Charity registration number: 1183965
Enabled Archaeology Foundation
Annual Report and Financial Statements for the Year Ended 5th April 2025
| Trustees' Report | 2 to 7 |
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| Statement of Trustees' Responsibilities | 8 |
| Statement of Financial Activities and Balance Sheet | 9 |
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Enabled Archaeology Foundation
Charity Number: 1183965 Trustees’ Annual Report 06/04/24 to 5/04/25
Address:
80 Milestone Lane Pinchbeck SPALDING Lincolnshire PE11 3XR
Email : admin@enabledarchaeology.com Website : https://www.enabledarchaeology.com
Charity Trustees: Names of the charity trustees on the date of approval of the Trustees' Annual Report
Chair: Professor Abigail Hunt David Connolly Professor Sally Everett These four served for a full year Andrew Mayfield Chris Moore
Structure, governance and management and type of governing document
The Foundation is administered under the terms of its Charitable Incorporated Organisation Staff Protocols and Constitution and is governed by a board of Trustees named above.
Trustee recruitment and appointment
By co-option of new members by the current Trustees
Introduction
The Enabled Archaeology Foundation (EAF) was set up by the late Theresa O’Mahony, and the current committee seek to realise her ambitions to make archaeology accessible and inclusive to disabled people. This report examines the reach and, where possible, the impact of the activities we undertook in 2024/25. However, it is worth noting that we recognise the need to develop more robust evaluation methods and measurements if we are to evaluate impact effectively going forward. The report includes activities that have measurable outputs at the time of writing that are linked to our key activity themes. Some themes are not covered in the report, however although limited work has continued in these areas it is has not progressed to a level where we have measurable results to account. We are examining and reporting of where our activities have had the most reach, engagement, and impact in professional, community, and university archaeology.
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Freya O’Dea (Administrative Officer) and Chris (Treasurer) have been pivotal in ensuring that we maintained good governance and continued to work towards financial sustainability.
Objectives and activities with Achievements and Performance
The promotion of equality and diversity for the public benefit by:
Working to assist all disabled people to access archaeology Promoting a culture of equality for all disabilities in archaeology Educating the public in enabled archaeology.
The previous year (2023-2024 ) saw a formal thematic framework with a series of measurable goals, and we continue as before with the same format. The achievements can be summarised as follows:
Table 1 Number of Goals Set and Achieved and Action Plan for 25/26
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Theme Total Achieved Actions for 25/26
number of in report
goals year
Theme 1. Good Governance 5 1 All role descriptions
and policies and
procedures must be
reviewed and updated
All documents to be
checked to ensure
they represent the
change in our
language usage
Theme 2. Financial Sustainability 5 4 Continue with
Membership piece of
work and Strategic
Planning Document
Theme 3. Networking, Communications 6 4 Focus on building our
and Profile Raising relationships in the
commercial sector
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| Theme 4 Sharing good practice and providing guidance on inclusive archaeological practice |
8 | 10 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theme 5. Promoting and developing inclusive archaeological feldwork opportunities |
1 | 7 | Focus on building relationships within the commercial sector |
| Theme 6. Facilitating a sustainable network of disabled archaeologists and their allies |
1 | 3 | Launch the larger committee and ensure everyone has roles, role descriptions |
| Theme 7. Producing and sharing research on inclusive archaeological practice |
3 |
7 | Focus on testing the model to be published in 2026 and undertaking fieldwork to collect data |
Table 2 Detail of Activities Under Each Theme
| Theme | Detail of Activities that Achieved Goals Set |
|---|---|
| Theme 1. Good Governance | Started work on Strategic Planning and realised that we needed help. We are now working in partnership with the University of Lincoln International Business School to achieve this. Produced papers for discussion on membership and this is a piece of work now being undertaken. |
| Theme 2. Financial Sustainability | Income generated through training and grant funding received to support conference attendance etc. |
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----- Start of picture text -----
Theme 3. Networking, Communications EAF represented on:
and Profile Raising CBA Reconnecting Archaeology Steering
Group
HES Access to Work Sterring Group
Archaeology 2030 Steering Group/s
Theme 4 Sharing good practice and Provided training to the CBA’s Young
providing guidance on inclusive Archaeologist Club leaders on making YAC
archaeological practice accessible to disabled children and young
people
Supported the CBA’s Festival of Archaeology
by having a promotional stand at the FoA
event in Kent
Participated in the CIFA 2025 EDI Fringe
Event
Participated in the HES Access to Work event
Gave a guest talk at Swansea University
Theme 5. Promoting and developing Supported the KAS Lees Court Project in
inclusive archaeological fieldwork Kent
opportunities
Theme 6. Facilitating a sustainable Organised and participated in a panel on why
network of disabled archaeologists and we must persevere in making archaeology
their allies accessible to all at EAA 2024 in Rome
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| Theme 7. Producing and sharing research on inclusive archaeological practice |
Published S. Gerberg Hostrup, A. Hunt, S. Clements (2025) EAF Blog Post: why should we persist in making archaeology accessible and inclusive to all?_Blog–Enabled Archaeology Foundation _A. Fitzpatrick, S. Clements, A. Hunt, K. Jones, F. O'Dea, D. Connolly (2025) A Guide to Disability Inclusion in Archaeology, BAJR _· Jul 2, 2025._bajr.org/wp- content/uploads/2025/06/BAJRGuideEAF.pdf |
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| Emily Stammatti (2025) Online Article Dig It Scotland: Can I Get Involved in Scottish Archaeology If I Have a Disability? Can I Get Involved in Scottish Archaeology If I Have a Disability?-Dig It! In Print (forthcoming 2026) A. Hunt and S. Clements (2026) How can Higher Education learn from the museum sector to better engage neurodiverse students with archaeological learning to foster |
2024/25 was a transitional year as our Chair of Trustees and Director prepared to step down from their roles and hand over to new incumbents, although the Chair of Trustees remains as a Trustee and the Director stepped into the role of Chair of Trustees and our Education and Outreach Officer stepped into the role of Director. Our Research Officer also resigned after a three-year term of service. This involved focusing on completing the top priority goals an leaving time to reflect and handover others. Those that we did not complete have rolled into 25/26 such as large pieces of work on the Strategic Planning (now being completed in partnership with The University of Lincoln), growing the committee to ensure sustainability, and exploring becoming a membership organisation. Many of the goals linked to these outputs are the ones carried over because they were more complex than we had assumed.
