2023-03-31-accounts - Stand Against Racism & Inequality

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STAND AGAINST RACISM & INEQUALITY

(A company limited by guarantee)

Trustees report and financial statements for the year ended 31[st] March 2023

Charity number: 1047699

Company number: 3060925

Report of the Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees presents its report and examined financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2022.

SARI became a company limited by guarantee on 24[th] May 1995 and a registered charity on 3[rd] July 1996.

Reference and Administrative Information

Charity Name: Stand Against Racism & Inequality Registered Office and Operational address: 15 Portland Square St Paul’s Bristol BS2 8SJ Charity registration number: 1047699 Company registration number: 3060925

Board of Trustees

Irvin Campbell – Chair Christina Fernandes – Treasurer Esther Deans MBE Buba Touray Hasina Khan Martin Walker – Chair from 1/4/23 as decided at board meeting on 6/1/23 Vicki Morris

Company Secretary

Agnes Yeomans

Senior Leadership Team

Alex Raikes MBE DL – Director (Strategic) Agnes Yeomans – Director (Finance & HR)

Bankers

The National Westminster Bank, Fishponds Branch, Bristol BS16 3TX

Business and Employment Consultants

Peninsula Business Services Limited, Riverside, New Bailey Street Manchester M3 5PB

Independent Examiner

Dick Maule FCA, The Cross House, South Woodchester, GL5 5EL

Status

SARI is a registered Charity and a Company Ltd by guarantee which is governed by its Articles of Association and the Companies Act 2006.

The objects of the charity

The charity’s objects are specifically restricted to the following:

(1) to work towards the elimination of racism and inequalities for people with protected characteristics as defined in law
(2) to promote equality of opportunity for those with protected characteristics and to foster good relations between those with protected characteristics and the general population
(3) to advance the education of the public in the causes and effects of racism and inequalities between those with protected characteristics, and,
(4) to promote for the public benefit the relief and treatment of any physical, mental or emotional distress suffered by any person as a result of that person or a member of her or his family having suffered inequalities on the grounds of one or more protected characteristic.

How our activities deliver public benefit

Our charitable activities focus on support for victims of racism and other types of hate crime or incidents (e.g., biphobic, disabilist, faith-based, homophobic, misogynistic, and transphobic) and therefore help people overcome very traumatic events.

We also work with local agencies and communities to prevent hate incidents, to promote equality of opportunity and community cohesion and to minimise the impact of racist and other hate attacks.

In addition, we deliver training and education programmes designed to challenge negative perceptions about equalities communities and to promote equality, diversity and cultural awareness for adults and children and young people. Our training reaches key service providers such as the police, housing, schools, and social care providers. These agencies can make a real difference to people’s lives if they understand equality and diversity.

Governance

SARI is a service user led/ community-oriented agency that provides support and advice to victims of hate and promotes equality and good relations between people with protected characteristics as defined by law.

It is overseen by a Board of Trustees most of whom are from the communities we serve and have direct or personal experience of hate crime.

Board of Trustees

Method of Appointment of Trustees

As set out in the Articles of Association the Board of Trustees (who are Directors for the purpose of company law) consists of no less than 3 members.

At the EGM held on 9 December 2022, Members agreed the following amendments:

Appointment of trustees and terms of office

(1) Trustees may be appointed by ordinary resolution of the members or by decision of the trustees.

(2) So far as possible, at all times at least 60% of the board should be individuals who either (a) have lived experience of racism or inequality in relation to protected characteristics as defined in law or (b) have used the services of the Charity in relation to such matters and whose cases are now closed. The board shall take this into account in seeking and considering potential candidates as trustees and exercising their powers under these articles to make appointments. The members shall do so when exercising their powers to propose and appoint trustees.

The board has power to refuse any candidacy, including any proposal of a candidate by a member, if that individual’s appointment as a trustee would prevent the Charity meeting this requirement. Where composition of the board changes so the required percentage is not met, the board shall use its best endeavours to make additional trustee appointments to achieve that percentage as soon as practicable.

(3) All candidates for trusteeship must commit to supporting the charity’s Objects and provide such information as the trustees decide to verify their identity, probity and eligibility to be a charity trustee of the charity. If any candidate refuses to commit to supporting the Objects or refuses to provide such verification, or if the trustees obtain evidence that they are ineligible under the articles or for any legal reason to become a charity trustee, their candidacy cannot proceed and they may not be appointed.

