## The Recovery Tree
## Charity
Annual Report April 2025 to March 2026
We help people with a mental health condition to lead fulfilling and satisfying lives.
_TWIGS_ is a community garden where people can regain confidence and self-esteem through learning new skills and participating in therapeutic activities.
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## Our Mission
We help people with a mental health condition to lead fulfilling and satisfying lives. We like to think that our presence, our pride in who we are, and what we do, will mean we are doing our part to reduce the stigma of mental illness.
We offer a mix of time-limited placements and longer term volunteering opportunities for people who have mental health support needs. At TWIGS people can be referred (or self-refer) to us for a placement in therapeutic horticulture and related activities. Some also volunteer with us for longer periods.
## TWIGS
Our gardening sessions continue to be well-attended and cover a range of seasonal activities in a natural environment. Our service users, exservice users now in our “ambassador” role and our volunteers together make a group of over 130 people who regularly benefit from our service and facilities each week. 10 – 15 of these are former service users: we encourage them to use their lived
experience to support current service users. Our group for older people, now named the Evergreen Gardening Group, continues with 9 participants. Our Gardening Through Grief group now runs in 8-week blocks for up to 8 people who have
experienced a bereavement. Feedback has been very positive.
Our referrals come from a wide range of organisations, including the NHS, Swindon Council’s welfare and social work services, other local mental health support charities, housing associations and employment support services as well as selfreferrals.
We delivered our **Level 2 Essential Garden Skills course** (8 sessions over 8 weeks) twice, in the autumn and again in the
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spring: 18 people graduated. We also delivered it twice at Bridewell Organic Gardens in South Oxfordshire. The course is both popular and therapeutically valuable.
## **Case study**
Sandra was referred via her LiveWell Navigator, her NHS counsellor and GP after the death of her son in 2024. Sandra was struggling to come to terms with her loss and was very low and tearful. Her first Warwick Edinburgh scoresheet in early May 2025, showed a score of 41. Sandra settled into the sessions at TWIGS and joined the summer “Gardening through Grief” group which she said helped her feel less alone. She started to come for a second gardening session every week and found a growing sense of purpose and connection, particularly enjoying taking care of the chickens, sorting and tidying in the gardens and polytunnels. Her latest Warwick Edinburgh shows an improved score of 57. She said: “Some of life’s most caring, kind and truly amazing people that work at TWIGS who don’t realise the difference they have made to me over the past year and the help they have also given others. Thank you for being your incredible selves and making me see that there are people who do genuinely care.”
Our programme of public **open days** included 8 events during the year. These are good ways to reach new members of the public, to promote the benefits of good mental health and to help diversify our income.
Our support for young people has continued: we provided DofE and work experience placements, and ran activity days for groups from the Youth Adventure Trust. We continued our long-term collaboration with Marlborough House, our local in-patient service for young people, providing sessions on their premises.
We have continued giving talks to local groups about our work and its benefits, and hosting volunteer teams from local employers. This gives us another opportunity to explain our work and help reduce stigma.
During the year, we have supported **139** TWIGS who don’t realise the difference people. In addition, 73 independent they have made to me over the past volunteers help deliver the service. Several of year and the help they have also given these are former service users: we encourage others. Thank you for being your them to use their lived experience to support incredible selves and making me see current service users. 6 are “TWIGS that there are people who do genuinely Ambassadors” who help present the service care.” to visiting members of the public. The destinations of our leavers and feedback from our service users are shown below.
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Figure 1: Destinations of leavers from TWIGS, 2025-26
Figure 2: Feedback from our service users
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## Message from the Trustees
We have been able to continue providing services to support wellbeing for an increasingly diverse group of people, and are grateful to the large number of funders and donors who have helped us be able to do this.
