Stay Safe East Trustees’ Annual Report
2021-2022
Charity Number 1153615
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## Stay Safe East
## **Trustee’s Annual Report 2021-2022**
|**Charity name:**|Stay Safe East|
|---|---|
|**Registration Number:**|**1153615**
Stay Safe East is registered as a**Charitable**
**Incorporated Organisation**with the Charity
Commission for England and Wales.|
|**Principal office:**|90 Crownfield Road, London
E15 2BG|
|**Trustees:**|`o` Savitri Hensman (Chair)
`o` Paul Dowling (Treasurer)
`o` Bennett Obong
`o` Kirsten Hearn
`o` S, service user representative
`o` S, service user representative
* **_With the agreement of the Charity Commission, the_**
**_names of the two service user representatives are_**
**_withheld toprotect their safety. _**|
|**Staff and volunteers:**|• **Chief Executives:**
`o` Ruth Bashall_(to 14.3.21)_
`o` Ioana Hanis_(from 15.06.21)_
• **Co-Chief Executives:**
Ioana Hanis and Ruth Bashall
(_from 15.3.21 to 15.6.21)_
• **Administrator**(part-time):
`o` Charlotte Payne
• **Policy Officers:**
`o` Miranda Weston
`o` Ashley Stephen
• **Independent Victim’s Advocate/ Hate Crime**
**Team Manager (full-time)**
• **Hate Crime Advocates(2 part-time)**|
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||• **Domestic Abuse Casework Manager/**
**Independent Disability and Domestic Violence**
**Advocate (full-time**)
• **Domestic Violence Advocates (IDDVAS) (5 part-**
**time, one full time)**
• **Benefits and Entitlements Advocate**
• **General Advocate**
• **Volunteer**
_*_**_Due to the nature of our work and to ensure their_**
**_safety, names of advocacy staff and volunteers are_**
**_not listed in this report._**|
|---|---|
|**Bank**:|**The Cooperative Bank**,
PO Box 250 Skelmersdale WN8 6WT|
|**Bookkeeping and payroll:**|Jane Roche|
|**Independent Examiner:**|**Carbon Accountancy**,
80-83 Long Lane, London EC1A 9ET|
**Thank you to our Funders and Commissioners!**
- **Three Guineas Trust**
## `o` **The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC)**
- **The Home Office**
- **Trust for London**
- **Victim Support for London Victim and Witness Service**
- **Inclusion London**
- **Ministry of Justice**
- **Ascent Partnership**
**Thank you to our supporters and partners and in particular:**
- Members of **the Disability and Domestic Abuse Advisory Group**
- **Susie Balderston** for consultation and policy input
- **All individuals and organisations who made donations** to Stay Safe East or **provided other kinds of assistance** .
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## **This report is dedicated to Dianne Andrews friend and supporter of Stay Safe East**
19.12.1965 to 3.7.2022
Dianne was for many years a leading officer in the Waltham Forest Council Community Safety Team, working on hate crime, Domestic Abuse and Violence against Women and Girls.
Dianne supported Stay Safe East from the beginning, when we were a project of Disability Action Waltham Forest. She was one of the first members of our Project Steering Group and helped us design the project. In the early years, she helped us with producing our leaflets, helped us to be heard by Waltham Forest Council and to promote our role as experts on abuse against disabled people. She supported us when we became an independent organisation. Dianne also helped set up Waltham Forest MARAC and supported our CEO and our domestic abuse advocates to get their access needs met by the group and for the experiences of disabled survivors to be heard and understood. She was also a pivotal part of Waltham Forest LGBT Pride and of “We are Waltham Forest” where our communities came together to oppose the racist English Defence League.
The staff and Board members of Stay Safe East will miss Dianne, her smile and passion, and her unerring commitment to justice, equality and basket ball. One of our staff summed up Dianne “She – literally- gave us a place at the table”.
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|**CONTENTS**||
|---|---|
|_page _||
|**Chair’s Report ……………………………………………………………………………………………..5**||
|**CEO’s Report ……………………………………………………………………………………………….7**||
|**Trustees’ Annual Report**||
|**Report of activities**||
|**1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………..**|**9**|
|**2. Governing document and Objects of the Charity............................**|**9**|
|**3. Stay Safe East’s objectives during its ninth year……………………………**|**10**|
|**4. Trustees…………………………………………………………………………………………**|**10**|
|**5. Organisational Structure and Staffing……………………………………………**|**11**|
|**6. Stay Safe East Organisational Structure…………………………………………**|**12**|
|**7. Financial report summary ……………………………………………………………**|**13**|
|**Casework report**||
|1. **The Numbers…………………………………………………………….…………………**|**15**|
|2. **Domestic Abuse/Violence against Disabled Women .…………………**|**17**|
|3. **Hate Crime and cuckooing:**||
|**A) East London …………………………………..………………..…………………….**|**22**|
|**B) CATCH……………………………………………………………………..……………**|**23**|
|4. **Independent Victims Advocate/General Crime……………………..……**|**26**|
|5. **General Advocacy and client safety checks…………………………………**|**29**|
|6. **Benefits Entitlement Advocate……………………………………………………**|**30**|
|**Policy and change work …………………………………………………………………… 32-37**||
|**Stay Safe East Projects …………………………………………………………………….. 38-41**||
**Please note: for reasons of accessibility, the Independent Examiner’s Unaudited Financial Statement is contained in a separate document.**
**The Trustees' Annual Report for 2021-2022 was approved on January ..2023 and signed on behalf of the Board of Trustees by:**
**Savitri Hensman Chair:**
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## **Chair’s Report**
_“In many ways, 2021-22 has been a successful year, thanks to our staff and volunteers, funders, donors and partners. We were able to expand our operations to help meet the pressing needs of Deaf and disabled people facing domestic violence, hate crime, other types of crime and human rights abuses, as well as raising awareness and contributing to discussions on relevant public policy and law, with a matching increase in resources. Stay Safe East achieved a successful handover of responsibility from Ruth Bashall to Ioana Hanis, who took over as sole Chief Executive from 15 June 2021. I am profoundly grateful to them both, deeply appreciative of Ioana’s skills and commitment and very glad that Ruth remains as our Policy and Projects Advisor. We have continued to develop our internal structure, policies and staff support and guidance to address the demands of offering vital services in a complex and rapidly changing environment._
_However there is no room for complacency. Our clients – mainly from communities affected by poverty, racism or other forms of discrimination – have often faced intensified difficulties, amidst an ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, economic hardship and a hostile environment of various kinds. Public services with a role in ensuring safety, dignity and wellbeing have frequently been struggling to cope, making it harder to access appropriate support in a timely manner. And, while recognition by the authorities and many in the general public of the seriousness of the situation facing disabled victims and survivors and the importance of justice and respect has grown, there are still sometimes prejudiced and dismissive attitudes, as well as systems which – in terms of physical features, procedures or both – are profoundly inaccessible._
_This has been costly for our organisation and often profoundly stressful for staff (almost all of whom are disabled, as are our Board members), whose often passionate dedication to client support and human rights makes it all the harder when faced with multiple obstacles to making sure that even basic needs are met for those experiencing and at risk of violence, crime and abuse. Staff sometimes have to deal with service users’ anger and distress as well as public service professionals’ frustration at not being able to provide the level of service they would wish. We have extensive support systems in place and managers with extensive experience who have provided leadership and care. I would like to thank those who have worked for Stay Safe East through a year when the external environment has often felt bleak, adding to the demands, and to our funders and partner organisations as well as supportive individuals._
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_Yet the strength and resilience of so many of our clients, and satisfaction (sometimes joy) each time we make a difference to people’s lives, also deserves to be mentioned. That is part of what keeps us going, as we look to the future and continuing to provide unique services and insights drawn from extensive knowledge and lived experience, in challenging circumstances and amidst constant change.”_
**Savitri Hensman Chair, Stay Safe East**
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## **CEO’s Report**
“ _The year of 2021 marked a pivotal change in the legislation supporting victims of domestic abuse with the Domestic Abuse Act coming into force in April. It was also the year that marked a new chapter in my career, as I took over the role of CEO for Stay Safe East._
_I started working for SSE in March 2021 and for the first three months I worked as Co-Chief Executive with our former CEO Ruth Bashall. I became the sole CEO from June 2021. We are extremely grateful to Three Guineas Trust for funding the overlap of the two CEOs and the new Policy and Projects Advisor post (currently occupied by Ruth), which has enabled us to develop new services and a wider consultancy role through 2021 and onwards._
_In terms of Stay Safe East staff structure, we identified an urgent need to recruit an Operations and Finance Manager, as at the time I started, Stay Safe East only had two service managers which was insufficient for the needs of the organisation. We sought new grants opportunities, which allowed us to recruit more advocates, too. This was particularly important, as during the pandemic the demand on our services has increased considerably. We managed to recruit a new Finance and HR and Operations Manager and our team of advocates expanded._
_The year of 2021 was the year we decided to invest in increasing our accessibility and improving our image on social media. With the help of Ministry of Justice, we were able to re-design Stay Safe East website and make it fully accessible. We included new features, such as Read Out Loud (helpful for visually impaired or blind survivors). Also, we introduced BSL videos containing useful information about the services and support we provide and how to access it. The overall design of our web site was changed in order to be more user friendly, containing easy to read information, more photos etc._
_The website design project was developed and implemented throughout the year and brought clients/survivors of abuse and staff members together, to work as a team. It reinforced the idea that we are all a team working towards a common goal. As an organisation we are particularly proud of this project, as we decided to apply for funding and carry out this project during a time of changes and multiple challenges caused by the pandemic. As we are one of the few By and For Deaf and Disabled People Organisations in the UK, we considered it was particularly important that our web site is fully accessible._
_The impact of the pandemic on victims and survivors of domestic abuse was 2021 has highlighted existing inequalities, but it has also created new ones. For example, even though police responses to disabled survivors were poor_
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_before the pandemic, 2021 exposed an unwillingness to investigate cases of harassment or hate crime, especially where the victim are disabled women. Victims felt that were blamed or dismissed and their voices were not heard. The reality showed us that disabled women (and particularly black and minoritised disabled women) don’t trust the criminal justice system. During this time, due to the lockdown, the majority of the Court cases (for example in the Family Courts) were conducted remotely. The accessibility needs of the survivors of domestic abuse were often not met._
_Remote access to health care, especially to GPs, meant domestic abuse was less likely to be noticed and reported. For disabled women who may not know about domestic abuse services, GPs are the one place they feel safe to disclose their situation. The mainstream services were overwhelmed due to increase in selfreferrals and referrals from third parties, as well as due to the lack of specialised support for disabled survivors. This resulted in a huge increase in demand for our services, to the point where we had to set up a waiting list for the first time since Stay Safe East was established._
_Disabled victims reported an increased sense of isolation and helplessness during the lockdown – our clients often indicated an increased feeling of anxiety and vulnerability. The demand for our counselling support has increased significantly. A similar feeling of increased anxiety and vulnerability was reported by SSE staff and, similarly, there was an increased demand for staff accessing counselling and reflective practice support. It must be mentioned here that as an organisation we were faced with increased staff sickness._
_During this year, staff continued to work from home – as a protecting measure to address risks to their health. However, this has further increased their sense of isolation. In order to combat that, we increased the amount of money staff could access in order to purchase private counselling sessions – to one thousand pound/year (or more if needed). SSE also offered regular staff meetings on Zoom, in order to reduce the feeling of isolation. Clients and staff all tried to navigate these special circumstances as best as we could.”_
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Ioana Hanis
**----- End of picture text -----**
Stay Safe East CEO
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## **Stay Safe East**
## **Report of activities 2021-2022**
## **1. Introduction**
The Trustees present their report of activities for the year ended March 31[st] 2022.
The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in the Notes to the accounts and comply with Stay Safe East’s governing document, applicable law and the requirements of the Statement of Recommended Practice “Accounting and Reporting by Charities” preparing accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Charities Act 2011.
Stay Safe East is a registered charity (as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation) established in 2013. It remains the only user- led ‘by and for’ organisation in the UK providing long-term advocacy and support to disabled victims/survivors of multiple forms of abuse: domestic and sexual abuse and other forms of Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG), hate crime, harassment, cuckooing, abuse by care workers or personal assistants (which we consider to be domestic abuse), and abuse in residential and other institutions.
Stay Safe East seeks to use the expertise and evidence from our casework to inform our policy work at London-wide and national level. We aim to help remove the barriers to justice and equal responses to disabled survivors and to ensure that the voices of disabled survivors are heard by policy makers and other providers. We also provide casework advice, training, consultancy and capacity building services to statutory and voluntary organisations in the field.
## **2. Governing document and Objects of the Charity**
Stay Safe East is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). It was registered as a charity with the Charity Commission in September 2013 and is governed by its charity governing document. Stay Safe East is a disabled people’s organisation run by and for the benefit of disabled people.
## **Stay Safe East’s Objects are** :
- (1) To relieve the distress and suffering caused to Deaf and disabled people by hate crime, harassment, domestic or sexual violence or other forms of abuse;
- (2) To promote the human rights of deaf and disabled people in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;
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- (3) Such purposes as are exclusively charitable in accordance with the law of England and Wales as the Trustees may from time to time decide.
