2024-12-31-accounts

REGISTERED COMPANY NUMBER: 00986407 (England and Wales) REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 262119

Report of the Trustees and

Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

for

BLINDAID

BLINDAID

Contents of the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

	Page
Report of the Trustees	1 to	24
Independent Examiner's Report	25
Statement of Financial Activities	26
Balance Sheet	27 to	28
Cash Flow Statement	29
Notes to the Cash Flow Statement	30
Notes to the Financial Statements	31 to	43

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

The trustees who are also directors of the charity for the purposes of the Companies Act 2006, present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 December 2024. The trustees have adopted the provisions of 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) (effective 1 January 2019).

MISSION STATEMENT

As London's oldest sight loss charity, BlindAid works to improve quality of life and promotes independence for blind and visually impaired Londoners. We provide individualised practical and emotional support to reduce the social isolation that many people living with sight loss can experience.

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

Objectives

The charity seeks to alleviate loneliness and social isolation affecting sight impaired (SI) and severely sight impaired (SSI) people. It aims to empower service users to encourage and support independent living. The charity also supports people suffering the emotional consequences of visual impairment. Services are provided free of charge.

The charity's strategic objectives for 2024 were:

1. To secure future sources of external income to allow the continuation of services from 2025 onward.

2. To actively seek and secure sufficient external funding to allow expansion of the charity's services.

3. To sustain and evolve the Community Sight Support Service for the support of SI and SSI people' people with a meaningful outreach service that listens to and meets the needs of its beneficiaries.

4. To sustain and develop the Community Project Hub at Camden Living Centre classes and Programmes. 5. Continue to evolve the charity's ability to identify and help those who can benefit from its services in the most efficient/effective ways.

5. To continue to develop the charity's infrastructure, as well as its capacity to achieve these aims.

Public benefit

The activities to achieve the charity's objectives are all carried out for the public benefit as described by the Charity Commission. The beneficiaries of the charity are members of the public who are in need because of health, disability or other problems arising from visual impairment and the activities of the charity seek to ensure these people can be supported by quality measured and supervised services. The charity sets out in this report the charitable public benefit of its activities. The Board members have complied with the duty in section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to public benefit guidance published by the Charity Commission.

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

Service Delivery:

BlindAid delivers services for people who are sight impaired (SI) or severely sight impaired (SSI) people aged 18+ however, the majority profile of our beneficiaries is typically 50+: with a high proportion of those people, in addition to their sight impairment, may also have more complex health conditions.

For these reasons BlindAid reaches a mostly hidden community of SI and SSI people, who are in need our help and are typically less independently mobile people when they are initially referred to our charity.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES Cont.

Referrals to BlindAid:

BlindAid is a trusted organisation that enjoys an excellent reputation, and so referrals to our charity come in from many sources. People living with sight loss may be referred to BlindAid at any point in their sight loss journey; when they have just been diagnosed or following a trauma; when they have been registered with sight loss, or at a later time when their sight has deteriorated further. Our referrers include Local Authorities and their specialist sensory teams, social workers and community mental health teams, NHS teams, such as such as the Low Vision Clinic at St Thomas Hospital; Moorfields and other hospital eye clinics, and GPs, as well as from people who experience loss of vision themselves (or their friends and family). We also have reciprocal referral arrangements with many other charities, such as Age UK branches within our area of operation.

BlindAid's Sight Support Pathway:

Our charity offers three core services, which combined provide vital support not offered by other sight loss charities in London. Our Sight Support Pathway therefore offers maximum support that often our service users describe to be ' Life Changing' during feedback. It combines the skills of all elements of our charity services: -

1. Our Sight Support Service: provides access to one-to-one support from a support worker who is employed/trained by BlindAid.

2. Access to our Community Project Classes offers the opportunity to relearn/learn new skills for independent living and access to peer support.

3. Share London - being matched with a likeminded volunteer specifically to access and maintain social activity in the community.

Each individual core service may be used in combination as our Sight Support Pathway, or selectively and independently as preferred. There is greater detail on individual services in the achievements section of this report.

A recent analysis of BlindAid's bespoke database has evidenced that on average where service users access our Sight Support Service, as well as our Community Project, and then go on to be matched with a likeminded Volunteer to experience our purely social Share London Volunteer Project, they are provided with a holistic and beneficial development Sight Support Pathway that tangibly improves independence and wellbeing and helps to encourage many of our beneficiaries to enjoy more fulfilled and self-sustaining lives.

Similarly, many of our funders remark, that by investing in our services they feel they play a vital role in empowering individuals to lead richer, more empowered lives, ultimately contributing to stronger communities and having a lasting positive impact on the beneficiaries we serve.

BACKGROUND to 2024 OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES:

As a charitable organisation, BlindAid has delivered an outreach Sight Support Service, always visiting service users in their own homes since its inception in 1834. In 2024, BlindAid celebrated 190 years of delivering support for its beneficiaries, all of whom are residents of the 12 Inner London Boroughs. Throughout this extraordinary time period the charity has always employed its vital Sight Support Workers and borne the costs of delivery of its core service from its own reserves. Our reserves were accumulated from donations and previous legacies to the charity as well as earned dividends from investments.

The previous two years have seen management and our new board of trustees working toward the seminal year that 2024 became for BlindAid.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

In 2022 with ever dwindling charity reserves it was determined that BlindAid could no longer plan to sustain the cost of providing the Sight Support Service across 12 inner London Boroughs from its reserves for the longer-term future. To better meet the future fundraising challenge ahead, it was agreed by trustees and management that three key actions would be taken:

1. Investment in fundraising - a role to be created to focus on gaining income from trust, foundations and grants.

2. The CEO and Operations Director in addition to their job roles, were best placed to focus on income generation from NHS and Local Authorities.

3. The charity would sacrifice its head office and instead, lease out its property asset - to secure a long-term sustainable income for the charity.

Post Brexit and the global C-19 pandemic, the financial crisis in the UK has been an enduring factor which has also impacted greatly upon the fundraising landscape for the third sector, with charities both national and local being impacted as a result. Therefore, on 29.11.22 trustees recognised and ratified a responsible financial opportunity to lease out BlindAid's Head Office at Lantern House 102 Bermondsey Street SE1 3UB in order to provide a long-term sustainable income for the charity. In January 2023, three offers and two detailed business proposals were reviewed by trustees and the best offer for the charity was accepted. The legal work to lease our property was conducted concurrently, together with additional essential negotiations involving the other shareholders who like BlindAid all owned properties contained within Lantern House.

BlindAid is a shareholder in Lantern House Management Limited (Private Ltd Co No: 03688443). BlindAid naturally informed all other shareholders at Lantern House in November 2022 of the board's ratification and the charity's intention to lease 102 Bermondsey Street, this being the unit purchased on behalf of the charity in 1990. The legal work was completed and the lease signed on 21.09.2023. The new tenant then began work to refit the unit and the property was opened as a restaurant on 21.08.2024. The charity's property was formally valued by a qualified RICS surveyor in 2024 which evidenced that the rental agreement reached with our tenant was in keeping with the unique style and location of the property within the heart of the conservation area of Bermondsey Street.

BACKGROUND to 2024 OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES:

Search for Alternative Hub Property 2024

Having successfully leased out our head office in 2023, in 2024 management were keen to identify a suitable property where we could rent space for our team meetings and also for Board Meetings. We were connected to an organisation called AVIRE based in Banbury, this property agency have a contact list of organisations that own commercial properties across the UK that are not currently occupied and look to match them with charities seeking temporary accommodation, with their clients. We viewed an ideal property close to Waterloo Station initially, but the owner withdrew from leasing their building.

We looked at second property via AVIRE, St Olaves in Southwark. At the viewing, we found this to be suitable for our needs, however, many other charities were also viewing the property. We completed the AVIRE questionnaire and were selected and encouraged to take two units within the building. We progressed to sign the lease agreement in October 2024. During due diligence checks in the weeks preceding moving into the property, it came to our attention that Southwark Council had already granted a demolition order on the building for the site to be developed into residential housing units.

In checking with AVIRE they eventually came back to confirm from the landlord, that all existing tenants were due to be served the break clause of 28 days' notice in early January 2025. The legal work and plans to relocate into the building were immediately ceased as we did not choose to bear the cost of moving into the building for only 2 months.

Therefore, BlindAid remains keen to identify space in a central location within our area of operation in inner London that we can share or rent.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

Sight Support Service - Design of Hybrid Service

From the charity's inception to March 2020 and the C-19 pandemic, BlindAid had always delivered its Sight Support Service by outreach visits for SI and SSI people living in the 12 inner London Boroughs only. The global pandemic caused us to reflect on not only how best to serve our beneficiaries during this time in history, but in the future post pandemic environment. This promoted a radical redesign of our service and the creation of our Hybrid Sight Support Service in operation today. The investment in a radical new service was funded by Big Lottery Reaching Communities, who awarded BlindAid £100K in 2020: c£70K to fund our service throughout the pandemic, and c£30K for management to completely reimagine our core service. This important service development was achieved, as always in full consultation with our service users; and importantly in collaboration with our staff team who deliver the service, as well as sector professionals who work alongside the charity.

We used RNIB's latest data when reflecting upon how to reach more people across our area of operation.

Latest RNIB statistics findings related to visual impairment and sight loss are:

• Over 2 million people across the UK are living with sight loss

• Of those 2 million people - only 320,000 people are registered Sight Impaired or Severely Sight Impaired in the UK

• Nearly 80% are 65 or older, c60% are 75+ plus

• Everyday 250 people start to lose their sight in the UK

• BlindAid is the only charity in London delivering outreach support for blind and VI people 48% of all adult sight loss is attributable to Age Related Macular Degeneration

• People from certain ethnic minority groups are at greater risk of some of the leading causes of sight loss. The 12 inner London Boroughs are very cosmopolitan and therefore so too is the demographic makeup of the profile of BlindAid service users

• In 2013 there were an estimated 1.93 million people living with sight loss in the UK By 2050 the number of people living with sight loss is likely to grow to 4 million

We organised 14 online Focus Groups and each group was made up of service users from all 12 inner London Boroughs, each group consisted of between 8 and 20 people and each group were asked a detailed selection of questions about our previous, current, and wished for future services. In total we consulted with and listen carefully to in e xcess of 250+ beneficiaries . Our service users' responses were honest, illuminating, and informative. Most importantly by working together we defined a new way of operating more flexibly which has allowed us to reach more people than ever.

Our hybrid service facilitates leaner, more agile working methods that allow us to effectively, dial up or down, our outreach community work, which benefits us because we can now respond proactively by being agile and adapting our service to continue to meet service users' needs should there be any future pandemic or indeed any other major service disruption. The bright ideas of both service users' and our staff team who deliver the service relating to how our service could be re-designed were collated and are now built into our new service model, which in the five subsequent years, has been proven as a tangible asset for BlindAid.

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

Our hybrid service model allows us to reach a far greater number of beneficiaries across our area of operation. SSW's are now each working with an average of c70 people at any one time (previously maximum of 50). We attained this uplift in support by only visiting those the community the people in the most need. Now we visit isolated service users 3 days each week, and by supporting an additional number of people by providing telephone support and guidance on two days each week. The whole team work each Monday and Friday from home and are providing outreach in the community on Tuesdays/Wednesdays and Thursdays every week.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

OBJECTIVE AND ACTIVITIES Cont.

Trustee Recruitment During 2021-2023:

Trustee Recruitment: BlindAid management actively invested much time in recruiting and inducting a whole board of new trustees. In 2021 we had recruited one new trustee, by the end of 2022 we had appointed 5 new trustees, and we completed that refresh of the talent and skills on our Board of trustees in 2023, by appointing a further 3 trustees. Management made a considerable commitment of time investment in researching/reviewing and also reaching out to many potential candidates throughout this period of time. Without any doubt, the charity is now reaping the rewards of trustees undeniable investment in BlindAid's cause and their integral involvement in the design and development of the future of the charity.

