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← Baobab Centre For Young Survivors In Exile

2023-03-31-accounts

THE BAOBAB CENTRE For Young Survivors in Exile

Annual Report and Accounts for April 2022 to March 2023

Charity Number: 1135407 Company Number: 6816297 6-9 Manor Gardens London, N7 6LA Phone: 0207 263 1301 E-Mail: info@baobabsurvivors.org Website: https://www.baobabsurvivors.org

The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report and Accounts

The Annual Report for April 2022- March 2023

The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report and Accounts .................................... 2 1: Introduction / overview of the year .................................................................................................. 3 2: The context of our work over the past Year i.e. 2022 April to 2023 March and the voices of Baobab Community Members ........................................................................................................................... 4 3: The Context of our Work ................................................................................................................... 7 4: Themes, Issues and Baobab Advocacy Work .................................................................................... 8 5: Our Approach.................................................................................................................................. 10 6: Statistics on asylum seeking minors, at Baobab and beyond.......................................................... 11 7: Clinical Issues and Individual Psychotherapy (This section should be read alongside the statistics section) ............................................................................................................................................................ 12 8: Social and Casework Issues ............................................................................................................. 13 ............................................................................................................................................................ 13 9: Groupwork Issues............................................................................................................................ 13 10: Community Issues ......................................................................................................................... 16 11: Education Sessions ........................................................................................................................ 17 12: Financial Issues ............................................................................................................................. 17 13: Fundraising Issues ......................................................................................................................... 17 14: Human Resources Issues ............................................................................................................... 18 15: Safeguarding Issues ...................................................................................................................... 19 16: Monitoring and Evaluation ........................................................................................................... 19 17: Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 19 18: Final Word .................................................................................................................................... 20

[Annex] The Annual Accounts for April 2022 – March 2023

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

1: Introduction / overview of the year

March 2023 marks fifteen years of our work as the Baobab centre and we hope to make use of the coming year to both celebrate and to reflect. Claire Helman, our Chair of Trustees, told us in December 2022 that she would like to retire from her role in December 2023 and November 2023 was her last meeting. Baobab has been working for fifteen years now i.e. between April 2008 and April 2023 and Claire has been linked to our work since the year we began. As is set out in our website:

‘The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile was first formed in 2008 and set up as a company by limited by guarantee in 2009 and later as a charity in 2010.’

I would like to start this years’ annual report with a reflection on how far we have come, and giving thanks to those individuals who were with Baobab at the start of our journey. We began working in the home of one of our early very generous Trustees, Tricia Pank. We ran individual and group sessions from this venue. Very soon after we started, we realized that we needed to become a registered charity to build resources for our multi-disciplinary and holistic approach. This would include a variety of clinical and casework perspectives. We were, and remain, convinced that a multi-disciplinary approach, where a different professionals worked closely together was what unaccompanied asylumseeking children and young people needed.

A small group of us, some clinicians, some group workers and some with a huge amount of administrative experience, formed a working group to think initially how we might raise funds for a caseworker. Dick Blackwell (a group analyst) put an advertisement in the Guardian asking for responses and involvement from people with significant experience as senior administrators. Through this source we found Jill Pack who had just resigned from the BBC, where she had a senior role, and was looking for volunteer work. Through my social and community connections I was introduced to Denise Wilkinson, someone who had been the CEO of various charities, and I met Claire Helman and Sue Lukes (one of our early Trustees), through local community connections. Over time I learned that Claire had also been a department Director in various very large charities and had worked overseas for International NGO’s, including working in Uganda, a country from which several of our community members originated. She also had trained in family therapy including the study of organizational dynamics. Given her experience I asked her if she would like to join our planning group and eventually realized that she had the skills to become chair of our trustees. She is now the CEO of a large charity in the east end of London. Claire was thus involved from the start in sharing her managerial skills and in deciphering and translating for us all we needed to do to become initially a company limited by guarantee and later a sustainable registered charity, with clear and continuing objectives.

Since 2008 Claire has been actively and practically involved in the governance of Baobab and in particular our financial management, human resources and fundraising. She has been a complete rock in these areas, always accessible for responding to queries and giving advice when needed. In relation to complicated governance and human resource issues and in terms of chairing our finance committee and ensuring we take absolute care to not spend beyond our resources. I think we have now internalised this advice after fifteen years! Claire has been able to recognize and support our holistic approach and ensure that our Trustees meetings include discussion of clinical and community and safeguarding matters alongside financial, fundraising and personnel issues.

Here in this report, I would like to record our enormous appreciation of Claire’s involvement with Baobab through all the early stages of our development and the last few years when we have been both stable and recognized by both referrers and funders. She has worked very hard towards our aims and we have learned a lot from her about reflective practice and stable governance.

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

We certainly would not be where we are now without Claire’s huge input of time and wisdom. I am sure we will often miss her as we enter this new phase with enthusiasm and care and healthy scepticism in terms of our current context and current needs to safeguard and protect a large group of vulnerable minors and young adults and to raise sufficient funds to do this work well. We certainly wish Claire very well and hope that she will use her time for herself and her many passions. There are four lovely abstract paintings by Claire in our group room that help us to focus and concentrate during the inevitable complicated moments in each Friday group session (both with staff and with young people).

Looking ahead, we are also delighted that Dr Felicity Dirmeik, a very experienced psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, who has been one of our trustees for some while, has agreed to take over the role of chair of our trustees in January 2024.

2: The context of our work over the past Year i.e. 2022 April to 2023 March and the voices of Baobab Community Members

This year there has been a significant and increased feeling of hostility towards asylum seekers in the UK from those in power to make decisions i.e. the current government who have such a large majority and from the press. At the same time there seems to be an increase in warmth towards and support of refugees by NGOs and members of the public. The government’s plans to introduce measures to prevent those who aim to seek asylum in the UK, from seeking asylum if they arrive by an irregular route, means that the majority of those who wish to seek safety and protection in the UK will be barred from doing this if the detail of the bill is acted on. Our community members have been included in meetings with members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. In these meetings young people have been given time and space to share the detail their narratives and their experiences in their home countries and on their journeys into exile, alongside learning about the democratic political processes in the UK. The House of Lords suggested many amendments to the bill but as a consequence of the government majority we were told that these amendments were unlikely to be accepted.

We have during this year been able to establish for the first time our casework team lead now by Jodie Bourke our Head of Casework. We have three part time paid caseworkers/social workers and one volunteer caseworker. We have also established our senior leadership team currently consisting of our Head of Casework (Jodie Bourke) and Head of Group Work (Bitenge Makuka) and our Head of Operations (Rosanna O’Keefe) as well as our director. In terms of clinical work

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

we have an excellent Clinical Administrator, Elisa O’Brien, who during this year has set up systems to deal with our regular flow of new referrals; to set up three session assessments; and to support clinicians in the essentially holistic approach of assessing young people’s needs and making decisions, with them, about whether or not they would like to come to become a member of the Baobab Community and if our team is of the opinion that they could make use of our therapeutic, community and casework models. We have worked during this year on the detail of procedures for leaving and joining our community and these have been finalised providing clarity around our clinical processes and service provision. We have introduced regular reviews of our young people’s participation in the different levels of our therapeutic work i.e. individual work, groupwork and participation in community activities, outings and community meetings.

During this year, several members of our clinical team have developed new skills to supplement their psychotherapy tool bag, in particular, learning EMDR skills. Bitenge Makuka completed two years of group analytic training.

We organized two different therapeutic Retreats over the summer one on. A farm and the other at MB3.There is a well expressed desire that our staff team organises a variety of social activities during the college breaks so then in addition to our ongoing music and philosophy groups the whole staff team arranges many activities during the college breaks. These included this year, horse riding, climbing, canoeing, running, cycling, drama and art days as well as day trips to the sea and to museums.

Our fundraising and admin teams organized activities for staff and supporters. In June 2022 we held a community art exhibition and displayed artwork and poetry created by both young people and some of our staff. In December 2022 we appreciated very much that Mo Farah agreed that we show the documentary about his life, his trafficking to the UK and his journey as an unaccompanied child from Somalia to the UK. Mo Farah was unable to attend the event but made a small video where he talked briefly about the links between his experiences and those of the young people who attend Baobab. The film-maker Leo Burley, who worked in partnership with Red Bull studios, attended the event and spoke in dialogue with our director. Our fund-raiser Isaiah Dupree organized and led the event with enthusiasm and energy. We were able to have a discussion with questions about the challenges of protecting and safeguarding and assessing children and adolescents who have left their home countries after experiences of human rights abuses.

During this year we also prepared our strategic plan which focuses on operationalising our two main aims of rehabilitation and justice. This plan was developed in consultation with a specialist in organizational development and with all members of the Baobab Community including our young community members, Trustees, clinicians, individual and group psychotherapists, caseworkers and administrators. We aimed to ensure that all members of our community had a voice. From larger and smaller meetings and individual comments our senior leadership team distilled a Strategic Plan which reflects on where we are in the present as an organization and how we would like to develop in the future. Part of this includes being clear about the possible pathways through Baobab for young people, considering their internal psychological issues and their external practical needs, including their needs for asylum, care, education, attention to their physical and psychological health needs, housing and destitution support and the commitment for the clinical staff to provide specialist clinical reports in order to support their asylum claims as well as their need for priority housing and care on account of their vulnerabilities. We always centre the voices of Baobab’s young people in our planning and values.

