Registered Company Number: 02627909 (England & Wales)
BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU
CONTENTS
Page
Legal and administrative details
Trustees’ report (incorporating directors’ report)
Independent Auditor’s report
Statement of Financial Activities
Balance Sheet
Cash Flow Statement
Analysis of Net Debt
Notes to the financial statements
1-2
3-10
11-13
14
15
16
17
18 - 32
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BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU
LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS
COMPANY NUMBER 02627909 (England & Wales)
CHARITY NUMBER 1065835
General Information
The activities of Barnet Citizens Advice Bureau are carried out by an organisation that is both a Registered
Charity (no: 1065835) and a company limited by guarantee (No. 02627909). Both the charity and the company
are formally registered as Barnet Citizens Advice Bureau. Citizens Advice Barnet is also part of the national
Citizens Advice service through its membership of The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux.
The trustees of the charity are also the members of the company limited by guarantee and under the provisions
of the Companies Act 2006 are liable to contribute a sum not exceeding £1 each in the event of the winding
up of the Company; they are collectively referred to as the Trustees throughout this report.
The organisation’s governance rules are set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the
company limited by guarantee which reflects the advice of the Charity Commission and conforms to the
membership requirements of Citizens Advice.
Trustees act collectively as the Board of Citizens Advice Barnet and assume overall responsibility for the
strategic development and financial management of the organisation, in line with Charity Commission
recommended practice.
The governance rules provide for a Board of between 4 and 21 persons, but the current Trustees have
determined that a number between 10 and 13 provides an optimal size for its work while allowing for orderly
succession planning. Trustees serve in a voluntary and unremunerated capacity and are appointed for terms
of three years, if willing they can be re-elected for subsequent terms with no limit. Trustees are normally elected
by the Annual General Meeting, but the constitution allows the Board to co-opt trustees, providing their number
does not exceed one-third of the total. The Board’s practice is to use co-option for appointments made between
Annual General Meetings and for co-opted trustees to stand for election at the next Annual General Meeting
following their appointment. Accordingly, all current Trustees are elected members of the Board.
The Trustees serving during the year and since the year-end were as follows.
Valerie Harrison (Chair)
Kimberly Ong (Vice-Chair)
Julian Shaw (Treasurer, appointed 11/12/2023)
Ben Ingber
Keri Landau
Alison Blair (appointed 11/09/2023)
Ellis Mandelstam
Rosie Shepherd
Wendy Alcock (appointed 11/12/2023)
The organisation’s HR policies are followed for recruitment and induction of trustees and recruitment is by
open selection through press advertising and other media. The Board regularly consider succession planning
and reviews the skills and experience it needs against those of existing trustees in order to identify gaps that
can be filled by future recruitment.
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BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU
LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS (continued)
Current Trustees possess an effective mix of skills encompassing professionalism in Personnel, Change Management, Accountancy, and Education. Some members combine their professional backgrounds with extensive experience of voluntary work.
The Company Secretary is appointed by Trustees and may be a paid member of staff. The term of the appointment is for Trustees to decide and the practice is for this to be at the first meeting of the Board following each AGM when other appointments are determined by Trustees.
CHIEF OFFICER
Daniel Bamford
COMPANY SECRETARY
Daniel Bamford
REGISTERED OFFICE
40-44 Church End London NW4 4JT
AUDITORS
Price Bailey LLP 24 Old Bond Street London W1S 4AP
BANKERS
HSBC Bank plc Coventry District Service Centre Harry Western Road Binley Coventry CV3 2TQ
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BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU
TRUSTEES’ REPORT (INCORPORATING DIRECTORS’ REPORT)
Introduction
Citizens Advice Barnet (CAB) exists to help people who live, work or study in the London Borough of Barnet to resolve their problems. We do this through providing free, confidential, impartial and independent advice, information and assistance. We are here for everyone, whatever their advice needs.
