OpenCharities

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

2025-03-31-accounts

ALTON COUNSELLING SERVICE

ANNUAL REPORT and ACCOUNTS

2024-2025

Charity Commission registered number: 279857

Alton Counselling Service For the financial year ended 31 March 2025

1. Trustees and their Advisers

Board of Trustees

Anne Bothwell (Chair) Sophia Armstrong Graham Hill Fiona Lapraik

Counsellors’ Representative

Alison Curry

Consultant Psychiatrist & Clinical Adviser

Dr Paul Warren, BM, MRCPsych

Independent Examiner

E.M.Mackeggie Gurney, ACA

Management Board

Head of Counselling Dorothy Harte Treasurer Andrew Croom-Johnson Service Manager Lissa Morris

Bankers

HSBC Bank, Lansdowne House, 74 High Street, Alton, GU34 1EZ

Premises

Quaker Meeting House, Church Street, Alton GU34 2DA

Tel: 01420 89207

Web: www.altoncounselling.org.uk

Charity Commission registered number: 279857

2

Alton Counselling Service For the financial year ended 31 March 2025

2. Structure, Governance and Management

Alton Counselling Service (ACS) was established in 1974 as charity number 279857. The governing trust deed of 6 February 1980 was subsequently amended by a deed of variation dated 7 December 2010.

The Trustees are responsible for the governance of ACS. They are initially elected and thereafter confirmed in post annually. The Trustees are unpaid volunteers who may claim reasonable out-of-pocket expenses. The Trustees help to reconcile competing demands faced by the charity. They work with the Management Board to set the strategic direction and major areas of work. The day-to-day management is delegated to the Management Board comprising the Head of Counselling, the Treasurer and the Service Manager. The Trustees meet at least four times a year and the Management Board meets at least ten times a year. Both Trustees and the Management Board may meet more often if circumstances require. The Trustees have put in place a reserves policy and financial systems to reduce as far as possible financial risk, and work closely with the Management Board to preserve and promote ACS. Professional indemnity and public liability insurances are maintained. The service operates to BACP guidelines to minimise clinical risk.

ACS provides high-quality affordable counselling for the local community and to the highest ethical and professional standards. Clients are expected to make a contribution to cover the cost of their counselling, but no one is refused counselling for financial reasons. The service ensures confidentiality and a safe environment that give clients the opportunity to talk through the difficulties they are encountering. These might include:

Each counsellor is part of a supervision group meeting weekly to review client work. Any unresolved or difficult issues are referred to the Head of Counselling and, where appropriate, the Consultant Psychiatrist & Clinical Adviser.

The Service relies on volunteers in all areas of work. Counsellors work on a voluntary basis, though experienced counsellors receive a modest payment in lieu of expenses. The Treasurer, Receptionists and others work without payment. Everyone who works in ACS has a meeting at least once a year with the person to whom they are responsible, with the opportunity to express their views on the operation of ACS. There was a Christmas social event. The Trustees send quarterly newsletters to all members of the service.

Charity Commission registered number: 279857

3

Alton Counselling Service For the financial year ended 31 March 2025

3. Objectives

The charity’s objectives as stated in the trust deed, as amended, are:

4. Review of Clinical Practice

This has been an important year for the counselling service with celebration of the 50 year Anniversary. Many things have changed over this period but not the commitment to serve the needs of the local community.

In the last we have had some significant departures both with Jeremy ending his period as a supervisor and some of our long-standing counsellors moving to other areas of work. The service is dependent on the teamwork on all the members, so the changes are always significant. Obviously, we have appreciated the work done by those who have now left. However, we are also happy to have welcomed several new counsellors into the service. Some of these are students in the latter stages of their training. Like all new arrivals they bring new ideas into the organisation, and we are happy to continue in our tradition of being part of their development in the counselling world .

As the needs of Alton and surrounding area continue to change, we are happy that the counsellors and therefore the agency, continue to have the flexibility to move on. The next year will bring further changes both in personnel and emphasis of areas of need which will develop the service as it moves into what we hope will be the next fifty years.

Charity Commission registered number: 279857

4

Alton Counselling Service For the financial year ended 31 March 2025

5. Treasurer’s report

Financial review

The end of year accounts shows a net profit for the year of £2,946.

