ARTICLE_1_CHARITABLE_TRUS - Accounts

The trustees present their report and financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2020.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the charitable company's governing document, the Companies Act 2006 and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: 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) (effective 1 January 2019)".

The charitable company's objects are the advancement of the education of the public about war and peace, human rights, the environment and democracy and to research issues of public policy in relation to war and peace, human rights, the environment and democracy (and publish the results of such research).

Mission

To support Sudanese asylum-seekers and refugees to build meaningful lives in the UK.

Vision

A Sudanese-British community leading fulfilling lives, and contributing to local and national life in UK while working for an inclusive, diverse, and peaceful Sudan.

Strategic aims

• To provide a range of responsive, quality services to support Sudanese refugees to build meaningful lives in UK.

• To increase awareness of the needs of Sudanese refugees and to influence local, national, and international policy and service development in relation to Sudan.

• To develop a strong and sustainable organisation so that it may achieve its strategic aims.

Our USP

We occupy a unique position as a service provider for the Sudanese diaspora and a trusted ‘critical friend’ to a wide range of individuals and organisations operating in the Sudan policy and practice landscape. We act as a ‘hub’ for: advice and information, provision of support to Sudanese diaspora; in-depth, non-partisan cultural and political insight and understanding; expert opinion; developing links and facilitating dialogue.

Values

Trust - We’ve built trust by standing and working with, not abandoning, Sudan and its people.

Empowerment - Power with. We support and encourage each individual to fulfil their potential.

Neutrality - While we are committed to fighting for universal human rights, we believe there are Sudanese solutions to Sudanese challenges.

Transparency - We are deeply committed to working collaboratively with individuals and organisations, seeking feedback and consultation wherever possible.

Compassion - We are guided by love and held by boundaries. We seek to do all that is possible, and sometimes more, whilst knowing our limits.

Wider context

Following last year’s protests and the institution of a joint civilian-military transitional government in Sudan in August 2019, the events on the ground in Sudan continued to have outsize influence on our work in late 2019 and throughout 2020. Year-long negotiations led in late September 2020 to the initialling of a peace agreement between armed groups and the transitional government. Former President Omar Al-Bashir is in prison in Khartoum and there is talk of cooperation with the International Criminal Court to see him finally face long-standing charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Sudan’s Ministry of Justice is preparing an important transitional justice bill to begin the process of national healing after decades of violence, exclusion, and discrimination. A hopeful yet fragile process of law reform aimed at protecting women and minority groups is underway.

However, it is inadvisable to paint too rosy a picture. Many feel disconnected from processes underway in the capital Khartoum, and do not feel meaningful change to their lived experience, and such scepticism extends to the diaspora. Violence and atrocity indicators are rising in Darfur and other periphery regions, leading to fresh displacement. ‘Hemetti’, the paramilitary militia leader implicated in many atrocities, remains in high office. There are important holdouts to the peace process. The economic circumstances of the country continue to be dire, exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis and devastating flooding.

Sudan shares with the UK in suffering the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. It disproportionately affected our clients here, there were increased deaths in the BAME community, and our clients were often warehoused in new and inappropriate forms of initial accommodation, including anything from hotels to army barracks, unable to socially distance but remaining isolated resulting in poor mental health. Women we worked with reported an increase in domestic violence as they were trapped in homes with their abusers. Hate crimes increased as the community was accused of increased rates of transmission and anti-migrant sentiment grew. Meanwhile, the prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement meant our clients were newly conscious of the impact of racism on their lives, whether in Sudan, where this constitutes the reason for their exile, Libya, where individuals are sold in modern slave markets, to the UK in the immigration and healthcare sectors.

The trustees of the charity have given due regard and adhere to the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit.

