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Annual Report of Council RC Royal College of Occupational •T Therapists 30 September 2023

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Contents	Contents	Contents	Contents
Trustees’ report	5	Structure, governance	60
		and management
Report of the Chair of Council	6
		Financial review	64
Report of the Chief Executive	8
		Statement of Council	72
Equity, Diversity and Belonging	10	members’ (trustees’)
		responsibilities
Strategic report	16	Independent auditor’s	74
		report to members
Our year in numbers –	18
2022–2023		Financial statement	80
Our vision, our strategy	20	Notes to the fnancial	84
1. Rise up	22	statements
2. Open up	34	Legal and administrative	100
		information
3. Lift up	42
4. Build up	50
What we’ll do next –	56
2023–2024
Principal risks and	58
uncertainties

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Introducing RCOT

Introducing RCOT

We’re RCOT, the Royal College of Occupational Therapists. We’ve championed the profession and the people behind it for over 90 years; today, we’re thriving with 36,000 members.

We’re here to help achieve lifechanging breakthroughs – for our members, for the people they support and for society as a whole.

This includes giving members opportunities to learn, research, teach, practice and continuously improve their knowledge and skills. We also work with healthcare commissioners, political leaders and others to position occupational therapy as a solution at the heart of health and social care.

We’re the powerful advocate and high-profile champion that the UK’s occupational therapists deserve. Proudly inclusive, we also welcome and support new generations of occupational therapists and are working to create a profession that reflects our diverse society.

Our charitable objects (purposes) and public benefit

Trustees’ report[1]

The trustees* of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) present their annual report for the year ended 30 September 2023 under the Charities Act 2011 and the Companies Act 2006 (the “2006 Act”).

The principal object for which RCOT is established is the promotion of the science of occupational therapy and the training, education and continuing development of occupational therapists in the UK.

This report has been prepared in accordance with our governing document and the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP 2019) ‘Accounting and Reporting by Charities’. Our legal status and governance structure is explained in the ‘Structure, governance and management’ section of this report on pages 60-63.

In setting and developing its five-year strategic plan, RCOT has given careful consideration to the public benefit, as it relates to its charitable purposes. In particular, Council members (as the charity trustees) believe that they have complied with the duty in Section 4 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the public benefit guidance, as published by the Charity Commission.

*The trustees of RCOT are the Council members and will be referred to as Council members.

Council is driven by the charity’s objects when setting the strategic direction of the charity and actively monitors the impact of the charity’s activities. The charity’s impact is set out in the strategic report.

We want people everywhere to value the lifechanging power of occupational therapy.

1 Royal College of Occupational Therapists; a charitable company limited by shares registered in England and Wales (company no. 01347374); a charity registered in England and Wales (no. 275119) and in Scotland (no. SC039573); registered office Phoenix House, 106-114 Borough High Street, London, SE1 1LB

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Report of the Chair of Council

I’m proud to be an occupational therapist and to be playing a part in RCOT and our profession’s transformation. We want to grow the understanding and enhance the profile of occupational therapy – our activity over the past year has created a stronger foundation towards achieving this.

Our profession needs to be one where everyone feels welcome, seen and heard. Seeing the co-creation of our draft Equity, Diversity and Belonging (EDB) Strategy this year has been wonderful. My thanks to all RCOT members, public contributors and staff who took part in the consultation. This is a bold step towards making sure that equality and inclusion is at the heart of all the work we do – and not shying away from the challenge of being an anti-discriminatory and anti-racist organisation.

The EDB Strategy is just one example of how we’re involving our members. Our member experience survey in Autumn 2023 was part of an extensive project to guide us in revitalising our offer for members. This, together with a review of our governance structure will make sure we’re best set up to meet current and future challenges.

Members have been sharing their experiences with us – high vacancy rates are putting escalating pressure on teams to meet the increase in demand for occupational therapy services. Despite the difficulties they’re facing, occupational therapists are overwhelmingly proud to be part of the profession and want to continue delivering life-changing breakthroughs for the public. It’s absolutely vital that we’re provided with the support and resources we need to allow us to do this, for the health of the profession and the people we serve.

Together with my colleagues on Council, as Chair, I’ll continue to support the Senior Leadership Team and provide robust challenge to make sure we remain financially secure and well respected and fulfil what we’ve set out to do in our strategy.

Odeth Richardson (she/her) BAOT/RCOT Chair of Council

Odeth Richardson BAOT/RCOT Chair of Council

Our profession needs to be one where everyone feels welcome, seen and heard. Seeing the co-creation of our draft Equity, Diversity and Belonging (EDB) Strategy this year has been wonderful.”

Odeth Richardson

BAOT/RCOT Chair of Council

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Report of the Chief Executive

Following a year in which we launched our new strategy, brand and values, the focus for 2022/23 was building up our organisation – and being ready to deliver. We’ve now got the right teams in place and, together with our volunteers and the wider membership, we’re making change happen and better supporting our members and the profession.

Steve Ford RCOT Chief Executive

Our voice is getting stronger. We’ve created new ways – through our Leadership Forum and Workforce Summits – to listen to occupational therapy leaders and understand the challenges and opportunities for the profession. These conversations, together with insights from our first workforce survey shaped our Workforce Strategy, which we launched in March 2024. The Workforce Strategy addresses how we’ll lift up the occupational therapy workforce and be in the right place at the right time to make a real difference across society.

You’ll hear many examples in this year’s report of how we’ve opened up to new opportunities. From joining forces with NHS England on the Allied Health Professions Workforce Reform project to supporting and advising our members on workplace challenges, by enhancing our relationship with UNISON.

We’re attracting new people to the profession through our Choose OT

campaign, and we have big ambitions to grow our membership further. We’ll use data and insights to focus on areas that will make the biggest impact.

We’re developing a commercial strategy to rely less on membership fees to do the things we need to do. We committed to not increasing membership fees for 2023/24 we’ve done that while still enhancing our offer. We’ve delivered a CPD portfolio for our members, and projects are happening now to reimagine our communities, redevelop our website and offer a high-quality member experience.

Our members continue to support our shared ambitions, by getting involved and making the most of the opportunities we offer. Together, we’ll stay focused on reaching our ambitious vision – people everywhere value the life-changing power of occupational therapy.

Steve Ford RCOT Chief Executive

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Equity, Diversity and Belonging

Equity, Diversity and Belonging

Our vision is to put equity, diversity and belonging (EDB) at the heart of everything we do and be recognised as a bold, progressive advocate of equity and social justice by 2027. We intend to actively oppose discrimination, demonstrate effective allyship and be transparent and accountable.

Equity, diversity and belonging is crucial in creating and sustaining a positive, inclusive, and productive work environment. It’s important that each one of us feels empowered, represented, and heard; and that opportunities are made available in a fair and equitable way so that, irrespective of our background, we’re supported to make the most of them.”

We will work with members, volunteers, learners, staff, partners, stakeholders and the wider profession to create a sense of belonging in the diverse, authentic and empowering culture we’re building together. Our work will support the wellbeing of people accessing occupational therapy and contribute to health equity for all.

Ketan Davé (he/him)

RCOT EDB Lead

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Equity, Diversity and Belonging

What we did 2022–2023

Prepared

Embedded

the challenge of becoming an anti-discriminatory and anti-racist organisation into our strategy. We’re determined to not only meet but exceed our legal obligations.

to launch our bold and ambitious EDB Strategy in November 2023.

Involved

members, learners and staff through seven focus groups and three working groups while drafting our strategy from June to December 2022. We also held five in-depth interviews to help us co-create a draft strategy that we shared with all our members and staff for review between June and August 2023. Almost 1,500 members fed their views into the consultation.

Agreed

through our strategy work to advocate for and challenge inequity on behalf of staff, members and the public. Only through this approach can we truly fulfil our life-changing work and vision.

Worked

closely with our three Expert Advisory Groups (EAGs) established last year:

Ensured

the responses to our draft strategy were incorporated into our final strategy. Guided by the feedback we condensed the number of aims into a single prioritised list. The feedback also directed us to use clear, direct, simple language that avoided jargon and buzzwords, provide more detail, transparency and accountability about our delivery plan and include a timeframe.

RCOT ABLE OT

For practitioners, students, researchers, educators and people with disabilities/long term health conditions.

RCOT B.A.M.E OTUK

For occupational therapy staff, students and educators of Black, Asian and minoritised heritages based in the UK.

Chose

and defined clearly the terminology of the three concepts – Equity, Diversity and Belonging – we use. While ‘EDB’ is a useful short form, we don’t want it to become a meaningless acronym or minimise the individual elements’ importance. Our full definitions appear in the ‘What EDB means to us’ box on page 15.

RCOT LGBTQIA+

For anyone in the occupational therapy community who wants to connect, share, learn about and celebrate all things LGBTQIA+.

These member groups challenge and support us to make sure we’re meeting our EDB commitments and guide us on what we can do better. In 2024, we’ll be launching the Carers Expert Advisory Group for occupational therapy students, apprentices, researchers, educators, practitioners, retired practitioners, return-to-practice OTs and assistants who are also carers, or who have been carers in the past.

Created

five staff networks to provide a safe space for conversation, support and allyship. Cultural diversity is an asset to RCOT, and everyone should be able to bring their best self to work. To do this, we’re committed to developing greater understanding of others and their cultures and differences in beliefs and opinions.

These member groups challenge and support us to make sure we’re meeting our EDB commitments and guide us on what we can do better.

These internal networks are:

Ethnos

for Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic communities

LGBTQIA+ Disability Parents

Menopause

Planned

the first UK Black History month issue of OTnews – our membership magazine – published in October 2023. In this issue we celebrated Black history through occupations, cultural education and Black literature.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Equity, Diversity and Belonging

Celebrating OTs of Caribbean heritage

commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Windrush generation coming to Britain. The initial aim of the Caribbean Network of Occupational Therapists is to co-author a textbook that will assist the current and next generation of occupational therapists to learn about the occupational needs of people of Caribbean heritage.

Author, former locally elected politician and occupational therapist, Dr Blaine Robin, and our Chair, Odeth Richardson, have brought together occupational therapists of Caribbean heritage from across the UK. This is to

Authenticity, particularly with respect to LGBTQIA+ identity, can be a vulnerable place, but I think it is reiterated that integrity and staying true to our values and who we are liberates others and gives folks permission to do the same. In being who we are, we can influence change, even if it’s a small conversation and momentary shared insight. Its impact will ripple and shouldn’t be underestimated.”

Hannah Spencer (they/them)

Lecturer in Occupational Therapy, University of Derby LGBTQIA+ EAG member OTnews June 2023

What EDB means to us

Equity

Equity recognises differences and complexity in circumstances, experiences and needs. It means treating people differently to achieve fairness by being flexible and responsive to access, opportunities and resources. Like occupational therapy, equity is about understanding and recognising individual needs. It’s about everyone having what they need, to make the most of life.

Diversity

We’re all unique. Diversity means recognising, respecting, valuing and celebrating differences and intersections in needs, identities, backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. It’s the key to breaking down cultural and institutional barriers and fostering a culture of creativity and innovation.

Belonging

For us, belonging is about much more than simply including people. It means proactively welcoming, celebrating, supporting, and empowering every voice, so we’re all properly recognised, valued and free to be our authentic selves.

RCOT | Annual Report of CouncilRCOT | Annual Report of Council

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report

Strategic report RCOT | Annual Report of Council Strategic report

The Trustees present the Strategic report of RCOT for the year ended 30 September 2023.

1616

Strategic report Our year in numbers 2022–2023

We supported more than 500 members to prepare for the Health and Care Professions Council’s (HCPC) CPD audit – through webinars and drop in sessions.

We were supported by over

14 of our members We were supported adversely affected by by over the COVID pandemic were each supported with grants of 350

£2,500

volunteers.

We supported

1,803

members through our Professional Advisory Service (PAS).

On average our website, rcot.co.uk, had

62,000

visitors each month.

We welcomed We worked with 50 higher education institutions 319 to provide accreditation services for pre-registration members to Research learners, giving future Connect – our member occupational therapists the community for researchers best chance of success. at all levels and practice areas of occupational therapy. It’s supported by our RCOT Research Champions who volunteer through a self-nomination process.

Our award-winning Lift Up Your Everyday campaign reached more than To inform our 15.3 Workforce Strategy, million 2,600 occupational therapists completed people

occupational therapists completed our survey about the workplace issues they face – 86% reported increased demand for their services.

sharing the lifechanging power of occupational therapy.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

RCOT | Annual Report of Council Strategic report

Strategic report

Our vision. Our strategy.

We want people everywhere to value the life-changing power of occupational therapy.

We focus on making the biggest impacts, based on our strengths and our members’ needs.

This bold and simple vision is at the heart of our five-year strategy (2022–2026) and guides everything we do.

Four clear strategic priorities drive our work and we have a strategic delivery plan for each of them. Pages 22 to 55 highlight our achievements under each strategic priority during the reporting year.

Rise Up

We’ll rise up to be bold, progressive advocates and champions – raising our profile and voice so that more people understand the power of what occupational therapists do.

