**ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** **CHARITY NUMBER: 1194239** **ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## **CONTENTS** |**CONTENTS**|| |---|---| |**TRUSTEES’ REPORT**|**3**| |**INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT**|**16**| |**STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES**|**17**| |**BALANCE SHEET**|**18**| |**NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**|**19**| **2** **TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## **INTRODUCTION** Exeter Science Centre is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) dedicated to public engagement with STEAMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics and Medicine). The Trustees are pleased to present their annual report, together with the consolidated financial statements of the charity, for the fourth year of the charity, from 27th April 2024 to 26th April 2025. ## **ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS** ## **Charity name:** Exeter Science Centre ## **Registered Charity Number:** 1194239 ## **Charity’s Registered Office Address:** Exeter Science Centre 1 Marsh Green Road Marsh Barton Trading Estate Exeter EX2 8NY |**Trustee name**|**Role**|**Dates acted if not for whole**
**year**| |---|---|---| |||| |Prof. Justin Dillon|Chair|| |||| |Dr Sarah Usher||27/4/2021 - 9/5/2024| |||| |David Solomides||| |||| |Dr Celia Oxlade||| |||| |Prof. Pete Vukusic||27/4/2021 - 9/5/2024| |||| |Olga Petrakova-Brown||| |||| |Christopher Sims|Treasurer|| |||| |Oliver David Raud||06/11/2025 to present| **3** **TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## **STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT** Exeter Science Centre is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with a CIO Foundation Model Constitution. It is managed on a day-to-day basis by the two founders and directors, Dr Natalie Whitehead (1 FTE) and Dr Alice Mills (0.8 FTE), and overseen by the board of trustees. Our Strategic Advisory Board (set up in 2023) meets twice a year and supports the development of the physical spaces and continues to be chaired by Stuart Brocklehurst, Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Exeter. We are grateful to George Monbiot for continuing to be our inspiring Patron. ## **Appointment of trustees** At the year-end our trustee board is comprised of five trustees with a range of backgrounds and experience. Dr Sarah Usher and Prof. Pete Vukusic stepped down in May 2024 after their three-year terms; we are incredibly grateful for all of their support since the organisation was established. The charity governing document sets out that there must be a minimum of three trustees and a maximum of 12. After assessing any skills gaps in our board we will seek to recruit new trustees in the coming year. Trustees must be appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees. **4** **TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## **CHAIR’S AND DIRECTORS’ INTRODUCTION** Exeter Science Centre reached over 5,200 people this year through in person engagement projects, citizen science, workshops, festivals, fairs and events in schools and communities across the South West. We have collaborated with universities, local and national organisations, community groups, creatives, research and industry partners. We continue to work with people of all ages and backgrounds, connecting them with current research, industry and local action with a focus on global challenges and their local relevance. Particular successes this year have been extending our tour of the ‘Our World from Space’ programme, in particular, adapting this programme to be more accessible and inclusive. We have also been awarded funding for and have launched a citizen science programme in 8 schools across Devon to engage young people with water quality monitoring in their local streams and rivers. We have recently signed a partnership agreement with North Devon Biosphere and have growing support from North Devon Council to create a science centre in Northern Devon. We are therefore continuing to pursue our plans of creating a network of smaller centres, with the first one being in Barnstaple. Our volunteer base is growing and we are incredibly grateful for the time, expertise and enthusiasm that our volunteers bring to all our activities. This year 43 volunteers gave a total of 530 hours of their time to support our work and we couldn’t have done it without them. We are hugely grateful for the continued generosity from Lumi Therapy in providing us with rent-free space this year for our office and equipment storage, as well as a generous support package. They have also supported us in installing a living wall on the Lumi building as part of a collaborative research project with the University of Plymouth, for which an intern has joined us for 5 months to support with an engagement project around the benefits of living walls. This has been a very busy but successful year of engagement and we look forward to growing our organisation and impact in the coming year. _Prof. Justin Dillon Dr Natalie Whitehead, Dr Alice Mills_ Chair Directors **5** **TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## **OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES** Our mission is to educate, motivate and empower the public to make a difference in the world. ## **CHARITABLE PURPOSES** Our main charitable purposes (as described in our CIO governing document) are: To advance the education of the public, particularly in the South West of England in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics and Medicine (STEAMM), in particular but not exclusively by: - providing interactive activities, events and information media; - establishing, developing and maintaining a physical STEAMM Discovery Centre (‘Science Centre’) for public benefit; - developing the public understanding of and engagement with STEAMM; developing public access to current scientific and technological advancements particularly in the South West of England. ## **PUBLIC BENEFIT** The Trustees confirm that the