2023-03-31-accounts - Live Unlimited

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August 2023

Live Unlimited

4[th] Floor

2 Bristol Avenue,

London

NW9 4EW

Tel 0208 359 2325

www.liveunlimited.org.uk

Trustees Annual Report 2022/23

The reporting period is from 1[st] February 2022 to 31[st] March 2023.

Live Unlimited is a registered charity (Charity No. 1197754 ) created to provide support, opportunities and enrichment activities for Barnet’s 331 looked after children and 357 care leavers.

The Trustees:

John Hooton (Chair)

Lee Robinson (Secretary)

Caroline Glitre (Treasurer)

Jennifer Mohammadi (Lived Experience Trustee)

Emma Henly (Fundraising & Safeguarding Lead)

Ira Bhattacharya (Trustee)

John Kinnear (Projects Lead)

Sheena Leng (Trustee)

Live Unlimited Team

Operations Director (0.8) Projects Officer x 2 (0.8) Fundraiser (0.4)

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Charitable objects

Live Unlimited’s Charitable Objects are:

“To advance in life and help young people who are, or have been in the London Borough of Barnet care through:

(a) The provision of recreational and leisure activities provided in the interest of social welfare, designed to improve their conditions in life;
(b) Providing support and activities which develop their skills, capacities and capabilities to enable them to participate in society as mature and responsible individuals and;
(c) Supporting and promoting improvement in their education achievement.”

Chair’s Report:

From 1 October 2022, we changed our charitable status to a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) operating under new charity number 1197754. The new charity number 1197754 was registered on 1 February 2022, therefore this report covers the period of 1 February 2022 to the financial year end of 31 March 2023.

The charity number 1197754 was dormant for the initial period of 1 February 2022 to 30 September 2022.

This report covers the charity’s activities from the period of 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. The activities of the charity for the previous six months’ accounts, April to September 2022, are filed under charity number 1176418 on the Charity Commission Website which can be found here.

During this time we celebrated our fifth birthday and successfully delivered four schemes providing life changing opportunities, developing new skills and reducing isolation among Barnet’s care experienced young people.

Despite the ongoing difficulty of being able to book a driving test, our young people refused to be daunted. 3 care leavers took their tests and to our delight 2 successfully gained their driving licence. As well as boosting their confidence and self-esteem, the young people have been able to secure jobs making themselves more financially resilient, helping them move on to exciting new chapters in their lives.

Our forest-school based Outdoor Club continued to go from strength to strength, with the children’s carers reporting them being happier, more relaxed and self-confident at home, school and among friends.

We paused delivery of our Aspire Higher careers networking scheme last year to enable us to refocus, using feedback and learnings to create a bespoke mentoring programme Aspire Higher Plus.

Despite the challenging economic climate, we ran a successful Christmas fundraising campaign which exceeded our expectations.

I remain immensely proud of the life changing impact our schemes deliver. None of this would be possible without our hardworking staff and board of trustees, as well as the generosity of donors, funders and volunteers.

John Hooton

Chair, Live Unlimited

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Live Unlimited number of direct beneficiaries

Key:

IT – Imagination Trust, DA – Driving Ahead, GAD – Give A Dongle, RL – Reel Lives

OC – Outdoor Club, AH – Aspire Higher

LAC – Looked after children, CL – Care leaver

*Imagination Trust applications were suspended from 24/09/20 until May 2022.

Year	IT	DA	GAD	OC	AH	RL	Totals	Christmas vouchers
2018/19	37	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	37	60
2019/20	69	3	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	72	60
2020/21	75*	9	62	n/a	n/a	n/a	146	250
2021/22	n/a	19	n/a	20	66	n/a	105	300
April 2022- Sep 2022	25	16	n/a	11	n/a	6	58	n/a
Oct 2022 – March 2023	23	15	n/a	6	3	n/a	57	320
22/23 Totals	48	31	n/a	17	3	6	115	320*

Beneficiaries broken down by LAC & CLs (figures not available for 2018/19 or 2019/20)

Year	IT	DA	GAD	OC	AH	RL	Totals
2020/21
LAC	52	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	52
CL	23	9	64	n/a	n/a	n/a	94
							146
2021/22
LAC	n/a	1	n/a	20	14	n/a	35
CL	n/a	18	n/a	n/a	52	n/a	70
							105
April-Sep 2022
LAC	13	n/a	n/a	10	n/a	2	25
CL	12	16	n/a	1	n/a	4	33
Oct 2022- March 2023
LAC	19	n/a	n/a	4	n/a	n/a	23
CL	4	15	n/a	2	3	n/a	24
22/23 totals	48	31	n/a	17	3	6	115

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Christmas Vouchers

As in previous years, we helped to brighten the lives of our care leavers a little over the festive period by providing £25 gift vouchers for 320 care leavers and young people living in semiindependent accommodation aged 17+. For many young people this is the only gift they receive and particularly during the cost-of-living crisis it is a guilt-free opportunity to treat themselves. This is shown as a separate column to avoid double counting the number of unique beneficiaries impacted by our schemes.

