. Parents and siblings often struggle within a system that does not fully meet their unique and complex needs.

That’s why we are here—to ensure families can access high-quality children’s palliative (and end of life) care when and where they need it most.

This is how we deliver change:

System change: We advocate for seriously ill children and their families, pushing for change in areas like workforce shortages, funding gaps, and systemic barriers

Improved delivery: We bring professionals together to improve children's palliative care through research, training, and resources, pushing for inclusivity and better care delivery.

Direct support: Through our Family Support Hub, we offer practical, emotional, and financial assistance, connecting families to a compassionate community, & sign posting to existing services

Navigating a Year of Transition

This has been a year of change for our charity. As we reached the conclusion of key projects and adjusted to staffing changes, our commitment to our mission remained unwavering.

Our income reduced as expected, following the conclusion of our £10 million, three-year partnership with Morrisons. However, through this partnership, we achieved significant impact: providing capital expenditure grants to improve hospice facilities, offering memory-making grants for families, delivering unrestricted funding for lifeline care, and, most notably, launching a community outreach project that reached 2202 families in high-prevalence areas.

Additionally, we expanded our cost-of-living support to include a targeted energy assistance programme, providing essential relief for families overwhelmed by rising costs.

Despite these achievements, we, like our member charities, face mounting pressures from rising costs and growing demand, compounded by an increasingly challenging fundraising environment. To ensure long-term sustainability, we reduced core costs in the first half of the 2025/26 financial year through headcount adjustments and continue to closely monitor our financial position.

Looking ahead we remain committed to delivering sustainable services that maximise impact for families and the sector. We will continue to develop an operating model that is focused and aligned, priortising the areas where we can have most impact and signposting and referring to other partners.

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Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

As always, we are deeply grateful to our incredible supporters, staff, and volunteers, whose dedication has made our work possible. We also extend our sincere appreciation to our board members for their invaluable guidance and leadership.

We would like to thank Sarah Talbot Williams, Bernie Watson, Andy Fletcher, Mala Langdon, and Helena Dunbar who stepped down this year. We are grateful for their leadership, wisdom and contributions to our mission.

While challenges lay ahead, we are confident that by working collaboratively with our supporters, staff and members, we can overcome them—ensuring that more children and families receive the support they need, when and where they need it most.

Andrew Heywood Hughes Chair of Trustees

Nick Carroll Chief Executive

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Together for Short Lives (a company limited by guarantee)

Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

Trustees’ Annual Report

The trustees (who are also directors of the charity for the purposes of the Companies Act) present their annual report together with the audited financial statements of Together for Short Lives (the charity) for the year ended 31 March 2025.

The trustees confirm that the Annual Report and Financial Statements of the charity comply with the current statutory requirements, the requirements of the charity's governing document and the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) "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 (FRS 102) (second addition - effective 1 January 2019)".

Structure, Governance and Management

Objectives of the charity

The objectives of the charity are promoting for the public benefit the support of children and young people with life-limiting conditions such that:

• children and young people and their families have as fulfilling lives as possible; and

• children and young people receive the best care at the end of life.

Constitution

Together for Short Lives is a registered charity and was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee on 4th October 2011. The constitution of the charity is set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association. Trustees are also directors of the charity for the purposes of the Companies Act.

The charity has one wholly owned subsidiary charity: Together for Short Lives (Trading) Ltd (Company number 06434214), a company which is registered in England and Wales and is used for fundraising activities.

Board of Trustees

The charity is governed by its Board of Trustees, which is detailed on page 3. All trustees give of their time freely and no trustee remuneration was paid in the year. Details of trustee expenses and related party transactions are disclosed in notes 7, 8 and 20 to the accounts.

Trustees may hold office for three years. At the end of their first term, they can be re-elected for one further three-year term. Any Trustee who has served two terms of office is not eligible for reappointment as a Trustee unless there are exceptional reasons. The charity aims to appoint trustees across a wide and diverse range of backgrounds, skills, and regions.

Induction and training of trustees

On appointment, new trustees receive an induction pack containing key information about the charity and its governance structure. New trustees are encouraged to meet with other existing trustees and are invited to visit the charity’s offices to meet with the Executive Team and other staff.

Ongoing training for trustees is given as required; in general, all trustees are encouraged to maintain or enhance their knowledge, especially in areas in which they are not expert. There is a trustee

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development session at each full Board meeting exploring issues such as current trends in fundraising and children’s palliative care policy and practice.

Sub Committees of the Board

The trustees perform their governance role via the full Board which meets at least four times a year. During the year there have been three committees which are formally constituted as committees of the Board of Trustees and the Board approves the Terms of Reference.

• Finance, Governance and Fundraising Committee

• Clinical Strategy and Quality Assurance Committee

• Appointments Committee

The recorded actions and minutes of committee meetings are submitted to the Board of Trustees at its next meeting. There is a written scheme of delegation that sets out which decisions are made by the Board, committees, or staff and this is reviewed regularly. The committees therefore have certain delegated authority within their areas of responsibility, and these are subsequently reported to the Board for information. However, in other areas, they are only able to make recommendations to the Board.

Committees are able to co-opt to their membership other individuals who may bring particular expertise to that committee.

Advisory Council

The Advisory Council ensures that our work is better informed by those with lived experience of children’s palliative care and those working to deliver it across the UK. Young people, parents of children with life-limiting conditions and representatives from across the children’s palliative care sector contribute their expertise and communicate their views on issues affecting children's palliative care to inform and advise the work of Together for Short Lives. It is an integral part of the strategic and operational planning for the charity.

Remuneration for key management staff

The charity aims to ensure that appropriate remuneration packages are set to attract, retain and motivate an appropriate calibre of employees.

Salary benchmarking is undertaken to compare roles with similar positions within the charity and not for profit sector.

Decisions on setting pay levels are made as follows:

• For staff apart from Senior Managers and the Chief Executive, by Senior Managers in conjunction with the Director of Finance & Resources

• For Senior Managers other than Chief Executive, by the Chief Executive

• For the Chief Executive, by the Board of Trustees.

• The Board has final approval of all pay rises across the organisation.

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Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

•

Safeguarding

Together for Short Lives is committed to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all children, young people, and vulnerable adults who come into contact with our organisation. We recognise our legal, ethical, and regulatory responsibilities and strive to create a safe, supportive, and inclusive environment for all beneficiaries, staff, volunteers, and partners.

The organisation has a Designated Safeguarding Lead and a Deputy Safeguarding Lead who are responsible for embedding safeguarding policy, practice, and culture throughout our work. All safeguarding concerns are logged and reviewed by the Executive Team and then reported to the Clinical Strategy and Quality Assurance Committee and escalated to the Board of Trustees, ensuring robust oversight.

In the past year:

• All staff completed an updated, interactive Level 1 safeguarding training, tailored to our work, including real-life scenarios, reflections, and knowledge checks.

• Our safeguarding policy was revised, and a new child-friendly version was introduced to help ensure accessibility for younger audiences.

• A whistleblowing policy remains in place, offering a confidential route for anyone to raise concerns without fear of repercussion.

We carry out Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks for all new staff, including enhanced checks for those working directly with families via our helpline and community outreach roles. The safeguarding lead, deputy, and helpline staff all undertake additional Level 3 safeguarding training, in line with best practice and our service responsibilities.

In line with our Helpline Standards Accreditation, all Family Support Hub team members participate in structured reflective practice, using a dedicated safeguarding proforma to review how safeguarding is managed in their contact with families.

All safeguarding concerns are recorded securely in our Case Manager system. In the past year, 12 safeguarding concerns were raised. In all cases, procedures were followed, support was offered, and one case was escalated to the police.

Safeguarding remains a priority across all areas of our work, and we are committed to continually improving our practice to ensure we offer the safest and most responsive support to families and professionals.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Like many charities, we know we still have work to do before we are a fully inclusive organisation where everybody can be themselves and feel that they belong.

Feedback from our annual staff survey suggests we are making progress in being more inclusive. In 2020, only 46% of staff agreed with the statement “I am comfortable being myself at work”. In 2025, this figure was 84%, in line with last year’s feedback. We will continue to develop and roll out our plans to be a more inclusive organisation.

As well as making internal change, we know that we must develop more inclusive services and

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support the children’s palliative care sector to reach all the children and families who need support. We know from evidence that there is a higher prevalence of children with life-limiting and lifethreatening conditions among Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic families, particularly those from Pakistani and South Asian communities.

This year, as part of our Morrisons corporate partnership our community outreach workers have been working to reach more children and families in underserved communities, specifically in three areas where prevalence of life limiting conditions is highest amongst ethnically diverse communities. These posts are raising awareness of children’s palliative care, putting the needs of children and families at the heart of service delivery, and enabling families to easily access the help and support they need locally and nationally.

Membership

The charity operates a membership scheme, currently under review, for organisations and professionals working in the children’s palliative care sector. We have a paid membership of 53 organisations (which includes all children’s hospice services in the UK) and 52 individual care professionals.

Membership Scheme	Number of Memberships
Associate - Abroad	12
Associate - Friend of	21
Associate - Student	3
Individual	52
Organisation-Extra large	17
Organisation-Large	15
Organisation-Med	13
Organisation-Small	8
Team	6
Grand Total	147

The organisation operates a digital professional forum, open to all members and any organisations and individuals working across children’s palliative care. This online platform has continued to grow and now includes over 300 professionals, representing a wide range of disciplines and services across the UK. Discussions have recently focused on topics such as bereavement support for siblings, the Children’s Palliative Outcome Scale (C-POS), navigating staffing challenges, and best practice for managing anticipatory medications in the home. The forum enables professionals to share experiences, pose questions, and connect with peers on emerging practice, policy updates, and service development. It remains a valued space for learning and collaboration across the sector.

Public benefit

The objects of the organisation are for children and young people with life-limiting conditions to have as fulfilling lives as possible and the best care at the end of life. The Trustees confirm that they have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing Together for Short Lives’ aims and objectivities and in planning our strategic priorities

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Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

and activities for the year.

Whilst there is greater elaboration below, our strategic priorities to fulfil the public benefit are outlined as follows.

• Widening access to children’s palliative care

• Improving the quality of children’s palliative care

• Strengthening the sustainability of children’s palliative care

The way in which we have achieved the public benefit is outlined in the “Activities, Achievements and Performance” section below.

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Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

Vision, Values and Strategy

Our vision and purpose

Together for Short Lives’ purpose is to ensure every child, and their family, has high quality children’s palliative and end of life care, when and where they need it.

We are here to make sure families can access the right care and support and that those providing it have the skills and resources they need. Together with everyone who provides care and support to these children and families we are here to help them have as fulfilling lives as possible and the very best care at the end of life. Because while we can’t change the diagnosis, we can help children and families make the most of their time together.

How we create change

The challenges facing children and families and those who support them are complex. To help address them, Together for Short Lives works to have impact at three levels – with individual families, with services and professionals delivering care and with the wider health and care system.

Strategic direction

During Spring 2025, the Trustees and Executives have worked together to develop a new strategic vision for Together for Short Lives: United for Impact. Our first step was to listen. We reviewed research and consulted with members and people with lived experience to understand their needs; what they value, what makes a difference, and what we can deliver effectively.

We have been mindful to avoid duplication and unnecessary competition, and we’ve looked closely at our workload to ensure we focus on doing fewer things well; making our work manageable but highimpact.

This work has shaped a revised organisational model, or Theory of Change, and marks the beginning of our strategic review process: United for Impact . This process aims to bring greater clarity, collaboration, and meaningful results for the children and families we are here to support.

The following changes are proposed within the revised Theory of Change:

• Broader system change work : we will prioritise and lead sector-wide, national research and initiatives that provide clear, actionable insights to drive meaningful improvements at scale – putting research and policy into clinical practice.

• Sharper focus: reducing the number of projects and outputs, in favour of delivering fewer, higher-impact interventions; alongside a high value fundraising strategy with increased collaboration and alignment, and a focus on growing unrestricted, & full cost recovery

• Stronger communication and measurement: we will focus on clearer communication, ensuring families and professionals understand our offer, and we will strengthen how we measure and demonstrate impact.

