CHESS Homeless

Registered charity 1093901 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as CHELMSFORD CHESS, CHESS

Initially to provide emergency accommodation and support for the homeless in Essex. Then to assess each individuals needs and work towards finding long term solutions as appropriate.

Objects

The Charity’s objects are restricted specifically, only for the public benefit, to relieve poverty, hardship and distress, in particular but not exclusively, amongst the homeless, those at risk of homelessness, and those living in adverse conditions.

Area of benefit: PRIMARILY BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY WITHIN THE DISTRICT ADMINISTERED BY ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL

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 · Accommodation/housing · Economic/community Development/employment · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Chelmsford, East of England, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The charity reported a net income surplus of £2.96 million for the year ended 31 March 2025, resulting in total net assets increasing to £4.65 million. However, unrestricted reserves of £1.09 million remain below the trustees' stated policy target of £493,629 to £987,258, which represents three to six months of operating costs. The accounts state that no material uncertainties exist regarding the charity's ability to continue as a going concern.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Lovewell Blake LLP. Discloses 6 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Top pay band moved from £60,000 - £69,999 (FY2024) to £80,000 - £89,999 (FY2025).

Comparing this charity’s FY2024 and FY2025 accounts as analysed by this site.

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
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds 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 fundraising profile: JustGiving — CHESS Homeless (matched by registered charity number).

Funders the charity credits

Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).

• Auris Ear Care — “Auris Ear Care , your partnership has resulted in extraordinary photo opportunities for our charity. We are immensely grateful for your supp…” (source page)

Property (HM Land Registry)

1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (1 freehold); recorded price paid £600k. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

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

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

Reported reserves equal ~2.5 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (74% 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: 0.8% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (09/07/2025) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Andrew Stephen Murphy
• Graeme Hall
• Julie Ingham
• Nadine Hendrie · trustee of 1 other charity
• Richard Alfred Madden · trustee of 1 other charity

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

Operates in: Essex

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 CHESTER AID TO THE HOMELESS.

• CHESTER AID TO THE HOMELESS income £425k
• HOMELESS ACTION income £3.8m
• EMMAUS SHEFFIELD income £659k
• JUSTUS income £47k
• Shelter Housing Advice and Research Project (Leicester) income £146k
• HELP THE HOMELESS LEICESTER income £289k

Side by side with its peers

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