2024/25 Trustees’ report and financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2025
Company registration number: 06464749 Charity registration number: 1135357
EQUALLY OURS TRUSTEES' REPORT AND UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025
Equally Ours was formerly called the Equality and Diversity Forum Company Number: 06464749 Charity Number: 1135357
We would like to thank all our funders for their commitment and support: The AB Charitable Trust, Barrow Cadbury Trust, City Bridge Trust (via projects with Media Trust and Inclusion London), Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, John Ellerman Foundation, The Legal Education Foundation, MOPAC, Trust for London. All who commissioned our consultancy services during the year (details in the report). And all who provided grants or membership fees to sustain the activities of the Funders for Race Equality Alliance, for which we are proud to provide the secretariat.
Equally Ours Contents
| Page | |
|---|---|
| Reference and Administrative Details | 1 |
| Trustees' Report | 2—10 |
| Independent Examiner's Report | 11 |
| Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure Account) | 12 |
| Comparative Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure Account) | 13 |
| Balance Sheet | 14 |
| Notes to the Financial Statements | 15—19 |
Equally Ours Reference and Administrative Details For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
| Trustees & Directors | Julie Bishop – Interim Chair until May 2024, then Vice-chair until September 2024, co-opted trustee |
|---|---|
| Sonali Naik KC – Chair, co-opted May 2024 | |
| Sarah Mann, elected, Vice-chair from January 2025 | |
| Mohammed Ibrahim Ali, Treasurer, co-opted | |
| Colin Davidson, elected | |
| Kudsia Batool, elected | |
| Natalie Cresswell, elected | |
| Zarin Hainsworth Fadaei, elected | |
| Catherine Burton (resigned 09/10/2024) | |
| Stephen Watclott, elected (09/10/2024) | |
| Andrew Copson, elected (09/10/2024) | |
| Registered Office | The Foundry |
| 17 Oval Way, London | |
| SE11 5RR | |
| Charity Number | 1135357 |
| Company Number | 06464749 |
| Independent Examiner | Quilfords Chartered Certified Accountants |
| 113 Romford Road | |
| London | |
| E15 4LY | |
| Unity Trust Bank PLC | |
| Bankers | Nine Brindley Place |
| 4 Oozells Square | |
| B1 2HB |
Page 1
Equally Ours Company No. 06464749 Trustees' Report For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
The trustees present their report and the financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025.
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.
We are 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:
• To promote for the benefit of the public equality and in particular the elimination of discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, gender (sex), gender identity, race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation or any combination thereof. • To promote for the benefit of the public Human Rights (as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”) and subsequent United Nations conventions and declarations and in regional codes of Human Rights which incorporate the rights contained in the UDHR and those subsequent conventions and declarations).
• To promote for the benefit of the public the efficiency and effectiveness of Voluntary Sector Providers (as defined in Article 3.4) working in the areas of age, disability, gender, gender identity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation and Human Rights (as defined in Article 3.2) or any combination thereof.
2. The context for our work
We started 2024-2025 with the UK's equality and human rights landscape facing the cumulative impacts of many years of challenging political and public policy measures. These challenges include years of austerity and reduced public services, the erosion of equality legislation, asylum and immigration rights, multiple attempts by successive governments to replace the Human Rights Act with a watered-down Bill of Rights, the Windrush scandal, Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis and the unequal impacts of climate change. All in the context of increasing divisive political and public discourse on issues related to minority disadvantaged groups, such as migrants, the rights of trans people pitted against the rights of women, and war in the Middle East.
These developments highlighted the devastating impact of inequality and the importance of placing human rights at the heart of public policy.
The general election was called on 22nd May 2024, earlier than was generally expected, with Labour elected in July 2024. The farright response, including the racist riots of August 2024, generated a renewed rise is division and hate, and violently disrupted an already fragile UK society. These attacks, focused on migrant and Muslim communities, were fuelled by online hate speech and misinformation. Together with increases in anti-semitism, they served as a stark reminder of the country’s easily stirred up racial intolerance and the potential frailty of social cohesion in the UK.
But there were also significant positive developments and opportunities within our operating context. Not least the fact that the public came out en masse to support the anti-racist response to the riots and in many places outnumbered far-right supporters. Polling over the year consistently continued to show that most people across the country support diversity and human rights.
In addition, since the terrible police murder of George Floyd in the United States and the start of the Covid global pandemic in 2020, mainstream infrastructure charities, Equally Ours and the wider equality and human rights field have together developed greater alignment and collaboration.
The election result created both challenges and opportunities in the context of our work on the social justice agenda. For example, the new government’s language and policy proposals on immigration, planned changes to winter fuel payments and social security, and increases in National Insurance contributions, caused significant concern across our network.
On the other hand, we welcomed the government’s renewed legislative focus on advancing equality, and commitment to the Human Rights Act and remaining in the European Convention on Human Rights. The publication of the draft Civil Society Covenant for consultation was an important step in rebalancing the relationship and building trust between the public sector and civil society.
Meanwhile, pressure on the UK’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) continued to grow from the political right, reflecting the broader ongoing misconstruction in some sectors of domestic human rights obligations and national interests as being in conflict, particularly in relation to immigration.
All this pointed to the pressing need for concerted action to break down barriers to opportunity, reduce inequalities and take a human rights-based approach to public policy making, in order to create a society that is more cohesive and resilient to future challenges and emergencies.
