VAST SERVICES (1920)

Registered charity 1049663 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as STOKE-ON-TRENT COUNCIL FOR VOLUNTARY SERVICE LIMITED, VAST SERVICES, VOLUNTARY ACTION STOKE ON TRENT, VOLUNTARY ACTION STOKE-ON-TRENT

Development and support services for local voluntary and community organisations.

Objects

To promote any charitable purposes for the public benefit of the community within Staffordshire, the West Midlands and surrounding areas with particular reference to Stoke-on-Trent; and in particular the advancement of education, the advancement of heritage, the advancement of health, the advancement of citizenship or community development and the prevention or relief of poverty.

Area of benefit: COMMUNITY WITHIN STAFFORDSHIRE AND THE WEST MIDLANDS WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO STOKE-ON-TRENT.

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

Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Education/training · Economic/community Development/employment · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2026 accounts

The accounts state that total income for the year was £1,892,938 against expenditure of £1,712,158, resulting in a net surplus of £180,780. Per the trustees' report, free reserves stood at £261,446, which is below the policy target range of £480,000 to £1,100,000 identified by the trustees as necessary for sustainability.

Automated summary of the FY2026 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by B K Plus Audit Limited. Discloses 3 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
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• 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

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — VAST (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Lisa Healings — Chief Executive (source)
• Andy Meakin — Chief Executive (source)
• Charlotte Bennett — Director (source)
• Brenda Ford — Director (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Property (HM Land Registry)

3 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2026)

Reported reserves equal ~1.8 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (96% 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: 3.7% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• NEIL DAWSONchair · trustee of 1 other charity
• Catherine Jones
• Clifford John Hathaway MBE · trustee of 1 other charity
• Hayley Currie
• John Farrar · trustee of 1 other charity
• Joseph Varley-Martin
• Michael Robert Stubbs
• Pooja Batta
• Robert Craddock
• Simon Harris
• Sophie Louise Barber
• Timothy Edwards

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

Operates in: Staffordshire

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

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

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 SOUTHEND ASSOCIATION OF VOLUNTARY SERVICES.

• SOUTHEND ASSOCIATION OF VOLUNTARY SERVICES income £1.4m
• ASSOCIATION OF VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS IN WREXHAM income £1.1m
• GWENT ASSOCIATION OF VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS income £3.0m
• NORTH HERTFORDSHIRE CENTRE FOR VOLUNTARY SERVICE LIMITED income £916k
• EREWASH VOLUNTARY ACTION - COUNCIL FOR VOLUNTARY SERVICE income £755k
• V22 COMMUNITIES income £529k

Side by side with its peers

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