2025-06-30-accounts

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AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN (Company limited by guarantee no. 4306536 registered charity no. 1093027)

REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

pany Limited by Guarantee No. 4306536 (England), registered Charity No. 1093027)

REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

	Page
Legal and administrative information	1
Trustees' Annual Report	2
Independent Auditor's report	43
Statement of financial activities	47
Balance sheet	48
Statement of cash flows	49
Notes to the financial statements	50

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

(Company Limited by Guarantee No.4306536 (England), registered Charity No. 1093027)

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

Charity Reg. No.	1093027
Company Reg. No.	4306536
Business Office	Head Office
	Unit 8
	290 Mare Street
	London
	E8 1HE
	AFRUCA Centre for Black and Ethnic Children and Families
	Unit 1.01
	31 Ardwick Green North
	Manchester
	M12 6HT
Registered Office	Unit 8
	290 Mare Street
	London
	E8 1HE
Chief Executive	Modupe Debbie Ariyo OBE
Trustees	Sudhir Sethi	Chair
	Omolola Adeola-Oni
	Magdalene Usikaro
	Mamayimbe Sylla
	Alimatu Dimonekene
Auditor	Goldwins Limited
	Chartered Accountants
	75 Maygrove Road
	West Hampstead
	London NW6 2EG
Bankers	NatWest Bank Plc
	135 Bishopgate
	London
	EC2M 3UR

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

a. Governing document

The organisation is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 17 October 2001 and registered as a charity on 18 July 2002. The company was established under a Memorandum of Association which established the objects and powers of the charitable company and is governed under its Articles of Association. In the event of the company being wound up members are required to contribute an amount not exceeding £1.

b. Recruitment and Appointment of Management Committee

The directors of the company are also charity trustees for the purposes of Charity law and under the company's Articles are known as Members of the Management Committee. Under the requirements of the Memorandum and Articles of Association the members of the Management Committee are elected to serve for a period of 2 years after which they must be re-elected at the Annual General Meeting.

c. Organisational structure

At the end of the financial year, there were five members of the Board of Trustees in post. The position of Treasurer to the Board remained vacant, with efforts being made to fill this position. The Board of Trustees meet quarterly and is responsible for the strategic direction and policy of the charity. The responsibility for running the charity's activities and provision of services rests on the Chief Executive, with the support of members of staff and volunteers. The Chief Executive is responsible for ensuring that the charity delivers the services specified and that key performance indicators are met.

d. Related party relationships

The Charity has considered the disclosure requirements of the SORP for related party relationships, and believes that there are no related party relationships other than the Trustees and their close connections. All related party transactions have been reported in the Notes to the financial statements.

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

OBJECTIVES

e. Public benefit

The Trustees ensure that the charity carries out its aims and objectives and that these benefit the public; in doing so the Trustees have had regard to the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

f. Going Concern

The trustees have considered the Charity's reserves and projected income and expenditure, and have a reasonable expectation that the charitable company has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foresee-able future. For this reason, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements.

1. Review of Activities

1. Introduction

We are sad to report that the charity achieved a budget deficit, with reduced income levels compared to recent years. We lost some major grant funding and we struggled to attract new funding from government, Trusts and Foundations and earned much reduced income from service delivery.

Our financial challenges in the course of the financial year mirrored the experiences of many other charities in the sector. The general reduction in available grant funding and the cuts in local authority social care budgets have had a knock-on effect on many small charities like AFRUCA, reducing our abilities to deliver services to meet emerging and ongoing needs. Despite these challenges, we continued to deliver our various services, with our staff in both our London and Manchester offices often going over and beyond to help meet needs.

Trustees recognised the significant contributions of our staff, interns, volunteers and the support of our long term funders during this difficult period and would like to thank them immensely for their perseverance, dedication and commitment to our work. Despite the constraints created by our financial challenges, our people continued to impact on our range of beneficiaries and service users

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

through the delivery of our various activities as detailed below. We recognise that due to the harsh funding landscape, these difficulties might persists into the next and future financial years and that tough decisions would have to be made in the next financial year and subsequently to sustain the charity. However, we also believe that the continued dedication of our people, partners and supporters will see us through these difficulties.

Despite this, we have detailed below our achievements and impact in the course of the year.

2. Child Protection and Family Support Service

We delivered our Child Protection and Family Support service nation-wide to include four key aspects of child protection – prevention through our professionals training programme and community engagement programme; early and crisis intervention through our positive parenting and advocacy service; and rehabilitation , through our healing and reconciliation service for families whose children are returning from foster care. These programme have been designed to intersect with each other, ensuring a holistic and wholesome approach to supporting children and families.

Figure 1: AFRUCA’s Child Protection and Family Support Service

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

2.1 Prevention – Community Engagement Programme and Training Programme for Professionals

“I liked how the training challenged cultural practices like beating children”

(Participant – AFRUCA Training for Faith Leaders and Workers in Hackney)

Our National Lottery Fund grant for this work strand and its staff ended in January 2025 with no continuation funding even though there was ongoing demand. Our staff continued to reach out to faith and community groups in different cities across England to provide child safeguarding education and training activities. We worked with over 30 different organisations with over 1500 participants gaining new knowledge and understanding of how to keep children safe. We worked in different cities across England especially in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Coventry, Watford, Oxford and London. We were delighted to have been asked to present on safeguarding at the British Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in February 2025.

The highlight of our work was the delivery of a series of specialist training programme for Black Faith Leaders and Workers across Hackney, in November 2024, January and February 2025 having been commissioned by City and Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership. The aim of this specialist programme was to support participants to better understand the law and expectations surrounding physical chastisement and improve how to talk to parents about keeping their children safe. Our approach was to leverage the training programme to support participants to rethink how they “do” safeguarding of children in their places of worship – with physical chastisement at the core.

Altogether, 65 participants from 30 churches attended the three events. The participants contained a fair mix of Pastors and leaders in the church. These were the right people who could go back and make a difference to safeguarding decisions in their organisations.

Some of the local Hackney faith groups who sent representatives to the three training sessions included: Redeemed Christian Church - Place of Victory, Christ Royal Church, Christ Miracle Church Mission, Jubilee Church, Meeting Point Ministries, Seventh Day Adventist Church, Christ Apostolic Church and Milyard Seventh Day Baptist Church.

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

The overall feedback was very positive with participants stating that the training was “an eye-opener”, “very informative”, “well planned”, “very enlightening”, “well organised and well delivered” and “highly professional”. We did not receive any negative feedback at all regarding the training content, quality, organising or delivery.

Feedback from participants included:

“l liked the conversations with the constant reference to culture and faith so the learning is accessible and embedded”

“This is an eye opener. I pray that more of this teaching can be delivered to all churches and leaders and their members in order for this to take effect”

We plan to repackage the training programme for widespread delivery to Black faith organisations across the country. We expect this to occur in subsequent years.

2.2 Prevention – Training Programme for Professionals Working with Black and Ethnic Children

Between July 2024 and June 2025, AFRUCA provided in-house specialist training courses on a range of subjects to various local Authorities, schools and health and social care professionals across England.

We experienced a short decline in demand for our training programme, compared to the 2023-2024 financial year. Despite this decline, we collaborated with over 30 different local councils, schools, and agencies, providing approximately 24 training sessions throughout the 2024-2025 fiscal year, reaching over 700 direct participants. With some councils, we delivered training on more than three occasions, demonstrating a sustained demand for our services. An example was CAFCASS Cymru where we delivered training for the second year running on various topics.

Some of the agencies we worked with in the course of the year included: Cambridgeshire County Council. Gloucestershire County Council, London Boroughs of Redbridge, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham and Camden. We also worked with Derbyshire County Council, Stoke on Trent City Council, Salford City Council, Youth Endowment Fund, Our Lady’s Catholic School, Dartford Borough Council and Anglia Ruskin University.

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

AFRUCA’s CEO, Debbie Ariyo also piloted and facilitated Study Group sessions on “Exploring Cultural and Religious Influences in the Safeguarding of Children in Black Families”, targeting professionals working with children. These training sessions were held in January, April (Manchester) and June (London) 2025, further raising AFRUCA’s profile. The Study Groups were designed to be close and intimate sessions, affording a few number of participants the opportunity to deep dive into key safeguarding children issues and their intersection with race and culture. They were also spaces for professionals to explore ongoing issues in a safe and secured environment. The ultimate aim was to provide a strong opportunity to deepen participants’ knowledge and understanding of cultural sensitivity in safeguarding to help improve engagement and support for the children in their care.

Feedback from various commissioners demonstrated how our training courses helped to improve skills amongst practitioners, ensuring improvements in how they intervene in families or deliver services for children. For example:

“Thank you for delivering the three sessions. Our staff really enjoyed the sessions and the subjects of the training gave a lot to consider and think about” (Participant, CAFCASS Cymru)

Future Plans

We will continue to expand AFRUCA’s range of specialist training provision to a variety of different organisations and professionals i.e. local authorities, schools, NHS, CAMHS to attract more commissioning and help to improve the capacity of professionals working with children. We acknowledge that our social media usage had been limited. We aim to improve our online presence to ensure that we are marketing our specialist training effectively, including piloting the use of e- platforms to deliver our training online.

