2025-03-31-accounts - Hodan Somali Community

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

Trustees’ annual report and financial statement For the year ended 31 March 2025

The Trustees, who are also directors of the charity for the purposes of the Companies Act, submit their annual report and the financial statements of Hodan Somali Community for the year ended 31 March 2025. The Trustees confirm that the annual report and financial statements of the charity comply with current statutory requirements, the requirements of the charity's governing document and the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) "Accounting and Reporting by Charities" issued in March 2005.

Full name: Hodan Somali Community

Other names by which the charity is known: None Registered company number: 8179170 Registered charity number : 1150732 Principal address: Office 10, Canalside House 383 Ladbroke Grove London W10 5AA

Trustees

Elizabeth Cho: Chair, Mahdi Ali: Treasurer, Sahra Jama: member Priscilla Hon: Co-chair, Shukri Hassan: member, Kaltun Ahmed: member

Other Members: None

Secretary : Khalid Ali, who is the director of the organisation

Bankers Independent examiner HSBC MD Iqbal Hossain 25 Notting Hill Gate Chartered Certified Accountant London BK Community Accountant Ltd W11 3JJ Arches 420-421, Burdett Road London E3 4AA

1. Objectives and Activities

1.1. Summary of the purposes of the charity as set out in its governing document

Hodan was established for the benefit of the Somali community living and/or working in Kensington and Chelsea and surrounding boroughs. The charity’s purposes are to relieve poverty, to advance education and to provide or assist in the provision of recreation and leisure activities, to improve the conditions of people’s lives.

1.2. Summary of the main activities in relation to those purposes for the public benefit, in particular, the activities, projects or services identified in accounts[1]

Holistic Advice, Information, and Support Service for the Somali and wider BAME community in west London. We have continued to provide a holistic, person-centred service to address a wide range of urgent matters, including housing, welfare, utilities, employment, health and social care, non-regulated money guidance, and signposting to other providers where appropriate. We are continuing our befriending service.
Expanding

and improving the service, focusing on:

Evolving from a drop-in to a primarily appointment-based model, to cut waiting times and improve the quality of focused attention that can be provided to each client, while also continuing to offer drop-ins and other modes of service delivery (home visits and a telephone helpline) for clients that need them.
Upskilling the team in energy efficiency advice and home energy audits, through the Level 3 qualification in Energy Assessment and support from external consultants, with a new grant from the Energy Savers Trust.
Strengthening our advice and support work with young people aged 13-25, supplemented with Mental Health First Aid and Motivational Interviewing (see below).
Upgrading our IT systems – we purchased four new laptops and a new laser printer with funding from the Clothworkers’ Foundation and hired a consultant to conduct an audit of IT, data protection, and cybersecurity.
Successfully navigating a leadership transition - the retirement of Mohamed Farah after 20 years of dedicated service and his succession as Director by Khalid Ali.

In addition to the general operations of the Advice, Information, and Support Service, we also carried out the following projects in 2024-25:

Actively Reducing Isolation for Seniors (ARISE): We have completed Year 3 of our four-year project funded by the National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund. The project aims to reduce social isolation among the most vulnerable and marginalised members of our community (including older people with disabilities, chronic mental or physical health difficulties, social isolation, poor literacy, and/or poor English language skills) through a combination of digital literacy training and free fitness classes.

1 NOTE: The trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit. 2

In addition to the three digital literacy workshops conducted during the year, we have integrated digital literacy training seamlessly into our regular advice and information service, by deploying volunteers to train service users on various aspects of using a smartphone or tablet while they wait in the queue to see an adviser.
The ‘Social Space and Wellbeing Project for Women’ is continuing to offer four fitness classes per week. A trained and experienced fitness instructor provides one session of ‘Zumba on Zoom’ (online video call), two in-person Zumba classes, and one Chair-Based Exercise class for service users with limited mobility. All classes are free and include social time and, for the in-person sessions, refreshments.
Lace Up Your Future’ – football coaching and life skills . This two-year project funded by Awards for All brings together football coaching, mentoring, and skills development for young people aged 16-25 who are unemployed or under-employed, primarily within the Black and Asian communities. We have started a weekly football project that includes coaching to develop skills, confidence, and teamwork. We also design and deliver workshops focusing on specific employability-related skill areas.
We are also continuing to provide some employability skills training for unemployed adults – building confidence and self-esteem, job searching, CV writing, online applications, and the interview process – as part of an ongoing multi-year grant from the City Bridge Trust, which also provides some core funding for the advice service with a focus on income maximisation.
Our Access to Benefits project, funded by the Trust for London in 2021, was successfully concluded in 2024. We have now secured funding from the Trust for a follow-up project to provide tailored housing advice and income maximisation support from 2025-2028.
We received funding from the Energy Redress Scheme for a new project to help disadvantaged service users to save money by saving energy. We commissioned an energy expert to work with our retained consultant to develop guidelines and a checklist for home energy audits and drop-in appointments, and two of our staff are working towards the Level 3 City and Guilds qualification in Energy Assessment (as required by the funder) in preparation for launching the project activities formally in 2025/26.

