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2022-03-31-accounts

John Schofield Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

Charity number: 1061065 Registered address: PO Box 108, Haslemere GU27 9GU

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Contents

Objectives of the Trust ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Theory of change.......................................................................................................................................................... 3 Governance of the Trust............................................................................................................................................ 3 The continuing impact of COVID-19 .................................................................................................................... 4 Activities .......................................................................................................................................................................... 4 JST/RTS Young Talent of the Year Award .................................................................................................... 5 John Schofield Trust face to face mentoring scheme for early career journalists ....................... 5 John Schofield Trust online mentoring scheme for 16-18-year-old students ............................... 6 Social media .............................................................................................................................................................. 8 E-newsletter .............................................................................................................................................................. 8 Fundraising .................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Staffing ............................................................................................................................................................................. 9 Regulatory and Trust policies ................................................................................................................................ 9 Income and expenditure ........................................................................................................................................ 10 Gift Aid ...................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Risk management ................................................................................................................................................ 10 Reserves ................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Future plans ................................................................................................................................................................ 10 Financial report of the trustees .......................................................................................................................... 13 Accounting policies .................................................................................................................................................. 14 Appendix ...................................................................................................................................................................... 15 Progress made from future plans outlined in 2020-21 annual report .......................................... 15 Online events ......................................................................................................................................................... 15

Bankers: HSBC 12A North Street Guildford GU1 4AF

Independent Examiner: Andrew Wells FMAAT Counterculture Partnership LLP Unit 115 Ducie House Ducie Street Manchester M1 2JW

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Trustees’ Annual Report

Objectives of the Trust

The John Schofield Trust (JST) exists to promote and advance education and social diversity in journalism. It does this by supporting young journalists and by encouraging young people from under-represented groups to consider a career in broadcast journalism. It was set up by the friends and family of the journalist John Schofield who was killed in Croatia while working on the BBC’s World Tonight programme in 1995.

Theory of change

Governance of the Trust

The John Schofield Trust is governed by a Declaration of Trust dated 1996 which was amended by supplemental deeds dated 6 January 1997, 16 June 2011 and 6 October 2017. It is managed by a board of trustees, who give their time voluntarily to the Trust. There are regular meetings of the board of trustees and sub-groups set up to advise on different aspects of the Trust’s activities.

The trustees confirm that they have had regard to the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit and to that end set out in this report the main activities undertaken during the year in pursuit of the Trust’s objectives.

The trustees who served during the year were as follows:

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Jenny Clark (treasurer) Julie Randles Louise Hastings Kate Riley Zaiba Malik Susannah Schofield Emma Maxwell Dhruti Shah Nick Pollard Anand Shukla

The Strategy Sub-Group expanded the advisory panel to support the board’s work and reflect the views of the Trust’s beneficiaries.

The continuing impact of COVID-19

During the period under review COVID-19, and the measures introduced to control it, brought continued restrictions which had an impact on the Trust’s activities.

Face to face mentoring continued to be impossible and mentoring relationships were sustained largely online.

Activities like university and newsroom visits, which were a valued part of the schools’ mentoring programme, had to be suspended.

Masterclasses – previously a valued opportunity for mentees to meet in--person, moved entirely online during the pandemic, as did trustee meetings.

But whilst the absence of face to face meetings continued to challenge the Trust, there were upsides to online activity, at the level of access, especially for those participants based outside of London. In line with the policies adopted as part of the strategic plan, the Trust aims to grow the number of mentees and mentors based outside the SE of England, so access to our outputs will become more important over time.

It is our intention to adopt a hybrid model in future in which in-person events are supplemented by online ones. The Trust is also committed to staging masterclasses outside London.

Activities

As a result of the pandemic, we decided to realign the timeline for recruitment and mentoring. Our recruitment period for the early career mentoring scheme now happens in September and mentoring runs for the calendar year following from 1 January to 31 December.

To review progress made on specific plans listed in 2020-21 report, please see Appendix.

Adoption of strategic plan

In April 2021 the board accepted the strategic plan developed and proposed by the Chief Executive. This plan committed the Trust to:

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JST/RTS Young Talent of the Year Award

In keeping with previous years, we funded a bursary (of £1,500) to accompany the RTS Young Talent of the Year Award, which the Trust set up in 1996 in memory of John Schofield. For the fourth year running, Trust Founder Susie Schofield was a member of the jury for the Young Talent of the Year award. The 2021 winner of this award – the 26[th] – was Noel Phillips, the North American Correspondent for Good Morning Britain. Noel accepted the Trust’s offer of a mentor and was paired with Alex Thomson, the Chief Correspondent of Channel 4 News.

