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2021-03-31-accounts

Annual report and accounts

2020-2021

Local Welcome CIO is registered as a charity in England and Wales, Registered charity number: 1180770

Unit A, 82 James Carter Road, Mildenhall Industrial Estate, Suffolk, IP28 7DE

Table of contents

A. Letters from Local Welcome 1-6
B. Objectives and activities 7-18
C. Achievements and performance 19-25
D. Financial review 26-28
E. Structure, governance and management 29-32
F. Subsequent events and future plans 33-36
G. Annual accounts 37-51

The trustees present the annual report and financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2021. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements and the requirements of the Charity’s governing document.

About us

Local Welcome makes it fun and easy for people who are different to connect, build trust and make change.

Our vision is diverse, resilient, and powerful communities, acting together for their common good.

Our part in delivering this vision, our mission, is to design global digital infrastructure and shared rituals for community leaders.

The power of digital infrastructure means that tools built to solve local problems have the potential to quickly reach global scales. For example, AXS Map grew from a local community project in New York into a global accessibility tool a decade later.

The tools we’re building may never reach these scales, but one of our values is to think big and act long-term, so we’ll continue to consider the broader context of the systems we’re part of, even as we design for specific local needs.

The challenges we face are also increasingly global in nature; from communities displaced by conflict and climate, or marginalised for physical and neurological diversities; or simply the impacts of Covid. Starting with user needs helps us design impactful rituals and tools for leaders and communities, but without a wider, more systemic perspective, we don’t think communities can become truly diverse, resilient, or powerful.

If we want communities to act together for the common good, they must be rooted in the local, yet responsive to the global. When we live up to our values, we respond to this complexity with honesty, humility, compassion and fun. In communities dominated by polarising division, simply connecting with someone different from us can be a radical act.

We don’t have ‘participants’ and ‘beneficiaries’, we have members and leaders who all contribute towards making our communities what they are.

Over the past few years we’ve designed two distinct ways of bringing people together:

These might seem completely different ideas but they share important common elements which make them uniquely Local Welcome:

We want to help people from all backgrounds to build solidarity, feel less isolated and more connected to the place where they live. As we do this, we’re trying to reimagine and build civil society institutions that are owned by their members, built to last, and relevant to the complex challenges of our time.

We’re grateful to everyone who continues to support us on this journey, and we’re hopeful for the future we’re building together.

Chair’s Letter

It is my pleasure to be sharing this report with you on behalf of Local Welcome.

This year, the Covid 19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges and grief for organisations and individuals. It’s also provided an opportunity for reflection and has highlighted human resilience and the power of our communities. This report highlights how Local Welcome has reflected, learned and adapted whilst remaining fiercely committed to its mission and values.

We have had to pause our meals welcoming refugees for now but we designed and launched a brand new service - ADHD Together, an online peer support network connecting people with ADHD. It’s early days but we’ve received very encouraging feedback so far.

We are grateful to our funders who have supported us this year and those who have committed to support us in future years. As a small, young charity it means so much to us when funders see the value in our work and back us as a team to achieve our goals. We would like to thank the National Lottery Community Fund, the Dulverton Trust, the Rayne Foundation and Herbert Smith Freehills.

During the last year Ella Fitzsimmons resigned as a trustee and Nasser Youssef stepped down as Chair. Nasser remained a trustee for the period of this report, but will have left the board by the time this report is published. The trustees, CEO, and staff team would like to express their gratitude to Nasser for his excellent tenure as Chair and to Ella for her contribution to Local Welcome over the past three and a half years. Myself, Kylie Havelock and Niketa SandersonGillard joined the Local Welcome board in January 2021.

I would like to thank all those that have supported us over the last year - our leaders, members, funders, partners and committed trustees and staff, without you none of the achievements we share in this report would have been possible.

Clare Young

A.

A letter from Local Welcome...

To our leaders, members, guests, supporters, funders and partners:

Crikey, what a year.

In March 2020 we wrote to many of you to say that we were putting our meals on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions and over a year later this is still the case.

As you’ll read in this report, we spent those first few months busily preparing for meals to restart, finally getting everything done we’d not had time to do while we were operating.

By early summer 2020 it became apparent that we wouldn’t be able to reopen meals anytime soon and so we started to talk about what became known as ‘The Gap’, the period of time between then and when we could finally bring them back.

We asked ourselves, ‘what do we do in The Gap?’. Around August 2020, having considered a number of possible options, we found our answer...ADHD Together.

It’s an answer that at first glance can seem very confusing. How can an organisation go from supporting refugees to supporting people with ADHD? Isn’t it, well, a bit of a leap?

It turns out it’s not as big of a leap as you might think.

Local Welcome’s mission, vision and goal have remained exactly the same. The things we learned and the infrastructure we built in 2019 meant it took us 6 weeks rather than 6 months to launch a brand new service.

People are still connecting, they’re still sharing their stories and they’re still getting to know people who are different from them (even if they’re both owners of an ADHD brain).

We still have a ritual, we still have leaders and members and we’re still building an amazing community of humans.

This report tells the story of an incredible year in the literal sense of the word. We’re proud of our response to unprecedented circumstances, we’re proud of our team who kept going under immense pressure and we continue to be proud of the organisation we’re building.

We hope you are too.