2023/24 saw a rapidly growing need for our services, with cost of living pressures the primary driver of this. While inflation calmed, costs remained high and we saw more people than ever before unable to make ends meet. We have continued to focus on meeting the needs of our volunteers, staff, and above all, the people we help, delivering on our strategic priorities of being accessible, sustainable, and supporting our people.
Our Work
Our core work is delivered through the Community Advice Service (CAS), funded by the London Borough of Barnet and procured by competitive tender. This service provides general information and advice to people who live, work or study in the Borough, and is available through all channels - telephone, face to face and email. We tested new models of providing advice in the community, with pop-up sessions at Brent Cross Shopping Centre as well as trialling new advice locations at the Arts Depot, North Finchley masjid, Children’s Centres and Grahame Park library.
We successfully extended and expanded our Help to claim project, funded by the Department for Work and Pension, via national Citizens Advice. This national, phone-based service offers advice and support to people claiming Universal Credit, including providing benefits checks, better-off calculations and tactical advice on approaching this complex welfare benefit. We continued to see heavy demand, as more people find themselves needing to claim Universal Credit, especially those in work, to help make ends meet.
Our Macmillan welfare benefits advice service, funded by Macmillan and supporting people affected by cancer, was expanded and now covers hospital sites in Barnet, Haringey, Enfield and Islington. We continued existing partnerships and began new ones, working with Chipping Barnet Food Bank, BOOST (at Burnt Oak Library and Child’s Hill) and Finchley Food Bank, bringing advice to vulnerable people at key community locations. This continues our strategic use of community resources, placing our teams alongside other vital local services so that people can get the right help when and where they need it. We work to support smaller local community organisations by providing ‘Advice First Aid’, which trains local volunteers to quickly identify advice needs for people they are working with, enabling them to either support or to refer vulnerable people to CAB. This increases the support available to people in Barnet.
An important area of our work is complex casework. While the CAS is focused on general advice, our other projects aim to fill the gap where Legal Aid is not available but where the most vulnerable people need support to understand their rights and to access justice. This adds a great deal of value to our general advice service as we are able to offer a holistic package of support to our clients. Much of our work in this area would have been available under Legal Aid a decade ago, but due to continued cuts to this provision, we have stepped in to do work which would historically only have been carried out by solicitors. Our work in this sphere has led us to be awarded 'Centre of Excellence’ status by the London Legal Support Trust, and it is vital in a Borough like Barnet where access to complex legal advice is in very short supply. We provide expert legal casework and litigation support in Employment, Immigration, Welfare Benefits and Debt.
We measure our success in all these services against stringent and targeted monitoring requirements, and more widely against independently audited quality of advice, financial management, and client and workforce satisfaction using the Citizens Advice Performance and Quality Framework.
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BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU TRUSTEES’ REPORT (INCORPORATING DIRECTORS’ REPORT) (continued)
The People we help, and the Issues we help them with
Over 12,000 individuals received information and advice in the year, (10,200 in 2022/23) and we dealt with over 42,300 individual advice issues (2022/23: 41,800). This shows the complicated nature of people's problems as well as increased demand. It is extremely rare for someone to come to us now needing advice on just one thing, and on average, each client comes to us with approximately 4 issues. We had 227,038 interactions with or on behalf of clients which is (2022/23: 29,176) showing that it is more often than not the case that we need to engage with the people we help multiple times before their problem can be solved. This also illustrates the highly vulnerable situations many of our clients are in and the complexity of their multifaceted needs. We seek to empower people who can address their issues themselves, and 43,729 people accessed advice self-help through our website - a significant increase on the previous year (2022/23: 37,895).
