**Company Registration No. 00820660 (England and Wales) Registered Charity No. 222533**
## **Child Action Northwest**
**Company Limited by Guarantee**
**Annual Report and Consolidated Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 March 2023**
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **CONTENTS**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
||**Page**|
|---|---|
|Report of the trustees|3|
|Independent auditors’ report|44|
|Consolidated statement of financial activities (incorporating the income
and expenditure account)|48|
|Balance sheet|49|
|Consolidated cash flow statement|50|
|Notes to the consolidated cash flow statement|51|
|Notes to the financial statements|52|
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **Legal and administration details**
|**Status:**|Child Action Northwest is|a company limited by guarantee, registered under the|
|---|---|---|
||Companies Act 1995. Its|governing document is its Memorandum and Articles of|
||Association.||
|**Trustees:**|Mrs M Webb|Chair|
||Mr A Botterill|Vice Chair|
||Mr G H Fairweather||
||Mr J Comyn-Platt||
||Mr A May|Resigned 26 September 2022|
||Mr J Hussain|Resigned 23 May 2022|
||Mr M Roche|Resigned 27 February 2023|
||Mr S Damp||
||Mr M Jameson|Resigned 27 March 2023|
||Ms N Islam-Khan|Resigned 27 March 2023|
||Mr N Eatwell||
||Mr M Roe|Appointed 27 June 2022|
||Mr L A Baxter|Appointed 24 July 2023|
|**Strategic Management Team:**|||
||Ms S Cotton|Chief Executive|
||Mr S Chaplin|Deputy Chief Executive|
||Miss R Coaker|Strategic Director of Finance and Resources|
||Mr J Cobbold|Strategic Director – Business Development, Innovation|
|||and Growth|
|**Operational Management Team:**|||
||Julie Dawkins|Registered Manager Fostering Services: Head of|
|||Service Care & Accommodation|
||Joanne Lever|Head of HR|
||Sue Monighan|Head of Service – Emotional Health and Wellbeing|
||Adam Desai|Fostering Service Team Manager – resigned 6thMay|
|||2022|
||Huma Sheikh|Young Carers Team Leader|
||Lesley Hall|Assistant Director – Family Support and Wellbeing|
||Michelle Dixon|Assistant Director – Criminal Justice and Social|
|||Inclusion|
||Hannah Wilson|Head of Service – ProContact|
|**Company Number:**||00820660|
|**Registered Charity Number:**||222533|
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **Legal and administration details (continued)**
**Registered Office:** The Homestead **Regional Office:** 4b Springfield Court Whalley Road Summerfield Road Wilpshire Off Manchester Road Blackburn Bolton BB1 9LL BL3 2NT **Regional Office:** CANWe Solutions CIC Dixon House Whalley Road Wilpshire Blackburn BB1 9LL **Solicitors:** Forbes Solicitors **Auditors:** MHA Moore and Smalley Rutherford House Statutory Auditors 4 Wellington Street (St Johns) Chartered Accountants Blackburn Richard House BB1 8DD 9 Winckley Square Preston PR1 3HP
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **1 Structure governance and management**
This is the annual report of the Trustees for Child Action Northwest for the financial year ending 31 March 2023, incorporating Child Action Northwest and its subsidiary company CANWe Solutions CIC.
Child Action Northwest (CANW) is a registered Charity and Company Limited by Guarantee and is governed by its Memorandum of Articles of Association. The members of the Committee are therefore Trustees of the Charity and Directors of the Company.
The Board of Trustees has appointed two Trustees as Director’s for the CIC to represent the interests of the Charity’s Trustees. An independent Director also sits on the CIC board.
The current Trustees are listed on page 1. The Chairman and Treasurer are Honorary Officers. The Honorary Officers are elected each year at the Annual General Meeting. The Chairman and Treasurer are ex-officio members of the committee. One third of the remaining Trustees who are not Honorary Officers are elected annually by the members of the company. One new Trustee has been appointed over the year and has undertaken an induction programme.
To facilitate their responsibilities, the Trustees have agreed a rolling agenda. In addition, a finance committee has met during the year, to be replaced at the latter end of the year by full Senior Leadership team representation at the beginning of every board meeting.
The board has nominated a Trustee to take the lead on Safeguarding and there are quarterly meetings with the lead staff responsible for Operational Safeguarding to ensure the Charity has robust safeguarding controls in place. The Board reviews safeguarding arrangements on an annual basis.
To further its work, the Board of Trustees has a treasurer and has arrangements in place to oversee the Charity’s investments and any proposed service development that requires financial support.
The Safeguarding Governance meetings and the Finance and Resources meetings report back to the Trustee Board.
Strategic Directors provide a monthly report to the Board of Trustees, and the Operational Director for the CIC provides a quarterly report on its performance.
A ‘Skills, Experience and Governance’ audit is undertaken each year with the Board and any skill gaps in the Board are identified. This process enables the identification of any developmental needs within the board so that the appropriate training or other opportunities can be identified throughout the year; this includes an annual team building and training event. The audit also informs recruitment to the board, enabling it to be focussed on meeting any skill gaps identified. Recruitment to the Board is via advertising through various media and networks, completion of an application form and interview by the Chair with the CEO. If this stage is successful, then interested members are invited to observe a Board meeting.
A governance review is undertaken annually led by the Chair of the Board and recommendations made to ensure that the board follows ethical guidance, is representative of the diverse communities we operate within and receives representation from young people.
Newly appointed Trustees are invited to attend the CANW induction day for new staff and are provided with an information pack which includes: -
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
- Child Action Northwest’s mission statement
- History of Child Action Northwest
- Introduction to the Charity’s services
- Trustees role description
- Payment and expenses
- Contact details of Trustees and Managers
- Responsibilities of Trustees
- Training and development
- Code of conduct
- Terms of reference for Pre-Trustees Meeting and Reserves Management Meeting
- Fundraising (Creative Partnerships)
In addition, all Trustees visit the Charity’s projects as part of their induction, meet with key members of the Senior Manager Team, complete a Disclosure and Barring application, sign and agree to the Trustee Code of Conduct and sign a declaration of eligibility to act as a Trustee. They also receive, on a bi-monthly basis, a copy of Governance Magazine to keep them informed on trustee and governance matters, and receive a copy of the Good Trustee Guide published by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). During this past year remote technology has been used to ensure that induction and service visits can be undertaken remotely.
The organisational structure chart is provided below:
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
The Board approve and monitor the strategic plan and business plan of Child Action Northwest and during the year the Board of Trustees, along with the Chief Executive, review the strategic direction of the Charity, taking into account the type of risk faced by it and the likelihood that risks may materialise. The operational and financial risks, once assessed, are monitored through a number of internal management systems including monthly senior managers’ meetings, quarterly finance meetings and monthly reports to the Trustee Board. A scheme of delegation is in place to ensure clarity of the financial decision-making process.
The Trustee Board undertook a full governance review against Charity Commission guidance and standards during 2021. A quality framework was agreed, following the Trusted Charity methodology, and an action plan is in place with a three-year rolling review programme in place. The Trusted Charity quality review is planned for 2023. Training has been provided for the Trustee Board on aspects of governance and constructive challenge over the year.
The pay of the Chief Executive is set by the Board and reviewed on an annual basis. It is benchmarked against the NJC (National Joint Council) payscales and has been benchmarked against other similar organisations within the voluntary sector. The Chair of the Board meets regularly with the CEO, to undertake appraisal and to monitor objectives set by the Board. A closed meeting is held annually by the Board to review the performance of the CEO against these objectives. The pay of the Senior Management team is also reviewed against the NJC payscale and external benchmarking. The CEO undertakes an annual appraisal and regular supervision of the Management Team and discusses performance of the operational team with the Chair.
Stakeholder events have been held over the year where the trustees and staff have the opportunity to meet a range of stakeholders including foster carers, other charities and organisations who have an interest in Child Action Northwest. In addition, the operational managers are involved in several strategic planning groups across the region where there is an opportunity to contribute to developments that will be positive for its beneficiaries. A number of partnership arrangements are in place, supported by a Memorandum of Understanding, where direct services are delivered in line with the charitable objects. Over the past year, many of the external meetings have continued to be held remotely as it has been found to be an effective use of time. However key meetings have resumed to face to face following the lifting of all Covid 19 restrictions over the year.
The Board resumed Face to Face meetings in April 2022 with the opportunity for members to join remotely if circumstances prevented attendance physically. The Board has approved and reviewed the risk management processes to enable a return to ‘hybrid’ working. Research and consultation undertaken during the Covid 19 pandemic has provided organisational learning that time efficiencies could be made for some meeting attendance and the use of resources reduced for some meetings to remain virtual. Staff surveys have identified that hybrid working (attending office bases on certain days, not full time) were positive in creating and supporting a work life balance and allowed reduction of unnecessary travel to office bases.
## **2 Objectives and activities**
Child Action Northwest operates primarily in the Northwest of England, predominantly in Lancashire, Greater Manchester and surrounding area, including Cheshire East and Cumbria. For specific services the geographical delivery covers a wider footprint across the north and west of England. The Charity provides a broad range of services to support children, families and vulnerable adults, currently the work with vulnerable adults is primarily in the Criminal Justice service the Charity is actively reviewing opportunities to provide additional services where there is identified need. The region of operations is very diverse and includes areas of deprivation alongside affluent and prosperous areas. Across the region there is a general diversity within the population and the Charity monitors service delivery to ensure it is representative of the communities it serves.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
The charitable objects of Child Action Northwest are:
- To relieve support, assist, counsel or otherwise benefit children and young persons and the parents of such children and young persons who are in need of care and attention including (but not limited to) children and young persons involved in the provision of care for others;
- To relieve support, assist, counsel or otherwise benefit children and young persons who are disabled and in need of care and attention and the parents of such children and young persons;
- To relieve support, assist, counsel or otherwise benefit children and young persons who have learning difficulties and the parents of such children and young persons;
- To provide support, care and supervision for young persons and for mentally disordered or otherwise mentally vulnerable persons of any age arrested or being questioned by the police or any other prosecuting authority, remanded on bail by the police or a court or otherwise at risk of being remanded in custody including but not limited to by operation of a service providing appropriate adults to accompany such persons where provided for by law.
- To promote social inclusion for the public benefit by preventing people of all ages from becoming socially excluded, relieving the needs of those people who are socially excluded and assisting them to integrate into society.
For the purpose of this clause ‘socially excluded’ means being excluded from society, or parts of society, as a result of one of more of the following factors: unemployment; financial hardship; youth or old age; ill health (physical or mental); substance abuse or dependency including alcohol and drugs; discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, disability, ethnic origin, religion, belief, creed, sexual orientation or gender re-assignment; poor educational or skills attainment; relationship and family breakdown; poor housing (that is housing that does not meet basic habitable standards; crime (either as a victim of crime or as an offender rehabilitating into society).
Further to the Objects Child Action Northwest has the following powers;
- Provide homes according to the needs of any such children or young persons;
- Establish maintain and operate assisted community homes within the provision of the Children Act 1989 in accordance with the provisions of an Instrument of Management made by the Secretary of State for the Department of Health;
- Provide or assist in the provision of appropriate schooling and tuition and training for employment;
- Provide establish and maintain workshops, training, establishment camps, recreation grounds, farms and gardens.
- Promote, organise or otherwise be involved in the provision of foster care to children and young persons.
In pursuance of these objects CANW provides a range of services under the following headings:
- **Care & Accommodation** - Provide Foster Care and Supported Lodgings placements for children and young people who are unable to live within their own family network and provide leaving care support for young people who have been looked after by the Local Authority.
- **Targeted Early Support and Specialist Services (TESS)** - Provide a range of services in the community to support children, young people and families in partnership with a number of organisations including Schools, Youth Offending Teams, Local Authority Children’s Services, Health and the Police. To provide contact arrangements and advice and support for children whose families are separating.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
- **Central Support Services** - Supply Finance, Administration, Human Resource, Marketing and Business Development, Training and Development Services for staff, carers and volunteers, and Corporate Partnership, Fundraising and Communications to support the charity’s work.
Our Mission, Vision and Value statements drive our work, we are ambitious for the children and families we work with. Over the year we have reviewed and updated our Mission and Vision statements. We aim to inspire lives and change futures by looking beyond the obvious to understand and provide the support individuals need to reach their potential.
## **Mission**
The inequality that exists up and down the country means that many communities face complex challenges - simply getting by is tough. Our mission is to support children, adults and families across the country, ensuring that when life presents difficult circumstances, we’re there every step of the way to make sure they get the support they need. Inspiring lives, changing futures. Inspiring lives, changing futures.
## **Vision**
Our vision is that everyone gets the support they need, when they need it, to navigate the challenges they face in their day-to-day life.
## **Values**
- Never Give up - We have belief in the potential of ourselves and those we support and will do all we can to promote the ability in every individual for positive growth and change.
- Caring - We will always demonstrate kindness, consideration and concern for those around us.
- Empowerment - We will ensure that those we support and engage with are able to take more control of what happens in their lives and to become stronger, more independent and gain confidence.
Our values were agreed following consultation with the staff team, trustees and stakeholders, they inform our code of conduct and standards of behaviour expected across the charity. They are integral to our recruitment framework.
The Trustees confirm that they have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the Charity's aims and objectives and in planning its future activities.
The Charity’s Memorandum and Articles of Association permits the Board of Trustees to make financial investments of funds not immediately required for meeting the objectives of the organisation. In addition, the Articles of Association permits the Board of Trustees to make decisions on property owned, leased or rented by the Charity to further benefit its aims and objects.
Those funds not immediately required are placed in investments, securities or property as may be thought appropriate, subject to any legal requirements. The Charity’s investments have been acquired in accordance with this power. There are clear investment and reserve policies in place and a sub group reports to the Trustee Board all matters in relation to investment or property.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **Our People**
At Child Action Northwest we recognise that our dedicated staff and volunteers are our most valuable asset. As of 31 March 2023, we employed a total of 97 permanent staff members and 131 sessional workers, bringing the total workforce of the Charity to 228 staff.
The pandemic has continued to further impact upon volunteering at CANW and at the end of March 2023 we had 12 volunteers registered within 3 service areas in CANW, including Trustees. This amounted to a total of 838.33 volunteer hours from April 2022 – March 2023. If this contribution is equated to pay at the minimum wage of £9.50 per hour the financial value of this support to CANW is £7964.14.
Over the last 12 months the HR team have continued to fully support the staff team, and further refined processes in relation to hybrid working. Office working is now underway with a minimum expectation of office-based one to two days per week. Departments, teams and individual staff members have adapted well to the new way of working post-Covid and managers’ report no issues with productivity as a result of less ‘contact time’ with staff. Hybrid working has paved the way for creativity and innovation for departments and the wider organisations. Remote events are now scheduled in regularly to enable better cascading of information and visibility of the Senior Leadership Team. Examples of such meetings are monthly whole org, CANW Catch Ups and monthly, Meet the CEO sessions for onboarders.
PeopleHR, the new HR system, was rolled out from April 2022 and has been implemented with minimal teething problems. The system has been received positively by staff and has enabled HR to move away from many manual processes, including payroll, with easy access to reports and information. Staff have a range of selfservice options available to them and managers are able to manage their own recruitment, with automated sign off processes in place to ensure compliance.
