EAST_DURHAM_COMMUNITY_DEV - Accounts

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

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 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).

In setting the objectives and planning the activities of the Trust, the trustees have given careful consideration to the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit. The objectives of the Trust are the promotion for the public benefit of urban or rural regeneration in areas of social and economic deprivation in East Durham and surrounding area by means of any or all of the following:

a) the relief of unemployment and poverty;

b) training or retraining particularly among unemployed people;

c) the advancement of education;

d) the advancement, protection and promotion of health;

e) the provision of recreational facilities for the public at large, or those who by reason of their youth, age or disablement, poverty or social and economic circumstances have the need for such facilities;

f) to provide administrative support and office services by establishing a community volunteer resource centre;

g) the provision of advice, including funding and constitutional advice, financial support and the relief of financial hardship by the provision of assistance and advice to persons who, through lack of means, would otherwise be unable to obtain such advice; and/or

h) by such other means as may from time to time be determined subject to the prior written consent of the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales.

In order to achieve these objectives the Trust will have powers as listed in the Memorandum of Association.

In practical terms the main objectives of the year were to:

• Continue to provide Core infrastructure services to Voluntary and Community Sector groups.

• Provide Funding Advice, Volunteer Centre, Management, Training and Offices Services.

• Undertake research and facilitation of Networking and Representation within the Statutory Sector.

• Manage and expand existing projects as well as developing new Projects.

• Engage Community groups in service and project delivery.

• Provide accommodation for organisations that will improve services to local residents.

• Continue to build on the number of members engaging new and emerging community groups in the work of the trust.

• Administer grants and loans including the necessary actions to increase the uptake of the Community Loan Fund.

• Explore new initiatives and opportunities that will benefit the residents of East Durham.

In general terms the Trust will continue to operate as the flagship organisation for supporting the Voluntary and Community Sector in East Durham.

We had all hoped that seeing the back of Covid would bring a normalisation of the world and a return to growth that would ultimately benefit most people. Sadly, with the events in Eastern Europe and economic uncertainties nearer to home, this was not to be and we have instead transitioned into a cost of living crisis and an uncertainty affecting the finances and prospects of the majority of people within the communities of East Durham.

We have continued to thrive as an organisation and build on those strong relationships with communities, and have worked hard and collaboratively with partners new and old to plan and deliver the much-needed support during these very challenging times we find ourselves in.

We are very grateful to all our partners/funders and volunteers, who support us in many ways, also the Board of Directors for all their support this year. However, most of all we would like to congratulate Graham our CEO and his fantastic Team for their continuous commitment and achievements this year. Graham and the Team go above and beyond on a daily basis to ensure we continue to provide first-class services and support to those in need within our communities.

As part of our improved reporting we have outlined highlights of the activities, projects, services and opportunities that East Durham Trust have delivered in this financial year.

CHIT CHAT

The Chit Chat telephone befriending project provides a friendly voice and ear to local residents who are vulnerable and at risk of isolation. The telephone befriending service engages with 65 isolated and/or vulnerable people. Recently we have received additional referrals from Social Prescribers based at Doctor surgeries. The project has now recruited an additional volunteer which was referred to us by Durham Enable which brings us to full complement, some of the Chit Chat callers have attended the Warm Hub at Community House.

Food Emergency East Durham

Food Emergency East Durham (FEED) is the food parcel service commonly referred to as the East Durham Foodbank.

Since the last report, the Trust has initiated a pilot project offering alternative methods of support to residents in food poverty. This includes the provision of cash or shopping vouchers, as an alternative to an emergency food parcel, allowing beneficiaries to have more freedom of choice in purchasing the food items they require. The pilot commenced on 23rd January and to date has received 536 referrals, issuing 161 food parcels, 212 electronic supermarket vouchers and 157 cash vouchers. The value of vouchers differentiate depending on the number of people in the household. The minimum voucher value is £15 and maximum is £40.

The pilot project has also launched a new referral system for emergency food provision, which has moved to an online Microsoft form. Referrals for fuel crisis support and the issue of fuel vouchers has also moved to this new online system

General feedback on the pilot has been positive, with referral agencies and beneficiates welcoming the new options for support and mechanisms for making referrals.

An evaluation of the pilot project is taking place and the outcome will be reported in future Board meetings.

Naturally the offer of alternative methods of support has reduced the number of actual food parcels been issued. This has had an impact on the type of volunteer support required for the project. Current FEED project volunteers have been offered opportunity to engage with other volunteer opportunities including the administrative issuing of vouchers or moving on to support the People’s Takeaway project.

