ANGUS_WOMEN'S_AID_LTD. - Accounts

The trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2022.

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 charity's [governing document], the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) 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)".

Since the company qualifies as small under section 382 of the Companies Act 2006, the Strategic Report required of medium and large companies under the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic Report and Directors' Report) Regulations 2013 has been omitted.

The principal activities of the charity in the period under review are:

a)    To provide a temporary refuge or refuges for women and children (if any) where the women     have suffered abuse within an intimate relationship.

b)    To offer support, advice and help to any women who ask for such help whether or not they are     refuge residents.

c)    To offer support, advice and help to any child or young person who has been affected by

domestic abuse who ask for such help whether or not they are refuge residents.

d)    To promote equal opportunities for, and participation of, women in society to enable them to     determine their own futures.

e)    To provide the opportunities for educational and emotional needs of children and young people

who have been affected by domestic abuse to be met, particularly those resident in     refuges.

f)    To encourage statutory authorities and other agencies to recognise their obligations, legal and     otherwise, towards abused women, children and young people with respect to gender based     violence and its prevention.

g)    To promote education and to inform the community and their representatives including: the     media; the police; the judicial system; the social services and other authorities with respect to     gender based violence and its prevention.

h)    To encourage research into the causes, prevention and the relief of suffering of gender based     violence.

The charity continued to provide specialist domestic abuse services for women, children and young people who have been affected by domestic abuse. These services include refuge accommodation and support, domestic abuse advocacy and the MIA service for women deemed to be at the highest risk of serious injury. In addition to the specialist domestic abuse services for women, children and young people who have been affected by domestic abuse, Angus Women’s Aid has delivered a range of prevention programmes in schools ,nurseries and youth groups across Angus.

The trustees have paid due regard to guidance issued by the Charity Commission in deciding what activities the charity should undertake.

The Board of Angus Women's Aid continues to provide a wide range of skills and experience to ensure a high level of governance and support for the Executive Director and the staff team. We hold responsibility for the maintenance of our charitable status and registration with the Office of the Scottish Charities Regulator.

The recruitment of new directors continues to be a priority, and an induction pack and training programme was developed and implemented as part of regular board meetings.

This has been another year of challenges and successes. The ongoing restructuring of statutory partners as they struggle with funding cuts has proved problematic but also led to new opportunities for partnership working. Angus Women's Aid has not been immune to the impact of the current landscape of funding cuts both in real and actual terms and this has led to another demanding year for the Executive Director and the staff team as they continued to deliver high quality services to women, children and young people affected by domestic abuse. The impact of new legislation regarding Coercive Control has proved challenging as all agencies attempt to work in partnership to keep women and children safe. Angus Women’s Aid continues to strengthen its partnership working across both voluntary and statutory sectors in Angus, providing a range of training opportunities for partners.

Our highly skilled, dedicated team continue to deliver high quality specialist services to women, children and young people across Angus who have experienced domestic abuse. Increasing opportunities for volunteers within the service was a priority, with a wide range of strategies for recruitment and deployment developed. The work of the Participation Worker has been recognized at a national level, with young people delivering workshops at a Scottish conference.

Throughout these challenging times our multi-disciplinary team will continue to work in partnership with other organisations, both statutory and voluntary to fulfil our mission "to make Angus a safer place to live so that women and children can realise their full potential".

Angus Women’s Aid continues to be forward thinking and as Trustees of Angus Women's Aid we look forward to developing and expanding our services for women, children and young people in Angus and to meeting any challenges the future holds.

As a result of the COVID-19 restrictions imposed earlier in the year, the charity has had to adapt in order to continue to deliver our service to women and any accompanying children who have experienced domestic abuse.

The charity secured a number of COVID related funds totalling £44,955 to cover loss of rental income and other general costs incurred throughout the pandemic.

We have renewed all bedding and soft furnishings within the refuges and also purchased freezers for all refuges so that women can self-isolate if necessary. We have purchased televisions and IT equipment to help lessen isolation.

The Trustees have acknowledged the uncertainty that COVID-19 poses and has taken various actions in order to mitigate the associated risks.

After making appropriate enquiries, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the company has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements. Further details regarding the adoption of the going concern basis can be found in the accounting policies.

Whilst this year has again brought many challenges to Angus Women’s Aid there have also been many new opportunities. In the wake of Covid Angus Women’s Aid has been extremely lucky to secure funding for new and exciting projects, although some of this will be in the next financial year. Partnership working has become ever more important and we have worked hard to forge new partnerships during this period. Our new projects for which we will be recruiting include:

• Limitless Project

Our new Limitless Project will provide a service specifically for young women experiencing coercive control in their own relationships. The age range for this project will be from 13 to 25 years. The project will offer one-to-one support both online and in person and also groupwork.

