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2023-03-31-accounts

AMARITANS Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts

Strategic report .............................................................................................. 4 Letter from Chair and CEO .................................................................................................................. 4 Our strategy ........................................................................................................................................ 6 About this document .......................................................................................................................... 7 Our key achievements ......................................................................................................................... 8 Priorities ............................................................................................................................................. 8 Access .............................................................................................................................................. 8 Reach ............................................................................................................................................. 10 Impact ........................................................................................................................................... 13 Capacity ......................................................................................................................................... 17 Sustainability ................................................................................................................................. 19 Principles .......................................................................................................................................... 22 Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) .............................................................................................. 22 Personal experience ...................................................................................................................... 24 Safety and quality .......................................................................................................................... 24 Evidence-based ............................................................................................................................. 26 Vocal and visible ............................................................................................................................ 28 Innovation and technology ........................................................................................................... 29 Environmental responsibility ........................................................................................................ 30 Financial review ................................................................................................................................ 32 Risks and uncertainties ..................................................................................................................... 39 How we manage risk ..................................................................................................................... 39 Governance report ....................................................................................... 43 Our structure ..................................................................................................................................... 43 Incidents and Reporting .................................................................................................................... 48 Fundraising Activities Statement ...................................................................................................... 49 Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting ....................................................................................... 52 Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities ............................................................................................. 54 Independent Auditor’s Report to the Members and Trustees of Samaritans ................................... 55 Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities ................................................................................. 60 Charity Statement of Financial Activities .......................................................................................... 61

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Consolidated and Charity Balance Sheet .......................................................................................... 62 Cashflow statement .......................................................................................................................... 63 Notes to the Accounts ....................................................................................................................... 64 Reference and administrative details ................................................................................................ 85 Board of Trustees .......................................................................................................................... 85 Samaritans senior staff .................................................................................................................. 86 Regional Directors (as of 31 March 2023) ..................................................................................... 86 Samaritans branches ..................................................................................................................... 89 Donors and supporters ..................................................................................................................... 93

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Strategic report

Letter from Chair and CEO

Times are tough, but Samaritans are always here to listen.

Last year, there wasn't a single second when our volunteers weren't on the phone to someone. Day and night, Samaritans were here for people when they needed us, no matter what they were going through. We’re proud to say that we’ve been there to listen 24/7 but regrettably, there are no signs that the vital services Samaritans provide are any less needed. We must make sure that we continue to be here for as long as people need us.

People have, and always will be, at the very heart of everything we do here at Samaritans. We’ve worked hard to listen and create more opportunities for people with personal experience to share their views with us. This includes people who have used our services, who have experienced suicidal thoughts and self-harm, and those bereaved by suicide. Their voices have helped to shape our new strategy, which launched last year, and they will continue to help shape our future direction.

Samaritans wouldn’t be here without our supporters. This year, you’ve helped us show decision-makers that Saving Lives Can’t Wait – influencing suicide prevention policy across England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. You helped us connect over a cuppa on Brew Monday, raise awareness that Small Talk Saves Lives and encouraged more people to Talk to Us. And of course, crucially you helped us raise the money we needed to keep our helpline open 365 days a year and continue working towards our vision that fewer people die by suicide.

Thank you to everyone who has supported Samaritans over the last year. We’re especially grateful to the 23,000 incredible individuals who volunteered their time for Samaritans, and our dedicated partners and supporters who have been there for us, so we can be there for others. It’s thanks to you that we’ve remained a constant source of support to people during this very challenging year.

Since answering our first call in 1953, Samaritans has been there for people during their most difficult times and we are needed as much now as ever before. The cost of living crisis means many people are finding it much harder to make ends meet. We’ve seen an increase in first-time calls for help from people opening up about their financial worries[1] , and we’ve called for governments across the UK and Ireland to take action and make sure they are supporting people's wellbeing.

1 From January to March 2023, Samaritans saw the highest percentage of first-time phone callers concerned about finance or unemployment. In February, almost 1 in 10 calls for help from first-time callers were about finance or unemployment concerns.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Samaritans has also felt the effects of the crisis. In a challenging economic environment that has seen our income decrease and our costs rise, we’ve had to make some difficult decisions about what we could deliver in the year. Your support has never been more important.

With your help, we can continue to be there for those who need us most, reach out to even more people, and raise our voice to make suicide prevention a priority. Together we will make change that saves lives.

Julie Bentley, CEO

Keith Leslie, Chair

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Our strategy

Our strategy, Tackling suicide together: providing a safe space in uncertain times , launched in 2022 and outlines how we will achieve our vision that fewer people die by suicide. It seeks to maximise our impact as a charity by building on our achievements, whilst also making the most of new opportunities and learnings.

Samaritans marks 70 years of listening in 2023. Now more than ever, we need to adapt and innovate to continue providing a safe space for people all over the UK and Ireland . Throughout our 2022-27 strategy period, we will continue to work across the UK and Ireland to achieve our vision and be there for anyone who is struggling to cope and in times of crisis.

Our main priorities throughout 2022-27 are:

Our guiding principles remain:

We will continue to hold ourselves accountable for our progress in achieving our five priorities and staying true to our seven principles through internal monitoring and quarterly reporting to our Board of Trustees, as well as the publication of an annual Impact Report.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

About this document

The following pages highlight some of our major achievements and challenges during 2022/23.

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, Ireland’s Charities Regulator and relevant bodies within crown dependencies. In particular, Samaritans’ core listening and online services are free to the general public. 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).[2]

Unless otherwise stated, the service statistics in this report are for the 2022 calendar year. Please see our 2022/23 Impact Report for more information about our work and how it is making a difference.

2 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.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Our key achievements

Our strategic principles and priorities are the cornerstone of everything we do at Samaritans. They each serve as a guide in the choices we make as a charitable organisation, Samaritans’ decision-making process for the long-term direction of our charity, and help set a solid foundation for our campaign and policy work.

Our key achievements this year are a reflection of the strategic principles and priorities that have helped Samaritans grow and work towards achieving our goals.

Priorities

Access

We’re working to make sure that anyone who needs Samaritans will be able to access our support whenever they need it and get through to us in a way that works for them.

What we said we would do

What we did this year

In 2022, Samaritans volunteers responded to almost 3 million calls for help by telephone. There wasn't a single second when Samaritans weren't on the phone to someone. Our volunteers spent almost 1 million hours responding to calls across more than 200 branches and locations across the UK and Ireland. We answered a call for help every 10 seconds by phone, email, online chat, letter or face to face.

Our new Samaritans Training School recruited 530 new volunteers , 364 of whom have successfully completed all training and recruitment checks and are able to start volunteering with their hubs as part of our service expansion programme. Samaritans Training School has also supported the capacity and growth of over 20 hubs and branches across the organisation and delivered mandatory training to over 250 volunteers. Across 47 branches, 115 volunteer skills practitioners have been recruited and have supported us in delivering

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

more than 150 skills practice sessions to Samaritans branches. We have also successfully trained 116 students across a range of helping professions, such as nurses, paramedics and social workers, through our placement partnership with Anglia Ruskin University.

In total, Samaritans recruited and trained over 4,000 new listening volunteers last year . Around 23,000 people volunteered their time for Samaritans throughout 2022. This includes all of our listening volunteers, non-listening branch volunteers and people in prison who volunteer as trained prison Listeners. It is important to note that 2022 is the first year that the number of prison Listeners has been included in the total of Samaritans volunteers, so comparisons in the total number of volunteers cannot be made with previous years.

We responded to over 46,000 calls for help through online chat and spent over 27,000 hours doing so. There were chat shifts on 265 evenings (72%) in 2022, with 77 branches and nearly 2,000 volunteers delivering this service. Among the people who used the service and opted to give feedback, 50 per cent had contacted Samaritans before, 94 per cent said that they would use the online chat service again, and over 80 per cent reported a reduction in their level of distress as a result of using the service.

This year, our prison Listeners responded to 35,609 face-to-face call outs in prisons through our Prison Listener scheme. To better understand their experience, we consulted with Listeners about their role. We also undertook an internal volunteer recruitment campaign which attracted more than 100 expressions of interest.

The Irish Prison Service, Northern Irish Prison Service and Samaritans celebrated the 20[th] anniversary of the Listener scheme in Ireland and Northern Ireland. The programme is now operational in every prison in Ireland, with 15 Listener schemes in 13 prisons supported by over 80 volunteers from Samaritans branches. The Irish Prison Service (IPS) rolled out in-cell phones, which led to a tenfold increase in prison calls in Ireland, to more than 35,000 per year. In Northern Ireland, the programme is operational at Magilligan and Maghaberry prisons.

We expanded our Correspondence service so that anyone who needs emotional support in Welsh can send a freepost letter. Our Welsh Language Scheme was first approved by the Welsh Language Commissioner in 2014 and our dedicated Welsh language line has been helping Welsh speakers who need emotional support since 2010.

Our service expansion pilot programme has continued to grow and develop this year. Our London City Hub answered more than 5,000 online chat contacts. Sevenoaks Samaritans answered more than 12,000 phone calls, while our new location in Bradford answered more than 3,300 phone calls. We also supported Samaritans of Northumbria (Ashington branch) to open a new satellite location in Berwick-upon-Tweed and though we experienced some delay, our second campus-based location in Chelmsford in partnership with Anglia Ruskin University became operational in May 2023.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

We worked with branches across Yorkshire and Humberside on our ongoing Hours of Need project , exploring how we can increase the capacity of our phone service during twilight and night hours. This project focused on how we can raise awareness of key hours of need among all our listening volunteers, share existing best practice across our branch network and investigate sustainable approaches to help us tackle this longstanding challenge together.

What we were not able to achieve

Samaritans was unable to deliver some of the planned activities for 2022/23 due to rising costs, a decrease in income and limited capacity. We have had to prioritise projects throughout the year to assure that we are best meeting the needs of the people who use our services.

Reach

We’re here for anyone who needs us, so we are working to become more visible and relevant, particularly to a more diverse range of people and communities, so those who might need us most, trust us and know we’re here for them.

What we said we would do

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

What we did this year

We launched the pilot of our dedicated emotional wellbeing support line for veterans , the Veterans Support hub helpline, in September 2022. The service now receives around 100150 emotional support calls from veterans each month and continues to grow. This service will fully launch in March 2024. It will be closely linked with our military online chat service and other avenues of support to ensure that the military community has as many options as possible to receive emotional support.

We also continued to promote the Samaritans Veterans app which has been used by over 3,600 members of the military community since its launch in October 2021. The browser version has a 76 per cent user engagement rate and over 46 per cent of users regularly revisit. The app has received two awards this year, the Bronze award in the ‘Mobile Learning Experience’ category at the International E-Learning Awards 2022 and the Silver award in the ‘Innovation in Learning’ category at the Learning Awards in February 2023.

We completed our coproduced strategy report with SSAFA to help support veterans and the wider military community experiencing suicidal ideation. The strategy report included a detailed evidence review and gap analysis which was conducted by the University of Bath. We also asked veterans within our own Lived Experience Panel to help us better understand some of the challenges faced within the community, which in turn informed which recommendations we put forward within the report.

In Ireland, we set out to raise awareness of Samaritans in rural communities , working with the dairy industry to have Samaritans’ helpline signage featured on approximately 500 milk trucks and agri-feed vehicles owned by some of the country’s largest co-operatives. The new partnership with milk processors – who are all members of the Ibec group Dairy Industry Ireland (DII) – aims to raise awareness of our service among farmers and other people in rural Ireland, especially those living or working in isolation.

Samaritans Ireland marked the Longest Night of the year on the Winter Solstice to remind those struggling to cope that our helpline is open during their darkest hours. Overall, 140 heritage sites, public buildings and companies joined our national campaign to light up in green, including the Department of Health, The Rock of Cashel, Bunratty Castle, Slane Castle, Kilkenny Castle, Cork City Hall, several universities, and county council offices across the county.

In Northern Ireland, we continued to reach out to local communities through the work of our local branches, our collaboration with other mental health groups, our continued partnership with the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and our work with the Northern Ireland Prison Service Listener Scheme, which has just marked its 20[th] anniversary. Our small staff team in Belfast continues to drive forward what Samaritans stands for and, for the first time, we have a growing presence on social media.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

In Scotland, our West Highlands and Skye project made good progress, with caller awareness adverts in local newspapers and websites, radio and print adverts promoting our workplace training offer, and our project staff appearing on local radio show Wellbeing Wednesday on Radio Nevis. We have started delivering 'Conversations with Vulnerable People' training from Samaritans Training and Engagement Programmes for workplaces. This will run throughout 2023. Advertising for volunteer recruitment in the area is being developed and will be going out over the summer.

In Wales, we established a Community Development Project to deliver a series of engagement and partnership interventions that will address the needs of at-risk groups, with funding from the Waterloo Foundation .

We launched phase six of our Small Talk Saves Lives campaign in partnership with Network Rail, British Transport Police and the wider rail industry. Running from 21 February until 12 March, the campaign encouraged people to look out for those who may be at risk and to trust their instincts and start a conversation to interrupt their potentially suicidal thoughts.

Over 80 branches took part in station and community events to raise awareness of the importance of small talk in their local communities. As part of the campaign launch, we hosted a successful event at Manchester Piccadilly Rail Station. Volunteers from local branches invited members of the public to practise their small talk in exchange for a hot drink at our No filter café. Over 80 branches took part in station and community events to raise awareness of the importance of small talk in their local communities. Our Small Talk Saves Lives events were attended by a host of politicians including the Secretary of State for Transport, the Minister for Rail, the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Leader of Manchester City Council and the Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region.

