**COMPANY REGISTRATION NUMBER: 08002509 CHARITY REGISTRATION NUMBER: 1147913** 

# **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Financial Statements** 

## **31 March 2024** 

## **WALTER HUNTER & CO LIMITED** 

Chartered accountants & statutory auditor 24 Bridge Street Newport South Wales NP20 4SF 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Financial Statements** 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

||**Page**|
|---|---|
|Trustees' annual report (incorporating the director's report)|**1**|
|Independent auditor's report to the members|**21**|
|Statement of financial activities (including income and||
|expenditure account)|**26**|
|Statement of financial position|**27**|
|Statement of cash flows|**28**|
|Notes to the financial statements|**29**|





## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

The trustees, who are also the directors for the purposes of company law, present their report and the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2024. 

## **Reference and administrative details** 

|**Registered charity name**|Rights of Women Incorporated|Limited|
|---|---|---|
|**Charity registration number**|1147913||
|**Company registration number**|08002509||
|**Principal office and registered**|52-54 Featherstone Street||
|**office**|London||
||EC1Y 8RT||
|**The trustees**|||
||Annie Hedge - Chair||
||Aramide Ogunlana - Treasurer||
||Elisha Augustin||
||Laura Bennett||
||Olivia Dehnavi||
||Kristina Glenn||
||Kat Hacker||
||Katherine Minett||
||Victoria Poku-Amanfo||
||Hannah Phillips||
||Fiona Turnbull|(Appointed 20 March 2024)|
|**Director (Staff team)**|Estelle du Boulay||
|**Auditor**|Walter Hunter & Co Limited||
||Chartered accountants & statutory auditor||
||24 Bridge Street||
||Newport||
||South Wales||
||NP20 4SF||
|**Bankers**|Unity Trust Bank||
||9 Brindleyplace||
||Birmingham||
||B1 2HB||
||Lloyds Bank||
||31/33 Holloway Road||
||London||
||N7 8JP||



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## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

Triodos Bank Deanery Road Bristol BS1 5AS 

## **Structure, governance and management** 

## **About Rights of Women (ROW)** 

Rights of Women (established 1975) is a women's legal rights organisation which specialises in supporting women who are experiencing - or at risk of experiencing - all forms of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), including domestic abuse and sexual violence. 

Our purpose is to increase women's understanding of their legal rights and improve their access to justice so that they can live free from abuse and oppression and can make informed choices about their safety. We increase their skills to overcome problems so they can navigate the law and legal processes with confidence. 

Our core provision is free specialist confidential legal advice directly to women throughout England and Wales via telephone advice lines covering family, immigration and asylum, employment law (sexual harassment at work) and criminal law. 

## **Structure, governance and management** 

Rights of Women is a company limited by guarantee, Rights of Women Incorporated Limited (number 08002509) and a registered charity (number 1147913) with the Charity Commission. 

The Board of Trustees met 4 times during the year for Board meetings that were convened on a hybrid basis, both in-person and online. The Chair continues a process of Board development for new and established Trustees. 

The day-to-day management of the organisation continues to be delegated to the Director, Estelle du Boulay, who was assisted during this period in the delivery of the organisation's services by our Senior Leadership team comprised of Mary McGloin (Operations Manager) and Senior Legal Officers (SLOs) Olive Craig, Jasbindar Bhatoa, Hannah Couchman, Mandip Ghai, Nicole Masri and Deeba Syed. 

The Board continues to employ an external financial consultant, Ken Hercules, to undertake the management accounting. 

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## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

The Finance Subgroup met virtually 4 times throughout the year, chaired by the Treasurer. 

Our direct services for women continue to be supported by our team of 50 active volunteer women barristers and solicitors. The Board of Trustees would like to acknowledge the very significant commitment and energy of the Rights of Women staff team and volunteers in the delivery of our vital services for women. 

## **Risk Management** 

The charity trustees have given consideration to the major risks to which the charity is exposed and satisfied themselves that systems or procedures are established in order to manage those risks. The charity has established and maintains a detailed risk register including, but not limited to: governance, operations, finances, compliance with law and the external financial and political climate. This is reviewed at every Board meeting by the trustees. In addition to this, the charity maintains and regularly reviews a wide range of organisational policies and procedures that address mitigating risk. 

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## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **Objectives and activities** 

The Memorandum and Articles of Association of Rights of Women state the objects of the organisation to be restricted to:- 

- (a) the elimination of discrimination on the grounds of gender; 

- (b) advancing the education of women and raising awareness of equality and diversity; 

- (c) commissioning and conducting research on gender equality and diversity issues and publishing the results to the public; 

- (d) cultivating a sentiment in favour of equality of women and diversity; 

- (e) campaigning in relation to gender equality and diversity issues and in furtherance of the elimination of discrimination on the grounds of gender; 

- (f) conducting policy work in relation to gender equality and diversity issues. 

## **Vision and Mission** 

In accordance with these objectives the agreed vision and mission for the organisation are as follows:- 

## **Vision** 

Equality, justice and safety in the law for all women 

## **Mission** 

Rights of Women advises, educates and empowers women by:- 

- Providing women with free, confidential legal advice by specialist women solicitors and barristers 

- Enabling women to understand and benefit from their legal rights through accessible and timely publications and training 

- Campaigning to ensure that women's voices are heard and law and policy meets all women's needs 

## **Strategic Plan 2023-2025** 

Our strategic priorities and objectives are set out in our Strategic Plan 2023-25, summarised below: 

## _Priority 1: Sustainability - Preserve ROW's unique services_ 

Why: Our change aspiration 

We are the only frontline women's legal advice organisation in England and Wales. Our free advice services are life-saving and our policy expertise is unique. Sustaining this work in challenging times is vital. 

What: Our Top 3 Key Actions 

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## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

1. Increase our sustainability by increased diversified income 

2. Increase and diversify the number of people who support us 

3. Support our staff and volunteers 

## _Priority 2: Advice- Provide legal advice services to meet women's changing needs_ 

Why: Our change aspiration 

Advice enables women to make safe and informed choices for themselves and their families. We believe that all women have the right to accurate and accessible advice and information about the law and their legal rights, especially when those rights are being eroded or denied. 

What: Our Top 3 Key Actions 

1. Increase the impact of our legal expertise and provision 

2. Ensure advice strategies centre the lived experience of women 

3. Improve accessibility to our services for the women who need us most 

## _Priority 3: Policy- Change laws, legal procedures and systems to benefit women_ 

Why: Our change aspiration 

The law disadvantages women in myriad ways and needs radical change. We will combine our expertise with that of others to bring about changes that make access, treatment and outcomes in the law better for women. 

What: Our Top 3 Key Actions 

1. Influence culture change and improvements to specific, targeted law, policy and legal advice provision 

2. Develop strategic learning from our unique evidence base 

3. Work collaboratively with sector partners and key stakeholders to increase access to legal rights 

On 3rd November 2023 the Board of Trustees and staff team attended a hybrid away day at Linklaters in London and online. The sessions for the day focused on agreeing a 5 year vision for our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) work, reviewing progress against our strategic plan and considering the future development of our partnership work with women who are experts-by-experience. 

## **Theory of change** 

The Board of Trustees has developed an organisational theory of change which underpins the priorities within the Strategic Plan 2023-25. 

We have identified the following changes (outcomes) as priorities for our organisation to work towards: 

- Law and policy better reflect women's needs relative to our Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) focus and legal specialisms 

- We assist more women through expert legal advice 

- Women who need our advice services know we exist 

- Women (or their supporters) are able to access legal advice and support with the law through a range of channels or models 

- The end of VAWG is brought nearer by ensuring that women know their legal rights before they experience VAWG 

- Women have access to legal advice on a range of issues that affect them adversely and diminish their equality and safety 

- Providers who are committed to justice and safety for women see the value and relevance of our work 

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## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

We are operating in a very challenging political and financial environment and these challenges have increased during the pandemic. 

Since April 2013, with the introduction of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, there has been a complete transformation in the availability of legal advice and representation for women in the key areas of expertise of Rights of Women. This means that our model of frontline service delivery is frequently overstretched in meeting women's legal advice and information needs, and this is exacerbated by very limited resources. 

This current external economic and political landscape continues to have the following impact:- 

- increased demand for our services as a source of free legal advice and information 

- fewer sources of signposting to specialist legal advice and representation 

- more women representing themselves in legal proceedings 

Our frontline services remain a unique source of legal advice and information. Our policy and public affairs work gains its legitimacy from the experiences of those frontline services. Our service users' voices inform our campaigning and policy work. 

Undertaking our unique combination of frontline services, second tier support and policy and public affairs work strengthens our response to the challenges of the current landscape. 

Developing new and innovative ways of reaching women with our advice and information services is essential to securing women's access to justice in the absence of alternative sources of support. Building our relationships with key partners creates new opportunities to develop and extend the reach of our activities in this new landscape. 

Collaborating with our sector and building new relationships with Government, Parliamentarians and policy makers will increase the effectiveness of our future influencing work and is vital to resisting a push back in women's equality in the law and to preserving the advances we have achieved to date. 

Building new audiences of supporters and activists through our social media activity and generating new campaigning capacity will also be vital in extending our reach and keeping our issues on the public and political agenda. 

In these ways we will ensure that women have a more confident, informed and positive experience of the law and our justice systems and that they have a greater control over the legal problems they face with improved access to their remedies. We will also prevent the further erosion of women's ability to access the law and their legal remedies, ensuring that women are able to protect themselves from violence and secure more equal futures. 

## **Public benefit** 

We have referred to the advice contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit when reviewing our aims and objectives and in planning our future activities. 

Our objects (set out above) are carried out for the public benefit as follows:- 

- Our services are restricted for the benefit of women and are available to all women in England and Wales. 

