2023-03-31-accounts

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

COMPANY REGISTRATION NUMBER: 02453081 CHARITY REGISTRATION NUMBER: 702419

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Financial Statements

31 March 2023

MCABA Limited t/a Mitchells Chartered Accountants & Statutory Auditor

91-97 Saltergate Chesterfield Derbyshire S40 1LA

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Financial Statements

Year ended 31 March 2023

	Page
Trustees' annual report (incorporating the director's report)	1
Independent auditor's report to the members	22
Statement of financial activities (including income and expenditure account)	26
Statement of financial position	27
Statement of cash flows	28
Notes to the financial statements	29
The following pages do not form part of the financial statements
Detailed statement of financial activities	48
Notes to the detailed statement of financial activities	50

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)

Year ended 31 March 2023

The trustees, who are also the directors for the purposes of company law, present their report and the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2023.

Reference and administrative details

Registered charity name

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Charity registration number 702419 Company registration number 02453081 Principal office and registered 1 Rose Hill East office Chesterfield Derbyshire S40 1NU

The trustees

Ms J Flood (Chair) Mr R Busby (Vice Chair) Mr A Craw Mr H Borrell Mr J Duncan Mr M Gordon Mr C Hampton Mr D McGregor Mr A Powell Mr D Shaw Ms J Skill Mr D Skinner Ms E Tidd Ms A Webster Ms S White (Treasurer) Mr M Wilson Ms S Lawrence Mr R Redfern Mr J Woolley

Ms K Gurney Mr A Rouse Ms K Rouse

Ms M Jones Mr N Redihough

(Resigned 27 May 2022) (Resigned 5 May 2023)

(Resigned 6 December 2022)

(Resigned 5 May 2023)

(Resigned 6 December 2022)

(Appointed 27 May 2022)

(Resigned 6 December 2022) (Died 21 June 2023)

(Served from 17 August 2022 to 16 August 2023) (Appointed 16 August 2023) (Appointed 22 May 2023) (Served from 6 December 2022 to 24 May 2023) (Appointed 15 May 2023)

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DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

Workers group Mrs S Allard Mrs H Bagley Mrs J Brooks (until 12.1.23) Mr M Brown Mrs S Challands Miss Mae Elsmore-Renshaw (from 28.6.23) Mr T Fletcher Mrs L Haythorne Mrs S Hible (from 31.7.23) Miss B Holt (until 6.1.23) Mr P Macken Miss B Holt (until 6.1.23) Mr A McIlveen (until 30.4.23) Mr S Oliver (from 2.8.23) Mr A Pearce (until 4.7.23)) Miss S Preece Mrs R Priest (from 31.10.22) Mr L Ridge (until 7.7.23) Mr S Shah (from 12.4.23) Mr G Steel Ms E Taylor (until 31.12.22) Mrs N Tugby Ms T Waldron (until 12.8.22) Mrs C Yates (until 31.8.23) Company secretary Mick Wilson Auditor MCABA Limited t/a Mitchells Chartered Accountants & Statutory Auditor 91-97 Saltergate Chesterfield Derbyshire S40 1LA Bankers Lloyds Bank plc 30 Rose Hill Chesterfield Derbyshire S40 1LR

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DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

Structure, governance and management

Constitution

The organisation is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 15 December 1989 and registered as a charity on 10 January 1990. The company was established under a Memorandum of Association which established the objects and powers of the charitable company and is governed under its Articles of Association. The Law Centre reviewed and revised its Articles of Association to reflect current legislation and to more fully reflect the direction of the Law Centre. This was approved at the Annual-General Meeting on 18 November 2015. The Management Committee also updated their Personnel and Finance Sub Committees terms of reference but these are to be reviewed in 2023.

The change of name from Chesterfield Law Centre to Derbyshire Law Centre was approved by Special Resolution on 13 November 2013 and has subsequently been approved by both the Charity Commission and Companies House.

Methods of appointment or election of Trustees

The Directors of the company are also Charity Trustees for the purposes of charity law and under the company's Articles are known as members of the Management Committee. Under the requirements of the Memorandum and Articles of Association, the Trustees (who form the Management Committee) are elected to serve for a period of 1 year after which they must be re-elected at the next Annual General Meeting.

Currently there are 14 members and no co-opted members, with 11 elected at the annual general meeting (1 having since resigned) and a further 4 members nominated as representatives by core funders. During the year there was 1 resignation prior to the AGM, 3 resignations at the AGM and 2 resignations since the AGM in December 2022. We have also had one of our core funders places filled since the AGM in 2022. We currently have 3 unfilled places on the Committee. There is a full list of Trustees on page 2 2 of the Trustee's report.

The Trustees seek to ensure that the diversity of membership of the Management Committee reflects the diversity of the local communities and any imbalance is addressed by way of co-options. The Trustees seek to maintain a broad skills mix. Currently personnel, finance, communication and community liaison skills are well represented.

Organisational structure and decision-making policies

The Management Committee meets every two months and is responsible for the strategic direction and policy of the charity. The Management Committee includes a Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary (also the Company Secretary) and Treasurer. In late June 2022, Jenny Flood was approved as Chair and Rob Busby as Vice Chair. In May 2022, Treasurer, Alan Craw resigned as Treasurer and Sarah White moved from being Secretary to Treasurer. Mick Wilson was elected Company Secretary from 2 August 2022.

The Management Committee has two sub committees; Personnel Sub-Committee and Finance SubCommittee. Each sub-committee consists of at least four Management Committee members, with two staff normally in attendance, and meet at least on a quarterly basis. The Management Committee devolves the responsibility for the operational running of the charity to a staff management collective, known as Workers Group.

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DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

Workers Group is currently made up of solicitors (7), caseworkers (3) and co-ordinators (5) and has responsibility for the smooth running of the services, the day to day operational management of the Centre, individual supervision of the staff team and also ensuring that the team continues to develop skills and working practices in line with best practice. The role and make up of Workers Group was last reviewed in 2020. Seven admin workers, a communications worker, a session supervisor and 5 paralegals provide administrative support to all Workers Group staff as well as providing service delivery and support on a number of projects.

Policies adopted for the induction and training of Trustees

New and existing Trustees are invited to meet with Co-ordinator, Helen Bagley. At this meeting, the Co-ordinator works through an induction pack with the trustee covering:

• The rights and responsibilities of Management Committee members.

• The main documents which set out the operational framework for the charity including the Memorandum of Articles (which are currently under review).

• Resourcing and the current financial position as set out in the latest published accounts.

• Future plans and objectives.

In addition, members are required to complete a skills audit form so that training can be identified to ensure that they are able to participate fully in their role.

All new staff and Members of the Management Committee are now required to undertake training on Equality and Diversity (EDI) as well as GDPR at the start of their employment/term. Existing staff and Management Committee members renew their GDPR training every year and EDI every two years.

All members are required to complete an annual Declaration of Interests form and are reminded at every meeting to consider any potential declarations at the meeting.

All Management Committee members are also included in strategic events with staff and volunteers as a way of developing the Law Centre's business strategy.

The Management Committee, at least annually, reviews the 3-year financial strategy and 3-year business plan document.

Pay policy for key management personnel

The charity's definition of senior management is staff on the Workers Group and the Trustees on the Management Committee. Trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no remuneration or other benefits with the exception of out-of-pocket expenses incurred in the undertaking of their duties as Trustees and as agreed by the Committee. The Workers Group currently consists of 16 members of staff. Their salaries are reviewed annually by the Trustees and are set by reference to "Pay Scales and Allowances" published by the National Joint Council for local Government Services.

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DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

Related party relationships

The Law Centre is a member of the Law Centres Network (LCN). The LCN is a Company Limited by Guarantee and registered in England and Wales under number 2433492. Established in 1978, the LCN acts as a co-ordinating body and the voice for Law Centres. It has a catchment area covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The LCN staff team provide an initial point of contact for those seeking information about the work of Law Centres, both within the movement, outside agencies and to the general public. The LCN also works with nationwide funders, working to help Law Centres obtain new funding for specific projects and represents Law Centres at all levels of government and in national forums.

Law Centres provide free legal advice and representation to the poorest and most disadvantaged members of society. They mainly practice in what is loosely termed Social Welfare Law. There are at present 41 Law Centres nationally.

Derbyshire Law Centre has representatives on the Board of Trustees at the LCN, Derbyshire Unemployed Workers Centre, Citizens Advice Chesterfield, Citizens Advice Derbyshire Districts, The Elm Foundation and Links CVS.

Risk management

The "Quality Manual" sets out all the policies and procedures in relation to Risk Management. This is kept constantly under review. The Management Committee has taken steps to mitigate risks identified in its Risk Assessment document which is reviewed at least on an annual basis.

Our solicitors are members of the Law Society of England and Wales. Legal Executives are members of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX). Solicitors and Legal Executives are subject to the regulatory requirements of the Solicitors Regulatory Authority and CILEX respectively, including responsibility for the supervision of non-qualified staff. The Finance Coordinator is a member of the Association of Accounting Technicians. The Law Centre is also registered with the Financial Conduct Authority and the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC).

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DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

Objectives and activities

Our mission

Our mission as a peer led organisation is working to increase access to justice for disadvantaged individuals and communities through the provision of quality assured, accessible, free and low-cost legal advice, 1-2-1 support services, information and representation to individuals and groups across our geographical area.

Our core values

These are the values and principles that guide us:

Respect

To treat everyone with integrity and respect. To value and respect each other's expertise and diversity. To take responsibility for what we do and support each other to succeed.

Create

To respond to changing needs. To be innovative and resourceful.

Collaborate

To collaborate internally and externally. To listen and share. To work as a team using all of our expertise and skills together to get the best outcomes.

Care

To promote personal wellbeing and to adopt safe and healthy working practices.

