## The PeerTalk Charitable Foundation Registered charity no. 1169830 Annual Report 2021 This report describes the activities related to the purposes of the charity from 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021. The audited and approved accounts make up the centrefold insert. PeerTalk support groups are attended by people who live with depression, anxiety and related conditions. The groups are facilitated by trained volunteers. PeerTalk currently hosts twelve support groups. PeerTalk's vision is to establish a national network of support groups across the UK in the forthcoming years. ## **Meg Munn - Chair of Trustees** Over the last year, PeerTalk has adapted to the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. During the first lockdown we had to temporarily stop group meetings. Instead, we produced weekly emails, which were well received, provided a wealth of support ideas and reached new people, alerting them to the work of PeerTalk. Once regulations allowed, our groups relaunched and where possible meet weekly with all the required safety measures in place. Research and evaluation by Sheffield Hallam University has also been completed, demonstrating clearly the benefits of our work. We launched the evaluation report in two excellent online events which again brought PeerTalk to the attention of new people. As the country slowly moves into more normal life, we look forward to resuming our plan to start more groups and bring the confirmed benefits of peer support to more people. ## **The Pandemic** PeerTalk support groups were permitted to meet from August 2020 within the Govt regulations for providing social support. All except two groups were able to restart in Covid19 secure premises. A significant impact of the pandemic upon our work was the reduced availability of our volunteer facilitators. Some needed to shield, others implemented caution whilst some were located out of position to facilitate the groups. We were very pleased that all our volunteers were recognised as social care providers and offered the vaccine in January. Zoom provided the capability for each team of Facilitators to continue to meet together every eight weeks for sharing experiences of their group and elements of ongoing training. ## **Training New Volunteer Group Facilitators** During the year we trained 45 new volunteer Facilitators. Complying with social distancing regulations current at the time we trained new group Facilitators in Newcastle and Manchester whilst a third event was held online. In Newcastle the table was twenty metres long! Dr India Amos of Salford University and Philippa Wilshaw of NHS Tyne and Wear provided the clinical input. ## **‘Let’s Have a Chat’ Talking PeerTalk 24/3/21** An event to launch Sheffield Hallam University’s evaluation report. Opening the event, the **Rt Hon Julian Smith MP** , former Secretary of state for Northern Ireland and supporter of PeerTalk, said: ‘I think that the community based and peer based approach that PeerTalk are taking is really positive’. Guest Speaker **Dr Rosena Allin-Khan MP** , Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health, said: “There is nothing quite the same as being able to have a completely judgement free conversation with someone that just ‘gets it’. And, “I am not surprised that all your research shows the value of peer support and I think it is absolutely brilliant”. ## **Governance and Policies** PeerTalk is a charitable incorporated organisation with only the trustees as the members. The charity’s governing document is its constitution which is based on the Charity Commission’s model. Trustees are appointed to complement the organisational requirements based on knowledge, experience and skills. All trustees have been appropriately inducted and trained. |**The PeerTalk Charitable Foundaton Trustees**|**The PeerTalk Charitable Foundaton Trustees**|**The PeerTalk Charitable Foundaton Trustees**|**The PeerTalk Charitable Foundaton Trustees**|**The PeerTalk Charitable Foundaton Trustees**|**The PeerTalk Charitable Foundaton Trustees**|**The PeerTalk Charitable Foundaton Trustees**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**Meg Munn**
**(Chair)**
Trained as a social worker, Meg served asMP for Shefeld Heeley 2001 – 2015, during which
tme she was also Minister for Women and Equality and a Foreign Ofce minister. Meg is a
non-executve director and independent governance consultant.||||||| |**Jeremy**
**Foster**
Nine years as a bank branch manager and then 12 years leading teams of Corporate
Relatonship Managers, including responsibilites for compliance and risk assessment.
