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2023-03-31-accounts

REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 1197715

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES AND UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O

FROM CONVERSION ON 1 FEBRUARY 2022 TO 31 MARCH 2023

Green Shoes Arts C.I.O

Chadwell Heath Community Centre

255 High Road RM6 6AS

GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 CHAIRS REPORT

The past year was both a challenging and a groundbreaking one for Green Shoes Arts. After the demands of delivering online and outdoor activities during the pandemic, the company entered a phase of renewal and rebuilding. We decided to take this opportunity to review every aspect of our work and organisation with one question in mind: if we were to start Green Shoes Arts at this time, what would we do differently?

This instigated a process of transformation and development across the organisation, beginning with our transition to charitable status. Our programmes all received a thorough review and revision, reaffirming our aims and defining the charitable objectives that we would adhere to on an ongoing basis. Our website, marketing, and every aspect of how the charity presents itself to the public was overhauled and updated. Our policies, procedures, and agreements were rewritten to be sure that they were serving both us and the people we work with as effectively as possible. Finally, we revitalised and developed our office space and studio, creating a more welcoming physical space to showcase the renewed Green Shoes Arts.

This has placed us in a more resilient, better prepared position where we are able to be far more responsive to the needs of our community and to prepare for the challenges ahead. Green Shoes Arts holds a position of responsibility in our local area, and as we move forward from the challenges of COVID into navigating a cost of living crisis, we will continue to support the community around us, building on lessons learned and remaining adaptable and responsive to whatever challenges we face.

As we move through 2023 and plan the upcoming years, we do so with a revitalised organisation, a skilled and diverse board of Trustees, and a committed and synergised team. I have every confidence that Green Shoes Arts will continue to develop and grow from strength to strength, supporting and serving our community for many years to come.

Daniel Martin Chair

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GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

The Trustees present their report with the financial statements of the charitable organisation for the period ended 31 March 2023. The Trustees have adopted the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and reporting by Charities, applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019) issued in October 2019 by the Charity Commission.

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

Registered Charity Name

Green Shoes Arts C.I.O

Registered Charity number

1197715

Registered office

Chadwell Heath Community Centre 255 High Road Dagenham RM6 6AS

Trustees

All Trustees were appointed on 31 January 2022 on conversion, except where stated. Kevin Walton (resigned April 2023)

Mark Hill (Treasurer) Rebecca Laughton Ruqaiya Asim Kelly Jones Ingrid Robinson Daniel Martin (Chair) Jennifer Cumming (resigned November 2022) Michael Paulin (appointed April 2023) Molly Kennedy (appointed November 2022)

Staff

Sam Miller Artistic Director Kirsty Cherrett Creative Programmes Manager David Paulin Creative 4 Life Project Manager Robin Paley Yorke Speak Up Project Manager Lotte Sartain Creative 4 Life Project Coordinator/Arts Awards Coordinator Verona Smith Administrator & Youth Theatre Leader

Independent Examiner

Smith Inglis & Tait 1 Augingramont Road Hamilton MK3 6JP

Bankers

The Co-operative Bank PLC PO Box 250 Skelmersdale WN8 6WT

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Registration

Green Shoes Arts C.I.O (GSA) was registered as a charitable organisation on the 31 January 2022. All assets and reserves were transferred from Green Shoes Arts C.I.C on this date. Green Shoes Arts C.I.C has now ceased to trade.

Objectives and Activities

The objects of Green Shoes Arts (GSA) as set out in its governing document are:

(1) To advance, improve, develop and maintain public education in, and appreciation of, the arts in all its aspects by any means the Trustees see fit, including through workshops and the provision of a youth theatre.

(2) To promote social inclusion for the public benefit by preventing people from becoming socially excluded, relieving the needs of those people who are socially excluded and assisting them to integrate into society through the use of art therapy and art-based projects.

For the purpose of this clause 'socially excluded' means being excluded from society, or parts of society, as a result of one or more of the following factors: unemployment; financial hardship; youth or old age; ill health (physical or mental); substance abuse or dependency including alcohol and drugs; discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, disability, ethnic origin, religion, belief, creed, sexual orientation or gender re-assignment; poor educational or skills attainment; relationship and family breakdown; poor housing (that is housing that does not meet basic habitable standards); crime (either as a victim of crime or as an offender rehabilitating into society).

Summary of the main activities in relation to those purposes for the public benefit

GSA delivers high quality arts projects for the community of Barking & Dagenham, enabling people of all ages and backgrounds to access and engage with a wide range of creative and artistic activities. Our primary aim through this work is to benefit the physical and mental well-being of our participants. We believe that artistic and creative activity provides huge benefits to well-being and personal development.

Activity takes the form of weekly arts sessions and one-off projects. We are well networked with other local providers and support a cohesive strategy for the borough.

We work with people from Barking & Dagenham and the surrounding area, with a focus on offering opportunities to disadvantaged and vulnerable young people and adults with lived experience of mental health issues, physical and learning disabilities, and social deprivation. All our services are free of charge. We aim, where possible, to work with facilitators who represent the Borough’s diverse communities and who have lived experience of the challenges faced by our participants.

We listen to, respond to, and support the needs of our community, working to see positive change through participation in the arts and adapting our activity in response to our participants’ changing needs. Our primary aims are to improve access to and interest in the arts, finding creative ways to nurture the artistic potential of our community, and to increase the wellbeing of the people we work with. We endeavour to combine these aims through positive, holistic creative activity that improves the wellbeing and happiness of our stakeholders and participants. To achieve this, we continually improve our knowledge base of what areas of practice are most effective at combating the challenges faced by our participants, and what impact our work is having. We also collate data to learn who we are reaching in terms of the diverse communities of Barking & Dagenham, improving our ability to reach less represented groups. We collect ethnographic and social deprivation data from our participants and compare this to the cultural/ethnic makeup of the Borough as a whole. GSA uses the knowledge gained to inform outreach and engagement strategies, ensuring that we are reaching those with greatest need and finding innovative ways to include less represented communities. All findings are added to our existing knowledge base, discussed in staff and Board meetings, and used to inform future decisions. Every project is created in response to a specified need through consultation with participants and stakeholders and is vetted by the Board before approval.

We use marketing and engagement to ensure that we are reaching as diverse a demographic as possible, analysing our attendance data and adapting our approach to reach less represented communities. We combine

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this with an extensive programme of outreach workshops and external events, providing positive creative activity far beyond our base in Chadwell Heath. This approach has led to a significant increase in our number of participants over the past two years and to multiple new sessions being created across all our projects.

As per the below statistics Barking and Dagenham is one of the most disadvantaged local authorities in the country and is especially vulnerable to the cost-of-living crisis, ranking first most vulnerable in London and fourth most vulnerable in the UK. On Census Day, Barking and Dagenham ranked as having the most deprived households in England and Wales (LBBD State of the Borough 2022)

Children & young people in Barking and Dagenham are some of the most disadvantaged in the country, facing multiple & complex disadvantages. Child poverty is one of the highest among the London boroughs, where 46% of the children live in households within poverty (Trust for London 2021).

