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2022-01-31-accounts

SLOW -4* ov SLOW ANNUAL REPORT Feb 2021- Jan 2022 SLO.W Surviving the105s of your wodd

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

SLOW - Surviving the Loss of Your World

Year Ending 31[st] January 2022

CHARITY REGISTRATION Registered Charity Number 1161337 Registered Charity Number 1161337 Registered Charity Number 1161337
DETAILS Registered April 2015
FOUNDED September 2007
TRUSTEES 2021-22
Chair of Trustees Pippa Murray
Treasurer Kieran Hull
Secretary Tim Whitworth
Trustee Samara Stevens
Trustee Andrew Wright (resigned 23rdJune 2021)
Trustee Sara Portnoy (resigned 23rdJune 2021)
Trustee Finella Craig (resigned 1stDecember 2021)
Trustee Cicilia Wan (appointed 1stDecember 2021)
Trustee Paresh Pithiya (appointed 1stDecember 2021)
Trustee Elise Soucie (appointed 1stDecember 2021)
PATRONS Jason Watkins and Clara Francis
CONTACT DETAILS
Registered Address and SLOW, 11 Donovan Avenue, London, N10 2JU
correspondence: admin@slowgroup.co.uk
Tel 07734 577407
Referrals: info@slowgroup.co.uk
Tel 07532 423 674
Website https://slowgroup.co.uk/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/slowsupport
https://www.facebook.com/groups/slowgroup
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/slowgroup/
Twitter https://twitter.com/slowsupport
Linked in https://www.linkedin.com/company/66625688

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Annual Report 2021-2022

OBJECTIVES AND ETHOS

The objectives of the charity are to: -

At SLOW, we have evolved a unique and successful model of bereavement support that is a direct response to what bereaved parents and siblings have told us they need:-

SLOW’s support in the past.

At SLOW we know that grief cannot be fixed, and do not strive to ‘make things

better’. Instead, we support and give space to bereaved families, so they may in time harness their own resources in slowly rebuilding their lives. In this way, we believe there is hope to be found in connecting with other bereaved families, relief in sharing the pain of grief, and company in bearing the unbearable, alongside others who are living with the death of their child or sibling.

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Annual Report 2021-2022

WHY SLOW’S WORK MATTERS

The death of a child is an incredibly traumatic event leaving parents with overwhelming emotional needs. The grief of bereaved siblings is also devastating, yet this is one of the most neglected types of grief.

A child’s death is a relatively rare event, but when it happens it can have a devastating effect on family life, sometimes triggering depression, anxiety, alcohol and drug dependency and family break up. Our members face the challenge of living in a radically altered world in which close family ties, routines and friendships are impacted and many of SLOW’s members initially report that they feel very socially isolated.

SLOW support groups make a positive intervention by:

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Annual Report 2021-2022

ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

The continued global COVID-19 pandemic and the related lockdown in the early part of the year, made 2021-22 another challenging year for SLOW. However, the charity responded by listening to our members’ needs and shaping our support services accordingly.

Support for Bereaved Parents

The heart of SLOW lies in the culture and the community of its support groups for bereaved parents. It is here that parents come to find connection, company, comfort and hope after the death of their child.

Healing for bereaved parents can begin as they share their grief with others who validate their experience. They discover they are not alone, and gradually learn ways of managing their grief and coping with their loss. At SLOW, parents come to understand that healing means remembering, not forgetting their child and we encourage them to be compassionate, gentle and patient with themselves. In this way bereaved parents are building themselves a safety net that will resource them long after they cease to attend the group.

By making room for the experience of grief, parents often say that they leave ‘feeling lighter’. By listening and sharing experiences of coping with life whilst managing grief, parents are often slowly able to make small but significant steps towards rebuilding their lives.

The support groups continued to offer a simple structure that allows safety through containment and continuity. An introductory round gives each parent space to reflect and identify areas that they’d like support with and these form the basis of the discussion.

In 2021-22 SLOW ran 118 bereaved parent support groups across London , each lasting one and a half hours, supporting over a 100 bereaved parent members. By January 2022 the SLOW

membership base was over 550 , which grows as new people contact us.

