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2022-03-31-accounts

Clifton Children’s Society

A Company Limited by Guarantee Report and Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 March 2022

Charity No: 286814 Company No: 01655971

Clifton Children’s Society For the Year Ended 31 March 2022

Contents Pages
Report of the Trustees 1 - 27
Legal & Administrative Information 28 - 29
Independent Auditor’s Report 30 - 33
Statement of Financial Activities 34
Balance Sheet 35
Cash Flow Statement 36
Notes to Financial Statements 37 - 53

Trustees Report 2021/22

Clifton Children’s Society

Trustees’ Report

The trustees present their report together with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2022.

The names of the trustees (who are directors for the purpose of company law and trustees for the purpose of charity law) who served during the year and at the date of this report are set out on page 28.

Governing document

The Clifton Children’s Society was founded in 1904 and incorporated as a charitable company limited by guarantee on 2 August 1982 and registered as a charity on 12 April 1983. The company was established under Memorandum of Association which set the objects and powers of the Clifton Children’s Society and is governed under its Articles of Association. These were amended by special resolution on 8 April 1997, 14 October 1997, 24 August 2000, 28 September 2006 and 5 June 2008. In the event of the company being wound up the members are required to contribute an amount not exceeding £1 each.

On 1[st] April 2018, the assets and activities of The Centre for Adoption Support and Education (charity number 1153616) were transferred to the Organisation. The Organisation continues the post adoption support work of The Centre. The special resolutions putting this into effect are dated 12 March 2018.

Recruitment and appointment of trustees

The number of trustees shall not be less than 5 but (unless otherwise determined by ordinary resolution) shall be subject to a maximum of 15. At each Annual General Meeting, one-fifth (or the number nearest to one fifth) of the trustees shall retire from office, those longest in office retiring first and the choice between any of equal service being made by drawing lots.

If at the meeting at which a trustee retires by rotation, the vacancy is not filled, the retiring trustee shall, if willing to act, be deemed to have been reappointed unless at the meeting it is resolved not to fill the vacancy or unless a resolution for the reappointment of the Trustee is put to the meeting and lost.

No person other than a trustee retiring by rotation shall be appointed or reappointed a trustee at any general meeting unless recommended by the trustees.

The trustees provide a broad range of skills. The range of skills offered and needed is regularly reviewed. A trustee skills audit took place during 2021/22 with a view to assessing the range of experience and skills within the team and identifying any gaps. The audit focussed on the qualities needed for current operations and strategy. Following the audit, a decision was made to recruit a Treasurer Trustee to bring more accountancy and finance expertise to the Board. In support of this exercise and to provide a comprehensive and concise introduction to the organisation, a Trustee Recruitment Pack was developed. The new Treasurer was appointed on 24 February 2022.

A diversity audit of trustees took place at the same time as the skills audit. The Trustees are keen to ensure they have a Board that is made up of people with different professional expertise, perspectives and life experiences, recognising that diverse teams have been shown to make better decisions and are more likely to innovate. The results of this audit will be considered during any future recruitment campaigns.

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Trustee induction and training

Potential new trustees attend meetings as observers to familiarise themselves with the Clifton Children’s Society. If appointed as a trustee, they undergo a formal period of induction and training on charity law and governance. In 2017/18 the Trustees and CEO held two developmental workshops which reviewed and shaped the trustee’s roles and responsibilities as members of the Board, and the organisational strategy going forward. Trustees act in accordance with the Clifton Children’s Society’s code of conduct. Further opportunities for the trustees to meet together outside of the Trustee meetings will be arranged for 2022-2023, in order to give the space for the board to look at their development and functioning.

Organisation

The Legal and Administrative Information set out on page 28 forms part of this report.

The trustees manage and direct the Clifton Children’s Society’s work and meet five times a year. Working groups of trustees are convened to consider specific issues as needed. The Board has agreed a schedule of delegated authority to the Chief Executive Officer, Margaret Pitts who has overall responsibility for the strategic and operational delivery of the work undertaken by Clifton Children’s Society.

Objects of the Charity

The trustees confirm that they have given due consideration to guidance published by the Charity Commission and that the Public Benefit requirements are met. The object of the Clifton Children’s Society is to benefit the public through the promotion of the relief of poverty and the welfare of children in need from all backgrounds, cultures and all faiths or none by:

Vision

A society in which adoptive families are available for all children who need them, in which Clifton Children’s Society plays a leading and innovative role in valuing relationships, and offering lifelong support.

Activities

CCS Adoption is an independently funded, registered charity and Adoption Agency. The Organisation works to the highest standards to maintain its strong reputation of putting people and relationships at the heart of what it does, evidenced as an Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ rated Agency consistently since 2009 (last inspection 2019).

In 2018, the Organisation brought together its existing adoption service, CCS Adoption with The Centre for Adoption Support & Education (“The Centre”), allowing us to strengthen, broaden and expand the post Adoption support the Organisation offers families.

The Organisation has continued to concentrate on Adoption work as its method of meeting its objects by building a positive future for children. The ongoing evidence of poor outcomes for children raised in public care confirms the importance of the work undertaken and the public benefit in finding permanent families for children through adoption. Research evidence confirms that children who are raised in adoptive families have better outcomes in the quality of their adult

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life than those remaining in public care. The clear public benefit is that these outcomes are a cost-effective use of public funds.

The Organisation aims to provide high quality, independent and professional Adoption services recognising the lifelong impact of adoption. CCS Adoption works to find and support a wide range of adoptive families for children who need them, with a strong commitment to promote Early Permanency through concurrency and foster-to-adopt placements, which allow for a child joining their potential adoptive family much sooner, thus avoiding delay for children.

CCS Adoption offers a comprehensive Adoption service that includes recruiting, training, assessing and approving adopters, and undertaking family finding activities to create adoptive families. Supporting the child and family throughout the adoption process and offering lifelong Adoption Support as well as providing a Clinical Therapeutic Service. CCS Adoption continues to offer a Birth Records and counselling service to adopted people and their birth relatives. These services are offered to children and adults regardless of personal background, faith, gender, ethnicity, culture or disability. One of the Organisation’s values and principals is working in a climate of acceptance and inclusivity, and is therefore open to meeting the needs of all adopted children irrespective of their histories and background.

The Organisation is keen to promote partnership working with other stakeholder groups including Local Authorities, Regional Adoption Agencies, and Education and Health services all within the South West region.

Values

The merger of CCS Adoption and The Centre for Education and Adoption Support in 2017/18 provided the catalyst for Clifton Children’s Society to review the purpose and values of the newly combined Organisation, building a strong plan for the future. The trustees and CEO met for this purpose in 2018, and agreed:

Its core purpose and the driving force behind everything the Organisation does, will be to “ create a positive future for children, by building families and enabling them to grow and thrive”.

To support its purpose, the Organisation will focus and measure itself against four core values and principles:

Adoption, Recruitment & Support

There has been a decrease in the number of enquiries from 259 (2020/21) to 232 in 2021/22. This is due to there being a competitive market with choice for prospective adopters, particularly with online, accessible information events that have a wider reach across the region. Social Media continues to be the main marketing platform for attracting prospective adopters and this has raised their awareness of the choice of agencies that are available to them. We had a significant increase in January and March 2022, compared not only to the rest of the financial year, but was also our highest number of enquiries within a month in our history.

This year CCS Adoption held 17 information events which were delivered online until September 2021, then a mix of online and in-person events until the end of the year to enable us to have a

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comparison, and decide on the format of the events going forward. The breakdown was 13 online and 4 face to face. Some of the online events were held during the day. These events included:

These have been positive events with an average of 9 households attending each (2020/21 - 11) - 153 in total (2020/21 - 150). The average has gone down from last year and this is because we ran more events between September and December while trying to work out whether we would move to more in person events or keep them online. The overall number of attendees has risen slightly. There appears to be a theme recently about enquirers presenting with more of their own personal complexities. We have also seen a number of attendees who have attended events with the RAA or have submitted an REI to be told they will be placed on a waiting list. This has resulted in more adopters coming to us who are not considering the children we are looking to find families for (Priority Children)

This led to 24 prospective adoptive households submitting Registrations of Interest to formally begin the adoption process (2020/21 - 41), of which 24 were accepted into Stage 1 (2020/21 - 36). CCS Adoption also conducted 29 post information day meetings (PICI’s) with potential adopters prior to them joining stage one of the process (2020/21, 41).

CCS Adoption held the following training in 2021/22:

All training courses and materials were adapted to be delivered online during the pandemic; however, since the start of 2022 we have gradually moved some of this training back to in person. Some training has been delivered in a hybrid way, often last minute, as some attendees have had COVID-19, but the response to returning the preparation training in person has been extremely positive. It remains part of the plan that some courses may continue to be delivered online such as the Friends and Family Workshop which, through this method of delivery, can reach family members who live all over the world.

Below are some quotations from attendees of the training days.

Introduction to Adoption Days: “Having attended an introductory event last year and in between, having had discussion with the adoption advisor, the Introductory training inspired to look us more into why we want to adopt. The training session wanted to make us aware of any difficulties in the process of adoption. This along the bibliography we have been reading has made us constantly reflect ourselves to understand the whole process.”.

Preparation day: “I found these training sessions more intense than Stage 1 training but exceptionally helpful. Reading through both the CPR and PAR reports was a great learning experience for many reasons. Firstly, it really helped to envisage what our experience will be like moving forward onto Stage 2 and the documents we will have to read and write. Secondly, it helped to gauge what experiences an adopted child might have. Also, it puts into perspective why children may be neglected due to the history and neglect of their own parents. It was great

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to have bespoke sessions with Jane and Andrea as we could work at our own pace and discuss our own experiences amongst the training sections.”.

Safer Care: “The safeguarding processes being highlighted and outlined in the event of an allegation was useful as it gives some context as to what could happen in that eventuality. While the subject matter of the sessions as fairly heavy and very much "what you shouldn't do" it was delivered in a light way that made it easy to digest without feeling draining.”

Adopting with an existing child: “Great course and so glad Adoption West put me in contact with you, although I knew other adopters were in the same position as us none where on our training events so far so really great to chat and make connections with others with that have adopted with existing children. A great range of adopters and some with a lot of experience already, would defiantly recommend and have fed good feedback into Adoption West also”.

During the year, CCS Adoption approved 17 families as ‘suitable to adopt’ against a target of 26 families (2020/21 - 25 approved), and 24 children were placed with families for adoption against a target of 40 (20/2021 - 31 placed). The number of children placed during the year was unexpected and lower than anticipated and significantly lower than we had capacity to place. There was a significant reduction in the number of siblings placed compared to other years.

The impact of the Practice & Improvement Fund (PIF) project’s Early Permanence (EP) training programme and the Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) restructuring has significantly reduced the demand for CCS Adoption EP placements. Whilst at Panel approved adopters are continuing to be recommended as suitable for EP, 23.5% in the 2021/22 period (44% in 2020/21), CCS Adoption approved adopters were not taken up as an EP placement of choice by the RAA/Local Authorities for any children in this financial year.

The Adoption Panel, which is constituted in accordance with adoption regulations, meets monthly to approve adopters and provide independent scrutiny of CCS Adoption’s adoption work. In 2020/21 in response to the pandemic the Adoption Panel moved to an online forum. Currently the plan is that these will remain online. Consideration will be given to getting panel members to meet in person as the year progresses.

The Panel takes responsibility for making a recommendation on each case and determines whether all issues have been appropriately clarified. The Panel has an independent chair and a central list of independent members who have personal/professional experience of adoption. This includes the Agency Medical Adviser, social work professionals and a management representative. All Panel reports are read by the Agency Legal Adviser to quality assure an applicant’s legal status to adopt. The Agency Decision Maker for Panel moved to the CEO on the retirement of the previous ADM as she was suitably qualified and experienced in adoption work. Since the CEO has been unavailable, the ADM task has been performed by Lindy Wootton, who is also suitably qualified and experienced. This diverse group of people speak from a very informed perspective and provide vital scrutiny, quality assurance, and validation of CCS Adoption’s adoption work.

