# The PeerTalk Charitable Foundation Registered charity no. 1169830 Annual Report 2023 This report describes the activities related to the purposes of the charity from 1st April 2022 to 31st March 2023. The audited and approved accounts make up the centrefold insert. PeerTalk support groups are attended by people who live with depression, anxiety and similar psychological distress. The groups are facilitated by trained volunteers. PeerTalk host 16 support groups. PeerTalk's vision is to establish a national network of support groups across the UK in the forthcoming years. ## **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. PeerTalk’s weekly groups provide vital support for people with depression. Many people struggle with their mental health at a time when our NHS is under pressure. There is no need for a referral and no waiting list; newcomers are always welcome. Our groups provide a safe, relaxing environment where experiences can be shared. PeerTalk works hard to gain funds to support existing groups and start new ones. In addition to grants from charities and foundations, we have obtained funding from health and local authorities. This is a recognition of the importance of the service and the excellent value for money. Despite these welcome developments, our budget is under pressure and we need to secure more long term support. **Meg Munn** I am grateful to our staff and dedicated volunteers, without whom PeerTalk could not contin- **Chair of Trustees** ue. If you think you could help PeerTalk, as a volunteer, a trustee or a fundraiser – we would love to hear from you. _‘I approached PeerTalk for help it all happened really quick and if people are struggling, they should reach out and it beats the waiting times’._ _‘First time I went, I wasn't sure why exactly I was going. And I didn't even know what I what I wanted even to talk about. So, I went there, and they couldn't shut me up’._ _‘It was strange how on the second week, I talked about something totally different, and I didn't even realise it was something that I needed to talk about, but I was clearly so relaxed in that room that it came out’._ ## **Welcomes** ## **Farewells** **Victoria Byatt** and **Colin Rutherford** have joined the PeerTalk staff as part-time Support Group Coordinators. Victoria in the South and Colin in the North-East have responsibilities for supporting volunteers **Rosa Trelfa** in her role as Director of Operations and **Liz Whitfield** as Admin and Finance Officer have both been with PeerTalk since the charity first began. Now they have both retired. We are enormously grateful to them both for all they have done for PeerTalk. **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. PeerTalk’s constitution requires that trustees can only hold office for six consecutive years. This has meant we have had to say thank you to **Emma Bradley** and **Joanne Malcolm** who have served as trustees since the charity was first registered in 2016. Emma and Joanne have made a significant and valuable contribution to PeerTalk and we are very grateful for their time in office and the contribution they made. During the year we have welcomed **Dr Susan Wishart** and **Melissa Lauwers** as they have joined the board of trustees and we look forward to working with them over the coming years. ## **The PeerTalk Charitable Foundation Trustees** **Meg Munn (Chair) Graham Iliff Andrew Varley Roger Butterfield** Trained as a social worker, Graham spent many Andrew is a Fellow of the Roger is a Solicitor with Meg served as MP for years as a senior Chartered Association of 38 years experience Sheffield Heeley 2001 – manager and Marketing Certified Accountants working for local 2015, during which time she Director in the telecoms with a background of authorities and several was also Minister for industry and more working in years experience of Women and Equality and a recently has lectured in manufacturing and providing advice and Foreign Office minister. Marketing and Business construction. Recently training to local Meg is a non-executive in higher education. retired Andrew offers a authorities. director and independent wealth of financial governance consultant. experience **Kate Chartres Melissa Lauwers Dr Susan Wishart Nabihah Kauser** Kate is an expert clinician Melissa works in Susan is a registered Nabihah is currently across the mental health