During 22-23, HR have worked on updating the benefits and compensation package provided to staff. This included registering to become a Real Living Wage provider, to be implemented from April 2023. A full employee assistance programme, Unum Help@hand, has been implemented for all staff offering such services as counselling sessions, physiotherapy appointments and finance, lifestyle and wellbeing advice. BenefitsHub was also rolled out, offering discounted rates on shopping and recreational activities. HR have also been busy setting up the salary sacrifice Electric Vehicle scheme and also, Medicash –offering cashback for various health related appointments - for eligible members of staff.
## **3 Our Community Interest Company Canwe Solutions**
The Community Interest Company (CIC) is a trading arm of CANW whose surpluses are gift aided to the Charity to support its charitable work.
The Articles state;
The Company's object is to carry on activities which benefit the community and in particular (without limitation) to:
- operate as a social enterprise in conjunction with Child Action Northwest (Company number 00820660) which itself exists to meet the objects listed above;
To further meet the needs of the community the CIC will develop and provide a range of training, consultancy and contract services to the public and private sectors;
- provide work-based learning for young people in the North West;
- provide accredited training for young people in the North West;
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
- provide consultancy and training to other community interest and public benefit bodies to improve the effectiveness of their activities;
- obtain funding through commissions, contracts and (where appropriate) development grants with the purpose of generating income from its services to support the charity named in its Articles of Association and its work among the communities in the North West;
- deliver a range of services in furtherance of these objects and of the objects of the charity named in its Articles of Association, re-investing its surpluses, either directly in the social enterprise itself or in the charity named in its Articles of Association, for the benefit of young people throughout the North West.
## **4 Our Objectives and Achievements for 2022-23**
Child Action Northwest are one year into delivering a three-year strategy from 2022-2025 based on the following key areas.
**Growing our Impact and Innovation** – Address the increase in the need for our services through growth and operational excellence, delivering services that make a positive difference to life chances and by increasing the numbers of children and families accessing our services. We will identify and meet gaps in support needs to ensure those who need our services are able to access them in a timely manner.
**Operational Excellence** – That delivers the right support at the right time with the right outcome.
**Sustainability** – A stable, well governed and financially sustainable organisation that looks after its people and lives up to its values.
**Speak up and Speak out** – We will speak up and speak out about the inequities that affect the people we support.
The challenging operating environment over the last 12 months of increased need and reduced capacity, the impact of emerging from Covid 19 restrictions and the loss of the financial support provided, alongside the costof-living crisis has contributed to a significant end of year deficit position, with the further impact of loss of investment value to the uncertainty across world markets indicating that this level of challenge is likely to continue.
The group’s incoming resources for the year ended 31 March 2023 amounted to £5,958,945 and outgoing resources amounted to £6,346,359. The deficit reported during the year was £534,628 which included net realised and unrealised losses on investments of £147,214 (excluding dividend and other investment income). The operating deficit for the year was £387,414. The plan for the year was a deficit plan due the full year effect of the investment put into business development in 2021-22 and the challenges in continuing to deliver large, commissioned contracts particularly with the emerging cost of living crisis. This deficit plan was set by the Board in the context of the three to five year plan which would include steps to bring the financial position back to an underlying breakeven position. Moving into 2023/24, the board have agreed a reduced end of year deficit of 280k with a longer-term plan to move to break even and surplus position on a phased basis.
## **Achievements**
- Over the course of 2022/23 services across Child Action Northwest supported well in excess 15,000 children, young people and their families across the North-West and beyond.
- We continued to deliver outstanding Appropriate Adult support across Lancashire, Cumbria, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Durham and were success in our bid to renew our contract across Greater Manchester.
- We also consolidated and strengthened the support we offer to the community across Blackburn with Darwen, successfully bidding to renew our Statutory Reparation contract and rolling out a number of new programmes across the borough. This includes our Blackburn with Darwen Wellbeing Champions programme.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
- We were successful with a range of funding applications to delivery new programmes of support. This includes funding from the Dulverton Trust to develop a programme to support the emotional health and wellbeing of Young Farmers across the region, National Lottery Funding to deliver our Break the Cycle programme to young people released from police custody, and much more.
- Satisfaction levels were consistently high across all of our services with participants, commissioners and sub-contractors all reporting high levels of appreciation for our work. For instance, over 95% of custody staff (from over 200 responses) report that a) our Appropriate Adults are knowledgeable, b) our Appropriate Adults meet their expectations.
- Our Emotional Health and Wellbeing team also achieved positive outcomes for young people over the year with: 100% young people feeling listened to by their worker, 98% young people reporting a better understanding of Mental Health after the sessions, 99% of young people aged 4-11 said seeing a CANW practitioner helped them, 98% of parents would recommend CANW services to other people, 100% of referrers said they would use the CANW service again. These positive results were mirrored across our Young Carer team with 100% of young people reporting that the service had made a positive contribution to their caring role and that they were happy with the support received.
- Our Care and Accommodation team continued to work hard to support young people into suitable homes and provide ongoing support to both the young people and families they live with. We ended the year with 36 registered foster families (63 carers), including 4 new carers, and 41 young people in placements.
- Our ProContact team worked with over 1,000 parents across their Separated Parents Information Programme (SPIP) and Improving Child and Family Arrangements (ICFA). Despite the challenging nature of this work those who accessed the support of our team reported high levels of satisfaction, with our team rated on average 4.8/5 in terms of quality and our contact sessions rated 4.3/5. Pleasingly, 96% of parents who accessed our SPIP service said the sessions had helped them to develop their understanding of what their children need following parental separation.
- Operationally we have implemented a number of important systems to help the organisation to function more effectively, including SAGE (Finance System), PeopleHR, and HubSpot (CRM System).
- Following the challenges of Covid-19, 2022/23 saw the Business Development team start delivering a calendar of events for the first time in a number of years. The 2022 Orphanage Cup was a particular highlight as we saw 40 teams taking part, as was the Festive Fayre in early December that gave staff, their families and the local community the chance to come together at our Wilpshire Head Office and celebrate the start of the festive period.
## **5 Our Services**
Our Services are delivered through our Care and Accommodation services which focuses upon children who are or have been looked after by the Local Authority, and our Targeted Early Support Services (TESS), for children, families and disadvantaged adults living in the community.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **5.1 Care and Accommodation**
## **Description of Service**
The Care & Accommodation service comprises of a registered fostering service, a leaving care service and supported lodgings provision. The foster care service has been running for over 20 years and provides good quality foster homes for all the local authorities across the North West of England who ensure a sufficiency of placements for the children in their care. The service has up to 50 children living in its foster homes and operates a number of different fostering schemes to meet the varying needs of children. The ‘step-down’ fostering scheme operates for those young people who have been in residential care or who are on the cusp of residential care and this service is provided for young people across the region. The Opening Doors project provides therapeutic foster placements for young people with complex emotional needs across the region. In addition, the service provides short term and long-term foster homes for single children and sibling groups, plus a specialist provision for children with disabilities. The service has one Supported Lodging host who provides care for children moving on into independent living.
We work with young people from 0 to 18 years within the fostering service and up to age 25 in Supported Lodgings with the aim of providing stable home environments and support which enables young people to meet their potential and stay connected to the significant people in their lives. We are an inclusive service and tailor our care offers to meet the needs of the young people to help promote their identity and potential.
The service was inspected by Ofsted in January of 2020 and received an outcome of good across all areas with a judgement of Good.
The service offers an enhanced ‘Leaving Care’ service through grant funding that provides support and engages with young people and foster carers who are beginning to work towards independence. Further work is planned in developing this service over the next year.
## **Achievements over 2022-2023**
Over the last 12 months the service has reviewed salaries and the organisation has committed to paying the Living Wage to ensure that the charity remains an attractive and viable place to work. The service delivers training days, support and celebration events and face to face fostering panels which have assisted in keeping foster carers and staff connected and the Team CANW identity alive.
At the beginning of the year the service set key priorities for the growth and development of the service:
- **To continue to grow the service by the recruitment of new foster carers and the development of the service within geographic areas** - Over the last year 4 new foster carers were approved, bringing additional skills to the agency.
- **To continue to develop tailored support and provision to retain our current foster carers** - During the year, 5 carers left the service. Two carers retired and two families experienced changes in their personal circumstances with one carer moving to a closer agency in Cumbria. This meant that at the end of March 2023 we had 36 fostering households and 1 Supported Lodging household.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
- **Develop therapeutic fostering support that meets the assessed needs of the child** - During the year we worked closely with an independent Consultant Clinical Psychologist. Consultation and planning with foster carers and staff saw the creation of a model of therapeutic intervention which offered monthly peer learning workshops and 1-1 sessions for those carers offering placements to children with more complex emotional needs.
- **Consult with children, young people and families to drive service delivery and development** - The Carers WhatsApp group and Wednesday morning catch ups were successful during the year, enabling foster carers forming connections with other carers across a wider geographical spread. This enabled the development of group support connected to Autism and a platform to share knowledge and gain support. The young people’s activities resumed over the year and the November ‘Board of Trustees’ takeover made a welcomed return, where young people had the opportunity to share what is important to them and in return, they received a continued commitment from the board to develop the outdoor space.
## **Placements of young people.**
During the year 2022-23, the numbers of children benefiting from living in a fostering placement increased steadily with the initial 37 children increasing to 40 at the end of the year. 66 children have been cared for over the course of the year, an increase from the 63 children looked after in 2021-22. The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care (May 2022) note:
“We do not have enough foster carers. Over the last six years there has been a 4% increase in the number of approved foster carers, whilst the number of children living in foster care has increased by 11% over the same period (Ofsted, 2021b).76 Even though there are more approved foster carers than there are children in foster care, there are significant challenges in matching these foster families”
The service experienced 22 placement endings over the year, a decrease from the 24 endings experienced in 2021-22, with just 3 children experiencing unplanned endings.
## **Foster carers**
The engagement and involvement of foster carers has developed over the year, with active involvement in recruitment and promotion with involvement in a montage of videos aimed at informing and encouraging prospective new carers. The chief executive, to ensure that foster carers had their voice heard, began to undertake monthly home visits to acknowledge the need for the service to work together to overcome the staffing challenges. The feedback from these meetings suggests that the carers have united and are happy with the decision-making process and direction of the service.
45 enquiries were received in 2022-23, with 6 progressing through to an application.
No complaints have been raised by foster carers this year and feedback to date demonstrates that they feel listened to and well supported.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **Service Feedback**
Over the year we have received positive feedback from many people involved in the service:
**Foster Carers** - “We are 1000% happy with CANW and we know CANW is always there for us as we are for CANW. We confidently can say we gain experience daily and not only are we grateful for all the support and training, we are grateful and thankful to be a part of the amazing team.”
“The support groups, Whatsapp group and fostering team as a support system is really helpful, positive and keeps us informed, motivated and feeling valued.”
**LA Social Workers** - “During this review period, it is evident R & A go above and beyond to ensure A’s experience's similar opportunities as his peers.”
“During visits and A's participation in reviews it has been great to see A happy and proud of his progress, which is as a result of the high level of care afforded. It is evident R & A are child centred and it is evident A is central to their practice. Thank you for all your dedication and hard work, it is appreciated.”
“Really good communication”
“Always share information in a timely minor” “No concerns with your service”
Education Provider - “M and D are very lucky to have A and S, there is no doubt that this should be a long-term placement. The children are thriving in their care.”
Young person - “My foster carers are always there when I need to talk, and they give me good advice”
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **5.2 Targeted Early Support and Specialist Services (TESS)**
TESS services provide support to children, families and communities across Blackburn, Lancashire, Cumbria and Greater Manchester. The Appropriate Adult service is also delivered in County Durham. A wide range of services are provided including Emotional Health and Wellbeing, Family Support, Criminal Justice, Youth Support and Social Inclusion, and support in Employment and Education. The service is delivered under the management of a Strategic Director, with Service Managers based in the localities.
The service area raises income primarily through providing commissioned services on behalf of the Local Authority and grant funding.
Between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023 the following services were provided:
## **5.3 ProContact**
ProContact enables contact and reduces parental conflict. Families are usually in private court proceedings and have had a breakdown in child arrangements. ProContact opened in 1999 and joined CANW in 2014. Improving Child and Family Arrangements (ICFA) and Contact Services support families with sustainable child arrangements. ICFA makes recommendations to help families move forward. Contact Services often reestablishes contact. Separated Parents Information Programme (SPIP) aims to improve co-parenting. ICFA operates across the North and West with nine subcontractors. SPIP operates across Cumbria, Lancashire, and part of Greater Manchester with three subcontractors. Contact Services operates from CANW Bolton and CANW Wilpshire.
ProContact works with children of all ages and parents. ProContact works with all genders and ethnicities.
The service delivered two contracts with Cafcass to deliver the Improving Child and Family Arrangements Service (ICFA) in the North and West of England over the year. ICFA is a service to help families agree safe, beneficial, and sustainable ‘spending time with’ arrangements when they are finding it difficult to do so on their own. The ICFA work is short term, and a referral can only be made by Cafcass and if it is court ordered. The ICFA includes 9 sub-contracted partners who have all been supported in their practice to achieve outcomes for children.
The ICFA programme aims:
- To reduce barriers and resistance to agreeing arrangements and manage any risks so that these are safe.
- To promote positive communication within families.
- To ensure children’s wishes and feelings are heard and considered.
- To help families agree a Parenting Plan to avoid future issues arising.
**ICFA North** covers working with families in Cumbria, Darlington, Durham, Humberside, Lancashire, Northumbria, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Teesside, Tyneside, West Yorkshire, York.
**ICFA West** covers working with families in Birmingham, the Black Country, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Herefordshire, Merseyside, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **Service achievements and outcomes 2022-2023**
- ICFA North – we had 239 referrals and subcontractors had 160 referrals.
- ICFA North (CANW) worked with 262 families
- ICFA West – we had 230 referrals and subcontractors had 244 referrals.
- ICFA West (CANW) - worked with 249 families
## **Outcomes and Impact of the Service**
- ICFA North and ICFA West, CANW and Subcontractors - 59% of parents said their parenting plan had improved compared to a national score of 47%.
- ICFA North and ICFA West, CANW and Subcontractors - 70% of parents said the communication had improved compared to a national score of 57%.
- ICFA North and ICFA West, CANW and Subcontractors - 56% of parents said their focus on their child’s needs, wishes and feeling had improved compared to a national score of 48%.
## **Feedback and Quotes**
- ICFA North Referrer – “*STAFF* pulled out all the stops in getting the parents to engage and in developing a plan”.
- ICFA West Referrer – “The assessment was thorough, and the outcome was positive. Both parents gave positive feedback about the ICFA service”.
- ICFA West quote from child - “The places where we met were perfect.”
- ICFA West quote from adult - “It was very helpful and has helped move things on to gain a better relationship with my daughter. Staff who was involved in the case was very helpful hard working and understanding thank you very much”
- ICFA North quote from parent - “We met over video call and then met face to face at a park where contact was taking place. I felt so at ease and reassured that my daughter would feel safe and comfortable with seeing her father for the first time in 3 years.”
## **The Separated Parents Information Programme (SPIP)**
Is a service to help separated parents, or those who have responsibility for children, to better understand and respond differently to conflict and communication. The 4-hour programme encourages separated parents to behave in the best interests of their children and to become clearer about what their children need most from them. The programme also equips parents with skills to take steps for themselves; this may include developing agreements that do not need court intervention. Most parents who have attended a SPIP found the programme positive, and all wished that they had attended much earlier.