Our Strategic Aims

The Law Centre's key strategic aims for the next three financial years are:

1) Clients and their needs - To provide a service that meets the needs of clients and is welcoming, non-judgemental and accessible for all, including an accessible initial assessment and signposting service to all enquirers;

2) Service delivery - To provide and increase the provision of quality assured specialist legal advice, assistance and representation in social welfare law, supported by the provision of wrap around support services;

3) Visibility and presence - To extend awareness of the rights and remedies available to individuals and communities and the work of the Law Centre through user involvement, information, publicity and promotional work;

4) Partnerships and collaboration - To continue to work in partnership with other organisations, both existing and new to identify need, enhance support for clients and maximise resources;

5) Culture and people - To ensure that the Law Centre has well-trained and supported staff and volunteers to deliver high quality services, guided by a well-trained board of trustees, reflective of the community to ensure good governance;

6) Financial sustainability - To increase and diversify the financial and other resources of the Law Centre to ensure its future sustainability.

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DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

Achievements and performance

Change and progression has been a constant throughout 2022-23. The impact of Covid was diminishing on our staff resources and clients, only to be taken over by the cost of living crisis for clients and staff alike. We continued to provide a robust service as more longer term staff left and new staff started and we were still able to fulfill our main strategic aim to provide and increase the provision of quality assured specialist legal advice and representation.

During the year, we opened 1,537 cases, an increase of approximately 12% on the previous year. The highest percentage increase was in discrimination work. With the LAA discrimination contract being embedded, we were now able to divert some additional staff resources to this work. Housing casework continues to increase and 2022/23 saw a 34% increase. Our work with local authorities in the prevention of homelessness being a key area of work. Our employment work also increased (7%) as we worked with partners to allow clients to access our services through GP referrals. Our debt and money work was also up (8%) despite severe staffing shortages.

Enquiries were also up to 5,930, also an increase of 12% on 2021-22. Again, the largest percentage increase was in our discrimination enquiries (up 66%), followed by Housing which was up by 30%.

In June 2022, due to staff progression and the lack of financial security on the Money Sorted project, we took the decision to withdraw from the project. In 2023, we are looking for new funding to bring this type of essential money guidance support back to the Law Centre.

We continue to operate from our second office on Rose Hill but ultimately, we would like to bring all of our staff and services back under one roof and in 2023, we hope to move forward with this. The health and wellbeing of our staff, volunteers and clients are still a priority. We monitor workloads, create policies and look at ways that we can help staff with the work/life balance. During 2022, staff and volunteers were invited to take part in an afternoon of bowling. We hope to offer more in 2023.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion runs through the veins of the organisation and is reflected in all policies and procedures.

With the retirement or moving on of some long term staff, the Law Centre's plan of succession planning over the last few years has been a great investment. In 2023, the Law Centre was successful in having all of our trainee solicitors (3 of them) qualify in the first half of 2023.

In April 2023, Lisa Haythorne and Sue Allard were promoted to Senior Solicitor and Second Solicitor following the departure of Tony McIlveen.

We have been fortunate to have continued support from our Local Authority partners, Chesterfield Borough Council, Bolsover District Council, North East Derbyshire District Council and Derbyshire County Council. This core funding continues to provide a base service, allowing our organisation to look at other funding opportunities to provide legal advice in new areas or on a larger scale. These Local Authorities, along with Amber Valley Borough Council, Derbyshire Dales District Council, Erewash Borough Council and High Peak Borough Council have played central parts in funding additional housing advice services.

Our Legal Aid continued to be an important source of income which works alongside our other funding. We have continued our legal aid contracts in housing and debt and discrimination.

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DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

Once again, we were pleased that we were still able to retain our Lexcel Quality Mark. We believe that this shows that DLC is a quality organisation providing a specialist advice service which is as important to us as it is for our clients and our funding partners. It also enables us to continue with a Legal Aid Contract and our EMMA Project work. The Lexcel Auditor reported "the Centre should continue to be highly commended for sustaining compliance against the Lexcel Standard". To summarise our services for the year:

Specialist Services - Housing

Housing and homelessness legal advice work has continued to be an extremely busy area of our services. The unit had a number of staff departures and new arrivals during the year. Jo, Diya and Beth left whilst we were joined by Stephen Oliver and Hannah Haythorne. Latterly, we have also been joined by Amy Law, Codie Whittaker and Elissa Hartley. In May 2023, Madison was promoted from Homelessness Prevention Paralegal to Housing Caseworker. The housing team now consists of 10 staff - a mixture of of solicitors, caseworkers and paralegals.

Homelessness prevention work remains at the centre of our housing work. Local authorities have continued to fund our work, allowing us to continue with our Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) project, Mortgage Rescue (Court Work) project and Homelessness Prevention Project (HPP). Alongside, Bolsover District Council. Chesterfield Borough Council and North East Derbyshire District Council, the Amber Valley Borough Council, Derbyshire Dales District Council, Erewash Borough Council and High Peak Borough Council have all contributed to this work.

The HRA and HPP projects continue to be important projects within the housing unit which have similar objectives. These are staffed by 3 homelessness prevention paralegals who work to support those at risk of eviction and those who need support securing new or alternative accommodation. It continues to work to provide holistic support to enable its clients to gain further independence in their accommodation and seek to reduce the numbers of households becoming homeless. Examples of help provided include: advice accessing accommodation or waiting lists; securing grants to pay for essential appliances/furniture; applying for Discretionary Housing Payments and securing grants for clients to secure permanent accommodation, The HRA project also benefits clients who, whilst still on a low income, are unable to access Legal Aid services but still require professional advice regarding their housing. With 118 clients assisted, advisers have also continued to secure funds for clients, achieving a total of £82,326 in financial gains for these clients from charitable grants and DHPs for the prevention of homelessness or to secure permanent accommodation. This is in addition to advice and support provided. From May 2023, we have combined these two projects so that the work can be done seamlessly.

At the beginning of 2022, 3 local authorities (CBC, NEDDC and BDC), agreed to joint fund our Housing Repairs Support Service. This service is to support and expedite the repair of rental properties within the 3 districts. This will continue until the end of December 2023.

We continue to manage a number of "Welfare Funds", which have been made available by some local authorities and are administered by the Law Centre to help secure tenancies or for essential items such as washing machines.

Derbyshire County Council continues to recognise our homelessness prevention work and continues to fund an increase in staffing levels for additional eviction work. We continue to hand hold our clients to help them retain or obtain new homes.

We have also found it very successful to have funding pots to assist clients to retain or obtain new homes. These funding pots have been provided by various local authorities after recognising the cost effectiveness of assisting tenants in this way. We also apply for funds from other third parties on an individual basis, again, as a means of assisting those tenants with housing risk issues that can be quickly addressed by a small amount of funding.

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DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

Amber Valley Borough Council has also recognised the value of our work in Ripley and the surrounding areas and continues to fund independent housing advice through positive referrals from the local authority. We now have some staff based at the Amber Valley Borough Council offices in Ripley on various days throughout the week and making home visits in that area.

Our Legal Help work continues to be less than prior to Covid, (approximately 20%) although there has been an increase of almost 23% on the previous year. One main reason for this is that with all the homelessness prevention work that we do, less tenants are getting to the stage of being served with a notice for eviction. However, we are seeing an increase in "no fault" evictions and this, nationally, is showing an increase by 41%. This means that our Legal Aid certificated work continues to increase at a pace.

Our contract with the Legal Aid Agency for the provision of Housing advice has been extended until 31 August 2024. We have now secured the new Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service "HLPAS" contract which replaces the old County Court Duty Scheme. This has the added benefit for the client of looking at welfare issues in conjunction with the eviction. It will continue to ensure that a legal adviser will be present at Court on days when possession claims are listed. The adviser will meet with clients on the day, take instructions, consider paperwork and represent defendants in Court. All clients assisted will continue to receive a follow up advice letter and be referred for ongoing advice, as necessary. The service ensures that the most vulnerable defendants, who may not have sought advice before the day of their hearing, are represented appropriately.

The Court Duty service continues to see an increase in the number of clients seeking assistance at Court. In 2022/23, it increased by 14% on the previous year.

During 2022, we continued our work with/in Bolsover, with the Lloyds Bank funded project to provide housing advice work to the residents of Bolsover District Council. This saw our caseworkers helping vulnerable people with complex needs just prior to eviction. These clients usually have issues around many of our specialisms, for example, debt or employment. Other local authorities have seen this project as part of a solution to assist their local residents and we now cover the Amber Valley Borough Council, Erewash Borough Council and North East Derbyshire District Council areas in a similar way.

Specialist Services - Employment

Once again, employment work has been busy both in terms of cases and in terms of staff changes. Ellen semi-retired in January 2023, after 15 years at the Law Centre and fully retired in June 2023. Gemma Grant was recruited to allow Patrick to become a trainee solicitor, alongside Alex Pearce (both qualifying in July 2023). Gary Steel, who qualified to become a solicitor in January 2023, became an employment and discrimination caseworker following his trainee solicitor role with DLC. Whilst our core funding from the local authorities allows us to give a limited employment service, this is enhanced through external funding for focused work.

The Legal Support for Litigation in Person project is funded by the Access to Justice Foundation. It ran from October 2020 to September 2022. This project enabled us to extend our employment service to include full employment tribunal representation for vulnerable clients.

Our work in Ripley and llkeston, funded by Derbyshire County Council, has continued, and once again exceeded targets on telephone enquiries.

Our Employment Advice Rapid Referral Service (EARRS), funded by Derbyshire County Council continues. This enables us to support those who are either on long-term health related absence from work or at risk of long-term absence and the work is currently funded until December 2023.

The Access to Justice Foundation also approved our application for funds from the "Help Accessing Legal Support Grant", focusing on employment work. This enabled the retention of employment specialists and continues until June 2023, following a 3 month extension.

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DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

We continue to provide the charged for service. Principally aimed at clients who are not eligible for free advice. We also advise on Settlement Agreements, where the cost of advice is funded by employers.

