Sharewear Clothing Scheme (Registered charity, number 1170084) Financial statements for the year ended 31 October 2023
| Page | Contents |
|---|---|
| 2 - 14 | Trustees’ annual report |
| 15 | Independent examiner’s report |
| 16 | Receipts & payments account |
| 17 | Statement of assets & liabilities |
| 18 - 20 | Notes to the accounts |
Sharewear Clothing Scheme Trustees’ annual report for the year ended 31 October 2023
Full name Sharewear Clothing Scheme
Organisation type Charitable incorporated organisation
Registered charity number 1170084
Principal address
D1-D2 Cowlairs, Southglade Business Park, Nottingham, NG5 9RA
Trustees
Alex Hiller, Chair, from 11/09/23 Alison Latham, from 13/03/23 Laura Fargher, Secretary Stephen Ramsden, from 11/09/23 Sarah Sinclair, Treasurer Alison Rogers, until 06/02/23 George Hagen Karen Waldron, until 15/05/23
Independent examiner
John O’Brien, employee of Community Accounting Plus, Units 1 & 2 North West, 41 Talbot Street, Nottingham, NG1 5GL
Governance and management
The charity is operated under the rules of its constitution adopted 8 November 2016 and most recently amended 14 July 2020.
Trustees are recruited either informally, having volunteered with us, having expressed an interest in our work or through responding to a recruitment advert on our social media channels. We have developed a Trustee induction presentation and prospective Trustees who are new to the organisation are invited to attend a Board meeting as a visitor prior to committing to joining.
As we have grown as an organisation we have recognised that we needed to adapt accordingly. We now comprise a smaller Board of Trustees who oversee organisational governance and a separate Executive Committee who work closely with the CEO on Operational and Development matters.
Objectives and activities
Our Charitable purpose is to provide ‘The relief of hardship among people in need by providing such persons with clothing, bedding and any other such suitable equipment and services that they could otherwise not afford due to lack of means’.
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit
Our operational team comprises 4 (2.8 WTE) staff and 20 volunteers working at our Southglade Centre, led by a team of 6 volunteer trustees. Service users can select clothing directly from our Client Access Centre at Southglade either in person or through pre-arranged collections organised on their behalf via our 'Click and Collect' facility. Our distribution and bulk delivery and outreach operate via a separate dedicated service at Southglade and we continue to work with many local and
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national organisations across the East Midlands, South Yorkshire and North London to ensure that our clothing is distributed to as many people as possible in need of Sharewear assistance and support.
During this reporting period we have continued to raise awareness through a specific focus on the Right to Clothing campaign in conjunction with the Peace and Justice Project. Our CEO, Louise Cooke, has organised, attended and been involved several local and national events, notably during our annual Clothing Poverty Awareness Week (CPAW23) held in June, an Early Day Motion (EDM 1271) was raised in parliament, a screening of our film Clothing Poverty: Exposed was held in North London at an awareness raising evening. The first Great Big Clothing Count was held and an open letter on the Right to Clothing was published in the national media.
Between Nov 2022 and Oct 2023 26,128 people were supported with Sharewear Clothing, selecting 137,225 donated items , ensuring that 70.9 tonnes of clothing and bedding were saved from entering landfill as a result. These figures help to measure the impact of our work, not only in enabling the Right to Clothing of our service users but also illustrating the true scale of our operations in terms of need and sustainability.
We continue in our mission to ensure that we are the space where Clothing Poverty meets Clothing Waste, campaigning to ensure that everyone has the Right to Clothing.
Public benefit statement
The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit, 'Charities and Public Benefit'.
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Summary of the main achievements during the period
During November and December 2022, we unfortunately faced some of our most challenging times ever. We suffered damage and losses of stock as a result of a break-in at our Southglade centre and also water damage to the ceiling of our Daybrook premises which unfortunately meant that it was unsafe for us to continue operating here. (We continued until Oct 2023 to use the Daybrook premises for storage only until the lease expired in Oct 2023 when we fully vacated the building).
In true Sharewear style, we were able to turn negatives into positives with team spirit in abundance and support from companies and organisations in helping us to repair the damage caused at Southglade, improving our security measures and also allowing stolen items to be replaced, ensuring that provision to our service users was not affected. Remarkably, 3,033 people were supported in Dec 2022, which was our busiest month to date.