We encouraged everyone to catch up over a cuppa on Brew Monday on 16 January, aiming to bust the ‘Blue Monday’ myth. Samaritans’ branches organised over 50 station events, plus Brew Monday community events in places like libraries, hospitals, shopping centres and sports clubs. We also held a parliamentary drop in event in Westminster on Brew Monday attended by over 30 parliamentarians, keen to show their support for Samaritans.

We had our most successful Brew Monday yet on social media. For the first time ever, we succeeded in getting the #BrewMonday hashtag trending at number two on Twitter. Brew Monday achieved a range of press coverage, including The Sun, Mail Online, Independent and BBC1’s Sunday Morning Live. The campaign secured a total of 295 individual pieces of coverage, with an advertising-value-equivalent (AVE) of £1.2m.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

What we were not able to achieve

Samaritans was unable to deliver some of the planned activities for 2022/23 due to rising costs, a decrease in income and limited capacity. We have had to prioritise projects throughout the year to assure that we are best meeting the needs of the people who use our services.

Impact

We’re working to make suicide prevention a priority nationally, regionally and locally for governments, public services and businesses, so that fewer people die by suicide.

What we said we would do

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

What we did this year

In England, we inspired more than 200 Samaritans campaigners to give their views direct to the Government to inform a new suicide prevention strategy for England, further strengthening the voice of people with lived experience. We made the case strongly throughout the year for a new England cross-government suicide prevention strategy and the Government has now committed to publishing a stand-alone strategy on suicide prevention.

In the autumn, we launched the public campaign Saving Lives Can’t Wait, calling on the Westminster Government to commit to reaching the lowest national suicide rate ever recorded. We held fringe meetings at Labour and Conservative Party Conferences on our asks of the new strategy, which included the voices of people with lived experience, which delegates told us was incredibly powerful. Jason McCartney MP, Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention mentioned our campaign on the floor of the House of Commons.

In Northern Ireland, we developed and promoted key priorities for preventing suicide , gaining support from the Health Minister and Justice Minister, as well as all political parties. We also partnered with Start360, a voluntary organisation working to improve mental health in Northern Ireland, to host a hustings event coming up to the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. All political parties were invited to attend together with the voluntary and community sector as well as colleagues within the statutory sector. This allowed Samaritans to engage with candidates standing in the Assembly elections and to promote our key policy priorities to other community and voluntary organisations. We held a mental health seminar on 22 February at Parliament Buildings, Stormont, where we shared findings from our Impact Report as well as our strategic priorities for 2022 to 2027. We developed a Northern Ireland Action Plan, which will complement Samaritans’ overall strategy.

In Scotland, we have continued to engage with Scottish Government , including in the development of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the Self-Harm Strategy. We have had several engagements with the Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care, including meetings of Scotland's Mental Health Partnership. We continue to influence the delivery of Scotland’s Suicide Prevention Strategy: Creating Hope Together. The new Delivery Collective will be led by four strategic partners, each overseeing one of the outcomes. We successfully bid to be Outcome Lead for the first outcome – to ensure that the ‘environment we live in promotes conditions which protect against suicide risk – this includes our psychological, social, cultural, economic and physical environment’.

In Wales, we chair the Welsh Government Cross Party Group (CPG) on Suicide and Self-

Harm Prevention and continued our role as active members of the Wales Alliance for Mental Health (WAMH), the anti-poverty coalition, and the Wales NHS Confederation Health and Wellbeing Alliance. We were also invited to be members of the national advisory group for the Excluded Lives Project. This is a multi-disciplinary project across the four jurisdictions of

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the UK which aims to explore the consequences of school exclusion on children and young people. Our team in Wales have also worked extensively to call for the statutory inclusion of mental health education in the new curriculum which has been achieved. As a result of this work, we were invited to be members of the Welsh Government Stakeholder reference group on the whole school approach in 2023.

This year we remained focused on the Online Safety Bill as it continued to make its way through Westminster. We are working to ensure that the crucial support that people find online continues to flourish, while reducing access to harmful and dangerous suicide and self-harm content. We worked alongside our fantastic campaigners to make the case for the Bill to prioritise suicide and self-harm. They helped us reach 95 per cent of all the MPs in the House of Commons. The Government has made it a priority to amend the Online Safety Bill to include written illegal suicide content and it has said that they will create a new communications offence of encouraging or assisting self-harm, recognising that there is a gap in the existing law on malicious communications. This means that illegal self-harm content will also be a priority in the new online safety laws.

We secured an important change to the regulation of video-on-demand services , responding to a consultation from the Westminster Government in which we called for the same level of protection for UK audiences irrespective of whether they are viewing content on-demand or via a traditional broadcaster. The Government has now confirmed that they will ask Ofcom to create a code to ensure all TV-like content will be subject to similar standards.

Our online excellence programme continued to improve and shape practice. We released a ground-breaking piece of research into how social media users experience self-harm and suicide content, with the University of Swansea. We also launched an e-learning course for mental health practitioners, aimed at instilling in them the confidence to discuss online behaviour with their clients. Over 85 per cent of learners say they would immediately put learnings into practice.

We provided guidance through our industry guidelines pages which received over 2,915 views as well as directly to organisations through our online harms advisory service. This included an app provider with over 300 million users worldwide and a games platform with over 5 million games played a day. Our toolkits to help users equip themselves with ways to stay safe when viewing or posting content relating to self-harm and suicide were viewed over 6,100 times and our new practitioners’ guidance pages had a total of 5,600 unique page views in just one quarter.

Our work to support informed and safe coverage of suicide and self-harm in the media continues to have a positive impact. Our media advisory team monitored nearly 6,000 news articles in 2022 and worked hard to increase signposting to sources of support to three-quarters of suicide related stories.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Samaritans have delivered 60 media guidelines training sessions to media and non-media audiences. We have also now expanded this training to journalism university students – so far we have delivered training to six universities. We worked with Universities UK and Papyrus, a UK charity for the prevention of young suicide, to produce new guidance on How to respond to a student suicide in a university setting. We have embarked on a programme of work to reduce associations of suicide with outdoor locations, in collaboration with East Sussex County Council.

We worked with lots of researchers and producers of soaps, dramas and documentaries. These have included Coronation Street, Casualty, EastEnders, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks, Silent Witness, Screw, and documentaries including BT Sport’s After the Roar and a Roman Kemp documentary covering youth mental health. Some of this work created opportunities to highlight our media guidelines work in the press. These included work with EastEnders on a long-running youth mental health and self-harm storyline, and work with Emmerdale on a male mental health storyline.

Samaritans have continued providing advice and guidance for suicide interventions at high-risk locations. We have given bespoke advice for these interventions and prevention measures to 25 city/county councils and 23 other organisations. To support this important work, we have partnered with the Safer Public Spaces Network, a practitioner network for people working on high-risk locations, to be part of the coordinating body and drive the network forward. We have also continued to support and influence the implementation of National Highways’ suicide prevention strategy through the development and review of the guidance, including regional engagement and communications plan, as well as providing advice and guidance for interventions at high-risk locations.

We have continued hosting the National Suicide Prevention Alliance (NSPA), which has grown significantly over the last year, to more than 1,600 organisations and individual members. We supported them to deliver a highly successful 9[th] annual conference in January 2023 and a series of online discussions throughout the year creating spaces for shared learning. These discussions have been shared with the Department of Health and Social Care to inform the Government’s new national suicide prevention strategy.

The NSPA’s Lived Experience Network continued to grow and now has a panel of over 400 people and 32 trained Lived Experience Influencers, who have taken part in a range of activities to influence suicide prevention. This included informing Government strategy, public speaking at a range of events, and working with a range of other influential organisations to inform, influence and co-produce suicide prevention work. The NSPA has also continued to work with a range of organisations to promote good practice when involving people with lived experience in suicide prevention work.

We also continued to host the Support After Suicide Partnership (SASP) , with a focus on increasing engagement with its membership and prospective members, improving practice among suicide bereavement services and influencing government spend. This year they have been focusing on specific groups affected by health disparities: children and young

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people, people affected by domestic abuse and suicide, Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities and people who identify as LGBTQ+. They have increased membership from organisations that represent these groups and delivered a series of activities including a webinar on suicide bereavement involving domestic abuse, a roundtable with organisations representing Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities to develop best practice guidance, and research into the experience of suicide bereavement among people who identify as LGBTQ+. SASP has also secured £196,000 from NHS England to continue its work to support the delivery of commissioned suicide bereavement support services across the country.

What we were not able to achieve

Samaritans was unable to deliver some of the planned activities for 2022/23 due to rising costs, a decrease in income and limited capacity. We have had to prioritise projects throughout the year to assure that we are best meeting the needs of the people who use our services.

Capacity

We’re working to meet the high demand for our services by recruiting more people, from a diverse range of communities, and giving them the support they need so they stay with us longer and work effectively together as one Samaritans team

What we said we would do

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

What we did this year

We introduced a new volunteer leadership role and recruited four new Directors of Branch Operations . Until 2022, our Regional Director team was led by the (volunteer) Chair of Regional Directors – a role which was held by a single individual who was also a member of our Board of Trustees. After the Council of Samaritans reviewed the responsibilities of this role, the previous Chair of Regional Directors position has now been replaced by four new Director of Branch Operations roles to help make the role more manageable and appealing. Together, these four volunteer leaders share the responsibility for guiding and supporting our regional director group.

We launched a review of the role of our Branch Directors . We invited our Branch Directors to complete a survey, offering the opportunity to share their thoughts and feedback to ensure that our volunteer leadership roles are achievable and appealing to all our volunteers. Following on from the results of the survey a Branch Director and Volunteer Leadership review has been launched and will continue into 2023.

We carried out updates to our volunteer learning resources and continued improving our training for volunteers by working with a volunteer accessibility testing group. This year, we also supported our written word services by creating a new digital module for those offering support by email and updating the learning for our Correspondence branch. We also redesigned the outreach learning for volunteers, to support our strategic priority to be more visible and relevant to a more diverse range of people and communities.

We focused on delivering quality training to volunteers in order to support them in delivering a safe, effective and positive experience to the people who contact us, updating our Core Development Programme and embedding training to reflect our new procedures. As some branches looked to return to supporting callers face-to-face, we also created new training and service specifications to help them support people safely in their branch.

We engaged staff and volunteers with our new strategy through a comprehensive engagement plan, followed by EDI action plan engagement. We continued to support staff and volunteers with the new strategy in its foundation year through additional comms plans around structural changes, events, webinars and reiterating the new strategy in day-to-day comms.

We developed and rolled out new training for staff this year, covering vital areas such as safeguarding, GDPR, phishing awareness, and equity, diversity and inclusion. We introduced a series of short training modules for staff, covering a range of topics such as mindfulness, assertiveness and unconscious bias. We also continue to run Who we Are and What we do sessions for new joiners to help them understand Samaritans, our vision, mission, values and the key policies that underpin our listening service. We cover wellbeing as part of staff induction, and have a number of Mental Health First Aiders among our staff team.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

We refreshed our mediation programme and launched a new volunteer concerns and complaints procedure . As part of our response to the 2022 review of our volunteer concerns and complaints process, we launched an organisation-wide mediation service for all volunteers. The aim of mediation is to facilitate and resolve conflict through empathy, mutual understanding and creative and collaborative problem solving, mutually agreeing a resolution. Mediation is now accessible to all volunteers via a group of trained mediators. We've also updated our volunteer concerns and complaints procedures to make sure that any problems that come up are managed consistently and in a timely manner, through a fair and more transparent process. For issues where informal resolution hasn't worked or isn't appropriate, our new centrally recruited and trained team of volunteer Investigation, Hearing & Appeals Officers (IHAs) provide a robust, impartial and objective process for investigating all concerns and complaints.

What we were not able to achieve

Samaritans was unable to deliver some of the planned activities for 2022/23 due to rising costs, a decrease in income and limited capacity. We have had to prioritise projects throughout the year to assure that we are best meeting the needs of the people who use our services.

Sustainability

We are working to ensure our long-term sustainability by securing the support needed to keep us strong and taking steps to ensure our activities and organisation are fit for the future.

What we said we would do

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

What we did this year

We focused on listening to our supporters, testing new ideas and evolving our fundraising work to ensure our income is sustainable for the future. We worked closely with our supporters and insight to create some successful pilots this year including Dawn Walk where over 700 people walked at the break of dawn. The Night Shift, a new online streaming challenge where fundraisers streamed for four-hour shifts through the night in appreciation for the four-hour shifts our volunteers commit to 24/7. We commend the wonderful creative support including a Mr Blobby face painting stream and the fundraiser who reviewed their old school reports and childhood memories for four hours! We know we can’t stand still and have explored new fundraising channels to reach new supporters for example our new fundraising TV advertising campaign and building new activities like yoga into Facebook Challenge campaigns.

Over 34,000 new supporters stood shoulder to shoulder with us this year. Staff and volunteers joined ‘Thanking Day’ sharing our appreciation for the unwavering loyalty of supporters and recognising new supporters who donated to campaigns like the awardwinning winter ‘Break the Silence’ and fundraisers who joined us to walk, jog or run Samarathon; the distance of a marathon in the month of July. Throughout the year, thanking supporters and communicating the life-saving impact supporters have made with their support is important to building long-term relationships.

