Love For The Family
Annual Report and Financial Statement June 30[th] 2021 to March 31[st] 2022 Charity Number 1195015
Love For The Family 30[th] June 2021 to 31[st] March 2022
Trustees Report and Financial Statement
The trustees present their first Annual report since the formation and acceptance of the constitution of Love For The Family by the Charity Commission on June 30[th] 2021.
Objectives and Activities
The objects of Love For The Family as outlined in its Constitution are
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The advancement of education in the subject of pregnancy and the termination of pregnancy and into the effects thereof upon women whether physical, medical or psychological
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The preservation and protection of women’s health by the provision of advice, counselling and assistance to women and their partners and families who are suffering from physical or mental illness, distress or poverty during or as a result of pregnancy or following an abortion, miscarriage, cot death, still birth, loss of a child or sexual abuse.
The trustees confirm that they have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commissions general guidance on public benefit when reviewing its aims and objectives and when considering and planning future activities.
Love For The Family has, at present, three underpinning values that are key to ensuing the ongoing nature of its work for the public benefit. They are:
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Approachability . The Charity welcomes enquiries from anyone in need of help or assistance, regardless of gender, marital status, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion or belief/ non-belief, age and time of pregnancy or loss.
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Empowerment . Love For The Family provides education, counselling and trained help in order to ensure women, and men, have the freedom and knowledge to explore their pregnancy choices. It aims to enable those who are suffering mental distress due to trauma, grief and loss to understand their emotions, reaction and coping mechanisms and help them to make their experiences part of their life journey and not become a block, or allow it to define for them.
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Grace . Trained helpers and counsellors working with Love For The Family show kindness, compassion and unconditional positive regard to all clients, regardless of why they have made contact with the charity or what their life experiences have been. We want the best for all of our clients and it is the client that knows what that is. We are not here to judge or direct.
Love For The Family provides time and a safe space for women (and men individually), to consider their options regarding parenting, adoption or termination of a pregnancy, without outside pressures or biased opinion. We give time for reflection on life pressures, circumstances, wants, needs, values and desires; alongside information and education about their options regarding parenting, adoption or termination of the
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Love For The Family 30[th] June 2021 to 31[st] March 2022
Trustees Report and Financial Statement
pregnancy. Time is given to enable clients to reflect on the effects of each choice, empowering them to make a next steps plan. Clients usually have one or two sessions.
Love For The family provides help to enable women and men to recover from mental distress or illness caused as a result of the termination of a pregnancy, loss of a baby or the loss of a pregnancy at any stage. The courses and 1:1 support programmes help clients work through their trauma or grief, restoring their self-confidence and self-esteem.
Love Baby Essentials, run by Love For The Family, provides relief from poverty or the distress caused by poverty, by providing the physical baby items required by families for the first year of life, such as clothes, bedding, cot, Moses baskets, high chairs and prams.
Review of Activities
In line with the key objectives set out for the year the Charity became established, insured, gathered and part trained a number of volunteers. It secures a training grant and a base from which to provide services (Hope Church Centre). Crisis Pregnancy, Post Abortion and Baby Loss recovery programmes commenced. The Charity began to become recognised within the Community services of Luton through contact with the Luton Community Development Worker and meeting a variety of representatives. These groups included:
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Luton Wellbeing service
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Active Luton Healthy Lifestyle Officers,
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University of Luton Chaplaincy
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Hope Church Luton
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Luton Churches Together
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Lea Vale Medical Centre
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Luton Food Bank
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Baby Bank Luton
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The Bridge Project
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Women’s Aid
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Azealia
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Luton Community Midwives and Health Visitors
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Luton and Dunstable Hospital and The Ocean Project
Love For The Family partners with The Grove, Pregnancy Advice Centre in Bedford and shares experience, training and referrals as appropriate.
Love For The Family Trustees are supported by the Charity ‘Pregnancy Centres Network’ in regards to good practice, training and development of staff and trustees. In turn, Love For The Family has also supported the development of other centres during the year.
