Oxford
Churches,
Debt Centre
Trustees,
Annual
Report and
Accounts
Year Ending March 2023

CONTENTS
Contents
Trustees & Supporting Churche5
Chainnan's Report
Manager's Report
6-10
Independent Examiner's Report
li
Statement of Financlal Artivities
12
Balance Sheet
13
Notes to the Accounts
14
Charity Information
15

TRUSTEES AND SUPPORTING CHURCHES
The Trustees who have served during the year have been:
lames BloRce-Smlth (Chairperson)
Claire Bishop (appointed 23 September 2022)
Matt Partridge
john Price
lenni Williams
The Trustees meet on a quarterly basis.
The churches which In various ways support our work in Oxford are..
Barton Community Church
Cornerstone Church
Cowley Church Community
Emmanuel Church
Headington Baptist Church
Magdalen Road Church
Oxford Frlends Actlon on Poverty
St Clemenvs Church
St Matthe￿$ Church
St Nicholas Church
Wheatley Community Church
Woodstock Road Baptist Church

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
A5 15 true for so much of our society, we are finding that our post-covid experience is settling
into a new iiormal. For our chariry, rhis new nortnal has included some challenges, whicli we will
mention below. As last year. we wish ro thank our Centre Manager. Aiidrew lohiison, aiid the staff
team for pi-oviding high quality work. aloiig with our able volunteers. to alleviate povei-ty in
Oxford.
Olir Centre Manager will give more detail below. but I can recount conversations with grateful
clieiits who liave found conci'ete help to get out of debt, or in other ways deal with their finai)cial
pi'essLire5, tlii-OLigh the woi-k Df our Lharity. This is exactly what we want to hear.
We liave been able to take forwai-d sonie of the specitic tt'ansitions nientioned in last yeai s
I'eport, iiamely. to see additional volunteers traiiied to run tlie sei-vices CAP Money and CAP Life
Skills, to use our network of churclies in addressing one-oft client iieeds, and to find others who
can lielp us deal with the increasing coniplexity of i)eeds which accompany the fiiiaiicial
probletns.
Thi-ee objects of our chai-ity are, the i-elief of poverty. education about the inanagement of
personal finances, atld the advdnLenient of the Christian faith. In Ol-der ro do this. we woi'k in
forillal partnei-ship witl) Christiai)s Against Poverty (CAP), who train our staff, pi'ovide the expei-t
advice wliicl) underpins our work witli thuse in debt, and produce high quality resources to help
with our educatiuii object ICAP is aiithorised and i-egulated by the Financial Conduct Authoi'ity).
We are pleased to have signed a new partnei-ship agreement with CAP in the past year.
However, of equal impoitance are our party)er.ships with local churches who enable us to otter
our clieiits the CAP debt seivice holistically, witl) the support of an appropi-iate befriender,
behind whoin 5tdnds the I'riendship and love of local communities of people. We consider t]iis to
be a uJJique feitui'e of die service we are able to provide to those facing wliat is often a difficult
ai)d stressful life cii-ciinistaiice. How lar clients niake iise of tliis support is offered without
condition and is depeiideiit on how far they find this helpful.
Tlie niain challeiige ol tliis pnst-C(Ivid woi'ld i.£ that client take-up has not I'eturned to pre-covid
levels. We Lontiiiue to exploi-e avei)ues by which to increase our pi'ofile, so tliat those in iieed can
fiiid us easily. However, we will Iieed to explore other avenues in the coming year to ensui-e tliat
we al-e offeriiig what Is most helpful, whilst not losing the core work of debt counselling.

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
In conclusion, there are many we need to thank. Fii'st, our paitnei- churches. withoiit whom we
would not exist and who have einbi-aced mol-e responsibility over the pastyear. Secoiid, to the
ti-ustees who have thought carefully about the issues we face and the cause we are trying to
carl'y forwai'd. Third. tnany thanks to our voluiiteei's who have worked alongside oiii- staff and
w()nderfully supported our clients. Finally, oiir thaiik5 also to our Slippurtei's and charitable
donors who have provided the financial resoui'ces to undei'take the work of the past year.
Cash for Kids
Garfield Weston Foundation
lamlar Trutt
Millfield Trust
StAldate's Parochial Charities
Doris Field Trust
Lord Faringdon Charitable Trust
Lady Tangye Trust
Pye Charitable Settlement
Stanton Ballard Trust
Signed..
James Blolce-smith, Chairman
Date:
. 2023.