Specialist Services - Discrimination

Since January 2023, Gary has become part of our discrimination unit, alongside Patrick. Our discrimination casework service in employment and goods and services has increased by 200% and the enquiries continue to increase - up by 67% (on the previous year). This was funded in part by our Legal Aid Agency Discrimination Contract.

Developing discrimination work has always been a long-term goal of the Law Centre and to this end, our trainee solicitors undertake discrimination work for employment and goods and services as part of their training rotation.

Our continued Access to Justice Foundation LSLIP funding means that we can offer a discrimination casework service across the whole of Derbyshire.

Specialist Services - Debt

All in all, our staff in the debt unit have had a very busy and uncertain time over the last year. Funding was uncertain and staff resources changed. In July 22, Carmen went for promotion from a Personal Navigator to Debt Caseworker (which ultimately led to the cessation of the Money Sorted Project), Sally went on maternity leave in January 23 and Kate took promotion from Homelessness Prevention Paralegal to Debt Caseworker to cover Sally's maternity leave.

Our specialist debt services have been predominantly funded through MaPs (Money and Pension Service). MaPs contract out funding for debt advice to various regional organisations, one of which is Community Advice and Law Service, who lead on the EMMA (East Midlands Money Advice), and they, in turn, contract out to providers such as DLC.

This funding came under threat during the year following MaPs announcement to procure the work. The procurement exercise proposed cuts of 50% to organisations such as DLC, resulting in an outcry which ultimately forced a backdown and the promise that the grant funding would remain at its current level until a consultation had taken place. Unfortunately, this "current level" ended up being a 10% cut but with a contract from 1 February 2023 until 31 March 2025 and a reduction in terms of number of staff funded reducing from 2.8 to 2.6 full time equivalent employees.

The demand for our debt services continues to grow, with 11% increase in enquiries and 7% increase in casework. The work often involves assessing individuals total debt and providing solutions, including Debt Relief Orders and applications for Breathing Space (A Government Scheme that puts debt enforcement on hold for 60 days). The debt unit also works very closely with the other units at DLC as debt is often an issue when dealing with housing, immigration or employment issues.

Specialist Services - Immigration

Tony McIlveen and Beth Holt worked hard to provide an immigration service during the year. Unfortunately, Beth, OISC (Office of Immigration Services Commissioner) level 1 solicitor left for pastures new in January 2023 and Tony, our Senior Solicitor, who was also Level 3 Law Society Immigration and Asylum Accredited, retired in April 23 after working at the Law Centre for 22 years.

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DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

We are the only advice agency in Derbyshire to provide immigration legal advice. Our telephone and email advice service for residents in Derbyshire continued during the year and, obviously, the EU Settlement Scheme dominated our immigration work.

Sagar Shah, also a Level 3 Law Society Immigration and Asylum Accredited joined us in April 23, with Mae Elsmore-Renshaw starting in June 23 as an immigration caseworker.

With immigration specialists being difficult to secure, Beth's post remained unfilled for 6 months. This resulted in reduced staff resources and so less enquiries and cases were taken on but it is expected that once fully resourced, demand will increase again.

AB Charitable Trust gave valued core funding support with our immigration unit in mind, alongside other core funding, this allowed us to keep at least a minimum level services operating during the year. Funding continued from the Home Office project with Nottingham Law Centre, to assist vulnerable EU citizens with complex applications to the Home Office EU Settlement Scheme.

In February/March, the immigration unit worked, along with other immigration partners, on a joint bid for funding from Community Advice and Law Service on the Justice Together Initiative. This resulted in funding which started at the beginning of April and is aimed at building a community of people and organisations with diverse backgrounds, strengths and experience to transform access to justice in the UK immigration system. DLC's role in this will be to provide training opportunities in immigration for partner organisations.

DLC continues to be registered with the OISC, which allows us to provide a small fee-paying service.

Support Services

Behind our solicitors, caseworkers and project staff, we have a dedicated Administration team and Coordination Unit. These staff provide our front-of-house services, casework support, premises management, financial administration and management as well as funding bids, IT development, communications and strategic lead.

In June 22, Wendy Bell, receptionist retired after almost 9 years at DLC. This was shortly followed by Richard Carter joining the reception team. Once again, our administration team increased during the year to reflect the overall increase in projects and casework. In October, the Law Centre, employed it's first accounts apprentice. Kyle Gudgeon joined the team and is currently studying his AAT Level 2 qualification.

In March 23, Fran Cole, Finance Administrator, left the organisation after 15 years. The vacancy was difficult to fill, with Jessica Wright joining the team in June 23.

Two new posts were created in 2022 in the Coordination Unit; the first being a Charity Development, Funding and Impact Coordinator, which was filled by Rachael Priest. A new Funding Strategy was created, alongside new funding applications and improved systems for monitoring. As recognition of the need to raise the profile on our services, the Communication Worker post was advertised and has been filled by Millie Barlow. She developed a new communications strategy, which included a situational analysis, identification of long and short term goals, a tactical plan and overview of measurement and controls. DLC has since reviewed and updated its "brand", using the new tagline: Your specialist legal advice charity. We have also started to increase our presence at appropriate venues, working in partnership with various organisations. We have developed extensive merchandise to hand out to potential, new and existing clients, along with referral partners. We have also improved our internal communications with the resurrection of the internal newsletter, which gives updates on news and events within the organisation.

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DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

In January 23, the organisation took part in the Law Centres Network Digital Project. This project upgraded our equipment and moved the data to the new Microsoft 365 platform. This ended a 22 year relationship with Derbyshire County Council's IT department but was essential for progressing to a modern, less risk IT solution for the Law Centre. Staff and Management Committee have all received training on how the new technology works. We achieved Cyber Essential Plus which indicates the high level of data security we have.

We have ensured that Equality Diversity and Inclusion was a thread through all our work and policies and a new working group was formed to ensure that this was the case.

Nancy, our sole remaining volunteer assessor has been continuous in her support of the organisation. Assessment has never been so busy and it is thanks to Nancy, with Vanessa as her supervisor that this system has continued to work so well. Due to a successful funding bid to the National Lottery, we will be working to increase our volunteers team later in 2023, especially as our new Volunteers Co-ordinator, Siobhan Hible has joined the team.

We have given limited work placements during the year, which we hope to increase in the future.

Project Work

The project work helps our organisation expand our existing services, try out pilot projects, respond to new needs and give a client a fuller service by providing a "wrap around service". Some of our projects have already been mentioned in our specialist services but other projects we deliver are:

Project Work - Money Sorted in D2N2

Money Sorted continued to support individuals until June 22 with budgeting and financial inclusion support. The project ended when the personal navigator was promoted and the remaining funding was not enough to secure a replacement.

In 2023 we hope to obtain funding to revive this important work with a new funder.

Project Work - Help is Here

Working with Derbyshire Unemployed Workers Centre (DUWC), we have been providing legal advice services to clients referred from DUWC. We primarily advised through three methods, specialist telephone advice, a casework service and outreach clinic. We regularly visited the DUWC Shirebrook office to provide specialist immigration advice.

All enquiries are assessed by our specialist team to identify the needs of the clients and how the Law Centre can advise.

Trainee Solicitors

Gary Steel became a trainee solicitor in January 2021. He covered employment, debt, housing and discrimination work and after qualifying in January 2023, he was offered a caseworker position at the Law Centre.

Alex Pearce and Patrick Macken continued with their trainee solicitor positions during 2022-23, funded by core funds. They both qualified in July 2023 with Patrick moving back to his casework position. Unfortunately, DLC was not in a position to offer a role to Alex Pearce.

12

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

Financial review

Reserves policy

The Trustees have set a policy to maintain reserves at the minimum requirements if the Law Centre was to cease operations. These reserves cover redundancy costs, salaries at levels to satisfy notice periods and lease notices on rent and equipment. At current levels, this equates to £202,088. Of this requirement, £99,085 has already been set aside in the designated Staff Contingency Fund, the required level of free reserves is £103,003 if the organisation was to immediately cease. With a managed closure, this would be reduced to £102,286.

As at 31 March 2023, free reserves are £230,992, after designated funds of £106,137, which is above the target level. The Trustees have set a financial strategy to 2025 which outlines the financial risks and actions being taken to continue to maintain free reserves to the required level.

At present, the Trustees assess the charity as a going concern, and therefore do not envisage that reserves will be used to cease operations in the near future.

Going concern

We continue to be successful in maintaining grants from Chesterfield Borough Council, North East Derbyshire District Council and Bolsover District Council. All have been secured at least at the same rate as 21/22 until 31 March 2024.

Last year, we identified that a risk was the delayed Community Grants Review undertaken by Derbyshire County Council. A report to the Cabinet Member for Health and Communities dated 06 March 2023 recommended our funding again for this year to 31 March 2024 and this was confirmed in a letter to us dated 3 April 2024. We currently receive just over £90,000. We shall continue to work with DCC to promote the work that we do and hopefully retain as much funding as possible.

Again, last year another risk was identified in respect of VAT. Due to staff shortages, we have taken longer to submit this to HMRC but this has now been concluded and the amount payable has been included in the cashflow.

Our current budget does show a significant deficit (just under £32,000), but given the large surplus in 20/21 and 21/22, plus not using it in 2022/23, at present, we feel the organisation can withstand this and considers this an investment. This being said, we are not idly standing by doing nothing to reduce the deficit and if, under review, it was felt that the service could not carry this level of deficit, reductions in costs would likely be made through redundancy.

We currently have an application to Nationwide for a project which will expand our service into family related homelessness. A pilot 1 year project which could lead onto a Legal Aid contract. We have applied for almost £60,000.

We also have funding applications underway for the Henry Smith Charity which is a three year project worth just over £200,000.

In terms of confirmed continuation funds, we have as follows:

• East Midlands Money Advice - secured until 31 March 2025 for 2.6 caseworkers funded at £49,100 each (a reduction on 22-23)

13

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

• Mortgage Rescue (Court Desk) - confirmed until at least 31 March 2024.