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

2.3 Early and Crisis Intervention - Positive Parenting Service

“I wished we were able to access the support earlier to avoid the stress and difficulty we

experienced as a family”

(Service User, AFRUCA Positive Parenting Service)

This service was delivered by our team of qualified Child Protection Social Workers and was the largest source of unrestricted income for the charity, although cuts to local authority social care budgets saw a major reduction in commissioning in the course of the year.

Nevertheless, we received 96 referrals with work completed with 37 families. This showed that majority of referrals did not result in direct work with families. AFRUCA’s intervention work included completing initial assessments and positive parenting work. We also internally referred some of the parents to our therapeutic/rehabilitation service to support the reunification of children returning from foster care with their parents.

Demography of Service Users

By far the highest numbers of parents we supported were from Nigeria, followed by Somalia and Ghana. We also saw referrals from new countries like Turks and Caicos, Fiji, Kurdistan and Romania

Figure 2: Pie Chart Showing Parent’s Ethnicities 2024-2025

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

Referrals

We continued to receive referrals from various local authorities with noted reduction in total number of referrals and commissioning compared to previous years. At the same time, we saw new referrals from local authorities we hadn’t worked with before including London Borough of Brent, South Gloucestershire and Lewes. However, most referrals came from Greater Manchester authorities including Manchester, Tameside, Wigan and Salford.

Figure 3: Pie Chart Showing Some Referring Local Authorities 2024-2025

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

Nature of Positive Parenting Work

Physical Abuse featured in almost every recorded referral received and remained the highest form of abuse that was reported to AFRUCA. The largest grouping/combination of abuse per referral was physical abuse and emotional abuse (26.4%), followed by physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect (15.1%), then physical abuse, emotional abuse and domestic abuse (11.3%).

Figure 4: Types of Abuse We Covered

Making A Difference

AFRUCA’s child protection service continued to make a difference in the lives of Black and ethnic children and families across the UK through supporting parents to learn positive parenting strategies for raising children in the UK, managing children’s behaviour and building the bond and relationship with their children.
We supported 37 families in the last year, with a total of 30 children from 12 families having returned to parents’ care during or on completion of AFRUCA’s parenting intervention. We saw the Interim Care Order for 7 children from 3 families withdrawn. 8 families also had their cases stepped down from Child Protection to Child in Need (CIN) with 5 Children from 2 families being closed to children’s services.
As in previous years, we noted many parents found it easier engaging with AFRUCA staff. A key reason could be having to engage with someone who understood their race and/or cultural background, hence able to demonstrate empathy towards them. Hence, we noticed many families became less resistance to local authority intervention once they became involved with AFRUCA.

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

We adapted our AFRUCA’s course materials to include pictures and simplified language as English may not always be parent’s first language, or depending on the parents cognitive functioning to enable them understand, process and retain information.

Feedback

Parent Testimonials:

One mother who completed our positive parenting intervention had stated, from attending the sessions she was able to understand the mistakes that she had made and understood how to build a good relationship with her child and parent them in the UK.

Social Worker Insights:

A Local Authority Social Worker who worked with one of the families stated that she found the AFRUCA final report very good and in depth which helped her to understand the family better and feel more confident working with them.

2.4 Early and Crisis Intervention - Child Protection Advocacy Pilot Project

We successfully delivered a one year pilot advocacy project with Hackney Council as part of their child protection system complaints process.

At the end of the pilot phase, we had worked with seven parents and carers who had made complaints about services received and who requested for advocacy. We provided advocacy by making contact with parents followed by a number of both in-person and virtual meetings. The in-person meetings were held at locations provided by the Local Authority.

During the pilot, we advocated for the parents so their voices could be heard regarding their complaints, so that they could organise their thoughts, gain a different perspective and plan for their approach at meetings. We supported parents to attend complaints meetings with the Local Authority. Following this, we supported parents to draft responses for their complaint to be sent to the Local Authority.

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

As it was felt that parents will continue to benefit from accessing the advocacy service, it was agreed that AFRUCA would continue to provide advocacy services for parents in Hackney moving forward.

2.5 Rehabilitation – Family Healing and Reconciliation Service

We continued to deliver our Psychotherapy Service for Children Returning Home from Foster Care programme. In the course of the year, we received 18 referrals into the service. Some of the families were referred internally (8) and the others referred externally by local authorities (10). Some of the referred families had either previously accessed AFRUCA’s positive parenting programme or had been referred for parenting sessions alongside the healing & reconciliation service.

By the end of June 2024, only two families had completed therapy sessions with AFRUCA’s psychotherapist while intervention was ongoing with six families. Five local authorities were yet to have AFRUCA set up on their systems and the other referrals were parents who either started engaging with the service but stopped due to other personal commitments or were yet to engage with the service.

We considered the long term viability of the service due to continued low engagement by service users since the project was established in the last financial year. We will therefore discuss with funders whether it is feasible to continue to deliver the service with such low uptake by intended beneficiaries.

3 Child Exploitation and Youth Violence Programme

We delivered a range of services as part of our work to address child exploitation, youth violence and modern slavery across Manchester under a contract and a range of grant funding from Manchester City Council. We worked with children, young people, families and communities exposed to different forms of exploitation and youth violence from the over 20 organised criminal gangs in North Manchester and other parts of the city. We are thankful to Manchester City Council for supporting AFRUCA to build and expand our work to tackle youth violence and child exploitation across the city.

In the course of the year, we delivered three key services to support children, families and improve awareness and joint working between professionals and communities through our network - the Manchester Network on Child Exploitation and Youth Violence.

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

3.1 AFRUCA’s Early Help Support For Families At Risk of Exploitation and Youth Violence

This financial year marked the second year of our contract providing mix of practical one to one support and peer support for parents as well as mentoring activities for their children at risk of or involved in child criminal exploitation across Manchester. We also undertook Early Help assessment and assessed impact against the Manchester Supporting Families framework. We worked with over 30 families and their 68 children during the reporting period.

Altogether, we worked with families referred to AFRUCA from Manchester City Council Early Help team and Engage Panel. All referrals to our service underwent an initial assessment before intervention commenced to ensure they were suitable for our service and that our intervention would be beneficial for the families. The AFRUCA initial assessment was co-created with MCC Early Help to be in line with the Council’s Early Help Assessment Framework. We then developed an intervention plan for each family to address arising issues and the concerns highlighted during the referral. We ensured parents’ consent was secured before commencing any intervention, in line with AFRUCA policy and practices.

We provided tailored one to one sessions with parents where different topics were discussed and identified where parents needed more support and awareness. Our main aim was to improve parents’ knowledge and awareness to ensure their support needs were met so they could in turn effectively support and keep their children safe from risks of exploitation, grooming, youth violence and county lines. Through our intervention, we empowered parents to identify and address social and economic factors that contributed to why their child might be at risk of harm. To facilitate engagement, we offered parents a variety of ways to participate in our one-to-one sessions at our office, online, at home or in the community. This helped to ensure our intervention was accessible and convenient for them. We also worked with parents to solve immediate problems in their lives and in the lives of their young people that could increase vulnerability to harm. These included problems with housing, school exclusion, bullying, referrals to other agencies regarding immigration problems, including problems with their health and social care sponsorship visas.

Many children of the families we supported were also supported by the AFRUCA REVIVE project in order to improve the young person’s response to accepting support and engage with services. This demonstrated the wholesomeness of our approach to tackling youth violence and child exploitation. We found that the families we worked with were very positive about working with someone that is of

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

similar ethnic background and better understood their needs and priorities. Where possible the young people in the families that were not supported by services were a part of our intervention to ensure their wishes and feelings were heard by their parents without it causing conflict.

We conducted outreach work with the Manchester Family Hubs Early Help Teams to interact with parents within these community settings and attended events arranged by the family hubs to reach parents and young people. We worked to expand our community outreach by reaching out to and meeting with family hub mangers. There is more work to be done as the collaborative work is still a work in progress and not all family hubs were reached in the course of the year.

3.2. The REVIVE Project – Working with Young Men and Boys At Risk of Exploitation

“I just want to do music and prosper”

(IA – REVIVE Project Service User)

We continued our partnership with Manchester Youth Justice to deliver our REVIVE project which is dedicated to the rejuvenation, restoration, and renewal of young boys and young men who are at risk youth violence and criminal exploitation. Our mission is to rebuild their confidence, divert them from negative influences, and help reintegrate them into their communities as positive, contributing members. Our 10-week programme educated young people about the realities and consequences of violent crime, and explored critical topics such as identity, culture, and the impact of negative influences. Participants also gained insight into career opportunities and the importance of selfreflection.

In the past year, we focused primarily on 1-to-1 intervention work due to capacity challenges, delivering 144 hours of sessions to 19 young people and achieving a 90% improvement rate in participants' behaviour and engagement. Our work focused on boys and young men aged 10–17 in the Manchester area.

We utilised the project to help build more trust between statutory bodies/authority, young people and the community through better education via a range of activities and group sessions. We tailored the programme to the correct needs of each young person, and not just the standard 10-week project. This was based on learning from previous year that some of the young people would prefer fewer sessions or just wanted someone to talk to.

