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2023-03-31-accounts

Our community. Our charity. Report and financial statements 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023

COMPANY NUMBER 1955570 CHARITY NUMBER 293340

OUR MISSION

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Our mission is to empower everyone affected by bipolar to live well and fulfil their potential. We will achieve it by continuing to grow a community of support that connects people through lived experience and by acting as the voice of our community to challenge stigma and across improve healthcare services the UK.

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CONTENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Contents

Contents
Reference and administrative information 4
Trustees’ annual report 5
CEO Message 2022/23 6
Objectives and activities 7
Review of achievements 10
Our peer support services 13
Evaluating our services 15
The year in numbers 18
Financial review 21
Reserves policy 22
Fundraising 23
Plans for the future 25
Management and governance 26
Statement of responsibilities of the Trustees 28
Independent auditor’s report 29
Statement of fnancial activities 31
Balance sheet 32
Statement of cash fows 33
Notes to fnancial statements 34
Thank you 47

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REFERENCE & ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Reference and Administrative Information

Company number

1955570

Country of incorporation United Kingdom

Charity number 293340

Country of registration

England & Wales

Registered office and operational address 32 Cubitt Street, London WC1X 0LR

Trustees

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

Key management personnel

Simon Kitchen, Chief Executive Rosie Phillips, Deputy Chief Executive

Bankers

CAF Bank 25 Kings Hill Avenue Kings Hill West Malling Kent ME19 4JQ

National Westminster Bank plc 5 Market Place Kingston Upon Thames Surrey KT1 1JX

Solicitors

Guy Paisner, Chair

Nadia Silver, Vice Chair

Sarita Dent, Treasurer (until March 2023)

Dan Whitlam (Appointed December 2022), Treasurer (from April 2023)

Hilary Samson-Barry Alice Alphandary Melissa Barnett Jeremy Clark Derek Dale KC (Appointed December 2022)

Carter Bells Kings’ Stone House 12 High Street Kingston Upon Thames Surrey KT1 1HD

Auditor

Sayer Vincent LLP Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditor Invicta House 108 - 114 Golden Lane London EC1Y 0TL

Robert Print Bill Walden-Jones Dr Aditya Sharma Louis Constandinos (Appointed December 2022) Ed Butcher (Appointed December 2022)

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TRUSTEE’S ANNUAL REPORT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Trustees’ Annual Report

The trustees present their report and the audited financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2023.

Reference and administrative information set out on page 4 forms part of this report. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, the memorandum and articles of association, the requirements of a directors’ report as required under company law, and the Statement of Recommended Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities: SORP applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS 102.

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CEO MESSAGE 2022/23

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

CEO Message 2022/23

Simon Kitchen Chief Executive Officer Bipolar UK

2022/23 marked my fifth year as CEO of Bipolar UK. Leading this charity has been the biggest privilege of my life so far. I’m proud of so many of our achievements but know there is so much more to do.

and family are affected) and accounts for 17% of the total burden of mental illness. Despite being the only UK-wide, bipolar-specific charity, we are only a fraction of the size of other condition-specific charities with similar levels of need. By focusing on our communications, we therefore aim not just to raise awareness of bipolar and how it can be managed, but also to reach those members of our wider community who have the motivation, time and commitment to help us but who don’t even know we exist.

The findings from the Bipolar Commission published in November 2022 threw into stark relief the devastating impact bipolar is having on people’s lives. Life is a daily struggle for hundreds of thousands of people living with the condition. They are more likely to be in poor physical health, be unemployed, be socially isolated, carry large amounts of unmanageable debt, experience higher divorce rates, and they have a high risk of suicide. The most shocking statistic we uncovered is research suggesting that one in five people with bipolar will eventually take their own life.

Our regular evaluations prove very clearly that our current services play a critical role in helping people balance their mood, reduce suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts and help to keep people out of hospital. Getting all our current services out to everyone affected by bipolar would be hugely transformative for millions of people.

We have collected the evidence to show what is happening and identified some of the key solutions for solving the biggest issues. To meet the enormous challenge we face, during 2022/23 the charity upscaled both its peer support, communications and advocacy work to get our services and message of action and hope out to as many people as possible.

It is a long, long journey. But with our current level of growth, we believe we can provide universal peer support to everyone living with bipolar in the UK by 2033. With the help of some amazing donors, volunteers and a large amount of luck we could potentially reach this goal in five years.

We also formed and strengthened partnerships with organisations like The Access Group who not only raised huge amounts of money for our services but also provided incredible pro-bono support in co-producing our eLearning course which has already been used by thousands.

The wider changes we are advocating for would require an entire rewiring of mental health services with a focus on diagnosis and the introduction of a specialist care pathway for bipolar. This would be more cost-effective than the current model, but the NHS is a big beast and there are many obstacles in our way. Despite these challenges, we have to start somewhere. And on an optimistic note, we have an abundance of tenacity within our community and an ever-growing network of influential allies.

The charity also hit an important milestone – achieving an income over £1 million a year for the third year in a row. This has given the charity more confidence in its financial future and allowed us to fill six more staff positions over the year. More money and more people doesn’t necessarily mean more impact, but this increase in capacity has seen us reaching and supporting more people than ever before.

We remain pragmatic about what can be achieved though. Bipolar affects over six million people every year (more than one million people live with the condition, and for each of them five close friends

Given the huge progress we have made over the last five years, we believe that anything really is possible.

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OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Trustees’ Annual Report | Objectives and Activities

The trustees review the aims,

objectives and activities of the charity each year, taking account of the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit. This report looks at what the charity has achieved and the outcomes of its work in the reporting period.

Purposes and aims

Our objectives remain consistent with our founding ethos – to bring people with bipolar together to share their experiences and support each other.

Thanks to two pioneering women, Sheila Woodland, Philomena Germing, the Manic Depression Fellowship (as it was then called) was founded on 25 February 1983 when 43 people attended the first meeting at Church House, Westminster Cathedral.

A report of the meeting read:

‘We should work to dispel the stigma, secrecy and widespread ignorance of manic depression. Manic depressives should be more open about the condition and still find suitable jobs.’

While we use different language to talk about bipolar these days, these aims couldn’t be more relevant 40 years later.

We meet our Charitable Objects, to support all individuals affected by bipolar disorder and associated illnesses in any way which is charitable in law, in the following ways:

Where we are now

On a scorching hot day in September 2023, we gathered in the same venue as the founders’ first meeting (Westminster Cathedral) to celebrate our 40th birthday and to thank and acknowledge all our amazing volunteers both past and present.

The aim of the event was to celebrate the continuation of the golden thread of peer support, the founding principle of the charity, which still inspires our work today. Today, we are classed as a large charity and are proud to support an ever-growing community.

Our recent evaluation found that our peer support services play a pivotal role helping people to manage their moods more effectively, to feel less socially isolated, to have fewer suicidal thoughts, to be less likely to attempt to take their own lives, to be less likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act and to have shorter hospital admissions.

During the reporting period we continued our bounce back from the pandemic with our call-back and email services now reaching more people than they did before Covid-19. We opened and re-opened more online and in-person groups and may even reach pre-Covid-19 monthly meeting numbers by the end of March 2024. Our online conference on 30 March 2023 was attended by over 2,000 people making it one of the largest ever bipolar-focused events in the world.

Despite the growth of the charity, 2022/23 was also a moment of sober reflection. In March 2022 and November 2022, the charity published two further Bipolar Commission reports which combined lived-experience stories, extensive survey work and the latest academic literature to establish what it is like living with bipolar in 21st century Britain.

The reports provided grim reading and evidence that despite huge investments in NHS services since 1983, outcomes for people living with bipolar have, if anything, got worse not better over the last four decades.

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OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

The average age of diagnosis has increased from 26 to 33 and no better treatment has come along to replace lithium as the gold-standard medication. While effective for many people, it is by no means a miracle cure and even its prescribing levels are at best stagnant or at worst falling. Shockingly, 60% of people with bipolar get no specialist treatment for the condition.

Over half (54%) of our community report they had been detained against their will to get treatment at some point in their lives (known as sectioning). Once in hospital, over 20% of our survey respondents told us they had experienced forced injections and physical restraint. Almost 10% of respondents had experienced verbal abuse from staff and 2% had experienced sexual abuse from other patients. In one harrowing example, patients were left without food for two days because a staff member forgot to order some in.

Despite the scale of bipolar in inpatient care, the condition remains largely invisible in data capture. The NHS still doesn’t know what proportion of people sectioned under the Mental Health Act have a bipolar diagnosis.

An estimated 56% of people living with bipolar don’t have a diagnosis

have to pay for it themselves – despite therapy being recommended on an equal footing to medication in NICE guidelines.

