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2024-03-31-accounts

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REHABIT

Charity number: 1188034

ANNUAL REPORT

FOR YEAR ENDING MARCH 2024

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS
Trustees’ annual report 1
Contents page 2
Structure, governance and management 3
Reference and administra�on details 3
Aims and objec�ves 4
Ac�vi�es, achievements and performance (includes guiding note) 4-7
Financial review 7
Declara�on 7-8
Independent examiner’s report on the accounts 9
Sec�on A: Independent examiner’s report 9
Receipts and payments accounts 10
Receipts and payments 10
Statement of assets and liabili�es at end of the period 11
Notes on accounts 12

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Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 01-04-23 to 31-03-24

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Governing document

Trustees and board

In June 2023, the board of trustees reached an unreconcilable posi�on with the founder (a non-trustee and volunteer) and following legal advice he was dismissed from the charity. The board felt that this decision was in the interests of the charity and its beneficiaries.

In June, Kit Chong stepped down as he was moving to the United States. And in January 2024, the board voted to dismiss Cur�s Pierre due to lack of engagement with the board and no response to communica�ons over a six-month period.

During the repor�ng year up to 1 March, the charity was co-managed by two of the trustees, Dave Smith and Sean Robinson. This changed when Sean stepped down as a trustee and took over opera�onal responsibili�es as CEO. Sean withdrew from the interviewing process for poten�al candidates, made a blind applica�on and a�er successful interview and given his experience was invited to be the CEO.

Jamie Gregory, a board advisor with extensive experience in the health and care sector, was confirmed as co-opted trustee in March 2024. Our other board advisor, a senior manager in the care sector, regularly joins our board mee�ngs.

On the counselling side, we have a very experienced clinical supervisor, four in-house counsellors and access to two more via Azura Minds. And we now have four peer supporters with lived experience of addic�on. Finally, we have three marke�ng volunteers who do a good job for us.

To help refine our strategy and have more clarify about our goals, we secured voluntary services of a management consultant via the Cranfield Trust.

Despite it being a tough six-month period, the board is confident they have made bold and posi�ve decisions and can now focus on a clear strategy to support more people struggling with addic�on without unnecessary distrac�ons.

Reference and administra�on details

As the founder’s book was also the name of the charity, From Rehab to Life, in December the Charity Commission accepted our request to change the name to Rehabit. Though we have retained From Rehab to Life Founda�on as a secondary name for legacy and con�nuity reasons.

The charity is registered as Rehabit and our charity number is 1188034.

Our registered address: Space4. 113-115 Fonthill Road, Finsbury Park, London, N4 3HH.

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AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

We are currently seeking approval from Charity Commission to update our charity objects as follows: ‘FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT TO RELIEVE THE NEED OF THOSE SUFFERING FROM DRUG AND/OR ALCOHOL ADDICTION, OR THOSE AT RISK OF BECOMING ADDICTED TO DRUGS AND/OR ALCOHOL IN PARTICULAR, BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH THE PROVISION OF PEER SUPPORT, COUNSELLING, AFTERCARE SESSIONS AND WORKSHOPS.’

The only change is dropping the specific reference to the preven�on of knife crime as this no longer the focus of the charity.

The aims of Rehabit are to help those in London struggling with drugs or alcohol and who have no or limited funds. We do this, primarily, by providing free addic�on counselling for those who can’t afford it, and peer support from those with lived experience of addic�on.

ACTIVITIES, ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

This sec�on demonstrates our public benefit and how we are enhancing and furthering our charity’s objects.

Strategic summary

Our strategy this year was to con�nue developing and growing our counselling and peer support offer to help more beneficiaries.

Over the year, we reviewed our focus and ar�culated a new and clear USP:

We are a small, agile and personal charity that provides a non-judgemental quick interven�on and free service, with lived experience and abs�nence at its heart. Our clients are those who:

We believe those who will benefit from our services are people who need extra �me, tolerance, pa�ence and care to get the help they so desperately need.

We began using this USP in the later part of the year and it pervades our communica�ons and interac�ons with partners to provide clarity of the beneficiaries that we can help. We believe this is puts us in a rare and much-needed space in the addic�on sector.