## **3. Stay Safe East’s objectives during its ninth year:**
- To continue to provide accessible and holistic support and advocacy to disabled survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, hate crime, harassment and other forms of abuse, and to support our staff and volunteers to deliver a quality and safe service to clients. This was revised to include supporting our clients through the Covid 19 pandemic;
- To develop our casework with disabled survivors across London through the London Victims and Witness Service, the Ascent Partnership and the CATCH partnership and other partnerships;
- To share our expertise with Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPOs) and organisations working on Violence against Women and Girls through casework advice, capacity building, training and briefings;
- To further develop Stay Safe East’s role as an expert organisation speaking out on behalf of disabled survivors of gender-based violence, hate crime and other abuse;
- To work to improve operational responses to disabled victims/survivors by the Metropolitan Police, Crown Prosecution Service, local authorities and other agencies;
- To work to ensure that London and national policy and strategies on hate crime, violence against women and girls and victims’ rights include appropriate measures to meet the needs of disabled survivors;
- To strengthen the financial and organisational resilience of Stay Safe East, its management structure and processes in order to help it grow sustainably.
## **4. Trustees**
The Trustees are elected by the Charity’s members at the annual general meeting for a period of up to three years. Trustees are offered an induction, including presentations by staff, background material and information on the Charity’s principal activities. Trustees are all unpaid volunteers and may claim reasonable out of pocket expenses. The Trustees who served during the year are listed on the first page. There were six Trustees during the year. Two clients who are members of the Board have chosen to remain anonymous to protect their safety. There were no new Trustees appointed during the year. All Trustees
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contribute to major decisions which impact on the organisation, bring new ideas and experiences and help shape the priorities of the Charity.
## **5. Organisational Structure and Staffing**
The Stay Safe East Board is responsible for overseeing the work of the organisation and setting strategic direction. The Board has six members, including two user representatives. The Board appoints the Chair of Stay Safe East, who supports the Chief Executive (CEO). As Stay Safe East has grown, we have changed the way we appoint staff – Board members are now usually only involved in the selection process for senior posts.
The Chair has delegated powers to take necessary decisions between scheduled Board meetings and is responsible for appraising the performance of the CEO on behalf of the Board.
Board meetings were held 4 times in the year; all meetings were held remotely on Zoom. Other decisions were made by the Board by e-mail, or in some instances on Chair’s Action. The CEO gives the Board an account of the progress of the Charity’s work, reports on financial matters, brings issues requiring particular attention and gets agreement for forward work.
During the year, the day-to-day financial administration was managed by a bookkeeper who worked with the CEO and interim financial manager to prepare management information for the Board and also did the monthly payroll. Ruth Bashall acted as interim financial manager and prepared reports to funders alongside with the CEO and newly recruited financial manager, who was learning from Ruth during her induction/handover.
**Two new staff joined us:** we successfully filled the vacancy for the Finance and HR and Operations Manager; we recruited an additional full time Independent Disability and Domestic Violence Advocate (IDDVA). We were able to keep all members of staff on in the following year.
Our previous Chief Executive Ruth Bashall had been leading the organisation since 2011 and wanted to step back in order to focus on policy work and developing new projects. We were lucky to be able to appoint Ioana Hanis to the post in March 2021. Ioana brought a wealth of experience as an Operations Manager on Violence against Women and Girls with Victim Support London and has also worked with domestic abuse and trafficking survivors across England. As a disabled woman she has the lived experience that is essential to leading an organisation run by and for disabled survivors.
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**----- Start of picture text -----**
CEO
Trustee Board
Policy and
Projects Advisor
Finance and Policy Officer
Operations (Job-share)
Manager (1FTE)
Bookkeeper
(freelance)
Secondee to
other DDPOs
Domestic
IVA and Hate
(14 hours)
Administrator Violence/VAWG Crime Team
Casework
(14 hours) Manager
Manager
(FT)
(FT)
General
advocate
(14 hours)
6 Disability & 2 x PT
Domestic Benefits and Volunteer Hate crime
Violence Entitlements Advocates
Advocates Advocate (1 FTE)
(4.1 FTE) (28 hrs)
**----- End of picture text -----**
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## **6. Financial report**
In spite of the Challenges of the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stay Safe East ended the year in a sound financial position. The Trustees regularly consider the finances of the Charity and receive reports from the Treasurer and CEO to ensure that it is a going concern. They are satisfied that this is the case at the date of this report. Budgets and cash flow projections are drawn up to ensure proper governance.
***** _**Unaudited Financial Statements are available on www.staysafe-east.org.uk and on the Charity Commission website** ._
|**Stay Safe East: Summary of financial activities 2021-22**|**Stay Safe East: Summary of financial activities 2021-22**|**Stay Safe East: Summary of financial activities 2021-22**|
|---|---|---|
|**Income during the year:**|**£**|**543,623**|
|**Expenditure during the year:**|**£**|**504.309**|
|Surplus of income over expenditure: £||39,314|
|Reserves brought forward|£|189,696|
|**Total funds of the charity**|**£**|**229,010**|
|_of which -_|||
|Restricted funds:
|£|80,021|
|Unrestricted funds:
|£|148,989|
The Board has been steadily increasing our reserves. The unrestricted reserves represent three months running costs/winding down costs, as recommended by CIPFA and the Charity Commission.
Our income came from a mix of grants, contracts for casework and capacity building, and donations. Due to the pandemic, there was only a small amount of independent income from training during the year.
## **The Board would like to thank our funders for their support, and for the flexibility they showed during a very difficult year:**
- Three Guineas Trust
- Trust for London
- Mayor’s Office on Policing and Crime (MOPAC)
- London Community Response Fund
- Home Office
- Ministry of Justice
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Income also came from contracts, the first three of which originate with MOPAC:
- London Victim and Witness Service via Victim Support
- CATCH Hate Crime Partnership
- Ascent Partnership
- Hate Crime Advocacy Capacity Building (via Inclusion London)
This was the second year of our grant for core costs from Three Guineas Trust, which funded most of the CEO’s salary, (and the overlap between the outgoing and the incoming CEO), a Policy Officer post and Finance and Operations Manager post plus core administrative costs. This core funding provides us with security and the funds to create a management structure which is fit for purpose as the charity grows. This will help ensure the long-term sustainability of the Charity.
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## **Supporting victims/survivors of abuse and other crimes**
## **1. The numbers**
In 2021-22, Stay Safe East supported **199 clients** , the **highest number of clients** supported compared to previous years.
|**Year**|**All clients**|**Domestic/**
**sexual violence**|**Hate crime**
**and CATCH**|**General**
**crime**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|2017-18|98|70|16|12|
|2018-19|102|59|29|14|
|2019-20|154|93|43|18|
|2020-21|194|118|56|20|
|**2021-22**|**199**|**81**|**74**|**22**|
* _**22 clients also accessed supported from the Benefits Advocate. Some clients**_
## _**also had support from the General Advocate and the volunteer. They are included in the above.**_
|**Sex**|**Domestic**
**abuse/ sexual**
**violence**|**Hate crime**|**Hate crime**|**General**
**crime/IVA**|**Totals**||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**CATCH**|**East London**||**No.**|**%**|
||||**HC**||||
|**Female**|71|25|15|17|**128**|**72%**|
|**Male**|7|7|17|4|**35**|**20%**|
|**Other**|3|7|3|1|**14**|**8%**|
|**Sexuality**|**Domestic and**
**sexual**
**violence**|**Hate crime**|**Hate crime**|**General**
**crime**|**Totals**||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**CATCH**|**East**||**No**|**%**|
||||**London**
**HC**||||
|**Heterosexual**|69|18|18|21|**126**|**71%**|
|**Lesbian**|1|0|0|0|**1**|**1%**|
|**Gay men**|0|0|3|0|**3**|**2%**|
|**Bisexual**|3|2|1|1|**7**|**4%**|
|**Not disclosed**|8|19|13|0|**40**|**22%**|
|**Age**|Majority of clients were between the age of**26-60.**
Ouryoungest client is 19. Our oldest client is 86.|
|---|---|
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|**Ethnicity**|**DV/SV**|**Hate crime**|**Hate crime**|**General**
**crime/IVA**|**Total %**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**CATCH**|**East**|||
||||**London**
**HC**|||
|**Asian British**|2|0|2|4|**5%**|
|**Asian Indian**|2|0|0|1|**2%**|
|**Asian Pakistani**|8|0|0|1|**5%**|
|**Asian Bangladeshi**|2|0|0|0|**1%**|
|**Asian Sri Lankan**|0|0|0|0|**0%**|
|**East Asian**|0|0|0|0|**0%**|
|**Asian other**|3|1|0|2|**3%**|
|**Black British**|12|1|1|2|**9%**|
|**Black African**|2|1|3|0|**3%**|
|**Black Caribbean**|1|0|0|0|**1%**|
|**Black other**|0|0|0|0|**0%**|
|**Mixed heritage **|2|0|1|0|**2%**|
|**White British**|39|10|14|11|**41%**|
|**White European**|0|0|0|0|**0%**|
|**White Other**|1|2|1|1|**3%**|
|**European other**|1|1|0|0|**1%**|
|**Mixed Other**|1|0|0|0|**1%**|
|**Arab Middle**
**Eastern**|0|0|0|0|**0%**|
|**Other**|0|1|3|0|**2%**|
|**Not disclosed**|5|22|10|0|**21%**|
|**Impairment*****_clients_**
**_may have more_**
**_than 1 impairment_**|**DV/SV**|**Hate Crime**|**Hate Crime**|**Hate Crime**|**General**
**crime**|**%**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**CATCH**||**East**
**London**
**HC**|||
|Physical impairment|42|9||3|14|**38%**|
|Deaf BSL user|0|0||0|0|**0%**|
|Hearing Impairment|1|**0**||**0**|**0**|**1%**|
|Visual impairment|1|2||**0**|**0**|**2%**|
|Learningdisability|20|2||2|5|**16%**|
|Long-term mental
health|25|7||8|10|**28%**|
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|Longterm condition|2|4|1|2|**5%**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Neurological
impairment|2|0|0|0|**1%**|
|Neuro-diverse|6|5|1|0|**7%**|
|Terminal condition|0|0|0|0|**0%**|
|Not disclosed|0|22|20|0|**24%**|
## **2. Domestic abuse/ Violence Against Disabled Women**
The team supports survivors of domestic abuse which takes place in a context of widespread Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG). Our clients have rarely experienced only one form of abuse, and may be survivors of institutional abuse, sexual violence or rape, trafficking or other forms of abuse. Like all ‘by and for’ VAWG specialist services, we do not limit our work to supporting clients around domestic abuse but deal with the survivor’s whole experience and let her set the priorities.
Our domestic abuse workers are Independent Disability and Domestic Violence Advocates (IDDVAs) who are disabled women, as such as they work within an intersectional social model of disability approach and act as positive role models for clients through being disabled women in a position of responsibility.
Since March 12th 2020, Stay Safe East staff including our VAWG team have been working from home. This proved to be a major change for staff to adapt to. Continuing support to the VAWG team staff through this time was done by more frequent supervision, a supportive WhatsApp group to discuss cases and having virtual team meetings, including weekly team meetings for the domestic abuse team. Staff were receiving monthly coaching support and counselling sessions. Staff also had the opportunity to attend bi-weekly team and full service meetings.
During **2021-2022** , the domestic abuse team worked with **81 clients** of whom:
- **35 were new referrals**
- **46 were existing clients**
- **No client declined our service when we made initial contact with them**
- **71 were women**
|**Sexuality**|**Number of clients**|**Percentage **|
|---|---|---|
|Heterosexual|69|**84%**|
|Gaymen|0|**0%**|
|Lesbian|1|**1%**|
|Bisexual|2|**4%**|
|Not disclosed|9|**11%**|
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|**Impairment (**_many clients have more than_
_one impairment)_|Number of
clients|Percentage|
|---|---|---|
|Physical impairment|42|**51%**|
|Deaf BSL user|0|**0%**|
|HearingImpairment|1|**1%**|
|Visual impairment|1|**1%**|
|Learningdisability|20|**24%**|
|Long-term mental health|25|**30%**|
|Other longterm health condition|2|**2%**|
|Neurological impairment|2|**2%**|
|Neuro-diverse|6|**7%**|
|Terminal condition|0|**0%**|
* _**Most Deaf BSL users prefer to access SignHealth, the specialist service for Deaf survivors of domestic abuse.**_
|**Ethnicity**|**DV/SV**|
|---|---|
|||
|**Asian British**|2|
|**Asian Indian**|2|
|**Asian Pakistani**|8|
|**Asian Bangladeshi**|2|
|**Asian Sri Lankan**|0|
|**East Asian**|0|
|**Asian other**|3|
|**Black British**|12|
|**Black African**|2|
|**Black Caribbean**|1|
|**Black other**|0|
|**Mixed heritage **|2|
|**White British**|39|
|**White European**|0|
|**White Other**|1|
|**European other**|1|
|**Mixed Other**|1|
|**Arab Middle Eastern**|0|
|**Other**|0|
|**Not disclosed**|5|
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* _**As our presence across London increases, we will aim to reach disabled migrant women, and survivors from communities who are not yet aware of us.**_
|**Perpetrators**|Number|Percentage|
|---|---|---|
|Malepartner or husband or ex-partner|61|**72%**|
|Wife of male victim|0|**0%**|
|Adult child|5|**6%**|
|Femalepartner of female victim|1|**1%**|
|Teenage child|1|**1%**|
|Grandson|1|**1%**|
|Sibling|2|**2%**|
|Son in Law|1|**1%**|
|Step-father|1|**1%**|
|Paid carers or PAs|2|**1%**|
|Co-resident or close friend|0|**0%**|
|Other|6|**6%**|
## **The support we provide to clients**
The support given by the domestic abuse team support to clients includes:
- Giving the client time to tell their story, sometimes for the first time – or often for the time to someone who believes them;
- Safety planning and disability risk assessment;
- Supporting clients to obtain non-molestation orders and occupation orders to remove the abuser from their home;
- supporting clients to report to the police (including attending Achieving Best Evidence interviews with the client);
- Making options accessible and working with the survivor to help her decide what actions she wants to take options for disabled victims of domestic abuse;
- Support to access safe and suitable accommodation for their individual access needs; help with tenancy management;
- Support to apply for care packages and OT assessments;
- Support for the client if the case is referred to adult safeguarding;
- Support to women on child protection plans and going through care proceedings who are facing their children being removed from their care and helping them to negotiate the Family Courts - however during lockdown this has involved remote hearings by phone which has meant increased discrimination and injustice for disabled mothers.
