Annual Report
2023 - 2024
We are proud to present our latest annual report, highlighting the work of the organisation, alongside our annual finances, from the period of April 2023 and March 2024.
Chair of the Board's Report
This year, building on our previous recovery plan, we have continued to stabilise and grow under the leadership of our joint CEOs, Caroline and Ian, with the dedicated support of our board members. Their combined efforts have ensured that the organisation remains committed to its values of continuous improvement and public benefit. We were pleased to welcome back former staff and volunteers, whose return has enriched our team.
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Despite the challenging environment, we are proud to support a thriving voluntary sector community in SW Surrey. Our annual conference allowed us to reconnect with both old and new partners, deepening our commitment to equity and better community representation. We remain focused on building inclusive cultures that truly reflect the diverse community we serve. However, as core costs rise, income streams for our services and those of our member charities are increasingly at risk.
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The cost-of-living crisis is impacting everyone, including our statutory partners, narrowing the gap between income and spending. We are grateful for the continued collaboration with these partners to prevent deepening inequalities and to protect the most vulnerable. Yet, we face the challenge of using limited reserves to meet rising demands, both in complexity and volume. The board has engaged in frank discussions on diversifying our income streams to enhance sustainability.
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The charity sector in SW Surrey continues to play a crucial role in supporting those most affected by the cost-of-living crisis, while also addressing the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and backlogs in statutory services. This has led to a surge in demand for charitable services, with more people requiring more intensive and prolonged support. In response, the board has prioritised risk management and safety, which will be central to our new business strategy.
- Debbie Hustings, Chair of the Board of Trustees

ARCHIVES
Take a look back at some of our highlights from across the years in our Annual Reports from previous years.
At Voluntary Action South West Surrey, we recognise that correct data handling is key to building trust with our clients and partners. We take our data protection responsibilities seriously and recognise that providing privacy information is one of the key requirements of the UK GDPR. Our privacy notice lets individuals know what is happening with their data. We hope it gives reassurance that we’ve thought about how it will be kept safe, whether it is shared with anyone else and what happens with it when it is no longer needed.
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Data protection is everyone’s responsibility, so every organisation – however small – needs a privacy notice when processing people’s data. A privacy notice is sometimes known as ‘fair processing information’, ‘privacy information’, or a ‘privacy policy’. All of these terms refer to information about why we require personal data, what we plan to do with it, how long we’re going to keep it, and if we’ll share it with anyone else.