International Project social worker. Now studying for her field, Nurse Consultant and Management. Her main retired Susan worked at Doctorate in Psychology. running her own experience is in the a national level for the Her previous experience consultation business charity management and Prison Service in as a PeerTalk support delivering specialist learning and Safeguarding and group Facilitator makes a psychological therapy and development sector. working with sex valuable contribution to teaching. offenders. the trustee team. ||**PeerTalk Policies and Procedures**|**PeerTalk Policies and Procedures**|**PeerTalk Policies and Procedures**|**PeerTalk Policies and Procedures**|**PeerTalk Policies and Procedures**| |---|---|---|---|---|---| |_New_||_Unchanged_||_Reviewed or Revised_
_April 1st 2022 - March 31st 2023_|| |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 and Procedures||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|||||| |Equal Opportunites Policy|Home Working Risk Assessment||Statement of Values||Volunteer Facilitator Agreement| |Environment and
Sustainability Policy|Lone Working: Policy, Procedure and
Practce Guidance
||Terms of Reference for Advisory
Commitee||Whistleblowing Policy| THE PEERTALK CHARITABLE FOUNDATION INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENOED 31 MARCH 2023 Independent examinels report to the trustees of The PeerTalk Charttable Foundation I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of The PeerTalk Charitable Foundation (the Foundation) for the year ended 31 March 2023. Responsibilities and basis of report As the charitytrustees of the Foundation you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 Ithe Act). I report in respect of my examination of the Foundation's accounts carried out under section 145 of the Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 14515llbl of the Act. Independent examiners, 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: 111 accounting records were not kept in respect of the Foundation as required by section 130 of the Act,. or 121 the accounts do not accord with those records,. or 131 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 2008 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 have no concerns and have come across no other matters 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. MrA T Wright 3 Meeting House Row Hornby Road Wray Lancaster LA2 8QN 8July 2023 |RECEIPTS|2022/23 totals|2021/22 totals
62127.93
5000.00
6424.00
6100.00
9108.42
2858.90
1735.59
876.73
94231.57| |---|---|---| |**Grants: restricted funds**|84907.77|| |_Scurrah Wainwright Charity_
4970.00||| |
_Sylvia & Colin Shepherd Charitable Trust_
500.00||| |
_Lush Ltd Wellness Fund_
9000.00||| |_North Tyneside Health Inequalities_
23766.00||| |
_Garfield Weston_
10000.00||| |_Gay & Peter Hartley's Hillards Community Fund_
1000.00||| |
_Preston City Council - Preston_
5000.00||| |
_Co-op Local Community Fund - Intact_
1887.77||| |
_Shears_
5000.00||| |_The National Lottery Community Fund - South_
10000.00||| |
_HCD Memorial Fund_
10000.00||| |_ABCD Fund - Craven_
784.00||| |_ABCD Fund - Bradford South_
1000.00||| |_Barbour Foundation_
2000.00||| |||| |**Grants: unrestricted funds**
25000.00||| |_Tudor Trust - designated staff salaries_
25000.00||| |||| |**Commissioned Work**
0.00||| |_Mental Health Matters - Knowsley_||| |||| |**Donations: restricted funds**
0.00||| |||| |**Donations: unrestricted funds**
15303.48||| |_regular giving_
2560.20||| |
_one-off gifts_
12743.28||| |||| |**Fund raising**
14440.35||| |
_restricted_
6257.58||| |_unrestricted_
8182.77||| |||| |**HMRC Gift Aid**
1922.57||| |_restricted_
921.57||| |_unrestricted_
1001.00||| |||| |**Interest**
1683.64||| |_restricted_
1153.61||| |_unrestricted_
530.03||| |||| |sub-total - restricted
**93240.53**||| |- unrestricted
**50017.28**
**143257.81**||| |**Balances 1.4.22**
102904.34||| |CAF Bank
39895.29||| |Central Finance Board
63009.05||| |||| |**TOTAL**
**246162.15**||| 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 |**- Receipts and Payments Account**
**1st March 2023**|||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---| |PAYMENTS|sub-totals|2022/23
totals||2021/22
totals|| ||||||| |**Core organisational costs**|||39228.84||42063.33| |_staff/contractor costs - restricted_
21175.12|29652.83||||| |_- unrestricted_
