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2024-03-31-accounts

Creating brighter futures

Annual report and accounts 2023–2024

Annual report and financial statements 2023–24

Contents

Contents
We’re proud to champion young people and serve our communities 3
A year of challenge, learning and change 4
As Scouts, we believe in creating brighter futures 6
Skills for Life – Our plan to prepare better futures 2018-2025 8
Growth 9
Inclusivity 12
Youth shaped 14
Community impact 16
Keeping young people safe 19
Three pillars of work 22
Programme 23
People 25
Perception 27
Theory of Change 29
The impact of Scouts on young people 30
Working towards a regenerative change 32
Our fnances 34
Trustees’ responsibilities 38
Independent Auditor’s Report to the Trustees of The Scout Association
Consolidated statement of fnancial activities		 39
42
Balance sheet 43
Statements of cash fows 44
Notes to the Financial Statements 45
Our members 67
How we operate 68
Fundraising: our approach 70
Governance structure and Board membership – 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 73
Our advisers 73
Our thanks 74

We’re proud to champion young people and serve our communities

Scouts continues to grow, with 8,800 more young people joining our movement this year, all gaining skills for life.

I’m especially proud that so many of our Scouts play their part in public life. We saw this over the Coronation weekend in May 2023, when Scouts were on the streets of London supporting the Coronation crowds – deservedly earning their Coronation Medals from HM The King.

At the same time, we’ve responded to some challenging situations. Most notable of these was the inquest into the death of an Explorer Scout, who tragically lost his life in 2018. We’ve responded to the Coroner’s Prevention of Future Deaths report by committing to a detailed action plan, which’ll make fundamental changes to our approach to safety throughout Scouts. Safety and safeguarding are at the very top of the Trustees’ list of priorities and I’m very clear that this won’t change.

Across the UK, we staged events to bring communities together and inspire the volunteers of the future, helping lead The Big Help Out. As part of this, in Greenock, 25 miles west of Glasgow, the local Scouts invited their community to try Scout activities, including climbing, archery, and outdoor cooking.

In Slough, HRH The Princess of Wales and her family helped Scouts renovate a meeting place. It was a true honour for us to see the family wearing their Scout neckerchiefs while supporting the community. It captured the true spirit of The Big Help Out, which inspired millions to try volunteering for the first time, contributing to kinder, stronger communities.

This public service was recognised when The Big Help Out won Charity Collaboration of the Year at the Charity Times Awards, and Scouts was named Volunteer Team of the Year in the Third Sector Awards (for our role in the Lying in State of HM Queen Elizabeth II). It was a powerful reminder that Scouts continue to keep our promise to help other people.

A vital part of Scouts is broadening horizons and helping young people become true global citizens. Over 8,000 Scouts headed off on international adventures, including 4,000 who attended the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Korea. The jamboree presented some unique challenges including the weather (both oppressive heat and the threat of a powerful typhoon) and lack of onsite facilities. Putting our Scouts safety first, we took the decision to leave the jamboree site early.

Thanks to our young people and volunteers’ remarkable resilience and ability to adapt, Scouts still continued their jamboree journey in Seoul. This was a true test of their Scout spirit and they came through so impressively. But it’s not a situation they should’ve had to face. We’re still in discussions with the hosts, and we’ve conducted our own, independently led review. This has reported to the Board and given us excellent advice on how we plan for future international events.

This is also a moment to thank our outgoing Chief Executive, Matt Hyde, for his impressive contribution over the last 11 years. The innovation, energy and commitment he’s brought to the role has been immense. From overseeing the opening of over 1,300 new Groups in new areas and creating social action opportunities for a quarter of a million Scouts, to the roll out of Squirrels across the UK, he’s led a programme of transformative change that’s helped so many young people gain skills for life. He leaves a remarkable legacy. Most significantly, his leadership has always been grounded in our values, and I particularly thank him for creating a culture where volunteers and staff have worked so well and closely together to achieve success.

Thank you Matt, and thank you to everyone who’s supported us on our journey. Scouts is about teamwork and so many of you have played your part.

Jennie Price CBE Chair

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A year of challenge, learning and change

This is my last year as Chief Executive of Scouts and it’s been one of the most challenging of all my 11 years here. As with all the challenges that we’ve dealt with during that time, the key, as ever in leadership, is how you listen, learn and change.

Earlier this year, the inquest into the death of Ben Leonard (an Explorer Scout) in 2018 brought the vital importance of safety into sharp relief. Taking time to have challenging conversations internally meant we responded comprehensively to the Coroner’s Prevention of Future Deaths notice. It’s this mindset that has enabled us to refocus our approach to keeping young people safe, with a comprehensive programme of work creating a stronger culture of safety going forward. That same approach was evident in many of the safeguarding changes we made 10 years ago, which transformed our approach to Safe Scouting and more recently by listening and acting on recommendations from survivors in the Yours in Scouting campaign.

We also focused, quite rightly, on keeping young people safe at the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Korea when we relocated the 4,500-strong UK contingent to Seoul. I was there with the Scouts and they coped so well with the changes to their jamboree journey. Our young people’s character and resilience shone through, and my heartfelt thanks goes to them as well as the volunteers and staff who supported them so well. This was another moment of adversity, but we acted with courage when we needed to.

It’s so important that we regularly hold a mirror up, acknowledge where things haven’t gone as planned, and respond robustly. By doing so, we can make sure this wonderful movement continues to not just survive, but thrive and make the major difference we know it does.

We’ve continued to inspire over 440,000 young people this year, growing the movement, while playing a vibrant role in public life. It’s been a year powered, once again, by the kindness and commitment of our Scouts

and volunteers. They’ve truly lived their promise to help others.

In May 2023, our young people and adults were among the 7.2 million who took part in The Big Help Out, a national day of volunteering, borne out of the Scout movement. I found it so inspiring that our Scouts seized this moment to use their skills to do so much good. Everyone from our youngest Squirrel to our Joint President, HRH The Princess of Wales, lent a hand. It was a bright, inclusive moment for the whole country and brought us together in a true spirit of service as the culmination of the King’s Coronation weekend.

I’m proud that our Scouts get the chance to become active citizens. Our A Million Hands programme has delivered over 150 activities, helped Scouts earn over 110,000 Community Impact badges, and inspired over 700,000 hours of service in our communities.

Our young people continue to astonish us with their achievements. Hannah Sawyer, aged 15, overcame her anxiety to become a confident Young Leader with Beaver Scouts. Scouts gives Hannah a safe place to be herself and has allowed her to feel comfortable while playing a vital role in her Group. It’s especially encouraging to see Scouts like Hannah beginning their volunteering journey.

Celebrating our Scouts’ successes is important too. Over 2,000 young people, volunteers and guests attended our Day of Celebration and Achievement at Windsor in April, including our very first King’s Scouts. These are the leaders and changemakers of the future; our bravest and best.

And it’s great that an increasing number of employers recognise the value of the skills young people gain through Scouts, but there’s more to do. I was particularly pleased to see us articulating the benefits of our programme for developing skills for working life. The Employability Badge report from Demos showed that the skills Scouts gain prepare them for a rapidly changing workplace. More than half of those who attended Scouts felt prepared starting work for the first time. This is compared with just 37% who didn’t take part in any extracurricular activities.

It’s essential to give every young person every chance, regardless of background, race, or gender. Equity, diversity and inclusion remain central to our work and we’re continuing our journey to become a fairer, more inclusive movement. Working with partners like The Unmistakables has helped us identify how Black British communities can access Scouts more easily. Listening, and operating in a spirit of openness and humility, remains key to inclusive growth.

Our generous donors and partners make so much of our work possible. Not only do they provide resources to scale up what we do, they lend their expertise and creativity to broaden and deepen it too. We’re especially grateful to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport,

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whose Uniformed Youth Fund is helping us reduce waiting lists by creating places for 10–18 year olds in Scout Troops and Explorer Units. The Youth Investment Fund, the government initiative to transform out-ofschool provision, has also had a remarkable impact on Scouts locally enabling them to create opportunities and improve meeting places. Scout Groups have received a remarkable total of £17.5 million in funding.

Meanwhile, imaginative partnerships are enriching our programme. UK Space Agency, Rolls Royce and Raspberry Pi are helping us develop young people’s STEM skills, while others like Warhammer and Disney are inspiring creativity, teamwork and supporting wellbeing. We’ve expanded our biggest partnership with GO Outdoors, whose support for Scouts is stronger than ever. My sincere thanks to each and every partner for their contribution.

It’s been a huge honour and privilege to lead this great movement over the last 11 years, working with our extraordinary volunteer and staff teams to support so many young people. There’ve been so many highlights – the launch of our social action campaign A Million

Hands, delivering Scouts in more communities, our rebrand, launching Squirrels across the UK, and many more. We’ve faced challenges together too, not least supporting the movement through the pandemic with #TheGreatIndoors, our Hike to the Moon and Race Round the World. Thank you to everyone who’s helped us achieve these amazing things together. I’ll never forget your kindness and friendship.

I know Scouts will go from strength to strength, but only by us continuing to face into our challenges, learning and moving with the times. When all’s said and done, we’re about one thing – preparing young people for the future with skills for life. Every young person deserves every opportunity. As long as we continue to create these, the future remains bright.

Matt Hyde OBE Chief Executive

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As Scouts, we believe in creating brighter futures

This year, we’ve done that by helping even more young people gain skills for life.

But that can only happen when we have well supported volunteers locally, and when we’re reaching out to new communities. That’s why we’ve focused on two key things: improving our volunteer experience and growing inclusively.

I’d also like to acknowledge that it’s been a challenging year in several ways, not least addressing safety and safeguarding concerns and working through a very tough World Scout Jamboree. We face all these situations with care and compassion for those people involved, and it’s vital that we continue to learn as much as we can for the future.

Our success depends on forging strong partnerships locally and my thanks goes out to all those volunteers who’ve helped make these connections. We believe we need to be proactive in this space, starting conversations and going to meet people where they are – rather than simply waiting for them to walk through our doors.

Each of our teams have committed to reaching communities where Scouts hasn’t been well represented before, offering opportunities for more young people to experience all that Scouts can offer them. Our 1,400 Squirrel Dreys, with 24% in areas of deprivation, show our significant progress in this area.

I was delighted to see 5 year old Thomas from Carlisle receive a Chief Scout’s Unsung Heroes Award this year. Not only did he attend his first sleepover (along with thousands of other 4–6 year olds), but he also made a special effort to help other children settle into Squirrels too. It’s brilliant to see this care and kindness in our Scouts.

For volunteers, this has been a year of change as we move to team-based volunteering. This’ll make volunteering simpler, more rewarding, and enjoyable. It’ll also make volunteering easier to understand for those new to Scouts.

We’re seeing change across our local and national teams, and our UK Leadership Team is no exception. This is the first year I write with my new role title of UK Chief Volunteer. Change isn’t always easy, and we’re working through it together.

