Flitwick Scout
Group
Celebrating Scouting in Flitwick since 1910 Charity No. 300454
Chair, Group Scout Leader and Section Reports for Year ending 2024 Presented at AGM in May 2025
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
2024 has been another exceptional year for Flitwick Scouts; full of energy, achievement, and visible progress.
Our programme of activities and camps remained vibrant and varied across all sections. A real highlight of the year was the continued enthusiasm and engagement of our Young People, supported by a fantastic team of Leaders and volunteers. Our family camp once again proved to be a resounding success, creating lasting memories and building confidence and teamwork.
One of the major milestones of 2024 was the visible progress on our building redevelopment. After years of planning and hard work behind the scenes, this year finally saw physical changes on site. The new fencing and hedge around the extended grounds were completed early in the year, funded by the grant received from Central Bedfordshire Council. The new front doors and wheelchair ramp have greatly improved accessibility and the overall look of our existing hall.
Behind the scenes, our efforts to gain full planning permission for a new Scout Hall gathered pace, with detailed designs drawn up and ongoing engagement with the Town Council and other stakeholders. This project remains a key focus for the Trustee Board.
Our fundraising efforts remained strong throughout the year, with a number of successful events and generous support from the local community. This work will be crucial as we continue to build towards our long-term development goals.
We were pleased to welcome more new Leaders and adult volunteers in 2024, bringing fresh energy and ideas. With their support, we’re continuing to explore the possibility of opening additional sections and offering even more young people in the area the chance to join Scouting.
As always, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all our adult volunteers, both in uniform and behind the scenes. Your time, enthusiasm, and dedication are what make Flitwick Scout Group such a vibrant and successful part of our community. Here's to another great year ahead.
Jonathan Smith
GROUP SCOUT LEADER (NOW GROUP LEAD VOLUNTEER) REPORT
As always, I would like to say an enormous thank you to all our Volunteers, Leaders and Trustees for their continued hard work and dedication. Adults and young people alike have had ample opportunity to have fun, learn new skills and build relationships. All groups continue to run at, or near, capacity and we continue to recruit new volunteers to join our Scouting community. Although, we’re always looking for more support if you’re interested in helping young people directly, or carrying out background jobs!
We are incredibly proud of the way our young people engaged with a rich and varied programme of activities, challenged themselves to push their own limits and contributed to various local community events, such as the Remembrance Day celebrations, community litter picks, and tree planting at sites around Flitwick as well as along our own new perimeter fence. We were grateful to the young people and families who helped with the all-important fundraising efforts. They should be proud of the way they represented our group at wider District events now that we are part of the Icknield District, as well as in the worldwide Scouting community through the Jamboree on the Trail hike and Jamboree on the internet.
A huge number of young people earned challenge and activity badges as well as Acorn (Squirrels), Bronze (Beavers), Silver (Cubs) and Gold (Scouts) Awards. Our Adult Volunteers continued to learn new skills to pass on to our Young People as well as earning well-deserved Awards.
As well as the usual selection of camps, we had the ever-popular family camp and some of our Scouts took part in the Green Beret Challenge Camp in November.
My sincere thanks to all of you for your continued ambition and support!
Yours in Scouting, Darren Reeve
TREASURER’S REPORT FLITWICK SCOUT GROUP
Flitwick Scout Group remains solvent and in a good financial position. Leaders and the Trustee Board manage spending well and there are good financial processes in place.
Net loss was £18,060.24. This was due to significant expenses to the hut including the new fencing surrounding the new outside area (£8.6k) and also the new front door and ramp upgrade (£7.8k).
This year was a normal operating year.
Membership fees have risen by £1 during FY24 to account for increases in inflation and utility bills. This still represents excellent value for money for parents and careers with regards to what they get out of the Group’s activities.
This year saw a good fundraising effort by the fundraising committee. This raised a reasonable sum for the group to aid upgrades to the Scout Hut after the completion of the lease extension on our current facilities.
Income from hall hire fell significantly in the year, the booking secretary continues to work hard to balance external hirers, group use of the hall and also continued uncertainty over the proposed redevelopment of the Scout Hut.