We launched Samaritans Training and Engagement Programmes (STEP) , evolving our workplace training to align with our continued growth and the expectations of our new customers. We built on the previous year’s success to deliver 537 courses to 5,764 people from over 150 organisations, raising over £800,000 and achieving the highest-ever income derived from our training courses. The scope of our client base has diversified significantly; we still maintain relationships with a wide range of public sector bodies, local councils and blue light services, and we have extended our reach to work with a broad range of corporate organisations. We have also answered the call to support staff and clients from large customer-facing organisations during the cost-of-living crisis and have delivered a range of specialist training courses designed to increase confidence and resilience amongst workforces.

We raised over £2.7 million with the support of our corporate partners. This year we expanded our engagement via webinars, reaching hundreds of our corporate partners’ staff through topical webinars, which scored an average of 8.4/10 for speakers, content and experience.

Samaritans’ partnership with The Lord Mayor’s Appeal has raised over £2 million over four years . In this last year of the partnership, The Lord Mayor’s Appeal raised £180,000 in support of Samaritans. Rich Bartlett, Samaritans volunteer and Deputy Director of London City Hub, delivered a speech at The Lord Mayor’s Appeal’s Impact Reception in November 2022, outlining the impact of the appeal’s investment in Samaritans’ online chat and flexible volunteering model.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Standard Life became a founding partner of Samaritans’ Training School , a new initiative to train and recruit 400 new listening volunteers, between January 2023 to December 2024, to provide life-saving emotional support. Standard Life is a part of Phoenix Group, which raised £350,000 last year through a range of initiatives spanning fundraising events, virtual challenges, payroll giving schemes, and corporate donations. Our charity partnership with Phoenix Group, the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business, extended to people-led activities and skills sharing, equipping Phoenix Group colleagues with the skills to spot and provide support for anyone who might be struggling to cope. Phoenix Group has provided training courses from Samaritans Training and Engagement Programmes (STEP) workplace training courses to equip colleagues with listening skills. A new e-learning module, co-developed with Samaritans and Cowry Consulting based on Samaritans’ existing listening wheel, launched in early 2023 to give more colleagues access to Samaritans’ skills and expertise.

Samaritans’ partnership with Three won multiple awards , including at the Corporate Engagement Awards 2022, securing Best Collaborative Approach, Best PR and External Communications and Best Alignment of Brand Values through a Sponsorship Activity for our Better Phone Friend campaign . Through the partnership with Three, a connectivity company with 9.5 million customers in the UK, a new initiative was launched to improve support available for business owners during the cost-of-living crisis, by providing free wellbeing courses for business owners.

Samaritans continued to develop strategic partnerships with key sectors including

construction, highways, finance and transport. British housebuilding firm Cala Homes raised over £115,000 during the year for Samaritans through corporate donations and the fundraising efforts of staff, suppliers and subcontractors. For several months in early 2023, Barclays displayed Samaritans’ caller awareness advertising, promoting the helpline across around 1,650 ATMS and 280 Barclays’ branches, with a combined total of around 500 screens. We secured several new partnerships this year, entering charity partnerships with organisations including Unbiased, Price Bailey LLP, AIB UK, and First Bus.

What we were not able to achieve

There have been a number of external factors which have impacted our ability to raise funds. Cost of Living concerns, largely led by inflation reaching a 41-year high in October 2022, meant that when polled, 69 per cent of the public indicated they would need to make spending cuts in 2022, including 17 per cent who indicated they would cut charitable giving. 24 per cent of people reported that their charitable behaviour would need to change as a response to increases in everyday costs[3] . Alongside broad reductions in charitable giving across the sector, there was a significant public response to the war in Ukraine with over

3 cafonline.org/docs/default-source/about-us-research/uk_giving_2023.pdf

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

£400m being raised in the first year[4] . This combination of factors meant that whilst tightening their belts, many donors who were still giving often directed it to overseas aid.

Samaritans was unable to deliver some of the planned activities for 2022/23 due to rising costs, a decrease in income and limited capacity. We have had to prioritise projects throughout the year to assure that we are best meeting the needs of the people who use our services.

Principles

Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI)

We strive to make Samaritans more diverse and inclusive, both through our people and the people we connect with and support. We’re working to make sure that we are responding to people’s needs in a way that is relevant and meaningful to them and their circumstances.

What we said we would do

4 Ukraine Appeal One Year On - How Your Donatons Helped - DEC

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

What we did this year

We published our new EDI commitment and five-year goals , following an extensive organisation-wide review in 2021/22 of how we’re representing and responding to the needs of minoritised communities across the UK and Ireland.

We launched our 18-month EDI learning project which aims to create and deliver a dynamic learning plan to respond to the EDI learning needs of our staff and volunteers. The project has started its first phase, to undertake research that will inform the design and delivery of EDI learning for all staff and volunteers.

We held disability awareness and reasonable adjustments training for Regional Directors and a Branch Director from each region. We have also been working with our Internal Communications and People teams to create and share guidance around making reasonable adjustments for staff and volunteers.

We published a new policy statement on ethnicity and suicide outlining how suicide rates vary between ethnic groups and identifying key changes needed, including the routine recording of ethnicity on all death certificates.

We listened and learned about challenges and successes for EDI in our geographic areas after hearing about the work happening in all corners of Samaritans across the UK and Ireland and considering varying Equality Legislation. We have a three-year locally funded EDI Project in Scotland, involving four pilot branches across Scotland that are championing EDI in their branch.

To further support branches’ outreach work, we have started building a platform on our intranet to share stories and guidance for doing outreach amongst minoritised communities.

We continued working to support our diversity network groups . There are three active groups (Samaritans of colour, Disabled network, LGBTQIA+ Network) at Samaritans. We have supported the groups by promoting them to staff and volunteers and supporting Chairs with organising meetings with members. We are also in the process of creating some new EDI roles for volunteers including a specialist panel who will work closely alongside the EDI staff team, providing EDI subject matter expertise for both staff and volunteers.

What we were not able to achieve

Samaritans was unable to deliver some of the planned activities for 2022/23 due to rising costs, a decrease in income and limited capacity. We have had to prioritise projects throughout the year to assure that we are best meeting the needs of the people who use our services.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Personal experience

We’re making sure the voices of people with experience of suicidal feelings, suicide attempts, self-harm, or bereavement by suicide are central to and shape all our services, products, campaigns and activities.

What we said we would do

What we did this year

This year we continued the expansion of our Lived Experience Panel to help shape and improve our influencing work, service development, and research and evaluation work. After launching the Lived Experience Panel last year, which is comprised of people with lived experience who take part in fortnightly research activities to inform a variety of Samaritans activities, we now have 523 members, a 32 per cent increase on last year, and have received 880 responses to the surveys we’ve sent out.

Within this Lived Experience Panel, 88 per cent have experience of suicidal thoughts, 51 per cent have lived experience of suicide attempts, 59 per cent have lived experience of selfharm, 39 per cent have lived experience of bereavement by suicide and 58 per cent have lived experience of using Samaritans’ services. Their experiences and input have played an essential role in shaping the work we’ve accomplished this year.

We are creating and promoting paid lived experience roles for people to get involved on a freelance basis as equal partners in some of our decision-making. This will include roles on some of our board sub-committees, within our ethics process and co-design in our policy and influencing work.

We have recruited a Head of Lived Experience, our first ever senior Lived Experience role, to further develop our approach to lived experience; over the coming year we will be codesigning a Lived Experience Strategy. During this process people with lived experience, staff and volunteers will work together to refine our ambition and plan how we will meaningfully embed lived experience throughout the organisation and our services.

Safety and quality

We’ve set out to ensure a safe, effective and positive experience for all those who come into contact with Samaritans’ services

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

What we said we would do

What we did this year

We made significant advancements with our quality and service improvement programme which includes quality hub activity, auditing, developing our feedback service and quality management activity.

The quality and service improvement hub now routinely listen into contacts from across UK branches as well as checking emails and online chat and providing essential feedback information for branch volunteers. There are 80 volunteers in the hub supported by a volunteer and staff team.

As part of the service improvement programme we completed a service-wide quality audit, which covered all contact types. The findings are extremely encouraging in terms of quality and safety of contacts with over 99 per cent of contacts classified as satisfactory or above.

Birkbeck University completed an independent review of our internal quality review processes. The work highlighted many areas of good practice around approach and methodology as well as some development opportunities which we will continue to embed.

In addition to the project quality activity the team have been raising awareness at branch and regional meetings where they’ve shared the activities of the hub and promoted the importance of quality being everyone’s responsibility to monitor and uphold.

Under our quality management programme of activity, we completed 65 quality reviews with branches across the UK and Ireland, which equates to 33 per cent of all branches. Quality reviews take place as part of a 3-year cycle and focus on assessing if branches are meeting quality outcomes as well as outlining any development areas to focus on. As part of the improvement programme we have recruited 12 new quality mentors to support this quality review process.

We actively monitor feedback about the service our callers receive in order to make service improvements where required. This year 726 callers fed back about our service. Feedback includes both complaints and positive feedback and all complaints are investigated. 726 contacts represent 0.023 per cent of all contacts received by Samaritans services.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

We continue to ensure that people who contact us receive a safe service. We have developed our caller support and safeguarding hub which launched last year and now handles all caller support and non-urgent safeguarding concerns, providing a 24/7 support line to branches. This year we introduced a new Branch Hub Liaison role to act as a conduit between branches and service hubs, achieving implementation in over 60 per cent of branches, and enabling swift feedback on referral outcomes.

A robust safeguarding plan for Ireland was established , which includes the roll out of a new dedicated support line for safeguarding, a new statement for safeguarding, and plans for increased central support for designated lead officers in Ireland.

We have launched new training on applying our key policies across the volunteer network and best practice in email conversations training.We have also reviewed our signposting list and significantly streamlined the process for updating so it remains relevant and responsive.

As part of our service development agenda, we have gathered a deep and broad range of evidence to inform our review of our services as they relate to children . This included research with young people, external mapping, an outreach review, data analysis, focus groups with a wide range of volunteers operating specialist services, and surveys and interviews with other charities.

What we were not able to achieve

Samaritans was unable to deliver some of the planned activities for 2022/23 due to rising costs, a decrease in income and limited capacity. We have had to prioritise projects throughout the year to assure that we are best meeting the needs of the people who use our services.

Evidence-based

We use research, evidence, insight and data to inform all our services, activities and digital offerings.

What we said we would do

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

What we did this year

We lead the Suicide Prevention Consortium (SPC) , which aims to bring the expertise of organisations in the SPC and the voice of those with lived experience directly to policymakers, to improve suicide prevention in England. This year we explored what effective suicide prevention support looks like for LGBTQ+ communites who use alcohol and experience suicidality, the relationship between economic disadvantage, suicide risk and self-harm in people's own words, as well as heard views from people with lived experience on the new national suicide prevention strategy in England. This consortium is a partnership with the National Suicide Prevention Alliance, Support After Suicide Partnership and With You.

We are commissioning research in Scotland to more fully understand the experiences of people who have experience of insecure, independent and isolated work, low pay and other issues around employment, and experiences of suicidal distress or self-harm. The final output from this research will be a policy report which will set out recommendations to influence policymakers in government at the local, Scottish and UK level. It is expected that the research project will conclude by the end of September 2023 and the team will publish a report of the findings shortly after.

Samaritans Ireland released brand new research , showing how the stigma of self-harm impacts everyday life. The study, An Open Secret: Self-Harm and Stigma in Ireland and Northern Ireland , is the first of its kind in Ireland and highlights that stigma has the power to silence, shame, and push those who struggle with self-harm into secrecy. A total of 769 adults from across the island of Ireland took part in the research.

We heard directly from young people who have engaged with our services and were able to understand, for the first time, their experiences as child callers. We did this by working with YouGov to carry out a nationally representative online survey of over 2,500 young people aged 16-24 years. This was done alongside commissioning and translating a literature review examining the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of emotional support services for children.

We delivered a comprehensive review of suicide prevention strategies in London prisons for the Suicide Prevention in London Prisons Steering Group, as well as contributing to additional suicide prevention workstreams using current evidence on the suitability and effectiveness of suicide prevention training. We have also worked with the steering group to explore how to include the lived experience of people in prisons in this research, applying our expertise in qualitative research, lived experience, and research ethics.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

What we were not able to achieve

Samaritans was unable to deliver some of the planned activities for 2022/23 due to rising costs, a decrease in income and conflicts with capacity. We have had to prioritise projects throughout the year to assure that we are best meeting the needs of the people who use our services.

Vocal and visible

We continue to raise our voice and campaign on the issues that matter to us, particularly those that directly or indirectly impact people’s risk of suicide, such as inequality, deprivation, prejudice and unfair treatment.

What we said we would do

What we did this year

Samaritans featured prominently in the media throughout the year , with our funding call ahead of the March budget receiving 140 pieces of coverage on the day, while our reaction to the Chancellor’s statement secured a further 161 articles over the next two days for a total advertising value equivalent of £1.1 million and a total opportunities-to-see (OTS) figure of 43 million. The Daily Telegraph also ran an exclusive interview with Samarians’ CEO Julie Bentley about the Online Safety Bill and our concerns while we continue to broaden our reach with a self-harm feature piece on the lifestyle website Refinery 29. Further highlights include fundraiser Paul Grundy’s disability trike hike up Ben Nevis being featured in the Daily Mirror, volunteer Roxy McCarthy appearing on Steph’s Packed Lunch for a feature on festive heroes, a stigma-busting piece about self-harm in the Metro and The Times reporting our call to end standardised risk assessments.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

We called out the Daily Mail on Twitter for some irresponsible journalism about the construction industry. Our Twitter thread achieved 1.3 million impressions and was our most-liked tweet ever, hitting 16.5k likes. We will continue to use our social media presence to speak out on the issues that matter to us.