Team Recruitment/Resourcing in 2024

For comparison, during 2023 we experienced significant staff turnover. At the beginning of 2024 we experienced a lean recruitment marketplace, however, the candidate pool expanded notably during the second six months of the year, and we were able to secure several excellent quality new employees.

During 2023 there was 1 redundancy, and 5 leavers, but we also recruited 7 new staff. Total staff numbers were reduced within the management team, with the largest number of employees being in service user facing roles, the staff turnover demanded a substantive time investment from management. However, in 2024 staff turnover was reduced from the previous year, with 1 leaver, and 2 new staff appointments. This being one new fundraiser was appointed on a contract, and 1 Share London Coordinator appointed to replace the one leaver in 2024.

Vocational Staff Training:

BlindAid remains dedicated to actively developing a broad, relevant specialist skill base for our whole team, ensuring maximum benefits are derived for our beneficiaries. BlindAid invests in its employees, and the charity offers staff four full day training sessions annually. The curriculum offers a variety of relevant vocational training courses providing us all with the practical tools we need to enjoy and fulfil our roles to the best of our abilities and to ensure service users derive tangible benefits from engaging with our team. As we are all now remote workers, these training days also provide regular quarterly focus and social contact for everyone which ensures BlindAid's thriving culture endures.

Fundraising 2024:

During 2022-2023 the charity trialled different fundraising methods, and in 2024 trustees ratified the decision that Fundraising for the charity would be best led by the senior management team supported by a very experienced trustee, who has recently retired from a 40 year career in International fundraising, and who has chosen to donate some of her time and expertise for the benefit of the charity and undeniably has helped to shape its fundraisers into a cohesive team.

In May 2024 we appointed a freelance fundraiser also to work specifically on attaining income from foundations, grants, and trusts. Our new fundraiser settled into role quickly and has made great advances on behalf of the charity, notably, by formalising reporting across all fundraising activities, into a simplistic report which, as it is easy to read and understand at a glance, presents the measurable activity of the fundraising team. She has also gained a thorough understanding of BlindAid, its services and most importantly grasped both the culture and ethos of the charity.

Both our freelance fundraiser and our trustee have together developed a deep understanding of the charity's work and impact which is transparently obvious from their bid writing, which has proved successful for BlindAid this year.

Senior Management (CEO/Operations Director) have therefore continued working on fundraising with a focus on gaining traction with NHS ICBs (Integrated Care Boards) for London, and also with Local Authorities. In addition, our work with all 12 individual inner London local authorities not only continued but took precedence throughout 2024 and into early 2025.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES Cont.

In South West London, BlindAid was awarded funding for our Sight Support Worker role in Wandsworth first in 2022, this was from an NHS Integrated Care Board who were impressed with our reporting data. In 2023 we were awarded funding for two roles in Wandsworth, and we are now funded in the Borough until April 2025. NHS contacts requested that we join the SW London Ophthalmology Clinical Network monthly meetings, which we did for the whole of 2024. The group were working on the establishment of eye care pathways for patients in SW London being transitioned from being delivered within hospitals to being delivered within the local community.

Whilst initial conversations with some Local Councils had been launched in some Boroughs as early as 2021 and were still ongoing, when 2024 began, management were under no illusion that we needed to convert our core service from being funded from our own reserves, to being fully externally funded by the end of 2024. Failure to do so was to risk having to withdraw service from beneficiaries in Boroughs who could or would not fund the charity's outreach service. We focussed on having either secured funding, or the written promise of funding by no later than the end of the first quarter in 2025. If we could not achieve the external commitment to fund the service either from the local Council or any other external source (i.e. other funding organisations), then we would have no alternative but to cease the service, in any Boroughs where funding could not be secured. Naturally, the reality of the business situation was as unpalatable as it was unacceptable for management, BlindAid staff as well as the service users who rely upon our regular tangible charity support, and also for our Sight Support Workers, whose roles would be at risk if we were not able to secure the funding for their roles to continue.

Initial conversations were escalated from our usual day to day contacts within the Local Authority Sensory Teams, to their managers, and then to include directors, and eventually to the Borough Commissioners across 11 inner London Boroughs. Management invested a vast amount time in presenting BlindAid and the unique nature of the support provided, at every level within local authorities in 10 of 12 inner London Boroughs. Presentations were supported with data summaries of service delivery as well as case studies. The quantity of meetings grew throughout the year, becoming ever more intensified/convoluted as discussions progressed as we persevered with our ask to each Borough, could they consider funding or commissioning our Sight Support Service on behalf of their residents? By the end of 2024 we had secured external funding or the written promise of funding from Local Authorities for our Sight Support Service from 9 Boroughs . In addition, the 10[th] Borough was Greenwich where we were awarded funding from The Greenwich Healthier Communities Fund which was established by NHS Greenwich Charitable Funds in partnership with the SE London NHS Integrated Care Board and The Healthier Greenwich Partnership.

The focus for the senior management became more intense as we engaged with the last few remaining Boroughs, and trustees agreed that since we had been so successful, time to secure written funding agreements could be extended but only until the end of the first quarter 2025 for Boroughs who had no remaining 2024 funding to commit ,but recognised the value of the Sight Support Service and wanted to commit funding from the next financial year's budget from April 2025.

The focus for the charity's senior management team became more intense as we engaged with the last few remaining Boroughs, and trustees agreed that since we had been so successful, time to secure written funding agreements could be extended but only until the end of the first quarter 2025 for Boroughs who had no remaining 2024 funding to commit but wanted to commit to funding from the next financial year's budget from April 2025.

In closing the year and the specific work on this marathon fundraising task, management successfully secured external funding for 10 Boroughs which amounted to c£316k. Only 2 of all 12 Boroughs did not commit to funding BlindAid in 2024. The first were unable to fund BlindAid in 2024: having readily engaged with meetings and were keen to fund our Sight Support Service in their Borough, but as negotiations continued until almost complete, the Commissioners were informed by their own procurement team, that there was an existing service agreement with another charity until April 2026, and that therefore, they could not proceed to commission BlindAid in 2025.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES Cont.

That Borough has invited BlindAid to apply for funding again toward the end of 2025. Due to lack of funding, we had no alternative but to cease service within that Borough in April 2025, and unfortunately over 70 beneficiaries were referred back to the Boroughs Sensory Team. Sadly, as we had not secured external funding to continue the role, our Sight Support Worker for this Borough was made redundant after working with BlindAid for 16 years previously.

Despite many requests for meetings, 1 Borough in particular, did not engage with BlindAid at all throughout 2024 and into early 2025 and so our service, which had been delivered free of charge every year since 1834, unfortunately had to be ceased at the beginning of April 2025. This resulted in the loss of support for c70 beneficiaries, who were receiving either regular fortnightly visits, or regular telephone support calls from their well-known SSW, some of whom had relied upon our charity for many years. Sadly, it also resulted in the redundancy of our Sight Support Work for that Borough who had worked with BlindAid for over 8 years.

Naturally, the loss of experienced, vocationally trained workers, who also held advance DBS Certification, First Aid Certification, and who were also Mental Health First Aiders is a matter of much regret for BlindAid. Good governance matters, and senior management were grateful to our trustees for their support and guidance during this difficult time. The Charity Sector is built on human dignity and senior management were conscious throughout this testing year of the need for empathy for all the people impacted and affected by the necessary changes in our business operation.

Concurrently we have much gratitude and thanks for those Local Authorities who have now recognised the value of the Sight Support Service delivered by BlindAid and who have elected to financially support the charity going forward.

ACHIEVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE Charitable Activities and Achievements

BlindAid Core Services: Community Sight Support Service:

In 2024 the charity celebrated 190 years of delivering a vital outreach service for blind and visually impaired residents of the 12 inner London Boroughs. The core activity of the charity for all those years has been to visit predominantly isolated, Sight Impaired or Severely Sight Impaired people in their own homes.

All Sight Support Workers (SSWs) are carefully selected during our recruitment process, are all vocationally trained. SSWs, including other staff with service user facing roles, all hold current enhanced, Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certification, which are renewable every 3 years. Our team also all hold First Aid Certification, again renewable every three years, because we reach a particularly isolated, hidden community of people. The majority of our team are also Mental Health First Aiders.

BlindAid's ethos is to treat each service user as an individual, prioritising people who are isolated and living alone, and delivering support as needed and valued. Most service users have been diagnosed with sight loss in adulthood; this can be traumatic, and the individual period of adjustment can vary enormously depending upon personal resilience.

An initial assessment visit is made to understand first hand a person's individual needs, coping abilities and to determine whether the charity can be of assistance to meet those needs. Our service users' needs, naturally vary and are as unique as they are themselves. A percentage of our service users also have more complex needs, and we deliver individualised support accordingly.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

ACHIEVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE Cont.

Our SSWs provide a range of assistance from vital emotional support for service users sight loss journey, but also very practical help to encourage service users to engage with NHS appointments, and support with more information on eye conditions/eye drops, as well as with personal admin, reading post and other admin support to ensure a smooth homelife can be maintained.

They also do important tasks like check use by dates in the fridge and often find 'lost' items indoors; often key small items are simply dropped on the floor and cannot be found again easily by a service user and over

Our SSWs often are the first people to be alerted to matters such as a further deterioration in a person's residual sight, additional health or safeguarding issues, which can then be reported to the relevant body as required. The SSW will also encourage participation in, and signpost to both BlindAid Community & Online Projects and other suitable local social activities. Our Sight Support Service provides greater consistency, reliability, and a high standard of quality supervised support. The quality of service is regularly monitored through fortnightly supervision meetings, where shared decisions may be taken about any individual service user's circumstances that may be complex. The standard of support is also monitored through key performance indicators, and annual Focus Groups with service users that are conducted by management, where feedback can be shared with SSWs afterwards.

Our post pandemic, Hybrid Service has optimised visiting people with priority needs, and we have learned that a key factor within general service delivery is to 'mindfully reassess' all service users regularly, agreeing with them their own needs for continued visits at home. In this way we have reduced the number of days spent visiting in the community each week, whilst additionally creating support via the telephone for beneficiaries for whom a clear identified need is established, that a call must be made by an experienced SSW. A longer-term aim for our service users is that we support them to realise self-sustaining independence eventually, then where possible and with their agreement we may match them with a suitable Share London volunteer for regular social outings, or social telephone calls.

It has long been established and accepted that there has always been a percentage of service users for whom making a return to enjoying a full social life is not possible due to mobility, or complex health issues, it is for these people that the charity has always made a commitment to continue to visit for people who have no other family or friends, and where meaningful communication is established.

We have determined that our service without doubt, is valuable, unique and meets a clearly evidenced, otherwise unmet need in society. No other Sight Loss Charity in London provides tangible outreach support using employed and fully supervised staff. We provide regular visits for beneficiaries who need and receive our service free of charge, and so BlindAid continues to be a vital source of support for the community it serves.