Celia, Helen, Andrew and Ben

*** Our vision is diverse, resilient, and powerful communities, acting together for their common good. Our mission is to design global digital infrastructure and shared rituals for community leaders.**

B. Objectives and l(h activities

B. Objectives and activities

Our vision and mission

Our vision is diverse, resilient, and powerful communities acting together for their common good

Our mission is to design global digital infrastructure and shared rituals for community leaders

Our purpose and public benefit

Promote social inclusion

People feel more connected to their community and overcome barriers to inclusion e.g. due to their mental health.

Tackle isolation and loneliness

People feel more connected to their community and overcome barriers to inclusion e.g. due to their mental health.

Activate new leaders within communities

People who had never considered themselves community leaders start to lead, increasing their confidence and building local capacity.

Goal

Operate an impactful, inclusive ritual that is membership-funded

2020-21 objectives

Objectives
1. Consolidate our meals work Service delivery
2. Launch new ways to promote social
inclusion and tackle isolation
3. Operate an inclusive, impactful new service
4. Activate new leaders within communities
5. Design new HR policies and write new job
descriptions for the team.		 Organisational
development
6. Recruit new trustees and strengthen our
board
7. Develop new partnerships
8. Share our learning

Activities

Service delivery

1. Consolidate our meals work

What we did: At the beginning of the pandemic we planned to return to meals as soon as it was safe to do so. As such, we spent from April to July 2020 formalising and improving the resilience of our operations and consolidating our learning from 2019. This work included researching and mapping potential new locations for meals, updating our leader guide, designing new recipes, automating our leader approval journey, and auditing our terms and conditions, data privacy, and GDPR policies.

How well we did: We completed this consolidation process which included: researching and selecting 10 new locations for meals, developing 2 new sets of recipes, updating our data policy, ensuring our systems remained GDPR compliant, documenting how we utilise and integrate all our cloudbased tools (Squarespace, Tito, Donorbox, Stripe, Sakari, HelloSign and Zapier), automating our leader approval process so that it no longer required intervention from our Delivery Manager, and designing a new leader guide based on leader feedback.

2. Launch new ways to promote social inclusion and tackle isolation

What we did: In August 2020 we ran a series of whole-team workshops to generate new ideas for ways to bring people together while we couldn’t run our meals. These workshops focused on identifying potential new groups of people we could work with along with potential new rituals. We evaluated our ideas based on whether they would: help us to build partnerships, find new forms of membership income and extend our financial runway. We also wanted to understand more about working with new groups of people and how best to maximise the speed and efficiency with which we could scale our impact without over-stretching our organisational capacity.

How well we did: We generated 15 new ideas (our target was 12). Once we evaluated them we decided to launch two - ADHD Together and Local Together with an initial focus on the London area for both. ADHD Together is an online, place-based peer support group for people with ADHD where people are encouraged to reflect on the way it impacts their lives, gain new insight into their condition and set positive intentions for the week ahead.

Local Together consists of guided walks in local parks for people who want to make friends, support their community and feel at home in their neighbourhood. In September and October we designed two new websites, launched two new Facebook advertising campaigns and secured 302 sign-ups for ADHD Together (groups in Southwark, Hammersmith and Fulham and Waltham Forest) and 410 sign-ups for Local Together (groups in Stratford, Deptford, Putney and the Isle of Dogs).

3. Operate an inclusive, impactful new service

What we did: Sadly, we had to put Local Together on pause when social distancing restrictions were tightened in England in November. With our focus solely on ADHD Together we designed a new ritual based on our CEO Ben’s lived experience, iterated our safeguarding approach to include this new service, designed a new code of conduct for members, designed a new ticketing automation flow using the Tito platform , set up reminder text flows using the Sakari service, designed a new user research call script to use with potential members and leaders and designed new feedback forms for members. We ran our first ADHD Together session in November.

Our CEO, Ben, is a qualified coach with lived experience of ADHD so was well qualified to lead the session. We’re proud that our sessions are run for people with ADHD, by people with ADHD. We knew it wasn’t sustainable, or our aim, for Ben to lead all future sessions, so we’ve been working on training future leaders.

How well we did: By March 2021, there had been 22 ADHD Together sessions across three groups, with 96 members attending at least once. In total 216 tickets had been made available and 88% of these have been allocated.

Average turnout was 66% which we believe is a solid performance considering that people with ADHD often struggle to follow through on their intentions.

We also conducted 37 user research calls to learn more about people’s motivations for taking part.

We’re pleased with the early indicators that the design of ADHD Together has a level of inclusivity that is meeting diverse needs, and attracting a diversity of members. We know that around 50% of our members are women, which is very high considering that ADHD in women is underdiagnosed. Some members have also commented that they would not be able to attend offline groups as easily due to caring or employment responsibilities.

We have not yet collected data on race or socioeconomic status, but we can report anecdotally that our members are from diverse backgrounds. Members have been sharing their feedback with us and there are strong indications that our sessions are having a positive impact (see more in D. Achievements and Performance).

4. Activate new leaders within communities

What we did: During our first four months of operation and while we were still learning, Ben was our only leader. In order to scale ADHD Together, and to fulfil our mission, we designed a leader training session and invited people who had previously self-identified as a potential leader to take part. We held our first two training sessions in March. Alongside this, we designed a new leader approval pathway. This included designing new safeguarding training and new support assets for leaders (e.g. instruction guide and code of conduct). We’ve kept our

co-leadership model which worked so well for our meals, allocating two to three leaders to each session. Once leaders have been trained and approved, they lead a session with ongoing support from our team, more experienced leaders, and an ‘on-call’ member of staff to support safeguarding concerns or other issues as they arise.

