Annual Report and Financial Statements 2017 Annual Report and Financial Statements 2017 Sense Group:...

Annual Report andFinancial Statements 2017Sense Group: Sense, Sense International and Sense Scotland

Sense Group: Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 20172

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Contents

Chair’s welcome 4

Chief Executive’s introduction 5

Trustees’ report

Sense – who we are 6

Sense services – what we do 8

Our activities and achievements in 2016/17 11

Our people 30

Statement of compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 33

The governance of Sense 34

The Sense Group 36

Sense Group trustees and senior staff 37

Strategic report

Sense performance against objectives for 2016/17 39

Sense Scotland performance against objectives for 2016/17 43

Sense International performance against objectives for 2016/17 45

Statement of Sense Council’s responsibilities 51

Financial review 2016/17 54

Independent auditors’ report 58

Consolidated statement of financial activities for the year ended 31 March 2017 62

Accounting policies 69

Notes to the financial statements 72

Major supporters 92

Charity information 94


Chair’s welcome

As Chair, I am delighted to introduce our annual report and financial statements for 2017.

These consolidated accounts tell a wonderful story of the Sense Group. The accounts include Sense Scotland and Sense International’s work in South Asia, East Africa, Peru and Romania.

In common with the rest of the sector, we continue to face major challenges across all of our funding streams. This means that many people are still waiting too long for support or finding that their support is reduced.

Given the difficult financial environment, we have had to take some difficult decisions to safeguard the charity moving forward. Sadly, some roles were affected, and this led to the departure of some long-standing and valued staff. This makes it all the more important for Sense to find new ways of doing things.

TouchBase Pears opened its doors in July 2017. This major development will provide an important hub for our operational headquarters in the West Midlands, as well as giving us an opportunity to support more people and test different ways of working.

Our advocacy and campaigning work continues to influence and inform. Sense is a key partner in the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness. We will lead a sector-wide campaign about disabled people’s experiences of loneliness in 2017.

As usual, there have been some truly inspiring moments in the past 12 months, such as the international outward bound holiday and Sense Holidays and Short Breaks activities, a range of local events across the country, including garden and allotment projects, fêtes, tea parties, and so much more.

These celebratory moments are hugely important, but we must not forget our everyday work with the people we support and the remarkable progress that they make in their daily lives. As Chairman, a highlight of my year is the Sense Awards, where we can pause and thank our staff, and others, for their commitment and hard work.

We are very grateful to all of our donors – those who have run marathons, scaled mountains, made cakes, rattled buckets and taken part in many other amazing activities. Our work would not be possible without your generosity, time and skills. I am especially grateful to my fellow trustees (also volunteers) who continue to give their knowledge and time to Sense.

John Crabtree OBE Chairman

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Chief Executive’s introduction

In my introduction to this report last year I noted that our sector faces many challenges. Sense is no different to other charities and, while 2016/17 brought us lots of magical moments, we also had to face some difficult times.

Construction of our fantastic new TouchBase Pears centre in Selly Oak, Birmingham, is now complete, and staff started working from the building at the beginning of July 2017.

A number of families and people that we support helped us in the design of the building and, while TouchBase Pears will cater for specialist needs, it will also be a terrific resource for the whole community. The centre gives us far better facilities to run events and will also be a ‘home’ for a number of partner organisations and agencies. You can read more about TouchBase Pears in this report.

TouchBase Pears is just one example of our innovative approach to supporting people to enjoy independent lives. Our model of Sense Short Breaks, which is enormously important in helping children and young people to develop and gives families a much-needed break, is being considered by a number of local authorities. Sense Arts, Sport and Wellbeing programmes, funded by Sport England among others, continue to go from strength to strength. We are also working with partners to develop new supported living services in different parts of the country.

These are all positive developments. However, 2016/17 was also a difficult year for Sense. We had to address the pressures on many of our income streams, and the loss of valued and skilled staff was felt keenly across the organisation.

Nevertheless, we continue to find creative ways of responding to growing need. The magical moments, stories of courage and dedication that are so frequent across Sense make us a remarkable charity – and one that I am privileged to be part of.

I am grateful to all those who support Sense in so many ways, both through money and time, and to all our staff and trustees. We couldn’t do it without you.

Gillian Morbey OBE Chief Executive


Trustees’ report (Including the Directors’ report)

Sense – who we are

Sense is a national disability charity that supports people with complex communication needs to be understood, connected and valued.

What we believe

We believe that everyone, no matter how complex their communication needs, deserves the right to be connected and part of society.

What we do

We empower people with complex communication needs and their families by offering a broad range of flexible and personalised services. Together, we campaign passionately for the right to lead connected and fulfilled lives.

Why we do it

Our vision is a world where no one with complex communication needs is isolated, left out, or unable to fulfil their potential.

Our values and the ‘I’ statements

Our values underpin our vision and purpose, and guide us in all that we do:

• Honesty in how we behave.

• Engaging in our approach.

• Accountability for our actions.

• Recognition of people’s contribution and worth.

• Trust in each other.

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The ‘I’ statements• I will listen to others.

• I will understand and respond.

• I will respect others.

• I will be honest and open.

• I will participate and contribute.

• I will take informed risk.

• I will find things to celebrate.

• No decision about me, without me.

The ‘I’ statements put our values into effect and describe our behaviours and expectations, which apply to staff, trustees, the people who use our services and their families. They flow into our practice through induction, training, information materials, policies, quality audits and staff performance reviews.

The vision, purpose and values shown here are those of Sense. However, they also align with the vision, purpose and values of Sense Scotland and Sense International.

2017: Our seventh decade

Sense was set up in 1955 after Peggy Freeman and Margaret Brock, whose children were born deafblind after they contracted rubella, contacted ten other families with rubella children. Together, they set up the Rubella Group with assets of £2.5s.0d (approximately £48 today) to campaign for help at a time when there was little understanding of deafblindness and few services for their children.

Peggy, Margaret and many of the parents who founded the organisation, which became Sense in 1997, continued to actively support us for many years. We owe them a great deal.

In the last 60 years Sense has become an organisation that provides a wide variety of services to people with complex communication needs. There is now a Sense Group, working not only in all countries of the United Kingdom, but also globally, through Sense International.

The people who need our support today • Approximately 390,000 people in the UK have significant hearing and sight

impairments.

• Many also have additional disabilities and/or learning and other difficulties.

• The number of older people with both sight and hearing loss will grow significantly in the future.

• This is also a global challenge. Our sister charity, Sense International, supports people with deafblindness in seven countries around the world.


Sense services – what we do

Sense is a national disability charity that supports people with complex communication needs to be understood, connected and valued.

Our expertise in supporting individuals with complex communication needs benefits people of all ages, as well as their families and carers. We provide information and advice, offer a wide range of flexible services, and campaign passionately for the rights of the people we serve.

Our services are funded by local authorities, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), and through a combination of charitable donations, grants and statutory income. They include:

• Support for children and young people, including advice and early intervention support, access to pre-school groups and holistic assessment support during the transition to adulthood; Sense Intervenor and Communicator Guide services; holiday and activity schemes; access to family events; and supported living assistance.

• Community services, including Sense Centres that provide developmental and creative activities for people; Sense College where people can learn, develop and enjoy more independent lives; and Sense Intervenors and Communicator Guides who assist people to get out and about in their local community.

• Accommodation services, which are tailored to the needs of the individual. We provide residential services where a small number of people live together, as well as supported living, where we enable people to live in their own homes.

• Sense Arts, Sport and Wellbeing activities, including drama and theatre programmes; visual and tactile art; dance; sport and physical activity; and work with cultural organisations (see page 18).

• Specialist information, advice and services on a range of issues for the people we support, their families, carers and the professionals who work with them.

• Campaigning to ensure that public policy sufficiently recognises the needs of everyone we support and their families, and brings about positive change (see page 22).

• Increasing public awareness of our organisation and the different ways we help and support people.

How we provide these services

We work with a range of partners, including local authorities, housing associations, medical staff, schools, dance companies, sports coaches and others, to provide services tailored to the needs of the individual. We also work directly with people who want to use their personal budgets on our services.

The support network

Our membersSense is a membership organisation. We have over 4,500 members who receive a monthly e-bulletin and ‘Talking Sense’ magazine, which is published three times a year. There are numerous opportunities for members to get involved in our work, including campaigning, volunteering and fundraising. We will be holding regional mySense membership events in 2018.

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Sense branchesSense has supported 12 local branches across the country for a number of years. This support has varied across different regions because of restricted resources, and we always wish we could do more.

In light of current financial pressures we decided that, sadly, we would no longer be able to provide central co-ordinated support for Sense branches funded from our charitable expenditure. Each branch will continue to have a named contact in our Operations team, and we hope that their fantastic work continues. In many ways, we need our branches more than ever to reach out to local members and their communities, and we are very grateful for all that they do.

Our volunteersThe number of people actively volunteering for Sense is more than 2,350, which is similar to last year. Trading volunteers make up the largest group, with 1,220 regular volunteers contributing almost 2,000 hours a week in our 102 shops. More than 600 young adults got involved with Sense last summer as part of a partnership with the National Citizen Service.

Over 400 people volunteered in Sense services, with 279 supporting Sense Holidays and Short Breaks and our befriending scheme, completing 25,000 hours of volunteering between them. New opportunities in sports, arts and services have increased the variety of ways volunteers can get involved with Sense.

The induction given to new volunteers also evolved, including for those volunteering in our shops.

In the future, we plan to focus on targeted recruitment to broaden the experience and expertise of our volunteers. This will help us to meet increasingly complex and diverse support needs.

Sense Scotland provides opportunities for almost 500 people to volunteer, the majority of which are across 20 shops. These people make an invaluable contribution, helping to increase income and promote Sense Scotland’s work.

A big thank you to all our donors, supporters and volunteers

We are incredibly grateful to each and every one of our donors, supporters and volunteers, as the services we provide for children, adults and older people with complex communication needs would simply not be possible without your generosity.

People support us in so many ways and we receive donations from a wide range of individuals and organisations. Many others also donate their time and skills to Sense. People’s generosity in supporting Sense with their money and time is wonderful, and many of the activities they take part in are remarkable.

Income from fundraising is incredibly important to us, as it is the only way we are able to run many of our services. Thank you to our fantastic supporters who helped Sense, Sense International and Sense Scotland to raise more than £14 million last year. This includes over £2.8 million for our TouchBase Pears centre in Birmingham.

We are extremely grateful to the thousands of supporters who make monthly donations, text or send money in response to an appeal, or leave us a gift in their will (132 people last year). We are especially thankful to all those who took part in challenge events for Sense, such as the 451 who ran the Virgin Money London Marathon and Brighton Marathon, the 74 people who took part in the Royal Parks Half Marathon and the Great North Run, and the 306 people who trekked the RidgeWalk. In total, nearly 1,000 people participated in our events last year.


We must mention Nick Edwards and his girlfriend, Sally. Nick, one of our amazing Virgin Money London Marathon runners, proposed to Sally at the finish line, and we were privileged to witness this special moment. We send them our best wishes. Nick also raised an incredible £2,080 for Sense.

Our thanks also go the inspirational individuals who raised funds for Sense. This included a team of seven from Kent who tackled the Three Peaks Challenge in June, scaling Britain’s three highest mountains in 24 hours. They decided to raise money for Sense after one of the group was diagnosed with Usher syndrome. Their original target was £2,000, but they far exceeded that and raised £4,510.

Brothers James and Sam Stafford Allen took on the Marathon des Sables in April 2017, covering 156 miles through the Sahara Desert over six days, raising more than £10,000 (including Gift Aid) in the process. They took inspiration for their amazing challenge from their sister, Felicity, who is blind, and has received support from Sense for several years.

Our trusts, corporate and statutory grants donors also make a significant difference to Sense, Sense Scotland and Sense International, for which we are very grateful. These progressive organisations have helped support some truly innovative work, including our Sense Arts, Sport and Wellbeing programme, and our TouchBase Pears centre (see page 26 for more details).

There is a list thanking our major supporters at the end of this report. We would also like to say a heartfelt thank you to the more than 2,350 people who volunteered for Sense last year.

Mike, Alex, Philip, Adam, Philip, Graham and James tackled the Three Peaks Challenge for Sense, raising £4,510

Brothers James and Sam Stafford Allen raised over £10,000 for Sense by taking on the Marathon des Sables in April

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Our activities and achievements in 2016/17

Children, young people and their families

Sense continues to provide a range of personalised services for children, young people and their families.

These include support and advice when a child is first diagnosed; specialist advice to help children learn and develop; early intervention support, such as early years groups; transition and preparation for adulthood; family events; direct support at times of specific need; and signposting to other appropriate services.

This year our Children’s Specialist Services team provided our core offer of annual contact, newsletters and invitations to family events to 1,233 children and their families. The team also provided direct packages of support, including early intervention, transition and crisis support, to 296 children and their families.

We also held 36 family days supporting 278 families, and ran 209 specialist multi-sensory impairment pre-school groups across the country.

We continued to run a project on transition (from childhood to adulthood) funded by the Big Lottery Fund in Wales. Through this project we:

• Provided direct support to an additional 37 young people through home visits, transition support meetings, visits to potential services, and opportunities for new experiences, friendship and choice making.

• Held 44 events for young people, including music and drama workshops, arts, crafts and cookery, a sensory theatre company workshop and circus skills.

• Addressed the issue of inaccessibility caused by transport barriers. Two young representatives attended an Accessible Transport Panel meeting with the Welsh Government.

The parent/carer network group set up by the project has also taken off, with 16 parents and/or carers attending the last group meeting.

The project operations group, which meets to support effective working between partners, continues to grow, and there are now ten partner members representing seven organisations. Meetings focus on the sharing of knowledge, experience and good practice, including practical training sessions.

In England, we supported 63 young people through home visits, transition support meetings and visits to potential services.

The Children’s Specialist Services team has also undergone significant changes this year.

Moving forward, we will no longer be undertaking statutory assessments or commissioned training. However, we have been working closely with the National Sensory Impairment Partnership to ensure that families and commissioners have access to a database of multi-sensory impairment professionals who can undertake such work.

Despite the changes, we remain committed to ensuring that children and their families receive the specialist support and advice they need. We will be working closely with families over the coming year to provide direct support, specialist advice and a range of family events.


In Northern Ireland, we were funded by the Big Lottery Fund to develop two new family support projects. We supported an additional 50 families in 2016/17 (bringing the total supported to 170), which exceeded our target. With support from Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) we provided additional training and consultancy to statutory services, which helped us to identify and support more adults. As part of the project we hosted a seminar for professionals, with Professor Jan Van Djik as keynote speaker.

Moving forward, we hope to extend our out of school hours provision through a major new partnership programme with two local schools. The HSCB has confirmed funding to target training and consultancy support in the areas of dual sensory loss, dementia and acquired brain injury.

In Scotland, Sense Scotland’s early years service reached over 100 families, with training events held for parents, staff and other professionals.

The One Giant Leap programme, which helps young people with disabilities transition into adult life, received significant support from the Big Lottery. This allowed us to roll out support programmes across the country.

Adults

Our approach to providing support focuses on enabling people with complex communication needs to achieve their full potential. We offer a range of services to do this, including specialist accommodation and/or independent living support. Our community services help people to develop their interests and undertake new activities. We also enable people to get support with day-to-day living activities from either a Sense Intervenor or Communicator Guide.

• Over 400 people live in our residential and supported living services across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

• We have been successful in retaining our long-standing day services in Peterborough and Rotherham.

• We also retained the contract for the Get Out There (GOT) group in Cornwall, which has been running for the last eight years. This group of 23 young people take part in a diverse range of community-based activities.

• The GOT Plus group is for young people aged between 18 and 22. Thirteen young people receive a community support service in order to attend this group.

• Three new supported living schemes are planned, which will provide high quality housing and support solutions for 27 individuals.

Older people

As the population ages, the number of older people with sight and hearing problems will increase. We estimate that by 2030 there will be well over half a million people with sensory impairments over the age of 70 in the UK.

Our work with older people this year included a programme of arts, wellbeing and sports activities, which you can read about on page 18.

Sense Communicator Guide services support older people to do things that have become difficult as they lose their sight and hearing. They help people to go shopping, to visit their doctor, meet with a social group, and more. Sense Communicator Guides make an enormous difference, and help to alleviate loneliness and isolation.

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Last year Sense organised training for local authorities, supporting employees to carry out specialist Care Act assessments for people who have sight and hearing impairments.

Sense continues to undertake assessments for older people when commissioned by local authorities. Eight were conducted in the last year for people over 65. These can lead to equipment or care packages being made available.

Sense Scotland set up a Partners in the Community project in Glasgow to engage businesses with people who have complex communication needs. This initiative included a number of people taking on the role of mystery shoppers, feeding back their experiences to businesses.

Ensuring high quality services

Our Quality and Safeguarding Boards continue to meet on a regular basis and provide assurance in relation to quality and safety.

The Boards benefit from having an independent chair to provide additional scrutiny and assurance. Two independent safeguarding experts also support the Safeguarding Board. The Terms of Reference for both Boards were reviewed during 2016/17, and the chair provides an annual report to Sense Council about their work and outcomes.

• Regulatory compliance with Care Quality Commission (CQC) standards was consistently good in 2016/17. All 56 CQC registered services were inspected at least once under the new inspection framework. In March 2017, 98% of Sense services were rated by the CQC as ‘Good’, with an increasing number of services rated as having ‘Outstanding’ features. This is in comparison to an average of 56% across the wider sector. No Sense service has an ‘Inadequate’ judgement against any of the key questions.

• The focus over the next year will be to maintain and build on our ‘Good’ ratings, and to achieve overall ‘Outstanding’ judgements for our services.

• Services registered with the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) in Northern Ireland are rated as ‘Good’ for safe, effective and well led. Two services are rated as ‘Excellent’ for the question ‘Is care compassionate?’

• The Sense Quality Framework is implemented across all operational services to provide a holistic view of quality. This includes the ‘I’ statement audits, outcomes from self-assessments and monthly compliance audits that focus on service management, medication administration, finance systems and training compliance. This has strengthened our approach to compliance and quality assurance. A quality folder has been issued across our services to prepare staff for inspection and ensure they are familiar with the Framework.

• The ‘What makes me proud’ pages on Sense’s staff intranet launched in September 2016 to celebrate and share good practice, innovation and the achievements of the people we support and our staff.

• A network of Quality Champions has been meeting since July 2016 to promote quality practice and continuous improvement within local services.

• Over 70 members of staff have been trained as person-centred review facilitators to ensure that individual reviews are based on feedback from the people who use our services and the outcomes they want to achieve. A practice guide has also been developed to accompany the training.

• The Sense User Reference Group (SURG) continues to meet on an annual basis, with focus groups working on a charter of rights for people using our services.

• In 2016, the winner of the Sense Quality Service Award was 18 Watergate in recognition of the outstanding support provided to the people who live there. The service was recognised for excellent communication support, a strong, proactive management team, excellent working relationships and good communication with family members.


• Sense Scotland undertook a number of service audits last year. Their quality assurance programme continues to add value and quality to services and strategic direction. They also received positive external accreditations from the Care Inspectorate and Quality Scotland.

Sense College

• Our specialist Sense College operates a geographically dispersed delivery model across six sites in the East of England and East Midlands. We support young people and adults aged 16 and over to enjoy more independent lives. This is achieved through a wide range of activities that span the creative arts, sports, cooking, life skills, therapies and participation in local community events.

• During the 2015/16 academic year, Sense College delivered education and lifelong learning activities from nine resource centre sites. Following an organisational restructure in the spring term of 2016, three of the centres were moved from the College to the management of the Head of Operations for that area. Education provision is now delivered from six resource centre sites in the East Midlands and East regions. The Executive Principal role has a focus on working in partnership to grow opportunities for 19 to 25-year-olds, as well as outreach college education across England. These changes became fully operational in the 2016/17 academic year.

• We offer two distinct programmes: an education programme, which is a more formalised approach to learning for young people and adults aged 16 to 25, and an everyday living programme (funded through adult social care funding, continuing health care funding and/or individual and personal budgets), which provides day services and activities for adults. The number of people supported by Sense College in 2016/17 was 138, of which 30 were funded through the Education Funding Agency.

• Our education programme offers personalised study programmes that support young people to meet their long-term goals. Goals may include increasing independent living skills, accessing further education, developing employability skills, increasing community participation, and being more aware of their own health and wellbeing. Our everyday living programme seeks to develop skills for independent living through informal learning opportunities, enabling people to make informed life choices.

• In February 2017, Ofsted rated Sense College’s overall effectiveness as ‘Good’, grade 2 provision. Inspectors made specific mention of our teachers and specialist support staff being skilled in working with learners who have highly complex learning difficulties and/or disabilities. The evidence of this is seen through students’ improved communication skills and decision-making abilities. Staff were also commended for the excellent behavioural support provided, which enables learners to manage their own behaviour successfully and cope with a range of social situations.