This year was a family camp year so income from events was higher but accordingly expense on events was also higher.
Expenses have increased in line with normal scouting activities and the increased cost of living with food costs, insurance and utilities higher.
Spending on badges is significantly higher in FY24 because invoices for badges were provided in FY24 for both FY23 and FY24. This was highlighted in last year’s Treasurers report as we foresaw this occurring.
We are actively looking at reducing the number of bank accounts (this year has seen closure of one Cub and one Scout bank account) held within the group to reduce workload and increase centralisation of cash. We now have one Beaver, one Cub and one Scout bank account, in addition to the main Group account, Investment account and Subscription account. We have this year employed the active policy of moving funds into a higher interest bearing account to improve how the Scout Group uses its cash balances efficiently.
Looking to the future, we are actively fundraising for our hut redevelopment having now secured the longer term lease on the land on which the Scout Hut resides. Continued good management of the Scout Groups funds are essential for this and I would seek buy in from all members of FSG to facilitate this.
We’ve had a really busy year with both Squirrel Dreys. We’ve worked hard gaining lots of Activity, Challenge and Staged badges, including working towards two very new badges - You shape and The Earth Tribe. We’ve also enjoyed earning the Disney Encanto and Star Wars Young Jedi blanket badges. Some Squirrels have also gained their Acorn Award.
We celebrated the Chinese New Year with a little treat of fortune cookies, enjoyed a sugar loaded pancake day and made vases out of pringle tubes for Mothers Day. We had lots of fun with bring a parent to squirrels and lots of games were played.
During National Sign Language week, we learnt how to spell Squirrels and sign our Squirrel song. We have shrunk our hands, making key rings with shrink plastic. We enjoyed making elephant trunks with bubbles for our experiment badge. We’ve had a little evening hike around Ampthill Park ending with some play time in the playground. For our Navigator badge we followed a map around Flitwick woods to find a treasure chest, it was full of chocolate coins and every squirrel got their first compass.
We’ve made full use of our outdoor space during the lighter nights enjoying a water night (thankfully we didn’t get too wet), bug hunting, and a campfire with silly songs. The scouts helped with this and it was great fun.
For World Space week we made our Teddies into Astronauts using tin foil. They all enjoyed their journey to space. For Remembrance day we made bottle poppies using the bottom of fizzy drinks. We ended the whole year with a party night.
Our planning is done jointly before the beginning of each term.
During 2024 we worked towards numerous Challenge and Activity Badges with a number of Beavers achieving their Bronze Award.
Spring term: We started the new year undertaking parts of the Disability Awareness badge. We celebrated National Lego Day, Chinese New Year and ate pancakes. Each colony had an evening at Climb Quest. We made gifts for Mothering Sunday. Some of the Beavers and their families helped with the hedge planting. The term ended with a treasure hunt in Flitwick Woods.
Summer Term: St George was celebrated. We made seed bombs, some of which were planted on the allotment. We had a sleepover. We joined in with a District event in Harlington where we played wide games, made s’more and sung around the campfire. At Wadelow Nature Reserve (behind Poplars) the beavers took part in pond dipping and net sweeping. Many of the Beavers and their families attended Family Camp, a great experience for all who camped. The term ended with a play & ice cream at Ampthill Park.
Autumn Term: During the final term of the year we had a Pirate themed evening, made bird feeders, and Canine Partners came to visit and talk to the Beavers about what the dogs do. Diva’s were made and decorated. Most of the Beavers attended the Remembrance Day Parade. On the run up to Christmas we had a lot of Christmas themed activities and attended a District Christingle afternoon.
As always, our thanks go to all the parents and carers who support us in all we do.
2024 was another busy year for the Cubs.
We began the year with a variety of indoor activities including working on the Pioneer badge, joining in with Lego week, Chinese New Year activities, and International Bookgiving week where the Cubs brought in their favourite book to discuss, and donations of books they no longer needed, which were then passed on to a book charity. Before the end of the term, we headed to Bromham campsite where the Cubs had fun in the caving system, and played a wide game in the woods. They were rather muddy by the time their parents came to collect them!