For the young people in our community Baobab has been described as:

‘A home, a place to breathe, no matter who you are or where you come from.’

‘A team of people who fight for your rights, who speak truth to power, who are tenacious and hopeful.’

‘A community that cares for you, your mental health and your wider wellbeing.’

‘Somewhere that is yours, where you feel listened to and able to make decisions about your future.’ 5

The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

The report also highlights our aspirations over the next five years, in line with our strategic plan. Below are our aimed outcomes, as detailed in our strategic plan:

Priority Outcomes: Our Community and Advocacy

1. Young people: Increased the number of young people we support to between 80-90 attending weekly and have a greater proportion of referrals from organisations working with newly arrived young people.

b) Have a clearly articulated model including a publicly shared version which is accessible to non-clinicians. This will include our belief that the threshold for the number of young people in the community is 90.

c) Continue to follow our model of rehabilitation and justice through holistic and interwoven psychotherapeutic, casework, practical and community support for the young people in our community.

2. Young People: Established decision-making roles at Baobab for young people from the community.

a) Have an active and established mentor group, made up of members of Baobab’s community, who have a decision-making role within Baobab, including being on recruitment panels, co-chairing community meetings, attending events and providing feedback.

b) Establish paid and voluntary opportunities for young people from our community who would like to develop or learn particular skills at Baobab and with partner NGOs.

3. Advocacy: Baobab will routinely share our expertise and our community members' (anonymised) experiences with other professionals and with the public with the objective of improving the experience for all young asylum seekers and refugees in the UK.

a) Establish Baobab’s role within the sector as: holding specialist knowledge and experience on the mental health and developmental impact of loss and trauma and unplanned change on young asylum seekers and refugees; and being a source of voices and of young people who wish to speak out about these experiences.

b) Have strong relationships with peer organisations to amplify both the voices of those in our community and our organisational knowledge and expertise.

c) In particular, Baobab will have increased our research and documentation capacity, connecting the complexities of individual stories/experiences to the issues with UK policy and practice. Our Enabling Outcomes: Building Organisational Resilience

4. Leadership and Governance: Built resilience within the governance and leadership.

a) Have a strong, engaged and diverse board which has both enthusiasm and experience in governance and includes key posts/expertise: Chair, HR, Clinical, Treasurer, Social work, Advocacy and Human Rights.

b) Have a Director who is a practicing psychotherapist holding a small caseload at Baobab and who is passionate about Baobab’s core purpose and values, as set out above.

5. People, Structure and Processes: a strong and experienced staff team supported by robust clinical and operational processes.

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

a) People strategy: Baobab will have invested in recruitment contributing to a strong and stable staff team supported by committed volunteers. This team will be backed up by supportive processes including but not limited to: staff joining procedures, a clear pay grade structure, training opportunities and wellbeing support.

b) Operational processes, this includes, but is not limited to, new or improved: website, database, IT security, confidentiality procedures, and environmental policies.

c) Clinical Processes, this includes but is not limited to new or improved: young people joining and leaving processes, clinical assessments, referral processes, database for record keeping, filing /naming structure, organisation of paper files and retention plan.

6. Representation and Opportunities: Increased the percentage of staff, volunteers and trustees who come from refugee backgrounds and can bring lived experience to our team.

7. Resources: we will develop our income proportionately to provide financial security in order to sustain our work supporting a unique community and plan ahead with confidence.

a) We will have increased our portfolio of multi-year unrestricted grants and have resilient, ongoing relationships with these funders. This will enable us to fulfil our planned work, provide the confidence to plan ahead and give greater certainty to our role as a stable source of support to the young people in our community.

b) We will have strengthened our relationship with small and individual donors in order to diversify our income streams and give us greater flexibility to respond to needs as they emerge. c) Building: We will have explored in depth the pressures on the current building and the cost and implications of moving. This work will only begin in year 3 of this plan (i.e. 2026), however Baobab will be ready to respond to opportunities if they arise, including partnerships with other organisations.

3: The Context of our Work

During this year and it has seemed that the world we are living and working in is much more unstable than it was at this time last year. Readers of this report will all be familiar with the conflicts in the world (over resources, beliefs, values, power, climate change and governments failures to address this), that in various places each have created such turbulence, human rights abuses and inequality that have led to the creation of asylum seekers and refugees, individuals who have left their homes and home country because, their fear that they are likely to experience further persecution or be killed, is well founded. At this time in the world there are conflicts where one group, ethnicity or nationality are treated with contempt by a more powerful group of people who feel that they are entitled to resources or political position in the area where the subjects of contempt are living. We currently see violent conflicts and repressive regimes and countries where inadequate governments are challenged by militia groups in many parts of the world, e.g. Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya, China, the East of Congo and Ukraine, among others.

Children and Adolescents may make their own decision to leave their home country but often someone else has made the decision on the behalf of individual young people. Often this leads to young people being sent to ‘safety’ away from their home and their country by adults who have no idea to where or through where, their offspring are travelling and consequently about differences in culture and ways of life. As a consequence young people seeking asylum and safety are prepared, neither for the detail of their experience of their journey into exile, nor for the expectations and ways of life country to which they finally arrive to seek safety and protection. The UK Home Office during this year has been led by two Home Secretaries who have expressed political views about their priorities to control the borders of the UK and

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

on the basis of the political views of their political party worked with others to produce new legislation. Both have been involved with Home Secretaries in other European countries pre-occupied with limiting migration and conflating their discourses both about migration and asylum seeking and about the ways in which people cross borders; rather than why they leave their home countries.

It is in this context that the governments of various Western countries including the UK, produce repressive and inhumane legislation such as the UK’s latest ‘Illegal Asylum Bill’ which after months of significant challenge aims to reach the statutes in June 2023 and which states very clearly that anyone arriving by an illegal route will have no right to apply for asylum in the UK; unless their circumstances are exceptional. Our area of work is alongside specialist asylum and immigration lawyers, who have increasingly limited capacity, working with them to find and to flesh out ‘exceptional circumstances’ that may lead to the Home Office agreeing to look at each young person’s asylum claim. Given that we have never met a young and unaccompanied person who arrived in the UK by a legal route we are concerned that the rights of young people who have experienced profound human rights abuses in their home countries and on their journeys into exile are not going to be able to apply for asylum in the UK. The current government and some of our press are focused on a plan to send asylum seekers to have their claims processed in Rwanda, this in the face of clear evidence (from Amnesty International; Human Rights Watch; and the US State Department Human Rights Reports; of significant human rights abuses and repressive measures being perpetrated in Rwanda. We continue to be troubled that instead of openly and transparently focusing on the reasons why children and young people leave their home and home country the current government and the press focus on the ways in which asylum seekers travel and with whom. The fact that asylum seeking young people are helped to leave their home countries because either they or their carers fear either that they will experience significant persecution or they will be murdered, is absent from most of the government and press discourse. It is a fact that when individuals fear for their lives they cannot travel by legal routes and usually don’t have time to collect birth certificates and passports. We work with young people who are survivors of organized violence, war, imprisonment, trafficking and forced recruitment. Many have observed the humiliation, arrest, imprisonment and murder of their parents. These facts, which we hear about daily in psychotherapy sessions, in some detail, are rarely spoken by government politicians or by many journalists.

4: Themes, Issues and Baobab Advocacy Work

In January 2023, with much prior planning, five members of the Home Office decision making staff, including the head of the team came from Liverpool, to discuss the issues that were of concern to our staff and our young people. This included waiting times for interviews and decisions from the Home Office, housing issues, the processes of age assessment and challenges to credibility, and young people having time, after being explained the asylum application systems, to share their narrative, of their difficult and traumatic experiences and the reasons they have come for safety and protection to the UK, without interruption, before they are questioned on details. They met with members of our staff team and with four young people. We were able to have a full and open discussion about our differences and especially during the time when they met with the young people they were visibly moved to hear the actual experiences of each young person. Further meetings were planned, over the next year, including, a return visit to Liverpool, for some members of our multi-disciplinary team to discuss our concerns more fully and a visit to Dover to talk with the Home Office and Border-force teams who meet refugees when they arrive at the border.

We have been planning our first Baobab Talk since the Covid pandemic, to be an exploration of the issue of age assessment of young asylum seekers who Home Office or Social Services staff believe to be older than their stated age. The Home Office have set up a working group, exploring the issues related to assessment of age and they plan to set up a team named the NAAB, National Age Assessment Bureau. A highly experienced statistician Dr. Tim Cole is on the Home Office working party and he, a lawyer Syd Bolton and a paediatrician Dr. Nick Lessof who is a child protection lead for three London boroughs agreed to speak at our Baobab Talk planned for June 2023. It is our view, following the work of the first Children’s Commissioner Al Ainsley Green, that it is not possible to assess age accurately and only an estimated age can be reached i.e. plus or minus two years. It is also essential in assessing age to have the views of several different

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

professionals working together in a multi-disciplinary team, that includes paediatricians, child and adolescent psychotherapists, Teachers and foster carers/childcare workers who know the young person well, this alongside social workers. It is also essential that cultural and ethnic differences in age and development are considered. We are puzzled that the Association of Directors of Children’s Services have agreed that Social Workers will assess young asylum seekers without working in the context of a multi-disciplinary team who share information.