• Amber Valley Independent Advice - continuing at 5 days provision project and confirmed until 31 March 2024.

• Our Homelessness Reduction Act project and Homelessness Prevention project has been amalgamated and funding agreed until 31 March 2025. This is funded by 3 local authorities and has a value of £149,000 per annum.

• The DUWC Big Lottery Project is a five-year project which started 1 April 2020. Inflationary increases will be applicable.

• Lloyds Bank Housing Advice project is funded until 31 December 2023 - £25,000 per year.

• Derbyshire County Council Local Resilience Funding until 30 September 2025.

• AB Charitable Trust confirmed £20,000 per year for 3 years until 31 March 2025. This has increased due to cost of living rises to £22,000.

• Derbyshire Public Health Funded Employment project is funded until 31 December 2023 at £40,000 per year. We will be looking to negotiate the extension of this funding.

• Housing Repairs Support Service, funded by local authorities, is in place for 2 years to 31 December 2023.

New funding in 2023/24 is:

• National Lottery funding for a 4 year volunteers project from 1 July 2023. We are currently recruiting for this and overall funding is over £311,000. This will also help with capacity within staff resources as we will now have a volunteers team assisting at all levels of work in the organisation.

• Justice Together Initiative is a project working with others to provide immigration advice, expand immigration advisers knowledge and to assist other organisatons to recognise immigration issues. This is a 2 year project, and we have been awarded over £75,000.

• The Barings Foundation project is funded by Access to Justice with the Law Centres Network facilitating the award. It is a 3 year project working on discrimination work and again, empowering local groups to identify discrimination issues which can be referred to the Law Centre. It involves the recruitment of an Outreach Worker which is currently being considered. This award is £126,000 over the 3 years.

Our Housing and Discrimination Legal Help contracts currently run until 31 August 2024.

We have recently been successful in renewing our County Court Duty Desk contract (HLPAS) with the Legal Aid Agency until 31 August 2024. In addition, we have also been successful in obtaining an immigration legal aid contract, also until 31 August 2024. No re-tender date has been set at the moment. We do not envisage any issues in relation to continuing with this contract.

In February 2023 we passed our quality audit with high praise and continue to review systems and policies on a regular basis.

Charged services income is a small part of our funds (approximately 1%). We intend to keep this

14

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

going at this level unless there is a significant drop in other funding.

We have a comprehensive funding strategy, having employed a Charity Development, Fundraising and Impact Coordinator specifically for fundraising and statistical information. The new strategy identifies short and long term aims and objectives.

We consider ourselves a progressive and adaptable organisation that is continuously developing. We are currently reviewing our Governance documents, piloting new areas of law and employing more core staff. We care about the welfare of our staff and organisation as a whole. We regularly undertake business planning with staff, volunteers and trustees being involved.

We are constantly reviewing our monitoring systems which will enable us to provide data easily and have input into the future developments and funding aims of some of our partners.

During 22/23, we have employed a new Communications worker who is working to update all our brand and communications strategy in line with our strategic aim of visibilty and presence. This is proving very successful.

In recent years, we have worked hard on succession planning. This planning has come to fruition in that, as expected, some of our longer term staff have left - including senior solicitor. The Law Centre has successfully had staff in place to ensure a smooth service during this transition. Lisa Haythorne is now our Senior Solicitor. A year ago, 79% of staff had been with us at least 2 years. This has now reduced to 52%. Through a comprehensive learning and development strategy, key training and qualifications have been achieved, not least of which we will shortly have had 4 staff members qualify as solicitors in the past 2 years, 3 of which we have retained. We have also recruited a finance apprentice to continue the development of our finance team.

Finally, our financial strategy has been successful in recent years and the current one is until 2025. This document is currently under review but it is not expected that there will be significant changes.

Given these circumstances the Trustees believe it is appropriate for the financial statements to be prepared on a going concern basis. For this reason, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing financial statements.

Principal risks and uncertainties

The main financial risks faced by the charity are loss or reduction of Legal Aid contracts, project funds, and core funding from Local Authorities.

The processes and strategies for managing these risks are:

• Promoting the positive impact of the Law Centre services

• Working with the local community groups providing education and training on social welfare law

• Producing an Annual Report

• Building relationships with funders and responding actively to funders

• Ensuring funding streams are varied to reduce the impact of funding loss

• Campaigning through LCN

15

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

• Demonstrating the effectiveness of joint working and avoidance of duplicate advice services

• Ensuring that "legal advice" is part of key strategies

• Meeting the aims in our Communications Strategy and the use of Social Media to raise awareness of the work we do

16

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

Plans for future periods

Whilst 2022/23 continued to be a challenge, it also gave us inspiration to look at future working plans.

With new staff comes new opportunities, both in terms of staff development and in terms of new services. With a younger workforce, we need to capture the enthusiasm and energy to provide quality, diverse services in social welfare law.

We shall continue to work in partnership with local authorities, other advice agencies and funders to enable us to continue to offer the best services for our clients.

We shall continue our involvement as Trustee Board Members on Links CVS, LCN, Citizens Advice Derbyshire Districts, Citizens Advice Chesterfield, DUWC, and Elm Foundation to show support and encourage joint working.

We will ensure that our services consider external factors, such as the cost of living crisis and population changes (increasingly elderly population).

The need to be agile and being able to embrace change is paramount if we are to maintain our current levels of service and indeed grow to meet new and emerging needs We are actively seeking and securing funding to facilitate this. Our in-house statistics show that enquiries and cases were at their highest for 5 years in 2022/2023, putting added pressure on resources.

Housing and Homelessness

We will continue to offer a housing advice service across the County and develop our relationships with key partners, including local authorities and other advice agencies in tackling homelessness.

We will work with local authorities to ensure that tenancies are sustained by continuing to develop our holistic approach to helping tenants, mortgagees and their families in crisis, developing this service across Derbyshire.

2022/23 saw an increase in housing legal advice, particularly due to the "cost of living crisis", and we expect this to continue throughout 2023/24, especially in relation to possession cases. Derbyshire County Council has continued to fund additional staff hours to cope with this.

Through our early intervention work with potential homelessness clients, we do not expect to have legal help cases revert to their numbers prior to the Covid pandemic. We are able to assist clients with our wrap around services, including the allocation of various welfare funds provided by Local Authorities. We shall attend Court whenever necessary to fulfil the needs of our clients and the HLPAS contract.

We continue to offer housing advice Ripley, Erewash and Bolsover, working with our local authority partners to reduce homelessness.

The HRA and HPP projects will be combined from May 23, offering services until at least March 25.

We shall continue to build on the work of our two housing projects - the Lloyds Bank Housing Advice project in Bolsover and the Local Authority funded Housing Repairs Support Service projects.

As part of our succession planning, we shall aim to recrruit new housing and employment caseworkers qualified as Area of Law Supervisors.

17

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

We shall continue to meet the Lexcel Quality Standard.

Employment

We will continue to offer free specialist employment advice to residents in Derbyshire, looking-at working remotely and face to face, adapting delivery methods to meet client's needs, using our core funds.

We shall work with partners on projects aimed at keeping people in work and improving their health where the underlying cause of ill health is related to issues in employment.

Derbyshire Public Health funded project, Employment Advice Rapid Referral Service (EARRS), will continue to provide free employment advice within 48 hours (week days only) of the centre receiving your referral. After the retirement of Andrew Montgomery, we have recruited a new full time employment caseworker.

The employment service will continue to provide an increased employment legal advice service thanks to the Access to Justice Foundation's "Help Accessing Legal Support Grant" until the end of June 23.

Our charged for service will continue, at not-for-profit rates, to those who can afford to pay.

Funding for this area of law is less available and more competitive but we will continue to investigate and apply for sources of short and long term funding both for project work and for the core service.

Debt

The Law Centre shall provide high quality debt advice across Derbyshire, funded by MaPs. Our top priority will be to work with partners to ensure that funding continues beyond January 2023. We will increase debt caseworker time on the project, increasing from 2 to 3 debt caseworkers.

We will continue to work holistically with other projects both within the Law Centre and with other agencies to increase financial resilience and debt awareness.

We shall continue to seek funding for other money guidance work to increase financial resilience and debt awareness, which will allow for a more holistic service for our clients.

Discrimination

We will continue to build on the work done so far for discrimination in employment and for goods and services. We shall aim to maximise the use of our Legal Aid Agency Contract for discrimination.

We will continue to publicise this service with equality groups across East Midlands particularly across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire utilising our contacts.

We shall begin work on our new Barings Foundation "Hub" work by employing an Outreach Worker to work with local community organisations, raising awareness of discrimination issues and creating a new way of working with the local community groups.

Other funding opportunities for supporting discrimination work will be sought and form part of the funding strategy.

18

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

Immigration

We shall continue to provide high quality free immigration advice across Derbyshire, part core funded by local authorities and AB Charitable Trust, as part of our new Legal Aid Contract (which starts in September 2023) and project funded when available

Having secured more Home Office funding until June 2023, in conjunction with Nottingham Law Centre, we shall devote staff time to the EUSS project.

We shall continue to offer a charged for casework service, at not-for-profit rates, to those who can afford to pay.

We shall work on the Justice Together Initiative funded service which starts in April 23 and is aimed at building a community of people and organisations with diverse backgrounds, strengths, and experience to transform access to justice in the UK immigration system. This will connect lived experience, front-line advice and influence strategies to create lasting change. This funding is for 2 years.

Our OISC level one solicitor will work towards level two during the year and level three sometime soon after that. This again is part of our succession planning. We will also look to fund a new immigration caseworker later in the year.

Our telephone advice work on all types of immigration issues shall continue at current levels. We shall also continue to do outreach work, particularly in Shirebrook as part of the EUSS and Help is Here project.

Volunteers

Volunteers have always played a big part in our organisation and we are really pleased to have secured National Lottery funding for a 4 year volunteers project. Siobhan Hible has been recruited as our Volunteers Coordinator and our first recruitment drive will take place in September.