Standardized food boxes for one or two people are placed in 10 community venues across East Durham. These centres now have the opportunity to make a referral to the project via the online system and issue a food parcel immediately should it be required. Centres also have the option to refer for cash or shopping vouchers, however these are issued via the centralized system at EDT.

East Durham Creates

East Durham Creates is a ‘Creative People and Places’ programme funded by Arts Council England which was established in 2014. In 2022, EDC joined the Arts Council England’s CPP National Portfolio. The programme has £1,045,000 of ACE investment between 2022-25.

Since the last Impact Report EDC has been working on a number of strands of delivery including:

• Completing an Untold Stories commission with the Barn at Easington, Tina’s Haven and Addiction North East working with women severed from their children due to traumatic addiction. The work was launched in the Arts Café to over 50 people.

• Continuing to be involved in the legacy of the Durham 2025 bid including the kickstarter commission scheme that facilitated £10k of funding for people across County Durham to action their big ideas.

• Continuing to support the Cultural Hubs network in developing hyperlocal cultural programmes, providing more than £20k of funding for activity led by these eight venues.

• Ongoing delivery of visits to arts and cultural activities in wider County via our Go & See strand. Since April 2022, we have facilitated nine Go & Sees in collaboration with the community to a range of cultural opportunities in wider North East including Theatre Royal and Laing Gallery for the Lindisfarne Gospels and County Durham including Locomotion and Beamish.

• Received a visit from our new Relationship Manager Ruth Dewhirst and Senior Relationship Manager Nina Baptiste who spoke very positively about East Durham Creates.

• Commenced the process of rebranding the organization in line with a new countywide remit working with North East based OGRE studio.

Arts Café @ Community House

A regular programme of exhibitions and evening based workshops with artists was trialed within the Arts Café space led by EDC Programme Co-ordinator Ellen Ranson. These have included:

• Our World Around, a series of clay workshops with artist Christ Suttie. His work was displayed alongside new clay artworks in late January.

• Craft & Storytelling with artist Sarah Stamp, a series of workshops focused on female stories culminating in an exhibition that launched on in February.

• Artist Lady Kitt will commence workshops focused around food in early March culminating in a touring exhibition that will visit other County Durham locations and work from Durham University’s collection being showcased in the Arts Café.

All workshops include food and hot drinks. Other regular sessions in the Arts Café include Craft and Chat on Tuesdays (finishing in March due to funding) and Dementia Art group Let’s Meet Up on Thursdays. The Arts Café also began operating as a Warm Space in December on Monday 3.30-5.30pm and Wednesday 12.30-2.30pm.

People’s Takeaway

The project recommenced service as of February, with a weekly delivery of approximately 25 meals to local people in food poverty. The project recruited a two new volunteers, who both have extensive experience in a catering role. These catering volunteers have also helped prepare food for the warm space and other activities held in the Arts CAFÉ. The project continues to be supported by a long standing volunteer in a volunteer driver capacity. In February, Sainsbury’s Peterlee purchased a new fridge for the People’s Takeaway kitchen, more suitable to the facilities requirements. As capacity for the project begins to expand it is hoped that the service can increase the number of sessions that support is provided.

Reopening and Returning during Covid – Small Grants Scheme/ Community Facilities Support Fund

The Trust has begun the distribution of top up grants which has seen successful community venues in East Durham receive an additional £1k from the Trust. This is in partnership with CDCF who have matched the scheme. We have shared £17k and have a remaining £9k to distribute. We are seeking to reach groups who have not yet received support.

Covid Resilience Team Update

Funded by County Durham Mental Health Partnership the Covid Community Resilience Project was established in early 2021 to provide none-crisis psychological support to clients impacted by the pandemic. We are current recruiting for 1.3 posts. The posts have now been funded until 2024 with recruitment now underway for the vacancies. Service has supported 57 people with direct 1:1 psychological support. Small group work is being investigated and we will be ensuring that this vital work is connected to the wider and increasing resilience work being undertaken or resourced by the Trust.

PowerED - Community Energy

This exciting and nationally significant project has moved forward significantly. £127k was secured for a technical feasibility study held by DCC. This includes £25k for community engagement work across East Durham on the net zero agenda and in Horden on the Horden Heat mine water project. 6 community conversation sessions have been held. Connections have been made with East Durham Partnership whom are a potential beneficiate of the Horden Heat scheme. A full technical feasibility study is in place and will be complete by and of March 2023. This will then lead to a commercial review of which PowerED will be a key and central part. There are a range of innovative options including on land prawn farms and vertical horticulture. The next stage is to agree a model for PowerED to enable mitigation of risk and to best open up investment opportunities. An options paper has been presented for decision.

