2022-03-31-accounts - The Loss Foundation

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Trustees' Annual Report					for theperiod
From	Period start date			To	Period end date
	01	April	2021		31	March	2022

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name The Loss Foundation Other names charity is known by Registered charity number (if any) 1147362 Charity's principal address 6 Welbeck Villas Highfield Road London Postcode N21 3HN

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole year	Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (if any)
Dr Kirsten Smith			Erin Thompson
Deepa Patel	Chair	Until December 2021	Erin Thompson and All Trustees
Shereen Sally			Deepa Patel
Francine Bear			Deepa Patel
Ruth Barnett			Deepa Patel
Rebecca Mahallati			Deepa Patel
Peter Osborne			Deepa Patel
Sarah Barrick			Deepa Patel
Edward Levey			Deepa Patel
Vanessa Babouram	Intermin Chair (from January2022)		Deepa Patel
Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

	Name	Dates acted if not for whole year
	n/a

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Dr Erin Hope Thompson acts as Director of the charity.

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Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document

Constitution

(e.g. trust deed, constitution)

How the charity is constituted

Charity

(e.g. trust, association, company)

Trustee selection methods

(e.g. appointed by, elected by)

New Trustees are appointed by interview with a selection of The Board of Trustees.

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
relationship with any related parties;
trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.

Trustees are elected for an initial term of three years and may offer themselves for a further period of three years. The Trustees are a voluntary management committee and have ultimate responsibility for the charity. The Trustees meet 4-6 times a year to plan, control and monitor the overall policy and direction of the charity.

The Trustees understand that they have a duty to identify and review the risks to which the charity is exposed and to ensure appropriate controls are in place to provide reasonable assurance against fraud and error. The Trustees recognise that in the dynamic environment in which the charity operates the risks encountered are continually changing.

No business shall be transacted at any general meeting unless a quorum is present of 4 members. General meetings are chaired by the person who has been elected as Chair (unless the Chair is unavailable and Trustees appoint another attendee).

The charity can elect officers and other Trustees in general meetings. New Trustees are invited on to the Board when; a) an area of need has been recognised and discussed on the Board, b) avenues are explored to secure a new Trustee fitting for that role, c) a meeting is arranged between the potential new Trustee with the Chair and/or Director, d) if all requirements are met, the Board agree to the new membership.

We have paid members of part-time staff who are responsible for the dayto-day running of the organisation, volunteer management, seeking funding, and reporting progress and developments to the Board of Trustees.

The next level of organisation lies within the charity’s volunteers who run the bereavement services. The volunteers are made up of a range of professionals. All volunteers receive bereavement support training and access supervision for their work.

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Section C Objectives and activities

Purpose: To provide UK-wide bereavement support for anyone who loses a loved one to cancer.

The aims and objectives of the charity are to provide support to people experiencing bereavement or loss as a result of cancer in the UK through:

Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document

the provision of peer support groups and other grief support events;
providing spaces for people to connect with others with a similar loss;
offering information and education about the experience of bereavement and associated difficulties;
signposting to other forms of support.

REVIEW OF SERVICES – Local to National Support

Growing from local to national provision has been a development in the pipeline for our Charity in recent years. The Coronavirus pandemic continued to significantly contributed to this developing across the year.

During the pandemic all of our support events shifted online, which allowed us to support people across the whole country remotely. As well as continuing to be a charity focused on providing bereavement support to those who lose a loved one to cancer, we opened up our support to those bereaved by coronavirus. This allowed us to do our part in helping respond to the global pandemic. We continued providing this provision during the year.

Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)

To meet the main aims and objectives of the charity whilst continuing to work towards national support and responding to the pandemic, we have carried out the following activities: Support Groups Over the course of the year we have provided peer bereavement support groups free of charge to individuals who are bereaved by cancer or coronavirus. We ran a total of 78 peer support groups over the course of the year. This included continuing to run specific themed support groups, e.g. parent loss to cancer, partner loss to cancer, as well as one-off support groups and support group bubbles (meeting with the same collection of people on a monthly basis).

Social Events

We continued to provide social events for people to access informal peer support outside of a facilitated event with online get togethers. We ran 10 social events over the course of the year, providing opportunities for people to come together for peer support both online and in-person. We also hosted an online social get together on Christmas Day, which is a particularly difficult time of year for people who are grieving.

Therapeutic Workshops

We continued to run our online therapeutic workshops, led by our Clinical Psychologists and aimed at helping people to cope with grief related difficulties. We ran 12 online workshops. The workshop design came from our evidence based therapeutic groups, and we are currently continuing to evaluate the benefits of the workshops. These have been a

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highly beneficial service, offering a lot of support and psychoeducation in a short windows of time, and bringing people together.