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Equally Ours Trustees' Report (continued) For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
3. Our impact: What we achieved in 2024/2025
Through our ten-year strategy, Together for social justice, we continued to make progress on our key strategic areas of law, climate and investment.
• Law - protecting and improving the law on equality and human rights, and its application in public policy and practice.
• Climate - working 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.
- Investment - focus on increasing investment in solutions to the root causes of inequality and rights abuse.
On each of these strategic ambitions, we continued to influence national policy and legislation by bringing together research, communications, and policy expertise. We worked with human rights and infrastructure bodies in devolved nations to ensure their concerns were represented UK-wide.
In this polarised environment, we maintained cross-sector and cross-community working, even among groups with divergent views, on shared priorities like defending the Human Rights Act. We shaped the government’s proposed changes to equality law that could have the greatest impact for people experiencing discrimination and multiple disadvantage.
Below are our key activities and impact under each of our strategic objectives during the year 2024-2025.
LAW
General election
Our annual strategy-setting gathering of member CEOs and chairs in May 2024 took place the day after the general election was called, which helped us to act quickly and to hone our influencing plans with strategic insights from leaders in our network.
In 2023 we had engaged with the Labour party’s manifesto development process (the only party to have an open process) and this helped secure commitments in the Labour party’s manifesto to:
• strengthen equality law, including extending the equal pay regime to race and disability, expanding pay gap reporting to cover race, disability and outsourced workers, and consider how to commence certain provisions of the Equality Act 2010: Part 1 (the Socio-Economic Duty) in England and Section 14 (combined discrimination)
- level up hate crime protections
• embed equality across their missions.
In June 2024 we published a statement General election 2024: a call for humanity with over 40 signatories, calling on all political parties, candidates and people working for them to reject harmful, divisive rhetoric in political campaigning and instead to commit to dealing responsibly and fairly with politically sensitive topics relating to people and communities, whether defined by shared protected characteristics or the disadvantages they face. We called for a zero-tolerance approach to incitement to violence or hatred, dog-whistle politics, misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and all other forms of discrimination in campaigning and conduct. And for political parties to put in place measures to make the election more inclusive.
We also worked with members to produce a shared manifesto for the next government and develop an influencing strategy. The manifesto was shared with members, along with suggestions for how they can embed it into their own work on the election. It was also shared widely with key contacts.
Over the summer in 2024 we ran two well-attended member meetings focused on equipping members to adapt to working with a new government and with post-election planning, emphasising the need to focus constructively on influencing shared priorities while maintaining accountability, at which:
• Louise King, director of Children’s Rights Alliance England, Debbie Gupta, former policy director at Stonewall, and Mary-Ann Stephenson, director of the Women’s Budget Group, shared their experiences of working with and influencing past Labour governments.
• Mariam Keating, Head of the Home Affairs, Human Rights, Equalities and Justice Policy Hub - House of Commons Committee Office, briefed members on holding the new government to account, what happens in the post-election period with select committees, and how members can engage with them.
In the initial post-election period we pivoted our policy engagement to focus on advocacy for the shared priorities set out in our manifesto asks, through writing to new ministers, regular bilateral meetings with lead civil servants in the new Office for Equality and Opportunity in Cabinet Office, and establishing relationships with the new chair of the re-constituted Joint Committee on Human Rights and staff working to the Women and Equalities Select Committee.
Response to racist riots
In response to the racist riots of August 2024, Equally Ours issued a statement on X and LinkedIn unequivocally condemning the racist riots and standing in solidarity with Muslim, migrant and racialised communities targeted. We provided additional well-being support to Black and racialised team members; and worked across the team to build a more strategic response into our activities to the end of the year.
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Equally Ours Trustees' Report (continued) For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
This included convening an event with and for member CEOs held in October 2024. In addition to being a space for solidarity and knowledge exchange, the CEOs’ event centred the voices of Black and racialised leaders. It strongly highlighted the need for a crossgovernmental strategy on racial justice, and action tackling racism at a structural level rather than just as a criminal justice or community cohesion issue. This was one of our manifesto asks and we continued (and continue) to make the case for this to civil servants and government, as well as advocating for specific legislative and policy changes that will advance racial and intersectional racial justice (see sections below on Law and Investment).
In addition, the Funders for Racial Equality Alliance, for which we provide the Secretariat, produced a joint letter with Civic Power Fund, Justice Together Initiative and Migration Exchange in response the racist and Islamophobic riots that took place during the summer. The group worked towards a pooled fund, to support existing initiatives, groups and platforms which are currently underfunded.
Civil Society Group and Civil Society Covenant
We continued to participate in influential networks beyond the equality and human rights communities, for example, the Civil Society Group (CSG), a collaboration between infrastructure organisations including NCVO, ACEVO, and NAVCA.
Working with Equally Ours members and the CSG we contributed to the development of the new government’s Civil Society Covenant. Our CEO input to early thinking though a CSG awayday in September 2024 and joined the launch of the consultation on the Covenant at 10 Downing Street.
In November 2024 we hosted an engagement workshop between our members and ACEVO and NCVO colleagues leading on the development of the Covenant with the government. We captured member views to shape the Equally Ours network's response, submitted in December 2024, which is here. It called for an additional, overarching equality and human rights principle to inform the other principles that sit underneath it, and made the case for a rights-based approach to the relationship between civil society and public bodies. This contributed to significant strengthening of the prominence and role of rights within the Covenant.