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

Key Achievements

In 2024–2025, REVIVE achieved the following milestones:

35 young people referred
19 fully engaged (16 engaged consistently)
144 hours of sessions delivered
90% showing improvements across education, behaviour or wellbeing

As in previous years, we worked with young men and boys, with referrals from a range of agencies including the Engage Panels, Youth Justice, People Referral Units and local schools. Many of our young people experienced a turbulent home environment which included domestic violence, physical chastisement, poverty and deprivation, immigrations problems including no recourse to public funds, evictions, unsuitable housing or homelessness, sexuality and cultural non-acceptance by family and neurodivergence. We found that these are push factors that contributed to young people’s negative behaviour in school, making them vulnerable to grooming and recruitment by criminal gangs and traffickers and putting them at risks of harm and exploitation. Additionally, the pervasive distrust of the police among young people involved in our project based on their personal experiences meant many felt unfairly targeted and harassed, leading to reluctance to seek help or cooperate with law enforcement. Nevertheless, we were able to support young people to achieve positive change.

Figure 5: Outcomes Achieved

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

Demography

Figure 6: Age Breakdown

The 19 fully engaged participants were boys and young men aged 10–17.

Figure 7: Ethnicity Breakdown

School status: 15 in education, 4 not in education

Referral sources: 16 from Engage Panel, 3 from other agencies

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

– Examples of our interventions Impact Stories

JI – Leaving a Risky Peer Group

JI was deeply influenced by a peer group linked to violent incidents. With REVIVE support, he gradually recognised the risks of his associations. Over time, he built the confidence to distance himself from negative peers and form healthier friendships, avoiding several risky situations.

FB – Rebuilding Identity

FB felt constant pressure to act tough and seek validation from peers. REVIVE’s identity and selfreflection sessions helped him question this narrative. He began to resist peer pressure and started to think seriously about his future, shifting his focus from short-term reputation to long-term aspirations.

LH – Breaking Through with Education

LH had disengaged from school and was regularly absent. Through REVIVE sessions, he began to challenge his own thinking and reflect on his choices. One session was a turning point, where he said: “This stuff actually makes sense when you break it down like that. I have never looked at it that way before.” Following this, LH’s teachers noticed improved attendance and a greater willingness to participate in class.

IDJ – The Power of Connection

IDJ highlighted the importance of mentors speaking a language young people understand. In one session, he said: “Young people and adults speak different language but you speak my language.” This trust opened the door for him to share challenges openly and seek advice on relationships and education.

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

IA – Finding Hope Through Music

IA was referred for support after multiple incidents of anti-social behaviour and knife-related incidents. Through sessions focusing on knife crime, identity, anger management, and conflict resolution, IA was able to process his experiences. Following a traumatic incident where he was robbed at knifepoint, we provided back-to-back sessions where IA openly expressed his pain and determination to succeed. Recognising his passion for music, we funded a three-hour studio session for him, which boosted his confidence and allowed him to see a positive future for himself. IA’s journey is a testament to the resilience and potential of the young people we support

3. Lessons Learned

Engagement

Not all young people are the same. Some respond best to a brotherly relationship, where they feel safe to ask questions about school, relationships, and life. For example, one young person only started opening up after three weeks of casual football chats before sessions. Others require a firm but fair approach to stay focused. For those with learning challenges, visual and interactive slides proved especially effective, making the sessions more engaging and accessible.

Delivery

One-to-one sessions are the most impactful. The first two sessions are often quiet and slow, but once trust is built, young people open up, ask deep questions, and even challenge points on the slides – often with valid insights. This critical engagement shows they are processing the material. Group sessions, by contrast, can be more difficult: some participants disengage to look “cool” in front of peers, while others become peer motivators, helping the group stay on task.

Partnerships

Strong relationships with Manchester schools have been vital, with several referring students directly for support. This has allowed earlier intervention and faster impact. However, some schools and statutory agencies have slower processes, delaying access to the young people who need support most. Family engagement has also proven critical – when parents are involved, progress is quicker and more sustainable.

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

Understanding Young People

Many young people are drawn into violence or exploitation due to boredom, lack of opportunities, and identity struggles. They seek belonging and recognition, often through risky peer groups. A worrying trend is the normalisation of knife crime and violence, with some participants speaking about it casually, as if it were inevitable. Music, sports, and creativity consistently emerge as powerful motivators, offering safe outlets and alternative identities.

Challenges

We faced session cancellations due to participants being excluded from school and some families not engaging. As a result, we now close inactive cases earlier, allowing us to take on new referrals and provide timely support to those ready to engage.

Reflections

We aim to build stronger collaborations, increase capacity to deliver group sessions and training in schools, and host events in local family centres to broaden our reach and impact.
REVIVE reaches the hardest-to-reach young people, proving they can and do engage when supported consistently.
A longer-term mentoring model is needed beyond 10 weeks to ensure sustainable change.
Early intervention works best, with younger participants often showing quicker progress. Identity, belonging, and creativity (e.g., music, sports) are central to building positive futures.
Whilst we are grateful for the yearly grant from Manchester Youth Justice to fund this important work, we require more sustainable and reliable funding to strengthen the work and sustain staff in post.

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

3.3 Manchester Network on Serious Violence and Child Exploitation

The idea of a grass-root, community led network on serious violence and child exploitation in Manchester was developed from insights at AFRUCA’s round table event held on 30 January 2024.

The Manchester Network on Youth Violence & Child Exploitation continued to serve as a vital platform for joint working and collaboration. The Network brought together affected communities, youth groups, faith organisations, and statutory agencies to share knowledge, coordinate efforts, and codesign solutions.

Members reaffirmed the value of the Network as a key driver for:

Promoting collaboration between grassroots organisations and statutory agencies
Identifying gaps in service delivery and sharing resources
Building trust with affected communities and empowering youth voices

Summary of Activities since Last Meeting

The Network sought to utilise its membership strength to lobby for policy changes. For example, as part of the public consultation on legislation on child criminal exploitation (CCE) in the new Police Bill, in April 2025, we wrote a letter to the Home Office, detailing our concerns regarding the CCE element of the new Police Bill 2025 and proposed some recommendations.

In the course of the year, the Network hosted multiple sessions and knowledge-sharing contributions from a range of partners. Highlights include:

Rochdale Council – Presentation on youth vaping trends and public health responses
Rama Jallow / AFRUCA – Parenting service for families
Jack Ward / Salford Foundation – Overview of youth service programmes and mentoring
Manchester Immigration Aid Unit – Guidance on age assessments for unaccompanied minors
Remedi – School-based mentoring programme updates
Complex Safeguarding Team – Key learnings from recent interventions

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

Greater Manchester Police – Updates on city-centre grooming and exploitation prevention projects
British Transport Police – Community engagement initiatives with BAME families
In His Image – Promoting family unity and community cohesion
Children’s Society – Tackling systemic issues like school exclusions and peer-on-peer violence
Cancer Care Diaspora – Cultural approaches to family support and health awareness
Phoenix Project – Findings on the impact of social media on young girls’ vulnerability

Requests & Points for Collaboration

Shared Resources: Establish a centralised repository where organisations can share session materials, contacts, and upcoming event dates.
Referrals & Signposting: Strengthen referral pathways between grassroots organisations and statutory agencies to ensure young people receive timely support.
Joint Campaigns: Collaborate on awareness campaigns around school exclusions, vaping, and online exploitation.
Community Engagement: Encourage more grassroots organisations to participate, particularly those working with hard-to-reach groups.

Looking Ahead

The Network will continue to grow its reach and impact by:

Expanding Membership: Actively inviting more grassroots organisations and youth-led groups to participate in future meetings.
Hosting Thematic Sessions: Deep-dives into specific issues such as school exclusions, social media risks, and gang diversion strategies.
Strengthening Relationships: Creating space for collaboration opportunities between community groups and statutory partners to co-produce interventions.

AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

Data & Impact Tracking: Working towards shared metrics for measuring collective impact on youth violence reduction.

4 Addressing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the UK Modern Slavery Sector: The UK BME AntiSlavery Network (BASNET)

“BASNET has the ability to break down barriers and tackle human trafficking across all races, ethnicities and professions, ensuring that knowledge and experience become equitable, in the protection of human dignity and liberty”

(Rev Jide Macaulay, House of Rainbow)

BASNET has seen substantial growth in membership, with 29 new members joining between May 2023 and August 2024, bringing our total to 107 members. This included 59 Full Members and 48 Associate Members, representing a diverse range of organisations focused on various aspects of modern slavery across different regions. However, we also faced challenges, as eight members’ ceased operations due to financial difficulties. Majority of our members were in England, with other members in Scotland and Wales. We aim to expand our base in both Scotland and Wales in the coming year. Below is a graph presentation of our members:

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Figure 8: Spread of BASNET Members Across The UK

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Spread of BASNET Members
Spread of BASNET
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London Greater Manchester
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Cardiff Liverpool
Luton Birmingham
Wishaw Oxford England Wales
Luton Leeds Scotland Northern Ireland
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Our members’ work and interests covered different spectrums of the modern slavery and human trafficking sector – from labour exploitation, financial exploitation, sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation and county lines trafficking. Some of our members had niche service users and audiences - from focusing mainly on anti-trafficking work with black and ethnic minority families, to young boys, young girls, survivors, asylum seekers, LGBTQI, women and specific age groups. The work of our members helped to highlight the gaps ignored or unidentified in national discourse around modern slavery and human trafficking issues that specifically affected ethnic minority communities.

Between October 2024 and July 2025, BASNET facilitated five full members’ meetings. These served as vital spaces for knowledge exchange, peer support, and collaboration between practitioners, academics, and policymakers. Feedback highlighted their value in fostering solidarity, strengthening insight into emerging policy issues, and reinforcing a shared commitment to racially equitable, survivor-led anti-slavery work. Crucially, our efforts in promoting membership through initiatives such as the BASNET Open Day have played a crucial role in this growth.

