2020-12-31-accounts - Helen Bamber Foundation

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HELEN BAMBER FOUNDATION GROUP ANNUAL REPORT

Trustees’ Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2020

CHARITY NUMBER: 1149652 COMPANY NUMBER: 08186281

HELEN BAMBER FOUNDATION GROUP

ANNUAL REPORT

For the year ended 31 December 2020

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS ....................................................................................................................... 3 INTRODUCTION TO THE HELEN BAMBER FOUNDATION ................................................................................................ 4 A MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER .......................................................................................................... 5 STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................................. 6 A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR OF TRUSTEES ..................................................................................................................... 7 HELEN BAMBER FOUNDATION’S VISION, MISSION & THEORY OF CHANGE .............................................................. 8 PART ONE: OUR MODEL OF INTEGRATED CARE ............................................................................................................. 13 PART TWO: RESEARCH, POLICY & DISSEMINATION ....................................................................................................... 21 FINANCIAL REVIEW ................................................................................................................................................................. 28 STATEMENT OF TRUSTEES’ RESPONSIBILITIES ................................................................................................................ 32 INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….33 CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES……………………………………………………………………………………37 BALANCE SHEETS…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………38 CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS……………………………………………………………………………………….…………39 NOTES ON THE ACCOUNTS……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………….40

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

FOUNDER Helen Bamber OBE (1925 - 2014)

PRESIDENT

Emma Thompson DBE

TRUSTEES Charlotte Seymour-Smith - Chair John Scampion - Treasurer Sir Nicolas Bratza Rebecca Hirst Nina Kowalska Nancy McCartney (joined September 2020) Samantha Peter Caroline Moorehead OBE (resigned August 2020) Patricia Pank (resigned July 2020) Hugh Richardson – Treasurer (resigned August 2020) Professor Ian Watt

HUMAN RIGHTS ADVISORY GROUP Sir Nicolas Bratza Shu Shin Luh Parosha Chandran

MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVES

Gareth Holmes – Fundraising and Communications Director Professor Cornelius Katona – Medical & Research Director Kerry Smith – Chief Executive Officer

CHARITY NUMBER 1149652 COMPANY NUMBER 08186281

REGISTERED OFFICE AND OPERATIONAL ADDRESS Bruges Place, 15-20 Baynes Street London NW1 0TF

AUDITOR Sayer Vincent LLP Chartered Accountants & Statutory Auditors Invicta House, 108-114 Golden Lane London EC1Y 0TL BANKERS: Coutts & Co, 440 The Strand, London, WC2R 0Q

ANNUAL REPORT

For the year ended 31 December 2020

INTRODUCTION TO THE HELEN BAMBER FOUNDATION GROUP

WHO WE ARE

The Helen Bamber Foundation (HBF) is a pioneering human rights charity supporting refugees and asylum seekers who are the survivors of extreme human cruelty. The people we work with have been subjected to many atrocities, including state-sponsored torture, human trafficking, religious and political persecution, forced labour, sexual exploitation, and gender-based and ‘honour-based’ violence.

The bravery and resilience of our clients is an inspiration to all the team at HBF. In the words of our founder:

We find our reward in the eyes of those to whom we owe nothing.

Helen Bamber, OBE (1925-2014)

HBF exists to ensure that all survivors of trafficking and torture are free and healthy (both physically and mentally), are safe, are protected from re-trafficking, exploitation and abuse, as well as detention and poverty, and have the ability and agency to integrate in and contribute to the communities around them. HBF also uses its unique expertise to drive change and improve practice and policy for all survivors.

In 2020 HBF formed the Helen Bamber Foundation Group (the Group), welcoming Asylum Aid, another human rights charity focused on survivors, which was in danger of not being able to continue its work. Not only did this mean that 100 survivors were able to keep their expert legal help during the pandemic, but also that by working together HBF and Asylum Aid could jointly drive greater policy and practice change, and can continue to do this in the future.

Asylum Aid is a committed, professional and collaborative charity dedicated to protecting people from persecution by providing legal representation and access to justice for refugees and those seeking asylum. Asylum Aid concentrates on complex cases of people who would struggle to get appropriate legal representation elsewhere, focusing on survivors of trafficking and torture, stateless persons and separated children. It is a key change maker, whose loss would have been keenly felt across the sector. The team also provides welfare advice to migrants and other vulnerable members of the community in Westminster, London.

Together we are innovative, ambitious and compassionate.

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

It is hard to put 2020 into words. We began the year optimistic about our ability to grow and create new support pathways for our clients. Then along with the rest of the world we were forced to modify our plans rapidly and one of the key questions became how we could make sure that our services to survivors didn’t stop.

It was clear that the survivors of trafficking and torture we work with were at risk of a significant deterioration in their mental and physical health and level of protection during the Covid-19 pandemic due to the challenges they face around housing, mental health, digital access and language barriers, to name but a few. In our experience, crisis is also a time when the risk of abuse, exploitation and retrafficking increases exponentially.

Despite these challenges the generosity, determination and community spirit that our clients, supporters and team of staff and volunteers demonstrated during this year has been something that I will never forget. From one of our clients who told their therapist “I know that that I can’t lose it [my mind], I need to think of others and help out” , to our team who immediately changed the way they worked to support isolated and vulnerable clients on a weekly basis. We all pulled together to maintain our vital existing services and add new ones during the course of the year, including our Welfare Calls Initiave which meant our volunteers spoke with survivors and made almost 1500 phone calls to clients, providing direct, human support in the worst of times. Our supporters also changed they way they worked, which allowed us to continue to provide much needed help during the Covid-19 pandemic, but also ensure that other critical services could be saved — such as the legal representation provided by Asylum Aid to survivors.

I have never been as proud of the Helen Bamber and Asylum Aid community as I am right now.

It is clear that our work and presence has never been more needed. The punitive and unworkable proposals made by this government in the Nationality and Boarders Bill demonstrate its complete lack of understanding of what survivors have experienced and a heartless disregard for their need for help and support, while increasing the risks that survivors face — including further abuse, exploitation and retrafficking.

We have a responsibility to ensure that more survivors of trafficking and torture are given the strength to fly. Therefore together with survivors, and through ambitious partnerships, our new strategy will focus on driving forward the changes that are needed in the UK and internationally to address survivors’ exposure to risk of re-trafficking exploitation and abuse. I am hugely excited about the transformation we can make for survivors in the UK and globally by joining together.

Kerry Smith, CEO Helen Bamber Foundation Group

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

HBF’s staff & volunteers: a community effort

We can only provide the level of services required by our clients thanks to the dedication, professionalism and vision of our staff and volunteers.During 2020, on an average head counter basis, 36.5 members of the Helen Bamber Foundation Group team handled the daily business of the charity, providing services directly to — and on behalf of — its clients. A further seven members of the Asylum Aid team joined the group in August 2020, growing to 10 by the end of December 2020. Combined, we had a maximum of nine members of the team on furlough at any one time. We did not stop our services during the Covid-19 pandemic but delivered them remotely. We also enabled face-to-face appointments for the most vulnerable clients when not in lockdown. The staff were supported by 150 volunteers, among them doctors, therapists, barristers, solicitors, administrators, artists, musicians and other specialists, all of whom supported our clients remotely and retrained to provide much-needed support. We offer our heartfelt thanks to all our volunteers, without whom we would not be able to give the quality or variety of support to our clients.

Management and governance

HBF is an independent charity and is a company limited by guarantee and was incorporated on 21[st] August 2012. We are developing a group structure to maximise impact for survivors of trafficking and torture by aligning efforts with other charities that provide much needed support. Asylum Aid became the first member of our Helen Bamber Foundation Group (the Group) during the pandemic, due to its own financial difficulties. We will be supporting Asylum Aid as a charity to sustainably grow its impact and increase its reach. The Asylum Aid Board continues to have oversight, but with alignment and efficiency created through shared board members, committees and back-office support, including finance, HR, volunteer management, facilities and fundraising. The intention is to continue this incubation over the next strategy period. The day-to-day management of the Group is by the Managing Executives continued with the introduction of a Management Group made up of the Chief Executive, Directors and Heads of Teams. A Finance and Fundraising Committee bringing together trustees and management team members meets at least quarterly to provide financial and fundraising governance and oversight of both the HBF and Asylum Aid.

Under the HBF Chair, Charlotte Seymour-Smith, and the interim Asylum Aid Chair, Sir Nicolas Bratza (also a trustee of the Helen Bamber Foundation), the HBF trustees, with the help of the additional Asylum Aid trustees, provided strong strategic oversight and governance of the Group throughout 2020. John Scampion is the Treasurer of both HBF and Asylum Aid. New trustees to both organisations are recruited externally, with their appointment being approved by the Board of Trustees. A tailored induction follows, ensuring that each new trustee has been briefed as required on the Group’s governance structure and decision-making processes, their obligations under charity law, and the activities of HBF and Asylum Aid, and their financial performance. Trustee meetings are held every quarter and sequentially.

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR OF TRUSTEES

As we entered the second year of our three year strategy the world altered completely. The uncertainty created by the pandemic will continue beyond 2020. What is clear is that the environment we operate in, as a human rights charity, has permanently changed, and that this change requires new ways to ensure that survivors of trafficking and torture have power, freedom and safety.

During the pandemic the needs of the survivors we work with increased and evolved in ways that demanded a rapid adaption of our services, whilst simultaneously our working practices were forced to adapt to shifting rules and expectations for offering services in a public space, and government policy introducing new challenges for our clients and our work. We met these challenges head on and as the Chair of the Board of Trustees, I couldn’t be prouder of the fact that during this most difficult of years we kept our services going and even increased the support to our clients at a time they needed it the most. Further, by rescuing Asylum Aid and ensuring it was able to continue to deliver vital legal protection services to survivors, we extended the support services the Group could offer.

This year we demonstrated agility and determination to protect survivors during a time of crisis, and strengthend our collaboration with others to deliver much needed change for more survivors through our policy and advocacy work. This includes our successful work on ending detention in the barracks, on preventing trafficking survivors from being evicted, and ensuring trafficking survivors are properly identified.

This year more than any other we have relied on all of those who are a part of the HBF, and now Asylum Aid, families. From our clients who supported each other and others, the volunteers who responded to our call for help and supporters who rallied round, everyone at HBF and Asylum Aid has gone above and beyond to ensure that as many survivors as possible were kept safe and could continue to look to the future. It has been an inspiring time to be a part of this team, and I know that the work of the Group will only continue to grow from strength to strength.

Charlotte Seymour-Smith, Chair Helen Bamber Foundation

HELEN BAMBER FOUNDATION GROUP’S

VISION, MISSION & THEORY OF CHANGE

We believe our society will be judged by how we care for those to whom we owe nothing. We are human rights organisations that focus on ensuring that survivors of extreme human rights abuses have everything they need to make a sustained recovery. We know that dignity restored is strength regained.

VISION

All survivors of torture, trafficking and extreme human cruelty have safety, freedom and power.

MISSION

Our Model of Integrated Care will directly or indirectly help support survivors of torture, trafficking and extreme human cruelty across the UK and beyond. We will also protect survivors from persecution.