Citizens Advice Barnet runs a universal core service which is available for everyone who lives, works or studies in the borough. Having said that, there is a clear link between deprivation and the need for advice, and it is notable that most of our clients come from the most deprived wards in Barnet. This is an indication both of the above average need for advice in those areas, but also a reflection of where we have proactively target our partnership work and outreach provision. Client demographics show little change from the previous year, with no statistically significant differences. However, we did see a continuing increase in the proportion of our clients who say they are disabled or have a long-term health condition, rising to 53% of all people we saw (2022/23: 48%). This shows two things- firstly that people with health problems or disabilities are disproportionately affected by cost of living issues, and secondly that the after-effects of Covid and the systemic collapse of social welfare support have caused many more people’s health to suffer. 56% of all issues we advised on were welfare benefit-related (2022/23: 60%), followed by housing at 12% (2022/23: 11%), debt at 8% (2022/23: 8%) and immigration at 4% (2022/23: 3%).
Working in Partnership
We continued to strengthen our existing relationships within the voluntary, community and faith sector in Barnet, as well as building new partnerships locally and with wider stakeholders. We know that the demand for advice, especially in the highly disrupted society we inhabit, cannot be fully met, so our partnership work rightly focuses on increasing capacity and expertise within the sector, sharing best practice and supporting each other to the ultimate benefit of those who use our services. To this end, we meet regularly with voluntary and statutory sector partners to work together, find synergies and avoid unnecessary duplication of services. During 2023/24 we have established or continued partnerships with BOOST, Notting Hill Genesis housing association, Chipping Barnet food bank, Finchley foodbank, St James Church in New Barnet, numerous local Citizens Advice offices across London, among others. We have also worked with partners and the wider sector to increase incoming referrals, to help join up the advice sector and simplify our client journey. In 2023/24 we received 647 incoming referrals for advice (2022/23: 516).
Our People
Our services are delivered by a staff team of 42 people (2022/23: 42), and 60 volunteers supported us over the year (2022/23: 68). Our staff and volunteers are committed professionals who provide unrivalled support to the poorest and most vulnerable residents of Barnet. Volunteers undertake a wide variety of roles, including advisers, assessors, receptionists, administrative support and trustees. All new volunteers complete a comprehensive competency-based training programme that underpins the high quality of advice that the role demands. We continue to support our people as a key strategic priority, and we have introduced much more flexibility to our volunteering programme to cater to the needs of the community.
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BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU TRUSTEES’ REPORT (INCORPORATING DIRECTORS’ REPORT) (continued)
We recruited, for the first time, a Head of People and Central Services to oversee all aspects of Human Resources in CAB, and have begun implementation of the organisational culture change that we worked on developing during 2022/23. In particular we are delivering a more inclusive experience for staff and volunteers, with new and improved tools to manage performance, ensure development and to consistently recruit and onboard new team members.
Achievements and Performance
Across all our services we gave information and advice to over 12,000 people (10,200 in 2022/23), dealing with 42,350 issues (2022/23: 41,800). It is extremely rare for someone to come to us with just a single issue - much more common is a collection of inter-related problems which need to be addressed holistically and methodically. We seek to empower people wherever possible, and 43,729 37,895 people accessed advice self-help through our website, showing continued growth (2022/23: 37,895, 2021/22: 23,499) but also the pressure on our services as our resources are stretched in the face of unprecedented demand.
We generated over £7.5 million of positive financial outcomes for our clients, primarily through successful benefits claims and challenges (2022/23: £8.8 million), and we helped clients write off £230,000 worth of debt (2022/23: £38,628). Our Macmillan service helped 737 cancer patients and their families (2022/23: 720) by helping them claim benefit entitlements, Blue Badges and other grants, while our specialist casework teams continued to support people with highly complex welfare benefits, debt, employment and immigration issues, conducting complex litigation for extremely vulnerable clients. Our expertise in these areas is widely recognised and we continue to be a London Legal Support Trust Centre of Excellence, an accolade granted to a very small number of Local Citizens Advice agencies.
Financial Review
The SOFA on page 15 shows an increase in income to £1,397,130 compared to the previous year (2023: £1,144,497).
The local authority remains the second largest provider for services.
