YOUTHWORKPLUS
ANNUAL REPORT
For The Year Ended 31[st] March 2026
Registered Charity Number 1196622
CONTENTS
| CONTENTS | |
|---|---|
| Page | |
| Reference and Administratve Details | 3 |
| Annual Report | 4 |
| Statement of Financial Actvites | 6 |
| Notes to the Financial Statements | 9 |
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REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS
NAME YOUTHWORKPLUS
ADDRESS
c/o St Mark’s MK 11 Drakes Mews Crownhill Milton Keynes MK8 OER
EMAIL admin@youthworkplus.com
WEBSITE https://youthworkplus.com/
Trustees
Bex Jignasu Daniel Jolliffe Hannah Bowden Aaron Hayford Karen Otoo-Anakwa
Olly Shaw
Principal Bankers Lloyds Bank
ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS OF YOUTHWORKPLUS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31[st] MARCH 2026
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REPORT
Objectives and Activities
To encourage and strengthen existing youth and children’s ministry. To inspire and cultivate opportunities for new work with the 95% of children and youth not yet connected to churches. Supporting leaders within these ministries to see more young lives transformed.
Youthwork+ is set up to champion work with youth and children and to help support both volunteers and paid workers here in Milton Keynes and beyond. From our own experience youth and children’s work can be hard, it can be a struggle to know how to begin, draining, lonely, and tough to keep coming up with fresh ideas. On the other hand, we know we really thrive when we feel connected & encouraged, this is where we hope Youthwork+ can really help.
Youthwork+ Trustee Meetings
The Trustees met six times during this period via Google meet, with an average attendance of 70%.
Achievements and Performance
Youthwork+ vision is to encourage and strengthen existing youth and children’s ministry across our local area of Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, additionally beyond the local area via the internet. We work with churches to develop all ministries reaching under 18s.
Terms: In this report we will refer to both children and youth as young people and both children’s and youth work/leaders as youth work/leaders.
Our primary means for fulfilling our objectives are by:
Networking. We provide networking times for youth leaders, both volunteers and employed staff. Our half termly networking sessions cultivate peer support and increased connection across the city of Milton Keynes. We believe connection is vital to helping leaders to feel valued, understood and supported in their ministry. We also believe leaders are stronger when they are connected with each other. Regular networking events have been running in MK, providing connection, encouragement, and signposting to resources. Attendance has included both existing contacts and new youth leaders workers, including those with very limited local support or resourcing. These events have highlighted unmet need, particularly among smaller or under-resourced churches.
We also have a national network of people in paid youth work roles, usually in positions of leadership within their organisation, this group meets online ad hoc and has a WhatsApp group for peer support. By providing a network we facilitate a space for peer connections and support. We have continued connections with and are engaging with 27 churches, and 6 charities and projects in Milton Keynes. We have connections with 31 churches, and 29 charities and organisations beyond Milton Keynes. We have connected with approx. 86 youth leaders, children’s leaders, charity workers and church leaders through our local and national support. We have helped to support and equip at least 90 youth leaders, if each of then ministered to an average of 20 young people that is a potential reach of around 1800 young people.
Training . We offer both recognised and general training. Our worker Becky is licensed to deliver the Youthscape Essentials course which we try to deliver once a year. Online evening training sessions were trialled, including focused topics such as Gen Z and sexuality. Engagement was modest but included new connections, and trustees agreed these should remain part of the offer.
A joint training event with Wycliffe Hall (Oxford) on youth and kids work topics, expanded YW+’s reach beyond MK, bringing together students, spouses, youth workers, and church leaders.
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Consultancy and Advice . We offer to walk alongside churches as they look to develop their youth work and support the professional and personal development of the leaders. We offer resources to help them review their approaches to young people as well as offering advice on how to improve their delivery of youth work. We also offer one to ones and mentoring with youth and kids leaders. We connect one to one with youth leaders offering prayer and support and friendly face. It enables them to grow and develop as leaders as well as in their ministries.
1:1 support (informal mentoring and resourcing) continues to be a key but time-limited part of Becky’s role, with trustees noting the challenge of balancing depth of support with capacity. Becky was part of the coaching team at National Youth Ministry Weekend - hosting coaching sessions with 3 different youth leaders to offer support. Becky has signed up to mentor a youth worker based in Luton who is new to their role, monthly for 1 year. Becky also mentored a youth worker based in Salisbury, for several months while she needed support professionally and personally with ministry and life. Becky also meets 1-2-1 on a one off basis with other youth and kids leaders to catch up, offer support, advice and prayer for their ministry and roles.
Resource evenings allow youth workers to browse curated materials across children’s, youth, and family ministry. These have revealed how many local youth workers are creating material from scratch and are unaware of existing national resources. We hosted one resource evening this year.
