Il•• Herts ••ii* Domestic Abuse Helpline 08 088 088 088 Domestic abuse can affect anyone. It's time to end e silence. Ix CMILDIEH IIN6 MENI ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2021-22 ## **CONTENTS** **----- Start of picture text -----**
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Annual report 2021-22 – Chair’s Summary 3
About us 4
The picture nationally 4
The picture in Hertfordshire 5
Helpline Operation 5
How call data is assessed 5
Helpline Manager’s Report 5
Volunteers 6
The difference we make 6
Influencing national policy 6
The Domestic Abuse Act 7
Promotional activities, social media and marketing 7
Grant funding in 2021-22 8
Trustees and Staff at March 2022 9
Patrons 11
Helpline Contact details 12
Treasurer’s Report and Annual Accounts 13
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2 ## **ANNUAL REPORT 2021-22 – Chair’s Summary** As I write, we have just had the fantastic news that we are to receive a QAVS – a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. This award is the equivalent of an MBE for the voluntary sector and recognises the contribution to the community by our volunteer call takers and Trustees, some of whom have been with the Helpline for many years. It is a huge honour and one of which we are all very proud. There will be a presentation by Robert Voss, Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire (the Queen’s representative in the county), later in the year. Receiving this award this year is even more exciting coming, as it does, in our 20[th] anniversary year and coinciding with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. We have come a long way in those twenty years. New technology has enabled us to develop the service and make it available to a much wider audience and we will be marking our anniversary with celebrations and publicity. We are about to launch our 20[th] anniversary Tea and Cake events across the county. I am delighted to say that 2021-2022 was an exceptional year for the Helpline and I am pleased to be able to report on our many successes. Despite the tail end of the COVID epidemic from April to July 2021, we continued to operate as normal. Our calls and emails rose again last year from 2,270 to 2,365 representing an increase of about 4.2% on 2020-2021. And that total is an astonishing 26% up on 2018-19, illustrating the continued growing demand for our service. We always keep the victim at the heart of all we do so it is encouraging to see more people contacting us for help. We have continued to develop our online training for new volunteer call takers and, through this, to maintain our line coverage. Fortunately, we were able to meet and train potential call takers face to face at the end of last year. We have continued to raise our profile across our four social media platforms and website, with a mixture of personal interest stories and DA facts and information and marked the launch of the Domestic Abuse Act. We have been the lead or senior charity in a number of countywide events this year. We were appointed the charity of the year for the Platinum Points Business Networking Group and they raised substantial funds for us through a variety of events such as a quiz night, an online bingo event and auctions, as well as participating in the St Albans Half Marathon and Virtual London Marathon. Some of their members also provided us with pro bono advice. Then in June we were the lead charity for the St Albans Half Marathon and in November the lead charity for the St Albans Fireworks – the biggest firework event in the southeast - and an opportunity to publicise the Helpline widely. We would like to thank the St Albans Cathedral Giving Committee for their £10,000 donation. This was followed by us being nominated as the lead charity for the Herts SME Business Awards. And of particular note are the many County Councillors who support what we do and 3 collectively awarded us grants which totalled over £20,000. You can read more about our fundraising success in the Treasurer’s report. We endeavour to work with other organisations where possible. This year we have worked with the University of Herts Law School and also CDA (Community Development Action) as we endeavour to reach out to those victims who are isolated in rural areas. We have also been collaborating with Clarion Housing raising awareness of domestic abuse for the under thirties, the elderly and those in rural areas. During the year we said goodbye to trustees Beverley Gray and Chrystalla Karvella who stood down owing to changes in their