2025-12-31-accounts

Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) (A Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee)

Annual Report and Financial Statements

For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Company Number: 03602851 Charity Registered in England and Wales Number: 1070994

Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Contents For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

	Page
Contents	1
Reference and Administrative Details	2 - 3
Trustees’ Annual Report	4 - 42
Independent Auditor’s Report	43 – 46
Statement of Financial Activities	47
Balance Sheet	48
Statement of Cash Flows	49
Notes to the Financial Statements	50 - 62

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Reference and Administrative Details For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Charity Reference and Administrative Details

Charity registration number	1070994
Company registration number	03602851
Chief Executive	Hester Cockcroft
Trustees	Trustees, who are also directors under company law, who served
	during the year and up to the date of this report were as follows:
	Sehyogue Aulakh4(appointed 9 September 2025)
	Lynda Beament1 5
	Max Brown4(resigned 9 September 2025)
	Fintan Canavan3
	Susan Carbert3
	Stephen Clay (appointed 10 March 2026)
	Julian Forbes1 5
	Jessica Grime
	Lawrence Haddad2(appointed 10 March 2026)
	Anthony Hamer-Hodges1 2(Chair) (appointed 9 September 2025)
	Uta Hope2
	Joy Hume-Salih4(appointed 10 March 2026)
	Karen Humphreys4MBE
	Philip Jones2(resigned 9 September 2025)
	Michael Littlechild3(resigned 9 December 2025)
	Beverley Mason4(resigned 9 December 2025)
	Morro Barry (appointed on 15 January 2025)
	Ellen Nugent (appointed 10 March 2026)
	Thomas Sharpe KC5
	Sub committees
	1Marketing and Communications
	2Major Gifts
	3Audit and Risk
	4Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
	5Board Nominations
Company Secretary	Madelyn Brown
Registered Office	PO Box 2754
	Bristol
	BS4 9DA
Auditor	Albert Goodman Chartered Accountants
	5thFloor
	25 King Street
	Bristol
	BS1 4PB

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Reference and Administrative Details For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Bankers	CAF Bank Limited	CAF Bank Limited
	25 Kings Hill Avenue
	Kings Hill
	West Malling
	Kent, ME19 4JQ
	The Charity Bank Limited
	Fosse House
	182 High Street
	Tonbridge, TN9	1BE
	Cambridge & Counties Bank Ltd
	Charnwood Court,
	5B New Walk
	Leicester, LE1 6TE
	United Trust Bank Limited
	One Ropemaker Street
	London, EC2Y 9AW
Investment Managers	EdenTree Investment Management
	Benefact House
	2000 Pioneer Avenue
	Gloucester Business Park
	Brockworth
	Gloucester GL3 4AW
	Rathbones Ltd
	8 Finsbury Circus
	London, EC2M 7AZ
	Sarasin & Partners LLP
	100 St Paul’s Churchyard
	London
	EC4M 8BU
Patrons	Professor Derek Aviss OBE
	Jasdeep Singh Degun
	Sir Simon Rattle OM CBE
	Dame Evelyn Glennie CH DBE
	Jess Gillam MBE
	Dechanel Gordon
	The Baroness Harman PC KC
	Alpesh Chauhan OBE
	Duncan Ward
	Gavin Higgins
	Shabaka Hutchings
	Zeb Soanes
	Kathryn Stott
	Ayanna Witter-Johnson

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

From the Chair

It is a great pleasure to introduce this year’s report, and to do so in my first year as Chair of Young Sounds UK. I took up the role in September 2025 and would like to begin by thanking our Chair Emeritus, Philip Jones, for his impressive 22 years of service and for handing over the reins of such a strong and well-positioned organisation. I would also like to thank retiring Trustees Beverley Mason and Michael Littlechild for their long and valued contributions. All three now continue to support the charity through our newly formed Sounding Board.

I first came across Young Sounds UK, then Awards for Young Musicians, in 2022 while serving as Principal of the London College of Contemporary Music. We soon began working together to host Thrive Days, studio sessions and performance opportunities for young musicians on the Thrive programme. Since becoming Chair, I have had the pleasure of seeing many more examples of the charity’s work in action: from a wholeclass DJ scratching session with Connect pupils in Central Bedfordshire, to the BBC Symphony Orchestra side-by-side day with Thrive young people at Maida Vale Studios, to our autumn fundraising concert at Drapers’ Hall. These experiences reflect both the national reach of Young Sounds UK and the breadth of musical pathways we support.

I have been particularly encouraged by the launch of our Equalize pilot workshops, where we are working with academic partners to explore new approaches to identifying musical potential during the crucial secondary school years. An important step in ensuring that our programmes continue to evolve in response to how young people engage with music today.

This year’s report demonstrates clearly that Young Sounds UK continues to transform the lives of talented young musicians at all ages and stages, providing inspiration, support and opportunity as they progress and thrive in their musical journeys.

None of this work would be possible without the generosity and commitment of our supporters and funders. We are deeply grateful to all those who continue to invest in our mission. Alongside the continued support of Arts Council England, the Department for Education and Youth Music in 2025, we were pleased to receive significant new funding from Purposeful Ventures. This has enabled us to appoint our first in-house Evaluation Director and to accelerate the development of a new organisational Theory of Change. Work on this model, shaped collaboratively with input from staff and Trustees at our November strategy day, is already strengthening how we understand and demonstrate the impact of our programmes and will help ensure we continue to deliver meaningful outcomes for the young people we serve.

As Chair, I am excited about the opportunities ahead as we continue to expand our reach, strengthen evaluation of our impact and prepare for Young Sounds UK’s 30th anniversary in 2028.

Anthony Hamer-Hodges Chair of Trustees

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report

For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Young musician taking part in our Music Creators Day at the Purcell School.

Progress against our 2025 strategic objectives

We made significant progress against our strategic objectives throughout the year. We continued to do everything we could to provide support and inspiration to the young musicians from low-income families we’re here to help. As ever we focused our support on young people who a) need it the most because of the financial and social obstacles they face and b) are able to make the most of it, because of their musical potential.

Increased Income

We are very grateful to our many long-term supporters, whether individuals, trusts or public funders. With their help our year-on-year revenue increased by 31% to £2,528,118. This enabled us to provide sustained support for 1,563 individual young people across our programmes during the year.

Expanded and improved support

Our Discover training programme went from strength to strength. Our training’s reach continued to be extensive, across Music Hubs, Schools, Multi Academy Trusts, higher education institutions such as conservatoires and other organisations working with young people and training music leaders and teachers. Discover also ventured into Scotland for the first time, training new facilitators in Aberdeen. In the second half of the year we ran holiday clubs in Bradford and Birmingham as part of our Equalize project with the Black British Research Unit, developing young people’s musical potential by engaging with their musical interests and identities.

Connect continued to grow substantially across England, supporting over 1,000 young people. We delivered more Get Togethers and opportunities for young musicians than ever, thanks to our continuing partnerships with 22 Music Hubs, Arts Council England and our Music Opportunities Pilot partners: its funder the Department for Education and musical partners ABRSM, BBC Orchestras, Music Mark, Music Masters, the National Youth Orchestra, Open Up Music and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

2025 was also a busy year for our Thrive programme. 301 young people were offered a place on the programme as part of our 2025 cohorts, joining those already on the programme to take part in musical opportunities across the country. These included Piano and Conducting Masterclasses, insight days at the Purcell School and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the return of our annual Side-by-Side Day with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at Maida Vale Studios.

Within our Innovate programme we continue to lead the national conversation on next steps for music education, moving our focus to the new government’s planned National Centre for Arts and Music Education. We also continued to develop our long-term partnership with all five BBC Orchestras, launching the latest phase of our Exchange mentoring programme.

Images from our Mentor Development Weekend.

Evaluation, Improvement and Innovation

Judith Robinson, our long-term freelance External Evaluator, handed over the reins in the autumn to April Guasp, who joined us as our first full time Evaluation Director. Her role was enabled as part of a significant grant from Purposeful Ventures, with her first priority to shape an organisational Theory of Change with staff and Trustee input. From this we’re now developing our most robust evaluation framework to date, ensuring we can report effectively to our funders whilst also capturing and acting on learning about the effectiveness of our programmes. Our Mentor training, aimed at existing Mentors (some of whom are Alumni of our Thrive programme) and future Mentors for our Engering Music Creators (see Thrive below), took place for the third time across two days in October. This training is aimed at giving Mentors the skills and confidence they need, contributing to our plans to develop a sustained programme-wide mentoring offer to support young people we work with at all ages and stages.

Marketing and Communications

2025 saw the expansion of the Marketing and Communications team, with Beth Harris joining us in May as Marketing and Communications Assistant, working alongside Marketing and Communications Manager Matthew Tiller. The increased capacity has created space for clearer strategies, more content creation and consistent delivery. Project based work includes a PR Pilot and the further development of our online learning resource. MarComms continue to work across all programme areas in print and digital, promoting our work as well as resource creation. Beyond external facing communications there have been developments in internal communication too, with an emphasis on creating more accessible spaces for the team and visibility for the MarComms committee.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion remain core to Young Sounds’ mission.

In 2025 we built on the cross-organisational benchmarking survey of everyone working with Young Sounds UK and the series of focus groups that followed. We undertook a thematic analysis which enabled us to determine priority actions to take forward. These include regularly auditing representation across our workforce and governance, targeting recruitment where there are gaps, and expanding the membership and remit of our EDI committee. This process will enable us to continue to further our EDI ambitions and strengthen relationships with our stakeholders across the sector.

Increased capacity

Our team continued to evolve. In May Beth Harris joined us in the newly created role of Marketing and Communications Assistant. The summer saw the reorganisation of the Thrive team, with Hannah Turner, our Thrive Programme Manager stepping down after 10 years at Young Sounds. Jessica Burroughs, formerly our Events Producer, took up the role of Thrive Programme Director, with Charlotte Lincoln promoted to Thrive Programme Producer, and Katie King recruited as Thrive Programme Administrator in September. April Guasp also joined us that month as our first Evaluation Director, alongside Sophie Ashley, as our first Operations Assistant. Katherine Rigg stepped down in December as Development Administrator, with Edward Drew joining in March 2026 in the newly created role of Development Coordinator.

Carbon footprint

As a charity that exists to support young people, we take our duty of being environmentally responsible seriously. Our team all work from home, with no office space of our own. We calculate the carbon footprint of our staff’s work time as well as emissions from their work-related travel. In 2025 we’ve refined our methodology for these calculations and expanded our home working impact tracking to include freelancers who work for the organisation on a regular basis. We’re also calculating travel emissions for more of our work – beginning this year with the journeys of the facilitators delivering our Discover programme training.

We strive to work with partners and venues who are committed to reducing their environmental impact. Environmental management practices form part of our research when looking for spaces to hold our in-person events, and we’re continuing to hone an environmental questionnaire we designed for these purposes.

