2021-03-31-accounts

SAMARITANS Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Julie Bentley joined Samaritans as CEO in November 2020. Keith Leslie became Chair of Trustees in January 2021.

In this report, we round up Samaritans’ year. The coronavirus pandemic has had a profound impact on everyone’s emotional wellbeing, and it will take time to heal. Part of our role is to shape environments and policies that reduce the risk of suicide, and that’s why we’re pressing for national recovery plans to focus on emotional as well as fiscal recovery.

When the pandemic hit, we took decisive action and launched an emergency fundraising appeal to make up for income lost from cancelled events. Thanks to all the people who donated to Samaritans or fundraised for us throughout the year, we are still in robust financial health. This means we’ve been able to continue supporting those who need us now, as well as developing new services for the future.

We also worked closely with governments to make sure that our volunteers, as key workers, could continue running our helpline during lockdowns. And we made sure support was available to those on the frontline of the pandemic, for example setting up a dedicated helpline for NHS and social care workers in England and Wales and working with other charities to make sure support was available for all frontline workers across the UK.

One silver lining of the crisis is it has prompted an extraordinary response from people wanting to help others. Record numbers got in touch this year to say they wanted to volunteer as a Samaritan. More people than we could train at the peak of the pandemic, when we had to adapt all our recruitment and training processes to run virtually. As we catch up, we look forward to welcoming many into the Samaritans family in the coming months.

We’re sure that every new volunteer will feel as proud as we have, to become part of this extraordinary volunteer and staff team. A team that has shown incredible dedication and resilience this year. In April 2020, the number of listening volunteers had fallen by a third, due to people having to isolate. Yet, thanks to the enormous efforts of thousands of Samaritans, we continued answering calls for help from people struggling to cope, at any time of day or night, throughout the lockdowns.

But it wasn’t a case of just keeping afloat; this year we began lobbying for better support for people who self-harm, we launched a self-help app, and hundreds of Samaritans piloted our online chat service. The latter is a really significant development that means we can begin to be there for more people who need immediate support but who don’t feel they can pick up the phone. A major priority for the coming year is to build capacity so online chat becomes part of our 24/7 service.

As we look ahead, we hope that easing of coronavirus restrictions will mean Samaritans can get back out into communities when they need us most. And we’re determined that Samaritans will reflect the communities that we serve. To achieve our vision that fewer people die by suicide, and reach everyone who needs us, we must become more inclusive and diverse in everything we do. This year we published Samaritans’ commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, and we are both personally committed to ensuring that as we develop the next Samaritans strategy, that equality, diversity and inclusion will be at its heart and embedded throughout it.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

As we take up our roles, we want to extend our significant thanks to our predecessors Ruth Sutherland, CBE, and Jenni McCartney who both worked tirelessly for Samaritans as the former CEO and Chair. But our biggest thanks must go to the extraordinary 20,000 Samaritans volunteers and 250 staff who, day in and day out, make sure Samaritans is always here for anyone who needs someone. The difference you make is life-changing. As one person who called Samaritans reflected; “It’s like someone saying, ‘I’ll hold your hand through the dark’”. In these difficult times, we’re needed more than ever.

Julie Bentley, CEO

Keith Leslie, Chair

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Our strategy, Working together to reduce suicide , was launched in 2015 and describes our vision for 2021, our priority areas and the ways in which we will work better to achieve even greater impact.

To achieve our vision of fewer people dying by suicide, we have identified four priority areas:

• Service: We will improve the quality and consistency of our service.

• Access: We will improve access to Samaritans’ services.

• Influence: We will have stronger and more effective external influence and connections with partners.

• Evidence: We will improve collection and application of evidence.

To deliver this, we needed to make a ‘step change’ across three key areas: volunteering, learning and development and how we use digital technology.

To achieve this transformation and successfully deliver our strategy we launched a programme of work called There for Everyone . The programme is evidence-based, developed through consultation with and input from a Volunteer Reference Panel with around 500 members, and is tested and piloted through our branches and regions, and has clearly defined projects.

Underpinning this work are our people, our brand and the income we need to raise to be sustainable.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Our current strategy was due to end in March 2021, but the Board of Trustees agreed that 2021/22 will be a bridging year, enabling us to focus on completing the final areas of work we are already committed to delivering, some of which have been unavoidably impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

During 2021/22 we are developing a new strategy, to take effect from April 2022. This will be a twoyear rolling programme, underpinned by a longer-term set of priorities we are aiming to achieve over the next five years, with equality, diversity and inclusion at its heart. Our new strategy will seek to build on our strengths and the successes of the current strategy, but also address areas where we know change is needed to reflect the impact of the pandemic and other changes in society.

In developing our new strategy, we are listening to the views of our volunteers, staff, people with lived experience of suicidal thoughts and self-harm, those bereaved by suicide, funders and supporters, policy makers, other charities, influencers and other key stakeholders.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

About this document

On the following pages, we highlight some of our major achievements during 2020/21.

In developing our strategy and accompanying activity plans, and in producing this Annual Report and Accounts, the Trustees have given due consideration to the Charity Commission for England & Wales’ published guidance on the public benefit requirement under the Charities Act 2011 as well as equivalent guidance from the Scottish Charity Regulator, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland Charities Regulator and relevant bodies within crown dependencies.

In particular, Samaritans’ core listening and online self-help services are available to the general public free of charge. This report also shows where support is provided in targeted settings and our wider influencing work to reduce incidents of suicide. The work carried out by Samaritans is consistent with charitable purposes as identified in the Charities Act 2011 (The advancement of health or saving of lives).[1]

Specific work carried out to measure the impact of Samaritans’ charitable activities evidenced both reductions in distress and feelings of suicide of Samaritans’ callers and wider impact of our awareness-raising work, for example, an increased or reinforced sense of confidence about how to approach persons who might need help and may be at risk of suicide.

Please see our 2020/21 Impact Report for more information about our work and how it is making a difference.

1 Equivalent purposes appear in the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008. The Republic of Ireland Charites Act 2009 identifies the promotion of health, including the prevention or relief of sickness, disease or human suffering as a charitable purpose.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

The coronavirus pandemic has had a profound impact on all of our lives and it is probably the biggest challenge we’ve ever had to face as a charity.

As a result of the pandemic, we had to put some activities on hold so we could prioritise others. We also had to take immediate action to make sure we could continue to be here when we were needed most.

The pandemic has impacted our work in many ways and you’ll see these referenced throughout the report. Here are a few examples:

• Due to shielding restrictions, Samaritans initially saw a 30 per cent reduction in volunteers who were able to do listening shifts at the start of the pandemic, but other volunteers stepped in to do extra shifts to make sure the service would still be available round the clock.

• Governments across the Nations confirmed Samaritans as a critical service, which meant volunteers were able to travel to attend their shifts even during lockdown periods.

• Thanks to the incredible efforts and dedication of Samaritans volunteers, we have maintained our 24/7 service since the start of the first lockdown, with volunteers across the UK and Ireland clocking up more than one million hours listening to those who are struggling to cope during the pandemic.

• Over the year since restrictions began, one in five calls for help have been about coronavirus with people feeling concerned about mental health and illness, family relationships, finance and unemployment, and loneliness and isolation. We’ve carried out regular surveys with volunteers and supported research to better understand the impact of the pandemic on our callers.

• Coronavirus meant that we have had to suspend our face-to-face service and physical outreach activities. It also made it challenging for us to deliver our Listener scheme in prisons, which led to an increase in calls from prisons to our helpline.

• We also had to reschedule some of our planned activities. For example, the launch of the second phase of our Real People, Real Stories campaign was delayed from March to August 2020. We also had to introduce our online chat service in a more gradual way than initially planned, as we had to focus on keeping our other helpline services running.

• We introduced new ways for people to access support during the pandemic, for example bringing forward the release of our self-help app, launching a new confidential support line service for NHS and social care workers in England and Wales, and working in partnership with other charities to support frontline workers.

• Like other charities, we were affected by the cancellation of fundraising events and launched a successful emergency appeal to make up for this lost income.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

This year, we adapted our services, infrastructure and training to the virtual environment required by the pandemic. We continued our work to maintain the quality of our services and safeguard callers, while developing plans to help us support more people in the future.

Our service framework

These are Samaritans’ service outcomes, which provide a framework for how we deliver our services:

1. Our services are seen to be relevant by those that we are seeking to support.

2. Our services are reliable and resilient as we invest in our infrastructure and technology.

3. Our services are available and accessible, and we have the staff and volunteer capability and capacity we need to meet demand.

4. Our services are impactful, and we can demonstrate beneficial outcomes for those that use them.

5. Our services are safe for those who use them, and those that deliver them.

6. We will actively seek the participation of our beneficiaries in the commissioning, design, development, and improvement of our services.

In our 2015-21 strategy we committed to improving the quality and consistency of our service by making sure that:

• all Samaritans’ callers experience a service which is responsive to their needs;

• Samaritans’ training, volunteer management and roles are designed in such a way to ensure that we have the right people, with the right skills, in the right roles;

• quality assurance processes are consistently implemented across all our services and projects.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

What we said we would do this year:

• Improve the quality of the services we provide , for example by creating engaging training and leadership resources, reviewing our core policies and embedding new escalation and reporting procedures.

• Increase our capacity to meet existing and future demand , for example by upgrading our helpline platform, supporting branches to recruit and retain volunteers, and developing new ways of volunteering.

• Effectively safeguard our callers, volunteers, staff and donors , for example by creating new safeguarding training and making improvements to help us better identify safeguarding concerns.

What we did:

We helped branches to adapt our volunteer recruitment processes from face-to-face to a completely virtual experience during the pandemic. A new recruitment journey and policy have been adopted this year to make recruitment quicker, easier and more flexible. A new branch management tool, which automates recruitment administration and processes, is also being rolled out across the organisation and this work will be completed in July 2021. We have seen an unprecedented number of people wanting to volunteer at Samaritans in the last year, receiving over 45,000 enquiries in 2020/21.

We introduced a new multi-channel platform , to increase the resilience and reliability of our helpline infrastructure in the UK and support our plans to roll out online chat. After an extensive procurement process, we started introducing the new platform to a few branches at a time. However, after experiencing a significant issue with our old platform, the decision was taken to significantly accelerate the roll-out. In a matter of weeks, we successfully migrated all 187 UK branches to the new platform. This was done without any impact on callers and the response from volunteers has been overwhelmingly positive.

We accelerated the roll-out of new branch technology and are on track to meet our target of replacing all branch duty stations with Chrome devices by the end of June 2021. The new technology is simpler for volunteers to use and easier to support. More importantly, the devices have been set up in a consistent and secure way, ensuring that data security risks are minimised. We also completed an accessibility audit of our helpline services and are working to implement the results. This has been delayed due to the pandemic and ongoing work to support the roll-out of online chat but we expect this work to be completed in the coming months.

We adapted our volunteer and staff training materials in response to the coronavirus pandemic so it could be delivered virtually. This included our core and refresher training for volunteers, our training for mentors, our induction and development of Branch Directors, and training for Samaritans staff. We introduced a new approach to continuous development for volunteers to ensure learning is relevant, interactive and engaging to the learner, using a range of methods wherever possible, rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Along with our ongoing mentoring, this

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

new approach will move us towards a culture of continuous learning. We also developed new training for volunteers, including about self-harm, mental health, speaking to callers from prisons, equality, diversity and inclusion, and providing emotional support through the written word. Finally, we completed an accessibility audit of our training, which prompted a redesign of our learning management system, which was completed in January 2021.

We delivered 370 courses through workplace training this year, reaching 3,658 participants in 128 different organisations. This was an amazing achievement after we had to cancel face-to-face training sessions during lockdown and adapt all of our courses to a virtual setting as a result of the pandemic. We responded by introducing new courses which are more suited to the virtual environment. These have been so well received that we will continue offering them even after restrictions have lifted. We also worked with the charity GamCare to develop training on how to support vulnerable customers for the gambling industry.

We developed a plan for expanding our service so we can continue to be here when people need us, now and in the future. Over the next year we'll be piloting and launching new locations where thousands of potential volunteers will be able to join our charity in new ways that enable them to overcome many of the barriers that can prevent people from volunteering. One recent example is London City Hub, designed to target busy city workers in central London, which launched in September 2020. By trialling a different approach to volunteer shifts, we hope London workers will be able to volunteer flexibly around their existing work patterns and busy lives. We’re also establishing ‘satellite’ locations, where branches set up another duty room in a different location. This allows us to bring volunteering opportunities to new places, without having to formally establish a new Samaritans branch. Finally, we are working on creating a new volunteering offer for students at university and exploring a new model for remote volunteering for Samaritans.

We continued to monitor the quality of our helpline services . We welcomed all feedback – good and bad. We investigated 443 service quality complaints,[2] as detailed in the table below.

Service quality complaints 2020/21	443
Substantiated complaints	61
Unsubstantiated complaints	103
Unproven	50
Unable to fullyinvestigate(eg,because not enough information wasprovided)	210
No further action needed(eg,because feedback waspositive)	19

Despite the pandemic, 61 quality reviews were carried out in branches last year to support the continuous improvement of the quality and consistency of our services. This is roughly the same number of quality reviews as in previous years. An audit of our email service was also carried out to help us better understand its safety and effectiveness, the results of which have fed into the

2 In total, we responded to more than 3 million calls for help by telephone, over 540,000 emails and 1,200 letters last year as detailed on page 13.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

development of a new model for email support to be introduced by the end of 2021. We have also developed a pool of quality monitors – volunteers who help quality assure our written word services.

We continued to invest in our safeguarding work , growing the team to include a Head of Safeguarding and two Safeguarding Managers. Alongside the staff team, we have a team of safeguarding volunteers who provide 24/7 support and guidance to branches through a dedicated safeguarding support phone line. In 2020 we updated our process for managing serious incidents and launched an updated version of our UK safeguarding policy, for which we produced training videos and new guidance for volunteers. We also laid the groundwork for future developments, which will include a confidential concerns line for all volunteers and staff, a new tiered approach to safeguarding training, a brand new safeguarding hub for our most complex callers, service wide listening in and improvements to the way we deliver our email helpline service.

What we were not able to achieve:

• The pandemic has a significant impact on volunteer recruitment and training, and as a result the launch of our new volunteer recruitment tools was delayed and we weren’t able to embed our new volunteer development journey as planned.

• For similar reasons, we weren’t able to progress as far as we had planned with some elements of our service development and expansion, such as testing new ways of volunteering.

• Our workplace training for external organisations was also affected as all face-to-face training was cancelled due to pandemic restrictions, but we introduced new courses that could be delivered online.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

We continued running our 24/7 helpline services throughout the pandemic, with volunteers clocking up over one million hours supporting those struggling to cope. We introduced new ways for people to access support, self-help tools and information.

In our 2015-21 strategy we committed to improving access to Samaritans services by making sure that:

• all helpline services are free to callers;

• awareness-raising campaigns are based on evidence of need, targeted at vulnerable groups and delivered at a local and national level;

• email and online chat support is provided in an integrated way;

• emotional support is provided outside of branch in new targeted settings;

• people get through to a volunteer every time they try to contact us;

• support is provided in targeted settings for those affected by suicide.

What we said we would do this year:

• Increase the relevance and reach of our services and support , for example by launching our new online chat service and self-help app, delivering our Listening programme in prisons, expanding our military programme, and developing a new service model for email support.

What we did:

We answered over 10,000 calls for help a day in 2020 . Over the course of the year, Samaritans volunteers spent over one million hours answering calls for help. We responded to more than 3 million calls for help by telephone, over 540,000 emails and 1,200 letters. More than 450 calls were answered on our Welsh helpline, allowing Welsh-speakers the opportunity to access support in their chosen language. In 2020, despite social distancing measures and lockdown restrictions, we still reached over 65,000 people through our work in local communities.

