OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

← East European Resource Centre

2024-03-31-accounts

East European Resource Centre

(A company limited by guarantee)

Report of the EERC Trustees for the year ending 31 March 2024 Financial Statement Year ending 31 March 2024

Charity number 1114607 Company number 05617439

East European Resource Centre

Company Information

Status

East European Resource Centre has charitable status and is a company limited by guarantee and not having a share capital.

Directors

Gera Drymer (Chair) Vez Pawluczyk (Vice-chair) Brian Reed (Secretary) Elizabeth Vadillo (Treasurer) Krystyna Bell

Senior staff

Barbara Drozdowicz Chief Executive Officer Esther McConnell Deputy CEO Florina Tudose Advocacy Programme Manager Malgorzata Pakulska Advice Programme Manager Nazan Ozgur Immigration Programme Manager Urszula Skiba Outreach & Gateway Programme Manager Aleksandra Kowalska Legal Counsel

Principal address

Room 18 238-246 King Street London W6 0RF

Bankers

NatWest CAF Bank 22 Kings Mall 25 Kings Hill Avenue Hammersmith West Malling London Kent W6 0QD ME19 4JQ

Auditors

Brookfield & Co 18 Concanon Road London SW2 5TA

Registered number 05617439

Charity Registration Number 1114607

OISC No.

F201500954

2 | P a g e

East European Resource Centre

Registered number: 05617439

Directors’ Report

Foreword

The EERC Trustees are pleased to present their Annual Directors’ Report for the year ending 31 March 2024. The report is presented together with the financial statement and balance sheet of the charity which was prepared to meet the requirements for a directors’ report and accounts for Companies Act purposes.

The financial statement and balance sheet complies with the Charities Act 2011, the Companies Act 2006, the Memorandum and Articles of Association, and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2015).

Chair’s Report

The year ending 31 March 2024 was yet another year devoted entirely on supporting our most disadvantaged members of Eastern European migrant family in London and beyond. Our priorities are centred on independent and healthy living; safe migration, housing and work; and fair access to statutory services and justice.

In the reporting period our concern was focused on impoverished users still experiencing lingering effects of the cost of living crisis, evacuees from the war in Ukraine, users who required ongoing support to access appropriate immigration statuses, women fleeing domestic violence, and fellow Eastern Europeans who had experienced hate incidents. I am proud that we met our objectives as required by our most disadvantaged beneficiaries, and that foundations laid in the years previous proved to be stable to build on in years ahead of us.

Service delivery and user frontline

In this reporting period, our work focused on three main areas: preventing loss of livelihood and homelessness, protecting victims of victims of violence against women and girls, and supporting community members to obtain an immigration status. After many years of focussing on the 2004/7 EU extension nationals, we returned to supporting all Eastern European migrants as a result of strategic decision we had taken after the start of the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian, Belarussian and Russian nationals have been successfully mainstreamed into target user group not only thanks to our tailored services but also vigorous outreach.

==> picture [489 x 167] intentionally omitted <==

----- Start of picture text -----
New unique users - langauge profile
2021/22
2022/23
2023/24
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Polish Romanian Ukrainian Russian English Lithuanian Bulgarian
Hungarian Slovak Czech Latvian Belarusian Slovenian Unspecified
----- End of picture text -----

3 | P a g e

==> picture [489 x 691] intentionally omitted <==

----- Start of picture text -----
New unique users - age
2021-22
2022-23
2023-24
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
0 - 16 17 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 49 50 - 64 65+ Unspecified
New unique user - gender
2021-22
2022-23
2023-24
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Female Male Unspecified
User profile - household income
1
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
£0 £1 - £6,000 £6,001 - £10,000 £10,001 - £15,000 £15,001 - £20,000
£20,001 - £25,000 £30,001 - £40,000 £40,001 + Unspecified
User profile - housing situation
2023-24
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Private Tenant Insecure / Dependant Social Tenant Rough Sleeper Sofa Surfer Home Owner Unspecified
User profile - economic activity
2023-24
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Unemployed Employed Self-employed Unfit for Work Retired Student Other Unspecified
----- End of picture text -----

4 | P a g e

==> picture [489 x 121] intentionally omitted <==

----- Start of picture text -----
User profile - disability and health
2023-24
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Mental Health, Learning Difficulty, Addiction Physical Disability and Long-term Illness Other None
----- End of picture text -----

The above graphs present data that paints a grim picture. Our users tend to be impoverished, with very low incomes covering living costs in privately rented housing. Even though nearly a quarter of our users struggle with long-term ill health, disabilities and learning difficulties, only a half of this group receives social welfare that allow them to stay afloat. Nearly a quarter are in insecure housing situation, with the homeless and sofa-surfers constituting the majority of this group. The majority of users are people who are mostly at work or job-seeking, with 7 in 10 being under the retirement age although this profile has been changing, with increasingly aging user profile accessing our service. Our active outreach and inventive operations management resulted in significant diversification of ethnic/linguistic user base thus making our charity a true voice of the Eastern European family in London and beyond. Nearly 20% of our users live outside of London, which is an indication of the reputation we have developed over the years across the UK.