In total 17 new applications were presented to Panel to be approved as adoptive parents (25 – 2020/21) and all 17 (25 – 2020/21) were approved as ‘suitable to adopt’. Two sets of adopters who had been approved for more than one year were reviewed because they had not yet been matched with children, and were re-approved. 2 sets of adopters withdrew from the process.

Adopters’ experience of Panel continues to receive positive feedback, one adopter said “We would like to put on record the incredible job our social worker, Jane Griffin, did in preparing us for Panel. Not only that, but also for guiding us through the whole process and in preparing us to be adoptive parents. Jane has been incredible throughout, really getting to know us, flagging our strengths and vulnerabilities sensitively and honestly, and discussing how that

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might look in our new family life in a supportive, judgment-free way. We have had to have some difficult conversations, but we have felt comfortable to have them with Jane, knowing that we can be open and honest and be sure that we are all working towards the same goal. We could not have been better prepared for all aspects of the process and that is thanks to Jane. We could not recommend Jane or CCS more highly and we are very grateful for all the support we have received thus far.”

A social worker commented that “Panel comes across as professional and with a clear goal in mind.”

CCS Adoption continues to specialise in recruiting adoptive families for ‘priority children’ i.e. sibling groups, older children and, children of black and minority ethnic (BAME) origins. CCS Adoption’s ‘Adoption Champions’ areas of focus are: Adopters of Children of Colour; LGBT Adopters; Adopters for children with disabilities or complex health-needs; Brother and Sister groups, and older children; and they advocate for this area of adoption in all aspects of work at CCS Adoption, for example, reviewing the website and literature for appropriate language, and arranging information events in communities that represent these constituents. Sadly in 20212022, we were not able to reach our previous numbers in terms of placing brother and sister groups and only 42% of the total number of children placed at CCS Adoption were in sibling groups (2020/21 61%). CCS Adoption’s percentage of LGBT approved adopters 59% (2020/21 - 28%). Where BAME children have been placed 14% have one or more adoptive parent who are similar or the same ethnicity (2020/21, 33%).

Each year over the last 4 years, CCS has seen a decrease in the number of children it has placed. 2020-2021 24 children, then 31 (2019-2020), then 35 (2018-2019) and finally 47 (20172018). Prior to 2017 CCS Adoption has increased the number of children it placed for a few years. However, CCS had a relatively long period between end 2019 and mid 2021 where there were no disruptions, including in the depths of a global pandemic, CCS experienced 3 disruptions in 2021, on placement of 2 children who returned to foster care within a month of placement and one child from a sibling pair.

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For all children placed since 1995 CCS Adoption’s disruption rate is 5.7%; and the disruption rate for 2020/21 is 12.5% (2020/21 – 0%). The smaller number of placements resulted in the 3 disruptions present a much higher percentage than usual. A significant amount of support was provided to the most at-risk adoptive families to ensure that disruptions were minimised. This should be compared to the estimated national disruption rate of 4 -12% as indicated in Julie Selwyn’s research in 2014:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/301889/Final_R - eport_ _3rd_April_2014v2.pdf

The National adoption landscape over the past 12 months has been impacted significantly, not only by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also by the Somerset ruling, details of which can be found here: https://corambaaf.org.uk/updates/president-family-division-gives-final-judgementsomerset-case.

The impact of this initially was a level of delay with children being placed as it appeared many placements had Placement Orders made under similar circumstances. While this was waiting for a conclusion in Somerset, the ripple of this spread and more children, both in adoptive placements and waiting for matches, experienced delays while their cases and the decision making process was reviewed.

Alongside this, the number of children with a plan for adoption decreased compared to the previous year while adopter sufficiency increased, both within RAA’s and VAA’s. The disparity with the Interagency agreement fee between Regional Adoption Agencies and Voluntary Adoption agencies means that Voluntary adoption agencies are only being sought for the children that are not being placed either in house or with other RAA’s. This has resulted in many placements feeling very complex, and alongside the worry around cost of living, many adopters who were approved for siblings have taken a single placement instead, resulting in an unexpected drop in the placements made compared to the placement target.

The Organisation offers lifelong support to adoptive families. All families, with whom CCS Adoption has placed children at any time, are supported through the Organisation’s Adoption Support Services according to need.

The 24 children placed in 17 families in 2021/22 received intensive post-placement support, essential during the early stages of joining a new family (2020/21 - 31 children in 25 families). As at 31 March 2022, CCS Adoption was supporting 21 placements of children awaiting adoption orders (2020/21 - 37). The pandemic caused a significant delay in the courts and therefore Adoption Celebration Hearings were no longer viable, however this has seen a significant shift recently with the number reducing.

In total 120 families were supported on a regular basis during the year (121 - 2020/21), some of which would have been placed/had adoption orders in previous years. The support comes from the social workers, social work assistants, in collaboration with The Centre for Adoption Support and Education (see The Centre below).

From 13 enquiries in total (43 in 2020/21), 7 adopted adults received counselling and an Intermediary and Tracing service, although some of these were from enquiries received in the previous financial year (2020/21, 19). Over the last year, CCS has been able to offer only a reduced service. Social Worker Jude left the advice team and Ange, our long standing Intermediary Social worker retired. This left us unable to allocate many of these cases

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amongst the social Work team and CCS is currently holding a waiting list. The Advice team and Admin are managing the flow of enquiries.

Social Work Review

A review of the Social Work Service was carried out during 2020/21. The aims of the review were:

The following methods were used during the review: a survey of the advice, administration and social work teams, a time and motion study of the social workers, and analysis of data.

The Social Work Review report was completed in February 2021, and the CEO and trustees held a workshop in March 2021 to discuss the findings and recommendations, alongside those from The Centre review. Action plans were developed for implementation in 2021/22, and approved by trustees. More details can be found on page 10 under Post-Adoption Support Project.

The Centre for Adoption Support and Education

The Centre for Adoption Support and Education (The Centre) provides a comprehensive range of specialist post adoption support for children and families. This group support is available for both CCS Adoption’s adoptive families and those who have adopted with other agencies in the region. Services are provided from the very beginning of their adoption journey, for as long as they need it. Services include support for pre-school children, teenagers, parents and families as well as courses and workshops for parents and professionals

The Centre continued to provide support to adoptive families during the COVID-19 pandemic and Government restrictions, with services being adapted for online delivery wherever possible and reverting to face-to-face delivery when restrictions allowed. In total 209 individual families benefitted from the services run from The Centre in 2021/22 (148 – 2020/21), with some families attending more than one group.

The following services were provided:

Tots Group: Our toddler group offer children an important opportunity to play in a safe environment with other adopted children whilst their parents get the chance to make connections with other adoptive families. The main aim of the sessions is to promote and enable attachment through play using a varied range of play activities and themes including; music, books, arts/crafts and cooking, as well as free time to play with toys and explore their world. Experienced staff help to develop the children’s social and emotional needs at the same time as valuing and supporting the significant relationship between them and their parent/s. The sessions run three morning a week, term time only. During 2021/22 a total of 50 children benefitted from a place (2020/21 - 45).

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A-Team: A regular programme of activities for young people aged 12-18 years to participate in monthly events with specific content. This included mountain biking, boxing therapy, jewellery making, trampolining, music and art as examples. Due to the easing of restrictions more young people have benefitted from this service from 8 last year to 23 benefiting from the service this year, an increase of 15 young people.

Mums Group: A support group for adoptive mums to talk with others who understand the complexities and challenges faced around adoption. Sessions are monthly, during the evening and facilitated by an Adoption Support Therapist. Virtual Zoom sessions were held from April to October 2021, with two face-to-face meetings at The Centre during November and March 2022. Numbers decreased slightly in this financial year with a total of 20 adoptive mums benefitting from attending the group compared with 24 in 2020/21. 13 adoptive mums attending only one session during this period.

Dads Group: An opportunity for adoptive Dads to share and talk about particular issues, to hear the thoughts of others and discuss strategies. Sessions are monthly, during the evening and facilitated by an Adoption Support Therapist. Virtual Zoom sessions were held from April to September and in January and February, with four face-to-face meetings at The Centre when restrictions allowed. A total of 19 dads benefitted from these sessions, an increase of almost double from the previous year (2020/21 - 10).

LGBT Coffee Mornings : A social morning for anyone who has started their adoption journey with any agency. Families and prospective adopters meet once a month on a Saturday morning. Service delivery during COVID-19 included a mixture of Zoom sessions, ‘get togethers’ in the park and a Forest School session. A total of 32 families have benefitted from this service, an increase of 9 new families during this reporting period (2020/21 - 23).

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Single Adopter Catch-Up: This service (introduced in August 2020) gives single adopters the opportunity to meet for an informal chat about family life, managing wellbeing and the day to day challenges that come with being a single adoptive parent. Virtual sessions were offered on a monthly basis and numbers have remained consistent with 10 families benefitting from the service, the same figure as 2020-21.

Support Through Early Permanence (STEP ): A group for current, past, or imminently prospective Early Permanence (EP) carers. The group continues to offer 6 weekly virtual sessions and a total of 14 parents have benefitted from this group, a similar figure from 202021. Coordination and support of the EP Network Support List and a STEP Facebook group continues. These various support forums are accessed and valued by EP carers right across the South West Adoption Consortium (SWAC) as ways of sharing experiences and providing peer support for each other, and the number of EP carers accessing support through all three platforms has increased over the year.

Parent and Family Support Groups: These groups have included Wild and Free Forest School, Create and Connect parent art group, family coffee mornings. 56 families have benefitted from one or more of these services.

Workshops and Training for Adopters: The Centre offers workshops and training for families to engage in discussion and build on learning on particular topics. In 2021/22, 12 workshops were delivered as webinars with a total of 78 unique beneficiaries (some people attended more than one workshop).

Families are invited to make a voluntary donation if they attend any groups or workshops and in 2021/22 donations totalled £2,392 (2020/21 - £1,493).

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Centre Review

A Centre Review was carried out during 2020/21. The aims of the review were:

The following methods were used during the review: focus groups (with current beneficiaries of Centre services), staff interviews and analysis of output and impact data.

The review found that Centre services are very well received with beneficiaries remarking: “It’s been a lifeline for us” and “ I’m not sure we would still be a family if I hadn’t had the opportunity to go to that (group )” and “The staff are all amazing”. In terms of the service The Centre provides for all adoptive families (not just CCS families) comments included: “I certainly felt that just because we hadn’t adopted through CCS it didn’t make any difference to how welcome we were made” and “Keep doing what you are doing. You are a lifeline to the adoption network across the South West. I would imagine that if that was lost that would be a massive gap”.

The Centre Review report was completed in February 2021, and the CEO and trustees held a workshop in March 2021 to discuss the findings and recommendations, alongside those from the Social Work review. Action plans were developed for implementation in 2021/22, and approved by trustees.

Post-Adoption Support Project

This project was created in order to develop The Centre services and to strengthen capacity in the Social Work Team to meet the Post Adoption support needs of CCS adopters and the wider regional network.

This project was based on the findings and recommendation of the Social Work & Centre Reviews. It includes increasing PAS staffing capacity in the Social Work Team, streamlining administrative processes, creating a smoother more connected ‘adopter pathway ‘between the Social Work Team and The Centre; and the appointment of a Centre Head who will lead on operational delivery and strategic planning working closely across all Teams, including Fundraising & Marketing, and in the longer term, Therapy.