We maintained our 24/7 service throughout the year despite the impact of coronavirus. The pandemic meant that we had to suspend our face-to-face service, but thanks to the incredible efforts and dedication of Samaritans volunteers, we managed to continue providing our other services day and night. Due to shielding restrictions, Samaritans saw a 30 per cent reduction in volunteers who were able to do listening shifts at the start of the pandemic, but other volunteers stepped in to do extra shifts so we could be here for people at this difficult time. Since the start of the first lockdown almost one in five calls for help have been about coronavirus, with people feeling concerned about mental health and illness, family relationships, finance and unemployment, and

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

loneliness and isolation. In response to the pandemic, we created special information pages on our website for those who were worried about its impact on their own or someone else’s mental health, and which were read over a million times.

We supported volunteers to keep the Listener scheme running in prisons during the pandemic. We worked productively with the prison service in every Nation throughout the pandemic to ensure support remained available to those in prison. During 2020, trained prison Listeners responded to calls for help 34,000 times, spending over 17,000 hours supporting fellow prisoners.

We saw an increase in calls to our helpline from prisons this year. In England and Wales, Samaritans received a total of 351,842 calls to the prison-specific helpline number (1 April 2020 – 31 March 2021), which is an increase of 77,511 calls from the previous year. The Listener service in England and Wales continued running despite pandemic restrictions, with trained prison Listeners providing support on 27,994 occasions.

In Scotland, where the Listener scheme was suspended at the start of the pandemic in line with public health guidance, we secured access to Samaritans on the mobile telephones made available to each prisoner in Scotland. Our Listener scheme is now in the process of restarting across the Scottish prison estate. Between 17 November 2020 and 7 March 2021 there have been 1,569 calls from personal issue mobiles in Scottish prisons to Samaritans.

Despite the pandemic, all 15 Listener schemes in the Republic of Ireland continued to operate, and we also saw a 400 per cent increase in calls to the Samaritans helpline from people in prison. Calls mainly related to increased stress levels, worry for family, isolation, and general worries about coronavirus. The introduction of in-cell telephony in three prisons has contributed somewhat to the increase. However, prisoners also had less access to Listeners due to internal restrictions and safety measures within the prisons, meaning they have used their access to Samaritans as an alternative for support.

In Northern Ireland, branches continued to support the Listener scheme despite pandemic restrictions, although training had to be paused temporarily. Listeners in two prisons offered 43 hours of support to others in prison. Volunteers also answered 13,882 calls to the Samaritans helpline from the prison population.

We continued piloting our online chat service , which is now available on our website several evenings a week. Between September 2020 and March 2021, 911 volunteers across 42 branches had 11,526 online chats with people reaching out for support. Online chat makes it possible for anyone who is struggling to cope to have a live one-to-one written word conversation with a Samaritan online on their phone, tablet or computer. In feedback from some of the people who have used the online chat service, 95 per cent said they would use the service again, 60 per cent said they had never contacted Samaritans before, and 53 per cent said that if chat wasn’t available, they would not have used another Samaritans service. We’re working towards launching online chat with limited opening hours and then scaling up to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

We launched a new support line for NHS and social care workers and volunteers in England and Wales, in partnership with the NHS, DHSC and the Welsh Government. The support line is currently provided by Samaritans volunteers who are self-isolating at home. Whether they’ve had a tough day at work, or are feeling worried or overwhelmed, Samaritans’ volunteers are here to listen and offer emotional support to NHS and social care workers so they can continue to look after themselves and others around them. The support line has been promoted through social media channels and the volunteer network, as well as through our partners. In the first year, approximately 20,000 calls from NHS and social care staff were answered by Samaritans volunteers.

We brought forward the launch of our new self-help app in response to the pandemic, to May 2020. The self-help app offers practical ways to cope and stay safe if you’re going through a difficult time. Since its launch, more than 50,000 people have signed up for the self-help app. It’s helping us reach people who find it harder to use our other services. Since its launch, we’ve developed an analytics system and feedback mechanism, investigated ways to expand self-help beyond the app and implemented changes based on user feedback. We’ve also developed new techniques which will be added to the app soon.

We created and piloted an app for armed forces service leavers and veterans , called ‘Samaritans Veterans’. The app focuses on improving access to emotional health and wellbeing information, guidance and resources for serving personnel transitioning out of the military. The app is being evaluated by the King’s Centre for Military Health Research and over 500 armed forces service leavers and veterans have accessed the content. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we expect to release the final app later in the year. We’ve also secured a grant from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust as part of a joint project to reduce suicide rates amongst veterans. We’ll be working with SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, to identify gaps in our service offerings and take steps to improve access and quality of our service for high-risk veterans. We had planned to run a volunteer recruitment campaign for the military community and release our online chat service for service personnel stationed abroad, but both of these projects were delayed, in part due to the pandemic.

We provided practical support, advice and guidance to schools, colleges and universities affected by suicide through our Step by Step service. The team covers the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland and is made up of listening volunteers who have been specially trained to provide advice, guidance and resources to schools, colleges and universities after an attempted or suspected suicide. In 2020, the Step by Step team of 66 advisors supported 107 educational settings following an attempted or suspected suicide. We have been able to maintain and develop service delivery over the last year through adapting how we support schools, enabling us to keep advisors and school staff safe whilst still being there for those that have needed us the most. The team have continued to offer a comprehensive service to schools, colleges and universities over the lockdown period by phone, email and videoconferencing.

We worked to make sure young people know how to look after their emotional health and seek help when they need it. Our team of volunteers across the UK and Ireland have continued to work together during the lockdown period to develop additional resources to help young people, both in

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

lockdown and when they return to full time schooling and university life. For example, we updated materials so they can be delivered straight into classrooms, via videoconferencing. We have focused on updating the emotional health and assembly talks as well as introducing a supporting video produced by Chester branch. We’ve also created a revised version of our Compassion in Education guide, originally created in Wales, so it can be used in schools across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. In the last year we have written revised guidance and developed a risk assessment for branches that can be used across all the education teams. Volunteers usually attend freshers’ fairs butthis year that has not been possible so we produced a short animated clip to be shown in freshers’ fairs instead. Our Developing Emotional Awareness and Listening (DEAL) teaching resources are also being updated.

We made sure that people always have somewhere to turn in the Republic of Ireland , by allowing other helplines to divert to our service outside of their operating hours. Six different helplines in the Republic of Ireland currently divert into Samaritans when their lines close after hours. Aware, LGBT Ireland, Family Carers, Niteline, Grow Mental Health and most recently, ALONE, which supports older people at home. During 2020, our volunteers answered 1,371 calls from these helplines, offering 311 listening hours to people who may otherwise not have had someone to talk to.

In partnership with the Government of Ireland through the Emigrant Support Programme, we also provided free, 24-hour access to the Samaritans helpline for Irish people in a number of countries abroad. This year, the service was extended to Irish people living in Canada and Australia.

What we were not able to achieve:

• At the start of the first lockdown, we took the decision to stop offering face-to-face support in branches in order to keep volunteers safe.

• We also suspended our outreach work, which affected our work in local communities and education settings, although we adapted so we could offer some of this outreach online.

• Restrictions in prisons made it more difficult for trained prison Listeners to offer support face-to-face, and as a result we saw an increase in calls to Samaritans’ helpline from prisons.

• We were not able to fully launch our online chat service in the UK this year as we saw a reduction in the number of active volunteers during the pandemic, which meant we’ve had to build up capacity to deliver the new service in a more gradual way.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

We worked to make suicide prevention a priority across the UK and Ireland through our influencing work. We partnered with other organisations to raise awareness and encourage help-seeking. We increased our reach online and in the media, launching new resources to promote best practice.

In our 2015-21 strategy we committed to building stronger and more effective external influence and connections with partners by making sure that:

• we have strong referral relationships with partner agencies working with vulnerable groups (especially men in middle years, people in socio-economic deprivation and people with mental health problems);

• vulnerable people online are recognised, offered support and have less chance of coming into contact with harmful online content;

• we have strong effective relationships locally and nationally in order to influence the content and implementation of local and national suicide prevention policies;

• we understand the interests of our callers and use this knowledge to increase help-seeking and influence public policy and practice.

What we said we would do this year:

• Influence suicide prevention policy and practice , for example by engaging with policy makers to help shape government strategies and plans across all Nations and campaigning on key issues linked to suicide prevention.

• Develop strategic partnership work , for example collaborating with other organisations to provide support to anyone working on the frontline of the pandemic.

• Influence responsible communication and portrayal of suicide and self-harm through our media advisory service and the online excellence tech partnership, for example by expanding our media guidelines resources, training editors and journalists and developing best practice resources around online content.

• Maximise awareness of our brand to inspire audiences to engage with us , for example by delivering impactful awareness campaigns, continuing to develop our social media and website, and strengthening our presence in the media.

What we did:

We worked to influence policymakers and parliamentarians across all Nations to make suicide prevention a priority, particularly highlighting the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on our callers and calling for relevant government action:

• We played a key role in advising the UK Government in its response to coronavirus and suicide prevention, meeting key Ministers and officials. We participated in UK Government advisory groups, including on coronavirus and suicide. We also responded to a number of

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

government consultations, including on the reform of communications offences, reform of the Gambling Act 2005 and children and young people’s mental health.

• In England , we helped to secure £5 million funding for suicide prevention work undertaken by charities in the 2021 England suicide prevention strategy progress report and £1.5 million funding for real-time suicide surveillance. The progress report cited the numerous contributions that Samaritans is making to the suicide prevention agenda. We also worked with other mental health charities, including Mind, Rethink Mental Illness, Mental Health Foundation and Young Minds, to secure a new mental health recovery plan for England as the country recovers from the pandemic.

• In Scotland , as a member of the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group (NSPLG), we recommended that the Scottish Government adopt pandemic-specific responses to suicide prevention. We are also a member of the government’s coronavirus stakeholder group and played an active part in shaping Scotland’s post-pandemic mental health transition and recovery plan. We supported the launch of the United to Prevent Suicide campaign, the new unifying identity for suicide prevention in Scotland. We launched our 2021 Holyrood election manifesto, Six Priorities to Help Save Lives , focusing on inequality and mental health, third sector investment, isolation and digital exclusion, data and intelligence, and calls for the creation of a long-term suicide prevention strategy and an aligned strategy to address selfharm.

• In Wales we had regular meetings with the Welsh Government throughout the pandemic to collaborate on the response, update on issues of concern and promote understanding of our service. We supported a cross-party on suicide prevention in the Welsh Parliament and influenced the new school curriculum bill to place a bigger emphasis on mental and emotional health. We launched our impact report for Wales in the autumn at a virtual event which included many third sector and statutory organisations as well as members of the Welsh Parliament.

• In the Republic of Ireland , we contributed to Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) discussions around the impact of coronavirus on mental health and wellbeing. We also secured Samaritans’ voice on one of the mental health policy’s national implementation monitoring sub-committees. In advance of General Election (RoI February 2020), Samaritans launched our 4 Asks 4 a Safer Ireland campaign, focusing on men, self-harm, loneliness and online safety, and encouraged all candidates to show their support for mental health. Samaritans Ireland has been instrumental in the development of new HSE guidelines for delivering suicide prevention services.

• In Northern Ireland we submitted several responses to government consultations including the mental health strategy for 2021-2031 and the Public Health Agency’s pre-consultation for suicide prevention and postvention services. We started work on producing our first Northern Ireland Strategy and commissioned a team at Ulster University to help shape this.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

We began a new stream of influencing work focused on self-harm , the strongest risk factor for suicide. Research and policy reports were launched in every Nation detailing the experiences of people who self-harm, including Pushed From Pillar to Post in England which found significant gaps in the care currently available. Alongside this, we developed new content for our website for people seeking support for self-harm and produced an animation to support people in talking to people who are self-harming.

As secretariat of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Suicide and Self Harm Prevention at Westminster, we supported an inquiry exploring the experiences of young people who self-harm and presented the findings to parliamentarians and health policymakers. These issues have subsequently been included in an inquiry from the Health and Social Care committee in the Westminster Parliament.

In Scotland, we released the report Hidden Too Long: uncovering self-harm in Scotland , which aimed to start a national conversation about self-harm in Scotland and calls for a new strategy. Within a week of launch the Minister for Mental Health invited Samaritans to present the report to a meeting of cross-party health spokespeople. The Scottish Government has funded our engagement work on the report and we are continuing discussion on next steps for national action. To date, we have engaged 150 stakeholders in our online events.

In Wales, we published The Right Support At The Right Time? - Improving the availability and quality of support after self-harm in Wales , a report which brings together insights from people with lived experience of self-harm, stakeholders, service providers and the general public to understand the support needs of people who have self-harmed and identify opportunities to improve the quality of support available.

In Ireland, we undertook research on self-harm through a lived-experience online survey of 132 individuals across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The report made several recommendations following key findings from the survey.

We launched a hub of online safety resources to help young people stay safe online when engaging with self-harm and suicide related content. These include how to share their feelings of suicide and self-harm online safely, how to report worrying content and how to support someone who might be struggling, but also tips on talking about suicide online in a safe way for the general public. The resources have been co-produced with young people with lived experience of self-harm and suicidal feelings and experience of supporting others at risk. Samaritans has also launched an Online Harms advisory service, providing free and confidential specialist advice on issues relating to self-harm and suicide content online.

We carried out research to better understand the impact of self-harm and suicide content online . The research, which is carried out in collaboration with the University of Birmingham, Middlesex University and Canterbury Christ Church University, will examine what makes content harmful or beneficial, and for whom, and explore the impact on users when content is removed or blocked. This year, we have also been looking at how online conversations are changing during the course of the pandemic to detect and respond to emerging methods of suicide discussed online. In collaboration

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

with the University of Bristol, we’re examining the impact of engaging with suicide or self-harm content over time.

We published our new tech industry guidelines for sites and platforms to help create safer online spaces for vulnerable people. The guidelines have been developed by Samaritans in collaboration with government, the world’s leading technology and social media companies including Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, Twitter and Pinterest, academics and third sector organisations to help tackle the issue of harmful online content, whilst improving access to content that can be a source of support. This year, we also delivered our first Online Harms research webinar, with over 500 attendees from the UK, Ireland, other parts of Europe, Brazil, Canada, Israel and the US.

We partnered with other charities to launch round-the-clock support for frontline workers , including health, care, emergency and key workers. Our Frontline is a partnership between Shout, Samaritans, Mind, Hospice UK and The Royal Foundation. It offers round-the-clock one-to-one support, by call or text, from trained volunteers, plus resources, tips and ideas online to help frontline workers look after their mental health.

We expanded our partnership with the rail industry , securing funding for another five years of delivery in partnership with Network Rail on behalf of the wider rail industry. The programme recruited a number of new roles, including five Regional Development Leads enabling us to be visible, understand, and respond to the opportunities and challenges that the rail industry faces at a community level. We also recruited a Media Manager, reflecting the focus we are placing on both internal and external communications that are essential to the success of the programme.

We trained close to 2,000 rail industry staff on our Managing Suicidal Contacts (MSC) course this year. In total, the programme has now trained over 27,500 staff across all of our courses. This year, 1,810 life-saving interventions were made on the railway. Following the first lockdown in March 2020, we quickly adapted our training delivery to take place virtually, with a delivery gap of only three weeks. The pandemic and subsequent lockdown meant that we were unable to deliver the face-to-face support that we usually provide to stations following an incident. The roadshows that we typically deliver at key rail locations each year also had to be cancelled in 2020 but will hopefully resume once social distancing restrictions have been lifted.