The reduction in reliance on LBB funding was supported by continued funding for its main projects by Macmillan Cancer Trust, Trust for London, National Citizens Advice, the National Lottery, RCJ Advice and Henry Smith and those funds represented significant percentages of overall income as follows: Macmillan Cancer: 15% (2023:13%)
Trust for London: 5% (2023: 6%)
Citizens Advice 31% (2023:31%)
The National Lottery 4% (2023:0%)
RCJ Advice 5% (2023: 0%)
Henry Smith 4% (2023:5%)
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BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU TRUSTEES’ REPORT (INCORPORATING DIRECTORS’ REPORT) (continued)
Although there was planned investment in increased capacity, CAB continued to monitor and control costs effectively, in line with the increase in income. Expenditure in the financial year ending 31st March 2024 has increased to £1,341,323 compared with £1,293,491 in the previous year. Of the costs in the year, 80% (2023: 79%) relate to our people and include the costs of recruiting, rewarding and developing our paid staff and training and supporting our volunteers. Management and trustees regularly review the allocation of work among staff and volunteers to identify ways of improving both service quality and cost efficiency. In other areas, our finance and administrative staff keep a close control of costs.
Reserves Policy and Designated Funds
Our free reserves target is set at 18 weeks of operating expenditure. As our reserves are above the minimum level set in this target, trustees have agreed in principle to invest funds for further development of our services. e §=©.Staff Fund A fund to ensure that CAB is able to cover contracted payments to staff such as unfunded salary changes, redundancy, provision of locum maternity cover, and the costs of any disciplinary and/or grievance procedures which may arise. e 1|T/Premises Fund A fund to provide for the cost of relocating to new premises at the expiry or termination of the current lease, and for the cost of major repairs and maintenance (including IT upgrade costs) for the next 3-5 years e Service Development Fund A fund to allow CAB to develop new projects or areas of work, and to conduct feasibility studies on such -projects. Funds have been designated to fund additional supervision, communications and marketing support, business development, training support and office administration, which will allow CAB to meet its objectives. e Restricted reserves Funds are restricted by the donor or funder and cannot be used for the general purposes of CAB. Their existence, and the sums of money therein, do not imply that there has been an underspend but may result from a variety of circumstances including timing differences between CAB’s financial year and the funding year of the project concerned.
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
Governance
Citizens Advice Barnet is a member of Citizens Advice (the national association of Citizens Advice organisations) which, via its Membership Scheme, provides a framework for all charitable activities that are delivered to service users. Citizens Advice sets defined quality standards for advice and information services, financial and information management and intensively reviews members' organisational performance to ensure these standards are met.
The Board of Trustees has overall responsibility for the strategic development and financial management of the organisation, in line with Charity Commission recommended practice. Trustees are committed to creating an inclusive workplace, to participation by staff and volunteers in the development of the service and provide opportunities for this through the business planning process and the formulation of service priorities and objectives.
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BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU
TRUSTEES’ REPORT (INCORPORATING DIRECTORS’ REPORT) (continued)
The Board meets at least four times a year and in 2023/24 it met on five occasions. The Board delegates certain staff and HR matters to the People and Culture Committee, while financial scrutiny, risk management and development of financial policy and procedures are delegated to the Finance Committee. The minutes and recommendations of all committees are presented and reviewed at full Board meetings. The Board delegates day to day responsibility to the Chief Officer who is required to attend Board meetings and report on operational and financial matters.
The Board seeks to ensure that Trustees are broadly representative of the local community and have the necessary skills and abilities to ensure good governance. Trustees are recruited following Citizens Advice guidance through advertising in local and national media as well as canvassing local Voluntary and Community Sector organisations, with a focus on recruiting those with skills identified as desirable through regular Board skills audits.
Suitable candidates are interviewed by a panel of Trustees and are invited to attend at least one meeting of the Board before being formally appointed.
New Trustees are provided with a comprehensive induction, including observation of service delivery, and provided with relevant governance documentation. Board members are also encouraged to participate in relevant governance training and conferences provided by Citizens Advice and other bodies.