During this year our context has included the Ukraine War which seems to have drawn political and journalistic attention away from refugees seeking asylum from other countries coloured by very serious conflicts and in particular the creation of a safe passage from Afghanistan. The presentation in the House of Commons of the new ‘Illegal Asylum Bill’ will if placed on the statutes as a consequence of the majority held by the current government, provide a very serious challenge for young asylum seekers and for our work. The current asylum context in the UK is worrying for us all in terms of our task of building safety and security for young people who have experienced profound strains and stressors to their development. We are concerned that young people who arrived in the UK after June 2023 may not even be allowed to apply for asylum. Young people are likely to have their credibility and their age challenged and to have to live in a state of prolonged uncertainty which will certainly have a long-term impact on their mental health and their development. In this context we are trying to carry out some research, in order to underpin our claims and statements and also to both engage with MP’s, civil servants and others who have power to make changes and hold multidisciplinary, multi-professional meetings and training sessions for any workers in our networks who feel that they would like to have some further training. This would include social workers, teachers, foster carers, lawyers, clinicians and NGO caseworkers.

The research we are working on currently includes:

Directors and the ethics and practice of challenging the credibility of children and in particular their age on account of the impact of these challenges on a young person’s mental health and well-being. We are puzzled that the ADCS (Association of Directors of Children’s Services) have agreed with the Home Office that the profession of social work should take on the task of age assessment while scientific advice (article by first children’s commissioner Al Ainsley Green et al 2012) indicates that accurate age assessment is not possible and that only a multidisciplinary group of professionals working together can together come up with an estimated age for each young person. The challenging of the narratives of young asylum seekers is profoundly disorganizing of their state of mind…Huge amounts of money are spent challenging age assessments by Social Services Departments. In fact, research carried out by Kamena Dorling at the Helen Bamber Foundation discovered that 63 percent of the SSD age assessment decisions are wrong and are overturned when challenged.

The Helen Bamber Foundation research is being further developed by three organizations working together (The Refugee Council, The Helen Bamber Foundation and The Humans for Rights Network.

At Baobab, we are planning to record the Adverse Childhood Experiences of each young community member in terms of the human rights abuses they have experienced in their home countries, on their journeys to the UK and in the UK. We are planning to recruit a researcher one day a week whose role it will be to document the human rights abuses experienced by young people attending our centre. These include experiences of violence in a variety of contexts,

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

experiences of separation and loss and difficulties in bereavement and difficulties and disorientation linked to having to deal with numerous unplanned changes with little life experience.

This year we have worked closely with a group of lawyers and judges from Methoria First Rights Project who are working with the Refugee Law Initiative at London University. This group, led by two lawyers who are trained in both child protection law and asylum law aims to set up a pilot project setting up a new court to make decisions about young asylum seekers that considers both their developmental and care needs and their asylum needs. We work closely with them and have been invited to bring to their presentations, a group of articulate young people from Baobab who can share the detail of their experiences. The Methoria First Rights researcher will be producing a research document highlighting a different way of working with this population.

As we are in April 2023 entering our fifteenth year, we would like to celebrate this by producing a small booklet reflecting our involvement with fifteen young people who have made a long and impressive journey with Baobab.

In addition to our research, we run a monthly consultation group for anyone working with young asylum seekers and refugees and are regularly asked to run sessions with groups of teachers, NGO caseworkers, social workers and clinicians.

We have also been working on developing our relationship with a few NGOs who specialise in working with young asylum seekers and refugees. We produced a book about coping strategies and resilience called ‘Behind the Mask’ which is composed of comments and thoughts shared by our community members on various subjects, that is how to cope with the various life challenges experienced by young asylum seekers and refugees in the UK. The book is composed only of the words of young people (apart from the introduction.) The British Refugee Council Policy Officer is keen that Baobab and the Refugee Council run an event at the House of Commons to raise awareness of the needs of refugee and asylum -seeking children and young people. The Refugee Council team will take the lead in terms of arranging the meeting, and liaising with the Speaker and various MP’s. We will be working with a group of Baobab Community members who will talk about the preparation of the book and their experiences of the UK asylum system.

5: Our Approach

Our aim within Baobab is to keep in mind at all times the several layers of therapeutic involvement and casework with which our young community members can become involved. It is essential that all staff work together in a multidisciplinary team and that each member of staff becomes involved with the young people. This is why we need as an organization to remain small. The young people, after experiencing many human rights abuses experience many difficulties in their development. Our model aims to restore as much as possible to progress in their development and to build their resiliencies while at the same time focusing on their vulnerabilities little by little, at their pace, much in the same way that a parental bird might take in food and give their offspring smaller chunks of food, little by little. For this work the young people need a multidisciplinary team with diverse approaches working closely together and they need individual and group relationships. We find that the cocktail mix of individual, small group and active promotion of community membership fortifies young people and enables them to progress in personal, social and relational spheres.

We have been discussing with the Home Office that it is our collective view that young asylum seekers need a holistic and integrated model of work, similar to the Barnahus Model (started in Scandinavia) where young people who have been abused are housed in one appropriate place and where all the assessing professionals come to them. It is also important that their care needs and other legal requirements are dealt with in one place. We are in the process of developing these ideas with lawyers and social workers and sharing these ideas with civil servants with the aim of setting up a pilot project.

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

Over the last year our aim has been to refine and clarify our work processes. This has been articulated through developing a clear care pathway for young people through Baobab, as well as in an induction document about our clinical model which we share with staff when they join Baobab and through our induction process. To improve our capacity, we have also set up systems to ease increasing the frequency of our case reviews and the quality of our shared and holistic working.

6: Statistics on asylum seeking minors, at Baobab and beyond

According to Refugee Council, between April 2022 and March 2023, 75,492 asylum applications were made in the United Kingdom, a 33% increase from the previous 12 months. The upward trend is probably due to a surge in global displacement. 7% of these applications, or 5,010 applications were made by unaccompanied children, 8% more than the previous year

Below are statistics on the number of young people Baobab have supported in 2022-2023 and the type of support they have received at Baobab.

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

7: Clinical Issues and Individual Psychotherapy (This section should be read alongside the statistics section)

At Baobab the psychotherapist is the key worker for each young person. WE continue to have a steady stream of referrals to Baobab, mostly of young people who come from failed states and who have experienced extreme human rights abuses to their bodies in their communities, in prisons and on their prolonged journeys to the UK from people smugglers and from the government officials (police and army) in countries on their route to the UK.

Our aim is to give young people the experience of relating with a wide range of adults (parental substitute figures) who enable them to experience different views and opinions and to develop insight into themselves and self-confidence by being enabled to acknowledge and to face both their vulnerabilities and their strengths. In parallel alongside the vertical relationships between adults and young people, it is important that young people attend groups where they learn to listen to others who are different from themselves and to share and to agree and disagree and to find out that however different humans are from each other we are more similar than different.

At the present time many of our young people’s experiences of war, hatred and violence are triggered by the current violence in the Middle East. Our groups explore how easy it is for young people who have been abused at many levels i.e. physical (sexual and emotional) brutality, deprivation, marginalisation and invisibility, to have difficulties in sustaining their self- esteem and self- confidence and to as a consequence, hate others and wish to destroy them. In the groups diverse young people from different religions and cultures come to care about and support each other and value the friendship of others of the same gender who share their experiences of violence and loss and unplanned change and low self-confidence.

All our young people experience anxiety, depression, difficulties in regulation of affect, difficulties in relationships with, especially those of a different gender, and in caring for themselves. Most have difficulties in thinking, concentration remembering and forgetting, and significant intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, and psychosomatic symptoms such as body pain and sleep difficulties.

Work with this population involves thinking about the external context that each young person comes from and about both vulnerabilities and resiliencies. Our work focuses enabling young people to face their vulnerabilities little by little and on finding ways to anticipate and care for themselves; and simultaneously on building resiliencies including a sense of belonging; the capacity for reflection; the development of agency and problem-solving skills; the development of creativity and imagination as an antidote to constricted and restricted and rigid thinking that are the consequence of sequential traumatisation; and the development of the capacity to enjoy and take part in community life.

We find that most young people enjoy the possibilities of individual psychotherapeutic work and dealing with their private preoccupations including symptoms related to loss and difficulties in mourning, developmental difficulties that need developmental help and symptoms subsumed under the heading of chronic complex post- traumatic stress disorder. These latter include intrusive thoughts and flashbacks, memory and learning difficulties and relationship challenges and psychosomatic symptoms. (some of our psychotherapists are trained to practice EMDR which some young people find to be helpful). A much smaller group of young people than those participating in individual psychotherapy sessions commit to enjoying and participating in group work, but we are working on trying to understand fully the multiple reasons for this at Baobab. Paraphrasing what Bitenge has written from my perspective, groups provide a vital route to survival in community life. In our Friday Baobab Adult Psychotherapy group for example we have been exploring male identities and questions such as how much group members feel like their father, how much they would like to be different from their father or their mother and the nature of friendship as opposed to biological connections, and the links between friendship and survival.

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

Clinicians also prepare reports for asylum, housing and occasionally criminal hearings in court and part of our work is to discuss the best way to prepare reports and to behave in court. When we have our lawyer in post, we will be having regular meetings about these subjects. At present this work is discussed in individual supervision and in our monthly psychotherapy meetings. Clinicians also can attend a monthly reflective practice group that explores the relationship between the therapist and the young people. This meeting is facilitated by one of our highly experienced volunteers Teresa Bailey.