• Sense Scotland supported a number of people to develop skills for learning, work and life, and to gain recognised qualifications, through ASDAN. There was a significant increase in the number of people who achieved these awards in 2016/17.

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Enjoying life at Sense CollegeRyan started at Rothwell Resource Centre, which is part of Sense College, in September 2015 aged 19. He is completely blind, has epilepsy and mild autism.

Ryan was initially unsure about his new surroundings and didn’t like being with new people. He would display challenging behaviour, including biting, scratching and throwing things, and would self-harm by head butting. At first, he would only stay in one room. He was assigned key members of staff and, through intensive interaction, he eventually built up new relationships.

His reluctance to go into different rooms and new places restricted the things he could do. Initially, staff concentrated on working with him in just three rooms. He got to know these well and felt comfortable and safe there. In his last term, arrangements were made for Ryan to try hydrotherapy at a community leisure centre, in a way that he felt comfortable with.

Ryan was happy to come back to Sense College after the summer break in September 2016. He was immediately confident going from one room to another, and happy to try lots of different community activities. His timetable was adapted to include working in every room, going shopping, bowling and swimming. He was happy to work with a variety of different people, and has built up good relationships with his new key workers.

Ryan has discovered a love of gardening, and really enjoys the feel of plants and compost. He did work experience at a community garden, and also achieved a certificate in ASDAN Personal Progress.

In two years at Rothwell, Ryan’s life has changed dramatically. He’s now more independent and confident, is able to communicate clearly, and is much more sociable. He is happier as a result, and rarely displays challenging behaviour.

His parents are delighted with his progress, and have told us that he is much more willing to get involved in family activities and has built closer relationships with his siblings.


Sense Holidays and Short Breaks

We know that half of local authorities have cut spending on breaks (respite services) for families with disabled children over the last five years. However, Sense Holidays and Short Breaks provide a lifeline for families of disabled children and young people, helping to hold families together and give children and young people the chance to enjoy new experiences, make friends and grow in confidence. There is always a huge demand for places and we are unfortunately only able to accommodate one in three applications.

100% of parents reported that their child’s 2016 holiday was the most significant break they got from caring that year, while 87% of parents/carers told us: “I now feel better able to cope”.

Sense Short Breaks are proven to lower rates of stress, depression and sleep deprivation, and help to give families some much-needed respite.

“This was the first respite I’ve had since June 2015.”

“Nobody ever has my son overnight. To not have to worry about him yanking his feeding tube in the night or vomiting is just amazing and a break from all of the lifting I have to do and the stress when he gets upset.”

We also gained a new community services contract in Sandwell, West Midlands, to run Sense Short Breaks for children and young people in the area. The take up was high and the service was full within the short six-week implementation phase. As a result, Sense was awarded additional funding, and now offers regular services to nearly 50 children and young people.

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Making new friends in Tower HamletsThe Tower Hamlets buddying programme requires us to work towards six outcomes for children and young people. These are to:

• Establish positive one-to-one relationships.

• Develop independence skills.

• Have new experiences (which they choose).

• Offer age-appropriate, enjoyable and stimulating activities.

• Build personal resilience.

• Develop confidence and increase aspirations.

We work with children, young people and their families (and schools or other teams who support the child or young person where appropriate) to identify two or three of these outcomes for each young person when they start the scheme. We then record how we are working towards achieving these goals at regular intervals, and amend them where necessary. We are working with Tower Hamlets to more clearly define outcomes for the wider family.

The power of volunteers

Volunteers play a vital role in each young person’s experience of the scheme, bringing a range of skills and benefits to the role.

• Volunteers are not paid, and this creates a more equal partnership.

• Every person has different experience and skills, which leads to creativity and fresh approaches.

• Our recruitment is focused in Tower Hamlets, which provides strong community connections and strengthens feelings of confidence and engagement.

Kibria and Rob

Kibria (pictured on the left with Rob, his volunteer buddy) turned ‘the big 1-8’ in October. He has learning disabilities and cerebral palsy, and attends college four times a week.

Kibria and volunteer befriender, Rob, got on instantly, sharing a love of animated films, which they often seek out together in local charity shops. They have also visited different museums in Tower Hamlets, and regularly go for a kick around and eat out together.

Sometimes Kibria can struggle to integrate into different social environments, and his default response is that something sounds ‘boring’ if he feels apprehensive.

Often, he would prefer to stay in the security of his bedroom playing WWE on his PlayStation. Rob, however, is passionate about preventing isolation and has been a great support for Kibria, taking things one step at a time and having a joke along the way. He has also made an extra effort to build Kibria’s confidence in maintaining the relationships he has already established. This included arranging a special visit to Kibria’s old school, where they had a great time cooking and chatting with his old school friends.


Sense Arts, Sport and Wellbeing

The Sense Arts, Sport and Wellbeing programme is dedicated to providing opportunities for people with complex communication needs and their families to participate in and attend arts and sports activities.

We believe that everyone has the right to access creative and active opportunities, and that these are vital for living full, rich and engaged lives. We are passionate about creating new opportunities for people to discover more about themselves, their interests and skills, and to express their own choices, meet other people and thrive.

Our vision is that, by 2025, every person with complex communication needs will have access to and the opportunity to participate in an arts or physical activity at least twice a month.

The Sense Arts programmeSense has been pioneering the development of inclusive art for people with sensory impairments, including supporting talented artists, commissioning new work and using art as a form of communication.

Over the past 12 months we delivered a wide range of opportunities and developed some fantastic partnerships with other leaders in the arts field. We have also seen many individuals grow in confidence by working with professional artists and Sense staff on a range of projects.

We have been working to embed arts and creativity at all levels across Sense. We undertook an internal arts and creativity audit, which found that art and creative opportunities were being used across services to support choice and personal expression, and that staff were eager to find new ways to engage people in creative art projects. We have since developed an action plan, The Case for Creativity, to support staff to develop their skills. This will initially focus on the 14 services that took part in the audit. We plan to seek funding to roll this out nationally to provide more creative opportunities across our services.

Our TouchBase Pears centre will be central to the delivery of the Sense Arts programme. We will establish high quality arts across the studio spaces, creating a thriving hub of artistic excellence for Sense participants and the general public. We have received investment from the Arts Council to develop a brand new sensory installation programme, and will bring together professional artists from a range of disciplines to curate an exciting Sensory Arts Festival in 2018.

Highlights from the past 12 months include:

• A week-long collaboration with Studio Wayne McGregor, which enabled people with complex communication needs to express themselves through dance. We also developed an inclusive dance toolkit, ‘Making Sense of Dance’. This toolkit and video resource has been developed for people with sensory impairments and will support staff to create high quality programmes of work. It is available to download from the Sense website.

• Sense partnered with Open Senses Festival – a London-wide arts festival celebrating all things sensory – as an access consultant. We also supported Sense ambassador Marcus Inniss’ three-month visual arts exhibition hosted at Moorfields Eye Hospital.

• We supported a week-long music residency with six young participants and the theatre company Talking Birds at the Tin Arts Centre in Coventry. The group explored different musical activities, experimented with sensory and tactile speakers, and enjoyed a brand new musical experience on a barge.

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• Working alongside the renowned Oily Cart Theatre Company, we developed a bespoke version of their production ‘Kubla Khan’ for children and young people with sensory impairments.

• We continued to develop our dance programme in Birmingham, working alongside the Birmingham Hippodrome and dance company Interaction. Twenty Sense participants took part in our dance programme, Body Languages, and performed on stage at the Hippodrome.

• Working with the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists we delivered a professional training programme for artists interested in working more inclusively.

• We supported the British Library to extend their provision to children with complex communication needs at our Hadley Centre, through an arts programme that explored sensory sound and music making, funded by the library.

• Artist Alex McEwan worked with a group of older people in Islington, London, to encourage creative confidence and enable them to express themselves through communal art – from collage making to creating images on iPads. This can be a powerful way to bring people together, enabling them to open up and form bonds, rediscover old skills and interests, and find new ones.

Joan, a regular at our Islington arts and crafts group, said: “I can’t see, I can’t hardly hear, but I am still here and I am still having a go and do you know what? I love it!”

The Sense Sport programmeSport and physical activity are essential to a healthy and active lifestyle, as well as supporting positive wellbeing. Sense is committed to developing partnerships and programmes to ensure sport and physical activity opportunities are available and inclusive for people with complex communication needs.

Providing these activities is an increasingly important area of work for Sense, not only because of the physical benefits, but also the range of social benefits it brings, such as self-confidence, the chance to make friends and to try new things in a fun and safe environment.

We have completed the first year of the Sporting Sense project, which was established after the successful award of a £425,000 grant from Sport England. In its first year, we reached out to communities across London and Birmingham, offering a range of sports activities.

As we look to deliver the project in year two, we will be establishing new sessions and activities to widen our reach and grow Sense Sport provision.

Highlights from the past 12 months include:

• Over 200 people took part in the Sporting Sense project in year one, enjoying a diverse range of activities such as yoga, dance, rock climbing, swimming, rowing and sailing.

• We developed three strands to our work, allowing us to create tailored activities for young people, adults and older people.

• We made new links with Age UK branches across the country, leading to the development of dance and gentle exercise classes for older people with sensory impairments in Birmingham, Nottingham and Derby. We also worked with housing associations to offer yoga and Zumba gold sessions.


• We developed closer links with schools for children and young people with special educational needs in both Birmingham and London, supporting them to enhance the range of sport they offer their pupils.

• We developed our own bespoke training package in partnership with the English Federation of Disability Sport, allowing us to train hundreds of Sense support workers, volunteers and colleagues from partner organisations to better support people with complex communication needs in sport.

• We also created a training package for sports coaches to help them to develop the softer skills involved in delivering sport inclusively, such as methods of communication and building trust.

• We developed new partnerships with sports organisations and charities, including British Gymnastics, the British Mountaineering Council, and Guide Dogs UK.

• We commissioned the University of East Anglia to evaluate the impact of Sporting Sense on the physical, mental and social wellbeing of those who take part.

• In September 2016 we hosted the Deafblind International Outdoor network event at the Exmoor Trust. It was the biggest event of its kind so far, with over 60 participants. A total of 21 adults from Scotland, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Sweden and across England were supported by a team of 40 staff, siblings, parents and relatives. Activities included climbing and abseiling, sailing, horse riding, zip wiring, cycling and swimming. The event was covered extensively in the local press and on TV.

Stuart (right) and Martin have learnt to cycle together, having lots of fun in the process

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Sporting Sense: a cycling instructor’s perspective Cathy Fox is an Adapted Cycling Instructor at Solihull Active/Wheels for All

Having worked with disabled people for over 17 years and having a son with disabilities, I am passionate about making sport, and in particular cycling, which helps with physical and mental health, safe, fun and accessible.

I have been involved with Sense for over two years, delivering weekly adapted cycling sessions.

Some people attend the sessions regularly, and I have witnessed some remarkable changes in their behaviour and wellbeing.

One lady, Becky, comes along with a support worker. When she first joined she refused to take part, and wouldn’t even put a helmet on. We worked with her over a period of six weeks, building her trust and confidence both in me as an instructor and the bikes. She now uses the hand bicycle regularly, and the small trike with support. This is a massive step forward for her, and she is not only enjoying the physical benefits, but has learnt to trust new people.

Stuart (pictured) has limited use of his hands, but cycling has improved his flexibility and strength. When he first started, Stuart wouldn’t grip the handlebars or push the pedals with his feet. He now does five or six laps every week, and has learnt to pedal to propel himself forward. His support worker Martin had also never cycled before he attended, but has now learnt to ride alongside Stuart!

Two Sense residents, Jim and Kerry, have been so inspired by the sessions that they are planning to buy their own trikes for home, which means that they can practice and get active whenever they want.

More generally, I have discovered that the sensation of moving on a bike has a hugely calming effect on people who tend to get flustered or agitated. The project has also enabled family members to take part alongside their children. Joffy lives in a Sense service about an hour away from his mum; however, going cycling allows them to meet up and share an experience.

Working with the Sense group gives me great satisfaction, and every week is different. With every session I can see the difference that taking part makes to those who wouldn’t have the opportunity otherwise. It’s extremely rewarding to know we’re making cycling possible for the group.

Professionally, it has also developed my skills and confidence in communicating with and supporting people who have a range of different needs. It has also changed the way that I approach other sessions.


Technology

Our technology work in the past 12 months has focused on Online Today, a project funded by the Big Lottery and led by RNIB. The project aims to help people with sensory loss to get online. Sense has two Project Officers, one of whom co-ordinates the work of our Digital Champions. They have undertaken a range of activities in the last year, including:

• A collaboration with Hanover Housing Association to deliver two workshops about accessible technology in Ipswich. This was carried out with the help of Deafblind UK and RNIB.

• Workshops focusing on the accessibility of Apple products, which took place at the Apple store in Leicester for people known to Sense, Vista (a Leicester charity for the blind) and Action for Blind People.

• A collaboration with RNIB, AbilityNet and UCanDoIT to source one-to-one IT support for people who need help at home.

• Promoting Online Today at various events, including International Sports Week in Devon, a roadshow for Hanover Housing residents in Ipswich, Deafblind Awareness Week in Exeter, and at Sense Centres across the country.

An evaluation of Online Today is underway as the project nears its conclusion in December 2017.

Future plans for project involvement include Sense sports and technology days, showcasing technology at TouchBase Pears, and the use of iPads on Sense Holidays.

The Project Officers have also been working with a group of nine inspirational Digital Champions, who provide peer support to Online Today. They act as role models by taking part in activities or writing about their experiences with technology, as well as providing accessibility advice to our Digital team on developing our website.

Campaigns and public policy

Key successesInfluencing healthcare provision

In July 2016 we published the ‘Equal Access to Healthcare’ report, which outlined the experiences of people with complex communication needs when accessing healthcare services. Following the launch of the report the Policy team met the Minister for Social Care to discuss the findings and recommendations.

The Accessible Information Standard mandates what health and social care services must do to meet the information and communication needs of people with a sensory impairment and/or learning disability. Sense co-produced the Standard with NHS England, and it has been welcomed by other organisations.

Closing the disability employment gap

We launched our ‘Realising Aspirations for All’ report at the Conservative party conference in September 2016. The report highlighted the problems faced by disabled people when looking for and staying in work. The Policy team has also been working to influence the government’s proposals around closing the disability employment gap. We held a bespoke event for the Department for Work and Pensions, and have been working with other charities and the Disability Benefits Consortium to ensure that the government’s response reflects the needs of the people we support.

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Social care influencing

Sense contributed extensively to the debate on social care, often influencing public discussion, working both with partners across the sector and independently. The government committed significant additional funding to the sector in the 2017 Spring Budget, and further committed to consult on longer term reforms to ensure the sustainability of the sector.

Influencing policy on housing

This year, Sense has become a significant and influential voice in discussions around supported living policy and how the sector is funded. We submitted extensive written evidence to government outlining our concerns, which culminated in colleagues from our Operations team, and one of our supported living tenants, giving evidence to a select committee at the House of Commons.

Making the case for play

Following the successful launch of our Play Inquiry in early 2016, Sense continued to engage with decision-makers on how childcare providers are funded. This year, the government announced it will introduce disability access funding, meaning that play providers will get additional money to support children with multiple needs. We also produced two play toolkits, which are practical guides on how to make play activities accessible and inclusive.

Parliamentary engagement

Sense’s public affairs work on parliamentary engagement and policy-driven external affairs expanded last year. This allowed us to further our reach and build relationships with parliamentarians and key decision-makers. Independent polling commissioned by Sense found that the proportion of MPs who consider Sense ‘influential’ has significantly increased from one in five (22%) in 2015 to one-third (34%) in 2017. We have also seen a marked rise in the number of MPs who believe Sense to be ‘visible’, from 20% in 2015 to 29% in 2017.

The Sense Campaigners’ Network

At the start of April, Sense re-launched our Campaigners’ Network. In the coming year, we want to make it easier for people to be informed about public policy, campaigns and how they can get involved, and increase the number of people campaigning with Sense.

Campaign planning for 2017/18

Sense is a founding member of the Disabled Children’s Partnership (DCP), a group of 28 disability and children’s charities who have come together in the shared belief that health and social care services for disabled children, young people and families can and must be better.

We know that families are not receiving the support they are entitled to and that there are significant gaps, including a severe lack of health and social care support and a need for greater investment in preventative services, such as early development and play services, short breaks and equipment. Working with the DCP, Sense will seek to influence children’s social care law and improve opportunities and access to services for disabled children.

Sense is a key partner in the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness, and led a sector-wide campaign about disabled people’s experiences of loneliness in 2017. We recruited 25 major disability charities to take part in activities in July, and placed a ‘spotlight’ on experiences of loneliness for disabled people. A range of activities took place, including a ‘loneliness lobby’ in parliament, a hard-hitting report, and a number of media and communications activities.

Our Head of Policy has also been asked by the Commission to write their manifesto, which will be published at the end of 2017.

Extensive consultation and research has taken place to develop our next major campaign, ‘When I’m gone’, about long-term support for people with complex needs, which will launch in September 2017.


Information and Advice Service

Our Information and Advice Service continued to support individuals, their families, carers and those who work with them. We provided information and advice across a range of areas, and saw a 15% increase in requests for support this year.

Generally, we signpost people to other organisations for specialist advice, but Sense has its own publications, including ‘Seeing Me’ for care home staff and ‘Enjoy Life’ for older people with sensory impairments.

Here is a brief snapshot of the requests people have made and some feedback:

• “Please advise me about what young people with sensory impairments or complex needs can do within the office environment and how we can help them at work in general?”

• “I am appealing an Employment and Support Allowance decision…”

• “My daughter lives nearby and helps me in every way that she possibly can. However, I need to work on my own independence capacity…”

• “Do you have a list of mobile phones which are better for people with a visual impairment?”

• “I am a paediatric registrar and am enquiring about the support services you have available for a patient with a very complex background who we look after here…”

• “X goes cross country skiing and is looking for a hearing device to help her hear the ski instructor when they are on the slopes…”

And some feedback:

• “She said that Sense have been the most helpful organisation she has ever contacted.”

• “Thank you so much for the effort you have put into this…I can see a light at the end of the tunnel now!”

• “The links you sent are fantastic!”

• “I just wanted you to know how grateful I am for your guidance and support through the application process for my Personal Independence Payment. Wonderful news, I have been granted enhanced payment in both care and mobility…without having to attend an assessment interview.”

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Our commitment to supportersWe are extremely grateful to each and every one of our supporters. We could not run the services we provide without your generosity.

We are committed to best practice in fundraising and marketing, and are members of the Institute of Fundraising, the Fundraising Regulator and the Direct Marketing Association.

Our commitments to you are:

• To communicate in the way that is best for you, so if you want to change how we contact you, how often we get in touch, or to opt out of further contact, please let us know.

• If you are registered with the Telephone Preference Service or the Mail Preference Service, we will not call or mail you without your express permission.

• We will closely monitor all the agencies that work on our behalf to ensure that they meet our high standards.

• We will not sell or share your personal information with anyone.

• We will follow the Code of Fundraising Practice set out by the Fundraising Regulator.

• We follow a clear complaints policy and value all of your feedback.

• If you would like to talk to us about fundraising, please contact Supporter Services on [email protected] or 0300 330 9257.

Fundraising

Fundraising income is incredibly important to us, as it is the only way we are able to run many of our services. We are extremely grateful to our fantastic supporters who helped Sense, Sense International and Sense Scotland to raise over £14 million in 2016/17. This includes over £2.8 million for our new TouchBase Pears centre in Birmingham.

Our commitment to fundraise responsiblyOur fundraising is carried out in line with Sense’s values (see page 6), which means that honesty and transparency are central to everything we do. Ensuring that our supporters trust us is critical to all our fundraising efforts. We continue to comply with all legislative and regulatory requirements, and ensure that our policies, guidelines and processes are reviewed and updated regularly. We have guidelines in place for fundraising from vulnerable people and never put pressure on anyone to donate.

Suppliers and those fundraising on our behalf are closely monitored through regular meetings, and if contracts are not adhered to, then they are brought to an end. In 2016/17 we worked with two professional fundraisers and four commercial participators.

We don’t always get it right and last year our Supporter Services team received 72 complaints – fewer than the number we received in the previous year. We respond quickly to requests to change the way in which we contact people and always ensure that we manage our supporters’ personal details in a respectful and secure manner. We also review our data management procedures on a regular basis.

Our fundraising strategy and targets are managed day-to-day by the Director of Supporter Engagement.


A pioneering new approachFrom foundations to final shape, it has been exciting to watch the construction of our TouchBase Pears centre in Selly Oak, Birmingham.

As a pioneering, multi-purpose centre for the whole community, TouchBase Pears offers a new way of bringing people together so that everyone can be connected and part of their community.