The proportion of the working-aged population on out-of-work benefits in Barking and Dagenham is the highest in London at 16.7% (Trust for London 2021).

Barking and Dagenham had the highest rate of domestic abuse offences in London in 2016/17 at 16.1 per 1,000. This is higher than the London average of 12.1 per 1,000 (LBBD.gov.uk, 2022).

6.0% of respondents in Barking and Dagenham reported having a long-term mental health condition; this could include both ‘common’ and ‘serious’ mental illnesses (GP patient survey 2018). There is an ongoing mental health crisis in the Borough, with an ‘8.1% increase in mental distress in 2020’ (Equality Challenges in Barking & Dagenham 2020/21).

Acknowledging and responding to this deprivation, we use creative activity to improve the community of Barking and Dagenham’s condition of life in the following ways:

Current Green Shoes Arts participants have said:

“Arts sessions I attended were special because I got to know and care for many of the other participants in the group and felt wanted, that I belonged somewhere.” (Participant A)

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‘I can't imagine where I would be without Green Shoes Arts. I never used to go out and have made loads of great friends from the sessions, and through volunteering have been given a chance to improve my skills and feel more useful.’ (Participant B)

‘[Arts sessions are a] natural healing process, just being yourself and interacting with others who get where you’re at’. (Participant C)

Our current key activities are:

Speak Up

Speak Up was created in response to a young Black male participant’s statement: ‘I can’t talk about mental health at school, or at home, and I wish there was a safe place for me to talk about this’. Initially funded by the London Community Response Fund to work with young Black men, and later by the Arts Council England to work with young Black and South Asian men, Speak Up delivers combined arts activity across schools and PRUs to create a safe, resilient space for participants to discuss mental health. This project will culminate in a series of peer-led workshops, working with both schools and community groups, during which participants will share their experiences and knowledge to a larger group of young people.

Children’s Activity

Our children’s activity is funded by Children in Need and delivers drama and dance workshops to children from a variety of schools in our community, with a high proportion of participants with additional needs. Each block of activity culminates in an informal sharing with friends and family, and the focus is very much on positive play, social activity, and promoting participant happiness.

Young Actor’s Club

The Young Actor’s Club is GSA’s youth theatre, funded by the National Community Infrastructure Levy. It creates a supportive, yet rigorous learning environment for young people from a wide variety of backgrounds to learn theatre-based skills and engage in performance opportunities, exploring routes to careers in stage and screen as well as increasing their confidence and ability to express themselves.

Creative 4 Life

C4L is GSA’s adult programme, working with adults with mental health issues. Initially funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and now funded by Comic Relief, C4L has worked with hundreds of participants over the last 5 years. C4L provides combined arts activity, routes for progression, and opportunities for positive social interaction; with an overarching aim to improve the mental wellbeing of all participants.

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Guidance on Public Benefit and Decision Making

We regularly review our aims, objectives and activities. This review looks at the success of each key activity and the benefits they have brought to those groups of people we are set up to help. The review also helps us ensure our aim, objectives and activities remain focused on our stated purposes. We have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing our aims and objectives and in planning our future activities. In particular, the Trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives they have set.

GSA’s governing document lays out the parameters for who the organisation will work to benefit, and the work it delivers to do this. This information forms the basis for strategy documents, outlined by senior management and approved by the board. This document is referred to before project proposals are suggested.

In determining whether GSA should carry out a project or work with a group of people, the Trustees discuss each potential activity. This discussion is framed through a series of questions and criteria, all in regard to the public benefit:

Achievements and Performance

GSA has had a very productive year, following the adaptation of our programmes as we emerged from lockdown, applying lessons learned over the previous years, and ensuring that we’re able to support our community as they face the challenges of a cost-of-living crisis. During the pandemic, GSA adapted to an entirely online delivery model and as restrictions eased, began to adopt a hybrid approach, offering a range of online, in person, and combined activities. A number of the people we work with have ongoing health issues or are immunocompromised, which meant that we were obliged to take a very slow approach in returning to in person delivery. However, when delivering online workshops we learned that a large number of people in the Borough have always been unable to attend our in person sessions due to physical disability, mental health challenges, medical issues, carer responsibilities, or a combination of the above; and consequently we were able to reach some people with online provision who had previously been unable to access our programmes. Our online activity became a vital lifeline for participants, with people frequently telling us that this was their only social activity of the week. Upon returning to in person sessions and the easing of Government restrictions, we decided to continue to

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offer online provision to ensure that these people we had identified were able to continue to participate. This is especially relevant for our Creative 4 Life sessions, as a number of these participants are unable to attend due to both physical disability and mental health issues.

Initially, we offered hybrid sessions, with a facilitator leading either in-person or online and participants joining both in person and via Zoom. While this allowed us to reach a potentially larger number of participants, this approach came with its own challenges; it was very difficult for facilitators to engage equally with both in-person and online participants, and it was very challenging to have conversations without some voices being drowned out. We adapted our approach in response to these lessons, and now offer separate online and in-person sessions to ensure that we reach everyone who needs to access our services.

Following the appointment of the new Artistic Director in March 2021, a general overhaul of all our processes was undertaken. This involved a number of significant developments in the management of GSA:

Our Board of Trustees now includes specialists in finance, law, marketing, and safeguarding; with additional skills in working with refugees, people with additional needs, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. In addition, our board became more diverse, with members of the Black Caribbean and Muslim communities, and those with disabilities now represented, along with the existing LGBTQ+ representation. We also now have a range of ages, with our youngest Trustee aged 21 and who is also visually impaired, providing valuable knowledge in terms of reaching and supporting that community. A future target is to develop both adult and young person steering groups within the organisation, with representatives of these steering groups attending board meetings and potentially becoming Trustees.

It was identified that while the previous GSA vehicle did the work of a charitable organisation, it was a CIC and therefore liable to pay corporation tax. This meant that each year it was necessary to raise funds specifically for the purpose of paying a significant tax bill, which is clearly not ideal. GSA has now become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and this has the benefits not only of removing this tax liability, but also opening up additional funding streams, including the receipt of donations.

GSA’s website had been built some time ago and updated in a piecemeal fashion by a number of different individuals, without a clear overarching vision. It was difficult to navigate and full of broken links and obsolete information. A web designer was hired to rebrand the organisation and build a new website, which has already been proven to be far more effective in terms of engagement. This rebrand was also applied to social media, with a coherent strategy created and applied to online engagement. Staff are now receiving appropriate training in updating the website, while ensuring that it maintains a unified style.

A financial review was carried out between January - March 2021. GSA has always been reliant on project funding and at one point during the pandemic became effectively insolvent. This was addressed by uplift funding which brought the balance of unrestricted reserves into the positive again, but this was still an issue. Due to underspends on some funds and positive relationships with the relevant grant managers, GSA had sufficient resources to continue operation for around one year at this point, but it was recognised that had this not been the case GSA would again have been effectively insolvent within 3 months.

GSA finances have, in the past, been less organised than would be ideal and this has made it very challenging to effectively plan and forecast. It was recognised that a complete overhaul of GSA finances was necessary, with a complete rebuild of our financial structure in such a way to prevent further issues going forward. GSA has never previously been in a position where we have been able to effectively build long term plans, and solid financial management will now give us the means to plan strategically.