objectives and activities for the year have been developed with due regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit. ## **BENEFICIARIES** Our beneficiaries are people of all ages and backgrounds, particularly in the South West of the UK. We work with schools, the general public, and specific communities of people depending on the projects that we are working on. For project work where we have limited resources and thus have to limit the direct beneficiaries, we aim to prioritise those from underserved and disadvantaged communities. When identifying underserved or disadvantaged communities, we prioritise those with less access to STEAMM-related opportunities and in locations that rank highly on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD, typically within the top 20% most deprived regions in the UK, deciles 1-2). **6** **TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** When working with schools, we prioritise those with more than 20% of pupils entitled to free school meals, or with a postcode ranking highly on the IMD. Where possible, we try to make our work publicly accessible, to increase our reach and impact. This includes making public-friendly video summaries of some of our activities, making our project resources freely accessible on our website and sharing our work via social media. ## **FUNDRAISING** The directors have spent some of their time applying for grants and carrying out fundraising activity, which is estimated in the accounts. We are hugely grateful for funds donated by Lumi Therapy at the end of the last financial year to support our core costs, as well as other kind donations from individuals. Our projects and activities this financial year (April 2024-2025) have been generously funded by: the University of Exeter; the University of Plymouth; the South West Peninsula National Institute for Healthcare Research; the Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC) plus the UK Space Agency and Natural Environment Research Council for the Our World From Space project; The Adrian Swire Charitable Trust; Sovereign Network Group; The Royal Society of Chemistry; The National Trust; The Royal Albert Memorial Museum; Libraries Unlimited South West; North Devon District Scouts; 361 Energy; Exmouth Town Council; Exeter Phoenix; Exeter City of Literature; Heather Bridge School; CoLab Exeter; Resource Futures; The Institute of Physics. ## **ACTIVITIES** We have continued to develop and deliver a broad range of activities, predominantly in person. Over the following pages, we outline our main activities over the past financial year. **7** **TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## **SUMMARY** _Map showing the distribution of our activities this year. In some cases we visited the same group/location multiple times. Credit: Google Maps, 2025, google.com/maps._ **8** **TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## **ACTIVITY HIGHLIGHTS** ## _**Kingfishers: School Freshwater Champions**_ In November 2024 we were granted £9,648 from the Royal Society of Chemistry to run a 6 month citizen science project in 8 primary schools across Devon, to engage Key Stage 2 children with water quality monitoring. This project was initiated by Reg Godwin, an Applications Specialist for Thermo Fisher Scientific. Reg reached out to us to help him expand his project with his local school to engage more schools, bring in additional collaborators and create a school education package. We are also collaborating with Greenpeace, the University of Exeter and the Citizen Phage Library for the design of the programme, analysis of the water samples and interpretation of results. So far we have completed the introductory assembly in all the schools and trained all the schools in how to collect the data. They will all collect data monthly until July 2025. ## _**IOP Festival of Physics**_ We supported the Institute of Physics South West Branch in planning and delivering their Festival of Physics, hosted for the first time at the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall in February 2025. The day included free talks, exhibitors and workshops around the theme of ‘Worlds from Space’, along with two zones from us: the Our World From Space activities and We Are Guardians VR experience. **9** **TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## _**Our World from Space**_ Our World from Space (OWFS) is a national STEM programme exploring the relevance of UK space science for the future health and sustainability of our home planet, funded by UK Space Agency in partnership with Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). This year we developed a more meaningful, locally-relevant programme of lasting resources, as well as extend the delivery of events into more schools and communities. Thanks to a generous grant of £6,100 from the Adrian Swire Charitable Trust, we were able to continue our South West tour of the Our World from Space programme from August 2024 to February 2025. In addition, funding from the Sovereign Network Group (SNG) as part of the EDI Community Microgrants Programme, enabled us to engage smaller groups of people with learning or physical disabilities with OWFS activities. Other organisations paid for us to deliver this programme at events for them using their own funding, including the University of Exeter through the FUTURES researchers in schools programme. In total this year, this programme reached 3,777 people through 22 events and workshops. **10** **TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## **PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMMES** This year we have worked on four public engagement programmes with researchers and research organisations in the region. This has provided an income whilst also working towards our charitable purposes. ## _**Community Connections Project with Dr Federico Botta**_ In this community engagement project, we are working with University of Exeter (UoE) data science researcher Dr Federico Botta and his research team to understand Exeter residents’ views on urban liveability, to help inform his research direction. This project runs from January to June 2025. So far we have carried out public consultations in Exeter library through a drop-in event and are planning in depth consultation sessions with community groups in the coming months. ## _**Prof. Janet Anders Research Videos**_ _We continued to work with Prof. Janet Anders (from UoE) and her research team to explore what research is all about, from the perspective of physicists working on quantum devices. They funded us to produce a video on ‘what is research?’ which is now on our YouTube channel._ ## _**Growth Mindset Research video**_ _We worked with psychologists at the University of Exeter to help explain the research around developing a growth mindset to tackle maths anxiety. This follows on from an earlier project on this topic, and the Shorts video is now on our social media channels and website._ ## _**Early Cancer Diagnosis Research Video**_ _We worked with the South West Peninsula Regional Research Delivery Network (part of the National Institute for Health and Care Research) to develop videos answering public questions around early cancer diagnosis research. This project is currently paused._ **11 1** **TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## **FUNDED INTERNSHIP** ## _**Living Wall Research Project and Net Zero Exchange Internship**_ This year we have worked in collaboration with scientists at the University of Plymouth, along with living wall installers Western Geobuild, plus Lumi Therapy and Melo cafe, to install a living wall on the outside of the lower floor of the building in which our office is based, as part of a research project. The living wall was financially supported by Lumi Therapy who host us in their building, and the researchers’ time and equipment was funded by the Net Zero Solutions fund. The team from the University of Plymouth are looking at how the living wall reduces the amount of heat entering the cafe in the summer, and so reduces the need for artificial cooling. It will also have insulation benefits in winter. In particular, the team are interested in how the choice of leaf type and plant form can make a difference to the heat flux through the building. But there are many other benefits to living walls, including boosting biodiversity locally. Thanks to the prior donation from Lumi Therapy, we were able to provide in-kind support with the design, installation and coordinating with the research team, and overseeing the Net Zero Exchange Internship which enabled us to connect the public with this project. Our intern, Amy Thomas, was employed for 5 months and supported with planting the living wall, designing website content, running a public Bioblitz, encouraging participation in biodiversity citizen science, as well as running awareness-raising social media campaigns. ## **UPCOMING/CONTINUING PROJECTS** In the coming year we will be continuing with a number of funded projects, including: Prof Anders research videos. - Community Connections (data science public engagement programme). Kingfishers: School Freshwater Champions citizen science project. FUTURES researchers in schools project. - The Our Positive Future event in Exeter, June 2025. **12** **TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## **GROWING THE ORGANISATION** This year has involved a lot of behind the scenes work to push forward our plans for our first centre in North Devon. Our team are excited by the shift from our original concept of a single large centre in Exeter to a network of smaller centres, to better fit the distributed population in the region. Next year it is essential that we begin to grow our team and take on a Projects Officer to continue delivering on our project work while directors take time to focus on developing plans for a centre, including stakeholder consultations, financial planning and fundraising. ## **SUMMARY OF ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE** This year, despite no growth in the size of our team, the number of in person interactions with the public increased again to over 5,200 people. This is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of our directors and our growing pool of enthusiastic volunteers. Feedback from our partners and the schools and community groups we have worked with continues to be hugely positive and it is clear that we are reaching people who have not previously had many opportunities to engage with science. This testimonial from one of the organisations we have worked with regularly demonstrates the impact that we have through our work and approach: _“Our learning-disabled members lose a significant amount of support and opportunity when they leave school, leaving them and their families vulnerable to isolation. They desperately need purposeful and fun activity that brings them to the heart of their community._ _Our work with Exeter Science Centre has done just this. Members and their families, who have previously communicated that “science isn’t for me”, have engaged with a range of dynamic, accessible activities, facilitated by a team who are able to connect with individuals across our diverse cohort. As well as the brilliant delivery, the team have given the opportunity for the learning-disabled voice to shape the organisation and its offer so that we feel genuinely included and valued. We are excited to see how this partnership develops!”