2. Achievements and Performance

2.1. Summary of the main achievements of the charity, identifying the difference the charity’s work has made to the circumstances of its beneficiaries and any wider benefits to society as a whole

2.1.1. Reducing the Impact of Poverty and Disadvantage

We continued to provide services in the AQS Subject-Based Categories of Welfare Benefits , Housing, and Employment , with the addition of Health and Community Care, and the Client-Based Categories of Disability, Older People, Refugees and Asylum Seekers , Women , and Race Equality, with the addition of Children and Young People . In addition to these specific categories, we also provided advice relating to local services, education and training, confidence-building, social integration, and other related matters.

We successfully resolved a record total of 985 cases in 2024-25 (compared to 855 in 2023-24: a 15% increase), presented by 635 clients (compared to 288 in 2023-24: a 120% increase). This indicates a 3 large drop in the mean number of cases per client, from 2.5 to 1.6. The ratio of local (W10, W11, NW10,

SW5, SW6, W2, W9, W12, or W14 postcode districts) to non-local clients remained steady at approximately 2:1, with the remainder spread across a wide geographical area. We also have 120 ongoing active cases, bringing the total number of cases addressed during the year to 1105.

We maintained our work on income maximisation in response to the cost-of-living crisis, assisting people to apply for welfare benefits and other sources of financial or in-kind support from the central government or local authorities, through our ongoing funding from the Trust for London and City Bridge Trust.

We supported 134 service users with 262 welfare benefit cases in 2024-25 (our largest matter category), making a total of 358 clients over the two-year period from 2023-25, which has already exceeded the five-year project target of supporting 300 people by September 2028. Even with the decrease in welfare benefit clients in 2024-25 (134) compared to 2023-24 (224), we remain on track to exceed our target by a very significant margin. The total financial gain secured by our clients in 2024-25 was £203,853.89 in comparison to the £278,508.94 secured in the previous year. The decrease was largely due to the time spent preparing for the leadership transition and training staff members to launch the Energy Redress project, as well as an increased focus on employability skills and the new football project for young people. We expect welfare benefit case numbers and total financial gains secured by these clients to return to their former level in 2025-26.

As in previous years, our work on income maximisation also had non-financial outcomes. These included, among many others, reducing stress, anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation; preventing eviction and homelessness; and helping people pay off arrears and avert court action. We continued our focus on energy saving and supported a further 53 people, reaching a two-year total of 121 (towards a five-year target of 150 by September 2028, which we are also on track to exceed). These clients presented a total of 95 cases, including 16 completed within the initial phase of the Energy Redress project.

We dealt with 159 separate housing-related cases for 80 clients, our second-largest matter category. In addition to rent arrears, these included advocating on clients’ behalf with local authorities, housing associations, or private landlords to secure necessary and often long-overdue maintenance or improvements to properties. We also dealt with 35 health-related cases, most of which involved securing home adaptations and/or mobility equipment (wheelchairs, walking frames, etc.) for disabled people, enabling them to continue living independently in their homes.

2.1.2. Building Skills and Confidence

Volunteer training and mentoring: We worked with four medium- to long-term volunteers on the National Lottery funded ‘Actively Reducing Isolation for Seniors (ARISE) project in 2024-25 – one who had started working with us in 2023, and three new recruits. This brings the total number of project volunteers to 24 over three years. The project is due to end in February 2026.

Each volunteer was assigned a mentor, who sat with them as they worked through the Digital Literacy Framework with their first service users and then helped them to fill in the tracker sheets. As the volunteers became more familiar with the framework and with the operation of the drop-in Advice and Information Service, they were able to work one-to-one with service users who were waiting in the queue to see an adviser. This mode of working is very popular with the service users, as they no longer feel that they are wasting time queueing, and they can learn something new on every visit without having to make a separate appointment or attend a workshop.

The success of the training and mentoring was evident in the destinations of the volunteers. One of them secured a paid role at Hodan as the Admin and Communications Officer after the previous postholder left. She is now training to become a qualified advice worker focusing on energy efficiency advice, through a separate project funded by the Energy Redress Trust. Another volunteer was accepted onto 4

a teacher training (PGCE) course starting in September 2024, while the third is working full-time in the childcare sector.

Digital literacy skills

A total of 132 service users have been supported with digital literacy skills by the volunteers and staff at Hodan since the start of the project. This includes those who have attended at least one 1:1 appointment, and those receiving digital literacy support during their regular interactions with the advice service (some people engaged in both modes). During the summer of 2024, volunteers and staff also worked together to offer two Digital Literacy workshops that were open to the wider community, free of charge. The workshops were held at Canalside House and reached a total of 39 service users – 21 in the first workshop and 18 in the second.

Of the 132 participants completing a baseline assessment, a total of 121 (91.6%) have received at least one subsequent review. A total of 109 (90% of those reviewed) recorded a skill gain of 1 point or more between the baseline and the first review, and 116 (95.9% of those reviewed) recorded a skill gain of 1 point or more between the baseline and their most recent review, as determined by comparative assessments with the Hodan Digital Literacy Framework.

