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2022-03-31-accounts

Company number: 1633333 Charity number: 284912 Charity number (Scotland): SC039169

Contact a Family

(trading as Contact) Report and financial statements For the year ended 31 March 2022

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Reference and administrative information

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Status

The organisation is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 5 May 1982 and registered as a charity on 20 June 1982.

Governing document

The company was established under a Memorandum of Association which established the objects and powers of the charitable company and is governed under its Articles of Association. The Memorandum and Articles of Association were incorporated on 5 May 1982 and amended on 6 December 1999, 22 November 2004, 22 November 2007 and 20 November 2008.

Summary of investment powers

The Trustees may deposit or invest funds in any manner, but only after obtaining advice from a financial expert and having regard to the suitability of investments and the need for diversification. The management of investments may be delegated to a financial expert, provided transactions and performance are reported to and reviewed by the Trustees. The Trustees have the power to arrange for investments to be held in the name of a nominee under the control of the Trustees or of a financial expert acting under their instructions and to pay any reasonable fee required.

Company number 1633333 Charity number 284912 Charity number (Scotland) SC039169

Registered office and operational address 209-211 City Road, London EC1V 1JN

Trading name Contact Honorary officers Chris Carr, Chair Angela Kitching, Vice Chair Eleanor Christie, Treasurer

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Reference and administrative information

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Bankers

Unity Trust Bank plc, Nine Brindleyplace, 4 Oozells Square, Birmingham B1 2HB

Solicitors Russell-Cooke Solicitors 2 Putney Hill, Putney, London, SW15 6AB Auditors Sayer Vincent, Chartered accountants and statutory auditors. Invicta House, 108-114 Golden Lane, London EC1Y 0TL

Trustees

The Trustees, who are also directors under company law, who served during the year and up to the date of this report were as follows:

Chris Carr, Chair Angela Kitching, Vice Chair Eleanor Christie, Treasurer Kelly Evans, Treasurer retired March 2022 David Duly Jamie Holmes Kevin Hutchens retired May 2021 Gary Lapthorn Janet Leach Matt Wynes Jamileh Tufail Gyll Curtis Machin joined June 2021 Charles Sladdin joined June 2022 Sarah Church joined June 2022 Ben Clarkson joined June 2022

Patrons

Nick Crean Vice President Josephine Fitzalan Howard Vice President Patricia Astley Sir Al Aynsley Green Samantha Cameron Georgina David Henry Hoare Francesca Martinez Ruth, Lady Morris of Kenwood CBE

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Reference and administrative information

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Nigel Nicholls Vivienne Parry Susan Reizenstein Paul Riseborough Philippa Russell OBE Paul Soames Claire Tomalin Angus Walker Lord and Lady Wigley AM

Chief Executive Officer Amanda Batten

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Introduction from the Chair, Chris Carr, for the year ended 31 March 2022

The year 2021-22 saw much of the country return to some kind of normality. Sadly however, many families with disabled children continued to grapple with the fallout from the pandemic. Health and support services have not returned to pre-Covid levels, household finances are stretched ever-thinner, and thousands of disabled children continued to miss large chunks of school, either due to shielding, staffing issues or struggling to get back into a school routine.

Throughout the year Contact has made every effort to support and stand shoulder to shoulder with families with disabled children. Despite challenges, we have built on last year’s growth to continue to reach out and support families in a wide range of ways with our vital and trusted information and our powerful campaigns.

We continued to work towards our strategic aims of reaching more families and making our services more digitally accessible, freeing up our in-person support for the families who need it most. And our impact figures for the year clearly show the difference this has made. Next year will be the last of our three-year strategy, so we will be taking stock of progress made and the opportunities ahead.

Unfortunately, continued restrictions meant less face-to-face contact and events, but we are really looking forward to putting on a full programme of family trips and in-person events in the coming year, alongside an online support offer.

Contact’s financial position remains strong with good operational performance this year. As a Board we implemented the planned release of some of our designated funds to invest in our future sustainability. The money was used for a face-to-face fundraising pilot to increase the number of monthly givers and Contact lottery players - investing money now to generate money for the future.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all our staff members without whom we couldn’t achieve our objectives, but in particular, I want to pay tribute to one of our staff members, Jill Hardman, Contact’s Special Educational Needs (SEN) helpline adviser, who sadly passed away in February. She was a dear friend and respected colleague to all at Contact and is greatly missed. She helped launch Contact’s SEN helpline over ten years ago and was a huge support to countless parents seeking advice on school matters.

I would also like to pass on my heartfelt thanks to Kevin Hutchens for his service as a member of the Board of Trustees. He stepped down in May 2021 and I am very grateful for the dedicated service, expertise and commitment he has given to Contact as a trustee. Likewise, Kelly Evans stood down from her role as Treasurer at the end of March 2022, and I am particularly grateful

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

for her expertise, wisdom and counsel during her six years with Contact. We are delighted that Eleanor Christie has agreed to step up into that role of Treasurer for the charity. We were also delighted to welcome new board member Gyll Curtis Machin during the year.

We couldn’t do what we do without the help of Contact’s funders and supporters, and we are very grateful for their backing during another turbulent year for the families we support.

Chris Carr, Chair

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

TRUSTEES’ REPORT

At Contact we work in three inter-connected ways.

This report updates on what we have delivered as a charity in 2021-22 in each area.

Strategic report

Supporting families

Information, advice and guidance

The reach and impact of Contact’s trusted and accessible information and advice remained impressive throughout 2021/22. In fact, we’ve seen an increase in the numbers reached across a range of activities – from online workshops to enquiries. This demonstrates the sustained quality of Contact’s services.

Enquiries and one-to-one advice

Online

The number of calls to our Helpline rose to their usual level, and our team of dedicated parent advisers dealt with almost 11,000 enquiries. This included 932 benefits enquiries and 332 indepth call-backs by the Family Finances helpline. Our advisers provided a first-rate service to families, advising them on issues including benefits, education, getting a diagnosis and getting support. The challenges families raise through the service continue to rise in complexity.

As part of our digital transformation, outlined in the strategy, we continued to develop new online tools to enable families to resolve more straightforward or common enquiries directly. We rolled out Live Chat on our website and expanded our Frequently Asked Questions sections, to help families navigate more easily to the information they need. During the year we also developed a chatbot – an exciting addition to our digital tools, which will be ready to launch in the next financial year.

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Throughout the year digital interactions further increased, building on the success of last year. Our most viewed pages were information about vaccines and Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

As planned, Contact’s new website went live in April 2021. Funded by a major donor, this is a crucial step towards extending our reach. As a result of the new, more intuitive design and functionality it is easier for parents to find what they need.

Across all our information and advice services, we collected 2,996 evaluation forms over the year, which told us that families really valued our support. They reported:

A parent carer: “I have been using Contact since my child was a boy, he is now a young man. The difference to my family is immense! I rant and rave about you to parents. Every bit of information I have got from you has been helpful. And you’re all so nice.”

Key programmes of support

Listening Ear

Our Listening Ear service, which we introduced in response to the increased emotional needs of families during the pandemic, continued to provide vital support.

During the year we gathered information from parent carers about why they used the Listening Ear service:

The Parent Advisers in our Listening Ear team are all parents of children and young people with disabilities, plus they have a huge wealth of professional experience. The team supported 707 individual parents throughout the year, with 947 Listening Ear appointments giving vital advice and support over the telephone.

We know from the 186 survey responses collected after Listening Ear appointments that the service had a really positive impact on the families using it:

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Shona Chambers, Senior Parent Adviser on the Listening Ear service, said : “Parents and carers talk to us at length during the hour-long sessions. There is no judgement. Parents can offload, sometimes they rant, sometimes they cry, sometimes we just listen, sometimes we talk seriously and sometimes we laugh together too. Not only are they a huge source of emotional support, Parent Advisers, like me, also provide practical advice. This can include booking an appointment with our Family Finances team to help with a benefits claim or helping a family whose child is not sleeping to implement better sleep routines.”

A parent carer: “I felt everything I needed to say was allowed. I was also reassured that if I needed help going forward it was always there. I feel like a weight has been lifted. Just thank you, I really feel like I might get somewhere now.”

Family finances

Families with disabled children are disproportionately affected by financial concerns due to the difficulties of juggling work and caring combined with the extra costs of disability. Throughout the year, as the cost of living has increased, the support that our Family Finance service offers became even more vital.

The service answered 932 enquiries from parent carers worried about their finances. Of those, 332 were hour-long call backs where a family had a complex issue and the team provided a detailed financial health check.

As a result of the call back service, families reported significant improvements to their family’s financial situation, with eligible families being better off by an average of £5,050 a year.

In addition, we ran three Facebook Q&As, responding to 179 enquiries during these sessions. And we also held a webinar on higher-rate mobility allowance for children with challenging behaviour, which had 270 live attendees and has since been viewed over 3,500 times.

Feedback from families that used our Family Finance service (110 responses) over the year was overwhelmingly positive:

A parent carer: “An amazing service. I wasn't able to get advice locally and in contrast your advice was so detailed. You’re the most helpful person that I have spoken to all year.”