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4.1 BASNET Projects, Events and Activities

BASNET Modern Slavery Research Residential Programme

We were delighted to continue our flagship Research Residential Programme with joint funding from Paul Hamlyn Foundation and AB Charitable Trust, aimed at equipping our full members—BME charity leaders and lived experience experts—with the requisite skills to effectively put tell their stories of working on the frontlines to combat exploitation within their respective communities.

Building on last year’s successful model, BASNET hosted a second group of delegates at our Research Residential in Manchester from 21st-23[rd] May 2025. Together, our nine participants, including one individual with lived experience, took part in a comprehensive two-day training workshop on delivering data-focused, community research. This programme was facilitated by the same dedicated academics from last’s years residential, including from Nottingham University, St Mary’s University, STOP THE TRAFFIK and the UK Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (MSPEC). Their willingness to return for a second time is a clear indication of their faith in BASNET as well as the importance of this programme.

On 24th June 2025, we partnered with the British Academy to host our Knowledge Mobilisation Conference at their prestigious Carlton House Terrace office building in London. The event reflected our deepening relationship with the Academy and concluded the first cohort of our Research & Mentorship Programme. Participants presented six unique research projects, sharing challenges, insights and their hopes for future action and policy change. Feedback from mentees, mentors, and sector leaders was overwhelmingly positive, providing both encouragement and actionable insights to enhance next year's event when our second cohort come to share their findings.

As with last year, the Research Residential in May 2024 marked only the beginning of a six-month research journey as part of our innovative Research & Mentorship Programme, where our delegates, or mentees, will be paired and/or grouped with research experts selected by BASNET, who will provide valuable guidance to our members as they lead their investigations into their respective areas of expertise, while keeping an eye on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. Each of the nine delegates was allocated £500 to fund their research journeys. The outcome was to produce several examples of novel, evidence-based research that amplified community perspectives and informed policy.

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Through our Research & Mentorship Programme, BASNET developed meaningful partnerships with leading academics with experience working in world-class institutions including University College London and Harvard. These connections serve a dual purpose: they significantly elevated the calibre of guidance accessible to our network members while simultaneously advancing our network's capacity to drive impactful, policy-relevant research initiatives. The academics provided our participants with the requisite support and mentorship in delivering their projects – creating a novel way of working between academia and lived experience and further enriching the project and its outcomes for the participants.

BASNET Labour Exploitation Consortium

We established the BASNET Consortium to Tackle Labour exploitation in the Health and Social Care Visa scheme with funding from Samworth Foundation. BASNET has already exceeded expectations by supporting nearly 150 migrant carers through a holistic, three-pronged model that addresses legal insecurity, mental health trauma, and acute practical hardship.

The consortium united three BASNET members who are specialist BME-led organisations: Tulia Group CIC, which provided free legal advice and immigration support to 96 carers, preventing visa irregularity, securing fee waivers, and enabling lawful employment, with 10 cases requiring full representation; De Butterfly CIC, which delivered 60 culturally tailored counselling sessions to 20 survivors, helping 66% of participants report improved coping strategies, reduced panic attacks, and restored emotional resilience; and AFRUCA – Safeguarding Children, which signposted 20 workers and their families to emergency housing, financial aid, advocacy with local authorities, and Section 3C visa protections—allowing families to avoid eviction, secure employment, and prepare for successful visa switches.

Collectively, the consortium delivered over 200 direct interventions, far surpassing its first-year projections and demonstrating both urgent demand and the effectiveness of this integrated, culturally competent approach. By coordinating services, collecting survivor-informed data, and advocating for systemic reform, BASNET is not only meeting immediate needs but also driving policy change to create a safer, more just care sector.

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In the subsequent years of the project, we expect it to continue exceeding its target outcomes due to the sheer high number of victims. We are therefore seeking additional funding to help us expand the project to different regions.

BASNET Policy Influencing and Advocacy

BASNET has carried out several advocacy efforts, which have helped to shape anti-slavery frameworks both in the UK and abroad.

To strengthen our policy influence, BASNET expanded its advocacy efforts to directly engage MPs and other key political stakeholders. This included drafting targeted letters to establish professional relationships with parliamentarians and peers. We received a positive response from the Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery All Party Parliamentary Group secretariat, who notified us that members were interested in tabling Parliamentary Questions on behalf of a select group of organisations, including BASNET. Furthermore, we secured an in-person meeting with Bobby Dean MP. Moving forward, BASNET planned to intensify engagement with high-level decision-makers, including further outreach to civil service advisors and policy teams, to drive meaningful policy responses.

Alongside our members, we co-signed numerous letters and petitions over the past year. They demonstrated our commitment to proactively challenging cruel and inequitable policies, as well as our open and willing collaboration with the sector more widely. Examples included: input into the Parliamentary Backbench Briefing calling for racially equitable modern slavery reform; a letter led by After Exploitation, raising concerns over the safeguarding of BME children at risk of sexual exploitation; submissions to Yvette Cooper MP on the discriminatory impacts of immigration policy; contributions to a Modern Slavery Bill briefing led by Lord Alton advocating for survivor-led amendments; and involvement in campaigns such as Rights Not Raids, which highlighted the harmful effects of immigration enforcement on vulnerable communities. We also took part in joint letters marking key milestones, such as the ten-year anniversary of the Modern Slavery Act, and consistently pushed for greater accountability and inclusion of BME survivor voices in national frameworks.

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Our CEO was actively engaged in ministerial lobbying and advocacy alongside other sectoral leaders. These included CEO meetings with Home Office Ministers Jess Phillips and Angela Eagle to discuss modern slavery policy improvements as well as follow up CEO Strategy group to help plan Home Office Modern Slavery policy for the next 10 years.

BASNET’s 5th Anniversary Conference, held in October 2024 with 65 leaders, survivors, and experts, highlighted systemic racial disparities in safe houses and called for reform of the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract. Key recommendations included embedding culturally sensitive care, strengthening partnerships with BME-led organisations, and ensuring survivor voices inform service delivery.

"A well-organised event with great support for those with lived experience. I look forward to the summary report and the thoughtful suggestions shared."

(Conference Participant)

We established a dedicated Policy Briefings post section on our LinkedIn to keep stakeholders informed of critical developments in anti-trafficking policy as well as other commemorative moments. This resource combines timely updates with critical analysis, demonstrating how each issue connected to BASNET's initiatives and underscored our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in policymaking.

Our Joint Advocacy Programme with BASNET member organisations funded by Esmee Fairbairn Foundation expanded from four to ten organisations, directly reaching over 200 people through grassroots-led campaigns. From cultural events like Africa Day to targeted awareness within Roma communities, these initiatives built trust, visibility, and access to new resources for BME-led groups. Crucially, they enabled members to step into national advocacy spaces with greater confidence and recognition.

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BASNET was invited by the Human Trafficking Foundation to contribute our expertise in drafting two chapters for the new Modern Slavery Care Standards: Principles and Professional Practice and Access to Care and Support. Our substantive input as an Advisory Board member significantly enhanced both the quality and clarity of these sections. This partnership has successfully embedded Equality, Diversity and Inclusion as a foundational principle across the Standards—a critical outcome made possible through our specialist knowledge and the Foundation’s progressive approach to policy development.

Recognising that sustainable efforts were required to confront the root causes of trafficking, BASNET launched our International Coalition, uniting more than forty established anti-trafficking organisations across Africa. This strategic network is aimed at facilitating regular coordination, enabling members to share intelligence, align advocacy efforts, and develop policy responses tailored to regional exploitation patterns. Through structured collaboration, we ensured frontline expertise directly informed prevention strategies, while strengthening capacity across the coalition. The initiative reflected a significant evolution in our approach—combining local knowledge with international perspective to disrupt global trafficking networks.

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BASNET Strategic Partnerships and Knowledge Sharing

BASNET further solidified its sectorial relationship with various outposts of academic excellence.

With funding from MS-PEC and in partnership with the University of Nottingham, we commenced work on a new research report focused on safe house accommodation and what was needed to make such spaces truly safe for survivors. This built on our previous publication, “The Safe House is Not Safe” , and the national conference aforementioned. As part of this new work, we conducted two focus groups involving 12 BME survivors across the four UK nations. The forthcoming report will provide specific recommendations to the Home Office on how to improve safety and accountability within the National Referral Mechanism.

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Epitomised by the success of the first Knowledge Mobilisation Conference, our partnership with the British Academy and their Early Career Research Network continued to flourish. The novel idea of engaging members of the ECR Network in supporting our research projects worked really well and is an idea we intend to replicate in other work areas.

We worked with After Exploitation to produce “An After Thought” , a report examining modern slavery, EDI, and cultural sensitivity training in local authorities. The findings revealed significant gaps in training provision, with many authorities lacking comprehensive or up-to-date materials, and few addressing equality and cultural sensitivity effectively. The report highlighted the need for improved, standardised training to better support survivors, particularly from marginalised communities.

We rejoined the ATMG – UK Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group after leaving the group in 2021. The rationale was to strengthen our work with others in the sector to advocate and push for necessary policy changes, with us having a broader platform to highlight issues in relation to our members.