All Trustees give their time freely and no Trustee received remuneration in the year. Details of Trustees expenses and related party transactions are disclosed in the notes to the accounts. Organisational Management
The Executive Team consists of the Chief Officer, Daniel Bamford, the Head of Advice Services, Nadya Bari, the Head of Business Development, Louise Broadbent, and the Head of People and Central Services, Sheetal Cole.
The Chief Officer meets regularly with the Chair for supervision and to plan the work of the Board. The Chief Officer and Executive Team are responsible for putting into effect the strategies and objectives of the Board as expressed in the Business Plan. The Chief Officer works closely with staff, volunteers and external stakeholders to ensure effective implementation of the Business Plan.
The Trustees have in place arrangements for setting the pay and remuneration of the Executive Team. Remuneration for all staff is reviewed annually, by the Board's People and Culture Committee and as part of the annual budget setting process. External benchmarking is carried out every three years and inflationary increases are considered annually. Any increase will be made with regard to affordability for the charity. RISK MANAGEMENT
The Board carries out an annual risk assessment and the organisation updates its risk register on an ongoing basis throughout the year. The register is reviewed quarterly by the Finance Committee and the Chief Officer presents a report on emerging risks to each meeting of the Trustees. The Board has assessed the major risks to which the charity is exposed, and these are detailed below with a summary of plans for managing those risks.
e Insufficient new income generated to support service delivery.
The Executive Team works to identify and apply for new sources of income to enable the organisation to meet its strategic priorities and support service delivery and the trustees receive a report on the number of applications made and their outcome at each meeting. Expenditure is closely monitored, and plans developed to reduce management and overhead costs.
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BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU
TRUSTEES’ REPORT (INCORPORATING DIRECTORS’ REPORT) (continued)
e Loss of key personnel and recruitment and retention of staff
We have policies and processes in place to recruit and retain suitable staff and volunteers. We ensure training plans are in place and revised annually. Staff and volunteers' annual feedback is reported to Trustees and we strive to increase engagement and satisfaction from staff and volunteers. We have a full internal HR support function now in place and have made sure that wellbeing is at the heart of our People processes, recognising that the work we dois difficult and emotionally draining and doing all we can to mitigate that and provide a rewarding working and volunteering experience.
PUBLIC BENEFIT
The Trustees have paid due regard to the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit in deciding the activities undertaken by the organisation during the year. The Trustees are satisfied that the information provided in the report and accounts meets the public benefit reporting requirements and are in line with our charitable aims and objectives. Citizens Advice Barnet's main activities are described in the 'our work' section of this report.
FUNDRAISING
Fundraising Statement 162a of the Charities Act 2011 requires charities to make a statement regarding fundraising activities.
Barnet Citizens Advice Bureau understands its duty to protect the public, including vulnerable people, from unreasonably intrusive or persistent fundraising approaches and undue pressure to donate. The charity does not use any internal fundraisers or external agencies for either telephone or face-to-face campaigns and received no fundraising complaints during the year (2022/23: none).
The trustees monitor fundraising activities on a regular basis.
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
In 2023/24 we worked within the strategic objectives specified in our Business and Development Plan. The plan set out the aims and purposes of the organisation and the context in which we work. We have three main objectives:
e Weare accessible
e Weare sustainable e We support and develop our people
These have remained relevant and continue to be so. The cost of living crisis has hit our clients, and our staff and volunteers, hard, and we will work to provide the best support that we can. This has already started to drive up demand on our services, so remaining accessible is a key part of our future development. We will focus on partnership working, and joining our advice to already existing community initiatives. We know that we need to get our advice to where people need it, rather than waiting for them to come to us, and this is a vital part of our community outreach strategy.
We have already successfully explored new sources of funding, and will continue this, alongside making a concerted effort to raise our public profile and investigate individual and corporate giving, to further support our future sustainability. Our partnership working will continue, and we will look to share resources without compromising on quality, bringing skills and expertise to the wider sector, enabling community groups and increasing their confidence in advice giving. We will focus on providing more complex legal advice and are exploring the viability of opening a Law Centre to deliver our specialist advice services.