8: Social and Casework Issues

During the year April 2022 to March 2023, the Baobab casework team conducted more than 1,000 sessions with young people, or an average of 22 sessions per week. 57 young people have attended casework sessions this year so far, an average of 15 per week. This represents 81% of the total number of young people coming actively to the Centre (this was 76% last year). 11% of the casework sessions recorded were conducted by clinicians. In addition to casework support, 8 young people so far in 2023 have received destitution support (10% of the total), and another 29 young people have received hardship support (that’s 33% of total of young people). By areas of casework intervention, health/wellbeing and housing represented close to half of all casework support (48%: health and wellbeing 29%, housing 19%). The next largest categories of support were support with accessing benefits (12% of casework sessions), support with accessing social services (10%), support with legal issues (non-asylum related, 8%), and support with accessing education (6%). To note: support with asylum-related issues and dealings with the Home Office represented 4% of all casework support this year. (The clinicians/key workers deal with the majority of asylum issues including liaising with legal reps and preparing reports and attending court and co-ordinated/led by SM).

Lastly, 59% of all casework support went to young people aged 18-25 (this age cohort represents only 51% of our young people), with young people over 25 receiving only 16% of casework support when they in fact make up 38% of our population – in other words, our casework support was needed for the 18-25 age group.

9 : Groupwork Issues

All Young People attending individual and group psychotherapy at Baobab have experienced some degree of Human Rights violence (abuses) and they have been forced to leave their country of origin for different reasons searching for safety.

Many of them have been badly treated either by:

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

It is our experience that a psychotherapy group provides a safe, transitional space where they meet regularly to talk about their feelings, their past, present and future goals, their feelings and memories and the challenges they are facing during their relocation process in the UK. It is a place where they learn to listen to each other, share experiences and coping strategies, living in a new environment, culture, community and country. Participants often feel empowered and safe and build warm close and supportive friendships with other group members that are sustained outside of Baobab and in the community of exile.

It takes a long time for Young People to be able to start interacting with others. The establishment of trust and the building of confidence ae key elements of our work. Depending on the nature of their problem, group psychotherapy can be an ideal choice for addressing their concerns and making positive changes in their lives and fortifying young people to be able to participate in community life.

At Baobab we provide individual psychotherapy, group psychotherapy, and opportunities to take part in various activitybased groups and in community life.

Referrals to groups depend on many factors such as developmental age, mental health state, needs and interests. At Baobab sharing and eating a light meal together is an important aspect of all psychotherapy groups.

Current Groups at Baobab Include:

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

These activities have excellent health, psychological and social benefits for Young People who have fled human rights abuses and been forced to leave their friends, communities, family, culture, language and environment behind. Often there is a feeling of what Renos Papadopoulos calls: ‘Nostalgic Disorientation’. Group activities provided bring young people together and offer private / safe spaces to rebuild confidence, to connect / interact with others, to share experiences and feelings and coping strategies. Many Young People refer to groups as family / community. Our Model of our Work at Baobab is a holistic and multidisciplinary approach where group workers work closely with Baobab individual psychotherapists, our clinicians, our caseworkers and can also link with any external professionals from a variety of disciplines, supporting our Young People.

This shared holistic approach where all workers understand that young people have various needs and each individual worker, can only meet part of the need, but needs to be informed and aware of all needs helps a lot to improve the general wellbeing of our participants.

Young people see and viscerally experience workers co-operating and sharing and this contributes to their ‘holding’ (Winnicott) and ‘containment’ (Bion). There is a strong relationship and co-operative approach at Baobab between group workers, case workers and individual therapists.

Benefits of Group Therapy

Joining a group of strangers may sound and feel intimidating at first, but group therapy provides different and important benefits that are different from the depth of insight that comes from individual psychotherapy and casework relationships. Some clinicians report, in fact, that group members are almost always surprised by how rewarding the group experience can be. Groups can act as a support network and a sounding board. Other members of the group often help individual group members to come up with specific ideas for improving a difficult situation or life challenge. Regularly talking and listening to others also helps you put your own problems in perspective. Many people experience

15

The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

mental health difficulties, but few speak openly about them to people they don't know well. Oftentimes, you may feel like you are the only one struggling — but you're not. It can be a relief to hear others discuss what they're going through and realize you're not alone. Learning to understand and to tolerate diversity is another important benefit of group therapy. People have different personalities and backgrounds, and they look at situations in different ways. We can observe that when young people in a group have the opportunity to see and to listen and to understand the ways in which other people tackle problems and make positive changes, they can discover a whole range of strategies for facing their own concerns and learn to handle conflict in ways that may be difficult and which provoke anxiety but not terror as all group members trust that no-one who has an alternative view will be threatened or killed. In groups we encourage kind challenges and tough love. Young people learn that if they are challenged the aim is not humiliation or diminishing but evidence that everything they say is taken very seriously by facilitators and group members.

10: Community Issues

Given that we aim to enable all young people attending the Baobab Centre to come to experience the support and survival potential of friends, especially young people who have lost parents and family members, our small and medium therapeutic and psychotherapeutic groups and our community meetings and events enable young people to slowly come to know and trust each other and to appreciate those (maybe few) people with whom they feel safe enough to share their challenges and vulnerabilities alongside their strengths, and be sure they will not be rejected or humiliated. We have now established a pattern where, in addition to weekly groups, we hold a monthly community meeting where we start with a shared meal at 5.30pm and hold a meeting round a table from 6.30pm to 8pm. All trustees are invited to join us.

Our encouragement for young people to participate gently and slowly in community life is reinforced by various weekly groups and special groups which take place during the holiday periods i.e. Christmas and Easter and Summertime. Young people are encouraged to suggest and to join the planning of holiday projects, as well as participation in both indoor (art, drama, music, cooking) and outdoor (seaside trips and sporting activities). We try to organize as many therapeutic retreats as is reasonably possible within our budget.

Slowly more and more young people have been attending our community meeting. We also plan annually an end of year winter party. This party is our annual complement to our summer party which can take place outside.

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

11: Education Sessions

We currently have six volunteers who teach English to individuals for about an hour each week, some working with one community member and some with two. We also have a new volunteer who specialises in life story work, and who is working with some of our young people who would like to write their autobiographies. We are thinking carefully together about how to keep these accounts confidential and how to distribute the stories. A possibility is printing a certain number of copies of each book.

All the educational sessions offered at Baobab act as a compliment to college education. We are looking for maths and science volunteers and artists and musicians/music therapists who might volunteer and offer sessions. It is our view that access to education and persisting studies in many areas of endeavour provides a huge source of resilience for our population, so it is our aim to enable as many young people as possible to access training, apprenticeships, and education.

12: Financial Issues

As described above we have been doing well financially over the past few months and as ever we are hugely appreciative of the careful and reliable work carried out by Mark Andrews, our Financial Administrator and Rob Bending our external Finance Manager and Accountant. I cannot emphasise enough how much we appreciate the steady and secure presence of Mark and Rob. We hold regular finance meetings where we look at the monthly accounts and discuss any spending plans that were not included in our actual or the aspirational budget as well as discussing our annual budget and our aspirations. These meetings are attended by our Head of Operations, Financial Administrator, Finance Manager and two Trustees, John Clarke and Claire Helman, as well as myself.

13: Fundraising Issues

Fundraising is certainly a challenge and though we have done well this year and have a surplus at the end of this year, we are concerned that in future years we may be in difficulties for two reasons. One reason is that many funders are limited to offering restricted one-year grants rather than unrestricted multi-year grants. Unrestricted multi-year grants help strengthen our capacity and sustain our operations and services provided immensely. The other reason is that several of our existing multi-year funders will be coming within the next couple of years.

We are hugely appreciative of the wide range of funders who donated to Baobab during this financial year and thank them here very much.

Please see list below of our donors, including trusts and individuals. We would also like to thank many of our generous Individual Donors who wish to remain anonymous.

City Bridge Trust

London Churches Refugee Fund

Samworth Foundation

Human Rights Aid

David Kogan

Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation

Children in Need

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

Tudor Trust The Linbury Trust The Mrs Smith & Mount Trust

Henry Smith Charity The Reel Fund The Aurum Charitable Trust AB Charitable AKO Foundation Orange Tree Trust The Blue Thread Lloyds TSB Comic Relief Tudor Trust Society of the Holy Child Jesus Levy Rifkind Family Trust Rayne Foundation The Bromley Trust The Roddick Foundation

Iguano Trust

HT and LB Cadbury Charitable Trust

London Community Fund

14: Human Resources Issues

We have been thinking a great deal about our capacity and staff retention and recruitment. This includes issues of salaries for paid staff and for all staff the issues of support and wellbeing. We are working on this issue and development of a staff support policy. We discuss human resource issues formally with Trustees at the end of each finance meeting. To date our finance trustees Claire Helman and John Clarke have been in this governance role and it has been very helpful to discuss some sticky issues with two trustees who are more distant from the day-to-day relationships within Baobab. When Claire leaves her role at the end of the year John will continue to be part of our finance and HR meeting and our new trustees will be invited to attend, one having specific responsibilities for Human Resources Advice.

During this year we have thought a great deal, about how we might introduce into our staff team, both staff members with lived experience as asylum seekers and refugees during their childhood and adolescent years and staff members who were originally community members. During this period i.e. April 2022 and March 2023, one of our excellent volunteers who attended our community children’s group as a child, asked us after her graduation from university if she could volunteer at our centre. She has been excellent in her role being reliable and efficient and an excellent and

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

attentive organiser. We agreed appoint her as a very part time administrator in our administrative team. We have also appointed as group worker one of our interpreters who is now studying to become a group analyst.

