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2021-03-31-accounts

2020-21

TRUSTEES' REPORT AND ACCOUNTS

YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

CHARITY NUMBER 1123224 COMPANY NUMBER 06226595

INTRODUCTION

Founded in 1948 as the national youth council of the UK, The British Youth Council believes that young people have the power and the potential to take action and make positive social and political change for themselves and others.

Our Vision

A world in which every young person is empowered to create social and political change.

Our Mission

As the national youth council of the UK, The British Youth Council brings young people together to find their voice and use it to improve the lives of young people. We work with others to amplify young people’s voices to create an environment in which young people's views are valued, sought and acted upon.

AN AMAZING WAY TO ENSURE NOT ONLY YOUR VOICE IS HEARD BUT A CHANCE TO CHAMPION THE VOICE OF MANY YOUNG PEOPLE PARTICPANT 2020/21

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Our Values
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Youth-led – young people are active citizens and are always at the forefront of our work. As a youthled charity, young people lead and shape our work through our governance structures. We support them to define their own action for change. We champion youth leadership across all sections of society, evidencing the benefits of engaging young people in decision making and delivery, and supporting that to happen.

Collaborative – we actively seek to collaborate with others to make positive change happen. We work with relevant partners to add value to our campaigns and activity, and to be more creative in our approach to making change happen with and for young people. We recognise the skills, knowledge and experience of young people, volunteers, staff and partners, and strive to achieve more by maximising the opportunities that collaboration provides.

Inclusive – we respect and value diversity and act in a way that includes all. We ensure that all our activities are inclusive, recognising the needs of young people across different communities, and bring young people and partners together to learn from each other.

RESPONDING TO - THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC

I PROMISE YOU , YOUR VOICE CAN MAKE A CHANGE PARTICIPANT 2020/21

2020 was a year like no other. As the world responded to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the British Youth Council, like every other organisation, had to pivot operations and delivery to the new environment in which we found ourselves. The Board of Trustees would like to pass on their sincere thanks to the staff team for their commitment, tenacity and perseverance through this challenging year.

During this period the British Youth Council team also provided significant pastoral support for the young people who are part of our programmes and activities. In the early months the British Youth Council was sometimes the only contact a young person had beyond their family home. In some areas support staff in our Member Organisations were either furloughed or redeployed to priority operations, leaving little to no support for young people. The team made safe spaces online for young people to be together, connect and share their experiences, as well as ensuring that young people had the opportunities to have their voice heard.

Whilst young people were not the highest risk community, the unplanned impacts of responding to the pandemic will have long term impacts on the lives of young people. Education was disrupted, youth unemployment rose significantly, and the impact of lockdown has had significant impact on the health and wellbeing of young people. In addition, those young people who were already marginalised and at risk became unseen, with risk factors increasing.

Through this period the British Youth Council has advocated with and for young people. This included:

process.

IT IS A GREAT WAY TO GET INVOLVED WITH YOUR COMMUNITY AND HELP SPEAK UP FOR THOSE AROUND YOU PARTICIPANT 2020/21

DELIVERY AGAINST OUR STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

VOICE

MEMBER ENGAGEMENT

Our strength is in the network of Member Organisations and young people with whom we work. During the year we were delighted to welcome new members including ALYVE UK, Asfar, Shropshire Youth Association, The Kite Trust and Youth For Refugees UK. We adapted our member engagement programme and delivered online engagement events, including a full online Annual Council Meeting, ensuring that young people within our Member Organisations could continue to shape the work of our charity and hold the Board to account.

Work on developing a full member engagement strategy was delayed as staff focused on prioritising delivery and wellbeing during the first half of the year. In the second half of the year work started in earnest in developing a member engagement plan, which will be finalised and implemented next year.