The proposal was the recruitment of the following posts:

The Head of The Centre role focusses on raising the profile of The Centre internally & externally, and leans towards a business/commercial approach having responsibility for future income generation via partnerships, collaboration with Children’s services. This role provides coordination and link across all teams.

The addition of a Marketing Assistant seeks to strengthen the Centre Marketing presence, and to help promote closer working links between Marketing, Fundraising and The Centre.

The new PAS Manager role in Social Work team would work closely with Head of Centre on throughput of PAS cases to identify support needs of families post Adoption Order.

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This project would:

In order to support this project, the board created a Designated Fund to ensure funding for the project to end March 2023.

Unfortunately, whilst recruitment was successful for the Head of The Centre, Marketing Assistant and two Social Work Assistants; recruiting of the PAS Manager to the support the social work team was not successful. This meant that there was a failure to address the need for additional management in the social work team, and that the desired linking between the team and The Centre was not strengthened.

The Head of Centre has produced positive outcomes for the Centre. A number of strategic partnerships have been sought. A successful example is with Empire Fighting Chance (EFC), a charity in Easton, where a number of adopted young people are able to attend Boxing Therapy sessions delivered by EFC and supervised by The Centre staff.

The Head of Centre and Fundraising Officer were key in developing impact models for The Centre which provide evaluations and statistic on the outcomes for children that attend The Centre services. In addition to an increased offer of activities, this has led to a stronger relationship with Adoption West, from whom we receive a grant to contributed to the running costs of these services.

The Social Work Assistants have been able to provided focused Post-Adoption support to CCS families, which releases capacity for social workers to focus on the assessment of potential adopters and family finding activities.

Therapeutic Support Service

Following the financial deficits for this service since its formation in 2018/19, a review took place in 2019/20, and work has continued to create a sustainable, financial model for the service. The main income stream for the Therapeutic Service continues to be the Adoption Support Fund (ASF).

The COVID-19 pandemic continued to be a challenge for the year and certain parts of the service such as Hearts and Minds parenting programme and Consultations have continued to be delivered online. Organisational staffing also had a significant impact on the team with Head of Adoption (providing line management) leaving in September 2021, and the two Clinical Leads leaving at the beginning of January 2022 to become associates.

A new administrator joined the team in September 2021, as well as a couple of new associates joining the team – one Clinical Psychologist & DDP informed practitioner, and the other a Theraplay and Drama Psychotherapist. A full listing of the team is available on the CCS website.

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Consultations

41 consultation appointments (2020/21 - 52) were completed in total (target 44). CCS families were offered on average 3 appointments a month which were all delivered virtually.

The number of consultations completed in the previous year was higher due to a COVID-19 grant which enabled the team to offer additional slots to Adoption West families.

‘Listened and understood. Given us a safe, non-judgmental space to think and talk. Helped us to feel hope once again’.

Clinical Assessments

The service continued to offer 1 assessment slot a month to families and whilst the parent meetings remained online the child assessment sessions returned to be offered face-to-face. Over the year 17 assessments (2020/21 - 12) were completed (target 10).

The clinical assessments are in the main completed by Dr Jude Courtney and Dr Helen Kirkaldie. When they both became associates in January the surplus being made on each assessment reduced.

‘Expert, empathetic insights for adoptive families’

Therapeutic Interventions

64 packages (2020/21 - 69) of therapeutic support to adoptive families were completed (target 58).

‘Therapeutic services always help us to feel understood, and helps us to better understand our children’s complex emotions and behaviours. They provide us with strategies to support our children and give us space and time to reflect on things. Without the service, we would be struggling a lot more’.

Therapeutic Training

Hearts and Minds Parenting Programme: The 8-week training programme ran three times, in May 2021, September 2021 and January 2022. 23 households attended (2020/21 – 30 families attended), 7 households in May / 8 households in September / and 8 households in January

The course was geared as much towards parents issues and needs as it was to the children’s. It helped parents understand why their children might behave the way they do and provided useful techniques to deal with challenging behaviour. The course provided a really good understanding of the issues/trauma adopted children face, how things/situations affect them and how we can help them through these issues.

TS support programme :(target 6 families). This was proposed to be developed and run however did not take place due to the staff changes in the team.

Adoption Support Fund

In February 2021, the Government confirmed that the ASF would continue to offer invaluable support to adoptive and special guardianship families up to March 2025. This has enabled the team to plan and deliver services for the next financial year and beyond.

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South West Adoption Consortium (SWAC)

CCS continues to be the host agency for SWAC which is a membership organisation comprising three local Regional Adoption Agencies, one Local Authority and five Voluntary Adoption Agencies. The following services were agreed by Members to be delivered by SWAC in 2021-22:

12 Best Practice meetings a year (four focusing on issues of particular interest to managers and senior practitioners)

4 Panel Chairs’ and Panel Advisors’ meetings: SWAC has delivered 5 meetings for Panel Chairs and Advisors. Panel Administrators are also meeting on 11 May 2022 to discuss the Updated Effective Panels book.

2 Medical Advisers’ meetings a year: SWAC has delivered 2 meetings for Medical Advisers during this period.

3 Heads of Service Meetings a year: SWAC has delivered 3 meetings for Heads of Service during this period.

3 Adoption Exchanges a year: Due to pandemic restrictions only 1 Exchange was held in October 2021, another is planned for 14 May 2022.

Children’s profiles and adopters’ profiles will be circulated as soon as they are received : Due to the increased use of Link Maker, SWAC has been asked to circulate very few profiles during this period. SWAC has only circulated 10 children’s profiles (2 of these have been EP) and 0 adopters’ profiles. However, SWAC has recently held 3 meetings with all the agencies in the Consortium to try to encourage collaborative working across the SW region and a Suggested Terms of Reference for this Steering Group has now been drafted and will be presented to the Heads of Service at their meeting on 13 May 2022.

Website and Newsletter: SWAC used the old Somerset.gov website but this has recently been deleted by Somerset, so SWAC does not have a website now. Due to the nature of our role, SWAC has found it easier to communicate via email to SWAC contacts rather than producing regular Newsletters, which often contain out of date information.

STAR Matching Tool: The development of the Strengths and Risks Matching Tool (STAR) began in 2017 when DfE PIF2 grant funding was secured to develop a more evidence-based tool, with the aim of strengthening the quality of matching decisions; improving early identification of support needs; and ultimately, improving stability of placements and reducing risk of disruption.

Matching Tool and Guidance notes was launched nationally by Coram/BAAF on 2 February 2021; attended by over 130 professionals from around the country. CoramBAAF sent out the template of the Tool in early February to all Agencies in England, the Tool was shared with the CVAA, by the CEO and researcher from Bath Spa University presented to the RAA Leaders Group in March 2021.

Bath Spa University had previously desired to undertake follow up research to see how effective the Tool is in considering stability in adoption and as a predictive tool of possible disruptions.

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This would have allowed for further refinement and development of the Matching Tool, particularly as part of the national rollout of its use.

Preliminary discussions had taken place about the University making funding applications to organisations including the Nuffield and SRC. Unfortunately, this research has ceased, as recently the lead researcher from Bath Spa University has changed roles.

Leading, innovating and influencing policy and practice:

Early Permanence (EP): Throughout 2021/22 CCS continued to play a lead role in both National and Regional forums. This included meetings and dialogue with the EP Lead at the DfE and copresenting with CoramBAAF at the EP Network Conference in March 2022.

The CCS EP Lead was also invited to sit on the newly formed DfE national RAA EP Practice and Development Group. Through this work the lead has also presented at two of national forums to share CCS’ EP development experience to enable further progress around the country.

CCS has also partnered with Adoption West, Adopt South West and Aspire to be part of a successful bid for DfE funding to further develop EP services across the South West region. CCS has been actively involved in the recruitment of the newly funded project worker post (employed by Adoption West to be appointed early in the next financial year.)

During the year CCS successfully applied for renewal of the Early Permanence Quality Mark. CCS is once again the first agency to achieve this renewal status and remains one of only 5 agencies across the country to have achieved this award.

CCS continues to run a number of EP Support groups and networks; The 6 weekly Support Through EP (STEP) group, which continues to meet virtually in response to user feedback; The STEP Facebook group with just under 40 members; and the EP Network Support List with over 50 members.

CCS continues to run Introduction to EP courses for its prospective adopters and jointly delivers the full EP Day training with Adoption West. Over 100 EP carers attended the full EP training during the course of 2021/22.

The CCS EP Lead has also co-facilitated an ‘Update to EP practice for professionals’ workshop for SWAC during the year, and continues to send out a bi-annual EP Newsletter to 216 subscribers.

Sharing Stories (our Life Story Work service): Life Story Work (LSW) has been further integrated into the post adoption support offered to families. All adopters are contacted at key points early in their adoption journey (Panel Approval, Matching Risk Assessment stage and 4 months into placement) to help support and equip them to undertake Life Story Work. In 2021/22, a total of 26 CCS families accessed Sharing Stories for casework, consultations, advice and support. This work benefitted 68 CCS children.

During 2021/22 the Sharing Stories service also delivered 2 LSW workshops and started a new series of workshop/discussion groups called Let’s talk About Contact in total 29 families benefitted from these workshops (15 CCS families). The service also designed and co-delivered with the Therapy Service a new course; Riding the Roller Coaster for adoptive families within the first year -18 months of placement. A total of 6 families benefitted from this workshop, 4 of whom were CCS families.

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Sharing Stories has continued to be actively involved as a partner with the Bristol University `Difficult Conversations’. ‘ Difficult Conversations: developing research-led training in dealing with looked after and adopted children’s difficult life story questions’ . The project has now completed and has produced and extensive cache of training materials, videos and further resources which are all available on the Project website. CCS jointly ran a CVAA event with Bristol University to showcase the work of the project in Oct 2021.

Sharing Stories also worked with CVAA to organize and chair a national Modernising Contact Conference held in Oct 2021, which in turn led to the Sharing Stories Manager being invited to represent CVAA (and thus the whole VAA sector) on a newly formed ASGLB Task Group Maintaining Significant Relationships for Children.

OFSTED Inspection

The Organisation was inspected by OFSTED in February 2019 and given the overall quality rating of “Outstanding”, as in the previous three inspections (2015, 2012 & 2010). The OFSTED inspection team found the Organisation to be “Outstanding” in all three areas it considered:

The inspection is a comprehensive review of the work of the Organisation over the previous 3 years involving all aspects of the work undertaken, including recruitment of adopters, preparation and approval process, how matching and linking are undertaken, particularly how the Organisation focuses its work on those children waiting for adoptive families, and all aspects of adoption support. Attention is also directed at how the Organisation contributes to regional and national initiatives to improve adoption services. The inspection included consideration of policies and procedures, data, gathering views from service users including young people in adoptive families, feedback from partner agencies who have placed children with CCS Adoption families and views of outcomes from local authorities where specific contracted services are delivered.

The inspector commented:

“ Adopters receive excellent preparation, support and training prior to adopting their child. They benefit from the extensive training and support provided by the agency that comprehensively prepares them for their parenting role” and

“The agency offers a range of imaginative and creative clubs and activities for adopted children and their parents that are provided in the agency’s children’s centre and in the community. Children and their parents benefit from taking part in after-school clubs, forest club, holiday activities and a tots’ and parents’ club”, and

“ Really impressed with the organisation, CCS is streaks ahead of other agencies”, and

“Leaders and managers have an ambitious vision for the agency. They succeed in providing a centre of excellence that provides high-quality adoption services to parents and children. There is a shared sense of purpose from all the staff and expert knowledge of how to achieve very positive outcomes for adopted children and their parents. There are many innovative and creative projects successfully being undertaken by the agency that are further improving outcomes for adopted children”.