15: Safeguarding Issues

Each week our Head of Casework and our Director meet to discuss safeguarding issues and in our weekly Operations meeting held on Monday’s at 3pm we record all our safeguarding concerns. There are usually four or five young people whose issues and names we record each week.

16: Monitoring and Evaluation

Each year we carry out a monitoring and evaluation exercise. Some years ago, we worked with Dr. Saul Hillman from the Anna Freud Centre to create an assessment tool that would reflect the complexity of the mental health, the developmental and the practical difficulties of our population. This assessment tool was composed of aspects of several well-established measures of specifically, five areas of difficulty, anxiety, depression, regulation of affect, resilience and behaviour. The development and testing out of this tool established a base line for our work. The original assessment tool also explored young people’s relationship with our centre and their views about their involvement with the different aspects of Baobab’s approach. Since the establishment of this original baseline, we have each year made small changes to our assessment tool.

Our monitoring has been carried out by master’s students at the Anna Freud Centre and at University College London. This year as Dr Hillman has taken a sabbatical, we were able to transfer our academic and research relationship to East Anglia University Clinical Psychology Department. Led by Kenny Chiu, head of the clinical psychology training programme at East Anglia University and carried out by some students from that university and from the Anna Freud Centre we have made some small but significant changes to our assessment tool and plan now each year to focus on different specific aspects of the difficulties of our population for example: fluctuations in self-esteem; resilience; capacities to make and sustain friendships; management of strong feelings such as grief and anger etc. Dr Chiu and one of his colleagues Mazda Beigi oversaw the write up of our overview of the monitoring and evaluation process. We agreed to add for example measures of trauma and to change some of the measures of resilience and to explore attachment and loss. This year Rebecca Lane on of the doctoral students has prepared the overview of our monitoring and evaluation work. The survey has produced some fascinating results for example that a large proportion of our population improve quickly when participating in our holistic clinical model with marked reduction in symptoms anxiety, depression and difficulties in affect regulation and intrusive thinking and flashbacks. Many leave after about four years but there is another group whose symptoms rise after four years, often correlating with the grant of asylum. This second group tend to improve after seven or eight years. This confirms the needs for our long-term approach and young people having the possibilities of remaining with access to psychotherapy for as long as they feel is necessary in discussion with their individual and group psychotherapists.

Anyone who is interested in our monitoring and evaluation summary can access this by contacting our monitoring and evaluation lead Fabrice Lyczba on: Fabrice@baobabsurvivors.org or administrator@baobabsurvivors.org.

17: Conclusion

Our work during this financial year has been aimed at both underpinning and refining our rehabilitation work with young survivors of human rights abuses, both clinically and practically focusing on their complex mental health, developmental and practical needs. We are clear that we wish to remain as a small charity in order to offer a therapeutic rehabilitation approach rooted in significant warm and involved relationships between staff and young people and between the young

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The Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile: Annual Report

people themselves. We have continued to work on evaluation of our approach and to carry out research in order to fortify our advocacy work on behalf of young asylum seekers and this reflective work with the aim of being a thinking organization will continue into our next year, looking at our initial assessment process and the nature of improvements in mental health after massive psychic trauma and a series of significant human rights abuses, and how these interact with early development and family life. We work with young people who seem to fall into three distinct groups in terms of early family care that pre-dated their experience of human rights abuses. These groups are:

  1. Young people raised in functional and loving families.

  2. Young people who experienced domestic violence and life in a failed state.

  3. Young people who were separated at a very young age from parental care

We aim to work to improve our rehabilitation and our advocacy work over the coming years.

18: Final Word

A final word in this report is to acknowledge the significance of our loss from our trustee group of the Melanie McFadyean who died in March 2023. Melanie worked as an investigative journalist, and both wrote award winning articles and carried out award winning research on social issues about refugees and asylum seekers. She made a huge contribution to our work and her energy and critical vice, and eye are very much missed. She would up until very near the time of her death attend our Trustees meetings online and always challenge and question and enliven our discussions. She also made a significant contribution to our fund raising by organizing events in our local community with accomplished speakers. Her lively mind and sensitivity to the context in which we are working and her ever sceptical and critical stance and how we might challenge those in power, has been and continues to be an inspiration to us all.

Sheila Melzak Director Baobab Centre Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist January 6[th] 2024

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Registered number: 6816297 Charity number: 1135407

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE (A company limited by guarantee)

UNAUDITED TRUSTEES' REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

Contents

Legal and administra�ve Informa�on 3
Trustees’ Report 4
Independent examiner’s report 11
Statement of fnancial ac�vi�es 12
Balance sheet 13
Cash fow statement
Notes to the fnancial statements		 14
15

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BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS FOR YEAR ENDED 31 March 2023

Company Registra�on Number 6816297
Charity Number 1135407
Start of fnancial year
End of fnancial year		 01 April 2022
31 March 2023
Trustees Claire Helman (Chair)
Dr John Clark
Gill Mar�n
Melanie McFadyean (resigned 25 Jan 2023)
Herman Oto
Felicity Dirmeik
Holly Hemming
Enla Fees
Dr Elspeth Carruthers (appointed 21 Sept 2022)
Souzete Mutombo (appointed 27 July 2022)
Dr Eithne Nigh�ngale (appointed 27 July 2022)
Anthony Jafa (appointed 7 July 2023)
Company Secretary Sheila Melzak
Director Sheila Melzak
Registered address 6 Manor Gardens
London
N7 6LA
Bankers Co-opera�ve Bank
1 Islington High Street
London N1 9TR
Independent Examiners Grifn Chartered Accountants
Courtenay House
Pynes Hill
Exeter
EX2 5AZ

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BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees report for the year ended 31 March 2023

for Young Survivors in Exile (Baobab) for the 1[st] April 2022 to 31[st] March 2023. The annual report serves the purposes of both a trustees' report and a directors' report under company law. The Trustees confirm that the annual report and financial statements of the charitable company comply with the current statutory requirements, the requirements of the charitable company's governing document and the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Prac�ce (SORP) applicable to chari�es preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Repor�ng Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS102) (effec�ve 1 January 2019).

report required of medium and large companies under the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic Report and Directors' Report) Regula�ons 2013 has been omited.

Objec�ves and Ac�vi�es

The charitable objects of Baobab are:

Our long-term aims are;

In se�ng objec�ves and planning for ac�vi�es, the Trustees have given due considera�on to general guidance published by the Charity Commission rela�ng to public benefit, including the guidance 'Public benefit: running a charity (PB2)'

In order to achieve the first of these aims we undertake the following activities:

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BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

To further our work towards justice we carry out;

Baobab’s work is necessarily both direct support of the individuals in our community and advocacy around the issues our community members face. We provide intensive, unlimited holis�c support, the key elements of which are individual psychotherapy, group psychotherapy and casework. The work done in individual psychotherapy is complemented by casework support, group psychotherapy, group ac�vi�es, support through the asylum-seeking process and the provision of a transi�onal community. Young people are community members of our transi�onal community and slowly, some�mes sequen�ally band together in parallel. Young people aim to become part of the community of exile, ini�ally with our ongoing support par�cipa�ng in studies and work.

Alongside this work, and in conversation with our community members, we advocate for their rights, and the rights of all those in their position. This includes running trainings, sharing our expertise on best practice, engaging with civil servants in the Home Office, speaking with MPs and Members of the House of Lords, and contributing to sector wide conversations with the aim of changing policy and practice. We work closely with other organizations with similar concerns.

In order to deliver against our aims, in addition to our superb staff team, we are also reliant on the support of volunteers. We currently have 17 volunteers who work across the organisation. These volunteers include:

Achievements and Performance

The young people in Baobab’s community have experienced some of the worst things humans can do to each other. We refer to these as child and adolescent specific human rights abuses i.e. abuses perpetrated during the childhood and adolescent years by perpetrators both within and mostly outside the young person’s family. They have all experienced and witnessed human rights abuses. Many have been trafficked, incarcerated, forcibly recruited into government and rebel armies, and experienced violence to their own bodies. Many have witnessed violence against their own families and all have experienced loss of key attachment figures and familiar environment. As a direct

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BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

consequence of these experiences i.e. of trauma and loss and unplanned change, all suffer complex mental health and developmental difficulties and symptoms.

In addition, as a result of their experiences, all of the young people Baobab supports arrived in the UK as unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors. The majority of the young people Baobab supports come from twenty-one different countries, -the largest numbers coming from, Afghanistan, DRC, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Uganda. These are countries where the civilian populations have been subject to ongoing violence and where individuals, including children, are persecuted, conscripted into insurgent groups and attacked.

In total over the last financial year 2022/2023, Baobab has supported 62 young people. We have provided weekly individual therapy to 59 young people, group therapy to 31 young people, and supported 38 young people with casework. Each year we contract for an independent evaluation to be carried out, with the aims of understanding service user needs and experiences and assessing the perceived service impact. This is carried out through a questionnaire, answered during a structured interview process, with translators in attendance where appropriate. All findings are anonymised. The findings for 2022/23 show that participants experience significant and prolonged mental health and psychosocial difficulties, coupled with low levels of resilience. The report highlighted that Baobab’s work is tailored to the individual, engagement levels are high and that our work is perceived as helpful to the young people. Additionally, our work was viewed as positively impacting young people across our range of provision. Young people’s self-reporting during the Monitoring and Evaluation meetings (carried out by independent honorary researchers - MSc Students from the University of East Anglia and University College London) shows their sense of improvement of somatic symptoms such as sleep difficulties and body pain, depression, anxiety, relationships, self -care and regulation of affect. The summary Monitoring and Evaluation Report is available to anyone interested in reading this. It includes comments and suggestions for the future.