• Evolving our Family Support Hub : we will raise awareness and the prominence of the Family Support Hub, using it more effectively to understand and advocate for family users, support engagement, and develop a wholistic offer that meets their needs.

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Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

• Deepened collaboration : we will prioritise co-creation and collaboration, working more often with others and using associates to bring in additional skills and expertise where needed.

• Better inclusion & representation : we will broaden and deepen both our Membership and Advisory Council to ensure we are able to listen, understand and build campaigns and services that appropriately meet the needs of families and professionals

Between autumn and winter 2026 the team will meet and work collaboratively on operationalising the strategy to agree organisational priorities and a set of focused and aligned activities with measurable outcomes.

This work will include a support and development programme for the staff to aid their wellbeing and equip them to deliver this change programme.

We will be communicating our new strategy with stakeholders in early 2026.

Our values

1. We put children and families at the heart of everything we do.

2. We are ambitious about improving the lives of children and families and stand up for what we believe in.

3. We are collaborative and bring people together to deliver the biggest impact.

4. We are inclusive and open to new and different views, approaches and experiences

Our strategic priorities

Our strategy sets out a ten-year challenge. We feel that children and families and those who support them deserve a bold ambition and roadmap for change. For too long their needs have been overlooked by those planning and developing health and care policy which has led to this inconsistency. These are big challenges, and they need big and bold solutions.

It is also clear that the world is changing at a rapid rate, exacerbated by the COVID pandemic which will have significant long-term impacts on wellbeing, the health and care system and the financial landscape for years to come. To reflect this changing world, our strategy sets 10-year strategic ambitions, setting out our vision for how we want the world to look different for children and families by 2033.

We will prioritise our shorter-term objectives in a series of over a 2-3 year phases, evaluating and refining them annually to ensure we continue to progress towards our 10-year strategic ambitions. This will enable us to be an agile organisation which can develop longer term impactful programmes but adapt more flexibly to the changing environment.

To steer our work over the next decade, we have set three strategic ambitions to make sure more children and families are able to get the support they need:

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1. No family faces the journey alone – to increase reach so that more children and families can ACCESS 24/7 palliative care.

2. The best care and support – to improve the QUALITY of palliative care so families have the best support.

3. Support today, tomorrow and every day – to strengthen the SUSTAINABILITY children’s palliative care so families can rely on support.

In the last year our operational priorities were as follows:

• Maximise funding for existing services and support – we seek to attract ongoing recurring funding to support the services we already deliver. With a compelling case for support focused on the difference we make to children and to families.

• New developments that grow or deepen existing work – we will only look at new developments where it builds out, sustains or embeds existing work or delivery.

• Full cost recovery – we will ensure that full cost recovery is built into the bid/pre-project work as well as the delivery of any new development. In addition, we will review the offer to members and how sector support is funded.

• Improve planning and capacity – we will review capacity as an Executive Team on a regular monthly basis and look at where the challenges to delivery are and adjust the priorities in the functional plans as we go.

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Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

Activities, Achievements and Performance for the public benefit

We have detailed below under each of our activities and achievements for the year.

Supporting families through our family support hub

Over the past year, our Family Support Hub has continued to expand its reach, connecting with more children and families and ensuring they receive the support, guidance, and care they need. Through personalised advice, practical assistance, and compassionate listening, we’ve worked to remove barriers and advocate for greater access to the services and resources that families of seriously ill children rely on every day. This year was the first full 12 months with a ‘call back service’ in operation – with the team responding to voicemails and emails but not receiving live calls. Despite this, the number of queries from families and those supporting that were responded to via our helpline and information service increased from 421 (23/24) to 1217 (24/25) – an increase of 200%.

We raised sufficient funds to keep the Butterfly Fund open across the UK for the full year – a grant of £300 for families when their child dies. During the year, 635 Butterfly Fund payments were made compared to 245 the previous year (although Fund was open only for certain areas (Scotland and Morrisons site areas) for 7 months).

We continue to work with 3[rd] parties to offer enhanced support to families that come through to the Family Support Hub via the helpline service or via the website, for example this year we worked with the following partners:

Partner	2023/24	2023/24	2024/25	2024/25
	Cases	Value	Cases	Value
Turn2Us	61	£94,050	86	£107,816
Rosie’s Rainbow Pantry	18	£1800*	97	£9700*

*assumption that one shop valued at £100

In addition, we secured family grants from the Children in need Emergency Fund (15) and a small handful of other organisations to whom we are able to make family referrals to e.g. LawWorks, REACT.

From 4020 contacts with families, over half of them (2411) received enhanced support in the form of a grant, legal advice, a food shop or resources. In total over the year, families received over £375,000 worth of grants through the family support hub, including 300 £100 vouchers from our partners at M&S Foods. In addition to this, £38,000 worth of food shopping was distributed to families via our Morrison’s community outreach project and partners at Rosie’s Rainbow Pantry. The monetary value of awards in 2023/24 was not routinely captured so a fair comparison is not available

We continue to support parents to moderate our closed Facebook groups and, for the second year in succession have seen a 20% growth this year in membership. We now have 857 members in total (main group 689 (+107), bereaved group 128 (+40)).

We know that timely, accurate information in a variety of formats is highly valued by families, and we continue to review and update our family information offer to families both online and in print. We have taken opportunities to disseminate family packs through our Morrison’s Community Outreach, SGN and Kentown projects.

Throughout the year 82 individual family members joined one of 10 online workshops on a variety of themes. We were delighted to invite speakers to join these events from Sibs (sibling support) and

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Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

Claire House Children’s Hospice (transition). By comparison, 5 online workshops were held in the previous year, reaching 32 people.

We were also delighted to provide 26 complimentary breaks to families through our corporate partnership with Center Parcs UK. A total of 141 family members and friends enjoyed a three-night stay at a woodland lodge at one of the 5 parcs.

Alongside the Family Hub we support family members who volunteer their time to influence campaigns and inform research into children’s palliative care. Our group of Family Experts (101 members) are given monthly opportunities to engage with the sector, sharing their own lived experience of children’s palliative care. For the first time we have been able to observe that several new members of this group keen to have their voices heard joined as a result of our campaigns rather than having come through the family hub.

The Kentown Children’s Palliative Care programme

We are now entering the final year of the Kentown Children’s Palliative Care Programme, a collaborative initiative between Together for Short Lives, The Kentown Wizard Foundation, and Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity. This pioneering programme has aimed to strengthen communitybased children’s palliative care across Lancashire and South Cumbria, ensuring that families of children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions are better supported, connected, and empowered.

The programme brings together three key, complementary strands of delivery:

• Nursing Care – provided by children’s palliative care community nurse specialists, offering clinical expertise, symptom management support, and care coordination.

• Social Care – delivered through dedicated family support workers, providing emotional, practical, and social support to families in their own communities.

• Information and Awareness – focused on helping families navigate the often-complex landscape of health, care and community services, ensuring they can access the support they need, when they need it.

Together, these strands are brought to life through Kentown Support, a community-based service model designed to bridge the gaps between clinical services and everyday family life. At the heart of this work are our Family Support Coordinators, who play a key role in linking families with the right services, supporting care planning, and providing consistent, compassionate contact throughout their journey.

Over the course of the programme, the Kentown team has supported hundreds of families, providing tailored help and building trusted relationships that respond to each family’s individual needs and circumstances. As well as direct support, the team has worked to strengthen multi-agency collaboration across the region and raise awareness of children’s palliative care within local systems and communities.

As we continue the final year of the programme, we are focusing on:

• Capturing the impact of the service and learning from the experiences of families and professionals.

• Supporting the transition and sustainability planning for future service delivery in the region.

• • Sharing key insights from the programme through national forums and conferences, to help influence wider models of integrated, community-based children’s palliative care.

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There has now been 236 children registered through the referral system with many of them continuing to receive support from more than one strand of the programme. Our coordinators (employed by Together for Short Lives) have contacted over 100 services across the Kentown geographical area. In addition to signposting families to services and other sources of support, the coordinators have been able to provide enhanced support through Together for Short Lives’ Family Support Hub. A total of almost £66k was awarded to Kentown families – with £61,600 shared by 33 families through our partnership with Turn2Us. Other food shops and vouchers were offered through our partners at Morrisons (4 Crisis Pantry shops), Rosie’s Rainbow Pantry (7 weekly shops) and M&S Foods (30 vouchers).

Reaching families from underserved communities

Launched in January 2023 our Morrison’s outreach community project continues to support and connect with families across three areas of the UK where the prevalence of children with life-limiting conditions is significantly higher amongst the non-white British population – Bedford, Luton and Milton Keynes, Birmingham & Solihull and Greater Manchester. Family Support Hub team members reach into services in those areas and, along with the work of the three former community outreach workers funded through our Morrison’s partnership, have connected with 255 services in the respective regions, raising awareness of children’s palliative care and the support offered through Together for Short Lives and children’s hospices.

Events have been run by colleagues across Together for Short Lives’ Practice & Service Development team, reaching over 3000 individuals in total. During this reporting period, 198 families across the three regions have been given a Butterfly Grant (£300 for a child who has died of a lifelimiting or life-threatening condition) and 206 Crisis Pantries have been delivered to families across the three regions in need providing total of 893 family members with a weekly food shop, totalling a massive £28,578.

In addition to our outreach work funded by Morrisons, we have established a Memory making fund to enable our hospice partners across the UK to undertake a variety of memory making activities enabling families to meet other parents, siblings and build special memories. Since it began 108 applications have now been approved to the value of £139,547, benefiting more than 11300 individual family members.

Our Building a Legacy Together Fund was launched in June 2023 to help children’s hospices create a great environment where they can care for families facing the toughest of circumstances. The grants, now coming to the end of its second year, fund children’s hospices and at-home services to refurbish rooms, increase capacity by using space more effectively or to purchase new equipment to enhance children’s care. In our second round of grant awarding, thirteen children’s hospices were given over £516,000 to spend against capital projects.

Supporting families with the cost of energy

Children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions often face significantly higher energy costs due to the need to power-essential medical equipment and to maintain a safe and warm home environment. Recognising this vulnerability, Together for Short Lives began a three-year strategic partnership with SGN in August 2023 to deliver targeted energy support for families across the Southeast of England.

The project aims to increase access to critical energy safeguards, including simplified registration on the Priority Services Register (PSR), and to provide tailored support to help families facing fuel

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poverty. A key focus is also on building the knowledge and confidence of professionals — including children’s hospice staff — to recognise signs of fuel poverty and connect families with practical advice, tools, and financial assistance.

Through the Family Support Hub and Energy Support Advisor, our dedicated energy support provision enables families struggling with energy costs or debt to access expert advice, resources, and grants to help them stay warm, and supported at home.

Over the course of the project, we are working directly with 13 hospice sites across the SGN Southeast footprint. This includes delivering training workshops for both professionals and families, led by our Energy Support Advisor, alongside co-designed learning resources to embed energy awareness into everyday care practice.

As the cost-of-living crisis continues, this partnership remains a vital part of our broader mission, ensuring no family caring for a seriously ill child is left in the dark, cold, or unsupported.

Building on the success of this model, we are now expanding our work through a new partnership with Cadent, commencing in April 2025, delivering similar support across the North-West and West Midlands. This will include direct family outreach, professional education, and digital engagement to help even more families access the energy safeguards and financial support they need.

Engaging and connecting professionals in children’s palliative care

Engaging with health and care professionals and bringing them together to share, learn and improve practice remains a key strand of our strategy. We know from experience the power of strong professional networks in supporting children with complex needs and improving the quality of care provided to families. Over the past year, we have delivered a wide range of opportunities for professionals working across the children’s palliative care sector to come together through our forums, networks and events.

