WE ARE A BEATING HEART FOR CHANGE.
PEER POWER ANNUAL REPORT
2021/22
WELCOME LETTER CHAIR OF TRUSTEES DAME LORNA BORELAND-KELLY
CONTENTS
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15 VIOLENCE REDUCTION PROGRAMME (VRP)
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2 WELCOME LETTERS 5 THE YEAR IN NUMBERS
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16 WORKING WITH SECURE SETTINGS
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6 WHO WE ARE
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17 IMPACTING FUNDERS 20 INDIVIDUAL AND SYSTEM CHANGE 22 ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
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7 WHO WE WORK WITH
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7 OUR THEORY OF CHANGE 8 BACKGROUND TO OUR WORK
Dear Reader,
- 23 LOOKING FORWARD TO 2022
The Trustees' engagement and dedication continue to impress me, and this equally applies to all of our Young Partners, Senior Leadership Team, and staff members.
I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge with you how the Trustees have sought, considered, and adapted over the last year.
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9 PROGRAMMES WE DELIVERED AND THEIR 24 OUR SUPPORTERS IMPACT 26 TRUSTEES’ REPORT
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9 THE PEER TO PROFESSIONAL JOURNEY
Following a period of induction, I formally became the Chair of Peer Power Youth in June 2021. At this time meetings continued to be on Zoom and all of my introductions to the organisation’s staff, Trustees and Advisory Forum were online. This included the successful awards ceremony for young people, held on 13th December 2021.
During the year, we have received feedback from many stakeholders telling us that they view the enthusiasm and commitment of Peer Power Youth, as informative and inspirational.
- 13 HEALTH AND JUSTICE - PEER POWER EXPERTS
We have found feedback to be extremely important to us and we have listened and carefully considered the feedback we have received from the Young Partners, Advisory Forum, and our Patrons during our 2021 outreach activities and strategic consultation day. We have used this feedback to guide the development of our practice over this period. On behalf of the Trustees, I would like to thank you all for your continued commitment, trust and support. I look forward to our future engagement.
YOUNG PARTNER WELCOME LETTER
While we have been living through an unprecedented time, what gives me hope is our equally unprecedented commitment to responding to the needs of our charity. At the earliest opportunity to meet in person, the Trustees met in hybrid meetings with some in attendance in person and others on Zoom. While we struggled with the technology, we were able to commence the development of closer working relationships which have continued.
Over the past year I’ve been working with Peer Power to co-facilitate training to professionals within the NHS to make them aware of the unconscious bias which would make some disadvantaged individuals not use their services. With the help of Peer Power, we are able to train them to understand more about how they can bridge the gap to modernise their methods and views. I have taken part in presenting lived experiences to their colleagues.
Yours sincerely,
As an organisation we held significant in-person consultation meetings which took place between Louise the Trustees, members of the Advisory Forum, and Young Partner the Young Partners to consider and consult on the strategic mission and future direction of Peer Power Youth in February 2022.
Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly DBE. JP. FRSA Chair of Trustees Peer Power Youth
We also held a workshop with underrepresented young people to discuss their experiences about the services they use and how these services can be improved to include them. The work that Peer Power takes part in is vital as we shine a light on bias and make them recognise the need for change. Peer power has empowered me to use my voice and to stand up for change and to call out injustices within professional services. These workshops also empower young people with lived experiences to be able to express their views safely; knowing that their opinions are crucial to the work that Peer Power does with other professionals to implement system change.
I’ve developed so many skills and gained confidence since joining Peer Power. I am grateful for the platform on which I use my voice to champion change. It’s so important to see how they hold those with power to account.
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CEO LETTER
As I reflect on the reporting year ending March 2022, I am recalling how Covid-19 was still very much with us, resulting in another lockdown over the winter, with a slow and gradual return to in-person connection.
The last two years have been gruelling for our community of Young Partners, staff team, Trustees and Advisory Forum, and the devastating impact on the services we seek to impact is palpable. And yet, our team has continued to show up and to work collaboratively to support each other and to effect real system change. We have seen a huge reduction in our in-person work but we remain hopeful this will increase as we continue to recover from the pandemic.
The commitment from Young Partners to improve services for their peers has created defining career moments for me through this last year. I have enjoyed their gentle challenge in developing our internal processes as well as delivering coproduction training and coaching with them. The commitment of Trustees through this difficult time has also been remarkable, we are lucky to have such an active and passionate board. This quote seems to describe this time well for me, “Hope shines brightest in the darkest moments”. I am grateful to all of them for keeping us connected with our mission.
At our strategic planning day in February for our whole community, we identified stability, wellbeing and connection as being priorities for the coming year, as well as looking forward to working with Class 13 and Darvaja to explore and interrogate how race and racism show up at Peer Power to inform our strategic planning.
For a very small charity, we really do achieve extraordinary impact. I am immensely proud of all of our achievements, and all that we have learnt this year. Thank you to every single person who collaborates with us, supports us and works with us. “Together, we are none other than Peer Power!” is a quote from our young partners when developing our Theory of Change. And togetherness is absolutely a strength to be proud of.
Yours sincerely,
Anne-Marie Douglas Founder & CEO Peer Power Youth
THE YEAR IN NUMBERS
Peer Power +10 Experts 2 Young +12 Campaigners 31 205+ Young Partners
Peer Leaders
Children and young people in 3 secure settings
hours of engagement activity with Young Partners
Co-produced resources accessible to ALL youth justice practitioners in England & Wales
Young Partners spent 48 hours commissioning services
321 453 professionals engaged co-production, training in youth-led sessions & peer research hours and training
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WHO WE ARE
Peer Power is an empathy-led charity that engages children, teenagers and young adults with two goals in mind: individual change and system change. We support them in healing after trauma, finding the power and positivity in their stories and creating ways for them to be heard and influence action. We work with them as they develop the skills, experience and training to become future leaders. Together, we support those delivering, designing or commissioning services as they respond to the experiences of young people, so that approaches across the youth sector are ever more driven by participation and empathy.
A world where empathy-led services and systems support all children, teenagers and young adults to achieve their dreams and lead their best lives.
OUR VISION
WHO WE WORK WITH
Some of the children, teenagers and young adults we partner with have described themselves as being ‘abandoned by society’. Our young partners have experienced injustice and inequality because of race, class, poverty, disabilities and other things, as well as childhood adversity, abuse and trauma. They are passionate about using their experiences in positive and powerful ways to improve support services by voicing issues for and with their peers, other children, teenagers and young adults. The organisations, agencies and stakeholders that we partner with include youth justice services, health services, prisons, police, social services, schools and more. We know that those delivering, designing and commissioning services care about children and young people, though sometimes the systems they are working in make it hard to embed the empathic and participatory approaches that are so needed.
OUR THEORY OF CHANGE
OUR MISSION
To be a caring support network for young people, helping to change their lives through reliable healthy relationships so they can change and inspire the lives of others and increase empathy in the services designed to help them.
We are trying to effect change in two areas:
INDIVIDUAL CHANGE
OUR VALUES
EMPATHY
We are compassionate, caring and strive to understand the experiences of others.
RESPECT
We believe in listening, understanding and learning from others.
POSITIVITY
We focus on people’s strengths and our collective potential.
OPENNESS AND HONESTY
We encourage each other to be ourselves and own our own stories.
LOVE
Our work and our action is grounded in love and kindness, for ourselves and for others.
FAIRNESS
We believe in equal access to opportunities, social justice and mobility.
Individual change: improving the 1 health and wellbeing of young people, supporting them into work and developing them as future leaders.
SYSTEM CHANGE
2 Iimproving, influencing and changing the systems that are supposed to support young people, including justice, health, education and social care.
We believe these go hand in hand. The more we support young people affected by adversity to overcome their trauma and the challenges it can create, the more they’ll be able to work with professionals within these sectors to create better, more supportive, compassionate systems. Systems that actually meet the needs of children and young people. The better the systems we have, the fewer young people will need our support. Eventually we will have an inclusive and just society that recognises each individual's assets, skills and strengths.
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BACKGROUND TO OUR WORK
A year after the pandemic the charity was still very much seeing the challenging effects and impact. With strong relationships at the heart of how we work, we adapted well to hybrid working and made changes to ensure continued support to Young Partners and our team.
PROGRAMMES WE DELIVERED AND THEIR IMPACT
THE ‘PEER TO PROFESSIONAL’ JOURNEY
Our work was in high demand and with our funders' support we were able to provide exciting in-person and hybrid opportunities to Young Partners along with the pastoral and emotional support needed to navigate ongoing challenges adapting to the 'new normal', including:
Peer to Professional support. To help in “achieving their dreams and living their best life”, for example, AQA qualifications, education, training, interviewing and life skills Developing their own campaigns and social action projects Development routes to become Peer Leaders after one year, and where there is an opportunity to apply to work in the charity in other roles
YOUNG PARTICIPANTS
Take part in our focus groups, surveys and peer-led sessions to help improve services.
PEER POWER EXPERTS
Work with professionals on system change – speaking at events, running workshops, doing creative work to tell stories with power.
PEER POWER LEADERS
Conduct workshops and research, advise on and co-write reports.
PEER TRAINERS
Deliver accredited Peer Power training to other peers or professionals.
YOUNG CAMPAIGNERS
Devise and lead their own positive change campaigns in response to their lived experience.
BOARD MEMBER
Some young partners may go on to sit on our Advisory Board.
When Peer Power was founded, the young people involved in its development advised us to provide three types of support:
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Trusted, empathic, consistent relationships and holistic support
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Meaningful involvement
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Employment support and opportunity
The Peer Power journey is based on these.
Our approach is unique. We are person-centered, and use empathy training, positive psychology, trust, compassion and relationships as the building blocks of all of our work. ‘The relationship IS the intervention’ is our motto. We work in partnership with young people to design and develop our work - ‘no decision about me, without me’ is one of our core principles. Therefore when we say “we”, we include young people in that. There is no “them” and “us”. We engage with young people as long as they wish to stay, and up to the age of 25. When a young person joins the Peer Power network, they become a partner – in designing the support they want, and in creating the change they want to see.
Together, we’ve now developed different roles Young Partners can take along their ‘Peer to Professional’ journey. Each journey is different, so these roles offer different levels of involvement. But as a group, partners support each other. They reach out to other young participants within their communities, including secure settings. And they engage with a growing network of professionals and decision-makers, through training, workshops and events. These are all paid roles in some way, ranging from expenses-paid volunteer time, through paid session work to self-employed contract work. We expect the services, institutions and organisations we work with to value our young partners’ time and insight just as we do.
In the first year of the Constable Education Trust funding, the Peer to Professional Programme has been developed and embedded so that young people working across all programmes at Peer Power including in 4 secure settings, and in the community can get support to achieve their goals.
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PEER TO PROFESSIONAL IMPACT
THE ‘PEER TO PROFESSIONAL’ JOURNEY - CO -PRODUCTION HIGHLIGHTS
Our Peer Power Experts, Peer Leaders and Young Campaigners have been able to impact system change across a range of services and partnerships including the Youth Justice Board, NHS England, London and the South East, and HM Inspectorate of Probation highlights include:
- Launching the research report and resources on Co creation and participation in the Youth Justice System (YJS) with the Youth Justice Board of England and Wales (YJB). These resources are available to ALL youth justice practitioners in England and Wales and are promoted by the YJB.
Young people Hours of attended Peerindependent 30 38 led outreach counselling sessions Peer group Young people sessions held 14 received AQA's 19 At 6 months goal setting and review meetings took place which showed:
91% 100%
of Peer Power Young Partners report improved confidence, self esteem and well-being
of Peer Power Young Partners in education, training or employment after six months
All Young Partners were offered individual coaching sessions.
The research set out to understand the complex cultural and environmental factors at play where participation and co-creation thrives in a youth justice context. In particular, the work aims to involve the voices of those who directly experience YJS, and those that work in them, in applying a participatory approach in practice.
From small steps to BIG CHANGE
The research found that many practitioners in YJS believe in listening to children and involving them in decisions. But, for many reasons, it’s not always happening as well as it could, or in the same ways in different areas of the same service, or across different services. Some services were more evolved than others with their capability to co-create and co-design service provision. At the same time, there was an understanding that co-creation required a wider organisational and strategic commitment and a whole system approach.
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From the views and experiences of the various practitioners across YJS, the academic working group and the Peer Power Experts, we proposed some recommendations along with a resource pack. One of the most important points to take away from this co-created project is that change won't just happen by itself. A culture of participation and co-creation needs to be embedded in the way YJS delivers services.
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“It’s great to feel like lived experience is being seen in a positive way instead of being something that is used against you”
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“The thing I will take away is hope. That there is an organisation out there who really cares and is doing this kind of work to support young people “
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“All the encouragement today. You’ve given me the confidence to speak about my opinions without being judged”
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“It feels like a community or a family. Like we’re working towards a shared goal”
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“I’ve learnt about empathy and co-production”
Young Partners
Health and Justice Peer Power Experts
This year was the fourth year of our Peer Power Experts group, which works to ensure the voices of young people are heard, responded to, and can therefore better shape service delivery across NHSEI Health and Justice Services in London.
“A child is not a problem to be fixed but a person – not to have stuff done to, but to work with.”
"I hope from this work that organisations can see the value of co-production and how it can empower both professionals and young people to create a more empathic service and be more inclusive. Co-production can create long-lasting change and organisations should be proud to take that first step in making an equal ground."
(Peer Power Expert - 2021)
The group developed their own manifesto outlining their priorities for health and justice, participated in professional meetings, and represented young people and Peer Power on a series of panels and events. They were involved in a range of ways across the project including:
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Participating in filming and recording of a resource to support healthcare professionals in how to engage with young people in their practice and wider communities
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Delivering co-production training to pan London Liaison Diversion services including health and justice staff representatives
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Partnering on Liaison and Diversion Peer Review Day as part of the review panel alongside NHS professionals.