During the year, as part of our aim to work towards justice for refuges, we sought support from key partners against the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill, which seeks to criminalise any individual who sought refugee status through any irregular route. Together with our sister organisations we met a significant number of Labour MPs and Lords, journalists and those in senior positions in various statutory and academic organizations. The House of Lords made changes to the draft bill and even mentioned Baobab’s young people’s comments (recorded in Hansard) but Parliament, with a significant Government majority did not accept them. The new bill significantly changes the political landscape and together with the Government’s unscientific Age Assessment requirements represents an increasingly punitive and hostile environment towards the young people Baobab supports; all of whom have come through irregular routes.

More positively, in early 2023 we published a new multi-year strategy, that outlines our ambition to maintain and strengthen our work. Our three priority areas are:

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BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

During this year we also published a small book on the theme of coping and resilience which we aim to launch formally in the House of Commons later in 2023 in partnership with the Refugee Council. This book is composed totally of comments by our young community members about how they coped in many different challenging situations including dealing with loss and trauma and unplanned changes in their lives. The book is entitled ‘ Behind the Mask.’

Financial review

Going concern

A�er making appropriate enquiries, the Trustees have a reasonable expecta�on that the Company has adequate resources to con�nue in opera�onal existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason, they con�nue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements. Further details regarding the adop�on of the going concern basis can be found in the accoun�ng policies.

Reserves policy

Our Reserves Policy is carefully considered and reviewed on a regular basis. Baobab receives no statutory funding and is reliant on the generosity of grant givers, and the public in order to provide its services. With limited excep�on, financial commitments to Baobab tend to be short term in dura�on, and as such income streams are variable across each year.

The Trustees have set a Reserves Policy which requires that reserves be maintained at, at least a level which ensures that the Baobab Centre's core ac�vity can con�nue during a period of unforeseen difficulty. The Trustees are to hold the charity's reserves at a level which is at least equivalent to six months reduced opera�onal expenditure, currently considered to be £298,892. We also have a commitment to ensuring that we maintain restricted funds at any given point during the year at the level necessary to fulfil the condi�ons of any grant and the expecta�ons of any funder. Where funding has been received, we guarantee the use of the funds will be spread over the full period of the grant agreement and thereby fulfil any commitment we have made to the funder.

In line with best prac�ce in the charity sector, Baobab seeks to hold a reserve that exceeds this minimum posi�on in order to;

The calcula�on of the required level of reserves is an integral part of Baobab's planning, budge�ng and forecas�ng cycle. It takes into accounts the risks associated with each stream of income and expenditure varying from budget, planned ac�vity level and future commitments.

When unrestricted reserves are low, we will manage income shortages by controlling expenditure and will retain in the reserve sufficient funds to meet our legal obliga�ons in the event of closure. On 31st March 2023 the amount carried forward as unrestricted reserves was £432,851. The restricted level of funds carried forward was £176,790 and the level of free reserves held at the year end was £413,323. We have therefore exceeded our targeted free reserve level.

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BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

Principal risks and uncertain�es

The Trustees regularly review the major risks to which the charity is exposed and systems have been established to mi�gate those risks. The Trustees have a duty to iden�fy and review the risks to which the charity is exposed and to ensure appropriate controls are in place to provide reasonable assurance against fraud and error.

Our 2023/24 budget indicates that we have a funding gap of just over £251,500. The lack of recurrent funding for Baobab means that it is usual for Baobab to have a funding shor�all at the start of each year and, as always, we seek to reduce this funding gap during the course of the year. Whilst we are taking a prudent approach, we con�nue to remain posi�ve that Baobab will successfully navigate the financial challenges, thanks to the generous support of all our funders and the great work of the staff team.

Review of 2023

The Statement of Financial Ac�vi�es shows total income received for the year to 31 March 2023 of £671,174; (2022 £547,116) with total expenditure for the year of £527,838 (2022 - £501,298), to generate a surplus of £143,336 (2022 - £45,817). The charity began the year with reserves of £420,488 and ended the year with reserves of £609,641, of which £176,790 (2022 - £196,923) was restricted and £432,851 (2022 - £269,382) was unrestricted, including £19,528 of designated reserves (2022 £19,046).

With thanks for support from;

AB Charitable Children in Need City Bridge Trust London Churches Refugee Fund Human Rights Aid Orange Tree Trust The Aurum Charitable Trust The Samworth Founda�on Stanley Thomas Johnson Founda�on The Henry Smith Charity The Linbury Trust The Mrs Smith and Mount Trust The Rayne Founda�on The Reel Fund The Roddick Founda�on The Tudor Trust

As well as other generous funders who wish to remain anonymous.

Risk Management

The Directors have reviewed the risks to which the charity is exposed and have ensured appropriate controls are in place to provide reasonable assurance against fraud and error.

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BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE

A Company Limited by Guarantee

Plans for Future periods

The focus for Baobab is to con�nue to support as many young people as possible for as long as we are able. In order to ensure con�nued financial stability during these challenging economic �mes we are focused on ensuring that we can obtain mul�-year grants that support our core work, which will allow our management team to focus on delivery.

Structure, Governance and Management

Baobab is registered as Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee. The management of the Company is the responsibility of the Trustees. Trustees are appointed to Baobab following a review of exis�ng skill sets to ensure that the Board has the requisite skills, experience and community knowledge to support the staff of the organiza�on in their different roles. Prospec�ve Trustees may be iden�fied through personal contacts or events, such as The Big Alliance’s Boardmatch. All Trustees are formally interviewed prior to appointment by senior staff and by at least three trustees. Once appointed, Trustees are inducted through mee�ngs with senior staff and fellow Trustees. All Trustees are provided with two mentors, the Director and one Trustee, and encouraged to atend Baobab community mee�ngs and other community events where they can meet with staff and young people and discuss their relevant areas of responsibility such as safeguarding, community development, human rights law or fund raising.

professionally relevant Trustee will atend interviews with the Director and senior staff), and for se�ng the pay for each year. The Director is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Baobab Centre and its ac�vi�es and the onus is on her to be aware of all staff and young people and engage with each directly and through delega�on e.g. of assessments and supervision tasks.

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BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

Statement of Trustees' responsibili�es

The Trustees (who are also the directors of the Company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees' report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accoun�ng Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accoun�ng Prac�ce). Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under company law, the Trustees must not approve the financial statements unless they are sa�sfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Company and of its incoming resources and applica�on of resources, including its income and expenditure, for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:

explain the Company's transac�ons and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any �me the financial posi�on of the 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 Company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the preven�on and detec�on of fraud and other irregulari�es.

Approved by order of the members of the board of Trustees and signed on their behalf by:

C Helman (Chair of Trustees) Date: 13/11/2023

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BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees

Year ended 30 March 2023

I report on the accounts of the company for the year ended 30 March 2023, which are set out on pages 10 to 27.

Responsibili�es and basis of 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

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:

  1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the Company as required by section 386 of the 2006 Act; or

  2. the accounts do not accord with those records; or

  3. 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

  4. 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.

…………………………………………… 14.11.2023

Laura Waycot FCA

Griffin Chartered Accountants Courtenay House Pynes Hill Exeter

11

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

Note
Income from:
Donations & Legacies
4
Charitable Activities
5
Other trading activities
6
Investments
7
Total Income
Expenditure on:
Raising Funds
8
Charitable activities
9
Other Expenditure
10
Total Expenditure
NET INCOME/EXPENDITURE
Total funds brought forward
TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD		 Restricted
funds
Unrestricted
funds
Total funds
Total funds
2023
2023
2023
2022
£
£
£
£
319,431
348,223
667,654
543,603
-
2,797
2,797
2,513
-
617
617
1,000
-
106
106
-
319,431
351,743
671,174
547,116
23,687
10,617
34,303
43,999
315,877
174,757
490,634
457,300
-
2,900
2,900
0
339,564
188,274
527,838
501,299
(20,133)
163,469
143,336
45,817
196,923
269,382
466,305
420,488
176,790
432,851
609,641
466,305

The notes on pages 15 to 28 form part of these financial statements

12

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

REGISTRATION NUMBER: 6816297 BALANCE SHEET FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 2023

Notes
CURRENT ASSETS
Debtors and prepayments
16
Cash at bank and in hand
Total Current Assets
CREDITORS: Amounts falling due
within one year
17
NET CURRENT ASSETS
NET ASSETS
REPRESENTED BY:
Unrestricted funds
Designated funds
Restricted Funds
18		 Total
31-Mar-23
£
8,599
616,092
624,691
15,050
609,641
609,641
413,323
19,528
176,790
609,641		 Total
31-Mar-22
£
7,198
474,638
481,836
15,531
466,305
466,305
250,336
19,046
196,923
466,305

For the year ending 31 March 2023 the company is entitled to exemption from audit under Section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

Directors' Responsibilities

The members have not required the company to obtain an audit of it's accounts for the year in question in accordanc with section 476, of the Companies Act 2006.