Compliance

Young Sounds UK’s Audit and Risk Committee keep a close eye on the charity’s financials across the year and ensure our review cycle for all key policy and compliance documents is followed, from Safeguarding to our Risk Register. All policy revisions are reviewed and approved by the Trustees and we ensure that they are understood by all staff, freelancers and volunteers.

Plans for future periods

Reaching young people who need us the most and giving them the best possible support to help them reach their musical goals remains our absolute focus. With Young Sounds’ 30[th] anniversary on the horizon in 2028 we’re beginning to plan our fundraising and communications campaigns so we can optimise the opportunity to raise more income and further increase our visibility.

At the time of writing Young Sounds is currently supporting 1,400 young people across the UK, with 400 young people supported through our Thrive programme combining with 1,000 young people supported through our Connect programme. We’ve been able to double the participants in Connect thanks to funding from the DfE’s Music Opportunities Pilot.

We also have ambitious plans to develop an embedded mentoring offer for young people across our programmes, building on over 10 years’ of delivering a range of mentoring projects and models. Raising funds to make this possible is a priority in 2026.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Our programmes

Connect students in Manchester at a Get Together at RNCM.

Young Sounds UK is a national charity. Our mission is to find musical potential and give talent a chance. We know that musical talent is everywhere but opportunity isn’t - family finances and other obstacles too often get in the way.

We’re here to change this in two ways:

• We support young musicians from low-income families with funding and other help.

• We support music education through training, advocacy and research.

Whatever the genre, our strategically targeted programmes help young musicians from across the UK to grow, flourish and fulfil their potential. Each programme is designed to tackle a major obstacle faced by these young people:

Discover training teachers how to spot young people’s musical potential.

targeting and nurturing emerging talent with sustained, strategic Connect support. funding young talent UK wide with annual grants, and tailor-made help Thrive for individual musicians. Innovate leading new thinking and action on talent development.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

1. Discover

A Discover session with students at Southampton University.

In numbers 788 32 Teachers reached Training sessions

This programme, established in 2008, tackles one of the biggest obstacles to talented young people’s musical progress - many teachers’ limited experience of how to identify their musical potential in the first place. Primary school class teachers generally have very little musical training, so their limited confidence can be a stumbling block; this inevitably affects their ability to identify young people’s musical potential in their classes.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

A Discover session taking place in Aberdeen.

Alongside this, instrumental teachers working as part of the wider Music Hub partnership can focus too much on instrumental proficiency, which can get in the way of them spotting early potential in a child who has never had the chance to play an instrument because their family can’t afford it. With ongoing support as an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, 2025 saw the training expand to reach, for example, Aberdeen Music Service, Coventry Music, Devon Music Education Services, Greenwich Music School, Resonate Liverpool, Manchester Metropolitan University, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and schools across the country.

This year also saw an exciting new development in Discover’s approach with the launch of the EQUALIZE project, a cross-sector collaboration designed to revitalise music education, enabling young people’ musical potential to emerge by aligning it more closely with their musical identities and creative practices. Funded by the AHRC via the University of Southampton’s Social Justice Fund, EQUALIZE is led by Young Sounds UK and the Black Music Research Unit (University of Westminster), in partnership with Punch Birmingham, and Bradford Music and Arts Service, The project brings together national and regional expertise to help reshape how music is taught in schools.

Building on the core Discover programme which is largely primary focused the project is developing an innovative training model for music educators largely working in a secondary context. It seeks to bridge the gap between young people’s engagement with electronic and Black-British music outside school and their formal music learning experiences. By developing new teaching approaches rooted in electronic and Black-British music, EQUALIZE will support educators to diversify their practice, embrace emerging technologies, and respond more effectively to the cultural contexts of their students. The project was piloted through summer schools in 2025 and 2026 will see in-school workshops and teacher training programmes. In 2025 Equalize worked with 31 young people and 14 educators.

Images from our EQUALIZE sessions in Bradford.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Feedback from 2025 Discover sessions:

In response to the survey question ‘what key ideas did you take away from the training?’

“How to spot musical potential in a variety of ways, understanding how to create an environment that makes creativity possible and comfortable for young children.

The fact that musical potential comes from anywhere and you might not always notice it from just one session.

To observe musical potential more, to prioritise cultivating musical expression, enjoyment, etc. over technical accuracy.

There are multiple facets to potential, and it is important to observe and promote exercises that highlight each person's ability.”

Feedback from 2025 EQUALIZE sessions:

“At school we never do anything like this in music. All we really do is sing, play keyboards, listen to the teacher, and do quizzes about music at the end of the year. I feel it's important not to just play keyboard or sing or listen to the teacher talk about music because you also have to get to know the wider world of music. Like with like maths - they don't just teach you about fractions, they also teach you about addition and subtraction and everything else. It should be the same with music.” Megan, 10, after attending EQUALIZE in Bradford

Images from our EQUALIZE sessions in Bradford.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report

For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

2. Connect

----- Start of picture text -----
In numbers
1,054 22 21,015 42
Young people Partnerships with Music Instrumental lessons Get Together events
participating in the Hubs delivered held
programme
----- End of picture text -----

Connect helps young people from low-income families lead their own musical learning after whole-class lessons end in primary school, so they can keep on progressing as musicians across the transition into secondary school. It connects young people to funding, opportunities and each other. It’s a highly targeted and cost-effective approach. In 2025 we worked across 22 Music Hub areas of England to support 955 young people, and with our partnership with Open Up Music as part of the Music Opportunities Pilot it brings the total participants to 1,054.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

----- Start of picture text -----
In 2025
222
Music leaders delivering
Connect
173
Music leaders receiving CPD
from Young Sounds UK
39
Music Teacher
Forums with 407 attendances
----- End of picture text -----

We want to give many more talented children across the country the chance to achieve in music, by transforming how musical progression is viewed by children and teachers and therefore how it is supported.

In Connect - and the Individual Learning Plan (ILP) which is central to its approach - we have developed a model that can effect this change. This young person-led approach, combined with free weekly instrumental lessons, termly Get Togethers, a Connector in each area to manage all relationships and communications, plus Teachers’ Forums, has proven highly effective.

We work closely with schools and the partner organisations within Music Hubs, to identify the young people who could benefit most from our help. Many are living in challenging circumstances which makes it crucial that we effectively communicate with them, their families and their schools. 10 sets of partnerships we refer to as Ambassador Hubs, with whom we collaborate to run the full Connect programme (with all seven programme elements, see below). 10 partnerships we refer to as Connector Hubs, where the focus is on two of the elements (the Connector role and Teachers’ Forums).

Music Opportunities Pilot

2025 saw the continuation of a new phase of the Connect programme, following our successful bid to the DfE to run the Music Opportunities Pilot (MOP). This had formerly been called the Music Progression Fund when it was announced in the National Plan for Music Education in 2022.

The DfE’s investment is enabling us to supercharge the Connect programme. The MOP is running for four years to March 2028 and supports around 1,000 young people from low-income families to progress in their music education across the Music Hub regions.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Participants comprise young people across our Ambassador Music Hub partners and over 250 schools in England. This includes disabled young musicians via our partners at Open Up Music.

The key aims of the Musical Opportunities Pilot are:

1. To test and refine a number of interventions to support young people with significant musical potential, enthusiasm and commitment. 2. To promote the most effective interventions to schools, Music Hubs and other partners at the end of the programme.

The expanded programme is a collaboration between music educators, the partner Hubs and seven national musical partners. Each of the latter is bringing an additional element to the programme from which more learning will be taken and disseminated:

ABRSM

National Youth Orchestra

(free exams for all participants and a new (supporting peer mentoring and training for Hub progression matrix) partners)

BBC

Open Up Music

(free tickets across their orchestras) (identifying young disabled musicians)

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Music Mark (creating a new toolkit for young musicians’ mental (convening and supporting national meetings) and physical health)

Music Masters

(free places on their PGCEi)

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Key programme elements

There are seven key elements of the Connect programme.

For participating young people the programme offers the following support:

Free weekly instrumental lesson on an instrument of their choice, or a singing lesson. Individual Learning Plan recording three goals they have chosen for the term. Personal bursary to spend on items or activities that support their musical progression. Get Togethers every term, having the opportunity to meet with others to share a musical experience. Mentors access to a trained mentor.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report

For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

The programme also enables:

Teachers’ Forums in each region, every term, with teachers paid to attend. A Connector in each area.

Free weekly instrumental lessons

These are essential, but often too expensive for many families - Connect’s support in providing free, weekly instrumental lessons for all children on the programme is crucial. A total of 21,015 instrumental lessons were delivered across 2025. As might be expected, as it’s the core of their musical progression, our evaluation shows that having their lesson is participants’ favourite activity:

“I feel like I’m getting better at playing violin every day and it’s great. I want to be good at playing the violin and enjoy playing it in the future like a hobby. The best thing about Connect this year was that I became better at playing the violin and be my best self ” Hana, 11, violin, Sunderland

“I really think that my piano lesson have been fun and amazing! My choir class has been engaging with lots of different songs to sing.” Awesome, 11, piano and voice, Manchester

“I really enjoy my music lessons. I use music to show my feelings or change my mood. So learning my instrument allows me to do more than just listen - I can feel.” Darcy, 13, violin, Worcestershire

Individual Learning Plan

A student-led approach to teaching and learning is at the heart of Connect. Every student has an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) recording three goals they have chosen for the term. For a beginner with few points of musical reference, the ILP guides and prompts the student while allowing the teacher to tailor their lessons to an individual’s needs. Using this tool encourages a more personalised approach to progression.

Our online version of the ILP is in partnership with Charanga. Investment from the DfE as part of the Music Opportunities Pilot has enabled us to develop the tool further. We want to reach thousands of children across the nation, supporting them to lead their own musical progression and helping their music leaders embed the ILP principles into their own practice. In 2025 3,298 Online ILPs were created across 18 Hubs.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report

For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Screen captures from the upgraded ILP.

Personal Bursary

Children on the programme receive a bursary to use on expanding their musical interests and knowledge, and to help them achieve their musical goals through their Individual Learning Plan. In 2025 467 young people used their bursaries to not just expand their musical interests and knowledge but to help them keep playing music. For example in 2025:

• A student in Worcestershire used their bursary to fund a 1:1 music technology guided session at Load Street Studios near Kidderminster. Another bought tickets to see Nigel Kennedy perform in concert.

• One school in Liverpool pooled some of the bursaries to arrange a trip for Connect pupils to the British Music Experience.