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## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

- Women experience many barriers to accessing the law and their legal rights. Existing or 

   - proposed new law and legal policy often discriminates against or disadvantages women as a 

   - whole or as members of a particular group. In our approach, we recognise the additional barriers posed by the intersection of gender-based abuse, racism, structural inequality and other forms of discrimination and oppression that impact on women's vulner ability, exclusion and 

   - marginalisation. For example, we recognise and seek to make a contribution through our work towards ending discrimination within the law towards Black and minoritised women; migrant women including refugees and asylum-seeking women; disabled women; women with low socio economic status; lesbian and bisexual women; trans women; women with no recourse to public funds. 

- Through all our services and activities we aim to ensure that all women have equal access to the law, their legal rights and justice. In this way we aim to ensure that women enjoy a more equal role in society. 

- Through our advice lines and publications women benefit from increased knowledge and understanding and increased confidence in using the law enabling them to overcome the disadvantages they experience. In particular our services focus on supporting women affected by violence - recognised by the UN as one of the most significant discriminations faced by women. 

- Through our training for professionals who support women we aim to increase awareness and understanding of the law as it relates to women, enabling these professionals to better support women. 

- Through our policy work we aim to ensure that the law and legal policy meets the needs of 

   - women and does not disadvantage them. We undertake research to demonstrate the impact of 

   - law and legal policy developments on women in order to raise awareness and lobby for changes which will ensure greater equality for women. Our research and policy documents are 

   - disseminated to local and national Government, policy makers, statutory and voluntary sector organisations. We regularly meet with law and policy makers to discuss the impact on women and campaign for developments which ensure greater equality for women. 

- Through our communications work we aim to advance the education of women, raise awareness and public support of our policy and campaigning work, and shift public attitudes to promote equality and diversity. 

## **Strategic report** 

The following sections for achievements and performance and financial review form the strategic report of the charity. 

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## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

**Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **Achievements and performance** 

## **Advice service** 

We continued to provide free legal advice provision to women who have experienced, or are at risk of or experiencing, Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) throughout the year. 

In this period our telephone legal advice services have supported a total of 3359 women with advice and information on their legal rights. 

Our family and criminal law advice lines, and FLOWS answers online advice service, provided 2454 women with advice on family law issues including relationship breakdown, finance and children issues and/or with advice and support on the criminal justice process arising from domestic and/or sexual violence. 

Our immigration and asylum law lines, including our EU Settlement Scheme advice line and professionals' advice line, provided advice and support to 646 individual women and professionals supporting women with an insecure immigration status. 

Our Sexual Harassment in the Workplace (Employment Law) advice service provided advice and support to 259 women. 

During this period our telephone advice services have been supported by 52 volunteer women solicitors and barristers. We would like to thank all our volunteers sincerely for the time and commitment they have given over the past year to helping women through the law. 

## **Training and Events** 

In total this year we have delivered training and events to over 1300 professionals throughout England and Wales. 

## _Training delivered under the Ascent Project_ 

As part of the Ascent project (funded by London Councils) we delivered specialist legal training to 493 professionals working with women survivors throughout London. All trainings are held online and our monitoring indicates the majority of participants are still expressing a preference for this format. Through our Ascent Advice and Counselling strand, we offered a quarterly course titled, Family Court: IDVA/ISVA attendance & keeping refuge addresses confidential.  This course focused on the interaction between domestic abuse services and the Family Court and looked at the rules on supporting survivors of domestic abuse at Family Court hearings including: 

- rules on the attendance of Independent Domestic Violence Advocates (IDVAs) and Independent Sexual Violence Advocates (ISVAs) at hearings, which came into force in April 2023. 

- the role of and corresponding rules for McKenzie Friends. 

Additionally, this session addressed recent High Court guidance on how court documents should be given to survivors residing in refuges without risking the confidentiality of the refuge address and the safety of survivors living in refuges. 

Under the 2nd Tier/Support strand of the Ascent project, we delivered our recurring four-part series on 

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## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

**Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

the Domestic Abuse Act 2021: An Overview; Protection for Survivors in Legal Proceedings; Offences Involving Violent or Abusive Behaviour; and Injunctions and Powers for Dealing with Domestic Abuse. We also delivered Specialist Briefings on the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 to borough officers and community and voluntary organisations, as well as courses on Migrant Women and Immigration Control and Supporting Women and Girls at Risk of Forced Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation. 

## _EU Settlement Scheme training_ 

We trained 563 professionals from the community, voluntary and statutory sectors working in England & Wales on violence against women and girls (VAWG) issues. Our training provided participants with knowledge to support EU citizens and their family members, who are victims of gender-based abuse, to secure the immigration status they need to continue living in the UK. 

## Other training/events 

In conjunction with ILPA, the immigration team co-produced a one-off training event on the topic of transnational marriage abandonment aimed at frontline professionals working with abandoned women to assist in handling these difficult cases. 

Changes to the Destitute Domestic Violence Concession was delivered to over 250 professionals. 

## _In-house training_ 

We delivered bespoke family law training sessions in-house to a number of organisations including Watford CAB, Shropshire Domestic Abuse Service and Sateda. 

We have also delivered bespoke sexual harassment training to trade union representatives including ASLEF Trade Union. 

## **Social Media** 

We have a combined audience of over 67,000 across our social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X) and regularly publish policy and legal information to increase women's understanding of the law and VAWG. 

## **Publications** 

In 2023-24 a total of 622,829 legal guides, handbooks, reports, briefings, consultation responses and publications were downloaded from our website. We continued to produce new publications throughout the year. 

## **Policy and campaigning** 

## _Access to Legal Aid_ 

The government published the outcome of the means test review in 2022. In 2023 we highlighted that this should increase the number of survivors who are financially eligible for legal aid, but there were elements of the new scheme that still needed addressing. Unfortunately, progress has been slow and in March 2024 the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced that the means test reforms will not be 

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## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

introduced until 2026 due to challenges in updating digital systems. 

In 2023 the MoJ began a Civil Legal Aid Review. We engaged with stakeholders in the legal aid sector and submitted our own evidence to the review to raise the barriers and issues in relation to family law, immigration law and sexual harassment in the workplace. This review is ongoing. 

Rights of Women provided data and case studies for the Public Law Project (PLP's) research report 'Access to immigration legal aid: An Ocean of Unmet Need' published in September 2023. The report explores the barriers to accessing legal aid for migrants and summarises the experiences of organisations who support individuals to access legal representation.  The purpose of this report was to collate information as part of pre-litigation research into a proposed judicial review against the Lord Chancellor for failing to make legal aid available for certain types of civil legal aid services including specified immigration and asylum cases. 

## _Rights of Cohabiting Partners_ 

The end of a cohabiting relationship, either through separation or the death of a partner, can lead to significant hardship for women (including those in religious-only marriages) which is why we have been calling for laws to protect cohabiting couples for well over a decade. In previous years, we gave written and oral evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee, and the Committee made recommendations for law reform which the Government rejected. This year, we continued to raise this issue, including with the shadow Attorney General. We were pleased to see an announcement was made at the Labour Party Conference that they will commit to reviewing the law in relation to cohabitation. We will continue to identify opportunities to influence policy positions and move this cause forward. 

## _Family Court Reform_ 

Our policy priorities in this area are detailed and include the treatment of survivors and children by the family courts during child arrangements cases. 

Important work on the family court's approach to domestic abuse in child contact cases has been going on since the publication of the report, 'Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases'. This report, also known as the Harm Report, was published by the Ministry of Justice in June 2020. It provided important recognition of the many problems victims face in the family court and the Government has committed to various reforms as a result. 

We are developing local work in a family justice area focusing on best practice in relation to domestic abuse locally, improving understanding of domestic abuse, building co-ordinated responses to domestic abuse. This three-year project is at the end of its first year and will build on initial learning to develop accountability mechanisms that enable systemic change. 

We are an active member of a Family Courts and Domestic Abuse expert working group, where we discuss trends, updates on law and practice and the potential for action to improve the family justice system for survivors of domestic abuse. 

We have continued to work on strategic cases following success in four joined appeals looking at the importance of coercive control in child contact cases. Work on the Family Procedure Rules continued following the successful outcome in a strategic case in which we represented Latin American Women's Aid, Women's Aid and Refuge on issues in relation to the service of court documents on women in refuges. Influencing in relation to the new rules has been ongoing. We continue to support transparency in the Family Court by contributing to the work of the President of the Family Division's 

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## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

Transparency Implementation Group. We have been co-training with Safe Lives for their project on training family law solicitors and barristers. The aim is to increase delegates' understanding of domestic abuse, improve the service survivors receive from their lawyers, and improve the way domestic abuse is approached in the family courts. 

## _Work on so-called parental alienation_ 

We are developing our understanding of the experiences of victims of domestic abuse who are accused of parental alienation through work directly with those victims and the provision of advice in relation to their circumstances. An academic colleague received funding and ethics approval to begin evaluating this work. We continue to engage with sector work on this issue. This included drafting and influencing in relation to an amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill in relation to psychological evidence in Family Court. The Government accepted the need for changes and have asked the Family Procedure Rule Committee to address this issue. 

The Family Justice Council (FJC) consulted on draft guidance on responding to allegations of alienating behaviour. We welcomed the fact that this issue is being addressed by the FJC but are concerned about fundamental flaws in the guidance which we set out in our detailed response to the consultation. 

## _Dispute Resolution_ 

In April 2023 the Government announced a consultation on proposed changes that would make mediation compulsory for most family law matters. This raised concerns amongst the VAWG sector given that mediation can be harmful and result in unfair outcomes for survivors of domestic abuse. We were one of the lead organisations engaged in discussing proposals and developing responses. We produced a document for the VAWG sector setting out the current rules and practices for mediation to help aid discussions. 