We will be expanding our volunteering capacity to offer different types of placements offering skills based training opportunities, including exploring remote assessment and signposting in order to continue this vital initial contact with clients.

By working with local Universities and Colleges, we have used students in our assessment and initial advice teams and for digital marketing.

Assessment Service

Our Assessment Service will continue from 10am to 2pm each weekday, signposting clients either externally (where DLC cannot help) or internally to one of our services. We shall endeavor to increase the number of volunteers on our assessment service.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

We shall continue to ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion remains at the core of all our work and ethos and our website shall reflect our EDI policies.

Awareness Raising

Aim 3 of our Strategic Plan is all about "Visibility and Presence". We have taken a significant step in increasing our profile externally by employing a Communications Worker, Millie Barlow, in late 2022.

19

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

We aim to undertake the work identified by the new Communications Strategy and Strategic Plan. This will entail:

• Increasing engagement on our social media channels as a method of discovery and self enquiry

• create a calendar of education campaigns for specific issues

• increase our levels of referrals from, and build long-term relationships with, community groups and formal agency partners

• raise overall brand awareness in target regions through media engagement

• increase engagement with those who have no digital access or low literacy rates

Digital

We aim to further develop our use of Microsoft 365. This will require the development of policies around digital inclusion and also enable both staff, volunteers and Trustees to make better usage of the systems at hand through further training.

We will continue to achieve Cyber Essentials certification.

Governance

During 2023, we shall continue to review our Memorandum and Articles to ensure that they are still current with today's services and good governance.

We shall ensure that all governance tasks are completed in order to maintain our Charity status, including appropriate financial management, insurance and good management.

We shall ensure the board is representative of the community/clientele.

Trustees' responsibilities statement

The trustees, who are also directors for the purposes of company law, are responsible for preparing the trustees' report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires the charity trustees to prepare financial statements for each year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, for that period.

In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

• observe the methods and principles in the applicable Charities SORP;

• make judgments and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in business.

20

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report) (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the charity's transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Disclosure of information to auditor

Each of the persons who is a trustee at the date of approval of this report confirms that:

• so far as they are aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the charity's auditor is unaware; and

• they have taken all steps that they ought to have taken as a trustee to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the charity's auditor is aware of that information.

Small company provisions

This report has been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies entitled to the small companies exemption.

22 November 2023 The trustees' annual report was approved on ………………. and signed on behalf of the board of trustees by:

Ms J Flood (Chair) Trustee

21

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Independent Auditor's Report to the Members of Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Year ended 31 March 2023

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd (the 'charity') for the year ended 31 March 2023 which comprise the statement of financial activities (including income and expenditure account), statement of financial position, statement of cash flows and the related notes, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the charity's affairs as at 31 March 2023 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice;

• have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

22

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Independent Auditor's Report to the Members of Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

• the information given in the trustees' report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

• the trustees' report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charity and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the trustees' report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

• adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

• the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

• certain disclosures of trustees' remuneration specified by law are not made; or

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or

• the trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies regime and take advantage of the small companies' exemptions in preparing the directors' report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.

23

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Independent Auditor's Report to the Members of Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the trustees' responsibilities statement, the trustees (who are also the directors for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charity's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charity or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Auditor's responsibilities for detecting irregularities, including fraud The objectives of our audit are: to identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements due to fraud or error; to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding the assessed risks of material misstatement due to fraud or error; and to respond appropriately to those risks. Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that material misstatements in the financial statements may not be detected, even though the audit is properly planned and performed in accordance with the ISAs (UK).

In identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:

 We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks applicable to the charity and the sector in which they operate. We determined that the following laws and regulations were most significant; the Companies Act 2006, the Charities SORP (FRS 102) and UK corporate taxation law. The charity is also subject to the regulations of the Financial Conduct Authority and the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC).

 We obtained an understanding of how the charity is complying with those legal and regulatory frameworks by making inquiries to relevant members of the management team. We corroborated our inquiries though our review of board minutes (where applicable) and inquiry into legal fees incurred in the year.

 We assessed the susceptibility of the charity's financial statements to material misstatement, including how fraud might occur. Audit procedures performed by the engagement team included: - Identifying the controls management has in place to prevent and detect fraud and assessing the operation of these controls

• Understanding how those charged with governance considered and addressed the potential for override of controls or other inappropriate influence over the financial reporting process

• Identifying and testing journal entries, in particular any journal entries that were large or unusual in nature

• Assessing the extent of compliance with the relevant laws and regulations governing the charity and the sector it operates within. This included a review of any potential breaches during and since the year end; and

• Challenging assumptions and judgements made by management in its significant accounting estimates.

24

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Independent Auditor's Report to the Members of Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures described above and the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements the less likely we would become aware of it. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery, intentional misrepresentations or collusion. A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council's website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charity's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charity's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Andrew McDaid BFP FCA (Senior Statutory Auditor)

For and on behalf of MCABA Limited t/a Mitchells Chartered Accountants & Statutory Auditor 91-97 Saltergate Chesterfield Derbyshire S40 1LA

23 November 2023

25

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Statement of Financial Activities (including income and expenditure account)

Year ended 31 March 2023

			2023		2022
		Unrestricted	Restricted
		funds	funds	Total funds	Total funds
	Note	£	£	£	£
Income and endowments
Donations and grants	5	194,643	661,509	856,152	957,294
Charitable activities	6	127,135	164,633	291,768	193,528
Investment income	7	593	–	593	28
Other income	8	1,180	–	1,180	870
		─────────	─────────	────────────	────────────
Total income		323,551	826,142	1,149,693	1,151,720
		═════════	═════════	════════════	════════════
Expenditure
Expenditure on charitable activities	9	212,020	844,664	1,056,684	1,028,577
		─────────	─────────	────────────	────────────
Total expenditure		212,020	844,664	1,056,684	1,028,577
		═════════	═════════	════════════	════════════
		─────────	─────────	────────────	────────────
Net income		111,531	(18,522)	93,009	123,143
		═════════	═════════	════════════	════════════
Transfers between funds		(88,747)	88,747	–	–
		─────────	─────────	────────────	────────────
Net movement in funds		22,784	70,225	93,009	123,143
Reconciliation of funds
Total funds brought forward		314,345	34,296	348,641	225,498
		─────────	─────────	────────────	────────────
Total funds carried forward		337,129	104,521	441,650	348,641
		═════════	═════════	════════════	════════════

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

The notes on pages 29 to 46 form part of these financial statements.

26

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Statement of Financial Position

31 March 2023

		2023	2022
	Note	£	£
Fixed assets
Tangible fixed assets	15	7,216	10,938
Current assets
Debtors	16	186,969	195,933
Cash at bank and in hand		560,258	351,594
		─────────	─────────
		747,227	547,527
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year	17	312,793	209,824
		─────────	─────────
Net current assets		434,434	337,703
		─────────	─────────
Total assets less current liabilities		441,650	348,641
		─────────	─────────
Net assets		441,650	348,641
		═════════	═════════
Funds of the charity
Restricted funds		104,521	34,296
Unrestricted funds		337,129	314,345
		─────────	─────────
Total charity funds	20	441,650 ═════════	348,641 ═════════

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies' regime.

These financial statements were approved by the board of trustees and authorised for issue on 22 November 2023 ………………, and are signed on behalf of the board by:

Ms J Flood (Chair) Trustee

The notes on pages 29 to 46 form part of these financial statements.

27

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Statement of Cash Flows

Year ended 31 March 2023

	2023	2022
	£	£
Cash flows from operating activities
Net income	93,009	123,143
Adjustments for:
Depreciation of tangible fixed assets	7,592	8,387
Other interest receivable and similar income	(593)	(28)
Interest payable and similar charges	191	285
Changes in:
Trade and other debtors	(17,360)	(43,723)
Trade and other creditors	129,293	4,516
	─────────	─────────
Cash generated from operations	212,132	92,580
Interest paid	(191)	(285)
Interest received	593	28
	─────────	────────
Net cash from operating activities	212,534	92,323
	═════════	════════
Cash flows from investing activities
Purchase of tangible assets	(3,870)	–
	─────────	────────
Net cash used in investing activities	(3,870)	–
	═════════	════════
Net increase in cash and cash equivalents	208,664	92,323
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year	351,594	259,271
	─────────	─────────
Cash and cash equivalents at end of year	560,258	351,594
	═════════	═════════

The notes on pages 29 to 46 form part of these financial statements.

28

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements

Year ended 31 March 2023

1. General information

The charity is a public benefit entity and a private company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales and a registered charity in England and Wales. The address of the registered office is 1 Rose Hill East, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S40 1NU.

2. Statement of compliance

These financial statements have been prepared in compliance with FRS 102, 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and the Republic of Ireland', the Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (Charities SORP (FRS 102)) and the Companies Act 2006.

3. Accounting policies

Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared on the historical cost basis.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the entity.

The charity meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

Going concern

The Trustees are of the opinion that the charity can continue to meet its obligations as they fall due for the foreseeable future due to the current level of financial reserves and expectations of future income. As a consequence, the Trustees have prepared the financial statements on the going concern basis.

Judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty

In the application of the charitable company's accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates. The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. The trustees do not consider there to be any estimates or associated assumptions that would give rise to a significant risk of causing a material misstatement in the carrying values of assets and liabilities in these financial statements.

29

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

3. Accounting policies (continued)

Fund accounting

General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity and which have not been designated for other purposes.

Designated funds comprise unrestricted funds that have been set aside by the trustees for particular purposes. The aim and use of each designated fund is set out in the notes to the financial statements.

Restricted funds are funds which are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by donors or which have been raised by the charity for particular purposes. The costs of raising and administering such funds are charged against the specific fund. The aim and use of each restricted fund is set out in the notes to the financial statements.