East Durham Connected – IAG Partnership

East Durham Connected is a four-year project to transform information, advice and guidance services across East Durham. This scheme includes community partners delivering their own services in the community. Year 1 of the project was completed in December 2022 and we are currently compiling a progress report for The National Lottery Community Fund. Current key advice themes within the local community are: Benefits support, Debt, Budgeting, Food parcels and Energy Vouchers.

During Year 2 of the project we will be focusing on establishing Advice Hubs and Advice Gateways in parts of East Durham that are not currently well served. The places include South Hetton, Haswell, Thornley, Wheatley Hill, Wingate and Trimdon. After conducting mapping exercises with both Community Partners and Strategic Partners these area’s have been identified as ‘cold spots’. Meetings have already been set up with partners in some of these areas.

During the Community of Practice meetings we have covered a range of different training for the members such as ‘Advice 101’, GDPR, monitoring, referral pathways, external training opportunities and funding/grant availability. In February 2023 we held the first Community of Practice meeting of year 2. This was attended by 6 community partners where everyone shared updates. These updates allow us to gather intelligence on what is happening on the front line. The NICD mapping project was shared with partners. We were able to show them a heat map of clients who use their particular community centre and the reach each centre has. In the second community meeting in March we will be presenting the finished mapping project with partners, which will include all data gathered by community partners.

We have held three very well attended meetings with both community partners and strategic partners. Feedback has been very positive and community partners have commented on how helpful they are finding the meetings. Going forward we will be holding these meetings in different community venues.

After receiving feedback from partners in the Community of Practice meetings regarding the monitoring, we have now listened to their feedback and made necessary changes. We have reissued this to all partners and will monitor this going forward. Over 580 clients have received support from one of the 9 community partners in January 2023.

We would attribute the increase in information, advice and guidance contacts across centres to engagement of centres to a community of practice approach. The Community of Practice delivered awareness-raising of definitions and distinctions between information, advice and guidance produced follow-up discussions within the Community of Practice meetings. These discussions brought greater awareness of the assets, agency and resources held within centres that are utilised to support the community. The Community of Practice sessions have also led to cross-member collaboration and learning which has delivered improvements in practice to better utilise existing assets and resources and how additional resources can be obtained. Benefit advice and debt advice training by centre staff and volunteers has led to more confidence to deliver a more in-depth advice and guidance offer, which has increased capacity for clients through increased signposting, onward referrals, diagnostic assessments/triage. Greater awareness of the range and type of client contacts within centres as information, advice and guidance support (telephone and walk-in enquiries, food parcel and energy voucher administration, benefit advice and so on), have produced better recording and monitoring.

University Mapping

We successfully secured funding from Arrow at Newcastle University to collaborate with the National Innovation Centre for Data (NICD). This project was to apply our IAG dataset to a platform capable of visualising our data according to its geography. The data we collect identifies services received within our community by client postcode. This provides an opportunity to map our provision using a Graphical Information System (GIS). Helen Waller and Angela Abbott attended three workshops at The Catalyst Centre in Newcastle where Dr Goodman (Data Scientist) and Dr McClean (Data Scientist) mapped EDT’s data from the IAG Partnerships Project onto a map, offset by a map of IMD (Index of Multiple Deprivation). Dr Goodman has uploaded the necessary software and files to an EDT laptop which will allow us to use this for other projects and also to disseminate to other members of staff and community members.

The East Durham Connected team were overseeing a Mental Health Emergency Welfare fund that EDT have received from CDCF. The fund is to provide grants to be distributed in the form of emergency cash payments of £100 for people experiencing poor mental health and financial shock. These are distributed via Charis. We can supply 33 grants and to date have issued 33. These have been used to purchase; Christmas decorations, a wardrobe, removing the threat of eviction, carpets, food and energy. The Fund seeks to provide these micro cash awards to help tackle immediate financial shock so that people with mental health issues are given breathing space to seek and to be referred to appropriate medical and mental health care. CDCF have commended EDT’s ability to get these micro grants to people most in need by using the Hub and Spoke model.

Monthly meetings have been arranged with Helen Waller and Sam Scotchbrook from Advice in County Durham to come up with a training schedule for volunteers and community members for year 2 of the project. Three community partners attended Budget Coach Training in February which will further increase the ability to meet soaring demand within the community.