personal circumstances. We also said goodbye to Sam Phipps who left us to pursue a full-time role with Refuge in London. We wish her all the best for the future. We have recently welcomed Katherine Luckhurst as our new Assistant Helpline Manager. As always, my thanks go to our staff and volunteer call takers who have worked so hard to continue to provide such a vital service. I must also thank the Trustees for their continued time and commitment to the Helpline. Christine Roach Chair For the Board of Trustees **………………………………………………………………………………………………………** ## **About us** The Helpline is a confidential, free, support and signposting service for anyone affected by domestic abuse. It first became a registered charity in January 2011 but has been operational since 2002. On 14 August 2019 it became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and received a new charity number – 1184899. Our operations team and volunteer call takers currently work from home. We are all delighted to be celebrating the Helpline’s 20-year anniversary this year. As well as supporting around 2,400 callers a year plus many more through our website and email service, the Helpline works in partnership with countywide statutory, voluntary and community organisations which, together, all aim to improve the lives of anyone affected by domestic abuse as well as those seeking help to change their behavior. ## **The picture nationally** Domestic abuse is everyone’s business. Nationally it affects 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men and at least 750,000 children annually, who are now also seen as victims in their own right. The latest findings show that the police recorded a total of 1,459,663 domestic abuse-related incidents and crimes in England and Wales. On 4 average the police receive an emergency call relating to domestic abuse every 30 seconds. Two women and one man are killed every week. ## **The picture in Hertfordshire** ## **Source:** Herts Constabulary In the year ended 31st March 2022 there were 21,364 reported cases of domestic abuse in Hertfordshire (down 1.8% from 21,751 in the previous year) of which 12,829 (2020/21 – 12,679) were recorded as criminal offences, an increase of 1.2% on the previous year (150 more cases). Against this, there was an 8.4% criminal justice outcome rate, down by 0.8% on the previous year. Domestic Abuse constituted about 16.6% of all Herts Constabulary recorded crimes and on average there are approximately 35 domestic abuse related crimes and a further 59 domestic abuse incidents each day. ## **Helpline operation** The Trustees follow the Charity’s Constitution and operational policies are reviewed regularly. The Trustees have examined the risks to which the charity is exposed and have taken actions to mitigate them. ## **How call data is assessed** Callers’ details are not recorded. On occasions, callers volunteer some information and we do record this, though not personal contact details. For example, they may disclose that they are disabled, BAME, LGBTQ or elderly, whether drugs and alcohol or mental health issues are a concern, whether they are experiencing coercive and controlling behaviour or they may be seeking legal or financial advice. This anonymised information may help the county to commission future domestic abuse and other services. ## **Helpline Manager’s Report** **Call Numbers 1 April 2021 – 31 March 2022** The total number of calls and emails was 2,365 compared to 2,270 for the previous year. This equates to a 4% increase. The majority of calls (67%) continue to be from female victim-survivors with 5% being from male victims-survivors. We continued to take calls from professionals, family members and the general public. The most commonly disclosed types of abuse were emotional and or psychological followed by coercive control and physical abuse. IDVA (Independent Domestic Violence Advisor) was the top signpost for the year followed by women’s centres, including Watford Women’s Centre, SADA (Stevenage Against DA) and Luton’s Women’s Centre. Signposting options to the police including 999,101 and reports to DAISU (Domestic Abuse Investigation and Safeguarding Unit) was the third signposting option for the year. 5 ## **Volunteers** The Helpline Trustees would like to thank all the highly-trained volunteers who dedicated their time to the Helpline this year. We currently have 37 call takers. Without their support the service would not be able to operate. The work they do is exceptional and challenging and we are incredibly grateful. Despite the pandemic, we achieved 87% Helpline coverage this year, with our volunteers contributing some 3,302 volunteering hours to Hertfordshire. ## **The difference we make** The above statistics are interesting, but it’s also really important to recognise the difference we are making to people’s lives. Here is some of the feedback our call takers received in 2021-22. _**The caller got our number from a national domestic abuse helpline who suggested us as she wants to move to Herts and needs refuge. She explained that she was very grateful for the help and she would call back.