# **Annual report and financial statements**
For the year ended 31 March 2023
## **speechandlanguage.org.uk**
Speech and Language UK is the operating name of I CAN Charity, a registered charity in England and Wales (210031) and Scotland (SC039947), which is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (00099629). Registered address: 2 Angel Gate, Hall Street, London, EC1V 2PT.
## **Contents**
|**Contents**||
|---|---|
|**Message from the Chief Executive and Chair of Trustees**|**3**|
|**Thank you to our supporters**|**4**|
|**Our objectives and activities**|**5**|
|**Our impact and achievements**|**6**|
|**Our future plans**|**19**|
|**Financial review**|**20**|
|**Our structure, governance and management**|**23**|
|**Statement of trustees’ responsibilities**|**24**|
|**Independent auditors’ report**|**25**|
|**Financial statements**|**28**|
|**Consolidated and charity balance sheets**|**29**|
|**Consolidated statement of cash fow**|**30**|
|**Notes to the consolidated financial statements**|**31**|
|**Reference and administrative details of the charity, its trustees and advisers 46**||
## **Message from the Chief Executive and Chair of Trustees**
**2022-23 was a year of significant change at Speech and Language UK (the operating name of I CAN Charity). Rooted in the values and vision of I CAN we changed our name and sharpened our mission so that more people understand what we do, why it matters and how we can help. We also wrote a new strategy, consulting with as many young people, families, education leaders and practitioners and partner organisations as we could, restructuring the senior management team to align with our objectives.**
We continued our work to change young lives, directly reaching 80,234 children over the year and changing their futures as a result. This was mostly due to more schools and nurseries using our evidence-based programmes. And by partnering to deliver the Early Years Professional Development Programme, we have been able to massively increase the number of early years professionals we train: 10,000 over the two years of the programme. The combination of our tools and our training mean we are having an even bigger impact on the education sector than ever before.
We chose at the beginning of 2022-23 to set a deficit budget to allow us to make timely organisational changes - without them we cannot be the dynamic, effective charity which 1.9 million children and their families deserve. Coupled with some unexpected financial pressures on our society and economy, this added up to difficult financial results in the short-term. We are confident that we have made the right changes to strengthen our financial performance in the coming years.
We are determined to change the futures of the 1.9 million children with speech and language challenges and their families. We now have the brand, strategy and leadership we need to do this. We face challenges in doing so, particularly in how to engage busy schools and nurseries with tight budgets and squeezed workforces, how to reach older children and young people and how to keep this agenda relevant to politicians of all parties.
We hope that many of you will join us in this mission to overcome these challenges and change young lives.
But we know it’s not enough. With 1.9 million children with speech and language challenges in the UK, we have also sought to get advice directly to families and now have 30,000+ people every month looking at our family information.
We have spoken out more clearly than ever before to politicians who can choose to scale up the support we give to these children and their families. Our report on the experiences of young people, families and teachers _**1.9 million young futures**_ received coverage across media outlets and we have been heard effectively in Parliament, with an evidence session at the Education Select Committee and mentions in many Parliamentary debates. We have also taken steps to put our infrastructure and funding model on a more sustainable basis, creating a digital, data and technology strategy and testing out new public fundraising campaigns.
Jane Harris Chief Executive 21st September 2023
Roy Blatchford CBE Chair of Trustees 21st September 2023
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## **Thank you to our supporters**
Thank you to everyone who supported our charity in the last year. Your funding, donations, volunteering, fundraising activities, in-kind and pro-bono inputs meant that, together, we helped even more children than the previous year. Thank you!
- **Aaron Bowater**
- **All the individuals who made purchases using the charity's Amazon Smile page/link**
- **Rebecca Clegg**
- **The Adint Charitable Trust**
- **The Bernard Sunley Foundation**
- **Allen & Overy**
- **The Bothwell Charitable Trust**
- **Amelia Louth**
- **The Colyer-Fergusson Charitable Trust**
- **AXA Hearts in Action**
- **The EBM Charitable Trust**
- **Chapman Charitable Trust**
- **The Eveson Trust**
- **Charity of Sir Richard Whittington (for which the Mercers’ Company is Corporate Trustee)**
- **Copley May Foundation**
- **Department for Education**
- **Dumbleton Parochial Church Council**
- **Education Endowment Foundation**
- **Esmée Fairbairn Foundation**
- **The Harrison Family**
- **The Hiscox Foundation**
- **The Jones 1986 Charitable Trust**
- **The Kelsey Trust**
- **The Light Fund**
- **The Patrick & Helena Frost Foundation**
- **Forest Hill Charitable Trust**
- **John Swire 1989 Charitable Trust**
- **The Percy Bilton Charity**
- **The PF Charitable Trust**
- **Kusuma Trust**
- **Liz Pallett**
- **Matthew Brennan**
- **The Promotion of English Trust**
- **The Speech, Language and Hearing Foundation**
- **The Thomas Farr Charity administered by Nottinghamshire Community Foundation**
- **Megan Yellop**
- **The Thomas J Horne Memorial Trust**
- **Miss A M Pilkington Charitable Trust**
- **The Zochonis Charitable Trust**
- **Next Plc**
- **Toyota (GB) Plc**
- **Print Data Solutions (PDS)**
- **Xanthinia Singer**
**4 |** Speech and Language UK **|** Annual report and financial statements
## **Our objectives and activities**
**For at least 1.9 million children in the UK, learning to talk and understand words feels like an impossible hurdle. This affects every aspect of their and their families’ lives. They are vastly more likely to fail in key subjects at school, more likely to be lonely and have mental health problems, more likely to end up in the criminal justice system and more likely to be out of work as an adult.**
There has never been a more important time to help the growing number of children with speech and language challenges. We work to give every child the skills they need to face the future with confidence.
We design innovative tools and training for thousands of nursery assistants and teachers to use in their classrooms.
We give families the confidence and skills to help their children.
And we put pressure on politicians to prioritise help for speech and language challenges.
## **Our vision**
Every child who is facing challenges with talking and understanding words can look to the future with confidence.
## **Our mission**
We give children and young people the skills they need so they aren’t left behind, waiting to be understood. We do this by creating tools for schools and nurseries, giving advice and guidance to families and putting pressure on politicians.
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## **Our impact and achievements** Key achievements for 2022-23
## **Tools for schools and nurseries**
We want every school and nursery in the country to be able to support children with speech and language challenges. We are delighted that in 2022-23, we reached even more children by working with staff in schools and nurseries across the UK.
Our Talk Boost programmes, which can be delivered to groups of children by staff without specialist speech and language training, continue to make a huge contribution to giving children the skills they need. In 2022-23 nearly 77,000 children took part in our programmes an increase of 22% on 2021-22.
In Birmingham, Coventry and Leicester, 418 children benefited from our Early Talk Boost programme thanks to funding from the Department for Education (DfE) Voluntary and Community Services grant. One nursery manager in Birmingham commented:
_"We will definitely be running this programme every term. We have seen it have a massive impact on our children. The parents love the programme and have enjoyed taking the books to share with their children.”_
## **What we learnt**
We have recently developed a new programme for Year 7 students as we know that moving from primary to secondary school can be a really big challenge for many children, especially those who have speech and language challenges. As is our usual practice where we are able to fund it, we have worked with an academic advisor to design a randomised control trial to evaluate this new programme.
Schools have been very positive about the programme and wanted to use it in their schools.
We have had some excellent feedback from schools about the positive impact the programme has had for students:
_I feel the students are becoming more confident working independently to solve problems e.g., when they don't understand something at school. They have also made progress with learning new words. Most of the group can remember the strategies we have learnt about for working out the meaning of words.”_ Secondary school teacher
However, many have struggled with the additional burden of taking part in a randomised control trial and as a result we have had to reduce the number of students involved in the trial element. We know from academic colleagues that this year has been exceptionally challenging for schools taking part in research projects and hope to be able to resume our rigorous evaluations in future.
## **Other programmes for schools and nurseries**
While we are proud of the impact our programmes have, we are always seeking to improve the evidence base for our work. We are delighted to have secured funding to work with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) on an efficacy trial for Early Talk Boost. Our programme will be independently evaluated by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) in 130 settings in the East and Southwest of England over two years. As well as providing more robust evaluation data, this project will mean a further 750 young children with challenges talking and understanding words will get to experience the programme.
Alongside our programmes, we have provided training to thousands of educators, helping them to change their everyday practice in classrooms and nurseries up and down the country. We started a new ambitious project to train 10,000 early years staff over two years. In partnership with the
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Education Development Trust and Anna Freud Centre, we will be training staff in early language and communication, maths and personal and emotional development. We have developed the content for seven e-learning units and follow-up webinars on communication and language and will
be delivering webinars on early mathematics and personal, social and emotional development as well. We started training staff in late February and have already received some excellent feedback from practitioners taking part (1,500 in this first cohort).
_This course really helped me with my OFSTED inspection last week. I had lots of new tips and tricks to try that enhanced the language of our children, so thank you!”_
_[We] have found the course insightful with new ideas and strategies that have been implemented already in our settings. This has ranged from improving our outdoor learning environment with dressing up clothes and resources having a positive impact on hot/cold spots, to developing our own monitoring tool to observe communication hot spots/cold spots, 10 second wait for response and more comments than questions for practitioners. All of which has been valuable for all of our practitioners to reflect upon in daily practice and further supporting communication and language skills for the children.”_ Early years practitioners.
## **Empowering educators**
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## **Advice for families**
Many families struggle to know how to support their children with speech and language challenges. They feel lost and desperate for steps they can take, particularly when waits for specialist services are at an all-time high. More than 30,000 people each month used our advice for families on our website during the year.
Our progress checker tool which helps families to know how they’re child is getting on with their talking and understanding of words, was used by more than 28,000 families in 2022-23. We were delighted to be awarded funding from the Social Business Trust's Digital Impact II Fund to help us make this tool even more accessible and have been scoping how we could use more film clips to illustrate strategies to support children with speech and language challenges in the 18 months to threeyears and six months age group.
Nearly 1,500 families benefitted from our in-person family support in 2022-23, an increase of 35% compared to 2021-22. We provided life-changing advice and support to families through our enquiry
service and TALK webinars. We made it a priority to run the free enquiry service five days a week and take up increased by 15% during the year. This gives families the opportunity to speak directly to a qualified speech and language therapist and get tailored advice. Most families contacting the service enquired about their children aged 18-30 months and were mostly concerned about their children’s talking.