How well we did: We initially had 62 people sign up as potential leaders, of those 26 attended a session and of those, 10 attended across the two training sessions of which 7 signed up to be leaders and completed the approval process. We have noticed a difference between the proportion of people who sign up as potential leaders for ADHD Together compared to Local Welcome meals.Based on our user research, we think this is down to multiple factors, most notably that many of our members are newly diagnosed, or waiting for for NHS diagnosis, so they want to learn more about their condition before leading sessions. Due to the structure and aims of our sessions, we don’t think leaders need to have any expert knowledge, so we’re working on ways to communicate this more effectively and encourage more members to lead.

5. Design new HR policies and write new job descriptions for the team.

What we did: We designed new policies in line with ACAS best practice and our values. These policies were:

New job descriptions were written for these roles: CEO, Delivery Manager, Operations lead, Product lead, Communications Lead, and Designer.

How well we did: The team management and annual review policies were issued in August 2020. The new job descriptions were issued in October 2020. The pay policy and freelancer policies were subsequently signed off in April 2021, with the remaining policies being issued in May 2021.

6. Recruit new trustees and strengthen our board

What we did: When Ella Fitzsimmons told us of her intention to leave the board in late 2020, we realised this would lead to a Board of all male trustees In addition, our Chair, Nasser Youssef, had also expressed a desire to step down from this role. In November 2020 we launched a recruitment campaign to find a new Chair and two new trustees. Inclusivity was prioritised from the beginning, from writing the role descriptions and adverts to choosing to advertise on websites that focused on promoting roles to candidates from diverse backgrounds, as well as within our community and existing networks.

How well we did: We received 4 applications for Chair of trustees and 27 applications for trustee. In December we interviewed 9 candidates in total and offered the Chair position to Clare Young (who had originally applied for a trustee role) and trustee positions to Kylie Havelock and Niketa Sanderson-

Gillard. They were inducted to the Board in January 2021 and we are delighted to bring their considerable skills, talent and experience to Local Welcome.

7.Develop new partnerships

What we did: We connected with a number of organisations during the year including Save the Children, The Jo Cox Foundation, Together Campaign, UNHCR and British Future. In March 2021 we delivered a presentation to the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLaM) Adult ADHD team about ADHD Together.

How well we did: Following our presentation SLaM Adult ADHD team agreed to partner with us to pilot a new ADHD Together group in London aimed at supporting young adults aged 18-20 during their transition from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). This partnership in its infancy however it is a significant development

as the Maudsley Hospital is England’s leading centre for the treatment of ADHD. If this pilot is a success there may be potential to roll it out to other NHS trusts.

8. Share our learning

What we did: We wrote and published a series of blogs designed to share our learning with the charity and tech sectors. These blogs were:

How well we did: Between them these blogs have been viewed 910 times on our website, with the most popular being 5 things we’ve learned about leadership with 467 views. The blogs have received retweets and likes on Twitter from industry influencers working in organisations including the BBC, NHS Digital, Government Digital.Service, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, - Ministry of Justice Digital, Co op Digital and Peer Power UK.

What is ADHD?

ADHD is a neurological condition that affects people’s behaviour. It can severely impact:

And lead to:

This means many people who have ADHD live with poor mental health because:

Despite this, we know there is very little support available for adults with ADHD.

ADHD together

ADHD Together is a structured video call where people with ADHD can meet and support each other. It is led for people with ADHD by people with ADHD.

Our CEO, Ben, has ADHD. We have designed a ritual based on his lived experience which encourages people to:

Key features we started with for the online ritual were:

Outputs

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302
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Sign ups

216

Tickets available

2

Leader training sessions

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96
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----- Start of picture text -----
22
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Member attended

Sessions

88%

66%

Tickets booked Turn out

10

7

People trained

Leaders recruited

C. Achievements and performance

C. Achievements and performance

We have explained above that at the start of the year we were forced to move our focus away from meals and onto selecting a new service. This section focuses on the achievements following that decision.

Having an impact

During the year we demonstrated that:

People are motivated to attend ADHD Together sessions and demand for tickets is high

There are strong signs our sessions have positive outcomes for our members but this needs to be researched in more detail

This year we hope to demonstrate that:

People will pay to lead and attend our sessions

Our ambition is to scale up to the point where we are a 100% membership funded organisation. We can only do this if there’s demand and people pay, and we can only achieve our purposes through social outcomes. The impact we have lies at the intersection of these three things.

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Social
outcome
Impact
User Financial
demand value
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User demand

We invite potential new members and leaders to have an optional call with us before they join a session so we can find out more about their motivations for taking part. Of the 37 calls we’ve had, motivations fall into these categories:

1.Wanting to connect with other people who have ADHD

“Craving some kind of community.”

“Really want to meet people who have it as well.”

“Good to have more than one support group, just having friends is not enough.”

2.Hoping to learn more about ADHD and find new coping mechanisms

“Would be great to meet and learn from people like me.” “Looking for coping mechanisms. Meds curing some but not all symptoms.”

“To get tips on focus, concentration, procrastination.”

3. Newly diagnosed or recent flare up of symptoms and wanting to find help

“I have just been diagnosed at 44 and want to know what help I can get.”

“I have struggled a lot during lockdown, my symptoms have become significantly worse.”

“I’m coming to it late in life and would like support from a network that understands.”

Member demand

Across our three London groups we have proved we can generate interest and turn these positive motivations into demand for tickets to sessions and then into attendance. This is important as following through on best intentions can be a struggle for many people with ADHD.

