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2023-03-31-accounts

- Sing Inside: Annual Report and Accounts 2022 23

The trustees are pleased to present the annual report and accounts of Sing Inside for the year ended 31 March 2023.

Contents

Reference information ......................................................................................................................... 1 Structure, governance and management ......................................................................................... 2 ������������������� Nigel Rothband.................................................................................................. 3 ����������������������������� Maisie Hulbert .................................................................................. 3 Report of the trustees: our objectives ............................................................................................... 4 Our work ................................................................................................................................................ 4 Community driven, enjoyable and engaged with communities ..................................................... 5 Locally-focused, tailored and collaborative ...................................................................................... 6 Sustainable, inclusive and actively anti-racist .................................................................................. 7 Anti-racism and inclusion .................................................................................................................... 7 Demographic data ................................................................................................................................ 8 Volunteer demographic data .......................................................................................................... 8 People in prison: demographic data ............................................................................................ 10 What have we learnt? .................................................................................................................... 13 ������������ ................................................................................................................................... 14 Financial review .................................................................................................................................. 14 Additional disclosures required for CIOs .................................................................................... 15 Reserves policy .............................................................................................................................. 15 Accounts .............................................................................................................................................. 16 ����������������������������� ........................................................................................................ 17

Reference information

Charity name : Sing Inside

Registered CIO number : 1182678

Registered address : Sing Inside, International House, 12 Constance Street, London, E16 2DQ

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Trustees

Nigel Rothband (chair, appointed 28.03.2019) Andrea Brown (appointed 28.03.2019) Claudia Vince (appointed 09.12.2020) Áine Jackson (appointed 14.12.2020) Jonathan Lucas Wood (appointed 21.12.2020) Jenny Mercer (appointed 21.01.2021) Edward Smyth (appointed 03.09.2021)

Executive team

Maisie Hulbert (chief executive officer) Giverny McAndry (head of policy) Jonathan Schranz (head of development) Clover Willis (musical leadership executive)

With thanks to local volunteer committees based in Cambridge, Oxford and York, as well as volunteer project officers.

Structure, governance and management

Sing Inside was registered with the Charity Commission in England and Wales as a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) on 28 March 2019 with registered charity number 1182678. Sing Inside's governing document is its constitution (last updated March 2019). The trustees confirm that the financial statements comply with the requirements in section 24 of Sing - �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� company charities to prepare receipts and payments accounts p ���������������������������� income does not exceed £250,000.

Sing Inside provides group singing workshops in prisons across England and Wales. We enable all participants to enjoy singing with others free from judgement or assessment, inspiring hope and confidence, and facilitating connection to others. We train confident, inspiring community music leaders who deliver engaging, accessible singing sessions. We prioritise enjoyment in our approach to learning to increase confidence, promote teamwork and encourage participants to recognise their individual contribution to a shared goal.

Our executive team oversees three local committees made up of volunteers who organise workshops with prisons local to them, in Cambridge, Oxford and York. Our relationships with prisons in Staffordshire, London and the south east and all new prison partnerships are managed by the executive team.

In 2022-23, Sing Inside was able to resume face-to-face work. Over the year we have worked at approximately 50% of our pre-Covid capacity, reflecting the gradual rebuilding of relationships and reinvigorating volunteer groups. We have been able to start work with HMP Haverigg, a new partnership for us, and HMP Liverpool, expanding into the North West and hoping to develop these relationships further over 2023-24. Our 2022-25 strategy has provided us with welcome direction as we have restarted our core work, and we explore later in this report particular areas of progress. We have also developed our musical leadership training programme further, and continue to roll this out more widely, hoping to expand the programme into Liverpool and Lancaster over 2023-24.

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Challenges with the external prison environment continue, and we are working to understand the changes in that context and how our work needs to adapt accordingly. In particular, the staffing crisis in prisons is putting additional pressure on enrichment work such as ours, and we are focusing on those relationships where there is capacity and resource to enable our work while we adapt our model as needed to meet these pressures.

������������������� Nigel Rothband

In the final three months of the 22-23 financial year, the Board began a restructure of the Executive Team. The purpose of this was to begin the process of transitioning the management of the charity from an entirely volunteer-led organisation to a small team of parttime salaried staff. The existing volunteer chief executive and co-founder was identified as the best candidate to take the charity forward and was employed from 1 February 2023.