This overhaul has now been completed, and GSA has comprehensive, accessible, and accurate management accounts. These are regularly reviewed by the Artistic Director, Finance Manager, and Board of Trustees, with a finance sub-committee taking specific responsibility. This means that GSA is now in a position to plan effectively and begin to rebuild unrestricted reserves after the challenges of the pandemic, and we have created and are implementing a reserves policy to ensure that we are prepared for future challenges. While the current funding climate can mean that achieving stable core funding is difficult, the charity is now well placed to successfully apply to a wider variety of funders, with a greater focus and skillset within the organisation.

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Over the same period, GSA undertook a programme of staff development and training. This encompassed a number of skills designed to improve our ability to work with vulnerable individuals from a variety of backgrounds, with safeguarding and accessibility training delivered across the team. In February 2022 every member of the core team received Mental Health First Aid training, and in March 2023 every member of the core team received training in building a trauma-informed practice from Kazzum Theatre Company, which, combined with our ongoing safeguarding training has had a tremendously positive effect in terms of our ability to support our service users. We have also instigated regular staff supervisions, which have been very effective at identifying areas for development and in improving staff happiness and wellbeing; and regular clinical supervision sessions with an external therapist to support staff wellbeing with regards to the challenges of working with people who are experiencing mental health issues.

In conjunction with this commitment to staff development and wellbeing, a flexible working policy was adopted recognising that staff are able to work effectively from home in a largely self-guided capacity, and that GSA trusts all staff to do their jobs effectively without constant supervision. This includes a commitment to not contacting staff when they are not working for GSA, in order to help preserve a healthy work/life balance. Each core staff member’s job description was examined and rewritten to effectively include every aspect of their role; in some cases with additional responsibilities included to reflect staff member’s expressed desires for development and experience in areas such as project and budget management. Each core staff member receives an increase in salary of at least 5% each April to reflect the increased cost of living, and we increased two staff members’ salaries to ensure that they surpassed the London Living Wage.

It was identified that many of our policies were either out of date, or in some cases nonexistent. The Artistic Director reviewed and wrote or rewrote all policies, consulting with both Trustees and members of LBBD’s mental health and safeguarding teams to ensure that everything was relevant and up to date. These have now been written and reviewed by the board and GSA is in a far stronger position than previously, with coherent policies that are reviewed on an annual basis.

GSA is based at Chadwell Heath Community Centre (CHCC). GSA and CHCC have a positive working relationship, sharing resources and skills, and there is a recognition that GSA is the resident arts organisation. We have built positive reciprocal relationships with all other organisations that use the building, offering workshops to support their activity and to further achieve our charitable objectives by reaching a wider cross-section of our community.

As an additional priority, it was recognised as important to rebuild GSA’s finances after the challenges of the pandemic. This has led to some funding success, with significant funds being awarded by Children in Need and Comic Relief. Smaller funding applications that were successful include Arts Council England and NCIL (National Community Infrastructure Levy). This means that GSA’s core activities have sufficient funding to continue for around a further two years. While additional core funding success will be needed to continue our operations, we are now in a stronger position than previously.

As a borough that under any circumstances experiences an unusually high number of challenges and issues with deprivation, LBBD was hit particularly hard by the pandemic. We have experienced this in terms of increased numbers of referrals from social prescribing partners, and from what we have been told by pre-existing participants. We have observed an unusually high degree of mental health crises in our adult participants over the past year and feel that our work has never been more needed. We have increased our number of social prescribing referrals by building positive relationships with partner organisations, and by offering creative workshops to link workers, improving their knowledge of our services and increasing the likelihood of referrals to our activities.

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We rigorously evaluate all activity, ensuring that our projects are having the maximum impact for our participants and stakeholders. We do this in a number of ways:

We maintain close relationships with our funders, with representatives regularly attending Green Shoes Arts sessions. Recently, GSA was featured on both BBC London and BBC Radio London as part of Children in Need’s publicity, and featured in a Comic Relief film created for potential funders.

GSA works closely with a wide range of organisations across the borough to ensure both that we reach as wide a variety of people as possible, and that we positively impact the conversation surrounding the needs of our community to as great an extent as we are able. We are strongly embedded in the Borough’s cultural life with a well-developed network of collaborative partnerships.

Our partnerships with other artistic and creative organisations include Studio 3 Arts, Creative Barking & Dagenham, Barking & Dagenham Youth Dance, Create London, Queens Theatre Hornchurch, the Broadway Theatre, Everyone Everyday, and the Serpentine Gallery. We signpost participants to these organisations’ activities and exhibition/performance opportunities.

Our partners in working with people with mental health issues include Havering Mind, Imagine Mental Health, Richmond Fellowship, North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT) Talking Therapies, Help Us Bounce Back (Hubb) Support Group LBBD Social Prescribing Network, and Inspirited Minds. We receive referrals from these partners, offering a creative complement to the work they are doing with their clients.

We engage with faith-based organisations in order to reach a wider demographic, and are currently developing relationships with On the Rock International Church, City of Faith Ministry, and Tawhid Academy.

We have close relationships with Sydney Russell School, Warren School, Dagenham Park School, Riverside School, and Trinity School (SEND), while maintaining positive working relationships with a further seven schools across the borough.

GSA core staff are highly active in a variety of external partner and stakeholder groups, including the Social Prescribing Network, BD Collective, and the Cultural Partnership Group. The Artistic Director is part of the BD Collective Leadership Team and a member of the Social Prescribing Community Chest Steering Group, and is currently leading the BD Collective Children and Young People’s Network.

Here follows a summary of GSA’s projects, with a brief overview of their history and significant developments and achievements over the past year.

Speak Up

Speak Up had a challenging start, as the programme was originally designed to begin with a series of engagement workshops in schools, youth clubs, and pupil referral units. However, due to the pandemic this was not possible and the project was moved online, with a significant challenge being the lack of an opportunity to engage or recruit participants. Despite this, Speak Up ran online over the pandemic in a more limited capacity, providing combined arts activities to young Black male participants. As restrictions relaxed and with the injection of additional funding from the Arts Council England, Speak Up was able to begin the full planned delivery of in-person workshops in

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schools. These again took a combined arts approach, with the focus being on providing a positive space for participants to discuss issues relating to mental health. Feedback from schools was very positive in terms of the impact on pupils’ wellbeing.

Following this, we ran two Virtual Reality intensive week-long workshops. This provided participants with the means to create virtual safe spaces, creating 3D art installations. Following this, the project will deliver a series of peer-led workshops, facilitated by Speak Up participants.

During the February intensive workshops series, participants also toured the Becontree Estate and created a virtual response to their hopes and ideas about its future, as part of borough-wide celebrations of the estate’s centenary. We are now finalising Speak Up activity and planning a larger project to effectively support children and young people with mental health issues through positive creative activity.

