The Arts of Change Trust Contents of the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31st December 2024 REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 1177257 ## **Report of the Trustees and** **Unaudited Financial Statements for the year** **Ended 31[st] December 2024** **For** **The Arts of Change Trust** TRUSTEES Eve Meade Allyson Vowles Richard Morris REGISTERED OFFICE 27 Holloway Chambers Priory Street Dudley West Midlands DY1 1HA REGISTERED CHARITY 1177257 NUMBER NON-VOTING MEMBERS Christian Dixon ~~1~~ The Arts of Change Trust Contents of the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31st December 2024 The trustees of the charity for the present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31st December 2024. ## OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES Objectives and aims The principal objective and aim of the Trust as defined in its Constitution is: “The relief of persons suffering from physical and mental health issues in particular but not exclusively emotional, social, spiritual and psychological difficulties by providing counselling and therapy services.” is to work for the benefit of young people and by such methods, as the Trust shall determine. ## ACHIEVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE Achievements and performance The AOC Trusts aim is to support vulnerable & at risk young people & adults who cannot access mainstream counselling services. The AOC Trust helps children, young people, adults & families by providing first rate counselling & creative arts therapies including dramatheraphy, play therapy & art therapy. It also devises & facilitates interactive & evidence based courses ranging from motivation & empowerment to mindfulness & relaxation to anger management. A registered charity the AOC Trust is a community driven organisation whose ethos is about community empowerment, social cohesion & works to improve the lives of disadvantaged people. Through our current work especially in local schools, with families & young children & with our partner organisations we have discussed about their needs & identifying new approaches to help support a wider range of people. During the year we started our More Better Days Project, providing disadvantaged children and their wider networks with a programme of therapy sessions to help them overcome mental health issues that they face, this includes: - Depression - Anxiety - Schizophrenia - Bi Polar - ADD - ADHD - Body Dysmorphic Disorder - Hearing Voices Working with children from 3 to 16 years and either gender: male or female, who may have one or several mental health issues are supported in the project by qualified/therapists. Working with children and adults each year the project provides a range of therapy and counselling models to suit the client: including traditional 'talking' models such as integrative ~~2~~ The Arts of Change Trust Contents of the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31st December 2024 counselling or person-centred counselling and a range of creative arts models including art therapy and dramatheraphy. This project has been supported by a National Lottery Grant to run over a 5 year period. During the year the AOC Trust also delivered work for the NHS, this involved working with adult in a similar way to that of More Better Days. However, the main difference being the nature, scope and delivery methods of the sessions provide to fully engage with the hard-toreach clients that needed our support Also during the year the AOC Trust continued the ACC Child Contact Centre. ACC provides a contact centre for children to see their non-resident parent(s) or other non-resident family members. It offers a professional, safe, caring and supportive environment for all families who are having trouble seeing their children. Our contact centre is open daily and also during evenings and weekends and is affiliated and regulated by the National Association of Child Contact Centres (NACCC) which ensures all of our team and volunteers are fully trained and will provide the best practice, experience and quality assurance for all children and families that visit out centre. The only such centre within the Dudley Borough. The Centre provides: Supervised Contact Service Supported Contact Service Indirect Contact Service Supervised Handover Service Escorted Contact Service Preparing Children & Young People via an Introduction to Contact Services Parenting Plan Service Counselling & Therapy Service Life Story Service Mediation Service Miscellaneous Report Writing Service Attachment in Play & Drama Teaching Parenting Skills Service Emotional Management Service Partnerships The Trust has entered into various partnership arrangements with a number of organisations both as delivery partners and funders. These are itemised below: Delivery Partners Dudley Council for Voluntary Service National Lottery ~~3~~ The Arts of Change Trust Contents of the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31st December 2024 The NHS The Arts of Change Ltd Holloway Chambers Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council Royal Shakespeare Company Royal Society of Arts Lutley Primary School Bramford Primary School National Association of Child Contact Centres Beacon Centre for the Blind The What? Centre Phase Trust Black Country Mental Health FUTURE PLANS -The Way