BREAK
Registered charity 286650 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register
Break supports children, young people and families in four key areas - young people in care and moving on, children and young people with disabilities, families in need of support and children at risk.
Causes: Other Charitable Purposes · website · Get email alerts
Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts
The accounts state that the charity generated a surplus of £65k for the year, with total net assets increasing to £5,186k. However, free reserves of £549k were reported as lower than the Board's policy target of £1,142k, a shortfall attributed to lower-than-projected service occupancy and retail performance. The trustees confirmed that resources are adequate to continue operations for at least twelve months.
Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.
What the accounts disclose
Reserves position: below the charity's own stated reserves policy (held: £549k; policy: £1,142k)
“Free reserves as at 31 March 2025 were £549k (2023/24 £703k). Free reserves were lower than the policy, during the year occupancy in services had been lower than projected and retail performance was lower than budgeted.” — page 12
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: H Walker, spouse of CEO R Cowdry, is employed as Grants and Growth Co-ordinator. Appointment was in open competition and CEO was not involved in decision-making. Paid within normal pay scale.
“H Walker, spouse of R Cowdry, Chief Executive Officer (and a member of key management personnel), is employed by the Charity as a Grants and Growth Co-ordinator. H Walker's appointment was made in open competition and R Cowdry was not involved in the decision-making process regarding appointment.” — page 44
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Accounts audited by Price Bailey LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.
Corporate structure
Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Break (matched by registered charity number).
Leadership, per the charity’s website
- Rachel Cowdry — CEO (source)
- Bev Hall — Chair of Trustees (source)
- Alan Flack — Director of Finance (source)
- Dan Crouch — Director of Income Generation (source)
- Alex Lewczuk — Associate Director of People (source)
- Natasha Freeman — Associate Director of Care (source)
- Fynn Cornish — Associate Director of Care (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.
- FOREMAN, Gabrielle Ellen Jane — director, appointed 28/07/2025on trustee list
- LAWRENCE, Christopher — director, appointed 28/07/2025on trustee list
- HILL, Sara Louise — director, appointed 28/07/2025on trustee list
- DUNKLEY, Paul Adam — director, appointed 28/07/2025on trustee list
- GALLO, Ina Christiane — director, appointed 28/04/2025on trustee list
- READ, Alison Catherine — director, appointed 03/03/2025not on trustee list
- LINDSAY, Graham John — director, appointed 23/05/2024on trustee list
- HEALEY, Samantha Jane — director, appointed 03/04/2024on trustee list
- ALLAN, Juliet Clare — director, appointed 06/03/2023on trustee list
- DOBSON, Neil — director, appointed 04/04/2022on trustee list
- HALL, Beverley — director, appointed 15/07/2019on trustee list
- FLACK, Alan — secretary, appointed 01/11/2022
Official officers record.
CQC provider record: Break Charity — Deregistered, 3 registered locations, last inspected 02/11/2011.charity number confirmed by CQC CQC record
Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram
Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)
Cost of raising funds
£5.1m
Reported reserves equal ~0.4 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).
Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (60% 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: 31.0% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 3.8%) (benchmarks).
Register events
- Received assets from another charity (06/07/2016) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
- Received assets from another charity (23/04/2013) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
- Beverley Hallchair
- Alsion Read
- Christopher Lawrence
- Gabrielle Foreman
- Graham Lindsay
- Ina Gallo
- Juliet Allan
- Neil Dobson
- Paul Dunkley
- Samantha Healey
- Sara Hill
Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).
Operates in: Throughout England And Wales
Income and spending
Common questions
Is BREAK financially healthy?
Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the charity generated a surplus of £65k for the year, with total net assets increasing to £5,186k. However, free reserves of £549k were reported as lower than the Board's policy target of £1,142k, a shortfall attributed to lower-than-projected service occupancy and retail performance. The trustees confirmed that resources are adequate to continue operations for at least twelve months. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Price Bailey LLP.
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 GIVE YOUTH A BREAK.
Side by side with its peers
Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.