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Brighter Beginnings

Throughout the year we continued offering our Brighter Beginnings workshops online, for parents of young children aged 0-8. In total we held 65 workshops attended by 847 individual parents. Some of those parents came to more than one workshop, making overall attendances 1,147.

We collected feedback from 458 parents after Brighter Beginnings workshops. As a result of the workshop:

In response to parents’ requests, over the year we developed a new range of workshop topics including: Understanding the Diagnosis, Getting ready for Transition (school aged children), Toilet Training, Supporting parents of children with Anxiety and Early Years Entitlements.

A parent carer: “My first meeting with your charity! I found the standing up for yourself part particularly useful and how to put things across in a calm manner.”

Fledglings

Our e-commerce arm, Fledglings, continued to provide essential products and equipment to disabled children and their families to help make everyday tasks easier.

Fledglings sales to families with disabled children continued to grow in 2021/22 and the number of repeat customers also increased. We are pleased to report that Fledglings sales to special schools, maintained schools and via healthcare professionals are now picking up after being significantly impacted by Covid-19 and successive school closures.

In March, thanks to funding from the Welsh Government, we were able to send 106 play boxes full of Fledglings sensory toys to families in Wales in most need.

We also launched a new project, funded by corporate donations, that enables special schools in disadvantaged areas to access equipment to set up sensory rooms.

Our Fledglings service helped transform a dull room at a primary school in Essex into a calming and relaxing sensory space for children with additional needs. The room, which is kitted out with Fledglings toys and accessories, helps children be better prepared for learning and interacting with their peers.

By Your Side: Reaching families in hospital

We were thankful to be able to continue delivering our crucial support at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow throughout the year. But due to ongoing covid restrictions in hospitals, our

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

By your Side project had to be paused in many other areas. However, we did continue to provide telephone and online support to families whose children are in hospital.

Our By Your Side parent advisers held Q&A sessions on Facebook and virtual coffee mornings, as well as providing advice and information over the phone, through podcasts, factsheets and online.

At the Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle, we held successful sleep and behaviour workshops for parents whose children are inpatients or regular attendees at the hospital. We also trialled a new model, where paediatricians refer parents to Contact for one-to-one support on sleep and behaviour issues, rather than us having to meet families on the wards. Of those parents who were supported, 87% felt better able to manage their child’s behaviour and 88% had more strategies to improve their child’s sleep.

In February 2022 we were delighted to be back supporting families at the Ronald McDonald House linked to Birmingham Children’s Hospital. It was wonderful to be helping families in person, some of whom are facing the most difficult of times.

As an extension of our work in hospitals, we were involved in a project at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool to make the children’s wards and outpatient areas more user friendly for children with sensory needs. We worked with partners to run focus groups with patients about their experiences, and they made a number of recommendations to improve the space. These included offering sensory toys and ear defenders in specific areas, additional artwork, including a fun treasure trail to distract from crowds and noise, as well as having an Occupational Therapist (OT) to look at the needs of children attending each day and prepare for appointments, including making reasonable adjustments.

Supporting families in the regions and nations

Our London offices have very close relationships with parent carers in their communities and have been a lifeline for many during the pandemic. Throughout the year we maintained our support services in Wandsworth, Ealing and Lewisham, and were delighted to get funding to start up again in Lambeth. Not only are our London teams providing family support to families on important issues including housing, benefits and education, they also organise family meet-ups and events and trips to benefit the whole family’s wellbeing.

This year our London services worked hard to achieve the Advice Quality Standard (AQS) accreditation, a nationally recognised quality mark for organisations providing free, independent advice to members of the public. We were delighted to get recognition that we are working to the best possible professional standards.

In Ealing we secured funding to provide intensive support from neurodevelopmental teams to families awaiting assessment and diagnosis for their child. This is in line with our strategic aim of reaching out to families earlier in their journey. During the year this service was extended to Hounslow and Hammersmith and Fulham and has already shown positive results. As a result, we have expanded our team.

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

A parent carer: “Thank you for listening and caring – I do not have many people in my life who understand the challenges that raising a disabled child brings.”

In the North East we supported families at risk of their child needing admission to assessment and treatment units. We worked with partners providing intensive support to work through issues and improve wellbeing in a bid to avoid crisis interventions.

In Northern Ireland we launched a new Transitions project working with schools to provide workshops, peer support, career fairs and training for teachers to support disabled children and their families as they move to adult services. Our family workers continued to offer vital one-toone support and advice to parent carers signposted to us by professionals such as clinicians, social workers and teachers.

Our team in Scotland worked closely with multiple Scottish statutory and charity groups to ensure the needs of disabled children are considered and parent carers voices are heard. We also provided information, one-to-one advice and workshops to parent carers, including Scottishspecific information such as on the new Child Disability Payment.

In Wales we continued our Strengthening Support Network for Parent Carers project, to reduce parent carers’ loneliness. The project supports and encourages local support groups to reach out and help parents in their area. The Welsh team also trained parent carers to deliver workshops, giving them new work skills and confidence, and delivered Forest School events providing fun activities, games and craft projects to help families reconnect with nature.

Connecting families

Workshops, outreach or drop-ins

Although our workshops primarily provide advice and information, they are also a key way that we connect families. Often parents feed back to us how nice it was to hear from others in a similar situation. Or how much they learned from other parents during the sessions.

Throughout the year we held 535 online workshops, webinars, outreach or drop-ins. These were attended by 4,757 parent carers and 1,127 professionals.

Family events

Contact was founded on the idea that parents are the best source of support to other parents. Despite the challenges of continued lockdown disruptions, we held a total of 105 family events, either online or in person when restrictions allowed. These were attended by 738 children and 969 parent carers. They included forest school days, trips to Legoland and Silverstone, as well as activity sessions aimed at parent wellbeing such as online yoga.

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Better Together

We were very pleased to launch our Better Together series of family events funded by the Masonic Charitable Foundation. These are designed for the whole family and aim to reduce isolation, increase confidence, offer parent carers advice and support, and simply allow families to relax and have fun together. Activities included a virtual storytelling, forest schools, cinema trips, activity days and the Lap of Lights event at Silverstone.

Originally this project was due to run during 2020 but the pandemic meant it was postponed. However, in 2021 we delivered 12 events over nine months and reached 181 disabled children, 108 siblings and 217 adults.

Feedback from children and adults alike was very positive. Parent carers said they felt less isolated (86%), more confident (75%), and more informed about how to get the support they need (70%). And children fed back that they made new friends (75%) and would like to try the activity again (100%).

Online communities

We continue to run private Facebook groups for parent carers, which offer a safe space to come together online and to share challenges, joys and advice from lived experience. Our Contact group has 12,500 members and our HemiHelp group has nearly 6,000. These groups are moderated by Contact, which allows us to give additional support and advice where needed.

Providing grants to parent support groups

In 2021, we awarded grants to 83 parent carer forums and rare condition support groups to help them continue supporting local families of children and young people with SEND.

The grants – made possible thanks to a match-funding partnership between Pears Foundation and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) – formed part of the Government’s £750m emergency Covid-19 funding charities package.

The groups were able to support families at a time of great need, as they were still dealing with lockdown and shielding.

A spokesperson for Alstrom Syndrome UK – one of the support groups awarded a grant – said: “Loneliness is normally a real worry for families, so over the past few years this has been compounded by the pandemic. Your funding has really assisted us to be able to provide further support to families in the most difficult of times and circumstances. Thank you.”

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Helping families to give back

Campaigns and media

During the year our campaigns achieved seven policy changes benefiting around one million family carers, and clinically vulnerable and disabled children. And our media work reached over 29.5 million people, highlighting the issues experienced for families with disabled children. If we had paid for this coverage it would have been an equivalent advertising cost of £988,500. Highlights included our Chief Executive, Amanda Batten, appearing on the Jeremy Vine show, BBC One’s Victoria Derbyshire and Newsnight. And our Head of Policy appearing on Channel 4 News twice.

Vaccines

A large focus of the year was our campaign for priority access to the Covid vaccine for family carers and clinically vulnerable children. This was in direct response to families asking us to campaign on this. In addition, we produced a range of campaign resources, such as template letters, to enable parent carers to get registered as carers with their GP to ensure they would be identified for a covid vaccination. As a result, we formed a new alliance of health charities and have influenced decision making in a new vaccine deployment prioritisation.

“Thank you for all the work Contact does for disabled children – in general, but particularly during Covid times. I listened to your contribution on the Channel 4 News and was really impressed and I am sure that has contributed to making the JCVI come to a decision at last that considers some vulnerable children (12-15) for vaccination. I know you will continue to fight for all the other children like my son who desperately need the vaccine so he can return to school.”

Dr Susi Shanks, a parent of a child with a respiratory condition and learning disabilities

Counting the Costs 2021

We had 4,114 parent responses to our bi-annual survey, Counting the Costs, assessing the finances of UK families with disabled children.

We included a section on housing for the first time, and found that 41% of families with disabled children have a home that doesn’t meet their child’s needs.

Examples included parents bathing their child in a paddling pool downstairs as they are unable to get upstairs; parents carrying their physically disabled child up and down stairs because they are waiting for a hoist; children on the autistic spectrum, who need space and quiet, but are sharing rooms with siblings or parents.

