2022-03-31-accounts

United Response Annual Report and Accounts 2021/22

Charity number: 265249 Company registration number: 1133776

Contents

Objectives and Activities of the Charity ................................................................................................................. 2 Beneficiaries ........................................................................................................................................................... 3 Promotion of the Success of the Organisation to Benefit its Members ................................................................ 5 Trustees’ Report 2021/22 ....................................................................................................................................... 7 United Response in 2021/22 at a Glance: .............................................................................................................. 8 Strategic Report .................................................................................................................................................... 10 Plans for Future Periods ....................................................................................................................................... 13 Financial Review ................................................................................................................................................... 14 Key Risks & How We Manage These .................................................................................................................... 17 Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting .......................................................................................................... 21 List of Supporters for 2021/22 ............................................................................................................................. 23 Structure, governance and management............................................................................................................. 24 Reference and Administrative Details .................................................................................................................. 28 Trustees’ Responsibility Statement ...................................................................................................................... 29 Independent Auditor’s Report to the Members of United Response .................................................................. 30 Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities .................................................................................................... 33 Consolidated and Charity Balance Sheets ............................................................................................................ 34 Consolidated Statement of Cashflows ................................................................................................................. 35 Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 .................................................................................. 36

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Objectives and Activities of the Charity

United Response is a national charity that works with adults and young people with learning disabilities or mental health needs. We are a community-based organisation working in England and Wales, providing bespoke residential care, supported living, day services, employment support and education.

Our mission is to ensure that individuals with learning disabilities, mental or physical support needs have the opportunity to live their lives to the full.

Our vision is a society where everyone has equal access to the same rights and opportunities.

Our values are the ‘golden thread’ running through everything we do. We are: Creative, Responsive, United, Strong and Honest. These set out a clear framework for our behaviours and how we approach our work.

How our activities deliver public benefit

All our activities are carried out in support of our charitable objectives. The core of our work is in supporting people with learning disabilities and those with mental health needs, but we also place a significant focus on investing in communities .

We provide services primarily under contracts with local authorities, the NHS and personal budgets. It is central to our ethos and charitable status that we promote and campaign for the wider public benefit of our beneficiaries in terms of equality and citizenship. We have taken into account the guidance in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on Public Benefit when reviewing our aims and objectives and in planning our future activities. In particular, the Trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives they have set.

Fundraising

As well as receiving funding from local authorities, we also fundraise by working with corporate contacts, grant-giving trusts, supporters and staff to organise and co-ordinate events and activities both in the local communities where we operate and at major charity events. Apart from communicating with people who have supported us in the past, we use neither direct marketing nor external third parties to raise funds. Income from fundraising represents less than 1% of total income and there have been no complaints about fundraising activity during the year. Many donations relate to specific local community projects and we ensure that expenditure is restricted to these projects and is spent within a reasonable period. We review changes in guidance and legislation related to fundraising, such as the Fundraising Regulator’s Code of Fundraising Practice and the changes in GDPR, and we are working to ensure that we are fully compliant.

Code of Conduct

United Response adheres to principles of good governance, in particular the Charity Governance Code. In line with good practice we undertake periodic reviews of our governance, both compliance with requirements and adherence to best practice. This activity is undertaken in part during annual business of the Board and its committees, for example review of committee Terms of Reference and their performance and through more in-depth periodic reviews. Trustees receive updates from external specialists in the sector at Board Away Days.

During the year we completed the actions arising from a review of Governance carried out in 2019. We are grateful to Lintstock, a leading Board advisory firm, who have agreed to carry out a pro bono review of Board effectiveness during 2022.

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Beneficiaries

• Adults and young people with learning disabilities and mental health needs, who are supported by United Response – around 1,900 individuals as at March 2022.

• Their families, carers and advocates.

• The wider disability and mental health community.

• The wider communities we work in, especially vulnerable people within them.

Supporting people with learning disabilities and people with autism

We provide a range of support services including:

• Supporting people to live where they choose.

• Support to enable people to carry out the activities of daily living and to keep safe and well.

• Supported employment and volunteering opportunities, including training and further education.

• Many people we support are on the autistic spectrum. Our staff are trained in recognised techniques, so that they can provide effective support.

• Life skills – supporting people to develop interests, hobbies and skills, including skills to help manage their own home and money.

• Support to develop and maintain relationships with friends and family.

• Accessible communications to support people to speak up.

• Advocacy – working with people so they can speak for themselves.

• Education - helping people with disabilities to learn new skills, and get nationally recognised qualifications.

Supporting people with complex needs

• We have particular expertise in working with people with complex needs including those with profound learning disabilities.

• We also support a growing number of people with learning disabilities who also experience mental health difficulties.

• A large proportion of the people we work with have complex behaviour support needs, and we support them to live fulfilled lives as part of their community. We use active support and positive behaviour support techniques.

• Many of the people we support have additional physical or sensory support needs.

• We support people with a range of physical disabilities including impaired motor skills, and profound and complex physical disabilities.

Supporting people with mental health needs

• We support people with a range of mental health needs.

• We provide a variety of mental health services, working in partnership with clinical partners, including community support and outreach, supported living, supported housing and vocational training.

• Our emphasis is on wellness and recovery, and where possible we focus on early intervention to help prevent more serious problems from occurring.

Supporting young people in the transition to adulthood

• We provide support to young people in the transition to adulthood to help them explore their options, try out new activities, build their skills and to plan for a future of increasing independence.

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The way we work

Our approach focuses on getting to understand people’s aspirations and helping them to achieve them. We support people to exercise choice and control and empower them to contribute to their own communities.

We have a strong track record of supporting people to build their independence. We build our approach around the preferred routines and activities of each individual we support, supporting people as active citizens who have the capacity to be engaged in a range of activities. This approach is called ‘active support’ and is underpinned by our person-centered ethos. This helps our staff to support people to take control of their lives and to develop through new experiences.

We recognise our primary duty is to ensure the people we support remain safe and well, and are protected from abuse. We have procedures for our staff to work with local safeguarding boards, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and OFSTED to safeguard the people we support. These sit alongside a range of control measures and processes such as risk assessment, person-centred planning and positive behaviour support planning. Our guidance to staff includes a whistle-blowing policy and detailed guidance on the Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty (DOLS) legislation and this is supported by regular staff training and highlighting safeguarding practice in internal briefings. We encourage and welcome the involvement of the families and friends of people we support. This in itself acts as a safeguarding measure, alongside being an essential aspect of the quality of life of people we support. We have established a Safeguarding Forum with an independent Chair, who has extensive professional experience of safeguarding policy and practice.

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Promotion of the Success of the Organisation to Benefit its Members

The Trustees confirm that in accordance with Section 172 (1) of the Companies Act they act in a way they consider would be most likely to achieve the purposes of the organisation. In making this assessment the Trustees have considered the following:

• The likely consequences of any decision in the long term.

• The interests of the company's employees.

• The need to foster the company's business relationships with suppliers, customers and others.

• The impact of the company's operations on the community and the environment.

• The desirability of the company maintaining a reputation for high standards of business conduct.

• The need to act fairly as between members of the company.

The likely consequences of any decision in the long term

The long-term sustainability of the operating model is considered by the Directors as set out in the going concern section of the Directors’ Report. Specifically, the Directors consider both short- and longer-term financial projections and the key risks that could negatively impact the sustainability of United Response. The Directors review management information, budgets, forecasts, cash flow projections and progress against the financial recovery plan on a regular basis. Risk management is embedded at all levels across the Organisation. The most significant risks are discussed at each Board meeting.

The interests of the company's employees

The Company has complied with the UK’s Equality Act 2010 Regulations 2017 that require the publication of information on the gender pay gap for UK employees annually.

The 2021 report is available on the United Response website.

The need to foster the company's business relationships with suppliers, customers and others

In relation to key stakeholder engagement, the Trustees consulted with the organisation through various channels in 2021/22 and ongoing, including email correspondence, webinars, board meetings, committees and ad hoc meetings.

The relationships forged and held by United Response are the backbone of the organisation’s history and future, and are deep-rooted in all of our work on both a regional and national level. Among these are business relationships with local authorities, commissioners, funders and partnering health organisations. No less significant are the ties held with the charity’s core stakeholders – the people we support, their families and the wider community.

Maintaining and fostering each of these relationships is a key priority for the charity, the Directors’ Team and board. Principal decisions taken by the company during the financial year carefully take into account the importance of these relationships.

The impact of the company's operations on the community and the environment

Details on our impact on the environment are disclosed in the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting section of the report on page 21.

The desirability of the company maintaining a reputation for high standards of business conduct

Our procurement strategy led by our Purchasing Manager supports employees to undertake procurement processes that demonstrate fairness and integrity, comply with relevant laws and regulations, keep information confidential and secure and ensure procurement best practice is followed.

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United Response intends to fully comply with the obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and has published a detailed, annual transparency statement for the year ended 31 March 2022 which has been posted on the website.

United Response takes a zero tolerance approach towards fraud, bribery and corruption. It is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations relating to fraud, bribery and corruption wherever it operates.

The company has vetting processes that set requirements for performing an appropriate level of due diligence on organisations and individuals to which it provides funds or support, related decision-making procedures, and procedures for reporting and disclosure of specific situations of concern by staff.

The need to act fairly as between members of the company.

The Trustees have a conflicts of interest policy contained in their working rules.

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Trustees’ Report 2021/22

The 2021/22 financial year has again been one through which Covid-19 continued to disrupt our way of life, and we were still living under significant restrictions. Travel and meeting in public places was constrained, people living in registered care homes were only permitted to have one regular visitor, vaccinations and boosters were required, as was the wearing of face masks. Life was far from normal.

As I look back over this past year, it is heartening to see how things have improved. It has been a welcome relief to see the people we support start to be able to enjoy life as they did before the start of the pandemic. We have worked hard to fulfil our core purpose: excellent person-centred support that ensures the people we support live their lives to the full and are meaningfully involved in the communities they live in. Over and over again, our staff have responded unselfishly to the challenges they face, with enduring creativity, responsibility and remarkable collective strength. They have continued to deliver great outcomes and excellent quality throughout the year.

Even though we are moving out of the pandemic, there are still substantial challenges facing the health and social sectors. In December 2021, the government released their White Paper ‘People at the Heart of Care.’ While we welcomed some interesting aspects on innovation, housing, technology and employment schemes, the paper did not fulfil the Prime Minister’s promise to ‘fix social care once and for all.’ The Government has yet to deliver on its commitment to ensure that care providers can be properly funded, and the care sector continues to grapple with inflationary costs and maintaining staffing levels when faced with high rates of turnover. In spite of these challenges, we announced an 'in-year' increase to staff pay to ensure we track the Real Living Wage.