We relaunched the Children’s Palliative Care Educators Forum, which now has over 120 members and continues to grow. This forum has provided valuable opportunities to hear from expert speakers on topics such as managing conflict in palliative care, sibling support, and benchmarking practices. The forum also serves as a space for professional networking, peer support, and the sharing of learning resources.

Our Leaders of Care Forum, specifically for senior clinical leaders within children’s hospices, now includes 93 members, while our Network Leads Forum brings together 65 regional network leads to collaborate and share best practice.

The Joint Research Group, which we co-host with the Association for Paediatric Palliative Medicine (APPM), continues to thrive alongside Dr Emily Harrop, Consultant in Children’s Palliative Care and APPM Executive Committee member. The group remains a space for collaborative research, knowledge sharing and shaping the future research agenda across the sector.

Our Transition Forum, co-hosted with Hospice UK, has also continued to provide a valuable space for professionals to share challenges and good practice in supporting young people as they move into adult services. Plans are now progressing to support a major research project, HOPSCOTCH, which aims to develop a complex intervention to facilitate the involvement of general practitioners in the coordination and delivery of care for young people with life-limiting conditions, as part of preparation for transitioning to adult services.

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We have co-hosted a ‘Big Conversation’ webinar alongside Hospice UK, which attracted over 100 attendees, focused on the development, use and implementation of the Children’s Palliative Outcome Scale (C-POS) in clinical practice.

Throughout the year, we have also continued to represent the sector by attending 16 regional children’s palliative care networks (meeting 3–4 times per year each), ensuring they remain informed about national policy developments, research, and resources – and acting as a vital link between these networks and national initiatives.

In total, we reached over 1,400 professionals this year through presentations at network meetings and our national forums. Our online professional discussion forum, with 199 active users, remains an active space for dialogue on clinical care, policy, education, and research developments.

Together, these forums, events, and networks continue to play a vital role in strengthening professional practice, improving knowledge exchange, and helping build a stronger, more connected workforce across the children’s palliative care sector.

Identifying children who need palliative care

As part of our ongoing work to strengthen the understanding and consistency of children’s palliative care across the UK, we have continued to lead a significant sector-wide definitions project, a key component of our wider strategy to improve education, practice and advocacy in children’s palliative care.

In April 2023, we secured funding from the True Colours Trust to deliver a comprehensive engagement programme with both professionals and parents across all four UK nations. The aim of this work has been to review and revise the current approach to identifying and categorising children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions — ensuring it reflects modern practice, better supports families, and enables professionals to more clearly assess and plan care.

Through this programme, we engaged with over 200 stakeholders, including clinicians, educators, researchers, hospices, and parent carers. Drawing on this rich engagement and feedback, we are now developing a multi-layered toolkit, building on the original framework for categorising children with life-limiting conditions first published in 1997.

The updated toolkit will support professionals in multiple ways:

• Recognise when a baby, child or young person is likely to have palliative care needs.

• Assess the child’s current health status and plan appropriate care pathways.

• Support the holistic needs of the child and their family — including emotional, social, practical and spiritual dimensions.

The toolkit will also aim to:

• Provide a shared language and framework for use across clinical, educational and policy contexts.

• Support more consistent and equitable access to care, reducing variation in referral and eligibility decisions.

• Enable better data collection, research design and workforce planning.

• Strengthen the sector’s ability to advocate for policy change and improved funding models.

Alongside the core definitions, the toolkit will include:

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• An explanatory document outlining the rationale and development process.

• Practical guidance on how to apply the categories in day-to-day practice.

• Real-life case examples and scenarios to bring the content to life.

• Supporting materials for education, training and service planning.

As part of our strategic commitment to improving understanding and consistency across the children’s palliative care sector, we have continued to lead work on refining and embedding a clear set of definitions for children’s palliative care. This work has been developed in close collaboration with professionals across the sector and in response to the increasing need for shared language that reflects the breadth and complexity of palliative care for babies, children and young people.

Professional resources and education

We continue to strengthen and expand our resources for both professionals and families to support high-quality, compassionate care. This year, we worked in partnership with Bliss to develop a new parent-facing resource: Caring for Your Baby When the Future is Uncertain . This booklet is designed for parents who have had conversations with their care team—either during pregnancy or shortly after birth—where there is uncertainty about their baby’s future, and where palliative care may be part of their journey. It offers information, guidance, and signposting to support families at a profoundly challenging time.

Our support for neonatal palliative care continues to grow. The parent booklet has been widely shared and positively received across neonatal and palliative care settings. We have delivered a series of neonatal palliative care webinars, with over 120 attendees, raising awareness of the resource and improving understanding around communication, uncertainty, and early recognition of palliative care needs. In addition, we were pleased to contribute to the National Neonatal Palliative Care Conference, attended by over 400 professionals in person and virtually, further amplifying the importance of integrated and family-centred support.

Through our partnership with the JP Morgan and the Force for Good Programme, we have made significant progress in developing a bespoke learning platform that will enable us to host, share, and grow our educational content for professionals working with children with life-limiting and lifethreatening conditions.

The JP Morgan team has supported us in identifying and building a user-friendly, scalable learning management system that will serve as the central hub for our training and development materials. This is a critical step forward in helping us reach a wider workforce with high-quality, accessible, and practical learning resources that reflect the latest best practice in children’s palliative care.

Our first module to be hosted on the new platform is the Simply Learning to Talk project, our communication skills training programme. This programme was developed in response to a recognised need to better support non-specialist professionals, those who may not work directly in children’s palliative care but who are likely to come into contact with children with life limiting conditions, and their families. These professionals, often from general health, social care, education, or community settings, frequently face difficult conversations without sufficient training or confidence in how to respond sensitively and effectively.

The online learning programme, titled: "Children’s Palliative Care: Learning to Communicate with Families", equips learners with the skills to navigate emotionally charged or uncertain situations, build compassionate relationships, to respond to families with empathy and clarity and to listen effectively.

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The module has been co-produced through engagement with professionals and parents, ensuring it is grounded in real-world experiences and relevant across sectors. It is interactive, practical, and designed for busy professionals who need flexible, accessible training. The programme is now in its final pilot phase, with user testing and feedback currently being gathered. It will be officially launched in May at the Together for Short Lives Conference, where professionals will be invited to access the platform and begin using the course. Our aim is to integrate this training into broader sector development work, and ultimately to support a more confident, compassionate and communicationaware workforce across all services that support children with life limiting and life-threatening conditions, and their families.

Digital resources for families

Use of our online support hub for families and professionals has developed this year with online forms now regularly used to refer families for grants, to contact the hub team and to book appointments for events and with the energy adviser. During the year there were over 61,000 page views from over 27,000 unique visitors, with 611 downloads of family resources recorded.

Campaigning for a better system for seriously ill children and their families

We have continued to campaign to make sure that seriously ill children and their families get the care and support they need. We have rallied our community to give people a voice. And because our system is falling short, we have continued demand change.

Thousands of families caring for seriously ill children face a postcode lottery when accessing high quality children’s palliative care. This is particularly stark in children and families’ access to 24/7 end of life care at home, provided by nurses and supported by advice from specialist consultants.

Our Short Lives Can’t Wait campaign aimed to change this. Runing from March to July 2024, this was a multi-channel campaign which comprised print, broadcast and digital media, public affairs and work to engage our members and stakeholders. During phase one, we highlighted the findings of our work to map the extent to which children’s palliative care was being planned, funded and provided across the UK, we achieved local radio and newspaper coverage and a total of 74 supportive actions from politicians at Westminster.

In April, we were invited to give oral evidence the House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee. We then joined forces with other palliative and end of life care charities to agree a series of joint manifesto asks which we asked the parities contesting the UK General Election to adopt, including a commitment to a new palliative care funding plan. We launched this at Westminster and achieved national and local media coverage across the UK.

Once the General Election had been called, the second phase of Wait campaign, which we launched during Children’s Hospice Week (17-23 June), focussed on pressing the parties to commit to overcoming the barriers seriously ill children faced to accessing sustainable, high quality palliative care. We published five ‘must-dos’ for the new government achieved 54 further supportive actions from election candidates and other politicians across the UK.

Across both phases of Short Lives Can’t Wait, we asked the public to sign an open letter to the next Prime Minister. 3,328 people did so, sending a clear, united message that called on the new government to act urgently.

To maintain the pressure, we again made a series of freedom of information (FOI) requests during 2024 and published our ‘Built to Last? The State of Children’s Palliative Care in 2025’ report in

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March. We found that:

• less than a fifth (19%) of integrated care boards (ICBs) in England currently commission services on a formal basis that meet the 24/7 end of life care at home standard

• in Northern Ireland, only one health and social care trust partially meets this standard.

• in Scotland, while some NHS Boards have made progress in expanding 24/7 support, others have not.

• in Wales, only two local health boards—Betsi Cadwaladr and Hywel Dda—formally provide this level of care

• here is an estimated £310 million funding gap for children’s palliative care services in England

• • there are significant workforce shortages and inconsistencies in the way support is planned and funded by local NHS and council bodies across the UK, which are not being held to account by the UK’s governments.

Aligned with new research we commissioned of families who have used our Family Support Hub, we now have a compelling set of evidence that shows that families are feeling abandoned and overwhelmed by a system that is not meeting their needs.

Our ‘Built to Last? Securing the Future of Children’s Palliative Care’ campaign launched on 28 March with coverage across in the Daily Mail, Independent, LBC, Times Radio and ITV Granada as well as regional papers and radio stations across the UK.

Our campaign launch included a Westminster reception hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Children Who Need Palliative Care. The event was attended by 32 parliamentarians, many of whom have since tabled written questions to raise the key issues have highlighted.

Throughout 2024/25, we also continued to campaign for more equitable and sustainable funding for children’s hospices across the UK. During Children’s Hospice Week, we published our annual funding report. Our research found that, despite their importance:

• crucial services, including respite and end of life care, would be cut if the new UK Government failed to maintain the £25 million NHS England (NHSE) funding for children’s hospices

• shockingly, local NHS and council funding for children’s hospices – which was already patchy and unsustainable – continued to fall during 2023/24

• amid a year of high inflation and growing costs of recruiting and retaining skilled and experienced staff, children’s hospices’ costs rose during 2023/24

• as deficits grew, children’s hospices were increasingly relying on their charitable income and reserves to provide vital care and support.

Our report generated 193 items of online and print coverage, including ITV News, MailOnline and The Independent, reaching a potential audience of 656 million people across the world.

Our campaigning on this issue meant that, once the new UK Government was in place, alongside the co-chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children’s Palliative Care, we were invited to meet with Care Minister Stephen Kinnock in September to discuss the future of NHSE funding for children’s hospices.

With no commitment to future funding in place by the Autumn and a cliff-edge fast approaching, we raised the volume with and on behalf of children’s hospices in England. Having briefed MPs ahead of a Westminster Hall debate on children’s hospice funding and encouraged our supporters to urge their

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local politicians to take part, 17 MPs did so and highlighted the urgent need for sustainable funding.

In common with other UK-wide palliative care charities, we expressed our concern at the rise in employer national insurance contributions announced at the Budget by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. We gathered data on the likely impact on children’s hospices and found that this would lead to their total charitable expenditure rising by approximately £4.9 million per year from April 2025. Our recent survey findings were featured on the front page of the Daily Express.

We relaunched the APPG for Children Who Need Palliative Care for the new parliament with a dropin event and roundtable meeting attended by 40 MPs, including a parliamentary aide to Health Secretary Wes Streeting. 18 signed our open letter to Stephen Kinnock, calling on him to address funding shortfalls affecting children’s hospices.

The night before, our Chief Executive Nick Carroll had been interviewed live on Sky News alongside Gareth Pierce, Chief Executive of Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice. Just a few hours after the event, Wes Streeting confirmed that the Children’s Hospice Grant would continue. In December, on a visit to his local children’s hospice Haven House, he announced that it would be increased to £26 million for 2026/27.

NHS England later confirmed that they would put in place stronger safeguards to make sure ICBs distributed the funding to children’s hospices more quickly in 2026/27. Amid significant pressures on public funding, this represented a significant campaign win for us and our sector.