Get Togethers

Every term we organise Get Together events for the children in their region. These are all kinds of high-quality musical opportunities and are a chance for the young people to explore the wide world of music and find inspiration for their own music making. Get Togethers are for students on the Connect programme but we also invite other students too, to offer exciting musical opportunities to more young people. We held 42 Get Togethers between January and December 2025. Here are some examples:

In March 2025, Connect students from Liverpool joined a workshop with Kris Halpin from Dyskinetic - a singer, songwriter and composer and disabled artist. Kris performed using the acclaimed Mu Mu gloves and the young people were able to try some of his technology designed for disabled musicians to use.

The summer term Get Together in Greater Manchester saw students from 8 Music Services come together at Stoller Hall for a day working alongside the National Children’s Orchestra. This was also supported by musicians from the National Youth Orchestra as part of our partnership with them. It was thanks to the Connect programme that these two organisations were able to work together.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Students in Staffordshire were invited to take part in a workshop with Joe Broughton, where they explored the genre of folk and composed their own piece of music together.

Over the summer term, Central Bedfordshire Connector Emma Eames led 3 separate Turntable Get Togethers in 3 different schools engaged in the programme.

“The Get Together at the Royal Northern College of Music was the best thing about Connect this term. It was fun to see all the different rooms in the college and to see where some of my teachers studied.” Raphael, Greater Manchester

“The Get Togethers are enjoyable. It’s good to see others in Liverpool with special needs with musical talent doing the same as me!” Alliah, Liverpool

“I really enjoyed the Get Together where we watched a film and there was live music playing as the soundtrack. I found it interesting seeing how the music worked with the film.” Ayaan, West Yorkshire

Mentors

Our Mentors provide personalised support to Connect children. We recognise how important it is for young people to receive peer support from musicians who have similar lived experiences and understand their challenges. Our Mentors are young people (between 18 and 25) some of whom have previously been supported by our Thrive programme. They also support the Connector to run the programme locally. In 2025 we delivered 674 mentoring sessions.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

“My name is Joseph, and I am a Connect Mentor in Central Bedfordshire for Young Sounds UK! I came on board after joining Inspiring Music, (the Central Bedfordshire music teaching group) as a brass teacher, and heard about Young Sounds through one of my colleagues. Young Sounds' work spoke volumes to me, because I nearly had to give up playing the trumpet when I was younger due to financial constraints. Hearing what Young Sounds do and knowing I could help work closely with a charity that aligns with my values made me really excited, which is why I was so delighted when I found out I would be the Mentor for Bedfordshire!

As a Mentor, I meet the students on the Connect programme, help them achieve their musical goals, and offer advice or support to them about any worries, questions, or concerns they may have. It is important that as their Mentor I also offer a supporting role at Get Togethers, which is where lots of children from different schools all come together for a musical event! We've just finished our Come and Play Day, where lots of students formed a Young Sounds Orchestra, and played through some music as a group. I really enjoy the Get Togethers, as you can see first-hand how music can be one of the strongest foundations for creating friendships and memories. I am excited to continue working with Young Sounds in the future and keep providing musical support to the charity!”

Joseph, Mentor

An example of a musical passport. Alumnus mentor Matthew Crisp. An example of a Teachers’ Forum.

Teachers’ Forums

In 2025 we held 39 Teachers’ Forums, attended by 407 teachers. Our evaluation is showing how these forums are helping teachers to share best practice and ideas, ultimately helping them to take a more young person-centred approach to their teaching.

“Connect sits amongst other funding and experience-based opportunities in Greater Manchester e.g. funding from Trust Music and other charities, RNCM Pathfinders scheme etc. I would say Connect offers the most 'all-round' opportunity to young people.” Emily Divver, Teacher/Connector in Greater Manchester

“Connect is essential for some who wouldn't usually have access to lessons and other opportunities. The area does offer lots of other opportunities for students with Albemarle ensembles and other local jam sessions, but some students wouldn't be able to access those without the help funding lesson time.” John Holbrook, Teacher, Hull

Connectors

In each of the Music Hub areas we engage a local Connector. In the Ambassador Hubs the Connector is responsible for supporting all the young people on the programme, communicating closely and regularly with their families, their instrumental teachers and all other programme partners. Given many Connect participants face a range of financial and social challenges the Connector’s role is crucial to their musical progress and continuation on the programme. They’re also there to tackle an ongoing barrier: how difficult it can often be for families and young musicians to find the information, advice and guidance they need. Often people find this by accident while others sadly don't, missing out on the support they need for their musical development. This extra time is enabling Connectors to be a visible point of assistance for all young people in their area, not just those directly supported by the Connect programme.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Connectors in our 10 Connector Hubs also help tackle this information challenge, run Teachers’ Forums and disseminate key learning on the programme’s approach across their regions. In 2025, 5,137 young people were assisted to new musical opportunities by Connectors.

Two examples:

In North Tyneside, our Connector Ashleigh was contacted by an alternative provision school about Brendan*. The staff at the school who work with Brendan said he is a talented musician and looking for opportunities to further his music. He is mostly self-taught and has a congenital hand difference. Ashleigh met with Brendan and his head teacher online to understand his interests and skills. She sent him some musical opportunities for him to take part in, including information on how to apply to join Rock School at Traxx - a rehearsal and studio space in North Shields. Brendon successfully applied and has been attending weekly sessions since September. Ashleigh is still in touch with his school and advocating for funded lessons.

*name has been changed.

In Devon our Connector Hannah has supported young people to successfully find funding: six have received funding from local Trusts, meaning their music tuition will be paid for until they leave school. 17-year-old Madison desperately needed funding to continue her trumpet and flute lessons. As well as successfully applying to our Thrive programme, Hannah also encouraged her to audition for the National Youth Orchestra. Madison says:

“I’ve been playing music since I was five, when I was given my first cornet and joined a local training brass band. Playing music is a very important part of my life, I play in a lot of ensembles in and outside school and this really forms my social life. I'm very hopeful that I can gain a place at conservatoire and gain employment in the music industry.”

Evaluating Connect’s impact

By being involved in Connect, we’re aiming for young people to:

• have an increased sense of ownership of their musical journey and to have experienced the joy of becoming better musicians, of discovering new music, and playing with others.

• have an increased self-belief, resulting from playing an instrument to the best of their ability and seeing themselves succeed musically.

Results from our termly surveys completed by Connect students and their teachers demonstrate the effectiveness of the programme.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Young people participating in Connect of young people agreed or strongly agreed that they are proud of the progress they 95% have made in learning music of young people agreed or strongly agreed that they have got better at playing their 95% instrument of young people agreed or strongly agreed that they were comfortable trying new 81% things. of young people agreed or strongly agreed that Connect has given them the 88% opportunity to access musical activities they otherwise wouldn’t have experienced. of young people agreed or strongly agreed playing or singing music helps them to 81% be more confident of young people agreed or strongly agreed that they did something they didn’t know 85% they were capable of.

Teachers participating in Connect

96% of teachers said they use a student-centred approach when teaching Connect students of teachers said that being part of Connect has helped them to develop their 78% student-centred teaching practice.

Sample feedback from teachers on their students’ progress in Connect:

“A has thrown himself into all aspects of the Connect programme - he has been practising, attended the Get Together at the Royal Northern College of Music (which he loved), and taken part in the school show The Greatest Showman with gusto. He absorbs every bit of music he can get and turns up beaming every week. He's made a great impression on his teachers and got a school Music Award at Christmas presentations. Being given the opportunity to move back to learning the tuba and being given access to an instrument that he could use at home as well as one at school so that he didn't have to transport it back and forth made a big difference and helped him progress.” Helen, teacher in West Yorkshire, about A, 12, tuba

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

“B has just moved into Year 7, after having had lessons since Year 4, and we’ve been able to continue offering him lessons at his new secondary school. His enthusiasm has really grown. He turns up every week on time (sometimes very early!) for his lesson, always remembers his music and instrument and is very keen to learn and continue playing even with his transition to secondary school. It's been good to see an example of how keeping children continuing with music lessons as they move into Year 7 can work, as long as the right support is there for them.” Emily, teacher in Greater Manchester, about B, 11, flute

“A has really thrown herself into guitar this year, even more than previously. She is coming to lessons with songs that she has found and she is able to independently learn difficult material. A seems to be becoming more confident in a number of ways. I was pleasantly surprised that she applied to study Music at college - and she received an offer to do so! She now believes in her abilities to a greater extent. She never looks for the 'easy way' to play something and she is developing her fluidity and sense of ease with her instrument.” Oliver, teacher in West Yorkshire, on A, 16, guitar.

And the impact on their own practice:

“I had my first forum on the 2nd of July, it was nice to meet everyone. I liked that we could talk about concerns we had in schools. I liked talking about what struggles we had. I liked being involved in conversation over the plans for the next year. The most useful was being able to talk about struggles that I personally have with children, and how I can resolve them.”

Ben, Teacher in Southampton and the Isle of Wight

Impact for families

Parents and carers regularly tell us about the impact Connect has had on their child and on the wider family too.

“Since Angus began one-to-one violin lessons, his enthusiasm for playing has grown. He’s making steady progress through his tutor book, which keeps him motivated, and he now picks up his violin almost every day. The Get Togethers have been especially inspiring for Angus. He was transfixed by the cajón playing in the Joe Broughton folk workshop, and he used his bursary to buy a cajón of his own. When we listen to music at home, he leaps up and plays along. The DJing and sound-recording workshops have sparked sessions of experimentation at home too – we have long sessions on GarageBand and recording multiple tracks on our keyboard so he can play cajón along with his own music.” Parent of Angus, 7, violin, Staffordshire

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report

For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

3. Thrive

Thrive participant at Music Creators Day at the Purcell School.

478	£147,500	£19,069	50%
Instrumentalists, singers	in funding was	Average household income	of award winners
and music	granted across four	of award winners	identified as Global
creators supported by the	cohorts		Majority, 6% as disabled
programme

The biggest barrier many of our young people face is a financial one: developing musical potential is extremely expensive. Since our launch we’ve supported more than 3,300 young people aged 5-18 who would otherwise find their musical costs prohibitive. 301 new awards were offered in 2025, which added to the existing award holders continuing their engagement on the programme within the year brings the total number of young people supported in the year to 478.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report

For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Key programme elements

Financial awards 12 months to spend the funds with access to musical advice and opportunities throughout the year.

Mentoring

One to one mentoring is available for each participant from a trained Mentor, often an Alumni of Young Sounds.

Workshops One-off projects and events each year, ranging from chamber music projects to mentoring programmes, masterclasses and workshops with our Patrons.

Thrive Days

An opportunity to meet like-minded young musicians and learn from professionals. These events are always free to take part in and help is provided with travel and accommodation costs.

Ticket offers

To attend concerts and events with our partners including the BBC Orchestras, BBC Singers, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, CBSO, Bristol Beacon and at multiple venues to see Diana Ross.