Children & Young People (ages 8-12) During the pandemic, our Children in Need-funded activity found it challenging to attract participants. LBBD has a high degree of digital deprivation, and many households only have one device, which is frequently a phone rather than a laptop or computer. As a consequence, while we were able to provide some activity during the pandemic, it was once we were able to relax restrictions that the project regained its original scope. We now run drama and dance lessons for children aged 8-12, and each group is fully subscribed with a waiting list. An increasingly large number of the children we engage with have additional needs, and a target is to create a session that specifically works with these children. We deliver a large number of outreach activities to external groups such as Barking & Dagenham Young Carers, and will be delivering activities for Love Literacy, a local Black Caribbean group supporting literacy with young people; and Tawhid Academy, an Islamic school that works across the borough.

The majority of participants have challenges including economic deprivation, SEND or learning difficulties, and 80% of participants report an improvement in their mental health from taking part in our workshops.

Young Actor’s Club (ages 13-18)

GSA created a new youth theatre this year, with the working title of the Young Actor’s Club (YAC). This is designed to teach young people the skills they need to focus on potential careers as performers, with a strong emphasis on building skills for both performance and life. Initially funded by NCIL, YAC is led by a staff member who is a young mixed-ethnicity woman from the local area and is deliberately representative of the views and ideas of young participants.

YAC participants are recruited through a series of outreach workshops, most notably in conjunction with Sydney Russell School and Warren School, but also with partners such as Future Youth Zone. The initial activity culminated in a scratch performance at the One Borough Festival. Following this, National Youth Theatre delivered workshops to recruit for their upcoming Emerge programme. The purpose of all this activity is to help provide as wide a range of opportunities as possible to participants.

YAC received additional funding from the NHS Social Prescribing Community Chest to open a new session in response to increased numbers of participants and to help us attract social prescribing referrals, offering positive activity for young people who are experiencing low-level mental health challenges including anxiety, depression, and social isolation. In our most recent evaluation, 66.7% of participants said that their self-perception of worthiness had increased, 33.3% said that their self-perception of happiness had increased, and 66.7% said that their self-perception of anxiety had decreased.

Creative 4 Life

The Creative 4 Life (C4L) programme provides a range of multi-arts opportunities to adults experiencing mental health issues, including participatory workshops, performances and events.

It was challenging to reboot the project following lockdown. While we were able to provide online workshops, this did come with additional issues, as detailed above. Many participants experienced a considerable amount of anxiety about returning to in-person sessions. This transition began with hybrid workshops, with a facilitator leading in an in-person or online capacity, and participants joining using both methods. While this did allow us to provide session activities for a wide range of people, it was difficult to deliver hybrid workshops effectively.

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Participants struggled with technical issues throughout, and the task of essentially leading two groups at once was deemed to not be the best course of action. This process of transition and learning took place from April to December 2021. The year culminated with a Winter craft market, where facilitators were invited to deliver taster workshops while participants showcased work created over the course of the previous few month’s sessions. This was effective at including participants in the decision-making process in regards to delivery from January 2022 onwards.

During the January to May 2022 period the programme successfully delivered a series of workshops and one-off events. While an underspend had been noted due to the difficulty of delivery during lockdown, the National Lottery Community Fund were very understanding, allowing us to use excess funds to deliver a larger scheme of activity than usual. This in conjunction with reduced Government COVID-19 restrictions allowed the programme to offer the widest range of activities delivered up to that point. Sessions continued in-person, with safety procedures in place in line with Government guidance. Alongside this, we continued to offer online workshops in order to allow our work to be accessed by those facing prolonged isolation. All in-person workshops were now held at the company's permanent base, Chadwell Heath Community Centre, which led to further strengthening of the links to the community which both the centre and Green Shoes Arts serves.

This period of workshops provided a diverse offering of a combination of in-person/online weekly workshops, outreach sessions to create new connections throughout the borough, group trips to galleries and shows, the publication of a book of participants writing, an original song written and performed by participants and a sharing event, in which participants performed a selection of pieces for an invited audience. This included partners who have been valuable in terms of providing progression opportunities for some participants such as Graeae Theatre Company, Cardboard Citizens, and National Youth Theatre.

Following the completion of our National Lottery Community Fund project, we were successful in achieving funds to continue and develop the project from the Comic Relief Walkers Smiles Fund. This allowed us to employ two staff members, a Project Manager and a Project Coordinator; and to continue to expand our activity. This now comprises sessions not only at our studio in Chadwell Heath, but also at Thames Community Hub, allowing us to reach people who have not previously been able to access our services. While we continue to offer specific sessions in a wide range of activities including ceramics, henna art, African drumming, music, and visual arts to name but a few - both in person and online - we also hold a session called Creative Cafe every Monday which provides a wide range of activities in a positive social space, acting as an introduction to our wider sessions for participants who might otherwise be unwilling to participate. This session has been a huge success and is now our most popular workshop.

A full and extensive external evaluation report was carried out on C4L by Dr. Barbara Brayshay. We have been incredibly heartened to read of the positive benefits of the project and also to find key learning points which have already begun to be implemented into the new iteration of C4L. The summarised findings are as follows.

92% of respondents felt lonely before joining C4L

84% of respondents felt less lonely after joining C4L

96% of respondents felt a little or not connected to friends or family before joining C4L 84% of respondents felt C4L helped them connect to friends or family

80% of respondents felt a little or not confident before joining C4L

87% of respondents felt more confident as a result of joining C4L

56% of respondents did not feel good about themselves before joining C4L

92% of respondents said joining C4L has made them more confident

Arts Award Transitions

GSA was employed by the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham (LBBD), through Inspiring Futures, to oversee and moderate the delivery of Discover Arts Awards to the Year 7 intake across 8 schools in LBBD. The

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aims of Transitions were to help pupils adjust to their new school environment, and to introduce an interest in arts and culture.

GSA staff supported teachers to deliver Discover Arts Awards to their Year 7 cohort through online meetings, in person meetings and phone calls. Discover Arts Awards are accredited by Trinity College London and successful students received a certificate. These were awarded in a series of celebration assemblies led by school partners and facilitated by GSA staff. LBBD funded the programme, charging schools £3.50 per pupil to take part in the project, which contributed to assessment, coordination, and certification fees. Trinity College London offered a mass discount of £2.20 per pupil due to the large number of pupils put through the award by the Borough. In total, 1,613 Discover Arts Awards were successfully delivered across LBBD in 2021/22, which represents the highest number of awards given to a Year 7 cohort nationally. In 2022/23, this number increased to 1,790. In addition to supporting the delivery of the Transitions programme, GSA carries out a large amount of school engagement, leveraging the project to improve relationships with school partners. This has led to a large number of positive relationships with local schools, which has proven to be very helpful in terms of publicising our children and young people’s programmes. Through this approach, we deliver multiple outreach workshops on a regular basis, aiding recruitment for our children and young people’s programmes.

RAFTS

The Serpentine Gallery, in conjunction with New Town Culture, commissioned Radio Ballads, four bodies of work created through collaboration with social workers, carers, organisers, and residents. These explored stories of labour, and who cares for who and in what way.

