Serendipity Creative Writers' Group
Charity number 1201197
Annual Report and Financial Statements
for the year ended 30 November 2025
Serendipity Creative Writers' Group
Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 November 2025
| Contents | Page |
|---|---|
| Trustees' report | 2 to 4 |
| Examiner's report | 5 |
| Receipts and payments account | 6 |
| Statement of assets and liabilities | 7 |
| Notes to the accounts | 8 to 9 |
Prepared by West Yorkshire Community Accountancy Service CIO
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Serendipity Creative Writers' Group
Trustees' report for the year ended 30 November 2025
Reference and administrative details of the charity, its trustees and advisors
The trustees during the financial year and up to and including the date the report was approved were: Name Position Dates
Position Jayne Shepherd Treasurer Amanda Rhodes Secretary Mira Fadel Chair Gemma Blagborough Joanne Campbell Kathy Trout
Appointed 7July 2026 Appointed 7July 2026 Resigned 7 July 2026
Charity number
1201197
Registered in England and Wales
Registered and principal address
Bankers
4 Fenay Lane Barclays Bank Almondbury York 2 Huddersfield Leicestershire HD5 8UL LE87 2BB
Independent examiner
Alan Dodd FCCA
West Yorkshire Community Accountancy Service CIO
Stringer House 34 Lupton Street Leeds LS10 2QW
Structure, governance and management
The charity is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) foundation formed on 2 December 2022 and is governed by a constitution.
Method of recruitment and appointment of trustees
The trustees of the charity are appointed by the trustees at a duly convened meeting.
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Serendipity Creative Writers' Group
Trustees' report (continued) for the year ended 30 November 2025
Objectives and activities
The charity's objects
The relief of those in need, by reason of youth, age, poor mental or physical health, disability, financial hardship or other social or economic disadvantage in Yorkshire for the public benefit by providing supported opportunities to explore and practise creative writing.
For the purpose of this clause ‘those in need’’ means being excluded from society, or parts of society, as a result of one of more of the following factors: unemployment; financial hardship; 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)
The charity's main activities
We run Serendipity Creative Writing and Mindful Workshops across Kirklees and the broader West Yorkshire area, as cathartic and therapeutic outcomes of working through various mediums of the Arts, in particular, Creative Writing and Mindfulness. These are leader & service user led, are free and include free refreshments. We operate an open-door policy and also receive referrals from the NHS and other Organisations.
Creative Writing is the core service provided, at workshops throughout the Kirklees District. Various topics and prompts, music and artwork are presented to Service Users to stimulate ideas for writing.
Workshops designed to be welcoming, with Service User involvement a core function. In an effort to motivate and drive wider mood and self-belief, Serendipity encourages Service Users to be drivers of our workshop formats design and delivery.
This is a vital mental health improvement principle.
We help by sign-posting to authorities. Service Users with current problems are directed to relevant authorities to help get them resolved.
We provide Peer Support Mentoring where individuals use their own experiences and testimonies to help other Service Users address numerous issues across a wide sector.
Public benefit statement
In setting our objectives and planning our activities our Trustees have given serious consideration to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit and in particular the advancement of health.
Achievements and performance
Over 500 Service Users attended workshops over the last year.
Regular measuring and monitoring with progress reviews, ensure we continue to meet our objectives and can demonstrate Public Benefit.
We have achieved tremendous wins. Service Users report an increase in motivation, improved quality of life, feeling less lonely and isolated and increased self-esteem.
Our rigorous outcomes monitoring is viewed by our Trustees as good evidence reflective of the Service Users’ personal stories. It has proved better quality of life resulting in understanding our communities better, putting central to our core objectives the voices of those we serve.
The consistent, “across the board” statistically significant improvement in the mental health and positive outlooks of our Service Users shows demonstrable community benefits for a significant number of people.
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Serendipity Creative Writers' Group
Trustees' report (continued) for the year ended 30 November 2025
Achievements and performance (continued)
By entering into cross-community engagement we help the NHS and other Third Party Sector Partners. This involves our Service Users in helping other groups, and opportunities for our workshops to be delivered to those groups.
In recognition of the vulnerability of people with mental health issues, all our activities are strongly underpinned by risk management and safeguarding policies.
For this Financial Year only, we obtained three “one-off” grants to provide Cost of Living Crisis / Welfare Support against food and utility bills for those of our Service Users who are most in need.
Financial review
The net receipts for the year were £18,111, including net receipts of £3,357 on unrestricted funds and net receipts of £14,754 on restricted funds.
Reserves policy
The charity's free reserves, at the year end were £1,046.
To maintain ongoing sustainability, it is the policy of this Charity to where possible maintain Unrestricted Fund Reserves between an upper and lower level to ensure that liabilities are covered. The upper level roughly approximates to 12 months and a lower level of 3 months’ worth of costs and liabilities (equivalent to between £20,500 and £82,000). The charity's free reserves are substantially below the lower level of the policy, and we continue to seek additional funding in order to strengthen our future resilience.
Approved by the board of trustees on 17/7/2026
J Shepherd (Trustee)
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Serendipity Creative Writers' Group
Independent examiner's report to the trustees of Serendipity Creative Writers' Group
I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the CIO for the year ended 30 November 2025, which are set out on pages 6 to 9.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the charity trustees of the CIO you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the Act').