We launched the second phase of our Real People, Real Stories campaign, supported by Network Rail on behalf of the wider rail industry and also there was additional funding from NFU Mutual and the Welsh Government to reach men in rural communities. The campaign, which was postponed from March to August 2020 due to the pandemic, told real stories from men who’ve struggled to cope, in an effort to encourage others to contact Samaritans when they’re having a difficult time. Aimed at men aged 20-60 years, who are most at risk of suicide, the campaign was mainly advertised late at night and in the early hours of the morning, to reach the target audience when they needed it most. The campaign reached 40 per cent of men in the target audience and we saw an increase in their awareness of Samaritans. In a survey, 45 per cent of men said that they would recommend Samaritans to a friend or relative after seeing the campaign. Real People, Real Stories has won a number of awards, including best charity campaign and overall best campaign in the Campaign Media Awards.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

We ran campaigns on roadsides and public transport across Ireland . We were supported by Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail) with the allocation of media space at various locations across Dublin during coronavirus restrictions, with the campaign featuring on digital screens and billboards. In Northern Ireland, Samaritans messaging was featured on an outdoor and bus campaign across Belfast and other parts of the region.

We asked people to reach out, check in and stay connected with a virtual chat on Brew Monday. Our reminders to catch up for a cuppa were seen 2.2 million times on social media and over 1,000 people signed up to hold their own virtual Brew Monday events. We also had excellent engagement from the rail industry, businesses, and a range of organisations ranging from student unions to healthcare charities. As branches were not able to hold their usual events, many held special online ‘Learn to listen’ events instead, where they shared listening tips with local partners and members of the community. We held the first ever virtual Brew Monday event in the Westminster Parliament, hosted by Samaritans volunteer Liz Twist MP and attended by around 40 MPs from across the political spectrum. We also had fantastic celebrity support. Author and illustrator Charlie Mackesy created a bespoke animation for us, which we featured on social media and on screens in train stations. The total media reach for Brew Monday leapt from 39.3 million in the previous year to 119 million.

We reminded people that we will be there for them during their darkest hours through our Longest Night campaign in Ireland, which is held on the winter solstice. Landmarks across Ireland were illuminated on Monday 21 December, including Dublin Airport Control Tower, The Rock of Cashel, Blackrock Castle (Cork), Kilkenny Castle, Enniskillen Castle, Hill of the O’Neill (Dungannon), Devonshire Bridge (Dungarvan), universities and colleges, and several city and county council offices.

We continued our partnership with the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), Ireland’s largest sporting body, to encourage people who are going through a difficult time to seek help, while also tackling the stigma associated with mental health problems. The relationship between GAA clubs across all 32 counties and our branches raises awareness of our helpline service and encourages people to reach out for support when they’re struggling to cope.

We promoted our Welsh language helpline through a television advert that ran on channel S4C, as well as a social media campaign and other advertising. We increased our bilingual awareness-raising campaigns, reaching out to communities in most need including in rural areas. We also partnered with Citizens Advice Cymru to issue a joint press release and authored a think piece on the importance of protecting those who are most vulnerable from the economic consequences of the pandemic, including unemployment and isolation.

We were a lead partner in the Scottish Government’s Clear Your Head campaign , helping people to look after their mental health during the pandemic, and our helpline details were included in a mailing to all households from the First Minister.

We updated our media guidelines for reporting suicide and expanded our resources for journalists and programme makers, launching a new e-learning programme, to continue to influence

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

responsible and sensitive coverage of suicide. The media advice team advised on a storyline for EastEnders, which saw a whole episode dedicated to a lead character calling Samaritans’ helpline. We also advised on a Hollyoaks storyline, which was cited by a viewer, who had been planning a suicide attempt, as influencing them to reach out for help. We also advised the producers of two major documentaries, one covering the life and death of former TV presenter Caroline Flack and the other featured presenter Roman Kemp in a film about male mental health and suicide. Advice was given to nearly 400 contacts and training sessions delivered to media outlets including media regulators IPSO and Ofcom, The Independent, Manchester Evening News, Newsquest titles, Reach digital editors, Yahoo and LadBible. In addition, media guidelines training was given to train operating companies. We have also been working with academics on a study about suicide reporting during the pandemic, using our news reporting monitoring data.

We achieved excellent media coverage for Samaritans this year , with high-profile pieces across a range of print, online and broadcast media. We also saw a significant increase in media enquiries, mainly driven by interest in the link between the coronavirus pandemic and mental health. This year, we focused on building relationships with media that reflect more diverse audiences, for example teaming up with LadBible on their UOKM8? campaign. We also developed our public relations work with key partners including Network Rail and NHS England.

We saw a significant increase in the number of people visiting our website , with over 5 million people accessing the site last year – a 47 per cent increase compared to the previous year. Our total audience on social media also rose by 24 per cent to over 384,000. The volume and nature of contact with our audiences shifted dramatically as mental health and wellbeing became a central part of the public conversation in 2020, resulting in more people reaching out to support others and signpost to Samaritans on social media. We received over 2 million engagements and 250,000 messages.

We continued to see positive results from our brand update in 2019 , with increased brand recognition measured in surveys of members of the public in Great Britain – especially among younger people. We remain the most trusted charity within our field and one of the most trusted in the charity sector. In a recent rating, Samaritans was the fifth most popular charity (YouGov, 2020). In another survey, more than 8 in 10 said they think Samaritans meets a genuine need, and more than 7 in 10 said they think we’re more relevant than ever (NFP Synergy Quarterly Charity Awareness Monitor Q3 2020).

We hosted the secretariat for the National Suicide Prevention Alliance (NSPA) and Support After Suicide Partnership (SASP) in England. During the year, the NSPA nearly doubled its membership to over 1,000 organisations and individuals. The team at the NSPA ran online discussions and webinars on the challenges of coronavirus and how people are approaching them, reaching more than 1,000 people from charities, public health, the NHS and the private sector. They also launched a lived experience network and have over 250 people with diverse experiences on their online panel and over 20 trained and supported influencers who can join strategic groups, review plans and resources and speak at events.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

This year SASP worked with the University of Manchester to publish the report From Grief to Hope: The Impact of suicide In the UK which was contributed to by over 7,000 people with lived experience. SASP has launched its new website and worked hard to ensure the latest information was available for people who lost someone to suicide during the pandemic, with significant changes to funerals and inquests during this time. It has also updated Help is at Hand , a guide for and by people bereaved by suicide, to include information on the legal process, supporting military families, and supporting children and young people, working in partnership with NSPA and PHE. SASP has overseen the roll-out of funding from NHS England for local suicide bereavement support services, which will result in every area of England having a service in place by 2024, and supported these through the development of its Central Hub.

What we were not able to achieve:

• Volunteers were not able to hold physical campaign events this year due to the pandemic.

• • The pandemic affected our campaigns in other ways too. For example, our Real People, Real Stories campaign was postponed from March to August 2020 and Brew Monday had to be delivered as a virtual campaign this year.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

We continued to build our evidence base and used this new knowledge to inform our services, communications and influencing work, bridging the gap between research and practice.

In our 2015-21 strategy we committed to improving the collection and application of evidence so that:

• we are better able to demonstrate our approach to supporting people, the benefits this provides and its contribution to reducing suicide;

• we understand the needs and profile of the different groups of people who use our services and what they get out of those services;

• we apply existing evidence around ‘what works’ to improve and develop our support services;

• we evaluate the impact of Samaritans’ strategy.

What we said we would do this year:

• Build and translate evidence about suicide and suicidal behaviour and the impact of our work to inform decision-making and activity across the organisation, for example our influencing work and the development and improvement of services.

• Fill key gaps in knowledge that are necessary to develop a new strategy , for example carrying out research to better understand the impact of specific areas of our work.

What we did:

We developed a new programme of research in response to the coronavirus pandemic, to help us understand the profound social, psychological and economic impacts of the pandemic for those who use our services, or who might be at increased risk of suicide. This has included:

• Understanding our Callers: Covid-19 – a real time research project which has tracked the way the pandemic is affecting our callers and the way they use our services. At the beginning of the pandemic this work was quickly developed in order to respond to the changing external environment. This research has involved analysis of 2.3 million contacts to Samaritans, and regular surveys with our volunteers with over 10,000 responses in total. This has provided a crucial part of the national picture of the impact of pandemic, and we are using the results in our influencing work around national recovery.

• Evaluations of our new services – we have evaluated the use and impact of two new services that were developed in response to the pandemic to support frontline and healthcare workers. This research involved understanding more about how NHS workers are using our dedicated phone line, and crucially providing insights about what their concerns and struggles were in relation to providing lifesaving support during the pandemic. We have also worked

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

with our other third sector partners within Our Frontline to provide insights into the success of the campaign in terms of reach and impact on Frontline workers, and to identify process and operational learnings that can inform future campaigns.

• COVID-19 Mental Health and Wellbeing study - led by Professor Rory O’Connor at The University of Glasgow , which we jointly funded with the university and Scottish Association for Mental Health. This involves 2 studies, to understand the impact the pandemic is having on the mental health and wellbeing of the UK and Scottish populations. These are nationally representative surveys that involve around 5,500 people in total, who are being followed up throughout the pandemic to understand the ongoing impact. Initial findings have been published, which are showing some of the profound impacts the pandemic is having on the population, in particular on young people, people with existing mental health conditions, and people who are socio-economically disadvantaged. These studies are still underway and will continue to provide a valuable part of the picture in relation to the ongoing impact of the pandemic.

• Research into the economic impact of coronavirus on young adults’ wellbeing – research currently underway to understand what difficulties young people in particular will face when they are suffering the economic consequences of the pandemic. This research will complete in 2021.

We completed a flagship study of our telephone helpline that has helped us gain a better understanding of our callers and the impact of our helpline. Our Caller Outcomes study was an externally commissioned evaluation that provided us with crucial new insights into the impact of the helpline on callers, callers’ experience of the support we provide, how our services fit in to their lives, and callers’ and volunteers’ experience of participating in research. This study measured for the first time, how speaking to our volunteers on the helpline reduces distress and suicidality for callers. For all callers, on average, there was a significant reduction in levels of distress from the start to end of a call, and from the start of a call to one week later. Most callers felt their call helped them to manage their own level of distress and suicidal thoughts or feelings. A week after calling Samaritans, seven out of ten callers said they were feeling better, and that their call had contributed to this. This project is a huge step forward in relation to our evidence base, but also in the use of creative research methodology gathering data through services from hard-to-reach vulnerable people.

We completed several evaluations of our work , including the evaluation of two pilot services for people in prison (postvention service and prison email support service) and an evaluation of our Military programme.

We continued to use evidence to directly inform and improve our work , including service development and influencing work. This includes the development of new services to support key atrisk groups such as veterans, and supporting the development of the handbook which builds directly on our recent research with low income middle aged men.

We commissioned a rigorous review of research and evidence around suicide in Northern Ireland to inform the development of Samaritans’ new Northern Ireland Action Plan. The report lays out key

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

issues, areas of concern and recommendations for action. It provides crucial insights that will feed into the development of the Northern Ireland Action Plan and help us work towards our vision that fewer people die by suicide.

We launched new online evidence resources for our staff and volunteers , covering key suicide prevention topics such as suicide rates and common risk factors. This means that the whole organisation has the most recent evidence available and accessible to support all activities. In addition, we have reviewed and developed our research ethics processes in order to respond to the increasing volume or research being conducted within Samaritans, to ensure that all research is completed to a high ethical standard and our staff and volunteers are up-skilled in this area.

We continued to bridge the gap between research and practice across a range of different sectors. We know how important it is that research is designed, carried out, and translated with the ‘realworld’ impact in mind. To do this, we:

• Continued to work collaboratively with the Office of National Statistics to promote and disseminate the latest statistics on suicides in the UK.

• Completed our commissioned research Suicide and Life-Saving Interventions on the Railways study (with Middlesex University; funded by Network Rail) which provided new evidence into where, when and how suicide at railways and other public locations can be safely and effectively prevented by a third-party intervention.

• Commissioned a series of ‘deep dives’ into our own service data with academic partners from the University of Bristol, Ulster University, and University College London.

• Successfully obtained joint funding for new research with academic partners at the University of Bristol (funding from Emerging Minds) and University College London (funding from National Institute for Health Research).

• Provided cross-sector support through the translation and provision of evidence, including to Highways England, Network Rail, the Ambulance Service, and the insurance industry.

• Providing input to the NHS England community mental health transformation project, led by the University of Manchester, as a member of the Expert Reference Group.

What we were not able to achieve:

• It was not possible for us to evaluate our outreach work this year, as all physical events and outreach was halted as a result of the pandemic.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Samaritans’ vision is that fewer people die by suicide and achieving this relies on us becoming more inclusive and diverse in everything we do. We are continually striving to become the best organisation we can be, for our callers, for our supporters and for each other.

We have committed to building a culture where everyone is appreciated for their unique self and unique contributions, based on our shared values. Following updates to our equality, diversity and inclusion policy, we have worked to update further policies, procedures and ways of working to ensure inclusion is embedded across everything we do. For example, we’ve updated our family friendly policies to make sure the same support is offered to all our staff, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation. We’ve also updated our flexible working policy to further emphasise its focus on inclusion, trust and choice. Our HR team and Volunteering team have been evolving our recruitment and retention work to help us be more inclusive, and our Learning Development team have developed a range of learning resources relating to diversity and inclusion, such as unconscious bias training.

Following a series of sessions dedicated to diversity and inclusion with our leadership teams, across Samaritans, we developed and published our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. In the statement on our website, we outline how we’re working to become more inclusive and diverse in everything we do. This will be an important focus for Samaritans in the coming year, as we start to develop our next strategy.

We developed an equality, diversity and inclusion toolkit as part of a pilot project with branches in Wales. This toolkit will be rolled out across the whole organisation. We also began engagement work with the wider branch network and started an internal diversity and inclusion forum for volunteers and staff, which already has over 400 members. This year, we held workshops for staff on equality, diversity and inclusion, as well as offering training on disability inclusion and autism awareness.

To create a culture of inclusion, we need to invest in resources and expertise to support this work. We advertised for specialist roles to support our diversity and inclusion work across all Nations, as well as specific support in Scotland, to work alongside the person leading this area of work in Wales. Equality, diversity and inclusion will be embedded across all areas in the development of our next strategy, to make sure it is at the heart of everything we do.

This year, we took steps to reduce our environmental impact, for example by switching our central office and central charity branches to green energy tariffs. We further embedded flexible working for staff to allow for more homeworking and reduced travel.

Due to the pandemic, all conferences and governance meetings were moved online and we dramatically reduced our office printing and photocopying. We made a commitment that the environmental sustainability improvements we have made this year will be maintained throughout the next year, and in years to come.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Overview

In the year, the Group has continued to invest in the support and development of the service, primarily through the major investment programme, There for Everyone .

The financial statements of the consolidated charity group for the year ended 31 March 2021 show a net increase in funds of £6.4 million.

The financial statements do not reflect the value of the time donated by the volunteers within the branches in delivering the Samaritans’ service. In 2020, our volunteers spent 1.1 million hours of their time on the core listening service alone, which is estimated at a value of £16.5 million. * The total value of the time devoted by volunteers is considerably higher if recruitment, training, branch management, fundraising and outreach work is included. Volunteers are the foundation on which the strength of the Samaritans’ service is built.

• Grossing up at the median gross hourly rate for full time workers in the UK. Source for earnings data: Office for National Statistics.

Income

----- Start of picture text -----
£0.3
Income
million
Total: £28.2 million
1%
£1.2 million
4% Donations
£3.8 million
14%
Grants
£12.7 million Partnerships and other income
£3.7 million 45%
13% Legacies
New Branch Contribution
Others
£6.5 million
23%
----- End of picture text -----

Total income for the year was £28.2 million, compared with £20.6 million in 2019/20. In respect of ongoing activity, donations from individuals are still the largest source of income. We continue to develop other income streams notably grants, corporate donations and partnership income. Income

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

from donations & legacies increased by £4.8m to £16.5m, and grant income increased by £2.1m to £6.5m.