Gender data tells yet another story. Since the year previous, we have been observing the increasing proportion of women accessing our services. This is explained by the development of our women-only DV services but also a unique profile of Ukraine evacuees, who in our experience tend to be women, and very often – mothers who care for their children and sometimes elderly parents while striving to find and keep jobs that cover living costs and rents in private rented housing. Our casework data informs us also that the welfare situation of women whom we supported to recover from domestic abuse worsened significantly – we believe this is due to complicated immigration situations women had found themselves after fleeing abusive relationships as immigration status is often an instrument of coercion and control. These women are often deprived of assets and income upon leaving relationships, and not eligible for state social welfare until complex casework is performed on their behalf.

It may explain why indicators of household income, insecure housing and declining health situation are coupled with change in the gender profile. We believe that Eastern European poverty and vulnerability has a gendered face and our work shows that.

In the reporting period, our outputs were as follows:

To address essential needs of our most destitute users, this year we continued distributing direct financial aid from our crisis fund that has been fed by donations from individual donors. We have also distributed nearly £5,000 worth of food vouchers to destitute families. The fund has been an additional resource specifically designed to support users in critical situation, in destitution and homelessness.

5 | P a g e

I would like to thank our frontline staff and volunteers for their relentless efforts in reaching out and supporting the most disadvantaged Eastern Europeans. I would also like to thank funders who provided resources and other support that allowed us to operate and grow. We give special thanks to our supporters for their donations that contributed to our fundraising appeals.

Policy, representation and good practice development

Our frontline work feeds into social policy influencing that aims to make changes to British policies thus improving complex systems and enhance users’ independence in taking own action. To achieve the systems change, we have over years developed strong position and personal recognition of our key staff, in particular the CEO Barbara Drozdowicz, Deputy CEO Esther McConnell and the Programme Managers among the local, regional and national levels of government. This connectedness secures a seat at tables of crucial policymakers and agents of change.

We continued consistent engagement with the policy makers, and among them Home Office (UK Immigration & Visas, National Community Engagement Team), the EU Delegation, the Greater London Authority where we are a voluntary sector representative for the London Strategic Migration Partnership, London Councils. Our focus had been firmly placed on influencing positive change in EU Settled Status process, Ukrainian humanitarian response, accessing social welfare and housing services for our constituent migrant cohorts, and highlighting gaps in provision for very vulnerable, disabled and frail migrant Eastern Europeans.

We retained the lead in feeding to the government and regional policies relating the Ukraine war evacuees, and among others we worked with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (in charge of housing solutions for this cohort), the Department for Work and Pensions, and the NHS in regard to accessing essential health services and infant vaccination. We also worked with other decision-makers relevant to the welfare and wellbeing of Eastern Europeans, among them the Domestic Violence Commissioner where we sit on the migrant advisory panel, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime in relation to violence against women and girls as well as hate crime, and the justice system. We also worked closely with colleagues associated in Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association on influencing changes within immigration systems, in particular those relating to Europeans (pre- and post-Brexit arrivals) as well as family and private life.

A big step in building our influencing capacity and progressing migrant worker agenda had been a secondment of our deputy CEO, Esther McConnell in the Greater London Authority. The secondment, funded by Trust for London, aims to strengthen collaborative work to promote worker and victim-centred policy making that addresses the policies and practices that enable exploitation or undermine its prevention; and to strengthen the GLA’s understanding, skills and relationships to prevent and address the spectrum of exploitative working practices in London. In this reporting period, Esther focused on commissioning the building of capacity of the advice sector to support exploited migrant workers, and to mainstream findings of research she had led on commissioning in previous year. Initial evaluation showed a shift in the delivery of employment rights for migrants in London, and that the labour exploitation work achieved a high profile across the GLA with other teams looking to the secondees for expertise. This activity ends in November 2024. Esther’s work also made the case in the GLA for significant investment in rights advice for migrants (the Migrant Advice and Support Fund).

In this reporting period, we invested time and energy in the good practice development. Our particular focus had been on migrant populations accessing accurate and timely services. Among the notable developments are: maintaining the seat at the advisory panel to the Refugee Action Insight Hub – a national collaboration of migrant and refugee organisations across the UK, with the mandate of sharing good practice, coordinating response to practice and policy developments, and building collective evidence base; cochairing the steering committee of PROPEL-funded Advice Workforce Development Project – a collaborative

6 | P a g e

advice-funding vehicle with the mandate to develop best practice in building capacity of social welfare advice through the recruitment, retention and professional development of advisers, and creating coherent career pathway in social welfare advice; joining a steering group for Ethically Diverse Advice Providers project led by the Advice Services Alliance – an initiative focused on enhancing the capacity of migrant and diaspora advice charities. In terms of victim support, we continued the engagement with the Independent Domestic Violence Commissioner through her migrant advisory committee; London’s Victims Commissioner; Crown Prosecution Service Pan-London Hate Crime Scrutiny Panel; the Met Police hate crime Diamond Group.