MANAGER'S REPORT
The pandemic is now officially over and we are back to functioning more nornially and with
our full capacity available. However. the year has continued to be Challenging in various
ways. Even with this we can confidently say that we have continued to provide a first class
service to our clients and group members.
As expressed by the chairman above, our 3 aims remain the same and mirror those of CAP.
As in previous years we have used SiTnilar activities to put these airns into practice in
conjunctiOD with our strategic objectives.
CAP Debt Help..
This service continues to be our core activity. We pride ourselves
in offering a professional service where we care for the whole
person. Our distinctives are thatwe accompany our clients
through their entire journey out of debt and we seek to connert
them with local church communities.
Since the Oxford Central CAP Centre opened 9 years ago we have served 405 debt clients.
This last year we saw 23 of these as new clients. We rejoice that 73 clients have now gone
debt free, with 5 of these happening last year.
At the time ofwriting we have 24 client accounts on our books.
To our surprise we have so far failed to reach our
monthly allocation of 6 new clients. In fact, we have
been well short of this probably receiving just 1-2
on average. All statistics continue to show that
there are many people outthere with
unmanageable debt who need support. Our best
guess for the low numbers are related to people feeling shame and guilt and believing that
they can cope by themselves with the hope that at some point the landscape will improve
and their debts will go away. Also. as mentioned prevlou51y rhere Is now another CAP Centre
In Oxford at St Ebbe's Church which has an allocation of 4 new clients a month. So to be up to
monthly capacity we need 10 new clients which we have never got close to achievin&
"CAP have beeii aina2ifvi9 - ainaziiig
sui)poi-t right throii9h~ CAP Debt
Client

MANAGER'S REPORT
Even wlrh the low numbers we have had plenty to keep us busy. The clients we do have often
have a plethora of complex needs and they thernselves present with multiple issues which,
being linked to the reasons for the debt, we need to address and offer support where
possible or refer or signpost on to others.
CAP Money.. We continue to run CAP Money which is open to
anyone and offers advice on good money management along with
use￿1 tips. This year we have organized 3 Courses around the city
which have drawn around 8-10 people each time. The course itself
has received a significant revamp with brand new up to date
material and name making it fresher and even more relevanL This
will be available from June 2023 and will be called Money Coaching.
We are wanting to take CAP Money into schools and to offer It to parents but also to look at
the possibility of adapting it to make it accessible to children In their classes as well.
CAP Life Skills: This course aims to help people to live happily. healthily and well on a low
incorne. Our new strategy has been to invite our partner churches to consider hostlng and
running this group service. This means finding the resources from within their communlty
to do this themselves, including the leaders and volunteers. Emrnanuel Church, under the
leadership of Helen and Steve Gallagher, committed to doing this and ran their first 8 week
course starting in February. 12 people signed up and started and 8 stayed until the end.
Excitingly, the group members enjoyed being together and so wanted to continue to meet at
the same time each Tuesday rnorning. They have time for a coffee, chat and the chance to
look ata story of jesus fromthe Bible.
Emmanuel are starting their second course from 9th May. In the
city, St Ebbe's are also set up for running Life Skills and so far
have run one course. They start thelr second course on 9th lune.
We are hoping that we might be able tr) offer up to 4 courses a
year, running consecutively.

MANAGER'S REPORT
Client Events
As specified in the last report. like Life Skllls, we have also changed our way of organizing
client events in order to align ourselves more closely with CAP'S vÈsion and strategy. This has
meant decentralizing whatwe do and encouraging our partner churches to keep CAP clients
in mind when they plan outward looking events.
This has two main adwantages. Ir takes the pressure of our team having to organize several
events each year and it also automatically connects clients with local church communities
which up to know ha5 been a big challenge for us as a multi-church centre.
In the autumn there were events run by different churches in consecutive months which
clients attended and enjoyed. These included, a quiz night. Bonfire Night and a ceilidh.
We still organize a few events centrally. In February over 20
clients attended a pancake party where there was a quiz and an
explanation of the Christian period and practice of Lent. Looking
ahead we are repeating our coach trip to the New Forest in lune
after a wonderful time last year. We have 60 places available
and are ofFering the day. including food, completely free.
We regularly take part in the community café {an initiative of SL Ebbe'5 Centre) at Grace
Church Cowley which runs for l % hours on Wednesday afternoons. It is open to current
CAP clients and group service members as well as those interested in finding out more about
how CAP can support them. Attendance is still low but the time and space seems to be
appreciated by those who do come. We are looking for more ways to make the café fuller and
more vibrant. Meeting clients there to tslk through their cases is proving to be attractive to
some.
As we openly and intentionally share our faith whenever we can, and regularly pray for and
with our clients, we are aware of God at work We know of several clients who largely,
through individual relationshlps and testimonies have moved forward in their faith journey
over this lastyear and others who have experienced God's love in a fresh way and have
become more open to consider the life He offers.