Over three years, artists Sonia Boyce, Helen Cammock, Rory Pilgrim and Ilona Sagar were embedded in social care services and community settings in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. This exhibition, shown simultaneously at Serpentine North (31 March – 29 May 2022) and Barking Town Hall and Learning Centre (2-17 April 2022), presented new film commissions alongside paintings, drawings and contextual materials that shared each project’s collaborative research process. During this period, artist Rory Pilgrim worked with GSA participants collaboratively to create artwork, with their work being included as part of the final exhibition. The positive impact on the wellbeing of GSA participants was immense, with those who took part experiencing a considerable boost in their confidence; while other participants expressed a perception that their limits had been increased and that more things were open to them than they had previously believed.

RAFTS has continued to develop as a project with an international tour and a live event, with GSA participants involved, performing, and exhibiting at every stage. At the time of writing, RAFTS has been nominated for the Turner Prize.

Reaching Diverse Communities

GSA was successful in achieving NCIL funding to improve our capacity to reach more diverse communities. This project will take place in three stages. Stage One: Outreach will engage with a wide variety of organisations that represent as wide a range of communities and cultural backgrounds as possible, seeking to carry out positive activity within these communities and identify suitable individuals who could act as representatives of their communities. This stage will culminate in a series of focus groups comprising these representatives, and GSA will use this to determine the best practice for providing future activity. Stage Two: R&D will involve collating all collected information, using this to effectively plan for Stage Three. Stage Three: Delivery will involve the creation of a combined arts festival, with activity being informed by the findings from Stages One and Two, inviting new audiences and participants to take part in a series of creative workshops specifically designed to appeal to members of less represented groups. GSA will use the findings from all stages to adapt our ongoing activity, ensuring that our workshops remain relevant and attractive to a wider and more diverse audience. We will also use the networks and contacts created through this project to improve our ability to recruit facilitators from less represented groups, increasing their skills and developing a more diverse workforce and participant base.

Comic Relief Cost of Living Uplift Fund

Through close communication with Comic Relief, who fund Creative 4 Life, we identified a challenge in that our staff and facilitators were experiencing difficulties in responding to the cost-of-living crisis. This opened a conversation with Comic Relief regarding the increased challenges for people working in the Voluntary,

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GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector, as acquiring funds for indirect and core costs is increasingly difficult and competitive, creating considerable risks for smaller arts organisations such as GSA. In order to respond to these challenges and to allow GSA to offer facilitators and core staff remuneration that reflects the increased cost of living, Comic Relief awarded GSA a core cost grant of £15,000.

Mayor’s Community Fund

GSA were awarded £1500 to carry out activities for the Mayor’s Community Weekend, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund. We used this as an opportunity to connect more with our wider community with whom we share CHCC, offering bespoke workshops to a number of groups. With Young At Heart, an organisation working with elderly people, we delivered a session in chair yoga, providing light movement for older people to improve flexibility and mindfulness. With Love Literacy, a Black Caribbean group focusing on improving literacy in young members of their community, we delivered a poetry workshop where young people wrote poems inspired by Windrush as part of their Windrush Day celebrations. These poems were then shared with an invited audience including the children of Windrush passengers. With Tawhid Academy, an Islamic school addressing the small number of madrasahs in the local area, we delivered a workshop on Islamic art and mosaics, with young participants creating their own paper collage mosaics. We then delivered two additional workshops in mandala drawing and ceramics, working with a wide cross-section of people from all backgrounds in the local area. Over the weekend we worked with around 60 community members, receiving very positive feedback and building positive relationships with all external stakeholders.

Jack Petchey

GSA is proud to receive funding from the Jack Petchey Foundation, which we use to provide positive experiences for the children and young people we work with. We use these funds primarily to organise field trips for the young people who attend our drama sessions, attending performances of Come From Away and Gone Too Far over the past year. Participants have told us that these offer a unique opportunity for them to have enriching experiences that they would not normally have access to. We also use these funds to provide resources in the form of textbooks and playscripts, which hugely improves our ability to provide positive drama tuition at a high level for our young participants.

Thames Ward Community Project

As part of our ongoing commitment to outreach to all communities and areas of the borough, GSA carried out a series of visual arts workshops for community members who are part of Thames Ward Community Project. The focus of these was to provide positive activity that would help build a sense of confidence in participants, to combat social isolation through this activity, and to foster a strong sense of community cohesion amongst all participants.

Co-op Community Fund

GSA is a Co-op Community Fund Local Cause, which means that local residents who shop in Co-op stores are able to nominate us as a good cause and donate a portion of their shopping cost. This has provided us with the opportunity to build a local choir called The Valence Singers, a group of local mothers who meet once a week for singing tuition, carrying out performances as part of celebrations associated with Valence Primary School. Through this, we have successfully engaged with a part of the community who frequently suffer social isolation, in some cases incorporating participants and their families into our wider activities.

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GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

Structure, Governance and Management

Remuneration

The company operates a remuneration policy whereby salaries for all directly employed staff are benchmarked against salary levels in the sector on an annual basis and any increases are calculated to account for the financial performance of the organisation.

The average employee headcount during the financial year was seven and the average number of employees (full-time equivalent) was three. No employees earned in excess of £60,000 and the total remuneration paid to the key management personnel during the year was £96,071. During the period the Trustees received no remuneration.

The organisation was originally established as a Community Interest Company, incorporated on 5 January 2009. In order to more closely reflect the nature of the organisation’s work, it was registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation on 31 January 2022. The charity was established under a Memorandum of Association which established the objects and powers of the CIO and is governed under its Articles of Association. If the CIO is wound up, the members of the CIO have no liability to contribute to its assets and no personal responsibility for settling its debts and liabilities.

Trustee selection methods

Trustees are recruited in regard to their position in the local community, their specific skill set, and/or their direct knowledge and experience of the CIO’s work. One Trustees is a current participant. Trustees are required to supply a list of their skills and experience and are assigned to sub-committees in order to focus on specific areas of concern, for e.g. Finance, Safeguarding, or Health & Safety.

Organisational structure and management

The Trustees delegate the day-to-day management of the company to the key management personnel, currently the Artistic Director and Creative Programme Manager. The Trustees are responsible for ensuring that management staff’s decisions are in accordance with the company's objects and legal framework. Long-term organisational strategy is the joint responsibility of the Trustees and the management staff. Trustees are responsible for ensuring that this strategy is in accordance with the company's objects, and for overseeing the effectiveness of this strategy. Trustees may be appointed at any time. New Trustees are provided with an induction pack outlining their roles and responsibilities as Trustees of the charity. They are provided with and are required to read the company’s governing documents and policy documents. Trustees meet on a quarterly basis.

Related Parties

Green Shoes Arts uses CHCC to deliver workshop activities and as office space. Kevin Walton, a former Trustee of GSA, is also Chair of CHCC and recused himself from discussions related to CHCC while in post. CHCC is owned by LBBD. While LBBD have funded GSA in the past for specific projects, they hold no controlling interest in the charity. GSA pays rent to LBBD to use studio and office space at CHCC. The charity has a commercial rolling three year lease contract with CHCC, which was renewed in October 2021, and all transactions are carried out at arm’s length.

