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2023-03-31-accounts

Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

Resourceful Women’s Network is the new working name of Harrow Women’s Centre

Trustees’ Report & Financial Statements

Companies Accounts

For the year ended 31 March 2023

Resourceful Women’s Network is the new working name of Harrow Women’s Centre Harrow Women’s Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee Reg. company no: 03620336 Reg. charity no: 1072849

Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

Company Information

Directors/Trustees A Ferrão M Devine R Tanna L Williams S Kathirgamanathan Co-opted Katrina Alcock Company Number 03620336 Charity Number 1072849

Harrow Women’s Centre Ltd is a private company limited by shares/guarantee and incorporated in England. Its registered office is:

27 Northolt Road Harrow Middlesex HA2 0LH

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Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

Contents
Page
Trustees Report 4-10
Statement of Financial Activities 11
Notes to the Financial Statements 12-14
Independent Examiner Report 15

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Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees’ report for the year ended 31 March 2023

The Trustees of Harrow Women’s Centre, now operating under the name of Resourceful Women’s Network (RWN), who are Trustees for the charity for Charities Act purposes and Directors of the company for Companies Act purposes, present their report and the financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2023. The Trustees have adopted the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) effective in January 2019.

Structure and Governance

Harrow Women’s Centre (“HWC”) was registered as a charity in 1992, and incorporated under the Companies Act 1985 on 25 August 1998, being a company limited by guarantee without share capital. The charitable company (henceforth referred to as “the charity” or “HWC”) was established in accordance with the Memorandum of Association which incorporates the objects and powers of the charitable company and is governed by its Articles of Association.

The charity is governed by a Board of Trustees, while day-to-day operations were overseen and the project manager. The project manager left in January 2023 and has since been partially replaced by an administrator who has taken on most of the same responsibilities. The counselling service is overseen by a qualified counselling coordinator. The Board of Trustees meets regularly, to oversee the management of the charity and provide guidance. In 2022-23 the Board has usually met once a month.

.

Objectives and activities

The charity provides support through a range of services for women in Harrow, Brent, and Barnet, specifically:

Achievements and Performance

Overview:

The national lockdown restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic meant that we were unable to hold face to face events for the first eight months of the previous year (2021).

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we continued to support women through our provision of regular weekly Zoom sessions encompassing various topics, such as education, entertainment, health, and well-being, along with exercise and other wellness classes. These sessions were facilitated by our trustees, staff, volunteers, and other professionals. The number of women attending the sessions varied based on the topics and their personal commitments during the Zoom sessions throughout the year.

The positive reception of this work reinforced our commitment to providing information, support, and activities for women. Additionally, it has played a role in addressing the increasing issue of loneliness, particularly prevalent during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

In November 2021, we re-started some face-to-face events, first with a walking group and introducing a craft session and a drop-in session at our registered address in Northolt Road, Carramea Community Resource Centre. However, we found that many women were reluctant to engage with us face to face due to uncertainty and fear of COVID-19 infections and were more willing to access our online services. In 2021/22 we held 90 events which were attended by 411 women. Additionally, 104 women contacted us for advice and support. Enquiries covered a range of issues, including support for domestic abuse, employment rights, family law inquiries for our family law advice service, and various other topics. Therefore, in 2021/22, five hundred and fifteen (515) women, accessed our services, excluding the women who used our counselling service.

As Europe and the UK transitioned into a more manageable phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing number of women expressed a preference for participating in our inperson activities and sessions. Subsequently, in June 2022, we adjusted our Wednesday Zoom sessions for yoga and meditation to take place twice a month.

We began weekly drop-in sessions at North Harrow Community Library and in July 2022 started drop-in sessions at the Boardwalk Shopping Centre, Edgware. We were able to use both these venues as the organisers kindly let us have the rooms free of charge. In total, we supported 584 women in the year 2022/2023, excluding the counselling service. Among these, 432 women attended events, and 152 women contacted us for advice and support. Enquiries were consistent with the topics from the previous year.