We know that 2022 will bring additional challenges to the sector that we work in and for United Response. The rapid escalation in the cost of living will have a significant impact for our staff and people we support. We remain committed to dealing with these challenges in the most appropriate manner and in line with our overall purpose.

I am pleased that we are embarking on a new Long Term Plan that will broaden and deepen the delivery of our purpose, and at the same time diversify our sources of funding. Specific areas that have been earmarked for strategic development include housing, education and employability. We are also making appropriate investments in our systems and digital capabilities, to make our care management and financial management capabilities a better fit for the future.

We have completed a three year programme to strengthen our Governance and Board effectiveness, to address some opportunities for enhancement and to improve oversight of our strategic development. We have set up a Safeguarding Forum and appointed Trish Dennison as the independent chair. We have also set up an Education and Skills Scrutiny Group, and co-opted Linda Owen and Steve Maltby as independent specialists. Further developments are in hand in respect of housing, fundraising and investment management. Our next external review of Board effectiveness is planned for 2022.

As ever, we end another year enormously grateful for all of our staff, who continue our heritage of providing excellent and compassionate support to the people entrusted to our care. As we look towards our 50[th] anniversary in 2023, we have much to be proud of in the years behind us, and much to look forward to as we think about what the future will hold for United Response.

Malcolm McCaig, 19[th] October 2022 Chairman of the Board

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United Response in 2021/22 at a Glance:

• Across England and Wales we support around 1,900 people at approximately 420 locations.

• We employ around 3,400 people.

• We contract with over 75 local authorities and Clinical Commissioning Groups.

• The value of services provided was £96.6m in 2021/22 with the annualised value of new work in 2021/22 being £2m.

How does the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rate our services?

We have:

• 60 registered care services, 55 of which have been inspected under the CQC framework.

• 28 registered care homes.

• 32 supported living/domiciliary care services and one Shared Lives service.

• 95% of services are rated as “Good”.

What do people we support and their families think of our services?

Our annual satisfaction survey has not been run since 2019/20, 22 due to the pandemic and its continued impact on our services, staff, the people we support and their families. Respondents were not yet fully ready nor equipped for an online survey to run, and a paper-based survey as normal was considered as a risk and too impractical due to the virus’s spread and staff workload. For this reason we have not been able to provide up to date statistics reflecting what people we support and their families think of the support that we provide.

We will run a fully accessible digital survey in the 2022/23 financial year and report on its outcomes in our next annual report.

To enable our Registered Managers to respond effectively to CQC queries about how we obtain feedback from the people we support, we compiled a document that provides an overview of some of the ways in which we have attempted, in the last couple of years, to involve, engage with and listen to the people we support and their families. These included:

• Towards the end of 2020, a survey of people we support and staff, to identify what had worked well and what hadn’t gone so well during the Covid-19 lockdown. This represented an important opportunity to listen to the perspectives of people we support and staff as we continued to adapt to the different phases of the pandemic.

• Towards the end of 2021, a survey of the people we support in one of our operational areas, to find out how people had fared during the lockdown of 2020, and through the subsequent restrictions and further lockdowns of 2021. Amongst a range of findings, this survey uncovered the need for more formal IT skills training to help people we support and staff feel more comfortable with technology. An IT skills training team will be developed in 2022. The survey also showed us that mental health was increasingly a priority for the people we support. Mental Health is now one of the core priorities of our Public Affairs and Policy Strategy.

• In another one of our operational areas, we recently worked with different groups to have discussions about a number of questions regarding what made people’s lives good with United Response.

• In 2021, an external agency were commissioned by United Response to develop outcomes measures for the organisation, so that we could better understand and evidence our impact, in particular outcomes for the people it supports. Following a series of workshops with staff to draft a set of outcome statements outlined in the United Response Long Term Plan 2021-2025, arrangements were made to understand the perspective of the people being supported and their families, and surveys were sent to some family members.

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We are using the invaluable outputs from these surveys to inform and improve our services, and feed into a continual programme of development.

We also developed new Support Guides in response to the results of these survey results, including:

• A ‘My New Normal’ guide to help staff use a number of Person Centred Thinking tools to work with the people we support and the people that are important in their life, and together create clear plans to adjust to life as we began, as a society, to emerge from pandemic restrictions.

• A ‘Hopes & Fears’ tool to help teams to think about the changes that would be happening as we moved out of pandemic management, and increase community support and involvement of the people we support.

Online audiences

• There were 115,127 unique visits to www.unitedresponse.org.uk.

• 10,667 people visited the site in March 2022, when we published the Easy News story about the war in Ukraine. This was read more than 1,290 times and people spent on average around 7 minutes each on the page.

• Our website resources were downloaded 6,494 times – 16.25% more than last year.

• 2,049 people made contact through our website to ask for support for themselves or someone they know – 16% more than 2020/2021

• We welcomed 8% more followers to our total social media audience. We now have more than 24,592 followers across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and our new platform Instagram, which launched in June 2020 and is reaching on average over 1,000 people a week.

• Our social media content was seen 1,300,749 times

• People engaged with our social media content 62,784 times.

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Strategic Report

Our Long Term Plan

This year we shared our Long Term Plan, affirming our purpose and setting out how we will act and behave in pursuit of our vision: ensuring that people we support are able to lead a life of hope and purpose, happy in their own home and part of a community in which they experience friendship and loving relationships.

The core objectives set out in our long term plan are:

1. Continue to improve the quality of our support.

2. Deepen local community connections.

3. Make meaningful work and education available to everyone.

4. Improve frontline staff pay, recognition and rewards.

5. Strengthen our commitment to diversity, inclusion and wellbeing.

We made progress in a number of areas of the Long Term Plan over the course of this financial year, while continuing to focus on providing safe, high-quality support through a pandemic.

Continue to improve the quality of our support:

In spite of the substantial and cumulative pressures of the pandemic, we continued to deliver great quality outcomes for the people we support, achieving Good or Outstanding CQC ratings in 95% of our services.

We have improved the quality of the support we provide by embedding our Foundations of Good Support programme across our services, strengthening practice leadership in every area, providing more coaching for behavioural support, and planning for the roll out of new health coach roles to support the good management of all health conditions.

We have relaunched our Safeguarding Forum with expert governance from our independent Chair Trish Dennison. We’ve also rolled out Raising Concerns at Work training across the organisation, and will continue to work to ensure that all staff feel confident to speak up to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the people we support and our staff.

Housing

This year we recruited a Director of Development and Housing. This new role will add strategic rigour to our housing offering, which includes a capital development partnership with Resonance, one of the UK’s leading social impact investment businesses.

We are committed to substantially improving and expanding our housing offering, and developing our role as a supported housing landlord.

Deepen local community connections

Green Taskforce

United Response is developing a growing portfolio of initiatives under our Green Taskforce, with people we support central to their day-to-day running. The Taskforce shares best practice around environmental, horticulture and green projects across United Response and delivers green community engagement opportunities.

The development of recycling, upcycling and repurposing activities is a core strand within our ‘United in Growing Communities’ approach that will lead to the delivery of meaningful, educational and employment opportunities for people with varied needs in our community. The people we support will lead on and engage with environmentally sustainable activities at the heart of their local community.

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The support, engagement and training of community volunteers is also central to delivering our approach. We are working to grow our volunteering as a key strategy to increase community engagement and involvement for the people we support.

The current sites include:

• Bristol – Potter’s Den allotment.

• Community gardens in Teddington.

• Teddington Enterprise Centre.

• Incredible Edibles in Kent.

• Donation Station, Kent.

• Carlton Centre, Cornwall.

• Blackpool – Potter’s Den allotment.

• Amazing Waste in Darlington.

• Community Garden at Autism Hub in York.

• Bootshop, Easingwold, North Yorkshire.

• Two farms – Boscawen in Cornwall and Lower Sharpham in Devon.

Make meaningful work and education available to everyone

ROC College is our ‘college without walls’ in Cornwall and Devon. We continue to support a growing number of students with Education, Health and Care Plans, delivering a range of personalised and accredited programmes. We support students to transition into adulthood by developing independent living skills, providing therapeutic input and building employability skills.

We have embedded our education offer into the community this year through the growth and development of a diverse range of community hubs. We have secured two retail premises, set up a café for catering courses and added forest schools to our facilities.

Improve frontline pay, recognition and rewards:

We have demonstrated our commitment to paying our staff over and above the rate funded by local authorities by drawing on our reserves. Our rates of pay now track the Real Living Wage, and we are committed to working with local authorities to secure these improved rates of pay year on year.

Strengthen our commitment to diversity, inclusion and wellbeing:

We have continued to invest meaningfully in the wellbeing of our staff, saying ‘thank you’ more and finding new ways to recognise the incredible work that goes on across United Response every day. Pay remains an absolute priority, and we will continue to work in collaboration with other social care providers to influence government spending on a consistently underfunded sector.

There has been a renewed focus on staff wellbeing throughout our second year of life in a pandemic. This year we have founded a Wellbeing Forum and successfully piloted a new Wellbeing Ambassador role with great success. We’ll be recruiting ambassadors from across the organisation in the next financial year.

It has been an impactful year for our Diversity Forum, strengthening our commitment to diversity and inclusion and devising some strategic approaches to improving equality and opportunity across United

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Response that will bear fruit in the 2022/23 financial year.

Other priority areas relating to our Long Term Plan include:

Public Affairs:

In October we joined Leonard Cheshire in releasing the results of freedom of information requests to police forces across England and Wales relating to reported disability hate crime. We found that criminals were not deterred by lockdowns and increasing numbers headed online to abuse disabled people, pushing online disability hate crime rates up 52%. We will continue to raise awareness of the unacceptable problem of hate crimes committed against people because of their disability, working with local police forces and ensuring our staff and the people we support understand what a hate crime is, and how to report one.

In March we redoubled our commitment to promoting the rights of disabled people to access and engage with politics and voting by leading our second annual Accessible Voting Day campaign. The campaign called on government to guarantee accessible voting for people with disabilities and autism, and garnered support from a wide range of disability organisations including Mencap and Sense, and political figures including the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham.

Systems:

We have agreed an investment from reserves to invest in new finance and HR systems, which will free our colleagues up to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on providing excellent, personcentred support. These will go live in the 2022/23 financial year.

An electronic Care Management system has also been selected, with work due to commence in 2023. This system will modernise and streamline our support planning and record keeping.