Alongside the chief executive, the board agreed to begin the recruitment process for a programme manager and continue support for the external fundraising consultant. The Programme Manager was seen as vital to re-establish the link between the management of the charity and its volunteers after a disruptive period during Covid-19 and the fundraising consultant would take a weight off the CEO in terms of income generation. It was reconfirmed that many of the existing voluntary members of the Executive Team still wished to remain in their roles whilst others were employed and we are extremely grateful for their continuing support during this time of change.

The year 2022-23 represented the first 7 months of our relationship with an external fundraising consultant. Whilst the Trustees will formally review the success of the fundraiser in summer 2024, the strategic ambition to increase the charity's annual income by 50% between the period of 2022-2025 is progressing ahead of schedule and has allowed the charity to begin a payroll as well as expand its offering through an Ambassadors Scheme at HMP Liverpool. Income from charitable activities increased from £6,340 in 19/20 to £27,480 in 22/23 representing an increase of 433% on pre-Covid levels.

My sincere thanks go to my fellow trustees, our supporters, donors, volunteers and of course the Sing Inside executive team for all their efforts over the past year.

Chief e ���������������������� Maisie Hulbert

Sing Inside has continued to adapt over this year, responding at pace to changes in the prison system and our shifting position within it. As post-Covid pressure on the system has increased resuming meaningful activity has been challenging for many prisons. Sing Inside has worked to build site specific programmes which meet need and bring community activity which centres connection and teamwork skills back into the prison space after a period of intense isolation.

Our executive and local teams have been key drivers in this work, ensuring we are supporting volunteers where organic knowledge transfer has been interrupted by the pandemic with ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� . We have continued to see volunteers engaging readily, with new joiners in Liverpool and Lancaster taking part in visits to HMP Liverpool and HMP Haverigg, and we have built promising partnerships with a number of universities, local choirs and volunteer organisations. I am particularly proud of our work on our pilot Ambassador Scheme in HMP Liverpool, where we are working consistently

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with a group of residents to plan, publicise and build interest in our work within the prison. This has placed the voices of people in prison at the heart of our work and I look forward to continuing the programme over the coming financial year.

I am grateful to our board for their ongoing passion and strategic focus, and also to our many funders and supporters who have enabled our work to go from strength to strength. I am confident that this year we have set Sing Inside on a path to a sustainable post-pandemic recovery, enabling us to deliver sustainable services which respond to changing need and continue to centre enjoyment, connection and community music making.

Report of the trustees: our objectives

�������������� objectives as a charity are set out in our governing document as follows.

" To advance the education of the public in the art of music by:

All of Sing Inside's activities focus on delivering public benefit in line with these purposes. This is usually achieved through delivering day-long workshops and multi-day courses in prisons and delivering musical leadership training to volunteers outside prisons.

������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ when setting our objectives and in planning our future activities.

In this report we describe our main activities over the year and how we have continued to develop our organisation and deliver impactful work in line with our 2022-25 strategical goals.

What have we delivered?

We are grateful to a number of funders and businesses who have supported our work over the year, including Clarasys; the Garfield Weston Foundation; the National Lottery Community Fund; the Magic Little Grants Scheme; the Samuel Gardner Memorial Trust; the Woodward Trust; the Noel Buxton Trust; the John and Susan Bowers Foundation, and the Neighbourly Foundation, as well as numerous generous donors and our regular supporters. We are further grateful to Gemma Haley who has provided us with outstanding support to achieve such significant funding success to support our work.

Our work

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2022-23 provided the long-awaited opportunity for Sing Inside to return to face-to-face workshops. We worked with 9 prisons and delivered 13 visits, including an innovative multiday project in HMP Low Newton with Levedy Ensemble and work with new prisons HMP Haverigg and HMP Liverpool. Feedback continues to demonstrate a need for our work and we have worked with our Ambassador Scheme to centre the voices of people in prison in workshop planning and delivery, to ensure we understand how interests may have changed during periods where we were unable to deliver workshops.

We are structuring this annual report around the goals identified in our 2022-25 strategy.