At very short notice, we became aware that the Family Procedure Rules Committee (FPRC) was also consulting on changes to procedure rules which would be tantamount to compulsory mediation. As far as we are aware, we were the only organisation in the VAWG sector that was able to respond due to the complicated nature of procedure rules and limited time. However, to ensure the FPRC were aware of the gravity of concern amongst the VAWG sector, we coordinated and submitted a joint letter to the FPRC signed by 14 other organisations which supports our submission. 

## _Migrant Women and Domestic Abuse_ 

There has been considerable work undertaken by the immigration team leading up to the Home Office's significant decision to include victims of transnational marriage abandonment (TMA) in the domestic violence rules to enable them to obtain permanent status at the end of January 2024.  We were delighted about the proposed new changes as we, alongside other leading VAWG organisations such as SBS have been in discussions with the Home Office about addressing the protection gap for victims of TMA for over 8 years.  We also negotiated changes to the content of the new rules as well as advocating for a lower standard of proof for TMA cases given that survivors of VAWG abandoned abroad are less likely to have evidence to support their immigration applications to re-enter the UK. 

Since the new rules came into force we have been continuing to influence the Government about the importance of victims of TMA in accessing support and safe accommodation upon arrival to the UK and on taking a flexible approach to these cases. 

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## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

In February 2024 there were further changes to the rules, namely the Destitution Domestic Abuse Concession (DDVC) with the scope of the concession being extended and a name change on 16th February 2024.  The former DDVC is now known as the Migrant Victims Domestic Abuse Concession (MVDAC) and is similar to the DDVC giving a person leave to remain for three months enabling them to access financial support on fleeing an abusive relationship.  We successfully secured changes to the application form to minimise any confusion around the eligibility criteria as well as some changes to the MVDAC guidance for decision makers. Further information about our influencing work on the MVDAC can be found in the 'partnership work' section below. 

## _EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS)_ 

We made submissions to the Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA) who are the body that ensure that the UK complies with the terms of the withdrawal agreement protecting rights of EU nationals and their family members. Our submissions covered a range of topics including changes to EUSS policy such as the automatic extension of pre-settled status to 2 years, changes to the reasonable grounds for late applicants (not knowing about the deadline of 30th June 2021 to apply would no longer be a reasonable ground), changes preventing illegal entrants from applying as joining family members and closure of the Zambrana (primary carers of British children) and Surinder Singh ( British citizen who had exercised treaty rights in another EU country pre Brexit) routes on 9th August last year. The IMA acknowledged our submissions as very useful feedback. 

## _Strategic Litigation (Immigration)_ 

We supported a charity in their strategic litigation around discrimination against pre-settled status (PSS) holders who do not have automatic access to benefits / immediate settlement. 

ROW's work on gaps in protection for victims of DV who are family members of EU nationals led to the introduction of protections for victims of domestic abuse in the EUSS which meant they retained status on relationship breakdown and could qualify for settlement. In practice there remains a problem for some victims (though not the majority) being unable to access public funds on relationship breakdown due to the right to reside test applied to all PSS holders. This is the first judicial review (JR) challenge brought by a PSS holder with retained rights as a victim of DV who is ineligible for public funds on the grounds of discrimination. The client was a ROW service user whom we had supported to obtain status and referred her to the Public Law Project (PLP). We drafted a lengthy statement, in support of her claim based on our expertise relating to the EUSS and our experience in supporting victims of DV who are family members of EU nationals. The claimant decided not to pursue the claim and we are now involved in a second JR raising the same issues for another claimant. 

## _Sexual Harassment in the Workplace_ 

This year saw the successful passage of the Worker Protection Act 2024 through the Houses of Parliament and it will come into force from October 2024. It will create a new mandatory duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent the sexual harassment of employees the workplace. 

This significant victory comes after four years of campaign work with our partners in the #ThisIsNotWorking alliance across the trade union movement and equalities sector. Unfortunately, the reintroduction of legal protections for victims sexually harassed by third parties was dropped from the original Bill, so this remains a strategic priority for this area of work. 

Restricting the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) by employers in sexual harassment and 

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## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

discrimination cases remains a live issue. This year we responded to the Legal Service Board's Call to Evidence on the 'Misuse of NDAs' and focused on the professional and ethical conduct of lawyers utilising insight and anonymised evidence from our advice service. 

We also provided constructive feedback during the development of a Green Paper led by Marina Wheeler KC, commissioned by the Labour Party. The remit was to examine reforming sexual harassment law by possibly combining it with whistleblowing law. We worked alongside another expert charity in our submissions. We are currently awaiting the outcome of this work at the time of writing. 

We have also joined the Expert Advisory panel of the Welsh Government on their 'Harassment in Workplace' workstream, as well as NHS England as they develop their 'Sexual Safety' Charter and their first 'Sexual Misconduct' workplace policy. 

## _Legal Advice for Survivors of Sexual Violence_ 

ROW continued to work with the sector working group we brought together on this issue and led work to develop and promote an amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill. We have been at the forefront of discussions around how a model for legal advice would work and be structured, and how it would be funded. We have drafted full briefings for parliamentarians and other decision makers. An amendment was introduced and received support but unfortunately it was not taken forward. The working group will continue to work on this issue in 2024-25. 

## _Keeping counselling confidential_ 

The police often request survivor counselling records as a matter of routine. These can be used to undermine survivors in court or be a reason for the police or CPS to take no further action on a case. All of this can be harmful to survivors, and some end up delaying counselling for years until after the court case has concluded. The group working on legal advice for survivors of sexual violence also worked together to prepare briefings and push for amendments to the Victims and Prisoners Bill to help ensure that survivors' counselling records are not accessed by police unless they are of substantive probative value. We had very positive engagement on this issue from parliamentarians across the house. On 23 April 2024 the government accepted the amendment to the Bill. 

## _Other policy work_ 

In other areas of our policy work we have continued to focus on addressing the gaps in law and policy relating to women affected by violence. We sit on a range of key groups including the EU Commission Network, Home Office EUSS Safeguarding User Group, Home Office Vulnerability Advisory Group (Future Immigration Scheme). 

We continue to raise awareness of our work via social media and our website. 

## **Partnerships and other achievements** 

## _Voices of Women panel_ 

We are committed to ensuring our work is driven by women with lived experience of the issues we work on. In 2020 we established an experts-by-experience panel who named themselves the ROW Voices of Women Panel. This year the panel has been kept updated on the progress of FLOWS Answers and the development of From Report to Court following on from their contributions to these projects. We have convened a small group of staff to consider how to build upon and expand our work with experts by experience. This work is ongoing. 

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## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## _Developing our relationships with the media_ 

As part of our strategic communications work, we have been developing and solidifying new and existing relationships with key journalists and publications and taking proactive approaches to increasing women's understanding of VAWG and the legal system. We have been featured in high-profile media (developing relationships with Cosmopolitan, BACP Magazine, Independent, ITV). This has included but is not limited to advocating for the rights of cohabiting couples, highlighting our work on keeping counselling confidential, and raising awareness of new issues relating to developments of the policing and prosecuting of sexual violence. We are working with the team to raise awareness of the barriers to accessing justice through the family courts and raise Rights of Women's profile as a thought leader on issues in this area. 

## _Partnership work with the Immigration Law Practitioner's Association (ILPA)_ 

The immigration and asylum legal team have continued to collaborate with ILPA, a professional organisation which aims to promote and improve immigration advice and representation. 

With respect to the new rules, we worked collaboratively with ILPA and the VAWG sector to influence changes to the contents of the Home Office guidance accompanying Appendix Victims of Domestic Abuse (VDA) which enables victims of DV to settle in the UK as well as raising our concerns about the delinking of the Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession (MVDAC) from Appendix Victims of Domestic Abuse. The linking of the two applications had provided a safety net for victims of DV who would have been able to regularise their immigration status after applying for the concession. This is no longer the case and for some applicants applying for the MVDAC may not be the best option. 

In conjunction with ILPA we also provided training to Home Office decision-makers in advance of the TMA entry clearance route being introduced.  The training was co-delivered with an academic and a front-line practitioner. The session was well received and feedback was positive including that caseworkers had developed knowledge in advance of the route going live. Slides and a recording were sent out for the rest of the Home Office team who could not attend. It is important that decision-makers have a a good grasp of the concept of TMA and apply their policies flexibly for the benefit of victims of DV hence our decision to provide this training. 

## _Collaborative work with the migrant advice and VAWG sector_ 

This year we submitted many joint letters to the Home Office including: 

- A civil society statement on the impact of the illegal migration bill signed by more than 288 organisations from different sectors including VAWG, migrant, refugee and human rights.  The statement referred to the bill as cruel and inhumane stripping people of their basic human rights and potentially breaching the UK's international obligations. 

- A joint letter led by the3million highlighting a serious problem for people who do not realise their application for status under the EUSS has been refused because the decision is sent by email and their online status continues to state that their application is pending. 

## _Group of experts on action on violence against women and girls and domestic abuse (GREVIO)_ 

GREVIO is the group of experts from the Council of Europe who monitor a country's implementation of the Istanbul Convention. We attended a roundtable discussion with other VAWG sector organisations convened by GREVIO and produced a shadow report signed by 58 VAWG organisations which was submitted to GREVIO in January 2024. ROW made a significant contribution to this report in our areas 

**14** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

of our expertise. 

We raised concerns about: 

- the UK's non-adherence to article 4 (the non-discrimination principle) in relation to migrant women who in some cases were not afforded any protection on fleeing VAWG 

- the impact of the hostile environment on undocumented migrant women experiencing VAWG 

- the lack of safe reporting mechanisms for migrant women wanting to report Gender Based Violence (GBV) 

- the lack of early legal advice and support for migrant women wanting to regularise their immigration status 

## _UNCHR Special Rapporteur on VAWG (SR)_ 

We attended a roundtable discussion convened by SR on 13 February 2024 with other VAWG organisations to discuss the UK's implementation of policies to protect and support victims of VAWG and the UK's adherence to international obligations on this issue. The issues raised were similar to those raised in the GREVIO shadow report discussed above. 

