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2023-03-31-accounts

2022/23 Trustees’ report and financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

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Equally Ours was formerly called the Equality and Diversity Forum Company Number: 06464749 Charity Number: 1135357

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Contents

1. About Equally Ours .................................................................................................. 3
2. Our Strategy ........................................................................................................... 3
3. Our Network and Members ........................................................................................ 4
4. What we achieved in 2022/23 .................................................................................... 5
a. The Law ................................................................................................................. 5
b. Climate ................................................................................................................ 10
c. Investment ........................................................................................................... 11
d. Sector strength ...................................................................................................... 14
e. Equally Ours’ strength ............................................................................................ 18
5. Future Plans .......................................................................................................... 18
6. Structure, Governance and Management ................................................................... 19
7. Staff team ............................................................................................................ 20
8. Public benefit ........................................................................................................ 21
9. Membership list ..................................................................................................... 21
10. Reference and administrative information................................................................ 24
11. Financial review .................................................................................................. 26
12. Reserves policy ................................................................................................... 26
13. Risk management ............................................................................................... 26
14. Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities in relation to the financial statements ............... 26
15. Independent examiner’s report to the Trustees of Equally Ours .................................. 28

We would like to thank all our funders for their commitment and support:

AB Charitable Trust, Access – the Foundation for Social Investment, Advent of Change, Barrow Cadbury Trust, City Bridge Trust (via projects with Media Trust and Inclusion London), Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Funders for Race Equality Alliance (via Barrow Cadbury Trust, Dr Marten Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Mission 44 and the Youth Endowment Fund), John Ellerman Foundation, The Legal Education Foundation, MOPAC, Trust for London, and all those who commissioned our consultancy services during the year (details in the report).

And to thank Herbert Smith Freehills for their generous pro-bono support.

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EQUALLY OURS TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT 2022/23

1. About Equally Ours

Equally Ours’ vision is a just and compassionate society, where we are free from harm and can all contribute and flourish, whoever we are, whatever we believe in, and whatever we do or don’t have. A society that is equally ours.

Our mission is to advance people’s equality and human rights in the UK. We do this by connecting people and organisations, and using our collective evidence, expertise, strength, and influence to create change.

Equally Ours is a network of member organisations, many of whom are themselves networks. We also work with public bodies, the private sector, think tanks, and lawyers. We value the relationships we have with parliamentarians across parties, ministers and civil servants, and with the Equality and Human Rights Commission, contributing through dialogue, collaboration and, where needed, constructive challenge.

In line with our governing document, our objectives are as follows:

2. Our Strategy

During 2022 we developed Together for Social Justice, our new ten-year strategy.

With expert guidance from the Sheila McKechnie Foundation we held a number of workshops for trustees, staff and members, surveyed members and stakeholders, and conducted eight 1-1 interviews. Community-reporter research with On Our Radar helped ensure the strategy (and our work more broadly) centred the views and priorities of diverse individuals currently experiencing inequality, in addition to the combination of lived and professional experience that our staff, trustees and members bring.

We launched the strategy in November at a successful event attended in person and online by many members, funders and other stakeholders, as well as our founders and former trustees and staff. The event paid homage to our history, presented findings from our work, and set out our future direction with the strategy.

The strategy sets out our bold new agenda for social justice over the next ten years. It enables us to raise our sights above the maelstrom of day-to-day politics and policy changes, and focus on what we believe we can realistically achieve over the longer term.

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It explains how together we can advance people’s equality and human rights by influencing national policy on the big, long-term, structural issues of

  1. The law – protecting and improving the law on equality and human rights, and its application in public policy and practice. This continues to be the bedrock of Equally Ours’ work.

  2. Climate – we will work with members and the wider equality and human rights field to prepare for and respond to climate breakdown and emergencies, and embed climate justice into policy making.

  3. Investment – we will focus on increasing investment in solutions to the root causes of inequality and rights abuse. This includes investment by government at every level, trusts, foundations and other funders.

Sector strength: The strategy also emphasises the continued importance of our role in equipping and strengthening both the sector and the influence of Equally Ours as a network of networks involving thousands of organisations and community groups who provide services and advocate for policy change at local, regional and national levels. We do this in multiple ways – through thought leadership and policy advocacy, supporting members in their own work and giving them a space to support each other, and bringing together members, stakeholders and partners to make common cause, strategic communications and targeted programmes to increase the field’s impact and sustainability. Our aim is to refine this offer over time, refocused on our three big issues, to embody and advance the 10-year strategy’s title: Together for Social Justice.

This annual report follows the priorities of our new strategy.

3. Our Network and Members

Our policy network continues to be at the core of what we do, playing an active and vital role in influencing and driving social change. Our policy network is made up of members and associate members from the civil society who take a rights-based approach to equality and human rights, and observers from governmental and statutory organisations who engage constructively with Equally Ours’ work.

Together with our members, we identify shared policy issues, and develop, agree and recommend shared policy solutions that can benefit many communities, as well as take into account intersectionality. Using our combined voice, we raise these shared issues and solutions with policy makers, as well as highlight issues that are specific to individual groups, so that policy makers can take a comprehensive and holistic approach. This is the best approach to avoid ineffective piecemeal or divisive policymaking.

Our member retention rate remained high, as in previous years: only one member, Scope, left in 2022/23.

Three new members joined:

Of the members who joined previously in 2021/22 under free membership made available through funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, the Black South West Network, Restorative

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Justice for All, and Voice for England joined as permanent members in 2022/23. We are in contact with Inclusion North, National Survivor User Network, Northern Ireland Council for Racial Equality, Race Equality First and Restorative Justice for All International Institute and believe they will continue to be members.

We continued to engage with our members remotely, as this enabled the active participation of more organisations from across the UK.

In January 2023 our Community Engagement Officer was promoted within Equally Ours. We recruited a new colleague to the Community Engagement role who started at the end of March 2023.

4. What we achieved in 2022/23

a. The Law

Human rights

During the year we made a significant contribution to standing up for and protecting human rights in the UK through our convening and policy influencing on the government’s plans on human rights ‘reforms’.

Ahead of the Queen’s speech in May 2022 we sent a briefing to a wide range of Parliamentarians, plus targeted e-mails to members of the Joint Committee on Human Rights and the Women and Equalities Committee. This briefing had a specific focus on the impacts on equality and people affected by discrimination and inequality. It was anticipating a Bill of Rights Bill that was included in the Queen’s speech and had the stated intention of repealing and replacing the Human Rights Act.

This Bill provided a focal point for us to remind people of the significance of the Human Rights Act and reinforce collaborative working across the sector and beyond. By putting forward a compelling pan-equality case we showed how human rights matters to us all.

We used our bi-monthly Human Rights and Equality Strategy Group to share intelligence and agree strategy with our members. The meeting after the Bill was published was well attended and members fed back that they had used our briefing material in their own communications. Throughout the year these meetings were useful for coordination, including with wider civil society, and to help us all avoid duplication of effort, as well as for sharing members’ success stories of the diversity of people using the HRA in everyday life.

We also engaged with the Equality Advice Support Service (the outsourced EHRC helpline) to secure case studies and data on their human rights advice work to include in our evidence on the broad protection provided to people by the HRA. We were active members of the Steering Group of the ‘Save our HRA’ coalition set up by Liberty, and contributed the pan-equality perspective into the coalition’s work.

We provided briefings for parliamentarians, targeting specific Conservative MPs including being in contact with Robert Buckland. Over the year we strengthened our relationship with key parliamentarians through meetings and briefings, including with Ellie Reeves MP, Labour’s shadow justice minister, Lord Charlie Falconer, and Lord Fred Ponsonby, Labour’s lead on the Bill in the Lords.

One of our specific contributions was connecting the mainly Westminster-focused coalitions with

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our human rights partners in the devolved nations, ensuring that we bring forward key devolved priorities at the UK level.