Financial Review

Principal funding sources:

Green Shoes Arts C.I.O received income of £228,558 in the period, of which £226,676 represented restricted funding, relating to the National Lottery Community Fund Creative 4 Life Fund £27,247, Children in Need £50,701, Arts Council England Speak Up £18,000, London Borough of Barking & Dagenham Arts Award Transitions £18,484, Serpentine Gallery RAFTS £6,705, Jack Petchey Foundation £3,000, Co-Op C4L £2,613, Comic Relief C4L Fund £89,931 and the Thames Ward Community Project £703. Expenditure in the year totalled £231,272 of which £215,489 related to restricted project funding.

Funds available:

The reserves held at 31 March 2023 are £85,819. This includes unrestricted funds of £31,972.

The Trustees are confident that the charitable organisation can continue to meet its liabilities as they fall due for

14

GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

the foreseeable future and that the accounts should be prepared on a going concern basis.

Reserves policy

The Reserves Policy aims to maintain reserves at the minimum level required to manage risk, support organisational resilience and enable investment in development. This supports strategic financial management and accountability. The reserves policy is reviewed at least annually by the Board of Trustees.

The charity’s reserves will ensure that the charity has the ability to manage unforeseen events that affect its financial health and not to fall below the level that would put the charity at risk of demise, or breach of the law or its obligations. The Trustees have set a target reserve level with a minimum target of three months’ expenditure and an additional three months’ salary for the Artistic Director to be used to secure funds to continue the operation of the charity should the charity be near insolvency, or to be used should the charity be required to wind-up in a legally responsible manner. This level has been calculated at £35,000. As of 31 March 2023, unrestricted reserves were slightly below that level at £31,972. Measures are in place to increase reserves back up to the policy level.

Risk management

The Board of Trustees, with the Artistic Director and the staff team, keep organisational risk under review and mitigate risk with a range of measures including: insurance, planning, performance monitoring, policies and procedures. A Corporate Risk Register for the monitoring of strategic risk is being prepared by the Board and will be reviewed annually. Programmes are mainly run with funding secured in advance to ensure that any income risk is well managed. Residual risk is assessed and informs the Reserves Policy, which includes financial and non-financial risks. To meet contractual and legal obligations and deliver operational objectives, the Board agrees the broad annual programme, plans and budget, and monitors performance during the year. The Trustees have identified the following to be the key risks to the organisation along with the mitigating actions to be undertaken:

Risk Mitigating Action
Funding of the Organisation GSA will continue to develop the programme in a way that
diversifies its income from a range of funders including trusts
& foundations, statutory funders and earned income from
consultancy.
All project funding contains an element to
cover core costs. Close monitoring of reserves by the Board
and a clear Reserves Policy helps to build investment
potential with targets for building reserves for key purposes.
The Board have appointed a Treasurer (trustee role) to
support the Artistic Director in managing funds including
close cost control. The Business Plan is currently being
developed
and
will
incorporate
an
Income Generation
Strategy for continual securing of funds.
Loss of Key Staff GSA will aim to invest in its staff and consider succession
planning
and
resilience
in
its
policies
and
processes
including
a
Business
Continuity
Plan.
We
offer
an
appropriate
level
of
salary
and
flexible
working
arrangements. Salaries are benchmarked across the sector
and staff receive above statutory minimum annual leave
entitlements.
Annual
training
budgets provide continual
CPD.
Role
design
considers
succession planning and
legacy.
Documentation of processes and projects enable
smooth
transition
between
staff
for
successful
handover/team working. Clear recruitment processes and a
recruitment
policy
ensures
quality
replacements
when
required.

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GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

Risk Mitigating Action
Safeguarding and Health & Safety The organisation has appropriate Safeguarding Policies and
highly experienced, well-trained staff.
Using advice from
other local experts including the CVS, local Council and
Board members in highly skilled professions such as law,
finance, marketing, and local Council, the policy incorporates
safer recruitment processes for staff, volunteers, trustees
and contractors. Training and DBS checking is repeated
every
3
years
at
a
minimum.
All
core
staff
receive
appropriate Safeguarding, Mental Health First Aid, and
Trauma-informed Practice training. All activities are risk
assessed
and
appropriate
mitigating
actions
are
incorporated in line with the organisation’s Health & Safety
Policy
Staff wellbeing & management of remote
working		 The organisation has office premises at Chadwell Heath
Community Centre and staff work from home or in remote
locations in the community with limited supervision. GSA
holds a Flexible Working Policy that guides staff in safe
working practices which includes regular daily contact with
team members to ensure their location & safety is known.
The
Board will soon be issuing a twice annual Staff
Wellbeing Survey that enables staff to anonymously report
on their wellbeing and job satisfaction. The Board and
Executive discuss results in order to implement additional
measures to support staff.
The Board & Artistic Director
continue to monitor staff performance through regular staff
supervision. Staff are able to receive clinical supervision with
a qualified suitable therapist, or to be reimbursed for external
sessions with a therapist.

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GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

Future Plans

As GSA reaches the end of this period of growth and development, we find ourselves increasingly stepping into a role as advocates and leaders in the field of combating poor mental health, isolation, and lack of opportunities within LBBD. This is due to a strong and well-trained team, a culture of empathy and responsibility, and a robust structure that allows us to effectively understand the challenges faced by our community, and importantly to share that learning with other organisations and individuals. Our upcoming plans include:

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD:

Daniel Martin

Chair 26 October 2023

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GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

Statement of Trustees Responsibilities

The Trustees are responsible for preparing the financial statements in accordance with the United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) and applicable law and regulations.

Charity law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under charity 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 organisation 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:

The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the charity’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011. They 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.

18

GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

Note
INCOME
Donations
2
Charitable activities
3
Total income
EXPENDITURE
Charitable activities
4
Total expenditure
NET (EXPENDITURE) / INCOME
Transfers between funds
NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS
RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS
Total funds transferred from CIC
TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD		 Unrestricted
Funds
Restricted
Funds
£
£
15
2,613
1,867
224,063
1,882
226,676
15,783
215,489
15,783
215,489
(13,901)
11,187
11,527
(11,527)
(2,374)
(340)
34,346
54,187
31,972
53,487		 31.3.23
Total
Funds
£
2,628
225,930
228,558
231,272
231,272
(2,714)
-
(2,714)
88,533
85,819

There are no recognised gains or losses other than those included above. The results shown above relate to continuing activities.

The income and expenditure are measured under the historical cost convention.