Following the meeting a background note summarising our concerns about the lack of protection for migrant women highlighting issues that had not been addressed in the initial meeting was submitted to the SR. 

In particular we addressed the inconsistent application of gender sensitive asylum policies by the UK government and our concerns about recent legislation being introduced that we identified as being regressive and the proposed Rwanda Bill and Illegal Migration Act. 

Other issues that were raised included: 

- The fact that there is no immigration route provided for migrant victims of rape or assault to give evidence in Court against the perpetrator or to facilitate the giving of remote evidence once they have left the UK to ensure that the perpetrator is brought to justice.  It is also important that women victims' of gender based violence are given the time and space to recover from trauma, to reflect and make informed decisions about their futures.  A temporary period of leave will enable a period of reflection and recovery. 

- The adverse consequences of delinking the Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession (MVDAC) from Appendix VDA. (See explanation of MVDAC above). 

- The challenges faced by victims of modern slavery in being recognised as victims due to provisions under the Nationality and Border Act 2022. 

## _Equality, Diversity and Inclusion_ 

In our approach to tackling VAWG, we recognise the additional barriers posed by the intersection of gender-based abuse, racism, structural inequality and other forms of discrimination and oppression that impact on women's vulnerability, exclusion and marginalisation. 

Our organisation is committed to continual improvement in relation to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) practices and has been working towards this through an EDI staff working group that meets regularly and Board oversight. During the reporting year we focused on further developing our in-house training for staff. We worked with an expert external trainer to provide training on an Introduction to Trans Awareness and arranged a six-month externally facilitated EDI training 

**15** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

programme for staff which includes feedback groups and reflection space. 

## _Increased anti-racism work_ 

We recognise the importance of amplifying and supporting specialist 'by and for' Black and minoritised women's organisations in this work and supporting their leadership. We are an anti-racist, white-led organisation and recognise that our working practice must strengthen and be accountable to specialist 'by and for' Black and minoritised women's organisations. Our approach to working together accountably includes but is not limited to: 

- recognising the value of specialist 'by and for' Black and minoritised women's work in ways which are visible; 

- strengthening their leadership and autonomy in all spaces we operate in; 

- sharing resources and recognising the privilege we have; 

- communicating meaningfully at the early stages of the development of any proposed new partnership work with specialist 'by and for' Black and minoritised women's organisations; 

- paying others for their specialist expertise and educating ourselves on issues; 

- challenging structural inequalities in partnerships. 

We have continued to invest in our organisational commitment throughout the year, including through a 6-month training course delivered by Other Box for staff on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and working with Social Justice Collective to review our approach to EDI and develop a vision plan for our work over the coming years. 

## _Sexual Harassment at Work Advice Service_ 

We continued to provide legal advice to cover employment and discrimination law in relation to sexual harassment in the workplace. This year we have recruited a Legal Officer to the team which will allow us to open more hours and have added a new day time slot to better meet our callers' accessibility needs. 

We continue to be grateful to the support from an Expert Advisory Panel of lawyers and policy experts who support the advice line and contribute to our strategic policy development in this area of law. 

## _FLOWS (Finding Legal Options for Women Survivors)_ 

Since April 2018 we have worked in partnership with RCJ Advice on the FLOWS project. This project has a focus on using technology and digital solutions to provide advice and information to survivors and the professionals that support them. We host an online forum for professionals providing peer-to-peer support on family law and criminal law issues. This project continues to work to expand its reach including facilitating online events and drop-in online Q&A sessions to reach more people and increase understanding of the legal issues and options facing survivors of domestic abuse in both family and criminal law. 

This year we also trialled a new online advice service called FLOWS Answers. Through development with stakeholders and the Voices of Women panel, we ran a pilot of the service during 2023. After 

**16** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

initial testing and making some amendments, the service is now available for women seeking legal advice in relation to criminal law. They are able to write to ROW at a time that is convenient for them and receive a written response which they are able to refer back to in the future. The service has been successful and longer-term development is being planned. 

## **Human Resource Management** 

Our aim is to create a working environment that anticipates and meets the varied needs of our team and prospective employees. Hybrid working is now an established arrangement enabling women throughout the UK to work for ROW. It is also a key element in supporting women with caring responsibilities to work for us. 

We have undertaken a comprehensive programme of employee policy and training development.  Our primary focus this year has been Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. All staff undertook a 6-month programme of individual and group work and a significant element of our away day with the Board of Trustees was to jointly develop a work plan to achieve key improvements for service users, staff and volunteers. 

**17** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

# **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

**Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **Financial review** 

In this period Rights of Women has had two major sources of income:- 

**Grants and donations** from a broad range of sources including major grant givers such as Access to Justice Foundation, Henry Smith Charity, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Justice Together Initiative, Trust for London and Treebeard. Our FLOWS partnership with RCJ Advice has been funded by the MoJ. As part of the London Violence Against Women and Girls Consortium we have received funding for the Ascent project from London Councils and the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC). Our work on the EU Settlement Scheme has been funded primarily by the Home Office. We also received public donations and smaller grants from partners such as Garden Court Chambers. 

## **Income generating activities** included training courses. 

## **Reserves** 

ROW’s Reserves Policy aims to maintain a sufficient level of reserves to ensure robust organisational management in relation to sustainability, risk and growth. The policy is updated annually. 

ROW has successfully ensured that it has maintained sufficient funds in this financial year. 

The Board ringfences designated funds to meet contractual obligations in respect of redundancy and winding up costs in the event of loss of funding. The amount is recalculated regularly and forms part of the annual update of the Reserves Policy.  Designated fund reserves at the end of this period were £279,138. 

ROW maintains a general reserves fund to enable normal operating activities to continue over a period of between 3 and 6 months should a shortfall in income occur and to take account of potential risks and contingencies that may arise from time to time. The general fund reserves at the end of this period were £249,622 that represents 3 months running costs. 

In order to demonstrate transparency, accountability and sound financial management the ROW Reserves Policy clearly justifies the amount of reserves held each year. 

In order to make a judgment on the amount of reserves, the Trustees have considered the risks in respect of expenditure, unrestricted income and where appropriate restricted income. Also taken into consideration are any external identified potential major risks to income and expenditure. 

## **Review of the charity's financial position at the year end** 

The Board have reviewed the charity's financial position at year end and are satisfied the charity continues to be in good financial health. It is also noted that the charity's income is increasing year on year and this reflects growth in relation to meeting targets and priorities identified within the charity's Strategic Plan. 

## **Plans for the future** 

Our trustees have identified the following priorities for our organisation going forward through an analysis of our work, infrastructure, funding, horizon scanning and in line with our strategic plan: 

- 

- Maintain or increase current number of women assisted through legal advice 

**18** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

# **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

**Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

- Invest in growth of our core infrastructure to enable sustainability 

- Strengthen our alternative income generation by developing new income streams 

- Increase our use of strategic communications across our work 

- Increase organisational investment in supporting staff and volunteer wellbeing 

- Ensure all our work in underpinned by our values and commitments to increasing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion 

## **Post balance sheet events affecting the charity** 

There are no significant post balance sheet events affecting the charity to note. However, the Board would highlight that the pandemic and cost of living crisis has had a critical impact on society, organisations and the economy as a whole. Furthermore, these changes have disproportionately affected some groups within society because of structural disadvantage faced by groups with protected characteristics and/or facing intersectional disadvantage. It has impacted greatly on access to equality, safety and justice for women and the charity will seek to increase its charitable activities to address this. 

## **Trustees' responsibilities statement** 

The trustees, who are also directors 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 Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). 

Company law requires the charity trustees to prepare financial statements for each year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, for that period. 

In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to: 

- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently; 

- observe the methods and principles in the applicable Charities SORP; 

- make judgments and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent; 

- state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; 

- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in business. 

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

**19** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

# **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **Auditor** 

Each of the persons who is a trustee at the date of approval of this report confirms that: 

- so far as they are aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the charity's auditor is unaware; and 

- they have taken all steps that they ought to have taken as a trustee to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the charity's auditor is aware of that information. 

The trustees' annual report and the strategic report were approved on 11 September 2024 and signed on behalf of the board of trustees by: 


Annie Hedge - Chair Trustee 

**20** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Independent Auditor's Report to the Members of Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **Opinion** 

We have audited the financial statements of Rights of Women Incorporated Limited (the 'charity') for the year ended 31 March 2024 which comprise the statement of financial activities (including income and expenditure account), statement of financial position, statement of cash flows and the related notes, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). 

In our opinion the financial statements: 

- give a true and fair view of the state of the charity's affairs as at 31 March 2024 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended; 

- have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; 

- have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006. 

## **Basis for opinion** 

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. 

## **Conclusions relating to going concern** 

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate. 

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue. 

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report. 

**21** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

**Independent Auditor's Report to the Members of Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** _**(continued)**_ 

**Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **Other information** 

The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. 

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. 

We have nothing to report in this regard. 

## **Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006** 

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

- the information given in the trustees' report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and 

- the trustees' report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements. 

## **Matters on which we are required to report by exception** 

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charity and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the trustees' report. 

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

- adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or 

- the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or 

- certain disclosures of trustees' remuneration specified by law are not made; or 

- 

- we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit. 

**22** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

**Independent Auditor's Report to the Members of Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** _**(continued)**_ 

**Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **Responsibilities of trustees** 

As explained more fully in the trustees' responsibilities statement, the trustees (who are also the directors for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. 

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charity's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charity or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so. 