Performance opportunities We put on events across the UK, from Edinburgh to London featuring performances by Thrive supported young people representing a range of musical genres.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Financial Awards

Following the findings of a Needs Analysis during the year we now make awards of up to £3,000 to talented instrumentalists, music creators and singers, making and/or creating music in any genre, who are resident and studying in the UK. Applicants send in a five-minute video of themselves playing their instrument or singing, or of their composition or track, and they complete an online application form. When a conditional offer of an award is made, parents/carers are required to provide documentary evidence of financial need. (All applications are means tested.) Applicants are asked to tell us about their musical journey in their application, including their ambitions for the future and their proudest musical moment. We fund a wide range of musical needs including instruments, music lessons and other costs such as travel and software. We keep our funding as flexible as possible to meet young people’s individual needs. An independent panel of adjudicators with expertise in a range of genres decides on all aspects of the grants made, use an inclusive and rigorous decision-making methodology.

Map of young people supported by our Thrive programme.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Eligibility criteria

Young musicians of intermediate and advanced technical skill can apply at any point in the year, with grants made three times a year, allowing young people to apply when they most need the funding. Decisions are made within 16 weeks.

Age The young person must be at least 7 and under 18 when they apply.

Residency status The young musician must satisfy the government criteria in force at the time of application. We welcome applications from refugees and asylum seekers.

Musical study

The young musician must be learning a musical instrument, singing or creating music as a composer or producer.

Evidence of musical talent/potential

We look for evidence of high musical talent/potential. Our Thrive programme is not aimed at beginner-level musicians, nor do we expect all applicants to have taken top-level grades or be members of national ensembles. We understand that everyone is on their own musical journey. Applicants provide video evidence of their playing.

Evidence of financial need

The Thrive programme is means-tested. Our eligibility threshold is modelled on the lowest level threshold employed by the Government's Music and Dance scheme. This looks at the annual gross family income of the home in which the young person mainly lives and takes into account the number of dependent children within that household.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Mentoring

The second phase of our Exchange project with the BBC Orchestras concluded in the summer. Thrive participants aged between 15 to 18 worked with musicians from the BBC’s five orchestras – the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBCSO), BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. The project connects with participants at pivotal points in their journeys: preparing for music college or university or making decisions about career options. 24 young musicians were matched with a BBC musician for six mentoring sessions each, gaining access to music experiences across the BBC with their Mentors acting as a role model, guide and advocate. Feedback from mentees was effusive:

“It was an incredible experience and I really enjoyed meeting (my mentor) and benefited a lot from her help! 100/10 experience.”

“It was wonderful having a mentor, and being on the project gave me access to opportunities that I would never have imagined. I really enjoyed playing with my mentor and making music, as well as discussing topics such as managing stress and the work life balance of being a musician. I developed my knowledge about the BBCSO and the security with that job which was very insightful. Overall, my mentor was a great listening ear and teacher to help me with my skills as a player.”

“This project has definitely been a highlight of my year. The mentorship meetings have been the deepest I have ever gone in thinking about how music fits into my life.”

“The project gave me insight into all aspects of being part of the BBC. Being involved with music does not only include being a musician in the orchestra but also does not have one mandatory 'pathway' to become part of the orchestra. It has helped me settle into the atmosphere of a professional orchestra and get a feel for the speed at which a professional orchestra works and the attitude everyone has to coming together and bringing a piece of music to life!”

Exchange participants and BBC Orchestra musicians in Manchester.

Having completed Phase 1 in September, we were successful in receiving a second year of generous support from the Margaret Engering Music Trust and have begun Phase 2 of Engering Music Creators (EMC). We’re supporting up to 10 young composers, songwriters and producers with 1:1 mentoring from industry professionals and Thrive Alumni, online Twilight Sessions, and a range of in-person events. Alongside the project activity, our Engering Music Creators have been given a composition brief, on an environmental theme, which they’ll work on throughout the year, ending their project with a day workshopping and recording their creations with professional musicians. In addition, on recommendation from Mentors where barriers have been identified, financial support for particular software needs is available.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Quotes from Phase 1 in 2025:

Twilight session ‘Music Creator Pathways’

“Great insightful session, I would definitely be interested in future events like this, as I learned lots! Please keep doing sessions like this, as they help teens like me consider a career in music!” Mayukhjit (14) flute, Essex

Mentoring sessions

“I really enjoyed it! I found it very engaging and am excited to see how they progress. Daniel's mentoring style is brilliant, I felt respected and confident, and I very much look forward to the next session.” Clem (17) composer, West Yorkshire

Music Creators Day

“The activities were engaging and enlightening, on a level that was close enough to be understandable to me and far enough to be challenging in an enjoyable way. I feel I gained a lot out of the day on the whole.” Twinkle (17) singer/songwriter, Sussex

Young musicians taking part in the EMC Music Creators Day.

Workshops

We offer a variety of workshops to our Thrive participants, often led by our Patrons. These are targeted to particular genres, instruments or types of performance. 2025 workshops included the following:

Pianists from the Thrive programme were invited to a Piano Day in January. Five advanced pianists were given the opportunity to have individual masterclasses while other young pianists observed and took part in bite-sized workshops, led by pianist Libby Burgess and supported by Thrive Alumna, Alex McChrystal.

“It was a really enjoyable and useful event, really helped my piano playing, and also so many useful things about practice and performance. Libby Burgess was an amazing teacher, so creative and musical, so much useful advice. Spending the time with other young pianists was so much fun as well, meeting other young pianists.”

Benjamin (16) piano, London

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Piano Masterclass with Libby Burgess (above). Conductors Day with Richard Farnes (below).

In September we ran a very well received conducting workshop for aspiring conductors and other interested young musicians, led by Richard Farnes CBE. Feedback included:

‘Richard was incredibly engaging and took the time to explain the art of conducting before we began the masterclass. He made everyone feel included, regardless of prior experience. I had never conducted before and by the end, I felt inspired and excited to explore conducting further. The atmosphere was welcoming and encouraging, which made the day really enjoyable.’

Sofia (17) double bass, West Midlands

Thrive Days

These events bring young musicians together to collaborate and learn. We held three Thrive Days in 2025.

In May advanced young musicians attended an exciting day at BBC Philharmonic Studio at MediaCity, Salford. Activities included practising audition techniques and Q&As with orchestral musicians including mentors from the Exchange programme who met up with their mentees during the day. Young people also had the chance to make their own BBC Radio 3 programme in the real-life professional studios.

In June we collaborated with The Stringcredibles on an event for young musicians at an earlier technical level, held at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. They learnt about stage presence and best performance practice, followed by group improvisation to a film about nature. The young people enjoyed working together as like-minded musicians:

“The best thing about the day was working with other young musicians in a fun, creative environment at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, composing and performing new music with guidance from professional musicians.” Alyia (12) oboe, Scotland

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Photos from The Stringcredibles day at RBC.

In November we invited young musicians on our Thrive programme to participate in an Orchestral Experience Day at the BBC Maida Vale Studios in London. Young people attended from across the UK. Students played side-byside within the BBCSO conducted by Richard Farnes CBE.

Those interested in audio production spent the day with the BBC Radio Team making and editing their own radio programme about the event.

‘I had an amazing time working with such inspirational musicians, it was really interesting to see what a day of rehearsals looked like with the BBC and helped give insight into what it would be like working with a professional orchestra! I learnt so much from playing with the section particularly when it came to blending sound and balancing dynamics. The mix between young musicians and professional players made for a really nice atmosphere and an unforgettable day! Cole (16) trumpet, Somerset

‘The audio production team was very supportive and inclusive. It was amazing to learn from their expertise. It was really cool to be able to go to the studio and see and use the equipment there. I can't think of anything that could've been done to make the experience better.’ Elouan (16) creator, Bournemouth.

Young musicians taking part in our BBC Side-by-Side Day at Maida Vale Studios.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Ticket Offers

We work with partners to provide tickets to attend professional performances, rehearsals, and masterclasses. This offers valuable exposure and learning opportunities. In 2025 we were able to extend 1,384 invitations across 44 opportunities, resulting in 90 people being able to attend events. Partners who supported us during the year included four BBC Orchestras, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The Mozartisists, BBC Singers, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Trinity Laban.

Performance Opportunities

We offer the opportunity for vital performance experience during our fundraising concerts held at prestigious and interesting venues. In 2025 24 young musicians including eight Alumni had the opportunity to perform in front of an audience. This included our end of year fundraiser at the magnificent Drapers’ Hall

featuring surprise performances from Alumna Patron Jess Gillam and Alumnus Ben Goldscheider to celebrate the contribution of the outgoing Chair Phillip Jones. You can read more about some of these concerts and the young musicians who performed here.

Images from various fundraising events that took place in 2025.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Evaluating the Thrive programme’s impact

Our Thrive programme aims for the following outcomes for young people:

• Increased musical development as a result of the funding and experiences provided by the programme.

• Expanded musical horizons, skills, knowledge, experience and networks.

• Increased confidence and raised aspirations in pursuing a creative career, whether on or off the stage.

of Thrive participants agree that the programme has increased their ability to 95% reach their musical goals.

say that the programme has increased their confidence in pursuing a 90% musical career.

Our Thrive team and evaluation colleagues learn from young musicians’ feedback to develop the programme further and offer new opportunities. In early 2025 we also commissioned a Needs Analysis for the Thrive programme, to help inform the next few years of its development.

Many Alumni of the Thrive programme are now shaping the sector for future generations. They include saxophonist, broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 and Young Sounds Patron Jess Gillam MBE, Mahaliah Edwards (violinist, Alumna Trustee and presenter of Sounds Connected on BBC Radio 3), Caius Lee (Director of College Music at Worcester College, Oxford and a former Alumnus Trustee) and film and TV composer Theo Elwell. Alumna Trustee Seyhogue Aulakh is also an in-demand percussionist.

Some feedback from current Thrive musicians and recent Alumni:

“It’s not just about receiving financial support but also about joining a community of like-minded musicians who share my passion for music. I know this helps me grow both as a performer and in my technical development.” Sofia (17) double bass, West Midlands

“I am immensely grateful for all the support I received. For starters, thanks to the financial support I was able to rent a viola. I hold very fond memories of all the opportunities I was able to take part in through this programme. It gave me the opportunity to meet many professionals in the industry, make new friends and develop my skills and learn new ones” Sophia (19) viola, London

“I can honestly say I would not be where I am today without the support from Young Sounds. It completely changed my life and gave me confidence in pursuing a career in the arts. My music finds its way into every aspect of my life and I am able to continue to develop as a performer, with the support from Young Sounds.” Shenara (20) concertina/fiddle, Manchester

‘‘Being part of the Thrive programme broadened my musical horizons by giving me access to new opportunities, mentors, and perspectives that helped shape my development.