Incoming resources

All income is included in the statement of financial activities when entitlement has passed to the charity, it is probable that the economic benefits associated with the transaction will flow to the charity and the amount can be reliably measured. The following specific policies are applied to particular categories of income:

• Income from donations is recognised when the donation is received.

• Income from donated facilities and services are recognised in the accounts when received if the value can be reliably measured. No amounts are included for the contribution of general volunteers.

• Investment income is included when it becomes receivable.

• Grant income is recognised when the charity becomes unconditionally entitled to that income. Where entitlement to grant income is subject to performance-related or other conditions, income is recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities in line with the achievement of performance and satisfaction of those conditions.

30

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

3. Accounting policies (continued)

Resources expended

Expenditure is recognised on an accruals basis as a liability is incurred. Expenditure includes any VAT which cannot be fully recovered, and is classified under headings of the statement of financial activities to which it relates:

• Expenditure on raising funds includes the costs of all fundraising activities, events, and non-charitable trading activities.

• Expenditure on charitable activities includes all costs incurred by a charity in undertaking activities that further its charitable aims for the benefit of its beneficiaries, including those support costs and costs relating to the governance of the charity apportioned to charitable activities.

• Governance costs include those associated with meeting the constitutional and statutory requirements of the charity and include statutory audit fees and costs linked to the strategic management of the charity.

• Other expenditure includes all expenditure that is neither related to raising funds for the charity nor part of its expenditure on charitable activities.

All costs are allocated to expenditure categories within the Statement of Financial Activities reflecting the use of the resource. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs are apportioned between the activities they contribute to on a reasonable, justifiable and consistent basis.

Operating leases

Lease payments are recognised as an expense over the lease term on a straight-line basis.

Tangible assets

Tangible assets are initially recorded at cost, and subsequently stated at cost less any accumulated depreciation and impairment losses.

All assets costing more than £500 are capitalised.

Depreciation

Depreciation is calculated so as to write off the cost or valuation of an asset, less its residual value, over the useful economic life of that asset as follows:

Fixtures and fittings - 20% straight line Computer equipment - 33% straight line

31

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

3. Accounting policies (continued)

Impairment of fixed assets

A review for indicators of impairment is carried out at each reporting date, with the recoverable amount being estimated where such indicators exist. Where the carrying value exceeds the recoverable amount, the asset is impaired accordingly. Prior impairments are also reviewed for possible reversal at each reporting date.

For the purposes of impairment testing, when it is not possible to estimate the recoverable amount of an individual asset, an estimate is made of the recoverable amount of the cash-generating unit to which the asset belongs.

Financial instruments

The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans which are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

Defined contribution plans

The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for the benefit of its employees. Contributions payable are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities in the year they are payable.

4. Limited by guarantee

The charity is a company limited by guarantee. The members of the company are the trustees named on page 2. In the event of the charity being wound up, the liability in respect of the guarantee is limited to £1 per member of the charity.

5. Donations and grants

	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total Funds
	Funds	Funds	2023
	£	£	£
Donations and grants
Donations	1,572	–	1,572
Chesterfield Borough Council	41,697	75,500	107,197
Derbyshire County Council	90,124	196,000	286,124
N E Derbyshire District Council	21,000	55,376	79,376
Bolsover District Council	18,000	43,500	68,500
Amber Valley Borough Council	–	69,500	69,500
Law Centres Network	–	–	–
Advice Nottingham	–	11,497	11,497
Framework (Care Act)	–	–	–
Legal Education Foundation	–	26,815	26,815
Derbyshire Dales District Council	–	16,500	16,500
Nottingham Law Centre	–	33,000	33,000
DUWC	–	10,404	10,404
Access to Justice	–	86,618	86,618

32

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

5. Donations and grants (continued)

	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total Funds
	Funds	Funds	2023
	£	£	£
Donations and grants (continued)
The Law Society - Diversity and Access Scheme	–	–	–
Lloyds Bank Foundation	2,250	–	2,250
High Peak Borough Council	–	16,500	16,500
IMA Provision of Debt Advice	–	20,299	20,299
AB Charitable Trust	20,000	–	20,000
	─────────	─────────	─────────
	194,643	661,509	856,152
	═════════	═════════	═════════
	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total Funds
	Funds	Funds	2022
	£	£	£
Donations and grants
Donations	4,853	–	4,853
Chesterfield Borough Council	41,697	56,218	97,915
Derbyshire County Council	90,124	94,000	184,124
N E Derbyshire District Council	18,453	64,750	83,203
Bolsover District Council	18,000	42,333	60,333
Amber Valley Borough Council	–	72,293	72,293
Law Centres Network	–	18,000	18,000
Advice Nottingham	–	35,800	35,800
Framework (Care Act)	–	56,177	56,177
Legal Education Foundation	–	52,050	52,050
Derbyshire Dales District Council	–	13,750	13,750
Nottingham Law Centre	–	103,551	103,551
DUWC	–	10,200	10,200
Access to Justice	–	107,325	107,325
The Law Society - Diversity and Access Scheme	–	9,730	9,730
Lloyds Bank Foundation	25,000	–	25,000
High Peak Borough Council	–	13,750	13,750
IMA Provision of Debt Advice	–	9,240	9,240
AB Charitable Trust	–	–	–
	─────────	─────────	─────────
	198,127	759,167	957,294
	═════════	═════════	═════════

33

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

6. Charitable activities

			Unrestricted	Restricted	Total Funds
			Funds	Funds	2023
			£	£	£
	LSC: Legal Help Contract (Block Contract)		38,252	–	38,252
	LSC: Disbursement Repayment (Block Contract)		3,223	–	3,223
	LSC - County Court Duty Scheme		8,586	–	8,586
	LSC: Legal Representation Profit Costs		36,921	–	36,921
	LSC: Disbursement Repayment (Legal
	Representation)		18,750	–	18,750
	Casework fees recovered		11,663	–	11,663
	Charged services income		9,740	–	9,740
	EMMA Project		–	151,985	151,985
	Erewash Borough Council		–	12,648	12,648
			─────────	─────────	─────────
			127,135	164,633	291,768
			═════════	═════════	═════════
			Unrestricted	Restricted	Total Funds
			Funds	Funds	2022
			£	£	£
	LSC: Legal Help Contract (Block Contract)		35,967	–	35,967
	LSC: Disbursement Repayment (Block Contract)		4,736	–	4,736
	LSC - County Court Duty Scheme		7,513	–	7,513
	LSC: Legal Representation Profit Costs		24,528	–	24,528
	LSC: Disbursement Repayment (Legal
	Representation)		9,293	–	9,293
	Casework fees recovered		4,588	–	4,588
	Charged services income		14,003	–	14,003
	EMMA Project		–	92,900	92,900
	Erewash Borough Council		–	–	–
			─────────	────────	─────────
			100,628	92,900	193,528
			═════════	════════	═════════
7.	Investment income
		Unrestricted	Total Funds	Unrestricted	Total Funds
		Funds	2023	Funds	2022
		£	£	£	£
	Bank interest receivable	593	593	28	28
		════	════	════	════
8.	Other income
		Unrestricted	Total Funds	Unrestricted	Total Funds
		Funds	2023	Funds	2022
		£	£	£	£
	Miscellaneous income	180	180	200	200
	Training income	1,000	1,000	670	670
		───────	───────	────	────
		1,180	1,180	870	870
		═══════	═══════	════	════

34

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

9. Expenditure on charitable activities by activity type

		Activities
		undertaken		Total funds	Total fund
		directly	Support costs	2023	2022
		£	£	£	£
	Legal services	633,276	407,772	1,041,048	1,019,281
	Governance costs	–	15,636	15,636	9,296
		─────────	─────────	────────────	────────────
		633,276	423,408	1,056,684	1,028,577
		═════════	═════════	════════════	════════════
10.	Analysis of support costs
			Legal
			services	Total 2023	Total 2022
			£	£	£
	Staff costs		312,864	312,864	264,102
	Premises		68,330	68,330	59,755
	Communications and IT		7,898	7,898	8,350
	General office		18,680	18,680	17,904
	Governance costs		15,636	15,636	9,511
			─────────	─────────	─────────
			423,408	423,408	359,622
			═════════	═════════	═════════
11.	Net income
	Net income is stated after charging/(crediting):
				2023	2022
				£	£
	Depreciation of tangible fixed assets			7,592	8,387
				═══════	═══════
12.	Auditors remuneration
				2023	2022
				£	£
	Fees payable for the audit of the financial	statements		10,000	7,150
				════════	═══════
13.	Staff costs
	The total staff costs and employee benefits for the reporting period are analysed as				follows:
				2023	2022
				£	£
	Wages and salaries			759,003	701,673
	Social security costs			64,658	56,176
	Employer contributions to pension plans			60,670	56,366
				─────────	─────────
				884,331	814,215
				═════════	═════════

The total amount of employee benefits received by key management personnel, including employer's NI and pension is £627,171 (2022: £450,920). The charity considers its key management personnel comprise the staff on the Workers Group and the Trustees on the Management Committee.

35

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

13. Staff costs (continued)

The number of employees to whom retirement benefits were accruing under a defined contribution scheme during the year was 31 (2022: 30).

The average head count of employees during the year was 31 (2022: 30).

No employee received employee benefits of more than £60,000 during the year (2022: Nil).

14. Trustee remuneration and expenses

No trustee received any remuneration during either year.

For committee members, travelling and other expenses are reimbursed in respect of expenses incurred on the company's business. In the year ended 31 March 2023 £112 was reimbursed (2022: £Nil). The number of committee members that had expenses reimbursed was 2 (2022: None).