TO ADVOCATE

As human rights advocates — we are uniquely placed as a result of our expertise, research and influence — we will bear witness to the suffering of survivors and fight for their rights.

TO COLLABORATE

We will collaborate with others to find solutions to the challenges facing all survivors and support the implementation of best practice to improve outcomes. We will be a valuable partner for those seeking to influence UK, European and Global policy.

THEORY OF CHANGE

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Policy Change •The survivors we reach through
positive policy change
•The survivors we support and
Sharing Good reach through shared learning
Practice with organisations and statutory
institutions
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•The survivors we support directly
Direct Delivery
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HELEN BAMBER FOUNDATION’S ACTIVITIES

Who do we work with — complex cases

As a result of their experiences, HBF Group clients have multiple and complex needs, and have often been let down by the system since their arrival in the UK. During 2020 we supported over one thousand survivors of trafficking and torture and over three hundred vulnerable families with welfare advice, over 70% of whom had backgrounds of migration or asylum.

As well as acute psychological health conditions, severe physical injuries and medical conditions, survivors’ suffering is compounded, and their recovery hindered, by the fear of persecution if returned to their country of origin. Additionally the vast majority of our clients experience periods of destitution and homelessness, often multiple times during their journey through the UK’s legal systems. HBF’s experience is that many refugees and asylum seekers who are survivors of trafficking and torture have been unable to access the justice and representation they so desperately need. This is especially the case following cuts to legal aid in 2012, which resulted in the decimation of legal aid advice providers. The work of Asylum Aid, therefore, is critical to the recovery of survivors, and our ability as the Group to reach more survivors with support that is transformative.

Our clients are also often dangerously isolated and marginalised. Fear, emotional withdrawal and multiple barriers (such as language challenges, the inability to work, being unable to open a bank account), can stand in the way of survivors trying new experiences, developing vital life skills, enjoying practical and creative interests, and forming positive relationships. Furthermore, even though they suffer multiple physical injuries and illnesses (many as a direct result of their experiences), they often have only sporadic and ineffective engagement with statutory healthcare providers.

Finally, some of our clients have spent their entire childhoods in slavery, while others have been trafficked after fleeing from human rights violations. Sadly, due to the particular and prolonged impact of slavery, the survivors are extremely vulnerable to being re-targeted for further trafficking, exploitation and harm if they are left unsupported.

As a human rights and clinical organisation, HBF helps survivors to gain certainty in a challenging environment and to confront and overcome the multiple and complex traumas they have suffered, to improve their mental health, and to move forward with their lives.

Our clients and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic

The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic was especially difficult for people:

➢ who live in cramped, crowded and unsanitary accommodation, which has higher risks of spreading infection

➢ who have little money to live on, and are unable to bulk buy to make savings or reduce trips to the shops
➢ who rely on foodbanks (as the pandemic and restrictions meant some were scared to go but also many foodbanks struggled, initially, to keep their doors open)
➢ who don’t have the means to pay for phone contracts, don’t have wifi or enough money to purchase data, and so face significant barriers to accessing essential services that moved online
➢ who struggle to access healthcare, through fear of charges and language barriers, making it difficult for them to advocate for themselves
➢ whose livelihoods are precarious and insecure
➢ who normally live a few short steps away from destitution and cannot risk a drop in pay or time off for illness
➢ who are at high risk of exploitation and abuse and from traffickers who will take every opportunity to exploit during desperate times

All of the above describe the circumstances of the survivors of trafficking and torture that HBF works with, who then additionally had to face the inhumanity of the immigration system that put them at further risk during a global pandemic.

Furthermore, the uncertainty and the risks we were all exposed to were particularly detrimental to survivors with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms such as panic, hyperarousal and general anxiety. This was compounded by the further delays that the Covid-19 pandemic has added to waiting times to receive decisions on claims for international protection, leaving survivors spending even longer than in previous years in fear and a state of limbo, with no right to work, living on very little money, and unsure of their futures.

During 2020 the whole HBF team, who were joined in August by the Asylum Aid team, energetically pulled together, finding creative new ways of providing our vital services to make sure that the survivors of trafficking and torture received the best care and help possible. Our volunteers surpassed themselves in continuing to support our work remotely and re-training to be able to deliver the support our clients needed.

Client’s are at the centre of everything we do, we share their stories to honour them and bear witness:

Mohamed’s Story

Mohammad is a survivor who experienced devastating losses whilst young and was then trafficked as a child by family members on his way to and for many years in the United Kingdom. When he was referred to HBF in 2018, he was fearful, nervous and unable to look anyone in the eye. Mohamed would wake screaming in the night, experienced disabling flashbacks, and was unable to tolerate staying in the therapy room for more than twenty minutes. He did not trust anyone aside from his support worker, and eventually, HBF. As part of the Model of Integrated Care Mohammad undertook a course of narrative exposure therapy. Mohamed was also provided with a medico-legal report, supported to obtain his status as a refugee, and assisted with welfare advice. He was also assisted by the counter-trafficking team to recognize safe and unsafe work practices and approaches. Mohamed attended community group to

support increased confidence and reduce isolation, and was assisted to find work. The many relationships with HBF professionals that Mohammad developed were very important for his recovery - whilst Mohammad always had a strong sense of fairness and justice, he had enduring difficulties believing that people would treat him well and that the world was a safe place. After these interventions, Mohammad's nightmares, dissociation, and intrusive imagery reduced considerably. He found work, and a partner. He came back to the Helen Bamber Foundation to request additional support for his sleep, which had worsened during the pandemic, and this was provided. Mohamed’s motivation in approaching us was to maintain his well-being not just for himself, but for his family. His previous support worker who encountered him recently wrote to say:

Mohamed was happy, relaxed, laughing, talking about his future plans. None of these things seemed in reach when [he started therapy]

Delivering services - HBF Group Response #1

An Integrated Model Of Care

We recognise the complexity of each client’s suffering and needs, which is why HBF offers specialist services within a Model of Integrated Care. This encompasses:

THERAPY

MEDICAL ADVICE LEGAL PROTECTION COUNTER-TRAFFICKING SUPPORT

HOUSING & WELFARE COMMUNITY & INTEGRATION

We craft a bespoke care plan for every individual we work with, designed to enable positive recovery, protection and integration. We also provide support for as long as our services are needed. The goal of the Model of Integrated Care is to build a lasting and sustained recovery for each of our clients.

Protection from persecution

To increase the scope of our work and protect more people at a time when securing quality Legal Aid representation is increasingly difficult for survivors, bringing Asylum Aid into the HBF Group enables us to support a further focus on protection from persectution. Asylum Aid ensures that survivors are protected and can rebuild their lives in safety and with freedom by providing high quality legal representation for as long as it takes, to provide safety and freedom for survivors. In 2020, eight out of nine decisions were positive — a success rate of 89%.

Creating system and practice change - HBF’s Response #2

An unique voice

We estimate the numbers of survivors who have experienced trafficking and torture as being over 1 million across Europe, with over 40,000 currently in the UK. Prior to the pandemic over 8,000 survivors arrived in the UK each year. All these survivors would benefit from HBF’s Model of Integrated Care and Asylum Aid’s representation. However not all of them can become our clients. Therefore it is our responsibility to use the expertise we have gained through the time spent and generosity of our clients to:

Deliver research to provide evidence of best practice and what works
Drive system change and the introduction of best practice
Publish and disseminate our learnings, through briefings, and reports
Support the sector and share learnings through training and supervision

PART ONE: DELIVERING SERVICES

From the very beginning of the pandemic, our team of expert doctors, psychologists, legal advisers and caseworkers acted to ensure that we could support our clients to weather the challenges and pre-empt risks where possible. First we made the decision to ensure that we would support our clients, and their children, to get online as much a possible by providing smartphones and tablets where needed (80 clients and children were supported) as well as data top-ups (100 clients were supported during the course of 2020). Second, we quickly made changes to the way we deliver our service to ensure that we could continue remotely by:

Developing additional safeguarding measures for survivors of trafficking
Increasing the level of phone contact with our clients through welfare check-in calls
Continuing therapeutic support using video-calls and taking measures to provide a covid-safe inperson consultation space for those who needed it
Moving our medico-legal report service to remote assessment to provide much needed expert evidence for survivors, including those at risk of removal and then providing a covid-safe in-person space for those who needed face-to-face assessment
Delivering legal appointments using video-calls and the phone, as well as providing a covid-safe faceto-face appointment space for clients who needed it.
Moving our community and group activities online

It is important to highlight the positive contribution of, and send out particular thanks to, all of the volunteers who rapidly changed the way they worked with us during the pandemic, including undertaking training to deliver welfare check-in calls to our clients

Helen Bamber Foundation Services

Therapy

The Therapy team supports survivors within an established framework of:

Stabilisation helping clients to manage their acute symptoms, such as flashbacks, low mood and anxiety; as well as associated circumstances such as destitution or legal adversity that impact on mental health.

Therapeutic interventions supporting clients to come to terms with the traumatic experiences they have suffered.

Integration helping clients belong in the community they have joined.

HBF’s Therapy team offers survivors access to a range of evidence-based therapies for PTSD including:

Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (tfCBT)
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET)

The pandemic threw many of the survivors we work with into crisis, and with many other public and charitable services having to shut their doors or reduce support (including key statutory services), our therapy provision and support was a vital lifeline. Many of our clients were unable to manage intensive evidence-based interventions remotely; instead we delivered interventions focused on symptom management and crisis management. Importantly, given the vulnerability of our clients, we increased our provision of psychological interventions by 41%, responding to increased need, providing essential support for 333 survivors with over 2,500 appointments. These included:

➢ 836 therapy appointments
➢ 979 psychoeducation/stabilisation appointments
➢ 240 assessment appointments

During the pandemic we adapted to a ‘light touch’ approach for formal measures and monitoring, significantly reducing the assessment load for our clients. Of a sample of 65 individuals for whom comparison data were available, therapy resulted in clinically important mental health improvements from both trauma-focussed interventions, and extended stabilisation interventions including work with anxiety and depression:

➢ 96% of the clients who had interventions sustained a clinical improvement
➢ Of those clients whose mental health did not improve, 82% hadn’t had an intervention 12 months previously or before that.

Medical Advice

In 2020 the HBF Medical Advisory Service (MAS) continued to operate and provide medical advice to clients with a part-time Head of Doctors working alongside 2 volunteer GP doctors and a trainee psychiatrist. During the pandemic MAS reviewed all of our clients to check whether any should be shielding or taking extra precautions because of significant underlying vulnerabilities. MAS also helped our clients by providing advice and support for those requiring medical advice but unable to access their GP remotely. It also disseminated information and education around Covid-19 to our clients, who are often excluded from mainstream public health efforts. MAS helps clients to stabilise and improve their health by carrying out medical assessments, discussing and explaining health issues, giving health advice and liaising with external services, particularly the NHS, to support their needs.

➢ During the course of 2020, MAS provided 397 appointments for 169 clients.

