SENSORY TRUST

Registered charity 1020670 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

Improving the lives of disadvantaged communities by increasing access to public spaces and creating richer, more memorable outdoor experiences. We work directly with beneficiaries, undertake design work and help organisations improve their services. We run community activities and training and develop sensory-rich activities, site evaluation tools, creative consultation techniques and guidance.

Objects

(1) TO PROMOTE SOCIAL INCLUSION BY IMPROVING OPPORTUNITY AND ABILITY TO ACCESS - MEANING PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL ACCESS, AS WELL AS AVAILABILITY - PHYSICAL AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS FOR THE YOUNG, OR, THOSE WITH ILL HEALTH AND/OR THOSE WITH PHYSICAL, SENSORY OR MENTAL DISABILITIES, TOGETHER WITH THEIR FAMILIES AND CARERS, AND THOSE WHO LIVE IN SOCIAL DEPRIVATION.(2)THE ADVANCEMENT OF SENSORY EDUCATION TO PROMOTE PUBLIC AWARENESS AND UNDERSTANDING OF PHYSICAL AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE BENEFICIARIES AND PROVIDING EDUCATION AND INFORMATION SERVICES TO THE PUBLIC IN RELATION TO THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ACCESSIBILITY OF PHYSICAL AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS FOR THE BENEFICIARIES AND THE ISSUES AFFECTING THE BENEFICIARIES' OPPORTUNITY AND ABILITY TO ACCESS THEIR PHYSICAL AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS AND THE WAYS IN WHICH RESTRICTIONS ON THE BENEFICIARIES' ACCESS TO THEIR PHYSICAL AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS CAN BE DIMINISHED.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · Disability · Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity generated a surplus of £45,210 for the year ended 31 March 2025, with total income of £575,855 and total expenditure of £530,645. Per the trustees' report, unrestricted reserves stood at £435,335, representing 10 months of core operational costs, which meets the charity's policy target of maintaining reserves between 9 and 12 months of core costs.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts independently examined (not a full audit). Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~8.6 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 5.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (82% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (4.9%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Dr KATHRYN ELIZABETH BRAITHWAITE MBEchair
• Christopher Phillips
• Dr GARY MANTLE MBE · trustee of 1 other charity
• Kate Mitchell
• MICHAEL BECK
• Prof Ruth Garside · trustee of 1 other charity

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Scotland · Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Grants marked “Unverified read” were flagged by automated checks as possibly misread from the funder’s filed accounts. They are listed, but left out of the totals, counts and funder relationships this site computes.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with INSPIRE COMMUNITY TRUST.

• INSPIRE COMMUNITY TRUST income £4.8m
• THE SURREY CARE TRUST income £2.2m
• COMMUNITY SOUTHWARK income £1.4m
• SENSORY PEOPLE income £114k
• FOREST SENSORY SERVICES income £96k
• SOCIAL BUSINESS TRUST income £7.1m

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.