Bristol City of Sanctuary Assisi Centre, Lawford’s Gate, Bristol BS5 0RE
Trustees’ Annual Report for the period from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021
Charity name: Bristol City of Sanctuary Charity registration number: 1177122
Objectives and Activities
For the public benefit:
(1) The promotion of social inclusion for the public benefit among people who are refugees and asylum seekers, socially excluded on the grounds of their social and economic position, by promoting and/or co-ordinating services and facilities to assist them to adapt within a new community.
(2) The relief of financial hardship among asylum seekers and refugees living or working in Bristol and surrounding areas by acting as an umbrella and resource for local refugee support services.
(3) The advancement of the education of the public in general about the issues relating to refugees and those seeking asylum and human rights.
(4) The promotion of equality and diversity for the public benefit by promoting activities to foster understanding and good relations between the general public and people seeking sanctuary.
Public Benefit
In fulfilling the above objectives the Trustees at all times have regard to the Charity Commission's guidance on Public Benefit.
Chairs’ report
During this year we have had staff changes within Bristol City of Sanctuary. Forward Maisokwadzo, the original coordinator of Bristol City of Sanctuary before it acquired CIO status in 2018, and BCoS first formally employed Manager, left the organisation in December 2020. Anna Wardell, our Office Administrator and Campaigns Manager has stepped in to the role of Manager un-
BCoS:: Trustees’ Annual Report 2020-2021
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til we recruit a permanent replacement. Trustees have engaged fully in a process of training and proper oversight of BCoS activities and financial position, and we are very grateful to all fellow trustees for their time and expertise over this year. We especially wish to thank the painstaking work of our Treasurer, Paul Hazelden, and our independent examiner Ruth Nott for bringing the financial records of BCoS up to date and on track. We thank Forward for his major contribution to the development of the organisation between 2008 and 2020, and wish him well in the future. Finally we owe a huge thanks to Anna for stepping up so ably into Forward’s large shoes, and keeping the focus of BCoS firmly on its vision of public welcome an support for people seeking sanctuary in Bristol.
The above significant changes within the organisation, together with the pandemic and successive lockdowns, have inevitably had an impact on the work of BCoS. Nevertheless BCoS has maintained its profile and message throughout the year as the report below indicates. We are delighted to join the new Bristol Refugee and Asylum Seeker Partnership (BRASP), bringing together the service delivery concerns of Bristol’s refugee support organisations, and have been much encouraged by the cooperation and shared endeavour which have developed over the year between the voluntary sector and the local authority.
Caroline Beatty, Susana Askew, co-chairs
Activities :
1. Campaigns and Advocacy
Much of BCoS’ activities focused around campaigning during this period. Seeing the unequal impact of the pandemic on people seeking sanctuary our Co-Chair, Caroline Beatty, drafted a letter with others in the refugee support sector to local politicians calling on them work with us to create a fairer society. It resulted in a sector meeting with Thangam Debbonaire MP to discuss our asks and how to action them.
BCoS also spearheaded campaigns against new legislation which allowed for people to be deported for rough sleeping, along with campaigning for an end of in-person reporting at Patchway Police Station during the pandemic. At the end of this period, the New Plan for Immigration was announced, which BCoS are now actively campaigning against.
2. Transport Fund
The Transport Fund was partially suspended during the pandemic as tickets were not required. However, discussions between the sector were ongoing to ensure that tickets were available when needed. BCoS took this opportunity to revisit allocation, expand who could receive tickets and ensure a formal written agreement was established with First Bus.
3. Schools and Colleges of Sanctuary
Despite the school closures, our Schools and Colleges of Sanctuary sub-group have been busy behind the scenes. They worked with several schools and colleges to seek accreditation/re-accreditation and also to re-engage schools who had previously been accredited.
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4. Work with BRASP and Bristol City Council during the Pandemic
We worked closely with Bristol City Council and the refugee support sector during the pandemic, making sure that we were part of all key discussions, including those around the “everyone in” initiative.
5. Website and Social Media
We have continued to develop our website, keeping it up to date with local news and events. We have also continued to develop our social media, creating an Instagram account to engage with a younger audience.
6. Fundraising
In response to the pandemic, we organised a joint fundraiser between ourselves and five other local charities called “Building a City of Welcome, Safety and Hope.” We also carried out several call-outs for smartphones, raising awareness of the digital divide for many seeking sanctuary.
Structure, Governance and Management
BCoS is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation with voting members other than trustees. The governing document of BCoS is its constitution last updated on 7[th] July 2019. It does not have any trusts.
Our Trustee Recruitment Policy was adopted in July 2018. Adverts encouraging people considering becoming a trustee are circulated; people who express an interest are invited to two board meetings; potential trustees present a short statement about themselves to the AGM and potentially answer questions; the AGM elects trustees. If there are not enough trustees from a refugee or asylum seeker background, the trustees can appoint a suitable person, who may serve until the next AGM. We are particularly concerned to recruit trustees with lived experience of being refugees. We have developed a process for trustee induction and training
The charity employs a part-time manager and a part-time administrator for the day to day operations. It is an independent member of the national City of Sanctuary network. There are no structural legal or financial connections with the national organisation, but they provide our Internet sub-domain, email and website.