TouchBase Pears will be fully operational from September 2017. The centre will:

• Offer a range of day services for people who are deafblind, have sensory impairments or complex communication needs, using fully equipped specialist rooms and enabling people to choose how to spend their time.

• Involve the local community and be an inclusive centre for people to take part in a wide range of health and wellbeing activities.

• Pioneer the development of sensory arts practice and performances for all.

• Encourage partnership working with external organisations.

• Deliver vocational training and employment opportunities.

• Operate as a social enterprise, including a family friendly café, business centre and spaces to hire.

TouchBase Pears ChampionsOur TouchBase Champions, a group of seven local people, have provided valuable feedback and guidance throughout the project. They also helped to host a series of hard hat days, which gave a number of people the opportunity to visit the site during construction.

One of our TouchBase Champions, Susan, worked at architects Glenn Howells for three months. She advised about the colour scheme, took part in meetings and designed a fully accessible bathroom.

TouchBase Pears

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Highlights from the past 12 months include: • A Centre Manager, Catering Manager and Day Service Manager being appointed – the

first of 130 new jobs that TouchBase Pears will create.

• Funding increased to £2.8m thanks to generous contributions from trusts and foundations, individuals and organisations, including: The Pears Foundation, Cameron Homes, Chasetown Civil Engineering, the Edward Cadbury Trust, The Edward and Dorothy Cadbury Trust and Pennycuick Collins. We drew down the final amount of funding from the Regional Growth Fund this year, and received the full value of the grant, totalling £2.1 million. A prominent wall display and a book of thanks will enable us to publicly express our immense gratitude to everyone who has contributed towards the TouchBase Pears vision.

• MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, Steve McCabe, joined over 200 people for a mass community walk in March to raise awareness of people with disabilities living in the community, ahead of the opening of TouchBase Pears. The half-hour walk took its participants through Selly Oak, along a stretch of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, before finishing in Bourneville.

• Sense Arts, Sport and Wellbeing activities have begun, with an initial focus on young people transitioning from school to adult support services. A series of open days for everyone in the area took place to raise awareness of TouchBase Pears ahead of the official public opening in September 2017.

TouchBase in Scotland HRH The Princess Royal opened a new TouchBase centre in Lanarkshire in October 2016. This fantastic new facility will provide dedicated spaces for arts, music and drama. The new TouchBase Ayrshire is now operational, providing much-improved facilities, and another centre is planned in Dundee.


Trading

Trading provides a vital source of income for Sense services. Last year, however, proved to be very challenging, in common with the retail sector generally. Despite these challenges, we introduced many positive improvements:

• We opened our 100th shop in Blackpool in October 2016 as part of our strategy to reach more communities in the North of England. Our Rotherham shop was opened by a group of friends from the local Sense Centre. There are now 102 Sense shops across England and Wales.

• Every shop has a new EPOS (electronic point of sale) till system, which has improved our shops’ operation, customer service experience and increased our Gift Aid income.

• We have successfully introduced clear guidelines and support to improve shop standards, as well as the customer experience. A new pricing and brand guide has increased the average price and basket value.

• We have prioritised engagement with local communities through the introduction of a community engagement tool. This enables shop teams to better engage with groups and local events, and to raise awareness and income. Shop staff have connected with many local groups, giving talks about the work Sense does to schools, rotary clubs and churches, which has led to fundraising events. A great example is a bingo night that raised over £800 and introduced many new people to Sense and their local shop. Our Lowestoft team also supported their local council to run a pitch and putt green over the summer, raising £5,000 for our services.

• In the last 12 months we introduced 150 community donation banks, which are situated in community centres, park and ride schemes, churches and doctor’s surgeries.

• We have installed a message/music system in our shops to publicise key messages around donating, volunteering and campaigning. This has helped raise awareness of Sense in our communities, and also means that staff are better informed.

• One of the highlights of the year was the Star Wars fundraising appeal. Neil Ellis generously donated a book of Star Wars autographs to Sense, which we entered into a prize draw. This was well supported by our shops, and a number put on special Star Wars window displays. It was extremely successful in raising awareness of Sense, as well as £12,000 in income.

• We expanded our work with the National Citizen Service over the summer by increasing engagement from six to over 60 teams of young people. In total, over 660 young adults got involved with Sense. The initiative gave them the chance to experience volunteering and fundraising, and many of these young people now support their local shops in various ways. Between them, the group raised over £8,000.

Sense Scotland has 20 shops that are leading the way in terms of recycling and reusing a wide range of items. Eight stores in the West of Scotland received a Revolve certification in recognition of their commitment to sustainable retail.

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Sense working in partnership

We continue to work with a range of partners to meet the needs of the people we support. Creating connections is particularly fundamental to our new TouchBase Pears centre in Birmingham, and informs the way in which we work generally.

We have collaborated with a number of organisations in the past year, including:

• Coalition groups such as the Care and Support Alliance, the Campaign to End Loneliness and the Children’s Disability Partnership, to influence key areas of policy.

• Housing associations, local authorities and private sector housing partners to develop innovative solutions to meet people’s care needs.

• Sport organisations, such as British Gymnastics and British Mountaineering, and arts organisations, including the mac arts centre in Birmingham, Birmingham Hippodrome and Studio Wayne McGregor, to provide a range of creative opportunities for people with complex communication needs.

Staff and volunteers in our shops play a vital role in raising funds and awareness of Sense


Our people

We recognise that investing in our people is crucial, and that Sense’s success is wholly dependent on having well-trained, supported and motivated colleagues.

We are incredibly proud of the 2,200 people whose specialist skills enable us to make a real difference to the lives of the people we support. Our aim is to be an employer of choice, and this is exemplified in our people strategy, ‘Fantastic people doing remarkable things’.

Our values and behaviours are really important to us, as they underpin our culture as an organisation. We insist that our employees and trustees commit to these values, and encourage people who access our services, families, members, supporters and volunteers to do so as well.

Our employees are our most important asset. We take considerable care in the recruitment process to ensure we employ high calibre staff and volunteers with the right attitude and behaviours to deliver a high quality service.

Equality and diversity

We have set up a cross-organisational group to give a real focus to our work on equality and diversity. We are committed to promoting equality, valuing diversity and working inclusively. We have an equality and diversity policy and strategy that sets out our priorities and how we plan to embed our work across the organisation.

It is important that we uphold equality and diversity in our behaviours and practices – as an employer, as a service provider, through our shops, and as a campaigning organisation.

We have identified baseline data for all equality strands and priorities, and created action plans that underpin them. We have agreed to focus our activity on working to identify and remove any barriers people with disabilities face in accessing employment opportunities and support in the workplace. Moving forward, we will focus on how we support staff, how disabled people can inform our work with staff and volunteers with disabilities, and how we can ensure more staff are familiar with BSL as part of their Sense induction.

Our approach to pay, benefits and training

Sense is committed to providing the highest quality services across the diverse and complex areas that we cover, from regulated operational care services through to retail, professional and support services.

This means that we need to recruit and retain high calibre staff whose values match our own. This is particularly challenging in a highly competitive employment market, where we often compete against other charities, the NHS, local authorities and the private sector.

We benchmark our pay and conditions against peer organisations from within and outside the disability/charity sector. We are committed to rewarding our people fairly and endeavour to pay salaries that are affordable and reflect the specialist expertise and skills that are required by our staff.

We provide outstanding specialist training and development for colleagues, and support managers to get the best from their people. This includes a face-to-face induction as well as e-learning and other skill development opportunities. This enables us to employ competent and confident staff who keep the people we support safe and at the centre of all that we do.

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We are a City and Guilds approved qualifications centre for the Diploma in Health and Social Care. We also provide access to an extended range of vocational training schemes following a successful registration as a provider of apprenticeships.

We train all our managers to be inspirational leaders through our bespoke and award winning leadership programme, Growing Stronger Leaders Together. This programme won the Best Employer Support for Registered Managers award at the Skills for Care event in March 2017. Sense is also a finalist in the 2017 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Awards.

Our suite of staff benefits match and often exceed those of our competitors. This is important so that staff feel valued and recognised, and we are able to retain their specialist skills and expertise.

Senior management pay

Sense is a complex organisation that provides a unique range of services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Our sister organisation, Sense International, works with partners in East Africa, parts of Asia, South America and Europe. We are engaged in activities that range from hands-on care provision to campaigning, fundraising and retail operations through our shops.

Salaries for the Chief Executive and the Executive team are set and reviewed by Sense’s Remuneration Committee, a sub-committee of our Board of Trustees (Council). The benefits available are in line with other employees and pay is externally benchmarked in a similar way.

Sense’s Jonathon Monk (centre) and Alison Bennett (right), pictured with actress Samia Ghadie, pick up the Best Employer Support for Registered Managers award at the Skills for Care event on 14 March 2017


Employee communications, involvement and support

We ensure that all our staff and volunteers are kept informed and are consulted on matters that may affect them. This includes information on the financial performance of the charity, and the impact of the external environment on our strategy. We also ensure that colleagues are informed of discussions at Council and receive updates about our Executive team meetings.

We provide colleagues with this information through a variety of routes, including regular updates from the Chief Executive, briefing notes to senior management that are cascaded to staff, our staff newsletter and regular news items on our intranet.

Involving our employees is really important to us and it ensures their views are taken into account when making decisions that are likely to affect them. This includes carrying out employee opinion surveys and giving colleagues the opportunity to feedback their views to managers on an ongoing basis.

Sense also encourages employees to get involved through our Staff Forum, which is attended by the Chief Executive and/or senior managers, and where representatives elected by staff provide feedback on issues and bring forward ideas to our Executive team.

Maintaining colleagues’ health and wellbeing is vitally important. Staff are provided with employee assistance support, and policies such as the grievance resolution procedure exist to encourage staff to resolve issues early. We work with the independent whistleblowing charity Public Concern at Work (PCAW), which helps us review our policy and practice on whistleblowing, and provides an independent helpline where colleagues can raise concerns confidentially.

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Statement of compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015

Introduction Sense strongly supports the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and acknowledges its responsibility to comply with it.

Sense is committed to ensuring that both the organisation and its supply chains are free of slavery and human trafficking, and that the necessary due diligence is undertaken to provide assurance of this.

Procurement Sense’s procurement practices incorporate processes to ensure that our suppliers comply with the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Invitations to tender require suppliers to confirm their compliance with the Act and to provide a formal statement to this effect.

Depending on the type of goods and services being provided, and the depth of the supply chains involved, further due diligence may be undertaken. Existing suppliers and new contractors have all been analysed to assess the risk of non-compliance with the Act and, where necessary, suppliers have been asked to provide further assurances.

Following a review, the Procurement team have introduced a formal Supplier Code of Practice covering a number of issues. These include specific prohibitions against the use of forced, compulsory or trafficked labour or of anyone (including children) held in slavery or servitude, and making it clear that our suppliers must hold their own suppliers to these standards.

Any failure by a supplier to meet the standards set out in the Supplier Code of Practice will be a breach of contract and will result in the termination of our relationship with them.

Trading Trading secures statements from all suppliers guaranteeing their compliance with the Act. No supplier is engaged without this compliance statement.

Assurance Over the course of this year both the Procurement and Trading Departments received the necessary assurances from all of our suppliers. Sense is satisfied that, over the past year, there has been no evidence of any connection with modern slavery or human trafficking, either within the organisation or through any of our suppliers or sub-contractors.

Continued commitment The Council of Sense and the Executive team will ensure that the implementation of this policy is reviewed and updated as necessary.

Nicholas Keegan, Treasurer 26 September 2017


The governance of Sense

During 2016/17, up to the time of the adoption of the annual report and financial statements by Council, there have been 16 trustees who are also (for the purposes of company law) Directors of Sense, The National Deafblind and Rubella Association. Their names are set out later in this report. Trustees can be co-opted to Council, or elected at the annual general meeting (AGM), and can serve two terms of four years. Co-optees can be reappointed every year up to a maximum of eight years.

The Chair is elected by trustees and it was agreed by Council in 2011 and in 2015, in accordance with the Articles, that our Chair should serve additional four-year terms. Council meets four times a year and trustees are expected to attend all Council meetings.

Sub-committees Council is supported in its work by three sub-committees: Finance and Audit, Remuneration, and Nominations. Each sub-committee has Terms of Reference, which are reviewed as necessary and included in the governance handbook. This is a comprehensive document that is regularly reviewed. Changes were last agreed by Council in early 2017.

Council appoints the members of the sub-committees annually and receives either the minutes from their meetings (for Finance and Audit sub-committee) or reports of their activities, with any recommendations.

Finance and Audit

The Finance and Audit sub-committee’s main purposes are to:

• Ensure that financial resources are deployed appropriately in furtherance of the charity’s strategic objectives.

• Monitor and review the effectiveness of Sense’s internal and external auditing procedures and outcomes.

Committee membership comprises at least three trustees, in addition to the Chair (the Honorary Treasurer). The Committee can appoint co-optees who they feel will bring relevant financial expertise. One external member attended five meetings of the Committee in 2016/17. The Chief Executive, Assistant Chief Executive and Group Director of Finance and Resources of Sense attend the meetings.

Nominations

The role of the Nominations sub-committee is to identify skills gaps in Council membership, oversee the recruitment process of Council members, and make recommendations to Council of new members for election or co-option, ensuring that, once appointed, they have an appropriate induction. Membership of the Committee comprises at least one other trustee in addition to the Chair. The Company Secretary or his/her nominee attends the meetings.

Prospective candidates to be trustees for Sense either apply in response to an external advert or are put forward for the role. They are interviewed by the Nominations sub-committee and, if successful, their appointment is recommended to Council. With the agreement of the Chair they are then invited to a Council meeting as an observer, following which, with the agreement of Council, they are co-opted, until standing for election at the next AGM.

New trustees receive a comprehensive induction pack. An appropriate induction plan is also put in place, which involves meetings with senior staff, internal and external training as necessary, and visits to Sense’s services as appropriate.

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Remuneration

The Remuneration sub-committee ensures that Sense’s remuneration strategy for members of the Executive team, and its implementation, is perceived by all stakeholders to be transparent, fair and effective; that total remuneration is commensurate with personal and corporate performance and market expectations; and that benefits packages enable Sense to recruit suitably qualified and experienced people. The Terms of Reference of the Committee were updated in early 2017. The membership is the Chair, Vice Chair and Treasurer, with a quorum of two. The Chief Executive is a non-voting ex officio member but is not present for discussions of her own remuneration.

Executive Sense Council delegates day-to-day operational management of the organisation to the Chief Executive. The broad areas of delegation for which she is accountable have been agreed by Council and are set out in the governance handbook.

To ensure these responsibilities are discharged effectively, the Chief Executive is responsible for appointing, managing and developing senior staff to take direct responsibility for these areas, and for putting in place appropriate reporting and assurance mechanisms.

The Executive team meets regularly and includes the Chief Executive, Deputy Chief Executive, the Group Director of Finance and Resources, six functional directors and a small number of other key staff.


The Sense Group

Working together Our Patron: HRH The Princess Royal

The Sense Group includes three separate organisations:

• Sense.• Sense Scotland.• Sense International.

Each entity is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, with its own Board and Memorandum and Articles. The objects of all three charities are similar and refer to supporting people who are deafblind, have sensory impairments or complex communication needs.

Our shared vision is a world where no one with complex communication needs is isolated, left out, or unable to fulfil their potential.

Each organisation runs its own activities for supporting and promoting the interests of children and adults who are deafblind, have sensory impairments or complex communication needs. Information is given below, but further details can be found in Sense Scotland and Sense International’s own annual reports and accounts.

Sense is the trading name for Sense, The National Deafblind and Rubella Association, which is a registered charity (charity number: 289868) and a company limited by guarantee (company number: 01825301). It is governed by its Articles of Association.

Sense works primarily in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is the corporate trustee of the Royal School for Deaf Children (Birmingham) and Coventry Society for the Blind. It is the sole member of Sense Scotland, Sense International and Sense4Enterprise Limited, and also holds 100% of the issued share capital of Helping Sense Limited.

Its objects are: ‘To support and promote the interests of persons who are deafblind or who have a hearing or vision impairment, including those with any additional impairments or persons who are suffering from the congenital effects of rubella’. These are similar for the other charities within the Sense Group.

Sense Scotland is registered in Scotland as a charity (charity number: SC022097) and a company limited by guarantee (company number: SC147570). It is governed by its own Memorandum and Articles of Association. Sense is the only member of Sense Scotland.

Sense International is a registered company limited by guarantee (company number: 03742986) and a registered charity (charity number: 1076497), governed by its own Memorandum and Articles of Association. It works on a global basis, raising the needs of people with deafblindness and working with partner organisations in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Peru, Romania, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Sense is the only member of Sense International.

Helping Sense Limited is Sense’s trading company (company number: 02214430). It is governed by its own Memorandum and Articles of Association, and its main activity is the sale of goods through Sense’s charity shops. The profits from its activities are donated to Sense.

Sense4Enterprise Limited (company number: 08112973) is a registered company limited by guarantee, which was set up by Sense to enable us to take forward social enterprise activities.

The Royal School for Deaf Children (Birmingham) is a registered charity (charity number: 528908). The Charity Commission granted a linking order permitting its activities to be reported within Sense’s report without the need to file its own separate annual report and financial statements. It is governed by its trust deed but does not operate in its own right.

Coventry Society for the Blind is a charity (charity number: 700656) and company governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association. It is now a dormant company (company number: 02280756).

This is the consolidated annual report and financial statements for all the Sense organisations. Sense International and Sense Scotland publish their own annual reports and financial statements that describe their activities and finances in more detail.

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Sense Group trustees and senior staff

Sense Council members from 1 April 2016 to the present John Crabtree OBE (Chairman) (R)

Gillian Wood (Vice Chair and Chair of the Nominations Committee) (F&A, R)

Simon Armstrong (F&A until July 2017)

Natalie Assad

Ashling Barvé (elected December 2016)

Graham Callister (co-opted August 2016 and elected in December 2016)

Mythily Katsaris (elected December 2016)

Nicholas Keegan (Treasurer and Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee) (R)

Benedict Leigh (elected December 2016)

Desmond Lucy (N)

James McManus (co-opted from Sense Northern Ireland)

Dr Justin Molloy (F&A)

David Reeves (Chair of Governors, Sense College) (F&A)

Roy Staines

Duncan Tannahill (co-opted from Sense Scotland)

Susan Turner (Trustee of Sense International)

Key

F&A – Finance and Audit sub-committeeN – Nominations sub-committeeR – Remuneration sub-committee

During this year there were five female and 11 male trustees/directors.


Sense Scotland and Sense International Boards of Trustees Sense Scotland

Roy Cox OBE (Chairman)

Duncan Tannahill (Vice Chairman)

Gerard Seenan (Treasurer)

Isabel Allan MBE

Suzanne Clark

Angela Clements

Neil Farquharson (resigned 2016)

Colin Hetherington

Ann McIvor

John McMillan

David Newton

Usman Rehman

John Richards

Gary Simpson

Sense International

Sunil Sheth (Chairman)

Pankaj Shah (Treasurer)

Paul Feeney

Robin Heber-Percy

Dean Lumer

Verity Stiff

Susan Turner

Leona Forsyth (resigned June 2017)

Dr Subo Shanmuganathan (resigned March 2017)

Senior staff at Sense

Gillian Morbey OBE Chief Executive (also Chief Executive of Sense International)

Richard Kramer Deputy Chief Executive

Kris Murali Group Director Finance and Resources

Maria Horton Director of Operations

David Robinson Director of Finance (resigned July 2017)

Janet Walker-Thompson Interim Director of Finance (started July 2017)

Sarah Lee Director of Fundraising (started March 2016, resigned November 2016)

Chris Washington-Sare Interim Director of Fundraising (Supporter Engagement) (November 2016 - June 2017)

Chris Jarrett Director of Supporter Engagement (started August 2017)

Alana Tubasei Director of Philanthropy (resigned October 2016)

Carolyn Merry Director of Sense International (resigned December 2016)

Alison Marshall Director of Sense International (started March 2017)

Adrian Darkin Director of Trading

Mark Lovell Director of Business Development (resigned May 2017)

Toni Dumolo Director of Human Resources (resigned August 2017)

Alison Bennett Interim Director of Human Resources (started September 2017)

During this year there were nine female directors (including the Chief Executive) and seven male directors.

Senior staff at Sense Scotland

Andy Kerr Chief Executive of Sense Scotland

Brian Murphy Director of Operations (commenced December 2014)

John O’Connor Director of Finance and Resources and Company Secretary

Eddie McConnell Director of Development

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Sense Group strategic reportSense performance against objectives for 2016/17

In 2016/17 we continued to work towards the three objectives set out in our 2016-19 strategy:

• Increase awareness of Sense and the individuals and families that we support.

• Support more individuals and families by expanding our income.