Our programme has gone from strength to strength. I was especially delighted to see us launch our #Outdoorin24 campaign, encouraging more outdoor adventures, from camps and hikes to kayaks and climbs. We still believe the great outdoors is where young people learn best; where they can be themselves, step up and play their part. The outdoors has proven benefits for wellbeing and we’re proud to be supporters of outdoor learning across our many adventure centres.

We’ve continued to focus strongly on safety and safeguarding too. Learning continuously, we make sure our policies, procedures and training in these areas reflect the very best practice in the sector. We updated our ‘Yellow Card’ – our safeguarding code of conduct for adults – in January. We supported our members to make sure they felt confident about the changes.

Safety training is a key part of every volunteer’s journey, and I’m pleased 98% of all our adults are compliant. But this needs to be higher still. Keeping people safe remains our top priority and my gratitude goes to everyone who’s kept this as a number one concern in an exceptionally busy year.

One of the most enjoyable parts of my role is travelling around the UK to meet our local volunteer teams. Although I’ve been part of Scouts most of my life, I’m still bowled over by the commitment and kindness of our volunteers, and the energy and creativity of our young people.

Saying thank you to our volunteers is so important. That’s why this year’s Thanksgiving Service at Westminster Abbey (our first since the COVID-19 pandemic) was extra special. Well done to those who contributed so well.

As we look ahead to a new year for Scouts, and a new strategy, I look forward to engaging our members in shaping it.

The future belongs to us all, but especially our young people. Let’s create a bright future together.

I was equally pleased to see 17 year old Saim Raza receiving his award. Alongside his mum, he started 58th Walsall Scout Group when they moved from Cardiff. Scouts was a new concept for the local Muslim community. However, with Saim’s passion and determination, the whole community got on board.

Carl Hankinson UK Chief Volunteer

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The volunteers including members of the royal family have made this a day our Scout Group will never forget. From Prince William and Prince George on the digger, to Princess Charlotte helping to paint our door, they all volunteered together and looked like they had a great time.

Harrison, Group Lead Volunteer, reflecting on The Big Help Out

Skills for Life Our plan to prepare better futures 2018-2025

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Growth

Aim: We’re steadily growing Scouts across the UK, which is fantastic news. With more adult volunteers and Young Leaders, we can give more young people skills for life.

As we welcome people to our movement, we’re focusing on growing inclusively. We’re making sure we reach and involve all the communities in the UK, including Indices of multiple deprivation (IMD) areas.

IMDs are widely-used datasets to classify the relative deprivation of small areas in the UK. They give areas a deprivation score – 1 being most deprived, and 10 being least deprived. A key part of our work is focused on growing Scouts in IMD 1–5 areas.

Goals

Our strategy to 2025 includes growth targets by January 2026:

216 new Scout and Explorer Sections were supported by the DCMS Uniformed Youth Fund team, startup and programme grants across the movement. This gives strong support for our older youth Sections in England.

What’s next

These are the staff-supported workstreams that encompass the delivery for Growth:

Continuing to support the movement to grow and deliver a fun, inspiring and safe programme in all communities by:

Progress a year on

We’ve worked across a number of different delivery streams to support volunteers to help grow and develop Scouts locally.

Over 8700 more young people are taking part in Scouts compared to last year

Total number of Squirrel Scouts 16,691

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Our Squirrel Drey is in one of the most income-deprived areas in the country. Squirrels is helping broaden their horizons, especially with experiences like Nights Away, which might be their first time away from home. It sets them up with some incredible skills that they can use later in Scouts, or more broadly in life.

Ben, Group Lead Volunteer

Inclusivity

Aim: Ever since Scouts began, we’ve brought young people together from different backgrounds to enjoy adventurous experiences, learn new skills, and have fun.

More recently, we’ve made brilliant leaps forward to make our movement a place where anyone can belong. We make sure our LGBTQ+ young people and volunteers can be themselves, our Race Equity project is gathering momentum, and we’re starting Scouts in areas we weren’t serving before.

While we’re proud of what we’ve achieved so far, there’s more we want to do to make our movement as inclusive as possible. We’re not stopping until every young person can join, enjoy themselves and thrive in Scouts.

Goals

By the end of 2025:

Progress a year on

What’s next

We’ve redoubled our efforts towards sustainable, long lasting cultural changes that’ll help us attract and retain talented volunteers from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.

Scouts has come a long way in its acceptance of LGBTQ+ members. I always felt from a young age that Scouts cared. They had support groups for example, and Pride activities they’d always put out. And, as we move forward, they’re moving with the times. Courtney, Scouts volunteer

Youth shaped

Aim: We’d like every young person to shape their own Scouts experience and get the skills they need to be great leaders. For this to happen, it’s important we create opportunities for young people to use their voices.

When young people shape Scouts, they improve our movement, and become more likely to achieve their Top Awards.

Goals

Progress a year on

We’ve awarded over 70,000 YouShape Awards

19,775 Young Leaders now in the movement

What’s next

We now have 532 inspiring local Youth Leads

41.6% of 4-14 year olds achieved their Top Awards

You naturally develop resilience in Scouts, since you’re exposed to new things. Scouts allowed me to fail, learn from the experience and have another go.

We’ll always face barriers and/or rejection in life, especially when applying for jobs. By learning to be resilient, we can make sure these experiences don’t stop us. Abigail, Trustee and Youth Rep

Community impact

Aim: At Scouts, helping our communities is a huge part of what we do. We’ve always been committed to social action and making a difference, both to the young people taking part in projects and the communities they’re helping.

While high quality community impact projects take planning and time, they’re essential to any Scouts programme, especially for young people hoping to achieve our Top Awards.

Goals

Progress a year on

By 2025

A Million Hands

48%

of young people took part in action to make a positive difference to their communities or the world around them

41.6%

of young people from Squirrels to Scouts achieved their Chief Scout Awards, with 5.4% over the age of 14 completing at least one of their Top Awards

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on the programme resources developed for A Million Hands. The review led to a refocus on approaches aimed at maximizing the effectiveness of community engagement efforts.

What’s next

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When my family and I moved from Cardiff to Walsall, my mum and I decided to set up a Group. We became one of the first predominantly Muslim Scout Groups in the area. We wanted to create somewhere for people to join in and experience what I did back in Cardiff.

Saim, Section Team Member

Keeping young people safe

Safety

Aim: Safety is a golden thread throughout Scouts. Alongside safeguarding, it’s our number one priority to keep young people in our care safe from harm.

Progress a year on

We’ve continued delivering our agreed three-year safety road map from 2023 to 2025. This has included:

What’s next

We’ve undertaken significant learning from the inquest into the death of Ben Leonard and the Coroner’s Prevention of Future Deaths Report. We’re committed to fundamentally changing our approach to safety, and we see this as a transformational moment for the movement. The changes we’re making include:

In addition, we’ll:

Safety governance

We have a range of measures in place to keep everyone safe. These include:

Our Safety Policy: Our Safety Policy clearly outlines our commitment to safety and our expectation that everyone in Scouts will play their part in keeping young people safe. We review the Safety Policy each year, and it’s informed by wider sector best practice.

The Safety Committee: The Safety Committee is a sub-committee of the Board of Trustees. It’s chaired by a Trustee who’s an external appointee with working professional experience in health and safety. The Safety Committee includes independent members, with experience in health and safety across different sectors.

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The Committee links to people responsible for providing leadership, and oversees the safety policies, procedures, and rules we give to our volunteers.

The Board of Trustees are updated quarterly on safety matters. Each year, the Board gets a full report of Safety Committee activities.

Safeguarding

Aim: At Scouts, we continue to be committed to keeping young people in our care safe from harm. This is our number one priority. Along with safety, safeguarding is the golden thread throughout our movement.

Progress a year on

We’ve improved and maintained compliance with core safety training, with over

98%

of all members having undertaken this

We’re continuing to listen to survivors’ experiences to learn how we can keep improving. Work is underway on adding external scrutiny to our assurance processes and we’re also working with an external organisation to create a lived experience panel so survivors can inform our policy and practice.

What’s next

We’ve invested more resources into our safeguarding team, significantly reducing the number of open cases and improving how we respond and manage cases

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Three pillars of work

To reach our goals, we’ll change how we deliver Scouts. Our three pillars of work – programme, people, and perception – are a plan of action to support members and extend our reach, so we impact the lives of more young people across the UK.

Programme

People

Perception

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Programme

Aim: To provide a fun, high-quality, inclusive programme that’s consistently and safely delivered, and supported by simple digital tools, to create positive outcomes for young people.

Goals

Our activity finder

Over the past 12 months, there’ve been 1.75 million visits to our activity pages by more than 480,000 users. Our Net Promoter Score for the year is 30, which is classified as good and is a 4 point increase on last year. We now have over 1,700 live activities, including 100 new activities added in the last year, as well as guidance and resources for talking to young people about international crises and wars.

Progress a year on

41.6% of 4–14 year olds are achieving their Top Awards, so we’re on track towards our goal of 40%

Working with our supporters

Over the last year, we’ve created a range of activities with our supporters, who bring their expertise to enhance our programme.

Here are a few opportunities for young people made possible by our partnerships:

Reviewing our programme

Around the 20th anniversary of Explorer Scouts (14–18 year olds) and Scout Network (18–24 year olds), we started reviewing our programme for 14–24 year olds to make sure we’re meeting young people’s needs and aspirations. This year, we’ve focused on speaking to more than 3,400 people, including volunteers and young people involved in Scouts, plus 850 young people not in Scouts.

These insights informed our Discovery report, confirming that we’ll want to develop a fun and impactful programme with a flexible delivery approach that enables and facilitates the participation of all young people in the 14–24 provision.

We’re doing this by focusing on the separate needs for 14–18 year olds and over 18 year olds, and developing plans for updating our provision.

What’s next

In the year ahead, we’ll:

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People

Aim: To have well-trained, supported, and motivated adult volunteers from all backgrounds, and to increase the number of young people from diverse backgrounds.

It’s important that every volunteer has a wonderful experience at Scouts. If they enjoy volunteering with us, we’ll inspire them to keep supporting our young people to gain skills for life.

As well as appreciating the amazing work of our current volunteers, we want to welcome new volunteers. With more volunteers to deliver our programmes, we can give even more young people the chance to enjoy Scouts.

Goals

Progress a year on

What’s next

Scouts provided a safe space where I could express myself freely and discover my true identity. Through the weekly sessions in a Mosque, I benefitted from the programme, while meeting people who looked like me and felt the same experiences as I did. 7 Anes, Explorer Lead Volunteer

Perception

Aim: For Scouts to be more visible, trusted, respected, and seen as playing a key role in today’s society.

young people skills for life with decision makers.