15. Tangible fixed assets

	Fixtures and	Computer
	fittings	equipment	Total
	£	£	£
Cost
At 1 Apr 2022	12,171	42,435	54,606
Additions	–	3,870	3,870
	────────	────────	────────
At 31 Mar 2023	12,171	46,305	58,476
	════════	════════	════════
Depreciation
At 1 Apr 2022	11,459	32,209	43,668
Charge for the year	502	7,090	7,592
	────────	────────	────────
At 31 Mar 2023	11,961	39,299	51,260
	════════	════════	════════
Carrying amount
At 31 Mar 2023	210	7,006	7,216
	════════	════════	════════
At 31 Mar 2022	712	10,226	10,938
	════════	════════	════════
Debtors
		2023	2022
		£	£
Trade debtors		126,270	175,250
Prepayments and accrued income		21,355	20,648
Other debtors		39,344	35
		─────────	─────────
		186,969	195,933
		═════════	═════════

16. Debtors

36

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

17. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

	2023	2022
	£	£
Trade creditors	14,389	13,354
Accruals and deferred income	198,550	118,400
Social security and other taxes	98,312	66,084
Other creditors	1,542	11,986
	─────────	─────────
	312,793	209,824
	═════════	═════════
Deferred income
	2023	2022
	£	£
At 1 April 2022	55,667	75,250
Amount released to income	(55,667)	(75,250)
Amount deferred in year	164,931	55,667
	─────────	────────
At 31 March 2023	164,931	55,667
	═════════	════════

18. Deferred income

Deferred income relates to project funding received in advance for projects in 2023/24.

19. Pensions and other post retirement benefits

Defined contribution plans

The amount recognised in income or expenditure as an expense in relation to defined contribution plans was £60,670 (2022: £56,366).

37

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

20. Analysis of charitable funds

Unrestricted funds

Unrestricted funds
					At
	At 1 Apr 2022	Income	Expenditure	Transfers	31 Mar 2023
	£	£	£	£	£
General funds	161,639	321,301	(184,122)	(67,826)	230,992
Staff contingency	99,085	–	–	(20,921)	78,164
Equipment renewals	10,000	–	–	–	10,000
Lloyds Bank Foundation
Project Costs	43,621	2,250	(27,898)	–	17,973
	─────────	─────────	─────────	────────	─────────
	314,345	323,551	(212,020)	(88,747)	337,129
	═════════	═════════	═════════	════════	═════════
					At
	At 1 Apr 2021	Income	Expenditure	Transfers	31 Mar 2022
	£	£	£	£	£
General funds	78,109	274,653	(150,008)	(41,115)	161,639
Staff contingency	90,075	–	–	9,010	99,085
Equipment renewals	10,000	–	–	–	10,000
Lloyds Bank Foundation
Project Costs	25,000	25,000	(6,379)	–	43,621
	─────────	─────────	─────────	────────	─────────
	203,184	299,653	(156,387)	(32,105)	314,345
	═════════	═════════	═════════	════════	═════════

Designated funds

Staff Contingency Fund

Staff redundancy costs are covered in the contingency fund. This designated fund will consist of 100% of staff redundancy costs at statutory minimum levels.

Office and Equipment Renewals

This is a capital fund which allows for the replacement of office and capital equipment as required.

Lloyds Bank Foundation Project Costs

These funds have been set aside to fund a housing caseworker for the 2022/23 financial year.

38

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

20. Analysis of charitable funds (continued)

Restricted funds

Restricted funds
	At				At
	1 Apr 2022	Income	Expenditure	Transfers	31 Mar 2023
	£	£	£	£	£
Trainee Solicitor Project (DAS)	–	–	–	–	–
Access to Justice - LSLIP Employment Project	–	26,618	(27,642)	1,024	–
Homelessness Prevention Project	4,943	99,000	(101,091)	(2,852)	–
Local Resilience Fund	5,121	126,000	(86,300)	–	44,821
EMMA Project	–	151,985	(198,799)	46,814	–
Mortgage Rescue (Court Desk)	–	36,000	(36,642)	642	–
Amber Valley Independent Advice	443	53,000	(53,273)	–	170
Building Better Opportunities - Opportunity and Change Programme	–	11,497	(11,497)	–	–
Derbyshire Bilingual Crisis Buddy Service	–	–	–	–	–
Homelessness Reduction Act	–	40,000	(51,114)	11,114	–
Just in Time (CBC)	–	–	–	–	–
Just in Time (LEF)	–	–	–	–	–
DUWC - Help is Here	–	10,404	(10,594)	190	–
Justice First Fellowship Scheme - Trainee Solicitor	3,479	26,815	(30,294)	–	–
Emergency Welfare Fund - NEDDC	164	–	(165)		–
EUSS (Nottingham Law Centre)	–	33,000	(51,714)	18,714	–
Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire Housing Law Group	412	–	–	–	412
Housing Repair Support Service	2,314	36,000	(32,736)	–	5,578
NED Emergency Welfare Grants	3,397	–	(2,942)	–	455

39

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

20. Analysis of charitable funds (continued)

AVBC Emergency Welfare Grants	3,110	–	(1,378)	–	1,732
Access to Justice - Community Justice Fund	–	–	–	–	–
Community Grant Fund CBC	4,000	–	(1,367)	–	2,633
LCN - Employment Project	–	–	–	–	–
Court Travel Expenditure Fund	40	–	–	(40)	–
IMA Provision of Debt Advice	–	20,299	(13,371)	–	6,928
EARRS Project	6,873	70,000	(40,014)	–	36,859
CBC "FIG" grant	–	5,000	(2,769)	–	2,231
Housing Adv funded by Erewash L/Authority	–	12,648	(9,946)	–	2,702
Housing Adv funded by NED L/Authority	–	7,876	(9,539)	1,663	–
Access to Justice (HAL's Project)	–	60,000	(71,477)	11,477	–
	────────	─────────	─────────	────────	─────────
	34,296	826,142	(844,664)	88,747	104,521
	════════	═════════	═════════	════════	═════════

40

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

20. Analysis of charitable funds (continued)

					At
	At 1 Apr 2021	Income	Expenditure	Transfers	31 Mar 2022
	£	£	£	£	£
Trainee Solicitor Project (DAS)	–	9,730	(11,204)	1,474	–
Access to Justice - LSLIP Employment Project	–	50,538	(51,334)	796	–
Homelessness Prevention Project	5,588	99,083	(99,728)	–	4,943
Local Resilience Fund	8,538	84,000	(87,417)	–	5,121
EMMA Project	–	92,900	(100,702)	7,802	–
Mortgage Rescue (Court Desk)	–	36,000	(36,960)	960	–
Amber Valley Independent Advice	–	53,543	(53,100)	–	443
Building Better Opportunities - Opportunity and Change Programme	573	91,977	(96,453)	3,903	–
Derbyshire Bilingual Crisis Buddy Service	1,710	–	(2,267)	557	–
Homelessness Reduction Act	–	40,000	(47,918)	7,918	–
Just in Time (CBC)	–	5,969	(5,969)	–	–
Just in Time (LEF)	–	17,511	(17,511)	–	–
DUWC - Help is Here	–	10,200	(10,411)	211	–
Justice First Fellowship Scheme - Trainee Solicitor	4,650	34,539	(35,710)	–	3,479
Emergency Welfare Fund - NEDDC	843	5,000	(5,679)	–	164
EUSS (Nottingham Law Centre)	–	103,551	(103,960)	409	–
Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire Housing Law Group	412	–	–	–	412
Housing Repair Support Service	–	13,500	(11,186)	–	2,314
NED Emergency Welfare Grants	–	5,000	(1,603)	–	3,397
AVBC Emergency Welfare Grants	–	5,000	(1,890)	–	3,110
Access to Justice - Community Justice Fund	–	56,786	(60,359)	3,573	–
Community Grant Fund CBC	–	–	–	4,000	4,000
LCN - Employment Project	–	18,000	(18,377)	377	–
Court Travel Expenditure Fund	–	–	(85)	125	40

41

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

20. Analysis of charitable funds (continued)

IMA Provision of Debt Advice	–	9,240	(9,240)	–	–
EARRS Project	–	10,000	(3,127)	–	6,873
CBC "FIG" grant	–	–	–	–	–
Housing Adv funded by Erewash L/Authority	–	–	–	–	–
Housing Adv funded by NED L/Authority	–	–	–	–	–
Access to Justice (HAL's Project)	–	–	–	–	–
	────────	─────────	─────────	────────	────────
	22,314	852,067	(872,190)	32,105	34,296
	════════	═════════	═════════	════════	════════

42

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

20. Analysis of charitable funds (continued)

Restricted funds

Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire Housing Law Group

Subscription based group. Legal practitioners from the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire areas meet to exchange information on Housing. Formal housing training has also been undertaken by the group.

Trainee Solicitor (Justice First Fellowship)

These are funds from the Legal Education Foundation for the placement of a Justice First Fellowship Trainee solicitor at Derbyshire Law Centre for 2 years (ended January 2023).

Mortgage Rescue (Court Desk)

Funded jointly by Bolsover District Council, Chesterfield Borough Council and North East Derbyshire District Council, this project allows DLC to assist clients that are facing mortgage repossession.

Homelessness Reduction Act

This project is funded by three local authorities - Chesterfield Borough Council, North East Derbyshire District Council and Bolsover District Council. The project employs a Paralegal that works very intensively with clients to try and help them maintain current tenancies or find new homes.

East Midlands Money Advice (EMMA) Project

The Law Centre Is a partner of this regional project, funded by the Money Pensions Service, through East Midlands Money Advice. This project allows us to employ specialist debt caseworkers who deliver a quality assured debt service to people who are struggling to maintain essential payments for their home (rent or mortgage) because of other debts.

Institute of Money Advisers

The grant is awarded from funding provided by the Money and Pensions Service to maintain and/or increase access to Debt Relief Orders for vulnerable clients.

Amber Valley Independent Advice

This work is funded by Amber Valley Borough Council and is for housing work that is out of scope in Ripley.

Amber Valley Borough Council Residents Emergency Welfare Payments Fund

Provided by Amber Valley Borough Council, this fund is used for clients who are in crisis and need help to get rehoused or keep off the streets.

- Building Better Opportunities Opportunity and Change Programme

The programme is part of the national Building Better Opportunities programme funded by the Big Lottery Fund and The European Union through its European Social Fund. This funds the Opportunity and Change project and the Money Sorted in D2N2 projects.