Organisational development and sustainability

The reporting period was a period of stability for our charity. Our frontline delivery retained a hybrid character. It was dictated by, mainly, the lingering cost of living crisis that translated to financial stress for users who needed to commute across London to access our services. This was supported by continuous involvement of our community members via digital channels, predominantly social media, but also reinstatement of outreach activities – in the reporting period we organised 40 outreach opportunities to meet our community members.

The focus of user-facing work remained the same: Eastern European migrants who are disadvantaged, excluded and exploited. In this reporting period, we mainstreamed our services for evacuees from war-torn Ukraine to our core advice services, and have started a new activity addressing the needs Ukrainian victims of violence against women and girls, the only such project in the country.

At the very end of the reporting period, we also started a brand-new project that brings us closer to our ambition of expanding access to free and affordable specialist legal advice to disadvantaged and vulnerable Eastern European migrants in London. This has been possible thanks to a generous grant from The Access to Justice Foundation funded by the Lottery, and which secures five years of work towards establishing a specialist legal advice and representation centre within our charity.

In terms of sustainability, we enjoyed a stable year but we also invested considerable time and effort to secure ongoing funding beyond 2023/24. Over the months of the reporting year, we applied to and secured grants that allow us to enjoy stability and continuity of all our services for Financial Year 2024/25 and most 2025/26. It gives us a breathing space to review our work and systems in the coming year – this strategic review is planned for the FY 2024/25 and will pave the way to potential new business model combining broad range of legal advice and advocacy services that are free for the most disadvantaged and affordable for all other of our community members. We also raised modest donations that contributed to our emergency appeals, for which we are deeply grateful.

Taking everything into consideration – the ongoing immigration change, the cost-of-living crisis, and the impact of war in Ukraine – the year was a success that contributes to ongoing quality and consistency of our work.

On Behalf of the Board of Trustees

Gera Drymer, EERC Chair

12 December 2024

7 | P a g e

About Us

EERC Purpose

The purpose of East European Resource Centre is to relieve poverty among East Europeans and advance education, employment and awareness of rights and responsibilities.

EERC Mission

Our mission is to provide voice and resources to Eastern European migrants who experience poverty, exploitation and social exclusion in order to enable them to make choices about their lives and realize their potential as equal members of communities.

Through our mission we want to achieve a threefold impact for Eastern Europeans :

  1. independent and healthy living

  2. safe migration, housing and work

  3. equitable access to statutory services and the justice system

Our Approach

Our mission, vision, planned impact, aims and objectives are enshrined in a strategy that is underpinned by workload-based evidence, horizon scanning, and consultation with users and stakeholders. These three elements are major contributors to our service delivery and future planning. We recognize that the external environment is in constant flux. To remain relevant, we strive to be a learning, adaptive organization not only responding to needs, but foreseeing them and planning to mitigate some adverse impacts of changes on our target users, as well as broader communities they are part of.

Summary of our aims and objectives

Our Aims :

  1. Eastern European Londoners to have improved chances in life and better quality of life through increased knowledge, skills and resilience;

  2. Eastern European Londoners to have improved voice and to be integrated in the British society, with opportunities to participate in and influence their local communities;

  3. Public agencies, service providers and the general public to have increased understanding of needs of Eastern European Londoners and are more accessible to all.

We achieve our aims through the following Objectives :

8 | P a g e

Below graphs present statistical data on interactions and support plans (cases) per Programme. Programmes are: Advice – welfare, housing, general, debt; Immigration – EUSS, Ukraine, family and private life; Advocacy – domestic abuse, hate crime; and Outreach & Gateway – initial assessments, helplines, events.

==> picture [477 x 183] intentionally omitted <==

----- Start of picture text -----
Interactions per Programme Support Plans per Programme
25%
33%
Advice 39% 38% Advice
Immigration Immigration
Advocacy Advocacy
Helplines Helplines
20%
22% 10% 14%
----- End of picture text -----

Below graphs present statistical data on access to work areas per unique user and the average number of interactions per user across the organisation. Please note that work areas are not identical to Programmes – many work areas, like housing, welfare and immigration, emerge in all our Programmes.

==> picture [239 x 209] intentionally omitted <==

----- Start of picture text -----
Unique users per work area
800 737
700
600
500
400 393 345 310
300
200 134
100 56 53 38 32 9 8 4
0
----- End of picture text -----

==> picture [236 x 209] intentionally omitted <==

----- Start of picture text -----
Interactions per unique user
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
----- End of picture text -----

==> picture [477 x 192] intentionally omitted <==

----- Start of picture text -----
Interactions by work area Interactions by area - helplines only
952
4500 4047 1000
4000 900
3500 800 643
3000 700
600
2500
1792 [1897] 500 394
2000 353
400
15001000500 909 877 571 154 129 87 30 14 14 300200100 103 66 21 19 11 10 3
0 0
----- End of picture text -----

9 | P a g e

Below graph presents statistical spread of types of interactions by which users accessed services across the organisation and the dynamics of change across the most recent three years.