The enquiries to the office are increasing – these enquiries generally centre around housing and domestic abuse. The number of legal enquiries has also increased. Women who accessed the drop-ins ranged from those facing homelessness, domestic abuse, legal advice enquires or loneliness.

In September 2022 we were awarded a development grant by the Greater London Authority (GLA), Civil Society Roots 3. The aim of this project was to explore the scope and feasibility of establishing another network to support and strengthen provision for women in Harrow where possible.

We achieved this by engaging with other relevant organisations and individuals working or living in Harrow through meetings and collaboration with community partners. We conducted a series of surveys and conversations with local women and the organisations that support them, expanding our existing data on service users to assess the needs of women in Harrow.

As part of this work, we employed co-production techniques to ensure that the questions we asked would yield information beneficial to the women we work with and our long-term efforts to support them. Our research comprised two strands:

  1. We spoke to local women, exploring their needs and asked them to take part in an online survey.

  2. We spoke to a range of local organisations, ran a separate online survey aimed at professionals and conducted face to face discussions with professionals working with women in Harrow.

Key findings from the discussions and survey were as follows:

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Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

Through this work we were able to develop our understanding of the existing services in the borough as well as identifying any gaps. We were able to network and make contacts across the borough leading to discussions around future joint working.

The needs identified by local professionals/organisations:

This work has shown that the services and activities we provide are relevant to the women we support. We re-engaged with organisations we had previously worked with and made important connections across the boroughs with organisations who are interested in collaborative working.

In January 2023, a joint application with North Harrow Library to Harrow Giving to run a warm hub was successful. The weekly Warm Hub was hosted at North Harrow Library and ran from February to May, featuring a variety of informative talks, presentations, activities, and workshops.

We had a talk presented by representatives from the Harrow Association of Disabled People, providing insights on benefits advice. The Harrow Law Centre director delivered a presentation, raising awareness about their expertise in handling housing and immigration cases. Furthermore, there were informative sessions by the Metropolitan Police on women's safety, as well as discussions led by the Centre for ADHD and Autism support services. We also offered sessions focused on nurturing wellness, including talks on stress relief and empowering women to recognise signs of abusive relationships, led by RWN’s counselling coordinator. Meditation sessions also took place to promote relaxation and rejuvenation, along with hand massages. In addition, we conducted arts and crafts workshops, including jewellery making, cupcake pincushion crafting, and cord making.

After our advertising campaign for the survey, in which we enquired about the services needed by local women, a potential volunteer with extensive knitting experience approached us with the idea of trialling a knitting circle/drop-in. We agreed, given the evidence that our consistently most well-attended workshops during the Warm Hub series were arts

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Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

workshops. Consequently, we decided to support this idea, and it has since evolved into a well-attended weekly group, currently ranking among our most popular activities.

We now have a core group of regular attendees, thanks to word of mouth, flyers on notice boards in local amenities, marketing efforts, and our connections with other organisations in the area. We are on the Social Prescribing register for the borough of Harrow and aim to also register in the boroughs of Brent and Barnet. During these sessions, we have taken note of other services women have desired, and overwhelmingly, they express a preference for more creative arts groups.

We are in a stronger position to identify gaps in service provision, evidence we can use to apply for larger grants to establish much needed services. Our dedicated staff, volunteers and trustee team has worked extremely hard during the last couple of years to get support to women dealing with the challenges this pandemic has created for them. We are grateful for their continued efforts and support.

Fundraising:

We were awarded a development grant from the Greater London Authority (GLA) Roots 3 programme which is a partnership between the GLA, City Bridge Trust and National Lottery Community Fund.

In February 2023, we successfully applied for National Lottery Awards for All to continue to help fund the counselling service and ensure a low-cost option (free for women receiving Universal Credit and students) is available to women in Northwest London. The National Lottery Community fund supported the Project ‘Taking Time to Talk’ is for 12 months.

We were successful in obtaining funding from Harrow Giving with our joint bid with North Harrow Community Library to run the warm hubs.

