## **Liberty Choir UK**
## **Registered Charity Number: 1173799**
**Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 December 2022**
## **Liberty Choir UK Contents of the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31st December 2022**
||**Page**|
|---|---|
|Report of the Trustees|1 to 10|
|Independent Examiner's Report|11|
|Receipts & Payments Account|12|
|Statement of Assets & Liabilties|13|
|Notes to the Financial Statements|14 to 15|
## **LIBERTY CHOIR UK**
## **Trustees Annual Report For the period 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022**
**Full name:** Liberty Choir UK
**Legal structure:** Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)
**Foundation model:** Registered Charity No 1173799
**Principal address:** Jackson Hall, Portland Place, Hastings, East Sussex TN34 1QN
## **Trustees**
Pia Sinha – elected 2023 Oliver Huggins – elected 2023 Jennifer Holden – elected 2023 Alexandra Felix – elected 2020 Sheila Jones – elected 2018 Paul Webster – elected 2018
## **Founders**
MJ Paranzino, Ginny Dougary
## **Bankers**
Lloyds Bank, PO Box 132, 1 Butler Place, Westminster SW1H OPR
## **Independent Examiner**
Steve Sampson BFP FCA FCIE DChA – Ashdown Hurrey Auditors Ltd, 20 Havelock Rd, Hastings TN34 1BP
## **Governance and Management**
The charity is operated under the rules of its constitution adopted 13 July 2017 and registered with the Charity Commission as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Trustees are elected for three years on a rotational basis. Any trustee retiring after their three-year term is eligible for re-election.
The day-to-day running of the organisation is delegated to a team, with the trustees being responsible for the strategic direction of the organisation.
## **Trustee induction and training**
The methods adopted for the recruitment and appointment of new trustees are as laid down in the constitution. All potential trustees are interviewed, follow an induction process, and sign an eligibility declaration on election to the position of trustee. Trustees are invited to join the board because of their skills, knowledge and expertise.
All trustees are expected to have experienced the programme and supported fundraising initiatives within the first year of being a trustee.
## **Aims and objectives**
Liberty Choir’s core mission is to support prisoners both inside prison and post-release through a singing and educational programme – combining outside volunteers from community choirs with prisoners in a mixed choir – which contributes to better mental health, positive outcomes and reduced reoffending.
Page 1
The charity also works with forensic patients and the Liberty Choir programme has been highly commended in NHS-funded mental health awards. Liberty Choir’s vision is that the reoffending rates among ex-offenders can be significantly reduced through a network of choirs located within prisons and the community. We believe that the economic and social case for the choirs is overwhelming.
## **Public benefit statement**
The trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in Section 4 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit ‘Charities and Public Benefit’.
The trustees are confident that Charity Commission aims, objectives and activities accommodate a range of activities that are relevant, accessible and affordable and improve and enhance the lives of people, while encouraging and developing partnerships and networks and are in accordance with the regulations on public benefit.
## **2022 – PRISONS IN CRISIS AS THEY RE-OPEN THEIR DOORS TO VISITORS**
As prisons attempted to resume normal service post-Covid, Liberty Choir discovered, as with so many aspects of society after the pandemic, that life in them had changed – not necessarily for the better.
Indeed, prisons are now in such crisis that an independent inquiry was commissioned to investigate the reasons behind the chaos. Liberty Choir, ourselves, has witnessed scenes in some prisons that resemble a modern-day Bedlam, with prisoners out of their minds in mental distress, not coping with the heat and unable to escape into fresh air sometimes for whole days on end because they have been left locked in their stifling cells.
On one occasion, as we left rehearsal, we witnessed the aftermath of an attempted suicide: a naked man, covered in blood, slouched on a chair in the middle of the wing, surrounded by medics. Touchingly, it was prison inmates who apologised to the volunteers that they had to witness such a shocking sight.
