**Independent examiner's report on the accounts** 


## **Section A                        Independent Examiner’s Report** 

|**Report to the trustees/**<br>**members of**<br>**On accounts for the year**<br>**ended**<br>**Set out on pages**|Charity Name<br>Let’s Talk About Loss|Charity Name<br>Let’s Talk About Loss|Charity Name<br>Let’s Talk About Loss|
|---|---|---|---|
|||||
||31stMarch 2024|**Charity no**<br>**(if any)**|1195258|
|||||
||1-2|||
||I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above<br>charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended**31/03/2024**.|||



- **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 in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: 

- accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or 

- the accounts do not accord with the accounting records 

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:** 4th December 2024 **Name:** Janice Willis FCCA **Relevant professional** Association of Chartered Certified Accountants **qualification(s) or body (if any): Address:** Eleve11 Consulting T/A Cloud Eleven Accountants Palamos House, 66-67 High St, Lymington Hampshire, SO41 9AL **Section B                           Disclosure** 

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). 

1 

**October 2018** 

**IER** 



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

2 

**October 2018** 

**IER** 



## Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 

## **From 1st April 2023 To 31st March 2024** 

## **Charity name:** 

Let’s Talk About Loss 

## **Charity registration number:** 

Registered Charity No. 1195258 (Charity Commission for England and Wales) Registered Charity No. SC051599 (Scottish Charity Regulator) 

## **Objectives and Activities** 

## Summary of the purposes of the charity as set out in its governing document 

The objects of _Let’s Talk About Loss_ are; 

To relieve the suffering and isolation of persons aged 18-35 in the UK suffering from bereavement or loss by the provision of peer support and advice for such persons. 

Charitable purpose 12; The relief of those in need, by reason of age and bereavement. This means giving recognition, support and time to a specific age range who have faced the loss of someone important to them. 

## Summary of the main activities in relation to those purposes for the public benefit, in particular, the activities, projects or services identified in the accounts. 

- Meet ups (activities) 

   - In total, we ran **133 meet ups** during the year, with 4 new groups starting in Portsmouth, Halifax, Newquay and Southampton. This took us from 35 to 39 active groups across the UK. 

   - This year we also ran **themed meet ups** , all hosted virtually on Zoom, for specific moments in time or types of loss. There were 4 of these meet ups, which focussed on Complex / Traumatic Loss, Fathers Day, Christmas and Young Grievers who are also Young Carers. 



   - Finally, we continued our **student meet up project,** with one group at _London School of Economics._ This group continues to go well, and we anticipate scaling up our Students Talk About Loss project during 2025-26. 

- Our _**Creative Writing About Loss**_ group continued with a volunteer, Bridget Hamilton, running this. It continues to be really successful with regular Zoom meetings and people sharing their own creative writing frequently in the Facebook group. (activity) 

- Our _**Bereavement Book Club**_ continued this year and increased the number of meetings with one regular volunteer, Lauren Harris. The group ran several successful book giveaways on our social media which helped grow the group. (activity) 

- On our **blog** , we published 16 posts during the year with a variety of advice and support for young grievers. Emma Foley continued as our volunteer Blogs Assistant and did an excellent job of editing and uploading new blogs. (activity) 

- We continued our three **Advisory Boards** which help us to learn from young grievers in under-served communities and be a truly user-led organisation. The three Advisory Boards focus on Racial Equity, Accessibility and LGBTQ+ communities. These are currently under review in order to increase engagement of the board members, including encouraging active participation from trustees to act in a sponsor role. (project) 

- During the year, we worked with **Executive Advisors** on distinct projects where their skills, expertise and knowledge could help the organisation. (project) 

- We continued to ensure that all our volunteers completed mandatory **safeguarding training** . During the financial year, there were three safeguarding reports made, all of which were handled internally to a successful outcome. (service) 

- **Social media** - this continues to be the main way that people find out about Let’s Talk About Loss and we continue to publish engaging content for our target audience. We started a TikTok account this year, and continued to post on Instagram and Facebook. We stopped posting on Twitter (X) due to the toxic nature of the platform. (activity) 

## Statement confirming whether the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit 

All trustees have had regard for the guidance provided by the _Charity Commission_ , using the online resources on a number of occasions to aid the creation of processes and protocol. 



## **Achievements and performance** 

Summary of the main achievements of the charity, identifying the difference the charity’s work has made to the circumstances of its beneficiaries and any wider benefits to society as a whole. 