The full inspection report (Unique Reference Number SC048462) may be accessed online at: - - http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted home/Inspection reports

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Grants and External Contracts

Adoption West Centre grant: Adoption West contributed to the costs of running the Centre services in recognition that the RAA adoptive families benefit from the wide range of high-quality services.

Marketing

Website: Following the decision to commission one new website for both CCS and The Centre in August 2019, the new site was launched on 17 March 2021, and focuses on Adoption Recruitment (CCS), Adoption Support (The Centre) and Fundraising. The site uses the new brand colours and is more visually led with fewer words. It is designed to be largely read and interacted with on a phone. The aim has been to maintain a consistent, friendly and approachable tone of voice throughout. The diversity of the children used in our core range of images of children has been increased. All pages of the site lead to a small range of “calls-toaction” that engage users in taking a step towards recruitment, support or fundraising. These calls to action are monitored and reported on in Google Analytics and form part of the organisation’s KPIs.

In 2021/22 website traffic once again increased substantially with a 26% increase in users (25,720 vs 20,422 in the previous financial year). However, there has been a 10% drop in conversions overall. Within the conversions there is a mixed picture with some goals increasing e.g. Event bookings were up by 10% 223 vs 213 but the majority showed a significant decrease e.g. Enquire about adoption forms 30% down with 106 vs 151.

The marketing team continue to manage and update the website’s content and develop new pages and posts as needed. Hosting and support are provided by the original developers of the site, Eckhomedia.

Email marketing : The fortnightly newsletter for existing CCS and Centre adopters was published throughout the year with a distribution of 652 addresses. The newsletter focuses on Centre events, Fundraising and Adoption Support. Average open rates of this email stand at around 50% which is well above industry standards. This year we have begun to use our email lists to promote other CCS adoption support activities with standalone emails to this list e.g. Letterbox and Contact workshops and Hearts and Minds.

Social Media Advertising and Google Search advertising: The organisation continued to use the services of a small digital agency for the management of our Google PPC (pay per click) ads grant and social media adverts across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We also set up a paidfor Google Ad account in this financial year as many VAAs were reporting much greater success with this as opposed to the grant account. In total we invested £3,800 for search ads, display ads and social media ads. And £3,600 as a management fee to the digital agency.

These adverts (Google paid search ads and display ads) accounted for 21% of the users of the Organisation’s annual audience in 2021/22. Social media ads (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) have made up to a further 10% of our audience.

The Google paid search ads and display ads have contributed to 16% of our conversions.

Digital content : The Organisation continues to create content and share that of others on our website, social media and in the newsletter to ensure a steady flow of messaging that seeks to

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The CCS Facebook page has 1,361 followers, The Centre Facebook page has 279 followers, the CCS Twitter account has 1,517 followers and the CCS Instagram account has 314 followers. Content is posted at a rate of one or two posts per day on Facebook and Twitter and twice a week on Instagram. Levels of engagement are highest on CCS Facebook page with an average engagement rate of 6%. It is clear to us that video content and content which is newsworthy is the most engaging content type.

National Adoption Recruitment Steering Group (NARSG)

We continue to take part and contribute to initiatives and campaigns from the NARSG which has taken the place of First4Adoption in leading and coordinating government investment in adoption recruitment. The campaigns are delivered by Freuds in London. The national campaign in October 2021 was lower key in terms of its focus on adoption recruitment in the light of the lower numbers of children waiting and more focused on educating about the complexities and nuances of adoption from birth parent and social worker perspectives. A campaign for June 2022 is expected in addition to National Adoption Week in October.

Fundraising

The Organisation is dependent on fundraising to finance the post-adoption support services provided through The Centre.

Fundraising activities included:

The Organisation does not buy or sell data, engage in telephone fundraising, cold mailing or outsource fundraising to external organisations. The decision not to engage in the aforementioned is taken in order to protect vulnerable people and members of the public from unacceptable behaviour related to fundraising, such as: unreasonable intrusion into a person’s privacy; unreasonable persistent and undue pressure on a person to give money or donation in kind.

Beyond the Fundraising Coordinator and a Fundraising Consultant, those that engage in fundraising are a small number of volunteers who complete fundraising challenge, make the verbal appeal in parishes for the Organisation’s Annual Appeal and help with fundraising administration. All volunteers are provided with an induction detailing the values and principles of the Organisation. The Organisation subscribes to and upholds ‘The Code of Fundraising Practice’ developed by the Fundraising Regulator. In the year there were no complaints received concerning the operation of the fundraising activities undertaken.

In 2021/22, the Organisation had a fundraising target of £150,000. This has been a challenging year for fundraising as charities across the UK felt the impact of the pandemic on their income and fundraising opportunities. The key challenges have been an increase in competition for funding applications, and a decrease in funds available for which the Organisation met the application criteria. Despite the challenges of the last year, thanks to the generosity of CCS supporters, the Organisation raised a total of £57,680, 38% of the target.

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Trusts and Foundations:

With competition for Trusts and Foundation grants still significantly increased due to the pandemic, we have had limited success with applications to Trusts and Foundations in 2021/22.

The organisation generated £8,200 from Trusts and Foundations applications, 10% of our target.

Grants and donations were received from: G F Eyre Trust, Hoddell Charitable Trust, Dame Violet Wills Trust, The Leonard Laity Stoate Charitable Trust, Dandia Charitable Trust, Burgess Salmon Charitable Trust, Bristol Rotary Club, Lennox Hannay Charitable Trust, and Denman Charitable Trust.

In addition to this £16,428 was received from Sylvia Adams Charitable Trust in February 2021 for use in the 2021/2022 financial year, as a result of an application in 2020.

Individual Giving: The Organisation received £14,565 (including Gift Aid) in individual donations, 49% of our £30,000 target.

The Organisation has a small number of regular donors, some of whom have supported CCS for many years. Donations were received as a result of our CEO Christmas Letter (alongside the sale of Christmas cards), ‘In Memory’ donations, donations from ongoing appeals, and donations as a direct result of engagement with the Centre.

To demonstrate fairness and transparency, the Organisation does not accept donations from (or raised by) prospective adopters until they have received their adoption order.

Community Fundraising :

Donations from the Clifton Catholic Diocese contribute significantly to the Organisation’s community fundraising income. The Organisation has a long relationship with the Diocese who continue to support us through annual appeals, crib collections and parishioner donations. Donations totalling £4,073 were received in 2021/22; this is significantly less than previous years as the Diocese’s annual appeal collection was cancelled in 2021 due to reduced income of parishes as a result of the pandemic. Unfortunately, the annual appeal for 2022 has also been cancelled.

In total, £12,736 was received through community fundraising, 80% of a £16,000 target. Community fundraising activities included: Church appeals, supporter and staff-led events, individual sporting and challenge events, individual collection boxes, lifestyle giving and 200 club memberships (supporters who take part in a bi-monthly draw).

Sale of Merchandise:

The organisation received £4,245 through the sale of Christmas cards, achieving 106% of our £4,000 target.

Corporate giving: In previous years, the Organisation has benefitted from ongoing support from local Waitrose branches. Due to the pandemic, donations are now managed regionally rather than store-led. In 2021/22 £333 was received from Waitrose through their Christmas Give a Little Love Campaign.

The organisation also received a £1,000 donation from Amazon, after being nominated for this award by an Amazon employee who is familiar with our work.

In total, the Organisation received £1,333 through corporate giving, 27% of our £5,000 target.

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Legacies: The Organisation did not receive any income from legacy donations in 2021/22. The fundraising team have implemented a legacy giving campaign this year, working in partnership with two Will writing companies to offer our supporters a free Will writing service.

National Adoption Landscape

As reported last year, it has been a very difficult, and unpredictable year for all Adoption Agencies, and the Organisation has operated within a particularly challenging external landscape.

While the issues around COVID-19 have overall settled and a hybrid approach to working has become increasingly normal for the majority of people in the organisation, there has been a commitment to looking at the way we can increase valuable face to face interactions and experiences for adopters, such as face to face training and information events. This is being reviewed in line with other agencies nationally.

Nationally however, the far-reaching effects of the Somerset Judgement have impacted on placements across the country. Many children with Placement Orders were not considered to be compliant and this has caused significant delays in not only the granting of adoption orders, but also the placing of children. While this has been resolved in Somerset itself, there is still a ripple effect further afield. This has specifically caused delays for a number of children linked or placed with CCS adopters.

In addition to this, the number of children with a plan for adoption has reduced. Previously it was seen that this decrease was counterbalanced by an increase in the number of plans for children to be placed under SGO. The latest figures suggest that this number has also decreased; which suggests that there is an overall decrease in children who have plans for permanence in either route, while the number of children looked after continues to increase year by year and is at its highest in the last 20 years.

As a result of this, the sector continues to have an oversupply of adopters and this now outweighs the number of children seeking a placement. There are however still a large number of children with a Placement order that have been waiting for over a year and this is currently under review by CoramBAAF as part of a government initiative. Alongside this, the National Recruitment campaign continues to be focused on recruiting adopters for sibling groups, as the emphasis shifts to ‘keeping brothers and sisters together’ to reduce plans for separation, as well as maintaining the drive to recruit for ‘harder to place’ children (children of colour, older children, and children with medical and /or disabilities).

There is also a much-needed focus on the way contact between adoptive and birth families takes place and whether this is really meeting the needs of adopted children, Adopters or birth families or whether it fits the digital age. Letterbox contact remains the default for most contact plans and when this takes place, it is unsupported, inflexible and these plans are often unchallenged. The Joint Committee on Human Rights launched a new inquiry to understand the experiences of unmarried women whose children were adopted between 1949 and 1976. This enquiry is due to be published in late June 2022. It is unclear what impact this may have on the landscape of adoption at this time.

CCS Adoption remains an active member of the Council for Voluntary Adoption Agencies (CVAA), a membership organisation made up of 33 voluntary adoption agencies across the UK. Members meet on a regular basis to share information and learning across the sector and to provide a voice and link into policy and planning for Children’s Services within DfE. The group also offers peer support forums and a Professionals Practice Programme with accessible monthly training and workshops.

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In addition to this the CEO is a member of the Regional Adoption & Special Guardian Leadership Board, a strategic group made up of LA /RAA /VAA Heads of Service and other multi-disciplinary leads in Children’s Services in order to address the ongoing needs of Looked After Children, and those with a plan for permanency. The CEO also sits as a (non-voting) member of the regional RAA, Adoption West which meets four times a year.

Staffing

Although staff numbers did not grow in 2021/22, there were significant staffing changes within the Organisation.

In September 2021, the Head of Adoption left the organisation. Despite the investment of time and funding into recruitment CCS were unable to recruit to this position. Since their departure the key responsibilities of this role were being undertaken by the two social worker practice managers, Therapeutic lead and the CEO.

Twelve more members of staff left during the year:

It was decided that Head of HR, Facilities and Administration post was to remain vacant for the time being with the key responsibilities being undertaken partly by the Finance Manager, and the HR and Facilities Assistant.

It was decided that the Centre Manager post was to remain vacant, with the role now being undertaken by the Head of The Centre.

Twelve new members of staff started:

The CEO left the organisation in April 2022. Since their departure the key responsibilities of this role are being undertaken by the two Social Work Practice Managers; and the Early Permanence Lead holds the role of Agency Decision Maker. An interim CEO was quickly engaged in April 2022 so that the organisation wasn’t left without a CEO for any length of time.

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IT Investment & GDPR Compliance

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and Government restrictions, changes were made to set all staff up to work from home at the end of the 2019/20 and beginning of 2020/21. This involved equipping all laptops/desktops for remote working, investing in some new laptops, and risk assessing staff home set-ups and providing equipment where necessary. Access to Microsoft Teams and Zoom was made available to all staff, making it possible to conduct internal and external meetings, and to move service delivery such as adopter training, and Centre and Therapy services online where possible.