Reflective Narrative
Theme 1: Good Governance
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We did not achieve all of our goals linked to good governance because of the change in the leadership team and a realisation that we needed more committee members to be able to undertake this work. However, a review led by the new Director and Chair of Trustees and enacted by the Administration Officer will take place in 2025/26
Theme 2 Financial Sustainability
We achieved actions continued with funding from external sources through training activities and we utilised our employers and universities to ensure we could access grant funding support where necessary for travel and conferences. It is worth noting that some of the institutions members are affiliated to have cut their conference and travel budgets, so there was not as much finding available as in previous years.
Theme 3. Networking, Communications, and Profile Raising
Profile-raising activities continued throughout the year and have managed to make ourselves more prominent in the field of archaeology. We continued to develop our web and social media presence and took part in appropriate events across the UK, working with organisations at a national level and influencing policy development whilst building our extensive networks. It is clear that the EAF is now one of the ‘go to’ organisations for key organisations in our sector when organising events around access and inclusion.
Theme 4 Sharing good practice and providing guidance on inclusive archaeological practice
As mentioned in the previous section we took part in a number of events and developed published materials to achieve this goal. We are now embedded within our sector’s formal bodies, government bodies, and across academia and community archaeology. Our links with commercial archaeology have continues to grow, but will be a focus for us moving forward. Our partnership with the British Archaeological Jobs Resource continued to flourish and we worked with them to produce a new guide for the profession, which we hope will be used across the UK and beyond.
Theme 5: Promoting and developing inclusive archaeological fieldwork opportunities
We worked in partnership with Kent Archaeology Society under this theme to deliver tangible outcomes such as supporting a dig and the Festival of Archaeology. We did put a bid together to work with Harlaxton College again on a community dig, but this changed into the Harlaxton History Society putting on their own dig with the EAF represented in the advisory group. Whilst we didn’t achieve our original goal, we did manage to have a positive impact on their dig and have put together a proposal for 2026.
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Theme 6. Facilitating a sustainable network of disabled archaeologists and their allies
Continuing the slow process of building networks within the UK and internationally, which is one of the projects to take forward into the next year as it is continual and growing meaningful partnerships takes time.
Theme 7. Producing and sharing research on inclusive archaeological practice
We continued to work towards peer reviewed publications that will be published in 2026. We also produced articles and blogs aimed at more general audiences, and the BJAR Guide. This represents a good balance in shaping academic, community, and commercial practice, although we recognise that we need to focus on the commercial sector in the nest year.
Conclusion
Whilst this was a transitional year for us in terms of leadership the EAF continued to work towards its aims and objectives through a planned programme of activities designed to achieve the charity’s goals under clear themes or activity strands. We set ourselves ambitious goals and now that we are a more mature organisation we realise that we can set fewer, but more impactful goals. We continued to ensure that we worked across all three areas of archaeology (academic, community, and commercial), influenced policy at a national level, engaged with key organisations in our sector at a national level, trained volunteers across the UK, and contributed to peer reviewed knowledge production and dissemination at an international level. We reached a wide range of people via our activities having direct contact with hundreds and indirect contact with thousands. We continued to make archaeology more accessible and inclusive to disabled people through our activities, thus achieving our charitable aims. We have followed up on actions carried forward from this report in 25/26 and continue to grow our organisation and reputation in line with the principles of good governance and financial sustainability. Whilst our income remains modest we have managed our finances appropriately and inline with good practice.
Enabled Archaeology Foundation
Statement of Trustees' Responsibilities
The trustees (who are also the directors of The Enabled Archaeology Foundation for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the trustees' report and the
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financial statements in accordance with the United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom generally Accepted Accounting Practice) and applicable law and Regulations.
Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under company law, the trustees must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:
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select suitable accounting policies and apply them consistently.
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observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP
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make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent.
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state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disposed of and explained in the financial statements and
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Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable entity will continue in business.
The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that, at any time, disclose with reasonable accuracy the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the applicable Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations, and the provisions of the constitution. The trustees are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Approved by the trustees of the charity on 23[rd] December 2025 and signed on its behalf by:
……………………………………….. Chris Moore - Trustee
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………………………………………..
Chris Moore – Treasurer and Trustee 23[rd] December 2025
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