BASNET’s growing influence has been matched by greater member representation in key policy spaces, enabling lived experience and grassroots expertise to directly shape decision-making. Members now hold seats on seven national and regional bodies, including the Yorkshire & Humber Policy Innovation Partnership, Birmingham Safeguarding Adults Board, Anti-Poverty Insight Group, CHEM Migration Coalition, Greater Manchester Race Equality Panel, and the West Yorkshire AntiSlavery Partnership.

Throughout this period, BASNET has significantly advanced its collaborative work with major sector partners—including Anti-Slavery International, Freedom Fund, Justice and Care, St Mary’s University, ATLEU, STOP THE TRAFFIK, and the Human Trafficking Foundation. These relationships serve as critical channels for policy influencing and programmatic reach within the anti-trafficking landscape.

Moving forward, we will prioritise sustaining and deepening these collaborations, recognising their multiplier effect on our ability to strengthen our community responses to combat slavery and exploitation effectively.

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Promoting BASNET Members’ Well-Being and Self-Advocacy

We recognised that the work our members are involved in can be extremely taxing, both emotionally and physically. We made strong efforts to guard the well-being and mental health of our members through:

● Mental Health Support: Delivering mental health care to those with lived experience before and after panel participation, if requested.

● Safe Room Availability: Following on from our intentional efforts to safeguard survivors using the mental health room at our October Conference in 2024, we ensured the availability of a safe room at our Knowledge Mobilisation Conference so that any individuals who felt overwhelmed by the event's content were able to take a respite if desired.

● BASNET Masterclass Programme: We have provided dedicated mental health support alongside our regular skills training, including our Managing Stress and Avoiding Burnout masterclass facilitated by our member Kush Chottera of Europia. This session created space for honest conversations about wellbeing in anti-trafficking work, leaving attendees feeling heard, refreshed, and better equipped to face the sector’s challenges. We also ran a class on Leveraging AI to Write Successful Funding Bids, delivered by Flóra Raffai of Fair Collective—which earned perfect 10/10 scores from participants for Learning Experience, Content and Trainer Quality. Upcoming sessions include Understanding Modern Slavery in the UK Context on 9th September, with more specialist workshops in development.

4.2 Future Outlook and Strategic Expansion

Looking ahead, BASNET is committed to expanding our work to better meet the needs of our members, our communities and the wider modern slavery sector. Our future plans include the development of a specialist programme for survivors of modern slavery to strengthen their capacity to tell their stories, become stronger advocates and gain new research and advocacy skills.

Our strategic focus will remain on fostering a more inclusive and effective anti-trafficking sector. By building on our existing initiatives and introducing innovative programmes and interventions, we aim to continue driving systemic change and addressing inequities within the sector.

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5: NIHR – Knowledge For Public Health Programme (KNOW-PH)

Knowledge for Public Health is the NIHR National Institute for Health and Care Research-funded public health knowledge mobilisation team that aims to move research evidence generated by NIHR closer to local and national public health decision making. As the project’s community partners, we were delighted to be engaged in the project for the second year of delivery.

The project’s public partner involvement, embedded through the Public and Community Engagement (PACE) Group led by AFRUCA, was a core and non-negotiable component of programme delivery. Cultural engagement was fully integrated across the design, implementation, and evaluation of all work streams, marking a clear progression from early-stage consultation to sustained and strategic partnership.

The PACE model comprised a core group of six public partners, alongside targeted “pocket PACE” subgroups established to respond to specific thematic or geographic priorities. Engagement is purposefully aligned with Equality Act protected characteristics, ensuring that perspectives from racially minoritised, religiously diverse, gendered, and socio-economically disadvantaged communities consistently informed decision-making.

AFRUCA provided facilitation, structured briefings, and ongoing support to enable meaningful participation, recognising culturally grounded lived experience as essential—not supplementary to producing equitable, relevant, and effective outputs.

Throughout Year Two, public partners directly shaped substantive areas of work by bringing culturally informed insights into the complex relationship between structural inequities, social determinants, and health outcomes. Their contributions have been particularly influential within the housing deep co-production project, where PACE discussions highlighted issues such as fuel poverty, overcrowding, mould, ventilation, digital exclusion, and neighbourhood stigma, and prioritised warmth and insulation as urgent public health concerns.

These insights added depth beyond conventional datasets and ensured analysis reflected lived realities, particularly for migrant and minority ethnic families disproportionately affected by poor housing conditions and restrictive tenancy arrangements.

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Targeted pocket PACE engagement, including the Kent rapid response project on children and young people’s mental health, further demonstrated the value of experiential knowledge in identifying cultural barriers to access, communication challenges, and help-seeking behaviours. While challenges around availability and sustaining engagement across a diverse membership have arisen, AFRUCA mitigated these through flexible scheduling, hybrid meetings, and equitable remuneration. As a result, cultural engagement evolved from a guiding principle to a programme driver, strengthening the relevance, credibility, and impact of the award and ensuring public partners actively shape research direction, policy influence, and knowledge mobilisation.

6: AFRUCA National Partnerships and External Liaison

We were quite fortunate to have worked with a range of partners locally, regionally, nationally and internationally during the course of the financial year as part of our various projects, programmes and services as detailed above. The aim of our partnership work was to raise awareness of the work of AFRUCA and our network BASNET, contribute to ongoing research, policy and advocacy efforts and help to prevent abuse, harm and exploitation through increased engagement with others.

We were delighted to have continued our strong partnership with colleagues at the UK Modern Slavery Policy and Evidence Centre, St Mary’s University Bakhita Centre for Research on Slavery, Exploitation and Abuse and University of Nottingham. These relationships served us very well at AFRUCA, enriched our joint research programmes and helped to boost our profile in the modern slavery sector.
We continued to participate in the work of a number of Home Office Modern Slavery Policy Forums, through attendance at meetings and putting forward our position on key government policies, reflective of BASNET members’ viewpoints.
In October 2024, Senior Network Manager Naeema Ahmed joined a roundtable with the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Philips MP, to discuss strengthening protection against violence for women and girls at risk of exploitation and human trafficking.

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In March 2025, Debbie Ariyo OBE gave a keynote speech at Youth Endowment Fund conference in Birmingham, highlighting cultural competence in addressing youth violence and child exploitation
In March 2025, Debbie Ariyo OBE represented BASNET at the Modern Slavery Policy and Evidence Centre’s tenth anniversary conference of the Modern Slavery Act. Speaking on a high-level panel, she reflected on progress made over the decade and persistent challenges, stressing the need to elevate community engagement and survivor voices across the sector.
In March 2025, CEO Debbie Ariyo OBE delivered cultural intelligence training to staff of Home Office Modern Slavery and Child Exploitation Directorate, equipping staff with practical tools to embed racial equity into policy and practice.
In April 2025, Debbie Ariyo OBE met the Minister for Youth Justice Sir Nick Dakin MP alongside other charity CEOs to advocate for reforms addressing child exploitation and youth violence.
In May 2025, we collaborated with the Royal College of Peadiatrics and Child Health to send a joint letter to the Minister for Children, Janet Daby MP, calling for the removal of the “reasonable chastisement” defence from law and asking for a meeting with the Minister to discuss this. Unfortunately, this meeting was cancelled due to ministerial reshuffle.
In May 2025, Debbie Ariyo OBE, CEO joined a group of sector CEOs to meet with Minister Jess Philips MP to discuss forthcoming policy and legislative changes on modern slavery.
In June 2025, our survivor leader Joy was invited to speak at a high level meeting organised by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Freedom Fund on advancing rights based solutions to end modern slavery.
We continued to sit on the Manchester Children and Young People Board, providing strategic advice to the Board especially in relation to Black and Ethnic children.

We recognise how much tilted our strategic work has been on modern slavery. Hence in the coming financial year, we aim to strengthen our strategic work on Child Protection and become more active across London and nationally.

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7: Financial and Operational Review

7.1 Summary

The results of the Charity for the financial year ended 30 June 2025 are shown in the Statement of Financial Activities and the relevant notes.

While this financial year has presented significant sustainability challenges for the Charity, these financial pressures are very indicative of the general trends in the UK Charity sector. Many small charities are experiencing significant financial challenges due to a steady decrease in the availability of grant funding.

Total revenue for the Charity declined to £753,766 this year, down 12.39% from £860,396 recorded in the previous year. This comprises £482,759 in restricted funds (2023-2024: £615,541) and £271,007 in unrestricted funds (2023-2024: £244,855)

Total expenditure for the financial year rose to £914,766, a 19.76% increase from the previous year’s expenditure of £763,832. Of the total spending this year, £523,997 (2023-2024: £554,676) was from restricted funds, while £390,769 (2023-2024: £209,156) was from unrestricted funds

The increase in total expenditure was primarily driven by strategic investment to strengthen staffing complement - a move designed to drive income generation and diversification through securing increased local authority commissioning services across the UK. However, the anticipated increased volume of referrals to our service provision did not materialise. As a result, the Charity had to draw upon its financial reserves to meet the associated salary obligations and other operational costs.

The bottom-line is, the Charity recorded an overall operating deficit of £161,000 for the year compared to a surplus of £96,564 the previous year. This outcome reflects deficits across both unrestricted funds (£119,762) and restricted funds (£41,238). The unrestricted fund deficit highlighted that the Charity drew on its general reserves due to shortfalls in income generation to meet core and other operational costs.