## **The year in numbers**
Income £179,645 Expenditure £176,467 Balance at year end £56,653 Total people helped: 139 Volunteers: 73 Staff: 8 part time
## **Our Trustees**
Dick Millard (Chair), Kenny Baxter, Cara Hiscock and Lynn Rowe. During the year, Jo Ridley (who had served 6 years as a trustee) and Gillian Barber (who had served since our creation in 2012) resigned. They each made significant contributions to our work and governance, for which we thank them.
The Recovery Tree Charity is
- a registered charity (1149848)
- a company limited by guarantee (08091204).
Manor Garden Centre, Cheney Manor Industrial Estate, Swindon, SN2 2QJ.
email: trustees@therecoverytreecharity.org.uk Web: www.therecoverytreecharity.org.uk/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082394996111
Dick Millard Date: 14[th] July 2026 Chair
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## Report and Financial Statements
## **The Recovery Tree Charity**
_1[st] April 2025 to 31[st] March 2026_
## **Administrative Information**
The Recovery Tree Charity is responsible for TWIGS. It is a registered charity (Charity Commission registration number: 1149848) and a company limited by guarantee (Companies house registration number: 08091204). Its principal office and its registered address is Manor Garden Centre, Cheney Manor Industrial Estate, Swindon, SN2 2QJ.
At the start of the year, there were four trustees and directors: Dick Millard (Chair), Kenny Baxter, Cara Hiscock and Lynn Rowe. During the year, Jo Ridley and Gillian Barber resigned from the trustee board.
## **Governance and Management**
Trustees’ meetings are currently held usually once every two months, at which decisions are taken and minuted. The trustees delegated the day to day running of the TWIGS service to a manager, Alan Holland. The manager provides regular reports to the trustees to aid decision making and prioritisation.
The trustees have reviewed the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission, and have taken due regard to it in exercising their powers and duties.
## **Review of financial results and future developments**
Throughout the year we applied for publicly available government grants, and for charitable grants. Thanks to the generosity of our many funders, we have ended the year in a sound financial position. Our major funders are listed in the notes to the accounts on page 10.
At TWIGS, we have a contract with Swindon Borough Council (SBC): this runs for five years to 31 December 2026. We intend to continue to apply for grants to meet costs of the additional capacity we provide at TWIGS over and above the Council contract. We believe that the Council intends to re-tender the service on expiry of the contract: we intend to respond to any such tender issued.
## **Reserves policy and annual review statement**
The Recovery Tree is a charitable organisation and as such depends on its income from varying sources. Twigs has 5 year contract with SBC expiring on 31 December 2026, plus we receive other grants and donations, supplemented by small amounts of income from plant sales and outreach work.
It is therefore important that we have enough funds to keep running during lean times or when we are short of cash flow. A general reserve is required in order to continue providing the service, including paying staff wages and essential bills.
## **Our policy therefore is to keep, where possible, a minimum of 3 but not more than 6 months expenses as a general reserve.**
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It is our intention to build up the reserve from sales and fund-raising activities. We intend to review the Reserves Policy every year when completing current year’s budgets, to ensure that it remains relevant and financially correct.
## **Reserves Review May 2026**
The unrestricted surplus at the end of March 2026 is £43,619. Twigs expenses for the period April 2025 to March 2026 were £176,467. The unrestricted reserve provides us around 3 months running costs, which is within our policy of between 3 to 6 months running costs.
Our aim over the coming year will be to increase our Reserve position in line with our expenses, to ensure a secure back up for any potential future problems, using income from sales and fund raising activities.