Open Up

We’ll open up to new opportunities and people – joining forces, forming alliances and getting more people to see occupational therapy as the solution to their needs.

Lift Up

We’ll lift up every occupational therapist and support them to be the best they can be throughout their entire career – by offering them the best community, resources and tools that help them to succeed.

We deliver our strategy while living our values

We Impact We Challenge We Elevate & We Respect

Build Up

We’ll build up our organisation and culture to be dynamic, high performing and values-led – using insights and data to inform and drive us to achieve our purpose.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council RCOT | Annual Report of Council 1. Rise Up

RCOT | Annual Report of Council Strategic report – Rise Up

1 We’ll rise up to be bold, progressive advocates and champions – raising our profile and voice so that more people understand the power of what occupational therapists do.

It’s time for the UK government to recognise and value everything that occupational therapists and other allied health professionals do and invest in occupational therapy to improve people’s health and overall wellbeing, helping people live well for longer.” Karin Orman RCOT Director of Practice and Innovation

23

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report – Rise Up

What we did 2022–2023

Focused

England and the Department for Health and Social Care to make sure the interests of our profession are heard.

our policy and public affairs work on meeting and influencing government and industry contacts, across all four nations of the UK. This involved driving home our key messages at in person meetings, attendance at conferences and awards events and in our member surveys. Throughout the year we also responded to policy and practice consultations ensuring our input into professional practice and policy guidelines.

Pressed

the Scottish National Party (SNP) leadership election contenders to commit to supporting the occupational therapy workforce. We believe Scotland’s First Minister must improve health and social care in Scotland. Our demands included a Once For Scotland approach to rehabilitation. This would support universal access to high quality, person-centred rehabilitation as a right. We said it should be reflected in the National Health Services constitution and the National Care Service legislation.

expected 3.4growth in occupational 3.7% therapists by 2036–2037

Welcomed

the Welsh Government’s decision to invest £5 million to increase the number of Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) across Wales and improve access to community-based care from April 2023. An increase in the number of occupational therapists and other AHPs in the community will enable people to recover at home with rehabilitation, spend less time in a hospital bed and improve the independence and confidence of those receiving care.

Highlighted

the inadequacy of the NHS England Long Term Workforce Plan. This longawaited plan estimated a 3.4–3.7% growth in occupational therapists by 2036–2037. We pointed out this growth will not provide enough occupational therapists to meet the ongoing health and care needs of people with long-term health conditions. We estimate a shortfall of 2,000 OTs in primary care alone by 2036. Disappointingly the report included no plans for occupational therapist prescribing rights. Our conversations continue with NHS

Commented

on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) statistical bulletin about selfreported Long Covid symptoms in the

UK, highlighting the need for support and appearing on the BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour to discuss this. We also highlighted the availability to the public of our new publication How to manage your energy levels.

Presented

the UK Government with the outcome of our workforce survey report and put pressure on the government to start making changes – we’ll expand our campaigning on this when we release our Workforce Strategy in 2024. The report showed how a lack of capacity in health and care systems drives huge increase in demand for occupational therapy. Of the 2,600 occupational therapists who responded to our workforce survey, almost 9 in 10 (86%) reported an increase in demand for their services between November 2021 and November 2022. (More in Spotlight on page 26).

Spoke out

against the UK Government’s plans to recruit an ‘army’ of social care volunteers to support people being discharged from hospital. We highlighted that although volunteers play an important role in the care system, they’re not a solution to the 165,000 vacancies in social care in England. We called for a Social Care People Plan to address the crisis in the sector.

Ran

our third children and young people’s occupational therapy survey looking into children’s access to occupational therapy across the UK. Our previous surveys have shown increased

demand for OT services for children and young people and a shrinking, poorly utilised workforce. We’ve called on the governments in all four nations to act to protect our young people by providing them with the occupational therapy they need. The results were released in October 2023.

Launched

our new guideline on why children’s play is important and how it can be incorporated into occupational therapy practice. Our evidence-based practice guideline Occupational therapy and play followed our gold standard NICE accredited process, and the practice recommendations are based on contemporary research evidence. Due to its importance, we made Occupational therapy and play available to all for free, at rcot.co.uk/ playguideline.

Ensured

that our monthly publication OTnews remains a highly-valued member benefit. Throughout the year it delivered a lively mix of news and policy, the latest professional developments, features and opinions. This included in-depth coverage of the inspiring speakers at Equity in Action – BAMEOTUK’s first symposium – and features dedicated to our advisory pilot groups LGBTQIA+ and ABLEOTUK.

OTs reported an increase 86% in demand for their services

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report – Rise Up

Spotlight

Survey shows workforce under pressure

In November 2022 we surveyed occupational therapists across the UK about the workplace issues they face and how these affect the services they deliver to the public. We also asked how practitioners are affected personally, including whether they intend to continue working as occupational therapists.

More than 2,600 people responded and we included our findings in our report, Occupational therapy under pressure: Workforce survey findings 2022–2023.

I’ve worked in the NHS for 40 years, 37 years of those as a qualified OT working mostly in acute hospitals and have loved my job. However, the wider health system feels broken and there are not the community/social care resources to support patients outside hospital. We’re churning patients out faster and faster, older, frailer and more complex, but given no time to rehab or improve them, knowing that they will likely get readmitted again in a few days. That is disheartening when there is so much we could do if we were given a day or two, or there were more services in the community.”

Anonymous survey respondent

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report – Rise Up

The workforce survey’s topline results

Worryingly, a third of respondents said they intend to leave their current role within the next two years. The most common reasons are related to a lack of satisfaction with their role or setting. Despite the significant challenges reported by respondents, most still felt positive about the profession:

rated their work-related stress as 7 or above on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest level of stress.

86[%]

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93 [%]
79 [%]
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reported an increased demand for OT services within the previous 12 months.

said that occupational therapy is a rewarding career.

stated that people were presenting more complex needs due to delayed interventions.

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86 [%]
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63[%]

said that their team wasn’t large enough to meet the demand.

felt they were too busy to provide the level of care they’d like.

would recommend it as a career to others.

Our recommendations include:

Ensuring that future public service workforce planning prioritises the shortages in occupational therapy.
Addressing the challenges around recruitment and retention which are causing occupational therapists to leave the profession early.
Focusing on staff development and wellbeing to reduce the risk of occupational therapists burning out and leaving the profession.
Securing greater leadership opportunities for occupational therapists.
Understanding the concerns and experiences of workers who have dealt with workplace bullying, harassment and discrimination to ensure staff safety and can report issues without hesitation.
Recognising investment in the NHS and social care is critical to a healthy population and therefore economic growth.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report – Rise Up

What we did next

Developed

Presented

Collaborated

our findings to ministers, health leaders and policymakers in all UK nations throughout 2023. We called on them to increase investment in the training of occupational therapists and the funding of occupational therapy services.

a Workforce Strategy, that draws on the survey findings, to influence the planning and delivery of occupational therapy services nationally and locally. We published our Workforce Strategy in March 2024.

with NHS England to develop resources to address workforce challenges, including inclusive engagement, recruitment and retention, career development and leadership opportunities.

Alongside our survey we held a series of workforce summits across the UK exploring the current challenges for occupational therapy and where and how we can have maximum impact to benefit the populations we serve. An optimally positioned and skilled health and social care workforce is central to enabling the NHS and local authorities to make best use of public money.

Reducing the pressures on our inpatient services through improved access to occupational therapy in primary and community settings and working in partnership with providers in the charity, social enterprise and independent sectors will ensure timely access to the right advice and support. We are also advocating for better data on occupational therapy, as data-driven workforce planning has helped many employers develop their workforce to meet growing demand.”

Suhailah Mohamed (she/her)

RCOT Head of Practice and Workforce

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report – Rise Up

Spotlight

Raising our profile

Lift Up Your Everyday

Our Lift Up Your Everyday campaign raises awareness of occupational therapy with the general public. It does this by sharing expert advice from occupational therapists on how to overcome everyday challenges and draws people into finding out more about the profession.

communications industry. It was also highly commended at the CorpComms awards in the communications industry and short listed for a Memcom Excellence award within the membership sector.

Since its launch, the campaign has focused on different themes to capture the public’s attention. These have included advice on how to make the most of playtime with children and advice on energy management. We also joined forces with Toyota to share advice for people with mobility issues using cars.

We achieved outstanding results – the launch of the campaign during OT Week 2022 saw our hashtag appear in the social media feeds of 15.3 million people, get over 67,200 interactions and over 4,200 mentions. And our advice videos achieved more than 1 million views.

We reached an estimated six million people through media coverage for our energy management and play themes. Coverage included an interview on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour and an article in HuffPostUK.

The campaign launch was recognised by industry experts and received two Communiqué awards which celebrate excellence within the healthcare

Choose OT

Our careers campaign, Choose OT, inspires people to become occupational therapists and is targeted at school students and their influencers, graduates, and adults considering a career change. The campaign is linked to our dedicated careers website, ChooseOT.co.uk, which features inspiring stories and information about becoming an occupational therapist. The campaign was seen over eight million times on social media platforms and drove over 49,000 click-throughs to the website.

I welcome increased visibility of RCOT on social media. It’s fantastic to see RCOT engaging with members and the public.”

Samantha Flower (she/her)

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) Occupational Therapy Lead for Partnerships and RCOT Council member

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RCOT | Annual Report of Council RCOT | Annual Report of Council 2. Open Up

Strategic report – Open Up

We’ll open up to new opportunities and people – joining forces, forming alliances, and getting more people to see occupational therapy as the solution to their needs.

The innovation hub is a collaboration space that will enable members to search for occupational therapy focused improvement ideas and network with others looking to address similar service challenges”. Suzy England RCOT Service Innovation Manager

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report – Open Up

What we did 2022–2023

profile explaining how they’ve met the standards.

Launched

our Innovation Hub pilot in October 2022 – offering members a place to share service challenges, ideas for improvement and their own case study improvement journeys. By the pilot’s end (31 March 2023) 26 occupational therapy service innovation projects were on our database. These projects ranged from making the move to a seven-day service to designing a health information coaching tool.

We held a series of HCPC CPD audit webinars including one jointly with HCPC. We offered drop-in support sessions for both members who had been selected for audit and those members supporting colleagues selected for audit.

Achieved

the largest audience to date of members and non-members at our annual Elizabeth Casson Memorial Lecture delivered by, Keir Harding, a member and CEO and Clinical Lead at Beam Consulting. More than 3,700 people booked to attend the April event. Keir is renowned for being one of the most visible and forthright occupational therapists practising today and is passionate about our profession. His lecture, Nothing grows in toxic environments , was well received. A recording of the lecture can be found on our website: rcot.co.uk/2023-elizabethcasson-memorial-lecture.

We’ve published a pilot report which is available on our website: rcot.co.uk/ innovation-hub. We used the insights from the pilot to design and build our real-world change evidence database launching in April 2024.

Celebrated

Volunteers’ Week in June. Over 350 people volunteer with us to support our community and raise the profile of our profession. Volunteer opportunities range from being a board member, regional committee member, to being part of an advisory group. We advertise our volunteer roles on our website and in OTnews .

people volunteer with us to 350 support our 3,700 community

people booked to attend our annual Elizabeth Casson Memorial Lecture

Supported

more than 500 members to prepare for the Health and Care Professions Council’s (HCPC) CPD audit. The audit runs every two years and 2.5% of occupational therapists are contacted to take part. The process, which can be worrying for members, involves submitting a written

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report – Open Up

Spotlight interview

Paul Wilkinson My volunteering journey

Meet Paul Wilkinson, one of our many valued RCOT volunteers and Vice Chair for the RCOT Northern and Yorkshire region.

attracted me as I wanted to give more to my region and further develop my leadership skills.

My role involves monitoring and maintaining the region’s social media accounts promoting events via social media and helping the committee organise events too. I also deputise for the Chair when they are absent, represent the region at twice-yearly forums, provide support and information to the regional members and do my best to promote our profession.

Tell us about your day job and what attracted you to a career in occupational therapy.

I’m a senior occupational therapist currently working on a regional hyper acute stroke unit. This involves holistically assessing and providing interventions for individuals who have been diagnosed with a stroke. Occupational therapy attracted me as it involves problem solving, creativity and thinking outside the box to achieve the best outcomes for individuals.

How has volunteering helped you, personally and professionally? Volunteering has helped me to develop and enhance my skills. I’m involved in communication, leadership, strategic thinking and planning, creative thinking and problem solving. I feel my confidence has grown, and I’ve been exposed to fantastic development opportunities. And since volunteering I now feel I have a better understanding of what RCOT offers.

Please describe your volunteering role with RCOT.

I am currently the Vice Chair and CoSocial Media Lead for the Northern and Yorkshire Region. I have volunteered for RCOT for two years. These positions

Would you recommend volunteering for RCOT?

Yes, I’d recommend volunteering to everyone. We all have unique skills, knowledge and backgrounds. That’s the beauty of volunteering – we learn from each other. The RCOT’s volunteering roles are open to all members. It’s often said that inclusion is being invited to the dance floor and belonging is being asked to choose the music. I definitely feel like I belong on my committee and at RCOT.