We surveyed the public to better understand Samaritans’ brand awareness and the public’s understanding of what we do. The results of the most recent survey show that when prompted 86 per cent of people have heard of Samaritans and 76 per cent of people have a great deal of trust in us.

We grew our social media audience by 12.8 per cent and had over 2 million engagements with our content on social media. Our focus on quality over quantity on social media has resulted in our engagement rate growing by 17.2 per cent.

Samaritans spoke out about the cost-of-living crisis , calling for action from the Government to address its impact on mental health. In collaboration with 16 other charities, we wrote to the UK Prime Minister in November 2022 about the disproportionate impact the cost of living is having on people's mental health and the lack of action in response to its effect on the nation’s mental health services. We implored the Government to address this emerging national emergency and support those on the lowest incomes, who are most at risk of experiencing mental health problems and are at higher suicide risk during these difficult times. In March 2023, we once again called on the Government to invest more in crucial suicide prevention and mental health support as our helpline was receiving record numbers of first-time callers worried about finances or unemployment.

Innovation and technology

We encourage innovation and work to keep pace with developments, so that we can offer up-to-date and responsive services to the people who contact us, and the most effective platforms for our people.

What we said we would do

What we did this year

We continued to improve technology in our branches . This year 99.5 per cent of our branches are using ChromeOS devices and 96 per cent of all Link (call management) activity is now performed on ChromeOS.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

In Ireland, we made new upgrades to our telephony system and branches . We installed new phones and extra duty stations in several branches post-pandemic and started the process of expanding into three new satellite branches. We have signed a contract for an upgrade to our current system in Ireland after a detailed design and negotiation phase and have also aligned support with the rest of the organisation. By the end of the year, we hope our branches in Ireland will be fully aligned with the rest of the organisation in governance and management of the phone system. We also introduced call barring in Ireland this year to address a number of misuse issues occurring with our helpline. This is to make sure volunteers are not exposed to abuse and that our lines are open for those who genuinely need to get in touch about anything that’s troubling them.

We now have 766 volunteers across three virtual hubs for Email, Quality and Caller Support and Safeguarding. These hubs are equipped with softphone technology and Chromebooks to allow them to deliver their service out of branch.

We launched a pilot for future-proofing our branch-wide area networks that is currently underway at 11 branches. We have received positive feedback around call quality and ease of deployment. Up till the end of February, nearly 150,000 calls had been made using VOIP internet connection call services.

Environmental responsibility

We are building a sustainable approach as we embrace hybrid working and volunteering, and develop a better understanding of our energy footprint.

What we said we would do

What we did this year

As part of our commitment to sustainability we procured a new Green Energy contract , which incorporates 100 per cent renewable energy from wind and hydro assets for our supply of electricity across the central charity branch and property estate, covering around 60 individual premises.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

We appointed a CIBSE (Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers) ESOS Lead Assessor who has prepared the SECR report found later in this document which captures all energy consuming assets and activities in the UK for 2022/23.

Our assessor will carry out an energy audit for ESOS Phase 3 to calculate the energy consumed by Samaritans in the 12-month reporting and prepare the report for submission to the Environment Agency in December 2023.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Financial review

Overview

This was the first year of our new strategy: Tackling suicide together . While we made progress during the year with laying the foundations for the new strategy alongside delivery of our core service, it was also necessary to respond to the emerging cost of living crisis which has significantly impacted our income generation. In light of these financial pressures the decision was taken to temporarily delay further investment in the new strategy beyond those projects already underway.

We continue to monitor our fundraising income closely with the intention to resume investment in new strategic projects as soon as external factors and resources allow.

The financial statements of the consolidated charity group for the year ended 31 March 2023 show a net decrease in funds of £4.1 million.

The financial statements do not include the value of time donated by volunteers in delivering Samaritans’ service. In 2022, our volunteers spent almost 1 million hours answering calls for help, which is estimated at a value of £15.9 million* . The total value of time given by our volunteers is considerably higher if recruitment, training, branch management, fundraising and outreach work is included.

Volunteers are the foundation on which the strength of Samaritans’ service is built.

*Applying the median gross hourly rate for full time workers in the UK Source for earnings data: Office for National Statistics

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Income

Total income for the year was £23.9 million (compared with £27.4 million in 2021/22).

There have been a number of external factors which have impacted our ability to raise funds this year. Cost of Living concerns, largely led by inflation reaching a 41-year high in October 2022, meant that when polled, 69 per cent of the public indicated they would need to make spending cuts in 2022, including 17 per cent who indicated they would cut charitable giving. In response to increases in everday costs, 24 per cent of people reported that their charitable behaviour would need to chang[1] . Alongside broad reductions in charitable giving across the sector there was a significant public, corporate and statutory response to the war in Ukraine with over £400m being raised in the first year by the public alone[2] . This meant that where donors were still giving money it was often directed to overseas aid.

Across public giving income streams the one area that performed in line with expectations was Individual Donations, which finished slightly ahead of budget. In respect of ongoing activity, donations from individuals remain the largest source of income.

Community and Events income performed significantly below expectations, due in part to the cost of living crisis reducing average sponsorship amounts raised by individuals in both virtual and in-person events throughout the year. Other factors were the significant rise in the cost of digital advertising and the pause in campaign activity during the late Queen’s mourning period.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Grant income, which finished £0.3m below prior year, reflects the fact that no new government funding programmes for suicide prevention were opened whilst at least one source of helpline funding came to an end in March 2022. For Legacy income, which finished £0.2m below prior year, this is primarily due to the timing of administration of these legacies, which are assumed to materialise through the 2023/24 financial year. While it has been a difficult financial landscape, in 2022/23 we have continued to develop an extensive range of fundraising activities including community events, sporting and challenge events, appeals to individual donors and legacy appeals, as well as support from companies, public bodies and trusts. We remain committed to putting supporters at the heart of our fundraising.

We’re incredibly grateful to each and every donor for their support. A list of our major supporters can be found on page 93.

We recognise the importance and value of our long-term funder relationships. This year we continued to receive support from loyal supporters including Nominet, Pears Foundation, Phoenix Group, The Lord Mayors Appeal and Three. In addition to the fundraising activities mentioned above, our other major funding streams included our partnership with Network Rail for the delivery of a suicide prevention programme, grant funding from HMPPS to support the prison Listener scheme, and funding raised through Samaritans Training and Engagement Programmes (STEP).

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Expenditure

Total consolidated expenditure, including the value of donated advertising, increased slightly from £27.7 million in 2021/22 to £27.9 million .

This position reflects a number of offsetting items, including from inflationary increases across the organisation and the ongoing costs now coming through following completion of the final phases of There for Everyone , a programme of transformation and change, at the end of 2021/22. At the same time the organisation paused and re-prioritised expenditure to core activity in response to the shortfall in income, ensuring that service to beneficiaries was maintained, along with key strands of the new strategy.

During 2022/23, fundraising costs were £6.1 million , which was unchanged from 2021/22. However when considering the overall fall in income, this reflects the increasing costs of income acquisition.

Total charitable expenditure amounted to £21.8 million in 2022/23, marginally higher than the £21.7 million in 2021/22, which is analysed in detail in Note 7 to the Accounts. We’re committed to maximising the proportion of expenditure in developing and delivering our service, responding to the increasing demand for our services and reaching more people through the communication channels they wish to use.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

During the year we started investment in the new strategy, including developing our training and recruitment processes for volunteers, as well as the next phase in development of our digital channels following completion of There for Everyone . With the challenges to income in 2022/23, there was a pause during the second half of the year on any further new investment, with the intention to invest as the financial position improves.

Charitable expenditure during 2022/23 represented 78 per cent of total expenditure (the same as 2021/22).

Reserves policy

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.

The target range for free reserves has been set at between four and twelve months of general expenditure, which as at 31 March 2023 equates to £7.0 million and £20.9 million respectively.

This year the Board of Trustees agreed a deficit core budget along with additional investments across service development, fundraising and core infrastructure. We had therefore anticipated that the level of free reserves would reduce during the year.

As at 31 March 2023, the total consolidated funds held by the group amounted to £25.0 million . Of these funds, £21.7 million are unrestricted and £3.3 million are restricted. Within unrestricted funds there are six designated funds amounting to £10.8 million:

The remaining unrestricted funds are classed as free reserves. As at 31 March 2023 free reserves stood at £11.0 million (£11.7 million in 2022), equating to 6.3 months of general expenditure (6.4 months in 2022), which falls within the target range.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

In light of the challenging fundraising environment, elevated inflation and the major investment planned for the new strategy period, the Trustees have agreed to continue with the widened target range for free reserves of between four and twelve months of general expenditure.

The reserves policy will continue to be reviewed on at least an annual basis.

Investment policy

The overall investment objective is to achieve a positive real return (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 2023 the value of the portfolio managed was £1.9 million (£2.0 million in 2022), reflecting a net loss on investments of £0.1 million (no net gain/loss in 2021/22).

Additionally, £0.1 million is held within the Charities Official Investment Fund (£3.0 million in 2022).

Samaritans endeavours to invest in a way that reflects our values and does not run counter to our charitable aims. The portfolio managed by J Hambro & Partners applies negative screening to avoid direct investment in companies where more than 5 per cent of the most recent year's reported or estimated revenue is derived from activity that we consider to be inconsistent with our values or charitable aims. The Charities Official Investment Fund is a long-term, sustainable investment solution which incorporates environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into the investment strategy. We review our approach to ethical investment on a regular basis.

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 supports the Central Charity in the delivery of our strategy in Ireland.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

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. We continue to review all income streams and have carried out sensitivity analysis to enable early planning should income expectations not be met or core expenditure requirements exceed central projections. Income and expenditure are reviewed and ‘stress tested’ as part of our regular forecasting and budget process.

There are a number of options open to us if we need to cover any funding shortfall, including utilising unrestricted reserves and re-prioritising activity planned for the coming period. When making decisions we will be guided first and foremost by the strategy.

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.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Risks and uncertainties

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.

Our risk identification and risk management process are established; however, a review was undertaken in light of the launch of the new strategy. A significant review of the Organisational Risk Register took place with the aim of providing a broader assessment of current and emerging risks. The compilation of a more detailed risk review coincided with the start of the new strategy and our organisational emphasis on enhancing our risk and compliance framework.

With the 2023/24 business year underway, we have implemented a new and improved risk framework which aims to take a deeper dive into our risk register and further embed risk management in the organisation.

A new Risk Management Policy has been established which outlines the approach towards risk management across Samaritans and defines the roles and responsibilities of the Board, Audit & Risk Committee, Executive Leadership Team, Senior Leadership Group and wider teams. Further work is ongoing around the embedding and cultural change of the policy.

The risk appetite matrix was developed in 2021/22 as part of our approach to the new Strategy. It was designed to enable the Board to express its high-level risk tolerance, to inform strategic choices and direction.

Our aim this year is to develop risk appetite further, to provide risk owners with a process to connect and translate risk appetite into their individual risks and our planned activities.

Samaritans understands the strong connection between risk management and risk assurance activities. A review will take place to help align the assurance activities to the strategic priorities set out in the business plan.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

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 Managingactions
Reputation / Strategy Inability to resource core
listening services due to
insufficient numbers of active
listening volunteers.		 1. Service Expansion
evaluation to determine
most effective return for
expansion volunteer
capacity and service
delivery metrics.
2. Pilot approaches to
reallocating volunteer
capacity to times of
greatest need.
Financial Inability to grow income amid
uncertain economic climate
and unable to fund core
activities.		 1. Focus on maximising
returns with recent
opportunities eg, London
Marathon.
2. Tight expenditure control
and financial scenario plans
to be reviewed by Finance
Committee.
Strategy Staff stretch 1. Capacity building.
2. Realising the benefit of
having a fit for purpose
structure.
3. Prioritisation of existing
workload.
Strategy Safety and Quality monitoring
in Republic of Ireland differ
from standards in UK.		 1. ‘Listening in’ required in
Republic of Ireland –
options being explored.
2. Call barring and Misuse of
Service intervention options
being explored.
3. Complaints handling being
standardised.
Financial/Reputation Lack of capacity and effective
branch leadership resulting in
the inability to deliver the
service strategically.		 1. The BD review report is
expected in Q4, 2023.
2. The project will include all
leadership roles that sit
under the Branch Director
role.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

  1. Inability to resource core listening services due to insufficient numbers of active listening volunteers.

This forms part of our top five risks and a Service Expansion evaluation took place this year to determine the most effective return for expansion volunteer capacity and service delivery metrics.

We envisage that this risk will reduce overtime as all Service Expansion projects are now operational and continue to grow their volunteer numbers and work towards a state of longterm viability.

In addition to supporting the new locations, the main focus has been on evaluating the different models to identify the best approach to future expansion. We are also piloting innovations to assist in relocating volunteer capacity to times of greatest need. A subsequent phase of expansion is likely to follow in 2024/25 which should help to further mitigate any potential decline in volunteer numbers across the existing network.

  1. Inability to grow income amid uncertain economic climate unable to fund core activities.

The cost-of-living crisis has affected Samaritans in many ways. It not only impacts our callers, staff and volunteers, but it also has a significant impact on Samaritans financially. Inability to grow income amid the uncertain economic climate is a new risk to Samaritans and now forms as one of our top five risks. Expenditure control remains a key priority, having undertaken a significant savings and cost control process. Our focus on Rising Costs had previously formed part of this risk, however there was a need to separate this given the effective work undertaken around savings and cost control. Work is ongoing around our campaign activities, review of products portfolio, business development and much more. If successful, we anticipate this risk to reduce later in the year as a result.