_The person I spoke to was extremely helpful and reassuring and explained everything clearly and helped me understand it. Thank you for offering a wonderful free service for worried parents!”_
Parent of a pre-nursery child
_I used all the activities sent to me and given to me via the phone call. It’s been a number of months since and my son has shown so much progress.”_ Parent of a pre-nursery child
_Gave me reassurance and confidence. The person I spoke with was helpful, knowledgeable and understanding. I no longer felt alone and out of my depth.”_ Parent of a child attending nursery
To reach more families than we can through our phone and email service alone, we also expanded the availability of our talking activities for little kids (TALK) webinars for parents. The webinars cover themes such as “Using everyday routines to support talking and understanding words” and “Sharing books to develop talking and understanding words”. Parents who’ve participated have not only appreciated the advice and strategies but also being listened to.
_It’s so much more than speech, language and communication, it’s valuing parents’ opinions and their home lives”._ Parent participating in a TALK webinar
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## **Supporting the sector**
Thanks to a grant from the Rayners Special Educational Trust, we have been able to distribute grants to other charities working on children’s speech, language and communication skills. We were able to award one-year grants to 10 final organisations to cover the academic year 2022-23 with a value of £315,366. One grant was awarded to a partnership of AFASIC and NAPLIC to support parents and children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), which is a lifelong speech and language challenge. The two charities together provided training, advocacy, and awareness-raising efforts to address the information and support gap.
This project builds on a previous one-year project through which AFASIC supported 155 to take part in DLD Together training. This is a free online course for families of children and young people with DLD consisting of seven weekly sessions. The sessions help parents to understand DLD and how it applies to their child; to develop strategies to support their child at home and to meet other families of children with DLD. Through their feedback survey AFASIC found:
- 95.8% of participants said they would recommend the course to other families of a child with DLD.
- 79.2% said they felt that attending the course had a positive impact on their child, with 16.7% not sure.
- Prior to the course the average rating for ‘their level of knowledge of DLD’ was 5 (1 low – 10 high); and after the course this had risen to 8.6.
- Prior to the course the average rating for
- ‘confidence in supporting their child with DLD’ was
- 5, with this increasing to 8.3 after the course.
One parent commented:
_In this course I have gained knowledge and understanding in how to support my son and have passed this on to our son’s closest people who are involved in his day to day life so that they too can support him to be the best he can be.”_
Having trained more than 100 professionals to deliver the course AFASIC expect the reach to families to grow significantly moving forward.
The Pace Centre which provides education, therapy and support for children with a wide range of neuro-disabilities
was awarded £76,000 in the first grant funding round and this initial project ended in March 2023. Over the funding period they worked with 120 children with complex communication challenges related to their neuro-disabilities; 200 families and 40 staff who benefitted from additional specialist training to enable them to deliver an enhanced communication provision. Pace focus on alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) approaches and expanded their reach beyond their targeted numbers by introducing their resources to many more families through social media campaigns. At the end of the project more than 6,000 families had accessed support through the Pace Centre advice hub.
_I have been working with a child for 7 weeks and have been modelling symbol based AAC and upskilled parents as well as sending them home with symbols to trial at home. Until today, the child has not been using symbols at home or in session to communicate and is nonverbal. Today, the family reported that he is now using symbols to ask for 'old McDonald' and in session, he requested 'sing' followed by 'twinkle twinkle'.”_
Speech and language therapist working at Pace Centre
## **What we’ve learnt**
We have been really pleased by the expanding reach of our family advice and information, but we know we have work to do to in how we reach young people more directly. At the moment most of our direct reach with young people is through specific project work, but we are exploring different approaches which might enable young people to engage directly with some of our resources themselves.
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We supported **1,469** parents and carers through our family advice and guidance:
We also reached an estimated **28,104** children and families indirectly through our online Progress Checker.
**1,075** through our enquiry service.
We also reached an estimated **8,285** families through our regional projects and programmes.
**394** parents attended at least one of our TALK webinars.
## **Our reach for regional projects for the year 2022/23**
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Reach
1,000
500
0
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_Excluding EYSEND, Family Support and DLD Pilot_
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## **Pressure on politicians**
In July 2021, we surveyed teachers and found that at least 1.5 million children had speech and language challenges. This year, we wanted to know what had changed and so in July 2022 we repeated the YouGov survey of 1,000 teachers asking them about their level of concern over children’s talking and understanding of words.
We were devastated to find that the numbers of children had risen to at least 1.7 million. This is partly as a result of our previous recommendations not being followed through by national Governments or educational leaders. Teachers also told us that they lacked adequate training to support speech and language challenges while 70% felt Government did not prioritise these needs.
We also wanted to make sure we understood the experiences of young people and families across the country in the wake of the Covid pandemic. So, we ran our first national survey of families and young people with speech and language challenges. Over 1,000 families and young people told us about their experiences. 86% told us they or their child had suffered negative consequences as a result of having a speech and language challenge. The most common was in struggling to make or maintain friendships, followed by ‘giving up trying’. Some responses reflected the lifelong nature of some speech and language challenges: “my daughter is now a young adult and there has been very little help for her to find appropriate work and friends.”
We used the findings of both these surveys to produce our report _**1.7 million young futures**_ in October 2022. Representatives from our charity were interviewed by Sky News, BBC News, BBC Breakfast, ITV and 5 News. In total, there were 336 mentions of our charity and the report across national, regional and international media who highlighted our findings. This equated to 481.8 million impressions and an amazing advertising value equivalent (AVE) of £5million.
We also organised an online event in January 2023 for politicians and education leaders to discuss the issues in the report. This was attended by Robin Walker MP, Chair of the Education Select Committee, the
Children’s Commissioner and over 100 other guests from across the sector. Robin Walker MP welcomed the recommendations in the _**1.7 million young futures**_ report, particularly highlighting the report’s focus on earlier identification and workforce development. He stressed just how important it was for children to be identified early and be supported properly. Mr Walker noted that not only is this the right thing for the children involved, but also that there is a strong cost saving argument. The Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza said that while as far as possible children with speech and language challenges should be identified and supported before they get into school, it was also incredibly important that teachers had practical support to help those children struggling with talking and understanding words in classrooms right now. The day after this event, Robin Walker intervened in a Parliamentary debate to ask the Department for Education Minister Clare Coutinho about what more schools could do to support children with speech and language challenges.
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One major barrier to children getting support is the huge vacancy rate for speech and language therapists and long waiting lists for specialist support. We joined together with the Royal. College of Speech and Language Therapists and other partners to start up the _**SEND in the Specialists campaign**_ . In November 2022, over 110 organisations wrote to Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education, and Steve Barclay, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, calling on them to invest in the specialist workforce. In a parliamentary debate on 14th November 2022, Robin Walker MP highlighted the letter and on 8th December 2022 the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Speech and Language Difficulties, brought together officers from 16 other APPGs calling on Government to invest in the specialist workforce.
In March 2023, our CEO Jane Harris, was called to give evidence in-person at an Education Select Committee session on how parents and carers with children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) find the current system of childcare. Jane spoke about the need for parents and the children’s workforce to know about the importance of talking and understanding words and how to spot and support children who struggle.
## **What we learnt**
Although we have had some success this year in getting more policy and media debate focused on speech and language challenges, this is almost always in relation to children’s early years, rather than recognising that children of all ages can face speech and language challenges. Education policymakers are also far more focused on literacy than on language as a whole. It has been difficult to get teams beyond the early years within the Department for Education and Ofsted to recognise that children of primary and secondary school age also have speech and language challenges.
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12 Annual report and fi | Speech and La n ancial statements guage UK | Annual re | S p eech and Language UK ort and financial statements | 12
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## **Schools for children with complex speech and language challenges**
Our two schools, Meath in Surrey and Dawn House in Nottinghamshire, provide education to children with the most complex speech and language challenges who cannot learn well in mainstream schools.
This year we served 150 pupils through our distinctive model of teaching and therapy staff co-designing and co-delivering the curriculum. Alongside our day-to-day work, we continued our task of embedding research practice more into our schools to make sure that our practice is making a tangible difference to children’s futures.
Thanks to support from The Rayners Special Educational Trust, we continued our collaboration with Professor Judy Clegg and Sheffield University building a virtual research centre in our schools. We focused on two areas of our practice to research: the total communication approach used at our school in Surrey and how we teach maths at our school in Nottinghamshire.
## **Maths**
The maths research project at Dawn House in Nottinghamshire aimed to teach mathematical vocabulary to young people with complex speech and language challenges through collaboration between teachers and speech and language therapists. The study used a case series design, comparing each pupil's progress against their own baseline rather than against peers. The project involved co-planning and co-teaching Tier 3 maths vocabulary in class, while the regular teacher and speech and language therapists observed.
Over two school terms, the project covered three classes, with an initial baseline term followed by an intervention term. Each term included teaching 16 words per group. Lessons involved introducing new words, addressing misconceptions, co-teaching with various activities, and assessing knowledge retention.
Data collection and statistical analysis showed significant improvement in word knowledge and maths progress during the intervention term for most pupils. Feedback from teachers and speech and language therapists was positive about co-teaching, seamless integration of vocabulary, and flexibility, but challenges included building collaborative relationships and finding planning time. The Covid pandemic and staff absence also impacted the project.
Despite difficulties, the collaborative approach led to significant improvements in word knowledge, showcasing the value of joint efforts in teaching pupils with speech and language challenges. Teachers and speech and language therapists expressed enjoyment in working together, but some required protected time and prior research experience.
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## **Total communication**
The study assessed the effectiveness of a total communication approach for children with complex speech and language difficulties at Meath school in Surrey. This approach combines signing, active learning, and voice output communication aids. The aim was to improve the communication abilities of these children. Three children, aged 8 to 10, took part in the programme, which involved active learning in class and then retelling using speech, signing, and communication aids. All participants showed improvement in expressing their ideas and speaking longer sentences, consistently over time and in different situations.
Collaboration between teachers and speech and language therapists was vital in supporting
these children. However, barriers to effective collaboration exist, and strategies to overcome them include increasing knowledge and skills, fostering shared understanding of roles and resources, and organisational support.
In conclusion, the study found that the collaborative total communication approach effectively enhances communication abilities in children with severe speech and language challenges. It highlights the importance of interprofessional collaboration and how working within the same organisation can lead to more successful joint efforts in supporting children with complex speech and language challenges.
## **Our residential facilities**
Both our schools provide residential facilities. This helps children who live a long distance from the school. Our residential services also allow children to learn about living more independently from home and most important of all to form strong relationships and friendships. Children and families often tell us they love the opportunity to have ‘sleepovers’, especially when previous difficult experiences in mainstream schools have limited children’s previous social experiences.