I feel my confidence has grown, and I’ve been exposed to fantastic development opportunities.”

Paul Wilkinson (he/him)

I’d ask anyone in doubt or apprehensive about volunteering to think about this famous quote frequently attributed to American businessman John A Shedd: ‘Ships in harbour are safe, but that’s not what ships are built for’.

RCOT volunteer and Vice Chair for the RCOT Northern and Yorkshire region

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report – Open Up

Spotlight

Pressing for workplace reform

We joined forces with NHS England in March 2022 to deliver a year-long Allied Health Professionals (AHP) Workforce Reform project. This work was completed in March 2023 and focused on how to increase the number of occupational therapists working in health and social care across all four UK nations.

This included:

• expanding our Principles of practicebased learning in collaboration with nine other AHP professional bodies.

establishing our Advanced Practice Network as an initial trial for our

virtual communities that will support the professional development of our members in years to come.

developing our work with primary care services to encourage an understanding of the value and contribution of OT.

At least 27,000 additional AHPs will be needed by 2024, according to the 2019 NHS People Plan to meet demand for their services. AHPs are the third largest clinical workforce in the NHS, and one of the most costeffective workforces to train.

We built case studies, blogs, webinars, podcasts, vodcasts, handbooks and other valuable assets for use by OTs across the UK.

Key outcomes include:

A learning programme for OTs

Our joint project resulted in many different resources designed to help our members and their employers develop new skills or refresh existing skills to meet the demand for services.

working in neonatal care at an enhanced level of practice delivered through four webinars and a one-day in person workshop.

A new suite of resources designed to encourage more of the profession to become approved clinicians under the Mental Health Act in England and Wales.

practice handbooks, for returners, supervisors and placement providers were produced.

A set of principles of practice-based

learning developed with the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) to develop an innovative, quality and sustainable placement offer. We also worked with the University of Salford to undertake a survey exploring placements for preregistration learners.

Nine case studies providing top tips and innovations from leading OTs working in the fields of learning disability and autism.

Data about the wide-reaching

impact of occupational therapy in GP surgeries across three sites in England and Wales was gathered. We collected this through qualitative interviews with stakeholders, outcome measures and other data. We expect to publish this data in 2024.

An online hub , that members and non-members can use for signposting, finding case studies and general information about international recruitment for OTs. This is a go-to resource to support members that have little experience in this area, from both a recruiter and applicant perspective. We also presented a report to NHS England, to inform their future work on international recruitment and employment.

Webinars for managers, supervisors

and returners to support the return of occupational therapists to the workplace. Existing resources – blogs, webinars and handbooks – were updated and three return-to-

Great attendance at the second Midlands #OT summit! Representation across social care, health care and education! Real opportunity to think about how we harness the uniqueness of the OT workforce through rotations to support recruitment and retention.”

Midlands AHP

RCOT | Annual Report of Council RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report – Lift Up

3. Lift Up

We’ll lift up every occupational therapist and support them to be the best they can be throughout their career by offering the very best community resources and tools that they need to succeed.

We started working with the CSP as we recognised that coming together made us stronger – so much so that we included that in the title of the document, AHP principles of practice-based learning: working together to support our future workforce. To join with a further eight AHP professional bodies is just brilliant!”

Carolyn Hay (she/her) RCOT Head of Education

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report – Lift Up

What we did 2022–2023

Continued

Approved

78 major changes ensuring programmes continue to meet the Learning and development standards for pre-registration education in their cycle of accreditation.

to proudly set the professional and educational standards for occupational therapy to position the profession – and all our members – for the future. This involves managing the accreditation process, using the Learning and development standards for pre-registration education to assess occupational therapy pre-registration programmes and ensure quality in their design and delivery.

Held

our first education summit in May 2023, focusing on the pre-registration education and early careers of our future workforce in a changing world. We brought together more than 50 educators, learners and practitioners to discuss the topics that matter to them – including improving transition support from learner to newly registered OT and making sure that learners feel listened to and are confident identifying their personal needs.

Worked

with 50 UK providers of preregistration occupational therapy education to ensure pre-registration learners are set up for success. Of these, five were new providers and we supported them to prepare to deliver a pre-registration programme.

We’ll use these insights when developing our Workforce Strategy and reviewing our Learning and development standards .

Managed

the re-accreditation of 12 occupational therapy programmes and the accreditation of four new UK programmes. The four new accreditations led to an increase of 59 new learner places each year. There are 45 education providers across the UK running a range of undergraduate and post-graduate preregistration programmes. In England there were 8,361 people enrolled in pre-registration apprenticeship occupational therapy programmes by the end of the year. Demand for OTs continues to rise.

Welcomed

319 members to Research Connect. This network, launched in April 2023, is our member community for researchers at all levels and all practice areas of occupational therapy.

people enrolled in pre-registration apprenticeship 8,361 occupational therapy programmes

members welcomed to Research Connect network

319

It’s supported by our RCOT Research Champions who volunteer through a self-nomination process. These volunteers are role models for the profession and champion our vision to grow our UK-wide network and make occupational therapy a research-active profession informed by evidence. In 2023 we recruited 52 Research Champions across all four UK nations and levels of practice. We’re evaluating the network now.

Supported

our members with 35 fitness to practice cases over the 2022 cycle through our professional advisory service.

Provided

support directly to programme teams through monthly placement cafés giving practice educators and those involved

in supporting OT placements the chance to meet with peers, share good practices, problem-solve challenges and bring innovative ideas to life.

Created

our AHP principles of practice-based learning: working together to support our future workforce with CSP.

Launched

a series of six 90 minute long webinars in Autumn 2022, facilitated by Kalimah Ibrahiim, Occupational Therapy lecturer at the University of East London, BAOT/ RCOT Council member and Chair of RCOT England Board. The webinars featured speakers at all career stages. The focus was sharing their work and practice-based learning. Areas covered included supporting equity, diversity and belonging in placement-based learning, demystifying placement-based learning and inspiring placement stories from learners and educators. The series was part of the AHP Workforce Reform project spotlighted earlier in this report.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report – Lift Up

Strengthening our work for our members

What we did 2022–2023

Thanks to £35,000 of funding awarded by the COVID-19 Healthcare

general living costs
unexpected bills
disability equipment
psychological support or counselling
other difficulties caused as a

Support Appeal we supported 14 members adversely affected by the pandemic.

direct or indirect consequence of the pandemic, such as job loss, reduced income (for themselves or a partner), relationship breakdown, bereavement, or other work-related or personal circumstances.

From 18 January 2021 to 27 March 2023, we invited our professional and self-employed members who were experiencing hardship to apply for a grant of up to £2,500 to help with:

up to in grants for £2,500 each member affected by the pandemic

I would just like to thank you for the opportunity for this, as this has lifted me and has aided so much in returning to a more healthy lifestyle.”

Grant beneficiary

Launched

onboarding webinars to welcome new members and introduce them to the benefits we offer to encourage use.

Created

a Hardship Fund to help our members in these tough financial times. In August 2023 we invited active members and those who had left us during the last 12 months to apply for a 25% discount on their annual fees. More than 109 members received the reduction.

Grew

our overall membership by 2% this year – taking us from 35,118 to 35,820. Associate Apprentices continued to be our fastest growing category where we experienced a 75% member increase from 336 to 587. And our newly qualified professionals increased by 31% from 893 to 1,168.

Took

a digital first approach to our membership renewal programme to encourage and support members in renewing their membership online. The engagement campaign ran over six months and helped not only to retain members but, crucially, included significant work to improve our

membership data and set a great foundation for the next year’s renewal process.

Ensured

our members and the public could give us feedback via a new compliments and complaints process. People can submit their feedback online and get clear details of how soon we’ll respond and how we’ll deal with and use their feedback and learn about our appeals and escalation processes. We’re dedicated to working in an open and accountable way, acting on issues raised and celebrating successes.

Associate Apprentice memberships 75% increase from 336 to 587

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report – Lift Up

Spotlight

Recognising our profession – Fellowship and Merit awards

Every year our members are invited to nominate their colleagues and peers for a prestigious Fellowship or a Merit Award in recognition of their special contribution to our profession.

Nominations are considered and

recipients are chosen by the Fellowship and Merit Awards Committee who decide if nominees meet the criteria and standards. The committee then gives a final recommendation to the BAOT/RCOT Council for approval.

A Fellowship is the highest honour we can present to our members to recognise exceptional service and outstanding contribution to the profession, and RCOT, over many years.

We awarded three Fellowships in 2023 to recognise exceptional service and outstanding contribution to RCOT and the profession.

The Merit Awards recognise a significant achievement by our members at any stage in their career. We celebrate the contribution they’re making to the profession, whether locally or regionally, in a specialist field of practice or in a diverse area of practice.

In 2023 we were delighted to award Fellowships to:

Dr Maria Avantaggiato-Quinn , Associate AHP Director CYP Services, Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, NHS Foundation Trust

And Merit Awards to:

Musharrat Ahmed-Landeryou ,
Associate Professor in Occupational Therapy, London South Bank University, Co-founder BAMEOTUK
Rachel Booth-Gardiner , Occupational Therapist, Co-founder AbleOTUK
Louise Clark , Consultant Occupational Therapist – Stroke and Neuro Rehab
Natalie Jones , Clinical Academic Occupational Therapist, Associate Lecturer Sheffield Hallam University, NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellow
Professor Katrina Bannigan , Professor of Occupational Therapy, Glasgow Caledonian University
Professor Patricia McClure , Associate Head of School, School of Health Sciences, Ulster University.
Emma Linley , Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist and Team Lead
Dr Fiona Maclean , Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy
Janice McClymont , Head of Occupational Therapy Services and Professional Lead, NHS Lanarkshire
Jo Vallom-Smith , Independent Occupational Therapist
Jenny Welford , Specialist Occupational Therapist.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report – Build Up

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RCOT | Annual Report of Council
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4 4. Build Up

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We’ll build up our organisation and culture to be
dynamic, high performing and values-led by using
insights and data to inform and drive us to achieve
our purpose.
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In 2023/24, I’m looking forward to
further embedding our ways of working
and developing new organisational
development initiatives to continue
to create a collaborative, inclusive
and productive culture that allows
our people to thrive.”
Satvinder Reyatt
RCOT Director of People, Finance and Governance
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RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report – Build Up

We worked hard to develop the right culture to support our transformation and fulfil our new strategy. This involved looking at our organisation’s values and understanding how our everyday behaviours can help us live those values in all we do.”

Satvinder Reyatt

RCOT Director of People, Finance and Governance

What we did 2022–2023

Reshaped

Through our Colleague Forum, we have a valued and well-used channel for all staff to be heard and give feedback on working at RCOT. We regularly report back on what we learn to everyone, helping to create a positive, healthy and productive working environment.

the structure of our organisation. We are now prepared to better serve our members and our profession efficiently, responsively and innovatively.

Fostered

an environment that will help our staff thrive and deliver the most impact for our members. We’ve redesigned how and where we work to embrace new hybrid ways of working, blending office-based and technology-enabled remote working. These changes have boosted flexibility and productivity and have been key in attracting talented new staff to join us.

Selected

a new engaging digital employee survey platform. This was launched in November 2023. We’ve designed it so it’s simple for our employees to use and feedback. We look forward to measuring our employees’ engagement and driving organisationwide improvements based on the data and insights we collect.

Worked

Implemented

hard to develop the right culture to support our transformation and fulfil our new strategy. This involved looking at our organisation’s values and understanding how our everyday behaviours can help us live those values in all we do. To facilitate this, we produced a wide range of new learning resources and ran values behaviours workshops that were attended by most staff.

a new and robust approach to project management to make sure we can successfully deliver our ambitious transformation plans on time and in budget. We’ve created a specialist data team to build new insights and analytics for our member offering. We’ve also refocused our business support structure to work in a more agile way.

Recognised

Developed

the importance of feedback in developing and supporting our culture. We developed a new approach to performance appraisal and giving and receiving quality feedback to create a values-led and thriving culture.

an exciting new digital strategy. Our investment in this area has allowed us to improve our technology performance and invest in digital platforms to improve the member experience.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report – Build Up

Key Performance Indicators

During the year, we invested in data and insights capabilities. Our new data analyst specialist team began to develop our data hub, which will help us to track our KPIs in-year and against previous periods.

The following dashboards were under construction during the period:

Sustainability matters at RCOT

We’ve undertaken work to understand how sustainability impacts our members and we’ve made a number of resources available to our members, including sustainability features in February, June, and September’s edition of OTnews .

Phase 1 (Developed)

The pandemic enforced working from home for all RCOT staff and the subsequent introduction of flexible working meant that our fourstorey London headquarters, had been significantly underused since 2020.

As it’s important that we make the most of all our investments and assets, Council agreed that we should explore options to consider how to make the most of the building. At their meeting in September 2022, Council agreed that we should refurbish four floors for commercial rental and remodel the ground floor to accommodate flexible working for staff.

Our vision was to undertake a sustainably sourced, environment-friendly and accessible refurbishment of all floors. To ensure the project had sustainability at its heart, excess equipment and furniture were sold to raise funds for the re-fit or recycled. Some desks and chairs were donated to the charity Waste to Wonder, which offers desks and equipment to schools in less developed countries.