Interactions with users by type of interaction

==> picture [471 x 108] intentionally omitted <==

----- Start of picture text -----
2021-22
2022-23
2023-24
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Face-to-Face Drop-in Email/Communicators Telephone Enquiry Only Casework Other interactions
----- End of picture text -----

Please note that some of our services, most notably Domestic Violence, accept referrals from generalist settings and therefore may not be pronounced in helpline statistics. Increased averages of interactions per work area indicate that caseload had become more complex, requiring longer and more sustained engagement with users. We are particularly concerned by statistics relating Hate Crime, with over 10 interactions per case needed to provide support to users – it’s broadly in line with the change of recorded hate crimes in our caseload, with 9 in 10 taking place in the sustained manner in neighbourhood context and not as one-off or opportunistic incidents.

Interestingly, the dynamics in terms of type of interaction shows the lasting impact of lockdowns but also increased unaffordability of transport, by which users prefer remote modes of communication with our teams.

We also believe that there might have been a positive shift in the adoption of digital communications – in particular email and communicators such as WhatsApp – among all our user cohorts; it’s a promising sign in the view of all public systems becoming increasingly digital. Digital literacy still remains an issue for a large section of our constituents, and the more impoverished or destitute the segment of users, the more likely that digital literacy is additionally affected by IT poverty (lack of smartphones and laptops).

Our key activities over the year included :

➢ Advice Programme

The programme supported disadvantaged, marginalized and excluded members of Eastern European community who were affected by the cost-of-living crisis, evacuees from the war in Ukraine, and those who required support by the virtue of ongoing ill-health, disability and frailty.

The primary areas of advice and assistance in the reported period were: welfare benefits, housing and homelessness, debt, accessing health, food and fuel poverty.

Overall 638 support plans were opened in this reporting period. This number comprised of 3,465 interactions.

➢ Advocacy Programme

The programme provides victim support and advocacy for Eastern European community members whose welfare, wellbeing and life is at risk. In this reporting period we delivered two victim support activities: independent domestic violence advocacy and independent hate crime advocacy. In March 2024, we started a new activity: violence against women and girls specifically tailored to the needs of Ukrainian evacuee women and girls; this advocacy will have become operational in FY 2024/25.

10 | P a g e

Overall 159 support plans were opened in this reporting period and these comprised of 2,113 interactions.

➢ Immigration Programme

In the reporting period we maintained provision of individual advice, casework and assistance in applying for the EU Settled Status; provision of ‘aftercare’ to users who have applied previously but were unable to access or use their online status to evidence rights; services for joining family members; services to the members of the Ukraine evacuee population; and we maintained outreach information campaign through digital channels.

Overall 227 support plans were opened in this reporting period and these comprised of 2,354 interactions.

This reporting period was a challenge to us as a fee-charging immigration provider due to very limited capacity of staff and for this reason alone we have temporarily changed our OISC registration to a non-fee charging immigration services provider. Our registration number with the OSIC remains the same.

➢ Outreach and Gateway Programme

In this reporting period, the programme focused on providing excellent helplines provided in six languages (English and Polish, Romanian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Russian). The team also led on outreach: we provided 40 outreach opportunities to meet our community members and the broader support sector, as well as provided extensive digital outreach and information campaigns.

The team also delivered a couple of discreet outreach projects. One of them was a voter ID awareness campaign (together with the Greater London Authority) and an awareness campaign in relation to the vaccination and the general access to public health services in East London, thanks to the generous funding from the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

➢ Policy influencing and good practice

Through CEO, Deputy CEO and Senior Management Team, we seek to use our expert knowledge and experience of supporting disadvantaged Eastern Europeans and other marginalized members of European family in the UK to influence national and regional policy, and improve practice in our sector and government. We give evidence to working groups, attend events, respond to consultations, take part in a number of sector forums, and work in formal partnerships.

In the reporting period, in particularly worth mentioning were: the secondment to the Greater London Authority within the Citizens Integration Initiative to further objective related to the migrant labour, and joining the Advice Workforce Development Fund’s steering committee as a co-chair.

In the reporting period we have been active partners in groupings and projects, selection of which is listed below:

11 | P a g e

12 | P a g e

Financial Review

The year ending 31[st] March 2024 was a year of stability of our funding after years of covid and the war in Ukraine disruptions. We succeeded in securing a number of sustainable grants that secured sustainable and continuous delivery to all our four main areas of work; some of our emergency grants were upgraded to regular commitment, for which we are deeply grateful to our funders.