SPIP took place across Cumbria, Lancashire and Greater Manchester and benefitted hundreds of children by their parent’s attendance.
## **Service Achievements**
- SPIP – we worked with 794 parents and subcontractors worked with 351 parents.
- SPIP – we delivered 3 face to face sessions within the reporting period to help parents with accessibility issues
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **Outcomes and Impact of the Service**
The service has been able to provide positive outcomes across its delivery areas:
- SPIP - 96% of parents who attended SPIP with CANW said they learnt things on SPIP that may help their understanding of what children need after their parents separate.
- 93% of parents who attended SPIP said that they had learnt ways to improve their co-parenting relationship.
- 96% of parents who attended SPIP said that they had improved their understanding of what children need after their parents separate?
- SPIP - 97% of parents rated the trainer that ran the SPIP with CANW as 4 or 5 out of 5
- SPIP 91% of parents said that attending SPIP said that by attending the programme there would be a positive impact on their family, community and wider society.
- 88% of children answered yes to – Now that you have been to Pro Contact, CANW, do you think your parents are working together better?
## **Feedback and quotes**
- Quote from parent - _My experience was a positive one and the course was very insightful, and I learnt a lot from it and can take away a lot of positive things that can lead to better way of dealing with situations that my occur whilst co-parenting._
- Quote from parent – _Course was informative and helped a lot_
- Quote from parent – _The trainer was brilliant. They helped us understand how the way we were was having a negative impact on the children_
## **Contact Services**
Contact Services has three services areas. Supervised Contact is delivered in CANW Bolton and CANW Wilpshire and usually supports families who are in private law proceedings but also has referrals from Children’s Social Care for out of area public law cases. Indirect Contact supports families across the country who require letterbox support where parents write to children, and we act as the third party to pass these on. Video contact supports families across the country who need support with having video calls and we supervise this contact.
## **Service Achievements**
- We worked with 16 families in CANW Wilpshire providing contact services to 19 children and young people
- We worked with 91 families in CANW Bolton providing contact services to 103 children and young people
## **Outcomes and impact from the service**
- How would you rate the supervised contact sessions? Parents rated this 4.2 out of 5
- • Do you think the sessions have helped? Parents rated this as 4.3 out of 5
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **Ambition for the coming year**
We will continue to develop the ICFA service. We will mobilise the Planning together for Children service (replaces SPIP). We will grow the Contact Services offer with financially viable services.
- To ensure ICFA is delivered with a financially sustainable envelope
- To secure ICFA contract extension for year 4
- To develop appropriate feedback mechanisms to capture the voice of the child
- To secure 1 LA contact service contract
- To effectively mobilise and deliver PTC, ensuring operational quality and financial efficiency
- To develop our contact services offer including supported contact and supported handover
## **5.4 CANW Young Carers Service**
## **About the Service**
Child Action Northwest’s Young Carers Service supports young carers aged 5-18. Young carers are children and young people who are looking after a parent or sibling with an illness or disability, mental health problems or alcohol/substance misuse issues. Our aim is to look at how to reduce a Young Carers caring role; signposting families to appropriate services; moving Young Carers onto Universal Services once their intervention is complete.
CANW is commissioned to deliver the young carers service in Blackburn with Darwen.
According to the last Census, there were an estimated 1543 Young Carers in BwD alone. Our aim is to continue to find these hidden Young Carers in order to provide support to them and their families.
We have seen a significant increase in the number of Young Carers referrals over the last year. With the Young Carers school work, we are confident that Young Carers can be found sooner so that earlier interventions can be offered in order that Young Carers and their families receive the appropriate support at the right time.
## **Service achievements**
The service has continued to see an increased need for support for Young Carers and their families. Over a 12month period:
- 147 new referrals, with 36 referrals received on average each Quarter.
- 294 Young Carers registered within our service.
- 179 Young Carers - White British, 98 families from a Black or Minority Ethnic Background, with an additional 17 families from other groups.
- 23 young Carers were involved in the infant ‘Superstars’ group – aged 5-7
- 229 young carers were aged 8-15 years
- 42 young adult carers (YAC) were aged 16-18 years
- 127 were male and 167 were female
- A face to face 8-week Infant Young Carers Programme in place for those aged 5-7 – 18 sessions
- A face to face 10-week Young Carers Programme in place for those aged 8-15. 42 sessions were held across the year for this cohort;
- Regular social events were held for the ‘Young Adult Carers’ aged 16-18 which included monthly pizza night catch ups, walk and talks in the park, trips out to venues such as the Bowling, etc;
- Provision of a 3- or 6-week therapeutic programme within school clusters – 36 cyp accessed sessions
- • The service’s Therapeutic Practitioner has worked alongside the Young Carers Schools Link Worker to support all 87 schools across Blackburn with Darwen in order to roll out the Young Carers in School (YCiS) programme
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **Outcomes and Impact**
- 100% of those that we supported were in some form of education, training or employment.
- 100% of those that attended our 8 or 10-week programmes stated that their awareness of keeping safe had increased through the workshops on First Aid and Fire Safety, etc;
- 100% of those that attended our 8 or 10-week programmes stated that their awareness of keeping healthy had increased through the workshops;
- 98% of those we supported said they felt more confident in their caring role
- 100% said they knew where to turn to for help when required
The service has been able to demonstrate wider impact through its involvement with The Children’s Society Young Carers programme that is providing additional support and training in the Blackburn with Darwen area and through partnership work with Voluntary Sector partners.
We have helped Young Carers tackle the cost of living with the Vodafone UK campaign #everyoneconnected to reduce digital poverty in the UK. Our Young Carers were donated SIM cards that allowed free data, phone calls and text messages for 6 months. This initiative has helped to tackle digital exclusion, supporting those experiencing financial hardship due to the rising cost of living.
Following YC being referred into our Young Carers Service, here are their results following our intervention:
We have supported young carers to share their voice to facilitate change in local and national initiatives, for example;
## **The Children’s Society:**
The BwD YC Service was one of 5 Young Carers services chosen to partake in Phase 2 of the Co-Op funding Project via The Children’s Society. This phase involved developing a National Participation Young Carers Group, with the focus on reducing isolation and loneliness amongst young carers and how we could better identify and support those young carers.
The three areas that were suggested by the Young Carers who attended the Participation group were:
- 1.Young Carers’ mental well being
- 2.Young Carers and school
- 3.Young Carers and doctors/health professionals
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **Feedback and quotes**
When asked: how has the Eric Wright Community Trust helped you with therapeutic support, one Young Carer wrote:
‘ _N has really helped me a lot with the therapy sessions she has provided me with. This has helped with dealing with stress levels during school hours and also helping cope at home, as well N has done an amazing job helping me by coming into school and sitting with me and talking to me and making me feel better. I always looked forward to seeing N as she helped me talk things through. I really appreciated her support, thanks N!’_
BBC Radio Lancashire Make a Difference awards:
Our Young Carer, Mehak, aged 15, was awarded BBC Radio Lancashire’s ‘Highly Commended Carer Award 2022’. We are incredibly proud of her every day in the challenging role she has but these awards provide recognition and awareness to many hidden young carers.
Mehak has a lot of passion about helping others. She has overcome and continues to overcome so many obstacles in her life.
Young Carer _- “You have helped me by making me realise I am not alone in caring for someone. There’s others like me. Also, I learnt about mental health and how to help myself and cope with my emotions. So, thank you!”_
Parent - _“Thank you for all you’ve done for us. We can’t thank you enough!”_
Commissioner _- “The service continues to provide invaluable support to young carers in BwD. WEW have nothing but praise for all they do”_
## **Ambitions for 2022-2023:**
- We will explore further opportunities to meet increasing need of hidden young carers
- We will develop a community-based family support offer for families not currently accessing statutory services
- Develop quality assurance processes for all stakeholders ensuring feedback shapes practice
- Continuing to ensure that our young people have a voice that informs change, locally, regionally and nationally
-22-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **5.5 Emotional Health and Wellbeing Services (EHWB)**
The Emotional Health and Wellbeing (EHWB) Service provides therapeutic interventions to children and young people, their families, and adults across Lancashire, including Blackburn with Darwen, South Cumbria and Greater Manchester. The Service is delivered by a dedicated team of counsellors, play therapists and therapeutic practitioners, via a blended offer of face to face, remote, 1-1 and groupwork interventions which are tailored to the needs of the individual. Working in collaboration and partnership with statutory and voluntary organisations, the EHWB Service aims to develop mental health awareness, improve resilience, build on strengths, and achieve positive and sustainable outcomes.
**Lancashire County Council Emotional Health and Wellbeing Early Support Service** – a partnership with 10 partner agencies offering time limited interventions to children and young people aged between 4 and 19 years (25 Special Educational Needs (SEND)). This project covers East, Central, and North Lancashire (excluding Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool) and works in partnership with the Children and Family Wellbeing Service supporting children and young people via an Early Help Offer.
**Commissioned School Service** – a bespoke service funded by schools across Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen, Cumbria and Greater Manchester delivering therapeutic support to children and young people aged 4- 18 years facilitated by 1-1, group work or drop-in support services.
**Children in Care Pilot Project (Our Voice) -** a 12-month pilot programme, funded by NHS Lancashire & South Cumbria (LSC) Integrated Care Board to offer a therapeutic support package to Children in Care, including 1-1 and group support sessions, diversionary activities to support children and young people, their foster families and birth families. The aim of this project is to gather data to measure the effectiveness of the interventions, and to support children and young people to build resilience.
**Bolton Together** - commissioned by the Bolton Together consortium to provide 1-1 and family support to children aged between 4 -8 years, support offered to parents and carers to enable a sustainable intervention.
**Young Farmers Project-** funded by various grant funding applications and benefactors to support young farmers (10-25yrs) and their families to raise awareness of common mental health issues building resilience and strategies to manage mental health and promote effective and healthy coping strategies.
**Think Family** – funded by Blackburn with Darwen this is a 6-week therapeutic group work programme for parents in Blackburn with Darwen aimed at raising parents’ self-awareness to improve relationships and build resilience, self-confidence, and self-esteem.
**Healthy Thinking for Me! Project** - consortium partnership providing a 6-8 week therapeutic 1-1 or group work intervention to young people aged 12-18 years in Central and East Lancashire offering early support and prevention around negative eating patterns.
**SPACE (Supporting Parents & Carers Emotionally)** a 12-month project, consortium funded to facilitate a peer support group for parents and carers across Lancashire, the aim of this project is to improve strategies and community support engagement for parents and carers of children and young people experiencing common mental health issues.
**NHS IAPT Trainee programme** – Working in continued partnership with health services to increase workforce skills in the Mental Health Sector, we are a recognised host for Children and Young People’s Wellbeing Practitioners (CYWP), providing opportunity this year for six trainees who completed their training successfully.
**Student Pathway** – supporting professional development in the EHWB Sector offering Student Placements.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **Service Achievements over 2022-2023**
The service set objectives for the year 2022-23 including;
- Continue to deliver services in current operational areas- The EHWB team continue to deliver services in Lancashire, Greater Manchester, and Blackburn with Darwen.
- Determine new service delivery areas- The EHWB service has developed new partnerships and services and are now delivering across rural Lancashire, a new project in Bolton (Greater Manchester) and new projects in East Lancashire.
- Additional work/service development -The EHWB service offers a hybrid approach to children, young people and families, which has a positive impact by reducing barriers to support and providing continuity. New projects and programmes have been delivered with the ability to offer remotely or face to face, there has been an increase in the numbers of CYP presenting with anxiety since the beginning of the pandemic.
## **Service Outputs and Outcomes**
Over the year the service has worked with 1,561 young people and 41 adults (IAPT + Spot Purchase Adults + Think Family), delivering 14,170 young people's sessions across all young people services and 103 adult sessions. The EHWB partnership has received 1666 referrals. In addition, the service has supported 24 schools through Service Level Agreements.
As part of our ambition to involve stakeholders in the continual shaping of services we encourage feedback on the success of our projects. This is to help us understand what difference our delivery makes to the lives of those we support. Our respondents have informed us:
- 100% young people felt listened to by their worker – (young people 12+)
- 98% young people reported a better understanding of Mental Health after the sessions
- 99% of young people aged 4-11 said seeing a CANW practitioner helped them
- 98% of parents would recommend CANW services to other people
- 100% of referrers said they would use the CANW service again
We have a commitment to continue consultation and involve young people’s voice in the shaping of mental health services both internally and externally.
Children, young people, and parents have reported that they have seen an improvement in mental and emotional health and increased awareness of mental health following an intervention. Teachers and parents report an improvement in the child/young person's ability to regulate their emotions.
Following the feedback of a group of parents who had successfully completed the Think Family therapeutic group, a peer support group has been established; each parent completing the group is offered the opportunity to attend the peer support group and meet with parents who have previously completed the programme. This has been agreed and arranged in partnership with BwD commissioners of the Think Family group.
As a result of additional funding during the pandemic the team have co-designed resource packs which are given to children, young people or families at the end of an intervention or whilst waiting for an intervention to begin.
## **Feedback**
Our feedback is collated using verbal, digital and written platforms. Examples of quotes from stakeholders:
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
- _I’ve been able to explore my feelings and emotions with practitioner that I wouldn’t have been able to share with anyone else. (Young Person Oct 2022 Age 12)_
- _These sessions have left me uplifted in my mental health and personality. The sessions have made me feel much more listened to and not ignored. (Young Person Jan 2023 Age 13)_
- _The counselling has helped me. I was nervous when I first came but now, I feel fine and find it helpful with my autism. I can talk about any problems I have, and this helps me (Young Person March 2023 Age 12)_
- _Child action northwest have helped my children realise that the trauma they have endured is not normal. CANW have helped my children open up and talk openly about their experiences instead of bottling these feelings up. (Parent Feb 2023)_
- _To give the worker the recognition he deserves, he is absolutely amazing and kind and even though he wasn't there for me as such he was there to listen about my worries and helped my child and I a lot (Parent Sept 2022)_
- _Great service and vital in supporting children (Referrer Jan 2023)_
## **Ambition for the coming year**
We have identified a growing need for our emotional health and wellbeing services, and we plan to continue to grow and develop sustainable services for children, young people and families through the year by:
- Increasing participation and engagement of children and young people in the co-design of our EHWB projects.
- Continuing to develop and retain a highly skilled staff team through the development of training packages and hosting students and trainees.
- To ensure all projects have robust quality assurance and data is gathered to measure impact we have with the communities we support.
- To retain our Investors in Children Award
- To continue to develop our digital and remote offer to meet the needs of children, young people and families increasing access to engagement.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **5.6 Criminal Justice Services**
## **Appropriate Adult Service**
The role of the appropriate adults is to safeguard the interests, rights, entitlements and welfare of children and vulnerable adults who are suspected of a criminal offence, ensuring that they are treated in a fair and just manner and are able to contribute effectively. Children are aged between 10 and 17 years of age.