3. Staff stretch

The cost of living crisis and the cost savings work undertaken has had an impact on staff stretch and wellbeing. Workplans have been reviewed to reassess finance and capacity.

The focus has been on prioritising existing workload and looking at activities that we need to pause/delay to provide a more realistic workplan for the remainder of the year and as a platform for 2023/24 planning. Support mechanisms continue to be in place for everyone.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

  1. Safety and quality monitoring in ROI differ in standards to UK.

Listening in has been effective to both support improvement in quality and as a mechanism for detecting serious safeguarding situations, however, there has been a need to ensure these standards are also in place in Ireland.

Work is underway to review and develop the Ireland safeguarding policy, roles and responsibilities of mandated persons and designate liaison officers, safeguarding training and much more. Samaritans is also exploring how it can enable the Ireland listening service to mirror that of Samaritans UK, including the technology and process change for ‘listening in’ and call barring.

  1. Lack of capacity and effective Branch leadership resulting in the inability to deliver the service strategically.

Lack of senior volunteer capacity and therefore effective leadership remains in our top five risks and we are implementing a number of processes and mitigations to ensure that the risk is reduced and we can continue to effectively deliver our strategic plan. A review of the organization design structure changes for both volunteers and staff took place last year and recruitment for key roles were concluded. Staff and volunteers have been recruited into key roles and we anticipate this risk reducing further as they develop into those roles.

Further embedding risk management is a priority for 2023/24 as we continue to clarify our risk appetite and manage emerging risk and opportunity from our new strategy.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Governance report

Our structure

Samaritans is a charitable company limited by guarantee. We were founded in 1953 and incorporated in 1963.

Samaritans has more than 200 branches and locations across the UK and Ireland, as well as the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. During 2022, around 23,000 people volunteered their time for Samaritans and helped ensure our services were always available across our multiple platforms. The Samaritans Central Charity team also carries out research and evaluation to support our influencing work, and service development, which supports our volunteer recruitment and development activity. The Central Charity team also raises income to underpin the whole organisation.

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

Branches and service delivery ‘hubs’

Branches are run by Branch Directors (a volunteer leadership role) 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. In addition to our branch structure, service delivery is also carried out by bespoke ‘Hubs’, which are part of the Central Charity and have a more flexible oversight structure in order to meet the requirements of our strategy.

Regions

The branches are organised and work together in 14 geographical regions and an additional ‘region’ to oversee Service Expansion. Each region is led by a Regional Director; volunteer leadership roles who provide a key link and communication channel between Central

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Samaritans and the wider organisation and play a vital role in supporting our branches, contributing to the development of and implementing agreed policy. Responsibility for guiding and supporting our Regional Director group is shared between four Directors of Branch Operations, which are new senior volunteer leadership roles, reporting to our Executive Director of Operations.

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 of 31 March 2023, consists of 14 members. Trustees are also the directors of the company, and a majority must be Samaritans volunteers at branches or in another capacity. 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, 15 Regional Directors, up to 10 Functional Leads and the co Vice-Chairs. 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 Ireland, Samaritans Ireland, with a remit extending to both 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.

A review into the activities carried out by Samaritans Ireland was completed in December 2022, and the key responsibilities of the subsidiary were updated. An enhanced oversight function focusses on public policy, research, influencing, partnership working and income

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

generation in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. A review into the role of the Scotland Committee is taking place over 2023/24.

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.

Appointing our Trustees

With the exception of our Chair, who is an appointment of the Board of Trustees, the Nominations and Governance Committee appoints members of the Board. 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 24 months. 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.

Board diversity

The Board of Trustees completed a diversity audit in May 2022. The audit has indicated a good reflection of the diversity of the societies we serve which, in part, is a result of greater focus on diversity in trustee recruitment in recent years. We have identified that we are currently under representative of disabled people on our Trustee Board and encourage applications from people in this community in our recruitment materials.

Inducting and training 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. All Trustees are provided external online Trustee training module(s) as well as the option to attend a range of external courses designed for Trustees or other professional development. In addition, Trustees are obliged to carry out Samaritans’ bespoke safeguarding modules, and other relevant modules, including Equity, Diversity & Inclusion.

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 and Culture Committee, must comprise of at least two Trustees, one ‘internal’ and one ‘external’ member. The People and Culture Committee must comprise of a minimum of two Trustees and two external members.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

• The Policy 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.

• The Audit and Risk Committee supports the Board, to provide assurance 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, including oversight of fundraisings and property, and advises the Board accordingly.

• The People and Culture 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 and volunteer-related initiatives. The Committee reviews progress against people strategies and plans, drawing on ‘people metrics’ and provides oversight, guidance and scrutiny of organisation-wide culture, as well as providing assurance that principles of equity, diversity and inclusion are central to staff & volunteer decision-making.

• The Nominations and Governance Committee is accountable to both the Board and the Council of Samaritans. It ensures that Trustee and other key governance roles are performed with appropriate skills and experience, and that there are high standards in place for the effectiveness and development of the Board. The remit of the Committee extends to provisions of assurance that the governance structures and roles at Samaritans are fit for purpose.

Board Review and Governance code

A Board review was carried out during 2022, showing substantial progress in board effectiveness compared with our 2020 board review. It is recognised that board improvement is a constantly evolving process, and a new board development plan has been created following the 2022 review, focusing on the following priorities:

  1. Enhancing stakeholder voice

  2. Committee functioning and communications

  3. Trustee induction and development

  4. Balance between scrutiny and strategic discussions

In addition to the board review, which is supported by a gap analysis against the Charity Governance Code for England and Wales, our Nominations and Governance Committee has implemented a rolling review process against Charity Governance Code principles. At its

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

March 2022 meeting, it began with Principle 1 (Organisational Purpose), highlighting no significant gaps when compared with the code requirements and recommendations.

The reference and administrative details on pages 85 to 88 form part of this report.

Payment of key management personnel

All Trustees carry out their roles at Samaritans on a voluntary basis. They are unpaid but may claim legitimate expenses incurred as part of Samaritans’ ordinary activities. Chief Executive Officer payment and benefits, as well as the payment and benefits of the remaining Executive Leadership Team and all other staff members are approved by the Trustee Board, based on review and recommendations by the People and Culture Committee. In considering pay and benefits, the People and Culture Committee is provided with information on the sector and similar-sized charities, to inform decisions.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Incidents and Reporting

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, better oversight of risk to the charity and its beneficiaries, and for further informed consideration of preventative action. During 2022/23, the Central Charity reported 19 new serious incidents to the relevant nation’s charity regulator(s), this is a comparable figure to previous years and a slight reduction on 2021/22. Of these, 15 involved affiliated branches, and three involved Central Charity branches or the Central Charity itself. One report was submitted where the relevant branch was unable to be identified. At the time of writing, the charity regulators have not required further action, other than that already stated in the reports.

Two reports were reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Whistleblowing, bullying and harassment

There are policies and processes in place relating to whistleblowing, bullying and harassment. These are applicable to both staff and volunteers at Samaritans Central Charity and both affiliate and Central Charity branches. The policies provide opportunities for reporting serious concerns in an environment where the rights and dignity of every individual is respected. Alternative reporting routes are provided in case of instances where it would not be appropriate to make a report to a direct line manager, including a concerns line which provides a secondary avenue to staff and volunteers to confidentially raise concerns.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Fundraising Activities Statement

We’re thankful to our incredible supporters who have stood by our side, raising £23.9 million even in these challenging times for everyone in the UK and ROI. We see every day and night how the power of human connection saves lives. We know that by giving people a safe space to turn to, we can reduce feelings of distress and despair. We believe that simply being there to listen, can restore hope.

Our incredible supporters share our hope for a better, and safer, world for everyone.

Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of our supporters, major donors, companies, Trusts and public bodies, we have been able to continue to be there 24/7, 365 days a year, for anyone struggling to cope. Our incredible supporters have done things their way; from livestreaming challenges to creatively fundraising with online communities. They’ve invested in Samaritans’ future, pledging special gifts to Samaritans in their Wills. Our donors have scaled mountains, crossed oceans and taken on multiple marathons. Our corporate partners have taken to the streets at major events and donned fancy dress. Our Trust and Statutory supporters have diligently supported us with grants and funds to keep our service running and to support our digital transformation.

We’re delighted that this year Samaritans' values will spring into life at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023 at a designated Samaritans’ Listening Garden, thanks to generous funding and support from Project Giving Back.

In this, our 70[th] year of listening, our supporters have run, swam, danced, crafted, created and innovated to fundraise in new and unique ways. Through daring to dream, our fundraisers, supporters, major donors and partners have inspired us with their trailblazing fundraising, and helped to ensure that we can continue to be there for anyone struggling to cope, any time of the day or night.

Championing supporters

Understanding our supporters’ needs has been at the heart of our fundraising. Over the last year, we’ve listened to more than 5,700 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 supporters’ expectations. Our supporters’ feedback has enabled new, innovative fundraising approaches and products that have allowed us to reach new supporters We have continued to raise funds in unique and impactful ways, from rebranding our commercial training offer providing wellbeing and suicide prevention training for thousands of people at hundreds of organisations up and down the country to reaching 18,000 passionate supporters through new events such as Facebook virtual yoga, walks and sit-up challenges and Dawn Walk.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

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 regulations.

Our Fundraising Promise sets out our aim to be open, fair and honest in the way we engage supporters. During 2022/23, we received 24 fundraising complaints. All complaints were resolved by our in-house Supporter Care team none were escalated to the Fundraising Regulator. Complaint feedback is regularly shared across the fundraising team. We value the feedback and continue to review and learn from every complaint.

Working with agencies

Most of our fundraising activity is delivered directly by our Income team. We work with a small number of carefully selected external fundraising agencies to help with specialist fundraising activity, from recruiting supporters who give through their payroll to telemarketing with mass audiences to inspire potential new donors, and creative and marketing support on 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 Data & Marketing Association and the Gambling Commission.

Protecting vulnerable donors

We take our responsibility to our vulnerable donors very seriously. In 2019, we carried out a review of our policy for working with vulnerable donors, and members of the public who could reasonably be defined as ‘vulnerable’. The policy is available for all our fundraisers via our intranet. We ensure that our fundraisers receive relevant training and have access to coaching. We treat all donors with dignity and compassion, and our policy helps reinforce the importance of this in all our fundraising.

We are extremely dedicated to protecting potentially vulnerable donors. For example, we exclude people who visit our Help and Support pages on our website from online targeting, and go to great lengths to exclude potentially vulnerable donors from targeted fundraising online.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Managing communications

We believe that our supporters should trust us, know us and look forward to hearing from us. We regularly check in to make sure that our supporters want to hear from us, and to find out about more about what they’d like to hear about our work. We respect our supporters’ privacy; we’re transparent about the ways in which people can change their communications preferences. If someone no longer wants to hear from us, we respect their wishes. We take our data handling responsibilities very seriously, and have a strong, GDPR compliant approach to data management.

A heartfelt thank you to our incredible supporters

The cost-of-living crisis has had a significant impact on the financial and emotional health of communities across the UK and Ireland. We know that these challenging times affect our supporters, donors and partners too. We cannot thank our supporters enough for standing by us, for taking up the challenge of innovative fundraising, and for pushing us and themselves to fundraise in bigger, better and ever more inspiring ways, at a time at which Samaritans is needed more than ever.

Thank you, to our amazing supporters for continuing to believe in a better tomorrow, so that we can continue to be there for anyone who needs someone to listen.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting

In line with the UK Government’s Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) regulations, this section shows the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and energy use data for the Samaritans group operations in the UK. This report therefore covers our five staff offices in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Ewell and London, along with our 60 central charity branches throughout the UK.

Methodology

This SECR report has been prepared in accordance with HM Government Environmental Reporting Guidelines: including streamlined energy and carbon reporting guidance, March 2019 (Updated Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2), PB 13944, predominately Chapter 2; “ Guidance on Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting ”.

The approach used to identify, collate and calculate the figures acknowledges best known practice, using information and data from the organisation and the latest available Government GHG conversion factors.

Primary source data has been used wherever possible. In the absence of that, secondary or inferred data has been used using direct comparison, pro-rata extrapolation, benchmarking and in some cases by modelling. As this is the first financial year that Samaritans has qualified for SECR, there are no figures from previous years.

Intensity ratio

As our main source of energy use is the heating and lighting of our branch network and UK offices, Net Internal floor Area (NIA, m[2] ) was chosen as our intensity ratio. Our total floor area was 8,329m[2] .

Scope Energy use (kWh) 2022/20
23
1 Natural gas (sites) 767,256
1 Fuel (company vans) 3,769
2 Electricity (sites) 410,806
3 Fuel (employee/volunteer miles) 286,636
1,2,3 Total kWh 1,468,46
7
Scope Carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (tCO2e)
1 Natural gas (sites) 140.2
1 Fuel (company vans) 0.9
2 Electricity (sites) 81.4
3 Fuel (employee/volunteer miles) 70.4
1, 2, 3 Total tC02e 292.9

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Intensity Ratio
tCO2e/net internal floor area m2 0.035
Scope Other carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (tCO2e)
3 Well to Tank Fuels (natural gas, diesel and petrol) 42.4
3 Well to Tank UK electricity generation (sites) 18.9
3 Transmission and Distribution (UK electric grid: sites) 7.3
3 Well to Tank Transmission and Distribution (UK electric 1.7
grid: sites)
3 Total other emissions tC02e 140.7

Key: Scope 1 (Direct) GHG emissions. Scope 2 (Energy indirect) emissions. Scope 3 (Other indirect) emissions.