As in previous years, participants experienced a range of benefits from digital literacy skills training. Some of these were:

Reductions in isolation and loneliness through reconnecting with friends and family, both in the UK and overseas, through messaging and video calling apps
Improved ability to access public services such as GP appointment bookings, repeat prescriptions, council tax payments, and welfare-related administrative tasks such as updating Universal Credit journals
Improved ability to carry out daily activities, such as shopping and banking online
Easier access to information, such as public transport timetables, prayer time reminders, weather forecasts, daily news bulletins, and recipes

Digital access

We were successful in securing some additional capital funding from the Clothworkers’ Foundation to purchase five tablets for onsite-only use within the advice service (as well as four new laptops and a printer). This supported the ARISE Project by enabling us to provide Internet access and teach digital literacy skills to a larger number of service users who do not have a device of their own, or whose devices are no longer working.

While most service users who received a smartphone or tablet in 2022 or 2023 are still using it, a small number of them reported that their device had broken during the past year. Paying for devices to be repaired was often challenging for our service users, as they are nearly all from low-income households and many of them are pensioners.

Employability skills

We resolved 81 cases for 76 clients involving either employment or employability skills in 2024-25, and a further 23 cases relating to education (with some overlap between these categories). This included four employability workshops reaching 19 young people, and 39 one-to-one appointments to discuss employability skills with youth and adults, associated with the funding from City Bridge Trust.

Of the 39 drop-in session participants, 26 have already secured new jobs, and four have a place on a further education course.

2.1.3. Mental, Physical, and Social Wellbeing

Befriending

The Befriending Service continued to work with 44 clients in 2024-25, the same as the previous year. While we have not been actively recruiting for this service because of capacity challenges, we are still committed to supporting this core group of regular service users who are socially isolated, experience low mood, and/or are bereaved.

Wellbeing and Social Space for Women

As in previous years, the Wellbeing and Social Space Project for Women has expanded its reach and achieved a very high level of user satisfaction. The professional fitness instructor (funded through the ARISE project) has continued to expand her repertoire, now offering low-intensity Zumba (‘Zumba Gold’) in addition to the standard Zumba and the Chair-Based Exercise classes. This allows the project to cater to people with a broad range of initial fitness and mobility levels. There is also an online Zumba class, widening the reach to people who are unable to attend in person because of distance, work commitments, or caring responsibilities.

The number of new people attending the fitness classes this year was 15, bringing the total number of people who have ever participated to 148. The two online classes have been consolidated into one, but there are still three separate in-person classes supported by the project: Zumba sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, and Chair-Based Exercise session on Friday mornings. The Tuesday class takes place at Canalside House, Ladbroke Grove, W10, while the Wednesday and Friday sessions are held at White City Community Centre, India Way, W12. Admission and refreshments are always free for everyone.

Attendance remains variable but is typically around 20-30 regular attendees per class, slightly higher than last year. As in previous years, the feedback for this service has been overwhelmingly positive, with participants reporting a wide range of different wellness benefits:

Mental wellbeing: feeling happier, lighter, younger, more energised; less bored, less empty, less stressed; more self-care time
Physical wellbeing: feeling generally fitter or healthier, losing weight, improved strength or flexibility, fewer aches and pains
Social wellbeing: less lonely / isolated, more confidence, getting to know neighbours, making friends, supporting each other, learning about other cultures, improving English skills 2.2. Performance against human resources targets[2]

2.2.1. Recruitment

The succession plan for the role of Executive Director proceeded smoothly as envisioned in the 202326 Strategic Plan, concluding with the retirement of Mohamed Farah at the end of March 2025 after twenty years of dedicated service to the organisation. Khalid Ali has completed his induction into the role through a process of training, mentoring, and work shadowing. Mohamed Farah will remain associated with Hodan in an advisory capacity until the current strategic plan ends in March 2026. We have dropped the target for a new Trustee with experience of navigating significant organisational

2 See 2023-26 Strategic Plan for details.

change, as the transition has proceeded very smoothly so it was not felt to be necessary to bring in additional expertise.

We have appointed a new part-time bilingual (English/Somali) Advice and Support Worker to a paid position from among the existing volunteers. Induction and training have been successfully completed. We are also recruiting for a bilingual (English/Arabic) Advice and Support Worker with the ability to conduct tailored outreach and support to other racially minoritised groups in west London, including North African and Middle Eastern communities.

We are slightly behind schedule on the target to recruit, induct, and train eight new short-term volunteers and two medium- to long-term volunteers for the Digital Literacy Skills project in 202425. We currently have three volunteers undergoing induction (April 2025). Volunteer recruitment should be prioritised in the first quarter of 2025-26. It will also be important to make sure that evaluation of volunteer satisfaction is not overlooked in this final year of the project.

2.2.2. Induction and remuneration

We have met the target for ensuring that all new personnel, including volunteers, receive a thorough induction based on the Competencies Framework and the person specification for their job.

The responsibility for induction and training of volunteers has been successfully transferred from Mohamed Farah to Khalid Ali as the incoming Executive Director.

We have conducted a review of pay and confirmed that all current staff members are paid at or above the London Living Wage of £13.15 per hour.

The other target in this section was:

Hodan to become a member of the Living Wage Foundation. Deferred to 2025-26

2.2.3. Supervision and support

Supervision was identified as a corrective action in the 2023 AQS review. We have improved the reporting of supervision and increased the frequency to bi-monthly for full-time staff, and quarterly for part-time staff and volunteers.

The responsibility for supervision and training of volunteers and paid staff has been transferred from Mohamed Farah to Khalid Ali as the incoming Executive Director.