**_ _**The lady who called said she thought our service was tremendous and that she had never been listened to before.**_ _**When ending the call, the caller was very positive and he thanked me for my help. The caller was relieved to have signposting options, and will use the service again if needed.**_ _**She said it was nice to finally get through to speak to a real person.**_ _**She said she was so pleased she had called and talking to me made her realise that she must do something about the situation. Our call made her feel more in control.**_ _**She was so pleased she had called and didn't know there was so much help out there for her. She said the call had made her realise she could find support locally.**_ _**Dad was very happy that he had been listened to for the first time by someone**_ . ## **Influencing national policy** Our Vice President, Penny Williams, attends the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Domestic Violence. Below are the topics considered in 2021-22 Meetings in 2021/22 attended by Penny Williams were all held by Zoom: May 21 - The Domestic Abuse Act became law in April 2021 and introduced some key housing reforms to improve the protection and safety of survivors, including the 6 statutory duty for Tier 1 local authorities to fund safe accommodation, which could end the current postcode lottery of funding for specialist domestic abuse services. This meeting enabled the APPG to understand how effectively the duty is being implemented locally, and to discuss the wider housing reforms needed to ensure survivors receive safe and appropriate support. In July 2021 and September 21 meetings heard evidence for its inquiry into mental health and domestic abuse including oral and written evidence received from survivors, specialist domestic abuse organisations, health experts and academics. January 22 launched the following APPG report: The Road to Recovery. March 22 looked at domestic abuse perpetrated by police officers and the extra barriers this caused; VAWG and the concern that current legislation is likely to erode the protections of women and survivors of VAWG and remove the ability to challenge state failures to safeguard women, particularly for marginalised women. DCC Maggie Blyth, National Police lead for Violence Against Women and Girls emphasised what was being done at present to improve the police response. ## **The Domestic Abuse Act 29[th] April 2021** After a long wait the Domestic Abuse Act finally received Royal Assent. Our volunteer call takers, operations team and trustees were delighted to have Nicole Jacobs, DA Commissioner for England and Wales join us to talk in more detail about her strategic plan and campaigns. ## **Promotional Activities, Social Media and Marketing** We continue to build our visibility via our website and social media channels. During 2021-22 there were 8,332 website users of whom 8,220 (87.5%) were new users versus 12.5% returning visitors. 64% were female vs 36% male and 76% were in the UK On all social media channels, we are continuing to grow our followers and exceed the industry engagement rate average. Since our new social media management company took over in August 21, figures show us: Facebook - 1,154 followers Twitter - 1,521 followers Instagram - 1,482 followers LinkedIn – 155 followers ## **Grant Funding in 2021-22** Our thanks to the 35 Hertfordshire County Councillors who awarded us Locality Budget grants to help with the impact of COVID this year. The exceptional level of funding enabled us to promote our service across the whole county to enable more victimssurvivors to reach out for help. Domestic abuse occurs in all districts of Hertfordshire 7 and affects not only victims but also perpetrators, friends and family, children and work colleagues. It not only affects the health and wellbeing of victims but also impacts on the productivity of the county. ## **Herts County Councillor Locality Budget Grants:** |Broxbourne|Paul Mason,Mark Mills-Bishop|£1,000| |---|---|---| |Dacorum|Ron Tindall,Richard Roberts,Jan Maddern|£1,600| |East Herts|Jonathan Kaye, Eric Buckmaster, Ben Crystall,