Goal

Progress a year on

Attracting, recruiting, and retaining volunteers

Improving our perception

Supporting young people

Progressing our brand

What’s next

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Theory of Change

Our Theory of Change shows the positive difference Scouts make in society. We welcome young people and volunteers from all backgrounds, and with us, they learn and share skills, enjoy an engaged and varied programme of activities, honour the Scout values and become active citizens of a connected community. We produce happier, more resilient citizens who work together towards greater social cohesion and an undeniably better world.

A chart of the interactive elements of our Theory of Change is below.

The impact of Scouts on young people

We conduct the Scout Experience Survey annually to understand our members’ attitudes and experiences. We ask young people aged 13–17 questions about our Theory of Change outcomes: Adventure, Skills for life, Wellbeing, Leadership, Citizenship, and Connectedness. By doing so, we can find out if and how the impact of Scouts is changing throughout our Skills for Life strategy.

We’ve compared the Theory of Change results for 2023 with 2019, which marks the start of our Skills for Life strategy. Since 2019, there’ve been significant improvements* across seven outcomes:

Wellbeing

Citizenship

Connectedness

However, five outcomes have slightly declined since 2019:

Skills for life

Wellbeing

Connectedness

In 2021, following the COVID–19 pandemic, we saw declines across a number of outcomes. A few of these outcomes returned to the pre-pandemic (2019) results in 2022, but many of them were still significantly lower than 2019.

In 2023, four outcomes returned to the pre-pandemic results (meaning they’re no longer significantly different to 2019):

We’re committed to improving the experience of young people in Scouts. We use the insights from this survey and other feedback from young people and volunteers to feed into the programme activities we’ll develop in the year ahead.

To give young people more opportunities to tackle challenges, solve problems and work together outdoors, we’ve launched programme resources for our Outdoor in 24 initiative, which encourages Scout Sections, from Squirrels to Network, to get outside in 2024. Whether it’s just for one meeting, a Night Away event, or taking on the Outdoor in 24 challenge, we’re hoping to get young people trying new things outdoors this year.

Conscious of the decreases in connectedness and caring for others, as well as the increase in anxiety, we’ll develop programme resources on healthy relationships, mental health, and wellbeing. As part of building connections to our international Scout family, we’ll continue building resources to celebrate cultures experiencing conflict. We’re also building a programme youth team to bring young people’s voices and views directly into our programme, helping it become more youth shaped.

Over the coming year, we’re exploring new ways to listen to our young people and measure how Scouts has impacted them. This includes:

We’re also changing the way we recruit survey participants to make sure the results represent the voices of all young people in Scouts.

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Working towards a regenerative change

‘No one can pass through life, any more than pass through a bit of country without leaving tracks behind. Try to leave the world a little better than you found it.’ – Robert Baden-Powell

Aim: In the past year, we’ve explored what being ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ means to us, inspired by Robert Baden-Powell.

To put this into practice, we’re rethinking how we do things. We need to reduce our footprints across all areas and refill those already left behind by lending a hand to repair, replenish and regenerate our world around us, in line with our Scout values.

Our new Regenerative Change Policy Statement will set out our approach to leaving the world a little better than we find it. We’re working on embedding this approach across our headquarters, Scout Adventure centres, Unity and Scout Stores, and into the next strategy.

Progress a year on

What’s next

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Our finances

Overview

Our balance sheet remains strong, despite a reduction in total funds from £86.6 million to £82.5 million. Our liquid assets (fixed asset investments, and cash and cash equivalents) are £50.4 million a reduction of £9 million, excluding Jamboree funds held on 31 March 2023. This reduction reflects the higher-than-expected operating deficit of £6.5 million (2022-23: £0.6 million) incurred for the year.

The main contributors to the higher operational deficit were:

The value of our listed investments increased by £1.5 million (2022-23: Loss of £1.4 million) and the surplus on the defined benefit scheme increased by £0.8 million (2023: £11k) resulting in the overall reduction of funds (restricted and unrestricted) of £4.4 million (2022-23: £1.7 million).

Income

As shown in the graph below, total income for the year was £53.7 million, compared with £36.3 million in 2023. £48.9 million of total income was unrestricted (2023: £32.4 million) and £4.8 million was restricted (2023: £3.9 million).

Membership subscriptions increased to £14.3 million (2022-23: £13.2 million) reflecting a 5.6% increase in youth membership (in 2022) and an increase in the core membership fee of £1.

The continued and generous support of our donors is important and greatly appreciated by Scouts. In difficult and uncertain economic times, legacies and donations were £0.7 million higher than the previous year at £2.2 million (2023: £1.5 million). Grant funding increased by £0.6 million to £3.6 million (2023: £2.8 million), mainly due to the DCMS Uniformed Youth Fund grant funding which is being used to fund Local Growth Officers in England, specifically in government levelling up areas to open new Scout and Explorer sections (see note 5a).

Our trading income includes the retail sales from Scout Shops and World Scout Shop Limited, insurance commission income generated by Unity and sponsorship and promotional income. Scout Shop income decreased by £1.0 million to £9.5 million, due to a decline in uniform and badge sales following a postCOVID-19 surge the previous year and then lower than expected membership growth during 2023. Unity

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£60
£50
£40
£30
£20
£10
£0
2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24
Membership Subscription Grants, Donations & Legacies
Trading Activities Investment Income & Property Sales
Charitable Events Charitable Activities – Periodic Jamborees
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Commission income was broadly the same as the prior year at £2.6 million. We’ve continued our strong links with corporate sponsors and generated £1.1 million from these beneficial connections, which is £0.1 million higher than last year.

Income from charitable activities is derived from our activity centres and other sales linked to our charitable purposes. These include camping, training, activities and accommodation charges at Gilwell Park and the other National Scout Adventure Centres. This year it also included income from the Jamboree of £14.1 million. Excluding the Jamboree, income was £0.9 million higher at £4.0 million (2023: £3.1 million) mainly due to an increase in revenue from the activity centres.

Investment income (including interest) increased by £0.6 million to £2.0 million. This reflects the higher interest rates for the full year.

Expenditure

Total expenditure was £60.2 million, however this included £16.0 million of expenditure related to the Jamboree. Excluding the Jamboree operating (unrestricted) expenditure was £40.0 million (2022-23: £32.4 million) an increase of £7.6 million and £4.3 million of expenditure was related to restricted funds (2022-23: £4.0 million).

detailed in the annual report on pages 10 to 31).

Charity funds

The Scout Association’s consolidated funds were £82.5 million (2022-23: £86.6 million) with the aggregate value of endowment funds (£2.3 million) and restricted funds (£4.3 million) remaining broadly in line with the previous year. Within unrestricted funds the General Fund declined by £7.7 million, partially offset by increases in the designated funds of £2.2 million and pension reserve of £0.7 million.

The increase in the designated fund for fixed assets of £2.2 million reflects the net increase in intangible and tangible fixed assets of The Scout Association of £1.4 million and £1.9 million respectively offset by the transfer of the surpluses from prior Jamborees accumulated in the Inclusion and Solidarity Fund to partially cover the Jamboree losses incurred this year. The Group’s total investment in intangible assets of £5.4 million represents the development of digital tools particularly work on the volunteer experience programme as well as some software to support the commercial operations.

All funds are described in more detail in note 19 in the financial statements with analysis of movements in the year.

Unrestricted charitable activity expenditure was higher due to a higher level of claims (which has resulted in either net new or additional provisions), increased staff costs (see above), Skills for Life non-staff costs of £0.3 million, increase in Volunteer Experience Programme non-staff revenue costs of £0.8 million higher software costs, and irrecoverable VAT.

Our expenditure (and income) on charitable activities is allocated to four activities, which help fulfil our four strategic objectives (Growth, Inclusivity, Youth Shaped and Community Impact) as shown in the pie chart below. The activities undertaken during the year are

Reserve policy

The Trustees annually review the reserves policy and continue to plan to hold reserves to protect The Scout Association and delivery of its charitable programmes by providing time to adjust to the changing financial environment.

The reserves policy establishes an appropriate target for the level of general ‘free’ reserves as represented by the balance of the General Fund. The target is based on a risk assessment of the probability and likely financial impact on The Scout Association’s activities, which might be caused by a decline in income, an inability to

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2022-23 Expenditure
19%
32%
£27m
25%
24%
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Youth Programme and Activities
Development of Scouting
Adult Support and Training
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2023-24 Expenditure
11%
31%
15%
£51m
16%
26%
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Support and Services to the Scouting Movement Jamboree

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meet its financial obligations, or an inability to reduce expenditure in the short term.

We also hold reserves to support the development of Scouts. The policy seeks to make sure there’s an equitable balance between spending the maximum amount of income raised as soon as reasonably possible after receipt, while maintaining an appropriate level of reserves to make sure the charity can operate uninterrupted. It also provides parameters for future budgeting and strategic plans and contributes towards decision making.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the risks of short-term reductions in membership and losing commercial income due to curtailment of face-to-face Scouts, while needing to maintain member services. As a consequence, the Trustees deemed that the appropriate target for free reserves for The Scout Association itself should be based on one year’s expenditure with an additional element for possible future claims costs reflecting their longer-term nature. At present, this indicates a level of reserves of the order of £31 million.

The general free reserves for The Scout Association on 31 March are £41.9 million, which is still well in excess of this target following the sale of Baden Powell House in August 2021. However, it’s been reduced significantly from last year, when the free reserves were £49.8 million. This has been caused by a number of items in addition to the operating deficit, specifically systems development (Volunteer Experience Programme), development of our Scout Adventure Centres, and the Jamboree emergency action taken.

In addition, the Trustees recognise there are a number of factors which’ll further reduce the free reserves over the next two years, in particular:

At the same time, it’s envisaged that the target level may increase due to inflation and other cost pressures. Therefore, over the next two years we may drop slightly below our target reserves. If that happens, the intention thereafter would be to build back the free reserves primarily through earnings with depreciation exceeding capital expenditure.

Investment policy and performance

£24.4 million of targeted reserves are invested in a

longer-term investment portfolio initially equally allocated between two fund managers, Cazenove and Sarasin & Partners. The balance of £8.4 million is effectively held in short-term money market funds. The performance targets given to the fund managers since 2022 for the longer-term portfolios over the medium to long term are:

The target hasn’t been met over the past two years. On the total return basis (combining investment income and valuation changes,) the funds provided an overall gain of £2.0 million for 2022/23 and 2023/24 representing about 8.4% of the opening market value. This compares to CPI increases over the same period of 13.6% which once adding in the 8% required makes the target 21.6%.

Current asset investments in 2023 represented holdings in the Royal London Asset Management Funds, on behalf of the Short Term Investment Service. This service was wound up during the year, and all monies returned to the Groups (see note 16).

Going concern

The Trustees have considered the financial plans for the budget year of 2024/25 and projections for the following two years, looking at the cash and reserve projections.

