OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2022-03-31-accounts

Our impact

Nicky ne ou at e’s always

The young people’s stories featured in this report are true but names and identifying details have been changed to protect them. All photographs have been posed by models, and for project case studies are illustrative only.

Our impact 2021/22

Contents

Chair’s introduction 4
CEO’s introduction 6
Our year in review 8
Section 1
1.1 Our mission, vision, and values 10
1.2 Our impact and achievements 2021/22 12
1.3 Our future plans 39
Section 2
2.1 Financial review 43
2.2 Governance structure and management 48
2.3 Statement of responsibilities 59
Section 3
3.1 Independent auditor’s report 60
3.2 Financial statements 64
3.3 Corporate information 90

3

The Children’s Society

Chair’s introduction

It is a privilege to introduce our new Impact Summary and Annual Report, which shows the scale of The Children’s Society’s impact and the change our teams are effecting in the lives of thousands of the most disadvantaged children in the country. I am very proud of all the team are achieving both in terms of our pioneering frontline work and the systemic change we are seeing too.

As I write my final introduction as chair of the board of trustees, I have been reflecting on the changes I have seen during my six years in this role. The board has worked to transform our long-term financial strategy. We have sold our London offices, repurposed some of our reserves to drive strategic growth and impact, and addressed our pension deficit. Thanks to these actions we are now on a firm financial footing, with post-pandemic growth, £1 million in net income, and our general reserves at a good level.

Just over two years ago, we set our new 2030 goal, earthed in our Good Childhood Report research – a goal that commits us to overturning the damaging decline in children’s well-being and setting a path for long-lasting growth. I have been pleased to see how we have sharpened our frontline work into three areas of focus around well-being, adolescent risk, and fighting child poverty.

This clarity of focus has seen our teams develop genuinely sectorleading, pioneering work like Disrupting Exploitation, working with young people and partners to effect systemic change. Our Pause and Beam drop-in services show the value of early intervention when we have seen government cut such spending by 50% over the past decade. I am excited by the vision to step up our frontline work in this vitally important area.

I am particularly proud of how The Children’s Society puts the voices and needs of young people at the centre of everything we do, drawing on their stories and the experiences of our practitioners to develop campaigns for change. Our voice is respected and heard in the public sphere. We have been instrumental in changing the law on school uniform and domestic abuse, and our teams successfully overturned the removal of legal aid from lone child refugees in the courts.

The past two years have been dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic and The Children’s Society responded to the pandemic with characteristic courage and energy. We pivoted our entire organisation into a virtual space in a matter of days. As schools closed, we kept a line of sight to the young people who needed us. At the same time, we reorganised and changed our ways of working to maximise our impact, and we refreshed our brand to highlight the voices and stories of young people themselves.

4

Our impact 2021/22

As I prepare to pass the baton to my successor, Diana Noble, I want to thank those who have served alongside me. We are incredibly enriched by the calibre of people on TeamTCS: our excellent board of trustees and young trustees, those who serve on the board’s committees, the three chief executives I have worked with, the Executive Leadership Team, and the wider TeamTCS. I complete my term of office with great pride for all that The Children’s Society is achieving and huge optimism for what is ahead.

Thank you.

Janet Legrand KC (Hon) Chair of our board of trustees

5

The Children’s Society

CEO’s introduction

Despite the challenges posed by the global Covid-19 pandemic, at The Children’s Society we have continued to step up our efforts to transform the lives of this country’s young people. This report tells the story of how our teams have been creative, innovative, and brave to make sure we’re here for young people who need us.

The Children’s Society’s Good Childhood Report has shown how life is getting harder for too many children, year after year. We know that children’s well-being and happiness is on a shocking downward slide, and we know children’s well-being in the UK is the worst in Europe. We know that the number of children deeply unhappy in their lives has doubled over the last decade. This is a national scandal – we are angry about this and dare to believe that children’s lives should get easier, not harder.

This is why we have set a bold, audacious goal for this decade, as our chair Janet has explained. We are determined that by 2030 we will have overturned the damaging decline in children’s well-being, setting a path for long-lasting growth. This goal will guide every decision we take and so, over the past year, we have refreshed our strategy and redesigned our entire organisation to align with the new strategic direction. We have also set five clear organisation-wide objectives to help us reach towards our goal. We are determined and single-minded in stepping up our fight for children’s hope and happiness.

Our work is earthed in our direct practice, and the teams of brilliant professionals who work directly with young people. Through 78 different services, our teams are reaching 55,494 young people. Whether that’s supporting young people with their mental health and well-being or working with young people facing abuse, neglect, or exploitation, teams are making a huge difference in the lives of some of the most disadvantaged young people.

What makes The Children’s Society such a special organisation is that we take learning from this frontline work and, inspired by the stories and voices of young people, we then work to prevent other young people from experiencing these challenges. This year, our prevention and systems change work reached a remarkable 738,220 young people.

Drawing on all this experience, we then work for wider systemic change through our campaigning and advocacy work. The highlight this year was the achievement of our #CutTheCost campaign, inspired by a youth-led commission. The campaign led to changing the law on school uniform and, from September 2022, every state school in England will need to follow this new law – cutting the cost of uniform for every child in the country. We are so proud to have delivered this change.

Of course, we can only do this work because of the incredible people who make it happen. I am so grateful to our dedicated, inspiring team of staff and volunteers who continually go

6

Our impact 2021/22

the extra mile. We are also enriched by the thousands of committed and generous supporters who stand with us. By adding their voices to our campaigns, giving generously, and fundraising, they make sure that The Children’s Society is here for young people who need us. This year, we have made a big investment in our equality, diversity, and inclusion agenda too. That includes mandatory anti-racism training for all employees and trustees, so that together we can create a stronger, fairer, and more inclusive TeamTCS.

It is always dangerous to single one person out, but this year I want to say thank you to Janet Legrand KC (Hon), who steps down as our chair after nine years on the board. Janet has been an extraordinary chair, leading our board with integrity and distinction. She leaves The Children’s Society in a strong, confident place, and we owe her a huge debt of gratitude. Thank you, Janet. I’m also delighted to welcome our new chair, Diana Noble, and look forward to all we will achieve together for children and young people.

The past two years have been some of the most demanding in The Children’s Society’s 140-year history, but I couldn’t be prouder of this very special organisation. As we look ahead, we recognise the scale of the challenge before us – we have an ambitious goal, an ambitious strategy, and a gifted, talented team. We are up for the challenge and hope you will continue to stand with us as we work to truly build a society for all children.

Mark Russell Chief Executive

7

The Children’s Society

Our year in review

In 2021/22, the Covid-19 pandemic has continued to shape and transform all our lives. At The Children’s Society, we have continued to adapt and deliver to make sure we’re here for young people when they need us most. And we have taken significant steps towards achieving our 2030 goal.

We have transformed our ways of working, refreshed our strategy, and set new organisation-wide objectives. Our frontline teams have supported tens of thousands of young people, and our systems change work has reached hundreds of thousands more.

We are hugely proud of all that TeamTCS has achieved in 2021/22 thanks to the incredible young people we work with and the volunteers and supporters who stand alongside them. Our 2030 goal is ambitious but it’s also vital – and our TCS community can make it happen.

Working with young people

78 services across

our three priority areas of well-being, adolescent risk, and child poverty

738,220 young people reached through systems change work

55,494 young people and more than 4,500 parents and carers reached

1,000+ young people involved in advocacy and consultation work with us

Working for change

We released our eleventh Good Childhood Report. More than 42,000 children have taken part in surveys for this report since 2010.

More than 13,000 people campaigned with us, taking more than 25,000 actions like signing petitions.

We provided support, guidance, thought leadership, and evidence to local

authorities, professionals, businesses, government, and the wider sector.

8

Our impact 2021/22

Team TCS

Our finances

Looking to the future

Generous financial gifts from more than 5,000 churches

7,500 volunteers,

including 2,000 retail volunteers

More than 127,000

people joining our work through volunteering, donating, fundraising, and campaigning

----- Start of picture text -----
50M
2021/22
40M 2020/21
30M
20M
10M
0
Total Total Net
income expenditure income
----- End of picture text -----

2021/22 2020/21
£000 £000
Total income 39,048 40,611
Total expenditure (38,007) (39,635)
Net income 1,041 976
Unrestricted 27,195 27,840
funds

Continued

New strategic objectives

development of longer-term sustainability

across well-being, adolescent risk, child poverty, building a society with and for children, and TeamTCS

across the environment, investments, finances, employee value proposition, and corporate social responsibility

Continued roll-out of volunteer database and application portal, creating more positive journeys for supporters

9

The Children’s Society

SECTION 1

1.1 Our mission, vision, and values.

Our vision is for a society built for all children.

Our goal

is to overturn the damaging decline in children’s well-being by 2030, setting a path for long-lasting growth.

Our work is led by our values. :

We’re brave, unafraid to challenge injustice wherever and whenever we see it. We’re fearless in our determination to make sure young people are heard. We try new things and push boundaries, and when we fail, we learn. And then we go again.

We’re ambitious for the

potential in all young people. For all that children can be in the future, and for a society that’s built for all children. And we’re ambitious about our role in bringing about that change – pioneering new projects and boldly calling for radical change.

We’re supportive and always

see the good in every young person we help, inspiring them to new and greater achievements. We help them out of bad situations to see where their lives can go and what they can become. And we listen to and respect them.

We’re trusted, delivering the best care and support available for young people. We never give up on them. We stay by their side through everything, no matter how hard things get, until things have changed for the better.

10

Our impact 2021/22

are endles e can go. bilities for where

11

The Children’s Society

1.2 Our impact and achievements 2021/22

Everything we do feeds into our vision for a society built for all children – from engaging our supporters to lobby their MPs for policy change at a national level, to directly supporting a young person experiencing a crisis with their mental health.

We explore and expose the realities of children and young people’s lives. We listen carefully to what young people tell us, hear what they say, and ground what we do in their voices and needs. We encourage them to be change makers themselves, helping them create and deliver their own campaigns to influence decision makers in their local areas or in national government.

This section of our Impact Summary and Annual Report gives an insight into the reach and effectiveness of our work during 2021/22. It shares examples of our services and their work supporting young people and their parents, carers, and families. It also includes information from local and national initiatives that seek to influence wider change and explains our ongoing mission to coordinate and combine our efforts to generate and consolidate sustainable, positive systems change.

We measure the impact of our services in several different ways. This includes asking young people how they feel about different aspects of their lives at the outset of our work with them and revisiting the same topics after they have engaged with our services to reflect on changes.

We also ask for their feedback on the quality of services, alongside recording and analysing outcomes data for our commissioners.

This all helps us to understand what has been most beneficial and where we can improve what we do. We also commission evaluations, welcoming the benefit of independent scrutiny of the effectiveness of our services and programmes. Some of the findings from these are reported here in case studies.

We also recognise that demonstrating the impact of the diverse activities that The Children’s Society delivers can be challenging. We’re seeking to improve how we do this and have invested in developing a new theory of change and impact framework. These will focus our efforts, while making sure we are always accountable for the difference we make in children’s lives. We want to go much further in exploring how our approach to systemic change and partnerships creates long-term impact for children in our society. And we’ll continue to share our learning to inform everyone who is seeking to improve young people’s well-being.

We work across three priority areas: well-being, adolescent risk, and child poverty. These are the areas of children’s lives where we believe the biggest issues lie, and where we believe we can have the most impact. Each one is a vital part of our journey towards our vision – a society built for all children. Each one is connected, so our response must be too.

12

Our impact 2021/22

er family. e l like e got

13

The Children’s Society

1.2.1 Achieving our objectives

In 2021/22, we focused on five main objectives across our three priority areas. In 2022, we set new strategic objectives for the coming three years to drive us towards our goal, as detailed in section 1.3.

Objective 1: Investing in the voices of young people, so they are at the centre of all we do.

‘I fel like I’m my own finally person again.’ Young person

Objective 2: Prioritising and integrating systems change work with young people.

14

Our impact 2021/22

Objective 3: Scaling up movement building to increase our social impact.

‘I don’t know what I would have done without The Children’s Society.’

Young person

15

The Children’s Society

Objective 4: Investing in our people to grow diversity and talent.

Objective 5: Optimising our enabling resources to deliver greater impact for young people.

‘I felt like I hadn’t ben heard before. Now, I have .’ hope

Taylor

16

Our impact 2021/22

1.2.2. Work in our priority areas

Our priority areas are well-being, adolescent risk, and child poverty. All our work aims to make a difference in these areas, challenging and changing existing systems to create effective, sustainable solutions for young people. In this section, each priority area is explored in turn.

Please note that the figures included here reflect the overall volume of users across all services but exclude anonymous attendees. Due to the complexity of the needs of some young people, there may be instances where an individual has been counted multiple times as a user of multiple services.

Well-being and mental health

Well-being is about how we’re doing – as individuals, as communities, and as a nation, and how sustainable this is for the future. It has become part of the everyday language we use to talk about the quality of our lives, but when The Children’s Society began working on children’s well-being in 2005, it was rarely mentioned. Since then, we have conducted an extensive research programme over more than a decade exploring children’s subjective well-being, working in partnership with the University of York for many years. Although our formal partnership ended in 2018, we have continued joint working to look to find out what young people think makes for a good life, how they rate their own happiness, and what factors can affect their well-being.

Well-being and mental health are distinct concepts, but there are often links between the two. For example, our research has found that low life satisfaction at the age of 14 predicts a higher likelihood of mental ill health at 17.[1]

Growing numbers of young people are now experiencing difficulties. Mental ill health among children and young people has been increasing in recent years, even before the Covid-19 pandemic.[2,3,4] And our research and other reports have found declining well-being among young people, which has been worsened by periods of lockdowns and restrictions.[5,6]

We are determined to reverse this trend in children’s well-being. Often, young people struggle to get the support they need. This was true even before the pandemic, and a recent survey suggests the problem has worsened since.[7,8] This has spurred us to continue to develop new and innovative direct support services and to work even harder to build our advocacy and campaigning activity to promote changes that will improve the wellbeing of young people across the country.

17

The Children’s Society

School can be difficult for young people – especially when you’re not getting the support you need. For Charlie, every day was a struggle. He was being bullied and felt anxious and alone but he wasn’t getting much support. He was finding it hard to concentrate, to learn, and he started getting into trouble. In 2019, when he was 12, he hit rock bottom and fell out with a close friend because of his anxiety and how it was affecting him.

‘Charlie was in the darkest of places. He gave on life.’ up Charlie’s mum

At a group session, one of Beam’s project workers suggested he focus on what he likes to do. When Charlie was younger, he’d loved singing, dancing, and musical theatre but he’d lost confidence. Now, he felt able to try again.

He also started writing and he’s working on a book as a way of expressing what he’s feeling. His uncle’s doing the illustrations and he’s looking to get it published soon. Charlie’s being home-schooled now and wants to find out more about doing voluntary work in his community. Things aren’t perfect – but with Beam’s support, life looks much brighter.

His mum took him to see their GP and heard about Beam, one of our well-being drop-in services. And that made all the difference. Charlie started attending sessions every week and they gave him the tools to work through what he was feeling.

18

Our impact 2021/22

Working with young people

We run 24 services across England to improve young people’s well-being and mental health. Our services focus on maintaining emotional health through individual and group work or by providing a crisis response, tailoring the support we offer to young people’s individual needs. This year, we supported more than 7,300 young people through these services, as detailed below.

Service type Number worked with
Drop-in/brief interventions 4,632
Workprimarilythroughgroups 1,098
Work in schools(including groups/classes) 638
Safe Zones 383
Other work(e.g. long-term one-to-one support) 554
Overall 7,305

Our Beam and Pause services also worked with over 2,800 parents or carers as part of supporting young people with their well-being and mental health.

Some of our services, like Beam and Pause, deliver ‘brief interventions,’ providing support on issues relating to a young person’s well-being or mental health. This improves the immediate situation but also reduces the potential for that young person to experience more serious challenges in the future that need clinical intervention. We also work in and with schools to support young people.