WtT; Well to Tank. T&D; Transmission & Distribution.

Energy efficiency actions

We are taking actions to reduce our carbon emissions and during 2022-23 our property strategy supported energy savings in the following ways:

Renewable energy

We have procured a Green Energy contract which incorporates 100 per cent renewable energy from wind and hydro assets for our supply of electricity across the central charity branch and property estate, covering around 60 individual premises.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities

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:

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 27 July 2023 and signed on its behalf by Annie Kent, Treasurer:

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Independent Auditor’s Report to the Members and Trustees of Samaritans

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Samaritans (‘the charitable company’) and its subsidiaries (‘the group’) for the year ended 31 March 2022 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:

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.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

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

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:

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In light of the knowledge and understanding of the 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:

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the directors’ responsibilities statement set out on page 54, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are 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 directors 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.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

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 company’s ability to operate or to avoid a material penalty. We also considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the company for fraud. The laws and regulations we considered in this context 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 our 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

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

trustees. 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: 10 August 2023

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities

Incorporating an Income & Expenditure Account For the year to 31 March 2023




Note


Income from:
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 Samaritans
branch charities
Total income
Expenditure on:
Raising funds
7
Charitable activities
7
Total expenditure
Net (losses)/gains on investments
11
Net (expenditure) / income
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
Restricted
funds
Total
funds
2023
2023
2023
2022
2022
2022
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000

12,893
342
13,235
14,554
592
15,146




2,099
3,763
5,862
2,082
4,066
6,148




4,657
-
4,657
5,254
472
5,726

153
-
153
17
-
17

15
-
15
-
-
-

19,817
4,105
23,922
21,907
5,130
27,037




-
-
-
407
-
407



19,817
4,105
23,922
22,314
5,130
27,444







6,101
-
6,101
6,068
6
6,074

17,503
4,340
21,843
17,563
4,118
21,681



23,604
4,340
27,944
23,631
4,124
27,755




(62)
-
(62)
10
-
10



(3,849)
(235)
(4,084)
(1,307)
1,006
(301)




-
-
-
-
-
-



(3,849)
(235)
(4,084)
(1,307)
1,006
(301)







25,619
3,513
29,132
26,926
2,507
29,433

21,770
3,278
25,048
25,619
3,513
29,132

60

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Charity Statement of Financial Activities

Incorporating an Income & Expenditure Account For the year to 31 March 2023




Note


Income from:
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
Total income
Expenditure on:
Raising funds
7
Charitable activities
7
Total expenditure
Net (losses)/gains on investments
11
Net (expenditure) / income
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
Restricted
funds
Total
funds
2023
2023
2023
2022
2022
2022
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000

13,054
342
13,396
15,546
592
16,138




2,058
2,698
4,756
2,082
3,437
5,519




3,834
-
3,834
3,240
93
3,333

153
-
153
17
-
17

15
-
15
-
-
-

19,114
3,040
22,154
20,885
4,122
25,007




-
-
-
407
-
407



19,114
3,040
22,154
21,292
4,122
25,414








6,001
-
6,001
6,047
6
6,053

16,614
3,589
20,203
16,582
3,068
19,650



22,615
3,589
26,204
22,629
3,074
25,703




(62)
-
(62)
10
-
10



(3,563)
(549)
(4,112)
(1,327)
1,048
(279)




-
-
-
-
-
-



(3,563)
(549)
(4,112)
(1,327)
1,048
(279)







24,775
3,003
27,778
26,102
1,955
28,057

21,212
2,454
23,666
24,775
3,003
27,778

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 64 to 83 form part of these accounts.

61

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Consolidated and Charity Balance Sheet

As at 31 March 2023

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


Current liabilities

Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
13
Deferred income
14


Net current assets


Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year


Total net assets


Funds
17
Restricted income funds

Unrestricted income funds

General unrestricted funds

Designated funds



Total funds

Group
2023
£’000
Group
2022
£’000


7,068
7,777

379
604

2,058
4,972


Charity
2023
£’000
Charity
2022
£’000

7,067
7,776

379
604

2,058
4,972

9,505
13,353		 9,504
13,352



54
143

3,189
3,718

15,761
16,314
23
112

3,907
4,726

13,309
13,600

19,004
20,175		 17,239
18,438



2,610
2,547

668
1,683
2,544
2,548

350
1,298

3,278
4,230		 2,894
3,846


15,726
15,945


(183)
(166)
14,345
14,592

(183)
(166)

25,048
29,132		 23,666
27,778



3,278
3,513


10,966
11,713

10,804
13,906
2,454
3,003

10,656
11,407

10,556
13,368

21,770
25,619		 21,212
24,775

25,048
29,132		 23,666
27,778

Approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Trustees on 27 July 2023 and signed on its behalf by Annie Kent, Honorary Treasurer:

The Notes on pages 64 to 83 form part of these accounts.

62

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Cashflow statement

For the year ended 31 March 2023

Reconciliation of net income to net cash flow from operating
activities
Net expenditure for the reporting period (as per the statement of
financial activities)
Adjustments for:
Depreciation and amortisation charges
(Profit) on sale of fixed assets
Losses/(Gains) on investments
Dividends and interest from investments
Decrease/(increase) in stock
Decrease/(increase) in debtors
(Decrease)/increase in creditors
Net cash outflow from operating activities
Statement of cash flows
Cash flows from operating activities:
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
Proceeds from investment disposals
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
2023
£’000
Group
2022
£’000
Charity
2023
£’000
Charity
2022
£’000
(4,084)
(301)
(4,112)
(279)

450
531
449
530
(15)
-
(15)
-
62
(10)
62
(10)
(57)
(17)
(57)
(17)
90
(95)
88
(78)
529
(694)
820
(672)
(936)
(1,713)
(934)
(1,030)
(3,961)
(2,299)
(3,699)
(1,556)


(3,961)
(2,299)
(3,699)
(1,556)


57
17
57
17
-
(74)
-
(73)
499
-
499
-
3,540
428
3,540
428
(688)
(932)
(688)
(932)
3,408
(561)
3,408
(560)
(553)
(2,860)
(291)
(2,116)

16,314
19,174
13,600
15,716
15,761
16,314
13,309
13,600


15,761
16,314
13,309
13,600
15,761
16,314
13,309
13,600

63

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Notes to the Accounts

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.

b) Basis of consolidation

The accounts of the group companies are included in the financial statements and the Notes shown on pages 64 to 83. Further details of the subsidiaries’ activities are shown in Note 18. 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

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 ongoing 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 1gi: Legacies).

d) Fund accounting

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.

64

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

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 17.

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 expense relating to a provision for impairment is recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities (‘SOFA’) in the year in which it occurs.

f) Stock

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

g) 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.

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.

h) Expenditure

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 strategic areas relating to charitable activities (Access, Reach, Impact and Capacity) and to Fundraising activities (which includes the fifth strategic area of Sustainability). The following specific policies apply to categories of expenditure:

65

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

i) Grants

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

ii) Fundraising costs

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 as follows:

Tangible fixed assets
Freehold property 50 years
Leasehold property 50 years
Computer equipment 3 years
Telephony platform 5 years
Office equipment 4 years
Motor vehicles 5 years
Intangible fixed assets
Website and Software
Development 3-5 years

i) Samaritans’ regions

Centrally funded costs of supporting Samaritans’ regions have been incorporated within these financial statements. For operational delivery, the UK and 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.

j) Operating leases

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

k) 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

66

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

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.

l) Pensions

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

m) Branches

The term ‘branches’ used throughout these Accounts refers to the branches of Samaritans, whose objectives are consistent with those of Samaritans.

n) Taxation

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 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.

o) 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.

Investments in subsidiary undertakings are held at cost less impairment.

2. Voluntary income

a) Donations and legacies All Funds
2023
£’000
All Funds
2022
£’000
Donations - Individual Giving 6,818
7,783
Donations - branches 124
162
Donations - Corporate 2,970
3,721
Gifts in kind 385
366
Legacies 2,938
3,114
Total 13,235
15,146

b) Donated Services

A valuation has been undertaken of advertising, legal and training services donated to the charity during the year. This valuation of £385,000 (2022: £366,000) has been included within income under ‘gifts in kind’ as above and within expenditure.

67

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

c) 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 2023, the charity had been notified of a further 97 legacies (2022: 64) that have not been included in these accounts as they did not meet these criteria. These legacies have an estimated value of £3,818,767 (2022: £2,309,000).

d) Grants
Ministry of Justice: HMPPS
Health Service Executive: Freecall Ireland
Scottish Government – Highland Programme
Pears Foundation
Armed Forces Covenant Fund
Welsh Government/LLywodraeth Cymru
NHS England: Bereavement support service (SASP)
Department of Health and Social Care: VCSE Health & Wellbeing Alliance
Department of Health and Social Care: Suicide Prevention (NSPA)
Covid and Council Grants
Scottish Government – Helpline
Irish Prison Service
Scottish Prison Service
SSAFA Partnership – Military
Northern Ireland Prison Service
Department of Health (Northern Ireland)
Department of Health and Social Care: Samaritans Helpline call costs
Department of Health and Social Care: Suicide Prevention (SASP)
Department of Health and Social Care (NSPA)
Department of Health and Social Care: Suicide Prevention (Samaritans)
Other grants
Total grants*		 All funds
2023
£’000
All funds 2022
£’000
712
620
514
518
416
81
400
655
300
-
120
120
98
-
97
97
90
80
84
385
57
57
54
42
49
-
37
111
18
18
12
3
-
510
-
40
-
120
-
394
3,058
3,851

2,804
2,297

5,862
6,148

*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 from the central charity, including the core technology platform. The New Branch Contribution amounted to £1,208,000 in 2022/23 (2021/22: £865,000) and is included within ‘partnerships and other income’.

68

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

4. Investment income

4. Investment income
Cash or cash equivalents
Listed investments
Total investment income		 All funds 2023
£’000
All funds 2022
£’000
96
1
57
16
153
17

5. Charitable expenditure

Further information on charitable expenditure has been provided below where required by the funder. The funding received has been shown in Note 2d above.

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. Expenditure during 2022/23 was £804,000 (2021/22: £497,000).

Scottish Government Helpline Funding

The Scottish Government grant was a contribution to Samaritans Helpline Service and the development of the online chat service. Expenditure during the year totalled £57,000 (2021/22: £8,000).

Welsh Government

The Welsh Government funding is a contribution towards our work in Wales, including outreach to at-risk communities and resource development. Expenditure in the year totalled £120,000 (2021:22 £120,000).

Armed Forces Covenant Fund – Veterans Funding

This grant funds a helpline service pathway for military veterans. Expenditure during the year totalled £300,000.

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) funded projects

VCSE Health & Wellbeing Alliance

To provide core funding to the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector membership of the refreshed Health and Wellbeing (HW) Alliance. Core work: strategic planned and responsive work, which will be identified with policy leads from across the three system partner organisations. Expenditure during 2022/23 was £92,159 (2021/22: £97,000).

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 £90,000 (2021/22: £61,000) during the year towards delivering the alliance’s work-plan of national priorities. Expenditure during the year towards the project totalled £90,000 (2021/22: £120,000).

Samaritans helpline costs

Samaritans no longer receives funding from DHSC as a contribution towards the overall cost of running the Samaritans helpline. The expenditure covered by this funding in 2021/22 was £510,000.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

6. Net expenditure 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 2023
£’000
All funds 2022
£’000
39
35
9
8
48
43
225
235
225
295
461
355

The Directors of the charitable company are the trustees under charity law and receive no remuneration (2022: none). It is the policy of the charity to reimburse all volunteer expenses in full. During the year seven Trustees (2022: one) received reimbursement for attending meetings and other incidentals amounting to £5,148 (2022: £716).

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.

7. Breakdown of costs by activity

Current year

Expenditure on:
Raising funds
General fundraising

Charitable activities
Access
Reach
Impact
Capacity
Total expenditure		 Direct costs
2023
£’000
Support costs
2023
£’000
All costs
2023
£’000
4,960
1,141
6,101
9,034
1,688
10,722
1,097
3
1,100
5,625
964
6,589
2,833
599
3,432
23,549
4,395
27,944

We have five strategic areas in our new strategy. Expenditure on the four strategic areas relating to charitable activities have been split out above. The fifth strategic area of sustainability has been grouped within general fundraising. These headings therefore differ from the headings used in 2022.

