REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 1175689
REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES AND
FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
FOR
UPTOWN YOUTH SERVICES
Hartley Fowler LLP Chartered Accountants 4th Floor Tuition House
27-37 St George's Road Wimbledon London SW19 4EU
UPTOWN YOUTH SERVICES
CONTENTS OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
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Page
Report of the Trustees 1 to 4
Independent Examiner's Report 5
Statement of Financial Activities 6
Balance Sheet 7
Notes to the Financial Statements 8 to 12
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UPTOWN YOUTH SERVICES
REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
The trustees present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2024. The trustees have adopted the provisions of Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019).
Uptown Youth Services was established as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) to take over the assets and activities of Uptown UK a company limited by guarantee.
OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES
Objectives and aims
The objects of the charity are to act as a resource for young people in the borough of Merton by providing advice and assistance and organising programmes of physical, educational and other activities as a means of helping young people by
a) developing their skills, capacities and capabilities to enable them to participate in society as independent, mature and responsible individuals
b) advancing education
c) relieving unemployment
d) providing recreational and leisure time activity in the interests of social welfare for young people who have need by reason of their youth, infirmity or disability , poverty or social and economic circumstances with a view to improving their conditions of life.
Significant activities
Uptown Youth Services operates three days a week at The Leyton Road Community Resource Centre in Colliers Wood and one day a week at the South Mitcham Community Centre in a youth club type format for young people from the surrounding areas and an additional Thursday session offering one-on-one individual mentoring to young people who need a little extra help. Uptown has a strong focus on mentoring the young people and providing support to them and their families. Uptown works in close conjunction with other parties, including the police and social services, in identifying young people who may benefit from attending Uptown. In a safe environment, which gets the young people off the streets, they can socialise with friends and take part in a range of typical youth club activities whilst also having access to a quiet room to do homework.
Young people with learning difficulties are encouraged to attend, participate and develop their social skills while making new friends.
Public benefit
In planning the activities of the charity, the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission in relation to public benefit.
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UPTOWN YOUTH SERVICES
REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
ACHIEVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE
Charitable activities
Uptown Youth Services is a registered charity supporting young people aged from 7 to 18, or up to 25 for those with disabilities, in a free to access fully inclusive youth club environment. Uptown has been operating within Merton for over 30 years.
Uptown provides a safe venue to get young people off the streets and develop their social skills, meet with friends, play pool and partake in positive activities such as music, dance and drama, sports, and arts and craft. An integral part of our provision is to encourage education and training. This includes providing homework support and the use of a quiet room with access to computers and printers. Uptown also runs workshops on issues such as budgeting, health, cooking, substance misuse, alcohol, domestic violence, mental health, bullying and anger management. From time to time, we offer first aid training programmes tailored to specific issues such as knife crime.
The core philosophy of Uptown is to provide mentoring to the young people - providing them with strong role models and helping them to make good life choices. The key outcomes we seek to achieve are for our young people to be: safe and happy; active members of their community; and moving onto positive destinations.
Uptown's core operations deliver three weekly 3-hour sessions (Wednesday, Friday and Saturday afternoon) during term time at the Leyton Road Centre plus a Tuesday 2-hour session for our younger cohort at the South Mitcham Community Centre.
Uptown also runs some sessions during school holidays, including participation in the HAF (Holiday, Activities and Food) programmes for children who are eligible for free school meals facilitated by grants from Merton Council. We have actively engaged young people in menu planning and cooking as well as 'buying food in' from restaurants alongside the other activities. Uptown has continued it's free to all policy by extending HAF attendance to other young people who we deem to be vulnerable or hungry or simply want to be with their friends in a safe place - but who do not qualify for free school meals.
Uptown's CEO has been supported during the year by three trainee youth workers (one with a disability) and volunteers - including parents and former Uptown members as well as Trustees. Our Trainee Youth Workers have enjoyed working, taking responsibility and earning income and this experience has enabled them to take on leadership roles to help build their CVs and self-confidence. Uptown pays its staff in compliance with The London Living Wage guidelines.
Uptown continues to broaden and deepen its reach to increase the membership as there is demand from the police and Merton Council staff for Uptown to work with more young people. To accommodate more of this hard to reach and potentially more difficult cohort, Uptown are seeking to add an experienced youth worker to spread the day-to-day workload of running sessions and free up some of our CEO's time to focus on strategic issues and multi-agency partnership work.
Over the past few months, Uptown has invested considerable time and effort in updating its IT infrastructure. Uptown transitioned its membership database system from a paper-based system to an online version which allows for better recording and reporting of data than the old paper records. Uptown also acquired new PCs and set up a cloud-based file storage system to facilitate easier sharing of documents and collaboration and have now employed a virtual administrator to support the CEO and Trustees in the running of Uptown.
FINANCIAL REVIEW
Financial position
A summary of the financial position of the charity is provided in the balance sheet which forms a part of these accounts.
Principal funding sources
The principal sources of income for the charity are from donations and grants. Uptown's CEO and Trustees are regularly applying for grants to diversify our funding sources and finance our operations.