Calvin Horner|£1,800| |Hertsmere|Caroline Clapper,John Graham,Laurence Brass|£1,250| |North Herts|TerryHone,Fiona Hill,Paul Clark,Tina Bhartwas|£3,260| |St Albans|Chris White, Teresa Heritage, Paul De Kort, John
Hale,AnthonyRowlands, StellaNash|£5,050| |Stevenage|Sharon Taylor,Roni Hearn,Graham Lawrence|£1,750| |Three Rivers|Paula Hiscocks,Reena Ranger|£1,000| |Watford|Nigel Bell,Asif Khan|£1,000| |Welwyn
Hatfield|Paul Zukowskyj, Marios Artemi, Peter Hebden,
Stephen Boulton, Tony Kingsbury, Fiona
Thomson|£2,750| ||**Total**|**£20,460**| |||| Our Treasurer’s report includes details of other grants and income. 8 ## **Trustees & staff at 31 March 2022** **President** Duncan Sales **Vice President** Penny Williams, JP, DL **Trustees Chair** Christine Roach **Treasurer** Denise Powell, JP Duncan is a retired Detective Inspector Herts Constabulary and founder of the Helpline in 2002. Penny stood down as Trustee in December 2020 after many years’ service and became our Vice President at that point. Penny was a JP for 27 years serving mainly in the family courts in the latter years. Chris has been a Trustee since 2012, first as Secretary, then as Chair since 2015. She has worked in the public and private sector including roles in community safety, community engagement, grants management and also worked for the NHS. Denise is a magistrate on the West & Central Hertfordshire Bench, sitting as a Presiding Justice on the Family Bench and as a member of the Adult Criminal Bench. Before her retirement, Denise spent 38 years working for IBM in a variety of technical and managerial roles. She is also a Helpline Volunteer call taker. 9 Trustee and Commercial Lead Kay Carnell Trustee Sherry Thakur Trustee Marion Visagie Trustee Ian Taylor Trustee Alice Bromwich Kay enjoyed a long career with BP, spanning 35 years. She has extensive business experience, particularly in sales, marketing and business development, and has operated in many countries worldwide. Sherry is Solicitor and Partner at JKC Lawyers in Watford. Much of her work involves domestic abuse issues. Sherry also provides JKC’s 24 hour legal helpline. Marion is a dentist from South Africa and a survivor of domestic abuse. Marion has a Level 3 qualification in Safeguarding Adults and Children and has substantial experience of the subject. Ian is a highly experienced Business Advisor and Financial Services Professional, with more than thirty years’ expertise in Senior Executive roles with Barclays and BNP Paribas. He is also a Board Member of St Albans City of Expertise CIC, a special business interest group. Alice is a HR professional, with 15 years + experience in the private and public sector. In 2019 she founded an HR Consultancy specialising in supporting SME’s and scale up’s. 10 ## **Associate Trustees** Michael Ball Mick retired as Det.Chief Superintendent from Herts Constabulary in 2018 after 34 years of service. Amongst his duties he was Chair of the County Domestic Abuse Partnership Board. Mick now has a civilian role with the Police as Lead for Strategic Planning and Analysis. ## **Operations Team** Helpline Manager Hayley Star Helpline Assistant Katherine Luckhurst Hayley joined as the new manager in February 2021. Hayley has undertaken Sunflower J9 training and is a Police Standards champion as well as having attended the Triple R course and Freedom programme. She is also a Mental Health First Aider. Alongside her law degree, Kat has volunteered with victims of domestic abuse at a family legal advice clinic. In this role, she has assisted with gaining access to legal aid, helping with the completion of legal documents, and providing general advice. The Board met 5 times during 2021-22. The second Annual General Meeting of the charity in its CIO form was held on 16[th] July 2021. The majority of our meetings remained on zoom. ## **Patrons:** Our patrons are: Lady Dione Verulam The Viscountess Trenchard Sarah Beazley 11 ## **Herts Domestic Abuse Helpline contact details:** Telephone: 08 088 088 088 (for Helpline callers only) Opening hours: Monday to Friday 9am to 9pm, Weekends and Bank Holidays 9am to 4pm Confidential email: Kim@mailpurple.org Admin email: admin@hertsdomesticabusehelpline.org Admin tel: 07587 237167 ## **Social Media:** Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hertsdomesticabusehelpline/# Twitter: @HDA_Helpline Instagram: @hdahelp LinkedIn Herts Domestic Abuse Helpline Registered Office: The Lodge