John Schofield Trust face to face mentoring scheme for early career journalists

As reported in our 2020-21 annual report, we extended the 2019-20 mentoring scheme by six months to June 2021 so that mentees continued to be supported by their mentors.

In September 2021 the Trust opened applications for the 2022 early career mentoring scheme. Thanks to a concerted promotion campaign, we received more applications than ever before and selected 60 (the previous year we selected 49). Applications to the face to face mentoring scheme are managed online and applicants can complete an online form or submit their application via video or audio. This is to encourage candidates who may be deterred by or unable to apply using a paper-based application process.

It was the sixth year of opening the scheme to apprentices. Many news organisations put their apprenticeship schemes on hold during the pandemic so, for a second year running, this is likely to be the reason why there was a continued drop in the number of applications from apprentices (for both 2021 and 2021 we mentored two apprentices).

An analysis of the characteristics of our mentees in the year demonstrates our progress towards our vision of having newsrooms as diverse as the people they serve. The figure in brackets shows the figure for 2020-21.[1]

1 Mentees volunteer information about their backgrounds when they apply; not all mentees give this personal information

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All industry figures from NCTJ Diversity in Journalism report 2022 unless stated otherwise.[2]

For the 2021 scheme, we commissioned the Brightside Trust to develop an app to help mentees and mentors communicate with each other as well as to help us in monitoring the frequency (but not content) of contact.

Feedback survey, 2021-22

The Trust conducts surveys at the end of our mentoring schemes to measure engagement and satisfaction levels, and to collect testimony from participants.

In the exit survey for our 2021 early career mentoring scheme, 78% of participants rated the scheme a 10 on a scale of 1-10.

In addition to the quantitative assessment, the Trust gathered quotes as part of the same survey. Correspondents said:

“My expectations were quite high considering the amount of brilliant senior fellows there were. But my expectations were far exceeded.”

“It’s just great to have 'access' to someone at the top of their game… to chat through any[thing] work-related, sometimes life issues […] getting an impartial and rational answer from someone who has been there.”

“I feel better informed about how to navigate the next steps of my career and have an industry leader in my corner.”

Recommendations

We will continue to grow the early career mentoring scheme in line with the strategic plan. We will seek registration as a charity in the Republic of Ireland in order to offer our early career mentoring scheme in Ireland.

John Schofield Trust online mentoring scheme for 16-18-year-old students

We commissioned the Brightside Trust to run a fourth 12-week scheme online mentoring scheme for 16-18-year-old students who live and/or study in disadvantaged areas. The scheme creates awareness for students from low socio-economic backgrounds about the career opportunities in the news industry. Students are matched online with industry professionals who are trained and provided with a framework to support the mentoring relationship. Many mentors were journalists who had previously been mentees on our face to face mentoring

2 Other sources: Elitist Britain, Sutton Trust 2019. Journalists at Work, NCTJ 2018. Sexual Orientation data, ONS 2022. Diversity in TV and Radio, Ofcom 2020. Food Poverty: Households, food banks and free school meals, House of Commons Library, UK Gov, 2021. Diversity & Equal Opportunities in UK Broadcasting – 5 Year Review. Ofcom, 2021.

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scheme and becoming an online mentor themselves is a welcome professional development opportunity.

Forty-three students participated in the project from a total of 14 sixth form colleges and schools, with a mixture of year 12 and 13 students. 58% of the cohort met at least one of the social mobility criteria, including 33% being from POLAR4 Q1 or Q2, and 40% who would be the first in their family to go to university.

In the exit survey for our 2021 scheme, participants recorded:

Participants in the schools’ scheme identified access to experienced industry mentors as a major attraction of the programme:

"The John Schofield Trust provided me with a mentor who works at the BBC. My mentor gave me support, advice and put me in contact with other journalists who could also help me. The help that she gave me was really great, and she helped me choose the best path for me to go into journalism. I know now that if I need help, I always have someone to go to, and that in itself is invaluable.”

As a result of feedback from the 2021 programme we included a journalistic activity.

