2025-08-24-accounts

A L I T T L E B I T O F SUNSHINE

Annual Report 2024/5

ALBOS UK Report of the Trustees for the year ended 24 August 2025

The trustees present their report together with the financial statements of ALBOS UK (A Little Bit of Sunshine) for the year ended 24 August 2025. This report has been prepared in accordance with the provisions of Part 8 of the Charities Act 2011.

Report of the Trustees

Reference and Administrative Information

Charity Name: ALBOS UK Other Name: A Little Bit of Sunshine Charity registration number: 1204314 Website www.albos.org.uk Telephone [phone] Registered Office: 37 Westminster Buildings Theatre Square Nottingham NG1 6LG

Board of Trustees

Jamie Burrell Chair (resigned 31 January 2025) Lucy Bargh Chair (appointed 01 February 2025) Sarah Darragh Treasurer Thomas Yeadon Susannah Bramwell Lucy Shapley

Senior Management Team

Callum Parr Chief Executive Mackenzie Dearsley Director of Research, Policy and Social Action Bankers Virgin Money Plc 177 Bothwell Street Glasgow G2 7ER

Our Aims and objectives

A Little Bit of Sunshine (ALBOS) is the lived experience-led mental health charity supporting young people to build confidence, speak openly about mental health and influence the systems that affect their lives. We create spaces, projects and opportunities for young people to share their experiences, develop leadership skills and shape more inclusive mental health support.

Purposes and Aims

Our charity’s purposes as set out in the objects contained in the charity’s constitution are to:

• For the public benefit to promote the education of young people in the United Kingdom in such ways as the charity trustees think fit, in particular though not exclusively in the subject of mental health.

• To advance in life and help young people though providing support and activities which develop their skills, capacities, and capabilities to enable them to participate in society as mature and responsible individuals, in particular through advocacy of mental health initiatives.

The trustees have also agreed a collective mission and vision that the charity represents:

Our Mission

We empower young people to lead change and co-produce inclusive mental health support built from their lived experience.

Our Vision

We want to see a mental health system where young people and their lived experiences shape every decision that affects them.

Our work in 2024/5

Wellbeing Projects

Over the past year, we have made significant progress in developing our projects to engage more young people in talking about their mental health and wellbeing, with a clear focus on building skills, confidence and influence.

A key achievement has been securing funding from Nottinghamshire County Council’s Suicide Prevention Programme to launch a peer-researcher project working with young men who identify as working class with the charity securing funding from Nottinghamshire County Council’s Suicide Prevention programme. This project will support young people to develop research skills and explore issues relating to mental health and suicide prevention within their communities. By empowering young people to contribute directly to research and evidence gathering, the project aims to amplify youth voices and inform future approaches to prevention and support.

We are also developing a new peer workshop project in Oxford, funded by the ASDA foundation and working with Oxford Brookes University student volunteering. The project will mobilise student facilitators to deliver mental health and wellbeing support sessions in schools and colleges and also create a wellbeing toolkit that can be used in the sessions. This will help with increasing early

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awareness and normalising conversations around mental health, as well as reaching young people in settings where support can have the greatest preventative impact on developing severe mental health conditions.

Policy and Influencing Work

The last year has been a big year for our policy and influencing work. In October 2024 we established a new Policy and Campaigns team to build capacity and collect an evidence base to ensure the lived experience of young people is in decision making spaces. Led by Director of Policy and Social Change, Mackenzie Dearsley, the team has contributed to research, consultation responses, and advocacy activity that shapes how services are designed and delivered.

This year, we have submitted evidence to two major parliamentary inquiries. In January 2025, ALBOS UK contributed to the inquiry on Solving the SEND Crisis [UK Parliament], highlighting the link between unmet special educational needs and poor mental health outcomes. In February 2025, we provided evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee’s inquiry into Community Mental Health Services [UK Parliament], advocating for better earlier intervention, more accessible services, and more youth centered models of care and support. We also developed and submitted recommendations on government spending, making the case for sustained investment in early intervention and community-based mental health support.

Through thought leadership articles and commentary, including a series published on LinkedIn, we have also contributed to the public dialogue on improving mental health support helping to raise awareness of solutions such as Young Futures Hubs and an analysis of community mental health services and discussing how these services can better meet the needs of children and young people.

Recruiting and developing our volunteers

Our volunteers are our beating heart driving our work forward across every part of the organisation. From supporting programme development and delivering workshops, to contributing to research, policy submissions, and communications, volunteers enable us to both extend our reach and deepen the impact we have within our communities.

Over the past year, we have strengthened the way we support and develop our volunteers, recognising that their contribution goes hand in hand with their own growth. By creating more structured opportunities, we have enabled volunteers to build valuable skills, take on new responsibilities, and play a more active role in shaping the organisation’s work further amplifying our overall impact.