During the following term, the Cubs celebrated St George’s Day, and borrowed a box of resources from the Library to help celebrate Earth Day. They worked toward their Science badge, honed their navigation skills at Barton Springs, and had a water themed evening. As the Olympic and Paralympic games had been held in Paris, we held our own mini-Olympics evening. We couldn’t let the end of the summer term pass before having the ever-popular evenings of firelighting and backwoods cooking. Always a favourite activity with the Cubs.
September to December was equally busy. Early in the term we celebrated Pirate Day with a range of fun activities and games, which were very well received by the Cubs. We worked towards the Communicator badge, tying this in with a visit to Chicksands Military Museum. During part of the visit, the Cubs were shown how to decipher certain codes. We had a Halloween themed evening with appropriate games and crafts, and went on a Remembrance Walk in Ampthill Park. Once again, in the run-up to Christmas, we made some Christmas crafts to sell at our Christmas Fair, went to play crazy golf and ate pizza at Mr Mulligan’s in Milton Keynes, and ended the term with a film night, watching The Jungle Book.
There were also many other actives outside of our weekly meetings that the Cubs had an opportunity to take in. After our new perimeter fence was put up, many of the Cubs helped to plant the new hedge. Many Cubs took part in TrailJam in May (the new alternative for JOTT), Cub Camp at The Quarries in Milton Keynes in May, Family Camp at Bromham in June, a District activity day at PACCAR in June, Summer Camp in Henlow in July, and a Water Activity Day in September at Stewartby Lakes.
Again we were delighted to award a number of our hard-working Cubs with their Chief Scout’s Silver Award. Congratulations to all of them!
As always, we are very grateful for the help, support and encouragement from parents and carers over the year.
Foxes’, Falcons’ and Tigers’ leadership teams.
Ruxox and Joey’s Scout Troops
Spring Term
Both Scout troops started off the year with some classic Scouting activities – fire lighting, pioneering and navigation. To add a twist on a normal hike, they used What3Words to find some of the different defibs that are present in Flitwick. They cooked pancakes for Shrove Tuesday and contributed to the environment by planting some trees at the new Flitwick Countrypark and hedge planting around the new perimeter fence.
Summer Term
With a new leader joining the group, the Scouts had an opportunity to contact Scouts from Canada, so wrote letters and made a wolf head woggle. Both troops had an evening at Bromham for archery and did some more pioneering. Ruxox Scouts fit in a cycle ride. Both troops covered a lot of camp skills, which was a good thing as there were lots of camps in the summer!
In early May, Patrol Leaders and Assistant Patrol Leaders had a short camp where they could hone their leadership skills. Later on, Scouts were involved in the groups’ Family camp with over 300 attending (some even led campfire songs). The following weekend, a day visit to the District Camp at Paccar was well attended by Scouts who were able to take part in a range of activities including tomahawk throwing, abseiling, climbing – and another big campfire! Right at the end of term, both troops attended a water activity day at Stewartby Lakes run by Riparian Explorer Scouts for a selection of different water activities.
The end of the term was a weeklong summer camp at Henlow – being the only group on the campsite there was plentiful space to share with the Cub Scouts. Split into 3 patrols for the week, Scouts planned and cooked for each other with a different international theme each time. Other activities included Stand Up Paddleboarding, pedal karts, woodcarving, tomahawk throwing, hiking, water fights and more.
Autumn Term
Autumn term started with games, navigation and cooking; popular and useful life skills, which also fed into a Expedition camp in early October. The Expedition camp had 5 Scouts complete an expedition independently, with leaders checking on their progress along the way. Alongside that, we also ran a practice expedition for the slightly younger Scouts – this year we had 15 Scouts which is the highest number we have had on a practice expedition. The Expedition wasn’t the last camp, as Flitwick Scouts made their return to the Green Beret Challenge run by Hertfordshire County Scouts. The uptake was popular and we were able to take two teams, who all had a great time. The Green Beret Challenge consists of an assault course, an orienteering course, day bases and night bases... all in one day in November.