32% conversion from sign-up (302) to attendance at a session (96)

88% of all available tickets booked (191/216)

50% sessions sold out (11/22)

66% turnout from tickets booked

We have a return rate of 40% (members attending more than one session) however we think this number would be higher if we could supply more tickets as many sessions are over subscribed.

Leader demand

Across our three London groups we have proved we can generate interest from people who want to lead our sessions and turn these positive motivations into attendance at leader training sessions and commitment to undergo our approval process.

21% conversion from sign-up (62) to attendance at leader training (10)

70% conversion from leader training to end of leader approval process (7/10)

100% conversion from approval to leading first session (7/7)

W

“

Social Outcomes

“The sense of belongingness is what I loved the most.”

“Great to speak with others with ADD/ADHD and their recent life experiences including home and family life, a first for most if not all the group.”

”

W

“Talking to people with adhd and learning new coping skills is the ‘comprehensive treatment plan’ that it states should be used in conjunction with adhd medication, but the NHS fails to provide through lack of funding.”

”

Social outcomes

ADHD Together is a new service and we haven’t yet conducted in-depth research into the social outcomes for members and leaders who take part. However, we do collect feedback from members and leaders at the end of each session and we’ve begun to build up a picture of what people value about taking part and how these things might have a positive impact on their lives. We’ve observed these three core themes:

1.People connecting with other people who have ADHD for the first time

“I felt quite moved by how much it meant to me to be connecting with others - it felt really safe and warm.”

“It is comforting to know that such a diverse bunch of people all face similar battles in facing a neurotypical world.”

2.People gaining new insights into their ADHD

“Well devised questions that made me think about my adhd in ways I hadn’t before.”

“It was nice to feel like you’re not odd and that there is a path to get by with this condition”

3.People feeling ‘seen’ and ‘understood’ for the first time

“People clearly need to connect and it is great to be with people who ‘get’ it.”

We intend to build on what we’re learning from member and leader feedback by investigating, researching and evidencing social outcomes more thoroughly during 2021-22.

Financial value

Our first three ADHD Together groups have been experimental in nature and an opportunity to test and iterate our ritual. For this reason, we decided not to charge members or leaders a fee to participate. The learning opportunity was more important to us than the income for the first three groups. Now the ritual has matured and we know there is demand, we will introduce ways for members and leaders to financially contribute to sessions when we launch groups in new areas.

CO D. Financial Review

D. Financial review

Our financial results for the year are set out in the Statement of Financial Activities on page 40. We have finished the year with unrestricted net funds of £11,395 (2019 £37,670) and restricted net funds of £30,000 (2019 £30,000). The level of unrestricted reserves is lower than the amount stated in our reserves policy.

Funders and supporters

We are grateful to our funders who have supported us this year and those who have committed to support us in future years. As a small, young charity it means so much to us when funders see the value in our work and back us as a team to achieve our goals. We would like to thank:

Reserves policy

At any time, we aim to maintain a total of 1 full month of normal expenditure in reserves. For any elements of our work over the following 12 months fully covered by existing restricted funds, we do not need to also hold unrestricted funds.

1 full month’s normal expenditure is an approximation for the following more detailed calculation:

The one month of overall costs is therefore considered a good estimate as no staff currently have a notice period longer than 30 days. Also the only recurring supplier contracts with more than 30 days’ notice are relatively small values. If either of those changed, we may need to increase the number of month’s reserves accordingly.

At March 2021 this would have equated to unrestricted reserves of £21,421 (2019 £26,217) compared to our actual unrestricted reserves of £11,395 (2019 £37,670).

Financial impact of Covid-19

In March 2020 we had been successful in our application to the National Lottery Community Fund for a grant of £487,600. The first installment of £243,800 was received as the pandemic took hold in April 2020, giving us resilience to consider our options and make changes. We spoke regularly to our funders about our new plans and we were pleased to receive the second installment of £243,800 in April 2021. We are confident this will give us financial stability for the next 12 months.

During the 2020/21 financial year, most funders understandably switched their focus to support organisations providing direct support for people impacted by the pandemic. We made the decision early on to stay focused on our mission, vision and goal to bring people together and therefore we were excluded from the vast majority of funding available to charities during the year.

This reduction in our expected income meant that we had to use reserves to ensure the continuity of the new ADHD Together service. It is our intention to build back to the level of unrestricted reserves set out in the reserves policy.

E. Structure, governance and management

E. Structure, governance and management

Structure

Local Welcome is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and it operates under the provisions set out in our constitution.

Team

We have a small, multidisciplinary staff team with a mix of backgrounds, skills, and levels of experience led by our founder and CEO, Ben Pollard. Find out more about our team. We had an average of 5.1 full time equivalent (FTE) team members throughout the year (2019 5.6 FTE). This is the team resource broken down by role:

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Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Ben Pollard - CEO (1 FTE)
Claire Brown - Comms lead (0.7 FTE)
Will Myddelton - Product lead (0.8 FTE - April - Dec)
Andrew Chaplin - Delivery manager (0.8 FTE average)
Celia Mellow - Operations lead (1 FTE)
Efe Harut - Designer (0.7 FTE)
Helen Brown - Admin Support (0.3 FTE)
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We have built the kind of multidisciplinary team found in the technology sector because our organisation is rooted in principles like human-centred design, agile, and lean. The aim of a small, multidisciplinary team like ours is to design, build, and grow a service without having to increase the size of the team, achieving greater economies of scale over time. This is why in some ways our team doesn’t reflect the usual structure of a typical charity. We’ve chosen to invest in a staff team with a mix of skills and experience including from the charity, education, design and technology sectors.