IT HELPS YOU DEVELOP SKILLS THAT LAST A LIFETIME AND OPPORTUNITIES THAT YOU ’ LL NEVER FORGET PARTICIPANT 2020/21

REPRESENTATION

Whilst a lot of energy was understandably focused on ensuring young peoples voices were heard in the response to the pandemic, we continued to champion youth engagement in the decisions that affect young people’s lives beyond Covid-19. Whilst the pandemic continued, so did the other factors that impact on young people.

In partnership with DCMS we developed an improved model of engagement between the Youth Steering Group and the Department, implementing monthly roundtables between young people and decision makers. The young people in the group would feed in views from young people in their networks alongside consultation data sourced via Instagram, reaching young people who were not involved in formal youth engagement structures. Alongside the Covid-19 specific engagements included above, the group held roundtables on topics including:

The NHS Youth Forum has continued in earnest, engaging young people and decision makers in improving young people’s health and wellbeing and their access to healthcare services. In addition to feeding into Covid-19 communications targeting young people, the group focused on three key areas they had identified through their engagement with young people:

Over the course of the year each work stream has consulted young people with lived experience of these issues, and created resources, reports, and delivered a roundtable to share their findings.

I HAVE LOVED MEETING SO MANY LIKEMINDED PEOPLE WHO ARE ACTIVELY WORKING FOR CHANGE . PARTICIPANT 2020/21

The UK Young Ambassadors leading the EU Youth Dialogue project completed the final round of this project, publishing the report of their findings from consultation across the UK. This work focused on youth work, the future of work and rural opportunities. The findings from the UK research has been fed into an EU-wide programme of work which has been presented to EU Youth Ministers. UK Young Ambassadors have also continued to champion the issues raised within the four nations here in the UK. Sadly this was the final cycle of EU Youth Dialogue that the British Youth Council is able to engage with due to the UK withdrawal from the European Union.

The UK Youth Parliament continued to engage young people across the UK in representative democracy. Whilst physical meetings were replaced by online engagements, elected Members of Youth parliament and local youth councillors continued to meet with decision makers and advocate for young people in their area, region and across the UK.

During this year we established two new programmes of partnership work with the Careers and Enterprise Company and the Youth Futures Foundation. Both programmes of work centre around youth employment. Starting later in the year, both projects have recruited young people, implemented induction and learning sessions and are creating opportunities for young people to feed in and shape interventions that will support young people.

We have continued to collaborate with colleagues in the sector through the Back Youth Alliance to advocate for government investment and support for young people. The Back Youth Alliance is a collaboration of senior leaders and youth representatives from some of the UK’s leading youth charities, working together to present a coherent voice to decision-makers with and for young people. Members share a common belief in creating a society in which young people are safe, equipped to thrive, treated equally and are able to contribute as active citizens in their communities.

There was obviously a heavy focus on the impact of Covid-19 through this year and as a group we made strong representations on the need to support the youth charities that support young people at grassroots level and through infrastructure bodies. We made recommendations for and challenged and improved the criteria and eligibility of the much needed Youth Covid Support Fund.

IT HAS BEEN REALLY LOVELY TO SEE THE IMPACT MY WORK IS HAVING ON OTHERS AND MYSELF . PARTICIPANT 2020/21

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS

In partnership with DCMS, we launched a new Instagram account – Involved. This is a model that was designed, tested and proposed by young people to engage more young people in the policy process. The principle is to go where young people are and engage them with simple tools. Through polls and open text input, we have engaged on average 200 young people across 12 consultations.

I REALISED NOT EVERYONE HAS THE SAME OPINION PARTICIPANT 2020/21

We have developed the social media presence of some of our programmes during the year, specifically the UK Youth Parliament and NHS Youth Forum. At the end of the year we started working with the Bank Of England to develop a public profile for the forum.

We had intended to develop a comprehensive strategic communications plan during this year however this has been postponed due to staff capacity in responding to the events of the year. This will be picked up next year.

