## The Linda Tremble Foundation known as SupportED the Community Eating Disorder Charity (a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation) ## Registered Charity – SC045002 Annual Report and Accounts For the year ended 31 March 2025 www.supportedscotland.org The Linda Tremble Foundation SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity |**Contents**|**Page**| |---|---| |Charity Information|1| |A message from our Chair|2| |Trustees’ Report|3-8| |Financial Review|9| |Independent Examiner’s Report|10| |Receipts and Payments Account|11| |Statement of Balances|12| |Notes to the Accounts|13-16| The Linda Tremble Foundation SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity ## **Reference and Administrative Details** ## **Registered Charity Name:** The Linda Tremble Foundation ## **Name the Charity is known as:** SupportED ## **Registered Charity No:** SC045002 ## **Principal Address:** ## **Email:** ## **t date of approval:** Treasurer Secretary from 19 March 2025 Chair to 19 March 2025 Co-chair from 19 March 2025 Secretary to 19 March 2025; Co-chair from 19 March 2025 ## **ng the period ending 31 March 2025:** 1 April 2024 – 31 October 2024 1 April 2024 – 31 March 2025 ## **Independent Examiner** EA Independent Ltd 5 South Charlotte Street Edinburgh EH2 4AN 1 The Linda Tremble Foundation SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity ## **A Message from Len Rayne, Chair (to 19 March 2025)** SupportED enjoyed another year of steady growth in our support services throughout 2024/25. In the final weeks of the period we did face some staff changes, including the early retirement of our Operations Director and the departure of two other colleagues. While these transitions brought challenges, they also created opportunities to strengthen our team and build on the year’s successes. This was certainly a difficult time, but thanks to the dedication and responsiveness of our Board of Trustees, the huge commitment and effectiveness of our remaining staff and our amazing volunteers, the charity was able to quickly stabilise our operations and maintain service delivery throughout. I am therefore proud to report that our core service provision is again strong, ensuring the continuity of very much needed support for those affected by eating disorders, and their families. Through our befriending programme, group support, and caring for carers service, we have continued to provide compassionate, community-based support at a time when demand has never been greater. Our work remains vital in filling the gap left by limited NHS provision — offering accessible, person-centred help that is otherwise difficult to find. Looking forward, we are entering a new phase of growth to build on our year-on-year expansion of recent years. In May 2025, we welcomed a highly experienced new Development Manager, alongside two new excellent employees, who will help us continue to strengthen and increase our capacity as we progress through 2025/26. This year also marks a personal transition, as I step down from my role as Chair. It has been a privilege to serve SupportED during a pivotal time in its development. I do so with full confidence in the future direction of the organisation, now under the leadership of our newly appointed Joint Chairs. Their combined vision, experience, and energy will serve SupportED well as it continues its mission across Scotland. I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation to our staff, volunteers, and trustees. Your ongoing commitment has ensured that SupportED remains a lifeline to many — and I am confident that, together, you will continue to strengthen and grow this vital work. Outgoing Chair 2 The Linda Tremble Foundation SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity ## **Trustees’ Report for the year ended 31 March 2025** The trustees present their report and receipts and payments accounts of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2025. ## **Structure, governance and management** ## _**Governing document**_ The charity is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO). It is governed by the rules of its constitution which establishes its objects and powers. The organisation is a two-tier SCIO with both members and a board of trustees. A revised constitution was adopted by a Special Resolution passed at the Annual General Meeting of Members held on 23 March 2022. ## _**Trustee recruitment and appointment**_ Each year, the charity updates its Board skills audit to identify the diversity of skills required to run the charity successfully. All Trustees are unpaid volunteers. The