(4) Records must be kept of all trustee appointments and cessations of office in the charity’s Register of Trustees and of their residential addresses in the Register of Directors’ Residential Addresses, as required by the Companies Acts.

(5) Records of all trustee appointments must be kept with the record of the relevant members’ or trustees’ decisions, if taken at a meeting the records must be included in the meeting minutes.

(6) Notification of all trustee appointments and cessations of office must be given to Companies House and the Charity Commission.

No person may be appointed a trustee by ordinary resolution of the members unless:
(1) he or she is recommended for appointment by the trustees; or

(2) not less than thirty-five clear days before the date of the meeting, the charity is given a written notice that:

(a) is signed by a member entitled to vote at the meeting;
(b) states the member's intention to propose the appointment of a person as a trustee; and
(c) is signed by the person who is to be proposed to show their willingness to be appointed.
(1) The term of office of a trustee is three years from the date of appointment, whether the trustee was appointed by the members or the trustees.

(2) Re-appointment to not more than two further consecutive terms is permitted (a maximum service period of nine years).

(3) At the end of three consecutive terms of office a trustee ceases to hold office. That individual may never be re-appointed to the board.
(4) Trustees in office at the date of adoption of this article who have already served nine years on the board will remain trustees only until 31 March 2023 and will then automatically cease to hold office. For clarity, the provisions of (3) above apply to them and they may never be re-appointed to the board.

The appointment of a trustee, whether by the charity in a general meeting or by the other trustees, must not cause the number of trustees to exceed any number fixed as the maximum number of trustees.

Trustee Induction and Training

All Trustees are given a copy of CC3 ‘The Essential Trustee’ guide from the Charity Commission and SARI’s Articles of Association. From time to time, they have training to update them on the roles, responsibilities and legal requirements of being a trustee. Most Trustees are already familiar with the purpose of the charity having been users of the service. Additionally, new Trustees are invited and encouraged to attend SARI away days, and training sessions which are held for the staff team that are relevant to the Trustees’ developmental needs. We review local training provided to support Trustees and invite our Trustees to attend.

Structure and decision making

SARI is managed by an elected Board of Trustees. The post of Company Secretary, which is appointed by the Board, is held by the Director (Finance & HR). The Board makes decisions about policy ratification; agrees the business plan and strategic direction of the organisation; agrees the budget and monitors income and expenditure.

They also review SARI’s delivery against its aims and objectives and funding targets, ensuring we are on track and support the organisation with recruitment, promotion and retention of staff. In addition, Board members take part in sub-groups relating to policy and procedural development as and when required.

Risk Management

The Board of Trustees has conducted a review of the Risk Register and the systems which have been established to mitigate them. We have also developed a Business Continuity Plan which outlines what we must do in the event of an emergency. Internal risks are minimised by the implementation of procedures for authorisation of all transactions and projects. We work in accordance with our contractual obligations to all funders. Working to these requirements ensures consistent quality of delivery for all operational aspects of the charitable company. SARI’s policies and procedures are periodically reviewed to ensure that they still meet the needs of the charity.

Trustees' responsibilities

The Trustees (who are directors of Stand Against Racism & Inequality for the purposes of company law) are accountable for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure of the charitable company for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:

select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP 2015 (FRS 102);
make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;

prepare the financial statements on an ongoing concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in operation.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Insofar as the Trustees are aware:

there is no relevant information of which the charitable company’s independent examiner is unaware; and
the Trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant information and to establish that the independent examiner is aware of that information.

Organisational Management and Delivery Employees

Number of Staff

SARI employed a total of 29 staff (FTE) during 2022– 2023.

Senior Leadership Team

This comprises the Co-Directors (Strategic and Finance & HR) who are accountable to the Board for the day-to-day leadership and efficient management of the organisation.