Prisons are more short-staffed than ever with a fall of 600 staff in prison officer and custodial manager roles with the numbers leaving the service increasing. Days lost through sickness have also risen in the last five years. * _The Justice Committee, November 2022_
As the Chair of the Justice Committee, Sir Bob Neill said, when launching the inquiry, such conditions are dangerous for the staff as well as prisoners: _“Understaffing in the prison system has serious consequences for prisoners and prison officers alike. Without sufficient staff, their safety is at risk. It also limits the ability to provide the vital services that support the physical and mental health of the inmates, and prepares them for release.”_
Half the prison officers surveyed in the report do not feel safe at the prisons they work in and over 80 per cent of the prison officers surveyed say that staff morale is poor (published on June 23, 2023). Sir Bob Neill said, _“The government risks failing in its duty of care to prison staff and prisoners alike. We are sitting on a potential time bomb. It must be defused.”_
Staff shortages and low morale have a devastating impact on an already volatile environment. Prisoners are being locked up for 23 hours or longer, as they were during Covid because it is easier for staff, particularly when there are not enough of them. Voluntary organisations such as Liberty Choir are filling a vital gap and it is often down to our collective services that inmates have a chance for their mental health to improve and for them to have something they look forward to every week where they can feel human and forget their despair.
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It is in the women’s prisons that the increases in both self-harm (a rise of 37%) and assault incidents (21%) during the 12 months to December 2022 is most striking and troubling.
_“There continues to be considerable differences in self-harm trends by gender, with the differences increasing substantially in the latest 12 months. The rate in female establishments has increased by 36% (5,035 per 1,000 prisoners; some women are repeat self-harmers), whereas it has decreased 9% in male establishments (507 per 1,000 prisoners), meaning the rate is now almost ten times higher in female establishments.“2023_
Women in prisons suffered inordinately during the lockdown years. Prison staff describe the day they had to announce that the prisoners could not see their children due to Covid restrictions and are still haunted by the memory of women sinking to their knees in anguish.
_**“A hard day today as it is my third daughter’s birthday but glad I got choir. Can’t wait to see MJ and all the gang”**_
A letter from “Sally”, a prisoner in the women’s estate who has weekly correspondence with a Liberty Choir volunteer.
Liberty Choir’s weekly rehearsals, the commitment of the team and volunteers, the precious bonds that are made in the room, are sustaining, and not only for the prisoners. Volunteers cherish their weekly rehearsals; prison officers report that the prisoners are calmer and more positive in the days that follow and that their improved mood permeates the wings.
The members of the Liberty Choir know that they can count on us to come in week in, week out – throughout the year. The singing and the community spirit is proven to reduce stress and mental strife and is recognised by prison governors as having a significantly positive outcome on the
welfare of their residents – as well as opening them up to pursue other educational initiatives – hence the demand for Liberty Choir to expand into ten prisons and more.
## **HOW LIBERTY CHOIR HELPS**
Liberty Choir UK is a charity whose work begins inside prisons – through weekly rehearsals of a choir made up of prisoners and volunteers from community choirs – and which blossoms when the choir’s ex-offender graduates leave prison and are supported by the team and volunteers.
Its mission is to engage local communities with prisons through shared music-making – building friendship and creating the conditions for rehabilitation.
Prisons are commissioning Liberty Choir to target the most challenging prisoners under their care: high-risk prisoners, where there is most concern about their welfare; prisoners who are trying their best to wean themselves off the drugs and alcohol which are often the reason for their incarceration in the first place and young, vulnerable prisoners barely out of their teens.
Within weeks of coming to sing and sharing a new community of people who care, prisoners have come off the risk register, citing Liberty Choir as the reason they feel calmer and more positive, as well as appreciating volunteers who write to them.
_**“That was the best two hours I’ve ever spent inside jail. So looking forward to next week. Like you say, my time can be spent doing good things like finding a different way in life and new people. So I can sort my issues out and find myself once again.”**_
A letter from “Pete” a prisoner in a new men’s prison who has weekly correspondence with Liberty Choir.
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**LIBERTY CHOIR: A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF…**
Liberty Choir makes sure that prisoners are never forgotten. Our quick response to restructuring our delivery within two weeks of Lockdown being imposed in March 2020 is evidence of the charity’s robustness and flexibility.
## _**“Liberty Choir is a Gold Standard charity”**_ **Sir Richard Eyre**
The consequence of those challenging years is that although the live rehearsals will always be at the core of what Liberty Choir does, we now provide the extra services honed in the Covid months of regular letter-writing to prisoners, care packages – as well as our digital delivery of Liberty Choir Radio. We are exploring expanding into Liberty Choir Television, too.