charity advertises for Trustees via Volunteer Scotland, Fife Voluntary Action, Goodmoves and via its website. It interviews prospective Trustees and takes up two references before they are appointed as Trustees, if the Board of Trustees agrees at a meeting of the Board. All Trustees undergo a PVG check. At each Annual General Meeting, all Trustees need to stand for re-election. Any other member of the charity can stand for election to the Board at this time. All new Trustees undergo an induction course. Ongoing training is provided to the Trustees as required. No valid decisions can be taken at a board meeting unless a quorum is present; the quorum for board meetings is four charity Trustees, or 50% of charity Trustees (whichever is the greater), present in person, or by phone or video conferencing or other form of online or electronic communication. 3 The Linda Tremble Foundation ## SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity ## **Objectives and activities** The charity was set up in 2014, by Colin and Anne Tremble, in memory of their daughter Linda Tremble, who sadly lost her battle with anorexia nervosa in 2011. The charitable purpose of the organisation as stated in its constitution is: ## **To promote the mental and physical health and wellbeing of individuals diagnosed with an eating disorder, of their families and of their carers.** Since 2019, we have expanded to become Scotland’s leading community eating disorder charity. In 2020, we took the decision to rebrand the charity as SupportED to better reflect the work of the charity, encompassing specific areas of support within the community to anyone affected by an eating disorder. ## _**Summary of the main activities in relation to these objectives**_ The charity holds support groups for people throughout Scotland with an eating disorder (aged 18+) and for families and carers, living with or caring for someone with an eating disorder. These are run online and also at face-to-face meetings in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Fife. The charity also provides a one-to-one Befriending service. Both services are run by volunteers, many of whom have lived experience and a real understanding of eating disorders. Our volunteers receive full training including The New Maudsley Method as well as Safeguarding and Mental Health First Aid. 4 ## The Linda Tremble Foundation ## SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity ## **Annual Review of Achievements and Performance** This review provides a summary of our performance and impacts during the period from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. It is structured according to our four key aims as laid down in our rolling Five Year Strategic Plan: ## **1. Growing the number of people whom we support:** _Increase our visibility and improve our accessibility for potential service users through effective marketing and awareness raising._ ## **2. Growing the quality and impact of the services that we provide:** _Engage, enable and empower all those affected by eating disorders in our areas of service provision._ ## **3. Growing the number and effectiveness of our volunteers:** _Provide high quality volunteering opportunities and experiences for students, people interested in eating disorder support and people with lived experience of eating disorders._ ## **4. Growing our income to enable our other three key aims:** _Develop strategic partnerships to secure sustainable funding and expand the range and quality of our services._ Progress against each of these key aims is provided below. ## **1. Growing the number of people whom we support:** _Increase our visibility and improve our accessibility for potential service users through effective marketing and awareness raising._ We recognise that the number of people in Scotland who could benefit from our services is very large – likely in the many thousands - and growing all the time. Our challenge is to reach as many of those as we possibly can, by promoting awareness of our services as widely as we can. To achieve this, we have a growing range of marketing, social media and awareness raising activities. 5 ## The Linda Tremble Foundation ## SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity While there is far to go to ensure that we can reach high proportions of those who can benefit from our services, **the past year again saw significant growth in our key measure:** - **The average monthly number of our active service users grew sharply over 2023-24, by 38%** - a reflection both on the large and expanding demand for our services, and our growing capability to provide the support that’s needed. In addition: - **We had 163 new referrals to our services (both Support Groups and Befriending).