Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
Contents
| Contents | Page |
| Chairman’s annual report ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... | 2 |
| Report of the board of management ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................... | 3-19 |
| Consolidated statement of financial activities ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... | 20-21 |
| Consolidated and charity balance sheet ................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 22 |
| Consolidated cash flow statement .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... | 23 |
| Notes to the accounts ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 24-45 |
| Independent auditors’ report .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... | 46-48 |
| Non-Statutory Notes | |
|---|---|
| Table of restricted funds ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 49-50 |
| Table of designated funds ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... | 51 |
| Glossary of terms used ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... | 52 |
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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It has been a year of change geopolitically and the evidence of climate change is ever increasing. These factors alone have put more significance on the work that the Wildlife Trust does to protect and restore nature. Staffordshire Wildlife Trust continues to grow steadily with over 21,000 members and many more supporters, community groups, schools and volunteers all engaged in wildlife and nature conservation. People taking action for nature in Staffordshire makes a huge difference and helps promote all the amazing work that Staffordshire Wildlife Trust does.
This year we launched several projects connecting people to nature; Nature in Your Neighbourhood, City Nature Challenge and Next Door Nature, as well as setting up community groups. We also took part in the “Restore Nature Now” march in London to highlight the nature crisis in the UK.
More people becoming actively engaged in restoring and protecting wildlife is helping us achieve our strategic targets and contribute to the UK goal of 30% of our land managed for nature.
Our Nature Reserves continue to thrive and grow and we acquired a new reserve near the Roaches in January 2025. This acquisition is significant because of the internationally important waxcap fungi that is present on the site. It expands our land holding in the Roaches and Black Brook area to 563ha. Acquiring new land to manage for nature is one of the best ways we can restore nature; a clear example this year was the sound of bittern booming on Doxey Marshes for the first time in 100 years. This is really great news and reflects on the reserve’s condition and the ongoing management.
We continue to lead on some big projects in the county on land and river restoration. Morridge Hill Country is a land restoration project in the South West Peak, restoring land and working with local hill farmers to bring long term security for both habitat restoration and sustainable low intensity food production.
We partnered with Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust to deliver a 250m fish channel on the River Stour to allow Trout and Salmon to reconnect upstream once again.
With funding from National Highways we kicked off the Stafford Brooks project. This work on eight sites builds on our aspiration to improve local authority green spaces while assisting with flood mitigation and water quality in the town of Stafford. Our work so far has restored wildflower meadows, wetlands, and even a historic water meadow dating back to 1700’s.
We have continued to work with the owners of Rugeley Power Station to create Rugeley Riverside Park which I hope will become both a nature reserve and a green space for the local community.
Our advocacy work continues with Local Authorities and MPs ensuring that the environment and nature are at the centre of their plans. We have successfully engaged with all Local Authorities in developing the Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Staffordshire, leading and chairing on several groups, including Habitats, Strategy and Mapping.
Finally I am pleased to report that Staffordshire Wildlife Trust was awarded “Responsible Body” status by DEFRA, the first Wildlife Trust to attain this, allowing us to work with landowners and developers to create covenants to protect and restore nature.
Stephen Smith Chair
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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The Board have pleasure in presenting their report together with the audited consolidated accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025. The Board 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). The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the Charities Act 2011 and the Companies Act 2006.
Strategic report - Review of activities
In 2024/25, we continued to deliver against our 2030 strategy.
Our 50-year vision in Staffordshire is for:
A thriving county with wildlife at its heart, which everyone enjoys, values and wants to play their part in protecting and improving.
Our mission is to ensure that:
We protect and enhance the wildlife and wild places of Staffordshire and promote understanding, enjoyment and involvement in the natural world.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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Our strategic goals are divided into four broad areas
Nature is in recovery in Staffordshire with abundant, diverse wildlife and healthy natural processes playing a valuable role in helping address local, national and global problems.
Connecting people in Staffordshire to nature; empowering our communities to take positive action for wildlife and the climate
Delivering a step change in funding for nature’s recovery
Running a successful organisation
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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Nature is in recovery in Staffordshire with abundant, diverse wildlife and healthy natural processes playing a valuable role in helping address local, national and global problems.
Impact measures
By 2030 nature will be in recovery – at least 30 per cent of land will be protected and managed for nature’s recovery.
We define ‘in recovery for nature’ as land:
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That is in an appropriate agri-environment scheme (or similar).
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Where conservation management advice has been received and/or carried out and this has been documented e.g. management/monitoring plan.
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That is designated as a Local Wildlife Site (via the Local Wildlife Sites system), and appropriately managed.
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Wildlife will be abundant and diverse – the abundance of wildlife will increase significantly in every part of the county.
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Staffordshire’s natural processes, ecological and carbon systems will be more intact and functioning significantly better on land and in freshwater.
Our work covers five key themes:
Contribute to the creation of a nature recovery network for England
Work began on the preparation of Staffordshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS). Led by Staffordshire County Council, the strategy involves a host of supporting authorities and partners including Natural England, Environment Agency and all of the county’s local authorities. Staffordshire Wildlife Trust had representatives chairing the Habitats, Mapping and Strategic elements of the strategy. The LNRS is due to be published in autumn 2025.
Restore priority living landscapes within this network in Staffordshire
Our £2.3 million Trent ReNew project, prioritising a selection of sites in Stafford and Stoke, will help renaturalise heavily modified watercourses such as Ford Green Brook, Fowlea Brook and the rivers Sow and Penk. The project is funded by the Environment Agency.
The Trent Headwaters initiative is a feasibility project exploring the needs, opportunities and priorities for nature restoration projects in the Trent Headwaters. The focus is the Trent and its tributaries which form the headwaters in Biddulph, Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme. The project stands alone as a feasibility project, but the intention is to follow with a landscape-scale partnership scheme delivering a suite of community, culture and nature projects.
In the South West Peak District, working with the Peak District National Park Authority (PDNPA), we were awarded funding from the Department of Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) for a Landscape Recovery project across over 2,000 hectares of land. The Morridge Hills project area includes private and public landowners in addition to our own nature reserves. The aim of the project is to develop a costed plan for nature’s recovery funded by private and public finance. We hope the project will lead to delivery funding aimed at supporting hill farmers to put nature at the heart of the management of the uplands.
Our Stafford Brooks project has undertaken nature restoration work on seven sites across Stafford; following initial capital works in 2024/25, the project will continue to manage the nature restoration work in the long-term. The project has taken several years to develop and is funded by the Highways Agency. We are also set to partner with the Environment Agency to submit a significant funding bid to align our natural flood management work, and to complement the Stafford Brooks project. Following on from an extremely wet winter, we are hoping to access funding to continue work with landowners further up in the catchment to introduce natural flood management projects to reduce the impact of further flood events.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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ingsmead Marsh
ingsmead Pool Cover South
Rising Brook
Radford Meadows
ueensville The Meadows
Riverside airway
ittleworth Tennis Court
Corporation Street Bowling reen
Manage and expand our nature reserves as a specific contribution to the nature recovery network
Our landholding now totals 4,927 acres, across 45 reserves in all parts of Staffordshire.
This includes 24 acres of newly acquired land between the Ramshaw Rocks and the Roaches. The new land is especially important for rare waxcap fungi and does not have any special protection on it, so we were very keen to purchase the land. To fund the land, we used a legacy provided to us by the late David Aldred. The new land will be called Aldred’s Pastures, in recognition of Mr Aldred’s support and generous gift to the Trust.
Restore natural processes and deliver naturebased solutions to mitigate climate change
We are continuing to see the impacts of climate change in more extreme weather impacting the management of our nature reserves. The warm summer, followed by dry winter and early spring led to perfect wildfire conditions on our moorland estate. We continue to invest in weekend staff to engage with visitors intending to have barbecues and campfires to highlight the vulnerabilities of moorland wildlife from wildfire.
Protect and restore priority species
In the Churnet Valley, we continued to monitor the woodlands for evidence of a remnant pine marten population. Nest boxes have been installed to imitate the cavities these rare mammals use in ancient trees to nest. It is thought that further woodland restoration is needed in the area to support a larger population, but in the meantime we are working to identify the strength of the local population and to provide nesting opportunities.
Our work to campaign against the badger cull and to vaccinate badgers against bovine TB across our reserves and the wider area has continued again this year. All our vaccination work relies on donations.
Work concluded on the initial funded stages of the water vole recovery project on the River Dove catchment working in partnership with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. The project funded habitat management work on our own land, including the Cecilly Brook, where water voles still live, as well as mink control measures across the wider catchment. It is hoped the project will deliver the successes of similar projects across the country, specifically in East Anglia, where water voles are starting to recover naturally.
Initial Capital Works 0
uture Planned ngoing Maintenance
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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Connecting people in Staffordshire to nature; empowering our communities to take positive action for wildlife and the climate
Impact measures
By 2030:
We will support people to make one million wildlife ‘connections’, including visiting reserves, joining an event or activity, visiting one of our shops or taking part in an online activity.
We will encourage and support 1,000 wildlife champions who will lead actions for nature.
One in four people in Staffordshire will take meaningful actions for wildlife.
Our work covers five key themes: People taking action
We saw the end of two community focused projects this year, Next Door Nature and Wilder Neighbourhoods, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and The Community Foundation for Staffordshire, respectively. Whilst based in two different geographical locations, both projects focused on connecting people to nature and supported them to mobilise, protect and enhance wildlife and improve their own wellbeing, reduce loneliness and isolation and increase community cohesion.
Both projects leave a legacy of smaller funded projects and contacts with local schools and communities as well as a number of independent people and groups continuing to take action to protect and enhance wildlife.
We began delivery of our £750,000 Nature in your Neighbourhood project, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund. This project enables the Trust to trial more ways to connect with communities and landowners, including local authorities, to take sustained action for nature. It also enables the Trust to work with Keele University and carry out research into the measurable value of community action in terms of carbon capture, biodiversity gain and wellbeing and nature connection improvements.
This year was the second time we promoted the City Nature Challenge, a global collaboration of nature observations, in Staffordshire. Over four days 167 people made 12,059 observations of 1,430 different
species. This was quadruple the number of observations recorded last year, meaning we were the sixth best placed (out of 26) in the UK and 69th out of 669 in the world rankings.
Advocate for a wilder future
We once again attended the Midlands Climate Expo and Sustainability Conference, where we hosted a roundtable discussion, and took part in a panel session on nature restoration.
We continued our work with local authorities to advocate for the adoption of Nature Recovery Declarations, and the role of nature-based solutions in confronting the challenges of climate change.
Speak with a bold and confident voice
We have been successful in getting local and national media coverage with news articles appearing in printed press, radio and national television.
We improved our communications to members and supporters so that they now receive more specific emails about events, ways to get involved and big news items. This is helping to keep people more engaged, and we are seeing more responses and click throughs to our website and events.
The reinstated Trust photography competition attracted high levels of interest and engagement with a thriving community of wildlife photographers of all ages in Staffordshire. This year’s competition attracted 159 entries.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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Nature connection
Our work to inspire people to connect with nature continues, with more than 100 events attended by 2,273 people during the summer holidays. These included a range of events for the SPACE summer programme which is funded by the Staffordshire Commissioner’s ffice and offers support to 8-17 year-olds to help increase their skills, improve their health and wellbeing and create opportunities, while also aiming to reduce levels of anti-social behaviour. All of these events are an excellent opportunity to introduce people to wildlife, its value and its connection to their wellbeing, winning their support for nature and the Trust for the long-term.