We launched a campaign on this issue exclusively with BBC Two’s Newsnight. We created an action asking families to write to their MP about housing problems, resulting in MPs tabling

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Parliamentary Questions and a meeting with the Minister for Housing. Other MPs have taken up cases with local housing departments.

In November 2021 we launched the main findings from the Counting the Costs survey exclusively on Channel 4 News. We asked supporters to join our campaign to call for a benefits system that genuinely values carers by writing to their MPs. More than 600 supporters got involved and nearly 27 MPs took action by raising the Counting the Costs findings with the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work. The report made a range of recommendations based on the findings that we will work towards and secure change on over the next few years.

We created a range of opportunities for families and supporters to take part in social action this year, with 7,713 responding to petitions and surveys and writing to their MP Our growing number of Parent Champions spoke out in the media, gave evidence to the House of Lords Committee on the impact of the pandemic, and were involved in focus groups shaping our campaigns.

Disabled Children’s Partnership

Contact continued its leading role in the campaign coalition group the Disabled Children’s Partnership (DCP), which now comprises 100 disability charities.

By working together, the disability sector is making a stronger case for more funding for disabled children’s services. Throughout the year, as the country moved out of lockdown, the partnership continued to track the experiences of families with disabled children and their access to services.

The findings highlighted in the partnership’s final report, Then There Was Silence, led to 70 pieces in national media and is used within government as the authoritative source of information and data. Nearly 25% of MPs took a campaign action, 80 MPs signed up as ‘Disabled Children’s Champions’, and our evidence was quoted by Ministers and influenced policy decisions such as restoring therapies.

Most importantly, the Government adopted the DCP’s proposal for an innovation fund for short break and respite services. It announced the ‘Respite Innovation Programme’, a £30m fund for short breaks/respite, which we see as an important first step in demonstrating and evaluating the difference these services make. We hope this will strengthen the case for further Government investment in support for disabled children and their families.

Parent Carer Forums

Contact’s Parent Participation team supports Parent Carer Forums in all 151 local authorities in England. There are now 99,811 forum members, which is up from last year.

We provide a core offer of support for each Parent Carer Forum, including a dedicated Parent Carer Participation Adviser who forums can access via phone and email to help them run their

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

forum effectively. During 2021-22 the Parent Participation team provided 6,029 hours of support to Parent Carer Forums.

Parent Carer Forum member: “Great support as always. Our adviser is always there when we need her and gives really thoughtful and helpful support and advice.”

In 2021/22 we gave out just over £2.5 million in grants to Parent Carer Forums.

In addition, we delivered nine webinars with a total of 1,966 views. We delivered a further 14 online learning sessions as part of the virtual Contact and National Network of Parent Carer Forums (NNPCF) Conference, which took place in two parts – on November 21 and March 22. By the end of 2021/22, the total live attendance and online views across both parts of the conference totalled 1,623.

Ensuring that forums reach out into their communities and engage with families from all groups are key to forums’ success. Forums represent the voice of all families who have children and young people with SEND, and, to do this well, they need to reach as many families as possible.

Past research found that, although forums are often keen to reach out to those they have not yet managed to engage, they are fearful that they will cause offence by not doing so with the appropriate cultural sensitivity.

To help, we partnered with the Diversity Trust on developing an interactive and thoughtprovoking toolkit to enable forums to engage confidently with diverse groups. This was formally launched at the 2021-22 joint Contact and NNPCF conference.

Despite the year’s challenges, Parent Carer Forums and the parents who run them continued to champion the needs of others and support parents locally. The forums reached out to families still struggling with the aftermath of the pandemic and reflected their views and experiences in their meetings with local officials. It was a tremendous achievement by all involved.

Our balance sheet for the year reflects the long-anticipated transfer of funds we have been holding on behalf of the National Network of Parent Carer Forums. We are delighted to have supported the NNPCF from their inception as a representative national body, through to becoming an independent organisation.

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Strategic developments

Contact strategy 2020-2023: Transforming Lives Together

Our vision is that every family with a disabled child feels valued, supported, confident and informed. In order to make progress towards this, our strategy sets out the following ambitions for 2020-2023:

To achieve these ambitions, we set out five aims, and delivered against an implementation plan for each one over the course of the year.

  1. We will be the first charity for families to turn to when they find out their child has a disability.

  2. We will double the number of families we support through our high-quality information and advice service.

  3. We will drive social change, raise more money and support more people – by helping families feel more connected to Contact.

  4. Families will shape our work, so that they get the local help they need in the ways that work best for them.

  5. We will develop a sustainable business model that ensures Contact is here for families with disabled children long into the future.

The plan is underpinned by two key drivers: digital transformation and co-production with families.

We have now completed the second year of our three-year strategy. Whilst the pandemic necessitated some changes in delivery timings, it reinforced that we are heading in the right direction, especially with digital transformation being a key driver. A summary of progress against our ambitions made in 2021-22 is outlined below.

1. Double the number of families we support through our high-quality information and advice services

We are making good progress against this ambition, with the total number of families helped in 2021-22 being 182,826.

We have continued to maintain helpline enquiries at historic levels – via calls, emails and callback appointments this year. However, as a result of our strategy we now answer almost the same number again via digital channels and tools. This enabled just under 9,000 families to get their query answered in this way over the course of the year, freeing up the telephone support for those who need it most. Towards the end of the year we tested a new chatbot, which we hope will continue this trend.

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

In terms of overall reach, this has grown across all our family support offerings (workshops, events, newsletters, social media groups), with the exception of unique website visits of over ten seconds to our advice pages. This metric is down 14% on our 2020-21 figures. As this is such a large number it means that overall we are slightly down on the total number of families helped compared to last year.

This reflects that the previous year’s website figures were particularly high due to the volume of Covid information and particularly vaccine advice that we shared. The transition to a new website could also have had a short-term negative impact on website visits. However, our web reach figure is still higher than at the outset of the strategy, and it is encouraging that our Q4 figures were significantly higher than the previous three quarters, which suggests that the work we’re undertaking to signpost more parents to our digital information and advice services is starting to have an impact.

In addition, this year we have strengthened our online information for families in the early years and seen steady growth in engagement with younger families. Our programmes Brighter Beginnings and By Your Side, which target support for younger families, are well established but delivery was impacted by Covid. We developed a new model targeting families on diagnostic waiting lists, which we will evaluate in 2022/23. The number of supporters and campaign actions, and volume of social media engagement and media coverage all continue to grow. Finally, this year our freelance workforce delivered beyond the planned number of workshops and family activities, reaching over 3,000 families and professionals. The quality and skill of our freelance team continues to be extremely well received and highly rated, which stands us in good stead for the future.

2. Build a sustainable funding model, that is more responsive to families' needs

• Financial model

This year we invested in fundraising streams that generate unrestricted income, including the Contact lottery, regular giving, and business development. The pandemic had a significant impact on some areas of our fundraising but we weathered the turbulence and uncertainty. Since launching Contact’s society lottery in July 2020, we continued digital recruitment, and have recruited over 1,286 players (taking 2,090 chances). Four people won £1,000 each (plus many more winners at lower amounts), including two parent carers supported by Contact.

We were unable to pilot face-to-face fundraising campaigns for the Contact lottery and to recruit regular monthly givers in 2021. However, we launched a pilot face-to-face fundraising campaign in Belfast at the end of the financial year to recruit regular monthly donors.

Our Fledglings offer is growing sales with individuals but continues to feel the effects of the lost trade with schools and other bodies trade during the pandemic. Profitability is improving, and we implemented a number of changes to the model this year. Our business development income stream continues to grow, with a strong focus on securing commissions, consultancy and training. This enables us to deliver primary purpose trading activities to reach and support more families, as well as raise unrestricted income.

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Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

This year we continued to take proactive steps to ensure that we are working in an efficient and cost-effective way, so that as much funding as possible reaches the frontline. To do this, we partnered with Pilotlight, a charity that links charities with companies to provide strategic and operational advice. Through the scheme we worked with financial services company Morgan Stanley, who we asked to examine our operational model and identify any routes to improved cost savings/sustainability. The Morgan Stanley team concluded that we have reduced overhead costs as far as possible via outsourcing and restructures, and that our model is efficient. They identified office rental as an area for future consideration, given the move to hybrid working, which we will explore in 2022. They also identified some potential systems automations, which we are taking forward.

• People, culture and inclusion

In 2020 Contact made a commitment to become an anti-racist organisation, including signing up to ACEVO’s eight principles to address the diversity deficit in charity leadership. We created a Race Equality Group (REG) made up of colleagues throughout the organisation, Chaired by the CEO and with representation from parent carers and the Board. The REG came together to identify, lead and monitor a Race Equality Action plan for Contact.

A lot has been happening over the year, including all staff and Trustees attending unconscious bias/anti-racism training. Colleagues who identify as Black, Asian, or Minority Ethnic have created an internal support and advocacy group called The Network. And we have increased the diversity of our Board. As of March 2022, the Board is 20% Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic, and we are on track to meet our target of 25% by 2023.

We understand that we have a long way to go and remain fully committed to becoming a truly inclusive organisation, building on the work we have started.