We sought funding and planned for a pilot daycare programme in the community to begin in autumn 2024. This will lay the ground for our post-pilot ac�vi�es where we intend to run a regular series of community drop-in sessions where peer supporters would discuss clients’ issues, offer guidance, and tee up counselling where appropriate. This will be part of our strategy to get more directly close to poten�al beneficiaries.

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Counselling and peer support development

Our services focused increasingly on delivering free counselling and peer support for clients. We worked on establishing our name within the community and especially mental health networks in Haringey, Islington, Barnet, Enfield and Camden.

We further increased our counselling team with new people: a Doctor of Psychology and a recent trainee. Our partnership with Azura Minds con�nued, and we saw a steady increase in referrals from Talking Therapies (previously IAPT) and St Ann’s primary mental health care team.

We received one client complaint that was par�ally upheld based on input from our clinical supervisor and remedial ac�on was put in place.

We now have two extra peer supporters, male and female. Both are remote but can s�ll provide valuable support. Another possible peer supporter is close to joining us in April 2024.

Beneficiaries

We reached our target of 12 people in counselling which given that we slowed down the service from June-December is an achievement.

From 40 referrals in 23-24, three completed counselling clean and sober, one of these is considering how he can give back to the charity, and another went on to follow the career of his dreams.

Two others were sober when they finished part-way through counselling but their con�nued sobriety is unverifiable. Nine are s�ll in counselling and con�nue into next year, 17 are in peer support (pre- and post-counselling), and nine received peer support and were guided to other services.

One client, s�ll in counselling, agreed for us to write a short case study on his good progress so far and this was used on a funding report. A client is considering peer support, one is going to do some wri�ng for us, and another has expressed an interest in ge�ng involved and we’re exploring what that will look like.

Fundraising

Our approach was primarily applying for grants. Once our new name was confirmed, we renewed our grant applica�ons with vigour in December 2023, focusing on two main funding goals: the recruitment of a part-�me General Manager / CEO-designate, and money for our eight-week pilot programme.

Grants of 3k from Albert Hall Trust, 10k from the Mar�n Geddes Founda�on Trust, 10k from a private benefactor and, at the end of March, 6k from Postcode Trust Society, meant we could proceed with recrui�ng a part-�me GM (CEO-designate) and have par�ally met our target for the eight-week pilot we intend to run in autumn 2024.

Though our partnership with Making Count (sister organisa�on of Our Forgo�en Neighbours, see above) yielded £1000 p/m from their street collec�ons for the first couple of months of the repor�ng period, we had to issue an immediate ‘cease and desist’ le�er in June 2023. Our concerns about their poor transparency, governance and performance were confirmed when we received two complaints within a two-week period regarding them, one from a distraught retail manager and another from a police constable Following this, we immediately issued a no�ce ceasing all contact with Make it Count and any organisa�ons, including Our Forgo�en Neighbours, run by the owner. Mi�ga�on against knock-on reputa�onal damage to the charity was paramount.

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We launched a Christmas funding appeal via social media but given our limited number of followers, this didn’t generate any income. However, we believe it was worth it to learn how to do it be�er and that the ac�vity would s�ll have helped raise our profile. With this in mind, the board agreed to defer our crowdfunding and appeal efforts un�l the new financial year and approach with a fresh outlook.

Stakeholders and rela�onships

We con�nued to build more rela�onships, mostly with organisa�ons who could iden�fy and refer clients to us. This is our primary reach for clients, especially partnering with frontline ou�its. We play a big role in a Barnet, Enfield and Haringey NHS Trust mental health network that supports people who ‘fall through the gaps’. We are also building closer rela�onship with Talking Therapies (previously IAPT). And we made some in-roads into more contact with organisa�ons in the jus�ce system.

Deciding that we were well-enough connected in Haringey at the end of the year we started building deeper rela�onships in Islington. We are now part of their Voluntary Ac�on Group, working closely with the Single Homeless Project (SHP) teams, have joined Hope On Your Doorstep network, and ge�ng closer to ac�vi�es at Manor Gardens. This is a very promising start to our rela�onships in Islington, with definitely more to come.

We also got close to Steps2Recovery who had a similar rehab house model that we are considering in the long-term. At the �me of this report, we are trying to join Collec�ve Voice, and body that involves all the big organisa�ons in the world of addic�on (CGL, Turning Point, Humankind etc).