Current actions and clear plans for the continuing growth of membership provide a solid foundation for the finances of The Scout Association. The sale of Baden Powell House has also provided resources to maintain a sustainable operating model while that growth occurs, and to invest in growing our services. Our current level of reserves provides a significant level of resilience to possible financial risks that may materialise in the short term.

Taking all of the above into account, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue operating for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, they believe the going concern basis remains the appropriate approach for preparing the financial statements.

The Scout Association Defined Benefit Pension Scheme

The most recent full triennial actuarial valuation of the Scout Associated Defined Benefit Scheme was carried out as of 31 March 2022. The valuation resulted in a deficit of £2.5 million and a funding level of 94% which was an improvement from the 86% funding level at the previous March 2019 valuation. £2.5 million was paid in March 2023 to eliminate this deficit as agreed by the Board. Following this injection and as agreed with the

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Pension Fund Trustees the Scheme has further reduced its exposure to changes in future interest rates. As such the probability of liabilities arising in the future has also reduced although the Board continue to monitor the Scheme’s funding to make sure general reserves provide adequate cover against any future liability and also keep the potential for effecting an insurance buy-out of the Scheme under review.

The accounting FRS102 valuation as at 31 March shows the fair value of the scheme assets exceeded the present value of future obligations by £2.7 million (2022-23: £2.0 million) primarily due to changes in both financial and demographic assumptions slightly reducing the fund’s liabilities and a higher than expected return on assets in the period.

Remuneration policy

The Trustees consider that the Board of Trustees and the Executive Leadership Team (the Chief Executive and the Directors) comprise the key management personnel of the Charity.

Details of Trustees’ expenses and related party transactions are disclosed in note 6c to the financial statements.

The remuneration of the senior staff is reviewed annually by the People and Culture Committee (a subcommittee of the Board), considering market conditions, cost of living increases and the financial position of the organisation. The salaries of the Executive Leadership Team are benchmarked to make sure they’re commensurate with the size of the roles.

The Executive Leadership Team members are entitled to employer pension contributions, and other benefits that are available to employees generally. In addition, enhanced medical insurance provision is provided.

The Executive Leadership Team sets the salaries for all other employees.

The remuneration benchmark is the mid-point of the range paid for similar roles, although a market rate supplement may also be paid where appropriate.

All Trustees give their time freely, and no Trustee received remuneration in the year. The Chief Executive (who is also a Trustee and a full member of the Board) is paid for his executive duties only.

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Trustees’ responsibilities

entity under FRS 102 and the Trustees have regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on this.

Our Trustees are also responsible for safeguarding Scouts’ assets and taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Trustees’ responsibilities

Our Board of Trustees take on several vitally important roles. They’re responsible for preparing our Annual Report and overseeing our financial statements in accordance with the Charities Act 2011 and United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.

Trustees make sure our financial statements give a true and fair view of the status of both the group and the charity. They also monitor incoming resources and the application of Scouts’ resources for the year.

In preparing these financial statements, Trustees must:

Financial statements for The Scout Association are published on the Scouts website, in accordance with legislation governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements in the United Kingdom. This may vary from legislation in other jurisdictions.

The maintenance and integrity of the Scouts website is the responsibility of our Trustees. Trustees are also responsible for making sure the financial statements on our website are accurate.

Our controls include

Our Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that show and explain Scouts’ transactions. With reasonable accuracy, these records must disclose the charity’s financial position at any time. They must also help our Trustees make sure our financial statements comply with any applicable charity laws, particularly the Charities Act 2011. The Scout Association meets the definition of a public benefit

Trustees believe these internal controls are adequate in providing reasonable assurance against material misstatement or loss.

Jennie Price CBE Chair

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Independent Auditor’s Report to the Trustees of The Scout Association

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of The Scout Association (‘the charity’) and its subsidiaries (the ‘group) for the year ended 31 March 2024 which comprise consolidated statement of financial activities, consolidated and parent charity balance sheets, consolidated and parent charity 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).

In our opinion the financial statements:

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK) and applicable law. Our 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 in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical 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

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the Trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity’s or the group’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the Trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The Trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our 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.

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 this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. 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.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 require us to report to you if, in our opinion:

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financial statements from irregularities, whether due to fraud or error, and discussed these between our audit team. We then designed and performed audit procedures responsive to those risks, including obtaining audit evidence sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Responsibilities of Trustees

As explained more fully in the Trustees’ responsibilities statement [set out on page 38], the Trustees 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 the parent 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.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

We have been appointed as auditor under section 151 of the Charities Act 2011, and section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and report in accordance with the Acts and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.

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.

Details of the extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations are set out below.

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.

Extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of noncompliance with laws and regulations. We identified and assessed the risks of material misstatement of the

We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks within which the charity and group operates, focusing on those laws and regulations that have a direct effect on the determination of material amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The laws and regulations we considered in this context were the Charities Act 2011 and The Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 together with the Charities SORP (FRS 102). We assessed the required compliance with these laws and regulations as part of our audit procedures on the related financial statement items.

In addition, we considered provisions of other laws and regulations that do not have a direct effect on the financial statements but compliance with which might be fundamental to the charity’s and the group’s ability to operate or to avoid a material penalty. We also considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the charity and the group for fraud. The laws and regulations we considered in this context for the UK operations were the laws and regulations we considered in this context for the UK operations were General Data Protection Regulation and health and safety legislation.

Auditing standards limit the required audit procedures to identify non-compliance with these laws and regulations to enquiry of the Trustees and other management and inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.

We identified the greatest risk of material impact on the financial statements from irregularities, including fraud, to be within the timing of recognition of income, provisions and the override of controls by management. Our audit procedures to respond to these risks included enquiries of management, internal audit, and the Audit Committee about their own identification and assessment of the risks of irregularities, analytical procedures and sample testing of income, sample testing on the posting of journals, reviewing accounting estimates for biases in particular the judgements and assumptions in respect of claims provisions, sample testing of movements within provision and inquiry of legal advisors, reviewing regulatory correspondence with the Charity Commission and other regulators, and reading minutes of meetings of those charged with governance.

Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that we may not have detected some material misstatements in the financial statements, even though we have properly planned and performed our audit in accordance with auditing standards. For example, the further removed non-compliance with

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laws and regulations (irregularities) is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely the inherently limited procedures required by auditing standards would identify it. In addition, as with any audit, there remained a higher risk of nondetection of irregularities, as these may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal controls. We are not responsible for preventing non-compliance and cannot be expected to detect non-compliance with all laws and regulations.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charity’s Trustees, as a body, in accordance with Part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and Regulation 10 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity’s Trustees 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 and the charity’s Trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Crowe U.K. LLP Statutory Auditor St James House St James Square Cheltenham, GL50 3PR Date: 26 July 2024

Crowe U.K. LLP is eligible for appointment as auditor of the charity by virtue of its eligibility for appointment as auditor of a company under section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.

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Consolidated statement of financial activities

For the year ended 31 March 2024

For the year ended 31 March 2024
Restated
2024 2023
Restricted Restricted
and and
Unrestricted Endowment Total Unrestricted Endowment Total
Notes £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Income and endowments from:
Donations and legacies:
Membership subscriptions 14,301 - 14,301 13,169 - 13,169
Other voluntaryincome 5.a 1,299 4,583 5,882 497 3,811 4,308
15,600 4,583 20,183 13,666 3,811 17,477
Charitable activities:
Youth programme 1,148 - 1,148 942 - 942
Development of Scouting 1,305 - 1,305 1,015 - 1,015
Adult support and training 1,305 - 1,305 1,015 - 1,015
Support and services to the members 276 - 276 182 - 182
Jamboree 23 14,146 - 14,146 127 - 127
5.b 18,180 - 18,180 3,281 3,281
Trading activities 5.c 13,244 - 13,244 14,035 - 14,035
Investment income 5.d 1,850 199 2,049 1,382 107 1,489
Other income 52 25 77 5 3 8
Total income 48,926 4,807 53,733 32,369 3,921 36,290
Expenditure on:
Raising funds:
Donations and Legacies 261 26 287 240 27 267
Tradingactivities 6.a 9,407 - 9,407 9,451 - 9,451
9,668 26 9,694 9,691 27 9,718
Charitable activities:
Youth programme 5,856 41 5,897 4,686 378 5,064
Development of Scouting 6,588 1,349 7,937 5,412 1,138 6,550
Adult support and training 6,644 1,347 7,991 5,265 1,136 6,401
Support and services to the members 11,238 1,488 12,726 7,370 1,346 8,716
Jamboree 23 15,958 - 15,958 559 - 559
6.b 46,284 4,225 50,509 23,292 3,998 27,290
Total expenditure 55,952 4,251 60,203 32,983 4,025 37,008
Netgains/(losses)on investments 1,378 118 1,496 (1,152) (178) (1,330)
Net income/(expenditure) for the year (5,648) 674 (4,974) (1,766) (282) (2,048)
Transfers between funds 147 (147) - (171) 171 -
Other recognised gains/(losses):
Gain on revaluation of heritage assets - - - 386 - 386
Actuarial gains on defned beneft
pension scheme 7.a 823 - 823 11 - 11
Net movement in funds 8 (4,678) 527 (4,151) (1,540) (111) (1,651)
Reconciliation of funds: 19
Fund balances brought forward at 31
March 2023 80,588 6,049 86,637 82,128 6,160 88,288
Fund balances carried forward at 31
March 2024 75,910 6,576 82,486 80,588 6,049 86,637

The notes on pages 45 to 66 form part of these financial statements

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Balance sheet

As at 31 March 2024

As at 31 March 2024
Consolidated The Association
2024 2023 2024 2023
Notes £,000 £,000 £,000 £,000
Fixed assets
Intangible fixed assets 9 5,407 4,056 4,954 3,689
Heritage assets 10 3,939 3,939 3,939 3,939
Tangible fixed assets 11 21,086 19,226 20,948 19,048
Investment in subsidiary companies 12 - - 393 400
Fixed asset investments 13 32,844 41,537 32,844 41,537
63,276 68,758 63,078 68,613
Current assets
Stocks 14 1,943 2,014 394 149
Debtors 15 9,261 13,854 12,260 18,791
Current asset investments 16 - 10,797 - 10,797
Cash & cash equivalents 17,602 24,398 12,914 17,632
28,806 51,063 25,568 47,369
Current liabilities
Creditors - amounts falling due within
oneyear 17 (7,960) (31,727) (5,546) (28,803)
Net current assets 20,846 19,336 20,022 18,566
Total assets less current liabilities 84,122 88,094 83,100 87,179
Provisions for liabilities 18 (4,364) (3,465) (4,364) (3,465)
Net assets excluding pension liability 79,758 84,629 78,736 83,714
Pension asset/(liability) 7a 2,728 2,008 2,728 2,008
Net assets 82,486 86,637 81,464 85,722
The Association’s funds
Endowment funds 19 2,267 2,105 2,267 2,105
Restricted funds 19 4,309 3,944 4,309 3,944
Total restricted funds 6,576 6,049 6,576 6,049
General fund 19 42,145 49,812 42,145 49,812
Pension reserve 7,19 2,728 2,008 2,728 2,008
Designated funds 19 30,015 27,853 30,015 27,853
Non charitable tradingfunds 12,19 1,022 915 - -
Total unrestricted funds 75,910 80,588 74,888 79,673
Total funds 82,486 86,637 81,464 85,722