Finance:

We end the financial year in a strong position, in spite of a range of challenges. The pandemic continued to impact on workforce availability, and the start of the Russia-Ukraine war towards the end of this financial year has impacted cost and availability of many vital goods. The social care sector as a whole continues to be substantially underfunded, and we continue to lobby the government to properly resource the work that we do.

We will secure our long-term financial future by growing our role as a supported housing landlord, offering good-quality, accessible accommodation. We will also expand our education, employability and skills programme delivery, develop our commercial offer in events, training and consultancy and scale up our fundraising.

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Plans for Future Periods

We will continue to invest in diversity and inclusion. This year we established that there are fewer people from minority ethnic backgrounds in management roles, and low confidence of success impacted applications for such opportunities when they arose. In the 2022/23 financial year we will hold our first round of developmental training for aspiring managers from ethnic minority backgrounds. Interest in these courses has exceeded capacity, and we will explore wider-scale training based on the outcomes of these initial courses.

Co-production is a vital strand that will run through as many areas of our work as possible. We plan to work in collaboration more often, sharing expertise and enthusiasm with other organisations who share our goals. We will do more to reach out and include people we support and their families, our staff, community groups, our regulators and other important voices in our sector.

We will continue to strengthen our use of technology and move to digital working across all areas of our work, freeing up our staff to spend less time on admin and more time on the work they love. We will develop and embed industry-leading digital systems to improve efficiencies and effectiveness across HR, finance, care management and record keeping.

We have developed and launched an in-house app, Licence to Practice. The app supports staff to develop and confidently apply their knowledge at work. Colleagues from across United Response worked together to create this new, custom-built tool to bring together everything managers and staff members need to monitor their progress and help them develop professionally.

We are also preparing to celebrate our 50[th] anniversary in 2023. Life for people with learning disabilities and autism has improved in so many ways since we were founded with a single service on the south coast in 1973. We are looking forward to marking how much has been achieved, and setting out an ambitious and optimistic vision for the next 50 years of United Response.

And finally, we will work to build our public reputation, becoming a trusted voice in the adult social care sector so that we can give voice to the people we support on a national stage, be heard and be part of changing the sector for the better.

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Financial Review

The development and performance of the charity’s business during the financial year and future outlook

This year has seen a new phase in the Covid-19 pandemic and the more virulent variant in circulation, ‘Omicron’. Whilst less lethal, it is more infectious and has thus impacted workforce availability. The shortfall has been managed by reliance on agency staff, with an inevitable impact on the bottom line. In addition, 2021/22 has seen the impact of starting to pay for all the government support required during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is clear that this is starting to erode people’s living standards and put upward pressure on inflation and subsequently wages and costs. Funders have and will continue to look for cost savings from providers whilst striving to maintain the same or enhanced level of service delivery.

The world is inherently a more challenging place, as evidenced by an increase in cyber-attacks and the increasingly tense international environment. Q4 saw the start of the Russian-Ukraine war which impacted the cost and availability of many essential commodities such as food, fuel and utilities. Some of these cost increases have started to impact United Response. Utilities have seen the Default Tariff Price Cap increased by 50% in the year, with predictions that this would continue to rise at an accelerated rate through 2022 and beyond.

Year-on-year, we have seen revenues slightly increase by £0.1m to £97.0m. An upside has been the continuation of additional Covid-19 support from local authorities to the value of £1.6m, as well as unbudgeted income relating to our Oxfordshire contracts. However the handback of the Cumbria services reduced income by approx. £0.5m.

United Response has and will continue to need to diversify its funding base. Education and fundraising need to increase as a percentage of overall revenue.

Results – business

Net growth has increased modestly year-on-year by £0.2m, representing new business won. Despite the continued impact of the pandemic, new business had a value of £2.0m (£1.9m 2020/21). Termination of contracts with a value of £1.8m representing the handing back of contracts which were not economically viable, such as Mastin Moor £0.5m, Station Road £0.4m and NH Penryn £0.2m, in addition to closures of services (2020/21 £0.2m).

The financial position of the company at the end of the year

The charity recorded an increase in reserves of £0.3m (2020/21 – an increase of £1.7m). Whilst this is a modest increase for the year, it reflects the increased pressure on both revenues and costs.

The total unrestricted operations, through both general and designated funds, but before the effect of gains on investments and sales of fixed assets, recorded a surplus of £0.5m (2020/21 – a surplus of £1.3m).

Overall income increased by £0.1m to £97.0m in 2021/22 (2020/21 - £96.9m). The principal sources of funding continues to be through contracting with local authorities in England and Wales for the provision of statutory services for clients with learning disabilities in a supported living or residential care environment. In 2021/22 contractual income of £94.8m contributed 97.7%, marginally up year-on-year by £0.2m (2020/21 - £94.6m / 97.6%). This rises to 99.4% if the Covid-19 grant support of £1.6m (2020/21 - £1.7m / 99.4%) is taken into account.

Total expenditure increased by £1.5m to £96.7m (2020/21 - £95.2m) over the same period primarily due to the increase in the national living wage to £8.91 (£8.72) plus an in-year pay rise given to all staff of £1.8m. The costs of direct charitable expenditure increased by £0.9m to £83.9m (2020/21 - £83.0m).

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Overall support costs spent on charitable activities increased by £0.7m to £12.6m (2020/21 - £11.9m). As lockdowns lifted we experienced increases in travel, training and recruitment costs when compared to the previous financial year. In addition, the commencement of projects previously delayed by the pandemic also resulted in increased spending.

Total net assets increased by £0.3m to £29.0m (2020/21 - £28.7m). The net movement in working capital saw a reduction in Creditors <1 Year of £1.5m funded by reduced Debtors of £0.7m, decreases in Cash at bank of £0.9m and Investments increasing by £0.5m.

United Response Services Limited (URS) had gross income of £52.4m (2020/21 - £50.2m) and recorded a trading surplus of £1.0m (2020/21 - £1.0m) which has been gift aided to United Response Limited. URS holds contracts with local authorities for welfare services which are sub-contracted to United Response which ensures that the taxation position of the group is effectively managed.

United Response in Business Limited’s objective was to provide employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities or mental health needs by running social enterprises. These activities, where still carried on, are part of United Response’s activities. This entity is now being made dormant and looking to eventually be liquidated.

Investment Policy and Performance

The trustees have broad investment powers, set out in the Memorandum and Articles. The Board establishes the charity’s investment policy and reviews the target return annually.

The favourable decision by the Supreme Court in March 2021 on the payment rate for ‘sleep-in’ shifts has meant that the Board have reviewed their stance on investments. Q4 discussions were held with a number of investment managers to investigate how best to increase the returns available. The charity’s risk appetite is not high and the successful fund manager will work with United Response during the first half of 2022/23 to codify the risk parameters and then look to invest against those parameters.

Changes in Fixed Assets

There were no significant acquisitions or disposals during 2022. Changes in the charity’s fixed assets are shown in notes 10 and 11 to the accounts.

Reserves

The total funds held by United response at 31 March 2022 was £29.0m (2020/21 - £28.7m).

United Response’s free reserves represent unrestricted general funds which have not been designated for a specific purpose and are therefore available for use within the charity’s objects. United Response needs reserves to protect it against risks and to ensure financial sustainability, including an adequate level of working capital to provide a financial buffer, particularly in such times of uncertainty. Reserves also enable us to take advantage of opportunities to develop our activities, and to enhance support to people, over and above that which we can provide from income received under contract.

At 31 March 2022, the balance of free reserves of £21.0m (2020/21 - £20.3m) and cash holdings of £25.8m (2020/21 - £26.2m) exceeded the minimum reserves target of £5.6m set by the Finance and Resources Committee in June 2022.

The cost of winding up the organisation in an orderly fashion is estimated at £11m. The trustees consider such an event a remote possibility as the majority of services supplied are of a statutory nature and staff would be transferred under TUPE regulations to an alternative provider, thus significantly reducing the exposure.

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Additionally, in the event of winding up, all freehold property would be sold, which is currently held at a net book value of £5.1m within a designated reserve. It is anticipated that in the current market a property sale would realise significant premiums over the net book value that should cover the estimated winding up expenses.

Going Concern

United Response considers its position to be strong to continue its focus on the services it provides. Our good relationships with key funders, a proven ability to retain and secure new services, combined with strong liquidity and sufficient reserves underline this. United Response's liquidity is evident with unrestricted reserves which stand at £27.5m (2020/21: £27.0m), of which 94% (2020/21: 97%) are held as cash and investments. United Response’s free reserves continue to be considered sufficient to provide cover for any short unexpected changes in income and expenditure. Performance to date has been robust in terms of income generation and also cost control.

The trustees therefore have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future being at least twelve months from the date of approval of these financial statements and are not aware of any other material uncertainties which may adversely affect the organisation. Accordingly, the financial statements continue to be prepared on the going concern basis.

As a result, the financial statements have been prepared on the going concern basis because there is a reasonable expectation that United Response has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future and the trustees believe that there are no material uncertainties that call into doubt the charity's ability to continue.

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Key Risks & How We Manage These

United Response works to ensure that we effectively identify and manage risks to the organisation, to the people we support and to our colleagues. The risks and mitigations are recorded in the corporate risk register, which is produced and managed by the Directors’ Team with support from the Head of Risk & Internal Audit. The risk register is regularly reviewed by the Audit and Risk Committee and Board of Trustees. The Directors’ Team has responsibility for assessing the probability and impact of risks, for ensuring that appropriate mitigations are in place and for reporting on this to Board and Committee. As a devolved and growing organisation working within the regulated and high risk supported living sector, the organisation has developed a risk assurance framework to ensure that the wide range of risks to which the organisation is subject to is being monitored appropriately and that sufficiently robust mitigations are agreed and implemented. With the emergence of Covid-19 the organisation was required to quickly adjust its approach to managing the risks arising from this new situation in a different, but complementary manner, to the established method of managing risk.

A summary of the principal risks facing the organisation and how United Response mitigates each of these risks has been summarised below, ordered in terms of their current risk register rating:

Principal risks	Description of risk	How we mitigate the risk
(1) Financial Sustainability	There is a risk that the organisation becomes financially unsustainable because increased costs are not matched by increases in income and/or income/costs are not managed to budget.	• Major review of all services using quartile analysis to identify and put in place recovery plans for financially unsustainable services. • Detailed monthly management accounts are prepared (performance metrics, trend analysis and KPIs) with an established quarterly reforecasting exercise. Accountability for delivery to budget is delegated through the organisation. The viability of individual Local Authority contracts are reviewed to identify contracts that are unlikely to be viable at the required level due to service configuration staff issues, Local Authority attitude to rate rises or other issues.
(2) Cash Flow	There is a risk that the business is unable to meet its obligations when they fall due.	• A review of ongoing viability has been undertaken alongside a major review of the financial performance of all services. This has resulted in “RAGY” ratings being assigned and we now taking active steps to address sustainability issues. • We will look to improve financial awareness of managers and information they receive so that income and expenditure at the service level isproperlymonitored.