** - **The total attendance at our Support Groups reached 339.** - **The number of people we support through our Befriending service grew to 54 (of whom 47 suffer from an eating disorder and 7 are carers).** - **We also provided up to 8 hours of free counselling to 25 people (of whom 20 suffer from an eating disorder and 5 are carers).** - **The number of individual support interactions (provided by both volunteers and staff) reached 936** . A central part of our operational plan for 2025-26 is that these numbers continue to grow significantly. Finally, another important part of building our profile and raising awareness of our services is through our collaboration with other relevant agencies and organisations: - In 2024-25, the Advisory Group that we launched in 2021 continued to hold meetings involving our volunteers, trustees, service users, our staff team and other healthcare professionals and clinicians. - We continued to be active members of the Scottish Government’s Eating Disorder Network. ## **2. Growing the quality and impact of the services that we provide:** _Engage, enable and empower all those affected by eating disorders in our areas of service provision._ Our aim is to ensure we are continuously improving the quality of service that we provide through our volunteers and staff, in turn ensuring we bring greater benefit to all those whom we support. 6 ## The Linda Tremble Foundation ## SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity In order to continuously improve what we do, and to find new ways of supporting people, we seek full feedback from our service users on an annual basis. We want to know what they think of our services, how they have been supported, the impact on their lives and what they think we can do better or differently. Getting that feedback isn’t easy. Not everyone has the time or inclination, especially if they are really struggling in their day-to-day lives. Having undertaken a big effort to secure a round of extremely positive feedback in 2023-24, reported in last year’s Annual Review, we therefore decided to conduct our next feedback round about 18 months later in 2025-26. We’ll report on the outcome of that research in our next Annual Review. As a reminder of some highlights from our 2023-24 feedback: - **Over 95% of respondents feel that their experience of our Support Groups and Befriending Services is either positive (over 15%) or very positive (over 80%).** - **Over 95% of respondents say that they feel less isolated as a consequence of the support they receive from us.** - **Over 90% of respondents say that our services have helped them cope better with their day-to-day challenges.** ## **3. Growing the number and effectiveness of our volunteers:** _Provide high quality volunteering opportunities and experiences for students, people interested in eating disorder support and people with lived experience of eating disorders._ Matching the growth in demand for our services with an expansion in our capacity to meet that demand through skilled and committed volunteers is a delicate and challenging balancing act. We again feel that we were able to get that balance right in 2024-25 and overall had a good match between the continuing growth in demand for our services and growth in our ability to meet that demand through our ever outstanding volunteers. - **The number of our active volunteers reached 63, up 30% on the 2023-24 peak.** - **The number of hours of volunteer work grew by 35% to 2,349.** We continue to be especially fortunate that our amazing volunteers have overall been able to give so much more of their time over the year. 7 The Linda Tremble Foundation ## SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity ## **4. Growing our income to enable our other three key aims:** _Develop strategic partnerships to secure sustainable funding and expand the range and quality of our services._ Reflecting the overall decline in funding conditions, and the especially good year we’d had in 2023-24, our income fell by 16 **%** between 2023-24 and 2024-25. Full details of the income and financials positions of SupportED are shown in the Accounts section of this Report. 