During the year, despite the impact of Covid, fundraising from community and events income increased, and there was also an increase in fundraising through online activity, including Samarathon and Facebook events, an emergency appeal and some targeted grant funding, which included a Covid grant from the DHSC, and funding specifically targeted at providing a helpline for NHS staff.

As we continue to deliver our change programme and develop our new strategy, we set ourselves ambitious fundraising targets. We appealed to the general public and funders to keep us going during the pandemic, but also to ensure that for future years we have financial stability to continue our There for Everyone programme. The strong response and generosity of our donors gives us greater financial security against an external backdrop of financial uncertainty.

Grant income includes funding from the Department of Health totalling £1.8m over 4 years (£475,000 in 2020/21), contributing towards the cost of calls to our freephone helpline. The range of fundraising activities that Samaritans carries out is extensive and includes generous support from companies, trusts, legacies, individual donors, community events, sporting and challenge events and grants from public bodies. We continue to look at ways to broaden and improve our fundraising and income generation activities, putting supporters at the heart of how we do this.

We are very grateful for the support we receive from all our donors, and a list of our major supporters can be found on pages 78 to 80.

We recognise the potential and value in long term funder relationships. We were delighted to successfully complete our second year as beneficiaries of The Lord Mayor’s Appeal, while we also began a multi-year, funded collaboration with the technology sector, working with Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Google to reduce online harm.

In addition to the fundraising activities above, our other major funding streams include our partnership with Network Rail for the delivery of a suicide prevention programme; grant funding for the support of the prison Listener scheme funded by Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS); and funding from HSE Ireland towards the running of our Freecall service.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Expenditure

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Expenditure
Total: £22.0
million
£3.7 million
17% Service
£0.6 million £7.6 million
Access
3% 34%
Fundraising costs
Influence
Evidence
£4.3 million
20%
£5.8 million
26%
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Total consolidated expenditure, including the value of donated advertising, increased from £19.1 million in 2019/20 to £22.0 million, an increase of 15% from the previous year. During 2020/21, fundraising costs amounted to £4.3 million which is the same as last year.

Total charitable expenditure amounted to £17.7 million in 2020/21 compared with £14.8 million in 2019/20, which is analysed in detail in note 7 to the Accounts. We are committed to maximising the proportion of expenditure in developing and delivering the service to people, to respond to the increasing demand for our services and to reach more people through the communication channels they wish to use. We continued to advance the major investment programme, There for Everyone, with its focus on developing new digital channels for the service and updating our processes and systems; supporting our beneficiaries more effectively; and developing our learning and development capability both within and outside the organisation. In the year, charitable expenditure represented 80% (2019/20 77%) of total expenditure.

Reserves policy

As at 31 March 2021, the total consolidated funds held by the Group amounted to £29.4 million. Of these funds, £26.9 million are unrestricted and £2.5 million are restricted. Two new designated funds were created during the year totalling £4.75m so within the unrestricted funds there are six designated funds amounting to £14.1 million: £8.8 million representing fixed assets including all the SCC branch properties; a £0.7 million property maintenance fund to maintain SCC branch properties; £0.2 million fund to improve the accessibility of our service via the use of digital technology; £0.7

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

million towards the There for Everyone programme; a £1.25m service expansion fund to widen the reach for beneficiaries; and a £3.5m Strategy Development fund to deliver the new strategy from 2022/23 across the whole organisation including affiliate and central branches

In setting the reserves policy, the Board of Trustees considers the need to provide against any future income shortfall, fulfil working capital requirements and allow funds to be available to support service developments. This is balanced against the need to spend reserves now to deliver services to meet beneficiary needs.

For 2020/21 the Board of Trustees agreed a balanced core budget along with an additional investment of £2.0 million across service development, fundraising and core infrastructure. We had therefore anticipated that the level of free reserves would reduce to within the target range in the coming months.

Reserves have increased in the previous year, despite the challenges of Coronavirus. In anticipation of the challenges ahead, both for income and potential service need, the Trustees have agreed to continue with the target range for free reserves of between four and twelve months of general expenditure (which as at 31 March 2021 equates to £5.1 million and £15.3 million respectively).

The reserves of Samaritans Ireland increased by £0.7m mainly due to an increase in legacy income, and the contribution from the trading subsidiary increase by £0.8m. Together with the higher than anticipated income for the main charity, and lower levels of expenditure due to activities being postponed or delayed in 2020/21. After the transfer of £4.75 to designated reserves, this has resulted in a level of consolidated free reserves held at 9.3 months (£11.8 million), which falls within the target range.

It is anticipated that in 2021/22 the impact of the delayed expenditure, and new planned investment, will result in free reserves falling further. The overall increase in expenditure includes spend on safeguarding and cyber security, which both commenced in 2020/21, along with businessas-usual support costs for the There for Everyone programme which concludes during 2021/22. The new investment for 2021/22 covers a number of projects, including new strategy development and preparing the organisation for new ways of working following the final easing of covid restrictions.

The reserves policy will continue be reviewed on at least an annual basis, particularly in response to the developing COVID-19 situation.

Investment policy

The overall investment objective to is to achieve a positive real return (i.e., adjusted for inflation) over time. For short-term investments, the return is likely to be in income with an emphasis on capital preservation and limited credit risk. For longer term investments there is no explicit income objective but a desire to increase the value of the Group’s assets above inflation.

J Hambro & Partners are the appointed investment managers, and as at 31 March 2021 the value of the portfolio managed was £1.5 million (2020: £1.3 million). Investment gains during the year were £0.2m (2019:20 £0m).

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

In addition, £3.0 million is held within the Charities Official Investment Fund (2020: £3.0 million).

The Trustees regularly review the proportion of funds invested for the longer term in the context of revised financial projections, our reserves policy and service investment requirements in coming years.

Subsidiaries

As the trading subsidiary of Samaritans, the substantial majority of the turnover of The Samaritan Enterprises Limited remains the contract with Network Rail.

Samaritans Ireland and Samaritans in Scotland support the Central Charity in the delivery of our strategy in those Nations.

Going concern

Our planning processes, including financial projections, take into consideration the current economic climate and its potential impact on the various sources of income and planned expenditure.

While there may be less economic uncertainty than a year ago, there are still a number of factors that could impact income generation, in particular as the covid restrictions are lifted and financial support from the Government is withdrawn. However there are also some potential shorter- term positives, as face to face events are expected to resume in the coming months. We continue to review all income streams and have carried out sensitivity analysis in order to estimate the scale of the challenge ahead.

Building on this work, there are a number of options open to us if we need to cover any funding shortfall, including utilising some of the additional reserves built up during the last 12 months. If any action is required on expenditure, we will be guided strongly by both the current strategy and the new strategy currently under development.

Based on the current reserves position, the forward projections of income and expenditure and the ongoing scenario planning activity, the Trustees consider that Samaritans is able to continue as a going concern.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

How we manage risk

The Board of Trustees is ultimately responsible for risk management. The Audit and Risk Committee, as a sub-committee of the Board, reviews key risks, and the adequacy of mitigating actions, on a regular basis. The Committee reports to the Board on risk quarterly.

A comprehensive annual planning and budgeting process is approved by the Board, during which a thorough assessment of key external and internal risks is undertaken. The Board also receives risk evaluations on any major new areas of activity.

During the year we developed our risk framework further. Our risk identification and risk management process was already established. To strengthen our risk framework, we have produced an initial assessment of our risk assurance foundations, and started to consider risk appetite to support risk management and to inform some of the Board’s choices as we develop the next strategy. The risk appetite matrix will be further developed in 2021 to create a useful tool to help articulate risks and opportunities and facilitate good decision making.

Our top five risks, as identified in the risk register at the end of the financial year, with key managing actions, are as follows:

Category	Risk description	Managing actions
Safeguarding	Ineffective controls in service model, resourcing and structure lead to a failure to operate a safe organisation	• Safeguarding policy updated • Safeguarding training module refreshed • Review of safeguarding for webchat and callers and approval of improved practices • Development of a raisingconcernsphone line
People	Failure to motivate, manage and engage staff during pandemic with remote working and increased workload	• Focus on wellbeing • Staff survey and follow up action plans • Engaging staff to plan future ways of working following the coronavirus pandemic, creating a vision for a collaborative, inclusive, flexible and sustainable culture, building on the success of the past year • Ongoing review of staff benefits and engagement
Lack of skilled volunteers and effective branch leadership	The skills of volunteers don’t match the needs of callers and branch leadership is ineffective, leading to our service not being relevant and accessible and damaging our reputation	• Redesign of branch director training and development • Additional recruitment to volunteer support teams • Enhanced training modules
Failure of technology, infrastructure	IT failure results in callers being unable to access our service	• Improved reliability of caller platforms and phone systems • Roll out of software, training and improvements to address securityand cyber security

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

support or cyber security		• Increased capacity for service desk support • Roll out of two factor authentication
Inability to manage supply and demand of service	An unacceptable number of callers are unable to access our service due to lack of volunteers, ineffective distribution of volunteer time or poor systems	• Recruitment journey and branch management tool deployed • Volunteering from home launched • Service expansion through London City and branch satellites • Improved caller experience through tools

Safeguarding is our number one risk and we are making good progress in embedding processes and controls to reduce that risk for staff, volunteers and, most importantly, our callers. Significant resources continue to be invested in our technology and digital agenda, training and volunteer support.

Samaritans has had to adapt as a result of the pandemic, and some of those changes have created opportunities for the long-term sustainability of the organisation. The number one risk for last year, relating to the relevance of our service, has decreased so that it is no longer in the top five risks. This is linked to the heightened awareness of mental health and wellbeing, and our ability to adapt to changing needs, such as partnering with the NHS for a dedicated wellbeing support line for NHS and social care staff in England.

Overall, our income risk has decreased over the financial year, and although the future economic climate remains uncertain, the outlook for Samaritans’ income generation is generally positive. We have had new opportunities to work with private sector partners, such as Three UK, which support income generation, raise awareness around suicide and wellbeing, and create new service opportunities. Whilst public fundraising has been challenging in many areas, including our shops, new ways of community and online fundraising have proved successful.

This year we have responded to external factors quickly and delivered change across the organisation. However, this has also created risk: the pace of change, together with the challenges of successive lockdowns, has resulted in pressure on volunteers and staff. To manage this, we have increased our focus on flexibility and wellbeing and we are now looking to manage the risks and opportunities created by new ways of working and volunteering. Our ability to recruit staff remains strong and our staff survey results showed an engaged staff body. Recruitment of new volunteers in some areas has also been successful, although this is variable across branches and regions.

Further embedding risk management is a priority for 2021/22 as we continue to identify and manage emerging risks and opportunities for the development of our new strategy. For example, there is both risk and opportunity in our future management of equality, diversity and inclusion issues in the context of our beneficiaries, staff, volunteers and donors.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Samaritans is a charitable company limited by guarantee. We were founded by Prebendary Dr Chad Varah CH CBE MA in 1953, and incorporated in 1963.

The Central Charity supports our 201 branches and volunteer network of 20,000 amazing people, in ensuring our services are constantly available to callers across our multiple platforms. The Central Samaritans team also carries out research, development and evaluation to support our influencing work and service development supports our volunteer recruitment and development activity; raises income to underpin the whole organisation.

The group comprises four entities, all of which are consolidated into the group statutory accounts:

• Samaritans, a private limited company, which is incorporated and domiciled in the UK and is a public benefit entity.

• The Samaritan Enterprises Ltd, a trading company in which Samaritans has a 100 per cent shareholding.

• Samaritans Ireland, which is an Irish charitable company incorporated in 2007 that is limited by guarantee.

• Samaritans in Scotland, a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO), established on 11 March 2014. In recognition of the alignment of the Samaritans in Scotland board and the Central Charity Scotland Committee, Samaritans in Scotland was voluntarily wound-up and removed from the Scottish Charity Register in February 2021.

Branches

There are 201 Samaritans branches operating in the UK and Republic of Ireland as well as the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. These branches are run by volunteer Branch Directors and operate either as part of Samaritans Central Charity or as an incorporated charity operating through an affiliation agreement. 57 of these branches are part of Central Charity and 144 branches are affiliated. The finances of affiliated branches are not consolidated into Samaritans’ group accounts.

Regions

The branches are organised and work together in 14 geographic regions. Each region is led by a Regional Director; volunteer leadership roles who provide a key link and communication channel between Central Samaritans and the wider organisation and play a vital role in supporting our branches and implementing agreed policy.

Our governance

We are governed by Samaritans’ Articles of Association. The governing body is our Board of Trustees, which meets at least four times a year and, as at 31 March 2021, consisted of 12 members. Trustees are also the directors of the company and a majority must be members of Samaritans

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

branches. In carrying out their responsibilities for governance and setting the strategic direction of the organisation, the Board is supported by a number of committees. The governance structure is completed by the Regional Councils and the Council of Samaritans as described below.

Councils

The Board is advised on key strategic and policy issues by the Regional Councils. The role of Regional Councils is to challenge, advise and guide the Board of Trustees on key policy issues affecting the wider Samaritans organisation and to act as a channel of communication between the Board of Trustees and the branches. Regions have separate meetings for operational service matters, regional plans and policy implementation in the region.

The Council of Samaritans meets annually. It comprises the 201 Branch Directors, 14 Regional Directors, up to 10 Functional Leads and the Vice-chair. The legal members of Samaritans are similar, namely the Branch Directors, Regional Directors, Functional Leads and the Chair. The Board reports to the Council of Samaritans annually on its activities and provides an update and review of progress against the strategic plan. The Council of Samaritans is the forum for Samaritans’ volunteer leadership to consider and discuss the work and direction of Samaritans and foster a sense of unity and collaboration across the organisation.

Nations

Reflecting the differing legislative and funding environments of devolved governments, we have nation committees in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. These are constituted as committees of the Board of Trustees. In Ireland they also act as the board of a separate charitable company registered in the Republic of Ireland, Samaritans Ireland, with a remit extending to both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. These boards have a leadership role to support staff and volunteers to deliver our strategy as well as representing Samaritans in their nation.

Staff Team

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), supported by an Executive Leadership and staff team is responsible for the delivery of the Samaritans strategy, operational plans and budgets that have been approved by the Board. At the time of writing there are 249 full time equivalent staff roles, split across five different directorates (Operations, Corporate Services, Income, Communications and External Affairs, and Strategy).

Appointing our Chair

During 2020 the Nominations Committee oversaw a rigorous recruitment process for our new Chair, both working with external recruitment specialists, senior staff and utilising input from volunteer leadership. A chair selection group recommendation was made to the Nominations Committee and Board of Trustees for appointment. Keith Leslie began his term as Samaritans Chair on 01 January 2021, taking over from Jenni McCartney on the completion of her second term. The board thank Jenni for her dedication and leadership of Samaritans during this period.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Appointing our Trustees

The Nominations Committee appoints the remaining members of the Board of Trustees. Trustees serve an initial term of three years with the option for re-appointment for a second three-year term. In exceptional circumstances a Trustee may also be asked to serve for an additional period of up to 12 months provided that no person may serve for more than seven years in total.

A person can serve as Chair for a maximum of two terms of three years. Where that person has already served as a Trustee before becoming Chair, they can be a Trustee for up to nine years in total.

Inducting our Trustees

After they are appointed, each Trustee undertakes a formal induction programme, including a guide to our vision, mission and values, our governing document and the way the organisation works in practice. All Trustees are provided guidance on their formal legal responsibilities, and guidance on how to be effective in their role.