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		• Our reserves policy defines levels to be retained based on the risks quantified in terms of disruption of income that would be needed to ensure continuity of business based on risks to income. • Continued focus on timely and accurate invoicing and collection of amounts due.
(3) External Environment (political, economic, social, ethical)	The environment within which United Response operates is challenging with compliance, safeguarding and health & safety matters being pivotal in everything that we do. The nature of current funding streams may become volatile given the squeeze on Central Government spending and likely reduction of funds to Local Authorities plus the impact of continuing neglect of social care. The war in Ukraine adds a further element of macro instability, which is difficult to assess fully at this stage. Other factors affecting the business include political and economic events over which United Response has no control, the consequent decisions of Local Authorities and the enactment of legislation that could adversely affect the business.	• Development of ongoing strategic initiatives around revenue diversification. • Work with other providers and representative bodies to lobby Government for increased funding and recognition of value of social care workers. • Draft plans for service remodeling/redesign as required and make decisions on underperforming contracts. • Lobbying to influence the social care agenda.
(4) Staff Recruitment & Retention	There is a risk that the business is unable to recruit and retain effective staff of the right calibre throughout the organisation in order that it can operate effectively to the level desired and to meet its contractual and regulatory requirements.	Looking ahead, global challenges around inflation and cost of living will continue to affect United Response and all care providers. Trustees and senior staff will be actively monitoring and responding to developing issues through the year ahead. While quality recruitment and retention remains a significant risk, the likelihood is stabilising due to actions being taken, some of which are highlighted below: • Develop plan to address recruitment and retention crisis. • Identify key roles/development of plans that need succession planning in People Strategy – putting indicators in place. • Review staff rewards including non- financial and how these can be improved. • Develop career paths for staff across the organisation and communicate results. • Internal audit on recruitment &

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		onboarding has been commissioned and is largelycomplete.
(5) Change Management (NEW)	There is a risk that United Response is unable to successfully implement and deliver change programmes and initiatives in a manner that prioritises those that will drive and deliver most benefit in terms of operational efficiency and enable strategic objectives to be met.	• Directors’ Team to conduct regular review of Programme Plan. Prioritization of initiatives to ensure organisation has bandwidth to successfully deliver change. • Regular report on progress of key projects and reiteration of priorities. • Develop robust tracking and reporting mechanism for benefits realisation for key system implementations. • Roll out of connectivity and collaboration initiative targeting the introduction of technology/devices to key staff which underpins Enterprise Resource Planning and Total Care Management System implementations. • Identify and deliver staff training that supports change management initiatives including new technology deployment and systems implementations. • Implement solutions for better centralisation of data and secure access to improve operational efficiency.

Further to the standard risk register, a summary of emerging risks has been developed with Senior Management. This can be found on the following page and is a first step in helping to make UR more resilient and confident in the face of an uncertain future and will allow the charity to continue to adapt and thrive.

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Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting Energy and carbon consumption

Streamlined Energy & Carbon Reporting (SECR) is the new legislative reporting requirement in the Directors’ Report for Year Ends finishing on or after 31 March 2020. It mandates that all large companies must report on the operational energy consumption and associated emissions. The high-level breakdown is as follows:

United Response’s total CO2e emission breakdown is highlighted below. The primary Scope 1 and 2 emitters of carbon are Gas and Electricity consumption, needed for operational buildings and residences used for supporting people with disabilities. This combined consumption equates to 94.34% of total CO2e emissions with the remaining 5.66% emitted via the transportation of staff members alongside that associated with supported learning and living facilities.

Mileage has surprisingly reduced even though travel restrictions have been lifted. People may now be more inclined to travel less due to having more understanding of ‘necessary’ travel.

Intensity metric

An intensity metric gives United Response an indicator of carbon performance based on an operational figure. We have used the number of staff members to indicate this performance with 3,438 members emitting on average 293.7 kg CO2e each. This is measured annually and compared against previous years.

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United Response initiatives

This section highlights energy and carbon improvement projects undertaken during the year or those that are currently underway.

Green Team

We have established a ‘Green Team’ within the business, who review many of our services and advise our colleagues of the changes that can be made to improve their impact on the environment.

Environmental Management System

An Environmental Management System (EMS) is being implemented with a set of processes and procedures that will enable us to reduce our environmental impact and increase our operating efficiencies throughout the business.

Methodology

Energy Sources

Energy data was collected and collated by our energy brokers. In some cases, electricity and gas consumption has had to be estimated by using an energy average calculation which estimates usage based on previous meter readings. Travel mileage is collected internally.

Calculations

United Response are measuring scope 1, 2 and partially scope 3 emissions. All energy data was collated by our energy suppliers with transport data and staff numbers collated internally. Scope 1: Fleet vehicles. Scope 2: Electricity and Gas supply. Scope 3: Grey fleet.

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List of Supporters for 2021/22

Trusts & Foundations

The 29[th] May 1961 Charity Active Londoners Fund – Mayor of London Active Richmond The Arts Council of England The Baily Thomas Charitable Fund The Boshier-Hinton Foundation Carew Pole Charitable Trust CLLD The Clothworkers’ Foundation Feoffees of St Michael's Spurriergate Full of Life Fund Garfield Weston Foundation The Good Things Foundation The Green Hall Foundation International Tree Foundation John James Bristol Foundation Lord Barnaby’s Foundation Normansfield and Richmond Foundation The Screwfix Foundation Tesco Bags of Help The Waterloo Foundation The Wolfson Foundation

Other supporters

Tracey Griffiths, Lusty Glaze

18 London Marathon runners, including: Chris Binneman Sophie Curzon Sarah Gaskell Edward George Stephen Harris Martha Hibberd Elle Hunter-Cotton Marc Jenner Kate Knight Nick Middleton Louisa Musson Darren Popham Evan Price Hannah Rogers Kieran Towers

Legacies

From the late Roy Ernest Bousell From the late Dorothy Tappenden From the late family member of a person we support, who chose to remain anonymous.

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Structure, governance and management

United Response Services Limited is a company limited by shares with United Response being the only shareholder. The directors of this subsidiary are the Chief Executive, the Director of Finance and two trustees of United Response.

The charity is incorporated as a company limited by guarantee and is governed in accordance with its Memorandum and Articles of Association. United Response in Business Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Response.

The organisation is governed by a board of trustees, led by the Chair.

The trustees, who have the powers and obligations of Directors under the Companies Acts 2006, have ultimate responsibility for United Response’s leadership and strategic direction, for its stewardship, overall financial and organisational control, monitoring progress and ensuring compliance. The Board also has responsibility for protecting the reputation and values of the organisation, sets the long term vision, and holds the Chief Executive and Director’s Team to account whilst maximising their performance for delivering United Response’s policies, strategies and objectives.

Update on new co-optees

United Response appointed two new Trustees during 2020/21, each bringing skills and experience in digital technology and business systems in support of the organisation’s strategic intent. Two Education Standards Advisors were also appointed, supporting the governance arrangements of our Education Services (including ROC College) and forming part of the charity’s Education Skills Scrutiny Group.

The Chair of the Safeguarding Forum was appointed in 2021.

The board of trustees meet at least four times per annum and are supported by four committees.

The Finance and Resources Committee has oversight of the key financial aspects of our work which stem from the financial, HR, investment and other resource related strategies.

The Operations Committee focuses on quality and safety of services to the people we support, using and interrogating a wide variety of data sources to triangulate and provide assurance. Its purpose is to scrutinise information that assures trustees that we are providing safe, high quality, effective services consistently and routinely, that we meet regulatory requirements and that we are providing best practice models wherever possible that reflect and involve the views of the people we support, their families and carers.

The Audit and Risk Committee has oversight of external audit and of internal controls across United Response including quality assurance systems and health and safety arrangements.

The Nominations Committee acts on behalf of the Board to ensure that appropriate governance arrangements are in place, including the recruitment of new trustees.

The Education and Skills Scrutiny Group reports to the Board through the Operations Committee and has responsibility for oversight and scrutiny of our education, skills and employability provision, with particular responsibility for our Further Education provision delivered through ROC College.

Each committee is able to appoint up to two co-optees/specialist advisors to enhance their work, should the committee chair and committee members feel this would add value to the work of the committee. This also provides us with greater flexibility enabling us to draw on a broader range of skills and involve advisors without them having to assume wider governance responsibilities.

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Remuneration of the Directors’ Team

The Finance and Resources Committee has responsibility for overseeing the pay and reward of the Chief Executive and Executive Directors. The Committee undertakes benchmarking with multiple sources, using external advice, to ensure that pay and reward of senior staff is appropriately reviewed against comparable organisations in the charitable sector and is proportionate to the pay and reward of staff overall in the charity. The Committee reports its findings to the board of trustees.

Equality

United Response has made an enduring commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. This year we have made progress in a number of areas, with a number of initiatives and changes devised by our Diversity Forum. The Forum, which is open to all staff, has been active for over a year. There are also distinct discussion groups which were established to focus on specific equality strands including race and disability. All staff are welcome to join.

Our Chief Executive has signed up to the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations’ eight leadership principles that address equity, diversity & inclusion. Leaders of voluntary organisations were invited to sign up as part of their ongoing work to tackle racism in the voluntary sector.

We have a growing team of Diversity ambassadors appointed from within our existing staff to promote diversity initiatives within wider staff teams.

This year we have conducted an analysis of staff to produce a diversity profile, including analysis of diversity of different staff grades. Acting on the findings of the diversity profile we have committed to running two leadership development courses for staff from ethnic minorities aspiring to go into management in the forthcoming financial year. We have also committed to running unconscious bias training for leaders.

Employee Engagement

United Response acknowledges the resilience and response of staff during the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic. This included moving towards the Real Living Wage, and continued recognition through small gift boxes at key festive periods. Throughout the year our UR Stars staff awards nominations have increased, and we acknowledge exemplary staff contributions through a range of local awards, such as the UR Rock Solid Award.

Our commitment to wellbeing has continued this year with support and encouragement to staff through the different forums that we facilitate. Key amongst these are the United Voice, our consultative forum, the Wellbeing Forum and our Diversity Forums. The Wellbeing and Diversity Forums have led to some significant initiatives involving the creation of Wellbeing Ambassadors and Diversity Ambassadors. We have committed to building the confidence of ethnic minority staff, who aspire to progress their careers within management, through an externally delivered Aspiring Leaders Development course.