Aim 1: To provide a range of responsive, quality services to support Sudanese refugees to build meaningful lives in UK 

Women were intended to be the focus of our 2019-2020 body of work. We started the year by intending to roll out the Sudanese-led self-awareness training which we had first trialled in Cardiff in November 2018. We first took this training to Bolton in October 2019, reaching 20 women there. In evaluation, 100% of respondents said the training made them feel safe; less isolated; more confident; and a greater part of the British-Sudanese community. At the same time as our Bolton training, we ran an online survey of Sudanese women in the UK, in which women identified their biggest challenges in the UK as: social integration, career and employment, and identity and belonging. 37.5% of respondents said they lived a life in which they did not find any meaning. This suggested we still had a long way to go in order to achieve our mission of supporting Sudanese refugees to build or re-build lives with purpose.

We brainstormed ways to do this at a focus group of nearly 20 nationwide women’s leaders in November 2019. It was agreed that we would jointly undertake a programme of empowerment for a wider group of Sudanese women and female leaders across the UK, culminating in a large-scale conference for 400-500 women in October 2020. Planning for this was led by volunteer committees of women, with our substantial background support and capacity-building. The volunteer committees had reached the stage of securing a venue booking for 400+ attendees, submitting 2 large funding bids, and planning a programme of training and outreach in 5 cities, when COVID-19 hit. We made the difficult decision to postpone the conference and training and recoup costs, but we have continued to build the capacity of our voluntary committee members, and of our 8 nationwide women’s groups, through engagement on WhatsApp, with Zoom group calls, and via dedicated peer support groups, including alongside FORWARD, an African charity working to end violence against women, at which issues of domestic violence, parenting challenges and grief were discussed. We are considering what this model of peer support could look like moving forward and in response to requests for our involvement from the women’s groups themselves.

We continued our direct work with individuals this year, though the COVID-19 crisis led to new trends. The Home Office seemed to mostly pause decision-making, so we received fewer referrals from those whose claims had been recently rejected. The Home Office were also forced to release a good proportion of individuals from the immigration detention estate due to health concerns. Evictions from asylum accommodation for those granted status were also paused, and initial and substantive interviews seemed to be taking more time. However, while this led to a reduction in new referrals to us, our existing clients suffered from other and different challenges, including the use of inappropriate accommodation, cut-off of asylum support monies, social isolation and poor mental health, domestic violence, parenting challenges, and grief. We attempted to help our clients address these new challenges through the provision of hardship funds, providing emotional support on phone calls, ensuring the digital literacy of clients so they could take advantage of online support via weekly Zoom drop-ins held throughout May, and facilitating peer support sessions.

This year we also managed to secure a huge win. Following a multi-year battle, we secured the ‘almost unprecedented’ return of a rejected asylum-seeker forcibly returned to Sudan in late 2018. Read about it in The Guardian (1). Of this work, the law firm with whom we worked tweeted “Truly awed by their determination to ensure justice was achieved. […] Would not have been possible without the heroic persistence and fight of [Article 1]. Thank you.”

(1)https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/17/wrongly-deported-sudanese-asylum-seeker-flown-back-to-uk

However, the atmosphere in which we operate is hardening as the Home Office argues that developments in Sudan establish the country firmly on the path towards democracy and good governance, and that rejected asylum-seekers and those whose leave to remain is lapsing can be safely returned. We will continue to build a body of evidence about the actual risk on return facing our clients, as a starting point building on the case mentioned above. We do so from a position as a recognised country expert by the court system, and this year we continued to act as such in a case regarding the Nuba ethnicity. We gave evidence in court in October 2019, and the determination reached us in September 2020, though sadly it disagreed with our conclusion that the risk for this group remains. We face an uphill battle in ensuring the Home Office and courts have an accurate picture of this risk.

We also help lawyers on this basis. In May 2020 we surveyed our legal partners. 100% of respondents agreed that we help understanding of Sudan and improve decision-making for their Sudanese clients; that we help clients evidence credible protection claims; and provide objective evidence on risk of return. In comments, many noted that we “go above and beyond to protect [clients’] best interests”. We built on this survey by asking a volunteer to ensure our database of lawyers was up-to-date, meaning smoother communications with lawyers about pending cases.

One such area that has taken on a new prominence is modern slavery and trafficking. We have always known many of our clients have suffered abuse in Libya and along their route to the UK, but an increasing number seem to be showing signs of this, especially given increased numbers of Sudanese among those reaching the UK in so-called ‘small boats’ and over the Channel in spring-autumn 2020. We contribute to lawyers making increased referrals to the National Referral Mechanism, with Sudan already the sixth largest country of origin for such referrals according to 2018 statistics.