Stanborough Road Welwyn Garden City Herts AL8 6XF Charity Number: 1184899 The Helpline is a member of the Helplines Partnership 12 ## Hertfordshire Domestic Abuse Helpline ## **Report on Accounts for 2021-22** ## **Overall Position** This report covers the full year 1[st] April 2021 to 31[st] March 2022. In the year ended 31[st] March 2022, the Helpline recorded a profit of £16,425 compared to a loss of £17,592 for the 2020-21 year. This profit had the effect of increasing the available funds at the end of the year to £96,305 from the starting point of £79,880. All funds are held in a current account with CAF Bank. ## **Income** Income for 2021-22 was £68,685 compared to £53,043 in 2020-21. This large increase can be attributed to significant increases in fundraising income, through successful applications for grants, from an increase in Locality Budget grants and from an increase in online donations. This year, Hertfordshire County Councillors kindly awarded us £20,460 from their Locality Budget grants to support our increased running costs resulting from COVID and countywide promotion of our service. This is a record for the amount we have received from the Councillors and their continued support is most valued. We were also grateful to receive a significant donation of £10,000 from the St Albans Fireworks display, all the more valuable because it was unrestricted in purpose. Further grants were received from Clarion Housing (£4,576, restricted to support of awareness raising in their housing provision), Schroder Charity Trust (£3,000), The Liberal Synagogue Elstree from their Yom Kippur appeal (£2,179), Cala Homes, Persimmon and Arnold Clark (£1,000 each) Paypoint £1,441) and St Albans Cathedral (£900). Our involvement with the Platinum Point networking group gave us income of £7,578, together with some pro-bono assistance that was extremely valuable. We were selected as lead charity for the St Albans Half Marathon which brought in over £6,000 and we also benefitted from being the nominated charity for the SME awards, which brought in an additional £1,400. We were delighted to receive two personal donations of £1,000. We also received numerous smaller donations through bucket collections, online donations and fundraising activities undertaken on our behalf. We are immensely grateful to all those individuals and organisations that have supported us through the year. All required financial reporting against grants received was completed during the year. There is a significant amount from the Locality Budget payments that were made late in the financial year, and therefore were not fully spent. These are reflected in the accounts as restricted reserves and will continue to be tracked into the 2022-23 financial year along with the Clarion Futures grant which commenced in 2021-22 but with work still ongoing. Total restricted reserves are £17,573 meaning that we move into the 2022-23 financial year with unrestricted reserves of £78,732. ## **Expenditure** Total expenditure for the year to 31[st] March 2022 was £52,260 compared with £70,635, in the previous year. This decline in expenditure is almost totally down to us not requiring the same level of spending on advertising materials as in the 13 previous year, when we had received grants and awards specifically to spend in this way. We have incurred increases in salary costs as a result of increasing the number of hours of administration support, driven by a need to recruit and retain volunteers, including providing training. There were no exceptional items of expenditure, though we were able achieve a small reduction in IT costs by moving to a Microsoft 365 platform for emails which we receive free as a charity, and which additionally is a much more robust service. We continue to look for ways to reduce operating costs, but in general these are unavoidable. ## **Processes and controls** During 2021-22, we have continued to benefit from the use of online systems for banking, billing and fundraising. CAF Donate continues to be a helpful platform for us to receive donations, but we have seen a general increase in online donations across a number of platforms, including Paypal, JustGiving and Virgin Money Giving as well as Donr (a donate by text service). Sadly the Virgin Money Giving service has now ceased, but we continue to look for ways of making it easy for donors to donate to us. I can report that in line with our Review Policy, the Finance Policy was reviewed and updated during the financial year. ## **Outlook for 2022-23** This has been a quite remarkable