The following 2024-25 target has not been met:

All staff and volunteers have a specific support pathway to follow if they feel overwhelmed, drained, or affected by secondary trauma as a result of their work with clients.
This has not been required so far, as nobody has reported any of the above issues, but it will be rolled into the review of supervision and support scheduled for Q2 2025-26.

2.2.4. Training and development

The incoming Director has taken on responsibility for conducting performance appraisals and reviewing Training and Development Plans (with support from a retained consultant).

A review of Training and Development Plans for medium and long-term volunteers, to include consideration of Mental Health Awareness, was scheduled for Q4 2024-25 but will instead take place in Q1 2025-26, as one of our volunteers is now a paid staff member and the others are still going through induction. 7

2.2.5. Management and engagement

A full audit of IT provision, including cybersecurity and data protection protocols, was conducted by an external IT consultant in November 2024. The current provision was judged to be good but there were some recommendations for improvement, which will be implemented in 2025-26 subject to the availability of funds.

Explore feasibility of implementing recommendations from consultant report

2.2.6. Evaluation and review

The incoming Executive Director has taken over responsibility for routine M&E activities, with consultant support where necessary.

We have completed and submitted the Year 1 monitoring report for the Bridging Divides project funded by the City Bridge Trust, the Year 3 evaluation for the ARISE project funded by the National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund, and the final evaluation for the Access to Benefits project funded by the Trust for London.

The annual evaluation of the advice service is overdue and should take place in Q1 of 2025-26. It will also be important to make sure that evaluation of volunteer satisfaction is not overlooked in this final year of the ARISE project.

2.3. Performance against targets for continuous improvement of advice service

The annual review of all policies and standard operating procedures has been completed and only minor amendments were required. AQS self-assessment was completed in November 2024 and a full external assessment is due in November 2025. The incoming Director has been briefed.

We hosted an intern from The London Interdisciplinary School in summer 2024 to conduct desk research, focusing on a richer understanding of the landscape of youth work within the wider ‘BAME’ community. The report identified some future growth areas, especially coding clubs for young people as an emerging aspect of employability.

The Strategic Plan included a 2024-25 target for increasing the total number of service users across all Hodan’s services to 480. The total number of service users in 2024-25 was recorded as 775 across the Advice and Information Service (635) and Wellbeing and Social Space Project (148) after correcting for double counting of those with ‘Zumba’ listed as a matter category on Advice Pro. Thus, the target was exceeded by a significant amount. The two-year targets relating to income maximisation and energy advice in the Strategic Plan were also exceeded, at 358 (versus a target of 245) and 121 (versus 80) respectively.

An unmet 2024-25 target for the advice service was to expand the marketing plan to increase the visibility of Hodan and ensure that other charities and social enterprises, including those serving the wider ‘BAME’ community, are aware of our offering. This is now an even higher priority, as the Energy Savers project involves ambitious targets of 100 home visits for energy audits, 200 in-depth advice sessions, 100 telephone calls or ‘virtual visits’, and 150 people reached with ‘light-touch’ advice on saving energy, e.g., stalls at events. The new Trust for London bid also requires some specialist marketing to diversify our service user base.

Prioritise revised marketing plan with new focus in Q1 2025-26 – see section 2.6.

2.4. Performance against Operations targets

2.4.1. Skills Development

The two-year target for the total number of unemployed or precariously employed people who have received employability-related advice and skills development was 40. This has been substantially 8 exceeded, at 76. We conducted four employability skills workshops, meeting the target for the year.

Information from volunteering records, workshop attendance records, and skills tracking spreadsheets for Digital Literacy was used in compiling the Year 3 report for the ARISE project in January 2024. The four-year target for the number of service users receiving digital literacy training and support through the project has already been exceeded.

Volunteer recruitment is ongoing, but more medium- to long-term volunteers are still needed.

Conduct volunteer recruitment session at a London university to increase active medium/long term volunteers to five by June 2025, building on ARISE mid-term report

2.4.2. Wellbeing and Social Space

Attendance records have been checked to confirm that total participation across all Wellbeing and Social Space sessions is above 110 participants (actually 148).

Chair-Based Exercise classes are continuing in White City and are proving successful and popular. Weekly attendance is around 23.

The following targets were not met:

Pilot an anonymised online fitness class inclusive of all service users, regardless of gender This was proposed by a small group of service users, but the majority were not supportive of transforming the existing online class for women to a mixed-gender class; as we did not secure enough funding to start a separate new class, the idea was dismissed for now.
Establish formal partnership with the Black Cultural Archive and submit funding bid to National Lottery Heritage Fund for Buraanbur traditional dance project.
Despite multiple attempts at reaching out, we did not get any response from the Black Cultural Archive. We have put this project on hold for now, as the staff member who was its main advocate has now left; we will revisit the suggestion in the consultation on the new 2026-2029 Strategic Plan next year.
Procure sewing machines, collaborate with British Somali Community and Elays to identify a prospective tutor, and run a pilot for sewing classes
We requested funding from the Clothworkers’ Foundation to purchase sewing machines, but unfortunately this part of the bid was not funded. This will also be revisited in the next consultation, as it could potentially be rolled into the Heritage Lottery bid.
Conduct research on potential partnerships for wellbeing within Community Public Health project, e.g., identifying culturally competent professionals for long-term support
We did not pursue this because after the eligibility criteria for this funding scheme were clarified, it was found not to be a good fit for Hodan.
Reach out to Innocent Drinks to request sponsorship for refreshments This has not been done yet and should be actioned in 2025.