At The Wolseley Centre, our accessible path from the car park to the Learning Hub, outdoor classroom and tipis have been well used for a range of events. These include 20 events funded through Awards for All, which primarily focused on connecting visitors with access needs or SEND to our education facilities.
We received funding from the Masonic Charitable Foundation to further deliver a Wildchild project. In its first year, hundreds of families have connected with us at a variety of different events across a combination of our reserves in the Staffordshire Moorlands, as well as third party sites. This project is worth around £60,000 and enables us to continue to develop our nature connection work in the Moorlands as we continue the legacy of the South West Peak Wildchild Project.
Since March 2023, we have worked with more than 40% of the schools in Staffordshire, many of which return to us year after year in our Learning Hub at the Wolseley Centre, and an increasing number of whom contract us to provide Forest School programmes and sessions within school grounds.
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Nature for everyone
Our portfolio of engagement work weaves health and well-being benefits into the very fabric of our sessions and projects; but this year we also completed a second year of a contract working with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and continued to offer social prescribing opportunities for GP surgeries and other social prescribers. Our provision of Forest School-style nature connection opportunities supports young people accessing CAMHS services by providing ways to improve mental health and increase selfesteem, self-confidence and resilience.
Whilst our Wilder Youth project ended this year, we have continued to support young people to act for nature and develop their own interests, skills and knowledge in the sector through funding from Garfield Weston and Swire Charitable Trust. We have supported eight engineering students to develop a monitoring system that will track water levels at the Wolseley Centre, and we began exploring the possibility of a youth forum with our young trustees and participants from youth projects, carrying out an audit of existing youth provision both locally and within the sector nationally.
Our Aiming High work has continued into its eleventh year to provide opportunities for children with special education needs and disabilities and their families to benefit from a connection with nature.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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Delivering a step change u u ’ recovery
Signs of success
By 2030 :
Our work covers four key themes:
Benefit from long-term finance available from new models such as Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), natural flood management, carbon markets and green social prescribing
We continued to explore new green finance opportunities this year to help deliver our nature recovery work. Key to this is our role in delivering Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) opportunities, both on our own sites and as the Wildlife Trusts' first Responsible Body, able to develop and implement conservation covenants with land managers.
Our Green Big Give appeal raised more than £18,000 for our conservation work, but we continued to face challenges with funding.
We are grateful to our existing and new corporate supporters who chose to support us in 2024/25 and we continue to build on our partnership work in order to bring in new funds for conservation work. Companies who joined us in 2024/25 include Monkey Forest, Stone Technology Group and Sandyford Properties.
Commercial activities
The Trust will grow its revenue up to £10 million per annum by 2030
- 75 percent of our core operating costs will be provided from unrestricted income sources.
We continue to partner with the health sector to generate funds to support our wellbeing work.
Develop and deliver a strategic approach to fundraising from major donors, legacy-givers, businesses and smaller trusts
We continued with our membership recruitment and fundraising work throughout this year and met our fundraising targets. We also benefitted from several grants providing restricted funds including from the Masonic Foundation, National Lottery, Awards for All, Swire Foundation and Garfield Weston as mentioned above. Unrestricted income can be used for all other areas of the charity, particularly to continue work on our nature reserves, our educational activities and to keep our central supporting functions running.
The Trading company made a £69,000 profit before taxation and donation to the main charity; this profit is after the redundancy and other closure costs associated with Westport Lake Visitor Centre, and while lower than the previous year, considered a good result after accounting for this.
The closure of Westport Lake Visitor Centre during the year was a disappointment, but the café has had several issues in recent years, including falling footfall since the pandemic, and rising expenditure, in particular energy and staff outlays, which represent a significant proportion of the overall cost base. Competition from mobile competitors on the canal and car park, as well as the introduction of car parking charges added to this, and a new lease due to be signed with the landlord would have further increased costs.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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Our charity shops also faced difficult trading conditions in the year, and we saw a reduction in profitability across all shops compared to the strong results we have enjoyed since re-opening postpandemic in 2021. As a result, the charity shops made a smaller but important contribution to the Trust’s income.
The Wolseley Centre continues to grow in strength; the combination of the café, shop and conferencing facilities generated £91,000 in 2024/25. Visitor numbers have continued to rise on the site, the resultant effect being increased profitability in the café and shop. In addition, we have increased the use of our conference room, which had taken a knock after the pandemic due to the increase in remote conferencing. Furthermore, our Gatehouse conference room is now permanently occupied by Pinc College, an independent educational operation.
Grow and diversify our membership, improving the member experience. Recruit more members from across the county via all channels
We are benefitting from the insights that our new membership database gives us, by comparing our membership offer and support with other Wildlife Trusts using the system. We continue to run our popular membership events which are often fully booked and we are gradually increasing the range and number of these so that more of our members can get directly involved.
Due in part to ongoing pressures on household budgets, but also due to reduced recruitment capacity, our membership declined very slightly this year following many years of growth.
We are currently supported by more than 21,000 members.
We are still behind other Wildlife Trusts in recruiting members digitally, so we will look to build on this in future. Our half price membership sale was severely hampered by the suspension of our Facebook page during December and January.
We continue to encourage members to opt into receiving their membership magazines digitally, which will allow us to reduce the use of paper and reduce emissions associated with printing, production and postage.
Concentration of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust members by postcode district through the county
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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Running a successful organisation
Signs of Success
By 2030:
We will track our progress by monitoring:
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ur people’s level of engagement with the Trust by carrying out regular staff surveys and measuring response rate and staff satisfaction, with the aim of 90 per cent staff satisfaction.
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Our investment in training and development to match the skills needed for the future in line with our strategy.
The number of volunteer hours recorded.
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Our carbon emissions, with the aim of becoming net zero by 2030.
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Waste to landfill with the aim of zero waste to landfill by 2025.
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Compliance with all legislation for Data Protection, Charity Finance, Health and Safety and Safeguarding.
Effective collaboration with partners and partnerships that reflect our social and ethical principles.
Our work covers three key themes:
We will ensure we have a diverse, skilled, trained and supported workforce of staff and volunteers. We will foster an inclusive culture where people feel valued and respected
We continued to work on our Organisation Development Strategy to ensure that all our staff and volunteers are supported and developed. Our focus this year has been on staff retention, staff satisfaction, succession planning, career development and learning and development.
We introduced a new digital staff work plan for all employees in the organisation in which personal work objectives, competencies, training and development needs are all included.
We made strategic investments in IT equipment that meant we could combine fully remote and officebased work, and we migrated our systems over to Microsoft 365. We continue to look for ways to digitise our processes and systems.
Our stalwart volunteers have continued to deliver vital work on our nature reserves, our charity shops and visitor centres. Without them our impact would be far less, and we thank them for all their hard work. We continue to work to grow the number of volunteers we can support and identify areas where we can really benefit from new skills and experience.
We will identify and mitigate risk with effective practices. All our people will know how to follow our procedures, and we will train and support staff and volunteers, so they are confident in applying them to their work
We continued to manage our Health and Safety, Safeguarding and Data Security policies, compliance and procedures effectively, ensuring our staff are fully trained and confident in delivering work in these areas.
During 2024/25 we explored the possibilities on offer from the implementation of Microsoft 365, including the streamlining of access to shared training materials and the use of Artificial Intelligence. However, acknowledging the potential risks of getting this wrong, we took a steady approach to major system changes, preferring incremental change to major disruption.
We will reduce our environmental impact through cumulative reductions in emissions and waste, changing the way we purchase goods and services
We completed our carbon footprint monitoring using data from 2023/24. We split out our land management emissions (primarily livestock grazing emissions) from the overall calculator, in line with other Wildlife Trusts to allow us to focus and prioritise on emissions savings elsewhere. Using the annual monitoring tool, we assessed our annual carbon impact to be 221 tonnes CO2e of nonlivestock emissions. This also excludes any impact of our land management work on carbon sequestration.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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Priorities for 2025/26
Nature is in recovery in Staffordshire with abundant, diverse wildlife and healthy natural processes playing a valuable role in helping address local, national and global problems
Following the completion of the restoration phase of the Stafford Brooks project, the forthcoming year will see the project entering the establishment phase. Funded by National Highways, the appropriate conservation management for each of the restored habitats will begin.
Other landscape scale projects will continue to deliver towards our 2030 goal of achieving 30% of land in appropriate conservation management by 2030.
The Trent ReNew project will have finalised a series of designs for a number of important sites across Stafford and Stoke on Trent, most notably Doxey Marshes, Ford Green Brook and Staffordshire University. The designs are aiming for a summer 2026 completion.
The Trent Headwaters initiative will complete its feasibility project exploring the needs, opportunities and priorities for nature restoration projects in the Trent Headwaters in the autumn of 2025. The project will complete the feasibility element with the publication of a master plan, and an
unveiling event in Stoke. The master plan will continue the process of developing a full-scale funding application. If successful, the resulting project will start in 2029 and focus on the Trent and its tributaries which form the headwaters in Biddulph, Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme.
At the former Rugeley Power Station, work will continue to transform 64 acres of land adjacent to the River Trent into a new wetland nature reserve. Restoration work on the former 18hole golf course includes new ponds and connections to the river, new areas of species-rich grassland and woodland creation. New footpaths and stretches of boardwalk will connect to wildlife viewing areas in time for the reserve’s opening to the public in September 2026.
Natural flood management work will be delivered on our newly-leased land in the South West Peak District. A stretch of the Blake Brook will see measures taken to connect the stream with its floodplain on our land to create more areas of floodwater storage, protecting areas downstream as well as helping filter out impurities.
We will be seeking funding for onsite infrastructure to deliver our beaver project in Newcastle Borough. The works will enable the release of a family group of up to six individuals to help us manage the reserve. The beavers are planned to be released into a new enclosure in the spring of 2026.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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Connecting people in Staffordshire to nature; empowering our communities to take positive action for wildlife and the climate
We will begin the delivery phase of our £750,000 Nature in your Neighbourhood project, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund. This will see the Trust and project partners supporting communities and landowners, including local authorities, to monitor and improve habitats for nature in the Staffordshire Moorlands.
We will continue to offer Forest School sessions to schools across the county, enabling young people to connect to nature to support their development and wellbeing, as well as offering Forest School training courses so that schools have the skills available to provide their own sessions throughout the academic year.
Further funding to support our community organising initiatives in Stafford will enable us to provide continued opportunities to those groups and individuals involved in the Next-Door Nature project and extend the reach of our work. This will enable community groups and individuals to spend more time in nature, be more active, volunteer their time and connect
more to others in their community in Stafford. This will reduce loneliness and isolation, increase knowledge, skills, and wellbeing, and help to support more
engaged communities who feel a greater connection to the nature and wild places in Stafford.
We will continue to work with volunteer groups around the Tamworth area, through the continuation of the Wild About Tamworth project, funded by Tamworth Borough Council, and through a legacy project in celebration of Maurice Arnold, who kindly left a gift in his will to further the work in this area, which has enabled us to expand our work in Tamworth for several more years.
We will continue to engage with community groups and the wider public to have meaningful conversations about nature, and to inspire people to act for nature. This approach continues to empower communities and will remain a priority throughout the year.