----- Start of picture text -----
‘I
started doing
stret dance clases
and then I did
’
musical theatre.
Charlie
----- End of picture text -----

19

The Children’s Society

Our drop-ins and brief interventions

Our Pause, Pause at the University of Birmingham (Pause@UoB), and Shropshire Beam drop-in services worked with 2,827 young people aged under 24 last year. Some young people accessed these services more than once and we delivered a total of 9,191 one-to-one sessions.

The figure below shows how staff workload was distributed across well-being and mental health issues when young people visited the service or made contact online or by phone. In 2021/22, ‘anxiety’ was the most common issue, accounting for almost a third (30.9%) of the workload. ‘Anger’ (12%) and ‘attention deficit hyperactivity disorder’ (ADHD) or ‘attention deficit disorder’ (ADD) (8.4%) were the next most common. Taken together, these three issues made up more than half of the services’ workload. ‘Family difficulties’ (7.5%), ‘depression/low mood’ (6.9%), and ‘autism spectrum disorder’ (5.1%) also featured regularly.

Our Beam and Pause services also worked with more than 2,800 parents and carers to support young people with their well-being and mental health.

Issues covered in drop-in and brief interventions for well-being and mental health

----- Start of picture text -----
Anxiety 30.9%
Anger 12.0%
ADHD / ADD 8.4%
Family difficulties 7.5%
Depression / low mood 6.9%
ASD 5.1%
Self-esteem 4.7%
Sleep 4.3%
Safeguarding 3.4%
Suicidal thought 2.9%
Stress 2.6%
Self-harm 2.6%
Bullying 1.5%
OCD 1.1%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
Well-being / mental health issue
----- End of picture text -----*

How frequently an issue was recorded in case notes

Based on data recorded for the period 01/04/2021 to 31/03/2022 by our Pause, Pause@UoB, and Shropshire Beam services. Issues related to more than 1% of the overall workload are included. The proportions represent the number of times project workers recorded an issue in their case notes. It is important to remember that one young person might present multiple issues.

20

Our impact 2021/22

Case study 1: Pause at the University of Birmingham

Our Pause services started in central Birmingham in 2015 and extended to Pause@UoB in 2019. They offer open access, brief interventions to support emotional health, with no waiting lists or criteria for access – any young person can come for support.

Pause@UoB is open three and a half days a week, giving students the opportunity to talk about difficulties with their mental health and well-being in confidence. Listening sessions can be face-to-face, over the phone, or online, and support students to explore their thoughts and feelings.

Project workers offer advice, strategies, and skills to help, providing a space for young people’s voices to be heard. The service also works with groups, including holding sessions on mindfulness and stress management and creative workshops.

‘They listened really well and let you open up. I didn’t fel presured or ignored.’ Student

In 2021/22, the service worked with 387 students. User satisfaction responses for a three-month period between October and December 2021, showed that 52 out of 56 service users (92%) felt more able to deal with their presenting issue after contact with Pause, and 52 out of 53 (98%) felt Pause had helped them manage how they’re feeling when they learn.

‘Everyone was lovely and non-judgemental. I felt I could rely on them and felt safe.’

Student

21

The Children’s Society

Working in schools

Our work in schools includes our RISE service[9] in Newcastle and Gateshead. This whole-school approach supports young people through one-to-one sessions, as well as helping teachers plan lessons and providing training on how to manage mental health issues. Our Safe Zones work in Greater Manchester makes sure young people are supported when they’re particularly vulnerable, offering short-term support through a combination of youth work and therapeutic approaches.

Case study 2: Safe Zones

In Greater Manchester, young people under 18 who are experiencing a mental health crisis are referred to Safe Zones. The service gives support quickly when a young person most needs help, in a less formal, less intimidating environment than a hospital or clinical setting. Safe Zones help young people talk about what’s affecting them and provides strategies to prevent the crisis from worsening.

‘I just let everything out. It was my way to get rid of the stres.’ Young person

Safe Zones also work with young people who have previously had intensive mental health support, functioning as a ‘step-down’ service to ease the transition out of clinical or therapeutic services.

During the pandemic, we offered support over the phone or video call. In 2022, the service reverted to primarily face-to-face interventions; soon, it will move to a model including outreach, virtual support, and hub-based services.

In 2021/22, Safe Zones supported 383 young people. Based on their responses to an evaluation questionnaire after working with the service:

22

Our impact 2021/22

Working for change

The Good Childhood Report

Our annual Good Childhood Report, now in its eleventh year, is a widelyrespected and widely-referenced review of trends and findings about young people’s well-being, including analysis of contributing factors.

We started conducting online well-being surveys in 2010. In the years up to 2021, almost 42,000 children aged 10 to 17 had taken part. The data collected reflect what young people tell us about how happy they are with different aspects of their lives, and this is now a primary source of information for the Department for Education’s State of the Nation report. Our data also contribute to the Office for National Statistics’ dataset on children’s well-being.[10]

The report helps us and others to understand the current picture and provides an opportunity to think about what could help stop the decline in young people’s well-being. The research is centred on young people’s own voices and experiences, which is what makes it so powerful. By understanding how young people are feeling and the issues they’re facing, we can see what needs to change.

Working in partnership

In 2021/22, we maintained our call for a more comprehensive national measurement of children’s well-being as the basis for better informed national and local policy making.[11] We continued to work collaboratively with partners across the sector to push for this.

Supported by The Health Foundation, we jointly published a comprehensive bank of measures on children’s well-being with the What Works Centre for Wellbeing in 2021. This open resource helps schools, colleges, universities, and other settings measure the well-being of children in their care.[12]

We also worked with organisations including Mind, Youth Access, Black Thrive Global, Young Minds, and the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition as part of the Fund the Hubs coalition. This campaign calls for national funding for early support for children and young people with mental health needs.[13] This would improve the accessibility of services and support, replicating the success of our existing services and mirroring the government-funded model used in countries like Australia, Denmark, and Israel.

Alongside our campaigning, our research and youth engagement teams provided thought leadership to local authorities on measuring children’s well-being and implementing policy changes based on young people’s views.

Our work with St Helens, involving almost 4,000 young people in surveys and consultations, concluded in 2020 and led to a commitment in 2021 to embed children’s well-being as a strategic priority across the council and for all schools to incorporate well-being in their improvement plans, as well as appointing a Senior Leader Good Childhood Champion. In 2021, our research team collaborated on a pilot study with Bristol City Council and advised on the development of the Greater Manchester Combined Authorities’ #BeeWell well-being survey.[14]

23

The Children’s Society

Adolescent risk and vulnerability

There can be many ways in which adolescents – young people aged 10 to 17 – can become vulnerable to harm. Among these is the potential for a young person to be ‘exploited’, manipulated or coerced into sexual, criminal, or other behaviour which can jeopardise their health, safety, and well-being.

At the same time, some young people may be more vulnerable to exploitation or to harm than others, perhaps because of abuse or neglect at home or due to other experiences of disadvantage (e.g. household poverty, school exclusion, being in care, etc.).

Our services support young people to lessen the risk of exploitation or to mitigate its impact – and this can entail work with parents or carers and professionals too. We also work with young people to reduce the harm of other types of risk-taking, including young people affected by substance misuse – for example through our Essex Young People’s Drug and Alcohol Service which has been operating for over 20 years.[15]

Alongside this, we are driving forward wider societal change to help safeguard young people. For example, despite increasing recognition and growing awareness of some forms of exploitation, parents, carers, and professionals may not always know how to spot the signs of exploitation or how to deal with the risk of harm a young person could be subjected to. Improving their knowledge and understanding, as well as that of policy makers at local and national levels, is central to our work to make sure that young people can stay safe and protected.

24

Our impact 2021/22

When Leanne was 15, she was happy – she had a good group of friends, enjoyed school, and got on well with her family. But then a man who was working on a house near where she lived started talking to her when she was passing.

He was friendly, and he started to buy her gifts. He was a bit older but she thought she could trust him. Gradually, he started to become more flirtatious, touching her or playing with her hair. Then, one day, he took her back to the house where he worked and sexually assaulted her.

‘I didn’t know what was going on, I was too young to even understand.’

Leanne didn’t know how to process what had happened to her. Eventually, she told a friend and they told a teacher what had happened. The teacher contacted the police and Leanne was referred to one of our services.

Tina, a project worker for The Children’s Society, worked with Leanne to help her cope with the trauma she’d experienced. Through one-to-one sessions, Tina used specialist counselling techniques to help Leanne understand that what happened wasn’t her fault.

Tina supported Leanne for four years, helping her gain the confidence to write a victim statement against the man who groomed her. Seeing her abuser jailed helped give Leanne a sense of closure and, with Tina’s support, she’s now able to look forward to the future.

‘The fact I’m able to talk about it makes you , to get it fel better out in the open.’

25

The Children’s Society

Working with young people

We run 26 risk services across England, as well as 10 services that work solely with young people in the care of the local authority. These services also worked with over 1,700 parents or carers in 2021/22.

Service type Number worked with
General risk services 3,102
Work withyoung people in local authoritycare 783
Overall 3,885

Our services support young people who may be at risk or who have already experienced harm, including young people who are in the care of local authorities. For example, Climb[16] is funded by the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner and engages young people in positive activities like sports, arts, dance, or music to reduce the chances of them becoming involved in crime. Across Devon our Checkpoint teams support young people who have experienced sexual abuse or exploitation or who might need help with substance misuse or other issues.[17]

Our DEx programme, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, includes one-to-one work with young people who have experienced child criminal exploitation.[18] The programme has teams based in Birmingham, London, and Manchester, with a dual role to improve policies, procedures, and attitudes that shape agency responses to young people. That might mean making sure a young person taken into custody receives a safeguarding response or that professionals are attuned to the signs of exploitation and carefully record relevant information and intelligence.

‘It fels so good to have all this weight lifted off my shoulders.’

Alyssa

26

Our impact 2021/22

Case study 3: Inside Out

Inside Out is an intensive coaching service for 14- to 18-year-olds who have moved frequently within residential care. In 2021/22, Inside Out supported 81 young people in care in Essex, Hertfordshire, and Norfolk.

The team works with young people to improve well-being, reduce ‘risky’ behaviours, and minimise the chances of a placement breakdown. Coaches build a consistent, trusted relationship with young people and act as advocates, supplementing this with positive peer activities and therapeutic work, supported by KidsInspire.[19]

‘If I didn’t have them, I probably wouldn’t have as as much confidence I have now.’

Young person

The programme was piloted in three local authorities and is now consolidated as an innovative model in Essex and Hertfordshire. The local authority in Essex recognised the benefits of partnership work and has committed to funding two new independent Drug and Alcohol Liaison Workers.

An evaluation conducted by the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations found that young people supported by the service had improved emotional health and well-being and more positivity for the future. Coaching produced significant cost savings, including through reductions in missing episodes and place moves. The researchers estimated £2.50 was saved for every £1 spent on the programme.[20]

27

The Children s Society l(k6 28

Our impact 2021/22

Working for change

Working with local partners

The Tackling Child Exploitation (TCE) Support programme, a consortium involving The Children’s Society, Research in Practice, and the University of Bedfordshire,[21] continued to support local areas across England improve their strategic responses to child exploitation.

The programme delivered a range of activities, including online learning events led by The Children’s Society, and over 700 professionals from different agencies attended.

TCE also published the Joining the Dots framework, designed to support cross-cutting strategic approaches that can respond to the complexity of child exploitation and extra-familial abuse.

Local areas commissioned 17 bespoke projects to explore specific issues they had identified in their work, including how to improve data sharing across agencies and develop a shared vision for responding to exploitation.[22] TCE received additional Department for Education funding until March 2023 to work collaboratively to produce a set of principles to respond to these issues.

Influencing policy

Child exploitation is often closely linked to children going missing or running away from home or care. In early 2021, our policy team worked with the NWG Network[23] to launch the Missing Children Response Benchmarking Tool.[24 ] This was based on our knowledge and expertise on how to respond to children missing from home or care and refined using learning from our Home Officefunded research on return home interviews (RHIs).[25 ]

The tool supports a detailed audit and consultation across relevant agencies, encouraging professionals to think holistically about their approach to children who go missing. Using the tool led to some important changes to local practice and policy, including South Tyneside Council introducing a full day’s training specifically on missing children to multi-agency courses around missing people. Other local areas improved how they collect and analyse data to highlight where there are specific issues as a result of the tool.

We have also had success in our national policy influencing work around teenage relationship abuse. Following the publication our Missing the Mark report in 2020, we partnered with organisations including Action for Children, Safe Lives, NSPCC, Victim Support, and Barnardo’s on lobbying and campaigning activities.

As a result, in October 2021 the Home Office published draft statutory guidance on working with victims of domestic abuse. This acknowledged, for the first time, the need to support teenagers who experience dating and relationship violence. In addition, the Department for Education updated the Working Together to Safeguarding Children 2018 guidance and recognised relationship abuse as a form of domestic abuse, again for the first time.

Alongside this, we worked with partners including St Giles, NSPCC, Barnardo’s, Centrepoint, and the Children’s Rights Alliance for England to advocate for the inclusion of a statutory definition of child criminal exploitation in the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts (PCSC) Bill. We published a policy briefing on disrupting child exploitation,[26] gave oral evidence to the PCSC Bill, and spoke at parliamentary events for MPs and peers.

29

The Children’s Society

Although our proposed changes were not made when the PCSC Act was passed in April 2022, we are assured that statutory guidance will urge agencies to prioritise safeguarding when meeting their new duty to address serious violence.

Case study 4: Prevention Programme

The Prevention Programme aims to address the threats posed by child exploitation and abuse. It works to increase knowledge and awareness, stressing that the whole community has a responsibility to safeguard children, and to strengthen relationships between agencies and organisations that work or have links with young people.

This year, the programme deepened its focus on collaboration through training, facilitation, workshops, and ‘brokering’ between agencies to share resources and good practice. According to independent evaluators, the trust and credibility built with partner organisations in the first two years of the programme have been invaluable.[27]

‘The impact [of the Project Officer] on the is really positive. Building foundation of this over the next few years … we are both working in the same arena, but we have different skill sets.’

Charity stakeholder

In 2021/22, the programme directly reached a largely professional audience of more than 26,400 people. Part of this was achieved through #LookCloser,[28] a national campaign that builds awareness of exploitation in public spaces and how to identify and report concerns.

Our #LookCloser training supported more than 2,000 people in early 2022. Feedback from 341 participants included that 96% said the training improved their knowledge and understanding, and 89% said they learned something that would impact their practice.

30

Our impact 2021/22

Child poverty and resources

Despite the UK’s status as one of the richest countries in the world (ranked fifth in 2022),[29] an estimated 4.3 million children live in poverty. This figure has been increasing since 2013/14. Following the Covid-19 pandemic and with the cost of living crisis worsening, it is projected to grow further.[30,31] A simultaneous reduction in spending on children’s services has been disastrous for many families, particularly the most disadvantaged.[32] With so many young people affected, our work in this area focuses on lobbying government and local authorities for change that will improve lives both now and in the future.

Alongside this, we work directly with young refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers. These children are hugely vulnerable. Many refugee or migrant families are unable to access welfare benefits or financial support because they are subject to a no recourse to public funds (NRPF) condition until their immigration status is settled.[33] They often lack the resources they need, both in terms of the everyday essentials, like food or clothing, and support, like counselling or legal advice.

Young people who have travelled alone enter the care system. They face an unpredictable future – the challenge of creating a new life in an unfamiliar environment and culture, often without the support of family or relatives, and having experienced trauma before leaving home or travelling to the UK. Some experience criminal or sexual exploitation, including trafficking, and they struggle to access the resources they need.