• Increase opportunities for individuals and families to do new activities and support each other.

How we met these objectives:

Increase the number of young people we help and advise about options as they become adults.

In Wales, we provided direct support to an additional 37 young people in 2016/17, through home visits, transition support meetings and visits to potential services. In England, we supported and worked in a similar way with 63 young people.

Increase the number of people that we help to live more independently through supported living schemes.

Work has been ongoing to develop three new Sense supported living schemes in Solihull, Peterborough and Exeter, which will provide high quality housing and support solutions for approximately 27 individuals. This has involved working with our property partners Fairhome to source sites and cost plans for the new building, and also working with local authorities to assess interest in the units. We hope that work will be completed on the building in mid-2018.

Increase the number of Sense Short Breaks opportunities we offer to children and young people.

Half of all local authorities in England have cut spending on breaks (respite services) for families with disabled children over the last five years. In spite of this, we were awarded a new contract in Sandwell to provide Sense Short Breaks, and are now providing services to nearly 50 children and young people. We also ran successful Sense Short Breaks and a buddy scheme in Tower Hamlets (see page 17).

Work with partners to increase the number of people who volunteer for Sense.

Our Trading Department formed a partnership with the National Citizen Service, which led to 660 young people volunteering in our shops during summer 2016. This is expected to increase next year.

Introduce a revitalised Sense brand and review and improve our digital work.

Strengthening our brand is essential if we are to successfully raise awareness of Sense, extend our reach and influence, and grow our service provision in line with our strategy. We responded by introducing a new strapline, refreshing our logo and colours, and revising our core descriptors. Our new strapline, ‘Connecting sight, sound and life’, has helped to position us as an organisation that supports a diverse range of individuals, including children and adults with complex communication needs.


We have reviewed the language used to describe Sense and developed a much clearer articulation of Sense’s overall proposition. We will use the theme of ‘connection’ to better describe the distinct and unique purpose of Sense, and the contribution of our work.

We believe that everyone, no matter how complex their communication needs, deserves the basic human right to feel connected and part of society. That’s why, together, we strive to unlock barriers to communication so that everyone can enjoy meaningful lives based on partnership and positivity – be it through speech or sign, touch or movement, gesture or sound, art or dance.

We are developing a new website that will bring our brand to life, strengthen our ability to increase awareness, and engage with current and new supporters. It will be much simpler to navigate, better integrated with social media, and optimised for use on mobiles. An expert accessibility group has been involved in development to ensure that we follow best practice in the design of the website.

Deliver public facing campaigns that raise awareness of Sense, and campaign for better services.

We have been involved in a number of campaigns during 2016/17, including following up the launch of our Play Inquiry report in early 2016. We also worked across a number of policy areas, including health, housing, social care and employment and benefits.

We deepened our involvement with a range of alliances and consortia, including the Care and Support Alliance and the Campaign to End Loneliness. Sense has also been a key partner in the establishment of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness, which was launched at the start of 2017. As part of this work we led a group of 25 charities in a bid to highlight how loneliness affects disabled people. Our Head of Policy will write the overall Commission manifesto, which will be published later in 2017.

Sense has been working with other organisations to form a new campaign group for disabled children and their families, the Disabled Children’s Partnership (DCP). The aim of the group is to influence social care law and improve opportunities and access to services for disabled children.

We are also a key partner in the A Secret Life of Us campaign. This campaign raises awareness of the challenges faced by disabled children, young people and families, and the support they need. Families are central to the campaign, which demonstrates how many are missing out on aspects of family life that others take for granted.

Use our Trading arm not only to raise funds for service provision, but also to build links in local communities.

Our Trading team opened 15 new shops in 2016/17, bringing the Sense chain to 102. The introduction of the EPOS system across all of our shops, as well as a new pricing and brand guide, meant that our stores took a positive step forward. However, in common with the retail sector as a whole, we experienced a difficult 2016/17. We ended the financial year with net income £782k lower than planned. Financial results began to improve at the beginning of 2017 and this has continued into the new financial year.

We made a number of changes during the year, including the development of a community engagement tool, which prioritises engagement with local communities around our shops. This has been successful in helping shop teams to engage with local groups so that they can raise both awareness and income.

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Increase the number of people who donate to Sense and who leave a gift in their will.

Fundraised income for Sense and Sense International was £865k lower than planned. This is in a context of negative press coverage regarding fundraising, and publicity for the charity sector as a whole. Against this backdrop, we did increase the number of individual donors by almost 10%, although the amount given fell by 14%. The number of people taking part in our challenge events also fell by 15%. However, the amount received from legacies was £400k more than expected at year end. The external environment for 2017/18 remains difficult.

Successfully implement a new management structure in our Operations directorate.

A new management structure was introduced at the beginning of the financial year. It has bedded in well as we introduce a new locality-based approach, which has been successful in focusing on solutions-based working. Unfortunately, as a result of expected charitable funds not being available, we had to undertake further restructuring to the Children’s and Adult Specialist teams at the end of the financial year.


Sense objectives for 2017/18

We know there is little sign of the financial environment changing in the near future. Like other service providers in the sector we are faced with pressures on fees and increased costs. As a result, we need to grow our services simply to maintain the same levels of income for the organisation. This means that growth is key, which involves retaining our current portfolio of services and scaling up and building different offers.

However, our overall objectives for 2017/18 remain unchanged. Our priorities are to:

Launch and implement the next phase of our refreshed brand.

We have launched our refreshed brand identity, which has introduced a new umbrella term, ‘complex communication needs’, to embrace the wide range of people we support. We have introduced a more textured, sensory feel to our look, with new brand assets that bring a sense of energy and movement, and highlight that creativity is central to our work.

Deliver growth in our services and attract new forms of income.

We will do this by more effectively marketing our housing and day services and Sense College, and by developing innovative models that will be funded by local authorities. In this respect, we may use fundraising to leverage local authority and NHS income, for example social prescribing, play and transition support. Evaluation will underpin all our models. We will also scale up our housing support offer using partnerships that enable us to access housing stock.

Introduce a new and more dynamic website.

This will support our brand work and also ensure that we articulate our core messages to different audiences. The new website will be easier to navigate, mobile friendly and more accessible to those with sensory impairments. We will also introduce new digital campaigns to support our fundraising work and to further increase awareness of Sense.

Drive greater collaboration across the organisation.

We will encourage closer collaboration across the organisation around core priorities that flow from our strategy. We will set up action groups on the themes of creativity, relationships and transition in order to drive cross-organisational activity, help generate growth and attract income.

Transform our approach to fundraising through the implementation of our new supporter engagement strategy.

We have developed a new supporter engagement strategy that will be driven by the establishment of a number of working groups across Sense. The strategy will be embedded throughout Sense to ensure that engagement with supporters, members, customers and carers is more joined up and co-ordinated.

Develop a universal outcomes framework that demonstrates the impact we have on the lives of the people we support.

We will develop a refined outcomes framework that tracks independence, contribution and choice, health and wellbeing, establishing friendships and being part of the community. This outcome model will be underpinned by key performance indicators such as an increase in number of friendships, greater control of finances, and improved health.

Introduce a policy into practice function.

We will introduce a policy into practice function so that changes in the external environment are implemented across the organisation. This includes implementing our quality frameworks and service practice, researching best practice and sharing knowledge.

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Sense Scotland performance against objectives for 2016/17

The social care sector remains under severe financial pressure and many local authorities are reducing hourly rates. Employment law cases have also added to costs.

The implementation of the Scottish Living Wage, whilst welcomed, has added to employment costs. National Insurance contributions and employer’s costs were not supported financially by the Scottish or local government, which meant we had to meet 25% of the costs of implementation on a £8.25 hourly rate. One unintended but very real consequence is the impact on salary differentials, which has reduced the incentives for staff to be promoted.

As a result, the trustees agreed that an element of our 2016/17 expenditure would be funded from Sense Scotland’s reserves. The Board of Sense Scotland believes that this was a reasonable short-term position to take and will not adversely impact our long-term financial viability.

Progress against objectives set out in the 2015/16 annual report:

We seek to retain and grow the number of services we provide, subject to satisfactory funding arrangements, and continuously remodel our approach to ensure quality and value, to give us the opportunity to deliver more of the excellent care we provide.

Over the course of the year the number of services we provide has not increased significantly. We have maintained the vast majority of our services and developed new opportunities. We are experiencing a rise in demand for our services but are not always in a position to respond due to recruitment challenges.

We will grow and develop our TouchBase model in other parts of Scotland, with TouchBase Lanarkshire and TouchBase Ayrshire opening in 2016/17.

Due to the proven success of TouchBase Glasgow, the Board of Sense Scotland approved significant financial investment funded from reserves to further develop this model of support.

TouchBase Lanarkshire opened in April 2016, and was formally launched by HRH The Princess Royal in October 2016. TouchBase Ayrshire encountered some delays in the building programme, which meant that the service opening was rescheduled for June 2017. Over the course of the year we have been working in partnership with Dundee City Council to secure premises for TouchBase Dundee.

We will grow and develop our One Giant Leap initiative into other parts of Scotland, including Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Dundee.

Following a successful Big Lottery bid, Sense Scotland secured the funds to grow and develop the One Giant Leap initiative. The service is underway in Dundee and will be rolled out in Lanarkshire and Ayrshire by the end of 2017.


We will grow our stakeholder engagement approach to involve a wider audience in our strategic development and direction.

Sense Scotland has continued to innovate and develop our approach; however, returns from stakeholders could and should be better, and we are looking at new ways to generate responses and engagement. One such initiative has been the planning of a Family Conference.

We will introduce a Family Forum network to better gain the support and advice of families and improve accountability.

Sense Scotland did not make the progress that we had wanted in this area, and further discussion will be central to the planned Family Conference. However, we have continued to support many forums across the country and have increased the involvement of families.

We will continue to invest in staff skills, management, supervision and mentoring to ensure that our staff are motivated, skilled and working to our values.

Over the course of the financial year, 14 of Sense Scotland’s staff members have successfully obtained a Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ), with a further 33 commencing SVQ studies. We also provided a range of in-house training opportunities, including classroom and e-learning. Over the course of the year, 1,026 staff members undertook some form of training, with many completing multiple courses.

We will continue to focus our efforts on reducing unnecessary costs.

Over the course of the financial year we have tightly managed budgets, reduced costs and introduced a new system designed to reduce unnecessary expenditure and allow staff to focus on more effective work.

We will continue to invest in our Sense Scotland Quality Assurance programme and strive for Care Inspectorate gradings of 5 and 6.

Our overall gradings remain high, but a number of our services have experienced a reduction in grades. This has led to a change in management focus, attention and support, and subsequent inspections have recognised that progress is being made. We have experienced different approaches from care inspectors across the country and have sought to challenge as appropriate some of the reporting. Many families have also acted spontaneously to challenge some of the reports that have been issued.

We will seek to develop new services and specialisms.

We have introduced new services linked to the roll out of TouchBase across Scotland, and have responded to individual needs when approached by families and commissioners.

Plans and objectives for 2017/18

• Retain and sustainably grow current services.

• Continue the roll out of One Giant Leap.

• Continue to invest in staff development and skills.

• Focus on appropriate cost reduction.

• Improve Care Inspectorate grades.

• Focus on Services in Stress.

• Effectively recruit and retain staff.

• Reduce our agency use and costs.

• Develop successful charity shops.

• Deliver and develop our TouchBase centres in Ayrshire and Dundee.

• Improve stakeholder engagement.

• Develop the skills and role of our Board.

• Improve our links to key political stakeholders both nationally and locally.

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Sense International performance against objectives for 2016/17

Sense International had a successful 12 months, and we set out below our progress against the objectives we identified last year.

East Africa

Continue to demonstrate the effectiveness of Community Based Education (CBE) for children with deafblindness in terms of getting them ready for inclusion in mainstream schools, whilst advocating for Ministries of Education in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to adopt the model more widely.

We completed a three-year pilot CBE programme in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The inclusive education model was the first of its kind in East Africa, with mainstream teachers visiting homes to support parents to follow a specially developed CBE curriculum. The project enabled a total of 1,082 children with deafblindness to access education who would otherwise have been denied this right. During the course of the project, the governments of Kenya and Uganda drafted new special needs education policies, which included CBE. We also influenced the process of developing the new Basic Education Curriculum Framework in Kenya so that it now includes a CBE component for children with complex disabilities, such as deafblindness.

Pilot a model of inclusive education for children with deafblindness in mainstream classrooms in Tanzania through the support of specially trained mainstream teachers and teaching assistants, with the assistance of itinerant special needs teachers. Develop and seek funding to pilot similar models of inclusive education in Kenya and Uganda.

We began a three-year pilot project in June 2016, and 15 children now access education in this way. We have yet to obtain funding to pilot the inclusive education model in Kenya and Uganda, but this remains a top priority.

Establish a sensory screening and early intervention programme for infants aged 0-3 years in Kenya and Uganda. The screening programme will identify children born with deafblindness who will then receive weekly early intervention therapy at their local health facility. We will also develop and seek funding to establish a similar pilot programme in Tanzania.

In 2016/17 we established pilot screening services in eight health facilities in Kenya and Uganda, screening 4,685 infants under six months of age. We also set up pilot early intervention services to provide community based support to families of children found to have a multi-sensory impairment. Currently, 11 children are enrolled in the early intervention programme. We have yet to obtain funding to pilot the early intervention model in Tanzania, but it remains a top priority.

Determine the prevalence of congenital sensory impairments and congenital rubella syndrome from the screening data collected in the pilot early intervention programmes we implement in Kenya and Uganda.

Of the 4,685 infants screened in our pilot programmes in Kenya and Uganda, 0.51% failed the eye screening, 8.16% failed the ear screening and 0.24% failed both. So far, in Uganda, six children have tested positive for congenital rubella syndrome, with none so far identified in Kenya. An independent consultant completed a baseline study that will enable us to assess the effectiveness of the screening and early intervention model at the end of the project.


Romania

Advocate for the continuation and expansion of early intervention services for babies born with sensory impairments in Bucharest, Oradea, Timisoara and Iasi.

We continued to lobby the government and advocate for early intervention to be embedded in national legislation. Law no. 3071 /18.01.2013 regarding the Ante-preschool Early Intervention Curriculum for Deafblind/Multi-sensory Impaired Children creates the necessary legal framework to allow the development of early intervention services for newborn babies with sensory impairments. In order for this law to be applied, a methodology needs to be approved by the Ministry of Education. The methodology has been written and submitted, and we are awaiting approval. We expect this to be a long process given the numerous changes in government.

Develop a national network of vocational centres for young people with deafblindness/multi-sensory impairment, ensuring each centre has trained professionals and a relevant curriculum to provide high quality services and improve the employability prospects of young adults with deafblindness.

A new partnership agreement was signed with Dolj County officials (Special School, County Council, School Inspectorate) for the establishment of our eighth vocational centre in Craiova. A ninth typography unit was also established in Timisoara, and increasing numbers of young people are registering to become digital typographers.

Develop www.sensabilitate.ro as an online, accessible, comprehensive, interactive and dynamic platform. The website will be a communication tool and source of relevant, up-to-date information in the field of deafblindness.

On 25 January 2017, we officially launched www.sensabilitate.ro, the only online platform in Romania accessible for people with multi-sensory impairments. It represents a key resource in the field of deafblindness, a meeting place for people, parents and families of children with deafblindness, and specialists working in this field, including teachers, psychologists, educators, social workers, doctors, nurses, and physiotherapists.

Identify the needs of people with deafblindness in Romania, making sure that existing legislation is applied or improved where necessary, by actively involving the relevant stakeholders, including people with deafblindness, their families, and specialists in the field of education, health and social services.

Increase awareness about the specific needs of people with deafblindness, particularly the importance of early intervention, education and vocational training, through a national level campaign meant to change the perception of the general public about disability in general and sensory impairments in particular.

Sense International Romania completed the first of a four stage tour of Romania, covering the cities of Craiova, Timisoara and Arad; Buzau, Focsani, Galati and Iasi; Sibiu, Cluj Napoca and Oradea; and Bucharest. The tour raised awareness of deafblindness and obtained signatures of support to ensure that the needs and rights of people with deafblindness are recognised and realised. A sensory tent was set up in shopping malls, and the general public were invited in, blindfolded and given ear defenders to experience what it is like to be deafblind.

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Peru

During 2016/17 we aim to build the understanding and expertise of a further nine Centres of Special Basic Education (CEBEs) in Ancash and Lima, and train 140 teachers to ensure 280 more children with deafblindness and multiple disabilities receive a high quality education. Through our Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) programme, we aim to reach out to 28 more people with deafblindness and multi-disability in Ancash, Cusco, Arequipa and Lima so they can have improved physical, social and emotional wellbeing.

In April 2017, Sense International Peru conducted teacher training courses in Lima and Huaraz, Ancash, educating 143 teachers from 26 special education schools in sensory impairments. This ensures that children with sensory impairments have access to a cadre of professionals with the necessary specialist skills to support them. Through our CBR programmes we supported 34 new people. Several of those who benefitted from CBR have been supported to transition to special education schools. In other cases, parents have been empowered to continue to deliver rehabilitation therapy for their children, taking over the role of CBR workers.

We will build on our vocational training programme by expanding this to new learners in Arequipa, and strengthen the support we offer to current participants in Lima and Arequipa through business planning training and the provision of two small start-up grants to help people to establish their own businesses.

In May 2017, Sense International Peru opened a new pastry workshop in Arequipa. The eight participants have shown a real interest in learning new skills and have overcome many challenges by attending the workshops with a family member to support them. As well as the practicalities of baking, the participants are learning business skills to enable them to begin trading commercially. Students in Lima have continued on their course and in September participated in the Ollitas Surcanas food fair. These trainees and entrepreneurs were supported to develop business plans, and four small start-up grants have been awarded to help them set up their own business.

From June to October, 30 guide interpreters will be trained to facilitate communications, mobility and access to information for people with deafblindness. In addition, a virtual course on guide interpretation will be delivered in the second quarter of the year for professionals, students, volunteers and family members living outside of Lima, which is expected to involve 100 participants.

Training for guide interpreters took place in June, with 33 participants taking part in sessions that covered an introduction to deafblindness, communication systems (dactylology and sign language) and sighted guide techniques. Due to unforeseen circumstances relating to a systems failure with the service provider, it was not possible for the virtual course on guide interpretation to take place.

We also aim to continue to collaborate closely with parents/carers of persons with deafblindness in order to support them to legally constitute a parents association of people with deafblindness.

Sense International Peru continued to work with the parents association, which has experienced some internal administrative issues. With the support of the Sense International team, they worked with OMAPED SURCO to resume participation in the Ollitas Surcanas food fair. This activity is part of the parents’ strategic plan to increase their income and quality of life, in order to be able to better support their children.


Through sharing our experience and expertise with neighbouring Andean countries, Sense International Peru will build the capacity of at least 90 Disabled People’s Organisations (DPO) representatives from Bolivia, El Salvador and Guatemala through advocacy workshops, and support them to prepare advocacy plans.

2016/17 activities focused on El Salvador and Guatemala, with each workshop targeting 30 people. In October, a political advocacy workshop was held in El Salvador with the support of the Salvadorian Institute for Integral Rehabilitation. This workshop sought to promote the design and implementation of a contextualised and tailored policy, and the development of an advocacy strategy. Thirty leaders and representatives of the basic social organisation of people with disabilities participated. In November, we developed an advocacy workshop in Guatemala City, with the support of the National Council for the Care of Persons with Disabilities (CONADIS). Thirty-two leaders and representatives of grassroots social organisations of people with disabilities attended.

In partnership with CONADIS, build the capacity of at least 60 DPO representatives from Puno and La Libertad to prepare advocacy plans. Organise an international conference on deafblindness and multi-sensory impairment.

An international conference was held on 10 and 11 November 2016 in collaboration with CONADIS, focusing on the situation of people with deafblindness or multiple disabilities and how to support them. Due to a lack of funding, the capacity building activities with DPOs in Puno and La Libertad will be undertaken in coming years.

Organise social inclusion activities for 30 people with deafblindness and their families in Lima, ensuring effective support through guide interpreters and volunteers so that they are able to fully participate.

To celebrate the International Day of Deafblindness, 12 beneficiaries, 11 parents, four interpreters and four volunteers attended social activities held at the Country Club El Tumi. Attendees were able to take part in a range of different activities, including swimming, horse riding and motorcycling. The water-based activities were really beneficial for the young people, strengthening their relationships with their parents and friends. A second event was held on 26 January, attended by a further 12 young people with deafblindness and multiple disabilities and their parents.

India

Establish a National Resource Centre on Deafblindness in Nepal to ensure the availability of need based services, and lobby the Department of Education and Health for recognition of needs of persons with deafblindness in Nepal.