The funding from Young Sounds removed key financial barriers, enabling me to access the training and opportunities I needed to progress and achieve important milestones in my musical journey .” Guadalupe (18) oboe, Surrey

“If I didn’t receive the support and opportunities I got from the Young Sounds UK, I would not have had the inspiration and understanding to perform to others or with them and to really show what music really is about. It’s a neverending story.” Diego (19) flute, London

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

4. Innovate

We use our independent role in music education to lead new thinking and action on talent development. During 2025 we were invited to participate in key national discussions around the planned new National Centre for Arts and Music Education, set to be launched in September 2026.

The National Working Group on Progression, convened by Music Mark as part of the Young Sounds led Music Opportunities Pilot, has the remit to articulate a shared definition of progression and progress in music. Consensus and clarity on this important topic across the sector would be a major milestone, helping to ensure that all young people – particularly those facing the most obstacles – can fulfil their potential.

Fundraising

Photo from our autumn fundraiser at Drapers’ Hall.

Overview of the year

Our revenues grew strongly again in 2025 and totalled £2,528,118. Donations came from a variety of sources: individual donors, grant making trusts, public funders and a range of donated goods and services. We’re confident that Young Sounds UK’s strategic approach and high impact will continue to attract funding for our work over the coming years.

Our support community

Our community of supporters are committed to giving their time and expertise in working with the organisation’s staff team to help us meet our objectives and make a considerable difference to our impact.

Our Trustees give very significant support to the staff team, providing assistance across a range of areas including business planning, fundraising, financial management, sector insight, communications, networking and more. Our Patrons also offer valuable support: for example in the autumn Alumna Patron Jess Gillam MBE performed brilliantly alongside fellow Alumni and Thrive young musicians at our Drapers’ Hall fundraising event, compered by Patron Zeb Soanes.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Patron Zeb Soanes compering our autumn fundraiser[Alumna Patron Jess Gillam performing at our autumn ] fundraiser.

Our funders

We’re hugely appreciative of the support of the following funders during 2025:

AKO Foundation	The Alan Brentnall Charitable Trust
Aram Charitable Trust	The Andor Charitable Trust
The Cecil King Memorial Foundation	The Anthony and Elizabeth Mellows Charitable Settlement
Craignish Charitable Trust	The Ashford Trust
Derek Hill Foundation	The Chalk Cliff Trust
E B M Charitable Trust	The Cheryl King Trust
Garfield Weston Foundation	The D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust
The Finzi Trust	The Finderman Charitable Trust
Gordon Pack Charitable Trust	The Henry Lumley Charitable Trust
Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation	The Hugh Fraser Foundation
Hephaistos Trust	The Karlsson Jativa Charitable Foundation
Margaret Engering Music Trust	The Margaret and David Walker Trust
Middle Way Trust	The Martin Charitable Trust
Misses Barrie Charitable Trust	The Percy Hedley 1990 Charitable Trust
Modiano Charitable Trust	The Reed Foundation
New Philanthropy for Arts & Culture	The Samuel Gardner Memorial Trust
Oakdale Trust	The Slater Foundation Limited

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

The Patricia Routledge Charitable Trust	The So-Ma Trust
Pear Tree Fund for Music	The Thomas Sivewright Catto Charitable Settlement
Purposeful Ventures	The Prism Charitable Trust
Q Charitable Trust	The William and Sarah Newsom Charitable Trust
Sir Cliff Richard Charitable Trust	The Worshipful Company of Drapers
Sir Maxwell Harper Gow Charitable Trust	Warner Priory Charitable Trust
The Swire Charitable Trust	and two funders who wish to remain anonymous

Public funders

We’d like to thank our public funders from whom we are in receipt of multi-year grant funding: Arts Council England, Department for Education and Youth Music.

Donors

Our network of individual donors continued to widen during 2025. Our generous Angels commit to either donate or raise at least £1,000 each year, in support of the talented young people we help. We would particularly like to thank our current Angels, as follows:

Archangels		Guardian Angels
Dr Linda Beeley		Lynda Beament
David Gilmore		Douglas Bruce, CA, LRAM, ARCM, ARCO
Louise Kaye		Hywel Davies
Dr Linda Patterson OBE		Terry Hitchcock
Jonathan and Gillian Pickering		Philip Jones and Noel Qualter
Thomas Raymond Reesby		Stephanie and Marek Kulesza
Dave and Veronica Russell		Aileen Lauler
and two Archangels who wish to remain anonymous.		Beverley Mason and Lara Pysden
		Gordon Pack
		Guy Turner
		Margaret and David Walker

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report

For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Angels
Tim and Helen Berg	Michael Littlechild
Alan and Patricia Botterill	Primrose Metcalf
Handa Bray MBE DL	Paul and Ruth Meyer and Rachel and Shaun Moore
Richard and Elena Bridges	Michael Mitchell and Greg Taylor
Robert Canavan	Kieran Morgan
Marilyn and Michael Dolan and Ria Hopkinson	Dr Dele and Eleanor Olajide
David Emmerson	Jessica Osborne
Madeleine Gantley	Andrew Palmer
Anna Gordon	Sue Pandit
Giles Gostwick	Andrew Peck
Christine Gough	Elizabeth Rantzen
Roger Gundry	Julia Roth
Uta Hope	Julian Schild
Yvonne Horsfall Turner	Jacky Sellers
Ulrike Horstmann-Guthrie	Thomas Sharpe KC
Joy Humphreys	Terence and Sian Sinclair
Mary and Peter Isaac	Janis Susskind OBE
Jenny James	Richard and Gail Taylor
Natalia Jimenez and Edmund Fawcett	Diana Toeman OBE
Kathryn Jones	Professor Sir David Warrell KCMG
Dr Ursula Jones OBE	David White
Honor Juniper	Richard and Alison Williams
Mike Kirkham	Keith Wilson
Colin Kirkpatrick	Ayanna Witter-Johnson and Val Harding and Trevor Walker
Michael Lewin	and six Angels who wish to remain anonymous.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Champions

We also grew the number of Young Sounds UK Champions who commit to giving at least £5 a month to 81 people.

The Robert Lewin Circle

The Robert Lewin Circle honours those who have pledged to leave a legacy to Young Sounds. We’d like to thank:

The Robert Lewin Circle The Robert Lewin Circle honours those who have pledged to leave a legacy to Young Sounds. We’d like to thank:	The Robert Lewin Circle The Robert Lewin Circle honours those who have pledged to leave a legacy to Young Sounds. We’d like to thank:
Tim and Helen Berg	Elin Lloyd
Handa Bray MBE DL	Clare and Chris Loosley
Douglas Bruce, CA, LRAM, ARCM, ARCO	Julia Roth
Hywel Davies	Diana Toeman OBE
Rosalind Earp	Malcolm Touchin
Giles Gostwick	Andrew Tween
Uta Hope	Laurie Watt
Michael Lewin	and 22 legacy pledgers who wish to remain anonymous.

We continued to be very appreciative of a very substantial legacy from the estate of Quintin and Monica Des Clayes received in late 2019. Their generous expendable endowment has enabled the establishment of a new group of Awards and support for our Connect programme.

During 2025 we received further legacies in the names of David Bateman, Neil Baxter. Rosemary Gent and Rachel Owens. In addition, Young Sounds UK was the beneficiary of several funeral collections.

Fundraising concerts

We continued to develop our network of donors, volunteers and friends. We held six fundraising concerts during the year, three in London and one each in Oxford, Edinburgh and North Yorkshire. Our major autumn concert in November 2025 at Drapers’ Hall in London was hosted by Young Sounds Patron Zeb Soanes. The venue and all the other costs of the evening were very generously donated by the Drapers’ Company. We always aim to use venues provided probono where we can with catering often covered by our generous donors too.

Autumn fundraiser at Drapers’ Hall.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

We continued our annual participation in two national campaigns: the Big Give Christmas Challenge and Remember a Charity. We once again exceeded our Big Give target, raising a fantastic £103,512 including match funding and Gift Aid. We also held our third legacy event for Remember a Charity Week, encouraging our supporters to share their stories about why they’re leaving a legacy.

Fundraising for Young Sounds UK

We are grateful to corporate supporters, community groups, students and amateur orchestras who have fundraised for us by holding charity concerts. We also launched a brand-new fundraising kit with all the information and assets needed for those who’d like to fundraise for us in future.

Examples of our fundraising activity and a mock-up of our fundraising toolkit.

Young Sounds UK’s fundraising practices

We carry out the majority of our fundraising in house by employing a full time Development Manager who oversees fundraising through individuals and Trusts and Foundations. Young Sounds UK’s Chief Executive writes large strategic and public funding applications. We also have a full-time Development Coordinator whose core remit is to fundraise from Trusts and Foundations and to support the Development Manager. Committed supporters also fundraise on our behalf.

We are a member of the Fundraising Regulator and pay a flat fee of £180 per year. We subscribe to their Code of Conduct and review our practices annually to ensure they remain aligned.

There were no incidents of non-compliance in 2025 and we received no complaints about our fundraising practice. Our fundraising activities are monitored:

• Monthly, through our Major Gifts sub-committee. The sub-committee group’s members comprise the Chief Executive, the Development Manager, Development Coordinator and a minimum of two Trustees.

• Quarterly, through Trustee meetings: Fundraising is always discussed at every meeting and progress is reviewed.

• Quarterly, through a fundraising strategy review: the Chief Executive and Development Manager review activities and targets as set out in our fundraising strategy.

We have a privacy notice, published on our website (updated and ratified annually by Trustees, most recently at the time of writing in June 2025) which states how supporters and other members of the public can control how communications with them are managed. In compliance with GDPR, we are also responsive to all communication preference updates and act according to the wishes of the supporter. We do not make persistent direct requests for donations and aim to achieve the correct balance between updating and thanking supporters and appealing for donations.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

We also aim to create personal relationships with our supporters and aspire to make them comfortable to know that they can raise any concerns directly with the Development Manager and/or Chief Executive. As we have had no complaints about our fundraising practice in 2025 we believe this suggests that we have managed to achieve this balance.

Governance

Objects of the charity

As stated in our formal objects, we were established to advance public education and appreciation of the art and science of music, with particular emphasis on the promotion of specialist music education amongst children and young persons under the age of 18 years old in particular but not exclusively by the establishment and maintenance of scholarships and other awards. Our aims fully reflect the purposes for which the charity was established: to give musically talented young people between the ages of 5 and 18 the opportunity to realise their full creative potential where this may be limited by the financial circumstances of their parents/carers.