Our 2023 Manuary ( January ) campaign helped us to support 1,388 people with 5,865 individual items of clothing. We saved 6.4 tonnes of clothing at the end of the supply chain from entering landfill. Our Client Access Centre was relocated to Southglade in January 2023, thanks to the amazing hard work of our team and we were able to re-open our face to face services early in the new year. We again featured in the national press in January, this time in Grazia Magazine as part of their Going Green initiative.
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February saw the launch of our new TEXT Donate facility in a bid to continue to diversify our income streams to allow our supporters to easily donate funds to our various fundraising campaigns.
The first Friday of the month meant we were once again back at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust delivering day clothes for rehabilitation on the ward, as we have been doing for five years. We now support nurses to support patients on a range of 20 units and wards at the QMC, City and Highbury hospitals, with many of these having deliveries every month.
Alongside the celebration of our 9th Birthday in March , we marked yet another landmark event in Sharewear history with the launch of our first ever Community Sharewear Franchise in Kent and Medway, through our partnership with SATEDACharity who support women and children affected by domestic abuse. Trustee Sarah Sinclair was thrilled to be invited to Chatham in Kent for the launch event and met staff, volunteers and Trustees from the organisation.
The impact of our clothing support can be felt in a huge variety of different ways… One of our social media posts from a busy session during April illustrates this perfectly;
“We opened our doors for today's referral session to a queue across the car park! During a busy session supporting 45 people, one very important outfit was chosen that stood out above the rest.
Service users attend our centre to choose clothing for their everyday needs: casual wear, weather appropriate clothing and, on occasion, formal wear for interviews. This
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suit, however, is one of the most important outfits this gentleman may wear -- as part of the wedding party at his son's wedding! We were able to provide everything, top to toe, in the exact sizes he had asked for, including a brand new pair of formal shoes. They were also the right colours so he will fit right in with his son and daughter-inlaw's chosen wedding colours.
We hope the family have an incredible wedding day. We know for certain Dad will be looking very stylish in his ensemble.”
May saw the focus of our annual Make Prom Fair campaign, enabling young people to attend their prom who otherwise may not have been able to go due to lack of means to afford a dress or suit as this post from May illustrates perfectly;
"I can't believe it! He'll actually be able to go to his prom now -- he'll be so excited! He deserves this -- he's worked so hard."
We are incredibly pleased that this magnificent prom suit was the perfect size for mum to take home for her son today. With prom season fast approaching she knew that, even though school had covered the cost of his ticket, he wouldn't be able to go because he had nothing suitable to wear.
In a heart-warming turn of events, the suit donated by one of our own volunteers was exactly what this parent, and her son, had been hoping for. Another of our many moments of Sharewear serendipity.
Mental Health Awareness Week also falls in May each year and is our absolute privilege to continue to support many projects and initiatives that enable people to spend time outdoors to improve their mental health particularly when there may be a barrier to doing so due to lack of means to afford suitable outdoor clothing. Our long running NoWeartoRun campaign ensures access to active wear to enable them to undertake physical activity which is often seen as ‘free’, but not if you are unable to afford a pair of jogging bottoms or trainers. This year we have also run a new specific
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Trainers for Trainers campaign and also been delighted to work with many new partner organisations;
“We are thrilled to be supporting Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust in their #NextdoorNature initiative supporting new and established groups and projects to get their local community busy in nature.
Projects like Rhubarb Farm. The Trust are finding that lack of appropriate clothing and footwear is holding some local residents back from participating in these mutually beneficial activities and asked us to step in.”
Mobile Sharewear is part of our response to the Cost of Living Crisis. We introduced bulk outreach to other organisations 6 years ago, so that we could reach more people who can't make it to our client referral sessions. We've now resurrected our pre-Covid Mobile Sharewear service to be even more accessible to people facing rising costs. After nine years of working with partner organisation Framework through client referrals and outreach, during #ClothingPovertyAwarenessWeek in June we held a Mobile Sharewear session at The Training Centre where 20 people benefitted. That same day, clients at our access centre spoke candidly to BBC Radio Nottingham’s ‘We Are Notts’ programme about their experiences of clothing poverty and the cost of living crisis.