These issues were brought into sharp focus with rising numbers of small boats crossing the Channel in recent months[34] and an increased number of migrants from countries like Ukraine.[35] Alongside this, the numbers of children in care in England has risen year on year since 2008.[36] We know that most children taken into care have experienced neglect or abuse[37] and there is growing evidence of the strength of the relationship between poverty and child maltreatment.[38] The current rise in poverty is a major safeguarding concern.

31

The Children’s Society

Jemal had just turned 14 when his father disappeared, and he was forced to flee his home in Eritrea. After a long, dangerous journey across several countries, Jemal eventually arrived in the UK. He was taken into care, settled in college, and started to make some friends – but when he was age-assessed by social services, nine months after he’d arrived, they refused to believe he was under 18. Soon after, he became homeless and didn’t know who to turn to.

‘That time was very . I was very difficult angry, because they didn’t accept my age.’

At college, he’d found out about The Children’s Society through one of our drop-in services and his caseworker, Natalia, was there for him. She helped him find somewhere to live and get access to food and grants so that he had something to eat and clothes to wear. She referred him to a local counselling service for extra help. And she found him a solicitor to help challenge his age assessment and fight for the support he was entitled to.

It took a long time but Jemal was finally found to have been under 18 when he arrived in the UK and the Home Office granted him refugee status. Today, Jemal is safe, back at college with friends around him. And he’s hopeful about his future.

‘Always when I worked with Natalia, I felt .’ les worried

32

Our impact 2021/22

Working with young people

In 2021/22, we ran 18 services for young refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants across England.

Service type Number worked with
Work with children andyoung people 348
Work withparents and carers 128

These services included:

Unfortunately, some of our services directly supporting refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant children and their families ceased to operate during this period due to a challenging funding climate. However, a successful bid to the National Lottery Communities Fund and the Co-operative Bank will allow us to extend our Helping Each Asylum Seeker and Refugee to Settle (HEARTS)[39] programme in Leeds, Birmingham, and London. And funds from Islamic Relief will deliver Helping Further support for another two years.

33

The Children’s Society

Working for change

During 2021/22, we continued to push for long-term, sustainable change for families and young people facing crisis. As part of our lobbying and influencing, we worked with other organisations in the sector to successfully influence the Government to commit to crisis support linked to the Covid-19 emergency. This included £700 million for food banks, paying bills, and purchasing furniture.[40]

We also extended our work with Children’s Services Funding Alliance, a partnership with Action for Children, Barnardo’s, the National Children’s Bureau, NSPCC, and Pro

Bono Economics. This included the publication of a report evidencing the reduction in spending on children’s services between 2010 and 2020, including the disparity between the most and least deprived areas of the country (the former experiencing a 14% decline in funding over 10 years, the latter a 7% increase).[41]

Based on these findings, we worked with our partners to point out to the Government the need for additional spending to improve local areas’ ‘early help’ offer to disadvantaged families. This led to £500 million in extra funding being announced in the Spending Review in 2021.[42]

Case study 5: Coordinated Community Support programme

The CCS (Coordinated Community Support) programme was established in 2019 to respond to the localisation of welfare assistance in England[43] and a real terms reduction in the funding of crisis support.[44] CCS aims to create a ‘no wrong front door’ approach to financial crisis, making sure families receive the right response from joined-up services.

The multi-partner programme is funded by Children in Need, Lloyds Bank Foundation, the Trussell Trust, Trust for London, Step Change, and Smallwood Trust. It is run in collaboration with the Local Government Association, the Church of England, and Buttle UK and works with local authorities and voluntary and community sector organisations in four pilot areas (Norfolk, Oldham, Swansea, and Tower Hamlets). It plays a critical role in improving the coordination of support, including grant support, advice, legal support, and access to food and other services.

The programme improves access to services and has helped to build and embed a digital referral system. This year, the team delivered over 180 activities including coordinating sessions to bring agency partners together and training for the new referral system. They also disseminated learning and best practice to decision makers in local and national government.[45]

34

Our impact 2021/22

Our campaigns team also brought together and led a coalition of organisations, including the London in Care Network and Become, to promote the idea of a Pan-London Care Leavers’ Offer.[46] This extended our earlier work, starting in 2016, to encourage councils across England to exempt care leavers under 25 from council tax.[47]

City of London, Hounslow, Kingston, and Richmond councils have all extended this exemption to care leavers in their boroughs in recent months, and we are asking all 33 councils in the Greater London Authority to do the same.[48]

In collaboration with Project 17[49] and The Unity Project[50] we worked tirelessly to highlight issues caused by free school meals eligibility not being extended to families with NRPF status. Together, we organised an event in November 2021 where families supported by our Helping Further service met with members of the Work and Pensions Select Committee. This was noted for its impact in the Committee’s report[51] and in April 2022 the Government permanently extended free school meal eligibility to families with NRPF status.

Case study 6: Youth-Led Commission on Separated Children

The Youth-led Commission on Separated Children (YLCSC) is a group of unaccompanied young asylum seekers and migrants who have worked together to challenge and improve the asylum system.

In 2021, they presented a petition to the immigration minister, the culmination of a year’s work. Having designed and delivered a campaign calling for all unaccompanied children to have a legal guardian to help them navigate complex immigration and welfare processes,[52] as is already the case in Scotland and Northern Ireland, the group launched their petition during Refugee Week in June 2020. By the summer of 2021, they had collected over 21,000 signatures and hosted a webinar to answer questions from The Children’s Society’s supporters.

‘Being a part of this campaign has ben the highlight of my life… It’s my proudest achievement.’ YLCSC member

In July 2021, the group’s achievements were recognised in the annual Diana Awards,[53,54] and they worked with ECPAT UK to host a roundtable with Bishop Paul of Durham to share their stories. This year, the group has fed into the Social Care Review, met with the Children’s Commissioner of England, and written to the immigration minister as part of their goal to help unaccompanied young people.

35

The Children’s Society

Systems change

As evidenced in these examples of impact, and our ‘working for change’ sections, our work is often concerned with improving the wider context of children and young people’s lives. Homes, families, friends and peers, schools, communities, and the agencies and organisations children and young people encounter all influence them. So too does the local and national context, including the attitudes that society holds about young people, how they are portrayed in the media, and the effects of laws and policies.

These interlinked ‘systems’ have social (relationships, friendships, formal interactions), physical (built environment, safe or unsafe spaces, access to transport), digital (social media, gaming), and psychological (prejudice, oppression, exclusion) dimensions, as shown in the figure below. They can lead to or reinforce disadvantage and harm and reduce well-being.

Our work catalysing and driving systems change often focuses on the agencies that work and for with young people like schools, the police, health services, and children’s social care. Listening to young people’s voices, harnessing learning from our direct practice, and drawing on insight from our research, we identify priority issues and specific changes needed in attitudes towards young people, practice, policies, or even legislation.

Figure: Overview of the systems affecting a young person’s life

‘Before I was probably a lot more blinkered. Now my mindset’s to start to totally changed think about well, what was the drivers behind that young person becoming involved in that criminality? Are they there because they want to be there? Or have they ben tricked in? So really I think it’s changed my perspective as to the way I would approach it.’

Police, national, involved in our Prevention Programme

We push for change through our influencing work and in other ways, like training professionals, media coverage, or content on our website. Changing systems is powerful, widereaching, and sustainable. It will make a real difference for future generations of disadvantaged young people. We’re working hard to understand how we can challenge and change the systems affecting young people’s lives so we can have greater impact for all children – including those we may never work with directly.

----- Start of picture text -----
Peers, neighbourhood Family
and local education,
health & social support.
----- End of picture text -----

----- Start of picture text -----
National, local &
institutional policies, Social values,
processes & networks. norms & attidudes.
----- End of picture text -----

36

Our impact 2021/22

Systems change is complex and we do not have all the answers. But we are developing areas of focus for our systems change work based on what young people, professionals, our research, and others are telling us, in alignment with our strategy.

Generating holistic and effective solutions rests on understanding and integrating the perspective of our principal stakeholders in systems change – young people. Everything we do in this space must be grounded in young people’s voices and needs. With them, we can understand where we can have most influence or leverage and apply our thinking to try and achieve change.

For example, we worked extensively on school exclusion as part of the DEx programme. This work was initially triggered by a growing awareness of the high numbers of young people being referred to us for support who had been excluded from school.

DEx has worked closely with our youth engagement team and consulted with young people about their experiences of exclusion, how this affected them, the links between exclusion and exploitation, and what could be done to change things. We are seeking to drive systemic change in this area at multiple levels of the system to improve young people’s futures.

Examples such as our #LookCloser campaign, Prevention Programme, and DEx are explored elsewhere in this report. A systems change methodology is a core and explicit part of these programmes, and much of our work to address the well-being and mental health needs of young people is also about systems change.

For example, by pioneering accessible drop-in services like Pause or Beam, we opened a gateway to support that can have long-term, far-reaching impacts. It also changes the way professionals regard young people and enhances how local systems respond to low well-being.

And we aim to go further through our Digital Well-being Offer, funded by the National Lottery Digital Community Fund and other commissioning partners. We worked directly with young people to explore how a digital platform could support 16- to 18-years old manage their well-being independently after moving on from our services. This co-design work involved more than 130 young people since March 2021, and we will continue this participatory approach up to and beyond the launch of this platform in autumn 2022.

Though we have not always used the language of ‘systems change’, the approach has always been fundamental to how The Children’s Society works. Now, we’re making this integral to everything we do, including in developing our theory of change and new impact framework.

37

The Children’s Society

Case study 7: Making school uniforms affordable for all

In 2021, the law changed in England and Wales. Schools[55] are now required to keep down the price of their uniforms.[56] Reaching over eight million children and their families, this was a significant milestone in addressing how poverty affects the lives of disadvantaged young people.

The first steps towards this goal were taken in 2013, when we established our Children’s Commission on Poverty (CCP). This aimed to bring ‘a fresh and compelling perspective on what real support should look like, what poverty really means to a range of children and young people, and much needed ideas as to what needs to change to deliver better futures for children in poverty.’[57]

15 young people considered fresh evidence on poverty and children’s lives (including from a new survey of over 2,000 children aged 10 to 17, interviews, and wider consultation), and discussed their own perspectives, meeting regularly over 18 months. A primary proposal the young people endorsed was to make school uniform more affordable. Over several years, we highlighted this issue through lobbying and advocacy, collaborating with other organisations including the Child Poverty Action Group and Children North East.

In February 2020, we supported Mike Amesbury MP with a parliamentary debate for a bill that would cut uniform costs. We gathered first-hand evidence and made sure every MP in the country was contacted about the issue and asked to attend the debate. The bill proceeded with Government support and the School Uniform Act passed on 29 April 2021.

‘I think it’s good because not everyone can afford new uniform and it can help them. I know some people can struggle with their money.’

School student

This change was rooted in the views and experiences of young people and achieved through the tenacity and resilience of our staff and supporters. Although we are always impatient for positive change, we understand that sometimes the most sustainable systems change takes time. We continue to support schools with guidance and information on best practice.[58]

38

Our impact 2021/22

1.3. Our future plans

1.3.1. Our new strategic approach

For over a decade, children in the UK have been growing increasingly unhappy with their lives. Even before the pandemic, young people here were some of the unhappiest in Europe. Disadvantaged young people are struggling the most, and the pandemic has only made things more difficult. We can’t let this continue. That’s why it’s our goal to overturn this decline.

Our new strategy and operating approach are grounded in young people’s experiences. They know best how they feel and what they need. And by listening to them, we can understand the inequalities, injustices, and systemic challenges they’re facing and address them head on. Our new strategy builds on our efforts in previous years, including in 2021/22, and we know we have the foundation we need to make real impact.

We’ll work to boost young people’s well-being, making sure they get the right support at the right time. We’ll challenge and change the systems that fail to protect children from abuse. And we’ll fight to reduce child poverty, influencing policy and decision makers at every level.

It’s ambitious. But working with young people, staff, volunteers, and our supporters, together we can give the next generation of children a better childhood. We’re brave. We’re determined. We’re a powerful community. We’ll adjust our approach as we go to create measurable, lasting impact. And we’ll transform children’s lives for the better.

----- Start of picture text -----
Building
society for
children
Well-being
Growing
together
Risk & Child
vulnerability poverty
----- End of picture text -----

39

The Children’s Society

1.3.2. Our plans and objectives 2022/25

Over the next three years, we’re planning to make big changes and take significant steps towards achieving our 2030 goal. In 2022/23, we will not necessarily conclude the delivery of each of these priorities, but we will begin to work towards the objectives outlined below.

Our objectives are bold. They’re challenging. And they work together to create real change. Each one is a vital part of our journey towards our vision – a society built for all children. Everyone at The Children’s Society has a part to play in making this happen and our individual objectives will align with the strategic ones outlined here.

Our objectives

The problem we’re Our Our trying to solve objective priorities Well-being We will work with • Produce and publicise the Good children and young Childhood Report, calling for a national Most young people people, and those who measure of young people’s well-being experiencing early signs support them, to create and using the report as a lever to of low well-being don’t meaningful, innovative influence societal change. have access to the right ways to respond to the support at the right • Design, develop, embed, and evaluate early signs of low time. well-being. place-based, whole-school, and digital approaches to delivering emotional health and well-being support to young people.

40

Our impact 2021/22

Risk and vulnerability

We will actively challenge and change ineffective systems that fail to protect children from abuse and harm.

Not all children at risk of or experiencing abuse or harm get help when they need it. Systems are not well-designed or informed by young people, and don’t prevent risk from happening.

We will fight to reduce child poverty, influencing policy and decision makers to make change happen.

Child poverty

Around a third of children and young people in the UK are living in poverty and experiencing its effects – from isolation to mental illness.

Building society with and for children

We will inspire and grow a community of people, uniting to achieve our shared vision.

Structures in society work against children and young people. We will only achieve societal change by working with many more people as part of a movement.

TeamTCS – We will transform into growth and one united TeamTCS sustainability where we each feel equipped, valued, and Existing policies supported. and practices do not support growth, sustainability, and inclusivity. Some people do not feel they have a consistent experience.

41

The Children’s Society

Our key performance indicators

----- Start of picture text -----
Impact plan KPIs 2022/23 target
----- End of picture text -----

Our work with young people Our work with young people
Directly impacted young people 57,500
Systems reach 565,250
Number of policy impacts 400,000
Proxy measure: no. of young people providing insight* 3,500
Growing our supporter base
Number of active supporters 142,400
Brand consideration 45%
In-year billing of restricted income (£000s) 11,100
Gross unrestricted income (£000s) 27,100

42

Our impact 2021/22

SECTION 2

2.1. Financial review

The financial year ending 31 March 2022 has been a challenging one, as the country recovers from the Covid- 19 pandemic. Despite significant retail and regional fundraising obstacles to overcome, total income increased to £36.7 million (2021: £34.0 million) mainly due to the increase in retail activities to £9.9 million (2021: £2.8 million). The impact of this increase was offset by a reduction in donations and legacies income to £13.6 million (2021: £20.2 million). This reduction was mainly down to government Covid-19 grants ending £0.2 million (2021: £6.9 million). Charitable activities income increased, ending the year with £12.7 million (2021: £10.9 million). The pandemic also meant we continued to incur additional unbudgeted costs to keep staff safe and continue supporting young people despite the lockdowns. Our retail premises benefited from rates relief and furlough scheme of £190,000 (2021: £993,000) nevertheless, overall expenditure reduced from last year to £37.9 million (2021: £38.9 million).

The reduced cost was helped by the decision to be more agile as an organisation. The retail sector responded well and overcame the obstacles to surge forward and deliver a positive gross contribution for the benefit of the organisation. Our investment strategy has continued in a successful manner with the valuation increasing to £40.1 million (2021: £37.8 million) and we also benefited from financial gains in sales of our fixed assets. These two financial items mean that we end the year with a net surplus of £1.04 million (2021: £0.98 million).

