Trustees Annual Report
1[st] April 2020 – 30[st] March 2021
Registered Charity Number: 1154710
Foreword
The financial year 19/20 has seen some major and unprecedented changes to the external environment that the charity worked with. Coronavirus, and measures announced by the government to curb the spread of the virus posed new and significant challenges for both our beneficiaries and the charity. It is undoubted that these challenges, and how we have responded to them, have shaped the future of the charity and how it will implement its work.
Our research over this lockdown period with University of Cambridge, on the impact of lockdown on those estranged from family, recognised that people who are estranged from family felt a more amplified sense of social isolation as the government directed people to access family support. The unique circumstances gave estranged adults a dilemma around re-connecting with abusive or dangerous family situations at a time of crisis. Overall, they felt alone with all the feelings, emotions and decisions they had to make. As a charity, our approach had to change rapidly to these circumstances, both in format of support we offered and in the content we addressed.
We went from running support groups face-to-face over six sessions to running weekly online community zoom support sessions, with several facilitators and multiple break-out support groups. These sessions focussed specifically on the challenges of being estranged during lockdown and making decisions around contact with a family member during the pandemic. We also created a complementary podcast series to go with these sessions, so we could reach as wider audience as was possible. Ultimately, this enabled the charity to reach thousands more people than we had in previous years. It also helped the charity create more donations from the community, as more people accessed our support.
During this period our campaigning also changed, as the challenges facing estranged young people in HE also heightened and transformed with lockdown. Most universities gave executive orders to students to study ‘from home’. This was simply not possible for estranged students, for whom university was their primary home. For many, part-time work in the hospitality sector was their lifeline to fund their studies. This fell through when lockdown was announced. Using high-profile press appearances and TV pieces, we lobbied governments and universities to provide funding to vulnerable students in this position. This amounted to a £5 million fund from Scottish Government for vulnerable groups and a specific fund from The Office For Students to be administered via English institutions. During this period our approach became much more collaborative and we worked in partnership with many other organizations and groups to achieve outcomes for our students, when there was a huge demand on public funds.
As we move into a new strategic period in 2022, we will take forward these new approaches and ways of working so as to enable more estranged adults to benefit from our work and our support. It is thanks to the dedication and adaptability of our entire team of staff and Trustees, and our incredibly supportive funders, that Stand Alone survived and grew in strength through the period of lockdown. It would have been entirely possible for the opposite to be the outcome when a small organization faced large amounts of change in a short space of time. As the CEO and the founder, I’m immensely proud of all we have achieved in this period, and the amount of spirit, compassion and resolve that we showed our beneficiaries.
Dr Becca Bland
Founder and CEO
Our charitable objects…
“To promote social inclusion for the public benefit by preventing people who are estranged from their family or members of their family from becoming socially excluded, relieving the needs of those people who are socially excluded and assisting them to integrate into society. For the purpose of this clause ‘socially excluded’ means being excluded from society, or parts of society, as a result of family relationship breakdown. To advance education among the public on the subject of family estrangement.”
Our mission statement…
We want to build a society where individuals who are estranged from family members feel accepted and understood, and have the freedom to live without experiencing judgement, stigma or disadvantage.
We will increase knowledge and awareness of family estrangement, and influence change for individuals and society by:
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Creating and promoting research about family estrangement
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Building greater awareness about family estrangement
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Influencing and collaborating with policy makers and professionals
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Delivering support to individuals who are affected by family estrangement or disownment
How do we define family estrangement?
People who are ‘estranged’ have little or no communicative relationship with their family or key family member. In some instances people may experience a sporadically communicative relationship, but feel estranged due to a sustained lack of emotional availability and engagement, which is needed to feel connected, supported, accepted, loved or included by family member(s).
In our work, the term estranged applies not only to people who have decided to cut-off communication from their family or family member, but to people who have been disowned or rejected by their family or key family member, and are therefore not permitted a communicative or emotionally engaging relationship.
The people we support self-define as estranged from their family or key family member.
We have four key strategic areas of activity
Research
We carried out one major piece of research with University of Cambridge and Edge Hill University around the challenges that estranged adults faced during the COVID 19 pandemic. This was online research work in the form of a survey, and 800+ adults took part in the project.
We were often featured in the press during 2020/21 as we Awareness used the press to raise awareness around the impact of COVID-19 on estranged adults and young people. We had multiple features and mentions in The Guardian, C4 news, The Independent, BBC Radio 4. These resulted in better understanding of the issue of family estrangement during lockdown.
Policy We lobbied governments and universities to provide funding to vulnerable students who were estranged from family during lockdown. This amounted to a £5 million fund from Scottish
Government for vulnerable groups and a specific fund from The Office For Students to be administered via English institutions.
The charity has strategically been lobbying Scottish Government to put in place better support for estranged young people in Scottish society, this led to the SNP and all but one major parties in Scotland making manifesto pledges for the 2021 Scottish Election to support estranged young people in Higher Education.
https://www.snp.org/2021-students-manifesto/
In response to lockdown, we went from running support Support groups face-to-face to running weekly online community zoom support sessions, with several facilitators and multiple breakout support groups.