Meath’s residential provision was judged as Outstanding at its inspection during 2022. Ofsted commented that _“children receive nurturing and loving care from a skilled residential staff team”_ and _“Children who stay at the residential service make exceptional progress educationally, socially and emotionally._ ”
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## Case study - Sean's better future
_**“Sean’s speech and development are delayed. When he was at a mainstream school, he was isolated quite a lot and not really getting the attention he needed. But things are so much better now he’s at Dawn House. He stays there a few nights a week and really loves it. He gets to mix with his peers and just hang out, which he never really got to do before.**_
_**The residential care is really helping to build up his independence and confidence. The other day, he went shopping at Tesco by himself and, when he couldn’t find what he was looking for, he asked for help. He would never have done that before.”**_
Sean’s mum, Sarah
## Case study - Lara's on track
_**“Before Lara started at Meath, she was practically non-verbal and she didn’t really have any life skills. She would wander off with strangers and that made her really vulnerable. But, thanks to Meath, she’s now a completely different child. She’s come on in leaps and bounds. The residential team have taught her crucial social skills and how to stay safe. She now says she wants to be a speech and language therapist when she grows up. Sometimes I’m amazed that this is my child who could barely talk. Meath’s residential services have done more for her than I could ever have wished for.”**_
Lara’s mum, Hayley
*Names may have been changed to protect privacy
## **What we’ve learnt**
The schools face similar challenges and share common characteristics. However, geographical barriers, the lingering impact of the Covid pandemic, and a historical lack of collaboration have resulted in them operating in isolation. Consequently, they have adopted distinct approaches in curriculum design, therapy delivery, and teaching methods. An illustration of this divergence is seen in their approaches to developing reading fluency.
Moving forward, a key priority for the coming year is to ensure greater alignment among the schools and enhance mutual understanding of their respective practices. The aim is to foster increased collaboration across all aspects of the schools' operations. By addressing these issues, we can create a more cohesive and unified educational environment, leveraging each school's strengths. Through joint working and shared knowledge, the schools can enhance their overall effectiveness and create a more supportive and enriching learning experience for all pupils.
Our two special schools supported **150** children and young people with complex speech and language challenges.
Our assessment centres also completed **123** in-depth speech and language assessments.
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## **We are Speech and Language UK**
_(Formerly I CAN)_
## **Fundraising and awareness**
## **Rebrand**
In October 2022, we changed our name, vision, mission and visual identity so that more people understand what we do, why it matters and how we can help.
Led by brand consultancy Studio Texture, this was part of our wider ambition to reach more of the 1.9 million children who have challenges with talking and understanding words, particularly in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.
Through an audience research process, we discovered a more descriptive name would help families, young people and educational professionals find us when they needed help and support.
emotions. A playful twist of speech bubbles adapted to make faces, provide the opportunity to convey these different emotions, for different contexts, across the brand.
Our new brand launched in October 2022 alongside an awareness campaign resulting in extensive national media coverage across BBC, Sky News, ITV and other outlets.
## **Getting funding for our new website**
During the year, we secured a significant grant to redevelop our website and create content to support parents and families of children who struggle to talk and understand words. Procurement for a partner to support this took place in Q4 and we are aiming to launch our new website in Autumn 2023-24.
## **Public fundraising tests**
Our new brand strategy positions itself around a cause message, describing learning to talk and understand words feeling like “an impossible hurdle” and that for young people “without the right help this can destroy their world”.
A positive identity expression, including new logo, is inspired by the idea that visual tools can often be a helpful aid to communicate complex
We developed a new fundraising strategy in 2021-22 and started implementing it this year. This has required the development of a testing programme to engage the public in support of our charity through donations. Our testing programme launched in September 2022 with two individual giving test campaigns. Results for our online cash appeal were poor but in contrast our regular giving recruitment test (the most
**16 |** Speech and Language UK **|** Annual report and financial statements
sustainable income source) significantly exceeded the performance needed for roll out.
## **Culture and infrastructure**
## **Staff wellbeing**
We conducted a further two tests across winter and spring but our conversion rate for online cash donations remains low and we are looking at a change of direction in terms of the propositions.
Regular giving campaigns continued to perform well and have resulted in sustainable growth in this income area.
Capacity to develop community and in-school fundraising has meant that we delayed the redevelopment of No Pens Day Wednesday into 2023-24 which had an impact on both income and expenditure in this financial year.
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We reached:
10,408,495 people on Facebook
1,373,755 people on Instagram
54,183 people on LinkedIn
736,676 people on Twitter
486,760 people accessing our website
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## **Media**
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257 pieces of known media coverage
• Reach/impressions: 126,594,903
• Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE): £157.5m
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We can only change young lives through the commitment and skills of our staff, and we know that this has been a challenging year for many, given cost of living pressures. We have continued to strengthen our support for mental health and wellbeing by expanding our team of mental health first aiders and building our capacity to train new mental health first aiders in house through our skilled trainer at Dawn House school. We have also increased our promotion of the many different ways we are able to support staff in this area so that we are confident they know where to turn to for help.
Recognising the challenges facing all our staff in relation to the cost-of-living crisis, we engaged both the senior management team and our strategy group of heads of service to consider how we could achieve a pay award that would have real impact for those members of our staff team who are the lowest paid. We have been able to ensure that from September 2022, all staff are paid at least the Real Living Wage and we will be continuing to focus on how we maintain this in the long term. To mitigate the increasing cost of living pressures we also paid non-consolidated bonuses to staff in our lower pay bands in October, introduced free staff meals at schools and introduced an interest free staff loan scheme with the aim of supporting any employee who is in financial difficulty as a result of unexpected expenditure. We have continued to match pay for teachers and school-based therapists to national education and NHS pay scales.
Our Diversity Working Group has expanded over the last year and has played a key role in increasing the staff team’s engagement with our equity, diversity and inclusion priorities.
## **Develop our long-term technology strategy**
Like many charities who want to maximise their spending on services for beneficiaries, our IT infrastructure has become outdated and gave rise to significant inefficiencies and challenges, which in turn impacted on our ability to deliver our strategic priorities effectively. During 2022-23 implementation of the organisation’s new digital, data and technology strategy was initiated. This began with the recruitment of a Head of IT and Data, and a Data Manager. These roles are strengthening the organisation through having skilled resources able to support the delivery of our strategic priorities to grow our impact, deliver more voluntary and sales income and help to future-proof our technology infrastructure for the future.
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We now have a clear, costed plan embedded in our new strategic themes with on-going workstreams within this programme including:
- IT support for our rebranding to Speech and Language UK
- Implementation of significant improvements to our fundraising CRM
- Selection of a new learning management
- system so we can train more school and nursery staff
- Scoping and implementation of a website upgrade
- Scoping of a finance system upgrade and selection of solution and implementation partner
- Improvements in reliability, quality and security of managed IT services
Over time, our investment in our IT infrastructure will make us more efficient as well as allowing us to reach far more schools, nurseries, families, young people and policymakers.
governance model so that there were clearer links between the Board Directors of Speech and Language UK Services Limited and the children, young people attending our schools and the professionals who are connected to them. Learning from the models of some MultiAcademy Trusts, we have established two School Advisory Boards. These are structured to include parents of current pupils, staff and members of the wider community as well as a local authority representative. They can give our Senior Management Team and our Board of Directors the true sense of what it is like to attend our schools or work with our schools as part of the wider local speech and language community.
We have then established a clear link between these two Boards and an Education Committee, which is responsible for more traditional aspects of governance. This means that the committee can scrutinise performance across both schools and take on statutory responsibilities on safeguarding, finance and other areas.
## **School governance**
We decided this year to revise our approach to governing our two schools, which are operated by our subsidiary body Speech and Language UK Services Limited. As well as this Board, we had previously operated Local Governing Bodies at each of our schools. We wanted to rethink our
We believe that this new model will mean we have more efficient working across our two schools as well as getting more insight into the experiences of the people who really matter: the children and families who depend on us to look to the future with confidence.
**----- Start of picture text -----**
18 | Speech and Language UK | Annual report and financial statements
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **Our future plans**
**With the help of many young people, families, educationalists and partner organisations, we have written a new five-year strategy for our organisation, which will be launching in September 2023. With at least 1.9 million children in the UK with speech and language challenges, we know we need to do more so that they can all face the future with confidence.**
Our strategy aims to take our existing tools and training to more schools and nurseries, to get advice and guidance to more families as well as communicating more directly with young people and to increase pressure on politicians ahead of the next general election.
## **Specifically in 2023-24 we will:**
**Get more schools and nurseries to use tools and training that will transform children’s futures by:**
- Training thousands more nursery staff and childminders as part of the Early Years Professional Development Programme.
- Launching the first iteration of our new online hub so school and nursery staff can more easily find the right tools and training for their setting.
- Recruiting more early years settings to take part in the trial of Early Talk Boost in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation.
- Finishing the trial of our Talk Boost Year 7 programme and working out how to take it to a wider group of schools.
- Supporting the development of a new screening tool for schools and nurseries in Wales.
## **Generate new replicable practices in our two schools for children with complex speech and language challenges by:**
- Delivering our distinctive model of teaching and speech and language specialists co-designing and co-delivering the curriculum for 150 children with complex speech and language challenges.
- Researching our practices on maths and phonics in collaboration with academic partners.
- Seeking funding to develop digital content based on our innovative practices.
- Scoping future changes to the school environment.
**Get advice and guidance to more families whose children are struggling by:**
- Developing new video content with actionable t tips for families with children aged 18 months – 3 ½
## years.
• Redeveloping all website content for families and redesigning the architecture so more families have the information they need.
• Giving free phone advice from qualified speech and language therapists direct to families through our enquiry service.
• Scoping new partnerships with other content providers to families while continuing our partnership with _BBC Tiny Happy People_ .
## **Put more pressure on politicians by:**
- Researching the experiences of young people, families and schools.
- Getting more politicians and journalists to recognise the scale of speech and language challenges and potential solutions. • Submitting evidence to Government consultations and Parliamentary inquiries and talking directly to Parliamentarians.
- Reviewing the role of the 30+ member Communication Consortium and continuing to work in partnership with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.
## **Refresh our infrastructure, funding model and culture by:**
• Implementing a new finance system, website and learning management system.
- Refining our public fundraising offer, building on our successful experiments on regular giving in 2022-23.
- Improve our data on diversity and employee experience and develop plans to increase diversity, equity and inclusion.
- Start an independent governance review and recruit new co-optees to Board committees.
We will monitor our progress through a new impact and effectiveness framework, which looks at our performance and impact.
**Annual report and fnancial statements | Speech and Language UK | 19**
## **Financial review**
## **Overview**
In the year 2022/23, we are reporting a deficit of £733k (2022: surplus £116k) before unrealised investment losses of £176k (2022: £476k gain).