During the February and March period we ran the Best Companies Staff survey, a change from the previous survey providers. The response rate was lower than we had anticipated, mainly due to staff availability in the period as a result of Covid-19 and winter bug absences. Overall there were 1,118 (34%) responses to the survey which was conducted anonymously and online providing an insightful range of feedback. The feedback on average would equate to a Best Companies One Star level of engagement with some departments reaching three star world class engagement.

Many employees feel a great sense of pride in working for United Response, stating that they feel the purpose of the organisation is 'fulfilling', due to having a positive impact on people in less fortunate situations, ultimately helping them to live better lives.

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The ambitious nature of the organisation’s leaders enables employees to get excited and energised about what more can be done in the future, with people acknowledging the 'leading experts' the organisation has at its disposal to help the organisation get to where it wants to be.

The culture of the organisation is praised, specifically in relation to people's immediate teams. Team members care for each other and live the organisations values, which are supported by a general 'people centric' attitude. Many people praise the 'family' and 'community' feel.

Many employees feel that they have a good connection with their manager, with some managers demonstrating appreciation when a job is done well, while focusing on creating an environment where their team members feel 'valued and supported’.

Personal development is generally considered a strength of United Response, with many employees stating that they are allowed the ‘freedom to learn’ enabling them to pick up new skills on a regular basis. It is felt that managers are supportive when it comes to training and development, allowing new starters the best chance of getting up to speed as quickly as possible.

While there are some that struggle working from home, there are many employees that praise the way the organisation has allowed employees to continue to work flexibly, allowing those colleagues that can do so, to fit home life around work commitments.

There are people that call for greater clarity around the strategic direction of the organisation and feel that senior leaders could communicate with more ‘enthusiasm’.

People feel that the leadership team should have a more visible presence around the organisation, which many believe would also help leaders understand the challenges many colleagues are facing on a day to day basis.

It is also felt that leaders could do a better job of ‘celebrating successes’ and raising the energy within the organisation, as opposed to focusing on those services/projects that are not performing well.

Managers call for more autonomy within their roles as some believe that senior management try to keep too much control, resulting in managers being unable to make their own decisions at an operational level.

People do believe that pay is comparable to that of other organisations, however roles can be ‘very mentally demanding and draining’ due to the pressure many are under, so people ask for a fairer wage for the responsibilities they have. While there are employees who feel well remunerated compared to other organisations, there are employees who feel it is ‘disheartening’ that they put so much ‘effort and care’ into their role at United Response, but still have to look elsewhere for extra hours to ensure they can ‘provide for their family.’ We will continue to lobby government to secure fairer rates of pay for our colleagues.

Stakeholders and relationships

The relationships forged and held by United Response are the backbone of the organisation’s history and future, and are deep-rooted in all of our work on both a regional and national level. Among these are business relationships with local authorities, commissioners, funders and partnering health organisations. No less significant are the ties held with the charity’s core stakeholders – the people we support, their families and the wider community.

Maintaining and fostering each of these relationships is a key priority for the charity, its Directors’ Team and board. Principal decisions taken by the company during the financial year carefully take into account the importance of these relationships.

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Board of Trustees

The trustees who served during the year were as follows:

Chair – Malcolm McCaig

Vice-Chair – David Willis (Chair of Finance and Resources Committee) Vice-Chair – Helen England (Chair of Operations Committee) Honorary Treasurer - Charles Garthwaite Mark McLaughlin (Chair of Audit & Risk Committee) Alastair Ballantyne Bill Hodson Paul Marriner – appointed July 2021, stepped down in September 2022 Katherine Rake - stepped down in July 2022 Satya Samal – appointed July 2021 Bronagh Scott Alison Stanley Deborah Tavana Guy Van Dichele

Co-optees to Committees:

Linda Owen (Education Standards Advisor - Co-optee) Stephen Maltby (Education Standards Advisor - Co-optee) Lisa Odendaal – Co-optee Audit & Risk Committee Julie Beadle Brown – Co-optee Operations Committee Patricia Dennison (Chair of Safeguarding Forum

Directors’ Team

United Response is managed by the Directors’ Team consisting of the senior paid employees of the organisation.

The Director’s Team is led by the Chief Executive, who reports to the Chair of the Trustees. The Directors’ Team through the Chief Executive is responsible for the day to day management and implementation of the strategy approved by the Board and leadership of the organisation, for drawing up and implementing the corporate plan and budget and for proposing any strategic changes not encompassed within the corporate plan. Members of the Director’s Team attend board and sub-committee meetings, to brief the trustees on organisational matters.

The Directors’ Team of United Response at 31 March 2022 was:

Chief Executive – Tim Cooper

Director of Quality and Practice Development – Sarah Battershall Director of Operations North – Julia Casserly Director of Operations South – Mike Crowhurst Director of Housing and Development – Be McCarroll – appointed March 2022 Director of Corporate Services – Mark Ospedale Director of Finance and Company Secretary – Andy Ward – resigned May 2022 Director of Finance (Interim) – Joe Anichebe – appointed May 2022 Director of Finance – Peter Thomas – appointed October 2022

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Reference and Administrative Details

United Response is a Charity registered with the Charity Commission and a company limited by guarantee.

Registered Address & Principal	7th Floor, Knollys House
Office	17 Addiscombe Road
	Croydon
	London
	CR0 6SR
Telephone	020 8016 5678
Website	www.unitedresponse.org.uk
Email	[e-mail]
Twitter	@unitedresponse
Facebook	facebook.com/UnitedResponse
Instagram	@unitedresponse
Charity Registration Number	265249
Company and VAT Number	01133776 / GB317764974
Bankers	Lloyds Bank	HSBC
	3rd Floor	1 Centenary Square
	25 Gresham Street London EC2V 7HN	Birmingham
		B1 1HQ
Auditors	Crowe U.K. LLP
	55 Ludgate Hill
	London
	EC4M 7JW
Solicitors	Capsticks	Trowers and Hamlins LLP
	1 St George’s Road	3 Bunhill Row
	London	London
	SW19 4DR	EC1Y 8YZ
	Bates Wells	Brabners LLP
	10 Queen Street Place	Horton House
	London	Exchange Flags
	EC4R 1BE	Liverpool
		L2 3YL
Insurance Brokers	Marsh UK Ltd
	39 Kings Hill Avenue
	West Malling,
	ME19 4ER

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Trustees’ Responsibility Statement

The trustees (who are also directors of United Response for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report, the Strategic Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of the affairs of the charitable company and the group and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable group for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

• observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;

• make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

• state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;

• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in business.

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the charitable company’s transactions, disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006 and the provisions of the charity’s constitution. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and the group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

In so far as each of the trustees of the charity at the date of approval of this report is aware there is no relevant audit information (information needed by the charity’s auditor in connection with preparing the audit report) of which the charity’s auditor is unaware. Each trustee has taken all of the steps that he/she should have taken as a trustee in order to make himself/herself aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the charity’s auditor is aware of that information.

Auditors

A resolution to re-appoint Crowe U.K. LLP as auditors will be proposed at the annual general meeting.

Approved by the Board of Trustees of United Response on 19[th] October 2022 including, in their capacity as company directors, the strategic report contained therein, and signed on its behalf by:

Malcolm McCaig Chair

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Independent Auditor’s Report to the Members of United Response

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of United Response (‘the charitable company’) and its subsidiaries (‘the group’) for the year ended 31 March 2022 which comprise the Group Statement of Financial Activities, the Group and Company Balance Sheets, the Group Statement of Cash Flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102. The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s and the charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2022 and of the group’s income and expenditure, for the year then ended;

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

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

Basis for opinion

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

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustee's use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charitable company's or the group’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue. Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

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

Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

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Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

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

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

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

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

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

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

• adequate and proper accounting records have not been kept; or

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

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

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

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement set out on page 28, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Details of the extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations are set out below. A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

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

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

31

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

In addition, we considered provisions of other laws and regulations that do not have a direct effect on the financial statements but compliance with which might be fundamental to the charitable company’s and the group’s ability to operate or to avoid a material penalty. We also considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the charitable company and the group for fraud. The laws and regulations we considered in this context for the UK operations were General Data Protection Regulation, Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulations, employment legislation, taxation legislation and health and safety legislation.

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

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

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

Use of our report

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

Tim Redwood Senior Statutory Auditor For and on behalf of Crowe U.K. LLP Statutory Auditor London

Date: 15th November 2022

32

United Response Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities For the year ended 31 March 2022

(incorporating a consolidated income and expenditure account)

Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total Funds Funds Funds Funds Funds Funds 2022 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021 Notes £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 Income from: Donations and legacies 2 202 156 358 106 161 267 Charitable activities 4 95,241 1,358 96,599 95,286 1,311 96,597 Investments 3 13 - 13 37 - 37 Other 3 - - - - - -	Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total Funds Funds Funds Funds Funds Funds 2022 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021 Notes £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 Income from: Donations and legacies 2 202 156 358 106 161 267 Charitable activities 4 95,241 1,358 96,599 95,286 1,311 96,597 Investments 3 13 - 13 37 - 37 Other 3 - - - - - -
Total income 95,456 1,514 96,970	95,429 1,472 96,901
Expenditure on: Raising funds 5 246 - 246 216 - 216 Charitable activities 5 94,750 1,692 96,442 93,871 1,088 94,959
Total expenditure 94,996 1,692 96,688	94,087 1,088 95,175
Net surplus on operations 7 460 (178) 282	1,342 384 1,726
Transfers between funds 19 98 (98) - - - -
Net movement in funds 558 (276) 282	1,342 384 1,726
Reconciliation of funds: Total funds at 1 April 2021 26,970 1,718 28,688 25,628 1,334 26,962
Total funds at 31 March 2022 16 27,528 1,442 28,970 26,970 1,718 28,688

The notes on pages 36 to 54 form part of these accounts.

All the above results are derived from continuing activities. All gains and losses recognised in the year are included above.