Approved by the Board of Trustees on 25th July 2024 and authorised for release and signed on its behalf by:

Jennie Price CBE Chair

Mike Ashley Treasurer

The notes on pages 45 to 66 form part of these financial statements

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Statement of cash flows

For the year ended 31 March 2024
Consolidated The Association
2024 2023 2024 2023
£,000 £,000 £,000 £,000
a. Cash fows
Net cash used by operating activities (see below) (13,780) (1,218) (12,031) (3,776)
Cash fows from investing activities:
Investment Income 2,049 1,489 2,093 1,548
Purchase of fxed assets (5,273) (4,473) (4,988) (4,010)
Realisation of fxed asset investments 15,540 18,207 15,540 18,207
Acquisition of fxed asset investments (5,332) (11,717) (5,332) (11,717)
Net cashprovided by investing activities 6,984 3,506 7,313 4,028
Net cashprovided by fnancing activities - - - -
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year (6,796) 2,288 (4,718) 252
Cash and cash equivalents at 1 April 24,398 22,110 17,632 17,380
Cash and cash equivalents at 31 March 17,602 24,398 12,914 17,632
b. Reconciliation of net income/(expenditure) to cash fow from operating activities
Net income/(expenditure) for the reporting
period from the Statement of Financial Activities (4,974) (2,048) (5,082) (2,529)
Adjustments for:
(Gains)/Losses on investments (1,498) 1,330 (1,498) 1,330
Investment income (2,049) (1,489) (2,093) (1,548)
Funding of pension liabilities (50) (3,619) (50) (3,619)
FRS 102 Pension cost 153 193 153 193
Losses on disposal of fxed assets 1 199 - 199
Depreciation 2,061 2,149 1,823 1,879
Impairment of subsidiaries - - 7 -
Decrease/(Increase) in stocks 71 (860) (245) (50)
Decrease/(Increase) in debtors 4,593 (7,781) 6,532 (10,356)
Decrease in current investments 10,780 140 10,780 140
(Decrease)/Increase in creditors (23,767) 11,421 (23,257) 11,438
Increase/(Decrease) in provisions for liabilities 899 (853) 899 (853)
Net cash used operating activities (13,780) (1,218) (12,031) (3,776)
c. Analysis of cash and cash equivalents
Cash in hand 17,602 24,398 12,914 17,632
Total cash and cash equivalents 17,602 24,398 12,914 17,632

The notes on pages 45 to 66 form part of these financial statements

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Notes to the financial statements

1. Constitution

The Scout Association is incorporated by Royal Charter and is a registered charity whose purpose is to promote the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potentials, as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities.

2. Scope of the financial statements

These financial statements cover the activities directly

controlled by The Scout Association. The activities of the Scout Councils of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales together with Scout Counties, Areas, Regions, Districts and Groups are not reflected in these financial statements. Those bodies are separate organisations that are affiliated to The Scout Association.

3. Accounting policies

The principal accounting policies adopted, judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty in the preparation of the financial statements are as follows:

a. Basis of preparation of consolidated financial statements The financial statements have been prepared in accordance

with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102), and the Statement of Recommended Practice, Accounting and Reporting by Charities, applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS 102, known as the Charities SORP (FRS 102).

The Scout Association meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note.

The financial statements consolidate the financial statements of The Scout Association and its subsidiary companies.

b. Going concern

Having reviewed financial plans and cash flow forecasts, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue operating for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, they believe that the going concern basis remains the appropriate basis on which to prepare the financial statements.

c. Recognition of income

Membership subscriptions

Membership subscriptions are payable in advance for a year to 31 March and are recognised in the year of membership benefit.

Legacies

Legacies are accounted for when The Scout Association becomes entitled to them, where receipt is probable and where their value can be established with reasonable certainty. Where legacies include non-cash items these are included in income at the lower of probate value and market value at the date of receipt.

Grant income

The fair value of the government grants are accrued as per the terms of the funder agreement.

Charitable, retail and other trading income

Income from charitable activities, retail sales and other trading activities including sponsorship is accounted for when The Scout Association is entitled to the income, the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy and the probability of receipt of the income is more likely than not.

Insurance commission income

Insurance commission is recognised at the date of inception of the policy. The amount recognised is the total commission due to the company less an overall provision for unearned commission.

Profit related commission is recognised when it can be reliably measured and is likely to be received.

Investment income

Dividends are accounted for on a receipts basis. Interest is accounted for on an accruals basis and includes all amounts earned up to the balance sheet date.

The financial year end of each of the subsidiary companies is 31 March. More information on these companies is in note 12

The Balance Sheets and Profit and Loss accounts of the subsidiaries have been consolidated on a line by line basis as required by the Statement of Recommended Practice.

On acquisition of a business, all of the assets and liabilities that exist at the date of acquisition are recorded at their fair values reflecting their condition at that time. All changes to those assets and liabilities and the resulting surpluses that that arise after acquisition are charged to the post-acquisition Statement of Financial Activities.

The financial statements are prepared on the historical cost basis with the exception of investments, which are stated at fair value.

d. Allocation of income and costs Charitable activities

This comprises income from the provision of services supporting the objects of The Scout Association through operations including National Activity Centres, and the Information Centre.

Charitable activities have been analysed under the following headings:

Where possible, the income and costs relating to a department or cost centre are allocated in full to one of the

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Notes to the financial statements (continued)

above categories, but in practice many departments have an involvement in more than one activity. Major self-funding events, including the Jamboree, are not allocated with total income and costs for the event shown separately. The other major allocations are set out below.

Jamboree

The transactions relating to the Jamboree have been split on the face of the Statement of Financial Activities. They were previously spread within the Charitable Activities but have now been included as a separate Charitable Activities heading. To provide a better understanding the prior year amounts have also been split and updated. This is to make it clearer to the reader the impact of the Jamboree on the figures provided.

Grants payable

Grants payable are included in the Statement of Financial Activities as expenditure in the period in which the award is made. Grants which have been approved by the Trustees and agreed with other organisations but which are unpaid at the year end are accrued. Grants where the beneficiary has not been informed or has to meet certain conditions before the grant is released are not accrued.

f. Intangible fixed assets

IT software is capitalised and written off over the term of the related contract, between 2 and 5 years.

Systems Development is capitalised and once the projects have completed they are written off over 5 years.

Support costs

These are costs incurred directly in support of the objects of the Charity. The costs are attributed to the activities that they support. Where a department supports all the Charity’s activities the costs have been apportioned pro-rata to the staff resources directly engaged in that activity. The percentages that apply are:

Impairment tests on the carrying value are undertaken at the end of the first full year after acquisition and in any other subsequent period if events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. The cost of acquiring a brand licence is written off over the term of the related contract.

g. Heritage fixed assets

Governance costs

These are the costs associated with the governance arrangements of the Charity which relate to compliance with legal and statutory requirements of the Charity as opposed to those costs associated with fundraising. They include audit fees and the costs of Trustees’ meetings.

e. Expenditure

All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and is allocated as per note 3d Charitable activities.

The Scout Association maintains a heritage collection of around 250,000 items. Through an active and innovative programme of collecting, interpreting and engagement, the Heritage Collection helps create connections between members of The Scout Association, both past and present, and the wider community. The Heritage Collection is managed by the UKHQ Heritage Service. To ensure its ongoing representation of Scouting’s story the Heritage Service continues to collect both historical and contemporary material. New acquisitions are normally made by donation with occasional low cost purchases. New material is acquired in accordance with The Scout Association’s Collecting Policy.

Some 300 key items in The Scout Association collection, particularly those relating to the Founder, are valued periodically since the nature of these items permits that to be sufficiently reliable. The last valuation was at 31 March 2023 (see note 10). Gains and losses on revaluation are recognised through ‘Other recognised gains’ in the Statement of Financial Activities. It is the intention of The Scout Association to

Support and
Youth Development Adult support services to
programme of Scouting and training members
World and European membership fees 100%
Members records and awards 40% 60%
Membership services 20% 20% 20% 40%
Safeguarding children 100%
Public relations 100%
Insurance and cost of claims 100%
Short Term Investment Service 100%
Regional Development Service 33% 33% 34%
Other National Activity Centres 34% 33% 33%

46

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

preserve these items indefinitely, therefore amortisation is not regarded as appropriate.

The Trustees consider that obtaining valuations for the remainder of the Collection would involve disproportionate cost due to the diverse nature of the material held and the lack of comparable market values. Such items are therefore not recognised on the Balance Sheet.

Expenditure that is in the Trustees’ view required to conserve or prevent further deterioration of individual items is recognised as expenditure when it is incurred.

h. Tangible fixed assets

Tangible assets are stated at cost. Where land and buildings are acquired together, it is assumed that the buildings represent 50% of the initial cost. Depreciation is calculated to write off the cost of assets by equal annual amounts over their expected useful lives. Assets costing less than £1,000 are not capitalised. No depreciation is provided on freehold land.

Depreciation rates used are:

l. Stocks

Stocks are valued at the lower of cost and estimated net realisable value. Cost is calculated using the current purchase price method and consists of the original cost of goods without any addition for overheads.

m. Provisions

A provision is recognised in the balance sheet when The Scout Association has an obligation as a result of a past event and it is probable that an outflow of economic benefits that can be reliably measured will be required to settle that obligation

n. VAT

The Scout Association is partially exempt for VAT purposes and is not able to reclaim all the VAT it pays. All Irrecoverable VAT is expensed as it is currently not allocated to the related expenses or assets.

o. Leases

All leases are operating leases and the rentals expensed as they are paid.

p. Pension costs

Contributions payable to The Scout Association Defined Benefit Pension Scheme are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities so as to spread the cost of pensions over the working lives of employees in the scheme. The pension charge is calculated on the basis of actuarial advice.

Gains or losses on the disposal of fixed assets are reflected in net income/expenditure for the year shown in the Statement of Financial Activities.

Impairment reviews on fixed assets are carried out each year and any asset with a carrying value materially higher than its recoverable or useful value is written down accordingly.

i. Fixed asset investments

The Scout Association holds investments both in order to generate income for the support of charitable objectives and to provide assets to meet the need of reserves, identified in the reserves policy. Investments are stated at current market value on the balance sheet date unless there’s evidence of a different fair value.

