## **LEICESTER AREA QUAKER MEETING**
## **Annual Report of Trustees**
**2023**
Agreed at Trustees Meeting: 7[th] October 2024 Minute: 24.28 Adopted by Area Meeting: 15[th] October 2024 Minute: 24.63
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## **CONTENTS**
1. Objectives and activities
2. Structure, Governance and Management
3. Trustees Business 2023
4. Spiritual Life of Area Meeting
5. General Information
6. Financial Report
- Appendix A: Accounts for Year Ending December 31 2023
- Appendix B: Accounts for Year Ending December 31 2023 by Meeting
- Appendix C: Annual Report - Leicester Local Quaker Meeting Sanctuary Meeting Committee
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## **Leicester Area Quaker Meeting**
## **Annual Report 2023**
## **1. Objectives and Activities**
Leicester Area Meeting is a charity established for the advancement of religion and other charitable purposes according to the principles and practices of British Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. It was registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) in November 2020, registration number 1192277. Formerly, as a religious charity, it had been exempted from registration.
The object of the charity, stated in clause 3 of the adopted governing documents, is the furtherance of the general religious and charitable purposes of the religious Society of Friends in the area of Leicester and beyond.
## **2. Structure, Governance and Management**
Leicester Area meeting has four Local Quaker Meetings in Leicester, Loughborough, Oakham and Rugby. Loughborough does not own a Meting house and currently rents a room in a civic building in the town. Leicester, Oakham and Rugby Local Meetings own their own Meeting Houses.
Area Meeting adopted the following Governance documents and appointed the first Trustees on the 19[th] October 2008.
- _The Governance document_ : is based upon the model prepared by the Quaker Stewardship committee.
- _Terms of Reference for Trustees_ : the document was revised and updated by Trustees and adopted by Area Meeting on 12[th] July 2020.
- _Memorandum of Understanding_ : this document describes the relationship between Area Meeting , the Trustees and the local Meetings and defines ‘who does what’. The document was revised by Trustees and the new version adopted by Area Meeting on 12[th] July 2020.
Trustees and officers are appointed by Leicester Area Meeting. The Area Nominations Committee nominates three members of Area meeting for consideration as Trustees. Ideally each of the four Local Meetings nominates one of their members to Area Meeting for consideration as Trustees. The Clerk or Co-clerks of Trustees is nominated from among the trustees for consideration and appointment by Area Meeting. Ordinarily the clerk of Trustees appointment is for a three year term and may be renewed for a second three year term.
## **3. Trustees’ Business**
The Trustees met four times in 2023 and minutes were kept. Discussions have included regular verbal reports on each Local Meeting, property maintenance and repairs, administration of Area Meeting finances and safeguarding.
A review was undertaken of the policy documents required to meet Charity Commission requirements. A _Business Risk Assessment Management_ policy was required to allow our Annual Report to the Charity Commission website. A final v1 was approved by Trustees and adopted by Area Meeting in
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November 2022. Friends were then given the opportunity to comment further on the policy and Trustees asked to make amendments for further consideration of v2 early in 2023. The final version was adopted by the Area meeting on 24 September 2023, Area Meeting minute 23.73.
Trustees agreed to monitor all policy documents on rotation.
## **Safeguarding**
Reports on safeguarding were heard at each Trustees meeting. The safeguarding co-ordinator has devolved a list of roles within meetings where volunteers need awareness of safeguarding issues. She attended a training session with 31.8 and continues to develop training and DBS checks within the local meetings. Her request for a deputy safeguarding co-ordinator was fulfilled.
## **Finances and investments**
During 2023 we monitored our Area Meeting budget at each Trustees meeting. The budget for training and conferences has not been fully spent in recent years due the pandemic and the move to online training. However, in 2023 we organised a residential weekend at the Woodbrooke study centre and the nominal surplus this had generated was spent on providing some bursaries, so that no-one was prevented from attending on the grounds of cost.
The value of investments with Rathbone Greenbank and the savings in the Hinckley and Rugby Building Society short term deposit account were monitored at each meeting. The volatility of the current markets resulted in a fall in overall value.
The benefits of all LM’s using the online accounting package, Quick Books, continue to be appreciated. The 2023 accounts which will be submitted to the Charity Commission were examined externally by Community Accounting Plus.