We will continue our popular Wildchild programme of activities, bringing children and families closer to nature to inspire the long-term continuation of nature’s recovery. As in the previous year, we will offer events throughout the county on our own nature reserves and third-party sites where available.
We are going to be working with peers at other wildlife trusts more closely, sharing learning and benefitting from the young person engagement strategy, which has been codeveloped by individual Wildlife Trusts including Staffordshire and the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts at the Building the Bridge Conference in October 2024. Over the next 12 months, we will look at how the strategy can be implemented in Staffordshire to enable us to engage further with young people in the county.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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We will develop our work with Pinc College, to pilot provision of Level 2 & 3 accredited countryside and wildlife work-based study programmes for neurodivergent young people, aged 16-24 years based at our flagship site. This will be the first of its kind in the country and has potential to be very impactful, both locally and nationally.
We will prioritise our advocacy work with local politicians to make the case for nature restoration. We will prioritise our work around the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, focussing on constituency-based conversations with Members of Parliament and Local Councils.
Communication and meaningful connection with our audiences remains critical to our success. We will continue to raise awareness of the nature crisis, and our work, with Staffordshire’s varied communities. We will simultaneously strive to enthuse and inspire our members and engage audiences to continue to support the Trust, encouraging them to advocate for nature within their networks, whether that is taking small individual actions or campaigning for change at a local or national level.
Delivering a step change u u ’ y
We will ensure that we build on our successful Biodiversity Net Gain work positioning ourselves as a key provider and ensuring a sustainable financial model that we can capitalise on.
We will increase our fundraising capacity to boost regular giving and income from all our fundraising channels.
We will continue to invest in retaining and recruiting new members and focus this year on recruiting members via digital channels through our new digital marketing staff.
at ways to boost income from Charity shops and work closely with East Staffordshire Borough Council to develop the feasibility of operating a thriving, profitable visitor centre on the Washlands in Burton-on-Trent.
Running a successful organisation
We will continue to invest in our staff, providing them with opportunities to develop and learn. We will seek a diverse range of skills to ensure the Trust can make the most of new opportunities such as Green Finance, Fundraising, Digital Marketing as well as ensure vital central roles are filled in Health and Safety and Facilities management. We will work to ensure that our staff are happy and satisfied in the workplace.
We have invested in a new Volunteering Management System, which will ensure that all our volunteers are supported and communicated with regularly, and we will also be able to record the hours worked by all our valuable volunteers. We will also continue to build our volunteer supporter base, increasing the ways in which people and communities can contribute to nature’s recovery.
We will work with our main service suppliers to ensure we are getting the best value for money.
In all areas of compliance, we will ensure we are not exposed to risk and will support our volunteers and staff to increase knowledge in safeguarding, data protection, cyber security, financial management and health and safety.
We will continue to reduce our environmental impact through cumulative reductions in emissions and waste, including changing the way we purchase goods and services. In this year we hope to deliver energy efficiency work at The Wolseley Centre and we will seek funds to support us to minimise water wastage, heat loss and energy generation.
We will invest in our trading operations, improving the availability of refreshments at Wolseley in busy periods by opening a mobile unit to reduce queue times, look
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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Charitable structure and long-term objectives
Registration and legal structure
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited is a charity registered with the Charity Commission in England and Wales No. 259558 and is a company limited by guarantee No. 00959609.
During the year it had two wholly owned subsidiary companies: Staffordshire Wildlife Trading Limited (Company No. 3387233) and Staffordshire Ecological Services Limited (Company No.06775503). Staffordshire Ecological Services Limited did not trade during the year.
Registered office
The Wolseley Centre
Wolseley Bridge Stafford ST17 0WT
Charitable objects
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited is required by charity and company law to act within the objects of its Memorandum of Association, which are as follows:
For the benefit of the public, to advance, promote and further the conservation, maintenance, restoration, regeneration and protection of:
Wildlife and its habitats
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Places of natural beauty
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Places of zoological, botanical, geographical, archaeological or scientific interest
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Features of landscape with geological, physiographical or amenity value in particular, but not exclusively, in ways that further biodiversity.
To advance the education of the public in:
The principles and practice of sustainable development The principles and practice of biodiversity conservation.
To promote and undertake research in all areas of the natural world and to publish the useful results thereof.
This translates into the following aims that represent the Trust's mission statement:
“Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited's mission is to protect and enhance the wildlife and wild places of Staffordshire and to promote understanding, enjoyment and involvement in the natural world.”
Organisation
The affairs of the Trust are managed by the Board of Management, who are the Trustees.
Officers of the Trust:
The Trust will have the following Officers: Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, and Treasurer.
The Trust's Articles of Association state that the minimum number of Trustees shall be nine (9) and (unless otherwise determined by ordinary resolution) the maximum number shall be fourteen (14).
At each annual general meeting all Trustees appointed at the Annual General Meeting four years previously must retire from office.
The Trust may by ordinary resolution at an Annual General Meeting appoint as a Trustee any member who is willing to act and who is either a Trustee retiring in accordance with the above mentioned circumstance and who has indicated a wish to be reappointed; or a member recommended by the Trustees; or a member in respect of whom the Trust has been given a notice, not less than fourteen (14) or more than thirty-five (35) clear days before the date of the meeting, which is signed by two members entitled to vote at the meeting; states that members’ intention to propose the election of the member in respect of whom the notice is given by the Trustee; is signed by the person who is to be proposed as a Trustee to show his or her willingness to act; contains the details that, if the person were to be appointed, the Trust would have to file at Companies House; The Trustees may at any time appoint a member who is willing to act to be a Trustee, but a Trustee so appointed must retire at the next Annual General Meeting.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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Induction and training of Board members
The appointment of a Trustee whether by the Trust in the Annual General Meeting or by the Trustees may not cause the number of Trustees to exceed any number fixed as the maximum number of Trustees.
A retiring Trustee who has been a Trustee for twelve (12) or more consecutive years may not be reappointed until at least one year after the date of his or her retirement.
Members of the Board
Trustees' skills are reviewed regularly to ensure that the balance is suitable. New Trustees are inducted into the charity by discussions between themselves and other Trustees, and members of staff, as opportunities arise. They are presented with background information and have access to the Charity Commission's website.
The Trustees of the charity, who are also Members of the Board, who have held office in the year, were:
Chief Executive
-
Chair from 1 May 2023 (Re-elected member from 23 September 2024)
-
Stephen Smith Paul Hackney Ian Downing Michael Walker
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Secretary from 21 June 2015 (Re-elected member from 6 November 2023)
-
Treasurer from 1 January 2016 (Re-elected member from 6 November 2023)
-
Re-elected Member from 6 November 2023; resigned 23 September 2024
-
Re-elected Member from 18 November 2021; resigned 16 June 2025
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Nicholas Young Philip Shore Alison Glaisher Elliott Lancaster David Rogers Alana Wheat Sarah Houghton Megan McCoy Lucy Bickley Garry Jones John Pears Matthew Wall
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Re-elected member from 7 November 2022
-
Re-elected member from 6 November 2023
-
Re-elected member from 6 November 2023
-
Re-elected member from 6 November 2023; resigned 23 September 2024
-
Re-elected member from 23 September 2024
-
Elected member from 6 November 2023; resigned 26 February 2025
-
Elected member from 6 November 2023; resigned 28 July 2025
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Elected member from 23 September 2024
-
Appointed 15 July 2025; elected member from 29 September 2025
-
Appointed 30 June 2025; elected member from 29 September 2025
-
Appointed 1 September 2025; elected member from 29 September 2025
The Board meets monthly except for May, August and December to review the work of the Trust. Physical meetings have been replaced with a hybrid method of meeting, where trustees will attend physically where practical and possible, but may attend via online conferencing methods when physically attending is not possible.
The maintenance of an annual plan with associated reporting of progress by staff will ensure that the Board are appraised of the charity's performance and can manage and control the charity's activities.
The day-to-day management of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited was delegated on 11 May 2015 to Mr Julian Woolford, Chief Executive.
Links with other Charities
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, although an entirely independent charity, is part of The Wildlife Trusts’ federation and a member of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT), itself an independent charity. Together, each of the 46 Wildlife Trusts act as a distributed local network and collective movement to tackle both local and UK-wide conservation issues. The Wildlife Trusts are one of the largest environmental charitable federations in the UK.
Share capital
The Company does not have a share capital and is limited by guarantee.
Financial review
This year's accounts have been prepared in accordance with the Companies Act 2006 and the Statement of Recommended Practice – Accounting and Reporting by Charities (SORP 2019).
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Review of the year
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust's financial position recovered after several years of reduced unrestricted deficits and the consolidated unrestricted funds increased to £2,559,000 (2024: £2,338,000) at the year end.
At 31 March 2025, the Trust’s free reserves stood at £556,000 (2024: £218,000). Free reserves are considered to be unrestricted funds that can be readily converted into cash if required, and as such are calculated as total reserves, less restricted funds, less designated funds, less the net book value of tangible fixed assets.
Income
| ncome | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year Ended | Year Ended | Increase / | |
| 31 March | 31 March | (Decrease) | |
| 2025 | 2024 | ||
| Total income received in the year | 8,546,000 | 6,940,000 | 1,606,000 |
| Total income includes the following: | |||
| Membership income | 916,000 | 908,000 | 8,000 |
| Legacy income | 233,000 |
2,227,000 | (1,994,000) |
| Income from charitable activities, grants and donations | 7,246,000 | 3,687,000 | 3,559,000 |
| Expenditure | |||
| Year Ended | Year Ended | Increase / | |
| 31 March | 31 March | (Decrease) | |
| 2025 | 2024 | ||
| Total resources expended during the year | 4,719,000 | 4,736,000 | (17,000) |
| Total expenditure includes the following: | |||
| Costs of raising funds | 1,144,000 | 1,486,000 | (342,000) |
Expenditure
Policy and charity governance
Governance
The Board should review its governance process on a four-year cycle, and is next due to review it in 2027. The governance was last reviewed in 2023; no recommendations arose that required an update to the governance statement and updated Articles of Association that were approved at the AGM in June 2015.
Risk management
The Board recognises the risks faced by the Trust. The Board maintains a risk register which is reviewed and updated annually. The current risk register addresses Governance Risks, Operational Risks, Financial Risks, Compliance with Law and Regulation, and External Risks.
Executive Remuneration
The Chief Executive and the Senior Leadership Team make up the key management personnel of the Trust. In the year ended 31 March 2025 the Senior Leadership Team comprised; Deputy Chief Executive, Two Joint Heads of Conservation Delivery, a Head of Engagement, Activism and Marketing, and a Head of HR and Support Services. In setting the remuneration of the Chief Executive and the senior leadership team, the Board have looked at the remuneration of their peers across The Wildlife Trusts, as well as the skills needed to carry out the roles to the benefit of the Trust. The total executive remuneration paid in the year ended 31 March 2025 was £279,000 (£305,000 in the year ended 31 March 2024).
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Financial reserves
The Board aims to maintain sufficient unrestricted general funds to maintain both sufficient working capital needs for its day to day operations, while also holding enough free reserves to anticipate future expenditure and risks, without holding back excessive funds that would otherwise be used for charitable purposes. The board consider that and range of acceptable free reserves should be between £350,000 to £750,000, backed up by a combined cash and investments value of at least £825,000. Where these target ranges are not met, the senior management team must present an action plan to rectify the situation to the board.