During 2024 the charity continued both purposefully and successfully to increase the charity's reach. We also continued to interrogate service data as a learning process, as well as to track trends in our hybrid service. As our data compilation relating to the new operating methods has become more substantial, it has become easier to implement agile changes where both identified and needed. Throughout 2024, we continued to review all service processes to ensure we are maximising key milestone re-assessments to reassure ourselves we are delivering our service consciously. We continue to review all service processes to optimise lean activity.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

Sight Support Service Achievements 2024

Visiting in all Boroughs:

6523 visits were made to service users, an increase of 25% from 2023 (5,211) The above was an anticipated result due to being awarded extra funding to employ an extra SSW in 2024. Support Calls: 15,693 regular support calls by SWs: an overall decrease of 1% on 2023 (15,540)

4,012 instances of information provision; an increase of 6% (2023 - 3,787)

1,851 referrals made to other appropriate local organisations: a 6% decrease from 2023 (1,974) 929 referrals to social services (in agreement with service users) an 11% increase on 2023 (841) 1261 instances of supporting service users to access/engage with NHS primary care services, a 53% increase on 2023 (826)

975 contacts with housing depts./associations for service users for repairs: an increase of 24% from 2023 (786)

187 new referrals were taken for the Sight Support Pathway, a 9% decrease from 2023 (207)

1,098 people supported by the Sight Support Service: a 7% decrease (2023 - 1177)

1,204 people accessed all BlindAid services: a 11% decrease (2023 - 1,353)

Community Projects Background:

BlindAid has over 12 years' experience of delivering/operating Community Projects offering a wide-ranging curriculum of classes. In 2013 BlindAid's first Community Project was ratified by trustees initially to trial the potential with the launch of a pilot Project in Southwark. When the pilot proved successful and beneficial for service users, the concept became a key feature of our core services which measurably contributed to the lives of beneficiaries. Additional Community Projects were then opened in Kensington, and also Tower Hamlets.

In March 2020, the charity's popular and well-known network of 3 long established Community Projects were all closed due to the C-19 pandemic. We had gathered wide ranging experience by operating our 3 individual community hub projects each offering a variety of very popular classes that provided 16-week long terms of classes, 3 times each year at each venue. Annually, BlindAid were offering places for beneficiaries, with any vacancies being easily filled as there was always a waiting list of service users to take the spaces on all our free courses. During the operating years between 2013 and leading up until the C-19 pandemic in 2020, BlindAid offered classes to circa 1,400 blind and visually impaired people, free of charge, who personally gained many individual benefits from their attendance.

Due to the financial climate in the UK in 2020 trustees and management agreed the charity could no longer afford to continue to invest its reserves to fund these valuable projects solely from reserves going forward. Whilst at the same time recognising that our Projects Hubs are indeed a vital stage in regaining and strengthening service users' personal resilience and confidence to get out into society, and to develop and maintain self-sustaining independence. They also offer critical social contact with the ability to establish a network of friends and additional peer support.

Whilst appreciating the benefits and value derived by service users, unfortunately, these projects are expensive to operate, each costing between £30,000 to £50,000 per annum. (The financial variance is the difference between being offered free space or needing to rent space from local authorities). One of the most significant learnings gleaned from the time in which we ran three concurrent Project Hubs was: each Hub was oversubscribed, always running at full capacity. The number of Sight Impaired and Severely Sight Impaired people needing and wanting to attend such projects by far outweighed our capacity each and every year.

In collaboration and consultation with our beneficiaries, the curriculum of courses offered has always included healthy eating and safe-cooking skills; yoga or other exercise classes; art/sculpture; creative writing and importantly fundamental IT training, and accessible tech training. Participants are encouraged to attend two classes, for a minimum of one full day each week.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

Community Projects Background Cont.

There is a strong social ambiance at our only Community Project based in Camden, both during the activities to encourage participants to get to know each other both during classes and also to share peer support over lunch. It is an intended outcome that people form independent peer support groups and/or continue to meet and communicate after their courses are completed.

BlindAid's Community Project is naturally open to BlindAid service users but also welcomes other people with sight loss who may be referred by local authorities, NHS, or other local services or charities, and also people living in pan-London Boroughs, if they are able to get to the project, and where we are able to accommodate.

BlindAid has always encouraged attendees to travel independently, and to utilise TFL Travel Service, whilst BlindAid will provide sighted guide support, to/from travel points to the project venue.

BlindAid Community based Projects are managed by our project manager who is on hand at each venue. Classes are delivered by qualified subject tutors together with several dedicated volunteers who are on hand to assist service users where needed. Some of the charity's volunteers are themselves people with lived experience of sight loss, who, having joined the projects as service users, have chosen to return as volunteers to offer peer support for newcomers joining the project in subsequent terms.

The charity has developed an initiative-taking framework to facilitate listening to service users and actively makes the time to encourage and listen to service users' voices regularly during the time they are attending classes. Three framed purposeful engagements with service users allows them to offer feedback and the charity to obtain a balance of measurement for the progress for all stakeholders are held in each term. Service Users aspirations and abilities are noted during a pre-programme assessment; benchmarked again midterm and again finally before they leave the project. Service users' opinions, therefore, are fed into BlindAid's planning, preparation and inform the final choice of classes offered, helping the charity to remain relevant and meet the needs of the people attending as closely as possible.

Since the inception of our first Community Project, we have received extensive feedback from service users highlighting the transformative impact/effects of our classes. Participation in these classes has proven to enhance self-esteem and promote independence, which are critical components in the journey toward self-actualisation. Over the past eight years, we have compiled comprehensive impact reports that clearly demonstrate the progress and achievements of our Community Project concept and initiatives. This wealth of experience positions us to effectively continue and expand our Community Projects, ensuring that we remain responsive to the needs of those we serve and dedicated to fostering positive change in our community.

BlindAid continues to seek external funding to offer more Community Projects.

Community Project - Camden 2022-2026:

Attendance at this project may form part of BlindAid's Sight Support Pathway for some service users. This Project is fully externally funded by The City Bridge Trust - until April 2026:

Late in 2021 BlindAid successfully applied for a grant to fund one centrally based Community Project, and funding was awarded due to the composition of our curriculum, together with our operational experience. The City Bridge Trust awarded BlindAid £81,300 sufficient to fund our project for three years. Funding was awarded in late 2021, however, the project could not commence until 22 April 2022. The project is located at The Living Centre which is a community hub located in the Francis Crick Institute in Oussulton Street NW1 1DF, close to Kings Cross Station.

The project offers specifically designed classes to allow our service users to either learn new skills or re-learn lost skills and classes includes IT: beginners and intermediate, Healthy Eating & Safe Cooking, Art, Yoga and Creative Writing. We also offer free accessible tech support, and appointments to meet with the volunteer tutor must be booked in advance, as this is very popular. All classes empower beneficiaries toward greater independence in a supportive, pro-active ambiance, fostering their ability to self-sustain, with greater confidence.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

Community Project - Camden 2022-2026 Cont.

BlindAid is enormously grateful to The City Bridge Fund for their enduring financial support for this vital Camden Community Project, and we are also grateful to the team at The Living Centre for hosting our project free of charge. BlindAid appreciates the external acknowledgment of the intrinsic value our Community Projects offer blind and visually impaired Londoners. We believe both these organisations recognise the need for this tangible support for our beneficiaries.

Community Project Achievements 2024:

2024 Outcomes:

A total of 60 service users engaged with our Camden Community Project in 2024 (0% change from 2023). Our popular project is operating at capacity with a waiting list.

51 people attended 2 classes per day over 16 weeks in - IT, Safe Cooking/Healthy Eating, Creative Writing, or Yoga.

17 people attended accessible tech classes (a 6% increase on 2023). Places at these sessions are highly sought after: we have one tutor one day per week and the maximum number that could be accommodated across the year were offered space to absorb this vital skill for life.

12 service users attended a weekly art class with our talented art tutor, an increase of 33% from 2023 (9).

BlindAid would welcome third party involvement to expand these sessions for all service users across our 12 inner London Boroughs.

Feedback 2024 from two service users:

"I felt very traumatised and alone when I first lost my sight. Over time attending BlindAid gradually helped me gain more confidence and feel less isolated. I've resumed doing some beneficial activities and met some lovely, friendly fellow vision-impaired people during the process. I think BlindAid is an invaluable community resource".

"I think BlindAid is a brilliant charity. The encouragement they have given me but also encouraging me to give back. I receive lots back by giving back. It's like a family they have provided me - a very strong support system. Really good at supplying a real variety of classes and events."

Wandsworth Community Project:

In 2023 we began conversations with Wandsworth Council about our Community Projects. We are incredibly pleased to confirm that in 2024 we were awarded £13,945 by Wandsworth Council for the provision of a yearlong Community Project focussing upon Healthy Eating and Safe Cooking for some Sight Impaired and Severely Sight Impaired Wandsworth residents. We are delighted and grateful, to be delivering this in collaboration with Age UK Wandsworth as the project is hosted by them free of charge. We began to run safe these cooking/healthy eating classes in October 2024, and 5 attendees joined for the first term of 12 weeks. During 2024 a further 20 service users attended this important skill for life class.

In 2024 our Cooking Tutor was also released to provide a separate cooking class, paid for by Age UK Wandsworth for their service users to also have separate access to this beneficial class.

Before the end of 2024 we were also in conversation with Wandsworth Council for the provision of an IT class to also be made available at Age UK Wandsworth venue in Wandsworth, which will commence in 2025.

Share London Project:

This project may form the final part of BlindAid's Sight Support Pathway.

The project was intentionally created and developed to complete BlindAid's Sight Support Pathway but as it has been recognised as a fundamentally essential social project is also now available as a separate service offer.

Initially Share London was funded by Big Lottery Reaching Communities for its first three years, and we are grateful to them for the initial funding that allowed the initial pilot project and further development to establish such a popular, valuable and impactful project.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

Community Projects Achievements 2024 Cont.

Big Lottery Reaching Communities awarded circa £100K for a three-year project, at the end of 2019. Due to the 'currency of kindness' fostered during the early days of the C-19 pandemic, many people stepped up to become volunteers and as a result, BlindAid's target to recruit/train/match and deploy 240 new volunteers across the three years lifetime of the project, was fully met one year and three months ahead of our target. For the past two years BlindAid is proud to have been funded by The Vision Foundation as we shared similar aims. This treasured Project is fully externally funded by The Vision Foundation until April 2025.

From the initial engagement with a Sight Support Worker and then benefitting from participation in classes at our Community Project Hub, service users begin to expand their confidence and skills to realise self-sufficient independence through developing their engagement with our charity. Through our knowledge and experience gained over many years working with service users living with sight loss, and the daily delivery of our services, we determined that a third support mechanism was needed to complete and enhance our work successfully with each service user.

We needed to ensure that the tangible development gained by service users, by engagement with our Sight Support Service, and then through their experiences at our Community Projects, could then be amplified to further nurture and foster the beginnings of new confidence and independence gradually achieved and established by using our first two core services.

The pattern that we saw all too often occurring was initially, after engagement with our Sight Support Service and then having experienced a term at our Community Project was that almost all service users self-esteem and confidence grew noticeably for almost all people. Although service users were strongly encouraged to maintain post project collective coffee mornings or even one to one meet ups when they left the Project, the reality was more often a higher percentage of service users, without the structure that our deliverable services offer, would tend to stop practicing their new found independence and retire back to the confines/safety of their own homes again. Over a period of several years we evidenced that a higher percentage than we would have liked, were truly at real risk of these newly won and greatly improved skills being eroded away again almost immediately, without an additional service that would continue to encourage them to continue to practise and use them.

This is why our Share London Project builds upon service users newfound/regained independence and ensures they can enjoy all the culture, open spaces, galleries, or other interesting experiences that London offers with the security of a matched, trained volunteer sighted guide alongside them.

This unique social project provides beneficiaries a powerful combination of the confidence to leave home knowing a matched trained sighted guide is alongside them and can provide support if difficulties are encountered during the outing, or they become disorientated, as well as having the simple pleasure of someone to share their interests with. The nature of activities varies widely and included outings such as visits to museums and galleries, a walk in the park, going for a coffee or a trip to the theatre for a touch tour before the performance.

BlindAid is now actively seeking new funding opportunities to see this extremely popular and professionally managed service continue into the future.

We would like to say a huge thank you to all the volunteers who have previously, or who are currently volunteering for BlindAid through this unique and incredibly special project. Our volunteers gift time, and achieve so much for our beneficiaries, and the stories of social outings that have been enjoyed by both parties are many, varied and most of all heartwarming. Our volunteers are amazing people who share their energy and warmth of spirit with our service users, for the great benefit of both people.