The service covers a wide area -
- PAN Cheshire (Children only – 9am to midnight)
- County Durham (Children & Vulnerable Adults - 24/7)
- Cumbria (Children & Vulnerable Adults - 24/7)
- Derbyshire (Children & Vulnerable Adults - 24/7)
- Greater Manchester (Children & Vulnerable Adults - 9am to midnight)
- PAN Lancashire (Children & Vulnerable Adults - Children 9am to midnight – Adults 24/7)
## **Service achievements and outcomes**
The AA service has been successful in developing its services over the period, successfully retaining commissions for its existing AA service in Greater Manchester. The service delivers child focused services and we have supplied custody suites with distraction items including chalk, paint and pens, some soft footballs, colouring books and pens, reading books and snap cards. This has all been well received from the Custody Staff and made a positive difference to those detained. All Lancashire custody suites have received boxes of children’s books to allow those detained something to keep them occupied, the books were donated by Holy Cross High School, Chorley when they renewed their library stock.
Throughout the year the service has continued to attend all existing commissioning and quarterly partnership meetings. These meetings have included Custody Review Meetings in all Geographic areas which attended by the Police, Youth Justice Services managers, Children Social Care, Liaison and Diversion and speech and language practitioners. The meetings enable a review of the children detained in Custody and identify best practice and areas for improvement.
The Head of Service has also been involved in Custody innovation meetings across all areas to improve and develop the Custody offer with an aim to making the Custody suites a more child friendly and improved trauma informed custody environments. Also attending all National Appropriate Adult Network (NAAN) board meetings and NAAN member meetings to keep updated to any changes in legislation and to share best practice
Feedback is obtained in all areas by using a QR Code and has proven to be a very successful addition to the service, allowing custody professionals to feedback directly to the service privately.
- When asked if our AA’s arrive in good time 88% said always and 12% said yes mostly.
- How knowledgeable are our AA’s – Graded 4.88 out of 5.
- Do our AA’s meet your expectations – Graded 4.95 out of 5.
- Total referral numbers – 16,266, an increase from the previous year of 4,795 equating to a 42% increase.
- Referrals for Children was 5,518 against the period of 2021 – 2022 was 3,978 this is an increase of 28%.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
- Referrals for Vulnerable Adults was 10,948 against the period of 2021 – 2022 was 8,042 this is a percentage increase of 26.5%.
- Carried out a total of 121 visits to projects across the borough
- Completed 363 hrs of community reparation
- • Completed 140 hrs of unpaid work
## **Outcomes and impact of the service.**
- Children and Vulnerable Adults have spent less time in Custody due to the efficiency of the service. 100% of referrals were acknowledged by the AA contacting Custody within 15 minutes of accepting the referral.
- 99% of all referrals were responded to within 1 hour, the National Appropriate Adult Network guidance is 2 hours.
- 100% of all Outcome Forms were shared with the relevant authorities.
- 100% of all Safeguarding issues were identified and shared with relevant agencies.
## **Ambition for 2023-2024**
- Continue to deliver existing services meeting contractual expectations
- Secure 1 new AA service, further developing our geographic footprint and service offer
- Continue to respond to referrals 98% of the time within 2 hours
- Develop and pilot PACE bed offer
## **5.7 Statutory Reparation**
This service is commissioned by Blackburn with Darwen and its remit is to work with young people in the community through a multi-agency approach, whereby agencies work in partnership to deliver an integrated service. The service delivers community reparation, through unpaid work and a mentoring scheme. Young people who offend are supported to change their behaviour and encouraged to make amends. One of the ways that young people can make amends is to carry out reparation either directly to the victim or, when this is not possible or practical, to the community. The service has been operating with Working with Young people on statutory court orders who attend our Reparation Service for the last 15 years.
## **Service achievements over the year**
- 27 young people were referred into the scheme
- 26 of those accessing the service received an ASDAN award - 2 of which gained Gold awards
- 7 additional delivery locations secured
- 100% stakeholder satisfaction achieved throughout the reporting year
- Investing in Children accreditation secured
## **Outcomes and impact**
- Reduction of homelessness – 2 people accessing the service have renovated and moved into property
- Renovated external communal space – increasing community engagement and participation
- 96% of those attending the service identified their self-esteem had increased
- 100% reduction in reduction in criminal behaviour in thos accessing the service
- For those accessing education 97% continued to actively engage
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
- 100% of those who engaged said their confidence had increased and felt more comfortable in seeking employment
## **Feedback**
Host feedback Greensleeves: Hazel - Ruth: _‘We really can’t thank you enough for all the support you and the young people have given to our community garden, and it is really taking shape and hopefully it will be enjoyed by all the local community for years to come’_
Feedback Host Nightsafe N R: _“Your services have been invaluable, and we can’t thank the young people who worked here enough they’ve been fantastic and what a result, it really has transferred the place. If it wasn’t for services like yourselves, we would not be anywhere, and this will make a real difference to those vulnerable people that we work with. Many thanks.”_
Host feedback: Elaine head of business development - _“What a difference you and the young people have made with the shop it has really transformed the front. We can’t thank you enough and when the tiles are completed it will look like a brand-new outlet, thanks from everyone at Age UK”_
Public/community feedback - _“Thank you for carrying out the clear up it looks so nice not having litter and weeds all around the area and if any of the young people would like to help on weekends, we do have weddings and they can support us any time”_
## **Ambitions for 2023-2024**
- Continue to deliver Statutory Reparation across Blackburn with Darwen, supporting CYPs as directed by BwD YJS
- Identify additional indoor and outdoor space to strengthen delivery offer, linking in with local communities and community leaders to promote and raise awareness of service.
- Develop partnerships within the Black and Minority Ethnic community
- Develop and deliver a mentoring and befriending programme to offer additional support to the YJS delivery practitioners
- Recruit volunteers to assist with delivery and offer further support when 2 to 1 engagement is required
- Following participation with the CYPs, be innovative to develop more activities and programmes
## **5.8 Invest in Youth**
Invest in Youth is a project aimed at engaging and inspiring the most disengaged young people resident in the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership (LEP) area. It works with 15–24-year-olds who are unemployed or economically inactive with multiple social, emotional and economic barriers. These young people are faced with a confusing environment of challenges including intergenerational unemployment, poverty, benefit dependency, low skills and lack of employment experience and they often live in communities with few working role models. Invest in Youth supports young people who are aged 15–24 and who are not in education, employment, or training (NEET) and young people aged 15–18 at risk of becoming NEET. These young people will experience multiple and complex barriers to employment. The service has been operating since 2016 and finished as of March 31[st] , 2023.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **Achievements 2022-23**
Between April 2022 and March 2023, the IIY has supported 45 Young People with 15 of those successfully moving into education and/or training and 6 into meaningful employment.
Participants have been supported on a 1:1 basis in a variety of settings such as home & community centres, as well as focussing on getting participants back into education, training or employment the project also helped the participants overcome their initial barriers such as supported housing, opening a bank account or attending short courses in small settings as many participants struggle to face large crowds, this allows the participant to sustain any hard outcome.
The project met targets for Phase 2 and was funded for the final Phase 3 which will take the project to year end, March 2023. The project recruited 3 new members of staff in 2022 to meet the demands of the service and KPI’s set as per service level agreement.
Several objectives were set at the beginning of the year, and these were progressed throughout the period.
- Continuing to develop quality person-centred support to vulnerable young people and adults – The remote working was designed around individual needs and ensured that the service was able to continue to focus on specific needs.
- Forging links with new organisations and services by promoting the Invest in Youth model – partnerships continued to grow throughout the pandemic, in particular with the Blackburn with Darwen borough as this is a new geographical area for the service to deliver, the service has built up good relationships with BwD Job Centre and attend weekly transforming lives panel meetings with professionals from external agencies with BwD.
- Developing specific trauma informed approaches to support – C.B.T. practitioner delivering within the B.B.O. service in addition to Emotional Therapeutic Support.
- Working more closely with the Criminal Justice Service team developing a referral pathway into the BBO project from this service – This is embedded and on-going with the Invest in Youth Service.
- Developing new approaches to support participants and those affected by COVID 19 by offering a blended service including face 2 face, telephone, groups sessions and virtual.
- Develop relationships with external agencies by presenting the services on offer – invest in Youth & CANW as organisation. Examples are;
- Prince's trust
- Educational establishments
- Youth Justice Services
- Local Authorities
- Third sector organisations
- Health & Well-Being providers
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **Outcomes and Impact**
The Invest in Youth Service has supported young people to make significant progress over the last year, and over 90% of the participants on the programme have been actively engaged in the support offered. Some of the key outcomes and achievements include:
- 6% secured employment
- 33% went into education and or training
- 51% of those participants said they had increased confidence
- 55% said they felt more positive about their future
- 29% Said they felt a better about their loneliness and self-isolation
- • 60% said they felt their needs had been listened to
By supporting participants with their barriers or complex needs – participants have been able to:
- Secure Employment / Training or Education
- Move into supported Living
- Secure their own tenancy
- Improved confidence & well-being
- Volunteering
## **Case Study**
## **Background:**
_Owen was referred into the Invest in Youth project during lockdown in August 2021. Owen was referred from New Direction in Blackburn, for needing support with Low Confidence due to his weight and Anxiety._
_Owen was very difficult to engage with at first and struggled to express himself initially I had to have a 3-way conversation and get some information from his mother who helped to express what Owen wanted to get across_
_After discussing Owen’s main barriers, we devised an Action Plan which consisted of;_
- _Therapeutic Support from CANW – Emotional Therapeutic Support_
- _Help or support to lose weight_
- _Attend college but only in small group settings_
_From his Life Circle - Owen said he enjoyed cooking as well as playing video games on his P.C._
## _**Engagement:**_
_Engagement with Owen was always over the phone as he would not leave the house due to his anxiety and low confidence. During the telephone appointments Owen would be on his P.C. (gaming) and his answers where often ‘What’ ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. I was persistent with Owen and didn’t want to give up and after a few phone calls he eventually answered the phone to me directly rather than me going via his mum to speak to me - this was good progress._
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## _**Actions taken:**_
_The first steps were to make a referral to CANW’s Emotional Therapeutic Support (E.T.S.) to help address the issue of Owen’s anxiety._
_In the early stages we looked at a short health and fitness course that was put on by the Prince’s Trust, but this was too much for Owen initially and he wanted to focus on doing something that involved cooking as this is his passion._
_Owen wanted to wait for his E.T.S. sessions to start first before doing a course and his preference was small class sizes due to his anxiety. As his E.T.S. sessions went on we explored several options including an apprenticeship with Gregs bakers but Owen wanted to do Maths and English also so we explored North Lancs Training Group in Accrington that could offer a course in employability and then training in small class sizes of around 8 students, and he would do his Maths and English alongside this. Owen was keen on this and we applied for the course._
_Owen’s mum took him to the interview as he was still anxious and would not go alone, Owen said “I was really anxious about going and felt sick inside but felt better after being shown around”. Owen started off doing small taster sessions so he could get used to his new surroundings and then went on to enrol in August. I met Owen after he enrolled at North Lancs Training and he had a full-on conversation with me and said, “Thank You Carl – I couldn’t have done it without you”. I said to Owen that he met me halfway and to give himself some credit. Owen said he can now look at people in the eye when they talk to him and he answers back with more than ‘what, yes or no’. Owen is also looking at doing some work experience and North Lancs Training will help find him a work placement._
_I gave Owen a lift home and his mum said he has come on leaps and bounds. He now accompanies her when she goes food shopping and has dropped 3 clothes sizes since starting North Lancs Training. Owen said he has a younger brother (aged 13) who is going the same way he did and that he won’t leave the house and does his school lessons via virtual learning, so Owen is going to help his little brother._
_To encourage Owen even more the project has given Owen a Steps Count Watch._
## **Testimonial**
_I can now look at people in the eye when they talk to him and I can answer back with more than “what, yes or no” and I can have a conversation with them now._
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **6 Business Development, Fundraising and Communications**
## **6.1 Business Development**
The Business Development Team is primarily responsible for supporting sustainability and growth of the CANW service offer, through income generation, inclusive of submitting high quality proposals in response to tender and grant opportunities, fundraising and community engagement, ensuring brand compliance and supporting a high level of marketing activity.
## **Key responsibilities:**
- To respond to all relevant tender opportunities in line with organisational aims
- To ensure a pipeline of grant/charitable trust applications supporting identified service objectives
- To grow and expand the charities charitable income to support the enhancement of our core offer
- To support the increase of independent income through compliant corporate, fundraising and community engagement
- To ensure the organisation has a strong brand and clear messages communicated to a wide range of stakeholders both internal and external
The team are also responsible for supporting Quality Assurance and associated accreditation.
## **Income in 2022/23**
Business Development and Fundraising continued to be challenging throughout 22/23 as the new team continued to take shape and evolve and as the cost-of-living crisis made it more difficult to raise voluntary income. Despite this, 22/23 saw the team achieve a number of notable successes, including securing multi-year Patronage from a variety of businesses and philanthropists, successful grant applications to a range of grant makers, and several successful submissions for public sector contracts (both for new services and to renew existing contracts.
Some specific highlights from the last year include:
- The team ran another very successful Orphanage Cup football tournament with 40 teams from across Lancashire and Greater Manchester taking part.
- The team launched the first ever Junior Orphanage Cup, with 16 teams taking part in a tournament on the same day as the adults final at AFC Darwen.
- We were once again delighted to be supported by the local Wilpshire community, businesses, schools and community groups over the Easter and Christmas periods, with well over 400 Easter Eggs and 600 presents being donated to the charity. As with Easter, this meant that every young person (and many parents) were able to open a gift from CANW on Christmas morning. Napthens PLC chose CANW as their charity of choice for the annual toy appeal as well as sponsoring our Christmas fair, Barton Grange chose CANW as one of their chosen charities for their Christmas appeal and let us borrow their Santa for the day at the Christmas fair, and many others supported in a range of ways.
- 2022/23 saw the team start to seek multi-year funding commitments from Major Donors and were delighted to confirm Patronage from Roger Dugdale and Blackburn Chemicals. Both of whom have committed to 3 and 5 years support respectively.
- Despite having no fundraiser in post for 6 months, CANW continued to receive strong fundraising support from the local community, with over £40,000 being raised from these sources. Organisations like DHL Saffran, Napthens, Forbes Solicitors, Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, and the South Lancashire Caravan Centre raised money for us throughout the year.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
Over the next twelve months, the team will continue to focus on Fundraising alongside Grant and Tender applications, but with important strategic changes in approach and increased focus on corporate and community fundraising.
## **New Contracts in 2022/23**
- Blackburn with Darwen Wellbeing Champions
- Blackburn with Darwen Statutory Reparation
-
- Outwood Grange Student Coaching and Wellbeing Framework
- Greater Manchester Appropriate Adult contract
- White Rose Foster Care Framework
## **New Grants in 2022/23**
- Eric Wright Charitable Trust – Young Carers - £25,000
- Eric Wright Charitable Trust – Core Costs and Additional Donation - £30,000
- KFC – Young Carers - £2,000
- Lancashire Police and Crime Commissioner – Social Inclusion - £10,000
- Arnold Clark Community Fund – ProContact - £1,000
- Duchy of Lancaster – Young Farmers - £5,000
- Dulverton Trust – Young Farmers - £50,000
- Greenspaces – Outdoor Space - £3,935
## **Business Development Objectives 2023/24**
**High volume, low value community and corporate fundraising:** Focus on using our range of warm prospects, specifically schools, local businesses and community groups to generate a large number of fundraising activities that each generate a minimum of £250. In many cases, especially with businesses, the amount raised will far exceed this.