At 31 March 2025 the Board consider the consolidated unrestricted funds of the Trust to be £2,559,000. Where funds are required to facilitate specific projects over a number of years, the board may choose the designate some of the charity’s unrestricted funds to be used for charitable purposes. In the year ended 31 March 2025, the board agreed to designate funds towards future fundraising, in order to make unrestricted income more sustainable in the longer-term, and also to invest in some critical capital equipment that will enable day-to-day operations to continue.
Investment powers and policy
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited's Articles of Association enables it to invest monies not immediately needed for its purposes in such investments as may be thought fit, subject to conditions and consents required by law.
The Trust relies on a professional investment manager for the day-to-day management of the Trust's investment portfolio. On 23rd September 2002 the Board agreed to give the investment manager authority to manage the Trust's portfolio on a discretionary basis subject to the following conditions:
Choosing Investments
The Trust's policy is to review the portfolio annually and instigate an annual meeting between the investment manager and a committee of trustees. This last occurred in July 2025. The suitability of the investments should not knowingly be in conflict with the Trust's Mission Statement 'To protect and enhance the wildlife and wild places of Staffordshire and to promote understanding, enjoyment and involvement in the natural world.' In 2019, the trustees went further than this and instructed the Trust’s investment manager to specifically seek out investments that fitted an explicit ethical criteria. The Trust's policy is to limit the risk attached to investments by requiring the investment manager to invest in a spread of assets including equities, gilts and cash, with the aim of achieving the best possible return while safeguarding the capital value.
Rate of Return
The Trust sets the investment manager no specific rate of return to achieve other than that expected from a duly diligent professional investment manager. The investment performance will be compared with a suitable index on an annual basis.
Review
The Trust will review the situation annually, or sooner if there is need. At least every three years the Trust will consider whether or not the investment manager has the appropriate knowledge and experience, is carrying out his work competently, and has regard to the suitability of each investment and category of investment. In 2009, a sub-committee of trustees received submissions from three investment management firms and decided to remain with the incumbent.
Taxation
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited is a registered charity and can claim exemption from Corporation Tax on income and gains which are applied for charitable purposes under section 505, Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988.
The subsidiary trading companies are subject to Corporation Tax. Whilst most of the surplus is donated to the Charity, the trading companies pay tax on that left to maintain and build up their working capital.
Auditors
Dains Audit Limited were re-appointed as the Trust’s auditors at the Annual General Meeting on 23[rd] September 2024.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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Bankers
National Westminster Bank 75 High Street Newcastle-under-Lyme Staffordshire ST5 1PP
Solicitors
Keelys LLP 28 Dam Street Lichfield Staffordshire WS13 6AA
Investment Advisors
Rathbones Group Plc 2 Gresham Street London EC2V 7QN
Auditors
Dains Audit Limited Suite 2, Albion House 2 Etruria Office Village Stoke-on-Trent ST1 5RQ
Statement of the Board's responsibilities
The trustees (who are also directors of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report 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 the group and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable group for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:
-
select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
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observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
-
make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
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state whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
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prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in business.
The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and 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 the group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Public benefit statement
The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 4 of the Charities Act 2006 to have due regard to the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit, 'Charities and Public Benefit'.
The Trust's public benefit is enshrined in its charitable objects as outlined on Page 3.
Statement as to disclosure of information to auditors
The members of Board who were in office on the date of approval of these financial statements have confirmed, as far as they are aware, that there is no relevant audit information of which the auditors are unaware. Each of the members of Board have confirmed that they have taken all steps that they ought to have taken as members of Board in order to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that it has been communicated to the auditor.
The Report of the Board of Management, which includes the Strategic Report on pages 3 to 14, was approved by the Board on 2 September 2025 and signed on their behalf:
P Hackney Secretary
Date of Signing: 2[nd] September 2025
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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| Year Ended | Year Ended | Year Ended | Year Ended | Year Ended | Year Ended | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 March | 31 March | 31 March | 31 March | 31 March | |||
| 2025 | 2025 | 2025 | 2025 | 2024 | |||
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Endowment | Total Funds | Total Funds | |||
| Funds | Funds | Funds | |||||
| Note | £’000 | £’000 | £’000 | £’000 | £’000 | ||
| Incoming and endowments from: | |||||||
| Donations and Legacies | 2 | 1,136 | 120 | - | 1,256 | 3,255 | |
| Charitable Activities | 3 | 662 | 5,503 | - | 6,165 | 2,471 | |
| Other Trading activities | 4 | 974 | - | - | 974 | 1,096 | |
| Investment income | 5 | 151 | - | - | 151 | 67 | |
| Other | 45 | 17 | (62) | - | 51 | ||
| Total income | 2,968 | 5,640 | (62) | 8,546 | 6,940 | ||
| Expenditure on: | |||||||
| Raising Funds | 6 | 1,144 | - | - | 1,144 | 1,486 | |
| Charitable activities | 7 | 1,615 | 1,960 | - | 3,575 | 3,250 | |
| Total expenditure | 8 | 2,759 | 1,960 | - | 4,719 | 4,736 | |
| Net gains/(losses) on investments | (27) | - | - | (27) | (17) | ||
| Net income/(expenditure) | 182 | 3,680 | (62) | 3,800 | 2,187 | ||
| Transfers between funds | 39 | (164) | 125 | - | - | ||
| Other recognised gains/(losses) | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| Net movement in funds carried forward | 221 | 3,516 | 63 | 3,800 | 2,187 |
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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| Note Net movement in funds brought forward Reconciliation of Funds: Fund balances at 1 April (brought forward) Fund balances at 31 March (carried forward) 18-20 |
Year Ended 31 March 2025 Unrestricted Funds £’000 221 2,338 |
Year Ended 31 March 2025 Restricted Funds £’000 3,516 4,312 |
Year Ended 31 March 2025 Endowment Funds £’000 63 3,694 |
Year Ended 31 March 2025 Year Ended 31 March 2024 Total Funds Total £’000 £’000 3,800 2,187 10,344 8,157 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,559 | 7,828 | 3,757 | 14,144 10,344 |
The statement of financial activities contains all gains and losses for the year.
The notes on pages 24 to 45 form part of these financial statements
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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| Note Fixed Assets Tangible assets 11 Heritage assets 12 Investments 13 Total fixed assets Current assets Stocks Debtors 14 Investments 15 Cash at bank and in hand Total current assets Liabilities Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year 16 Net current assets Creditors: Amounts falling due in more than one year 17 Total net assets The funds of the charity Restricted Income Funds 18 Endowment Funds 20 Unrestricted Funds 19 Revaluation Reserve Total funds |
2025 2024 £'000 £'000 2,896 3,480 2,683 2,544 649 674 6,228 6,698 10 21 382 3,271 5,852 5 2,125 978 8,369 4,275 (450) (615) 7,919 3,660 (3) (14) 14,144 10,344 7,828 4,312 3,757 3,694 11,585 8,006 2,533 2,292 26 46 14,144 10,344 Group |
2025 2024 £'000 £'000 2,896 3,480 2,683 2,544 649 674 6,228 6,698 10 21 382 3,271 5,852 5 2,125 978 8,369 4,275 (450) (615) 7,919 3,660 (3) (14) 14,144 10,344 7,828 4,312 3,757 3,694 11,585 8,006 2,533 2,292 26 46 14,144 10,344 Group |
2025 2024 £'000 £'000 2,886 3,455 2,683 2,544 649 675 6,218 6,674 - - 380 3,296 5,851 5 2,023 811 8,254 4,112 (334) (442) 7,920 3,670 - - 14,138 10,344 7,828 4,312 3,757 3,694 11,585 8,006 2,527 2,292 26 46 14,138 10,344 Charity |
2025 2024 £'000 £'000 2,886 3,455 2,683 2,544 649 675 6,218 6,674 - - 380 3,296 5,851 5 2,023 811 8,254 4,112 (334) (442) 7,920 3,670 - - 14,138 10,344 7,828 4,312 3,757 3,694 11,585 8,006 2,527 2,292 26 46 14,138 10,344 Charity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6,698 | 6,218 | 6,674 | ||
| 21 3,271 5 978 |
- 380 5,851 2,023 |
- 3,296 5 811 |
||
| 4,275 (615) |
8,254 (334) |
4,112 (442) |
||
| 7,919 (3) |
3,660 (14) |
7,920 - |
3,670 - |
|
| 14,144 | 10,344 | 14,138 | 10,344 | |
| 7,828 3,757 |
4,312 3,694 |
7,828 3,757 |
4,312 3,694 |
|
| 11,585 2,533 26 |
8,006 2,292 46 |
11,585 2,527 26 |
8,006 2,292 46 |
|
| 14,144 | 10,344 | 14,138 | 10,344 |
As permitted by s408 Companies Act 2006, the charity has not presented its own SOFA. The charity’s net income for the year was £3,820,000.
These accounts were approved by the Board on 2 September 2025
S Smith P Hackney Chairman Secretary
Date of Signing: 2 September 2025 Date of Signing: 2 September 2025
The notes on pages 24 to 45 form part of these accounts
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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| Note Net cash inflow from operating activities 28 Cash flows from investing activities Investment income Proceeds from sale of fixed assets Purchase of fixed assets Purchase of heritage assets Proceeds from sale of investments Purchase of investments Net Cash provided by investing Cash flows from financing activities Repayments of borrowing Net cash inflows from new borrowing Net Cash used in financing activities Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting year Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting year Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting year 29 |
2025 £'000 - 494 (102) (139) 236 (234) |
2025 2024 2024 £'000 £'000 £'000 6,756 (14) - - (102) - 198 (210) 254 (114) (10) - (12) (10) 6,998 (138) 998 1,136 7,996 998 |
|---|---|---|
| (12) - |
||
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1. Accounting policies
1.1 Basis of accounting
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, with the exception of listed investments which are included at their market value. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Charity Commission Statement of Recommended Practice - 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 (effective 1 January 2019). The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £’000.
The Trustees confirm that the Charity is a public benefit entity as defined by FRS 102.
1.2 Group Accounts
The Statement of Financial Activities (SOFA) and Balance Sheet consolidate the financial statements of the charity and its subsidiary undertakings. The results of the subsidiaries are consolidated on a line-by-line basis.
The charity has availed itself of Paragraph 4(1) of Schedule 1 of the Large and Medium-sized Companies and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and adapted the Companies Act formats to reflect the special nature of the charity’s activities.
As most of the income from the subsidiary companies is transferred to the Trust the view taken is that there is no significant difference between the Group and Company figures. The subsidiaries are accounted for separately for management control purposes.
1.3 Going concern
Following remedial action being taken in April 2024, the unrestricted profit and loss account returned to a surplus in 2024/25. Despite a challenging economic climate this has remained the case throughout the year and since the year end, and current forecasts predict this to continue for the foreseeable future. Free reserves at the year end were slightly above the target level set in the financial reserves policy. As such, the trustees are confident that the charity will remain a going concern for the foreseeable future.
1.4 Fund Accounting - Unrestricted Funds
These funds can be used for any of the charity's purposes.
1.5 Restricted Income Funds
These funds have been given to the Trust for a particular purpose to be used in accordance with the wishes of the donor.
1.6 Endowment Funds
These funds have been given to the Trust for a particular purpose to be used in accordance with the wishes of the donor. The capital can generally not be realised.