Work has started in Nepal, and we have established a strong network of organisations that are working on deafblindness. As we are initially focusing on building the capacity of human resources in Nepal, a training course lasting ten days was delivered by Sense International India to community based workers and educators. This was organised jointly by our lead partner and a parents association.

Increase opportunities for young people with deafblindness to pursue different vocations. Work with seven Vocational Rehabilitation Centres (VRCs) to establish non-formal vocational training provision, possible adaptations and opportunities for learners with deafblindness.

Six of the seven visits to VRCs were completed in the first year of a two-year programme. The visits were fruitful in terms of gaining a better understanding of existing curriculums,

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how these can be adapted to be accessible to young people with deafblindness, and sensitising VRC leadership and their instructors about deafblindness.

Through training workshops, support 50 young people with deafblindness to improve their interpersonal communication skills so that they are better equipped to express their views and preferences, and participate.

National training in July and December supported 46 young people to enhance their communication skills through sign language (including the introduction of a sign language directory in video format, which has more than 2,600 signs). The training also supported young people with personal hygiene and grooming, daily living activities, and understanding sexuality. This will be helpful in managing relationships confidently in the future. The final session focused on orientation and mobility, which involved the theory and practice of negotiating travel on the metro.

Hold a mass media conference about deafblindness and the inclusion of young people in education and employment, and follow-up with ongoing sensitisation work.

Several mass media events were held in India in 2016/17. During adult deafblind training in Bangalore, six newspapers learnt about deafblindness, which led to increased positive media coverage.

On 1 December 2016 in Ahmedabad, 17 media houses (print, visual and radio media) were invited to training, and more than 30 journalists participated in a press conference. This was followed by lunch, during which they interacted with adults with deafblindness. Bharat Pardeshi, an adult with deafblindness, and Ramadhar Chohan, a parent of a girl with deafblindness, shared their experiences, and highlighted the need for media exposure to ensure recognition, inclusion and rehabilitation of the deafblind population in the country. To mark Sense India’s 20th year, media professionals were invited to our inaugural interactive tactile art experience, SensX and Art Makes Sense, which were specifically designed to raise mass awareness about deafblindness.

Bangladesh

We will continue to build the capacity of the National Resource Centre (NRC) and that of a network of seven local partners to deliver education, health and income generation services for people with deafblindness. Establish a new Regional Resource Centre on deafblindness.

A new Regional Resource Centre has been established in the Bogra region. This hub of expertise on deafblindness operates as both a day care centre for people with deafblindness (in which five children have already started attending regularly) and supports special educators to provide community based support to improve quality of life.

We aim to support 638 children through home based education and 75 children to attend mainstream schools by sensitising schools and training 50 government teachers to promote the inclusion of children with deafblindness in education.

Through our partners, we have supported 651 (357 male and 294 female) young people with deafblindness, and 78 children (31 male and 47 female) with deafblindness to access school based education services. Our sensitisation and training programme has proved successful.

Due to delays in obtaining government permission to initiate training and curriculum activities that involve vocational training institutes and their personnel, we have revised our schedule and these will be conducted in 2017/18. However, we have been supporting young people to develop their independence and interpersonal skills, which will enhance their long-term opportunities.


Plans and objectives for 2017/18

Our specific objectives for 2017/18 are set out in our 2016-19 strategy, ‘Realising Rights: From Isolation to Inclusion’.

Strategic objective 1: Ensure quality services

• Increase access to high quality services with a focus on screening and early intervention, inclusive education, and livelihoods and vocational training.

• Promote our early intervention model and evidence, and influence governments’ policies. Early intervention involves screening babies, identifying visual and hearing impairments as early as possible, and subsequent referral for sensory stimulation.

• Consolidate our Nepal programme and scope expansion into a new country (Malawi).

Strategic objective 2: Improved knowledge and understanding of deafblindness

• Increase research (for example, on the prevalence of congenital rubella syndrome in East Africa).

Strategic objective 3: Voice of people with deafblindness is heard

• Increase partnership and coalition work, for example with organisations of people with deafblindness and parents’ associations.

Strategic objective 4: Rights are recognised and realised

• Deliver on global and national advocacy plans in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Romania and Peru.

Enabling objective 1: Strengthen brand and reputation

• Develop our communications channels, including upgrading the Sense International website.

Enabling objective 2: Strengthen governance and management systems

• Improve monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning systems, and review gender equality and safeguarding processes.

Enabling objective 3: Strengthen human resource capacity

• Enhance the sharing of learning between countries.

Enabling objective 4: Strengthen funding and finance

• Continue strong financial management and increase ‘in-country’ fundraising.

51

Statement of Sense Council’s responsibilities

The Council (who are trustees and, for the purposes of company law, also Directors of Sense, The National Deafblind and Rubella Association) is responsible for preparing the Council’s annual report and financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulation.

Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law the trustees have prepared the group and charitable company financial statements in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards, comprising FRS 102 ‘The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland’ and applicable law). Under company law the trustees must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the group and charitable company, and of the profit or loss of the group and charitable company for that period. In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are required to:

• Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently.

• State whether applicable United Kingdom Accounting Standards, comprising FRS 102, have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements.

• Observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP.

• Make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent.

• Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the group and charitable company will continue in business.

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the group and charitable company’s transactions, disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the group and charitable company, and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006.

The trustees are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the group and charitable company, and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

In the case of each trustee in office at the date the Council’s report is approved:

• So far as the trustees are aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the group and charitable company’s auditors are unaware.

• They have taken all the steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the group and charitable company’s auditors are aware of that information.

Public benefit Trustees have referred to the information contained in the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit when reviewing aims and objectives, and planning future activities to implement the charity’s objects.

The information given about our services and in relation to the objectives set last year give clear examples of how our work is beneficial and brings public benefit through a wide range of activities. Our objectives for next year show that Sense will continue to provide public benefit in line with our objects.


Internal financial control Our Council has overall responsibility for ensuring that the charity has appropriate systems of controls, both financial and otherwise, in place. The systems of internal control are designed to provide reasonable assurance against material misstatement or loss. They include:

• A three-year strategic plan and an annual budget approved by Council. A number of matters are specifically reserved for Council’s approval.

• Regular consideration by Council of financial results, variance from budgets, non-financial performance indicators and benchmarking reviews.

• Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP continue to be our internal auditors. Their annual programme is agreed by the Finance and Audit sub-committee, and the outcomes of the audits are reported to the sub-committee with action plans.

• The development of policy documents covering all major strategic and operational activities. These are reviewed by the Executive team with appropriate regularity and consultation.

Principal risks and uncertainties Our Council has delegated day-to-day responsibility for the management of risks to the Chief Executive.

The Executive team is responsible for the identification and assessment of risk, and for reporting on this work to the Finance and Audit sub-committee. The Executive team is responsible for developing risk mitigation strategies and controls, and for implementing actions to minimise or reduce risk to acceptable levels. The risk register is regularly considered at its meetings.

The Finance and Audit sub-committee is responsible for overseeing the establishment and maintenance of good practice in this area and for reporting to Council at each of its regular meetings. In addition, the Council reviews the corporate risk register at each of its meetings.

The following key risks featured on the corporate risk register during 2016/17:

Risk: Pensions liability becomes unsustainable and the deficit significantly increases, compromising the ability to fund payments.

Controls: All members have been withdrawn from the scheme and the liability is being actively managed. We are in negotiations to agree a repayment plan and have put in place interim arrangements.

Risk: Our fundraising fails to achieve its budget. This possibility is increased by negative press coverage across the sector that has an impact on public awareness. Reduced investment in individual giving acquisition in recent years may have a long-term impact. This could force Sense to further reduce its charitable activities.

Controls: Fundraising teams are working to maximise income. Products not deemed profitable are being taken out of the programme. Some new suppliers have been brought in to help with our product strategies and we are planning to relaunch our lottery. We are continuing to test new channels.

53

Risk: Sense Trading fails to perform to budget in both the short and long-term. As Trading provide an income for our charitable activities, we would have to make potentially significant cuts.

Controls: Trading has reduced costs and improved operations through a recent restructure. Shops have comprehensive key performance indicators that are monitored every week in a focused programme that seeks to improve sales. This is supported by structured area manager visits to ensure that key principles are being followed.

Risk: Sense fails to deliver financial and growth targets set out in the strategy.

Controls: Business development targets are monitored on a monthly basis against implementation plans and targets. Any red flags are highlighted at Executive team meetings. Business intelligence, competitor analysis and partnership tracking are implemented, with training to increase staff skills in business development. The new Operations structure will assist in a more targeted and strategic approach.


Financial review 2016/17

Sense, like many organisations in our sector, continues to face challenging times. Demand for the support and services we offer continues to rise, but costs have increased and the resources we can access are diminishing. However, in line with the drive for innovation demonstrated by our founders more than 60 years ago, our positive and collaborative approach across our diverse range of activities has enabled us to continue to grow, and, despite the challenges faced by the Sense Group, 2016/17 was a success. In 2016/17, we reached more people than ever and increased engagement with our stakeholders in a number of ways.

Income Consolidated total income amounted to £88.2 million, which is an increase of £3.5 million on the previous year. Of this, Sense in England, Wales and Northern Ireland had a total income of £60.6 million, Sense Scotland £22.6 million, Helping Sense Limited £3.6 million and Sense International £1.4 million.

In 2016/17, the Sense Group received fees and allowances for support provided in residential and community settings, and for education and development programmes. These are paid by statutory authorities and increased by 3.4% to £61.0 million despite ongoing cost constraints on our funders. Sense, however, continues to demonstrate that our services offer value for money and that, in the long-term, we help to reduce the cost to funders by enabling people to reach their potential and become as independent as possible.

We have added new services and reached more people than ever before, which increased our total income. We worked in partnership with our funders to reduce costs and have agreed some fee reductions where appropriate, whilst maintaining the highest quality standards. This income is linked to agreed contracts, and Sense provides services in line with our agreements with health authorities, care commissioning groups, local authorities, education funding bodies and individuals.

Total income from fundraising activities reached £14.2 million (2015/16: £12.8 million), including £2.8 million of capital donations to support the development of TouchBase Pears (2015/16: £0.9 million), and income from our shops increased marginally to £11.1 million (2015/16: £11.0 million), despite continuing difficulties in the sector.

Fundraising Fundraising remains a challenge, but the considered and thoughtful campaigns that we ran in 2016/17, in both Sense and Sense Scotland, helped to maintain a growth in fundraising income, which has risen from £10.0 million in 2015/16 to £10.8 million in 2016/17. Careful management of our fundraising costs means that they only grew by £0.1 million, from £5.0 million in 2015/16 to £5.1 million in 2016/17, which is only 19% of our income growth.

We also had a good year with legacy income, which, thanks to the generosity and goodwill of our supporters, rose from £2.7 million in 2015/16 to £3.3 million in 2016/17.

We continued to be successful in using European and other grant income to advance our work through Sense International, and the number of people reached grows each year. We spent £1.6 million on international programmes in 2016/17 compared to £1.1 million in 2015/16.

55

Trading We have undertaken a significant reorganisation of our shops over the last four years and remain focused on costs at a time when the high street is experiencing difficult trading conditions. We opened a number of new shops in 2016/17, taking our total to 102. Consequently, our costs increased to £11.1 million from £10.7 million in 2015/16. However, these new shops, combined with our drive to offer the best shopping experience possible linked to the opportunity to engage with Sense’s mission, meant that our income rose from £11.0 million in 2015/16 to £11.1 million in 2016/17.

Expenditure Consolidated expenditure on our charitable activities in 2016/17 was £69.8 million (£68.1 million in 2015/16). We spent £1.6 million (£1.5 million in 2015/16) working with children and families and £1.8 million (£2.9 million in 2015/16) working on vital education and development programmes. Work on campaigning and raising awareness cost £2.0 million (£2.2 million in 2015/16). Expenditure on our innovative and inclusive arts and wellbeing programme remained constant at £0.4 million, whilst holidays and volunteering costs increased from £0.4 million in 2015/16 to £0.6 million in 2016/17.

Throughout the year we have exercised strong control over our finances and ensured that expenditure was budgeted, affordable and within our income.

Pensions In addition to current schemes, Sense has an historic membership of the London Pension Fund Authority (LPFA), a public sector provider of defined benefit pensions and a traditional pension body for local authorities. Sense closed membership of the scheme to new members in 2003. We have been working hard to reduce the actuarial risk that all defined benefit schemes bring and, in 2014, asked all members to voluntarily leave the scheme and join the continuing defined contribution scheme for all other employees. This transfer took effect in November 2014 and Sense has no active members of this scheme.

This means that no further service liabilities are being incurred by Sense for active members. It also allows us to continue our discussions with the LPFA about agreeing a cessation value and leaving the scheme completely, or continuing to reduce the historic deficit through additional contributions combined with the savings we will make by no longer having active members. Whilst Sense has no active members of the scheme, we do have a considerable number of pensioners and past and present employees who are deferred members (i.e. no longer active but not yet a pensioner) and so must account for our share of the liabilities and deficit of this scheme as explained in detail in note 9.

Whilst the fund enjoyed much better than assumed investment returns, we used a much lower discount rate to value future obligations. As a result, the FRS 102 net deficit increased from £12.9 million to £14.5 million, despite making £3.0 million of cash contributions in the year. In 2015/16 we reported a £0.5 million reduction, despite making no cash contribution that year, and in 2014/15 we reported an £8.5 million increase, demonstrating how volatile this obligation can be.

Net income Sense Group net income was £1.9 million (2015/16: £0.6 million), before a £1.1 million pension fund charge (2015/16: credit of £0.5 million), underscoring the continuing prudent management and strong financial position of Sense.

Fund balances at 31 March 2017 increased by £0.7 million to £35.0 million (2016: £34.3 million) of which unrestricted reserves amounted to £31.2 million (2016: £30.7 million). Of these reserves, £18.2 million (2016: £18.2 million) was attributable to Sense itself,


£12.3 million (2016: £12 million) to Sense Scotland and £0.7 million (2016: £0.5 million) to Sense International.

Capital expenditure was £12.2 million in the year, of which £9.1 million was spent on the TouchBase Pears development. This was funded by £10.0 million drawn under an unsecured loan facility with Lloyds Bank, and donations and grants of £2.8 million. We ended the year with strong liquidity: cash and short-term investments stood at £17.8 million (2016: £19.4 million). Of this, £11.5 million (2016: £12.0 million) was attributable to Sense itself, £5.1 million (2016: £6.1 million) to Sense Scotland and £1.2 million (2016: £1.3 million) to Sense International. Capital commitments at 31 March 2017 were £4.5 million to complete the construction of TouchBase Pears.

Reserves policy The trustees review the policy for reserves each year. The target level for reserves has been calculated by each member of the Sense Group to suit their individual needs and circumstances.

In each case they ensure that the target set will:

• Provide sufficient working capital for budgeted operational commitments.

• Fund responsive action in the event of a significant financial downturn.

• Manage the relocation of the people who use our services in the unlikely event of the closure of the organisation.

In addition, trustees take account of any risks that might impact on the level of reserves required. They include:

• Time needed to implement an operational response to any significant reductions in income.

• Dependence on and the reliability of individual income streams.

• Robustness of internal reporting and response methods.

• Potential for variation in cash flow forecasts.

Sense Scotland set a target of 12 weeks’ operating costs as a desired level of reserves, having taken into account the nature of the client group for which the charity is entrusted to provide care and support. As of 31 March 2017, Sense Scotland has managed to achieve a reserve level of 12 weeks’ operating costs.

Sense International trustees have agreed the aim of having unrestricted reserves equivalent to six months’ expenditure. They have set this target in order to ensure that reserves remain capable of providing sufficient working capital for budgeted operational commitments and to fund responsive action in the event of a significant financial downturn. At present, Sense International has achieved a reserve holding equivalent to six weeks’ operational expenditure.

Sense set a target of £12.5 million to cover the factors previously mentioned and to allow us sufficient funds to continue our significant capital investment programme. This programme includes our major new resource centre, TouchBase Pears in Selly Oak, Birmingham. In addition, we have plans to improve many of our services and to assist the people we support to remain in their own homes by making adaptations as necessary.

As at 31 March 2017, restricted funds totalled £3.4 million, an increase of £0.2 million from 2016. Endowment funds were £0.4 million (£0.4 million in 2016) and general funds increased from £30.7 million to £31.2 million.

At 31 March 2017, total funds were £35.0 million, an increase of £0.7 million from 2016.

57

Investment strategy Investment aims

The aim for non-cash investments is to achieve long-term capital and income growth to provide income to support our activities, whilst still seeking real growth in capital to meet our future needs. Investments donated to Sense will be held until they can be sold or consolidated into Sense investment vehicles.

Cash will be invested to maximise return whilst meeting agreed risk appetite and future cash needs.

Risk appetite

We recognise that investments cannot be risk free if we are to achieve our stated investment aims but we have an appetite only for low risk investments.

Ethical investments

Sense aims to hold ethical investments in line with its charitable objectives.

As at 31 March 2017, the majority of Sense’s investments are held as cash deposits.

Independent auditors

A resolution to reappoint PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as auditors to the company will be proposed at the annual general meeting.

By order of Council and signed on its behalf

Gillian Morbey OBE, Secretary 26 September 2017


Independent auditors’ report to the members of Sense, The National Deafblind and Rubella Association

Report on the group financial statements Our opinion

In our opinion, Sense, The National Deafblind and Rubella Association’s group financial statements and parent charitable company financial statements (the “financial statements”):

• give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s and of the parent charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2017 and of the group’s incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure and of the group’s cash flows for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

• have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

What we have audited

The financial statements, included within the Annual Report and Financial Statements (the “Annual Report”), comprise:

• the consolidated and company balance sheets as at 31 March 2017;

• the consolidated statement of financial activities and the consolidated summary income and expenditure account for the year then ended;

• the consolidated cash flow statement for the year then ended;

• the accounting policies; and

• the notes to the financial statements, which include other explanatory information.

The financial reporting framework that has been applied in the preparation of the financial statements is United Kingdom Accounting Standards, comprising FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland”, and applicable law (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In applying the financial reporting framework, the trustees have made a number of subjective judgements, for example in respect of significant accounting estimates. In making such estimates, they have made assumptions and considered future events.

59

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006 In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

• the information given in the Trustees’ Annual Report, including the Strategic Report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

• the Strategic Report and the Trustees’ Annual Report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

In addition, in light of the knowledge and understanding of the company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we are required to report if we have identified any material misstatements in the Strategic Report and the Trustees’ Annual Report. We have nothing to report in this respect.

Other matters on which we are required to report by exception Adequacy of accounting records and information and explanations received

Under the Companies Act 2006 we are required to report to you if, in our opinion:

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or

• adequate accounting records have not been kept by the parent charitable company, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

• the parent charitable company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns.

We have no exceptions to report arising from this responsibility.

Trustees’ remuneration

Under the Companies Act 2006 we are required to report to you if, in our opinion, certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made. We have no exceptions to report arising from this responsibility.

Responsibilities for the financial statements and the audit Our responsibilities and those of the trustees

As explained more fully in the Statement of Sense Council’s responsibilities set out on page 51, the trustees are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view.

Our responsibility is to audit and express an opinion on the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland) (“ISAs (UK & Ireland)”). Those standards require us to comply with the Auditing Practices Board’s Ethical Standards for Auditors.

This report, including the opinions, has been prepared for and only for the charity’s members and trustees as a body in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 and for no other purpose. We do not, in giving these opinions, accept or assume responsibility for any other purpose or to any other person to whom this report is shown or into whose hands it may come save where expressly agreed by our prior consent in writing.


What an audit of financial statements involves We conducted our audit in accordance with ISAs (UK & Ireland). An audit involves obtaining evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements sufficient to give reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement, whether caused by fraud or error. This includes an assessment of:

• whether the accounting policies are appropriate to the group’s and the parent charitable company’s circumstances and have been consistently applied and adequately disclosed;

• the reasonableness of significant accounting estimates made by the trustees; and

• the overall presentation of the financial statements.

We primarily focus our work in these areas by assessing the trustees’ judgements against available evidence, forming our own judgements, and evaluating the disclosures in the financial statements.

We test and examine information, using sampling and other auditing techniques, to the extent we consider necessary to provide a reasonable basis for us to draw conclusions. We obtain audit evidence through testing the effectiveness of controls, substantive procedures or a combination of both.

In addition, we read all the financial and non-financial information in the Annual Report to identify material inconsistencies with the audited financial statements and to identify any information that is apparently materially incorrect based on, or materially inconsistent with, the knowledge acquired by us in the course of performing the audit. If we become aware of any apparent material misstatements or inconsistencies we consider the implications for our report. With respect to the Strategic Report and Trustees’ report, we consider whether those reports include the disclosures required by applicable legal requirements.