Delivery

SARI’s delivery has two components:

Operational (external delivery)

This is overseen by the Director (Strategic). Below the Director, we have an Assistant Director and 2 Team Leaders who oversee a team of Project Workers – one oversees Bristol and South Gloucestershire and the other Bath & North East Somerset (B&NES), North Somerset, and Somerset. Each Team Leader also has other areas of focus e.g., one looks after LGBTQ+ related issues; Refugees and Asylum-Seekers and the other looks after Training and Education and Health and Safety. The Director (Strategic); Assistant Director and Team Leaders each have specific delivery contracts that they are responsible for that vary in complexity. There are 2 Outreach Development Workers who are line managed by the Assistant Director and who are funded by National Lottery Community Fund to do preventative and educational work for the B&NES, North Somerset and Somerset areas. Together, this team is responsible for delivering SARI’s hate crime services and preventative services to communities. It delivers casework; advocacy; education related work; offender reduction activities, training, empowerment, information sessions and strategic work. The team contributes to conflict resolution and cohesion related and other equality and diversity consultancy interventions. This is the largest business area of SARI as it is responsible for our key services to communities.

Business Support (internal delivery)

This sphere of SARI is overseen by both Directors. It includes all the back office needs of the organisation including Finance, HR, resources, building, facilities, maintenance, ICT, reception and administration

(overseen by the Director of Finance & HR) and fundraising, monitoring, evaluation, data management, the case management system, quality control, communications and training administration (overseen by the Director Strategic). Other than the Directors, this team comprises a Finance & HR Officer, a Business Development Coordinator, 1 Business Support Officer, 1 Communications & Fundraising Officer and Reception/ Administration staff. Day to day decision making and supervision is conducted by the Directors and the Business Development Coordinator depending on the level of the issue.

Progress Report

Major Achievements

From April to December a big effort was made in amending our Articles with the twin objectives of responding to current best practice and incorporating particular changes our Board had agreed would be beneficial. The amendments can be found above from page 3 onwards. We were fully guided and supported by Cecille Gillard, Legal Manager of Burton Sweet’s Charities and Civil Society Department in this work. The culmination was an Extraordinary General Meetings at which the draft Articles were approved. Following this, new Trustees were recruited which, after departures in line with the length of service rules in the new Articles, resulted in a Board of 10 trustees who bring a range of skills and understanding – all relevant to the nature of SARI’s business – we now have diversity of faith, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, and several members with ‘lived experience’ of disability. Most have ‘lived experience’ of hate and inequality which makes them great contributors to the governance of SARI.

We did our first in person AGM since Covid – back at our usual venue of the Unitarian Meeting Hall in Brunswick Square, Bristol – albeit at a smaller scale than usual as we ran it after our EGM as outlined above. It was great to hear from some of the clients who we supported over the last year – in person – and watch the impact they had on our visitors.

We started our application for Trusted Charity Level 2 external accreditation and by the end of this year were well on the way to completion. We plan to submit the final application by Autumn 2023.

One of the items in the Away Action Plan, drawn up following our Staff Away Day in February 2022, was for more flexible working. Two key inputs in the development of a scheme were a staff survey with the objective of ascertaining what were seen as important components and a half day workshop at which a draft policy and scheme were discussed. The Management Team then explored how the organisation could balance the wishes of the staff team with the needs of the organisation to achieve a viable flexitime scheme. This included researching flexitime policies—and their implementation—at comparable local organisations; bringing in new technologies to facilitate flexitime (including a remote clocking in and out system to enable staff members to track their hours); and adapting existing technologies to reflect changes to working patterns, like Outlook diaries, and Microsoft ‘Shifts’ rota systems. Work was also undertaken to ensure existing safety systems were maintained, i.e., lone working policies and procedures; first aid and fire safety policies could still be adhered to even with reduced staff available in the office. The flexitime scheme has been approved by the Board of Trustees and will come into effect on 1[st] April 2023.

We continued to work with specialist consultants, Springboard, to build our bespoke Case Management System so we can move to completely electronic file management for our service users. This should be ready to ‘Go Live’ by quarter 3 or 4 of 2023-2024. It was delayed by the impact of Covid but we are glad to be moving forward again now Springboard (a small business) are back to full capacity.

In late 2022 The Board accepted a report from the Director (HR and Finance) recommending a 6% uplift in salaries, backdated to April, as a response to cost-of-living pressures.

The three contracts we were negotiating at the end of 2021-22 – with Wesport, Talking Money and Changing Futures – were all successfully agreed and during this year we set about delivering the new work required for each. Wesport is our regional sports infrastructure agency – see more about them here: https://www.wesport.org.uk/ and working with them means we are delivering a contract for the first time that is about tackling hate and promoting equality, diversity and Inclusion in sport in our region. This is much needed as can be seen by the many stories covered in the press recently about racism, disablism, homophobia and transphobia in all arenas of sports and the immense damage such abuses have on individuals and the wider community.