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Accounts for the period 1[st] April 2025 to 31[st] March 2026
## **THE RECOVERY TREE CHARITY Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31 March 2026**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Total Previous
Notes this year Year
£ £
Incoming resources
Grants and Donations 1 148297 284743
Fundraising activities 27610 23958
Sales - Income from activities in 3737 118489
furtherance of charitable objects
Total incoming resources 179645 427190
Resources expended
Materials 6851 54394
Salaries and staff costs 2,3 137862 391457
Direct Expenses 3 7313 18536
Overheads 3 23330 69321
Fundraising Costs 1109 1896
Total resources expended 176467 535604
Surplus/deficit 3178 -108414
Net movement in funds 0 0
Fund balances brought forward 53475 161889
as at 1 April 2025
Fund balances carried forward
as at 31 March 2026 56653 53475
**----- End of picture text -----**
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||||**THE RECOVERY TREE**|**THE RECOVERY TREE**|**THE RECOVERY TREE**||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||||||
|||**BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31/03/2026**|||||||
||||**Notes**||**Total**
**thisyear**||**Previous**
**Year**||
||||||||||
||||||**£**||**£**||
||||||||||
|**Fixed Assets**|||||**13033**||**12170**||
||||||||||
|Tangible assets|||5||**13033**||**12170**||
|**Current Assets**|||||||||
||||||||||
|Debtors and Prepayments|||6||**876**||**5088**||
|Cash at bank and in hand|||||**125370**||**87444**||
||||||**126245**||**92532**||
||||||||||
|**Short term creditors**|||7||**82626**||**51227**||
||||||||||
||||||||||
|**Net current assets**|||||**43619**||**41305**||
||||||||||
|**Total assets less current liabilities**|||||**56653**||**53475**||
||||||||||
|**Net Assets**|||||**56653**||**53475**||
||||||||||
|**Capital and Reserves**|||||||||
||||||||||
|Unrestricted Funds|||||**56653**||**53475**||
||||||||||
|Designated Funds|||||**0**||**0**||
||||||||||
|**Total Funds**|||||**56653**||**53475**||
||||||||||
|• For theyear ending **31 March 2026**the companywas entitled to exemption under section 477 of the|||||||||
||Companies Act 2006 relatingto small companies.||||||||
||||||||||
|• The members have not required the companyto obtain an audit in accordance with section 476 of the|||||||||
||Companies Act 2006||||||||
||||||||||
|• The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complyingwith the requirements of the Act with|||||||||
||respect to accountingrecords and thepreparation of accounts.||||||||
||||||||||
|• These accounts have beenprepared in accordance with theprovisions applicable to companies|||||||||
||subject to the small companies regime.||||||||
||||||||||
||||||||||
||||||||||
||||||||||
|Approved bythe board of Directors and signed on its behalf by|||||||||
||||||||||
||||||||||
||||||||||
||||||||||
||||||||||
|**Dick Millard**|||||||||
|**Chairman**|||||||||
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|||**Notes to the accounts for theyear ended 31 March 2026**|**Notes to the accounts for theyear ended 31 March 2026**|**Notes to the accounts for theyear ended 31 March 2026**|**Notes to the accounts for theyear ended 31 March 2026**|**Notes to the accounts for theyear ended 31 March 2026**||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||||||||||
|**1**||**Grants and Donations Received**|||||||**Total**|||
||||||||||**thisyear**|||
||||||||||£|||
|||Swindon Borough Council|||||||71610|||
|||Zurich CommunityTrust|||||||26480|||
|||Friends of Twigs|||||||20969|||
|||Sarah Raven|||||||1500|||
|||Brailsford|||||||4854|||
|||Swindon Male Voice Choir|||||||1200|||
|||Othergrants|||||||11422|||
|||Donations|||||||10262|||
||||||||||148297|||
|||||||||||||
|**2**||**Paid Employees**||||||||||
||||||||||**Total**||**Total**|
||||||||||**this year**||**previous**
**year**|
||||||||||£||£|
|||Gross wages and salaries|||||||90607||331633|
|||Employer's N I costs|||||||10308||17494|
|||Pension contributions|||||||3501||7510|
|||Total staff costs|||||||104416||356637|
|||||||||||||
|||Twigs 5part time and 3part time self employed||||||||||
|||There were no employees whose emoluments were over £50,000.||||||||||
|||||||||||||
|**3**||**Analyses of resources expended**||||||||||