A key milestone in this has been the recruitment of our Policy and Campaigns team. Attracting a strong and competitive pool of applicants, we successfully established a committed and highperforming team that has significantly increased our capacity for advocacy and influencing. We have also continued to expand opportunities for volunteers to gain experience in areas such as research, communications, and youth engagement. Throughout the year, volunteers have played a vital role in delivering workshops, contributing to policy work, and strengthening our external communications ensuring that youth voice remains at the heart of everything we do.

Financial Review

The income for the period was £6,288 (2024: £233). Expenditure totaled £192 (2024: £228). This resulted in a surplus of £6,096, which is carried forward to 2025/6 (2023: a surplus of £5). One of the reasons for this large surplus is the timing of the receipt of a grant at the end of the financial year.

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Plans for Future Periods

The charity plans continuing the activities outlined above in the forthcoming years. Furthermore, over the next few years, we will focus on putting in place a clear organisational strategy that sets out how we grow and strengthen our work. This will help us stay focused on supporting children and young people well, and making sure the organisation is sustainable for the long term.

A key part of this will be strengthening our funding. We will continue working closely with our existing funders to secure the resources we need, while also building new relationships with prospective partner organisations that share our aims. This will help us expand our impact and keep our work stable and resilient.

We also plan to develop new work that is rooted in young people’s experiences, including a pilot peer-led mental health and wellbeing workshop in Oxford and a peer research project in Nottinghamshire. Alongside this, we will continue to make sure young people’s voices are heard in the places where decisions are made, including government and parliamentary consultations, so that lived experience helps shape better policy and practice.

Alongside this, we will develop new projects that help young people build confidence, strengthen their advocacy skills, and develop emotional literacy. We will also create more meaningful opportunities for young people to co-design services and step into leadership roles. At the same time, we will continue to build strong relationships with local and national partners, ensuring that young people’s voices are not only heard, but that their lived experience is valued and that they are supported to have real influence over the systems and services that shape their lives.

Structure, Governance and Management

Governing Document

The organisation is a charitable incorporated organisation, registered as a charity on 10 August 2023. The charity was established under a constitution which established the objects and powers of the charitable incorporated organisation and is governed under its provisions.

Recruitment and Appointment of Trustees

The trustees of the charity are appointed to serve for a period of three years after which they must be re-elected at the next Annual General Meeting.

All trustees give their time voluntarily and received no benefits from the charity.

Trustee Induction and Training

Trustees are given a group induction to the context of the charity and what being a trustee means. This is jointly led by the Chair of Trustees and the Chief Executive. An induction pack is also provided to new trustees.

Organisational Structure

ALBOS UK has a Board of Trustees of up to 12 members who meet quarterly and are responsible for the strategic direction and policy of the charity. The charity currently has four trustees with a range of personal and professional backgrounds.

The Chief Executive is responsible for the day to day responsibilities for managing and delivering projects and meeting key performance indicators. The charity currently has three departments: Projects, Policy and Influencing, Chief Executive’s Department.

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Risk Management

The Board of Trustees has undertaken a review of the major risks to which the charity is exposed. A risk register has been established and is updated at least annually. Where appropriate, systems or procedures have been established to mitigate the risks the charity faces. The Chief Executive is responsible in reporting significant risks to the Board for review.

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Statement of Financial Activities

Receipt and Payment Account for the year ended 24 August 2025

Receipts Grants Donations Total receipts Payments IT and Website Costs Office costs Printing, Postage & Stationery Travel and Subsistence Bank charges Total payments Net of receipts/payments Total funds brought forward Total funds carried forward	Unrestricted £ Restricted £ 2025 £ 2024 £ - 6,000 6,000 - 288 - 288 233 288 6,000 6,288 233 40 - 40 177 107 - 107 51 7 - 7 - 37 - 37 - 1 - 1 - 192 6,000 192 228 96 6,000 6,096 5 5 - 5 101 6,000 6,101 5

Approved by the Board of Trustees on XX June 2026 and signed on its behalf by:

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Notes forming part of the Financial Statements for the year ended 24 August 2025

1 Basis of preparation

Receipts and payments accounts are statements that summarise the movement of cash into and out of the charity during the financial period. In this context, 'cash' includes the cash equivalents, for example, bank accounts where cash can be readily withdrawn to pay for debts as they become due. All amounts are rounded up to the nearest pound.

The financial year began on 15 May 2024 and was extended by the trustees to end on 24 August 2025.

The charity constitutes a public benefit entity as defined by FRS 102.

2 Grants Nottinghamshire County Council 2 Funds Analysis Restricted Funds Unrestricted Funds	Unrestricted £ Restricted £ 2025 £ 2024 £ - 6,000 10,000 - 0 6,000 6,000 0 Opening Balance £ Income £ Expenditure £ Closing Balance £ -- 6,000 -- 6,000 5 288 192 101

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