Masterclasses and networking events

The Trust’s masterclasses are an opportunity to stage discussions, share experiences, expose our Fellows to career insights from distinguished journalists, and to raise the profile of the Trust. Some of our masterclasses are public-facing, others are hosted exclusively for our Fellows. Public-facing masterclasses are posted to our YouTube channel and social media. In planning masterclasses the Trust is responsive both to the news agenda and suggestions from Fellows.

See Appendix for a full list of our masterclasses the Trust ran during the year under report.

In addition, we held briefing sessions and online support sessions for mentees and mentors.

After a two-year hiatus, we were delighted to hold our annual reception in-person. Cicero/ HAVAS generously hosted the event at their central London offices, and our guest speaker was former mentee and Channel 4 News reporter, Ayshah Tull. The John Schofield Trust Fellowship was formally launched at the annual reception.

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Recommendation

Social media

In the course of the year under review, the Trust focused on developing our social media activities and our following on social media has increased largely in response to successful Trust campaigns around fundraising, application rounds for our mentoring schemes and our events.

Twitter continues to be the Trust’s followers’ preferred platform and our followers there have risen from 3,917 to 5,469. The Trust also posts regularly on LinkedIn, and Facebook and hosted a successful fundraising campaign for a sponsored walk on Instagram in December 2021. During the promotion of the application round in September 2021 the Trust also introduced innovations like a Twitter Spaces discussion, an Instagram Q+A and an Instagram Reel.

The Trust has participated in various national social media campaigns, e.g. International Women’s Day, Volunteers’ Week, National Mentoring Day, National Inclusion Week and National Apprenticeship Week, National Careers Week, and Small Charities week. Each of these attracted an increase in followers.

E-newsletter

The Trust’s monthly newsletter continues to be popular and, over the year, subscriptions have doubled. In this year under review, we secured a three-year sponsorship commitment from Knight Ayton for our e-newsletter. We have built on the momentum of the Fellows’ news section which allow us to highlight success stories from Fellows, Junior Fellows and Senior Fellows. We post these stories on our social media platforms as well as our website. This year, we introduced a section to highlight opportunities within the industry and sources of funding for support.

Fundraising

We comply with the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 and adhere to the Code of Fundraising Practice.

During the year under review, our online giving platform, VirginMoneyGiving, closed. Ahead of its closure, we set up a new platform using Stripe and GiveWP which allows donors an easy way to donate on our website. We continue to use Donr as our text-giving platform.

After the success of the Trust’s #RememberingJohn and #NewsroomsForAll fundraisers which took place from August-October 2020, the Trust decided to take part in The Big Give Christmas Fundraiser 2021. This is an intense week-long national match-giving fundraising campaign which took place from 30 November-7 December. The Trust’s target was £25,000 (of which £12,500 to be raised by supporters, £12,500 by champion and pledgers). Pledges came from long-time supporter of the Trust Martin Lewis and trustee Kate Riley. The Trust generated

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social media artefacts and collected testimonials to support our campaign which raised £27,771 including Gift Aid, less fees. In December 2021, the Trust benefitted from the generosity of Daisy Hughes who completed a sponsored walk in memory of her journalist father, Mark Hughes. Daisy’s 114-mile sponsored walk raised £1,870 for the Trust. Daisy chose the Trust because of a personal connection to John Schofield and because the Trust embodies values her father believed in. Daisy wrote:

“He and my mum both worked with John Schofield at Channel 4 Daily, and he was so passionate about journalism and improving accessibility, so I think this would be a cause very close to his heart.”

On her way Daisy used the Trust’s Instagram account to post images taken on her walk. Daisy’s inspiring story was featured on BBC Radio Oxford and picked up by local papers along her route.

Our work continues to be dependent upon the generous support of our current funders: 5 News, BBC News, Channel 4, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, ITV News, Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert.com, Sky News. We also received gifts in kind from Cicero/ HAVAS for hosting our annual reception, as well as Tortoise Media and the Financial Times.

All other fundraising was carried out on a voluntary basis by the trustees.

In 2021-22, we were charged £396 (incl VAT) in fees for using these platforms.

There have been no complaints relating to our fundraising activities.

We have no other form of income other than funds raised. We do not charge application fees or joining fees to our participants or entry fees for our events. All our mentors and speakers at events are volunteers to whom we are greatly indebted. During 2020-21 the Trust benefited from the work of nearly 200 volunteers (trustees, mentors, champions, speakers, campaign support).