Influencing strategy
We welcomed the government’s renewed focus on improvements to equality law, engaging regularly with the newly formed Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO) in Cabinet Office on behalf of the network. We convened a meeting in October 2024 between members and Ieuan Willox, Deputy Head, Equality Framework Team in the OEO, who set out plans for the year ahead in relation to the Employment Rights Bill and Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill and took questions from members.
In November 2024 in collaboration with members we published a five-year influencing strategy and then a 2024/25 action plan, and these provided a clear but flexible framework for us to work within, which covered further machinery of government changes, including the need for a cross-departmental race equality strategy, and mechanisms for embedding equality across the government’s missions. It focuses on the following six priority areas:
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Strengthen legal protection of equality and human rights, including by repealing or preventing regressive laws
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Strengthen the institutional framework for equality and human rights
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Harness public investment to reduce structural inequalities
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Reduce inequalities in the labour market, in particular by reducing pay and employment gaps, and improving access to redress for discrimination and harassment
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Strengthen protection against and responses to hate crime
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Address the unequal impacts of climate change
At the start of 2025 we established a Policy Influencing Working Group (PIWG) open to all members, associates and observers. It met fortnightly to collaborate on taking action on these influencing areas, reporting back to and consulting as needed with the wider membership, including through fortnightly emails and quarterly member meetings. With the PIWG and broader membership we agreed priorities to focus on in relation to the upcoming OEO’s equality legislation call for evidence: combined discrimination, the socio-economic duty, the public sector equality duty, and pay discrimination. Progress made on these in the final part of the financial year included:
Employment Rights Bill: In February we sent a briefing to parliamentarians on our key asks of the Employment Rights Bill (ERB). We supported the extension of time limits in discrimination claims. We recommended reinstating provisions in the Equality Act 2010 that were repealed by a previous government: the questionnaire procedure and power of Employment Tribunals to make wider recommendations. We drafted amendments to the ERB on the latter two, and while we were unable to identify MPs or peers to table the amendments, it has helped to raise these issues which we came back to in our response to the Equality Law call for evidence, with the aim of them being included in future in the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill.
Consultation on the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill: mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting . We briefed members about the forthcoming consultation and began development of a draft response.
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Equally Ours Trustees' Report (continued) For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
Hate Crime
We are contracted by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to coordinate the London Hate Crime Stakeholder Reference Group (SRG). This is the key route for over a hundred London community groups to share their lived experience and experience from providing direct services to community members, and to influence and improve MOPAC, the Metropolitan Police Service and Transport for London’s work on preventing and responding to hate crime, and to hold them to account. During 2024/25, we convened four meetings of the SRG, each with around 30 participants. The SRG meetings focused on:
• The role of the Metropolitan Police Service in tackling hate crime: How hate crimes are investigated, the Race Action Plan, and community engagement plan, with Inspector Abdul Haque.
• Opportunities and challenges for national hate crime legislation and policy under the new government, with Paul Giannasi OBE (Police Hate Crime Policy Lead) and Mike Ainsworth (National Independent Advisory Group on Hate Crime for Policing and Criminal Justice).
• The role of MOPAC in preventing and tackling hate crime, including the forthcoming consultation on the London Police and Crime Plan, victim support and support for civil society organisations, work with statutory and civil society partners, responding to trigger events and violence targeting specific communities.
• Falling confidence in police reporting of hate crime; the role of Restorative Justice Services in responding to hate crime; early findings from Protection Approaches and the University of Lancaster on their consultation on community views of what should be in a national hate crime strategy.
We worked with the SRG and its steering group to prepare and submit a response in March 2025 to the Mayor’s consultation on the London Police and Crime Plan, the first time the SRG has made a policy submission.
CLIMATE and INVESTMENT
The growth agenda
We developed a programme to focus on engaging members and London-based equality groups at the intersection of climate and public investment policy agendas, connecting local to national influencing, particularly in relation to the government’s growth and green jobs missions and impact investment. We were successful in our application to the City Bridge Trust Anchor Programme, securing £924,900 over 9 years. The work will began with recruitment in Q3 in 2025/26.
Over the year we also developed a partnership and planned a project between Equally Ours and members, the Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership, and Communities Prepared, and submitted a bid to the Big Lottery Climate Action Fund in March 2025.
Supporting the Funders for Race Equality Alliance (the Alliance)
As the secretariat for the Funders for Race Equality Alliance, we continued to support investment in Black and minoritised-led organisations through racial justice funding. We made progress on the Alliance's three strategic goals:
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Increased understanding and focus on decolonisation, intersectionality and racial justice.
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Increased and improved funding to address racial justice.
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Increased and sustained Black and Global Majority representation at all levels.
Over 2024-25, we hosted four steering group meetings, four member meetings, and a conference.
The Alliance released its annual Racial Justice Audit Tool at its conference in December 2024. The analysis identified key funding trends and provided a collective benchmark for UK funders to improve grant-making practices and develop pooled resources. Building on this, the Alliance developed new partnerships, including with TRIUMPH (Tackling Racism and Inequality with Underrepresented and Marginalised People Honestly), where FREA was invited to present audit findings as part of their investment and accountability solution spaces.
The Alliance also collaborated with the Trauma Informed Grantmaking Community of Practice and the DEI Data Standard, strengthening our contribution to sector-wide learning. In addition, they partnered with London Funders to host “Creating a Stronger Relationship: An Honest Space for Funders and Race Equality Organisations.” Attended by more than 25 people, the event provided an important forum for open dialogue and collaboration between funders and those working in the race equality sector.