Talking Money - https://www.talkingmoney.org.uk/ is the first money/ debt advice charity we have worked with. They want our support to skill up their staff at all levels and their board so they can better meet the needs of the diverse communities they serve and increase their reach to more diverse communities. They also want to be more representative of the communities they are part of. We are pleased that one of our staff joined their Board to help with this as part of their own professional development and we are also advising them on recruitment.

Changing Futures is a government funded programme, dedicated to improving local services for adults and young people who face multiple disadvantage. They work as a city-wide multi-agency partnership bringing together organisations from the health, social care, voluntary and community, criminal justice, local government, employment and housing sectors who together, are testing new ways of working in partnership and recording and sharing the learning generated.

https://www.changingfuturesbristol.co.uk/#:~:text=Our%20aim%20is%20to%20create,supporting%20p eople%20facing%20multiple%20disadvantage – SARI is pleased to have been chosen to be their ED&I external consultant partner – providing specialist input at Board level and to various other activities where we can enhance their skills and understanding of ED&I and hate related issues.

During this year, we were also very pleased that South Gloucestershire Council accepted our application for funding which would enable us to achieve Full Cost Recovery (FCR). In fact, the amount awarded enabled us not only to achieve FCR for our casework service but also to step up our hate crime awareness activities. In effect the additional funding has meant we can offer a full-time service to that authority area – which was much needed and meant we no longer had to use our reserves to top up the needs for that area.

In June we received the external evaluator’s report on the SARI led delivery of the Inclusive Policing With Confidence programme for Avon and Somerset Constabulary. The evaluator’s conclusion (page 43 in the report) was positive, stating that the partners had “delivered an impactful programme that, if the required support structures and continued opportunities are offered to attendees, has offered to Operational Officers and Staff learning environments that have enabled attendee’s engagement in learning and increased knowledge, understanding, confidence empathy to policing diverse communities with confidence.” This programme was innovative and unique. It brought ‘lived experience’ together with specialist training and education provision to provide a holistic learning offer to a range of frontline policing roles. Avon & Somerset Constabulary have been commended for commissioning such a pioneering venture and they are now working with us to look at the next iteration of this model – one

that is more sustainable and long term as the part 1 was delivered to 3000+ staff and would not be tenable given all the competing training requirements for policing staff.

We were pleased that Bath and North East Somerset Council offered us a 1-year rollover into 2023-2024 of the Cultural Diversity and Equalities Support Service for which we had won a 3-year contract, via a commissioning, for April 2020 -March 2023.

Other successes this year include:

Continuing to achieve great outcomes against the objectives and targets agreed for our 2 largest funders - National Lottery Community Funding contract (2021 – 2026) and our Bristol City Council, Bristol Impact Funded collaborative hate crime services. SARI leads this with 5 specialist partners – Brandon Trust, Bristol Law Centre, Bristol Mind, Off The Record Bristol Freedom Project and Resolve West. This service is called Bristol Hate Crime and Discrimination Services (BHCDS) - https://www.bhcds.org.uk/. This enables SARI to deliver Hate Crime Services to our highest demand area – Bristol. Services include a free, confidential referrals, signposting and casework service, empowerment sessions and a network to share information with local partner agencies.
A whole raft of positive interventions for Avon Fire and Rescue Service as part of our 3-year Race Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Cultural Competency Service Level Agreement.
Continued and further embedded partnership working and renewed contracts with AWP (Bristol Mental Health), Bristol City Council’s Gypsy Rroma Traveller Service, Bristol Drugs Project, Milestones Trust, 4 Housing Associations (Alliance Homes, Brighter Places, Bromford and LiveWest), Riverside’s Jamaica Street Homeless Hostel and South Gloucestershire Children’s Services consultancy services on race equality and Hate Crime.
A couple more new contracts were negotiated with Clifton College (one of the most prestigious independent schools) and North Somerset Council’s Education department to set up a comparable service to the ones we run in B&NES and South Gloucestershire;
We completed our Dr Martens Foundation 1-year funded project to support our service mainly in Bristol with some great outcomes for some of our most complex cases that wouldn’t have been funded without their contribution.
We continued to improve and build up on our redesigned website and donations platform making it more attractive and accessible. In the coming financial year, we plan on moving to a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM), Beacon, which will enable us to more effectively steward our donors—keeping them up to date on our activities and the difference that their donation has made.
We notched up our communications via stronger branding for our social media posts and the introduction of new blogs focusing on different calendar events and written by staff who wanted to share some of their special interests and understanding of different equalities issues.
We have continued to produce our quarterly Operational Plan review for our Board to ensure we are fulfilling our 2021-2026 Business Plan and these reports clearly demonstrate continuous progress for all our priority objectives despite the challenges of the current climate.