As part of the transformation and learning impacts of the partnership we will be deploying two tools as frameworks. This includes the exploration of the THRIVE model as a map for provision of service and an ‘Assess – Plan – Do – Review’ approach to exploring service development in practice. This model will be explored using Action Learning throughout years 2, 3 and 4.

East Durham Community Resilience Partnership

East Durham Area Action Partnership have funded the new Community Resilience project. Delivery of the financial wellbeing aspects of the project has now commenced. 214 interventions have taken place to date supporting 294 adults and 167 children.

The Financial Wellbeing Practitioner has continued delivery of regular surgeries in locations across East Durham including Peterlee Rugby Club, Blackhall Community Centre, Health Works in Easington and the Greenhills Centre, Wheatley Hill. An additional surgery is in the process of being arranged to take place in the Seaham area. This is likely to be held at Dawdon Youth and Community Centre. Within these sessions, local residents will be supported on a one to one basis with issues around budgeting, debt, housing, benefits and general information, advice, guidance and signposting

The Financial Wellbeing Practitioner has developed a number of module workshops to deliver in community venues, providing local residents with useful information and advice around budgeting, debt, fuel poverty/efficiency, cooking on a budget, reducing your outgoings and efficiency savings. During this period group sessions have taken place in Wheatley Hill.

The Financial Wellbeing Practitioner has continued to further develop relationships with local schools to increase knowledge of services with Inclusion Officers increasing capacity for onward referral.

It was identified by the overarching Coalition group that the project should be promoted more widely to the working population of East Durham, as the number of people who are in work and in poverty continues to increase. An article has been featured in the Peterlee Town Council Newsletter and the East Durham Business News to promote the project more widely. Staff have also attended the East Durham Business Network meeting to engage with local employers.

As part of ensuring that we are upholding our hub and spoke model to resource community led and based services we invested £39k into three emotional wellbeing providers based across the community. This includes Let’s Connect, East Durham Veterans and CALM. To date 331 people have benefitted from emotional wellbeing support across the three providers. This has included community activities and community based counselling services.

The Coalition group have submitted a proposal to the AAP to enhance the project further with additional capacity. This would be in the form of a Household Support Officer, who would work with a caseload of clients over a period of 8 weeks to provide intensive support. This application is currently with DCC funding team for approval.

This Girl Can – Console to 5k Project

The Trust originally secured funding from Sport England to support delivery of this project in December 2020. However due to various mitigating factors, including the impact of ongoing Covid 19 restrictions, and continued increase in demands of crisis intervention projects, delivery did not commence until July 2022. Sport England agreed to extend the deadline for completion of the project to March 2023 which is fully achievable. The project involves establishing three couch to 5k groups, across three East Durham communities, engaging 50 women over 16 years old who are not currently physically active. The Trust has worked with Run Leaders and Coaches from East Durham Running Club who are supporting delivery of the project. 10 week programmes have taken place at Easington (working with Easington Welfare and the Church of ascension) and Shotton, working with Shotton Community Hub. A third Couch to 5k programme commenced in Seaham working with Dawdon Youth and Community Centre. All programmes have been well attended and the project is set to exceed it targets.

Sunderland Strollers have agreed to support East Durham Trust in setting up a race event to take place on Sunday 26th March. This will see the completion of the project.

Wellbeing Walks at The Barn

Funded by a £10k grant from the Sir Tom Cowie Foundation and as part of our response to the mental health crisis in the wake of the pandemic East Durham Trust in association with The Barn at Easington are working to facilitate a set of innovative 'wellbeing walks' aimed at increasing family connections, improving children’s emotional health and developing resilience.

This is a targeted programme to help those most in need. We have now facilitated 6 events. Three for each school. There are a further 2 events planned. These continue to impact positively in improving wellbeing and increasing resilience. This is evident in the scale tool completion and in the anecdotal reporting of The Barn, inclusion officers and the benefices themselves. The WhatsApp Group continues to act as a positive media for social connections alongside requests for support when required. School links have been key in ensuring the success of progress made.

Horden Together; Partnership for People and Place

Funded directly by the Department for Levelling Up, Communities and Housing Partnerships for People and Place project (PfPP) is a pilot of a new policy design and delivery approach, focusing on place-based initiatives, which are aimed at creating better cross-government coordination. We have delivered three of the four Newspapers and have had to increase the print run as these have been in such demand. We have also launched a new digital publication platform for EDT. This allows us to track readership of items including the newspaper. This has seen a huge increase in digital engagement alongside the increases from 1000 to 2000 print run.