IMPACT

With thanks to the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, we have now started our programme of work to define our theory of change in relation to leadership within youth-led advocacy. This programme model is also being run as a pilot, to experiment with a new way for the British Youth Council to support organisations to embed young people in the development of their work and develop young people into leadership positions in their work

We have recruited a Development Team of young people from Member Organisations the Scouts, Woodcraft Folk, the Kite Trust, St Johns Ambulance, Anna Freud Centre, and in addition young people from the Roots Foundation, Centrepoint and Eastside Young Leaders Academy. The organisations are also working alongside BYC to provide each member of the Development Team a leadership development journey with mentoring and developmental experiences within those organisations. These journeys will culminate in those eight young people becoming leaders / board members within their organisation.

We have successfully mapped a leadership development journey across our programme suite for every young person we interact with. Currently this is a top level road map. However it has five entry points, then a modular approach where young people can combine skills development sessions, and leadership experiences in our Member Organisations, and ends in automatic induction into a new Young Leaders Collective network where they will be able to access further support and opportunities to evolve as a leader.

I RECOGNISE MORE ISSUES AND

INEQUALITIES , BUT I ALSO RECOGNISE THAT THERE ARE WAYS TO SOLVE THOSE ISSUES

PARTICIPANT 2020/21

Over the next nine months the Development Team will finish codesigning the theory of leadership that will then underpin the leadership programme and set of resources that they will also co-design with the British Youth Council.

We have also built a fully automatic reporting system for all young people to self-report across five key areas of development every two months for the duration of their time on our programmes. This is a system that tracks an individual's growth, not only over five key skills but also any other key KPIs of a particular programme. It also allows us to track whether or not young people feel we are delivering in a way that is aligned to our values of collaborative, inclusive and youth-led. This digital tracker is currently being piloted across three of our programmes with the aim to roll it out across our work next year.

Ethnic Heritage

Impact & Reach

Disability

89% more confident

89% improved communication skills 87% More positive citizenship

Sexual orientation

Lived Experience

88% better relationship and leadership skills

84% greater resilience and determination

SUSTAINABLE

2020/21 has been the third year of implementing our new fundraising strategy, which aims to create a culture of fundraising at The British Youth Council, ensure we have the resources necessary to run, diversify income across the income spectrum, and generate a sustainable income model.

Covid-19 has had a wide spread impact across the voluntary sector. Many funders switched to pandemic-focused funding or ceased grant making entirely. We are incredibly grateful for the continued support of The Blagrave Trust and The Paul Hamlyn Foundation who have provided significant financial support, as well as our other funders who have been flexible in the face of a changing world.

We have also been delighted to have the support of The Jack Petchey Foundation. Committed to investing in young people, The Jack Petchey Foundation has supported us to recruit a paid intern in the fundraising team. This has enabled us to increase our donor care, and release capacity from operational to strategic fundraising. We are also working with Kings College London Civic Leadership Academy to provide placements for two students who will get their first taste of charity fundraising with BYC next year.

With the loss of planned in-person fundraising events, we encouraged our supporters to raise money for us in new and different ways – this included the Chief Executive doing a sponsored stair climb and trustees undertaking a group running challenge all during lockdown.

We want to thank the Friends of BYC who continued to support us through this challenging time. We had donors increase their regular gifts to help us invest in additional digital licences and IT kit to ensure that the team could continue to do great work with and for young people.

The British Youth Council has been awarded a place on the Enterprise Development Programme, funded by the Social Investment Business. Next year we will receive a grant and support to help us develop our consultancy and training offer, enabling us to grow our unrestricted income whilst delivering mission-supporting activities. This is an exciting endeavour for the British Youth Council and will help us to fulfil our aims of strengthening the diversification of our income streams and rebuilding our reserves position.

SUPPORTERS

Honorary Presidents

The Annual Council meeting elects three Honorary Presidents, one from each of the largest parties represented in UK Parliament. The role of Honorary Presidents is to champion the British Youth Council’s work to other parliamentarians, and to highlight the British Youth Council’s work and young people’s voices to decision makers and the Government.

