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The PeerTalk Charitable Foundation Registered charity no. 1169830 Annual Report 2022

This report describes the activities related to the purposes of the charity from 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022.

The audited and approved accounts make up the centrefold insert.

PeerTalk support groups are attended by people who live with depression, anxiety and related distress. The groups are facilitated by trained volunteers. On 31st March 2022 PeerTalk were hosting 14 support groups. PeerTalk's vision is to establish a national network of support groups across the UK.

PeerTalk’s Charitable Objects - Reg Charity 1169830

To promote and protect good mental health amongst people who live with depression, their families and carers, in particular by the provision of support and support networks including facilitating peer support groups and by providing mental health and related information and educational material in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Meg Munn - Chair of Trustees

The last year has again been challenging for us all with the continuation of the coronavirus pandemic. Many people are struggling

with their mental health at a time when our NHS is under great pressure. Our weekly groups are more important than ever, providing much needed help and support. Unlike many services, there is no need for a referral and no waiting list; newcomers are always welcome. We know that our groups are valuable – research and evaluation by Sheffield Hallam University clearly demonstrates the benefits.

With the restrictions eased new groups are starting to bring the confirmed benefits of peer support to more people. We are delighted to welcome many new volunteer facilitators to PeerTalk to support existing and new groups. We continue to raise our profile and work hard to obtain new funds. I am grateful to our staff and dedicated volunteers, without whom PeerTalk could not continue. If you think you could help PeerTalk, as a volunteer, a trustee or a fundraiser – we would love to hear from you.

The Headlines

Four new PeerTalk support groups were established during the year located at Leeds Beckett University, Huddersfield, Knowsley and at The University of Sunderland.

The group meeting on the campus of Leeds Beckett University started on the 9th November 2021 and aims to serve both the university and the wider community.

The Huddersfield group started on 25th November 2021. This group had previously been scheduled to start in 2020.

The group at Knowsley began on 23rd February 2022 and has been funded by the charity Mental Health Matters, supporting their project based in the Old Schoolhouse in Huyton. We are delighted to be working with them..

The group at The University of Sunderland was due to start in Spring 2020 and following the lifting of the university’s Covid restrictions eventually started in their City Space building on 8th March 2022. This group serves the university and the wider community.

During the year we held five volunteer training days at which we trained 68 new Support Group Facilitators . These volunteers were to facilitate the new groups but also to strengthen the volunteer base across all our other groups. Maintaining a team of eight volunteers per group is essential to sustaining the regular weekly provision throughout the year. At the year end 31st March we had 121 active volunteer Facilitators. We are grateful to Kate Chartres, Irene Muh and Dr India Amos who provided the clinical input at our training events. Our Support Group Facilitators do not offer counsel, advice or their own opinions but the clinical input provides an overview as to the possible background of attendees.

In July 2021 our support group based in Batley moved to the more centrally located and new Jo Cox House . In March we were pleased that Jo Cox’s sister Kim Leadbeater MP came to meet all our Batley volunteer Support Group Facilitators.

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 Foundation Trustees

		Joanne Malcolm	Joanne Malcolm	Joanne Malcolm	Emma Bradley	Roger Buterfeld
		Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist working in the Neuro-developmental Autsm assessment Team within a Community NHS Trust. Extensive experience and knowledge in Autsm diagnostcs			Having been a Director of Nursing and Patent Experience and Deputy Prisons and Probaton Ombudsman Emma is now Performance Improvement Manager for South Central Ambulance Service.	Solicitor with 38 years experience working for local authorites and several years experience of providing advice and training to local authorites.
		Graham Ilif			Andrew Varley	Nabihah Kauser
		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.			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.	Nabihah is currently studying for her Doctorate in Psychology. Her previous experience as a PeerTalk support group Facilitator makes a valuable contributon to the trustee team.
PeerTalk Policies and Procedures
Unchanged			Reviewed or Revised April 1st 2021 - March 31st 2022
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
Unchanged		Reviewed or Revised April 1st 2021 - March 31st	2022
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. There is a risk that we don’t secure enough funds to deliver our commitments for the next year. There is a risk of loss of organisational intelligence. There is a risk that volunteers disregard PeerTalk’s policies and procedures. Trustees maintain a risk register with mitigations in place if necessary.

