## **Relume**
**Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) Trustees Annual Report**
**For the period 6[th] April 2024 to 5[th] April 2025**
## **Full name**
Relume
## **Registered Charity Number**
1202524
## **Trustees**
Grace Knight Simon Mawdsley Catherine Murray
## **Address**
C/o The Dudson Centre Hope Street Hanley Stoke-on-Trent ST1 5DD
## **Objectives**
The objects of the charity as set out in its constitution:
The objects of the CIO are, for the public benefit and as an expression of the Christian faith, to relieve women in conditions of emotional, spiritual or physical distress, whether these conditions are a result of sexual exploitation or themselves give rise to sexual exploitation, in particular by the provision of practical and pastoral care, and to advance the education of the public in relation to such exploitation, its causes and its results.
## **Governance**
The CIO operates under the rules of its constitution registered with the Charity Commission on 29th March 2023.
At the start of the financial year the Charity still had its three founding trustees with its aim of growing the Board in order to widen and diversify the skill set of its members and to ensure the Board’s sustainability. However, several months into this financial year, one of the trustees expressed his wish to step down from
the Board for personal reasons, ahead of the scheduled date in 2027 when his term was due to end. Knowing that having only two trustees would effectively pause our operations until a third could be found (for proper constitutional governance), our efforts were devoted for much of the year to looking for another trustee and then, since one could not be found rapidly, winding down our operations to a point of pause. This meant that Simon Mawdsley could resign and we could remain registered whilst not standing in breach of our constitutional duties. Simon finally resigned on 28[th] March 2025. This also required the resignation of Catherine Murray as Interim Project Manager which took immediate effect. Catherine had been employed for 8 hours a week by the charity since April 2024.
The remaining trustees are committed to recruiting others to the Board.
New trustees will be supplied with a New Trustee Pack with information that includes:
- Our Constitution, Mission, Aims and Values.
- Our Core Values and Code of Conduct for Trustees
- Our most recent Annual Report and Accounts
- Our Statement of Faith and Supplementary Statement on Human Sexuality
The intention remains that the trustees will meet at least six times of year, but that the day to day running of the charity will be passed to at least one paid employee.
## **Risk management**
The trustees actively monitor and review risks that the charity may face, and are satisfied that any major risks identified have been adequately mitigated. It is recognized that any steps that are taken can only provide reasonable, not absolute assurance, that risks are adequately managed.
Key controls used by the charity include:
- Risk assessment and management procedures
- Formal written policies and guidance
- A code of conduct for all volunteers
- Training of volunteers
- Strategic planning, budgeting and accounting
- Vetting procedures as required by law to protect the vulnerable
## **Strategic Aims for our second year**
Our intention at the outset of the year had been to grow our capacity beyond engaging with women involved in street prostitution, and to explore opportunities to connect with and support women involved in commercial sexual exploitation in contexts other than on the street.
We also hoped to increase our profile with churches, professionals and local partners, attracting opportunities to collaborate and deliver awareness-raising sessions and training.
We had limited success in achieving these aims, in part because of our governance insecurity which diverted our efforts towards maintenance (rather than growth) and then what we hope will be a temporary pausing of operations.
## **Public Benefit Statement**
The trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in Section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit, ‘Charities and Public Benefit’.
## **Summary of the main activities and achievements of the charity during the year**
## _**Website launch**_
As per our objectives last year, we were able to launch our website at the beginning of the year to make our presence more visible.
## _**Fundraising and recruitment**_
Catherine Murray was recruited part-time (8 hours a week) from April until December 2024 to act as Interim Project Manager pending the intended recruitment of an Executive Director and Support Worker. Materials were prepared to recruit for these positions and fundraising efforts began, but these were stopped when it became apparent we would not have proper governance to be in a position to recruit. No funds were received.
## _**Direct support**_
We continued with our Friday night outreach until the middle of December 2024. In total we connected with 6 women on the streets over the course of the year, providing practical, emotional and spiritual support.
We were contacted by two people via our website form and were able to provide signposting support to both.
## _**Partnership working and training**_
We made a written submission in July 2024 to the National Police Chiefs’ Council in response to their request for feedback on their Sex Work National Police Guidance.
As per our objectives last year, we also developed a training package for statutory and voluntary sector groups. Our hope remains to trial this soon.
As per our objectives last year, we developed relationships with more partners locally and nationally, most notable with respect to pregnancy crisis and child loss counselling support.
## **Future planning and objectives**
The Board of Trustees have identified the following development objectives over the course of the next year:
- To recruit two new Board members in order to ensure we meet our constitutional requirements for governance;
- To recruit at least one member of paid staff to oversee and work alongside a volunteer team;
- To take active steps to reach out to women involved in commercial sexual exploitation in contexts other than street prostitution;
- To strengthen and broaden our relationships with statutory and voluntary agencies in the Stokeon-Trent area as well as with Christian organisations locally and nationwide in order to offer better networks of support and more holistic care to the women we seek to serve.
**Financial Review and Reserves Policy**
We wrote to all of our regular donors in the Spring of 2025 to inform them that we were pausing operations as of April 2025, and to invite them to cease their giving until we are operational again. The vast majority of our donors paused their giving and this will be reflected in next year’s accounts.
Our income over the period of this current report was, however, made up of both regular monthly giving and one-off gifts – both via direct debit to our bank account and via our Stewardship account to our bank account.
As of 5[th] April 2025, our closing cash balance stands at £20,023.36 of which £7505.48 is unrestricted general funds and £12,517.88 is restricted.
£12,517.88 represents the gifts that have been made to our on-street outreach. These funds are restricted and are reserved for the running of this outreach.
Relume is committed to using its resources in pursuit of its charitable objectives. It is also committed to maintaining a level of reserves that is prudent to meeting ongoing liabilities, sufficient to ensure that all service delivery commitments can be met and to protect the long-term future of operations. Relume’s reserves policy seeks to balance these priorities.
The Board of Trustees regularly monitored the level of reserves, and these were reported to the Trustees at each Trustees meeting. The trustees consider it prudent to maintain general reserves at a level that represents approximately 6 months’ expenditure of the charity, based on planned expenditure for that year.
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above on 01/02/26.
Signed:
Name Grace Knight (trustee)
## **RELUME**
## **Income and Expenditure Statement for period ended 05 April 2025**
|Income received
£
Donaton income
7,605.00
Other income - Gifaid
618.75
Expenditure
Insurance
186.99
Training
8.00
Subscriptons
395.88
Printng
-
Promotonal items
-
Bank charges
-
Statonery
16.00
Management support
4,805.15
Postage
17.60
Books
25.00
Telephone
226.63
Travel and hospitality
125.71
BTS
-
DBS checks
-
web and mail
703.73
Sundry
1,197.82
Drop in
-
On street
111.98
Health and Safety
-
Professional charges
Total expenses
-
Surplus/(Defcit) for year||
|---|---|
||8,223.75
7,820.49|
||403.26|
## **RELUME**
|**RELUME**||
|---|---|
|**Balance Sheet as at 05.04.2025**
Fixed Assets
Current Assets
Cash at bank
Current Liabilites
Creditors and accruals
Net Current Assets
Financed by:
General reserve:
Restricted reserves
Reserves 2024
Total funds|£
-
-
16.74
20,040.10|
||20,023.36|
||657.98
6,847.50
12,517.88|
||20,023.36|