As part of that engagement we presented on a panel looking at human rights across the UK-wide conference, convened by the Human Rights Consortium Scotland (HRCS) and attended by about 90 delegates from civil society, academia, and government agencies from all around the UK. It was especially useful at identifying where rights could be ‘levelled up’ rather than attacked and repealed. The conference was addressed by three ministers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who were united in their defence of the Human Rights Act.

We also presented at a HRCS webinar on ‘building support for human rights’ which was attended by organisations in Scotland who aren’t normally involved in the rights agenda. It was a real success in connecting with communities we don’t normally engage with. Feedback from participants included

“I’m just emailing to say, I really appreciate your cross-UK policy calls on human rights...Really helpful for us to be able to use this to keep up pressure here!”

“Thanks so much for speaking – you were as always, very clear & very convincing, so much so that people will now be rightly scared and start doing something more about this…😊”

At the beginning of February 2023 we held a Parliamentary event, chaired by Ellie Reeves MP, Shadow Justice Minister, focusing on the way the Human Rights Act is used by people every day to protect their rights. We had speakers from Age UK, the Children’s Society, the Runnymede Trust, End Violence Against Women coalition, Mind, and Disability Rights UK. During the meeting we also focused on the impact the HRA has on the devolved administrations. As a result, we arranged for Lord Fred Ponsonby, Labour’s lead in the Lords to meet our sister organisations on a visit to Belfast. The event was attended by around 35 people and was well-received. Feedback included:

“thanks for reaching out and creating this event. It was facilitated well, with sensitivity for every perspective in the room.”

We raised the profile further by publishing a blog, sent to some 4,500 people.

Throughout the year the Bill of Rights Bill waxed and waned as Prime Ministers came and went and its author and champion Dominic Raab’s fortunes fluctuated along with them, and it eventually became clear the Bill of Rights Bill was unlikely to become an Act.

However there remained (and remains) a significant threat to the HRA and to our membership of the European Convention on Human Rights. And in March, threats to people’s ability to exercise their human rights in practice became reality through the Illegal Migration Bill and the Prisoners and Victims Bill, and these became the focus of our campaigning. We convened members to meet with the Head of Policy from FLEX (Focus on Labour Exploitation) and agree solidarity actions to take, and with the Director of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Consortium to share knowledge about the reasons for the importance of the ECHR to the Belfast Good Friday Agreement in the run up to the 25th anniversary.

In March we brought out new messaging guidance for members specifically on the ECHR and in relation to the Illegal Migration Bill. This guidance was designed to respond to the Bill and its threats to the universality of human rights. We shared this guide with members and with the wider Liberty coalition of over 100 organisations and conducted follow up work with Liberty, changing the framing of documents and letters to reflect a smarter way for the coalition to

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communicate on this issue.

We were an active steering group member of the Save Our HRA group, coordinated by Liberty. The steering group met fortnightly, and the larger groups in the weeks in between. We helped organise solidarity statements with the migrants’ rights sector for the Illegal Migration bill, the final one was signed by over 350 organisations.

Covid-19 response

We made a submission to the consultation on the Covid-19 Inquiry’s terms of reference, evidencing the case for addressing the unequal impacts of the pandemic and fully covering the barriers faced by many communities. The submission also pressed for better engagement with those groups most affected by the pandemic, not least as a means of building trust.

In May the Chair of the Covid-19 inquiry published recommendations for changes to the inquiry terms of reference. This led to the Inquiry including a stronger commitment to investigating equality and the unequal impact of the pandemic in its final terms of reference. The Chair also included engagement with those affected. These are all the things that we pressed for in our submission.

When the Inquiry began we were part of an initial meeting with the team, focused on their means of gathering input and their methodology development. We emphasised the need to combine methods like opinion polling and surveys with targeted methods of gathering input from specific communities, particularly those that were disproportionately hit by the pandemic.

Following that meeting we continued to engage with the Covid-19 inquiry, continuing with our effective advocacy for engagement with affected communities and recognition of systemic and structural inequalities as a significant cause of the unequal impact of the pandemic and the Government response to it. We had further meetings with officials in the engagement team and they subsequently set up a Forum to engage with equality organisations more directly, ensuring representation from organisations like Sign Health and Friends, Families and Travellers along with ourselves and others. We also informed the design of the tender for a series of community engagement events, including making sure that the service procured is suitable for engaging with all communities affected – a problem that recurred during the pandemic.

We also engaged with our member the Runnymede Trust, collaborating on shaping, and cosigning, a letter to the inquiry Chair on the need for better consideration of structural inequality, in particular institutional racism. The inquiry Chair, in response to that letter, has appointed additional expert advisers on structural inequality, including racism, and has committed that this will be explicitly considered in the inquiry.

Rights post-Brexit

Since 2016, Equally Ours has worked to minimise and mitigate negative impacts of Brexit for people’s equality and human rights. In 2022/23 our focus was on implementation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) and the Retained EU Law Bill.

The TCA includes processes and bodies for consultation in both the UK and the EU, including a Domestic Advisory Groups (DAG) to inform the government on the impact of the agreement. The DAG has representatives from business, trade unions and civil society. There were very limited places on the DAG, with NCVO, SCVO and WCVA representing civil society. We participated in premeetings for this group. There was concern that unions and civil society are under-represented in relation to the number of business groups.

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Equally Ours also took part in a meeting with a delegation of the EU-UK Follow-up Committee, who carried out a fact-finding mission to the UK to assess the implementation of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, including the state of play of citizens' rights and the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland. The overarching purpose of the mission was to assess the prospects for improving linkages between civil society organisations in the UK and the EU. We also had a meeting with the chair of the EU’s Domestic Advisory Group and helped to set her agenda for the EU’s engagement with the UK at this level.

Retained EU Law Bill: The major development following Brexit was the publication of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, now an Act. Retained EU law is essentially a snapshot of EU law as it applied in the UK on 31 December 2020, which was cut and pasted into our domestic legal system. The government itself identified 2,400 pieces of legislation that can be defined as EU retained law, but experts are clear that there are over 4,000.

We submitted evidence to the Public Bill Committee and worked with colleagues across the UK to provide common themes to present to the committee.

Our November the Human Rights and Equality Strategy Group focused on the REUL bill, highlighting the equality implications. Ruth Fox, Director of the Hansard Society gave a presentation on the constitutional impacts of the bill and Tim Sharp, Senior Employment Officer at the TUC discussed its impact on workers and workers’ rights.

We worked with members and colleagues in wider groups, the TUC and the Civil Society Alliance to support amendments that provided proper parliamentary scrutiny of any legislation being revoked. We gained a major success when the government scrapped Clause 1 of the bill that would have seen all EU-derived legislation scrapped on 31 December 2023 unless a minister decided to keep it. Now just 587 pieces of mainly outdated environmental legislation will be revoked on that date.

The remaining thousands of statutory instruments now have a deadline of July 2026. Our main concern is with the impact on equality case law which we are pursuing with the Government Equalities Office.

Hate Crime

We were commissioned by the Mayor’s Office of Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to establish and coordinate the structures for the London Hate Crime Stakeholder Reference Group (SRG), an independent voluntary group. We succeeded in securing a diverse range of people for the steering group, and ran four meetings of the full SRG. The SRG meetings gave hate crime groups a vital space to raise issues and themes with MOPAC and the Metropolitan Police, and to coordinate and update each other on work they are carrying out. Meetings also moved to focus discussions on specific areas, so far these have been disability based and faith based hate crime and looking at both with an intersectional lens. The draft form of the SRG’s webpage was developed in consultation with the SRG and went live in 2023.

The priorities for 2023/24 are to build on what has been learnt through the SRG’s operation to date, including improving the format of the interaction with the statutory bodies and to expand these to include the British Transport Police. We will continue to hold thematic discussions at these meetings, with LGBTQ+ and race hate crime meetings scheduled, as well as holding a reflection meeting to highlight intersectional learning from the SRG’s work now it is becoming established.

Participative research on a people’s equality strategy

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As part of our commitment to bringing forward the voices of people directly impacted by inequality in their lives, we developed a new participative research project to advance a blueprint for a people’s equality strategy, working with On Our Radar. Working with and through people with lived experience identified by our members, this was designed to inform our new strategy, support our calls for a cross-government equality strategy.