Legal Protection

The Legal Protection team, works determinedly with other departments to ensure both that survivors are not being returned to situations where they would likely suffer repeated human rights violations and that they can access appropriate support. This year, due to the uncertainty regarding reporting, cessation of decisions during lockdown, and delayed legal proceedings, the team worked tirelessly to provide support and advice to our clients, who were often very distressed.

We provided 352 survivors with legal protection services in 2020; 54 clients received legal protection such as refugee status, humanitarian protection or discretionary leave. We continued to train expert clinicians

in remote methods of examination, and were able to remotely produce 76 expert medico-legal reports for 60 clients, to support their claims for asylum.

During the pandemic, HBF’s Legal Protection team continued to support survivors in their protection cases by:

Ensuring clients had good quality, reputable legal representation.
Communicating with clients’ solicitors regarding their needs, including providing evidence (in collaboration with other departments) regarding the impact of delays on mental health.
Offering Immigration advice (from the Head of Legal and the Specialist Counter-Trafficking Legal Officer).
Helping clients understand their legal position and the resources available to them.
Giving support and advice on other emergencies surrounding legal protection needs.
Producing expert medico-legal evidence to document the (often long-term) psychological and/or physical impact of their traumatic experiences.

In 2020 it also:

➢ Worked closely with HBF’s specialist Counter-Trafficking team in 67 cases to ensure that victims of trafficking, including survivors of sexual or labour exploitation, were provided with countertrafficking letters or statements documenting their history and circumstances to support their legal protection claim.
➢ Worked to support clinical team members to provide 69 clinical letters to promote access to justice for disabled and vulnerable clients.
➢ Assisted in the application of over seven travel documents for clients prior to the pandemic, obtaining 100% successful applications so far.
➢ Secured legal representation under the legal aid scheme for 10 clients.

In 2020, the provision of medico-legal reports was interrupted by disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. HBF’s Medico-Legal Services provided 76 expert medico-legal reports, documents that report the long-term physical and psychological impact of traumatic experiences. These reports are used as evidence for international protection in the UK. Our expertise in preparing them continues to be recognised by the courts and tribunal and by the Home Office. Our review of outcomes in 2020 showed that, following the provision of medico-legal reports in 2019, where the final outcome was known, in 87% of cases the client was granted a form of leave to remain in the UK. This is compared with an average success rate of 54% for claims between 2016-2018 .[1]

1 The Migration Observatory brings together the information for the total success rate:

https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migration-to-the-uk-asylum/. The 2018 figures give a 29% grant rate for initial decisions: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2018/how-many-people-do-we-grant-asylum-or-protection-to ; and a 45% average success rate at appeal: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2019 for appeals evidence, which is generally consistent.

Housing and Welfare

HBF’s specialist housing and welfare casework ensures that clients’ practical, everyday needs are met and that social deprivation, including street homelessness and destitution, are avoided through timely and often emergency interventions. During the pandemic the work of the Housing and Welfare department increased significantly — with a 15% increase in interactions, meaning 278 people who were able to avoid destitution and homelessness and were kept safe.

In 2020 the Housing and Welfare team provided 281 letters, and during the pandemic the team assisted survivors with issues including (but absolutely not limited to) the following:

Applications for asylum support.
Applications for mainstream benefits once they had status.
Making a homelessness application to the local authority.
Approaching the local authority’s adult social services for accommodation and support under the Care Act, due to high support needs.
Management of NHS debt.
Applications for grants including to alleviate destitution, furnish accommodation, and support educational needs.

Over the course of 2020, notwithstanding the pandemic and the commitment to address homelessness, there were still very worrying instances where our clients were threatened with destitution (75), homelessness (51) and of being housed somewhere clinically unsuitable (51). 574 housing and welfare problems were reported, of which:

➢ 89% of housing and welfare problems with a short-term resolution were solved in under one month; and
➢ 86% of other housing and welfare problems were resolved with a long-term resolution.

A critical part of the Housing and Welfare team’s work has been to support survivors who get leave to remain or refugee status to transition to universal credit and mainstream accommodation, a task that poses significant challenges as it involves several long and complicated online forms and often mounting appeals against decisions.

Counter-Trafficking

The HBF Counter-Trafficking Programme delivers intricate, intensive and person-specific contact and safeguarding for survivors to support them through the many difficulties they face. This service was all transferred remotely to support survivors during the Covid-19 crisis, when they were at increased risk.

Our counter-trafficking work includes:

Specialist Counter-Trafficking Assessments and provision of documentation, letters and witness statements for legal procedures within asylum, immigration, National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and criminal justice. Working collaboratively with solicitors and barristers to ensure that our clients are fully heard and understood by the Home Office and court judges.

Contact and safeguarding support for all HBF’s clients who have been trafficked, focusing primarily on reducing through action, their risk indicators for re-trafficking. This includes recognising specific instances of risk, including: unsafe and inappropriate accommodation, irregular immigration status, difficulties with threats, intimidation and bullying, and helping to prevent survivors being drawn into exploitative or violent ‘survival’ relationships.
Supporting, liaising and consulting with the other HBF departments that work with clients who are victims of trafficking.
Reducing the risk of social isolation and increasing clients’ self-esteem.
Supporting and accompanying survivors through the UK NRM, asylum interviews and court hearings and criminal trials — for official recognition of victims of trafficking — and asylum systems.
Providing support for all legal procedures, including criminal investigations by the Trafficking Specialist Unit of the Metropolitan Police (SC&09) and other UK police forces.
Helping survivors to access compensation under the European Trafficking Directive.

Due to the lack of specialist provision available for this group, in 2019 we set ourselves a target: increasing our work in this area by ensuring that up to 50% of all new clients were survivors of trafficking. In 2020, we met that aim, 47% of new Model of Integrated Care clients were survivors of trafficking. Across the Counter-Trafficking Programme:

➢ 170 clients (107 women and 63 men from across countries in Africa, Asia and Central Europe) were provided with specialist support from the Counter-Trafficking team due to their high level of vulnerability as victims of trafficking — an increase from 2019.
➢ On average, at any one time, approximately 15% of the -team’s caseload involves working with clients who are facing immediate risks relating to trafficking, exploitation or violence.
➢ During this high-risk period, the Counter-Trafficking team increased their interventions for clients by 30%.

The pandemic created an additional set of risk factors for HBF’s clients in the Counter-Trafficking

Programme. Social isolation is a key risk factor in itself for re-trafficking and other forms of harm, as well as mental and physical health deterioration. This meant that it was vital to be in touch with each person and ensure that they had access to digital communications and were supported to access primary services. The Counter-Trafficking team maintained regular contact with clients to provide reassurance, focussing on reducing the risk indicators from social isolation and in-person trafficking. However, the risks from internet contact, via social media and other forums online, were heightened. There were also issues relating to housing in lockdown, as clients lived in cramped and inappropriate conditions together with people they didn’t know (including mixed gender accommodation). In response, the team instituted a rota of 'at risk’ individuals for contact calls, and co-ordinated other care (related to health, welfare, housing and legal advice) for clients where needed, as well as ensuring that trafficking risks were noted and prioritised. We did not have any critical incidents of re-trafficking or disappearance during 2020.

During 2020 the Counter-Trafficking team also continued to issue letters and/or witness statements for clients’ legal cases in the NRM and asylum applications, in addition to the medico-legal reports provided by our clinicians (also using remote means).

Community and Integration

Through the Community and Integration Programme, our clients can engage in activities unrelated to their trauma and form safe and positive relationships with others in a similar position. They learn new skills and develop confidence and independence. This is a key part of our three-stage therapeutic model that ensures our clients have the strength to move on. In 2020 we moved all of our community groups online. The volunteers who run the different creative arts and skills groups surpassed themselves in adapting to online provision and imaginatively ensuring that our clients could still access a supportive community.

In 2020 HBF expanded its community and integration activities supporting a total of 127 clients. Due to the pandemic, with many other social opportunities closed off, the team focused on providing access to further and higher education, resulting in:

4 clients assisted into university.
18 clients attending college courses.

The Community Group is a weekly group designed to support our most isolated clients to participate in a community where they can socialise regularly, gain useful information and skills, as well as increase their confidence and independence, in a fun and relaxed space. In 2020 the Community Group grew to a regular group of 25 in person at the beginning of the year, with 10-15 clients attending each week online.

Welfare Call Initiative

The biggest initiative of the Community and Integration department in 2020 was the delivery of the welfare calls in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The calls started at the beginning of the first lockdown and were targeted at ensuring that our most vulnerable and isolated clients had regular contact with a volunteer to raise problems but also to have a conversation. Often the calls were the only regular contact that our clients had during lockdown.

The calls were made on a weekly, then fortnightly and then monthly basis, depending on the situation of the client and also the level of restrictions at the time. Check-in calls will be an ongoing feature of our work with survivors as we go forward. During 2020, 239 clients were supported with welfare calls and nearly 1500 calls were made in total.

Asylum Aid Services – protection from persecution

Legal Representation

Asylum Aid was re-launced as a charity in its own right in August 2020, having prior been a part of the charity Consonant. In the period between the beginning of August 2020 and 31[st] December 2020, the team provided legal representation to 97 survivors of trafficking, torture and gender-based violence, refugees and people seeking asylum, and 21 stateless persons.

Our work with our clients continued despite the pandemic, but the organisation for the most part converted to working remotely except in those cases where face-to-face appointments were necessary because of client vulnerability. The impact of the pandemic has resulted in challenges for Asylum Aid clients. In particular, the delays in all decision-making have resulted in clients being left in limbo, uncertain as to whether they will get protection and be able to move on with their lives. Significant delays continue to occur in:

the taking of initial decisions,
the listing of appeals,
the determination by the NRM regarding whether the person is a victim of trafficking,
the making of statelessness grants, and
the grant to clients of their biometric residence permit once they have been given refugee status.

Welfare Advice

The team provided welfare advice to over 328 individuals through the Welfare Advice Services Partnership. The focus of Asylum Aid’s Welfare Advice team is on migrant and vulnerable communities. Over 80% of those receiving welfare support from Asylum Aid were either migrants and/or people of colour and one third had a disability or long-term ill health. Since August 2020, Asylum Aid’s welfare advice service has secured over £360,000 in additional support for its clients.

Partnership and Collaborations

Our work relies on collaborations with others and therefore HBF is very happy to report that our partnership with the member-led charity the Happy Baby Community continued, and supported over 250 women and their babies and children.

We also continued our partnership with Young Roots, continuing to support hard to reach separated asylum seeking children and young people, who often face greater barriers in accessing mental health and other support, with assessments, stabilisation interventions and also treatment. This year we have expanded this partnership by working with local NHS Mental Health provision to bring on board a trainee psychologist to support our work with the project.

The lack of access to vital mental health services during the pandemics was a problem for many organisations. Following a request for support, we formed a new partnership with Women for Refugee Women to offer clinical support to the women in their network. We provided clinical assessments that facilitated access to mental health services, as well as delivering therapeutic interventions designed to help women to stabilise and manage their mental health.