Expenditure on:
Raising funds
Charitable activities
Total expenditure		 Unrestricted
funds
2023
£’000
Restricted
funds
2023
£’000
All funds
2023
£’000
6,101
-
6,101
17,503
4,340
21,843
23,604
4,340
27,944

70

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Analysis of support costs by activity:

Finance and other corporate services
IS
HR
Facilities
Governance
Support costs		 Fundraising
2023
£’000
Access
2023
£’000
Reach
2023
£’000
Impact
2023
£’000
Capacity
2023
£’000
Total
2023
£’000
82
121
-
69
43
315
478
708
1
404
252
1,843
193
286
1
163
102
745
236
349
1
199
124
909
151
224
1
128
79
583
1,140
1,688
4
963
600
4,395


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
2022
£’000
Support costs
2022
£’000
All costs
2022
£’000
4,777
1,297
6,074
7,682
1,990
9,672
6,011
537
6,548
3,856
887
4,743
564
154
718
22,890
4,865
27,755
Unrestricted
funds
2022
£’000
Restricted
funds
2022
£’000
All funds
2022
£’000
6,068
6
6,074
17,563
4,118
21,681
23,631
4,124
27,755

Analysis of support costs by activity:

Finance and other corporate services
IS
HR
Facilities
Governance
Support costs		 Fundraising
2022
£’000
Service
2022
£’000
Access
2022
£’000
Influence
2022
£’000
Evidence
2022
£’000
Total
2022
£’000
148
227
61
101
17
554
538
826
223
368
64
2,019
191
292
79
131
23
716
244
375
101
167
29
916
176
270
73
120
21
660
1,297
1,990
537
887
154
4,865

71

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

8. Staff costs

8. Staff costs
All funds 2023 All funds 2022
Staff costs £’000 £’000
Wages and salaries 12,557 10,915
Social security costs 1,375 1,207
Other pension costs 593 562
Agencystaff 167 450
Total staff costs 14,692 13,134
Staff paid over £60,000* 2023 2022
£170,001-£180,000 1 -
£140,000- £150,000 1 1
£110,000-£120,000 1 2
£100,001-£110,000 - 1
£90,001-£100,000 1 1
£80,001-£90,000 2 1
£70,001-£80,000 5 6
£60,001-£70,000 14 15
Total 25 27

* Comprising all forms of consideration paid in exchange for the service rendered by employees including remuneration, salary, benefits, employer’s pension contributions and any termination payments made.

The Chief Executive Officer was paid a total of £146,000 (2022: £142,000).

The total amount of employee benefits received by key management personnel for their services during the year was £1,076,000 (2022: £963,000).

Termination payments totalling £114,000 (2022: £19,000) were paid during the year, relating to employees leaving the charity.

Pension costs

The pension contributions for the 25 employees (2022: 27) earning more than £60,000 in the year amounted to £96,000 (2022: £109,000).

Employee numbers

The average full-time equivalent (FTE) number of employees during the year was 301 (2022: 277). As at 31 March 2023 the number of FTE staff was 308 (295 at 31 March 2022).

The average number of employees in post during the year was 328 (2022: 301). At 31 March 2023 the number of employees in post was 335 (323 at 31 March 2022).

72

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

9. Tangible fixed assets

Group
Cost
At 1 April 2022
Reclassification
Additions
Disposals
Exchange rate movements
At 31 March 2023
Depreciation
At 1 April 2022
Reclassification
Charge for the year
Disposals
Exchange rate movements
At 31 March 2023
Net book value
At 31 March 2023
At 31 March 2022

Charity
Cost
At 1 April 2022
Reclassification
Additions
Disposals
At 31 March 2023
Depreciation
At 1 April 2022
Reclassification
Charge for the year
Disposals
At 31 March 2023
Net book value
At 31 March 2023
At 31 March 2022		 Freehold
property
£’000
Leasehold
property
£’000
Computer
equipment
£’000
Office
equipment
£’000
Motor
vehicles
£’000
Total
£’000
9,301
685
489
616
42
11,133
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
(533)
-
-
-
-
(533)
-
-
-
7
-
7
8,768
685
489
623
42
10,607
2,294
70
486
488
18
3,356
-
-
-
-
-
-
157
14
2
45
7
225
(49)
-
-
-
-
(49)
-
-
-
7
-
7
2,402
84
488
540
25
3,539
6,366
601
1
83
17
7,068
7,007
615
3
128
24
7,777
Freehold
property
£’000
Leasehold
property
£’000
Computer
equipment
£’000
Office
equipment
£’000
Motor
vehicles
£’000
Total
£’000
9,301
686
489
459
41
10,976
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
(533)
-
-
-
-
(533)
8,768
686
489
459
41
10,443
2,295
70
486
331
18
3,200
-
-
-
-
-
-
157
14
2
44
8
225
(49)
-
-
-
-
(49)
2,403
84
488
375
26
3,376
6,365
602
1
85
17
7,067
7,006
616
3
127
24
7,776

Depreciation at 31 March 2023 for freehold property includes an impairment of £725,000 in the carrying value of the Ewell Central Office arising from an impairment review in 2012/13.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

10. Intangible fixed assets

Group and charity
Cost
At 1 April 2022
Additions
At 31 March 2023
Depreciation
At 1 April 2022
Charge for the year
At 31 March 2023
Net book value
At 31 March 2023
At 31 March 2022		 Website and
software
development
£’000
1,329
-
1,329
725
225
950
379
604

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

11. Fixed asset investments

Market value at 1 April
Acquisition at cost
Disposal proceeds
Net investment gains/losses
Market value at 31 March 2023

Cash and cash equivalents
CCLA COIF charities deposit fund
Portfolio managed by Hambros Investments
Listed investments
Portfolio managed by Hambros Investments
Other listed investments
Other investments – managed by Hambros Investments
Alternative
Commodities
Fixed interest
Total investments		 Group
2023
£’000
Group
2022
£’000
Charity
2023
£’000
Charity
2022
£’000
4,972
4,458
4,972
4,458
688
932
688
932
(3,540)
(428)
(3,540)
(428)
(62)
10
(62)
10
2,058
4,972
2,058
4,972
2023
£’000
2023
%
2022
£’000
2022
%
107
5%
2,969
60%
120
6%
143
3%
227
11%
3,112
63%
962
47%
1,033
21%
9
0%
9
0%
971
47%
1,042
21%
317
15%
364
7%
121
6%
112
2%
422
21%
342
7%
860
42%
818
16%
2,058
100%
4,972
100%

Investments held by the charity include a £100 investment (2022: £100) in the subsidiary company at cost: see Note 18.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

12. Debtors

12. Debtors
Trade debtors
Gift Aid
Legacies
Accrued income
VAT, payroll tax, social security and pensions
Other debtors
Intercompany
Prepayments
Total debtors		 Group
2023
£’000
Group
2022
£’000
Charity
2023
£’000
Charity
2022
£’000
599
1,416
404
618
821
1,086
821
1,086
260
61
260
61
511
629
508
578
151
49
151
-
59
54
59
53
-
-
922
1,938
788
423
782
392
3,189
3,718
3,907
4,726

13. Creditors

Social security and taxes
Trade creditors
Accrued expenditure
Other creditors
Total creditors		 Group
2023
£’000
Group
2022
£’000
Charity
2023
£’000
Charity
2022
£’000
545
494
545
494
945
540
934
614
1,113
1,482
1,058
1,409
7
31
7
31
2,610
2,547
2,544
2,548

14. Deferred income

At 1 April
Income recognised in the year
Income deferred in the year
At 31 March 2023		 Group
2023
£’000
Group
2022
£’000
Charity
2023
£’000
Charity
2022
£’000
1,683
3,271
1,297
2,314
(1,283)
(2,666)
(1,490)
(1,623)
268
1,078
543
607
668
1,683
350
1,298

Total deferred income includes £236,450 (2022: £305,000) Network Rail deferred income within The Samaritan Enterprises Limited.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

15. Financial and other commitments

a) Operating leases

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

Group Group Group Group Charity Charity Charity Charity
2023 2023 2022 2022 2023 2023 2022 2022
Land and
Other		 Land and
Other		 Land and
Other		 Land and
Other
Operating lease buildings buildings buildings buildings
commitments £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Within one year 296 4
333		 10
249		 4
287		 10
Between two and
five years 414 4
247		 20
244		 4
247		 20
Over five years 45 -
87		 -
45		 -
87		 -
Total 755 8 667 30 538 8 621 30

16. Financial instruments

At the balance sheet date, the group held financial assets at amortised cost of £18,155,000 (2022: £19,609,000), financial assets at fair value through income or expenditure of £2,058,000 (2022: £4,972,000) and financial liabilities at amortised cost of £2,610,000 (2022: £2,053,000).

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

17. Reconciliation of reserves

Current year

Unrestricted
General fund
Designated fund – tangible and intangible fixed
assets
Designated fund – property maintenance fund
Designated fund – There for Everyone
Designated fund – Service Expansion
Designated fund – Strategy Development & Delivery
Designated fund – Ireland
Total unrestricted funds
Restricted
Branch support
City Hub
Email service development
Helpline call costs
Helpline Freecall
Highland Programme
Mental Health in the Rail Industry
Military – SSAFA partnership
National Suicide Prevention
National Training School
Northern Ireland
Online Excellence Programme
Prisoner Support & Improving Safer Custody
Reduce Gambling Harm
Regional grants
Suicide & Self-harm in Wales
Support After Suicide
There for Everyone
VSCE Health & Wellbeing Alliance
Veterans Listening Service
Wellbeing & Resilience Hub: Construction
Other
Total restricted funds
Total funds*		 At 1 April
2022
£’000
Income
£’000
Expenditure
£’000
Transfer
between
funds
£’000
At 31 March
2023
£’000
11,713
19,817
(20,939)
375
10,966
8,381
-
(449)
(484)
7,448
282
-
(254)
-
28
214
-
(171)
-
43
1,250
-
-
36
1,286
3,243
-
(1,491)
-
1,752
536
-
(362)
73
247
25,619
19,817
(23,666)
-
21,770
404
189
(93)
-
500
167
1
-
-
168
277
-
(166)
-
111
-
65
(57)
-
8
432
535
(495)
-
472
49
416
(147)
-
318
50
34
(59)
-
25
92
37
(129)
-
-
175
216
(236)
-
155
108
370
(232)
-
246
-
36
(23)
-
13
752
229
(492)
-
489
190
868
(946)
-
112
327
-
(243)
-
84
55
183
-
-
238
46
99
(120)
-
25
120
156
(140)
-
136
74
-
(74)
-
-
-
97
(92)
-
5
-
300
(300)
-
-
100
33
(137)
-
(4)
95
241
(159)
-
177
3,513
4,105
(4,340)
-
3,278
29,132
23,922
(28,006)
-
25,048

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Represented by:

Represented by:
Tangible and intangible fixed assets
Investments
Net current assets
Liabilities due over 1 year
Total		 General
funds
£’000
Designated
funds
£’000
Restricted
funds
£’000
Total
2023
£’000
Total
2022
£‘000
-
7,447
-
7,447
8,381
2,058
-
-
2,058
4,972
9,091
3,357
3,278
15,726
15,779
(183)
-
-
(183)
10,966
10,804
3,278
25,048
29,132

*Other funds include funds with either opening balance, closing balance, income, or expenditure less than £50k.

78

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

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
Designated fund – Service Expansion
Designated fund – Strategy Development & Delivery
Designated fund – Ireland
Total unrestricted funds
Restricted
Branch support
City Hub
Email service development
Helpline call costs
Helpline Freecall
Highland Programme
Mental Health in the Rail Industry
Military – SSAFA partnership
National Suicide Prevention
National Training School
Online Excellence Programme
Prisoner Support & Improving Safer Custody
Reduce Gambling Harm
Regional grants
Suicide & Self-harm in Wales
Suicide Prevention
Support After Suicide
There for Everyone
VSCE Health & Wellbeing Alliance
Wellbeing & Resilience Hub: Construction
Other
Total restricted funds
Total funds*		 At 31
March
2021
£’000
Income
£’000
Expenditure
£’000
Transfer
between
funds
£’000
At 31 March
2022
£’000
11,793
22,251
(21,795)
(536)
11,713
8,838
73
(530)
-
8,381
669
-
(387)
-
282
154
-
(154)
-
-
722
-
(508)
-
214
1,250
-
-
-
1,250
3,500
(257)
-
3,243
-
-
-
536
536
26,926
22,324
(23,631)
-
25,619
275
739
(610)
-
404
252
-
(85)
-
167
-
277
-
-
277
-
582
(582)
-
-
436
517
(521)
-
432
-
81
(32)
-
49
-
50
-
-
50
-
111
(19)
-
92
63
517
(405)
-
175
-
108
-
-
108
625
429
(302)
-
752
7
732
(549)
-
190
300
-
27
-
327
55
-
-
-
55
-
166
(120)
-
46
-
394
(394)
-
-
122
117
(119)
-
120
298
-
(224)
-
74
-
84
(84)
-
-
-
159
(59)
-
100
74
67
(46)
-
95
2,507
5,130
(4,124)
-
3,513
29,433
27,454
(27,755)
-
29,132

79

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Represented by:

Represented by:
Tangible and intangible fixed assets
Investments
Net current assets
Total		 General
Funds
£’000
Designated
funds
£’000
Restricted
funds
£’000
Total
2022
£’000
Total
2021
£‘000
-
8,381
-
8,381
8,838
4,972
-
-
4,972
4,458
6,741
5,525
3,513
15,779
16,137
11,713
13,906
3,513
29,132
29,433

*Other funds include funds with either opening balance, closing balance, income, or expenditure less than £50k.

80

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

17a) Unrestricted funds

General fund These funds are held available for the ordinary purposes of the charity.
Designated fund –
tangible fixed assets		 This fund comprises the Group’s tangible fixed assets. These are therefore not
readilyavailable for otherpurposes.
Designated fund –
property maintenance
fund		 This fund has been established utilising cash assets transferred from branches
joining the central charity. The fund is used to ensure the ongoing maintenance,
safety, and suitability of branch properties for delivering Samaritans’ services into
the future.
Designated fund – service
provision
This fund supports 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. The options currently being piloted cover virtual hubs, satellite
branches,a universityhub and the Samaritans TrainingSchool.
Designated fund –
Strategy Development &
Delivery		 During 2022 the new strategy was developed and informed by people with lived
experience, our volunteers, staff, and supporters. The strategy steers our work for
the coming five years, ensuring we continue to be there for those who need us
most, reach out to more people to let them know we’re here, and make our voice
heard to make suicideprevention apriority.
Designated fund – There
for Everyone		 This fund supports the 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.
Designated fund –
Ireland		 This fund was established in 2022 from legacy proceeds to progress several key
workstreams in Ireland over for a two year period. This includes the development of
income generation, public policy, brand awareness and partnerships following the
decision to increase autonomy of the Samaritans Ireland Board in these areas. Other
workstreams include development of the Samaritans Ireland website, improved
oversight of operational work in Ireland, research into self-harm and support to
branches in Ireland.