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BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU TRUSTEES’ REPORT (INCORPORATING DIRECTORS’ REPORT) (continued)
We will continue to support our staff and volunteers - we will work to implement and live our organisational values, offer development opportunities and rewarding career paths for our people, while making sure that their wellbeing is effectively supported. We have restructured our Executive Team to include a Head of People and Central Services role for the first time, to focus on developing and implementing our people strategy, retaining and training high quality staff and volunteers and developing them for the future. This will ensure our continued resilience as an organisation and that we continue to provide high-quality advice, information and casework to all Barnet residents well into the future.
TRUSTEES’ RESPONSIBILITIES STATEMENT
The trustees (who are also directors of Barnet Citizens Advice Bureau for the purposes of company law) are responsible 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 the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law the Trustees have elected to prepare the financial statements in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards and applicable law). Under Company law the Trustees must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they 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 income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the directors are required to:
e select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
e observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP FRS102 (2019);
e make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
e state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
e prepare the financial statements on the going 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 are sufficient to show and explain the charitable company’s transactions and 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.
The Trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company’s website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.
In so far as the trustees are aware:
e there is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company’s auditor is unaware; and e the trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditor is aware of that information.
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Valerie Harrison (Tue, 24th Sep 2024 17:29:20 BST)
24 Sep 2024
INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU
Opinion
We have audited the financial statements of Barnet Citizen’s Advice Bureau (the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 31 March 2024 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities incorporating the Income and Expenditure account, the Balance Sheet, the Statement of Cash Flows and the related notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
In our opinion the financial statements:
e give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2024, and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended; e have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and
e have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.
Basis for opinion We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
Conclusions relating to going concern In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue. Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
Other information The other information comprises the information included in the trustees’ annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.
Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
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INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU
Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006 In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:
e the information given in the trustees’ report (incorporating the directors’ report) for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and e the directors’ report included within the trustees’ report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
Matters on which we are required to report by exception In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the directors’ report
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
e¢ adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or e the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or e certain disclosures of directors’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or e we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or e the Trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies’ regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in preparing the directors’ report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.
Responsibilities of trustees As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The specific procedures for this engagement and the extent to which these are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud are detailed below: We gained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework applicable to the charitable company and the sector in which it operates and considered the risk of the charitable company not complying with the applicable laws and regulations including fraud; in particular those that could have a material impact on the financial statements, including financial reporting. In relation to the operations of the charitable company this included compliance with the Charities Act 2011 and Companies Act 2006.