In 2021:

Over the coming year we will increase our direct impact through delivery best practice services and collaborate with others to:

➢ Launch our programme to prevent the re-trafficking, exploitation and abuse of survivors of trafficking and torture.
➢ Increase access to legal protection for survivors of trafficking and torture, focussing on areas where there is little access to legal services by:
increasing the number of clients that Asylum Aid accept from remote referrals, and
developing further supervision and support partnerships.
➢ Improve access to evidence-based treatment for survivors of trafficking and torture globally through partnerships.
➢ Work collaboratively to ensure that survivors of trafficking and torture’s rights to protection and rehabilitation are retained and improved rather than abandoned.

PART TWO: Creating system change — Research, policy and

practice

Our vision is a world where all survivors of torture, trafficking and extreme human cruelty have safety, freedom and power. We therefore use our combined expertise to deliver meaningful policy and practice change that improves the asylum and trafficking systems and ensures that all survivors receive the appropriate standard of care from government services nationally and internationally.

We do this by:

Improving the environment that all survivors experience by using our clinical and organisational expertise to influence and contribute to the development of law, policy and best practice.
Driving the development and delivery of effective, evidence-based approaches that respond to survivors’ needs, in the UK and globally, by offering expert training and disseminating our research findings.
Investigating the consequences of our clients’ experiences on their health and wellbeing and improving understanding of the clinical vulnerabilities of survivors of trafficking and torture and the complexity of their trauma following atrocity.

Strategic Legal Work

HBF engages in strategic legal work where it seeks to improve the legal systems (for international protection and trafficking), further the rights of our clients and increase their access to justice.

Due to the pandemic environment it became quickly clear that engagement in strategic legal work was going to be critical to ensuring the safety and protection of our clients. In 2020 senior members of the HBF team provided evidence in 10 legal cases, double that of 2019. The majority of the evidence we provided was in the form of witness statements which concerned challenges to the fairness of various aspects of the asylum system.

A significant case, given this UK Government’s desire to expand the use of detention and accelerate

decision-making processes, is that of TN Vietnam — a joint intervention with Detention Action in the Supreme Court about the poor identification of vulnerability in the detained fast-track and how negative decisions taken under that unlawful process should be treated now. Our intervention included a witness statement from Cornelius Katona, Medical and Research Director, with input from Rachel Witkin, Head of Counter-Trafficking and Publications.

We supported the successful legal challenge brought to challenge the use of barracks accommodation at Napier, Kent.

We also provided evidence in:

A successful challenge to removals to other EU countries undertaken without adequate screening for the identification of trafficking survivors who have transited through Libya — a country with a high occurrence of trafficking.
A successful challenge to the cessation of NRM payments to trafficking survivors in the middle of the pandemic.
A challenge to the way in which antisocial behaviour is not managed within NASS accommodation.
A challenge based on the impact of the failure to transfer a vulnerable HBF client to a single room — that is to provide appropriate accommodation.
An important challenge based on the impact of inappropriate accommodation and disrepair on a vulnerable HBF client and survivor of human trafficking.
A challenged regarding the nature and impact of Home Office delays in relocation of vulnerable clients.
Providing a country expert report for the case of a British national with complex needs who had been trafficked to the US. As a result the client was granted a visa.
A challenge to the ‘unsafe release’ from immigration detention and the risks it creates for survivors.

At a time when the right to challenge executive power through the rule of law is being actively undermined by the current UK government, the Helen Bamber Foundation Group is committed to ensuring scrutiny of government policy and practice when there are negative impacts upon the survivors we work with.

Policy and best practice

Due to the rapidly changing environment during the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact of both the pandemic and subsequent policy responses on survivors of trafficking and torture, the HBF team felt it was a matter of priority that we share our learnings, and the experiences of the survivors we work with, in order to address or prevent deteriorating impacts. We undertook significant policy work across the following areas:

1. Legal Protection

We began by successfully requesting the halting of reporting conditions for our clients during the height of the pandemic — the contrast of survivors having to travel to report while the majority of Home Office staff could work from home was stark. We continue to press for learnings to be taken forward on the basis of this positive experience in reducing reporting conditions and have supported strategic litigation. We produced recommendations to tribunals on remote processes along with Freedom from Torture. We continue to closely monitor the use of remote asylum and trafficking interviews and tribunal appeal hearings. Towards the end of the year we also joined forces with others In light of the increase in charter flights removing potentially vulnerable asylum seekers to safe third countries and outside Europe (including Ghana, Nigeria and Albania), to provide clinical assessments to those in detention to highlight why such rushed removals were unsafe.

2. Counter-Trafficking

At the beginning of the pandemic it was clear that the very concerning vulnerabilities of survivors of trafficking, in particular their risk of re-trafficking, exploitation and abuse, were not being addressed by this government. Therefore a key priority for us was clearly communicating the issues facing survivors and spotlighting potential solutions for addressing them. The HBF drafted a report calling for the UK government to Protect and Safeguard Survivors of Modern Slavery who have insecure immigration status during the pandemic which was supported by over 50 other organisations. In this work we continued our strong partnerships with Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group UK and Human Trafficking Foundation, as well as the FLEX Detention Task Force. This work was supported by additional content provided in briefings and submissions as well as in support of strategic litigation.

In addition, throughout 2020 our Head of Counter-Trafficking & Publications, Rachel Witkin, was a lead consultant and author for the Organisation on Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) revised handbook on National Referral Mechanims, working with a panel of international trafficking experts, including survivor leaders. She also worked collaboratively with HBF’s clinical team to deliver the health information required for the handbook. The NRM Handbook will be published in 2021 and distributed widely to governments and all relevant stakeholders in the 57 OSCE member states.

3. Housing and Welfare

We have contributed to several policy pieces on housing and support, including a call to increase housing support rates (and subsequent media work when these were not meaningfully increased), a call for adequate National Asylum Support Service (NASS) accommodation with an end to roomsharing to promote social distancing, and work to allow clients to access wifi and phones to reduce isolation and promote access to information. We signed up to calls to action from Freedom from Torture on asylum support, the Public Law Project and SBS on support for survivors of domestic abuse, the Disability Benefits Consortium on work to increase legacy benefits, NACCOM’s (NACCOM is a national network of frontline organisations and charities across the UK preventing destitution amongst people seeking asylum, refugees and other migrants), joint letter on homelessness and migration, and Asylum Matters’ wake-up call based on evidence of state failures causing destitution and delays.

4. Expanding use of quasi-detention

We worked collaboratively driving forward a coalition of HBF, Freedom from Torture, Doctors of the World, Care 4 Calais, and Humans for Rights, in order to explore the best way to document the harm done to vulnerable asylum seeking and trafficked people housed in the inhumane former barracks facilities in Wales and Kent. Through our documentation, joint reports, advocacy and media, working with local campaigners and former residents, we successfully ensured that the former barracks in Penally, Wales were closed and that considerable scrutiny was brought to bear on the use of the former barracks in Napier, Kent.

5. Consultation responses

As part of our drive to ensure systemic responses during the pandemic we also provided the following consultation responses:

➢ Home Office consolidated medico-legal report API consultation — in liaison with Freedom from Torture.
➢ Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration consultation on Home Office Presenting Officers — the individuals who present the Home Office’s case at appeal hearings — this response was also endorsed by ILPA.
➢ The Equality and Human Rights Commission exploration into mental capacity and mental illness and detention.
➢ The Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration’s Second Adults at Risk call for evidence.
➢ The Home Office Adults at Risk planning around medical standards, changing the Adult at Risk thresholds and changing the way survivors of human trafficking are dealt with in detention.
➢ The Independent Review of Administrative Law’s call for evidence (on judicial review).
➢ Submission to the UK Parliament on the Future of Legal Aid.
➢ Submission to the Work and Pensions Committee’s Inquiry into Universal Credit.
➢ Submission to the Women and Equalities Committee Call for evidence on Covid-19 and people with protected characteristics.
➢ Submission to the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee’s Inquiry into Food Supply amid Covid-19.
➢ Submission to the Home Affairs Select Committee’s Inquiry into Home Office preparedness for Covid-19.
➢ We also worked on a handbook on fitness to give evidence and mental capacity co-badged by ILPA

Training

HBF provides training across three broad areas:

➢ Working with, and better protecting, survivors of trafficking
➢ Theraputic approaches in working with refugee and asylum seeking populations
➢ The application of medico-legal evidence

Highlights from our training programme and outreach include:

Partnering with Freedom from Torture and the UK Visas and Immigration policy team to deliver medico-legal report training programme for technical specialists and senior caseworkers — training that both received excellent feedback and paves the way for sustainable change as a seminal collaboration with the Home Office, which should result in informed decision-making by Home Office caseworkers.
Training staff from NHS Psychological Services, such as Camden CAMHS and South London and Maudsley CAMHS, in the use of evidence-based trauma-focused therapies such as Narrative Exposure Therapy.

Training barristers on modern slavery and mental health at the ‘Modern Slavery Advocacy Weekend’ at Inner Temple, London.
Delivering a masterclass for researchers at the Cambridge Centre for Applied Research into Human Trafficking, to raise the professional and interdisciplinary standards of emergent scholars in the field of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery.

We also delivered a webinar ‘Supporting Survivors: Adapting to the Challenges of Covid-19’, attended by 72 of our sector colleagues across the legal, medical, psychological and healthcare professions. We shared our new learnings and evolving best practice in key areas, with discussion covering:

Adapting a therapy service to remotely support survivors struggling with mental health;
How HBF moved to remote MLRs and psychological MLRs;
The impact of Covid-19 on the BAME community;
Supporting access to healthcare for asylum seekers and refugees during Covid-19;
Protecting survivors of human trafficking during Covid-19.

‘The Trauma-Informed Code of Conduct for All Professionals Working with Survivors of Trafficking and Slavery’ (2021) (TiCC), authored by Rachel Witkin and Dr Katy Robjant and published in 2018, was updated in 2020 to include further information on working with ‘cultural mediators’. Republished in 2021, it has been widely shared across the UK and global sectors prompting frequent requests for training. In particular, we are proud of the adoption of the TiCC by St. Mary’s University, London for its short course ‘Identification, support and care of victims of modern day slavery’— which provides professionals in health and social care, law enforcement and criminal justice, civil society organisations, education or local and national government, with the skills to support survivors of modern slavery.

The TiCC is a simple, accessible guide for all professionals who may find themselves working with survivors of trafficking. It has a firm basis in the combination of specialist trauma care and experiential multi-faceted and multi-disciplinary work with survivors of trafficking. TiCC is concise and easy to follow for busy people, enabling them to:

Establish and maintain a mutual relationship of trust with survivors in any working context or environment.
Impart a consistent sense of calm, security and safety throughout the course of their work.
Increase the confidence of survivors and minimise the risks of causing distress and re-traumatisation.
Remain safe and well in the course of their work, avoiding secondary traumatisation and professional ‘burnout’.

Research and dissemination

We spoke at several conferences during the course of the year. Critically, our feasibility and pilot study of Narrative Exposure Therapy in the treatment of survivors of trafficking is now complete. We have analysed the results which look very positive and provide strong support for a full-scale trial. Meanwhile we are completing the write-up for publication in 2021.