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- Support around child protection, safeguarding and care proceedings;
- Supporting clients around mental health issues such as helping them speak to mental health professionals and helping them get their repeat prescription. Support to challenge discriminatory approaches, for example refusal of services to women diagnosed with “Borderline Personality Disorder”;
- Support to attend care proceedings cases and post hearing meetings to explain what was said during the hearings and what this meant for clients, and assist them to respond to legal documents;
- Contacting other agencies such as solicitors or MPs when agencies do not take client’s cases seriously;
- Support to client who was hospitalised with Covid to be discharged safely from the hospital.
All clients were provided with emotional support. We work at clients’ pace and work with them in a way that takes into consideration their access needs.
In 2021-22, the domestic abuse team supported **29 mothers, one grandmother and one father of children under 18** . Between them they had 58 children.
- **14 mothers (48% of just under half) and one father** did not live with their children; of the 31 children of these parents, at least ten have no contact with their parent except letter box contact. The one father and all of these mothers either have learning disabilities or long-term mental health issues.
- 4 mothers had contact with their children because they were living with a family member under a Special Guardianship Order.
- **5 mothers’ children were on a Child in Need or Child Protection plan** during the year. Two CIN plans were closed during the year.
- **6 mothers were in court because of care proceedings** by the local authority
- **Of these, 2 disabled mothers had a child adopted during the year,** three saw their children placed in foster care and one kept her children with her.
Supporting disabled mothers through the child protection process and the courts is a particularly difficult task for our advocates. Our clients understand the injustice of what has happened to them and their children. We continue to support the mothers after care proceedings end, as they are traumatised by the loss of their children. In most if not all cases, the best interests of the child could have been served by staying with the mother.
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In the ten years that we have been doing this work it has become more likely that the courts will remove the children of disabled mothers and particularly women with learning disabilities. We have raised our concerns with the Head of the Family Court Division but have yet to see any real change. We hope that the recognition in the Domestic Abuse Act of children as victims of domestic abuse in their own right may have shifted the debate towards the right of these children to a safe family life with their own mother, whether or not she needs some support to parent them.
Many of the clients referred to the VAWG service have had found their mental health has deteriorated throughout the pandemic. With support of their IDDVA, clients have been able to take their first steps towards second tier mental health services, however this has then been met with long waiting lists for support leaving clients struggling to manage day to day.
## _**Case study 1:**_
_Client A waited 6 months for a learning disability diagnosis. She then had to wait another two months for a care needs assessment. During this process her IDDVA suspected that she lacked capacity around keeping herself safe. A although referral was sent to raise concerns, she waited a long time for a capacity assessment despite experiencing abuse and exploitation from three different men. The IDDVA has raised safeguarding alerts and referred the case to MARAC for professional oversight. Eventually our IDDVA had to raise a complaint due to the inaction of adult social care. Without her IDDVA being there to provide long term support, A would not have been able to access the support from statutory services she desperately needed._
## _**Case study 2:**_
## **Situation:**
_Client B was living with the perpetrator and her son. Client made the decision to leave the household and approached the local authority for emergency accommodation. The client was placed in temporary accommodation with significant disrepair. This affected her health to the point that she had to attend A&E for her breathing._
**Services provided:**
_Stay Safe East spent over a week trying to request for better quality of accommodation. The IDDVA repeatedly challenged the housing department, contacted the MP, referred the client to Shelter and contacted multiple solicitors to request a judicial review as the council said they had inspected the property and there was no disrepair. Through persistence, the local_
22
_authority eventually offered a new temporary accommodation that met the client’s disability and health needs._
## **Outcome:**
_The client was provided with accessible temporary accommodation that did not negatively affect her health._
## **Any learning:**
_Through being able to work intensively and holistically, Stay Safe East was able to put in the hours of work ensure that the local authority met their duties. Stay Safe East believes this demonstrates the value of services that can work intensively with victims._
## **3. Hate crime and cuckooing**
Our hate crime service has two strands:
A) An established local service in **East London** with a part-time advocate who supported **35 disabled victims** , of whom:
- **31** victims of disablist, homophobic or racist hate crime;
- **2** victims of cuckooing;
- **2** victims of ASB/harassment.
One of the major challenges we have faced between 2021-2022 whilst trying to support our clients victims of Hate Crime, has been problems liaising with the police and other key services during lockdown - with so many people working from home and also not having access to work numbers or office extensions that we could call, it was very time consuming trying to get action taken to keep someone safe when there were concerns. A lot of the time, police investigations were held up by the fact that officers who were collecting evidence were not reachable due to working shift hours. This was particularly frustrating for clients, because they lacked the sense of security that things are moving along and they were being taken seriously.
## _**Case study:**_
_Our client was out shopping, when a person pushed him and spat on him. He felt this happened because he was disabled - they seemed to have contempt for him. When he got home, he reported it to the police. He mentioned that the perpetrator may have worked there._
_The investigating officer informed him they were doing shift work at the moment, so there would be a delay, but they would call him back with an update. A month later, the officer contacted and closed his case. She said there was nothing more_
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_she could do - CCTV was not available, and without a name they had not been able to find the perpetrator._
_Our client was not satisfied with this explanation, since he reported immediately, but the CCTV was allowed to expire. He was frustrated that they had not made an attempt to find out who the person was._
_A police complaint was filed on his behalf: the allocated HC advocate asked what happened when the police officer spoke to the shop owner and what caused the delay in getting the CCTV. It took several months to agree on the “heads of complaint”, which were the same as our client’s two original points, but worded differently (according to phrases used in police complaints). This was a timeconsuming process: it took weeks after confirming one to receive new suggested adjustments._
_A year later, we received the outcome: the complaint had been recorded but did not meet standards for a formal investigation. Our client was told he has the right to appeal this decision, but he did not want to take it any further. Client said that although the whole process had been stressful and frustrating he was very thankful for all the support received from his allocated HC advocate, and that without the support received from Stay Safe East he would not have been able to get through the process. Client was offered ongoing support to address his other needs, including emotional support via counselling._
## **B) CATCH:**
This is a London wide service as part of the London wide CATCH partnership which has been operating since early 2019. This year, the part-time CATCH advocate supported **39 disabled victims of hate crime** across 13 London boroughs. Stay Safe East works with two other disabled people’s organisations (DDPO’s) to cover the growing numbers of CATCH referrals.
|**Hate crime type**|**Percentage**|
|---|---|
|**Race**|**27%**|
|**Sexual Orientation**|**0%**|
|**Transphobia**|**0%**|
|**Anti-Muslim**|**0%**|
|**Antisemitism**|**7%**|
|**Disability**|**100%**|
|**Other**|**13%**|
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|**Casework activity**|**Percentage**|
|---|---|
|**Emotional support**|**67%**|
|**Information/advice**|**67%**|
|**Advocacy**|**53%**|
|**Support around criminal justice**|**27%**|
## _**Case study:**_
_“Client C was the victim of two disability hate crimes by other students at her university hall of residence, where she also worked. Targeted posters were stuck on the walls mimicking a notice from the Metropolitan Police mocking her disability and her blue badge car was defaced. The police originally dropped the case but it was re-opened after a complaint, and it was investigated more thoroughly. However, the Metropolitan Police only gave one perpetrator out of three a caution and declined to take the case further or refer it to the CPS because they felt it would not be prosecuted due to the perpetrators being university aged. An officer then admitted to my client that he could have done more and that he didn’t question the perpetrators enough in the interview. Client C was deeply impacted by these hate crimes and being told this by an officer caused even more hurt, depression, and anxiety. M. withdrew from her friends and family, was scared to leave her room, and started struggling with her university course._
_Stay Safe East CATCH advocate offered significant emotional support to C. with regular calls and discussions, as well as offering referrals for mental health support. Our CATCH advocate supported her to get further support from her university, including an extension for her final year exams due to mitigating circumstances. This allowed her to recover enough to get a first in her degree. The advocate liaised with the police and supported C. in contacting her MP. A complaint was made to the police due to the failures in her case. Through the support received, client C has felt more empowered and voiced her gratitude multiple times._
## _Client C shared:_
_“I hope you know how special you are. You have honestly saved my life. I wish every victim of crime had the chance to speak with you even just one time because I know what a big difference even talking to you once would make. Your work and the work that Stay Safe East does is so important and I am so grateful to you for everything you have done for me.”_
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## **Who we worked with**
|**Sex**|**CATCH**|**CATCH**|**East London HC**|**East London HC**|**East London HC**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Female**|25||15|||
|**Male**|7||17|||
|**Other**|7||3|||
|||||||
|**Sexuality**|**CATCH**||**East London HC**|||
|**Heterosexual**|18|||18||
|**Lesbian**|0|||0||
|**Gay men**|0|||3||
|**Bisexual**|2|||1||
|**Prefer not to say**|19|||13||
|**Ethnicity**|||**Hate**|**crime**||
|||**CATCH**|||**East London HC**|
|Asian British||0|||2|
|Asian Indian||0|||0|
|Asian Pakistani||0|||0|
|Asian Bangladeshi||0|||0|
|Asian Sri Lankan||0|||0|
|East Asian||0|||0|
|Asian other||1|||0|
|Black British||1|||1|
|Black African||1|||3|
|Black Caribbean||0|||0|
|Black other||0|||0|
|Mixed heritage||0|||1|
|White British||10|||14|
|White European||0|||0|
|White Other||2|||1|
|European other||1|||0|
|Mixed Other||0|||0|
|Arab Middle Eastern||0|||0|
|Other||1|||3|
|Not disclosed||22|||10|
|||||||
|**Impairment**
(many clients have more than
one impairment)|||||**East London HC**|
|||**CATCH**||||
|||||||
|**Physical impairment**||9|||3|
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|**Deaf BSL user**|0|0|
|---|---|---|
|**Hearing Impairment**|0|0|
|**Visual impairment**|2|0|
|**Learning disability**|2|2|
|**Long-term mental health**|7|8|
|**Long term condition**|4|1|
|**Neurological impairment**|0|0|
|**Neuro-diverse**|5|1|
|**Terminal condition**|0|0|
|**Not disclosed**|22|20|
## **4. Independent Victims Advocate/General crime**
Our Independent Victim’s Advocate (IVA) is the only specialist IVA we are aware of. She is also the Manager of the Hate Crime Advocates. Her role is to support disabled victims of a wide range of crimes that are neither domestic/sexual abuse or hate crime: financial abuse, institutional abuse, assault, harassment etc. The IVA also takes on a small number of complex hate crime cases where there are other issues relating to past abuse, housing issues, school bullying etc. This is the third year of the service.
The IVA supported **22 clients** across **12 London boroughs** in 2021-22, of whom:
- **14 were new referrals;**
- **16** were rated **high to medium risk;**
- **17** of the IVA’s clients **are women** , reflecting a greater incident of disabled women being targeted for abuse and other crimes.