33

United Response

Consolidated and Charity Balance Sheets As at 31 March 2022

As at 31 March 2022
			Group	Charity
		2022	2021	2022	2021
	Notes	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Fixed Assets
Intangible assets	10	8	-	8	-
Tangible assets	11	5,449	5,623	5,449	5,621
Investments	12	18,779	18,267	18,779	18,267
Total fixed assets		24,236	23,890	24,236	23,888
Current Assets
Stocks		40	52	41	51
Debtors	13	9,434	10,114	6,025	6,276
Cash at bank and in hand		7,041	7,909	7,036	7,887
Total current assets		16,515	18,075	13,102	14,214
Creditors - amounts falling due within one year	14	(11,368)	(12,864)	(7,956)	(9,005)
Net current assets		5,147	5,211	5,146	5,209
Total assets less current liabilities		29,383	29,101	29,381	29,097
Provisions for liabilities	15	(413)	(413)	(413)	(413)
TOTAL NET ASSETS	16	28,970	28,688	28,968	28,684
FUNDS OF THE GROUP:
Restricted Funds
Restricted funds	17	1,254	1,526	1,254	1,526
Restricted property fund	18	188	192	188	192
Total restricted funds		1,442	1,718	1,442	1,718
Unrestricted Funds
General Funds	19	21,000	20,275	20,999	20,271
Designated funds	19	6,528	6,695	6,528	6,695
Total unrestricted funds	19	27,528	26,970	27,527	26,966
TOTAL GROUP FUNDS	16	28,970	28,688	28,968	28,684

The notes on pages 36 to 54 form part of these accounts.

The surplus for the financial year, dealt within the financial statements of the parent charity, with company number 1133776, was £282,000 (2021 - £1,726,000) after gift aid from subsidiaries.

These financial statements were approved by the board and authorised for issue on 19 October 2022.

Malcolm McCaig – Chair

Charles Garthwaite - Treasurer

34

United Response Consolidated Statement of Cashflows For the year ended 31 March 2022 2022 2021 Notes £'000 £'000 Cash flows from operating activities:	United Response Consolidated Statement of Cashflows For the year ended 31 March 2022 2022 2021 Notes £'000 £'000 Cash flows from operating activities:	United Response Consolidated Statement of Cashflows For the year ended 31 March 2022 2022 2021 Notes £'000 £'000 Cash flows from operating activities:
Net cash generated / (used) in operating activities A (158) 6,220
Cash flows from investing activities Dividends and interest from investments 1337 Proceeds from the sale of property, plant and equipment - - (Decrease) / increase in property, plant and equipment (211)(446) (Decrease) / increase in cash held for reinvestment (512) (7,023)
Net cash generated / (used) in investing activities (710) (7,432)
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting period (868) (1,212) Cash & cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period 7,9099,121
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period	B	7,041 7,909
A. Reconciliation of net income to net cash flows from operating activities Net income for the reporting period (as per the Statement of Financial Activities) 282 1,726 Adjustments for: Depreciation and amortisation charges 359 272 Returns on investments - - Dividends and interest from investments (13)(37) (Gain) / loss on sale of fixed assets 1832 Decrease / (increase) in stocks 12(46) Decrease / (increase) in debtors 6802,235 Increase / (decrease) in creditors (1,496) 2,130 Increase / (decrease) in provisions - (92) Net cash provided by operating activities (158) 6,220 B. Analysis of cash and cash equivalents Cash in hand 85 74 Cash at bank 6,9567,835 Total cash and cash equivalents 7,041 7,909

The notes on pages 36 to 54 form part of these accounts.

Net cash generated in operating activities includes Government funding for the pandemic.

35

United Response Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

Charity Information

United Response is a public benefit entity registered as charity in England and Wales and a company limited by guarantee.

It was incorporated on 11 September 1973 (company number: 1133776) and registered as a charity on 2 October 1973 (charity number: 265249).

The address of the registered office is 7th Floor - Knollys House, 17 Addiscombe Road, Croydon, London, England, CR0 6SR.

1. Accounting Policies

a) Basis of preparation

These accounts have been prepared under the historical cost convention with items recognised at cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant note(s) to these accounts.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the second edition of the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice issued in October 2019, the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Charities Act 2011.

The charity has taken advantage of the exemptions in FRS 102 from the requirements to present a charity only Cash Flow Statement and certain disclosures about the charity's financial instruments. The charity constitutes a public benefit entity as defined by FRS 102.

b) Group financial statements

These financial statements consolidate the results of the charity and its wholly owned subsidiaries: United Response Services Limited, United Response in Business Limited and Robert Owen Communities (dormant) and are referred to as "the Group".

A separate statement of financial activities and income and expenditure account are not presented for the charity itself following the exemptions afforded by section 408 of the Companies Act 2006.

c) Preparation of the accounts on a going concern basis

We have set out in this report a review of United Response's financial performance, the reserves position and principal risks and uncertainties.

Based on the assessment of these, United Response considers its position to be strong to continue its focus on the services it provides. Our good relationships with key funders, a proven ability to retain and secure new services, combined with strong liquidity and sufficient unrestricted reserves underline this.

United Response's liquidity is evident in review of the unrestricted reserves which stand at £27.5m (2020/21 - £27.0m) and £21.0m as free reserves (2020/21 - £20.3m), of which almost all is held as cash. Trustees are in the process of reviewing the investment policy.

United Response's free reserves continue to be considered sufficient to provide cover for any short term unexpected changes in income and expenditure. Covid-19 has been an example of how the organisation has been able to endure, whilst still providing required levels of service.

36

United Response

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

1. Accounting Policies (continued)

c) Preparation of the accounts on a going concern basis (continued)

Notwithstanding the pandemic, performance to date has been robust in terms of income generation and also cost control.

The trustees therefore have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future being at least twelve months from the date of approval of these financial statements and are not aware of any other material uncertainties which may adversely affect the organisation. Accordingly, the financial statements continue to be prepared on the going concern basis.

d) Critical accounting judgements and key sources of uncertainty

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

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

The following matters contain assumptions concerning the future, or estimation affecting assets and liabilities at the balance sheet date, that may result in a material adjustment to their carrying amounts in the next financial year:

Note 3 & 14 Income and other creditors - Government funding – Covid-19 Note 13 Debtors - Accrued income and Doubtful Debt provision

In the view of the trustees, other than those matters disclosed above, there are no assumptions concerning the future or estimation uncertainty affecting assets and liabilities at the balance sheet date likely to result in a material adjustment to their carrying amounts in the next financial year.

e) Income

Any funds received are accounted for as income when United Response can meet the following recognition criteria: it has entitlement, there is probability (more likely than not) that it will be received, and the monetary value can be measured with sufficient reliability.

Sources of funds include Charitable contractual income, Grants, Legacies, Gifts in kind/Donation and investment income. Any funds received in advance are deferred until the contracted service has been provided at which point United Response is entitled to record it.

Where there are terms or conditions attached to incoming funds, particularly grants, then these terms or conditions must be met before the income is recognised. Where terms or conditions have not been met or uncertainty exists as to whether they can be met then the relevant income is not recognised in the year but deferred and shown on the balance sheet as deferred income.

Grants are recognised on the performance model, when the charity has complied with any conditions attaching to the grant and the grant will be received. The grant in connection to the job retention scheme has been recognised in the period to which the underlying furloughed staff costs relate to. See Note 4 for revenues recorded related to additional Government grants and funding for the pandemic.

37

United Response

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

1. Accounting Policies (continued)

f) Expenditure

Costs of raising funds are those costs incurred in attracting voluntary income. Charitable activities include expenditure associated with the provision of support to people with learning disabilities or mental health needs and include both the direct and support costs relating to these activities. Governance costs are primarily associated with constitutional and statutory requirements. Where support costs cannot be directly attributed to one of the charity's activities they have been allocated on the basis of estimated time spent.

g) Operating leases

Rental costs under operating leases are charged to the statement of financial activities on a straight line basis over the period.

h) Pension schemes

United Response operates a non-contributory stakeholder pension scheme for eligible staff members. Current employer's contributions amount to 3% of pensionable earnings. The charity also contributes to the NHS pension scheme, the West Yorkshire Pension Fund and the Nottinghamshire County Council Pension Fund in respect of staff members who have transferred from other employers. These are defined benefit schemes which we account for as defined contribution schemes as it is difficult to identify the charity's share of the underlying assets and liabilities; we hold £100,000 in reserve relating to these schemes should we be required to supplement our contributions.

i) Intangible fixed assets

Computer software costs have been capitalised within intangible assets as they can be identified with a specific project anticipated to produce future benefits. Once brought into use, they are amortised on the straight line basis over four years.

j) Tangible fixed assets and depreciation

Tangible fixed assets costing more than £2,000 are capitalised and shown at cost. Depreciation has been charged to write off all fixed assets, except for freehold land, over their estimated useful lives, at the following rates:-

Freehold buildings and improvements 2% to 25% on cost Leasehold buildings over period of lease Furniture and equipment 25% on cost Motor vehicles 25% on cost

k) Financial instruments

United Response has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method. Financial assets held at amortised cost comprise cash at bank and in hand, together with trade and other debtors. Financial liabilities held at amortised cost comprise overdrafts and trade and other creditors.

Investments, including bonds held as part of an investment portfolio, are held at fair value at the balance sheet date, with gains and losses being recognised within income and expenditure. These are detailed in note 12 to these accounts. Investments in subsidiary undertakings are held at cost less impairment.

38

United Response Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

1. Accounting Policies (continued)

l) Investments

All investments held are included in the balance sheet at market value. All investments currently held are in cash deposits with UK clearing banks to ensure adequate security and liquidity is maintained.

m) Stock

All stock is held at the lower of cost and net realisable value.

Since 2016, stock holdings included farm stock from the Robert Own Communities (ROC) acquisition and small supplies for the Café.

As a result of the pandemic, stock now includes holdings of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in a privately managed distribution warehouse. Once PPE is distributed to the services, it is recorded as an expense.

As a result of the pandemic, stock now includes holdings of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in a privately managed distribution warehouse. Once PPE is distributed to the services, it is recorded as an expense.

n) Provisions

United Response has commitments to make good dilapidations and carry out repairs under various property leases. A provision is made for all leased properties that may be subject to a potential dilapidation charge and is based on the experience of recent actual costs incurred when vacating premises.

o) Funds

Income received subject to specific conditions imposed by the donor is included in restricted funds. Revenue expenditure is allocated against these funds as incurred. Restricted funds which have financed fixed assets are reduced by amounts equivalent to any depreciation charge over the expected useful lives of the assets concerned. The analysis of restricted funds is shown in note 17 to the accounts.

p) Cash at bank and in hand

Liquid resources are defined as cash at bank and in hand immediately available to meet working capital needs. Other cash not required for working capital requirements are classified as investments.