We currently have the following projects ongoing:

➢ A ‘proof of concept’ Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study exploring the biological underpinning of trust-related abnormalities in survivors of multiple and repeated trauma who have ‘complex PTSD’. This is in collaboration with partners at King’s College London.
➢ A systematic review of the use of witchcraft and related rituals as forms of control in survivors of human trafficking.
➢ A study of the effectiveness of case management in the care of survivors of trafficking (funded by the National Institute of Health Research and led by King’s College London).
➢ A pilot study of an assertiveness intervention for survivors of forced labour.
➢ A pilot study of ‘moral injury’ in survivors of trafficking.

In 2020 we also published the following articles:

Mavranezouli I, Megnin-Viggars O, Grey N, Bhutani G, Leach J, Daly C, Dias S, Welton NJ, Katona C, El-Leithy S, Greenberg N, Stockton S, Pilling S. (2020 Apr 30). Cost-effectiveness of psychological treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder in adults . PLoS One.
Mavranezouli I, Megnin-Viggars O, Daly C, Dias S, Welton NJ, Stockton S, Bhutani G, Grey N, Leach J, Greenberg N, Katona C, El-Leithy S, Pilling S (2020 Mar) Psychological treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder in adults: a network meta-analysis. Psychological Medicine.
Arnold FW, Chisholm J, Cohen J, Katona C, Payne-James J. (2020 Jan). Release arrangements for immigration detainees are medically unsafe. British Medical Journal.
Chaplin L, Ng L, Katona C (2020 Sep) Refugee mental health research: challenges and policy implications. BJPsych Open.
Walker S, von Werthern M, Brady F, Katona C. (2020 Jul 20). Mental health of forced migrants recently granted leave to remain in the United Kingdom . International Journal of Social Psychiatry.
Abbas P, von Werthern M, Katona C, Brady F, Woo Y (2020 Apr) The texture of narrative dilemmas: qualitative study in front-line professionals working with asylum seekers in the UK . .BJPsych Bulletin.
Waterman, L. Z., Katona, C., & Katona, C. (2020). Assessing asylum seekers, refugees and undocumented migrants. BJPsych Bulletin, 44(2), 75-80.
Cohen, J., Katona, C., & Bhugra, D. (2020). National data on suicide must include ethnicity. British Medical Journal.

In 2021

Over the coming year we will increase our impact through research, training and policy, and collaborate with others to:

➢ Develop a robust trauma-informed training programme for all those working with survivors of trafficking in the UK and globally.
➢ Drive forward large-scale research in order to improve practice and provision of therapy for survivors of trafficking and torture.
➢ Work with our Human Rights Advisory Group to develop a plan to increase the access of survivors of trafficking to protection and security.

➢ Deliver clear evidence as to the unworkable and unjust proposals in the Nationality and Borders Bill, and the ongoing impact of the hostile environment in increasing the vulnerability of survivors of trafficking and torture, to re-trafficking, exploitation and abuse.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Financial Framework

Policies relating to reserves and the need to generate an annual operating surplus together provide a financial framework within which HBF seeks to function.

Reserves policy

Forming part of reserves, the unrestricted general fund is the working fund of the charity. Unlike the other funds, it is not restricted or designated for a defined purpose. The unrestricted general fund provides for activities not funded by earned income or restricted funding and for the general administration of the charity. It also provides working capital for operations and helps to provide resources to ensure that the charity is able to continue with its obligations.

Currently our Group policy is to maintain an unrestricted general fund of between three and six months of gross expenditure, (£600k to £1.2m), for the next financial year. Given the importance of being confident that the group can maintain its support to our very vulnerable clients, the trustees aim to increase the sum in the unrestricted general fund. The Group Trustees have therefore approved a three-year plan to hold an unrestricted general fund of up to nine months of gross expenditure by December 2023.

As Asylum Aid joined the Helen Bamber Foundation Group in August 2020 with no reserves or assets but serves a common charitable purpose, the HBF has agreed to make good the shortfalls where needed and support Asylum Aid to meet the group reserves policy over time. In December 2020 Asylum Aid ended the year positively with 2.4 months reserves.

Summary of results

In 2020 activities resulted in a surplus of £336,101. This is a fantastic result as the forecasts undertaken in April 2020 indicated that the charity could end in deficit due to the fall in event income. Instead fundraised income, which is HBF’s principal funding source, raised just over what was budgeted. largely because of the quick response of funders to help charities meet the shortfall. Simultaneously the organisation reviewed spending to make sure we could adapt our services to the new needs of our clients and also make savings and efficiencies through the inclusion of remote delivery.

HBF ended 2020 in a good financial position with an unrestricted general fund of £1,140,379 (up from £810,063 in 2019). The unrestricted general fund is £182,034 below the top end of the current target level of reserves of about £ 1,322,413, although well above the bottom end of the target range. A budget showing a surplus has been set for 2021.

Risks

The major risks to which the HBF is exposed, as identified by the trustees, have been reviewed and systems have been established to mitigate these risks. Among the risks identified, the most significant are considered to be:

The fact that event fundraising which remains a key element of the diversity of HBF groups income remains a challenge.
The challenge of ensuring that funds are raised for Asylum Aid to fill the gap left by the delays in receipt of legal aid funding due to delays in closure of cases and that activities are planned in order to meet budget requirements.
The uncertainty over further lockdowns and the execution of Covid-19 secure work places which place an operational strain on the services which remain at high demand.
The increasingly inhumane environment facing our client group and corresponding ineffectiveness of the asylum system, and the equivalent likelihood of an increase in the number of clients with complex needs.

These risks are mitigated in part through close operational monitoring and application of the reserves policy.

Subsequent events and going concern

The pandemic has had a profound impact on all aspects of life, including the activities of the HBF.We have had to move to remote working and had to close our services to new clients at times when we were unable to undertake face-to-face assessments a necessary safeguarding measure.

The trustees have put in place measures to mitigate the risks to the HBF due to ongoing delays in Asylum Aid’s closure of cases due to delays in decision making by the Home Office and the courts,. resulting in a delay receipt of payment from the Legal Aid Authority for work done, by focusing on fundraised income during this period. It is not considered that Brexit will have a negative impact on HBF income.

Having regard to these steps and the reserves held at the year-end by the Helen Bamber Foundation Group, the trustees consider it reasonable to expect that HBF has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, the trustees continue to adopt the ‘going concern’ basis in preparing the accounts. The trustees and senior management have increased the regularity of financial forecasts in both the short and medium term. We continue to strengthen our financial processes and systems so we can monitor financial risk, and where required, take appropriate management action.

Remuneration policy

The objectives of HBF’s remuneration policy are to:

Reward staff appropriately and enable the recruitment and retention of high calibre personnel.

Ensure the proper use of the charity’s resources in accordance with its aims and within affordable limits, based on the financial circumstances of the charity.
Be non-discriminatory, just and equitable in the evaluation of jobs and their remuneration by providing a stable framework for the remuneration of the team.
Pay at a competitive level taking account of external market rates — the aim being to set pay around the median level for comparable posts in the voluntary sector, subject to the charity’s financial position.
Operate within the law.

Remuneration is reviewed on an annual basis and agreed by the Board of Trustees. When setting pay levels, the charity gives consideration to external benchmark comparators, changes in the national average earnings index, affordability and other internal and external pressures including recruitment and retention. The policy applies to all staff, including the charity’s executive team. The total remuneration of the Chief Executive Officer and two directors including employer’s NI and employer’s pension contributions was £185,939.

Fundraising

HBF’s fundraising team produces an annual Income Generation Strategy against which performance is regularly monitored by senior management and trustees. In 2020, HBF had to rapidly adjust it’s fundraising strategy to respond to the pandemic. This was successful with fundraised income of £1,966,883 in 2020, compared to £1,427,233 in 2019.

HBF’s fundraising approach reflects the principles published on the HBF’s website www.helenbamber.org. The charity’s fundraising programme is delivered using internal resources and in 2019 did not involve external professional fundraisers or commercial participators. HBF does not generate merchandise for fundraising purposes.

HBF is registered with the Fundraising Standards Board. Registration with the Board represents a commitment to the highest standards of practice and ensures that all fundraising activity is open, legal and fair. As a registered participant, HBF commits to the Board’s Codes of Fundraising Practice, which is the standard set for fundraisers in the UK. Registered participants also commit to abide by its Fundraising Promise. The Fundraising Promise is based on 6 key pledges which reflect the core values of respect, honesty, accountability and transparency. HBF’s strong commitment to recognised sector standards means that the charity is actively working to protect vulnerable people and other members of the public from behaviour which:

Is an unreasonable intrusion on a person’s privacy.
Is unreasonably persistent.
Places undue pressure on a person to give money or other property.

HBF has received no complaints in regard to its fundraising activities in 2020.

Public benefit

In setting HBF’s objectives and planning its activities, the Board of Trustees has given careful consideration to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit. In particular the Board of Trustees considers how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives that have been set. The benefits that HBF brings to the public are:

Relieving and assisting people and protecting the health of people who are at risk by reason of their experience of torture, hostilities, genocides or other atrocities.
Preventing sickness and protecting the health of people who are at risk from such experiences.
Relieving poverty among those people.
Educating people on all issues concerning gross violation of human rights, torture and atrocities and the effect on people who experience such suffering.

STATEMENT OF TRUSTEES RESPONSIBILITIES

The trustees (who are also directors of the HBF for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the trustees’ annual 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 trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and group and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company and group 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 Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP).
Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent.
State whether applicable UK Accounting Standards and statements of recommended practice 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 operation.

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. In so far as the trustees are aware:

There is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company’s auditor is unaware.
The trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditor is aware of that information.

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company's website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions. Members of the charity guarantee to contribute an amount not exceeding £1 to the assets of the charity in the event of winding up. The total number of such guarantees at 31 December 2020 was 10 (2019 : 9). The trustees are members of the charity but this entitles them only to voting rights. The trustees have no beneficial interest in the charity.

Auditor

Sayer Vincent LLP was re-appointed as the charitable company's auditor during the year and has expressed its willingness to continue in that capacity.

The trustees’ annual report has been approved by the trustees on 26 August 2021 and signed on their behalf by

Charlotte Seymour-Smith, Chair of Trustees

INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF HELEN BAMBER FOUNDATION

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Helen Bamber Foundation (the ‘parent charitable company’) and its subsidiary (the ‘group’) for the year ended 31 December 2020 which comprise the consolidated statement of financial activities, the group and parent charitable company balance sheets, the consolidated statement of cash flows and the notes to the financial statements, 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 group’s and of the parent charitable company’s affairs as at 31 December 2020 and of the group’s 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 and the Charities Act 2011

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 group financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the group and parent charitable company 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 Helen Bamber Foundation'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.

Other Information

The other information comprises the information included in the trustees’ annual report, other than the group financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the group 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. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the group financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of 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 this gives rise to a material misstatement in the group financial statements themselves. 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’ annual report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements
The trustees’ annual 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 group and the parent charitable company and their environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the trustees’ annual report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 and Charities Act 2011 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

Adequate accounting records have not been kept by the parent charitable company, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
The parent charitable company 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; or
The directors were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in preparing the trustees’ annual report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the statement of trustees’ responsibilities set out in the trustees’ annual report, the trustees (who are also the directors of the parent charitable company 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 group’s and the parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the group or the parent charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

We have been appointed auditor under the Companies Act 2006 and section 151 of the Charites Act 2011 and report in accordance with those Acts.