Gains or losses arising during the year are disclosed in the Statement of Financial Activities and in note 13.

j. Current asset investments

Current asset investments represented the funds deposited by Scout Groups in the Short Term Investment Service (STIS). These funds were held in a short term money market fund with an external investment manager. The STIS was wound up during 2023-24 and all funds returned to the appropriate Scout Groups (see notes 16 and 17).

k. Cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents are held to meet short-term cash commitments as they fall due. Cash equivalents are fixed deposit accounts that are readily convertible to cash in that they have a short maturity of three months or less as at the balance sheet date.

The pension scheme liabilities are measured using a projected unit method and discounted at an AA sterling corporate bond rate. Any excess of liabilities over the value of the pension scheme assets which are measured at fair value is recognised in full. Any surplus of pension scheme assets over liabilities is recognised as an asset to the extent that The Scout Association is able to recover the surplus either through reduced contributions in the future or refunds from the plan.

Administration costs, the current service cost and net return on the scheme’s assets and liabilities for the year is allocated across the resources expended categories in the Statement of Financial Activities. The actuarial gain or loss on the scheme for the year is included in the Other recognised gains/(losses) section of the Statement of Financial Activities.

Contributions towards Defined Contribution schemes are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities as they are incurred.

q. Financial assets

Financial assets, other than investments and derivatives, are initially measured at transaction price (including transaction costs) and subsequently held at cost, less any impairment.

r. Financial liabilities

Financial liabilities are classified according to the substance of the financial instrument’s contractual obligations, rather than the financial instrument’s legal form. Financial liabilities, excluding derivatives, are initially measured at transaction price (including transaction costs) and subsequently held at amortised cost.

47

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

s. Judgements in applying accounting policies and key sources of estimation uncertainty

In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees have made the following judgements:

4. Nature of funds

All funds are identified as identified as falling into one of three categories.

Endowment funds

Endowment funds are those received to be held as capital on a total returns basis with only the income available to be spent. Subsequent gains or losses on the disposal of the underlying assets of the fund become part of the capital.

Restricted funds

Restricted funds are those received which have been earmarked for a special purpose by the donor or the terms of an appeal.

Unrestricted funds

Unrestricted funds are those received, which are not subject to any special restriction. They are divided between general funds and designated funds. Designated funds comprise amounts set aside by the Trustees to be used for particular purposes.

48

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

5. Income and endowments

a. Other voluntary income

Restated
2024 2023
Restricted Restricted
and and
Unrestricted Endowment Total Unrestricted Endowment Total
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Legacies 577 926 1,503 308 339 647
Grants 223 3,412 3,635 1 2,795 2,796
Otherdonations 499 245 744 188 677 865
Total 1,299 4,583 5,882 497 3,811 4,308

Included in grants above is the DCMS Uniformed Youth Fund grant of £2.7m (2023: £0.9m), Grants from Counties £0.3m (2023: £0.6m), Early Years £nil (2023: £0.5m).

2023 has been restated to correct a classification error between Grants and Other donations of £766k. Total Other voluntary income for 2023 remains the same as previously reported.

b. Charitable activities

This income is derived mainly from major events like the Jamboree and National Activity Centres where most of the activities are not undertaken with the principal intention of generating a surplus. The Association’s charitable activities are financed by membership subscriptions and fundraising. There was no restricted or endowment charitable activities income.

2024 2023
Unrestricted Unrestricted
£’000 £’000
National events 567 420
National Centres 2,990 2,301
Jamboree (Note 23) 14,146 127
Other income 477 433
Total 18,180 3,281
c. Trading activities 2024 2023
Unrestricted Unrestricted
£’000 £’000
Retail sales 9,556 10,506
Insurance commission income 2,590 2,568
Sponsorship, promotions androyalties 1,098 961
Total 13,244 14,035

There is no income for trading activites under restricted and endowment funds. Retail sales is comprised of sales from Scout Shops Limited, World Scout Shop Limited and Scout Products Limited.

d. Investment income
d. Investment income Restated
2024 2023
Restricted Restricted
and and
Unrestricted Endowment Total Unrestricted Endowment Total
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Listed investments 1,023 110 1,133 615 (27) 588
Short Term Investment Service - 89 89 - 134 134
Interest on fxed asset bank deposits 775 - 775 669 - 669
Interest on Jamboree funds - - - 21 - 21
Other deposit interest 29 - 29 25 - 25
Rental income 23 - 23 52 - 52
Total 1,850 199 2,049 1,382 107 1,490

49

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

6. Expenditure

a. Trading activities

2024 2023
Restricted Restricted
and and
Unrestricted Endowment Total Unrestricted Endowment Total
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Retail operating costs 7,330 - 7,330 7,589 - 7,589
Insurance brokerage costs 1,831 - 1,831 1,584 - 1,584
Hostel and conference expenditure 12 - 12 4 - 4
Sponsorship, promotions and
royalties 234 - **234 ** 274 - 274
Total 9,407 - 9,407 9,451 - 9,451

Expenditure on trading activities includes support costs of £676,000 (2023: £540,000). The basis for the allocation of support costs is explained in note 6.c.

b. Costs of charitable activities

b. Costs of charitable activities
2024
Grant Support
Direct funding costs Total
Notes £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Youth programme 3,308 321 2,268 5,897
Development of Scouting 4,326 321 3,290 7,937
Adult support and training 4,721 321 2,949 7,991
Support and services to members 10,250 321 2,155 12,726
Jamboree 23 15,958 - - 15,958
Total 38,563 1,284 10,662 50,509
2023
Grant Support
Direct funding costs Total
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Youth programme 3,031 232 1,801 5,064
Development of Scouting 3,706 232 2,612 6,550
Adult support and training 3,827 232 2,342 6,401
Support and services to members 6,773 232 1,711 8,716
Jamboree 559 - - 559
Total 17,896 928 8,466 27,290

Charitable activities have been analysed into four categories as explained in note 3.d. Costs are allocated using the principles explained in that note.

Youth programme includes the various educational activities in which members participate. Development activities are those which are focused on growing our movement. Adult support and training includes those activities which assist leaders and other adults involved in Scouts. Support and services to the movement includes those activities that help ensure the safety and safeguarding of members, which underpin the activities of Scout Groups.

50

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

6. Expenditure continued

Analysis of grants to local Scouting

6. Expenditure continued
Analysis of grants to local Scouting
2024 2023
£’000 £’000
Pears Community Match Fund - 8
Underrepresented Communities 46 -
Early Years Project 111 -
DCMS 609 120
International Fund 20 10
Benevolent Fund 15 24
Admiralty Fund and Trinity House Fund (Sea Scouts) 334 -
Grants from legacies to local Groups 25 272
Hardship Fund 4 192
Other 120 302
Total 1,284 928

Grants from restricted and designated funds administered by the Association are paid, in accordance with the terms governing those funds, to a large number of Scout Groups, Districts, Areas and Counties.

b. Support costs allocation

2024 2023
£’000 £’000
Fixed asset depreciation 2,061 2,149
Irrecoverable VAT 965 253
Offce accommodation and services 1,202 1,074
Central management 926 764
Human resources, legal and company secretarial 1,528 1,181
Finance and accounting 902 867
Information technology and business solutions 3,171 2,106
Movement in pension scheme defcit recognised in resources expended 153 193
Governance 433 419
Total 11,341 9,006
Allocated to:
Costs of charitable activities 10,662 8,466
Expenditure on trading activities 679 540
Total 11,341 9,006

Support costs comprise that expenditure which facilitates fundraising and charitable activity but which is not directly incurred in the conduct of those activities. The support costs itemised above have been apportioned to fundraising and charitable activities pro rata to the employment costs of staff directly engaged on the relevant activities. The percentage allocations are disclosed in note 3.d.

c. Expenditure includes:

2024 2023
£’000 £’000
Auditor’s remuneration
Audit fees 100 77
Taxation compliance and grant income certifcates 12 11
Trustees’ expenses 15 7

During the year 18 Trustees (2023: 15 Trustees) were reimbursed £15,417 (2023: £6,968) for expenses, such as travel and subsistence, incurred in their attending meetings and in the carrying out of their duties.

51

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

7. Staff costs

7. Staff costs
2024 2023
£’000 £’000
Wages and salaries 19,028 15,341
Social security costs 2,151 1,721
Defned contribution pension costs 1,268 1,037
Termination costs 128 54
22,575 18,153
The average number of employees during the year was: Headcount
Full time equivalent
2024
2023
2024
2023
Activity
The Scout Association
Scout Shops Limited/World Scout Shop Limited
Scout Services Limited
Unity (Scout Insurance Services Limited)		 392
340
375
326
59
57
58
57
6
5
6
5
28
25
27
25
Total 485
427
466
413

Increases across various areas, mainly supporting digital transformation including Volunteer Experience, the Skills for Life programme and new safety roles.

The number of employees whose total emoluments for the year exceeded £60,000 were as follows:

2024 2023
£60,001 to £70,000 20 10
£70,001 to £80,000 5 2
£80,001 to £90,000 7 3
£90,001 to £100,000 3 2
£100,001 to £110,000 1 3
£110,001 to £120,000 4 1
£120,001 to £130,000 2 1
£130,001 to £140,000 1 1
£140,001 to £150,000 1 1

The Chief Executive Officer, Matt Hyde, is also a Trustee, for which he is not paid. He received salary and benefits for his service as Chief Executive Officer of £146,610 (2023: £141,737).

No other Trustee received remuneration for services to the Association.

The key management personnel of the parent charity and its subsidiaries currently comprise the Trustees, the Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director of Commercial Services, Executive Director of Communications and Fundraising, Executive Director of Operations, Executive Director of Finance & Resources, Executive Director of Strategy and Transformation, Managing Director at Unity and General Manager of Scout Shops and World Scout Shop.

The total employer cost of the key management personnel of the Scout Association and its subsidiaries was £1,203,214 (2023: £946,310)

52

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

7. Staff costs continued

Pension schemes

Pension provision for current staff is provided through a defined contribution arrangement.

Additionally, the Association previously provided defined benefit pensions through the Scout Association Defined Benefit Pension Scheme (“the Scheme”). The Scheme was closed to future accrual with effect from 1 July 2022. It has 87 deferred members and 156 members in receipt of a current pension. The Scheme provides benefits, on retirement, on leaving service or on death, based on final salary and length of service.

The Scheme is subject to the Statutory Funding Objective under the Pensions Act 2004 and a valuation of the Scheme is carried out at least once every three years. As part of the process, the Association must agree with the Trustees of the Scheme the contributions to be paid in order to address any shortfall against the Statutory Funding Objective and the contributions to be paid in respect of the accrual of the future benefits.