People with bipolar have also disproportionately suffered from the obesity epidemic with two-thirds of our community classed as being clinically obese due to side-effects of medication (and sometimes over medication), and wider complications from the condition. People living with bipolar are also more likely to get divorced, be unemployed and be made homeless. Not surprisingly the London School of Economics found that poor bipolar management costs the UK economy £20bn a year and accounts for 17% of the total burden of mental illness. This itself is likely to be a gross underestimate and we await more research which is due to be published showing the huge additional costs of the physical burden people with bipolar also face.

From suicides rates to obesity, debt to detentions, the failure to support people living with bipolar to manage their condition is having a devastating impact on the country – for the individuals, for the NHS and for the economy. Bipolar is hidden in plain sight in the world of policy as well as in our workplaces, our learning institutions and in our society generally.

Outside of hospital, people with bipolar miss out on life-changing new psychological therapies, with the NHS England’s flagship Improving Access to Psychological Therapies, (IAPTs service) actively excluding them from their criteria. Overall, 26% of our community reported that they had been told they could not get therapy on the NHS and would

Despite its enormous cost in lives, money and lost potential everywhere you look, bipolar continues to be neglected by the mental health sector. There is no national plan or collective call from the sector to get even the basics right: for everyone with bipolar to get a diagnosis, appropriate medication and self-management advice.

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OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

1

2

3

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Nothing is going to change unless Bipolar UK pushes for change. That is why we are mobilising our community and all our allies in the academic world and wider society to ensure bipolar is getting into conversations and sitting at the heart of decision-making. In 2022/23, responding to the findings of the Bipolar Commission, the charity significantly increased its policy, advocacy and communications work to bring about that change.

This work has had four important strands:

We formed a partnership with public relations company Sway PR to both promote the findings of the Bipolar Commission and to insert bipolar into relevant conversations; from suicide prevention to unmanageable debt. This has resulted in unprecedented coverage for the charity and its Bipolar Commission – reaching over 535 million people worldwide.

We worked with our corporate partners The Access Group and its Foundation to create what could be the world’s first bipolar public health campaign: ‘Could it be bipolar?’. The campaign raised awareness of the condition and its symptoms and launched a 20-minute eLearning resource to provide back-to-basics, follow-up advice on how to manage the condition.

We have also formed an awareness-raising partnership with Rotary GB&I to engage the 40,000 Rotarians in the UK and Ireland in our mission. This has resulted in joint online events and activities ranging from street stalls and awareness walks in local communities to speaker opportunities at local multi-district and national meetings.

We opened up a whole new exciting strand of work for the charity recruiting Dr Tania Gergel as our first Director of Research at Bipolar UK. She will be leading both our growing patient participation and involvement work but also, in time, leading academic studies that will help us find better treatments for the condition.

All this is only possible thanks to the enormous commitment of our small but growing team of staff, our amazing volunteers and our dedicated donors and supporters.

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REVIEW OF ACHIEVEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Review of Achievements

The Bipolar Commission held a launch event in the House of Commons in November 2022. It was attended by over 100 stakeholders with an interest in bipolar from across politics, the health sector and business.

The event included speakers with lived experience of bipolar and academics with clinical expertise to outline both the enormous problems we face but also practical solutions to solve them.

Bipolar Commission

Could it be bipolar? campaign

The launch was followed by in-person events in Wales in June 2023 and in Northern Ireland in August 2023, which were attended by hundreds more stakeholders. These events were delivered in partnership with the National Centre for Mental Health in Cardiff and Aware NI in Belfast who are helping us to take forward our policy agenda in the home nations.

Launched in autumn 2022, our ‘Could it be bipolar?’ campaign reached a staggering 1.5 million people over a six-month period. This resulted in over 18,000 people taking the Mood Disorder Questionnaire which asks people 13 questions related to mania and hypomania to rule in or rule out potential bipolar.

The most pressing aim to emerge from the Bipolar Commission findings is the urgent need for diagnosis and specialist treatment for the condition. This is both more cost-effective than the current model but also results in significantly better life chances for the person with the condition. The average 9.5-year delay to diagnosis is a particular concern as we have clear evidence that the longer people wait, the higher the risk they will attempt suicide, or actually take their own life.

An independent evaluation of the campaign estimated that it resulted in more than 10,000 people with undiagnosed bipolar going to their GP to talk about their symptoms and take the first step to getting an accurate diagnosis. A further 4,000 went on to access the eLearning resources attached to the campaign. This provides a valuable proof of concept that the campaign can be scaled up to reach millions more.

Mood Tracker app

Taking this forward, we are currently calling on all political parties across the UK to make the commitment before the General Election to reduce the delay to diagnosis down to five years within five years. This is still far too long but our clinical and academic allies tell us it is achievable within the NHS’s current bandwidth. This will form the focus of our advocacy work for the foreseeable future. 2023 saw us recruit new staff to drive it forward.

Our Mood Tracker app which we launched in March 2022 continues to get excellent reviews, and is mostly given 4 and 5 ratings (with an average of 4.7/5).

At the end of March 2023, the app had been downloaded 22,449 times and at the time of writing 34,600 times with 9,989 of these downloads between April 2022-March 2023.

The Bipolar Commission commissioners also committed to continue to work together to investigate wider topics related to bipolar, including the symptom of hypersexual behaviour, which we will report on in 2023/24.

For six months, Andrew Thompson, our ambassador and volunteer app developer, has worked with translators, a designer and our friends at Bipolarité France to develop a French version of our app which is due to launch in the next few weeks and will help to spread awareness of Bipolar UK in French-speaking countries across the world.

Our ‘Could it be bipolar?’ campaign reached a staggering 1.5 million people over a six-month period

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REVIEW OF ACHIEVEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Could it be bipolar? | Campaign feedback

INSIGHTFUL CLEAR HELPFUL ENCOURAGING USEFUL INFORMATIVE REASSURING INTERESTING

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REVIEW OF ACHIEVEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Christmas campaign

As well as being recipients of our services, people living with bipolar are also among the biggest contributors to the charity. We were honoured in 2022 when songwriter and Bipolar UK ambassador Nicky Chinn, along with his record label Universal Music, generously granted the charity permission to use a clip of his world famous ‘Lonely at Christmas’ song to raise money for our support services over Christmas. The appeal raised over £10,000 and enabled us to provide more services than ever over the festive break.

JAAQ partnership

In March 2023, we announced a new partnership with mental health and social media platform JAAQ (Just Ask A Question) - a free, highprofile online platform using voice recognition and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide a safe space where users can ask doctors, experts and those with lived experiences questions on mental health topics.

Three sets of questions have been recorded so far. Two sets, featuring TV presenter Leah Charles-King and researcher Dr Thomas Richardson, sit both on the JAAQ platform and as evergreen content on our website. One set, featuring PR consultant Mia Hodgkinson, sits on the JAAQ workplace site. Plans are on the horizon for ongoing Bipolar UK-JAAQ collaborations, including webinars and live events.

Our online conference

In March 2023, more than 2,370 people attended our annual conference on the night and 1,800 (and counting) more have since watched it on catch up. The conference included contributions from academic and lived-experience household names as well as those from our wider community.

The highlights of the evening were three insightful interviews featuring mental health activist Alastair Campbell, national treasure Frank Bruno, actress Nadia Sawalha and her husband, writer and producer, Mark Adderley, Dr Nick Prior, author Mya-Rose Craig, screenwriter Kayleigh Llewellyn and our ambassador Emma Belle.

During the three-hour event, we explored a range of issues connected to the condition, including sleep, overspending, hypersexual behaviour and paranoid behaviour. Each of those topics has also been covered in a popular series of follow-up webinars. Not only have more than 1,500 people signed up to these webinars so far, the recordings now sit as helpful content on the website.

A massive thank you goes out to all our speakers and contributors on the night, especially to our incredible ambassador Leah Charles-King who hosted the conference for the third year running.

For the first time in a long time, someone actually heard me and was able to pull me through “ a very dark time. They were able to link me with different organisations that are helping me as well as the many services offered by Bipolar UK. I will always be eternally grateful for the continued support I am receiving from you.

(feedback from services 2022/23)

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OUR PEER SUPPORT SERVICES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Our peer support services

After the final lockdown period, we reflected as a charity on how the world had changed and we recognised that digital channels are an increasingly popular way for us to reach greater numbers of people and provide more choice for our community.

Peer Support 1-1 call-back and email service

Peer Support Groups

Going forward, we are committed to continue to learn and listen to our community about their changing needs, which is why we currently run a blend of online and in-person Peer Support groups.

Between April 2022 and March 2023, we delivered 5,152 incidents of support via 1-1 emails and call-backs, up from 2,882 the previous year (April 21 – March 22).

