2024-03-31-accounts

Support and Care

SPACE

Through Difficult Times

Trustees Annual Report for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 for Space (Aylesbury)

Charity number: 1177979

Trustees

Hafeezah Ameen Kate Lawton Malcolm Abbott Mark Bateman (Chair) Christine Frost Robert Taylor

Structure & governance

In response to our growth and to make our structure more robust, Space, became registered with the Charity Commission on 17 April 2018, registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Our Trustees are listed above.

Our constitution is in line with Charity Commission guidelines.

We were sorry to say goodbye to Kate Lawton (Project Manager) and would like to thank her for all her hard work over the years.

Objectives and activities

Our objectives are:

To promote and protect good physical and mental health of people in Buckinghamshire who are experiencing relationship breakdowns, loneliness, bereavement, homelessness, unemployment, ill health, isolation or other mental or emotional stress but not exclusively by:

• Providing weekly drop-in groups offering a listening service

• Providing a safe place and opportunity to meet with others going through difficulties

• Providing an affordable one to one counselling service

• Providing signposting to other relevant organisations for specialist support.

SPACE , St Mary’s Church, St. Mary’s Square, Aylesbury, Bucks. HP20 2JJ Tel:[phone] e-mail: [e-mail] Charity Registration: 1177979

We mainly achieved these objectives through this weekly schedule of activities:

• Monday – short walks, starting 11am

• Monday – Art Group, at St. Mary’s 1.30 to 3pm

• Tuesdays – drop-in & food distribution at St. Mary’s, 10.30 to 12 noon

• Wednesday – Mindfulness Colouring at Queens Park Arts Centre, 2 to 3.30pm

• Thursday – Southcourt drop-in, 10.30am to 12 noon

• Fridays – drop-in & food distribution at St. Mary’s, 10.30am to 12 noon

• Saturdays – quarterly self-help webinars

• Sundays – drop-in at St. Mary’s at 1.30pm

• 22 hours of affordable one to one counselling – in-person & virtually

• Staffing an office for 30 hours a week to manage & administer the above

During 2023/24 we have also provided the following:

• Weekly mindfulness sessions

• Taster sessions with Bucks Adult Learning – crafts, budgeting, cooking on a budget

• An occasional barber

• Information and awareness sessions

All our services and activities are planned to be for public benefit.

Additional details of objectives and activities

We continue to be grateful to all those who help to fund our activities with grants, including the following:

• Buckinghamshire Council

• Thomas Hickman’s Charity

• Aylesbury Town Council

• Rothschild Foundation

• Heart of Bucks

• Fairhive

• Lotto Community Fund

• Garfield Weston

• Kop Hill Challenge

• Localgiving (Magic Little Grants, Peoples’ Postcode Lottery)

We are also grateful to all those kind individuals that donate generously, regularly & on an ad hoc basis towards the ongoing cost of our services.

We are thankful to St. Mary’s Church, Queens Park Arts Centre, Church of the Good Shepherd & Holy Trinity Church & their staff for the continued use of their spaces at preferential or no cost. Thank you for allowing our groups & sometimes chaos into your buildings.

We have worked hard to increase our internal income by contributions from service users at drop-ins and counselling and with our own internal fundraising, overseen by the Management Committee. This year, bake sales, Rock Choir fundraisers, a craft stall and sale of Space art group calendars. We have

continued to engage with online income generation platforms such as Localgiving, Give as You Live & Amazon Smile.

During the last year our project has had 2 part-time employees, 5 sessional workers and over 40 volunteers. It is the volunteers that make our project tick, staffing groups, counselling, helping in the office, accountancy, bookkeeping, fundraising, making endless hot drinks, giving a warm welcome and much more. Huge thanks to them all.

Between them these volunteers give 300 hours of their free time per month to the project. This is a powerful resource.

Main achievements and significant events during the last 12 months

• During 2024/2025 we had 3199 interactions with 346 beneficiaries with 55 unique clients

• Our monitoring for the first 9 months of 2024/25 indicates we experienced a similar level of interactions to the previous year and have identified different client groups approaching us, for example, those who may be seeking asylum or who are experiencing financial hardship.

• We are pleased to see a continued increase in the number of different faces we are supporting & also the rise in new service-users.

• We have continued to consolidate our regular programme of services.

• We continue to develop inter-agency working with partners from the Oasis Partnership, Buckinghamshire Council Adult Education and the Wildlife Trust.

• The redistribution of surplus food at our Tuesdays & Friday drop-ins remains a popular addition to our schedule & we are looking at ways to develop this.

• Our greatest challenge is to effectively address our increased footfall & demand with a limited increase in resources.

• The cost-of-living crisis has affected our service-users disproportionately.

• Receiving confirmation of the King’s Award for Voluntary Service was a huge honour and a reflection of all the hard work and dedication shown by all those who have given so much of their time to Space over the years.

Financial review

We are fortunate to have received grant funding, a legacy & fundraising income during the year. We are encouraged by our success at recent internal fundraising activities. However, we currently have financial resources to keep our project running for seven months at current levels of activity. The current economic situation makes us cautious about future funding and we are constantly looking for future funding opportunities.

Conclusion

There is a clear demand for our services and feedback shows we are making a difference to client’s overall mental wellbeing. We have responded well overall to the cost-of-living crisis. We need to keep on keeping on & work to secure more resources to continue to provide support and care for those in our community who are finding life difficult.

Claire Paine Project Manager January 2025

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Section B Balance sheet Unwe5trkted lund$ E￿d0￿ment Total Ihls lund5 lunds Fixed assets F01 F02 F03 F04 Tangible assots INot• 91 InvoStmgnt$ {Not• 101 Totallmgol 4$$•t& Currènt assets Stock and work In Debtor (Note 11} (Short t•rml ITh￿1￿nts C•$h at bank and In hand Tot$l¢ufrywtass•ts 18,190 18,190 Credltor5'. •mount%fg111Thg du•withi on• ygar INt)ts 121 N•tcurnentass9tslliabilrfie$l 18.190 Total •ssets tss$ ¢ur¥8ntllablllttes 18.190 Cr9dilors.' amounts talling due after one yeor {Note 111 Provi$ion6 for liabllhl• and chArg05 Notassets 18.190 Funds of the Charity Unre¥¢rl¢ted fvnds 13.964 13.9fj4 18.190 R•strfct•d Income funds (Note 131 EThdDwrnontlunds INot• 131 Tolal fvnds e 18,19D by￿0 (YtwotNsteES on EthaNol81 Ihè trusiees Oate ol lova1 SiwoiL Pnnl Name ol CC17a (Ex

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees/ Charity Name Space ( Aylesbury members of On accounts for the year 31/03/2024 ended Set out on pages 1 & 2

Charity no (if any) 1177979 (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 DD / MM / YYYY .

Responsibilities and As the charity trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with 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 all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent [The charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000 and I am qualified to examiner's statement undertake the examination by being a qualified member of [insert name of applicable listed body]]. Delete [ ] if not applicable.

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have 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,:

• the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act; or

• the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or

• the accounts did 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.

• Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.

Signed: Date: 25/11/2024 Name: Richard Willetts Relevant professional ACMA CGMA ( member in practice) qualification(s) or body (if any):

October 2018

1

IER

34 Wendover Rd, Aylesbury HP219LB

Address:

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).

Give here details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

October 2018

2

IER