2.4.3 Family and Youth Work

We successfully funded and delivered two summer holiday excursions to theme parks – Thorpe Park and Chessington World of Adventures - for disadvantaged families in West London – with funding from the John Lyon Charity’s Summer Activities Fund. We had initially intended to offer a coach trip to the beach in Bournemouth, but we had to cancel this because of the threat of racist riots and demonstrations by far-right groups, so it was replaced with the Chessington trip. 9

We have established a pilot five-a-side football project for young people in the Latimer Road area with funding from the National Lottery Awards for All programme. This is going well, as discussed above, and we intend to seek follow-up funding when the grant ends in 2026.

We worked with an intern from London Interdisciplinary School, Ikra Shoaib, in the summer of 2024 to further our research on youth work and non-formal education. Opportunities identified as a result of this research will be included in the 2026 consultation for the new strategic plan.

The following targets were not met:

Organise a Family Fun Day
We did not receive any direct funding for this activity in 2024 but are preparing an application to the City Living, Local Lives fund of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea for 2025.
Link family excursions and fun day(s) to strategic marketing objectives, to raise awareness of the full portfolio of available services and encourage more uptake
To prioritise in Q2 2025-26, but with a specific emphasis: see section 2.6 below

2.5. Performance against fundraising targets

The total income for 2024-25 was £166,241.71, significantly exceeding our target of maintaining annual income above £140,000.

We have continued to expand and update our Excel database of funders and their respective priorities. This has proven very useful for keeping track of upcoming application deadlines.

Hodan secured a grant of £16,978 from the National Lottery (Awards for All) starting in May 2024 to provide youth football coaching and employability skills. We also have ongoing project grants from the National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund and City Bridge Trust.

We received a grant of £6,416 in one-off capital funding from the Clothworkers’ Foundation to purchase new laptops for staff, tablets for clients to use in the office to learn digital literacy skills or access online services, and a new colour printer. This was a partial acceptance as the Foundation was unable to fulfil our entire grant request, which also included ten sewing machines and materials to start a sewing project.

We received a grant of £75,000 from the Trust for London for a three-year (2025-2028) project on maintaining our provision of welfare benefits and housing advice and expanding it beyond the Somalispeaking community. This, too, was a partial acceptance as we had initially requested £45,600 per year for five years – a total of £228,000. This leaves us with a significant hole in our budget that will need to be plugged with other fundraising, in an increasingly competitive and challenging funding environment.

We received a grant of £49,861 from the Energy Savers Trust for a project to upskill our team and provide advice to disadvantaged households on how to reduce energy bills by improving the energy efficiency of their homes, and how to apply for support with energy costs. This is a two-year project from 2024-2026.

We received £45,000 over three years (2024-27) from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea via the ongoing partnership project with Midaye.

We received a one-off grant of £10,000 for core costs from the Garfield Weston Foundation.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund for a four-year project on traditional Somali dance and poetry (Buraanbur) was approved at Stage 1, but with the condition that we were able to involve a partner from the cultural heritage sector. As discussed above, we were unsuccessful in our attempt to reach out to 10 Black Cultural Archive and this project is currently on hold until 2026.

We were unsuccessful with our multi-year grant applications to the John Lyon Charity’s Main Grants Fund and Charles Plater Trust for core costs. Some other funding bids were rejected and others are still being considered.

Target not met: We have maintained our focus on grant-based fundraising and have not met the target for diversifying income sources.

Prioritise developing research partnerships with universities and reaching out to private companies with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) schemes in 2025-26.

2.5. Performance against marketing targets

We promoted Hodan within London Interdisciplinary School with a view to recruiting a student for a summer 2024 internship. This was successful and Ikra Shoaib worked with us for a period of five weeks to conduct research and explore options for expanding our family and youth work.

The following marketing targets have not been met:

Expand the monthly social media plan for Facebook and X, to cover (i) providing information and news updates, (ii) sharing anonymised case studies, and (iii) connecting with signposting and referral organisations (inbound & outbound), including through memberships and forums
Create and distribute flyers to encourage signposting and referrals
Train Admin & Communications Officer in supporter management and content creation, e.g., through Mailchimp or equivalent

Marketing was treated as a lower priority in 2024-25 because we do not currently have a dedicated Admin and Communications Officer, and we are already exceeding our general target for service user numbers, as well as the specific project targets in the 2023-26 Strategic Plan.

However, we still need outreach and new service user recruitment urgently in order to meet the 202526 targets associated with two specific projects:

Energy Redress Trust – requires recruitment of high numbers of service users specifically for energy-related drop-in sessions, home energy audits, and telephone calls or virtual visits. This project includes a small budget of £500 for marketing. Urgent actions are as follows:
Commission a graphic designer to create flyers and posters for the project
Adapt the design outputs to create content for Hodan’s social media platforms
Develop a social media strategy
Develop an events strategy for ‘light-touch’ advice, which could include attending local community fairs, conducting joint events with other organisations, or running a Family Fun Day with stalls providing information on Hodan’s services.
Trust for London – the new grant emphasises diversifying our service user base, with a particular focus on the Arabic-speaking community through the recruitment of a new bilingual advice worker. The job description for this role includes an element of active outreach to Arabic speakers in the local area, including North African and Middle Eastern communities.
Prioritise marketing plan for Arabic speakers after recruiting new advice worker.

