2025-08-31-accounts - Friends Of The Lancashire County Ensembles

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 1181507 REGISTERED COMPANY NUMBER: CEO16165

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2025 FOR FRIENDS OF THE LANCASHIRE COUNTY ENSEMBLES

FRIENDS OF THE LANCASHIRE COUNTY ENSEMBLES

CONTENTS OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2025

	Page
Report of the Trustees	3 to 6
Report of the Independent Auditors	7
Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities	8
Balance Sheets	9
Notes to the Financial Statements	10

FRIENDS OF THE LANCASHIRE COUNTY ENSEMBLES

CONTENTS OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2025

The trustees who are also directors of the charity for the purposes of the Companies Act 2006, present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31st August 2025. The trustees have adopted the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) ‘Accounting and Reporting by Charities’ issued in March 2015.

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

Charity Name

Friends of the Lancashire County Ensembles

Registered Charity number

1181507

Registered Company number

CE016165

Registered office

Lancashire Music Service PO Box 100 County Hall Preston PR1 0LD

Trustees

T Oldham - chair S Sloan A Sloan H Bowden D Aspin E Midgley – treasurer H. Robertson P Hughes (joined 15[th] July 2024) J Faragher-Ginn (joined 15[th] July 2024) L Varley (joined 15[th] July 2024) R Edwards (joined 15[th] July 2024)

Independent Examiner

Fiona Little FCCA Millstone Cottage Bodkin Lane Out Rawcliffe Preston Lancashire PR3 6TL

Barclays

38 Fishergate Preston Lancashire PR1 2AD

3 | P a g e

FRIENDS OF THE LANCASHIRE COUNTY ENSEMBLES

CONTENTS OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2025 - continued

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Governing document

The Charitable Company (hereafter referred to as “the Charity”) is controlled by its governing document, the Memorandum and Articles of Association, and constitutes a limited company, limited by guarantee, as defined by the Companies Act 2006.

Recruitment and appointment of new trustees

As set out in the Articles of Association, the board of trustees comprises not less than three trustees but not more than 12 trustees.

The Board is responsible for the recruitment and appointment of new Trustees. Each year a skills audit is undertaken and if gaps are identified, a recruitment process takes place. The recruitment process has been developed in order to attract a diverse group of trustees with appropriate skills, knowledge and experience.

Occasionally potential trustees register an interest in the organisation. Following this, a meeting is arranged with the Chair and a Director and the trustee is held on a waiting list until an appropriate vacancy arises.

Organisational structure

The activities of the organisation are governed by the board of trustees, all of whom are directors.

Board meetings are held once per term and a board assurance framework has been established in order to guide the board.

The Treasurer provides assurance to the board around organisational finance.

The board of trustees appoints the Directors who report to the Board on the operational running of the organisation.

4 | P a g e

FRIENDS OF THE LANCASHIRE COUNTY ENSEMBLES

CONTENTS OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2025 - continued

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

Objectives and aims

The Charity’s objects as set out in the objects contained in the company’s memorandum of association are to promote, develop, enhance and maintain the education of children and young people in the Lancashire County Ensembles. In the art of music and subjects related thereto in such ways as the CIO shall determine from time to time. The objects shall be at all times non-political.

Public Benefit

Supporting young musicians in the Lancashire County Ensembles through funding projects, resources and activities and supporting individual young people where finances are a barrier to participation. What the charity does:

Education/training
Arts/culture/heritage/science

Who the charity helps:

Children/young People

How the charity helps:

Makes Grants To Individuals
Makes Grants To Organisations

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Financial review and reserves

The results of the Charity are summarised on the Statement of Financial Activities.

The closing reserves are shown on the Balance Sheet.

The charity has reserves of £59,422 at the year end.

The Charity’s reserves policy is to hold a level of 3-6 months free reserves equating to the unrestricted direct charitable costs for the year.

The Trustees will endeavour to retain this level in the future.

GOING CONCERN

The accounts are prepared on a going concern basis, which the Trustees consider to be appropriate having considered the foreseeable future. The Charitable Company holds reserves which are sufficiently in line with its reserves policy.

5 | P a g e

FRIENDS OF THE LANCASHIRE COUNTY ENSEMBLES

CONTENTS OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2025 - continued

STATEMENT OF TRUSTEES RESPONSIBILITIES

The trustees (who are also the directors of Friends of the Lancashire County Ensembles for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Report of the Trustees and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements 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 those financial statements, the trustees are required to

select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
observe the methods and principles in the Charity SORP;
make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in business.

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements 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.

In so far as the trustees are aware:

there is no relevant independent examination information of which the charitable company's examiners 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.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD :

T Oldham - Chair

Date: 18[th] February 2026

6 | P a g e

INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF

FRIENDS OF THE LANCASHIRE COUNTY ENSEMBLES

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“Friends of the Lancashire County Ensembles”) for the year ended 31[st ] August 2025.

As the charity's trustees, 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 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
the accounts did 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.

Fiona Little FCCA Millstone Cottage Bodkin Lane Out Rawcliffe Preston Lancashire PR3 6TL

Date: 6[th] February 2026

7 | P a g e

FRIENDS OF THE LANCASHIRE COUNTY ENSEMBLES

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2025 (INCORPORATING INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT)

			2025	2024
	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total funds	Total funds
	funds	fund
	£	£	£	£
INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM
Donations and legacies	35,590	-	35,590	20,125
Total	35,590	-	35,590	20,125
EXPENDITURE ON
Direct charitable activities	36,190	-	36,190	3,938
NET EXPENDITURE	(600)	-	(600)	16,187
RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS
Total funds brought forward	60,022	-	60,022	43,835
TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD	59,422	-	59,422	60,022

The Statement of Financial Activities includes all gains and losses in the year and therefore a statement of total recognised gains and losses has not been prepared.

All of the above amounts relate to continuing activities.

8 | P a g e

FRIENDS OF THE LANCASHIRE COUNTY ENSEMBLES

BALANCE SHEETS AT 31ST AUGUST 2025

CURRENT ASSETS Cash at bank CREDITORS Amounts falling due within one year NET ASSETS FUNDS Unrestricted fund TOTAL FUNDS	2025 £ 59,422 59,422 - 59,422 59,422 59,422	2024 £ 60,022 60,022 - 60,022 60,022 60,022

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the special provisions of Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small charitable companies and with the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities (effective April 2008).

The financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees on 18[th] February 2026 and were signed on its behalf by:

T Oldham - Chair

9 | P a g e

FRIENDS OF THE LANCASHIRE COUNTY ENSEMBLES

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2025

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of preparing the financial statements

The financial statements of the charitable company have been prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS102) 'Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice and the Companies Act 2006. The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention with the exception of investments which are included at market value.

Income

All income is recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities once the charity has legal entitlement to the funds, it is possible that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.

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.

Taxation

The charity is exempt from corporation 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.

Key management

The key management personnel of the Charity are noted in the Trustees Report. The total employee benefits of the key management personnel of the Charity were £0 (2024: £0).

No member of staff was paid more than £60,000 during the year (being the reportable limit specified by the Charity Commission).

10 | P a g e