In this reporting period we the split between the statutory (direct and indirect, from central as well as local governments) and independent funding was as follows: 42 pence in a pound from statutory and 58 pence in a pound from independent funders. Among the funders who kindly supported our work in this reporting period were: Home Office, Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, The Greater London Authority, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, The National Lottery Community Fund, Justice Together Initiative, Trust for London, City Bridge Trust, London Community Foundation, Tudor Trust, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, AB Charitable Trust, London Legal Support Trust.

The value of unrestricted income from donations reached £ 4,795.84. As the adverse impact of the cost-ofliving crisis lingered, we decided to ring-fence donations from individual supporters to one-off destitution payments for beneficiaries of our advice and advocacy activities where a small payment was necessary to secure access to food, baby products, house fuel, hospital transport or similar essentials.

Expenditure in the reporting period continued to be focused on frontline delivery, with no asset investment made. Our biggest expenditure represented fixed personnel costs comprising of staff (91%) and all nonpersonnel direct and indirect costs (9%).

Risk management

There were a number of risks identified in the reporting period. Risks related largely to:

13 | P a g e

Plans for the future

Our plans for 2024/25 involve, above all, effective and efficient service delivery and good social return on long-term sustainable funding so that our service continues sustainably and grows in areas that reflect the changing needs of our constituent groups. Financially, the year 2024/25 will have been secured by time of writing this report.

Having said that, due to extensive use of existing available funding streams and in conjunction with our receipt of a brand new funding to develop and embed a law centre within the structure of EERC (and with it, other financing opportunities that come with legal advice and representation, such as Legal Aid Agency contract and fee-charging), we will be embarking on a strategic review. The aim of the review will be refreshing of our business model to stay sustainable and relevant to our communities in the light of their ever-changing needs.

We intend to keep sustained focus on policy change and development of good practice in supporting vulnerable Eastern Europeans, together with social advocacy for Eastern Europeans unable to execute their rights as EU nationals residing in the UK, those who arrive after the Brexit date, and evacuees from Ukraine with their unique sets of needs. As a part of our strategic review, we will further our user and community engagement objectives, outcomes of which will also feed to our policy influencing.

14 | P a g e

EEAC Structure, Governance and Management

Directors and Trustees

The directors of the charitable company (the charity) are its trustees for the purpose of charity law. The trustees serving and staff employed during the year were as follows:

Senior staff
Barbara Drozdowicz Chief Executive Officer
Esther McConnell Deputy CEO
Malgorzata Pakulska Advice Programme Manager
Florina Tudose Advocacy Programme Manager
Nazan Ozgur Immigration Programme Manager
Urszula Skiba Outreach & Gateway Programme Manager
Aleksandra Kowalska Legal Counsel

Governing Document and legal status

The East European Resource Centre (EERC) is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 9 November 2005 and registered as a charity on 6 June 2006. The company was established under the Memorandum of Association, which established the objects and powers of the charitable company and is governed under its Articles of Association. Articles and Memorandum were changed by special resolution registered at Companies House on the 12[th] March 2015 as amended by certificate of incorporation on change of name dated the 17[th] May 2016.

Trustee selection and appointment

The directors of the company are also trustees for the purpose 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 a period of one year and can stand for re-election at the Annual General Meeting. At each Annual General Meeting following the first one, one third of the Directors must retire from office by rotation.

According to the Articles of Association, the Management Committee shall be not less than three, and (unless otherwise determined by ordinary resolution) shall not be subject to any maximum. During the period of this financial statement, the Committee’s membership was reduced from eight to five.

The overall objective of selection is to seek trustees who represent views of the East European population in England, but who can also contribute wider knowledge, experience and expertise.

EERC maintains an updated list of skills, knowledge and expertise offered by members of the Management Committee.

Trustee induction and training

These divide into two types: training and refresher courses which focus on the various roles and responsibilities of members of committees, and familiarisation courses covering topics related to EERC’s work. Each member has a folder consisting of the organisation’s constitution, business plan, latest audited accounts and latest annual report.

New Trustees are asked to spend a period of one or more days at EERC’s offices in order to familiarize themselves with the day-to-day activities of the charity. They also have a one-to-one briefing meeting with the Committee Chair in order to gain knowledge of the Committee’s responsibilities, and those of its members. New committee members are encouraged to join one of the Management Committee’s subgroups.

15 | P a g e

Committee members also attend briefing sessions run by funding bodies.

Organisational structure

The Management Committee oversees the operation of the charitable company and is responsible for the overall policy and strategic direction. The Management Committee has no line-management function and delegates the entire responsibility for operations to the Chief Executive Officer of the organisation. A Chief Executive Officer is appointed by the trustees to manage the day-to-day operations of the charity. To facilitate effective operations, the Chief Executive Officer has delegated authority within terms of delegation approved by trustees. Delegated operational responsibility includes finance, employment and performance matters. The Chief Executive Officer is supported by the Deputy CEO who is responsible for operations, dayto-day organisational matters, and strategic Human Resources management.