During the month of March 2023, we held 61 Peer Support group meetings. From April 22 to March 23, we held an average of 55 Peer Support Group meetings a month throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland, up from 35 the previous year (April 21 – March 22). Alongside our monthly ‘Women and bipolar’ online groups, we also added a group for ‘Friends and Family’. Between April and September 2023, we have opened a further 15 local groups making a total of 76. At the time of writing, we are only nine groups short of our prepandemic number.

We helped thousands of people speak to someone else with lived experience, often for the first time

Chatbot

Our chatbot, launched the previous year, continues to allow people to book calls and can often signpost people to useful information on our website. Between April 2022 and March 2023, more than 658 questions a month were answered.

Between 2021/22 and 2022/23, average monthly reported attendance has also more than doubled from 116 to 231. This is on an upward trajectory as existing groups fill up with more attendees as they get better known and people become more confident getting out and about again.

The eCommunity

The eCommunity continued to grow up from 11,137 to 13,563 users over the course of the year, with 992,700 pages viewed. Having moderators on hand every day, 365 days a year, between 8am and 8pm, helps to secure the safety of members and ensures the provision of useful information as appropriate. It is clear that users value the space to talk about a wide range of topics with others who really understand bipolar. Users report lower levels of isolation as a result.

We continue to actively recruit and train volunteer co-facilitators to help us manage the Peer Support group meetings and recruited 24 new volunteers over the year, taking the total up to 132 at the time of writing. This still leaves us some way short of our pre-pandemic level of 200 co-facilitators, and we continue to explore a range of recruitment channels as we plan to reopen and set up even more groups.

“

I reached out to your peer support service in desperation. I can honestly say it has changed my life. The complete understanding, the empathy and the compassion I received was so much more than I expected.

(feedback from services 2022/23)

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THE YEAR IN NUMBERS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Maximising our impact for our community

IT and systems

Bipolar Commission global coverage

global coverage 535 million 1.5 million Website visitors per year 282,000 45,000 Newsletter subscribers 21,000 13,500 Mood Tracker app downloads 10,000 5,125 Peer support group attendance 2,772 200 Staff 20

Newsletter subscribers

Reached by ‘Could it be bipolar?’ campaign

Facebook Live views eCommunity members 1-1 call-backs/emails Volunteers

The growth in services and fundraising during 2022/23 was only possible because we upgraded our IT and systems infrastructure. The focus was to bed in our new CRM system Salesforce which is used to monitor the fundraising pipeline, service outputs and our audience. We also started to utilise Smartsheet as a software tool to manage projects and a new Intranet to streamline reporting and provide staff and trustees monthly data on charity performance.

This important work was expensive in terms of both time and money but has established solid foundations from which the charity can grow in 2023/24 and beyond.

A massive thank you

None of what you have read – the impactful services and support delivered in such trying times – would be possible without the hard work, dedication and humanity of our staff, volunteers and supporters.

In particular, our volunteers have played a leading role in sustaining and driving the charity and its community. This includes 132 active volunteers who deliver services locally in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and other volunteers, such as our commissioners, trustees and ambassadors.

Indeed, our board itself is made up of 14 volunteer trustees most of whom have a bipolar diagnosis or who are directly affected by bipolar in their family.

And our inspiring team of ambassadors, who either live with bipolar or support a close family member with the condition, find time in their busy schedules to get involved in our projects and support our mission to get more people talking about bipolar.

These people are at the heart of our charity and our community.

“ Thank you to you all at Bipolar UK for all that you do - it’s a lifeline.

(feedback from Peer support line 2022/23)

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OUR SERVICES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Evaluating our services

Peer support services have been the bread and butter of the charity for over 40 years. 2022/23 saw big growth in the team which has paid off by a record increase in the number of groups and call-backs and emails. We also delivered our first self-management courses for over 10 years and started delivering our first NHS contract.

In September 2023 we received the findings from our independent evaluation - covering the first six months of 2023. It provided proof and reassurance of what we already intuitively know: that our services continue to save and improve lives.

This impact is most graphically illustrated by looking at people’s selfreported moods both before and after using our services.

The number of people experiencing depression and mania more than halved after using our services.

Individuals scoring their mood on the Bipolar UK Mood Scale before and after using Bipolar UK’s services in the last six months (453)

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OUR SERVICES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

The wider findings of the evaluation

Headline impact

Suicide prevention

Reducing self-harm

The support you offer to people like me is invaluable, giving “ me the best peer support I have ever received. I have been living with bipolar for 19 years and I now feel for the first time in many years that I have hope of a brighter future, managing my bipolar in a way that works for me. (feedback from services 2022/23)

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OUR SERVICES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Reducing length of hospital stays

Avoiding hospital admissions

Getting a bipolar diagnosis

Living well with bipolar

“ Thanks so much for your help, it has helped so so much. I have a very inexperienced care coordinator & she’s no help about whether what I’m experiencing is normal, so your email means a lot to me.

(feedback from services 2022/23)

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THE YEAR IN NUMBERS - KEY FACTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

The year in numbers | Key facts

Peer Support Groups

Peer Support 1-1 Call Back & Email Service

Chatbot

55

5,152 658+

WE HELD AN AVERAGE OF 55 PEER SUPPORT GROUP MEETINGS A MONTH THROUGHOUT ENGLAND, WALES AND NORTHERN IRELAND, UP FROM 35 THE PREVIOUS YEAR 24 132

WE DELIVERED 5,152 INCIDENTS OF SUPPORT VIA 1-1 EMAILS AND CALL-BACKS, UP FROM 2,882 THE PREVIOUS YEAR

4

WE RESPONDED TO MORE THAN 658 QUESTIONS PER MONTH IN 2022/2023

Launched the previous year, the Chatbot sits on our homepage and continues to be a useful tool allowing people to book 1-1 support calls and get answers to FAQs

eCommunity

OUR LOCAL PEER SUPPORT GROUP MEETINGS WERE RUN BY A TEAM OF 132 ACTIVE VOLUNTEERS

We recruited 24 new volunteers, bringing our total number of peer support group volunteers to 132 over the year

WE RECRUITED 4 NEW VOLUNTEERS ON OUR PEER SUPPORT LINE, and helped thousands of people speak to someone else with lived experience of bipolar, often for the first time

992,700

FROM APRIL 22 TO MARCH 23, WE HAD 2,424 NEW MEMBERS AND THERE WERE 992,700 PAGES VIEWED ON OUR ECOMMUNITY

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THE YEAR IN NUMBERS - KEY FACTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Mood Tracker App

22,449

DOWNLOADS OF THE MOOD TRACKER APP

At the end of March 2023, there had ben 22,449 downloads of our Mood Tracker app via Apple and Google Play: www.bipolaruk.org/track-your-mood

World Bipolar Day Conference

2,370

ATTENDEES AT BIPOLAR UK’S WORLD BIPOLAR DAY CONFERENCE 2023

We heard about some of the challenging symptoms of bipolar from top researchers and speakers with lived experience.

Petition

12,282

SIGNATURES IN OUR ‘SPEED UP BIPOLAR DIAGNOSIS’ PETITION

Our petition is calling for the NHS and decision makers to speed up bipolar diagnosis to save lives: www.change.org/SpeedUpBipolarDiagnosis

Bipolar UK Website

282,000

WEBSITE VISITORS PER YEAR

Newsletter Subscribers

20,839

NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS

Could it be bipolar?

? 1.5 million

NUMBER OF PEOPLE REACHED THROUGH BIPOLAR UK’S ‘COULD IT BE BIPOLAR?’ CAMPAIGN

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Our community. Our charity.

Our 40th Birthday celebration in September 2023

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FINANCIAL REVIEW

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Financial review

The charity had a strong financial year due to higher than anticipated income of £1,343,565. This was primarily because of more income than expected from grants and legacies, including a large charitable contribution from The Access Group.

Expenditure was £1,236,900 due to the expansion of our in-person service provision post-covid and investments in building the charity’s fundraising, communications, policy and research capabilities.

The trustees consider the financial position of the organisation to be sound and continue to review the fundraising strategy to ensure that sufficient funds are available for future years. Bipolar UK recognises that at any time its accounts will hold both restricted funds, which are monies held subject to specific conditions set by the donor or funder, and unrestricted funds. It is the policy of Bipolar UK to allocate a proportion of its unrestricted funds for certain designated purposes and to hold the balance as a General Unrestricted Fund.

Principal risks and uncertainties

The principal risks and uncertainties for the charity are maintaining the safety of our staff, volunteers and people who use our services, and sustainable growth, particularly in light of the fact that there are very few multi-year grants available in the charity sector.