The project involved working with our members to create a team of local reporters, who collaborated with their communities and generated short videos informing the issues that people face locally and how these issues can be overcome.

The findings were shared at our 20th Anniversary event in November. Next year they will also contribute to our manifesto asks to all parties in the lead up to the general election.

We are seeking opportunities to do more work with On our Radar and the reporters, but this needs specific funding which we are both actively seeking.

Government Equalities Office (GEO) and Cabinet Office Equality Hub

We continued our regular meetings with the GEO/Equality Hub, exchanging information on our respective priorities and maintaining a strong relationship that enables us to feed member’s concerns and our evidence into Government via the Hub. The Hub delivers specific items of work and has a cross-government advisory/information role on equality supporting other Government Departments.

The work of the Hub was affected by ministerial churn and reduction in staff that happened throughout the year.

Despite this we managed to maintain key relationships and kept a consistent emphasis on ways government policy can improve. For example, we advocated for a cross-government equality strategy; and provided evidence on levelling up and structural inequalities that remained relevant despite indications that due to ministerial changes ‘levelling up’ was unlikely to continue as an explicit government policy priority.

The Government’s Equality Data Programme was published in the form of excel spreadsheets of data on the ONS website. We continue to urge the Equality Hub to make more use of the data, and to provide further analysis.

An official from the GEO gave an update to members at our October members’ policy forum, engaging in discussion with members and providing advice on how to most effectively engage them on priorities.

Also at that policy forum meeting of members we focused on identifying major challenges for members and their communities, and priorities for action, in relation to the cost-of-living crisis. At our subsequent 1-1 with the GEO we raised these concerns about the differential impact of the cost-of-living crisis and reminded them that even if it had there was still an obligation to mitigate unequal impact as evidence of it emerged and anticipate impact in upcoming spending decisions. We were subsequently invited to join the board set up to oversee the cabinet office’s implementation of the Cost-of-Living support to the charity sector.

Equality and Human Rights Commission

We have a long history of collaboration with the EHRC, based on respect for our distinctive roles and taking the position of critical friend when appropriate. In 2022/23 we renewed that relationship and dialogue with the new CEO, key strategy and policy staff, as well as disseminating

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information, for example on the EHRC’s new legal support for race discrimination cases, which is part of its litigation strategy.

We drafted a submission to Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, the Committee responsible for reviewing the EHRC’s National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) rating. The EHRC has had A status since its inception. We met with a number of members who held a range of views. While most members supported the extension of the EHRC’s A status, a small number were significantly against it, and against us making the submission. As we were unable to achieve consensus among members we did not make a submission. We instead met with the EHRC chief executive and discussed our priorities on the HRA and levelling up, and briefed him on the range of member views on their NHRI status and relationship with the EHRC.

Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Project, Crime Prosecution Service (CPS)

We were commissioned by the CPS to conduct a major research project into rape and serious sexual offences in England and Wales. Working closely with the CPS, we reviewed what is known about how the public think and feel about rape. This involved a literature review, led by Professor Nadia Wager at the University of Teesside, a discourse analysis led by Professor Elena Semino of the University of Lancaster, and a series of stakeholder roundtables and one-to-one interviews, conducted by Survation Ltd.

We used the findings to identify incorrect dominant narratives in the public discourse that can obstruct justice (for all parties) in such cases; and to develop alternative narratives that reflect the facts, using values-based reframing techniques.

Working with Survation Ltd, the project then conducted focus groups, and a nationally representative survey of over 3,000 members of the public. This provided the most comprehensive and up-to-date picture of public attitudes in over five years, as well as of the public’s response to both dominant and alternative narratives after reading messages designed to accurately portray key rape issues.

The project broke new ground in the UK testing how values-based reframing and strategic communications techniques, applied appropriately in line with the CPS’ role as a public body, could provide an effective way to talk about rape without perpetuating myths and stereotypes. Work will continue in 2023/24 to produce the final reports and recommendations.

b. Climate

Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership and extreme-weather events

During Covid we developed collaboration with and became members of the Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership (VCSEP), chairing the equality steering group and participating in the national programme board. This continued during 2022/23, refocused mostly on planning and responses to extreme weather events, as part of our emerging work on climate.

We co-created and submitted a bid to the National Lottery’s Bringing People Together fund for a project in partnership with the VCSEP, Disability Rights UK, the LGBT+ Consortium, and the Environmental Rights Centre Scotland to bring members and communities together to work on planning for and responding to extreme-weather events and connect learning into policy advocacy on climate. Unfortunately, the bid was not successful and we have not yet been able to secure alternative funding for the project.

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For the remainder of the year, the VCSEP, supported by the equality steering group, began work on a smaller in-house initiative to look at how needs assessments can ensure people’s needs and rights are met – particularly people who currently often don’t have a voice or role in emergency preparedness and response.

Scoping

We made plans to research and scope the climate breakdown agenda, building on the initial thinking that informed our Together for Social Justice strategy. This will explore in detail whether and how equality, human rights and intersectional issues are being addressed in terms of climate mitigation and adaptation in the UK, and the voice and role of people and organisations who are marginalised or experience discrimination and structural inequality. This work will take place in 2023/24 to set the shared agenda for Equally Ours and our members.

c. Investment

UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and Levelling Up

Boris Johnson’s Government was elected on the promise of ‘levelling up’ the country, a promise that many connected to tackling social and economic inequalities at national and local levels. Following on from the launch of our report ‘Levelling Up: Firm Foundations’ we worked with NCVO to embed equality into the principles for implementing UKSPF funds – the replacement for EU structural funds that Equally Ours and others campaigned for during and after the UK left the EU.

In June 2022, Boris Johnson’s government introduced a Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill that included commitments on new forms of devolution and a legal requirement to reduce regional inequality with medium term targets. To inform our and our member’s work on the Bill, and the levelling up agenda more broadly, we held a meeting of our Levelling Up Strategy Group[1] . Discussion at this meeting was led by Jonathan Portes, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Kings College London, who has published on the connection between ‘levelling up’ and inequality. We also had a presentation from Sam Mercadante of NCVO on UKSPF principles, on how to engage with the funding at the local level.

It was expected that this would continue to be a major piece of work during this year, but Johnson’s resignation and the subsequent leadership contest threw the levelling up agenda into the air.

Nonetheless, our work in this area continued. The concept of levelling up resonated because it reflects the need to tackle systemic, structural inequality within the UK. This need was evidenced by our research into people’s lived experience of inequality with On Our Radar. We took forward the work though our participation in the Structural Inequalities Alliance, the 1 for Equality Campaign[2] and our participation in the Civil Society Alliance that brings our equality and a human rights based perspective into dialogue with wider civil society.

We were also on the steering group for a project gathering evidence for a report to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the UK’s performance on implementing its obligations under the UN Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights. The project was run by one of our members, Just Fair, commissioned by the EHRC. The report was

1 A group of members and associate members who have a policy interest in this area of work

2 The 1 for Equality Campaign aims for the adoption of the socio-economic inequality duty in s.1 of the Equality Act 2010 (as yet un-commenced in England)

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published in January 2023 and we supported its dissemination.

Funders for Race Equality Alliance (the Alliance)

Equally Ours has provided the secretariat for the Alliance since 2019, helping to shape and deliver on its ambitious strategy, that aims to increase funder investment in Black and Minoritised-led organisations and tackling racial inequality.

We report to the Alliance steering group, drawn from a range of funders, and ran four steering group meetings over the year. We made progress on the Alliance’s four strategic goals as follows.

1. Increase understanding and focus on racial justice from funders

We hosted four Alliance meetings with 163 participants from both our Alliance membership and across the wider philanthropy sector. Meeting topics included exploring different approaches to investing sustainably in Black and Minoritised led campaigns and advocacy, diversity guidance on internal policies and relationship engagement with a race equality lens, the results of the audit, an intersectional analysis of the cost of living crisis, and widening understanding of applying a racial justice lens.