**Target driven approach to both activity and income:** Develop clear financial targets for all fundraising activity, clear KPIs focused on activities, detailed action plans, and clear reporting processes and dashboards that make it easy to monitor performance, assess what is or isn’t working and report on all to the board and SLT
**Lean but focused calendar or events:** Deliver an events calendar that 1) provides a strong return on investment/profit, 2) provides excellent cultivation and engagement opportunities to current donors and prospects, and 3) provides opportunities for our beneficiaries to get involved.
**High quality cultivation, engagement, thanks to prospects and donors:** Focus on high-quality, consistent, impact focused, and personal cultivation activity. Practically this will include things like highly responsive thank you messages following donations/support, sharing of case studies and impact stories, and personalized cultivation activities.
**Deliberate use of external capacity and partner led events, fundraising and charity of the year work:** Seek to use external capacity to develop a pipeline of fundraising activity that does not require significant internal capacity or organizing.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **Quality Assurance and Impact**
CANW continue to hold a number of quality marks, each of which represents our commitment to excellence in the relevant area. We continue to hold Trust Charity Level 2 (and are in the process of applying to renew this in 2023), Investors in People and Investors in Children, and were successful in our renewal application for Cyber Essentials in late 2022.
2022/23 was a year in which we made a significant impact on thousands of children, vulnerable adults and families across the country.
It’s important that the individuals and families that access our support feel that what we offer is of a high quality, so we regularly sought their feedback on what we do. Examples of this feedback can be found below:
- ICFA North – On average, Parents overwhelmingly believed that their Practitioner supported their family, with an average score of 4.8 out of 5.
- SPIP – 96% of Parents agreed that the programme of support they received helped them to understand their children’s needs
- EMHW - 100% young people felt listened to by their worker
- EMHW - 98% young people reported a better understanding of Mental Health after the sessions
- EMHW - 99% of young people aged 4-11 said seeing a CANW practitioner helped them
- EMHW - 98% of parents would recommend CANW services to other people
- EMHW - 100% of referrers said they would use the CANW service again
- CJ – Over 95% of custody staff (from over 200 responses) report that a) our Appropriate Adults are knowledgeable, b) our Appropriate Adults meet their expectations
- CJ – Qualitative feedback included reports that our Appropriate adults were friendly, knowledgeable and helpful (most common descriptions).
## **6.2 Marketing and Communications**
During 2022/23 we continued to maintain a strong social media presence, using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn in particular. June 2022 saw the launch of a new website for the charity (www.canw.org.uk) as well as the implementation of a new CRM system (HubSpot) for the Business Development team to use to track relationships, manage external communications and build income pipelines.
Having a well-developed communications and marketing strategy is essential for any charity and is especially for Child Action Northwest as we look to develop our brand, increase our reach regionally, build a sustainable model of business development and income generation, and continue to develop and maintain a strong culture across our team of paid staff, volunteers and partners.
Importantly, we recognize that effective charity communications are not just about engaging with external stakeholders, but with CANW staff, volunteers, board members and supporters too. As such, one of the key focus areas for 23-24 will be to develop and implement a robust internal communications strategy than ensures stakeholders who are part of the CANW family receive high quality comms when they need and in a way that suits them.
Over the next 12 months, the team will focus their work on:
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
**Focused use of External Comms to grow brand awareness:** Increased focus on developing brand awareness across the rest of the North-West region, outside of Blackburn with Darwen and Lancashire.
**Intentional use of Press and PR:** We’ll share news and stories about the work we do and the impact we make on individuals, families and communities across the North-West and beyond. This will involve the targeted use of press releases and other materials, engaging in proactive media outreach, and building strategic relationships with journalists and other media contacts.
**Targeted use of Social Media to reach specific audiences** : we’ll use our social channels and reach to target specific audiences with a clear purpose in mind. That might mean using social media to support with the recruitment of Foster Carers, Appropriate Adults or any other roles at the charity. Equally, it might mean using social media to share good news, celebrate the achievements of those we work with, or generate income through active fundraising campaigns.
**Campaigns that support Fundraising and Income Generation:** Use external communications strategies and various social platforms to drive engagement with fundraising campaigns, celebrate and thank supporters, showcase our work, and publicise events. Evaluate and refresh all appropriate marketing and fundraising collateral to support the organisations ongoing fundraising efforts.
**Outstanding Internal Business Partner support:** Provide outstanding internal business partner communications and marketing support to all services. Provide ongoing ad-hoc support to the wider organisation, ensuring their marketing and communications needs are met in a timely fashion with high quality output.
**Timely and functional internal communications:** Develop, launch and refine our approach to internal communication, ensuring all CANW staff receive the information they need, when they need, in a way that works for them and the organisation.
## **7 Community Interest Company, CANWe Solutions (CIC)**
CANWe Solutions CIC is an independent organisation, established in 2009, as the trading arm and community interest company of Child Action Northwest (CANW), a regional charity achieving positive change for 130 years. We passionately believe that everyone has the right to achieve their full potential despite facing significant barriers and deliver a range of services aimed at improving the wellbeing and quality of life of vulnerable people from across the region, who have multiple needs and live chaotic lives. Support enables individuals to reduce barriers and achieve positive outcomes, using person-centered approaches. Support is offered in multiple settings; outreach, home visits, HMOs and community venues. The organisation has a remit to increase trading opportunities, ensuring any profits (in excess of those needed to sustain the organisation and maintain a reasonable level of reserves) are contributed to Child Action Northwest through an asset lock.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **7.1 BBO – Changing Futures**
The Changing Futures Project has been running since February 2017 and offers inclusive support to individuals aged 15+, supporting disadvantaged groups in promoting social inclusion and combating poverty. The individuals supported by the service have complex issues and lack the skills they need to enter the labour market or understand how they fit into the employment market. The project helps individuals address their own barriers, taking small steps to helping them access employment and training in the future.
The project supports individuals in relation to:
- Education & Training
- Employment/Volunteering
- Supported Housing
- Benefits support
- Debt support
- Physical health
- Emotional & Therapeutic support to manage anxiety, mild depression
- Confidence/self-esteem.
The Changing Futures model covers areas within East Lancashire to include:
- Blackburn with Darwen
- Burnley and Pendle
- Rossendale
- Hyndburn
There has been a backdrop of uncertainty throughout the past 12 months due to a number of significant contracts ending. Our Building Better Opportunities (BBO) work was finally completed in March 2023 after 6 ½ years of service delivery. Throughout this period our Invest in Youth (IIY), Changing Futures (CF) and Emotional Therapeutic (ETS) services have worked with over **1000** young people and vulnerable adults supporting them with mental health needs and into employment, education, or training.
All permanent staff members have been redeployed.
## **Service achievements**
The service has supported 52 participants over the year and achieved the results and soft outcomes listed below: -
|below: -||
|---|---|
|Referrals|52|
|Completed|52|
|Employment/Self-Employment|7|
|Training/Education|12|
|Job Search|4|
|Soft Outcomes|251|
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
- Support has been provided for individuals who had suicidal ideation, helping them to access NHS crisis / home treatment teams, for immediate support with their mental health.
- In addition, the service has supported individuals to access Shelter to gain support with Financial issues and debt support.
- Throughout the period the service has continued to forge links with new organisations and services by promoting the Changing Futures model.
- The service was recognised at the Selnet awards in November 22 when we were awarded Social Enterprise of the Year award for the second consecutive year.
## **Outputs outcomes and impact**
Of the 25 individuals directly engaging with the service the following outcomes were achieved:
- 60 % successfully entered into education and training
- 5 %successfully entered into employment
- 17% successfully entered into jobsearch
- 62.2% achieved a positive result
## **Quotes/Feedback**
KS has been out of work for the last 5 years, struggling with mental health barriers, housing issues, financial issues and poor wellbeing. She needed intensive support to transform and improve her situation and longer-term outlook. KS was sofa surfing which caused instability and anxiety. Through our Calico offer KS was supported into supported accommodation and receives weekly support by the CF team. KS is heavily committed to volunteering at Towneley park which has increased her fitness levels and outdoor engagement. KS was nominated for the volunteer of the year award by Selnet in November 2022
## **7.2 Emotional Therapeutic Service**
The Emotional Therapeutic Service supported individuals who were receiving support from the BBO project in accessing employment and education opportunities. This is delivered PAN Lancashire.
We offered support for up to 10 weeks using a 1:1 person-centred approach to support people to tackle barriers on a personal level by; building confidence and self-esteem, building motivation, developing coping strategies to help with depression, stress and anxiety, talking about feelings and emotions, managing negative relationships and improving personal health and wellbeing. We also offered CBT therapy for those whose needs required this input.
We worked with individuals across the 3 BBO projects – Invest in Youth (age 15 – 25), Changing Futures (age 25 – 50) and Age of Opportunity (age 50 onwards).
## **Service achievements**
- Over the last year we have supported 92 individuals.
- 23 from the Invest in Youth project
- 25 from the Changing Futures project
- 44 from the Age of Opportunity project
- 100% feel they have benefited from the service
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **Key Outcomes**
- 98% of participants felt they have increased optimism
- 96% of participants felt increased confidence
- 98% of participants felt increased self-esteem
- 96% of participants feel an increased ability to deal with problems
- 94% of participants report feeling more relaxed.
This has enabled individuals to overcome barriers to engaging in employment, education and training.
## **Quotes and feedback**
IIY participant - _“It’s helped me control and reduce my worries. Coming out of the house to sessions has lifted my mood and built my confidence up. Coming to a relaxed environment and speaking to the same practitioner each time has been more useful than other services I have experienced.”_
_AOP Participant - “It has been very helpful and useful and I have been encouraged every step of the way. Emotionally I have been able to talk about my life, going right back to the beginning, as I lost my Mum when I was born. When I came out of hospital from a Section 3 I felt really lost and lonely. The practitioner really cheered me up emotionally and helped me to stabilise my mood. Thank you so much for everything.”_
## **Go Figure**
This was a short-term funding opportunity (December 2022 – March 2023). The service aimed to help adults improve their ability to understand and use maths in daily life, home, and work. This could be improving household finances, helping children with homework, making more sense of the facts in the media, or improving numeracy skills specific to a line of work. Multiply offered a range of options such as free personal tutoring, digital training and flexible courses to fit around people’s lives and was tailored to specific needs, circumstances, sectors and industries
## **Service Achievements**
- 54 young people accessed the service within 3 months (1 month mobilisation period)
- Delivery was a blend of 1 to 1 and group sessions in person and also sessions via TEAMS
## **Outcomes and impact**
- 22% of young people achieved an ASDAN qualification in Maths
- 100% of young people said they felt more confident with numeracy
- 100% of those who accessed employability support said they felt better equipped when applying for employment
During a very small window of engagement the Go Figure service engaged 54 young people who were not accessing any support from any other service. The trust gained during the 4 months has given the young people more confidence to reach out and seek support.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **7.3 Break the Cycle**
The Youth Engagement service has been awarded funding from the Police Crime Commissioner of £10k which was match funded by the CANW Board of Trustees. Break the Cycle is delivered in East Lancashire. ‘Break the Cycle’ will allow us to support children and young people who are released from Police custody without any further action or those who have had to be spoken to by the Police regarding low level incidents that are on the periphery of committing crime. We engaged with those at risk of committing further crime or anti-social behaviour. The young people we engaged with are aged between 10 and 17 years of age.
The service aimed to reduce the number of young people engaging in crime and or committing further offences by educating them on the consequences of crime and attempting to divert them to more positive activities within their lives.
## **Service achievements**
- Between September 2022 and March 2023, the Break the Cycle has seen 27 referrals into the project
- 4 young people supported back into education and training
- 4 young people engaged with positive activities
- Children & Young People will be accessing Therapeutic Well-Being through CANW (CIC) as part of the programme.
Attended – Youth Panel meetings;
- Hyndburn Youth Panel
- Hyndburn Community Alcohol Partnerships
- Burnley Youth Panel
- Involved with Team Around the Family meetings in school settings
## **Impact and outcomes**
The project is new but has supported children and young people with training and back into school as well as providing positive activities that supports the young person’s physical well-being.
- 3 young people supported back into education & training
- 1 supported back into school after an 18-month gap
- 1 supported into further education
- 1 supported onto an apprenticeship
Children & young people have accessed external well-being support through external sources such as The Wish Centre.
## **Quotes and feedback**
_“Thank you for helping me get this far, by getting me into college and helping me change my life around, I don’t smoke anymore and feel much better.”_
## **Ambitions for 2023/24**
- Secure further funding in order to grow the service geographically
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
- Develop model to ensure inclusivity
- Develop feedback mechanisms to capture the voice of stakeholders, partners and beneficiaries
## **8 Financial review**
The group’s incoming resources for the year ended 31 March 2023 amounted to £5,958,945 and outgoing resources amounted to £6,346,359. The deficit reported during the year was £534,628 which included net realised and unrealised losses on investments of £147,214 (excluding dividend and other investment income). The operating deficit for the year was £387,414. The plan for the year was a deficit plan due the full year effect of the investment put into business development in 2021-22 and the challenges in continuing to deliver large, commissioned contracts particularly with the emerging cost of living crisis. This deficit plan was set by the Board in the context of the three to five year plan which would include steps to bring the financial position back to an underlying breakeven position.
During the year the Fostering Service continued to be a key contributor to the group’s turnover, however with a reduction in placements and, for most agreements no increases in rate in the recent past the service went into deficit for the first time. Towards the end of the year placement numbers have recovered and during the year with a refocus on service development was set. OFSTED were due to inspect the service in the last quarter of 202223 and development funds where made available to support the readiness process.
The Emotional Health and Wellbeing service continued to operate in a variety of settings across Lancashire and beyond. The contract with Lancashire County Council (LCC) continued to produce excellent results in terms of favourable outcomes, as did our work with schools and other commissioners. The service made a deficit during the year which was predominantly related to the non-continuation of funding which supported the Schools service offer. Without that grant funding the schools service is unsustainable. This has been addressed in 2023-24. The anticipated financial challenges with the new LCC Early Years contract were mitigated in part by the correction in deferred income balances which released c£113k into the financial position.
The Supported Contact services continued to perform important work in difficult economic circumstances. The new Improving Child and Family Arrangements services contract mobilised in 2022-23 had a slight reduction in referrals and recruitment challenges meant that during the year a shift in operating model was required to ensure the service was being delivered at the quality levels previously met. These challenges where ongoing during 2022-23. Supported Contact services continued to be developed during the year. This continues to be an exciting area of development for the service. The Separated Parents Information Programme (SPIP) came to an end of March 2023 and the service was successful in winning significant elements of its replacement programme Planning Together for Children (PTC) which was mobilised in early 2023-24.
Young Carers services has ring fenced funding received in 2020-23 with additional funding secured in the early part of 2022-23 to contribute to the delivery and expansion of these services. The service continues to find innovative ways to extend reach and value, continuing to deliver excellent services.
Criminal Justice services continue to do excellent work meeting increasing demand with growing referral numbers across the extended geography that we support. The highly regarded Reparation service was retained during the year with a focus on getting additional funding to financially support the service. Overall, Criminal Justice services made a small surplus in the year.
## **Principal Funding**
The majority of funding is from services commissioned by local authorities and other public bodies predominantly across the North of England. Grant funding during the year amounted to £48,655, with contributions from the public totalling £51,637.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **Investments**
The investment portfolio is held by Schroders, Cazenove Capital, on a discretionary basis with the overall objective being to produce the best financial return possible, within a low to medium risk rating, over a medium to long term period. The financial markets have contracted during the year due to the global impact of the war in Ukraine which has also exacerbated the growing cost of living crisis. This resulted in a realised and unrealised loss, net of investment income, of £147,214.