The increased number of arrivals on ‘small boats’ led in late September 2020 to the formation of a new informal group of 20-30 Sudanese community volunteers. We provide the background support enabling this group to arrange visits to ‘initial accommodation’, primarily London hotels being used for this purpose, remote and phone-based support and information and signposting. This has the potential to transform our casework approach and promote its ownership by the Sudanese community itself. We also continued to engage other organisations on this, notably Care 4 Calais, and continued our involvement in coalitions like the Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID), the Detention Forum campaigning for an end to indefinite immigration detention, and Lift the Ban calling for asylum-seekers to be granted the right to work.

Mental health was an ongoing issue this year, and one which we addressed both in individual cases and with community groups. For individuals, we were there when our clients were sectioned, and helped the Glasgow community pull together and respond when one of its members suffered a breakdown while being held in ‘hotel detention’ in the city, stabbing six individuals before being shot and killed by police. We helped build the capacity of community groups to respond by arranging training on the issue with 12 leaders and an accredited psychotherapist on 24 February 2020.

We also worked with leaders on developing their capacity to respond to issues of all kinds. When requested, or when we identified need, we completed weekly calls with those requiring further support, also making referrals to other forms of peer support, like sessions run by ellaForums, which our staff attend as charity leaders as discussed below. Issues ranged from dealing with claims of racism, cyber-bullying and hate crime, to building the profile of charities seeking impact on the ground in Sudan.

The rise in hate crime was an issue we prioritised, offering individual support where necessary, and also arranging dedicated training alongside Protection Approaches, a charity focused on preventing identity-based violence, in 2 sessions held in May and June. Attendees said hate crimes were an everyday occurrence, but 100% of respondents to a survey shared after the May session said our training helped them understand their UK rights.

Aim 2: To increase awareness of the needs of Sudanese refugees and to influence local and national policy and service development in relation to Sudan

We highly value our unique position as a service provider for the Sudanese diaspora and a trusted ‘critical friend’ to a wide range of individuals and organisations operating in the Sudan policy and practice landscape. We have been crucial in helping shift diaspora engagement from charity to sustainability, from aid to economic development, and from supporting remittance economies to building knowledge economies. Examples over the past 12 months include:

• Connecting NGOs working on Parliamentary capacity building with those developing the resilience of Sudan’s grassroots ‘resistance committees’;

• Connecting our Foreign Office to notable figures including in the leadership of armed movements;

• Helping the International Criminal Court to strengthen its UK contacts and communicate transparently about the Darfur case with victims;

• Connecting organisations in the atrocity prevention sector globally to Sudanese actors and promoting training for UK Embassy staff on flag-raising;

• Connecting UK (incl. BBC), international (incl. The Economist), and domestic Sudanese media organisations to promote knowledge and skills-sharing; and

• Ensuring the input of the diaspora organisations to newly formed Ministries in Sudan.

Notably, we continued to help the roundtable executive committee comprised of individuals bridging historical political, social, and racial divides, to host well-attended events at which topics of peacebuilding and nation-building were discussed. During COVID-19 we have also ensured the committee’s and members’ digital inclusion through Zoom training, and the offer of consultancy support in order to develop a mission, vision, and Theory of Change.

We have promoted efforts towards documentation and memorialisation. In January 2020 we hosted an event at The Wiener Holocaust Library marking our donation to them of a 60,000-strong petition gathered from the refugee camps in Chad in 2007, which was, before COVID-19, in the process of being categorised and translated by our volunteers, as an important document of the atrocity crimes committed in Darfur. Importantly we secured the attendance of the volunteer who originally gathered the petition, and Darfur drawings, at this event, subsequently also documenting her account of this process to ensure we hold an institutional record for posterity. The drawings and the records of their collection will be important resources for Sudan’s memorialisation efforts. We will arrange future exhibitions of these drawings in the coming year, including at the prestigious Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean in Marseille in 2021.