Grants used to fund Uptown's core activities during the year ended March 2024 were awarded by The National Lottery, Garfield Weston Foundation, Masonic Charitable Foundation, Merton's Investing in Neighbourhoods Fund and the Merton Community Panel. Uptown was also in receipt of funding from Merton Council for the running of Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programmes. The National Lottery awarded Uptown a five-year grant, which has added some very welcome financial certainty. We are very appreciative of the support offered by our donors and supporters.
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UPTOWN YOUTH SERVICES
REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
FINANCIAL REVIEW
Reserves policy
The Trustees aim to hold a sufficient level of reserves to allow the charity to meet its commitments as they fall due and to ensure it can continue to deliver services for the foreseeable future. Uptown Youth Services' Trustees have accordingly adopted a policy to hold unrestricted reserves covering at least six months core operating costs to try and provide a cushion when managing the lumpy and unpredictable nature of grant and donation income and minimise the risk of disruption to its services. The reserves held at year-end are as set out on the statement of financial activities.
The level of funding received allowed Uptown to fund its operations for the year ended March 2024 without recourse to reserves and has continued to do so. Uptown has a pressing need to secure further sources of funding without which Uptown expects to have to partially fund operations from its unrestricted reserves in calendar year 2026 and may breach its reserves policy.
Going concern
The trustees consider that the charity has adequate resources to meet its operational commitments for the forseeable future and that it is a going concern.
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
Governing document
The charity is constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with company number CEO11689 and registered charity number 1175689.
It was first registered with the charity commission in November 2017
Recruitment and appointment of new trustees
Trustees are appointed by the existing trustees when considered appropriate. Under its constitution, there is a requirement to have a minimum of three trustees.
REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS Registered Charity number 1175689
Principal address
42 Veals Mead Mitcham Surrey CR4 3SB
Trustees
L M Conway-Hughes Chair C R Bradley J A Craddock (resigned 19/11/24) A Jakobsen V McClean M E Rhys-Evans T L Simpson (resigned 31/8/24)
Independent Examiner
Jonathan Askew FCA Hartley Fowler LLP Chartered Accountants 4th Floor Tuition House 27-37 St George's Road Wimbledon London SW19 4EU
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UPTOWN YOUTH SERVICES
REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
Approved by order of the board of trustees on 23 December 2024 and signed on its behalf by:
L M Conway-Hughes - Trustee
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INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF UPTOWN YOUTH SERVICES
Independent examiner's report to the trustees of Uptown Youth Services
I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of Uptown Youth Services (the Trust) for the year ended 31 March 2024.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the Act').
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under Section 145 of the Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under Section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent examiner's statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
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accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by Section 130 of the Act; or
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the accounts do not accord with those records; or
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the accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a true and fair view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Jonathan Askew FCA
Hartley Fowler LLP Chartered Accountants 4th Floor Tuition House 27-37 St George's Road Wimbledon London SW19 4EU
23 December 2024
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UPTOWN YOUTH SERVICES
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
| Unrestricted Restricted fund fund Notes £ £ INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM Donations 2,302 - Charitable activities Charitable activities - 81,162 Total 2,302 81,162 EXPENDITURE ON Charitable activities 2 Charitable activities - 76,899 NET INCOME 2,302 4,263 RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS Total funds brought forward 51,876 22,977 TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD 54,178 27,240 |
2024 Total funds £ 2,302 81,162 83,464 76,899 6,565 74,853 81,418 |
2023 Total funds £ 8,897 77,753 86,650 76,023 10,627 64,226 74,853 |
|---|---|---|
The notes form part of these financial statements
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UPTOWN YOUTH SERVICES
BALANCE SHEET 31 MARCH 2024
| Unrestricted Restricted fund fund Notes £ £ CURRENT ASSETS Cash at bank 61,267 27,240 CREDITORS Amounts falling due within one year 7 (7,089) - NET CURRENT ASSETS 54,178 27,240 TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES 54,178 27,240 NET ASSETS 54,178 27,240 FUNDS 8 Unrestricted funds Restricted funds TOTAL FUNDS |
2024 Total funds £ 88,507 (7,089) 81,418 81,418 81,418 54,178 27,240 81,418 |
2023 Total funds £ 87,689 (12,836) 74,853 74,853 74,853 51,876 22,977 74,853 |
|---|---|---|
The financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees and authorised for issue on 23 December 2024 and were signed on its behalf by:
L M Conway-Hughes - Trustee
The notes form part of these financial statements
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UPTOWN YOUTH SERVICES
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Basis of preparing the financial statements
The financial statements of the charity, which is a public benefit entity under FRS 102, have been prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102) 'Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)', Financial Reporting Standard 102 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' and the Charities Act 2011. The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention.
Income
All income is recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities once the charity has entitlement to the funds, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.
Assets and liabilities were taken over from Uptown UK at 1st April 2017 and restated at their fair value as estimated by the trustees at the date of the transfer.The fair value of the net assets taken over is shown as income in these accounts.
Other than as disclosed above there has been no offsetting of assets and liabilities or income and expenditure in these accounts.
The charity relies significantly on the services of volunteers in carrying out its activities. The value of voluntary help is not reflected as income in these accounts but their contribution is acknowledged and appreciated by the trustees.