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Engaging in discussion which ensured lived experience insight to commissioners and medical professionals which prompted them to consider design, delivery and procurement of services and workstreams such as at Feltham Young Offenders Institute (YOI), a health inequalities Workstream and Liaison & Diversion projects that help to divert young people away from the justice system..
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- A highlight for young partners were the short films they co-produced in collaboration with the organisations ODD arts and 84 youth, on ‘addressing healthcare inequalities’. The films highlight thematic inequalities across health, such as poverty, class and race, and what young partners want the solution to be in addressing them.
This year they have been keen to expand on this work to create resources for professionals and create a podcast to platform the voices of their peers in communities, and ensure all voices are heard and influence health and justice priorities.
”This was really creative and showed forth the insights on how people can be treated differently by classism or stereotyping people. My character specifically was someone who was in power they saw a big black man who’d been stabbed and got the wrong impression. This led to him feeling frustrated and then he didn’t get the support he needed from the healthcare professional” - (Young Partner - 2021)
Violence Reduction Programme (VRP)
Peer Power Youth supports young people to engage effectively with the NHS Violence Reduction Programme so that their experiences and insights inform what the health system in London can do for young people impacted by violence. The programme continues to support community engagement that informs how the health system effectively responds to the prevention and reduction of violence across various settings.
As part of our partnership with the NHS Violence Reduction Programme, young partners have had an impact through:
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Commissioning of services for mental health in communities across London
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Attending regular strategic board meetings, which include clinicians, health practitioners, voluntary sector representatives, etc.
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Involvement in workshops and focus groups to support the development of empathy and communication training content for health professionals
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Creation of videos for training healthcare professionals on empathy and how to put young people first at an Expert Advisory Group. Exploring synergies between Framework for Integrated Care Community and the Violence Reduction models that are being developed. Involvement in strategic communications around Violence reduction
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Designing peer-led workshops to engage young people in the community to understand their needs and voices around violence in their communities
Highlights for Young Partners include:
“A big shout out to ‘all’ Peer Power Members, Colleagues and Young People, we are truly inspired by their commitment, creativity and for the support we have received across all of our NHSE/I Health & Justice (London) Services”
Videos on empathy and how to put young people first for training healthcare professionals. “...That day really helped me as a person, because before that I had no trust in the NHS when they were working with young people. I felt they didn’t really care about us and were just telling us what to do. Seeing the group of professionals there doing something to put young people at the heart of their work gave me hope.” - Young Partner 2021
Commissioning work for the Vanguards– who got money to run these services. September 2021.
“We think of Peer Power as an invaluable part of our Health and Justice (London) Team and really appreciate all of the lived experience and expertise that they bring and share across all of our regional services. It is a joy to work side by side with all of our Peer Power Colleagues, especially the young people who bring a realness and professionalism in everything they do” - Ian Brown (He/Him) Patient & Public Voice Lead, Health & Justice (London Region) NHSE/I
What is a Vanguard?
In 2015, NHS England selected 50 sites to act as ‘vanguards’ to lead the development of five new care models. The vanguard programme is an attempt by the NHS to transform and integrate health and social care services, following the integrated care pilots and the integrated care pioneers.
“This felt great as it gave me insight into what hospitals will do to help young people. This is going to be important to have the youth advisory group because it gives young people decision-making power that can affect them in the long term.” - Young Partner (Rico)
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Working with Secure Settings
In 2021-22 Peer Power creatively connected with 31 young people across three secure settings and delivered training and events to professionals working with children and young people across secure settings in England and Wales.
The challenges of Covid meant that we were not able to deliver much face-to-face work in secure settings this year. However, in Feltham Young Offenders Institute (YOI) Young Partners designed a youth-led consultation to hear from 25 of their peers in the YO Ito make a positive improvement to the healthcare response to COVID-19 and future pandemics.
Our Young Partners trained staff in Swanwick and Lansdowne Secure Children's Homes (SCH) - in co-production. In Lansdowne SCH a healthy eating mural was co created and painted with young residents and Lizzie Lines – a creative resource which links to the mural and has been designed to support induction to the home has also been produced.
We are excited to have been successful in our bid to ensure the voice of children and young people is heard in four secure settings across the South-East region over three years:
- Aylesbury Young Offenders Institute Cookham Wood Young Offenders Institute Swanwick Lodge Secure Children’s Home Lansdowne Secure Children’s Home
We are also partnering with the NHS South East team in the development of the new model for the OASIS Restore Secure School. This will see our impact in secure settings grow over the coming years.
Impacting funders
We aim to engage funders with our learning and insights from young people and to help inform their work and priorities. An example of this was when delivering a workshop on coproduction to The Tudor Trust who are reviewing how they involve young people with lived experience in their strategy and grant making. Staff and Trustees from Tudor Trust gave feedback:
Positive, uplifting, empowering and informative! We gained tools for listening and engaging and communicate
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Opportunity Fund- Young Campaigners
We worked with The Blagrave Trust and Paul Hamlyn Foundation to support 14 Young people in young campaigner roles over eighteen months. Their campaigns ranged from addressing inequalities, raising awareness around mental health and educating young people around their legal rights. Below are the stories from three of the Young Campaigners in this year’s cohort:
One young campaigner, Rose, is using her experiences and knowledge to spark a movement to change inequalities and stigma currently in place in Children's Social Care services. Rose has been building strong relationships with strategic groups in her community, building connections with young people and professionals.
Toni’s campaign aims to normalise conversations about mental health and provides a safe space for creatives to explore mental health and share their talent. The campaign focuses on challenges brought on by the pandemic and provides support and resources to those impacted.
As someone who studies law, the goal of Georgia's campaign is for everyone to have a basic understanding of their rights and the process in the criminal justice system. The use of social media and direct interaction have been ways to increase the campaign's profile and platform.
UK Trauma Council
Holly Baine , from UK Trauma Council, a part of the Anna Freud Centre said of the process they have been through:
“The Peer Power training was incredibly rich in information, helping the UKTC team develop a nuanced understanding of co-production alongside other models of participation. Through interactive and thoughtful exercises, we put ourselves in the shoes of the young people we work with, gaining insight into the power and pitfalls of participation. The training being co-designed and codelivered by the Young Partners enhanced the experience and meant we were already in the process of putting ourselves up for scrutiny and challenge. This was learning by doing!
Changes to the way we work with young people began immediately by making our process, expectations and commitments more transparent, and
communicating the way their input changed what we produced. The learning from the training has helped us to design a framework for participation that places mutuality at the centre, ensuring young people who work with us will be valued members of the team and their personal and professional development will be a conscious part of the relationship. We also gained confidence in moving towards co-production over time – sometimes it can feel overwhelming as the end goal seems so far away. The coaching sessions in particular felt very
nurturing and supportive of our intentions, where we want to be, and what we can do now to move forwards.
The final takeaway for me was one of supportive and constructive challenge, with a whole lot of heart behind it. All of the interactions were full of empathy, humour and smiles. A really great experience – thank you!”
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Young Partners advising peers:
“It’s a really interesting experience, because when you go into the session, you think to yourself that you won’t have anything interesting to say. But then when you are actually doing it words just come out of your mouth and you’re shocked because you didn’t know you could think like that, which is kinda cool.”
Recurring themes from our evaluation highlight self-reported increase in skills developed through training and opportunities. We also see improvements in ‘soft’ skills, including improved confidence and emotional support:
Financial independence
Increased confidence
“It’s about how your experience with co-production can be used in a setting. It’s teaching them how to use co-production in their setting. Reflecting on yourself and giving embers of ideas to spark conversation.”
Practical skills and planning
Increased aspirations
Improved emotional wellbeing
Individual Change
Young Partners we partner with have lived experience of three or more of the following:
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Secure Settings (health, welfare, Justice) Youth Justice
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Children/Youth Social Care Services ‘looked after’
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Children/ Youth Mental Health Services (CAHMS/ Forensic CAHMS)
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School Exclusion
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Positive feedback from external and internal partners
We are making a measurable difference to these young people:
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80% reported improvement in ‘feeling optimistic about the future’
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reported that others had seen a positive difference in them since they connected with Peer Power
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80%
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100% reported improved confidence, self-esteem and well-being
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are in education, training or employment just six months after their time with us, rising from 12% when they first joined
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92%
System Change
As well as the impact through co-production projects highlighted above. Peer Power impacts system change through training and consultancy work with professionals working in support services for young people. The training and events are designed and delivered with Young Partners. Events include workshops with Inspectors of youth justice services from HM Inspectorate of Probation, presenting to a range of professionals linked to Cookham Wood Young Offenders Institute, and presenting at the World Global Youth Justice Conference.
- Along with pastoral support, we have facilitated training to enable them to engage in our work to change systems and to achieve their goals.
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In addition to events, 48 professionals across six organisations received training and coaching in co-production. This training aims to support professionals to understand the main principles of co-production and was designed and delivered by young people with lived experience of support services.
Through feedback after the sessions, we identified the following impact for practitioners:
99% agreed that the training objectives were clearly defined
100% agreed that participation & engagement was encouraged
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100%[had significantly improved their knowledge of co-production]
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95% rated the training as highly relevant to their organisation
LOOKING FORWARD
TO 2022
We are still a very young organisation and we are in demand. We want to diversify income streams and embed leadership across the team to facilitate our future growth. In 2022/23 we will:
Further embed our Peer to Professional off to support individual Young Partners
Increase reach and impact in community and secure settings
Grow our national and training work
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100%[of delegates rated the training as well paced]
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99% of delegates would recommend the training to other professionals
Organisational development
Peer Power is a small and young charity and our work is in demand. In 21-22 we started a period of growth and transition and have begun work to develop strong foundations for the future.
Peer Power has always shared decisions across the organisation with young people and to
support this as we grow we are exploring sociocracy as a structure and method for this. Sociocracy is a governance system, just like democracy or corporate governance methods. It’s best suited for organizations that want to self-govern based on the values of equality. (Sociocracy For All).
Staff and Young Partners have been trained in consent-based decision-making to enable shared decisions across our work- including around future funding and developing our strategic and operational plans.
New employees – development, recruitment of senior leadership team
Work with the organisation, Outlandish, to use consent-based decision making across the organisation.
Work with Class 13 on race equality with the organisation. Class 13 to deliver equity & inclusion plans, addressing intersectionality & discrimination including race, ethnicity, nationality, neurodiversity, gender identity, sexuality, disability, social class
We will continue to follow the operational and strategic plan:
Strategic objective 1: Disrupting, influencing, and changing child and youth services which includes:
Developing, evaluating and delivering the Peer Power model of holistic participatory youth engagement.
Strategic objective 2: Building an anti-racist charity & tackling oppression in all its forms which includes:
Developing our strategies, policies to develop Peer Power’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion approach.
We continue to explore how we can be a better anti-oppressive and anti-racist charity. We are working with Class 13 and Davarja to listen deeply to our community and create tangible plans to further develop our practice across our work. Young Partners continue to explore issues around race and inequalities across our work.
Strategic objective 3: Organisational stability, growth and sustainability which includes:
People at Peer Power are connected to the strategy and vision.
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OUR SUPPORTERS
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR INCREDIBLE PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS
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IN PARTNERSHIP WITH YOUNG PEOPLE, WE WILL:
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Act for Change Fund Paul Hamlyn Foundation Esmee Fairbairn Foundation Centre for Mental Health The Blagrave Trust Beyond Suffrage NHS England and Improvement South East NHS England and Improvement London NHS England and Improvement National NHS NEL Healthcare Consulting The Tudor Trust UK Trauma Council City Bridge Trust ClearView Research Criminal Justice Alliance Joseph Levy Foundation Sound Delivery Media Morrison Foerstor Youth Justice Board GBL Limited Constable Educational Trust
THANK YOU TO THE INDIVIDUAL DONORS THAT HAVE SUPPORTED OUR WORK. AND TO THE YOUNG PARTNERS INVOLVED WITH PEER POWER.
YOUR COMMITMENT TO CREATING POSITIVE CHANGE, FOR EACH OTHER AND WITHIN THE SYSTEM, HAS MADE PEER POWER THE ORGANISATION IT IS TODAY.
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TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
The Board of Trustees present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the period ended 31 March 2022. The Trustees have adopted the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) ‘Accounting and Reporting by Charities’ issued in January 2015.
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
GOVERNING DOCUMENT
Peer Power Youth (also known as ‘Peer Power’) is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) registered under the charity number 1167758. It is governed by the CIO Constitution which sets out the charity’s objects and how it is to be administered.
APPOINTMENT OF TRUSTEES
Peer Power Trustees are appointed based on the skills they bring to the organisation and their ability to offer an independent opinion on the organisation’s strategy and operations. Peer Power ensures it reaches a wide and diverse pool of talent and skills to support the charity through targeted advertising into skills groups required and to under-represented groups.
Board members are appointed after a skills evaluation by incumbent Board members and CEO and upon receipt of CV, interview, references and DBS Check. Young people are involved in decision-making with the board, though the final decision for recruitment is made by the Board. New Trustees must complete safeguarding training, and Trustee induction training.