The Founder and Chair of Trustees has had the opportunity to speak at Hope Church and Azalea and is currently studying to be a qualified counsellor. She works for the charity as its Centre manager on a voluntary basis.
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Love For The Family 30[th] June 2021 to 31[st] March 2022
Trustees Report and Financial Statement
All sessions are run on a voluntary basis and no charges are made for the services that Love For The Family offers. Clients are free to make a donation for the services that they have received. Presently, Hope Church has given space for counselling and storage without charge.
Achievements and Performance
In this opening year, 28 people contacted the charity for help with 42 different points of contact (telephone/ text/email). Ten contacts were from the Grove in Bedford: one from Luton Wellbeing Service: two from GP surgeries: two from Active Luton.
All clients reported benefitting from the sessions they had received. Some clients reported difficulty in finding this type of help and expressed a wish that they had known about it, or been referred earlier. Clients, when assessed, were found to be less anxious and depressed following their recovery sessions and able to re-engage in work and family life in a more relaxed and fulfilling way. Clients also reported feeling empowered to make decisions about their reproductive health and well-being.
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Seven clients required help with crisis pregnancies over eight sessions.
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Five clients approached the charity due to distress over losing a baby and completed ten sessions.
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Four clients were referred with distress following a termination of pregnancy and received 23 sessions of abortion recovery counselling.
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One lady was referred via her GP to discuss a pregnancy related procedure over two sessions.
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Two clients requested help with Baby Essentials
There is one trained, and four part trained volunteers who have completed Module One (Ethos and general counselling skills) and are undertaking Module Two (Crisis Pregnancy). They have a good understanding the ethos and aims of the charity. Three of the part trained helpers have expressed a desire to complete the full Level Pregnancy Choices training. There are two Home Volunteers who are supporting Love Baby Essentials by sorting and cleaning items.
Future Plans
In April 2022 Baby Bank Luton will close and be transferred to Love Baby Essentials at Love For The Family. Volunteers have prepared storage to allow this to happen. Love For The Family will be able to provide further help to relieve distress and poverty caused by pregnancy. It will also enable the charity to support refugees, asylum seekers and women caught in modern slavery or fleeing domestic abuse within Luton. The Charity is looking to
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Love For The Family 30[th] June 2021 to 31[st] March 2022
Trustees Report and Financial Statement
recruit further volunteer helpers who will support Love Baby Essentials as well as a trained volunteer to co-ordinate the work.
Further volunteer trained helpers or counsellors are required to deliver Crisis Pregnancy and the recovery courses. The Charity has a grant to help with this.
Love For The Family is able to provide secondary education classes and discussion sessions for students and young adults on the subject of pregnancy via an educational programme ‘The Stress Test’. Future aims include the facilitation of this programme in secondary schools and colleges in Luton to equip students to discuss pregnancy in a more relaxed and informed way.
The charity has been asked by Women’s Aid if it could provide a recovery course for women who have had their children or babies taken into care. Love For The Family is hoping to investigate this further and prepare a course to start a pilot project in October 2023.
Financial Review
The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the Charity Commissions 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 (Second Edition 2019) (FRS 102). Love For The Family is considered a small Charity and followed these recommended guidelines. As such the accounts did not require auditing.
Love For The Family has had a limited ability to organise fundraising events due to the pandemic and have relied on donations from supporters and volunteers. Some of the donations have come from The Baby Bottle Scheme where supporters are given a Baby Bottle to fill with change. It is hoped to extend this scheme further in the coming year.
The unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in order to further the aims of Love For The Family. Trustees give priority to ongoing Insurance and subscription costs that are essential for the continued work of the charity. The charity was unable to secure a grant for its general work but has been supported by Hope Church Luton with free use of storage and counselling rooms.
The restricted funding grant was given towards Level 3 pregnancy Choices training and will be used within the next year.