In 2024 - volunteers achieved: 1,624 (a 4% reduction from 2023) social contact calls, and an uplifting 900 outings with service users (a 13% increase from 2023).

Corporate Sponsors:

With are immensely grateful to our Corporate Sponsor: Ernst & Young (EY) based at More London on Tooley Street, near London Bridge Station SE1, with whom we have enjoyed a very warm 10-year relationship. Collaboratively, we have organised events that have matched EY employees who have volunteered to support our service users to enjoy such events as:

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

Corporate Sponsors Cont.

Annual Christmas Shopping Trips:

In 2024 we celebrated our 10th year of collaborating to provide an opportunity for our service users who would otherwise not be able to shop independently, to enjoy a sociable day where they are supported to do so. Over the decade of this relationship around c1,000 service users have attended this special day out, shopping with EY volunteers and sharing a buffet lunch and refreshments afterwards, which everyone enjoyed enormously.

River Walks: From London Bridge to the Royal Festival Hall. So many service users have enjoyed walking along the Southbank, with their EY volunteer alongside them, audio describing the buildings either side of the river Thames as well as what was happening on the river itself. Many service users especially like to stop where there is a shoreline to listen to the waves.

In the years that EY has been a loyal sponsor for BlindAid, our charity has trained c40-50 EY employees annually in Sighted Guiding techniques, across the 10 years to date around c400 EY employees have accepted the training, which is another significant skill for life because of their altruistic gift of time for BlindAid service users. EY has raised the funds to pay for events, refreshments and taxi journeys for those service users who are unable to travel independently. We thank EY for their unfailing donations for BlindAid.

Hoare Bank:

In 2023 C Hoare and Co, (private bank) colleagues from the banks' in house Corporate Responsibility Team reached out to BlindAid and they became a corporate sponsor for BlindAid. The CSR Team soon demonstrated unfailing resilience in demonstrating they are a force for good. They encouraged their colleagues to engage with in planned inhouse fundraising events throughout the whole month of September 2023, which culminated in an early evening special event, held at the bank. The event was hosted by their CEO and attended by many of the bank's staff team. It was an utterly charming and enjoyable event, which clearly evidenced the wonderful familial culture in the ambient setting of the Hoare family's library, within their establishment in Fleet Street. New staff were warmly welcomed in joining their team, and long serving staff were spoken about fondly and thanked for their service to date. The CSR team talked about the variety of events organised during September and presented BlindAid with our first ever large cardboard cheque for the amount raised for our charity, which was for over £13,000.

During 2024 our CRS relationship developed further and the team at the bank completed their annual fundraising events in-house surpassing their previous years efforts by a considerable margin fundraising a considerable amount for BlindAid. This was presented to BlindAid, with a request that we arrange two CSR days. The first of which was quickly in planning for 20 November 2024. Staff volunteers attended Sighted Guide Training earlier in November which was held at the bank in preparation for the agreed Christmas Shopping Trip to Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepherds Bush.

The Shopping Trip excursion was a remarkable success, and all volunteers were successfully matched quickly in the morning, and everyone met at a previously arranged restaurant for a festive lunch. The group totalled 26 people and so the group was intimate enough for volunteers to talk at length with the service users they were matched with. As a result, a number of the volunteers, elected to also investigate joining Share London as volunteers in order to have a secondary connection with BlindAid.

We have already arranged a second corporate sponsorship day with the team from Hoare Bank, this is planned to take place on 29 September 2025, when we will be taking a private tour of Dr Johnson's House in Gough Square, London. This is a fascinating establishment, where Dr Johnson compiled is famous Dictionary in 1755. Of course, his most famous quotation was "when a man is tired of London - he is tired of life". We are looking forward to working alongside them again soon.

Touch Tours with The Tate Modern:

We have run regular Touch Tours of the Tate during 2024 and also supported some service users to attend specific exhibitions of various artists' work. These are always popular and well supported.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

Corporate Sponsors Cont. The British Library:

As the library is located very close to The Living Centre in Camden where we operate our Community Project for our service users, it has proved an easy collaboration for us to also work together with the team at the British Library. We have run an art class for many years as part of our Community Project Curriculum, and now we can also offer special exhibitions, and also art classes in collaboration with the British Library team which is an exciting prospect for next year.

Previous Corporate Sponsors we have worked with include: Williams Grant Distilleries The Financial Times The Charterhouse Partnership Rabobank

Information and Advice:

The collation and dissemination of relevant information for our beneficiaries has always been an important and integral part of all the charity's activities and services, and it is also part of our Community Sight Support Workers roles, to research information required by service users and offered the provision of relevant information and guidance for service users daily during their work. In recent years, we have received some small amounts of funding from several Boroughs in particular to ensure that BlindAid is disseminating information to local SI and SSI residents about local flu and C-19 booster vaccinations and also winter warming campaigns that may be of interest for our beneficiaries.

Our general information provision may also include information relating to specific eye conditions as well as details of other services available in specific areas including social or sporting activities. Throughout the C-19 pandemic this connection proved to be a vital service for our beneficiaries. BlindAid earned an enhanced reputation for reliable unbiased quality information provision, as we were already a trusted voice within our community of service users, we were able to offer objective information from the NHS in relation to the vaccination program.

BlindAid assists people living with sight loss to obtain local authority and other statutory services or concessions to which they are entitled, and this forms an integrated part of the SSWs roles in each inner London Borough.

Additionally, the charity acts as a broad information and guidance hub for all visually impaired people who contact the charity. For callers' resident elsewhere in the UK the charity will make referrals to other local sight loss charities via Visionary members. Visionary is an umbrella organisation for all small sight loss charities across the UK.

Aids and Equipment:

As previously reported, the charity leased its head office property in 2023 and as a result of this, we are no longer able to stock small aids and equipment that facilitate independent living. In 2023, we distributed all the remaining limited stock to service users. We now refer and support service users to engage with RNIB's resource centre for these goods. We also offer small grants for certain items, not already provided as part of statutory provision by local authorities, on a purchase on behalf of beneficiaries and delivered directly to them at home basis, which is working well.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

The Clothworkers Foundation Grant Award:

BlindAid has enjoyed an enduring relationship spanning many years with The Clothworkers Foundation and receives an annual grant of £50,000 each year for distribution to beneficiaries who are nominated for a grant award by our own SSWs, or other professional workers who are aware of the individual service user's circumstances. Applications for grants are made for aids and equipment that support and facilitate independent living. This vital grant funding enables the charity to provide financial support and the purchase of a variety of aids, equipment (not already provided by statutory services) and other items that assist independent living that service users would otherwise not be able to afford to purchase.

BlindAid's Grant award for 2024 was paid to bank on 11 November 2024.

In 2024 Clothworkers Foundation confirmed that BlindAid was able to retain £10,000 to offset a percentage of the cost of disseminating this grant on their behalf for which the charity was extremely grateful.

This is specifically a grant for grants programme and BlindAid provides financial support for beneficiaries from this grant in various ways.

Grants made to small Charities, whose services are vital for the local VI communities they serve:

Blackfriars Settlement Southwark: £6,000: This being £2,000 for the Crusoe Club for SI and SSI residents of Southwark, and £4,000 for Blackfriars Older Persons Services because their Coordinator Tina Johnston who is a long serving employee of Blackfriars Settlement, has year upon year increased their efforts for December events and specifically a Christmas meal for Southwark residents who are Sight Impaired or Severely Sight Impaired, and includes those Southwark residents who cannot get to the charity's Community Hub, who are delivered a hot Christmas meal on Christmas Day as they live alone.

Lewisham Talking News: £2,200: for new equipment and USB memory sticks for continued distribution of the news.

Individual Grants: A total of 113 individual grants were awarded total £24,812 (2023: 116 grants) Small Grants: (under £100) 74 small or comfort grants were awarded in 2024 a combined total of £3,562

Total of Clothworkers Foundation Grant Disseminated: £40,074 (2023: £38,824) The overspend of £74 pounds will be borne by BlindAid.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

Collaboration and Consultation:

Vision Foundation: (previously Greater London Fund for the Blind - GLFB) Historically, BlindAid was a member charity of the Greater London Fund for the Blind (GLFB), together with 9 other local charities serving blind and visually impaired within the M25 area for many years. GFLB acted as an umbrella fundraising organisation on behalf of its member charities and made allocations to members as contributions toward the provision of their core services.

Under the leadership of a new CEO, GLFB repurposed and renamed their charity to The Vision Foundation at a formal launch event on 16 October 2019, which management from BlindAid attended. A consultation period followed, and on 11 March 2020 representatives of all the member charities attended a meeting to vote on the dissolution of the membership. Each member charity was paid a proportionate settlement grant following this vote and the acceptance of the grant precluded any further regular allocations toward the delivery of core services for people living with sight loss resident in London. BlindAid became a 'partner organisation' with The Vision Foundation after the dissolution of the membership in order to continue a productive working relationship, and we did apply to Vision Foundation from time to time for funding for specific projects. However, in 2022 Vision Foundation were merged with another London based charity, Fight for Sight.

BlindAid are grateful that The Vision Foundation has funded our Share London Project for the past two years, with their current funding ceasing in April 2025.

In 2023 BlindAid won a collaborative bid with the charity Refuge, who together applied to The Vision Foundation for a grant for an education and learning project so that Refuge may better support Sight Impaired or Severely Sight Impaired, service users seeking to use their support services in relation to domestic violence. During 2024 BlindAid acted as a consultant in collaboration with Refuge staff, who were building training resources for their own staff team who are based at and operate from, the various Refuge facilities throughout the UK. The training was developed as e-learning materials, together with a resource handbook for staff to refer to when they are expecting a person with lived experience of sight loss to arrive at a Refuge centre for sanctuary and support. The Refuge project was funded by The Vision Foundation and was a collaborative piece of work following on from the Vision Foundation's Research Report "The Unseen", specifically illustrating domestic violence against sight impaired and severely sight impaired people. We are grateful to the Vision Foundation for recommending BlindAid as consultants to work in collaboration with Refuge on this interesting project.

In addition, there was an additional piece of consultancy provided for Refuge which was funded by The Home Office, which shared Tech Abuse Information and by attending these online sessions provided by Refuge, BlindAid Sight Support Workers became 'Tech Abuse Champions' and now have a great deal of knowledge to share with our service users in this specific niche arena.

In 2022 the NHS launched four main NHS Integrated Care Systems that quarter the 32 Boroughs of Greater London. At the end of 2022 BlindAid was awarded funding for our Community Sight Support Service in Wandsworth from South West London ICP from their Health Inequalities Funding Stream. Throughout 2023 and 2024 we upscaled our involvement with NHS ICB teams, and we have joined many ICB/ICP/NHS online meetings, with circa 20-30 medical professionals, ophthalmologists, as well other 3rd sector organisations attending in each region. In addition, BlindAid joined NHS ICB online consultation meetings relating to the specific transformation of a range of eyecare services that will be transferred 'from hospital to the community' either to 3rd sector organisations or private medical organisations.

BlindAid has had a long and successful collaborative relationship with The St Pancras and Somers Town Living Centre, 2 Ossulston Street, in Camden London. For the past 5 years The Living Centre have gifted BlindAid space to provide our Community Project for sight impaired and severely sight impaired adults. We are grateful to the team at the hub and are currently working with them on a wider community bid for the next three years, to develop and broaden the services being delivered via Living Centre Community Hub.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

Collaboration and Consultation Cont.

We have been especially pleased to work in collaboration with Age UK Wandsworth in relation to a local authority funded Healthy Eating and Safe Cooking yearlong project which commenced in October 2024, to serve local sight impaired and severely sight impaired residents of Wandsworth, and sessions will be held at the Gwynneth Morgan Day Centre courtesy of Age UK Wandsworth.