SECTOR STRENGTH: strategic communications capacity building and consultancy
In addition to our thematic strategic priorities, we play a role at infrastructure level, building the capacity of civil society groups to advance people’s equality and human rights. We delivered a combination of grant-funded and consultancy projects, aimed at equipping equality, human rights and poverty groups and wider civil society to have greater reach and influence by applying strategic communications and narrative reframing techniques to their policy advocacy and communications. Our projects in 2024/25 were:
Zero Tolerance, in partnership with White Ribbon Scotland, contracted Equally Ours to produce foundational research exploring men's attitudes to gender equality, violence against women and girls (VAWG) and ways to encourage men to care about VAWG issues.
We conducted and reported on qualitative public research working with a specialist external qualitative researcher, comprising a week-long online forum with 24 men aged 16-45 in Scotland and eight depth interviews.
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Equally Ours Trustees' Report (continued) For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
The findings informed our development of the quantitative phase of the research, a survey of 1,000 men in Scotland which took place over August 2024. 250 men formed the control group and were shown a series of attitudinal statements that reflected dominant and expert views and had to choose the position they most closely aligned with. 750 formed the test group and were shown three reframed messages about gender roles, equality between men and women, and VAWG, followed by the attitudinal statements. The results showed that the reframed messages were successful and resulted in lower levels of support for dominant views and increased support for the expert view.
We produced ‘Addressing men’s violence against women and girls: evidence and ideas for communicating with men’, a report on the research and a communications guide for Zero Tolerance and their wider network.
Talking About Disability We completed the final phase of our partnership with Inclusion London and Inclusion Barnet, Talking about Disability, funded by City Bridge Trust. The project aimed to improve public understanding of disability and the role of Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPOs) by applying narrative reframing techniques and values-based communication.
From April-May 2024 we supported 12 London-based DDPOs through a tailored version of our Communications for Change programme, a three-part training designed to embed evidence-led reframing strategies into their advocacy and communications, refocused on the TAD research findings and priorities of the DDPOs we co-produced in 2023/24.
Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, 100% of participants said they would recommend the training. Many spoke of the transformative effect:
“We’re going to have... a much more digestible and easier to understand and powerful business plan,”
“It brought home to me that we need to have comms explicitly in our new business plan, not just assumed.”
Participants reported increased knowledge, confidence, and clarity in their messaging, moving away from overly technical content toward more values-driven narratives. One noted they were now:
“thinking more carefully about our messages on social media and what we are trying to achieve.”
Organisations began making more intentional communication choices, refining mission statements, and aligning messaging with strategic objectives.
Our consultancy sessions were particularly valued, offering tailored support that bridged the gap between leadership strategy and operational delivery. One participant said,
“It was one of my favourite parts of the whole project… really useful to sit with an expert on messaging and rework some of our messages.”
We ensured that the programmes were accessible throughout. Participants praised the inclusion of BSL, Speech To Text Reporters, image descriptions, neurodiversity-friendly formats, and flexible learning. As one participant noted,
“The accessibility was one of the best of any training session I have been on.”
Ultimately, this project laid the groundwork for long-term cultural and strategic change within the sector. As summarised by Claire Fisher, Head of Communications and Engagement at Inclusion Barnet:
“’Equally Ours’ deep expertise in social justice and strategic communications truly helped us to shift hearts and minds”
Communications for Change is our long-standing annual programme of training, funded by Trust for London to support equality and poverty charities in the capital to develop strategic communications skills.
In the last quarter of 2024/25 we took the final cohort through the programme, which comprised three training workshops and three communities of practice and a 1-1 three-hour expert communications consultancy session.
Participant feedback included:
“The course was well written and delivered. I particularly liked the way materials had been adapted for different learning styles and attendees with learning needs.”
“It has been so helpful for me. I have moved into a new role and the training has made things so much clearer and easier for me. Teaching style and trainers are amazing.”
“Cat and Kathryn were very helpful and created a welcoming environment that allowed us to share and learn. They were knowledgeable and encouraged us.”
Stronger Voices is a City Bridge Trust-funded project led by Media Trust to increase communications capacity for London-based equality organisations. Equally Ours was the strategic communications programme partner. We advised on selection of the cohort as part of the programme steering group. The 21 organisations who participated included Haringey Migrant Support Centre, Carers for Carers, London Friend, Kalayaan, the Black Adoption Project, and the Rise Collective. We delivered our two-part Communications for Change workshops and two days of 1-1 consultancy sessions.
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Equally Ours Trustees' Report (continued) For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
By the end of the programme, the indicators for our elements of the programme showed that 100% felt confident in communicating effectively to their organisation's audiences. This was an increase of 85% from the start of the programme where only 15% of respondents felt confident. 81% rated their knowledge of developing and framing key messages as high, compared to 10% at the start of the programme, an increase of 71%.
EQUALLY OURS’ STRENGTH
Anti-racism programme: Building on our commitment to anti-racism in policy and practice across all our work, we continued roll out of our progamme with a successful Board and Executive learning session led by Yasmeen Akthar and Julia Oertli of the Inchange consultancy in October 2024.
We updated our well-being and pay policies through an anti-racism lens. We also introduced trauma-informed coaching available for all staff provided by an expert in racial justice.
We embedded anti-racism across the organisational structural review, including producing an equality impact assessment of proposed changes.