THE PEERTALK (HARITABiE FOUNDATION INDEPENDENT EKAMINER'S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2022 Independent examinerfs report to the trnstees of The PeerTalk Charitable Foundation I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of The PeerTalk Charitable Foij ndation (the Foundation} forthe year ended 31 March 2022. Responsibilities and basis of report A5the charitytrusteesof the Foundation you are responsibleforthe preparation of the accounts in xcordance with the requirement5 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Act). I report in respect of my examination of the Trusvs accounts carried out under section 145 of the Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all applicable Directions given by the Charrty Commission under section 145{5)Ibl of the Act. Independent examiners, ststement I have completed my examination. I confimi that no material matters have cometo myattention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect: (l) accounting records were not kept in respect of the Foundakn"on as required by section 130 of the Act. or 12) the accounts do not accord with those records; or 13) the accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2CQ8 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. I confirm that there are no other matters to which your attention should be drawn to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. MrA Twright 3 Meeting House Row Homby Road Wray Lancaster LA2 8QN

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The PeerTalk Charitable Foundatio
1st April 2021 to
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RECEIPTS	2021/22 totals	2020/21 totals 62729.38 2300.00 15945.68 143.68 832.14 586.84 82537.72
Grants: restricted funds	62127.93
Tudor Trust - staff salaries 25000.00
HM Govt - Suicide Prevention Fund 31567.00
One Community Foundation - Kirklees 1442.00
Co-op Local Community Fund - Preston 1390.43
Bradford VCS Alliance - Bradford 500.00
Warrington Charities Trust - Warrington 228.50
Albert Hunt - staff salaries 2000.00
Grants: unrestricted funds
Forrester Family trust 5000.00 5000.00

Commissioned Work
Mental Health Matters - Knowsley 6424.00 6424.00

Donations: restricted funds 6100.00
Settle Methodist Circuit -Craven 100.00
John Rigg Charitable Foundation -Guildford 6000.00

Donations: unrestricted funds 9108.42
regular giving 1745.80
one-off gifts 7362.62

Fund raising 2858.90 2858.90

HMRC Gift Aid 1735.59 1735.59

Interest1 876.73
unrestricted 876.73


sub-total - restricted 74651.93
- unrestricted 19579.64 94231.57
Balances 1.4.21
CAF Bank 8772.21
Central Finance Board 90047.10
Shawbrook Bank Ltd Fixed Saver 60000.00 158819.31

TOTAL 253050.88
1Interest - due to very low interest rates, treated as negligible and placed in unrestricted funds

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

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on - Receipts and Payments Account
o 31st March 2022
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PAYMENTS	sub-totals	2021/22 totals	2021/22 totals	2020/21 totals	2020/21 totals

Core organisational costs			42063.33		50513.32
staff/contractor costs - restricted 28698.54
- unrestricted 6874.49	35573.03
Admin. website, annual fees - restricted 2958.27
- unrestricted 1777.74	4736.01
General publicity - restricted 391.00	391.00
Staff & key volunteer general travel - restricted 625.33
- unrestricted 282.15	907.48
Trustees meeting costs - restricted 262.20
- unrestricted 193.61	455.81
Support Group maintenance costs:			84896.32		70682.79
staff/contractor costs - restricted 51048.29
- unrestricted 5888.56	56936.84
support group venues - restricted 13168.70
- unrestricted 78.10	13246.80
group volunteer travel - restricted 1859.70
- unrestricted 0.00	1859.70
staff travel to cover facilitating groups- restricted 1313.05
- unrestricted 321.75	1634.80
support group coordinator expenses - restricted 175.92
- unrestricted 149.07	324.99
volunteer facilitator ongoing training - restricted 670.44
- unrestricted 216.10	886.54
training new volunteers - existing groups - restricted 3411.55
- unrestricted 406.62	3818.17
existing volunteers DBS - existing groups - restricted 72.00
- unrestricted 12.00	84.00
local publicity - restricted 1389.40
- unrestricted 14.00	1403.40
volunteer facilitator support meetings - restricted 2335.17
- unrestricted 365.88	2701.05
volunteer and staff wellbeing vouchers - restricted 2000.03	2000.03
Growth costs:			23186.89		11576.12
staff/contractor costs - restricted 12835.74
- unrestricted 3341.18	16176.92
training days - restricted 1838.37
- unrestricted 332.25	2170.62
group launch costs - restricted 1704.89
- unrestricted 7.50	1712.39
Evaluation - restricted 126.96
- unrestricted 3000.00	3126.96

sub-total - restricted	114049.80
- unrestricted	23261.00	150146.54		132772.23
Balances 31.3.22
CAF Bank	39895.29
Central Finance Board	63009.05
Shawbrook Bank Ltd Fixed Saver - account closed	0.00	102904.34

