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2025-03-31-accounts

Changing lives, one game at a time Annual report and accounts 2024/2025

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Game therapy, much like drama therapy, o!ers a safe, structured, and psychologically informed space where participants can explore and act out scenarios. Through guided play, individuals tap into creativity and imagination, gaining insights, learning new skills, and fostering emotional growth.

And you get to play a game. So, it's fun!

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Our Three Charitable Aims

1. Projects

We design and deliver evidence-based therapeutic gaming programmes for people who are most at risk, including:

Inclusion Projects

Veterans Projects

Working alongside charities, local authorities, schools, and NHS services, we tailor each project to the needs of the community we serve.

2. Academic Research

We champion rigorous, open-access scholarship that advances the field of therapeutic gaming:

Every study we support appears in peer-reviewed, freely accessible journals, in partnership with universities, medical schools, and libraries.

3. Teaching & Education

We equip professionals and volunteers with the skills to deliver best-practice, therapeutic gaming:

Through these initiatives, Game Therapy UK ensures that evidence-based methods reach the people who need them most, empowering communities to heal, connect, and thrive.

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CONTENTS Overview
5 Welcome from the Chair of Trustees
6 2023-24 Highlights
9 Strategic Report
10 Our vision and strategy
11 Our partnerships
12 Our promise to donors
13 Our promise to volunteers
14 Our commitment to equity, diversity
and inclusion
15 Structure, Governance, Management
16 Governance Frameworks
17 Strategy and Capacity Building
18 Trustees Statement of
Responsibilities
19 Governing Document
21 Projects by Speciality #1- Inclusion
23 Projects by Speciality #2- Veterans
24 Projects by Speciality #3- Young
Persons
26 Research and Training
27 Financial review
28 Risks and uncertainties
30 Independent Accounts
32 Financial Statements
33 Statement of Financial Activities
35 Balance Sheet Financial
Performance
36 Notes on the Financial Statements

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Welcome

Foreword from Gary Colman, Chair of trustees

On behalf of the Board , I am delighted to present our Trustees’ Annual Report (TAR) for 2024-25.

Game Therapy UK (GTUK) continues to transform the lives of some of society’s most vulnerable people through innovative, evidence-based therapeutic gaming.

Firm Foundations for Growth

In our second year as a registered charity, we prioritised robust governance—the bedrock on which GTUK will continue to grow. We have:

Powered by People

GTUK’s impact is driven by an ever-growing network of volunteers—clinical

psychologists, educators, psychiatrists, researchers, and, of course, gamers—whose specialist knowledge underpins everything we do. We are especially grateful to those with lived experience who shape our projects with insight and authenticity.

Sustained by Generosity

To our donors and funders: thank you. Your support equips our volunteers with the resources they need to deliver this transformative work. Every pound donated, every dice loaned, every miniature gifted is cherished, carefully accounted for, and put to work changing lives.

Together, we are proving that when safe, structured play meets rigorous science, profound healing and growth can follow. We look forward to building on this year’s achievements—expanding our projects, deepening our research, and ensuring that therapeutic gaming reaches everyone who

Thank you for joining us on this journey.

Gary Colman

Chair of Trustees, Game Therapy UK

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Gary C!man
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GTUK were thrilled to be nominated GamesAid funding for a second year running. This will allow GTUK to deliver our initial young person projects in 2025-2028.

April

May GTUK third annual all-star comedy fundraiser, with a 2024 host of top TV comedians, was another huge success.

Our annual comedy fundraiser is incredibly important as it raises enough money to cover most of our central costs.

.

June

GTUK received a GamesAid cheque for £30k. This will allow GTUK to deliver its first nine Young Person Projects, funded for three years. These projects included groups for autistic teenagers, young people experiencing homelessness, and kids with special educational needs. The projects were in London, Scotland and Yorkshire Regions.

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June 2024

UK Games were at UK Games Expo (Birmingham NEC) and MCM Comic (London EXCEL) where we presented out sold-out all-expert panel on the 'The definitive Guide to Therapeutic Gaming' .

We also had the raffle of the huge ‘Chonk’ dice kindly donated by Critical Kit , and signed by legends of gaming including Sir Ian Livingstone and Luke Gygax.

All funds raised went to support our projects for military veterans and serving personnel.

We expanded our Inclusion Projects with two new pilot St Mungos projects in Hounslow and Lewisham.