Casework

We responded to 850 referrals from which we opened 387 new cases in 2022–2023 and supported a total of 967 people compared with 850 referrals, 385 cases and 999 people supported in 2021-2022 – so very similar numbers to last year. Of the 2022–2023 referrals 498 were from Bristol; 80 from South Gloucestershire, 46 from B&NES, 42 from North Somerset, 125 from Somerset and 59 were from outside of the SARI catchment area (and we always provide the best signposting we can to all who come

to us). We responded to 392 incidents during the year. Read case studies and more by reading our - Impact Reports here: https://saricharity.org.uk/resources/annual reports/

The majority of referrals came directly from the community (51% compared to 43% last year) followed by the police or Lighthouse Safeguarding Unit – the police witness support unit (31% compared to 36% last year) then housing providers (10% compared to 14% last year) and a wealth of other agencies too such as Education related agencies, Social Services, Victim Support and VCS groups.

This year, the highest percentage of hate crime referrals to us were Race Hate (71%) followed by Disability Hate (16.6% of which 1.7% were Mate Crime); Sexual Orientation-related Hate (6%); Religious Hate (2.5%); Sex (2%); Transphobic (1.6%); Age-based (0.2%) and Maternity (0.1%). Compared to last year we saw a reduction in Race Hate and Sexual Orientation related Hate and a rise in Disability, Religious, Sex, Age and Maternity related cases.

With regards to ethnicity; African, Caribbean, Dual Heritage Caribbean and White British and Dual Heritage, Any Other Mixed Background and Eastern European communities were the most targeted (this is the same as last year except for Dual Heritage Any Other Mixed Background. But Indian, Bangladeshi, and Middle Eastern clients are increasing. For the second year running, Christian was our highest proportion of clients by faith – 326 victims (34% of our client) but Muslims were still the most targeted faith group with 258 (27%) individuals attacked as this is so disproportionately high compared to their percentage of our local population.

The most common forms of disability reported by our clients were mental and emotional distress (115 instances) and long-term illness (85 instances) but the number of people who are neuro-diverse is on the rise from 17 instances last year to 32 this year; as well as Physical Impairment (37 to 48 instances) and Learning Difficulty (18 to 23 instances).

Most incidents took place around people’s homes (247 down from 378 last year) followed by in/ around school or college (43 up from 35 last year) and then out on a local street or in the workplace (both 18 cases). We also had 13 cases that happened in a park compared to just 3 last year. The most common type of incidents were verbal abuse, threats and intimidation followed by lower-level assaults but car vandalism was high with 22 such incidents and there were 27 incidents of attacks on children.

We had 11 serious assaults which constituted GBH – up from 6 last year and also had 3 cases of arson.

This year saw the same number of referrals as last year, but we opened 2 more cases – so very similar casework demand. We saw a huge rise of referrals from outside of our catchment area – from 20 last year to 59 this year. SARI is getting more noticed as a charity since the impact of George Floyd and the rise in prominence of the Black Lives Matter Movement but also there are very few services that specialise in dealing with hate crime in the UK. We have also worked hard to improve our website, social media and online presence which does mean that more people are likely to come across us when they are looking for support whilst they have very few other services to call upon. We do always signpost people to services near them when we can.

Education:

Education is key to preventing and reducing the extent and severity of hate crime. It is for this reason that a major priority in SARI’s strategy is to make a difference by reaching out to schools, colleges, and young people.

SARI provides a range of interventions for schools which includes one-to-one sessions for individual victim or perpetrator pupils, classroom sessions, workshops for pupils, specialist assemblies and staff and governor training that aim to challenge prejudices and improve anti-racist and anti-oppressive practice. We continued to support the needs of schools and pupils in all four local authority areas throughout the year although we are only funded via contracts by B&NES and South Gloucestershire Council. We are really pleased that South Gloucestershire came on board and funded SARI this year – mirroring the best practice provision by B&NES. We are now in discussion with North Somerset Council to fund SARI to deliver similar interventions to those we offer in B&NES and South Gloucestershire.