Food banks, care packages and beneficiaries

Following discussions and the concern that these ac�vi�es were becoming a distrac�on from the charity’s core aims and objec�ves, and the belief that others do it be�er and we should focus on addic�on. The board agreed that we would cease any financial support for the food banks.

Similar to food banks, our care package ac�vi�es were becoming �me-consuming and not high value – and despite a�empts to distribute these in a more meaningful way and use them to establish deeper rela�onships with partners such as St Mungo’s, this never happened. The board agreed to wind this down, ceasing in 2024-25.

An independent management consultant from Cranfield Trust also suggested this course of ac�on.

Marke�ng communica�ons and social media

Banbury Howard, a design and marke�ng agency, made us they ‘charity of the year’ and developed a new brand concept and brand guidelines for Rehabit. Excellent work for which we are incredibly grateful.

We con�nued to push Twi�er/X and have a reasonable presence that should reap more followers over �me. We also have an increasing presence on Instagram and LinkedIn. We understand that, for us, social media is about having a presence – it isn’t a primary route to reaching new clients given the difficulty and cost of geo-loca�on targe�ng.

We used Outlandish, an affordable design coopera�ve, to create our new website at a reasonable price. The board is extremely happy with the work they’ve done for us and the professional online presence that we now have.

Our marke�ng material has been re-branded for Rehabit.

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During the difficult six-month period we didn’t do any significant marke�ng and now believe we have the pla�orm to be more bold in our efforts for 2024-25 as we have the capacity and stability to help more beneficiaries.

Rehab house project

We were in the exploratory stage of establishing a London-based mixed, residen�al abs�nence-based rehab house with a 90-day recovery programme. However, given the brutal economic climate, the harsh reality of fundraising, and the housing challenges at the moment, the board agreed to review this goal in 2026-27 to look at its viability the following year. Our focus in 2024-25 will be on agile programmes in the community that support our niche beneficiaries.

Pilot programme in the community

Towards the end of 2023 planning for our pilot programme began with a view to launching in spring 2024. The board decided that autumn would be a be�er �me. It will now run between September and November 2024 and will provide 20 people with the opportunity to be on one of two one-month hybrid programmes (flexible combina�on of face-to-face and online delivery). Each programme will include group therapy, 12-step talks, and life skills (eg employment and educa�on sessions, and one-to-one counselling). We see our work as complemen�ng the larger drug and alcohol services and filling a gap they don’t provide for those that need extra �me, care, pa�ence and support.

Corporate and community connec�on projects

The professional volunteers we engaged to network and iden�fy social corporate funding and community opportuni�es stood down having made no progress. We decided to hold off on this during the transi�on and the responsibility now lies with the CEO role.

Addic�on awareness training and talks

We con�nued to run training sessions for partners aimed at dispelling myths around addic�on; and do talks at team mee�ngs and events.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Reserves’ policy and financial commentary

In the interests of transparency and accountability, the board of trustees has resubmi�ed our report and accounts for 2022-23 and 2023-24. On inves�ga�on, it became belatedly clear that as the charity migrated to a free accoun�ng so�ware in 2022 that the opening balances were incorrect and some of the accoun�ng categories not set up accurately. The reason for moving to accoun�ng so�ware was to become more efficient and follow the Charity Commission’s recommenda�ons for financial management. We have recently been advised by the accoun�ng so�ware team that this migra�on has been problema�c for other organisa�ons too. The presence of a legacy bank account from during the �me when the charity was a limited company also had a knock-on effect.

The board has reviewed all transac�ons for the period and completely reconciled the accoun�ng so�ware entries against bank statements, and is confident with the newly submi�ed statement of accounts.

The new accounts show income of £25,539, expenses of £12,338, giving a total balance of £30,197. This includes £9,000 unrestricted income and £20,000 restricted income. This breaks down as follows:

Unrestricted income:

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Restricted income:

In 2024-25 we an�cipate using some of the reserves to make sure we have enough funds to provide post-pilot programme counselling. This will be reviewed pending outcome of other grant applica�ons. We will also look to increase reserves if we can get a pipeline of funding for the CEO role.

Due to the turbulence between June-December 2023, we have carried over more funds into 2024-25. This is an important year for us to fully focus on counselling and peer support without distrac�on. With this in mind, we have a clear plan to spend current funds and know how much we need to raise to grow our service.