The investment made in IT in recent years, for example, the upgrade of computers to Windows 10, the replacement of some desktops computers with laptops and the implementation of CHARMS in 2018/19 (a Cloud based case management system), meant that the Organisation was in a strong position to make the transfer to home working.

Investment has been made this year into a new cloud-based telecoms system. This will allow members of staff who are working from home to have access to the telephone system for both incoming and outgoing call from their laptops and mobile phones.

CCS continues to update and review policies and procedures to make sure they are GDPR compliant and to train staff; this was even more important with all staff working remotely during the pandemic.

Environmental and Sustainable Development

The Organisation continues to make steps to become more sustainable. Travel to work and external meetings was significantly reduced in 2020/21 as all staff worked from home in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and Government restrictions. Whilst these restrictions had eased in 2021/22, many members of staff are choosing to hybrid work, splitting time being working at home and in the office. Likewise, many external meetings are continuing to be held online.

As with last year there has the efficiencies introduced during the pandemic e.g. online service delivery, have continued where possible, with physical delivery reintroduced in-part. Whilst not as reduced as during the pandemic, there is a general trend to travelling less.

Organisational Restructure

The Organisation has realised a large deficit in the 2021/2022 financial year, and forecasts a substantial reducing income into 2022/2023 and beyond. Along with numerous vacant roles, including some key roles in the senior management team, it has been decided to undertake a restructure of the organisation in order to reduce the overall expenditure, and provide a structure that the organisation needs for its long-term sustainability. This has been the main focus of the CEO.

Plans for the future

Including the above organisational restructure, the organisation has the following plans for the future.

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support staff to continue to work from home, but ensure that there is a key staff presence in the office each day of the week.

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Financial information

The Clifton Children’s Society’s financial results for the year to 31 March 2022 are set out in detail in the attached financial statements.

The income of £1,138,491 (2020/21 - £1,888,459) includes donations of £24,390 (2020/21 - £42,826). No legacies were received in the year (2020/21 - none).

Interagency and other fees totalled £1,046,988 (2020/21 - £1,304,162).

The interagency fee is a payment made by a Local Authority for the placement of children in their public care with an adoptive family recruited by the CCS Adoption. The fee is a figure agreed by the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies as representing a contribution to the costs incurred in recruiting, preparing and supporting adoptive families.

From the 1[st] June 2018 the recommended Interagency Fee was increased following detailed analysis by the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies (CVAA) and negotiations with The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and the Local Government Association (LGA). The analysis and discussions were initiated because the value of the interagency fee has been eroded by inflation and reduced in real terms.

As advised by CVAA CCS Adoption has used the uplifted fee structure to apply to all placements from 1st June 2018. To prevent any future erosion of the fee, it will be increased on the 1st April each year on the basis of the Consumer Prices Index including owneroccupier’s Housing costs (CPIH) measure of inflation for the preceding calendar year as published by the Office for National Statistics. This annual increase has been applied for placements from 1[st] April 2021.

The fees represent payment for work carried out over the previous months or even years. The timing of the placement of children for adoption will be dependent on a variety of factors, most importantly the needs of the child. This means that there may be fluctuations in the level of interagency fees receivable in the short term. The Organisation prudently only accounts for these fees when they are receivable.

Therefore, it is always necessary to consider figures in relation to a longer time span, typically three years or more.

Expenditure for the year to 31 March 2022 was £1,694,282 (2021 - £1,613,202).

As at 31 March 2022 the Organisation’s net assets were £1,153,097 (2021 - £1,708,888). There was a net decrease in funds of £555,791 (2021 - Increase of £275,257).

Investment policy

The trustees’ policy is to invest funds in short term or immediate access deposits.

Reserves policy

The trustees have a policy of maintaining Free Reserves (Net assets allocated to unrestricted reserves and those of the ‘Reserve Policy’ Designated Fund less Fixed Assets allocated to unrestricted reserves) at a level of 6 months expenditure out of unrestricted and designated funds; at this level the trustees feel they would be able to provide uninterrupted services.

The 6 months expenditure chosen for this is that of the first 6 months after the proposed organisational restructure. The target free reserves level is £617,016 in line with the policy above and the actual free reserves were £597,587 (see Note 16). The actual free reserves

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were therefore in below of the target level. Having reviewed the forecast Income and Expenditure for the year to 31 March 2023 and actual Income and Expenditure for the 3 months to 30th June 2022 the trustees are confident the free reserves are at a level to provide uninterrupted services.

The trustees’ policy is to hold this amount in a Designated ‘Reserves Policy’ Fund. The value of this Fund will be updated each year to reflect the value required by the reserves policy.

There is a restricted reserve for post adoption support. This reserve has come about through the existence of a separate fee, in addition to the Interagency Fee, called the Post Adoption Support Module, which was charged on placements between April 1997 and March 2011. An exercise was untaken in 2018 to ascertain the original value of the individual Post Adoption Support Modules that make up this reserve. After doing so it was agreed that the remaining balance of this fund be calculated based on providing 1 year of Social Worker support to each child based on 24 hours per year at £25 per hour.

In addition to the restricted reserve, the trustees have a designated post adoption support reserve. The purpose of this reserve is to ensure that, in the circumstances of the adoption service being no longer financially viable, that an appropriate proportion of the charity’s assets are devoted to continuing to provide a level of post adoption support in the most suitable way available at the time. This reserve would function in tandem with the restricted reserve in this case. The balance of this fund is also calculated based on providing 1 year of Social Worker support to each child based on 24 hours per year at £25 per hour. This reserve will be increased annually in line with the number of children placed and average salary expenditure.

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Risk review

The Risk Register was reviewed on a quarterly basis during the year in line with the Risk Management Policy.

1. The core business model is reliant on the Interagency Fee

The interagency fee is the largest source of income for the Organisation and changes to this could pose a risk to the income forecast in the future, acknowledging that significant initial investment in undertaking assessments is not always recouped.

The CEO is active in representing the work of the Organisation within the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies (CVAA), and the Regional Adoption Agency, which is vital in maintaining negotiations in the sector regarding the fee and placement activity.

  1. The income from Adoption Support Fund (ASF) does not meet the expenditure of running the Therapeutic Service

The ASF is the funding source for the majority of the Therapeutic Service. In early 2022 the Government announced that the Adoption Support Fund would continue for a further 3 years to end of March 2025. This provides a level of security that the Therapeutic Service has been lacking in previous years. However, whilst the ASF income per clinical package covers the delivery of the package, there is insufficient surplus to cover the other expenditure of running the service, such as the administrative and management costs involved.

3. Fundraising to cover the costs of The Centre

The Centre was previously funded by a grant from its founder. The organisation became financially responsible for The Centre in 2018/19 and has funded activities partly through fundraising and partly through a cross-subsidy from the core business of CCS Adoption. Progress against the fundraising target in 2021/22 underperformed, and the fundraising landscape is likely to remain challenging in the coming year, with fierce competition for Trusts and Foundations funding, and a lack of community and corporate fundraising opportunities as a result of COVID-19.

The Fundraising Strategy will now focus on Trusts and Foundations, Legacies and Individuals, prioritising Return on Investment.

4. Data protection & complying with GDPR

The Organisation deals with sensitive and complex personal data on a daily basis, and recognises it is essential to comply with data protection and GDPR. Risks here include compromising the safety of beneficiaries, a negative impact on the Organisations reputation and resulting fines. This is managed by a comprehensive GDPR compliance process including regular, mandatory training for all staff.

5. Reduction in the number of placement opportunities

There is a trend where Courts are favouring the making of Special Guardianship Orders over Adoption Orders. This has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as the Courts operate virtually and have a huge backlog of cases. In addition, wherever possible RAAs are operating an agenda of self-sufficiency, placing children with their prospective adopters.

Social Work Managers meet regularly with Adoption West Family Finding Manager, and with Local Authorities in other parts of the country. The CEO is part of the Barriers to Matching ASGLB Task Force, and meets with all RAA and VAA Service Heads in the region on a quarterly basis encouraging a joined-up approach to service provision.

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6. Change in leadership & restructure of the organisation creating uncertainty

The CEO leaving the organisation in April 2022 without the opportunity for a new permanent CEO to be recruited and other senior management staff has resulted in a loss of experience & skills, contact base and corporate knowledge.

An additional strain on the wellbeing of staff has result for those taking on increased workloads to cover aspects of those positions whilst positions are vacant, and staff in general in light of current uncertainty.

The plan for the organisational restructure presents certain HR risks to the organisation such as, employment disputes, claims for stress, unfair dismissal, equality & diversity issues, and low morale.

Although this is a difficult time, with many major risks, the trustees are confident of the experience of the staff to undertake the required organisational restructure.

The trustees are confident that once completed the restructure, as well as current systems in place, and the reserves held are adequate to meet these risks.

Trustees

The trustees are a skilled, cohesive team comprising Sally Lockwood who is a retired Social Worker and Counsellor; Peter Golding, solicitor; John Evans, aerospace industry background; Julie Cooke, retired social worker, who was a specialist in adoption and fostering for many years; Catherine Graham, retired Primary School Teacher; Celia Balbernie, retired team manager of Families First Gloucestershire; Richard Tidswell, director of Business Doctors; Nikolas Thompson, manager in Responsible Business & Inclusion for Lloyds Banking Group; and Stephen Lord, General Manager for a security company.

John Barnes resigned as a Trustee on 8th November 2021.

Stephen Allen, accountant, continues his valuable role as an Associate Trustee, and as Company Secretary up to 25[th] October 2021.

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Legal and Administrative Information

Constitution

The Clifton Children’s Society which has been in existence since 1904, initially as the Clifton Rescue Society, was incorporated on 2 August 1982 as the Catholic Children’s Society (Diocese of Clifton), a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity governed by its Memorandum and Articles. On 5 June 2008 the trustee body passed a resolution to change the name to Clifton Children’s Society, to reflect and reaffirm its roots within the Clifton Diocese.

Charity No 286814 Company No 01655971

Patrons: Baroness Floella Benjamin, OBE Jenny Urquhart, Artist President: Rt Rev Declan Lang, Bishop of Clifton The Bishop of Clifton is an Honorary Member and does not fulfil an executive role. Directors and The following served as directors and trustees during the year and since the Trustees: year end

Sally Lockwood , Vice Chair (to 25/10/2021), Chair (from 25/10/2021) Peter Golding Catherine Graham , Vice Chair (from 25/10/2021) Julie Cooke Andrew Stephen Lord , Treasurer, appointed 24/02/2022 Celia Balbernie John Barnes , Chair (to 25/10/2021), resigned 08/11/2022 Richard Tidswell John Evans , resigned 15/08/2022 Nikolas Thompson

Chief Executive Officer & Key Margaret Pitts (to 06/04/2022) Management Personnel: Emma Simpson (from 28/04/2022) Company Secretary: Stephen Allen (to 25/10/2021); Vacant (from 25/10/2021) Registered Office: 162 Pennywell Road, Easton, Bristol BS5 0TX Auditor: Burton Sweet Limited, The Clock Tower, 5 Farleigh Court, Old Weston Road, Flax Bourton, Bristol BS48 1UR (resigned June 2022)

Randall & Payne LLP, Chargrove House, Shurdington Rd, Shurdington, Cheltenham GL51 4GA (appointed June 2022) Bankers: Allied Irish Bank (GB), 19 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1PB (to December 2021)

National Westminster Bank, 44 Caledonia Place, The Mall, Clifton, Bristol BS99 5AJ

CAF Bank, 25 Kings Hill Ave, Kings Hill, West Malling ME19 4JQ Solicitors: Peter Golding, NRG Law, Bush House, 77, 79, 81 Alma Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 2DP

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Statement of trustees’ responsibilities

The trustees (who are also directors of Clifton Children's Society for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report (incorporating the directors’ report) and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom 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 income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

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. 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:

Auditors

A resolution will be put to the Annual General Meeting that Randall & Payne LLP be reappointed auditors to the Clifton Children’s Society for the coming year.