PEER POWER STAFF AND
GOVERNANCE
Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022 Peer Power employed:
Peer Power Staff
CEO 1 FTE
Deputy CEO & Head of Programmes 0.8
- Head of Finance 0.5
Office Manager 0.8
- Youth Engagement Co-production Manager 0.8 Peer Engagement Worker 0.8
Peer Engagement Worker 0.8
- Senior Youth Engagement Coordinator 1.0 FTE
(from November)
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Senior Youth Engagement Coordinator 0.8 (from October)
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Digital Communications Manager 0.8 (from May)
MANAGEMENT
The Board of Trustees governs the charity, meeting on a quarterly basis in person, and bi-monthly Zoom meetings. The Trustees appoint the Chief Executive who oversees the day-to-day operation of Peer Power with a Scheme of Delegation process in place. A number of advisory sub-committees undertake more detailed work as below. The full Board remains the ultimate decision-making body for Peer Power. The subcommittees include:
- Communications and fundraising HR and remuneration Legal and governance Finance
A handbook has been developed for Trustees. This outlines their responsibilities, provides governing documents, individual biographies, subcommittee details, role descriptions, policies, guidance and a glossary. In addition, a skills audit has been conducted where gaps in the Trustees’ expertise were identified. To address this, a series of sessions took place for 2021/2022 where individual Trustees were to conduct training, providing the board with knowledge of good practice in areas relevant to the charity’s work. Trustees also have access to training run by external organisations about their responsibilities and duties.
EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY
Peer Power wholeheartedly supports the principles of equality and diversity in all aspects of the organisations’ operations. We encourage, value and manage diversity and recognise there are moral, social and legal reasons for promoting such practice. We live these values through the recruitment and selection of staff, the development of organisational policies, for example ensuring that they are inclusive, developing with the team, and reviewed them through an intersectional and anti-oppression lens, as well as through our wider responsibility to beneficiaries of our work. We ensure that staff and Young Partners are included in decisions that affect them to ensure that all voices are heard and to foster a sense of belonging in the organisation.
The responsibility for the implementation of our work on Equality and Diversity sits with our CEO with regular oversight and monitoring by the Trustee Board, and a commitment from all staff to work on this.
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FINANCIAL REVIEW
Peer Power had a good financial year, outperforming our original budget of £409,795 to £452,795. This is a decrease from 2020/21 of 14.9% when we received emergency funding during the pandemic. We had a total expenditure of £536,001 - against budgeted £453,187 to support our service delivery.
RESERVES POLICY
Total funds held at the end of the period were £251,166 of which £170,013 were restricted reserves and not available for the general purposes of the charity.
Peer Power holds general reserves to provide cover for unexpected changes in income and expenditure, allowing the continuation of key activities in the event of:
a temporary loss of income a permanent fall in income, giving time to adjust our cost base or adjust our business model incurring a one-off unplanned cost not covered by existing funding
Holding general reserves also enables us to invest in new opportunities that help us to achieve our goals.
As of March 2022, the reserves policy of Peer Power was to hold free reserves of 53,666, representing 1.2 months of operating costs. This reserves policy will be reviewed annually to reassess the risks associated with our income and expenditure profile and identify any changes needed to our reserves policy given the organisation's growth and operating context.
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RISK MANAGEMENT
Peer Power has undertaken a review of the main risks to the organisation and established mitigating actions undertaken to minimise those issues. The CEO and leadership team are responsible for implementing the mitigating actions and reporting back regularly to the Board. Although risk can never be eliminated, it can be reduced by careful planning and preparation. Principal risks during 2021- 2022 and our approach to these were;
FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
Peer Power carefully manages our finances and relationships with funders to develop strong multi-year funding relationships and manage growth carefully to align with our fundraising pipeline. We have also invested in an associate fundraising officer who has successfully brought in significant income. In 2022 we plan to further invest in our fundraising capacity and capabilities recruiting our first fundraiser to develop and implement our fundraising strategy that will see us diversify our income streams with a long term income generation plan to support the future stability of the charity.
GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
Governance processes are in place to ensure legal compliance and internal controls. Trustees review of all safeguarding, health and safety, financial and HR systems and procedures during 2021/22 and are currently implementing resulting actions.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
The health and safety of the young people, as well as our staff and supporters is paramount and we regularly review our policies and procedures to ensure a healthy working environment.
WELLBEING
The wellbeing and mental health of our Young Partners, staff, volunteers and supporters is extremely important to our mission and objectives. To mitigate this risk we have regular wellbeing check-ins for staff, Young Partners and Trustees, provide an enhanced well-being offer across our community with access to therapeutic support and clinical supervision for the youth engagement team.
CHANGES TO LAW AND REGULATION
Our operations are impacted by many areas of regulation including safeguarding, health and safety, fundraising, justice, health and charity regulation. We regularly update and review our practices to ensure best practice and legal compliance.
SAFEGUARDING
Peer Power Youth seeks to provide an environment where everyone can work safely, and children, young people and adults at risk can engage with the charity's activities and enjoy programmes provided through the work of the Charity or in partnership with other agencies and/or community voluntary sector organisations.
It is the policy of Peer Power Youth to safeguard the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk involved in the work we do by protecting them from neglect, physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
It is also Peer Power Youth’s policy to provide those working for or with the charity with a framework to operate within to keep everyone who is engaged in the Charity’s activities safe. We follow safe recruitment practices, ensuring that all staff, apprentices, Trustees, consultants and volunteers (legally responsible adults) working with children, young people or adults at risk: are carefully selected, are checked by the Disclosure and Barring Service, have two appropriate references and understand and accept their responsibility for the safety of children, young people and adults at risk in their care. We also provide Safeguarding Training to all new staff, volunteers and contractors following our Safeguarding Policy.
Safeguarding for the charity has been
implemented in the Charity’s Safeguarding Policy and Procedures. The Leadership Team will ensure the policy and its accompanying procedures and practice guidelines are implemented across their geographical and functional areas of responsibility.
PUBLIC BENEFIT
The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 4 of the Charities Act 2006 to have due regard to public benefit guidance published by the Charity Commission in determining the activities undertaken by the Charity. The following sections demonstrate our provision of public benefit:
HISTORY OF THE ORGANISATION
Peer Power is an exciting, young, national social justice charity. It was founded by Anne-Marie Douglas, together with an Advisory Group of young people with lived experience (of justice, health and social care), academics and professionals in the voluntary and statutory sectors. It was founded because of Anne-Marie’s belief in, and personal experience of, trauma peer-support services and empathy, and because through her work she had found that the experiences and views of young people nationally were not being meaningfully involved in systems there to support them.
TThe organisation was originally constituted as ‘Peer Power YJ’ in 2015 as a Company Limited by Guarantee (Company registration number 09328982) and operated until December 2016.
Peer Power Youth was registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with the Charity Commission (Charity Registration number 1167758) in June 2016 and began its charitable activities from 1 January 2017. The resources of Peer Power YJ were transferred to Peer Power Youth as a donation on 1 January 2017.
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LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS
CHARITABLE OBJECTIVES
To support the advancement in life and relieve the needs of children and young people (predominantly aged 10-25) – including, and in particular, those who are disadvantaged and have experienced youth justice and/or care services – by providing support and activities which develop their strengths, skills, capacities and capabilities:
- to enable them to participate in society as mature and responsible individuals, to help tackle social problems affecting them and their peers, particularly emotional and mental health issues, which can have consequences including substance misuse, homelessness, repeat offending and unemployment; and to improve the effectiveness of services provided for such young people.
PUBLIC BENEFIT OUTCOMES: RELATED TO THE CHARITY’S AIMS
Peer Power empowers children and young people. We create platforms for the voices of those with lived experience of the issues they want to tackle, through storytelling and peer engagement, to improve empathy, public perception and understanding, care and compassion for those who rarely have a stake in society. We collaborate and work in partnership with a wide range of professionals and organisations to develop higher standards of empathy, inclusion, diversity, and whole system transformation.
Peer Power is distinctive in that it involves young people in decision-making at all levels of the organisation, and it always has. All work is peer-led and designed in partnership with young people with lived experience of the issues they seek to campaign about. Young people input regularly into the development of the charity, from determining priorities and values, to planning events and feeding into recruitment. A third of our governing advisory group are young adults with recent experience of social care, justice, and health agencies and we have two young Trustees.
TRUSTEES/DIRECTORS OF THE BANKERS Metro Bank PLC 82 North St, CHARITY AND COMPANY Brighton BN1 1ZA
Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly (Chair Sarah Jones (Treasurer, Appointed January 2020) REGISTERED 1167758 CHARITY Jeffrey Wotherspoon NUMBER Annie Morris Alex Lloyd ADDRESS Peer Power Youth Kristin Barker Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre Rebecca Olokun 5 Glasshouse Walk Vauxhall Alice Olafare London Nicola Gilbert SE11 5ES Annalisa Mensah Elena Laguna ACCOUNTANT BJ Demidoff & Sons 47 Mangold Way Imogen Pursch (until December 2021) Erith, Kent DA18 4DA
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Peer Power Youth (A Charitable Incorporated Organisation) STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED March 2022
PEER POWER YOUTH FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 1 APRIL 2021 – 31 MARCH 2022
| Notes | Unrestricted | Restricted | Total Funds | Total Funds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funds £ | Funds £ | 2022 £ | 2021 £ | ||
| INCOMING RESOURCES |
|||||
| Donations | 9,606 | 0 | 9,606 | 7,301 | |
| Charitable Activities | 2 | ||||
| Events | 45,265 | 0 | 45,265 | 18,555 | |
| Grants, Trusts and Foundations | 142,880 | 255,224 | 398,104 | 494,716 | |
| Total Incoming resources | 197,752 | 255,224 | 452,975 | 520,571 | |
| EXPENDITURE | |||||
| Costs of generating funds | |||||
| Raising funds | 3,450 | 3,450 | 5,636 | ||
| Charitable Activities | |||||
| Events | 5,753 | 5,753 | 12,510 | ||
| Grants, Trusts and Foundations | 179,773 | 347,026 | 526,799 | 337,106 | |
| Total Expenditure | 188,975 | 347,026 | 536,001 | 355,253 | |
| Net incoming/(outgoing)resources before | 8,776 | (91,802) | (83,026) | 165,319 | |
| transfers | |||||
| Net movement of funds | 8,776 | 91,802) | (83,026) | 165,319 | |
| Total funds at 1 April 2021 | 72,377 | 261,817 | 334,194 | 168,875 | |
| Total funds at 31 March 2022 | 81,153 | 170,015 | 251,168 | 334,194 |
Peer Power Youth (A Charitable Incorporated Organisation) BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 MARCH 2022
| Notes | 2022 | 2021 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CURRENT ASSETS | |||||
| Cash at bank & in hand | 253,159 | 321,581 | |||
| Debtors & Prepayments | 6 | 26,167 | 18,522 | ||
| 279,325 | 340,103 | ||||
| CREDITORS: Amounts falling due within one year |
7 | (28,159) | (5,910) | ||
| NET CURRENT ASSETS | 251,167 | 334,192 | |||
| TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES | 251,167 | 334,192 | |||
| THE FUNDS OF THE CHARITY | 81,153 | 72,376 | |||
| Restricted funds | 10 | 170,013 | 261,816 | ||
| Unrestricted funds: | |||||
| Designated funds | 10 | 27,486 | 35,473 | ||
| General funds | 10 | 53,666 | 36,904 | ||
| TOTAL FUNDS | 251,166 | 334,192 |
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The directors and Trustees consider that the charitable company is entitled to exemption from the requirement to have an audit under the provisions of Section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 and the members have not required the company to obtain an audit for the year in question in accordance with section 476 of the Companies Act 2006.
The Trustees and directors acknowledge their responsibilities for;
a) Ensuring that the charitable company keeps accounting records that comply with Sections 386 and 387 of the Companies Act 2006 and;
b) Preparing financial statements which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company as at the end
of the financial year and of its surplus or deficit for the financial year in accordance with the requirements of Sections 394 and 395
of the Companies Act 2006 and Charity’s Act 2011 and which otherwise comply with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006
and the Charity’s Act 2011 relating to financial statements, so far as applicable to the charitable company.
These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the special provisions applicable to small
companies within Part 15 the Companies Act 2006 relating to small charitable companies and with the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities (effective January 2015). Approved by the Trustee Board on and signed on their behalf by:
Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly
Charity Registration Number 1167758
Peer Power Youth (A Charitable Incorporated Organisation) STATEMENT OF CASH FLOW
STATEMENT OF CASH FLOW |
||
|---|---|---|
| Total Funds | Total Funds | |
| 2022 £ | 2021 £ | |
| NET CASH PROVIDED BY/(USED IN) OPERATING ACTIVITIES Cash | (68,422) | 125,019 |
| and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period Cash and | ||
| cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period | 321,581 | 196,562 |
| Reconciliation of net cash flow income/(expenditure) to net from | 253,159 | 321,581 |
| operating activities | ||
| NET INCOME FOR THE REPORTING PERIOD (AS PER THE STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES) |
(83,026) | 165,319 |
| Adjustment for: Decrease/(increase) in debtors | (7,645) | (6,544) |
| (Decrease)/increase in creditors | 22,248 | (33,755) |
| Net cash provided by operating activities | (68,422) | 125,019 |
| ANALYSIS OF CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS Cash at bank and in hand | ||
| Total cash and cash equivalents | 253,159 | 321,581 |
Peer Power Youth (A Charitable Incorporated Organisation) NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 March 2022
1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES
1.1 Basis of preparation of financial statements
The 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 Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic Ireland (FRS 102) issued on 16 July 2014 and with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Act 2011.
The charity is the parent undertaking of a small group and as such is not required to prepare group accounts.
The financial statements therefore present information about the charity as an individual undertaking and not about its group.
1.2 Going Concern
There are no material uncertainties about the charity’s ability to continue.
1.3 Changes to accounting estimates
No changes to accounting estimates have occurred in the reporting period.
1.4 Material prior years errors
No material prior year errors have been identified in the reporting period.
