2021-09-30-accounts - The Summer Camps Trust

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Summer Camps Trust Trustees’ meeting 20.1.2022.

Appendix B - Draft Annual Report (for the years 2020 and 2021).

This report covers the two years 2020 and 2021, i.e. largely the “Covid years”.
The Trust (in common with many other organisations doing similar work) has found these two years difficult. In 2020 no courses or camps were able to take place due to Covid regulations. During 2021 dates of courses had to be changed several times to comply with changing guidelines. In addition income was reduced since the Trust remitted membership subscriptions for both years, to help member organisations who were also having a difficult time.
So far as was possible the Trust has continued its work of raising the profile of well-run residential summer camps and finding ways in which many more UK-based children and young adults could experience the fun and benefits of summer camps. During the initial period of lockdown the Trust published “The Summer Camps Trust Book of Things to Do”, and put a selection of the activities from the book on its website to be downloaded free by parents looking for screen-free activities for their children. Some 500 copies of the book have been sold, and there have been a good number of hits on the relevant part of the website. It is hoped that this exercise may have stimulated interest in summer camps and their unique repertoire of screen-free activities.
The Trust has continued to lobby government and to argue that well-run summer camps could play a crucial role in helping the nation’s children recover their equilibrium after Covid. We also argue constantly that an opportunity to escape from the world of mobile phones and social media into some “real childhood” has never been more needed. There has been some interest from both the Department for Education and the DCMS, but as yet no breakthroughs into significant government help with building up a proper British summer camps sector.
The Trust has employed a Development Officer over a large part of the period covered by this report. Jeremy Quarrie has worked for the Trust halftime for about a year and then one day a week. He has done excellent work in building a relationship with The Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, and has managed the Trust’s website and social media.
It was finally possible to offer a programme of leader training and TryOut Camps in the summer of 2021. Forty five young adults took part in sevenday volunteer leader training weeks, and 120 children took part in two TryOut Camps. The TryOut Camp experiment, which had started in 2019, is an attempt to interest more parents in giving residential summer camps a try for their children, by offering one-off camps at a very low price. It is hard to evaluate the success of this idea yet, though a number of the children who took part in 2019 TryOut Camps did book again (at the economic price) for 2021.
The volunteer leaders trained in 2021 were an impressive group of young people, who did good work in the TryOut Camps and other camps during
August. Most are keen to continue with summer camps, and it is encouraging to see the start of a group of young adults committed to the work of the Trust and willing to help with enthusiasm and flare.
The Summer Camps Trust was invited, at the end of August 2021, to deliver two days of screen-free activities at a summer school being run by a large Academy in Coventry for Year 6 pupils about to enter the school. A team of ten summer camp leaders looked after 200 11 year-olds for two days, delivering a varied programme of activities, some semi-educational and some just for fun. The school commented afterwards how well the young volunteer leaders had related to the children, how enjoyable the programme had been, and how unique the repertoire of activities on offer was. There could well be demand over the next few years to provide similar inputs to school-based summer schools, and it could be to the Trust’s advantage to deliver more such sessions, provided ways can be found of making such projects helpful to our main aims.
The Trustees have held five meetings over the period of this report, all but the first one via Zoom. Zoom meetings have also enabled more member representatives to take part in the meetings.
10.Ben Harris, Megan Saunders-Smith and Sir Bob Russell have resigned as Trustees during this period. The following new Trustees have been appointed: Nicky Bandini, a journalist, to help with the press and media side of the work, Mya-Rose (Birdgirl) Craig, to reinforce our connections with the natural world and with reaching out to children from VME backgrounds, and Lord Mike Storey, the LibDem Education spokesman in the House of Lords.
11.The Trust will continue to work towards giving many more UK-based children and young people the experience of happy community living in good summer camps, and sharing the unique repertoire of games, handicrafts, puzzles, songs and outdoor activities found in summer camps to the benefit of children, parents, schools and the nation in general.

Christopher Green (Co-ordinator The Summer Camps Trust) January 2022.

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of TrE On accounts for the year ended solofllloti Charfty no (if any) IlQtSEf) Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my éxamination of the accounts of the above ¢harity {'Ihe Trust.) for the year ended 3ty ol to t I. Responsibilities and basis of report As the charity's trustees. you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance wth the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (Ihe Act.). I report in respect of my examination of the Twst's accounts carried out under section 145 ofthe 2011 Acl and in carrying out my examination. I have followed all the applicable Di¢t10nS given by the Chariiy Commission under section 145{5)(bl of the Act. Independent he charity's gross income exceeded £250,000 and l am qualrfied to examinels statement undertake the examinats'on by being a qualified member of [insert name of applicable listed bodyll. Delete I l if not applicable. I have completed my examination. l confirm that no material rnatters have come to my attention in connection wtth the examination (etheplhathat disc1") which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect.. the accounting rerdS were not kept in accordance with $6¢tion 130 of the Charities Act,. or the accounts did not accord with the accounting records., or the accounts did not comply with the applicable requifements OnrnIng the fom) and content of auntS set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the a¢xounts give a Irue and fairf view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. . Please delet8 the words in the brackets if they do not apply. Slgned: Date: Name: LgToTJ Relevant professional quallfication(s) or body ACA, IER Oct 2018

(If any): Address: ' eoSQ , geoG 6A(Ltr4 fr/eAgs DYtrL ILG Section B Disclosure Only ¢omklete rf the examiner needs to high1ht material matters of COnM (see CC32, Independent examination of charity acojunts: directtons and guidan for examiners). Glve here brlef datall8 of any items that the examlner wlshes to dlsclo80. IER Oct 2018

The Summer Camps Trust Sheet i Registered Charity no. 1162580 Annual a¢¢ounts for the 12 months to September 30th 2021 5ertlon A . Ststement of Flnandal actlvltles mths to 3010912021 li mthsto 30109120 INCOME RECEIVED Subscrlptlons from members Donations Tryout Camps Volunteer leadertraining School Artivity days incoffle Book sales I.00 9,066.10 39,707.70 2,g84.05 io,000.o 432.34 2,250.00 9,845.59 165.15 0.00 1,593.51 62,290.19 13,854.25 EXPENorruRE Central Admtnistration Salary and on costs In5uiance5 Advert(slttB tost InrJudingweb51te 445.34 8.130.73 523.88 843.82 801.00 1,822.37 0.00 35,674.73 6.477.00 249.17 575.67 18,015.30 523.88 2,734.59 855.28 School days aCtiVty costs Membership fees Tryout camps Volunteer le4dertraininz other 188.00 3,744.27 54,968.04 26.636.99 Net IncomellExpendlturel 7,322.15 -12.782.74 Total funds broughtforward Totsl funds carried forward 175.25 7,497.40 12,957.99 175.25 5ettlon B: Balance sheet 3010912021 30109Iz020 Stock Trade Debtors Cash at Bank 6.626.( 10,032.61 10,993.12 7A27.IXI 2,561.94 Totsl turrènt Assèts 27.65L73 9,988.94 Trade credltors Deposits held Loan -11,672.05 -881.41 -650.LKI -8.182.28 -8,282.28 Net Assets 7,497.40 175.25