We also started to deliver online Reflective Practice with a Clinical Psychologist to our volunteers working on Inclusion Projects.

We were delighted to be invited to attend MCM Comic Con at London EXCEL where we presented an Expert Panel on The benefits of Therapeutic Gaming to a packed and enthusiastic audience.

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MCM Comic Con is also a great opportunity to meet the public. We did this through the provision of free therapeutic painting workshops .

GTUK are always thrilled to be invited to Dragonmeet where we provided a stall and the always sold-out Expert Panel Discussion, this time on The Benefits of Therapeutic Gaming in Trauma .

Dec A first for our Inclusion Committee as we were 2024 able to support two projects for people experiencing homelessness in east and west London in partnership with Crisis at Christmas .

A very busy time for our Schools Library and Youth (SLAY) Committee as it started to deliver our 9 Young Person projects across three regions. These are funded for three years and will be part of research projects in partnership with University College London .

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Strategic
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Our Vision is for the benefits of evidence-based, best practice, therapeutic gaming to be available to all, with our priority on those with the greatest need and vulnerabilities.

Our Core Values

Trustworthiness:

Inclusivity:

Compassion:

We are driven to demonstrate through our actions that we are reliable, truthful dependable. Others can expect to have confidence in our qualifications, capabilities, and reliability.

We will strive to ensure that everyone feels welcome, valued, and respected, no matter who they are or where they come from.

We have a responsibility to support one another and therefore we are motivated to stand alongside people facing vulnerability and to provide support and care.

Our Strategic Approaches

Expertise:

Collaboration:

Leadership:

Viability:

Be the best.

We strive for excellence, and to be recognised as the UK authority within the discipline of therapeutic gaming.

Be the largest.

We seek to collaborate with others who share our core values and professionalism in order that we can do the best to the most.

Shape change.

We are clear and open with information and plans, acknowledge where things haven’t gone right, and demonstrate integrity and authenticity.

Remain sustainable.

We will identify and prioritise capabilities, resources, and risks in order to plan for the short and long term and remain sustainable financially, socially and environmentally.

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We could not continue to work towards our vision without our amazing supporters. We deeply appreciate their generosity.

In response to their support, we promise to:

• Treat them with respect, honesty and openness

• Never put them under pressure to make or continue a gift

• Use their gifts for the purpose for which they are given, and spend donations so they have the most impact

• Respect their wishes and preferences

• Never share, sell or rent their personal data to third parties for marketing purposes

Our fundraising approach

• All fundraising is carried out by our in-house fundraising team and volunteer fundraisers, who are supported by our Supporters Promise.

• No external professional fundraisers work on behalf of GTUK.

• GTUK complies with the Fundraising Regulator and the Code of Fundraising Practice. There have been no compliance issues in the year.

• No complaints were received in the year relating to fundraising.

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Volunteers Covenant

We are constantly inspired by the generosity, enthusiasm and commitment of the volunteers who give their time and expertise to Game Therapy UK.

As part of that volunteering covenant, we understand that our volunteers and clients expect excellence, trust, and transparency at all levels of our charity.

To that end we will ensure that our volunteers enjoy good governance at all levels.

We will be clear and open with information and plans and always demonstrate integrity and authenticity.

Onboarding

We will o!er support to volunteers through their recruitment journey.

As part of the onboarding process, we will o!er them initial special-to-role training, provide peer-mentorship and supervision (including reflective practice where required).

Our volunteers will be welcomed into a community of dedicated professionals, and we will foster that sense of community by sharing news, accessing additional training, allowing participation in working groups and subcommittees.

Further training

We will build on the specialist training and o!er more special to role modules in the coming months and years. This will include Mental Health First Aid training.

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Our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion

Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are central to our work to achieving our vision for the benefits of evidence-based, best practice, therapeutic gaming to be available to all.

We ensure people with lived experience are involved in the co-creation of our projects from working group to delivery and shape every aspect of our work.

We believe that this starts with the

Strategic Leadership level, and we are proud that our trustees are more diverse in terms of gender, race, social background and age than a typical UK charity.

We strive to ensure that this inclusivity is represented across Tactical Leadership of the sub-committees and the selection of the broader Working Groups of experts (which include ‘experts by lived experience’).

Key areas include:

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Our commitment to good governance

We recognise that e!ective governance is critical for our charity to achieve our missions, maintain public trust, and ensure sustainable use of resources.

We ensure that we have in place the appropriate systems and processes to ensure the overall direction, e!ectiveness, supervision, and accountability of our organisation.