Two years after its release, our short film "Clothing Poverty: Exposed" was screened in London during #ClothingPovertyAwarenessWeek as part of a #RightToClothing Film Night with members of Right to Clothing campaign. Following the screening there was a lively discussion panel and everyone was excited to hear about the Early Day Motion tabled by Apsana Begum, MP for Tower Hamlets asking for a strategy to improve access to the Right to Clothing in the UK.
Throughout 2023 we have also continued to provide clothing, towels and bedding to our partner organisations across the whole of the UK;
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"These beach towels just couldn't have come in at a better time!" said Jo, our outreach coordinator, last week. We were finalising the delivery to 12 organisations in Sheffield, (a number that is increasing each month), and one of the bulk orders was from the charity Shelter's Homelessness Prevention and Resettlement Service. Their Children and Families Support Worker has co-developed an initiative supporting parents/carers and 0-5 age children with free swimming lessons for 6 months, but there's a barrier to accessing this great project -- the unaffordability of swimwear and towels.”
Not only had these superb quality beach towels recently been donated, but Jo was able to raid our longstanding collection of swimming costumes to send too! Like underwear, we don't deal in used swimwear generally, but sometimes we get donations of costumes bought in sales and then never worn. Over time, these have built up to quite a collection and we're happy to say that we were able to send a huge range to Shelter, for families to choose from, meaning they CAN learn to swim free of charge after all! Lack of access to the Right to Clothing even affects learning basic skills for life.
July & August are traditionally our quieter months during the school holidays, however Clothing Poverty affects every aspect of life all year round;
“Every August we're asked by the media about school uniform costs but no-one ever raises in July the fact that thousands of children have no clothing to wear at home or with their friends when school is out for the summer. As one of our clients recently
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said on our Radio Nottingham coverage, without our support her children only had school uniform or pyjamas. Holiday Hunger is well documented and now better catered for, but what about families who want to take school out of the school holidays and allow their children to be themselves when school's out?”
We supported 2,114 people in July and 2,535 people in August 2023, this was despite having a depleted volunteer and staff team and being closed for a week during August.
Sweatember (otherwise known as September) saw our intrepid fundraisers take on various challenges and activities, including the Robin Hood Half Marathon, raising vital awareness and funds for our No Wear to Run campaign. Our Mobile Sharewear session at Broxtowe Women's Project was focussed on encouraging female participation in sports thanks to donated activewear from one of our brand partnerships.
We also launched our Thursday female only sessions ‘Womens Wardrobe”, thanks to funding from Nottingham Soroptimists.
During this particularly busy session in September we received this fabulous feedback;
"I'm overwhelmed with the choice, really pleased with everything!"
From one of the 67 people served during today's busy Referral Session. The team hustled to serve everyone who arrived on site including finding the formal wear
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needed by this gentleman, referred by Probation Services. He was able to select an appropriate suit, shirt and footwear.
There are events in life when wearing a certain type of clothing can correlate directly with an outcome, for example getting the job you are hoping for after an interview. We aim to support our service users with the everyday essentials and, when possible, also the important event attire
October continued to see unprecedented demand on all of our services. Once again we were humbled to receive such positive feedback from our service users which demonstrated the impact that our clothing support continues to have;
"You've looked after me today. I really appreciate it. God bless you!"
Kind sentiments from a gentleman, referred by Probation Services, today after volunteer Rachel supported him in finding almost everything he needed.
Coming out of prison and only having one borrowed set of clothes, he went away with outfits he was pleased to show our team. Finding a coat was his priority, and thankfully he found one perfect for him.
He had hoped for a change of trainers for when his borrowed ones are wet but, as always, we were low on trainers so unfortunately did not have his size. We did however have slippers for changing into dry from the rain, and sliders for in the shared spaces in a hostel. These are items that admittedly even our own volunteers hadn't considered the importance of before joining #TeamSharewear .
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Financial review
We ended this financial year in deficit by £7,709, with an income of £114,927 and expenditure of £122,636. Our expenditure was as predicted in our Forecast Budget, however unfortunately our income this year fell slightly short due to several prevailing factors. The economic impact that the Cost of Living crisis has had on the profits of one of our corporate business partners unfortunately meant that they were unable to afford to offer us the same financial backing as they had in the previous reporting year, however due to careful planning we had made their original donation last well into this reporting year.
A larger deficit was mitigated by careful management of finances and use of our general reserve funds. The lease on our Daybrook premises expired in Oct 23 and we have fully vacated the building, this will make a financial saving of £8,500pa in future years.