Kevin Strauther (Senior Statutory Auditor) for and on behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditors Leeds

5 October 2017

a) The maintenance and integrity of the Sense website is the responsibility of the trustees; the work carried out by the auditors does not involve consideration of these matters and, accordingly, the auditors accept no responsibility for any changes that may have occurred to the financial statements since they were initially presented on the website.

b) Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

61

Sense runs regular family days – including this boating get together near Rochdale


Consolidated statement of financial activities for the year ended 31 March 2017

Note Unrestricted Funds

£

Restricted Funds

£

Endowment Funds

£

Total 2017

£

Income

Donations and legacies

Fundraising 6,899,154 3,927,806 - 10,826,960

Legacies 3,330,605 - - 3,330,605

Charitable activities

Care and Support Midlands 9,593,209 19,434 - 9,612,643

Care and Support East 11,718,056 231 - 11,718,287

Care and Support South 10,835,707 70,982 - 10,906,689

Care and Support North 5,709,799 11,535 - 5,721,334

Care and Support Northern Ireland 1,354,393 271,398 - 1,625,791

Care and Support Wales 442,965 164,965 - 607,930

Adult specialist services 25,311 777 - 26,088

Operations Scotland 18,008,203 916,833 - 18,925,036

Education and development programmes 1,872,591 - - 1,872,591

International programmes - 712,921 - 712,921

Arts and wellbeing programmes 24,167 221,552 - 245,719

Holidays and volunteering 119,861 - - 119,861

Children’s specialist services 187,002 106,184 - 293,186

Trading activities

Shops 11,142,382 7,860 - 11,150,242

Other 3 211,150 5,480 - 216,630

Investment income 2 86,027 4,769 - 90,796

Other income 3 96,126 106,673 - 202,799

Total income 81,656,708 6,549,400 - 88,206,108

Expenditure

Generating funds

Fundraising 5,129,712 1,395 - 5,131,107

Shops 11,091,114 - - 11,091,114

Other 338,945 - - 338,945

Cost of generating funds 16,559,771 1,395 - 16,561,166


Care and Support Midlands 8,826,961 5,780 8,623 8,841,364

Care and Support East 11,499,732 19,683 - 11,519,415




Care and Support Wales 867,008 245,231 - 1,112,239

Adult specialist services 1,247,399 3,901 - 1,251,300


Education and development programmes 1,805,552 1,991 - 1,807,543

International programmes 259,028 1,375,792 - 1,634,820


Holidays and volunteering 466,680 107,530 - 574,210

63

Note Unrestricted Funds

£

Restricted Funds

£

Endowment Funds

£

Total 2017

£

Children’s specialist services 1,208,654 402,690 - 1,611,344

Campaigns, publicity and awareness 1,864,953 86,774 - 1,951,727

Quality assurance and development 522,935 598 - 523,533

Other 13,021 - - 13,021

Cost of charitable activities 66,141,244 3,637,086 8,623 69,786,953

Total expenditure 82,701,015 3,638,481 8,623 86,348,119

Net gain on sale of tangible fixed assets 5 11,790 - - 11,790

Net gain on revaluation and disposal of investments

5 22 - - 22

Net income/(expenditure) (1,032,495) 2,910,919 (8,623) 1,869,801

Transfers between funds 16 2,720,625 (2,720,625) - -

Net incoming resources/(resources expended) before revaluations

1,688,130 190,294 (8,623) 1,869,801

Actuarial (loss) on defined benefit pension scheme 9 (1,128,000) - - (1,128,000)

Net movements in funds 6 560,130 190,294 (8,623) 741,801

Reconciliation of funds

Fund balances brought forward at 1 April 2016 30,674,961 3,201,574 412,901 34,289,436

Fund balances carried forward at 31 March 2017 16,17 31,235,091 3,391,868 404,278 35,031,237


Comparative statement of financial activities for the year ended 31 March 2016

Notes Unrestricted Funds

£

Restricted Funds

£

Endowment Funds

£

Total2016

£

Income and endowments

Donations and legacies

Fundraising 7,654,437 2,381,412 - 10,035,849

Legacies 2,736,804 - - 2,736,804


Care and Support Midlands 9,598,518 2,937 - 9,601,455

Care and Support East 10,485,052 (100) - 10,484,952





Adult specialist services 7,475 36,337 - 43,812


Education and development programmes 3,071,870 - - 3,071,870

International programmes - 420,520 - 420,520



Children’s specialist services 127,343 138,164 - 265,507

Other 3 - 88,877 - 88,877

Trading activities

Shops 10,948,977 3,048 - 10,952,025

Other 204,845 3,911 - 208,756

Investment income 2 117,285 3,473 - 120,758

Other income 3 45,860 126,759 - 172,619

Total income 79,866,322 4,820,131 - 84,686,453

Expenditure

Generating funds

Fundraising 4,914,267 66,124 - 4,980,391

Shops 10,670,572 (35) - 10,670,537

Other 345,338 - - 345,338

Cost of generating funds 15,930,177 66,089 - 15,996,266


Care and Support Midlands 8,996,340 79,439 8,623 9,084,402

Care and Support East 10,463,209 180,752 - 10,643,961





Adult specialist services 891,523 43,443 - 934,966

Care and Support Scotland 18,748,762 994,507 - 19,743,269

Education and development programmes 2,895,336 6,771 - 2,902,107

International programmes 255,879 864,125 - 1,120,004



65

Notes Unrestricted Funds

£

Restricted Funds

£

Endowment Funds

£

Total2016

£

Children’s specialist services 909,583 596,851 - 1,506,434

Campaigns, publicity and awareness 2,080,305 135,739 - 2,216,044

Quality assurance and development 532,088 1,646 - 533,734

Other 16,195 - - 16,195

Cost of charitable activities 64,224,372 3,822,703 8,623 68,055,698

Total expenditure 80,154,549 3,888,792 8,623 84,051,964

Net gain/(loss) on sale of assets 5 (19,384) - - (19,384)

Net gain/(loss) on revaluation and disposal of investments

5 (37) - - (37)

Net income/(expenditure) (307,648) 931,339 (8,623) 615,068

Transfers between funds 18 1,441,573 (1,441,573) - -

Net incoming resources/(resources expended) before revaluations

1,133,925 (510,234) (8,623) 615,068

Actuarial gain on defined benefit pension scheme 9 522,000 - - 522,000

Net movements in funds 6 1,655,925 (510,234) (8,623) 1,137,068

Fund balances brought forward at 1 April 2015 29,019,036 3,711,808 421,524 33,152,368

Fund balances carried forward at 31 March 2016 17,19 30,674,961 3,201,574 412,901 34,289,436


Consolidated balance sheet as at 31 March 2017

Notes31 March 2017

£ 31 March 2016

£

Fixed assets

Tangible assets 10 36,462,262 26,486,031

Investments 11 489 467

Total fixed assets 36,462,751 26,486,498

Current assets

Stocks of goods for resale 168,595 170,751

Debtors 12 10,976,461 9,183,803

Investments 13 2,026,071 4,000,000

Cash at bank and in hand 15,812,004 15,394,843

Total current assets 28,983,131 28,749,397

Creditors (amounts falling due within one year) 14 (6,202,213) (6,975,497)

Net current assets 22,780,918 21,773,900

Total assets less current liabilities 59,243,669 48,260,398

Creditors (amounts falling due after more than one year) 15 (9,712,432) (1,063,962)

Net assets excluding pension liability 49,531,237 47,196,436

Defined benefit pension scheme liability 9 (14,500,000) (12,907,000)

Net assets including pension liability 35,031,237 34,289,436

The funds of the charity

Restricted funds 16,17 3,391,868 3,201,574

Endowment fund 16,17 404,278 412,901

Unrestricted fund (including pension reserve of £14,500,000 adverse (2016: £12,907,000 adverse))

16,17 31,235,091 30,674,961

Total funds 35,031,237 34,289,436

The notes on pages 72-91 form part of these financial statements.

Nicholas Keegan, Treasurer Approved by Council 26 September 2017

Registered no. 1825301

67

Company balance sheet as at 31 March 2017


Nicholas Keegan, Treasurer Approved by Council 26 September 2017

Registered no. 1825301

Notes31 March 2017

£ 31 March 2016

£

Fixed assets

Tangible assets 10 29,246,861 20,114,594

Investments 11 30,489 30,467

Total fixed assets 29,277,350 20,145,061

Current assets

Stocks of goods for resale 168,595 170,751

Debtors 12 8,021,912 6,807,876

Investments 13 2,026,071 4,000,000

Cash at bank and in hand 9,515,081 8,027,041

Total current assets 19,731,659 19,005,668

Creditors (amounts falling due within one year) 14 (4,980,301) (5,647,294)

Net current assets 14,751,358 13,358,374

Total assets less current liabilities 44,028,708 33,503,435

Creditors (amounts falling due after more than one year) 15 (9,253,125) (543,881)

Net assets excluding pension liability 34,775,583 32,959,554

Defined benefit pension scheme liability 9 (14,500,000) (12,907,000)

Net assets including pension liability 20,275,583 20,052,554

The funds of the charity

Restricted income funds 16,17 1,687,026 1,458,255

Endowment fund 16,17 404,278 412,901

Unrestricted funds (including pension reserve of £14,500,000 adverse (2016: £12,907,000 adverse))

16,17 18,184,279 18,181,398

Total funds 20,275,583 20,052,554


Consolidated summary income and expenditure account for the year ended 31 March 2017

Consolidated cash flow statement for the year ended 31 March 2017

2017£

2016£

Income from continuing operations 88,127,102 84,546,311

Total expenditure of continuing operations (85,753,386) (83,198,234)

Operating surplus 2,373,716 1,048,077

Income from fixed asset investments 18 8

Gain/(loss) on disposal of tangible fixed assets 11,790 (19,384)

Net gain/(loss) on revaluation and disposal of investments 22 (37)

Interest receivable and similar income 90,778 120,750

Interest payable and similar charges (141,523) (36,346)

Net interest and administration costs of defined benefit scheme (465,000) (498,000)

Net income for the year 1,869,801 615,068

Notes2017

£2016

£

Net cash inflow from operating activities 21 1,788,414 3,658,347

Returns on investment and servicing of finance

Investment income received 90,796 120,758

Interest paid (141,523) (36,346)

Capital expenditure

(Purchase)/sale of investments - (455)

Purchase of tangible fixed assets (12,297,464) (3,885,744)

Sale of tangible fixed assets: income 40,630 207,688

(12,307,561) (3,594,099)

Financing

Banks and other loans repaid (66,246) (65,962)

Proceeds from financing 9,028,625 543,881

8,962,379 477,919

(Decrease)/increase in cash (1,556,768) 542,167

Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of year 19,394,843 18,852,676

Cash and cash equivalents at the end of year 17,838,075 19,394,843



69

Accounting policies

Statement of compliance The financial statements have been prepared in compliance with United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Accounting and Reporting for Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice, which is applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2015) (Charities SORP FRS 102), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland (FRS 102), and the Companies Act 2006.

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

Preparation of the financial statements on a going concern basis The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern.

Group financial statements These financial statements consolidate the results of the charity and its wholly owned subsidiaries: Sense International, Sense Scotland, Helping Sense Limited, Coventry Society for the Blind and Sense4enterprises Limited.

Income recognition All income is included in the statement of financial activities when the charity is legally entitled to the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy.

Fees and allowances receivable for residential care and similar services are accounted for in the period in which the service is provided. Shop income represents goods supplied to customers at invoiced amounts and is recognised when the economic risks and rewards are transferred to the third party. Legacy income is recognised on a receivable basis when it is probable that legacy income will be received and the value of the incoming resources can be measured with sufficient reliability. Grants are recognised when the charity is legally entitled to the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy. Grants received in advance with donor-imposed conditions that specify a time period in which the expenditure of resources can take place are accounted for as deferred income and recognised as a liability. Voluntary income is accounted for when received. Non-cash donations, other than goods donated for sale through our shops, are stated at an estimate of their value to the charity.

Expenditure All expenditure, including any irrecoverable VAT, is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all costs related to that category. The cost of generating funds is the cost of organising fundraising events and activities and the cost of operating the charity’s shops. The costs of charitable activities include all expenditure directly relating to the objects of the charity. Support costs have been apportioned to the relevant charitable activity on the basis of salary costs incurred. Governance costs (internal and external audit, strategic costs and trustees’ expenses) are included in support costs.

Expenditure relating to redundancy and termination benefits is recognised once the decision to terminate has been made, it is probable that termination will occur and the amount of the obligation can be measured.


Tangible fixed assets and depreciation Tangible fixed assets are stated at historic purchase cost less accumulated depreciation. Cost includes the original purchase price of the asset and the costs attributable to bringing the asset to its working condition for its intended use.

Using the following methods, depreciation is calculated so as to write off the cost of tangible fixed assets over their estimated useful economic lives at the following annual rates, in equal annual instalments:

Freehold buildings 2%

Short leasehold properties and long leasehold improvements Over the remaining life of the lease

Furniture, fixtures and fittings 12.5%-25%

Motor vehicles 25%

Freehold land is not depreciated. Assets under construction are not depreciated until they are available for use. Individual fixed assets costing £500 or more are capitalised at cost.

Leases Operating lease rentals are charged to the statement of financial activities in equal amounts over the term of the lease.

Stocks Stocks of goods for resale are new and second hand items purchased for sale through the shops, valued at cost or net realisable value, whichever is lower. Other items, including donated goods and Sense merchandise, are valued at nil, as their intrinsic value is immaterial.

Recognition of liabilities Liabilities are recognised when an obligation arises to transfer economic benefits as a result of past transactions or events.

Pension costs The group operates defined contribution schemes for all staff. Contributions are charged to the statement of financial activities in the period in which they are payable.

Pension costs in respect of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS), which is a multi-employer defined benefit scheme, are accounted for as a defined contribution scheme and are charged to the statement of financial activities in the period in which they are payable.

Pension costs in respect of the London Pension Funds Authority Superannuation Scheme, a closed defined benefit pension scheme, are accounted for in accordance with FRS 102. As a result, the impacts of actuarial assumptions and amendments to benefits in respect of past service, expected investment return on assets of the fund and interest on pension liabilities, are charged to the statement of financial activities in the year.

Differences between actual and expected returns on assets during the year, together with differences arising from changes in the assumptions underlying the present value of scheme liabilities and experience of gains and losses arising on scheme liabilities, are also recognised in the statement of financial activities. The difference between the market value of assets and the present value of future pension liabilities is shown as a net liability on the balance sheet.

Fixed assets: securities The quoted securities are valued at fair value based on the Stock Exchange Daily Official list or similar recognised market value. Realised and unrealised gains and losses on sale or revaluation of investments are taken to the statement of financial activities in the period in which they arise.

71

Fixed assets: subsidiary undertakings Investments in subsidiary undertakings are stated at cost, but are written down to their realisable value if it is considered that there has been a permanent diminution in their value.

Fund accounting General funds are unrestricted funds that are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity. Restricted funds are funds that are to be used in accordance with specific instructions imposed by the donors or which have been raised by the charity for particular purposes. The costs of raising and administering such funds are charged against the specific fund.

Endowment funds represent those assets that must be held permanently by the charity, principally properties. Any capital gains or losses arising form part of the fund. Depreciation of property is charged against the fund.

Investment income and gains are allocated to the appropriate fund.

Principal accounting estimates and judgements In the application of Sense’s accounting policies, management is required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from those estimates and the estimates, along with their underlying assumptions, are continually reviewed. The matters below are considered to be the most important in understanding the judgements that are involved in preparing the financial statements and the uncertainties that could impact the amounts reported.

Legacy income accrual

Legacy income is recognised as detailed under income recognition above. In calculating the level of accrued legacy income, management is required to exercise estimation and judgement, particularly in determining the value and probability of receipt.

Bad debt provision

Specific provisions are made against debts that are considered unlikely to be received. Judgement is exercised on a case-by-case basis.

Actuarial assumptions in respect of the defined benefit pension scheme

As explained above, the detail of the assumptions made are disclosed in note 9.

Cost allocations

Support costs that are not attributable to a single charitable activity are apportioned on the basis of salary costs, which management consider reasonable.


Notes to the financial statements1. Grants receivable

2017£

2016£

Sense: statutory grants receivable

Department for Education grant - 147

Carmarthenshire 7,200 7,200

Powys Supporting People 11,998 10,623

LAAW Aiming High Cambridgeshire CC 13,125 7,875

Regional Growth Fund 2,007,000 57,000

Northern Ireland Housing Executive 15,169 18,936

Western Health and Social Care Trust 17,498 14,463

Newtown Abbey Surestart 63,942 37,439

Skills for Care 15,180 16,245

Cornwall County Council – Get Out There project 60,000 60,000

South Gloucestershire Children’s Services grant 2,929 2,929

Social Prescribing Service 7,300 24,000

National Sensory Impairment Partnership 5,000 2,000

Devon small grant 7,803 2,159

Sandwell MBC NPO grants - 2,993

Needs and Numbers 3,423 4,265

Health and Social Care Specialist Support grant 21,351 20,000

Belfast Careers 11,363 -

Sandwell Council 19,434 -

Sense Scotland: statutory grants receivable

Scottish Government (Malawi project) - 141,262

Scottish local authorities and health boards (towards services) 10,056 43,048

Tayside NHS 16,050 5,350

Glasgow City Council 3,200 3,200

Glasgow City Council (Positive Destinations) 20,000 -

Scottish Government (VSDF Award) 18,900 24,500

Scottish Government (Path for All) - 5,000

Scottish Government (Partners in Communication) 78,889 81,024

Scottish Government (Bangladesh) 99,345 90,280

Scottish Government (Strategic Partnerships) - 67,000

Scottish Government (Third Sector Intervention) - 75,448

Scottish Government (CYPFEIF and ALEC Fund) 150,000 -

Scottish Government (Youth Music Initiative) 8,173 -

Scottish Natural Heritage 5,773 10,493

Edinburgh Council (Advisory East) - 1,667

North Lanarkshire Council - 1,875

South Lanarkshire Council Integrated Care Fund 15,000 -

Total statutory grants receivable 2,715,101 838,421

73

2017£

2016£

Sense: charitable grants receivable

Northern Ireland DHSS (towards services in Ireland – core grant)

19,881 25,039

Welsh National Assembly (towards organisational development – core grant)

133,056 101,887

Short Breaks 73,218 28,275

Arts Council - 49,204

Sport England 121,048 124,676

Pears Foundation TouchBase South East sensory garden 35,000 -

Innovation, Excellence and Strategic Development Fund - 36,337

Mencap 63,005 42,566

Big Lottery Fund 119,343 83,291

City Bridge Trust 7,958 18,902

Tracey Riddell, Online Today project 49,008 51,349

TouchBase Cymru sensory garden 2,708 -

Other 3,057 1,086

Sense Scotland: charitable grants receivable

Aberdeen City Council - 3,805

Big Lottery Fund (One Giant Leap) 102,674 -

Creative Scotland (YMI – Sensatronic Scotland) 34,228 -

Creative Scotland (Time to Shine) 74,463 24,972

Wolfson Foundation 44,000 -

BBC Children in Need 11,368 11,468

People’s Postcode 19,990 16,299

Community Food and Health Scotland 1,620 -

Santander 5,000 5,000

D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust 3,000 -

The Russell Trust 500 -

Aberbrothock Charitable Trust 2,000 -

The William S. Phillips Fund 2,000 -

Alexander Moncur’s Trust 3,000 -

The Robertson Trust 80,000 -

Sense International: charitable grants receivable

Big Lottery Fund

Improved education for people with deafblindness (East Africa) 181,911 153,963

Improving opportunities for people with deafblindness (Peru) 138,966 62,938

Scottish Government

Improving education and health for people with deafblindness in Bangladesh (consortium with Sense Scotland)

95,208 86,245

Department for International Development (UK Aid)

Establishing early intervention services for infants with sensory impairments in Kenya and Uganda

92,832 -

Jersey Overseas Aid

Establishing early intervention services for infants with sensory impairments in Kenya

56,692 -

Establishing early intervention services for infants with sensory impairments in Uganda

49,185 -

Piloting a community based approach to effective education for children with deafblindness in Kenya

44,741 42,398

Enhancing community based services and effective education in Bangladesh 13,804 -

Improving education access and quality for children with deafblindness in Uganda - 61,045


2. Investment income

2017£

2016£

Bank interest 90,778 120,750

Dividends 18 8

90,796 120,758

3. Other income Other income is mainly derived from training, advice and consultancy provided to organisations and charities concerned with sensory impairment. Other trading income is mainly related to the activities of TouchBase Glasgow and the rental of office accommodation.