In the light of these two newly funded projects, we need to re-prioritise marketing urgently - both to ensure that the specific project targets are not missed, and to stay on track with wider strategic targets in the final year of the current Strategic Plan. The Trustees are recommended to consider the best option for achieving this in a timely way. There are several options to consider, subject to funding:

Recruit, induct, and train a part-time Admin and Communications Officer (0.2 or 0.4 FTE) to replace Nimo Arman, who has left to undertake a teacher training course. We do not currently have dedicated funding for this role and would need a successful bid to support it.
Recruit, induct, and train the new Advice Worker to have formal responsibility for marketing, above and beyond the existing requirement to conduct outreach in Arabic-speaking communities. This would reduce their availability for frontline advice work and would entail a change to the job description and person specification, which in turn might require approval from the Trust for London.
Recruit, induct, and train a new summer intern from the London Interdisciplinary School or elsewhere, with a specific focus on graphic design and marketing for the Energy Savers project (and outreach to new service user groups if an Arabic speaker can be found).
Hire a specialist marketing consultant with a short-term brief to create a marketing plan and social media strategy.

At present we do not have funding for these options, but it may be feasible to recruit a volunteer with a focus on social media and marketing.

3. Financial Management and Reserves

3.1. Statement explaining the policy for holding reserves stating why they are held

A Contingency Reserve is held in order to retain sufficient funds to cope with a worst-case scenario of a sudden cessation of all funding. In this circumstance the fund should be large enough to enable:

(i) Hodan to continue to operate for a period of six months, this being a reasonable period of time decided by the Trustees to complete ongoing work and make arrangements for winding down; and
(ii) Hodan to cover any other costs involved in winding up.

To allow the Trustees flexibility to deal with unforeseen opportunities or act to mitigate unexpected risks, such as a partial cessation or temporary reduction of funding, up to half of this Contingency Reserve may be diverted to an Urgent Opportunities Fund (provided that there is still enough funding left to cover winding-up costs).

In the event that this is used, the Trustees should discuss a strategy for replenishing the reserves during the annual review.

The Contingency Reserve is an unrestricted reserve and does not include funds that have already been earmarked, e.g., for staff salaries within funded projects.

3.2. Financial review

Hodan has developed a Fundraising Strategy built into its strategic plan and reviewed on a yearly basis. The Treasurer is responsible for financial management and presents the organisation’s financial situation during trustee meetings.

4. Structure, Governance and Management

Type of governing	Constitution
document

~~12~~

How is the charity constituted?	Charitable company limited by guarantee
Trustee selection methods including details of any constitutional provisions e.g. election to post or name of any person or body entitled to appoint one or more trustees	The management of the charity is the responsibility of the trustees, who are elected under the terms of the governing document of the organisation. The new Board of Trustees is elected at Hodan AGMs by service users. All registered members have the right to stand for election as trustees (members of the management committee). The management committee may in addition appoint not more than three co- opted members but so that no one may be appointed as a co- opted member if, as a result more than one third of the members of the management committee would be co-opted. The management committee must consist of no fewer than four and no more than eight trustees.
How are risks managed?	Hodan has a risk management policy that is reviewed and updated on an annual basis. The risk management policy has been revised to take into consideration the additional public health risks from COVID-19. We have also updated our safeguarding policy to include measures for safeguarding ‘customers in vulnerable circumstances’, according to the FCA definition.
How are activities reviewed?	Hodan carries out a full evaluation of the advice service every year, which covers compliance with organisational and funder objectives, client satisfaction, accuracy and appropriateness of advice, a review of training and development, support and supervision, service effectiveness and efficiency, and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I). We also hold focus groups and interviews to obtain rich qualitative data on specific projects. All is fed into our Strategic Plan, which is updated on a rolling basis and fully reviewed at least once a year, and our Annual Plan, updated quarterly.

Signed on behalf of Management committee by: 2 Neon Signed: --------------------------------------- Date: 22/04/2025

Name : Priscilla Hon

Position: Co-chair

Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of

HODAN SOMALI COMMUNITY

For the year ended 31 March 2025

I report on the accounts of the company for the period ended 31 March 2025, which are set out on pages 12 to 18.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The trustees (who are also the directors of the company for the purpose of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144(2) of the Charities Act 2011(the 2011 Act) and that an independent examination is needed.

Having satisfied myself that the charity is not subject to audit under company law and is eligible for independent examination, it is my responsibility to:

examine the accounts under section 145 of the 2011 Act;
to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by
the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act; and
to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.