Attendance at our groups is flexible with regular core members attending each week / month while others choose to attend less frequently as and when they need support. We welcome all bereaved parents irrespective of whether their child was an adult or a baby or the varying circumstances in which they died. Our parents are a mix of very recently to more long-term bereaved and members can join at any point regardless of how long ago their child died. The death of a child cuts across all communities and a diverse range of families. Our support groups welcome bereaved mothers and fathers, of differing cultures and faiths. Longer term members that no longer require regular support at the meetings often come to our social events or take on active volunteering roles.

Due to the continuing pandemic and the related government guidelines, all our groups were offered virtually in the Spring of 2021. In April 2021 we gathered feedback from each group as to whether they wanted to remain running virtually or return to face-to-face settings.

Some members expressed a wish to connect with other parents via face-to-face groups, while others appreciated and even embraced Zoom. Decisions to return to face-to-face groups were made on a group-by-group basis.

In 2022, SLOW now offers a range of monthly and weekly face-to-face and virtual meetings that bereaved parents can choose from. Our Zoom groups particularly appeal to those with young children, those living further away from Islington and for those who are unable to travel to the groups. We offer daytime and evening groups, enabling parents who are working or have other commitments to attend a regular support group outside of their normal work day.

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Annual Report 2021-2022

ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

The Islington Support Groups

We ran 62 weekly daytime groups and 17 monthly evening groups across the year in Islington / via Zoom (due to the Spring lockdown).

Our Wednesday weekly daytime group continued to flourish and strengthen in numbers with a core group attending regularly. Susie Hanson and Clara Francis co-facilitated this group throughout the year with strong support from volunteers Maria Wojszwillo and Liz Cancea. Attendees ranged between 7 and 18 including facilitators.

This group was held virtually until May 2021 when, after a comprehensive COVID secure risk assessment, we returned to face-to-face meetings. The group has continued on a faceto-face basis, barring three meetings in January 2022 when Omicron infections were rising.

Our Monday weekly daytime group was held via Zoom from May until December. Susie Hanson and Erica Stewart co-facilitated this virtual group across the year with attendees ranging from 3 to 8 including facilitators.

This group was launched to give our members a virtual option if they felt uneasy about returning to the face-to-face meetings given COVID infection concerns. However, in December a decision was made to pause these groups due to the low numbers of attendees. The members that had previously used this group were instead given the option of attending our other weekly Zoom group on Tuesdays.

This year our monthly evening group, facilitated by Nic and Tim Whitworth has been regularly attended with numbers ranging between 4 and 12 including facilitators. There is a good balance of couples and individuals attending.

This support group was held virtually until July 2021 when relaxed COVID guidance enabled this group to return to face-to-face meetings.

In July 2021 we introduced a new monthly evening virtual support group , facilitated by Erica Stewart and Susie Hanson. The decision to launch this group was prompted by feedback from the members attending the existing monthly evening group which returned in person in July. Attendees ranged from 3 to 7 including facilitators.

The ‘Streatham’ Support Groups

We ran 39 weekly daytime groups on Tuesdays across the year via Zoom. Hattie Deards and Erica Stewart co-facilitated this group with attendees ranging between 4 to 11 including facilitators.

As COVID regulations relaxed members, in this now well-established group, were asked if they wanted to continue via Zoom or return to the South London setting. Overwhelmingly the members wanted to remain on Zoom. As a result, we have welcomed new members to this group from the wider area of London and beyond.

Lively discussions characterised all our groups across the year with a strong emphasis on developing strategies for coping, taking care of ourselves and meeting the demands of surviving children and relationships with friends and work colleagues.

As new parents arrived at the groups, those who had been attending for longer maintained the core values and culture of the group, fostering an atmosphere of warmth and inclusion. In all our groups there is an extremely supportive atmosphere despite the wide range of circumstances in which parents have lost their children.