Small company provisions

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

Sally Lockwood Chair of Trustees By order and on behalf of the trustees

Date:

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Trustees Report 2021/22

Clifton Children’s Society

Independent auditor’s report to the members of Clifton Children's Society

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Clifton Children's Society (the “Charity”) for the year ended 31 March 2022 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet, the Cash Flow Statement and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

This report is made solely to the Charity’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Charity’s members those matters we are required to state in 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 Charity’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

In our opinion, the financial statements:

Basis for opinion

We conducted out audit in accordance with international Standards in 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 Charity 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 directors’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

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

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

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Trustees Report 2021/22

Clifton Children’s Society

Other information

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

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

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

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement, the trustees 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 they 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 Charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern

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Trustees Report 2021/22

Clifton Children’s Society

and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the Charity or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

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

Our approach to identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, was as follows:

We assessed the susceptibility of the charity’s financial statements to material misstatement, including obtaining an understanding of how fraud might occur, by:

In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we designed procedures which included, but were not limited to:

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Trustees Report 2021/22

Clifton Children’s Society

There are inherent limitations in our audit procedures described above. The more removed that laws and regulations are from financial transactions, the less likely it is that we would become aware of non-compliance. Auditing standards also limit the audit procedures required to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations to enquiry of the directors and other management and the inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.

Material misstatements that arise due to fraud can be harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at www.frc.org.uk/apb/scope/private.cfm This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Ryan Moore CA (Senior statutory auditor)

For and on behalf of Randall & Payne LLP Chargrove House Shurdington Rd Shurdington Cheltenham GL51 4GA

Date: …………………..

33

Clifton Children's Society

Statement of Financial Activities
(Including Income and Expenditure Account)
Year Ended 31st March 2022
Income from :
Notes
Donations, legacies and grants
2
Charitable activities
2
Other trading activities
2
Investment income
2
Total income
2
Expenditure on :
Promotional and fundraising activities
Charitable Activities
Adoption
The Centre for Adoption Support
Therapeutic Services
Total expenditure
3
Net Income / (Expenditure) for the year
4
Transfers between funds
15
Net movement in funds for the year
Reconciliation of Funds
Fund balance brought forward
15
Fund balances carried forward
15		 Unrestricted Unrestricted
General
Designated
Funds
Funds
2022
2022
£
£
30,124
3,133
810,223
236,765
8,738 -
1,582 -		 Company Number: 01655971
Restricted
Total
Total
Funds
Funds
2022
2022
2021
£
£
£
47,926
81,183
573,847
-
1,046,988
1,304,162
-
8,738
6,562
-
1,582
3,888
850,667
239,898		 47,926
1,138,491
1,888,459
64,118 -
1,048,436
76,058
28,988
62,698
56,173
287,438		 -
64,118
59,244
-
1,124,494
1,090,938
70,373
162,059
127,714
-
343,611
335,306
1,197,715
426,194		 70,373
1,694,282
1,613,202
(347,048)
(186,296)		 (22,447)
(555,791)
275,257
321,158
(321,158)		 -
-
-
(25,890)
(507,454)		 (22,447)
(555,791)
275,257
229,522
1,354,870		 124,496
1,708,888
1,433,631
203,632
847,416		 102,049
1,153,097
1,708,888

The Statement Of Financial Activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derives from continuing activities. The notes on pages 37 to 53 from part of these accounts. Prior year fund comparatives are on note 8.

34

Clifton Children's Society

Balance Sheet as at 31st March 2022
Notes
FIXED ASSETS
Tangible assets
9
Intangible assets
10
CURRENT ASSETS
Debtors
11
Investments
12
Cash at bank and in hand
CREDITORS: Amounts falling due
within one year
13
NET CURRENT ASSETS
TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES
CREDITORS:Amounts falling due after
14
more than one year
NET ASSETS
UNRESTRICTED FUNDS
General Funds
15,16
Designated Funds
15,16
RESTRICTED FUNDS
15,16
TOTAL CHARITY FUNDS		 2022
£
£
535,560
6,101
541,661
282,366
3,540
574,908
860,814
245,266
615,548
1,157,209
4,112
1,153,097
203,632
847,416
1,051,048
102,049
1,153,097		 2022
£
535,560
6,101		 Company Number: 01655971
2021
£
£

538,503

8,144

546,647
596,343
87,704
780,300
1,464,347
277,277

1,187,070

1,733,717

24,829

1,708,888

229,522

1,354,870

1,584,392

124,496

1,708,888
541,661
615,548
1,157,209
4,112
1,153,097
203,632
847,416
1,051,048
102,049
1,153,097

The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the special provisions for small companies under Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006

The notes on pages 37 to 53 form part of these accounts. The financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees on 7th November 2022 and were signed on its behalf by :

S Lockwood

Chair

35

Clifton Children's Society

Statement of Cash Flows for the year ended 31st March 2022
£
£
Cash used in/generated by operating activities
(279,982)
Non-operational cash flows:
Investing activities :
Payments for tangible fixed assets
(11,156)
Payments for intangible fixed assets
-
Transfer of investments to/(from) bank
84,164
Investment income
1,582
74,590
Financing activities
Loan repayments
-
74,590
Net Cash Inflows for the year
(205,392)
Cash and bank balances at the beginning of the year
780,300
Cash and bank balances at the end of the year
574,908
Notes to the Cash Flow Statement
Reconciliation of net movement in funds to net cash flow from operating activities
Statement of Financial Activities: Net movement in funds
(555,791)
Investment income
(1,582)
Depreciation
14,099
Amortisation
2,043
(Decrease) / Increase in creditors
(52,728)
(Decrease) / increase in debtors
313,977
(279,982)
2022		 Statement of Cash Flows for the year ended 31st March 2022
£
£
Cash used in/generated by operating activities
(279,982)
Non-operational cash flows:
Investing activities :
Payments for tangible fixed assets
(11,156)
Payments for intangible fixed assets
-
Transfer of investments to/(from) bank
84,164
Investment income
1,582
74,590
Financing activities
Loan repayments
-
74,590
Net Cash Inflows for the year
(205,392)
Cash and bank balances at the beginning of the year
780,300
Cash and bank balances at the end of the year
574,908
Notes to the Cash Flow Statement
Reconciliation of net movement in funds to net cash flow from operating activities
Statement of Financial Activities: Net movement in funds
(555,791)
Investment income
(1,582)
Depreciation
14,099
Amortisation
2,043
(Decrease) / Increase in creditors
(52,728)
(Decrease) / increase in debtors
313,977
(279,982)
2022		 Company Number: 01655971

£
£

41,521
(1,582)
(8,172)
72,296
3,888
66,430
(1,826)

64,604

106,125

674,175

780,300

275,257

(3,888)

17,318

28

37,927

(285,121)

41,521
2021
74,590
(205,392)
780,300
574,908
activities
(555,791)
(1,582)
14,099
2,043
(52,728)
313,977
(279,982)

Cash Flow Restrictions

Charity law prohibits the use of net cash inflows on any endowed or other restricted fund to offset net cash outflows on any fund outside its own objects, except on special authority. In practice, this restriction has not had any effect on cash flows for the year.

The notes on pages 37 to 53 form part of these accounts.

36

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements

For the Year Ended 31st March 2022

1. Accounting Policies

The principal accounting policies are summarised below. The accounting policies have been applied consistently throughout the year and in the preceding year.

Basis of Accounting

The Financial Statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention and in accordance with the Companies Act 2006 and the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities (Charities SORP (FRS102)).

The Charity is a public benefit entity as defined under FRS102.

Preparation of accounts on a going concern basis

Along with other similar charities and organisations, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many uncertainties to the global economy. The Organisation has realised a large deficit in the 2021/2022 financial year, and forecasts a substantial reducing income into 2022/2023 and beyond. Along with numerous vacant roles, including some key roles in the senior management team, it has been decided to undertake a restructure of the organisation in order to reduce the overall expenditure, and provide a structure that the organisation needs for its long-term sustainability. This has been the main focus of the CEO. The Trustees have chosen to prepare the

financial statements on a going concern basis given the free reserves held by the charity, and with the organisational restructure underway. After the restructure, the 12-month expenditure will have been reduced by 33%. This is forecast to reduce the 2023 year end deficit by 29%.

Fund Accounting

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity.

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

Restricted funds are subjected to restrictions on their expenditure imposed by the donor.

Income recognition policies

Items of income are recognised and included in the accounts when all of the following criteria are met:

Expenditure

Expenditure is recognised in the period in which it is incurred. This includes attributable VAT which cannot be recovered.

Costs of raising funds comprise the costs associated with attracting voluntary income and the costs of fundraising.

Charitable expenditure comprises those costs incurred by the charity in the delivery of activities and services for its beneficiaries. It includes both costs that can be allocated directly to such activities and those costs of an indirect nature necessary to support them.

Governance costs include those costs associated with meeting the constitutional and statutory requirements of the charity and include the audit fee and costs linked to the strategic management of the charity. They have been included within support costs.

All costs are allocated between the expenditure categories of the SoFA on a basis designed to reflect the use of the resource. Costs relating to a particular activity are allocated directly, others are apportioned on an appropriate basis.

37

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31st March 2022

1. Accounting Policies (Continued)

Depreciation

Depreciation of fixed assets is calculated to write off their cost or valuation less any residual value over their estimated useful lives as follows : -

- Office Equipment 33 1/3% on reducing balance - Freehold Buildings (excluding land) 2 % on cost Expenditure on items of less than £1,000 are not capitalised but written off as repair and maintenance. Amortisation - Website

Website development has been capitalised to the extent that it is probable that future economic benefits attributable to the website are likely which will benefit to the charity. The asset is being amortised over its estimated useful life of 4 years. The management reviews the carrying value of this asset annually for impairment. Pension Contributions & Employee Benefits Employees of the charity may join TPT defined contribution pension schemes which are funded by contributions from employees and the charity as employer. The contributions are expensed in the period to which they relate. In the past the charity and its employees contributed to TPT Growth Plan 1,2 and 3. These schemes are multi-employer, defined benefit schemes accounted for as a defined contribution schemes (see Note 22 for the full details of these plans). Full provision has been made for the expected additional liability of the charity in respect of these plans. This liability is reviewed annually and the liability is restated each year at its Net Present Value. The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee's services are received. Debtors Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid after taking account of any discounts due. Bank 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 to the deposit or similar account. Any cash held with a notice period of over three months are classified as investments. Creditors 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 discounts due.

38

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements
2. Income
Collection boxes
Church collections
Gift Aid and donations
School collections
Grants
Donations Legacies and Grants
Interagency fees
Local authority contracts
Other fees
Therapeutic Services Income
Charitable activities
200 Club
Other fundraising
Other trading activities:
Deposit interest
Investment income
Total income		 For the Year Ended 31st March 2022
Unrestricted Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Total
General
Designated
2022
2022
2022
2022
2021
£
£
£
£
£
473 -
-
473
1,063
5,437 -
-
5,437
5,145
16,418 -
2,062
18,480
36,558
-
-
-
-
60
7,796
3,133
45,864
56,793
531,021
30,124
3,133
47,926
81,183
573,847
777,431 -
-
777,431
937,471
-
-
-
-
52,670
29,392
2,813 -
32,205
59,647
3,400
233,952 -
237,352
254,374
810,223
236,765 -
1,046,988
1,304,162
1,883 -
-
1,883
1,847
6,855 -
-
6,855
4,715
8,738 -
-
8,738
6,562
1,582 -
-
1,582
3,888
1,582 -
-
1,582
3,888
850,667
239,898
47,926
1,138,491
1,888,459

Prior year income comparatives are on note 8.