• CEDAR Programme

CEDAR (Children Experiencing Domestic Abuse Recovery) Programme is a concurrent mother and child programme which takes place over 12 sessions with a key aim of helping mothers to support their children in their recovery and to strengthen/repair the bond between mother and child.

• Community Resource Project

Our Community Resource Project will provide a longer term emotional support service for women who have experienced coercive control and will be delivered using a three stage trauma model. The project will offer one to one support, both in person and online, and also groupwork.

• Victim Centred Approach Fund

Our VCAF Project will provide a court advocacy service for women, children and young people who have experienced coercive control who are also going through the court system as witnesses in criminal cases. The Court Advocates will form positive relationships and service both the service user and the court officials.

We have also secured funding through the Victim Surcharge Fund to provide women at risk with such items as fire proof letterboxes, door locks and safety chains, personal alarms, replace damaged mobile phones and other costs associated with keeping women, children and young people safe in their own homes.

All of the above has allowed us to vastly diversify our funding basket which in turn will ensure the sustainability of the organisation and has been one of our aims for several years. All in all we have come out of the pandemic in a good financial position compared with many other similar organisations.

When the pandemic hit we discovered that in common with many similar organisations we were not really prepared for agile working. Obviously, there are certain roles within Angus Women’s Aid which cannot be carried out fully from home and, although our office remained open throughout, in many ways it was quite a challenge and was a situation which we sought to rectify. We managed to secure funding to purchase laptops for staff rather than using desktops and we have continued this year to upgrade our systems and IT equipment to enable agile working for all staff. Through the use of Office 365, Teams and a new cloud-based client database our staff can now work from the office, home or out in the community, providing high quality services for women, children and young people who have experienced, or are experiencing, domestic abuse and coercive control. All our systems are fully encrypted and use double-factor authentification to ensure the safety and confidentiality of our service users. This was all funded through Covid Recovery Grants.

The pandemic has changed the landscape permanently in many ways and we have continued to attend meetings and training sessions online through the use of products such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. We are now aware that many of these will not return to physical sessions. In many ways this is much more practical as staff can attend more meetings and training which would not be viable if it included travel time and the cost of travel.

As an organisation we continue to carry out regular risk assessments for Covid in line with current recommendations. We take health and safety procedures very seriously and as we are now back to one-to-one sessions and groupwork in person, we continue to provide PPE and sanitisation for staff and service users.

During this year we sadly lost our Honorary Lifetime Chair, Elisabeth C. Hill O.B.E. who passed away after a short illness. Elisabeth was the Chair of Angus Women’s Aid for many years and received her O.B.E. for services to the Third Sector. She worked tirelessly to make Angus Women’s Aid a learning organisation and will be sadly missed.

Two of our Directors were forced to retire due to ill-health and we would like to pass on our thanks to them for all their hard work on behalf of the organisation.

We also welcome two new Directors to Angus Women’s Aid who bring with them a plethora of skills and experience.

On behalf of everyone at Angus Women’s Aid the Directors would like to thank all those who have funded our work and have continued to support us through very difficult times.

The Directors of Angus Women’s Aid have been involved in and supported all aspects of the strategic work of the organisation throughout the year.

Angus Women’s Aid is a specialist linked domestic abuse service offering a range of trauma responsive services for women, children and young people affected by domestic abuse/coercive control. All our services are trauma responsive and adopt a human rights-based approach. We will continue to provide the highest quality services throughout the coming year.

We have sourced new premises which we will be moving into shortly and are looking forward to an exciting new chapter for Angus Women’s Aid in the coming year.

On behalf of the Board of Angus Women’s Aid I would like to thank the staff team for their dedication and hard work throughout the year.

The charity's current reserve policy is maintain unrestricted funds , which are the free reserves of the charity, at a level which equates to approximately 3 months unrestricted expenditure. The charity has unrestricted funds which meet this reserves policy. This ensures that there will be sufficient funds to cover management, administration and support costs .

At the year end the charity holds £235,043 (2021 - £188,793) in reserves, of which £123,838 is unrestricted and of this free reserves not invested in fixed assets or designated amount to £60,378 (2021 - £74,427). Amounts designated totaled £63,460 (2021 - £61,689).

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

Angus Womens Aid Ltd is registered as a charitable company limited by guarantee and was set up by a Memorandum of Association.

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:

The management of the company is the responsibility of the Trustees who are elected and co-opted under the terms of the Memorandum of Association.