These sessions focussed specifically on the challenges of being estranged during lockdown and making decisions around contact with a family member during the pandemic. We also created a complementary podcast series to go with these sessions, so we could reach as wider audience as was possible. Ultimately, this enabled the charity to reach thousands more people than we had in previous years. It also helped the charity create more donations from the community, as more people accessed our support.
Some impact quotes around our podcasts:
"Your podcast has been an immense comfort to me out here in San Diego as I continue the difficult journey of learning and growing without familial supports. Thank you for all you do!"
As well as face to face support, we provided online advice guides on our website www.standalone.org.uk.
Stand Alone
Financial Statements for the Period 1[st] April 2020 to 31[st] March 2021
Receipts and Payment Accounts for the Period 1[st] April 2020 to 31[st] March 2021
| **Unrestricted funds ** | Restricted funds (Tudor) | Restricted fund (Fairburn) |
Restricted fund (Robertson) |
Restricted fund (Second Growth) |
Restricted fund (NLCF) |
Total funds | Last year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | **to the nearest £ ** | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | **to the nearest £ ** | **to the nearest £ ** | to the nearest £ | |
| Receipts | ||||||||
| Grant Income | 9,650 | 17,000 | 69,750 | 58,000 | 15,000 | 30,015 | 199,415 | 174,900 |
| Legacies | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Donations | 5,206 | - | - | - | - | - | 5,206 | 8,650 |
| Income from Events | 6,710 | - | - | - | - | - | 6,710 | 13,172 |
| **Total Receipts ** | 21,566 | 17,000 | 69,750 | 58,000 | 15,000 | 30,015 | 211,331 | 196,721 |
| Payments | ||||||||
| Wages/Salaries | - | 26,685 | 32,328 | 38,060 | 14,247 | - | 111,320 | 93,408 |
PAYE/NIC |
- | 1,560 | 2,588 | 2,381 | 742 | - | 7,271 | 12,602 |
| Sessional Support & | - | 2,800 | - | - | - | - | 2,800 | 19,279 |
Training |
3,475 | - | - | - | - | - | 3,475 | - |
| Overheads | 4,891 | 213 | 293 | - | - | - | 5,398 | 20,552 |
| Insurance | 477 | - | - | - | - | - | 477 | 476 |
| Website & Communications | 9,616 | - | - | - | - | - | 9,616 | 1,633 |
| Research Costs | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 900 |
| Travel | 1,400 | - | 236 | - | - | - | 1,636 | 8,102 |
| Fundraising | ~~5,460~~ | ~~-~~ | ~~-~~ | ~~-~~ | ~~-~~ | ~~-~~ | 5,460 | 2,820 |
| **Totalpayments ** | 25,319 | 31,258 | 35,445 | 40,441 | 14,989 | - | 147,452 | 159,772 |
| Net of receipts/(payments) | - 3,753 | - 14,258 | 34,305 | 17,559 | 11 | 30,015 | 63,879 | 36,949 |
| Cash funds lastyear end | 114,472 | - 21,855 | 53,918 | 1,573 | 14,508 | 29,060 | 191,676 | 154,729 |
| Cash funds thisyear end | 110,719 | - 36,114 | 88,223 | 19,132 | 14,520 | 59,075 | 255,555 | 191,678 |
Statement of Assets and Liabilities as of 31[st] March 2021
| Tudor Trust Esmee Fairburn |
Tudor Trust Esmee Fairburn |
Tudor Trust Esmee Fairburn |
Tudor Trust Esmee Fairburn |
Tudor Trust Esmee Fairburn |
Robertson | Second Growth | NLCF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrestricted funds | Restricted funds | Restricted funds | Restricted funds | Restricted funds | Restricted funds | ||
| to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | ||
| Cash funds | Cash & | 110,719 | 36,114 - |
88,223 | 19,132 | 14,520 | 59,075 |
| Deposit Accounts | |||||||
| Tudor Trust Esmee Fairburn |
HMP | HSC | |||||
| Unrestricted funds | Restricted funds | Restricted funds | Restricted funds | Restricted funds | |||
| to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | |||
| Other monetary assets | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| Fund to which asset belongs | Cost | Cost | Cost | Cost | |||
| Investment assets | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| Fund to which asset belongs | Cost | Cost | Cost | Cost | |||
| Assets retained for the | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| charity’s own use | |||||||
| Fund to which liability relates | Amount due | Amount due | Amount due | Amount due | |||
| Liabilities | - | - | - | - | - |
Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Report to the trustees/ Stand Alone members of ~~ee~~ On accounts for the year 31[st] March 2021 Charity no 1154710 ended (if any) ~~eeee~~ Set out on pages 3 & 4 ~~PO~~ I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/03/2020.
- Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent examiner's statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
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accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or
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the accounts do not accord with the accounting records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Signed:
Date: 04/02/2022 ~~—~~
Name: Angela Sanderson ~~CO~~ Professional qualification ACMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) ~~Pe~~ Address: 96 Swinley Lane, Wigan. WN1 2EF ~~CO~~
Stand Alone Charity
34B York Way,
London,
N1 9AB
contact@standalone.org.uk
Trustees
Dr Kieran Breen (Chair)
Stuart Donaldson
Alex Britten Dr Lucy Blake Iain Rolfe Jiten Mashru
Chief Executive
Becca Bland
Staff
Susan Mueller Helen Gilbert
Kirsten Anderson Liam McCabe