From these funds, the board designated specific spending for 2024-25 to cover ongoing counselling (15k), CEO role (9.5k), our pilot programme between September and November (11k), opera�ng costs (3k), and leaving an�cipated lower reserves for the year (1k).

We apologise for any inconvenience and hope that this explains why the previous 2022-23 report is flagged red for being late. We can assure future funders and the Charity Commission that all legacy issues have now been resolved and we are confident that the charity is well-run and on a solid foo�ng moving forward.

Finally, a note to say that the only changes made to the original report has been the Financial Review sec�on and the accounts.

Declara�on

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. Signed on behalf of the charity:

Signature(s):

Full name(s): Dave Smith

Posi�on: Chair

Date 18th November 2024

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INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT ON THE ACCOUNTS

Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of Rehabit Charitable Incorporated Organisa�on (‘the CIO’)

I report to the trustees on my examina�on of the accounts of CIO for the year ended 31[ st ] March 2024.

Responsibili�es and basis of report

As the charity trustees of the CIO, you are responsible for the prepara�on of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Chari�es Act 2011 (‘the Act’).

I report in respect of my examina�on of the CIO’s accounts carried out under sec�on 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examina�on I have followed all the applicable Direc�ons given by the Charity Commission under sec�on 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent examiner’s statement

I have completed my examina�on. I confirm that no material ma�ers have come to my a�en�on in connec�on with the examina�on giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

  1. accoun�ng records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by sec�on 130 of the Act; or

  2. the accounts do not accord with those records.

I have no concerns and have come across no other ma�ers in connec�on with the examina�on to which a�en�on should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Lee Mathers MIAB, MCIOF (Cert) Posi�ve Community Finance Ltd 7 Scholars Rise Stokenchurch Buckinghamshire HP14 3FL 13[ th ] November 2024

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REHABIT

RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT FOR THE PERIOD ENDING 31 MARCH 2024

Unrestricted
Funds
2024
£
Income Receipts
Dona�ons, legacies and grants
5,430
Interest Received
109
Total Receipts
5,539
Expenditure Payments
Cost of Charitable Ac�vi�es
8,838
Total Payments
8,838
Net Receipts/(Payments) for the year
(3,299)
Transfers between funds
-
Total funds brought forward from previous year
13,496
Total funds carried forward at the end of		 Restricted
Funds
2024
£
20,000
-
20,000
3,500
3,500
16,500
-
3,500		 Total
Funds
2024
£
25,430
109
25,539
12,338
12,338
13,201
-
16,996		 Total
Funds
2023
£
23,848
-
23,978
28,494
28,494
(4,516)
-
21,512

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the year

10,197 20,000 30,197 16,996

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REHABIT

STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILLIES AT 31 MARCH 2024

Notes
Cash Funds
Cash at bank and in hand
Represented by funds
Unrestricted funds
Restricted funds
The Mar�n Geddes Charitable Trust
Pilot Project
Private Benefactor
CEO/GM Role
Cripplegate Founda�on		 2024
£
30,197
30,197
11,197
10,000
10,000
-
30,197		 2023
£
16.996
16,996
13,496
-
-
3,500
16,996

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Signed on behalf of the Trustees:

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Signature:
Name: Dave Smith
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Date of Approval 18th November 2024
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REHABIT

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE PERIOD ENDING 31 MARCH 2024

Note 1: Basis of Prepara�on

These financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost conven�on and in accordance with the Charitable Incorporated Organisa�ons (General) Regula�on 2012 and Chari�es Act 2011.

Income Receipts

All material incoming resources have been included on a receivable basis i.e. they are included if the date received falls within the period covered by these accounts.

Expenditure Payments

These have been analysed using a natural classifica�on.

Going Concern

The Trustees assess whether the use of going concern is appropriate (for example, whether there are any material uncertain�es related to events or condi�ons that may cast significant doubt on the ability of the charity to con�nue as a going concern). The Trustees make this assessment in respect of a period of one year from the date of approval of the financial statements. The charity is opera�ng on a going concern basis.

Fund Accoun�ng

Unrestricted funds are dona�ons and other income received or generated by the charity's charitable purposes. Restricted general funds are to be used for specific purposes as set out by the funder/donor.