We recognise that we are accountable to all our stakeholders including the public, our volunteers, clients, donors, funders, and regulatory governance frameworks.

We adhere to the 7 principles of the charity code and use it as a tool for continuous improvement in governance.

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(Note: Green- Current governance structures in place, Grey- governance structures in development)

Board of Trustees- There are currently 7 trustees: diverse in skills, ethnicity, age, and backgrounds. As part of our 5-year plan this will expand to 12 trustees as GTUK expands its projects across all UK Regions and expands its scope and number of projects.

By year 5 the Trustees will be supported by an Executive Board (of volunteers) who will further expand the range of skills and diversity of the Trustees.

The Trustees are also supported by various committees of volunteers who expand the range of skills and share the workload.

Speciality Committees- There are currently 4 specialty committees of experts (by profession or lived-experience). This includes Inclusion (homelessness), Schools Libraries & Youth (plus SEN), Neurodivergence and Military Veterans Committee. There is a Forensic Committee being developed for projects to start in 2026.

Regional Committees- We have currently set up our first Regional Committee in London Region, with North West and West Midlands Regional Committees in development.

Working Groups- Our Trustees, supported by volunteers from the sitting committees, meet in annual working groups including Strategy Planning, Risk Management, and Finance. We also have Working Groups which report throughout the year on development of our charitable aims of developing evidence-based training and support of robust academic research.

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Strategic Planning

GTUK has a 5-year strategic plan, reviewed annually, with multiple perspective input (trustees, Strategy Working Group, clients, partners and commissioners).

PESTLE Analysis (Aguilar, 1967) has been used to identify the macroscopic environment challenges such as the socio-political challenge of covid, austerity, disproportionate impact of covid and austerity on vulnerable groups etc). Economic assessment highlights risk of elevated inflation and legal assessment is reflected in consideration of GTUK legal obligations (SORP, FRS 102, etc). Other tools, including ‘SWOT’ and Porters Five Forces (Porter, 1979) have been used to deepen analysis.

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Establish evidence-
base
Share ‘real world’
best-practice Sustainably funded
projects
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Our Strategic Priorities

The TAR outlines 3 ‘Strategic Priorities’ which have been developed using a SMART Model approach (Doran, 1981).

Establish evidenceShare ‘real world’ Sustainably base: best-practice: funded projects: We are UK leaders in We use evidence gathered Having evidenced the academic research through through real-world projects beneficial impact of our support of rigorous to develop best-practice therapeutic gaming in academic research, hosting policy for therapeutic vulnerable groups, the UK Therapeutic Gaming gaming in each of our areas we raise funds to Academic Conference (in of interest. support evidenceNovember 2025), and the based, best-practice development of the British We develop educational therapeutic gaming Journal of Therapeutic packages in therapeutic projects for public Gaming (published in 2026). gaming in each of our key good. areas of interest.

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The trustees are all committed to the charity’s cause and understand and model the charities aims, core values and policies.

The trustees understand their legal and regulatory responsibilities and have read and made themselves fully familiar with:

The Charity Commission’s guidance The Essential Trustee (CC3),

The Charity Code,

GTUK governing documents,

And GTUK policy documents and Risk Management documents.

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

Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of a!airs of the charity and of the income and expenditure for that period.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose the reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006.

They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

In so far as the Trustees are aware:

• There is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company’s auditors are unaware; and

• Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently.

• Observe the methods and principles in the Charity Statement of Recommended practice (SORP).

• Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent.

• Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in business.

• The Trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditors are aware of that information.

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Governing Document

GTUK is a CIO registered charity, fully registered on 07 Feb 2023.

Registered Charity Number - 1201860

Registered Address - 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, WC1N 3AX

Bankers- Metro Bank, 1 Southampton Row, London WC1B 5HA

Independent Examiner – Tom Wilcox, Counterculture Partnership LLP, 23 St Leonards Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, TN40 1HH

Legal- Counterculture Partnership LLP, Bank Chambers, Main Street, Hawes, North Yorkshire, DL8 3QL

Insurers - Ansvar Insurance, Ansvar House, St Leonards Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN21 3UR

Charity Governance Code

In July 2017, a group of charity and governance associations introduced the new Charity Governance Code as a practical tool to help Trustees achieve high standards of governance, recognising that good governance in charities is fundamental to success, contributing to our charity achieving its objectives for the benefit of all stakeholders.