**_Jeremy stood down as a trustee in October having served for four years. We are very_**
**_grateful to Jeremy for his diligent oversight of PeerTalk’s fnances throughout these years._**||||||| |**Joanne**
**Malcolm**
Advanced Speech & Language Therapist working for an NHS Trust. Responsible for
departmental training on current thinking, research and developments in relaton to autsm.||||||| |**Emma**
**Bradley**
Now a consultant in Justce Health working with socially excluded groups, having been a
Director of Nursing and Patent Experience and Deputy Prisons and Probaton Ombudsman.||||||| |**Roger**
**Buterfeld**
Solicitor with 38 years experience working for local authorites and several years experience
of providing advice and training to local authorites.||||||| |**Kate**
**Chartres**
Kate Chartres is a Nurse Consultant and Network Clinical Lead for NHS England. Kate
provides clinical practce and professional leadership for the nursing team, research, training
and development.||||||| |**Graham**
**Ilif**
Graham spent many years as a senior manager and Marketng Director in the telecoms
industry and more recently has lectured in Marketng andBusiness in higher educaton.||||||| |**Andrew**
**Varley**
A Fellow of the Chartered Associaton of Certfed Accountants with a background of working
in manufacturing and constructon. Currently Group Accountant with The Casey Group Ltd.
**_Andrew was appointed as a trustee in February 2021 and has assumed the responsibility of_**
**_overseeing PeerTalk’s fnancial responsibilites._**||||||| ||||**PeerTalk Policies and Procedures**|||| |_Unchanged_|||_Reviewed and Revised_
_April 1st 2020 - March 31st 2021_||_New This Year_|| |||||||| |Bullying and Harassment
Policy||Equality, Diversity
& Inclusion Policy||Inducton for New Trustees||Terms of Reference - Trustees| |Complaints Procedure||Financial Policy||Receipt of Donatons Policy||Trustee Code of Conduct| |Confdentality Policy||Governance Risks||Recruitment and Selecton Policy||Volunteer Code of Practce| |Conficts of Interest Policy||Grievance Procedure||Safeguarding Policy||Volunteer Facilitator Role
Descripton| |Data Protecton Policy
& Privacy Notce||Health and Safety Policy||Secure storage, handling, use, retenton and
disposal of Disclosures and Disclosure
Informaton Policy||Volunteer Policy| |Disciplinary Procedures||Home Working Risk Assessment||Statement of Values||Volunteer Facilitator Agreement| |Equal Opportunites Policy||Lone Working: Policy, Procedure and
Practce Guidance||Terms of Reference for Advisory
Commitee||Whistleblowing Policy| |||**PeerTalk Policies and Procedures**|**PeerTalk Policies and Procedures**|**PeerTalk Policies and Procedures**|**PeerTalk Policies and Procedures**|| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |_Unchanged_||
_April_|_Reviewed and Revised_
_1st 2020 - March 31st 2021_|||_New This Year_| |Bullying and Harassment
Policy||Equality, Diversity
& Inclusion Policy||Inducton for New Trustees||Terms of Reference - Trustees| |Complaints Procedure||Financial Policy||Receipt of Donatons Policy||Trustee Code of Conduct| |Confdentality Policy||Governance Risks||Recruitment and Selecton Policy||Volunteer Code of Practce| |Conficts of Interest Policy||Grievance Procedure||Safeguarding Policy||Volunteer Facilitator Role| |||||||Descripton| |Data Protecton Policy||Health and Safety Policy||Secure storage, handling, use, retenton and||Volunteer Policy| |& Privacy Notce||||disposal of Disclosures and Disclosure||| |||||Informaton Policy||| |Disciplinary Procedures||Home Working Risk Assessment||Statement of Values||Volunteer Facilitator Agreement| |Equal Opportunites Policy||Lone Working: Policy, Procedure|and|Terms of Reference for Advisory||Whistleblowing Policy| |||Practce Guidance||Commitee||| ## **Principal Risks** The availability of volunteers every week is critical to maintaining clinical credibility. Every week there is the risk of a volunteer becoming unavailable without a replacement substitute. There is a risk that we don’t secure enough funds to deliver all our commitments for the next year. There is a risk that staff become incapacitated with a loss of organisational intelligence. There is a risk that volunteers disregard PeerTalk’s policies and procedures. ith the rewirements d the (Jwitie5 kt 2011 {the ktl. Car￿18 (Mrt rny e￿￿nati¢M I h3vÈ follo¥￿1 all aH)lic*e DTecticKts giv￿ tharity urnlÈr seaion 145(5Xbl ofthè (3) the do not CLY￿1v with the apF4icable reryremer•ts Co￿em￿ the forn) arnl corrtent af MrATWr 3 MeeD"ry HLA￿ R The PeerTalk Charitable Foundatio
