Time to be Out
Trustees' Annual Report, 13th June 2024 - 12th June 2025
Charity Number 1183884
Website: www.timetobeout.org.uk
Names of the charity trustees
| Name of trustee | Role(if any) | Dates(if not for the wholeperiod) |
|---|---|---|
| William Roche | Chair | |
| David Sylph | ||
| Malcolm Wren | Treasurer and Charity Commission contact |
|
| Angela Carter | until 6th February2025 | |
| Noor Boksh | until 3rd December 2024 | |
| El Parnham | ||
| Drew Richardson | until 3rd December 2024 | |
| Issam Ghariba | ||
| Brian Robinson | from 3rd December 2024 | |
| Diego García Rodríguez |
from 10th November 2024 |
Constitution
Charitable Incorporated Organisation, dated 12th June 2019
The objects of the charity as set out in its governing document:
TO PROMOTE SOCIAL INCLUSION FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT BY PREVENTING PEOPLE WHO ARE REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS WHO IDENTIFY AS LGBT+ FROM BECOMING SOCIALLY EXCLUDED, TO RELIEVE THE NEEDS OF THOSE PEOPLE AND TO ASSIST THEM TO INTEGRATE INTO SOCIETY, PARTICULARLY BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY BY:
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PROVIDING WORKSHOPS, ADVOCACY AND GENERAL SUPPORT
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INCREASING AND CO-ORDINATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR MEMBERS OF
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THE ABOVE COMMUNITIES TO ENGAGE WITH LOCAL COMMUNITIES
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RAISING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF THE ISSUES AFFECTING REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS WHO IDENTIFY AS LGBT+, BOTH GENERALLY AND IN RELATION TO THEIR SOCIAL EXCLUSION
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects.
We attempt to prevent the social exclusion of LGBT+ refugees and asylum seekers in the following ways:
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Offering casework support so that people can successfully claim refugee status, allowing them to work and integrate fully into society
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Providing befrienders, who, amongst other things, help people with practical matters (such as registering with a doctor or dentist)
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Arranging social events and fostering social contacts to break down isolation
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Where necessary offering 1:1 English language tuition
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Referring people to other agencies and appropriate sources of support (e.g. with housing)
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Providing hardship funds in cases of emergency (e.g. when Home Office support is not available through delays and technical problems)
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Giving talks and presentations to community groups about the special needs and circumstances of LGBT+ asylum seekers and refugees
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Collaborating with other groups to put pressure on decision makers to develop policies that do not further stigmatise and isolate the people we are supporting
Summary of the main activities and the impact of our work in 2023-24
The context
Despite some positive developments (in particular the withdrawal of the scheme to move asylum seekers to Rwanda), the general context of our work remains extremely difficult.
In the summer of 2024 many of the people we have been supporting were physically attacked or threatened in a series of riots. Some of our beneficiaries were housed in a hotel in Rotherham when it was set on fire by a mob. Some of our volunteers were involved in ensuring that people were able to escape and recover.
It is now extremely difficult for asylum seekers to obtain Legal Aid so they have to go to their Home Office interviews without legal representation. The refusal rate of initial asylum claims has risen substantially in the course of the year, meaning that many of the people we are supporting need to submit an appeal (again, without a lawyer). There is now a serious bottleneck in the Asylum Tribunals, so our beneficiaries need support for longer as they wait for their court date.
The LGBT+ context has become more hostile in some countries (e.g. the situation in Ghana has deteriorated as politicians have tried to follow the example of Uganda), meaning that more people are claiming asylum based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. At the same time, the situation for trans people in the UK has become increasingly difficult, leading to increased social hostility and more incidents of hate crime.
Casework and befriending
Volunteers from Time to be Out are not lawyers and are not allowed to give legal advice (in the course of this year we received more training on how to give general guidance without giving legal advice). However, we were able to support asylum seekers as they prepared for their Home Office interviews and presented their own witness statements. On 38 occasions volunteers from Time to be Out were allowed to accompany asylum seekers to their substantive interviews.
Large numbers of these applicants were successful but in many cases the applications were refused. In these cases people have only two weeks in which to submit an appeal, and increasingly people have no lawyers at this point. Again, our volunteers received training on how to support people as they submit appeals online, following the guidance on the Right to Remain toolkit website.