The Trustees, who meet every month, administer the group. The CEO, Anne Robertson Brown is appointed by the Trustees to manage the day to day operations of the company. The Trustees are elected at the annual general meeting, 1/3 of Trustees are required to retire by rotation at the AGM but are eligible for re-election.

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

I report on the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2022, which are set out on pages 7 to 25.

The charity’s trustees, who are also the directors of Angus Women's Aid Ltd. for the purposes of company law, are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the terms of the Charities and Trustee Investments (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. The trustees consider that the audit requirement of Regulation 10(1)(a) to (c) of the 2006 Accounts Regulations does not apply. It is my responsibility to examine the financial statements as required under section 44(1)(c) of the Act and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.

My examination is carried out in accordance with Regulation 11 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the financial statements presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the financial statements, and seeks explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the financial statements.

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

to keep accounting records in accordance with section 44(1) (a) of the 2005 Act and Regulation 4 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations; and

to prepare financial statements which accord with the accounting records and comply with Regulation 8 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations;

to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the financial statements to be reached.

Write off trading company balance

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

All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

Write off trading company balance

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

All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

The company is entitled to the exemption from the audit requirement contained in section 477 of the Companies Act 2006, for the year ended 31 March 2022.

The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 with respect to accounting records and the preparation of financial statements.

The members have not required the company to obtain an audit of its financial statements for the year in question in accordance with section 476.

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

Angus Women's Aid Ltd. is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in Scotland. The registered office is 15 James Street, Arbroath, Angus, DD11 1JP.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity's governing document, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended), FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (“FRS 102”) and the Charities SORP "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 charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.

The charity has taken advantage of the provisions in the SORP for charities not to prepare a Statement of Cash Flows.

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

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 charity 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 or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified by activity. The costs of each activity are made up of the total of direct costs and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each activity. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs which contribute to more than one activity and support costs which are not attributable to a single activity are apportioned between those activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Central staff costs are allocated on the basis of time spent, and depreciation charges allocated on the portion of the asset’s use.

Expenditure on charitable activities is incurred on directly undertaking the activities which further the company's objectives, as well as any associated support costs.

All expenditure is inclusive of irrecoverable VAT.

Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.

Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:

The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the statement of financial activities.

Fixed asset investments are initially measured at transaction price excluding transaction costs, and are subsequently measured at fair value at each reporting date. Changes in fair value are recognised in net income/(expenditure) for the year. Transaction costs are expensed as incurred.

A subsidiary is an entity controlled by the charity. Control is the power to govern the financial and operating policies of the entity so as to obtain benefits from its activities.

At each reporting end date, the charity reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.

The charity 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 charity's balance sheet when the charity 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.

The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.

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

In the application of the charity’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.

There are some costs incurred which are not directly related to the charitable project but are deemed general support costs for the running of the organisation. The Charity have deemed that a percentage of the Manager's salary and rent should be considered a support cost. This application is consistent with prior years.

Grants Receivable

Tesco donated 10 mobile phone with £50 airtime bundles during the year to 31 March 2021

Angus Council HB & Service User Contributions

Miscellaneous

Other staff costs

Rent and insurance

Refuge deposits returned

Light and heat

Repairs and maintenance

Cleaning

Consulting

Licences and permits

Telephone

IT Costs

Print, postage and stationery

Bank charges

Refuge costs

Vouchers

PPE equipment

Rent and insurance

Independent examiner's fee

Governance

SWA affiliation

Governance costs includes payments to the independent examiners of £5,400 (2021- £4,480) for independent examination fees.

The average monthly number of employees during the year was:

Deferred income of £17,775 (2021 £17,725) represents Q1 funding (April 2022 - March 2023) for Angus Council service level agreement received in March 2022.

Deferred income of £8,577 represents funding for a full time staff post. This post remains vacant and funding may be returned should an appropriate candidate not be found.

Deferred income of £13,539 represents funding for the Limitless Project. This post will help to support and empower young women who have experience of domestic violence in their own relationships. This post was vacant at the year end.

Deferred income of £17,873 represents funding for the ARC project. This is for two community resource workers and will cover a two year period. At the year end these two posts were vacant.

Purposes of designated funds:

IT reserve - The trustees have set aside £15,000 within a designated reserve in order to fund the future cost of a new network and GDPR security protocols.

Redundancy reserve - The trustees have set aside £48,460 within a designated reserve in order to cover costs in the event of staff redundancies.

Name of related party: Angus Women's Aid (Trading) Ltd

Nature of relationship: Wholly owned subsidiary company

During the year to 31 March 2022, Angus Women's Aid (Trading) Ltd ceased and a proposal to strike off was delivered to Companies House. As a result the investment of £1 has been disposed off.

The remuneration of key management personnel is as follows.