Community driven, enjoyable and engaged with communities The first two goals in this section of our strategy are:

We assessed the impact of our work in these areas this year via self-assessment forms, filled out by participants before and after sessions. We asked questions about wellbeing, confidence working in a team and meeting new people, and confidence as musicians, as well as providing space for free qualitative feedback. From this data we established a range of satisfaction scores and a net promoter score showing the following results:

Participants also highlighted the opportunity to work with others as changing their outlook and inspiring them to feel more positive and included:

Another strategic goal in this category ���������������������������������� to prioritise �������������������������������������������������������������������� . We received a huge ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� wellbeing, including:

Now our work has resumed, over 2023-24 we will ensure our work engages with ongoing wellbeing initiatives inside prisons and also seek advice from wider partners in this area. In 2023-24 we will also pilot our Ambassador Scheme in HMP Liverpool and recruit a programme

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manager to provide renewed focus and capacity for the diversification of our musical outputs, work which we have begun to scope and cover in more detail later in this report.

Locally-focused, tailored and collaborative

Key goals in this section of our strategy relate to the effective engagement of volunteers, which was a priority post-Covid. They are:

Over the year we worked with 72 volunteers on our visits; 46 of these submitted post visit feedback forms. These volunteers come in and form part of the choir alongside people in prison. They may be singers, but many also do not have a musical background and are interested in engaging with the prison community. We found the following results:

A range of qualitative feedback included the following comments which demonstrate a sense of connection to the work and appreciation for the opportunity to work with new people from the area:

In relation to reducing our need to retrain committees annually, we also worked with 19 volunteers who went through our musical leadership training programme, a half day training session designed to introduce new musical leaders to our pedagogical approach and prepare them for a leadership role on one of our visits. Feedback included the following comments:

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We also ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ communicating a timetable of sessions and driving engagement by tailoring our workshops to ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� experimenting with prison partners with different periods of forward planning, balancing prison variables such as staffing with making clear commitments to potential participants. Producing CD recordings also developed a sense of ongoing connection with workshop groups, as CDs were circulated to them afterwards; this was positive in engaging people in prison between workshops and reminding them of upcoming opportunities. People in prison also submitted song suggestions more actively than in the past, which helps us to shape our future workshops to ensure they are of interest to participants. All of this information will be invaluable in planning and delivering our Ambassador Scheme, as well as securing long-term plans with prisons which enable us to commit to future work and explain timelines to people in prison with clarity.

We provide demographic data on our volunteer base later in this report.

Sustainable, inclusive and actively anti-racist

Much of 2022-23 was focused on stabilising our current levels of provision, and adjusting to changes in the system post-pandemic. This was broadly successful, with achievements against our strategic goals including:

� Secure the necessary resource to achieve our goals through increasing income from donations and grants by 50% � : over this financial year our income from charitable activities (including contratcs from prisons) increased from £1,600 in 2021-22 to £23,470. This has allowed us to plan ahead for 2023-24 with much more certainty.

It has also enabled ���������������������������������������� Establish a small team of salaried executive staff to become a more effective, efficient organisation and reduce the risk of key volunteers leaving the charity �������������������������������������������������������������� this year and seek to supplement this with a part-time programme manager during 2023-24.

Anti-racism and inclusion

Across our strategy for 2022-25 we have set goals relating to anti-racism. In June 2020, Sing Inside committed to becoming an actively anti-racist organisation, and we have continued to deliver work over the year in pursuit of this goal. Over 2022-23 this has included:

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Overall participants in our workshops feel they are working in an inclusive environment. 94% of people in prison and 80% of volunteers we work with are satisfied that our workshops are inclusive. However, we know that there will be gaps in this data and through our Ambassador Scheme we aim to develop an understanding of how to improve our musical programming to meet a range of musical backgrounds and interests. We have also received feedback that being able to rework or adapt songs to reflect participant experience more accurately helps people to feel included and engaged.

Over 2023-24 we are committing more of our resource to our anti-racism work to enable us to build stronger connections with volunteer communities and diversify our volunteer base via recruiting a programme manager. We will set targets based on the demographic data provided below to help steer this work.