Driving Ahead

Hadyat, above, passed his test first time with flying colours.

Our flagship Driving Ahead scheme continued to be extremely popular amongst care leavers, with a waiting list of young people eager to apply for 46 hours of free driving lessons. Difficulty securing a practical driving test remained the number one issue for new learners, with many young people

Hadayat, 20, passed first time in January 2023: “I could not recommend learning to drive more. I had zero driving experience before I started my lessons. It took me a while, but I passed my test first time without any faults. I had an amazing instructor with a brilliant sense of humour.”

Jamarion, 25, passed first time in March 2023: “I have just completed the onboarding process to become a mental health worker, which will increase my income and allow me to put more money towards saving to buy a car so that I can travel to and from work and other places more easily. The timing couldn’t be better.”

feeling disappointed they could not secure a test date for at least six months and others feeling anxious about the pressure to pass first time. We supported our learners as best we could, and between October 2022 to March 2023 we purchased 279 hours of driving lessons. During this time we had 15 participants, of which 10 had driving lessons, 3 took their test, 2 passed and 1 failed. Additionally, 3 were studying for theory and 2 were on the waiting list.

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The increasing cost of driving lessons meant we decided to focus our Christmas fundraising campaign on supporting care leavers to drive. Through our match funded Big Give Christmas Challenge in December 2022 we successfully raised £16,615 and are particularly grateful to the Reed Foundation, Bumblebee Lettings, the AA Charitable Trust, BKL Foundation, Arnold Clark, Hill Group, Solutions4Health and Peter Zinkin for collectively helping us exceed our £15,000 target.

Outdoor Club

Our forest-school based scheme Outdoor Club, delivered by charity partner GROW, went from strength to strength. The scheme encourages trauma experienced children aged 6-18 to connect with nature, learn new skills, take risks, build confidence, improve wellbeing, reduce anxiety and make friends. The children had great fun getting muddy, feeding chickens, gaining their wheelbarrow licences, making fires and toasting marshmallows. It has been wonderful to see their confidence blossom and new friendships made throughout the year.

Number of hours delivered: 140

During this time, we delivered a seven-week programme from February-April 2023. Activities vary throughout the year, and due to the colder weather, the children spent more time developing new skills including using a flint and steel to create a fire as well as woodworking and gaining their wheelbarrow certificates!

The programme continued in two groups, one for children aged 6-10 and the other for children aged 11-18.

The large number of children returning term after term was testament to their enjoyment levels and carers reported it being one of their favourite clubs. Across the whole year (April-March 22/23) we had 34 attendees in total broken down as 5 children attending 3 terms, 5 children attending 2 terms and 9 children attending 1 term of Outdoor Club.

Carers’ feedback: “The GROW staff were lovely, and I felt they understood the needs and anxieties of my little ones”; “The staff are so friendly and understanding of the children"; “It is an amazing opportunity."

Facilitator’s feedback: “It’s been lovely to see how the younger age group and individuals in it have grown and developed over the past few months. Child S, B, and J have been with us for over a year, and it really shows. Child B is incredibly comfortable with the farm, S has got used to the club and settled in well and is now becoming more confident, and J has really matured.”

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Imagination Unlimited

We relaunched the Imagination Unlimited fund in May 2022, and during October 2022 – March 2023 approved 23 applications for a range of items and experiences up to the value of £250 each to help young people reach their potential and improve their health and wellbeing.

The most popular requests were for bicycles as well as items to support young people’s hobbies, such as a sewing machine, skateboard, guitars and football kits.

One application was for an electric guitar to replace T’s old guitar - bought by us 3 years ago - which he’d outgrown. He said: “Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to own such a brilliant guitar. It plays so well and is going to really help me in my grade 6 which I'm taking this summer, and in my band. It sounds elite.”

Care Leaver A received a football kit so he could pursue his love of football. He said: “I’m happy you helped me to buy the items because this means I can continue with my passion. As an asylum seeker, I am not entitled to any benefits. I’m now able to play in football matches and attend training sessions and to learn new skills when playing against other teams.”

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Aspire Higher

Although our Aspire Higher scheme remained on hold pending the launch of a redesigned new intensive scheme, we provided ongoing support to three young people who had been previously referred on to the scheme.

Following his paid work placement at artsdepot one young person gained a job as a Visitor Support Assistant. He said: “Without Live Unlimited I would never have got this job. Thank you for the opportunity after opportunity you have given me.”