Partnerships include churches across MK, Youthscape, Wycliffe Hall, and other national and local youth networks.
Website and Social Media . Our website, and social media is an effective means of communicating with a lot of people in one go and extending our reach beyond our local area of Milton Keynes. Our increasing bank of resource reviews enables us to offer youth leaders tried and tested resources for their ministry. This accessible library of links saves youth leaders times where they would be scouring the internet for resources then not knowing if that resource would work from their youth group or context. For the last 4 months and until July we have been posting a new recommended resource every week. As of 22 April 2026 our library now has 127 recommended resources posts. We have an average 300 visitors a month. With our social media we have as of April 2026: 495 Instagram followers, 406 Facebook, 97 Linkedin followers.
Podcasts . We have a monthly podcast where we discuss youth work topics. Our recent series has seen us interview different people involved in some sort of youth or kids ministry to hear their perspective on how they got into ministry and what they have learnt along the way. Monthly podcasts available on YouTube, Apple and Spotify. We have 30-50 episodes streams/download a month.
A Quiz Night (Feb 2026) was held as a key fundraising and awareness-raising activity, alongside improved communication of impact to supporters
We have been able to do the above on limited resources. We currently have funds to pay a worker for six hours a week and we have been blessed to work with a couple of experienced youth workers who have volunteered with us, as well as trustees that help with podcasts and training. We have a handful of small regular givers as well as regular donations from three local churches.
Safeguarding
Safeguarding children and young people is of utmost importance to us and we seek to set an excellent example to the churches and charities we help support. All our Trustees hold Enhanced DBS Certificates. We are committed to upholding stringent safer recruitment processes and procedures for all staff and volunteers/trustees, our director and a trustee undertook safer recruitment training this year and we have since updated & improved our trustee and volunteer recruitment forms and processes. We also have a comprehensive safeguarding policy which we review regularly.
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Financial Review
We have been immensely grateful for all the giving received that has enabled us to carry out this work. We have ten monthly donations, 2 from local churches, 7 from individuals and 1 from a local business. One regular annual donation from a local church.
Our Expenditure is tightly controlled and covers the Salary and Training costs.
Reserves policy
It is good practice to maintain a balance on unrestricted funds (if possible), which equates to approximately three months unrestricted payments, about £1,100 to cover emergency situations that may arise from time to time.
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FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For The Year Ended 31[st] March 2026
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Profit and Loss Youthwork+ For the year ended 31 March 2026 2026 Turnover Church Donath?n5 regular JobAd¥erts Donations 1.8th). 3th).00 One Off Givin8lndividuals- GiftAidable Other Income 15.38 RegularGiving indivKluA&. GrftAidable RegulaTGivinglDdivldua- Not GiftAidable Training Donations Total Tumover 1,303.81 1,414.50 164.42 5,046.71 Gross Profit 5.046.71 Administrative Costs Audit & Attountantyfees 8ank Fees 324.10 DBS chÈtks Istsff. trust YoL%l Fufidraising Events 1Thsuiance Cosls 28.70 270.24 131.04 IT Software Consumablos 28.80 Mileage Claim NetwOrknnUt(sult3nCots Payment Fee Per50nal/pTofessional dÈweloprnent Podchst RerSide subscription Salaries 16.50 6359 6&).00 137.68 5.451.85 iS5.08 Trainin8COSts Website Costs 122.08 Tot•iAdmifiistr•tiv* Costs 7,391.96 Operating Profit 12,345.251 Other Income Fundraising Eventslncome Total Other Income 1.023.26 1,023.26 Profit on Ordinary Activrties Before Taxation 11,321.991 Profit after Taxation 11,321.991 819
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For The Year Ended 31[st] March 2026
1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Basis of accounting
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Church Accounting Regulations 2006 together with applicable accounting standards and the Charities SORP FRSSE 2015.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention except for the valuation of investment assets, which are shown at market value. The financial statements include all transactions, assets and liabilities for which WVEP is responsible in law. They do not include the accounts of church groups that owe their affiliation to another body, nor those that are informal gatherings of church members.
Incoming Resources
Planned Giving, collections and donations are recognised when received. Income tax recoverable on Gift Aid donations is recognised when the income is recognised.
Unrestricted Funds
These are general funds which can be used for ordinary purposes.
Designated funds
No Funds have been set aside by the Trustees, out of unrestricted funds for specific future purposes.
Resources expended
Resources expended are accounted for on an accruals basis.
2. ENDOWMENT FUNDS
There are no Endowments.
3. REMUNERATION
None of the Trustees have been paid any remuneration or received any other benefits from an employment with the Charity, or a related entity, and the Trustees have claimed no expenses for the performance of their duties.
There have been no related party transactions during the year that require disclosure. There is one paid employee, Director and Founder for responsible for Youthwork.
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