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Annual Report 2021-2022

ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Support for Bereaved Siblings

SLOWsibs 18+

In April 2021 SLOW launched its first virtual adult sibling support group, initially taking place every other month and facilitated by two bereaved adult siblings, Shushma Jain and Michael Ward. Twenty-one new referrals were received before the first group alone and due to ongoing demand, the group frequency was increased to monthly. Eight groups were held across the year, attracting a wide range of often newly bereaved siblings of different ages whose brothers and sisters had died in different circumstances.

The meetings are consistently well attended by a core of regular members, while others attend more sporadically and return around the time of significant events such as birthdays or anniversaries.

Discussions have centred around how relationships with families and friends have changed, significant milestones, changes in themselves, the demands of university, the pain of grief as well as practical matters such as wills and advice about funerals.

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Annual Report 2021-2022

ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

SLOWsibs

The ‘SLOWsibs’ workshops provide a safe place for bereaved siblings to meet each other and develop their creative skills, with the aim of reducing isolation, building self-esteem and confidence through making new friends and exploring feelings.

Our workshops, for children aged 6 to 15 years are designed to: -

SLOWsib members are at different places in their development and understanding of death and therefore their expression of grief. Activities are chosen to reflect this variety of experience and allow each child to express themselves at different levels of interpretation and engagement. Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions we were only able to hold one workshop across the year. Our Christmas wreath workshop was cancelled at the last minute after considerable planning due to rising Omicron infections.

Healing Herb Pots Workshop - 10[th] July 2021

The summer sibs’ workshop was held outside in the wonderful surroundings of the Ecology Centre, observing COVID Guidelines. Four children attended and unfortunately a number children had to withdraw at the last moment because of isolation. This was the first time in over a year the sibs had met face-to-face, and it was a lively and successful meeting. The theme was Healing Herb Pots and each young person

decorated their terracotta pot with images and colours of their choice. There were herbs and flowers provided with symbolic meanings and these were explored in the group, with each child creating a personal pot of remembrance.

This workshop was run by Nic Whitworth with the assistance of Laura Anderson and Hamish Whitworth. Our SLOWsibs workshops are now back running regularly in 2022 now COVID guidelines have been relaxed.

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Annual Report 2021-2022

ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Email and Telephone Support

SLOW recognises that the first steps in reaching out for support are difficult to take for many bereaved parents. We offer a prompt telephone, email or social media response to any enquiry, and take care to talk with parents about what has happened and how they would like to be supported. Parents are then allocated the most suitable group. If we recognise that a parent hasn’t been for a few weeks we will follow up by email to check in on them.

At times, parents may be unable to attend the group for a period of time due to work or family commitments for various reasons. In these situations, the feedback that we have received is that parents value maintaining contact via email, the website blog and across our social channels.

SLOW may not meet the needs of every bereaved parent and we will endeavour to signpost them on to other organisations that may provide specific support.

Across the year there has been a steady flow of new enquiries for all our groups and our referrals doubled in the second half of the year. Referrals continue to come from various channels including GOSH, Lifeforce, social prescribers, our own social channels and word of mouth.

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Annual Report 2021-2022

CHARITY DEVELOPMENT & GROWTH

Marketing and Professional Outreach

SLOW promotes access to the groups through local NHS paediatric teams, palliative care teams, hospitals, specialist service providers, health visitors, local charities, as well as via the SLOW website, the media and word of mouth.

In 2021-22 we marketed the SLOW service extensively with bereavement charities and organisations across London. Continuing to take advantage of virtual team meetings, we presented to Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice, CRUSE Counsellors, Islington Social Prescribers, City and Hackney Social Prescribers, The Coroners’ Court Support Service and CARIS Islington.

We researched the organisations contracted with social prescribing in boroughs across London and made contact with many adjacent to our current group settings.

We continued to build close working relationships with referral agencies and professionals that share and complement our work including the Life Force team (Palliative Care Team in North London), End of Life Services GOSH, UCH, The Compassionate Friends, Grief Encounter, CARIS, Islington Bereavement Service, the Child Death Helpline and Haven House.