- **Ages of clients** ranged from 19 to 70.
|**Sex**|**General crime/IVA**|
|---|---|
|||
|Female|17|
|Male|4|
|Other|1|
|||
|**Sexuality**|**General crime/IVA**|
|Heterosexual|21|
|Bisexual|1|
|Gayman|0|
|Lesbian|0|
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|**Ethnicity**|**Number**|**%**|
|---|---|---|
|Asian – British|4|**17%**|
|Asian - Indian|1|**5%**|
|Asian - Pakistani|1|**5%**|
|Asian - Other|2|**9%**|
|Black – British|2|**9%**|
|Black African|0|**0%**|
|Black Caribbean|0|**0%**|
|Black other|0|**0%**|
|White – British|11|**50%**|
|White – European|0|**0**|
|White – Other|1|**5%**|
|Mixed heritage|0|**0**|
||||
|**Primary impairment**|**Number**|**%**|
|---|---|---|
|Deaf|0|**0%**|
|Physical impairment|14|**34%**|
|Visual impairment|0|**0%**|
|Hearingimpairment|0|**0%**|
|Learningdisability|5|**13%**|
|Mental health|10|**24%**|
|Longterm condition|2|**5%**|
|Neuro-diversity|0|**0%**|
|Neurological Impairment|0|**0%**|
|Long-term Mental health|10|**24%**|
_**Case study:**_
## **Crime type: Ongoing threats and harassment, historic Abuse**
_Client D self-referred to us having previously used another service at Stay Safe East. D’s case is an example of the need for services such as Stay Safe East’s._
_D has a learning difficulty and mental health issues arising from the trauma she experienced as a child and a young person brought up in the care system as a result of abuse and neglect by her parents. At the time referred for support from the IVA, she was being targeted by individuals for criminal activity, pressuring her to partake in drug & alcohol abuse, with threats of violence to_
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_gain access to her home, seeking to cuckoo her property and threatening to ‘get her’ if she reported them to the police. Because of her refusal to let them into her property, they have repeatedly caused damage; kicking the front door, damaging the addendum wall, locks, door and letterbox leaving a gaping hole wherein they could see into the property and climbing over the wall at the back to gain access._
_The perpetrators’ incessant noise and anti-social behaviour has put the victim’s tenancy in jeopardy, with neighbours associating the continuous noise disturbance to her address and reporting this to the council, who in turn began the process that could lead to her eventual eviction._
## **Services provided:**
The allocated IVA provided a range of support to this client, including:
- Advocating on her behalf with the council in relation to repair issues
- Advocating to stop the beginning of the process of eviction
- Providing advocacy and support on matters of safety planning, thereby avoiding harassment and intimidation, as well as links to antisocial behaviour
- Applying for charity funding on victim’s behalf in order to obtain necessary household items
- Liaising with housing in order to try to obtain a rehousing
## **Outcome:**
Victim was kept safe; had a measure of wellbeing due to Stay Safe East’s involvement.
## **Learning:**
The learning is that sadly, the police and local authorities often fail victims learning difficulties, not appearing to listen and understand when they try to raise issues surrounding their safety and wellbeing.
## _**Client stated:**_
_“I’m very grateful for what you do for me, I know that I sometimes get stressed and impatient and take it out on you but I really appreciate everything and I’m thankful that you still help me because if it was anyone else they wouldn’t do it so I just want to say thank you.”_
## **5. General advocacy and client safety checks**
We used some funds from reserves and were able to continue to employ a parttime general advocate to support the casework advocates and our volunteer.
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## **Her role was three-fold:**
- A) General advocacy and tasks such as emergency food packages or shopping, obtaining a direct payment for client’s care package, completing forms, arranging appointments, chasing actions on behalf of the advocates
- B) Regular weekly emotional support and safety calls to clients at high risk of suicide or in poor health. Our volunteer continued with calls to clients at lower risk who are isolated or need emotional support, including some long-term clients to whom we provided the only social contact during the pandemic. The advocate and the volunteer provided information about Covid safety, dispelling myths and helping clients stick to lockdown rules and put them in touch with volunteers. The lack of home visits by mental health professionals for clients in mental distress meant we had to make frequent calls to clients and in effect became their main source of support.
- C) Processing referrals and enquiries.
We are indebted to our long-term volunteer who continued to contact clients right through the pandemic. She is known and trusted by clients. Her commitment is appreciated by staff and the Board.
## **6. Benefits and Entitlements Advocate**
The Benefits Advocate supported **22 Stay Safe East clients** during the year with the following:
- Emergency food provision (food banks, NHS responders)
- New clients received a benefits check to assess if they were missing out on any benefit
- Assisting clients to gather medical evidence, fit notes and other evidence for benefits claims
- Personal Independence Payment (PIP) applications, Mandatory reconsiderations, SSCS1s, and Tribunal Appeals, advice on existing Disability Living Allowance claims
- Attendance allowance claim and help to sort out Pension Credit payments
- Claims for Universal credit
- Help to complete and evidence Limited Capability for Work forms (disability element) and support at assessments
- Ensuring that errors in Employment Support Allowance, Universal Credit and other benefits were corrected by the DWP
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- Support to claim additional nursery hours for the client’s child
- Health support and advocacy
- Application for Special Guardianship (SGO) allowance
- Child benefit claims/reviews, child tax credits claims/complaints to HMRC
- Support in benefit fraud investigation
- Housing benefit claims/support, Council tax reduction claims
- Housing repairs issues
- Negotiating over water bills arrears
- Applying to grant giving trusts for grants for furniture, white goods, clothing and other essentials
- Support to move house
- Challenging financial assessments for community care charges
- Referrals for qualified free debt advice and management; help with basic budgeting
- Applying for Blue Badges, Motability, Freedom Pass, Taxicard and other entitlements
- Small grants for essential equipment, white goods, clothes, furniture etc.
Like all our advocates, the Benefits Advocate provided emotional support to her clients.
## **Feedback from clients:**
The Benefits Advocate had ongoing feedback conversations with clients, as well as asking some clients the following three questions:
- 1) Do you feel you understand more about this problem now?
- 2) As a result of using this service, do you feel you have more control over your situation?
- 3) As a result of using this service, do you feel more confident to stand up for your rights?
Our clients have all expressed that they feel more confident to stand up for their rights in terms of welfare benefits, with support. Many say that it feels too overwhelming to address things by themselves due to lack of trust in DWP and long hold times on the telephone etc. The majority have expressed that they feel they understand more about the problem and feel they have more control over their financial situations, however many remain anxious over benefit renewals etc.
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## Stay Safe East Policy and Change Work
Stay Safe East’s policy work is about speaking out about the violence against disabled people, and particularly disabled women. The responses we write to dry policy documents, the meetings we attend, the letters we write or co-sign are about our passion to ensure that disabled survivors get the support, safety and justice they need and deserve – and most of all that the abuse is prevented. We are grateful to the **Three Guineas Trust** for funding our policy posts and their continued support which has helped us give survivors a national voice. Our thanks also to **Stay Safe East’s Chair** for her excellent help with key responses to government legislation.
## **1. Violence against women and girls**
It is impossible to discuss our work on violence against women and girls (VAWG) without referring to two high profile cases of women murdered in London:
- **Sabina Nessa** who was murdered in South East London in September 2021
**Sarah Everard** , whose murderer, a serving Metropolitan Police officer was convicted of her murder in June 2021.
They were two of the many women killed in the UK by partners, family members and strangers https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-56365412.There are no accurate records of the number of disabled women murdered, or who they were, but we do know that disabled women are almost three time more likely to experience domestic abuse than non-disabled women, and twice as likely to be the victim of rape or sexual assault, and that disabled men are much more likely than non-disabled men to be victims of domestic abuse.
We also know that disabled people continue to be abused in institutional settings such as Whorlton Hall in County Durham. This case was an exception in being uncovered by the media and the abusers were charged in October 2021 - - - - https://www.theguardian.com/uk news/2021/oct/01/nine charged with
- - - - - - abuse of vulnerable patients in county durham. However most abuse against disabled people goes unnoticed, unreported and continues due to significant failures by the adult safeguarding system and by the criminal justice system.
Though we were not able to get our amendments included in the Domestic Abuse (DA) Act which became law in April 2021, our interventions have put the issues of violence against disabled women and abuse of disabled people generally onto the national policy agenda. In 2021-22, the Stay Safe East Policy
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Team focused on the implementation of the Act. We provided detailed comments on the DA Act guidance for statutory services, some of which were taken on board, for example in the inclusion of example in the guidance of disability specific forms of coercive behaviour. We have welcomed some of the provisions of the Act, for example the much broader definition of coercive behaviour, the recognition of children as victims in their own right and enabling survivors to transfer a secure tenancy to new social housing accommodation. Nevertheless we share the concerns of many ‘ _by and for’_ organisations that the overall Violence against Women and Girls strategy, published in late March 2021 fails to address structural inequalities faced by minoritized survivors, including disabled survivors.
## **2. Safe Care at Home Review**
After the majority vote in the House of Lords in favour of one of our amendments, Minister Victoria Atkins committed the government to a review of abuse of disabled people by non-family ‘carers’. Work on the Safe Care at Home Review began in Autumn 2021[1] .
Stay Safe East helped shape the Terms of Reference and encouraged the civil servants working on the review to engage with user-led Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPOs). At time of writing, the review is not yet completed. We hope that the review will start to address the silence about the abuse of disabled people by ‘carers’ who they may be close to but are not considered to be domestic abuse perpetrators, and enable victims to access the support they need and deserve.
## **3. Policy responses**
The Policy Team and the CEO also worked on a range of responses to new draft legislation and to government policy initiatives. For full details, please go to - - - - - our website: https://www.staysafe east.org.uk//policy/stay safe east policy - - responses and statements
• **The call for evidence on the Women’s Health Strategy** where we called for the definition of culturally competent care to be broadened to include disability. We argued for a social model of disability and trauma informed approach to women’s health and recommended access to health advocates, accessible screening facilities, information and communication support, and
> 1 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safe-care-at-home-review-terms-of-reference
33
education on safe relationships that includes the different lived experiences and bodies of disabled women.
- **Reforming the Mental Health Act** – we argued for a human rights based
- approach to mental health.
• **Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill** which Stay Safe East opposed, along with many other rights based organisations because of the increased powers it gave to the police to quell legitimate protest, the Bill’s failure to address the barriers for disabled victims of crime within the Criminal Justice System, and the risk of further encroachment on the human rights of people with mental health or learning disabilities.
• **New Plan for Immigration and the Nationality and Borders Bill** which we also opposed, in view of the draconian restrictions it imposed on people seeking asylum, which would have a disproportionate impact on disabled people fleeing persecution and war. The Bill became law in April 2022. We have also supported our sister organisations in the Step Up Migrant Women coalition https://stepupmigrantwomen.org/ in their call for a firewall between the immigration authorities and the police, so that migrant women can report domestic and sexual violence without fear of deportation. So far this call has gone unheeded.
- **Health and Care Bill** – our briefing raised concerns about the Bill allowing
- for disabled people to be discharged from hospital without assessment, leaving them at risk of neglect or abuse.
• **Ofsted review of sexual harassment in schools** – in our correspondence with the civil servants coordinating the review, it became apparent that Deaf and disabled children and young people had been excluded from the review due to the short timetable and lack of accessible methods of consultation.
- **Online Safety Bill** -we have worked with disabled people’s and women’s
- organisations to ensure that online hate and abuse against disabled people is included in the Bill.
• Finally, Stay Safe East contributed our recommendations on the right of disabled people to live free from abuse and exploitation to **the UK Shadow Report on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People** , coordinated by Inclusion London.
## **4. Hate crime policy and partnerships**
In December the long-awaited Law Commission report on the review of Hate Crime Laws[2] . The Commission recommended parity between strands, which
> 2 - https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/hate crime/
34
would mean much stronger laws for disabled victims of hate crime, but did not recommend the inclusion of disability targeted crime in the definition of hate crime. To date, the government has not made any announcements on introducing legislation to implement the recommendations.
Stay Safe East contributed to the Inclusion London Poor Policing Response report on how the police respond to disabled victims of hate crime. A joint seminar for key Metropolitan Police staff is planned by Stay Safe East and Inclusion London for autumn 2022.
Stay Safe East is a founding member of the London Disabled People’s Organisations Hate Crime Partnership, and one of three Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations who are part of the CATCH hate crime partnership, delivery support to victims of hate crime across London. As the only specialist organisation working solely with disabled victims of abuse, we bring evidence and unique expertise to both partnerships.
## **5. Partnerships with the VAWG sector**
Stay Safe East has been an active participant in **Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) networks** in 2021-22. Through fortnightly online VAWG sector meetings, we have been able to influence (and sometimes challenge) our sister organisations about their inclusion of disabled survivors. The network has supported our voice to be heard and included the concerns of disabled survivors in its many interactions with ministers, including letters and meetings with the Home Secretary and the Minister for Safeguarding which we attended. We are especially grateful to **End Violence Against Women (EVAW)** for their steadfast support in challenging exclusion of Deaf and disabled survivors. Along with the Domestic Abuse Commissioner and the Victims’ Commissioner, VAWG organisations have argued for ring-fenced funding for ‘ _by and for’_ services, including those for Deaf and disabled survivors.
## **6. Advisory work and public speaking**
Stay Safe East is a participant in a number of advisory groups:
- **The Home Office group on Ask Ani** , a scheme to enable victims to report domestic abuse at chemists and other businesses;
- Our participation in the **London Mayor’s Office on Policing (MOPAC) VAWG Expert Reference Group** and
- the **Ministry of Justice Expert Advisory Group on safe accommodation** has enabled Stay Safe East to influence the
35
implementation of for example a safe accommodation strategy arising our of the new requirements of Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act;
- We have also been asked for advice by the **Domestic Abuse and the Victims’ Commissioners** on disability related matters, including the Victims Bills, strategies for funding for the sector and the design of the mapping of domestic abuse organisations;
- We attended a roundtable organised by the **Head of the Family Court Division on domestic abuse and the Family Courts** – we shared the experiences of disabled mothers whose children are taken away by the courts after domestic abuse.