The Alliance hosted several other meetings during the year including a panel on decolonising wealth, and a thinking space for racial equality organisations.

2. Increase and improve funding to address racial justice

The Racial Justice Audit was designed to deliver on our objective to increase sustainable and flexible funding for Black and Minoritised-led organisations. We supported the third cohort of funders to complete the audit and delivered the results in November 2022, reporting on fifteen members who submitted data on 1,003 grants awarded between 1st July 2021 and 1st August 2022, with a total of £85.1m.

The audit has proved useful to members every year, with one member saying it provided ‘Fascinating new data on how Alliance members are directing a growing proportion of their funding towards organisations addressing racial injustice’. Another member made clear that the audit is useful for highlighting where change is still needed, saying the audit showed ‘there’s still a lot of work required to share power in civil society. Only 25% of organisations set up to support BME communities are led by BME people’. Nearly 25% of visitors to the Alliance website from November to January visited the Audit tool page.

3. Increase Black and Minoritised people’s representation

This year the Alliance developed Sustaining the Workforce, a programme to engage with Black and Minoritised people working within philanthropy and provide a safe space to nourish, support and sustain their involvement in the sector. Phase 1, the planning and development of the Sustaining the workforce project, took place to develop a wellbeing programme for Black and Minoritised individuals working in philanthropy. Ten Years’ Time and Future Foundations UK, the delivery partners, carried out two focus groups, gathering insights from the Black and Minoritised community, helping to guide the programme content and structure, which will be delivered in 2023/24.

4. Grow and strengthen the membership.

Over the year we grew the Alliance to 46 member organisations. We concluded a scoping exercise, resulting in a refreshed strategy and theory of change.

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We helped establish informal funder intermediary meet-ups, exploring the unique positioning of network organisations, looking at ways to move forward to developing and strengthening funder practice. Conversations led to focusing on a power analysis of funder culture, and creating collective and intentional conversations.

We also launched a new website, including a members area which will give members access to updates, meeting minutes, as well as a space to connect with other funders. We made sure that the Alliance branding was consistent across all communications and the changed update format and timing increased the open rate to 36%.

Plans for 2023/24 include completion of the Sustaining the Workforce programme, and finalising a new membership model to improve the Alliance’s own sustainability.

Enterprise Development Programme (EDP) / Equality Impact Investing project (EIIP)

This year saw the completion of our three-year programme of developing enterprise across 37 equality sector charities, with 17 organisations all at various stages in their enterprise journey, taking part in our final cohort.

Our work on this programme continued to involve planned learning and peer support for these organisations and the oversight of grant distribution to support their enterprise development. Through this programme Equally Ours has awarded just over £1.2 million since 2019.

This year also saw the start of our 18-month enterprise development alumni phase, which was developed on co-production and co-design principles with Equally Ours working closely with organisations individually. The alumni phase of the EDP intends to build lasting networks and continued support for building resilience through enterprise development. To achieve this we have focused on creating peer learning environments. We will also be running thematic sessions over the course of the programme which will address different forms of selling, mental health and wellbeing sessions. We are planning to join up these sessions with other strands within the EDP, including Black and Minoritised Communities, Environment, Homelessness, Mental Health, and Youth, to ensure we have cross sector peer learning opportunities.

As part of this phase we ringfenced £120,000 for match trading grants, which are being distributed to 14 of organisations taking part in this programme.

Our pro-bono legal partnership with Herbert Smith Freehills continued to bring immense value to the programme, and organisations received consultancy support on areas including contracts, governance, and regulatory compliance.

Throughout the year we continued with activities in this area beyond supporting the EDP cohorts. We co-hosted with Good Finance a virtual event about social investment, hearing from diverse leaders who have taken on social investment, what they learned, the opportunities and challenges, and what they wished they had known at the start of the process. We also took part in a half-day workshop with Access to discuss learning from Access’ stage one research into the equality sector’s financial make up. We gave our input at an Access-funded away day in to work closely with other programme partners on how to ensure longevity of the work beyond Access’ funding. And we continued to take a leading role in the Equality Impact Investing Programme taskforce. As the EDP is coming to an end, we aim to ensure we are capturing key learning from the programme.

In the year ahead, Equally Ours will commission research into perceived barriers to social investment for equality organisations. This will provide evidence to help address gaps in social

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investment, particularly in relation to equality organisations whose primary purpose or mission is advancing equality and reducing inequality whether through services, goods, policy change or other activities.

“The grant and additional support particularly the legal support has been usefulthe programme has certainly transformed our thinking - Trading as an income stream and to enable our charitable objectives has been exceptional”

"EDP has been an amazing experience of peer learning, support

and encouragement at the most challenging times in our recent history. Not just barriers around pandemic, but then cost of living crisis and the impact on disabled people in general. The support from the EDP project has been fantastic."

d. Sector strength

Civil Society Group

Equally Ours is an active member of the Civil Society Group, a group that was initiated during the pandemic to build collaboration between civil society infrastructure organisations. The objectives of the CSG are:

We participate in the Strategic Oversight Group and are involved in all three strands of the work.

We helped to organise a workshop for the Strategic Oversight Group of the CSG. This was to find ways of the SOG becoming more effective at driving delivery on its three objectives. It was deemed that the third objective or cooperation and communication was being met but that more needed to be done on the other two objectives.

Our work with the CSG included being involved in a government consultation roundtable on the revisions to the dormant assets legislation, building on our experience of EDP, and in developing communications with government on energy pricing and the cost-of-living crisis.

In the policy meetings Equally Ours kept the group informed on the proposed Bill of Rights Bill and associated threats to human rights. We shared information influencing the Labour election manifesto and joined a small group to develop ideas for common positions for manifesto influencing ahead of the next general election. We also contributed to the development and promotion of a new survey on the State of the Sector, supporting inclusion of questions to enable disaggregation and engaging in discussion on how to improve response rates in the future among equality groups.

We flagged Disability Rights UK as a source of case studies on the impact of the cost-of-living crisis & contributed to discussion on strategy in approaching the Treasury. We shared our briefing on the REUL Bill & and highlighted the impact of equality legislation, raising the profile of the issue for members of the group.

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Strategic communications capacity building and consultancy

We delivered a combination of grant-funded and consultancy projects, all aimed at equipping equality groups and wider civil society to advance people’s equality and human rights by applying strategic communications and narrative reframing techniques to the policy advocacy and communications. The projects were:

Reframing the conversation about Trans people in Scotland:

We were commissioned by Scottish Trans, Stonewall Scotland and LGBT Youth Scotland for a year-long research and messaging project seeking effective ways to talk about trans issues to the Scottish public.

We built a solid base of research on current public thinking on trans issues which we used as a grounding for a period of iterative message development. After this we ran two message testing focus groups, one with the targeted audience and one with community members with lived experience. These focus groups gave us rich insights into how different messaging on this issue is received. As a result of these insights we developed the messages further, working with the project lead, and then tested the messages in a large-scale quantitative survey with the Scottish public.

We also worked with the organisations’ staff to train them in strategic communications and supported them in training community members in turn.

At the end of this project we presented the complete findings to the partners and wrote the guidance report for them. We also worked with them to develop usable resources for themselves and the wider community members.

Reframing the narrative to improve public understanding of disability and Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPOs):

We were delivery partners in this two-year project led by Inclusion London and Inclusion Barnet to develop, test and support implementation of new framing to change the narrative on disability, focused on the London audiences of the DDPO partners.

We worked with a steering group through this project and held an initial workshop with the project partners to develop and agree the stages of delivery.

The first stage was a discourse analysis, which we completed with Professor Elena Semino of Lancaster University and the literature review, which we worked on with Dr Jason Olsen, a disabled researcher specialising in disability issues.

Throughout the project we worked side-by-side with a colleague at Inclusion Barnet so that she learns about strategic communications and running strategic communications projects, to help build capacity and embed skills initially within Inclusion Barnet and as the project progresses across other DDPOs also.