Connect Service

We had a research psychologist for part of the year whom continued to develop our Connect service, in which we match people with similar losses for 1-2-1 supportive conversations. She helped us expand the service and connect people across the country for more individualised peer support.

Training

We have continued to provide training across the year, to both organisations and individuals. This largely included training mental health professionals and providing continued professional development. We are increasingly becoming a go-to organisation to provide training on bereavement support and associated difficulties as well as training in having difficult conversations. This is an area we plan to extend over the coming year.

Information

In addition to our in-person support, many people have continued to benefit from information, articles and videos on our website that focus on the experience of bereavement.

Social Media

We extended our support more widely on our social media channels, offering articles, quotes, advice, event info and pictures. We have continued to take on volunteers where we can to help develop this area so that we can reach more people and spread brand awareness. Our main social media avenues are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Signposting

We have been able to signpost people to other services and make referrals to other professionals when necessary for their benefit and mental health. We have noticed that as our organisation continues to grow, we receive increasing numbers of emails and calls regarding support. As a peer-support service that is not available 24-hour support, we regularly signpost to other support services, such as Samaritans.

Campaigning

Following on from previous years, we have continued to advertise our IWontGoQuiet, campaign, encouraging people to say something rather than nothing when someone is bereaved. We have not been able to host a campaigning event during the past year, largely due to the continued difficulties with the pandemic.

Research

Over the course of the year we continued to collect information from people taking part in our support events (with permission and all made anonymous). This allows us to learn more about peoples’ authentic experiences of grief and associated difficulties, as well as the benefits of the support we provide. Feedback from users also allows to gauge which elements of our support are being well received and which elements need tweaking, and we use this type of feedback to inform our volunteer training. We are committed to continuously improving our support and resources.

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Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

POLICIES

We have a Charity Policy Handbook that houses all of our policies and is regularly updated.

All volunteers receive the Policy Handbook as well as a Volunteer’s Handbook, outlining their role and responsibilities.

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

policy on grant making;
policy programme related investment;
contribution made by volunteers.

STRATEGY

A group of Trustees dedicated a large proportion of their time to developing our new 3-year strategy, which allowed us to re-identify our larger purpose as a charity and to develop 6 main streams of focus for the coming years.

VOLUNTEERS

We are extremely grateful to our dedicated team of volunteers, which has increased in size over the past year. Over the course of the year they have donated a huge amount of time collectively and helped support hundreds of people during their bereavement.

We will aim to increase numbers of volunteers each year, and to continuously provide training and continued professional development.

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Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

SUPPORT EVENTS

Over the course of the year we provided 127 support events, the majority of which were hosted remotely. This includes our peer support groups, workshops, therapy groups, online social events and in-person walks. We also continued to develop our Connect service further, allowing us to provide more 1-2-1 support for our beneficiaries.

BOARD DEVELOPMENT AND RESTRUCTURE

We have continued to benefit from a Board with varied expertise to help guide our discussions around supporting people and growing nationally.

Our long-standing Chair, Deepa Patel, stepped down from the position of Chair of the Charity, and one of our Trustees has stepped into the Interim Chair role (Vanessa Babouram).

PAID STAFF DEVELOPMENT

For the first time in our history we took on a part-time fundraiser to help us explore fundraising avenues and strategy. During the course of the year we had up to four paid part-time roles: administrator, Director, fundraiser, and Assistant Research Psychologist. We aim to continue raising money to be able to expand our team.

VOLUNTEERS

We are extremely grateful to our dedicated team of volunteers. Over the course of the year they have donated a huge amount of time collectively and helped support hundreds of people during their bereavement.

RESEARCH AND EVALUATION

Carrying out research and evaluation has enabled us to better measure the need for support, the benefit of our support and to collect tangible outcomes for our work. We continue to evaluate our support so that we can be sure we are providing gold standard support at all times.

FUNDRAISING

In addition to the support services we have provided to individuals who have lost a loved one to cancer, we have undertaken activities to generate funds for the charity. This has mainly been through the seeking of grants to cover our maintenance and development costs, as well as donations raised through sporting and sponsored events.

We did host one community fundraising event but the numbers in attendance were hindered by the pandemic.

We largely applied for grants over the year to help fund our increased support.

Our income reduced in the current year compared to the previous financial year, largely due to two larger grants in the previous year. We continue to explore how we can invest into benefitting from more avenues of income.