We combined our long-standing good practice recruitment measures with some new measures to strengthen and refresh our recruitment pack. As with all recruitments, we assessed whether to use additional positive action for our roles, such as the tie-break provision under Section 159 of the Equality Act 2010. Over half of people recruited into senior programme and senior operational roles since 2015 at Equally Ours have been from Black and racialised minority backgrounds. However, a disproportionately low percentage - one quarter - have been recruited into senior policy roles. This mirrors the lack of diversity on the basis of race in policy-influencing roles in the voluntary sector more widely. On that basis, we review for each recruitment whether to use the tiebreak provision, and where relevant set this out in our recruitment materials.
Organisational resilience and sustainability: Due to a number of factors, our capacity was limited in 2024/25, causing delays to our planned organisational development. However, we ended the year with the completion of the restructure element of our Structure and Sustainability review, with the support of external consultants Coconut Octopus. Resulting changes agreed by the board, including recruitment to strengthen our policy and public affairs team, is being delivered in 2025/26.
Membership remained closed to applications, pending the membership scheme element of the Structure and Sustainability review, which will take place in 2025/26.
The different elements of the Structure and Sustainability review, together with the recruitment of our new chair and Chief Operating Officer during 2024/25, aim to put Equally Ours in the best possible position to deliver on Together for Social Justice, our ten-year strategy.
4. Our impact: members’ views
Our annual membership survey in the past year revealed the positive impact that Equally Ours had on people and organisations across the equality and human rights sector. Equally Ours members consistently rated their satisfaction highly with an average score of 9/10. Members who completed our survey consistently described the network as a source of insight and inspiration, strengthening their ability to advance equality and human rights in both local and national contexts.
Survey responses showed that Equally Ours kept members informed of national policy developments, allowing them to share knowledge within their regions and their respective organisations. As one member explained, Equally Ours:
“keeps us informed of national developments for promulgation within the SW Region's women's organisations. Allowed us to input into policy interventions on behalf of local women. Energised me to keep on campaigning.”
Members also reported that Equally Ours maximised opportunities to protect and advance human rights, increase progressive dialogue across sectors, and strengthened their ability to influence policy and legislation. As one member reflected:
“Joint submissions and inclusion strengthened our impact and helped us achieve our mission.”
Another described the personal benefit of membership:
“Huge difference. Provided an opportunity to understand more equality and human rights arguments.”
Through our member participation, members reported a stronger understanding of intersectionality, rights-based approaches, and equality within a human rights framework. They also reported that the network improved their ability to communicate effectively about these issues and to build stronger connections with peers. As one member commented:
“Equally Ours helped us to connect with other organisations, develop our understanding of key issues, and supported us to respond to Government rights and equality issues.”
Equally Ours also supported members’ respective organisations’ effectiveness over the past year, citing improved access to funding and opportunities to contribute to shared policy positions, strategy development, and coordinated action informed by an intersectional evidence base. As one member highlighted:
“The Policy Influencing Working Group was brilliant - allowed us to feed into consultations we didn't have capacity to respond to. The newsletter was a really useful source of info.”
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Equally Ours Trustees' Report (continued) For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
When asked what members valued the most about their Equally Ours membership with Equally Ours, respondents reported:
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Opportunities to influence collective policy positions and participate in strategic action.
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Engagement with government departments, policymakers, and wider influencing networks.
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Staying up to date with policy, equality, and human rights developments.
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Sharing knowledge, experiences, and challenges with peers.
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Access to tools, training, and consultancy support to drive organisational change.
Looking ahead, members expressed a desire to maintain online accessibility for greater regional participation, expand opportunities for practical training, and host low-cost events on public policy, criminal justice, and communications. One member concluded,
“Equally Ours supported us with strategic communications and delivered a research project with us. It very much helped us develop our thinking around strategic communications and compile goals for future work.”
5. The year ahead
Our members and the sector they operate within are reporting that they are under significant strain, with women’s and minoritised groups disproportionately affected. At the same time, the sector is being asked to do more with less. Increased demand for services, financial pressures, staff burnout, and the ongoing struggle for sustainable resources are impacting the capacity of organisations that play a key role in safeguarding rights and wellbeing, more so than ever.
Despite the heightened difficulties right now, there are significant opportunities to use our collective evidence and voice to achieve positive change, and we will make the most of them. In the year ahead, our public policy influencing will continue delivery of our five-year influencing strategy, focused on:
- Improving equality law, through responding to the Office for Equality and Opportunity’s call for evidence on equality law and further developments in relation to:
• The OEO’s commissioned research into pay discrimination through our role on the research advisory group, and by responding to the consultation on ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting
• Ensuring effective commencement and implementation of Section 14 of the Equality Act 2010 on Combined Discrimination, including by convening a summit that centres lived experience and brings together the OEO, civil society and community members, legal and academic experts
• Improving the Public Sector Equality Duty, focused on proposing that the UK Government should develop and consult on proposed new specific duties for public bodies in England
• Ensuring effective commencement and implementation of Part 1 of the Equality Act 2010, the Socio-economic Duty (SED), as part of the steering group of the 1ForEquality Campaign led by Just Fair and the Equality Trust. The Socio-Economic Duty would place poverty reduction and socio-economic disadvantage at the heart of policymaking by public bodies.
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Making the case to government and stakeholders to use policy-making levers on investment, growth and the green economy to reduce structural inequalities.
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Increasing support for and protecting existing rights, including by addressing the impacts of the rise in far-right rhetoric and activity. These are posing a growing and real threat to the rule of law and to people’s equality and human rights, both within communities and within the policy-making environment.
This comes at an important moment as we will be rebuilding and strengthening our Policy and Public Affairs function with the appointment of three new part-time posts: Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Head of Policy, and Communications and Engagement Officer.