In 2024 we collaborated with 'The Place' based in Camden, in relation to dance sessions for SI and SSI adults which were hugely successful.

We have long held a warm relationship with Community Connections in Lewisham and have a productive reciprocal referral relationship with them.

Part of Natural England is an organisation called 'Happier Outdoors' with whom we have collaborated in order to provide information and encouragement for all our service users resident in the 12 inner London Boroughs. For those who are able to get out and about, Happier Outdoors provide a directory listing all the events Borough by Borough that people can attend free of charge and our SSWs ensure this information is provided to all beneficiaries. Healthwatch in several Boroughs have approached BlindAid for us to support and assist blind or visually impaired people to complete all important health surveys in their Boroughs. This work is undertaken by SSW's when they visit their service users.

We have worked alongside Jubilee Hall Gym, based in Covent Garden, and provided Sighted Guide Training for their staff team, so they are better able to respond to SSI or SI people joining the gym as members. We have entered collaborative bids online to run some audio described yoga sessions in collaboration with the Gym, and we are also exploring other opportunities to provide additional health options in collaboration with this gym for our community of service users.

From 2023 and into 2024 we joined a number of consortiums formed with other charities and made joint funding bids to several inner London Boroughs for the collective provision of services for all disabled people resident in those Boroughs, at the request of those Boroughs. Whilst collaboration can be excellent between charities, this consortium way of bidding for operational grants from Boroughs proved very time consuming, in some instances we found ourselves in two different consortiums both of which were bidding for the same grant funding and neither group having the capacity or knowledge to deliver service for blind and visually impaired people. Whilst it is easy to understand this way of offering grants by Councils reduces dialogue with suppliers for them, however, this way of working radically increases time investments for individual charities as they must liaise with multi groups of other charities and wade through layers of additional meetings as separate bids are devised written and costed, with much of the volume of detailed work only to be left lying on the floor.

As a key example, BlindAid was part of 2 separate consortiums bidding for a grant from Southwark Council, who almost a year later made a one-off substantial grant award in December 2024 to the national organisation Keyring, as the lead partner in one of the two consortiums supported by BlindAid. This enables the Council to pay a one-off grant to pay for support services for 'all disabled people resident in Southwark'. During the bidding process, the Council were keen for BlindAid to provide some classes specifically for sight impaired/severely sight impaired people living in the Borough, as we had provided a community project at the same Resource Centre for 7 years between 2013-2020.

We have had several subsequent meetings with Keyring, and unfortunately whilst we understand space at Southwark Resource Centre will be provided free of charge for classes, this is also subject to general diary availability as other organisations are being directed to utilise the Resource Centre, also need to book space at the centre, which has yet to be established. Keyring have announced they are to begin to deliver services for people with lifelong learning disabilities resident in the Borough, together with signposting to other organisations from late September 2025.

Whilst BlindAid confirmed a 4 week lead time to commence classes for the visually impaired community in the Borough in January 2024, we have had a couple of meetings through the year, where discussions continue with Keyring, and we still await confirmation of how many regular classes may be held at the Resource Centre, and there was also a suggestion from Keyring during 2024 that we are likely to need to make additional joint funding applications to raise additional funding for classes.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

Collaboration and Consultation Cont.

Throughout previous years and again in 2024 BlindAid has remained committed to actively seeking opportunities to collaborate with other charities or organisations where it may be mutually beneficial to do so. The charity, primarily through its Chief Executive, and/or its Operations Director, maintains relationships with key visual impairment forums and many other charities both local and national, within and outside the visual impairment sector. BlindAid is also a member of several useful voluntary sector organisations.

ACHIEVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE

Strategy Review

BlindAid supports a total of c1,400 people annually, who are living with varying degrees of sight loss and are resident in London, with the provision of various services ranging from guidance and information to complex practical support.

To ensure BlindAid services remain relevant, strategy is reviewed at a minimum annually by trustees and management, taking account of all the charity's stakeholders, and professional co-colleagues who refer to the charity regularly, and we also listen to the voices of our staff and beneficiaries.

BlindAid planned and conducted a total revitalisation of its board of trustees between 2021 and 2024. Management invested substantial time in meeting with candidates in order to select the most appointable people.

Naturally we followed our recruitment policy, in meeting with candidates informally, followed by a formal interview including one or two of our trustees as well. This strategic plan this has benefitted the charity enormously, and new trustees are invested in our cause and keen to be ambassadors for the charity. We are hoping to recruit again in 2025 to increase the Board by another 2 trustees.

Our Board of Trustees determined the charity's core activity should continue to be the alleviation of the social isolation which is present in the lives of many people with lived experience of sight loss. To serve this aim the trustees have endorsed substantial investment from the charity's own reserves into our core services in previous years.

To balance this planned expenditure; in 2018 a key pillar of the strategic plan was that in conjunction with the investment from reserves to provide service for more beneficiaries year on year, the charity must also develop its own ability to generate income and identify significant sources of sustainable new funding for the future. Since 2018 management have learned a great deal about funding raising within our particular niche within the disability sector. It remains a core aim for BlindAid to raise sufficient external funding eventually to wholly support its vital core Sight Support Service going forward and in 2018 we had aimed to attain this by 2026.

Our Chair of Trustees wasted no time in designing a new Governance structure for BlindAid to improve strategic work themes being managed by new working groups, chaired by new trustees with specific skills and talents to maximise efforts to support management to move the charity forward against the strong headwinds created by post Brexit and C-19 pandemic plus the UK Cost of Living Crisis, all of which have impacted the third sector significantly, and unfortunately the fundraising landscape for all charities both large and small.

Importantly, as a small charity BlindAid regularly consults service users using structured methods to ensure their voices are heard, and their needs are being met effectively, and this has occurred more frequently during the past few years and again during 2024. Both the CEO and Operations Director are well known within our community and so communications are open and forthcoming and most of all feedback is always useful. We have used Focus Groups, as previously described above. We also receive spontaneous feedback from service users through our day-to-day contact with service users.

In 2023 we also created as part of the overall charity governance structure a Service User Working Group, and a Fundraising Group. The Service User Group is chaired by one of our trustees, supported by our Operations Director, and a number of service users have joined this forum so that the Board may hear service users views first hand via the minutes of these meetings and the reporting of the Chair of the Group at Board meetings. The Fundraising Group is Chaired by our Fundraising Trustee and joined by another trustee, our Freelance Fundraiser, the CEO and Operations Director.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

Strategy Review Cont.

New trustees are also ambassadors for BlindAid and are tangibly working to support management in the challenges the charity is facing in the immediate term.

At the last Board Meeting of the year in November 2023, it was agreed that throughout 2024 and going forward, senior management would hold the specific responsibility for fundraising for our core Sight Support Service. To develop the essential relationships with all 12 inner London Boroughs, to establish funding pathways in all 12 inner London Boroughs from the local authorities.

This was an ambitious and challenging task, given the continued budgetary cuts imposed by central Government upon all Local Authorities. Despite the strong headwinds Management achieved 80% funding for its core Sight support Service (or commitment to fund) from 2024, which narrowly negated the very real alternative potential that the charity would have been forced to completely change its operating model.

In 2025-2026 senior management will continue to pursue longer term funding agreements or commissioning with local authorities and also pursue opportunities with other pan London Boroughs, these being the 19 Outer London Boroughs where there is little to no free services charity support offered with the exception of only a few of these 19 Boroughs.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Background Financial Mitigation 2019-2023:

Between 2019 and 2024 Management and trustees have managed the charity's finances conservatively, actions such as de-risking investments have primarily been taken to mitigate impact on the charity, due to the then financial climate and impending Brexit and movement of investments was conducted in 2019 and completed in January 2020. Unfortunately, this was followed swiftly by the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic, and further uncertainty in financial markets. The UK has continued to face a challenging economic outlook due to the financial impact of both Brexit and COVID-19 on the charity's investments, at the end of 2022 the charity suffered losses on investments of c£152,000.

Trustees and Management have also mitigated Financial Impact as follows:

To avoid further potential losses on investments trustees acted swiftly and prudently to de-risk some of the charity's investments by moving to safer investment funds. Therefore, in 2022 trustees sensibly took the decision to encash 2 years' operating costs as a precaution against further investment losses.

At the last Board Meeting of Dec 2022 trustees ratified a decision to capitalise on our property asset, and to lease out our head office; Lantern House 102 Bermondsey Street SE1 3UB, this to specifically provide for a sustainable income for the charity which was successfully achieved in 2023.

During 2024, the charity continued to manage finance conservatively by:

1. Making cost savings where appropriate and possible

2. Not replacing staff who retired/resigned and reallocating duties to other staff where and if possible.

3. Only replacing staff who left the charity in Boroughs with current external funding agreements.

4. Renegotiating supplier contracts where possible.

5. Making increasingly significant numbers of applications for grant funding to support our core services

6. Making specific funding bids to ensure all other services are externally funded.

7. Approaching all 12 Inner London Boroughs to be funded to provide our Sight Support Service.

Due to global political issues, the potential for further financial turbulence prevails unfortunately across the UK and for the whole third sector. Naturally, stability of finances remains under constant review at both Finance & Resource Committee Meetings as well as a discussion topic for all Board Meetings. BlindAid's approach will continue to be prudent, conservative, and cautious in its fiscal management as always, but especially throughout this unprecedented and challenging time for all organisations.

In November 2024 the charity approached the Charity Commission with a formal application to be able to use funds previously referred to as endowment funds in the charity's annual report & accounts. Specific endowment funds have been collectively invested under our Total Returns Resolution set by previous Trustees in 2018. Following guidance from the Charity Commission and in agreement with trustees we have established the appropriate governance procedure to be able to draw down on these funds should it be required.

Trustees and management are agreed that BlindAid is simply not able to invest any further reserves in the continued delivery of its services going forward, it is accepted that the establishment of secure funding streams with Local Authorities is challenging and timeframes they have committed to may not be met on agreed deadlines, but that we must ensure payment of funds is tracked and received as swiftly as possible.

Total unrestricted income from donations and legacies for 2024 were £230,103 (2023: £174,673).

The charity has in previous years received some significant income from legacies, often from former service users. By its nature, such income is not possible to predict and therefore must not be relied upon. Legacy income can and does vary from year to year, however in the past five years legacies have been substantially reduced. In 2024 BlindAid finally received a legacy first notified in 2021 at just over £30,000, on behalf of a Westminster service user, due to the time taken to settle the estate the amount received eventually was £20,688.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

Financial Review Cont.

In addition, the charity receives a restricted grant of £50,000 from The Clothworkers' Foundation. BlindAid disburses this funding in grants for visually impaired people on behalf of The Clothworkers Foundation. This provides small grants (under £100) and individual grants (£100-£400) for the provision of items that are otherwise unaffordable for beneficiaries living with sight loss and contribute to living independently. In 2024 BlindAid was permitted to retain an increased administration fee of £10,000 from their grant funding as a contribution toward the resource costs of disseminating the grant, this represents a percentage of the cost of the employed resource who undertakes the grant administration duties as part of a part time role.

The other source of income for BlindAid is from the charity's investment portfolio and interest on deposit accounts. In 2024 the charity received £107,455 (2023: £57,694).

In 2022 the charity recorded a net loss on investments of £151,753 due to market instability, due to which, trustees agreed the charity would encash sufficient investments for 2 years of operating costs to minimise future risk of further losses in investments due to market instability, whilst noting this a positive action, conversely it naturally reduces the charity's overall annual dividend income negatively. Therefore, BlindAid's investment holdings in CCLA Diversified Income fund were sold and funds transferred to BlindAid's CCLA deposit account. The charity has drawn from these funds to support its core Sight Support Service throughout 2023 and again this year 2024. This decision resulted in increased operational stability which is vital for our service users and crucially underpins our increasingly vital fundraising campaigns. It was also acknowledged that our aim to transition to breakeven operating status cannot be attained in the immediate term, which reflects in part the continuation of the charity's investment in its services but also cost savings continuing to be attained year on year.