Expenditure
Liabilities are recognised as expenditure as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to that expenditure, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all cost related to the category. Where costs cannot be directly attributed to particular headings they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources.
Charitable activities
Charitable expenditure comprises those costs incurred by the charity in the delivery of its activities and services for its beneficiaries. It includes both costs that can be allocated directly to such activities and those costs of an indirect nature necessary to support them.
Tangible fixed assets
Depreciation is provided at the following annual rates in order to write off each asset over its estimated useful life.
Computers and equipment - at variable rates on cost
Taxation
The charity is exempt from tax on its charitable activities.
Fund accounting
Unrestricted funds can be used in accordance with the charitable objectives at the discretion of the trustees.
Restricted funds can only be used for particular restricted purposes within the objects of the charity. Restrictions arise when specified by the donor or when funds are raised for particular restricted purposes.
Further explanation of the nature and purpose of each fund is included in the notes to the financial statements.
Financial instruments
The charity only has financial instruments of a kind that qualify as basic.
Cash at bank is measured at transaction price.
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UPTOWN YOUTH SERVICES
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - continued FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES - continued
Financial instruments
Debtors and creditors with no stated interest rate and receivables or payables within one year are recorded at transaction price. Any losses arising from impairment are recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities.
2. CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES COSTS
| 2. CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES COSTS |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Charitable activities | Direct Costs £ 72,797 |
Support costs (see note 3) Totals £ £ 4,102 76,899 |
|
| 3. SUPPORT COSTS Charitable activities |
Finance £ 2,048 |
Information technology £ 351 |
Other Totals £ £ 1,703 4,102 |
| Support costs, included in the above, are as follows: Finance Independent examiners fees Excl VAT Bookkeeping and accountancy |
2024 2023 Charitable Total activities activities £ £ 1,500 1,440 548 461 |
||
| 2,048 1,901 |
|||
| Information technology Computer and website |
2024 2023 Charitable Total activities activities £ £ 351 - |
||
| Other Postage and stationery Other office costs Payroll administration Insurance |
2024 2023 Charitable Total activities activities £ £ 174 70 194 135 984 651 351 287 |
||
| 1,703 1,143 |
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UPTOWN YOUTH SERVICES
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - continued FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
4. TRUSTEES' REMUNERATION AND BENEFITS
There were no trustees' remuneration or other benefits for the year ended 31 March 2024 nor for the year ended 31 March 2023.
Trustees' expenses
There were no trustees' expenses paid for the year ended 31 March 2024 nor for the year ended 31 March 2023.
5. COMPARATIVES FOR THE STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES
| INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM Donations Charitable activities Charitable activities |
Unrestricted fund £ 8,897 - |
Restricted Total fund funds £ £ - 8,897 77,753 77,753 |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 8,897 | 77,753 86,650 |
| EXPENDITURE ON Charitable activities Charitable activities |
- | 76,023 76,023 |
| NET INCOME RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS Total funds brought forward |
8,897 42,979 |
1,730 10,627 21,247 64,226 |
| TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD | 51,876 | 22,977 74,853 |
| 6. TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS COST At 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 |
Computers and equipment £ 1,080 |
|
| DEPRECIATION At 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 |
1,080 | |
| NET BOOK VALUE At 31 March 2024 |
- | |
| At 31 March 2023 | - |
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UPTOWN YOUTH SERVICES
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - continued FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
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7. CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR
2024 2023
£ £
Other creditors 7,089 12,836
8. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS
Net
movement At
At 1/4/23 in funds 31/3/24
£ £ £
Unrestricted funds
General fund 51,876 2,302 54,178
Restricted funds
Restricted fund 22,977 4,263 27,240
TOTAL FUNDS 74,853 6,565 81,418
Net movement in funds, included in the above are as follows:
Incoming Resources Movement
resources expended in funds
£ £ £
Unrestricted funds
General fund 2,302 - 2,302
Restricted funds
Restricted fund 81,162 (76,899) 4,263
TOTAL FUNDS 83,464 (76,899) 6,565
Comparatives for movement in funds
Net
movement At
At 1/4/22 in funds 31/3/23
£ £ £
Unrestricted funds
General fund 42,979 8,897 51,876
Restricted funds
Restricted fund 21,247 1,730 22,977
TOTAL FUNDS 64,226 10,627 74,853
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UPTOWN YOUTH SERVICES
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - continued FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
8. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS - continued
Comparative net movement in funds, included in the above are as follows:
| Unrestricted funds General fund Restricted funds Restricted fund |
Incoming Resources Movement resources expended in funds £ £ £ 8,897 - 8,897 77,753 (76,023) 1,730 |
|---|---|
| TOTAL FUNDS | 86,650 (76,023) 10,627 |
The vast majority of Uptown Youth Services' income is derived from grants. The majority of our grants are for core funding (although some are designated for specific items of expenditure) and are awarded to contribute to paying our operating costs over a specific time period . The restricted funds balance represents the unspent portion of grants which are to be allocated for time periods falling after the balance sheet date.
9. RELATED PARTY DISCLOSURES
There were no related party transactions for the year ended 31 March 2024.
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