year for fundraising and success in grant awards. This, coupled with a reduction is our discretionary expenditure on advertising has meant that our reserves are comfortable and would provide for the continued running of the line for the whole of the 2022-23 financial year without the need to invoke our Reserves Policy. However, we are conscious that relying on grants is both time consuming and precarious, and it is impossible to move away from the fact that we currently have no committed funding. We remain enormously grateful to our supporters for their donations, to our fundraisers for their activities and to our grantgivers, the absence of formal funding means that action is still needed to identify sustainable sources of funding to ensure that the Helpline activity can continue. Sources of income continue to be sought to cover our day to day activities to mitigate the risk that by the end of the next financial year we might need to be starting to consider the financial viability of maintaining the line. We are very conscious that, in the current economic climate, some of our costs are likely to rise over the coming year. The search for such funding is a key activity in the Trustees’ plans, and we travel hopefully that some unrestricted funding will be identified. Denise Powell Trustee Treasurer April 2022 14 ||**The Hertfordshire Domestic Abuse Help Line**|**The Hertfordshire Domestic Abuse Help Line**|**The Hertfordshire Domestic Abuse Help Line**|**The Hertfordshire Domestic Abuse Help Line**|**The Hertfordshire Domestic Abuse Help Line**|**The Hertfordshire Domestic Abuse Help Line**|**The Hertfordshire Domestic Abuse Help Line**|**The Hertfordshire Domestic Abuse Help Line**|**The Hertfordshire Domestic Abuse Help Line**|||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |||||||||||||||| ||**Profit and Loss Account for the Year From April 1st 2021 to March 31st 2022**|||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||| |||||**2021-22**|||**2020-21**|||||||| ||**INCOME**|||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||| ||Other fund raising|||28,957|||19,453|||||||| ||HCC Locality|||20,460|||18,080|||||||| ||Fund raisingOnline|||14,121|||10,441|||||||| ||Free Donations|||4,088|||4,172|||||||| ||Other income|||820|||772|||||||| ||Training|||135||||||||||| ||Fund raisingTheatre|||104|||0|||||||| ||Gift Aid Donations|||0|||125|||||||| |||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||| ||||||68,685|||53,043||||||| ||**EXPENSES**|||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||| ||Administration Salary|||28,080|||22,695|||||||| ||Advertisingmaterials|||9,943|||30,175|||||||| ||Telephone|||3,485|||4,049|||||||| ||Training|||3,280|||2,862|||||||| ||Administration Expenses|||2,878|||3,114|||||||| ||IT|||1,559|||3,147|||||||| ||Insurance|||840|||780|||||||| ||Subscriptions|||723|||811|||||||| ||Vodafone|||573|||633|||||||| ||Payroll Service|||445|||445|||||||| ||VolunteersExpenses|||259|||469|||||||| ||Theatre|||100|||0|||||||| ||Other|||95|||0|||||||| ||CN Salary|||0|||1,455|||||||| ||Language Line|||0|||0|||||||| |||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||| ||||||52,260|||70,635||||||| |||||||||||||||| ||Profit and Loss for Year|||||16,425|||-17,592|||||| |||||||||||||||| ||**FUNDS**|||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||| ||Balance of Reserves at 31st March 2021||||||||||||79,880|| ||Profit and Loss for Year||||||||||||16,425|| |||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||96,305| ||**REPRESENTED BY**|||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||| ||Fixed Assets|||||||||||||| ||Computers & Printers|||||||||||||| ||Depreciation|||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||0|| |||||||||||||||| ||**Current Assets**|||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||| ||Cash at Bank||||||||||||96,305|| ||Cash at BuildingSociety|||||||||||||| ||SundryDebtors & Prepayments|||||||||||||0| ||SundryCreditors & Provisions|||||||||||||0| |||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||96,305| |||||||||||||||| ||_Of which restricted reserves_|||||||||||||_17,573_| ||_Unrestricted Helpline reserves_|||||||||||||_78,732_| |||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||96,305| |||||||||||||||| ||I herebycertifythat the above accounts are in accorda|||||nce with the books and records as||||||||| ||presented to me|||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||| ||Auditor|||||||||||||| ||Duncan McLeod|||||||||||||| ||Treasurer|||||||||||||| ||Denise Powell|||||||||||||| 16