- Elizabeth (Beth) French continued her employment as Director 14 hours a week to run the charity. Beth also received organisational leadership coaching through _BetterUp_ , paid for by the generous funders _Queen’s Commonwealth Trust_ , which was particularly useful for growing her leadership skills. 

- In early 2024, we identified that the charity’s capacity needed to increase and we put out a job advert for a Community Engagement Officer on 1st March 2024. During the end of this financial year, we were still in the application stage of the process, and in total received 418 applications due to the inclusive, accessible nature of the role. 

- During this year, the charity totalled over 70 volunteers, all of whom have experience of losing someone at a young age. These volunteers served across a range of activities: 

   - Meet up hosting 

   - Host Coordinators, supporting our Hosts 

   - Advisory board members 

   - Blog management 

   - Book Club and Creative Writing group facilitation 

   - Men Talk About Loss campaign planning 

- A highlight for the year was a win for our Persevering Podcast at the _British Podcast Awards_ ! From January 2021 to January 2023, a group of young grievers formed our Rollercoaster Project Youth Board (funded by _The Co-op Foundation_ ) and created the Persevering Podcast together. It was entered into the 2023 _British Podcast Awards_ longlist, and the Youth Board members were delighted that it was then shortlisted in two categories - Wellbeing and Editor’s Choice (Specialist). We were grateful that Youth Board members and our Project Lead were able to attend the Awards ceremony in September 2023 and find out on the night that Persevering had won the Editor’s Choice Specialist Award, which was incredible for an amateur podcast made by a group of young grievers, for young grievers. 

- In November 2023, we ran an in-person gathering for our Men Talk About Loss campaign at the _Lucky Saint_ pub in London. The rapper Shocka and the mental health campaigner Ben West spoke at the evening, and we were thrilled that many of the men who attended the event were brand new to Let’s Talk About Loss and have since connected in with regular meet ups. We also filmed the 



event which was useful content for our Men Talk About Loss campaign and helps us break down the stigma of men talking about grief. 

- We launched an email newsletter for meet up updates this year, in order to make the communication of our meet up dates and times easier. This started in May 2023 and had nearly 100 subscribers by March 2024. 

- We were particularly proud of our inclusive social media work this year, with our freelance Social Media Manager Chrissie Huntley, who joined us in 2023, creating content around Pride and Black History Month. We prioritised amplifying the voices of specific community members and ran many successful weekend takeovers. We also started a new series on Instagram called ‘Is It Just Me?’ where our followers proposed anonymous questions about some of the complexities of grief, and others commented with encouragement and similar stories. This fed into our wider social media strategy that our channels are in of themselves places where people can find support in their grief, and not simply places to broadcast organisational updates. Chrissie’s monthly monitoring and evaluating reports build a learning culture where the charity can then reiterate for even more impact. 

- During the 2023-24 year, Let’s Talk About Loss thanked Trustees Deborah Bradley and Rebecca Field, who stepped down. We welcomed two new Trustees - Latoya Laryea, as Treasurer Trustee, and Elisha Matthews, who has a fundraising background. 

- As a team, we met in London in the summer of 2023 for our first Trustee Away Day, attended by our Trustees and our Director. This was a great day of strategising and deepening our connections. 

- We deepened our commitment to inclusivity and accessibility, continuing our work with Taz Rasul, an inclusion consultant. Through the year, she built on the work started early in 2023, creating a document with guidance for Let’s Talk About Loss volunteers on inclusivity, working with our Advisory Board Chairs to strengthen the work of these Boards, and training our team further on accessibility. 

- To network and grow the knowledge of Let’s Talk About Loss, Director Beth French attended the inaugural _Suicide and Co Sector Summit_ in February 2024, and met with many other grief charities and sector leaders. 

- During this financial year, we were grateful for pro-bono support from two corporate companies: 

   - _LX Local_ created our Host Onboarding Journal, an interactive PDF that guides our volunteer Hosts through their first 90 days in the role, and aims to increase their confidence and increase volunteer engagement and retention. We are so grateful to everyone at _LX Local_ for their commitment and enthusiasm for this project. 



   - _Hargreaves Lansdown_ were partnered with us through the _Technology Volunteers_ platform and have started work on researching a new community platform that Let’s Talk About Loss can use, instead of Facebook which many young grievers don’t want to use. 

- The charity was chosen as the charity partner for an incredible short film, _Good Boy,_ directed by Tom Stuart and starring Ben Whishaw. Our Director Beth was invited onto set while filming, and met with Tom and Ben to share the aims of Let’s Talk About Loss. After the film was completed, it was viewed at Let’s Talk About Loss meet ups to start important conversations about grief. 