More broadly, building on our 2020 results with the independent Best Companies staff survey, we undertook the full survey in 2021. We were proud and pleased to exceed last year’s very positive results, suggesting that our efforts to continue developing and supporting staff have paid off. Contact was assessed as:

During the year we took forward an action plan to utilise the feedback from employees. This included a focus on refreshing our values, and a learning and development programme.

• Environmental sustainability

During the year we became Green Small Business certified. The certification recognises our new environmental policy and action plan and our overall commitment to improving the management of our environmental impact. The certification runs until October 2022, and we are

18

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

busy implementing our action plan and gathering the evidence we need in order to maintain our Green Small Business certification next year.

Overall, we continue to track the progress of our strategy against the following metrics:

Looking forward

We will continue to deliver our strategy in 2022-23.

Under Aim 1, we will work to re-establish Brighter Beginnings and By Your Side – our programmes targeting support for young families, which were impacted by Covid. We will evaluate our work targeting families on diagnostic waiting lists to see if there is potential to extend the approach. We will also explore our links with rare conditions support groups and early years professionals to reach out to families early in their journey.

Under Aim 2, we will continue to develop a multi-channel information and advice service, using parent feedback. Developments will include the introduction of a Chatbot to support families to find what they need on our website.

Under Aim 3, we will continue to grow the number of supporters and campaign actions, and volume of social media engagement and media coverage. We will continue to campaign on the rising cost pressures facing families, and on the government’s SEND reforms in England. A key priority is to draw down on designated funds to pilot a face-to-face recruitment campaign for individual giving and the Contact Lottery. If the pilots are a success, we will roll out the recruitment campaigns during the year.

Under Aim 4, we will continue to build our freelance team and seek out funding to extend our support offer to families across the UK in a hybrid online/ in person format.

And, finally, under Aim 5, priorities include building on our equality and diversity agenda, making progress with our IT roadmap and cyber security projects, and repeating the Best Companies survey to continue to develop our organisational culture. We will review the return on investment for our income-generating activities to ensure best use of designated funds, and progress towards a more robust business model.

19

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Operationally, we were delighted to secure a further three years' funding from Department for Education (DfE) for our information and advice services and parent participation work. We will lead a consortium covering SENDIASS support and children and young people’s participation, as well as parent carer participation, grants for forums, and national information advice and support for families. We will be working in partnership with the Council for Disabled Children, National Network for Parent Carer Forums, and Kids. Never have these services been more needed.

Financial review

The total incoming resources increased by 19% this year to £8,821k (2020/21: £7,388k) and total expenditure increased by 54% to £8,921k (2020/21: £5,786k).

Unrestricted funds

Following the sale of Contact’s City Road building in January 2021, £1,000k was designated for income diversification. £117k of this designated fund was spent in 2021/22. A further £181k was spent in fulfilling unrestricted contracts from designated funds. These are funds we held on behalf of the National Network of Parent Carer Forums, which we released this year, following their formation as a CIC. Excluding these movements on designated funds, the movement on unrestricted funds amounts to £28k (2020/21: £0k).

This year the Trustees continued to place a priority on increasing unrestricted income, which amounted to £3,730k (2020/21: £3,635k, excluding gain on sale of property) and made up 43% of total income (2020/21: 60%). This decrease is due to the gain on the sale of a building being recognised in unrestricted income in 2021/22. Unrestricted income includes contract income of £2,593k (2020/21: £2,632k), which is spent on deliverables stipulated within the contracts. Voluntary unrestricted income of £440k has dropped slightly from the prior year (£478k). However, a number of Trusts and Foundations have generously supported us with unrestricted grants this year, in particular Pears Foundation and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. The flexibility in the way they fund us is of particular value to us.

Support costs (note 5a) have risen in the year due to increased rental costs following the sale of the City Road building in January 2021. A reallocation of salary costs within support cost categories is the reason behind variances from the prior year on these lines.

Restricted funds

There was growth in restricted funds as a result of generous funding we received to support families with disabled children during this challenging year. £2.6m was received from the Department for Education to distribute to parent carer forums. We also received £0.7m from the Pears Foundation and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to administer and distribute grants benefitting local support groups.

20

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Reserves policy and performance

The Trustees have reserves in order to provide some financial security, to fund working capital and to enable the charity to cope with setbacks or take advantage of opportunities. The free reserves comprise general funds excluding the net book value of tangible fixed assets funded by unrestricted funds and excluding the movement in valuation of investment funds. (See note 18a). The target reserve levels represent the free reserves of the charity, which are readily available to be spent on charitable activities. The policy is based on assessment of risk relating to individual income streams for programmes of work.

In 2022/23, Trustees have decided to set the free reserves level between £0.8m and £1.0m.

The level of unrestricted funds at the end of the year was £6.3m. Following the sale of the building in 2021, Trustees decided to designate some of the unrestricted funds to support the future development of the organisation and its service delivery. Funds were designated towards the purchase of a smaller replacement property in the medium term, as space requirements become clearer (£2.5m). Advice was sought from a commercial property specialist who recommended waiting before buying a smaller property to enable the property market to settle and to gain insight into Contact’s requirements within the context of hybrid working. Funds were also designated for income diversification, including growing the Contact lottery and fundraising through individual giving, to ensure the sustainability of the charity over the coming four years (£883k); and also to mitigate against working capital risk (£1m).

Unrealised gains on investments of £274k are not included in the Trustees’ review of general free reserves due to the current volatility. These designations leave £832k in general free reserves.

Planned spend of these designated funds started in 2021/22.

Breakdown of designated funds
Property fund
Income diversification fund
Working capital risk
Obligations under contract		 31/3/2021
31/3/2022
£'000
£'000
2,500
2,500
1,000
883
1,000
1,000
181
-
4,681
4,383

Investments

CCLA were appointed as investment managers during the year. Following the sale of the building, £3.75m was transferred to CCLA’s Charities Ethical Investment Fund. This fund aims for long-term return comprising both capital growth and distributions. It has a wide range of ethical

21

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

restrictions, including avoiding tobacco companies, alcohol producers and companies with significant involvement in armaments, fossil fuel extraction, gambling and pornography. The fund is benchmarked against market comparators. The performance of these funds is monitored by the Business Affairs Committee.

Investments with a fair value of £4,006,465 are included in the balance sheet. With a gain of £274k, it is felt that the CCLA fund remains appropriate to meet the investment objective.

Going concern

As a result of the sale of the building in the previous financial year, it is considered that there are no material uncertainties about the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern in the 12 months following the approval of these accounts.

Risk management

The major risks facing Contact are reviewed by the Board every six months and by the Senior Management Team (SMT) more regularly, and a risk analysis is produced. The major risks identified in the financial year were as follows:

The Trustees review these risks on an on-going basis through the committees of the Board, and satisfy themselves that adequate systems and procedures are in place to manage the risks identified. Where appropriate, risks are covered by insurance. The framework below dictates how we mitigate the identified risks.

In assessing risk, the Trustees recognise that some areas of our work require the acceptance and management of risk if our key objectives are to be achieved. The Trustees believe the above approach is adequate in managing the risks of the organisation.

Objects of the charity

  1. The Memorandum of Association incorporated in 1982 has the objects “to promote the education, welfare and benefit of the disabled, more specifically, but not limited to, caring for children and young people with any form of disability or special need.

22

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

To support parents and families who care for a disabled child or young person by:

a) providing access to good quality advice and information, broad ranging appropriate support and contact with other families which will lead to positive outcomes b) influencing changes in policy and practice in order to substantially improve the quality of lives of parents and families and their children.

Structure, governance and management

  1. Members of the charity guarantee to contribute an amount not exceeding £1 to the assets of the charity in the event of winding up. The total number of such guarantees at 31 March 2022 was 35.

  2. On 1 December 2004, Contact entered into a transfer of charitable undertakings with the Lady Hoare Trust, which is a registered charity number 1067492 and a company limited by guarantee number 3482560. Following the merger a governance review commenced and new Standing Orders were adopted by the Trustees. These Standing Orders were reviewed by the Trustees in 2021.

  3. On 1 April 2018, Contact entered into a transfer of charitable undertakings with HemiHelp, which was a registered charity (number 1085349) and a company limited by guarantee (number 4156922).

This charity was closed on 14 May 2019.

  1. On 4 January 2019, Contact entered into a transfer of charitable undertakings with Fledglings Family Services, which is a registered charity (number 1112618) and a company limited by guarantee (number 4592971).

  2. With regard to the recruitment of new Trustees, the Standing Orders state that “The Board should ensure that the recruitment process is open to all sections of the community, and should consider open advertising and a range of other recruitment methods to attract a wide range of candidates. Candidates should be interviewed formally, and appointed on merit.” In line with this, new Trustees have been recruited via an open and competitive recruitment process during the year. Our Board Member Induction, Support and Development policy outlines a process to support new Trustees and ensure they are provided with sufficient information to enable them to fulfil their duties.

  3. Trustees are elected by the Members at the Annual General Meeting for a three-year term. Trustees can be appointed during the year but must be elected at the subsequent Annual General Meeting. The Standing Orders set out a maximum of three consecutive terms for Trustees, however it is anticipated that the norm will be only two terms, and three terms would only be used in exceptional circumstances.