Designed templates were developed for an expanded programme of social media activity in 2022 and we developed our website with new Cloud imagery, additional webpages, resources and updated content.

IT and Operations

Over the year we refined many of our operational processes, digitalising them wherever possible and continued to build up a shared repository of files held on OneDrive, allowing charity staff to share and save files in secure cloud-based storage.

We researched a number of financial packages for implementation next year and implemented payroll software to process payroll for our new employees.

We consolidated and cleaned data and are making plans for a newsletter with a designed template coherent with our new social media templates.

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Annual Report 2021-2022

CHARITY DEVELOPMENT & GROWTH

Evaluating the SLOW Service

In the summer of 2021, working with two trainee Clinical Psychologists from the University of Hertfordshire, we ran three focus groups as well as in-depth interviews with a selection of our current and past members. The aims of the research were to understand how our support services impact our members’ health and wellbeing and to explore and assess the introduction of new services.

The feedback was a resounding endorsement of the SLOW ethos and model:

We are currently assessing the recommendations from the focus group and analysing the logistics of delivering these services e.g., a dads’ group.

At the end of 2021 we embarked on two further research projects with the University of Hertfordshire:

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Annual Report 2021-2022

PLANS FOR 2022-23

SLOW ran two strategy meetings with Trustees, senior managers and facilitators to prioritise plans for SLOW's future.

Our key areas of focus for 2022-23 will be to:

To provide high quality bereavement support, reaching more bereaved families. We plan to:

To develop the charity’s infrastructure to support this growth of services we plan to:

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Annual Report 2021-2022

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Overview

The charity’s income in 2021-22 was £63,392, down on the previous year by around £17,000. This decrease was primarily due to our grant success in 2020 and carrying forward these funds for designated activities. Expenditure was up from £53,221 to £71,624.

We start the new financial year 2022-23 with £48,328. This includes carried forward restricted funds of £1,092 committed to specific activity, as well as £47,236 of unrestricted funds, of which £28,000 is ringfenced for reserves and the remainder is designated to the growth of support activities in 2022.

Again, this year, as per advice from the Charity Commission, we have excluded in kind income / expenses. The accounts therefore do not reflect the considerable contribution of our many volunteers.

Income

SLOW’s funding in 2021-22 came from a variety of income streams and again, as per the previous year, supporter and community fundraising was challenging due to the ongoing pandemic. Unrestricted income accounted for 63% of our revenue, and 37% was restricted.

Grants - SLOW received continued multiyear support from the Lotteries Reaching Communities (three-year funding), Islington Council’s Community Chest (two-year funding) , and the John Armitage Trust (three-year funding). We successfully applied for a number of new grants (for 2022) including Garfield Weston, Foyle Foundation, John Armitage Trust, Islington Local Initiatives Fund and Tesco’s Community Grants.

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Annual Report 2021-2022

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Donations - A special mention should be made to t he ICCM for their generous donation and also to Waitrose Community Matters . We would also like to thank the following supporters for their very generous donations which have enabled the charity to carry out its essential work supporting bereaved families: Andrew Wright, Callie Doy and Adrian Kirby.

Supporter Fundraising – After being postponed twice, the Royal Parks Half Marathon finally went ahead in October 2021. Our amazing team of 12 runners together raised over £16,000!

Expenditure

Expenditure increased by £18,400 year on year primarily due to the new cost of salaries and pensions. SLOW recruited a new Bereavement Support Services Manager, Nikki Peterson, and also employed Kelly Carter, the Business and Development Manager. Our expenditure on supervision, marketing and the evaluation also increased.

Reserves Policy

The Trustees’ policy is to follow recommended practice and maintain unrestricted reserves to cover at least three months’ operational expenditure. In 2021-22 SLOW will be dependent on approximately £112,000 income per year to sustain its activities therefore the reserves figure equates to £28,000. At this level the Trustees believe that they would be able to continue the current activities of the charity in the event of a significant drop in funding while seeking to replace the funding or alternatively wind the charity down. The main concerns of the board are to ensure that the team can continue working to either secure new funding or close the charity, and to support members to move onto other services. The SLOW Trustees review this policy annually.