## **Meeting Houses and Stewardship**
Our Meeting houses have been open throughout the year and several Meetings for Worship held as a blended meeting. Lettings income has continued to improve during 2023, compared with 2022. Quinquennial reviews are up to date. Leicester Meeting holds regular meetings of the Premises Committee and has funds set aside for maintenance and repair.
## 4. **Spiritual Life of Leicester Area Quaker Meeting in 2023**
Leicester Area Quaker Meeting held six Meetings for Worship for Business in 2023 and the average attendance was around 21 Friends and Attenders. Our meetings were held in turn at the meeting houses (and in the case of Loughborough, the usual meeting room) of all the local meetings. Friends were encouraged to attend Meeting for Worship in the morning and stay for lunch to socialize with local Friends before the Area Meeting in the afternoon, and many did this, thus helping maintain social contacts across the Area Meeting. Minutes were written in the meeting after the manner of the Society of Friends, and they are filed, with the supporting documents for each meeting, in the Area Meeting minute book. Annual reports were written by the local meetings, with the clerks for all four of the local meetings, Oakham, Leicester, Rugby and Loughborough, detailing the activities and progress
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of each meeting during the year and approved at Area Meeting. These reports can be seen by applying to the Area Meeting clerk.
Our meetings have dealt with applications for membership (we accepted 6 Friends into membership of the Society in 2023), transfers of membership and the recording of deaths, and nominations to the many Area Meeting roles. We have discussed and, where appropriate, accepted Trustees’ recommendations for the management of our bank accounts and finances, read new and revised policies from Trustees and looked closely at the Annual Report and Accounts 2022, which was accepted at a properly convened AGM, held at the end of one Area Meeting for Worship for Business. Area Meeting remains the primary executive body of our charity
We have received regular reports from our representatives on Meeting for Sufferings and on Quaker Life Representative Council and we have supported Friends to attend a variety of other conferences and meetings and training courses which will help them to fulfil the various roles in the Area Meeting. Unfortunately, in September 2023 Woodbrooke Quaker College ceased to operate out of the building in Birmingham, but they are still offering online courses.
Where possible our Area Meetings have been held as blended meetings and many Friends have taken advantage of the opportunity to attend the meetings online. Most local meetings now have the technology in place and blended Area Meetings have become the norm. Although the majority of Friends prefer to meet in person, the online option serves some Friends who are unable to travel or those pressed for time.
In the course of the year we: gave feedback to the Book of Discipline Revision Committee on the draft text of the revised chapters on Nominations and Marriage; increased our financial contribution to Churches Together in Leicestershire; planned an Area Meeting wide away weekend to Woodbrooke before the closure of the building; written to our Prime Minister to object that the language being used by the Government to justify recent Immigration legislation is abhorrent and denies the fundamental human rights of migrants; heard reports from several Friends who attended Yearly Meeting in London; followed up at both local and Area level, the discussion on the topic of truth and integrity in public life, which was begun at that Yearly Meeting; discussed the implications of the proposal to replace Meeting for Sufferings with a “Continuing Yearly Meeting” which came out of that Yearly Meeting, and agreed to substantially increase our contributions to the Leicester Red Cross and Town of Sanctuary.
There were two high points of the year. The first was the joyful occasion of the wedding of Xanthe Wells and Meg Davis, both of Oakham Local Meeting, in Oakham Friends Meeting House on Saturday 15[th] April 2023 **.** This filled the meeting house to the brim and those who attended found it a really uplifting occasion.
The second was our away weekend at Woodbrooke Quaker College in September. The Area Meeting held a successful away weekend at Woodbrooke on 1[st] – 3[rd] September. Some Friends came for the whole weekend, some for one night and some for a day only. There was an impressive and varied programme of events on offer with many opportunities to get to know one another better. At the maximum there were over 50 Friends gathered. This was a wonderful success and a joyful gathering, though tinged with sadness that Woodbrooke would shortly be closing. The success of the weekend was very much due to the offering of bursaries, both full and partial, and in fact the whole event cost the Area Meeting approximately £2800, a small amount indeed for such a valuable event.
## **Sustainability**
During 2023 we had sustainability as a standing item on all Area Meeting agendas, and reports from local meetings on their work in this field were received regularly. Local activities included: giving a
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speech to 200 demonstrators on the need for loss and damage reparations at the time of COP 27; producing a newsletter to help promote The Big One, the Extinction Rebellion protest in London in April and some Friends also joined that event; holding a stall outside the Meeting House to coincide with a Summer Fair; maintaining a presence in local environmentalism with other Christian environmental groups, running a Green Christians stall and managing a talk on Food Waste and local recycling. Premises committees have worked hard creating plans to make our meeting houses more sustainable and one local meeting is actively pursuing a bronze award in the Rocha UK Eco-Church project and hosted a meeting of Rugby Green Christians.