Of the new cases opened 57 concerned children and young people and related to education issues. 6 were in B&NES, 35 in Bristol, 8 in Somerset and 6 in South Gloucestershire. 24 were in Primary school settings, 30 in Secondary Schools, 2 in a Special Needs School and 1 in a FE college. You can read more - about our education work in our Annual Reports here: https://saricharity.org.uk/resources/annual reports/

Working with offenders

We continue to get referrals to work with children and young people who have perpetrated racist or other hate motivated abuse to change their behaviour and increase their understanding and respect for different cultures. We also work with young people from Black and Minority Ethnic or other equalities communities who have offended and who have identity or self-esteem issues that we can support them with via mentoring. As well as getting such referrals directly from schools, we have a few contracts that focus on offender reduction for young people. We work with South Gloucestershire Youth Offending Team (YOT) who refer young people to our service and who contracted SARI again this year to do oneto-ones and specialist training and consultancy for YOT staff. We are also commissioned by B&NES Children’s Services and Education and South Gloucestershire Education Department to do one to one work with young perpetrators where needed. Our Bristol Hate Crime & Discrimination Services collaboration offers offender reduction sessions with adults and children and young people who have perpetrated lower level hate crimes or incidents. Some of our contracts with homelessness and social care/ supported living services also include getting our support with perpetrators of hate crime who have additional vulnerabilities or needs.

Restorative Justice

Our Bristol City Council funded Hate Crime and Discrimination Services includes Resolve West (formerly known as Bristol Mediation) as a delivery partner. They offer expertise in delivering restorative and mediation case work. Resolve West are also funded by the Office of the Police Crime and Commissioner (OPCC) to deliver Restorative Justice across Avon & Somerset. SARI staff are regularly trained and upskilled by Resolve West staff so they can sign post and encourage our clients to take part in restorative justice or mediation when this will help them achieve the right outcome. We refer as many cases as we can for restorative justice and mediation to this service and welcome Resolve West’s specialist caseworkers to our casework team meetings on a regular basis so we can ensure we are as restorative as possible in our practice. SARI caseworkers will also attend restorative justice and mediation sessions providing specialist hate crime casework expertise and understanding to the interventions and supporting our clients to give them the confidence to take part in what can be a very daunting and difficult process if they must meet with their abusers. We are exploring a new innovative approach with Resolve West whereby SARI staff (who have lots of ‘lived experience’) are trained to be ‘proxy’ victims. This means we would act as a ‘victim’ so the perpetrator can better explore the impact of their negative and prejudicial behaviours.

Training

Our training service has continued to flourish, and we have seen increasing demand from agencies who have previously come to us as well as lots of new interest. In total we delivered 172 training sessions this year. Many were still online but more and more of our training customers have resumed face to face training recognising that this has the greatest impact. New training contracts this year included Wesport (our local Sport infrastructure and development organisation), Talking Money and Clifton College.

Our Cultural Awareness tours have continued as ‘live’ tours online. The virtual tours continue to work very well though many agencies are starting to ask if we can bring back the face-to-face tours as they include physical visits to places of Worship and lovely food! We will be exploring face-to-face in the coming year but as costs for hiring coaches and catering have rocketed it will depend on whether our customers are willing to foot such a hike in our prices. This year, we delivered 9 tours and 102 delegates completed our online evaluation form for this course.

We continue to provide training to Avon & Somerset Constabulary for new police students (4 sessions) and graduates (5 sessions) on the topic of hate crime and meeting the needs of diverse communities as well as our lecture on learning from the racially motivated murder of Bijan Ebrahimi (7 sessions).

Important events during the year affecting the work of the charity

2022–2023 has been another year where events in the external environment in which we operate have impacted on the work that comes our way.

Although we are now post the Covid 19 pandemic – the way we work has changed for the long term with flexible and hybrid working becoming standard practice. However, like many other agencies, we have been working hard to make sure staff, volunteers and trustees do come together and get the benefits of being in person such as team building, troubleshooting and emotional support. We have also been making sure that our new ways of working do not disadvantage our clients and are back to offering face to face support including home visits and inter-agency meetings as again this often leads to more positive outcomes.