8 The Linda Tremble Foundation SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity ## **- 2024 25 Financial Review** The financial position of the charity at the year-end provides a solid foundation for the continued support of our growing number of service users in the 2025-26 year. However, with the overall climate for fundraising being significantly more challenging than the previous year, our income for the year fell by 16% from the previous year (202324 was a year of record high income for the charity, itself up 73% on 2022-23), while costs grew by 17% in line with our service delivery plans. Consequently we had a deficit for the year, against our break-even budget. Our prudent financial management and good reserves position does enable us to accept this deficit, while continuing to fulfil our charitable purpose. However, we know we must redouble our efforts to accelerate our income growth and manage our resources accordingly, and have agreed an appropriately cautious budget for 2025-26 while maintaining our service provision. We are cautiously optimistic that our income will resume its growth in 2025-26, for which we have a ‘break-even’ budget. Our predominant sources of funding are charitable foundations and Trusts, and we thank them all for the support they give to our work. ## **Reserves** The Trustees’ policy is to retain between four and six months of expected running costs to ensure we can fulfil our business plan, meet all our commitments and to cover any unexpected expenditure. At year end, our unrestricted reserves stood at £60,564 (2023-24: £94,980) - equivalent to 4.1 months’ expenditure for the charity based on our 2025-26 Budget. Given that a significant part of our expenditure continues to be covered by and aligned to restricted project funding, the Trustees are satisfied that the unrestricted reserves are sufficient to enable the charity to continue its work and plans to expand. ## **Approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf** and , Co-chairs 21 August 2025 9 The Linda Tremble Foundation SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity ## **Independent Examiner’s Report for the year ended 31 March 2025** I report on the accounts of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2025, which are set out on pages 11 and 12 and the related notes on pages 13 to 16. ## **Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner** The charity’s Trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the terms of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006(as amended) (“the 2006 Regulations”). The charity’s Trustees consider that the audit requirement of Regulation 10(1) (d) of the Regulations does not apply. It is my responsibility to examine the accounts as required under section 44(1) (c) of the Act and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention. ## **Basis of independent examiner’s statement** My examination is carried out in accordance with Regulation 11 of the 2006 Regulations. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeks explanations from the Trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts. ## **Independent examiner’s statement** In the course of my examination, no matter has come to my attention: 1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements: - to keep accounting records in accordance with Section 44(1) (a) of the 2005 Act and Regulation 4 of the 2006 Regulations - to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with Regulation 9 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations - have not been met, or 2. to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. **EA independent Ltd 5 South Charlotte Street Edinburgh EH2 4AN 2 September 2025** 10 The Linda Tremble Foundation SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity ## **Receipts and Payments Account for the year ended 31 March 2025** |||**Unrestricted**|**Restricted**|**Total**|Total| |---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**Notes**|**2025**|**2025**|**2025**|2024| |||**£**|**£**|**£**|£| |**Receipts**|||||| |Grants and donations|2|64,311|111,195|**175,506**|209,792| |Invoice services||-|-|**-**|620| |Investment income||1,478|-|**1,478**|1,162| |||**──────**|**──────**|**──────**|──────| |||65,789|111,195|**176,984**|211,574| |||**──────**|**──────**|**──────**|──────| |**Payments**|||||| |Fundraising activities|3|21,048|-|**21,048**|20,421| |Charitable activities|4|78,407|97,785|**176,192**|145,592| |Governance costs|5|750|-|**750**|625| |Purchase of equipment||-|40|**40**|2,596| |||──────|──────|──────|──────| |Total payments||100,205|97,825|**198,030**|169,234| |||──────|──────|──────|──────| |**Net receipts/(payments) before transfers**||(34,416)|13,370|**(21,046)**|42,340| |**Transfers**||-|-|**-**|**-**| |||──────|──────|──────|──────| |**Net receipts/(payments) for the year**||(34,416)|13,370|**(21,046)**|42,340| |**Opening