We were one of 3 Green token charities at the Asda in Park Royal. The cause with the most online votes receives a £500 donation with second place receiving £400 and third place £300. Voting closed on Friday 30[th] September 2022, we had the most online votes, thanks to our supporters so we received £500 from the Asda Foundation’s Green Token Giving.

We have been accepted for Harrow Wins, a local lottery, and expect to raise about £120 a year through Harrow Wins.

We made presentations at the Pinner Rotary Club and sought corporate sponsorship from companies that donate to charities in London as part of their social responsibility programme. We received a donation from Morrisroe Ltd.

We also had stands at a number of fairs, including Made in Harrow, Greenhill Market, Pinner Fair, Harrow in Leaf and summer charity events at Watling Community Centre. Although this raised a small amount of money its main aim was to raise awareness of our services with local people as well as other community groups and organisations.

Legal Advice service

The solicitors are all female, specialising in family law, and contribute their time on a voluntary, pro bono basis. Over the last year, the number of RWN's free family law advice inquiries have grown, providing a crucial service for women leaving unhappy relationships,

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Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

many of whom have experienced domestic abuse. Most inquiries pertain to domestic violence, non-molestation orders, divorce settlements, and custody disputes.

The inquiries cover a wide range of family matters, and advice is given to enable the person to better decide how they can move forward if and when, they are ready to do so. Legal advice has been a fundamental part of what RWC has to offer and will remain so.

Support for Victims of Domestic Abuse:

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, emerging data, and reports from those on the front lines have indicated a heightened prevalence of all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence.

Consistent with national trends, the majority of women who reached out to us for support had experienced domestic abuse. Following our International Women’s Day event in March 2022, there was a notable increase in calls related to domestic abuse. The inquiries we received align with and support the UN women’s organisation findings.

We are a part of the Harrow Domestic and Sexual Abuse Forum and have attended all the meetings. The forum is a support network of around 65 organisations working with people experiencing domestic abuse in the Harrow area. It meets several times a year and provides members with information and support as well as opportunities to share trends in data, working practices and promote best practice.

Low-cost Counselling service:

The aftermath of COVID-19 has shown that there was a very real need for our services, including the need for a low-cost counselling service. We re-instated a counselling service in May 2021 and recruited an experienced Counselling Coordinator to develop and set up the service. This involved interviewing and recruiting counsellor volunteers and clinical supervisors, producing a Counsellors’ handbook, and updating our policies and procedures. Developing a referral pathway, creating records forms for both the volunteer counsellors we recruited and clients who request our services to run the service on-line. We also registered with BACP the counselling body framework we are registered since 12th March 2021.

Through our referral pathway system clients joined our waiting list and we started offering online/ telephone counselling sessions in January 2022. In October 2022 we also began to offer face-to-face counselling sessions.

In March 2023, the RWN Counselling Service comprised 6 volunteer counsellors and 1 supervisor. Throughout the 2022-2023 period, we have offered counselling to more than 30 women across diverse age groups, with 80% falling within the 18-40 age range. The majority of recipients were from BAME backgrounds. From April 2022 until March 2023, 45 women joined our waiting list, 33 women engaged in counselling sessions, and 301 sessions took place during that period. Progress is measured by the client completing PHQ9 (Patient Health Questionnaire) GAD-7 (The Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7) at the start and ending of the counselling sessions. Out of the 33 women 51% demonstrated improvement in depression and anxiety symptoms, 33% of the women Did not complete the forms and 16% Did not attend all counselling sessions.

We have provided a safe and non-judgmental space for the clients to explore a range of issues from anxiety, depression, neurodiversity, health issues,

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Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

Funding

The financial position in 2022-23 accounts showed RWN Net cash flow for the year April 2022 to 31st March 2023 +£4294

This year RWN was grateful for the large sum donations received from Morrisroe Group for the donation of £5000 from in December 2022 and to Mr. and Mrs. Devine for the donation of £2000 in January 2023. Thank you, these donations enabled RWN to continue with the daily service to assist venerable women and improve our Counselling Service.

RWN was successful in joining the small charities scheme called Green Token Giving, whereby there was online voting to support the chosen charity Asda at park Royal had named. We came top voted charity and awarded £500 in November 2022.