Bipolar is a fluctuating condition where people can quickly become acutely unwell. Being unwell for people with bipolar can include periods of hyperactivity and erratic behaviour during periods of hypomania or mania, or recurring suicidal thoughts during periods of depression. The charity’s peer support model depends on staff and volunteers with lived experience who are both supporting vulnerable people and at risk of becoming unwell themselves. The charity therefore operates stringent safeguarding procedures and puts an emphasis on positive mental health within

the workplace.

The charity has grown significantly over the 18 months from April 2022 to September 2023 growing from 20 to 29 FTE, including creating two entirely new roles in advocacy and research. During this period the charity also off boarded 9 staff members, meaning the charity also needed to recruit and onboard 18 staff.

Inducting new staff into a ‘virtual’ office where the vast majority of people are working from home creates its own challenges, both in terms of time and cohesion. This challenge has been mitigated by investing in IT equipment and infrastructure, focusing staff on clear strategy, implementing a simple reporting system and holding regular team and one-to-one meetings.

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The CEO and Deputy CEO have taken the high turnover seriously, conducting exit interviews and improving our practices where appropriate. This includes proposing more generous staff remuneration packages to trustees, increasing reflective practice within services to reduce stress and increasing the hours for roles where capacity is an issue.

The charity is now entering a phase of consolidation and needs to bed down its new team and work patiently towards achieving its goals.

21 | TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023

WWW.BIPOLARUK.ORG

FINANCIAL REVIEW

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Reserves policy

As of 31 March 2023, the charity held reserves of £1,288,159 (2022: £1,237,097) of which £91,012 (2022: £177,623) were restricted and £490,124 were held as designated funds (2022: £507,997).

Reserves are held to provide against any future income shortfall, fulfil working capital requirements and allow funds to be available to support service developments within the approved annual budget.

The Board of Trustees aspires to hold ‘free reserves’ equivalent to sixmonths unrestricted expenditure at any point in time with a minimum of three months held in cash.

‘Free reserves’ are defined as unrestricted reserves, exclusive of fixed assets, and determined based on average monthly unrestricted expenditure for 12 months ahead.

In determining an appropriate level of free reserves, the Trustees have identified the key risks and uncertainties facing the charity and seek to provide free reserves sufficient to mitigate those risk.

In particular:

Based on the above assessment and being mindful of the need for the charity to be able to sustain its core services, the Trustees have estimated that the level of free reserves required to mitigate against the identifiable risks is between £450,000 and £550,000 which represents 6 months of average unrestricted expenditure for 12 months ahead. The remaining free reserves have been designated by the Trustees for the purposes of implementing the main recommendations detailed in the Bipolar Commission report over the next five years. Also, additional reserves will be designated in 2023-24 for a redevelopment of the charity’s website and expansion of our Peer Support Services offer.

Beyond the current financial period the Trustees’ long-term aim is to ensure continued and appropriate support for individuals affected by bipolar. Should unrestricted reserves exceed the upper limit of six months it is the Trustees’ intention that these funds designated for specific charitable activities are drawn down over a longer period. This currently includes the continuation of the Bipolar Commission, service expansion and the website upgrade.

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The Trustees’ policy on reserves is subject to an annual review by the Finance Committee and formal approval by the Board.

Going concern

Through Board meetings, Finance Committees meetings and Risk Register reviews, the trustees have considered the charity’s activities and finances and consider that there are no material uncertainties regarding the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern. These financial statements have therefore been prepared on this basis.

In October 2023 the charity had an active pipeline of £3.5 million from a number of sources including research partnerships, NHS contracts, grants from trusts and public donations. Based on a review of our pipeline over the previous twelve months the charity would expect to receive income of £1.225 million during 2023-2024.

Despite our relatively small size, our community is experiencing colossal levels of unmet need. Three in five people living with bipolar get no dedicated treatment or support for the condition. As a result, people with bipolar earn less money, have more debt, are more likely to become homeless and are more at risk of suicide – with up to one in five people with bipolar ending up taking their own life.

Independent evaluations have shown that Bipolar UK peer support services can play a vital role in empowering people to live well and fulfil their potential. They reduce relapse rates and suicidal thoughts, and keep people out of hospital. Bipolar UK also has an important role to play in advocating for better care and treatment and delivering research into the condition and its cure.

Despite our increasing impact, our services only reach a small proportion of people living with bipolar in the UK and a tiny fraction of the global number. The charity is developing an ambitious multi-year plan to improve understanding of the condition, provide a universal peer support service across the UK with 400 groups and develop a ‘live’ peer support line.

We want to provide the best advice and guidance on living with bipolar and be a shining light for everyone affected by bipolar across the world.

22 | TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023

WWW.BIPOLARUK.ORG

FINANCIAL REVIEW

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Fundraising

Following three successful fundraising years and healthy reserves, the charity is starting to see the benefits of its increased communications and fundraising activities. We have build up our internal fundraising capacity and reduced our dependency on Fundraising Consultants.

The key area of income growth for the charity in 2023/24 is expected to come from commissioned income. This includes NHS contracts linked to the Community and Voluntary Sector Framework in England and upscaling our role within Research Council funded studies. Both take advantage of Bipolar UK’s unique expertise in delivering co-design with people living with bipolar and providing peer support that keeps people well, out of hospital and most importantly alive.

provide more opportunities for older supporters to give to the charity, which is particularly important as the large Baby Boomer generation reaches old age. The charity also has a partnership with PayPlan, a debt advice provider who is offering a free referral service to help our community with financial concerns.

The charity will explore opportunities to expand its individual giving programme. It currently works with third-party payroll giving organisations as part of its Action for Mental Health coalition with Rethink and Together. This raises just over £10,000 a year for the charity, with performance and complaints monitored at quarterly meetings of the members.

The corporate partnership with the Access Group has had an incredible impact on the charity which will be felt for years to come. It raised close to £450,000 and laid the foundations of service expansion during 2022/23, which has seen etc which has seen thousands more people get help and support.

Bipolar UK will explore opportunities to expand this work, including registering separately with payroll giving organisations and other professional fundraising organisations so more people affected by bipolar who want to give have an opportunity to do so.

Searching out a ‘replacement’ partnership in 2023/24 will be a challenge so the charity is seeking to work with a number of smaller scale partnerships to build up our credibility within the corporate sector.

Bipolar UK is a member of the Fundraising Regulator and complies with all regulations required within it. During 2022/23 it received two complaints which were dealt with internally and didn’t require escalation to the Regulator. All our fundraising activities are sensitive to the particular vulnerabilities that people with bipolar can sometimes experience - for example, impulsive spending. Our fundraising team is fully trained to understand bipolar and will never knowingly accept a donation from anyone they consider to be unwell. All our fundraising asks include a reminder to donate ‘only if you are well and able to’.

The charity is also maximising the impact of its non-monetary partnerships, using the huge reach of Rotary Great Britain and Ireland to raise awareness across the world. Our involvement has ranged from speaking at district conferences to Rotary running street stalls to individual Rotary members getting involved in our Pole to Pole challenge and starting local conversations about bipolar and mood.

The charity renewed its contract with free online will writing service, Farewill. This is finally giving some visibility to its legacy pipeline. This will allow the charity to budget for legacy income in the medium term and

The corporate partnership with the Access Group has had an incredible impact on the charity which will be felt for years to come. It raised close to £450,000

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“

Over the last 6+ months or so I have seen the eCommunity continually improve. The current moderators really take their time to try and connect and build a relationship with users on a personal level, and the current moderation team is a credit to the charity.’

(feedback from eCommunity 2023)

23 | TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023

WWW.BIPOLARUK.ORG

Thanks to the person I spoke to on the Peer Support Line. They were excellent and I found the conversation very informative. (feedback from Peer support line 2023)

24 | TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023

WWW.BIPOLARUK.ORG

FINANCIAL REVIEW

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

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Plans for the future

There are over a million people living with bipolar in the UK and a further five million people profoundly affected through close friends and family. It is never easy living with the condition but with a diagnosis, specialist treatment and peer support it is possible for people to lead fulfilling and successful lives.

As the only UK-wide bipolar charity, this presents an enormous challenge because if we don’t advocate for the necessary changes and deliver the services then they simply won’t happen. This also presents, however, a huge opportunity.

Inadequate healthcare services and a lack of psychoeducation leads to many challenges: for the individual, their family and friends, wider society and the NHS. As a charity, we have identified many of the solutions to those problems. Getting basic knowledge and peer support services out to as many people as possible will transform the lives of millions.

Most importantly, the wider community of six million people living with and affected by bipolar is the biggest asset for the cause; properly mobilised the community has the resources and skills to make things immeasurably better for people affected by bipolar in the long-term.