In December Will completed his contract and shortly after the end of the year, Claire and Efe also moved on. All of them had helped create the key building blocks of our organisation and we are hugely grateful for all they each gave to Local Welcome. Since then, we started to recruit two new permanent roles, but have since chosen to increase our team capacity in other ways, as set out below.

Furlough

The trustees agreed to furlough our CEO, Ben Pollard, for 8 weeks during 2020. This decision was taken due to the operational focus of the team during this time period and a significant decrease in the amount of partnership and funding work required during a time when many other charities and organisations were focused on their own response to the pandemic. The furlough scheme was again used for shorter periods for 3 staff in December.

Governance

Our trustees met 6 times during the year (about every 8 weeks).The trustees regularly review finances, policy, strategy, the team’s progress against its Objectives and Key Results and KPIs as well as safeguarding policy and

practice. Find out more about our trustees.

In December 2020 Ella Fitzsimmons resigned as a trustee and Nasser Youssef stepped down as Chair. Nasser remained a trustee for the period of this report, but will have left the board by the time this report is published.

Ella supported Local Welcome from an early stage, and was instrumental in both helping us raise the funds we needed to grow, and the accountability we needed to mature.

Local Welcome would not have started without Nasser’s patient, and tireless commitment to our vision, mission and values. Nasser is a respected leader in the Syrian diaspora community, both in the UK and internationally, and will remain a close friend and ally. We remain committed to supporting his vision for diverse, resilient, powerful and peaceful Syrian communities, both inside Syria and globally.

In January 2021 we welcomed our new Chair, Clare Young, and two new trustees, Niketa Sandserson-Gillard and Kylie Havelock. We’re absolutely thrilled to have people with their skills, talent and experience on the board.

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Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Nasser Youssef - Chair
Ella Fitzsimmons
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Nick Gretton - Treasurer Martin Dittus - Secretary James Darling Bekele Woyecha

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Clare Young - Chair
Niketa Sanderson-Gillard
Kylie Havelock
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Management

The day-to-day management of Local Welcome is undertaken by the team of paid staff, led by the CEO .

F. Subsequent events and future plans I

F. Subsequent events and future plans

Since the end of the reporting period (March 2021) the Covid-19 pandemic has continued to have a very significant impact on our work as it has still not been possible for us to run our meals. Here’s an outline of what the team has focused on since then:

Area of work Examples
Developing the ADHD Together
ritual based on user feedback,
whilst continuing to operate
sessions.		 We made it possible for leaders to run
sessions without a member of staff
present in the room. In the ritual itself,
we broadened the selection of questions,
and designed a (much-anticipated!) open
discussion section.
We also hosted our frst leader forums and
member forums, to learn more about user
needs. And all while operating a further 32
sessions.
Partnering with South London
and Maudsley NHS Trust and
researchers from Kings College
London.		 The Maudsley Hospital is England’s
leading centre for the treatment of ADHD,
and other neurological and mental health
conditions. At time of publication we
are in discussion withSouth London
and Maudsley NHS Trust(SLaM) about
possible avenues of NHS funding to
support this partnership. We hope to build
on the fndings of the pilot to improve our
service, replicate similar partnerships
across the UK, and in future, to replicate
our learning to develop support groups for
a broader range of conditions and lived
experiences.
Increasing team capacity Following attempts to recruit two new
permanent roles, we chose to increase our
team capacity in other ways. We are now
working with a design agencyCommon
Knowledge, and a fellow from Year Here.
Increasing organisational
resilience		 We developed new risk management
processes, in areas which include
fnancial operations, cybersecurity and
intellectual property.
We issued 17 new HR policies.
Building digital infrastructure While preparing to publish this report,
we have started creating bespoke digital
tools using Application Programming
Interfaces (APIs) to embed video
conferencing software into our own web
pages alongside a bespoke timer.
These new features mark an exciting
departure from adapting commercially
available software to our specifc needs,
to building bespoke tools to improve
user experience. We hope this will
improve the experience for leaders, and
make it easier for us to train and deploy
new leaders more quickly, reliably and
inclusively.

Local Welcome’s mission and vision hasn’t changed. Our overarching goal of designing an impactful ritual that is 100% membership funded hasn’t changed. We are really excited by the potential of ADHD Together, even though we are sad that this means we cannot restart our refugee meals for the foreseeable future. At the time of writing, we are preparing to launch our first paying groups, and embark on our partnership with SLaM. The infrastructure and principles of the Local Welcome meals have carried us a long way. Yet we are now also exploring the brand new territory of sustainable membership models (how to design for “belongingness”, as one member put it earlier). We think this new learning is a promising sign for the road ahead.

Key advisors

We are grateful for the support and guidance of our advisors:

Legal

Herbert Smith Freehills LLP Richard Norridge Exchange House Primrose Street London, EC2A 2EG

Safeguarding

Samantha Marks Safeguarding trainer and consultant

Independent examiner

Nicola Anderson FCA FCIE 189 Baldwins Lane Croxley Green Rickmansworth Herts, WD3 3LL

G. Annual accounts

G. Annual accounts

Local Welcome CIO

For the year ended 31 March 2021

Trustees’ responsibilities in the preparation of financial statements

The trustees are responsible for preparing the trustees’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Charity law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of its income and expenditure for the period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and to enable it to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The above report was approved by the trustees on 16 September 2021 and signed on their behalf by

C Young – Chair

Local Welcome CIO

Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees For the year ended 31 March 2021

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Local Welcome CIO (charity no.1180770) for the year ended 31 March 2021 which are set out on pages 40 to 51.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity 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’).