The space for RCOT would be a hot-desking, open-plan environment. We have retained one out of five available floors for our operating activities, and plan to use the rest of the building as an income generating asset, primarily for rental and letting activities.

Making climate-friendly improvements Materials in the re-fit were consciously chosen to be sustainable. This included: flooring made of brick, wood, cork and Marmoleum (an organic/non-oil-based flooring) sliding room dividers made from wool organic materials in the building, such as timber, being sustainably sourced.

We also installed solar panels. The power that they provide will lower our carbon footprint, and the cash saved should pay for the cost of installation within 10 years. And we replaced old fluorescent lights with more energy-efficient LEDs. Through these changes, we’ve improved the energy rating of the building from a low D to a high B.

We are confident that our initial investment of £2.1 million will be paid back through rental income in the future. The property in its transformed state is valued at £7m, producing an unrealised gain of £3.6m on valuation.

Council and SLT dashboard – contain KPIs which SLT discuss and monitor monthly and presented to Council. Hero KPI dashboard – developed based on input from colleagues across 15 data workshops exploring how we can measure our core activities.

Phase 2 (In progress)

Member dashboard – contains member specific KPIs which are routinely monitored. Finance dashboard – a financial management tool for budget holders to be able to monitor and control performance against budget.

The above data transformation will unlock our ability to be able to report against our KPIs in the coming year.

Sustainability was a key feature in the redesign of our office, and we continue to look at ways to reduce the energy impact of the building. Our new investment strategy will ensure that we only invest in funds that support our sustainability values.

We are also putting together a longer-term plan to help us understand how we can measure our carbon footprint and help us to plan the journey to achieve carbon net zero.

There’s a misconception that accessible spaces mean a clinical look. A gold standard design is about pleasing aesthetics and being inclusive without appearing clinical. So, our designers worked in the shapes, colours and fixtures of the 1960s, honouring the building’s original construction era, without losing accessible features.”

Lauren Walker (she/her) Occupational Therapist and RCOT Professional Advisor

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Strategic report

What we’ll do next – 2023–2024

processes and using the benefits of digital technology.

As we strive to rise up, open up, lift up and build up, we’ll focus on eight strategic priorities for the year ahead.

Launch and implement our Workforce Strategy and nation specific implementation plans to grow and position the profession for 2035.
Launch an ambitious new growth strategy, that identifies priorities for short-term action as well as setting out the long-term plans to achieve our growth targets over the next 12 months and beyond.
Work with the colleague forum to deliver projects and activities that enable us to become a highperforming organisation with the right staff structure, skills, technology, and processes.
Create a compelling, innovative new member offer that will engage and excite our members as well as support our growth targets, ensuring a particular focus on growing our student membership.
Launch our Equity, Diversity and Belonging Strategy and start delivering on our action plan, making sure that the occupational therapy profession is well equipped to serve and support an increasingly diverse population.
Design a new model for member engagement and develop and implement a plan to transition away from our existing engagement structures and groups.
Deliver projects that strengthen our governance model including implementing the first phase of our governance review, updating key policies and procedures and streamlining our relationship with UNISON.
Deliver projects that create a highquality member experience with a shared vision, streamlined member journeys, improved practice and

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Principle risks and uncertainties

Principal risks and uncertainties

We recognise that delivering our strategy involves risk. Some of these risks come from the external environment we operate in.

and RCOT, assessing their likely impact and likelihood and the risk mitigations employed to manage such risks.

The following risks and uncertainties are the most critical ones facing the organisation at this moment.

Other risks are those that we consider part of a ‘positive risk taking’ culture, which means that we will consciously engage with some risks to embrace change or embark on new opportunities that will help us successfully achieve our ambitions.

The AIR Committee reports to Council at least annually on risk management. Council has reviewed these reports and takes responsibility for ensuring that all appropriate measures are implemented as business priorities. Because of the regular and highly diversified income streams, RCOT does not actively use financial instruments (lines of credit, factoring, currency hedging) as part of its financial risk management.

We incorporate the management of risk into our decision-making processes, including functional management and project management. We also view effective risk management as an opportunity to improve the way we work and something that is vital to achieving our vision for members and the wider profession.

RCOT is exposed to the usual contract, credit and cash flow risks associated with providing its goods and services. It manages these risks through its contract management, internal control procedures, cash flow monitoring and Risk Register.

The Audit, Investment and Risk Committee (AIR Committee) has lead responsibility for monitoring the major risks across BAOT

We may fail to demonstrate our relevance or value to members and see a decline in membership. Our members’ needs are changing. We must be responsive to these changing needs by providing a membership offer that enhances and supports the diverse professional journeys of occupational therapists, and those of the wider occupational therapy community while delivering high standards of member care in all interactions. The value provided by our membership offer is even more critical in a cost-of-living crisis.

We may have insufficient income to deliver our strategic ambitions and/or cover rising operating costs.

Overall income (primarily from fees) may not increase fast enough to cover increasing operating costs and committed strategic spend. We have invested heavily in the building to deliver rental income which leaves us open to the risk that we may not be able to fill the space in line with projected timescales.

We may fail to deliver on the strategic priorities we have promised our members.

Our ability to deliver on our strategy could be threatened by inefficient strategic planning, insufficient resources, poor prioritisation or failure to provide staff with the tools they need to deliver.

We may fail to develop and embed the culture we need to set the organisation up for success.

We have brought in new staff with specialist skills but our ability to retain them may be affected by lack of development and pay progression opportunities. We may be too slow to respond to cultural change in terms of employee expectations or workplaces or we may fail to take staff with us on our change journey.

Our governance may hinder us achieving our ambitions.

We have a complex governance structure that is hindering our ability to provide a strong unified voice representing the occupational therapy community and we lack diversity of expertise. This means the governance role as critical friend to management is stronger in relation to some functions of the organisation than others.

We have embarked on a holistic review of all aspects of the membership offer to make sure it is meaningful and offers real value to members. To support this work we launched a wide-ranging member survey which will help shape the new member offer. Our membership strategy is a standing item on the Council agenda and subject to detailed reporting.

In 2023 we did not increase our member fees to reduce the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on our members.

We have implemented tighter regulation of expenditure and improved financial controls, as well as baking in prudency in the budgeting process. An internal membership growth group has been created and has set strong membership growth targets and acquisition plans. At the time of writing this report the building remained unoccupied. SLT are taking mitigating actions to look at new avenues for securing tenants. Currently our investments are reinvested back into the portfolio. There has been no reason to draw down on the dividends for operational use. We can revisit this approach in the short term to cover any shortfall.

We have a dedicated Strategy, Technology and Transformation directorate to oversee the delivery of our strategic priorities and reporting to Council on these. We have implemented a new project management framework, with in-house expertise, to support successful delivery of our strategic projects. And we’ve developed new joint working practices between SLT and Heads to agree clear priorities for each quarter.

We have implemented working together agreements and have started to embed a performance management culture whereby staff have greater clarity about what is expected and support to help them to deliver.

We have commissioned an external review of pay and benefits, and we provide EAP support and private health insurance. We’ve introduced Mental Health First Aiders.

We want our governance to provide a strong foundation for the organisation’s success. So Council is leading on a wide-ranging governance review that seeks to optimise our governance to support delivery of the strategic ambitions. The review will seek to: reduce complexity; improve transparency; bring in a wider range of skills; reduce risk; strengthen decisionmaking and provide a foundation for a stronger RCOT voice. As part of this, Council have agreed to seek additional expertise to supplement the expertise brought by our OT Council members.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Structure, governance and management

Legal status

The Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) is a charitable company limited by shares registered in England and Wales (company no. 01347374) and a charity registered in England and Wales (no. 275119) and in Scotland (no. SC039573). The company’s registered office is Phoenix House, 106-114 Borough High Street, London SE1 1LB.

RCOT is the subsidiary of The British Association of Occupational Therapists Limited (BAOT) (company no. 00392350), which is the sole shareholder and member. BAOT is the professional association and trade union for occupational therapists in the United Kingdom (UK).

Council

Role and responsibilities

Council is the RCOT’s governing body, with Council members being both company directors and trustees. It is responsible for the charity’s mission, values, and its overall governance and strategic direction. Council meets a minimum of four times a year and is responsible for ensuring that the charity meets its legal and regulatory obligations in the course of fulfilling its charitable purpose. In 2022–2023 Council met six times.

As the governing body of a membership organisation, Council is committed to transparency and accountability in decisionmaking. The minutes of each Council meeting are published on RCOT’s website (behind the member paywall), as is a video interview between the Chair and Chief Executive reflecting on the most recent Council meeting.

All members of Council are professional members of BAOT. Council members are volunteers and are not paid for their work but may claim reasonable expenses incurred through attending meetings or carrying out other duties.

Further details of all our Council members can be found on our website: rcot.co.uk/rcotcouncil

Recruitment, appointment and induction

The composition, appointment, election and retirement of Council members are governed by the charity’s Articles of Association and the Council Rules. All Council members are elected by the company members of BAOT for a three-year term, starting from the date of the Annual General Meeting. The Council consists of nine members with the following

roles: Chair; Council members from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; Research and Development; Learning and Development; Industrial Relations and International Affairs. Further details of our Council members can be found on our website: rcot.co.uk/rcotcouncil

We provide an induction for all new Council members, which includes all of the formal documents about the governance of RCOT, together with relevant Charity Commission publications and other general guidance about the management and administration of the organisation. They also attend 121s with the Chair, CEO and SLT to learn more about the organisation, its management and governance.

Council members attend an annual

development day and ongoing training as needed. The planned People and Nominations Committee will have oversight of ensuring Council’s induction and ongoing training needs are met.

Audit, Investment and Risk Committee

The Audit, Investment and Risk Committee has lead responsibility from the Council for: ensuring that there is a framework for accountability; implementing the investment policy and overseeing the charity’s investments; for reviewing all systems and methods of control, compliance, and risk management. The Committee comprises a mix of Council members and other serving independent members who are recruited because of their professional and functional expertise. The Audit, Investment and Risk Committee met four times in 2022–2023.

Three new committee members were appointed in September 2023, with expertise in finance, investment and governance.

During 2022–2023 the Committee oversaw the tender process and appointment of new auditors.

Governance review

As RCOT works towards its ambitious strategy it is essential that this work takes place from a secure governance foundation. Decision-making, expertise, assurance and compliance must be robust to support ambitious projects and to reduce the organisation’s exposure to risk. The following is a summary version of the objectives the BAOT and RCOT Councils have agreed for the review.

Both organisation’s corporate governance is optimised to support the delivery of the organisation’s strategic ambitions and complexity within the governance structure is reduced wherever possible and desirable.

Our governance has the appropriate balance of skills, experience and knowledge to provide a strong strategic vision for the organisation and effective challenge and scrutiny of the organisation’s management.

We have designed, documented and implemented the structures, policies and processes to optimise our corporate governance and demonstrate good practice. This includes: demonstrating we understand the legal and governance framework in which we operate; having a framework which supports the distinct natures of BAOT and RCOT; clear accountability, responsibility and robust decision-making; documented and effective delegation; and appropriate management and documentation of conflicts of interests.

Our governance enables us to continue to build on the RCOT brand and reduces the risk of dilution across and confusion between the RCOT and BAOT names.

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RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Structure, governance and management

The RCOT brand is central to achieving our vision and broader strategy, particularly around raising the profile and building an understanding of the profession.

Our membership has clarity, confidence and a strong voice in our governance. Members understand and know how to exercise their member rights.

We create a culture that supports the skills and behaviours needed for governance to thrive. This is about transparency, valuing healthy challenge and having a desire to learn from mistakes.

As part of the review, during 2022–2023 the BAOT and RCOT Councils have: established a Project Board which comprises three members of Council, including the Chair, members of senior management and an external legal adviser; decided the scope of the governance review; appointed governance and legal expertise to support the review; and, agreed the priority aims for 2024, including establishing a new People and Nominations Committee.

Fundraising

RCOT does not actively fundraise but does periodically bid for research funding on a modest scale. No donations were received during the year.

Key management personnel

The Council delegates operational planning and day-to-day management of the charity to the chief executive, supported by our Senior Leadership Team and staff. The Council oversees the chief executive’s performance through reports and briefings. The Chair of Council carries out the chief executive’s formal appraisal annually, on behalf of Council.

The Council approves proposals regarding the salary and benefits of the chief executive and senior leadership team.

On an annual basis we externally market assess our CEO and SLT salaries using reward specialists who carry out this review using a number of data insight tools (personalised salary benchmarking, best practice reward insights and candidate trend analysis). The roles are benchmarked against the not-for-profit market, in and around London and the transformational skills and expertise required to deliver RCOT’s strategy.

The planned People and Nominations Committee will have responsibility for reviewing CEO and senior leadership team salaries going forward.

The Senior Leadership Team regularly review their effectiveness as a successful cohesive team and build on opportunities to continuously evolve and improve. This has included executive coaching and team development sessions to drive the organisation forward.