**23** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

# **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

**Independent Auditor's Report to the Members of Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements** 

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

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below: 

- By enquiring with senior management and those charged with governance all area of risk identified were considered and any potential litigation or claim, if any, were noted 

- Ensuring by enquiry that there were no issues of non-compliance with laws and regulations relating to tax and compliance 

- By obtaining an understanding of the company's policies and procedures on compliance with laws and regulations, and with best accounting practice 

- Noting issues discussed with Directors and the Senior Management Team as this relates to risks faced by the company 

- Reviewing information received from the company's solicitors, if any and discussing their contents with the Directors 

- Reviewing disclosures in the financial statements and testing to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations 

- Auditing the risk of management overrides of controls including testing journal entries and other adjustments for appropriateness and evaluating the business rationale of significant transactions outside the normal course of business 

Through these procedures, we did not become aware of any actual or suspected non-compliance. 

As part of an audit in accordance with ISAs (UK), we exercise professional judgment and maintain professional scepticism throughout the audit. We also: 

- Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control. 

**24** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Independent Auditor's Report to the Members of Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

- Obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the internal control. 

- Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by the trustees. 

- Conclude on the appropriateness of the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the charity's ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor’s report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor’s report. However, future events or conditions may cause the charity to cease to continue as a going concern. 

- Evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation. 

We communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit. 

## **Use of our report** 

This report is made solely to the charity's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charity's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed. 


Jonathan Rhodes BSc BFP FCA (Senior Statutory Auditor) 

For and on behalf of Walter Hunter & Co Limited Chartered accountants & statutory auditor 24 Bridge Street Newport South Wales NP20 4SF 

11 September 2024 

**25** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Statement of Financial Activities (including income and expenditure account)** 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

||||**2024**||2023|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||Unrestricted|Restricted|||
|||funds|funds|**Total funds**|Total funds|
||**Note**|**£**|**£**|**£**|£|
|**Income**||||||
|Donations and legacies|**5**|80,358|–|80,358|62,376|
|Charitable activities|**6**|72,779|773,195|845,974|792,882|
|Other trading activities|**7**|27,457|–|27,457|16,400|
|Investment income|**8**|2,990|–|2,990|879|
|||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|**Total income**||183,584|773,195|956,779|872,537|
|||================================|================================|================================|================================|
|**Expenditure**||||||
|Expenditure on raising funds:||||||
|Costs of other trading activities|**9**|15,995|–|15,995|9,895|
|Expenditure on charitable activities|**10,11**|137,159|773,151|910,310|921,814|
|||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|**Total expenditure**||153,154|773,151|926,305|931,709|
|||================================|================================|================================|================================|
|||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|**Net income/(expenditure)**||30,430|44|30,474|(59,172)|
|||================================|================================|================================|================================|
|Transfers between funds||3,876|(3,876)|–|–|
|||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|**Net movement in funds**||34,306|(3,832)|30,474|(59,172)|
|**Reconciliation of funds**||||||
|Total funds brought forward||494,454|66,859|561,313|620,485|
|||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|**Total funds carried forward**||528,760|63,027|591,787|561,313|
|||================================|================================|================================|================================|



The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities. 

**The notes on pages 29 to 47 form part of these financial statements.** 

**26** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Statement of Financial Position** 

## **31 March 2024** 

|||**2024**|2023|
|---|---|---|---|
||**Note**|**£**|£|
|**Fixed assets**||||
|Investments|**18**|1|1|
|**Current assets**||||
|Debtors|**19**|151,121|129,321|
|Cash at bank and in hand||643,567|496,786|
|||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|||794,688|626,107|
|**Creditors: amounts falling due within one year**|**20**|202,902|64,795|
|||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|**Net current assets**||591,786|561,312|
|||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|**Total assets less current liabilities**||591,787|561,313|
|||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|**Net assets**||591,787|561,313|
|||================================|================================|
|**Funds of the charity**||||
|Restricted funds||63,027|66,859|
|Unrestricted funds||528,760|494,454|
|||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|**Total charity funds**|**23**|591,787|561,313|
|||================================|================================|



These financial statements were approved by the board of trustees and authorised for issue on 11 September 2024, and are signed on behalf of the board by: 


Aramide O 

Annie Hedge - Chair Trustee 

Aramide Ogunlana - Treasurer Trustee 

**The notes on pages 29 to 47 form part of these financial statements.** 

**27** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Statement of Cash Flows** 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

||**2024**|2023|
|---|---|---|
||**£**|£|
|**Cash flows from operating activities**|||
|Net income/(expenditure)|30,474|(59,172)|
|_Adjustments for:_|||
|Other interest receivable and similar income|(2,990)|(879)|
|Accrued expenses|18,989|54,114|
|_Changes in:_|||
|Trade and other debtors|(55,912)|(49,040)|
|Trade and other creditors|153,230|(6,822)|
||--------------------------------|----------------------------|
|Cash generated from operations|143,791|(61,799)|
|Interest received|2,990|879|
||--------------------------------|----------------------------|
|Net cash from/(used in) operating activities|146,781|(60,920)|
||================================|============================|
|**Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents**|146,781|(60,920)|
|**Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year**|496,786|557,706|
||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|**Cash and cash equivalents at end of year**|643,567|496,786|
||================================|================================|



**The notes on pages 29 to 47 form part of these financial statements.** 

**28** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

# **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** 

**Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **1. General information** 

The charity is a public benefit entity and a private company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales and a registered charity in England and Wales. The address of the registered office is 52-54 Featherstone Street, London, EC1Y 8RT. 

## **2. Statement of compliance** 

These financial statements have been prepared in compliance with FRS 102, 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and the Republic of Ireland', the Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (Charities SORP (FRS 102)) and the Companies Act 2006. 

## **3. Accounting policies** 

## **Basis of preparation** 

The financial statements have been prepared on the historical cost basis. 

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the entity, rounded to the nearest pound. 

## **Going concern** 

A review of the organisation is undertaken annually in line with ISA (UK) 570 to assess the going concern status of the organisation. The assessment is undertaken as part of the budget setting process for the following year in the light of the forecast financial statements for the current year. The assessment considers key forecasts for income generation, expenditure, planned activities, risk register, cashflow, organisational performance, external factors and contingencies required to secure the future business operations of the organisation. 

Trustees consider that, having reviewed the management assessment, that Rights of Women Incorporated Limited can be considered a going concern for the foreseeable future and that suitable risk mitigations and contingencies are in place. 

## **Judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty** 

The preparation of the financial statements requires management to make judgements, estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported. These estimates and judgements are continually reviewed and are based on experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. 

## **Income tax** 

As a registered charity, the charity is exempt from income tax to the extent that its income and gains are applicable to charitable purposes only. Value added tax is not recoverable by the charity and is therefore included in the relevant costs in the Statement of Financial Activities. 

**29** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **3. Accounting policies** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Fund accounting** 

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees to further any of the charity's purposes. 

Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular future project or commitment. 

Restricted funds are subjected to restrictions on their expenditure declared by the donor or through the terms of an appeal, and fall into one of two sub-classes: restricted income funds or endowment funds. 

## **Incoming resources** 

All incoming resources are included in the statement of financial activities when entitlement has passed to the charity; it is probable that the economic benefits associated with the transaction will flow to the charity and the amount can be reliably measured. The following specific policies are applied to particular categories of income: 

- income from donations or grants is recognised when there is evidence of entitlement to the gift, receipt is probable and its amount can be measured reliably. 

- legacy income is recognised when receipt is probable and entitlement is established. 

- income from donated goods is measured at the fair value of the goods unless this is impractical to measure reliably, in which case the value is derived from the cost to the donor or the estimated resale value. Donated facilities and services are recognised in the accounts when received if the value can be reliably measured. No amounts are included for the contribution of general volunteers. 

- income from contracts for the supply of services is recognised with the delivery of the contracted service. This is classified as unrestricted funds unless there is a contractual requirement for it to be spent on a particular purpose and returned if unspent, in which case it may be regarded as restricted. 

**30** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **3. Accounting policies** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Resources expended** 

Expenditure is recognised on an accruals basis as a liability is incurred. Expenditure includes any VAT which cannot be fully recovered, and is classified under headings of the statement of financial activities to which it relates: 

- expenditure on raising funds includes the costs of all fundraising activities, events, noncharitable trading activities, and the sale of donated goods. 

- expenditure on charitable activities includes all costs incurred by a charity in undertaking activities that further its charitable aims for the benefit of its beneficiaries, including those support costs and costs relating to the governance of the charity apportioned to charitable activities. 

- other expenditure includes all expenditure that is neither related to raising funds for the charity nor part of its expenditure on charitable activities. 

All costs are allocated to expenditure categories reflecting the use of the resource. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs are apportioned between the activities they contribute to on a reasonable, justifiable and consistent basis. 

## **Operating leases** 

Lease payments are recognised as an expense over the lease term on a straight-line basis. The aggregate benefit of lease incentives is recognised as a reduction to expense over the lease term, on a straight-line basis. 

## **Tangible assets** 

Tangible assets are initially recorded at cost, and subsequently stated at cost less any accumulated depreciation. 

## **Depreciation** 

Depreciation is calculated so as to write off the cost or valuation of an asset, less its residual value, over the useful economic life of that asset as follows: 

Equipment - 25% p.a. straight line 

## **Investments** 

Unlisted equity investments are initially recorded at cost, and subsequently measured at fair value. If fair value cannot be reliably measured, assets are measured at cost less impairment. 

## **Impairment of fixed assets** 

A review for indicators of impairment is carried out at each reporting date, with the recoverable amount being estimated where such indicators exist. Where the carrying value exceeds the recoverable amount, the asset is impaired accordingly. Prior impairments are also reviewed for possible reversal at each reporting date. 

**31** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **3. Accounting policies** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Financial instruments** 

A financial asset or a financial liability is recognised only when the entity becomes a party to the contractual provisions of the instrument. 

Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at the amount receivable or payable including any related transaction costs, unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where it is recognised at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest for a similar debt instrument. 

Current assets and current liabilities are subsequently measured at the cash or other consideration expected to be paid or received and not discounted. 

## **Defined contribution plans** 

Contributions to defined contribution plans are recognised as an expense in the period in which the related service is provided. Prepaid contributions are recognised as an asset to the extent that the prepayment will lead to a reduction in future payments or a cash refund. 

## **4. Limited by guarantee** 

The charity is incorporated under the Companies Act 2006 and is limited by guarantee, each member having undertaken to contribute such amounts not exceeding one pound as may be required in the event of the company being wound up whilst he or she is still a member or within one year thereafter. 

There are 11 members of the company (2023: 10). 

## **5. Donations and legacies** 

||Unrestricted|**Total Funds**|Unrestricted|Total Funds|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Funds|**2024**|Funds|2023|
||£|**£**|£|£|
|**Donations**|||||
|Garden Court Chambers Limited|4,000|4,000|–|–|
|Gift Aid|1,619|1,619|–|–|
|Impact 100|35,000|35,000|–|–|
|Just Giving - The Last Leg's|||||
|Fundraiser|88|88|11,013|11,013|
|London Legal Support Trust|1,081|1,081|1,456|1,456|
|The Big Give Trust|5,480|5,480|18,741|18,741|
|Other donations under £2000|33,090|33,090|31,166|31,166|
||----------------------------|----------------------------|----------------------------|----------------------------|
||80,358|80,358|62,376|62,376|
||============================|============================|============================|============================|



**32** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **6. Charitable activities** 

||Unrestricted|Restricted|**Total Funds**|
|---|---|---|---|
||Funds|Funds|**2024**|
||£|£|**£**|
|Access to Justice Foundation (HALS)|–|37,500|37,500|
|Access to Justice Foundation (ILTA)|–|8,333|8,333|
|Access to Justice Foundation (IOTLS)|–|79,387|79,387|
|Ascent (London Council's A & C)|–|73,309|73,309|
|Ascent (London Council's ASSO)|–|31,292|31,292|
|Ascent Plus|–|27,611|27,611|
|Esmee Fairbairn|40,000|–|40,000|
|Firebird Foundation|–|60,000|60,000|
|Henry Smith|–|60,000|60,000|
|Henry Smith (Covid 19)|–|40,000|40,000|
|Home Office (EUSS)|–|61,000|61,000|
|Indigo Trust|25,000|–|25,000|
|John Ellerman|–|–|–|
|Justice Together Initiative|–|79,000|79,000|
|Labyrinth Project|–|–|–|
|Miscellaneous Income|1,021|–|1,021|
|MOJ FLOWS|–|150,863|150,863|
|Training income and speakers' fees|6,758|–|6,758|
|Treebeard (PA)|–|35,000|35,000|
|Trust for London|–|29,900|29,900|
|Two Magpies|–|–|–|
||----------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
||72,779|773,195|845,974|
||============================|================================|================================|



**33** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

**6. Charitable activities** _**(continued)**_ 

||||Unrestricted|Restricted|Total Funds|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||Funds|Funds|2023|
||||£|£|£|
||Access to Justice Foundation (HALS)||–|75,000|75,000|
||Access to Justice Foundation (ILTA)||–|–|–|
||Access to Justice Foundation (IOTLS)||–|–|–|
||Ascent (London Council's A & C)||–|72,110|72,110|
||Ascent (London Council's ASSO)||–|29,649|29,649|
||Ascent Plus||–|27,611|27,611|
||Esmee Fairbairn||56,000|–|56,000|
||Firebird Foundation||–|–|–|
||Henry Smith||–|59,000|59,000|
||Henry Smith (Covid 19)||–|40,000|40,000|
||Home Office (EUSS)||–|54,276|54,276|
||Indigo Trust||–|–|–|
||John Ellerman||–|58,470|58,470|
||Justice Together Initiative||–|63,000|63,000|
||Labyrinth Project||–|23,591|23,591|
||Miscellaneous Income||2,116|–|2,116|
||MOJ FLOWS||–|132,883|132,883|
||Training income and speakers' fees||23,176|–|23,176|
||Treebeard (PA)||–|35,000|35,000|
||Trust for London||–|26,000|26,000|
||Two Magpies||–|15,000|15,000|
||||----------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
||||81,292|711,590|792,882|
||||============================|================================|================================|
|**7.**|**Other trading activities**|||||
|||Unrestricted|**Total Funds**|Unrestricted|Total Funds|
|||Funds|**2024**|Funds|2023|
|||£|**£**|£|£|
||Fundraising events|27,457|27,457|16,400|16,400|
|||============================|============================|============================|============================|
|**8.**|**Investment income**|||||
|||Unrestricted|**Total Funds**|Unrestricted|Total Funds|
|||Funds|**2024**|Funds|2023|
|||£|**£**|£|£|
||Bank interest receivable|2,990|2,990|879|879|
|||=======================|=======================|==============|==============|
|**9.**|**Costs of other trading activities**|||||
|||Unrestricted|**Total Funds**|Unrestricted|Total Funds|
|||Funds|**2024**|Funds|2023|
|||£|**£**|£|£|
||Costs of other trading activities -|||||
||Staging events|15,995|15,995|9,895|9,895|
|||============================|============================|=======================|=======================|



**34** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **10. Expenditure on charitable activities by fund type** 

||Unrestricted|Restricted|**Total Funds**|
|---|---|---|---|
||Funds|Funds|**2024**|
||£|£|**£**|
|Access to Justice Foundation (HALS)|–|39,540|39,540|
|Access to Justice Foundation (ILTA)|–|4,088|4,088|
|Access to Justice Foundation (IOTLS)|–|79,387|79,387|
|Ascent (London Council's A & C)|–|73,457|73,457|
|Ascent (London Council's ASSO)|–|31,339|31,339|
|Ascent Plus|–|27,613|27,613|
|Core Costs|63,279|–|63,279|
|Esmee Fairbairn|46,236|–|46,236|
|Firebird Foundation|–|59,485|59,485|
|Henry Smith|–|64,754|64,754|
|Henry Smith (Covid 19)|–|36,384|36,384|
|Home Office (EUSS)|–|61,000|61,000|
|Indigo Trust|12,516|–|12,516|
|John Ellerman|–|139|139|
|Justice Together Initiative|–|82,936|82,936|
|Labyrinth Project|–|–|–|
|Ministry of Justice (FLOWS)|–|151,129|151,129|
|ROSA - JEF A&S|–|–|–|
|Support costs|15,128|2,361|17,489|
|Treebeard (PA)|–|33,533|33,533|
|Trust for London|–|26,006|26,006|
|Tudor Trust|–|–|–|
||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
||137,159|773,151|910,310|
||================================|================================|================================|
||Unrestricted|Restricted|Total Funds|
||Funds|Funds|2023|
||£|£|£|
|Access to Justice Foundation (HALS)|–|74,894|74,894|
|Access to Justice Foundation (ILTA)|–|–|–|
|Access to Justice Foundation (IOTLS)|–|–|–|
|Ascent (London Council's A & C)|–|71,988|71,988|
|Ascent (London Council's ASSO)|–|29,618|29,618|
|Ascent Plus|–|26,815|26,815|
|Core Costs|63,083|–|63,083|
|Esmee Fairbairn|38,414|–|38,414|
|Firebird Foundation|–|–|–|
|Henry Smith|–|54,164|54,164|
|Henry Smith (Covid 19)|–|42,513|42,513|
|Home Office (EUSS)|–|54,276|54,276|
|Indigo Trust|–|–|–|
|John Ellerman|–|57,851|57,851|
|Justice Together Initiative|–|54,618|54,618|
|Labyrinth Project|–|23,685|23,685|
|Ministry of Justice (FLOWS)|–|132,883|132,883|
|ROSA - JEF A&S|–|70,512|70,512|
|Support costs|14,272|1,791|16,063|



**35** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

|Treebeard (PA)||–|56,581|56,581|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|Trust for London||–|23,312|23,312|
|Tudor Trust||–|30,544|30,544|
|||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|||115,769|806,045|921,814|
|||================================|================================|================================|
|**Expenditure on charitable activities by activity type**|||||
||Activities||||
||undertaken|Support|**Total funds**|Total fund|
||directly|costs|**2024**|2023|
||£|£|**£**|£|
|Access to Justice Foundation (HALS)|39,540|–|39,540|74,894|
|Access to Justice Foundation (ILTA)|4,088|–|4,088|–|
|Access to Justice Foundation (IOTLS)|79,387|–|79,387|–|
|Ascent (London Council's A & C)|73,457|–|73,457|71,988|
|Ascent (London Council's ASSO)|31,339|–|31,339|29,649|
|Ascent Plus|27,613|–|27,613|27,610|
|Core Costs|63,279|8,093|71,372|63,629|
|Esmee Fairbairn|46,236|7,035|53,271|52,140|
|Firebird Foundation|59,485|515|60,000|–|
|Henry Smith|64,754|358|65,112|54,164|
|Henry Smith (Covid 19)|36,384|121|36,505|42,513|
|Home Office (EUSS)|61,000|–|61,000|54,276|
|Indigo Trust|12,516|–|12,516|–|
|John Ellerman|139|480|619|57,851|
|Justice Together Initiative|82,936|525|83,461|54,618|
|Labyrinth Project|–|–|–|23,685|
|Ministry of Justice (FLOWS)|151,129|–|151,129|132,883|
|ROSA - JEF A&S|–|–|–|70,512|
|Treebeard (PA)|33,533|362|33,895|56,581|
|Trust for London|26,006|–|26,006|23,516|
|Tudor Trust|–|–|–|31,305|
||--------------------------------|----------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
||892,821|17,489|910,310|921,814|
||================================|============================|================================|================================|



**11. Expenditure on charitable activities by activity type** 

During the year ended 31 March 2024, Rights of Women received pro bono legal advice, jointly with other organisations, totalling 164 chargeable hours. 