Alongside our campaigning, we also undertook a range of other activity with politicians and policymakers to improve the system for seriously ill children and their families. We published our new website specifically for ICBs in England at commissioning.togetherforshortlives.org.uk . This was designed to help ICBs understand:

• what children and young people’s palliative and end of life care is

• which children and young people may need it, and what the characteristics of this population are

• hat can be done to enable children and young people to receive high quality personalised palliative and end of life care and support.

Nick Caroll was invited to be part of the Commission on Palliative and End of Life Care launched in 2024. The Commission aimed to influence the NHS 10-Year Plan and improve palliative care provision.

Working closely with our Advisory Council and our Trustees, we further developed and refined our policy position on assisted dying. We lobbied MPs ahead of the House of Commons stages of Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, calling on parliamentarians to strengthen safeguards for young people with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions should assisted dying be legalised for adults over the age of 18. We achieved coverage in the media highlighting our concerns.

While significant challenges remain for seriously ill children, their families and the professionals and services that care for them, progress has been made in some of the outcomes we seek to improve during 2024/25:

• 19% of ICBs in England now commission services on a formal basis that meet the 24/7 end of life care at home standard for children; this is an increase on the 14% who did so in 2023/24.

• There are now 24.4 WTE specialist children’s palliative care consultants working in the UK, up from 21.4 WTE consultants in 2023/24

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• 973 community children’s nurses were being employed by the NHS in England, up from 902 in 2023/24.

Amplifying our voice

During 2024/25, our PR work achieved 1,366 individual pieces of media coverage which mentioned Together for Short Lives, a 12% increase on the 1,225 we achieved in 2023/24. Our media reach was over 9.5 billion, exceeding our 3 billion target for the year.

Our social media work achieved over 3.3 million impressions, 36% higher than the 2.49 million we achieved in 2023/24. We achieved a social media engagement rate of 3.8%, which is considered good by industry standards. Engagement tracks how actively involved with our content our audience has been.

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Financial review

Overall Financial Performance

The Statement of Financial Activities shows Designated Funds, Unrestricted Funds, Restricted Funds (excluding the National Fundraising Scheme (NFS)) and NFS. The Designated Fund is shown separately from the Unrestricted Fund as it is ring fenced for specific activities (see below).

Restricted funds have been split into two: those for NFS (whose activities are concerned with raising funds for distribution to children’s hospice services) and those for other restricted fund projects and partnership such as Morrisons and Kentown. These funds are shown in note 16.

The net deficit for all funds for the year was £546k (2024: net deficit of £576k). Our partnerships and projects have continued to mean high levels of restricted income and subsequent distributions to hospices and families. Unrestricted funding continues to be a challenge; the organisation has identified savings as part of its budget setting process for 2025/26 and will continue to identify income generation opportunities to expand this area of the charity.

Funds for our core work

Funds relating to our core work, as opposed to the National Fundraising Scheme (NFS) and other restricted funds, are shown in the two columns in the Statement of Financial Activities labelled “Unrestricted Funds” and “Restricted Funds (excluding NFS) and Designated Fund”.

Income

We achieved gross income of £6,027k (2024: £6,902k). Most of this income is for restricted programmes - the Morrisons’ partnership, Kentown Support Programme and NFS.

Designated Fund

A large legacy was received in 2019-20 and ringfenced by the trustees in a Designated Fund. The specific activities on which this fund can be spent must be approved by the trustees and if an ongoing activity, must be self-sustaining within 2 years. Deficits were planned to ensure that the legacy was utilised. During 2024/25 we have spent £nil on new projects (2024: £700k). A decision has been taken by the Board of Trustees to remove this designation and use the reserves to fund unrestricted campaigning and family support work; projects that were originally supported by the designated fund.

Expenditure

Expenditure for the year was £6,596k (2024: £7,629k), the decrease mostly representing a reduction in the level of distributions to hospices and families as a result of the planned end of the Morrisons partnership. Despite the end of this partnership arrangement, Together for Short Lives distributed £3,655k (2024: £4,035k) in charitable grants and funding, £1,614k was spent on our remaining charitable activities (2024: £2,577k) with the remaining £607k (2024: £1,017k) spent on raising funds, including those for NFS.

National Fundraising Scheme (NFS)

This scheme raises income and awareness through national corporate partnerships, and the net income raised is shared with local children’s hospice services across the UK who would not

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otherwise be able to access national partnerships.

The scheme raised £1,180k (2024: £834k) during the year from its various fundraising campaigns. After a deduction for direct costs, and a contribution to our core costs, £774k (2024: £378k) was distributed across 39 children’s hospices.

Grant Making Policy

Throughout 2024/25 TfSL has made 1,089 grant awards totalling over £839k. The break down of these awards are set out in the table below.

Grants Awarded – 2024/25

Grants Awarded – 2024/25	Grants Awarded – 2024/25	Grants Awarded – 2024/25
Grant pot	Total £ awarded	No. of grants awarded
ButterflyFund	£192,900	643
Making Memories Together	£70,964	41
Buildinga LegacyTogether	£518,144	13
Crisis Pantry	£27,221	196
SGN Energy	£30,000	196

Fundraising Strategy

In 2024/25 we created functional plans for all income streams in line with wider organisation’s tenyear strategy. Across the fundraising department, the focus continues to be on sustainable growth, maximising unrestricted funding and fully funding projects to maximise our impact. We have continued to be successful at growing our restricted fundraising for projects and programmes but have found it a more challenging environment to grow unrestricted funding.

In October 2024, the Director of Income Generation and Engagement was promoted to Chief Executive Officer (following an external interview process). The fundraising department has since operated with an interim management structure in place, with the Head of Trusts and Foundations and Head of Corporate Partnerships acting up into the Director role. As a team we have refreshed our fundraising strategy in line with the organisational direction and have the following key objectives:

1. Grow unrestricted income through trust applications and reporting, new corporate partnerships, annual campaign planning to increase donor engagement and retention in relation to public fundraising, and through increasing the major donor portfolio.

2. Grow income for the NFS – we will use key campaign moments to retain and grow the number of NFS partners to secure £1.1m, and continue to explore new ways to cultivate relationships, engage prospective partners and generate income for children’s hospices.

3. Fundraise to support delivery for restricted initiatives : in line with service delivery plans, we will grow income for the Butterfly Fund and provide effective support in relation to reporting for funded projects and partnerships. Going forwards, for any new partnerships, we will ensure that full cost recovery is built into project budgets to ensure organisational sustainability.

Fundraising performance

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As is the case for many charities, we continue to see the economy as a challenge - inflation, cost of living and higher interest rates continue to influence the ability of some donors to contribute as their disposable income is reduced. We are dependent on the macro environment, which we believe is impossible to predict this year with any degree of confidence. As a result, donors are expecting higher levels of transparency about their contributions, and trust is the cornerstone of success for charities. This means that demonstrating the impact of donations and how supporters are helping our cause is more important than ever.

With the sector under pressure, it is important that there is greater awareness of our cause and the support that is needed. Our place in the children’s palliative sector needs to be clearly defined to set ourselves apart, but amongst, the rest. Strategy work planned for 2025/26 will help us to better demonstrate the impact of our work and support fundraising longer term.

Despite the challenging conditions, unrestricted income from trusts and foundations has significantly increased to £101k this year (2024: £65k). Unrestricted income from corporate partners has increased to £190k (2024: £110k); and we received £63k of unrestricted legacy donations in 202425, against a budget of £25k. However, this remains a relatively low figure in the context of the organisational budget, and we’re striving to find ways to make existing resource work harder and more smartly for us. With less funding available for investment, the focus has been on maximising the net income and ROI of our existing income streams; and ensuring full cost recovery on all project budgets to minimise the charity’s core cost base.

Corporate partnerships

2024-25 saw the final months of our partnership with Morrisons, which had raised £10.7m for children's palliative care and children’s hospices by the partnership end date (31 October 2024). Highlights from this third year of partnership include our 54 Challenge (a month-long relay in August 2024) which raised £543k, our biggest fundraising campaign with Morrisons. Every Pack Gives Back continued to go from strength to strength - in total we featured products from 33 suppliers including Nestle, Kellogg's, Unilever and Mondelez, raising £726,000 this year. 14 own-brand products, including a Together for Short Lives butterfly bag and teddy, were sold in stores raising a further £342k. And we were awarded Best Short-Term Partnership (Third Sector Business Charity Awards) and Corporate National Partnership of the Year with a Retailer (Charity Times Awards).

Whilst the partnership is officially over, the impact it has had will continue for years to come. Thanks to the Morrisons colleagues, customers, and suppliers, together we:

• Raised £6.5 million for children’s hospices, which could provide 215,685 hours of vital care.

• Created precious memories through events and activities for 6,223 family members

• Enabled 30 hospices to complete vital renovations, build new facilities and purchase new equipment, including accessible playgrounds and bereavement counselling cabins.

• Reached 1,415 new families through our community outreach work, enabling more families to access the support they need.

• Provided 756 of families with emergency support, including Cost-of-Living support grants, Crisis pantry Morrisons food deliveries, and Bereavement grants to fund funeral costs.

Total income from corporate partners increased to £1.2m. Our partnership with Hobbycraft matched its largest annual fundraising total to date - £473k (2024: £472k), and income from Center Parcs income increased from £222k in 23/24 to £270k in 24/25. In addition, we had ongoing support from valued partners including BGC, Disney, Gravity Active Entertainment, Miss Teen GB and Proxima. As well as launching a new three-year £1m partnership with Peninsula Group (generating £252k in the first year), we secured new partnerships with Lockton Companies, ILG Group, Omni FM, and

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Tribus Digital; and established a strategic partnership with Carabao, who provided meaningful support for families in the form of gifted tickets to Carabao Cup football matches, and welcomed over 100 children and their families, and bereaved parents and siblings, to the home of English football in the first ever ‘play on the pitch’ charity event to be held at Wembley Stadium.

Trusts and Foundations

Trusts performed strongly against unrestricted and restricted budgets, due to a strong pipeline, key relationships and strong application/reporting mechanisms in place. Significant new gifts were secured and we were successful in securing a long term partnership bid with the CareTech Foundation which is supporting the Family Hub and outreach work across priority areas of the UK.

With our restricted funding, 2024/5 saw the second year of the energy advice service as funded by SGN, with onboarding taking place with Cadent who have agreed to provide funding allowing us to roll the service out across the North West and West Midlands from April 2026.

This was the final year of the work as funded by the Southampton Hospitals Charity which has seen a new communications training package for frontline responders created, and the Definitions project as funded by True Colours Trust is also due to finish in the next few months.

Our fundraising efforts for the Butterfly Fund have continued to see success and detailed prospecting for new funders and its inclusion in our annual Trust mailing helped us to raise the overall total and grow our pipeline. We are looking forward to maximising fundraising opportunities across the organisation for the Fund in 2025/6.

Philanthropy

In 2024-25, Philanthropy performed strongly. With a renewed approach to cultivation following the decision to pause the annual gala event in 2024, and some staffing changes through the year, we were pleased with the outcome – yet believe, with stability in the team and with consistent communication and stakeholder engagement, there is much more potential in our pipeline.

In October 2024 we welcomed several major donors to our event Funding the Future, where guests heard from a family who has benefited from Together for Short Lives’ support.

Our Patron Holly Willoughby attended the BGC Charity Day on 11 September 2024, resulting in the largest donation from the day in over 10 years of the partnership.

An auction before Christmas raised almost £10k with a range of prizes including luxury holidays and experiences on offer.

Over the next year we will continue to work on strengthening donor engagement and improving donor tracking. We have already shifted the focus from individual relationships to cause-driven support and will begin work to leverage existing networks to identify and cultivate new major donor prospects.