## **Here are some of the highlights of 2022**
- A successful Big Give Christmas Challenge (our second, in 2021) took us into 2022 with the confidence of a strong financial buffer
- We continued to research, write scripts, do interviews for _48 Songs: How Music Saved My Life_ – a year-long project between Liberty Choir Radio and National Prison Radio, part-funded by the Arts Council. The shows (which are on repeat) go into more than 100 prisons in England and Wales, with an audience of around 80,000 prisoners. We were so happy that half the subjects were Liberty Choir graduates even though they found it a challenging and emotional experience as it brought back some of their most distressing times. The rest were volunteers and high-profile supporters, ambassadors or patrons such as Jenny Agutter, Cherie Blair, Doon Mackichan and Robert Bathurst
- We opened in new prisons – HMP Coldingley in March and another launch at HMP Brixton in May 2022. Soon after, we were delighted to be contacted by new Liberty Choir graduates (ex-prisoners); the core of attendees remain in touch with Liberty Choir, attending the community choir, events and concerts, appearing as guests on _48 Songs: How Music Saved My Life_ .
At the end of the first eight weeks of the Liberty Choir launch in Brixton, Tommy presented the choir with this sculpture carved out of soap, the only material had to create something so precious. He is now out in the community and has sung with the South London Choir and appeared as a guest on _48 Songs: How Music Saved My Life_ , Liberty Choir Radio, a year-long partnership with National Prison Radio.
- In May, Liberty Choir was honoured to be invited as speakers to an international conference Prison Insights 2022 in Lisbon by Reshape (who generously paid all expenses), alongside other well-known UK initiatives that support prisoners, the founder of The Clink restaurants and Redemption Roasters.
• In September, our first post-Covid Friends and Family concert was held at HMP Coldingley – a joyous event, attended by those close to serving prisoners, as well as volunteers, supporters from trusts and foundations and other interested prison governors. Liberty Choir graduates, longstanding and new, in the audience – along with their family members – stood up to speak movingly about what a difference the choir and its ongoing support had made in their successful rehabilitation. Volunteers, as well as one of the graduates who is a superb chef made the food.
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In November, Liberty Choir launched its first fundraising challenge campaign, MojoVember. Contestants committed to raise money putting themselves outside their comfort zone with a daily challenge for seven days. Our Social Media Editor created a MojoVember community Facebook page, with challengers championing each other and drawing in new supporters as the network expanded. Challengers included ambassadors, Liberty Choir graduates, volunteers and their friends. Jenny Agutter, ambassador, even filmed herself on the set of _Call the Midwife_ for her 7-day challenge (“I love you” in seven difficult languages).
- This fed into our third year – and another effective social media campaign – with The Big Give Christmas Challenge, a new champion, The Monday Trust and raising a record £74,569 (pre Gift Aid). The organisers informed us: _“Your charity was one of the ‘higher achievers’ in the Christmas Challenge 2022, which featured 1021 charities.”_
In December, Liberty Choir and the community singers returned to perform at the Victoria & Albert Museum, a thrilling annual highlight before Covid, in the glorious rotunda.
We also had the honour to be featured in a ten-minute documentary by Mishal Husain on the Today show on Radio 4 who came to record Liberty Choir for the second time (in 2019 it was in HMP Wandsworth) and this was at HMP Coldingley.
The segment aired on December 21st 2022, a great Christmas present for the charity.
It was the Best of Today – please use the link below to be uplifted.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nndhqi2p4kfk2pb/05%20 LIBERTY%20CHOIR%20MISHAL%20PKG.wav?dl=0
Throughout the year, there were a great many meetings with Prison Governors (some prisons were still having to cancel visits because of severe Covid outbreaks affecting the already shrinking staff numbers) but preparations were made to set up launches of Liberty Choirs in eight more prisons in 2023 (HMP Send in January; a return to Wandsworth in March; Lewes launch in May and five more lined up for 2023).
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Liberty Choir continues to plug away, believing that it is worth making the effort even if the rewards aren’t always secured. We made a submission, for example, for the Longford Trust annual prize and were pleased to hear that we had made it to the shortlist. The director Peter Stanford urged us to try again, saying: “There was much support for the work that Liberty Choir has done, especially your courage and innovation in continuing during the Covid lockdown.”
We also submitted our Liberty Choir radio shows for the ARIA Awards and will continue to do so as we expand our digital delivery. These shows are now with BBC Radio 4 who are considering how to adapt them.
The year ended with us building our board of trustees, from four to six members – with a Secretary (Jennifer Holden) and (returning Trustee) Oliver Huggins as Treasurer, as well as Pia Sinha, formerly head of the women’s estate of all prisons in England and Wales and the new CEO of the Prisons Reform Trust.