There are no persons or bodies entitled to appoint any trustees. There were no corporate trustees. There were no trustees holding title to property belonging to the charity. There were no funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others
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Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 |
Trustee name | Ofce (if any) | Dates acted if not for whole year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Susana Askew | Co-Chair | ||
| Katie Bales | |||
| Caroline Beatty | Co-Chair | ||
| Eleanor Combley | |||
| Paul Hazelden | Treasurer | ||
| NathalieJaifar | |||
| Helen Kidan | |||
| Richard McKay | |||
| Souvik Saha |
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Financial Review
Review of the charity’s financial position at the end of the period
The charity had income of £41,747. The majority of the income came from a grant (£30,000) from R H Southern Trust and loan repayment (£6,450).
Total expenditure was £22,534. The largest expense was staffing (£17,639), followed by Administration (£1,929).
Along with many charities, our activities were significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected both both our income and expenditure.
Reserves
During this period, the trustees did not discuss a policy for holding reserves. This was partly because other matters were more urgent and more important, and it was partly a pragmatic recognition that establishing an interest-paying account to hold the reserves was not worth the effort due to the extremely low interest rates available to us.
No funds were identified as being reserves because we had not yet determined a policy for deciding on the reserves level.
Additional information
At the start of the period, the Transport Fund was in deficit to the general funds but, as anticipated, this was rectified within 3 months. This did not cause any problems because the Transport Fund was significantly in credit, and was not paying out because the pandemic restricted travel.
There are no uncertainties about the charity continuing as a going concern, as long as funds become available.
Over the past few years, our principal sources of funds have been grants: two larger grants from R H Southern Trust and several smaller grants from Bristol City Council and Quartet. We fundraise separately on an ongoing basis for the Transport Fund, and this year we also engaged in joint fundraising for a group of related charities, of which we are a member.
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Declarations
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
----- Start of picture text -----
Signature(s)
Full name(s) Caroline Beatty Susana Askew
Position (eg
Secretary, Chair, Co-Chair Co-Chair
etc)
Date 5 January 2022
----- End of picture text -----
Copyright © 2022 Bristol City of Sanctuary Last updated at 06/01/2022 13:44:00, revision: 7 Location: /home/paul/C/Groups/CoS/Governance/Annual/2020-21/BCoS_Trustees_Report_202021.doc
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Bristol City of Sanctuary 2020-21 Management Accounts R&P Accounts
| Bristol City of Sanctuary |
Bristol City of Sanctuary |
Bristol City of Sanctuary |
Bristol City of Sanctuary |
CC16a | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For the period from |
Period start date 01/04/20 |
To | |||
| Section A Receipts and payments | |||||
| A1 Receipts | 480 238 30,000 2,472 - - 33,190 6,450 - 6,450 39,640 - 17,639 1,929 410 - - - 19,978 - - - 19,978 19,662 - - 4,731 14,931 Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ |
to the nearest £ Restricted funds |
to the nearest £ Endowment funds |
Total funds to the nearest £ |
Last year to the nearest £ |
| Earned | - - 751 1,356 - - - 2,107 |
- | 480 238 30,000 2,472 751 1,356 - - - 35,297 |
720 | |
| MembershipFees | - | 585 | |||
| Grants | 4,750 | ||||
| Unrestricted Gifts | - | 1,136 | |||
| Transport Fund | - | 7,844 | |||
| Other Restricted | - | 421 | |||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) | - | 15,456 | |||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
|||||
| Loan Repayment | - - |
6,450 - 6,450 |
6,250 | ||
| - | - | ||||
| Sub total | - | 6,250 | |||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
41,747 | ||||
| 2,107 | - | 21,706 | |||
Transport Fund |
1,200 1,356 - - - - - - - 2,556 |
- | 1,200 1,356 17,639 1,929 410 - - - - 22,534 |
3,350 | |
| Other events | - | 925 | |||
| Workers | - | 9,228 | |||
| Administration | - | 2,730 | |||
| Governance | - | 847 | |||
| - | |||||
| - | |||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| **Sub total ** | - | 17,079 | |||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
|||||
| Loan | - - - |
- | - - - |
3,900 | |
| - | |||||
| **Sub total ** | - | 3,900 | |||
| Total payments Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end **Cash funds this year end ** |
|||||
| 2,556 | - | 22,534 | 20,979 | ||
| - 449 - 6,429 5,980 |
- | 19,213 - 1,698 20,911 |
727 | ||
| - | - | ||||
| - | 971 | ||||
| - | 1,698 |
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Bristol City of Sanctuary 2020-21 Management Accounts R&P Accounts
| Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the | end of the period | end of the period | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Categories Details B1 Cash funds In Bank Details B2 Other monetary assets Loan Details B3 Investment assets Details Details B5 Liabilities Signature Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees |
to nearest £ Unrestricted funds |
to nearest £ Restricted funds |
to nearest £ Endowment funds |
| 14,931 | 5,980 - - 5,980 |
- | |
| - | - | ||
| - | - | ||
| 14,931 | - | ||
| OK to nearest £ Unrestricted funds |
OK | ||
| to nearest £ Endowment funds |
|||
| 13,950 | - | ||
| - | - | ||
| - | - | ||
| - | - | ||
| - | - | ||
| Fund to which asset belongs |
Current value (optional) |
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| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Fund to which asset belongs |
Current value (optional) |
||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Fund to which liability relates |
When due (optional) |
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| Date of approval |
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There was no remuneration or expenses paid to any trustee or related party
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Assisi Centre Lawford’s Gate Bristol, BS5 0RE
BCoS
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Copyright © 2022 Bristol City of Sanctuary Last updated at 19:12 on 31 January 2022, revision: 2 Location: /home/paul/C/Groups/CoS/Governance/Annual/2020-21/BCoS_IE_Report_202021.odt
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