TOTAL		253050.88

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 2022

	Restricted	Unrestricted (designated)	Unrestricted (reserves)	Unrestricted (reserves)

Cash funds:see notes			102904.34

Other monetary assets:	4970.00		4970.00

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


Liabilites:			1221.18
support group venue hire - March	530.00
HMRC- Tax & NI related to staf salaries	578.19
payroll administraton - March	55.69
volunteer facilitator travel	224.19
Volunteer facilitator support meetng costs - March	16.50
evaluaton	1260.00

Assets less liabilites			105209.77

Notes:
Remaining funds for	Restricted	Unrestricted (designated)	Unrestricted (reserves) total

_Staf salaries1 _	8152.63	20322.40
Contnuaton of any pre-existng work	0.00
Bordon group	122.70
Bradford group	333.80
Craven groups	696.18
Guildford group	3896.36
Kirklees groups	1099.02
Knowsley group	5750.13
North East groups	5210.71
Preston groups	332.86
Warrington	1475.94
West Yorkshire groups	938.34
_Future years3 _	31665.07
Redundancy reserve		4115.00
Any charitable purpose				21098.63
total	59673.74	24437.40		21098.63 105209.77
1includes grant for part 22/23
2grant for 22/23
3includes grant for 2023

Our PeerTalk Volunteers

During the year to March we trained 68 new volunteer Support Group Facilitators at five training days.

Our current number of trained Facilitators is 145 not all of whom are currently active

Developing local community support where our groups meet is a priority for the trustees. An aim throughout the year has been to identify new volunteer roles in social media output, fund raising and local networking. We were delighted to be chosen to be supported by a Preston Co-op.

About our Attendees

We conducted an evaluation exercise between Sept-Dec 2021. Respondents were predominantly male (75%), and self-described as ‘White British’. Ages ranged from 22, to over 60:

6% were aged 22-25 13% were aged 26-30 25% were aged 36-40 6% were aged 41-45 19% were aged 51-55 6% were aged 56-60 25% were aged 60 and over.

We were pleased that Kim Leadbeater MP asked to meet our Batley Support Group Facilitators at Jo Cox House.

Our Evaluation

External research was undertaken by the evaluation consultancy Think:LearnDo with PeerTalk Support Group attendees through an internal survey to understand the areas where Peer to Peer interaction in the groups makes a difference. This data fed into a review, supporting the development of an outcomes framework.

Peers value attending groups for a number of immediate and long-term reasons. We wanted to know more about why peers attend, and how they use the support in their daily lives. Two questions related to the experience of attending ( satisfaction ); one question related to the practical effect attending had for them ( impact ); one question related to reasons for attending and future plans ( engagement ).

"It's helped provide an additional space outside of a therapy room to talk about my issues. I'm a big believer in therapy but see it as one tool in the toolkit. Being able to go to a PeerTalk group proves massively beneficial as others give me suggestions of things that can help. I feel it's a great complement to therapy and has often helped pull me out of dark places"

"Practically, I've gained friends and a like-minded community, that meets even outside of PeerTalk" "Personal, mental, emotional, no more feeling suicidal. The power of group"

cafonline.org

Our PeerTalk Support Groups

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Settle
Not restarted since Whitley Bay
Covid pandemic
North Shields
Starting summer 2022
Skipton
Gateshead
Bradford
University of
Sunderland
Preston Central
Leeds Beckett
Preston Intact University
Batley
Knowsley
Huddersfield
Warrington
Guildford
Farnham
Starting summer 2022
Bordon
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A huge Thank You to all the grant making bodies, trusts, businesses, community groups, churches and many generous individuals who support our work. All gifts and contributions are gratefully received. Donate here: CAF Bank PeerTalk

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

2022-03-31-accounts