Public Fundraising

2023/24 was a foundational year for Public Fundraising, having been an area of reactive activity for several years. A Senior Public Fundraising Manager was appointed in June 2023 to establish the income stream, with initial work involving deep dives into the data, processes, and policies (fundraising and organisation wide) needed to embed a Public Fundraising programme.

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Communications to supporters began in May 2024; throughout the year we launched multiple digital and printed communications, including our first multi-channel integrated Christmas Appeal with social media acquisition ads, giving us a baseline to test and build upon when planning future activity. We have already seen newly recruited supporters who, having received further communication, have gone onto make repeat gifts. We have interrogated data to establish an idea of LTV across all segments, established attrition monitoring processes for Regular and Payroll Givers, and explored ways of maximising our programme through joint working with Philanthropy.

A 5-year Public Fundraising strategy had initially been developed based on an investment budget that was then reduced, so a year-to-year strategy approach is being adopted focusing on retention, lowering attrition level, and increasing LTV and ROI, until the organisation can make growth plans once again. We are confident that over time, and with investment and cross-organisation support, Public Fundraising can develop into an income stream that significantly benefits the organisation.

Our supporters

None of this would be possible without the generosity of the individuals, companies and organisations we work who share our passion for the cause. Alongside this we are grateful for the talented and hardworking team of fundraisers who continue to push themselves to secure even greater sums for our mission. Thank you.

Regulation and complaints

To ensure we could maximise our fundraising efforts whilst also remaining compliant with GDPR and the Fundraising Code of Practice set by Fundraising Regulator, a review of our privacy notice, accompanying processes and policies was undertaken with an external consultant. Whilst this was an organisation wide endeavour, it ensured the correct fundraising processes were in place – activity included the creation of MPS/FPS/TPS processes and developing a specific fundraising complaints process.

During this year we gained a better understanding of how supporter communication preferences are gathered and recorded, and processes have been updated to ensure better compliance. The creation of a new Supporter Promise demonstrates our commitment to fundraising in a transparent and responsible manner in line with the Code of Fundraising Practice, charity law and all relevant legislation including General Data Protection Regulation and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.

No complaints about our fundraising activity were received in the year (2024: Nil).

Reserves policy

The trustees of the charity review the reserves policy each year. The Charity is currently facing an uncertain period due to financial pressures and a resulting refocus of the organisation’s strategic direction. This refocussing has led to a reduction in the resources required to deliver the new strategic aims. Due to the level of uncertainty during this transitional period, reserves will solely be used to fund the ongoing operation of the Charity. The policy states that the charity will maintain reserves such that it always retains sufficient free reserves to cover the close down costs of the organisation. These have been estimated at being £300k. Our review has identified that we have sufficient Unrestricted Funds to meet this requirement.

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Going Concern

The trustees have assessed the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for at least 12 months after the signing of this report. They are confident that the charity continues to be a going concern. The trustees are continuing to work with the management of the charity to ensure the ongoing financial sustainability of TfSL and to ensure that there is sufficient unrestricted funding to fund the work supporting families, raising money through the NFS scheme, and campaigning for equitable funding and better service provision.

There were no significant events in year that had a financial impact on the charity.

Investment Policy and Performance

The organisation’s investment policy is as follows:

• The trustees have a duty to obtain the best financial return on monies raised by TfSL in excess of short term requirements, while keeping that money safe.

• The key risk to the long-term reserves is inflation, and the assets should be invested to mitigate this risk over the long term. The trustees understand that this is likely to mean that investment will be concentrated in real assets and that the capital value will fluctuate.

• TfSL seeks to produce the best financial return within an acceptable level of risk. The investment objective for the long-term reserves is to generate a return of CPI + 4% after fees over 5 year ‐

• rolling periods whilst generating an income to support the on going activities of the Charity.

• The investment objective for the short-term reserves is to preserve the capital value with a minimum level of risk. Invested assets should be readily available to meet unanticipated cashflow requirements.

• The investment policy also includes an ethical policy, which states that the trustees choose to invest only in funds that have ethical investment principles and policies, and that are managed by asset managers who have published a “statement of commitment” to the Financial Reporting Council’s current UK Stewardship Code. Trustees review the suitability of the investments within the portfolio at least annually. The funds (including Designated Funds) available for long term investment are placed with Sarasin & Partners, in their Endowments Fund for Charities. The fund is measured against a bespoke benchmark and performance against this benchmark is monitored by the Finance & Governance Committee twice per year. The trustees consider the fund’s performance over the last year to have been acceptable.

Charity’s measure of performance

The charity measures its performance by monitoring various key performance indicators (KPIs) which are reported to the board and sub-committees on a quarterly basis. These reports are also reviewed by cross-departmental groups that focus on each of the four strategic aims. Numerical targets are used where appropriate and performance monitored against these.

During the year we have revised our core Purpose and Theory of Change, working with the external agency Trust Impact. This work is crucial to our plans to better evidence and measure the difference we make and improve how we prioritise our work.

Risk management

The charity encourages risk management at all levels of the organisation. The overall organisational risk register is reviewed monthly at every Executive Team meeting. Key issues and changes are reviewed quarterly by the Finance, Governance and Fundraising Committee and Board of Trustees. The register identifies the major risks to which the charity is exposed together with the actions and

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Together for Short Lives (a company limited by guarantee)

Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

systems in place to mitigate or reduce the exposure to those risks. All major projects also have their own risk registers.

The principal risks and uncertainties at the time of writing, and plans and strategies for managing them are:

• Lack of sustainable unrestricted income is a risk in every charity. We are currently running planned deficits against our reserves, but it is vital that we secure sustainable recurring unrestricted income for our core activities in the future. This year we have reduced our cost base, and have plans in train in philanthropy and individual giving in particular to secure that income.

• Loss of key staff is always a risk but particularly so in the wake of a reduction of staff numbers. We are particularly mindful of workload concerns affecting wellbeing. Regular one to ones, wellbeing sessions, our Employee Assistance Programme and acting on staff survey feedback are some of the measures we take to mitigate the risk.

• Reputational risk from adverse publicity : Risk assessments are in place for all our key programmes and events which may have reputational impact. We have a robust and regularly reviewed Crisis Management policy and plan in place. We keep our Patrons and Ambassadors Strategy under regular review.

• Cyber Incident affects the organisation’s ability to function. There are several ways in which we are mitigating this risk; training for staff on managing their devices and commonly used attack methods such as phishing and supplier fraud, working with our IT supplier to ensure technical barriers are in place and having cyber security insurance.

Future strategy and plans

As part of our ongoing strategic review and planning, we have updated our two-year plan priorities. We have refined them to reflect the current internal and external context:

1. Financial stability: focus on the steps required to grow unrestricted income, avoid unnecessary expenditure and reduce our deficit. Robust approval of new work and projects for contribution to overheads and core costs.

2. Team support : Recruit key roles, accelerate inductions, listen to teams and manage capacity (& support) accordingly.

3. Impact & evaluation : an approach to evaluation that incorporates more outcome measures, enabling us to better demonstrate impact against strategy, theory of change and projects.

4. Improve operational processes: review and create manageable action plans for process to improve ineffective process, prioritising those key to income growth & impact.

5. Develop a membership action plan: A cross charity understanding of the role of membership; prioritise barriers and opportunities; agree a delivery plan.

Across the summer of 2025, we will undertake a deeper strategic review that looks at how the organisation can best deliver its purpose in an impactful and sustainable manner.

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Together for Short Lives (a company limited by guarantee)

Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

Acknowledgements

Delivering through partnerships

We place great value on a collaborative approach with partners in all areas of our work.

We have launched a new short film called ‘Childhood Needs Magic’ which aims to dramatically change the way people understand children’s palliative care. We have created this alongside Heard, a charity working with people, organisations and the media to inspire content and communication that changes hearts and minds. It has been produced by Catsnake: The Story Agency and has been funded by the True Colours Trust, an independent funder which focusses on improving access to palliative care for babies, children and young people in the UK.

Childhood Needs Magic is narrated by Dr Ranj Singh, a BAFTA award-winning TV and radio presenter, Sunday Times best-selling author, columnist and doctor. Through the eyes of four children, supported by NHS and children’s hospice professionals, it shows that every childhood needs magic, no matter how short it might be.

As part of the Ambitions Partnership for Palliative and End of Life Care, we work closely with Hospice UK and other UK-wide palliative care charities to support professionals and services and press for better access to high quality, sustainable children’s palliative care.

We have worked collaboratively with the UK’s governments and NHS bodies to make sure that the voice of children, young people and their families is heard and the view of our members better represented. Funded by the UK Government and others, through the end of life care consortium of the Health and Wellbeing Alliance we have helped to highlight and share good practice examples of integrated palliative care for children and young people.

As steering group members of the Disabled Children’s Partnership, we campaign to make sure that children and young people in England with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions, alongside other disabled children, can access the education, health and social care they need and which is set out in national policy.

We work closely with partners who represent the children’s palliative care sector including the Association of Paediatric Palliative Medicine, the European Association for Palliative Care and the International Children's Palliative Care Network.

We work with other service providers in the charitable and statutory sectors.

Our service delivery partners for Kentown Support are Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity and NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB. Other charities which support the direct delivery of our family work include Turn2us, Family Fund, Rosie's Rainbow Pantry and LawWorks.

Role of Volunteers

Together for Short Lives benefits from the time and commitment given by volunteers who have helped with administrative duties for the charity on a regular basis, as well as helping on an ad hoc basis. The charity is very grateful to all our volunteers for their time, support and flexibility. and hopes to create further opportunities for volunteer involvement in the future.

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Together for Short Lives (a company limited by guarantee)

Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

Statement of trustees' responsibilities

The trustees (who are also directors of Together for Short Lives 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).

Company and charity law require 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.

• make judgments 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; and

• 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.

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company’s website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Provision of information to auditors

On 18 November 2024 the charity’s auditor changed its name from Haysmacintyre LLP to HaysMac LLP.

Each of the persons who are trustees at the time when this Trustees' Report is approved has confirmed that:

• so far as that trustee is aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company's auditors are unaware, and

• that the trustee has taken all the steps that ought to have been taken as a trustee in order to be aware of any information needed by the charitable company's auditors in connection with preparing their report and to establish that the charitable company's auditors are aware of that information.

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Together for Short Lives (a company limited by guarantee)

Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

Small Company Provisions

The directors have prepared this report in accordance with the special provisions of Statutory Instrument 2008/409 under the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

This report was approved by the trustees on and signed on their behalf by:

Andrew Heywood Hughes Chair

29 September 2025

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Together for Short Lives (a company limited by guarantee)

Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

Independent auditors' report to the members of Together for Short Lives

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Together for Short Lives for the year ended 31 March 2025 which comprise the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities, the Consolidated and Charity Balance Sheets, the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows and the related notes including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards including Financial Reporting Standard 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s and of the parent charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2025 and of the group’s and parent charitable company’s net movement in funds, including the income and expenditure, for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

• have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulation 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the group in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the group's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the Trustees’ Report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially

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Together for Short Lives (a company limited by guarantee)

Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

• the information given in the Trustees’ Report (which incorporates the directors’ report) for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

• the Trustees’ Report (which incorporates the directors’ report) has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the group and the parent charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Trustees’ Report (which incorporates the directors’ report).

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 and the Charity Accounts (Scotland) Regulations (as amended) require us to report to you if, in our opinion:

• adequate accounting records have not been kept by the parent charitable company; or

• the parent charitable company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

• certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or

• the trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies’ regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in preparing the trustees’ report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.

Responsibilities of trustees for the financial statements

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement set out on page 32, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the group’s and the parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the group or the parent charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the

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Together for Short Lives (a company limited by guarantee)

Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below.

Based on our understanding of the group and the environment in which it operates, we identified that the principal risks of non-compliance with laws and regulations related to charity and company law applicable in England, Wales and Scotland, and we considered the extent to which non-compliance might have a material effect on the financial statements. We also considered those laws and regulations that have a direct impact on the preparation of the financial statements such as the Companies Act 2006, the Charities Act 2011 and the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.