We changed our accountancy firm and are now under Steve Sampson, Head of Philanthropy, at Ashdown Hurrey with a new bookkeeper, also, Ros Thomas of Rother Bookkeepers. They were recommended by HVA (Hastings Voluntary Action) whose support has been phenomenal, right back to when they helped Liberty Choir become a charity in 2017 (from a CIC in 2014) and every step of the way. Whatever the challenges, they are always there for us. They are a cherishable organisation; the director Steve Manwaring, and deputy director Peter Thorpe and team are not only effective but really care about all the Hastings charities which are under their protective wing.
2022 was also a year in which new funders came on board, as well as those who renewed their support. The Arts Council must be top of our list to thank, as they have believed in Liberty Choir right from the start when they gave us seed funding to launch in HMP Wandsworth on 1 April 2014 and continue to be our largest and most consistent funding support. But we took their advice in not relying on one income source, and now we are very grateful indeed to our additional 30-plus funders, including trusts and foundations, as well as private donors.
A new strategic approach of building multiple-year funding streams for sustainability, led to a number of funders agreeing to substantial donations: the Bromley Trust, the Fishmongers’ Company Charitable Trust and the Maria Bjornson Memorial Fund, as well as the Prince of Wales Charitable Fund. We also thank new funders in 2022, such as The Swire Charitable Trust, The Foyle Foundation, the Monday Charitable Trust, the Chapman Charitable Trust, Charles Hayward Foundation, the Hilden Charitable Fund, The Marchus Trust and Islington Council. And although we will be thanking them again, Garfield Weston, the Bowerman Trust and the Tedworth Charitable Trust.
Six months into 2023, Liberty Choir’s expansion continues apace. Music teams are being trained – each prison has an accomplished music director as well as an accompanist. Volunteers are undergoing security vetting by prisons and are also being key-trained; our aim is to be as independent as possible, so that prison staff are left to get on with their work rather than cater to us.
We are also investigating how to protect what we have achieved, as Liberty Choir looks forward to celebrating ten years in prisons in April 2024, while following our mission of making a positive impact on as many prisoners’ lives as we can. As our profile becomes bigger, we have been approached by many prison governors as well as individuals who have asked us to create the Liberty Choir programme in areas beyond our patch of London and the South-East (in 2023, we will be in all five prisons in Surrey).
There have been meetings and discussions about this, responding to serious offers in the north as well Page 6
as in Dorset. The logistics around creating not a franchise but some satellite choirs in other regions is something that will need sober consideration and preparation. This is one of our challenges for the future as well as diversifying and building on our digital content to run alongside our live programmes.
Liberty Choir would like to conclude by thanking our hard working and skilled board of trustees, our amazing ambassadors and patrons and our dedicated team. Working in prisons presents daily challenges; our perennial joke is that it is as hard to get into one [if you haven’t committed a crime] as it is to get out. It takes real grit and determination to push through the obstacles and bureaucracy; most staff try to be as helpful as they can in straitened circumstances but, alas, some do not.
Special thanks must go to development friends of Liberty Choir: Gill Morgan, David Bermingham, Clare Conville, Lisa Gordon and Christine Costello. As well as Ian Hislop who believed in Liberty Choir before it even launched and has continued to support us ever since, Stephen Fry, Olga Polizzi, Cherie Blair and Michael Gove. It is a testament to Liberty Choir’s mission and work that we have influential supporters across the political board.
We would be nowhere without our volunteers – 100 and growing – who are steadfast, compassionate, loyal and just ‘get it’. Sometimes, a Liberty Choir graduate leaves prison and he or she has burned every bridge; there is no family left or a single friend. The volunteers and team lift that man or woman up and, on occasion, will form a protective network to help with all the fraught negotiation back into society: probation, social services, finding housing or a GP. Other times, they will just extend a hand of friendship and offer a chat over coffee. They are the lifeblood of Liberty Choir.
Last but by very much not least, our thanks go to the prisoners themselves who participate in the weekly programmes – who take the dare and the ragging “CHOIR?*@!!! You’re having a laugh, mate, ain’t ya?” (as one graduate shared). The prisoners who allow themselves to be vulnerable and drop the macho front in that small room, even to weep when a song moves them. There, the healing starts and their own belief that they can change; it is there where hope comes and shines a little light in the darkness.