In overall terms, Income has increased by £1,182k (a rise of 12%) to £10,884k (2022: £9,702k),the most notable increases being income generated by Schools' activities, which grew by £703k, and income received from our programme delivery activities, which increased by £246k, positively impacted by an increase in orders from Local Authorities in the last quarter. Income from donations and legacies, as part of our ongoing fundraising efforts increased by £226k.
Expenditure increased by 21% to £11,617k (2022: £9,586k). This is mainly due to activity in our programme delivery work, which saw increased expenditure of £1.2million. Expenditure in schools increased by £487k, in line with increased income and pupil numbers. Awareness Raising and Information expenditure increased by £340k to £675k. Fundraising costs increased by £53k to £403k due to ongoing action in order to increase our fundraising capacity.
After unrealised losses on investment, the net deficit stands at £909k (2022: £592k surplus), with £134k of this deficit being attributable to restricted activities and the remaining £775k to unrestricted funds.
The deficit for the year has resulted in total funds at the year-end of £7,151k (2022: £8,060k); of which £3,360k is unrestricted, with £1,211k of this balance having been designated primarily to fund assets.
**20 | Speech and Language UK | Annual report and fnancial statements**
## **Fundraising**
## **Disclosure under The Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016**
- Our Charity is a member of the Fundraising Regulator and abides by all the legal frameworks, as well as professional good fundraising practice.
- In 2023 there were no breaches of fundraising standards or law, and no complaints were received. (2022 nil).
- Our Charity implements a robust privacy and GDPR policy (with associated systems and actions) to ensure privacy and data is handled correctly and fairly.
- Our Charity does not put undue pressure on any person to give money or property.
## **Volunteers**
Our Charity could not achieve its mission without the help of our team of volunteers. People give up their time to help us raise money and support our fundraising efforts, as well as helping in our schools to ensure that children who have difficulty in speaking and understanding words get the help that they require. We are indebted to the volunteers who make a real impact in helping us to achieve a world where all children have the communication skills, they need to fulfil their full potential.
## **Performance**
Along with planned expenditure to improve our infrastructure, and other internal factors, the prevailing economic climate and cost of living crisis has had a significant impact on our finances, resulting in the deficit noted for this financial year. In response, we have reviewed our activities and made efficiencies to mitigate against incurring deficits at this level in the year 23/24.
With income of £7 million, our two schools form the backbone of our Charity. The majority of pupils in non-maintained special schools, such as ours, have been placed there by local authorities under an Education, Health and Care Plan, funded in part from the high needs block of the Dedicated School Grants and in part from the Education and Skills Funding Agency. Local authorities will continue
to receive their high needs budgets and should continue to pay top-up and other high needs funding to non-maintained special schools, so that the employment and payment of staff supporting children and young people with SEND can continue. We continue to develop a strategy building longterm relationships with donors and following Covid-19 we have seen some of this support increase. It is important that we continue to grow and support these relationships, now more so than ever, and it is part of our strategic objectives to do so.
Having undertaken an extensive review of our activities and finances, our budget for 2023/24 is projecting a modest surplus. We are particularly pleased to have been awarded the contract to deliver the Early Years Professional Development Programme – a multi-million pound project running from November 2022 to March 2025 to train 10,000 early years practitioners referred to above.
## **Reserves policy**
Our Charity maintain reserves to allow our Charity to continue to fulfil its objectives and withstand any period of financial uncertainty. To achieve this, the Trustees seek to ensure that unrestricted general funds are in excess of a self-determined long-term target. These funds provide a measure of financial stability to our Charity and thereby reinforce the reputation and ability of our Charity to deliver on promises.
Each year the minimum level of unrestricted General Funds is reviewed by the Trustees and consideration is given to the following when deciding the level of funds required:
- The level required to ensure our Charity can continue to meet its current and future commitments in the face of financial uncertainties, with a focus on income generation and the potential for unforeseen expenses.
- The level required to ensure our Charity has the flexibility to pursue new opportunities to further the charitable aims of the organisation as and when they arise.
- The level that could be needed should any of the major risks identified by the risk framework materialise.
- The level required for an orderly transfer or cessation of activities, in the extreme and unlikely
Annual report and financial statements **|** Speech and Language UK **| 21**
situation, that a catastrophic event occurs which might otherwise have impacted our Charity's short-term ability to meet its obligations to its beneficiaries, employees and creditors.
After careful assessment of the above, and in line with good governance practice, the Trustees have reviewed all identified risks and have concluded that the target level of General Funds should be £1.75m and that the current level of the General Funds at 31 March 2023 of £2,149m (2022: £2,843m) is appropriate given the future plans and objectives of our Charity. This is particularly the case, given the high level of investment in school infrastructure and property expansion currently being considered; and investments in key strategic goals such as implementing our long-term Digital, Data and Technology (DDAT) Strategy and developing our brand.
of the finance team and have recruited a permanent Director of Finance and IT to lead on the development of our financial management systems and have oversight of our Digital, Data and Technology Strategy.
Safeguarding, child protection and future Ofsted ratings will remain as key risks for our charity for as long as it manages special schools. Ad-hoc inspections by independent consultants have continued to take place at both schools during 2022/23 to mitigate this risk. Our ageing estate in our schools presents various maintenance and repair needs. Ongoing health and safety action plans and audits are in place to ensure ongoing management of these issues.
The following statements summarise our Charity’s policy in managing identified forms of financial risk:
## **Investments policy and performance**
The primary objective of Sour Charity's investment policy is to maintain and enhance the value of funds to meet our Charity's short and long-term requirements.
- **Price and cost risk:** Our Charity negotiates the prices charged for its educational services with local authorities. The prices charged are based on the principles of full cost recovery. The agreed prices are factored into our business plans and income forecasts. Costs are controlled by contract negotiations and competitive tendering with suppliers.
Having funded significant repair work from cash balances, an amount of £300k(2022: nil) was withdrawn from our investment portfolio during the year to ensure that sufficient working capital was in place. An unrealised investment loss of £176k (2022: £476k gain) was recorded during the year.
- **Credit risk:** Risk on amounts owed to our Charity by its customers is low, as the majority of debtors are local authorities.
- **Liquidity risk:** Our Charity has no long-term borrowings and covers all costs out of current income.
## **Risk management**
- **Cash flow risk:** Our Charity receives school fees in advance of providing the service and has investments which can be sold at short notice.
The major risks to which our Charity is exposed have been identified and reviewed by the Trustees, and systems or procedures have been established to manage the risks.
A key risk evaluated by the Trustees concerns the financial stability of our Charity, reporting and forecasting. In order to make continued improvements we have increased the capacity
**22 |** Speech and Language UK **|** Annual report and financial statements
## **Our structure, governance and management**
Our Charity is a company limited by guarantee and is governed by Memorandum and Articles of Association which were last amended on 27 September 2017. Our Charity operates in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In 2022 as the result of a significant brand review our Charity started to trade as Speech and Language UK, which is the operating name of I CAN Charity and continues with the same structure.
Under company law the Trustees of our Charity are the Directors of the charitable company and together form the Council. Trustees are recruited by the Board of Trustees and are elected by the members for terms of three years, and may serve for two such terms of office, or three in exceptional circumstances.
New Trustees are inducted into our Charity through a series of meetings with our Senior Management Team and, during the year, new and existing Trustees meet to review our Charity’s operations and plans.
To enable the Council to carry out its responsibilities in the most effective way it has established a number of subcommittees to focus on certain key areas as follows:
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Number of meetings held
during year
**----- End of picture text -----**
|Finance and Audit|4|
|---|---|
|Social Enterprise
Programme Development|3
3|
|Remuneration|4|
|Education|5|
Charity. The progress of our Charity against the strategic plan is monitored regularly by the Trustees.
Where our Charity charges for its services, the price is agreed with each purchasing authority and the prices charged are based on the principles of full cost recovery. The agreed or anticipated prices are factored into business plans and income forecasts. Salary levels are set by reference to a pay benchmarking scheme that considers prevailing market rates. Salary changes are communicated to staff each year during the annual salary review process. Other costs are controlled by contract negotiations and competitive tendering with suppliers for major items of expenditure.
The credit risk on amounts owed to our Charity by its customers is low, as the majority of debtors are local authorities. Our Charity has no longterm borrowings and, if necessary, the investment portfolio could be realised at short notice.
Our Charity’s trading subsidiary, Speech and Language UK Services Limited, which provides educational services to children with communication needs, has been consolidated into our Charity's financial statements. The I CAN Consolidated Fund, the Countess of Meath Fund and the Ministering Children's League Fund are linked charities of I CAN Charity and have been amalgamated into our Charity's financial statements.
Our charity has an additional subsidiary, Speech and Language UK Ltd, a company limited by guarantee, company number 14369678, which is currently dormant.
The Trustees of our Charity meet at least three times a year and are responsible for making the major decisions relating to the running of our Charity. These decisions include approval of the strategy, of the annual budget and the approval of agreements material to the financial position of our Charity.
Operational decisions are made by the Chief Executive and the Senior Management of our
Annual report and financial statements **|** Speech and Language UK **| 23**
## **Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities**
The Trustees (who are also directors of our Charity for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.
Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law the Trustees have prepared the financial statements in accordance with United Kingdom Accounting Standards, comprising FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland”, and applicable law (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). Under company law the Trustees must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of the affairs of the charitable company and the group and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable group for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:
- select suitable accounting policies and then
- apply them consistently.
- observe the methods and principles in the
- Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities.
- make judgments and estimates that are
- reasonable and prudent.
- state whether applicable UK Accounting
- Standards, comprising FRS 102, have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements.
- 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 are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the charitable company’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and the group and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006, Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended). They
are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and the group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
The Trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company’s website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.
In the case of each Trustee in office at the date the Trustees’ Report is approved:
- so far as the Trustee is aware, there is no
- relevant audit information of which the group and charitable company’s auditors are unaware.
- they have taken all the steps that they
- ought to have taken as a Trustee in order to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the group and charitable company’s auditors are aware of that information.
## **Public benefit**
The Trustees confirm that they have had regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit in reporting on the Charity’s achievements, performance and future plans on pages 6 to 19.
**The Council of Trustees’ Report (including the Strategic Report) was approved by the Council on 21st September 2023 and signed on its behalf by:**
**Roy Blatchford CBE Chair of Trustees**
**Stuart Shepley Treasurer**
**24 |** Speech and Language UK **|** Annual report and financial statements
## **Independent auditors' report**
## **Independent auditors’ report to the members and trustees of I CAN Charity**
## **Report on the audit of the financial statements**
ISAs (UK) are further described in the Auditors’ responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
## **Independence**
## **Opinion**
In our opinion, I CAN Charity’s group financial statements and parent charitable company financial statements (the “financial statements”):
- give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s and of the parent charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2023 and of the group’s incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, and the group’s cash flows for the year then ended;
We remained independent of the group and parent charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, which includes the FRC’s Ethical Standard and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements.