The Trustees have benchmarked GTUK governance standards against the recommended practices included within the Charity Governance Code.

In February 2020, the Charity Commission introduced changes to the code to add principles related to integrity and equality, diversity and inclusion. These have been incorporated into the assessment plan and will be reviewed and assessed by Trustees.

Overall, the Trustees are satisfied that the governance standards of the charity are appropriate for its scale, complexity, and charitable purposes.

1. Organisational purpose

GTUK has a clearly stated vision, aim and values these underpin all the works and behaviour.

2. Leadership

The trustees deliver strategic leadership. Trustees demonstrate and model trust, compassion, inclusivity we expect to see throughout the charity.

3. Integrity

The board acts with integrity, adopting values and creating a culture which help achieve the organisation’s charitable purposes. The board is aware of the

importance of confidence of all our stakeholders- the public, our volunteers, or clients, or donors, and charitable partners and we undertake our duties accordingly.

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4. Decision-making, risk and control

The board makes sure that its decision-making processes are informed, rigorous, and timely. We use Risk Management tools to assess and mitigate risk. We have appropriate management systems in place that allow e!ective control, delegation, and monitoring. We are transparent when significant events have taken place.

5. Board e!ectiveness

The board works as an e!ective team. The trustees represent a more diverse background of gender, ethnicity, age, and social background than the typical charity. We have a wide range of appropriate skills relevant to the role of the charity.

We cultivate broad working groups of experts in each of our fields of interest (including experts through lived-experience) and they are a valued resource in informing our decision making. This includes ‘critical friends’).

6. Equality, diversity and inclusion

The charity models representation throughout its strategic, and operational tiers. We welcome service users, and those with lived experience onto the board of trustees, operational sub-committees, and broader working groups. Expertise through lived experience is highly valued.

7. Openness and accountability

The board leads the organisation in being transparent and accountable. The charity welcomes observers and ‘critical friends’ (where appropriate) to meetings of trustees and sub-committees.

Public Benefit Statement

The Trustees consider that they have complied with Section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 with regards to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission.

The Trustees review the aims, objectives, and activities of the charity each year.

The Trustees report the success of each key activity and the benefits the charity has brought to those groups of people that it is set up to help.

The review also helps the Trustees ensure the charity's aims, objectives and activities remained focused on its stated purposes. The Trustees have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the charity's aims and objectives and in planning its future activities. In particular, the Trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives that have been set.

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Inclusion Projects

For the past 3 years we have been run regular therapeutic games for adults with complex needs (adults experiencing homelessness, in addiction recovery, and survivors of modern-day slavery) in London.

These are adults with multiple disadvantages including complex trauma, symptoms compatible with a diagnosis of personality disorder and neurodivergence. The outcomes for those involved has been positive and profound.

Current Projects

This year we have expanded our Inclusion project to people experiencing homelessness from one project to four projects. In addition to our project with One Housing in Camden, we also have a Young Persons project with Centre Point in Camden. Plus, two projects with St Mungos in Lewisham and Hounslow.

We also worked with Crisis at Christmas to deliver two London projects over the Christmas Holidays.

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Projects in Development

We are working with several homelessness charities to deliver up to a further 5 projects across London in 2025-26, plus Crisis at Christmas in December 2025. We are also developing, with Crisis, new projects in Manchester and Liverpool.

The Challenge

Sixty one percent of homeless service users are classified as ‘lonely’, and over a third of service users reported feeling isolated ‘often’.

(Campaign to end loneliness. London: CTEL)

The Solution

The use of gaming activities to help the clients model communication skills, and emotional selfregulation can be invaluable in preparing the clients for more conventional therapeutic interventions.

Outcomes

"There's no shame here. It's kinda like being a kid again. You're told as adults you can't do this, you can't have that imagination. And here you can have as much imagination as you want and that's really fun. You feel way less self-conscious and able to lose yourself in it".- Client Feedback

"It's really helped me. It's been absolutely fantastic, and it's been a great place to come and forget and have fun and be a bit of a kid again". - Client Feedback

“I really enjoyed it and will be recommending it to my clients.”- Keyworker feedback

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Projects for Military Veterans

For the past three years we have run a series of online fortnightly therapeutic games for military veterans and serving personnel.

We now have an online community of approx. 190 military gamers in the UK and USA benefiting from therapeutic gaming. They meet to socialise on our discord server where they can chat via text, audio or video to discuss gaming, painting and life.