Along with re-opening our membership in October 2025, we are hopeful that we will be in a strong position to respond to the challenges and support the network with opportunities to advance our shared pan-equality and human rights priorities under the current government.
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. In February 2024, Julie Bishop, our vice-chair stepped up as interim chair pending the recruitment for the permanent chair position. In May 2024, Sonali Naik KC was appointed as Equally Ours’ new Chair, following an open recruitment process. Cat Burton stood down and Stephen Walcott and Andrew Copson were elected as trustees in October 2024.
All of our board members bring lived experience of one or more of the equality and human rights issues we work on, alongside extensive knowledge of equality and human rights together with experience of senior management and governance within the voluntary sector and other sectors.
The Board and Equally Ours members are committed to ensuring that the Board maintains 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. Trustees meet a minimum of 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.
Page 8
...CONTINUED
Equally Ours Trustees' Report (continued) For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
Staff team
The staff team in 2024-2025 were:
-
Ali Harris, Co-Chief Executive, 0.8fte
-
Mandy Mahil, COO, full-time, from July 2024
-
Kamille Leon, Office and Resources Manager, full-time
-
Kathryn Quinton, Communications Director, full-time
-
Cat Whitehouse, Head of Strategic Communications, full-time, till June 2024
-
Tansy Hutchinson, Head of Policy, full-time, until April 2025
-
Lukia Nomikos, Community Engagement Officer, full-time, until April 2024
-
Tracey Agyeman, Director, Funders for Race Equality Alliance (FREA), full-time
-
Ellora Kowalczyk, FREA Programme Officer, 0.8fte
-
Jacqueline Agyei, Administrative Officer, temporary contract until December 2024
-
Jen Damaris, Community Engagement Officer, 0.8fte, from January 2025
We were grateful for consultancy expertise during periods of long-term staff medical leave, provided by Melanie Field in supporting us 1.5 days a week on policy and public affairs; and by Paul Brook working with us to complete the strategic communications project with Zero Tolerance.
Key management personnel were the CEO and COO. 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.
7. 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 2024/25 were of public benefit and that the charity’s funds were spent to achieve public benefit.
Membership list
Members
Members of Equally Ours 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 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 Security Women SignHealth Stonewall Trades Union Congress Traveller Movement UNISON Women’s Budget Group Women’s Resource Centre Associate members Amnesty International UK Black South West Network Carers UK Child Poverty Action Group Chronic Illness Inclusion Citizens Advice Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion Equal Rights Trust EqualiTeach
...CONTINUED
Page 9
Equally Ours Trustees' Report (continued) For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
Fairness Foundation FiLia Galop HEAR Inclusion London Inclusion North Just Fair Law Society Liberty Migrant Centre NI Migrants’ Rights Network National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers National Survivor User Network Northern Ireland Council for Racial Equality Race Equality First 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 LGBT Consortium
Observers
Centre on Migration, Policy and Society Equality and Human Rights Commission Government Equalities Office/ Office for Equality and Opportunity Greater London Authority Independent Police Complaints Commission Joint Committee on Human Rights of the UK Parliament JUSTICE Local Government Association 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
Small Company Rules
This report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions relating to companies subject to the small companies regime within Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006.
The trustees' report was approved by the board of trustees and signed on its behalf by:
Sonali Naik KC Chair of Trustees
Date: 4[th] November 2025
Page 10
Equally Ours Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of Equally Ours For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Company for the year ended 31 March 2025.
Responsibilities and Basis of Report
As the charity 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 a member of The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, 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:
-
accounting records were not kept in respect of the Company as required by section 386 of the 2006 Act; or
-
the accounts do not accord with those records; or
-
the accounts do not comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the 2006 Act other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true and fair view' which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or
-
the accounts have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice for accounting and reporting by charities applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).
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.
Askir Ali Quilfords Chartered Certified Accountants 113 Romford Road London E15 4LY
Date: 04/11/2025
Page 11
Equally Ours
Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure Account) For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
| Notes INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM: Donations and legacies 3 Other 4 EXPENDITURE ON: Charitable activities: 6 Charitable activities NET (EXPENDITURE)/INCOME Transfers between funds 13 NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS: Total funds brought forward TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD 13 |
Unrestricted funds £ 100,786 40,358 |
Restricted funds £ 348,110 35,000 |
2025 Total funds £ 448,896 75,358 |
2024 Total funds £ 659,373 77,697 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 141,144 | 383,110 |
524,254 |
737,070 | |
| (249,206) | (316,016) |
(565,222) |
(680,186) | |
| (108,062) 209,766 |
67,094 (209,766) |
(40,968) - |
56,884 - |
|
| 101,704 (2,887) |
(142,672) 363,238 |
(40,968) 360,351 |
56,884 303,467 |
|
| 98,817 | 220,566 |
319,383 |
360,351 |
The notes on pages 15 to 19 form part of these financial statements.
Page 12
Equally Ours
Comparative Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure Account) For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
| Notes INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM: Donations and legacies 3 Other 4 EXPENDITURE ON: Charitable activities: 6 Charitable activities NET INCOME NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS: Total funds brought forward TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD 13 |
Unrestricted funds £ 195,854 63,722 |
Restricted funds £ 463,519 13,975 |
2024 Total funds £ 659,373 77,697 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 259,576 | 477,494 |
737,070 | |
| (253,797) | (426,389) |
(680,186) | |
| 5,779 | 51,105 |
56,884 | |
| 5,779 (8,666) |
51,105 312,133 |
56,884 303,467 |
|
| (2,887) | 363,238 |
360,351 |
The notes on pages 15 to 19 form part of these financial statements.