1.5 Income recognition
Items of income are recognised and included in the Statement of Financial Activities (SoFA) when all the following criteria are met; the Charity has entitlement to the funds and resources;any performance conditions attached to the item of income has been met or fully within the control of the charity; there is sufficient
certainty that receipt of the income is considered
probable; and the amount can be measured reliably.
There has been no offsetting of assets and liabilities, or income and expenditure, unless required or permitted by FRS 102 SORP or FRS 102. Grants and donations are only included in the SoFA when the general income recognition criteria are met. In the case of performance related grants, income is only recognised to the extent that the charity has provided the specific goods or services in accordance with the performance related conditions.
1.6 Charitable expenditure and liabilities
Charitable expenditure includes all expenditure directly related to the
objects of the charity.
This includes support costs, which are the staffing and associated costs of supporting, monitoring and evaluating the work of the charity. Where costs cannot be directly attributed to particular headings they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources.
1.6.1 Liability recognition
Liabilities are recognised where it is more likely than not that there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to pay out resources and the amount of the obligation can be measured with reasonable certainty.
1.6.2 Governance and support costs
Support costs have been allocated between governance costs and other support. Governance costs comprise all costs involving public accountability of the charity and its compliance with regulation and good practice.
Support costs include central functions and have been allocated to activity cost categories on a basis consistent with the use of resources.
1.6.3 Deferred Income
Deferred income has been included in the accounts in accordance with the period to which it relates to.
1.6.4 Creditors
The charity has creditors which are measured at settlement amounts less any trade discounts.
1.6.5 Provisions for liabilities
A liability is measured on recognition at its historical cost and then subsequently measured at the best estimate of the amount required to settle the obligation at the reporting date.
1.6.6 Basic financial instruments
The charity accounts for financial instruments on initial recognition as per paragraph 10.7 FRS 102 SORP, subsequent measurement is per paragraphs 11.7 to 11.9 FRS 102 SORP.
1.1 Assets
1.1.1 Investments
Fixed assets investments are stated at cost less impairment.
1.1.2 Debtors
Debtors are measured on initial recognition at settlement amount. Subsequently, they are measured at the cash or other consideration expected to be received.
1.1.3 Cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents are represented by cash in hand and deposits with financial institutions repayable without penalty on notice of not more than 24 hours.
1.2 Funds
Funds held by the charity are either:
1.2.1 Unrestricted general funds
These funds which can be used in accordance with the charitable objects at the discretion of the Trustees.
1.2.2 Restricted funds
These are funds that can be used for particular restricted purposes within the charity. Restrictions arise when specified by the donor or when funds are raised for particular restricted purposes.
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2. ANALYSIS OF INCOMING RESOURCES
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Total Funds | Total Funds | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funds | Funds | 2022 | 2021 | ||
| £ | £ | £ | £ | ||
| DONATIONS | 9,606 | 0 | 9,606 | 7,301 | |
| CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES | |||||
| GRANTS, TRUSTS AND FOUNDATIONS | |||||
| Blagrave Trust | - | 92,220 | 92,220 | 45,848 | |
| Blagrave SE | 32,546 | - | 32,546 | 0 | |
| Centre for Mental Health | - | - | 0 | 7,990 | |
| City Bridge Trust | - | - | 0 | 21,921 | |
| Criminal Justice Alliance | - | - | 0 | 2,000 | |
| Esmee Fairbarn | 52,000 | - | 52,000 | 69,000 | |
| GML Limited | - | - | 0 | 20,000 | |
| Joseph Levy Foundation | - | - | 0 | 9,980 | |
| London Comm Foundation | - | - | 0 | 4,972 | |
| NHS England (NHS 21/22) | - | 100,000 | 100,000 | 88,612 | |
| NHS England (NHS SE Commissioning) | - | 17,540 | 17,540 | 0 | |
| NHS England (VRU) | - | - | 0 | 79,947 | |
| Paul Hamlyn FoundationTudor Trust | 15,000 | 1,500 | 16,500 | 91,500 | |
| The Constable Educational Trust | 43,334 | - | 43,334 | 0 | |
| Tudor Trust | - | 30,000 | 30,000 | 32,000 | |
| Youth Justice Board | - | 13,964 | 13,964 | 20,946 |
4. MOVEMENT IN TOTAL FUNDS FOR THE YEAR; These are stated after charging
| 2022 | 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | ||
| Independent | Examiner’s | 250 | 250 |
| remuneration | 500 | 450 | |
| Annual accounts | Preparation | 750 | 700 |
5. TAXATION
No taxation has been provided for in the Financial Statements as the income of the Charity is exempt from income and corporation taxes, under Section 505 of the Taxes Act 1988 and Section 252 of the Taxation of Chargeable gains Act 1992 as it has been applied for the charitable objects of the company. Irrecoverable VAT has been charged to the relevant expenditure headings within the Financial Statements.
Peer Power Youth (a Charitable Incorporated Organisation) NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 2022
OTHER INCOME
| OTHER INCOME | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Events | 45,265 | - | 45,265 | 18,555 |
| Total Charitable Activities | 188,146 | 255,224 | 443,369 | 513,270 |
| TOTAL INCOMING RESOURCES | 197,752 | 255,224 | 452,975 | 520,571 |
3. STAFF COSTS & TRUSTEES
RENUMERATION
| RENUMERATION | 2022 | 2021 | |
| £ | £ | ||
| The average headcount during the reporting period was 13. | |||
| Salaries and wages | 298,295 | 261,533 | No employees received employee benefits (excluding employer |
| National Insurance | 28,054 | 16,188 | pension costs) of more than £60,000. |
| contributions | The total of employee benefits received by Trustees and its key | ||
| Pension costs | 6,697 | 3,512 | management personnel for their services to the charity was |
| Staff recuitment | 5,984 | 753 | £138,628. The Trustees received no remuneration during the year. |
| 339,030 | 281,987 |
6. DEBTORS:
7. CREDITORS: Amounts falling due within one year
| 2022 | 2021 | 2022 | 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | £ | £ | ||
| Trade | 25,455 | 18,330 | Accruals & creditors | 17,918 | 700 |
| Debtors | 712 | 192 | Taxation & social security | 10,240 | 5,210 |
| Prepayments | 26,167 | 18,522 | Grants received in advance (see below) |
0 | 0 |
| 28,159 | 5,910 |
There were no deferred income (Grants received in advance) for the year ending 31st March 2022
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8. ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE (CURRENT YEAR)
8. a) ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE (PRIOR YEAR)
| CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES | Staff Costs (Note 3) |
Direct Costs |
Core Costs |
Sub Total |
Support Costs- |
Governance | Governance | Total expenditure 2021 |
CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES | Staff Costs (Note 3) |
Direct Costs |
Core Costs |
Sub Total |
Support Costs- |
Governance | Governance | Total expenditure 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raising funds | - | 3,450 | - | 3,450 | - | - | 3,450 | Raising funds | - | 5,636 | - | 5,636 | - | - | 5,636 | ||
| Events | 4,419 | 1,333 | - | 5,753 | - | - | 5,753 | Events | 11,870 | 640 | - | 12,510 | - | - | 12,510 | ||
| Act 4 Change | 36,144 | 17,498 | - | 53,642 | 10,883 | 72 | 64,597 | Act 4 Change | 28,640 | 90 | - | 28,730 | 5,350 | 980 | 35,061 | ||
| Blagrave SE | 24,685 | - | - | 24,685 | 7,432 | 49 | 32,166 | Blagrave Trust | 40,894 | 6,785 | - | 47,678 | 7,640 | 1,400 | 56,718 | ||
| Blagrave Trust | 126 | 61,638 | - | 61,765 | 38 | 0 | 61,803 | Centre for Mental Health | - | 2,304 | - | 2,304 | - | - - | 2,304 | ||
| City Bridge Trust Esmee Joseph Levy Foundation NHS 21/22 NHS SE Commissioning NHS VRP (Violence Reduction Programme) Paul Hamlyn PTP - Peer To Professional Tudor YJB Governance Support Costs |
- 50,438 8,737 49,225 9,263 41,589 26,359 10,627 26,534 8,515 - 42,368 |
5,840 3,548 - 19,423 1,624 6,884 2,610 4,779 2,742 19,505 580 - |
- - - - - - - - - - - 45,517 |
5,840 53,986 8,737 68,648 10,887 48,474 28,969 15,405 29,277 28,019 580 87,886 |
- 15,187 2,631 14,713 2,789 12,522 7,937 3,200 7,989 2,564 0 (87,886) |
- 100 17 97 18 83 52 21 53 17 (580) |
5,840 69,273 11,385 83,458 13,694 61,079 36,958 18,626 37,319 30,600 - - |
City Bridge Trust Esmee Joseph Levy Foundation NHS 20/21 NHS SE Commissioning NHS VRU (Violence Reduction Unit) Paul Hamlyn PTP - Peer To Professional Tudor YJB Governance Support Costs |
11,696 46,557 163 60,557 2,010 5,094 25,936 194 23,881 1,886 - 22,609 |
- 1,000 - 17,297 - 1,006 400 - 3,000 5,005 8,473 - |
- - - - - - - - - - - 23,630 |
11,696 45,557 163 77,855 2,010 6,100 26,336 194 26,881 6,891 8,473 46,239 |
2,185 8,698 30 11,313 375 952 4,845 36 4,461 352 - (46,239) |
400 1,594 6 2,073 69 174 888 7 818 65 (8,473) - |
14,282 55,849 199 91,241 2,454 7,226 32,070 236 32,160 7,307 - - |
||
| 2021 Total | 339,030 | 151,453 | 45,517 | 536,001 | 0 | 0 | 536,001 | 2021 Total | 281,987 | 49,636 | 23,630 | 355,253 | 0 | 0 | 355,253 |
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| 9. GENERAL FUNDS | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | |
| Opening Balance at 1 April 2021 |
334,194 | 168,875 |
| Net incoming resources for the year |
(83,026) | 165,319 |
| Closing balance at 31 March 2022 |
251,168 | 334,194 |
a) DESIGNATED FUNDS
Esmée Fairbairn
This represents funding towards CEO salary.
b) RESTRICTED FUNDS
NHS England (London region) Delivery of a Patient and Public Voice contract for children, teenagers and young adults who have experienced health and justice services.
NHS NEL Healthcare Consulting Funding received for involvement in the 2019 refresh of Healthcare Standards for Children and Young People in Secure Settings (CYPSS).
Act for Change Fund This youth led project to develop training for peers and professionals is a joint initative funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, in partnership with the National Lottery Community Fund, on behalf of #iwill fund.
Centre for Mental Health This project supported the involvement of young people in the Clinical Managed Advisory Group – Secure settings.
10. FUND ANALYSIS
| 10. FUND ANALYSIS | 01 Apr | Incoming | Outgoing | 31 Mar |
| 2021 | Resources | Resources | 2022 | |
| £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| INCOME ARISING FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES | ||||
| Act 4 Change | 67,508 | - | 53,642 | 13,866 |
| Blagrave Trust Opportunity Fund | 29,502 | 92,220 | 61,765 | 59,957 |
| City Bridge Trust | 5,840 | - | 5,840 | 0 |
| Joseph Levy Foundation | 8,737 | - | 8,737 | 0 |
| NHS England (London) | 19,440 | 100,000 | 68,648 | 50,792 |
| NHS SE Commissioning | 0 | 17,540 | 8,877 | 8,663 |
| NHS England (VRU) | 68,950 | - | 48,474 | 20,477 |
| Paul Hamlyn Foundation | 33,664 | 1,500 | 28,969 | 6,194 |
| PTP - Peer To Professional | 4,779 | - | 4,779 | 0 |
| Tudor Trust | 9,340 | 30,000 | 29,277 | 10,063 |
| Youth Justice Board | 14,055 | 13,964 | 28,019 | 0 |
| Total Restricted Funds | - 261,815 |
255,224 | 347,026 | 170,013 |
| UNRESTRICTED FUNDS | ||||
| Designated Funds | ||||
| Esmee Fairbairn | 35,473 | 46,000 | 53,986 | 27,486 |
| General purposes fund | 36,904 | 151,752 | 134,989 | 53,666 |
| Total Unrestricted |
72,377 | 197,752 | 188,975 | 81,153 |
| Funds TOTAL FUNDS | 334,192 | 452,975 | 536,001 | 251,166 |
Blagrave Trust/Paul Hamyn Foundation This project is funded by Blagrave Trust and Paul Hamlyn Foundation to provide direct funding to young campaigners to develop their own campaigns with holistic support from Peer Power.
Tudor Trust This project is funded by Tudor Trust to fund staffing post of Head of Finance and Operations.
11. RELATED PARTIES TRANSACTIONS
The charity is controlled by its Trustees, who are directors of the company.
There were no trustee expense claims during the year and no other transactions with related parties were undertaken such are required to be disclosed under Financial Reporting Standards 8.
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REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
The Charity is a Public Benefit Entity
COMPANY NUMBER CE007587 COUNTRY OF INCORPORATION United Kingdom CHARITY NUMBER 1167758 COUNTRY OF REGISTRATION England & Wales
REGISTERED OFFICE AND OPERATIONAL ADDRESS
5 Glasshouse Walk Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre London SE11 5ES
Email: info@peerpower.org.uk Website: www.peerpower.org.uk
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Peer Power Vintage House 36-37 Albert Embankment Vauxhall London SE1 7TL
WE ARE A BEATING HEART FOR CHANGE.