There is a daily schedule of cooperative free TTRPG games to play every evening, plus online co!ee clubs and chats. Game Therapy UK has now trained up 19 military volunteers to deliver therapeutic online games. And this online military gaming community continues to grow.

We are also in discussion with Veterans NHS to develop an online therapeutic gaming service for veterans experiencing mental health conditions (PTSD) from their military service.

The Challenge

Veterans have an increased rate of common mental health disorders, alcoholism and PTSD. It is associated with social isolation after discharge from the forces.

Solution

Online games re-connect military veterans with other military personnel who have shared their experiences. The use of therapeutic gaming activities to help the clients model communication skills, and emotional self-regulation can be invaluable in preparing the clients for more conventional therapeutic interventions.

Outcomes

"Allows me to do something di!erent and stimulates my brain and allows me to chat with other people when I can’t get out”. - Client Feedback

"It's an escape. The social connections we make in a game are also beneficial for our good mental health”. - Client Feedback

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Projects for Schools, Libraries and Youth

In 2023 we developed several Young People projects which respond to the socio-political issues identified in the PESTLE and SWOT analysis and have SMART goals.

The Challenge

Many groups of young people have additional needs, including young people experiencing homelessness, autistic teenagers, and children with special educational needs.

The Solution

In 2024 we were awarded £30k in funding from GamesAid which we have used to deliver 9 threeyear projects to young people across 3 regions (London, Scotland and Yorkshire). We will receive additional GamesAid funding in June 2025 which we will use to deliver additional projects, also funded for three-years, across London, East of England and East Midlands Regions. Other continuation funds, and partnerships with other YP Charities, are being sought to expand these transformative Young People projects across the UK.

Outcomes

"I love the online games. It’s great. I get to play a hero and hang out with friends online”. - Client Feedback

“My parents love it. They know I’m doing something fun, other than just play on the Xbox”. - Client Feedback

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GTUK Academic Faculty

The Challenge

Whilst there is powerful anecdotal evidence of benefit from therapeutic gaming, there is a paucity of large-scale trials to support this new creative therapy. This is due to many therapeutic gaming projects being short scale, with very small numbers of participants, limited data collection, di!erent methodologies and lacking academic rigour.

Some of the data is not trusted as it seems to be as much marketing, as research.

The Solution

Game Therapy UK will support academic research by having large-scale, long-term projects, collecting shared data, using similar methodologies and designed under the supervision of our own academics in partnership with several universities.

All our research will be published for free, not behind a paywall and free from industry influence.

Outcomes

GTUK, in partnership with University College London, will be hosting the British Academic Conference for Therapeutic Gaming in London in November 2025. It will be free for delegates to attend.

In 2026 GTUK, in partnership with academics from several universities, will be publishing the UKs first peer-reviewed scientific journal into therapeutic gaming in order to further advance the evidence-base for this new and innovative discipline.

GTUK Training Faculty

The Challenge

There are limited opportunities for evidence-based teaching in best-practice of therapeutic gaming

The Solution

The collegiate, multi-disciplinary approach of Game Therapy UK is developing a pool of realworld experience of delivering therapeutic gaming projects to multi-disadvantaged and complex needs groups.

Outcomes

Along with our Academic Faculty this has allowed GTUK to develop an evidence-based training curriculum which it delivers via professional educators free of charge to our volunteer gamers, therapists and educators.

GTUK also attends Game Conventions to present expert panel discussions to further promote evidence-based, best practice in therapeutic gaming.

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Financial Statement

GTUK is a going concern , with a year of growth and achievement across all of our services. To ensure our organisation remains sustainable and resilient we have further developed our Strategic Plan to ensure our ability to tackle new and emerging issues facing our sector.

The TAR demonstrates GTUK has good liquidity and solvency ratios with a very low risk of being unable to cover its short or (current) long-term obligations.

GTUK has low expenditure reflecting prudence as it has had, naturally, a low income in its first years as a registered charity. Expenditure on projects will rise, following the planned increase in funding.

The current Reserve is £4,000 and represents approx. 12 months running costs and signifies liquidity. It is planned that the Reserve will increase to match the increase in future running costs. Whilst this is above the Charity Commissions (2023) recommendation of three to six months’ running costs we note that many charities now hold 6-12 month running costs in reserve. We believe that this level of reserve will signal to stakeholders’ prudence at a time of planned growth in a volatile economy.