The trustees have resolved to undertake significant cuts to running costs in the coming year, and are focused on reducing the Charity’s operating expenses to align operational costs with current income levels to ensure long-term financial stability.

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Figure 9: Income and Expenditure: 2024-2025 and 2023-2024

7.2 Grants and Contract Income

Income from grants, which represented the primary source of funds for the Charity, experienced a material decline this financial year. This was indicative of an increasingly competitive landscape and the scarcity in grant funding opportunities for small charities. A freelance professional fundraiser was recruited to help the Charity pursue more grant funding opportunities. We submitted several grant applications and, while none were successful this time, we are reviewing the outcomes and developing a revised strategy for the next funding cycles.

The lack of successful applications resulted in a 11.32% decline in grants and contracts income, bringing the current year-end total to £545,857 compared to the previous year total of £615,541. We are currently refining our strategy to diversify our income streams for the coming year.

The Trustees are profoundly grateful for the continued partnership of our key funders. Their sustained support over several years has directly enabled us to deliver life-changing outcomes across our core projects. Our heartfelt thanks go to the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Samworth Foundation, Henry Smith Foundation, Manchester City Council, Manchester Youth Justice Board , City Bridge Foundation, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and AB Charitable Trust.

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Figure 10: Total Grant and Contract Income 2024-2025

7.3 Fund Analysis

At the close of the financial year on 30 June 2025, the Charity’s total funds held in reserves stood at £286,970 (2023-2024: £447,970). Of this total, £117,418 (2023-2024: £207,666) consisted of restricted funds dedicated to specific projects as directed by our donors, while £169,552 (2023-2024: £240,304) represented our unrestricted funds. This meant the Charity’s unrestricted reserves fell by £70,752 this year, representing a 29.44% year-on-year decline.

The draw down unrestricted reserves was instrumental in maintaining the Charity’s resilience in the advent of unexpected funding challenges experienced during the year. By drawing on these funds, we successfully stabilised our operations to ensure the vital support our service users rely on remained relatively unaffected throughout the year.

Trustees resolved to carry out a comprehensive cost-reduction programme early in the next financial year to further stabilise the charity’s finances while expecting to receive new funding injection to help meet operational and programme costs.

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In accordance with our reserves policy, the trustees will continue to monitor these levels regularly to maintain alignment with our strategic objectives.

Note 14 to the financial statement shows a more detailed breakdown of the movement of funds, which includes a breakdown of restricted funds attributable to each funder.

Figure 11: Grant and Contract Income Vs Self-Generated Income and Donations: 2024-2025 and 2023-2024

7.4 Self-Generated Income

Aside the reduction in grant funding availability, there was a noted reduction in income generated internally from our services. This was also indicative of the challenges many local authorities are experiencing in funding social care, which has forced many local authorities to reduce their commissioning of the voluntary sector to remain within statutory spending limits. As a result, referrals into our child protection services reduced drastically from local authorities across the UK, which included our training programme for professionals, healing and reconciliation service, child protection family support service.

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Total funds generated internally from these activities this year were £204,043 (2023-2024: 238,034) which constitutes 27.70% of total income (2023-2024: 27.67%).

The Board of Trustees wishes to express its deepest gratitude for the tireless efforts and invaluable contributions of our staff, supporters and volunteers. The diverse and often innovative approaches have provided the vital momentum needed to sustain our work and serve our community.

Figure 12: Self-Generated Income: 2024-2025

7.5 Achieving Sustainability

Trustees have put in place plans for the new fiscal year to engage with our current funders to explore options for accessing emergency financial support if necessary and/or repurposing existing project grants into core funds. We hoped that this vital support would help to sustain the Charity's operations in the coming year. Other key initiatives included the recruitment of an external fundraiser to enhance our grant application success rate, full cost recovery to ensure all grants could help meet operational/running costs, more marketing of our services to generate increased referrals, plans for a comprehensive review of our staffing profile and a major financial review aimed at achieving a 30%

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reduction in running costs by the end of the next financial year in June 2026. This cost-saving strategy also included plans to transition to more cost-effective office space, making necessary redundancies, managing workforce size through attrition, and securing better value alternatives for various services.

7.6 Staffing, IT Infrastructure and Operations

We had fifteen full time staff members and one part time staff in post at the end of June 2025. Team members split their time between the office and working from home as part of our ongoing hybrid schedule. We ensured consistent communication and professional development through a schedule of bi-monthly staff meetings and weekly peer learning activities for specific cohorts.

We held our first team retreat in Belfast from 6-9 July 2024. The event allowed staff in both offices and trustees to interact on a more personal level. This open dialogue fostered trust and made it easier to share ideas, collaborate effectively and ensured everyone was aligned on the Charity’s core mission, vision, values, and future direction.

Also in July 2024, we invited our group pension provider – Royal London to provide training to staff on their pension and how it is run. The session provided opportunities for staff to ask questions about how their pension is calculated, the benefits of increased monthly contributions and how to draw down on their pension at retirement. We also invited an investment expert to provide an independent training session to staff on Investing in Stocks and Shares to promote personal financial growth. In September 2024 we invited a trainer to train our staff on Vicarious Trauma, in view of the risks to staff based on our in-depth and extensive work on child abuse, modern slavery and exploitation. In December 2024, we had our second Well-being Day and our two offices were closed to enable staff rest and recover from work. Staff in both offices held their Christmas/End of Year dinner in December 2024.

The charity experienced some threats to our work as a result of the summer 2024 racist riots and our offices were closed for two weeks to protect staff and service users. We continued to support service users living in hotel accommodation who experienced racist threats and attacks. The charity itself also experienced direct racist attack in November 2024 when an online event we organised was hacked with racist messaging displayed on screen, causing significant trauma for participants. Reports to the Police were not followed up and the case was subsequently closed.

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We signed a new three year lease on our London office at the end of March 2025. During the year the Charity continued to operate with a stable and well established IT environment, with no significant changes to core systems.

Google Workspace remained the primary platform for business communications and collaboration. This included email, calendar services and Google Drive, which were used to store and manage organisational data such as documents and media files. Security controls remained in place, including enforced two step authentication across accounts.

We carried out a review of Zoom configuration during the year. Security settings were assessed and improved in line with guidance published by Zoom to reduce risk and improve meeting security.

Accounting and payroll systems continued to be provided through Sage. These services were hosted on a virtual computer within Microsoft Azure. The Azure environment, including the security and management of the virtual device, is provided and supported by a third party organisation.

Overall, the IT environment remained appropriate for the size and operational needs of the Charity, with security controls maintained and reviewed where relevant.

7.7 Reserves Policy

The Trustees reviewed the Charity’s reserves policy and determined that despite all efforts, the charity did not meet the minimum required level of unrestricted reserves or “free reserves” at 25% of the year’s expenditure. In the course of the year, the Trustees had to draw down on the charity’s reserves to help bridge gaps in funding for core activities. The Charity's policy remained continuing to increase the level of unrestricted reserves while taking a cautious approach to increasing expenditure, so as not to endanger our ability to deliver core services in a sustainable way.

7.8 Risk Management

The Trustees established a register of the major strategic, business, financial and operational risks to which the Charity was exposed, and confirmed that the control systems designed to respond to the risks were assessed and reviewed regularly during the year by the Board of Trustees. The Trustees believed that by monitoring the level of reserves, ensuring controls exist over key financial systems,

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and by regularly examining the operational and business risk faced by the Charity, they are satisfied that risk management is being undertaken appropriately and that effective systems and procedures are in place to mitigate those risks.

8: Plans for the Future: Financial Year 2025-2026

Strong efforts would be made in the coming year to help sustain the charity through increased income levels and reduction in the charity’s expenditure. Plans include:

Repurposing project grants into core grants where project is not achieving the intended outcomes. We will do this through engagement with funders and seek their approval for this purpose.
Increase grant income by recruiting a new independent fundraiser to increase our capacity to fundraise and enhance our success rate through submission of good quality funding proposals to funders
Achieving a 30% reduction in our yearly running costs through significant cost cutting exercise, including moving to a much cost effective office space in Manchester when current lease expires in October 2025 and a review of our staffing profile, leading to staff cuts where necessary or possible.
Ensure full cost recovery to ensure all grants could help meet operational/running costs
Conduct more marketing of our services to generate increased referrals
Plans to seek emergency funding from current funders, if necessary

9. Auditors

Goldwins Limited Chartered Accountants and Registered Auditor will be proposed for reappointment in accordance with Section 485 of the Companies Act 2006.

10. Statement of the Trustees’ Responsibilities

The Trustees are responsible for preparing the report of the Trustees and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law.

REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

AFRUCA — SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view 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 Board which is supported by the Trustees Finance and Audit Committee is required to:

Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently 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. - And to prepare the financial statements on a going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue to operate. The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper 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.

As far as the Trustees are aware:

There is no audit information of which the charitable company’s auditors are unaware. - They have taken all reasonable steps to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditors are aware of that information.
The Trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company's website.
This report has been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice; Accounting and Reporting by Charities and in accordance with the special provisions of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small entities.

Approved by the Trustees Board on 21 January 2026 and signed on their behalf by: ahair of the Board of Trustees

Independent auditors’ report to the trustees of AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of AFRUCA – Safeguarding Children (the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 30 June 2025 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of 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:

give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company’s affairs as at 30 June 2025 and of its income and expenditure for the year then ended;
have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice;
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 FRCʼs 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 directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Independent auditors’ report to the trustees of AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditorʼs report thereon. 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.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, 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 audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. 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.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

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
the trustees’ report (incorporating the directors’ 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 Trustees’ Annual 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:

adequate accounting records have not been kept or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us;
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns;
certain disclosures of trusteesʼ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
we have not obtained all the information and explanations necessary for the purposes of our audit.