To achieve these aims we are focusing our energies on four priority areas:

Raising awareness and improving understanding of bipolar

Working towards universal peer support

The charity is committed to increasing its service provision and selfmanagement courses by 20% a year over the next year. At this level of growth, the charity could offer peer support to everyone affected by bipolar who wants it by 2033.

Following the success of ‘Could it be bipolar?’ and its accompanying eLearning course, the charity is identifying key funding partners to scale it up nationally and locally. We are also exploring a partnership with Oxford University to use wearables linked to a mood monitoring app to improve self-management and mood predictions.

Conducting and supporting high-quality research into bipolar and its treatment

Advocating for diagnosis and specialist treatment for bipolar

We are developing research partnerships with key bipolar research centres in Cardiff, King’s College London, Birmingham, Oxford and Newcastle. The charity will also conduct further analysis of the Bipolar Commission dataset, with a particular focus on diagnosis and suicide prevention.

During 2023/24 the charity will be using its voluntary income to sustain the policy and communication team to engage with senior decision makers in Whitehall, Westminster and the other devolved administrations to make bipolar diagnosis and suicide prevention a priority within mental health policies. This includes high-level liaison, MP letter-writing campaigns and working with local partners who share our ambitions.

“

It’s such a huge relief to meet with other people who are coping with similar problems. Your support groups provide so much really beneficial information and practical advice, but they’re also indescribably helpful when it comes to not feeling alone in circumstances that can be overwhelmingly painful and frightening. Thank you.

(feedback from Peer support line 2023)

25 | TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023

WWW.BIPOLARUK.ORG

MANAGEMENT & GOVERNANCE

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

To achieve its mission the charity invests significant time in its management and governance. In summary:

Structure, governance and management

The Board of Trustees is legally responsible for the strategic direction of the charity. It meets every three months and is supported by the Finance Committee chaired by our Treasurer, which meets on a quarterly basis between Board meetings. Alongside this there are four additional trustee / staff advisory groups covering the key operational areas of the charity: fundraising, policy and communications, services and research.

During 2022/23 the charity also established a Clinical Advisory Panel Steering Group, co-chaired by Professor Allan Young and newlyappointed trustee Dr Aditya Sharma. It comprises leading bipolar clinicians in primary and secondary care and plays a key role in ensuring the efficacy of our advice and services and advocating for diagnosis and specialist treatment within the NHS.

Recruitment and Appointment of Trustees

Trustees are recruited through a combination of national advertisements to broaden recruitment and ensure specific skill sets are obtained. During 2022/23, Professor Allan Young stepped down from the Board and we thank him for his service. During this period, we inducted four new trustees – Dan Whitlam, Dr Aditya Sharma, Edmund Butcher and Louis Constandinos – who were recruited to improve the charity’s financial, advocacy, clinical and research expertise.

Trustee induction and training

Trustees receive a comprehensive induction which covers both the responsibilities of the role and the specifics of the charity. All new trustees are required to review and understand the Essential Trustee information on the Charity Commission website and other accompanying documents. They also have access to the latest governance training provided by charity sector bodies, such as NCVO. Trustees are all required to complete training on safeguarding, cybersecurity and GDPR and sign a confidentiality agreement.

In getting to know the charity the trustees have a series of briefing meetings with the Chair, Treasurer and key staff including the CEO and Deputy CEO. Through these they are introduced to the charity’s Articles of Association and other governance documents including the Year Plan, Risk Register and Management Accounts. We also arrange in-person visits to our offices and Peer Support groups, and an online tour of our eCommunity.

Each Board meeting ends with 15-20 minutes of time to reflect without any staff present. This allows new and longer-serving trustees a safe space to consider their performance in the meeting and provide constructive feedback to colleagues.

All trustees have Bipolar UK email addresses enabling them to separate charity and personal communications. It also allows them to access a ‘Trustee intranet’ where key performance indicators are uploaded monthly and bespoke charity training webinars on fundraising and other areas of charity activity can be accessed.

Senior Management Team

The trustees delegate the day-to-day operations of the charity to the Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive who form a Senior Management Team (SMT). The trustees have worked with the SMT to produce Board papers to guide the ongoing development of the charity. Responsibility for the implementation of the papers is delegated to the SMT through Action Logs which are updated and reported on quarterly.

Remuneration policy

The total staffing budget is proposed by the staff team, reviewed, amended and recommended by the Finance Committee and approved by the Board. Under advice from the staff team, they consider changes in costs of living, salary benchmarking, immediate financial resources of the charity and short- and medium-term financial projections to ensure any changes in pay and conditions are sustainable.

Remuneration of individual staff is reviewed and approved by a Remuneration Committee which comprises the Treasurer, Chair and the Vice-Chair of the charity. The Remuneration Committee receives an annual proposal for new posts and staff pay produced by the CEO, Deputy CEO and Finance Manager. In distributing the total remuneration budget, the staff consider new posts, retention and recruitment, wider benefits and the performance of individual staff members based on evidence from appraisals.

Changes to pay outside this process are proposed by the CEO and approved by the Treasurer, and must fit within the total Remuneration package unless approved by the Board.

Remuneration policy for key management personnel

The remuneration of key management personnel is determined with due consideration of comparable current market sector rates by the Remuneration Committee and approved by the Board.

Related parties and relationships with other organisations

There are no related party relationships with any other organisations.

Registration

The organisation is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 7/11/85 and registered as a charity on 10/2/1986.

The company was established under a memorandum of association which established the objects and powers of the charitable company and is governed under its articles of association.

All trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no benefits from the charity. Any expenses reclaimed from the charity are set out in note 7 to the accounts.

In the year immediately following this reporting period Bipolar UK became VAT registered.

26 | TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023

WWW.BIPOLARUK.ORG

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

I have had several individual support telephone calls. The person I spoke to is lovely to talk to and very supportive. I was in a very low place when we first had a chat but over several calls their positive attitude seems to have rubbed off - I was motivated to make changes towards a healthier diet and more exercise as well as meditation.

I am now feeling much better and in a much more balanced frame of mind.

I am very grateful to Bipolar UK for having such a good service. The support has been outstanding.

(feedback from Peer support groups 2023)

27 | TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023

WWW.BIPOLARUK.ORG

TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Statement of responsibilities of the trustees

The trustees (who are also directors of Bipolar UK Ltd for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the trustees’ annual report including the strategic report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires 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 group and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company or group 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 the financial position of the charitable company at any time 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 there is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company’s auditor is unaware:

Auditor

Sayer Vincent LLP was re-appointed as the charitable company’s auditor during the year and has expressed its willingness to continue in that capacity.

The directors’ annual report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies’ regime.

The trustees’ annual report which includes the strategic report has been approved by the trustees.

Guy Paisner Chair of Trustees

Date: 9 December 2023

28 | TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023

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AUDITORS REPORT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Independent auditor’s report to the members of Bipolar UK ltd

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Bipolar UK ltd (the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 31 March 2023 which comprise the statement of financial activities, balance sheet, statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

Basis for opinion

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

Conclusions relating to going concern

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

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually

or collectively, may cast significant doubt on Bipolar UK’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

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

Other Information

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

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

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

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the trustees’ annual report, We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

Responsibilities of trustees

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

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

29 | TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023

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AUDITORS REPORT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

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.

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

Capability of the audit in detecting irregularities

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

• We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the charity operates in, focusing on those laws and regulations that had a material effect on the financial statements or that had a fundamental effect on the operations of the charity from our professional and sector experience.

• We communicated applicable laws and regulations throughout the audit team and remained alert to any indications of non-compliance throughout the audit.

• We performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of material misstatement due to fraud.

• In addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, we tested the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments, assessed whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias and tested significant transactions that are unusual or those outside the normal course of business.

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

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

Use of our report

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

Fleur Holden (Senior Statutory Auditor)

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

Date: 13 December 2023

30 | TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023

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FINANCIAL REVIEW - STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Statement of financial activities.

For the year ended 31 March 2023.