Following the discourse analysis and the literature review, we developed the discussion guide and potential framing for testing with the public in three focus groups that were held in January. A further workshop and, for accessibility reasons two 1-1 interviews with activists unconnected to the project, were then completed. This enabled us to move on to the qualitative research phase.

We wrote the summary report on all the research findings to date and the implications for the next phase of the project, which we discussed with the steering group at a workshop in March

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2023 as part of the co-design process.

In 2023/24 the next stage will be to develop the frames and messages to be tested through a representative survey of the London public, conduct the survey, produce a report on the results and recommendations. These will feed into phase 2 of the project focused on equipping Londonbased DDPOs to apply the research and strategic communications techniques in their policy work and communications with key audiences.

Stronger Voices (with Media Trust)

Stronger Voices is a City Bridge Trust funded project delivered by Media Trust. It is a free, sixmonth strategic communications capacity-building programme for London-based equality organisations. The programme supports equality organisations to communicate more effectively with their audiences and raise the profile of their work in the media. Equally Ours has been a delivery partner for this project since its inception five years ago.

Equally Ours completed the last phase of its contribution to the 2022-23 programme, providing a face-to-face interactive revision session and one-to-one advice clinic with course participants, speaking at their graduation ceremony and sitting on the Advisory Group for the programme.

Media Trust confirmed that they have successfully secured five years of funding and would like to continue working with Equally Ours, through similar workshops and events.

The course convenor noted that this is fantastic, and comments from the group showed similar positive sentiments and strong learning.

“A simple structure for creating any key message ... The most valuable part for me was a fresh perspective, Cat challenged a lot of the ways I, and other charity comms folks, think about key messages… This workshop helped me reframe my thinking and will immediately change the way I communicate externally.”

Communications for Change project (Trust for London)

Communications for Change is Equally Ours’ long-standing programme of training that supports equality charities to develop strategic communications through reframing.

Recruitment for the charities wishing to attend the 2022-23 programme took place in October. We received 66 applications for 16 places, necessitating a thorough approach to shortlisting the charities. In light of this high demand we increased the number of available places to 10 per programme (a total of 20).

At the start of 2023 we began the new programme, comprising:

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In addition Equally Ours provided an intranet of framing resources for participants and captioned videos of each workshop.

The January – March programme worked with 12 representatives from 9 organisations, who seek to address equality issues, from refugee rights, to health equity and race equality. All organisations successfully completed workshops. Two-thirds of the group chose to attend one or more of the optional ‘Community of Practice’ sessions, although some of these were cancelled due to staff illness. All but one organisation accessed their half-day of free consultancy.

8 out of 9 organisations completed evaluation forms for the programme. As the chart below demonstrates, all reported a significant increase in confidence, knowledge and skills pertaining to reframing. Course participants are already applying their learning on podcasts, social media and campaigns and have shared examples.

Feedback for the programme was excellent, for the content, delivery and interactivity:

”One of the best training courses I've been on. I would 100% recommend this to any charity or community group, it's packed with practical tools you can start to apply immediately.”

”Coming together with other groups and doing activities together was really helpful and great for building connections”

A second cohort of learners joined the programme in March, with their programme going on until May 2023. There were 17 representatives from 11 organisations, working on equality issues from disabled people’s rights to employment rights and poverty.

We adapted the course content and materials to meet the access requirements of the learners, including compatibility with screen readers, use of captions, regular breaks, early access to slides, and dyslexia and ADHD accessible material.

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e. Equally Ours’ strength

Anti-racism programme and strategy

We continued our significant anti-racism programme this year, working with consultants from Genesis Consultancy to hold workshops and meetings with members, the board, the co-CEOs, staff team as a group, and specifically with our black and global majority staff. This was an in depth piece of work and resulted in a report in November 2022 with informative observations and in depth recommendations. This was a very important piece of work for us and in 2023/24 will be translated into a strategy and plan of action that will mean Equally Ours continues to learn as an organisation and that we live by our values.

Organisational resilience and sustainability

The team continued to show impressive resilience in the face of more challenges this year as a result of bereavements and caring responsibilities. This year also saw team members being promoted, taking up new opportunities outside Equally Ours and, as a result, new people joining us. Through all this we were able to develop our work across our priority areas, and to secure renewed and additional funding.

We changed our accounting services provider during this year and also brought our pension, life assurance and benefits provision contracts in house. The transfer of this work required a lot of attention but it was all successfully concluded by the end of the year.

However, all of the above meant that both our new ten year strategy and our anti-racism programme, and the development of the subsequent anti-racism strategy and plan, were delayed.

5. Future Plans

We will continue implementing our 10-year strategy and this will be the foundation of our future work. Highlights and priorities for the year ahead are:

Law

  1. We will continue to protect and advance our hard-won rights, by making sure that the views of the wide range of people and communities that we and our members are part of and represent are put forward to the main political parties as we approach the forthcoming general election; and by defending against the proposed reduction of equality and human rights protections in any draft legislation.

  2. We will complete the Crime Prosecution Service (CPS)’s Rape and Serious Sexual Offences project, that will contribute to advancing justice in rape cases as part of the CPS five-year rape strategy. We will produce a report on public attitudes, a report on framing and messaging, and a summary policy report. We will provide quality assurance support to the CPS as they implement the recommendations in the reports.

Climate

  1. We will report on scoping research on how to ensure people’s equality and human rights are at the heart of the response to the climate breakdown, and ensuring that intersectional structural inequalities are the starting point for a rights-based solution to the crisis. We will plan a programme of activity based on the findings of the scoping research, and securing funding for the programme.

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  1. We will collaborate with the VCSEP on identifying, developing and promoting good practice needs assessments to improve emergency preparedness and response planning, particularly in relation to extreme weather events.

Investment

  1. The secretariat (provided by Equally Ours) of the Funders for Race Equality Alliance (the Alliance) and the Alliance will introduce a membership model to further strengthen members’ engagement and commitment to racial justice; and deliver a pilot programme on how best to support Black and Minoritised staff working in philanthropy in collaboration with Ten Years Time and Future Foundations UK, including a report on learning and recommendations.

  2. As part of our Enterprise Development Programme we will deliver research into overcoming barriers to returnable finance for equality organisations; and contribute thinking from equality and intersectional perspectives into the development of the forthcoming Community Enterprise Growth Plan.

Sector strength

  1. We will sustain and strengthen our policy network through five member meetings and five strategy meetings; the annual CEOs’ and chairs’ gathering; increased 1-1 engagement to deepen or refresh relationships; and a clearer focus on our own and others’ lived experience.

  2. We will complete delivery of our four ongoing strategic communications projects; deliver two new smaller scale projects for Why Me? on restorative justice and Just Fair on economic, social and cultural rights; and secure funding for one new larger scale project.

Equally Ours’ strength

  1. Our organisational development priority for the year will be implementation of our antiracism strategy and plan.

  2. Once the anti-racism plan is sufficiently embedded, we will begin a sustainability and structural review to ensure we are as fit for purpose as possible to deliver on our ten year strategy.

6. Structure, Governance and Management

Trustee board

Up to eight Equally Ours’ Trustees are elected by the members of the Equally Ours policy network; up to six can be co-opted. The Board and Equally Ours members are committed to ensuring that the Board has a diverse membership and possesses the skills and knowledge to enable Equally Ours to operate successfully, and we conduct an audit every year to help inform the elections and co-options processes. Every Trustee has an induction meeting to go through their role and the purpose of Equally Ours, they also take the NCVO Role and Duties of Trustees course, sign up to the Nolan Principles and take part in our anti-racism programme. The Trustees as Charity Trustees have control of the Charity and its property and funds.

The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees Annual Report and Accounts, in line with applicable law, accounting standards and good practice. Trustees also ensure that Equally Ours

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carries out its Objects, as defined in its Memorandum of Association, and act in a way that stewards Equally Ours’ interests, future, legal duties, funds and reputation. The Trustees set the strategy for the charity and support the co-CEOs and staff team in their role of implementing the strategy.