## **Reserves**
The reserves policy in place is reviewed at least annually by the board.
The group held total funds of £3,172,199 at 31 March 2023. Of these, £52,445 were restricted, therefore these funds were not available for the general purposes of the group. The group held unrestricted funds of £3,119,754 at 31 March 2023. However, of this, £618,843 can only be realised by disposing of tangible fixed assets. Therefore, at 31 March 2023, the group had available liquid unrestricted reserves of £2,500,911.
The required level of reserves, set out in the policy, to cover organisational running costs, if necessary, is £1,650,000. This is based on the planned expenditure in 2022-23. The actual free liquid reserves held at 31 March 2023 were, therefore, £850,911. The Board feels that it is prudent to maintain these surplus free reserves.
The board remains open to possibility of investing in new services, or the expansion of existing ones, whose aims are in line with objectives of the group and which have the potential to contribute to the financial base of the organisation.
## **9 Going Forward**
The last year has seen CANW continuing to address and respond to growing levels of need demonstrated across the communities and individuals we support. This has led the Charity to review its strategic plan and to invest in its people and systems to ensure we are well placed to address the many challenges of inequality and inequity that we have identified.
The impact of the cost-of-living crisis has significantly shaped our current financial position and plans for 2023-24 and beyond. There are signs that Government policy and plans may suggest that higher inflation may come under control in the next year or so, the impact for the organisation is likely to be felt for a longer period of time, both in terms of securing income uplifts, managing costs, attracting staff and the increasing demand for our services. The wider global outlook particularly with the climate crisis and ongoing war in Ukraine may continue to exacerbate this position. The need for strategic planning over a three-to-five-year time horizon has possibly not been as important as now. We need to ensure that we are making decisions that ensure organisational sustainability but also carefully choose how we use our resource to deliver our mission and support as many people as possible.
The financial pressures that are impacting on the charity are also, unfortunately, being felt most acutely by many of the young people and families we support. Levels of deprivation are rising universally but areas across the North-West have been particularly badly hit, with over 40% of young people living below the poverty line in a number of wards we support.
Our plans to grow and develop our service offer has therefore never been more important and our efforts to generate additional voluntary income are designed to provide the sustainability needed to ensure our team can support and engage with more children, families and communities.
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **9.1 Analysis of the external environment**
With the level of need increasing across the communities CANW serve, as part of the 2023/24 planning process, colleagues from across the operational and senior leadership teams took part in a number of sessions that were designed to highlight and focus in on the areas where:
- 1) There is a clear increase in the level of need
- 2) There is potential for CANW to deliver support that would make a positive difference
- 3) There are a range of potential avenues to fund this work
This process considered both the national and local picture, feedback from our beneficiaries and key stakeholders, public policy (current and future), and much more. The next step will be for the Senior Leadership Team to lead an engagement and consultation process with our wider staff team, the communities we serve (our beneficiaries), and key stakeholders (including commissioners, donors and partner organisations).
Whilst many of the issues we are seeing across our communities have stayed relatively static over the last 12 months, the level of severity, impact and number of people effected have increased. In some cases dramatically – with many more families living in poverty, with many families who have never been ‘vulnerable’ before experienced significant challenges linked to cost-of-living crisis, food and fuel poverty.
There continues to be a skills gap between vacancies in social care posts and skilled and experienced applicants, an increase in the number of children in care and coming to the attention of social care, significant gaps in health indicators for children with many of the geographical regions we operate in, a direct correlation between health and social outcomes based on race and culture, and evidence of significant stresses on families and communities. The situation is challenging and calls for clear strategic thinking and planning to ensure we target our work where we can make the biggest impact.
We have consulted with our stakeholders, children, commissioners and other stakeholders to understand what is important to them and the services and gaps they would like to see us deliver going forward; Children and Young People have told us about the things that are important to them and what they would like from CANW. They told us that being supported in schools and getting opportunities to learn and develop skills is important to them, that relationships with friends and families can sometimes be difficult and they would like support there, they said that sometimes they feel anxious and down and would like support with their mental health and wellbeing. They also told us that they enjoyed spending time together and that they would like more opportunities to meet together and enjoy activities.
Foster carers have told us that it is important that they receive practical and emotional support and that children in foster families want to receive their own support. That being a voluntary fostering agency with a strong value base is important. That they want opportunities to meet with each other and gain peer support, and that the relationships with their support workers is important.
Our Commissioners and other stakeholders have told us that they want to further develop partnership working, that they can see gaps in mental health provision and that early intervention is important to them. There continues to be gaps in mental health and wellbeing support for Children and Young People who have been looked after and are leaving care. Our colleagues in health are interested in further development of a place based early intervention offer. In addition, risk management of the needs of very complex young people is important. Unfortunately, colleagues across our Emotional Health and Wellbeing team have also reported significant increases in levels of self-harm and suicidal ideation, as well as problematic rises in the impact of worrying content from social platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. A focus on mitigating the impact of online content is a priority for the team as well as considering how to develop and disseminate positive digital content.
-42-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES**
## **YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
Partnership working across the voluntary sector has also come into focus this year and will grow as a priority over the next 12 – 18 months and organisations look for opportunities to come together solve complex social problems, rather than working in isolation.
## **10 Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities**
The trustees (who are also directors of Child Action Northwest for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:
- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
- observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP 2019 (FRS 102);
- make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
- state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in operation.
The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that 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 are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
In so far as the trustees are aware:
- there is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company’s auditor is unaware; and
- • the trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditor is aware of that information.
## **11 Auditor**
MHA Moore and Smalley are deemed to be re-appointed under section 487 (2) of the Companies Act 2006.
On behalf of the board of trustees:
**…………………………………………… Mrs Webb – Chair**
02/11/2023 Date …………………………………….
-43-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **INDEPENDENT AUDITORS’ REPORT**
## **TO THE MEMBERS AND TRUSTEES OF CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **Opinion**
We have audited the financial statements of Child Action Northwest (the ‘parent charitable company’) and its subsidiaries (the ‘group’) for the year ended 31 March 2023 which comprise the Group Statement of Financial Activities, the Group and the Parent Charitable Company Balance Sheet, the Group Cash Flow Statement and the related notes, 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).
This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 and to the charitable company’s trustees, as a body, in accordance with Part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members and its trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body and the charitable company’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
In our opinion the financial statements:
- give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s and parent charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2023, and of the group’s incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended;
- have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and
- have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Act 2011.
## **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 and parent charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
## **Conclusions relating to going concern**
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the group’s or parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
-44-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **INDEPENDENT AUDITORS’ REPORT (CONTINUED)**
## **TO THE MEMBERS AND TRUSTEES OF CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **Other information**
The other information comprises the information included in the trustees annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
## **Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006**
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:
- the information given in the trustees’ report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
- the trustees’ report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
## **Matters on which we are required to report by exception**
In the light of our knowledge and understanding of the group and parent charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the trustees’ report.
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Act 2011 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
- adequate accounting records have not been kept by the parent charitable company, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
- the parent charitable company’s financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
- certain disclosures of directors’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
- we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or
- the trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies’ regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemption in preparing the trustees’ report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.
-45-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **INDEPENDENT AUDITORS’ REPORT (CONTINUED)**
## **TO THE MEMBERS AND TRUSTEES OF CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **Responsibilities of trustees**
As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement set out on page 42, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are 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 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**
We have been appointed auditor under the Companies Act 2006 and section 151 of the Charities Act 2011 and report in accordance with those Acts.
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 specific procedures for this engagement and the extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, is detailed below.
- Enquiries with management about any known or suspected instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations;
- Enquires with management about any known or suspected instances of fraud;
- Reviewing minutes of meetings of those charged with governance;
- Examination of journal entries and other adjustments to test for appropriateness and identify any instances of management override of controls;
- Review of legal and professional expenditure to identify any evidence of ongoing litigation or enquiries.
- Review of the systems for recording income, and testing of a sample of income transactions throughout the year to check they have been recorded in the accounts and in the correct period.
Because of the field in which the client operates we identified that employment law, health and safety legislation and compliance with the UK Companies Act are the areas most likely to have a material impact on the financial statements.
Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that some material misstatements in the financial statements may not be detected, even though the audit is properly planned and performed in accordance with the ISAs (UK). For instance, the further removed non-compliance is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely the auditor is to become aware of it or to recognise the noncompliance.
-46-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **INDEPENDENT AUDITORS’ REPORT (CONTINUED)**
## **TO THE MEMBERS AND TRUSTEES OF CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.
## **Nicola Mason (Senior Statutory Auditor) For and on behalf of MHA Moore and Smalley Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditor**
Richard House Winckley Square Preston PR1 3 HP
Date: ……………….......................... 06/11/2023
-47-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES (INCORPORATING THE INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT)**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
|**Note**
**Income from:**
Donations and legacies
4
Charitable activities
5
Investment income
6
Other income
7
**Total incoming resources**
**Expenditure on:**
Raising funds
Charitable activities
Care and Accommodation Services
Youth and Engagement Support
Family Wellbeing:
Family Support
Youth Justice
Adult Community Services
**Total outgoing resources**
8
**Realised gains/(losses) on investment assets**
**Unrealised gains/(losses) on investment assets**
**Net income/(expenditure)**
Transfers between funds
14 & 15
**Net movement in funds**
**Reconciliation of funds:**
Total funds brought forward
14 & 15
Total funds carried forward
14 & 15|**Unrestricted**
**Funds**
**£**
51,637
5,831,901
37,042
36,076
5,956,656
135,814
1,996,692
96,797
3,002,808
900,643
187,504
6,320,258
(363,602)
(58,974)
(88,240)
(510,816)
-
(510,816)
3,630,570
**3,119,754**|**Restricted**
**Funds**
**£**
-
2,289
-
-
2,289
-
57
23,755
2,289
-
-
26,101
(23,812)
-
-
(23,812)
-
(23,812)
76,257
**52,445**|**Total**
**2023**
**£**
51,637
5,834,190
37,042
36,076
5,958,945
135,814
1,996,749
120,552
3,005,097
900,643
187,504
6,346,359
(387,414)
(58,974)
(88,240)
(534,628)
-
(534,628)
3,706,827
**3,172,199**|**Total**
**2022**
**£**
51,747
6,168,553
31,574
15,125|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||6,266,999|
|||||96,961
2,030,892
93,817
2,948,976
694,674
183,838|
|||||6,049,158|
|||||217,841
(5,644)
97,623|
|||||309,820
-|
|||||309,820
3,397,007|
|||||**3,706,827**|
The Statement of Financial Activities includes all gains and losses in the year.
All activities derive from continuing activities.
-48-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **BALANCE SHEET**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
|**Fixed assets**
Tangible assets
10
Investments
11
**Current assets**
Debtors
12
Cash at bank and in hand
**Creditors**
Amounts falling due within one year
13
**Net current assets**
**Total assets less current liabilities**
**Capital and reserves**
Restricted funds
15
Unrestricted funds:
- Revaluation reserve
14
- Fixed asset funds
14
- General unrestricted funds
14|**2023**
**2022**
**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
618,843
674,671
618,843
672,767
2,394,904
2,323,674
2,394,904
2,323,674
3,013,747
2,998,345
3,013,747
2,996,441
1,101,851
679,234
1,035,608
675,577
373,913
915,817
356,162
867,079
1,475,764
1,595,051
1,391,770
1,542,656
(1,317,312)
(886,569)
(1,300,612)
(883,987)
158,452
708,482
91,158
658,669
**3,172,199**
**3,706,827**
**3,104,905**
**3,655,110**
52,445
76,257
52,445
76,257
90,000
90,000
90,000
90,000
528,843
584,670
528,843
582,766
2,500,911
2,955,900
2,433,617
2,906,087
3,119,754
3,630,570
3,052,460
3,578,853
**3,172,199**
**3,706,827**
**3,104,905**
**3,655,110**|
|---|---|
02/11/2023 These financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees and authorised for issue on ……………………. and are signed on their behalf by:
……………………………………….
**Mrs Webb - Chair**
## **Company number:** 00820660
-49-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
|**Note**
**Cash generated from operating activities**
**1**
**Cash provided by investing activities**
Interest received
Income from listed investments
**Cash flows provided by (used in) financing activities**
Payments to acquire tangible assets
Payments to acquire investments
Receipts from sales of investments
**Increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents in the year**
**Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year**
**Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year**
**2**|**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
(367,047)
123,944
14,076
1,439
37,042
31,574
51,118
33,013
(7,531)
(53,364)
(1,114,607)
(663,430)
894,488
421,053
(227,650)
(295,741)
(543,579)
(138,784)
1,000,600
1,139,384
**457,021**
**1,000,600**|
|---|---|
-50-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT NOTES**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **1 Reconciliation of net movement in funds to net cash flow from operating activities**
|**2023**
**£**
Net incoming resources
(534,628)
Unrealised (gains)/losses on investment assets
88,240
Depreciation of tangible assets
63,359
(Profit)/loss on disposal of tangible assets
-
(Profit)/loss on disposal of investments
58,974
Bank interest received
(14,076)
Income from listed investments
(37,042)
Decrease/(increase) in debtors
(422,617)
Increase/(decrease) in creditors
430,743
**(367,047)**
**2**
**Analysis of net funds**
**At 1 April**
**Cash**
**Other non**
**2022**
**flow**
**cash changes**
**£**
**£**
**£**
Net cash:
Cash at bank and in hand
915,817
(541,904)
-
Overdraft
-
-
-
915,817
(541,904)
-
Cash on short term deposit
84,783
(1,675)
-
Net funds
**1,000,600**
**(543,579)**
**-**|
|**2022**
**£**
309,820
(97,623)
63,973
-
5,644
(1,439)
(31,574)
(153,862)
29,005
**123,944**
**At 31 March**
**2023**
**£**
373,913
-|
|---|---|---|
||||
||||
|||373,913
83,108|
|||**457,021**|
## **3 Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net funds**
|Increase/(decrease) in cash in the year
Increase/(decrease) in liquid resources
Movement in net funds in the year
Opening net funds
**Closing net funds**|**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
(541,904)
(108,725)
(1,675)
(30,059)
(543,579)
(138,784)
1,000,600
1,139,384
**457,021**
**1,000,600**|
|---|---|
-51-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **1 Accounting policies**
## **Legal form**
The charity constitutes a limited company, limited by guarantee as defined by the Companies Act 2006, incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is as stated on page 4.
## **Basis of accounting**
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) issued in October 2019, the Charities Act 2011 and the Companies Act 2006.
Child Action Northwest meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy notes.
## **Basis of consolidation**
The consolidated financial statements incorporate all assets and liabilities and income and expenditure of the wholly owned non-charitable subsidiary community interest company, CANWe Solutions CIC, made to up 31 March 2023.
## **Preparation of the accounts on a going concern basis**
At the time of approval of the financial statements, the trustees have considered the charity’s financial position and performance. The trustees have considered the twelve month period following approval of the accounts and have concluded that the charity appears to have sufficient cash resources to continue to meet its liabilities as they fall due. This is supported by an investment portfolio of £2,394,904 at 31 March 2023 which could be liquidised to fund short term working capital requirements should the need arise. Therefore the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.