**36** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **12. Analysis of support costs** 

||||||||Justice||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||Esmee|Firebird||Henry Smith|John|Together|Treebeard|||
||Core Costs|Fairbairn|Foundation Henry Smith||<br>(Covid 19)|Ellerman|Initiative|(PA)|**Total 2024**|Total 2023|
||£|£|£|£|£|£|£|£|**£**|£|
|Board Meeting<br>Costs|171|–|–|–|<br>121|–|–|–|292|865|
|Legal &<br>Professional Fees|5,895|5,000|–|–|<br>–|480|–|362|11,737|10,158|
|Audit|2,027|2,035|515|358|<br>–|–|525|–|5,460|5,040|
||-----------------------|-----------------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|----------------------------|----------------------------|
||8,093|7,035|515|358|<br>121|480|525|362|17,489|16,063|
||=======================|=======================|==============|==============|==============|==============|==============|==============|============================|============================|



**37** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **13. Net income/(expenditure)** 

Net income/(expenditure) is stated after charging/(crediting): 

||**2024**|2023|
|---|---|---|
||**£**|£|
|Operating lease rentals|–|90|
|Audit fee|5,460|5,040|
||=======================|=======================|



## **14. Staff costs** 

The total staff costs and employee benefits for the reporting period are analysed as follows: 

||**2024**|2023|
|---|---|---|
||**£**|£|
|Wages and salaries|682,425|673,119|
|Social security costs|63,048|62,695|
|Employer contributions to pension plans|20,646|20,772|
||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
||766,119|756,586|
||================================|================================|



The average head count of employees during the year was 21 (2023: 21). The average number of full-time equivalent employees during the year is analysed as follows: 

||**2024**|2023|
|---|---|---|
||**No.**|No.|
|Number of staff involved in charitable activities|12|13|
|Number of administrative staff|3|1|
|Number of management staff|2|2|
||--------------|--------------|
||17|16|
||==============|==============|



No employee received employee benefits of more than £60,000 during the year (2023: Nil). 

## **Key Management Personnel** 

Key management personnel include all persons that have authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling the activities of the charity. The total compensation paid to key management personnel for services provided to the charity was £61,737 (2023:£60,195). 

## **15. Trustee remuneration and expenses** 

No remuneration or other benefits from employment with the charity or a related entity were received by the trustees (2023: nil). 

During the year there were no expenses reimbursed to trustees (2023: nil). 

**38** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **16. Transfers between funds** 

During the year management has undertaken a review of the brought forward restricted funds, concluding that some funds had been provided without restrictions, and others had been released of restrictions following the completion of their funded projects. Leading to a total transfer to unrestricted funds during the year of £6,065. 

Shortfall of restricted income on some projects' expenditure has been covered using the charity's unrestricted funds. Leading to a total transfer to restricted funds during the year of £2,189. 

## **17. Tangible fixed assets** 

||**Equipment**|
|---|---|
||**£**|
|**Cost**||
|**At 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024**|67,814|
||============================|
|**Depreciation**||
|**At 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024**|67,814|
||============================|
|**Carrying amount**||
|**At 31 March 2024**|–|
||============================|
|At 31 March 2023|–|
||============================|
|**Investments**||
||**Other**|
||**investments**|
||**£**|
|**Cost or valuation**||
|At 1 April 2023|1|
|Additions|–|
||--------------|
|**At 31 March 2024**|1|
||==============|
|**Impairment**||
|**At 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024**|–|
||==============|
|**Carrying amount**||
|**At 31 March 2024**|1|
||==============|
|At 31 March 2023|1|
||==============|



## **18. Investments** 

All investments shown above are held at valuation. 

Investments represent 1 ordinary share held in Tindlemanor Limited, company number: 01380213, registered office 52/24 Featherstone Street, London, EC1Y 8RT. 

**39** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **19. Debtors** 

||**2024**|2023|
|---|---|---|
||**£**|£|
|Trade debtors|148,907|89,604|
|Prepayments and accrued income|2,214|39,717|
||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
||151,121|129,321|
||================================|================================|
|**Creditors:** **amounts falling due within one year**|||
||**2024**|2023|
||**£**|£|
|Trade creditors|7,618|16,125|
|Accruals and deferred income|173,791|32,247|
|Social security and other taxes|19,509|13,969|
|Other creditors|1,984|2,454|
||--------------------------------|----------------------------|
||202,902|64,795|
||================================|============================|
|**Deferred income**|||
||**2024**|2023|
||**£**|£|
|Amount deferred in year|156,667|–|
||================================|==============|



## **20. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year** 

## **21. Deferred income** 

## **22. Pensions and other post retirement benefits** 

## **Defined contribution plans** 

The amount recognised in income or expenditure as an expense in relation to defined contribution plans was £20,646 (2023: £20,772). 

**40** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **23. Analysis of charitable funds** 

## **Unrestricted funds** 

|**Unrestricted funds**||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||**At**|
||At||||**31 March 20**|
||1 April 2023|Income|Expenditure|Transfers|**24**|
||£|£|£|£|£|
|General funds|234,454|183,584|(153,154)|(15,262)|<br>249,622|
|Designated Fund - see||||||
|below|260,000|–|–|19,138|279,138|
||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|----------------------------|--------------------------------|
||494,454|183,584|(153,154)|3,876|528,760|
||================================|================================|================================|============================|================================|
||||||At|
||At||||31 March 20|
||1 April 2022|Income|Expenditure|Transfers|23|
||£|£|£|£|£|
|General funds|140,501|160,947|(125,664)|58,670|234,454|
|Designated Fund - see||||||
|below|178,970|–|–|81,030|260,000|
||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
||319,471|160,947|(125,664)|139,700|494,454|
||================================|================================|================================|================================|================================|



**The General Fund** is to support any short term shortfall, for example a gap between grants, or to cover specific expenses where grant or other funding is not available. 

The following unrestricted Grants/Awards received are included within the General fund: 

**Big Give:** This money was raised from donations from the public through an online crowdfunder to support women experiencing VAWG through provision of legal advice. 

**Esmee Fairbairn:** This is a grant for unrestricted core costs to increase access to justice for women experiencing gender-based violence. It is focused on strategic immigration and asylum law policy influencing work to create system change in England and Wales. 

**Garden Court:** This small grant covers core costs associated with the charity's work to support the delivery of access to justice. 

**Impact 100:** This is a core grant from Impact100 London which is a philanthropic impact fund to give transformative grants to local charities that primarily benefit women and girls in London. 

**Indigo Trust:** This is a core grant to support our work on access to justice in the UK. 

**Designated Funds** are reserves ringfenced by the board to meet redundancy and winding up costs in the event of loss of funding. 

|Staff redundancy & notice period payments|178,178|
|---|---|
|Contractual liabilities|55,960|
|Professional advice|45,000|
||--------------------------------|
|At 31 March 2024|279,138|
||================================|



**41** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **23. Analysis of charitable funds** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Restricted funds** 

|**Restricted funds**|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||||**At**|
||At||||**31 March**|**20**|
||1 April 2023|Income|Expenditure|Transfers||**24**|
||£|£|£|£|£||
|Access to Justice|||||||
|Foundation (ILTA)|–|8,333|(4,088)|–|4,245||
|Access to Justice|||||||
|Foundation (IOTLS)|–|79,387|(79,387)|–||–|
|Access to Justice|||||||
|Foundation (HALS)|106|37,500|(39,540)|1,934||–|
|Ascent (London|||||||
|Council's A & C)|148|73,309|(73,457)|–||–|
|Ascent (London|||||||
|Council's ASSO)|47|31,292|(31,339)|–||–|
|Ascent Plus|2|27,611|(27,613)|–||–|
|Big Lottery Fund|–|–|–|–||–|
|CAB EUSS|–|–|–|–||–|
|Comic Relief|–|–|–|–||–|
|Comic Relief Second|||||||
|Grant|–|–|–|–||–|
|Esmee Fairbairn|–|–|–|–||–|
|Family Rights Group|6,065|–|–|(6,065)||–|
|Firebird Foundation|–|60,000|(60,000)|–||–|
|Foreign and|||||||
|Commonwealth|||||||
|Office/Forced Marriage|||||||
|Unit Domestic|||||||
|Programme Fund|–|–|–|–||–|
|FRG (TFL)|–|–|–|–||–|
|Henry Smith|35,112|60,000|(65,112)|–|30,000||
|Henry Smith (Covid 19)|(2,513)|40,000|(36,505)|–|982||
|Home Office (EUSS)|–|61,000|(61,000)|–||–|
|John Ellerman|619|–|(619)|–||–|
|Justice Together|||||||
|Initiative|8,382|79,000|(83,461)|–|3,921||
|Labyrinth Project|–|–|–|–||–|
|Ministry of Justice|||||||
|(FLOWS)|11|150,863|(151,129)|255||–|
|MOPAC - Solace|–|–|–|–||–|
|PAS Projects|–|–|–|–||–|
|Paul Hamlyn|||||||
|Foundation|–|–|–|–||–|