Independent auditors’ report to the trustees of AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

Responsibilities of the trustees

As explained more fully in the trusteesʼ responsibilities statement, the trustees 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 they 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.

Our 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 auditorʼs 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 extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud are set out below.

In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:

We enquired of management, which included obtaining and reviewing supporting documentation, concerning the charitable company's policies and procedures relating to:
Detecting and responding to the risks of fraud and whether they have knowledge of any actual, suspected, or alleged fraud;
The internal controls established to mitigate risks related to fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations.
We inspected the minutes of meetings of those charged with governance.
We reviewed the financial statement disclosures and tested these to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
In addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, we tested the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments, assessed whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias and tested significant transactions that are unusual or those outside the normal course of business.

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. 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 for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Councilʼs website at: [www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities]. This description forms part of our auditorʼs report.

Independent auditors’ report to the trustees of AFRUCA – SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, 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 charitable company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditorʼs 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 members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

A Ah omy Epton

Anthony Epton (Senior Statutory Auditor) for and on behalf of Goldwins Limited Statutory Auditor Chartered Accountants 75 Maygrove Road West Hampstead London NW6 2EG Date: 22 January 2026

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

(incorporating Income and Expenditure Account & Statement of Total Realised Gains and Losses) For the year ended 30 June 2025

Unrestricted General Funds Note 2025 £ INCOME FROM Donations 2 788 Grants and Contracts 2 63,098 Charitable Activities 3 204,043 4 3,078 TOTAL INCOME 271,007 EXPENDITURE ON: Raising Funds 27,216 5 363,553 TOTAL EXPENDITURE 390,769 (119,762) Transfer Between Funds 13 70,817 NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS (48,945) RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS TOTAL FUNDS AT 1 JULY 2024 218,497 TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD 169,552 Net income/(expenditure) Investment Income Charitable Activities:	Unrestricted Restricted Designated Funds Funds 2025 2025 £ £ - - - 482,759 - - - -	Total Funds 2025 £ 788 545,857 204,043 3,078	Total Funds 2024 £ 4,644 615,541 238,034 2,177
271,007	- 482,759	753,766	860,396
	- - - 523,997	27,216 887,550	20,861 742,971
390,769	- 523,997	914,766	763,832
	- (41,238) (21,807) (49,010) (21,807) (90,248) 21,807 207,666	(161,000) - (161,000)	96,564 - 96,564
218,497		447,970	351,406
169,552	- 117,418	286,970	447,970

All of the above results are derived from continuing activities. There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. The attached notes form part of these financial statements.

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

BALANCE SHEET

As at 30 June 2025

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|||||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |Notes|2025|2024| |£|£|£|-£| |FIXED ASSETS| |Tangible|Assets|10|9,399|17,346| |CURRENT|ASSETS|,| |Debtors|11|147,576|130,243| |Cash|at Bank|and|in|Hand|159,251|338,714| |306,827|468,957| |CREDITORS:|amounts|falling|due| |within|one year|12|(29,256)|(38,333)| |NET CURRENT ASSETS|277,571|430,624| |TOTAL NET ASSETS|286,970|447,970| |FUNDS| |Restricted|Funds|13|117,418|207,666| |Unrestricted|Funds:| |Designated|Funds:|13|-|21,807| |General|Unrestricted|Funds:|13|169,552|218,497| |169,552|240,304| |TOTAL FUNDS|286,970|447,970|

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The financial statements were approved, and authorised for issue, by the Board of Trustees on 21 January 2026 and signed on their behalf by:-

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jy
dhir Sethi
stee
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Company registration no. 04306536

The attached notes form part of the financial statements.

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS For the year ended 30 June 2025

	Note		2025		2024	2024
		£		£	£	£
Cash flows from operating activities:
Net cash provided by / (used in) operating activities	15		(178,574)			159,500
Cash flows from investing activities:
Sale/ (purchase) of fixed assets		(889)			(2,646)
Cash provided by / (used in) investing activities				(889)		(2,646)
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year			(179,463)			156,854
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year			338,714			181,860
Cash and cash equivalents at the year end	16			159,251		338,714

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

For the year ended 30 June 2025

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

The principal accounting policies are summarised below: The accounting policies have been applied consistently throughout the year and preceding year.

Basis of preparation of financial statements

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing the accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102 - effective 1 January 2015) - (Charities SORP FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

Public benefit entity

The charitable company meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

Going concern

The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charity's ability to continue as a going concern.

Income

Income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds: this is when any performance conditions attached to the income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received, and that the amount can be measured reliably.

Income is only deferred when: The donor specifies that the grant or donation must only be used in future accounting periods; or for performance related grants, where these are received in advance of the performances or specific event to which they relate.

Interest receivable

Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the bank.

Fund accounting

Restricted funds are to be used for specific purposes as laid down by the donor. Expenditure which meets these criteria is charged to the fund.

Unrestricted funds are donations and other incoming resources received or generated for the charitable purposes. Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular purposes.

Designated funds have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for the purpose of purchasing a property for the charity in Manchester.

Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is considered all to relate to charitable activities and includes the costs of delivering services undertaken to further the purposes of the charity and their associated support costs.

Allocation of support costs

Support and governance costs have been allocated between charitable activities based on estimated staff time. The allocation of support and governance costs is analysed in note 5.

Operating leases

Rental charges are charged on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease.

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

For the year ended 30 June 2025

Tangible fixed assets and depreciation

Tangible fixed assets (excluding investments) are stated at cost less depreciation. Fixed assets with an expected life of more than one year are included at cost and depreciated over four years.

Debtors

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

Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and cash 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.

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 or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.

The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans which are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the year ended 30 June 2025

2. DONATIONS, GRANTS,CONTRACTS

Donations Grants and Contracts: Manchester City Council: Network on Serious Violence & Child Exploitation Modern Slavery PEC: Safehouses (BASNET) Esmee Fairbairn Foundation: Funding Plus Cyber Security and Wellbeing Work Samworth Foundation: Capacity Building for BASNET Members Paul Hamlyn Foundation: Additional Grant for Cyber Security The Henry Smith Charity: Improving Lives and Strengthening Communities Samworth Foundation: Core Funding for BASNET AB Charitable Trust: Modern Slavery/Migration EDI Policy and Research Programme National Institute for Health and Care Research (NHIR): Public Health Participatory Research in BME Communities National Lottery Fund: Safeguarding Black and Minority Ethnic Children Across London AB Charitable Trust: Trauma for Racist Riots AB Charitable Trust: UK BME Anti-Slavery Network 2025 Conference Paul Hamlyn Foundation: Modern Slavery/Migration EDI Policy and Research Programme Manchester City Council: The Phoenix Project - Protecting Young Girls at Risk of Exploitation in The Henry Smith Charity: Child Protection Support Programme for African Families in Gt Manchester City Bridge Foundation: Culturally appropriate Therapy Service for Children being reunified with their birth Parents after a period in the care Manchester City Council: Early Help Parenting Support for Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage Families impacted by County Lines, Exploitation and Youth Violence Manchester Youth Justice Board: Early Help Intervention on Youth Violence in Manchester Esmee Fairbairn Foundation: The UK BME Anti-Slavery Network - to Support Community Organisations working on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery Esmee Fairbairn Foundation: Emotional Wellbeing Grant	Unrestricted Restricted Total Funds Funds Funds 2025 2025 2025 £ £ £ 788 - 788 63,098 - 63,098 - 32,250 32,250 - 46,000 46,000 - - - - 66,000 66,000 - - - - 6,049 6,049 - 68,850 68,850 - 19,700 19,700 - 65,000 65,000 - - - - 30,000 30,000 - 20,000 20,000 - 60,000 60,000 - 1,000 1,000 - 20,000 20,000 - 4,000 4,000 - 3,000 3,000 - 15,910 15,910 - 25,000 25,000	Total Funds 2024 £ 4,644 79,996 37,168 30,552 3,000 66,000 5,000 - 62,100 39,400 70,635 104,990 30,000 - 60,000 - 20,000 - - 6,700 -
	63,886 482,759 546,645	620,185

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the year ended 30 June 2025

3. INCOME FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

3. INCOME FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES
Income from Service Delivery 4. INVESTMENT INCOME Interest receivable from: UK bank accounts 5. ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE Staff Costs Direct Project Costs Premises Costs IT and Communications Costs Audit Costs Other Costs Total Support Costs Governance Costs Total for the Year 2025 Total for the Year 2024	Cost of Raising Funds £ 23,549 - - - - 3,150	Charitable Activities 662,892 70,745 81,726 25,994 - 15,756	Unrestricted Funds 2025 £ 204,043	Restricted Funds 2025 £ -	Total Funds 2025 £ 204,043	Total Funds 2024 £ 238,034
			Unrestricted Funds 2025 £ 3,078	Restricted Funds 2025 £ -	Total Funds 2025 £ 3,078	Total Funds 2024 £ 2,177
			3,078	-	3,078	2,177
			Governance Costs £ 12,081 - - - 4,500 2,770	Support Costs £ 11,603 - - - - -	Total 2025 £ 710,125 70,745 81,726 25,994 4,500 21,676	Total 2024 £ 585,145 63,456 71,671 22,380 4,000 17,180
	26,699 194 323	857,113 11,409 19,028	19,351 (19,351)	11,603 (11,603)	914,766 - -	763,832 - -
	27,216	887,550	-	-	914,766	763,832

	20,861	742,971	-	-		763,832

Of the total expenditure of £914,766 (2024- £763,832), £390,769 (2024 - £209,156) was unrestricted expenditure, and £523,997 (2024 - £554,676) was restricted expenditure.

