VOICES OF APHASIA Registered Charity Number: 1204491
Annual Report and Financial Statements For the period of 2nd August 2024 to 1st August 2025
VOICES OF APHASIA Registered charity number: 1204491 Annual Report and Financial Statements 2024-2025
Table of Contents
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| 1. | Trustees’ Annual Report | 1 |
| 2. | Statement of fnancial activities | 6 |
VOICES OF APHASIA Registered charity number: 1204491 Annual Report and Financial Statements 2024-2025
1. Trustees’ Annual Report
Reference & Administration Details
Charity name: VOICES OF APHASIA Charity number: 1204491 Charity's operating address: 6 Stoke Mead, Limpley Stoke, Bath, BA2 7GX. Names of Trustees for the Charity: Sarah Jane Webb Choon Ngee Willcocks Stuart Ashman Vivien Quick MBE Sandra Pera Fiona Carr Siân Slee Evans
Structure, Governance & Management
Type of Governing Document: Constitution How the Charity is Constituted: Charitable Incorporated Organisation Trustee Selection Method: Recruited from existing beneficiaries and volunteers, and individuals with a personal or professional connection to our charity
Objectives & Activities
Objectives For the public benefit, the objective of Voices of Aphasia is to promote health and well-being and the relief of disability for people affected by aphasia and other acquired long-term communication disability, through:
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1) The provision of accessible community groups and music therapy treatment;
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2) The provision and promotion of activities and services that have a proven beneficial effect on the health of people affected by Aphasia;
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3) The provision of access to the creative arts amongst the community of people affected by aphasia.
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VOICES OF APHASIA Registered charity number: 1204491 Annual Report and Financial Statements 2024-2025
Mission and Voices of Aphasia builds communities and raises the voices of people affected by purpose aphasia through the power of music and singing. The charity delivers specialist accessible choirs for people affected by aphasia (communication difficulties after stroke or brain injury). People with aphasia can have difficulty speaking but can often still sing fluently. Singing, particularly in a group, can help improve people’s mood and emotional well-being. Voices of Aphasia hopes to continue connecting and supporting people with aphasia and their carers, especially those who might not be able to access other singing groups and choirs.
As a charity, Voices of Aphasia is committed to inclusion and equity at all levels of operation. All Voices of Aphasia trustees are either current members of the Bath Aphasia Choir or people affected by aphasia, including stroke survivors with aphasia, a present carer of people with aphasia, widows of people with aphasia and current and retired professionals who have worked closely with people with aphasia. Activities Providing weekly aphasia choir sessions (with a hybrid approach enabling in-person and online attendance); regular performances; awareness-raising presentations about aphasia and the power of music; providing student placements; volunteering opportunities; fundraising and social events for service users.
Bath Aphasia Choir - Continued Growth & Performances
Building on a strong start in its first year as a charity, Voices of Aphasia continued to expand and widen its reach and community engagement in 2024-25. With continuous growth in supporters and professional connections, Voices of Aphasia is establishing its reputation within the national and international stroke and music therapy networks.
In 2024-2025, Voices of Aphasia ran 34 Bath Aphasia Choir sessions. 34 individuals attended the sessions, including face-to-face and online, demonstrating a 13% increase in sessions and 54% increase in attendance compared to the previous year. The charity hosted two fundraising concerts, with over 80 individuals attending; the concerts raised nearly £900 for Voices of Aphasia. In addition to the volunteers from the previous years, the Bath Aphasia Choir had 5 additional session and performance volunteers joining this year, who are students from the University of Bath and the University of Bristol.
The Bath Aphasia Choir was invited to perform in multiple external events in 24-25. The choir performed at the Bristol After Stroke Café in mid-September, where their performance was well-received with lots of positive feedback from the audience and staff. It was an amazing experience to see individuals joining in, tapping along and appreciating the singing and the music. This performance was an excellent opportunity to foster connections between Voices of Aphasia and Bristol After Stroke and to raise the charity's profile in the Bristol Community.
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VOICES OF APHASIA Registered charity number: 1204491 Annual Report and Financial Statements 2024-2025
A month later, the Bath Aphasia Choir took part in the Creative Health in Action Event at Bristol Beacon in October 2024. The festival, co-produced by Bristol Beacon, Creative Shift Bristol, University of Bristol and the West of England Combined Authority, showcased and explored how the arts and creativity can positively impact health and wellbeing. The Bath Aphasia Choir was the first act to perform on the Bridgehouse Stage, and it was a privilege to be involved in such a huge event!
The next performance was in May 2025, when the Bath Aphasia Choir performed at the Corsham Lunch Club at the Corsham Springfield Community Campus, where one of the choir members is a regular attendee. It was a welcome opportunity to raise awareness and the profile of the Bath Aphasia Choir and the charity within the local community in Corsham and Wiltshire. The Bath Aphasia Choir was invited to stay for lunch afterwards, which was a lovely social occasion for the group.