_ ## _**Charlie Robinson - Director of the Pelican Project**_ **13** **TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## **FINANCIAL REVIEW** At the end of the period 27th April 2024 - 26th April 2025, Exeter Science Centre is in a secure financial position thanks to a significant donation and support package donated by Lumi Therapy at the end of the last financial year, to support our core costs. We have been able to increase the salaries of the two directors (1.8FTE total) to the median for the South West, and will be in a position to take on staff at a more competitive salary level as a result. The charity’s principal funding sources this year have been: donations; grant income (covering project costs and support costs); consulting and paid events. We are also registered with Easyfundraising and Paypal Giving. ## **RESERVES POLICY** Our reserves policy is regularly reviewed and updated to fit the financial situation of the charity. For this financial year, we intend to retain 2 months of running costs (approximately £10,000) in case of unforeseen delays in payments from grants or other income, to ensure that salaries, fees and other costs can be paid on time. The directors are flexible on payment dates for their salaries, as they are dedicated to ensuring the charity's success and stability, so this allows for some additional flexibility. When taking on employees, these will typically be for fixed terms and fully funded via grants. In future we will need to revise this policy to ensure stability for permanent staff members. The reserves and funds for the previous financial years have been mostly retained in an interest-paying savings account, and when possible we will continue to do so. ## **RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES** The trustees maintain a risk register which is reviewed and maintained regularly. The main risks in the year ending April 2025 are the dependence of the charity’s activities on the two directors, and the risk of insufficient funds to pay their salaries. The impact of these risks are controlled through: - having operations which are transparent to both directors and trustees (so that if either director is unable to fulfil their responsibilities, their work can be accessed and continued by their replacement); the directors being flexible on their salary payments. The trustees are confident that the directors’ management of the organisation will enable the organisation to grow and achieve its ambitions. **14** **TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## **Going concern** The trustees are confident that the charity has sufficient funds to continue as a going concern for the foreseeable future, and prepare the accounts on this basis. The charity will need to get into a more secure financial situation in the next couple of years to grow to a sustainable level and to work towards creating physical centres, but the only risk to the charity currently ceasing to be a going concern is a lack of project funding, which is unlikely. ## **DECLARATIONS** The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. ## **Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:** **Signature:** **Name:** Prof. Justin Dillon **Position:** Chair of the board of trustees **Date:** 12 February 2026 **15** **INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** Geoff Archer 23/02/2026 **16** **STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES INCLUDING INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** The financial statements were approved by the board of trustees on 12 February 2026 and were signed on its behalf by: Prof. Justin Dillon Chair **17** THE EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE BALANCE SHEET AS AT26TH APRIL 2025 2025 2024 Notes Flx•d ass•ts Tangible assets Curr•nt ass•ts Prepayment5 Debtors Stock 3,050 71,508 Investments Cash at bank and in hand Total ¢urr•nt ass•ts 60.331 63J 20,108 91,616 Llabllltl•s Creditor5.' amounts falling due within one year Net Current JSg•t$ 18391 62,542 62,542 12001 91,416 91,416 N•t asmts Creditors.. amounts falling due after more than one year Net a55ets 62￿42 91,416 The fund5 of the charlty: Unrestricted funds Restricted funds 55,495 7,047 62￿41 86,118 5,298 91,416 Total fund 18 **NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## **1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES** ## **Basis of preparation** The charity is a public benefit entity as defined by FRS 102. The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the Charities Act 2011 and ‘Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) second edition’. The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. ## **Income** All income is recognised and thus included on the Statement of Financial Activities when the amount can be quantified accurately and the charity is legally entitled to the income. For grants or other income which is paid in advance, the income is stored in a current/savings account, accruing interest when possible (although not within this financial year). Interest is allocated to the fund that accrues it, as required by trust law and highlighted in the Charities SORP. Any unspent income at the year end is retained in that fund, and will be noted as funds carried forward in the following year. ## **Expenditure** All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis, and has been classified under the headings that aggregate all costs related to the category. We recognise an expenditure as soon as a transaction has occurred, or if a quantifiable amount is due to be spent on a particular item or service; in the latter case, the expenditure is listed as a liability (creditors). If funds are expected to be spent in the future – for example on a restricted funding grant that needs to be fully expended in a certain period – but the purchases have not yet been determined, then the amount is retained in the fund and not listed as a liability. The actual expenditure will be acknowledged in future accounts, once the funds are expended. ## **Tangible fixed assets** Items with a tangible cost price of £500 and above will be included in fixed assets. In this financial year, the charity has no items in this category. ## **Taxation** The charity is exempt from corporation tax on its charitable activities. ## **Fund accounting** Unrestricted funds are funds which can be used by the charity to fulfil its charitable objectives. Restricted funds can only be used on particular projects or for a particular purpose. Expenditure includes the direct staff time, materials or other expenses required to **19** **NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** fulfil the obligations of the restricted funds, along with a fair allocation of support costs. ## **2. DONATIONS AND