1st April 2020 to
(previous financial year 1st Sept
**----- End of picture text -----**
|RECEIPTS|2020/21 totals|2019/20 totals*
64801.00
5000.00
939.49
80000.00
25854.17
1138.55
25458.61
567.80
203759.62| |---|---|---| |**Grants: Restricted funds**|62729.38|| |_Edward Gostling Foundation - West Yorks_
2500.00||| |_Tudor Trust - staff salaries_
20000.00||| |_HM Govt - Covid19 response_
27320.00||| |_Tudor Trust - volunteer wellbeing_
2000.00||| |_One Community Foundation - Kirklees_
925.97||| |_Co-op Local Community Fund - Preston_
1718.41||| |_Allen Lane - existing work2 _
7500.00||| |_East Hampshire District Council - Bordon2 _
765.00||| |**Grants: Unrestricted funds**||| |||| |**Donations: Restricted funds**|2300.00|| |_Warrington group_
2000.00||| |
_Craven groups_
300.00||| |_Funds for future years_||| |||| |**Donations: Unrestricted funds**|15945.68|| |_regular giving_
1420.81||| |
_one-off gifts_
14524.87||| |||| |**Fund raising**|143.68|| |||| |**HMRC Gift Aid**|832.14|| |||| |**Interest**|586.84|| |_restricted_
323.96||| |_unrestricted_
262.88||| |||| |||| |sub-total -_restricted_
65353.34||| |_- unrestricted_
17184.38|**82537.72**|| |**Balances 1.4.20**||| |CAF Bank
6487.00||| |Central Finance Board
202566.82|209053.82|| |||| |||| |**TOTAL**|**291591.54**|| |||| > **1** Actual figures for 7 months multiplied by 1.714286 **2** For use April 21 - M The Charity shall aim to hold in reserve expenditure sufficient for a minimum of one quarter of a financial year and be available at a minimum of 30 days' notice. This shall be based on non-exceptional expenditure - i.e. oneoff projects are excluded **----- Start of picture text -----**
on - Receipts and Payments Account
o 31st March 2021
tember 2019 to 31st March 2020)
**----- End of picture text -----**
|**- Receipts and Payments Account**
**31st March 2021**
mber 2019 to 31st March 2020)||||| |---|---|---|---|---| |PAYMENTS|sub-totals|2020/21
totals|2019/20
totals*1|if 12 months1| |||||| |**Core organisational costs:**||50513.32|33142.92
56816.44|| |
_staff/contractor costs - restricted_
_24979.74_||||| |_- unrestricted_
_19119.38_|44099.12||25379.67
43508.01|| |_Admin. website, insurance - restricted_
_35.00_||||| |_- unrestricted_
_5871.69_|5906.69||2087.41
3578.42|| |_General publicity - unrestricted_|238.00||716.20
1227.77|| |_Staff & key volunteer general travel - unrestricted_|269.51||3838.02
6579.46|| |_Trustees meeting costs - unrestricted3 _|0.00||1121.62
1922.78|| |**Support Group maintenance costs:**||70682.79|44430.97
76167.39|| |_staff/contractor costs - restricted_
_39456.61_||||| |_- unrestricted_
_14811.81_|_54268.42_||31232.25
53541.01|| |_support group venues - restricted_
_7768.41_||||| |
_- unrestricted_
_108.80_|7877.21||7726.65
13245.69|| |_group volunteer travel - restricted_
_696.86_||||| |
_- unrestricted_
_13.59_|710.45||1173.91
2012.42|| |_staff travel to cover facilitating groups- unrestricted_|797.85||341.55
585.51|| |
_support group coordinator expenses - unrestricted_|299.94||200.62
343.92|| |
_training new volunteers - existing groups - restricted_
_2081.24_||||| |
_- unrestricted_
_651.15_|2732.39||977.45
1675.63|| |_existing volunteers DBS - existing groups - restricted_
_96.00_|132.00
2285.03|}||| |
_- unrestricted_
_36.00_||||| |_local publicity - restricted_
_2165.03_|||428.68
734.88|| |
_- unrestricted_
_120.00_||||| |_volunteer facilitator support meetings (vfsm) - restricted_
_85.00_|104.20
1475.30|
}||| |
_- unrestricted_
_19.20_||||| |_staff travel & accom relaunch & vfsm - restricted_