In 2023 as the charity leased its head office to secure a sustainable income for the future of the charity, the clearance of the property resulted in an unavoidable one-off loss on disposal of equipment and furniture of £190K. In 2024 the charity received rental income of £71,079 for Lantern House. As the charity leased its property asset in 2023, the property was revalued by a qualified RICS surveyor who confirmed the market value with the existing lease to be £1,275.000 and market value with vacant possession to be £1,250,000.

Despite a hard external financial climate management has made good progress on mitigating expenditure again during 2024 and has made strong progress throughout the year in converting the Sight Support Service to 80% external funding, in place of continuing to bear the total cost of this vital service from reserves. However, the charity will still operate on a reducing deficit budget and management will continue to strive throughout 2025 to secure even more external funding streams for all its core service in 2025.

Investment Policy

The Charity's trustees manage our investments conservatively. Investments previously held in Charifund, a UK equities trust managed by M&G, were transferred to L&G in 2019 and invested in both UK and International Index Trusts, where they have remained. Within the funds held by L&G are the charity's endowment fund, together with sums invested by the charity following unrestricted legacies over several years previously.

Investments managed by CCLA in COIF (Charities Official Investment Fund) were transferred to CCLA's new Diversified Fund in 2020, and in 2022, funds held in the Diversified Fund, were encashed to be held in CCLA's deposit account as operating funds as mentioned above.

Given the UK emerged from the impact of both Brexit and the C-19 pandemic into a more inflationary financial environment, this produced greater investment volatility in 2022 and 2023, which not only prompted a financial crisis in the UK, but also throughout 2024 has severely hardened the funding landscape across the UK for both national and local charities, and without doubt many smaller charities such as BlindAid continue to experience difficulties in fundraising.

BlindAid's remaining investments held with L&G were reviewed throughout 2024 quarterly at each board meeting and will continue to be monitored in this way. The charity's policy is to invest its assets across a range of asset classes to generate returns, through income and capital appreciation, to support its activities over the longer term.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Reserves policy

BlindAid maintains a restricted endowment fund, and accumulative investment gains and Trustees are permitted to allocate part of the unapplied total return to the unrestricted income fund, being mindful of striking a balance between current and future beneficiaries. In 2017 trustees agreed the total endowment fund should not be reduced below a level to keep the original endowment sum in line with inflation as measured by Retail Price Index (RPI).

The fund in total at December 2024 was £753,925 (2023: £662,173).

Trustees did also agree to transfer 50% of funds held both in the L&G UK Index Trust and also L&G International Trust, to an agreed new product of L&G Cash Trust to further derisk an element of the total investments.

In previous years trustees established designated funds to such costs as fixed assets and also projected costs of operating the charity's 3 community projects. All three community projects were closed on 16.03.2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. During 2020 it was decided BlindAid could not continue to cover the cost for all three Community Projects from reserves. Therefore, the charity began fundraising to secure external funding to sustain its centrally located Camden Community Project over a further five-year period. In 2021, BlindAid was awarded funding from The City Bridge Trust of £81,300 to financially support the Camden Community Project for a three-year period. The project commenced in 2022 and will run through until 2025. We subsequently applied for one year of extension funding for this valuable project which has been granted and awarded and so the project will run until April 2026.

In 2022 trustees elected to determine an annual designated fund to cover the operational cost of delivering our vital Community Sight Support Service for the next 3 years. The designated costs in 2024 amounted to £492,736 (2023: £543,701).

For many years now trustees have continued the charity operating a strategic deficit budget to invest surplus reserves to expand the charity's services in support of Londoners living with sight loss. Since 2020 and the instability of the financial markets, the charity has been conservatively focussed upon reducing the deficit. In 2021 it was reduced substantially to c£171K (down from £280,326 the previous year), unfortunately it rose again in 2022 primarily due to external financial forces, and in 2023 with the leasing our head office and the additional loss on disposal caused, despite the success in achieving some savings on the general operation costs of the charity.

The trustees have considered the level of free reserves i.e., total reserves excluding restricted, endowment funds required to support the charity's operations. The free reserves as at the year-end that have not already been designated towards the core service is nil. Relevant factors to monitor finance include projected financial performance and an assessment of the risks to the charity's existing income streams.

It has been determined that, given the reliance of BlindAid on its investments to fund its operating expenses, along with the more volatile investment environment because of higher inflation, which is also likely to increase BlindAid's costs, a higher cash/liquid asset buffer should be maintained of around 12-24 months of required expenditure (based on the average deficit of the last few years).

This policy and underlying factors are reviewed regularly and considered annually, and the minimum reserves requirement is, therefore, expected to change over time, as the investment outlook and funding position changes.

Going concern

The trustees consider the charity a going concern. There are sufficient reserves to support the planned operating activities of the charity.

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Specific objectives for 2024 are:

1. To manage the lease and landlord responsibilities for the charity's property asset Lantern House.

2. To build fundraising capacity to provide sustainable sources of income for the charity.

3. To work within the new Governance Structure for the development and benefit of BlindAid.

4. To pursue Local Authorities and NHS Trusts for continued funding for core services.

5. Work in collaboration with other charities to win consortium bids from local authorities.

6. Continue to recruit, train, match and deploy volunteers for Share London.

7. To seek other office accommodation to provide a hub for the charity.

8. Review investment strategy considering the current UK financial climate.

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Governing document

The charity is controlled by its governing document, a deed of trust, and constitutes a limited company, limited by guarantee, as defined by the Companies Act 2006.

Directors/Trustees

The Members of the charity's Board who served during the year are the Directors of the Company under the Companies Act 2006. Current Members are listed on page 24.

Board Members are trustees within the meaning of the Charities Act 2011. Members are appointed by the Board; details regarding the method of appointment and removal of Members are in the Charity's Articles of Association.

New Board Members receive induction and training appropriate to their experience of trusteeship and knowledge of the field of visual impairment. All are encouraged to invest time visiting head office to understand each employee's work, and to spend time out each year with any of the Sight Support Workers meeting some of our Service Users first hand. Trustees are encouraged to attend the annual celebration of the Charity's work, to join staff training days, to visit BlindAid community projects to engage with service users and to understand the work the Charity undertakes to provide skills for blind and visually impaired people to maintain their independence.

The powers of the Board are described in the Articles of Association. The Board holds four meetings each year. Each Board Meeting is preceded by a meeting of the Finance & Resource Committee Chair: Honorary Treasurer and including the Vice Chair and the Chief Executive.

The day-to-day management of the charity is delegated to the Chief Executive under the Board's supervision.

Risk management

The Board reviews the charity's risk register annually. The work of Sight Support Workers (SSWs) in providing guidance and support to vulnerable people implies a duty of care. Safeguarding is of paramount concern and features annually in the training schedule. The Operations Director has oversight for the planning of the curriculum for the on-going vocational training for the whole team, including volunteers. The charity recognises the importance of staff supervision, and all SSWs attend supervision meetings every two weeks. The Sight Support Team Leader focuses on induction training for new Sight Support Workers, as well as fortnightly staff supervision meetings. The Team Leader also supervises performance management to ensure that all SSWs operate within agreed quality standards. The charity also acknowledges its duty of care to its staff in relation to remote working in the community. The charity has reviewed administration and finance functions (last in February 2021) and is satisfied that systems are in place to mitigate its exposure to its major risks.

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS Registered Company number

00986407 (England and Wales)

Registered Charity number

262119

BLINDAID

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

Registered office C/o BWBCA Limited Office 44 A30 Business Centre Okehampton Devon EX20 1BG

Trustees A Rawal - Senior Partner EY - Chair of Trustees R N Rutter - Capital Structure/Credit Rating Advisory Associate - Treasurer R Holdsworth - Investment Manager A Sandleson Psychotherapist (resigned 30 July 2025) N de Silva - CEO Age UK Wandsworth A J Gordon - Retired J W F Small - Associate Partner WTW PLC D Spyridonidou - Associate Director/Credit Analyst Company Secretary S O'Hara Independent Examiner Shoaib Arshad Knox Cropper LLP 65 Leadenhall Street London EC3A 2AD Bankers Lloyds Bank PLC Camberwell Green Branch 25 Camberwell Green London SE5 7AB Accountants BWBCA Limited Office 44 A30 Business Centre Higher Stockley Mead Okehampton Devon EX20 1BG

This report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions of Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

Approved by order of the board of trustees on ............................................. and signed on its behalf by:

........................................................................ S O'Hara - Secretary

Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of BlindAid

Independent examiner's report to the trustees of BlindAid ('the Company')

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Company for the year ended 31 December 2024.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity's trustees of the Company (and also its directors for the purposes of company law) you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 ('the 2006 Act').

Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the Company are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of your charity's accounts as carried out under Section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 ('the 2011 Act'). In carrying out my examination I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under Section 145(5) (b) of the 2011 Act.

Independent examiner's statement Since your charity's gross income exceeded £250,000 your examiner must be a member of a listed body. I can confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, which is one of the listed bodies.

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe:

1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the Company as required by Section 386 of the 2006 Act; or

2. the accounts do not accord with those records; or

3. the accounts do not comply with the accounting requirements of Section 396 of the 2006 Act other than any requirement that the accounts give a true and fair view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or

4. the accounts have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice for accounting and reporting by charities (applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)).

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Shoaib Arshad The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales

Knox Cropper LLP 65 Leadenhall Street London EC3A 2AD

Date: .............................................

BLINDAID

Statement of Financial Activities for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

Unrestricted funds Notes £ INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM Donations and legacies 2 230,103 Investment income 3 107,455 Total 337,558 EXPENDITURE ON Raising funds 4 30,777 Charitable activities 5 Community Sight Support service 495,825 Camden Community Project 47,307 Wandsworth Community Project 3,208 Grants 15,509 Telephone Support service 5,851 Share London 52,861 Other - Total 651,338 Net gains on investments 3,467 NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE) (310,313) RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS Total funds brought forward As previously reported 2,080,256 Prior year adjustment 12 (61,182) As restated 2,019,074 TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD 1,708,761	Restricted funds £ 70,142 - 70,142 - - - - 31,374 - - - 31,374 - 38,768 56,443 - 56,443 95,211	Endowment fund £ - - - - - - - - - - - - 87,185 87,185 397,627 61,182 458,809 545,994	31.12.24 Total funds £ 300,245 107,455 407,700 30,777 495,825 47,307 3,208 46,883 5,851 52,861 - 682,712 90,652 (184,360) 2,534,326 - 2,534,326 2,349,966	31.12.23 Total funds as restated £ 286,488 57,694 344,182 68,327 553,090 48,592 - 58,032 2,606 55,798 183,552 969,997 1,159,567 533,752 2,000,574 - 2,000,574 2,534,326

BLINDAID

Balance Sheet 31 December 2024

Unrestricted funds Notes £ FIXED ASSETS Tangible assets 14 1,225 Investments Investments 15 207,931 Investment property 16 1,200,000 1,409,156 CURRENT ASSETS Debtors 17 119,015 Cash in hand 224,151 343,166 CREDITORS Amounts falling due within one year 18 (43,561) NET CURRENT ASSETS 299,605 TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES 1,708,761 NET ASSETS 1,708,761 FUNDS 19 Unrestricted funds: General fund Fixed assets Community Sight Support Services Restricted funds Endowment funds TOTAL FUNDS	Restricted funds £ - - - - 27,642 67,569 95,211 - 95,211 95,211 95,211	Endowment fund £ - 545,994 - 545,994 - - - - - 545,994 545,994	31.12.24 Total funds £ 1,225 753,925 1,200,000 1,955,150 146,657 291,720 438,377 (43,561) 394,816 2,349,966 2,349,966 - 1,201,225 507,536 1,708,761 95,211 545,994 2,349,966	31.12.23 Total funds as restated £ 1,677 663,273 1,200,000 1,864,950 148,301 567,955 716,256 (46,880) 669,376 2,534,326 2,534,326 69,511 1,201,677 747,886 2,019,074 56,443 458,809 2,534,326

The charitable company is entitled to exemption from audit under Section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 for the year ended 31 December 2024.