43

The Children’s Society

Income

The Children’s Society has continued to benefit from the generosity of individuals, businesses and charitable bodies. Details of the amounts received in grants are shown in note 23 to the accounts; corporate sponsors of The Children’s Society are listed in our ‘thank you’ list on page 94.

Legacy income has increased this year by £0.98 million (2021: reduction of £1.93 million) to £5.3 million (2021: £4.3 million) representing acts of generosity from supporters. Although we are still experiencing some delays to the granting of probate office, we are confident that our income from legacies will at least remain constant in the near future.

This year, our income from our unique Christingle events generated £0.54 million (2021: £0.56 million) while our dedicated House Box groups gave us £1.2 million from their collections (2021: £0.76 million). Other donations decreased to £6.3 million (2021: £7.7 million). Although the donations were slightly down on last year, our supporter base remains committed and strong in supporting The Children’s Society into the future.

Government grants were lower this year as we were grateful to receive a large grant from the Home Office last year (2022: nil, 2021: £3.8 million) and we were also able to receive furlough receipts and retail premises rates relief.

Income from charitable activities was greater than previous year, bringing in £12.7 million of resources (2021: £10.9 million) to be used in disrupting multiple disadvantages affecting young people. We were able to continue to deliver critical services to young people using a variety of approaches including digital resources. Contract funding is provided by national and local government, police and crime commissioners, and the NHS. Our grant income has continued to benefit from the long-standing relationship with the Big Lottery Fund as we have continued with our national programme to disrupt child exploitation and improving our digital capabilities in our practice base. Since the start of lockdown in mid-March 2020, our whole practice base adopted virtual and online interactions with young people as well as traditional methods, and we continue to improve our blended support offer.

Our retail sales generated £9.9 million in the year, which is a £7.1 million increase from prior year (2021: £2.8 million). This was a direct result of our retail network’s considerable efforts which is staffed by committed volunteers and led by professional management and provides a local link in over 100 high streets across England and Wales. The number of The Children’s Society retail shops was 102 shops (2021: 106).

44

Our impact 2021/22

Expenditure

Our biggest item of expenditure is staff costs. These were £24.1 million (2021: £25.9 million). Our payroll costs have decreased from last year by £1.8 million or 7% which is in direct correlation to our average headcount and average number of full-time equivalent staff employed throughout the year reducing. More details can be seen in note 10 in the accounts. We topped up salaries for all furloughed colleagues and increased salaries in line with the Living Wage.

We continue to invest in our supporter engagement, community fundraising and the direct costs of fundraising was £4.7 million (2021: £6.8 million). This expenditure allows us to attract new supporters and provide new innovative fundraising solutions to our existing supporter base. The direct cost of the retail network slightly increased to £8.6 million (2021: £7.9 million), as expected given the increase in retail income and bounce back from the pandemic lockdowns.

The direct cost of providing direct support to young people increased from last year by £1.02 million to £12.3 million (2021: £11.3 million). This reflects the ability for some of our programmes to ramp up activity off the back of lockdowns and the pandemic. Our direct cost of changing governmental and societal systems reduced by £0.33 million to £5.2 million (2021: £5.5 million). Of the £17.5 million in direct costs spent working directly with young people and changing systems, £13.9 million came from various unrestricted income sources that included contributions from our supporters.

Support and governance costs are lower than the prior year at £7.1 million (2021: £7.5 million). This reflects the overall decrease in expenditure and the restructuring process reducing our cost base to match future income expectations in the short and medium term. Within support costs, we have continued to invest in our organisational design as well as our information systems to support greater organisational effectiveness and agility to help us deliver our strategy and 10-year 2030 goal.

Fixed assets

During the year we have continued to invest in appropriate technology across the whole organisation and are part way through delivering a new eCRM system as part of improving our data strategy and engagement with supporters. This was our largest capital investment for the year £1.1 million with the aim of it going live in 2022/23.

Last year’s review of our accounting policies enabled us to take into consideration the changes in technological advancement and accelerated the depreciation in our equipment asset class.

Investments

At 31 March 2022, The Children’s Society held £40.1 million of investments (2021: £37.8 million) comprising general and endowment funds invested in a well-diversified range of short to long-term investments as well as investment

45

The Children’s Society

land and buildings. The investment market strategy is to mitigate risk by diversifying the portfolio across a number of investment managers who themselves are investing in a diverse range of assets, a significant proportion of which are intentionally inversely correlated in their risk profile. This strategy prevented a sharp decline in value when financial markets collapsed in 2020 and has led to a gain of £2.34 million in the year. Investment properties include some freehold land that we have contracted to sell in the next financial year.

Cash and working capital

We continue to manage our working capital effectively, ensuring that we pay suppliers within the terms agreed and collecting debts on a timely basis. The Children’s Society’s funded work is paid for mainly by local and national government agencies and therefore represents a low credit risk.

Our operational activities reduced the absorption of cash to a positive generation of £1.3 million (2021: negative £2.5 million). The cash position of The Children’s Society has remained consistent for both the prior and current year at £2.8 million. We also continue to hold some highly liquid investments should our cashflow patterns change suddenly.

Pensions

The pensions liability at 31 March 2022 slightly reduced to £0.03 million (2021: £0.15 million). Our obligation to current and former employees and pensioner members of The Children’s Society Pension Scheme is one that we are committed to.

Both this year and last year, the accounting treatment for the defined benefit scheme gives rise to a surplus which we have not recognised. We continue to have a modest liability for a money purchase scheme known as the Growth Plan.

Reserves

Unrestricted funds

The trustees undertake a regular risk-based review and approach in determining the adequacy of holding sufficient general funds to meet the liabilities of the Society as they fall due. This includes looking at the operating challenges faced by the charity and the prevailing economic environment.

The assessment of risks and stresses considered:

The trustees have considered these stresses and taken due consideration of the continuing uncertainties due to the recovery from the pandemic.

46

Our impact 2021/22

The trustees currently assess that the required level of reserves, should be in the range £15 to £25 million. As at 31 March 2022 the general unrestricted reserves were £16.5 million (2021: £16.2 million) which is within the target range.

As permitted by the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP), this commitment is shown as a separate, negative reserve, equal in value to the net pension deficit of £0.03 million.

Restricted funds

Designated funds

The Children’s Society holds three designated funds.

The designated property fund has increased to £5.05 million (2021: £4.6 million) reflecting the investments in the eCRM system. The assets are used for The Children’s Society’s primary purpose and the funds are not available for general use. The designated strategy fund has reduced since last year to £2.1 million (2021: £7.2 million) representing the investment in fixed assets and the creation of a new designated fund called the impact fund. The strategy fund remaining is set aside by trustees to help invest in operational projects that will improve current systems and infrastructure that will support the organisation’s progress towards the 2030 goal. The newly created impact fund currently stands at £3.5 million and was created to help enhance our strategic ambition by funding innovative pilots and projects for which traditional forms of funding are unavailable.

Restricted funds represent the unspent amounts arising from donations and grants where the activity funded is more specific than the general purposes of The Children’s Society. At 31 March 2022, the value of these funds was £0.9 million (2021: £0.5 million). Restricted funds are held in cash.

Endowment funds

Endowment funds represent the value of assets donated to The Children’s Society from which the income may be spent while the underlying capital is maintained. The funds are invested in portfolio investments whose value at 31 March 2022 was £17.5 million (2021: £16.1 million). As part of our financial strategy, we are continuing to look at ways of sustainably unlocking funds from the endowment portfolio to support investments in impact for young people.

Pension reserve

The pension reserve reflects the long-term liability of The Children’s Society to meet the deficit in its final salary pension schemes, calculated in accordance with FRS 102 (the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland) and does not take account of a surplus on any scheme.

47

The Children’s Society

2.2. Governance structure and management

2.2.1. Legal status and objectives

The Church of England Children’s Society (The Children’s Society) is a company limited by guarantee and a charity registered in England and Wales. Our organisation was established in 1881 and incorporated in 1893. It is governed by its Articles of Association, which set out our principal objective – to care for and support children and young people in need, whether material, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or otherwise.

2.2.2. Public benefit

The trustees have a duty to report on how our organisation’s charitable objective has been carried out for the public benefit and to follow the guidance from the Charity Commission on the provision of Public Benefit requirement under the Charities Act 2011. This duty is fulfilled by the content of this Annual Impact Report.

The children and young people we work with are struggling with challenges affecting their mental and physical well-being, often in multiple areas of their life. Their needs are urgent. They face risks to their safety and well-being and the resources they need to flourish may be compromised or even absent.

For this reason, we prioritise our work according to these young people’s needs, so that we can have the maximum positive impact and bring about lasting change for them and for our society.

Understanding and measuring our impact is vitally important in making sure we achieve our vision of a society built for all children. Our annual Good Childhood Report will help us measure our progress towards our goal: to overturn the damaging decline in children’s well-being by 2030.

2.2.3. Governance and management

Young trustees

Young trustees for The Children’s Society are young people from across the country who have previously accessed our direct services through one-to-one support, group work, or participation groups. Although they do not hold the legal status formally assigned to other trustees, they otherwise have equal status on the board in terms of discussions and decisions. Their significant contribution has been evidenced in their work on our strategic objectives and three-year plan.

As well as attending board meetings, young trustees also support the organisation in other ways, depending on their interests.

48

Our impact 2021/22

They meet regularly as a group, and to prepare for board meetings they invite members of the executive and senior leadership teams to have focused discussions with them This year, their involvement included sitting on interview panels for new trustees, members of the Executive Leadership Team, being members of campaign groups, writing blogs, and providing feedback on different projects. Their voices are heard and they influence work across the organisation.

The board of trustees

The board of trustees are the charity’s trustees and the legal directors of the company. Members of the board of trustees serve a four-year term, after which they are eligible for a further four-year term. In exceptional circumstances, a trustee may serve an additional year to ensure that appropriate succession is in place.

The board is responsible for the governance and strategic direction of the organisation, making sure the charity upholds its ethos and values and delivers its objectives. The trustees delegate operational management to the Executive Leadership Team, which is accountable to the board for its stewardship of the charity. The chief executive and Executive Leadership Team attend board and committee meetings.

We appoint trustees through a transparent and rigorous recruitment and selection process. Young trustees participate in this, and their assessments are an integral part of the process. Hearing and engaging with young people’s voices is at the heart of our governance. This year, we recruited five independent members to sit on our board committee.

We provide a comprehensive induction programme for new appointees, tailored to their area of expertise. This includes meeting the Executive Leadership Team, completing mandatory training (including on safeguarding), engaging with staff and volunteers, and visiting frontline services and our shops.

Trustees deploy a wide range of skills, knowledge, and experience essential to good governance. We keep the balance of expertise under review, including during the recruitment process. Collectively, the board must demonstrate responsible leadership and judgement.

We expect trustees, committee members, the chief executive, and the Executive Leadership Team to behave with the utmost integrity and professionalism, and to always demonstrate their commitment to the goals and values of The Children’s Society. All our trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no rewards or benefits from The Children’s Society.

The board met both physically and virtually during the year, including five formal meetings, one board strategy and development day, and several ad hoc meetings to keep trustees informed. Trustees who served during the year are listed on page 92.

2.2.4. Delegation and committees

The board maintains a written schedule of matters reserved for the board of trustees and committees, which clearly defines specific areas for delegation. The terms of reference for each committee are reviewed annually and they report back to the board on a regular basis.

49

The Children’s Society

The Finance and Investment

Committee is responsible for the charity’s financial strategy and performance, making sure its resources are properly and appropriately applied to its key objectives. It oversees the charity’s investments, managing them so that they underpin the charity’s strategic objectives. The committee is responsible for safeguarding the charity’s assets and making sure we have sufficient reserves to fund our work.

The Organisational Development Committee is responsible for overseeing all matters concerned with effective governance of The Children’s Society. The committee supports the chief executive in building and sustaining an effective leadership team and guides and monitors the effectiveness of people policies.

The Risk, Audit and Compliance Committee is responsible for the effectiveness of the internal and external audit functions, the adequacy of our risk management processes, and the internal control environment. It considers any significant issues that arise and monitors and reviews safeguarding and health and safety. This includes the implementation of and compliance with policies. The committee also oversees all systems, controls, and processes, making sure we’re able to meet our objectives.

2.2.5. Modern slavery

Modern slavery is a significant global human rights issue. It includes human trafficking, sexual exploitation, forced and bonded labour, domestic servitude, and child labour. We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in our relationships by taking every reasonable opportunity

to act within our direct operations and wider sphere of influence to ensure that slavery and human trafficking does not take place in the charity’s operations.

Modern slavery can be hard to spot and is often hidden in plain sight. We recognise that there are risks of modern slavery in our supply chains for all types of goods and services. This risk is low due to our relatively small-scale supply chains and the controls and systems we have in place. However, a risk does remain and the policies and procedures outlined below help us mitigate this. We are satisfied that we are compliant with the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

We work to tackle exploitation, abuse, and trafficking faced by young people. In this work, we know we will encounter situations of modern slavery. Our policies and procedures, including procurement, whistleblowing, and recruitment, are critical in delivering a robust, safe, and ethical response.

In line with the Modern Slavery Act 2015, we have published our Modern Slavery Statement (following the financial year ending March 2022). This includes examples of modern slavery that we encounter in the work we do.

2.2.6. Principal risks and uncertainties

The trustees are responsible for ensuring that the charity maintains comprehensive risk management systems and that appropriate actions are taken to manage and mitigate risks. The Risk, Audit and Compliance Committee monitors and reviews these risk management arrangements and reports to the board of trustees on their effectiveness.

50

Our impact 2021/22

Our formal risk management strategy provides a robust framework for developing the corporate risk register and managing risk across the charity. The Children’s Society has an established system of internal controls governing all its operations. These are designed to provide a reasonable level of assurance against the risk of error, fraud, and inappropriate or ineffective use of resources.

The outsourced internal audit function reviews the corporate risk register to make sure audits are correctly focused. They evaluate the adequacy and effectiveness of our controls and report to our trustees via the Risk, Audit and Compliance Committee.

‘The Children’s Society ’ gave me hope. Anonymous young person

51

The Children’s Society

We pay particular attention to mitigating safeguarding risks – protecting children and young people is central to all we do. This and other principal risks identified within the corporate risk register are:

Principal risk Examples of mitigating actions Examples of mitigating actions
We experience a • Annual update of safeguarding policies
safeguarding failure, or and training.
an instance of historic • Quality Practice Review Framework
abuse is disclosed that
afects our reputation.		 • developed and monitored.
Corporate Strategic Safeguarding Group
meets quarterly with trustee oversight.
The cost of living crisis • Strategy with a focus on poverty to increase
restricts our ability to voice and impact.
generate funds and • Integrated audience plan to prioritise
resource our charity. communications.
• Monthly monitoring and measurement.
• Reserves strength to mitigate short-term
constraints.
• Commitment to annual balanced budgeting
to address long-term constraints by
matching our cost base to our medium-term
revenues.
In an uncertain external • Business continuity and key site recovery
environment, we fail to plans and processes in place.
anticipate or respond to • Scenario planning against possible
threats endangering our outcomes.
stakeholders and our
business.		 • Partner relationships in place within and
beyond sector.
• Diverse portfolio of investment and a
prudent budget.
We fail to set ourselves • Strategy and three-year plan and objectives
up to deliver against our in place.
strategy, or to harness • Focused technology, data, and legal teams.
the full potential of our
people and partners.		 • Partnership working and monitoring of key
performance indicators.
• Implementing our People Experience
Framework and investing in staff and
volunteers.
We do not communicate • Prioritisation of attraction and supporter
our strategy effectively engagement.
to engage external
audiences.		 • Performance reporting and monitoring.

52

Our impact 2021/22

2.2.7. Our people

2021/22 was a year of significant change for The Children’s Society and the people we employ. Externally, the situation was ever-changing, primarily due to the ongoing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. And internally, our strategic work required a reimagination of our ways of working and operating model. Because of this, the year was focused on designing, delivering, implementing, and embedding change.

