2024-03-31-accounts - Northampton District Scout Council

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Registered Charity Number: 1110610

NORTHAMPTON DISTRICT SCOUT COUNCIL TRUSTEES REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31[st] MARCH 2024

NORTHAMPTON AND DISTRICT SCOUT COUNCIL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31[st] MARCH 2024

Registered Charity Number: 1110610 Address: Fernie Fields Scout and Community Centre Fernie Fields Moulton Northampton NN3 7BD Trustees: Mr G Jackson – Co-Chair Mr B Ousley – Co-Chair Ms C Lomas Mr I Malcomson Mrs J Brooker Mr L Claris F France (Resigned 07/23) H Rayson (Resigned 07/23) S Tilley (Resigned 07/23) Mrs E Farr (Resigned 07/24) Mr S Humphrey (Resigned 07/24) Mr C Gyles (Resigned 07/24) Mr M Ager (Resigned 07/24) Ms E Phillips (Resigned 07/24) Mr M Billingham (Resigned 07/24) Mr I Claris (Deceased 01/24) Independent Examiner: Lorraine Scullion MAAT 17 Peregrine Place East Hunsbury Northampton NN4 0SL

NORTHAMPTON AND DISTRICT SCOUT COUNCIL

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31[st] MARCH 2024

INDEX	Page
Legal and Administrative Information	1
Report of the Trustees	2 - 6
Independent Examiner’s Report	7
Statement of financial activities	8
Statement of financial position	9
Notes to the financial statements	10 - 14

NORTHAMPTON AND DISTRICT SCOUT COUNCIL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31[st] MARCH 2024 Page 2

The Trustees of Northampton and District Scouts present their report, together with the Financial Statements for the year ended 31[st] March 2024

Governing Document

The Northampton District Scout Council is a charitable trust formed by a Royal Charter which gives authority to the Bye Laws and the Policy Organisation and Rules of the Scout Association. Trustees are appointed, supported and trained in accordance with the Policy Organisation and Rules of the Scout Association and Trustees who acted during the year are listed in this document.

Objectives of the Charity

The District actively engaged with, and supported young people living in the Northampton Scout District in their personal development empowering them to make a positive contribution to society.

This is achieved by young people, in partnership with adults, working together based on the values of Scouting and enjoying what they are doing and having fun, taking part in indoor and outdoor activities, learning by doing, sharing in spiritual reflection, making choices, undertaking new and challenging activities and making and living their Scout Promise.

Public Benefit Statement

Scouting complies with two key principles set by the Charity Commission with regard to public benefit in that it helps young people in their personal development, empowering them to make a positive contribution to society. Scouting in Northampton District is open to young people aged 4 - 25 and adults.

Full membership is restricted to young people and adults who are willing to make the Scout Promise. The District has processes in place to support those who need help to pay subscriptions, buy uniform or take part in activities so that young people are not excluded from activities if they are unable to pay. The benefits of Scouting are further demonstrated throughout this report.

The Trustees believe they have met the Charity Commission’s public benefit criteria for both the advancement of education and the advancement of citizenship or community development.

Achievements and Performance

The District's growth efforts continue apace, to the extent that even the move of a significantly large Group made little more than a manageable dent.

New Squirrel Dreys have opened, and more are in the planning stages, producing further growth performance within the youngest Section. At the other end of the age spectrum, the District Explorer plan has thus far seen the opening of one new

NORTHAMPTON AND DISTRICT SCOUT COUNCIL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31[st] MARCH 2024 Page 3

Explorer Unit, with two more planned to open prior to 2024/5 Census, as efforts to bring Explorer Scouting more locally to Groups continues.

Plans to assist and restructure struggling Groups have been put into place and are proving to be a success, ensuring the availability of Scout activities in areas of the town experiencing new growth is catered for.

The core District team has also evolved, enabling the many moving parts of the District to work towards a better level of management - an essential, as The Scouts evolve practices and processes that must be followed by the District are better absorbed by a larger team with broader experience.

The District has successfully delivered events for Squirrels, Beavers, Cubs, and Scouts - alongside Explorer activities in support of their senior awards - over the past year, and better coordination of events with County, that had somewhat been lost over COVID, is now in place. As the District's Section leaders become more involved in organising the sort of events they want to see for their Sections within the District, the more such events will grow and evolve.

Financial Review

This year the Trustee Board decided to undertake new valuations of the assets that the District either owns or leases. These valuations assessed the market value of the property which we own and the reinstatement values of all property both owned and leased. The new market valuations are included in these accounts.

During the financial year to April 2023 – March 2024 Income received £991,364 (£773,510 from revaluation of land and buildings). Expenses incurred £229,279

Risk Management

The Trustees have assessed the major risks to which the Charity is exposed and are satisfied that there are control measures in place to mitigate these risks.

Reserves Policy

Northampton District Scouts Trustee Board have agreed that the District should maintain sufficient level of reserves to enable normal operating activities to continue over a period of up to three months should a shortfall in income occur and to take account of potential risks and contingencies that may arise from time to time.