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 are set out below.

Capability of the audit in detecting irregularities

In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:

We enquired of management, which included obtaining and reviewing supporting documentation, concerning the charity’s and group’s policies and procedures relating to:
Identifying, evaluating, and complying with laws and regulations and whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance;
Detecting and responding to the risks of fraud and whether they have knowledge of any actual, suspected, or alleged fraud;

The internal controls established to mitigate risks related to fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations.
We inspected the minutes of meetings of those charged with governance.
We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the group operates in, focusing on those laws and regulations that had a material effect on the financial statements or that had a fundamental effect on the operations of the group from our professional and sector experience.
● We communicated applicable laws and regulations throughout the audit team and remained alert to any indications of non-compliance throughout the audit.
We reviewed any reports made to regulators.
We reviewed the financial statement disclosures and tested these to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
We performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of material misstatement due to fraud.
In addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, we tested the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments, assessed whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias and tested significant transactions that are unusual or those outside the normal course of business.

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.

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

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company's members as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 and section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and regulations made under section 154 of that Act. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Joanna Pittman (Senior statutory auditor) 1 September 2021 for and on behalf of Sayer Vincent LLP, Statutory Auditor Invicta House, 108-114 Golden Lane, LONDON, EC1Y 0TL

Sayer Vincent LLP is eligible to act as auditor in terms of section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006

Helen Bamber Foundation

Consolidated statement of financial activities (incorporating an income and expenditure account)

For the year ended 31 December 2020

				2020			2019
		Unrestricted	Restricted	Total	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total
	Note	£	£	£	£	£	£
Income from:
Donations - legal protection	2	-	262,013	262,013	-	3,880	3,880
Donations - therapy and casework	2	-	283,526	283,526	-	200,440	200,440
Donations - community integration	2	-	59,906	59,906	-	113,438	113,438
Donations - counter trafficking	2	-	43,259	43,259	-	54,299	54,299
Donations - research, policy, dissemination	2	-	28,915	28,915	-	17,000	17,000
Donations - general	2	1,196,894	92,370	1,289,264	1,019,177	19,000	1,038,177
Charitable activities
Fees from medical legal reports - Legal
protection		81,364	-	81,364	165,152	-	165,152
Westminister ASP			30,653	30,653
Other income		62,027	15,158	77,185	8,133	8,500	16,633
Bank interest		1,136	-	1,136	2,130	-	2,130
Total income		1,341,421	815,800	2,157,221	1,194,592	416,557	1,611,149
Expenditure on:
Raising funds	3	254,273	-	254,273	240,072	1,900	241,972
Charitable activities
Legal protection	3	189,079	272,495	461,574	261,710	6,920	268,630
Therapy and casework	3	227,083	343,073	570,156	361,374	215,970	577,344
Community integration	3	54,703	78,380	133,083	77,063	115,718	192,781
Counter trafficking	3	91,478	61,733	153,211	98,646	56,199	154,845
Research, policy and dissemination	3	201,433	47,389	248,822	271,921	14,850	286,771
Total expenditure		1,018,050	803,070	1,821,120	1,310,786	411,557	1,722,343
Net income / (expenditure) and movement in
funds		323,371	12,730	336,101	(116,194)	5,000	(111,194)
Reconciliation of funds:
Total funds brought forward		850,283	5,000	855,283	966,477	-	966,477
Total funds carried forward		1,173,654	17,730	1,191,384	850,283	5,000	855,283

All of the above results are derived from continuing activities. There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. Movements in funds are disclosed in Note 15a to the financial statements.

Helen Bamber Foundation

Company no. 08186281

Balance sheets

As at 31 December 2020

2020 2019 Note £ £ Fixed assets: 8 33,275 40,220 33,275 40,220 Current assets: 11 110,267 219,675 1,373,480 739,943 1,483,747 959,618 Liabilities: 12 (325,638) (144,555) 1,158,109 815,063 1,191,384 855,283 15a 17,730 5,000 33,275 40,220 1,140,379 810,063 Total unrestricted funds 1,173,654 850,283 1,191,384 855,283 Total funds Cash at bank and in hand Tangible assets The group Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Net current assets Total net assets Restricted income funds Unrestricted income funds: Designated fixed asset fund General funds Debtors Funds:	2020 2019 Note £ £ Fixed assets: 8 33,275 40,220 33,275 40,220 Current assets: 11 110,267 219,675 1,373,480 739,943 1,483,747 959,618 Liabilities: 12 (325,638) (144,555) 1,158,109 815,063 1,191,384 855,283 15a 17,730 5,000 33,275 40,220 1,140,379 810,063 Total unrestricted funds 1,173,654 850,283 1,191,384 855,283 Total funds Cash at bank and in hand Tangible assets The group Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Net current assets Total net assets Restricted income funds Unrestricted income funds: Designated fixed asset fund General funds Debtors Funds:	2020 2019 £ £ 32,003 40,220 32,003 40,220 125,031 219,675 1,183,530 739,943 1,308,561 959,618 (217,087) (144,555) 1,091,474 815,063 1,123,477 855,283 17,730 5,000 33,275 40,220 1,072,472 810,063 1,105,747 850,283 1,123,477 855,283 The charity	2020 2019 £ £ 32,003 40,220 32,003 40,220 125,031 219,675 1,183,530 739,943 1,308,561 959,618 (217,087) (144,555) 1,091,474 815,063 1,123,477 855,283 17,730 5,000 33,275 40,220 1,072,472 810,063 1,105,747 850,283 1,123,477 855,283 The charity
33,275 110,267 1,373,480	40,220 219,675 739,943	32,003 125,031 1,183,530	40,220 219,675 739,943
1,483,747 (325,638)	959,618 (144,555)	1,308,561 (217,087)	959,618 (144,555)
1,158,109	815,063	1,091,474	815,063
1,191,384	855,283	1,123,477	855,283
17,730 33,275 1,140,379	5,000 40,220 810,063	17,730 33,275 1,072,472	5,000 40,220 810,063
1,173,654	850,283	1,105,747	850,283
1,191,384	855,283	1,123,477	855,283

Approved by the trustees on 26 August 2021 and signed on their behalf by John Scampion

Helen Bamber Foundation

Consolidated statement of cash flows

For the year ended 31 December 2020

Note £ £ Net income / (expenditure) for the reporting period 336,101 (as per the statement of financial activities) Depreciation charges 16,547 Decrease in debtors 109,408 Increase in creditors 181,083 Net cash provided by operating activities 643,139 (9,602) (9,602) 633,537 739,943 a 1,373,480 Analysis of cash and cash equivalents and of net debt At 1 January 2020 Cash flows £ £ Cash at bank and in hand 739,943 633,537 a Total cash and cash equivalents 739,943 633,537 Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year 2020 Cash flows from operating activities Net cash used in investing activities Cash flows from investing activities: Purchase of fixed assets	Note £ £ Net income / (expenditure) for the reporting period 336,101 (as per the statement of financial activities) Depreciation charges 16,547 Decrease in debtors 109,408 Increase in creditors 181,083 Net cash provided by operating activities 643,139 (9,602) (9,602) 633,537 739,943 a 1,373,480 Analysis of cash and cash equivalents and of net debt At 1 January 2020 Cash flows £ £ Cash at bank and in hand 739,943 633,537 a Total cash and cash equivalents 739,943 633,537 Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year 2020 Cash flows from operating activities Net cash used in investing activities Cash flows from investing activities: Purchase of fixed assets	£ £ (111,194) 12,754 116,447 38,508 56,515 (20,093) (20,093) 36,422 703,521 739,943 Other non- cash changes At 31 December 2020 £ £ 1,373,480 1,373,480 2019	£ £ (111,194) 12,754 116,447 38,508 56,515 (20,093) (20,093) 36,422 703,521 739,943 Other non- cash changes At 31 December 2020 £ £ 1,373,480 1,373,480 2019
	643,139 (9,602) 633,537 739,943		56,515 (20,093) 36,422 703,521
At 1 January 2020 £ 739,943		Other non- cash changes £
	1,373,480		739,943
	Cash flows £ 633,537		At 31 December 2020 £ 1,373,480
739,943	633,537		1,373,480

Helen Bamber Foundation

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 December 2020

1 Accounting policies

a) Statutory information

Helen Bamber Foundation is a charitable company limited by guarantee and is incorporated in the United Kingdom.

The registered office address is Bruges Place, 15-20 Baynes Street London NW1 0TF.

b) Basis of preparation

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

These financial statements consolidate the results of the charity and its subsidiary Asylum Aid on a line by line basis. Transactions and balances between the charity and its subsidiary have been eliminated from the consolidated financial statements. Balances between the two entities are disclosed in the notes of the charity's balance sheet. A separate statement of financial activities, or income and expenditure account, for the charity itself is not presented because the charity has taken advantage of the exemptions afforded by section 408 of the Companies Act 2006.

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

In applying the financial reporting framework, the trustees have made a number of subjective judgements, for example in respect of significant accounting estimates. Estimates and judgements are continually evaluated and are based on historical experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. The nature of the estimation means the actual outcomes could differ from those estimates. Any significant estimates and judgements affecting these financial statements are detailed within the relevant accounting policy below.

Comparatives are not directly comparable due to acquiring Asylum Aid in August 2020.

c) Reporting period

The financial statements cover the year to 31 December 2020. (For Asylum Aid period covered is 1st August to 31st December 2020).

d) Public benefit entity

The charitable company meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

e) Going concern

The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern.

The trustees do not consider that there are any sources of estimation uncertainty at the reporting date that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next reporting period.

Helen Bamber Foundation

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 December 2020

1 Accounting policies (continued)
f) Recognition of income

Recognition of income takes place in accordance with applicable accounting policies and results are presented in accordance with the SORP. All incoming resources are included in the Statement of financial activities when the charity has entitlement to the income, it is probable that the income will be received and that the amount can be measured reliably. Grants and donations are recorded in the period in which they are received or the charity is entitled to the income.

Donations receivable for the general purposes of the charity are credited to Unrestricted funds and donations tied to a particular purpose are credited to Restricted funds.

Revenue grants are credited to the Statement of Financial Activities when received or receivable, whichever is earlier. Where unconditional entitlement to grants receivable is dependent on fulfilment of conditions within the charity's control, the incoming resources are recognised when there is sufficient evidence that conditions will be met. Where there is uncertainty as to whether the charity can meet such conditions, the incoming resource is deferred. When funding received is designated by the donor to be used in a specific future period, income is deferred.

Income from medico legal reports is recognised when the report has been completed and submitted to the customer and an invoice has been raised.

Contractual income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and that the amount can be measured reliably.

All other income, such as training fees, is recognised in the period in which the charity is entitled to receipt and the amount can be measured with reasonable probability. Legacies are included when there is reasonable probability of receipt, amount and timing.