Policies

Investment policy

Under the terms of the Memorandum of Association, RCOT has the power to invest funds not immediately required to support charitable activities. The current Investments Policy, outlines parameters for ethical, social and governance investing as well as guidelines on risk and return. The policy target returns of CPI + 2% from the investment portfolio which was agreed in December 2021.

RCOT’s primary investments portfolio (managed by Close Brothers LLP) is a diversified portfolio of investments, typically including fixed-term income products and equities. The returns from the investments

Reserves policy

were reinvested back into the portfolio during the year. The current policy is under review to align the policy with the five-year strategy of the business. Future returns from the portfolio will be utilised towards operating activities.

At the October 2021 Council Meeting, the Reserves Policy was amended to retain sufficient general reserves (excluding fixed asset balances) to fund a minimum of 26 weeks (approx. 6 months) of future budgeted expenditure. This is to cover the financial implications of a significant and or permanent reduction in income. 26 weeks of future budgeted expenditure for 2023-24 has been identified as £6.2m.

During the period, the portfolio performed better than its bespoke Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA) and ARC Peer Group since inception primarily due to strong performances in 2019 and 2020

(see table below). However, the portfolio has underperformed its benchmarks in 2023 has the market has been in recovery during the period.

Council is supported by the Audit, investment, and risks committee (AIRC) to review the reserves and investment policy. The current policy is under review to align the policy with the five-year strategy of the business.

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Performance to 30 September 2023 % Differential
2023 Year to date (September 23)
RCOT -1.42%
Bespoke SAA Benchmark +0.82% -0.40%
ARC Charity Balanced +1.79% -3.21%
2023 Year to date (October 23)
RCOT -2.30%
ARC Charity Balanced -0.70% -1.60%
Since Inception (2018) to September 2023
RCOT +24.85%
Bespoke SAA Benchmark +15.71% +9.14%
ARC Charity Composite +22.84% +2.01%
1 Year to September 2023
RCOT +0.95%
Bespoke SAA Benchmark +5.53% -4.58%
ARC Charity Balanced +4.39% -3.44%
3 Years to September 2023
RCOT +0.34%
Bespoke SAA Benchmark +5.01% -4.67%
ARC Charity Composite +10.98% -10.64%
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RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Financial review

Financial review

The trustees present the results for RCOT for the year 2022–2023. The financial statements covering the period from 01 October 2022 to 30 September 2023 are presented on page 80 to 99.

Despite challenging market conditions, our investments held their value during the year; breaking even compared to significant losses in the prior year (2022: £0.61m). Notably, our freehold building appreciated in value, delivering an unrealised gain on valuation of £3.2m (2022: £Nil).

The above produced a net surplus in funds for the year of £1.2m against a loss of £1.3m at the end of 30 September 2022.

During the year, we set out our five-year financial strategy as we embarked on a transformation journey; investing in our infrastructure, building asset and our people to deliver the biggest impact for our members and for the OT profession. The result for the year provides a strong foundation towards achieving our plan.

Despite high inflationary pressures and economic uncertainty, our total income climbed by 6%, reaching £9m (2022: £8.5m). We increased our total charitable expenditure by 10% to £10m (2022: £9.2m), and a further £0.97m was allocated to raising funds (2022: £Nil). These results produced an overall net expenditure position of £2.02m (2022: £0.66m).

Financial performance (snapshot):

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Unrestricted Designated Restricted 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Total income 8,670 350 - 9,020 8,496
Total charitable
(9,466) (342) (266) (10,074) (9,156)
expenditure
- -
Raising funds (88) (881) (969)
Net operating result (884) (873) (266) (2,023) (660)
Gains (losses) on in- - - - -
(614)
vestment assets
Gains (losses) on in- - - -
3,239 3,239
vestment property
Transfer between funds 2,833 (2,833) - - -
Net movement in
5,188 (3,706) (266) 1,216 (1,274)
funds for the year
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Income

Our income also grew through a combination of delivery of services and other charitable activities. Specifically, delegate and sponsorship income for the conferences and events held during the year which increased to £0.14m (2022: £0.12m). Furthermore, our publications (including BJOT (British Journal of Occupational Therapy) and OTnews (monthly magazine)) also attracted increases of £0.07m in royalty income and advertising revenue. Income in this area is a combined total of £0.69m (2022: £0.63m). RCOT investment portfolio produced a return of £0.18m (2022: £0.10m) for the year, whilst other activities, including professional practice and innovation activities increased to £0.54m combined, (£2022: £0.45m).

Total income for the year was £9m (2022: £8.5m). The main factors behind the 6%, £0.5m improvement is illustrated in the chart below, as seen on page 66.

During the year, RCOT received funding from BAOT (the Parent company). The funding makes up 83% of total income for the year and is provided to further the work of RCOT. After fulfilling its trade union duties through its standing agreement with UNISON, BAOT transfers the balance of member subscription to RCOT. The value of the transfer grew by £0.27m due to a 2% increase in membership in the year, the transfer from BAOT amounted to £7.5m (2022: £7.2m).

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Financial review

Total expenditure on charitable activities by type £’000

Total income: £9m (2022: £8.5m)

Total income by type

----- Start of picture text -----
2%
15%
83%
Transfer from BAOT
Others (services)
2022 incomeBAOT transfersBJOT & OTnewsInvestments gainsConferences & events Others2023 income
£8.496 million £268,000 £9,020 million
£84,000 £85,000
£66,000
£21,000
----- End of picture text -----

----- Start of picture text -----
Transfer from BAOT
Others (services)
Investments
----- End of picture text -----

Expenditure

help us achieve our strategic ambitions. This increased our capacity to deliver more impact through our charitable activities, allocating more resource than in the previous year, (see note 5).

Total expenditure on charitable and other activities during the year was £11m (2022: £9.2m), an increase of 21%, £1.9m. The performance is made up of the following:

The chart on the following page illustrates the spend on charitable activities during the year.

Charitable activities spending increased to £10.1m (see note 2), an increase of £0.92m on the 30 September 2022 spend of £9.2m.

Spend on other activities relating to raising funds amounted to £0.97m (2022: £Nil), contributing a slight increase in overall spend. The main factors contributing to the increase in spend are detailed below.

We allocated £3.5m (2022: £4.5m) towards the delivery of professional practice and innovation. In the year we developed policies and carried out research that continues to improve professional practice and promote innovation in the OT profession. The spend in this area allowed us to deliver our workforce survey report which informed on the pressures in the profession. We also continued to partner with over 50 higher education institutions providing accreditation and standards services.

During the year, we invested in the delivery of charitable activities with the aim to continue to provide value for our members and deliver for the OT profession. We increased our workforce to bring in the necessary skills and expertise required to

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 (£10,074) 2022 (£9,156)
£4,458
£3,477
£4,298
£3,107
£1,283
£1,016
£997
£594
+ £3,704 + £19 - £1,824 - £981
Member services Journals and Conferences Professional practice
and support publications and events and Innovation
----- End of picture text -----

Spend on raising funds of £0.97m (2022: £Nil) relates to recognition of the final liability of the pensions scheme buyout of £0.88m which was settled post the reporting period, see note 8. An additional £0.09m of spend is a combination of building overheads and other management fees incurred in the delivery of rental activities which commenced in the year and investment management fees.

Our conferences and events were mostly held virtually during the year; cost in this area fell to £1.3m (2022: £3.1m) as a result.

Production, distribution, and editorial cost of our publications including BJOT and OTnews was relatively in line with spend in the previous year at £1.02m (2022: £1m).

Member services and support activities include membership engagement and insights, support for our OT communities as well as administration of membership subscription. These activities have seen the biggest increase in allocation of funding compared to the previous year, £4.3m (2022: £0.59m). With this we continue to deliver benefits for our members.

Reserves

Overall reserves increased by £1.2m to £15.6m (2022: £14.4m), a 8% increase. The chart below illustrates the factors responsible for the movement in reserves for the year.

Note: charitable spend includes support costs which are apportioned across the various charitable activities (see note 3). These costs (amounting to £2.9m (2022: £3.3m), a reduction of £0.4m) supports the delivery and management of charitable activities and projects.

The reserves movement relates mostly to net expenditure across unrestricted, restricted, and designated activities of £2.02m (2022: £0.66m), offset by an unrealised gain on revaluation of the investment property of £3.2m (2022: £ Nil).

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Financial review

Closing reserves £15.6m (2022: £14.4m)

2022 Closing Reserves Net restricted spend Net Unrestricted losses Gains on property Net designated spend 2023 Closing Reserves £3.24m £15.6m £14.41m -£884,000 -£873,000 -£266,000

Unrestricted funds

investment portfolio market value was £4.3m (2022: £4.4m). During the year, short-term investments were held, managed by Rathbones. The portfolio, starting at £4m were invested in short term equity bonds to facilitate a pre-agreed drawdown arrangement according to cashflow requirements. At the end of the year the value of the portfolio was £0.53m.

RCOT unrestricted funds amounted to £12.1m (2022: £6.9m), an increase of £5.2m, made up of the following:

General funds increased to £8.9m (2022: £6.9m) in the year. This reserve includes fixed assets with a net book value of £1.6m. Adjusting for this, the current position results is a free reserves position of £7.3m (2022: £5.6m), £1.1m above the minimum policy level agreed of 6 months (26 weeks) of future budgeted expenditure.

Designated reserves

RCOT designated reserves fell to £3.5m (2022: £6m). Main activities within the designated reserves during the year are made up of the following:

Following the building project investments during the year, the value of the building asset appreciated to £7m. The unrealised gains derived from valuation amounted to £3.2m and are reflected in the revaluation reserves.

The building project fund was designated to support our building transformation project in 2022. The project is vital to RCOT commercial strategy to diversify income by transforming our building asset into a viable commercial space with the view to generate commercial rental income and concluded

RCOT investments are also represented within its general reserves. The total

Closing reserves composition 2023: £15.6m

----- Start of picture text -----
General funds Pension scheme
Revaluation reserves Restricted reserves
(property)
Total reserves
Designated reserves
2023 2022 2023 2023 2022 2023 2022 2023 2022 2023 2022
£15.6m
£14.41m
£8.89m
£6.94m
£6.02m
£3.24m
£3.47m
£1.16m
£0 £28,000 £294,000
----- End of picture text -----

in the period. Total invested on the project amounted to £1.9m. In September 2023 the Trustees decided to un-designate £0.25m from the building fund to general reserves.

The pensions scheme reserves are held towards final settlement of the defined benefit pensions scheme liability previously valued at £1.2m. A final settlement of £0.88m has been confirmed and the liability recognised in the period, settlement of which took place early 2024. Given the designated funds held towards this liability is in excess of the settlement amount, the remainder of the fund is therefore transferred back to the general funds.

The transformation fund is designated for the delivery of transformation projects identified as strategic priority. In the year, £0.11m of the funds were utilised for the organisation design project, digital and systems transformation, EDB project and Governance review. In September 2023 the Trustees decided to transfer £0.50m from the transformation fund to general reserves.

Other designated funds had no movement in the year.

College Branches are funds held for the purpose of supporting the activities of RCOT specialist sections and regional groups. These activities produced a small surplus of £0.16m, bringing the balance of the fund to £1.06m (2022: £0.90m).

Note: the trustees have taken into consideration the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit in allocating RCOT reserves to identified strategic priority projects.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Financial review

Restricted reserves

The RCOT restricted reserves fell to £0.03m (2022: £0.29m). This is mostly due to project delivery spend towards the NHS Health Education England funded projects; Neonatal £0.05m and AHP Workforce Reform £0.25m which concluded in the year.

Furthermore, we awarded a total of £0.16m in grants in the year. ISP awards were granted to occupational therapy research, a total of £0.08m. A further £0.08m was awarded to members who were affected by the 2023 cost-of-living crisis through the hardship funds.

Other restricted funds held had no movement in the year.

review process to assess the viability of each project before they are approved.

In line with the investment policy review in the year and the proposed target return of CPI+3% from the portfolio, in the coming year we will kick off a tender process for the acquisition of investment fund managers that will support the Trustees with managing the investment portfolio and delivering this strategic aim.

Future fee changes are also likely (member fee structure simplification and fee changes), but we expect that such changes will partner with membership offer improvements.

Plans for future periods

The result for the year delivers a strong foundation by which we can build on over the next five years. Council approved the growth plan ambition in our five-year strategy in September 2023. We have started to implement the strategy.

During the year we allocated funds from the transformation fund to our strategic priorities. We have identified some systems and infrastructure improvements that will deliver value for our members. Most of these projects were in their initial scoping phase during the year. We expect most of the identified project to go-live in the 2024 period. We have developed and implemented a robust business case

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Statement of Council members’ (trustees’) responsibilities

Statement of Council members’ (trustees’) responsibilities

Council are the charity trustees (who are also the company directors of Royal College of Occupational Therapists) and are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report, strategic report and 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 that give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that period.

make judgements and estimates that are both prudent and reasonable.
state whether applicable UK
Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any 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 charity will continue in business.

The trustees are responsible for keeping accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy the financial position of the charitable company at any time and which enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and the provisions of the charity’s constitution.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are required to:

select suitable accountancy policies and then apply them consistently
observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP

The trustees are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence take all reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and any other irregularities.