(including income & expenditure)

All of the results are derived from continuing activities. There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. Movements in funds are disclosed in Note 18a to the financial statements

Notes
Unrestricted
£		 Restricted
£
2023
Total
£
Restated
Unrestricted
£
Restricted
£
Restated
Total
2022
£
INCOME FROM:
Donations and legacies
2
1,041,466		 21,190
1,062,655
743,592
-
743,592
Charitable activities
Peer Support Services (Covid-19 Response)
3
-		 -
-
-
253,951
253,951
Peer Support Services
3
-		 5,094
5,094
-
-
-
Peer Support Groups
3
-		 192,274
192,274
-
-
-
The eCommunity
3
-		 -
-
-
1,000
1,000
Commissioned Services
3
37,450		 -
37,450
2,003
-
2,003
Communications Policy & Research
3
-		 22,947
22,947
-
175,000
175,000
Investments
4
23,145		 -
23,145
88
-
88
Total income
1,102,061		 241,504
1,343,565
745,683
429,951
1,175,634
EXPENDITURE ON:
Raising funds
5
329,188		 -
329,188
248,789
-
248,789
Charitable activities
Peer Support Groups
5
89,452		 186,927
276,380
-
127,883
127,883
Peer Support Services (Covid-19 Response)
5
187		 14,435
14,622
-
122,523
122,523
Peer Support Service
5
21		 1,590
1,611
-
-
-
Phone & Email Support
5
151,089		 -
151,089
2,831
94,853
97,684
Bipolar Commission
5
17,873		 -
17,873
-
-
-
The eCommunity
5
89,751		 -
89,751
59900
58,523
118,423
Employment Support
5
15,393		 -
15,393
5620
-
5,620
Communications Policy & Research
5
215,833		 125,163
340,995
138,257
32,926
171,183
Total expenditure
5
908,786		 328,115
1,236,900
455,397
436,708
892,105
Net income / (expenditure) before net gains /
(losses) on investments
193,275		 (86,611)
106,665
290,286
(6,757)
283,529
Net gains / (losses) on investments
(55,603)		 -
(55,603)
3,684
-
3,684
Net income / (expenditure) for the year
6
137,672		 (86,611)
51,062
293,970
(6,757)
287,213
Reconciliation of funds:
Total funds brought forward
1,059,474		 177,623
1,237,097
765,504
184,380
949,884
Total funds carried forward
1,197,146		 91,012
1,288,159
1,059,474
177,623
1,237,097

31 | TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023

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FINANCIAL REVIEW - STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Balance sheet

At 31 March 2023.

COMPANY NUMBER 1955570

Approved by the trustees on 9th December 2023 and signed on their behalf by

Guy Paisner Chair of Trustees

Notes £ 2023
£		 Restated
£		 Restated
2022
£
FIXED ASSETS:
Tangible assets
11
24,952
9,054
Intangible assets
12
4,076
28,422
Investments
13
548,081
593,684
577,108
631,160
CURRENT ASSETS:
Debtors
14
59,748
103,778
Short term deposits
150,601
-
Cash at bank and in hand
679,228
620,108
889,577
723,886
Liabilities:
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
15
(178,526)
(117,949)
Net current assets
711,050
605,937
Total net assets
1,288,159
1,237,097
THE FUNDS OF THE CHARITY:
Restricted income funds
17a
91,012
177,623
Unrestricted income funds:
Designated funds
490,124
507,997
General funds
707,022
551,477
Total unrestricted funds
1,197,146
1,059,474
Total charity funds
1,288,159
1,237,097

32 | TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023

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FINANCIAL REVIEW - STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Statement of cash flows

For the year ended 31 March 2023.

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2022
£ £ £ £
CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES Restated Restated
Net income for the reporting period (as per the statement of financial activities) 51,062 287,213
Depreciation charges 29,573 15275
(Gains)/losses on investments 55,603 (3684)
Dividends, interest from investments (23,145) (88)
(Profit)/loss on the disposal of fixed assets 5,289 -
(Increase)/decrease in debtors 44,030 (40,508)
Increase/(decrease) in creditors 60,577 (72,775)
Net cash provided by operating activities 222,989 185,433
CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES:
Dividends, interest and rents from investments 23,145 88
Purchase of fixed assets (26,413) (13,260)
Purchase of investments (10,000) (590,000)
Net cash (used in) investing activities (163,869) (603,172)
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year 59,120 (417,739)
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year 620,108 1,037,847
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year 679,228 620,108
ANALYSIS OF CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS AND OF NET DEBT
Other
At 1 April non-cash At 31 March
2022 Cash flows changes 2023
£ £ £ £
Cash at bank and in hand 620,108 59,120 - 679,228
Total cash and cash equivalents 620,108 59,120 - 679,228
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33 | TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023

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FINANCIAL REVIEW - NOTES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Notes to the financial statements

1. Accounting Policies

a) Statutory information

Bipolar UK Limited is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales on 7 November 1985.

Bipolar UK is an unincorporated charity registered on 10 February 1986 with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (charity number 293340)

The registered office address and the principal place of business is : 32 Cubitt Street London WC1X 0LR.

b) Basis of preparation

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

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

In applying the financial reporting framework, the trustees have made a number of subjective judgements, for example in respect of significant accounting estimates. Estimates and judgements are continually evaluated and are based on historical experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. The nature of the estimation means the actual outcomes could differ from those estimates. Any significant estimates and judgements affecting these financial statements are detailed within the relevant accounting policy below.

c) Public benefit entity

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

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

d) Going concern

As a result of reviews carried out by the Trustees at Finance and Board meetings together with regular review of the risk register , they consider that there are no material uncertainties regarding the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern in the foreseeable future. The financial statements have, therefore, been prepared on this basis.

e) Income

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

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

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

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

f) Donations of gifts, services and facilities

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

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

g) Interest receivable

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

h) Fund accounting

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

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

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

i) Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT

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

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FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Notes to the financial statements

Accounting Policies (continued)

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

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

j) Operating leases

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

k) Tangible fixed assets

Items of equipment are capitalised where the purchase price exceeds £1,000. Depreciation costs are allocated to activities on the basis of the use of the related assets in those activities. Assets are reviewed for impairment if circumstances indicate their carrying value may exceed their net realisable value and value in use.

Where fixed assets have been revalued, any excess between the revalued amount and the historic cost of the asset will be shown as a revaluation reserve in the balance sheet.

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

l) Intangible fixed assets

Intangible fixed assets are measured initially at their purchase cost. Assets under £1,000 are written off to the Statement of Financial Affairs. Amortisation I provided at rates calculated to write off the cost less estimated residual value of each asset over the expected useful life as follows:

m) Listed investments

Investments are a form of basic financial instrument and are initially recognised at their transaction value and subsequently measured at their fair value as at the balance sheet date using the closing

quoted market price. Any change in fair value will be recognised in the statement of financial activities. Investment gains and losses, whether realised or unrealised, are combined and shown in the heading “Net gains/(losses) on investments” in the statement of financial activities. The charity does not acquire put options, derivatives or other complex financial instruments.

n) Debtors

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

o) Short term deposits

Short term deposits includes cash balances that are invested in accounts with a maturity date of between 3 and 12 months.

p) Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account.

q) Creditors and provisions

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

r) Financial instruments

The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value.

s) Pensions

Contributions were paid on behalf of employees into their personal pension schemes and are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities in the year in which they become payable. No further liabilities accrue to the charity other than these payments.

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FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

2. Income from donations and legacies

Unrestricted
£		 Restricted
£		 2023
Total
£		 Restated
Unrestricted
£		 Restricted
£		 Restated
2022
Total
£
Grants 174,803 - 174,803 297,087 - 297,087
Donations 851,662 21,190 872,851 279,938 - 279,938
Legacies 15,001 - 15,001 162,610 - 162,610
Donated services - - - 3,957 - 3,957
1,041,466 21,190 1,062,655 743,592 - 743,592

Since the year end we have recevied legacy payments of £344,148 (2022: £58,337), which were not measurable at the year end.

Donated services relate to website support services provided by the Access Group during the year at a discounted price.

3. Income from charitable activities

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 Restated 2022
Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
£ £ £ £ £ £
----- End of picture text -----

PEER SUPPORT SERVICES (COVID 19 RESPONSE)
Wales National Lottery - - - - 24,314 24,314
Crowdfunder Ltd - - - - 10,998 10,998
Eveson Charitable Trust - - - - 5,013 5,013
The Alice Ellen Cooper Dean Found. - - - - 5,000 5,000
DHSC - Suicide Grant - - - - 158,025 158,025
Haberdashers Benevolent Foundation - - - - 5,000 5,000
The Sussex Community Foundation - - - - 5,000 5,000
Leicestershire County Council - - - - 5,000 5,000
The February Foundation - - - - 4,798 4,798
The Zochonis Charitable Trust - - - - 4,000 4,000
Other Grants less than £4.000 - - - - 26,803 26,803
Sub-total for Peer Support Services
(Covid 19 response)		 - - - - 253,951 253,951

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FINANCIAL REVIEW - NOTES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

3. Income from charitable activities (continued)

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 Restated 2022
Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
£ £ £ £ £ £
----- End of picture text -----