Stay Safe East has a key role in educating and informing policy makers and disabled survivors about the specific issues faced by disabled survivors. We gave evidence disability, domestic abuse and mental health to the **All Party Parliamentary Group on Domestic Abuse and Mental Health** . We spoke at the **Women’s Aid ‘Deserve to be Heard’** event on domestic abuse and mental health which focused on the voice of disabled survivors and a staff event for the Lloyds Banking Group on ‘ **Taking Domestic Abuse Out of the Shadows’** . We were also invited to speak about hate crime against disabled people by the **National Forum on Human Rights in Lithuania** , where hate crimes against disabled people are not recognised.
## **7. Challenging poor practice in engagement and consultation**
Following the repeated failure of the Home Office to make its processes accessible when engaging with the VAWG sector, Stay Safe East and our sister organisation SignHealth sought advice from the Centre for Women's Justice, who sent a detailed legal letter to the Home Office outlining the discriminatory impact of the many failures to make reasonable adjustments. This resulted in some initial action from the Home Office, with some improvement in timely production of accessible versions of consultations and on running accessible events, but the same structural problems remain, with disabled people having to do most of the work to ensure we can participate in Home Office (and Ministry of Justice) consultations. We will continue to dialogue with civil servants over this matter but believe it is part of a greater problem across government departments, with very little expertise on inclusive practice.
## **8. Violence against Disabled Women and Girls Advisory Group**
This unique group acts as an advisor to Stay Safe East in our policy work. It enables reflexion, networking and exchange of information between
36
organisations run by and for Deaf or disabled survivors and other VAWG national organisations or service providers. The group met six times during the year and has advised on our policy responses, heard presentations from speakers, including the Chief Social Worker for England, and discussed issued such as the experiences of disabled mothers in the family courts or the restraining of disabled children in special schools. From being initially a group about domestic abuse only, the group decided to rename itself “Violence against Deaf and Disabled Women and Girls Advisory Group”, whilst also including abuse against disabled men and non-binary people.
## **9. Training and events**
During the year, we delivered four training sessions to our partners in the Ascent partnership (supporting disabled women survivors) on key issues for disabled survivors:
- meeting the needs of disabled survivors
- identifying and responding to disability related risks
- supporting disabled survivors through the criminal justice system
- assisting clients to access social care
## _**“ The training was very in-depth, well explained, and informative… It was very useful to hear from someone with lived experience of adult social care assessments who can provide lots of practical support and insight into experience too.”**_
We continued to provide training to Victim Support’s Independent Domestic Abuse Advisors and Victims Advocates across England. Our previous face-to-face programme is now an online blended learning programme involving selfdirected learning and face to face sessions with the trainer, along with video clips and an animation on the social model of disability. This approach receives ongoing positive evaluations from participants. Our aim ultimately is to offer a mix of online webinars and training modules that would enable professionals working with disabled people to understand the nature of abuse against disabled people and how to address the barriers.
37
**Stay Safe East Projects**
During the year, Stay Safe East was commissioned to work on three major projects and a small engagement exercise. Our professional and lived experience expertise are recognised by the commissioning organisations. These projects also bring in unrestricted income to Stay Safe East.
## **1. Capacity building disabled people’s organisations on hate crime**
As a partner in the London Deaf and Disabled People’s (DDPO) Hate Crime Partnership, between 2018 and March 2021, Stay Safe East had already supported 6 disabled people’s organisations across London. In 2021-22, our trainer worked with DDPOs:
- Camden Disability Action, a small borough-based generic DDPO
- BME Volunteers, a relatively newly established Community Interest
- Company providing Pre-Therapy Service, Support and Advocacy for families and people living with visible or invisible disability and discrimination, mainly in South-East London.
The trainer was able to adapt his methods and materials to the challenges of working with organisations remotely during the pandemic. Our approach has evolved with each secondment, as each organisation has different needs and sometimes different client groups, and learning needs and time available vary depend on whether the DDPO employs advocates or information workers, or whether the work is done by volunteers. The aim of the secondments is to:
• develop the ability of each organisation, its staff, volunteers and where relevant Board members to understand and address hate crime against disabled people;
• develop their skills and knowledge of how to support disabled victims of hate crime across all communities and types of hate crime, but with a specific focus on disability hate crime;
• provide the organisation with tools and resources to do the work (checklists, a risk assessment, policies, case studies, presentations and guidance);
The project runs until mid 2023, by which time we will have supported ten very different disabled people’s organisations across London. All are now equipped with the knowledge to support victims, but the challenge remains that the number of DDPOs employing a Hate Crime Advocate has declined since the project began and funding is scarce- in 2019, there were 9 hate crimes advocates
38
in London DDPOs; at March 2022, 4 DDPOs employed hate crime advocates. The three DDPOs who are part of the Pan-London CATCH partnership have 1.5 advocacy posts to cater for 1.2 Million disabled people in London, who experience high rates of hate crime. Inclusion London, the lead organisation for the partnership argued the case for investment in hate crime advocacy for - - disabled people https://www.inclusionlondon.org.uk/news/disabled victims - - - - need independent hate crime advocates/ . We will continue to work with other DDPOs to ensure that disabled people get the support they need at a local level.
## **2. Mapping of specialist services for Deaf and disabled survivors of domestic abuse**
In late 2021, Stay Safe East was commissioned by the office of the Domestic Abuse Commissioner (DAC) to map the specialist services for deaf and disabled survivors and England and Wales. The research is part of a wider piece of work by the DAC to map services supporting victims/survivors of domestic abuse. We started work in January 2022, and will be seeking to identify the following:
- Services run by and for Deaf or disabled survivors including peer support
- groups;
• Services run for Deaf or disabled survivors but not governed or managed by them, including services with a specialist worker within a mainstream service;
• Examples of good practice in providing services to Deaf or disabled survivors;
By March 2021, we had contacted organisations and designed a questionnaire. The mapping will be looking at the nature of the support provided, how disabled survivors are involved in setting the direction of the organisation and whether Deaf or disabled staff are employed, and the challenges faced by organisations supporting Deaf or disabled survivors. The mapping will help to build a better picture of the range of provision that currently exists for Deaf and disabled survivors of domestic abuse, and to identify the gaps. The report will be published in 2022-23.
## **3. Research into the needs of Deaf and disabled survivors of rape and sexual violence**
In January 2022, the Ministry of Justice awarded a contract to a partnership led by the University of Leeds with Stay Safe East, SignHealth and Liverpool Hope University to carry out qualitative research into the needs of Deaf and disabled survivors of rape and sexual violence. This ground-breaking project arose from
39
the End-to End Rape Review[3] looking at the poor experiences of survivors and the falling conviction rates of abusers.
The review identified the lack of evidence on the experiences of Deaf and disabled survivors. will help shape support services for survivors in England and Wales. The evidence from the research will inform the recommissioning by the Ministry of Justice of support services to survivors of rape and sexual violence. We hope it will also help bring about changes in the way that support organisations and the criminal justice system respond to Deaf and disabled survivors.
By March, the team had already set the parameters of the research, designed the interview questions, launched the website for the research, and trained the staff who would conduct interviews (including four Stay Safe East staff). Stay Safe East is extremely proud to be involved in this pioneering piece of research which is based on the principle of Co-production between Deaf and disabled people and academic researchers. We will be using this model for future research projects.
## **4. Consultation with disabled survivors on Victim’s Bill**
In late 2021, Stay Safe East was commissioned by the Ministry of Justice to consult with disabled survivors on what they wanted from the forthcoming Victim’s Bill. We organised a focus group and individual interviews, ensured that all access needs were met and were flexible about how people participated. Participants spoke about being let down by the criminal justice system and support agencies, and the Victim’s Code principles not being implemented:
_“The agencies that are supposed to act on those principles have failed. The principles are overlooked consistently. I don’t think my voice was ever heard. I had so much to say but was ignored, which could have influenced the outcome of my case.”_
Almost all of the participants had made at least one complaint about a service they received from criminal justice agencies. Several had made multiple complaints about their treatment but the outcomes has not changed as a result. They wanted Victim’s Code to be much stronger and enforced by agencies, and wanted it to address their diverse needs.
The interviewees felt that the advocacy and support from a _‘by and for’_ organisation which understood their lived experience and could support them
> 3 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/end-to-end-rape-review-report-onfindings-and-actions
40
on their journey to safety and recovery, and wanted to see more funding for all _‘by and for’_ services, whether disabled led or run by and for Black and minoritized or other survivors.
_“I wasn't really expecting anything [from advocacy] to be honest. I just thought it would be like a quick call, be like ‘you all right?’ ‘yeah.’ I expected it to be just like that. But it's a lot more engaging and I actually feel like my advocate at Stay Safe East cares about me, which is nice because I find it very difficult to feel care from somebody. I feel a lot of genuine care from my advocate, they are actually trying to help me. It's something I really struggle with because of like the abuse in my life. I was given the opportunity to talk to someone that wasn't going to judge me and would see that I just need a bit of empathy.”_
41
Charity registration number: 1153615
Stay Safe East
Unaudited Financial Statements
31 March 2022
**Stay Safe East**
## **Contents**
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
||Page no.|
|---|---|
|Trustees’ annual report (contained in a separate document)
|-|
|Contact Information|1|
|Independent examiner’s report to the trustees|2|
|Statement of financial activities|3|
|Statement of financial position|4|
|Statement of cash flows|5|
|Notes to the financial statements|6|
**Stay Safe East**
## **Contact Information**
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___
The trustees present their report (contained in a separate document) and the unaudited financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2022
## **Reference and administrative details**
Registered charity name Stay Safe East Charity Registration Number 1153615 Principle office 90 Crownfield Road London E15 2BG The Trustees Savitri Hensman Paul Dowling Kirsten Hearn Bennett Obong S, service user representative S, service user representative
_With the agreement of the Charity Commission, the names of the two service user representatives are withheld to protect their safety._
Independent examiner Carbon Accountancy Limited 80-83 Long Lane London EC1A 9ET
1
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of Stay Safe East For the year ended 31 March 2022**
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___
I report to the trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Stay Safe East (“the charity”) for the year ended 31 March 2022.
## **Responsibilities and basis of report**
As the trustees of the charity you are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s financial statements carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
## **Independent examiner’s statement**
Since the charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000 your examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 2011 Act. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, which is one of the listed bodies.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination give me cause to believe that in any material respect:
1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or
2. the financial statements do not accord with those records; or
3. the financial statements do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
…………………………………………………………….. John Leyden Countersigned on 26/01/23 @ 21:13
John Leyden FCA Carbon Accountancy Limited 80-83 Long Lane London EC1A 9ET
26 January 2023
2
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Statement of Financial Activities For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
|**Note**
**Income** **and**
**endowments**
Grants and donations
Grants
Other donations
**4**
Charitable activities
Contracts
Other charitable activities
**5**
Other income
**6**
**Total income**
**Expenditure**
Expenditure on raising funds:
Costs of raising
donations and legacies
**7**
Expenditure on charitable
activities
**8,9**
**Total Expenditure**
**Net income and**
**movement in funds**
**Reconciliation of funds**
Total funds brought
forward
Transfers in year
**Total funds carried**
**forward**|Unrestricted
funds
**£**
133,823
1,020
134,843
149,965
1,995
151,960
14,694
301,497
-
293,594
293,594
7,903
91,955
49,131
148,989|**2022**
Restricted
Funds
**£**
242,126
-
242,126
-
-
-
-
242,126
-
210,715
210,715
31,411
97,741
(49,131)
80,021|**Total**
**funds**
**£**
375,949
1,020
376,969
149,965
1,995
151,960
14,694
543,623
-
504,309
504,309
39,314
189,696
-
229,010|**2021**
Total
Funds
**£**
338,417
550|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||338,967|
|||||126,316
8,000|
|||||134,316|
|||||4,954|
||||||
|||||478,237|
|||||
216
413,707|
|||||413,923|
||||||
|||||64,314|
|||||125,382
-|
|||||189,696|
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
**The notes on pages 6 to 21 form part of these financial statements**
3
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Statement of Financial Position For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
|**Note**
**Fixed assets**
Tangible fixed assets
**16**
**Current assets**
Debtors
**17**
Cash at bank and in hand
**Creditors: amounts falling due within one year**
**18**
**Net current assets**
**Total assets less current liabilities**
**Net assets**
**Funds of the charity**
Restricted funds
Unrestricted funds
**Total charity funds**
**21**|**2022**
**£**
1,436
146,433
174,418
320,851
(93,277)
227,574
229,010
229,010
80,021
148,989
229,010|**2021**
**£**
2,872
146,492
97,875|
|---|---|---|
|||244,367|
|||(57,543)|
|||186,824|
|||189,696|
|||189,696|
|||97,741
91,955|
|||189,696|
These financial statements were approved by the board of trustees and authorised for issue on 25 January 2023, and are signed on behalf of the board by:
S Hensman Signed on 26/01/23 @ 20:49
Paul Dowling Signed on 26/01/23 @ 21:04
Savitri Hensman Trustee
Paul Dowling Trustee
**The notes on pages 6 to 21 form part of these financial statements.**
4
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Statement of Cash Flows For the year ended 31 March 2022**
|______________________________________________________________________________
**Cash flows from operating activities**
Net income
_Adjustments for:_
Depreciation of tangible fixed assets
Accrued expenses
_Changes in:_
Trade and other debtors
Trade and other creditors
Net cash from operating activities
**Cash flows from investing activities**
Purchase of tangible assets
**Net increase in cash and cash equivalents**
**Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year**
**Cash and cash equivalents at end of year**|___________________
**2022**
**£**
39,314
1,436
7,627
59
28,107
76,543
-
76,543
97,875
174,418|_____________
**2021**
**£**
64,314
1,436
14,067
(8,748)
16,007|
|---|---|---|
|||87,076
-|
|||87,076
10,799|
|||97,875|
5
**Stay Safe East**
**Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **1. General information**
The charity is a public benefit entity and a registered charity in England and Wales and is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. The address of the principal office is 90 Crownfield Road, London E15 2BG.