23

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

  1. As well as meeting regularly as a full Board, the Trustees have also established a number of committees and councils, each with their own Terms of Reference and each reporting back to the Board. These are:

  2. a) a Business Affairs Committee to take delegated responsibility for overseeing all financial and business aspects of Contact to ensure short- and long-term viability, and to report back to the Board accordingly

  3. b) a Governance Strategy and People Committee to take delegated responsibility for ensuring effective and efficient governance over Contact. This includes identifying and proposing new members to the Board, and overseeing all people and administrative support activity that supports the work of Contact.

  4. The Trustees approve the overall strategy of the organisation and delegate the operational management, development and administration of the charity to the Chief Executive. The SMT comprises the Chief Executive, the Director of Resources, the Director of Family Support, the Director of Income Generation, the Director of Participation and Regional Development, and the Director of Advice, Communications and Engagement. The SMT is responsible for the day-to-day running of the organisation, in line with the agreed strategy, and makes recommendations to the Board of Trustees. All Trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no benefits from the charity. Any expenses reclaimed from the charity are set out in note 8 to the accounts. Contact Trustees are covered by Trustee indemnity insurance. A safeguarding lead Trustee works with the trained safeguarding review group. A declarations of interest register is maintained and monitored.

  5. Although not part of the overall governance structure of the charity, we also have a Medical Advisory Panel (MAP). The MAP was established to support Contact in its provision of medical information to families of disabled children and professionals who work with them. The MAP assist in ensuring the accuracy and validity of medical information produced and provided via the website, publications and enquiries.

11.

Statement of responsibilities of the Trustees

The Trustees (who are also directors of Contact for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the report of the Trustees and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

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

24

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended). They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

In so far as the Trustees are aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company’s auditors are unaware, and the Trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditors are aware of that information.

The Trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company's website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Public benefit focus on ensuring that our activities achieve our charitable aims

The Trustees review the organisation's objectives and activities on a quarterly basis each year in line with the implementation of our 2020-2023 Strategy. This report looks at what Contact has achieved and the outcomes of its work within the previous 12 months. The Trustees report the success of each key activity and the benefits they have brought to those groups of people the organisation is set up to help. The review also helps ensure the organisation's aims, objectives and activities remain focused on its stated purposes.

We have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit when reviewing our aims and objectives and in planning our future activities. In particular, the Trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives they have set.

All charitable activities of Contact focus on the support of parents and families who care for a disabled child, and are undertaken to further the charitable purposes for the public benefit.

25

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

UK Bribery Act 2010

Contact commits to a policy of zero-tolerance of bribery in any form. The Board of Trustees and SMT commit to and oversee the implementation of a policy of zero-tolerance, recognising that bribery is contrary to fundamental values of integrity, transparency and accountability and undermines organisational effectiveness. Bribery risk assessment forms part of Contact's overall and ongoing risk management process.

Fundraising review

The majority of Contact’s fundraising is conducted by paid Contact staff. Contact is registered with the Fundraising Regulator. In 2021/22, Contact commissioned a third party, CFP Lottery and Raffles Ltd, to support the launch and recruitment of players to the new Contact lottery. Contact’s fundraising team and CFP Lottery and Raffles Ltd comply with fundraising and Gambling Commission regulations and the Code of Fundraising Practice set by the Fundraising Regulator. Contact’s society lottery is registered with Hackney Council under registration number 105602. No areas of non-compliance have been identified. There were no complaints received on fundraising activities in 2021/22. In this financial year, Contact engaged the services of Zen Fundraising Ltd, a face-to-face fundraising agency, for the purpose of recruiting regular monthly individual givers.

Charity Governance Code

Trustees are continually reviewing the principles of the Charity Governance Code and applying these principles.

Strategy update

This year was the second year of our three-year strategy, which aims to increase the impact of our work, reach more families earlier in their journey, and improve the financial position of the organisation. Our strategy supports our long-standing vision, ‘that families with disabled children feel valued and are strong, confident and able to make the decisions that are right for them’.

Details of our 2020-2023 strategy are included above.

Further information

The Trustees warmly thank all our donors, volunteers and advisers for their valuable help during the year. We also thank our staff for the commitment and skills that they bring to all the varied tasks inherent in running Contact.

26

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Auditor

Sayer Vincent LLP were re-appointed as the charitable company's auditors during the year, and have expressed their willingness to continue in that capacity.

BY ORDER OF THE BOARD

Chris Carr Chairman

Contact 209-211 City Road London EC1V 1JN Date: 15 September 2022

27

Independent auditor’s report

To the members of

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Contact a Family (trading as Contact, the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 31 March 2022 which comprise the statement of financial activities, balance sheet, statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

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 Contact a Family’s (trading as Contact) 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.

28

Independent auditor’s report

To the members of

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Other Information

The other information comprises the information included in the trustees’ annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

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

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 in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) require us to report to you if, in our opinion:

29

Independent auditor’s report

To the members of

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the statement of trustees’ responsibilities set out in the trustees’ annual report, 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 and under the Companies Act 2006 and report 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 the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

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

Capability of the audit in detecting irregularities

In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:

30

Independent auditor’s report

To the members of

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.

A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities . This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

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 section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Judith Miller (Senior statutory auditor)

28 October 2022

for and on behalf of Sayer Vincent LLP, Statutory Auditor Invicta House, 108-114 Golden Lane, LONDON, EC1Y 0TL

Sayer Vincent LLP is eligible to act as auditor in terms of section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006

31

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Statement of financial activities (incorporating an income and expenditure account)

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Unrestricted
Note
£
Income from:
2
439,527
4
996,213
604,451
1,618,471
7,535
1,087
112,664
Other income- gain on Sale of City Road
-
3,779,948
474,204
1,048,803
453,597
2,062,439
66,910
Total expenditure
5
4,105,953
14
273,792
7
(52,213)
-
(52,213)
Reconciliation of funds:
5,540,866
19a
5,488,653
Net income/(expenditure) for the year
Total funds carried forward
Transfers between funds
Net gains / (losses) on investments
Net income / (expenditure) before net gains
/ (losses) on investments
(326,005)
Net movement in funds
Total funds brought forward
Supporting families locally
Supporting families – central information,
Supporting families locally
Property income
Raising funds
Investments
Total income
Expenditure on:
Charitable activities
Supporting families – central information,
Helping families take action for others
Charitable activities
Bringing families together
Helping families take action for others
Bringing families together
Donations and legacies		 Unrestricted
Note
£
Income from:
2
439,527
4
996,213
604,451
1,618,471
7,535
1,087
112,664
Other income- gain on Sale of City Road
-
3,779,948
474,204
1,048,803
453,597
2,062,439
66,910
Total expenditure
5
4,105,953
14
273,792
7
(52,213)
-
(52,213)
Reconciliation of funds:
5,540,866
19a
5,488,653
Net income/(expenditure) for the year
Total funds carried forward
Transfers between funds
Net gains / (losses) on investments
Net income / (expenditure) before net gains
/ (losses) on investments
(326,005)
Net movement in funds
Total funds brought forward
Supporting families locally
Supporting families – central information,
Supporting families locally
Property income
Raising funds
Investments
Total income
Expenditure on:
Charitable activities
Supporting families – central information,
Helping families take action for others
Charitable activities
Bringing families together
Helping families take action for others
Bringing families together
Donations and legacies		 Restricted
£
42,469
310,255
1,065,657
3,495,939
127,108
-
-
-		 2022
Total
£
481,996
1,306,468
1,670,108
5,114,410
134,643
1,087
112,664
-		 Unrestricted
£
478,384
1,109,363
358,825
1,584,485
10,435
73,920
19,569
1,286,617		 Restricted
£
29,019
316,853
1,119,959
967,153
33,848
-
-
-		 2021
Total
£
507,403
1,426,216
1,478,784
2,551,638
44,283
73,920
19,569
1,286,617
3,779,948 5,041,428 8,821,376 4,921,598 2,466,832 7,388,430
474,204
1,048,803
453,597
2,062,439
66,910		 -
380,461
853,861
3,522,328
58,204		 474,204
1,429,264
1,307,458
5,584,767
125,114		 410,841
1,134,586
257,822
1,484,370
52,074		 -
315,416
1,072,079
984,587
73,802		 410,841
1,450,002
1,329,901
2,468,957
125,876
4,105,953 4,814,854 8,920,807 3,339,693 2,445,884 5,785,577
273,792
(326,005)		 -
226,574		 273,792
(99,431)		 (17,327)
1,581,905		 -
20,948		 (17,327)
1,602,853
(52,213)
-		 226,574
-		 174,361
-		 1,564,578
590,996		 20,948
(590,996)		 1,585,526
-
(52,213)
5,540,866		 226,574
535,357		 174,361
6,076,223		 2,155,574
3,385,292		 (570,048)
1,105,405		 1,585,526
4,490,697
5,488,653 761,931 6,250,584 5,540,866 535,357 6,076,223

All of the above results are derived from continuing activities. There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. Movements in funds are disclosed in Note 19a to the financial statements.