Forward Through consultancy arrangements, the Trust continues to identify future projects and sources of funding. The Trustees also agreed that the Trust should continue to identify project delivery potential partners as a strategic aim. ## FINANCIAL REVIEW ## Financial position The financial situation for the Trust remains challenging, in common with many similar smaller third sector organisations. However, recent bequests and the provision of consultancy services continue to ease the situation somewhat in meeting our core costs. The Trustees will continue to keep a close eye on cash-flow. ## Reserves policy As the Trust has no direct employees, there are no liabilities for the costs associated with this aspect and it is considered that the current level of free reserves will be sufficient for the organisation to operate effectively during the current period. Ongoing costs of rent, telephone, IT and insurance are the only core costs that the organisation needs to cover on an ongoing basis. As such the organisation will aim to increase it current two months of reserves to 4 months by the end of next year and to 6 months the following year Although the trustees are constantly looking for sources of funding to enable the Trust to continue to deliver its projects. ## STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT ~~4~~ The Arts of Change Trust Contents of the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31st December 2024 Governing document The affairs of The Arts of Change Trust ("the Trust"), which is a community organisation with charitable status, are governed by its Constitution and are the responsibility of the Trust's Board of Trustees. ## Recruitment and appointment of new trustees The Board currently comprises three individuals who have an interest or expertise in working through therapy and the arts with at risk people. There are, in addition, two non-voting members, who act as consultants to the board. The Review of the Trust has identified a need for additional expertise and perspectives: accordingly, opportunities to appoint other trustees are continually being accessed. ## Organisational structure The Board is responsible for the affairs of the Trust. The Chief Executive and consultant team deal with the day-to-day operation of the organisation. Induction and training of new trustees Board members are experienced individuals in the fields of the arts, local government, therapy and vulnerable people and most are also members of boards and management committees of similar organisations. Full induction is offered to all new Board members. Support costs, included in the figure below, are as follows: There were no trustees' remuneration or other benefits for the year ended 31st December 2024 Trustees' expenses There were no trustees' expenses paid for the year ended 31st December 2024 ## STAFF COSTS The average monthly number of employees during the year was as follows: 2024 Staff 0 No employee was paid more than £60,000 Signed Richard Morris Treasurer ~~5~~ ## The Arts of Change Trust Contents of the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31st December 2024 ||Unrestricted|Restricted|2024| |---|---|---|---| ||Funds|Funds|Total Funds| |Opening Balance|££3,577.42|£14,340.86|£17,918.28| |INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS|||| |**Charitable activities**|||| |Project delivery|£0|£237,601.67|£240366.44| |Donations|£2764.77|£0|£2764.77| |Total Income|£2764.77|£237,601.67|£240,366.44| |Total Funds available|||£258,284.72| |EXPENDITURE ON|||| |Charitable activities|£4868.32|£249,570.14|£254,438.46| |Total|£4868.32|£249,570.14|£254,438.46| |NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE)|£-2103.55|£-11968.47|£-14072.02| |Transfers between funds|£0|£0|£0| |RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS|||| |Total funds brought forward|£1473.87|£2372.39|£3846.26| |NET CURRENT ASSETS|£0|£0|£0| |TOTAL FUNDS|£1473.87|£2372.39|£3846.26| |CARRIED FORWARD|||| ~~6~~ **Independent examiner's report on the accounts** **Section A Independent Examiner’s Report** **Report to the trustees/** Charity Name **members of** The Arts of Change Trust **On accounts for the year** 31/12/2024 **Charity no** 1177257 **ended (if any) Set out on pages** 1-6 (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets) - I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended **31/12/2024** . - **Responsibilities and** As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation **basis of report** of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. **Independent** I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have **examiner's statement** come to my attention (other than that disclosed below *) in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: - accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or - the accounts do not accord with the accounting records I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. * _Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply._ **Signed: Date:** 22-10-2025 **Name:** Jonathan Hipkiss **Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any):** > **Address:** 192 Lichfield Road Walsall Wood WS9 9PD ## **Section B Disclosure** Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). 1 **October 2018** **IER** **Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose** . 2 **October 2018** **IER**