PEER SUPPORT SERVICES
Small grants - 5,094 5,094 - - -
Sub-total for Peer Support Services - 5,094 5,094 - - -
PEER SUPPORT GROUPS
Big Lottery - 129,568 129,568 - - -
Enterprise Development Fund - 17,345 17,345 - - -
Moondance Foundation - 20,000 20,000 - - -
Sir James Knott - 10,000 10,000 - - -
Other Grants less than £4,000 - 15,361 15,361 - - -
Sub-total for Peer support groups - 192,274 192,274 - - -
THE ECOMMUNITY
Small grants - - - - 1,000 1,000
Sub-total for The eCommunity - - - - - -
COMMISSIONED SERVICES
AFMH Bipolar - - - 1,500 - 1,500
Kick Start - - - 500 - 500
Kings College London 6,000 - 6,000 - - -
Natwest Bank - - - 3 - -
NHS South West London 10,000 - 10,000 - - -
Rotherham CCG 7,500 - 7,500 - - -
Other Grants less than £4,000 13,950 - 13,950 - - -
Sub-total for Commissioned Services 37,540 - 37,450 2,003 - 2,003

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FINANCIAL REVIEW - NOTES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

3. Income from charitable activities (continued)

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 Restated 2022
Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
£ £ £ £ £ £
----- End of picture text -----

COMMUNICATION POLICY & RESEARCH
The Access Foundation - - - - 50,000 50,000
Porticus Foundation - - - 90,000 90,000
Hypatia Foundation - 10,000 10,000 - 35,000 35,000
Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust - 9,789 9,789 - - -
Other grants - 3,158 3,158 - - -
Sub-total for Communication Policy & Research - 22,947 22,947 - 175,000 175,000
TOTAL INCOME FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES 37,450 220,315 257,765 2,003 429,951 431,954

4. Income from investments

INVESTMENT INCOME Unrestricted
£		 Restricted
£		 2023
Total
£		 Unrestricted
£		 Restricted
£		 2022
Total
£
Investment income 23,145 - 23,145 88 - 88
Sub-total for Investment Income 23,145 - 23,145 88 - 88

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FINANCIAL REVIEW - NOTES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

5a. Analysis of expenditure (current year)

CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

----- Start of picture text -----
Peer Support
Phone & Services Comms,
Raising Email Peer Support (Covid-19 Peer Support The e- Employment Bipolar Policy & Governance Support 2023 2022
funds Support Services response) Groups Community Support Commission Research costs costs Total Total
£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £
----- End of picture text -----

Staf costs (Note 7) 191,261 108,203 1,324 12,017 170,986 62,448 11,259 - 149,295 21,929 91,383 820,105 583,902
Depreciation and amortisation 8,705 8,219 - - 8,478 - - - 159 - 9,300 34,862 15,275
Other Costs including Ofce Costs 15,685 3,252 - - 15,355 1,928 335 - 87,518 717 50,775 175,565 60,802
Fundraising Consultancy 45,032 - - - - - - - - - - 45,032 76,317
IT Support Costs & Website 9,855 4,480 - - 21,367 9,385 1,056 - 29,051 531 7,533 83,257 78,186
Audit Fees - - - - - - - - - 14,000 - 14,000 22,200
Support Group Meeting facilities - - - - 10,636 - - - - - - 10,636 5,932
Ofce Rent and Insurance - - - - - - - - - - 24,205 24,205 13,705
Bipolar Commission - - - - - - - 14,689 - - - 14,689 34,464
Publications and Communications - 15 - - 316 - - - 14,219 - - 14,550 1,322
270,538 124,170 1,324 12,017 227,138 73,760 12,650 14,689 280,242 37,177 183,197 1,236,900 892,105
Support costs 48,756 22,378 239 2,166 40,934 13,293 2,280 2,647 50,505 - (183,197) - -
Governance costs 9,894 4,541 48 439 8,307 2,698 463 537 10,249 (37,177) - - -
Total expenditure 2023 329,188 151,089 1,611 14,622 276,380 89,751 15,393 17,873 340,995 - - 1,236,900 -
Total expenditure 2022 248,789 97,684 122,523 - 127,883 118,423 5,620 - 171,183 - - - 892,105

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FINANCIAL REVIEW - NOTES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

5b. Analysis of expenditure (prior year)

CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

----- Start of picture text -----
Phone & Comms,
Raising funds SupportEmail Peer Support Services Peer Support Groups CommunityThe e- Employment Support ResearchPolicy & Governance costs Support costs 2022Total
£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £
----- End of picture text -----

Staf costs 136,152 61,781 67,608 72,968 82,463 5,620 75,274 12,807 69,229 583,902
Depreciation and amortisation 3,558 829 1,593 1,593 465 - 3,881 66 3,290 15,275
Other Costs incl Ofce 11,604 7,506 11,636 11,835 2,743 - 13,949 828 701 60,802
Fundraising Consultancy 76,058 - - - - - 259 - - 76,317
IT Support Costs & Website 21,295 4,428 11,784 11784 4,169 - 17,469 - 7,257 78,186
Audit Fees - - - - - - - 22,200 - 22,200
Support Group Meeting facilities - - 2,966 2966 - - - - - 5,932
Ofce Rent and Insurance - - - - - - - - 13,705 13,705
Bipolar Commission - - - - - - 34,464 - - 34,464
Publications and Communications 122 - - - - - 1,200 - - 1,322
248,789 74,544 95,587 101,146 89,840 5,620 146,496 35,901 94,182 892,105
Support costs - 17,637 19774 19,508 19,952 - 17,311 - (94,182) -
Governance costs - 5,503 7,162 7,229 8,631 - 7,376 (35,901) - -
Total expenditure 2022 248,789 97,684 122,523 127,883 118,423 5,620 171,183 - - 892,105

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FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

6. Net income / (expenditure) for the year

This is stated after charging / (crediting):

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2022
£ £
Depreciation of tangible fixed assets (Note 11) 10,515 3,017
Amortisation of intangible assets (Note12) 24,346 12,258
OPERATING LEASE RENTALS PAYABLE:
Property 20,236 9,929
Other - 12,504
AUDITOR’S REMUNERATION (EXCLUDING VAT):
Audit 11,000 9,000
Under accrual from prior year 3,000 2,400
----- End of picture text -----

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

Staff costs were as follows:

----- Start of picture text -----
Staff Costs 2023 £ 2022 £
----- End of picture text -----

Salaries and wages 721,239 503,803
Social security costs 67,767 42,402
Employer’s contribution to defned contribution pension schemes 31,099 19,414
Agency/Contractors - 18,284
Total 820,105 583,903

There are no termination payments included in salaries and wages above for 2023 (2022: Nil)

The following number of employees received annual remuneration during the year between:

2023 2022
£60,000 - £69,999 1 1

The total employee benefits (including pension contributions and employer’s national insurance) of the key management personnel were £429,952 (2022: £135,485).

Key management personnel consist of 10 employees (2022: 3)

The charity trustees were neither paid nor received any other benefits from employment with the charity in the year (2022: £nil). No charity trustee received payment for professional or other services supplied to the charity (2022 £nil).

One of the Trustees was reimbursement for Travel costs of £339 in 2023 (2022: Nil)

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FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

8. Staff numbers

The average number of employees (headcount based on number of staff employed) during the year was 23.42 (2022: 17).

----- Start of picture text -----
Staff are split across the activities of the charity as follows 2023 No. 2022 No.
----- End of picture text -----

Charity Management & Admin 2.26 2.0
Peer Support Groups 6.36 4.0
Phone & Email Support 3.04 4.0
eCommunity 2.63 2.0
Fundraising 4.90 3.0
Employment Support 0.58 1.0
Communications, Research Policy 3.65 1.0
Total headcount 23.42 17.0

9. Related party transactions

Aggregate donations from related parties were £430 (2022: £10,430)

The following Trustees made unrestricted donations to the charity during the financial year: Mr Robert Print £120 (2022, £300); Mr Jeremy Clark £260 (2022, £120), Derrick Dale £50 and Ms Melissa Barnett NIL (2022, £10).

10. Taxation

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

11. Tangible fixed assets

----- Start of picture text -----
Cost Computer & office equipment
£
At the start of the year 107,378
Additions 26,413
- Disposals (96,083)
At the end of the year 37,708
DEPRECIATION
At the start of the year 98,324
Charge for the year 5,226
- Disposals (90,794)
At the end of the year 12,756
NET BOOK VALUE
At the end of the year 24,952
At the start of the year 9,054
----- End of picture text -----

All of the above assets are used for charitable purposes.

12. Intangible fixed assets

----- Start of picture text -----
Cost Computer & software
£
At the start of the year 73,039
Additions in year -
At the end of the year 73,039
AMORTISATION
At the start of the year 44,617
Charge for the year 24,346
At the end of the year 68,963
NET BOOK VALUE
At the end of the year 4,076
At the start of the year 28,422
----- End of picture text -----

All of the above assets are used for charitable purposes.