STRATEGY

Our new 3-year strategy provides a benchmark of focus and activity and we will work towards this collectively to help us reach our wider charitable purpose.

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Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves

The Trustees have agreed that the charity is currently not of sufficient size to justify a formal reserves policy, however, this will be reviewed on an annual basis. We work to always having three months average monthly spend available at all times.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

n/a

Further financial review details (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:

the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;

We secured a small amount of income from small grants, individual donations and fundraising. We expect that these avenues will continue into next year.

Our expenditure has been allocated to key objectives of the charity.

Our main expenditure over the past year has been related to the core costs of running and developing our support services and charity. The costs of running our support services are low but remain a priority.

investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.

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Section F Other optional information

Future plans

Our main plans for the year 2022/23 are as follows:

To continue developing our national reaching service, focusing on in-person support
To develop our Connect programme nationally
To continue providing covid loss support where there is demand
To increase awareness for our charity’s services and link with services and organisations across the UK
Continue with research and evaluation
Expand our pool of volunteers
Expand our training support programme
Invest in a fundraising strategy with the help of a fundraiser
Carry out activities in line with our three-year strategy

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s) Erin Thompson

Full name(s) Erin Thompson Position (e.g. Secretary, Chair, Director etc) Date 24/01/2023

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	THE LOSS FOUNDATION	THE LOSS FOUNDATION	THE LOSS FOUNDATION	1147362	CC16a
	For the period from	01-Apr-21	To	3/31/2022

Section A Receipts	and payments
A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £	Restricted funds to the nearest £	Endowmen t funds to the nearest £	Total funds to the nearest £	Last year
					to the nearest £

Donations, legacies, grants	60,452	13,590	-	74,042	115,089
Fundraising and fundraising events	5,418	-	-	5,418	11,747
Fees for charitable services	-	-	-	-	-
Gift Aid	1,594	-	-	1,594	17,353
Interest on deposit accounts	-	-	-	-	878
Training	4,152	-	-	4,152	-
Other	363	-	-	363	1,394
	-	-	-	-	-
*Sub total*(Gross income for AR)	71,979	13,590	-	85,569	146,461

A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
	-
	-				-
*Sub total*	-				-
*Total receipts* A3 Payments
					146,461
					Lastyear
Fundraising costs	3,050.63	-		3,051	463
Wages / salaries / NI / pension	68,086.60	-		68,087	42,441
Consultancy / professional fees	-	-		-	900
Bank interest / charges / Insurance	429.32	-		429	290
Office rent	34.00	-		34	535
Training / Conferences	521.79	-		522	-
Telephone	603.44	-		603	394
Research	-	-		-	-
Internet/website/email	449.45	-		449	755
Printing/postage/stationary/tech tools	3,814.53			3,815	755
Membership	647.99	-		648	757
Equipment	1,197.35	-		1,197	1,350
Cost of charitable activities	8,289.13	-		8,289	4,201
Volunteer expenses	376.54	-		377	-
Advertising	2,852.01	-		2,852	1,947
Merchandise	73.20	-		73	-
Board / governance	1,820.80	-		1,821	1,190
Team expenses / wellbeing	196.58 154.78			197	51
Other				155	342
**Sub total **	92,598	-		92,598	56,369

A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
	-

	-	-	-	-
*Sub total* *Total payments* *Net of receipts/(payments)* A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end *Cash funds this year end*	-	-	-	-	-

					56,369

	- 20,620				90,092
	-				-
	99,035				8,943
	78,415				99,035

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B5 Liabilities B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B1 Cash funds	Signature Shereen Sally Details Details Details Details *Total cash funds* (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details	Unrestricte d funds to nearest £ - - - 8,534 Agreement Error Unrestricte d funds to nearest £ - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which liability relates Print
	Shereen Sally	Shereen Sally

Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of ‘The Loss Foundation’

I report on the accounts of the Trust for the year ended 31 March 2022.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144(2) of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act) and that an independent examination is needed.

It is my responsibility to:

examine the accounts under section 145 of the 2011 Act
to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act
to state whether particular matters have come to my attention

Basis of independent examiner’s report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair view’ and the report is limited to those matters set out in the next statement.

Independent examiner’s statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

(1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements:
a) to keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the 2011 Act and
b) to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the 2011 Act have not been met or
(2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Name: Mr R. Agrawal

Relevant professional qualification or body: FCCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) Address: Flat 20 Best House, Matthews Close, Wembley, HA9 8FE Date: 11th January 2023