Financial statements are published on the charity’s website in accordance with legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements, which may vary from legislation in other jurisdictions. The maintenance and integrity of the charity’s website is the responsibility of the Council members (trustees). The Council members’ (trustees’) responsibility also extends to the ongoing integrity of the financial statements contained therein.

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

Statement as to disclosure to our auditors

In so far as the trustees are aware at the time of approving our trustees’ annual report:

A) there is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company’s Auditor is unaware.

B) the trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make them aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the Auditor is aware of such information.

The Trustees’ Report and the Strategic Report was approved by the Council (Board of Trustees) and authorised for issue on 17 April 2024

Odeth Richardson Chair of Council

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Independent auditor’s report

Independent auditor’s report

to the members and trustees of Royal College of Occupational Therapists

In our opinion the financial statements:

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Royal College of Occupational Therapists for the year ended 30 September 2023 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet, the Cash Flow Statement and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company’s affairs as at 30 September 2023 and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended.
have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.
have been prepared in

accordance with the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (as amended), regulations 6 and 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and the Charities Act 2011.

Basis for opinion

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

Conclusions relating to going concern

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

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

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

Other information

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

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

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

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

The information given in the trustees’ annual report for the financial year

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Independent auditor’s report

for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements. The trustees’ annual report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the trustees’ annual report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Companies Act 2006, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and the Charities Act 2011 require us to report to you if, in our opinion:

the charitable company has not kept adequate and sufficient accounting records, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

the charitable company’s 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; or

the trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies regime and take advantage of the small companies exemption in preparing the Trustees’ Annual Report and from preparing a strategic report.

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement, 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

We have been appointed as auditor under Section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Companies Act 2006 and Section 151 of the Charities Act 2011 and report to you in accordance with regulations made under those Acts.

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

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

Explanation as to what extent the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud

The objectives of our audit in respect of fraud, are; to identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements due to fraud; to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding the assessed risks of material misstatement due to fraud, through designing and implementing appropriate responses to those assessed risks; and to respond appropriately to instances of fraud

or suspected fraud identified during the audit. However, the primary responsibility for the prevention and detection of fraud rests with both management and those charged with governance of the charitable company.

Our approach was as follows:

We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory requirements applicable to the charitable company and considered that the most significant are the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (as amended), regulations 6 and 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended), the Charities Act 2011, the Charity SORP, and UK financial reporting standards as issued by the Financial Reporting Council.

We obtained an understanding of how the charitable company complies with these requirements by discussions with management.

We assessed the risk of material misstatement of the financial statements, including the risk of material misstatement due to fraud and how it might occur, by holding discussions with management.

We inquired of management and those charged with governance as to any known instances of non-compliance or suspected non-compliance with laws and regulations.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Independent auditor’s report

Based on this understanding, we designed specific appropriate audit procedures to identify instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. This included making enquiries of management and obtaining additional corroborative evidence as required.

As part of an audit in accordance with ISAs (UK) we exercise professional judgement and maintain professional scepticism throughout the audit.

• Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.

Obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purposes of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the charitable company’s internal control.
Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by the trustees.
Conclude on the appropriateness of the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based

on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor’s report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor’s report. However, future events or conditions may cause the charitable company to cease to continue as a going concern.

• Evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation.

We communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006; and to the charity’s trustees, as a body, in accordance with Section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, and in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 8 of

the Charities Act 2011. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members and trustees those matters which 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 any party other than the charitable company, the charitable company’s members, as a body, and the charity’s trustees, as a body for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinion we have formed.

Jonathan Aikens

(Senior Statutory Auditor) for and on behalf of Moore Kingston Smith LLP, Statutory Auditor 6th Floor 9 Appold Street London EC2A 2AP Date: 23 May 2024

Moore Kingston Smith LLP is eligible to act as auditor in terms of Section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Financial statement

Financial statement

Statement of financial activities (incorporating the income and expenditure account) for the year ended 30 September 2023

----- Start of picture text -----
Unrestricted Designated Restricted Total Total
Incoming and funds funds funds 2023 2022
endowments from: Note £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Charitable activities
Member services
7,147 324 - 7,471 7,203
and support
Journals and
694 - - 694 628
publications
Conferences
115 26 - 141 120
and events
Professional practice 501 - - 501 168
and innovation
8,457 350 - 8,807 8,119
Investment income 179 - - 179 95
Other income 34 - - 34 282
Total 8,670 350 - 9,020 8,496
----- End of picture text -----

----- Start of picture text -----
Unrestricted Designated Restricted Total Total
funds funds funds 2023 2022
Expenditure on: Note £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Charitable activities
Member services
4,030 268 - 4,298 594
and support
Journals and publications 1,016 - - 1,016 997
Conferences and events 1,249 34 - 1,283 3,107
Professional practice and
3,171 40 266 3,477 4,458
innovation
2 9,466 342 266 10,074 9,156
Raising Funds
Investment management fee 28 - - 28 -
Rental activities 60 - - 60 -
Pensions buyout cost 8 - 881 - 881 -
Total 9,554 1,223 266 11,043 9,156
Loss on investments assets 11 - - - - (614)
Gain on investment property 12 3,239 - - 3,239 -
Net (expenditure)/
2,355 (873) (266) 1,216 (1,274)
income
Transfer between funds 17 2,833 (2,833) - - -
Net movement in funds: 5,188 (3,706) (266) 1,216 (1,274)
Reconciliation of funds
Total funds brought forward at
6,939 7,173 294 14,406 15,680
1 October
Total fund carried
forward at 30 18 12,127 3,467 28 15,622 14,406
September
----- End of picture text -----

All amounts derive from continuing activities. All gains and losses in the year were recognised in the statement of financial activities.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Financial statement

Balance sheet as at September 2023

Cash flow statement for the year ended 30 September 2023

Companies House Number 01347374

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2023 2022 2022
Note £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Fixed assets
Tangible assets 10 - 1,548 - 1,351
Investments 11 - 4,908 - 4,337
Investment property 12 - 5,000 - -
- -
11,456 5,688
Current assets
Debtors 13 2,062 - 3,107 -
Cash held as liquid 20 1,771 - 1,738 -
investment
Cash at bank and in hand 20 2,119 - 5,190 -
- -
5,952 10,035
Creditors
Amount falling due 14 (1,786) - (1,317) -
within one year
Net current assets - 4,166 - 8,718
Net assets 18 - 15,622 - 14,406
Share Capital 15 - - - -
Funds
Restricted 16 - 28 - 294
Designated
Pension Scheme 17 - - - 1,156
Other 17 - 3,467 - 6,017
Unrestricted - 12,127 - 6,939
- -
Capital and reserves 15,622 14,406
----- End of picture text -----

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2022
Note £’000 £’000
Net cash (outflow)/inflow used in operating activities (561) (2,523)
Cash flows from investing activities:
Investment income 179 95
Amounts paid to acquire investments (6,350) (1,948)
Amounts received from disposal of investments 5,939 6,268
Amount paid to acquire tangible fixed assets (2,060) (109)
-
Additions to investment property (24)
Net cash from investment activities (2,316) (4,306)
Change in cash and cash equivalents for the year
(2,877) 1,783
ended 30 September
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of
7,143 5,360
the reporting period
Cash and cash equivalents for the year ended 30 September 20 4,266 7,143
Reconciliation of net income to net cash flow
from operating activities
Net surplus/(loss) at 30 September as per the SOFA 1,216 (1,274)
Adjustments for:
Depreciation 117 176
Loss on disposal of fixed assets 8 -
Investment income (179) (95)
(Increase)/decrease in debtors 1,045 (2,145)
Increase/(decrease) in creditors 471 201
Gain on investments - 614
-
Gain on investment property (3,239)
Net cash used in operating activities (561) (2,523)
----- End of picture text -----

Approved by Council and authorised for issue on 17 April 2024

Odeth Richardson Dr Kee Hean Lim Chair of Council Vice Chair of Council

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Notes to the financial statements

Notes to the financial statements

number of BAOT members amounted to 35,828 (2022: 35,118).

1. Principle accounting policies

RCOT has identified the need to develop its commercial strategy with the aim to improve the financial resilience of the business and lessen the reliance on BAOT transfers. This includes

In the opinion of Council these financial statements comply with Financial Reporting Standard 102 (FRS 102).

a) Basis of accounting

implementing a new investment strategy to deliver growth in yield generated from the held investment portfolio. The Charity’s only significant liability is the defined benefit scheme (closed in 2014), and is fully funded at a final valued amount of £0.88m, and was settled early 2024, see note 8.

The financial statements of RCOT have been prepared on the going concern basis under the historical cost convention, as modified by the valuation of fixed asset investments and in accordance with applicable Accounting Standards having regard to the Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102), effective 1st January 2019, Companies Act 2006 and Charity and Trustees Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.

The Council, as trustees of RCOT, confirm that there are no material uncertainties about the company’s ability to continue as going concern. The Council also confirms that there is adequate levels of resources available to continue in operational existence for at least 12 months from the signing the financial statements.

The financial statements are prepared in Sterling, which is th functional currency of the company and the reported amounts have been rounded to the nearest £’000.

c) Income

All income is derived from activities within the United Kingdom and is accounted for on a receivable basis, with the exception of membership subscriptions and donations, which are accounted for when received.

b) Going concern

Transfers from BAOT remains the main source of funding for the charitable activities of RCOT. In the year, this accounted for 83% of income. This funding which increased by £0.27m in the year largely due to a 2% increase in membership subscription and is expected to continue to grow in coming years. At 30 September 2023 the

Of the total membership subscriptions received by BAOT, 21% (2022: 19%) is retained to meet its industrial relations and administrative costs. The balance 79% (2022: 81%) is transferred to RCOT to support its charitable activities. Where entitlement to income is dependent upon fulfilment of

conditions within RCOT’s control, the incoming resources are recognised when there is sufficient evidence that conditions have been met. Where there is uncertainty as to whether RCOT has met such conditions, or the funder clearly states that the funding is for next financial year, then the income is deferred.

d) Expenditure

The cost of RCOT’s charitable activities have been grouped under the following main headings:

Membership services and support – previously ‘membership administration’, are cost associated with providing member engagement and insights, member communities, including collection and administration of membership subscription.
Journals and publications – previously ‘journals’, are costs associated with communicating with members, whether centrally or regionally or whether in hard copy or electric format. This costs largely represents the production and editorial cost of BJOT and OTNews magazine.
Conferences and events – these cost relate to the organisation, promotion and administration of events
Professional practice and innovation – previously ‘professional activities’ are costs within the areas of research and development, education and provision of professional practice activities.

Direct expenditure are allocated to each of these categories of activity. Where expenditure cannot be directly allocated it represents support costs and is

apportioned on a basis consistent with the use of resources – by reference to the number of full-time-equivalent members of staff.

Governance and general administration costs represents the costs associated with the governance arrangement of RCOT, including costs related to the strategic (as opposed to operational) management of RCOT’s activities. These cost are also included in support cost and apportioned as above.

e) Fixed assets and depreciation

Fixed Assets with cost of £1,000 or greater are capitalised (capitalisation threshold) and are stated in the Balance Sheet at net book value, being cost less accumulated depreciation and any related impairment.

Depreciation is provided at rates that are calculated to write off the cost of each asset, on a straight-line basis (evenly), over its estimated useful life. Rates for the different categories are as follows:

RCOT premises 2% per annum on cost

Fixtures and 10% fittings per annum on cost Office 20% equipment per annum on cost IT equipment 33.33% per annum on cost

Freehold land is not depreciated. RCOT premises combines two previously held asset class (freehold premises and building improvement). RCOT premises will be carried at cost and depreciated.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Notes to the financial statements

Phoenix House, the Head Quarters of RCOT is located at 106-114 Borough High Street, London. The freehold building was previously held at net book value in the balance sheet. The building is now primarily held for RCOT charitable activities and for the purpose of carrying out rental activities. The building is now represented in the balance sheet between fixed asset (RCOT premises) and investment property (see note ‘g’ below).

RCOT premises represents the floor area used to carry out RCOT activities and it’s shared communal area.

f) Investments

Investments are included in the Balance Sheet at latest market value at the post balance sheet date. Any unrealised gains or losses are included in the Income and Expenditure Account. The investment portfolio is professionally managed on the Group’s behalf by professional fund managers in accordance with the Group Investment Policy.

g) Investment property

The investment property is recognised in the balance sheet as at fair value. The valuation method used to determine fair value of the investment property will be stated in the notes to the financial statements and any gains and losses are included in the SOFA.

h) Funds

Restricted funds are grants or donations given by a grant provider or donor with performance conditions attached that must be met, before income can be recognised in the Income and Expenditure Account. They are held in the Balance Sheet as Restricted Fund Reserves until the performance conditions are met.

Unrestricted funds are available for use by the company to further its objects. Certain unrestricted funds are designated by Council to be used for particular purposes. The categories of designated reserves and the values designated can be changed by Council at a later date.

i) Liquid assets

Liquid assets are cash, or assets that can be converted into cash very quickly, generally because there is an enduring demand from buyers and because their realisable value is known with a high level of reliability.

j) Pensions

RCOT operates a defined contribution scheme for staff as part of its employee benefits package. This includes ongoing contractual obligations for the employer to contribute towards the staff members’ pension pots until they cease being an employee. By definition, the employer has no contractual obligation to create or maintain the pension pot values, but does have an obligation for the employer contribution rates payable.