Demographic data

Volunteer demographic data

Volunteer demographic data was captured in July 2023, just after the end of the financial year. We capture data from across our registered volunteer database, not just from volunteers who are able to attend visits. This data demonstrated the following:

----- Start of picture text -----
Gender (N = 143)
----- End of picture text -----

----- Start of picture text -----
Female 95
Male 44
Non-binary 2
Prefer not to say 1
Other 1
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Gender
----- End of picture text -----

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----- Start of picture text -----
Ethnicity (N = 143)
White English 70
White Welsh 3
White Scottish 1
White British 33
White Irish 1
White Other 15
White and Asian 3
Other mixed/multiple ethnic background 2
Indian 1
Chinese 4
Asian British 1
Other Asian background 6
Prefer not to say 3
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Series 1
Age (N = 143)
65 or over
Prefer not to say
8%
1%
55-64
8%
45-54
5%
35-44 18-24
3% 48%
25-34
27%
18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 or over Prefer not to say
----- End of picture text -----

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----- Start of picture text -----
Do you consider youself to have a disability? (N = 143)
Prefer not to say
5% Yes
13%
No
82%
Yes No Prefer not to say
----- End of picture text -----

----- Start of picture text -----
Religion (N = 142)
No religion No religion, 60
Christian Christian, 61
Buddhist Buddhist, 1
Hindu Hindu, 1
Jewish Jewish, 4
Muslim Muslim, 2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Religion (N = 142)
----- End of picture text -----

People in prison: demographic data

For the first time we have worked with a high enough number of prison based participants to gather demographic data which is an appropriate sample size. We include that data below.

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----- Start of picture text -----
Gender (N = 95)
Prefer not to say
Female
2%
7%
Male
91%
Male Female Prefer not to say
Ethnicity (N = 92)
Other responses 4
Prefer not to say 1
Other ethnic group 4
Asian/Asian British 1
Mixed/multiple ethnic group 5
Gypsy/Irish traveller 1
Black African/Caribbean 6
Black English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/Irish 2
White English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/Irish 68
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Ethnicity (N = 92)
----- End of picture text -----

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----- Start of picture text -----
Age (N = 91)
65 or over Prefer not to say
10% 1% 18-24
4%
55-64
11% 25-34
28%
45-54
13%
35-44
33%
18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 or over Prefer not to say
----- End of picture text -----

----- Start of picture text -----
Disability (N = 90)
Prefer not to say
2%
Yes
31%
No
67%
Yes No Prefer not to say
----- End of picture text -----

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----- Start of picture text -----
Religion (N = 80)
Other responses 2
Other 6
Prefer not to say 4
Sikh 0
Muslim 6
Jewish 0
Hindu 0
Buddhist 1
Christian 52
No religion 9
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Religion (N = 80)
----- End of picture text -----

What have we learnt?

We have adapted in many different ways over the last year to ensure we can return to faceto-face provision, and with a better understanding of the current state of the prison system we feel more able to respond proactively. Much of this is rooted in building back strong relationships and providing opportunities for people in prison to feed into our work more directly.

directly.
Key learning point How we will act
Stretched prison resource makes it
harder for us to ensure attendance
and participation, but there is a real
need for this kind of work
Focus on relationship building with prison partners
to understand how our workshops fit into the
current regime, as well as embedding ourselves in
the prison community through programmes such
as the Ambassador Scheme
People in prison value the opportunity
to choose music and plan workshops
with us
Pilot and evaluate our Ambassador Scheme, with
the aim of rolling it out into more sites
Volunteers are still interested in our
work, but we need to work harder to
Developing our musical leadership training
programme to ensure we have a network of expert

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re-engage them sufficiently for them musical leaders across the country who can to attend workshops inside prisons deliver engaging workshops to local volunteers Reinvigorating our additional events programme, including fundraising and performance events and discussion or panel events to continue improving understanding of life in prison and the system

������������

Over 2023-24, we have a number of key goals, including:

Financial review

Non-company charities (including CIOs) where gross income does not exceed £250,000 are permitted to prepare accounts on a receipts and payments basis. The accounts record transactions from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. These accounts can be found on page 13 of the report and a summary is provided below for clarity.

Sing Inside recorded net receipts of £14,510 in the year ended 31 March 2023 (2022: £4,517). This comprised receipts of £32,495 (2022: £10,191) and payments of £17,985 (2022: £5,674).

Receipts received during the year relating to restricted funds were £12,050 and reflected funds awarded for the Ambassador Scheme and musical leadership training. Unrestricted receipts received during the year amounted to £20, 445 with this split between charitable activities (£15,430) donations and legacies (£4,556), and other trading activities (£459).