17b) Restricted funds

Branch support This fund ensures 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.
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,includingthe online chat service.
Email service
development		 This fund supports the development of Samaritans’ email service.
Helpline call costs This fund contribute to the costs of calls to the Samaritans helpline in the UK.
Helpline Freecall This fund contributes to the costs of calls to the Samaritans Freecall helpline phone
number in Ireland.
Highland Programme This fund relates to initiation work for Samaritans’ targeted promotion of service
and new resources to improve mental health and resilience in the West Highlands of
Scotland and Skye.
Mental Health in the rail
industry		 This fund relates to a study into mental health awareness and the railways.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Military – SSAFA
partnership		 This fund relates to a partnership with SSAFA to work together to gather the insight,
research, and evidence to inform and create an ambitious strategy focusing on
reducingsuicide in veterans.
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.
National Training School This fund supports the future growth of our listening services and the various
service expansion pilots already underway. We've established a new central
recruitment and training team (known as Samaritans Training School) to help
support the trainingrequirements for our service expansionprogramme.
Online Excellence
Programme		 This fund is to be used to develop a hub of excellence in suicide prevention and the
online environment.
Prisoner Support &
ImprovingSafer Custody		 This fund provides Emotional Support to Prisoners in distress or crisis in the UK and
Ireland.
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 expressingsuicidal thoughts.
Regional Grants This fund contributes to core helpline costs, volunteer training and other costs
incurred regionally.
Suicide & Self-harm in
Wales		 This fund allows Samaritans and NSPA to carry out our work in Wales.
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.
There for Everyone The There for Everyone programme helps us make a step change in our ability to
offer our callers greater choice in how they access our services, raise awareness and
reach more people through the education and information we provide, as well as
creatingflexible ways to volunteer with us that fit better with their modern lives.
VCSE Health & Wellbeing
Alliance		 This fund provides core funding to the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise
(VCSE) sector membership of the refreshed Health and Wellbeing (HW) Alliance.
Core work: strategic planned and responsive work, which will be identified with
policyleads from across the three systempartner organisations.
Veterans Listening
Service		 This funding is for a veteran helpline service which provides trained support to
improve the wellbeing and resilience of military veterans, including peer-to-peer
support.
Wellbeing & Resilience
Hub: Construction		 This fund relates to the development of a hub and Wellbeing & Resilience Learning
Module for use by workers in the UK construction industry. The aim is to raise
awareness, develop skills and inform construction workers of wellbeing, mental
health and resilience. Specifically, the project targets individuals who work for
smaller businesses and those classed as hard to reach. Lighthouse is working with
Samaritans to deliver a marketing campaign to increase participation and long-term
engagement.
Other restricted funds These funds represent smaller individual restricted funds.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

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 £965,000 to its subsidiaries during the year (2022: £862,000) and made payments to its subsidiaries of £nil (2022: £229,000). The Samaritans Enterprises Limited donates any surpluses to Samaritans under Gift Aid; for 2023 this amounted to £629,000 (2022: £1,156,000). At the yearend, £920,000 was due from Samaritans subsidiaries (2022: £1,920,000), and £2,000 was due from Samaritans Ireland (2022: £19,000).

b) The Samaritan Enterprises Limited

Company number: 01451175

The Samaritan Enterprises Limited is incorporated in the United Kingdom and has an issued share capital of £100, 100 per cent 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 £2,108,000 (2022: £2,573,000), expenditure amounted to £1,479,000 (2022: £1,417,000) and a surplus of £629,000 was generated (2022: surplus of £1,156,000), before transfers and other recognised gains/losses. At 31 March 2023 assets were £1,257,000 (2022: £2,325,000) and liabilities were £1,257,000 (2022: £2,325,000).

A Memorandum of Understanding exists 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 £965,000 (2022: £862,000).

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 Ireland’s income amounted to £1,448,000 (2022: £1,047,000), expenditure amounted to £1,420,000 (2022: £1,069,000) resulting in a surplus of £28,000 (2022: deficit of £22,000). This figure includes foreign exchange gains on translation into sterling. At 31 March 2023 assets were £1,423,000 (2022: £1,426,000), liabilities were £42,000 (2022: £74,000) and total funds were £1,381,000 (2022: £1,353,000).

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

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

19. 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 no branches 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 89 to 92, and SCC branches are indicated on this list.

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Reference and administrative details

Founder The Late Prebendary Dr Chad Varah CH CBE MA

Honorary President Felicity Varah Harding OBE

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

Keith Leslie (Chair, Board of Trustees)

Hester Wain (Co Vice-Chair)

Rory Girvan (Co Vice-Chair)

Laura Bunt

Philip Cliff (Chair, People and Culture Committee)

Dr Ann John (Chair, Policy and Research Committee)

Dr Anushta Sivananthan (Chair, Service & Quality Committee)

Eleanor Farrell (Chair, Ireland Board, Nominations & Governance Committee)

Ana Laing (Chair, Wales Committee)

Gaia Marcus

Simon Salem (Chair, Audit & Risk Committee) (final term ended on 27 January 2023)

85

Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Angela Slaven (term finished on 16 April 2022)

Amanda Millar (Chair, Scotland Committee)

Annie Kent (Honorary Treasurer and Chair of Finance Committee)

Debbie Giwa (Chair of Audit & Risk Committee from 28 January 2023)

Andrew Donnell (from 01 November 2022)

Samaritans senior staff

CEO Julie Bentley (from 02 November 2020)

Executive Director of Corporate Services and Company Secretary Graeme Danton (from 01 April 2019)

Executive Director of External Affairs Paul McDonald (stepped down 31 March 2023)

Executive Director of External Engagement Sonya Trivedy (from 01 April 2023, previously Executive Director of Income)

Executive Director of Operations Lis Skeet (from 12 December 2022)

(Gareth Germer stepped down 09 September 2022)

Acting Executive Director of People and Culture Rachel Calder (from 11 April 2023)

Interim Executive Director of Performance and Insight Sally Jones (stepped down 31 March 2023)

Regional Directors (as of 31 March 2023)

Director of Branch Operations

Director of Branch Operations - Cindy O'Shea (from 03 October 2023)

Director of Branch Operations - Gilli Seymour (from 03 October 2023)

Director of Branch Operations – Jayne Finch (from 03 October 2023) Director of Branch Operations – Shilpa Shah (from 03 October 2023)

East Gaynor Bell (from 01 March 2023)

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

(Mark Smith term finished 28 February 2023)

East Midlands Mathew Shepherd

London Sue Christopher (from 01 October 2022)

(Ann McLaughlin term finished 30 September 2022)

North

Elizabeth Dicken (Interim) (from 15 August 2021)

(Mike Whelan stepped down 15 August 2021)

Northern Ireland

Marcella Taylor (from 4 May 2023)

(Alan Heron stepped down 3 May 2023)

North West

Christina Morgan (from 10 February 2022)

(Eileen Brierley stepped down 9 February 2022)

Ireland - Jonathan Neville (from 24 September 2022)

(Rory Fitzgerald stepped down 06 June 2022)

(Aileen Spitere appointed from 07 June 2022 to 23 September 2022)

Scotland

John Knight (from 1 November 2021)

(Catherine Simpson stepped down 31 October 2021)

South Liz Hebden (from 11 April 2022)

(John McNeil stepped down 10 April 2022)

South East Peter Rowland

South West John Huxtable (from 25 September 2022)

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

(Penny Church stepped down 24 September 2022)

Wales Meryl James

West Midlands Pam Rutter (from 04 April 2022)

(Peter Hammond stepped down 03 April 2022)

Yorkshire and Humberside Michael George

Service Expansion Tracey Fuller

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

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Samaritans branches

Samaritans has more than 200 branches and hubs across the UK and Ireland, with volunteers providing round the clock support whenever and however people need it. Our dedicated volunteers are our greatest asset, and we couldn’t achieve all that we do without their steadfast support.

Thank you to each and every one of our wonderful volunteers for the difference you make in people’s lives every day.

Aberdeen

Borders*

Aberystwyth*

Ashford & Tenterden

Athlone & Midland

Ayrshire

Ballymena

Banbury & District*

Bangor & North Down Barnsley Barrow, Furness & South Lakes Basildon & Thurrock Basingstoke Bath & District Bedford Belfast

Bexley & Dartford Birmingham Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn & Ribble Valley Blackpool, Fylde & Wyre Bognor Regis, Chichester & District Bolton

Boston, Lincolnshire*

Bournemouth & District* Bracknell, Wokingham, Ascot & Districts

Brent*

Bridgend Bridlington & District Brierley Hill Brighton, Hove & District Bristol Bromley & Orpington Bury Bury St Edmunds & West Suffolk Buxton & High Peak Caithness Cambridge Canterbury & District Cardiff & District Carlisle Central London Chelmsford & Mid-Essex*

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Cheltenham & District Chester & District Chesterfield Chiltern Colchester Coleraine & District Cork Cornwall at Truro 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

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Isle of Wight Jersey Kerry Kettering & District Kilkenny and Carlow King’s Lynn Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Thames Kirkcaldy & District Lanarkshire in Hamilton 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 Macclesfield & District Maidstone & Weald Manchester & Salford Mansfield Medway, Gravesham & Swale Mid-Cheshire Milton Keynes

Newbridge & Kildare Newbury Newport & Gwent Newry North Devon & North Cornwall North East Wales North Herts & Stevenage North London (Enfield, Haringey & Barnet) North West Surrey North West Wales Northallerton & The Dales Northampton Northumbria Norwich Nottingham Omagh Orkney* Oxford Pembrokeshire Pendle, Burnley, Craven & Rossendale

Perth Peterborough & District Plymouth, East Cornwall & South West Devon

Portsmouth & East Hampshire Powys in Llandrindod Wells Preston & District

Reading

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Redbridge Swindon & District Rochdale, Oldham & District Tamworth Rotherham Taunton & Somerset Salisbury & District Teeside (Middlesbrough) Scarborough Telford Scunthorpe Tunbridge Wells & District Sheffield Tyneside Shetland Wakefield & District Shrewsbury Walsall & District Sligo Waltham Forest (Leyton) Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead Warrington, Halton & St Helens Solihull Waterford & the South-East South Cheshire West Cumbria South Devon Western Isles South West Herts Weston Super Mare & North Somerset Southampton & District Wigan Southend-on-Sea Winchester & District Southport & District Wolverhampton Stafford Worcester Stockport Worthing Stoke-on-Trent & Newcastle York Stratford-upon-Avon & District Yeovil, Sherborne & District Sunderland Swansea

*These branches are part of Samaritans Central Charity as of 31 March 2023

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

Donors and supporters

Thank you to all our donors and supporters, including those who wish to remain anonymous. We’re so grateful for the money, time and support you give to help us work towards our vision that fewer people die by suicide. Your support helps save lives. We’re thankful for every penny, from the core funding that allows us to be there for people struggling to cope, to the specific funding of programmes and innovations that help us continually improve our service for those who need us. We couldn't do what we do without you.

We’re mindful of the significant contribution that many people and groups give when they support Samaritans through core and unrestricted donations. We value the trust these supporters have in us, and the flexibility this gives Samaritans to put money where it is needed most urgently. We have a number of wonderful supporters giving unrestricted donations which have been critical in supporting us through a tough financial climate. We would specifically like to thank the Pears Foundation once again for their generous support this year, with their largest core grant to Samaritans yet, alongside funding to support a number of struggling branches.

29th May 1961 Charitable Trust

AD Group AIB UK

AIG Anytime Fitness Ardonagh Community Trust ASAP Atlas Fund Baillie Gifford Dr Vik Bansal Barclays Blackrock Bloomberg Gemma Booker Burberry

Byrne Dean Cadogan Charity Cala Homes Cards For Good Causes Clapp Family Charitable Trust Coffee #1 Constance Travis Charitable Trust Costain Cubis Cumberland Building Society DB Cargo Department of Health and Social Care Department of Health Northern Ireland Derek Raphael Charitable Trust Dr Vivian Child Charitable Trust

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23

East Sussex County Council Flying Tiger Garfield Weston Foundation Gennets Charitable Trust Gilead Sciences Ltd Great Western Railway Chris and Gilda Haskins Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service Bernie Hollywood IHS In the Style Inman Charity Interserve Group Irish Prison Service John Armitage Foundation John Browne Charitable Trust John Coates Charitable Trust KKR Leslie Mary Carter Charitable Trust Lineage Foundation The Lord Mayors Appeal Mayer Brown Mostrim Groundworks National Highways Netcel Network Rail The NFU Mutual Charitable Trust Northern Ireland Prison Service

Office for Veterans' Affairs / The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust

Options Fund Peacock Charitable Trust The Pears Foundation P F Charitable Trust Phoenix Group Pilkington Charities Fund The Rank Foundation Schroders Scottish Government Scottish Prison Service ScS Souter Charitable Trust Stone Family Foundation Three UK Tides Foundation TP ICAP UK Greetings Ltd Unbiased VolkerWessels VWV Solicitors The White Company World Gold Council The Worshipful Company of Innholders

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Samaritans Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23