Our operating model

We created a robust, sustainable operating model and structure to set us on the right path to deliver our 2030 goal of overturning the damaging decline in children’s wellbeing. These changes impacted a third of the organisation, primarily those in our central teams and support-based roles.

We undertook two phases of change. First, we created a new leadership with a flatter, less hierarchical structure. We brought in practice and enterprise leaders and moved to a ‘knowledge-based’ domain mode (away from traditional directorate/ department structures). In the second phase, those employees impacted were moved to a minimum viable operating model. Throughout, employee involvement and voice were at the forefront. We gave people the opportunity to contribute to design and to be empowered to make decisions about their future. We delivered the change with no industrial relations issues, complaints, or appeals.

Out of 95 people who were at risk of redundancy, the majority secured roles in the new structure, activated the voluntary redundancy process,

or left voluntarily for roles elsewhere. We made only three compulsory redundancies. We engaged employees effectively by giving them opportunities to share their thoughts throughout the process. The new operating structure went live on time and within budget in October 2021.

Inspiring leadership created the foundation for this change. By creating a new leadership structure, we brought clarity, direction, and specialism to the organisation. Our focus on equipping and enabling the leadership team to lead and support change was crucial. An initial six-month leadership development programme saw leadership teams find new ways to work together, creating more confidence and unity.

The leadership team enabled employees to share their feedback in real time, delivering 11 ‘share your thoughts’ sessions and town hall briefings. We continued to support employee well-being as we navigated virtual ways of working alongside ongoing changes to Covid-19 restrictions. Having an engaged, supportive leadership team helped us to embed the changes made.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion

We formed the Diversity & Talent domain as part of our new structure, and we implemented a People Experience Framework. This humanfocused people strategy emphasises the importance of experience and inclusion in our work. Now, with the right structures in place and with equality, diversity, and inclusion at their core, our employees will be able to thrive.

53

The Children’s Society

Throughout the change process, we undertook four Equality Impact Assessments at critical milestones. We focused on assessing and considering the needs of and impacts on our employees, and data and insight has helped spotlight the importance of people feeling valued and supported.

In Q3 of this year, we published our first Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) report, highlighting the steps we have taken to become a more inclusive organisation. This was followed by gender pay gap reporting and the internal release of our first ever diversity pay gap report.

Our gender pay gap has lessened from 17.3% in 2017 to 14.9% this year and our diversity pay gap reporting shows relatively lower pay gaps across protected characteristics. We are one of seven charities in our reward and pay charities network, and the only ones to have done diversity pay gap reporting of this kind. In the future, we will focus more closely on diversity data and disclosure, career pathways, and progressions into managerial roles, as well as looking in more detail at the pay gap for older and younger employees.

In 2020, we committed to becoming an anti-racist organisation and invested in a bespoke training package focused on understanding racism and anti-racism. Around 600 employees have now attended this training, along with the board of trustees.

Growing TeamTCS

We take seriously our responsibility to support our employees to learn and grow. In Q3 and Q4, employees participated in over 1,400 learning, induction, and exploration courses run by The Children’s Society.

This makes it possible for our teams to connect with one another and develop their skills and behavioural approaches, helping the organisation to drive change.

We continued to strengthen our learning and development offering this year by acquiring and funding new roles dedicated to supporting talent development in early careers. We supported 16 apprentices to complete various programmes like Level 5 Management and Level 3 Fundraising, and one of our apprentices was recognised in the Houses of Parliament for the progress they made, receiving an award from Robert Halfon MP.

This year, we saw 441 roles advertised, 261 new hires, and 259 leavers (177 (68%) left voluntarily). In a challenging candidate market, we focused on well-being, flexible working, the value of our opportunities and development, and offering fair and equitable reward.

We recently clarified the five strategic objectives we’ll deliver over the next three years (see page 14). Growing and sustaining our organisation to make sure we can continue to be there for children and young people when they need us most is one of our main strategic deliverables. Continuing to embed our People Experience Framework is crucial to our strategic work, making sure we provide the right conditions for people to feel included, grow, and thrive.

2.2.8. Volunteers

In 2021/22 most of our volunteering activity returned to normal after a challenging few years. 7,500 people volunteered with us this year, with more than 800 new volunteers joining us for the first time. More

54

Our impact 2021/22

than 4,500 community volunteers held events, delivered talks, coordinated donations, influenced decision makers, and inspired their communities to stand alongside children and young people. 2,000 retail volunteers supported in running our shops, raising vital funds for our work.

Volunteering levels remain slightly reduced. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, volunteer engagement dropped. Our organisational restructure, as described above, has driven changes in how we support and engage with volunteers centrally, and we hope to see growth in the coming year. We have identified a need to think differently about the whole volunteer programme and experience in light of the Covid-19 pandemic so that we can adapt to a changing world. That includes how we promote volunteering, how we recognise volunteers for their achievements, how we communicate with them, and how we support their well-being.

In 2020/21, we launched our Volunteer Community Hub online on SharePoint and in 2021/22 this has continued to expand with new resources to support volunteers. More recently, developing the Dynamics database and its connected volunteer application portal was a priority. This rolled out for Youth Impact volunteers in February 2021 and will soon go live for retail and community volunteers. This will reduce the amount of admin time needed for recruiting, inducting, and managing volunteers, creating a positive recruitment journey for everyone.

‘Volunteering is the most fun way I can help children.’ Volunteer

We recruited into specialist volunteering roles, allowing us to further our ambitions in this area and support colleagues across the organisation. We aligned our volunteer processes and experience work with our approach to supporting employees under the umbrella of the People Experience Framework. And plans are in place to expand our volunteer communications strategy and develop volunteer voice.

We started to establish our foundational approach to gathering feedback from TeamTCS (volunteers and employees) through our new Your Voice survey, running annually from 2022. We’ll take a ‘you said, we did’ approach, with our ways of working truly based on feedback from our team.

2.2.9. Remuneration

We are committed to providing fair, equitable pay for our employees and benchmark our pay structure against other charities for this reason. The Living Wage Foundation’s principles underpin our pay structure and trustees oversee the pay, pensions, and benefits of the chief executive and the Executive Leadership Team.

We work closely with a pay and reward charity benchmarking group to review and assess our reward provision within the sector. From April 2022 pay award, we secured a fair deal with our union to implement an increase to grade starting rates for all non-retail grades and an additional uplift to individual salaries where applicable. We also backdated pay arrangements to October 2021 to respond to the challenges posed by the rate of inflation and rising cost of living.

55

The Children’s Society

For retail grades, we implemented increases based on the recommendations of the Living Wage Foundation.

2.2.10. Supporter engagement and fundraising

The last few years were challenging for all of us, and we’re hugely grateful to our supporters for their continued generosity and commitment at this time. Without them, we would be unable to do the work we do and every contribution they make – whether they give their time, money, or voice – has real impact.

Our voluntary income comes from a wide range of sources. Individuals support us through regular or one-off cash contributions. Church communities raise funds through services and events, both in-person and online. Groups undertake challenges events locally and abroad. People donate to and buy things from our shops. Others make gifts in their wills. And these are only a few examples of the incredible support we receive. We also partner with professional funders and commissioners, companies, trusts, and foundations.

Every interaction with our supporters is guided by our Supporter Promise to:

We comply with the voluntary Fundraising Regulator regulation scheme and align our fundraising policies and practices with the Fundraising Code of conduct. We also follow all related legislation and marketing regulations.

Most of our fundraising activity is led by employees and volunteers. In some instances, we have worked with partner agencies to deliver fundraising appeals and other projects. We monitor any fundraising undertaken on our behalf, and external partners must comply with the Fundraising Regulator’s regulation scheme and our Supporter Promise.

We focus on offering a positive experience for everyone who fundraises for us, works with us, or supports us in another way. Our approach, policies, and standards aim to protect vulnerable people and other members of the public from inappropriate behaviour, and we work to continuously improve, learning from what we do.

In 2021/22, we logged 160 complaints across Social Impact, Retail, and Youth Impact and Services. This is a 16% decrease on the previous year. 149 of these complaints were resolved within 10 working days. The remaining complaints were resolved between 15 and 30 working days after the complaint was received. 98% of complaints were resolved locally by the staff member or team receiving the complaint. The remaining 2% were escalated to directors for review before being resolved.

79% of complaints received were upheld, with appropriate apology made and processes put in place or actions taken to reduce the likelihood of them happening again in the future.

56

Our impact 2021/22

The majority of upheld complaints related to some sort of error from the charity or from a member of staff or volunteer – for example, administrative or human errors.

2.2.11. General Data Protection Regulation

We remain fully committed to protecting our stakeholders’ data and to following the requirements of the Data Protection Act. Our Information Governance Group meets monthly and provides oversight. This group considers how we handle information relating to children and young people, our supporters, our employees, and our volunteers to make sure we are always honest and open about how we handle personal data and take appropriate measures to keep it safe and secure. The group also engages with any project in the organisation involving personal data, like the implementation of new systems or changing processes.

Since the General Data Protection Regulation became effective, we have continued to focus on information governance and are committed to further strengthening our position in this area whenever appropriate. We can also confirm that there are no significant data breaches or concerns within the year.

2.2.12. Environmental

We are committed to conducting ourselves in a responsible, sustainable way to protect people and the environment. With the full support of our management and trustees, we will respect the environment and reduce our impact. We will implement and maintain high operational standards in all our activities, and will help our employees to meet their environmental responsibilities.

Our objectives

We will:

The Children’s Society

Responsibilities and commitments

We have identified our most significant environmental impacts in the areas of waste recycling, carbon emissions through business travel, and energy consumption in our premises (offices and shops).

We encourage employees to engage with our environmental statement and look to engage and advise them about the measures we’re undertaking. Our leadership team and trustees are committed to making sure our policy is met, and will regularly review our environmental responsibility strategy and objectives.

Our progress

So far, we have:

What we’re working on

58

Our impact 2021/22

2.3 Statement of responsibilities

Statement of trustees’ responsibilities in respect of the trustees’ Impact Summary, Annual Report, and Financial Statements

The trustees are responsible for preparing the trustees’ Impact Summary, Annual Report, and Financial Statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations. Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law they are required to prepare the financial statements in accordance with UK Accounting Standards and applicable law (UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice), including Financial Reporting Standard 102, the financial reporting standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

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 charitable company and of the excess of income over expenditure for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the charitable company’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They have general responsibility for taking such steps as are reasonably open to them to safeguard the assets of the charitable company and to prevent and detect fraud and other irregularities.

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company’s website. Legislation in the UK governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Janet Legrand KC (Hon) Chair of board of trustees’ opinion

59

The Children’s Society

SECTION 3

3.1. Independent auditor’s report

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of The Church of England Children’s Society for the year ended 31 March 2022 which comprise the group Statement of Financial Activities, the Group and Parent Balance Sheets, the Group Cash Flow Statements, and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of 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 Financial Reporting Council’s (FSC’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 group’s or the parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from

60

Our impact 2021/22

when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

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

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in The Children’s Society’s Impact Summary, Annual Report, and Financial Statements (‘the report’) and the Chair’s introduction. 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.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report 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 the audit:

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the group and the parent charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the report (which incorporates the strategic report and the directors’ 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:

61

The Children’s Society

Responsibilities of trustees for the financial statements

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement set out on page 59, 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 group’s and the parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the group or the parent 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

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.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

Based on our understanding of the group and the environment in which it operates, we identified that the principal risks of non-compliance with laws and regulations related to the regulatory requirements of the Charity Commission, and we considered the extent to which non-compliance might have a material effect on the financial statements. We also considered those laws and regulations that have a direct impact on the preparation of

62

Our impact 2021/22

the financial statements such as the Companies Act 2006, the Charities Act 2011, and the Statement of Recommended Practice for Charities (SORP).

We evaluated management’s incentives and opportunities for fraudulent manipulation of the financial statements (including the risk of override of controls) and determined that the principal risks were related to the potential posting of inappropriate journal entries and management bias in certain areas of management estimate. Audit procedures performed by the engagement team included:

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in

the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission, or misrepresentation.

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

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. 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, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Adam Halsey

(Senior Statutory Auditor)

For and on behalf of Haysmacintyre LLP

Statutory Auditors

10 Queen Street Place London EC4R 1AG

Date: 23 September 2022

63

The Children’s Society

3.2. Financial statements

64

Our impact 2021/22

Consolidated statement of financial activities Year ended 31 March 2022

Unrest- Rest- Endow- Unrest- Rest- Endow-
ricted ricted ment Total ricted ricted ment Total
funds funds funds funds funds funds funds funds
2022 2022 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021 2021
Note £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Income and endowments from:
Donations and legacies 2 13,553 – – 13,553 20,285 – – 20,285
Charitable activities 3 8,696 3,986 – 12,682 7,316 3,550 – 10,866
Trading income 4 9,987 – – 9,987 2,826 – – 2,826
Investments 5 18 – 7 25 25 – – 25
Other income 6 406 – – 406 38 – – 38
Total income and endowments 32,660 3,986 7 36,653 30,491 3,550 – 34,041
Expenditure on:
Raising funds 7 15,650 – – 15,650 18,156 – – 18,156
Charitable activities 8 18,598 3,615 – 22,213 17,470 3,320 – 20,790
Total expenditure 34,248 3,615 – 37,863 35,626 3,320 – 38,946
Finance costs 11 (13) – – (13) – – – –
Netgains /(losses)on investments 13 1,029 – 1,308 2,337 3,192 – 1,666 4,858
Net income (546) 371 1,315 1,140 (1,943) 230 1,666 (48)
Other recognised gains / (losses):
Gains on revaluation of fixed assets 12 59 – – 59 1,713 – – 1,713
Actuarial (losses) / gains on defined
benefit pension schemes 11 (158) – – (158) (689) – – (689)
Net movement in funds (645) 371 1,315 1,041 (919) 230 1,666 976
Reconciliation of funds
Funds brought forward 27,840 539 16,139 44,518 28,759 309 14,473 43,542
Total funds carried forward 27,195 910 17,454 45,559 27,840 539 16,139 44,518
Summary of total income and
expenditure
Total income 33,747 3,986 1,315 39,048 35,396 3,550 1,666 40,611
Total expenditure (34,392) (3,615) – (38,007) (36,315) (3,320) – (39,635)
Net income (645) 371 1,315 1,041 (919) 230 1,666 976

65

The Children’s Society

Group and Society balance sheets As at 31 March 2022

Company registration number 40004


As at 31 March 2022
Group Society
2022 2021 2022 2021
Note £000 £000 £000 £000
Fixed assets
Tangible fixed assets 12 5,054 4,562 5,054 4,562
Investments 13 41,725 39,374 41,725 39,374
Total fixed assets 46,779 43,936 46,779 43,937
Current assets
Debtors 14 5,068 5,109 5,043 4,744
Properties held for sale – 255 – 255
Cash 2,774 2,833 2,662 2,729
Total current assets 7,842 8,197 7,705 7,728
Current liabilities
Creditors: amounts falling
due within one year 15 (7,637) (5,843) (7,759) (5,398)
Net current assets /(liabilities) 205 2,354 (54) 2,330
Provisions for liabilities 16 (1,395) (1,622) (1,395) (1,622)
Net assets excluding pension deficit 45,588 44,668 45,330 44,644
Pension deficit 11 (29) (150) (29) (150)
Net assets 45,559 44,518 45,301 44,494
Unrestricted funds
General funds 19 16,526 16,201 16,267 16,177
Designated funds 19 10,698 11,790 10,698 11,790
Pension reserve 19 (29) (150) (29) (150)
Total unrestricted funds 27,195 27,840 26,936 27,816
Restricted funds 19 910 539 910 539
Endowment funds 19 17,454 16,139 17,454 16,139
Total funds 45,559 44,518 45,301 44,494

The notes on pages 66 to 88The notes on pages 69 to 88 form part of these financial statements form part of these financial statements.