Fundraising

We are incredibly grateful to the large number of organisations, trusts and foundations and individuals who have donated to Live Unlimited. Without their continued support we would not be able to create life changing outcomes for Barnet’s care experienced young people.

Please note, funds for the first half of the year April to September 2022 are shown under accounts for old charity number 1176418 which you can view here.

Source	Amount Oct 22- March 23	%
Corporate donations	£65,077.90	43%
Trusts & Foundations	£75,765.00	50%
Individualgiving	£3,114.04	2%
Challenge Events	£1,087.38	1%
Community	£4,229.66	3%
Interest	£1,018.58	1%
Gift Aid	£223.75	0%
Total	£150,516.31	100%

Corporate Donations

We are extremely thankful to the following businesses who supported us this year, enabling us to continue to deliver our life changing schemes.

Arnold Clark	£1,000	DrivingAhead
Bumblebee Lettings	£5,000	DrivingAhead
Capita	£55,000	Unrestricted
Hill	£2,500	DrivingAhead
Solutions4Health	£1,000	DrivingAhead
TPXImpact	£250	DrivingAhead
London Borough of Barnet Virtual School	£310	Imagination Unlimited

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Amazon Smile & Easy Fund- raising	£18	Unrestricted
	£65,078

Trusts and Foundations

We are also incredibly grateful to the following trusts and foundations for their new and continued support throughout this year and beyond.

AA Charitable Trust	£5,000	DrivingAhead
BettyMessenger	£25,000	Unrestricted
Bernays Charitable Trust	£500	Unrestricted
BKL Foundation	£5,400	DrivingAhead
FB Coales No 4	£500	Unrestricted
John Thaw Foundation	£1,000	Unrestricted
Leigh Trust	£2,500	Unrestricted
London CommunityFund	£16,000	Core costs
Ludlow Trust (Richard & Claire Watts Foundation)	£1,000	Unrestricted
MBILI Charitable Trust	£1,000	Unrestricted
National Lottery Community Fund	£8,365	Outdoor Club
Ogilvie Charities	£1,000	Unrestricted
The Reed Foundation	£2,500	DrivingAhead
Stuart Buzzacott Foundation	£1,000	Unrestricted
Souters Charitable Trust	£5,000	Unrestricted
	£75,765

Challenge Events

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Recruitment for challenge event places proved more difficult than previously, with several places bought but not taken up or participants dropping out due to injury or personal reasons. Due to the Queen’s funeral, the Swim Serpentine event was postponed until September 2023.

A huge thanks to everyone who took part in challenge events on our behalf, including Amelia, pictured, who ran in the Royal Parks half marathon and raised £415.

Community Fundraising

We were delighted to have been selected by the Captain of North Middlesex Golf Club as one of his four chosen charities of the year. Proceeds from the Captain’s Charity Day in September 2022 totalled £4,047.30. Our Christmas carol concert with Colindale Primary school also proved a popular fundraiser, with Barnet Council staff who gathered outside the tree in Patterson Square to enjoy some festive tunes followed by mince pies and refreshments.

5[th] Birthday

On 16[th] February 2023 we celebrated our fifth birthday and shared our impact and achievements in an awareness raising campaign.

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Governance & Resourcing

LU comprises of a board of eight voluntary trustees led by the Chairperson with an Operations Director (job title changed from Project Manager in October 2022), two Projects Officers and Fundraiser.

Incorporation

Following the board’s decision to change Live Unlimited’ s status from a Charitable Trust to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), 1197754, we were incorporated as a new charity from 30 September 2022. Work began to dissolve the old charity (1176418).

Trustees

In October 2022 Emma Henly sadly decided to step down as a trustee due to work commitments. In January 2023 we advertised for two trustee posts and appointed to both positions, however unfortunately one person withdrew their offer for personal reasons. As our new trustee was adopted in our May 2023 board it will be covered in next year’s annual report.

Business Plan

The business plan was amended with revised targets for scheme delivery, improved client engagement, marketing and fundraising due to the delayed start of one of the two new Projects Officers.

Volunteers

Peter Scheschel continued to be a fantastic help supporting us with our website.

Thanks also to Christina Sheils, who took on the role of volunteer Bookkeeper.

Bank Accounts

LU has a current account and two CAF Gold accounts with CAF Bank, 10 St. Bride Street, London EC4A 4AD.

Reserves

The charity has a Reserves policy as part of its Financial Policy. The charity’s Reserves are maintained at £50,000, which is sufficient to cover all operating costs for a minimum period of three months to ensure service continuity.

Trustee Remuneration

The trustees are all unpaid volunteers.

Trustee Expenses

To date no expenses claims have been made by the trustees.