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Annual Report 2021-2022

THE SLOW 2021-22 TEAM

Personnel

Our support services in 2021-22 were delivered by a team of eight facilitators and an army of volunteers. Nic Whitworth , SLOW’s co-founder, stepped back from her role as Bereavement Support Services Manager in the Spring and was replaced by Nikki Peterson . Nic continues to facilitate groups and SLOWsibs workshops.

We recruited Shushma Jain and Michael Ward to facilitate our new adult sibling support groups and at the end of the year Clara Francis stepped down from her role as a facilitator.

For the first time in SLOW’s history we employed staff – our newly recruited Bereavement Support Services Manager and our Business and Development Manager. We worked with

the law firm Mishcon de Reya to develop policies and employment contracts and registered with HMRC for PAYE, the Pensions Regulator and selected a charity pension scheme for employees.

We recruited three new trustees at the Big Alliance Board Match event and we said goodbye to trustees Andrew Wright, Sara Portnoy and Fin Craig after many years of dedicated service.

Training and Support

Across the year we further developed our own inhouse facilitation and trustee induction training . The team also attended external training courses provided from a variety of organisations for example The Compassionate Friends, SAFE CIC and CBUK.

Eleven Reflective Practice Groups , ran throughout the year, attended by the growing team of support group facilitators. Meetings are structured to facilitate reflective feedback on group working, cofacilitation and peer support, sharing of ideas,

presentation of material and training. These sessions are held in addition to facilitators’ clinical supervision.

Our Volunteers

Nineteen committed volunteers helped SLOW’s work by offering their time and skills in 2021-22. Special mentions should be given to the following volunteers who have dedicated their time this year: -

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Annual Report 2021-2022

THE SLOW 2021-22 TEAM

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Annual Report 2021-2022

GOVERNANCE

Organisational Structure

The trustee board meets at least four times per year to agree the strategy and activities of the charity and to review the finances, fundraising and risks. All Trustees give their time voluntarily and no trustee remuneration was paid in the year. Day-to-day operations and management are delegated to the Business and Development Manager and the Bereavement Support Services Manager who both regularly report to Chair of Trustees on performance and operations.

Recruitment and Appointment of Trustees

The objective is to have a range of Trustees with skillsets relevant to the activities of the charity. The skills of the existing Trustees are taken into consideration when recruiting new Trustees and skills / diversity gaps identified. SLOW recruits Trustees through a variety of means, either they are approached personally, the positions are advertised, or they are recruited via the Big Alliance.

New applicants are interviewed by existing Trustees and appointed at one of the trustee board meetings throughout the year. All new Trustees are given induction training and are DBS checked.

Risk Management

Trustees adopt a risk appraisal and mitigation approach as part of future development. The SLOW risk register is reviewed annually. The major risks for the charity in 2021 and mitigating actions were:

Strategic Direction

We held two strategic away days and developed our operating model; this will provide the framework for future growth. A number of trustees with strategic experience were recruited to the board.

Personnel

Throughout the year we developed our performance review framework and took the necessary steps to employ key members of staff. Volunteers and sessional workers also now have increased involvement in trustee and strategy meetings.

Finance and Fundraising

In order to ensure that there is back up for the Business and Development Manager in terms of finance and fundraising responsibilities, actions were agreed including: reviews of Finance Policy and procedures, the acquisition of accounting software, developing a customer relationship strategy and securing assistance with finance and book-keeping duties.

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Annual Report 2021-2022

THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS

SLOW would like to thank its sessional workers, volunteers, Trustees and our Patrons for their hard work and dedication. None of our work would be possible without the support of our new and continuing funders listed below.

We are especially proud of the fundraising events organised by our members and are extremely grateful for donations from our members, their friends and families. Thank you.

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Annual Report 2021-2022

GET IN TOUCH

Bereaved Parents and Siblings

Anyone who is a bereaved parent, bereaved adult sibling (18+) or young bereaved sibling (6-15 years) can attend our support groups and workshops. Referrals can be made directly or we can be contacted by a family member or health professional. A facilitator will contact the bereaved parent / sibling within a few days to arrange a convenient time to phone and discuss whether the SLOW groups will be able to help.