Diversification of Income

To meet the objectives of our strategic plan, we are committed to diversifying our income streams, scoping and taking advantage of alternative sources of funding so that we can grow and maintain quality services for our clients, and continue to generate services that our clients are telling us they want and need.

To do this, we:

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We review organisational risks in a structured way to ensure that we identify risks and take action to eliminate or mitigate the impact of risks that the charity is exposed to. This approach is focused on our comprehensive risk register which is reviewed and updated on a quarterly basis.

This review includes the following key steps:

  1. Checking for completeness of the risks included on the risk register to ensure that all relevant risks are captured.

  2. Recording the impacts of the risk on the charity and the mitigations already in place to address the risks.

  3. Scoring all risks based on likelihood of the impacts of the risk being realised, and the severity of those impacts, taking into account the mitigants in place.

  4. Determining whether further mitigating actions are required to limit the potential impacts of the risk on the charity to ensure that the charity remains resilient.

The key risks which the charity has been actively managing through this process during the period are:

Growth

Whilst growth is a key element of our 5-year plan we also recognise that growth brings with it, its own challenges, and risks (financial, reputational, and legal).

We are confident that we have the right team of trustees in place, with the skills of managing larger clinical and financial organisations than GTUK is likely to achieve even within the next 5- years. Our trustees are supported by committees of volunteers, each of whom have skilled and experienced people within them.

To mitigate risk, we have identified management software which will provide a cost-e!icient tool to help manage the onboarding of volunteers.

We will only grow in size and scope as funds allows. This includes a planned increase of our reserve to ensure that GTUK retains a high level of liquidity and solvency.

We will only grow in size and scope as governance frameworks allow. This includes development of Speciality and Regional sub-committees of volunteers to support the Board of Trustees.

We currently have more people volunteering than we can use, however we will monitor our volunteer covenant to ensure that our volunteers continue to find their work inherently rewarding. We believe that the unique opportunities for training and education will remain attractive to volunteers.

However, we accept that there will be a loss of volunteers and therefore we remain active in promoting the charity.

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Uncertainty of Funding

In these uncertain times all charities find fundraising a significant challenge. We have a strategy to mitigate this which involves:

Clinical Risk

We are working with vulnerable groups which can cause a clinical (and reputational/ legal) risk. This is mitigated through:

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Independent
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Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of Game Therapy UK

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of Game Therapy UK for the period ended 31 March 2025.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity's trustees, 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 charity’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 examiner’s statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm 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:

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.

Tom Wilcox Counterculture Partnership LLP 23 St Leonards Road

Bexhill-on-Sea

East Sussex

TN40 1HH

8th August 2025 Date…………………

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Financial
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For the year ending March 2025

Note Unrestricted
£’00		 Restricted
£’00		 2025
£’00		 2024
£’00
INCOME FROM
Donations
CharityFundraisers 1 £2,279 £2,279 £2,754
Individual Donations 2 £1,503 £1,503 £1,637
Corporate Donors 3 £8,267 £30,700 £38,967 £25,200
Merchandise 4 £125 £125
Gifts of equipment
(dice and miniature
fgures)		 5 0 0 0 0
Charitable Activities
Income from client
health careplans		 6 0 0 0 0
Income from Local
Authorityfunds		 7 0 0 0 0
Other Income 8 0 0 0 0
Total Income 9 £12,173 £30,700 £42,873 £29,591
EXPENDITURE ON
Central Costs
Governance
Compliance		 10
Bank Costs £0 0 0 £1
Insurance Costs £269 0 £269 £196
Organisation £47 £47
DBS/ PVG £200 £200
AccountancyCosts 11 £558 0 £558 600
Management
Software		 0 0 0 0
Cost of Raising
Funds		 12
Marketing- GTUK Stall 0 0 0 £602
Marketing- GTUK
fyers		 0 0 0 £90
Marketing- Brand/
logo design		 0 0 0 £560
Marketing- Video 13 0 £168 £168
Sales- T-shirt 14 £803
Fundraising 0 0 0