Where income is received in advance of its recognition, it is deferred and included in creditors. Where entitlement occurs before income is received, the income is accrued and included in debtors.

g) Recognition of expenditure

All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis in the period to which the cost relates and has been classified under headings that aggregate all costs related to the category. Resources expended include attributable VAT which cannot be recovered. Where costs cannot be directly attributable to particular activities, they have been allocated on a basis consistent with the use of the resources. Overheads, salaries and governance costs are allocated between the activity headings on the basis of attributable employment cost, and an element of judgement is involved. Costs of raising funds are those costs, including fundraising expenditures, incurred by the charity to obtain funds. Support costs are those costs incurred which are not directly an output of the charitable activity. Governance costs are those incurred in connection with enabling the charity to comply with external regulation, constitutional and statutory requirements and in providing support to the Trustees in the discharge of their statutory duties.

h) Tangible fixed assets

Items of equipment are capitalised where the purchase price exceeds £250. Depreciation costs are allocated to activities on the basis of the use of the related assets in those activities. Assets are reviewed for impairment if circumstances indicate their carrying value may exceed their net realisable value and value in use. Major components are treated as a separate asset where they have significantly different patterns of consumption of economic benefits and are depreciated separately over its useful life.

Tangible fixed assets are stated at cost less accumulated depreciation. Only individual assets costing £250 or more and not forming part of a larger project are capitalised. This level is periodically reviewed, along with the need for a formal impairment review.

Provision is made for depreciation of fixed assets, at rates calculated to write off the cost, less the estimated residual value, of each asset over its expected useful life. Leasehold improvements are depreciated over 3 years and other fixed assets over 4 years.

Helen Bamber Foundation

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 December 2020

1 Accounting policies (continued)
i) Cash at bank and in hand

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

j) Recognition of liabilities and constructive liabilities

Liabilities, including constructive obligations, are recognised at the point at which the charity is deemed to have entered into a binding commitment. Provisions are recognised when there is a present legal or constructive obligation as a result of a past event, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefit will be required to settle the obligation, and a reliable estimate can be made of the obligation.
k) Leases

Rental costs under operating leases are charged to expenditure as incurred. Lease incentives received by the charity are released on a straight line basis to the Statement of Financial Activities over the period until the first break clause or, in the case of leases already existing, until the rent review.

l) Pensions

The charity contributes to a stakeholder pension scheme on behalf of its staff, and the cost is recognised as incurred.

m) Taxation status

As a charity, Helen Bamber Foundation is exempt from taxation of income and gains falling within Section 505 of the Taxes Act 1988 or Section 256 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to the extent these are applied charitably. No tax charge has arisen in the year.

n) Funds

The charity's financial statements are a consolidation of individual funds. These divide into two distinct categories: unrestricted and restricted.

Unrestricted funds

The use of these funds has not been restricted to a particular purpose by the donor. The unrestricted funds comprise the General fund and Designated funds.

General fund

The General fund is the working fund of the charity. It is not tied or designated as are the other funds for use for a particular or defined purpose. The General fund has to provide for the net deficit of any activities that have inadequate income of their own and for the general administration of the charity. It also provides working capital for operations and helps to provide resources to ensure that the charity is able to continue with its obligations in the event of a shortfall in income or unexpected upturn in expenditure. The current target level for the unrestricted general fund is between three and six months of the higher of projected gross income or gross expenditure for the next financial year.

Designated funds

Designated funds are those which have been allocated by the charity for particular purposes. The Fixed Asset reserve represents the net book value of the investment by the General fund in fixed assets.

Restricted funds

These are income funds tied to particular purposes. They include gifts made to the charity to be used in accordance with the wishes of the donors. Until funds are expended, they are placed on deposit or held in cash.

o) Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due, after provision for doubtful debts.

Helen Bamber Foundation

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 December 2020

2 Income from donations

Income from donations
Donations - trusts and foundations Donations - individuals Donations - corporate Other	Unrestricted £ 683,904 313,085 98,926 100,978	£ 705,981 34,858 29,149 - Restricted	2020 Total £ 1,389,885 347,943 128,075 100,978	Unrestricted £ 774,369 54,529 174,748 15,530	£ 350,323 13,525 43,490 720 Restricted	2019 Total £ 1,124,692 68,054 218,238 16,250
	1,196,893	769,988	1,966,881	1,019,176	408,058	1,427,234

The "other" donations comprise income from community fundraising and a fundraising campaign comprising one main event in 2020.

Helen Bamber Foundation

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 December 2020

2 Income from donations (continued)

Restricted and unrestricted donations from trusts and foundations of £2,000 or greater in 2020 were as follows:-

The A. B. Charitable Trust Access for Justice Foundation The Adfal Trust Allen & Overy Foundation Anti-Slavery International Barrow Cadbury Trust The Marshall L & Deborah L Berkman Family Charitable Trust The Blyth Watson Charitable Trust British Humane Association The Bryan Guinness Charitable Trust City Bridge Trust Comic Relief Donald Forrester Trust Eva Reckitt Trust Fund The Emmanuel Kaye Foundation The Evan Cornish Foundation The Fulmer Charitable Trust Garfield Weston Foundation Give Way to Freedom Goldman Sachs Gives The Edward Gostling Foundation The Harkness Family Foundation The Henry Smith Charity ILPA The Leigh Trust The London Community Foundation The Marwyn Trust The McCartney Foundation Moynitrust The National Lottery Community Fund Oak Foundation Outdoors For All The Pilgrim Trust Pilkington Charities Fund Postcode Equality Trust Schroder Charity Trust The Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust The Souter Charitable Trust The Segelman Trust Trust for London The United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery Wellcome Community Support Fund William Brake Charitable Trust The Wright Family Foundation 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust Other trusts - Trusts under £2,000 Other Anonymous Total	Unrestricted £ 50,000 - - - - - - 2,000 - 5,000 - - - - 30,000 - - - - - - 10,000 - - 5,000 - 7,434 50,000 5,000 - 150,000 - - - 250,000 - - 3,000 - 10,000 - - - 10,000 - 2,470 94,000	Restricted £ - 74,300 - 10,000 2,000 99,750 - - - - 37,666 95,556 - 2,500 - 12,000 - 20,000 - - 3,000 - 50,000 5,259 4,000 5,000 - - - 100,000 - - - - 100,000 5,000 2,000 - - 10,000 11,625 5,000 7,000 - 3,000 6,425 34,900	2020 Total £ 50,000 74,300 - 10,000 2,000 99,750 - 2,000 - 5,000 37,666 95,556 - 2,500 30,000 12,000 - 20,000 - - 3,000 10,000 50,000 5,259 9,000 5,000 7,434 50,000 5,000 100,000 150,000 - - - 350,000 5,000 2,000 3,000 - 20,000 11,625 5,000 7,000 10,000 3,000 8,895 128,900	Unrestricted £ 20,000 - 4,000 - - - - 2,000 - 5,000 - - - - - - 3,000 - - 15,000 - - - - - - 183,616 25,000 5,000 - 150,000 - - 3,000 250,000 - - 3,000 3,333 - - - - 15,000 - 5,420 82,000	Restricted £ - - - - - - 8,957 - 4,000 - 45,834 119,234 5,000 - - 12,000 - - 4,638 - - - 50,000 - 4,200 - - - - - - 4,500 10,000 - - 5,000 - - - - 11,475 - 2,000 - - 8,902 54,583	2019 Total £ 20,000 - 4,000 - - - 8,957 2,000 4,000 5,000 45,834 119,234 5,000 - - 12,000 3,000 - 4,638 15,000 - - 50,000 - 4,200 - 183,616 25,000 5,000 - 150,000 4,500 10,000 3,000 250,000 5,000 - 3,000 3,333 - 11,475 - 2,000 15,000 - 14,322 136,583
	683,904	705,981	1,389,885	774,369	350,323	1,124,692

Helen Bamber Foundation

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 December 2020

3a Analysis of expenditure (current year)

Cost of raising funds £ 161,049 - - - - - 32,246 - - - - - - -		Charitable activities	Charitable activities	Charitable activities		Support and Governance costs £ 76,604 - - - - - - 187,174 12,100 - 83,491 63,864 16,547 (15,942)	2020 Total £ 1,195,997 75,150 116,661 19,186 7,087 27,559 32,246 187,174 12,100 - 83,491 63,864 16,547 (15,942)	2019 Total £ 1,018,865 51,136 137,160 68,154 11,386 50,698 36,385 189,479 8,400 743 68,129 64,392 12,754 4,662
	Legal protection £ 280,295 75,150 - - - - - - - - - - - -	Therapy and casework £ 328,946 - 116,661 - - - - - - - - - - - 445,607 124,549 570,156 577,344	Community Integration £ 82,616 - - 19,186 - - - - - - - - - -	Counter Trafficking £ 105,992 - - - 7,087 - - - - - - - - -	Research, policy and dissemination £ 160,495 - - - - 27,559 - - - - - - - -
193,295 60,978	355,445 106,129		101,802 31,281	113,079 40,132	188,054 60,768	423,838 (423,838)	1,821,120 -	1,722,343 -
254,273	461,574		133,083	153,211	248,822	-	1,821,120	1,722,343
241,972	268,630		192,781	154,845	286,771	-

Governance costs are included above under audit fees and trustees' expenses.

Helen Bamber Foundation

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 December 2020

3b Analysis of expenditure (prior year)

Charitable activities

Cost of raising funds £ 159,993 - - - - - 36,385 - - - - - - -	Legal protection £ 144,544 51,136 - - - - - - - - - - - -	Therapy and casework £ 271,489 - 137,160 - - - - - - - - - - -	Community Integration £ 69,915 - - 68,154 - - - - - - - - - -	Counter Trafficking £ 97,865 - - - 11,386 - - - - - - - - -	Research, policy and dissemination £ 167,683 - - - - 50,698 - - - - - - - -	Support and Governance costs £ 107,376 - - - - - - 189,479 8,400 743 68,129 64,392 12,754 4,662	2019 Total £ 1,018,865 51,136 137,160 68,154 11,386 50,698 36,385 189,479 8,400 743 68,129 64,392 12,754 4,662	2018 Total £ 809,193 51,380 85,602 77,247 7,716 47,399 51,608 139,268 8,300 1,646 65,805 58,871 7,075 8,458
196,378 45,594	195,680 72,950	408,649 168,695	138,069 54,712	109,251 45,594	218,381 68,390	455,935 (455,935)	1,722,343 -	1,419,568 -
241,972	268,630	577,344	192,781	154,845	286,771	-	1,722,343	1,419,568
201,582	174,824	608,140	172,379	123,327	139,318	-

Governance costs are included above under audit fees and trustees' expenses.

Helen Bamber Foundation

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 December 2020

4 Net income / (expenditure) for the year

This is stated after charging:

This is stated after charging:
	2020	2019
	£	£
Depreciation	16,547	12,754
Operating lease rentals:
Property	145,049	143,500
Auditor's remuneration (excluding VAT):
Current year audit	9,500	8,400
Independent examination of Asylum Aid	2,600	-

5 Analysis of staff costs, trustee remuneration and expenses, and the cost of key management personnel

Staff costs were as follows:

Staff costs were as follows:
Social security costs Employer’s contribution to defined contribution pension schemes Recruitment costs Salaries and wages Redundancy costs (paid as at 31.12.20) Interim staffing costs	2020 £ 1,027,058 80,742 36,396 8,001 36,624 7,176	2019 £ 877,176 76,469 28,112 2,695 34,413 -
	1,195,997	1,018,865

One employee earned between £60,000 and £70,000 during the year (2019: one).