## **Conclusions relating to going concern**
- have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards, comprising FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland”, and applicable law); and
- have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulations 6 and 8 of The Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended).
We have audited the financial statements, included within the Annual Report and Financial Statements (the “Annual Report”), which comprise: the Consolidated and Charity Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2023; the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities, the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flow for the year then ended; and the notes to the financial statements, which include a description of the significant accounting policies.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the group and parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from the date on which the financial statements are authorised for issue.
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
However, because not all future events or conditions can be predicted, this conclusion is not a guarantee as to the group’s and parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
## **Reporting on other information**
## **Basis for opinion**
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (“ISAs (UK)”) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under
The other information comprises all of the information in the Annual Report other than the financial statements and our auditors’ report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information. Our opinion on the financial statements
Annual report and financial statements **|** Speech and Language UK **| 25**
does not cover the other information and,
accordingly, we do not express an audit opinion or, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in this report, any form of assurance thereon. In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify an apparent material inconsistency or material misstatement, we are required to perform procedures to conclude whether there is a material misstatement of the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report based on these responsibilities.
With respect to the Trustees' Report (including the Strategic Report), we also considered whether the disclosures required by the UK Companies Act 2006 have been included.
Based on our work undertaken in the course of the audit, the Companies Act 2006 and The Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) require us also to report certain opinions and matters as described below.
## **Trustees' Report (including the Strategic Report)**
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit the information given in the Trustees’ Report (including the Strategic Report), for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and the Strategic Report and the Trustees’ Report (including Strategic Report) have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
In addition, in light of the knowledge and understanding of the group and parent charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we are required to report if we have identified any material misstatements in the Trustees’ Report (including Strategic Report). We have nothing to report in this respect.
## **Responsibilities for the financial statements and the audit Responsibilities of the trustees for the financial statements**
As explained more fully in the Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities, the trustees are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the applicable framework and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view. The trustees are also responsible for such internal control as they determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the group’s and parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the group and parent charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
## **Auditors’ responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements**
We have been appointed as auditors under section 44(1) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and under the Companies Act 2006 and report in accordance with the Acts and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditors’ report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent
**26 |** Speech and Language UK **|** Annual report and financial statements
to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, is detailed below.
Based on our understanding of the group and parent charitable company/industry, we identified that the principal risks of non-compliance with laws and regulations related to employer related legislation, health and safety laws and standards imposed on the group by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), and we considered the extent to which non-compliance might have a material effect on the financial statements. We also considered those laws and regulations that have a direct impact on the financial statements such as the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulations 6 and 8 of The Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended). We evaluated management’s incentives and opportunities for fraudulent manipulation of the financial statements (including the risk of override of controls), and determined that the principal risks were related to the creation of fraudulent transactions designed to overstate the financial performance and position of the group. Audit procedures performed included:
- Reviewing board minutes and holding discussions with management including consideration of known or suspected instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations and fraud;
- Reviewing the results of the latest OFSTED inspections of the group’s schools;
- Using computer-based audit techniques to identify and test higher risk journals, in particular those considered to have unusual account combinations; and
- Obtaining third party confirmations of all of the group’s banking, investing and financing arrangements.
There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures described above. We are less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations that are not closely related to events and transactions reflected in the financial statements. Also, the risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery or intentional misrepresentations, or through collusion.
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the FRC’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/ auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditors’ report.
## **Use of this report**
This report, including the opinions, has been prepared for and only for the charitable company’s members and trustees as a body in accordance with section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Companies Act 2006 and regulations made under those Acts (regulation 10 of The Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006) and for no other purpose. We do not, in giving these opinions, accept or assume responsibility for any other purpose or to any other person to whom this report is shown or into whose hands it may come save where expressly agreed by our prior consent in writing.
## **Other required reporting**
## **Matters on which we are required to report by exception**
Under the Companies Act 2006 and The Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) we are required to report to you if, in our opinion:
- we have not obtained all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or
- adequate and proper accounting records have not been kept by the parent charitable company or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
- certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
- the parent charitable company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns.
We have no exceptions to report arising from this responsibility.
**Jonathan Bound (Senior Statutory Auditor) for and on behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditors Cardiff**
Annual report and financial statements **|** Speech and Language UK **| 27**
## **Financial statements**
## **Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities**
## **for the year ended 31 March 2023**
|||**Restricted**|**Restricted**|**Unrestricted**|**Unrestricted**|**Total**|**Total**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||General|Endowment|Designated|General|2023|2022|
||Notes|£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|**Income**||||||||
|Donations & Legacies|2,3|1,685|-|-|751|2,436|2,210|
|Schools Activities|3|672|-|-|6,,462|7,134|6,431|
|Programme Delivery|3|-|-|-|1,227|1,227|981|
|Activities||||||||
|Investments
Total Income
**Expenditure**|10|-
2,357|-
-|-
-|87
8,527|87
10,884|80
9,702|
|Costs of RaisingFunds|4|-|-|-|403|403|350|
|Schools Activities|4|673|10|81|6,249|7,013|6,526|
|Programme Delivery
Activities|4|1,701|-|-|1,825|3,526|2,375|
|Awareness Raising &
Information
Total Expenditure|4
4|-
2,374|-
10|-
81|675
9,152|675
11,617|335
9,586|
|**Net (Expenditure)/**
**Income for the year**||(17)|(10)|(81)|(625)|(733)|116|
|**Other Recognised**
**(Losses)/Gains**
Investments||||||||
|Unrealised
(Losses)/Gains|10|-|(107)|-|(69)|(176)|476|
|**Net Movement on Funds**||(17)|(117)|(81)|(694)|(909)|592|
|Funds at 1 April 2021||561|3,364|1,292|2,843|8,060|7,468|
|Funds at 31 March 2022|17|544|3,247|1,211|2,149|7,151|8,060|
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses in the year and therefore a separate statement of total recognised gains and losses was not prepared. All of the above amounts relate to continuing activities.
Notes to the consolidated financial statements are shown on pages 31-45.
**28 |** Speech and Language UK **|** Annual report and financial statements
## **Consolidated and Charity balance sheets**
## **as at 31 March 2023**
|||**Group**|**Group**|**Charity**|**Charity**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||2023|2022|2023|2022|
||Notes|£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|**FIXED ASSETS**||||||
|Tangible Assets|9a|2,624|2,733|2,514|2,733|
|Intangible Assets|9b|27|27|27|27|
|Investments|10|4,556|5,032|4,556|5,032|
|**CURRENT ASSETS**||7,207|7,792|7,097|7,792|
|Debtors|11|2,171|2,037|1,596|1,499|
|Stock|12|199|203|199|203|
|Cash at Bank and in Hand
**CURRENT LIABILITIES**||309
2,679|1,158
3,398|189
1,984|1,008
2,710|
|Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
NET CURRENT ASSETS|13|(2,735)
(56)|(3,130)
268|(1,930)
54|(2,442)
268|
|NET ASSETS
**ENDOWMENT FUNDS**
Endowment Funds
**RESTRICTED FUNDS**|14|7,151
3,247|8,060
3,364|7,151
3,247|8,060
3,364|
|Fixed Asset Funds|15|99|125|99|125|
|Other Funds
**UNRESTRICTED FUNDS**|15|445
544|436
561|445
544|436
561|
|Designated Funds|16|1,211|1,292|1,211|1,292|
|General Funds|16|2,149
3,360|2,843
4,135|2,149
3,360|2,843
4,135|
|TOTAL FUNDS|17|7,151|8,060|7,151|8,060|
The defecit for the year within the Charity only financial statements is £909k (2022: £592k surplus).
The financial statements on pages 28-30 were approved by the Council on 21st September 2023 and signed on its behalf by:
**Roy Blatchford CBE Chair of Trustees**
**Stuart Shepley Treasurer**
England and Wales Charity Registration Number: 210031 Scottish Charity Registration Number: SC039947 Company Registration Number: 00099629
Annual report and financial statements **|** Speech and Language UK **| 29**
## **Consolidated statement of cash flow**
## **for the year ended 31 March 2023**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
2023 2022
Notes £'000 £'000
Cash flow (used by)/generated from operating activities
Net cash (used by)/generated from operating activities A (984) 102
Cash flows from investing activities:
Dividends and interest from investments 87 80
Purchase of property, plant and equipment (225) (984)
Purchase of intangible Assets (27) -
Sale of investments 300 -
Net cash (used by) investing activities (135) (904)
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting year (849) (802)
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting year 1,158 1,960
at 1 April
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting year at B 309 1,158
31 March
2023 2022
Notes to the Consolidated cash flow statement Notes £'000 £'000
A Net movement of funds for the reporting year (909) 592
Adjustments for:
Depreciation charges 333 286
Amortisation charges 27 54
Disposal of property, plant and equipment 1 -
Decrease in stock 4 146
(Increase) in debtors (134) (408)
(Decrease) in creditors (395) (11)
Dividends and interest from investments (87) (80)
(Gains) on investments 176 (477)
Net cash (used by)/generated from operating activities (984) 95
2023 2022
Notes £'000 £'000
B Analysis of cash and cash equivalents
Cash in hand 309 1,158
Total cash and cash equivalents 309 1,158
**----- End of picture text -----**
**30 |** Speech and Language UK **|** Annual report and financial statements
## **Notes to the consolidated financial statements**
## **1. Accounting policies**
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards in the United Kingdom, under the historical cost convention (as modified by the revaluation of certain fixed assets) and in accordance with applicable United Kingdom Accounting Standards. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP), "Accounting and Reporting by Charities" published (revised 2019), the FRS 102, in accordance with the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Act 2011. The financial statements are prepared on a going concern basis and the accounting policies have been applied consistently
## **(i) Our Charity is a public benefit entity.**
## **(ii) Income**
Income is shown gross with the exception of funds raised by local fundraising groups, which is stated after deduction of direct expenses such as hire of premises and ticket printing costs.
Income is analysed by source and by those constraints placed on it as follows: -
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Endowment income Income which increases the capital value of the
endowment funds.
Restricted income Income, the expenditure of which is subject to specific
conditions placed on its use by the donor.
Unrestricted income Income which has no constraints placed on its use and
may be expended on any of the Charity's charitable
objectives.
**----- End of picture text -----**
Investment income from endowment funds is accounted for as unrestricted, restricted or endowment income as defined by the terms of the endowment.
Income is accrued and included in the SOFA when the Group is entitled to the income, receipt can be measured and is probable.
Income from the sale of goods and services is recognised to the extent that the goods and service have been provided. If a grant contract contains the right to receive periodic payments, these receipts are recognised when they fall due and on completion of I CAN Charity’s contractual obligations for the period.