The Management Committee meet on average four to six times a year to receive reports on the activities of the Centre from the Chief Executive Officer, and to decide issues of policy. There are sub-committees covering development, membership, finance and audit. These normally meet bi-annually (depending on evolving internal and external matters that require scrutiny) and make recommendations to the full Management Committee on relevant matters.

Related parties

None of our trustees receive remuneration or other benefit from their work with the charity. Any connection between a trustee of the charity with a supplier, a consultant or a contractor must be disclosed to the full board of trustees in the same way as any other contractual relationship with a related party. In the current year no such related party transactions were reported.

All other instances of conflict of interest are treated in line with the EERC Conflict of Interest Policy and other relevant policies and procedures.

Reference and administrative details

Charity number: 1114607

Company number: 05617439

Registered Office: Room 18, 238-246 King Street, London W6 0RF

Our advisers

Auditors: Brookfield & Co, 18 Concanon Road, London SW2 5TA

Bankers: Nat West, 22 Kings Mall, London W6 0QD; CAF Bank, 25 Kings Hill Avenue, West Malling, Kent ME19 4JQ

Reserves Policy

The Trustees of the EERC consider that accumulating reserve funds to enable the organisation to cope with specific unforeseen events, contingencies and opportunities is an essential part of carrying out their duties in overall management of the EERC affairs. They have established a policy whereby the unrestricted funds not committed or invested in tangible fixed assets held by the charity should be 3 months of the expenditure.

In the reporting period, the lingering impact of Covid-19 and of the cost-of-living crisis led the charity to maintain the operational reserves policy in the recognition of uncertainty in regular funding. It has been agreed that the charity is striving to accumulate high operational reserves in order to prevent a financial gap leading to breakdown of services. Operating reserves foreseen as necessary to fill the gap created between regular grant-giving and emergency grant-funding will be retained for use as Trustees see fit, to prevent loss

16 | P a g e

of management and administration capacity, loss of fundraising capacity and to ensure continued highquality operations.

Due to years of uncertainties resulting from the pandemic, the war and the cost-of-living crisis, and the recent growth of the organisation, the Management Committee reviewed the dissolution reserves in order to prevent unnecessary ring-fencing of free financial resources while preventing the risk of defaulting on financial responsibilities. The reserves policy from April 2020 prescribes ring-fencing resources necessary for two months expenditure plus statutory redundancy payments for staff eligible. It’s envisaged that the value of dissolution reserves in FY 2023-24 should be not less than £160,000. Should the charity lose staff or resources (such as offices liable for rent), the reserves will be reviewed downward thus releasing resources back to free operational reserves pot.

Statement of Trustees responsibilities

The trustees are responsible for preparing the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom generally accepted accounting practice for each financial year, which gives a true and fair view of the state of the charity’s affairs and of its profit and loss for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

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

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company’s website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Statement as to disclosure to our auditors

In so far as the trustees are aware at the time of approving our trustees’ annual report:

By order of the Board of Trustees

Gera Drymer (Chair)

12 December 2024

17 | P a g e

East European Resource Centre Independent auditors' report

to the Trustees of East European Resource Centre

Opinion

We have audited the accounts of East European Resource Centre for the year ended 31 March 2021 which comprise the Profit and Loss Account, the Balance Sheet and notes to the accounts, 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 FRS 102 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and the Republic of Ireland' (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

This report is made solely to the 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 company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the company and the company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

In our opinion the accounts:

Basis of 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 accounts section of our report. We are independent of the company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the accounts in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and the provisions available for small entities, in the circumstances set out below, 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.

In accordance with the exemption provided by FRC's Ethical Standard - Provisions Available for Audits of Small Entities, we have assisted with the preparation of the accounts.

Conclusions relating to going concern

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the ISAs (UK) require us to report to you where:

18 | P a g e

accounting for a period of at least twelve months from the date when the accounts are authorised for issue.

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the report and accounts, other than the accounts and our auditor’s report thereon. The directors are responsible for the other information. Our opinion on the accounts 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 accounts, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the accounts 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 accounts 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:

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the directors’ report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

Responsibilities of directors

As explained more fully in the directors’ responsibilities statement, the directors are responsible for the preparation of the accounts and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the directors determine is necessary to enable the preparation of accounts that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

19 | P a g e

In preparing the accounts, the directors are responsible for assessing the 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 directors either intend to liquidate the company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the accounts

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the accounts as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these accounts.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the accounts is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

J A Brookfield (Senior Statutory Auditor) 18 Concanon Road for and on behalf of London Brookfield & Co SW2 5TA Accountants and Statutory Auditors 17 December 2024

20 | P a g e

East European Resource Centre Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31 March 2024