32

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Balance sheet

Balance sheet
As at 31 March 2022 Company no. 01633333
Note
Fixed assets:
12
14
Current assets:
15
Liabilities:
16
19a
Total unrestricted funds
General funds
Total charity funds
Total net assets
Designated Fund
Cash at bank and in hand
Tangible assets
Listed investments
The funds of the charity:
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
Net current assets
Restricted income funds
Unrestricted income funds:
Stock
Debtors		 £
104,638
892,792
2,073,483		 2022
£
-
4,006,465		 £
96,942
524,381
3,277,976		 2021
£
126
2,982,673
4,006,465
2,244,119		 2,982,799
3,093,424
3,070,913
826,794		 3,899,299
805,875
4,383,123
1,105,530		 4,681,442
859,424
6,250,584 6,076,223
761,931
5,488,653		 535,357
5,540,866
6,250,584 6,076,223

Approved by the trustees on 15 September 2022 and signed on their behalf by

Chris Carr Chair

Eleanor Christie Treasurer

33

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Statement of cash flows

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Note
£
£
(568,244)
113,751
(750,000)
(636,249)
(1,204,493)
3,277,976
2,073,483
Cash flows from operating activities
2022
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year
Net cash provided by investing activities
Net cash used in operating activities
Purchase of investments
Cash flows from investing activities:
Dividends, interest and rents from investments		 Note
£
£
(568,244)
113,751
(750,000)
(636,249)
(1,204,493)
3,277,976
2,073,483
Cash flows from operating activities
2022
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year
Net cash provided by investing activities
Net cash used in operating activities
Purchase of investments
Cash flows from investing activities:
Dividends, interest and rents from investments		 Note
£
£
(568,244)
113,751
(750,000)
(636,249)
(1,204,493)
3,277,976
2,073,483
Cash flows from operating activities
2022
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year
Net cash provided by investing activities
Net cash used in operating activities
Purchase of investments
Cash flows from investing activities:
Dividends, interest and rents from investments		 £
£
4,818,983
93,489
(3,000,000)
(2,906,511)
1,912,472
1,365,504
3,277,976
2021		 £
£
4,818,983
93,489
(3,000,000)
(2,906,511)
1,912,472
1,365,504
3,277,976
2021
(1,204,493)
3,277,976		 1,912,472
1,365,504
2,073,483 3,277,976

34

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

1 Accounting policies

a) Statutory information

Contact a Family (Trading as Contact) is a charitable company limited by guarantee and is incorporated in United Kingdom.

The registered office address is 209-211 City Road, London, EC1V 1JN.

b) Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) - (Charities SORP FRS 102), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy or note.

In applying the financial reporting framework, the trustees have made a number of subjective judgements, for example in respect of significant accounting estimates. 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 under the circumstances. The nature of the estimation means the actual outcomes could differ from those estimates. Any significant estimates and judgements affecting these financial statements are detailed within the relevant accounting policy below.

c) Public benefit entity

The charitable company meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

d) Going concern

The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern.

There are no significant uncertainties around future funding which the Trustees believe will impact on the organisation continuing as a going concern.

The trustees do not consider that there are any sources of estimation uncertainty at the reporting date that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next reporting period.

e) Income

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

Income from government and other grants, whether ‘capital’ grants or ‘revenue’ grants, is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the grants have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably and is not deferred.

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

35

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

e) Income (continued)

Income received in advance of the provision of a specified service is deferred until the criteria for income recognition are met.

Rental income is recognised in the financial statements in the period it relates to.

Lottery income is received and recognised weekly from a third party. The amount recognised is the player payment less prizes paid. Service charges include a player set up fee and a management fee calculated on income which is recognised in expenditure as it is incurred.

Donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item or received the service, any conditions associated with the donation have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity of the item is probable and that economic benefit can be measured reliably. In accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102), volunteer time is not recognised so refer to the trustees’ annual report for more information about their contribution.

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

g) Interest receivable

Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the bank.

h) Fund accounting

Restricted funds are to be used for specific purposes as laid down by the donor. Expenditure which meets these criteria is charged to the fund.

Unrestricted funds are donations and other incoming resources received or generated for the charitable purposes.

Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular purposes.

i) Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified under the following activity headings:

Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred.

36

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

1 Accounting policies (continued)

j) Allocation of support costs

Resources expended are allocated to the particular activity where the cost relates directly to that activity. However, the cost of overall direction and administration of each activity, comprising the salary and overhead costs of the central function, is apportioned on the following basis which are an estimate, based on staff time, of the amount attributable to each activity.

Governance costs are the costs associated with the governance arrangements of the charity. These costs are associated with constitutional and statutory requirements and include any costs associated with the strategic management of the charity’s activities.

Governance costs are re-allocated to each of the activities on the following basis which is an estimate, based on staff time, of the amount attributable to each activity

k) Operating leases

Rental charges are charged on a straight line basis over the term of the lease.

l) Tangible fixed assets

Items of equipment are capitalised where the purchase price exceeds £1,000. Depreciation costs are allocated to activities on the basis of the use of the related assets in those activities. Assets are reviewed for impairment if circumstances indicate their carrying value may exceed their net realisable value and value in use. Major components are treated as a separate asset where they have significantly different patterns of consumption of economic benefits and are depreciated separately over its useful life.

Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write down the cost of each asset to its estimated residual value over its expected useful life. The depreciation rates in use are as follows:

Computer equipment 3 years
Fixtures fittings and equipment 4 to 12 years
Software development 4 years

m) Listed investments

Investments are a form of basic financial instrument and are initially recognised at their transaction value and subsequently measured at their fair value as at the balance sheet date using the closing quoted market price. Any change in fair value will be recognised in the statement of financial activities. Investment gains and losses, whether realised or unrealised, are combined and shown in the heading "Net gains/(losses) on investments" in the statement of financial activities. The charity does not acquire put options, derivatives or other complex financial instruments.

n) Investment assets

Investment properties are measured in the balance sheet at fair value. Investment properties are not depreciated. Any change in fair value is recognised in the statement of financial activities. The valuation method used to determine fair value will be stated in the notes to the accounts.

o) Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.

p) Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account. Cash balances exclude any funds held on behalf of service users.

37

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

1 Accounting policies (continued)

q) Creditors and provisions

Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.

The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans which are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

r) Pensions

The charity operates a stakeholder auto-enrolment workplace pension scheme and matches employee pension contributions up to a maximum of 5% of their salaries. The costs to the charity are recognised as they are incurred.

s) Grants payable

Grants payable are made to third parties in furtherance of the charity's objects. Grants are accounted for when either the recipient has a reasonable expectation that they will receive a grant and the trustees have agreed to pay the grant without condition, or the recipient has a reasonable expectation that they will receive a grant and that any condition attaching to the grant is outside of the control of the charity.

Provisions for grants are made when the intention to make a grant has been communicated to the recipient but there is uncertainty about either the timing of the grant or the amount of grant payable.

2a Income from donations and legacies (current year)

Income from donations and legacies (current year)
Corporate
Major Donors
Gifts
Legacies
Special Events
Charitable Trusts		 Unrestricted
£
147,613
-
193,125
58,973
9,112
30,704		 £
14,189
-
-
-
18,100
10,180
Restricted		 2022
Total
£
161,802
-
193,125
58,973
27,212
40,884
439,527 42,469 481,996

2b Income from donations and legacies (prior year)

Income from donations and legacies (prior year)
Legacies
Charitable Trusts
Corporate
Gifts
Major Donors
Special Events		 Unrestricted
£
144,147
-
241,637
56,129
18,784
17,688		 £
4,751
500
-
-
20,250
3,518
Restricted		 2021
Total
£
148,898
500
241,637
56,129
39,034
21,206
478,385 29,019 507,404

38

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

3a Income from government grants (current year)

Northern Ireland Executive
Scottish Government
London Borough of Ealing
South Tees Valley Council
NHS England
Total
NHS County Durham CCG
NHS Ealing CCG
Other government bodies
Department for Education		 Unrestricted
£
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
22,008		 £
2,979,802
81,000
17,495
217,415
149,000
76,085
48,522
49,930
11,871
Restricted		 2022
Total
£
2,979,802
81,000
17,495
217,415
149,000
76,085
48,522
49,930
33,879
22,008 3,631,120 3,653,128

3b Income from government grants (prior year)

London Borough of Wandsworth
Total
London Borough of Lewisham
Northern Ireland Executive
Other government bodies
Department for Education
Scottish Government
London Borough of Ealing		 Unrestricted
£
-
-
-
-
-
-
23,273		 £
639,164
95,746
29,159
49,100
12,349
4,000
6,589
Restricted		 2021
Total
£
639,164
95,746
29,159
49,100
12,349
4,000
29,862
23,273 836,107 859,380

39

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

4a
Restricted:
Government grants (note 3)
National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF)
Charitable trusts
Major Donors
Other
Total restricted incoming resources from charitable activities
Unrestricted:
Contractual income
- SEN and Disability Reforms support
- London Borough of Wandsworth
- London Borough of Lambeth
- London Borough of Lewisham
- Northern Ireland Health Board
Government grants
National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF)
Business Development - other
Business Development - Alder Hey
Business Development - Durham
Trading Income
Publication income
Other income
Total unrestricted incoming resources from charitable activities
Total incoming resources from charitable activities
Incoming resources from charitable activities (current year)		 Supporting families
– central
information, advice
and support
£
76,085
12,908
166,000
55,262
-