The Trust has also sought to advocate for the need of East Durham communities with articles in the local, regional and national press and appearances on regional and local news. This included a news article on the BBC, regular radio appearances, local, national and international press and a range of other visible platforms. The Trust continues to speak out for the communities of East Durham to seek the policy changes our ‘left behind’ communities needs.

The East Durham Trust were finalists in the national Power of Community award and although we did not win, being finalists demonstrated the nationally significant work we are undertaken and recognized the organisations genuine impact on our community.

Collaboration remains at the core of our work and we have maintained strong relationships with the communities of East Durham and the organisations working to support and empower them. We have also built new partnerships with a range of organisations and funders for the benefit of our work. With these strong relationships, the Trust will continue to make a positive difference in the lives of the residents of East Durham.

The reserves policy states that the Board of Trustees will ensure that at least three months running costs, in excess of the annual core budgeted expenditure agreed by the board, are retained as unrestricted operational reserves. This is currently estimated at £49,724. The reserves are co-mingled within the Trusts operating bank accounts in accordance with the investment policies. At 31st March 2023 the company held unrestricted free funds of £95,469 which are adequate in relation to the requirements of the reserve policy.

As the Trust looks to the future there are many projects and interventions we know need to be made to maintain, secure and develop our communities. Whether this is the innovate community energy project, Power East Durham or the nationally significant Partnership for People and Place programme the Trust will continue to make a positive difference in the lives of the residents of East Durham.

The charity is a company limited by guarantee and is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association. It is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission.

East Durham Community Development Trust is a local development agency for the public benefit of urban and rural regeneration in areas of social and economic deprivation within the East Durham region. Our role is to support and develop the Voluntary and Community Sector through a range of services. We aim to help to develop and sustain a vibrant and active Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) throughout our District.

The Trust was established as an organisation which would be ideally placed to effectively develop the Voluntary and Community Sector in the District of Easington. Following Local Government Review and the establishment of a single Unitary Authority the Trust extended its operating boundaries in 2011 with a view to replicating the business model throughout County Durham although maintaining the bulk of its work within the former Easington District boundary.

The vision and mission statement of the organisation remained as:

Vision:

'To improve the quality of life for people in County Durham.'

Mission:

'To contribute to the social and economic regeneration of County Durham by providing the central focal point for the support and empowerment of the Voluntary & Community Sector for the benefit and empowerment of local people and communities.'

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:

Appointment of trustees

During this period the Trust continued with the Trustees who were recruited from two distinct sources (i.e. by "search" and by election). Specific movement of individuals included two reappointments from the annual resignation and election process which sees the automatic resignation of the two longest serving elected members and an open election from the full Trust membership.

The trustees, who are also the directors of East Durham Community Development Trust Limited 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 charity 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 charity 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 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.

In accordance with the company's articles, a resolution proposing that Allen Sykes Limited be reappointed as auditor of the company will be put at a General Meeting.

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

Disclosure of information to auditors

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.

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of East Durham Community Development Trust Limited (the ‘charity’) for the year ended 31 March 2023 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the statement of financial position, the statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including 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).

The comparative figures are unaudited.

In our opinion, the financial statements:

give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company's affairs as at 31 March 2023 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.

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.

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.

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 contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. 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 course of 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 this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. 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.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 require us to report to you if, in our opinion:

the information given in the financial statements is inconsistent in any material respect with the trustees' report; or

sufficient accounting records have not been kept; or

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

we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

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

We have been appointed as auditor under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and report in accordance with the Act and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.

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.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

Our approach to identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, was as follows:

• the engagement partner ensured that the engagement team collectively had the appropriate competence, capabilities and skills to identify or recognise non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations;

• we identified the laws and regulations applicable to the company through discussions with directors and other management, and from our commercial knowledge and experience of the sector;

• we focused on specific laws and regulations which we considered may have a direct material effect on the financial statements or the operations of the company, including the Companies Act 2006, Charities Act 2011, taxation legislation, data protection, anti-bribery, employment, environmental and health and safety legislation;

• we assessed the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations identified above through making enquiries of management and inspecting legal correspondence; and

• identified laws and regulations were communicated within the audit team regularly and the team remained alert to instances of non-compliance throughout the audit.