All our work has been documented with six editions of Our Quaker Voices, which serves as a newsletter to all Friends and Attenders, ably edited by Carol Rowntree-Jones.
## **Main achievements**
2023 was the year which demonstrated that Leicester Area Meeting has made a full recovery from the impact of the Covid pandemic. We have provided a continuous presence of Meetings for Worship of all sorts for our own members and for the wider public, and we have actively witnessed to our testimonies to peace, justice, equality, simplicity and the earth. The new, online aspect to our meetings is problematic for some Friends and welcome for others, and debate and discussion has continued as to what form this should take and whether it is a welcome development. As always, we go forward in a spirit of exploration and compassion for the needs of all our community.
## **Membership of the Area Meeting**
At the end of the year the total membership was 205. We had 6 new members in 2023 and 1 transfer in, while in the year 6 Friends died and 1 transferred out. We had 102 attenders and 10 children, one in membership.
## **5. General Information**
**Full name:** Leicester Area Quaker Meeting of The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain
**Organisation type:** Charitable incorporated organisation
**Registered charity number:** 1192277
**Principal address:** Quaker Meeting House, 16 Queen’s Road, Leicester. LE2 1WP
## **Trustees:**
|**rustees:**||
|---|---|
|Arreggar, Bridget – AM representatve|Ludlow Hilary – Clerk to Trustees, Oakham|
|Dnes, Jennifer - AM Treasurer|representatve|
|Deane, James – Leicester representatve|Mathews, Nicholas – Rugby representatve|
|Fishenden, Anne – AM representatve|Walker, David – Loughborough representatve|
**Officers of the Area meeting:** Julian Rees Clerk; Jenny Dnes Treasurer; Beth Gaylard – Safe guarding Co-ordinator
**Bankers** : Lloyds Bank, Co-op Bank, Santander Bank, NatWest Bank
**Building Society:** Hinckley and Rugby Building Society
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**Investment portfolio:** Rathbone Greenbank
**Custodian Trustee:** Friends Trust Limited, Friends House, 173, Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ.
Signed: Date: 10/10/2024 Hilary R Ludlow Clerk to Trustees
## **6. Financial Report**
The summary accounts for 2023 can be found in Appendix A of this report. They have been independently prepared and examined by Community Accounting Plus. A supplementary breakdown by local meeting can be found in Appendix B.
## **Overview**
The finances of Leicester Area Meeting remain strong with cash funds of £290,476 which includes the funds held in our building society accounts. This is £31,707 less than at the end of 2022, due mainly to our investments in improvements to Rugby and Leicester meeting houses. The value of our investments rose by £8,013 from £184,550 to £192,563.
When the cash funds and the value of the investments are combined, the total assets at the end of 2023 were £483,039, a fall of £23,734 compared with the end of 2022.
## **Income**
The total income for 2023 was £109,086, compared with £93,306 in 2022. Key points to note are as follows.
## **Contributions**
The total contributions have risen to £39,116, an increase of over £10,000 compared with 2022. However, due to a timing issue at the end of 2022, the 2022 accounts excluded £6,752 of contributions from members of Leicester meeting during 2022 which are now included in 2023. Once this is taken into account, contributions between 2022 and 2023 increased by about £3,000.
## **Gift Aid receipts**
During 2023 we claimed gift aid on behalf of the whole of Leicester Area Quaker Meeting for 2021 and 2022. This was divided between each local meeting in proportion to the contributions received. The total of £12,457 from HMRC for both years was divided up as follows:
||**2021**|**2022**||**Total**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|Leicester|£3,591|£3,285||**£6,876**|
|Loughborough|£1,297|£1,083||**£2,380**|
|Oakham|£414|£544||**£958**|
|Rugby|£1,066|£1,178||**£2,243**|
|**TOTALS**|**£6,368**|**£6,089**||**£12,457**|
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## **Grants and legacies**
A legacy of £3,000 was received from the estate of Elaine Hunt, a member at Leicester Meeting.
## **Lettings income (hirings)**
The lettings income continued to recover from the pandemic during 2023, rising from £33,650 during 2022 to £39,596.