39

United Response

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

2.	Analysis of Donations and Legacies	Total	Total
		2022	2021
		£'000	£'000
	Donations from trusts
	Clothworkers' Foundation	35	35
	Active Londoners	19	-
	Arts Council	13	-
	Good Things Foundation	13	-
	Garfield Weston Foundation	8	-
	Normansfield & Richmond Foundation	7	-
	Other	24	89
	Total donations from trusts	119	124
	Legacies
	- Mrs J Wilson	15	-
	- Shield house	116	-
	- Other	4	41
	Total donations from legacies	135	41
	Other donations, legacies and voluntary income	239	143
	Total donations and legacies	358	267
3.	Analysis of Income from Investments and Other Activities
	Investment income is made up as follows:	2022	2021
		£'000	£'000
	Bank interest	13	37
	Total investment income	13	37

40

United Response

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

4. Analysis of Income from Charitable Activities

	Contractual		Trading	Total	Total
	Income	Grants	Income	2022	2021
	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Learning disability residential services	12,139	3	-	12,142	12,840
Learning disability supported living services	70,892	19	-	70,911	70,808
Government funding – Covid-19 & WRRF	-	1,637	-	1,637	3,089
Other learning disability services	7,545	-	-	7,545	6,400
Mental health services	2,337	-	-	2,337	2,414
Employment Opportunities - People We Support	1,933	-	94	2,027	1,046
Total income from charitable activities	94,846	1,659	94	96,599	96,597

Contractual income includes £0 (2020/21 - £65,094) in respect of contracts with the Isle of Man Government.

Contractual income is made up as follows:	2022	2021
	£'000	£'000
Income from statutory authorities	89,006	89,168
Income from people we support and other sources	5,569	5,401
Total contractual income	94,575	94,569
Grant income is made up as follows:	2022	2021
	£'000	£'000
Government funding – Covid-19 & WRRF	1,629	1,362
Government funding - Furlough	8	306
Skills for care	14	121
Grants to support employment (various)	8	33
Total grant income	1,659	1,822

Government funding for Covid-19 related to uplifts and premiums on existing contractual service agreements, as well as the Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund for adult social care.

41

United Response

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

5.

Analysis of Total Expenditure	Direct	Support	Total	Total
	Costs	Costs	2022	2021
	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Raising funds	233	13	246	216
Charitable activities
Learning disability residential services	11,172	1,127	12,299	12,021
Learning disability supported living services	63,162	10,077	73,239	74,043
Other learning disability services	5,800	566	6,366	4,589
Mental health services	1,923	623	2,546	2,861
Employment Opportunities - People We Support	1,378	193	1,571	1,080
Governance costs	421	-	421	365
	83,856	12,586	96,442	94,959
Total resources expended	84,089	12,599	96,688	95,175

Included in Charitable activities is £1,629,000 which is identified as spend in relation to Covid-19 and the Workforce Retention and Recruitment Fund.

Other learning disability services includes total expenditure of £0 (2020/21 - £36,257) in respect of contracts with the Isle of Man Government.

6.

Analysis of Support Costs	2022	2021
	£'000	£'000
Regional support and training	5,311	5,248
Service development and quality	1,093	883
Communication and policy	400	430
Financial, HR and legal	3,711	3,320
Information Technology	1,518	1,609
General management	553	434
Total support costs	12,586	11,924

Support costs have been allocated to activities on the basis of estimated time spent.

7.

Net Surplus on Operations for the
Year
	2022	2021
This is stated after charging:	£'000	£'000
Depreciation and amortisation	359	272
Auditors' remuneration including VAT	60	53
Other fees paid to Auditors including
VAT	3	3
Amounts paid under operating leases
- Land and buildings	1,640	1,464
- Motor vehicles	289	219

42

United Response Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

8. Trustee benefits and expenses

No remuneration was paid to trustees. A total of £0 was paid to trustees during the year (2020/21 - £298 paid to 2 trustees). The expenses reimbursed to trustees cover travel and subsistence costs only. Indemnity insurance is provided for the trustees as part of the overall management liability policy, the total premium paid during the year amounted to £18,956 (2020/21 - £17,259).

9. Staff Costs

Staff Costs
	2022	2021
Total staff costs for the year were as follows:	£'000	£'000
Wages and salaries	67,406	68,954
Social security costs	5,697	5,508
Pension contribution costs	1,597	1,642
Total	74,700	76,104

Wages and salaries includes £157,000 (2020/21 - £94,000) of redundancy and termination payments which were paid out in accordance with our redundancy policy and legal requirements.

Average number of staff
employed		2022	2021
		Number	Number
Direct charitable activities		3,228	3,387
Support and governance		261	241
Generating voluntary income		-	4
Total		3,489	3,632
Number of employees whose remuneration (including		2022	2021
taxable benefits) exceeded £60,000	during the year	Number	Number
£60,000 - £70,000		13	14
£70,001 - £80,000		5	1
£80,001 - £90,000		-	1
£90,001 - £100,000		-	2
£100,001 - £110,000		4	2
£110,001 - £120,000		1	-
£140,001 - £150,000		1	1
Total		24	21

Total pension contributions outstanding at the year end were £364,000 (2021 - £348,000).

Executive Team Remuneration	2022	2021
	£'000	£'000
Total pay and benefits of the Senior Executive Team	768	765

The Executive Team consists of the Chief Executive, Director of Finance, Director of Operations North, Director of Operations South, Director of Quality and Practice Development, Director of Housing and the Director of Corporate Services.

43

United Response

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

10.	Intangible Fixed Assets	2022	2021
		£'000	£'000
	Cost
	1 April 2021	409	425
	Additions	10	-
	Disposals	-	(16)
	31 March 2022	419	409
	Amortisation
	1 April 2021	409	422
	Charge for the year	2	3
	Disposals	-	(16)
	31 March 2022	411	409
	Net Book Values (Charity & Group)
	2022	8	-

Intangible assets relate to capitalisation of computer software costs.

				Furniture
11.	Tangible Fixed Assets	Freehold	Leasehold	&	Motor
		property	property	equipment	vehicles	Total
		£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
	Cost
	1 April 2021	6,085	1,269	2,012	52	9,418
	Additions	48	25	116	-	189
	Disposals	-	-	(12)	-	(12)
	31 March 2022	6,133	1,294	2,116	52	9,595
	Depreciation
	1 April 2021	1,295	825	1,631	44	3,795
	Charge for the year	148	113	93	3	357
	Disposals	-	-	(6)	-	(6)
	31 March 2022	1,443	938	1,718	47	4,146
	Net Book Value (Group)
	2022	4,690	356	398	5	5,449
	2021	4,790	444	381	8	5,623
	Net Book Value (Charity)
	2022	4,690	356	398	5	5,449
	2021	4,790	444	379	8	5,621

Freehold property includes a property with a net book value of £188,000 (2020/21 - £192,000) which is subject to the restrictions set out in note 18.

44

United Response

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

12. Fixed Asset Investments

Fixed Asset Investments
	2022	2021
	£'000	£'000
Market value at beginning of year	18,267	11,244
Purchases at cost	-	-
Disposals at book value	-	-
Increase / (decrease) in cash held for
reinvestment	512	7,023
Market value at end of year	18,779	18,267

The market value of investments was made up as follows:-

	The market value of investments was	made up as follows:-
				2022	2021
				£'000	£'000
	In the UK - Interest bearing deposits			18,779	18,267
	Total investments			18,779	18,267
13.	Debtors		Group	Charity
		2022	2021	2022	2021
		£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
	Trade debtors	5,875	8,163	2,271	2,960
	Amounts owed by group & associated
	undertakings	-	-	1,419	2,020
	Prepayments	930	528	930	528
	Accrued income	2,195	1,045	971	391
	Other debtors	434	378	434	377
	Total	9,434	10,114	6,025	6,276

Trade debtors are stated net of a general doubtful debt provision based on the age of debts of £826,000 (2020/21 - £924,000).

Accrued income is an estimate of income earned but not yet invoiced.

45

United Response

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

14. Creditors - Amounts Falling Due Within One Year

		Group	Charity
	2022	2021	2022	2021
	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Trade creditors	1,166	1,178	1,166	1,178
Accruals	3,168	4,311	3,153	4,251
Deferred income	1,278	1,372	740	781
Taxation and social security	3,158	3,038	550	346
Other creditors	2,598	2,965	2,347	2,449
Total	11,368	12,864	7,956	9,005

All deferred income as at 31 March 2021 was released during the year.

Other creditors at March 2022 includes Government funding for Covid-19 for which United Response must first ensure it's entitled to before recognising as income.

15.	Provision for Liabilities and Charges	Provision for	Total	Total
		Dilapidations	Provision	Provision
		2022	2022	2021
		£'000	£'000	£'000
	Opening balance	413	413	505
	Utilised in year	-	-	(92)
	Released unused during the year	-	-	-
	Additional amount provided	-	-	-
	Closing balance	413	413	413

The provision for dilapidations provides for the cost of repairs arising as a result of obligations under property leases.

46

United Response

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

16. 17.	Analysis of Net Assets between Funds Total 2022 General Designated Unrestricted Restricted Total Funds Funds Funds Funds Funds £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 Intangible fixed assets - 8 8 - 8 Tangible fixed assets - 5,109 5,109 340 5,449 Investments 18,779 - 18,779 - 18,779 Current assets 14,002 1,411 15,414 1,101 16,515 Current liabilities (11,368) - (11,368) - (11,368) Provisions for liabilities & charges (413) - (413) - (413)
	Total net assets 31 March 2022 21,000 6,528 27,528 1,442 28,970
	2021 Comparative Disclosures Total 2021 General Designated Unrestricted Restricted Total Funds Funds Funds Funds Funds £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 Intangible fixed assets - - - - - Tangible fixed assets - 5,284 5,284 339 5,623 Investments 18,267 - 18,267 - 18,267 Current assets 15,285 1,411 16,696 1,379 18,075 Current liabilities (12,864) - (12,864) - (12,864) Provisions for liabilities & charges (413) - (413) - (413)
	Total net assets 31 March 2021 20,275 6,695 26,970 1,718 28,688
	Restricted Funds Balance Balance 31 March 31 March 2021 Transfers Income Expenditure 2022 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 Time For You 15 - - - 15 Cornwall Supported Employment 3 - 1 - 4 Carers' Project 98 (98) - - - North East Division 114 - 19 (9) 124 South West Division 34 - 8 - 42 South East Division 195 - 82 (36) 241 North West Division 133 - 4 (3) 134 Covid-19 Funding 271 - 1,358 (1,629) - Devon 200 - 39 (11) 228 Other restricted funds 125 - - - 125
	Subtotal 1,188 (98) 1,511 (1,688) 913
	Represented by tangible fixed assets: North East Division 2 - - - 2 South West Division 140 - 1 - 141 South East Division 1 - - - 1 North West Division 8 - - - 8 Devon (formerly ROC) 188 - - - 188
	Total excluding restricted property fund 1,527 (98) 1,512 (1,688) 1,253
	Restricted property fund (see note 18) 192 - - (4) 188
	Total 1,719 (98) 1,512 (1,692) 1,441

47

United Response Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

17. Restricted Funds (continued)

The purposes of the principal funds shown above are as follows:

Time for You - this is a grant from Ipswich Borough Council in relation to the Suffolk Short Break Demonstrator Project, involving the provision of support to family carers of people with learning disabilities. The grant was originally awarded to Ipswich Council for Voluntary Service, but was transferred to United Response during 2012.