During the year, Magdelene Davis stood down following five years’ dedicated service as a coopted trustee. Sue Coe, elected trustee, left the TUC so under our rules had to step down from the board.

Catherine (Cat) Burton from GIRES, Colin Davidson from the Discrimination Law Association (DLA), Kudsia Batool from the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and Natalie Cresswell from AgeUK all joined the Board as elected Trustees in October 2022.

The trustees bring extensive knowledge of equality and human rights together with experience of senior management and governance within the voluntary sector and other sectors. They meet four times a year and are responsible for the organisation’s overall strategy and governance and for proper use of its resources. Trustees pay close attention to the views of the member organisations but act independently.

Equally Ours is both a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. It is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association, which were approved and adopted in January 2008 (upon registration as a charitable company) and as amended in November 2018.

7. Staff team

The staff in 2022/23 were:

Key management personnel were the Co-Chief Executives and the Communications Director. Their pay and remuneration were set at the time of their recruitment by benchmarking similar roles in comparable organisations.

All fundraising activity for Equally Ours was carried out by the staff.

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8. Public benefit

In carrying out its work Equally Ours pays due regard to Charity Commission guidance concerning public benefit. The Trustees are satisfied that all Equally Ours’ activities in 2022/23 were of public benefit and that the charity’s funds were spent to achieve public benefit.

9. Membership list

Members

Members of the Equally Ours policy forum are formally members of the charity and play a governance role.

Age UK

British Institute of Human Rights

Children’s Rights Alliance for England

Disability Rights UK

Discrimination Law Association

End Violence Against Women Coalition

Equality Trust

Fairness Foundation

Fair Play South West

Fawcett Society

Friends, Families and Travellers

Gender Identity Research & Education Society

Humanists UK

Law Centres Network

Maternity Action

Migrant Centre NI

Mind

National Alliance of Women’s Organisations

Race on the Agenda

Royal National Institute for Deaf People

Royal National Institute of Blind People

Runnymede Trust

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SignHealth

Stonewall

Trades Union Congress

Traveller Movement

UK Race and Europe Network

UNISON

Women’s Budget Group

Women’s Resource Centre

Associate members

Amnesty International UK

Brap

Black South West Network British Muslims for Secular Democracy

Business Disability Forum Carers UK

Caritas Social Action Network Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales

Child Poverty Action Group

Chronic Illness Inclusion Citizens Advice

Consortium of LGBT Voluntary and Community Organisations Employers for Carers Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion Equal Rights Trust

EqualiTeach Faith-based Regeneration Network

FiLia

Galop

HEAR

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Inclusion London

Inclusion North

Just Fair

Law Society

Liberty

Migrants’ Rights Network

National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers National Survivor User Network Northern Ireland Council for Racial Equality Refugee Council René Cassin Restorative Justice for All Royal College of Nursing Stop Funding Hate Unite The Union Voice 4 Change England Why Me? YESS Law Young Women’s Trust

Observers

Centre on Migration, Policy and Society Equality and Human Rights Commission

Government Equalities Office Greater London Authority Independent Police Complaints Commission

Inter Faith Network Joint Committee on Human Rights of the UK Parliament

JUSTICE

Local Government Association

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Macmillan Cancer Support

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Ministry of Justice

Office of the Committee for Employment & Social Security, States of Guernsey

Scottish Human Rights Commission

The Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England

UN Women UK

Unicef UK

Women and Equalities Select Committee

10. Reference and administrative information

COMPANY NUMBER 06464749

CHARITY NUMBER 1135357 TRUSTEES AND DIRECTORS Jess McQuail, Chair, re-co-opted from July 2023

Julie Bishop, Vice-chair, elected

Ibrahim Ali, Treasurer, re-co-opted, from July 2023

Chris Whitwell, co-opted

Magdelene Davis, co-opted, stood down September 2022

Andrea Simons, elected

Sue Coe, elected, stood down April 2022

Catherine Burton, elected December 2022 Colin Davidson, elected December 2022 Kudsia Batool, elected December 2022

Natalie Cresswell, elected December 2022

REGISTERED OFFICE

The Foundry, 17 Oval Way, London, SE11 5RR

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER

Sarah Anderson (FCCA), BDO LLP, 55 Baker Street, London, W1U 7EU

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Unity Trust Bank plc, Nine Brindleyplace, 4 Oozells Square, Birmingham, B1 2HB

BANKERS

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11. Financial review

During the financial year ending 31[st] March 2023 (2023) Equally Ours secured income of £737,198 (2022: £559,624), made up of £571,825 (2022: £383,760) for specific projects and £165,373 (2022: £175,864) of unrestricted income. This represents an increase in total income of £177,574 (2022: decrease of £36,498) compared to the prior year. Expenditure over the year was £725,926 (2022: £570,613), resulting in an overall net income of £11,252 (2022: net expenditure of £10,989). At the end of 2023 the unrestricted funds balance decreased to a deficit of £8,665 (2022: £100,320), whilst the balance of £312,122 (2022: £191,896) on the restricted fund balance has all been committed for expenditure during the forthcoming period.

12. Reserves policy

The funds of the charity are held in the accumulated fund for use in line with the objectives of the trust. The Trustees have established a policy whereby the unrestricted funds not committed (the free reserves) held by the charity should aim to be three months of planned expenditure, which is currently £132,077. Closing down costs will be significantly less than this. The free reserves have decreased during the year to a deficit of £8,665 (2022: surplus of £100,320). The deficit in unrestricted funds is due to timing differences and was replenished post year end by unrestricted grant income.

13. Risk management

The Trustees review the risks facing the charity, with a regularly reviewed, detailed risk register covering Governance, Resources, People and Reputation.

The central risks continue to be funding and reputational. The financial position of Equally Ours is an agenda item at every Board meeting, assessing the current position against budget, looking over the management accounts, reviewing forecast income and expenditure and identifying potential funding gaps in future budgets. Fundraising for both core and project work continues to be a central task.

The reputation of Equally Ours is a significant asset for the charity, as such, has a specific focus in a regular risk review. Significant attention is given to the content of our communications and to our relations with members and stakeholders with this in mind. Where specific reputational risk areas are identified a proactive approach is agreed with the Board to mitigate risks in this area.

In 2022/23 the charity identified new accountancy and bookkeeping support providers and brought our payroll, pension and employee benefits provision in house, which was successfully concluded at the end of March 2023. We were delighted to secure the renewal and increase of the LEF and John Ellerman multi-year grants. We are also very pleased to have started the new Access funded Enterprise Development Alumni programme.

The Trustees believe that it is appropriate to prepare the accounts on a going concern basis.

14. Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities in relation to the financial statements

The Trustees (who are also the directors of Equally Ours for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustee’s annual report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations. Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law the Trustees have elected to prepare financial

26

statements in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards and applicable law). Under company law, the Trustees must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and the results of the charitable company for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:

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

In preparing the Trustees’ report advantage has been taken of the small company’s exemption.

Approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf by:

Jess McQuail

Date: 4 October 2023

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15. Independent examiner’s report to the Trustees of Equally Ours

I report to the charity’s Trustees on the accounts of the company for the year ended 31 March 2023.

This report is made solely to the charity's Trustees, as a body, in accordance with Regulation 31 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. My work has been undertaken so that I might state to the charity's Trustees those matters I am required to state to them in an independent examiner's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, I do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity's Trustees as a body, for my work, for this report, or for the statement I have made.

Responsibilities and basis for report

As the charity’s Trustees of the Company (and also its directors for the purposes of company law) you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 (‘the 2006 Act’).

Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the Company are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of your charity’s accounts as carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the 2011 Act’). In carrying out my examination I have followed the directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5) (b) of the 2011 Act.