The Directors 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.

13 September 2023 Approved by the Directors on…………………………………………………….and

Signed on their behalf by…………………………………….Claire Helman, Chair of Directors

13

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE

A Company Limited by Guarantee

STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

Cash flows from operating activities
Net income/(expenditure)
Working capital adjustments
(Increase)/ decrease in Dividends, interest and rents from investments
(Increase)/ decrease in stocks
(Increase)/decrease in debtors
Increase/(decrease) in creditors
Net cash flows from operating activities
Cash flows from investing activities
Dividends, interest and rents from investments
Purchase/sale of fixed assets
Purchase/sale of investments
Net cash flows from investing activities
Cash flows from financing activities
Repayments of borrowing
Cash inflows from new borrowing
Net cash flows from financing activities
Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year
Analysis of cash and cash equivalents
Cash at bank and in hand
Total cash and cash equivalents		 2023
2022
£
£
143,336
45,817
(106)
-
-
(1,401)
(154)
(482)
(3,910)
141,347
41,753
106
-
-
-
-
-
106
0
-
-
-
-
0
0
141,454
41,753
474,638
432,885
616,092
474,638
2023
2022
£
£
616,092
474,638
616,092
474,638

14

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements

1. General informa�on

Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile is a charity, limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales. It does not have share capital and each of the Trustees in liable to contribute an amount not exceeding £10 towards the assets of the charity in the event of liquida�on. The registered office address is 6 Manor Gardens, London, N7 6LA.

2. Accoun�ng policies

Accoun�ng and Repor�ng by Chari�es: Statement of Recommended Prac�ce applicable to chari�es preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Repor�ng Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effec�ve 1 January 2019), the Financial Repor�ng Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

  1. Assets and liabili�es are ini�ally recognised at historical cost or transac�on value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accoun�ng policy.

2.2 Income

These are included in the Statement of Financial Ac�vi�es (SOFA) when:

Incoming Resources with related expenditure

Where incoming resources have related expenditure (as with fundraising or contract income) the incoming resource and related expenditure are reported gross in the SOFA.

Grants and Donations

Income from dona�ons and grants, including capital grants, is included in incoming resources when these are receivable, except as follows:

Tax reclaims on Donations and Gifts

gi� to which they relate.

15

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

Contractual Income and Performance Related Grants

This is only included in the SOFA once the related goods or services has been delivered.

Grants

received for specific purposes but not expended during the period is shown in the relevant funds on the Balance sheet. Where income is received in advance of en�tlement of receipt, its recogni�on is deferred and included in creditors as deferred income. Where en�tlement occurs before income is received, the income is accrued. Income tax recoverable in rela�on to investment income is recognised at the �me the investment income is receivable.

Gifts in Kind

Gi�s in kind are accounted for at a reasonable es�mate of their value to the charity or the amount actually realised. Gi�s in kind for sale or distribu�on are included in the accounts as gi�s only when sold or distributed by the charity. Gi�s in kind for use by the charity are included in the SOFA as incoming resources when receivable.

Donated Services and Facilities

These are only included in incoming resources (with an equivalent amount in resources expended) where the benefit to the charity is reasonably quan�fiable, measurable and material. The value placed on these resources is the es�mated value to the charity of the service or facility received.

Volunteer Help

The value of any voluntary help received is not included in the accounts.

Investment Income

This is included in the accounts when receivable.

Investment gains and losses

This included any gain or loss on the sale of investments and any gain or loss resul�ng from revaluing investments to market value at the end of the year.

2.3 Expenditure and liabili�es

and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each ac�vity. Direct costs atributable to a single ac�vity are allocated directly to that ac�vity. Shared costs which contribute to more than one ac�vity and support costs which are not atributable to a single ac�vity are appor�oned between those ac�vi�es on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Central staff costs are allocated on the basis of �me spent, and deprecia�on charges allocated on the por�on of the asset’s use. Expenditure on charitable ac�vi�es is incurred on directly undertaking the ac�vi�es which further the Company's objec�ves, as well as any associated support costs.

All expenditure is inclusive of irrecoverable VAT.

Governance Costs

Includes costs of the prepara�on and examina�on of statutory accounts, the costs of the Directors' mee�ngs and cost of any legal advice to Directors on governance or cons�tu�onal maters.

16

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

Grants with performance conditions

output to be provided, such grants are only recognised in the SOFA once the recipient of the grant has provided the specified service or output.

Changes in Accounting policies and previous accounts

There has been no change to the accoun�ng policies (varia�on rules and methods of accoun�ng) since last year. The prior year comparator figures have been restated to reflect an amendment to the categorisa�on of costs.

Support Costs

Support costs include central func�ons and have been allocated to ac�vity cost categories on a basis consistent with the use of the resources, eg alloca�ng property costs by floor areas, or per capita, staff costs by the �me spent and other costs by their usage.

Assets

These are capitalised if they can be used for more than one year, and cost at least £1,000. They are valued at cost or, if gi�ed, at the value to the charity on receipt. The Company has no individual assets cos�ng more than £1,000.

in the measurement of cost.

their es�mated useful lives, using the straight-line method.

Deprecia�on is provided on the following basis:

The Company has no individual assets cos�ng more than £1,000.

2.4 Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the setlement amount a�er any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.

2.5 Cash at bank and in hand

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

2.6 Liabili�es and provisions

Liabili�es are recognised when there is an obliga�on at the balance sheet date as a result of a past event, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefit will be required in setlement, and the amount of the setlement can be es�mated reliably.

Liabili�es are recognised at the amount that the Company an�cipates it will pay to setle the debt or the amount it has received as advanced payments for the goods or services it must provide. Provisions

17

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

of the �me value of money is material, the provision is based on the present value of those amounts, discounted at the pre-tax discount rate that reflects the risks specific to the liability. The unwinding of the discount is recognised in the Statement of financial ac�vi�es as a finance cost.

2.7 Financial instruments

instruments. Basic financial instruments are ini�ally recognised at transac�on value and subsequently measured at their setlement value with the excep�on of bank loans which are subsequently measured at amor�sed cost using the effec�ve interest method.

2.8 Pensions

amounts payable by the Company to the fund in respect of the year.

2.9 Fund accoun�ng

General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discre�on of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objec�ves of the Company and which have not been designated for other purposes.

Designated funds comprise unrestricted funds that have been set aside by the Trustees for par�cular purposes. The aim and use of each designated fund is set out in the notes to the financial statements.

donors or which have been raised by the Company for par�cular purposes. The costs of raising and administering such funds are charged against the specific fund. The aim and use of each restricted

Investment income, gains and losses are allocated to the appropriate fund.

3. Cri�cal accoun�ng es�mates and areas of judgment

Es�mates and judgments are con�nually evaluated and are based on historical experience and other factors, including expecta�ons of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. They are no es�mates and assump�ons within these accounts that are considered to be material in nature.

18

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

4. Income from donations and legacies

Grants
Major Individual Donors
Donations
Gift Aid Tax Recoverable
Grants
Major Individual Donors
Donations
Gift Aid Tax Recoverable		 Restricted
funds
2023
£
312,581
6,850
-
-
319,431
Restricted
funds
2022
£
238,247
31,900
-
-
270,147		 Unrestricted
funds
2023
£
326,915
-
18,961
2,347
348,223
Unrestricted
funds
2022
£
190,000
38,500
30,156
14,800
273,456		 Total funds
2023
£
639,496
6,850
18,961
2,347
667,654
Total funds
2022
£
428,247
70,400
30,156
14,800
543,603

5. Income from Charitable activities

Individual support
Individual support		 Restricted
funds
2023
£
-
Restricted
funds
2022
£
-		 Unrestricted
funds
2023
£
2,797
2,797
Unrestricted
funds
2022
£
2,513
2,513		 Total funds
2023
£
2,797
2,797
Total funds
2022
£
2,513
2,513

19

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

6. Income from other trading activities

Training
Resilience book
Training
Resilience book
7. Investment Income
Interest receivable on bank deposits
Interest receivable on bank deposits		 Restricted
funds
2023
£
-
-
-
Restricted
funds
2022
£
-
-
-
Restricted
funds
2023
£
-
-
Restricted
funds
2022
£
-
-		 Unrestricted
funds
2023
£
360
257
617
Unrestricted
funds
2022
£
1,000
-
1,000
Unrestricted
funds
2023
£
106
106
Unrestricted
funds
2022
£
-
-		 Total funds
2023
£
360
257
617
Total funds
2022
£
1,000
-
1,000
Total funds
2023
£
106
106
Total funds
2022
£
-
-

20

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

8. Expenditure on raising funds

Fundraising consultant
Events
Staff costs
Fundraising consultant
Events
Staff costs
9. Analysis of expenditure on charitable activities
Summary by fund
Indvidual support
Wider advocacy
Indvidual support
Wider advocacy		 Restricted
funds
2023
£
7,412
4,165
12,110
23,687
Restricted
funds
2022
£
5,608
-
8,114
13,722
Restricted
funds
2023
£
295,754
20,123
315,877
Restricted
funds
2022
£
200,380
13,423
213,803		 Unrestricted
funds
2023
£
8,410
50
2,157
10,617
Unrestricted
funds
2022
£
15,794
900
13,583
30,277
Unrestricted
funds
2023
£
164,147
10,609
174,756
Unrestricted
funds
2022
£
235,992
7,504
243,496		 Total
2023
£
15,822
4,215
14,267
34,304
Total
2022
£
21,402
900
21,697
43,999
Total
2023
£
459,901
30,732
490,633
Total
2022
£
436,372
20,927
457,299