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INDEPENDENT AUDITOR'S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU The risks were discussed with the audit team and we remained alert to any indications of non-compliance throughout the audit. We carried out specific procedures to address the risks identified. These included the following= Review of legal fees incurred., Reviewing minutes of Trustee Board meetings- Agreeing the financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting documentation., Enquiring of management including those charged with governance., Reviewing key accounting policies and estimates Management override- To address the risk of management override of controls, we carried out testing of journal entries and other adjustment for appropriateness. We also assessed management bias in relation to the accounting policies adopted and in determining significant accounting estimates. Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial slatements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation. A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council's website at: htt s'.Ilwww.frc.or .uklOur-WorklAuditlAudit-and-assurancelStandards-and- uidance/Standards-and- uidance-for-auditorslAuditors-res onsibilities-for-auditlDescri tion-of-auditors-res onsibilities-for-audit.as This description forms part of our auditor's report. Use of our report This report is made solely to the charitable company's Trustees, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitsble company's Trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company's Trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed. Michael Cooper-Davis FCCA ACA (Senior Statutory Auditor) For and on behalf of Price Bailey LLP Chartered Accountants Statutory Auditors 24 Old Bond Street London W1S4AP Date: 26 September 2024 13
BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES (INCLUDING INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
| 2024 | 2024 | 2023 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrestricted | |||||||
| Note | General | Designated | Restricted | Total | Total | ||
| funds | funds | funds | funds | funds | |||
| £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | |||
| INCOME | |||||||
| Donations and legacies | 3 | 35,549 | - | - | 35,549 | 25,584 | |
| Charitable activities | 4 | 347,553 | - | 1,003,267 | 1,350,820 | 1,115,624 | |
| Investments | 5 | 10,761 | - | - | 10,761 | 3,289 | |
| ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | ──────── |
|||
| Total income | 393,863 | - | 1,003,267 | 1,397,130 | 1,144,497 | ||
| ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | ──────── |
|||
| EXPENDITURE | |||||||
| Charitable activities | (338,056) | - |
(1,003,267) | (1,341,323) | (1,293,491) | ||
| ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | |||
| Total expenditure | 6 | (338,056) | - |
(1,003,267) | (1,341,323) | (1,293,491) | |
| ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | |||
| Transfer between funds | 90,958 | (79,572) | (11,386) | - | - | ||
| ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | ──────── |
|||
| (EXPENDITURE)/INCOME BEING | |||||||
| NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS | 15/16 | 146,765 | (79,572) | (11,386) | 55,807 | (148,994) | |
| ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | ──────── |
|||
| RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS | |||||||
| Total funds brought forward | 342,799 | 210,957 | 44,828 | 598,584 | 747,578 | ||
| ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | ──────── | ──────── |
|||
| TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD | 489,564 | 131,385 | 33,442 | 654,391 | 598,584 | ||
| ════════ | ════════ | ════════ | ════════ | ════════ |
All income and expenditure has arisen from continuing activities.
The Statement of Financial Activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.
The notes to the accounts are shown on pages 18-32 and form an integral part of these financial statements.
14
AS AT 31 MARCH 2024
The notes to the accounts are shown on pages 18-32 and form part of these financial statements.
Valerie Harrison (Tue, 24th Sep 2024 17:29:20 BST)
24 Sep 2024
BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU
STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
| Notes | 2024 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | ||
| Reconciliation of net income to net cash flow | |||
| from operating activities: | |||
| Net income for the reporting period | |||
| (as per the Statement of Financial Activities) | 55,807 | (148,994) | |
| Adjustments for: | |||
| Depreciation charges | 12 | 18,118 | 21,377 |
| Dividends, interest and rents from investments | (10,761) | (3,289) | |
| Decrease / (increase) in debtors | 88,885 | 1,925 | |
| Increase / (decrease) in creditors | 8,346 | 56,516 | |
| ───────── | ───────── | ||
| Net cash provided by / (used in) operating activities: | 160,395 | (72,465) | |
| ═════════ | ═════════ | ||
| Cash flows from investing activities: | |||
| Dividends, interests and rents from investments | 10,761 | 3,289 | |
| Purchases of fixed assets | 12 | (5,854) | (4,561) |
| ───────── | ───────── | ||
| Net cash (used in) investing activities: | 4,907 | (1,272) | |
| ═════════ | ═════════ | ||
| Change in cash and cash equivalents in | |||
| the reporting period | 165,302 | (73,737) | |
| Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning | |||
| of the reporting period | 486,627 | 560,364 | |
| ───────── | ───────── | ||
| Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the | |||
| reporting period: | 651,929 | 486,627 | |
| ═════════ | ═════════ |
The notes to the accounts are shown on pages 18-32 and form part of these financial statements.
16
BARNET CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU
ANALYSIS OF NET DEBT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
| At 1 April | At 31 March | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Cash flows | 2024 | |
| £ | £ | £ | |
| Cash at bank in hand | 486,627 | 165,302 | 651,929 |
| ─────── | ─────── | ─────── | |
| 486,627 | 165,302 | 651,929 | |
| ═══════ | ═══════ | ═══════ |
The notes to the accounts are shown on pages 18-32 and form part of these financial statements.
17
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
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