## **Expenditure**
The total expenditure for 2023 was £140,793, compared with £76,991 in 2022. Key points to note are as follows.
## **Meeting Houses**
During 2023 both Leicester local meeting and Rugby local meeting invested in improvements to their meeting houses. At Rugby, the heating system was upgraded and additional insulation was added. Both these improvements will help to reduce the carbon footprint of the meeting house. At Leicester, most of the downstairs floors were refurbished or replaced as part of ongoing improvements and maintenance.
## **Conferences and training**
In September 2023, the Area Meeting held a residential weekend at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham which was attended by a total of 50 Friends and attenders from our four local meetings. The cost of £10,346 was mainly offset by contributions of £7,484 from the participants[1] . In order to ensure that no-one was preventing from attending on the grounds of cost, a total of £2,150 was given to 12 of the participants as full or partial bursaries.
## **Insurance**
The total annual insurance premium was £5,372, which was paid by Area Meeting funds. Each local meeting transferred funds from their local meeting accounts to cover this cost.
||£|
|---|---|
|Leicester|£3,355|
|Loughborough|£110|
|Oakham|£1,017|
|Rugby|£890|
|**TOTAL**|**£5,372**|
## **Donations**
Total donations were £22,351. These were mainly contributions to Quaker bodies, including Britain Yearly Meeting. Area Meeting continued to give £1,800 a year to support local asylum seekers. This was divided equally between Leicester City of Sanctuary and the Leicester branch of the Red Cross. A report from the Sanctuary Committee can be found in Appendix C of this report. This committee monitors how these donation are spent on behalf of Area Meeting.
> 1 The contributions from participants to the costs of the Woodbrooke weekend is included in the accounts under ‘Other income’.
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## **Children’s Bursary Fund and Care Fund**
There were no payments made from the Children’s Bursary Fund this year, but we made one payment from the Care Fund of £500. The Children’s Bursary Fund nominally stands at £1,802 and the Care Fund at £28,966. However, as these monies are not kept in separate bank accounts they are not recorded as separate funds in our accounts.
## **Investments**
The value of the Area Meeting’s investments with Rathbone Greenbank had been rising steadily until the Russian invasion of Ukraine early in 2022 which had a major impact on global stability and the costs of energy. The stock market became volatile and the value of our investments fell sharply, particularly in the early months of 2022.
The volatility continued through 2023, although there was a gradual recovery during the year. At the end of 2022, our investments were valued at £178,661 and by the end of 2023 they were valued at £186,133, an increase of £7,472. Dividends continued to be paid and we received a total of £3,560 of income from this source.
These investments were made with a view to maintaining the value of the Area Meeting’s assets in the long run and in supporting initiatives that encourage sustainable sources of energy. Trustees therefore decided to keep the existing portfolio, rather than make any short-term changes. They continue to monitor the situation regularly.
Signed: Date: 10/10/2024
Jennifer Dnes Area Meeting Treasurer
## **APPENDIX A: Accounts for Year Ending December 31 2023**
## **Independent examiner’s report to the Trustees of Leicester Area Quaker Meeting of The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) In Britain**
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Leicester Area Quaker Meeting of The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) In Britain (the charity) for the year ended 31 December 2023.
## **Responsibilities and basis of report**
As the trustees of the charity, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’).
I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s accounts 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**
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving 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 accounts do not accord with those records.
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.
Signed Date 14/10/2024
John O’Brien MSc, FCCA, FCIE
Employee of Community Accounting Plus
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## **Leicester Area Quaker Meeting of The Religious Society of Friends In Britain (Quakers) Receipts and payments account for the year to 31 December 2023**
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## **Leicester Area Quaker Meeting of The Religious Society of Friends In Britain (Quakers) Statement of assets and liabilities at 31 December 2023**
|_2022_|||**_2023_**|
|---|---|---|---|
||**Cash assets**||**£**|
|322183|Bank accounts||290476|
|**322183**|||**290476**|
||**Other monetary assets**|||
|178661|Investments :Area Rathbone Greenbank (Area|General)|186133|
|5889|Investments: CCLA (Area general)||6430|
|**184550**|||**192563**|
||**Debtors**|||
|-|Employment Allowance receivable||634|
|**-**|||**634**|
||**Assets retained for the charity’s own use**|||
||General equipment.|||
||**Liabilities**|||
|(804)|Creditors|**3**|(1184)|
|**(804)**|||**(1184)**|
||In addition the charity holds functional property|comprising|three meeting|
||houses with insured values as follows:|||
|2739174|Meeting House Leicester||2958743|
|704464|Meeting House Rugby||760822|
|919393|Meeting House Oakham||922945|
|**4363031**|||**4642510**|
These financial statements are accepted on behalf of the charity by:
Signed Jennifer Dnes, Trustee
Dated 10/10/24
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Independent examiner's report to the trustees of
Leicester Area Quaker Meeting of The Religious Society of Friends
(Quakers) In Britain
1. Rocoipts & payments accounts
Receipts and payments accounts contsin a summary of money received and money
spenl during ihe period and a list of assets and liabililies at the end of the penod.