Staff Costs and Emoluments

Total staff costs for the period were £79,506. This includes an estimate of the salary of the Operations Director’s post for the period which is effectively a secondment covered by a donation in kind from Barnet Council (estimated at £27,472) which includes national insurance and pension contributions under the Local Government Pension Scheme. It also includes a 5% pay rise for two Projects Officer for the period, with a final payment secured from the Capita Community Development Fund donation of £55,000 to cover the costs of these posts. The role is paid for by the Council through its contract for agency staff, however these costs are then reimbursed by Live

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Unlimited. The costs were all invoiced by the Council at the end of the Council’s financial year in March 2023 and were paid by Live Unlimited in March 2023. The total costs were £52,034 which covered the period of April 2022 – March 2023 but all the costs are reflected in this period’s accounts which are prepared on a cash basis. Our fundraising costs were £11,555 which includes our Freelance Fundraiser costs and fundraising platform fees.

Costs of Audit, Independent Examination or Reporting Accounting Services and other Financial Services

No costs of audit were incurred in the period.

An independent examination of the accounts was conducted free of charge by Mehmet Bozdere, Sadia Choudhury and Rishana Thayaparan, graduate trainees within the Council’s finance team.

The Basis of the Preparation of the Accounts

The accounts are prepared on a cash basis, including all expenses and all income during the period of 1[st ] February 2022 to 31[st] March 2023.

Exemptions of Disclosure

As required by the SORP there are no related party transactions in the reporting period that require disclosure.

There are no funds held as custodian trustee on behalf of others.

Live Unlimited

CC16a

No (if any) 1197754

Receipts and payments accounts

01-Feb-22 31-Mar-23

For the period from

Section A Receipts and payments

A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 134,921 1,087 1,019 - - - - - 137,027 - - - 137,027 47,900 11,477 - - - - - 8,000 55 823 - 30 1,491 291 174 - - - - - - - 70,241 - - - 70,241 66,786 - 159,155 225,941	Total funds to the nearest £ 175,883 1,087 1,019 - - - - - 177,988 - - - 177,988 79,506 11,477 7,000 9,277 - 3,982 3,070 8,000 55 823 - 30 1,491 291 174 - - - - - - - 125,175 - - - 125,175 52,813	Last year to the nearest £
Donations,legacies andgrants	134,921		224,148
Fundraisingevents	1,087		13,843
Interest income	1,019		-
	-		-
	-		-
	-		-
	-		-
	-		-
*Sub total*(Gross income for AR)	137,027		237,991

A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
	-
	-		-
~~*Sub total*~~	-		-
*Total receipts* A3 Payments
			237,991

Wages, national insurance and pension contributions	47,900		85,198
Cost of fundraising	11,477		17,577
Imagination Unlimited scheme	-		4,844
DrivingAhead scheme	-		4,328
Aspire Higher scheme	-		477
Outdoor Club scheme	-		5,968
Film Project	-		-
campaign	8,000		7,500
Cost of charitable activities - other	55		60
Training,DBS checks and	823		527
Insurance and registrations	-		843
Bank interest and charges	30		96
Printing, postage, advertising, stationeryand computer supplies	1,491		1,208
General expenses	291		203
Telephone and internet	174		213
	-		-
	-		-
	-		-
	-		-
	-		-
	-		-
	-		-
**Sub total **	70,241		129,043

A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
	-
	-
**Sub total **	-		-
*Total payments* *Net of receipts/(payments)* A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end *Cash funds this year end* CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
			129,043

		52,813	108,948
		-	-
		187,974	-
		240,787	108,948
			25/10/2023

CCXX R2 accounts ISSI 2V1012023

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

Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets	Signature Details CAF Cash Account CAF Gold Balances Account CAF Gold Reserves Account Details *Total cash funds* (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details Details Details	Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ 9,123 - 166,661 14,846 50,156 225,941 14,846 OK OK Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name L ROBINSON J HOOTON	Endowment funds to nearest £
			-
			-
			-
			-
			OK
			Endowment funds to nearest £
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			Current value (optional)
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			Current value (optional)
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
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			When due (optional)






			Date of approval
		L ROBINSON	19/10/2023
		J HOOTON	19/10/2023

CCXX R3 accounts (SS)

25/10/2023

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Charity Name Live Unlimited	Charity Name Live Unlimited	Charity Name Live Unlimited

31stMarch 2023	Charity no (if any)	1197754

Report to the trustees

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/03/2023.

Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed:[Rishana Thayaparan, Mehmet Bozdere, ] Sadia Choudhury Name: Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any):

Date: 03/10/2023

Name: Rishana Thayaparan, Mehmet Bozdere, Sadia Choudhury

Address: London Borough of Barnet, 2 Bristol Avenue, Colindale, NW9 4EW

Oct 2018

IER

Section B Disclosure

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

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

Oct 2018

IER