RWN was also successful in receiving funding from:

Future Plans

Our primary focus remains reaching more women in Harrow, Brent, and Barnet to provide the vital support they need. We have reinstated a low-cost counselling service, and as more women become aware of our services, we hope that, in time, it will be able to raise enough funds to break even and continue providing this valuable service.

The Counselling Coordinator has established and conducted training in short-term therapy, as well as a project providing additional supervision to volunteers at no cost to the service. Both one-on-one and group supervision have been implemented. Looking ahead, our plans for the counselling service involve recruiting an additional 4 counsellors to expand our team to a total of 10, along with hiring a second supervisor. Additionally, we aim to enhance training in areas such as domestic violence, suicide, and working with vulnerable clients at risk.

We are very proud of the high levels of engagement in the GLA development project, which shows just how vital our work is to women living in in these areas and the importance of providing women only services. Feedback from local women and other organisations has underlined the need for additional groups and services to tackle to low-level mental health issues and loneliness and isolation before they become more complex.

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Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

We are now able to use this evidence from our work to apply for additional funding to set up pilot projects and implement solutions to the issues identified. It has given us the confidence to establish some additional groups and activities for women living in North West London.

Like many small charities the last few years has been particularly challenging to obtain funding as the uncertainties brought about in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the UK and European political upheavals. The cost-of-living crisis has had a major impact on our service users and staff. Staff members have had to change roles due to higher living costs and the women we support are reporting difficulties choosing between heating and eating. Local food banks and advice services are overwhelmed and the number of women locally facing eviction from rented housing is high.

As a charity we are continuing to support the women who access our services through lowcost counselling (free for women receiving universal credit or students), free family law consultations, signposting support, volunteering and training opportunities, exercise classes, arts and crafts workshops and other activities that have shown to promote wellbeing. To continue addressing these needs, we will require additional funding to cover the costs of additional staff and resources.

We contacted around 100 organisations including Hestia, Jewish Women’s Aid, NOMAD and harrow carers, as part of our profile-raising strategy. This year we have actively sought to strengthen our links with other organisations in the North West London areas of Harrow, Brent and Barnet. Work which we will continue to develop in next financial year.

At the last AGM members agreed to the conversion of the charity to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). Given the small size of the charity the simplification of reporting procedures – the removal of dual registration means that annual accounts, annual returns and trustees' reports will only need to be filed with one regulator, the Charity Commission. This year we aim to finalise the process of conversion. At present, the CIO application is still in progress.

In summary, our future involves working towards building a stronger infrastructure by striving to obtain further funding. This will allow us to continue providing the essential support that women evidently need. We aim to expand the types and quantity of free-to-access groups we can host, diversify the venues for these groups, enhance accessibility to our counselling services across Harrow, Brent, and Barnet, and increase staff members along with resources.

Our dedicated staff, volunteers and trustee team has worked extremely hard during the last couple of years to get support to women dealing with the challenges this pandemic has created for them. We are grateful for their continued efforts and support.

Approved by the Board of Trustees on 1/12/2023, and signed on its behalf by

Agatha Ferrao

Chair

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Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

Summary Statement of Financial Activities (incorporating income and expenditure account

account
For the year ended 31 March
2023
Incoming Resources
Grant and Donation
Awards for All
Greater London Authority
Warm Hub Harrow
Donations
Big Lottery Community Grant
Rotary club donation
Captain Tom Walk
Sundry Income
Total incoming resources
Net resources available for
Charitable Activities
Charitable Expenditure
Admin & Other exps
Governance Costs
Resources Expanded
Net Incoming/Outgoing
Resources
Net Movement in funds
Total Funds as at 1 April 2022
Total Funds as at 31 March
2023
Difference in balance
Bank Accounts
HARROW WOMENS' CENTRE
LTD
BUSINES
S
ACCOUNT
01153961
Balance @ 01/04/22
17,297.02
Balance @ 31/03/23
20,985.31		 2023
2023
2023
2022
General funds
Restricted
Funds
Total
Total
£9,846
£9,846
£4,500
£4,500
£1,860
£1,860
£7,000
£7,000
£146
£1,909
£100
£155
£1,932
£1,932
£440
£8,932
£16,206
£25,138
£2,750
£8,932
£16,206
£25,138
£2,750
£13,192
£7,364
£20,556
£15,21
4
£264
£24
£288
£360
£13,456
£7,388
£20,844
£15,57
4
-£4,524
£8,818
£4,294
-
£12,82
4
£4,294
£19,543
£23,837
£0
TREASURERS
ACCOUNT
31467460
TOTAL
2,246.22
19,543.2
4
2,851.83
23,837.1