The members have not required the company to obtain an audit of its financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2024 in accordance with Section 476 of the Companies Act 2006.

BLINDAID

Balance Sheet - continued 31 December 2024

The trustees acknowledge their responsibilities for

• (a) ensuring that the charitable company keeps accounting records that comply with Sections 386 and 387 of the Companies Act 2006 and

• (b) preparing financial statements which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company as at the end of each financial year and of its surplus or deficit for each financial year in accordance with the requirements of Sections 394 and 395 and which otherwise comply with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 relating to financial statements, so far as applicable to the charitable company.

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to charitable companies subject to the small companies regime.

The financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees and authorised for issue on ............................................. and were signed on its behalf by:

. ~~............................................~~

R N Rutter - Trustee

............................................. A Rawal - Trustee

BLINDAID

Cash Flow Statement

for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

Notes Cash flows from operating activities Cash generated from operations 1 Net cash used in operating activities Cash flows from investing activities Purchase of tangible fixed assets Interest received Dividends received Net cash provided by investing activities Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting period Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period	31.12.24 £ (311,848) (311,848) (763) 19,989 16,387 35,613 (276,235) 567,955 291,720	31.12.23 as restated £ (489,643) (489,643) - 26,574 16,044 42,618 (447,025) 1,014,980 567,955

BLINDAID

Notes to the Cash Flow Statement for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

1. RECONCILIATION OF NET (EXPENDITURE)/INCOME TO NET CASH FLOW FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES

	ACTIVITIES
			31.12.24	31.12.23
				as restated
			£	£
	Net (expenditure)/income for the reporting period (as per the
	Statement of Financial Activities)		(184,360)	533,752
	Adjustments for:
	Depreciation charges		1,215	11,321
	Loss on disposal of fixed assets		-	183,552
	Interest received		(19,989)	(26,574)
	Dividends received		(16,387)	(16,044)
	Unrealised (gains)/loss on investments		(90,652)	(61,182)
	Revaluation gain on investment property		-	(1,098,385)
	Decrease in stocks		-	1,563
	Decrease/(increase) in debtors		1,644	(37,104)
	(Decrease)/increase in creditors		**(3,319) **	19,458
	Net cash used in operations		(311,848)	(489,643)
2.	ANALYSIS OF CHANGES IN NET FUNDS
		At 1.1.24	Cash flow	At 31.12.24
		£	£	£
	Net cash
	Cash at bank and in hand	567,955	(276,235)	291,720
		567,955	(276,235	291,720
	Total	567,955	(276,235	291,720

BLINDAID

Notes to the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of preparing the financial statements

The financial statements of the charity, which is a public benefit entity under FRS102, have been prepared under the historical cost convention with the exception of investments which are included at market value. They have been prepared in accordance with applicable United Kingdom accounting standards, the requirements of the Statement of Recommended Practice' Accounting and Reporting by Charities' (SORP 2015), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK (FRS 102) and the Charities Act 2011.

Income

Income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the item(s) of income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.

For legacies, entitlement is taken as the earlier of the date on which either: the charity is aware that probate has been granted, the estate has been finalised and notification has been made by the executor(s) to the Trust that a distribution will be made, or when a distribution is received from the estate. Receipt of a legacy, in whole or in part, is only considered probable when the amount can be Where legacies have been notified to the charity, or the charity is aware of the granting of probate, and the criteria for income recognition have not been met, then the legacy is a treated as a contingent asset and disclosed if material.

Expenditure

Liabilities are recognised as expenditure as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to that expenditure, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all cost related to the category. Where costs cannot be directly attributed to particular headings they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources.

Grants offered subject to conditions which have not been met at the year end date are noted as a commitment but not accrued as expenditure.

Raising funds

Raising funds includes all expenditure incurred by the charity to raise funds for its charitable purposes and includes costs of all fundraising activities, events and non-charitable trading.

Governance costs

These represent those costs attributable to the management of the charity's assets, organisational administration and compliance with constitutional and statutory requirements.

Allocation of support costs

Support costs are those functions that assist the work of the charity but do not directly undertake charitable activities. Support costs include back office costs, finance, personnel, payroll and governance costs which support the charity's programmes and activities. These costs have been allocated between cost of raising funds and expenditure on charitable activities. The bases on which support costs have been allocated are set out in note 7.

Tangible fixed assets

Depreciation is provided at the following annual rates in order to write off each asset over its estimated useful life. Computer & office equipment - 25% on cost

Investment property

Investment property is carried at fair value determined annually and derived from the current market rents and investment property yields for comparable real estate, adjusted if necessary for any difference in the nature, location or condition of the specific asset. No depreciation is provided for. Changes in fair value are recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities.

BLINDAID

Notes to the Financial Statements - continued for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES - continued

Taxation

The charity is exempt from corporation tax on its charitable activities.

Fund accounting

General funds - These are funds which can be used in accordance with the charity's charitable objects at the discretion of the board.

Designated funds - These comprise unrestricted funds that have been set aside by the trustees for particular purposes. The aim and use of each designated fund is set out in the notes to the financial statements.

Restricted funds - These funds are subject to specific restrictive conditions imposed by donors or funds received for specific purposes and projects.

Endowment funds - These are represented by a permanent endowment fund, the BlindAid Fund, which stipulates that the capital of the fund must be retained and cannot be spent. The BlindAid Fund is wholly invested in Legal & General International Index and Legal & General UK Index units (see note 15) and income arising from the Fund is used for charitable activities.

Pensions

The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for the benefit of its employees and directors. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity. Contributions payable are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities in the year they are payable.

Termination benefits

Termination benefits are payable when employment is terminated before the normal retirement date , or whenever an employee accepts voluntary redundancy in exchange for these benefits. The charity recognises termination benefits when it is demonstrably committed to either (i) terminating the employment of current employees according to a detailed formal plan without possibility of withdrawal or (ii) providing termination benefits as a result of an offer made to encourage voluntary redundancy.

Donated services and facilities

Donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item, any conditions associated with the donated item have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity of the item is probable and that economic benefit can be measured reliably. In accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102), the general volunteer time l report for more information about their contribution.

On receipt, donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt.

Investments

Investments are included in the Balance Sheet at bid-market value. Gains and losses on disposal and revaluation of investments are credited or charged to the Statement of Financial Activities. Investment income and gains arising on endowment funds are accounted for on a total return basis.

BLINDAID

Notes to the Financial Statements - continued for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

2. DONATIONS AND LEGACIES

Clothworkers funding Vision foundation Corporate donations General donations, grants and trusts Legacies 3. INVESTMENT INCOME Rents received Investment income from listed investments Deposit account interest	31.12.24 £ 50,000 30,000 25,457 184,788 10,000 300,245 31.12.24 £ 71,079 16,387 19,989 107,455	31.12.23 £ 50,000 20,000 41,815 174,673 - 286,488 31.12.23 as restated £ 15,076 16,044 26,574 57,694

The shares in Lantern House Management Limited produce no income.

4. RAISING FUNDS

Raising donations and legacies

Raising donations and legacies
	31.12.24	31.12.23
		as restated
	£	£
Staff costs	9,183	57,724
Advertising for legacies	1,550	550
Professional fundraising	13,224	288
Support costs	6,820	9,765
	30,777	68,327

BLINDAID

Notes to the Financial Statements - continued for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

5. CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES COSTS

Community Sight Support service Camden Community Project Wandsworth Community Project Grants Telephone Support service Share London 2023 Comparative Community Sight Support service Camden Community Project Grants Telephone Support service Big Lottery Share London 6. GRANTS PAYABLE Grants The total grants paid to institutions during 1 grant to VI organisations for community projects (2023 - 3)	Direct Costs £ 357,386 33,635 2,179 - - 37,893 431,093 Direct Costs £ 342,868 25,279 - - 32,485 400,632 the year was as	Grant funding of activities (see note 6) £ - - - 31,374 - - 31,374 Grant funding of activities (see note 6) £ - - 38,824 - - 38,824 follows:		Support costs (see note 7) Totals £ £ 138,439 495,825 13,672 47,307 1,029 3,208 15,509 46,883 5,851 5,851 14,968 52,861 189,468 651,935 Support costs (see note 7) Totals £ £ 210,222 553,090 23,313 48,592 19,208 58,032 2,606 2,606 23,313 55,798 278,662 718,118 31.12.24 31.12.23 as restated £ £ 31,374 38,824 31.12.24 31.12.23 as restated £ £ 3,000 7,000

BLINDAID

Notes to the Financial Statements - continued for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

6. GRANTS PAYABLE - continued

The total grants paid to individuals during the year was as follows:

	31.12.24	31.12.23
		as restated
	£	£
113 grants for general purposes (2023 - 116)	24,812	29,198
Small grants (not greater than £50)	3,562	2,626
	28,374	31,824

The grants to individuals and grants to organisations were funded by a grant received in the current year from The Clothworkers' Foundation. The grant included a contribution of £7,500 towards the dissemination of the grant.

7. SUPPORT COSTS

SUPPORT COSTS
Raising donations and legacies Community Sight Support service Camden Community Project Wandsworth Community Project Grants Telephone Support service Share London 2023 Comparative Raising donations and legacies Community Sight Support service Camden Community Project Grants Telephone Support service Share London	Other £ 3,373 79,835 8,230 803 12,924 5,851 9,752 120,768 Other £ 5,314 134,548 16,302 15,869 2,606 16,302 190,941	Governance costs £ 3,447 58,604 5,442 226 2,585 - 5,216 75,520 Governanc e costs £ 4,451 75,674 7,011 3,339 - 7,011 97,486	Totals £ 6,820 138,439 13,672 1,029 15,509 5,851 14,968
			196,288
			Totals £ 9,765 210,222 23,313 19,208 2,606 23,313
			288,427

The charity initially identifies the costs of its support functions. It then identifies those costs which relate to the governance function. Having identified its governance costs, the remaining support costs together with the governance costs are apportioned between the charitable activities on the basis of time expended on each activity.

BLINDAID

Notes to the Financial Statements - continued for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

8. NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE)

Net income/(expenditure) is stated after charging/(crediting):

Depreciation - owned assets Deficit on disposal of fixed assets Independent examination	31.12.24 31.12.23 as restated £ £ 1,215 11,322 - 183,552 3,540 3,480

9. TRUSTEES' REMUNERATION AND BENEFITS

There were no trustees' remuneration or other benefits for the year ended 31 December 2024 nor for the year ended 31 December 2023.

Trustees' expenses

There were no expenses reimbursed to trustees for the year ended 31 December 2024 nor for the year ended 31 December 2023.

10. STAFF COSTS

Wages and salaries Social security costs Pension costs	2024 £ 482,954 41,689 35,764 **560,407 **	2023 £ 545,465 44,616 37,762
		627,843

The average monthly number of employees during the year was as follows:

	31.12.24	31.12.23
		as restated
Office staff	4	5
Community Support Services staff	17	14
	21	19

The number of employees whose employee benefits (excluding employer pension costs) exceeded £60,000 was:

		31.12.24	31.12.23
			as restated
£60,001	- £70,000	-	1

The amount of employer's pension contribution for the highest paid employee in 2023 year was £4,750.

BLINDAID

Notes to the Financial Statements - continued for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

10. STAFF COSTS - continued

There are two employees included in office staff that are considered to be key management personnel. Their aggregate emoluments for the year was £97,864 (2023 - £110,200).