Governance code

During the year, a board effectiveness review was carried out by an external member of the Nominations Committee, the review was informed by the Charity Governance Code. The outcomes noted the improvements made since the previous review and has helped develop recommendations to support the continued development of:

• The mix of skills, knowledge and experience on the board.

• Strategic oversight and scrutiny by the trustee board, including board and executive responsibilities.

• Use of the committee and governance structures & procedures to support efficient decisionmaking.

• Approach to board meeting time and decision-making.

• Knowledge of, and approach to, stakeholder engagement (including external stakeholders).

Our Committees

Six additional committees form part of the governance arrangements to support the Board of Trustees. All committees, with the exception of the People Committee must comprise of at least two trustees, two ‘internal’[3] , and two ‘external’ members. The People Committee must comprise of a minimum of three trustees and two external members.

• The Service and Quality Committee supports the Board in both ensuring Samaritans delivers high quality, effective and consistent services, and in developing those services.

• The Policy, Partnerships and Research Committee supports the Board through maintaining oversight of Samaritans’ public policy positions and research activities along with ensuring the development of strategic partnerships in areas consistent with Samaritans’ public policy positions.

• 3 ‘Internal’ committee members must also be a member of a Samaritans branch.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

• The Audit and Risk Committee supports the Board, to satisfy it that management is operating sound internal control systems, and that there is an effective risk management framework and strategy for the organisation, which is being operated effectively.

• The Finance Committee reviews the financial performance and sustainability of the charity and advises the Board accordingly.

• The People Committee supports the Board through reviewing and making recommendations in relation to the remuneration and benefits of Samaritans’ staff, as well as oversight, guidance and scrutiny of significant staff-related initiatives, projects and changes (e.g., recruitment, development and wellbeing).

• The Nominations Committee is accountable to both the Board and the Council of Samaritans. It ensures that Trustee and other key volunteer roles are performed by persons with appropriate skills and experience, and that there are high standards in place for the effectiveness and development of the Board. At the AGM in 2020, the remit of the committee was extended to include the provisions of assurance that the governance structures and roles at Samaritans are fit for purpose.

The reference and administrative details on pages 72 to 73 form part of this report.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Samaritans and its Board of Trustees are committed to dealing with incidents and difficult situations efficiently and transparently and take any such matters seriously. In line with that commitment, details are set out below on serious incident reporting and policies on whistleblowing, bullying and harassment.

SERIOUS INCIDENT REPORTING

Samaritans’ Serious Incident Reporting Policy provides for serious incident reports for both Central Charity and affiliate branches to be lodged with the relevant regulator(s) by the Central Charity. This allows for additional support for branches in developing reports and better oversight of risk to the charity and its beneficiaries. During 2020/21, the Central Charity reported 23 new serious incidents to the relevant nation charity regulator(s). Of the 23 reports, 13 involved affiliated branches, eight involved Central Charity branches or the Central Charity itself and two involved both affiliated and Central Charity branches. One of the serious incidents involving the Central Charity was also reported to the Information Commissioners Officer (ICO) as the organisation had been subject to a ransomware attack by unknown third party. Actions were taken to mitigate any risk and there was no loss of data. The ICO advised that no further action would be taken. At the time of writing, the charity regulators have not required further action, other than that already stated in the reports.

WHISTLEBLOWING, BULLYING AND HARASSMENT

There are policies and processes in place relating to whistleblowing, bullying and harassment. These are applicable to both staff & volunteers at Samaritans Central Charity and both affiliate & Central Charity branches. A new concerns line will launch in July 2021 which will provide a secondary avenue to confidentially raise concerns.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Our generous supporters of individuals, companies, trusts and public bodies enable us to be there 24/7, 365 days a year for people struggling to cope. Throughout the year, from baking up treats to running rain or shine, to organising and responding to appeals, our supporters have been there for our callers day and night. The coronavirus pandemic has created unprecedented strain to the security of our income with the cancellation of events, temporary shop closures and the inability to fundraise in person. Our supporters, once again responded and have made the difference with more than £1.27 million donated to our emergency appeal, helping us keep our helpline open now and in the future.

Supporters’ needs remain central to the way we fundraise at Samaritans and we continually work to achieve the best standards of practice. We are proud to be rated amongst the most trusted charity brands (Charity Awareness Monitor, nfpSynergy, Q1 2021) and work hard to ensure that every one of our supporters has a positive experience. In February this year Samaritans staff and volunteers shared thanks and appreciation in personal phone calls, videos and cards; this supporter thanking day reached over 4,510 supporters.

Championing supporters

Supporter insight has been at the heart of our fundraising. Over the year, we have listened to more than 4,200 supporters on our supporter panel and in regular feedback surveys. We regularly engage with supporters to test our products, events, appeals, campaigns and communications to ensure that our fundraising programme is shaped to meet and exceed supporter expectations. Our supporters’ feedback has enabled new innovative fundraising approaches and products which has reached new supporters eg, The Feel Good Book club monthly book subscription, the launch of the online shop, the success of Samarathon, the new virtual marathon which engaged 3,620 incredible fundraisers and raised £540,000 and in reaching over 5,500 supporters digitally through new events such as the Facebook virtual walk and steps challenges which were vital during the pandemic. Supporter insight also helped to shape our new gifts in Wills campaign which prompted many supporters to pledge their support and share personal stories, helping to secure future legacy income which we’re very grateful for.

Following best practice

Samaritans is registered with the Fundraising Regulator and we are members of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, the Direct Marketing Association, the Market Research Society, the Gambling Commission and the Lotteries Council. We continue to review our policies to ensure they are in line and adhere to the latest amendments.

Our donor promise sets out our aim to be open, fair and honest in the way we engage with supporters. During 2020/21, we received only 25 fundraising complaints. We have worked hard over the year to continue embedding supporter friendly complaints procedures adhering to the Fundraising Regulator complaint guidelines. All complaints were resolved within a working day of receipt by the Supporter Care team. This improvement assures a high standard of resolving any expressions of dissatisfaction. The Supporter Care team will continue to review the improvement of processes to ensure we continue maintaining a responsive complaints process.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Working with agencies

Most of our fundraising activity is delivered directly by our Income team. We work with a small number of external fundraising agencies to help with specialist fundraising activity. These are for the recruitment of supporters who give through their payroll, telemarketing to engage with our existing donors, creative and marketing support to help with larger appeals, products and campaigns.

All relationships are governed by contracts, which are reviewed and approved by the appropriate authority before any activity takes place. Telemarketing is monitored and reviewed regularly for quality purposes by listening in to calls and holding weekly review meetings.

All suppliers engaged in fundraising activity on behalf of Samaritans are either members of, licensed by, or registered with a range of bodies including the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, Fundraising Regulator, Association of Payroll Giving Organisations, Information Commissioner’s Office, the DMA and the Gambling Commission, for example.

Protecting vulnerable donors

Our policy for working with vulnerable donors and members of the public who could reasonably be defined as ‘vulnerable’ was reviewed in 2019. The policy is published for all our fundraisers on our intranet and we plan to publish a version on our website in 2021. We ensure that our fundraisers receive relevant training and have access to coaching. We treat all donors with dignity and compassion, our policy helps reinforce the importance of this in all our fundraising.

Managing communications

It is important to Samaritans that supporters trust our communications. We regularly ask our supporters for feedback on how we can improve communications. Additionally, we regularly ask supporters for their communication preference and offer choice. If supporters no longer wish to hear from us, we will respect their wishes. We have strengthened our data management approach and will continue to adopt GDPR compliant working practices.

We cannot thank our supporters enough for standing by our side during the pandemic, we will continue to champion our supporters’ voices in all our fundraising activities.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

The Trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Annual Report including the Strategic Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and UK accounting standards (FRS 102). Company and charity law require the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. 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 affairs of the group and parent charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, of the group for the year.

In preparing those financial statements the Trustees are required to:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

• observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;

• make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

• state whether applicable accounting standards 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 charity will continue in business.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate and proper accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the charity’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the group and parent charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, regulations six and eight of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the group and parent charity 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 charity’s website. Legislation in the UK governing the preparation and dissemination of the financial statements and other information included in annual reports may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

The Trustees confirm that, so far as each Trustee is aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the charity’s auditor is unaware, and each Trustee has 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 charity’s auditor is aware of that information.

Approved by the board of Trustees on 23 July 2021 and signed on its behalf by Debbie Giwa, Trustee:

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Opinion

• We have audited the financial statements of Samaritans (‘the charitable company’) and its subsidiaries (‘the group’) for the year ended 31 March 2021 which comprise the Consolidated and Charity Statement of Financial Activities, the Group and Charity Balance Sheets, the Consolidated Cash Flow Statement and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s and the charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2021 and of the group’s incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

• have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the group in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

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.

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 charitable company's or the group’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

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 such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. 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 in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion based on the work undertaken in the course of our audit:

• the information given in the trustees’ report, which includes the directors’ report and the strategic report prepared for the purposes of company law, for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

• the strategic report and the directors’ report included within the trustees’ report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In light of the knowledge and understanding of the group and the charitable company and their environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the strategic report or the directors’ report included within the trustees’ report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

• the parent company has not kept adequate accounting records, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

• the parent company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

• certain disclosures of trustees' remuneration specified by law are not made; or

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement set out on page 42, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees 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 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 charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

We have been appointed as auditor under section 44(1)(c) 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 auditor’s 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.

Details of the extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations are set out below.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We identified and assessed the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements from irregularities, whether due to fraud or error, and discussed these between our audit team members. We then designed and performed audit procedures responsive to those risks, including obtaining audit evidence sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks within which the charitable company and group operates, focusing on those laws and regulations that have a direct effect on the determination of material amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The laws and regulations we considered in this context were the Companies Act 2006, the Charities Act 2011 and The Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, together with the Charities SORP (FRS 102). We assessed the required compliance with these laws and regulations as part of our audit procedures on the related financial statement items.

In addition, we considered provisions of other laws and regulations that do not have a direct effect on the financial statements but compliance with which might be fundamental to the charitable

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

company’s and the group’s ability to operate or to avoid a material penalty. We also considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the charitable company and the group for fraud. The laws and regulations we considered in this context for the UK operations were General Data Protection Regulations, employment legislation and health and safety legislation.

Auditing standards limit the required audit procedures to identify non-compliance with these laws and regulations to enquiry of the Trustees and other management and inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.

We identified the greatest risk of material impact on the financial statements from irregularities, including fraud, to be within the timing of recognition of income and the override of controls by management. Our audit procedures to respond to these risks included enquiries of management and the Audit & Risk Committee about their own identification and assessment of the risks of irregularities, data analytics and sample testing on the posting of journals, sample testing of income, reviewing accounting estimates for biases, reviewing regulatory correspondence with the Charity Commission, and reading minutes of meetings of those charged with governance.

Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that we may not have detected some material misstatements in the financial statements, even though we have properly planned and performed our audit in accordance with auditing standards. For example, the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations (irregularities) is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely the inherently limited procedures required by auditing standards would identify it. In addition, as with any audit, there remained a higher risk of non-detection of irregularities, as these may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal controls. We are not responsible for preventing non-compliance and cannot be expected to detect non-compliance with all laws and regulations.

Use of this report

This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006, and to the charitable company’s trustees, as a body, in accordance with Regulation 10 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body and the charitable company’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Naziar Hashemi Senior Statutory Auditor For and on behalf of Crowe U.K. LLP Statutory Auditor

London, UK Date 22 October 2021

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Incorporating an Income & Expenditure Account

For the year to 31 March 2021

Note Income Donations and legacies 2 Charitable Activities Grants from public bodies and others 2 Other trading activities Partnership and other income 3 Investment income 4 Gains on disposal of fixed assets Total income before net assets received from Samaritans branch charities Net assets received from/(sent to) Samaritans branch charities Net assets received from Support After Suicide Partnership Total income Expenditure Raising funds 7 Charitable activities 7 Total expenditure Net gains/(losses) on investments Net income/(deficit) Transfers between funds Net movement in funds Reconciliation of funds Total funds brought forward Total funds carried forward 17	Unrestricted funds Restricted Funds Total Funds Unrestricted funds 2021 2021 2021 2020 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 16,146 349 16,495 10,487 2,448 4,039 6,487 1,575 4,678 264 4,942 4,053 13 - 13 63 285 - 285 -	Restricted Funds Total Funds 2020 2020 £’000 £’000 1,159 11.646 2,795 4,370 178 4,231 - 68 - -
	23,570 4,652 28,222 16,178 - - - 79 - - - -	4,132 20,310 92 171 92 92
	23,570 4,652 28,222 16,257	4,316 20,573
	4,351 - 4,351 4,334 12,306 5,391 17,697 10,499	- 4,334 4,310 14,809
	16,657 5,391 22,048 14,833	4,310 19,143
	189 - 189 (10)	- (10)
	7,102 (739) 6,363 1,414 (40) 40 - (38)	6 1,420 38 -
	7,062 (699) 6,363 1,376	44 1,420
	19,864 3,206 23,070 18,488	3,162 21,650
	26,926 2,507 29,433 19,864	3,206 23,070

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Incorporating an Income & Expenditure Account

For the year to 31 March 2021

Note Income Donations and legacies 2 Charitable Activities Grants from public bodies and others 2 Other trading activities Partnership and other income 3 Investment Income 4 Gains on disposal of fixed assets Total income before net assets received Net assets received from Samaritans branch charities Net assets received from Support After Suicide Partnership Total income Expenditure Raising funds 7 Charitable activities 7 Total expenditure Net gains/(losses) on investments Net income/deficit) Transfers between funds Net movement in funds Reconciliation of funds Total funds brought forward Total funds carried forward 17	Unrestricted funds Restricted Funds Total Funds Unrestricted funds 2021 2021 2021 2020 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 16,573 349 16,922 10,887 2,448 3,288 5,736 1,579 2,392 190 2,582 2,557 13 - 13 62 285 - 285 -	Restricted Funds Total Funds 2020 2020 £’000 £’000 1,110 11,997 2,127 3,706 177 2,734 - 62 - -
	21,711 3,827 25,538 15,085 56 - 56 79 - - - -	3,414 18,499 92 171 92 92
	21,767 3,827 25,594 15,164	3,598 18,762
	4,351 - 4,351 4,332 11,070 4,617 15,687 9,422	- 4,332 3,671 13,093
	15,421 4,617 20,038 13,754	3,671 17,425
	189 - 189 (9)	- (9)
	6,535 (790) 5,745 1,401 (40) 40 - (42)	(73) 1,328 42 -
	6,495 (750) 5,745 1,359	(31) 1,328
	19,607 2,705 22,312 18,248	2,736 20,984
	26,102 1,955 28,057 19,607	2,705 22,312

The group has no recognised gains and losses other than those shown above and therefore no separate statement of total recognised gains and losses has been presented. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities. The Notes on pages 51 to 71 form part of these accounts.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

As at 31 March 2021

Company Registration No. 757372

Note Fixed assets Tangible assets 9 Intangible assets 10 Investments 11 Total fixed assets Current assets Stock Debtors 12 Cash at bank and in hand Total current assets Liabilities Creditors falling due within one year 13 Deferred income 14 Net current assets Net assets Funds 17 Restricted income funds Unrestricted income funds General unrestricted funds Designated funds Total funds	Group 2021 £’000 Group 2020 £’000 7,990 8,365 848 1,002 4,458 4,277	Charity 2021 £’000 Charity 2020 £’000 7,989 8,363 848 1,002 4,458 4,275
	13,296 13,644	13,295 13,640
	48 49 3,025 2,159 19,174 10,080	34 43 4,055 2,927 15,716 7,969
	22,247 12,288	19,805 10,939
	2,839 2,188 3,271 674	2,729 2,085 2,314 182
	6,110 2,862	5,043 2,267
	16,137 9,426	14,762 8,672
	29,433 23,070	28,057 23,312
	2,507 3,206 11,793 8,419 15,133 11,445	1,955 2,705 10,970 8,165 15,132 11,442
	26,926 19,864	26,102 19,607
	29,433 23,070	28,057 22,312

Approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Trustees on 23 July 2021 and signed on its behalf by Debbie Giwa, Trustee:

The Notes on pages 51 to 71 form part of these accounts.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

For the year ended 31 March 2021

Reconciliation of net income to net cash flow from operating activities Net income for the reporting period (as per the statement of financial activities Adjustments for Depreciation and amortisation charges Profit on sale of fixed assets (Gains)/losses on investments Dividends and interest from investments Decrease/(increase) in stock (Increase)/Decrease in debtors Decrease/(Increase) in creditors Net cash inflow from operating activities Statement of cash flows Net cash provided by operating activities Cash flows from investing activities Dividends, interest and rents from investments Purchase of property, plant and equipment Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment Sale/(Purchase) of investments Net cash provided by/(used in) investing activities Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting period Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period Analysis of cash and cash equivalents Cash at bank and in hand Total cash and cash equivalents	Group 2021 £’000 Group 2020 £’000 6,363 1,420 564 538 (285) - (189) 10 (13) (63) 1 (17) (866) 1,084 3,248 (583)	Charity 2021 £’000 Charity 2020 £’000 5,745 1,328 563 536 (285) - (189) 9 (13) (62) 9 (11) (1,127) (833) 2,775 678
	8,823 2,389	7,478 1,645
	8,823 2,389 13 63 (308) (928) 558 - 8 (15)	7,478 1,645 13 62 (308) (928) 558 - 6 (15)
	271 (880)	269 (881)
	9,094 1,509	7,747 764
	10,080 8,571	7,969 7,205
	19,174 10,080	15,716 7,969
	19,174 10,080	15,716 7,969
	19,174 10,080	15,716 7,969

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

1. Accounting policies

a) Basis of Preparation

The accounts have been prepared on a going concern basis under the historical cost convention with the exception of investments, which are included at market value.