Basis of independent examiner’s report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair view’ and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

Independent examiner’s statement

In connection with my examination, no other matter except that referred to in the above paragraphs, has come to my attention:

(1)which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements: to keep accounting records in accordance with section 386 of the Companies Act 2006; and to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records, comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the Companies Act 2006 and with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities have not been met; or 14

(2)to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Md Iqbal Hossain, FCCA

B K Community Accountant

420/421 Arches

London

E3 4AA

Date: 22 April 2025


	HODAN SOMALI COMMUNITY
	Statement of Financial Activities
	(Including income and expenditure account)
			31 March 2025
Incoming Resources	Not e	Unrestrict ed Funds	Restricte d	TOTAL Funds 2025	Unrestri cted Funds	Restricte d Funds	TOTAL Funds 2024
Donation and Legacies	2	155	135,661	135,816	60	156,706	156,766
Investment Income	3	1,595	-	1,595	1,432	-	1,432
Total Income		1,750 =======	135,661 ======	137,411 ======	1,492 =====	156,706 ======	158,198 ======
Expenditure on:	4
Charitable activities		82	162,924	163,006	70	140,124	140,194
Governance Costs		-	1,410	1,410	-	1,420	1,420
Total expenditure		82 =======	164,334 =====	164,416 ======	70 =====	141,544 =====	141,614 ======
Net Income & net movement in funds		1,668	(28,673)	(27,005)	1,422	15,162	16,584
Reconciliation of fund:
Total funds brought forward		34,442	120,180	154,622	33,020	105,018	138,038
Total funds carried forward		36,110 =======	91,507 ======	127,617 ======	34,442 =====	120,180 ======	154,622 ======

TOTAL RECOGNISED GAINS AND LOSSES

The Charity has no recognised gains or losses other than the net movement in funds for the above period.

The statement of financial activities also complies with the requirements for an income and expenditure account under the Companies Act 2006.

The notes on pages 14 to 18 form part of these account

HODAN SOMALI COMMUNITY

BALANCE SHEET

HODAN SOMALI COMMUNITY BALANCE SHEET	HODAN SOMALI COMMUNITY BALANCE SHEET	HODAN SOMALI COMMUNITY BALANCE SHEET	HODAN SOMALI COMMUNITY BALANCE SHEET	HODAN SOMALI COMMUNITY BALANCE SHEET	HODAN SOMALI COMMUNITY BALANCE SHEET
AS AT 31	MARCH 2025
FIXED ASSETS	Note		2025		2024
		£	£	£	£
Office Equipment	10	-	-	10,267	5,162

Debtors	11	-	-	-	-
Cash at Bank		117,009	-	-	150,261
Cash in hand		341	-		406
Total Current Assets		-	117,350	-	150,667

Creditors and Accruals	12	-	(0)	-	(1,207)
Net Current Assets				117,350	149,460
				127,617 =====	154,622 =====
Net Assets


Unrestricted Funds		-	36,110	-	34,442
Restricted Funds		-	91,507	-	120,180
Total Funds				127,617 ======	154,622 ======

Exemption from audit

For the year ending 31/03/2025 the company is entitled to exemption from the requirement to obtain an audit under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 and that members have not required the company to obtain an audit in accordance with section 476 of the Act.

The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 with respect to accounting records and the preparation of accounts. 17

The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the provisions in Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006 applicable to company’s subject to the small companies’ regime.

These accounts were approved by the Board of Directors and Trustees on 22 April 2025 and were signed on its behalf by:

Signed --------------------------------------2 New

Name : Priscilla Hon Position: Co-chair

The notes on pages 19 to 26 form part of these accounts.

HODAN SOMALI COMMUNITY

Notes to the Accounts

For the year ended 31 March 2025

1. Accounting Policies

The principal accounting policies are summarised below. The accounting policies have been applied consistently throughout the year.

1.1 Basis of Accounting

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention and in accordance with the applicable Accounting Standards and the Statement of Recommended Practice “Accounting and Reporting by Charities” published in March 2005 and the Companies Act 1985.

The company has taken advantage of the exemption in Financial Reporting Standard No. 1 from the requirement to produce a cash flow statement on the grounds that it is small company.

1.2 Incoming Resources

Income from activities, voluntary income and donations are included in incoming resources when they are receivable, except when the donors specify that they must be used in future accounting periods or donors’ conditions have not been fulfilled, then the income is deferred. The income from fundraising ventures is shown gross, with the associated costs included in fundraising costs.

1.3 Resources Expended

Resources expended are included in the Statement of Financial Activities on accruals basis, inclusive of any VAT that cannot be recovered.

Expenditure that is directly attributable to specific activities has been included in these cost categories. Where costs are attributable to more than one activity, they have been apportioned across the cost categories on a basis consistent with the use of those resources.

1.4 Going Concern Basis

The financial statements have been prepared on the going concern basis, as in the opinion of the director and trustees, there are no issues arising which would suggest any other basis as being more appropriate.

1.5 Depreciation

Depreciation is provided using the following rates and bases to reduce by annual instalments the cost, less estimated residual value, of tangible assets over the estimated useful lives:

Furniture, Fixtures, Fittings and Equipment - 20% on reducing line basis.