We evaluated management’s incentives and opportunities for fraudulent manipulation of the financial statements (including the risk of override of controls) and determined that the principal risks were related to revenue recognition, and management override of controls. Audit procedures performed by the engagement team included:

• Inspecting correspondence with regulators and tax authorities;

• Discussions with management including consideration of known or suspected instances of non-compliance with laws and regulation and fraud;

• Reviewing the controls and procedures of the charity relevant to the preparation of the financial statements to ensure these were in place throughout the year, including during the Covid-19 remote working period;

• Evaluating management’s controls designed to prevent and detect irregularities;

• Identifying and testing journals; and

• Challenging assumptions and judgements made by management in their critical accounting estimates.

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006, section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulation 10 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an Auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Page 37 of 59

Together for Short Lives (a company limited by guarantee)

Trustees’ report For the year ended 31 March 2025

Jane Askew (Senior Statutory Auditor)

10 Queen Street Place London EC4R 1AG

for and on behalf of HaysMac LLP Statutory Auditors

Date:

Page 38 of 59

TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

REGISTERED NUMBER: 07783702

Consolidated statement of financial activities (incorporating an income and expenditure account)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

==> picture [506 x 531] intentionally omitted <==

----- Start of picture text -----
||||||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |Restricted| |General|Funds| |unrestricted|Designated|excluding|Restricted|Total|Total| |funds|funds - legacy|NFS|Funds NFS|funds|funds| |2025|2025|2025|2025|2025|2024| |Note|£|£|£|£|£|£| |INCOME FROM:| |Donations and legacies|2|794,800|-|3,345,151|1,119,290|5,259,241 5,202,458| |Other trading activities|2|44,407|-|515,786|60,304|620,497 1,530,763| |Investments|2|106,850|-|-|-|106,850|129,219| |Charitable activities|2|30,872|-|-|-|30,872|38,735| |Other income|2|10,435|-|-|-|10,435|495| |-------------------- --------------------|-------------------- -------------------- -------------------- --------------------| |TOTAL INCOME|2|987,364|-|3,860,937|1,179,594|6,027,895 6,901,670| |-------------------- --------------------|-------------------- -------------------- -------------------- --------------------| |EXPENDITURE ON:| |Raising funds|520,475|-|33,942|52,810|607,227 1,017,140| |Charitable activities|833,715|-|4,027,912|1,126,784|5,988,411 6,612,035| |-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|------------------- -------------------|-------------------| |TOTAL EXPENDITURE|4|1,354,190|-|4,061,854|1,179,594|6,595,638 7,629,175| |-------------------- --------------------|-------------------- -------------------- -------------------- --------------------| |Net income/(expenditure)|(366,826)|-|(200,917)|0|(567,743)|(727,505)| |before revaluation| |(Losses)/gains on| |revaluations of investment| |assets|21,734|-|-|-|21,734|151,996| |---------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|---------------| |NET| |INCOME/(EXPENDITURE)|(345,092)|-|(200,917)|-|(546,009) (575,509)| |Transfers between funds|16|955,222|(943,618)|(11,604)|-|0|-| |-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|------------------- -------------------|-------------------| |NET MOVEMENT IN| |FUNDS FOR THE YEAR|610,130|(943,618)|(212,521)|-|(546,009) (575,509)| |-| |Total funds at start of year|1,035,480|979,121|1,382,769|3,397,370 3,972,879| |--------------------- ---------------------|--------------------- --------------------- --------------------- ---------------------| |TOTAL FUNDS AT END OF| |YEAR|1,645,610|35,503|1,170,248|-|2,851,361 3,397,370| |=========== ===========|========|======== ========== ==========|

----- End of picture text -----

All activities relate to continuing operations. The accompanying notes form part of these financial statements.

Full comparatives for the year to 31 March 2025 are shown in notes 2 and 4.

Page 39 of 59

TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

REGISTERED NUMBER: 07783702

Consolidated Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2025

			2025		2024
	Note	£	£	£	£
FIXED ASSETS
Tangible assets	11		35,503		76,846
Investments	12		2,497,156		3,325,422
			--------------------		--------------------
			2,532,659		3,402,268
CURRENT ASSETS
Stock		8,232		8,306
Debtors	13	371,859		1,542,645
Cash at bank		2,562,591		1,154,527
		---------------------		---------------------
		2,942,682		2,705,478
CREDITORS:amounts falling due within
one year	14	(2,623,980)		(2,710,376)
		----------------------		----------------------
NET CURRENT ASSETS			318,702		(4,898)
			-------------------		-------------------
NET ASSETS			2,851,361		3,397,370
			=========		=========
CHARITY FUNDS
Restricted funds NFS	16		-
Restricted funds excluding NFS	16		1,170,248		1,382,769
Designated fund – legacy			35,503		979,121
Other unrestricted funds	16		1,645,610		1,035,480
			-------------------		-------------------
TOTAL FUNDS			2,851,361		3,397,370
			=========		=========

The financial statements were approved by the trustees on 2025 and signed on their behalf, by:

Sarah Lorking, Treasurer

Andrew Heywood Hughes, Chair

The accompanying notes form part of these financial statements.

Page 40 of 59

TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

REGISTERED NUMBER: 07783702

Charity Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2025

			2025		2024
	Note	£	£	£	£
FIXED ASSETS
Tangible assets	11		35,503		76,846
Investments	12		2,502,156		3,330,422
			--------------------		--------------------
			3,407,268		3,407,268
CURRENT ASSETS
Debtors	13	882,441		1,843,076
Cash at bank		2,051,487		851,114
		-----------------		-----------------
		2,933,928		2,694,190
CREDITORS:amounts falling due within
one year	14	(2,620,226)		(2,704,088)
		---------------------		---------------------
NET CURRENT ASSETS			313,702		(9,898)
			-------------------		-------------------
NET ASSETS			2,851,361		3,397,370
			==========		==========
CHARITY FUNDS
Restricted funds NFS	16		-		-
Restricted funds excluding NFS	16		1,170,248		1,382,769
Designated fund – legacy			35,503		979,121
Other unrestricted funds	16		1,645,610		1,035,480
			-------------------		-------------------
TOTAL FUNDS			2,851,361		3,397,370
			==========		==========

The financial statements were approved by the trustees on 2025 and signed on their behalf, by:

Sarah Lorking, Treasurer

Andrew Heywood Hughes, Chair

The accompanying notes form part of these financial statements.

The deficit of the parent charity for the year was £546,009 (2024: deficit of £575,509).

Page 41 of 59

TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows for the year ended 31 March 2025

March 2025
	Note	2025	2024
		£	£
Cash inflow from operating activities	a	451,121	(484,604)
		==========	==========
Cash flows from investing activities
Interest income		17,035	12,613
Investment income		89,815	116,606
Purchase of tangible fixed assets		(1,645)	(41,652)
Disposal of tangible fixed assets		1,738	-
Sale of investments		850,000	-
		----------------------	----------------------
Cash used in investing activities		956,943	87,567
Increase in cash and cash equivalents in the		1,408,064	(397,037)
year
Cash and short term investments at the beginning		1,154,527	1,551,564
of the year
		----------------------	----------------------
TOTAL CASH AND SHORT TERM INVESTMENTS AT THE END OF THE YEAR		2,562,591	1,154,527
		==========	==========

a. RECONCILIATION OF NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS TO NET CASH INFLOW FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES

	2025	2024
	£	£
Net income/(expenditure)	(546,009)	(575,509)
Depreciation charge	41,250	40,532
Interest income	(17,035)	(12,613)
Investment income	(89,815)	(116,606)
Loss/(gain) on investments	(21,734)	(151,996)
(Increase)/decrease in debtors	1,170,786	133,386
Increase/(decrease) in creditors	(86,396)	198,178
(Increase)/decrease in stock	74	24
	----------------------	----------------------
Net cash inflow/(outflow) from operating	451,121	(484,604)
activities
	==========	==========

Page 42 of 59

TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

Notes to the Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2025

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

The principal accounting policies adopted, judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty in the preparation of the financial statements are as follows:

1.1. Basis of preparation of the financial statements

The consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with 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 (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2015) - (Charities SORP (FRS 102)), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

Together for Short Lives meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy notes.

1.2. Preparation of accounts on a going concern basis

The review of our financial position has included forecasting income, expenditure and cashflow, access to available unrestricted funds and detailed planning for potential future events, The trustees consider there are no material uncertainties about the Charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period in excess of 12 months from the approval date of these accounts.

1.3. Company Status

Together for Short Lives is a company limited by guarantee, registered as a company in England and Wales (company number 7783702). The members of the company are the trustees named on page 3. In the event of the Together for Short Lives being wound up, the liability in respect of the guarantee is limited to £10 per member of Together for Short Lives.

1.4. Income

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

Donations and legacies

Donations and gifts are included in full in the Statement of Financial Activities when there is entitlement, probability of receipt and the amount of income receivable can be measured reliably.

Gifts in kind

Gifts in kind represent assets donated for distribution or use by the charity. Assets given for distribution are recognised as income only when distributed. Assets given for use by the charity are recognised when receivable. Gifts in kind are valued at the amount actually realised from the disposal of the assets or at the price the charity would otherwise have paid for the assets.

Grants

Grants are recognised in full in the Statement of Financial Activities in the year in which the charity has entitlement to the income, the amount of income receivable can be measured reliably and there is probability of receipt.

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES (continued)

Income from charitable activities

Income from charitable activities is recognised as earned as the related services are provided. Income from other trading activities is recognised as earned as the related goods are provided.

Investment income

Investment income is recognised on a receivable basis once the amounts can be measured reliably.

1.5. Expenditure

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that 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

• Expenditure on charitable activities

Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred.

Expenditure is allocated to the particular activity where the cost relates directly to that activity. However, the cost of overall direction and administration of each activity, comprising the salary and overhead costs of the central function, is apportioned based on staff time attributable to each activity.

Expenditure on raising funds for children’s hospice services through the National Fundraising Scheme (NFS) is included under “Expenditure on charitable activities”, as these are costs that we incur in supporting the children's palliative care sector and so are part of delivering our charitable purpose.

1.6. Allocation of costs

• Staff costs are allocated between direct charitable expenditure and support costs based on the time spent on these activities. Other costs are allocated directly to the relevant heading.

1.7. Operating leases

Rental charges are charged on a straight-line basis over the life of the lease.

1.8. Fund accounting

General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the company and which have not been designated for other purposes.

Designated funds comprise unrestricted funds that have been set aside by the trustees for particular purposes. The aim and use of each designated fund is set out in the notes to the financial statements.

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES (continued)

Restricted funds are funds which are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by donors or which have been raised by the company for particular purposes. The costs of raising and administering such funds are charged against the specific fund. The aim and use of each restricted fund is set out in the notes to the financial statements.

Investment income, gains and losses are allocated to the appropriate fund.

1.6.1. Employee benefits

Short term benefits

Short term benefits including holiday pay are recognised as an expense in the period in which the service is received.

Employee termination benefits

Termination benefits are accounted for on an accruals basis and in line with FRS 102.

Pension scheme

Together for Short Lives operates a defined contribution pension scheme for the benefit of its employees. The assets of the scheme are held independently from those of the Charity in an independently administered fund. The pensions costs charged in the financial statements represent the contributions payable during the year.

• 1.7. Basis of consolidation The financial statements consolidate the accounts of Together for Short Lives and its subsidiary undertaking Together for Short Lives (Trading) Ltd. The company has taken advantage of the exemption contained within 408 of the Companies Act 2006 not to present its own Income and Expenditure Account.

• 1.8. Investments Investments are stated at market value at the balance sheet date. The Statement of Financial Activities includes the net gains and losses arising on revaluations and disposals throughout the year.

Investments in subsidiaries are valued at cost less provision for impairment. Monies held in deposit accounts are classified as investments within current assets.

• 1.9. Tangible fixed Assets and depreciation Fixed assets are initially recorded at cost. Expenditure on fixed assets costing £1,000 or less is written off as incurred.