11. 2023 COMPARATIVES FOR THE STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM Donations and legacies Investment income Total EXPENDITURE ON Raising funds Charitable activities Community Sight Support service Camden Community Project Grants Telephone Support service Share London Other Total Net gains on investments NET INCOME RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS Total funds brought forward TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD	Unrestricted Restricted funds funds £ £ 243,988 42,500 57,694 - 301,682 42,500 68,327 - 553,090 - 48,592 - 19,208 38,824 2,606 - 55,798 - 183,552 - 931,173 38,824 1,098,385 - 468,894 3,676 1,550,180 52,767 2,019,074 56,443	Endowment fund £ - - - - - - - - - - - 61,182 61,182 397,627 458,809	Total funds as restated £ 286,488 57,694 344,182 68,327 553,090 48,592 58,032 2,606 55,798 183,552 969,997 1,159,567 533,752 2,000,574 2,534,326

BLINDAID

Notes to the Financial Statements - continued for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

12. PRIOR YEAR ADJUSTMENT

There was an accounting error relating to the allocation of unapplied total return for the endowments funds during the 31 December 2023 year, the prior year adjustment has resulted in an increase in endowment funds of £61,182 and a decrease in general funds of £61,182.

13. PENSION COMMITMENTS

The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity in an independently administered fund. The pension cost charge represents contributions payable by the charity to the fund and amounts to £35,764 for the year (2023 - £37,762). There were £4,656 of contributions outstanding at the balance sheet date (2023 - £4,478).

14. TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

COST At 1 January 2024 Additions At 31 December 2024 DEPRECIATION At 1 January 2024 Charge for year At 31 December 2024 NET BOOK VALUE At 31 December 2024 At 31 December 2023 FIXED ASSET INVESTMENTS Listed Investments MARKET VALUE At 1 January 2024 Gains / (losses) At 31 December 2024	2024 (£) 662,173 90,562 752,825	Computer & office equipment £ 8,638 763 9,401 6,961 1,215 8,176 1,225 1,677 2023 (£) 600,990 61,183 662,173

15. FIXED ASSET INVESTMENTS

Investments included in Unrestricted Funds are:

Shares of £1,100 (2023 - £1,100) in Lantern House Management Limited, an unlisted company.

Investments included in Endowment Funds are L&G International Index Trust of £231,385 (2023 - £390,577), L&G UK Index Trust of £286,595 (2023 - £271,596) and L&G Cash Trust of £234,845 (2023 - Nil), less an amount allocated to General Unrestricted Funds under Total Return Accounting.

BLINDAID

Notes to the Financial Statements - continued for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

16. INVESTMENT PROPERTY

INVESTMENT PROPERTY
FAIR VALUE At 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2024 NET BOOK VALUE At 31 December 2024 At 31 December 2023 Fair value at 31 December 2024 is represented by: Valuation in 2023	£ 1,200,000
	1,200,000
	1,200,000
	£ 1,200,000

If investment property had not been revalued it would have been included at the following historical cost:

Cost Aggregate depreciation	31.12.24 31.12.23 as restated £ £ 192,325 192,325 (90,711) (90,711)

Investment property was valued on an open market basis on 21 July 2024 by Terracotta Limited.

17. DEBTORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR

Other debtors	31.12.24 31.12.23 as restated £ £ 146,657 148,301 146,657 148,301

BLINDAID

Notes to the Financial Statements - continued for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

18. CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR

Trade creditors Social security and other taxes Other creditors Accruals and deferred income MOVEMENT IN FUNDS At 1.1.24 £ Unrestricted funds General fund 130,693 Fixed assets 1,201,677 Community Sight Support Services 747,886 2,080,256 Restricted funds Restricted fund - The Clothworkers' Foundation 56,443 56,443 Endowment funds Endowment fund 397,627 TOTAL FUNDS 2,534,326	Prior year adjustment £ (61,182) - - (61,182) - - - 61,182 -	Net movement in funds £ (151,562) (1,215) (157,536) (310,313) 27,642 11,126 38,768 87,185 (184,360)	31.12.24 £ 2,203 9,751 24,527 7,080 43,561 Transfers between funds £ 54,409 763 (55,172) - - - - - -	31.12.23 as restated £ 5,012 13,530 24,858 3,480 46,880 At 31.12.24 £ (27,642) 1,201,225 535,178 1,708,761 27,642 67,569 95,211 545,994 2,349,966

19. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS

BLINDAID

Notes to the Financial Statements - continued for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

19. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS - continued

Net movement in funds, included in the above are as follows:

Unrestricted funds General fund Fixed assets Community Sight Support Services Restricted funds Restricted fund The Clothworkers' Foundation Endowment funds Endowment fund TOTAL FUNDS Comparatives for movement in funds Unrestricted funds General fund Fixed assets Community Sight Support Services Restricted funds The Clothworkers' Foundation Endowment funds Endowment fund TOTAL FUNDS	Incoming resources £ 2,358 - 335,200 337,558 27,642 42,500 70,142 - 407,700	Resources expended £ (157,387) (1,215) (492,736) (651,338) - (31,374) (31,374) - (682,712) At 1.1.23 £ 232,015 298,165 1,020,000 1,550,180 52,767 397,627 2,000,574		Gains and losses £ 3,467 - - 3,467 - - - 87,185 90,652 Net movement in funds £ (162,504) 903,512 (272,114) 468,894 3,676 61,182 533,752	Movement in funds £ (151,562) (1,215) (157,536) (310,313) 27,642 11,126 38,768 87,185 (184,360) At 31.12.23 £ 69,511 1,201,677 747,886 2,019,074 56,443 458,809 2,534,326

BLINDAID

Notes to the Financial Statements - continued for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

19. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS - continued

Comparative net movement in funds, included in the above are as follows:

Unrestricted funds General fund Fixed assets Community Sight Support Services Restricted funds The Clothworkers' Foundation Endowment funds Endowment fund TOTAL FUNDS	Incoming resources £ 30,095 - 271,587 301,682 42,500 - 344,182	Resources expended £ (192,599) (194,873) (543,701) (931,173) (38,824) - (969,997)	Gains and losses £ - 1,098,385 - 1,098,385 - 61,182 1,159,567	Movement in funds £ (162,504) 903,512 (272,114) 468,894 3,676 61,182 533,752

Designated funds comprise the following:

A fixed asset reserve, including the reclassification and revaluation of the charity's premises from freehold property to investment property.

Community Support Services reserve to cover the service delivery across 2023 to 2025 years.

20. RELATED PARTY DISCLOSURES

There were no related party transactions for the year ended 31 December 2024.

BLINDAID

Notes to the Financial Statements - continued for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

21. ENDOWMENT FUNDS

Balances as at 1 January 2024 (as restated) Return for the year Investment gain Allocated to Unrestricted Income Fund Net movement for the year Balance as at 31 December 2024 2023 Comparative (as restated) Balances as at 1 January 2023 Return for the year Investment gain Allocated to Unrestricted Income Fund Net movement for the year Balance as at 31 December 2023	Unapplied Total Return £ 243,809 90,652 (3,467) 87,185 186,094 Unapplied Total Return £ 182,627 61,182 - - 243,809	Trust for Investment £ 215,000 - - - 215,000 Trust for Investment £ 215,000 - - - 215,000	Total Endowment £ 458,809 90,652 (3,467) 87,185 545,994 Total Endowment £ 397,627 61,182 - - 458,809

Report of the Independent Auditors to the Members of Bllndaid Opinion We have audited the finarbcial statements of Blindaid (the 'charitable company'l for the year ended 31 December 20£4 which comprise the Ststement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet, the Cash Flow Slalement and notes lo the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in Iheir preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice)- In our opinion the financial statements.. give a true and fair view of the stale of the charitable ￿)MpanY'S affairs as at 31 December 2024 and of ils incoming resources and application of resources, induding ils income and expenditure, for Ihg year then ended., have been properly prepared in accordance United Kingdom GenerallyAccepted Accounting Practice,. and have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006. Basls for oplnlon We conducted our audit in accordance with Intemational Standards on Auditing (UK} IISAS IUKII and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those slandards are further described in the Auditors. responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charitable company in actx)rdance 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 obtsined 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 uncertaintTes relating lo events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charitable company's ability to continue as a going COn￿M for a period of at least tsvelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue. Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concem are described in the relevant sections of this report. Other Infomiatlon The Iruslees are responsible for the other infom)ation. The other infom)ation comprises the infomiation included in the Annual Report. other than the financial slatemenls and our Report of the Independent Auditors Ihereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other inforrnalion and, except lo the extent otherwise explicitly staled in our report, we do not express any fom of assurance conclusion thereon. In connedion with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is lo read the other information and, in doing so. consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially rnisslated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to detemiine whether this gives rise lo a material misstatement in the financial slatemenls 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 prgscribed by the Companies Act 2006 In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit.. the information given in the Report of the Trustees for the financi81 year for which the fin8nci81 statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements", and the Report of the Trustees has been prepared in accordance with appIl￿ble legal requirements. continued...

Report of the Independent Auditors to the Members of Bllndaid Matters on which we are required to report by exeeption In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Report of the Trustees. We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion.. adequate accounting records have not been kept or retums adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us., or the financial statements are not in agreement wilh the accounting records and retums- or certain disclosures of trustees. remunerab.on specified by law are not made.. or we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit., or the Iruslees were not entitled to take advantage of the small companies exemption from the requirement to prepare a Strategic Report or in preparing the Report of Ihe Trustees. Responslbllitles of trustees As explained more fully in the Statement of Trustees. Responsibilities. the tnjstees {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 slatemenls, the Iwslees are responsible for assessing the charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern. disclosing. as applicable, matters related lo going con￿rn and using the going concem basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or lo cease operations, or have no realistic altemative but to do so. continued...

Report of the Independent Auditors to the Members of Bllndaid Our responsibilities for the audit of the financial staternents Our objectives are lo obtain reasonable assuran￿ about whether the financial statements as 8 whole are free from material misslalemenl, whether due to fraud or error. and lo issue a Report of the Independent Auditors that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordan￿ with ISAS {UKI will always detect a material misslatemenl when it exists. Misslatemenls 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. The extent to which our procedures are capable of deteckn.ng irregularities. including fraud is detailed below.. -we obtained an understsnding of the legal and regulatory frameworks that are applicable lo the charitable company and determined that the most significant are Ihe Statement of Recommended Practice 'Accounling and Reporting by Charities. ISORP), in acwrdance with the Financial Reporting Siandard applicable in the UK IFRS 1021 and the Companies Act 2006. -we understood how the charitable company is complying with Ihose frameworks via communication with those charged with govemance, together with the review of the charity's documented policies and procedures. The charitable company is required to comply with both company law and charity law and, based on our knowledge of its activities, we identified that the legal requirement to accurately account for restricted funds was of key significance. -The audit team, which is experienced in the audit of Charities, considered the tharilable company's susceptibility to material misstatement and how fraud may occur. Our considerations included the risk of management override and alloc8tion of costs to charitable activities and restricted funds. -our approach was to check that the income from donations, granls and legacies were properfy identified and accurately disclosed, that expenditure complied with the control Pro￿dureS and was appropriately charged. We confirmed the movements and income from investments, including ur)realised gainsllosses. We also reviewed joumal adjustments and unusual transactions and considered the identification and disclosure of related party Iransaclions. A further description of our responsibiltties for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council's website at www.frc.org.uklauditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our Report of the Independent Auditors. Use of our report This report is made solely to the charitable companls members. as a body. in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might slate to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to slate to them in an auditors, report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent pemiilted by law. we do not a￿p1 or assume responsibility lo anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed. Shoaib Arshad Isenior Statutory Auditor) for and on behalf of Knox Cropper LLP (Statutory Auditor} 65 Leadenhall Street London EC3A 2AD Date.. 1511012025