4. Total resources expended

Direct costs£

Support costs£

2017 £

2016 £

Fundraising 4,883,972 247,135 5,131,107 4,980,391

Trading 11,294,794 135,265 11,430,059 11,015,875

Care and Support Midlands 7,921,849 919,515 8,841,364 9,084,402

Care and Support East 10,306,303 1,213,112 11,519,415 10,643,960

Care and Support South 10,219,187 1,215,590 11,434,777 10,550,825

Care and Support North 5,217,314 615,380 5,832,694 5,525,936

Care and Support Northern Ireland 1,495,599 177,449 1,673,048 1,625,593

Care and Support Wales 1,008,196 104,043 1,112,239 849,366

Adult specialist services 1,105,701 145,599 1,251,300 934,966

Operations Scotland 16,359,580 3,266,379 19,625,959 19,743,271

Education and development programmes

1,620,694 186,849 1,807,543 2,902,107

International programmes 1,507,370 127,450 1,634,820 1,120,004

Arts and wellbeing programmes 351,780 28,179 379,959 356,593

Holidays and volunteering 521,437 52,773 574,210 446,269

Children’s specialist services 1,438,104 173,240 1,611,344 1,506,433

Campaigns, publicity and awareness 1,737,827 213,900 1,951,727 2,216,045

Quality assurance and development 467,404 56,129 523,533 533,734

Other 13,021 - 13,021 16,194

77,470,132 8,877,987 86,348,119 84,051,964

2017£

2016£

Sense International: charitable grants receivable (continued)

European Union (Erasmus+ Programme)

Capacity building in the field of youth in Bangladesh and India 39,552 -

European Commission Europe Aid Co-operation Office

Promoting and protecting the rights of people with deafblindness in India - 9,707

Total charitable grants receivable 1,724,016 1,040,452

All grants given for a specific purpose have been expended entirely on that purpose.

75

Analysis of support costs apportioned

Facilities£

Manage-ment

£

Human resources

£Finance

£

Gover- nance

£

Commun-ications

£2017

£2016

£

Fundraising 16,616 22,676 78,711 86,739 2,015 40,378 247,135 217,995

Trading - 13,027 65,622 48,022 - 8,594 135,265 129,358

Care and Support Midlands 68,355 79,039 302,802 304,320 8,289 156,710 919,515 911,081

Care and Support East 90,180 104,276 399,486 401,488 10,935 206,747 1,213,112 1,333,495

Care and Support South 90,365 104,489 400,301 402,308 10,958 207,169 1,215,590 1,085,291

Care and Support North 45,746 52,896 202,649 203,665 5,547 104,877 615,380 584,095

Care and Support Northern Ireland 13,191 15,253 58,435 58,728 1,600 30,242 177,449 162,691

Care and Support Wales 7,734 8,943 34,262 34,434 938 17,732 104,043 77,374

Adult specialist services 10,824 12,515 47,947 48,187 1,312 24,814 145,599 147,274

Operations Scotland - 1,909,307 339,372 831,616 34,273 151,811 3,266,379 2,950,266

Education programmes 13,890 16,061 61,531 61,839 1,684 31,844 186,849 304,763

International programmes - 124,290 - - 3160 - 127,450 117,055

Arts and wellbeing programmes 2,095 2,422 9,279 9,326 254 4,803 28,179 22,742

Holidays and volunteering 3,923 4,536 17,378 17,466 476 8,994 52,773 37,264

Children’s specialist services 12,878 14,891 57,049 57,335 1,562 29,525 173,240 202,247

Campaigns, publicity and awareness 15,901 18,386 70,439 70,792 1,928 36,454 213,900 215,316

Quality assurance and development 4,170 4,825 18,484 18,577 506 9,567 56,129 42,474

395,868 2,507,832 2,163,747 2,654,842 85,437 1,070,261 8,877,987 8,540,781

2017£

2016£

Net gain/(loss) on sale of tangible fixed assets 11,790 (19,384)

Gain/(loss) on revaluation and disposal of investments 22 (37)

11,812 (19,421)

5. Gains/(losses) on tangible fixed assets and investments

6. Net movement in fundsThe net movement in funds is stated after charging/(crediting):

2017£

2016£

Auditors’ remuneration – audit services 52,480 49,980

Depreciation – owned assets 2,292,393 2,086,701

Operating lease rentals 3,454,765 3,238,173

Interest payable on bank loans 141,253 36,346


Employees earning over £60,000 in the entire Sense Group 2017 2016

£60,000 - £70,000 5 5

£70,000 - £80,000 5 1

£80,000 - £90,000 0 2

£90,000 - £100,000 1 0

£100,000 - £110,000 2 2

£130,000 - £140,000 1 1

Pension contributions for higher paid employees2017

£2017

No.2016

£2016

No.

Defined benefit schemes 8,070 1 - -

Defined contribution schemes 71,669 13 42,697 11

Termination costs included above are:2017

£2017

No.2016

£2016

No.

Redundancy payments 299,703 38 52,488 10

8. Remuneration of members of CouncilTrustees of Sense received no remuneration during the year (2015/16: £0).

Trustees’ expenses reimbursed during the year were £7,658 (2015/16: £5,739), which relate to trustee meetings. The number of trustees reimbursed was ten (2015/16: ten).

9. PensionsThe Group provides defined contribution pension schemes for employees. In addition, Sense has ten staff members in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS). The TPS is a multi-employer defined benefit pension scheme and so Sense is unable to identify its share of the assets and liabilities of the scheme; accordingly, contributions to the TPS scheme are accounted for as if it was a defined contribution scheme.

Employees earning over £60,000 in the Sense Group were as follows:

As at 31 March 2017, £17,747 of termination costs were unpaid (2015/16: £0).

The aggregate remuneration of the Sense Group’s key personnel, as listed in the Trustees’ Report, was £1,174,049 (2015/16: £1,104,144) plus pension contributions of £75,018 (2015/16: £43,831).

2017£

2016£

Wages and salaries 49,910,559 49,801,827

Social security costs 3,700,311 3,605,552

Pension costs for defined contribution schemes 546,677 603,011

Pension costs for defined benefit schemes 1,910,108 1,699,348

56,067,655 55,709,738

7. Employees’ remuneration

The average number of employees, excluding volunteer staff, was 3,349 (2015/16: 3,266).

77

At 31 March 2017 % pa

At 31 March 2016 % pa

Rate of inflation – RPI 3.6 3.3

Rate of inflation – CPI 2.7 2.4

Rate of increase in salaries 1.0 n/a

Rate of increase for pensions in payment 2.7 2.4

Discount rate 2.7 3.7

Scheme assets and expected rate of return

The assets in respect of the membership of Sense were:

The assumed life expectancy beyond the age of 65 is as follows:

Value at 31 March 2017

£’000

Value at 31 March 2016

£’000

Equities 24,954 15,337

LDI/cash flow matching - 3,347

Target return funds 8,899 7,023

Infrastructure 2,217 1,809

Commodities - 148

Property 2,147 1,178

Cash 3,896 4,174

42,113 33,016

2017 Years

2016 Years

Retiring today:

Men 21.9 21.5

Women 23.2 24.2

Retiring in 20 years:

Men 23.9 23.5

Women 25.2 26.2

Sense and its subsidiary, Sense Scotland, participate in the London Pension Funds Authority Superannuation Scheme, which provides benefits based on final pensionable pay in respect of employees’ past service. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the participating employers and are mainly invested in equity investments and Government Securities. The most recent triennial actuarial valuation was as at 31 March 2017. In the year to 31 March 2017, Sense contributed £3.0 million (2015/16: £0). There was nothing outstanding at 31 March 2017 (2015/16: £0).

Financial assumptions

The financial assumptions used to calculate the scheme liabilities under FRS 102 were as follows:

The return on the fund (on a bid value to bid value basis) for the year to 31 March 2017 is estimated to be 21%. The actual return on fund assets over the year may be different.

The equity investments and bonds that are held in plan assets are quoted and are valued at the current bid price.


Sensitivity analysis of scheme liabilities

The following table sets out the impact of a change in the discount rates on the total obligation and projected service cost along with a +/- 1 year age rating adjustment to the mortality assumption.

Reconciliation of present value of scheme liabilities2017

£’0002016

£’000

Opening defined benefit obligation 45,923 47,432

Interest cost 1,676 1,640

Benefits paid (1,254) (1,177)

Change in financial assumptions 11,724 (1,736)

Change in demographic assumptions (568) (235)

Experience loss/(gain) on defined benefit obligation (888) (1)

Closing defined benefit obligation 56,613 45,923

£’000 £’000 £’000

Adjustment to discount rate +0.1% 0% -0.1%

Present value of total obligation 55,613 56,613 57,631

Projected service cost - - -

Adjustment to mortality age rating assumption +1 year None -1 year

Present value of total obligation 58,690 56,613 54,611

Projected service cost - - -

Reconciliation of fair value of scheme assets 2017

£’0002016

£’000

Opening fair value of fund assets 33,016 34,501

Interest on assets 1,254 1,187

Return on assets less interest 5,702 (1,450)

Administration expenses (43) (52)

Expected return on scheme assets n/a n/a

Contributions by the employer 3,007 7

Actuarial gains 431 n/a

Benefits paid (1,254) (1,177)

Closing fair value of fund assets 42,113 33,016

2017 £’000

2016 £’000

Total market value of assets 42,113 33,016

Present value of scheme liabilities (56,466) (45,793)

(Deficit)/surplus (14,353) (12,777)

Present value of unfunded obligation (147) (130)

Net defined benefit liability (14,500) (12,907)

The following amounts at 31 March 2017 were measured in accordance with the requirements of FRS 102:

79

The following components of the pensions charge have been recognised in the statement of financial activities in the year to 31 March 2017:

2017 £’000

2016 £’000

Net interest on defined liability 422 453

Administration expenses 43 52

Total cost 465 505

2017 £’000

2016 £’000

Re-measurements in other comprehensive income

Return on fund assets in excess of interest 5,702 (1,450)

Changes in demographic assumptions 568 235

Other actuarial gains on assets 431 -

Experience gain 888 1

Change in financial assumptions (11,724) 1,736

Total actuarial (loss)/gain recognised (4,135) 522

Payments made in anticipation of agreed schedule of deficit reduction 3,007 -

Net actuarial (loss)/gain reported (1,128) 522

Group

Freehold property

£

Long leasehold improve-

ments £

Short leasehold improve-

ments £

Furniture fixtures

and fittings

£

Motor vehicles

£Total

£

Cost

At 1 April 2016 21,517,429 4,464,456 2,013,998 12,939,591 3,699,561 44,635,035

Additions 10,208,058 - 158,852 1,654,621 275,933 12,297,464

Disposals - - (11,496) (1,808,446) (262,855) (2,082,797)

At 31 March 2017 31,725,487 4,464,456 2,161,354 12,785,766 3,712,639 54,849,702

Accumulated depreciation

At 1 April 2016 3,359,958 773,009 957,517 10,195,864 2,862,656 18,149,004

Charge for the year 328,675 65,263 213,669 1,273,077 411,709 2,292,393

Disposals - - (4,551) (1,793,765) (255,641) (2,053,957)

At 31 March 2017 3,688,633 838,272 1,166,635 9,675,176 3,018,724 18,387,440

Net book amounts

At 31 March 2017 28,036,854 3,626,184 994,719 3,110,590 693,915 36,462,262

At 1 April 2016 18,157,471 3,691,447 1,056,481 2,743,727 836,905 26,486,031

10. Tangible assets

Within freehold property, cost is £12,094,312 relating to assets under construction (2015/16: £2,975,032) and within additions is £9,119,280 (2015/16: £1,039,048). This is the TouchBase Pears project in Birmingham.


Within freehold property, cost is £12,094,312 relating to assets under construction (2015/16: £2,975,032) and within additions is £9,119,280 (2015/16: £1,039,048). This is the TouchBase Pears project in Birmingham.

Company

Freehold property

£

Long leasehold improve-

ments £

Short leasehold improve-

ments £

Furniture fixtures

and fittings

£

Motor vehicles

£Total

£

Cost

At 1 April 2016 14,445,557 3,887,118 2,013,998 12,792,328 3,488,333 36,627,334

Additions 9,261,213 0 158,852 1,512,870 275,933 11,208,868

Disposals 0 0 (11,496) (1,808,446) (251,405) (2,071,347)

At 31 March 2017 23,706,770 3,887,118 2,161,354 12,496,752 3,512,861 45,764,855

Accumulated depreciation

At 1 April 2016 2,255,987 500,770 957,517 10,070,236 2,728,230 16,512,740

Charge for the year 184,640 62,194 213,669 1,229,658 357,600 2,047,761

Disposals 0 0 (4,551) (1,793,765) (244,191) (2,042,507)

At 31 March 2017 2,440,627 562,964 1,166,635 9,506,129 2,841,639 16,517,994

Net book amounts

At 31 March 2017 21,266,143 3,324,154 994,719 2,990,623 671,222 29,246,861

At 1 April 2016 12,189,570 3,386,348 1,056,481 2,722,092 760,103 20,114,594

81

11. Fixed asset investments

Group2017

£2016

£

Fixed asset investments:

Listed in UK (at market value) 489 467

Group2017

£2016

£

Quoted securities are represented by:

UK Equity shares and funds 489 467

Group2017

£2016

£

Opening market value 467 49

Purchase of investments - 455

Unrealised gain/(loss) on investments held 22 (37)

Closing market value 489 467

Company2017

£2016

£

Opening market value 30,467 30,049

Purchase/(sale) of investments - 455

Unrealised (loss) on investments held 22 (37)

Closing market value 30,489 30,467

Company2017

£2016

£

Fixed asset investments:

Listed in UK (at market value) 489 467

Paid up shares: 100% holding in Helping Sense Limited 30,000 30,000

30,489 30,467

Company2017

£2016

£

Quoted securities are represented by:

UK Equity shares and funds 489 467

Sense owns 100% of the ordinary share capital of its subsidiary company Helping Sense Limited. Helping Sense Limited is incorporated in England and Wales, and exists to raise funds for the charity Sense, the National Deafblind and Rubella Association. There is no readily available market value for the company and accordingly it is accounted for at cost. The trustees believe that the carrying value of the investment is supported by the underlying net assets.


12. Debtors

13. Current asset investments

Group2017

£2016

£

Trade debtors 6,949,180 6,146,799

Taxation recoverable 232,678 207,518

Other debtors 228,649 205,472

Accrued income 1,299,270 794,962

Prepayments 2,266,684 1,829,052

10,976,461 9,183,803

Group and company2017

£2016

£

Bank deposits 2,026,071 4,000,000

Company2017

£2016

£

Trade debtors 4,180,142 3,907,885

Amounts owed by group undertakings 138,637 -

Taxation recoverable 232,678 207,518

Other debtors 149,478 128,179

Accrued income 1,152,522 761,773

Prepayments 2,168,455 1,802,521

8,021,912 6,807,876

No amounts included above fall due after more than one year.

14. Creditors (amounts falling due within one year)

Group2017

£2016

£

Bank loans 380,155 57,246

Other loans - 9,000

Trade creditors 987,200 1,031,401

Taxation and social security 933,540 889,543

Deferred income 900,129 944,068

Accruals and other creditors 3,001,189 4,044,239

6,202,213 6,975,497

Company2017

£2016

£

Bank loans 319,381 -

Other loans - 9,000

Trade creditors 98,883 1,031,375

Amounts owed to group undertakings - 32,544

Taxation and social security 688,178 657,584

Deferred income 658,440 672,155

Accruals and other creditors 2,328,419 3,244,636

4,980,301 5,647,294

83

15. Creditors (amounts falling due after more than one year)

Group2017

£2016

£

Bank loans 9,712,432 1,063,962

Group2017

£2016

£

Second to fifth year 2,091,433 810,387

After five years 7,620,999 253,575

9,712,432 1,063,962

Company2017

£2016

£

Second to fifth year 1,808,502 543,881

After five years 7,444,623 -

9,253,125 543,881

Company2017

£2016

£

Bank loans 9,253,125 543,881

Group includes secured bank loans of Sense Scotland in respect of 43 Middlesex Street, Glasgow and Fleuchar Street, Dundee, which were financed by a loan from HBOS who have first charges on the properties. The 43 Middlesex Street loan is payable in equal instalments over 18 years at a fixed interest rate of 6%. The Fleuchar Street loan is over 20 years at a fixed interest rate of 5.97%.

The Sense bank loan is in respect of TouchBase Pears. The loan is with Lloyds Bank PLC, unsecured and repayable over 18 years. Interest is fixed on the first £7 million at 4.17% for eight years with additional drawdown based on a margin of 2% above three month LIBOR. After the initial ten years, interest will be charged at the variable rate prevailing at that time on the total outstanding amount.

Repayments fall due as follows:

At 31 March 2017 the Sense Group had no obligations under finance leases.


16. Movement in funds

Group

Balance at 1 April 2016

£Income

£Expenditure

£Transfers

£

Balance at 31 March 2017

£

Unrestricted funds

General fund, excluding pension deficit 43,581,961 81,656,708 (82,224,203) 2,720,625 45,735,091

Pension deficit (note 10) (12,907,000) - (1,593,000) - (14,500,000)

Total unrestricted 30,674,961 81,656,708 (83,817,203) 2,720,625 31,235,091

Restricted funds

Holidays Fund 9,042 98,919 (107,961) - -

Big Lottery Fund – Cymru 22,123 81,263 (68,423) - 34,963

Cymru Fundraising Fund 170 19,822 (19,992) - -

Welsh Assembly grant - 136,656 (136,656) - -

Powys Supporting People grant - 11,998 (11,998) - -

Peakirk Riding Stables 28,702 - - (3,986) 24,716

TouchBase Restricted Fund - 2,837,245 - (2,837,245) -

Deafblind Studies 37,455 45,750 (41,306) - 41,899

Northern Ireland Special Donations 89,654 7,338 (2,451) - 94,541

Northern Ireland Out Of Schools Club 40,956 2,279 - - 43,235

Northern Ireland Day Centre 63,450 1,687 (2,148) (716) 62,273

Northern Ireland: Newtown Abbey Surestart

- 63,942 (63,942) - -

Needs and Numbers Survey 42,923 3,873 (3,906) - 42,890

Big Lottery Fund grant - 38,080 (33,540) (4,540) -

Children's Services - 207,455 (207,455) - -

The Big Give 32,186 - - - 32,186

Hadley Children's Assessment Centre - 116,399 (60,680) - 55,719

Children’s Specialist Services training - 70,101 (70,101) - -

DH (strategic partners) Ref. DHSP13 - 63,005 (63,005) - -

Arts and wellbeing: Sport England programme

54,821 (9) (54,812) - -

Arts and wellbeing: Sport England programme (part two)

- 121,048 (121,048) - -

Arts and wellbeing: Esmee Fairbairn - 38,443 (38,443) - -

Arts and wellbeing: C&A Taylor Trust - 29,756 (29,756) - -

Wolverhampton Children's Services 41,465 - (6,250) - 35,215

Woodside Fund 64,647 - - - 64,647

Social Prescribing Service 30,509 9,109 (5,803) - 33,815

Stevenage Special Donations - - 32,510 - 32,510

Barnet Day Service Special Donations 15,738 16,902 (32,640) - -

FEAS Fund 29,270 533 (286) (1,125) 28,392

Woodside Special Donations 65,517 15,240 (2,743) (8,000) 70,014

Cornwall GOT Project 12,127 66,846 (60,369) - 18,604

The Devon Group Fund 31,771 14,651 (8,695) - 37,727

Other funds (Sense) 745,728 469,251 (267,874) (13,425) 933,680

Out and About project 29,092 - - - 29,092

Parent Enabler project 27,228 85,223 (83,368) - 29,083

Strathbungo FR 90,978 14,483 (6,053) - 99,408

Craigton Service (FR) 15,812 10,240 (3,184) - 22,868

Kelty Services FR (Men) 35,655 - - - 35,655

Finglassie FR Fund 38,750 - (8,307) - 30,443

AMuchty FR Fund 69,336 - - - 69,336

85

James Appleby 30,502 (30,502) - - -

Tayside Funds 80,299 - - - 80,299

Arts Development Funds 79,631 8,230 (1,720) - 86,141

Creative Scotland Time To Shine - 74,463 (74,463) - -

One Giant Leap 27,322 (609) (2,859) - 23,854

YMI – Sensatronic Scotland - 34,228 - - 34,228

VSDF Award Fund 52,100 18,900 (52,100) - 18,900

Partners in Communication/Community 5,869 78,889 (80,069) - 4,689

Bangladesh Project Fund 9,906 99,345 (95,208) - 14,043

Third Sector Early Intervention Fund - 150,000 (140,000) - 10,000

Braidcraft FR 25,849 4,461 (8,019) - 22,291

Borders Group 48,460 4,200 - - 52,660

Big Lottery Fund – OGL - 102,674 (59,406) - 43,268

TouchBase (Ayrshire) 187,321 127,000 - - 314,321

Other funds (Sense Scotland) 242,332 175,143 (158,160) - 259,315

Big Lottery Fund (Peru) 27,586 138,996 (136,988) - 29,594

Big Lottery Fund (East Africa) 17,207 181,911 (178,618) - 20,500

Jersey Overseas Aid (East Africa Big Lottery Fund)