HODAN SOMALI COMMUNITY

Notes to the Accounts

For the year ended 31 March 2025

2. Income from donations and legacies

Grants, donations, and legacies:	Unrestricted Funds	Restricted Funds	2025	2024
	£	£	£	£
SMALL DONATION	155	-	155	60
CLOTHWORKERS FOUNDATION	-	6,400	6,400	-
JOHN LYONS CHARITY	-	5,000	5,000	5,000
ENERGY REDRESS	-	6,511	6,511	-
THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND	-	53,425	53,425	52,913
CITY BRIDGE TRUST	-	24,500	24,500	16,500
RBK&C VSSF (MIDAYE PARTNERSHIP)	-	15,000	15,000	21,550
SPORTS ENGLAND	-	14,825	14,825	-
GARFIELD WESTON FOUNDATION	-	10,000	10,000	-
TRUST FOR LONDON (TFL)	-	-	-	18,000
AWARD FOR ALL	-	-	-	16,748
POSTCODE SOCIETY TRUST	-	-	-	25,000
GREATER LONDON AUTHORITY (GLA)	-	-	-	995
TOTAL INCOME	155 ==========	135,661 ==========	135,816 =======	156,766 =======

3. Investment Income

3. Investment Income
	2025	2024
	£	£
Bank Interest	1,595	1,432
Total	1,595 ========	1,432 ========

HODAN SOMALI COMMUNITY

Notes to the financial statements (continuing)

4. Expenditure on Charitable Activities by Fund type:

Charitable activities & Support Cost	Un- restricte d Funds	Restricted Funds	Total 2025	Un-	Restricted	Total 2024
				restricte
				d	Funds
				Funds
	£	£	£	£	£	£
Salary, NIC & Pension	-	99,808	99,808	-	86,749	86,749
Telephone	-	631	631	-	1,106	1,106
Rent & Rates	-	7,729	7,729	-	7,189	7,189
Volunteer Expenses	-	1,768	1,768	-	1,900	1,900
ARISE	-	15,790	15,790	-	15,960	15,960
Employment Project	-	1,580	1,580	-	100	100
Lace Up Your Boots Project	-	3,207	3,207	-	-	-
Staff Training	-	579	579	-	483	483
Insurance	-	1,492	1,492	-	1,453	1,453
Consultancy/ Evaluation	-	16,813	16,813	-	11,705	11,705
Stationary & Postage	-	1,413	1,413	-	1,299	1,299
Website & It support	-	-	-	-	1,120	1,120
Advice UK	-	1,666	1,666	-	2,413	2,413
Project cost- Family Funday	-	6,916	6,916	-	5,610	5,610
FCA	-	-	-	-	975	975
Publicity & Adverts	-	824	824	-	589	589
Bank Charges	82	-	82	70	-	70
Hospitality	-	142	142	-	171	171
Depreciation	-	2,566	2,566	-	1,302	1,302
Total	82 =====	162,924 ====== ~~22~~	163,006 ======	70	140,124	140,194 ======
				=====	======

5. Governance Costs:

	Un-restricted Funds	Restricted Funds		Total 2024
			Total 2025
	£	£	£	£
Bookkeeping/ Payroll	-	460	460	154
Compliance	-			316
Independent Examination	-	950	950	950
Total	- =======	1,410 ======	1,410	1,420 =======
			=======

6. Expenditure on Charitable Activities by Activity type:

Charitable activities & Support Cost	Services	Governan ce	Fund raising		Total 2024
				Total 2025
	£	£	£	£	£
Property Costs	1,790	-	-	1,790	1,790
Depreciation	1,302	-	-	1,302	1,302
Direct Costs	50,283	1,420	-	51,703	51,703
Salary	86,749	-	-	86,749	86,749
Other indirect Costs	70	-	-	70	70
Total	140,194 =======	1,420 =======	- ======	141,614	141,614 =======
				=======

23 23

7. TRUSTEES EXPENSIS

No expenses are paid to Trustees.

No employee earned more than £60,000 during the year (2024: nil).

8. Related party transactions

There are no related party transactions to disclose for 2025 (2024: none) There are no donations from related parties which are outside the normal course of business and no restricted donations from related parties.

9. Taxation

The charitable company is exempt from corporation tax as all its income is charitable and is applied for charitable purposes.

10. Fixed Assets

		Computers	Office Equipment	Total
		£		£
	Cost
At 1 April 2024		5,750	1,883	7,633
Additions		7,671	-	7,671
Disposals		-	-	-
At 31 March 2025		13,421	1,883	15,304
	Depreciation
At 1 April 2024		2,018	453	2,471
Disposals		-	-	-
Charge this period		2,280	286	2,566
At 31 March 2025		4,298	739	5,037
	Net book value
At 31 March 2025		9,123	1,144	10,267
At 31 March 2024		3,732	1,430	5,162

HODAN SOMALI COMMUNITY

Notes to the financial statements (continuing)

Year ended 31 March 2025

11. Debtors

	2025	2024
	£	£
Debtors	0	0

12. Creditors

12. Creditors
	2025	2024
	£	£
Deferred Income	-	-
Independent examination	-	950
Trading Creditors	-	257
	9 =====	1,207 =====

Accruals: Provision for Accountancy fees.

Benefits in kind

There were no benefits in kind in the period.

Independent examination and accountancy services

25 25

During the period, the cost of the examination and accountancy services was £950.
Glossary of terms

Restricted funds: These are funds given to the charity, subject to specific restrictions set by the donor, but still within the general objects of the charity. Creditors These are amounts owed by the charity, but not paid during the accounting period. Debtors: These are amounts owed to the charity, but not received in the accounting period. Prepayments: These are services that the charity has paid for in advance, but not used during the accounting period.

HODAN SOMALI COMMUNITY 28