Independent examiner’s statement

Since the Company’s gross income exceeded £250,000 your examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 2011 Act. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am member of the ICAEW, which is one of the listed bodies. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe:

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Sarah Anderson FCCA

Date: 04 October 2023

BDO LLP, 55 Baker Street, London, W1U 7EUu

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EQUALLY OURS STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES (including THE INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT) FOR YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Notes
INCOME
Donations
3
Income from
charitable
activities
Other income
3
TOTAL
INCOME
EXPENDITURE
Expenditure
on charitable
activities
4-7
TOTAL
EXPENDITURE
Net income /
(expenditure)
in funds
Total funds at
1 April 2022
Total funds at 31
March 2023		 Unrestricted
Funds
Restricted
Funds
Total this
year
Unrestricted
Funds
Restricted
Funds
Total
Last
year
£
£
£
£
£
£
122,298
463,077
585,375
111,284
336,260
447,544
20,825
108,748
129,573
-
47,000
47,000
22,250
-
22,250
64,580
500
65,080
165,373
571,825
737,198
175,864
383,760
559,624
274,358
451,588
725,946
204,764
365,849
570,613
274,358
451,588
725,946
204,764
365,849
570,613
(108,985)
120,237
11,252
(28,900)
17,911
(10,989)
100,320
191,896
292,216
129,220
173,985
303,205
(8,665)
312,133
303,468
100,320
191,896
292,216

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All incoming resources and resources expended derive from continuing activities. The notes on pages 32 to 43 form part of these financial statements.

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EQUALLY OURS BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 MARCH 2023

Note
FIXED ASSETS
Tangible fixed assets
7
CURRENT ASSETS
Debtors
8
Cash at bank and in hand
CREDITORS
Amounts falling due within one year
9
TOTAL NET ASSETS
FUNDS
Unrestricted funds
Restricted funds
Total this year
£
Total last year
£

4,719
5,837

120,250
91,001
307,266
267,970
427,516
358,971

128,767
72,592
303,468
292,216
(8,665)
100,320
312,133
191,398
303,468
292,216

The charitable company is entitled to exemption from audit under Section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 for the year ended 31 March 2023.

The members have not required the charitable company to obtain an audit of its financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2023 in accordance with Section 476 of the Companies Act 2006.

The Trustees acknowledge their responsibilities for:

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The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions of Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

These financial statements were approved by the Trustees on 4 October 2023 and signed on their behalf by:

Jess McQuail

Chair of Trustees

Company registration number: 06464749

The notes on pages 32 to 43 form part of these financial statements.

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EQUALLY OURS STATEMENT OF CASHFLOWS AS AT 31 MARCH 2023

Net income / (expenditure) for the year
Adjustments for:
Depreciation of tangible fixed assets
(Increase) in debtors
Increase/(decrease) in creditors
Net cash generated from operating activities
Purchase of tangible fixed assets
Net cash used in investing activities
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the
reporting period
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of
the reporting period
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the
reporting period		 This year
Last year
£
£
11,252
(10,989)
1,945
1,735
(29,249)
(6,058)
56,175
(40,825)
40,123
(56,137)
(827)
(7,572)
(827)
(7,572)
39,296
(63,709)
267,970
331,679
307,266
267,970

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EQUALLY OURS NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31.3.23

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

General information

Equally Ours is a registered charity, number 1135357, and a charitable company limited by guarantee, number 06464749, incorporated in England and Wales. The address of its registered office is The Foundry, 17 Oval Way, London, SE11 5RR.

Basis of accounts

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention with items recognised at cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant note(s) to these accounts. 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 applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS102) (effective 1 January 2019) – (Charities SORP(FRS102)), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS102) and the Companies Act 2006.

The financial statements are prepared in pound sterling (£) and the figures are rounded to the nearest £.

Equally Ours constitutes a public benefit entity as defined by FRS 102.

At the time of approving the accounts, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. The Trustees therefore believe that it is appropriate to prepare the accounts on a going concern basis.

At the end of August 2023, the charity had £298,273 cash available.

Salaries make up a significant portion of the overall forecast expenditure for the next 12 months, however grant income is often directly linked to this. Staff are allocated to specific projects and the charity would be reactive to changes in staff requirements arising from project changes.

Company status

The charitable company is a company limited by guarantee. The members of the company are the Trustees named on page 23. In the event of the charitable company being wound up, the liability in respect of the guarantee is limited to £1 per member of the company.

Incoming resources

Income is recognised in the period in which the fund is entitled to receipt, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured with reasonable certainty.

Donated services and facilities

Donated services and facilities are recognised as income when any conditions associated with the donated item have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity of the item is probable, and that economic benefit can be measured reliably. On receipt, donated services and facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity, which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent

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economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt.

Resources expended

Expenditure is included on an accruals basis. Expenditure is allocated directly to the activity to which it relates, including support costs which can be identified as being an integral part of direct charitable expenditure. It would be impractical to allocate expenditure in to the 5 activities listed in the trustees report due to the overlapping nature of the projects undertaken.

Operating leases

Rentals applicable to operating leases are charged to the Statement of financial activity over the period in which the cost is incurred.

Financial instruments

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.

Fund accounting

Unrestricted funds - These are funds which can be used in accordance with the charitable objects at the discretion of the Trustees.

Restricted funds - These are funds that can only be used for particular restricted purposes within the objects of the charity.

Pension

Contributions to the charity’s defined contribution pension scheme are charged to the statement of financial activities account in the year in which they become payable. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity in an independently administered fund.

Tangible fixed assets

Depreciation is calculated to write off the cost less estimated residual value of fixed assets over their estimated useful lives.

Computer equipment – 25% reducing balance.

Significant judgments and estimates

In the application of the charity's accounting policies, the directors are required to make judgments, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised if the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods if the revision affects both current and future periods.

There were no judgment or material estimation uncertainties affecting the reported financial

34

performance in the current or prior year.

2. TRUSTEES’ REMUNERATION

No Trustee has received any remuneration during the year (2022: £nil). See Note 5 for Trustee expenses.

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EQUALLY OURS NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31.3.23

3
DONATION INCOME
UNRESTRICTED
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
John Ellerman Foundation
Advent of Change
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
The AB Charitable Trust
RESTRICTED INCOME
Barrow Cadbury Trust
Joseph Rowntree Charitable Foundation
Dr Marten Foundation
Access Foundation
Youth endowment fund
Mission 44
Trust for London
The Legal Education Foundation
Media Trust (City Bridge Trust)
OTHER INCOME
Membership fees,
training, furlough
payments, etc.		 3
DONATION INCOME
UNRESTRICTED
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
John Ellerman Foundation
Advent of Change
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
The AB Charitable Trust
RESTRICTED INCOME
Barrow Cadbury Trust
Joseph Rowntree Charitable Foundation
Dr Marten Foundation
Access Foundation
Youth endowment fund
Mission 44
Trust for London
The Legal Education Foundation
Media Trust (City Bridge Trust)
OTHER INCOME
Membership fees,
training, furlough
payments, etc.		 This year
Last year
£
£
-
33,750
46,666
35,000
-
2,534
75,632
20,000
-
20,000
122,298
111,284
134,435
124,500
27,282
13,464
3,000
-
166,277
140,796
2,000
-
6,000
-
26,250
-
97,833
55,000
-
2,500
463,077
336,260
22,250
65,080

36

EQUALLY OURS NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31.3.23

4 ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE ON CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

Salaries
Other staff costs
General office costs
Independent
examination &
accountancy fees
Legal fees
Bank charges
Insurance
Service charge & rent
Events venues &
related costs
Research &
publications
Campaigning
Website
Consultancy
Travel & subsistence
Depreciation
Bad debt provision
Access and
interpretation costs
Subscriptions and
membership costs
Program costs		 Unrestricted Restricted
This
year
Unrestricted Restricted Last year
£
£
£
£
£
£
161,402
288,887 450,289
139,671
274,458
414,129
6,369
2,521
8,890
16,267
7,171
23,438
15,473
-
15,473
(12,151)
24,428
12,277
16,713
-
16,713
13,300
-
13,300
-
-
-
192
-
192
237
-
237
176
-
176
1,189
-
1,189
1,084
-
1,084
20,620
6,000
26,620
6,970
-
6,970
2,339
2,380
4,719
600
13,496
14,096
4,551
20,830
25,381
6,214
9,299
15,513
-
-
-
6,825
36,633
43,458
3,179
-
3,179
2,131
216
2,347
(120)
-
(120)
21,700
-
21,700
16
960
976
-
148
148
1,945
-
1,945
1,735
-
1,735
2,183
-
2,183
50
-
50
375
-
375
-
-
-
3,747
-
3,747
-
-
-
34,140
130,010 164,150
-
-
-
274,358
451,588 725,946
204,764
365,849
570,613