## **Incoming resources**
Income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the item of income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably. The following specific policies are applied:
- Voluntary income, including donations, gifts and legacies, is included in full in the Statement of Financial Activities when receivable.
- Grants where entitlement is conditional on the delivery of a specific performance by the charity are recognised when the charity becomes unconditionally entitled to the grant, upon delivery of the specified performance.
- Income receivable under contract is recognised when the contractual obligations have been fulfilled. Where the contract is still in progress, income is recognised to the extent that it has been earned.
- Investment income is recognised on a receivable basis.
The value of services provided by volunteers is not incorporated into these financial statements. Further details of the contribution made by volunteers can be found in the trustees’ annual report.
-52-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **1 Accounting policies (continued)**
## **Resources expended**
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified under the following activity headings:
- Costs of raising funds are those costs incurred in attracting voluntary income, fundraising and trading activities undertaken by the CIC.
- Charitable activities include expenditure associated with the operation of the child and young person related activities and include both the direct and support costs relating to these activities. The costs also include the costs of the CIC for delivering such projects.
- Support and governance costs include the costs of central functions and those incurred in the governance of the charity and its assets, associated with constitutional and statutory requirements. Support and governance costs are allocated to each activity on a basis consistent with the use of these resources.
## **Fund accounting**
The group has a number of restricted income funds to account for situations where a donor requires that a donation must be spent on a particular purpose or where funds have been raised for a specific purpose.
All other funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity. Designated funds are unrestricted funds set aside for particular purposes.
The revaluation reserve represents the difference between the historical cost of fixed assets and the revalued amount included within the balance sheet.
## **Pension scheme**
The group operates group personal pension arrangements. Contributions payable are charged to the profit and loss account in the year they are payable.
## **Taxation**
Child Action North West is exempt from corporation tax on its charitable activities. CANWe Solutions CIC is a taxable entity and therefore provisions for tax are included where relevant.
## **VAT**
As the charity is not registered for VAT all resources expended are classified under activity headings that aggregate all costs related to the category. Irrecoverable VAT is charged against the category of resources expended for which it was incurred.
## **Tangible fixed assets**
Depreciation is provided at the following annual rates in order to write off each asset over its estimated useful life:
|useful life:|||
|---|---|---|
|Homestead & Springfield Court land and buildings|-|4% straight line|
|Other land and buildings|-|1.8% - 6.5% straight line|
|Property alterations|-|4% straight line|
|Furniture & fittings|-|10% straight line|
|Motor vehicles|-|25% straight line|
|Equipment|-|20% straight line|
There is no readily available split of the land element included within land and buildings and so the entire balance has been depreciated.
-53-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **1 Accounting policies (continued)**
## **Tangible fixed assets (continued)**
The charity has taken advantage of the transitional provisions of section 35.10 (d) of FRS 102 and has continued to include land and buildings at a combination of cost and a valuation undertaken before the implementation of the Reporting Standard.
Paragraph 16.4A of FRS102 provides an accounting policy choice for group members which rent investment property to another group entity to account for those properties at either fair value through profit or loss or by transferring them to property, plant and equipment and applying the cost model. The latter accounting policy choice has been selected.
## **Stocks**
No account is taken of stocks of food or other consumable items at the accounting date, on the grounds that the balance is immaterial in value.
## **Financial instruments**
The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments.
Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value.
Investments are re-stated at their fair value at each subsequent year end and any unrealised gains or losses are reported in the Statement of Financial Activities.
## **Operating leases**
Rentals payable under operating leases are charged against income on a straight line basis over the lease term.
## **Government grants**
Government grants are recognised at the fair value of the asset received or receivable when there is reasonable assurance that the grant conditions will be met and the grants will be received.
-54-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **2 Critical accounting estimates and judgements**
In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised, if the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods if the revision affects both current and future periods. The estimates and assumptions which have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amount of assets and liabilities are outlined below:
## **Funding on payment by result contracts**
In respect of payment by result contracts, management are required to assess the stage of project delivery at the year end in order to calculate the entitlement earned. If confirmation has not been received by the commissioner on the approved project delivery then the income included within the accounts is based on management’s best assessment of the delivery achieved. Any amounts earned but not yet received are included within accrued income and the converse is accounted for within deferred income in order to ensure that the funding is recognised in the same accounting period as the related services are provided.
## **Impairment of tangible fixed assets**
At each reporting date the trustees are required to assess whether there is any indication of impairment. This is done with reference to third party valuations, if obtained during the period. If not, impairment indicators are considered with reference to the estimated value in use and the assets’ future service potential to the charity’s beneficiaries.
-55-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **3 Financial performance of the charity**
The consolidated statement of financial activities includes the results of the charity’s wholly owned subsidiary, CANWe Solutions CIC.
Total incoming resources for the charity alone are £5,755,664 (2022: £6,036,791) and the net decrease in funds for the year is £550,405 (2022: increase of £271,192).
## **4 Donations and legacies**
|Other donations|**Unrestricted**
**Restricted**
**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
51,637
-
51,637
51,747
**51,637**
**-**
**51,637**
**51,747**|
|---|---|
Income from donations and legacies totalled £51,637 (2022: £51,747) all of which was unrestricted in nature in both the current and previous year.
-56-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **5 Incoming resources from charitable activities**
|Care Services
Youth and Community Support
Family Wellbeing:
Family Support
Youth Justice
Adult Community Services|**Unrestricted**
**Restricted**
**2023**
**£**
**£**
**£**
1,799,169
-
1,799,169
120,448
-
120,448
2,797,971
2,289
2,800,260
886,332
-
886,332
227,981
-
227,981
**5,831,901**
**2,289**
**5,834,190**|**2022**
**£**
2,163,382
95,786
2,980,139
699,043
230,203|
|---|---|---|
|||**6,168,553**|
## _**Prior year incoming resources from charitable activities**_
|Care Services
Youth and Community Support
Family Wellbeing:
Family Support
Youth Justice
Adult Community Services|**Unrestricted**
**Restricted**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
**£**
2,128,496
34,886
2,163,382
55,286
40,500
95,786
2,980,139
-
2,980,139
699,043
-
699,043
230,203
-
230,203
**6,093,167**
**75,386**
**6,168,553**|**2021**
**£**
2,040,125
81,515
1,912,845
573,422
224,714
**4,832,621**|
|---|---|---|
-57-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **6 Investment income**
|Income from listed investments|**Unrestricted**
**Restricted**
**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
37,042
-
37,042
31,574
**37,042**
**-**
**37,042**
**31,574**|
|---|---|
Investment income totalled £37,042 (2022: £31,574), all of which was unrestricted in nature in both the current and previous year.
## **7 Other incoming resources**
|Bank interest
Other grant income received
CJRS income|**Unrestricted**
**Restricted**
**2023**
**£**
**£**
**£**
14,076
-
14,076
22,000
-
22,000
-
-
-
**36,076**
**-**
**36,076**|**2022**
**£**
1,439
-
13,686|
|---|---|---|
|||**15,125**|
Other income totalled £36,076 (2022: £15,125), of which £nil (2022: £13,686) was restricted and £36,076 was unrestricted (2022: £1,439).
-58-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **8 Total resources expended**
||||**Youth**|||||**Adult**|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Basis of**|**Care**|**Engagement**|**Family**|**Youth**|**Public**|**Central**|**Community**|**Total**|**Total**|
||**allocation**|**Services**|**and Support**|**Support**|**Justice**|**Relations**|**Management**|**Services**|**2023**|**2022**|
|||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|
|**Costs directly allocated to**|**activities**||||||||||
|Salaries and Wages|Direct|321,332|76,339|1,165,343|549,059|89,068|566,541|148,615|**2,916,297**|2,729,927|
|National Insurance|Direct|30,637|6,178|93,637|21,636|9,470|64,245|10,811|**236,614**|211,281|
|Pension Fund Contributions|Direct|13,281|2,053|37,990|6,319|3,856|30,017|1,872|**95,388**|88,249|
|Private Medical Insurance|Direct|976|-|358|||5,092|-|**6,426**|6,599|
|Subcontractor costs|Direct|32,902|3,010|1,083,380|23,658|-|-|6,873|**1,149,823**|1,080,753|
|Other staff costs|Direct|51,566|2,154|47,655|69,589|5,196|3,227|2,223|**181,610**|88,014|
|Carers costs|Direct|1,047,861|-||||-|-|**1,047,861**|1,178,397|
|Service operating costs|Direct|10,999|992|981|4,016|9,474|890|1,586|**28,938**|62,526|
|Training costs|Direct|9,710|305|3,419|474|368|10,869|-|**25,145**|19,864|
|Fundraising costs|Direct|1,220|-|250|16|8,331|4,000|-|**13,817**|1,654|
|**Support and governance costs allocated to activities**|||||||||||
|Rent|Usage|-|-|-|-|-|-|8,437|**8,437**|5,846|
|Other property costs|Usage|-|-|-|-|-|112,062|1,625|**113,687**|68,678|
|Insurance|Usage|-|-|-|-|-|135,431|-|**135,431**|163,813|
|Office running costs|Usage|24,988|4,403|35,590|40,276|10,041|170,340|3,230|**288,868**|246,846|
|Central management|Usage|448,722|25,032|535,938|185,275||(1,194,967)|-|**-**|10,118|
|Audit fees|Usage|-|-|-|-|-|18,903|-|**18,903**|15,495|
|Legal fees|Usage|-|-|-|-|-|6,559|-|**6,559**|5,721|
|Depreciation|Usage|-|-|-|-|-|61,455|1,904|**63,359**|63,973|
|Loss on disposal of assets|Usage|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|**-**|-|
|Bank charges|Usage|-|-|-|-|-|287|123|**410**|561|
|Other central costs|Usage|2,555|86|556|325|10|5,049|205|**8,786**|843|
|||**1,996,749**|**120,552**|**3,005,097**|**900,643**|**135,814**|**-**|**187,504**|**6,346,359**|**6,049,158**|
Total resources expended amounted to £6,346,359 (2022: £6,049,158), of which £6,320,258 was unrestricted (2022: £5,988,928) and £26,101 was restricted (2022: £60,230).
-58-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **9 Total resources expended (continued)**
## _**Prior year total resources expended**_
||||**Youth**|||||**Adult**|**CANWe**|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Basis of**|**Care**|**Engagement**|**Family**|**Youth**|**Public**|**Central**|**Community**|**Solutions CIC**|**Total**|**Total**|
||**allocation**|**Services**|**and Support**|**Support**|**Justice**|**Relations**|**Management**|**Services**|**Trading**|**2022**|**2021**|
|||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|
|**Costs directly allocated to**|**activities**|||||||||||
|Salaries and Wages|Direct|371,548|60,979|1,210,233|465,684|60,411|410,729|150,344|-|**2,729,927**|2,316,053|
|National Insurance|Direct|33,382|4,843|91,225|19,583|5,998|43,225|13,026|-|**211,281**|173,675|
|Pension Fund Contributions|Direct|15,532|1,577|38,734|7,351|2,765|19,519|2,772|-|**88,249**|87,502|
|Private Medical Insurance|Direct|1,004|-|1,246|-|-|4,349|-|-|**6,599**|4,795|
|Subcontractor costs|Direct|29,297|30|1,042,503|8,863|-|60|-|-|**1,080,753**|596,741|
|Other staff costs|Direct|13,334|1,140|27,720|40,812|2,120|1,582|1,305|-|**88,014**|73,970|
|Carers costs|Direct|1,178,397|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|**1,178,397**|1,084,408|
|Service operating costs|Direct|8,323|2,920|558|880|198|47,280|1,035|1,331|**62,526**|52,562|
|Training costs|Direct|5,157|3,710|3,435|28|1,000|5,583|951|-|**19,864**|11,136|
|Fundraising costs|Direct|1,497|22|-|-|135|-|-|-|**1,654**|350|
|**Support and governance costs allocated to activities**||||||||||||
|Rent|Usage|29,157|1,116|30,130|9,586|-|(69,989)|5,846|-|**5,846**|6,670|
|Other property costs|Usage|450|39
|951
|-|244|63,339|2,813|841|**68,678**|63,047|
|Insurance|Usage|48,536|1,859|50,156|15,957|-|47,306|-|-|**163,813**|114,853|
|Office running costs|Usage|22,106|2,343|43,073|32,562|10,468|128,237|5,747
|2,310|**246,846**|194,956|
|Central management|Usage|285,536|13,274|396,234|93,519|5,880|(784,325)|-|-|**10,118**|8,352|
|Audit fees|Usage|-|-|-|-|-|15,480|-|15|**15,495**|14,835|
|Legal fees|Usage|-|-|-|-|-|5,721|-
|-|**5,721**|6,485|
|Depreciation|Usage|-|-|-|-|-|61,541|-|2,432|**63,973**|57,871|
|Loss on disposal of assets|Usage|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
|**-**|-|
|Bank charges|Usage|-|-
|-|-|-|363|-|198|**561**|841|
|Other central costs|Usage|230|-|-|-|-|-
|-|613|**843**|542|
|||**2,043,486**|**93,852**|**2,936,196**|**694,826**|**89,219**|**-**|**183,839**|**7,740**|**6,049,158**|**4,869,644**|
-60-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **9 Total resources expended (continued)**
|Total resources expended include:
Fees payable to the charity's auditor (exclusive of VAT):
Audit of the charity's annual accounts
Audit of the subsidiary's annual accounts
Fees payable to the charity's auditor for other services (exclusive of VAT):
Accountancy and other services
Indemnity insurance for the committee and senior employees
Operating lease rentals
- land and buildings
- other
Depreciation of tangible assets
Profit/(loss) on disposal of tangible fixed assets
Profit/(loss) on disposal of investments|**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
10,350
8,675
3,400
2,915
**13,750**
**11,590**
3,125
2,600
**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
10,219
8,242
-
-
4,391
4,882
63,359
63,973
-
-
(58,974)
(5,644)|
|---|---|
-60-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **10 Analysis of staff costs, trustee remuneration and expenses and the cost of key management personnel**
|**Staff Costs**
Salaries and wages
National insurance
Pension fund contributions|**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
2,916,297
2,729,927
236,614
211,281
95,388
88,249
**3,248,299**
**3,029,457**|
|---|---|
The average number of persons employed by the group during the year was as follows:
|Office and management
- full time
- part time
Others
- full time
- part time|**2023**
**2022**
23
21
9
10
26
33
42
45
**100**
**109**|
|---|---|
The full time equivalent of the part time staff is 31 (2022: 28). In addition the charity has made use of an average of 90 (2022: 69) sessional staff during the year working differing hours as and when required. During the year the charity had available to use an average of 131 sessional staff (2022: 122). As at the year end the charity had 143 available members of staff (2022: 125).
The number of employees whose annual remuneration was £60,000 or more were:
|£60,000 - £70,000
£80,000 - £90,000|**2023**
1
1
**2**|**2022**
1
-|
|---|---|---|
|||**1**|
The Trustees claimed £229 (2022: £nil) in respect of reimbursement of mileage claims and other expenses.
The Board has identified the Chief Executive as being the key management personnel. The employee benefits paid in respect of key management personnel, including employer’s pension contributions and employer’s national insurance contributions, during the year was £96,728 (2022: £91,819).