At the start of the financial year these were Angela Crawley MP (SNP), Sara Britcliffe MP (Con) and Nadia Whittome MP (Lab). At the Annual Council Meeting in September 2020 David Linden MP (SNP) was elected and Nadia Whittome MP and Sara Britcliffee MP were re-elected. We are incredibly grateful to all four Members of Parliament who have each supported our work and championed youth voice in decision making.

Volunteers

I CAN SEE MORE CHANCES TO CREATE MEANINGFUL CHANGE PARTICIPANT 2020/21

Most of those taking part in our activities do so voluntarily in their spare time ranging from those voting, standing, and campaigning, to those volunteering in our office. The number of volunteers throughout the year is over 700:

FUTURE PLANS

In 2020-21, we reviewed our strategy and agreed to extend it for a further two years. In 2021/22 will be particularly focusing on the following activities in helping us to achieve our strategy:

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GOVERNANCE

TRUSTEES 2020/21

START DATE

END DATE

Amanda Chetwynd Cowieson (Chair October 2017 October 2020 from October 2018) Aimee Castle October 2018 Thomas Clark (Treasurer) October 2019 Natasha Johnson October 2020 Larissa Kennedy October 2017 October 2020 Zara Khan October 2019 Kira Lewis January 2019 Rebecca Moore October 2019 Osaro Otobo October 2020 Kyle Parks October 2018 January 2021 Cormac Savage October 2020 Joe Seddon October 2020 Francis Smith October 2017 October 2020 Sarah Staples (Chair from October September 2016 2020) Joseph Stockley October 2017 October 2020 T Jay Turner October 2018 Sila Ugurlu October 2020

Public Benefit

The British Youth Council’s work benefits the following public groups:

We benefit young people directly in the provision of education and skills training through our programme of activities, representation opportunities and volunteering. We work to benefit young people in general through the promotion of intercultural dialogue, representation and volunteering opportunities overseas.

The trustees have given due consideration to the Charity Commission's published guidance on the Public Benefit requirement under the Charities Act 2011.

The trustees have considered this matter and concluded:

Charitable Objects

The objects of the charity are “to advance the spiritual, educational and physical welfare of young people in any manner which is now, or may be hereinafter deemed by law to be charitable, including maintaining contact with similar bodies working in the same field overseas.” We do this through:

This produces a public benefit through the empowering, educating and supporting of young people to play an active role in society, both directly or through the improvement to public services, locally and nationally, as a result of their increased scrutiny of, or participation in, local and national democracy and services.

Senior Management AN AMAZING Team WAY TO ENSURE Chief Executive NOT ONLY YOUR VOICEJo HobbsIS HEARD BUT A CHANCE

Governance and Management Structure

TO CHAMPION Head of Fundraising THE VOICE OF Victoria Hayden Ward MANY YOUNG Rosie Milsom (Maternity PEOPLE cover from August 2021) PARTICPANT 2020/21

There are a maximum of 13 trustees (who act as company directors), who can be aged between 16 and 25 at the date of election or appointment. The offices of Chair and Treasurer are elected biennially, on alternate years to ensure consistency of leadership within the Board.

Head of Programmes Magda Conway (April 2020-June 2021) Sophie Richardson (from June 2021)

The Board has a model where at least six ordinary trustees are elected by the membership and the remaining are appointed by the Board, ensuring a good balance of skills and experience within the Board. Elections take place at the Annual Council Meeting by delegates from The British Youth Council member organisations. Prospective candidates are required to submit applications and take part in an interview with a sub-group of the People Committee to ensure a pool of suitable candidates exist for elections. Appointed trustees are recruited based on skills, with key areas of skills and experience that the Board would like to improve identified. They are interviewed by a sub-group of the People Committee and appointed by the Board.