The last triennial actuarial valuation of the scheme was carried out as at 31 March 2022 and showed a deficit of £2.5 million. In March 2023, The Scout Association paid £2.5 million to eliminate this deficit as agreed with the Trustees. This was in addition to payments of £50k made in April 2023, and £1.1 million in respect of the previous deficit reduction plan and to cover administration expenses.

FRS102 valuation

These financial statements have been prepared in line with the requirements of FRS 102. The FRS 102 valuation is only in respect of the defined benefit Scheme. The principal FRS 102 actuarial assumptions, determined by financial markets and demographic conditions, are shown below. Pension payments increase at different rates for different accrual periods. A later table shows the sensitivity of the liability to these assumptions.

The fair value of the scheme assets exceeded the present value of future obligations at 31 March 2024 by £2.7 million.

Principal actuarial assumptions

Principal actuarial assumptions
31 March 2024 31 March 2023
% %
Discount rate 4.75 4.70
Infation - RPI 3.20 3.25
Infation - CPI 2.50 2.45
Salary increases 2.60 2.55
Pension increase (RPI max 5.0%) 3.15 3.20
Pension increase (RPI max 2.5%) 2.30 2.35
Mortality
Life expectancy at age 65 of male aged 45 23.60 24.00
Life expectancy at age 65 of male aged 65 22.00 22.30
Life expectancy at age 65 of female aged 45 26.20 26.50
Life expectancy at age 65 of female aged 65 24.50 24.80
Amount of tax-free cash taken at retirement 20% 20%

53

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

7. Staff costs continued

Balance sheet position

Balance sheet position
31 March 2024 31 March 2023
% £’000 % £’000
Equities 12% 4,122 10% 3,233
Diversifed growth assets 23% 7,735 35% 12,065
Liability Driven Investments 26% 8,671 21% 7,296
Corporate bonds 25% 8,151 25% 8,560
Cash 14% 4,508 9% 3,084
Fair value of assets 100% 33,187 100% 34,238
Present value of funded obligations (30,459) (32,230)
Net defned beneft asset 2,728 2,008
Amounts recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities
2024 2023
£’000 £’000
Current service cost - (14)
Administration costs (242) (187)
Interest on liabilities (1,457) (1,080)
Interest on assets 1,546 1,088
Total expenditure for the year (153) (193)
Gain/(loss) on assets in excess on interest
Loss on assets in excess of interest 105 (8,785)
Experience loss on liabilities (412) (1,415)
Gain/(Loss) from changes to demographic assumptions 912 (545)
Gain from changes to fnancial assumptions 218 10,756
Total actuarial gains 823 11
Reconciliation of the fair value of assets and liabilities
31 March 2024 31 March 2023
£’000 £’000
Fair value of assets at the start of the year 34,238 40,167
Interest on assets 1,546 1,088
Administration costs (242) (187)
Contributions by members - 5
Contributions by TSA 50 3,619
Benefts paid (2,510) (1,669)
Return on assets less interest 105 (8,785)
Fair value of assets at the end of the year 33,187 34,238
Actual return on assets 1,651 (7,697)

54

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

7. Staff costs continued

31 March 2024 31 March 2023
£’000 £’000
Value of liabilities at the start of the year (32,230) (41,596)
Interest cost (1,457) (1,080)
Current service cost - (14)
Contributions by members - (5)
Benefts paid 2,510 1,669
Experience gain on liabilities (412) (1,415)
Changes to demographic assumptions 912 (545)
Changes to fnancial assumptions 218 10,756
Value of liabilities at the end of the year (30,459) (32,230)

Sensitivity of the value placed on the liabilities

Adjustments to assumptions Adjustments to assumptions Approximate effect on the liabilities
£’000
Discount rate Plus 0.10% p.a. (364)
Minus 0.10% p.a. 371
Infation Plus 0.10% p.a. 153
Minus 0.10% p.a. (129)
Salary increase Plus 0.50% p.a. 72
Minus 0.50% p.a. (69)
Mortality Long-term rate of improvement 0.25% (182)
Long-term trend rate 1.25% for all members (100)
Commutation Members take 25% of their pension in cash 23
Projected SOFA for year to 31 March 2025
£’000
Administration costs 242
Interest on liabilities 1,388
Interest on assets (1,512)
Total 118

The estimate above assumes the following:

55

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

8. Net movement in funds

The net movement in funds arises as follows:

2024 2023
£’000 £’000
The Scout Association (4,258) (2,132)
Subsidiaries 107 481
Total (4,151) (1,651)

9. Intangible fixed assets

Consolidated IT Brand Systems
Software Licenses Goodwill Development Total
£’000 £’000 £’000
Cost
At 1 April 2023 677 84 119 11,888 12,768
Additions 228 - - 2,030 2,258
At 31 March 2024 905 84 119 13,918 15,026
Depreciation
At 1 April 2023 398 84 109 8,121 8,712
Charge for theyear 135 - 10 762 907
At 31 March 2024 533 84 119 8,883 9,619
Net book values
At 31 March 2024 372 - - 5,035 5,407
At 31 March 2023 279 - 10 3,767 4,056
The Association Volunteer Other
Experience TSA Systems
Programme Website Development Total
Cost £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
At 1 April 2023 2,132 250 9,056 11,438
Additions 1,712 173 116 2,001
At 31 March 2024 3,844 423 9,172 13,439
Depreciation
At 1 April 2023 - - 7,749 7,749
Charge for theyear - - 736 736
At 31 March 2024 - - 8,485 8,485
Net book values
At 31 March 2024 3,844 423 687 4,954
At 31 March 2023 2,132 250 1,307 3,689

The Volunteer Experience Programme will deliver transformation to our volunteers, enabling volunteers to do their role more easily, to undertake the learning they need to do for their role, as well as enabling us to attract and recruit more volunteers. As part of this, we are creating new digital tools to enable this work - this includes tools to help with membership tasks, learning, and recruitment.

56

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

10. Heritage assets

(a) Consolidated and the Association Unrestricted Funds value

£’000
At 1 April 2023 3,939
At 31 March 2024 3,939

A valuation of items (see note 3g.) was undertaken as at 31 March 2023 by Patrick Bowen BA (Hons) Lond., MRICS which resulted in a valuation increase of £386k from the previous valuation undertaken in 2011.

(b) Five year financial summary of heritage asset transactions

There have been no purchases, donations or disposals in the last five years.

(c) Further information on heritage assets

The Heritage Service, supported by a small team of volunteers, is working to catalogue the Collection in line with The Heritage Collections Trust SPECTRUM standard and the national standard for archive cataloguing, this activity is an ongoing priority. Currently 16.8% of the Collection by number, including all those items held at valuation, is catalogued to these standards. An additional 1.8% is listed at inventory level. An average of 1,500 new items are accepted into the collection each year representing historic and contemporary Scouting.

A small number of Collection items is displayed within the buildings and grounds of Gilwell Park but most of the Collection is held in storage. Included in the development plans for Gilwell Park is a new facility which would increase public access to the Collection, through a permanent display and a series of temporary exhibitions, as well as providing more appropriate storage for the Collection, ensuring its long term preservation. Currently access to the Collection is provided through the enquiries service, research appointments, the Gilwell Park Heritage Trail, the Scout Heritage website and exhibitions and activities organised with partner organisations. The Heritage Service continues to reach out to new audiences through activities including participation in the national Heritage Open Days scheme and programmes, including the UK Dementia Friendly Heritage Network.

The Association maintains the heritage collection in a good condition, and no items currently require substantial conservation expenditure. The nature of some of the assets, such as early cine-film, means they will deteriorate over time and should be considered a priority for preservation by digitisation and specialist storage. The Heritage Service actively seeks external funding to support the delivery of its conservation work.

The Association will occasionally approve the disposal of elements of the Collection, this process is carried out in accordance with the Code of Ethics and industry best practice as dictated by the Arts Council England Accreditation Standard. Disposal will be judged against the Association’s Collecting Policy. Disposal will be carried out in line with the Disposal Policy and follow the Disposal Procedure. Disposal of accessioned material only takes place with the approval of the Trustees or their designated representative. Disposal of non-accessioned items takes place with the approval of the Executive Director of Commercial Services. In accordance with best practice the Heritage Service will always try to keep the item in the public domain by gifting it free of charge to other relevant museum collections or archives. If an appropriate museum or archive cannot be found the item may be considered for sale, any proceeds from such a sale would be restricted to the care and preservation of the Collection.

57

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

11. Tangible fixed assets

Consolidated Furniture,
Freehold Leasehold Fittings and
Property Property Equipment Total
Cost £'000 £'000 £'000 £’000
At 1 April 2023 26,791 958 8,780 36,529
Additions 2,062 - 953 3,015
Disposals - - (1) (1)
At 31 March 2024 28,853 958 9,732 39,543
Depreciation
At 1 April 2023 8,708 928 7,667 17,303
Charge for the year 669 2 483 1,154
Eliminated on disposals - - - -
At 31 March 2024 9,377 930 8,150 18,457
Net book values
At 31 March 2024 19,476 28 1,582 21,086
At 31 March 2023 18,083 30 1,113 19,226
The Association Furniture,
Freehold Leasehold Fittings and
Property Property Equipment Total
Cost £'000 £'000 £'000 £’000
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
At 1 April 2023 26,791 958 7,029 34,778
Additions 2,062 - 925 2,987
At 31 March 2024 28,853 958 7,954 37,765
Depreciation
At 1 April 2023 8,708 928 6,094 15,730
Charge for the year 669 2 416 1,087
At 31 March 2024 9,377 930 6,510 16,817
Net book values
At 31 March 2024 19,476 28 1,444 20,948
At 31 March 2023 18,083 30 935 19,048

58

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

12. Investment in subsidiary companies

Net book value of shares £’000
Balance at 1 April 2023 400
Impairment of World Scout Shop Limited (7)
Balance at 31 March 2024 393

At 31st March 2024, the Association owns 100 per cent of the following unlisted companies:

Country of incorporation Company number Issued share capital
Scout Shops Limited England & Wales 01101498 £200,000
Scout Insurance Services Limited England & Wales 05038294 £100,000
Scout Services Limited England & Wales 01920846 £100
World Scout Shop Limited England & Wales 07767748 £100,000
Unity Insurance Services Limited (dormant) England & Wales 06093321 £1
Scout Products Limited England & Wales 13214240 £100

The Boards of Directors of Scout Shops Limited, World Scout Shop Limited, Scout Services Limited and Scout Insurance Services Limited have each covenanted their respective company’s taxable profits to the Association. World Scout Shop Limited ceased trading on 31 March 2024.