Organisational structure

Young Sounds UK employs Hester Cockcroft as its full time Chief Executive; she is responsible for overseeing the charity’s programmes and for making ongoing organisational decisions. The Chief Executive makes strategic recommendations to Trustees and delivers strategy according to decisions reached by the Trustees on these recommendations. Madelyn Brown is our Finance and Operations Director, Sophia Loizou is Discover Programme Manager, Neil Phillips is Programme Director for our Connect programme and Jessica Burroughs is Thrive Programme Director. 2025 saw other changes in the Thrive Team, with Charlotte Lincoln promoted to Programme Producer and Katie King joining us as Programme Administrator. Sanpreet Janjua is our Development Manager, with Edward Drew joining her in March 2026 as Development Coordinator. Matthew Tiller is our Marketing and Communications Manager and Beth Harris is our Marketing and Communications Assistant. Nick Daniels is our part-time Data Officer. April Guasp joined us as full time Evaluation Director in September, alongside our new full time Operations Assistant, Sophie Ashley.

Our staff team are joined by key freelance colleagues, all working part time for Young Sounds: Lee Marchant and Katie Walker are Programme Producers for Connect, Maria Hemmings is our Finance Officer and Oliver Humpage is our Systems Consultant. The charity has never had a physical office in its 28 years. All staff and freelance colleagues work from their respective homes.

Trustees

Young Sounds UK is committed to increasing the diversity of its Board of Trustees. During 2025 two new Trustees joined the Board, including new Chair Anthony Hamer-Hodges. Four retired, including three of our longest serving Trustees, Philip Jones (our Chair for 18 years), Beverley Mason and Michael Littlechild also Trustees for 20 years. The recruitment of new Board members is part of our succession planning process, enabling a transition period for long term Trustees to handover to newer Trustees, balancing continuity of knowledge with new thinking.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

All new Trustees, including Alumni Trustees, undertake an induction process and ongoing training is arranged as necessary for good practice purposes and to ensure full compliance (e.g. safeguarding updates). Alumnus Trustee Max Brown stood down in September and percussionist Sehyogue Aulakh joined us as Alumna Trustee the same month. March 2026 saw the appointment of four new Trustees: Stephen Clay, Lawrence Haddad, Joy Hume and Ellie Nugent.

The current Trustees represent a significant asset to the charity and will remain a major component of our future success. All Trustees give their time voluntarily and none have any beneficial interest in the company. All are members of the company and guarantee to contribute £1 in the event of a winding up.

Sub-committees

Young Sounds UK runs five sub-committees comprising staff and Trustees (the Chief Executive attends all of them); these take place online. We’re currently running three monthly: Audit and Risk, Major Gifts, and Communications; one quarterly: EDI; and Board Nominations as directed by the board in line with applications and recruitment activity.

Review of activities and public benefit

The impact of our support for the young people we help has considerable public benefit. By enabling young musicians to overcome the financial, social and other obstacles they face, our work not only benefits the recipients but also their families, schools and wider communities. Musical achievement opens doors for young people which would otherwise be closed to them. Many of the young people we help go on to gain full scholarships to highly regarded schools and often on to music college and top-tier universities: this has a transformative impact on their social mobility and life chances. It also helps to create a more diverse and inclusive music industry.

We review our aims, objectives and activities annually; we ensure these are carried out effectively through our business plan, in order to make certain that our work continues to be of benefit to the public, in particular to children and young people, as set out in our Objects. We monitor all our beneficiaries on the basis of voluntary declarations so that we can continue to improve our equity and diversity outcomes.

Safeguarding

Young Sounds UK ensures that all the young people it supports are kept safe. All staff, Trustees, freelancers and volunteers are regularly DBS checked. Our Safeguarding policy is reviewed annually and ratified by Trustees (most recently at time of writing in December 2025). Staff and Trustees are required to participate in safeguarding training.

Financial Review

Income grew by 31% (£1,931,843 in 2024; £2,528,118 in 2025), with a higher increase in restricted funds (up 40%) than unrestricted (up 17%). A significant part of the growth is attributable to the public funding received in relation to the first full year of the Music Opportunities Pilot (MOP). We also welcomed our first sizeable grant from Purposeful Ventures, as well as our first restricted funding specifically for developing our Discover programme.

As we expanded and developed our work utilising the additional funding our costs increased proportionally to the growth in income (by 31%; £1,672,984 in 2024; £2,197,655 in 2025). Again, a significant portion of the growth was a result of the expansion of our Connect programme under the MOP (£435,389 of the £524,671 total increase in expenditure). Expenditure relating to the financial awards made as part of our Thrive programme also increased significantly (by 78%; £79,461 in 2024; £141,439 in 2025).

2025 saw changes to the team structure as discussed elsewhere in this report. Thanks to the restricted funding received for the Discover programme we were able to double capacity of the workstream. The Purposeful Ventures restricted funding allowed us to recruit our first full time Evaluation Director. In addition to the reorganisation and expansion of the Thrive team, we also expanded capacity on our Communications team, and engaged an Operations Assistant to help with our in-person events and fundraising capacity. Overall the expenditure on our people (staff and key freelancers) increased by £165,643 (46%) compared to 2024.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Expenditure on non-people related indirect costs (communications, fundraising, core costs) fell slightly year on year (£174,792 in 2024; £163,252 in 2025). There was less expenditure needed for communications, following the rebrand to our working name in 2024 and increased capacity on the team meaning more work could be done in-house. We held two fewer fundraising events than in 2024 therefore our expenditure on that budget line reduced accordingly.

Our total net income before transfers held relatively steady as a percentage of our total income, at 15% and 14% year on year (£285,105 in 2024; £359,866 in 2025).

Reserves policy

Unrestricted carried funds of £676,142 exceed the charity’s reserves policy target of covering 6 months operational costs, with the expectation that additional funds will be drawn down for operational purposes in 2026.

Restricted carried funds of £521,690 are to be used for specific purposes within each or our core programme areas, as well as providing continued support for our evaluation capacity.

Investment policy

Trustees have decided that unrestricted funds including expendable endowment funds, the use of which is not foreseen for at least six months and which includes any free reserves designated under the reserves policy, may be invested in low-risk funds managed by specialists in handling charitable investment portfolios. Such investments must be capable of liquidation at relatively short notice.

Risk factors

The risks affecting the charity are assessed by Trustees via a Risk Register, overseen and updated quarterly by the charity’s Audit and Risk Committee before being tabled at Board meetings. All necessary steps are taken to mitigate the risks identified as priorities in terms of likelihood and impact.

Asset cover for funds

Note 12 sets out an analysis of the assets attributable to the various funds. These assets are sufficient to meet the charity’s obligations on a fund-by-fund basis.

Young Sounds UK owns six high-quality violins remaining from Robert Lewin’s original legacy. They are currently being held by Florian Leonhard Fine Violins prior to their intended sale: the monies raised will support the development of more talented young musicians from low-income families. We have received written confirmation from Florian Leonhard that the instruments are appropriately insured and will be carefully maintained until they are sold.

Statement of responsibilities of the Trustees

The Trustees (who are also directors of the charity for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ report and the financial statements in accordance with 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 Trustees are required to prepare financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and the group and the incoming resources and application of resources, including the net income or expenditure, of the charity and the group for the year.

In preparing those financial statements the trustees are required to:

• Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

• Observe the methods and principles in the applicable Charities SORP;

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Trustees’ Report For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

• Make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

• State whether applicable accounting standards and statements of recommended practice 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 proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and the group and which enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006.

The Trustees 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 so far as the Trustees are aware:

• there is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company's auditors are unaware; and

• the Trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditors are aware of that information.

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

Members of the charity guarantee to contribute an amount not exceeding £1 to the assets of the charity in the event of winding up. The Trustees are members of the charity but this entitles them only to voting rights. The Trustees have no beneficial interest in the charity.

Auditors

Albert Goodman Chartered Accountants were re-appointed as the charitable company's auditors during the year and have expressed their willingness to act in that capacity.

This report was approved by the Board of Trustees on 27 June 2026.

Anthony Hamer-Hodges (Chair) Trustee

Fintan Canavan Trustee

42

Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Independent Auditors' Report to the Members and Trustees For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Awards for Young Musicians (the 'charitable company') for the year ended 31 December 2025 , which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, Balance Sheet and Notes to the Financial Statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice, including Financial Reporting Standard 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company's affairs as at 31 December 2025 and of its incoming resources and application of resources for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

• 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 charitable company 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.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustee’s 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 entity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least 12 months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the Trustees’ Report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Independent Auditors' Report to the Members and Trustees For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Opinion on other matter prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

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

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

• the Directors' Report included within the Trustees’ Report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

In the light of our knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Directors' Report included within the Trustees’ Report.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

• adequate and proper accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

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

• certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or

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

• the trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies’ regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in preparing the Trustee Directors’ Report and from the requirement to prepare a Strategic Report.

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the Statement of Trustees' Responsibilities set out on pages 39-40, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

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:

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Independent Auditors' Report to the Members and Trustees For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

The extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities including fraud

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 management, and from our commercial knowledge and experience of the charity 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, Charity Act 2011, employment, data protection 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 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;

• reading the minutes of meetings of those charged with governance;

• enquiring of management as to actual and potential litigation, claims and breaches of relevant legislation; and

• reviewing correspondence with the Charity Commission and other relevant regulators including the company’s legal advisors and insurers.

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.

45

Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Independent Auditors' Report to the Members and Trustees For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council's website at www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members and 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 charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body and the charitable company’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Michelle Ferris BSc (Hons) FCA DChA (Senior Statutory Auditor)

for and on behalf of Albert Goodman LLP Chartered Accountants Statutory Auditor

Goodwood House Blackbrook Park Avenue Taunton Somerset TA1 2PX

Date:07 July 2026

46

Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Statement of Financial Activities (including Income & Expenditure account) For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

----- Start of picture text -----
Endow- Unres- 2025 Total Endow- Unres- 2024 Total
Notes ment tricted Re-stricted ment tricted Re-stricted
£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £
Income
Donations and legacies 2 - 339,547 738,459 1,078,006 - 356,303 773,718 1,130,021
Charitable activities 3 - 458,559 972,220 1,430,779 - 349,299 444,500 793,799
Investments - 19,333 - 19,333 8,023 - - 8,023
Total income - 817,439 1,710,679 2,528,118 8,023 705,602 1,218,218 1,931,843
Expenditure
Raising funds 4 - 112,010 308 112,318 - 92,221 249 92,470
Charitable activities 4 - 512,820 1,572,517 2,085,337 - 506,046 1,074,469 1,580,515
- -
Total expenditure 624,830 1,572,825 2,197,655 598,267 1,074,718 1,672,985
Net income / (expenditure)
before other recognised
-
gains / (loss) 192,609 137,854 330,463 8,023 107,335 143,500 258,858
Other recognised gains
Net gain/ (loss) on
investments 5,167 24,236 - 29,403 19,714 6,533 - 26,247
Net income / (expenditure)
for the year before transfers 5,167 216,845 137,854 359,866 27,737 113,868 143,500 285,105
Transfers 11 - - - - (285,220) 285,220 - -
Net movement in funds 5,167 216,845 137,854 359,866 (257,483) 399,088 143,500 285,105
Reconciliation of funds
Total funds brought forward 96,846 454,297 388,836 939,979 354,329 55,209 245,336 654,874
Total funds carried forward 102,013 671,142 526,690 1,299,845 96,846 454,297 388,836 939,979
----- End of picture text -----

The results for the year derive from continuing activities and there are no gains or losses other than those shown above.