LEGACIES** ## **3. INCOME FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES** Note that since no interest was received during this year, we have omitted this column in the table. ## **4. EXPENDITURE ON FUNDRAISING AND CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES** Staff salaries have been allocated to project work (“Direct costs of projects”) based on the salaried time spent on these projects. The support costs apportioned to salaries account for the salaried time operating the charity, including: administration, finances, social media and website maintenance, planning, networking, volunteer management and carrying out other activities that further our purpose and **20** **NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** increase our audience (such as unpaid events). Any additional support costs are covered by unrestricted funds. Note that donated office and storage space has been quantified as a support cost expenditure at a reasonable market rate, balanced by an unrestricted donation income of the same value (£2,400). Governance costs, as defined in the Charities SORP (FRS 102), relate to the salary costs of the employees assisting or reporting to the trustees (which we account for in “Staff salaries (inc. employers NI)”) or any costs associated with trustee expenses or preparing statutory accounts. ## **4. COMPARATIVE EXPENDITURE ON CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES** ## **5. DEBTORS** ## **6. CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR** ## **7. NET ASSETS BY FUND** **21** **NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## **8. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS** The University of Plymouth (UoP) funded the Net Zero Exchange Internship. ‘Public Engagement Programmes’ include projects funded via the University of Exeter (UoE) and South West Peninsula National Institute for Health and Care Research (SWP). ‘Project Grants’ include funding from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), Sovereign Network Group (SNG), Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC), Adrian Swire Charitable Trust (ASCT) and Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). The “Kingfishers...” project income also received £291 from a crowdfunder campaign for purchasing water testing kits, in addition to £7,719 (rounded) from the RSC. ‘Events’ income included festivals and single-day events where the organiser funded all or some of our time / expenses to attend, including taking Our World From Space to North Devon District Scouts Camp 2024, CoLab Exeter, Exmouth Festival, the 361 Energy Fair and the Institute of Physics Festival of Physics (which we helped to organise), plus installing a version of our Climate Exhibition at the National Trust Killerton for Big Green Week, running climate-related activities at the Community Action Groups Devon Skills Share (funded by Resource Futures), Exeter City of Literature ‘Exeter City Reads’ evening and the Exeter Phoenix ‘Green Phoenix Festival’, running an Operation Earth event for young people as part of the Holiday Activities and Food programme at Barnstaple Library (funded via Libraries Unlimited), running a space-themed workshop at Heather Bridge School in Devon, and working on the Our Positive Future event (running in the next financial year) funded by UoE. ‘Consulting’ income was from a workshop around addressing the Sustainable Development Goals in the workplace for University of Exeter researchers and students, mapping our schools data for the ASDC, and engaging with academics to gauge interest in a prospective project for UoP. The transfers into each project account for any additional salaried time spent on project delivery, beyond the amount of time originally allocated as part of the fee/grant. This additional time is contributed when there are core costs to do so, and when deemed necessary; to ensure the best quality of our project delivery, and to make the most of potential opportunities to reach more people or have a greater impact. **22** **NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** This year, the transfers covered the additional time required for the RAMM Community Consultations project, plus additional time required across some of our events this year. Due to increasing running costs, and the challenges with preparing and delivering high-quality experiences for an affordable fee, we will use this and prior years’ data to better inform what we charge and offer for events. The major project for this and the previous year, Our World From Space (OWFS), was overspent although supplemented by support costs from other funded extensions and events for the project and core costs. ## **COMPARATIVE MOVEMENT IN FUNDS** ## **9. STAFF NUMBERS, COSTS AND EMPLOYEE BENEFITS INCLUDING KEY** ## **MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL** The average number of employees this year was two. The two directors (i.e. the key management personnel), Dr Natalie Whitehead (1FTE) and Dr Alice Mills (0.8FTE), were employed for the entire financial year, and one intern was employed from October 2024 until February 2025 on a £12/hour basis. Staff costs were as follows: The total employee benefits paid to the key management personnel were £60,934. No employees received total benefits exceeding £60,000. There are no other employee benefits offered during this financial year. **23** **NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2025** ## **10. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS** Related party transactions this year involved one payment from a business associated with key management personnel: - £2,006 (rounded) - remaining donation to ESC from Lumi Therapy. The husband of Dr Natalie Whitehead (Director) is Co-Director of Lumi Therapy which provided a support package to ESC in the last financial year. This payment is for the interest accrued before the original donation amount was paid to us. The trustees received no payments or expense reimbursements in this financial year. ## **11. STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2024** **24**