The Trustees consider that based on the current reserves position, the forward projections of income and expenditure and the ongoing scenario planning activity there are no material uncertainties that call into doubt the ability of Samaritans to continue as a going concern.

The financial statements are prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102) issued October 2019, the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and applicable Accounting Standards.

Samaritans meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, which are described in this Note, Trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and underlying assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an on-going basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised if the revision affects only that period or in the period of the revision and future periods if the revision affects the current and future periods.

A key source of estimation uncertainty that has a significant effect on the amounts recognised in the financial statements is in respect of residual legacies and this is described in the accounting policy below (see Note 1h) Legacies).

b) Basis of Consolidation

The accounts of the group companies are included in the financial statements and the Notes shown on pages 51 to 71. Further details of the subsidiaries’ activities are shown in Note 17. The consolidation of the group entities’ activities has been carried out on a line-by-line basis. All items of income and expenditure have been shown gross, after the removal of intra-group transactions.

Samaritans has taken advantage of the exemptions in FRS 102 from the requirements to present certain disclosures about the charity’s financial instruments.

c) Critical accounting judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty

Another source of estimation uncertainty is the measurement at fair value of the properties which transferred to the central charity, from branches joining the central charity during the year. Fair value has been established with reference to the local market rate and condition of the properties.

We have considered the impact of Covid-19 on our financial estimates. The valuation of residual legacies which have been notified to the charity but not yet included in the accounts may be affected by the impact of Covid 19 on financial markets and interest rates, however the impact of these movements has not been quantified at the reporting date due to the volatility and uncertainty of these changes.

d) Fund Accounting

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the objectives of the charity and have not been designated for other purposes. Designated funds comprise unrestricted funds which have been set aside by the Trustees for particular purposes. Restricted funds are funds which are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by donors or which have been raised by the charity for specific purposes. Costs relating to such funds are charged against the specific fund. The aim and use of each fund is set out in Note 16.

e) Impairment of Freehold Property Assets

Freehold property assets are subject to an impairment review in accordance with FRS 102 Section 27 "Impairment of Assets". They are stated in the balance sheet at cost less provision for any impairment in value. Any impairment is recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities (‘SOFA’) in the year in which it occurs.

ii) Donated Goods/Services

These are included in both income and expenditure at the value to the charity where this can be reasonably quantified.

iii) Grants and Contracts

Where contracts are related to specific deliverables (as in the case of the contract with Network Rail) income is recognised to the extent that those deliverables have been achieved. Where income through contract is received in advance, its recognition is deferred and included in creditors. Where entitlement to contract or grant income occurs before income is received, the income is accrued. Capital grants are accounted for as income as soon as they are receivable.

iv) New Branch Contribution (NBC)

These are recognised as receivable income upon the receipt of signed accounts from Samaritans' branches.

f) Assets under Construction

i) Expenditure

Assets under construction are shown at cost and are not depreciated until brought into operational use.

g) Stock

Stock is valued at the lower of cost or net realisable value.

h) Income

Income is included in the SOFA when the charity is legally entitled to the income, there is sufficient probability of receipt and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy. The following specific policies apply to categories of income:

i) Legacies

Recognition is the earlier of the charity receiving final estate accounts or the legacy actually being received. No value is included where the legacy is subject to a life interest held by another party.

Expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all costs related to that category. Where costs cannot be directly attributed to particular headings they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with use of resources. Support and Governance costs have been allocated on the basis of spend to each of the four main programme areas (Service, Access, Influence, and Evidence) and to Fundraising activities; the allocation of support costs to Partnership activity is based on the contracted allowance for these costs in the Network Rail funding contract. The following specific policies apply to categories of expenditure:

i) Grants

Grants are charged to the statement of financial activities when there is a liability to pay.

ii) Fundraising Costs

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Fundraising costs are those incurred in seeking voluntary contributions and do not include the costs of disseminating information in support of the charitable activities.

iii) Governance Costs

Governance costs are the costs associated with the governance arrangements of the charity which relate to the general running of the charity to distinguish from those costs associated with fundraising or charitable activity. Included within this category are costs associated with the strategic management of the charity’s activities.

iv) Support Costs

Support costs comprise staff delivering the corporate service and infrastructure functions. These are allocated across the categories of charitable expenditure and the costs of generating funds. The basis of allocation of support costs is explained above.

v) Depreciation

Depreciation is calculated on a straight-line basis to write off the cost of tangible and intangible fixed assets (except assets under construction) over their estimated useful lives at the following rates:

Tangible Fixed Asset

Freehold Property	50 years
Leasehold Property	50 years
Computer Equipment	3 years
Telephony Platform	5 years
Office Equipment	4 years
Motor Vehicles	5 years

j) Samaritans’ Regions

Centrally funded costs of supporting Samaritans’ regions have been incorporated within these financial statements. For operational delivery, the UK and Republic of Ireland are grouped into fourteen geographic regions. Each of these is supported by a group of senior volunteers and received financial support from the charity.

k) Operating Leases

Expenditure on operating leases is accounted for on a straight-line basis over the length of the lease.

l) Foreign Currency

Transactions in foreign currency are converted to Sterling at the rate prevailing on the date of the transaction. Currency balances at the end of the year are converted at the closing exchange rate. Foreign exchange gains and losses are included in the SOFA for the period in which they are incurred. The results of Samaritans Ireland have been translated at the average rate.

m) Pensions

The company operates a defined contribution group personal pension plan and an autoenrolment pension scheme. Pension costs for eligible employees are charged to expenditure as they are incurred.

n) Branches

The term ‘branches’ used throughout these Accounts refers to the branches of

Samaritans, whose objectives are consistent with those of Samaritans. Note 19 provides information on branches which have joined the central charity during the year.

o) Taxation

Intangible Fixed Assets Website and Software Development 3-5 years

Samaritans is a registered charity and is therefore potentially exempt from taxation of

its income and gains to the extent that they fall within Part ii of the Corporation Tax Act 2010 and

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

section 256 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Acts 1992. No tax charge has arisen in the year. The Samaritan Enterprises Limited does not normally incur a tax charge given its policy of gifting all taxable profits to Samaritans.

Investments in subsidiary undertakings are held at cost less impairment.

p) Financial Instruments

Samaritans has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and

subsequently measured at the present value of future cash flows (amortised cost). Financial assets held at amortised cost comprise cash at bank and in hand, short term cash deposits and the group’s debtors excluding prepayments. Financial liabilities held at amortised cost comprise the group’s short and long term creditors excluding deferred income and taxation payable. No discounting has been applied to these financial instruments on the basis that the periods over which amounts will be settled are such that any discounting would be immaterial.

Investments, including bonds and cash held as part of the investment portfolio, are held at fair value at the Balance Sheet date, with gains and losses being recognised within income and expenditure.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

2. Voluntary income

2a. DONATIONS AND LEGACIES	All Funds 2021 £’000 All Funds 2020 £’000
Donations - Individual Giving	8,667 6,946
Donations - Branches	- 219
Donations - Corporate	3,507 1,765
Gifts in Kind	495 53
Legacies	3,826 2,663
Total Donations	16,495 11,646

2b. Donated Services

A valuation has been undertaken of advertising, legal and training services donated to the charity during the year. This valuation has been included within income under ‘Gifts in Kind’ as above and within expenditure.

2c. Legacies

As stated in the accounting policies note above (Note 1), legacy income is recognised at the earlier of the charity receiving final estate accounts or the legacy being received. At 31 March 2021, the charity had been notified of a further 77 legacies (2020: 60) that have not been included in these accounts as they did not meet these criteria. These legacies have an estimated value of £1,773,000 (2020: £2,189,000).

2d. Grants

Health Service Executive: Freecall Ireland Ministry of Justice: HMPPS Department of Health and Social Care: Samaritans Helpline call costs The National Lottery Community Fund Ministry of Justice: HMPPS (Safer Custody) Welsh Government/LLywodraeth Cymru Department of Health and Social Care (NSPA) Irish Prison Service Northern Ireland Prison Service Department of Health (Northern Ireland) Scottish Government (Freecall) Scottish Government (SHA) Scottish Prison Service Covid and Council Grants Department of Health and Social Care (COV) HMRC Job Retention Scheme Pears Foundation and DCMS (Community Match Challenge Fund) Other grants Total grants*	All funds 2021 £’000 All funds 2020 £’000
	529 536
	443 496
	470 425
	130 275
	- 124
	120 120
	30 60
	61 41
	18 18
	15 12
	8 10
	49 -
	- 3
	578 -
	718 -
	69
	675 35
	3,913 2,155
	2,574 2,215
	6,487 4,370

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

• Other Grants includes individually immaterial grants, grants for which individual disclosure is not required by the underlying agreement and grants received where the donor wishes to remain anonymous.

3. Partnership income

New Branch Contribution is a payment by branches as a contribution to the services received, including the core technology platform. The New Branch Contribution amounted to £1,207,000 in 2020/21 (2019/20: £914,000) and is included within ‘partnerships and other income’.

4. Investment income

4. Investment income
Cash or cash equivalents Listed investments Total investment income	All funds 2021 £’000 All funds 2020 £’000
	4 46
	9 17
	13 63

5. Charitable expenditure

Further information on charitable expenditure has been provided below where required by the funder.

Ministry of Justice (HMPPS)

The HMPPS Grant was given to Samaritans in England and Wales by the Ministry of Justice. The grant was for the delivery of emotional support to prisoners in distress or crisis in England and Wales. The funding received in 2020/21 is shown in note 2d. 2020/21 expenditure was £557,000 (2019/20: £447,000).

Ministry of Justice (HMPPS Safer Custody)

The HMPPS Grant was given to Samaritans in England and Wales by the Ministry of Justice. The grant was given to improve safer custody of prisoners. The funding received in 2020/21 is shown in note 2d. 2020/21 expenditure was £13,000 (2019/20: £163,000). Expenditure was lower in 2020/21 due to the lower level of activity due to Covid.

Scottish Government Freecall

The Scottish Government grant was a contribution to Freecall. Expenditure during the year totalled £8,000 (2019/20: £10,000).

Pears Foundation/DCMS Community Match Challenge.

The funding received to enable Samaritans branches to respond to Covid against set criteria is shown in Note 2d above. Expenditure during 2021/22 was £675,000 (2019/20: nil).

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) funded projects

National Suicide Prevention Alliance- NSPA

NSPA is an alliance of organisations which aims to reduce the number of suicides in England and improve support for those affected by suicide. The DHSC is a member of the NSPA and contributed £61,000 (2019/20: £60,000) during the year towards delivering the alliance’s work-plan of national priorities. Expenditure during the year towards the project totalled £61,000 (2019/20: £60,000).

Samaritans Helpline Costs

The funding received from DHSC as a contribution towards the overall cost of running the Samaritans’ helpline is shown in Note 2d above. Expenditure during 2020/21 was £470,000 (2019/20: £425,000).

Covid-19 Support

The funding received from DHSC to allow Samaritans and NSPA to carry out new Covid 19 related work for the immediate benefit of service users is shown in Note 2d above. Expenditure during 2020/21 was £787,000 (2019/20: nil).

6. Net income for the year

This is stated after charging:

External auditor – audit fees External auditor – tax advisory and other financial services Depreciation of tangible fixed assets Amortisation of intangible fixed assets Operating lease rentals	All funds 2021 £’000 All funds 2020 £’000
	24 27
	12 2
	36 29
	270 410
	294 128
	203 208

The Directors of the charitable company are the trustees under charity law and receive no remuneration. It is the policy of the charity to reimburse all volunteer expenses in full. During the year 17 (2020: 16) Samaritans' Trustees received reimbursement for attending meetings, telephony and other incidentals amounting to £2,000 (2020: £17,000) with the fall reflecting lower travel/accommodation expenses due to Covid.

The company has taken out insurance to protect the Trustees. This cover is part of our commercial combined insurance policy, and the cost of this element is not itemised.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

7. Breakdown of costs by activity

Current year

Expenditure on: Raising funds General fundraising Charitable activities Service Access Influence Evidence Total expenditure Expenditure on: Raising funds Charitable activities Total expenditure	Direct costs 2021 £’000 Support costs 2021 £’000 All costs 2021 £’000
	3,271 1,080 4,351
	5,881 1,725 7,606
	5,534 274 5,808
	2,942 782 3,724
	420 139 559
	18,048 4,000 22,048
	Unrestricted funds 2021 £’000 Restricted funds 2021 £’000 All funds 2021 £’000
	4,351 - 4,351
	12,309 5,388 17,697
	16,660 5,388 22,048

Analysis of support costs:

Analysis of support costs:
Finance and other corporate services IS HR Facilities Governance Support costs	Fundraising 2021 £’000 Service 2021 £’000 Access 2021 £’000 Influence 2021 £’000 Evidence 2021 £’000 Total 2021 £’000
	213 341 57 154 27 792
	323 516 81 234 42 1,196
	207 330 52 150 26 765
	201 320 50 145 26 742
	136 218 34 99 18 505
	1,080 1,725 274 782 139 4,000

There have been some exceptional costs this year which have resulted in an increase in support costs.

Finance costs include £183k spend on the new finance system project, and £94k of Covid support grants to branches.

HR costs included an increase in organisation-wide holiday pay accrual of £286k due to staff carrying forward higher levels of holiday following Covid lockdowns.