In the past, the company provided a defined benefits scheme for employees. This scheme was closed to employees in June 2014. Following a scheme valuation in December 2017, the scheme administrators advised that there is a final employer payment, valued in December 2017 at £1,156,000. The final payment has been confirmed slightly lower than the December 2017 valuation at £881,167 and was settled early 2024, see note 8.

k) Recognition of liabilities

For the financial year being reported, where goods and services were provided to the company by agreement, or contractual obligations otherwise

arise and invoice processing has not yet occurred, accrued expenses are recognised in the Income and Expenditure Account. VAT costs are also accrued for to the extent they cannot be recovered.

l) Grants

Where the company makes grants to an external party, such grants are recognised in the year in which they are paid. In addition, it also administers a number of restricted funds which make grants each year. These restricted fund grants are charged in the year in which they are paid. Details of grants paid are available on the company website.

m) Accounting estimates and areas of judgement

The trustees recognise that in fulfilling their obligations, they are required to ensure that estimates and judgements are continually evaluated and are based on historical experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable. During the year there were no accounting estimates or assumptions that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next financial year.

The following estimates and assumptions including their effect on the carrying value of relevant assets and or liabilities have been considered in preparing the financial statements:

Useful economic lives – the annual depreciation charge for property, fixture, fittings and equipment is sensitive to change in the estimated useful economic lives and residual value of assets. These are re-assessed annually and amended

where necessary to reflect current circumstances.

Investment property – the Charity’s only investment property is the portion of its building (Phoenix House) that is use for non commercial lettings purposes. This asset has been recognised in the balance sheet at market value of £5m. The property had been valued based on the valuation carried by Cluttons LLP, and is reviewed annually by the trustees taking into consideration the current property market prices for similar properties in the same area.

n) Cash & cash equivalent

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand and current and fixed term bank deposits maturing in less than 30 days.

o) Financial instruments

The trustees have elected to apply the provision of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instrument’s and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments. Financial instruments are recognised in the balance sheet when the company becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument. Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously. With the exceptions of prepayments and deferred income all other debtor and creditor balances which are considered to be basic financial instruments under FRS 102. (See notes 13 and 14 for details).

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Notes to the financial statements

2. Charitable activities

----- Start of picture text -----
Direct Support cost Total Total
cost (see note 3) 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Unrestricted funds
Member services and support 2,947 1,083 4,030 540
Journals and publications 870 146 1,016 997
Conferences and events 738 511 1,249 3,023
Professional practice and
1,993 1,178 3,171 4,187
innovation
Total unrestricted 6,548 2,918 9,466 8,747
Designated funds
Member services & support 268 - 268 54
- - - -
Journals and publications
Conferences and events 34 - 34 84
Professional practice and 40 - 40 207
innovation
Total designated 342 - 342 345
Restricted funds
Professional practice 266 - 266 64
and innovation
Total charitable activities 7,156 2,918 10,074 9,156
----- End of picture text -----

Raising funds

During the year, cost associated with raising funds amounted to £0.97m (2022: £Nil) and relates primarily to the final settlement required to complete the pensions scheme buyout, operational costs incurred in carrying out rental activities and management fees charged by investment portfolio managers.

Note: In the period, there has been some significant movement in the allocation of charitable expenditure (across Member services and support, Conferences and events and Professional practice and innovation). The transition to a new organisational structure, which took place during the year largely impacted on the make-up of the teams, level of talent and expertise across the business. The difference in allocation of spend in this identified areas compared to 2022 are driven by these factors.

3. Support cost

----- Start of picture text -----
Total Total
2023 2022
£’000 £’000
Support staff 1,004 1,621
Facilities and infrastructure 1,090 925
Depreciation 116 176
General administration 581 542
Governance cost (see note 4) 127 35
Total support costs 2,918 3,299
----- End of picture text -----

4. Auditors fees

Governance cost includes the audit fee of RCOT’s auditors is £28,200 (2022: £35,100) for audit work.

5. Staff cost

----- Start of picture text -----
Total Total
2023 2022
£’000 £’000
Salaries 4550 4073
Social security costs 502 485
Pension costs 372 369
Employee benefits 130 94
Sub total cost of staff employed 5,554 5,021
Temporary staff 310 219
Recruitment 318 121
Training 10 28
Total staffing costs 6,192 5,389
----- End of picture text -----

The average monthly numbers employed in the year were as follows:

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2022
number number
Charitable activities 56 68
Support activities 36 18
92 86
----- End of picture text -----

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Notes to the financial statements

The remuneration of the higher paid employees fell within the bands:

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2022
number number
£60,001 - £70,000 18 8
£70,001 - £80,000 4 -
£80,001 - £90,000 - 2
£90,001 - £100,000 2 2
£100,001 - £110,000 3 1
£130,001 - 140,000 1 -
----- End of picture text -----

During the year, we brought in required specialist expertise and Heads of departments across the business. This is the reason for the increase in staff paid between the £60,001 to £70,000 range. Also included in staffing cost are ex-gratia redundancy settlement payments of £169,817 made out to individuals during the year.

Remuneration and benefits paid to key employees during the year:

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2022
£000 £000
Salaries 586 628
Social security costs 76 80
Pension costs 46 54
Employee benefits 5 10
Total remuneration and benefits 713 772
----- End of picture text -----

7. Taxation

During the year, key management personnel comprised of the Chief Executive Officer and four directors who manage key business areas. Collectively they represent the senior leadership team.

RCOT is a registered charity and is not subject to Corporation Tax on income arising from its charitable activities.

8. Post balance sheet event

(pensions buyout)

6. Council members

All Council members can claim for travel, subsistence and other expenses. The total amount of expenses reimbursed to 9 Council members during the year was £5,806 (2022 – nine Council members were reimbursed £9,365). Council members did not receive any remuneration for carrying out duties as trustees/directors. RCOT paid £5,600 (2022: £3,700) to provide Charity Trustee insurance cover.

In December 2017, the pension scheme Trustees of the Federated Pension Scheme for British Association of Occupational Therapists Limited and Aviva & Life Pensions UK Limited agreed to the buyout of the defined benefit pension scheme. An advanced payment of £3,479,000 was paid in December 2017, with the balance of £881,116 settled early 2024. The liability has been recognised in the statement of financial activities as at 30 September 2023.

9. Pension costs

carried out as at 30 September 2023 by a qualified independent actuary.

RCOT operated a defined benefit pension scheme for qualifying employees in the UK. This scheme closed in June 2014 to all new entrants and further accrual. The disclosures set out below are based on calculations

The main assumptions used for the purposes of FRS102 are (in nominal terms):

----- Start of picture text -----
30/09/2023 30/09/2022
Discount rate 5.40% 5.00%
Expected return on scheme assets 1.25% 1.20%
Pension increases in payment at the 5% LPI rate
2.50% 2.50%
based on RPI
Pension increases in payment at the 2.5% LPI rate
2.30% 2.35%
based on RPI
RPI 3.55% 4.00%
CPI 3.00% 3.40%
----- End of picture text -----

Expected return on assets

The assets of the scheme and the net expected long-term return on these assets are:

----- Start of picture text -----
At 30/9/2023 At 30/9/2022
£000 £000
Insured annuity contracts 8,963 9,850
Cash/other 18 33
Total fair value of assets 8,981 9,883
----- End of picture text -----

Reconciliation of the present value of scheme liabilities and fair value of assets to the assets and liability recognised in the balance sheet

----- Start of picture text -----
At 30/9/2023 At 30/9/2022
£000 £000
Fair value of assets 8,981 9,883
Value of liabilities (defined benefit obligation) (8,964) (9,857)
Funded status 17 26
Surplus restriction (17) (26)
- -
Recognised pension liability
----- End of picture text -----

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Notes to the financial statements

The excess (‘surplus’) of the fair value of scheme assets over the present value of the scheme liabilities can be recognised as an asset of the employer in the employer’s balance sheet only in so far as the employer is able to recover this surplus (either through reduced contributions in the future or through refunds from the scheme).

Where the employer cannot recover the surplus, then the employer cannot recognise any of the surplus as an asset. In these circumstances, the pension scheme is shown as ‘nil’ value on the employer’s balance sheet.

The company’s defined benefit scheme was closed to new entrants and to future accrual with effect from 30 June 2014.

Total expense recognised in the statement of financial activities (SOFA)

----- Start of picture text -----
30/09/2023 30/09/2022
£000 £000
Interest cost on obligation (1) (1)
Restriction on expected return on assets 1 1
- -
Total SOFA Charge
----- End of picture text -----

Changes in the present value of the defined benefit obligation

----- Start of picture text -----
30/09/2023 30/09/2022
£000 £000
Opening defined benefit obligation 9,857 17,708
Interest cost on obligation 482 342
Remeasurement (gains) and losses -
(922) (7,802)
actuarial (gains) and losses
Benefits paid (453) (391)
Closing defined benefit obligation 8,964 9,857
----- End of picture text -----

Changes in the fair value of scheme assets

----- Start of picture text -----
30/09/2023 30/09/2022
£000 £000
Opening fair value of scheme assets 9,883 17,725
Interest income 483 342
Remeasurement (losses)/gains - return on scheme
(932) (7,793)
assets excluding interest income
Benefits paid (453) (391)
Closing fair value of scheme assets 8,981 9,883
----- End of picture text -----

Total amount taken to other comprehensive income

----- Start of picture text -----
30/09/2023 30/09/2022
£000 £000
Actuarial return on scheme assets - (losses)/gains (449) (7,451)
Less: amounts included in the net interest on the
(483) (342)
defined benefit liability
Remeasurement (losses)/gains - Return on scheme
(932) (7,793)
assets excluding interest income
Remeasurement gains/(losses) - actuarial gains
922 7,802
and (losses)
Surplus restriction 10 (9)
Remeasurement (losses)/gains recognised in other comprehensive income - -
----- End of picture text -----

10. Tangible fixed assets

----- Start of picture text -----
RCOT Fixtures & Office IT Assets
premises fittings equipment equipment under Total
£000 £000 £000 £000 construction £000
Cost
At 1 October 2022 2,648 614 245 315 109 3,931
Additions during year - - - 234 1,826 2,060
Transfer of assets 1,935 - - - (1,935) -
- -
Disposals (477) (223) (227) (927)
Transfer to investment
- - - -
property (2,576) (2,576)
At 30 September 2023 2,007 137 22 322 - 2,488
-
Depreciation
At 1 October 2022 1,458 607 230 286 - 2,581
Charge for the year 48 2 10 57 - 117
- -
Released on disposal (473) (219) (227) (919)
Transfer to investment
- - - -
property (839) (839)
At 30 September 2023 667 136 21 116 - 940
Net Book Value -
At 30 September 2023 1,340 1 1 206 - 1,548
At 30 September 2022 1,300 7 15 29 - 1,351
----- End of picture text -----

Assets under construction value of £1.9m was transferred to RCOT premises in the period. This amount relates to development and refurbishment cost incurred towards the transformation of the building asset

into a commercially viable space for rental activities. The building became available for use following completion of the development phase in March 2023.

The net book value of £1.7m was transfered to investment property during the period. This amounts relates to the portion of the building used for letting activities.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Notes to the financial statements

11. Fixed assets investments

----- Start of picture text -----
Market
Market value Disposal Net Gain/ value
01/10/2022 Additions proceeds losses 30/09/2023
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000
UK equities 678 325 (441) (10) 552
Alternatives 874 - (534) (60) 280
Fixed income 1,271 5,398 (4,647) 54 2,076
Overseas equities 1,207 625 (240) 32 1,624
Property 93 - (77) (16) -
Sub total 4,123 6,348 (5,939) - 4,532
Cash held in
214 376
investment portfolio
Total 4,337 4,908
----- End of picture text -----

The total cost of investments held by RCOT at 30 September 2023 was £4,908,448 (2022: £4,337,998).

12. Investment property

----- Start of picture text -----
£000
Valuation
At 1 October 2022 -
Transfer from fixed asset 1,737
Additions/(disposal) 24
Gain on valuation 3,239
At 30 September 2023 5,000
----- End of picture text -----

13. Debtors

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2022
£000 £000
Amounts due within one year
Trade debtors 121 58
Other debtors 2 34
VAT debtor 310 -
Prepayments and accrued Income 340 231
Amount due from BAOT 1,289 2,784
2,064 3,107
----- End of picture text -----

14. Creditors

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2022
£000 £000
Amounts due within one year
Trade creditors 230 280
Taxes & social security 157 137
Pensions buyout liability 881 -
Other creditors 57 50
Accrued & deferred income 461 850
1,786 1,317
----- End of picture text -----

The amount of Deferred Income at the beginning of the year was £341,963. During the year, the whole of this amount was released to the SOFA. The balance of Deferred Income at 30 September 2023 was £92,965, this mainly relates to RCOT’s obligation to deliver future services and advertising.