The impact of the murder of George Floyd and the increased impetus on tackling racism that came from the Black Lives Matter campaign still reverberate through the organisation and in the demands on our service, but we can see that public interest and commitment to our cause has waned again. We are working hard to encourage partner agencies and the communities we serve to recognize that tackling hate crime should always be a top priority and not a tick box or publicity stunt on the back of atrocities and media campaigns. For us the levels of hate and the harm it causes do not subside. Though those at the brunt of xenophobia and hateful abuse will change to some extent due to political, social, and economic factors.

The war in Ukraine continues as do so many other geopolitical challenges that force people to flee for safety or the chance of a better life. We continue to see a steady influx of refugees that all too often gets toxic press and rhetoric. This plays out for us with an increase in hate towards Kurdish, Middle Eastern and African asylum-seekers, refugees, and, indeed, long-standing British citizens due to the back lash to political and media discourse. It is shocking to hear and read the lack of empathy to those arriving on our shores via such dangerous routes and to those who don’t make it and whose bodies wash up instead.

We continue to respond to an increasing number of people being victimised due to their gender identity. The gender identity ‘culture war’ creates an easy target and allows transphobia an open space to flourish. Unfortunately, as a result, we’ve seen attacks on trans people in social media as well as physical and verbal attacks in every-day life on the rise. We’re doing all we can to ease fears in the trans community around reporting incidents, making sure that people feel confident in accessing help when they need it. This year we published our Guidance for Best Practice Working with Trans and Non-Binary People produced with and for trans and non-binary people and medical, health and social care practitioners who want to improve their services to these communities – you can download it here: https://saricharity.org.uk/resources/downloads-guides-toolkits/. It has been welcomed by many local agencies and is gradually being disseminated across the South West region.

As ever, there was a very large number of news items illustrating the climate in which SARI operates. Here are a few examples:

April 2022 – The Anti-Semitism Worldwide Report was published by Tel Aviv University’s Centre for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry. It stated “there was a significant increase in various types of anti-Semitic incidents in most countries with a large Jewish population. In the UK the number of physical attacks against Jewish people increased in 2021 by 78% compared with 2020.

May 2022 – Jennifer, a trans woman, told RBC Radio Ulster listeners that after 6 years of attacks she was thinking of trying to relocate. Windows had been broken, objects had been thrown at her house and there had been threats to kill her dog.

June 2022 – A Crown Office, Scotland report stated that hate crimes against transgender people in 202122 showed an 87% increase compared with the previous year, cases rising to 84 from 45.

July 2022 – Staffordshire Constabulary appointed a football hate crime officer to monitor crimes at grounds around the county and online. A 2021 survey found that 44% of Premier League Players received abuse online.

August 2022 – In St Louis, Missouri a man pleaded guilty to making phone calls threatening to blow up a particular synagogue. He suggested that he might do this when there was a congregation. In another call he said he just felt like killing Jews.

September 2022 – In an open letter to police chiefs in England and Wales Home Secretary Suella Braverman directed them to focus on “common-sense” policing over diversity and inclusion initiatives and “symbolic gestures”.

October 2022 – The Leonard Cheshire and United Response Charity submitted Freedom of Information requests regarding disability hate crime to the 43 police forces in England and Wales and received responses from 36 of them. Of more than 11,000 reports received just 15 resulted in charges. The National Police Chiefs’ Council said it wanted to understand the reasons for the low number.

October 2022 – Sumaya Bihi, a Leicestershire police hate officer, received a torrent of abuse after introducing herself on Twitter. The abuse included racist, Islamophobic and misogynistic language plus comments about her appearance. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-63232931 October 2022 – the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) Hate crime figures recorded by police in England and Wales showed that reports had tripled in the last decade.

November 2022 – Avon and Somerset Police accepted that the leaving of a pig’s head outside a Bristol block of flats in which a fire was thought to have been deliberately started several weeks earlier was an Islamophobic hate crime.

December 2022 – The Police Service Northern Ireland reported that disability hate crime was at its highest level in that country since recording began in 2005.

January 2023 – A report by The Community Security Trust was published. It showed that antisemitism complaints at London universities in academic year 2021-22 had doubled compared with the previous 2- year period.

January 2023 – The French Prime Minister launched a new action plan to fight racism and antiSemitism.

February 2023 – 16-year-old Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old transgender person was murdered in a Cheshire Park by two 15-year-olds perpetrators.

February 2023 – Payton Gendron was a white supremacist teenager who embarked on a gun attack in a Buffalo, New York State supermarket in May 2022. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 10 Black people.