1.7 Designated funds - Projects
These funds were set aside by the Trustees for specific projects, as agreed at board meetings during the year. Many of these projects are partly funded with the unfunded element set aside from general funds.
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1.8 Income
Income from investments, Gift Aid and deeds of covenant are included gross, and are accounted for when receivable or the charity's right to it becomes legally enforceable. Provision has been made for Income Tax reclaimable at the year end.
Legacy income is included in the accounts when the amount due can be quantified with reasonable certainty and the timing of the receipt is known.
Incoming resources in the form of donated assets have been included in the SOFA at a reasonable estimate of their value, taking into account the market value of the assets and comments made by the donor.
Grants receivable are accounted for when there is sufficient information to enable the claim to be made or the claim has been made and there is clear indication to suggest the claim will be met.
1.9 Volunteer Help
The Trust receives support from a wide variety of volunteers. It is not practical to place a value on the time volunteered by all these persons, due to the variety of duties performed, the differences in time spent, and the sheer number of volunteers who gave of their time.
1.10 Membership Income
Membership income is taken to the Statement of Financial Activities over the life of the subscription, taking into account the type of membership involved.
1.11 Local Groups
The Local and Special Interest Groups are referred to in note 25. They hold up to £500 each. Their activities have not been included in the consolidated figures, other than by way of the contributions they make. They are autonomous in their operation. Larger groups are consolidated into the Trust’s accounts.
1.12 Expenditure
Indirect costs are allocated to the expenditure headings in the SOFA on the basis of the number of employees in each area of work.
Cost of Raising Funds consists of expenditure relating to appeals, communications requesting funds, applying for grants and other general publicity as part of fundraising together with associated support activities and cost of sales.
Administration and Support of charitable activities consists of those costs incurred in support of expenditure on the objects of the charity. These include the provision of the premises, personnel, information technology and audit fees.
1.13 Irrecoverable VAT
The charity and its subsidiaries are partially exempt. Irrecoverable VAT is allocated to the appropriate cost categories.
1.14 Key Estimations and Judgements
The Trust has included estimates and judgements where appropriate and it is not possible to obtain fully accurate information at the time of preparation. Income is accrued on actual agreed amounts but may be subject to change in certain circumstances, such as when an agreed amount is valued in a foreign currency and payment is based on the exchange rate at that time. Legacies are recognised at the point that they are highly likely to be received. This may be several months or years before receipt, and therefore the recognition of income is based on what is known at the time the accounts are prepared. Recognition of fixed assets is generally based on the substance over form rule, for example in cases where the trust has an option to purchase a reserve that it is managing. At this point the purchase is highly likely and in substance the asset belongs to the Trust and therefore is recognised as an asset.
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1.15 Depreciation
Class of Asset
Rate
Freehold Buildings 2% Straight Line Land Not Depreciated Equipment 20% Straight Line Fixtures and Fittings 20% Straight Line Motor Vehicles 20% Reducing Balance Impermanent Structures 10% Straight Line Integral Plant & Fixtures 6.67% Reducing Balance Long-Term Infrastructure 4% Straight Line Leasehold Property Over the term of the lease
1.16 Heritage assets
The Charity’s objects include the conservation of nature for the purpose of study and research, and to educate the public in understanding and appreciation of nature, the awareness of its value and the need for its conservation. As such the Charity owns and maintains a number of nature reserves that fall into the definition of heritage assets in accordance with FRS 102. These assets have been capitalised at cost at the date of acquisition, and being land in nature have not been depreciated.
The costs of maintaining the heritage assets are expensed through the Statement of Financial Activities as incurred, as part of the Trust’s charitable activities.
1.17 Investments
Investments are a form of basic financial instrument and are initially recognised at their transaction value and subsequently measured at their fair value as at the balance sheet date using the closing quoted market price. The statement of financial activities includes the net gains and losses arising on revaluation and disposals throughout the year.
The Trust does not acquire put options, derivatives or other complex financial instruments. The main form of financial risk faced by the charity is that of volatility in equity markets and investment markets due to wider economic conditions, the attitude of investors to investment risk, and changes in sentiment concerning equities and within particular sectors or sub sectors.
1.18 Stocks
Stocks are stated at the lower of cost and net realisable value, where cost comprises of purchase price. There is no stock held by the charity. The Trading Company holds stock as stated in the balance sheet (note 22).
1.19 Pension Costs
The Trust operates a defined contribution scheme for the benefit of its employees. The costs of contributions are written off against incoming resources in the year they are payable. The assets of the scheme are held separately from the Trust in independently administered funds.
1.20 Finance and operating leases
The Trust has no finance leases. Rentals payable under operating leases, including any lease incentives received, are charged to income on a straight line basis over the term of the relevant lease except where another more systematic basis is more representative of the time pattern in which economic benefits from the lease asset are consumed.
1.21 Land and buildings
Nature Reserves are included at cost in the accounts as the Board are of the opinion that they are to be preserved long-term by the Trust. As regards the Buildings at Wolseley at 30 May 2006 these were valued for insurance purposes, in respect of re-building costs of £1,562,000, so the board believes the cost is a fair valuation. The Wolseley development of 2018/2019 included construction and related invoices at cost.
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1.22 Financial instruments
The Trust only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans which are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.
Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.
1.23 Deferred income
Income is deferred in respect of projects that are timebound and recognised for the period in which the project is completed. Income is also deferred for membership subscriptions, where those subscriptions relate to a period after the end of the financial year.
2. Donations and Legacies
| Membership income Grants and donations Legacies |
Unrestricted £'000 916 102 118 |
Restricted £'000 - 5 115 |
Endowment Year Ended 31 March 2025 £'000 £'000 - 916 - 107 - 233 - 1,256 |
Year Ended 31 March 2024 £'000 908 120 2,227 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,136 | 120 | 3,255 |
3. Charitable Activities
| Grants and Contracts | Unrestricted £'000 662 |
Restricted £'000 5,503 |
Endowment £'000 - |
Year Ended 31 March 2025 Year Ended 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 6,165 2,471 6,165 2,471 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 662 | 5,503 | - |
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4. Other Trading Activity
| Unrestricted £'000 271 34 627 8 34 974 Shop Sales Conference and Room Hire Café Sales Fundraising Events Other |
Restricted Endowment Year Ended 31 March 2025 Year Ended 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 - - 271 292 - - 34 35 - - 627 714 - - 8 18 - - 34 37 - - 974 1,096 |
|---|---|
5. Investment income
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Endowment | Year Ended | Year Ended | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 March | 31 March | ||||
| 2025 | 2024 | ||||
| £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | |
| Interest | 136 | - | - | 136 | 11 |
| Dividends | 15 | - | - | 15 | 56 |
| 151 | - | - | 151 | 67 |
6. Expenditure on raising funds
| Cafes Charity Shops Cost of Raising Donations Event Costs Trading Company Costs Advertising / Direct Mail Investment Management |
Unrestricted £'000 225 - 542 190 98 84 5 |
Restricted £'000 - - - - - - - |
Endowment £'000 - - - - - - - |
Year Ended 31 March 2025 Year Ended 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 225 548 - - 542 590 190 168 98 85 84 89 5 6 1,144 1,486 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,144 | - | - |
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
Page | 28
7. Expenditure on charitable activities
| Conservation Delivery Education Living Landscapes Other Charitable Projects Conservation Delivery Education Living Landscapes Other Charitable Projects 8. Total expenditure Living Landscapes Other Projects Expenditure on raising funds Investment management Conservation Delivery Education |
Unrestricted £'000 914 536 5 160 |
Unrestricted £'000 914 536 5 160 |
Restricted £'000 1,261 180 490 29 1,960 |
Restricted £'000 1,261 180 490 29 1,960 |
Endowment £'000 - - - - |
Endowment £'000 - - - - |
Year Ended 31 March 2025 £'000 2,175 716 495 189 |
Year Ended 31 March 2025 £'000 2,175 716 495 189 |
Year Ended 31 March 2024 £'000 1,689 796 598 167 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,615 | - | 3,575 | 3,250 | |||||||
| Direct Costs £'000 1,853 554 383 117 |
Grant Funding £'000 - - - - |
Support £'000 322 162 112 72 |
Year Ended 31 March 2025 £'000 2,175 716 495 189 |
Year Ended 31 March 2024 £'000 1,689 796 598 167 |
||||||
| 2,907 | - | 668 | 3,575 | 3,250 | ||||||
| Staff Costs £'000 583 - 1,049 516 168 96 |
||||||||||
| 2,412 | 1,411 | 875 | 21 |
Total expenditure is stated after charging:
| Auditor's Remuneration | - Audit Services | 21 | 29 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other Non-Audit Services | - | - | |
| Depreciation | 170 | 186 | |
| Amounts Payable Under | Operating Leases | 59 | 63 |
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
Page | 29
Analysis of material support costs
| Raising Funds £'000 13 44 48 10 3 118 Senior Leadership & Finance IT Premises HR & Volunteering Governance |
£'000 39 130 143 31 10 Conservation Delivery |
Education Other Total Basis of Allocation £'000 £'000 £'000 26 14 92 Per Capita 88 45 307 Per Capita 96 49 336 Per Capita 21 11 73 Per Capita 7 3 23 Actual 238 122 831 |
|---|---|---|
| 353 |
9. Staff costs
| 9. Staff costs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year Ended | Year Ended | |||
| Trust | Trading | 31 March | 31 March | |
| 2025 | 2024 | |||
| £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | |
| Salaries and Wages | 1,649 | 396 | 2,045 | 2,164 |
| Social Security Costs | 144 | 17 | 161 | 167 |
| Other Pension Costs | 180 | 26 | 206 | 210 |
| 1,973 | 439 | 2,412 | 2,541 | |
| The average number of employees, analysed by function, was: | ||||
| Trust | Trading | Year Ended | Year Ended | |
| 31 March | 31 March | |||
| 2025 | 2024 | |||
| Conservation | 27 | 1 | 28 | 31 |
| Education | 28 | - | 28 | 27 |
| Fundraising | 9 | - | 9 | 14 |
| Management and Administration | 13 | 1 | 14 | 17 |
| Subsidiaries | - | 41 | 41 | 44 |
| 77 | 43 | 120 | 133 |
We rely on volunteers to help in all aspects of our work particularly for practical conservation work, administration and fundraising.
Board and employee emoluments
Members of the Board did not receive any remuneration or benefits in kind during the period.
Costs incurred by the Board on business amounted to £Nil (2024: £Nil). Total donations received from Members of the Board were immaterial. (2024: £Nil). Small amounts are received in respect of events but nothing over £1,000.
One employee received emoluments within the band of £80,000-£90,000 (2024: one within the band £80,000£90,000).
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
Page | 30
Executive Remuneration
The total executive remuneration paid in the year ended 31 March 2025 was £279,000 (year ended 31 March 2024: £305,000).
Average Headcount
The average headcount in the group in the year ended 31 March 2025 was 120 (year ended 31 March 2024: 133), broken down as follows:
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust – 77 (2024: 87) Staffordshire Wildlife Trading – 43 (2024: 46).
10. Pension arrangements
The Trust operates a Group Personal Pension Scheme. Contributions to the scheme are charged to the accounts as they fall due. The Trust has set up a stakeholder pension plan, open to all employees, to cover those who do not wish to contribute to the Group Scheme, to which no employer’s contributions are made.