## **2. Statement of compliance**
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS102) issued in October 2019 and the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS102) and the Charities Act 2011, and UK Generally Accepted Practice as it applies from January 2019.
## **3. Accounting Policies**
## **Basis of preparation**
These financial statements have been prepared using the historic cost basis.
The financial statements are prepared in Sterling, which is the functional currency of the entity.
## **Going concern**
The trustees have considered the impact of COVID-19 on the charities activities and have concluded there is no long-term impact on the Organisation. As a result, it is considered that the going concern status remains intact.
There are no material uncertainties about the charity’s ability to continue.
## **Judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty**
The preparation of the financial statements requires management to make judgements, estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported. These estimates and judgements are continually reviewed and are based on experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances.
There are no judgements nor any key sources of estimation uncertainty that have a significant risk of material misstatement to the carry amounts of assets and liabilities in the financial statements.
6
**Stay Safe East**
**Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **3. Accounting policies** _**(continued)**_
## **Fund accounting**
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the trustees’ discretion to further any of the charity’s purposes.
Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular future project or commitment.
Restricted funds are subjected to restrictions on their expenditure declared by the donor or through the terms of an appeal, and fall into one of two sub-classes: restricted income funds or endowment funds.
## **Incoming resources**
All incoming resources are included in the statement of financial activities when entitlement has passed to the charity, it is probable that the economic benefits associated with the transaction will flow to the charity and the amount can be reliably measured. The following specific policies are applied to particular categories of income:
- income from donations or grants is recognised when there is evidence of entitlement to the gift, receipt is probable and its amount can be measured reliably.
- legacy income is recognised when receipt is probable and entitlement is established.
- income from donated goods is measured at the fair value of the goods unless this is impractical to measure reliably, in which case the value is derived from the cost to the donor or the estimated resale value. Donated facilities and services are recognised in the accounts when received if the value can be reliably measured. No amounts are included for the contribution of general volunteers.
- income from contracts for the supply of services is recognised with the delivery of the contracted service. This is classified as unrestricted funds unless there is a contractual requirement for it be spent on a particular purpose and returned if unspent, in which case it may be regarded as restricted.
7
**Stay Safe East**
**Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **3. Accounting policies** _**(continued)**_
## **Resources expended**
Expenditure is recognised on an accruals basis as a liability is incurred. Expenditure includes any VAT which cannot be fully recovered, and is classified under headings of the statement of financial activities to which it relates:
- expenditure on raising funds includes the costs of all fundraising activities, events, non-charitable trading activities, and the sale of donated goods.
- expenditure on charitable activities includes all costs incurred by a charity in undertaking activities that further its charitable aims for the benefit of its beneficiaries, including those support costs and costs relating to the governance of the charity apportioned to charitable activities.
- other expenditure includes all expenditure that is neither related to raising funds for the charity nor part of its expenditure on charitable activities.
All costs are allocated to expenditure categories reflecting the use of the resource. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs are apportioned between the activities they contribute to on a reasonable, justifiable and consistent basis.
## **Tangible assets**
Tangible assets are initially recorded at cost, and subsequently stated at cost less any accumulated depreciation and impairment losses. The costs of minor additions or those costing below £1,000 are not capitalised.
## **Depreciation**
Depreciation is calculated so as to write off the cost or valuation of an asset, less its residual value, over the useful economic life as follows:
Fixtures, fittings and equipment - 25% straight line basis
## **Impairment of fixed assets**
A review for indicators of impairment is carried out at each reporting date, with the recoverable amount being estimated where such indicators exist. Where the carrying value exceeds the recoverable amount, the asset is impaired accordingly. Prior impairments are also reviewed for possible reversal at each reporting date.
8
**Stay Safe East**
**Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **3. Accounting policies** _**(continued)**_
## **Financial instruments**
A financial asset or a financial liability is recognised only when the entity becomes a party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.
Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at the amount receivable or payable including any related transaction costs, unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where it is recognised at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest for a similar debt instrument.
Current assets and current liabilities are subsequently measured at the cash or other consideration expected to be paid or received and not discounted.
Financial assets that are measured at cost or amortised cost are reviewed for objective evidence of impairment at each reporting date. If there is objective evidence of impairment, an impairment loss is recognised under the appropriate heading in the statement of financial activities in which the initial gain was recognised.
## **Defined contribution pension plans**
Contributions to defined contribution plans are recognised as an expense in the period in which the related service is provided. Prepaid contributions are recognised as an asset to the extent that the prepayment will lead to a reduction in future payments or a cash refund.
When contributions are not expected to be settled wholly within 12 months of the end of the reporting period in which the employees render the related service, the liability is measured on a discounted present value basis. The unwinding of the discount is recognised as an expense in the period in which it arises.
9
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **4. Grants and Donations – 2022**
|**Grants**
City Bridge Trust (CBT)
MOPAC (London Community
Foundation) (LCF)
Trust for London
Community Alliance To Combat Hate
(CATCH)
Home Office
Three Guineas Trust
MOJ Covid Extraordinary Fund
London Community Response Fund
MOPAC VAWG Fund
MOJ IDVA Fund
Comic Relief
**Donations**
Donations|**Unrestricted**
**Funds**
**£**
-
-
-
-
-
133,823
-
-
-
-
-
133,823
Unrestricted
Funds
**£**
1,020|**Restricted**
**Funds**
**£**
-
45,124
27,154
-
75,000
-
2,804
10,571
49,965
7,848
23,660
242,126
Restricted
Funds
**£**
-|**Total**
**Funds**
**2022**
**£**
-
45,124
27,154
-
75,000
133,823
2,804
10,571
49,965
7,848
23,660|
|---|---|---|---|
||||375,949|
||||**Total**
**Funds**
**2022**
**£**
1,020|
10
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **4. Grants and Donations – 2021**
|**Grants**
City Bridge Trust (CBT)
MOPAC (London Community Foundation)
Trust for London
Community Alliance To Combat Hate
(CATCH)
Home Office
Three Guineas Trust
MOJ Covid Extraordinary Fund
London Community Response Fund
**Donations**
Donations|Unrestricted
Funds
£
8,450
-
-
-
-
102,775
-
-|Restricted
Funds
£
23,081
7,500
35,796
22,204
75,000
-
33,992
29,619|**Total**
**Funds**
**2021**
**£**
31,531
7,500
35,796
22,204
75,000
102,775
33,992
29,619|
|---|---|---|---|
||111,225
Unrestricted
Funds
£
550|227,192
Restricted
Funds
£
-|338,417|
||||**Total**
**Funds**
**2021**
**£**
550|
11
**Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **5. Charitable activities**
|Contracts
Inclusion London
Victim Support (LVWS)
Community Alliance To
Combat Hate (CATCH)
Ascent Plus
Other charitable activities
Training and consultancy
Advocacy
Other income|Unrestricted
Funds
£
19,295
88,320
22,350
20,000
149,965
1,920
-
75
1,995|**Total**
**Funds**
**2022**
**£**
19,295
88,320
22,350
20,000
149,965
1,920
-
75
1,995|Unrestricted
Funds
£
18,002
88,314
-
20,000
126,316
8,000
-
-
8,000|Total
Funds
2021
£
18,002
88,314
-
20,000|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||126,316|
|||||8,000
-
-|
|||||8,000|
## **6. Other income**
|Access to work claim
Grants for beneficiaries|Unrestricted
Funds
£
14,194
500
14,694|**Total**
**Funds**
**2022**
**£**
14,194
500
14,694|Unrestricted
Funds
£
2,974
1,980
4,954|Total
Funds
2021
£
2,974
1,980|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||4,954|
12
**Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **7. Costs of raising donations and legacies**
|**Unrestricted**
**Funds**
£
Costs of raising donations and legacies
Subscriptions
-
Unrestricted
Funds
£
Costs of raising donations and legacies
Subscriptions
158
**8. Expenditure on charitable activities by fund type**
**Unrestricted**
**Funds**
£
Promote the human rights of disabled
people
262,202
Support costs (including governance
costs)
31,392
293,594
Unrestricted
Funds
£
Promote the human rights of disabled
people
179,084
Support costs (including governance
costs)
27,396
206,480|**Restricted**
**Funds**
£
-
Restricted
Funds
£
58
**Restricted**
**Funds**
£
192,200
18,515
210,715
Restricted
Funds
£
181,000
26,227
207,227|**Total**
**Funds**
**2022**
**£**
-|
|---|---|---|
|||Total
Funds
2021
£
216|
|||**Total**
**Funds**
**2022**
**£**
454,402
49,907|
|||504,309|
|||Total
Funds
2021
£
360,084
53,623|
|||413,707|
13
**Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **9. Expenditure on charitable activities by activity type**
|Promote the human rights of
disabled people
Governance costs|Activities
undertaken
directly
£
454,402
-
454,402|Support
Costs
£
46,307
3,600
49,907|**Total**
**2022**
**£**
500,709
3,600
504,309|Total
2021
£
411,030
2,677|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||413,707|
## **10. Analysis of support costs**
|Rent
Telephone
Postage, printing & stationery
Payroll admin fee
Bookkeeping
Insurance
Recruitment
Equipment
I.T costs
Depreciation
Miscellaneous|**Promote**
**the Human**
**Rights of**
**disabled**
**people**
£
8,669
9,804
1,765
2,399
3,661
3,052
2,093
5,085
7,544
1,436
799
46,307|**Total**
**2022**
**£**
8,669
9,804
1,765
2,399
3,661
3,052
2,093
5,085
7,544
1,436
799
46,307|Total
2021
£
15,500
11,104
1,108
1,952
3,583
2,705
2,910
5,940
4,058
1,436
650|
|---|---|---|---|
||||50,946|
14
**Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **11. Net income**
|**11. Net income**|||
|---|---|---|
|Net income is stated after charging/(crediting):
Depreciation of tangible fixed assets
**12. Independent examination fees**
Fees payable to the independent examiner for:
Independent examination of the financial statements|**2022**
**£**
1,436
**2022**
**£**
3,600|2021
£
1,436|
|||2021
£
2,677|
## **13. Staff costs**
The total staff costs and employee benefits for the reporting period are analysed as follows:
|Wages and salaries
Social security costs
Employer contributions to pension plans|**2022**
**£**
357,063
24,902
7,037
389,002|2021
£
279,679
18,335
5,125|
|---|---|---|
|||303,139|
The average head count of employees during the year was 16 (2021: 14).
No employee received employee benefits of more than £60,000 during the year (2021: Nil).
15
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **14.Trustee remuneration and expenses**
- No remuneration or other benefits from employment with the charity or a related entity were received by the trustees; or
- None of the trustees has been paid remuneration or received other benefits from employment with the charity or a related entity.
- No trustee expenses have been incurred.
## **15. Transfers between funds**
Transfers from unrestricted funds to restricted funds are to make good funding shortfalls and eliminate negative fund balances.
## **16. Tangible fixed assets**
|**Cost**
At 1 April 2021
Additions
**At 31 March 2022**
**Depreciation**
At 1 April 2021
Charge for the year
**At 31 March 2022**
**Net Book Value**
**At 31 March 2022**
At 31 March 2021|**Fixtures,**
**fittings and**
**equipment**
**£**
5,744
-|
|---|---|
||5,744|
||2,872
1,436|
||4,308|
||1,436|
||2,872|
## **17. Debtors**
|Trade debtors
Prepayments and accrued income
Other debtors|**2022**
**2021**
**£**
£
88,884
143,570
52,141
2,922
5,408
-|
|---|---|
||146,433
146,492|
16
**Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **18. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year**
|Trade creditors
Accruals and deferred income
Social security and other taxes
Other creditors|**2022**
**£**
22,073
53,726
14,836
2,642
93,277|2021
£
6,372
43,688
5,381
2,102|
|---|---|---|
|||57,543|
Included in accruals and deferred income there is an amount of £15,827 for rent charges which have not been invoiced (2021: £13,660).
Included in other creditors there is £1,423 (2021: £1,252) of unpaid pension contributions.