Since the charity’s gross income exceeds £250,000 your examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 2011 Act. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, which is one of the listed bodies.

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

Your attention is drawn to the fact that the charity has prepared financial statements in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS102) in preference to the Accounting and Reporting by Charities Statement of Recommended Practice issued 1 April 2005 which is referred to in the extant regulations but has now been withdrawn.

I understand that this has been done in order for the financial statements to provide a true and fair view in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Practice effective for reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2019.

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 charity 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.

Nicola Anderson FCA FCIE

Chartered Accountant and Independent Examiner 189 Baldwins Lane Croxley Green Rickmansworth Herts. WD3 3LL Dated: 17 September 2021

Local Welcome CIO

Statement of financial activities For the year ended 31 March 2021

2021 2020
Note Restricted
Funds		 Unrestricted
Funds		 Total
Funds		 Total
Funds
£ £ £ £
Income from:
Donations 2 259,174 2,820 261,994 414,559
Charitable activities 3 - (169) (169) 24,577
Bank interest - 120 120 321
Total income 259,174 2,771 261,945 439,457
Expenditure on:
Raisingfunds (12,962) (28,577) (41,539) (68,642)
Direct charitable activities (246,212) (469) (246,681) (303,145)
Total expenditure 4 (259,174) (29,047) (288,221) (371,787)
Net income(deficit) for theyear 5 - (26,276) (26,276) 67,670
Reconciliation of funds
Funds brought forward 30,000 37,670 67,670 -
Funds carried forward 12 30,000 11,395 41,395 67,670

The notes on pages 42 to 51 form part of these accounts.

Local Welcome CIO

Balance Sheet As at 31 March 2021

2021 2020
note £ £ £ £
Fixed Assets 8 - 347
Current Assets
Debtors and prepayments 9 2,338 4,772
Cash at bank and in hand 10 51,344 78,695
������ ������
Creditors:Amounts due within one
year		 11 (12,287) (16,144)
Net current assets 41,395 67,323
Net assets 41,395 67,670
Funds of the charity:
Restricted funds 30,000 30,000
Unrestricted funds 11,395 37,670
Total funds 12 41,395 67,670

The notes on pages 42 to 51 form part of these accounts

The financial statements on pages 40 to 51 were approved by the trustees and authorised for issue on 16 September 2021 and are signed on their behalf by:

C Young – Chair

N Gretton – Treasurer

Local Welcome CIO

Notes to the accounts

For the year ended 31 March 2020

1. Accounting policies

Basis of accounting

The accounts have been prepared under the historical cost convention with items recognised at cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant note(s) to these accounts. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the updated Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) effective 1 January 2019 (SORP FRS102)

The accounts have departed from the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 only to the extent required to provide a true and fair view. This departure has involved applying ‘Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS102) effective 1 January 2019’ rather than the version of the Statement of Recommended Practice referred to in the regulation but which has since been withdrawn.

The charity constitutes a public benefit entity as defined by FRS102.

Going concern

The trustees have reviewed the income and expenditure requirements for the charity, with particular reference in this accounting period to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as noted in the trustees report, and are satisfied that the cash position together with the next instalments of grants already awarded are adequate to meet ongoing expenses for at least 12 months from the approval of these financial statements and therefore the trustees believe that it is appropriate to prepare the financial statements on a going concern basis.

Statement of cashflows

The trustees have taken advantage of the exemption in accordance with SORP FRS 102 for smaller charities and have not included a statement of cashflows in the accounts.

Significant accounting policies applied in the preparation of these accounts are as follows:

Income

Income is recognised when entitlement passes to the charity, receipt is probable and the amount can be measured.

Donations and unrestricted grants are recognised on the earlier of receipt or due date in accordance with any agreement with the donor or grant funder. Donations and grants are only deferred if they relate exclusively to a future accounting period as determined by the donor.

Performance related grants and contracts are recognised when the service has been delivered.

Notes to the accounts (continued) For the year ended 31 March 2021

Local Welcome CIO

1. Accounting policies (continued)

Expenditure

Expenditure is recognised when a liability is incurred. Irrecoverable VAT is charged against the expenditure heading for which it was incurred.

Event costs include all costs relating to running the events including food, equipment, promotion, venue costs and travel.

Computers and other equipment with costing over £500 and with an estimated useful life in excess of one year are capitalised and depreciated at rates estimated to write off cost, less realisable value, as follows: Computers – 3 years Other equipment – 5 years

Funds

Restricted funds comprise income received that is restricted by the donor to activities that are narrower than, but within, the charity’s general objects. Expenditure which meets these restrictions is charged against restricted income with any amounts unspent at the yearend carried forward to be applied within the restrictions in future accounting periods.

Unrestricted funds comprise income received that can be applied by the trustees at their discretion to the general objects of the charity

Financial Instruments

The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 "Basic Financial Instruments" and Section 12 "Other Financial instruments Issues" of FRS 102, in full, to all of its financial instruments. Financial instruments are classified and accounted for according to the substance of the contractual arrangement as financial assets, financial liabilities or equity instruments. An equity instrument is any contract that evidences a residual interest in the assets of the entity after deducting all of its liabilities.

Basic financial assets, which include other debtors and accrued income are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost.

Basic financial liabilities, which include accruals, are initially measured at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost.