Tangible fixed assets are stated at cost less depreciation. Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write off the cost of fixed assets, less their estimated residual value, over their expected useful lives on the following bases:

Leasehold improvements - Straight line over the period of the lease Fixtures and fittings - 25% straight line Office equipment - 33.3% straight line

1.10. Debtors Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES (continued)

1.11. Stock

Stocks are valued at the lower of cost and net realisable value. Net realisable value is based upon estimated selling price less further costs expected to be incurred to completion and disposal. Provision is made for obsolete and slow-moving items.

The trustees have concluded and agreed that the valuing of shops donated goods for resale on receipt is impractical due to the high volume of low value items, lack of stock system for recording these items and the administrative cost involved. Instead, the income is recognised in the accounts when these goods are sold.

1.12. 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 after allowing for any trade discounts due.

1.13. Critical accounting judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty

In the application of the charity's accounting policies, the Trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates. The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised if the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods if the revision affects both current and future periods.

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

2. ANALYSIS OF INCOME

			Restricted
			Funds
	Unrestricted	Designated	excluding	Restricted	Total	Total
	funds	Funds	NFS	Funds NFS	funds	funds
	2025	2025	2025	2025	2025	2024
	£	£	£	£	£	£
Donations and
legacies
Donations	731,468	-	3,326,385	1,119,285	5,177,138	5,185,988
Legacies	63,332	-	-	5	63,337	3,795
Grants	-	-	18,766	-	18,766	12,675
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
	794,800	-	3,345,151	1,119,290	5,259,241	5,202,458
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
Other trading
activities
Licensing	-	-	486,482	-	486,482	910,461
Fundraising events	44,383	-	29,304	60,304	133,991	620,302
Conferences	24	-	-	-	24	-
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
	44,407	-	515,786	60,304	620,497	1,530,763
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
Investments
Bank interest	17,035	-	-	-	17,035	12,613
Investment income	89,815	-	-	-	89,815	116,606
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
	106,850	-	-	-	106,850	129,219
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
Charitable activities
Membership fees	27,792	-	-	-	27,792	30,204
Conferences	3,080	-	-	-	3,080	8,531
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
	30,872	-	-	-	30,872	38,735
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
Other income	10,435	-	-	-	10,435	495
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
Total income	987,364	-	3,860,937	1,179,594	6,027,895	6,901,670
	=========	=========	=========	=========	=========	=========

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

Comparative analysis for 2024
			Restricted
			Funds
	Unrestricted	Designated	excluding	Restricted	Total
	funds	Funds	NFS	Funds NFS	funds
	2024	2024	2024	2024	2024
	£	£	£	£	£
Donations and legacies
Donations	504,312	-	3,979,384	702,292	5,185,988
Legacies	3,795	-	-	-	3,795
Grants	8,450	-	4,225	-	12,675
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
	516,557	-	3,983,609	702,292	5,202,458
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
Other trading activities
Licensing	880	-	909,581	-	910,461
Fundraising events	341,071	-	147,652	131,579	620,302
Conferences	-	-	-	-	-
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
	341,951	-	1,057,233	131,579	1,530,763
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
Investments
Bank interest	12,613	-	-	-	12,613
Investment income	116,606	-	-	-	116,606
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
	129,219	-	-	-	129,219
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
Charitable activities
Membership fees	30,204	-	-	-	30,204
Conferences	8,531	-	-	-	8,531
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
	38,735	-	-	-	38,735
	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------	-------------------
Other income	495	-	-	-	495
Total income	1,026,957	-	5,040,842	833,871	6,901,670
	=========	=========	=========	=========	=========

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

3. NET INCOME FROM TRADING ACTIVITIES OF SUBSIDIARY

Together for Short Lives owns 100% of the called up share capital of Together for Short Lives (Trading) Limited, a trading company registered in England and Wales, company number 06434214. A summary of the trading results of Together for Short Lives (Trading) Limited for the year ended 31 March 2025 is shown below. All taxable profits have been transferred to the Charity.

		2025	2025	2024
		£		£
Turnover		517,532		910,519
Administrative expenses		(43,365)		(23,418)
		-----------------		-----------------
Profit after tax			474,167		887,101
Payment under gift aid			(474,167)		(887,101)
			------------------		------------------
Retained profit carried forward			-		-
			=========		==========
At 31 March 2025 the total of share capital and reserves for the company				was £5,000 (2024: £5,000).
. ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE
	Direct costs		Support
	Grants	Other costs	costs	Total	Total
	2025	2025	2025	2025	2024
	£	£	£	£	£
Raising funds
Raising funds for our core work	-	391,774	162,643	554,417	957,944
Raising funds for NFS income	-	38,187	14,623	52,810	59,274
	------------------	------------------	-----------------	-------------------	-------------------
	-	429,961	177,266	607,227	1,017,218
Charitable Activities
National Charitable Activities	-	1,432,101	447,013	1,879,114	1,928,544
Cost of generating income for children’s hospice (NFS)	-	216,389	82,865	299,254	335,883
Cost of generating income for children’s hospice (Morrisons)	-	155,349	-	155,349	312,474
Grants – National Fundraising Scheme (NFS)	774,448	-	-	774,448	378,781
Grants – Morrisons	1,955,988	-	-	1,955,988	2,833,477
Grants – Butterfly Fund	192,300	-	-	192,300	73,200
Grants – Cost of Living Fund	5,100			5,100	22,050
Grants – Kentown Partners	726,858	-	-	726,858	727,548
	------------------	------------------	-----------------	-------------------	-------------------
Charitable activities	3,654,694	1,803,839	529,878	5,988,411	6,611,957
	------------------	------------------	-----------------	-------------------	-------------------
	------------------	-------------------	-----------------	-------------------	-------------------
	3,654,694	2,233,800	707,144	6,595,638	7,629,175
	=========	=========	========	=========	=========

At 31 March 2025 the total of share capital and reserves for the company was £5,000 (2024: £5,000).

4. ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

4. ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE (Continued)

Comparative analysis for 2024

omparative analysis for 2024
	Direct costs		Support
	Grants	Other costs	costs	Total
	2024	2024	2024	2024
	£	£	£	£
Raising funds
Raising funds for our core work	-	788,146	169,798	957,944
Raising funds for NFS income	-	41,724	17,550	59,274
	------------------	------------------	-----------------	-------------------
	-	829,870	187,348	1,017,218
Charitable Activities
National Charitable Activities	-	1,462,369	466,175	1,928,544
Cost of generating income for children’s hospice (NFS)	-	236,433	99,450	335,883
Cost of generating income for children’s hospice (Morrisons)	-	312,474	-	312,474
Grants – National Fundraising Scheme (NFS)	378,781	-	-	378,781
Grants – Morrisons	2,833,477	-	-	2,833,477
Grants – Butterfly Fund	73,200	-	-	73,200
Grants – Cost of Living Fund	22,050			22,050
Grants – Kentown Partners	727,548	-	-	727,548
	------------------	------------------	-----------------	-------------------
Charitable activities	4,035,056	2,011,276	565,625	6,611,957
	------------------	------------------	-----------------	-------------------
	------------------	-------------------	-----------------	-------------------
	4,035,056	2,841,146	752,973	7,629,175
	=========	=========	========	=========

5. ANALYSIS OF SUPPORT COSTS

. ANALYSIS OF SUPPORT COSTS
	Total	Total
	2025	2024
	£	£
Staff costs	496,539	517,967
Depreciation	41,250	40,532
Governance costs (see note 7)	76,590	75,376
Other administrative costs	92,766	119,098
	----------------	----------------
	707,145	752,973
	=========	=========

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

6. GRANTS TO INSTITUTIONS

	Unrestricted	Unrestricted	Restricted	Restricted	Total Funds	Total Funds
	Funds	2025	Funds	Funds NFS	2025	2024
	£		excluding	2025	£	£
			NFS 2025	£
			£
National Fundraising
Scheme (NFS)		-	-	774,448	774,448	438,714
Kentown Project		-	1,955,988	-	1,955,988	727,548
Morrisons		-	726,858	-	726,858	2,833,477
Butterfly Fund Grants		-	192,300	-	192,300	73,200
Relief Fund Grants		-	5,100	-	5,100	22,050
	-------------------		----------------	----------------	----------------	----------------
		-	2,880,246	774,448	3,654,694	4,094,989
	==========		=========	=======	=========	=========

Grants payable under the National Fundraising Scheme are made to member charities providing children's palliative care services across the UK in line with donor wishes.

7.	GOVERNANCE COSTS	Total	Total
		funds	funds
		2025	2024
		£	£
	Auditors' remuneration	18,151	19,150
	Meeting costs	2,957	823
	Trustees travel reimbursed	5,828	3,606
	Wages and salaries	41,275	43,056
	Employers NI	5,696	5,374
	Pension costs	2,683	3,367
		----------------	----------------
		76,590	75,376
		========	========
8.	NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE)	2025	2024
		£	£
	This is stated after charging:
	Depreciation of tangible fixed assets:	41,250	40,532
	Auditors’ remuneration	18,151	19,150
	Operating lease payments	21,846	27,020
		========	========

During the year, no trustees received any remuneration (2024 Nil). During the year, no trustees received any benefits in kind (2024 Nil).

During the year, 8 trustees received reimbursement of expenses for travel totalling £5,992 (2024: £3,606).

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

		2025	2024
9.	AUDITORS’ REMUNERATION	£	£
	Fees payable to the charity's auditor for the audit of the charity's
	annual accounts	14,300	13,000
	Fees payable to the charity's auditor in respect of:
	Together for Short Lives (Trading) Ltd	3,851	3,500
	Non audit services	-	2,650
		========	=========
10.	STAFF COSTS	2025	2024
		£	£
	Staff costs were as follows:
	Wages and salaries	1,660,315	1,889,621
	Social security costs	167,446	193,723
	Pension costs	101,744	111,270
	Restructuring payments	5,325	102,603
		---------------------	---------------------
		1,934,830	2,297,217
		==========	==========

Pension costs Restructuring payments 101,744 5,325 111,270 102,603 --------------------- --------------------- 1,934,830 2,297,217 ========== ==========	Pension costs Restructuring payments 101,744 5,325 111,270 102,603 --------------------- --------------------- 1,934,830 2,297,217 ========== ==========	Pension costs Restructuring payments 101,744 5,325 111,270 102,603 --------------------- --------------------- 1,934,830 2,297,217 ========== ==========
The restructuring payments were made to employees following departmental restructures.
The average monthly number of employees during the year was as follows:
	No.	No.
	43	49
	========	=======
The number of higher paid employees was:
In the band £60,001 - £70,000	2	-
In the band £70,001 - £80,000	1	4
In the band £80,001 - £90,000	1	-
In the band £90,001 - £100,000	-	1
	----------------	----------------
	4	5
	========	=======

Key management remuneration

The total employee benefits of the key management personnel of the Group were £280,440 (2024: £405,055).