The Board delegates tasks to three committees. These are:

All trustees attend a two-day training and induction programme. This covers their roles and responsibilities as trustees, financial stewardship and an induction to The British Youth Council’s strategic plan and operational procedures. The Board are all encouraged to continue their learning outside of the Board, both by accessing online learning for trustees and through membership of the relevant membership bodies for the Officers.

The charity is managed by a Chief Executive. Operational decisions are made by a senior staff team within agreed strategic objectives set by the Board. This Team consists of the Chief Executive Officer, Head of Programmes and the Head of Fundraising.

RISK MANAGEMENT

Within the charity, risk management is maintained and monitored by the Risk Committee. The committee meets regularly throughout the year and is responsible for the maintenance of the risk register which is the charity’s main tool for managing its risk profile. Risks are categorised as governance, external, regulatory and compliance, financial or operational risks. Throughout the year, the committee has continued to support The Board of Trustees in recognising risks managed through other committees (Finance and People) with the support of Senior Management and key members of staff.

When considering the risk profile Trustees consider:

Risks are allocated to individuals, groups or committees for ongoing maintenance outside of the annual review by The Board of Trustees.

Major risks are those which have a significant impact and likelihood to disrupt the operations, governance or reputation of the Charity. Having examined the major risks, the trustees are satisfied that the actions and mitigations of the Charity have reduced the risks to an appropriate level which is within the risk appetite of The Board of Trustees. The following risks are designated as our major risks for the current financial year.

Adverse drop in overall income

This is an ongoing major risk which the trustees review throughout the year. Mitigation of these risks have continued throughout the year which have included:

Contravention of Child Protection Standards

The trustees have continued to ensure the charity complies with regulatory guidelines and maintains best practice with regards to Child Protection Standards. This risk is mitigated through:

The Impact of COVID-19 on the charity

The implications of this virus on the economy has led to uncertainty in the charity sector. As at 31 March 2021, the Government had published a roadmap out of lockdown, including how restrictions would be eased.

The trustees continue to monitor the risks associated with COVID-19 through:

Child Protection Cont.

There are three major risks associated with the impact of COVID-19 which are:

The trustees will continue to review the risks associated with COVID-19 on the operations and financial resilience of the charity with the support of senior and key members of staff.

FUNDRAISING

Over the past three years the British Youth Council has undergone significant change in regards to fundraising. The creation of a fundraising strategy, which focussed on sustainability by diversifying income, has enabled the charity to move away from reliance on a small number of income sources. New approaches were undertaken to compliment the ways the British Youth Council was previously bringing in funding, such as individual fundraising, challenge event fundraising, corporate fundraising, consultancy and trust and foundations fundraising. We have seen a great amount of success in this new approach to fundraising and moving forwards, our focus will be based on our learnings and experience and will be regularly reviewed in line with the organisational strategy. All of our fundraising supports the British Youth Council to empower young people to find their voices and be heard on issues they care about.

All fundraising at the British Youth Council is currently undertaken within the organisation, with the involvement and oversight of the Head of Fundraising.

The British Youth Council is a member of the Institute of Fundraising and therefore agrees to conduct all fundraising in line with the Code of Fundraising Practice. Throughout the FY 2020/21 the British Youth Council complied fully with the Code of Fundraising Practice in its approach to fundraising. The British Youth Council had a number of supporters fundraise for the charity in this financial year. All fundraising took place via sponsorship platforms and all income was monitored and recorded by the charity.

There were no complaints regarding the British Youth Council’s approach to fundraising in the FY 2020/21.

The British Youth Council ensures the protection of vulnerable people and other members of the general public from behaviour outlined in subsection 2 by following the Code of Fundraising Practice. The British Youth Council does not use third z ’ party fundraising companies and only contacts those who have expressed an interest in supporting the charity. The British Youth Council provides opportunities at every interaction for potential supporters to no longer receive such contact. The British Youth Council does not buy lists of contact details, nor will the charity sell details of our donors to other organisations. The British Youth Council takes relationship development seriously when it comes to individual fundraising and this in turn means that we are able to identify case by case the potential for exploitation of vulnerable people. Appropriate action will always be taken to avoid any such exploitation now and into the future.