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

For the year ended 30 June 2025

6. NET INCOME / (EXPENDITURE) Net income / (expenditure) is stated after charging:- Audit fee Depreciation- on owned assets 7. STAFF COSTS AND NUMBERS	2025 £ 3,750 8,836	2024 £ 3,417 10,224

STAFF COSTS AND NUMBERS
Salary costs Wages and salaries Social security costs Pension costs	Total Funds 2025 £ 625,114 58,258 26,753	Total Funds 2024 £ 514,173 47,664 23,308
	710,125	585,145

The average weekly number of staff on a head count basis was 18 (2024 - 18). The average number of staff on a full time equivalent basis was17 (2024 - 17).

The total employee benefits including employer's pension and national insurance contributions of the two key management personnel were £140,662 (2024 - £134,762).

8. TRUSTEES' REMUNERATION AND EXPENSES

None of the trustees received any remuneration for acting as trustee (2024- the same), and none of the trustees received any payments for services rendered to the charity (2024 - the same).

During the year, no trustee was reimbursed out of pocket expenses (2024- Nil).

9. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

There are no related party transactions to disclose for 2025 (2024 - none).

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

For the year ended 30 June 2025

10. TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

Fixtures, fittings, and computers £ 58,614 889 -	Office equipment £ 4,043 - -	Total £ 62,657 889 -
59,503	4,043	63,546
42,370 8,315 -	2,941 521 -	45,311 8,836 -
50,685	3,462	54,147
16,244	1,102	17,346
8,818	581	9,399
	2025 £ 127,902 14,401 5,273	2024 £ 106,729 14,401 9,113
	147,576	130,243
	2025 £ 6,921 14,078 4,444 3,813	2024 £ 12,530 15,287 5,534 4,982
	29,256	38,333

11. DEBTORS

12. CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the year ended 30 June 2025

13. STATEMENT OF FUNDS

Brought Forward £ 40,824 3,000 - 14,926 9,254 19,160 - 9,125 49,737 21,400 10,995 - 23,648 5,597 - - -	Income & gains £ 66,000 - 11,049 68,850 19,700 - 32,250 46,000 - 65,000 30,000 20,000 60,000 20,000 25,000 3,000 15,910	Expenditure & losses £ (64,126) (3,000) (11,049) (70,576) (28,954) - (32,250) (46,725) (49,737) (56,550) (28,895) (7,800) (63,428) (16,997) (25,000) (3,000) (15,910)	Transfers £ - - - - - (19,160) - - - (29,850) - - - - - - -	Carried Forward £ 42,698 - - 13,200 - - - 8,400 - - 12,100 12,200 20,220 8,600 - - -
207,666	482,759	(523,997)	(49,010)	117,418
21,807 218,497	- 271,007	- (390,769)	(21,807) 70,817	- 169,552
240,304	271,007	(390,769)	49,010	169,552

447,970	753,766	(914,766)	-	286,970

Purpose of restricted funds

Restricted funds are funds generated in the form of donations and grants to carry out the work of a specific project. The use of these funds are subject to restrictions on their expenditure imposed by the donor or through the terms of the appeal. Purposes of restricted funds are given alongside the names.

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

For the year ended 30 June 2025

Transfers between funds

Following approval received in September 2025 from the City Bridge Foundation, a restricted fund balance on 30th June 2025 and the remainder of the grant for the 'Culturally Appropriate Therapy Service for Children being Re-unified with their Birth Parents after a Period of Care' was released from its restriction and converted to a core cost grant for the charity's general purposes. Consequently, a sum of £29,850 was transferred from the restricted balance at 30th June 2025 to the unrestricted general fund. This transfer is permitted by the funder's explicit agreement, allowing the funds to be applied to the general charitable objectives of the organisation.

During the year, the trustees reviewed the need for the designated property fund of £21,807 set aside for a potential property purchase in Manchester for the charity. Following this review, it was determined that the funds were no longer required for this specific purpose at this time. Consequently, the trustees resolved to un-designate this amount, transferring it back to the general unrestricted funds to be utilised for the general charitable purposes of the charity

14. ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BETWEEN FUNDS

ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BETWEEN FUNDS
Tangible fixed assets Net current assets	Unrestricted Funds Designated Funds £ - -	Unrestricted Funds General Funds £ 4,880 164,672	Restricted Funds £ 4,519 112,899	Total Funds £ 9,399 277,571
	-	169,552	117,418	286,970

15. RECONCILIATION OF NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE) TO NET CASH FLOW FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES

RECONCILIATION OF NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE) TO NET CASH FLOW FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES
Net income / (expenditure) for the reporting period (as per statement of financial activities) Depreciation (increase)/decrease in debtors increase/(decrease) in creditors Net cash provided by / (used in) operating activities	2025 £ (161,000) 8,836 (17,333) (9,077)	2024 £ 96,564 10,224 45,143 7,569
	(178,574)	159,500

16. ANALYSIS OF CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS

At 1 July 2024 £ 338,714	Cash flows £ (179,463) .	Other charges £ -	At 30 June 2025 £ 159,251
338,714	(179,463)	-	159,251
		2025 £ 60,607 94,262	2024 £ 49,998 7,652
		154,869	57,650

17. OPERATING LEASE COMMITMENTS

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

For the year ended 30 June 2025

18. LEGAL STATUS AND OTHER INFORMATION

AFRUCA - Safeguarding Children is a charitable company limited by guarantee, registered in England with registration number 4306536. Its registered office address is Unit 8, 290 Mare Street, London, E8 1HE. The accounts are presented in GBP rounded to £1. Each member is liable to contribute a sum not exceeding £1 in the event of the charity being wound up.

19. TAXATION

The charitable company is exempt from corporation tax as all its income is charitable and is applied for charitable purposes.

20. STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR COMPARATIVE PERIOD

INCOME FROM Donations Grants and Contracts Charitable Activities Investment Income TOTAL INCOME EXPENDITURE ON: Raising Funds TOTAL EXPENDITURE NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS TOTAL FUNDS AT 1 JULY 2023 TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD Charitable Activities: Net income/(expenditure)	Unrestricted Unrestricted Restricted Total General Funds Designated Funds Funds Funds 2024 2024 2024 2024 4,644 - - 4,644 - - 615,541 615,541 238,034 - - 238,034 2,177 - - 2,177 -
	244,855 - 615,541 860,396
	20,861 - - 20,861 188,295 - 554,676 742,971
	209,156 - 554,676 763,832
	35,699 - 60,865 96,564 35,699 - 60,865 96,564
	182,798 21,807 146,801 351,406
	218,497 21,807 207,666 447,970

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

CONTENTS

AFRUCA - SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

a. Governing document

b. Recruitment and Appointment of Management Committee

c. Organisational structure

d. Related party relationships

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

OBJECTIVES

e. Public benefit

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

f. Going Concern

1. Review of Activities

1. Introduction

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

2. Child Protection and Family Support Service

2.1 Prevention – Community Engagement Programme and Training Programme for Professionals

“I liked how the training challenged cultural practices like beating children”

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

2.2 Prevention – Training Programme for Professionals Working with Black and Ethnic Children

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

Future Plans

2.3 Early and Crisis Intervention - Positive Parenting Service

“I wished we were able to access the support earlier to avoid the stress and difficulty we

experienced as a family”

Demography of Service Users

Figure 2: Pie Chart Showing Parent’s Ethnicities 2024-2025

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

Referrals

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

Nature of Positive Parenting Work

Figure 4: Types of Abuse We Covered

Making A Difference

Feedback

2.4 Early and Crisis Intervention - Child Protection Advocacy Pilot Project

2.5 Rehabilitation – Family Healing and Reconciliation Service

3 Child Exploitation and Youth Violence Programme

3.1 AFRUCA’s Early Help Support For Families At Risk of Exploitation and Youth Violence

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025

3.2. The REVIVE Project – Working with Young Men and Boys At Risk of Exploitation

“I just want to do music and prosper”

(IA – REVIVE Project Service User)

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Key Achievements

Figure 5: Outcomes Achieved

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Demography

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– Examples of our interventions Impact Stories

JI – Leaving a Risky Peer Group

FB – Rebuilding Identity

LH – Breaking Through with Education

IDJ – The Power of Connection

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IA – Finding Hope Through Music

3. Lessons Learned

Engagement

Delivery

Partnerships

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Understanding Young People

Challenges

Reflections

3.3 Manchester Network on Serious Violence and Child Exploitation

Summary of Activities since Last Meeting

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Requests & Points for Collaboration

Looking Ahead

4 Addressing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the UK Modern Slavery Sector: The UK BME AntiSlavery Network (BASNET)

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4.1 BASNET Projects, Events and Activities

BASNET Modern Slavery Research Residential Programme

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BASNET Labour Exploitation Consortium