Usually, cash received and cash spent will include transactions through bank accounts
and cash in hand.
2. Area analy818
Openlng
balance
Recelpts (paent¥ Tran*rs
clon9
balance
Area8
Area General
Leicester LM
Loughborough LM
Oakham LM
RLuby LM
Acknng as Agert
60297
104004
58324
5600
93958
28151
57508
4090
4957
13828
552
322183 109086
(202091 16513) 61726
(726301
3020
91902
12953}
2184
61645
12014}
186}
8457
(426411
1353
66498
346
42
248
140793
290476
The transfers reflect internal recharges for central costs like insuran, distribution
of gift aid collected al Area Meeting, and bring the fund balanS into line with the
locally held back balances at year end.
3. Crgditors
Independent Examination
Acbng as Agent payments
1936}
248
111841
4. Trustees, remuneration
Trustees received no expenses. remuneration or benefits in this period.
5. Related party transactions
During this period there were no related party transactions.
6. Glossary of terms
Creditors.. These are amounts owed by the Charity. but noi paid during the
accounting period.
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## **APPENDIX B: Accounts Year End December 31 2023 by Meeting**
## **Leicester Area Quaker Meeting Receipts and Payments account by Meeting for the year to 31 December 2023**
|**Receipts**|**Area**
**Leicester**
**Lough**
**borough **
**Oakham**
**Rugby**
**Total**
**Total 2022**
1550
84
977
2611
_735_
100
24046
4558
3938
6474
39115
_28148_
3560
133
3693
_2893_
12457
12457
_0_
3000
3000
_3667_
32341
879
6376
39596
_33650_
7484
969
121
1
8576
_24127_
18
20
38
_87_
**28151**
**57507**
**4642**
**4958**
**13828**
**109086**
_93306_
21549
21549
_20318_
145
145
_72_
11036
180
11216
_963_
476
196
134
806
_603_
70
70
_81_
65
270
335
_180_
0
_153_
2600
9854
871
150
8877
22352
_15179_
1165
3176
2198
6539
_4908_
5381
375
5756
_6587_
5372
5372
_5068_
36
582
284
241
90
1233
_1351_
2962
20952
23914
_6152_
3088
205
448
3741
_2900_
1982
519
2727
5228
_4850_
14569
69
3138
17776
1743
1743
_990_
7883
1034
2483
11400
_5453_
48
48
_12_
620
950
1570
_1172_
**20208**
**72630**
**3299**
**2014**
**42641**
**140793**
**_76990_**
**(6513)**
**3020**
**2226**
**(86)**
**1353**
**0**
**1430**
**(12103)**
**3568**
**2858**
**(27461)**
**(31707)**
**_16316_**
60297
104004
58325
5598
93959
322183
_305868_
**61727**
**91901**
**61894**
**8456**
**66498**
**290476**
**_322183_**
18259
91740
54572
8456
15987
189015
_245423_
43468
161
7321
30277
81227
_76760_
20235
20235
**61727**
**91902**
**61893**
**8456**
**66498**
**290476**
**_322183_**|
|---|---|
|Bank Interest||
|Contributions and collections||
|Dividends||
|Gift Aid Receipts||
|Grants and Legacies||
|Hirings||
|Other income||
|Sales||
|**Total receipts**||
|||
|**Payments**||
|Wages,NI andpension||
|Bank charges||
|Conferences,training,BYM||
|Libraryand literature||
|Office holders' expenses||
|Overseers and outreach||
|Printing,adverts, photocopying,media||
|Donationsgiven||
|Legal andprofessional||
|Furniture & equipment||
|Insurance||
|IT and website costs||
|Major works||
|Materials & supplies||
|Other support costs(cleaning)||
|Repairs & maintenance||
|Room hire||
|Utilities||
|Sundry||
|Gardens||
|**Total payments**||
|||
|**Transfers**||
|||
|**Net in/out**||
|||
|Openingbalance at bank||
|**Closing balance**||
|Closing balance held in bank accounts as:||
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## **APPENDIX C: Annual Report from Leicester Local Quaker Meeting Sanctuary Meeting Committee - June 2023**
## **Background**
Leicester Area Meeting supports asylum seekers and refugees in Leicester by donating £1800 a year, divided equally between Leicester City of Sanctuary (LCoS) and the Leicester branch of the Red Cross Refugee Support Service.