Pension costs are allocated between restricted and unrestricted funds on an actual cost basis relative to the employee’s staff costs. The allocation of support costs to activities is therefore as stated in note 8.
11. Tangible assets
| Group At 31 March 2025 At 31 March 2025 At 31 March 2025 At 31 March 2024 Cost or Donated Value At 01 April 2024 Additions Disposals Depreciation At 01 April 2024 Charge for the Year Eliminated on Disposals Net Book Value |
Freehold & Leasehold Land £'000 377 - (5) |
Freehold Buildings £'000 4,001 9 (537) 3,473 |
Equipment £'000 627 64 (20) |
Motor Vehicles Total £'000 £'000 275 5,280 30 103 (59) (621) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 372 | 671 | 246 4,762 |
||
| 92 14 (5) |
1,055 102 (27) |
494 33 (19) |
159 1,800 21 170 (53) (104) |
|
| 101 | 1,130 | 508 | 127 1,866 |
|
| 271 | 2,343 | 163 | 119 2,896 |
|
| 285 | 2,946 | 133 | 116 3,480 |
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
Page | 31
| Freehold & | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freehold | Motor | ||||
| Charity | Leasehold Land |
Buildings | Equipment | Vehicles | Total |
| £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | |
| Cost or Donated Value | |||||
| At 01 April 2024 | 321 | 4,001 | 478 | 260 | 5,060 |
| Additions | 9 | 64 | 30 | 103 | |
| Disposals | (537) | (44) | (581) | ||
| At 31 March 2025 | 321 | 3,473 | 542 | 246 | 4,582 |
| Depreciation | |||||
| At 01 April 2024 | 26 | 1,055 | 380 | 144 | 1,605 |
| Charge for the Year | 3 | 102 | 30 | 21 | 156 |
| Eliminated on Disposals | (27) | (38) | (65) | ||
| At 31 March 2025 | 29 | 1,130 | 410 | 127 | 1,696 |
| Net Book Value | |||||
| At 31 March 2025 | 292 | 2,343 | 132 | 119 | 2,886 |
| At 31 March 2024 | 295 | 2,946 | 98 | 116 | 3,455 |
The Trust acquired a 125-year lease at the Roaches on 1 May 2013. This has been included in freehold and leasehold land rather than as a heritage asset as the land is not owned by the Trust and is to be written off over the term of the lease.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
Page | 32
12. Heritage assets
The Trust’s nature reserves are held to advance the conservation objectives of the charity and therefore are recognised as Heritage assets. Such assets are central to the achievements of the Trust. Purchased heritage assets are included in the balance sheet at cost. Donated assets are only included in the balance sheet where a reliable valuation can be obtained at the date of donation.
The following nature reserves have been purchased or donated throughout the life of the Trust.
| Date Reserve 1970-2000 Loynton Moss 1975 Castern Wood 1981-1996 Black Brook 1984 Doxey Marshes - Tillington Pasture 1987 Pasturefields 1987-2003 Brown End Quarry 1988 Doxey Marshes - Cadbury Pasture 1993 Doxey Marshes - Central Pastures 1993-1995 Rod Wood 1994 Weags Barn 1996 Colwich 1996 Black Firs and Cranberry Bog 1997 Doxey Marshes - Tillington Meadow 1997 Oakwood Pastures 1998 Hem Heath & Parrots Drumble 1999 Cotton Dell 1999 Doxey Marshes - Darling Pasture 1999-2000 Black Heath & Casey Bank Pre-2000 Bateswood 2002 Newstead Wood 2002-2003 Thorswood 2004 Radford Meadows 2006 Croxall Lakes 2007 Brankley Pastures 2009 Highgate Common 2010 Black Brook 2013 Tucklesholme 2015 Shawside 2016 Nan's Wood 2016 Hazel Barrow 2017 Hem Heath - Wedgwood 2019 Knotbury Common 2019-2023 Gun Moor 2020 Craddock's Moss 2025 Aldred's Pastures |
Cost £'000 138 16 201 5 32 4 28 1 45 53 4 4 52 39 21 88 65 99 5 9 186 122 9 304 - 31 339 88 25 108 10 79 256 78 139 |
|---|---|
| 2,683 |
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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In addition to the purchased or donated nature reserves, the following are being leased or rented at a nominal rental:
Allimore Green Common Georges Hayes Jacksons Coppice and Marsh
Land at Brown Spit Connecting Cannock Chase Land Gentleshaw Common Harston Wood Side Farm Meadows Swineholes Wood
There are land management management agreements in place for the following:
Bleak House Biddulph Grange Country Park Biddulph Valley Way South Brough Park Fields Cecilly Brook LNR Hales Hall Pool Hoftens Cross Ladderedge Country Park Marshes Hill Common Land at Newpool Meadow Wetley Moor Common Whitemore LNR
Public access to the sites is generally unrestricted subject to health and safety, temporary operational or other restrictions such as within leases or conveyance documents.
Five-year summary of heritage asset transactions
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | |
| Cost Bought Forward | 2,544 | 2,544 | 2,461 | 2,450 | 2,372 |
| Purchases in the Year | 139 | - | 83 | 11 | 78 |
| Cost Carried Forward | 2,683 | 2,544 | 2,544 | 2,461 | 2,450 |
It is not practical to separately identify the amount spent on maintaining these assets as it is so integral to the general work of the Trust.
13. Investments
| Quoted and Listed Investments Group and Company Quoted Investments Cash Held as Part of Portfolio |
31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 630 659 19 15 |
|---|---|
| 649 674 |
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
Page | 34
The movement on quoted investments is as follows:
| Market value as at 1 April 2024 Additions at cost Disposals at Market Value Bought Forward Unrealised Gains / (Losses) Market Value at 31 March 2025 Historic Cost as at 31 March 2025 Investments comprise: Fixed Interest Securities UK Equities Overseas Equities Property Funds Other |
31 March 2025 £'000 674 234 (237) (22) |
31 March 2024 £'000 650 241 (224) 7 |
|---|---|---|
| 649 | 674 | |
| 623 | 629 | |
| 31 March 2025 £'000 148 118 294 21 49 |
31 March 2024 £'000 161 156 268 18 56 |
|
| 630 | 659 |
The following investments are considered to be material in the context of the value of the portfolio (over £33,000):
| Aegon Ethical Equity Brown Advisory US Sustainable Growth CT (UK) Responsible Global Equity FP Wheb Sustainable Fund Ishares Plc Nasdaq 100 US Equities Rlum Sustainable Leaders Trust |
31 March 2025 £'000 54 86 40 35 51 64 |
|---|---|
| 330 |
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited owns the entire share capital (2 ordinary shares of £1) in its subsidiary, Staffordshire Wildlife Trading Limited (company no. 03387233), which is incorporated in England.
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited also owns the entire share capital (2 ordinary shares of £1) in its subsidiary, Staffordshire Ecological Services Limited (company no. 06775503), which is incorporated in England. Further details concerning the activities and assets of these companies is given in note 21.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
Page | 35
14. Debtors
| 31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 Trade Debtors 110 363 Amounts Due from Subsidiary Companies - - Other Debtors 4 - Prepayments and Accrued Income 268 2,908 382 3,271 Group 15. Investments – Current assets Group and Company COIF Charities Deposit Fund at CCLA Investment Management Limited Hampshire Trust Bank High Interest Account Natwest 95-Day Access High Interest Account 16. Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year 31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 Trade Creditors 55 144 Other Creditors 64 28 Other Taxes and Social Security 59 113 Corporation Tax 3 4 Accruals and Deferred Income 269 326 450 615 Group Deferred income Balance at 31st March 2025 Balance at 1st April 2024 Amount released to income received from charitable activities Amount deferred in the period |
31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 110 363 - - 4 - 268 2,908 Group |
31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 110 363 - - 4 - 268 2,908 Group |
31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 106 355 24 49 - - 250 2,892 Charity |
31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 106 355 24 49 - - 250 2,892 Charity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 382 | 3,271 | 380 | 3,296 | |
| 31 March 2025 £'000 5 750 5,097 |
31 March 2024 £'000 5 - - |
|||
| 5,852 | 5 | |||
| 31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 49 137 50 16 57 111 - - 178 178 Charity |
||||
| 450 | 615 | 334 442 |
||
| Group Charity £'000 £'000 113 108 (113) (108) 98 94 |
||||
| 98 94 |
Included within Accruals and Deferred Income is deferred income relating to membership subscriptions paid in advance and annual partnership payments to projects paid in advance.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
Page | 36
17. Creditors: Amounts falling due in more than one year
| 31 March 2025 31 March 2024 31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 Coronavirus Bounce Back Loan 3 14 - - 3 14 - - Group Charity |
31 March 2025 31 March 2024 31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 Coronavirus Bounce Back Loan 3 14 - - 3 14 - - Group Charity |
31 March 2025 31 March 2024 31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 Coronavirus Bounce Back Loan 3 14 - - 3 14 - - Group Charity |
|---|---|---|
| 14 - |
- |
18. Restricted funds – Projects
These funds have been set aside for specific projects. These projects may arise out of the Trust’s ongoing activities, or the Trust may be asked to carry out a specific task. Either way, at some stage in the project, grants and donations will have been received specific to that project. Therefore, once a project is commenced any funds allocated to it are restricted to that fund. It is anticipated that these funds will be used over the coming months and years as the expenditure for which these funds were raised is incurred. There are therefore many small funds and for the purposes of statutory reporting these have been grouped together under two main headings.
| Group and Company Conservation Delivery Living Landscapes Education |
Balance 01 Apr 2024 £'000 3,571 707 34 |
Incomings Outgoings Transfers 4,549 (1,361) (166) 858 (420) 5 233 (179) (3) |
Balance 31 Mar 2025 £'000 6,593 1,150 85 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4,312 | 5,640 (1,960) (164) |
7,828 |
The following funds of £50,000 or more (individual or cumulative) were received in support of projects:
| Funder Project Defra Farmers in Protected Landscapes Environment Agency Tatenhill Brook Enhancement Environment Agency Trent ReNew HS2 / Staffordshire County Council Trent and Sow Washlands National Highways Stafford Brooks National Lottery Community Fund Nature in Your Neighbourhood National Lottery Heritage Fund Transforming the Trent Headwaters |
Amount £'000 60 100 666 205 3,674 80 89 |
|---|---|
| 4,874 |
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
Page | 37
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust has received funding of less than £50,000 during 2024/25 from the following funders:
Action for Children Aggregate Industries UK Ltd Aiming High Alpkit Foundation Baron Davenport Brampton Museum Buglife Cross Country Trains The Community Foundation for Staffordshire Defra East Staffordshire Borough Council Environment Agency Garfield Weston Foundation Hanson Quarry Products J&O Lloyd Trust Rural Payments Agency Rugeley Power Limited The Masonic Charitable Foundation Severn Trent Water Ltd The Newt Conservation Partnership Stafford Borough Council Staffordshire County Council Staffs Moorland District Council National Lottery Community Fund Stoke City Council Swire Charitable Trust National Lottery Heritage Fund Support Staffordshire Tamworth Borough Council Peak District National Park Authority Tarmac Trading Limited Tesco Top Cashback Sustainability Fund The Wildflower Society
19. Unrestricted funds
These funds have been set aside for projects that are not fully funded by restricted income. Any unspent funds will be spent over the coming years as the expenditure for which these funds have been set aside is incurred.