The statement of financial activities incorporates the income and expenditure account.

47

Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Company Registration Number: 03602851 Balance sheet As at 31 December 2025

----- Start of picture text -----
Notes 2025 2024
£ £
Fixed assets
Tangible fixed assets 7 39,049 35,326
Investments 8 421,143 444,520
460,192 479,846
Current assets
Debtors 9 260,206 381,071
Cash at bank and in hand 781,302 260,962
1,041,508 642,033
Creditors
Amounts falling due within one year 10 (201,855) (181,900)
Net current assets 839,653 460,133
Net assets 1,299,845 939,979
Funds
Restricted funds 11 526,690 388,836
Unrestricted funds
Expendable endowment funds 11 102,013 96,846
Unrestricted funds 11 671,142 454,297
773,155 551,143
Total charity funds 1,299,845 939,979
----- End of picture text -----

Approved by the Board for issue on 27 June 2026 and signed on its behalf by:

A Hamer-Hodges (Chair) F Canavan Trustee Trustee

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Statement of Cash Flows As at 31 December 2025

----- Start of picture text -----
2025 2024
£ £
Notes
Cash flows from operating activities
Net income for the year 359,866 285,105
Adjustments to cash flows from non-cash items:
Dividends and interest from investments (19,333) (8,023)
(Gain)/loss on investments (29,403) (26,247)
Depreciation and amortisation 7 995 531
312,125 251,366
Working capital adjustments
Decrease / (increase) in debtors 9 120,865 (294,462)
Increase / (decrease) in creditors 10 19,955 (31,908)
Net cash flow from operations 452,945 (75,004)
Cash flows from investing activities
Purchase of tangible fixed assets 7 (4,718) -
- -
Disposal of tangible fixed assets
Dividends and interest from investments 72,113 8,023
67,395 8,023
Net increase in cash and
cash equivalents 520,340 (66,981)
Cash and cash equivalents at the 260,962 327,943
beginning of the reporting period
Cash and cash equivalents at the 781,302 260,962
end of the reporting period
----- End of picture text -----

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Notes to the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

1 Accounting policies

1.1

General information and basis of accounting

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities in preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019) - (Charities SORP (FRS 102)), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

Awards for Young Musicians 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.

1.2

Going concern

The accounts have been prepared on the assumption that the charity is able to continue as a going concern, which the trustees consider appropriate having regard to the current level of unrestricted reserves and expendable endowment. There are no material uncertainties about the charity's ability to continue as a going concern.

• 1.3 Income

Income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the item of income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.

Income from the government and other grants, whether 'capital' grants or 'revenue' grants, is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the grants have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably and is not deferred.

For legacies, entitlement is taken as the earlier of the date on which either: the charity is aware that probate has been granted, the estate has been finalised and notification has been made by the executor to the Trust that a distribution will be made, or when a distribution is received from the estate. Receipt of a legacy, in whole or in part, is only considered probable when the amount can be measured reliably and the charity has been notified of the executor's intention to make a distribution. Where legacies have been notified to the charity, or the charity is aware of the granting of probate, and the criteria for income recognition have not been met, then the legacy is treated as a contingent asset and disclosed if material.

1.4

Donated services and facilities

Donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item, any conditions associated with the donated item have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity of the item, is probable and the economic benefit can be measured reliably. In accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102), general volunteer time is not recognised.

On receipt, donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt.

Donated services and facilities are shown in note 2 as Gifts in Kind. They include in-kind support in the form of tuition, venue hire, instrument hire and other services that are necessary to fulfil the requirements of the charity's programmes. The value is based on commercial rates provided by the suppliers.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Notes to the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

• 1.5 Interest receivable

• Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity: this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the bank.

1.6 Funds accounting

Unrestricted funds are available to spend on activities that further any of the purposes of the charity. Designated funds are unrestricted funds of the charity which the trustees have decided at their discretion to set aside to ·use for a specific purpose. Restricted funds are donations which the donor has specified are to be solely used for particular areas of the charity's work or for

specific projects being undertaken by the charity.

Endowment funds relate to a collection of violins bequeathed to the charity, and investments transferred to the charity. These are able to be sold to raise funds at the discretion of the trustees, and hence are treated as an expendable endowment. Proceeds from the sale of any instruments have been invested. Subsequent increases and decreases in value of these investments are shown in the Statement of Financial Activities as part of those funds.

During last year, the Trustees exercised their right to transfer the funds to the unrestricted fund as required.

• 1.7 Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.

Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred.

• 1.8 Grants payable Grants payable are charged in the year in which the offer is conveyed to the recipient except in those cases where the offer is conditional.

• 1.9 Fixed assets

Fixed assets are valued at cost less depreciation. No assets are capitalised under £1,000. Depreciation is calculated to write off the cost or valuation of fixed assets over their estimated useful lives at the following rate:-

Computer equipment – 33% straight line

Musical instruments contain a collection of musical instruments bequeathed to the charity in 1998 are held at probate value and not depreciated. Musical instruments are reviewed annually for impairment.

1.10 Allocation of support and governance costs

Support costs are those functions that assist the work of the charity but do not directly undertake charitable activities. Governance costs are the costs associated with the governance arrangements of the charity, including the costs of complying with constitutional and statutory requirements and any costs associated with the strategic management of the charity's activities. These costs have been allocated between cost of raising funds and expenditure on charitable activities based on staff cost percentages as follows:

2025 2024 General fundraising 25% 25% Charitable activities 75% 75%

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Notes to the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

1.11 Investments

Investments in quoted shares, traded bonds and similar investments are measured initially at cost and subsequently at fair value (their market value). The statement of financial activities includes the net gains and losses arising on revaluations and disposals throughout the year.

• 1.12 Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.

• 1.13 Cash at bank and in hand

• Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account.

• 1.14 Creditors

Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.

• 1.15 Financial instruments

• The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans which are subsequently recognised at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

• 1.16 Pension costs

The company operates a defined contribution pension scheme for its employees. There are no further liabilities other than that already recognised in the SOFA.

• 1.17 Accounting estimates and key judgements

In the application of the charity's accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and underlying 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 if the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods if the revision affects both current and future periods. The key sources of estimation uncertainty that have a significant effect on the amounts recognised in the financial statements are described below.

1.18 Gifts in kind

The charity receives in kind support in the form of tuition, venue hire, instrument hire and other associated services. If these services and facilities were not donated, the charity would need to procure them in order to fulfil its programmes. The value of the donated services and facilities has been estimated based on the equivalent commercial sales price provided by the supplier.

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Notes to the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

2 Income from donations and legacies

Grants > £5,000: The Karlsson Játiva Charitable Foundation The Swire Charitable Trust AKO Foundation The Martin Charitable Trust The Finderman Charitable Trust Q Charitable Trust Middle Way Trust EBM Charitable Trust The Margaret Engering Music Trust The D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust The Margaret and David Walker Trust The Cecil King Memorial Foundation The Prism Charitable Trust Anonymous New Philanthropy for Arts & Culture The Patricia Routledge Foundation The Anthony and Elizabeth Mellows Charitable Settlement The Hugh Fraser Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation Reed Foundation The Alan Brentnall Charitable Trust Kirby Laing Foundation Kaye Music Trust Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland The 29th May 1961 Charity Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation Grants < £5,000 Donations Donation income Gift aid	£ - 30,000 15,000 - - 10,000 10,000 - - - - - 5,000 - 5,000 5,000 - - - - - - - - - - - 11,269 143,161 32,690 Unres- tricted	£ 50,000 - - 15,000 10,000 - - 10,000 20,000 6,000 5,000 5,000 - 5,000 - - 5,000 5,000 - - - - - - - - - 29,250 72,562 1,250 Res-tricted	Total 2025 £ 50,000 30,000 15,000 15,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 20,000 6,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 - - - - - - - - 40,519 215,723 33,940	£ - 30,000 - 2,000 - - 10,000 - - - - - - - 5,000 5,000 - - 60,000 - - - - 10,000 - 5,000 - 10,258 97,098 37,653 Unres- tricted	Res- tricted £ 50,000 - - 6,000 10,000 - - - 30,000 - 5,000 5,000 - - - - - - - 15,000 15,000 10,000 10,000 - 6,233 - 5,000 18,669 103,095 -	Total 2024 £ 50,000 30,000 - 8,000 10,000 - 10,000 - 30,000 - 5,000 5,000 - - 5,000 5,000 - - 60,000 15,000 15,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 6,233 5,000 5,000 28,927 200,193 37,653
Gifts in kind	-	499,397	499,397	-	484,721	484,721
Legacy income Other income	72,427 - 339,547	- -	72,427 - 1,078,006	83,944 350 356,303	- -	83,944 350
		738,459			773,718	1,130,021

53

Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Notes to the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

3 Charitable activities

----- Start of picture text -----
Unres- Unres-
tricted Restricted Total 2025 tricted Res-tricted Total 2024
£ £ £ £ £ £
Grants > £5,000:
Arts Council England 393,559 12,879 406,438 348,478 51,522 400,000
Department for Education - 646,827 646,827 - 230,478 230,478
National Foundation for Youth Music - 90,000 90,000 - 90,000 90,000
Purposeful Ventures 65,000 120,000 185,000 - - -
University of Westminster - 23,714 23,714 - - -
Connector Hubs 27,500 27,500 - 22,500 22,500
Bradford - - - - 5,000 5,000
Greater Manchester - 5,000 5,000 - 5,000 5,000
Hull - 5,000 5,000 - 5,000 5,000
Lewisham - 5,000 5,000 - 5,000 5,000
Liverpool - 5,000 5,000 - 5,000 5,000
Manchester City - 5,000 5,000 - 5,000 5,000
North West Midlands - 5,000 5,000 - 5,000 5,000
Sheffield - 5,000 5,000 - 5,000 5,000
Sunderland - 5,000 5,000 - 5,000 5,000
West Yorkshire - 5,000 5,000 - - -
Worcester - 5,000 5,000 - 5,000 5,000
Grants < £5,000 - 1,300 1,300 821 - 821
458,559 972,220 1,430,779 349,299 444,500 793,799
----- End of picture text -----

*denotes amounts received from government

Income from government grants comprise grants made by local authorities and government grants to fund the principal activities and objectives of the charity via core funding and funding for specific restricted projects. No performance related grants recognised in income have had any unfulfilled conditions or any other contingencies attaching to them. See note 2 and 3 for more information. Government grants received during the year amounted to £1,130,765 (2024: £702,978).