Page 13
Equally Ours Balance Sheet As At 31 March 2025
| 2025 | 2024 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrestricted funds |
Restricted funds |
Total funds | Total funds | ||
| Notes | £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| FIXED ASSETS | |||||
| Tangible Assets | 10 | - | - | - | 2,619 |
| - | - | - | 2,619 | ||
| CURRENT ASSETS | |||||
| Debtors | 11 | 24,224 | 183,274 | 207,498 | 224,582 |
| Cash at bank and in hand | - | 241,181 | 135,738 | 162,880 | |
| 24,224 | 424,455 | 343,236 | 387,462 | ||
| Creditors: Amounts Falling Due Within One Year | 12 | (129,296) | - | (23,853 ) | (29,730 ) |
| NET CURRENT ASSETS (LIABILITIES) | (105,072) | 424,455 | 319,383 | 357,732 | |
| TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES | (105,072) | 424,455 | 319,383 | 360,351 | |
| NET ASSETS | (105,072) | 424,455 | 319,383 | 360,351 | |
| FUNDS OF THE CHARITY | |||||
| Restricted Funds | 220,566 | 363,238 | |||
| Unrestricted Funds | 98,817 | (2,887) | |||
| TOTAL FUNDS | 13 | 319,383 | 360,351 |
For the year ending 31 March 2025 the charitable company was entitled to exemption from audit under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.
The members have not required the charitable company to obtain an audit in accordance with section 476 of the Companies Act 2006.
The trustees acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Act with respect to accounting records and the preparation of accounts.
These accounts have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.
On behalf of the board
Sonali Naik KC Chair of Trustees
Date: 4[th] November 2025
The notes on pages 15 to 19 form part of these financial statements.
Page 14
Equally Ours Notes to the Financial Statements For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
1. General Information
Equally Ours is a company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 5[th] January 2008 , registered number 06464749 and registered charity number 1135357. The registered office is 17 Oval Way, London, SE11 5RR.
2. Accounting Policies
2.1. Basis of Preparation of Financial Statements
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102) "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 2019)", Financial Reporting Standard 102 "The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland" and the Companies Act 2006.
The charitable company is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
2.2. Cash and Cash Equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents are basic financial assets and include cash in hand and deposits held at call with banks, other short-term highly liquid investments that mature in no more than three months from the date of acquisition and are readily convertible to a known amount of cash with insignificant risk of change in value, and bank overdrafts.
3. Income from Donations and Legacies
| Donations and gifts Member subscriptions and sponsorships Grants Donations and gifts Member subscriptions and sponsorships Grants . Other Income Sponsorship Strategic comms service Training fees |
2025 Unrestricted Restricted Total funds funds funds £ £ £ 769 - 769 14,850 - 14,850 85,167 348,110 433,277 100,786 348,110 448,896 2024 Unrestricted Restricted Total funds funds funds £ £ £ 1,257 - 1,257 22,100 70,000 92,100 172,497 393,519 566,016 195,854 463,519 659,373 2025 Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Total funds £ £ £ - - - 40,358 35,000 75,358 - - - 40,358 35,000 75,358 |
Unrestricted funds £ 769 14,850 85,167 |
Unrestricted funds £ 769 14,850 85,167 |
Restricted funds £ - - 348,110 |
2025 Total funds £ 769 14,850 433,277 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100,786 | 348,110 |
448,896 | |||
| Unrestricted funds £ 1,257 22,100 172,497 |
Restricted funds £ - 70,000 393,519 |
2024 Total funds £ 1,257 92,100 566,016 |
|||
| 195,854 | 463,519 |
659,373 | |||
| 40,358 | 35,000 |
4. Other Income
Page 15
Equally Ours Notes to the Financial Statements (continued) For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
| Sponsorship Strategic comms service Training fees |
Unrestricted funds £ - 63,222 500 |
Restricted funds £ 2,000 11,975 - |
2024 Total funds £ 2,000 75,197 500 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63,722 | 13,975 |
77,697 |
5. Net Income/(Expenditure)
The net (expenditure)/income is stated after charging/(crediting):
| Bad debts Research and developments costs Depreciation of tangible fixed assets - owned . Analysis of Expenditure Charitable activities Charitable activities |
Activities undertaken directly £ 47,337 |
2025 £ - 16,373 2,619 |
2024 £ 200 20,630 2,100 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support costs (see note7) £ 517,885 |
2025 Total £ 565,222 |
||
| Activities undertaken directly £ 76,853 |
Support costs (see note7) £ 603,333 |
2024 Total £ 680,186 |
6. Analysis of Expenditure
7. Support Costs
| . Support Costs | |
|---|---|
| Employee costs Premises expenses Programme costs Depreciation Interest payable |
2025 Charitable activities £ 381,271 32,940 100,635 2,619 420 |
| 517,885 |
Page 16
Equally Ours Notes to the Financial Statements (continued) For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
| Employee costs Premises expenses Programme costs Depreciation Interest payable Governance costs 8. Staff Costs Staff costs were as follows: Wages and salaries Social security costs Other pension costs |
2025 £ 312,040 26,311 25,789 364,140 |
2024 Charitable activities £ 500,947 28,462 52,486 2,100 662 18,676 |
|---|---|---|
| 603,333 | ||
| 2024 £ 417,342 38,198 30,475 |
||
| 486,015 |
No employees received employee benefits (excluding employer pension costs) for the reporting period of more than £60,000.