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Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

4
3,688.29 605.61 4,293.90

Finance

RWN Net cash flow for the year April 2022 to 31[st] March 2023 was + £4294.

This report has been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) – Accounting and Reporting by Charities.

For the year ending March 2022 RWN qualified to file Micro-entity accounts as per

guidelines set out by the Companies House.

A micro-entity must meet at least 2 of the following conditions:

Notes to the Accounts

Trustees’ statements required by Sections 475 (2) and (3)

For the year ended 31 March 2023

In approving these financial statements as trustees of the company we hereby confirm:

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies’ regime.

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Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

a) Accounting Conventions

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention and on a going concern basis, which is dependent upon the availability of adequate continued funding.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities published on 16/7/14, The Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities (effective January 2015) and the Companies Act 2006. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note(s).

Change in basis of accounting: There has been no change to the accounting policies (valuation rules and methods of accounting) since last year.

b) Incoming resources

Incoming resources are included in the SOFA when the charity becomes entitled to the resources, the Trustees are virtually certain they will receive the resources and the monetary value can be measured with sufficient certainty. Where incoming resources have related expenditure (as with fundraising for contract income), the incoming resources and related expenditure are stated gross in the SOFA. Grants and donations are only included in the SOFA when the charity has unconditional entitlement to the funds. The value of any volunteer help received is not included in the accounts but is described in the Trustee’s annual report. Investment income is included when receivable.

1. Basis of accounting and accounting policies

described in the Trustee’s annual report. Investment income is included when receivable.

c) Resources Expended

Liabilities are recognised as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to pay out resources. Resources expended include attributable VAT which cannot be recovered. Governance costs include costs on the preparation and examination of statutory accounts, the costs of Trustee meetings and costs of any legal advice to the Trustees on governance or constitutional matters. Support costs include central functions and have been allocated to activity cost categories on a basis consistent with the use of the resources e.g. Staff costs by the time spent and other costs by their usage.

d) Restricted and Unrestricted Funds

The accounts distinguish between restricted and unrestricted funds. Restricted funds are received from donors and are subject to restrictions on the purposes for which they may be used. Unrestricted funds are those where there are no externally imposed restrictions and are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity.

e) Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid after taking account of any trade discounts due.

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Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

f) Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account.

g) Creditors and provisions

Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured ore estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.

h) Legal status of the Trust

The trust is a company limited by guarantee and has no share capital. The liability of each member in the event of winding-up is limited to £1.

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Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

Harrow Women's Centre, a Company Limited by Guarantee

Report of the Independent Examiner to the Directors of Harrow Women's Centre Limited

For the year ended 31 March 2023

I report on the financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2023 are prepared on the basis of the accounting policies.

Respective responsibilities of the Board of Directors and Independent Examiner

The Board of Directors is responsible for the preparation of the financial statements. It is my responsibility to form an independent opinion, based on my work, on those statements and to report my opinion to you.

Basis of Independent Examiner's Report

An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the Company and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, seeking explanations from the Board of Directors concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequently we do not express an audit opinion on the view given by these accounts.

Independent Examiners Statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention which gives me a reasonable cause to believe that in any material aspects the requirements to keep the accounting records in accordance with the Companies Act 2006 and to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and to comply with the accounting requirements of the Act have not been met or to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed by

Independent Examiner

David Convisser

2023

Hatch End Middlesex HA5 4QW

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