_“It is a beautiful escape, even if only for a few hours. Many times I’m reduced to tears of joy in the choir – the volunteers are all so helpful, friendly and kind.”_
Letter from ‘Simon’
_“I liked the energy and the feeling of no macho-ness and that you weren’t really in prison in that time, it was just a lovely vibe. And when I told my family about it, I felt really proud.”_
“Rob” evaluation after F+F concert.
_“I’m going to miss singing with you all immensely. What you do makes a world of difference. It helped me feel more human in a difficult and oppressive environment. It gave me something to look forward to each week.”_
Letter from “Jim” transferred to a faraway prison
_“Thank you for all the love and happiness you have shown me. I love the choir and the special ways of learning music.”_ Letter from “Tim”.
_“I’ve not had a visitor for six years. The choir is my social community.”_ “Chris” evaluation after F+F concert.
_“After my husband joined Liberty, in the following weeks every time we talked it was about the choir, the music pieces, the songs, the movements etc. But what I really heard was, he is happy when he is at the choir and afterwards.”_ “Margot”, wife of a Liberty Choir singer, “Nick” in a letter.
_“There is a buzz around the prison. Prisoners sing along back in cells from the windows as the choir rehearse.”_
Evaluation form, “Rich”.
_“MJ, Liberty Choir, Governor Thompson, you made sure the day was about 14 unfortunate men. It is seldom we are centre stage in this place. This bright day, in this dark place, will never be forgotten.”_
_“The big day came for the Friends and Family concert. It was a great day, not only for me but even for those who had no visitors. We started to sing, I look and see my wife with tears flowing. I became tearful, I do not know why. She told me later she cried because it is the first time she saw me happy for a very long time.”_
A letter from “Rajid”, RIP, a gentle civilised man who we all miss.
Letter from W after a Friends and Family concert.
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Please check out our website libertychoir.org which we try to keep updated regularly.
## **Summary of main activities undertaken for the public benefit**
- Bringing the outside community into prisons creating awareness and tolerance of marginalised communities by launching into two new prisons with our weekly singing programme: HMP Coldingley and HMP Brixton, while working on the launch or return to eight more prisons in 2023
- Bringing the outside community into prisons, beyond our volunteers and visitors by extending it to a wider audience for a Friends and Family concert. Giving hope and optimism to the family members and friends of the prisoners that their loved ones are doing something worthwhile, which gives them joy, during their incarceration. Also witnessed by other partners in the Criminal Justice System and leaders in trusts and foundations who observe the Liberty Choir graduates, bravely re-entering prison (a place with bad memories), wanting to share their stories of rehabilitation and positivity
- Supporting the reconciliation of Liberty Choir graduates with their family members
- Maintaining contact with a large proportion of ex-offenders, supporting them in their rehabilitation
- Influencing key members of the Criminal Justice community in the benefits of the arts towards behavioural change
- Developing a model that can be replicated across the prison estate
- Maintaining and developing relationships with prison partners in preparation for a return to live rehearsals in prisons
- Working alongside Probation to support Liberty Choir graduates to attend choir rehearsals and extend their curfew to enable them to do so, and work as a team toward the graduate’s successful rehabilitation
- Supporting prisoners during Covid restrictions and beyond by providing donated art and craft materials, reading glasses and educational materials
- Weekly radio shows – Liberty Choir Radio – broadcast in prisons across England and Wales
- Development, production and broadcast of 48 Songs: How Music Saved My Life, broadcast via National Prison Radio in 100+ prisons, 80,000 prisoners audience
- Local newspaper articles about Liberty Choir, as well as social media campaigns, brought our work in prisons to new audiences and led to new volunteers signing up to the weekly rehearsals
- The ten-minute documentary short on Liberty Choir’s work by leading broadcaster Mishal Husain on Radio 4’s Today show, featuring our Coldingley choir members, the Governor and co-founder MJ, means that an audience of 5.76 million listeners engaged with the reality of life in prison and the need for engaging arts programmes like ours to turn lives around.