March 2023 – Baroness Casey published the Final Report following her review of the standards of behaviour and internal culture of the Metropolitan Police. The report states “We have found institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia.” It is ironic that this come twenty-four years after the Macpherson Report concluded that racism had been a key factor in the way in which the Metropolitan Police had conducted its investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

Volunteers, donations-in-kind, other intangible income nor evaluated or explained in the accounts

During this financial year we hosted 1 volunteer, in addition to members of our Board of Trustees who are all voluntary. SARI considers volunteering to be a two-way process. We hope to be able to offer constructive work experience for volunteers and to gain support for areas where we are often underresourced. It is in our business plan to recruit more volunteers now that we are through the Pandemic as we do need more capacity, and this is one way can achieve it in a climate where fundraising is a neverending challenge.

SARI has received no other intangible income not evaluated or explained in the accounts.

Policies and Procedures

Policies and Procedures reviewed since the last report:

Flexitime policy
Sickness policy
Governance policies
Child Protection Policy
Child Protection Incident Reporting Form
Education Work Code of Conduct (Safeguarding)
Child Protection Designated Persons
Safeguarding and Protection of Adults at Risk

Financial Review

Our donations income remains strong, and we would like to express our thanks to everyone who supports our work. Your contribution allows SARI to make more autonomous financial decisions. One example of this autonomy meant that we were able to recruit a specialist LGBTQ+ Project Worker and a dedicated Training and Education Practitioner, both of whom address areas that required extra capacity in SARI. Given the prevalence of attacks on the LGBTQ+ community and increased demand for SARI’s training services, these two roles are integral to SARI’s strategy.

We thank all our funders (all of whom are listed in the Annual Report) for their continued support.

We are now past the halfway point of our major funding cycle and will look to discover more opportunities that will allow SARI to support victims of Hate Crime while being a force to foster cohesion in our communities.

Reserves Policy

The Trustees have established a policy whereby the unrestricted funds not committed to or invested in tangible fixed assets (‘the free reserves’) held by the Charity should be used to build the resilience and sustainability of SARI.

We want to make the best use of our Reserves ensuring that we are maximising our ability to achieve our charitable aims and objectives and investing in futureproofing the infrastructure required to deliver the work that we do for local communities.

The Trustees will closely monitor the application of our Reserves Policy during the financial year.

Trustees are well aware of the ever-increasing demand being made on Funders and the advent of large public spending cuts still to be made and that redundancy cannot be completely ruled out. Nevertheless, we are planning ahead to be able to continue to deliver the key services that we are providing.

Investment Powers

Under the Articles of Association, the Charity has the power to make any investment which Trustees see fit.

Plans for the Future

Our plans for 2021-26 are described in detail in our Business Plan 2021-26 and monitored for progress via our Operations Plan which is renewed yearly, and which is reported on quarterly to the Board. Below are a few of our plans for the coming year:

Assess the skills of our newly formed Board of Trustees and fulfil any skills shortages via training or additional members.
Fulfilling our Fundraising and donations strategies which will build on and increase our donor base and make sure we retain the support of current donors by demonstrating the importance and benefits of their investment in our charitable cause.
Succession planning for our co-Directors who have both been in SARI for 32+ years to ensure sustainability for the future of SARI.
Finalising and going live with our Case Management System for SARI and the partner agencies who work with us to deliver hate crime casework services.
Achieving Trusted Charity Level 2 now that we have met and exceeded Level 1.
Continuing to improve employee satisfaction and wellbeing by responding to staff consultation from our regular survey and recent Away Days. This will include looking at how we can be more flexible whilst retaining the best outcomes for our service users and becoming more trauma

informed to tackle the impact of vicarious trauma often triggered by our staff having their own ‘lived experience’ of hate and inequality.

Offer a Discrimination Casework service that complements Bristol Law Centre and plugs the gaps SARI is struggling to deal with.
Fundraise for strategic and community engagement work in Bristol and South Gloucestershire to mirror our National Lottery funded service in our other areas.

Independent Examiner

Dick Maule FCA was re-appointed as the company’s Independent Examiner at the AGM held on 9 December 2022.

This report has been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice on Accounting and Reporting by Charities and taking advantage of the small companies of section 415A of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small entities.

Approved by The Board of Trustees on 18 September 2023 and signed on its behalf by:

Martin Walker Chair