PEER POWER ANNUAL REPORT
2021/22
WELCOME LETTER CHAIR OF TRUSTEES DAME LORNA BORELAND-KELLY
CONTENTS
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15 VIOLENCE REDUCTION PROGRAMME (VRP)
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2 WELCOME LETTERS 5 THE YEAR IN NUMBERS
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16 WORKING WITH SECURE SETTINGS
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6 WHO WE ARE
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17 IMPACTING FUNDERS 20 INDIVIDUAL AND SYSTEM CHANGE 22 ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
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7 WHO WE WORK WITH
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7 OUR THEORY OF CHANGE 8 BACKGROUND TO OUR WORK
Dear Reader,
- 23 LOOKING FORWARD TO 2022
The Trustees' engagement and dedication continue to impress me, and this equally applies to all of our Young Partners, Senior Leadership Team, and staff members.
I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge with you how the Trustees have sought, considered, and adapted over the last year.
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9 PROGRAMMES WE DELIVERED AND THEIR 24 OUR SUPPORTERS IMPACT 26 TRUSTEES’ REPORT
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9 THE PEER TO PROFESSIONAL JOURNEY
Following a period of induction, I formally became the Chair of Peer Power Youth in June 2021. At this time meetings continued to be on Zoom and all of my introductions to the organisation’s staff, Trustees and Advisory Forum were online. This included the successful awards ceremony for young people, held on 13th December 2021.
During the year, we have received feedback from many stakeholders telling us that they view the enthusiasm and commitment of Peer Power Youth, as informative and inspirational.
- 13 HEALTH AND JUSTICE - PEER POWER EXPERTS
We have found feedback to be extremely important to us and we have listened and carefully considered the feedback we have received from the Young Partners, Advisory Forum, and our Patrons during our 2021 outreach activities and strategic consultation day. We have used this feedback to guide the development of our practice over this period. On behalf of the Trustees, I would like to thank you all for your continued commitment, trust and support. I look forward to our future engagement.
YOUNG PARTNER WELCOME LETTER
While we have been living through an unprecedented time, what gives me hope is our equally unprecedented commitment to responding to the needs of our charity. At the earliest opportunity to meet in person, the Trustees met in hybrid meetings with some in attendance in person and others on Zoom. While we struggled with the technology, we were able to commence the development of closer working relationships which have continued.
Over the past year I’ve been working with Peer Power to co-facilitate training to professionals within the NHS to make them aware of the unconscious bias which would make some disadvantaged individuals not use their services. With the help of Peer Power, we are able to train them to understand more about how they can bridge the gap to modernise their methods and views. I have taken part in presenting lived experiences to their colleagues.
Yours sincerely,
As an organisation we held significant in-person consultation meetings which took place between Louise the Trustees, members of the Advisory Forum, and Young Partner the Young Partners to consider and consult on the strategic mission and future direction of Peer Power Youth in February 2022.
Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly DBE. JP. FRSA Chair of Trustees Peer Power Youth
We also held a workshop with underrepresented young people to discuss their experiences about the services they use and how these services can be improved to include them. The work that Peer Power takes part in is vital as we shine a light on bias and make them recognise the need for change. Peer power has empowered me to use my voice and to stand up for change and to call out injustices within professional services. These workshops also empower young people with lived experiences to be able to express their views safely; knowing that their opinions are crucial to the work that Peer Power does with other professionals to implement system change.
I’ve developed so many skills and gained confidence since joining Peer Power. I am grateful for the platform on which I use my voice to champion change. It’s so important to see how they hold those with power to account.
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CEO LETTER
As I reflect on the reporting year ending March 2022, I am recalling how Covid-19 was still very much with us, resulting in another lockdown over the winter, with a slow and gradual return to in-person connection.
The last two years have been gruelling for our community of Young Partners, staff team, Trustees and Advisory Forum, and the devastating impact on the services we seek to impact is palpable. And yet, our team has continued to show up and to work collaboratively to support each other and to effect real system change. We have seen a huge reduction in our in-person work but we remain hopeful this will increase as we continue to recover from the pandemic.
The commitment from Young Partners to improve services for their peers has created defining career moments for me through this last year. I have enjoyed their gentle challenge in developing our internal processes as well as delivering coproduction training and coaching with them. The commitment of Trustees through this difficult time has also been remarkable, we are lucky to have such an active and passionate board. This quote seems to describe this time well for me, “Hope shines brightest in the darkest moments”. I am grateful to all of them for keeping us connected with our mission.
At our strategic planning day in February for our whole community, we identified stability, wellbeing and connection as being priorities for the coming year, as well as looking forward to working with Class 13 and Darvaja to explore and interrogate how race and racism show up at Peer Power to inform our strategic planning.
For a very small charity, we really do achieve extraordinary impact. I am immensely proud of all of our achievements, and all that we have learnt this year. Thank you to every single person who collaborates with us, supports us and works with us. “Together, we are none other than Peer Power!” is a quote from our young partners when developing our Theory of Change. And togetherness is absolutely a strength to be proud of.
Yours sincerely,
Anne-Marie Douglas Founder & CEO Peer Power Youth
THE YEAR IN NUMBERS
Peer Power +10 Experts 2 Young +12 Campaigners 31 205+ Young Partners
Peer Leaders
Children and young people in 3 secure settings
hours of engagement activity with Young Partners
Co-produced resources accessible to ALL youth justice practitioners in England & Wales
Young Partners spent 48 hours commissioning services
321 453 professionals engaged co-production, training in youth-led sessions & peer research hours and training
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WHO WE ARE
Peer Power is an empathy-led charity that engages children, teenagers and young adults with two goals in mind: individual change and system change. We support them in healing after trauma, finding the power and positivity in their stories and creating ways for them to be heard and influence action. We work with them as they develop the skills, experience and training to become future leaders. Together, we support those delivering, designing or commissioning services as they respond to the experiences of young people, so that approaches across the youth sector are ever more driven by participation and empathy.
A world where empathy-led services and systems support all children, teenagers and young adults to achieve their dreams and lead their best lives.
OUR VISION
WHO WE WORK WITH
Some of the children, teenagers and young adults we partner with have described themselves as being ‘abandoned by society’. Our young partners have experienced injustice and inequality because of race, class, poverty, disabilities and other things, as well as childhood adversity, abuse and trauma. They are passionate about using their experiences in positive and powerful ways to improve support services by voicing issues for and with their peers, other children, teenagers and young adults. The organisations, agencies and stakeholders that we partner with include youth justice services, health services, prisons, police, social services, schools and more. We know that those delivering, designing and commissioning services care about children and young people, though sometimes the systems they are working in make it hard to embed the empathic and participatory approaches that are so needed.
OUR THEORY OF CHANGE
OUR MISSION
To be a caring support network for young people, helping to change their lives through reliable healthy relationships so they can change and inspire the lives of others and increase empathy in the services designed to help them.
We are trying to effect change in two areas:
INDIVIDUAL CHANGE
OUR VALUES
EMPATHY
We are compassionate, caring and strive to understand the experiences of others.
RESPECT
We believe in listening, understanding and learning from others.
POSITIVITY
We focus on people’s strengths and our collective potential.
OPENNESS AND HONESTY
We encourage each other to be ourselves and own our own stories.
LOVE
Our work and our action is grounded in love and kindness, for ourselves and for others.
FAIRNESS
We believe in equal access to opportunities, social justice and mobility.
Individual change: improving the 1 health and wellbeing of young people, supporting them into work and developing them as future leaders.
SYSTEM CHANGE
2 Iimproving, influencing and changing the systems that are supposed to support young people, including justice, health, education and social care.
We believe these go hand in hand. The more we support young people affected by adversity to overcome their trauma and the challenges it can create, the more they’ll be able to work with professionals within these sectors to create better, more supportive, compassionate systems. Systems that actually meet the needs of children and young people. The better the systems we have, the fewer young people will need our support. Eventually we will have an inclusive and just society that recognises each individual's assets, skills and strengths.
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BACKGROUND TO OUR WORK
A year after the pandemic the charity was still very much seeing the challenging effects and impact. With strong relationships at the heart of how we work, we adapted well to hybrid working and made changes to ensure continued support to Young Partners and our team.
PROGRAMMES WE DELIVERED AND THEIR IMPACT
THE ‘PEER TO PROFESSIONAL’ JOURNEY
Our work was in high demand and with our funders' support we were able to provide exciting in-person and hybrid opportunities to Young Partners along with the pastoral and emotional support needed to navigate ongoing challenges adapting to the 'new normal', including:
Peer to Professional support. To help in “achieving their dreams and living their best life”, for example, AQA qualifications, education, training, interviewing and life skills Developing their own campaigns and social action projects Development routes to become Peer Leaders after one year, and where there is an opportunity to apply to work in the charity in other roles
YOUNG PARTICIPANTS
Take part in our focus groups, surveys and peer-led sessions to help improve services.
PEER POWER EXPERTS
Work with professionals on system change – speaking at events, running workshops, doing creative work to tell stories with power.
PEER POWER LEADERS
Conduct workshops and research, advise on and co-write reports.
PEER TRAINERS
Deliver accredited Peer Power training to other peers or professionals.
YOUNG CAMPAIGNERS
Devise and lead their own positive change campaigns in response to their lived experience.
BOARD MEMBER
Some young partners may go on to sit on our Advisory Board.
When Peer Power was founded, the young people involved in its development advised us to provide three types of support:
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Trusted, empathic, consistent relationships and holistic support
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Meaningful involvement
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Employment support and opportunity
The Peer Power journey is based on these.
Our approach is unique. We are person-centered, and use empathy training, positive psychology, trust, compassion and relationships as the building blocks of all of our work. ‘The relationship IS the intervention’ is our motto. We work in partnership with young people to design and develop our work - ‘no decision about me, without me’ is one of our core principles. Therefore when we say “we”, we include young people in that. There is no “them” and “us”. We engage with young people as long as they wish to stay, and up to the age of 25. When a young person joins the Peer Power network, they become a partner – in designing the support they want, and in creating the change they want to see.
Together, we’ve now developed different roles Young Partners can take along their ‘Peer to Professional’ journey. Each journey is different, so these roles offer different levels of involvement. But as a group, partners support each other. They reach out to other young participants within their communities, including secure settings. And they engage with a growing network of professionals and decision-makers, through training, workshops and events. These are all paid roles in some way, ranging from expenses-paid volunteer time, through paid session work to self-employed contract work. We expect the services, institutions and organisations we work with to value our young partners’ time and insight just as we do.
In the first year of the Constable Education Trust funding, the Peer to Professional Programme has been developed and embedded so that young people working across all programmes at Peer Power including in 4 secure settings, and in the community can get support to achieve their goals.
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PEER TO PROFESSIONAL IMPACT
THE ‘PEER TO PROFESSIONAL’ JOURNEY - CO -PRODUCTION HIGHLIGHTS
Our Peer Power Experts, Peer Leaders and Young Campaigners have been able to impact system change across a range of services and partnerships including the Youth Justice Board, NHS England, London and the South East, and HM Inspectorate of Probation highlights include:
- Launching the research report and resources on Co creation and participation in the Youth Justice System (YJS) with the Youth Justice Board of England and Wales (YJB). These resources are available to ALL youth justice practitioners in England and Wales and are promoted by the YJB.
Young people Hours of attended Peerindependent 30 38 led outreach counselling sessions Peer group Young people sessions held 14 received AQA's 19 At 6 months goal setting and review meetings took place which showed:
91% 100%
of Peer Power Young Partners report improved confidence, self esteem and well-being
of Peer Power Young Partners in education, training or employment after six months
All Young Partners were offered individual coaching sessions.
The research set out to understand the complex cultural and environmental factors at play where participation and co-creation thrives in a youth justice context. In particular, the work aims to involve the voices of those who directly experience YJS, and those that work in them, in applying a participatory approach in practice.
From small steps to BIG CHANGE
The research found that many practitioners in YJS believe in listening to children and involving them in decisions. But, for many reasons, it’s not always happening as well as it could, or in the same ways in different areas of the same service, or across different services. Some services were more evolved than others with their capability to co-create and co-design service provision. At the same time, there was an understanding that co-creation required a wider organisational and strategic commitment and a whole system approach.
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From the views and experiences of the various practitioners across YJS, the academic working group and the Peer Power Experts, we proposed some recommendations along with a resource pack. One of the most important points to take away from this co-created project is that change won't just happen by itself. A culture of participation and co-creation needs to be embedded in the way YJS delivers services.
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“It’s great to feel like lived experience is being seen in a positive way instead of being something that is used against you”
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“The thing I will take away is hope. That there is an organisation out there who really cares and is doing this kind of work to support young people “
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“All the encouragement today. You’ve given me the confidence to speak about my opinions without being judged”
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“It feels like a community or a family. Like we’re working towards a shared goal”
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“I’ve learnt about empathy and co-production”
Young Partners
Health and Justice Peer Power Experts
This year was the fourth year of our Peer Power Experts group, which works to ensure the voices of young people are heard, responded to, and can therefore better shape service delivery across NHSEI Health and Justice Services in London.
“A child is not a problem to be fixed but a person – not to have stuff done to, but to work with.”
"I hope from this work that organisations can see the value of co-production and how it can empower both professionals and young people to create a more empathic service and be more inclusive. Co-production can create long-lasting change and organisations should be proud to take that first step in making an equal ground."
(Peer Power Expert - 2021)
The group developed their own manifesto outlining their priorities for health and justice, participated in professional meetings, and represented young people and Peer Power on a series of panels and events. They were involved in a range of ways across the project including:
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Participating in filming and recording of a resource to support healthcare professionals in how to engage with young people in their practice and wider communities
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Delivering co-production training to pan London Liaison Diversion services including health and justice staff representatives
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Partnering on Liaison and Diversion Peer Review Day as part of the review panel alongside NHS professionals.
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Engaging in discussion which ensured lived experience insight to commissioners and medical professionals which prompted them to consider design, delivery and procurement of services and workstreams such as at Feltham Young Offenders Institute (YOI), a health inequalities Workstream and Liaison & Diversion projects that help to divert young people away from the justice system..