Notes
Incoming resources
Incoming resources from generated funds:
Voluntary Income - Grants and donations 5
Other Income
Investment income
Total Incoming Resources
Resources expended
Costs of generating funds
Charitable activities
Governance
Total resources expended
6
Net incoming resources expended for the Year
Transfers between funds
Funds brought forward
Total Funds carried forward		 Restricted
Unrestricted
Total
Total
Funds
Funds
Funds
Funds
year to
31 March
2024
2024
2024
2023
£
£
£
£
985,973
43,296
1,029,269
1,115,093
-
-
-
2,724
-
2,341
2,341
1,141
985,973
45,637
1,031,610
1,118,958
30,300
-
30,300
30,300
977,149
265
977,414
819,371
3,216
13
3,229
3,513
1,010,665
278
1,010,943
853,184
(24,692)
45,359
20,667
265,774
-
-
-
422,753
323,972
746,725
480,951
398,061
369,331
767,392
746,725
398,061
369,331
767,392
746,725

All of the above results derive from continuing charitable grants and activities and there were no recognised gains or losses other than the above results.

The notes on pages 23 to 27 form part of these accounts.

21 | P a g e

East European Resource Centre Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2024

Notes
Current assets
Debtors
7
Cash at bank and in hand
Creditors: amounts falling due
within one year
8
Net current assets
Total assets
Funds of the Charity
Restricted Funds
10
General Funds
10
Total Funds
10		 2024
2023
£
£
102,092
64,337
668,950
689,038
771,042
753,375
(3,650)
(6,650)
767,392
746,725
767,392
746,725
398,061
422,753
369,331
323,972
767,392
746,725

The notes on pages 23 to 27 form part of these accounts.

Gera Drymer Chair Approved by the board on 17 December 2024

22 | P a g e

East European Resource Centre Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024

1. Basis of accounting and accounting policies

a) Accounting Conventions

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention and on a going concern basis, which is dependent upon the availability of adequate continued funding. The nature of the charity’s funding is inherently uncertain as it is only agreed by the funding bodies every one to three years. Should grant funding be discontinued in future years, the charity would have to find other sources of funding, or significantly curtail its activities. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities published on 16/7/14, The Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities (effective January 2015) and the Companies Act 2006.

Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note(s).

Change in basis of accounting

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

b) Incoming resources

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

c) Resources Expended

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

d) Restricted and Unrestricted Funds

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

e) Debtors

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

f) Cash at bank and in hand

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

g) Creditors and provisions

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

h) Legal status of the Trust

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

23 | P a g e

East European Resource Centre Notes to the Accounts

for the year ended 31 March 2024

East European Resource Centre
Notes to the Accounts
for the year ended 31 March 2024
2024 2023
2
Net Income for the year is stated		 after charging: £ £
Auditors' Remuneration - Brookfield & Co 3,216 3,500
3
Expenses paid to trustees or persons connected with trustees
The aggregate amount of expenses paid to trustees was 13 13
2024 2023
4
Staff Costs and Emoluments		 £ £
Gross Salaries and other staff costs 853,298 713,694
Social security costs 75,113 64,009
928,411 777,703
Numbers of full time employees or full time equivalents 2024 2023
None of the Trustees received any remuneration during the year (2023: Nil) Nos Nos
No employees earned more than £60000 pa. (2023: Nil) 1 -
The average number of employees
Engaged on Project Service 23 22
Engaged on Management and Administration 3 2
26 24
5
Voluntary Income - Grants and donations
2024 2023
Restricted Unrestricted £ £
£ £
London Community Foundation 24,982 - 24,982 103,378
Justice Collaborations 183,500 - 183,500 100,000
London Borough of Barking & Dagenham 10,376 - 10,376 53,947
Big Lottery 187,606 - 187,606 171,168
Home Office 73,400 - 73,400 126,758
Focus on Labour Exploitation - - - 25,304
POSK - - - 10,000
Galop 20,250 - 20,250 22,180
AB Charitable Trust - - - 20,000
Lloyds Bank Foundation - - - 21,000
Trust for London 65,380 - 65,380 85,000
Chelsea Square 1994 Trust - - - 2,000
Paul Hamlyn Foundation 69,850 - 69,850 63,500
MOPAC 283,129 - 283,129 306,667
Tudor Trust - 38,500 38,500 -
City Bridge Trust 6,240 - 6,240 -
Groundwork 15,000 - 15,000 -
London Legal Support Trust 10,000 - 10,000 -
National Lottery Community Fund 36,260 - 36,260 -
Donations and misc. small grants - 4,796 4,796 4,263
985,973 43,296 1,029,269 1,115,093