**42** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **23. Analysis of charitable funds** _**(continued)**_ 

|ROSA - JEF A&S|–|–|–|–||–|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Tampon Tax|–|–|–|–||–|
|Tampon Tax RCJ|–|–|–|–||–|
|Treebeard (PA)|16,396|35,000|(33,895)|–|17,501||
|Treebeard Emergency|||||||
|Grant|–|–|–|–||–|
|Trust for London|2,484|29,900|(26,006)|–|6,378||
|Tudor Trust|–|–|–|–||–|
|Two Magpies Fund|–|–|–|–||–|
||----------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|-----------------------|----------------------------||
||66,859|773,195|(773,151)|(3,876)|63,027||
||============================|================================|================================|=======================|============================||
|||||||At|
||At||||31 March|20|
||1 April 2022|Income|Expenditure|Transfers||23|
||£|£|£|£|£||
|Access to Justice|||||||
|Foundation (ILTA)|–|–|–|–||–|
|Access to Justice|||||||
|Foundation (IOTLS)|–|–|–|–||–|
|Access to Justice|||||||
|Foundation (HALS)|–|75,000|(74,894)|–|106||
|Ascent (London|||||||
|Council's A & C)|26|72,110|(71,988)|–|148||
|Ascent (London|||||||
|Council's ASSO)|47|29,649|(29,649)|–||47|
|Ascent Plus|1|27,611|(27,610)|–||2|
|Big Lottery Fund|577|–|–|(577)||–|
|CAB EUSS|67,398|–|–|(67,398)||–|
|Comic Relief|5,874|–|–|(5,874)||–|
|Comic Relief Second|||||||
|Grant|1,480|–|–|(1,480)||–|
|Esmee Fairbairn|33,271|–|–|(33,271)||–|
|Family Rights Group|6,065|–|–|–|6,065||
|Firebird Foundation|–|–|–|–||–|
|Foreign and|||||||
|Commonwealth|||||||
|Office/Forced Marriage|||||||
|Unit Domestic|||||||
|Programme Fund|4,019|–|–|(4,019)||–|
|FRG (TFL)|1,350|–|–|(1,350)||–|
|Henry Smith|30,276|59,000|(54,164)|–|35,112||
|Henry Smith (Covid 19)|–|40,000|(42,513)|–|(2,513)||
|Home Office (EUSS)|–|54,276|(54,276)|–||–|
|John Ellerman|–|58,470|(57,851)|–|619||
|Justice Together|||||||
|Initiative|–|63,000|(54,618)|–|8,382||



**43** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

|**23.**|**Analysis of charitable funds** **_(continued)_**|**Analysis of charitable funds** **_(continued)_**|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||Labyrinth Project|93|23,591|(23,685)|1|–|
||Ministry of Justice||||||
||(FLOWS)|11|132,883|(132,883)|–|11|
||MOPAC - Solace|165|–|–|(165)|–|
||PAS Projects|5,331|–|–|(5,331)|–|
||Paul Hamlyn||||||
||Foundation|18,114|–|–|(18,114)|–|
||ROSA - JEF A&S|72,513|–|(70,512)|(2,001)|–|
||Tampon Tax|246|–|–|(246)|–|
||Tampon Tax RCJ|1,216|–|–|(1,216)|–|
||Treebeard (PA)|22,977|35,000|(41,581)|–|16,396|
||Treebeard Emergency||||||
||Grant|941|–|–|(941)|–|
||Trust for London|–|26,000|(23,516)|–|2,484|
||Tudor Trust|29,023|–|(31,305)|2,282|–|
||Two Magpies Fund|–|15,000|(15,000)|–|–|
|||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|----------------------------|
|||301,014|711,590|(806,045)|(139,700)|66,859|
|||================================|================================|================================|================================|============================|



**44** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **23. Analysis of charitable funds** _**(continued)**_ 

**Access to Justice Foundation Improving Lives Through Advice (ILTA):** This grant is part of a grant programme that aims to demonstrate how multi-year advice funding builds sustainability, infrastructure, connections and best practice EDI approach in the delivery of frontline legal advice. 

**Access to Justice Foundation Improving Outcomes Through Legal Support (IOTLS):** This grant is to support our frontline specialist legal advice delivery and ensure beneficiaries can access timely advice and support throughout their legal journey. It primarily funds the costs frontline advisers. 

**Access to Justice Foundation Help Accessing Legal Support (HALS):** This is a grant to support our frontline specialist legal advice delivery and ensure beneficiaries can access timely advice and support throughout their legal journey. It primarily funds the costs frontline advisers. 

**Ascent:** This grant is for the Ascent project which is a grant for two strands of work aimed at tackling VAWG in London, it is comprised of the London Councils Advice and Counselling Ascent strand (lead partner Women and Girls Network) which focuses on advice, training and legal publications and the London Councils 2nd Tier strand / Ascent Support Services to Organisations (ASSO) (lead partner Women's Resource Centre) focused on strengthening VAWG professionals and their organisations through training and capacity building. It primarily covers staffing and direct delivery costs. The overall management of the grant streams is via the London VAWG Consortium. 

**Ascent Plus:** This grant is for the Ascent Plus project which is an additional grant to extend the reach of London Councils Advice and Counselling Ascent project. It is a consortium grant from MOPAC and Solace Women's Aid is the lead partner. 

**Family Rights Group:** This is a grant for the staffing costs of a project to support women affected by domestic violence involved with social services. 

**Firebird Foundation:** This grant funds staffing and project costs for an influencing and practicebased project focused on transforming the family justice system response to women survivors of domestic abuse. 

**FLOWS:** This grant is for a partnership project with RCJ Advice called FLOWS (Finding Legal Option for Women Survivors) covering staffing costs and project costs. The funding is from Ministry of Justice. The project focuses on using tech and digital solutions to assist individual women survivors and professionals to access support with family law and criminal legal issues. 

**Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Forced Marriage Unit Domestic Programme Fund:** This is a grant towards the staffing and project costs of a series of events with professionals to discuss legal and other responses to forced marriage regionally in England and Wales and to produce a report. 

**Henry Smith:** This is a grant towards the staffing and project costs of our immigration and asylum law legal advice team to strengthen the legal advice and support available to vulnerable migrant women at a critical point in their lives. 

**45** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **23. Analysis of charitable funds** _**(continued)**_ 

**Henry Smith Covid 19:** This is a grant towards running costs of a project providing legal advice, advocacy and support for women who have experienced or are at risk of Violence Against Women and Girls across England and Wales. 

**Home Office EUSS grant:** This grant funds an immigration law legal advice line for women survivors of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) who are making applications to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) and training for professionals working with women survivors of VAWG supporting them to make EUSS applications. It primarily covers staffing, training and project costs. 

**John Ellerman:** This is a grant for policy influencing work in relation to family and criminal law justice issues that impact on our women beneficiaries. It primarily covers staffing and project costs. 

**Justice Together Initiative (JTI):** This grant is for policy influencing work carried out in the area of immigration and asylum law in relation to access to justice for migrant women survivors with insecure immigration status. It funds policy work and the associated delivery of advice work that produces an evidence base for this work. It primarily funds staffing and project costs. 

**Labyrinth project:** This project provides support and training to survivors and professionals in relation to VAWG across 3 nations (England, Scotland and Northern Ireland) It is a partnership of different organisations and is led by Solace Women's Aid and funded by the Tampon Tax fund. Rights of Women is funded to provide training to VAWG professionals and legal advice publications across England. It primarily covers staffing costs. 

**PA Project:** This grant funds delivery work to develop an understanding of the experiences of women victims of domestic abuse who are accused of parental alienation through work directly with those victims and the provision of advice in relation to their circumstances. It is funded by Treebeard Trust, Two Magpies and The Roddick Foundation. It primarily covers staffing costs. 

**ROSA JEF Advice and Support:** This grant from the ROSA Justice and Equality Fund Advice and Counselling strand is to fund the provision of a legal advice service providing employment law advice to women survivors of sexual harassment in the workplace. It primarily covers staffing and project costs and volunteer expenses. 

**Trust for London:** This is a grant towards the staffing and project costs to strengthen the legal advice and support available to vulnerable migrant women in London through provision of advice, second tier support to professionals and influencing work to improve policy. 

**Treebeard emergency grant:** This is an unrestricted grant to assist with any additional costs the organisation faces due to the COVID-19 pandemic in its work supporting women experiencing domestic abuse. 

**Tudor Trust:** This grant funds our national family law advice law service in relation to delivery of advice, policy work, publications, setting up and working with a women survivor panel and supporting volunteers. It primarily covers staffing costs, volunteer costs and project costs. 

**46** 



## **Rights of Women Incorporated Limited** 

## **Company Limited by Guarantee** 

## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _**(continued)**_ 

## **Year ended 31 March 2024** 

## **24. Analysis of net assets between funds** 

|||Unrestricted|Restricted|**Total Funds**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||Funds|Funds|**2024**|
|||£|£|**£**|
||Investments|1|–|1|
||Current assets|731,661|63,027|794,688|
||Creditors less than 1 year|(202,902)|–|(202,902)|
|||--------------------------------|----------------------------|--------------------------------|
||**Net assets**|528,760|63,027|591,787|
|||================================|============================|================================|
|||Unrestricted|Restricted|Total Funds|
|||Funds|Funds|2023|
|||£|£|£|
||Investments|3|–|3|
||Current assets|559,248|66,859|626,107|
||Creditors less than 1 year|(64,797)|–|(64,797)|
|||--------------------------------|----------------------------|--------------------------------|
||**Net assets**|494,454|66,859|561,313|
|||================================|============================|================================|
|**25.**|**Analysis of changes in net debt**||||
|||||**At**|
|||At 1 Apr 2023|Cash flows|**31 Mar 2024**|
|||£|£|**£**|
||Cash at bank and in hand|496,786|146,781|643,567|
|||================================|================================|================================|



## **26. Limitation of auditors liability** 

By way of a members' resolution dated 2nd October 2023, the company has agreed to enter into a limited liability agreement with its auditors whereby their exposure to legal claims is limited to £50,000 per claim. 

## **27. Related parties** 

The charity holds three ordinary shares valuing at £1 in Tindlemanor Limited, which owns the property occupied by the charity. The only transactions with the company during the financial year was for the payment of service charges, room hire and storage space, which amounted to £16,878 (2023: £22,207). 

**47**