It should be noted that figures from 2021/22 were affected by timing issues in relation to delayed expenditure from the previous financial year and large expenditure incurred in moving premises. Grant income in relation to the move was also received in advance of the expenditure being incurred in this financial year.
So, essentially, the reporting year 2022/23 provides a truer reflection of our running costs and the cash funds that we had available at the end of this reporting period were stable.
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The charity’s policy on reserves
Our policy is to maintain at least 6 months of projected annual running costs in our bank account to cover unforeseen events and unexpected costs and to ensure that our work can continue. This policy is reviewed by Trustees on an annual basis.
We endeavour to set a budget based on the previous year spend and any upcoming projected expenses as part of our strategic plans for the growth of our operations.
Financial risks
Whilst our financial position has continued to remain relatively stable throughout this financial period, it remains consistently difficult to identify funders who will offer sustainable sources of core funding which puts an additional strain on the ability to plan our long term strategy for sustainable growth, when the demand on our services continues to increase due to the on-going cost of living crisis. We are consistently working at capacity and unable to plan for expansion to meet the growing needs in this sector while this situation persists.
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Acknowledgements
We simply could not undertake the work we do without the dedication of our staff, volunteers and trustees. We must also offer a huge thank you to all of our grant and corporate funders and supporters, regular donors, clothing donors, Clothing Swaps, Sharewear One Lottery players, ReLived Subscribers, Community Franchisees, benefactors, fundraisers, event organisers and the many businesses who continue to support us each year. Our work simply would not be possible without your generosity and we would like to thank the following organisations, businesses and individuals;
Bamboo Clothing Bang the Elephant Brewing Co Bees Knees Preloved Boutique Bulwell United Reform Church Capital One Captain Jellyfish Character.com Company of Cutlers Conscious Closet Chesterfield Rotary Coalfields Regeneration Trust Connect Cafe, Netherfield Experian Fairway View Care Home Freeths Fox & Grapes, Sneinton Get a Better Car Hazaar Kings Church Killisick School LuceFit LYFCYCLE The Lady Hind Trust Mapperley & Arnold Rotary Club Mocean Fitness National Lottery- Magic Little Stars Nottingham Building Society Nottingham Forest Community Trust Nottinghamshire Freemasons Nottinghamshire Federation WI Nottingham Green Party Nottingham Trent University Business School Random Surfer Ravensworth Rd Methodist Church Royal Sussex Freemasons Roythornes Solicitors Sateda Solar Calibre Doors Southwell Methodist Church Southwell Minster School
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St Judes Church, Mapperley St Martins Church St Paul’s Fellowship The Samuel Fox Foundation Unite NG57 Widows Sons Masonic Biker Group The Thomas Farr Charity Ward Recycling We Shall Overcome
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:
Signed ______ Date _ Sarah Sinclair, Trustee
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Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of Sharewear Clothing Scheme for the year ended 31 October 2023
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Sharewear Clothing Scheme for the year ended 31 October 2023.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the trustees of the charity you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’). I report in respect of my examination of the charity’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 Act.
Independent examiner’s statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no 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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accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or
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the accounts do not accord with those records.
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.