funds at 1 April**||94,980|27,222|**122,202**|79,862| |||──────|──────|──────|──────| |**Closing funds at 31 March**||60,564|40,592|**101,156**|122,202| |||══════|══════|══════|══════| The notes on pages 13 to 16 form part of these accounts 11 ## The Linda Tremble Foundation ## SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity ## **Statement of Balances as at 31 March 2025** |||**Unrestricted**|**Restricted**|**Total**|Total| |---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**Notes**|**2025**|**2025**|**2025**|2024| |||**£**|**£**|**£**|£| |**Cash and bank balances**|||||| |Opening balance at 1 April||94,980|27,222|**122,202**|79,862| |Net receipts/(payments) for year||(34,416)|13,370|**(21,046)**|42,340| |||──────|──────|**──────**|──────| |Closing balance at 31 March||60,564|40,592|**101,156**|122,202| |||══════|══════|══════|══════| |Represented by charity funds|7|60,564|40,592|**101,156**|122,202| |||══════|══════|══════|══════| |**Other assets**|||||| |||||**£**|**£**| |Laptops and equipment at cost||||**4,473**|4,473| |Furniture at cost||||**903**|903| |||||**──────**|──────| |||||**5,176**|5,176| |||||**══════**|══════| |**Creditors**|||||| |||||**£**|£| |Fundraising fee||||**1,740**|1,680| |Other fees||||**-**|103| |Independent examination||||**750**|750| |||||**──────**|──────| |||||**2,490**|2,533| |||||══════|══════| ## Approved by the Trustees on 21 August 2025 and signed on their behalf by: The notes on pages 13 to 16 form part of these accounts 12 The Linda Tremble Foundation SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity ## **Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025** ## **1. Accounting policies** ## _Basis of accounting_ The accounts have been prepared on a Receipts and Payments basis in accordance with the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended). ## _Fund accounting_ **Unrestricted Funds** are those funds that can be expended at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the objects of the charity. **Restricted Funds** are those that may only be used for specific purposes. Restrictions arise when specified by the donor, or when funds are raised for specific purposes. The purposes of the funds of the charity are shown in Note 7. ## _VAT_ The charity is not registered for VAT and, accordingly, expenditure includes VAT where appropriate. ## _Resources expended_ Expenditure incurred has been classified on a basis appropriate to the charity’s circumstances. All expenditure relates to the charitable activities. Governance costs are included in “Other costs” and are separately identified in the relevant note to the accounts. ## **2. Receipts from grants and donations** ||**Unrestricted**|**Restricted**|**Total**|Total| |---|---|---|---|---| ||**2025**|**2025**|**2025**|2024| ||**£**|**£**|**£**|£| |Social Isolation & Loneliness (SG)|-|22,695|**22,695**|14,543| |Garfield Weston|20,000|-|**20,000**|-| |Awards for All – YP project|-|17,300|**17,300**|-| |Health & Social Care Alliance|-|15,000|**15,000**|36,000| |Walter Scott Partners – Under 18’s|-|15,000|**15,000**|-| |Robertson Trust|14,000|-|**14,000**|14,000| |Volunteer Support Fund (SG)|-|10.950|**10,950**|13,000| |Peoples’ Postcode Lottery|-|-|**-**|20,675| |Comm. Health & Wellbeing (FVA)|-|-|**-**|14,223| |Corra Foundation|-|-|**-**|12,019| |Edward Gostlin Foundation|-|-|**-**|10,000| |Allen Lane Foundation|-|-|**-**|10,000| |Other grants and donations|25,826|30,250|**30,250**|60,690| |Donations via Enthuse and similar|4,485|-|**4,485**|4,642| ||──────|──────|**──────**|──────| ||64,311|111,195|**175,506**|209,792| ||──────|──────|**──────**|──────| 13 The Linda Tremble Foundation SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity ## **Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025** ## **3. Payments for fundraising activities** ||**Unrestricted**|**Restricted**|**Total**|Total| |---|---|---|---|---| ||**2025**|**2025**|**2025**|2024| ||**£**|**£**|**£**|£| |Fees for Professional Fundraiser|20,760|-|**20,760**|19,948| |Postage, platform fees and similar|288|-|**288**|473| ||──────|──────|**──────**|──────| ||21,048|-|**21,048**|20,421| ||──────|──────|**──────**|──────| ## **4. Payments for charitable activities** ||**Unrestricted**|**Restricted**|**Total**|Total| |---|---|---|---|---| ||**2025**|**2025**|**2025**|2024| ||**£**|**£**|**£**|£| |Salary costs|55,577|84,186|**139,763**|125,522| |Professional fees|1,953|110|**2,063**|3,700| |Travel & subsistence|2,255|2,626|**4,881**|3,096| |Training|1,125|2,432|**3,557**|6,526| |Wellbeing|6,080|2,760|**8,840**|1,345| |Phone, IT & website|7,816|2,430|**10,246**|2,371| |Office