| General Funds - Conservation Delivery Total Unrestricted Funds Designated Funds - Projects - Investment in Fundraising |
Balance 01 Apr 2024 £'000 - - |
Incomings 79 - |
Outgoings (1) - |
Balance Transfers 31 Mar 2025 £'000 - 78 300 300 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - 2,338 |
79 2,862 |
(1) (2,758) |
300 378 (261) 2,181 |
|
| 2,338 | 2,941 | (2,759) | 39 2,559 |
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
Page | 38
20. Endowment Funds
These are funds which will have arisen from an Appeal, or from a specific donation, or from grants. The funds have been used to acquire the sites operated and the headquarters. There are also donations of fixed assets which have been valued, and the valuation placed here.
| Aldred's Pastures Black Brook The Roaches Black Firs Black Heath Brankley Brown End Quarry Casey Bank Hem Heath Highgate Common Loynton Moss Oakwood Pastures Nan's Wood Newstead Pasturefields Radford Rod Wood Shawside Thorswood Tucklesholme Weag's Barn Westport Undercroft Wolseley Gatehouse Wolseley HQ Castern Wood Gun Moor Hazel Barrow Colwich Brickworks Cotton Dell Croxall Doxey Marshes Loynton: Shooting Rights |
01 Apr 2024 £'000 - 198 273 4 34 304 4 63 4 4 87 7 138 220 108 18 220 44 137 39 25 10 22 122 45 88 96 285 52 76 154 813 |
Incomings Outgoings - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (62) - - - - |
Transfers 31 Mar 2025 £'000 139 139 - 198 - 273 - 4 - 34 - 304 - 4 - 63 - 4 - 4 - 87 - 7 - 138 - 220 - 108 - 18 - 220 - 44 - 137 - 39 - 25 - 10 - 22 - 122 - 45 - 88 - 96 - 285 - 52 (14) - - 154 - 813 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3,694 | - (62) |
125 3,757 |
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
Page | 39
21. Trading companies
Staffordshire Wildlife Trading Limited
The following activities are carried out by ‘Staffordshire Wildlife Trading imited’:
- Running a Visitor Centre, café, retail shop and conference facilities at the Trust's Headquarters at Wolseley Bridge
Running three charity shops across the county, selling mainly donated goods.
- An online shop which sells retail goods especially in the run up to Christmas
Staffordshire Wildlife Trading Limited entered into no sales or purchases with any of the other members of the group in the year. At the period end Staffordshire Wildlife Trading Limited owed £24,448 (2024: £48,873) to its parent company. This debt is made up of payments and receipts that have been received and paid by suppliers to/from the wrong group member, as well as liabilities arising under group arrangements.
The statutory income statement and statement of financial position of Staffordshire Wildlife Trading Limited were as follows:
Staffordshire Wildlife Trading Limited Income Statement Year ended 31 March 2025
| Staffordshire Wildlife Trading Limited ncome Statement Year ended 31 March 2025 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Turnover Cost of sales Gross profit Operating profit Taxation Gift aid to parent charity Administrative expenses Profit before taxation Profit for the financial year Total comprehensive income for the year Interest receivable and similar income Interest payable and similar expenses |
Year Ended 31 March 2025 £'000 958 (659) |
Year Ended 31 March 2024 £'000 1,065 (677) |
| 299 (233) |
388 (261) |
|
| 66 3 - |
127 2 (1) |
|
| 69 (3) |
128 (4) |
|
| 66 (66) |
124 (125) |
|
| - | (1) |
A gift aid payment of £65,500 (2024 - £125,000) was made by the subsidiary to the parent charity.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
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Staffordshire Wildlife Trading Limited Statement of Financial Position As at 31 March 2025
| Long term liabilities Cash at bank and in hand Property, Plant and Equipment Current assets Stock and Work in Progress Trade and other receivables Fixed assets Current Liabilities Net current liabilities Total Equity Total assets less current liabilities Equity Called up share capital Retained Earnings |
2025 £'000 10 25 242 |
2025 2024 £'000 £'000 10 21 23 166 210 (222) (6) (3) 1 - 1 1 |
2024 £'000 27 (12) (14) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 277 (283) |
|||
| 1 | |||
| - 1 |
|||
| 1 |
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
Page | 41
Staffordshire Ecological Services Limited
The principal activity of Staffordshire Ecological Services Limited was that of providing environmental consultancy services. This company ceased trading on 30 September 2015.
Staffordshire Ecological Services Limited entered into no sales or purchases with any of the other members of the group in the year.
At the year end Staffordshire Ecological Services Limited owed £Nil (2024: £Nil) to its parent company.
Staffordshire Ecological Services Limited remained dormant throughout the year ended 31 March 2025.
Staffordshire Ecological Services Limited Statement of financial position As at 31 March 2025
| Equity Called up share capital Retained Earnings Total Equity Total assets less current liabilities Current assets Trade and other receivables Cash at bank and in hand Current Liabilities Net current assets Property, Plant and Equipment Fixed assets |
2025 £'000 - 1 |
2025 2024 £'000 £'000 - - 1 1 - 1 1 - 1 1 |
2024 £'000 - 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 - |
|||
| 1 | |||
| - 1 |
|||
| 1 |
Both Staffordshire Wildlife Trading Limited and Staffordshire Ecological Services Limited are wholly owned subsidiaries of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
Page | 42
22. Analysis of net assets between funds
| Unrestricted Total Projects Capital £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 1,329 197 1,370 2,896 296 - 2,387 2,683 649 - - 649 10 - - 10 227 155 - 382 426 1,699 - 2,125 - 5,852 - 5,852 (375) (75) - (450) (3) - - (3) 2,559 7,828 3,757 14,144 26 - - 26 Restricted Tangible fixed assets Short-term investments Long-term investments Stock and work in progress Debtors Cash at bank and in hand Heritage assets Current liabilities Revaluation reserve included within long-term investments Long term liability Total net assets |
Unrestricted Total Projects Capital £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 1,329 197 1,370 2,896 296 - 2,387 2,683 649 - - 649 10 - - 10 227 155 - 382 426 1,699 - 2,125 - 5,852 - 5,852 (375) (75) - (450) (3) - - (3) 2,559 7,828 3,757 14,144 26 - - 26 Restricted Tangible fixed assets Short-term investments Long-term investments Stock and work in progress Debtors Cash at bank and in hand Heritage assets Current liabilities Revaluation reserve included within long-term investments Long term liability Total net assets |
Unrestricted Total Projects Capital £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 1,329 197 1,370 2,896 296 - 2,387 2,683 649 - - 649 10 - - 10 227 155 - 382 426 1,699 - 2,125 - 5,852 - 5,852 (375) (75) - (450) (3) - - (3) 2,559 7,828 3,757 14,144 26 - - 26 Restricted Tangible fixed assets Short-term investments Long-term investments Stock and work in progress Debtors Cash at bank and in hand Heritage assets Current liabilities Revaluation reserve included within long-term investments Long term liability Total net assets |
|---|---|---|
| 2,559 7,828 |
3,757 14,144 |
|
| 26 - |
- 26 |
23. Members guarantee
The liability of each member is limited to £1.
24. Local and special interest groups
Within the overall operation of the Trust there exists some 20 local and special interest groups. These local and special interest groups are autonomous, and responsible for their own financial matters. They organise their own fundraising activities, cover their own running costs, and make contributions to the Trust as and when funds are available. Their results have not been incorporated within these figures. An exception to this is the special interest group, Barn Owl Action Group, which is a larger operation than other local and special interest groups. In the case of this, the group’s operations have been included as a restricted fund within the Trust’s financial statements.
25. Contingent liabilities
There are certain covenants in respect of projects and sites which require that if the land is sold any funding would be returned to the funder. Land and buildings can be viewed as permanent assets of the Trust and have not been acquired for onward selling. It is therefore unlikely that these covenants will ever be breached and a liability incurred.
Looking After Staffordshire's Wildlife Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Limited Registered charity number: 259558 Company Number (England and Wales): 00959609
Page | 43
26. Financial instruments
| 31 March 2025 31 March 2024 31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 6,501 680 6,501 680 324 3,182 342 3,225 6,825 3,862 6,843 3,905 440 489 332 334 Financial Liabilities Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost Group Charity Financial Assets Financial assets measured at fair value through profit or loss Financial assets that are debt instruments measured at amortised cost Financial assets measured at fair value through income and expenditure comprise investments. Financial assets that are debt instruments measured at amortised cost comprise trade debtors, amounts owed group undertakings, other debtors and accrued income. Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost comprise trade creditors, amounts owed to group undertakin taxation and social security, other creditors and accruals. 27. Commitments under operating leases At 31 March 2025 the charity had non-cancellable commitments under operating leases which fall due as follows Year Ended 31 March 2025 Year Ended 31 March 2024 Year Ended 31 March 2025 Year Ended 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 51 37 1 5 20 30 - 1 71 67 1 6 Land and Buildings Other Within 1 year Within 2-5 years |
31 March 2025 31 March 2024 31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 6,501 680 6,501 680 324 3,182 342 3,225 6,825 3,862 6,843 3,905 440 489 332 334 Financial Liabilities Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost Group Charity Financial Assets Financial assets measured at fair value through profit or loss Financial assets that are debt instruments measured at amortised cost Financial assets measured at fair value through income and expenditure comprise investments. Financial assets that are debt instruments measured at amortised cost comprise trade debtors, amounts owed group undertakings, other debtors and accrued income. Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost comprise trade creditors, amounts owed to group undertakin taxation and social security, other creditors and accruals. 27. Commitments under operating leases At 31 March 2025 the charity had non-cancellable commitments under operating leases which fall due as follows Year Ended 31 March 2025 Year Ended 31 March 2024 Year Ended 31 March 2025 Year Ended 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 51 37 1 5 20 30 - 1 71 67 1 6 Land and Buildings Other Within 1 year Within 2-5 years |
31 March 2025 31 March 2024 31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 6,501 680 6,501 680 324 3,182 342 3,225 6,825 3,862 6,843 3,905 440 489 332 334 Financial Liabilities Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost Group Charity Financial Assets Financial assets measured at fair value through profit or loss Financial assets that are debt instruments measured at amortised cost Financial assets measured at fair value through income and expenditure comprise investments. Financial assets that are debt instruments measured at amortised cost comprise trade debtors, amounts owed group undertakings, other debtors and accrued income. Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost comprise trade creditors, amounts owed to group undertakin taxation and social security, other creditors and accruals. 27. Commitments under operating leases At 31 March 2025 the charity had non-cancellable commitments under operating leases which fall due as follows Year Ended 31 March 2025 Year Ended 31 March 2024 Year Ended 31 March 2025 Year Ended 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 51 37 1 5 20 30 - 1 71 67 1 6 Land and Buildings Other Within 1 year Within 2-5 years |
31 March 2025 31 March 2024 31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 6,501 680 6,501 680 324 3,182 342 3,225 6,825 3,862 6,843 3,905 440 489 332 334 Financial Liabilities Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost Group Charity Financial Assets Financial assets measured at fair value through profit or loss Financial assets that are debt instruments measured at amortised cost Financial assets measured at fair value through income and expenditure comprise investments. Financial assets that are debt instruments measured at amortised cost comprise trade debtors, amounts owed group undertakings, other debtors and accrued income. Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost comprise trade creditors, amounts owed to group undertakin taxation and social security, other creditors and accruals. 27. Commitments under operating leases At 31 March 2025 the charity had non-cancellable commitments under operating leases which fall due as follows Year Ended 31 March 2025 Year Ended 31 March 2024 Year Ended 31 March 2025 Year Ended 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 51 37 1 5 20 30 - 1 71 67 1 6 Land and Buildings Other Within 1 year Within 2-5 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| 71 | 67 | 1 6 |
Financial assets measured at fair value through income and expenditure comprise investments.