Staffing

In the period under review, the Trust’s staff team has changed significantly. On 1 January 2022, after the completion of his year on secondment from the BBC, David Stenhouse became employed by the Trust as CEO on a full-time basis.

Howard Littler took up the post of Fellowship Manager in November 2021.

Ursula Billington took up the post of Co-ordinator in March 2022.

Catherine Farmer and Tristan Marris left the Trust in July 2021 and December 2021 respectively.

Regulatory and Trust policies

We continue to be registered with the ICO and Fundraising Regulator. We adhere to GDPR guidance in managing and keeping our data secure. We have a safeguarding policy in place and Julie Randles is our designated safeguarding lead.

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During the course of the year the Trust has revised a number of its internal policies and adopted a crisis communications policy for the first time.

Income and expenditure

The John Schofield Trust had income of £82,276 during the year, including gifts in kind (202021: £94,302) This included donations from 5 News, BBC News, Channel 4, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, ITV News, Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert.com, Sky News. We also received gifts in kind from Cicero/HAVAS for hosting our annual reception, as well as Tortoise Media and the Financial Time as well as the second year of a two-year grant from the Garfield Weston Foundation.

The key elements of the Trust’s expenditure in 2021-22 are:

Trustees are not remunerated for their services but are paid out of pocket expenses.

Gift Aid

The Trust was registered for Gift Aid during the year and applied to eligible donations.

Risk management

The trustees take their responsibilities for effective risk management seriously. Financial risk is low as sufficient cash is held in reserves to cover the bursary accompanying the RTS Young Talent of the Year award for several years to come.

Mentees are required to sign up to terms and conditions before joining the scheme.

We have Charities Liability Insurance and Trustees Indemnity Cover in place with Hiscox.

Reserves

The trustees aim to maintain free reserves in unrestricted funds at a level which equates to approximately three months of unrestricted charitable expenditure. The trustees consider that this level will provide sufficient funds to ensure that support and governance costs are covered and to allow other sources of income to be found should this be needed.

The balance held as unrestricted funds at 31 March 2022 was £59,365 (2020-21: £94,882). The reserves policy will be reviewed annually by the trustees.

Future plans

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The Trustees annual report was approved by the Trustees of the charity and signed

on its behalf by:

Susannah Schofield Chair of Trustees

Jenny Clark Trustee

20 January 2023 20 January 2023

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INDEPENDENT EXAMINATION REPORT

YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2022

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity for the year ended 31 March 2022.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent examiner's statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Andrew Wells FMAAT Counterculture Partnership LLP Unit 115 Ducie House Ducie Street Manchester M1 2JW

26 January 2023

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Financial report of the trustees

Receipts and payments for the 12 months to 31 March 2022

2022 2022 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021 2021
Receipts Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted
Restricted		 Total
Donations Funds
£82,276		 Funds £82,276 Funds
£74,768		 Funds
£17,500		 £92,268
Salary Grant £0 £0 £2,034 £2,034
Total Receipts £82,276 £0 £82,276 £76,802 £17,500 £94,302
Payments
Salaries £42,924 £42,924 £16,216 £16,216
BBC CEO £39,600 £39,600 £13,200 £13,200
Redundancy £5,112 £5,112 £0 £0
Employer NI £3,040 £3,040 £1,334 £1,334
Employer Pension £869 £869 £397 £397
Payroll costs £786 £786 £720 £720
RTS Bursary £1,500 £1,500 £1,500 £1,500
Insurance £626 £626 £588 £588
Software charges £2,279 £2,279 £1,487 £1,487
Website charges £1,152 £1,152 £11,160 £11,160
Online mentoring £7,135 £6,725 £13,860 £0 £10,782 £10,782
IT Equipment £0 £0 £1,443 £1,443
Consultancy £2,589 £2,589 £875 £875
Audit examination fee £495 £495 £495 £495
Legal Costs £3,139 £3,139 £0 £0
Database £2,722 £2,722 £0 £0
Other expenses £3,363 £3,363 £1,479 £1,479
Travel £463 £463 £0 £0
Donation Fees £0 £0 £170 £170
Total expenditure £117,793 **£6,725 ** £124,518 £51,063 £10,782 £61,845
Surplus (Deficit) -£35,517 -£6,725 -£42,242 £25,739 £6,718 £32,457
Funds Brought forward £94,882 £6,725 £101,607 £69,143 £7 £69,150
Funds Carried forward £59,365 £0 £59,365 £94,882 £6,725 £101,607
Assets and Liabilities
Assets Designated
Funds		 Unrestricted
Reserves
Restricted
Funds
Total
Funds 2022
Designated
Funds		 Unrestricted
Reserves		 Restricted
Funds		 Total Funds
2021
Cash at Bank £0 £59,365 £0 £59,365 £39,600 £55,282 £6,725 £101,607
Debtors £0 £0 £0 £0 £0 £0 £0 £0
0
Liabilities £0 £0 £0 £0 £0 £0 £0 £0
Net Assets £0 £59,365 £0 £59,365 £39,600 £55,282 £6,725 £101,607
0
Total Reserves £0 £59,365 £0 £59,365 £39,600 £55,282 £6,725 £101,607

