Counselling for Health CIO
Annual report and Financial Statement
1[st] November 2022 to 31[st] October 2023
Charity Commission Registration Number 1193066
Address: Tumblehome, 1, Coronation Road, Salcombe, Devon TQ8 8EA
Trustees [Founding] who served from the start and up to the date of this report are as follows:
Ralph T L Bayley [Chair]
Judith M Bayley [Secretary]
Susan M Flynn [Treasurer]
A Louise Dawson
Alan Plummer
Richard S Sanders
Bankers Barclays, Leicester LE87 2BB
The organisation is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation [CIO], and registered as a Charity at The Charity Commission on 11[th] January 2021. Constitution – Structure, Governance and Management
The CIO was established under a written Constitution in which the only voting members are its Charity Trustees. Its constitution sets out the object and powers of the charity, the decision making processes to govern the Charity and appointment of Trustees. The charity is managed by its 3 officers and supported by the 3 other Trustees. All the Trustees are appointed for varying set periods. The Charity recruits Trustees by invitation to persons who have an understanding of the role of therapeutic counselling and who can contribute with their knowledge, skills and experience to the effective running/management of the Charity.
All Trustees must agree to the appointment of any new Trustees.
Any new Trustees would, before committing to the role, have a full introduction to the work of the Charity, and be given a copy of the Charity’s Constitution, Annual Report, Annual Accounts and the guidance document from The Charity Commission “The Essential Trustee”.
All Trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no benefits from the Charity. Any expenses claimed by Trustees are set out in the annual accounts.
1
As the Charity ran smoothly during the year, regular minuted meetings of the Trustees were not held, but Trustees were kept up to date by newsletters sent out by Chair reporting developments and inviting comments.
The Charity does not have any volunteers to undertake work for the Charity.
Objectives and Activities
The Object of the Charity is to protect and preserve good mental health and wellbeing among people aged 16 and over by providing free short or medium term therapeutic counselling in cooperation with National Health Service General Practices.
The Trustees have had due regard to the Commission’s Public Benefit Guidance about the service provided, with a particular focus on ensuring that its activities achieve its charitable aims.
In order to provide this service, the Charity has funded therapeutic counselling at a NHS General Practice in Plymouth from 14[th] July 2021.
The Trustees review the aims, objectives and activities of the charity each year.
Achievements and Performance
As from 1[st] July 2023, Counselling for Health [CfH] provides 792 hours of individual therapeutic counselling per year to patients registered with an NHS Medical Practice in Plymouth following the Model for Practice Based Counselling in Primary Care that was presented to the Practice concerned and agreed with the Charity. This is an increase of 132 hours from 2021 when the service started and reflects an increase in the Practice’s patient list size and demand for the service.
Counsellors are appointed and have an Agreement, renewed annually, with CfH to provide these hours of counselling. The Counsellors are Registered members of BACP. There is a Service Level Agreement [SLA] signed by CfH and the Practice, again renewed annually, to provide the service for a year at a time. This service is fully funded by CfH. The Charity also has a SLA with a Counselling Supervisor to provide regular Supervision for the Counsellors concerned.
There was no change of Counsellors during the year.
New Counsellors have an Induction to the Practice, prior to beginning to see referred patients.
There were a total of 98 referrals for the year. 89 people were assessed, and 76 of these took up appointments. 762 appointments were offered and there were 80 DNAs during the process (10.5%). 51 clients were discharged and the average number of sessions of those completed counselling was 5.6.
Waiting times had increased from November 2022, to a high of approximately 6 months in January 2023. The Model of Practice Based Counselling in Primary Care that underpins our service had made it clear that long waiting times adversely affect the way patients engage with the service.
In order to manage the long wait for counselling, referrals into the service were halted in May and the list was closed in May, June and again in October. From
2
July the number of counselling hours was increased from 15 to 18 hours per week. The size of the waiting list is limited to 12 patients and then closed to referrals. This means that at the end of October 2023, the time from referral to patients receiving acknowledgement of the GP’s referral to the counselling service accompanied by the counselling information leaflet, is 1 to 2 weeks, and the time from referral to the first face to face assessment is 2 to 6 weeks.
The client feedback has been very good. Of the 53 clients discharged, 27 clients completed feedback forms. Almost all found their expectations of counselling met, some saying it was better than expected. Similarly all found counselling helpful or very helpful, and most commented on things they had been able to change in their lives as a result of counselling. All said they would recommend counselling to family and friends. Patient comments on improvements to the service included waiting times, more sessions, more flexibility on appointment availability, more services available, better pre-counselling contact from doctors/surgery and ability for appointments to be booked in advance on the system.
The GPs reported being very pleased with the Counselling service that CfH provides for their patients, and several of the doctors commented that the service provision/appropriate psychological support is exactly what patients need and that the GP doesn’t need to be involved once the patient has been referred.
An acknowledgement letter was produced, including information about counselling. This means that patients know that they are on the waiting list and understand the service. This has bridged the gap between GP referral and contact from the counsellor for their assessment session.
The Objective of the Charity has been met and the funds raised so far have matched the needs of the service.
The Charity’s Status
The Charity is free standing and is not in a wider network to provide services.
Financial Review
At the Charity’s year end, 31.10.2023, the Income for the Charity had been £30,625.00, the Expenditure £27,184.56 and the Bank Balance was £19,328.31. The Income was derived from individual donations. The Charity has received no legacies or grants from organisations or local or national government sources.