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- A highlight for young partners were the short films they co-produced in collaboration with the organisations ODD arts and 84 youth, on ‘addressing healthcare inequalities’. The films highlight thematic inequalities across health, such as poverty, class and race, and what young partners want the solution to be in addressing them.
This year they have been keen to expand on this work to create resources for professionals and create a podcast to platform the voices of their peers in communities, and ensure all voices are heard and influence health and justice priorities.
”This was really creative and showed forth the insights on how people can be treated differently by classism or stereotyping people. My character specifically was someone who was in power they saw a big black man who’d been stabbed and got the wrong impression. This led to him feeling frustrated and then he didn’t get the support he needed from the healthcare professional” - (Young Partner - 2021)
Violence Reduction Programme (VRP)
Peer Power Youth supports young people to engage effectively with the NHS Violence Reduction Programme so that their experiences and insights inform what the health system in London can do for young people impacted by violence. The programme continues to support community engagement that informs how the health system effectively responds to the prevention and reduction of violence across various settings.
As part of our partnership with the NHS Violence Reduction Programme, young partners have had an impact through:
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Commissioning of services for mental health in communities across London
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Attending regular strategic board meetings, which include clinicians, health practitioners, voluntary sector representatives, etc.
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Involvement in workshops and focus groups to support the development of empathy and communication training content for health professionals
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Creation of videos for training healthcare professionals on empathy and how to put young people first at an Expert Advisory Group. Exploring synergies between Framework for Integrated Care Community and the Violence Reduction models that are being developed. Involvement in strategic communications around Violence reduction
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Designing peer-led workshops to engage young people in the community to understand their needs and voices around violence in their communities
Highlights for Young Partners include:
“A big shout out to ‘all’ Peer Power Members, Colleagues and Young People, we are truly inspired by their commitment, creativity and for the support we have received across all of our NHSE/I Health & Justice (London) Services”
Videos on empathy and how to put young people first for training healthcare professionals. “...That day really helped me as a person, because before that I had no trust in the NHS when they were working with young people. I felt they didn’t really care about us and were just telling us what to do. Seeing the group of professionals there doing something to put young people at the heart of their work gave me hope.” - Young Partner 2021
Commissioning work for the Vanguards– who got money to run these services. September 2021.
“We think of Peer Power as an invaluable part of our Health and Justice (London) Team and really appreciate all of the lived experience and expertise that they bring and share across all of our regional services. It is a joy to work side by side with all of our Peer Power Colleagues, especially the young people who bring a realness and professionalism in everything they do” - Ian Brown (He/Him) Patient & Public Voice Lead, Health & Justice (London Region) NHSE/I
What is a Vanguard?
In 2015, NHS England selected 50 sites to act as ‘vanguards’ to lead the development of five new care models. The vanguard programme is an attempt by the NHS to transform and integrate health and social care services, following the integrated care pilots and the integrated care pioneers.
“This felt great as it gave me insight into what hospitals will do to help young people. This is going to be important to have the youth advisory group because it gives young people decision-making power that can affect them in the long term.” - Young Partner (Rico)
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Working with Secure Settings
In 2021-22 Peer Power creatively connected with 31 young people across three secure settings and delivered training and events to professionals working with children and young people across secure settings in England and Wales.
The challenges of Covid meant that we were not able to deliver much face-to-face work in secure settings this year. However, in Feltham Young Offenders Institute (YOI) Young Partners designed a youth-led consultation to hear from 25 of their peers in the YO Ito make a positive improvement to the healthcare response to COVID-19 and future pandemics.
Our Young Partners trained staff in Swanwick and Lansdowne Secure Children's Homes (SCH) - in co-production. In Lansdowne SCH a healthy eating mural was co created and painted with young residents and Lizzie Lines – a creative resource which links to the mural and has been designed to support induction to the home has also been produced.
We are excited to have been successful in our bid to ensure the voice of children and young people is heard in four secure settings across the South-East region over three years:
- Aylesbury Young Offenders Institute Cookham Wood Young Offenders Institute Swanwick Lodge Secure Children’s Home Lansdowne Secure Children’s Home
We are also partnering with the NHS South East team in the development of the new model for the OASIS Restore Secure School. This will see our impact in secure settings grow over the coming years.
Impacting funders
We aim to engage funders with our learning and insights from young people and to help inform their work and priorities. An example of this was when delivering a workshop on coproduction to The Tudor Trust who are reviewing how they involve young people with lived experience in their strategy and grant making. Staff and Trustees from Tudor Trust gave feedback:
Positive, uplifting, empowering and informative! We gained tools for listening and engaging and communicate
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Opportunity Fund- Young Campaigners
We worked with The Blagrave Trust and Paul Hamlyn Foundation to support 14 Young people in young campaigner roles over eighteen months. Their campaigns ranged from addressing inequalities, raising awareness around mental health and educating young people around their legal rights. Below are the stories from three of the Young Campaigners in this year’s cohort:
One young campaigner, Rose, is using her experiences and knowledge to spark a movement to change inequalities and stigma currently in place in Children's Social Care services. Rose has been building strong relationships with strategic groups in her community, building connections with young people and professionals.
Toni’s campaign aims to normalise conversations about mental health and provides a safe space for creatives to explore mental health and share their talent. The campaign focuses on challenges brought on by the pandemic and provides support and resources to those impacted.
As someone who studies law, the goal of Georgia's campaign is for everyone to have a basic understanding of their rights and the process in the criminal justice system. The use of social media and direct interaction have been ways to increase the campaign's profile and platform.
UK Trauma Council
Holly Baine , from UK Trauma Council, a part of the Anna Freud Centre said of the process they have been through:
“The Peer Power training was incredibly rich in information, helping the UKTC team develop a nuanced understanding of co-production alongside other models of participation. Through interactive and thoughtful exercises, we put ourselves in the shoes of the young people we work with, gaining insight into the power and pitfalls of participation. The training being co-designed and codelivered by the Young Partners enhanced the experience and meant we were already in the process of putting ourselves up for scrutiny and challenge. This was learning by doing!
Changes to the way we work with young people began immediately by making our process, expectations and commitments more transparent, and
communicating the way their input changed what we produced. The learning from the training has helped us to design a framework for participation that places mutuality at the centre, ensuring young people who work with us will be valued members of the team and their personal and professional development will be a conscious part of the relationship. We also gained confidence in moving towards co-production over time – sometimes it can feel overwhelming as the end goal seems so far away. The coaching sessions in particular felt very
nurturing and supportive of our intentions, where we want to be, and what we can do now to move forwards.
The final takeaway for me was one of supportive and constructive challenge, with a whole lot of heart behind it. All of the interactions were full of empathy, humour and smiles. A really great experience – thank you!”
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Young Partners advising peers:
“It’s a really interesting experience, because when you go into the session, you think to yourself that you won’t have anything interesting to say. But then when you are actually doing it words just come out of your mouth and you’re shocked because you didn’t know you could think like that, which is kinda cool.”
Recurring themes from our evaluation highlight self-reported increase in skills developed through training and opportunities. We also see improvements in ‘soft’ skills, including improved confidence and emotional support:
Financial independence
Increased confidence
“It’s about how your experience with co-production can be used in a setting. It’s teaching them how to use co-production in their setting. Reflecting on yourself and giving embers of ideas to spark conversation.”
Practical skills and planning
Increased aspirations
Improved emotional wellbeing
Individual Change
Young Partners we partner with have lived experience of three or more of the following:
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Secure Settings (health, welfare, Justice) Youth Justice
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Children/Youth Social Care Services ‘looked after’
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Children/ Youth Mental Health Services (CAHMS/ Forensic CAHMS)
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School Exclusion
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Positive feedback from external and internal partners
We are making a measurable difference to these young people:
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80% reported improvement in ‘feeling optimistic about the future’
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reported that others had seen a positive difference in them since they connected with Peer Power
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80%
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100% reported improved confidence, self-esteem and well-being
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are in education, training or employment just six months after their time with us, rising from 12% when they first joined
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92%
System Change
As well as the impact through co-production projects highlighted above. Peer Power impacts system change through training and consultancy work with professionals working in support services for young people. The training and events are designed and delivered with Young Partners. Events include workshops with Inspectors of youth justice services from HM Inspectorate of Probation, presenting to a range of professionals linked to Cookham Wood Young Offenders Institute, and presenting at the World Global Youth Justice Conference.
- Along with pastoral support, we have facilitated training to enable them to engage in our work to change systems and to achieve their goals.
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In addition to events, 48 professionals across six organisations received training and coaching in co-production. This training aims to support professionals to understand the main principles of co-production and was designed and delivered by young people with lived experience of support services.
Through feedback after the sessions, we identified the following impact for practitioners:
99% agreed that the training objectives were clearly defined
100% agreed that participation & engagement was encouraged
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100%[had significantly improved their knowledge of co-production]
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95% rated the training as highly relevant to their organisation
LOOKING FORWARD
TO 2022
We are still a very young organisation and we are in demand. We want to diversify income streams and embed leadership across the team to facilitate our future growth. In 2022/23 we will:
Further embed our Peer to Professional off to support individual Young Partners
Increase reach and impact in community and secure settings
Grow our national and training work
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100%[of delegates rated the training as well paced]
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99% of delegates would recommend the training to other professionals
Organisational development
Peer Power is a small and young charity and our work is in demand. In 21-22 we started a period of growth and transition and have begun work to develop strong foundations for the future.
Peer Power has always shared decisions across the organisation with young people and to
support this as we grow we are exploring sociocracy as a structure and method for this. Sociocracy is a governance system, just like democracy or corporate governance methods. It’s best suited for organizations that want to self-govern based on the values of equality. (Sociocracy For All).
Staff and Young Partners have been trained in consent-based decision-making to enable shared decisions across our work- including around future funding and developing our strategic and operational plans.
New employees – development, recruitment of senior leadership team
Work with the organisation, Outlandish, to use consent-based decision making across the organisation.
Work with Class 13 on race equality with the organisation. Class 13 to deliver equity & inclusion plans, addressing intersectionality & discrimination including race, ethnicity, nationality, neurodiversity, gender identity, sexuality, disability, social class
We will continue to follow the operational and strategic plan:
Strategic objective 1: Disrupting, influencing, and changing child and youth services which includes:
Developing, evaluating and delivering the Peer Power model of holistic participatory youth engagement.
Strategic objective 2: Building an anti-racist charity & tackling oppression in all its forms which includes:
Developing our strategies, policies to develop Peer Power’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion approach.
We continue to explore how we can be a better anti-oppressive and anti-racist charity. We are working with Class 13 and Davarja to listen deeply to our community and create tangible plans to further develop our practice across our work. Young Partners continue to explore issues around race and inequalities across our work.
Strategic objective 3: Organisational stability, growth and sustainability which includes:
People at Peer Power are connected to the strategy and vision.
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OUR SUPPORTERS
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR INCREDIBLE PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS
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IN PARTNERSHIP WITH YOUNG PEOPLE, WE WILL:
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Act for Change Fund Paul Hamlyn Foundation Esmee Fairbairn Foundation Centre for Mental Health The Blagrave Trust Beyond Suffrage NHS England and Improvement South East NHS England and Improvement London NHS England and Improvement National NHS NEL Healthcare Consulting The Tudor Trust UK Trauma Council City Bridge Trust ClearView Research Criminal Justice Alliance Joseph Levy Foundation Sound Delivery Media Morrison Foerstor Youth Justice Board GBL Limited Constable Educational Trust
THANK YOU TO THE INDIVIDUAL DONORS THAT HAVE SUPPORTED OUR WORK. AND TO THE YOUNG PARTNERS INVOLVED WITH PEER POWER.
YOUR COMMITMENT TO CREATING POSITIVE CHANGE, FOR EACH OTHER AND WITHIN THE SYSTEM, HAS MADE PEER POWER THE ORGANISATION IT IS TODAY.
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TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
The Board of Trustees present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the period ended 31 March 2022. The Trustees have adopted the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) ‘Accounting and Reporting by Charities’ issued in January 2015.
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
GOVERNING DOCUMENT
Peer Power Youth (also known as ‘Peer Power’) is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) registered under the charity number 1167758. It is governed by the CIO Constitution which sets out the charity’s objects and how it is to be administered.
APPOINTMENT OF TRUSTEES
Peer Power Trustees are appointed based on the skills they bring to the organisation and their ability to offer an independent opinion on the organisation’s strategy and operations. Peer Power ensures it reaches a wide and diverse pool of talent and skills to support the charity through targeted advertising into skills groups required and to under-represented groups.
Board members are appointed after a skills evaluation by incumbent Board members and CEO and upon receipt of CV, interview, references and DBS Check. Young people are involved in decision-making with the board, though the final decision for recruitment is made by the Board. New Trustees must complete safeguarding training, and Trustee induction training.
PEER POWER STAFF AND
GOVERNANCE
Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022 Peer Power employed:
Peer Power Staff
CEO 1 FTE
Deputy CEO & Head of Programmes 0.8
- Head of Finance 0.5
Office Manager 0.8
- Youth Engagement Co-production Manager 0.8 Peer Engagement Worker 0.8
Peer Engagement Worker 0.8
- Senior Youth Engagement Coordinator 1.0 FTE
(from November)
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Senior Youth Engagement Coordinator 0.8 (from October)
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Digital Communications Manager 0.8 (from May)
MANAGEMENT
The Board of Trustees governs the charity, meeting on a quarterly basis in person, and bi-monthly Zoom meetings. The Trustees appoint the Chief Executive who oversees the day-to-day operation of Peer Power with a Scheme of Delegation process in place. A number of advisory sub-committees undertake more detailed work as below. The full Board remains the ultimate decision-making body for Peer Power. The subcommittees include:
- Communications and fundraising HR and remuneration Legal and governance Finance
A handbook has been developed for Trustees. This outlines their responsibilities, provides governing documents, individual biographies, subcommittee details, role descriptions, policies, guidance and a glossary. In addition, a skills audit has been conducted where gaps in the Trustees’ expertise were identified. To address this, a series of sessions took place for 2021/2022 where individual Trustees were to conduct training, providing the board with knowledge of good practice in areas relevant to the charity’s work. Trustees also have access to training run by external organisations about their responsibilities and duties.
EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY
Peer Power wholeheartedly supports the principles of equality and diversity in all aspects of the organisations’ operations. We encourage, value and manage diversity and recognise there are moral, social and legal reasons for promoting such practice. We live these values through the recruitment and selection of staff, the development of organisational policies, for example ensuring that they are inclusive, developing with the team, and reviewed them through an intersectional and anti-oppression lens, as well as through our wider responsibility to beneficiaries of our work. We ensure that staff and Young Partners are included in decisions that affect them to ensure that all voices are heard and to foster a sense of belonging in the organisation.
The responsibility for the implementation of our work on Equality and Diversity sits with our CEO with regular oversight and monitoring by the Trustee Board, and a commitment from all staff to work on this.
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FINANCIAL REVIEW
Peer Power had a good financial year, outperforming our original budget of £409,795 to £452,795. This is a decrease from 2020/21 of 14.9% when we received emergency funding during the pandemic. We had a total expenditure of £536,001 - against budgeted £453,187 to support our service delivery.
RESERVES POLICY
Total funds held at the end of the period were £251,166 of which £170,013 were restricted reserves and not available for the general purposes of the charity.
Peer Power holds general reserves to provide cover for unexpected changes in income and expenditure, allowing the continuation of key activities in the event of:
a temporary loss of income a permanent fall in income, giving time to adjust our cost base or adjust our business model incurring a one-off unplanned cost not covered by existing funding
Holding general reserves also enables us to invest in new opportunities that help us to achieve our goals.
As of March 2022, the reserves policy of Peer Power was to hold free reserves of 53,666, representing 1.2 months of operating costs. This reserves policy will be reviewed annually to reassess the risks associated with our income and expenditure profile and identify any changes needed to our reserves policy given the organisation's growth and operating context.
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RISK MANAGEMENT
Peer Power has undertaken a review of the main risks to the organisation and established mitigating actions undertaken to minimise those issues. The CEO and leadership team are responsible for implementing the mitigating actions and reporting back regularly to the Board. Although risk can never be eliminated, it can be reduced by careful planning and preparation. Principal risks during 2021- 2022 and our approach to these were;
FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
Peer Power carefully manages our finances and relationships with funders to develop strong multi-year funding relationships and manage growth carefully to align with our fundraising pipeline. We have also invested in an associate fundraising officer who has successfully brought in significant income. In 2022 we plan to further invest in our fundraising capacity and capabilities recruiting our first fundraiser to develop and implement our fundraising strategy that will see us diversify our income streams with a long term income generation plan to support the future stability of the charity.
GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
Governance processes are in place to ensure legal compliance and internal controls. Trustees review of all safeguarding, health and safety, financial and HR systems and procedures during 2021/22 and are currently implementing resulting actions.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
The health and safety of the young people, as well as our staff and supporters is paramount and we regularly review our policies and procedures to ensure a healthy working environment.
WELLBEING
The wellbeing and mental health of our Young Partners, staff, volunteers and supporters is extremely important to our mission and objectives. To mitigate this risk we have regular wellbeing check-ins for staff, Young Partners and Trustees, provide an enhanced well-being offer across our community with access to therapeutic support and clinical supervision for the youth engagement team.
CHANGES TO LAW AND REGULATION
Our operations are impacted by many areas of regulation including safeguarding, health and safety, fundraising, justice, health and charity regulation. We regularly update and review our practices to ensure best practice and legal compliance.
SAFEGUARDING
Peer Power Youth seeks to provide an environment where everyone can work safely, and children, young people and adults at risk can engage with the charity's activities and enjoy programmes provided through the work of the Charity or in partnership with other agencies and/or community voluntary sector organisations.
It is the policy of Peer Power Youth to safeguard the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk involved in the work we do by protecting them from neglect, physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
It is also Peer Power Youth’s policy to provide those working for or with the charity with a framework to operate within to keep everyone who is engaged in the Charity’s activities safe. We follow safe recruitment practices, ensuring that all staff, apprentices, Trustees, consultants and volunteers (legally responsible adults) working with children, young people or adults at risk: are carefully selected, are checked by the Disclosure and Barring Service, have two appropriate references and understand and accept their responsibility for the safety of children, young people and adults at risk in their care. We also provide Safeguarding Training to all new staff, volunteers and contractors following our Safeguarding Policy.
Safeguarding for the charity has been
implemented in the Charity’s Safeguarding Policy and Procedures. The Leadership Team will ensure the policy and its accompanying procedures and practice guidelines are implemented across their geographical and functional areas of responsibility.
PUBLIC BENEFIT
The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 4 of the Charities Act 2006 to have due regard to public benefit guidance published by the Charity Commission in determining the activities undertaken by the Charity. The following sections demonstrate our provision of public benefit:
HISTORY OF THE ORGANISATION
Peer Power is an exciting, young, national social justice charity. It was founded by Anne-Marie Douglas, together with an Advisory Group of young people with lived experience (of justice, health and social care), academics and professionals in the voluntary and statutory sectors. It was founded because of Anne-Marie’s belief in, and personal experience of, trauma peer-support services and empathy, and because through her work she had found that the experiences and views of young people nationally were not being meaningfully involved in systems there to support them.
TThe organisation was originally constituted as ‘Peer Power YJ’ in 2015 as a Company Limited by Guarantee (Company registration number 09328982) and operated until December 2016.
Peer Power Youth was registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with the Charity Commission (Charity Registration number 1167758) in June 2016 and began its charitable activities from 1 January 2017. The resources of Peer Power YJ were transferred to Peer Power Youth as a donation on 1 January 2017.
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LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS
CHARITABLE OBJECTIVES
To support the advancement in life and relieve the needs of children and young people (predominantly aged 10-25) – including, and in particular, those who are disadvantaged and have experienced youth justice and/or care services – by providing support and activities which develop their strengths, skills, capacities and capabilities:
- to enable them to participate in society as mature and responsible individuals, to help tackle social problems affecting them and their peers, particularly emotional and mental health issues, which can have consequences including substance misuse, homelessness, repeat offending and unemployment; and to improve the effectiveness of services provided for such young people.
PUBLIC BENEFIT OUTCOMES: RELATED TO THE CHARITY’S AIMS
Peer Power empowers children and young people. We create platforms for the voices of those with lived experience of the issues they want to tackle, through storytelling and peer engagement, to improve empathy, public perception and understanding, care and compassion for those who rarely have a stake in society. We collaborate and work in partnership with a wide range of professionals and organisations to develop higher standards of empathy, inclusion, diversity, and whole system transformation.
Peer Power is distinctive in that it involves young people in decision-making at all levels of the organisation, and it always has. All work is peer-led and designed in partnership with young people with lived experience of the issues they seek to campaign about. Young people input regularly into the development of the charity, from determining priorities and values, to planning events and feeding into recruitment. A third of our governing advisory group are young adults with recent experience of social care, justice, and health agencies and we have two young Trustees.
TRUSTEES/DIRECTORS OF THE BANKERS Metro Bank PLC 82 North St, CHARITY AND COMPANY Brighton BN1 1ZA
Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly (Chair Sarah Jones (Treasurer, Appointed January 2020) REGISTERED 1167758 CHARITY Jeffrey Wotherspoon NUMBER Annie Morris Alex Lloyd ADDRESS Peer Power Youth Kristin Barker Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre Rebecca Olokun 5 Glasshouse Walk Vauxhall Alice Olafare London Nicola Gilbert SE11 5ES Annalisa Mensah Elena Laguna ACCOUNTANT BJ Demidoff & Sons 47 Mangold Way Imogen Pursch (until December 2021) Erith, Kent DA18 4DA
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Peer Power Youth (A Charitable Incorporated Organisation) STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED March 2022
PEER POWER YOUTH FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 1 APRIL 2021 – 31 MARCH 2022
| Notes | Unrestricted | Restricted | Total Funds | Total Funds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funds £ | Funds £ | 2022 £ | 2021 £ | ||
| INCOMING RESOURCES |
|||||
| Donations | 9,606 | 0 | 9,606 | 7,301 | |
| Charitable Activities | 2 | ||||
| Events | 45,265 | 0 | 45,265 | 18,555 | |
| Grants, Trusts and Foundations | 142,880 | 255,224 | 398,104 | 494,716 | |
| Total Incoming resources | 197,752 | 255,224 | 452,975 | 520,571 | |
| EXPENDITURE | |||||
| Costs of generating funds | |||||
| Raising funds | 3,450 | 3,450 | 5,636 | ||
| Charitable Activities | |||||
| Events | 5,753 | 5,753 | 12,510 | ||
| Grants, Trusts and Foundations | 179,773 | 347,026 | 526,799 | 337,106 | |
| Total Expenditure | 188,975 | 347,026 | 536,001 | 355,253 | |
| Net incoming/(outgoing)resources before | 8,776 | (91,802) | (83,026) | 165,319 | |
| transfers | |||||
| Net movement of funds | 8,776 | 91,802) | (83,026) | 165,319 | |
| Total funds at 1 April 2021 | 72,377 | 261,817 | 334,194 | 168,875 | |
| Total funds at 31 March 2022 | 81,153 | 170,015 | 251,168 | 334,194 |
Peer Power Youth (A Charitable Incorporated Organisation) BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 MARCH 2022
| Notes | 2022 | 2021 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CURRENT ASSETS | |||||
| Cash at bank & in hand | 253,159 | 321,581 | |||
| Debtors & Prepayments | 6 | 26,167 | 18,522 | ||
| 279,325 | 340,103 | ||||
| CREDITORS: Amounts falling due within one year |
7 | (28,159) | (5,910) | ||
| NET CURRENT ASSETS | 251,167 | 334,192 | |||
| TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES | 251,167 | 334,192 | |||
| THE FUNDS OF THE CHARITY | 81,153 | 72,376 | |||
| Restricted funds | 10 | 170,013 | 261,816 | ||
| Unrestricted funds: | |||||
| Designated funds | 10 | 27,486 | 35,473 | ||
| General funds | 10 | 53,666 | 36,904 | ||
| TOTAL FUNDS | 251,166 | 334,192 |
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The directors and Trustees consider that the charitable company is entitled to exemption from the requirement to have an audit under the provisions of Section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 and the members have not required the company to obtain an audit for the year in question in accordance with section 476 of the Companies Act 2006.
The Trustees and directors acknowledge their responsibilities for;
a) Ensuring that the charitable company keeps accounting records that comply with Sections 386 and 387 of the Companies Act 2006 and;
b) Preparing financial statements which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company as at the end
of the financial year and of its surplus or deficit for the financial year in accordance with the requirements of Sections 394 and 395
of the Companies Act 2006 and Charity’s Act 2011 and which otherwise comply with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006
and the Charity’s Act 2011 relating to financial statements, so far as applicable to the charitable company.
These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the special provisions applicable to small
companies within Part 15 the Companies Act 2006 relating to small charitable companies and with the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities (effective January 2015). Approved by the Trustee Board on and signed on their behalf by:
Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly
Charity Registration Number 1167758
Peer Power Youth (A Charitable Incorporated Organisation) STATEMENT OF CASH FLOW
STATEMENT OF CASH FLOW |
||
|---|---|---|
| Total Funds | Total Funds | |
| 2022 £ | 2021 £ | |
| NET CASH PROVIDED BY/(USED IN) OPERATING ACTIVITIES Cash | (68,422) | 125,019 |
| and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period Cash and | ||
| cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period | 321,581 | 196,562 |
| Reconciliation of net cash flow income/(expenditure) to net from | 253,159 | 321,581 |
| operating activities | ||
| NET INCOME FOR THE REPORTING PERIOD (AS PER THE STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES) |
(83,026) | 165,319 |
| Adjustment for: Decrease/(increase) in debtors | (7,645) | (6,544) |
| (Decrease)/increase in creditors | 22,248 | (33,755) |
| Net cash provided by operating activities | (68,422) | 125,019 |
| ANALYSIS OF CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS Cash at bank and in hand | ||
| Total cash and cash equivalents | 253,159 | 321,581 |
Peer Power Youth (A Charitable Incorporated Organisation) NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 March 2022
1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES
1.1 Basis of preparation of financial statements
The 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 Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic Ireland (FRS 102) issued on 16 July 2014 and with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Act 2011.
The charity is the parent undertaking of a small group and as such is not required to prepare group accounts.
The financial statements therefore present information about the charity as an individual undertaking and not about its group.
1.2 Going Concern
There are no material uncertainties about the charity’s ability to continue.
1.3 Changes to accounting estimates
No changes to accounting estimates have occurred in the reporting period.
1.4 Material prior years errors
No material prior year errors have been identified in the reporting period.
1.5 Income recognition
Items of income are recognised and included in the Statement of Financial Activities (SoFA) when all the following criteria are met; the Charity has entitlement to the funds and resources;any performance conditions attached to the item of income has been met or fully within the control of the charity; there is sufficient
certainty that receipt of the income is considered
probable; and the amount can be measured reliably.
There has been no offsetting of assets and liabilities, or income and expenditure, unless required or permitted by FRS 102 SORP or FRS 102. Grants and donations are only included in the SoFA when the general income recognition criteria are met. In the case of performance related grants, income is only recognised to the extent that the charity has provided the specific goods or services in accordance with the performance related conditions.