Our main source of income is from counselling session fees. Over the last financial year we have continued to see many of our clients, both current and new, suffering financial difficulties and unable to pay the standard session costs. This continues to have an ongoing impact on our income. We would normally be able to offset this from grants, but unfortunately for the last financial year we were unsuccessful in obtaining any grants towards this. However, we were fortunate to receive an anonymous donation of £10,000 during this financial year.

Our bursary scheme, as shown in the accounts, only relates to those clients paying less than £30 a session (normal cost £45/£50) and we have a reducing number of these clients. We have approximately 45% of our clients paying less than the normal cost for their sessions.

Our Operating Expenses continue to be carefully monitored and managed, with most of our Operating Expenses being fixed costs. After a review in the summer of 2024 of the additional accommodation that we took on in 2022, it was decided that it was not financially sustainable to continue to rent the space and the rental agreement was terminated in July 2024. This has helped to reduce our monthly expenditure.

HMRC/PAYE

We have continued to use the HMRC supplied RTI software to manage our payroll and NIC payments. This continues to be trouble free and has ensured that we meet our obligations to HMRC in a timely manner.

Credit card system

The Worldpay (formally Cardsave) virtual terminal credit card system continues to meet our credit card processing needs. In September 2024 we renewed compliance to the Payment Card Industries Digital Security Standards as required by Worldpay.

Employee Pensions

We are registered with The Pensions Regulator regarding workplace pension law (Pensions Act 2008) for our only employee. We have a Workplace Pension Scheme with NEST.

Reserve account

Reserve funds continue to be held in a Charity Deposit account with Virgin Money.

Charity Commission registered number: 279857

5

Alton Counselling Service For the financial year ended 31 March 2025

6. Overview from the Chair of Trustees

Over the past twelve months, we have continued to provide qualified and affordable counselling, despite economic pressures and staff changes. Our dedicated administration staff, counsellors and volunteers have continued to deliver exceptional results.

Despite a challenging economic landscape, we remain financially stable. We continue to see a rise in clients unable to pay full fees due to the on-going cost-of-living crisis. The Bursary scheme, as shown in the accounts, has always related to those clients who are paying less than £30 per session. We have had an increase in clients unable to pay the full fee but able to pay more than £30 and the majority of our clients are now in this position. We continue to provide high quality, professional counselling at affordable prices in accordance with our aims. Grants are investigated and applied for when we can, a major problem being that many funders prefer to fund discrete projects with a clear end date. We continue to prioritize sustainable funding, and we are exploring new income streams to support our bursary scheme. Our counsellors are also asked to regularly review the amount their clients are paying.

In conjunction with the Management Board, the trustees are grateful to the EHDC Councillor Grant scheme and to Dorothy Harte and an anonymous supporter for their generous help this year. Thanks must go to Lissa, Dorothy and Andrew for their work on applications.

As the use of the flat has not proven to be a viable concern, we took the difficult decision to relinquish to lease and return to the main office. The Library, which is on the ground floor, remains in use for those clients with mobility issues and we also have access to the Children’s Room on an ad hoc basis. This, we feel is sufficient for our needs at present.

Counselling sessions are generally face-to-face but we retain the flexibility of using Zoom or telephone as needed, which clients appreciate. New trainees have begun to take on clients thus reducing the waiting list. Thanks must go to Ally, Jeremy, Stan and Sophia for taking on the Initial Consultations.

Our training programme continues to be successful and well attended, taking place on zoom so that there is a wide catchment area of attendees. Thanks go to Dorothy for her couples counselling training, which was very well attended and well received. There are plans for a further couples’ counselling course as we have many counsellors on the waiting list for this popular course.

Our consultant psychiatrist has also offered training courses, for which we are very grateful.

The service continues to strengthen its links with local groups, including social prescribers, and services and responding to their needs. We are a member of the National Counselling Network (NCN).

Charity Commission registered number: 279857

6

Alton Counselling Service For the financial year ended 31 March 2025

With the management committee we have approved a development plan, which takes us to 2026 and have put in place what we hope will be realistic timeframes. We have already

met our target for providing training for couples’ counselling and other targets will be discussed and monitored at future executive meetings.

We celebrated 50 years of the counselling service in Alton in September with a reception attended by the Mayor, Annette Eyre and representatives from the Quakers and many of the charities in Alton, hopefully forging even stronger links within the town.

We recognize that the environment in which we operate is evolving and looking forward we continue to investigate the possibilities for more trustees to join the team. The trustees meet with each other and with the management team on various occasions. This year, we have been actively working with the management group to engage a new Head of Counselling as our present HOC will be stepping down by the end of the year.