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## **Summary of the main activities during the period**
- Return to prisons and the live weekly programme at two new prisons, HMP Coldingley and HMP Brixton
- First Friends and Family concert post-Covid held at HMP Coldingley (with follow up in diary for 2023)
- Continued regular meetings with Governors in eight prisons to launch in 2023
- Ongoing recruitment and training of new musical directors and accompanists for new prisons and imminent prisons
- Ongoing recruitment of volunteers with security checks and key training liaison with each prison
- Ongoing work on developing our business plan
- Liberty Choir co-founders were honoured to be invited to speak at an international prisons conference in Lisbon, (expenses paid by organisers), along with founders of The Clink (theclinkcharity.org) and Redemption Roasters, as leading prison organisations and charities in the UK
- Continued development and recording of Liberty Choir radio shows for 100 prisons, 80,000 listeners, weekly programmes
- Continuing support, via a P.O. Box and checks, of letter-writing between volunteers and prisoners
- Setting up local press articles in newspapers close to our new prisons
- Setting up leading current affairs programme BBC Radio 4’s Today show, with more than 5 million listeners, to cover our weekly Liberty Choir rehearsals and positive outcomes in reducing reoffending, conducted in October and broadcast in December 2022
- Launch of new MojoVember challenge: a novel way to raise funds, create a bond between stakeholders and extend the message about prisons and the need to support prisoners and their families
- A broad and engaging social media campaign to support our fundraising for MojoVember and during The Big Give 2022 Christmas Challenge week, during which we raised a record £74,569 (pre Gift Aid).
## **Risks and Risk Management**
The Charity Trustees regularly review and assess the risks faced by the charity in all areas of its work and plan for the management of those risks. Risk is an everyday part of charitable activity and managing it effectively is essential if the trustees are to achieve their key objectives and safeguard the charity’s funds and assets.
## **The Trustees have discussed and set a risk framework that allows them to:**
- Identify the major risks that apply to the charity
- Make decisions about how to respond to the risks they face.
## **The Trustees have considered:**
- Governance risk, including strategy and direction
- Operational risk, including staff and volunteer safety
- Financial risk, including cash flow, reserves and diversity of income
- Environmental risk, including government policy and public perception.
## **The Charity’s policy on reserves**
The Board of Trustees is responsible for ensuring that we manage our resources responsibly and that we act in the best interests of the organization and the people we serve. The Board has the responsibility for approving and monitoring the implementation of policy.
To ensure that there is no significant disruption to our charitable activities, holding appropriate reserves will enable the organisation to respond to any unforeseen reduction in income (for example when income does not reach expected levels) or additional expenditure (for example when projects overrun or unplanned events occur). The amount of reserves held would provide short-term financial security until long-term solutions can be established.
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As agreed by the Board of Trustees, Liberty Choir will hold the sum of £30,000 in reserve funds. The reserve amount was set based on what was, but is no longer the case, contractual responsibilities to its first employees. Financial risk to the charity has been reduced as freelance consultants have now taken these roles. However, the Board has decided that it would be prudent to keep this amount in reserve anyway.
## **The reserve amount can only be spent when:**
- The charity is experiencing financial difficulty and the amount of the unrestricted fund available is insufficient to pay the monthly consultancy fees of the core team members
- The charity is ceasing operations and the funds are required to settle outstanding payments
When the amount of unrestricted funds held reaches the reserve fund amount of £30,000, the project director will convene an urgent financial planning meeting with the Board of Trustees.
## **In the interim:**
- Prison programme operations will be paused pending the outcome of the discussion with the Board of Trustees
- Freelance contractors and consultant arrangements not required for the essential core operations of the charity will be paused pending the outcome of the discussion with the Board of Trustees.
The Board of Trustees will review the reserves policy in January 2024.
## **Financial Review**
The charity received income during the accounting period totalling £201,792 and overall had a deficit for the year of £48,030. At the end of the accounting period the charity held funds totalling £43,121 of which £12,000 are held for restricted purposes. The remaining unrestricted reserves of £31,121 exceeds the amount stated in the reserves policy agreed by the Board of Trustees.
Approved by order of the board of trustees on 7 July 2023 and signed on its behalf by:
O Huggins - Trustee
_**“ These strong men had been so taken over by the singing, by the dancing, by the impact of the visitors, that on Tuesday evenings in the wings, there was no banging of doors, no shrieking, no animal noises, no screaming… there was singing of a kind, there was music.”**_
Chris, LC graduate Page 10
## **INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF**
## **LIBERTY CHOIR UK**
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Liberty Choir UK for the year ended 31 December 2022.
## **Responsibilities and basis of report**
As the charity trustees 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 Trustee’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 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:
- (1) accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act; or
- (2) 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.