## **19. Deferred income**
Included in accruals and deferred income in note 18 is the following deferred income:
|MOJ Covid Extraordinary Fund
Trust for London
London Community Response Fund
MOPAC (LCF)
MOPAC IDVA Fund|**2022**
**£**
-
-
-
4,616
28,889
33,505|2021
£
2,805
3,654
10,571
-
-|
|---|---|---|
|||17,030|
## **20. Pensions and other post-retirement benefits**
## **Defined contribution pension plans**
The amount recognised in income or expenditure as an expense in relation to defined contribution plans was £7,037 (2021: £5,125)
17
**Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **21. Analysis of charitable funds**
## **Unrestricted funds**
|General funds
General funds|At
1 April
2021
£
91,955
At
1 April
2020
£
47,548|Income
£
301,497
Income
£
251,045|Expenditure
£
(293,594)
Expenditure
£
(206,638)|Transfers
£
49,131
Transfers
£
-|**At**
**31 March**
**2022**
**£**
148,989|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||At
31 March
2021
£
91,955|
18
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **21. Analysis of charitable funds** _**(continued)**_
## **Restricted funds**
|City Bridge Trust
MOPAC (LCF)
CATCH HC
MOPAC (DV Training)
Home Office
Trust for London
MOJ Covid
Extraordinary Fund
London Community
Response Fund
MOPAC VAWG Fund
MOJ IDVA Fund
Comic Relief
City Bridge Trust
MOPAC (LCF)
CATCH HC
MOPAC (DV Training)
Home Office
Trust for London
MOJ Covid
Extraordinary Fund
London Community
Response Fund|At
1 April
2021
£
1,054
9,537
13,566
9,284
61,376
1,305
5
1,614
-
-
-
97,741
At
1 April
2020
£
135
10,196
10,791
9,284
46,147
1,281
-
-
77,834|Income
£
-
45,124
-
-
75,000
27,154
2,804
10,571
49,965
7,848
23,660
242,126
Income
£
23,081
7,500
22,204
-
75,000
35,796
33,992
29,619
227,192|Expenditure
£
-
(41,784)
-
-
(64,164)
(26,685)
-
(11,561)
(43,793)
(7,848)
(14,880)
(210,715)
Expenditure
£
(22,162)
(8,159)
(19,429)
-
(59,771)
(35,772)
(33,987)
(28,005)
(207,285)|Transfers
£
-
-
(13,566)
-
(35,565)
-
-
-
-
-
-
(49,131)
Transfers
£
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-|**At**
**31 March**
**2022**
**£**
1,054
12,877
-
9,284
36,647
1,774
2,809
624
6,172
-
8,780|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||80,021|
||||||At
31 March
2021
£
1,054
9,537
13,566
9,284
61,376
1,305
5
1,614|
||||||97,741|
The CATCH HC fund has been reclassified from restricted reserves to unrestricted reserves.
At 31 March 2022 an amount of £35,565 in the Home Office fund has been transferred from restricted to unrestricted reserves.
19
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **22. Analysis of net assets between funds**
|Tangible fixed assets
Current assets
Creditors less than one year
**Net assets**
Tangible fixed assets
Current assets
Creditors less than one year
Net assets
**23. Analysis of changes in net debt**
Cash at bank and in hand|**Unrestricted**
**Funds**
£
1,436
207,325
(59,772)
148,989
Unrestricted
Funds
£
2,872
129,596
(40,513)
91,955
At
1 April
2021
£
97,875||**Restricted**
**Funds**
£
-
113,526
(33,505)
80,021
Restricted
Funds
£
-
114,771
(17,030)
97,741
Cash flows
£
76,543|**Total**
**Funds**
**2022**
**£**
1,436
320,851
(93,277)|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||229,010|
|||||Total
Funds
2021
£
2,872
244,367
(57,543)|
|||||189,696|
|||||**At**
**31 March**
**2022**
**£**
174,418|
## **24. Related parties**
There have not been any related party transactions during this or the previous year.
20
**Stay Safe East**
**Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **25. Going Concern (COVID-19)**
The trustees have been carrying out a continuous assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on operations of the charity, and considered the impact, risks and threats posed.
The trustees are satisfied that to date, the threat to operations has been minimal, and whilst working arrangements have had to be adapted, this has not significantly reduced the effectiveness of the organisation.
The trustees continue to monitor events in the country as a whole, and have a protocol in place, to provide a quick response to any changes in the operating environment, but currently do not anticipate any circumstances that significantly curtail the ability of the charity to function.
The trustees have also considered the non-COVID-19 related circumstances of the charity, and are satisfied, that the going concern basis, is appropriate for these financial statements.
21
Charity registration number: 1153615
Stay Safe East
Unaudited Financial Statements
31 March 2022
**Stay Safe East**
## **Contents**
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
||Page no.|
|---|---|
|Trustees’ annual report (contained in a separate document)
|-|
|Contact Information|1|
|Independent examiner’s report to the trustees|2|
|Statement of financial activities|3|
|Statement of financial position|4|
|Statement of cash flows|5|
|Notes to the financial statements|6|
**Stay Safe East**
## **Contact Information**
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___
The trustees present their report (contained in a separate document) and the unaudited financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2022
## **Reference and administrative details**
Registered charity name Stay Safe East Charity Registration Number 1153615 Principle office 90 Crownfield Road London E15 2BG The Trustees Savitri Hensman Paul Dowling Kirsten Hearn Bennett Obong S, service user representative S, service user representative
_With the agreement of the Charity Commission, the names of the two service user representatives are withheld to protect their safety._
Independent examiner Carbon Accountancy Limited 80-83 Long Lane London EC1A 9ET
1
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of Stay Safe East For the year ended 31 March 2022**
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___
I report to the trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Stay Safe East (“the charity”) for the year ended 31 March 2022.
## **Responsibilities and basis of report**
As the trustees of the charity you are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s financial statements carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
## **Independent examiner’s statement**
Since the charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000 your examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 2011 Act. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, which is one of the listed bodies.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination give me cause to believe that in any material respect:
1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or
2. the financial statements do not accord with those records; or
3. the financial statements do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
…………………………………………………………….. John Leyden Countersigned on 26/01/23 @ 21:13
John Leyden FCA Carbon Accountancy Limited 80-83 Long Lane London EC1A 9ET
26 January 2023
2
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Statement of Financial Activities For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
|**Note**
**Income** **and**
**endowments**
Grants and donations
Grants
Other donations
**4**
Charitable activities
Contracts
Other charitable activities
**5**
Other income
**6**
**Total income**
**Expenditure**
Expenditure on raising funds:
Costs of raising
donations and legacies
**7**
Expenditure on charitable
activities
**8,9**
**Total Expenditure**
**Net income and**
**movement in funds**
**Reconciliation of funds**
Total funds brought
forward
Transfers in year
**Total funds carried**
**forward**|Unrestricted
funds
**£**
133,823
1,020
134,843
149,965
1,995
151,960
14,694
301,497
-
293,594
293,594
7,903
91,955
49,131
148,989|**2022**
Restricted
Funds
**£**
242,126
-
242,126
-
-
-
-
242,126
-
210,715
210,715
31,411
97,741
(49,131)
80,021|**Total**
**funds**
**£**
375,949
1,020
376,969
149,965
1,995
151,960
14,694
543,623
-
504,309
504,309
39,314
189,696
-
229,010|**2021**
Total
Funds
**£**
338,417
550|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||338,967|
|||||126,316
8,000|
|||||134,316|
|||||4,954|
||||||
|||||478,237|
|||||
216
413,707|
|||||413,923|
||||||
|||||64,314|
|||||125,382
-|
|||||189,696|
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
**The notes on pages 6 to 21 form part of these financial statements**
3
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Statement of Financial Position For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
|**Note**
**Fixed assets**
Tangible fixed assets
**16**
**Current assets**
Debtors
**17**
Cash at bank and in hand
**Creditors: amounts falling due within one year**
**18**
**Net current assets**
**Total assets less current liabilities**
**Net assets**
**Funds of the charity**
Restricted funds
Unrestricted funds
**Total charity funds**
**21**|**2022**
**£**
1,436
146,433
174,418
320,851
(93,277)
227,574
229,010
229,010
80,021
148,989
229,010|**2021**
**£**
2,872
146,492
97,875|
|---|---|---|
|||244,367|
|||(57,543)|
|||186,824|
|||189,696|
|||189,696|
|||97,741
91,955|
|||189,696|
These financial statements were approved by the board of trustees and authorised for issue on 25 January 2023, and are signed on behalf of the board by:
S Hensman Signed on 26/01/23 @ 20:49
Paul Dowling Signed on 26/01/23 @ 21:04
Savitri Hensman Trustee
Paul Dowling Trustee
**The notes on pages 6 to 21 form part of these financial statements.**
4
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Statement of Cash Flows For the year ended 31 March 2022**
|______________________________________________________________________________
**Cash flows from operating activities**
Net income
_Adjustments for:_
Depreciation of tangible fixed assets
Accrued expenses
_Changes in:_
Trade and other debtors
Trade and other creditors
Net cash from operating activities
**Cash flows from investing activities**
Purchase of tangible assets
**Net increase in cash and cash equivalents**
**Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year**
**Cash and cash equivalents at end of year**|___________________
**2022**
**£**
39,314
1,436
7,627
59
28,107
76,543
-
76,543
97,875
174,418|_____________
**2021**
**£**
64,314
1,436
14,067
(8,748)
16,007|
|---|---|---|
|||87,076
-|
|||87,076
10,799|
|||97,875|
5
**Stay Safe East**
**Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **1. General information**
The charity is a public benefit entity and a registered charity in England and Wales and is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. The address of the principal office is 90 Crownfield Road, London E15 2BG.
## **2. Statement of compliance**
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS102) issued in October 2019 and the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS102) and the Charities Act 2011, and UK Generally Accepted Practice as it applies from January 2019.
## **3. Accounting Policies**
## **Basis of preparation**
These financial statements have been prepared using the historic cost basis.
The financial statements are prepared in Sterling, which is the functional currency of the entity.
## **Going concern**
The trustees have considered the impact of COVID-19 on the charities activities and have concluded there is no long-term impact on the Organisation. As a result, it is considered that the going concern status remains intact.
There are no material uncertainties about the charity’s ability to continue.
## **Judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty**
The preparation of the financial statements requires management to make judgements, estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported. These estimates and judgements are continually reviewed and are based on experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances.
There are no judgements nor any key sources of estimation uncertainty that have a significant risk of material misstatement to the carry amounts of assets and liabilities in the financial statements.
6
**Stay Safe East**
**Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **3. Accounting policies** _**(continued)**_
## **Fund accounting**
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the trustees’ discretion to further any of the charity’s purposes.
Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular future project or commitment.
Restricted funds are subjected to restrictions on their expenditure declared by the donor or through the terms of an appeal, and fall into one of two sub-classes: restricted income funds or endowment funds.
## **Incoming resources**
All incoming resources are included in the statement of financial activities when entitlement has passed to the charity, it is probable that the economic benefits associated with the transaction will flow to the charity and the amount can be reliably measured. The following specific policies are applied to particular categories of income:
- income from donations or grants is recognised when there is evidence of entitlement to the gift, receipt is probable and its amount can be measured reliably.
- legacy income is recognised when receipt is probable and entitlement is established.
- income from donated goods is measured at the fair value of the goods unless this is impractical to measure reliably, in which case the value is derived from the cost to the donor or the estimated resale value. Donated facilities and services are recognised in the accounts when received if the value can be reliably measured. No amounts are included for the contribution of general volunteers.
- income from contracts for the supply of services is recognised with the delivery of the contracted service. This is classified as unrestricted funds unless there is a contractual requirement for it be spent on a particular purpose and returned if unspent, in which case it may be regarded as restricted.
7
**Stay Safe East**
**Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **3. Accounting policies** _**(continued)**_
## **Resources expended**
Expenditure is recognised on an accruals basis as a liability is incurred. Expenditure includes any VAT which cannot be fully recovered, and is classified under headings of the statement of financial activities to which it relates:
- expenditure on raising funds includes the costs of all fundraising activities, events, non-charitable trading activities, and the sale of donated goods.
- expenditure on charitable activities includes all costs incurred by a charity in undertaking activities that further its charitable aims for the benefit of its beneficiaries, including those support costs and costs relating to the governance of the charity apportioned to charitable activities.
- other expenditure includes all expenditure that is neither related to raising funds for the charity nor part of its expenditure on charitable activities.
All costs are allocated to expenditure categories reflecting the use of the resource. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs are apportioned between the activities they contribute to on a reasonable, justifiable and consistent basis.
## **Tangible assets**
Tangible assets are initially recorded at cost, and subsequently stated at cost less any accumulated depreciation and impairment losses. The costs of minor additions or those costing below £1,000 are not capitalised.
## **Depreciation**
Depreciation is calculated so as to write off the cost or valuation of an asset, less its residual value, over the useful economic life as follows:
Fixtures, fittings and equipment - 25% straight line basis
## **Impairment of fixed assets**
A review for indicators of impairment is carried out at each reporting date, with the recoverable amount being estimated where such indicators exist. Where the carrying value exceeds the recoverable amount, the asset is impaired accordingly. Prior impairments are also reviewed for possible reversal at each reporting date.