-61-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **11 Tangible fixed assets**
## **Charity**
|**Cost**
Balance at 1 April 2022
At deemed cost on transition to FRS102
At Cost
Additions
Disposals
Balance at 31 March 2023
**Depreciation**
Balance at 1 April 2022
Charge for the year
Disposals
Balance at 31 March 2023
**Net book value**
31 March 2023
31 March 2022|**Leasehold**
**land and**
**buildings**
**£**
-
808,943
808,943
-
-
808,943
449,827
32,358
-
482,185
**326,758**
359,116|**Freehold**
**land and**
**buildings**
**£**
90,000
685,752
775,752
-
-
775,752
497,233
16,899
-
514,132
**261,620**
278,519|**Furniture &**
**Fittings**
**£**
-
-
-
5,181
-
5,181
-
518
-
518
**4,663**
-|**Motor**
**vehicles**
**£**
-
64,488
64,488
-
-
64,488
64,488
-
-
64,488
**-**
-|**Equipment**
**Total**
**£**
**£**
-
90,000
264,092
1,823,275
264,092
1,913,275
2,350
7,531
-
-
266,442
1,920,806
228,960
1,240,508
11,680
61,455
-
-
240,640
1,301,963
**25,802**
**618,843**
35,132
672,767|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The original cost of the land and buildings included at a valuation of £90,000 is not known.
## **Group**
|**Cost**
Balance at 1 April 2022
At deemed cost on transition to FRS102
At Cost
Additions
Disposals
Balance at 31 March 2023
**Depreciation**
Balance at 1 April 2022
Charge for the year
Disposals
Balance at 31 March 2023
**Net book value**
31 March 2023
31 March 2022|**Leasehold**
**land and**
**buildings**
**£**
-
808,943
808,943
-
-
808,943
449,827
32,358
-
482,185
**326,758**
359,116|**Freehold**
**land and**
**buildings**
**£**
90,000
685,752
775,752
-
-
775,752
497,233
16,899
-
514,132
**261,620**
278,519|**Furniture &**
**Fittings**
**£**
-
-
-
5,181
-
5,181
-
518
-
518
**4,663**
-|**Motor**
**vehicles**
**£**
-
122,562
122,562
-
-
122,562
122,562
-
-
122,562
**-**
-|**Equipment**
**Total**
**£**
**£**
-
90,000
295,903
1,913,160
295,903
2,003,160
2,350
7,531
-
-
298,253
2,010,691
258,867
1,328,489
13,584
63,359
-
-
272,451
1,391,848
**25,802**
**618,843**
37,036
674,671|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The original cost of the land and buildings included at a valuation of £90,000 is not known.
-62-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **12 Fixed Assets – Investments (Group and charity)**
|Listed investments
Market value at 1 April 2022
Additions
Disposals
Net gains/(losses) on revaluation at 31 March 2023
At 31 March 2023
Cash held within investment portfolio
Total investments
Represented by:
Listed on Recognised Stock Exchange:
Cazenove Unit Trust
Equities:
UK Equities
Europe (ex UK)
Global
Bonds:
UK Bonds
Global
AlternativesHedge Funds
Property
Commodities
Structured Products
Others
Cash
Historical cost at 31 March 2023|**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
2,238,891
1,904,535
1,114,607
663,430
(953,465)
(426,697)
(88,237)
97,623
2,311,796
2,238,891
83,108
84,783
**2,394,904**
**2,323,674**
**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
53,136
139,967
-
-
1,031,576
1,032,374
300,894
109,926
369,313
345,595
138,545
140,456
120,531
138,831
136,721
173,461
56,601
53,006
104,479
105,275
83,108
84,783
**2,394,904**
**2,323,674**
**2,163,953**
**1,940,920**|
|---|---|
## **Charity**
In addition to the above investments, the charity also controls CANWe Solutions CIC, a company limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales, which was incorporated on 18 March 2009 and of which Child Action Northwest is the sole member. The CIC commenced trading on 1 April 2009.
The principal activity of the company is that of benefiting the community by working with adults and young people suffering from worklessness, through funding from the government incentives. Its turnover for the year ended 31 March 2023 was £227,981 (2022: £230,203) and the surplus for the year then ended was £15,577 (2022: £38,628). The aggregate of its share capital and reserves at 31 March 2023 was £67,294 (2022: £51,717).
_________________________________________________________________________________________
-64-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
|**13**
**Debtors**
**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
Trade debtors
479,663
471,361
Prepayments
622,188
207,873
**1,101,851**
**679,234**
**Group**
**14**
**Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year**
**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
Trade creditors
165,243
310,305
Accruals and deferred income
1,059,593
493,499
Taxation and social security
56,072
56,066
Other creditors
36,404
26,699
Amounts due to subsidiary undertaking
-
-
**1,317,312**
**886,569**
**Group**||**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
479,663
471,361
555,945
204,216
**1,035,608**
**675,577**
**Charity**
**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
164,289
310,305
1,059,593
493,499
52,733
54,678
13,915
13,725
10,082
11,780
**1,300,612**
**883,987**
**Charity**|
|---|---|---|
||||
Included within creditors falling due within one year is deferred income held by the group of £706,282 (2022: £306,528) relating to payments on account received for contracts or performance related grants. The brought forward deferred income of £306,528 was released in full during the year.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
-65-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **15 Analysis of unrestricted funds**
|**Analysis of unrestricted funds**||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||**Realised**|**Unrealised**||
||**At 1 April**||||**investment**|**investment**|**At 31 March**|
||**2022**|**Income**|**Expenditure**|**Transfers**|**gains**|**gains**|**2023**|
||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|
|**Charity general unrestricted funds**||||||||
|Revaluation reserve - property|90,000
|-|-|-|-|-|90,000|
|Fixed asset fund|582,766|-|-|(53,923)|-|-|528,843|
|General unrestricted|2,906,087|5,753,575|(6,132,754)|53,923|(58,974)|(88,240)|2,433,617|
||**3,578,853**|**5,753,575**|**(6,132,754)**|**-**|**(58,974)**|**(88,240)**|**3,052,460**|
|**CANWe Solutions CIC general unrestricted**|**funds**|||||||
|Fixed asset fund|1,904
|**-**|**-**|(1,904)|**-**|-|-|
|General unrestricted|49,813|203,080|(187,503)|1,904|-|-|67,294|
||**51,717**|**203,080**|**(187,503)**|**-**|**-**|**-**|**67,294**|
|**Total general unrestricted funds**|**3,630,570**|**5,956,655**|**(6,320,257)**|**-**|**(58,974)**|**(88,240)**|**3,119,754**|
|**Total group unrestricted funds**|**3,630,570**|**5,956,655**|**(6,320,257)**|**-**
|**(58,974)**|**(88,240)**|**3,119,754**|
|**Analysis of restricted funds**||||||||
||||||**Realised**|**Unrealised**||
||**At 1 April**||||**investment**|**investment**|**At 31 March**|
||**2022**|**Income**|**Expenditure**|**Transfers**|**gains**|**gains**|**2023**|
||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|
|**Charity restricted funds**||||||||
|Care Services||||||||
|Children in Need|57|-|(57)|**-**|-|-
|-|
|National Lottery Leaving Care Grant|10,000|-|-|**-**|-|-|10,000|
|Young Carers||||||||
|Young Farmers|-
|2,289
|(2,289)|-|-|-|-|
|Young Carers Blackburn|44,403|-|(22,636)|-|-|-|21,767|
|Young Peoples Space Fund|21,797|-|(1,119)|-|-|-|20,678|
||**76,257**|**2,289**|**(26,101)**|**-**|**-**|**-**|**52,445**|
|**CANWe Solutions CIC restricted funds**|-|-|-|-|-
|-|-|
|**Group restricted funds**|**76,257**|**2,289**|**(26,101)**|**-**|**-**|**-**|**52,445**|
|||||||||
|**Total funds - charity**|**3,655,110**|**5,755,864**|**(6,158,855)**|**-**|**(58,974)**|**(88,240)**|**3,104,905**|
|||||||||
|**Total funds - group**|**3,706,827**|**5,958,944**|**(6,346,358)**|**-**|**(58,974)**|**(88,240)**|**3,172,199**|
## **16 Analysis of restricted funds**
Children in Need is grant funding received from the BBC to support care services.
During the prior year the Charity was awarded a restricted grant from the National Lottery to support a Leaving Care project.
The Young Carers fund relate to donations received for the specific purpose of supporting young carers with activities.
The Young Peoples’ Space Fund is a pot of fund that was set up to develop the Young Peoples’ Space at the head office building. This development was ongoing at the year end.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
-66-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **16 Analysis of funds – prior year**
## **Analysis of unrestricted funds**
|**Analysis of unrestricted funds**||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||**Realised**|**Unrealised**||
||**At 1 April**||||**investment**|**investment**|**At 31 March**|
||**2021**|**Income**|**Expenditure**|**Transfers**|**gains**|**gains**|**2022**|
||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|
|**Charity general unrestricted funds**||||||||
|Revaluation reserve - property|90,000|-|-|-|-|-|90,000|
|Fixed asset fund|590,944|-|-|(8,178)|-|-|582,766|
|General unrestricted|2,342,187|5,947,720|(5,797,349)|321,550|(5,644)|97,623|2,906,087|
||**3,023,131**|**5,947,720**|**(5,797,349)**|**313,372**|**(5,644)**|**97,623**|**3,578,853**|
|**CANWe Solutions CIC general unrestricted**|**funds**|||||||
|Fixed asset fund|4,336
|**-**|**-**|(2,432)|**-**
|-|1,904|
|General unrestricted|8,753
|230,208|(191,580)|2,432|-
|-|49,813|
||**13,089**|**230,208**|**(191,580)**|**-**|**-**|**-**|**51,717**|
|**Total general unrestricted funds**|**3,036,220**|**6,177,928**|**(5,988,929)**|**313,372**|**(5,644)**|**97,623**|**3,630,570**|
|**Charity designated funds**||||||||
|Development fund|313,372|-|-|(313,372)|-|-|-|
||**313,372**|**-**
|**-**|**(313,372)**|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**Total group unrestricted funds**|**3,349,592**|**6,177,928**|**(5,988,929)**|**-**|**(5,644)**|**97,623**
|**3,630,570**|
|**Analysis of restricted funds**||||||||
||||||**Realised**|**Unrealised**||
||**At 1 April**||||**investment**|**investment**|**At 31 March**|
||**2021**|**Income**|**Expenditure**|**Transfers**|**gains**|**gains**|**2022**|
||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|
|**Charity restricted funds**||||||||
|Care Services||||||||
|Children in Need|5,068|24,886|(29,897)|**-**|-|-
|57|
|National Lottery Leaving Care Grant|-|10,000|-|**-**|-|-|10,000|
|Young Carers||||||||
|Young Carers Blackburn|23,631|35,000|(14,228)|-|-|-|44,403|
|Young Peoples Space Fund|18,716
|5,500
|(2,419)|-|-|-|21,797|
|CJRS income|-|13,686|(13,686)|-|-|-|-
|
||**47,415**|**89,072**|**(60,230)**|**-**|**-**|**-**|**76,257**|
|**CANWe Solutions CIC restricted funds**|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
|**Group restricted funds**|**47,415**|**89,072**|**(60,230)**|**-**|**-**|**-**|**76,257**|
|||||||||
|**Total funds - charity**|**3,383,918**|**6,036,792**|**(5,857,579)**|**-**|**(5,644)**|**97,623**|**3,655,110**|
|||||||||
|**Total funds - group**|**3,397,007**|**6,267,000**|**(6,049,159)**|**-**|**(5,644)**|**97,623**|**3,706,827**|
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **17 Analysis of net assets between funds**
|**Charity**
Tangible fixed assets
Investments
Current assets
Current liabilities
Total net assets
**Group**
Tangible fixed assets
Investments
Current assets
Current liabilities
Total net assets|**Restricted**
**Unrestricted**
**Total**
**funds**
**funds**
**funds**
**£**
**£**
**£**
-
618,843
618,843
-
2,394,904
2,394,904
52,445
1,339,325
1,391,770
-
(1,300,612)
(1,300,612)
**52,445**
**3,052,460**
**3,104,905**|
|---|---|
||**Restricted**
**Unrestricted**
**Total**
**funds**
**funds**
**funds**
**£**
**£**
**£**
-
618,843
618,843
-
2,394,904
2,394,904
52,445
1,423,319
1,475,764
-
(1,317,312)
(1,317,312)|
||**52,445**
**3,119,754**
**3,172,199**|
## _**Prior year analysis of net assets between funds**_
|**Charity**
Tangible fixed assets
Investments
Current assets
Current liabilities
Total net assets
**Group**
Tangible fixed assets
Investments
Current assets
Current liabilities
Total net assets|**Restricted**
**Unrestricted**
**Total**
**funds**
**funds**
**funds**
**£**
**£**
**£**
-
672,766
672,766
-
2,323,674
2,323,674
76,257
1,466,400
1,542,657
-
(883,987)
(883,987)|
|---|---|
||**76,257**
**3,578,853**
**3,655,110**|
||**Restricted**
**Unrestricted**
**Total**
**funds**
**funds**
**funds**
**£**
**£**
**£**
-
674,671
674,671
-
2,323,674
2,323,674
76,257
1,518,794
1,595,051
-
(886,569)
(886,569)|
||**76,257**
**3,630,570**
**3,706,827**|
_________________________________________________________________________________________
-68-
## **CHILD ACTION NORTHWEST**
## **NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023**
## **18 Financial instruments**
|**Financial instruments**||
|---|---|
|**Carrying amount of financial assets**
Measured at fair value through net income/expenditure
2,394,904
2,323,674
Debt instruments measured at amortised cost
479,663
471,361
**2,874,567**
**2,795,035**
**Carrying amount of financial liabilities**
Measured at amortised cost
**257,719**
**393,070**
**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
**Group**|2,394,904
2,323,674
479,663
471,361
**2,874,567**
**2,795,035**
**2023**
**2022**
**£**
**£**
**Charity**|
||**241,019**
**390,488**|
## **19 Pension commitments**
The group operates group personal pension arrangements. Contributions payable by the group amounted to £95,388 (2022: £88,249). Outstanding pension contributions at 31 March 2023 amounted to £15,947 (2022: £13,777).
## **20 Operating lease commitments**
At the reporting end date the group and the charity had outstanding commitments for future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases, which fall due as follows:
|Within one year
Within two to five years
Over 5 years
Within one year
Within two to five years
Over 5 years
**Group**
**Charity**|-
-
-
-
-
-
**-**
**-**
-
-
-
-
-
-
**-**
**-**
**2023**
**2022**
**Land & buildings**
**2023**
**2022**
**Land & buildings**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**|2,524
4,391
-
2,524
-
-
**2023**
**2022**
**Other assets**
**£**
**£**|
|---|---|---|
|||**2,524**
**6,915**|
|||2,524
4,391
-
2,524
-
-
**2023**
**2022**
**Other assets**
**£**
**£**|
|||**2,524**
**6,915**|
## **21 Related party transactions**
The charity has taken advantage of the exemption conferred by FRS 102 Section 33, in that transactions entered into between two or more members of the group are not disclosed, provided that any subsidiary which is a party to the transaction is wholly owned by such a member.
There were no related party transactions apart from any disclosed in note 10 relating to expenses paid to trustees and key management personnel remuneration.
-69-