21

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

10. Analysis of expenditure on other activities Summary by activity

Training
Resilience Book
Training
Resilience Book		 Restricted
funds
Unrestricted
funds
Total
2023
2023
2023
£
£
£
-
-
-
-
2,900
2,900
-
2,900
2,900
Restricted
funds
Unrestricted
funds
Total
2022
2022
2022
£
£
£
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-

11. Analysis of expenditure on charitable activities

Summary by expenditure type

Indvidual support
Wider advocacy
Indvidual support
Wider advocacy
Indvidual support
Wider advocacy		 Staff costs
Other costs
Total
2023
2023
2023
£
£
£
276,596
183,307
459,903
26,146
4,587
30,733
302,742
187,894
490,636
Staff costs
Other costs
Total
2022
2022
2022
£
£
£
220,890
215,482
436,372
15,842
5,085
20,927
236,732
220,567
457,299
Direct costs
Support costs
Total funds
2023
2023
2023
£
£
£
362,430
97,472
459,902
25,602
5,131
30,733
388,032
102,603
490,635

22

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

11. Analysis of expenditure on charitable activities (continued)

Indvidual support
Wider advocacy
Analysis of direct costs
Staff costs
Direct costs of activities
Staff costs
Direct costs of activities
12. Analysis of expenditure by activities
Analysis of support costs
Staff costs
Rent
ICT costs
Insurance
Legal and professional
Governance
Other costs		 Direct costs
2022
£
348,869
16,322
365,191
Indvidual
support
2023
£
222,694
139,736
362,430
Indvidual
support
2022
£
178,657
170,212
348,869
Indvidual
support
2023
£
53,902
9,854
7,563
1,330
3,772
14,694
6,357
97,472		 Support costs
2022
£
87,503
4,606
92,109
Wider
advocacy
2023
£
23,309
2,293
25,602
Wider
advocacy
2022
£
13,620
2,702
16,322
Wider
advocacy
2023
£
2,837
519
398
70
199
773
335
5,131		 Total funds
2022
£
436,372
20,927
457,300
Total funds
2023
£
246,003
142,029
388,032
Total funds
2022
£
192,277
172,914
365,191
Total funds
2023
£
56,739
10,373
7,961
1,400
3,971
15,467
6,692
102,603

23

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

12. Analysis of expenditure by activities (continued) Analysis of support costs

Staff costs
Rent
ICT costs
Insurance
Legal and professional
Governance
Other costs		 Indvidual
support
2022
£
42,233
10,085
5,997
3,538
5,219
11,761
8,670
87,503		 Wider
advocacy
Total funds
2022
2022
£
£
2,223
44,456
531
10,616
316
6,313
186
3,724
275
5,494
619
12,380
456
9,126
4,606
92,109

13. Independent Examiner's fee

The fee for the independent examination of the accounts was £1,560 (2022 - £960)

14. Staff costs
Wages and salaries
Social security costs
Pension costs - defined contribution scheme		 2023
2022
£
£
293,789
240,917
21,417
15,982
14,446
11,761
329,652
268,660

The average full time equivalent of persons employed by the Company during the year was as follows:

Raising funds
Charitable activities
Governance		 2023
2022
No.
No.
0.7
0.7
6.8
6.1
0.3
0.2
7.8
7.0

There was no employee whose employee benedfits exceeded £60,000 (2022- nil) The key management personnel of the charity consists of the Trustees and the Director. The total employee benefits of the key management personnel is £53,722 (2022-£51,987)

15. Trustees renumeration and expenses

No renumeration or expenses were paid to any Trustee during 2023 (2022-nil)

24

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

16. Debtors

Due within one year
Trade debtors
Other debtors
Prepayments and accrued income		 2023
£
-
-
8,599
8,599		 2022
£
-
-
7,198
7,198

17. Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year

Trade creditors
Other taxation and social security
Other creditors
Accruals and deferred income		 2023
2022
£
£
3,221
4,283
8,399
7,992
1,560
960
1,870
2,296
15,050
15,531

Baobab is grateful to receive restricted funding, some of which enables support to our community members which otherwise would not be possible, some of which supports development in specific areas of our work such as advocacy, and others contributes to our core work.

25

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE

A Company Limited by Guarantee

18. Statement of funds - current year

Unrestricted funds
General funds
Designated funds
Restricted funds
Ashworth Charitable Trust
The National Lottery Community Fund
Awards For All
Children in Need
Children in Need Small Grant
City Bridge Trust
David Kogan
Evan Cornish Foundation
Garfield Weston Foundation
The Henry Smith Charity
Lloyds Bank Foundation
Linbury Trust
Network for Social Change Charitable Trust
Peter Stebbings Memorial Charity
Samworth Foundation
Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation
The Mrs Smith & Mount Trust
The Tudor Trust
Unbound Philanthropy
MAJOR DONORS
Total restricted funds
Total of funds		 Balance at
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Balance at
1st April 2022
in/out
31 Mar 2023
£
£
£
£
£
250,336
351,743
188,274
(482)
413,323
19,046
-
-
482
19,528
269,382
351,743
188,274
-
432,851
Balance at
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Balance at
1st April 2022
in/out
31 Mar 2023
£
£
£
£
£
2,000
-
2,000
-
-
8,315
-
8,315
-
-
259
30,658
30,509
-
408
10,000
10,000
10,265
-
9,735
11,239
45,000
45,000
-
11,239
8,183
6,000
11,966
-
2,217
3,333
-
3,333
-
-
14,271
-
14,271
-
-
0
25,000
16,667
-
8,333
11,745
-
10,554
-
1,191
0
70,000
35,000
-
35,000
6,426
-
6,426
-
-
1,667
-
1,667
-
-
51,198
40,000
40,301
-
50,897
29,964
68,923
73,935
-
24,952
0
15,000
5,000
-
10,000
0
2,000
-
-
2,000
8,333
-
8,333
-
-
29,990
6,850
16,022
-
20,818
196,923
319,431
339,564
-
176,790
466,305
671,174
527,838
-
609,641

26

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

19. Statement of funds - prior year

Unrestricted funds
General funds
Designated funds
Restricted funds
Ashworth Charitable Trust
The National Lottery Community Fund
Awards For All
Children in Need
Children in Need - Small Grant
City Bridge Trust
David Kogan
Evan Cornish Foundation
Garfield Weston Foundation
The Henry Smith Charity
Lloyds Bank Foundation
Network for Social Change Charitable Trust
Peter Stebbings Memorial Charity
Samworth Foundation
Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation
The Tudor Trust
Unbound Philanthropy
Various Grants below £1,001
MAJOR DONORS
Total restricted funds
Total of funds		 Balance at
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Balance at
1st April 2021
in/out
31 Mar 2022
£
£
£
£
£
253,316
276,969
279,948
-
250,336
19,046
-
-
-
19,046
272,362
276,969
279,948
-
269,382
Balance at
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Balance at
1st April 2021
in/out
31 Mar 2022
£
£
£
£
£
-
3,000
1,000
-
2,000
-
10,000
1,685
-
8,315
326
30,064
30,131
-
259
0
10,000
0
-
10,000
10,366
33,750
32,877
-
11,239
-
12,000
3,817
-
8,183
-
5,000
1,667
-
3,333
-
15,000
729
-
14,271
20,500
-
20,500
-
-
9,032
23,890
21,177
-
11,745
-
7,712
1,286
-
6,426
-
5,000
3,333
-
1,667
38,391
40,000
27,193
-
51,198
53,321
31,331
54,688
-
29,964
900
-
900
-
-
-
10,000
1,667
-
8,333
870
1,500
2,370
-
-
14,420
31,900
16,331
-
29,990
148,126
270,147
221,351
-
196,923
420,488
547,116
501,299
-
466,305

27

BAOBAB CENTRE FOR YOUNG SURVIVORS IN EXILE A Company Limited by Guarantee

20. Summary of funds - current year

General Funds
Designated Funds
Restricted funds
Summary of funds - prior year
General funds
Designated funds
Restricted funds		 Balance at
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Balance at
1st April 2022
in/out
31 Mar 2023
£
£
£
£
£
250,336
351,743
188,274
(482)
413,323
19,046
-
-
482
19,528
196,923
319,431
339,564
-
176,790
466,305
671,174
527,838
-
609,641
Balance at
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Balance at
1st April 2021
in/out
31 Mar 2022
£
£
£
£
£
253,316
276,969
279,948
-
250,336
19,046
-
-
-
19,046
148,126
270,147
221,351
-
196,923
420,488
547,116
501,299
-
466,305
21. Analysis of net assets between funds
Analysis of net assets between funds - current year
Current assets
Creditors due within one year
Total
Analysis of net assets between funds
Analysis of net assets between funds - prior year
Current assets
Creditors due within one year
Total		 Restricted
Unrestricted
Total
funds
funds
funds
2023
2023
2023
£
£
£
184,571
440,120
624,691
(7,781)
(7,269)
(15,050)
176,790
432,851
609,641
Restricted
Unrestricted
Total
funds
funds
funds
2022
2022
2022
£
£
£
199,077
282,759
481,836
(2,154)
(13,377)
(15,531)
196,923
269,382
466,305

28