39

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31st March 2022

3. Expenditure
Raising funds
Promotion and fundraising activities
Charitable Activities
Adoption
The Centre for Adoption Support
Therapeutic Services
Prior Year Comparatives
Raising funds
Promotion and fundraising activities
Charitable Activities
Adoption
The Centre for Adoption Support
Therapeutic Services		 Staff Costs Direct Costs
Support
costs
Total 2022
(note 5)
(see below)
£
£
£
£
44,381
8,433
11,304
64,118
832,762
53,317
238,415
1,124,494
113,579
11,603
36,877
162,059
277,382
12,464
53,765
343,611
1,223,723
77,384
329,057
1,630,164
1,268,104
85,817
340,361
1,694,282
Staff Costs Direct Costs
Support
costs
Total 2021
(note 5)
(see below)
£
£
£
£
47,183
5,995
6,066
59,244
848,504
52,742
189,692
1,090,938
94,384
9,326
24,004
127,714
273,023
16,957
45,326
335,306
1,215,911
79,025
259,022
1,553,958
1,263,094
85,020
265,088
1,613,202

Support Costs

Support costs and overheads were allocated between charitable activities and promotional and fund raising activities as follows :

Cost Type
Marketing
Operations
Staff costs (note 5)
Agency, staff development and training
Office costs
Governance and finance
Premises and depreciation
Systems and IT
Support costs are as follows :
Marketing
Operations
Staff costs
Agency, staff development and training
Office costs
Governance and finance
Premises and depreciation
Systems, IT & Amortisation		 Basis of
Apportionment
Usage
Usage
Staff time
Staff time
Staff time
Staff time
Staff time
Staff time
Raising
Charitable
Total
Raising
Charitable
Total
Funds
Activities
Funds
Activities
2022
2022
2022
2021
2021
2021
£
£
£
£
£
£
1,136
10,226
11,362
637
5,730
6,367
56
2,750
2,806
53
2,612
2,665
5,543
173,263
178,806
2899
135,167
138,066
381
11,912
12,293
135
6,290
6,425
843
26,340
27,183
507
23,658
24,165
747
23,354
24,101
218
10,172
10,390
1,781
55,659
57,440
1317
61,415
62,732
817
25,553
26,370
300
13,978
14,278
11,304
329,057
340,361
6,066
259,022
265,088

40

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31st March 2022

4. Net Income / (Expenditure) for the year

This is stated after charging :
Depreciation - Owned Assets
Amortisation - Website
Audit Fees
Operating leases land and buildings
Interest Payable
Discounting of pension contributions
5. Staff Cost and Numbers
Staff Costs were as follows :
Salaries and fees
Social security costs
Pension costs - current contributions (see Note 22)
Income and expenditure impact of the Growth Plan
(see Note 22)
Staff costs are apportioned as follows :
Promotional and fundraising activities
Expenditure on charitable activities
Discounting of pension contributions		 2022
£
14,099
2,043
6,300
17,318
-
192
2022
£
1,280,364
103,561
62,985
(18,360)
1,428,550
49,924
1,396,986
(18,360)
1,428,550		 2021
£
17,318
28
6,360
26,220
5
884
2021
£
1,233,009
104,472
63,679
2,021
1,403,181
50,082
1,351,078
2,021
1,403,181

The number of employees whose total employment benefits (excluding employer pension costs) for the year were in excess of £60,000 fall within the bands as follows:

£60,000 - £69,999 2022
1		 2021
1

The average monthly head count was 50 staff (2021 - 50) and the average monthly number of full time equivalent employees (including casual and part time staff) during the year was 36 (2021 - 35)

Total key management personnel benefits amounted to £67,670 (2021 - £66,811)

Non-statutory severance payments of £31,182 (2021: £nil) were made in the period.

6. Taxation

No liability to UK Corporation Tax arose for the year ended 31st March 2022 or for the year ended 31st March 2021.

41

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31st March 2022

7. Prior Year Fund Comparatives

Income from
Donations, Legacies and Grants
Charitable activities
Other trading activities
Investment income
Total income
Expenditure on
Raising funds
Charitable Activities
Adoption
The Centre for Adoption Support
Therapeutic Services
Total expenditure
Net Income / (Expenditure) for the year
Transfers between funds
Net movement in funds for the year
Reconciliation of Funds
Fund balances brought forward
Fund balances carried forward		 Unrestricted Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
General
Designated
Funds
Funds
Funds
Funds
2021
2021
2021
2021
£
£
£
£
38,278
6,116
529,453
573,847
992,302
285,630
26,230
1,304,162
6,562 -
-
6,562
3,888 -
-
3,888
1,041,030
291,746
555,683
1,888,459
55,816 -
3,428
59,244
706,121
59,376
325,441
1,090,938
22,963
4,373
100,378
127,714
40,802
185,632
108,872
335,306
825,702
249,381
538,119
1,613,202
215,328
42,365
17,564
275,257
(176,697)
176,697 -
-
38,631
219,062
17,564
275,257
190,891
1,135,808
106,932
1,433,631
229,522
1,354,870
124,496
1,708,888

42

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements
8. Prior Year Income Comparatives
Collection boxes
Church collections
Gift Aid and donations
School collections
Legacies receivable
Grants
Donations Legacies and Grants
Interagency fees
Local authority contracts
Other fees
Therapeutic Services Income
Charitable activities
200 Club
Other fundraising
Other trading activities:
Deposit interest
Investment income
Total income		 For the Year Ended 31st March 2022
Unrestricted Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
General
Designated
Funds
Funds
Funds
Funds
2021
2021
2021
2021
£
£
£
£
1,063 -
-
1,063
5,145 -
-
5,145
30,038
1,037
5,483
36,558
60 -
-
60
-
-
-
0
1,972
5079
523,970
531,021
38,278
6,116
529,453
573,847
937,471 -
-
937,471
52,670 -
-
52,670
2,161
31,256
26,230
59,647
-
254,374 -
254,374
992,302
285,630
26,230
1,304,162
1,847 -
-
1,847
4,715 -
-
4,715
6,562 -
-
6,562
3,888 -
-
3,888
3,888 -
-
3,888
1,041,030
291,746
555,683
1,888,459

43

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31st March 2022

9. Tangible Fixed Assets

Cost
At 1st April 2021
Additions
Disposals
At 31st March 2022
Depreciation
At 1st April 2021
Charge for the year
Disposals
At 31st March 2022
Net Book Values
At 31st March 2022
At 31st March 2021
10. Intangible Fixed Assets
Freehold
Property
£
570,847
-
-
570,847
52,195
6,417
-
58,612
512,235
518,652		 Office
Equipment
£
100,364
11,156
(5,166)
106,354
80,513
7,682
(5,166)
83,029
23,325
19,851		 Total
£
671,211
11,156
(5,166)
677,201
132,708
14,099
(5,166)
141,641
535,560
538,503
Cost
At 1st April 2021
Additions
At 31st March 2022
Amortisation
At 1st April 2021
Charge for the year
At 31st March 2022
Net Book Values
At 31st March 2022
At 31st March 2021		 Website
£
8,172
-
8,172
28
2,043
2,071
6,101
8,144

44

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31st March 2022

11. Debtors: Amounts falling due within one year

Trade debtors
Accrued income
Other Debtors
Prepayments
12. Investments
Bank deposit accounts requiring more than
3 months notice of withdrawal
13. Creditors : Amounts falling due within one year
Trade creditors
Taxation and social security
Other creditors
TPT Growth Plan recovery plan
Accruals
Deferred income
14. Creditors : Amounts falling due after more than one year
Other Creditors - TPT Growth Plan recovery plan		 2022
£
195,724
51,327
6,738
28,577
282,366
2022
£
3,540
2022
£
39,702
27,635
1,683
2,357
76,435
97,454
245,266
2022
£
4,112
4,112		 2021
£
247,144
313,820
3,585
31,794
596,343
2021
£
87,704
2021
£
62,760
28,890
1,919
8,412
29,557
145,739
277,277
2021
£
24,829
24,829

TPT Growth Plan recovery plan

TPT recovery plan payments are explained in detail in Note 22, payments are the expected to fall due as follows: (the liability in the accounts is shown at Net Present Value)

Within one year
Between one and five years
In five years or more		 2022
£
2,357
4,112
-
6,469		 2021
£
8,412
24,829
-
33,241

45

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31st March 2022

15. Funds

Designated Funds
Reserves Policy
Post Adoption Support
The Centre for
Adoption Support
Therapeutic Services
Early Permanence
Sharing Stories
SWAC
Family Mentoring
Post-Adoption Support
Project
Restricted Funds
Post Adoption Support
Adoption Support
(Legacy fund)
Family Grants
The Centre Project
Sylvia Adams Grant
Adoption West Grant
Covid-19 Support
Grants		 At
Income
Expendi-
Transfer
At 31st
Income
Expendi-
Transfer
At 31st
1st April
ture
March
ture
March
2020
2021
2022
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
782,788 -
-
24,891
807,679 -
-
(190,663)
617,016
198,600 -
-
18,600
217,200 -
-
13,200
230,400
30,000
7,076
4,373 -
32,703
5,833
27,269
(11,267) -
50,000
254,374
185,632
(81,242)
37,500
233,952
287,438
15,986 -
16,000 -
9,874
13,874
20,000
113
16,642
(3,471) -
43,000
4,060
22,516
21,456
46,000 -
46,000 -
-
4,420
26,236
26,986
(3,670) -
-
-
-
-
11,000 -
-
(11,000) -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
193,788
193,788 -
48,845
(144,943) -
1,135,808
291,746
249,381
176,697
1,354,870
239,898
426,194
(321,158)
847,416
At
Income
Expend-
At 31st
Income
Expend-
At 31st
1st April
ture
March
ture
March
2020
2021
2022
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
88,200 -
-
88,200 -
-
88,200
7,712 -
745
6,967 -
620
6,347
8,130 -
1,000
7,130 -
1,500
5,630
2,890
26,983
29,430
443
6,862
6,863
442
-
22,404
18,043
4,361
16,428
20,213
576
-
24,636
8,095
16,541
24,636
41,177 -
-
481,660
480,806
854 -
-
854
106,932
555,683
538,119
124,496
47,926
70,373
102,049

46

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31st March 2022

16. Analysis of Net Assets between Funds

Fixed Assets
Other Net Assets
Total Funds		 Unrestricted Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Unrestricted Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
General
Designated
Funds
Funds
General
Designated
Funds
Funds
Funds
Funds
Funds
Funds
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
223,061
230,400
88,200
541,661
241,247
217,200
88,200
546,647
(19,429)
617,016
13,849
611,436
(11,725)
1,137,670
36,296
1,162,241
203,632
847,416
102,049
1,153,097
229,522
1,354,870
124,496
1,708,888
2022
2021

The reason for the establishment of the restricted and designated funds for post adoption support is explained in Note 17 . As it is anticipated that the need for drawing on these reserves would only arise when general reserves have been exhausted the post adoption support restricted and designated fund are represented by that portion of the value of The Clifton Children's Society's Freehold Property. In the event that The Clifton Children's Society ceases to receive adequate income the restricted and designated funds would be applied for the provision of providing The Clifton Children's Society's commitment to lifelong post adoption support. The fixed assets of the charity were not donated to the charity in a restricted or designated fashion; however they are best reflected within restricted and designated funds as these funds are only likely to be utilised once the fixed assets of the charity have been liquidated.