1.6 Charitable expenditure and liabilities
Charitable expenditure includes all expenditure directly related to the
objects of the charity.
This includes support costs, which are the staffing and associated costs of supporting, monitoring and evaluating the work of the charity. Where costs cannot be directly attributed to particular headings they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources.
1.6.1 Liability recognition
Liabilities are recognised where it is more likely than not that there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to pay out resources and the amount of the obligation can be measured with reasonable certainty.
1.6.2 Governance and support costs
Support costs have been allocated between governance costs and other support. Governance costs comprise all costs involving public accountability of the charity and its compliance with regulation and good practice.
Support costs include central functions and have been allocated to activity cost categories on a basis consistent with the use of resources.
1.6.3 Deferred Income
Deferred income has been included in the accounts in accordance with the period to which it relates to.
1.6.4 Creditors
The charity has creditors which are measured at settlement amounts less any trade discounts.
1.6.5 Provisions for liabilities
A liability is measured on recognition at its historical cost and then subsequently measured at the best estimate of the amount required to settle the obligation at the reporting date.
1.6.6 Basic financial instruments
The charity accounts for financial instruments on initial recognition as per paragraph 10.7 FRS 102 SORP, subsequent measurement is per paragraphs 11.7 to 11.9 FRS 102 SORP.
1.1 Assets
1.1.1 Investments
Fixed assets investments are stated at cost less impairment.
1.1.2 Debtors
Debtors are measured on initial recognition at settlement amount. Subsequently, they are measured at the cash or other consideration expected to be received.
1.1.3 Cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents are represented by cash in hand and deposits with financial institutions repayable without penalty on notice of not more than 24 hours.
1.2 Funds
Funds held by the charity are either:
1.2.1 Unrestricted general funds
These funds which can be used in accordance with the charitable objects at the discretion of the Trustees.
1.2.2 Restricted funds
These are funds that can be used for particular restricted purposes within the charity. Restrictions arise when specified by the donor or when funds are raised for particular restricted purposes.
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2. ANALYSIS OF INCOMING RESOURCES
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Total Funds | Total Funds | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funds | Funds | 2022 | 2021 | ||
| £ | £ | £ | £ | ||
| DONATIONS | 9,606 | 0 | 9,606 | 7,301 | |
| CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES | |||||
| GRANTS, TRUSTS AND FOUNDATIONS | |||||
| Blagrave Trust | - | 92,220 | 92,220 | 45,848 | |
| Blagrave SE | 32,546 | - | 32,546 | 0 | |
| Centre for Mental Health | - | - | 0 | 7,990 | |
| City Bridge Trust | - | - | 0 | 21,921 | |
| Criminal Justice Alliance | - | - | 0 | 2,000 | |
| Esmee Fairbarn | 52,000 | - | 52,000 | 69,000 | |
| GML Limited | - | - | 0 | 20,000 | |
| Joseph Levy Foundation | - | - | 0 | 9,980 | |
| London Comm Foundation | - | - | 0 | 4,972 | |
| NHS England (NHS 21/22) | - | 100,000 | 100,000 | 88,612 | |
| NHS England (NHS SE Commissioning) | - | 17,540 | 17,540 | 0 | |
| NHS England (VRU) | - | - | 0 | 79,947 | |
| Paul Hamlyn FoundationTudor Trust | 15,000 | 1,500 | 16,500 | 91,500 | |
| The Constable Educational Trust | 43,334 | - | 43,334 | 0 | |
| Tudor Trust | - | 30,000 | 30,000 | 32,000 | |
| Youth Justice Board | - | 13,964 | 13,964 | 20,946 |
4. MOVEMENT IN TOTAL FUNDS FOR THE YEAR; These are stated after charging
| 2022 | 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | ||
| Independent | Examiner’s | 250 | 250 |
| remuneration | 500 | 450 | |
| Annual accounts | Preparation | 750 | 700 |
5. TAXATION
No taxation has been provided for in the Financial Statements as the income of the Charity is exempt from income and corporation taxes, under Section 505 of the Taxes Act 1988 and Section 252 of the Taxation of Chargeable gains Act 1992 as it has been applied for the charitable objects of the company. Irrecoverable VAT has been charged to the relevant expenditure headings within the Financial Statements.
Peer Power Youth (a Charitable Incorporated Organisation) NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 2022
OTHER INCOME
| OTHER INCOME | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Events | 45,265 | - | 45,265 | 18,555 |
| Total Charitable Activities | 188,146 | 255,224 | 443,369 | 513,270 |
| TOTAL INCOMING RESOURCES | 197,752 | 255,224 | 452,975 | 520,571 |
3. STAFF COSTS & TRUSTEES
RENUMERATION
| RENUMERATION | 2022 | 2021 | |
| £ | £ | ||
| The average headcount during the reporting period was 13. | |||
| Salaries and wages | 298,295 | 261,533 | No employees received employee benefits (excluding employer |
| National Insurance | 28,054 | 16,188 | pension costs) of more than £60,000. |
| contributions | The total of employee benefits received by Trustees and its key | ||
| Pension costs | 6,697 | 3,512 | management personnel for their services to the charity was |
| Staff recuitment | 5,984 | 753 | £138,628. The Trustees received no remuneration during the year. |
| 339,030 | 281,987 |
6. DEBTORS:
7. CREDITORS: Amounts falling due within one year
| 2022 | 2021 | 2022 | 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | £ | £ | ||
| Trade | 25,455 | 18,330 | Accruals & creditors | 17,918 | 700 |
| Debtors | 712 | 192 | Taxation & social security | 10,240 | 5,210 |
| Prepayments | 26,167 | 18,522 | Grants received in advance (see below) |
0 | 0 |
| 28,159 | 5,910 |
There were no deferred income (Grants received in advance) for the year ending 31st March 2022
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8. ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE (CURRENT YEAR)
8. a) ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE (PRIOR YEAR)
| CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES | Staff Costs (Note 3) |
Direct Costs |
Core Costs |
Sub Total |
Support Costs- |
Governance | Governance | Total expenditure 2021 |
CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES | Staff Costs (Note 3) |
Direct Costs |
Core Costs |
Sub Total |
Support Costs- |
Governance | Governance | Total expenditure 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raising funds | - | 3,450 | - | 3,450 | - | - | 3,450 | Raising funds | - | 5,636 | - | 5,636 | - | - | 5,636 | ||
| Events | 4,419 | 1,333 | - | 5,753 | - | - | 5,753 | Events | 11,870 | 640 | - | 12,510 | - | - | 12,510 | ||
| Act 4 Change | 36,144 | 17,498 | - | 53,642 | 10,883 | 72 | 64,597 | Act 4 Change | 28,640 | 90 | - | 28,730 | 5,350 | 980 | 35,061 | ||
| Blagrave SE | 24,685 | - | - | 24,685 | 7,432 | 49 | 32,166 | Blagrave Trust | 40,894 | 6,785 | - | 47,678 | 7,640 | 1,400 | 56,718 | ||
| Blagrave Trust | 126 | 61,638 | - | 61,765 | 38 | 0 | 61,803 | Centre for Mental Health | - | 2,304 | - | 2,304 | - | - - | 2,304 | ||
| City Bridge Trust Esmee Joseph Levy Foundation NHS 21/22 NHS SE Commissioning NHS VRP (Violence Reduction Programme) Paul Hamlyn PTP - Peer To Professional Tudor YJB Governance Support Costs |
- 50,438 8,737 49,225 9,263 41,589 26,359 10,627 26,534 8,515 - 42,368 |
5,840 3,548 - 19,423 1,624 6,884 2,610 4,779 2,742 19,505 580 - |
- - - - - - - - - - - 45,517 |
5,840 53,986 8,737 68,648 10,887 48,474 28,969 15,405 29,277 28,019 580 87,886 |
- 15,187 2,631 14,713 2,789 12,522 7,937 3,200 7,989 2,564 0 (87,886) |
- 100 17 97 18 83 52 21 53 17 (580) |
5,840 69,273 11,385 83,458 13,694 61,079 36,958 18,626 37,319 30,600 - - |
City Bridge Trust Esmee Joseph Levy Foundation NHS 20/21 NHS SE Commissioning NHS VRU (Violence Reduction Unit) Paul Hamlyn PTP - Peer To Professional Tudor YJB Governance Support Costs |
11,696 46,557 163 60,557 2,010 5,094 25,936 194 23,881 1,886 - 22,609 |
- 1,000 - 17,297 - 1,006 400 - 3,000 5,005 8,473 - |
- - - - - - - - - - - 23,630 |
11,696 45,557 163 77,855 2,010 6,100 26,336 194 26,881 6,891 8,473 46,239 |
2,185 8,698 30 11,313 375 952 4,845 36 4,461 352 - (46,239) |
400 1,594 6 2,073 69 174 888 7 818 65 (8,473) - |
14,282 55,849 199 91,241 2,454 7,226 32,070 236 32,160 7,307 - - |
||
| 2021 Total | 339,030 | 151,453 | 45,517 | 536,001 | 0 | 0 | 536,001 | 2021 Total | 281,987 | 49,636 | 23,630 | 355,253 | 0 | 0 | 355,253 |
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| 9. GENERAL FUNDS | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | |
| Opening Balance at 1 April 2021 |
334,194 | 168,875 |
| Net incoming resources for the year |
(83,026) | 165,319 |
| Closing balance at 31 March 2022 |
251,168 | 334,194 |
a) DESIGNATED FUNDS
Esmée Fairbairn
This represents funding towards CEO salary.
b) RESTRICTED FUNDS
NHS England (London region) Delivery of a Patient and Public Voice contract for children, teenagers and young adults who have experienced health and justice services.
NHS NEL Healthcare Consulting Funding received for involvement in the 2019 refresh of Healthcare Standards for Children and Young People in Secure Settings (CYPSS).
Act for Change Fund This youth led project to develop training for peers and professionals is a joint initative funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, in partnership with the National Lottery Community Fund, on behalf of #iwill fund.
Centre for Mental Health This project supported the involvement of young people in the Clinical Managed Advisory Group – Secure settings.
10. FUND ANALYSIS
| 10. FUND ANALYSIS | 01 Apr | Incoming | Outgoing | 31 Mar |
| 2021 | Resources | Resources | 2022 | |
| £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| INCOME ARISING FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES | ||||
| Act 4 Change | 67,508 | - | 53,642 | 13,866 |
| Blagrave Trust Opportunity Fund | 29,502 | 92,220 | 61,765 | 59,957 |
| City Bridge Trust | 5,840 | - | 5,840 | 0 |
| Joseph Levy Foundation | 8,737 | - | 8,737 | 0 |
| NHS England (London) | 19,440 | 100,000 | 68,648 | 50,792 |
| NHS SE Commissioning | 0 | 17,540 | 8,877 | 8,663 |
| NHS England (VRU) | 68,950 | - | 48,474 | 20,477 |
| Paul Hamlyn Foundation | 33,664 | 1,500 | 28,969 | 6,194 |
| PTP - Peer To Professional | 4,779 | - | 4,779 | 0 |
| Tudor Trust | 9,340 | 30,000 | 29,277 | 10,063 |
| Youth Justice Board | 14,055 | 13,964 | 28,019 | 0 |
| Total Restricted Funds | - 261,815 |
255,224 | 347,026 | 170,013 |
| UNRESTRICTED FUNDS | ||||
| Designated Funds | ||||
| Esmee Fairbairn | 35,473 | 46,000 | 53,986 | 27,486 |
| General purposes fund | 36,904 | 151,752 | 134,989 | 53,666 |
| Total Unrestricted |
72,377 | 197,752 | 188,975 | 81,153 |
| Funds TOTAL FUNDS | 334,192 | 452,975 | 536,001 | 251,166 |
Blagrave Trust/Paul Hamyn Foundation This project is funded by Blagrave Trust and Paul Hamlyn Foundation to provide direct funding to young campaigners to develop their own campaigns with holistic support from Peer Power.
Tudor Trust This project is funded by Tudor Trust to fund staffing post of Head of Finance and Operations.
11. RELATED PARTIES TRANSACTIONS
The charity is controlled by its Trustees, who are directors of the company.
There were no trustee expense claims during the year and no other transactions with related parties were undertaken such are required to be disclosed under Financial Reporting Standards 8.
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REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
The Charity is a Public Benefit Entity
COMPANY NUMBER CE007587 COUNTRY OF INCORPORATION United Kingdom CHARITY NUMBER 1167758 COUNTRY OF REGISTRATION England & Wales
REGISTERED OFFICE AND OPERATIONAL ADDRESS
5 Glasshouse Walk Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre London SE11 5ES
Email: info@peerpower.org.uk Website: www.peerpower.org.uk
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Peer Power Vintage House 36-37 Albert Embankment Vauxhall London SE1 7TL
Independent examiner’s report
To the members of
Peer Power Youth - Charity Number : 1167758
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Peer Power Youth for the year ended 31 March 2022.
This report is made solely to the trustees as a body, in accordance with the Charities Act 2011. My examination has been undertaken so that I might state to the trustees those matters I am required to state to them in an independent examiner's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, I do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the trustees as a body, for my examination, for this report, or for the opinions I have formed.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the charity trustees of the Company you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 (‘the 2006 Act’).
Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the Company are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of the Company’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the 2011 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 giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
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1 Accounting records were not kept in respect of the Company as required by section 386 of the 2006 Act; or
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2 The accounts do not accord with those records; or
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3 The accounts do not comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the 2006 Act other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair view’ which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or
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4 The accounts have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice for accounting and reporting by charities.
I have no concerns in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Signed Date : 31 July 2022 BJ Demidoff & Sons