The accompanying notes form part of these financial statements

19

GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 BALANCE SHEET

Notes
FIXED ASSETS
Tangible Assets
8
CURRENT ASSETS
Amounts owed within one
year
9
Cash at bank and in hand
CURRENT LIABILITIES
Amounts falling due within
one year
10
NET CURRENT ASSETS
TOTAL ASSETS LESS
CURRENT LIABILITIES
NET ASSETS
FUNDS
12
Unrestricted Funds
Restricted Funds
TOTAL FUNDS		 2023
Unrestricted
Funds
£
5,681
1,136
27,751
28,887
(2,596)
26,291
31,972
31,972		 REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 1197715
2023
2023
Restricted
Funds
Total
Funds
£
£
-
5,681
1,710
2,846
52,892
80,643
54,602
83,489
(755)
(3,351)
53,847
80,138
53,847
85,819
53,847
85,819
31,972
53,847
85,819

The Trustees acknowledge their responsibilities for

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice ‘Accounting and reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019) issued in October 2019 by the Charity Commission;

The financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees on 26 October 2023 and were signed on its behalf by:

Daniel Martin Chair

The accompanying notes form part of these financial statements

20

GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

1. CHARITY INFORMATION AND ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Charity Information

The charity is a charitable incorporated organisation and is registered with the Charities Commission in England and Wales. Registered charity number 1197715

Registered Office: Chadwell Heath Community Centre 255 High Road RM6 6AS

Basis of preparing the financial statements

The Trustees believe that the charitable organisation can operate in the foreseeable future. The charity continues to be supported by funders including the National Lottery Community Fund, Comic Relief and Children in Need and as such considers it appropriate to prepare the accounts on a going concern basis.

Accounting convention

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, and in accordance with the requirements of Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (FRS102). The presentation currency used in the accounts is pounds sterling.

Cash flow statement

The Trustees have taken advantage of the exemption in Charities SORP (FRS102) from including a cash flow statement in the financial statements on the grounds that the charitable organisation is small.

Incoming resources

All incoming resources are included in the Statement of Financial Activities when the charitable organisation is legally entitled to the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy. Voluntary Income is received by way of grants, donations and gifts and is included in full in the Statement of Financial Activities when receivable. Income is only deferred when the donor specifies that the grant or donation must only be used in future accounting periods or the donor has imposed conditions which must be met before the charity has unconditional entitlement.

Government Grants

Grants, including government grants, are accounted for under the accruals model as permitted by FRS102. Grants of a revenue nature are recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities in the same period as the related expenditure.

Resources expended

Expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all cost related to the category. Where costs cannot be directly attributed to particular headings they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. The pension costs charged against income represent the amount of contributions payable to the scheme in respect of the accounting period.

Costs charged to a restricted fund relate to the activities undertaken to further the specific charitable purposes the fund was established to support. These costs include both direct and support costs associated with the activities undertaken by the restricted funds. Support costs are allocated based on agreed allowances from funders.

Expenditure attributable to the restricted fund may still be charged to it even if there is an insufficient balance on that fund at the time. However, expenditure should only be charged to a restricted fund in deficit when there is a realistic expectation that future income will be received to cover the shortfall, for example when a decision has been made to invite donations to that restricted fund.

Operating Leases: the charitable organisation as lessee

Rentals under operating leases are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities on a straight-line basis over the lease term.

21

GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

1. COMPANY INFORMATION AND ACCOUNTING POLICIES continued

Tangible fixed assets

The company’s threshold for capitalisation is £200. Expenditure below this value, on items that may be considered fixed assets, is written off to revenue account as the Trustees consider that the administration cost of capitalisation outweighs any benefit to the user of these accounts.

Computer Equipment with a value in excess of £200 are depreciated over their anticipated useful life of 3 years.

Fixtures and Fittings with a value in excess of £200 are depreciated over their anticipated useful life of 4 years.

Taxation

The charitable company is exempt from corporation tax on its charitable activities.

Defined Contribution Pension

The company operates a defined contribution plan for its employees. A defined contribution plan is a pension plan under which the Company pays contributions into a separate entity. Once the contributions have been paid the company has no further payment obligations. The contributions are recognised as an expense in the Statement of Financial Activities when they fall due. Amounts that are not paid are shown in creditors as a liability in the Balance Sheet. The assets of the plan are held separately from the Company in an independently administered funds.

Debtors

Trade debtors, prepayments and other debtors are valued at the amount paid in respect of future accounting periods.

Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and in hand include cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or openings of the deposit or similar account.

Creditors

Trade creditors, accruals and other creditors are recognised when there is an obligation at the year-end as a result of a past event, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefit will be required in settlement and the amount of settlement can be estimated reliably.

Financial Instruments

The company only enters into basic financial instrument transactions that result in the recognition of financial assets and liabilities like trade and other debtors and creditors.

Fund accounting

Unrestricted funds can be used in accordance with the charitable objectives at the discretion of the Trustees.

Restricted funds can only be used for particular restricted purposes within the objects of the charitable organisation. Restrictions arise when specified by the donor or when funds are raised for particular restricted purposes. Provision is made in the majority of restricted funding streams for management and administration costs. These costs are borne within unrestricted funds and then an appropriate allocation is made in accordance with the funding agreement.

Further explanation of the nature and purpose of each fund is included in the notes to the financial statements.

22

GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

2. DONATIONS

Individual Donations
Co-Op Community
Scheme		 31.3.23
Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
£
£
£
15
-
15
-
2,613
2,613
15
2,613
2,628

3. INCOME FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

London Borough of
Barking & Dagenham
Arts Council England
National Lottery
Community Fund
DCMS Fund
Jack Petchey Foundation
Serpentine Gallery
Children in Need
Comic Relief
Neighbourhood Fund
(NCIL)
Goldsmiths University
Thames Ward Community
Project
Community Resource		 31.3.23
Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
£
£
£
-
321
23,233
23,554
-
14,000
14,000
-
27,247
27,247
-
3,000
3,000
610
6,705
7,315
-
50,701
50,701
46
89,931
89,977
-
8,333
8,333
750
-
750
-
703
703
140
210
350
1,867
224,063
225,930

23

GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

4. ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE

Charitable activities
Salary related costs
Rent and rates
Insurance
Artistic Programme
Office cost and admin
Staff Training
Recruitment
Independent
examiner’s fees
Accountancy, payroll
and HR support costs
Depreciation of tangible
fixed assets		 31.3.23
Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
£
£
£
7,114
132,741
139,855
1,650
6,600
8,250
126
1,318
1,444
400
61,145
61,545
3
2,399
2,402
89
5,153
5,242
-
32
32
-
1,000
1,000
70
5,101
5,171
6,331
-
6,331
15,783
215,489
231,272

5. NET INCOMING/(OUTGOING) RESOURCES

Net resources are stated after charging:


Depreciation – owned assets
Operating Leases - property
Independent examiner’s fees		 31.3.23
£
6,331
8,250
1,000

6. TRUSTEES’ REMUNERATION AND BENEFITS

None of the Trustees received any remuneration or other benefits for the 14 month period ended 31 March 2023. There were no Trustee expenses totalling £nil paid during the period.

7. STAFF COSTS

Wages and salaries
Holiday / TOIL accrual
Social security costs
Pension contributions		 31.3.23
£
130,749
-
5,826
3,280
139,855

The average number of full time equivalent employees during the year was 3. The average head count of employees during the year was 7.