The total employee benefits, (including pension contributions and employer's national insurance) of the senior management executive were £185,939 (2019: £161,002).

The Trustees were not paid or in receipt of any other benefits from employment with the charity in the year (2019: £nil). No Trustee received payment for professional or other services supplied to the charity (2019: £nil).

No Trustee expenses were incurred by the charity in the year (2019: nil).

6 Staff numbers

The average number of employees based on the average headcount employed during the year was as follows:

Fundraising Support Governance Charitable activity	2020 No. 4.0 25.5 5.0 2.0	2019 No. 4.0 23.3 4.0 2.0
	36.5	33.3

Helen Bamber Foundation

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 December 2020

7 Related party transactions

There were management charges of £26,430 relating to HBF staff costs recharged to AA in 2020 (2019: £nil).

There were no donations from related parties which were outside the normal course of business and no restricted donations from related parties. The total amount of donations received in 2020 from Trustees or parties related to them was £10,144 (2019: £364).

8 Tangible fixed assets

Leasehold Improvement £ 113,376 - -	Fixtures and fittings £ 34,163 - -	ICT and medical equipment £ 47,367 9,602 -	Total £ 194,906 9,602 -
113,376	34,163	56,969	204,508
105,982 2,922 -	20,151 5,138 -	28,553 8,487 -	154,686 16,547 -
108,904	25,289	37,040	171,233
4,472	8,874	19,929	33,275
7,394	14,012	18,814	40,220

All of the above assets are used for charitable purposes.

Leasehold Improvement £ 113,376 - -	Fixtures and fittings £ 34,163 - -	ICT and medical equipment £ 47,367 8,245 -	Total £ 194,906 8,245 -
113,376	34,163	55,612	203,151
105,982 2,922 -	20,151 5,138 -	28,553 8,402 -	154,686 16,462 -
108,904	25,289	36,955	171,148
4,472	8,874	18,657	32,003
7,394	14,012	18,814	40,220

All of the above assets are used for charitable purposes.

Helen Bamber Foundation

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 December 2020

9 Subsidiary undertaking

The charity controls the subsidiary, Asylum Aid, a company registered in England. The company number is 2513874 and charity number is 328729. The registered office address is that of the parent company. It is a subsidiary of the Helen Bamber Foundation ( parent company) as the parent company board have majority control of Asylum Aid.

The subsidiary is used for the primary purpose of providing legal representation and access to justice for refugees and those seeking asylum. All activities have been consolidated on a line by line basis in the statement of financial activities.

A summary of the results of the subsidiary is shown below:

Resricted 59,243 6,720 30,653	Unrestricted 139,409 - -	2020 £ 198,652 6,720 30,653	2019 £ - - -
96,616	139,409	236,025	-
17,783 10926	- 139,409	17,783 150,335	- -
28,709	139,409	168,118	-
67,907 - 67,907	- - -	67,907 - 67,907	- - -

10 Parent charity

The parent charity's gross income and the results for the year are disclosed as follows:

Accrued income Gross income Result for the year Debtors Amounts due from group undertakings Trade debtors Prepayments & other debtors	2020 2019 £ £ 29,163 69,895 - - 44,445 58,041 36,659 91,739 110,267 219,675 The group	2020 2019 £ £ 29,163 69,895 - - 44,445 58,041 36,659 91,739 110,267 219,675 The group	2020 £ 1,891,070 268,194	2019 £ 1,611,149 (111,194)
			2020 £ 29,163 30,090 44,445 21,333 The	2019 £ 69,895 - 58,041 91,739 charity
	110,267	219,675	125,031	219,675

11 Debtors

Helen Bamber Foundation

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 December 2020

12 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
Trade creditors Taxation and social security Accruals Deferred income (note 13) Other creditors	2020 2019 £ £ 23,141 23,263 27,534 28,803 79,556 30,823 138,139 61,666 57,268 - 325,638 144,555 The group		2020 £ 11,865 21,080 77,003 107,139 - The	2019 £ 23,263 28,803 30,823 61,666 - charity
	325,638	144,555	217,087	144,555

13 Deferred income

Deferred income relates to three restricted donations. Income is deferred as it relates to future periods

2020 2019 £ £ Balance at the beginning of the year 61,666 35,054 Amount released to income in the year (61,666) (35,054) Amount deferred in the year 138,139 61,666 Balance at the end of the year 138,139 61,666 General unrestricted £ £ - 33,275 1,140,379 - 1,140,379 33,275 Designated funds Net assets at the end of the year The group Tangible fixed assets Analysis of group net assets between funds (current year) Net current assets	2020 2019 £ £ Balance at the beginning of the year 61,666 35,054 Amount released to income in the year (61,666) (35,054) Amount deferred in the year 138,139 61,666 Balance at the end of the year 138,139 61,666 General unrestricted £ £ - 33,275 1,140,379 - 1,140,379 33,275 Designated funds Net assets at the end of the year The group Tangible fixed assets Analysis of group net assets between funds (current year) Net current assets	2020 £ 61,666 (61,666) 107,139 The	2019 £ 35,054 (35,054) 61,666 charity
138,139	61,666	107,139	61,666
	£ 33,275 - Designated funds	Restricted funds £ - 17,730	Total funds £ 33,275 1,158,109
1,140,379	33,275	17,730	1,191,384

14a Analysis of group net assets between funds (current year)

14b Analysis of group net assets between funds (prior year)

Tangible fixed assets Net current assets Net assets at the end of the year	General unrestricted £ - 810,063	£ 40,220 - Designated funds	Restricted funds £ - 5,000	Total funds £ 40,220 815,063
	810,063	40,220	5,000	855,283

Helen Bamber Foundation

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 December 2020

15a Movements in funds (current year)

£ - 5,000 - - - - - - At 1 January 2020	£ 262,013 283,526 59,906 28,915 43,259 30,653 15,158 92,370 Income & gains	£ (254,021) (278,788) (59,906) (28,915) (43,259) (30,653) (15,158) (92,370) Expenditure & losses	£ - - - - - - - - Transfers	£ 7,992 9,738 - - - - - - At 31 December 2020
5,000	815,800	(803,070)	-	17,730
40,220 810,063	- 1,341,421	(16,547) (1,001,503)	9,602 (9,602)	33,275 1,140,379
850,283	1,341,421	(1,018,050)	-	1,173,654
855,283	2,157,221	(1,821,120)	-	1,191,384

The narrative to explain the purpose of each fund is given at the foot of the note below.

Helen Bamber Foundation

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 December 2020

15b Movements in funds (prior year)

£ - - - - - - At 1 January 2019	£ 3,880 208,940 113,438 17,000 54,299 19,000 Income & gains	£ (3,880) (208,940) (113,438) (12,000) (54,299) (19,000) Expenditure & losses	£ - - - - - - Transfers	£ - - - 5,000 - - At 31 December 2019
-	416,557	(411,557)	-	5,000
32,881 151,385	- -	(12,754) (151,385)	20,093 -	40,220 -
184,266	-	(164,139)	20,093	40,220
-	-	-	-	-
184,266	-	(164,139)	20,093	40,220
184,266	416,557	(575,696)	20,093	45,220

Purposes of restricted funds

Legal protection

The restricted funds for protection work are to fund legal protection and advocacy support work; providing refugee and asylum seeking clients with a fair chance at seeking justice against the perpetrators of the interpersonal violence they experienced, international protection from the government and appropriate welfare support and housing provision. This includes legal staff salaries, client travel and interpreter costs and any other associated costs of administrating and providing legal protection and advocacy support to clients.

Therapy and casework

The restricted funds for therapy and casework are to fund our therapeutic care for survivors of gross human rights violations, helping individuals and families to overcome the psychological impact of interpersonal violence and achieve sustained recovery from acute trauma symptoms, Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other resultant mental health issues. This includes clinical staff salaries, client travel and interpreter costs and associated costs of administrating referrals for our services and providing tailored support and counselling for clients.

Community integration

The restricted funds for community integration are to assist clients to become valued members of society and combine work from different areas. Mind and body work are to fund therapies which use the mutual influence of body on mind, and mind on body to facilitate healing and recovery from trauma. The programme includes acupuncture, cranio-sacral therapy, hakomi and internal family systems, movement, pilates, yoga (including pre- and post-natal), massage, breathing training and osteopathy. The restricted funds are for clinical staff salaries, equipment, volunteer costs and client travel.

The restricted funds for social wellbeing work are to fund the Creative arts programme, which includes language and skills classes and artistic and social groups for clients of the Foundation, to break isolation and aid recovery. This includes the costs of materials, client travel, volunteer expenses and the salary of the coordinating staff member.

Helen Bamber Foundation

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 December 2020

Purposes of restricted funds (continued)

Research, policy and dissemination

These restricted funds are to fund work on research, policy and dissemination.

Counter Trafficking

The restricted funds for counter trafficking are to enable the foundation to fund a model of integrated care for victims of human trafficking. This includes clinical staff salaries, client travel and interpreter costs and associated costs of administering referrals for our services and providing tailored support and counselling for clients.

Westminster ASP

Westminster Advice Services Project (WASP) is a consortium led by Westminster Citizens Advice, which Asylum Aid has been a member of since 2016. It is a consortium put together by NGOs based in Westminster and funded by Westminster council on a 3-5 year rolling contract, to provide advice and support services on welfare legal matters. Asylum Aid’s USP input to this project is a multi-language volunteer advisor system, in which we train and supervise local people to interpret for us when providing advice to Westminster residence for whom English is a second language. The yearly funding covers the cost of two specialist advisors (part time), and rental costs for Derry House from where we provide outreach and drop in advice services as well as associated costs of administering our services.

Other income

We continued our partnership with Young Roots , an organisation that supports hard to reach separated asylum seeking children and young people, who often face greater barriers in accessing mental health and other support. The funds (£9,266) were for clincal staff time who provided assessments, stabilisation interventions and also treatment.

We formed a new partnership with Women for Refugee Women to offer clinical support to the women in their network. The funds (£5,892) were for clincial staff time who provided clinical assessments that facilitated access to mental health services, as well as delivering therapeutic interventions designed to help women to stabilise and manage their mental health.

Purposes of designated funds

Fixed assets fund

A designated fund has been established to represent the net book value of the charity's fixed assets.

Strategic Investment Fund

A designated fund was established to enable HBF to establish its position and build its reputation through building a partnership culture which would enable HBF to reach a wider range of audiences. As planned this fund was expended during 2019.

16 Operating lease commitments payable as a lessee

The group's total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases is as follows for each of the following periods:

the following periods:
Less than one year Two to five years	2020 2019 £ £ 185,716 185,716 412,102 557,151 597,818 742,867 Property
	597,818	742,867