The Bath Aphasia Choir was joined by a music therapy trainee during this year. Two choir members benefited from 1-to-1 music therapy sessions with the trainee, closely supervised by the Choir Leaders. Notably, one of these individuals reached his goal of resuming performing at the open mic night he had frequented before his stroke, thanks to his individual music therapy sessions. This case study demonstrates the lift in self-esteem and confidence facilitated by these person-centred sessions and is an excellent example of the value of individual music therapy. The student hosted a songwriting workshop with the choir members, which later developed into the second song written by the Bath Aphasia Choir, exploring what encapsulated a special day, even for those affected by aphasia.
Organisational Achievements and Developments
The directors of Voices of Aphasia facilitated several external workshops and presentations to the wider stroke and aphasia community, especially in Bristol, this year. They spoke on an Allied Healthcare Professionals panel at the Bristol After Stroke Wellbeing Day in October 2024 and led a singing workshop at the end of the event. The audience participated enthusiastically, strongly demonstrating the need for a regular aphasia choir in Bristol. This event created a valuable connection with the Grateful Society, a grant provider in Bristol, leading to a presentation at the Bristol Rotary Breakfast Club (Clifton) in March and, later on, a workshop at the Grateful Society Social for past Presidents and Trustees in May 2025, gaining supporters and further raising awareness of Voices of Aphasia and its work within the Bristol-based philanthropy community.
During this financial year, Voices of Aphasia welcomed their newest member, Siân Slee-Evans, to the team of Trustees. Siân, an NHS Speech and Language Therapist specialising in Stroke Rehabilitation, has been a huge supporter of Voices of Aphasia and the Bath Aphasia Choir since the inception of the choir and the charity. It is great to increase the skills base of our Board to include a local front-line working professional and supporter who has kindly volunteered her time to provide training on communication after stroke for volunteers and placement students working with our choirs.
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VOICES OF APHASIA Registered charity number: 1204491 Annual Report and Financial Statements 2024-2025
Grants and Fundraising Activities
During this financial year, Bath Aphasia Choir and the management of Voices of Aphasia were awarded the National Lottery Community Fund Awards For All programme. The grant was awarded in the last quarter of the previous financial year (2023-24) and provided for the choir sessions and charity management time until the end of July 2025.
Family members and friends of choir members have generously supported the charity after seeing the value of our activities for their loved ones. A team of seven fundraisers ran the Bath Half Marathon for Voices of Aphasia in March 2025, raising over £2500 in sponsorship, including family members of choir members and a student volunteer from the University of Bath!
Voices of Aphasia hosted the charity's first fundraising event in June, where choir members and their family and friends participated in an inclusive cycling sponsorship challenge to see how many laps the group could complete together at the Odd Down Cycle Track. The event was facilitated by All Cycle Bath and West, a local charity that provides adaptive bikes for use by people of all abilities. Within the hour on the track, which included a 20-minute interruption of ridiculously heavy rain, the team managed to complete 70 laps between the cyclists. It was a fun and adventurous event and one that has now become an annual event!
During the last quarter of this year, Voices of Aphasia was awarded two grants budgeted for the next financial year, from the Grateful Society and the Quartet Community Foundation, funding the new Bristol Aphasia Choir for a full year in 2025-26.
Financial Model, Operating Structure and Organisational Risk Management
Voices of Aphasia is a small, local registered charity. We do not receive any funding from the NHS or local authorities, so our services are mostly funded by grant funding. We also receive support from individuals and local community groups, including other community choirs and performing arts groups, and from fundraising events and challenges such as the Bath Half Marathon. We ask service users for a small voluntary donation when they attend sessions, but our choirs are open to all regardless of financial status.
Our charity has minimal fixed costs, as we do not rent an office and all staff work on a freelance basis. In the event of funding not being secured, the projects would pause until further funding is secured, and the financial security of the charity as a whole would not be at risk.
If the operating model of the organisation were to change, for example, with staff being employed or regular core costs such as rent being incurred, this policy will be reviewed to reflect the increased levels of reserves needed to meet these needs.
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VOICES OF APHASIA Registered charity number: 1204491 Annual Report and Financial Statements 2024-2025
Reserves policy
As a developing, small charity, we operate on a low-risk approach and our policy of only commissioning project work once funding has been secured means that we are not required to hold substantial reserves as an organisation.
Our income is divided into restricted income (usually grant funding) and unrestricted income (usually from fundraising, events and donations from individuals and local organisations). Unrestricted funding is used to cover various costs, including the Directors’ time working on charity administration and management on a self-employed basis and organisational costs such as insurance, meeting room hire, equipment, subscriptions and stationery, where these costs are greater than the amount covered by grant funding. With the agreement of the Trustees, unrestricted funding may be used to pay for choir session delivery where there is a gap between grant funding income and where this would not leave the organisation financially vulnerable.
We continuously engage in fundraising efforts and grant applications, and we aim to keep a level of unrestricted funding of at least £1,000 available in our bank account at all times. Monitoring of unrestricted funding is continuously undertaken by the Charity Directors in collaboration with Trustees, and reported on in each annual report and accounts.
Financial Review
See the Receipts and Payments accounts for 2nd August 2024 to 1st August 2025.
Declaration
The Trustees declare that they have approved the Annual Report above.
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