Donations are recognised when received. Donations in kind are recognised at their value to the Group when received and an equivalent amount is included in the appropriate cost line in the SOFA. Legacies are recognised when probate has been granted and the income can be valued with reasonable certainty. Legacies received in the form of property or investments are valued at their fair value.
Where incoming resources are received before goods and services have been provided, these are recorded as deferred income within creditors. Deferred income is released to incoming resources at the point of delivery of the goods and services.
## **(iii) Funds**
- Funds are held in reserves having due regard to the requirements of the donor and the needs of the organisation.
Annual report and financial statements **|** Speech and Language UK **| 31**
Endowment Funds represent funds, the capital of which is not freely available to I CAN and must be held in perpetuity unless otherwise authorised by the Charity Commission, or so permitted by thetrust under which the fund was set up. These funds cannot normally be used to directly support general running costs. Please see (ix) below for further detail on capital funds.
Restricted Funds represent the balances of donations and legacies held in trust and which can onlybe expended in accordance with the specific terms laid down by the donors. Fixed Asset Funds represent amounts already expended on fixed assets all of which are used to support the work of our Charity. These assets include freehold and leasehold properties as well as equipment and motor vehicles.
Designated Funds are identified by the Trustees for approved expenditure for schools’ development and specific projects critical to the operation and development of our Charity.
General Funds are the only funds our Charity has to use freely for the day-to-day needs of our Charity and to provide protection against future risks, including reductions in voluntary income, investment income fluctuations and variations in other revenue streams. The Trustees have set a target level of unrestricted general funds at £1.75m based on their evaluation of I CAN’s requirements.
Where required, transfers are made between funds as set out in Notes 14 to 15.
## **(iv) Expenditure**
Expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis. Expenditure includes attributable VAT which cannot be recovered. Provisions are established when our Charity is subject to legal or constructive obligations and will incur costs in the fulfilment of these obligations.
Fundraising costs are those costs which are directly incurred by our Charity in performing fundraising activities. They also include an equitable share of support costs and general overheads.
Costs incurred in support of the services provided by our Charity have been allocated to activity cost categories on a basis consistent with the use of resources.
Governance costs comprise those incurred in the governance of our Charity and are primarily associated with strategic planning, constitutional and statutory requirements.
Rentals payable under operating leases are charged on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease.
## **(v) Tangible assets**
Tangible assets costing more than £1,000 are capitalised and held on the balance sheet at purchase cost. Depreciation is provided on tangible assets to write them off over their estimated useful lives as follows:
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Freehold Property 50 years
Leasehold Property Life of lease
Buildings Renovations 10 years
Equipment & Motor Vehicles 4 years
IT equipment 3 years
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **(vi) Intangible assets**
Intangible assets comprise website and management system costs. Intangible assets are held on the balance sheet at cost less accumulated amortisation and impairment losses. Intangible assets are amortised on a straight-line basis over the expected useful life of three years. Impairment reviews are conducted when events and changes in circumstances indicate that an impairment may have occurred. If any asset is found to have a carrying value materially higher than its recoverable amount, it is written down accordingly.
**32 |** Speech and Language UK **|** Annual report and financial statements
## **(vii) Investments**
Investments are stated at market value. Unrealised gains or losses are derived from the movement in market value during the year.
## **(viii) Stock**
Stock is valued at the lower of cost and net realisable value, and is used on a first in, first out basis.
## **(ix) Capital funds**
- Included with Endowment Funds are Capital Funds which are assets held on behalf of three trusts which are constituted as linked charities of I CAN, as per a direction made under Section 12 of the Charities Act 2011. The results of two permanent endowment funds, I CAN Consolidated Fund and Ministering Children’s League, and the expendable endowment fund, the Countess of Meath Fund, have been amalgamated into the Charity’s financial statements. Their Trustee is I CAN and their purposes are consistent with the objectives of I CAN (see Notes 10 and 14 for detail of these linked charities).
## **(x) Pensions**
Pension contributions are made under defined contribution schemes, the assets of which are held in separately administered funds. Pension contributions are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities when payable.
Pension fund contributions for teaching staff are also made to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme which is treated as if it were a defined contribution scheme under exemptions contained in FRS102 as described further in Note 22 below. These contributions are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities in the accounting period in which they fall due.
- **(xi)** The Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities, the Consolidated and Charity Balance Sheet and the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flow include the financial statements of I CAN and its subsidiary undertaking, I CAN Services Limited, made up to 31 March 2023 using the acquisition method of accounting on a line-by-line basis. Intra group transactions and profits are eliminated fully on consolidation.
- **(xii)** The Charity has adapted the Companies Act formats to reflect the Charities SORP (FRS 102) and the special nature of the Charity’s activities. No separate Statement of Financial Activities has been presented for the Charity alone as permitted by the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities SORP (FRS 102).
## **2. Donations and Legacies**
|**2. Donations and Legacies**|||
|---|---|---|
||2023|2022|
||£'000|£'000|
|Statutory Grants|470|374|
|Grant MakingTrusts|940|1,158|
|Major Gifts|238|169|
|Corporate Donations and Sponsorship|82|89|
|Legacies|55|167|
|Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme|-|1|
|Other Donations and Events|651|252|
||2,436|2,210|
There were no material donations from Trustee and key management personnel. (2022: nil).
Annual report and financial statements **|** Speech and Language UK **| 33**
## **3. Statutory grants**
|**3. Statutory grants**|||
|---|---|---|
||2023|2022|
||£'000|£'000|
|**Department for Education (DfE)**|||
||||
|School Grants (Education Funding Agency)|1,562|1,479|
|Other Grants (Delivery of HLE and SEND projects by I CAN and TCT)|310|341|
|These grants have been analysed in the SOFA as follows:|1,872
2023|1,820
2022|
||£'000|£'000|
|Schools Activities|1,562|1,479|
|Gifts, Donations and Legacies|310
1,872|341
1,820|
## **4. Analysis of expenditure**
|**4. Analysis of expenditure**|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Staf Costs|Other|Depreciation|2022 Total|
||£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|**Direct charitable expenditure**|||||
|Schools|5.235|289|1,589|7,013|
|Programme Delivery Activities|2,189|60|1,277|3,526|
|Awareness Raising & Information|185|11|479|675|
||7,509|360|3,345|11,214|
|Costs of Generating funds
Fundraising|309
7,818|0
360|94
3,439|403
11,617|
2022 Analysis of expenditure
|2022 Analysis of expenditure|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Staf Costs|Other|Depreciation|2022 Total|
|**Direct charitable expenditure**|||||
|Schools|4,735|243|
1,548|6,526|
|Programme Delivery Activities (including|1,633|75|
667|2,375|
|TCT)|||||
|Awareness Raising & Information|179|21|
135|335|
|Costs of Generating funds
Fundraising|6,547
216
6,763|339
1
340|
2,350
133
2,483|9,236
350
9,586|
||||2022|2021|
||||£'000|£'000|
|**Staf costs:**|||||
|Wages and Salaries|||5,896|5,046|
|Social Securitycosts|||567|450|
|Otherpension and beneft costs|||693|604|
|Agencystaf and consultants|||464|498|
|Other staf costs|||198|165|
||||7,818|6,763|
**34 |** Speech and Language UK **|** Annual report and financial statements
Termination payments were made during the year to 2 (2022:0) employees totalling £35k
The average number of employees during the year was 221 (2022: 205). Their full-time equivalents would be 185 (2022: 172) which can be apportioned by categories as follows: educational services 143 (2022: 140), fundraising and awareness raising 13 (2022: 10) administration 9 (2022: 7) and programme delivery 20 (2022: 0).
||Number in 2023|Number in 2022|
|---|---|---|
|**Emoluments of higher paid employees:**|||
|£60,000 to £70,000|5|1|
|£70,001 to £80,000|2|3|
|£80,001 to £90,000|2|2|
Termination payments of £31k (2022:0) were made to one (2022:0) higher paid employee
There were contributions of £50,116 made to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme for 3 higher paid employees (2022: £34,924: 2). Contributions of £44,225 (2022: £33,626) were paid to a defined pension contribution scheme for 6 (2022: £33,626: 4) higher paid employees.
## **Key management personnel**
Key management personnel of our Charity are the Senior Management Team as listed on page 47. The total amount of employee benefits for these 8 (2022: 7) positions was £748,775 (2022: £550,931).
## **5. Allocation of support costs**
||Occupancy|Human|Finance and|Governance|2022|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||Resources|Information|(note 6)|Total|
||||Technology|||
||£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|Fundraising Activity|66|4|55|44|169|
|Schools|-|119|461|56|636|
|Programme DeliveryActivities|90|11|24|7|132|
|Awareness Raising & Information|61|1|5|7|74|
||217|135|545|114|1,011|
Support costs have been allocated to activity cost categories on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Occupancy costs have been allocated on a per capita basis, staff costs by an assessment of time spent and other costs by their usage.
## **Analysis of support costs**
||Staf Costs|Other|Depreciation|2023|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||Total|
||£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|Governance (note 6)|93|21|-|114|
|Occupancy|38|176|3|217|
|Human Resources|104|31|-|135|
|Finance and Information Technology|219|285|41|545|
||454|513|44|1,011|
Annual report and financial statements **|** Speech and Language UK **| 35**
The prior year comparatives are as follows:
||Occupancy|Human|Finance and|Governance|2022|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||Resources|Information|(note 6)|Total|
||||Technology|||
||£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|Fundraising Activity|54|4|38|77|173|
|Schools|-|116|320|96|532|
|Programme DeliveryActivities|74|11|17|12|114|
|Awareness Raising & Information|50|1|4|12|67|
||178|132|379|197|886|
## **Analysis of support costs**
|**Analysis of support costs**|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Staf Costs|Other|Depreciation|2022 Total|
||£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|Governance (note 6)|44|153|-|197|
|Occupancy|36|139|3|178|
|Human Resources|78|54|-|132|
|Finance and Information Technology|176|162|41|379|
||334|508|44|886|
## **6. Governance costs**
|**6. Governance costs**|||
|---|---|---|
||2023|2022|
||£'000|£'000|
|Strategic planning and management|68|162|
|Auditors’ remuneration – other services|5|4|
|Auditors’ remuneration – audit services|41
114|36
202|
## **7. Consolidated financial statements**
Our Charity has taken advantage of the exemption provided by 408 of the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities SORP (FRS 102) not to publish its own Income and Expenditure account. The net movement of funds for the year within our Charity financial statements is negative £909k (2022: £592k positive).
