Disability charity Sense has reported that it made 50 redundancies last year as part of a restructure while its trading income declined.
In its recently published accounts for the year to March 2025, the charity reported that it spent £224,000 on the redundancies as it “undertook a restructuring process to align with its operational and strategic priorities”.
A Sense spokesperson told Civil Society: “Sense keeps its structure under review to ensure we’re best placed to deliver on our strategy and meet the needs of the people we support.
“As part of this process, some roles were made redundant to align resources with our operational and strategic priorities.
“Wherever possible, we redeployed affected colleagues into other roles within the organisation.”
Shops income declines
Sense also reported that sales in its shops were lower year-on-year, which it described as “unprecedented”. The charity had started the year with 137 shops and ended with 132.
Income from the charity’s trading dropped by almost £500,000, to £15.3m while its associated costs rose by over £1m to £17.7m.
The charity’s income from the sale of goods dropped from £14.8m in 2024 to £14.4m in 2025, as did its fundraising income from trading. However, gift aid income remained the same, at £740,000.
“Trading income reduced slightly in the year as a result of lower sales and some shop closures, which took place towards the end of the year,” the accounts read.
The charity’s overall income rose by nearly £7m to £102m, with donations and legacies rising by £1.8m to £15.8m and income from charitable activities increasing by £5.5m to £69.9m.
However, its overall expenditure increased by a similar amount to £104m, which meant the charity recorded a third consecutive operating deficit.
“In common with many charities, conditions were challenging for Sense in 2024-25, with a particular pressure on trading margins, which had a significant effect on the overall financial performance,” the accounts read.
“As a result; the group-made a-loss of £2.31m in the year. This is consistent with the loss of £2.19m recorded in 2023-24, with reserves reducing further as a result.”
Some wage increases covered
Sense’s expenditure was largely driven up by last year’s national living wage rise, which accounted for £5.1m of its overall cost increases.
The charity’s overall staff costs increased to over £64m in 2024-25 from £59.9m the year before as its average employee numbers increased by more than 100 per month year-on-year to 2,956.
It also spent £5m on social security costs versus £4.5m in 2024, and increased spending on pension costs to around £2.6m, from £2.5m the previous year.
Sense said it was able to offset the wage rises with fee increases from commissioners for social care services but “this was much more difficult in our shops and programmes”.
“Income from charitable activities increased by £5.5m, mainly as a result of inflationary fee increases secured to offset the increase in national living wage,” the accounts read.
“Donations and legacies income increased as a result of higher income from philanthropy and grants, partially to support the purchase of our new hub in Belfast, which will be operational during 2025.”