- 44,741 (44,741) - -

Department for International Development (DFID) (Kenya and Uganda)

- 92,832 (92,832) - -

Erasmus + (India and Bangladesh) - 39,552 (24,773) - 14,779

JOAC – Kenya (UKAM) - 56,692 (56,692) - -

JOAC – Uganda (UKAM) - 49,185 (49,185) - -

Scottish Government – Bangladesh 3,477 95,208 (100,972) 2,287 -

Romania (in-country) 29,180 26,951 (19,527) - 36,604

Romania (Swiss) 19,448 - (28,316) 8,868 -

Porticus (Kenya) 33,952 - (49,941) 15,989 -

Porticus (Kenya) 57,015 - (62,435) 5,420 -

HDIF (Tanzania) - 59,688 (60,441) 753 -

Orange (Romania) - 35,141 (27,957) - 7,184

Medicor (Romania) 27,811 42,297 (49,313) - 20,795

Rubella appeal (Kenya) 45,000 - - - 45,000

UK Aid Match (Finding Grace campaign) 318,565 - (93,290) - 225,275

Drive for Sense (Romania) - 41,169 - (41,169) -

Kenya Holding Fund - 34,239 (43,931) 9,692 -

Tanzania Holding Fund - 10,659 (50,229) 39,570 -

Peru Holding Fund - 2,000 (58,133) 56,133 -

Romania Holding Fund - 1,782 (30,281) 28,499 -

Other funds (Sense International) 67,637 52,407 (117,197) 22,370 25,217

Total restricted 3,201,574 6,549,400 (3,638,481) (2,720,625) 3,391,868

Endowment

Property 412,901 - (8,623) - 404,278

Total endowment 412,901 - (8,623) - 404,278

Total funds 34,289,436 88,206,108 87,464,307 - 35,031,237


Company

Balance at 1 April 2016

£Income

£Expenditure

£Transfers

£

Balance at 31 March 2017

£

Unrestricted funds

General fund, excluding pension deficit 31,088,398 56,109,793 (57,382,949) 2,869,037 32,684,279

Pension deficit (note 10) (12,907,000) - (1,593,000) - (14,500,000)

Total unrestricted 18,181,398 56,109,793 (58,975,949) 2,869,037 18,184,279

Restricted funds

Holidays Fund 9,042 98,919 (107,961) - -

Big Lottery Fund – Cymru 22,123 81,263 (68,423) - 34,963

Cymru Fundraising Fund 170 19,822 (19,992) - -

Welsh Assembly grant - 136,656 (136,656) - -

Powys Supporting People grant - 11,998 (11,998) - -

Peakirk Riding Stables 28,702 - - (3,986) 24,716

TouchBase Restricted Fund - 2,837,245 - (2,837,245) -

Deafblind Studies 37,455 45,750 (41,306) - 41,899

Northern Ireland Special Donations 89,654 7,338 (2,451) - 94,541

Northern Ireland Out Of Schools Club 40,956 2,279 - - 43,235

Northern Ireland Day Centre 63,450 1,687 (2,148) (716) 62,273

Northern Ireland: Newtown Abbey Surestart

- 63,942 (63,942) - -

Needs and Numbers Survey 42,923 3,873 (3,906) - 42,890

Big Lottery Fund grant - 38,080 (33,540) (4,540) -

Children's Specialist Services - 207,455 (207,455) - -

The Big Give 32,186 - - - 32,186

Hadley Children's Assessment Centre - 116,399 (60,680) - 55,719

Children’s Specialist Services training - 70,101 (70,101) - -

DH (strategic partners) Ref. DHSP13 - 63,005 (63,005) - -

Arts and wellbeing: Sport England programme

54,821 (9) (54,812) - -

Arts and wellbeing: Sport England programme (part two)

- 121,048 (121,048) - -

Arts and wellbeing: Esmee Fairbairn - 38,443 (38,443) - -

Arts and wellbeing: C&A Taylor Trust - 29,756 (29,756) - -

Wolverhampton Children's Services 41,465 - (6,250) - 35,215

Woodside Fund 64,647 - - - 64,647

Social Prescribing Service 30,509 9,109 (5,803) - 33,815

Stevenage Special Donations - - 32,510 - 32,510

Barnet Day Service Special Donations 15,738 16,902 (32,640) - -

FEAS Fund 29,270 533 (286) (1,125) 28,392

Woodside Special Donations 65,517 15,240 (2,743) (8,000) 70,014

Cornwall GOT Project 12,127 66,846 (60,369) - 18,604

The Devon Group Fund 31,771 14,651 (8,695) - 37,727

Other funds (Sense) 745,729 469,251 (267,875) (13,425) 933,680

Total restricted 1,458,255 4,587,582 (1,489,774) (2,869,037) 1,687,026

Endowment

Property 412,901 - (8,623) - 404,278

Total endowment 412,901 - (8,623) - 404,278

Total funds 20,052,554 60,697,375 (60,474,346) - 20,275,583

87

Unrestricted fundsGeneral fund

Represents the accumulated reserves of the charity that are available for use at the discretion of the trustees.

Pension deficit

See note 9 for the calculation of the estimated deficit on the defined benefit scheme.

Restricted fundsSense is reliant upon support given by individuals, corporations, trusts, other charities and state bodies in order to deliver our activities. Monies that are received for an express purpose are restricted to that purpose.

The major restricted funds are:

TouchBase Pears

This is our new centre in Selly Oak, Birmingham. This multi-purpose building will provide capacity for day services and office space for Sense staff, as well as providing a community hub and facilities for community use and commercial hire. The government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF) awarded a grant of £2.1 million, which was fully received by March 2017. The Pears Foundation donated £200,000, Young Wolfson donated £152,000, the Michael Marsh Charitable Trust donated £150,000 and the Edward Cadbury Trust donated £100,000. We also received a number of smaller donations.

Sense Children’s Services

Money donated by individuals contributes towards the provision of specialist advice, support and guidance to individuals, their families and carers. The posts covered include children and family support workers, multi-sensory impairment (MSI) consultants and principal MSI.

Sense Holidays Fund

Money donated to enable children and adults to participate in holidays, supported by volunteers.

TouchBase Ayrshire

This fund is for the development of a new TouchBase project in Ayrshire. TouchBase Ayrshire will provide a fantastic community hub for children, young people, adults and their families.

Big Lottery Fund (East Africa)

A grant received from the Big Lottery Fund over three years to improve education for people with deafblindness in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The project was due to finish on 31 March 2017, but was granted an extension to continue into 2017/18.

Finding Grace campaign

Monies raised by an appeal to match the funding provided by the Department for International Development (DFID). This fund is for establishing early intervention services for infants born with or acquiring sensory impairments in Kenya and Uganda.

Funds listed below are those with either opening balances or income or expenditure over £20,000. Other funds are those with opening balances, income and expenditure below £20,000.

Endowment funds

These are properties given to the charity for its use. The movement on the fund is depreciation of the fixed assets.

Transfers between funds

The significant transfer between funds, as noted above, is the expenditure on TouchBase Pears being transferred to assets under construction.

Other transfers between funds represent either transfers from unrestricted funds to cover shortfalls of restricted funds or transfers from restricted funds to cover related expenditure paid by unrestricted monies.


17. Analysis of net assets between fund balances

Group Unrestricted funds

£Restricted funds

£Endowment funds

£Total funds

£

Tangible fixed assets 36,057,984 - 404,278 36,462,262

Fixed asset investments 489 - - 489

Net current assets 19,389,050 3,391,868 - 22,780,918

Long-term liabilities (9,712,432) - - (9,712,432)

Pension liability (14,500,000) - - (14,500,000)

Total 31,235,091 3,391,868 404,278 35,031,237

Company Unrestricted funds

£Restricted funds

£Endowment funds

£Total funds

£

Tangible fixed assets 28,842,583 - 404,278 29,246,861

Fixed asset investments 30,489 - - 30,489

Net current assets 13,064,332 1,687,026 - 14,751,358

Long-term liabilities (9,253,125) - - (9,253,125)

Pension liability (14,500,000) - - (14,500,000)

Total 18,184,279 1,687,026 404,278 20,275,583

18. Capital commitmentsAs at 31 March 2017 Sense had capital commitments for the completion of the TouchBase Pears building of £4,491,545 and for other building works of £26,594.

19. Contingent liabilitiesContingent liabilities of £1,196,000 (2016: £1,196,000) exist relating to grants received from the Department of Health and Leeds Healthcare towards the development of 12 Hyde Close, Barnet; 138 Bradford Road, Leeds; and 509 Leeds and Bradford Road, Leeds, which may be repayable in certain circumstances.

Sense, Sense Scotland and Helping Sense Limited are members of a group VAT registration. Under the Value Added Tax Act 1983, all the members of a VAT group are jointly and severally liable for any tax due during the period of their membership.

20. Operating lease commitmentsTotal future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases as set out below:

2017 2016

GroupLand and buildings

£Other

£Land and buildings

£Other

£

Operating leases that expire:

Within one year 3,282,712 64,700 2,878,849 89,475

In two to five years 9,344,573 140,312 8,102,009 206,124

After five years 4,909,788 - 3,967,793 -

17,537,073 205,012 14,948,651 295,599

89

2017 2016

CompanyLand and buildings

£Other

£Land and buildings

£Other

£

Operating leases that expire:

Within one year 2,940,789 31,112 2,494,678 55,887

In two to five years 8,908,602 39,548 7,647,046 71,772

After five years 4,739,516 - 3,733,955 -

16,588,907 70,660 13,875,679 127,659

21. Reconciliation of net incoming resources to net cash inflow from operating activities

22. Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net liquid resources

23. Analysis of changes in net liquid resources

2017£

2016£

Net incoming resources before revaluation 1,869,801 615,068

Difference between pension charge and cash contributions 465,000 498,000

Investment income received (90,796) (120,758)

Interest paid 141,523 36,346

Net gain/(loss) on revaluation and disposal of investments (22) 37

Depreciation 2,292,393 2,086,701

Non-cash donation - (100,000)

(Profit)/loss on sale of fixed assets (11,790) 19,384

Decrease/(increase) in stocks 2,156 (62,515)

(Increase) in debtors (1,792,658) (1,378,426)

(Decrease)/increase in creditors (1,087,193) 2,064,510

Net cash in flow from operating activities 1,788,414 3,658,347

2017£

2016£

(Decrease)/increase in cash in the year 417,161 542,167

Cash outflow/(inflow) from loans and lease financing (8,962,378) (477,919)

Current asset investments (1,973,929) -

Changes resulting from cash flows (10,519,146) 64,248

Net liquid resources at 1 April 2016 18,264,634 18,200,386

Net liquid resources at 31 March 2017 7,745,488 18,264,634

At 1 April 2016£

Cash flows£

Other changes£

At 31 March 2017£

Cash at bank and in hand 15,394,843 417,161 - 15,812,004

Current asset investments 4,000,000 (1,973,929) - 2,026,071

Debt due within one year (66,247) 66,247 (380,155) (380,155)

Debt due after one year (1,063,962) (9,028,625) 380,155 (9,712,432)

18,264,634 (10,519,146) - 7,745,488


24. Related party transactions As part of the project to construct TouchBase Pears, Sense undertook a comprehensive tender process to

select architects for this project. The selection panel included the Treasurer, CEO and Group Director of Finance and Resources. The contract for architectural services was awarded to Glenn Howells Associates. The Chair of the Board of Trustees, John Crabtree, is also Chairman of Glenn Howells Associates. The cumulative amount paid for services provided by Glenn Howells Associates is £457,279 (2016: £416,719). At 31 March 2017 nothing was owed to Glenn Howells Associates (2016: £12,000).

Sense provides services to individuals and, in some cases, relatives, family members or parents of the beneficiaries also serve as trustees/Board Members of the charity. These services are provided as part of the contracts agreed with funding authorities, as with any other beneficiary.

As permitted under FRS 102 Related Party Disclosures, transactions with subsidiaries are not disclosed.

25. Note on company statusSense is a company limited by guarantee and so has no share capital. The liability of the members is limited by guarantee. The members have undertaken to contribute such amount not exceeding one pound each as may be required in the event of the charity being wound up.

26. Subsidiary companiesThe Sense Group comprises five legal entities in addition to Sense itself. Three are wholly controlled charitable company subsidiaries:

• Sense Scotland is registered in Scotland as a charity (charity number: SC022097) and as a company limited by guarantee (company number: SC147570).

• Sense International is registered in England as a charity (charity number: 1076497) and as a company limited by guarantee (company number: 03742986).

• Coventry Society for the Blind is registered in England as a charity (charity number: 700565) and as a company limited by guarantee (company number: 2280756). Coventry Society for the Blind is now dormant.

The subsidiaries have similar aims and objectives to the parent charity, Sense. All activities have been consolidated on a line-by-line basis into the statement of financial activities.

A summary of the results of the subsidiaries for the year ended 31 March 2017 are shown below:

Sense Scotland 2017

£2016

£

Incoming resources 22,617,243 22,060,770

Resources expended 27,092,596 22,187,444

Net movement in funds (4,475,353) (126,674)

Assets 15,346,488 14,742,699

Liabilities (6,712,515) (1,633,373)

Funds 8,633,973 13,109,326

Sense International 2017

£2016

£

Incoming resources 1,733,293 1,691,956

Resources expended 1,728,819 1,404,543

Net movement in funds 4,474 287,413

Assets 1,378,604 1,414,430

Liabilities (246,574) (286,874)

Funds 1,132,030 1,127,556

91

Coventry Society for the Blind 2017

£2016

£

Incoming resources - -

Resources expended - -

Net movement in funds - -

Assets - -

Liabilities - -

Funds - -

Sense also controls two limited companies that are not registered charities. Sense owns the whole of the issued share capital of Helping Sense Limited, a company registered in England (company number: 2214430). The subsidiary is used for non-primary purpose trading activities, namely the support of shop sales of purchased goods and the organisation of fundraising activities. The total net profit is gifted to the charity. Sense4enterprise Limited (company number: 8112973) is a company limited by guarantee and a social enterprise, currently dormant. It will be used for income generating activities related to TouchBase Pears and other resources. The total net profit will be gifted to the charity.

A summary of the results of these subsidiaries for the year ended 31 March 2017 are shown below:

Helping Sense Limited 2017

£ 2016

£

Turnover 3,605,329 3,181,790

Cost of sales (577,970) (660,124)

Gross profit 3,027,359 2,521,666

Operating expenses (2,917,724) (2,344,148)

Net profit 109,635 177,518

Assets 141,612 209,806

Liabilities (111,612) (179,806)

Funds 30,000 30,000

Sense4enterprise Limited 2017

£ 2016

£

Incoming resources - -

Resources expended - -

Net movement in funds - -

Assets - -

Liabilities - -

Funds - -


Major supporters

SenseArts Council England (Grants for the Arts)Audrey Earle Charitable TrustAustin & Hope Pilkington TrustAwareness FundBBC Children in NeedBig Lottery Fund: Northern Ireland (Reaching Out: Supporting Families)Big Lottery Fund: Wales (Bright New Futures)Cameron HomesCecil Duckworth CBEChasetown Civil EngineeringChris and Sue BensonDepartment of HealthFanny Rapaport Charitable SettlementFowler Smith and Jones TrustG J W Turner TrustGarner Homes Investments LtdHarman ProfessionalHenlow Golf ClubJoseph Strong Frazer TrustLady Blakenham’s Charity TrustLeeds Building Society Leeds Building Society Charitable FoundationNational Foundation for Youth MusicNEC Display SolutionsPaul JacksonPayne Gallwey 1989 Charitable TrustPennycuick CollinsPeter Storrs TrustRichard Radcliffe Charitable TrustRoger EatonSmith Charitable TrustSport EnglandThe Albert Hunt TrustThe Ballinger Charitable TrustThe Band TrustThe Bartle Family Charitable TrustThe Beatrice Laing TrustThe Blair FoundationThe Boltini TrustThe Boparan Charitable TrustThe Boshier-Hinton FoundationThe City Bridge TrustThe Connie & Albert Taylor Charitable TrustThe Constance Travis Charitable TrustThe David Gibbons FoundationThe Edward & Dorothy Cadbury TrustThe Esmee Fairbairn FoundationThe Florence Shute Millennium Trust

The Friarsgate TrustThe Fulmer Charitable TrustThe Geoff and Fiona Squire FoundationThe GMC TrustThe Grand Charity of FreemasonsThe Hadley TrustThe Jane Hodge FoundationThe John Pinto FoundationThe Lockwood Charitable FoundationThe Mary Robertson TrustThe Open Gate TrustThe P F Charitable TrustThe Patrick and Helen Frost FoundationThe Pears FoundationThe Princess Anne’s Charities TrustThe Ratcliff FoundationThe Regional Growth FundThe Robert Hall FoundationThe Roxburgh TrustThe Sir John Eastwood FoundationThe Spear Charitable TrustThe Tanner TrustThe Thomas Farr CharityThe Thomas J Horne Memorial TrustThe Thompson Family Charitable TrustThrifty Car and Van Rental Waynflete Charitable TrustWilliams Family Foundation

93

Sense ScotlandAberbrothock Charitable TrustAlexander Moncur’s TrustBBC Children in NeedBig Lottery Fund (One Giant Leap)Community Food and Health ScotlandCreative Scotland (Time to Shine)Creative Scotland YMI – Sensatronic ScotlandD’Oyly Carte Charitable TrustGlasgow City Council (IGF Fund)Glasgow City Council (Positive Destinations)People’s Postcode SantanderScottish Government (Bangladesh)Scottish Government (CYPFEIF & ALEC Fund)Scottish Government (Partners in Communication)Scottish Government (VSDF Award)Scottish Government (Youth Music Initiative)Scottish Local Authorities and Health Boards (towards services)Scottish Natural HeritageSouth Lanarkshire Council Integrated Care FundTayside NHSThe Robertson TrustThe Russell TrustThe William S Phillip’s FundUHY Hacker Young

Sense InternationalBig Lottery FundCarmen-Butler Charteris Charitable TrustDepartment for International Development (UK Aid) – UK Aid MatchEuropean Union (Erasmus+ Programme) Hugh Symons Charitable TrustHuman Development Innovation FundIndependent Franchise PartnersJersey Overseas AidLaduma Dhamecha Charitable TrustLatin American Children’s TrustScottish GovernmentSouter Charitable TrustSwiss Agency for Development (Swiss-Romanian Cooperation Programme)The Alchemy FoundationThe Beatrice Laing TrustThe Bhim Ruia FoundationThe Carvill TrustThe Casey TrustThe Community of the Presentation TrustThe James Tudor FoundationThe SMB TrustThe Tony and Audrey Watson Charitable TrustThe Tula Trust


Charity information

Registered address for Sense 101 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9LGTel: 0300 330 9250 or 020 7520 0999Textphone: 0300 330 9252 or 0207 520 0959Fax: 0300 330 9251 or 020 7520 0958Email: [email protected]

Information and adviceFor details about the support and services Sense offers, and information about complex communication needs, please contact the Sense Information and Advice Service on:

Tel: 0300 330 9256 or 020 7520 0972Textphone 0300 330 9252 or 020 7520 0959Textphone: 0300 330 9256 or 020 7520 0972Fax: 0300 330 9251Email: [email protected]

Professional advisers to Sense Independent auditors

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Central Square, 29 Wellington Street, Leeds, LS1 4DL

Bankers

National Westminster Bank PLC Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9JA

Solicitors

Anthony Collins Solicitors LLP 134 Edmund Street, Birmingham, B3 2ES

Insurance advisors

Willis Ltd Stuart House, Caxton Road, Fulwood, Preston, PR2 9RW

Internal auditors

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP St Bride’s House, 10 Salisbury Square, London, EC4Y 8EH

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Lorraine’s job at Boots has boosted her confidence and increased her independence

Sense and Sense International

101 Pentonville Road London, N1 9LG

Tel: 0300 330 9250 Fax: 0300 330 9251 Text: 0300 330 9252

Email: [email protected] Website: www.sense.org.uk

Sense Northern Ireland

Sense Family Centre The Manor House 51 Mallusk Road Mallusk County Antrim, BT37 9AA

Tel/text: 028 9083 3430 Fax: 028 9084 4232

Email: [email protected]

Sense Scotland

43 Middlesex Street Kinning Park Glasgow, G41 1EE

Tel: 0141 429 0294 Fax: 0141 429 0295 Text: 0141 418 7170

Email: [email protected] Website: www.sensescotland.org.uk

Sense Cymru

TouchBase Wales Caerphilly Business Park Van Road Caerphilly, CF83 3ED

Ffôn/tel: 0300 330 9280 Ffacs/fax: 0300 330 9281 Testud/text: 0300 330 9282

Email: [email protected]

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