## **8. Trustees’ remuneration**
In accordance with our Charity’s Memorandum of Association, no Trustee holds a salaried office with the Charity. In 2023, no Trustees received payment for work performed (2022: nil). In 2023, no Trustee claimed travel and subsistence expenses for attendance at meetings (2022: nil claimed).
**36 |** Speech and Language UK **|** Annual report and financial statements
## **9. Fixed assets – Group and Charity**
## **9a. Tangible assets**
||Buildings|Freehold|Leasehold|Equipment &|Total|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||Renovations|Property|Property|Motor||
|||||Vehicles||
||£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|**Cost**||||||
|At 1 April 2022|2,787|3,208|196|1,217|7,408|
|Additions|105|-|-|120|225|
|Disposals|-|-|-|(1)|(1)|
|At 31 March 2023|2,892|3,208|196|1,336|7,632|
|**Accumulated Depreciation**||||||
|At 1 April 2022|(1,355)|(2,209)|(196)|(915)|(4,675)|
|Charge for theyear|(135)|(63)|-|(135)|(333)|
|At 31 March 2023|(1,490)|(2,272)|(196)|(1,050)|(5,008)|
|Net book value at
31 March 2023|1,402|936|-|286|2,624|
|Net book value at
31 March 2022|1,432|999|-|302|2,733|
Of the Freehold Property, £330k (2022: £341k) of the net book value relates to the Ministering Children’s League fund, which is a permanent endowment.
## **9b. Intangible assets**
||2023|
|---|---|
||£'000|
|**Cost**||
|At 1 April 2022|173|
|Additions|27|
|At 31 March 2023|200|
|**Accumulated Amortisation**||
|At 1 April 2022|(146)|
|Charge for the year
At 31 March 2023|(27)
(173)|
|Net Book Value at 31 March 2023|27|
|Net Book Value at 31 March 2022|27|
Annual report and financial statements **|** Speech and Language UK **| 37**
## **10. Investments – Group and Charity**
||2023|2022|
|---|---|---|
||£'000|£'000|
|At 1 April 2022|5,032|4,555|
|Disposal|(300)|-|
|Unrealised (losses)/gains|(176)|477|
|At 31 March 2023|5,032|5,032|
|Historical cost of investments|2,666|2,666|
Included within the balance are investments with a value of £2,657k (2022: £2,765k) which relate to the group’s endowment funds as set out in note 14.
Investments in both years were held in managed UK investments funds. In 2023, £1,898k (2022: £2,268k) were held in Open Ended Investment Companies (OEICs) with the balance being held in Common Investment Funds. Investments also include an investment in the trading subsidiary company at a cost of £4 (2022: £4). I CAN Charity owns 100% of the share capital of its trading subsidiary, Speech and Language UK Services Limited. Speech and Language UK Services Limited is incorporated in the UK and the address of the registered office is the same as that for I CAN Charity (trading as Speech and Language UK) as shown on Page 46.
## **Investment Income**
|**Investment Income**||
|---|---|
|2023|2022|
|£'000|£'000|
|Dividends and interest on Listed Investments
87|80|
|87|80|
## **11. Debtors**
|**11. Debtors**|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Group**||**Charity**||
||2023|2022|2023|2022|
||£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|Debtors for school fees|938|848|-|-|
|Other Trade Debtors|556|561|556|561|
|Other Debtors|34|12|28|12|
|Amounts due from subsidiary|-|-|420|354|
|Prepayments and accrued income|643|572|592|572|
||2,171|2,037|1,596|1,499|
## **12. Stock**
|**12. Stock**|**12. Stock**|||
|---|---|---|---|
|**Group**||**Charity**||
|2023|2022|2023|2022|
|£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|Goods for resale
199
199|203
203|199
199|203
203|
Stock is stated after a provision for impairment of £34k (2022 £50k).
**38 |** Speech and Language UK **|** Annual report and financial statements
## **13. Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year**
||**Group**|**Group**|**Charity**|**Charity**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||2023|2022|2023|2022|
||£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|Trade creditors|(271)|(450)|(210)|(450)|
|Other creditors including tax and Social|(481)|(329)|(481)|(329)|
|Security|||||
|Accruals|(187)|(256)|(184)|(256)|
|Deferred Income|(1,796)|(2,096)|(1,055)|(1,408)|
||(2,735)|(3,130)|(1,930)|(2,442)|
## **14. Endowment funds – Group and Charity**
||As at 1 April|Income|(Expense)|Investment|As at|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||2022|||(losses)|31 March 2023|
||£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|**Expendable**||||||
|**Endowment**||||||
|Countess of|45|-|-|-|45|
|Meath||||||
|**Permanent**||||||
|**Endowment**||||||
|Princess Alice|447|-|-|(17)|430|
|Fund||||||
|I CAN|815|-|-|(23)|792|
|Consolidated||||||
|Fund||||||
|Ministering|2,057|-|(10)|(67)|1,980|
|Children’s||||||
|League Fund||||||
|Total|3,364|-|(10)|(107)|3,247|
## **Countess of Meath**
Income is to be applied for the benefit of the schools.
## **Princess Alice Fund**
The income may be used for the general charitable purposes of I CAN Charity.
The **I CAN Consolidated Fund, Ministering Children’s League Fund** and the **Countess of Meath Fund** are linked charities of I CAN Charity and have been included within the Charity funds above. Income may be used for any general charitable purpose of I CAN Charity.
With the exception of the Countess of Meath endowment, only income from the endowment funds may be expended by the Charity. The capital itself must be held in perpetuity unless otherwise authorised by the Charity Commission or so permitted under the trust under which the fund was set up.
Annual report and financial statements **|** Speech and Language UK **| 39**
## **15. Restricted funds – Group and Charity**
||Balance|Restricted|Restricted|Balance|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||1 April|Income|Expenditure|31 March|
||2022|||2023|
||£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|**Fixed Asset Funds**|||||
|Dawn House|11|-||11|
|Dawn House Chimes|61|-|(5)|56|
|Meath School Minibus|3|-|-|3|
|Meath School Fencing|4|-|(1)|3|
|Meath School Woodlands|4|-|(4)|-|
|CRM project
Total Fixed Asset Funds|42
125|-
-|(16)
(26)|26
99|
|**Other Funds**
Dawn House General|74|20|(8)|86|
|Dawn House Motor Vehicles|9|-|(5)|4|
|Dawn House Food Tech Room|38|-|(1)|37|
|Dawn House Sports Hall|12|23|-|35|
|Dawn House Capex|43|311|(228)|126|
|Dawn House Laptops – Permira
Meath General|8
184
137|-
354
36|(8)
(250)
(141)|-
288
32|
|Meath Capital|44|121|(107)|58|
|Meath FamilySupport Project|5|-|-|5|
|Meath Playground|45|-|(2)|43|
|Meath Residential|-|158|(158)|-|
|Meath HolidayProject|8|4|(6)|6|
|Meath SupportingFamilyFund|3|-|-|3|
|Meath Laptops - Permira|5
247|-
319|-
(414)|5
152|
**40 |** Speech and Language UK **|** Annual report and financial statements
||Balance|Restricted|Restricted|Balance|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||1 April 2022|Income|Expenditure|31 March|
|||||2023|
||£'000|£'000|£'000|£000|
|**Programme Funding**|||||
|Tots TalkingLondon|-|36|(36)|-|
|Stockton on Tees|-|109|(109)|-|
|Talk for Work - East Sussex|-|20|(20)|-|
|Policyand Public Afairs|-|61|(61)|-|
|EnquiryService|-|33|(33)|-|
|Talk for Work - Kent|-|5|(5)|-|
|Talk for Work - West Midlands|-|3|(3)|-|
|Talk Boost 2023 (Newham and Haringey)|-|11|(11)|-|
|Stronger Pratice Hubs ETB Rollout|-|9|(9)|-|
|ETB Tower Hamlets|-|1|(1)|-|
|Digital and TechnologyGrant|-|4|(4)|-|
|West Somerset EarlyTalkers|-|36|(36)|--|
|Cumbria Communication Project|-|11|(11)|-|
|NurseryInclusion Project Wandsworth|-|42|(42)|-|
|I CAN Catch upProject|-|4|(4)|-|
|Changingthe Conversation about Language|-|228|(228)|-|
|EarlyYears SEND Project|-|82|(82)|-|
|Bath and North East Somerset Tots Talking|-|15|(15)|-|
|Queen Elizabeth Grammar School Blackburn|-|16|(16)|-|
|English Hubs TrainingCentres|-|31|(31)|-|
|Hiscox Foundation|-|5|(5)|-|
|Let's Get KnowsleyTalking|-|6|(6)|-|
|EarlyYears PathwayProject|-|29|(29)|-|
|What Works Database|-|10|(10)|-|
|COLTALE|-|18|(18)|-|
|Teletherapy(non RT)|-|5|(5)|-|
|Mercers|-|136|(136)|-|
|Tiered Ofer Development|-|48|(48)|-|
|Westminster Talk Boost|5|-|-|5|
|Permira Talk Boost|-|74|(74)|-|
|Constable Education Trust|-|20|(20)|-|
|**Rayners**|||||
|Rayners DLD Pilot|-|16|(16)|-|
|Rayners Digitisation|-|92|(92)|-|
|Rayners TCT Grants|-|331|(331)|-|
|Rayners Policy& Public|-|15|(15)|-|
|Rayners General|-|22|(22)|-|
|Rayners Research Centre|-|75|(75)|-|
|Rayners Meath Assessment|-|25|(25)|-|
||5|1,684|(1,684)|5|
|Total Other Funds|436|2,357|(2,348)|45|
|Total Restricted Funds|561|2,357|(2,374)|544|
Annual report and financial statements **|** Speech and Language UK **| 41**
Our utmost thanks go to all our invaluable funders.
## **Fixed Asset funds**
Dawn House – Funds raised for Dawn House buildings and equipment. Meath – Funds raised for Meath buildings and equipment. Meath minibus – Funds raised for a minibus for Meath. Meath Woodlands – Funds raised for a woodlands project at Meath. CRM Project – CRM project funded by a funder who wishes to remain anonymous.
## **Funds have been raised directly to support children in both our schools, Dawn House School and Meath School.**
## **General funds are raised to achieve the objectives of the Charity and two schools and further funds are raised for specific purposes for the school's benefits as noted above.**
## **Charity of Sir Richard Whittington (for which the Mercers’ Company is Corporate Trustee)**
The second instalment of a three-year commitment was received to support the development, testing and evaluation of Early Talk Boost intervention specifically for children with English as an Additional Language (EAL).
## **Department for Education**
Department for Education (Home Learning Environment) - Led by I CAN, the Talk & Play project aimed to engage key stakeholders in Birmingham, Coventry and Leicester to improve the early language development of children aged 0-4. Working with 90 early years settings across the three sites and the parent/carers of the children accessing these services, we delivered a concerted series of staff training as well as parental support and advice through the EasyPeasy app.