Volunteers from Time to be Out gave witness evidence at 8 Asylum Tribunals.
Many people who are granted Leave to Remain lose access to Home Office financial support before they qualify for Universal Credit or before they can get a job. In these cases we have been able to provide hardship funds to bridge them over.
Many of our beneficiaries have complex needs (e.g. they are not living in safe housing; their financial support does not arrive; they have serious mental health problems) and in these cases we do our best to signpost them to more specialist and larger agencies.
A number of volunteers continue to act as online befrienders or help with English tuition. We have also developed a buddying system to encourage peer support online.
Social events
Every month we hold an in-person social event in central Sheffield, with an average attendance of about 30 people per session.
We also hold a weekly social event on Zoom on Sunday evenings, focused on peer support and interaction. LGBT+ asylum seekers from around the country are able to attend and catch up with each other's news. We are grateful to three of our beneficiaries who have volunteered to host these meetings.
On 7th June we paid for 42 beneficiaries from across the north of England to travel to York to take part in the Pride parade.
Impact
66 of the asylum seekers we have been supporting were granted Leave to Remain between June 13th 2024 and June 12th 2025. We hope that we have played a small part in allowing these 66 people to begin a new life in a safe environment.
It is difficult to quantify the impact of our social events and our befriending activities, but we can be confident that we are continuing to meet our objectives of breaking down social isolation and integrating people who claim asylum on the grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity into wider British society.
Plans and priorities for 2025-26
The trustees will continue to review whether or not the charity should remain exclusively volunteer-based or whether it is time to take on paid staff.
After working hard this year on identifying and liaising with partner organisations who do similar, complementary work to Time to be Out, we aim to continue and deepen our collaborations.
We are planning to overhaul our website and we have begun obtaining permission from some of our beneficiaries to allow us to post their pictures online as part of this review.
Time to be Out
Income and Expenditure 13th June 2024 to 12th June 2025
| Balance carried forward | £3 055.79 |
|---|---|
| Total Income | £19 398.01 |
| Total Expenditure | £19 225.86 |
| Balance | £172.15 |
| Balance carried forward (£3 055.79 + £172.15) | £3 227.94 |
DETAILS OF INCOME
| Donations from monthly standing orders / direct debits | £7 664.00 |
|---|---|
| One-off individual donations directly paid to the bank |
£7 199.16 |
| One-off cash donations | £250.00 |
| Donations via the Just Giving button on the website | £4 039.85 |
| The Rainbow Lottery | £245.00 |
| Total Income |
£19 398.01 |
DETAILS OF EXPENDITURE
| Hardship and emergencies | £3 779.99 |
|---|---|
| Casework, befriending and English tuition | £1 802.19 |
| Shopping vouchers | £4 167.00 |
| Sheffield monthly meeting | £3 834.91 |
| York Pride 2025 | £1 849.97 |
| Volunteer expenses - casework | £1 116.21 |
| Volunteer expenses - HO Asylum interviews | £1 142.21 |
| Volunteer expenses - Asylum Tribunals | £169.75 |
| Period poverty payments | £170.00 |
| Administration (insurance, website etc.) | £1 193.63 |
Total expenditure
£19 225.86
Unclaimed expenditure (i.e. sums which are recorded as having been disbursed but which do not appear on the bank statements, almost certainly because the volunteers submitted the receipts and did not claim back the full expenses. This money will be reimbursed in the next financial year)
Sheffield meeting £86.82 Casework £52.25 Admin (lanyards) £6.50
Breakdown of distribution of cash donations (£250)
Hardship payments to individuals £35 Period poverty £70 Sheffield meeting (hardship and travel) £145
Breakdown of spending on York Pride , 7th June 2025
Spending money (42 @ £15) £630.00 Bus from Leeds (with Angels of Freedom) £200.00 Travel for asylum seekers (from Sheffield, Doncaster, Teesside etc) £986.52 Volunteer expenses £33.45
Average spending per beneficiary £44.04
Breakdown of spending at Sheffield meetings (12 meetings in total)
Volunteer travel expenses £646.48 Beneficiary travel expenses £660.48 Food and drink £819.65 Venue hire £315.00 Prizes £173.30 Hardship payments to beneficiaries living on £8 per week £1 210.00