Total payments of £17, 985 were made in the year reflecting overheads (£5,246), visit travel (£3,419), development (£3,942) and publicity and fundraising (£4,840).

Cash is the only asset of Sing Inside at the reporting date. The statement of assets and liabilities shows total cash balances at 31 March 2023 of £40, 788 (2022: £26,278). Of this total, restricted cash funds amount to £11,004.

Gross income in the year exceeded £25,000 and an independent examination of the accounts is therefore required by law. The examination was undertaken by Lorna Syrett and the ����������������������������� is included below. There were no conflicts of interest identified between the examiner, the executive team and / or the trustees and no payment was made to the independent examiner for their services.

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Additional disclosures required for CIOs

The Charitable Incorporated Organisations (General) Regulations 2012 do require the following information to be given by way of note:

It is noted for Sing Inside that there was nothing to disclose in respect of either a) or b).

Reserves policy

�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������������������������������������������

���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� plan and determine the target level of free reserves to meet these commitments. The basic target level of reserves to be reviewed annually is six months of operating expenditure to allow for a managed wind-down if necessary. At present, the board are maintaining free unrestricted reserves of £9,000 (increased from our reduced reserve levels during the Covid-19 pandemic, which were held at £7,500). This increase reflects the increase in activity over the last year and the need to ensure a managed wind-down now that the charity is an employer.

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Accounts

----- Start of picture text -----
Sing Inside 1182678
Receipts and payments accounts
From 01/04/2022 To 31/03/2023
Section A: Receipts and payments
Prior period
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total
(01/04/2021 -
funds funds funds funds
31/03/2022)
£ £ £ £ £
A1 - Receipts
Charitable activities 15,430 12,050 - 27,480 1,600
Donations and legacies 4,557 - - 4,557 8,762
Other trading activities 459 - - 459 (171)
Sub-total (Gross income for AR) 20,446 12,050 - 32,496 10,191
A2 - Asset and investment sales
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub-total - - - - -
Total receipts 20,446 12,050 - 32,496 10,191
A3 - Payments
Visit travel 2,485 934 - 3,419 839
Overheads 3,089 2,157 - 5,246 1,864
Development 3,942 538 - 4,480 2,680
Publicity and fundraising 4,840 - - 4,840 291
Sub-total 14,356 3,629 - 17,985 5,674
A4 - Asset and investment purchases
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub-total - - - - -
Total payments 14,356 3,629 - 17,985 5,674
Net receipts / ( payments ) 6,090 8,421 - 14,511 4,517
A5 - Transfers between funds (90) 90 - - -
A6 - Cash funds last year end 23,695 2,583 - 26,278 21,761
Cash funds this year end 29,695 11,094 - 40,789 26,278
----- End of picture text -----

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Section B: Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B: Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B: Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B: Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B: Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Categories Details of bank accounts Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
funds
Endowment
funds
£ £ £
B1 Cash funds Central account 22,488 11,094 -
Cambridge account 2,959 - -
Oxford account 4,248 - -
York account - - -
Pettycash account - - -
Total cashfunds 29,695 11,094 -
(agree balances with receipts and
payments account(s))
OK OK
Details Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
funds
Endowment
funds
£ £ £
B2 Other monetary assets - - -
- - -
- - -
Details Fund to which
asset belongs
Cost (optional) Current value
(optional)
B3 Investment assets - -
- -
- -
Details Fund to which
asset belongs
Cost (optional) Current value
(optional)
����������������������������������
use
- -
- -
- -
Details Fund to which
liability relates
Amount due
(optional)
When due
(optional)
B5 Liabilities -
-
-
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf
of all the trustees
Signature Print Name Date of
approval
Jonathan Lucas Wood 31/12/23
Nigel Rothband 31/12/23

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Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A

Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees/ Charity Name SING INSIDE members of

On accounts for the year 31/03/2023 Charity no 1182678 ended (if any)

Set out on pages

(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 / 03 / 2023 .

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:

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.

Signed: Date: 12/12/2023 Name: Lorna Syrett Relevant professional Member of ACCA – Association of Chartered Certified Accountants qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 3 The Drive, Bicton, East Budleigh, Devon, EX9 7BH

October 2018

1

IER

Disclosure

Section B

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 brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

October 2018

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IER