We promoted diaspora voices in transitional justice more widely, engaging directly with the Minister of Justice in Sudan and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in online calls, supporting the work of the ICC as above, in coordination meetings between the working group we convene, as below, and another working group run by the United States Institute of Peace, and further work alongside organisations like REDRESS and the International Center for Transitional Justice.

The cause of justice and accountability was also directly profiled at an event we hosted on 3 June 2020 to mark the 1-year anniversary of a massacre of a sit-in site in Khartoum, featuring survivors of that event and earlier atrocities, British policy-makers, international media, and other experts. This itself involved a lot of staff learning about running online events, which will stand us in good stead as COVID-19 lockdown conditions persist. 88% of those who attended on 3 June 2020 said it helped them towards a greater understanding of justice and accountability in the country, and 71% said they better understood the needs and wishes of the Sudanese people and diaspora in this regard. It was also followed by a dedicated briefing on the topic (2) produced alongside sister NGO Waging Peace.

(2)https://wagingpeace.info/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/briefing-justice-and-accountability-in-sudan.pdf

We have built the strength and sustainability of the UK-Sudan advocacy group we convene, now comprising 60+ NGOs, humanitarian agencies, alongside many more individual researchers, who work on or in Sudan, including a greater number of European and Sudanese partners given the barriers to entry for our now regular online meetings are reduced. We have contributed to a united civil society voice on Sudan, also ensuring the needs and wishes of Sudanese are heard at the highest levels of decision-making. In what is a changed Sudanese policy environment given a context of ‘transition to democracy’, there are many more organisations looking to influence and engage. Our working group has provided needed institutional memory and convening capacity, while ensuring that coordination sustains the agency and credibility of the Sudanese who led revolution, which is otherwise in danger of being overwhelmed by uncoordinated international assistance. 

In a UK setting we continued our engagement with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, attending their January 2020 ceremony and securing the attendance of 10 Youth Champions and coordinating invitations sent to 61 Sudanese survivors (of which over 30 attended), our highest ever numbers, arranging volunteers to contribute to initiatives launched that day like the ‘memorial flames’, helping them prepare online resources, attending quarterly Partnership Group meetings, and now planning ahead for 2021. We also made full use of their online resources by preparing a resource pack for teachers and educators, launching in October 2020.

We continued to have a strong media presence, including in outlets like Sky News, speaking of the tragedy of the death of a young Sudanese man crossing the Channel, BBC World Service and other BBC podcasts, and liaising with journalists ahead of their trips to Khartoum and Sudan more widely. Our social media, as on Facebook (3) and Twitter (4) for sister NGO Waging Peace, also remained regularly updated throughout the year, and we also increased our newsletter output, re-engaging longer-term supporters. We took advantage of opportunities to speak to individuals about Sudan and about our work wherever offered, for instance to students of SOAS in November 2019 and Syracuse University twice, including once online.

(3)https://www.facebook.com/wagingpeaceuk

(4)https://twitter.com/wagingpeaceuk

We did plan a self-funded visit for staff and potentially some trustees to Khartoum in April 2020, aiming to bring the children’s drawings from Darfur and Yida to artists’ associations and transitional government figures there, but this was cancelled due to COVID-19. We will revisit this plan in future years.

Aim 3: To develop a strong and sustainable organisation so that it may achieve its strategic aims

This was a uniquely challenging year, given the changes in working practices and funder priorities effected by the COVID-19 crisis. We made sure we prioritised this aim in particular over the past 12 months, to ensure the organisation could continue into 2020-21.

Most immediately this meant a decision for staff to work from home from 10 March 2020, measures to make staff more comfortable home working, and the later reorganisation of the office space to ensure safety and compliance with COVID-19 restrictions.

We also made early attempts to try and reduce expenditure on non-essentials throughout the year, cancelling the planned trip to Khartoum as discussed above, and securing refunds for the flight, as well as for our women’s conference venue booking. Where possible we tried to negotiate decreases, for instance in our rent following close consultation with lead tenants Network for Africa, though this proved mostly impossible, leading to a decision to move from the premises in the coming financial year and move to a home-working model more permanently, though in regular consultation with staff needs and wishes. This may necessitate updates to policies and procedures.