The financial statements were approved and authorised by the board of trustees on 14 September 2022 and signed on their behalf by:The financial statements were approved and authorised by the board of trustees on 14 Sep 2022 and signed on their behalf by:

Chris Gillies Honorary Treasurer

The result of the parent charity for the year was a net income of £563,000 (2021: net income of £1,507,000)

Funds for the Group and Society include a revaluation reserve of £2,190,000 (2021: £2,131,000)

66

Our impact 2021/22

Group and Society cash flow statements

Year ended 31 March 2022

Group Society
2022 2021 2022 2021
Note £000 £000 £000 £000
Net cashgenerated by operating activities A 1,279 (2,548) 1,154 (2,553)
Cash flows from investment activities
Investment income received 25 16 25 16
Purchase of investments (13) (12) (13) (12)
Proceeds from the sale of investments – 349 – 349
Purchase of tangible fixed assets (1,631) (1,787) (1,631) (1,787)
Proceeds from the sale of fixed assets 399 190 399 190
Net cashprovided /(consumed)byinvestment activities (1,221) (1,244) (1,221) (1,244)
Increase in cash 59 (3,792) (67) (3,796)
Cash at the start of theperiod 2,833 6,624 2,729 6,524
Cash at the end of theperiod 2,774 2,833 2,662 2,729
Notes to the cash flow statements
A Reconciliation of net income to cash generated
by operating activities
Net income as reported in the statement of financial
activities 1,140 (48) 635 (743)
Adjustments for:
Net investment income receivable (25) (16) (25) (16)
Net interest cost on defined benefit pension liability 13 (84) 13 (84)
Depreciation charges 1,151 1,062 1,151 1,062
Impairment charges – 1,281 – 1,281
(Gains) / losses on the sale of fixed assets (399) (15) (399) (15)
Losses / (gains) on investments and assets (2,337) (4,858) (2,337) (4,858)
(Increase) / decrease in debtors (41) 479 (299) 244
Increase /(decrease) in creditors 1,795 (80) 2,288 (521)
Intercompany creditor – – 144 1,367
Increase inprovisions for liabilities 154 396 154 396
Net cash provided by operations before pension contributions 1,451 (1,882) 1,326 (1,887)
Pension contributions (172) (666) (172) (666)
Net cashgenerated by operating activities 1,279 (2,548) 1,154 (2,553)

67

The Children’s Society

Notes to the financial statements

Year ended 31 March 2022

1 Accounting policies

The principal accounting policies adopted, judgements, and key sources of estimation uncertainty in the preparation of these financial statements are as set out below. These policies have been consistently applied to all the years presented, unless otherwise stated.

d. Going concern and Covid-19

The accounting policies of The Children’s Society include the preparation of the accounts on the assumption that the Society will be a going concern for the 18-month period from the date of signing of the accounts. We have extended the view from 12 months due to the significant impact that the current pandemic has and will continue to have upon our activities. The nature of Covid-19 is to increase the level of uncertainty for ourselves, the sector, and the economy generally.

e. Subsidiaries and joint ventures

a. General information

The Society is registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee with registration number 40004. It is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission with registration number 221124.

The registered office of the Society is:

Whitecross Studios 50 Banner Street London EC1Y 8ST

b. Statement of compliance

These consolidated and separate financial statements are prepared on a going concern basis, under the historical cost convention, as modified by the recognition of certain assets measured at fair value.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their financial statements in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice for Charities (SORP 2015) (Second Edition, effective 1 January 2019) and the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (‘FRS 102’). The Society is a public-benefit entity as defined by FRS 102.

They also conform to the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 and the Companies Act 2006. No separate Statement of Financial Activities (‘SOFA’) has been presented for the Charity alone as permitted by the Charities SORP.

c. Basis of consolidation

Entities related to the Society are treated as subsidiaries when the Society is able to control the entity. Subsidiaries that have been part of the group in the year are shown in note 21.

The Society and two other charities own one-third each of the share capital in a separate entity, CharITyshare Limited, registered in England and Wales with company number 5260609. The transactions are not material and therefore CharITyshare is not treated as a joint venture for the purposes of the consolidated accounts and the share of costs incurred and prepaid charges associated with the activity is recorded in the accounts of the Society. CharITyshare Limited ceased trading on 30 June 2018. On 1 June 2020 Karen Spears and Matthew Haw of RSM Restructuring Advisory LLP were appointed as joint liquidators in a Members Voluntary Liquidation, a solvent wind up. The Children’s Society accounts directly for its share of the assets, liabilities, and cash flows.

f. Income from donations, grants, and legacies

Income from donations, grants, and legacies is recognised when the Society is entitled to the income, when receipt is probable and the amount can be reliably estimated.

Gift Aid receivable is recognised at the same time as the related donations.

When donations are received other than in money, for instance as a donation of property or investments, the donation is recorded at the fair value of the items donated at the date of donation, with the relevant asset recorded at the same initial value.

If there is a requirement to repay a grant received as a result of not meeting the conditions of the grant, a liability is recognised for the repayment and recorded as a reduction in income in the period.

The results of each of the Society’s subsidiary undertakings listed in note 21 have been consolidated into these financial statements, on a line-by-line basis. Uniform group accounting policies have been applied and transactions and balances between the undertakings are eliminated on consolidation.

68

Our impact 2021/22

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2022

The financial value of the donated services and the related contributed activity are, therefore, not recognised in the financial statements.

k. Accounting for expenditure

1 Accounting policies (continued)

Government grant income includes the total amount claimed from HMRC under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. The income is accounted for in the period in which the associated salary payments are made to furloughed staff.

g. Income from contracts

Income from contracts for the delivery of services is recognised on a straight-line basis over the period of time that the contract covers. Where the contract has a set value of expenditure to be met as well as covering a period of time, cumulative income is recognised in proportion to the cumulative value of expenditure. The amount of income recognised in a given reporting period is calculated as the difference between the cumulative income at the beginning and the end of the reporting period.

h. Donated goods

Valuation of donated goods for resale at the time of receipt is not practicable, due to the high volume of low value items received and the absence of detailed stock control systems. Instead, the value of the donated items is recognised as income when they are sold and their value is thus determined.

Costs are recognised when the Society has an obligation, whether contractual, legal, or constructive, to transfer funds to another person or entity. Costs are recorded at the total of the amount due plus any unrecoverable VAT associated with the cost.

Costs are recorded according to the type of expenditure incurred and the charitable, income generation or support purpose to which they are put.

Support and governance costs are allocated to the activities of the Society using the following bases:

Cost group
HR and organisational
development
Property services
Information systems
Financial processing and
management
Senior Management
Governance		 Allocation basis
Headcount
Number of properties
managed
Number of users serviced
Headcount
Headcount
Headcount

l. Leases

The cost of the minimum payments under an operating lease is recognised evenly over the non-cancellable period of the lease. To meet this policy, break points are assumed to be taken when calculating lease costs.

m. Employee benefits

i. Gifts in kind

Short-term employee benefits

The Society receives goods and services that are provided free of charge. When these replace expenditure that the Society would have made if not provided free of charge and the value can be measured reliably, the value of the goods or services received is recognised as donated income at the value that the Society would have paid a third-party supplier. The expenditure or asset arising is recognised at the same value in the appropriate section of the financial statements.

Short-term employee benefits, typically salaries, paid holiday, and contributions to money-purchase pension schemes, are recorded as the employees earn entitlement to the benefits through their service.

Long-term employee benefits

Single employer defined benefit pension schemes

j. Volunteers

The Society benefits from volunteer support in its retail network, fundraising groups, working with children and young people, and in administration. If volunteers were not available, their roles would not be provided by salaried staff as it would be financially impractical. There is no ready market comparator for the roles they undertake, and it is not possible reliably to measure the financial value of our volunteers.

Scheme assets are measured at market value. Scheme liabilities are measured using the projected unit credit method and discounted at the current rate of high-quality corporate bonds with an equivalent term and the same currency as the liabilities.

69

The Children’s Society

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2022

1 Accounting policies (continued)

Current service costs are recognised as the scheme members earn entitlement to benefits. Past service costs are recognised immediately in expenditure if the benefits have vested. The administration charges of the scheme are also included in expenditure as they fall due.

An interest cost arising from the unwinding of the discount on the scheme liabilities and an expected return from assets using the same discount rate are recognised in income and expenditure as a net income or cost.

Changes in the valuation of the scheme liabilities and assets caused by changing assumptions in the valuation of the liabilities and difference between expected and actual return on assets are recorded as actuarial gains and losses in the SOFA under ‘Other recognised gains and losses’.

Multi-employer defined benefit pension schemes

Where the scheme is in deficit and where the company has agreed to a deficit funding arrangement, the company recognises a liability for this obligation. The amount recognised is the net present value of the deficit reduction contributions payable under the agreement that relates to the deficit. The present value is calculated using the discount rate which is the equivalent single discount rates which, when used to discount the future recovery plan contributions due, would give the same results as using a full AA corporate bond yield curve to discount the same recovery plan contributions. The unwinding of the discount is recognised as a finance cost.

n. Taxation

The Society is a registered charity and, as such, is exempt from taxation of its income provided the income is applied for charitable purposes. Both subsidiary entities are subject to Corporation Tax. Taxable profits earned by the subsidiaries are distributed under the Gift Aid scheme to the Society so that taxable profits are eliminated, to the extent that the profits are available for distribution.

o. Accounting for funds

be used more narrowly than for the general purposes of the Society is recorded in a restricted fund. These funds are identified and held separately from the other funds of the Society.

The trustees may also set aside monies into a fund designated for a specific purpose. A fund of this kind remains part of the unrestricted funds of the Society, but not available for use for general purposes.

Expenditure to meet the purposes of a fund is recorded against the fund. The remaining balances of funds are carried forward for future use. The Charities SORP permits and The Children’s Society uses a negative fund to represent the value of the pension deficit as separate from other funds.

p. Tangible fixed assets

Tangible fixed assets are physical and software assets controlled by the Society that are used in the delivery of charitable or support activities.

Tangible fixed assets are recorded when they have an aggregate cost of at least £2,500. They are recorded initially at cost including the costs of bringing them to location and state in which they can be used for their intended purpose.

The cost of the assets is depreciated evenly over their expected useful life with the Society to the expected residual value at the end of its useful life. Depreciation is charged from the point that the asset is ready for use. Initial depreciation rates are based on the following expected lives of assets:

of assets:
Asset type Initial Initial expected
expected life residual value
Freehold land Infinite Cost
Freehold buildings 50 years Nil
Leasehold land and Lease life Nil
buildings including (application of
improvements policy to first
break of lease)
Vehicles 4 years Nil
Other Assets 4 years Nil
Software 4 years Nil

Monies received and expended are recorded as part of unrestricted general funds unless they meet the criteria to be recorded in one of the funds described below.

Income received that is required (whether by the donor, by written agreement or by the request made by the Society) to

70

Our impact 2021/22

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

Cash at bank and in hand represents the value of all cash and bank holdings that are available for immediate use.

Year ended 31 March 2022

1 Accounting policies (continued)

After purchase, freehold land and buildings are carried at their open market value. Valuations are carried out on a rolling three-year programme by a Chartered Surveyor. Where market value is above carrying value, this amount is first applied as reversal of depreciation then as an increase in cost. Surpluses arising are transferred to a revaluation reserve as required by the Companies Act.

Where the market value is below carrying value, deficits arising are first treated as reversals of valuation then as additional depreciation. To the extent that the revaluation reserve has not been realised through depreciation, deficits arising are charged against the revaluation reserve.

q. Investments

Investments are recorded at cost when purchased. Where the market value of an investment can be determined by reference to an external market or a professional valuation, the investment is carried at its open-market value.

Investment property is property held by the Society for the purposes of generating income and/or capital growth. These buildings are not used by the Society for its purposes. Investment property is recorded initially at cost and remeasured each year at its open-market value.

Gains and losses on remeasurement are reported in income and expenditure.

r. Current assets

Trade debtors are recorded at the amount invoiced in accordance with the agreement to which they relate, less any impairment of the asset.

Costs incurred that relate to future periods are carried as prepayments within current assets.

Income that has met the conditions to be recognised either as a result of being earned under an agreement or being a future donation or legacy, able to be recognised as set out above, is recorded within accrued income.

Where fixed assets have been put on sale and are expected to be sold within the next financial year, their cost or valuation and accumulated depreciation are removed from fixed assets and the asset recorded as an asset held for sale. Assets held for sale are carried at the lower of cost or valuation less accumulated depreciation at the date of being placed on sale or the net amount recoverable from the sale, less associated costs.

s. Impairment of assets

When external events relating to markets or technology or internal events relating to the plans and activities of the Society indicate that the value of an asset may be impaired, an impairment review is conducted. The review determines whether the recoverable value of the asset is above or below its carrying value, using external open-market values or other accepted valuation techniques.

If the recoverable amount of the asset is below its carrying value, the difference is written off. To the extent that the reduction in value represents the reversal of undepreciated revaluation surpluses, the reduction is treated as a reversal of the revaluation. Any further reduction is recorded as an impairment of the asset in depreciation.

t. Liabilities and provisions

Liabilities are recognised when the Society has a legal or contractual obligation to transfer resources to another party to settle that obligation. Liabilities are recorded at the best estimate of the amount that will be required to settle the obligation.

When the timing, value or both of the liability is uncertain, a provision is recognised at the best estimate of the amount to be paid.

u. Financial instruments

The Society applies the provisions of sections 11 and 12 of FRS 102 in full.

Financial instruments are recorded initially at their transaction costs. Financial instruments held at fair value through profit and loss are subsequently measured and reported at their fair value. Changes in fair value from remeasurement are recorded in income and expenditure.

71

The Children’s Society

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2022

1 Accounting policies (continued)

Financial instruments that are debt or financial liabilities are subsequently measured and reported at their amortised cost using the effective interest method. Remeasurement gains and losses are reported in income and expenditure.

v. Assets held on behalf of other charities

The Society from time to time holds assets on behalf of other charities. When such assets held are held separately from those belonging to the Society, they are not recorded in the financial statements. When the assets are combined with other assets of the Society, for example in pooled investments, the portion of the value of the assets held on behalf of the other charity is recorded as a liability. Income, expenditure, and gains and losses related to the portion of the assets held on behalf of the other charity are not reported in the statement of financial activities.

w. Uncertainties and judgements

The principal judgements made in the preparation of the financial statements have been in relation to:

The most important uncertainties that the Society faces in the preparation of the financial statements are:

72

Our impact 2021/22

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 2022

2 Income from donations and legacies

Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
funds funds funds funds funds funds
2022 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Donations
Christingle 536 – 536 553 – 553
House boxes 1,192 – 1,192 760 – 760
Other donations 6,330 – 6,330 7,719 – 7,719
Legacies 5,305 5,305 4,322 – 4,322
Government Grant Income 190 – 190 6,930 – 6,930
Total income from donations and legacies 13,553 – 13,553 20,285 – 20,285

This year, donations and legacies include £190,000 of various government grants or Covid-19 relief initiatives awarded due to the pandemic and the impact on our operations. This is made up of £68,000 of furlough receipts, £122,000 of retail premise relief grants. This is also displayed at the foot of the grant note (note 23 to the accounts).