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FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

13. Listed investments

2023
£		 2022
£
Fair value at the start of the year 593,684 -
Additions at cost 10,000 590,000
Net gain / (loss) on change in fair value (55,603) 3,684
Fair value at the end of the year 548,081 593,684
INVESTMENTS COMPRISE:
UK Common investment funds 548,081 593,684
548,081 593,684

16. Deferred income

Deferred income comprises

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2022
£ £
----- End of picture text -----

Balance at the beginning of the year 21,500 123,334
Amount released to income in the year (21,500) (123,334)
Amount deferred in the year 87,737 21,500
Balance at the end of the year 87,737 21,500

Deferred income at the end of the financial year, and prior year represents a grant received from the Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Group for the setup of a peer support group in Rotherham together with delivering four self-management courses and the evaluation of these courses over a three year period. For March 2023 there is an additional £55,000 from the Stone Family Trust which was received on the 31st March 2023. Along with smaller grants received, which have been deferred into 2023-24.

14. Debtors

2023
£		 Restated 2022
£
Trade debtors 11,950 29,908
Prepayments/ Accrued Income 47,798 73,870
59,748 103,778

15. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2022
£ £
----- End of picture text -----

17a. Analysis of net assets between funds (current year)

General
unrestricted
£		 Designated
£		 Restricted
£		 Total funds
£
Tangible/Intangible fxed assets 29,027 - - 29,027
Investments 65,954 482,127 - 548,081
Net current assets 612,041 7,997 91,012 711,050
Net assets at 31 March 2023 707,022 490,124 91,012 1,288,159
Trade creditors 25,877 13,788
Taxation and social security 20,699 16,160
Accruals 44,213 66,501
Deferred income note 16 87,737 21,500
178,526 117,949

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FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

17b. Analysis of net assets between funds (prior year)

General
unrestricted
£		 Designated
£		 Restricted
£		 Total funds
£
Tangible/Intangible fxed assets 37,476 - - 37,476
Investments 93,684 500,000 - 593,684
Net current assets 420,317 7,997 177,623 605,937
Net assets at 31 March 2022 551,477 507,997 177,623 1,237,097

18a. Movements in funds (current year)

RESTRICTED FUNDS:
Peer Support Service		 At 1 April
2022
£
-		 Income &
gains
£
5,094		 Expenditure &
losses
£
(1,590)		 Transfers
£
-		 At 31 March
2023
£
3,504		 At 31 March
2023
£
3,504
Peer Support Services (Covid 19 Response) 14,435 - (14,435) - -
Peer Support Groups 21,114 193,464 (186,927) - 27,651
Communications Policy & Research 142,074 42,947 (125,163) - 59,858
Total restricted funds
UNRESTRICTED FUNDS:		 177,623 241,504 (328,115) - 91,012
Designated funds:
Bipolar Commission 500,000 - (17,873) - 482,127
Self Help Groups 7,997 - - - 7,997
Total designated funds 507,997 - (17,873) - 490,124
General funds 551,477 1,102,061 (946,516) - 707,022
Total unrestricted funds 1,059,474 1,102,061 (964,389) - 1,197,146
Total funds 1,237,097 1,343,565 (1,292,503) - 1,288,159

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FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

18b. Movements in funds (prior year)

RESTRICTED FUNDS:
Peer Support Services (Covid 19 Response)		 At 1 April
2021
£
Income &
gains
£
Expenditure &
losses
£
Transfers
£
At 31 March
2022
£
89,481
47,477
(122,523)
-
14,435		 At 1 April
2021
£
Income &
gains
£
Expenditure &
losses
£
Transfers
£
At 31 March
2022
£
89,481
47,477
(122,523)
-
14,435		 At 1 April
2021
£
Income &
gains
£
Expenditure &
losses
£
Transfers
£
At 31 March
2022
£
89,481
47,477
(122,523)
-
14,435		 At 1 April
2021
£
Income &
gains
£
Expenditure &
losses
£
Transfers
£
At 31 March
2022
£
89,481
47,477
(122,523)
-
14,435		 At 1 April
2021
£
Income &
gains
£
Expenditure &
losses
£
Transfers
£
At 31 March
2022
£
89,481
47,477
(122,523)
-
14,435		 At 1 April
2021
£
Income &
gains
£
Expenditure &
losses
£
Transfers
£
At 31 March
2022
£
89,481
47,477
(122,523)
-
14,435
Peer Support Groups 90,315
58,682
(127,883)
-
21,114
Phone and Email Support 4,584
90,269
(94,853)
-
-
Employment Support -
-
-
-
-
The eCommunity - 58,523 (58,523) - -
Employment and Support - - - - -
Communications Policy & Research - 175,000 (32,926) - 142,074
Total restricted funds
UNRESTRICTED FUNDS:		 184,380 429,951 (436,708) - 177,623
Designated funds:
Bipolar Commission - - - 500,000 500,000
Self Help Groups 7,997 - - - 7,997
Total designated funds 7,997 - - 500,000 507,997
General funds 757,507 293,970 - (500,000) 551,477
Total unrestricted funds 765,504 293,970 - - 1,059,474
Total funds 949,884 723,921 (436,708) - 1,237,097

Purposes of restricted funds

Restricted funds represent grants received from donors to be utilised by the charity to deliver specific services to the Bipolar community in accordance with terms stipulated in the individual grant agreements.

Peer Support Services (Covid 19 Response) - During the 2020/21 financial year the charity made large number of Covid-19 response related grant applications not restricted to a particular charitable activity, but to response to covid. As a result, the funds were utilised to fund all charitable activities including related support costs.

Bipolar UK provides face to face peer support and online self-management tools to empower people affected by bipolar to self-manage effectively These can be broken down as follows:

eCommunity – provides a safe space for people affected by bipolar to talk online about the impact of the covid-19 pandemic and exchange self-care tips in a safe moderated environment. The eCommunity has recruited over 13,563 subscribers.

Phone and email Support - employing staff with lived bipolar experience to make one-one calls to people living with the condition with the aim of reducing social isolation during the covid-19 pandemic and signpost to useful information on the charity’s website.

Peer Support Groups and Services - Face to face local peer support groups – and virtual groups using Zoom to bring small groups of people affected by bipolar together to provide regular support.

Communications Policy & Research - Delivering on patient and public involvement contracts for universities; maintaining and updating website content, social media including facilitating regular Facebook ‘live’ sessions, developing e-learning packages, mobile phone mood tracking application and Broadcast and Print media. During 2021/22 particular focus on hosting the Bipolar Commission which included conducting four big patient surveys, compiling evidence on diagnosis, hospital care, medication, physical health, suicide prevention and the impact of bipolar on woman.

Prior Year transfer out of restricted funds - The trustees reconsidered the grant income received by the charity in previous years and concluded that the balance of £13,334 in the Peer Support Services fund at 1 April 2020 had no longer any restrictions. As a result, a transfer out of this fund into general funds was made

Purposes of designated funds:

Bipolar Commission designation is for policy and communication work to advocate for the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission. The charity will be drawing down £100,000 a year in 2023/24, 24/25, 25/26, 26/27 and 27/28.

Self-help group designations are funds held on behalf of the charity by local Peer Support Groups.

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FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

19. Operating lease commitments payable as a lessee

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

Equipment
2023
£		 Equipment
2022
£
Less than one year 20,236 4,168
One to fve years - -
20,236 4,168

20. Legal status of the charity

The charity is a registered company limited by guarantee with no share capital. It is registered in England & Wales with registration No. 01955570).

46 | TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023

WWW.BIPOLARUK.ORG

THANK YOU

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Thank you.

We are only able to provide the life-changing services we do because of the incredible generosity of our donors. Over the last year, people have given generously through commissioned income, Trusts, personal donations and wills.

All contributions are gratefully received. We would though like to say a particular thank you to the following organisations and individuals who have given over £4,000 and have not asked to remain anonymous. Because of you, we have improved the lives of tens of thousands of people affected by bipolar.

Big Lottery England Paracletos Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust Porticus Foundation Crowdfunder Ltd Rotherham CCG Dorset Foundation Sir James Knott Trust Dr Clare Dolman South West London ICB Enterprise Development Fund Stone Family Foundation Eveson Charitable Trust Tamasin Little Garfield Weston Foundation The Access Group Hypatia Foundation The Alice Ellen Cooper Dean Foundation James Weir Foundation The Basil Samuel Charitable Trust Janet Bogen Charitable Trust The February Foundation Janssen-Cilag Ltd The Macdonald Buchanan Charitable Trust John and Fiona Yeomans The Zochonis Charitable Trust Kings College London Leicestershire County Council Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust Mary Kinross Charitable Trust Trevor Chinn Moondance Foundation Wales National Lottery Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust William Allen Young Charitable Trust

47 | TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023

WWW.BIPOLARUK.ORG