9. Average Number of Employees
Average number of employees during the year was: 7 (2024: 8)
10. Tangible Assets
| Cost As at 1 April 2024 As at 31 March 2025 Depreciation As at 1 April 2024 Provided during the period As at 31 March 2025 Net Book Value As at 31 March 2025 As at 1 April 2024 |
Computer Equipment £ 8,399 |
|---|---|
| 8,399 | |
| 5,780 2,619 |
|
| 8,399 | |
| - | |
| 2,619 |
Page 17
Equally Ours Notes to the Financial Statements (continued) For The Year Ended 31 March 2025
11. Debtors
| Due within one year Trade debtors Other debtors 2. Creditors: Amounts Falling Due Within One Year Trade creditors Other creditors Taxation and social security 3. Movement in Funds As at 1 April 2024 £ Unrestricted funds General: General unrestricted fund (174,554) John Ellerman Foundation 46,667 Esmée Fairbairn Foundation 100,000 The AB Charitable Trust 25,000 (2,887) Designated: Strategic Comms - Total unrestricted funds (2,887) Restricted funds Restricted fund 500 Barrow Cadbury Trust 6,285 Access Foundation 177,653 Alliance Membership 86,065 Trust for London 7,278 The Legal Education Foundation 64,247 City Bridge Trust 15,958 MOPAC 11,327 Funders for Race Equality Alliance (21,730) Crown Prosecution Service - Framing Research Project 15,655 Total restricted funds 363,238 Total funds 360,351 |
Due within one year Trade debtors Other debtors 2. Creditors: Amounts Falling Due Within One Year Trade creditors Other creditors Taxation and social security 3. Movement in Funds As at 1 April 2024 £ Unrestricted funds General: General unrestricted fund (174,554) John Ellerman Foundation 46,667 Esmée Fairbairn Foundation 100,000 The AB Charitable Trust 25,000 (2,887) Designated: Strategic Comms - Total unrestricted funds (2,887) Restricted funds Restricted fund 500 Barrow Cadbury Trust 6,285 Access Foundation 177,653 Alliance Membership 86,065 Trust for London 7,278 The Legal Education Foundation 64,247 City Bridge Trust 15,958 MOPAC 11,327 Funders for Race Equality Alliance (21,730) Crown Prosecution Service - Framing Research Project 15,655 Total restricted funds 363,238 Total funds 360,351 |
Income £ 99,786 - - - |
Expenditure £ (207,848) - - - |
2025 £ 189,205 18,293 207,498 2025 £ 13,009 (3,504) 14,348 23,853 Transfers £ 381,433 (46,667) (100,000) (25,000) |
2024 £ 144,752 79,830 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 224,582 | ||||||
| 2024 £ 300 4,608 24,822 |
||||||
| 29,730 | ||||||
| As at 31 March 2025 £ 98,817 - - - |
||||||
| (2,887) - |
99,786 41,358 |
(207,848) (41,358) |
209,766 - |
98,817 - |
||
| (2,887) | 141,144 | (249,206) |
209,766 |
98,817 |
||
| 500 6,285 177,653 86,065 7,278 64,247 15,958 11,327 (21,730) 15,655 |
- 39,600 - - 61,750 75,700 - 45,000 161,060 - |
- (45,885) - - (37,104) (72,108) - (48,657) (112,262) - |
(500) - (177,653) (86,065) - - (15,958) - 86,065 (15,655) |
- - - - 31,924 67,839 - 7,670 113,133 - |
||
| 363,238 | 383,110 | (316,016) |
(209,766) |
220,566 |
||
| 360,351 | 524,254 | (565,222) |
- |
319,383 |
12. Creditors: Amounts Falling Due Within One Year
13. Movement in Funds
Page 18
Unrestricted funds General: General unrestricted fund John Ellerman Foundation Esmée Fairbairn Foundation The AB Charitable Trust Total unrestricted funds Restricted funds Restricted fund Barrow Cadbury Trust Access Foundation Alliance Membership Trust for London The Legal Education Foundation City Bridge Trust MOPAC Funders for Race Equality Alliance Joseph Rowntree Foundation Crown Prosecution Service - Framing Research Project Total restricted funds Total funds |
As at 1 April 2023 £ (8,666) - - - |
Income £ 87,909 46,667 100,000 25,000 |
Expenditure £ (253,797) - - - |
As at 31 March 2024 £ (174,554) 46,667 100,000 25,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (8,666) | 259,576 |
(253,797) |
(2,887) |
|
| 500 12,165 98,884 - 9,948 62,110 15,040 21,955 61,240 26,611 3,680 |
- 37,750 181,426 90,000 53,000 72,800 17,648 12,895 - - 11,975 |
- (43,630) (102,657) (3,935) (55,670) (70,663) (16,730) (23,523) (82,970) (26,611) - |
500 6,285 177,653 86,065 7,278 64,247 15,958 11,327 (21,730) - 15,655 |
|
| 312,133 | 477,494 |
(426,389) |
363,238 |
|
| 303,467 | 737,070 |
(680,186) |
360,351 |
14. Related Party Disclosures
There have been no related party transactions in the reporting period that require disclosure.
15. Company limited by guarantee
The company is limited by guarantee and has no share capital.
Every member of the company undertakes to contribute to the assets of the company, in the event of a winding up, such an amount as may be required not exceeding £1.
Page 19