3 Income from charitable activities

Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
funds funds funds funds funds funds
2022 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Providing direct support to children and young
people 8,392 1,720 10,112 7,246 2,007 9,253
Changing governmental and societal systems 304 2,266 2,570 70 1,543 1,613
Total income from charitable activities 8,696 3,986 12,682 7,316 3,550 10,866

4 Income from trading activities

Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
funds funds funds funds funds funds
2022 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Income from retail activities 9,841 – 9,841 2,694 – 2,694
Card sales 141 – 141 129 – 129
Event entry fees 5 – 5 3 – 3
Total income from trading activities 9,987 – 9,987 2,826 – 2,826
Income from investments
Unrestricted Endowment Total Unrestricted Endowment Total
funds funds funds funds funds funds
2022 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Income from financial investments 10 7 17 16 – 16
Income from investment properties 8 – 8 9 – 9
Total investment income 18 7 25 25 – 25

5 Income from investments

73

The Children’s Society

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 2022

6 Other income

Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
funds funds funds funds funds funds
2022 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000
(Losses) / gains on disposal of fixed assets 399 – 399 15 – 15
Sundry income 7 – 7 23 – 23
Total income from other sources 406 – 406 38 – 38

7 Expenditure on raising funds

Expenditure on raising funds
Direct Support Total Direct Support Total
costs costs costs costs costs costs
2022 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Direct fundraising 4,687 790 5,477 6,831 1,586 8,417
Costs of retail operations 8,568 1,605 10,173 7,887 1,853 9,740
Total expenditure on raising funds 13,255 2,395 15,650 14,718 3,438 18,156

8 Expenditure on charitable activities

Expenditure on charitable activities
Direct Support Total Direct Support Total
costs costs costs costs costs costs
2022 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Providing direct support to children and young
people 12,296 3,658 15,953 11,272 2,710 13,982
Changing governmental and societal systems 5,183 1,076 6,260 5,510 1,298 6,808
Total expenditure on charitable activities 17,479 4,734 22,213 16,782 4,007 20,790

Net income is arrived at after charging:

Net income is arrived at after charging:
2022 2021
£000 £000
Depreciation of tangible fixed assets 1,004 1,035
Rentals payable under operating leases 2,651 2,700
Auditor's remuneration
Audit of the Group's financial statements 46 42
Other fees payable to the auditor – 2

74

Our impact 2021/22

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 2022

9 Support costs and their allocation to activities

2022
HR and organisational development
Property services
Information systems
Financial processing and management
Senior management
Governance		 2022
HR and organisational development
Property services
Information systems
Financial processing and management
Senior management
Governance
Total support costs 3,658
1,077
789
1,604
7,128
10 The allocation basis for support costs is set out in note
2021
HR and organisational development
Property services
Information systems
Financial processing and management
Senior management
Governance
Total support costs 2,710
1,298
1,586
1,853
7,447
Governance costs are made up of:
External audit
Internal audit
Trustee Board administration
Trustee recruitment
Trustee expenses
Trustee meetings
Professional fees
Senior Leadership Team
Totalgovernance costs 350
418

75

The Children’s Society

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 2022

10 Trustees and staff (continued)

Trustees and staff (continued)
Average monthly number of staff employed in: 2022 2021
Providing direct support to children and young people 293 296
Changing governmental and societal systems 120 118
Direct fundraising 77 85
Retail operations 198 244
Support services 80 82
Total 768 825
Costs of staff 2022 2021
Group and Society £000 £000
Wages and salaries 20,732 21,460
Social security 1,838 1,883
Pensions 1,032 1,814
Redundancy and compensation for loss of office 291 274
Agency staffing 274 443
Total 24,167 25,874

The total amount paid in the year for redundancy and compensation for loss of office was £406,723 (2021: £42,190). The amount accrued for future redundancy payments at the balance sheet date was nil (2021: £231,687).

Higher paid staff

The number of employees with remuneration in excess of £60,000 including redundancy and compensation for loss of office but excluding pension contributions is analysed into the following bands:

2022 2021
Number Number
Between £60,001 and £70,000 11 9
Between £70,001 and £80,000 3 5
Between £80,001 and £90,000 – 1
Between £90,001 and £100,000 2 1
Between £100,001 and £110,000 2 2
Between £110,001 and £120,000 1 1

The Society paid pension contributions into a money purchase scheme of £82,073 (2021: £90,530) for 19 (2021: 19) of the higher paid staff.

Key management personnel

The key management personnel serving in the year comprise the Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director for Youth Impact, Executive Director of Enabling Resources, Executive Director of Social Impact and Executive Director of Diversity and Talent. The total remuneration paid to key management personnel was £612,502 (2021: £599,695).

The salary of the Chief Executive during the year ended 31 March 2022 comprised of salary £120,000 (2021: £120.000).In addition, the company paid pension contributions of £4,800 (2021: £4,800) into a defined contribution scheme.

Trustee remuneration

No members of the trustee board received, or were entitled to receive, any remuneration. Where expenses were claimed, reimbursement was made. In the year, travelling expenses of £103 (2021: £56) were reimbursed to 1 trustee (2021: 1). Trustee indemnity insurance was purchased at a cost of £6,500 (2021: £5,824).

76

Our impact 2021/22

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 2022

11 Pensions

The Children’s Society operates three pension schemes: a defined contributions scheme, a defined benefits scheme, and a multiemployer mixed defined benefit and money purchase scheme for additional voluntary contributions within The Pensions Trust Growth Plan (‘the Growth Plan’).

The defined contribution scheme is managed by Scottish Widows. The scheme is compliant with the pension reform rules for automatic enrolment. Contributions by the employee are matched by the employer up to a limit of 8% of salary and a salary sacrifice option is offered. The cost of employer contributions due as a result of service in the year was £951,715 (2021: £997,475).

The defined benefits scheme is externally funded and is contracted-in to the state second-tier of pension provision. Retirement benefits within this scheme are based on employees’ final remuneration and length of service. The scheme was closed to new members in June 2003 and is managed by The Pensions Trust and is covered in note 11(a).

The Growth Plan is a multi-employer scheme which provides benefits to some 950 non-associated participating employers. The scheme is a defined benefit scheme in the UK but is not possible for us to obtain sufficient information to enable us to account for the scheme as a defined benefit scheme. Therefore, we account for the scheme as a defined contribution scheme. The scheme is subject to the funding legislation outlined in the Pensions Act 2004 which came into force on 30 December 2005. This, together with documents issued by the Pensions Regulator and the Financial Reporting Council, set out the framework for funding defined benefit occupational pension schemes in the UK. The scheme is classified as a 'last-man standing arrangement'. Therefore, we are potentially liable for other participating employers' obligations if those employers are unable to meet their share of the scheme deficit following withdrawal from the scheme. Participating employers are legally required to meet their share of the scheme deficit on an annuity purchase basis on withdrawal from the scheme. This is covered in more detail in note 11(b).

11(a) Defined benefit scheme

An actuarial valuation was completed as at 30 September 2018 and the results of this have been updated to 31 March 2022 by a qualified actuary, independent of the scheme's sponsoring employer. The major assumptions used by the actuary are shown below. The most recently completed actuarial valuation showed a deficit of £15,277,000 as at 30 September 2018. The employer agreed with the trustees that it will aim to eliminate the deficit over a period of 4 years 6 months from 1 December 2019 by the payment of a one-off lump sum contribution of £11,000,000 by 31 December 2019, coupled with expected future investment returns.

The payment of £11,000,000 into the scheme by the employer, combined with expected future returns is expected to fully fund the Scheme on the Technical Provisions basis, based on the funding position at 11 November 2019. After this cash injection, the trustees will adopt an investment strategy that minimises as far as possible the level of investment risk whilst supporting the Technical Provisions discount rate. This reduces the risk of the employer having to pay any further deficit contributions in future. The investment strategy that will therefore be implemented after the cash injection has an expected return of gilts + 1.1% p.a. and a Value at Risk (VaR) of 4% of liabilities. The Scheme’s Long Term Objective (LTO) is to be fully funded on gilts + 0.5% p.a. This is intended to happen automatically as the Technical Provisions converge to the LTO with the tapering of the discount rate.

In addition and in accordance with the actuarial valuation, the employer has agreed with the trustee that with effect from 1 December 2019 it will pay 17.5% p.a. of pensionable earnings (previously 14.5% p.a.) in respect of the cost of accruing benefits for members who are not participating in the salary sacrifice arrangement and 27.5% p.a. of pensionable earnings (previous 24.5% p.a.) for members participating in the salary sacrifice arrangement and will pay £187,800 per annum to meet scheme expenses and levies to the Pension Protection Fund. Member contributions are payable in addition at the rate of 10.0% p.a. of pensionable earnings for members who are not participating in the salary sacrifice arrangement.

77

The Children’s Society

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 2022

11 Pensions (continued)

We have been notified by the pension scheme trustee that there may be a potential issue surrounding changes made to the scheme rules between 1995 and 2006, over which the trustee is seeking clarification from the courts. The matter is unlikely to be resolved before 2024 at the earliest, and as such it is not possible to determine with any accuracy what the impact might be of any direction the court may, or may not, give. Many factors will impact the future valuation of the pension scheme, none of which can be accurately predicted at the present time. No adjustment has therefore been made to the amounts included in the financial statements in respect of this potential issue.

The assumptions used by the actuary are the best estimates chosen each year from a range of possible actuarial assumptions which, due to the timescale covered, may not necessarily be borne out in practice.

2022 2021
Rate of increase in salaries 0.00% 0.00%
Rate of increase in pensions in payment 3.11% 2.85%
Discount rate 2.78% 2.10%
Inflation assumption 3.61% 3.30%
Rate of increase for deferred pensions 3.61% 3.30%

The rate of increase in salaries is assumed at 0% as pensionable salaries for active members were frozen as at 31 December 2013.

Life expectancy included in the valuation of the scheme is calculated using the S3PXA (All Pensioners - Pension Amounts) tables with a best estimate scheme-specific scaling factor of 1069 (2021: 102%). The base tables have been projected using the S2PXA projection model with a long-term improvement rate 1.5% for males and of 1.25% for females.

The resulting average life-expectancies in years (age at death) were:

Pensioners retiring: 2022 2021
Females Males Females Males
Now 24.3 (89.3) 21.9 (86.9) 23.5 (88.5) 21.6 (86.6)
In 20 years 25.7 (90.7) 23.5 (88.5) 25.0 (90.0) 22.9 (87.9)
Assets and liabilities of the scheme 2022 2021
£000 £000
Bonds 114,696 114,716
Equities 6,334 6,469
Property 16,437 13,309
Cash 1,143 3,126
Other 29,630 30,651
Scheme assets 168,240 168,271
Present value of scheme liabilities (149,280) (157,901)
Surplus / (deficit) in the scheme - pension liability 18,960 10,370
Effect of asset ceiling (18,407) (9,690)
Eliminate FRS102 scheme surplus (553) (680)
Present value of Growth Planprovision(note 11(b)) (29) (150)
Netpension liability (29) (150)

78

Our impact 2021/22

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 2022

11 Pensions (continued)

11(a) Defined benefit scheme (continued)

Profit and loss impact

Defined benefit scheme (continued)
Profit and loss impact
2022 2021
£000 £000
Current service cost 134 122
Past service cost – –
Expenses 187 194
Interest on obligation 3,465 3,188
Expected return on scheme assets (3,478) (3,764)
Total 308 (260)
Movement in defined benefit obligation
2022 2021
£000 £000
Opening defined benefit obligation 157,901 141,344
Current service cost 134 122
Past service cost – –
Interest cost 3,261 3,188
Contributions by employees 13 13
Actuarial loss / (gain) (6,579) 18,906
Benefits paid (5,450) (5,672)
Closing defined benefit obligation 149,280 157,901
Change in fair value of the scheme assets
2022 2021
£000 £000
Opening value of the scheme assets 168,271 166,408
Expected return 3,478 3,764
Expenses (187) (194)
Actuarial (loss) / gain 1,776 3,618
Contributions by employer 339 334
Contributions by employees 13 13
Benefits paid (5,450) (5,672)
Closing fair value of the scheme assets 168,240 168,271
Actual return on scheme assets 5,254 7,382
Defined benefit costs recognised in other comprehensive income
2022 2021
£000 £000
Return on plan assets (excluding amounts included in net interest cost) 1,776 3,618
Experience gains and losses arising on the plan liabilities (1,974) 1,241
Effects of changes in the demographic and financial assumptions
underlying the present value of the plan liabilities 40 (3,888)
Payment to eliminate deficit – –
Effect of asset ceiling – (980)
Eliminate FRS102 scheme surplus (553) (680)
Total amount recognised in other comprehensive income (711) (689)

79

The Children’s Society

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 2022

12 Tangible fixed assets

Tangible fixed assets
Freehold Leasehold
land & land & Other
buildings buildings Vehicles Assets Software Total
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Group and Society
Cost or valuation
At 1 April 2021 2,389 7,186 32 5,293 1,316 16,218
Additions – 366 – 135 1,130 1,631
Disposals (39) (119) – – – (159)
Revaluation 44 – – – – 44
At 31 March 2022 2,393 7,433 32 5,428 2,446 17,733
Depreciation
At 1 April 2021 888 5,567 32 5,109 60 11,656
Depreciation charged 25 675 269 182 1,151
Released on disposal (14) (99) – – – (113)
Revaluation (15) – – – – (15)
At 31 March 2022 884 6,143 32 5,378 242 12,679
Net book value
At 31 March 2022 1,509 1,291 – 50 2,204 5,054
At 31 March 2021 1,501 1,619 – 184 1,256 4,562

Freehold land & buildings used by The Children's Society are revalued following the policy set out in note 1. Valuations are carried out by the Society's Estates Surveyor, Ian Birtwistle MRICS. The most recent valuations were carried out in 2022.

If the properties (including those held for sale and in investments) had not been revalued, they would be reported in the accounts with a cost of £2,510,977 (2021: £2,510,977) and accumulated depreciation of £675,753 (2021: £650,753) leaving a net value of £1,835,224 (2021: £1,860,224).

80

Our impact 2021/22

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 2022

13 Investments

Investments 2022
Investment Listed
Group and Society properties investments Total
£000 £000 £000
At 1 April 2020 503 32,954 33,456
Purchases – 648 648
Transfer from fixed assets 1,398 – 1,398
Sales (349) – (349)
Realised and unrealised gains - Society 45 4,090 4,135
Realised and unrealisedgains - The VineyTrust – 87 87
At 1 April 2021 1,596 37,779 39,375
Purchases – 13 13
Transfer from fixed assets – – –
Sales – – –
Realised and unrealised gains - Society – 2,337 2,337
Realised and unrealisedgains - The VineyTrust – – –
At 31 March 2022 1,596 40,129 41,725
Debtors
Group Society
2022 2021 2022 2021
£000 £000 £000 £000
Trade debtors 983 1,095 968 730
Prepayments and accrued income 3,915 3,941 3,907 3,941
Taxation debtors 45 68 45 68
Other debtors 125 5 123 5
Amounts due from subsidiary – – – –
Total debtors 5,068 5,109 5,043 4,744
Creditors: amounts due within one year
Group Society
2022 2021 2022 2021
£000 £000 £000 £000
Trade creditors 420 310 420 310
Accruals 1,926 1,719 1,926 1,715
Deferred income 4,112 3,261 3,291 2,275
Taxation and social security 454 508 454 508
Other creditors 725 45 724 44
Amounts due to subsidiary – – 943 546
Total creditors: amounts due within oneyear 7,637 5,843 7,759 5,398

14 Debtors

15 Creditors: amounts due within one year

81

The Children’s Society

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 2022

15 Creditors: amounts due within one year (continued)

Deferred income arises as a result of payment or billing in advance for activities that are to be delivered in the future.

Group Society
2022 2021 2022 2021
£000 £000 £000 £000
Deferred income at the start of the year 3,261 2,726 2,275 1,917
Deferred income brought forward released in the year (823) (540) (591) (515)
Income deferred from the year 1,674 1,074 1,607 872
Deferred income at the end of theyear 4,112 3,261 3,291 2,275

16 Provisions for liabilities

Group and Society

Property Total
dilapidations provisions
£000 £000
At 1 April 2021 1,622 1,622
Charged in the year 457 457
Used in the year (36) (36)
Released unused (267) (267)
Totalprovisions 1,776 1,776
Property Total
dilapidations provisions
£000 £000
Amounts due within one year 381 381
Amounts due after more than one year 1,395 1,395
Totalprovisions 1,776 1,776

Under the terms of operating leases for properties, the Society is required to make good any demerit in the condition of properties and to remove fixtures and fittings added to the building during the course of the lease. The amounts and timing of the amounts due are not certain, as leases may be curtailed or extended and the cost of works is not known until they are carried out. The value of works required is estimated by suitably qualified and experienced chartered surveyors.