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Plans for the future

The District's development plans continue to evolve, with goals set for 2025 (in line with national Scouting's "Skills for Life" initiative), 2027 (5 years from 2022), and 2032 (10 years from 2022). Elements highlighted from the 23/24 report are now taking root, so I will use the same broad headings to assist comparison between this 24/25 report and its predecessor. The overall goal is, as ever, the provision of a high standard of Scouting to as many of the young people of Northampton as we can, and continue to build growth and resilience within the District and its Assets.

Asset Development Plan(s): In some areas, the goal of building more structured, pro-active planning into the management and maintenance of the Assets has succeeded, in others it has yet to materialise to the satisfaction of the Trustees. It is a continuing effort, therefore, to produce mutli-year maintenance schedules for each Asset. Additionally, through the next year, management of the Assets as a whole rather than as individual and separate entities will be put into place. This enables a broader bench of requirements to be considered collectively, and a more common approach to be used with respect to Asset management, while maintaining flexibility where necessary. Shared resource and responsibility also parallels the structural changes being made to Scouting as a whole through Transformation, and the Assets would benefit from a more teambased/task-oriented methodology.

Explorers: The Explorer plan continues to evolve as the concept of devolving the Units away from a central massif to a more local model has gained traction. With Victory Peak opening in late 2023/early 2024 in Duston, and plans for a further two Units by the end of 2024 in motion, retention of Scouts into Explorers is set to markedly improve. Over five years, the target is for a 30-40% improvement, feeding into the District's growth planning through reducing loss of Scouts after their tenure within the Group Sections comes to a close. This also ties into the District structure planning, as below.

District Structure: Scouting is a collaborative exercise - teamwork. This begins with volunteers working together to deliver Scouting activities to young people, through to Groups where the broader Group volunteer team works to support each other in their efforts, through to District where Groups and the District teams serve as another layer of collaboration and support. To help build better immediate support for Groups, the concept of clustering Groups is being explored. This has been attempted before, with different methods of clustering, but the intention here is to arrange clusters geographically - and, within each established cluster, to include a local Explorer Unit. Thus, a cluster will comprise 2 to 4 Groups, plus one Unit, facilitating mutual support and opening the potential for shared mutual events - intra-cluster competitions, for example. This refers

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back to the Explorer development, with new Units being targeted in areas not currently supported locally by a Unit, and existing Units being paired with Groups in their locality. This does not preclude the concept of a young person being able to traverse the entire District Explorer programme and regularly meet with whichever Unit best suits their situation. But it does mean that, within a given cluster, alongside the Groups supporting each other, the Unit can support the Groups (and vice versa), and thus the aspiration to move on to Explorers when the time comes is better understood by young people.

YouShape Northampton: While not yet encompassing the scope envisaged, it is developing and evolving. The move towards the District Youth Leadership Team from the concept of a District Youth Executive is something that is also evolving nationally. In many ways, under the guidance of the District Youth Commissioner, the YouShape Northampton initiative is serving as the foundation for better youth engagement within the District's teams. The next steps, which will become easier as the team/task structure settles in, are to facilitate young people - predominantly the 18-25 age range, but branching into the 14-18 range and below - engaging with those teams and tasks, including the Trustee Board, placing young people at the heart of District management.

The District Troop Forum is something that is still in the distance, with respect to this initiative.

Scouting Community: Efforts to engage with local community bodies, including the town's council, continue, and we are gathering support from various personages and bodies to that end. The goal continues to be to place Scouting as part of the community of the town, and part of the solution to many of the challenges facing young people today.

Growth: The National development plan, as mentioned earlier, continues to be a cornerstone of the developmental activities of the District. Over this past year, we have applied new thinking to the support of growth within struggling Groups that is showing good signs of success, and we are availing ourselves of national assistance and grant funding to the best extent that we can. While the current focus is on existing Groups, the development of Explorers, and supporting Groups taking the plunge in opening Squirrel Dreys, as these initiatives stabilise the potential to look at supporting communities within the town that currently have no direct Scout representation will be looked at. The County's initiative to reward Group growth based on percentages against feasible capacity is also a welcome addition to the encouragement of Group growth efforts.

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Statement of the Trustees Responsibilities

Legislation requires that the Trustees prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the operation of the Charity. In preparing these financial statements the Trustees are required to:

Select suitable accounting policies and apply them consistently.
Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent.
State where the policies adopted are in accordance with the charity legislation and with applicable standards, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in these financial statements.
Prepare financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to assume that the charity will continue to operate.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time, the financial position of the charity and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Appropriate Charity legislation. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention of fraud and other irregularities.

This report was approved by the Trustees at a management meeting held on 3[rd] September 2024 and signed on their behalf.

Mr B Ousley Co - Chair

Mr G Jackson Co - Chair

Ms C Lomas Treasurer