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

11. TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

		Leasehold	Leasehold
		property	Fixtures and		Office
		improvements		fittings	equipment	Total
	Group and Charity	£		£	£	£
	Cost
	At 1 April 2024	119,193		18,512	205,000	342,705
	Additions	-		-	1,645	1,645
	Disposals	-		-	(10,320)	(10,320)
		----------------		-----------------	----------------	----------------
	At 31 March 2025	119,193		18,512	196,325	334,030
		----------------		-----------------	----------------	----------------
	Depreciation
	At 1 April 2024	101,334		18,512	146,013	265,859
	Charge for the year	8,010		-	33,240	41,250
	Disposals	-		-	(8,582)	(8,582)
		----------------		-----------------	----------------	----------------
	At 31 March 2025	109,344		18,512	170,671	298,527
		----------------		-----------------	----------------	----------------
	Net book value
	At 31 March 2025	9,849		-	25,654	35,503
		========		========	========	========
	At 31 March 2024	17,859		-	58,987	76,846
		========		========	========	========
12.	FIXED ASSET INVESTMENTS
		Money Market		Listed
		Fund		securities	Total	Total
		2025		2025	2025	2024
		£		£	£	£
	Group
	Market value
	At 1 April	1,258,302		2,067,120	3,325,422	3,173,426
	Additions		-	-	-	-
	Disposals	(850,000)		-	(850,000)	-
	Revaluations		-	21,734	21,734	151,996
		--------------------		--------------------	--------------------	--------------------
	At 31 March	408,302		2,088,854	2,497,156	3,325,422
		=========		=========	=========	=========
	Group investments at market value comprise:				2025	2024
					£	£
	Listed investments				2,088,854	2,067,120
	Money Market Fund				408,302	1,258,302
					==========	==========

All the fixed asset investments are held in the UK

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

12.	FIXED ASSET INVESTMENTS (continued)	FIXED ASSET INVESTMENTS (continued)
		Money Market	Listed	Investments
		Fund	securities	in subsidiary	Total
		2025	2025	2025	2025
		£	£	£	£
	Charity
	Market value
	At 1 April	1,258,302	2,067,120	5,000	3,330,422
	Additions	-	-	-	-
	Disposals	(850,000)	-	-	(850,000)
	Revaluations	-	21,734	-	21,734
		--------------------	--------------------	--------------------	--------------------
	At 31 March	408,302	2,088,854	5,000	2,502,156
		=========	=========	=========	=========

All the fixed asset investments are held in the UK.

Comparative analysis for 2024

		Money Market	Listed	Investments
		Fund	securities	in subsidiary	Total
		2024	2024	2024	2024
		£	£	£	£
	Charity
	Market value
	At 1 April	1,258,302	1,915,124	5,000	3,178,426
	Additions	-	-	-	-
	Disposals	-	-	-	-
	Revaluations	-	151,996	-	151,996
		--------------------	--------------------	--------------------	--------------------
	At 31 March	1,258,302	2,067,120	5,000	3,330,422
		=========	=========	=========	=========
	All the fixed asset investments are held	in the UK.
13.	DEBTORS	Group		Charity
		2025	2024	2025	2024
		£	£	£	£
	Trade debtors	105,826	265,299	55,347	13,250
	Amounts owed by group undertakings	-	-	577,611	973,112
	VAT Debtor	-	21,710	-	14,380
	Other debtors	2,365	14,864	2,365	14,865
	Prepayments and accrued income	263,668	1,240,772	247,118	827,469
		-----------------	-----------------	-------------------	-------------------
		371,859	1,542,645	882,441	1,843,076
		========	========	=========	=========

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

==> picture [484 x 285] intentionally omitted <==

----- Start of picture text -----
|||||| |---|---|---|---|---| |14.|CREDITORS: amounts falling due|Group|Charity| |within one year|2025|2024|2025|2024| |£|£|£|£| |Trade creditors|34,245|72,026|34,245|72,026| |Other taxation and social security|47,593|70,184|47,593|70,184| |VAT creditors|93,699|72,793|96,986|72,793| |Other creditors|334,220|74,173|334,220|74,173| |Accruals and deferred income|2,114,223|2,421,200|2,107,181|2,414,912| |-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| |2,623,980|2,710,376|2,620,225|2,704,088| |=========|=========|=========|=========| |15.|ANALYSIS OF DEFERRED INCOME|Group|Charity| |2025|2024|2025|2024| |£|£|£|£| |Deferred income at 1 April|20,398|-|20,398|-| |Released to income in the year|(20,398)|-|(20,398)|-| |Deferred in the year|188,928|20,398|188,928|20,398| |-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| |Deferred income at 31 March|188,928|20,398|188,928|20,398|

----- End of picture text -----

Deferred income in 2025 and 2024 relates to Simply Learning to Talk Project.

16. STATEMENT OF FUNDS

==> picture [501 x 154] intentionally omitted <==

----- Start of picture text -----
|||||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |Brought|Transfers|Gains/|Carried| |Forward|Income|Expenditure|in/(out)|(Losses)|Forward| |£|£|£|£|£|£| |Designated funds| |Designated fund - Legacy|902,275|-|-|(902,275)|-|0| |Fixed asset fund|76,846|-|-|(41,343)|-|35,503| |-------------------|----------------- ---------------------|------------------|------------------|-------------------| |979,121|0|0|(943,618)|0|35,503| |General funds| |General Funds|1,035,480|987,364|(1,354,190)|955,222|21,734|1,645,610| |-------------------|------------------- ---------------------|------------------|------------------|-------------------| |Total Unrestricted funds|2,014,601|987,364|(1,354,190)|11,604|21,734|1,681,113| |==========|========= ==========|========|=========|=========|

----- End of picture text -----

Purpose of designated funds

The Fixed Asset fund

This fund relates to fixed assets and therefore is not available to cover the ongoing costs of the Charity, the balance is equal to the net book value in the accounts of fixed assets held by the charity.

Legacy fund

A decision has been taken by the Board of Trustees to remove this designation and use the reserves to fund unrestricted campaigning and family support work; projects that were originally supported by the designated fund.

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

	Brought			Transfers	Gains/	Carried
	Forward	Income	Expenditure	in/(out)	(Losses)	Forward
	£	£	£	£	£	£
Restricted funds: National
Fundraising Scheme
Restricted NFS	-	1,179,594	(1,179,594)	0	-	-
	-------------------	-----------------	-----------------	------------------	------------------	-------------------
Other restricted funds
Butterfly Fund	82,392	87,324	(152,832)	-	-	16,884
Family information & support	14,866	-	(14,866)	-	-	0
Disney	139,689	50,000	(14,590)	-	-	175,099
Morrisons (Hospices)	-	1,522,229	(1,522,229)	-	-	0
Morrisons (Project)	838,987	915,992	(995,139)	-	-	759,840
Kentown	57,595	1,013,169	(980,283)	-	-	90,481
SGN	77,457	166,040	(154,238)	-	-	89,259
Other restricted funds	171,783	106,184	(227,677)	(11,604)	-	38,686
	-------------------	-----------------	-----------------	------------------	------------------	-------------------
	1,382,769	5,040,532	(5,241,448)	(11,604)	-	1,170,249
	-------------------	-----------------	-----------------	------------------	------------------	-------------------

Purpose of Restricted funds

Restricted NFS

The National Fundraising Scheme (NFS) is concerned with raising funds for distribution to children’s hospice services. Further details on the income and costs of the scheme can be found in notes 2, 4 and 6.

Butterfly fund

This Fund provides grants of £300 to bereaved families, and is fully funded by a number of supporters.

Family Information and Support

We also received generous support for our Family Information and Support work this year from a number of funders supporting our helpline, advocacy service and information and resources that we provide for families.

Disney

This fund enables us to work with Disney to create Moments that Matter for seriously ill children and those closest to them, raise awareness of our work and children’s palliative care, and raise funds to directly support children’s hospice services and Together for Short Lives.

Morrisons (Hospices) and Morrisons (Projects)

Funds raised by Morrisons have been split between those to be directly allocated to hospices, and those that have been awarded to individual hospices based on application for specific project works.

Other restricted funds

Other restricted funds are immaterial amounts granted for restricted purposes; these include grants awarded by NHS England, the Scottish Government and Hospice UK.

Fund Transfers

The transfers from the general fund to the Fixed Asset Designated fund, was required to maintain the balance in the Fixed Asset Fund equal to the net book value of fixed assets in the balance sheet.

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

The transfer from the National Fundraising Scheme (NFS) Fund to the General Fund represents the share of NFS net income that will go towards the core work of the charity. The proportion of NFS income that is used for our core work varies among the different corporate partners but is usually 15% of the total net income raised.

16. STATEMENT OF FUNDS (CONTINUED)

Comparative analysis for 2024

	Brought			Transfers	Gains/	Carried
	Forward	Income	Expenditure	in/(out)	(Losses)	Forward
	£	£	£	£	£	£
Designated funds
Designated fund - Legacy	1,602,275	-	(700,000)	-	-	902,275
Fixed asset fund	75,726	-	(40,532)	41,652	-	76,846
	-------------------	-----------------	---------------------	------------------	------------------	-------------------
	1,678,001	-	(740,532)	41,652	-	979,121
General funds
General Funds	1,192,660	1,026,957	(1,342,593)	6,460	151,996	1,035,480
	---------------------	-------------------	---------------------	------------------	------------------	-------------------
Total Unrestricted funds	2,870,661	1,026,957	(2,083,125)	48,112	151,996	2,014,601
	==========	=========	==========	========	=========	=========
	Brought			Transfers	Gains/	Carried
	Forward	Income	Expenditure	in/(out)	(Losses)	Forward
	£	£	£	£	£	£
Restricted funds: National
Fundraising Scheme
Restricted NFS	-	833,871	(773,937)	(59,934)	-	-
	----------------------	-----------------	-----------------	------------------	------------------	-------------------
Other restricted funds
Butterfly Fund	30,400	136,490	(84,498)	-	-	82,392
Transition Grants	15,000	-	(134)	-	-	14,866
Family information & support	111,701	50,000	(22,012)	-	-	139,689
National Lottery	-	2,618,053	(2,618,053)	-	-	-
Disney	783,508	1,002,088	(946,609)	-	-	838,987
Morrisons (Hospice)	161,609	1,234,211	(1,100,807)	11,822	-	306,835
Morrisons (Project)	-------------------	-----------------	-----------------	------------------	------------------	-------------------
Other restricted funds	1,102,218	5,040,842	(4,772,113)	11,822	-	1,382,769
	----------------------	-----------------	-----------------	------------------	------------------	-------------------

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

17. ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BETWEEN FUNDS

		Restricted
	Unrestricted	Funds	Restricted	Total
	funds	excluding NFS	Funds NFS	funds
	2025	2025	2025	2025
	£	£	£	£
Tangible fixed assets	35,503	0	0	35,503
Fixed asset investments	2,497,156	0	0	2,497,156
Current assets	1,772,433	1,170,249	0	2,942,682
Creditors due within one year	(2,623,980)	0	0	(2,623,980)
	--------------------	----------------	----------------	---------------------
	1,681,112	1,170,249	0	2,851,361
	==========	========	========	==========

Comparative analysis for 2024:

		Restricted
		Funds	Restricted	Total
	Unrestricted funds	excluding NFS	Funds NFS	funds
	2024	2024	2024	2024
	£	£	£	£
Tangible fixed assets	76,846	-	-	76,846
Fixed asset investments	3,325,422	-	-	3,325,422
Current assets	1,322,709	1,382,769	-	2,705,478
Creditors due within one
year	(2,710,376)	-	-	(2,710,376)
	--------------------	----------------	----------------	---------------------
	2,014,601	1,382,769	-	3,397,370
	==========	========	========	==========

18. PENSION COMMITMENTS

Employer's pension contributions paid in the year ended 31 March 2025 were £101,744 (2024: £111,270). Amounts shown in creditors at the balance sheet date in respect of pension contributions outstanding were £12,957 (2024: £nil).

19. OPERATING LEASE COMMITMENTS

At 31 March 2025 the group had annual commitments under non-cancellable operating leases as follows:

follows:
	Land and	buildings	Equipment
	2025	2024	2025	2024
Group and charity	£	£	£	£
Within 1 year	27,020	27,020	-	-
Between 2 and 5 years	-	27,020	-	-
	------------------	------------------	-------------------	-------------------
	27,020	54,040	-	-
	=========	=========	=========	=========

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TOGETHER FOR SHORT LIVES (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

20. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

Several trustees of Together for Short Lives are also either trustees or employees of member charities. Some of these charity members benefit from grants under the National Fundraising Scheme (NFS), but the trustees do not benefit personally. Trustees set the rules of the scheme which determine how the money raised is shared among members, but they are not involved in specific decisions about how NFS money is distributed.

During the year the charity charged its trading subsidiary, Together for Short Lives Trading Limited, £12,316 (2024: £16,246) for management and licensing costs.

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