Get in touch

Bereaved Parents and Young Siblings

07532 423 674

info@slowgroup.co.uk

Bereaved Adult Siblings

07506 272 309

adultsibs@slowgroup.co.uk

slowgroup.co.uk

@slowsupport

https://www.facebook.com/slowsupport

https://www.facebook.com/groups/slowgroup/

@slowgroup

Any other enquiries including fundraising and donations

07734 577407

admin@slowgroup.co.uk

https://www.justgiving.com/slowgroup

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Annual Report 2021-2022

SLOW 1161337 Recei ts and a ments accounts CC18a 01rty21J)21 To 31n1r2022 Section A Receipts and payments Unre3tricted Restr￿1¢4 lurKIs Al R¢¢el Groni Chiirtab Rekil Sd•YI• Fundra￿nI 14fp>S Group￿ILl￿&ry￿0MtrQn• iQf 74 tot•i( 24421 410 2A¥Mt In￿￿￿•￿¢ ul••. 8OA10 A? P•ym•ht Tr￿ lund• L•rtywr 21,421 PvnoKv ¥70 ¥¥rk•lno. Vol￿n￿r 371 Sub Éo p4 MJJ•t ￿ Inv•#m•nt pu￿1￿•￿ IM• t•bl• J¢ totsi AO Tririth lJ•t•M•n furf A8 e*th fvnd• end

Section B Staiement of assets a nd liabilities ai the end of the period Unre¥¢¥ided fund8 ￿e￿Il¢ted Endowrneni funds B1 cash fund¥ 47.149 47.238 . z¥•• eurt•nlv￿￿ 84ABi•ts 1•taIn￿ lor tm cMrlty• nd BS LlatsllStl azz *n•d

AND SIBUNGS I report to the trustees orb my eX￿in3￿m of the accounts of th• SLOW- SUPPORTING BEREAVED PARENTS AND SIBLINGS ISLOW) fcy the yw ended 31 Januwy 2022.The aLxounts hove been prepared on a recepts and painwnts bow and are set wt in the standard Chartty Commisgion fomat. RMpon•lbllttlM and bA•l• ol v•port 8¢cordance vAth the requirements of ￿ Chariti'es 2011 {'the Acr). I report in respect of my exwninatiw ol SLOW¥ crb&J out undw 145 of th• 2011 Act and in carrying out my &¥8MinatI(￿ I have fc4ky￿I all the wlicale Direclions given by the Charity Crynmissiun under 145(5)(b} Ba•h of Ind•p•nd•nt •xamln•ff• v•port An examination inclu¢kn 8 rnViW4 Of￿ accounting T9(X￿dI ty tho chafity and a compariKn of the accounts pre8ent8d with Ih(xe T&xwdB. ft d•0 incamdos any unusugl ilom$ or dijdosures in the accounts, and 8eekj.ng exFdanatK>n8 frcm as truste8s concerning any suth matters. The procedure8 undertaken do not provide 8ll thè a￿dence that would bo required in an gudit and congéquènty no winion is as to tpthether Ihe aco)unts present a'truè and fair viv/ and th& rwJrt 18 11m1t￿l to thoBe m8ttw8 oet (Art in the Slatem￿l bekrw. In connection wth my ¢￿in8￿. no mattor hu come to my att•ntion'. {1) which gp•M me rnuonable to th•t material re8pect.' accounting reccKd¥ n¢ r8•pora (rf SLOW M r•wired ty a8cli￿ 130 d th• A¢L th• accounts do not 8¢c¢rfd ith tho•e recud•', or {2) to which. in my (pinion, attenim Sh￿k1 be dr•￿ in order to enAe a wc4)8r underntanthng of tho Siwed: Name.. Rethnt wofesS￿81 Walif￿￿on. 35 Crnnbome Cr08canL Polrn Bar, Herts, EN6 3AD. UK 19 October 2022