Shaw Trust, which merged with Careers Development Group (CDG) last year, increased its income by 13 per cent to £96.6m, but the cost of the merger and delivering more Work Programme activities contributed to a rise in costs of nearly 17 per cent.
Fellow welfare-to-work charity CDG merged with Shaw Trust on 26 September 2012, and the Trust’s accounts to March 31 2013 include the costs of merging the two organisations, as well as the outlay needed to deliver the Trust’s now-increased Work Programme activities.
So while incoming resources are up 13 per cent to £96.6m from £85.6 (£14.5m of this attributed to merged activities), resources expended have increased at a higher rate, 16.7 per cent from £86m last year to £100.4m this year.
Fundraising income dipped 7.6 per cent to £329,000, but the charity’s shop chain enjoyed an 8.4 per cent increase to £3.8m this year.
The Trust’s principal funder is the Department of Work and Pensions, from which it received a total of £53m in 2012-13. This is slightly higher than last year, when the DWP was the cause of most of the charity’s funding cuts. Losing those contracts meant the money it received from the Department fell by more than £25m to £58.2m in 2012 from 2011’s £84.1m.
The highest-earning member of staff took home a sum between £180,000 and £190,000. One person earned £170,000 to £180,000, and two employees received a wage of £120,000 to £130,000.
CEO praises work programme performance
Ex-CDG chief executive Roy O’Shaugnessy now leads Shaw Trust. Despite merging into the Trust, CDG has kept its identity for interim but in the longer-term the two bodies will create an entirely new organisation.
O'Shaughnessy praised the Trust’s Work Programme delivery in the report - particularly services company Serco, which it subcontracts in the West Midlands - for moving 25 per cent of customers into ‘sustained job outcomes’, exceeding the national average of 23.8 per cent.
“As it enters its third year, performance on the Work Programme contract shows signs that the foundations laid during the first two years of the payment-by-results programme are bearing fruit,” O'Shaughnessy says in the annual report.
However, the performance of the Trust’s Work Choice, a government-supported employment programme for people with disabilities, is described only as “improving steadily, although more slowly than had been hoped”.
Trust plans to eliminate deficits
The Trust’s estimated a deficit for its unrestricted UK activities this year of £2.8m - nearly double the £1.5m in 2012. The deficit takes into account factors such as merger costs.
For 2013-14 the Trust says it is focused on eliminating deficits such as this and that of Interwork, the group’s Australian subsidiary, which has gone from a surplus of £1.3m in 2012 to a deficit of £1.5m.
The report states it will do this by maximising performance on Work Choice and Work Programme contracts, as well as completing a restructure of support and central functions in the merged organisation and supporting income growth in targeted sectors.
Reserves decreased twice as much this year as they did last, from down £0.9m in 2012 to £1.8m this time. The group did, however, increase its total fixed assets from £19.6m to £21.3m.