54

Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Notes to the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

4 Direct charitable expenditure

Raising funds Staff costs Allocation of support and governance costs Charitable activities Staff costs Event costs Other freelance costs Programme delivery Grants payable Travel and subsistence Marketing Allocation of support and governance costs Support and governance costs Office and IT Subscriptions, licences and charges Audit and accountancy Bank charges Depreciation Miscellaneous costs Allocation of support and governance costs Total	£ 93,839 18,171 112,010 281,517 14,663 14,608 17,268 73,089 36,195 20,967 54,513 512,820 19,138 6,809 36,419 2,218 995 7,105 (72,684) - 624,830 Unres- tricted	£ - 308 Res-tricted	Total 2025 £ 93,839 18,479 112,318 281,517 70,151 14,608 1,464,961 141,439 36,256 20,967 55,438 2,085,337 19,388 6,809 36,419 2,218 995 8,089 (73,918) - 2,197,655	£ 76,136 16,085 92,221 215,964 34,032 30,351 80,110 29,745 36,385 31,204 48,256 506,047 14,594 6,898 33,120 2,101 531 7,097 (64,341) - 598,267 Unres- tricted	Total 2024 £ £ - 76,136 - 249 16,334 249 92,470 12,443 228,407 7,000 41,032 - 30,351 1,003,690 1,083,800 49,716 79,461 548 36,933 325 31,529 746 49,002 1,074,468 1,580,515 995 15,589 - 6,898 - 33,120 - 2,101 - 531 - 7,097 (995) (65,336) - - 1,074,717 1,672,984 Res-tricted
		308 - 55,488 - 1,447,693 68,350 61 - 925
		1,572,517 250 - - - - 984 (1,234)
		-
		1,572,825

Grants payable of £141,439 (2024: £79,461) consists of grants up to £2,000 awarded to individuals only. The grants assist with a range of musical costs e.g. the purchase of instruments, to fund musical tuition, travel etc. and do not include any contributions to support costs.

55

Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Notes to the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

5 Wages and salaries

Wages and salaries Social security costs Pension Staff costs included in programme delivery	2025 2024 £ £ 334,650 267,935 34,377 29,376 6,329 7,231 375,356 304,542 150,356 55,527 525,712 360,069

One employee earned between £90,000 and £99,999 during the year, excluding employers national insurance and employers pension contribution (2024: one employee earned between £80,000 and £89,999).

The key management personnel of the charity is considered to be the chief executive. The total costs to the charity of employee benefits for the key management personnel were £103,674 (2024: £93,382).

The average number of employees for the year was as follows:

Number of staff	2025 12	2024 10
6 Net incoming resources before transfers This is stated after charging: - Statutory audit - current accountants - Accounts preparation - current accountants - Other work - current accountants	2025 £ 12,240 2,820 2,100	2024 £ 12,240 2,820 -

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Notes to the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

7 Tangible assets

----- Start of picture text -----
Musical Computer
instruments equipment Total
£ £ £
Cost
As at 01.01.2025 35,000 5,448 40,448
Additions - 4,718 4,718
- - -
Disposals
As at 31.12.2025 35,000 10,166 45,166
Depreciation
As at 01.01.2025 - 5,122 5,122
Charge for year - 995 995
As at 31.12.2025 - 6,117 6,117
Net book value
As at 31.12.2025 35,000 4,049 39,049
As at 31.12.2024 35,000 326 35,326
----- End of picture text -----

8 Investments

----- Start of picture text -----
2025 2024
£ £
Market value at 1 January 2025 444,520 418,273
----- End of picture text -----

Additions Disposals Unrealised gains / (losses) Realised gains/(losses) Market value at 31 December 2025 Historical cost at 31 December 2025	103,641 (156,421) 25,509 3,894 421,143 314,808	- - 26,247 -
		444,520
		367,588

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Notes to the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

9 Debtors Trade debtors Accrued income Other debtors	2025 £ - 257,052 3,154 260,206	2024 £ 1,271 378,294 1,506
		381,071
10 Creditors - amounts due in less than one year Trade creditors Accruals Social security and other taxes Grants payable	2025 £ 58,685 47,211 15,389 80,570 201,855	2024 £ 60,117 54,282 11,653 55,848
		181,900

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Notes to the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

11 Statement of Funds

----- Start of picture text -----
Gains /
Balance Expend- (losses) on Balance
01.01.2025 Income iture investments Transfers 31.12.2025
£ £ £ £ £ £
Expendable endowment funds
- - -
Robert Lewin bequest 61,846 5,167 67,013
Robert Lewin instruments 35,000 - - - - 35,000
- - -
Total endowment funds 96,846 5,167 102,013
Restricted funds
- -
DfE Music Opportunities Pilot (8,512) 686,327 (620,812) 57,003
- -
Catalyser Fund 121,369 176,004 (214,069) 83,304
The Karlsson Játiva Charitable - 50,000 (46,847) - - 3,153
Foundation
Thrive 91,900 62,056 (45,275) - - 108,681
Named Awards 154,079 36,381 (72,591) - - 117,869
- -
Engering Music Creators Project 30,000 20,000 (6,045) 43,955
Chamber Sessions - 3,500 - - - 3,500
- - -
Purposeful Ventures 120,000 (22,681) 97,319
Discover - 57,014 (45,108) - - 11,906
Gifts in kind - 499,397 (499,397) - - -
Total restricted funds 388,836 1,710,679 (1,572,825) - - 526,690
Unrestricted funds
General 454,297 817,439 (624,830) 24,236 - 671,142
Total unrestricted funds 454,297 817,439 (624,830) 24,236 - 671,142
Total funds 939,979 2,528,118 (2,197,655) 29,403 - 1,299,845
----- End of picture text -----

59

Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Notes to the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

Statement of Funds - prior year

----- Start of picture text -----
Gains /
Balance Expend- (losses) on Balance
01.01.2024 Income iture investments Transfers 31.12.2024
£ £ £ £ £ £
Expendable endowment funds
- -
Robert Lewin bequest 34,109 8,023 19,714 61,846
Robert Lewin instruments 35,000 - - - - 35,000
- - - -
Des Clayes bequest 285,220 (285,220)
Total endowment funds 354,329 8,023 - 19,714 (285,220) 96,846
Restricted funds
- - -
DfE Music Opportunities Pilot 292,977 (301,489) (8,512)
- -
Catalyser Fund 101,276 232,299 (212,206) 121,369
Thrive - 91,900 - - - 91,900
- - - -
Attune project 13,985 (13,985)
Named Awards 130,075 86,320 (62,316) - - 154,079
- - - -
Engering Music Creators Project 30,000 30,000
Gifts in kind - 484,721 (484,721) - - -
Total restricted funds 245,336 1,218,217 (1,074,717) - - 388,836
Unrestricted funds
General 55,209 705,602 (598,267) 6,533 285,220 454,297
Total unrestricted funds 55,209 705,602 (598,267) 6,533 285,220 454,297
Total funds 654,874 1,931,842 (1,672,984) 26,247 - 939,979
----- End of picture text -----

Purposes of restricted funds

• DfE Music Opportunities Pilot

Funding to expand our Connect programme, working collaboratively to support young people from low income families to sustain their musical learning. The pilot aims to test, refine and promote the most effective interventions.

• Attune

Partnership with City of London Sinfonia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, to give award winners the chance to develop their chamber music skills.

• Engering Music Creators project

A programme of support for young creators, including mentoring and workshops.

• Named Awards

We offer a number of special named Awards each year which are funded by private individuals or in partnership with trusts and organisations.

• Thrive

Funding to support our wider programme of work with our award recipients, including musical opportunities such as workshops, mentoring and creative projects.

60

Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Notes to the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

• Gifts in Kind

• Gifts in Kind are resources that are gifted to the charity in relation to instrumental hire and music lessons.

• Catalyser

This fund is the latest in a series of long-term grants Young Sounds UK have received from Youth Music to support the continued scaling up of our Furthering Talent (now Connect) programme. It aims to support young people facing the most barriers to music-making.

• Discover (previously known as Identifying Talent)

• This programme trains music leaders to spot early musical potential in children who might never have had the chance to play an instrument because their family can't afford it (programme became Discover in 2024).

• Purposeful Ventures

• Restricted part of a grant to engage a senior evaluation position.

• The Karlsson Játiva Charitable Foundation

Funding elements of the work of our Connect programme.

• Chamber Sessions

Supporting young musicians from low-income families who face barriers to accessing and paying chamber music by delivering high-quality events in regions across the UK with limited chamber music opportunities.

Expendable endowment funds

Expendable endowment funds relate to a collection of violins bequeathed to the charity, and investments transferred to the charity. These are able to be sold to raise funds at the discretion of the trustees, and hence are treated as an expenditure endowment. Proceeds from the sale of any instruments have been invested. Subsequent increases and decreases in value of these investments are shown in the Statement of Financial Activities as part of those funds.

During last year, the Trustees exercised their right to transfer the funds to the unrestricted fund as required.

----- Start of picture text -----
Endow- Unres- Endow- Unres- Total
ment tricted Res-tricted Total 2025 ment tricted Res-tricted 2024
£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £
Tangible assets 35,000 4,049 - 39,049 35,000 326 - 35,326
Investments 67,013 354,130 - 421,143 61,846 382,674 - 444,520
Net current assets - 317,963 521,690 839,653 - 71,297 388,836 460,133
102,013 676,142 521,690 1,299,845 96,846 454,297 388,836 939,979
----- End of picture text -----

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Young Sounds UK (The working name for Awards for Young Musicians) Notes to the Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 December 2025

13 Financial instruments at fair value

Financial assets measured at fair value through income and expenditure account Financial assets measured at amortised cost Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost Income Expense £ £ 2025 Financial assets measured at 19,333 - fair value 19,333 - 2024 Financial assets measured at 8,023 - fair value 8,023 -	2025 £ 421,143 1,038,354 1,459,497 105,896 Net gains £ 29,403 29,403 26,247 26,247	2024 £ 444,520 642,033
		1,086,553
		170,247
		Net losses £ -
		-
		-
		-

Financial assets measured at fair value comprise listed investments.

14 Related party transactions

During the year, eleven trustees donated a total of £11,641 to the charity (2024: £2,850 from 3 trustees). No special trusts or conditions were imposed on this funding, it was under usual terms. Five trustees were reimbursed travel expenses totalling £1,783 (2024: £1,699 to 4 trustees)

15 Company limited by guarantee

The company was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee and has no share capital. The guarantee to the company is £1 per member on the winding up of the company. At 31 December 2025 the company had eleven members and the total amount guaranteed was therefore £11.

62