Supporting
families locally
£
747,710
169,670
123,277
10,000
15,000
Bringing families
together
£
2,798,301
-
697,638
-
-
Helping
families
take action
for others
£
9,025
-
118,083
-
-


2022
Total
£
3,631,121
182,578
1,104,998
65,262
15,000		 2021
Total
£
836,107
346,993
1,119,830
109,671
25,212
310,255 1,065,657 3,495,939 127,108 4,998,959 2,437,813
640,440
-
-
-
-
14,676
50,688
-
-
-
290,409
-
-		 -
226,238
31,576
49,198
27,213
2,333
-
58,990
49,774
159,129
-
-
-		 1,618,471
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-		 -
-
-
-
-
5,000
-
-
-
-
-
2,535
-		 2,258,911
226,238
31,576
49,198
27,213
22,008
50,688
58,990
49,774
159,129
290,409
2,535
-		 2,381,295
226,238
-
-
24,739
23,273
54,824
43,671
-
64,177
241,431
3,435
25
996,213 604,451 1,618,471 7,535 3,226,669 3,063,108
1,306,468 1,670,108 5,114,410 134,643 8,225,628 5,500,921

40

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

4b Incoming resources from charitable activities (Prior year)

Incoming resources from charitable activities (Prior year)
Restricted:
Government grants (note 3)
National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF)
Charitable trusts
Major Donors
Other
Total restricted incoming resources from charitable activities
Unrestricted:
Contractual income
- SEN and Disability Reforms support
- London Borough of Wandsworth
- Northern Ireland Health Board
Pears DCMS Grants
Government grants
National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF)
Business Development
Business Development - Durham
Trading Income
Publication income
Other income
Total unrestricted incoming resources from charitable activities
Total incoming resources from charitable activities		 Supporting families
– central
information, advice
and support
£
8,000
48,859
185,994
74,000
-


Supporting
families locally
£
515,957
298,134
270,197
35,671
-
Bringing families
together
£
302,219
-
639,722
-
25,212
Helping
families
take action
for others
£
9,931
-
23,917
-
-


2021
Total
£
836,107
346,993
1,119,830
109,671
25,212
316,853 1,119,959 967,153 33,848 2,437,813
796,810
-
-
-
16,273
54,824
-
-
241,431
-
25		 -
226,238
24,739
-
-
-
43,671
64,177
-
-
-		 1,584,485
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-		 -
-
-
-
7,000
-
-
-
-
3,435
-		 2,381,295
226,238
24,739
-
23,273
54,824
43,671
64,177
241,431
3,435
25
1,109,363 358,825 1,584,485 10,435 3,063,108
1,426,216 1,478,784 2,551,638 44,283 5,500,921

41

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

5a Analysis of expenditure (current year)

Direct costs
Support costs
HR
Finance
IT
Rental Costs
Monitoring and Evaluation
Management
Governance costs
Total expenditure 2022		 Cost of
raising funds
£
430,252
5,536
9,392
8,320
7,650
-
9,968
471,118
3,086
474,204		 Charitable activities Charitable activities


Governance
costs
£
57,433
-
-
-
0
-
0
2022
Total
£
8,066,297
103,054
174,820
154,867
141,673
93,829
186,267
2021
Total
£
4,994,179
54,763
233,102
138,785
39,525
96,177
268,571
Supporting
families – central
information,
advice and support
£
1,271,505
16,361
27,755
24,587
22,384
27,874
29,680


Supporting
families
locally
£
1,150,014
14,798
25,103
22,238
20,401
39,968
26,689

Bringing families
together
£
5,045,093
64,918
110,125
97,556
89,254
24,314
117,328
Helping
families take
action for
others
£
112,000
1,441
2,445
2,166
1,983
1,673
2,603
1,420,146
9,118		 1,299,211
8,247		 5,548,588
36,179		 124,311
803		 57,433
(57,433)		 8,920,807
-		 5,785,577
-
1,429,264 1,307,458 5,584,767 125,114 - 8,920,807 5,785,577

42

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

5b Analysis of expenditure (Prior year)

Charitable activities

Direct costs
Support costs
HR
Finance
IT
Rental Costs
Monitoring and Evaluation
Management
Governance costs
Total expenditure 2021		 Cost of
raising funds
£
410,841
-
-
-
-
-
-
410,841
-
410,841		 Supporting
families – central
information, advice
and support
£
1,215,550
14,708
62,607
37,275
10,632
32,283
61,501


Supporting
families
locally
£
1,106,563
13,390
56,993
33,933
9,644
39,296
56,021

Bringing families
together
£
2,095,791
25,359
107,943
64,267
18,300
24,598
106,068
Helping
families take
action for
others
£
107,925
1,306
5,559
3,310
909
-
5,496


Governance
costs
2021 Total
£
£
57,509
4,994,179
-
54,763
-
233,102
-
138,785
39,485
-
96,177
-
229,086
57,509
5,785,577
(57,509)
-
-
5,785,577
1,434,556
15,446		 1,315,840
14,061		 2,442,326
26,631		 124,505
1,371
1,450,002 1,329,901 2,468,957 125,876

43

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Grant making
Grants to Support
institutions costs 2022 2021
£ £ £ £
Cost
Pears/DCMS Parent Carer Forums 2,577,524 103,863 2,681,387 -
Pears/DCMS Rare Conditions Group 649,956 47,118 697,074 639,722

Under the Community Challenge programme Pears Foundation and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport funded grants to small parent carer support groups such as rare conditions groups and Parent Carer Forums.

Grant funding to enable the strategic involvement of parent carers in local area strategic decision making & policy development.

Parent Carer Forum (PCF). Throughout the year, 2022:158 organisations received full or partial grants totalling 2022: £2 577 524 (2021 Nil)

Rare Conditions: Throughout the year, 2022: 82 (2021: 67) organisations received full or partial grants totalling 2022: £649,956 (2021: £598,540). No group received more than £10K, these are within direct costs in note 5.

This is stated after charging:

This is stated after charging:
2022 2021
£ £
Depreciation 126 11,303
Operating lease rentals:
Property 122,832 14,247
Other 101,406 138,223
Auditor's remuneration (excluding VAT):
Audit 13,650 16,025

8 Analysis of staff costs, trustee remuneration and expenses, and the cost of key management personnel

Staff costs were as follows:

Staff costs were as follows:
Employer’s contribution to defined contribution pension schemes
Social security costs
Salaries and wages		 2022
£
2,618,345
253,153
87,425		 2021
£
2,484,712
239,121
80,184
2,958,923 2,804,017

The following number of employees received employee benefits (excluding employer pension costs) during the year between:

2022 2021
No. No.
£60,000 - £69,999 2 1
£70,000 - £79,999 - -
£80,000 - £89,999 - -
£90,000 - £99,999 1 1
> £100,000 - -

The total employee benefits including pension contributions of the key management personnel were £419,007 (2021: £394,684). Redundancy Costs were £15,641 (2021: £0).

The charity trustees were not paid or received any other benefits from employment with the charity in the year (2021: £nil). No charity trustee received payment for professional or other services supplied to the charity (2021: £nil). Charity trustees are covered by indeminty insurance.

Trustees' expenses represents the cost of travel and subsistence totalling £5 (2021: £12) incurred by two (2021: two) members relating to attendance at meetings of the trustees.

44

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

9 Staff numbers

The average number of employees (head count based on number of staff employed) during the year was as follows:

Supporting Families - Central
Support
Policy and Communications
Supporting Families Locally
Bringing Families Together
Governance
Raising funds		 2022
No.
8
36
16
7
16
5
2		 2021
No.
10
35
15
6
13
6
2
90 87

10 Related party transactions

Contact received donations totalling £1,000 (2021: £1,000) from one trustee (2021: one). The trustees receive no benefit from donations made to the charity. There are no other related party transactions to disclose for 2022 (2021: none).

11 Taxation

The charitable company is exempt from corporation tax as all its income is charitable and is applied for charitable purposes.

12 Tangible fixed assets

Tangible fixed assets
Cost or valuation
Net book value
At the end of the year
At the end of the year
At the start of the year
Additions in year
Charge for the year
Depreciation
At the start of the year
Disposals in year
At the end of the year
Disposals in year
At the start of the year		 Freehold
land and
buildings
£
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-		 Fixtures,
fittings and
equipment,
software
development
£
75,133
-
(75,133)



Total
£
75,133
-
(75,133)
- -
75,007
126
(75,133)		 75,007
126
(75,133)
- -
- -
126 126

45

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Investment properties
Fair value at the end of the year
Transfer from tangible fixed assets
Disposals
Fair value at the start of the year
Revaluation during the year		 2022
£
-
-
-
-		 2021
£
2,627,898
-
(2,627,898)
-
- -

The investment properties represent the element of the City Road premises previously let out commercially. The building was sold in January 2021 and the disposal is reflected within these accounts.