I report in respect of my examination of the CIO's accounts as carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act. 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 examiner's statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
1 accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Charities Act; 2 the accounts do not accord with those records.
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.
Alan Dodd FCCA
17/7/2026
West Yorkshire Community Accountancy Service CIO
Stringer House 34 Lupton Street Leeds LS10 2QW
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Serendipity Creative Writers' Group
Receipts and payments account
for the year ended 30 November 2025
| Notes 2025 Unrestricted funds £ Receipts Grants and donations (2) 3,857 Fundraising 41 Total receipts 3,898 Payments Salaries NI and pensions - Welfare - Artist fees - Administration, office rent, IT, telephone - Workshops, room hire and refreshments 157 Independent examination of accounts - Volunteer expenses and peer support - Insurance - Van expenses - Travel 134 Publications - Office equipment - Marketing and promotion 250 Project evaluation - Total payments 541 Net receipts / (payments) 3,357 Fund balances brought forward (2,311) Fund balances carried forward (3) 1,046 |
2025 Restricted funds £ 95,573 652 96,225 32,543 15,743 1,200 6,208 9,480 792 3,230 312 4,648 2,895 457 947 1,016 2,000 81,471 14,754 18,626 33,380 |
2025 Total funds £ 99,430 693 100,123 32,543 15,743 1,200 6,208 9,637 792 3,230 312 4,648 3,029 457 947 1,266 2,000 82,012 18,111 16,315 34,426 |
2024 Total funds £ 54,574 100 54,674 4,988 8,563 5,090 5,058 11,946 720 2,157 99 1,038 4,286 256 - - - 44,201 10,473 5,842 16,315 |
|---|---|---|---|
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Serendipity Creative Writers' Group
Statement of assets and liabilities
| as at 30 November 2025 2025 Unrestricted £ Cash funds Cash at bank 1,046 Total cash funds 1,046 Debtors and prepayments Other debtors Prepayments Assets retained for the charity's own use Mercedes-Benz 207D camper van HP A10 computer Liabilities Accruals |
2025 Restricted £ 33,380 33,380 |
2025 Total £ 34,426 34,426 2025 £ 173 429 602 2025 £ 816 816 |
2024 Total £ 16,315 16,315 |
|---|---|---|---|
The financial statements were approved by the board of trustees on 17/7/2026
J Shepherd (Trustee)
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Serendipity Creative Writers' Group
Notes to the accounts
for the year ended 30 November 2025
1 Accounting policies
Basis of accounting
The trustees have taken advantage of section 133 of the Charities Act 2011 and have prepared the accounts on a receipts and payments basis.
There has been no change to the accounting policies since last year.
No changes have been made to the accounts for previous years.
Taxation
As a charity the organisation benefits from rates relief and is generally exempt from income tax and capital gains tax but not from VAT. Irrecoverable VAT is included in the cost of those items to which it relates.
Fund accounting
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity.
Restricted funds are subjected to restrictions on their expenditure imposed by the donor or through the terms of an appeal.
Further explanation of the nature and purpose of each fund is included in the notes to the accounts.
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Serendipity Creative Writers' Group
Notes to the accounts continued
for the year ended 30 November 2025
| 2 Grants and donations 2025 Unrestricted funds £ Jo Cox Foundation 1,050 Kirklees Council 550 National Lottery Community Fund - One Community Foundation - Third Sector Leaders - Yorkshire Building Society 1,000 Marsden Community Trust - SW Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust - Yetton Together - Other donations 1,257 3,857 3 Restricted funds Balance b/f Incoming £ £ National Lottery Reaching Communities 18,626 59,323 National Lottery Awards for All - 10,000 One Community - Household Support - 25,000 One Community - Yetton Project - 1,000 Third Sector Leaders - 250 Woven Book Publication Project - 652 18,626 96,225 |
2025 Restricted funds £ - - 69,323 26,000 250 - - - - - 95,573 Outgoing £ 61,187 3,137 15,245 1,000 250 652 81,471 |
2025 2024 Total Total funds funds £ £ 1,050 - 550 - 69,323 41,463 26,000 7,800 250 2,550 1,000 - - 1,000 - 540 - 591 1,257 630 99,430 54,574 Transfers Balance c/f £ £ - 16,762 - 6,863 - 9,755 - - - - - - - 33,380 |
|---|---|---|
Fund name
National Lottery Reaching Communities
National Lottery Awards for All One Community - Household Support
One Community - Yetton Project Third Sector Leaders Woven Book Publication Project
Purpose of restriction
Project expenses, workshop expenses, project manager salary and expenses, peer support and volunteer expenses, travel Monday evenings weekly workshops in Kirklees
To supply Supermarket Vouchers to help our Service Users pay Food and Household Essentials.
Workshops Volunteer Expenses A celebration of innovation in textiles across Kirklees
4 Related party transactions
Trustee expenses
No trustee received any expenses during this year or the previous year.
Trustee remuneration and benefits
No trustee received any remuneration or benefit during this or the previous year.
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