8477.71|||||| |_Admin. website, annual fees - restricted_
1475.87|7449.22||||| |_- unrestricted_
5973.35|||||| |_General publicity - restricted_
53.00|222.00||||| |
_- unrestricted_
169.00|||||| |_Staff & key volunteer general travel - restricted_
650.14|1511.60||||| |
_- unrestricted_
861.46|||||| |_Trustees meeting costs - restricted_
352.89|393.19||||| |
_- unrestricted_
40.30|||||| |**Support Group maintenance costs:**|||92725.56||84896.32| |_staff/contractor costs - restricted_
48234.38|59998.84||||| |_- unrestricted_
11764.46|||||| |_support group venues - restricted_
13723.16|14740.94||||| |
_- unrestricted_
1017.78|||||| |_group volunteer travel - restricted_
3143.32|3336.85||||| |
_- unrestricted_
193.53|||||| |_staff travel to cover facilitating groups- restricted_
2288.13|3189.73||||| |
_- unrestricted_
901.60|||||| |_support group coordinator expenses - restricted_
574.60|840.11||||| |
_- unrestricted_
265.51|||||| |_volunteer facilitator ongoing training - restricted_
0.00|0.00||||| |
_- unrestricted_
0.00|||||| |_training new volunteers - existing groups - restricted_
4428.00|5238.70||||| |
_- unrestricted_
810.70|||||| |_existing volunteers DBS - existing groups - restricted_
48.00|60.00||||| |
_- unrestricted_
12.00|||||| |_local publicity - restricted_
980.05|1237.92||||| |
_- unrestricted_
257.87|||||| |_volunteer facilitator support meetings - restricted_
3918.67|4082.47||||| |
_- unrestricted_
163.80|||||| |**Growth costs:**|||25554.15||23186.89| |_staff/contractor costs - restricted_
13758.00|21433.84||||| |_- unrestricted_
7675.84|||||| |_training days - restricted_
1699.64|1699.64||||| |
_- unrestricted_|||||| |_group launch costs - restricted_
860.67|860.67||||| |
_- unrestricted_|||||| |_Evaluation - restricted_
1260.00|1560.00||||| |_- unrestricted_
300.00|||||| ||||||| |sub-total - restricted
**118623.64**|||||| |- unrestricted
**38884.91**|**157508.55**|||150146.54|| |**Balances 31.3.23**|88653.60||||| |CAF Bank
21029.97|||||| |Central Finance Board
67623.63|||||| ||||||| |**TOTAL**|**246162.15**||||| 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|2023|| |---|---|---| ||_Restricted_|_Unrestricted_| |**Cash funds:**||88653.60| |||| |**Other monetary assets:**||23376.56| |_HMRC Gif Aid_||_1311.56_| |_Tudor Trust_|_10000.00_|| |_Lancashire & S Cumbria NHS Trust_|_4902.00_|| |_Knowsley (Mental Health Maters)_|_7163.00_|| |||| |**Investment assets:**||none| |||| |**Assets retained for the charity's own use:**||| |1 x laptop for staf||| |1 x projector for presentatons||| |3 x roller banners for publicity||| |4 x mobile phones for staf||| |2 x A-frames for publicity at groups||| |||| |**Liabilites:**||457.40| |_support group venue hire - March_|188.00|| |_HMRC- Tax & NI related to staf salaries_|209.04|| |_payroll administraton - March_|60.36|| |||| |**Assets less liabilites**||**111572.76**| |||| |**Notes:**||| |Remaining funds for|Restricted
Designated|Unrestricted
**Total**| |_Sunderland and Gateshead (Shears )_|_4636.18_|| |_Sunderland and Gateshead and other North East (HCD Memorial)_|_8829.75_|| |_North East (Barbour)_|_1722.76_|| |_2023 restricted_|_14419.33_|| |_Guildford_|_2177.40_|| |_Knowsley 2023/4_|_6145.11_|| |_Lancashire & S Cumbria NHS - Preston_|_4902.00_|| |_Bordon, Bradford Skipton and Warrington (Lush)_|_553.01_|| |_Farnham (Lush)_|_2440.86_|| |_North Tyneside_|_9958.47_|| |_North Tyneside management costs_|_3164.66_|| |_Preston Co-op_|_949.72_|| |_Preston City Council_|_2822.30_|| |_Natonal Lotery - South_|_8451.40_|| |_Yorkshire - training_|_967.44_|| |_West Yorkshire - WY Restricted_|_1826.73_|| |_Staf Salaries (Wing Walk )_|_104.43_|| |_Craven (ABCD)_|_787.62_|| |_Bradford (ABCD)_|_1003.90_|| |_redundancy_|_4283.00_|| |_Tudor Trust_|_7796.23_|| |_Tudor re Knowsley_|_576.00_|| |_Tudor Trust - admin salary_|_10000.00_|| |_Any charitable purpose_||_13054.46_| ||85863.07
12655.23|
13054.46