SETTING PAY

All salaries at the British Youth Council are linked to the NJC pay scale, a local government scale used extensively in the public and voluntary sector, which is a result of negotiations between trade unions and the Local Government Association. The Chief Executive’s pay is set by the board of trustees, also using this scale. All jobs including that of the CEO are placed in a salary band. Salary progression is linked to length of service and each year staff move on to a higher salary step within their band provided that their performance is satisfactory and that the charity can afford to do so.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 2 and comply with the charity’s Memorandum and Articles of Association, applicable laws, the requirements of the Statement of Recommended Practice, and the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

The income for the year was £758,052 (2020: £960,325) of which £564,213 (2020: £654,747) was restricted income and £193,821 (2020: £305,578) of unrestricted income. The total expenditure for the year was £756,567 (2020: £967,143).

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The Board had approved a break-even budget for 2020/21. However, the changing environment in which we operated impacted on our ability to deliver against the planned budget. We significantly reduced expenditure through the year, making use of the government Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (commonly referred to as ‘furlough’) as well as giving up the lease on our office space to avoid spending charitable resources on a location we could not use. Through judicious decision making and negotiation with funders, we were able to deliver a break even budget

Through the year we made applications to a range of Covid-19 relief funds. We are grateful to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and DCMS for the grants that we received in relation to this. We are also grateful to our existing funders who offered flexibility in the application of existing grants where activities and budgets had to change.

We continue to be grateful for the support of The Blagrave Trust and Paul Hamlyn Foundation who recognise the importance of investing in charities such as The British Youth Council and the importance of youth voice within our society.

Overall, the Board are content with the financial performance of the charity considering the challenges that have been faced in this year. There is continued scrutiny from staff and trustees over the charity’s finances, which is enabling the charity to better identify potential challenges and take corrective action to ensure the stability of the charity.

RESERVES POLICY

The British Youth Council continues to recognise the need to diversify the funding base and raise unrestricted income. This is a long term strategy to ensure the financial sustainability of the charity by being able to make an allocation towards its reserves from unrestricted income each year.

Total funds as at 31 March 2021 were £179,094 (2020:£177,609), of which £88,326 (2020: £85,880) were restricted. At 31 March 2021, the British Youth Council had free reserves (excluding fixed assets) of £87,327 (2020: £87,803).

Our reserves policy is to hold enough money to cover closure - a minimum reserves target based on maintaining a minimum complement of staff and infrastructure for a period in the event of unpredicted cessation of committed income. This target is calculated to cover three months (12 weeks) of running costs to cover overheads, staffing costs including redundancy and project closure. On this basis, the British Youth Council requires £188k for 2021/22 (2020: £219k).

Our current reserves position is below our target and is currently around five weeks’ operating costs. The Board have been closely reviewing the financial position of the charity throughout the year, using the quarterly forecasts along with monthly management account reviews. These include a stronger emphasis on the movement on restricted and unrestricted funds so that the Board has a clear view of this and can make more proactive decisions.

The Board have agreed a strategic priority of income maximisation, to ensure the sustainability of the charity into the future and are being proactive in creating a culture of fundraising across the charity. Having continued on the journey of our fundraising strategy, we now have significantly improved

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our understanding of what works and what does not work for our charity in terms of potential funders and partners, and the time it takes to develop different types of support. This has helped us to create realistic yet stretching targets for the 2021/22 budget that continues to focus on increasing the proportion of unrestricted funds we are bringing in to the charity.