Signed ____ Date _______ John O’Brien MSc, FCCA, FCIE Employee of Community Accounting Plus
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Sharewear Clothing Scheme Receipts & payments account for the year ended 31 October 2023
| 2022 Total Unrestricted Funds Funds £ Note £ Receipts 172811 Grants & donations 2 50298 131 Sales & fees 1463 - Bank interest 180 172942 Total receipts 51941 Payments 2488 Advertising/ promotional 534 2292 Auto 79 291 Bank charges 240 165 Computer costs - - Fundraising & publicity 845 2050 Insurances 312 6666 Legal and professional fees 4178 4912 Office/ general administrative expenses 4814 7625 Other professional services - 59894 Payroll expenditures 30342 1219 Phone costs 1405 1377 Purchases - 45444 Rent 12125 1288 Travel and accommodation 898 3235 Utilities 3559 - Sundry 969 138946 Total payments 60300 33996 Net receipts/(payments) (8359) 48114 Cash funds at start of this period 48808 - Transfers between funds 1340 82110 Cash funds at end of this period 3 41789 |
2023 Restricted Total Funds Funds £ £ 62986 113284 - 1463 - 180 62986 114927 - 534 1652 1731 - 240 - - - 845 1564 1876 - 4178 1302 6116 - - 37108 67450 - 1405 - - 20250 32375 - 898 - 3559 460 1429 62336 122636 650 (7709) 33302 82110 (1340) - 32612 74401 |
|---|---|
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Sharewear Clothing Scheme Statement of assets and liabilities at 31 October 2023
| 2022 £ Cash assets Note 82036 Bank accounts 74 Cash in hand 82110 Other monetary assets 1148 Debtors - Prepayments 4 1148 Assets retained for the charity’s own use Emergency door shutters, purchased Jan 2022, cost £4,543 Motor vehicle, purchased July 2021, cost £6,995 Laptop, puchased Dec 2020, cost £499 Motor vehicle, purchased 2018, cost £13,194 Projector & laptop, purchased 2018, cost £849 Liabilities (13567) Creditors 5 (13567) |
2023 £ 74153 248 |
|---|---|
| 74401 | |
| 1430 | |
| 1430 | |
| (2587) | |
| (2587) |
These financial statements are accepted on behalf of the charity by:
Signed _____ Dated _____ Sarah Sinclair, Trustee
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Sharewear Clothing Scheme Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 October 2023
1. Receipts & payments accounts
Receipts and payments accounts contain a summary of money received and money spent during the period and a list of assets and liabilities at the end of the period. Usually, cash received and cash spent will include transactions through bank accounts and cash in hand.
2. Grants & donations
| Gemini Trust The McCarthy & Stone Charitable Foundation Bamboo Clothing Coalfields Regeneration Trust Lady Hind Trust Nottingham Soroptimist Trust Wesylan Foundation Thomas Farr Charity Nottingham Community Foundation - Major Oak Fund Donald Ward Ltd Nottinghamshire CM Capital One Samuel Fox Nottm Trent University Experian Nottingham Trent University Sateda Royal Sussex Freemasons Sundry donations |
Unrestricted £ - - - - - - - - - 12190 3838 3000 2000 1290 1200 1200 1200 1000 23380 50298 |
Restricted Total £ £ 31249 31249 6920 6920 5000 5000 4992 4992 4000 4000 3500 3500 2493 2493 2000 2000 1892 1892 - 12190 - 3838 - 3000 - 2000 - 1290 - 1200 - 1200 - 1200 - 1000 940 24320 62986 113284 |
|---|---|---|
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3. Funds analysis
| Restricted funds Sharing your way to work fund Driver fund OM salary Re-Lived Shakers/ volunteer uniform Supervisor salary Van running cost fund Hospital fund Older Persons fund Repair what you wear fund Male clothing Southglade Womens wardrobe Unrestricted funds General Designated: Re-Lived |
Opening balance £ 135 15085 8959 1340 2627 1922 3234 - - - - - - 33302 48808 - 48808 |
Receipts (Payments) £ £ - (135) 10999 (16907) 5000 (12599) - - - (2168) 4440 (6362) 2000 (3216) 4992 - 6920 - 4385 - 500 (461) 20250 (20250) 3500 (238) 62986 (62336) 49541 (60300) 2400 - 51941 (60300) |
Transfers £ - - - (1340) - - - - - - - - - (1340) - 1340 1340 |
Closing balance £ - 9177 1360 - 459 - 2018 4992 6920 4385 39 - 3262 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32612 | ||||
| 38049 3740 |
||||
| 41789 |
The transfer from the Re-Lived restricted fund to the Re-Lived designated fund represents the correct classification of these funds.
4. Debtors
| Prepayment - Insurance Prepayment - Office/general admin Prepayment - Van insurance |
£ 22 398 1010 |
|---|---|
| 1430 |
5. Creditors
| Independent examination Payroll (HMRC & Pension) |
£ 582 2005 |
|---|---|
| 2587 |
6. Trustees’ remuneration
Trustees received no expenses, remuneration or benefits in this period.
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7. Glossary of terms
Creditors: These are amounts owed by the charity, but not paid during the accounting period.
Debtors: These are amounts owed to the charity, but not received in the accounting period.
Prepayments: These are services that the charity has paid for in advance, but not used during the accounting period.
Restricted funds: These are funds given to the charity, subject to specific restrictions set by the donor, but still within the general objects of the charity.
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