Cornwall Supported Employment - this service provides support to enable people with learning disabilities to secure paid employment working with many partners including Working Links, PLUSS, Prospects, Cornwall College and the Employment and Skills Board. Funding sources include the DWP, the Skills Funding Agency, the European Social Fund and various independent capacity-building grants.

Carers' Project - this is a project, funded by a donation from the David Lambert Trust, designed to provide respite for the family carers of young adults with severe mental health problems, working in partnership with the local PCT, prior to disbanding in 2011. The Charities Commission have approved that the funds be no longer restricted and may be used for “the relief of those in need due to mental health needs through the provision of respite and other forms of support to members of their family who care for them”.

North West Division - the income and expenditure relate principally to grants provided to support our supported employment work in Greater Manchester. Grants have also been provided by Knowsley MBC and Wigan MBC to enable us to develop employment and social opportunities for people with autism.

Covid-19 Funding - the income and expenditure relate principally to grants provided to support our activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. United Response is in the process of confirming the status of remaining restricted amount to ensure it has only retained funds it is fully entitled to due to costs incurred from the pandemic.

Devon - in 2016 United Response merged with Robert Owen Communities and this fund represent the balance of restricted funds acquired at that time and the net movement in restricted revenue funds since.

Funds represented by tangible fixed assets - these funds relate mainly to improvements to properties, including houses owned by United Response in West Sussex and Devon and leased in Suffolk, Essex and Kent.

48

United Response Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

17. Restricted Funds (continued)

2021 Comparative Disclosures

	Balance Balance 31 March 31 March 2020 Transfers Income Expenditure 2021 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 Time For You 15 - - - 15 Cornwall Supported Employment 3 - - - 3 Carers' Project 98 - - - 98 North East Division 88 - 26 0 114 South West Division 28 - 7 (1) 34 South East Division 174 - 39 (18) 195 North West Division 84 - 51 (2) 133 Covid-19 Funding - - 1,311 (1,040) 271 Devon 184 - 38 (22) 200 Other restricted funds 125 - - - 125
	Subtotal 799 - 1,472 (1,083) 1,188
	Represented by tangible fixed assets: North East Division 2 - - - 2 South West Division 140 - - - 140 South East Division 1 - - - 1 North West Division 8 - - - 8 Devon (formerly ROC) 188 - - - 188
	Total excluding restricted property fund 1,138 - 1,472 (1,083) 1,527
	Restricted property fund (see note 18) 196 - - (4) 192
	Total 1,334 - 1,472 (1,087) 1,719

18. Restricted Property Fund

The restricted property fund of £188,000 (2020/21 - £192,000) represents the value of a freehold property provided by the South East Kent District Health Authority to house a service in Folkestone. The property, which was acquired at no cost to United Response, is registered in the name of the charity and has been included in fixed assets at the cost of acquisition and refurbishment borne by the Health Authority, less depreciation. In the event of the service terminating, United Response has undertaken to transfer the property back to the Health Authority for £nil consideration.

49

United Response

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

19.	Unrestricted Funds	Balance	Transfers	Generated	Balance
		31 March	during the	during the	31 March
		2021	year	year	2022
		£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
	Property fund	1,061	-	-	1,061
	Pension fund	100	-	-	100
	Maintenance fund	250	-	-	250
	Intangible Fixed Assets	-	8	-	8
	Tangible fixed assets	5,284	(175)	-	5,109
	Total designated funds	6,695	(167)	-	6,528
	Unrestricted general funds	20,275	265	461	21,000
	Total unrestricted funds	26,970	98	461	27,529

Funds have been designated for the following purposes:-

Property fund - to help fund the purchase of properties to support the development of the charity's activities. These funds are used, reviewed and maintained ongoing.

Pension fund - to cover the potential liability associated with membership of one multi-employer defined benefit local government pension schemes. It cannot be estimated when this will be utilised.

Maintenance fund - to provide funding for major repairs of properties which the charity has responsibility for. These funds are used, reviewed and maintained ongoing.

Intangible fixed assets - relates to the portion of reserves invested in intangible fixed assets to be used by United Response in its operations.

Tangible fixed assets - relates to the portion of reserves invested in unrestricted tangible fixed assets to be used by United Response in its operations. This decreased during the year by £175,000 due to a transfer from unrestricted general funds.

2021 Comparative Disclosures	Balance	Transfers	Generated	Balance
	31 March	during the	during the	31 March
	2020	year	year	2021
	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Property fund	1,061	-	-	1,061
Pension fund	100	-	-	100
Maintenance fund	250	-	-	250
Intangible Fixed Assets	3	(3)	-	-
Tangible fixed assets	5,139	145	-	5,284
Total designated funds	6,553	142	-	6,695
Unrestricted general funds	19,075	(142)	1,342	20,275
Total unrestricted funds	25,628	-	1,342	26,970

50

United Response Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

20. Capital commitments

There were no capital commitments in either 2021 or 2022

21.	Operating Lease commitments	Land and buildings	Land and buildings	Vehicles
		2022	2021	2022	2021
		£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
	Total of future minimum lease payments
	under non cancellable operating leases:
	within one year	951	1,038	188	188
	within two to five years	808	1,298	35	96
	after five years	24	126	-	-
	Total	1,783	2,462	223	284

22. Subsidiary Undertakings

All subsidiaries have their registered address as the same as United Response: 7th Floor Knolly's House, 17 Addiscombe Rd, Croydon, CR0 6SR.

In January 2019, United Response Services Limited (URS) was formed as a wholly owned subsidiary of United Response. URS is registered as company number 11788717 and £100 share capital was invested by United Response. On 1st April 2019, the entity commenced trading. United Response Services Limited carries out trading activities with local authorities on behalf of United Response Limited.

United Response has a wholly owned trading subsidiary, United Response in Business Limited, company number 3787676. It was incorporated in Great Britain to carry on trading activities in accordance within the objects of the charity. Operations ceased as at 31st March 2021 and net asset balances were transferred to the parent on 21st December 2021.

In 2016 the charity acquired Robert Owen Communities (ROC), a UK charitable company with registered charity number 517845 and company number 02038915. ROC has been dormant since 2019.

The tables overleaf show the impact of the subsidiaries on the results of the Group.

51

United Response

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

22. Subsidiary Undertakings (continued)

	Financial activities of Subsidiaries in 2022 2022 2022 2022 2022 URS ROC URIB Total £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 Sales revenue 52,386 - - 52,386 Other income - - - -
	Total turnover 52,386 - - 52,386
	Salaries and wages - - - - Other costs 51,346 - - 51,346
	Total operating costs 51,346 - - 51,346
	Trading profit 1,040 - - 1,040
	Gift aid due to parent (1,040) - - (1,040)
	Retained profit - - - -
	Retained loss brought forward - - - -
	Retained profit carried forward - - - -
	Gross Assets 4,833 - - 4,833 Gross Liabilities (4,833) - - (4,833)
	Total Net Assets - - - -
	2021 Comparative Disclosures 2021 2021 2021 2021 URS ROC URIB Total Financial activities of subsidiaries in 2021 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 Sales revenue 50,206 - 192 50,398 Other income 1,982 - 39 2,021
	Total turnover 52,188 - 231 52,419
	Salaries and wages - - 31 31 Other costs 51,151 - 200 51,351
	Total operating costs 51,151 - 231 51,382
	Trading profit 1,037 - - 1,037
	Gift aid due to parent (1,037) - - (1,037)
	Retained profit - - - -
	Retained loss brought forward - - (98) (98)
	Retained profit carried forward - - (98) (98)
	Gross Assets 5,821 - 72 5,893 Gross Liabilities (5,821) - (70) (5,891)
	Total Net Assets - - 2 2

52

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

United Response

23. People We Support bank accounts

The charity administers holding bank accounts on behalf of residents for the receipt and payment of the residents' personal allowances. These bank accounts have not been reflected on these financial statements as an asset or liability. The value held at 31 March 2022 was £551,000 (2020/21 - £342,000). The bank accounts are held separately from those of the charity.

24. Transactions with Related Parties

There have been no related party transactions in the year to 31 March 2022 that require disclosure other than transactions with the subsidiary companies, URS and UR's trustees. Transactions with URS are set out below and those with the trustees are disclosed under note 8 of the accounts.

In 2021/22, the charity charged URS £51,339,000 (2020/21 - £51,144,000) in respect of the delivery of operational services.

In 2021/22, URS paid the charity £58,313,000 (2020/21 - £54,453,000) of monies collected on invoices settled.

In 2021/22, under a deed of covenant, URS will make a gift aid payment to the charity of £1,040,000 (2020/21 - £1,037,000). Payment will be made to the parent charity during the 9 months following the relevant reporting date.

As at 31/03/2022, URS owed the charity £1,421,000 (2020/21 - £2,037,000).

53

United Response

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

25. Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31 March 2021

(incorporating a consolidated income and expenditure account)

	General	Designated	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total
	Funds	Funds	Funds	Funds	Funds
	2021	2021	2021	2021	2021
	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Income from:
Donations and legacies	106	-	106	161	267
Charitable activities	95,286	-	95,286	1,311	96,597
Investments	37	-	37	-	37
Other	-	-	-	-	-
Total income	95,429	-	95,429	1,472	96,901
Expenditure on:
Raising funds	216	-	216	-	216
Charitable activities	93,871	-	93,871	1,088	94,959
Total expenditure	94,087	-	94,087	1,088	95,175
Net deficits on operations	1,342	-	1,342	384	1,726
Net losses on investments	-	-	-	-	-
Net income/(expenditure) before transfers between funds	1,342	-	1,342	384	1,726
Transfers between funds	-	-	-	-	-
Net movement in funds	1,342	-	1,342	384	1,726
Reconciliation of funds:
Total funds at 1 April 2020	25,628	-	25,628	1,334	26,962
Total funds at 31 March 2021	26,970	-	26,970	1,718	28,688

54