Whilst the budget in 2021/22 will not increase the reserves position to the policy expectation of 12 weeks, the aim is to rebuild the reserves over the following five years in a sustainable manner. In particular, the new programme of work focusing on our consultancy and training offer, supported by an external mentor and training through the Enterprise Development Programme, will start to make a significant contribution to this over the next few years.

STATEMENT OF TRUSTEES' RESPONSIBILITIES

The trustees, who are also the directors of The British Youth Council for the [cay purpose of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the accounts in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires the trustees to prepare accounts for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that period.

In preparing these accounts, the trustees are required to:

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the accounts comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Disclosure of information to auditor

Each of the trustees confirms that so far as they are aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the charity’s auditor is unaware. They have taken all the steps that they ought to have taken in order to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the charity’s auditor are aware of that information.

Approved by the Board on 23 October 2021 and signed on their behalf by:

Sarah Staples Chair

INDEPENDENT AUDITOR'S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH YOUTH COUNCIL

to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the accounts or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the accounts themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006 In our Opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of our audit: e 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 accounts are prepared is consistent with the accounts; and

e

the directors’ report included within the trustees’ report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception In the light of the Knowledge and understanding of the charity 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.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion: e adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or e the accounts are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or e certain disclosures of trustees' remuneration specified by law are not made; or e we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Responsibilities of trustees As explained more fully in the statement of trustees’ responsibilities, the trustees, who are also the directors of the charity for the purpose of company law, are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of accounts that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the accounts, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease Operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the accounts

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the accounts asa 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 accounts.

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.

As part of our planning process:

¢ We enquired of management the systems and controls the charity has in place, the areas of the accounts that are most susceptible to the risk of irregularities and fraud, and whether there was any known, suspected or alleged fraud. The charity did not inform us of any known, suspected or alleged fraud. ¢ We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks applicable to the company. We determined that the following were most relevant: the Charity SORP, FRS 102, Charities Act 2011, Companies Act 2006 and Employment Law. e We considered the incentives and opportunities that exist in the charity, including the extent of management bias, which present a potential for irregularities and fraud to be perpetuated, and tailored our risk assessment accordingly.

e

Using our knowledge of the charity, together with the discussions held with the charity at the planning stage, we formed a conclusion on the risk of misstatement due to irregularities including fraud and tailored our procedures according to this risk assessment.

The key procedures we undertook to detect irregularities including fraud during the course of the audit included:

¢

e e e ¢ e

e ¢ e

Identifying and testing journal entries and the overall accounting records, in particular those that were significant and unusual.

Reviewing the accounts disclosures and determining whether accounting policies have been appropriately applied.

Reviewing and challenging the assumptions and judgements used by management, and the conclusion that there are no significant accounting estimates. Assessing the extent of compliance, or lack of, with the relevant laws and regulations.

Testing key income lines, in particular cut-off, for evidence of management bias. Assessing the validity of the classification of income, expenditure, assets and liabilities between unrestricted, designated and restricted funds. Obtaining third-party confirmation of material bank balances.

Documenting and verifying all significant related party balances and transactions. Reviewing documentation such as the charity board minutes, correspondence with solicitors, for discussions of irregularities including fraud.

Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that we may

not have detected some material misstatements in the accounts even though we have properly planned and performed our audit in accordance with auditing standards. The primary responsibility for the prevention and detection of irregularities and fraud rests with the trustees of the charity.

A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the 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 those matters we are required to state to them in an auditors’ 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 asa body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

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Andrew Rich (Senior Statutory Auditor) for and on behalf of HW Fisher LLP

Chartered Accountants Statutory Auditor Acre House 11-15 William Road London NW1 3ER United Kingdom

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STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

BALANCE SHEET AT 31 MARCH 2021

STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Esmée Fairbairn — A three-year grant to

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

The British Youth Council E: info@byc.org.uk W: www.byc.org.uk

Charity Number 1123224 Company Number 06226595

Principal address 49 - 51 East Road London N1 6AH

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