BIRTH COMPANIONS

Registered charity 1120934 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as BIRTH COMPANIONS LTD

We support women experiencing severe disadvantages in the period before, during and after the birth of their babies. We run groups and give one to one support to women in four prisons and in the community in London. We have a national remit to improve the experiences and care of women facing health and social inequalities in the perinatal period through training, research and influencing change.

Objects

(1) 'TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT THE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL WELFARE OF PREGNANT WOMEN AND NEW MOTHERS WHO EXPERIENCE SEVERE AND MULTIPLE HEALTH AND SOCIAL INEQUALITIES BY THE PROVISION OF PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL AND PRACTICAL SUPPORT DURING PREGNANCY, LABOUR, CHILDBIRTH AND THE POST-NATAL PERIOD.'In these objects “pregnant women and new mothers who experience severe and multiple health and social inequalities” shall be defined as pregnant women and new mothers in need by reason of their health, disability, financial hardship or social or economic circumstances.(2) ADVANCE AND EDUCATE THE PUBLIC IN PARTICULAR THE BENEFICIAL CLASS IN MATERNITY CHILDBIRTH AND PARENTING.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED. IN PRACTICE NATONALLY IN ENGLAND AND WALES.

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 · Other Charitable Purposes · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Hackney, London, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2026 accounts

The accounts state that the charity achieved a net surplus of £283,637 for the year ended 31 March 2026, with total income increasing by 48% to £1,226,680. Unrestricted free reserves stood at £800,341, which the trustees note represents 98% of their stated policy target of nine months' running costs. The auditors confirmed that the use of the going concern basis of accounting was appropriate with no material uncertainties identified.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Godfrey Wilson Limited. Discloses 4 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
• Campaigns and political activity 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

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.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 06269047 · Financial health read from its filings

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

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Kirsty Kitchen — Director of the Birth Companions Institute (source)
• Kate Chivers — Director of Engagement (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.

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

• GEOGHEGAN, Chloe — director, appointed 25/03/2026on trustee list
• FOWLES, Lydia — director, appointed 13/03/2024on trustee list
• MEYER, Klare Emma — director, appointed 15/06/2022on trustee list
• MONCRIEFFE, Tuesdae — director, appointed 10/03/2021on trustee list
• JULIFF, Julie — director, appointed 10/06/2020on trustee list
• KERR-DAVIS, Jennifer — director, appointed 27/02/2019on trustee list
• MATTHEWS, Sally Anne — director, appointed 21/02/2018on trustee list
• STEPHENS, Anne Justine Margaret — director, appointed 19/03/2014on trustee list
• PARKINSON, Diana — director, appointed 05/06/2007on trustee list
• DELAP, Naomi Frances — secretary, appointed 06/05/2014

Official officers record.

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

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

Reported reserves equal ~12.4 months of spending — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (76% 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: 1.5% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (18/10/2019) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Sally Anne Matthewschair
• Chloe Geoghegan
• Diana Jane Parkinson
• Jennifer Kerr-Davis
• Julie Juliff
• Klare Emma Meyer
• Lydia Fowles

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

Operates in: Throughout England

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 THE BIRTH PARTNER PROJECT.

• THE BIRTH PARTNER PROJECT income £141k
• BIRTH TRAUMA ASSOCIATION income £85k
• BECOMING FAMILIES income £77k
• ACTION ON POSTPARTUM PSYCHOSIS income £768k
• PREGNANCY EXPECTATIONS TRAUMA AND LOSS SOCIETY income £919k
• PREGNANCY CENTRES NETWORK income £101k

Side by side with its peers

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