- Fundraising 

   - In total, we raised £54,437 during this financial year. 

   - We were mostly reliant on grant funding. During this financial year we received our second and an additional third installment of an unrestricted grant towards core costs from _The Tudor Trust_ . Due to internal changes at _The Tudor Trust_ they closed for new grants, and awarded each of their existing grantees a further one year of funding, with a small cost-of-living uplift. This means we received £21,000 of unrestricted income from _The Tudor Trust_ during this financial year for which we were incredibly grateful. 

   - We received £10,000 from _The National Lottery Awards for All - England_ to put on three Big Meet Ups during the 2024-25 financial year. We are looking forward to delivering these events as a way for young grievers to connect with others who understand loss and grief. 

   - We launched new bereavement cards during this financial year, as a way to diversify our income. These are sold on _Etsy._ 

   - During this year, individuals took on challenges to fundraise for Let’s Talk About Loss. We started a new partnership with _Skyline Events_ and had three skydivers fundraise for us - a huge thank you to Maisie, Megan and Caitlin who took on an exhilarating challenge and raised lots of money! Also a big thank you to Yvonne who ran the London Big Half Marathon and raised funds for us through this. We were pleased to raise more from community fundraising than we had at any point before. 

   - We launched a new fundraising campaign, Sponsor our Hosts, this year, with the view to utilise the networks and connections of our local meet up Hosts to bring in funds. This did not perform well in the year and has been stopped while we review our fundraising strategy. 

   - We continue to have a small number of supporters who give on a monthly basis, for whom we are incredibly grateful. 



## **Structure, Governance and Management** 

Type of governing document 

CIO - FOUNDATION 

How is the charity constituted? 

CIO 

Trustee selection methods including details of any constitutional provisions e.g. election to post or name of any person or body entitled to appoint one or more trustees Trustees are selected for experience and skills needed on the board, as well as knowledge and interest in the objectives. 

## **Reference and Administrative details** 

Charity name 

Let’s Talk About Loss 

Other name the charity uses 

LTAL 

Registered charity number 

1195258 

Charity’s principal address 

3 Beedon Way, Eastleigh, SO50 9RU 

|**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not for whole**<br>**year**|
|---|---|---|
|Katherine Moreton|Chair||
|Latoya Laryea|Treasurer|From 22nd November 2023|
|Jonathan Salmon|NA||
|Rohit Sagoo|NA||
|Amy Lambert|NA||
|Sanisha Wynter|NA||





|**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not for whole**<br>**year**|
|---|---|---|
|Elisha Matthews|NA|From 22nd November 2023|



## **Declarations** 

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

|Signature(s)|Katherine Moreton|
|---|---|
|Full name(s)|Katherine Moreton|
|Position (eg Secretary,<br>Chair, etc)|Chair|





