DEBRA

• ◆

  5 officer resignations in last 12 months

  Multiple officers have left the board recently — see the People section for who.

Accounting basis

FRS 102

Reporting scope

Standalone (parent only)

Auditor

Sayer Vincent LLP

Audit opinion

Unqualified (clean)

Going concern

Affirmed

“The Trustees reviewed the charity's budget, cash flows and forecasts for 1 January 2025 - 31 December 2026, which detail the plans for delivering to the EB community during a period of high cost inflation and the cost of living crisis. It is recognised that there are underlying uncertainties, however the Trustees consider the charity can continue its business-critical activities and remain a going concern.”

Group structure

1. DEBRA · parent
   1. DEBRA Trading Ltd 1% · England and Wales · sale of promotional items on behalf of DEBRA, a house clearance service and corporate sponsorship
   2. DEBRA Retail Ltd 1% · England and Wales · dormant

Significant events

• “2024 was another successful year for the charity where the needs of our members remained at the centre of our charitable activities.”
• “During the year we supported more members than ever before; 673 individuals received support from our EB Community Support Team, which was an 8% increase on 2023. We also awarded more member support grants; a total of 552 grants were awarded which was a 30% increase on 2023.”
• “More members attended our events and got involved with the charity in 2024; during the year we put on a total of 52 DEBRA events, either in-person or online, which was a 73% increase on 2023.”
• “Our membership comprising people living with EB grew by 7.9% to 2005 members living with EB over the last year, which is really pleasing as we want every one of the estimated 5,000 people living with EB in the UK to benefit from the EB support services we offer.”
• “We took further steps on our journey to securing effective EB drug treatments by awarding £718,000 to EB research projects. This included DEBRA direct funding and £217,000 or external co-funding.”
• “A new partnership was established between DEBRA and the NHS National Disease Registration Service that will involve us working together to analyse and study healthcare data from patients living with all types of EB.”
• “The 'A Life Free of Pain' appeal, continued throughout 2024 through the 'BE the difference for EB' appeal, resulting in an impressive £4m raised.”
• “2024 was however another challenging year for our retail division. Store closures, delays in relocations, increased colleague costs, and external factors like adverse weather in Scotland all negatively impacted trading.”
• “We also saw volunteer numbers grow and, thanks to the key restructuring efforts and other cost saving initiatives that we undertook, we are now on a solid footing for growth in 2025.”
• “Graeme Souness CBE, our Vice President, was awarded the CBE in 2024 for his services to football and for the work he has done to support DEBRA and the EB community.”
• “In 2024 we renewed our existing research partnerships and entered a new partnership with NHS England.”
• “Events successfully held in 2024 included royal lunches, sporting lunches, our annual clay pigeon shoot at EJ Churchill, football dinners in London and Glasgow, the Scottish Grand National at Ayr, DEBRA fest, our Great Chefs Dinner, and Fight Night plus our annual calendar of golf days.”
• “2024 saw a significant increase in the number of people choosing to support DEBRA, driven by PR and media coverage generated from the 2023 English Channel swim challenge.”
• “We were delighted to have been chosen by Peninsula Group as one of their three designated charity partners for the next three years.”
• “In 2024 we invested in people through the introduction of the DEBRA Academy, a tailored development programme aimed at upskilling colleagues in Leadership and Management skills.”
• “In July, the People Puzzles colleague survey gave us invaluable feedback from our teams across the organisation on what it's like to work at DEBRA. The results demonstrated strong improvements to our culture compared to previous surveys taken in 2020 and 2022.”
• “In January, we signed up to become a recognised Disability Committed Employer, where we commit to the core actions of a Disability Confident Employer.”
• “We strengthened the DEBRA Board of Trustees in 2024, bringing in new Trustees with specific skills and knowledge that will benefit the organisation.”
• “Audits of Fundraising Compliance, Governance, Gift Aid and Budgeting & Financial Management took place in 2024 and recommended actions are being implemented by management.”
• “No fundraising complaints were received in 2024.”
• “The deficit for the year was £0.38m, compared with £0.67m in 2023.”
• “Gross income was £18.2m in 2024 (2023: £18.2m).”
• “Non-trading gross income was £5.8m, a 2.6% increase from £5.7m in 2023.”
• “Total retail income achieved through the shops (including Retail Gift Aid, commission and donations received in the shops) remained steady at £12.5m.”

Auditor, going-concern and subsidiary information is drawn from the narrative of the latest annual accounts. About these numbers

Filings

13

last 12 months

Capital events

0

last 24 months

Officers appointed

3

last 12 months

Officers resigned

5

last 12 months

Direct counts from the register. No score, no rating — see the Filing timeline for the underlying events.