37

EQUALLY OURS NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31.3.23

5 EXPENSES AND FEES – GOVERNANCE EXPENSES

5.1 Trustees’ expenses

5.1 Trustees’ expenses
This year Last year
Number of Trustees who were paid expenses 1 0
Nature of the expense Travel Travel
Total amount paid £468 £nil

5.2 Fees for examination or audit of the accounts

5.2 Fees for examination or audit of the accounts
This year
£		 Last year
£
Independent examination 2,400 2,450
Accounts preparation 2,600 2,144
Total amount paid 5,000 4,594

6 STAFF

6.1 Staff costs

6 STAFF
6.1 Staff costs
This year
£		 Last year
£
Gross wages, salaries and benefits in kind 383,524 357,354
Employer's National Insurance costs 39,819 31,513
Pension costs 26,946 25,262
Total amount paid 450,289 414,129

No members of staff received emoluments over £60,000, (2022: 1 member of staff received emoluments of £60,000 to £69,000)

6.2 Average number of full-time equivalent employees in the year.

Key management personnel included the Trustees, none of whom received any

Remuneration. The Co-Chief Executives for whom the total amount of benefit was £90,093 (2022:

38

£74,055). The Communications Director received total amount of benefit of £34,284 (2022: £65,827). The total benefit being £124,377 (2022: £139,882), including employer’s National Insurance and employer’s pension contributions.

Insurance and employer’s pension contributions.
This year Last year
Average number of staff 10.8 10.3
Average number of fte staff 8.0 9.8

39

EQUALLY OURS NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31.3.23

7 TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

7 TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS
Computer
equipment		 Total
£ £
Cost
At 1 April 2022 7,572 7,572
Additions 827 827
At 31 March 2023 8,399 8,399
Depreciation
At 1 April 2022 1,735 1,735
Charge for the year 1,945 1,945
At 31 March 2023 3,680 3,680
Net book value
At 31 March 2023 4,719 4,719
At 31 March 2022 5,837 5,837

8 DEBTORS

8 DEBTORS
Analysis of debtors Amounts falling due within one year
Prepayments and accrued income This year
£
48,441		 Last year
£
51,993
Trade debtors 65,317 39,008
Other debtors 6,492 -
Total 120,250 91,001

40

EQUALLY OURS NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31.3.23

9 CREDITORS AND ACCRUALS

9 CREDITORS AND ACCRUALS
Analysis of creditors Amounts falling due within one year
Trade creditors This year
£
112,008		 Last year
£
46,472
Accruals 5,869 15,820
Deferred income* - 10,300
Other creditors 10,890 -
Total 128,767 72,592

*Analysis of deferred income

*Analysis of deferred income *Analysis of deferred income *Analysis of deferred income
b/f 1 April 2022 Scottish Trans Alliance – instalment 2 of 3 for
communicating trans rights in Scotland
LGBT Youth Scotland – instalment 2 of 3 for
communicating trans rights in Scotland		 £4,200
£6,100
Total b/f & reversed in full £10,300
c/f 31 March
2023
Total c/fwd £nil

41

EQUALLY OURS NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31.3.23

10 RESTRICTED FUNDS ANALYSIS

EARNED
INCOME		 Fund balances
as at 1st April
2022		 Incoming
Resources		 Resources
expended		 Fund balances
as at 31st
March 2023
City Bridge Trust - 51,648 (36,608) 15,040
The Mayor's
Office for Policing
And Crime
(MOPAC)		 41,590 - (19,635) 21,955
Crown
Prosecution
Service –
Framing
Research Project		 - 57,100 (53,420) 3,680
Total earned
income		 41,590 108,748 (109,663) 40,675
DONATIONS
Barrow Cadbury
Trust		 9,167 30,500 (27,502) 12,165
Access 63,917 166,277 (131,310) 98,884
Trust for London - 26,250 (16,302) 9,948
Joseph Rowntree
Foundation		 - 27,282 (671) 26,611
Legal Education
Foundation		 21,502 97,833 (57,225) 62,110
Funders for Race
Equality Alliance		 55,220 114,935 (108,915) 61,240
Total donations 149,806 463,077 (341,925) 270,958
OTHER
INCOME		 500 - - 500
TOTAL
RESTRICTED
FUNDS		 191,896 571,825 (451,588) 312,133

42

EQUALLY OURS NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31.3.23

EARNED INCOME Fund
balances
as at 1st
April 2021		 Incoming
Resources		 Resources
expended		 Fund
balances
as at 31st
March
2022
The Mayor's Office for Policing And
Crime (MOPAC)		 - 47,000 (5,410) 41,590
Total funds - 47,000 (5,410) 41,590
DONATION INCOME
Barrow Cadbury Trust (1) 13,500 28,500 (32,833) 9,167
Trust for London 33,034 - (33,034) -
Access 23,789 140,796 (100,668) 63,917
Emergence Foundation 2,633 - (2,633) -
Media Trust (City Bridge Trust) 6,500 2,500 (9,000) -
Joseph Rowntree Foundation 3,558 13,464 (17,022) -
National Lottery Community Fund 47,210 - (47,210) -
Legal Education Foundation 13,000 55,000 (46,498) 21,502
Barrow Cadbury Trust (2) 30,761 96,000 (71,541) 55,220
Total funds 173,985 336,260 (360,439) 149,806
OTHER INCOME - 500 - 500
TOTAL RESTRICTED FUNDS 173,985 383,760 (365,849) 191,896

43

EQUALLY OURS NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31.3.23

RESTRICTED FUND PURPOSE
The Mayor's Office for Policing And Crime
(MOPAC)		 Hate Crime Strategic Reference Group
secretariat
Crown Prosecution Service – Framing Research
Project		 Framing research project
Barrow Cadbury Trust (1) Grant funding towards Co-Chief Executives’
salaries
Barrow Cadbury Trust (1) Race Equality Alliance
Access Grant funding for enterprise development
Trust for London Communications for Change strategic
communications capacity-building programme
Joseph Rowntree Foundation Contribution towards core costs of Equally
Ours with additional Covid funding
Legal Education Foundation Grant funding – protecting rights
Funders for Race Equality Alliance Race Equality Alliance
Media Trust (City Bridge Trust) Stronger Voices programme

44

EQUALLY OURS NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31.3.23

11 ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BETWEEN FUNDS

Unrestricted Restricted 2023
Funds funds Total
£ £ £
Fixed assets 4,719 - 4,719
Current assets 163,655 263,861 427,516
Current liabilities (128,767) - (128,767)
Total 39,607 263,861 303,468
Unrestricted Restricted 2022
Funds funds Total
£ £ £
Fixed assets 5,837 - 5,837
Current assets 167,075 214,729 359,731
Current liabilities (72,592) - (72,592)
Total 100,320 214,729 292,216

12 OPERATING LEASE COMMITMENTS

At 31 March 2023 the Charity had future minimum lease payments due under non-cancellable operating leases for each of the following periods:

This year
£
17,585		 Last year
£
17,585
Not later than 1 year
Later than 1 year and not later than 5 years 51,288 68,873
68,873 86,458

Included within rental expenditure for the year is £23,314 (2022: £6,158) of operating lease charges.

45

13 RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

Clare Moody, the Co-Chief executive of the Charity received amounts totaling £nil (year ended 2022: £13,032) and charged £nil (year ended 2022: £13,256) during the year for consultancy services. Equally Ours owed Clare Moody £nil (year ended 2022: £224) at the year-end date.

46