Local Welcome CIO

Notes to the accounts (continued) For the year ended 31 March 2021

2(a). Grants and Donations– Current Year
Restricted Unrestricted 2021 Total
£ £ £
Grants
National LotteryCommunityFund 243,800 - 243,800
Coronavirus JobRetentionScheme (Furlough) 9,828 - 9,828
253,628 - 253,628
Donations
Herbert Smith FreehillsLLP 5,372 - 5,372
Individuals 175 2,820 2,995
5,547 2,820 8,367
Total 259,174 2,820 261,994
2(b).
Grants and Donations – Prior Year
Restricted
Unrestricted
2020 Total
£
£
£
Grants
National Lottery Community Fund
162,000
-
162,000
The Dulverton Trust
30,000
-
30,000
AS Charitable Trust
-
10,000
10,000
People’s Health Trust
3,524
-
3,524
195,524
10,000
205,524
Donations
Predecessor organisation (see note below)
159,071
40,069
199,140
Herbert Smith Freehills LLP
5,840
-
5,840
St Mark’s Church
-
500
500
Urban Housing
-
500
500
Individuals
1,750
1,305
3,055
166,661
42,374
209,035
Total
362,185
52,374
414,559

On 1 April 2019 the charity took over the activities, assets and liabilities of its predecessor unincorporated organisation, Local Welcome.

Local Welcome CIO

Notes to the accounts (continued) For the year ended 31 March 2021

3. Income from charitable activities Income from charitable activities Income from charitable activities Income from charitable activities Income from charitable activities
2021 2020
£ £
Performance relatedgrants and contracts
Reset UK - 15,000
Other
Participation fees (169) 8,577
Other fees - 1,000
(169) 24,577
4(a). Allocation of Expenditure – Current Year
Raising
Funds		 Charitable Activities Support Governan
ce		 2021
Total
Local
Welcome
meals		 Local
Together
walks		 ADHD
Together
£ £ £ £ £ £ £
Salaries and
other staff
costs (note 7)		 34,178 77,016 15,403 92,419 30,491 5,759 255,267
Events - 1,107 1,053 2,437 - - 4,597
Office 83 4,792 944 5,662 9,270 - 20,751
Professional
fees		 - 1,192 238 1,430 3,152 446 6,459
Independent
Examination		 - - - - - 800 800
Depreciation 69 72 14 87 87 17 347
Total direct
costs		 34,330 84,180 17,652 102,036 43,000 7,022 288,221
Apportionmen
t of support
and
governance		 7,209 17,839 3,568 21,407 (43,000) (7,022) -
Total costs 41,539 102,019 21,220 123,443 - - 288,221

Local Welcome CIO

Notes to the accounts (continued) For the year ended 31 March 2021

4(b). Allocation of Expenditure – Prior Year

Raising
Funds
Charitable
Activities
Support
Governance
2020 Total
£
£
£
£
£
Salaries and other staff
costs (note 7)
56,073
191,379
42,549
5,489
295,490
Events
-
37,618
146
-
37,764
Office
1,304
9,255
9,831
-
20,390
Professional fees
-
15,317
366
1,197
16,880
Independent Examination
-
-
-
800
800
Depreciation
92
232
116
23
463
Total direct costs
57,469
253,801
53,008
7,509
371,787
Apportionment of support
and governance
11,173
49,344
(53,008)
(7,509)
-
Total costs
68,642
303,145
-
-
371,787
5.
Net income
This is stated after charging
2021
2020
£
£
Independent examiner’s fee
-
For examination
800
800
-
For other services
-
800
Depreciation
347
463		 Raising
Funds
Charitable
Activities
Support
Governance
2020 Total
£
£
£
£
£
Salaries and other staff
costs (note 7)
56,073
191,379
42,549
5,489
295,490
Events
-
37,618
146
-
37,764
Office
1,304
9,255
9,831
-
20,390
Professional fees
-
15,317
366
1,197
16,880
Independent Examination
-
-
-
800
800
Depreciation
92
232
116
23
463
Total direct costs
57,469
253,801
53,008
7,509
371,787
Apportionment of support
and governance
11,173
49,344
(53,008)
(7,509)
-
Total costs
68,642
303,145
-
-
371,787
5.
Net income
This is stated after charging
2021
2020
£
£
Independent examiner’s fee
-
For examination
800
800
-
For other services
-
800
Depreciation
347
463		 Raising
Funds
Charitable
Activities
Support
Governance
2020 Total
£
£
£
£
£
Salaries and other staff
costs (note 7)
56,073
191,379
42,549
5,489
295,490
Events
-
37,618
146
-
37,764
Office
1,304
9,255
9,831
-
20,390
Professional fees
-
15,317
366
1,197
16,880
Independent Examination
-
-
-
800
800
Depreciation
92
232
116
23
463
Total direct costs
57,469
253,801
53,008
7,509
371,787
Apportionment of support
and governance
11,173
49,344
(53,008)
(7,509)
-
Total costs
68,642
303,145
-
-
371,787
5.
Net income
This is stated after charging
2021
2020
£
£
Independent examiner’s fee
-
For examination
800
800
-
For other services
-
800
Depreciation
347
463		 Raising
Funds
Charitable
Activities
Support
Governance
2020 Total
£
£
£
£
£
Salaries and other staff
costs (note 7)
56,073
191,379
42,549
5,489
295,490
Events
-
37,618
146
-
37,764
Office
1,304
9,255
9,831
-
20,390
Professional fees
-
15,317
366
1,197
16,880
Independent Examination
-
-
-
800
800
Depreciation
92
232
116
23
463
Total direct costs
57,469
253,801
53,008
7,509
371,787
Apportionment of support
and governance
11,173
49,344
(53,008)
(7,509)
-
Total costs
68,642
303,145
-
-
371,787
5.
Net income
This is stated after charging
2021
2020
£
£
Independent examiner’s fee
-
For examination
800
800
-
For other services
-
800
Depreciation
347
463
5. Net income
This is stated after charging
2021 2020
£ £
Independent examiner’s fee
-
For examination		 800 800
-
For other services		 - 800
Depreciation 347 463