Leicester Local Meeting became a Sanctuary Meeting in November 2018 and is committed to easing the situation of local asylum seekers. This report is an update from the Sanctuary Meeting Committee for the benefit of Leicester Local Meeting, trustees, and Area Meeting on
- the activities of the Meeting in supporting asylum seekers in Leicester
- the work of LCoS and the Red Cross locally between July 2022 and June 2023.
## **Sanctuary Committee activities 2022-23**
The committee met 3 times between July 2022 and June 2023
An appeal after meeting for worship, given by Mick Walker from LCoS took place in November inviting Friends to donate to the Big Give fundraising campaign for LCoS. The appeal highlighted the very difficult circumstances of asylum seekers living in hotels with little contact with family and friends, extremely limited funds, and fears of violence from right wing extremists.
At our September meeting the committee discussed the links between migration and climate change and invited Sarah Shaw, our East Midlands development worker to join us. Sarah invited us to an East Midlands Climate Justice group meeting to give a talk about the subject as well as telling the group about the work of Leicester City of Sanctuary.
## **Involvement in supporting asylum seekers**
Sheila Mosley chairs the Multi Agency Forum which brings together statutory and voluntary agencies that are involved with staff and asylum seekers at Kennedy House in South Wigston on behalf of Leicester Meeting. She is also chair of the charity After 18, which works with young unaccompanied asylum seekers.
## **Fundraising for LCoS and The Red Cross**
During December Leicester Meeting donated £100 to LCoS for the Big Give and a further £100 to the Red Cross.
Money is being collected from tea and coffee payments after meeting for worship and will be paid in equal proportions to LCoS and the Red Cross.
## **Financial support from Leicester Area Meeting**
## **a) Leicester City of Sanctuary**
The funds given to LCoS contribute to general expenditure. They are mostly used for the emergency fund which provided modest individual grants to asylum seekers who have financial need City of Sanctuary have experienced many more calls on their support. Most new arrivals are single young men, and most are being housed in hotels. Inadequate and inappropriate diet is a serious concern, as is isolation.
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On a positive note, the organization has recruited more staff and several new volunteers have offered their help, including those with language skills. Football training and sewing classes are running well and members are receiving help with their asylum claims via NEST (new evidence support team).
English classes are provided every week, some in conjunction with Leicester University.
LCoS works in collaboration with the Red Cross.
## **b) Red Cross Refugee Support Service**
Red Cross uses our Quaker donations to provide critical hardship support and to enable service users to actively engage with casework, as well as to help with transport for compulsory Home Office hearings and reporting.
The service has seen a rise in numbers of destitute asylum seekers and migrants with no recourse to public funds seeking help and advice, particularly since the cost-of-living crisis. Home Office policy to clear the backlog in the asylum system has meant that many of those receiving refugee status will fall into homelessness after leaving their designated NASS accommodation. The Red Cross has been providing sleeping bags and help to access suitable shelters.
Since Covid restrictions have lifted East Midlands Reporting Centre is again requesting people to report frequently to the Centre in Loughborough, without providing them with fares to get there. The Red Cross fills in the gap by paying bus fares for those that need it.
The Red Cross repeats its request that flexibility is granted to use Quaker’s funding according to the discretion of staff to support destitute asylum seekers and refugees. Area Meeting has already agreed to this, and we ask our AM clerk to assure Eric Nkundumubano, the operations manager, that this arrangement can continue.
## **Conclusion**
We hope this report shows that the funds provided by Area Meeting continue to support the work of City of Sanctuary and the Red Cross effectively and request that Area Meeting continues to contribute at least £75 a month (£900 a year) to both LCoS and to the Red Cross (£1,800 in total).
_Leicester LM Sanctuary Meeting Committee Jenny Dnes; Anne Fishenden; Sheila Mosley; Angela Walker._
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