15. Share capital

The value of the freehold property (Phoenix House) located at 106-114 Borough High Street at 30 September 2023 is £7m of which £5m of the valuation relates to the portion of the property held for the purpose of carrying out rental activities. This valuation is conducted by Cluttons, external valuers, as defined in RICS Valuation - Global Standards 2020 (The Red Book) as at 30 September 2023.

Following the completion of the development phase of the building transformation project in March 2023, the net value of the investment property of £1.7m was transferred from fixed asset. This transfer represents the portion of the building that is being held for investment purposes.

The valuation of the investment property produced an unrealised gain of £3.2m.

	2023 £	2022 £
Authorised ordinary shares of £ each	100	100
Allotted and fully paid ordinary shares of £1 each	3	3

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Notes to the financial statements

16. Restricted funds

----- Start of picture text -----
Balance Incoming Resources Balance
01/10/2022 resources expended 30/09/2023
£000 £000 £000 £000
ISP Annual Award 26 - (8) 18
ISP Scholarship 1 - - 1
Elizabeth Casson 1 - - 1
Elizabeth Casson PD 2 - - 2
Covid-funds 8 - (8) -
Health Education England - Neonatal 11 - (5) 6
Health Education England - 245 - (245) -
AHP Workforce Reform
294 - (266) 28
----- End of picture text -----

• Elizabeth Casson PD: the Elizabeth

All of the grants paid under resources expended were awarded to individuals. The purpose of each fund / award is as follows:

Casson Trust in collaboration with RCOT’s UK Occupational Therapy Research Foundation provides an annual grant of up to £10,000 for three years to support BAOT members who are early stage postdoctoral researchers.
ISP Annual Award: provides support for individual occupational therapists towards a research activity in a topic relevant to occupational therapy, mental health and social psychiatry.
Covid-funds: providing hardship funds for members who are impacted during COVID-19 and the cost-of-living crisis.
ISP Scholarship: provides support for doctoral or early post-doctoral research activity which is relevant to occupational therapy and social psychiatry.
Health Education England -

Neonatal: this project is for developing resources for members’ learning.

Elizabeth Casson: provides a contribution towards the digitisation of back copies of British Journal of Occupational Therapy.

• Health Education England - AHP

Workforce Reform: funding awarded to deliver specific project work to help shape the future of the AHP Workforce.

17. Designated funds

----- Start of picture text -----
Balance Transfers Balance
01/10/2022 Income Expenditure (out)/in 30/09/2023
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Pension scheme 1,156 - (881) (275) -
College branches 897 350 (191) - 1,056
UKOTRF 254 - - (254) -
RCOT Research
- - (40) 404 364
Foundation
-
Transformation project 2,377 (111) (500) 1,766
Building project 2,489 - - (2,208) 281
7,173 350 (1,223) (2,833) 3,467
----- End of picture text -----

Pensions scheme: the pension scheme funds are to cover the balance of the liability payable to AVIVA upon compensation of the buyout. The final valuation of the liability amounted to £0.88m and has been provided for in the period. The excess designated fund held has been transferred back to general funds.
RCOT Research Foundation: the aim of this fund is to increase research capacity and capability within the profession and advance building the evidence-base for occupational therapy by supporting the development of the next generation of occupational therapy researchers and research leaders and creating a community of occupational therapy researchers to support members to learn with and from each other.
College branches: the funds for RCOT each other. branches support the specific activities of the various groups of RCOT that are • Transformation project: the transformation organised both geographically and by fund is to support our five-year strategic clinical specialism. plan, focused around separate transformation projects as identified within
• UK Occupational Therapy Research RCOT strategic priorities. In the period Foundation (UKOTRF): the funds Council agreed to transfer £500,000 of this are awarded to projects that builds fund to general reserves for operational use.
UK Occupational Therapy Research Foundation (UKOTRF): the funds are awarded to projects that builds an evidence-base for occupational therapy and supports research into the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of occupation-focused interventions.
Building project: the fund is to support our building project by transforming our building into viable commercial space with the view to generating commercial rental income. The £2,208,000 transfer out of the funds relates to an agreement by Council to transfer £250,000 of this fund to general reserves for operational use. The remaining balance represents the capital expenditure incurred for the building transformation project.
It was decided by Council that the name, aims and goals of UKOTRF are revised as follows:
The name shall be changed to Royal College of Occupational Therapists’ Research Foundation.
The opening balance of UKOTRF fund of £254,000 was transferred into the newly recognised research fund.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Notes to the financial statements

18. Analysis of net assets between funds

	Tangible fxed aseets £000	Investments £000	Net current assets £000	Total £000
Restricted funds	-	-	28	28
Designated funds Unrestricted funds	- 6,548	- 4,908	3,467 671	3,467 12,127
Net assets between the funds at 30 September 2023	6,548	4,908	4,166	15,622

----- Start of picture text -----
Tangible Net current
fixed aseets Investments assets Total
£000 £000 £000 £000
Restricted funds - - 294 294
- -
Designated funds 7,173 7,173
Unrestricted funds 1,351 4,337 1,251 6,939
Net assets between the funds at
1,351 4,337 8,718 14,406
30 September 2022
----- End of picture text -----

19. Reconciliation of movement in share capital and charitable funds

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2022
£000 £000
Gain / (loss) for the financial year 1,216 (1,274)
Shareholders’ funds at 1 October 14,406 15,680
15,622 14,406
----- End of picture text -----

20. Analysis of changes in net funds

----- Start of picture text -----
At 1 At 30
October September
2022 Cashflows 2023
£000 £000 £000
Cash at bank and in hand 5,190 (3,071) 2,119
Cash held as liquid investment 1,738 33 1,771
Cash held in investment portfolio 215 161 376
7,143 (2,877) 4,266
----- End of picture text -----

21. Parent undertaking and ultimate controlling party

The parent undertaking and ultimate controlling party of the company is the British Association of Occupational Therapists Limited (“BAOT”).

Registered office: 106-114 Borough High Street, London SE1 1LB Company number: 00392350

The principal activity of BAOT is that of a Professional Association in the field of rehabilitation medicine. BAOT aims to promote occupational therapy education and honourable practice; to provide facilities for the advancement of the science of occupational therapy by the widest possible distribution of information through meetings, discussions and debate; and to issue relevant papers and periodicals on occupational therapy. BAOT is a registered Trade Union.

22. Related parties

All members of the Council of RCOT are also members of the Council of BAOT, the parent undertaking of RCOT. The subscription of Council members are paid by the individual Council members at the nominal rates and carry no special rights or privileges. In addition, as part of the their work, Council members may attend courses provided and receive journals produced by RCOT. These services are all provided on an arm’s length basis at normal rates.

The total amount of expenses reimbursed to 8 Council members during the year was £5,682 (2022: £2,413).

Kalimah Ibrahim is a member of Council, and during the period was engaged to

provide some consultancy services for RCOT. The total amount paid in relation to this transaction amounts to £4,825.

Occupational therapists employed by RCOT have their subscriptions paid to BAOT by RCOT. These subscriptions, which were paid at normal rates totalled £5,126 for the year, (2022: £4,587)

The balance of income over expenditure is paid to RCOT, a wholly owned subsidiary. This is in line with Council decision. The amount to be transferred for the year ended 30 September 2023 is £7,658,968 (2022 transfered to RCOT - £6,420,006). The outstanding balance owed from RCOT at the year end is £1,289,556 (2022: £155,107).

During the period, London South Bank University was awarded a Research Priority grant. Dr Anita Atwal, a member of the Council is the principal investigator on this project and will be conducting the research activity. The total value of the award is £93,662.

23. Contingent liability

RCOT Research Foundation fund is used to award grants for research projects and other similar purposes, see note 17. These grants constitutes a contingent liability as they are subject to agreed performance related conditions being met i.e. a specific service and or output to be delivered. The grant is settled and therefore recognised in the SOFA only when satisfactory evidence of the conditions being met has been provided by the recipient. At 30 September 2023, the value of grant commitments being grants awarded which represents contingent liability at the reporting date amounts to £137,593.

RCOT | Annual Report of Council

Legal and administrative information

Legal and administrative information

Company details Professional advisors

Royal College of Occupational Therapists

Auditors

Moore Kingston Smith LLP 6th Floor 9 Appold Street London EC2A 2AP

A charitable company limited by shares registered in England and Wales (company no. 01347374), incorporated on 10 January 1978. A charity registered in England and Wales (no. 275119) and in Scotland (no. SC039573).

Bankers

HSBC Bank PLC 15-17 Praed Street Paddington London W2 1NJ

The organisation is governed under its Articles of Association (last amended October 2021) which establish the objects and powers of the organisation.

Bank of Scotland 75 George Street Edinburgh EH2 3EW

Solicitors

Registered office

DAC Beachcroft LLP 25 Walbrook London EC4N 8AF

Phoenix House, 106–114 Borough High Street, Southwark, London, SE1 1LB

Bates Wells (Governance Review)

Patron

10 Queen Street Place London EC4R 1BE

HRH The Princess Royal, GCVO

Fund managers

Close Brothers Asset Management (part of Close Brothers Group plc) 10 Crown Place London EC2A 4FT

Rathbones

8 Finsbury Circus London EC2M 7AZ

Insurance brokers Towergate Underwriting Group Ltd 2 Minster Court Mincing Lane London EC3R 7PD

AON UK Ltd 122 Leadenhall Street London EC3V 4AN

Pension provider – defined

contribution scheme Legal and General Pensions Ltd (part of Legal & General Group plc) 1 Coleman Street London EC2R 5AA

RCOT Council members

----- Start of picture text -----
Name Council role Changes in reporting period
Dr Anita Atwal Research and Development Elected 28 June 2023
Paul Dunning Wales N/A
Samantha Flower Scotland N/A
Carmel Harney Northern Ireland Retired 28 June 2023
Cathryn Holding Industrial Relations N/A
Professor Priscilla Harries Research and Development Retired 28 June 2023
Kalimah Ibrahiim England N/A
Dr Kee Hean Lim Vice Chair, International Affairs N/A
Lisa Ledger Learning and Development Retired 19 April 2023
Elected 28 June 2023 / retired 23
Andrea Lothian Learning and Development
February 2024
Odeth Richardson Chair Elected 28 June 2023
----- End of picture text -----

RCOT CEO and senior leadership team members

----- Start of picture text -----
Name Council role Changes in reporting period
Steve Ford CEO and Company Secretary N/A
Director of Movement Building
Karin Bishop N/A
and Membership
Clare Cochrane Director of Brand and Marketing N/A
Director of Practice and
Karin Orman N/A
Innovation
Director of People, Finance and N/A
Satvinder Reyatt
Governance
Director of Strategy, Technology
Rob Smyth Appointed January 2023
and Transformation
----- End of picture text -----

100

101

We’re RCOT, the Royal College of Occupational Therapists. We’ve championed the profession and the people behind it for over 90 years; and today, we are thriving with 36,000 members.

Then and now, we’re here to help achieve life-changing breakthroughs for our members, for the people they support and for society as a whole.

2023-09-30-accounts

Introducing RCOT

Our charitable objects (purposes) and public benefit

Trustees’ report[1]

Odeth Richardson

Equity, Diversity and Belonging

What we did 2022–2023

Prepared

Embedded

Involved

Agreed

Worked

Ensured

RCOT ABLE OT

RCOT B.A.M.E OTUK

Chose

RCOT LGBTQIA+

Created

These internal networks are:

Ethnos

LGBTQIA+ Disability Parents

Menopause

Planned

Celebrating OTs of Caribbean heritage

Hannah Spencer (they/them)

What EDB means to us

Equity

Diversity

Belonging

Strategic report RCOT | Annual Report of Council Strategic report

Strategic report Our year in numbers 2022–2023

£2,500

Our vision. Our strategy.

Rise Up

Open Up

Lift Up

Build Up

RCOT | Annual Report of Council RCOT | Annual Report of Council 1. Rise Up

RCOT | Annual Report of Council Strategic report – Rise Up

1

We’ll rise up to be bold, progressive advocates and champions – raising our profile and voice so that more people understand the power of what occupational therapists do.

23

What we did 2022–2023

Focused

Pressed

Welcomed

Highlighted

Commented

Presented

Spoke out

Ran

Launched

Ensured

Spotlight

Anonymous survey respondent

The workforce survey’s topline results

What we did next

Developed

Presented

Collaborated

Spotlight

Raising our profile

Lift Up Your Everyday

Choose OT

I welcome increased visibility of RCOT on social media. It’s fantastic to see RCOT engaging with members and the public.”

Samantha Flower (she/her)

What we did 2022–2023

Launched

Achieved

Celebrated

Supported

Spotlight interview

Paul Wilkinson My volunteering journey

Meet Paul Wilkinson, one of our many valued RCOT volunteers and Vice Chair for the RCOT Northern and Yorkshire region.

Tell us about your day job and what attracted you to a career in occupational therapy.

Please describe your volunteering role with RCOT.

Would you recommend volunteering for RCOT?

Paul Wilkinson (he/him)

Spotlight

Pressing for workplace reform