82

Our impact 2021/22

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 2022

17 Commitments

At 31 March 2022, the Group and Society had £1.5 million (2021: £1.7 million) of authorised but not contracted capital commitments and £2.4 million (2021: £0.8 million) contracted capital commitments that had not been reflected in the financial statements.

Minimum payments under operating leases are:

Land and Motor Office
2022 buildings vehicles equipment Total
£000 £000 £000 £000
Amounts falling due:
within one year 1,990 31 6 2,027
between two and five years 4,221 26 – 4,247
after more than five years 1,330 – – 1,330
Total operating lease commitments 7,541 57 6 7,604
Land and Motor Office
2021 buildings vehicles equipment Total
£000 £000 £000 £000
Amounts falling due:
within one year 2,177 63 7 2,247
between two and five years 6,335 32 – 6,367
after more than five years 2,788 – – 2,788
Total operating lease commitments 11,300 95 7 11,402

18 Contingent liabilities

In common with other charitable organisations, the Society receives legacies arising from wills where the executor has been unable to locate one or more beneficiaries. In these circumstances, the Society may provide an indemnity to the executor under which any funds required to be paid to the missing beneficiary or beneficiaries is recovered from the Society. At the date of these accounts, the value of such indemnities provided totals was £347,794 (2021: £347,794).

83

The Children’s Society

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 2022

19 Funds
Group
Balance
Other
Balance
at 31
gains
at 31
March
2021
Income
Expend-
iture
and
(losses)
Transfers
March
2022
£000
£000
£000
£000
£000
£000
Unrestricted funds
General funds
16,201
32,660
(33,097)
862
(100)
16,526
Designated funds:
Property fund
4,563
–
(1,151)
59
1,583
5,054
Strategy fund
7,227
–
–
–
(5,083)
2,144
Impact fund
–
–
–
–
3,500
3,500
Total designated funds
11,790
–
(1,151)
59
–
10,698
Unrestricted funds beforepension deficit liability
27,990
32,660
(34,248)
921
(100)
27,224
Pension deficit fund
(150)
–
–
121
–
(29)
Total unrestricted funds
27,840
32,660
(34,248)
1,042
(100)
27,195
Restricted funds
Big Lottery fund
591
375
(338)
–
–
628
Othergrants
(52)
3,612
(3,277)
–
–
283
Total restricted funds
539
3,986
(3,615)
–
–
910
Endowment funds
The Children's Society fund
9,678
4
–
724
–
10,406
Charnwood House
1,640
1
–
123
–
1,764
Charnwood Forest
1,086
1
–
81
–
1,168
Hampshire Girls and Boys Home
442
–
–
33
–
475
The Children's Society
564
–
–
42
–
606
The Spooner Trust
761
–
–
57
–
818
The George and Marion Slack fund
1,252
1
–
94
–
1,348
The Croghan fund
716
–
–
54
100
870
Total endowment funds
16,139
7
–
1,208
100
17,454
Total funds
44,518
36,653
(37,863)
2,250
–
45,559

Funds include revaluation reserves in relating to freehold land and buildings and investment properties of £1,862,000 (2021: £1,803,000) and relating to financial investments of £328,000 (2021: £328,000).

Analysis of net assets by fund

Analysis of net assets by fund
Designa- Pension Restric- Endow-
General ted deficit ted ment
funds funds fund funds funds Total
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Tangible fixed assets – 5,054 – – – 5,054
Investments 18,628 5,644 – – 17,454 41,725
Total fixed assets 18,628 10,698 – – 17,454 46,779
Cash 1,864 – – 910 – 2,774
Other current assets 5,068 – – – – 5,068
Total current assets 6,932 – – 910 – 7,842
Current liabilities (7,637) – – – – (7,637)
Net current assets (705) – – 910 – 205
Provisions for liabilities (1,395) (1,395)
Net assets excluding pension deficit 16,526 10,698 – 910 17,454 45,590
Pension deficit – – (29) – – (29)
Net assets 16,526 10,698 (29) 910 17,454 45,559

84

Our impact 2021/22

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 2022

19 Funds (continued)

Funds (continued)
Balance Other Balance
at 31 gains at 31
March Expend- and March
Group 2020 Income iture (losses) Transfers 2021
£000s £000s £000s £000s £000s £000s
Unrestricted funds
General funds 16,168 30,491 (33,229) 3,089 (318) 16,201
Designated funds:
Property fund 4,858 – (2,397) 1,713 389 4,563
Strategy fund 7,916 – – – (689) 7,227
Impact fund – – – – – –
Total designated funds 12,774 – (2,397) 1,713 (300) 11,790
Unrestricted funds beforepension deficit liability 28,942 30,491 (35,626) 4,802 (618) 27,990
Pension deficit fund (183) – 33 (150)
Total unrestricted funds 28,759 30,491 (35,626) 4,835 (618) 27,840
Restricted funds
Big Lottery fund 506 811 (726) 591
Othergrants (197) 2,739 (2,594) (52)
Total restricted funds 309 3,550 (3,320) – – 539
Endowment funds
The Children's Society fund 9,084 – – 594 – 9,678
Charnwood House 1,540 – – 100 – 1,640
Charnwood Forest 1,019 – – 67 – 1,086
Hampshire Girls and Boys Home 415 – – 27 – 442
The Children's Society 529 – – 35 – 564
The Spooner Trust 715 – – 46 – 761
The George and Marion Slack fund 1,172 – – 80 – 1,252
The Croghan fund – – – 98 618 716
Total endowment funds 14,474 – – 1,047 618 16,139
Total funds 43,542 34,041 (38,946) 5,882 – 44,518

Description of funds

General funds represent the other assets available for the general purposes of the Society. The transfer of £100,000 represents additional income received during the year from the Croghan fund estate which is part of our endowment funds.

Designated property fund represents the carrying value including revaluations of land and buildings held for use in the activities of The Children's Society. The strategy fund represents amounts set aside by the trustees to help invest in operational projects that will improve current systems and infrastructure to help us achieve our 2030 goal.

A new designated fund known as the impact fund has been created from an in year transfer of £3.5 million from the strategy fund. The purpose of this fund will be to help enhance our strategic ambition by funding innovative pilots and projects for which traditional forms of funding are unavailable.

Restricted funds represent the remaining unspent amount of donations, grants and legacies given to be used for specific purposes or in specific areas. Details of grants received are in note 23.

Endowment funds have additional restrictions on the use of capital. The Children's Society fund and The Spooner Trust are held to generate income to use for the purpose and mission of the charity. The George and Marion Slack fund is held to provide educational opportunities for disadvantaged children and young people. Charnwood House, Charnwood Forest, Hampshire Boys & Girls Home, and The Children's Society are held to generate income to provide care and support to children and young people in specific places in England. The Croghan fund is to support young people in education.

85

The Children’s Society

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 2022

20 Financial instruments

Financial instruments
Group Society
2022 2021 2022 2021
£000 £000 £000 £000
Financial assets measured at fair value through profit and loss
Financial investments 40,129 37,779 40,129 32,954
Debt instruments measured at amortised cost
Trade debtors 983 976 968 517
Other debtors 125 38 123 38
Amounts due from subsidiaries – – – –
Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost
Trade creditors 420 339 420 339
Accrued expenses 1,926 1,575 1,926 1,575
Other creditors 725 812 724 811
Amounts due to subsidiaries – – 943 806

21 Subsidiary undertakings

The Society owns the whole share capital of The Children's Society (Trading) Limited, registered in England and Wales no. 885496 whose principal activity is to carry out commercial activities that generate funds in aid of the Society, and The Children's Society (Services) Limited, registered in England and Wales no. 4545124, whose principal activity is to provide funded direct services for the beneficiaries of the Society.

Both companies have entered into an agreement to donate their taxable surplus each year to the Society under the corporate Gift Aid scheme.

A summary of the information disclosed in the companies' accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 is:

Services Trading
2022 2021 2022 2021
Summarised profit and loss account
Income 5,087 4,403 230 93
Expenditure (4,568) (4,083) (130) (74)
Profit for theyear 519 320 100 19
Gift Aid distribution to The Children's Society (519) (320) (100) (19)
Retained earnings – – – –
Summarised balance sheet
Current assets 1,018 982 100 7
Current liabilities (1,018) (982) (100) –
Amounts due from / (to) The Children's Society – – – 19
Net assets – – – 26
Share capital – – – –
Retained reserves – – – –
Total reserves – – – –

86

Our impact 2021/22

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 20222

22 Related parties

Information on trustees' expenses is set out in note 9.

The total amount of trustee donations made, without conditions, was £25,298 (2021: £20,875).

The Children’s Society, Age UK, and the Alzheimers Society have equal shares in a company called CharITshare Limited which previously provided a shared IT service to the three charities. This company ceased to trade on 30 June 2018. On 1 June 2020 Karen Spears and Matthew Haw of RSM Restructuring Advisory LLP were appointed as joint liquidators in a Members Voluntary Liquidation, a solvent wind up.

The Children’s Society accounts directly for its share of the assets, liabilities, and cash flows. The value of services from CharITyshare Limited in the year was nil (2021: nil) and at the balance sheet date the amount due from CharITshare Limited was nil (2021: £1,102).

Transactions with subsidiary undertakings 2022 2021
£000 £000 £000 £000
Services Trading Services Trading
Balance sheet amounts
Amounts due to the parent undertaking – – – –
Amounts due from the parent undertaking 1,373 93 526 19
Income
Donations from the parent undertaking – – – –
Expenditure
Donations to the parent undertaking 519 100 320 18

87

The Children’s Society

Notes to the financial statements (continued) Year ended 31 March 2022

23 Grants received

• £000
1,274
130
982
-
73
-
-
-
109
1,020
222
-
50
84
166
133
33
50
-
82
200
1,983
682
426
73
527
The following grants have been received in the year:
Reaching Communities Grants
The National Lottery Community Fund - Be more digital
Disrupting Exploitation
Essex - Community Hidden Harm Awareness Team
HEARTS Yorkshire
Lancashire-new Blackburn Lottery 63QL
Missing from Home Extension
Missing from Home Extension COVID-19
Programme against Child Sexual Exploitation - London
Grants from other charities and funders
Home Office EUSS
Paul Hamlyn - Voice and Influence project
The London Education Fund - Coordinated Crisis Support
Coordinated Crisis Support Other
Coordinated Crisis Support Lloyds
Coordinated Crisis Support CiN
BBC Children in Need - Safeguarding Children At Risk - Prevention and Action
BBC Children in Need - Safeguarding Children At Risk - Prevention and Action Covid-19
The Sir James Knott Trust - Safeguarding Children At Risk - Prevention and Action
Lankelly Chase Foundation - System Changers
3i PLC
Other grants from charitable bodies in the year amount to:
National Prevention Project CSE/A
Home Office CSA Transformation
British Transport Police Prevention
Safe Zones
Other (various)
275
3i PLC
Total
4,277
Government Covid-19 grants (note 2 to the accounts) related to the pandemic
190
Covid-19 Relief Retail
-
Home Office
-
Furlough
190

88

Our impact 2021/22 11 89

The Children’s Society

3.3. Corporate information

The Church of England Children’s Society

(A company limited by guarantee) Also known as The Children’s Society

Registered office

Whitecross Studios 50 Banner Street London EC1Y 8ST

Company registration no. 40004 Charity registration no. 221124 Telephone: 020 7841 4400 Website: childrenssociety.org.uk

Subsidiary companies

The Children’s Society (Services) Limited, company no. 4545124. The Children’s Society (Trading) Limited, company no. 885496.

The Children’s Society is not a grant-making body.

Royal president

HRH The Duchess of Gloucester GCVO

Presidents

The Most Reverend and Right Hon the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby The Most Reverend and Right Hon the Lord Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell

Vice-presidents

Bishops of the Church of England

Honorary vice-presidents

Mrs A Lush MBE

90

----- Start of picture text -----
Our impact 2019/20
----- End of picture text -----

Dr N de M Rudolf MA BM BCh FRSM

Young trustees

Abby & Pepper Adil. Left September 2021 Bilkis Cree. Joined December 2021 Laura Linh Maryam Samia Taha

Board of trustees

Janet Legrand KC (Hon), Chair (b) (c) Diana Noble, Chair Designate. Appointed 28 July 2022. The Rt Rev’d Elizabeth Lane, Bishop of Derby, Vice-chair (c) Christopher Gillies, Honorary Treasurer (a) (b) Amelia Torode (c) David Ramsden (b) Deborah Harris-Ugbomah (a) Diane Blausten (c). Florence Kroll (a) Helen Keppel-Compton (b) Jim Clifford OBE (a) Nasima Patel (a) Sam Monaghan (c) Sarah Payne CBE (b) (c) Stuart Duncan. Resigned 28 July 2022.

Members of committees

Vincent Anane-Nimoh (a) Sara Boiten (c) Simon Foster (b) Alison Hopkinson (b) Shivani Patel (a) Gavanjit Sian (b)

a. Member of the Risk, Audit and Compliance Committee

b. Member of the Finance and Investment Committee

c. Member of the Organisational Development Committee

91

The Children’s Society

Trustee board and committee attendance

Name Trustee Finance and Organisational Risk, Trustee
board Investment Development Audit and board away
Committee Committee Compliance days
Committee
Trustee board members
Janet Legrand 5/5 4/4 1/4 1/1
(Chair)
+Libby Lane 4/5 3/4 1/1
(Vice Chair)
Chris Gillies 5/5 4/4 4/4 1/1
Amelia Torode 3/5 3/4 1/1
David Ramsden 5/5 4/4 1/1
Deborah 5/5 4/4 1/1
Harris-Ugbomah
Diane Blausten 2/3 2/2 1/1
Florence Kroll 3/5 1/4 1/1
Helen Keppel- 5/5 4/4 1/1
Compton
Jim Cliford 5/5 3/4 0/1
Nasima Patel 4/5 3/4 1/1
Sam Monaghan 2/5 2/4 1/1
Sarah Payne 4/5 3/4 4/4 1/1
Stuart Duncan 3/5 0/1
Vincent 3/4
Anane-Nimoh
Sara Boiten 4/4
Simon Foster 3/4
Alison Hopkinson 2/4
Shivani Patel 3/4
Gavanjit Sian 3/4
Leon Ward 2/4
Vannessa 2/4
Whitehead

92

Our impact 2021/22

Leon Ward (c) Vannessa Whitehead (c) Chief Executive Mark Russell

Company Secretary and Executive Director, Enabling Resources Elizabeth Walker

Executive Director, Social Impact

Joe Jenkins

Executive Director, Youth Impact

Nerys Anthony. Interim Director from March 2022. Dara de Burca. Resigned March 2022.

Executive Director, Diversity and Talent

Michelle Clark

Auditors

Haysmacintyre LLP 10 Queen Street Place London EC4R 1AG

Bankers

Barclays plc 1 Churchill Place London E14 5HP

93

The Children’s Society

Thank you to our corporate supporters

94

The Children’s Society

Endnotes

96

Our impact 2021/22

97

The Children’s Society

98

Our impact 2021/22

99

Every young person should have the support they need in order to enjoy a safe, happy childhood.

That’s why we run services and campaigns that make children’s lives better and change the systems that are placing them in danger.

The Children’s Society is helping children hold onto hope.

Twitter: @childrensociety Tel: 0300 303 7000

© The Children’s Society 2022. The copyright of all material appearing in this publication belongs to The Children’s Society. It may not be reproduced, duplicated or copied by any means without our prior written consent.

Charity Registration No. 221124 Photos: Leva Umbrasaite, Francis Augusto, Laura McClusky. MCB215/0922