**111572.76**| |||| ## Sheffield Hallam University - Evaluation Report Summary - Jan 2023 This page summarises a dissertation produced by Natalie Wood, one of Sheffield Hallam University’s MSc student mental health nurses. Their project was a service evaluation to determine the benefits of a national charity’s support for individuals experiencing depression. In particular, they sought to understand what the charity offered that differed from mainstream mental health services. The full report is on the PeerTalk website. The study’s objectives were: - To gain an understanding of PeerTalk attendees’ experiences and perspectives. - To identify what PeerTalk offers its service users that other services do not. ## **Four themes were generated from the data.** ## **These were: connectedness, self-awareness, positive environment, and facilitation.** ## **Connectedness** Connectedness describes a relationship with peers and PeerTalk. Peer support is designed to establish a sense of physical and emotional security, allowing peers to feel at ease connecting and sharing with others with the same knowledge and experiences. In terms of connectedness with the PeerTalk service, the participants stated that they had previously tried other services for support but found that PeerTalk offered the different kinds of help they required. PeerTalk clearly leaves participants feeling at ease, in a safe, relaxing environment with like-minded people that share their experiences. In doing so it creates a sense of connection to the service that other services may not achieve. ## **Self-awareness** Participants explained how they felt PeerTalk assisted individuals through a process of self-healing, towards recovery, that was undertaken by acquiring self-awareness of their current situation. PeerTalk provides attendees with the chance to build their confidence by talking openly about their issues in a non-judgemental environment and eradicating their initial fears as they move through the support sessions. This self-awareness allows for personal growth and sets attendees on the road to recovery: ## **Positive environment** The PeerTalk environment was described as providing the right environment to support healing by facilitating people to work through their issues with like-minded people who also have shared experiences. The therapeutic environment was highly valued for the way it fostered recovery. PeerTalk support groups offered attendees an opportunity to work with other peers in a safe environment as they go through some difficult periods. Participants discussed supporting others, using their knowledge and experience, while learning more about mental illness and other coping strategies themselves: ## **Group facilitation at PeerTalk versus other services** Participants discussed how and why they thought PeerTalk had worked for them where other services hadn’t. PeerTalk appears to be getting things right, as participants felt that they offered the correct support at the right time with the right plans, procedures, and arrangements in place. This had not always been their experience in other services: This study found clear benefits for participants attending a PeerTalk support group. Its relaxed environment allowed for candid and free communication to take place between equals. Meaningful friendships were formed as a result of similar shared experiences giving the participants the confidence to speak out, recognise their own recovery styles and assist others on their journey in a non-judgemental manner. Participants favoured PeerTalk over many other services they had tried due to its relaxed nature, the absence of pressure to participate, and the provision of support from peers rather than healthcare professionals. Consequently, this study tentatively concludes that PeerTalk should be considered a worthwhile intervention in its own right, rather than merely a way to reduce pressure on mainstream services. _Copthorne Hotel - Newcastle (18th Mar 2023)_ _Old Schoolhouse - Knowsley (19th Nov 2022)_ ## **New Volunteers** During the year we trained 43 new Volunteer Support Group Facilitators to strengthen the PeerTalk teams in North Shields, Whitley Bay, Gateshead, Sunderland, Leeds, Huddersfield, Preston and Knowsley. The initial training events are followed with a Safeguarding course _Old Schoolhouse - Knowsley (11th Feb 2023)_ and further induction training. Each group’s team of volunteer Facilitators are brought together every two months for support and an element of further training. Volunteers work in pairs and typically facilitate a group three times in a twelve week period. _St Georges Centre - Leeds (3rd Dec 2022)_ ## Thank you.. … to all the grant making bodies, trusts, businesses, community groups, churches and many generous individuals who support our work. Donate here: CAF Bank 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.