No trustee receives any fee or expenses for any of their work. One trained Trustee volunteers as the Centre Manager, trainer and Helper/ Adviser, another trustee pays for the mobile phone contract. Future funding for projects and the expansion of the Charity are required long term but there are sufficient funds and support to ensure ongoing insurances and subscription costs will be covered.
A volunteer treasurer has been appointed to work alongside the Finance trustee. Gift Aid will be collected for eligible donations.
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Love For The Family 30[th] June 2021 to 31[st] March 2022
Trustees Report and Financial Statement
Starting Balance 1[st] April 2021 £1,077.19
Final Balance 31 [st] March 22 £2021.34
Income April 1[st ] 2021 – March 31st 2022 Donations Community Account 1 £1,083.60 Donations Charity Community Account 2 £300.00 PCN Training Grant (Protected Funds) £245.00 Total Income £1,628.60
Expenditure April 1[st ] 2021 – March 31st 2022
Insurance £447.45 Subscriptions £129.00 Donations (Charitable Activities) £108.00 Total Expenditure £684.45
Structure, Governance and Management
Love For The Family is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation whose only voting members are its trustees. Its governing document is its Constitution which was approved by the Charity Commission on 30[th] June 2021. Prior to this it had been a Community organisation. All previous assets and monies have been transferred to the Charity. If wound up the Trustees, or members, have no personal responsibility for the settlement of debts and liabilities beyond the amount they are liable to contribute, which is up to £5.
Love For The Family has four trustees who were its founding members. The minimum number of trustees by Constitution is three and the maximum seven. Trustees are appointed because of the knowledge and skills they bring to the Charity and their understanding of its ethos and aims. Love For The Family is not a political organisation and its counsellors and volunteers work without prejudice. Any trustee or individual working or volunteering for the charity is expected to understand and respect this. No trustee has received any payment for their services or expertise this year.
New Trustees will be recruited following invitation; due to skills requirement, or application because of interest. All perspective trustees will be interviewed by the voting members. Trustee appointments are dependent on the needs of the Charity and the skills required to ensure its continued growth. Trustees must have a full understanding of the ethos of the charity, it’s political neutrality, and an understanding of grace: unconditional positive
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Love For The Family 30[th] June 2021 to 31[st] March 2022
Trustees Report and Financial Statement
regard, kindness, value and acceptance of clients regardless of past history, sexual orientation, faith/ religion or belief/ no belief, disability, gender identity, marital status, age, ethnicity, culture or duration of pregnancy as demonstrated by Jesus Christ.
On appointment trustees receive copies of the constitution, financial statements and copies of a year’s previous minutes of trustee meetings. Charity Commission guidance is available. Their work is supported by the other trustees. Further help and guidance is available from Pregnancy Centre Network and Thirtyone: Eight, the charities safeguarding organisation.
Trustees delegate the day to day running of the charity to Trustee and Centre Manager Mrs J Reynolds. Trustees meet to discuss and agree policies, procedures and developments of Love For The Family, including key finance decisions, as set out in the Financial Management and Accounting Policy. They review objectives a minimum of eight times a year.
Risk Management
Love For The Family’s work is dependent on its reputation and ability to ensure its services are provided without prejudice or bias. The trustees are satisfied that they have suitable training and safeguards in place to ensure this continues through training and recruitment policies and procedures.
Reference and Administrative Details
Charity Name Love For The Family Charity Number 1195015 Trustees Mrs Jane Reynolds Mrs Stephanie Draper Mrs Elizabeth Argent Mrs L Pswarayi Registered Postal Address c/o 6 Alexandra Avenue Luton Bedfordshire LU3 1HG England Bank Barclays Bank 28 George Street Luton Bedfordshire LU1 2AX
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Love For The Family 30[th] June 2021 to 31[st] March 2022
Trustees Report and Financial Statement
Exemptions From Disclosure
There are no exemptions from disclosure in this year.
Funds Held As Custodian Trustee On Behalf Of Others
No other Funds are held.
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