||**LET'S TALK ABOUT**|**LOSS**<br>|**LOSS**<br>|**CIO No: 1195258**|**CC16a**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**Receipts and payments accounts**||||
||**For the period**<br>**from**|01/04/2023<br>Period start date|**To**|Period end date<br>31/03/2024||
|||||||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**||||||
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to the nearest**<br>**£**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**1,500**<br>**2,654**<br>**164**<br>**2,063**<br>**8,074**<br>**8,236**<br>**596**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**21,000**<br>**-**|**Restricted funds**<br>**to the nearest £**|**Endowment**<br>**funds**<br>**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**<br>**to the nearest £**||
|Lush Foundation||**-**|**-**|**-**|**4,858**|
|Proctor and Gamble||**150**|**-**|**150**|**366**|
|WESTERN POWER FOUNDATION||||**-**|**5,000**|
|National Lottery Awards for All -<br>England||**10,000**||**10,000**||
|Sir Robert McAlpine Strong<br>Communities Fund||||**1,500**||
|DONATIONS||**-**|**-**|**2,654**|**5,383**|
|PRODUCT SALES||**-**|**-**|**164**|**1,347**|
|WORKSHIPS/TALKS/MISC INCOME||**-**|**-**|**2,063**|**452**|
|CORPORATE FUNDRAISING||||**8,074**|**10,478**|
|COMMUNITY FUNDRAISING||||**8,236**|**3,871**|
|Governmentgrants||**-**|**-**|**596**|**-**|
|CO-OP #Iwill BEREAVEMENT Grant||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|MAGIC LITTLE GRANTS||**-**|**-**|**-**|**500**|
|NATIONAL SURVIVOR||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|TUDOR TRUST||**-**|**-**|**21,000**|**-**|
|VELANDIA||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_|**44,287**|**10,150**|**-**|**54,437**|**32,255**|
||**-**<br>**-**|||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales, (see**<br>**table).**||||||
|||**-**|**-**|**-**||
|||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**_Total receipts_ **<br>**A3 Payments**||||||
||**44,287**|**10,150**|**-**|**54,437**|**32,255**|
||**308**<br>**-**<br>**212**<br>**4,616**<br>**639**<br>**3,357**<br>**2,118**<br>**-**<br>**912**<br>**13,749**<br>**3,292**<br>**1,204**<br>**751**<br>**3,109**|||||
|OFFICE||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|TRAVEL||**-**|**-**|**308**|**8**|
|COST OF GOODS||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|POSTAGE||**-**|**-**|**212**|**216**|
|COST OF LOCAL GROUPS & EVENTS||**150**|**-**|**4,766**|**10,081**|
|ADVERTISING||**-**|**-**|**639**|**-**|
|COMMUNICATIONS<br>(EMAIL/WEBSITE)||**-**|**-**|**3,357**|**2,443**|
|TRUSTEE EXPENSES, VOLUNTEER<br>TRAINING AND MEETINGS||**-**|**-**|**2,118**|**3,643**|
|TALKS||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|MISC||**-**|**-**|**912**|**8**|
|WAGES|||**-**|**13,749**|**10,595**|
|PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR||**-**|**-**|**3,292**|**-**|
|FUNDRAISING||||**1,204**|**690**|
|INSURANCE||**-**|**-**|**751**|**201**|
|GOVERNANCE||**-**|**-**|**3,109**|**925**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**34,266**|**150**|**-**|**34,416**|**28,810**|
||<br>**-**<br>**-**|||||
|**A4 Asset and investment purchases,**<br>**(see table)**||||||
|||**-**|**-**|**-**||
|||**-**|**-**|**-**||
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**_Total payments_ **<br>**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**<br>**A5 Transfers between funds**<br>**A6 Cash funds last year end**<br>**_Cash funds this year end_**||||||
||**34,266**|**150**|**-**|**34,416**|**28,810**|
|||||||
||**10,021**|**10,000**|**-**|**20,021**|**3,445**|
||**39,623**||**-**|**-**|**-**|
|||**500**|**-**|**40,123**|**36,678**|
||**49,644**|**10,500**|**-**|**60,144**|**40,123**|



## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period** 

**Unrestricted Restricted funds Endowment funds Details funds to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £** 

**Categories** 



|Signed by one or two trustees on<br>behalf of all the trustees<br>**B5 Liabilities**<br>**B4 Assets retained for the charity’s**<br>**own use**<br>**B3 Investment assets**<br>**B2 Other monetary assets**<br>**B1 Cash funds**|Signature<br>HMRC - PAYE for Jan, Feb and March<br>~~Payroll~~<br>Wages<br>Accountancy and Independent<br>examination fee<br>**Details**<br>**Details**<br>**Details**<br>**Details**<br>CURRENT ACCOUNTS<br>Pre-paid card balance<br>Petty Cash<br>**_Total cash funds_**<br>(agree balances with receipts and<br>payments account(s))|**51,302**|**10,500**|**-**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**-**|**-**|**-**|
|||**-**|**-**|**-**|
|||**51,302**|**10,500**|**-**|
|||Agreement Error|OK<br>**Restricted funds**<br>**to nearest £**|OK|
|||**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**||**Endowment funds**<br>**to nearest £**|
|||**-**|**-**|**-**|
|||**-**|**-**|**-**|
|||**-**|**-**|**-**|
|||**-**|**-**|**-**|
|||**-**|**-**|**-**|
|||**-**|**-**|**-**|
|||**Fund to which**<br>**asset belongs**|**Cost (optional)**|**Current value (optional)**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
|||**Fund to which**<br>**asset belongs**|**Cost (optional)**|**Current value (optional)**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
|||**Fund to which**<br>**liability relates**|**Amount due**<br>**(optional)**|**When due (optional)**|
|||Unrestricted|**743**|**22nd April 2024**|
|||Unrestricted|**915**|**02nd April 2024**|
|||Unrestricted|**1,008**|**01 December 2024**|
||||**-**||
||||**-**||
|||Print|Name||
|||||Date of approval|
|||Kate Moreton||10/12/24|
|||Latoya Laryea||19/12/24|