Luckily we will be aided in this by the recruitment of 2 new trustees, Victoria Harding-Mbogo and Shaughnessy Hawkins in July and August respectively. Victoria brings with her a wealth of policy experience on Sudan and the wider region, and Shaughnessy is a commercial lawyer with a background in risk management and compliance. We increased the amount of Board oversight on the charity this year, making the decision to increase the number of formal trustee meetings to 3 times annually, supplemented by monthly meetings between Chair Olivia Warham MBE and staff, and ongoing communication via a dedicated WhatsApp group. Staff continued to benefit from regular individual trustee engagement, from regular conversations, funder approaches, to event moderation.

Staff well-being was also prioritised, whether from discussions around working practices and hours, changes to pensions regulations, the provision of clinical supervision (discontinued during lockdown), ongoing membership in peer support networks run by ellaForums and Lloyds Bank Foundation, or newer global groups like Thought Partnerships, or regular staff catch-ups each week via Zoom alongside ongoing contact throughout the day. ellaForums in particular continued to be a helpful resource, and staff modelled how the network could become anti-racist, promoting this conversation widely in this forum and actively introducing their (BAME) clients as potential members.

The impact of the Black Lives Matter movement originating in the US throughout 2020 made its impact on the charity more broadly. We are committed to both supporting our clients in their understanding and consciousness, and engaging in our own as a charity, raising the conversation about how to become anti-racist to a Board level, as well as starting a sector-wide book club to simply start a conversation addressing the importance of deconstructing systemic racism and white supremacy and the harmful legacy of colonial rule.

We continued to benefit from volunteer support, whether invaluable office-based support ahead of December 2019 from a Sudanese intern who subsequently returned to Sudan to continue their vital human rights work there, remote support offered by a former student summer intern, intern support provided as a donation from our founder and President Rebecca Tinsley to help us run and manage online events, a filmmaking volunteer who helped us produce a showreel to showcase the work of sister NGO Waging Peace (5), to the new volunteer group that is emerging surrounding issues associated with newer arrivals on ‘small boats’. We take our commitments and responsibilities towards this latter group seriously, and are asking new trustee Shaughnessy to help us update our policies and procedures on confidentiality, safeguarding and so on to be accessible to this group.

(5)https://www.facebook.com/266766150103231/videos/317670029673394

We also continued to benefit from low-cost IT support from Caspar Kennerdale, who is additionally training staff on issues like digital readiness and website management.

We this year actioned long-standing plans to merge Article 1 and Waging Peace from a legal perspective, securing pro bono support from a law firm and taking steps in this direction which will progress throughout 2020-21.

Fundraising was ultimately successful this year, despite early worries given rejections from long-term funders, and smaller trusts and foundations closing entirely. We persevered, ending the year with healthy reserves thanks to several larger successful bids, as well as a small but gratifying rise in public donations. This enabled us to increase funds in our reserves account in order to more accurately reflect 3 months’ expenditure, while still leaving us flexibly able to fund projects in 2020-21.

The charity’s strategic plan was updated at an in-person but socially distanced staff meeting on 21 July, and priorities settled until the end of the 2020 calendar year. While projects and their delivery will necessarily remain flexible to respond to the increasingly volatile national and global context, our strategic aims remain the same. We remain committed to ensuring our clients are supported to build or re-build meaningful lives, and can influence national and international policy and practice. Most importantly, we do so with newly clarified organisational values, as detailed above.

Reserves policy

It is the policy of the charitable company that unrestricted funds which have not been designated for a specific use should be maintained at a level equivalent to approximately three month’s expenditure. The trustees considers that reserves at this level will ensure that, in the event of a significant drop in funding, they will be able to continue the charitable company’s current activities while consideration is given to ways in which additional funds may be raised. This level of reserves has been maintained throughout the year.