24 | P a g e

East European Resource Centre Notes to the Accounts

for the year ended 31 March 2024

6
Resources Expended
Restricted
Costs of generating funds
Fundraising costs
-
Staff Costs
30,300
Charitable Expenditure
Staff Costs
898,111
Professional Fees
17,135
Volunteer expenses
-
Travel and meetings
265
Subscriptions and Publications
4,138
Insurance
3,543
Telephone and fax
5,542
IT expenses
13,537
Office and administration costs
9,050
Premises costs
19,791
Project costs
6,037
Governance Costs
Audit and accountancy
3,216
Management Committee expenses
-
1,010,665
7
Debtors
Grants receivable
Other debtors and prepayments
8
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
Deferred Income
Other accruals
9
Analysis of net assets between funds
Tangible fixed assets
Current Assets
Current Liabilities		 Restricted
-
30,300
898,111
17,135
-
265
4,138
3,543
5,542
13,537
9,050
19,791
6,037
3,216
-		 Unrestricted
2024
2023
£
£
Total
Total
-
-
-
-
30,300
30,300
-
898,111
747,403
-
17,135
19,887
-
-
52
7
272
548
-
4,138
6,803
-
3,543
4,373
-
5,542
5,675
72
13,609
7,299
48
9,098
9,129
-
19,791
14,777
138
6,175
3,425
-
3,216
3,500
13
13
13
278
1,101,943
853,184
2024
2023
£
£
97,670
60,794
4,422
3,543
102,092
64,337
2024
2023
£
£
-
-
3,650
6,650
3,650
6,650
Restricted
Unrestricted
Total
Funds
Funds
Funds
£
£
£
-
-
-
398,061
372,981
771,042
-
(3,650)
(3,650)
398,061
369,331
767,392		 Unrestricted
2024
2023
£
£
Total
Total
-
-
-
-
30,300
30,300
-
898,111
747,403
-
17,135
19,887
-
-
52
7
272
548
-
4,138
6,803
-
3,543
4,373
-
5,542
5,675
72
13,609
7,299
48
9,098
9,129
-
19,791
14,777
138
6,175
3,425
-
3,216
3,500
13
13
13
278
1,101,943
853,184
2024
2023
£
£
97,670
60,794
4,422
3,543
102,092
64,337
2024
2023
£
£
-
-
3,650
6,650
3,650
6,650
Restricted
Unrestricted
Total
Funds
Funds
Funds
£
£
£
-
-
-
398,061
372,981
771,042
-
(3,650)
(3,650)
398,061
369,331
767,392
1,010,665 278 1,101,943
853,184
398,061
369,331
767,392

25 | P a g e

East European Resource Centre

Notes to the Accounts

for the year ended 31 March 2024

10 Analysis of net assets between funds

Restricted Funds:
Social Welfare Advice
Domestic Abuse Advocacy
Labour Exploitation Advocacy
Hate Crime Advocacy
Immigration Services
Specialist Legal Advice
Outreach
General Advice
Central Costs
Total Restricted Funds
Unrestricted Funds:
Total Unrestricted Funds
Total Funds		 At
Incoming
Outgoing
At
1/4/23 Resources
Resources Transfers 31/3/24
83,352 307,366
(357,001)
33,718
109,305 308,111
(325,021)
92,395
10,608 -
-
10,608
20,499 20,250
(20,715)
(20,034)
65,076 123,400
(125,067)
63,409
-
100,000
(6,242)
93,758
11,053 25,376
(35,594)
835
102,749 6,240
(46,283)
62,706
20,110 95,230
(94,742)
20,598
422,753 985,973
(1,010,665)
-
398,061
323,972 45,637
(278)
369,331
746,725 1,031,610
(1,010,943)
-
767,392
746,725 1,031,610
(1,010,943)
-
767,392

Social Welfare Advice – welfare, housing and money advice, community support and outreach to impoverished and marginalised Eastern Europeans in London, including a sizeable number of users recruiting from the evacuees from Ukraine.

Domestic Abuse Advocacy – outreach and targeted victim support and advocacy for Eastern European victims of domestic violence and abuse.

Labour Exploitation Advocacy - targeted victim support and advocacy for Eastern European victims of labour exploitation and abuse.

Hate Crime Advocacy - targeted victim support and advocacy for Eastern European victims of hate crime

Immigration Services - advice and assistance for vulnerable Eastern Europeans to access and apply to the EU Settlement Scheme, Ukrainian humanitarian schemes, and related immigration instruments

Specialist Legal Advice – specialist legal advice and representation in areas of social welfare, family and other related legal area; this is a new project.

Outreach – outreach and information campaigns relating access to heath, vaccination, and voter rights addressing needs of the vulnerable and marginalised Eastern Europeans.

General Advice – outreach, helplines and life-in-the-UK advice and assistance for impoverished, marginalised, exploited and socially excluded Eastern Europeans.

Central Costs - salaries and on-costs of the Chief Executive and the Deputy CEO.

26 | P a g e

11 Related party transactions and trustees' remuneration

Trustees' Remuneration

Trustees received no remuneration in respect of their services as Trustees (2023: £nil). Travel expenses of £nil were paid in the period (2023: £nil).

Related Party Transactions

No Trustees or other person related to the charity had any personal interest in any contract or transaction entered into by the charity (2023: None).

27 | P a g e