||||||||||**Total**||**Total**|
||||||||||**this year**||**previous**
**year**|
|||**Salaries and staff costs**||||||||||
||||||||||£||£|
|||Salaries|||||||104416||356637|
|||Staff costs|||||||4899||6885|
|||Contract staff|||||||28548||27935|
||||||||||137862||391457|
|||||||||||||
|||||||||||||
|||**Direct Costs**||||||||||
||||||||||£||£|
|||Cleaning|||||||4604||10638|
|||Equipment|||||||371||3112|
|||Card Charges|||||||516||1803|
|||Tableware/workwear|||||||0||329|
|||Music Licence|||||||0||598|
|||Volunteers Expenses|||||||706||1329|
|||Professional fees|||||||1116||727|
||||||||||7313||18536|
|||||||||||||
|||**Overheads**||||||||||
||||||||||£||£|
|||Rent|||||||0||7951|
|||Gas|||||||0||1942|
|||Electric|||||||3879||10180|
|||Water|||||||1486||2465|
|||Insurance|||||||1982||5244|
|||Telephone/Broadband|||||||7090||3293|
|||Stationery|||||||745||2011|
|||Repair/Maintenance|||||||274||9302|
|||Printing/Photocopy|||||||1231||1159|
|||Waste|||||||1318||2430|
|||Depreciation|||||||3782||16934|
|||Vehicle costs|||||||1042||1774|
|||Security|||||||0||1294|
|||Websiteproject|||||||180||667|
|||Misc|||||||321||2675|
||||||||||23330||69321|
|||||||||||||
|**4**||**Trustees**||||||||||
|||||||||||||
|||There has been no remuneration or other benefitspaid to the charity's trustees orpeople connected with them||||||||||
|||Number of trustees who werepaid expenses|||||0|||||
|||Total amountpaid|||||£0|||||
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**----- Start of picture text -----**
Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2026
5 Tangible Fixed Assets
Fixed Assets are individual items costing over £250, and depreciated on a straight line basis for four years (25%
per annum)
this year prev yr
£ £
Cost B/fwd 25295 116690
Additions 9127 5509
Disposals -1367 -96904
C/fwd 33055 25295
Depreciation B/fwd 13125 88412
C/fwd 20022 13125
Net Book Value
B/fwd 12170 28278
C/fwd 13033 12170
6 Debtors due within one year
this year prev yr
£ £
Pre-payments 704 665
Other Debtors 172 4423
876 5088
7 Creditors - falling due within one year
this year prev yr
£ £
Creditors 2386 4817
Accruals 650 830
Deferred Income 80540 45060
VAT -951 520
82626 51227
8 Basis of accounting
These accounts have been prepare on the basis of historic cost in accordance with
the Statement of Recommend Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities and
the Charities Act and
the Companies Act 2006
**----- End of picture text -----**
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## **Report to the Trustees on the accounts for the financial year ending on 31 March 2026**
## **Respective responsibilities of trustee and examiner**
The Trustees responsibility for preparing the Trustees Annual Report and the financial Statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice) are set out in the Statement of Trustees Responsibility in the body of the Trustees Report.
You consider that the audit requirement of Section 144 Charities Act 2011 does not apply.
It is my responsibility to state, on the basis of procedures specified in the General Directions given by the Charity Commissioners (under section 145 (5) (b) of the Act), whether particular matters have come to my attention
## **Basis of independent examiner’s statement**
My examination was carried out in accordance with General Directions given by the Charity Commissioners. An examination includes the review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the financial statements presented with these records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the financial statements, and the seeking of 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 financial statements present a true and fair view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.
## **Independent examiner’s statement**
In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention
- 1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements
- to keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the Act And
- to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the Acts have not been met;
or
- 2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the financial statements to be reached.
**SIGNED DATE 14 MAY 2026**
## **KATHLEEN LISTON**
**61 FULLER CLOSE SWINDON SN2 7TN**
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