Facilities costs have increased due to timing as a refurbished branch property is prepared for sale. This contributed £241k to the increase.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Prior year

Expenditure on: Raising funds General fundraising Charitable activities Service Access Influence Evidence Total expenditure Expenditure on: Raising funds Charitable activities Total expenditure	Direct costs 2020 £’000 Support costs 2020 £’000 All costs 2020 £’000 3,346 988 4,334 5,090 1,412 6,502 4,831 131 4,962 2,325 625 2,950 305 90 395 15,897 3,246 19,143 Unrestricted funds 2020 £’000 Restricted funds 2020 £’000 All funds 2020 £’000 4,334 - 4,334 10,499 4,310 14,809 14,833 4,310 19,143

Analysis of support costs:

Analysis of support costs:
Finance and other corporate services IS Transformation HR Facilities Governance Support costs	Fundraising 2020 £’000 Service 2020 £’000 Access 2020 £’000 Influence 2020 £’000 Evidence 2020 £’000 Total 2020 £’000
	119 170 19 75 11 394
	368 526 47 231 33 1,205
	7 10 1 5 1 24
	140 200 18 89 13 460
	198 283 26 126 18 651
	156 223 20 99 14 512
	998 1,412 131 625 90 3,246

• Transformation refers to the costs incurred in changes to our ways of working across the organisation. Support costs have been apportioned to the charitable activities on the basis of underlying direct costs.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

8. Staff costs

	All funds	All funds
	2021	2020
Staff costs	£’000	£’000
Wages and salaries	9,035	7,759
Social security costs	959	810
Other pension costs	433	349
Agencystaff	358	264
Total staff costs	10,785	9,182
Staff numbers	2021	2020
£140,001-£150,000	-	1
£110,001-£120,000	3	0
£100,001-£110,000	1	3
£90,001-£100,000	-	1
£70,001-£80,000	5	-
£60,001-£70,000	10	10
	19	15

The highest paid employee was the Chief Operating Officer, who was paid a total of £115,000 (2020: Chief Executive Officer who was paid a total of £141,000 during the year). During the year, the previous Chief Executive Officer, Ruth Sutherland, was part-time and left the organisation in November 2020, hence she was not the highest paid employee that year.

Julie Bentley was appointed as Chief Executive Officer in November 2020 on an annual salary of £140,000. As she was only employed for part of the year she is not shown as the highest paid employee in 2020-21 but next year’s accounts will reflect the full salary.

Pay and on-costs incurred during the year in relation to key management personnel totalled £940,000 (2020: £941,000).

Termination payments totalling £86,000 (2020: £52,000) were paid during the year, relating to employees leaving the charity.

Pension Costs

The pension contributions for the 14 employees (2020: 14) earning more than £60,000 in the year amounted to £78,000 (2020: £65,000).

Employee Numbers

The average full-time equivalent number of employees during the year was 225 (2020: 197). The average number of employees in post during the year was 247 (2020: 225).

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

9. Tangible fixed assets

Group

Cost At 1 April 2020 Additions Disposals At 31 March 2021 Depreciation At 1 April 2020 Charge for the year Disposals At 31 March 2021 Net book value At 31 March 2021 At 31 March 2020	Freehold property £’000 Leasehold property £’000 Computer equipment £’000 Connect telephony platform £’000 Office equipment £’000 Total £’000
	9,602 680 478 948 471 12,179
	- - - - 168 168
	(299) - - - - (299)
	9,303 680 478 948 639 12,048
	1,980 42 478 887 427 3,814
	168 14 - 61 27 270
	(22) - - - (4) (26)
	2,126 56 478 948 450 4,058
	7,177 624 - - 189 7,990
	7,622 638 - 61 44 8,365

Charity

Cost At 1 April 2020 Additions Disposals At 31 March 2021 Depreciation At 1 April 2020 Charge for the year Disposals At 31 March 2021 Net book value At 31 March 2021 At 31 March 2020	Freehold property £’000 Leasehold property £’000 Computer equipment £’000 Connect telephony platform £’000 Office equipment £’000 Total £’000
	9,602 680 478 948 321 12,029
	- - - - 168 168
	(295) - - - - (295)
	9,307 680 478 948 489 11,902
	1,980 42 478 887 279 3,666
	169 14 - 61 25 269
	(22) - - - - (22)
	2,127 56 478 948 304 3,913
	7,180 624 - - 185 7,989
	7,622 638 - 61 42 8,363

*Depreciation at 1 April 2021 for freehold property, includes an impairment of £725,000 in the carrying value of the Ewell Central Office arising from an impairment review 2012/13.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

10. Intangible fixed assets

Group & Charity

Cost At 1 April 2020 Additions – New software At 31 March 2021 Depreciation At 1 April 2020 Charge for the year At 31 March 2021 Net book value At 31 March 2021 At 31 March 2020	Website and software development £’000
	1,138
	140
	1,278
	136
	294
	430
	848
	1,002

Amortisation of intangible fixed assets is included within Charitable Activities expenditure on the Statement of Financial Activities.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

11. Fixed asset investments

Market value at 1 April Acquisition at cost Disposals at carrying value Net investment gains/losses Market value at 31 March 2020 Cash and cash equivalents CCLA COIF charities deposit fund Portfolio managed by Hambros investments Scotland endowed fund Total Listed investments Portfolio managed by Hambros investments Other quoted equities Total Commodities Managed by Hambros Investments Total investments	Group 2021 £’000 Group 2020 £’000 Charity 2021 £’000 Charity 2020 £’000 4,277 4,272 4,275 4,269 441 884 441 883 (449) (869) (447) (868) 189 (10) 189 (9)
	4,458 4,277 4,458 4,275
	2021 £’000 2021 % 2020 £’000 2020 % 2,968 66.6 2,970 69.4 606 13.6 481 11.3 - - 2 -
	3,574 80.2 3,453 80.7 814 18.2 812 19.0 9 0.2 12 0.3
	823 18.4 824 19.3 61 1.4 - -
	4,458 100.0 4,277 100.0

Investments held by the charity include a £100 investment (2020: £100) in the subsidiary company at cost, as referred to in Note 17.

12. Debtors

Trade debtors Regions and branches Gift Aid Legacies Accrued income VAT, payroll tax, social security and pensions Other debtors Intercompany Prepayments Total debtors	Group 2021 £’000 Group 2020 £’000 Charity 2021 £’000 Charity 2020 £’000 1,841 993 1,302 1,306 44 18 44 18 291 405 291 405 26 47 26 47 507 367 507 367 - 6 - - 1 10 1 7 - - 1,603 469 315 313 281 308
	3,025 2,159 4,055 2,927

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

13. Creditors

Social security and taxes Regions and branches Trade creditors Accrued expenditure Intercompany Other creditors Total creditors	Group 2021 £’000 Group 2020 £’000 Charity 2021 £’000 Charity 2020 £’000 491 201 491 201 10 - 10 - 695 809 627 679 1,433 1,028 1,391 997 - - - 58 210 150 210 150
	2,839 2,188 2,729 2,085

14. Deferred income

At 1stApril Income recognised in the year Income deferred in the year At 31st March 2020	Group 2021 £’000 Group 2020 £’000 Charity 2021 £’000 Charity 2020 £’000 674 1,773 182 109 (1,182) (1,423) (296) (102) 3,779 324 2,428 175
	3,271 674 2,314 182

Total deferred income includes £826,000 (2020: £306,000) Network Rail deferred income within The Samaritan Enterprises Limited.

15. Financial and other commitments

15a. Operating leases

At 31 March the Group and Charity had total commitments under non-cancellable operating leases as set out below:

Operating lease commitments Within one year Between two and five years Over five years Total	Group 2021 Land and buildings £’000 Group 2021 Other £’000 Group 2020 Land and buildings £’000 Group 2020 Other £’000 Charity 2021 Land and buildings £’000 Charity 2021 Other £’000 Charity 2020 Land and buildings £’000 Charity 2020 Other £’000
	198 3 220 11 160 3 188 11
	327 4 461 7 297 4 403 7
	154 - 202 - 154 - 202 -
	679 7 883 18 611 7 793 18

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

16. Financial instruments

At the balance sheet date, the charity held financial assets at amortised cost of £21,885,000 (2020: £11,925,000), financial assets at fair value through income or expenditure of £4,458,000 (2020: £4,277,000) and financial liabilities at amortised cost of £2,608,000 (2020: £1,987,000).

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

17. Reconciliation of reserves

Current year

Unrestricted General fund Designated fund – Tangible and intangible fixed assets Designated fund – Property maintenance fund Designated fund – Digital Designated fund – There for Everyone Designated fund – Service Expansion Designated fund – Strategy Development & Delivery Total unrestricted funds Restricted There for Everyone Helpline Freecall Helpline Call Costs Reduce Gambling Harm Online Excellence Programme Branch Support City Hub Prisoner Support & Improving Safer custody Support after Suicide Regional Grants National Suicide Prevention Suicide & Self-harm in Wales Covid Support Other Total restricted funds Total funds Represented by: Tangible and Intangible fixed assets Investments Net current assets Total*	At 31 March 2020 £’000 Income £’000 Expenditure £’000 Transfer between funds £’000 At 31 March 2021 £’000
	8,419 23,422 (15,258) (4,790) 11,793
	9,367 307 (836) - 8,838
	800 - (131) - 669
	244 - (90) - 154
	1,034 30 (342) - 722
	- - - 1,250 1,250
	- - - 3,500 3,500
	19,864 23,759 (16,657) (40) 26,926
	1,037 221 (949) - 309
	435 529 (528) - 436
	- 531 (531) - -
	423 - (123) - 300
	419 404 (181) - 642
	280 896 (901) - 275
	152 160 (60) - 252
	139 572 (702) - 9
	71 164 (113) - 122
	70 58 (73) - 55
	54 61 (92) 40 63
	36 162 (198) - -
	- 787 (787) - -
	90 107 (153) - 44
	3,206 4,652 (5,391) 40 2,507
	23,070 28,411 (22,048) - 29,433
	General Funds £’000 Designated funds £’000 Restricted funds £’000 Total 2021 £’000 Total 2020 ‘000
	- 8,838 - 8,838 9,367
	4,458 - - 4,458 4,277
	12,085 1,545 2,507 16,137 9,426
	16,543 10,383 2,507 29,433 23,070

• Other funds include funds with either opening balance, closing balance, income, or expenditure less than £50k. Transfers between general funds and restricted funds relate to Central Charity contributions to restricted projects.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Prior year

Unrestricted General fund Designated fund – Tangible and intangible fixed assets Designated fund – Property maintenance fund Designated fund – Digital Designated fund – There for Everyone Total unrestricted funds Restricted There for Everyone Helpline Freecall Helpline Call Costs Branch Support Prisoner Support & Improving Safer custody National Suicide Prevention Suicide & Self-harm in Wales Online Excellence Programme Reduce Gambling Harm Regional Grants City Hub Support after Suicide Other Total restricted funds Total funds Represented by: Tangible and Intangible fixed assets Investments Net current assets Total*	At 31 March 2019 £’000 Income £’000 Expenditure £’000 Transfer between funds £’000 At 31 March 2020 £’000
	6,583 15,069 (13,168) (65) 8,419
	8,977 928 (538) 9,367
	900 - (100) - 800
	864 - (620) - 244
	1,164 250 (407) 27 1,034
	18,488 16,247 (14,833) (38) 19,864
	2,278 376 (1,619) 2 1,037
	368 576 (509) - 435
	- 425 (425) - -
	196 250 (166) - 280
	132 730 (723) - 139
	28 151 (165) 40 54
	20 117 (101) - 36
	- 460 (41) - 419
	- 423 - - 423
	- 336 (266) - 70
	- 216 (64) - 152
	- 92 (21) - 71
	140 164 (210) (4) 90
	3,162 4,316 (4,310) 38 3,206
	21,650 20,563 (19,143) - 23,070
	General Funds £’000 Designated funds £’000 Restricted funds £’000 Total 2020 £’000 Total 2019 ‘000
	- 9,367 - 9,367 8,977
	4,277 - - 4,277 4,272
	4,142 2,078 3,206 9,426 8,401
	8,419 11,445 3,206 23,070 21,650

• Other funds include funds with either opening balance, closing balance, income, or expenditure less than £50k. Transfers between general funds and restricted funds relate to Central Charity contributions to restricted projects.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

17a. Unrestricted funds

General fund	These funds are held available for the ordinary purposes of the charity.
Designated fund – Tangible fixed assets	This designated fund comprises unrestricted expenditure in the purchase of the Group’s tangible fixed assets to invest in the charity’s future capacity and growth. These are therefore not readily available for other purposes. Fixed asset expenditure financed from restricted funds is shown within the restricted fund balances.
Designated Fund – Property Maintenance Fund	This designated fund has been established utilising cash assets transferred from branches joining the central charity. The fund will be used to ensure the ongoing maintenance, safety, and suitability of branch properties for delivering Samaritans’ services into the future, as well as to cover any costs incurred for dilapidations on properties leased by the branches.
Designated Fund - Digital	This designated fund will be used to make our service more accessible to a larger number of people through using digital technology to create new communication channels for the service. It was established by a transfer of funds from the Claire Squires Fund and through a generous donation of £400,000 from the Isle of Man branch to invest in the development of the service. We anticipate that this fund will be fully utilised in 2021/22.
Designated Fund – Service Provision	A pilot is currently underway trialling new ways of operating our service, with the aim of widening the reach for beneficiaries, and attracting and training new volunteers. This has been a long-standing risk area for Samaritans: trying to widen and increase the supply of volunteers / service options to match the demand from current and new potential beneficiaries. Following the completion of the pilot in early autumn, a decision will be taken on which areas to expand. The options currently being piloted, cover virtual hubs, satellite branches, a university hub and the Samaritans training school.
Designated Fund – Strategy Development & Delivery	We are currently undertaking a strategy review, with the initial stages of this being presented to the Board in July. The next phase of work is to build up the detailed plan of how to deliver this, ready to start implementing from the beginning of the next financial year (2022/23). The key strands of this new strategy are being developed during the next six months with the Board’s input. These include building on our current strategy of developing digital services, influencing, widening access, and ensuring we have the capacity, capability, and structure to meet future needs across the whole organisation including affiliate and central branches.
Designated fund – There for Everyone	This designated fund will be used to support There for Everyone programme to help us make a step change in our ability to offer our callers greater choice in how they access our services, raising awareness and reaching more people through the education and information we provide, as well as creating flexible ways to volunteer with us that fit better with our modern lives.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

17b. Restricted funds

There for Everyone	These funds can only be used to support There for Everyone programme to help us make a step change in our ability to offer our callers greater choice in how they access our services, raising awareness and reaching more people through the education and information we provide, as well as creating flexible ways to volunteer with us that fit better with our modern lives.
Helpline Freecall	These funds are to cover the costs of calls to the Samaritans freecall helpline phone number in Ireland.
Helpline Call Costs	These funds are to cover the costs of calls to the Samaritans freecall helpline phone number in the UK.
Reducing Gambling Harm	Samaritans is working in partnership with GamCare, to develop suicide prevention guidance aimed at gambling companies and training to support their staff working with customers expressing suicidal thoughts.
Online Excellence Programme	This fund is to be used to develop a hub of excellence in suicide prevention and the online environment.
Branch Support	These funds are to be used to ensure Samaritans critical 24/7 services remain available to vulnerable people in the short and longer term nationally and locally, and to meet emergency financial needs of the branches.
Prisoner Support & Improving Safer Custody	These funds are to provide Emotional Support to Prisoners in Distress or Crisis in the UK and Ireland.
City Hub	This fund is to develop and roll out a new innovating volunteering model to offer people who work in the City opportunities to support suicide prevention locally and nationally, including the new online chat service.
Support after Suicide	SASP is a UK wide network of over 70 members and supporters. It was founded in 2013 to bring together national and local organisations that are involved in delivering suicide bereavement support across the UK and to address the need for formal, multi-agency, proactive suicide bereavement support.
Regional Grants	This funding contributes to core helpline costs, volunteer training and other costs incurred regionally.
National Suicide Prevention	NSPA is a cross-sector, England-wide, coalition committed to reducing the number of suicides in England and improving support for those bereaved or affected by suicide.
Covid support	To allow Samaritans and NSPA to carry out new Covid 19 related work for the immediate benefit of service users.
Other Restricted Funds	These funds represent a number of donations received which carry specific restrictions imposed by the donor. They are mainly received from Corporate or Trust donors.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

18. Samaritans group companies

(a) Samaritans

The charity is a private limited company (registered number 757372), which is incorporated and domiciled in the UK and is a public benefit entity. The address of the registered office is The Upper Mill, Kingston Road, Ewell, Surrey, KT17 2AF.