_1463.24_|||2349.86
4028.33|| |_- unrestricted_
_12.06_||||| |**Growth costs:**||11576.12|7302.25
12518.14|| |_staff/contractor costs - restricted_
5298.78||||| |_- unrestricted_
5620.23|10919.01||6284.05
10772.66|| |_training days - restricted_|358.49||813.40
1394.40|| |
_group launch costs - unrestricted_|_0.00_||115.70
198.34|| |_evaluation - restricted_
_50.00_||||| |_- unrestricted_
_248.62_|298.62||89.10
152.74|| |sub-total -_restricted_|84534.40|||| |_- unrestricted_|48237.83
132772.23||84876.14
145501.97|| |**Balances 31.3.21**||||| |CAF Bank|8772.21|||| |Central Finance Board|90047.10|||| |Shawbrook Bank Ltd Fixed Saver|60000.00
158819.31|||| |||||| |**TOTAL**|**291591.54**|||| |||||| year" 1st September 2019 to 31st March 2020, in accordance with Charity Commission rules. > **3** Due to Covid restrictions meetings were held online With the agreement of the Trustees the Reserves can be used: i) to cover a fall in the Foundation's income thereby allowing on-going work and projects to be maintained ii) to cover a cash shortfall whether anticipated or unexpected iii) to fund an unanticipated opportunity to promote and/or pursue the aims of the Foundation. ## **The PeerTalk Charitable Foundation** ## Statement of Assets and Liabilites ## at 31st March 2021 ||_Restricted_|_Restricted_|_Unrestricted_
_(designated)_|_Unrestricted_
_(designated)_|_Unrestricted_
_(reserves)_|_Unrestricted_
_(reserves)_|_Unrestricted_
_(reserves)_|_Unrestricted_
_(reserves)_| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |||||||||| |**Cash funds:**_see notes_|||||||158819.31|| |||||||||| |**Other monetary assets:**|||||||0.00|| |||||||||| |**Investment assets:**|||||||None|| |||||||||| |**Assets retained for the charity's own use:**||||||||| |1 x laptop & printer for staf||||||||| |1 x projector for presentatons||||||||| |
2 x roller banners for publicity||||||||| |4 x mobile phones for staf||||||||| |
1 x Outdoor event gazebo||||||||| |||||||||| |**Liabilites:**|||||||1221.18|| |
_support group venue hire - March_||325.00||||||| |_HMRC- Tax & NI related to staf salaries_||431.05||||||| |
_payroll administraton - March_|||||||54.00|| |
_volunteer facilitator travel_||86.13||||||| |_publicity videos_||325.00||||||| |||||||||| |**Assets less liabilites**|||||||**157598.13**|| |||||||||| |**Notes:**||||||||| |Remaining funds for||Restricted||Unrestricted
(designated)|||Unrestricted
_(reserves)_
**total**|| |||||||||| |_Staf salaries1 _||_9929.48_||||||| |_Contnuaton of any pre-existng work2 _||_7500.00_||||||| |
_Batley group_||_1165.06_||||||| |_Bordon group3 _||_1098.53_||||||| |_Bradford group_||_119.57_||||||| |_Craven groups_||_1439.56_||||||| |_North East groups3 _||_17683.56_||||||| |_Preston groups3 _||_2191.13_||||||| |_Warrington_||_1848.50_||||||| |_West Yorkshire groups2 _||_6946.45_||||||| |_Grant for staf and volunteer wellbeing_||_2000.03_||||||| |
_Future years4 _||_75612.36_||||||| |_Redundancy reserve_||||_8495.00_||||| |_Any charitable purpose_||||||||_21568.90_| |total||127534.23||8495.00||||21568.90
**157598.13**| |1includes grant for part 21/22||||||||| |2grant for 21/22||||||||| |3includes grant for 21/22||||||||| |4includes grants for 2022-2024||||||||| |||||||||| ## Sheffield Hallam University - Evaluation Report Summary - Jan 2021 Sheffield Hallam University undertook an evaluation of the benefits to attenders at PeerTalk support groups. Under the supervision of Dr Jon Painter and Dr James Turner two Masters’ students, Themba Dlamini and Jesse Usman reviewed research literature and consulted a focus group of PeerTalk group attendees. PeerTalk attendees reported developing richer and deepened personal insights from the process of peer support. **This evaluation therefore supports** previously reported benefits of peer support groups for people with depression, such as the alleviation of social isolation, empowerment, improved self-efficacy and openness |The research identfed that
organisatons such as PeerTalk
provide cost-efectve services as
overheads and staf costs are minimal.