Department for Education (EY SEND) - Led by National Children’s Bureau and delivered in partnership with Council for Disabled Children, nasen, Speech and Language UK, Dingley’s Promise and Contact, this project aims to improve the quality of provision for children with SEND in the Early Years through a focus on professional development.
## **16. Unrestricted funds – Group and Charity**
||Balance|Change in|Balance|
|---|---|---|---|
||1 April 2022|Year|31 March|
||||2023|
||£'000|£'000|£'000|
|**Designated Funds:**||||
|Fixed Asset Funds||||
|Schools|1,233|(81)|1,152|
|Other Funds||||
|Premises Repair/Dilapidation|59|-|59|
|Total Designated Funds|1,292|(81)|1,211|
|General Funds|2,843|(694)|2,149|
|Total Unrestricted Funds|4,135|(775)|3,360|
## **Designated Fixed Asset Funds**
Net book value of the fixed assets used for the delivery of the Charity’s direct charitable activities (not otherwise funded by Capital or Restricted Funds).
**42 |** Speech and Language UK **|** Annual report and financial statements
## **17. Analysis of net assets – Group**
||General|Designated|Restricted|Endowment|Balance 31|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||Funds|Funds|Funds|Funds|March 2022|
||£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|Tangible Assets|1,067|1,152|75|330|2,624|
|Intangible Assets|2|-|25|-|27|
|Investments|1,899|-|-|2,657|4,556|
|Net Current Assets|(819)|59|444|260|(56)|
|Total Net Assets|2,149|1,211|544|3,247|7,151|
||General|Designated|Restricted|Endowment|Balance 31|
||Funds|Fixed Asset|Funds|Funds|March 2022|
|||Funds||||
||£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|Tangible Assets|1,076|1,233|84|341|2,733|
|Intangible Assets|(14)|-|41|-|27|
|Investments|2,268|-|-|2,765|5,032|
|Net Current Assets|(486)|59|436|259|268|
|Total Net Assets|2,843|1,292|561|3,364|8,061|
Annual report and financial statements **|** Speech and Language UK **| 43**
## **18. Prior year comparator for SOFA**
||Unrestricted|Restricted|Endowment|Total|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Funds|Funds|Funds||
||£'000|£'000|£'000|£'000|
|**INCOME**|||||
|Donations & Legacies|1,737|473|-|2,210|
|Schools Activities|380|6,051|-|6,431|
|Programme DeliveryActivities|-|981|-|981|
|Investments
TOTAL INCOME|-
2,117|80
7,585|-
-|80
9,702|
|**EXPENDITURE**
Costs of Raising Funds|-|350|-|350|
|Schools Activities|387|6,129|10|6,526|
|Programme DeliveryActivities|1,835|540|-|2,375|
|Awareness Raisingand Information|-|335|-|335|
|TOTAL EXPENDITURE|2,222|7,354|10|9,586|
|**NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE) FOR THE YEAR**|(105)|231|(10)|116|
|**OTHER RECOGNISED GAINS**
Investment Unrealised Gains|-|257|219|476|
|**NET MOVEMENT ON FUNDS**|(105)|488|209|592|
|Funds at 1 April 2021|666|3,647|3,155|7,468|
|Funds at April 2022|561|4,135|3,364|8,060|
## **19. Commitments under operating leases and capital commitments**
On 13 April 2021 a new 5 year lease was signed between our Charity and its landlord with annual rental of £96,064. This included a 3-month rent free period from March 2021 with our first due in July 2021. The lease includes break clause after the first 3 years. The rent for this financial year is £96k (2022 £74k)
||2023|2022|
|---|---|---|
||£'000|£'000|
|Payment not later than one year|96|72|
|Payment later than oneyear and not later than fveyears|96|192|
|Total commitments under operating lease|192|264|
## **20. Capital**
The Company is limited by guarantee and has no share capital. The liability of the 15 members under the guarantee is limited to £1 each.
**44 |** Speech and Language UK **|** Annual report and financial statements
## **21. Related party transactions**
I CAN Charity has an active wholly owned subsidiary: Speech and Language UK Services Limited. The amounts outstanding to Speech and Language UK Services Limited is disclosed in note 11.
I CAN Charity also has a fully owned dormant subsidiary, Speech and Language UK Limited. A company limited by guaranty, company number: 14369678. This company was incorporated on 22 September 2022.
Key management personnel and Trustee remuneration disclosures are given in note 4 and 8 respectively.
## **22. Pension obligations**
The Group participates in two pension schemes:
- (i) The Teachers’ Pensions Scheme (TPS); and
- (ii) A Defined Contribution Scheme, being a Group Personal Pension Plan provided by Aviva.
The total pension cost for the group was £672k (2022: £586k).
## **Teachers’ Pensions Scheme**
The TPS is an unfunded defined benefit scheme. Contributions on a ‘pay as you go’ basis are credited to the Exchequer under arrangements governed by the Superannuation Act 1972.
The latest actuarial review of the TPS for which information is available was carried out as at 31 March 2016 and in accordance with The Public Service Pensions (Valuations and Employer Cost Cap) (Amendment) Directions 2018. The valuation report was published by the DfE on 5 March 2019. The key results of the valuation are:
- total scheme liabilities for service to the effective date of £218.1 billion, and notional assets of £196.1 billion, giving a notional past service deficit of £22 billion;
- employer contribution rates were increased from 16.4% to 23.6% of pensionable pay (including administration fees of 0.08%) with effect from 1 September 2019.
As noted above, from 1 April 2015 employer contributions were 16.4%, increasing to 23.6% from 1 September 2019. Employee contributions in 2022 and 2021 were based on tiered contribution rates as follows:
|**Contribution rate**|**2022-23**||**2021-22**||
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Lower salary|Higher Salary|Lower salary|Higher Salary|
|7.40%|-|£29,188|£0|£28,310|
|8.60%|£29,188|£39,291|£28,310|£38,109|
|9.60%|£39,291|£46,587|£38,109|£45,186|
|10.20%|£46,587|£61,743|£45,186|£59,886|
|11.30%|£61,743|£84,194|£59,886|£81,662|
|11.70%|£84,194|>|£81,662|>|
Under the definitions set out in FRS 102 section 28, the TPS is a multi-employer pension scheme. The Government Actuary is unable to identify the Charity's share of the underlying assets and liabilities of the scheme. Accordingly, the Charity has accounted for its contributions as if it were a defined contribution scheme.
Annual report and financial statements **|** Speech and Language UK **| 45**
## **Reference and administrative details of the charity, its trustees and advisers**
## Principal office and registered office
I CAN Charity (operating as Speech and Language UK) 2 Angel Gate London EC1V 2PT
Registered in England Company Registered Number 00099629 England and Wales Charity Registered Number 210031 Scottish Charity Registered Number SC039947
T: 020 7843 2510 | E: info@speechandlangauge.org.uk | Web: speechandlanguage.org.uk
**Patron:** The late Queen
## **Vice Presidents**
The Most Rev and Right Hon The Lord Archbishop of York The Right Rev and Right Hon The Lord Bishop of London Mrs. Susan Blackwood
Sir John Craven Ms. Frances Jacob Mrs. Lesley James CBE Mr. Oliver Thompson
**----- Start of picture text -----**
The council Date Elected Position Sub-Committees
**----- End of picture text -----**
|Mr. Roy Blatchford CBE|29.07.2020|Chair|Finance & Audit, Programme Development, Social|
|---|---|---|---|
||||Enterprise, Remuneration|
|Mr. Stuart Shepley|Co-opted from|Treasurer|Finance & Audit; Remuneration|
||21.09.2016|||
||Elected 27.09.2017|||
|Dr. Judy Clegg BSc,|21.09.2016||Programme Development|
|PhD, MRCSLT||||
|Ms. Susan Gregory|25.09.2014||Education from November 2021, Programme|
||||Development, Social Enterprise until October 2021|
|Mr. Riccardo Basile|27.09.2017||Social Enterprise|
|Ms. Ann Gross (Brown)|30.10.2019||Programme Development|
|Mr. John Willis|30.10.2019-05.09.2022||Finance and Audit|
|Mr. Simon Wright|30.10.2019||Social Enterprise|
|Mr. Luke Manning|28.10.2020||Social Enterprise|
|Mr. James Willan QC|02.11.2021||Remuneration, Finance and Audit|
|Ms. Julie Dockrell|24.02.2022||Programme Development, Remuneration|
|Mr. Narayan Deb|24.02.2022||Social Enterprise|
**46 | Speech and Language UK | Annual report and fnancial statements**
## **Senior Management Team**
Chief Executive Ms. Jane Harris Interim Chief Executive Mrs. Carol Payne (to May 2022) Deputy Chief Executive Mrs. Carol Payne (from September 2022) Director of Operations Mrs. Carol Payne (From May 2022 to September 2022) Director of Corporate Services Mr. Steve Williams (to September 2022) Director of Education Mr. Tom Pegler (to June 2022) Director of Education Mr. Neil Maslen (from June 2022) Director of Fundraising, Marketing and Mr. Samir Afhim (from September 2022) Communications Interim Director of External Affairs Ms. Sarah Lambert (to April 2022) Director of Policy and Evidence Ms. Louis Reeves (from September 2022) Director of Finance and IT Mrs. Sarah Pearson (from January 2023) Principal of Dawn House School Ms. Jenny McConnell Principal of Meath School Ms. Kim Bent (to September 2022) Principal of Meath School Ms. Majella Delaney (from December 2022)
## **Solicitors**
Bates Wells 10 Queen Street Place London EC4R 1BE
## **Bankers**
The Co-operative Bank 1 Islington High Street London N1 9TR
## **Independent Auditors**
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP One Kingsway Cardiff CF10 3PN
## **Linked charities**
Andrew Duncan Charity Brentwood Fund Childrens Home Exmouth Fund Claude Lewis Bounty (The Part Applicable to the Body incorporate) Earl of Suffolk’s Invalid Children’s Aid Fund Edith Edwards Fund Grassendale Charity
ICAN Consolidated Fund Roehampton Children’s Rest Fund St. Mary’s Home Haslemere Fund Sunshine Guild Fund The Charity of Mary Countess of Meath 1887 The Mary Countess of Meath Trust Fund The Ministering Children’s League
Annual report and financial statements **|** Speech and Language UK **| 47**
**speechandlanguage.org.uk Follow us at @SpeechAndLangUK**
Speech and Language UK is the operating name of I CAN Charity, a registered charity in England and Wales (210031) and Scotland (SC039947), which is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (00099629). Registered address: 2 Angel Gate, Hall Street, London, EC1V 2PT.