Mermaids annual accounts

[OneEpisode]

Mermaids published their annual accounts a while ago and I’ve not seen it on here, Maybe because this is a feminist board not an accounts board. The accounts are more interesting because of absences than what’s in them..

The accounts are filed with the charities commission who also have info about the trustees etc. Here beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regid=1160575&subid=0

I can only see accounts at march 2019

beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regid=1160575&subid=0

Of interest:
The trustees
When the accounts were signed, 8 August 2019, there were only two trustees: Anna Chivers and Stephen Elllis. There had been more in the period of the accounts (1/4/18-31/3/19), Neil Mackin (until November 2018, was chair), Caroline Roberts and Janet Adams (both until December 2018). They’ve resigned. There is narrative about looking for new trustees.

Looking in January 2020 on the.charity commission site this is who we have, one from above and three new ones:
Stephen Timothy Ellis “Lloyds Banking Group” When I looked at the Charities Commission website, they had no other trusteeships on record.
Alex Feis-Bryce; previous work includes “my charity, National Ugly Mugs (NUM), which provides direct support to thousands of sex workers throughout the UK.” No other trusteeships on record.
Paul Devlin “Paul brings a wide range of experience from a career in the charity sector and as a Non-Executive Director and Trust Chair in the NHS”. No other trusteeships on record.
Dr [of Professional Studies (Public Works) in 2018] Belinda Bell “Programme Director at Cambridge Social Ventures, NeD at Foundation East and Noise Solution, Trustee at Mermaids UK” No other trusteeships on record.

Page 8 in the PDF, numbered as 7, Trustees’ annual report, has gems like “increasingly hostile transphobic social and media onslaught”… “One disturbing example was the We Are Still Here transgender conference in September 2018, at which our CEO spoke alongside one of our young teens. Despite working with the organisers to maximise security for the event, an individual with transphobic motivations still manager to infiltrate the conference and share their negative views of it on social media.” The conference, that the CEO tweeted from!!!

Yes, Double they aren’t new accounts. I don’t know when they sent them to the Charities Commission. They were finished in October 2019.

Well now this IS interesting....well done for the digging OP.

The next paragraph has “we are aware that Mermaids is being targeted by transphobes who wish to infiltrate our staffing ranks with malicious intent. ”

So the most interesting thing is the trustees signed in August 2019, and the independent examiner in October 2019. These are indeed accounts to March 2019. But I would have thought there would be a mention of the email breach in the trustee report.
That email breach was in the press just loads before then. For instance www.hayesconnor.co.uk/have-you-been-affected-by-the-mermaids-data-breach/ was posted on 18th June. These solicitors refer to the Sunday Times article and Mermaid’s press release and will help those affected make a data breach compensation claim. The charity was “deeply sorry” for this “historical data breach”. It reported the breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Charity Commission. An independent investigation into the Mermaids data breach will now take place.

But this isn’t mentioned. The Sunday Times said more than Mermaids, saying, the emails contained “intimate details of the vulnerable youngsters it seeks to help”. It “reports that these emails could be found by entering the charity’s name and its number into a search engine).”

accounts are done yearly and so the next accounts will end March 2020.

I spotted the 'transphobic motivations' line as well.

Is it usual for a charity to spend zilch on fund-raising, and then only spend 57% of what they do raise? Stonewall at least managed to spend 8.8 million from an income of 8.7 million (although about 1.5 million spend on fund-raising).

National Ugly Mugs used convicted in place of the word convinced, has one 'they' and their digital researcher's 'contribution to knowledge' ...(my bold).

Charlotte is currently working towards her PhD at the University of Huddersfield, researching Young people's experience of digital education in UK secondary schools. It is envisioned that part of Charlottes contribution to knowledge will be her creative, collaborative approach to research and analysis.

If anybody is still reading, page 15 says “moving our emphasis of time and resources towards 80% “here and now” supporting our service users, and 20% “focussing on the future”

Somehow page 2 says an overarching principle of only “positively championing not denigrating or attacking people or organisations”

The Trustees aren’t paid and a small charity wouldn’t find it easy to find trustees. This is a small charity that has grown very very fast. Hence not being able to spend the cash fast enough!

Very interesting. The calibration of the trustees is quite telling isn’t it?

That is a very small trustee board for a charity undergoing such a rapid growth

I’ve sat on trustee boards for far smaller charities with bigger boards.

Paul Devils has his fingers in many ours including chief executive of National patient participation, chairing an NHS trust in Lincolnshire, advising the care quality commission & working with a lot of local health watches

Kit and less controversial charities with less controversial CEOs would find it easier to have a pipeline of trustees..

Devlin!

oneepisode I’ve worked with charities applying to big lottery who’ve been told a trustee board if that size is far to small to manage a funding increase like that

Yet astonishingly mermaids appear to be treated differently

How many are you the board? I can't find it.

@GeordieTerf

There’s 4 trustees . It’s on the page linked to up thread, under the tab marked “ people “ .

Why would someone whose only charity related experience was in working with a group aimed at sex workers be hired as trustee for a children's charity?

positively championing not denigrating or attacking people or organisations

They better have a word with Mimmymum about her Twitter posting if that's an official goal.