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Charitable activities
Events- Volunteer
Accom		 15 £611 £611
Events- Volunteer
Travel		 £50 £50
Veterans- Volunteer
travel		 16 £68 £68
Veterans Project-
Branding		 £90 £90 £216
Homeless Projects-
volunteers travel		 17 £120 £120 £590
Homeless Project
Location rent		 £315 £315
Young Persons
Project-
Location Rent		 18 £440 £440
Research- Project
Data Collection		 19 £288 £288
GDPR compliant mail £140 £140 £140
Website 0 0 0 £108
Operations
Website 130 0 £130 £108
Total expenditure £3,688 £608 £4,296 £3,104
Provision
Adjustment		 £0 £0
Net expenditure/
Income		 20 £8,458 £30,092 £38,577 26,487

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Notes 2025 2024
£’00 £’00
Fixed Assets
Tangible Assets 21 0
Current Assets
Debtors 0
Cash at bank 22 £64,736 £26,213
Creditors:Amounts falling due within one year 23 £636 £690
Net current assets £64,100 £25,523
Total assets less current liabilities £64,100 £25,523
Creditors:Amounts falling due after more than 0 0
one year
Provisions for liabilities 0 0
Total net assets £64,100 £25,523
Funds 24
Unrestricted
General £13,807 £5,323
Designated 0 0
Restricted 25 £50,292 20,200
Total funds 26 £64,100 £25,523

The financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees on: _5[TH] July 2025___ and were signed on its behalf by:

Gary Colman (Chairman Game Therapy UK) _____ _____ __

Company Registration Number: 1201860

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Notes on the Financial Statements

Note
1 Charity
Fundraiser
Our in-house fundraisers cover much of our central costs. Therefore, future funders,
they can be reassured that over 90% of their donation will go direct to our projects.
The fundraisers have also been a great way to raise the profle of our charity.
Critical Kit Ltd also supported our work with a fundraising ra!le which raised over
£1,500.
2 Individual
Donations		 Individual donations have greatly increased due to the charities
continued attendence atgamingand comic book conventions.
3 Corporate
Donors		 We have received a very generous, restricted donation (for Young
Person Projects) of £30k from the charity Games Aid.

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We also received £8,267 unrestricted donation from Ursular Stroher
Striftung Trust which was designated by our trustees for spending on
our charitable aims ofAcademic ResearchandTraining in
evidence-based best practice.
4 Merchandise The charity has purchased stocks of T-shirts which we give to our
volunteers to wear whilst volunteering. We also sell T-shirts to the
public to raise funds.
5 Gifts of
equipment
(dice and
miniature
fgures)		 We hugely value the generous donations of individual dice, and
miniature fgures which we log, account and distribute to our
projects.
The unpainted miniature fgures are painted by the public at our
always popular‘Paint and Donate’events at MCM Comic Con.
In our accounts they are valued as £0 as they are not stock (for re-
sale) and are valued as zero for insurance purposes.
6 Income from
Mental
Health Care
Plans		 Many of our clients have Mental Health Care Plans in place which
have funding attached which could potentially be used to fund
therapeutic interventions such as those delivered by our projects.
7 Local
Authority
Funds		 We are co-producing new projects with Local Authorities and some
of these will come with LA funding attached.
8 Other
Income		 As part of our Diversity of Income policy we are looking at other
streams of income.
These include exploring raising funds from sponsorship/ sales of the
British Journal of Therapeutic Gaming/ UK Therapeutic Gaming
Conference and also training.
9 Total Income We have seen an increase in both our restricted and unrestricted
income.

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We have a plan to diversify our sources of income and a strategy to
reach out topotential funders.
10 Central
Costs-
governance		 Our main central costs our related to our duties of good governance.
This includes mail-out system that allows us to store emails in a
GDPR compliant way, plus insurance, banking and accountancy
costs.
The free version of our HR software is currently suitable for our
current size, but we have budgeted for the paid version in the next
12-24 months as wegrow.
11 Accountancy
costs		 This fgure of £558 is a correction on last year’s SOFA. Calculated as
£612 (last year’s actual Accountancy costs) less £690 (last year’s
provision adjustment fgure reversed) plus this year’s audit accrual (-
£636).
11 Cost of
Raising
Funds		 Our costs for raising funds remains very low. Last year’s purchase of
a stall and fyers for attendance at Games and Comic Conventions
increased individual donations and ‘brand awareness’.
In our 5-year plan we are budgeting to allow our new Regional
Committees to further increase our regional donations and
fundraising. As well as raise brand awareness, it will be a major tool
for recruitment of volunteers.
12 Video
Production		 We have a Restricted Fund (Media), donated by the Chairman, for
video and media production that increases donations/ fundraising
activities (such as through online platforms as Tiltify). The media
content will also support funding bids and increase awareness of the
charities work.
13 Merchandise We now have merchandise (initially T-shirt) which are given free to
our volunteers to wear whilst on duty but are also sold to the public
to raise funds.
14 Volunteers at
Events		 Having our volunteers at major UK Games and Comic Conventions
fulfls our charitable aims of promoting evidence-based best
practice in therapeutic gaming. It is also a great tool for recruiting
and fundraising.
15 Veterans
Project Cost		 The main cost for the veteran’s online project has been the cost of
surveying software which allows us to gather our data for KPIs and
research.
16 Homeless
Costs		 Our two major costs have been volunteers travel costs and venue
hire.
This year many of our volunteers’ expenses have been covered by
our charitablepartners includingSt Mungos,SHP,and Crisis.