Article 1 Charitable Trust is registered as a company limited by guarantee (without share capital) no. 05693101 and as a registered charity no. 1124746. Its governing instrument is its memorandum and articles of association. The directors are the members of the company and each member, during his or her membership or within one year afterwards, undertakes to contribute a sum not exceeding £1 to the assets of the company in the event of it being wound up.

The trustees, who are also the directors for the purpose of company law, and who served during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were:

New trustees are appointed as required and receive a comprehensive induction on the activities of the charity.

The trustees have assessed the major risks to which the charitable company is exposed, and are satisfied that systems are in place to mitigate exposure to the major risks.

Each of the trustees has confirmed that there is no information of which they are aware which is relevant to the audit, but of which the auditor is unaware. They have further confirmed that they have taken appropriate steps to identify such relevant information and to establish that the auditor is aware of such information.

The trustees' report was approved by the Board of Trustees.

The trustees, who are also the directors of Article 1 Charitable Trust for the purpose 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 trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year.

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 Charities SORP;

- make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

- state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and

- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in operation.

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company 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 charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the charity and financial information included on the charitable company's website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Opinion

We have audited the accounts of Article 1 Charitable Trust (the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 30 September 2020 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet, and the notes to the accounts, 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 Financial Reporting Standard 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 charitable company's affairs as at 30 September 2020 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, for the year then ended;

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

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 accounts section of our report. We are independent of the charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the accounts 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.

the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is not appropriate; or

the trustees have not disclosed in the financial statements any identified material uncertainties that may cast significant doubt about the charitable company’s ability to continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting for a period of at least twelve months from the date when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. 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.

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

the information given in the trustees' Report, which includes the directors’ report prepared for the purposes of company law, for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

the directors’ report included within the trustees' report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company 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

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 trustees' report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.

As explained more fully in the statement of trustees' responsibilities, the trustees, who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purpose 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 charitable company’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 charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

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.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: http://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 charitable company'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 charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditors' 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 charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

Article 1 Charitable Trust is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is 14 St Mary's Street, Stamford, Lincolnshire, PE9 2DF.

The place of business is: The Foundry, 17 Oval Way, London, SE11 5RR

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charitable company's governing document, the Companies Act 2006 and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: 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) (effective 1 January 2019)". The charitable company is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.

The charitable company has taken advantage of the provisions in the SORP for charities applying FRS 102 Update Bulletin 1 not to prepare a Statement of Cash Flows.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charitable company. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.

At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charitable company has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.

Designated funds comprise funds which have been set aside at the discretion of the trustees for specific purposes. The purposes and uses of the designated funds are set out in the notes to the accounts.

Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.

Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the charitable company has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid is recognised once the claim has been made.

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand and deposits held with banks.

The charitable company has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.

Financial instruments are recognised in the charitable company's balance sheet when the charitable company becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.

Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.

Debtors and creditors with no stated interest rate and receivable or payable within one year are recorded at transaction price. Any losses arising from impairment are recognised in the statement of financial activities.

The costs of short-term employee costs are recognised as a liability and an expense.

Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due.

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. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.

Project and community support costs

Travel and subsistence

Rent and utilities

Office costs

Destitute asylum seekers

IT costs

Staff training

Bank charges and interest

Governance costs includes payments to the auditors of £2,490 (2019- £2,370) for audit fees and £378 (2019- £458) for other services.

None of the trustees (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration, benefits or expenses from the charitable company during the year.

The average monthly number of employees during the year was:

The charitable company operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charitable company in an independently administered fund.

The charge to profit or loss in respect of defined contribution schemes was £744 (2019 - £480).

Lloyds Bank Foundation - Enable is a grant from Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales to be used to improve the website and client relationship management database.

During the year the charitable company received donations of £14,500 (2019: £25,000) from The Tinsley Charitable Trust, a charity of which Mrs R C Tinsley is a trustee.

Mrs R C Tinsley, is a director of Waging Peace and a trustee of Network For Africa. Article 1 Charitable Trust, Network for Africa and Waging Peace share premises, with Article 1 Charitable Trust's contribution to the rent and service charges being £8,629 (2019: £11,498).

During the year the charitable company received donations totalling £13,000 (2019: £18,020) from certain trustees, former trustees and their spouses.