MANAGER'S REPORT
Referral Agencles and publicizlng our services
WÈ are grateful for the referral agencies we collaborate with in Oxford. We continue to
connert with them regularly sharing and updating them on our services. However, dt the end
of March. lohn Livingstone, our Community Links
Coordinator. stepped down from the role he had filled
since the Centre began 9 years ago. He is transitioning
into retiremenL We are very grateful to lohn for his great
work in connecting us with huge numbers of people and
for publicizlng our services in many contexts around the
city. There are clear plans to replace him as soon as posslble.
We are intending to invite one referral agency to come and give specific targeted training to
our volunteers each year. This time it will be Turning Point (working with people with
addiction). For our part we continue to refer people to foodbanks and signpost some to
other agencies and charities as necessary.
We continue to publicize our services in the public arena when we can. Once again we have
had at least two opportunitie5 to speak on local radio - BBC Radio Oxford and lack 3 to speak
live and comment on the Governments Autumn Statement and how our clients are coping
with the current Energy Crisis. Furthermore, in order to reach a greater number. we have
committed to delivering 12.000 CAP publicity Postcards through house letter boxes around
variou5 housing eststes. At the time of writing we have distributed around 10.000. We will
looking carefully at the impact ofthis effort before continuing with the campalgn.
Partner Churches: We are once again extremely gratefi]I for our 8 partner churches who
continue to show support for this ministry in prayin& givin& supporting clients and
encouraging volunteers. Two of our supporting churches, Cowley Church Community
Northway@5. have closed in the lastyear.
Six CAP Sunday events were held last Autumn {most ofwhich included contributions from
staff members) and at least a couple of other churches have had a focus on CAP in a Sunday
service more recently. These opportunities allow us to Share the CAP vision and to
encourage churches and individuals to stay/get involved. Where we could arrange it, the
highlight was to hear the testimonies of clients whose lives have been changed through the
involvement of CAP. We have introduced another strategy change called'wrapping around
the clieny where we are deliberdtely allocating each client to one of our partner churches.
We are asking them to take more of a responsibility for supporting, caring and praying for
the client and connecting them where possible to church activities in order to draw them
more into the community. Ideally the befriender will also be a member of that church to
enable this process. This support could see the church providing practical items too as
required including furniture and clothes. Centrally we continue to run a bike donation

MANAGER'S REPORT
scheme whereby bikes, donated by sUPPOrters and others are offered to clients who want
them. Around 10 bikes have been given away in the last month.
Volunteers: We give huge thanks for our arn]y of volunteers who get involved in the CAP
work in a variety of ways including.. befriendin& facilitating and supporting the courses,
prayin& and givin& We currently have around 45 volunteers actively involved.
As always a key part of our service to our clients is the personal sUPPOrt of our befrienders
who accompany them on their journey out of debt. This group ofvolunteers have faithfijlly
continued to offer emotional support in a variety of ways including through phone c311s,
going for walks, meeting for coffee and offering practical help.
l This year we went back to carrying out our annual Christmas
hamper packlng In the normal way. In total we made up 33
hamper5 which feedback tells us were much appreciated as
always.
We are back in a pattern to
provide regular training for
our volunteers Includlng an Induction sesslon and a
topical session each year. The toplcs wlll Include
addiction. mental health, and evangelism. We are also
drawing our Church Reps together from time to time
for training and support.
"Tl?e CAP Debt Ceiiti-e is jiist
01?e of the w(iys we otjtwofr-k
ourpa55EoIT~. Church leadei-
We are confident that we are in a good place and. wfith God's help, we are ready to Serve all
our clients and group participants over the coming year with energy, enthusiasm and
compassion.
Signed:
Andrew lohnson, Centre Manager
Date,,
. 2023.
io