Chesterfield Borough Council Community Grant Fund

This is funded by Chesterfield Borough Council and is used for clients who are in crisis and need help to get rehoused or kept off the streets.

43

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

20. Analysis of charitable funds (continued)

Chesterfield Financial Inclusion Group Homeless Prevention Fund (HPF)

The HPF has been developed to support a preventative approach to homelessness and has been created with the view that relatively small spends can have a big impact - potentially saving Local Authorities large amounts of money on bed and breakfast or other temporary accommodation. Any private sector tenants in Chesterfield who are clients of DLC and who are at risk of homelessness can be considered eligible for the HPF.

Homelessness Prevention Project

Funded jointly by North East Derbyshire District Council, Chesterfield Borough Council, Bolsover District Council, Amber Valley Borough Council and Derbyshire Dales District Council, this work focuses on the prevention of homelessness through legal advice.

European Union Settlement Scheme Project (EUSS)

Funded by the Home Office via the Nottingham Law Centre, the project provides immigration advice and referral pathways for vulnerable EU citizens (Ended September 2022).

Legal Support for Litigation in Person Project (LSLIP)

Funding from Access to Justice to enable a service to assist clients in taking their own claims to Employment Tribunal.

Derbyshire County Council Local Resilience Fund Project

This tranche of the funding is to provide an increase in housing advice and eviction prevention support in the north of the county. To increase staff capacity in advising residents threatened with illegal eviction and as the moratorium court action is lifted there is set to be an increase in landlord action against tenants in rent arrears/homeowners threatened with mortgage re-possessions.

Help is Here Project

Funded by the Big Lottery and led by Derbyshire Unemployed Workers Centre, we have been providing legal advice services to clients referred from DUWC. We primarily advised through three methods, specialist telephone advice, a casework service and outreach clinic.

North East Derbyshire District Council Residents Emergency Welfare Payments Fund Provided by North East Derbyshire District Council, this fund is used for clients who are in crisis and need help to get rehoused or keep off the streets.

Employment Advice Rapid Referral Service

Funded for 2 years by Derbyshire Public Health, the project aims to respond to rapid referrals from medical professionals and support workers to access employment advice.

Housing Repair Support Service

Funded by Chesterfield Borough Council, Bolsover District Council and North East Derbyshire District Council, this service is to support and expedite the repair of rental properties within the 3 districts.

Erewash Residents Housing Advice

Funded by Erewash Borough Council, this enables a housing caseworker to work with EBC to help their residents in respect of housing issues by providing residents with independent housing advice.

North East Derbyshire District Residents Housing Advice

Funded by North East Derbyshire District Council, this enables a housing caseworker to work with EBC to help their residents in respect of housing issues by providing residents with independent housing advice.

44

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

20. Analysis of charitable funds (continued)

Help Accessing Legal Support

Funded by the Access to Justice Foundation, this has enabled our employment work to be fully funded and enable employment casework through to tribunal.

Transfers

Transfers have been made from unrestricted funds to cover deficits on restricted funds and to set aside designated funds.

21. Analysis of net assets between funds

	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total Funds
	Funds	Funds	2023
	£	£	£
Tangible fixed assets	7,217	–	7,217
Current assets	477,775	269,452	747,227
Creditors less than 1 year	(147,863)	(164,931)	(312,794)
	─────────	─────────	─────────
Net assets	337,129	104,521	441,650
	═════════	═════════	═════════
	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total Funds
	Funds	Funds	2022
	£	£	£
Tangible fixed assets	10,938	–	10,938
Current assets	454,774	92,753	547,527
Creditors less than 1 year	(151,367)	(58,457)	(209,824)
	─────────	────────	─────────
Net assets	314,345	34,296	348,641
	═════════	════════	═════════

22. Analysis of changes in net debt

					At
	At	1	Apr 2022	Cash flows	31 Mar 2023
			£	£	£
Cash at bank and in hand			351,594	208,664	560,258
			═════════	═════════	═════════

23. Operating lease commitments

The total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases are as follows:

	2023	2022
	£	£
Not later than 1 year	30,028	16,885
Later than 1 year and not later than 5 years	3,346	25,190
	────────	────────
	33,374	42,075
	════════	════════

24. Pension commitments

The company operates a defined contribution scheme for its employees.

The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the company in an independently administered fund. The pension cost charge represents contributions payable by the company to the fund and amounted to £60,670 (2022: £56,366). At the year end, £nil (2022: £nil) of contributions were outstanding and included within creditors.

45

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Financial Statements (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

25. Related parties

Any trustee remuneration or expenses have been disclosed in note 14.

There are no other related party transactions which require disclosure in the accounts.

46

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Management Information Year ended 31 March 2023

The following pages do not form part of the financial statements.

47

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Detailed Statement of Financial Activities

Year ended 31 March 2023

	2023	2022
	£	£
Income and endowments
Donations and grants
Donations	1,572	4,853
Chesterfield Borough Council	117,197	97,915
Derbyshire County Council	286,124	184,124
N E Derbyshire District Council	76,376	83,203
Bolsover District Council	61,500	60,333
Amber Valley Borough Council	69,500	72,293
Law Centres Network	–	18,000
Advice Nottingham	11,497	35,800
Framework (Care Act)	–	56,177
Legal Education Foundation	26,815	52,050
Derbyshire Dales District Council	16,500	13,750
Nottingham Law Centre	33,000	103,551
DUWC	10,404	10,200
Access to Justice	86,618	107,325
The Law Society - Diversity and Access Scheme	–	9,730
Lloyds Bank Foundation	2,250	25,000
High Peak Borough Council	16,500	13,750
IMA Provision of Debt Advice	20,299	9,240
AB Charitable Trust	20,000	–
	─────────	─────────
	856,152	957,294
	─────────	─────────
Charitable activities
LSC: Legal Help Contract (Block Contract)	38,252	35,967
LSC: Disbursement Repayment (Block Contract)	3,223	4,736
LSC - County Court Duty Scheme	8,586	7,513
LSC: Legal Representation Profit Costs	36,921	24,528
LSC: Disbursement Repayment (Legal Representation)	18,750	9,293
Casework fees recovered	11,663	4,588
Charged services income	9,740	14,003
EMMA Project	151,985	92,900
Erewash Borough Council	12,648	–
	─────────	─────────
	291,768	193,528
	─────────	─────────
Investment income
Bank interest receivable	593	28
	────	────
Other income
Miscellaneous income	180	200
Training income	1,000	670
	───────	────
	1,180	870
	───────	────
	────────────	────────────
Total income	1,149,693	1,151,720
	════════════	════════════

48

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Detailed Statement of Financial Activities (continued)

Year ended 31 March 2023

	2023	2022
	£	£
Expenditure
Expenditure on charitable activities
Wages and salaries	759,003	701,673
Employer's NIC	64,658	56,176
Pension costs	60,670	56,366
Rent	25,835	22,748
Light and heat	1,170	955
Repairs and maintenance	33,647	33,013
Insurance	4,111	3,777
Other motor/travel costs	3,869	5,920
Legal and professional fees	16,393	32,572
Telephone	7,623	6,947
Other office costs	10,406	10,530
Depreciation	7,592	8,387
Other interest payable and similar charges	191	285
Recruitment costs	2,334	494
Practising certificates	3,050	4,378
Books/subscriptions	4,008	4,367
Welfare fund expenditure	10,377	16,982
Interpretation costs	395	774
Trustee expenses	770	247
Disbursements and casework costs	29,078	23,909
Participant expenses	520	1,516
Irrecoverable VAT	(8,290)	11,504
Training	9,826	12,230
Publicity and promotion	3,618	7,551
Affiliations	5,830	5,276
	────────────	────────────
	1,056,684	1,028,577
	────────────	────────────
	────────────	────────────
Total expenditure	1,056,684	1,028,577
	════════════	════════════
	────────────	────────────
Net income	93,009	123,143
	════════════	════════════

49

DocuSign Envelope ID: C57F3CC4-8151-4BF7-BC62-F5F28D720547

Derbyshire Law Centre Ltd

Company Limited by Guarantee

Notes to the Detailed Statement of Financial Activities

Year ended 31 March 2023

	2023	2022
	£	£
Expenditure on charitable activities
Legal services
Activities undertaken directly
Wages/salaries	490,172	437,571
Employer's NIC	42,735	56,176
Pension costs	39,519	56,366
Insurance	–	1,680
Other motor/travel costs	3,869	5,920
Trustee expenses	1,497	23,561
Depreciation	7,592	8,387
Recruitment costs	1,376	494
Practising certificates	3,050	4,378
Books/Subscriptions	38	418
Welfare fund expenditure	10,377	16,982
Interpretation costs	395	774
Trustee expenses	770	247
Disbursements	29,078	23,909
Participant expenses	520	1,516
Irrecoverable VAT	(8,290)	11,504
Training	9,293	12,230
Affiliations	1,833	5,276
	─────────	─────────
	633,824	667,389
	─────────	─────────
Support costs
Wages/salaries	268,831	264,102
Employer's NIC	21,923	–
Pension costs	21,151	–
Rent	25,835	22,748
Light & heat	1,170	955
Repairs & maintenance	33,647	33,013
Insurance	4,111	2,097
Telephone	7,623	6,947
Other office costs	10,406	10,530
Recruitment costs	958	–
Books/Subscriptions	3,970	3,949
Training	533	–
Publicity and promotion	3,618	7,551
Affiliations	3,997	–
	─────────	─────────
	407,773	351,892
	─────────	─────────
Governance costs
Governance costs - audit fees	10,000	9,011
Governance costs - legal and other professional fees	4,896	–
Governance costs - bank/debit charges	191	285
	────────	───────
	15,087	9,296
	────────	───────
	────────────	────────────
Expenditure on charitable activities	1,056,684	1,028,577
	════════════	════════════

50