8
**Stay Safe East**
**Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **3. Accounting policies** _**(continued)**_
## **Financial instruments**
A financial asset or a financial liability is recognised only when the entity becomes a party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.
Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at the amount receivable or payable including any related transaction costs, unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where it is recognised at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest for a similar debt instrument.
Current assets and current liabilities are subsequently measured at the cash or other consideration expected to be paid or received and not discounted.
Financial assets that are measured at cost or amortised cost are reviewed for objective evidence of impairment at each reporting date. If there is objective evidence of impairment, an impairment loss is recognised under the appropriate heading in the statement of financial activities in which the initial gain was recognised.
## **Defined contribution pension plans**
Contributions to defined contribution plans are recognised as an expense in the period in which the related service is provided. Prepaid contributions are recognised as an asset to the extent that the prepayment will lead to a reduction in future payments or a cash refund.
When contributions are not expected to be settled wholly within 12 months of the end of the reporting period in which the employees render the related service, the liability is measured on a discounted present value basis. The unwinding of the discount is recognised as an expense in the period in which it arises.
9
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **4. Grants and Donations – 2022**
|**Grants**
City Bridge Trust (CBT)
MOPAC (London Community
Foundation) (LCF)
Trust for London
Community Alliance To Combat Hate
(CATCH)
Home Office
Three Guineas Trust
MOJ Covid Extraordinary Fund
London Community Response Fund
MOPAC VAWG Fund
MOJ IDVA Fund
Comic Relief
**Donations**
Donations|**Unrestricted**
**Funds**
**£**
-
-
-
-
-
133,823
-
-
-
-
-
133,823
Unrestricted
Funds
**£**
1,020|**Restricted**
**Funds**
**£**
-
45,124
27,154
-
75,000
-
2,804
10,571
49,965
7,848
23,660
242,126
Restricted
Funds
**£**
-|**Total**
**Funds**
**2022**
**£**
-
45,124
27,154
-
75,000
133,823
2,804
10,571
49,965
7,848
23,660|
|---|---|---|---|
||||375,949|
||||**Total**
**Funds**
**2022**
**£**
1,020|
10
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **4. Grants and Donations – 2021**
|**Grants**
City Bridge Trust (CBT)
MOPAC (London Community Foundation)
Trust for London
Community Alliance To Combat Hate
(CATCH)
Home Office
Three Guineas Trust
MOJ Covid Extraordinary Fund
London Community Response Fund
**Donations**
Donations|Unrestricted
Funds
£
8,450
-
-
-
-
102,775
-
-|Restricted
Funds
£
23,081
7,500
35,796
22,204
75,000
-
33,992
29,619|**Total**
**Funds**
**2021**
**£**
31,531
7,500
35,796
22,204
75,000
102,775
33,992
29,619|
|---|---|---|---|
||111,225
Unrestricted
Funds
£
550|227,192
Restricted
Funds
£
-|338,417|
||||**Total**
**Funds**
**2021**
**£**
550|
11
**Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **5. Charitable activities**
|Contracts
Inclusion London
Victim Support (LVWS)
Community Alliance To
Combat Hate (CATCH)
Ascent Plus
Other charitable activities
Training and consultancy
Advocacy
Other income|Unrestricted
Funds
£
19,295
88,320
22,350
20,000
149,965
1,920
-
75
1,995|**Total**
**Funds**
**2022**
**£**
19,295
88,320
22,350
20,000
149,965
1,920
-
75
1,995|Unrestricted
Funds
£
18,002
88,314
-
20,000
126,316
8,000
-
-
8,000|Total
Funds
2021
£
18,002
88,314
-
20,000|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||126,316|
|||||8,000
-
-|
|||||8,000|
## **6. Other income**
|Access to work claim
Grants for beneficiaries|Unrestricted
Funds
£
14,194
500
14,694|**Total**
**Funds**
**2022**
**£**
14,194
500
14,694|Unrestricted
Funds
£
2,974
1,980
4,954|Total
Funds
2021
£
2,974
1,980|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||4,954|
12
**Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **7. Costs of raising donations and legacies**
|**Unrestricted**
**Funds**
£
Costs of raising donations and legacies
Subscriptions
-
Unrestricted
Funds
£
Costs of raising donations and legacies
Subscriptions
158
**8. Expenditure on charitable activities by fund type**
**Unrestricted**
**Funds**
£
Promote the human rights of disabled
people
262,202
Support costs (including governance
costs)
31,392
293,594
Unrestricted
Funds
£
Promote the human rights of disabled
people
179,084
Support costs (including governance
costs)
27,396
206,480|**Restricted**
**Funds**
£
-
Restricted
Funds
£
58
**Restricted**
**Funds**
£
192,200
18,515
210,715
Restricted
Funds
£
181,000
26,227
207,227|**Total**
**Funds**
**2022**
**£**
-|
|---|---|---|
|||Total
Funds
2021
£
216|
|||**Total**
**Funds**
**2022**
**£**
454,402
49,907|
|||504,309|
|||Total
Funds
2021
£
360,084
53,623|
|||413,707|
13
**Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **9. Expenditure on charitable activities by activity type**
|Promote the human rights of
disabled people
Governance costs|Activities
undertaken
directly
£
454,402
-
454,402|Support
Costs
£
46,307
3,600
49,907|**Total**
**2022**
**£**
500,709
3,600
504,309|Total
2021
£
411,030
2,677|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||413,707|
## **10. Analysis of support costs**
|Rent
Telephone
Postage, printing & stationery
Payroll admin fee
Bookkeeping
Insurance
Recruitment
Equipment
I.T costs
Depreciation
Miscellaneous|**Promote**
**the Human**
**Rights of**
**disabled**
**people**
£
8,669
9,804
1,765
2,399
3,661
3,052
2,093
5,085
7,544
1,436
799
46,307|**Total**
**2022**
**£**
8,669
9,804
1,765
2,399
3,661
3,052
2,093
5,085
7,544
1,436
799
46,307|Total
2021
£
15,500
11,104
1,108
1,952
3,583
2,705
2,910
5,940
4,058
1,436
650|
|---|---|---|---|
||||50,946|
14
**Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **11. Net income**
|**11. Net income**|||
|---|---|---|
|Net income is stated after charging/(crediting):
Depreciation of tangible fixed assets
**12. Independent examination fees**
Fees payable to the independent examiner for:
Independent examination of the financial statements|**2022**
**£**
1,436
**2022**
**£**
3,600|2021
£
1,436|
|||2021
£
2,677|
## **13. Staff costs**
The total staff costs and employee benefits for the reporting period are analysed as follows:
|Wages and salaries
Social security costs
Employer contributions to pension plans|**2022**
**£**
357,063
24,902
7,037
389,002|2021
£
279,679
18,335
5,125|
|---|---|---|
|||303,139|
The average head count of employees during the year was 16 (2021: 14).
No employee received employee benefits of more than £60,000 during the year (2021: Nil).
15
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **14.Trustee remuneration and expenses**
- No remuneration or other benefits from employment with the charity or a related entity were received by the trustees; or
- None of the trustees has been paid remuneration or received other benefits from employment with the charity or a related entity.
- No trustee expenses have been incurred.
## **15. Transfers between funds**
Transfers from unrestricted funds to restricted funds are to make good funding shortfalls and eliminate negative fund balances.
## **16. Tangible fixed assets**
|**Cost**
At 1 April 2021
Additions
**At 31 March 2022**
**Depreciation**
At 1 April 2021
Charge for the year
**At 31 March 2022**
**Net Book Value**
**At 31 March 2022**
At 31 March 2021|**Fixtures,**
**fittings and**
**equipment**
**£**
5,744
-|
|---|---|
||5,744|
||2,872
1,436|
||4,308|
||1,436|
||2,872|
## **17. Debtors**
|Trade debtors
Prepayments and accrued income
Other debtors|**2022**
**2021**
**£**
£
88,884
143,570
52,141
2,922
5,408
-|
|---|---|
||146,433
146,492|
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**Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **18. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year**
|Trade creditors
Accruals and deferred income
Social security and other taxes
Other creditors|**2022**
**£**
22,073
53,726
14,836
2,642
93,277|2021
£
6,372
43,688
5,381
2,102|
|---|---|---|
|||57,543|
Included in accruals and deferred income there is an amount of £15,827 for rent charges which have not been invoiced (2021: £13,660).
Included in other creditors there is £1,423 (2021: £1,252) of unpaid pension contributions.
## **19. Deferred income**
Included in accruals and deferred income in note 18 is the following deferred income:
|MOJ Covid Extraordinary Fund
Trust for London
London Community Response Fund
MOPAC (LCF)
MOPAC IDVA Fund|**2022**
**£**
-
-
-
4,616
28,889
33,505|2021
£
2,805
3,654
10,571
-
-|
|---|---|---|
|||17,030|
## **20. Pensions and other post-retirement benefits**
## **Defined contribution pension plans**
The amount recognised in income or expenditure as an expense in relation to defined contribution plans was £7,037 (2021: £5,125)
17
**Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **21. Analysis of charitable funds**
## **Unrestricted funds**
|General funds
General funds|At
1 April
2021
£
91,955
At
1 April
2020
£
47,548|Income
£
301,497
Income
£
251,045|Expenditure
£
(293,594)
Expenditure
£
(206,638)|Transfers
£
49,131
Transfers
£
-|**At**
**31 March**
**2022**
**£**
148,989|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||At
31 March
2021
£
91,955|
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## **Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **21. Analysis of charitable funds** _**(continued)**_
## **Restricted funds**
|City Bridge Trust
MOPAC (LCF)
CATCH HC
MOPAC (DV Training)
Home Office
Trust for London
MOJ Covid
Extraordinary Fund
London Community
Response Fund
MOPAC VAWG Fund
MOJ IDVA Fund
Comic Relief
City Bridge Trust
MOPAC (LCF)
CATCH HC
MOPAC (DV Training)
Home Office
Trust for London
MOJ Covid
Extraordinary Fund
London Community
Response Fund|At
1 April
2021
£
1,054
9,537
13,566
9,284
61,376
1,305
5
1,614
-
-
-
97,741
At
1 April
2020
£
135
10,196
10,791
9,284
46,147
1,281
-
-
77,834|Income
£
-
45,124
-
-
75,000
27,154
2,804
10,571
49,965
7,848
23,660
242,126
Income
£
23,081
7,500
22,204
-
75,000
35,796
33,992
29,619
227,192|Expenditure
£
-
(41,784)
-
-
(64,164)
(26,685)
-
(11,561)
(43,793)
(7,848)
(14,880)
(210,715)
Expenditure
£
(22,162)
(8,159)
(19,429)
-
(59,771)
(35,772)
(33,987)
(28,005)
(207,285)|Transfers
£
-
-
(13,566)
-
(35,565)
-
-
-
-
-
-
(49,131)
Transfers
£
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-|**At**
**31 March**
**2022**
**£**
1,054
12,877
-
9,284
36,647
1,774
2,809
624
6,172
-
8,780|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||80,021|
||||||At
31 March
2021
£
1,054
9,537
13,566
9,284
61,376
1,305
5
1,614|
||||||97,741|
The CATCH HC fund has been reclassified from restricted reserves to unrestricted reserves.
At 31 March 2022 an amount of £35,565 in the Home Office fund has been transferred from restricted to unrestricted reserves.
19
## **Stay Safe East**
## **Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **22. Analysis of net assets between funds**
|Tangible fixed assets
Current assets
Creditors less than one year
**Net assets**
Tangible fixed assets
Current assets
Creditors less than one year
Net assets
**23. Analysis of changes in net debt**
Cash at bank and in hand|**Unrestricted**
**Funds**
£
1,436
207,325
(59,772)
148,989
Unrestricted
Funds
£
2,872
129,596
(40,513)
91,955
At
1 April
2021
£
97,875||**Restricted**
**Funds**
£
-
113,526
(33,505)
80,021
Restricted
Funds
£
-
114,771
(17,030)
97,741
Cash flows
£
76,543|**Total**
**Funds**
**2022**
**£**
1,436
320,851
(93,277)|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||229,010|
|||||Total
Funds
2021
£
2,872
244,367
(57,543)|
|||||189,696|
|||||**At**
**31 March**
**2022**
**£**
174,418|
## **24. Related parties**
There have not been any related party transactions during this or the previous year.
20
**Stay Safe East**
**Notes to the Financial Statements** _(continued)_ **For the year ended 31 March 2022**
____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________
## **25. Going Concern (COVID-19)**
The trustees have been carrying out a continuous assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on operations of the charity, and considered the impact, risks and threats posed.
The trustees are satisfied that to date, the threat to operations has been minimal, and whilst working arrangements have had to be adapted, this has not significantly reduced the effectiveness of the organisation.
The trustees continue to monitor events in the country as a whole, and have a protocol in place, to provide a quick response to any changes in the operating environment, but currently do not anticipate any circumstances that significantly curtail the ability of the charity to function.
The trustees have also considered the non-COVID-19 related circumstances of the charity, and are satisfied, that the going concern basis, is appropriate for these financial statements.
21