24

GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

8. TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

Computer
Equipment
£
COST
Transferred from CIC 31 January 2022
14,670
14,670
At 31 March 2023
DEPRECIATION
Transferred from CIC 31 January 2022
3,803
Charge for the year
5,704
9,507
At 31 March 2023
NET BOOK VALUE
5,163
At 31 March 2023
Opening NBV on Transfer 31 January 2022
10,867
9.
DEBTORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR
Trade debtors
Other debtors
10.
CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR		 Fixtures &
Fittings
and
Equipment
£
4,666
4,666
3,521
627
4,148
518
1,145
31.3.23
£
1,710
1,136
2,846		 Total
£
19,336
19,336
7,324
6,331
13,655
5,681
12,012
Trade Creditors
Accruals
Other Creditors
Income in Advance		 31.3.23
£
1,645
1,000
595
110
3,350

11. PENSION COMMITMENTS

GSA operates a defined contributions pension scheme. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the organisation in an independently administered fund. The pension cost charge represents contributions payable by the charitable organisation to the fund and amounted £3,280. Contributions totalling £595 were payable to the fund at the reporting date and are included in other creditors.

25

GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

12. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS

Unrestricted funds
General fund
Comic Relief Core
Progress Project
Restricted funds
National Lottery
Community Fund
Creative 4 Life Fund
Children in Need
NCIL Youth Theatre
Global Fund for
Children
Jack Petchey
Foundation
LBBD Arts Award
RAFTs Serpentine
Gallery
ACE Speak Up
The London
Community Response
Fund Speak Up
Comic Relief C4L Fund
NCIL Diverse
Communities
Thames Ward
Community Project
Co-Op C4L Fund
TOTAL FUNDS		 At
Conversion
1.02.2022
Incoming
Resource
Resources
Expended
Net
movement
in funds
£
£
£
£
33,790
1,882
(12,337)
(10,455)
-
-
(3,446)
(3,446)
556
-
-
-
34,346
1,882
(15,783)
(13,901)
27,384
27,247
(53,433)
(26,186)
2,187
50,701
(40,262)
10,439
1,542
9,293
(8,740)
553
3,835
-
-
-
13
3,000
(1,805)
1,195
6,953
18,483
(17,318)
1,165
5,254
6,705
(9,054)
(2,349)
4,639
18,000
(17,886)
114
2,380
-
-
-
-
89,931
(63,574)
26,357
-
-
(1,934)
(1,934)
-
703
(703)
-
-
2,613
(780)
1,833
54,187
226,676
(215,489)
11,187
88,533
228,558
(231,272)
(2,714)		 Transfer
between
funds
£
12,083
-
(556)
11,527
(1,198)
-
-
-
-
(5,045)
(2,904)
-
(2,380)
-
-
-
-
(11,527)
-		 At 31.3.22
£
35,418
(3,446)
-
31,972
-
12,626
2,095
3,835
1,208
3,073
1
4,753
-
26,357
(1,934)
-
1,833
53,847
85,819

All transfers between funds relate to approved project administration and unrestricted reserve contributions.

26

GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

12. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS - continued

Transfers from Restricted Funds

Provision is made in the majority of restricted funding streams for management and administration costs. These costs are borne within unrestricted funds and then an appropriate transfer is made in accordance with the funding agreement on an annual basis.

Purpose of Restricted Funds

National Lottery Community Fund Creative 4 Life:

Creative 4 Life provides mixed creative arts activities for adults with mental health issues, as well as external trips, opportunities to engage with partner organisations, and outreach activities.

Children in Need Fund:

This fund works with a wide variety of children and young people aged up to 18 including a number of participants with a range of additional needs, providing dance and drama activities along with opportunities for socialisation.

NCIL Youth Theatre Fund:

The youth theatre provides a creative space for young people from the age of 12+ who are interested in developing their skills in theatre and performing arts in a vocational, professional setting.

Global Fund for Children:

This fund provided emergency funding to develop the charity’s infrastructure in response to COVID-19, providing the means to purchase needed equipment and items, allowing us to continue to operate while remaining within government regulations.

Jack Petchey Foundation:

This fund allowed the children and young people we work with to choose a suitable and appropriate experience or equipment purchase to support their activity, including cinema/theatre tickets, VR headsets, and art supplies.

LBBD Safeguarding:

Design and creation of artwork, developed as part of a steering committee with an aim to promote community safeguarding.

LBBD Arts Award Transitions

Commissioned by Inspiring Futures for LBBD, GSA moderated 1614 Arts Award Discover certificates for pupils across the Borough’s schools.

RAFTs Serpentine Gallery

Working alongside the Serpentine Gallery and artist Rory Pilgrim, GSA participants took part in a film and provided artwork, all of which was displayed at the Serpentine North Gallery in an exhibition.

The London Community Response Fund Speak Up

This project was designed to create a safe and resilient space for young Black men to speak about personal issues, with a particular focus on mental health.

Arts Council England Speak Up:

This was designed to build on the work of LCRF Speak Up, expanding the project to include young South Asian men and creating a virtual reality asset through a series of workshops that would later be toured to schools partners alongside peer-led workshops.

Comic Relief C4L Fund:

Creative 4 Life provides mixed creative arts activities for adults with mental health issues, as well as external trips, opportunities to engage with partner organisations, and outreach activities.

Co-Op C4L Fund:

This fund has built and maintains a choir called the Valence Singers, working with a group of local mothers and providing positive social activity and performances.

Comic Relief Core Fund

This fund was awarded to assist GSA in combating the rising cost of living, providing the means to offer remuneration to salaried and freelance employees that responds to increased costs and helps to support employment of vital workers in the arts and third sectors.

27

GREEN SHOES ARTS C.I.O FOR THE 14 MONTH PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

12. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS - continued

NCIL Diverse Communities Fund:

This is intended to give GSA the capacity to effectively engage with a wider range of diverse communities from across the borough, researching the best practice for effective engagement and delivery, recruiting focus groups to advise on this process, and delivering a combined arts festival, using findings from the project to adapt GSA’s ongoing activity and make it a stronger offer that will reach a wider range of communities and cultures.

Thames Ward Community Project:

This was delivered in partnership with Thames Ward Community Project, providing positive visual arts activity to residents of Thames Ward.

13. RELATED PARTIES

GSA has a commercial lease contract with Chadwell Heath Community Centre (CHCC) for the rental of office space. During the year, one of GSA’s trustees was also a trustee of CHCC. All transactions between the two parties were at arm’s length and the particular trustee in question was not involved in any of the decision-making concerning these transactions.

14. OPERATING LEASE

The total of future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating
leases are:
Due within one year
Due after one year and before five years		 31.3.22
£
6,600
3,300

28

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examinevs Report Report to the trustees Green Shoes Arts C.l.O On accounts for the period ended 31 March 2023 Charity no (If any} 1197715 Set out on pages 1 to31 I ￿port to the trustees on my.examination of the accounts of the above charity {'the Trust") for the year ended 3110312023. Responsibilities and basls of report As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of Ihe Charities Ad 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}Ib) of the Act. Independent l am qualified to undertake the examination by being a qualified member of examiner's statement The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. I have completed my examination. I confimi that no material matters have 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 'lrue 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 ofthe accounts to be reached. e delete the viords in the braGkets if they do not apply. Signed: Date: Name: Ken A, Smith Inglis & Tait Chartered Accountant5 Relevant professional qualifi¢ation{sl or body Ilf any}: CA (Icasl Address: 1 Auchingramont Rd, Hamilton, ML3 8JP