Scouts had a range of meetings to end the term and the year; both troops visited Ampthill Park as part of a Remembrance Walk and took part in a well-turned-out Remembrance Parade in Flitwick.
Both troops had a session bowling and took part in their annual tradition; a Christmas Light Walk. Home Alone was the film of choice for a joint movie night run by Zonita.
Both troops have been well attended throughout the year, running at or over capacity. One Ruxox and two Joey’s Scouts achieved the Chief Scout Gold award over the year, which is the top award for the Scout section. Additionally, of all the Scouts who moved to Explorers this year, three from Ruxox and one from Joey’s are now young leaders and are helping with other sections in the group.
| Income Bank Interest Donaton Events Events - Beavers Events - Cubs Events - Scouts Events - Squirrels Fundraising Gif Aid Grants Hardship Meetngs Membership Fees Refund of Expenses Rental Income Uniform - Beavers Uniform - Cubs Uniform - Scouts Uniform - Squirrels Total Expense Actvity Equipment Admin Badges Bank Fees Camping Equipment Donatons & Gifs Duplicate Expense Payment Events Events - Beavers Events - Cubs Events - Scouts Fundraising Hardship Insurance Meetngs Meetngs - Beavers Meetngs - Cubs Meetngs - Scouts Meetngs - Squirrels Membership Costs Rates Rental Income Refund Training Uniform |
2024 2023 385.87 300.61 2,002.00 1,512.00 16,553.06 9,191.60 36.00 267.70 1,409.59 2,460.48 1,683.58 653.40 0.00 275.00 6,816.55 8,072.94 0.00 7,632.04 11,384.03 1,000.00 0.00 150.00 0.00 392.64 39,179.92 37,410.14 0.00 69.74 556.00 1,769.09 1,066.65 1,099.69 1,183.83 539.58 152.32 256.00 630.05 478.83 83,039.45 1,231.08 1,449.55 311.37 938.84 4,634.43 356.00 1,650.32 1,272.00 0.00 1,038.19 1,301.50 357.98 0.00 69.74 15,262.16 11,255.09 0.00 871.37 3,342.22 1,917.24 2,425.62 2,614.73 1,569.66 412.97 230.25 300.00 1,036.35 961.08 25.00 15.43 2,402.15 1,838.61 694.54 1,087.92 1,268.11 529.08 394.05 849.33 11,300.50 11,598.00 21.61 20.30 100.00 300.00 558.25 14.00 3,127.40 3,165.76 |
|---|---|
| Uniform - Cubs Utlites Venue Maintenance Total Account balances Joey's Scout Troop FSG - Investment Account FSG - Subs Account FSG Main Account Ruxox Scout Troop Beavers Cubs Expense Account Cubs (Foxes) Pety Cash Summary Account balance brought forward Total income Total expenditure Net income Account balance carried forward |
180.00 1,292.98 20,509.35 74,868.90 382.29 135,788.12 32,546.51 7,432.79 0.00 2,596.35 1,003.92 108.92 0.00 100.00 171,788.35 83,039.45 74,868.90 8,170.55 179,958.90 |
38.80 1,703.27 2,325.41 1,898.98 25,400.28 116,062.90 23,217.40 4.64 3,082.99 1,583.37 106.10 331.69 100.00 145,557.56 |
|---|---|---|
| 73,531.48 47,300.69 26,230.79 171,788.35 |
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Report to the trustees Independent ExamlneV• R•port L IT Sc oLrr GROUP On accounts for the year ended 3Éc 202 4- Charity no (if any) 3ooLkgL Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (Ihe Trust") for the year ended As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (Ihe Act"). Responsibilities and basis of report I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's ac(x)unts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. Independent examinerfs statement I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below ") which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: the accounting re(x)rds were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or the accounts did not accord wrth the accounting records; or the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true and fairf view which is not a matter cx)nsidered as part of an independent examination. I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. ' Please delete the words in the brackets rf they do not apply. Signed: Date: 17 102S Name: Relevant professional ualification(s) or body (if any): ACM