Samaritans uses the exemption in Section 408 of the Companies Act 2006 in not preparing a separate Income and Expenditure account for Samaritans as a separate entity.

Samaritans recharged expenditure of £770,000 to its subsidiaries during the year (2020: £875,000) and made payments to its subsidiaries of £120,000 (2020: £163,000). The Samaritans Enterprises Limited donates any surpluses to Samaritans under Gift Aid; for 2021 this amounted to £1,236,000 (2020: £451,000). At the year-end, £1,603,000 was due from Samaritans subsidiaries (2020: £724,000).

(b) The Samaritans Enterprises Limited

Company number: 01451175

The Samaritans Enterprises Limited is incorporated in the United Kingdom and has an issued share capital of £100, 100% of which is owned by Samaritans. The address of the registered office is The Upper Mill, Kingston Road, Ewell, Surrey, KT17 2AF.

The principal activity of the company is the delivery of a contract with Network Rail – ‘Tackling Suicide on the Railway’; income also includes that derived from certain sponsorship and training activities. Any net profit made by the company is transferred to the charity.

The Samaritan Enterprises Limited’s income amounted to £2,582,000 (2020: £1,733,000), expenditure amounted to £1,346,000 (2020: £1,281,000) and a surplus of £1,236,000 was generated (2020: surplus of £451,000), before transfers and other recognised gains/losses. At 31 March 2021 assets were £3,006,000 (2020: £1,744,000) and liabilities were £3,006,000 (2020: £1,744,000).

A Memorandum of Understanding has been agreed with Samaritans Central Charity to deliver certain requirements of the Network Rail contract. In accordance with this agreement, services of the central charity have been procured. As such, this year’s accounts include inter-company charges of £770,000 (2020: £875,000).

(c) Samaritans Ireland

Company number: 450409 Charity Number: CHY11880

Samaritans Ireland was established in the Republic of Ireland in December 2007 and became operational in April 2008. Samaritans Ireland is incorporated in the Republic as a company limited by guarantee. The address of the registered office is 4-5 Usher’s Court, Usher’s Quay, Dublin 8, Ireland.

By virtue of its constitution, Samaritans is able to exert control over Samaritans Ireland.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Samaritans Ireland’s income amounted to £1,678,000 (2020: £951,000), expenditure amounted to £1,010,000 (2020: £844,000) and a surplus of £668,000 was generated (2020: surplus of £107,000), before transfers and other recognised gains/losses. At 31 March 2021 assets were £1,415,000 (2020: £779,000), liabilities were £39,000 (2020: £72,000) and total funds were £1,375,000 (2020: £708,000).

The results of the company have been translated at the prevailing currency exchange rate at the average rate.

(d) Samaritans in Scotland

Scottish Charity No: SC009843

Samaritans in Scotland was incorporated as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation on 11 March 2014. Samaritans provided its principal funding and was able to exert control through specific provisions in the SCIO constitution. The address of the registered office is 12 Belford Terrace, Edinburgh EH4 3DQ.

On the 30 June 2020, following consent by The Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), Samaritans in Scotland was dissolved, and the remaining assets of £56,000 were transferred to Samaritans Central Charity.

For the period 1 April 2020 to 30 June 2020 Samaritan Scotland’s income amounted to £3,000 (2020: £58,000), expenditure amounted to £1,000 (2020: £68,000) resulting in a surplus of £2,000 (2020: deficit of £10,000), before transfers and other recognised gains/losses. At 30 June 2021 the assets were £56,000 (2020: £54,000), liabilities were £0 (2020: £0) and total funds were £56,000 (2020: £54,000).

19. Custodian trusteeship

The Charity no longer acts as Custodian Trustee for Samaritans branches.

20. Affiliated and Central Charity branches

As part of changes to our ways of working across the organisation, since April 2016 all branches have either been through an incorporation process and then affiliated to Samaritans Central Charity or joined Samaritans Central Charity, at which point they are no longer separate legal entities.

No branches completed the process this year, and 1 affiliate branch closed. Ongoing financial activity relating to these branches has been incorporated into the results of the central charity.

For SCC branches, the unincorporated entities have been retained and, in England and Wales, have been linked to the central charity on the Charity Commission register. Registered addresses for these entities are listed under Samaritans’ entry on the register. Each SCC branch holds net assets of £100, which are included within these group accounts as unrestricted funds. The unincorporated entities have charitable objectives which are consistent with those of the central charity.

A listing of Samaritans branches is included on pages 74 to 77, and SCC branches are indicated on this list.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Patron: HRH The Prince of Wales

Founder: The Late Prebendary Dr Chad Varah CH CBE MA

Company name: Samaritans

Registered address and principal office

The Upper Mill, Kingston Road, Ewell, Surrey KT17 2AF

Registered charity: 219432 Company number: 757372 Scottish charity number: SC040604

Website: samaritans.org

Board of Trustees

Jenni McCartney (Chair, Board of Trustees; Chair, Nominations Committee; Chair, Remuneration Committee) (stepped down 31 December 2020)

Keith Leslie (Chair, Board of Trustees; Chair, Nominations Committee; Chair, Remuneration Committee) (from 1 January 2021)

Laura Bunt

Philip Cliff

Dr Jackie Craissati MBE (Chair, Service & Quality Committee)

Eleanor Farrell (Chair, Ireland Board)

Ana Laing (Chair, Wales Committee)

Gaia Marcus

Simon Salem (Chair, Audit & Risk Committee)

Angela Slaven

Natalie Stevenson (Chair, Scotland Committee)

John Tennent (Honorary Treasurer and Chair of Finance Committee) (stepped down 27 July 2021)

Debbie Giwa (from 5 September 2020)

Jayne Finch (stepped down 28 November 2020)

Andrew Kean (resigned 11 May 2020) Monica Turner (stepped down 7 March 2021)

Giles Wilmore (Chair, Policy, Partnerships & Research Committee) (resigned 5 March 2021)

Samaritans Senior Staff

CEO – Ruth Sutherland (stepped down October 2020)

CEO – Julie Bentley (from November 2020)

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Chief Operating Officer – Gareth Germer

Executive Director of Corporate Services and Company Secretary – Graeme Danton

Executive Director of External Affairs – Paul McDonald

Executive Director of Income – Sonya Trivedy

Regional Directors (as at 31 March 2021)

Monica Turner (Chair, Regional Directors) (stepped down 7 March 2021)

Lissa Davenport (Chair, Regional Directors) (from 7 March 2021)

East

Mark Smith

East Midlands Mathew Shepherd

London

Ann McLaughlin

North Margaret Horrocks (stepped down 31 July 2020)

Mike Whelan (from 1 August 2020)

Northern Ireland

Alan Heron

North West Eileen Brierley

Republic of Ireland

Rory Fitzgerald

Scotland

Catherine Simpson

South

South East

Will Merrifield (stepped down 30 March 2021)

Peter Rowland (from 23 March 2021)

South West

Penny Church

Wales

Joanna Emerson (stepped down 12 April 2020)

Meryl James (from 13 April 2020)

West Midlands

Lesley Brown (stepped down 7 October 2020)

Margaret Horrocks and Anne Nettleship (stepped down 30 March 2021) Peter Hammond (from 31 March 2021)

Yorkshire and Humberside

Anne Nettleship (stepped down 30 September 2020)

Michael George (from 1 October 2020

John McNeil

Bankers: Lloyds Bank Plc, 25 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7HN

HSBC Bank Plc, One London Square, Cross Lanes, Guildford, Surrey GU1 1UN Investment managers: James Hambro & Partners LLP, 45 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5JG External auditors: Crowe U.K. LLP, 55 Ludgate Hill, London, EC4M 7JW

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

There are 201 Samaritans branches across the UK and the Republic of Ireland, providing round-theclock support whenever and however people need it.

• Aberdeen

• Brent*

• Aberystwyth*

• Bridgend

• Ashford & Tenterden

• Bridlington & District*

• Athlone & Midland

• Brierley Hill

• Ayrshire

• Brighton, Hove & District

• Ballymena

• Bristol

• Banbury & District*

• Bromley & Orpington

• Bangor & North Down

• Bury*

• Barrow, Furness & South Lakes*

• Bury St Edmunds & West Suffolk

• Barnsley

• Buxton & High Peak*

• Basildon & Thurrock*

• Caithness

• Basingstoke*

• Cambridge

• Bath & District

• Canterbury & District

• Bedford*

• Cardiff & District*

• Belfast

• Carlisle

• Bexley & Dartford*

• Central London

• Birmingham

• Chelmsford & Mid-Essex*

• Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn & Ribble Valley

• Blackpool, Fylde & Wyre

• Bognor Regis, Chichester & District*

• Cheltenham & District

• Chester & District

• Chesterfield

• Chiltern

• Bolton

• Colchester

• Borders*

• Coleraine & District

• Boston, Lincolnshire*

• Cork

• Bournemouth & District*

• Cornwall at Truro

• Bracknell, Wokingham, Ascot & Districts

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

• Correspondence*

• Coventry & District

• Craigavon

• Croydon & Sutton*

• Darlington & District*

• Derby & District

• Derry

• Doncaster*

• Dorset at Weymouth

• Drogheda

• Dublin

• Dumfries*

• Dundee

• Dunfermline

• Durham (Central)

• Ealing

• Eastbourne & District

• East Coast Samaritans

• East Surrey

• Edinburgh and the Lothians

• Elgin*

• Ennis & Clare

• Exeter, Mid & East Devon

• Falkirk & Central Scotland

• Farnborough & District*

• Festival*

• Folkestone, Dover & Hythe

• Galway

• Glasgow

• Gloucester & District*

• Grantham

• Great Yarmouth*

• Grimsby, Cleethorpes & District*

• Guernsey

• Guildford

• Halifax & Calderdale

• Harrogate & District

• Harrow

• Hastings & Rother

• Havering (Romford)*

• Herefordshire

• Herts & Essex (Ware)

• Hillingdon

• Horsham & Crawley

• Huddersfield

• Inner South West London

• Inverclyde*

• Inverness

• Ipswich and East Suffolk

• Isle of Man

• Isle of Wight*

• Jersey

• Kerry

• Kettering & District

• Kilkenny and Carlow

• King’s Lynn

• Kingston upon Hull

• Kingston upon Thames

• Kirkcaldy & District*

• Lanarkshire in Hamilton*

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

• Lancaster & District

• Leatherhead & Mid-Surrey

• Leeds*

• Leek & District

• Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland

• Lewisham, Greenwich & Southwark

• Limerick & Tipperary

• Lincoln*

• Liverpool & Merseyside

• Lowestoft & Waveney District*

• Luton, South Beds & Harpenden

• Northumbria*

• Norwich

• Nottingham

• Omagh

• Orkney*

• Oxford

• Pembrokeshire

• Pendle, Burnley, Craven & Rossendale

• Perth

• Peterborough & District

• Plymouth, East Cornwall & South West Devon

• Macclesfield & District

• Maidstone & Weald

• Manchester & Salford

• Portsmouth & East Hampshire

• Powys in Llandrindod Wells

• Preston & District

• Mansfield*

• Medway, Gravesham & Swale*

• Mid-Cheshire

• Milton Keynes

• Reading

• Redbridge*

• Rochdale, Oldham & District*

• Rotherham

• Newbridge & Kildare

• Newbury

• Newport & Gwent

• Newry

• Salisbury & District

• Scarborough

• Scunthorpe*

• Sheffield

• North Devon & North Cornwall

• Shetland

• North East Wales*

• North Herts & Stevenage

• North London (Enfield, Haringey & Barnet)

• North West Surrey*

• Shrewsbury

• Sligo

• Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead

• Solihull*

• North West Wales

• South Cheshire

• Northallerton & The Dales

• South Devon

• Northampton

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

• South West Herts

• Tyneside*

• Southampton & District

• Wakefield & District*

• Southend-on-Sea

• Walsall & District*

• Southport & District*

• Waltham Forest (Leyton)*

• Stafford

• Warrington, Halton & St Helens*

• Stockport*

• Waterford & the South-East

• Stoke-on-Trent & Newcastle

• West Cumbria

• Stratford-upon-Avon & District

• Western Isles

• Sunderland*

• Swansea

• Weston Super Mare & North Somerset • Wigan

• Swindon & District*

• Winchester & District

• Tamworth

• Wolverhampton

• Taunton & Somerset

• Worcester

• Teeside (Middlesbrough)*

• Worthing

• Telford

• Tunbridge Wells & District

• Yeovil, Sherborne & District • York

* These branches are part of Samaritans Central Charity as at 31 March 2021.

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

We would like to thank all our donors and supporters including those who wish to remain anonymous.

29th May 1961 Charitable Trust

Builders Merchants Federation

A D Power Will Trust Bunzl Admiral Group Burberry Alan Boswell Group Charitable Trust Cadogan Charity Alice Ellen Cooper Dean Charitable CALA Group Foundation

Calor

Allied Irish Bank (GB)

CAST

Anthony Scholefield Foundation

Coffee #1

Arco

Constance Travis Charitable Trust

Atlas Fund Aviva plc AXIS Capital

Coronavirus Mental Health Response Fund, supported by Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and administered by Mind

Costain

Banham Foundation

Curtins

Barclays

David Family Foundation

Barratt Developments PLC Charitable Foundation

Dell

Beder

Department of Health (Northern Ireland)

BGL Group

Department of Health and Social Care

Anthony Biddle

Derek Raphael Charitable Trust

Dr Paul Bostock

Dr Vivian Child Charitable Trust

Brora

EnQuest

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Facebook & Instagram

Google

Pears Foundation

Pears Foundation and DCMS Community Match Challenge

Grace Trust

Peter and Teresa Harris Charitable Trust

GRAHAM

Pilkington Charities Fund

Chris and Gilda Haskins Henry Oldfield Trust HP

Porta Pia 2012 Foundation

PwC

Julia and Hans Rausing

Hutchinson Charitable Trust InfraRed Capital Partners

Sandoz

Schroders

Inman Charity Irish Prison Service

Scottish Government

Scottish Prison Service

J S F Pollitzer Charitable Settlement

ShareGift

John Coates Charitable Trust

Souter Charitable Trust

JUSACA Charitable Trust

SSE

Kearney

Stone Family Foundation

Legal & General

Swiss Post Solutions

Ministry of Justice: HMPPS

The Fidelity UK Foundation

Misses Robinson Charitable Trust

The Hands Family Trust

Next plc

The Lord Mayor’s Appeal

Nominet

The National Lottery Community Fund

Northern Ireland Prison Service

P F Charitable Trust

Peacock Charitable Trust

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

The NFU Mutual Charitable Trust Trott Family Charitable Trust The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation Twitter The Waterloo Foundation UK Greetings Ltd The Wolfson Foundation Ulster Garden Villages Ltd (for work in Northern Ireland) The Worshipful Company Of Plaisterers’ Charitable Trust VolkerWessels UK Ltd Tides Foundation Waitrose Total Gas & Power Welsh Government / LLywodraeth Cymru TP ICAP Jim & Becky Wright

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21