We assessed the susceptibility of the company's financial statements to material misstatement, including obtaining an understanding of how fraud might occur, by:

• making enquiries of management as to where they considered there was susceptibility to fraud, their knowledge of actual, suspected and alleged fraud; and

• considering the internal controls in place to mitigate risks of fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations.

To address the risk of fraud through management bias and override of controls, we:

• performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships;

• tested journal entries to identify unusual transactions;

• assessed whether judgements and assumptions made in determining the accounting estimates were indicative of potential bias; and

• investigated the rationale behind any identified significant or unusual transactions.

In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we designed procedures which included, but were not limited to:

• agreeing financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting documentation;

• enquiring of management as to actual and potential litigation and claims; and

• reviewing correspondence with HMRC, relevant regulators and the company's legal advisors.

There are inherent limitations in our audit procedures described above. The more removed that laws and regulations are from financial transactions, the less likely it is that we would become aware of non-compliance. Auditing standards also limit the audit procedures required to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations to enquiry of the directors and other management and the inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any. Material misstatements that arise due to fraud can be harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.

As part of an audit in accordance with ISAs (UK), we exercise professional judgment and maintain professional scepticism throughout the audit. We also:

• Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.

• Obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the internal control.

• Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by the trustees.

• Conclude on the appropriateness of the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the charity's ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor’s report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor’s report. However, future events or conditions may cause the charity to cease to continue as a going concern.

• Evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation.

We communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit.

A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://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 trustees, as a body, in accordance with part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity's trustees 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 trustees 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.

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 2023, although an audit has been carried out under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011.

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 under the requirements of the Companies Act 2006, for the year in question in accordance with section 476.

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

East Durham Community Development Trust Limited is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales and a registered charity in England and Wales. The registered office is Community House, Yoden Road, Peterlee, Co Durham, SR8 5DP.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Companies Act 2006, 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 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.

Designated funds are unrestricted funds which have been set aside for a particular purpose.

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 are allocated on the portion of the asset’s use.

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.

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.

Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.

Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.

Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

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

Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the charity is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.

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.

The company is incorporated under the Companies Act 2006 and is limited by guarantee, each member having undertaken to contribute such amounts not exceeding £1 as may be required in the event of the company being wound up whilst he or she is still a member or within one year thereafter.

At 31 March 2023 there were 9 members (2022 - 6 members).

Community Development

Community Development

Grants receivable

Bank interest receivable    

Rent & room hire    

DBS Checks

Community Development

Community Development

Other office costs

Advertising

Project expenses

Other costs

Community Development

Community Development

Travel expenses

Rates

Light, heat & water

Repairs & maintenance

Insurance

Other office costs

Advertising

Other costs

Legal & professional

Accountancy fees

EDT Development

The average monthly number of employees during the year was:

Key Management Personnel

Key management personnel include all persons that have authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling the activities of the charity, The total compensation paid to key management personnel for services provided to the charity was £44,921 (2022 - £44,040).

The charity is exempt from tax on income and gains falling within section 505 of the Taxes Act 1988 or section 252 of the Taxationof Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to the extent that these are applied to its charitable objects.

The fund transfers relate mainly to transfers from restricted funds to unrestricted funds where non monetary expenditure (e.g. management charges, etc) has been released during the year. The transfers have been made in order that the restricted funds shown in the balance sheet at the year end shows the total amount of funding remaining which has been restricted in its purpose.

Deferred income is included in the financial statements as follows:

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

The charge to profit or loss in respect of defined contribution schemes was £3,858 (2022 - £3,309).

Mrs A E Nutter, trustee, is the head of Wingate & Station Town Family Centre. Included in other income is £49 (2022 - £Nil) in relation to services provided to Wingate & Station Town Family Centre. Included in Charitable Activities expenditure is £1,175 (2022 - £3,010) in relation to goods/services purchased from Wingate & Station Town Family Centre during the year.

Miss R Hardy is the chair of Shotton Partnership. Included in Charitable Activities expenditure is £10,380 (2022 - £16,033) in relation to goods/services provided by Shotton Partnership during the year.

Ms E Connor is a parish councillor of Horden Parish Council. Included in charitable activities expenditure is £660 (2022 - £Nil) in relation to services provided by Horden Parish Council.

Ms E Connor is also a trustee of Horden Youth & Community Centre and included in Charitable Activities expenditure is £970 (2022 - £4,220) in relation to goods/services purchased from Horden Youth & Community Centre. Included in trading activities income is £5 (2022 - £172) in relation to services provided to Horden Youth & Community Centre.

These transactions were under normal commercial terms.

The charity had no debt during the year.