14
Listed investments
Fair value at the start of the year
Additions at cost
Cash held by investment broker pending reinvestment
Fair value at the end of the year
Investments comprise:
UK Common investment funds
Net gain / (loss) on change in fair value		 2022
£
2,982,673
750,000
273,792		 2021
£
-
3,000,000
(17,327)
4,006,465
-		 2,982,673
-
4,006,465 2,982,673
2022
£
4,006,465		 2021
£
2,982,673
4,006,465 2,982,673

Following the disposal of the City Road property, cash from the sale was transferred into investments.

15
16
Accruals
Prepayments
Accrued income
Deferred income
Trade creditors
Taxation and social security
Other creditors
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
Debtors
Other debtors
Trade debtors		 2022
£
541,117
9,841
70,906
270,928		 2021
£
302,336
9,396
74,535
138,115
892,792 524,382
2022
£
273,476
146,984
21,971
154,184
230,179		 2021
£
180,227
138,558
22,487
120,353
344,250
826,794 805,875

46

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

17 Deferred income

17
Deferred income
Balance at the beginning of the year
Amount released to income in the year
Amount deferred in the year
Balance at the end of the year
18a
18b
Net assets at the end of the year
Tangible fixed assets
Analysis of net assets between funds (current year)
Listed investments
Net current assets
Tangible fixed assets
Net current assets
Net assets at the end of the year
Analysis of net assets between funds (prior year)
Investment properties		 General
unrestricted
£
-
4,006,465
2,244,119
6,250,584
General
unrestricted
£
126
2,982,673
2,558,067
5,540,866		 2022
£
344,250
(344,250)
230,179		 2021
£
306,296
(306,296)
344,250
230,179 344,250
Restricted
£
-
-
761,931		 Total funds
£
-
4,006,465
3,006,050
761,931 7,012,515
Restricted
£
-
-
535,357		 Total funds
£
126
2,982,673
3,093,424
535,357 6,076,223

47

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

19a Movements in funds (current year)

At the start of
the year
Income and
gains
£
£
60,181
216,577
-
81,000
5,218
23,327
-
283,541
Wellbeing
4,482
-
Fledglings
-
22,108
Hemihelp
48,829
16,521
51,570
73,100
4,301
129,893
Brighter Beginnings
95,070
136,242
Wales Family Events
5,441
-
Rare Conditions
8,041
30,000
COVID RESPONSE
5,110
-
Listening Ear
62,022
10,000
Pears/ DCMS Grants
-
701,838
58,288
-
-Strengthening support networks (Wales)
13,363
95,340
- NI Preparing for Transition - National LotteryCF NI
-
74,664
85,766
43,901
-
2,577,524
-
149,000
-
76,085
-
24,499
-
21,229
13,372
9,000
Policy
1,735
114,583
-
12,525
12,568
110,700
-
8,232
535,357
5,041,429
Designated Fund
4,681,442
-
General funds
859,424
4,053,740
5,540,866
4,053,740
6,076,223
9,095,169
Property Fund
Income diversification
Restricted funds:
Obligations to fulfil charitable objects from profit on unrestricted contracts
Total restricted funds
Total funds
Total unrestricted funds
Other funds Northern Ireland
Other Donors
Welfare rights helpline
Bridge House Estates
Other funds Digital
Other funds Policy
Scotland
Core funding for Scotland
By your side
Early years SEN and disabilities
Lambeth Parent Carer Forum
Wellbeing Project Wales
Respiratory syncytial
South Tees & Darlington Family Support
DFE Parent Carers Grants
Other funds
Working capital risk
Purpose of Designated Funds
Supporting families in Ealing
Core funding for Northern Ireland
DfE parent carer forum grants
National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF)
- Me, myself, I and us (N.I)		 Expenditure
and losses
£
(242,966)
(81,000)
(23,327)
(105,594)
(4,449)
(22,108)
(38,243)
(79,154)
(134,194)
(55,483)
(5,441)
(30,898)
-
(68,302)
(701,838)
(58,288)
(94,184)
(52,119)
(72,949)
(2,577,524)
(102,202)
(76,085)
(24,499)
(17,761)
(22,372)
(45,679)
(12,525)
(65,671)
-
(4,814,855)
(298,319)
(3,807,634)
(4,105,953)
(8,920,808)		 Transfers
£
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-		 At the end
of the year
£
33,792
-
5,218
177,947
33
-
27,107
45,516
-
175,829
-
7,143
5,110
3,720
-
-
14,519
22,545
56,718
-
46,798
-
-
3,468
-
70,639
-
57,597
8,232
- 761,931
-
-		 4,383,123
1,105,530
- 5,488,653
- 6,250,584
£
2,500,000
883,123
1,000,000
-
4,383,123

Transfer between funds

In year transfer of funds represents DfE grants to parent carer forums managed by Contact.

48

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

19b Movement in funds (prior year)

Wellbeing
Fledglings
Hemihelp
Brighter Beginnings
Wales Family Events
Rare Conditions
Covid Response
Listening Ear
Pears/ DCMS Grants
-Strengthening support networks (Wales)
Total restricted funds
Designated Fund
General funds
Other regional funds
National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF)
- Capital grant (Building purchase)
By your side
Bridge House Estates
Other funds
- Me, myself, I and us (N.I)
- Ealing NLCF
Total unrestricted funds
Total funds
Policy
Revaluation reserves
Scotland
Other grant funds
Core funding for Northern Ireland
Other building purchase funds
Other funds Policy
Other funds Digital
- Building Purchase Grant
Other national funds
Other Donors
Other London funds
Early years
Welfare rights helpline
DfE parent carer forum grants
Core funding for Scotland
Restricted funds:
Early years SEN and disabilities
Supporting families in Lewisham
Supporting families in Ealing		 At the start of
the year
£
55,849
670
211
41
23,621
-
6,960
89,206
38,773
15,001
39,460
-
-
-
-
-
385,521
20,679
80,635
-
96,380
39,453
1,707
5,211
28
5,153
-
-
39,985
30,000
21,766
109,095
1,105,405
1,722,825
83,316
1,579,151
3,385,292
4,490,697		 Income and
gains
£
327,431
81,000
29,159
50,260
15,901
9,996
39,148
5,828
74,925
164,423
84,409
8,162
38,456
355,565
79,880
639,722
-
53,261
116,463
91,182
-
98,945
-
-
-
-
32,867
20,418
13,431
25,000
11,000
-
2,466,832
-
-
4,921,598
4,921,598
7,388,430		 Expenditure
and losses
£
(323,099)
(81,670)
(24,152)
(50,301)
(39,522)
(5,547)
(46,108)
(46,205)
(62,128)
(175,123)
(28,799)
(2,721)
(30,415)
(350,455)
(17,858)
(639,722)
-
(73,940)
(138,810)
(77,819)
-
(52,632)
(1,702)
(5,211)
-
(5,153)
(19,495)
(18,683)
(53,416)
(42,432)
(32,766)
-
(2,445,884)
-
-
(3,357,020)
(3,357,020)
(5,802,904)		 Transfers
£
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
(385,521)
-
-
-
(96,380)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
(109,095)		 At the end
of the year
£
60,181
-
5,218
-
-
4,449
-
48,829
51,570
4,301
95,070
5,441
8,041
5,110
62,022
-
-
-
58,288
13,363
-
85,766
5
-
28
-
13,372
1,735
-
12,568
-
-
(590,996) 535,357
(1,722,825)
4,598,126
(2,284,305)		 -
4,681,442
859,424
590,996 5,540,866
- 6,076,223

The transfers from restricted to unrestricted funds represent the grants in 2001 for the purchase of the property. Donors have been contacted and will not be recouping grants.

49

Contact a Family (trading as Contact)

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Net income / (expenditure) for the reporting period
(as per the statement of financial activities)
Depreciation charges
Dividends, interest and rent from investments
Income on disposal of Fixed Assets
(Increase)/decrease in stocks
(Increase)/decrease in debtors
Increase/(decrease) in creditors
Net cash provided by / (used in) operating activities
Net gains on revaluations		 2022
£
(99,431)
126
(113,751)
-
-
(7,696)
(368,411)
20,919		 2021
£
1,602,853
11,303
(93,489)
-
3,247,850
(32,042)
108,129
(25,621)
(568,244) 4,818,983

21 Operating lease commitments payable as a lessee

The charity's total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases are as follows for each of the following periods


following periods
Less than one year
One to five years		 2022
2021
£
£
67,500
27,000
-
157,500
67,500
184,500
Property		 2022
2021
£
£
103,620
103,620
-
207,240
Equipment
103,620 310,860

22 Operating lease commitments receivable as a lessor

Amounts receivable under non-cancellable operating leases are as follows for each of the following periods:

Less than one year 2022
2021
£
£
-
2,400
Property		 2022
2021
£
£
-
2,400
Property
- 2,400

23 Contingent Asset

In February 2022 Contact were informed a legacy. However as at 31 March 2022 the legacy could not be measured.

24 Legal status of the charity

The charity is a company limited by guarantee and has no share capital. The liability of each member in the event of winding up is limited to £1.

50