- S. R. Sampson BFP FCA FCIE DChA
Ashdown Hurrey Auditors Limited
20 Havelock Road
Hastings East Sussex TN34 1BP
Date: 7 July 2023
Page 11
Charity Number: 1173799
## **Liberty Choir UK**
## **Receipts & Payments Account**
## **For the Period 1st January 2022 to 31st December 2022**
|**Note**
**RECEIPTS**
Donations, legacies and grants
2
Charitable activities
3
TOTAL RECEIPTS
**PAYMENTS**
Charitable activities
4
TOTAL PAYMENTS
NET RECEIPTS (PAYMENTS) FOR THE YEAR
TOTAL FUNDS AT 1 JANUARY
TOTAL FUNDS AT 31 DECEMBER|**Restricted**
**Funds**
**Unrestricted**
**Funds**
**Total Funds Y/E**
**31 December**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
**£**
42,000
159,792
201,792
-
-
-
42,000
159,792
201,792
101,162
148,660
249,822
101,162
148,660
249,822
(59,162)
11,132
(48,030)
71,162
19,989
91,151
12,000
31,121
43,121|**Total Funds Y/E**
**31 December**
**2021**
**£**|
|---|---|---|
|||157,866
4,418|
|||162,284
159,498|
|||159,498
2,786
88,365|
|||91,151|
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Charity Number: 1173799
## **Liberty Choir UK Statement of Assets and Liabilities At 31st December 2022**
|**Note**
**CASH FUNDS**
**Cash at bank and in hand**
**OTHER MONETARY ASSETS**
**LIABILITIES**
**Social Security & Other Tax and Net Wages**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Total Y/E 31**
**December**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
**£**
12,000
31,121
43,121
12,000
31,121
43,121
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1,022
1,022
-
1,022
1,022|**Total Y/E 31**
**December**
**2021**
**£**|
|---|---|---|
|||91,151|
|||91,151|
|||-|
|||-|
|||-|
|||-|
These financial statements are approved on behalf of the trustees by:
O Huggins - Trustee
Date: 7 July 2023
Page 13
Charity Number: 1173799
## **Liberty Choir UK Notes to the Accounts For the Year Ended 31st December 2022**
## **1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES**
## **1.1 Basis of Preparation of Financial Statements**
The financial statements have been prepared on a receipts and payments basis.
|**Restricted**
**Funds**
**Unrestricted**
**Funds**
**Total Y/E 31**
**December**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**2. INCOME FROM GRANTS, LEGACIES & DONATIONS**
**Grants and donations include the**
**following:**
Donations
-
88,967
88,967
Gift Aid
-
5,825
5,825
Grants
42,000
65,000
107,000
TOTAL
42,000
159,792
201,792
**3. INCOME FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES - FUNDRAISING**
-
-
-
TOTAL
-
-
-
Income from Charitable Activities -
Fundraising|**Total Y/E 31**
**December**
**2021**
**£**|
|---|---|
||103,178
9,538
45,150|
||157,866|
|||
||4,418|
||4,418|
Page 14
Charity Number: 1173799
## **Liberty Choir UK**
## **Notes to the Accounts For the Year Ended 31st December 2022**
|**Choir Cost**
**Charitable and project development**
**National Prison Radio**
**Fundraising Costs**
**Travel and Subsistence**
**Promotion and Publicity**
**Accounts**
**Bank Charges**
**Printing Postage and stationery**
**Licences**
**Administration and office costs**
**IT & website**
**Salaries**
**Freelance Staff Costs**
**5. STAFF COSTS**
**Staff Costs PAYE**
**Freelance staff costs**
**4. CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES**|**Restricted**
**Funds**
**Unrestricted**
**Funds**
**Total Y/E 31**
**December**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
**£**
10,333 40,553 50,886
21,145
18,589
39,734
36,000
-
36,000
-
12,288
12,288
445
632 1,077
-
9,944 9,944
-
1,843 1,843
-
86
86
-
186
186
-
50
50
3,756
18,879 22,635
-
144
144
15,692
17,620 33,312
13,791
27,846 41,637
101,162 148,660 249,822
15,692 17,620 33,312
13,791 27,846 41,637
29,483 45,466 74,949|**Total Y/E 31**
**December**
**2021**
**£**|
|---|---|---|
||||
|||17,085
101,347
-
5,391
6,711
-
1,081
88
-
-
5,000
1,575
21,220
-|
|||159,498|
||||
|||21,220
102,359|
|||123,579|
No single remuneration amounted to more than £60,000
During the year, no trustees received any benefits in kind.
During the year, no trustees received any reimbursement of expenses.
Page 15