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17 Young
People
Projects		 In 2024 we received £30k restricted
funding from Games Aid and this will
go towards funding x9 three-year
projects in 3 regions (London,
Yorkshire and Scotland).
The fund will cover the governance
costs of training, insurance, DBS
checks and refective practice.
The fund will also cover volunteer
expenses, equipment and location
costs.
18 Research/
Data
Collection		 The charity uses a GDPR compliant online software package to allow
the collection of data and Ket Performance Indicators.
19 Provision
Adjustment		 There is an adjustment in the accounts to refect the £690payment
to creditorsin 2024 (paid this fnancial years). Seeserial 23
20 Net
Expenditure/
Income		 The charity has a positive balance of account of£8,485 for
unrestricted funds.
The charity has a positive balance of account of£30,092 for
restricted funds.These restricted funds are largely committed to
spending on the delivery of projects over the next 1-3 years.
21 Tangible
Assets		 GTUK currently has no signifcant tangible assets, not any items that
of value that require insurance. The only purchase has been a low-
cost ‘pop’ up stall which we take to most of the UK gaming
conventions and Comic Cons.
This has already covered its cost in year one in terms of prompting
donations and is our main way to engage with the public and recruit
volunteers.

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22 Cash in bank GTUK has£64,736cash in bank which signifes liquidity.
Within that there is a£4,000 reserveto cover the central running
costs(which are largely governance costs).
23 Payment to
creditors
(due within
oneyear)		 There is a payment of £636 due to cover accountancy costs for this
year.
24 Funds
General		 Donations and Fundraising has increased signifcantly 2025 on
2024.
We anticipate that with our Funding Strategy Funds General will
increase next year and will come from an increasingly diverse range
of incomes.
Most of our general funds are designated to projects which are paid
for on a cash at hand basis.
General Funds- £13,807
Designated Academic and Training£8,267
The donation from Ursular Stroher Striftung Trust was designated for
future Academic and Evidence-based educational projects.
Designated Veterans Projects£1,500
The money donated by Critical Kit Ltd from the Dice ra!le was
designated for spending on military veteran’s projects.
Reserve Fund£4,000
£4,000 was designated bythe Trustees as a Reserve Fund.
25 Restricted
Funds		 Restricted Funds- £50,292
Young Persons Projects- £30k

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The £30k GamesAid donation will deliver 9 three-year projects in x3
Regions (London, Yorkshire and Scotland).
Media Projects- £20,292
This restricted donation by the Chairman is to be spent on digital
fundraising opportunities (such as Tiltify) over the next 3 years.
GTUK has several supporters who are social media infuencers/ TV
personalities, and this restricted fund will be used to leverage that
social media profle of our supporters to do online fundraising
events.
This will be part of our Diversity of Income strategy.
It will also increase awareness of our brand and improve volunteer
recruitment.		 The £30k GamesAid donation will deliver 9 three-year projects in x3
Regions (London, Yorkshire and Scotland).
Media Projects- £20,292
This restricted donation by the Chairman is to be spent on digital
fundraising opportunities (such as Tiltify) over the next 3 years.
GTUK has several supporters who are social media infuencers/ TV
personalities, and this restricted fund will be used to leverage that
social media profle of our supporters to do online fundraising
events.
This will be part of our Diversity of Income strategy.
It will also increase awareness of our brand and improve volunteer
recruitment.
26 Total Funds Total funds are£64,100 (2025)and this represents an approximate
150% increasefrom 2024.
It should be noted that most funds (less reserve) are allocated or
restricted to delivering projects over the next 1-3 years.
We anticipate, through our fundraising strategy, that total funds for
2026 will begreater still.