Total free reserves for the year are considered to be £597,587, the total of the Reserves Policy designated fund, and general unrestricted funds not committed to fixed assets.

47

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31st March 2022

17. Purpose of Restricted and Designated Funds

Post Adoption Support Restricted and Designated Fund

Following placement and subsequent adoption The Clifton Children's Society has certain ongoing legal and moral obligations to the children adopted through the charity. These obligations can continue for up to 100 years. Although it is not possible to accurately predict the level of finance or timing that will be required to meet these obligations having reviewed the potential future liability it is apparent that this fund needs to be regularly (at least annually) reviewed and maintained to reflect these future liabilities.

The restricted fund arose in respect of placements between 1997 and March 2011 when a Post Adoption Support fee was paid in addition to the Interagency Fee. The balance on the fund has been calculated based on providing one year of Social Worker support to each relevant adoptee based on 24 hours per year at £25 per hour.

In addition to the restricted fund the Trustees have designated a post adoption support reserve. The purpose of this reserve is that in the circumstances that the agency is no longer able to continue to provide post adoption support, that an appropriate portion of the charities assets are devoted to continuing to provide a level of post adoption support in the most suitable way available at the time. The reserve would function in tandem with the restricted reserve in this case. The balance of this fund is also calculated based on providing one year of Social Worker support to each adoptee based on 24 hours per year at £25 per hour. This reserve will increase annually in line with the number of children placed and average salary expenditure.

Adoption Support Legacy Fund

The Clifton Children's Society received a restricted legacy during 2015/16 of £10,000 this is used to provide therapeutic life story work and to support adopted children in education.

Family Grants

These are funds received on the condition that they will be expended on assisting families in need.

Reserves Policy Fund

As explained in more detail in The Trustees' Report (see page 23) The Trustees have a reserves policy of maintaining free reserves at a level of 6 months expenditure. This is to help ensure continuity of service as the timings of income are uncertain.

The Centre for Adoption Support

The restricted fund was created with grants and donations received restricted for the benefit of The Centre for Adoption Support

This designated fund is a fund designated to help ensure the continuity of The Centre for Adoption Support service whilst further funding is sought.

48

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements

For the Year Ended 31st March 2022

17. Purpose of Restricted and Designated Funds (Cont.)

Post-Adoption Support Project

As a result of the reviews of The Centre and the social work service a proposal was presented to the board to strengthen the capacity of the social work team and to widen the reach of The Centre services. This designated fund was created by the board agreements to fund this two year proposal.

Sylvia Adams Grant

These funds were received from the Sylvia Adams Charitable Trust following a successful grant application to provide funding for the Tot's Group and to provide Theraplay Training for appropriate staff members

Adoption West Grant

These funds were received from Adoption West as part of a Post Adoption Support service agreement to provide funding for the activities delivered by The Centre for Adoption Support

Therapeutic Service

The funding received for Therapeutic Services is insufficient to deliver the full service that families require and so a designated fund has been established to meet the expected financial needs.

Early Permanence Fund

This fund is to help ensure the continuity of the delivery of the activities of the Early Permanence Hub after The Practice and Improvement Fund round 2 grant came to an end in August 2019.

Sharing Stories

This fund is to help ensure the continuity of The Sharing Stories Project after The Practice and Improvement Fund round 2 grant came to an end in August 2019.

South West Adoption Consortium Fund (SWAC)

This fund is to help ensure the continuity of South West Adoption Consortium after The Practice and Improvement Fund round 2 grant came to an end in August 2019. As of 1st April 2021, this is now full funded by the SWAC membership.

Family Mentoring Fund

This fund is to help ensure the continuity of The Family Mentoring Project. This project ceased end of March 2021.

Covid-19 Support Grants

This represents three grants funds that were received in direct response to the Covid-19 pandemic resulting from successful grant applications.

£445,431 was received through the Department for Education, to fund 75% of salaries for Adoption, Adoption Support and Therapeutic Services.

£9,999 was received from the Big Lottery to provide focussed Adoption Support to those families most affected by the pandemic.

£26,230 was received through the Covid-19 Adoption Support Fund to provide Adoption Support activities, and Therapeutic Services to families in the Adoption West RAA area.

18. Contingent Liabilities

The Trustees' of the charity recognise it has an ongoing and moral obligation to the children adopted through the charity. These obligations can continue for up to 100 years, with no accurate predictable information available in relation to timing and amounts involved. Refer to the details of the Post Adoption Support Funds in note 17.

49

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements

For the Year Ended 31st March 2022

19. Related Parties

The Clifton Children's Society is managed and controlled by the directors/trustees. None of the directors/trustees received any remuneration for their services.

During the year The Clifton Children's Society paid fees of £ nil (2021 - £ nil) to related parties of the trustees.

Travel expenses of £ nil (2021 £ nil) were reimbursed to the Trustees.

The Trustees, key management and related parties made donations to the charity during the year of £335 (2021 - £1,001).

No other related party transactions occurred in the year or in the prior year other than those reported in this note and elsewhere in the accounts.

The charity relies on the goodwill and generosity of professionals involved as Trustees, Committee and Panel Members giving of their time voluntarily to support the work of the organisation.

20. Operating Leases

The total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases :

Payable within one year 2022
£
-		 2021
£
-

21. Pension Costs

The Clifton Children's Society's employers' and employees' pension contributions are paid into TPT's Growth Plan Series 4 and Flexible Retirement Plan. These are both Defined Contribution Plans. The employer contribution rate is 6% and the employee contribution rate is 5%. Employees can make Additional Voluntary Contributions.

The employer contributions made during 2021/22 were £62,985 (2020/21 - £63,679) The employee contributions made during 2021/22 were £64,057 (2020/21 - £67,884)

50

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements

For the Year Ended 31st March 2022

22. The Growth Plan

In the past The Clifton Children's Society has paid pension contributions into TPT's Growth Plan series 1,2 and 3 .These plans have been closed to new contributions since at least 30th September 2013.

The Scheme is a multi-employer scheme which provides benefits to some 950 non-associated participating employers. The Scheme is a defined benefit scheme in the UK. It is not possible for The Clifton Children's Society to obtain sufficient information to enable it to account for The Scheme as a defined benefit scheme. Therefore it accounts for The Scheme as a defined contribution scheme.

The Scheme is subject to the funding legislation outlined in the Pensions Act 2004 which came into force on 30th December 2005. This together with documents issued by the Pensions Regulator and Technical Actuarial Standards issued by the Financial Reporting Council, set out the framework for funding defined benefit occupational pension schemes in the UK.

The Scheme is defined as a ' last man standing arrangement '. Therefore The Clifton Children's Society is potentially liable for other participating employers' obligations if those employers are unable to meet their share of The Scheme deficit following withdrawal from the scheme. Participating employers are legally required to meet their share of the scheme deficit on an annuity purchase basis on withdrawal from The Scheme.

A full actuarial valuation for The Scheme was carried out at 30th September 2011. This valuation showed assets of £780 million, liabilities of £928 million and a deficit of £148 million.

A full actuarial valuation for The Scheme was carried out at 30th September 2014. This valuation showed assets of £793 million, liabilities of £970 million and a deficit of £177 million. To eliminate this shortfall the Trustee of The Growth Plan has asked the participating employers to pay additional contributions to The Scheme .

A full actuarial valuation for The Scheme was carried out at 30th September 2017. This valuation showed assets of £794.9 million, liabilities of £926.4 million and a deficit of £131.5 million.

A full actuarial valuation for The Scheme was carried out at 30th September 2020. This valuation showed assets of £800.3 million, liabilities of £831.9 million and a deficit of £31.6 million.

As the deficit had significantly reduced The Trustee of The Growth Plan announced the implementation of a new recovery plan with effect from 1st April 2022. Under the new plan, the total deficit contributions due from employers have reduced from 1 April 2022 and each employer’s share of the new amount will continue to be based on its own percentage share of the Plan’s liabilities.

Deficit contributions (total payable from all 950 employers)

Original recovery plan :

From 1st April 2016 to 30th September 2025, £12,945,440 per annum payable monthly and increasing by 3% on each 1st April.

From 1st April 2016 to 30th September 2028, £54,560 per annum payable monthly and increasing by 3% on each 1st April.

2018 Revised recovery plan : From 1st April 2019 to 31st January 2025, £11,243,000 per annum payable monthly and increasing by 3% on each 1st April.

51

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements

For the Year Ended 31st March 2022

22. The Growth Plan (Cont.)

2022 Revised recovery plan :

From 1st April 2022 to 31st January 2025, £3,312,000 per annum payable monthly with no annual increase

Unless a concession has been agreed with the Trustee of The Growth Plan the term to 31st January 2025 applies.

The recovery plan contributions are allocated to each participating employer in line with their estimated share of the Series 1 and Series 2 liabilities.

Where the scheme is in deficit and The Clifton Children's Society has agreed a deficit funding arrangement The Clifton Children's Society recognises a liability for this obligation. The amount recognised recognised is the net present value of the deficit reduction contributions payable under the agreement that relates to the deficit. The net present value is calculated using the discount rate detailed in these disclosures. The unwinding of the discount rate is recognised as a finance cost.

31/03/2022 31/03/2021 31/03/2020
£ £ £
Present Value of provision 6,469 33,241 39,387
Reconciliation of opening and closing provisions
2022 2021
£ £
Provision at start of year 33,241 39,387
Unwinding of discount factor 192 884
Deficit contribution paid (8,412) (8,167)
Remeasurements - impact of any change in assumptions (149) 1,137
Remeasurements - amendments to the contribution schedule (18,403) -
Provision at end of year 6,469 33,241
Income and expenditure impact
Interest expense 192 884
Remeasurements - impact of any change in assumptions (149) 1,137
Remeasurements - amendments to the contribution schedule (18,403) -
(18,360) 2,021
Assumptions
31/03/2022 31/03/2021 31/03/2020
Rate of discount % per annum 2.35% 0.66% 2.53%

The discount rates shown above are the equivalent single discount rates which, when used to discount the future recovery plan contributions due, would give the same results as using a full AA corporate bond yield curve to discount the same recovery plan contributions.

52

Clifton Children's Society

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31st March 2022

22. The Growth Plan (Cont.)

Deficit Contribution Schedule

The following schedule details the actual contributions payable by The Clifton Children's Society each year.

Year ending 31st March
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6		 2022
2021
2020
£
£
£
2,357
8,412
8,167
2,357
8,664
8,412
1,964
8,924
8,664
7,660
8,924
7,660
6,678
33,660
41,827

If The Clifton Children's Society ceased to participate in the scheme there would be a debt on withdrawal payable TPT have estimated this debt on withdrawal as at 30th September 2021 to be £82,442 (30th September 2020 £122,271). As there are no plans to withdraw from the scheme this liability has not been accounted for.

Plan expenses

Previously, the deficit contributions paid by employers included an allowance to cover the running costs of the Plan; these include TPT’s internal administration costs as well as external advisory costs and pension levies. For the 2017 valuation the allowance was £3.6m p.a.

Following consultation with the Employers Committee, it has been agreed that the expenses for running the Plan should be accounted for separately from deficit contributions. This approach is more transparent and has the benefit to employers of reducing the value of deficit contributions that must be disclosed in employer accounts for the purposes of FRS102.

The total amount of expenses paid by employers each year remains broadly unchanged. Rather than these being included in the deficit contributions paid, expenses will in future be shown and charged for separately. The annual expenses charge from 1 April 2022 is £3.7m per annum and will increase by 3% each year. The expenses contribution will be reviewed again at the 2023 valuation.

It was also agreed that, like the deficit contributions, the Plan expenses will continue to be allocated based upon each employer’s percentage share of liabilities.

53