Financial assets that are debt instruments measured at amortised cost comprise trade debtors, amounts owed by group undertakings, other debtors and accrued income.
Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost comprise trade creditors, amounts owed to group undertakings, taxation and social security, other creditors and accruals.
27. Commitments under operating leases
At 31 March 2025 the charity had non-cancellable commitments under operating leases which fall due as follows:
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28. Reconciliation of cash inflow from operating activities
| Unrealised losses / (gains) on investments Profit for the financial year Depreciation (Profit) / Loss on disposal Interest paid Investment income Taxation Increase / (decrease) in trade creditors Net cash flow from operating activities Decrease / (increase) in trade and other debtors Decrease / (increase) in stock 29. Analysis of cash and cash equivalents Cash at bank and in hand Cash held as part of investment portfolio Cash on short term deposit |
31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 3,800 2,187 170 186 19 (28) 27 45 5 1 (14) (28) (1) (2) 2,903 (2,281) 11 1 (164) (95) 6,756 (14) 31 March 2025 31 March 2024 £'000 £'000 2,125 978 5,852 5 19 15 7,996 998 |
|---|---|
30. Related party transactions
There are no related party transactions that require disclosure under FRS 102.
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Opinion
We have audited the financial statements of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust imited the “parent charitable company” and its subsidiaries the ‘group’ for the year ended 31 March 2025 which comprise the consolidated and parent Statement of Financial Activities, the consolidated and parent Balance Sheet, the consolidated Statement of Cash Flows and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
This report is made solely to the charity’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter of Part 1 of the Companies Act 00 . ur audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
In our opinion, the financial statements:
- give a true and fair view of the state of the group and of the parent charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2025 and of the group and parent’s charity’s income and expenditure for the year then ended; have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Act 2011.
Basis for opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. ur responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the group and parent charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the RC’s thical Standard and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
Conclusions relating to going concern
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the ISAs (UK) require us to report to you where:
-
the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is not appropriate; or
-
the trustees have not disclosed in the financial statements any identified material uncertainties that may cast significant doubt about the group and charity’s ability to continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting for a period of at least twelve months from the date when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Other information
The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. ur opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.
In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements, or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information; we are required to report that fact.
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We have nothing to report in this regard.
Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:
-
the information given in the trustees’ report, incorporating the directors’ report prepared for the purposes of company law for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with The financial statements; and
-
the trustees’ report, incorporating the directors’ report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
Matters on which we are required to report by exception
In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the group and charity and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Trustees’ Annual Report.
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
-
adequate and proper accounting records have not been kept by the parent charitable company or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
-
the parent charitable company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
-
certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
-
we have not obtained all the information and explanations necessary for the purposes of our audit.
Responsibilities of the trustees
As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement set out on page 19 the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the group and charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charity or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
Au ’ p b l h u h l m
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists.
Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.
The extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above and on the inancial Reporting Council’s website, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud.
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We obtain and update our understanding of the entity, its activities, its control environment, and likely future developments, including in relation to the legal and regulatory framework applicable and how the entity is complying with that framework. Based on this understanding, we identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. This includes consideration of the risk of acts by the entity that were contrary to applicable laws and regulations, including fraud. In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, including fraud, we designed procedures which included:
-
Enquiry of management and those charged with governance around actual and potential litigation and claims as well as actual, suspected and alleged fraud.
-
Reviewing minutes of meetings of those charged with governance.
-
Assessing the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations considered to have a direct material effect on the financial statements or the operations of the company through enquiry and inspection.
-
Reviewing financial statement disclosures and testing to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
-
Performing audit work over the risk of management bias and override of controls, including testing of journal entries and other adjustments for appropriateness, evaluating the business rationale of significant transactions outside the normal course of business and reviewing accounting estimates for indicators of potential bias.
Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the inancial Reporting Council’s website at: https: www.frc.org.uk auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the Charity’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter of Part 16 of the Companies Act 00 . ur audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Charity’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Charity’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
Simon Hawkins (Senior Statutory Auditor) For and on behalf of Dains Audit Limited Suite 2, Albion House 2 Etruria Office Village Stoke-on-Trent ST1 5RQ
Date: 2 September 2025
Dains Audit Limited is eligible to act as an auditor in terms of section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.
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Restricted Fund Income and Balances
| Water Vole Recovery Weir Work Trent Vale / Headwaters Gentleshaw Common Georges Hayes Highgate Local Records Centre Mammal Group Morridge Hill Country Basic Payment Scheme Beavers Rugeley Power Station Stafford Brooks Staffordshire Moorlands DC sites Conservation Delivery Projects Natural Flood Management Croxall Lakes Restoration Claymills and Marchington Crayfish in Crisis Faciliation Funds Bleak House Branston Leas Catchment Based Approach (CaBa) Central Rivers Initiative Churnet Valley Pine Martens Cannock Chase - FiPL Action for Invertebrates Badger Vaccinations Barn Owl Action Group Trent & Sow |
Balance 01 Apr 2024 £'000 119 1 7 - 2 23 8 - - 28 6 220 49 36 18 9 6 14 220 2 - 43 117 30 (7) 138 1 30 15 |
Incomings 37 - 1 26 1 17 1 51 20 (2) - - 20 - 13 - - - 145 - 4 - - 3,675 100 - 226 85 - |
Outgoings (92) (2) (1) - (2) (19) (3) (52) (19) - (7) (69) (2) (17) (2) (28) (7) - (131) - - - (62) (298) (116) (49) (229) (87) (2) |
Balance Transfers 31 Mar 2025 £'000 (18) 46 1 - - 7 (26) - - 1 (18) 3 (6) - 1 - - 1 - 26 1 - (34) 117 - 67 - 19 - 29 19 - 1 - - 14 - 234 - 2 - 4 - 43 34 89 - 3,407 - (23) - 89 - (2) (29) (1) - 13 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,135 | 4,420 | (1,296) | (74) 4,185 |
This page does not form part of the statutory accounts on which the auditors have reported.
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Restricted Fund Income and Balances Continued
| Balance 01 Apr 2024 £'000 101 Tatenhill Brook - 19 51 536 - 707 - 16 - Nature in Town (Stoke) - 5 8 2 3 - 34 164 2,215 17 40 2,436 4,312 Transforming the Trent Valley Trent ReNEW Wilder Churnet Conservation - Large Landscape Projects Stoke and Urban Newcastle Transforming the Trent Headwaters Legacy with Education Restriction Legacies with Conservation Restrictions Wolseley Tipi Improvements Wilder Youth Nature in your Neighbourhood Next Door Nature Total Restricted Funds Education Capital Equipment Know Your Neighbourhood Masonic Foundation Wildchild Wild About Tamworth Wildchild Other restricted projects Living Legacy with Geographic Restriction |
Balance 01 Apr 2024 £'000 101 Tatenhill Brook - 19 51 536 - 707 - 16 - Nature in Town (Stoke) - 5 8 2 3 - 34 164 2,215 17 40 2,436 4,312 Transforming the Trent Valley Trent ReNEW Wilder Churnet Conservation - Large Landscape Projects Stoke and Urban Newcastle Transforming the Trent Headwaters Legacy with Education Restriction Legacies with Conservation Restrictions Wolseley Tipi Improvements Wilder Youth Nature in your Neighbourhood Next Door Nature Total Restricted Funds Education Capital Equipment Know Your Neighbourhood Masonic Foundation Wildchild Wild About Tamworth Wildchild Other restricted projects Living Legacy with Geographic Restriction |
Incomings - 100 89 12 666 (9) |
Outgoings - (89) (101) (27) (207) 4 |
Balance Transfers 31 Mar 2025 £'000 - 101 - 11 - 7 - 36 - 995 5 - |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 707 | 858 | (420) | 5 1,150 |
|
| - 16 - - 5 8 2 3 - |
30 19 80 22 48 15 - - 19 233 |
(29) (18) (54) (3) (35) (20) - (2) (18) |
- 1 - 17 (6) 20 - 19 - 18 7 10 (2) - (1) - (1) - |
|
| 34 | (179) | (3) 85 |
||
| 164 2,215 17 40 |
14 115 - - |
(34) (31) - - |
53 197 (139) 2,160 (6) 11 - 40 |
|
| 2,436 | 129 | (65) | (92) 2,408 |
|
| 4,312 | 5,640 | (1,960) | (164) 7,828 |
This page does not form part of the statutory accounts on which the auditors have reported
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| Capital expenditure Fundraising investment |
Balance 01 Apr 2024 £'000 - - |
Incomings 79 - |
Outgoings (1) - |
Balance Transfers 31 Mar 2025 £'000 - 78 300 300 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | 79 | (1) | 300 378 |
During 2024/25, the trustees agreed to side aside unrestricted income to improve the long-term sustainability of unrestricted finances, creating designated funds to invest in fundraising and new capital equipment.
This page does not form part of the statutory accounts on which the auditors have reported
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Acronyms which may have been used within the financial statements
| AGM | Annual General Meeting |
|---|---|
| BNG | Biodiversity Net Gain |
| CaBA | Catchment Based Approach (Partnership for River Catchments) |
| CEO | Chief Executive Officer |
| DEFRA | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs |
| FiPL | Farmers in Protected Landscapes |
| FRC | Financial Reporting Council |
| FRS | Financial Reporting Standard |
| GDPR | General Data Protection Regulation |
| GRCF | Green Recovery Challenge Fund |
| HLF | Heritage Lottery Fund (Now National Lottery Heritage Fund) |
| HS2 | High Speed 2 |
| ISA | International Standards on Auditing |
| LEI | Landscape Enhancement Initiative |
| LNR | Local Nature Reserve |
| LNRS | Local Nature Recovery Strategy |
| NFM | Natural Flood Management |
| NLHF | National Lottery Heritage Fund (formerly Heritage Lottery Fund) |
| NRN | Nature Recovery Networks |
| ReNEW | Re-naturalising and Enhancing Waters; as part of Trent ReNEW project |
| RSWT | The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts |
| SAC | Special Area of Conservation |
| SER | Staffordshire Ecological Record |
| SMDC | Staffordshire Moorlands District Council |
| SOFA | Statement of Financial Activities |
| SORP | Statement of Recommended Practice (for Charity Reporting) |
| SSSI | A Site of Special Scientific Interest |
| SUNRISE | Stoke and Urban Newcastle: Rediscovering its Secret Environments |
| SWP | South West Peak |
| SWT | Staffordshire Wildlife Trust |
| TTTV | Transforming the Trent Valley |
| TTTH | Transforming the Trent Headwaters |
| TVWP | Tame Valley Wetlands Partnership |
| WEG | Water Environment Grant |
This page does not form part of the statutory accounts on which the auditors have reported.
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