The positve contributon made by
voluntary organisatons may reduce
the demand for statutory services.||
The report stated that policy makers and
commissioners should recognise the
merits of peer support, given the impact
that the COVID-19 pandemic is having,
and the reported increase in mental
health problems, and ensure that
voluntary organisatons like PeerTalk are
made available and accessible.|
|PeerTalk support groups
can enhance hope, improve
confdence, increase social
connectedness, and
improve subjectve
wellness and symptom
management.| |---|---|---|---|---| Focus group participants said that the groups reduced their loneliness, increased their self-efficiency by listening to others coping strategies, and enabled them to be part of something non-judgmental and supportive that ‘ _by helping other people, you kind of also help yourself as well’._ Several research studies have indicated that having a social support network, and receiving help from individuals who belong to that network, benefits health and well-being. Social support enabled individuals to deal with stressful events and conditions, functioning as a protective agent against depression and anxiety. Most participants in this evaluation emphasised how PeerTalk groups triggered a sense of self-worth, purpose and meaning which they associated with an increased understanding of their condition and circumstances, self-efficacy, and coping skills enhancement. Similar findings concluded that peer support groups can have a positive effect on depression. **Given such evidence, peer support services should be recognised for the impact they have on the wellbeing of people with depression that, for some, can be as important as medication.** peer support services. Peer support groups enhance hope, confidence, social connectedness, and subjective wellness. The positive impact and cost-effectiveness of these services is noted and the evidence states that voluntary organisations, such as PeerTalk, could reduce the burden on statutory services. Peer support groups can enable Peer support services are **more** The functional recovery of **people mutually beneficial relationships** to **effective than some conventional receiving peer services was better** develop, that are built on **empathy treatment methods** in reducing **than that of people receiving and understanding** . Peer support hospitalisation rates, **reducing services provided by traditional** can enable people to feel **free to lengths of hospital stays** , and **mental health institutions** . One of **talk** about their situation/s and to increasing discharge rates showed the possible reasons is that **peer** be a **listening ear for others** . The that **recurrence rates of depression support services give patients** groups can also have the potential **for outpatients who received peer more opportunities to** to **enhance social connectedness** , **support services was reduced by communicate while exposing** leading to **improved quality of life them to a wider range of 50%** . **and overall wellbeing perspectives.** ## Ongoing Evaluation We are grateful to Sheffield Hallam University and also the evaluation consultancy Think:LearnDo for their work and ongoing provision of monitoring and evaluation support services. **PeerTalk group attendees were invited to participate in our evaluation. Here are a few of the things they said.** _I find going to the group just helps me feel not alone, that I am not in this on my own, that there are other people going through what I am going through._ _Sometimes people just need to be listened to_ . _So, if you can listen actively, as everybody does seem to in the group that we are in, then you are contributing even if you say nothing_ _What I find is that it's just nice to get other people's points of view and their coping strategies with depression. Sometimes you can go away and potentially put some of those ideas into practice and then the week after, or even two weeks after, you can feed it back to people and actually, it might not work, not everything works for everyone, but you tend to find some of the ideas do._ ## **Erin Linton writes about her experience as a PeerTalk Group Facilitator** I choose to volunteer for PeerTalk as I believe it is incredibly valuable to provide people with a safe, non-judgemental and understanding space to share, support and listen to others experiencing similar challenges. Peer support can be hugely beneficial to our attendees in so many ways and I consider it a privilege to be able to witness this first hand. The meetings are emotional and insightful but also positive and uplifting, seeing our peers making progress in their personal lives and being so supportive of each other is wonderful to be a part of. The thing that most sticks with me is the strength and kindness our peers show each other, being present for others when they are often facing very difficult personal challenges is an exhibition of true human compassion. ## Thank You To all the trusts, organisations, fund raisers and individuals who have supported PeerTalk through the year. To all our volunteer Facilitators who make the groups happen each week. To all our trainers and advisers for their help and support To the trustees and staff for their continued commitment. The PeerTalk Charitable Foundation Reg: 1169830 For further information email enquiries@peertalk.org.uk