supplies & postage|930|-|**930**|682| |Marketing|1,679|1,050|**2,729**|426| |Venue hire and subscriptions|775|823|**1,598**|1,692| |Events|217|1,368|**1,585**|232| ||──────|──────|**──────**|──────| ||78,407|97,785|**176,192**|145,592| ||──────|──────|**──────**|──────| ## **5. Payments for governance activities** The cost of the Independent Examination for the year to 31 March 2025 is £750 (2024: £750) and is included in the Statement of Balances. ## **6. Payments to Trustees and Related Parties** No remuneration was paid to trustees during the year (2024: £Nil). No travel expenses were paid to any trustees in the year (2024: £Nil). There were no related party transactions in the year. 14 ## The Linda Tremble Foundation SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity ## **Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025** ## **7. Funds** |**Funds**|||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**Balance at**||||**Balance at**| ||**1 April**||||**31 March**| ||**2024**|**Receipts**|**Payments**|**Transfers**|**2025**| ||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**| |**Unrestricted Funds**|||||| |General fund|94,980|65,789|(100,205)|-|**60,564**| ||──────|──────|──────|──────|**──────**| |**Restricted Funds**|||||| |Befriending|1,200|12,000|(8,725)|-|**4,475**| |Carers fund|6,000|15,000|(18,238)|-|**2,762**| |Young people project|-|17,300|(6,969)|-|**10,331**| |Under 18's Family Support|||||| |Service|-|15,000|(5,097)|-|**9,903**| |Social Isolation & Loneliness|-|22,695|(22,695)|-|**-**| |Mental Health & Wellbeing|14,223|-|(14,223)|-|**-**| |Volunteer support fund|-|10,950|(10,950)|-|**-**| |Volunteering|-|2,000|(230)|-|**1,770**| |Walter Scott Giving - groups|1,124|-|(1,124)|-|**-**| |Groups|-|1,250|(1,250)|-|**-**| |Glasgow groups|-|10,000|(3,426)|-|**6,574**| |Edinburgh groups||5,000|(3,629)|-|**1,371**| |Regional - Fife|3,406|-|-|-|**3,406**| |Conference|1,269|-|(1,269)|-|**-**| ||──────|──────|──────|──────|**──────**| ||27,222|111,195|(97,825)|-|**40,592**| ||──────|──────|──────|──────|**──────**| |**Total Funds**|**122,202**|**176,984**|**(198,030)**|**-**|**101,156**| ||══════|══════|══════|══════|**══**═**═══**| 15 The Linda Tremble Foundation SupportED – the Community Eating Disorder Charity ## **Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025** ## _**Nature and purpose of Restricted funds**_ **Befriending** Funding provided towards our Befriending Project **Carers - fund** This includes a dedicated support service for carers of those with an eating disorder, funded by the Scottish Government, this funding was fully spent in the year and other small pots of funding brought forward to support the carers’ service. **Young people project** Awards for All funding from the National Lottery to support young people. The balance of this funding will be used in the 2025-26 year. **Under 18’s family support** Funding from Walter Scott Partners to support young people and **service** their families. The balance of this funding will be used in the 2025-26 year. **Social Isolation & Loneliness** Scottish Government funding received and fully spent in the year to engage with people affected by eating disorders and deliver services which reduce their social isolation and loneliness. **Mental Health & Wellbeing** Funding brought forward from the prior year to provide peer support services aimed at reducing stress and anxiety and increasing wellbeing. This has been fully spent in the year. **Volunteer support fund** Funding provided to cover staffing costs for the Volunteer Coordinator. **Volunteering** Funding via Turcan Connell Conundrum to support volunteering projects. **Walter Scott Giving Group -** Funding brought forward from the previous year to contribute to **face to face groups** running costs of our face-to-face groups including staff, volunteer and venue costs. This has been fully spent. **Groups** Funding via Office Travers Smith to run groups which has been fully spent. **Glasgow Groups** Funding from Bellahouston Bequest and Merchants House of Grant for group work in Glasgow. The balance will be spent in 2025-26. **Edinburgh Groups** Funding from University of Edinburgh to deliver face to face groups. The balance will be spent in 2025-26 **Regional – Fife** Funding for support groups in St Andrews. The balance will be spent in 2025-26. **Conference** To celebrate 10 years of making a positive difference to the lives of people in Scotland living with an eating disorder. This has been fully spent. **Transfers between funds** There were no transfers between funds during the year. 16