A great deal of the work of the service goes on behind closed doors, from our Service Manager, Head of Counselling, Treasurer and Supervisors all of whom make essential and valuable contributions to making the service work efficiently, successfully and above all, viably and my thanks go to all of them.

Finally, my sincere thanks go to our counsellors, without whose work and dedication we would be unable to function.

7. Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities

The Trustees are required to prepare an annual report and financial statements for each financial year. These statements should give a true and fair view of the charity’s financial activities during the year and its financial position at the end of the year. In preparing these financial statements the Trustees have:

Signed:

Anne Bothwell, Chair of Trustees Date: 17/06/2025

Charity Commission registered number: 279857

7

Alton Counselling Service For the financial year ended 31 March 2025 Charity Cornmission registered number: 279857

Alton Counselling Service For the financial year ended 31 March 2025

Clinical Organization

Head of Counselling

Dorothy Harte

Clinical Supervisors

Alison Curry Jeremy Hughes Stanley Roman

Consultant Psychiatrist & Clinical Adviser

Dr Paul Warren, BM, MRCPsych

Counsellors

The following counsellors have made themselves available to ACS during the year:

Paul Brand Philip Mabe Alison Curry Michelle Macey Liz Drew Victoria Miller Jeremy Hughes Jaqueline Sands Kevin Gallagher Pete Smith Mandy Keene Szabina Wagner

Kate Fox (student) Caroline Matthews (student) Andy Hiscock (student) Julia Reynolds (student) Christina Hoskins (student) Clair Smith (student) Mary Lucas (student) Gemma Steer (student)

Volunteers

Tracey Major

Charity Commission registered number: 279857

9

Alton Counselling Service For the financial year ended 31 March 2025

ALTON COUNSELLING SERVICE

Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

Charity Commission registered number: 279857

10

Alton Counselling Service For the financial year ended 31 March 2025

Receipts and Payment Accounts

Notes
Total Funds (1)
This Year
 Last Year
£ £
Receipts
Counselling Sessions and Initial Consultations 44,914 45,355
Training Courses 700 5,590
Grants and Donations 11,929 1,014 (2)
Bank Interest 160 116
Fund-raising events 113 0 (3)
Friends of ACS subscriptions 235 300
Gift Aid 3,355 0
Sundry income 100 160
Total Receipts 61,505 52,535
Payments
Counselling and Training (15,260) (15,173)
Training Courses (3,000) (0)
Bursary Payments (2,943) (3,159)
Administration (29,787) (28,971)
Premises Costs (6,402) (12,188)
Insurance and Affiliation Fees (837) (804)
Fund-raising events 0
(0)
Bad debt written off (330) (0)
Total Payments (58,559) (60,295)
Net of Receipts/(Payments) 2,946 (7,760)
Cash Funds last year end 20,672 28,434
Adjustment (roundings) 1
(2)
Cash Funds thisyear end 23,619
20,672
Statement of Assets and Liabilities at Year End
Unrestricted Funds
£
Cash Funds
Petty Cash 50
Current Account (HSBC bank) 8,792
Monies due from Streamline 210 (4)
Savings Account(Virgin Money) 14,567
Total Cash Funds 23,619

Charity Commission registered number: 279857

11

Alton Counselling Service For the financial year ended 31 March 2025

Notes to the accounts

1. Restricted Funds (Grants)
Credit
Debit
Balance
£ £ £
East Hampshire District Council (District Counsellor) (i) 963 0

(i) Grant given in 2023/4 towards the cost of running a training course on Short-Term Counselling and used in 2024/5.

2. Grants and Donations

During the year, Grants and Donations were received from the following:

£
Anonymous 10,000
Bookers & Bolton 100
Dorothy Harte 1,500
Easy Fundraising 129
Shalden Parish Council 200
Total 11,929

3. Fund-raising events

During the year, receipts from Fund-raising events were as follows:

ACS 50thAnniversary party 112
Total 112

4. Monies due from Streamline

This figure relates to Client Credit Card payments processed and entered into the Accounts before 31[st] March with payment received into the bank account after 31[st] March. Payments are not normally received into the bank account for 3 to 4 working days after processing. £209.94 was received on 1/4/25.

Charity Commission registered number: 279857

12

Alton Counselling Service For the financial year ended 31 March 2025

Independent Examiner's Report on the Accounts

Charity Commission registered number: 279857

13