The financial statements were approved by the Board and signed on its behalf: Signed by

Susannah Schofield Chair of Trustees

20 January 2023

Jenny Clark Trustee 20 January 2023

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Accounting Policies

Basis of accounting

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Charities Act 2011 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice – Accounting and Reporting by Charities (SORP (FRS102), second edition issued in January 2019)”, the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).

John Schofield Trust meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note.

Going concern

The financial statements are prepared, on a going concern basis, under the historical cost convention.

Funds

The charity maintains a general unrestricted fund which represents funds which are expendable at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the objects of the charity. Such funds may be held in order to finance both working capital and capital investment.

Restricted funds have been provided to the charity for particular purposes, and it is the policy of the board of trustees to carefully monitor the application of those funds in accordance with the restrictions placed upon them.

Incoming resources

All incoming resources are included in the statement of financial activities when the Charity is entitled to the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy. Donations are recognised on receipt.

Resources expended

Liabilities are recognised as resources expended when there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the Charity to the expenditure. Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred.

Taxation

As a registered charity, the company is exempt from income and corporation tax to the extent that its income and gains are applicable to charitable purposes only.

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Appendix

Progress made from future plans outlined in 2020-21 annual report

No **Plan ** Progress Note
i. To continue funding the RTS/John
Schofield Trust Young Talent of the
Year Award bursary		 26thaward-winner named Noel Phillips
ii. To increase the number of mentees on
theface tofacementoring scheme		 25% increase in number of mentees to 60
iii. To increase the number of apprentices
on the face to face mentoring scheme		 Not
possible		 Only two applied and both were accepted;
many newsrooms cancelled their
apprenticeship schemes because of
COVID-19
iv. To repeat and expand the online
mentoring scheme, with a view to
adding more locations		 New locations added in Orkney and
Northern Ireland
v. To increase the number of
masterclasses once social distancing is
eased		 Masterclasses continued online during
2021-22 due to the pandemic
vi. To run a second fundraising campaign
to raise awareness in the Trust’s 25th
anniversary year		 Raised £27,771.90 through The Big Give
Christmas Challenge 2021
vii. To investigate running a mentoring
scheme for undergraduate students
who wish to pursue a career in
journalism		 In development with university partners

Online events

The masterclasses we held in 2020-21 were (those with * indicate public events):

1. Resilience for journalists, with journalists Sian Williams, Paul Davies and Stuart Hughes

  1. ITN’s Sports Editor Steve Scott with Sky’s Dharmesh Sheth and the BBC’s Sally Nugent on making an impact in sports Journalism

  2. How to be a foreign correspondent with Mayeni Jones, Lindsey Hilsum, Nina Elbagir, Jon Sparks and Renata Brito*

  3. Editing a news programme with John Ryley (Sky), Debbie Ramsay (Radio 1), Laura Holgate (ITV) and Richard Frediani (BBC), chaired by JST Trustee Dhruti Shah*

  4. The Anatomy of a Story: Fransoy Hewitt, Imogen Barrer, Sarah O’Connell and Daniel Hewitt discuss ITN’s coverage of the housing crisis with JST Trustee Nick Pollard*

  5. How to present a news programme with Cathy Newman (C4), Julie Etchingham (ITV), Naga Munchetty (BBC) and Martha Kelner (Sky)*

  6. Working in campaigning journalism – in conversation with Martin Lewis

  7. A masterclass for Junior Fellows on paths into Journalism

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