6. Trustee expenses, remuneration and related party transactions

No trustee received any remuneration or reimbursement for expenses in the year (2020: none)

There were no other related party transactions (2020: none)

Local Welcome CIO

Notes to the accounts (continued) For the year ended 31 March 2021

7. Staff costs and key management remuneration
2021 2020 2021 2020
Headcount £ £
Staff costs comprise:
Employees - Gross salary 114,352 92,333
-Socialsecurity costs 8,144 8,078
-Employer pension contributions 2,493 2,551
Total employee costs 3 3 124,989 102,962
Other staff:
Self-employed contractors 4 5 129,649 173,659
Volunteers’ expenses - 199
Staff related costs:
Trainingand recruitment 587 14,560
Travel and subsistence 42 4,110
7 8 255,267 295,490

The average number of employees and contractors in the year (based on headcount) spent on each activity was:

Raising Funds 0.8 1.5
Direct activities 5.3 5.5
Support and governance 0.9 1.0
7.0 8.0
Full-time equivalent (based on standard hours 5.1 5.6
worked)
Number of employees were paid over £60,000 (gross
salary) 1 -
The aggregate remuneration paid to key
management in the year, including employer’s
national insurance and pension, was: 69,100 59,844

The change in aggregate remuneration between 2020 and 2021 is due to adjustments in FTE rather than salary rises.

Local Welcome CIO

Notes to the accounts (continued) For the year ended 31 March 2021

8. Fixed Assets
Computer
£
Cost
At 1 April 2020 1,389
Additions -
Disposals -
At 31 March 2021 -
Depreciation
At 1 April 2020 1,042
Charge inyear 347
At 31 March 2021 1,389
Net book value
At 31 March 2021 -
At 31 March 2020 347
9. Debtors
2021 2020
£ £
Grants and donations - 4,500
Otherdebtors 2,338 272
2,338 4,772
10. Cash at Bank
2021 2020
£ £
Current and deposit accounts 51,344 78,695
Cash is held in instant access accounts with Metrobank.

Local Welcome CIO

Notes to the accounts (continued) For the year ended 31 March 2021

12(a). Movement on funds – currentyear Movement on funds – currentyear Movement on funds – currentyear Movement on funds – currentyear Movement on funds – currentyear Movement on funds – currentyear
At
1 April 2020		 Income Expenditure At
31 March 2021
£ £ £
Restricted Funds
Dulverton Trust 30,000 - - 30,000
National Lottery Community Fund - 243,800 (243,800) -
Coronavirus Job Support Scheme - 9,828 (9,828) -
Professional fees - 5,547 (5,547) -
Total restricted funds 30,000 259,174 (259,174) 30,000
Unrestricted Funds 37,670 2,771 (29,047) 11,395
Total funds 67,670 261,945 (288,221) 41,395
We are grateful for the grants offered by the Dulverton Trust and the Rayne Foundation to
support and develop our community meals. We hope to draw down funds from Rayne
Foundation and make use of our Dulverton Trust grant as soon as we are able to continue this
work.
12(b). Movement on funds – prior year
Income Expenditure At 31 March 2020
£ £ £
Restricted Funds
National Lottery Community Fund 321,071 (321,071) -
People’s Health Trust 3,524 (3,524) -
Dulverton Trust 30,000 - 30,000
Professional fees 7,590 (7,590) -
Total restricted funds 362,185 (332,185) 30,000
Unrestricted Funds 77,272 (39,602) 37,670
Total funds 439,457 (371,787) 67,670

Local Welcome CIO

Notes to the accounts (continued) For the year ended 31 March 2021

13(a). Analysis of net assets by fund – currentyear
Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted
funds		 Total
funds
2021
£ £ £
FixedAssets - - -
Debtors - 2,338 2,338
Cash at bank 11,395 39,949 51,344
Creditors: amounts due within oneyear - (12,287) (12,287)
11,395 30,000 41,395

13(b). Analysis of net assets by fund – prior year

Unrestricted Restricted Total
funds funds funds
2020
£ £ £
Fixed Assets 347 - 347
Debtors 4,772 - 4,772
Cash at bank 48,695 30,000 78,695
Creditors: amounts due within one year (16,144) - (16,144)
37,670 30,000 67,670

14. Government and local authority grants

There are no other unfulfilled conditions or other contingencies attaching to government and local authority grants recognised as income in the year as shown in note 2.

Local Welcome CIO

Notes to the accounts (continued) For the year ended 31 March 2021

15. Statement of Financial Activities – prior year

Note Restricted Unrestricted Total
Funds Funds Funds
2020
£ £ £
Income from:
Donations 2 362,185 52,374 414,559
Charitable activities 3 - 24,577 24,577
Bank interest - 321 321
Total income 362,185 77,272 439,457
Expenditure on:
Raising funds (40,372) (28,270) (68,642)
Direct charitable activities (291,813) (11,332) (303,145)
Total expenditure 4 (332,185) (39,602) (371,787)
Net income for the year 5 30,000 37,670 67,670
Reconciliation of funds
Funds brought forward - - -
Funds carried forward 12 30,000 37,670 67,670