During the year the Charity’s Income was above £25,000, which requires that CfH’s accounts are subject to external scrutiny by an External Examiner. For this purpose CfH, with the Trustees’ approval, appointed Jeremy S Mantle FCMA to be the External Examiner for the Charity’s accounts. The Charity is grateful to Jeremy for accepting this appointment.
The Charity does not intend to make any investments. Its reserves will be the balance in the Charity’s Bank Account. The Charity aims to always have enough financial reserve to contract with both the Counsellors and the Supervisor for the full term of their annual renewable agreements and meet renewal costs of Insurance, ICO and DBS checks for the year ahead.
3
The Charity does not hold any funds on behalf of others, does not own any property and does not employ any staff. There are no policies for grant making or social investment.
Susan Flynn is to step down as treasurer at the AGM following the year end, and we are grateful to her for her for all the work she has done to set up the Charity’s bank account and to facilitate the smooth running of the service.
Financial Risk
At 31.10.2021 the balance at the Charity’s Bank account is £19,328.31.
The Charity has an SLA with the Supervisor, and Agreements with each of the Counsellors which run until 30[th] June 2024.
The Charity is in a good financial position to meet its obligations.
Other Risks facing the Charity and its service provision
The Medical Practice could merge, close or relocate. If necessary the Charity would then endeavour to find a similar NHS General Practice to which the service could be relocated.
The SLAs between the Charity and the Medical Practice and the Agreements between the Charity and the Counsellors and the Counsellors’ Supervisor remain contiguous. The Charity has taken steps to ensure that SLAs between the Charity and this or any body or persons cover the full period of the agreements.
National Health Service Regulations or Provision with regard to Mental Health Services could change significantly and adversely affect the Charity’s ability to provide the present service. The Charity would have to adapt to the changes, but the SLAs would be honoured to ensure that the service would continue up to the end date of existing agreements and that work with any clients would finish in a timely way.
Death of major donors. This has been covered by codicils to wills of these donors with the aim of sustaining funding for the Charity at its present level for a further 3 years.
Major Incidents
There have been no major incidents involving the Charity, the Practice or contractors to the Charity.
Declarations
The Trustees declare that they have approved the Trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
Signature(s)
4
| Full name(s) Position (eg Secretary, Chair) Date |
Ralph Timothy Lowndes Bayley | Judith Mary Bayley |
|---|---|---|
| Chair | Secretary | |
| 08.02.2024 | ||
| 08.02.2024 |
5
| Charity Name Counselling for Health |
Charity Name Counselling for Health |
Charity Name Counselling for Health |
No (if any) 1193066 |
CC16a | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For the period from |
Period start date 01.11.22 |
To | Period end date 31.10.2023 |
||
| Section A Receipts and payments | |||||
| A1 Receipts Donations 24,500 Gift Aid Refund HMRC 6,125 - - - - - - 30,625 - - Sub total - Total receipts 30,625 A3 Payments Registration with ICO 35 Enhanced DBS checks[3] Insurance 316 Stationery, Office and Sundry Expenses 142 Advertisment for Counsellors ConsultancyServices Induction for Counsellors Counsellors 25,887 Supervision 805 Sub total 27,185 - - Sub total - Total payments 27,185 Net of receipts/(payments) 3,440 A5 Transfers between funds - A6 Cash funds last year end - Cash funds this year end 3,440 Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ Sub total(Gross income for AR) A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Restricted funds |
to the nearest £ Endowment funds |
Total funds to the nearest £ 24,500 6,125 - - - - - - 30,625 - - - 30,625 35 - 316 142 - - - 25,887 805 27,185 - - - 27,185 3,440 - - 3,440 |
Last year to the nearest £ |
|
| - - - - - - - - - |
24,500 | - | |||
| 6,125 | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| 30,625 | - | ||||
| - - - |
- | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | 30,625 | - | |||
| - - - - - - - - - - |
35 | - | |||
| - | - | ||||
| 316 | - | ||||
| 142 | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| 25,887 | - | ||||
| 805 | - | ||||
| 27,185 | - | ||||
| - - - |
- | ||||
| - | |||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | 27,185 | - | |||
| - | - - - - |
3,440 | - | ||
| - | - | - | |||
| - | - | - | |||
| - | 3,440 | - |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Categories B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B3 Investment assets B5 Liabilities B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees |
Details Barclays Bank Account Details Details Details Details Counsellors Supervisor Insurance [expected] ICO [expected] DBS [expected] Expenses approx Expected Total Signature Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) |
to nearest £ to nearest £ 19,328 - - - - - 19,328 - Agreement Error OK to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - Unrestricted Unrestricted Unrestricted Unrestricted Unrestricted Unrestricted Unrestricted Print Name Ralph TimothyLowndes Bayley Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) |
to nearest £ Endowment funds |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| OK | |||
| to nearest £ Endowment funds |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| When due (optional) |
|||
| Date of approval |
|||
| Ralph TimothyLowndes Bayley | 05.02.2024 |
Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees Charity Name Counselling for Health On accounts for the year 31[st] October 2023 Charity no 1193066 ended (if any) Set out on pages 2
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/10/2023 DD / MM / YYYY . Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report 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 all 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 in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
-
the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
-
the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
-
the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Signed: J S Mantle Date: 11[th] February 2024 Name: Jeremy Stuart Mantle Relevant professional FCMA qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: The Retreat, Onslow Road, Salcombe TQ8 8AG
Oct 2018
IER
1
Section B Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material 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 .
Oct 2018
IER
2