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT
Independent examlner's Teport on the accounts
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the PCC for the year ended 315E March
2023.
Responslbllltles and basls of report
As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts ITh accordance wlth
the requlrements ofthe Charities Act 2011 ["the Actl.
The trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144[2) of the Act and
that an independent examination is required.
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the ACL
In carrying out my examination. it is my responsibility to
examine the accounts under section 145 ofthe Act-
follow procedures laid down in the General Directions given by the Charity
Comtnissioners under section 145(5)(b) of the Act; and
state whether particular matters come to my attention.
My examination was carried out in accordance with the general Directions given by the Charity
Commission under sertion 145[S)tb) of the ACL
An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of
the accounts presented with those records. Italso include5 consideringanyunusual items or disclosure
in the accounts and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The
procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required Èn an audit, and
consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a "trne and fairf, view, and the
report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.
Examiner's statement
I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination
which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
the accounting records were not kept in accordance wlth sectlon 130 of the Charltles Att,. or
the accounts did not accord with the accounting record5.' or
the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the ftbrni and content
of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Report5) Regulation5 2008 other than any
requirement that the accounts g]ve a'true and fairf 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 connertion with the examination towhich
attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to
be reached.
Signed..
Yvonne Kinyanjui
Date:
o*... 0.É.............................. 2023.
li

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES
For the year ended 31st March
2023
2022
Sources of Funds
GifLS from churches
Other gifts and grants
Gift Aid tax recoverable
17,608
53,072
4,683
19,054
57,797
4.772
Total Incoming Resources
75.363
81,623
Expenditure
Salaries
CAP head otTice
Office rent
Travel expenses
Client give-awdys
Miscellaneous
62,769
10,600
4.873
974
3.145
2.455
63,489
13.080
3,700
834
1,477
2,399
Toral Outgoing Resources
84,816
84,979
Surplus/(DeficitJ for the year
(9,453)
[3.3S6)
12

BALANCE SHEET
As at 31st March
2023
2022
Assets
Bank accounts
Gift Aid tay recoverable
71,607
3,074
82,587
1,643
Total assets
74.681
84.230
Creditors
HMRC
Other credltors
239
692
835
Total creditors
835
931
Total NetAssets
73,846
83.299
Financing
General Fund brought forward
Restricted lob Clubs Fund
Surplus/(Deficit) this year
82,299
iooo
(9.453]
85.655
1.000
(3,356)
Total Financing
73.846
83,299
Signed:
lohn Price. Treasurer
Date:
IE
. 2023.
13

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS
Reserves Policy
The trustees have agreed that it would be prudent to hold at all times cash reserves
sufficient to last for six months. As at 31sr March 2023 our cash reserves amounted to
approximately ten months of the following yearf5 expenditLtre.
Other Pollcles
The charity has various policies including those coverlng..
Safeguarding Children
Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults
Equal Opportunities
Data Protection
Health & Safety
These are available for inspection and can be provided to anyone who would like to
see them.
Funds
Most ofthe charity's money flows through its General Fund; there is also a restricted
Cap Job Clubs Fund which results from a donation to set up such a club in the near
future.
Sources of Funds
All income is recognised when it is received wtth the exception of Gift Aid tax
recoverable which is recognised at the time the gift to which it relates is recelved.
Fixed Assets
The charity only capitalize5 individual fixed assets costing over £l.000. Minor item5
are written off in the accounts when they are purchased.
Trustees. Remuneration
All the trustees received no payment or other remuneration for their services during
theyear (2022: £0).
14

CHARITY INFORMATION
Charlty Informatlon
The charity is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered on 18th February 2014
with the Charlty Commlsslon, number 1155834
Oxford Churches Debt Centre (OCDCJ working title: Oxford CAP Centre
St Clemenvs Centre
Cross Street
Oxford
OX4 IDA
Tel:
01865 249008
Bank
CAF Bank Ltd.
25 Kings Hill Avenue
Kings Hill
West Malling
ME19 4IQ
Sort code 40-52-40
Account no. 00025483