CITIZENS ADVICE COUNTY DURHAM

Registered charity 1151790 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as GDCAB, GREATER DURHAM CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU

We are an independent advice charity based across the whole of County Durham. We are open to people who live, work or study in the county. People can come into one of our many centres or contact us on our Adviceline 0808 278 7821.

Objects

THE CHARITY'S OBJECTS ARE TO PROMOTE ANY CHARITABLE PURPOSEFOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT BY THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION, THE PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OFHEALTH AND THE RELIEF OF POVERTY, SICKNESS AND DISTRESS IN PARTICULAR, BUT WITHOUT LIMITATION, FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE COMMUNITY IN COUNTY DURHAM.

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: General Charitable Purposes · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Human Rights/religious Or Racial Harmony/equality Or Diversity · Other Charitable Purposes · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: County Durham, North East, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that total income decreased by 21% due to a significant reduction in funding from Citizens Advice, resulting in a net expenditure for the year. Unrestricted free reserves held at 31 March 2025 were £1,070,183, which is below the charity's stated policy target of £540,000, although the text notes this figure is actually below the target level despite the absolute amount being higher than the target. The trustees maintain a going concern basis, citing adequate resources for the foreseeable future.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Allen Sykes Audit Limited. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Reserves position vs the charity's own policy moved from "above" (FY2024) to "below" (FY2025).

Comparing this charity’s FY2024 and FY2025 accounts as analysed by this site.

In its annual return the charity told the Commission it is also regulated by: Financial Conduct Authority. This is the charity’s own declaration; it is not a rating and has not been verified by the Commission or by this site.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Property (HM Land Registry)

3 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (1 freehold); recorded price paid £138k. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~2.2 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (99% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (09/01/2015) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (25/11/2014) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (17/04/2014) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (14/01/2014) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (02/01/2014) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Jennifer Smurthwaitechair · trustee of 1 other charity
• Adele Barnett
• Alan Shield · trustee of 3 other charities
• David Blackwell
• GEOFFREY FIELD
• Janice Gillespie
• John Scollen
• John William Taylor
• Matthew Tunnicliffe-John
• Michael Smith

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Durham

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with CITIZENS ADVICE DONCASTER BOROUGH.

• CITIZENS ADVICE DONCASTER BOROUGH income £1.9m
• ROTHERHAM & DISTRICT CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU income £1.4m
• CITIZENS ADVICE IN NORTH & WEST KENT income £2.1m
• DURHAM COUNTY CARERS SUPPORT income £1.9m
• SOUTH HAMS CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU income £571k
• WOLVERHAMPTON CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAUX income £2.0m

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.