The principal activities of each subsidiary is as follows:

Scout Shops Limited Sale and distribution of merchandise Scout Insurance Services Limited Insurance broker Scout Services Limited Sponsorship and marketing services for The Scout Association and other commercial activities World Scout Shop Limited Sale and distribution of World Scout Organisation branded merchandise Scout Products Limited Procurement and supply of Scout Shops products for The Scout Association

Investment in Subsidiaries

The summarised profit and loss accounts and balance sheet totals for the active trading subsidiary companies are shown below:

2024 2023
Scout
Scout World Scout Insurance Scout
Shops Scout Shop Services Services Products
Limited Limited Limited Limited Limited Total Total
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Trading income 9,751 88 1,089 2,700 481 14,109 15,404
Cost of sales (4,496) (1) (286) - (472) (5,255) (5,016)
Gross proft 5,255 87 803 2,700 9 8,854 10,388
Other income 142 39 - 25 - 206 145
Other costs and expenses (2,792) (115) 42 (1,831) (19) (4,715) (5,301)
Surplus/(defcit) before taxation 2,605 11 845 894 (10) 4,345 5,232
Taxation - - - - - - 25
Donation to the Association (2,542) - (843) (860) - (4,245) (4,776)
Net surplus/(defcit) 63 11 2 34 (10) 100 481
Net movement in funds 63 11 2 34 (10) 100 481
Shareholders’ funds
Share capital 200 100 - 100 - 400 400
Reserves 909 (7) - 120 (7) 1,015 915
Fund balances as at 31 March 2024 1,109 93 - 220 (7) 1,415 1,315

The reserves balance and net movement in funds are different to the balance sheet due to an adjustment in TSA for the impairment of World Scout Shops Limited.

59

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

13. Fixed asset investments

Consolidated The Association
2024 2023 2024 2023
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Listed investments 32,844 26,024 32,844 26,024
Bankdeposits - 15,513 - 15,513
Market value at 31 March 2024 32,844 41,537 32,844 41,537
Listed investments
Consolidated The Association
2024 2023 2024 2023
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Market value at 1 April 2023 26,024 24,429 26,024 24,429
Acquisitions at cost 5,332 11,204 5,332 11,204
Disposal proceeds (27) (8,207) (27) (8,207)
Net gain/(loss) on revaluation 1,515 (1,402) 1,515 (1,402)
Market value at 31 March 2024 32,844 26,024 32,844 26,024
Historical cost at 31 March 2024 24,045 24,007 24,045 24,007

All the listed investments are classified as tier 1 in the fair value hierarchy, being quoted prices in an active market. The listed investments have a credit rating of at least A. The listed investments are subject to market risk, with their value changing as market prices change. The Scout Association holds investments in support of the reserves policy.

£10m of bank deposits were transferred to cash and cash equivalents as they were due to mature in May 2024 and represent amounts which may be spent during the course of the year.

The Scout Association paid £44,032 investment management fees and commission charges during the year (2023: £63,942).

14. Stocks

Consolidated The Association
2024 2023 2024 2023
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Goods for resale 1,943 2,014 394 149

60

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

15. Debtors

Consolidated The Association
2024 2023 2024 2023
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Trade debtors 2,599 2,910 1,525 657
Amounts owed by subsidiaries - - 4,794 8,111
Prepayments and accrued income 2,753 2,385 2,247 1,889
Jamboree prepayments - 5,802 - 5,802
Otherdebtors 3,665 2,485 3,450 2,060
Debtors due within one year 9,017 13,582 12,016 18,519
Debtors due in more than one year:
Otherdebtors 244 272 244 272
9,261 13,854 12,260 18,791

Other debtors includes amounts receivable from insurers of £3.3m (2023: £2.0m), see note 17 and 18, and secured, interest bearing loans made to Scout Groups. The loans are repayable as shown below.

Consolidated and The Association
2024 2023
£’000 £’000
Within one year 50 83
Between 2026 and2032 244 272
294 355

16. Current asset investments

The Association had a short-term money market fund with Royal London Asset Management, and a current account with Barclays, which represented amounts deposited by Scout Groups in the Short Term Investment Service (STIS). STIS was wound up during the year and all funds returned to the Scout Groups.

Consolidated and The Association
2024 2023
£’000 £’000
Market value at 1 April 2023 10,797 10,865
Net movement in deposits for the year (10,780) (140)
Net surplus/(loss) on revaluationat 31 March (17) 72
Market value at 31 March 2024 - 10,797

61

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

17. Creditors

17. Creditors
Consolidated The Association
2024 2023 2024 2023
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Amounts falling due within one year
Short Term Investment Service Deposits (note 16) - 10,958 - 10,958
Trade creditors 2,644 4,395 1,052 1,498
Jamboree deferred income - 12,186 - 12,186
Othercreditors 5,316 4,188 **4,494 ** 4,161
7,960 31,727 5,546 28,803
Movement in Jamboree deferred income Consolidated and The Association
2024
£’000
Balance at 31 March 2023 12,186
Released (12,186)
Balance at 31 March 2024 -

Jamboree deferred income was in respect of the World Scout Jamboree which took place in August 2023 (see note 23).

The Short Term Investment Scheme was dissolved during the year. All deposits held by the Association were released back to the Scout Groups (note 16).

Other creditors includes £845k (2023: £nil) of legal fees which will be reimbursed by insurers (see note 15)

18. Provisions for liabilities and contingent liabilities

Consolidated and The Association Claims
provision
£’000
Movements for the year to 31 March 2024
Balance at 31 March 2023 3,465
Provision utilised (1,190)
Provision released (3,450)
Additional provision 5,539
Balance at 31 March 2024 4,364
Movements for the year to 31 March 2023
Balance at 31 March 2022 4,318
Provision utilised (1,209)
Provision released (2,816)
Additional provision 3,172
Balance at 31 March 2023 3,465

The Association puts young people first and their safeguarding and safety is paramount, but with the nature of our work there are claims made against the Association. Taking account of legal advice, provision is made on a best estimates basis for those claims of which the Association is aware and for which it is assessed it is probable that the Association will be liable and to the extent that they can be reliably measured. Such claims are covered in part by commercial insurance policies. The amount receivable from insurers of £3.3m (2023: £2.0m) to the extent that provision has been made is included in debtors (see note 15).

In addition it is the Association’s experience that incidents and/or claims may still be notified to the Association for events which occurred prior to 31 March 2024. In some cases, particularly regarding safeguarding or abuse claims, these may be made many years after the original event. Since the nature of any such incident or claim is not yet known, it is not possible for the Association to determine whether it is probable that the Association will be held liable or to estimate the amount of any consequential outflow of economic benefits. Therefore there exists an unquantifiable contingent liability in respect of such incidents and/or claims. Taking into account such insurance cover as is available, the Association is satisfied that any such claims that might arise would not present a significant financial risk to the Association.

62

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

19. Fund Balances

a. Reconciliation of movement in funds

Balance Balance
1 April Gains and 31 March
2023 Income Expenditure Transfers losses 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Group and charity
Endowment funds
1914 Endowment Fund 1,013 44 - (44) 57 1,070
King George VI Leadership Fund 758 33 - - 42 833
All other funds 334 16 - (5) 19 364
2,105 93 - (49) 118 2,267
Restricted funds
International Fund 154 6 (20) - - 140
Benevolent Fund 39 2 - - - 41
Benevolent Fund – Squirrels in the Nations 67 - (15) - - 52
Cornwell Memorial 199 8 (1) - - 206
Gilwell Development 97 9 (2) (99) - 5
Pears Foundation Big Lottery Fund 59 - - - - 59
Financial Capabilities (HSBC UK) 100 85 (50) (61) - 74
DfE Diamond Fund 6 (6) - - - -
Pears Volunteer Onboarding 35 - (32) (3) - -
Nominet - Digital Skills Framework 66 - (24) - - 42
Kickstarter (DWP) Project 2 - - (2) - -
Training and Permits Fund - 30 - - - 30
Outdoor Adventure Fund - 20 - - - 20
Local Development Funds 676 263 (561) (38) - 340
DCMS - 2,681 (2,692) - - (11)
Welcome Centre 718 195 - 8 - 921
Individual Giving 1,565 925 (262) (8) - 2,220
All other funds 161 496 (592) 105 - 170
3,944 4,714 (4,251) (98) - 4,309
Designated funds
Fixed assets 26,677 - - 3,204 - 29,881
Inclusion and Solidarity Fund (see note 23) 1,021 - - (1,021) - -
Gilwell Park buildings 149 - (17) - - 132
Hardship Fund 6 - (4) - - 2
27,853 - (21) 2,183 - 30,015
Unrestricted funds
General funds 49,812 40,014 (47,023) (2,036) 1,378 42,145
Pension reserve 2,008 - (103) - 823 2,728
51,820 40,014 (47,126) (2,036) 2,201 44,873
Total charity funds 85,722 44,821 (51,398) (0) 2,319 81,464
Group
Non-charitable trading funds
Trading subsidiaries 915 8,912 (8,805) - - 1,022
915 8,912 (8,805) - - 1,022
Total group funds 86,637 53,733 (60,203) (0) 2,319 82,486

63

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

19. Fund Balances continued

a. Reconciliation of movement in funds for 2022/23

Balance Balance
1 April Gains and 31 March
2022 Income Expenditure Transfers losses 2023
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Group and charity
Endowment funds
1914 Endowment Fund 1,056 43 - - (86) 1,013
King George VI Leadership Fund 789 32 - - (63) 758
All other funds 349 14 - - (29) 334
2,194 89 - - (178) 2,105
Restricted funds
International Fund 158 6 (10) - - 154
Benevolent Fund 39 2 (2) - - 39
Benevolent Fun - Squirrels in the Nations 90 - (23) - - 67
Cornwell Memorial 193 8 (2) - - 199
Gilwell Development 143 (1) (45) - - 97
Pears Foundation Big Lottery Fund 59 - - - - 59
Green Recovery Fund (YHA) 10 - (10) - - -
Mercers Early Years 4 - (4) - - -
Financial Capabilities (HSBC UK) 142 - (42) - - 100
DfE Diamond Fund 6 - - - - 6
Pears Volunteer Onboarding 63 356 (384) - - 35
Nominet - Digital Skills Framework 149 - (83) - - 66
Safeguarding during COVID-19 (NLCF) 10 - (10) - - -
Kickstarter (DWP) Project (9) 118 (107) - - 2
Digital Skills (CAST) 2 - (2) - - -
Recovery Fund Nations Support (Pears) 7 - (7) - - -
Local Development Funds 633 1,463 (1,871) 451 - 676
DCMS - 947 (947) - -
Welcome Centre 263 455 - - - 718
Individual Giving 1,856 9 (300) - - 1,565
All other funds 148 469 (176) (280) - 161
3,966 3,832 (4,025) 171 - 3,944
Designated funds
Fixed assets 24,354 - - 2,323 - 26,677
Inclusion and Solidarity Fund 1,060 - (4) (35) - 1,021
Future growth 8 1 - (9) - -
Gilwell Park buildings 149 - - - - 149
Hardship Fund 199 (1) (192) - - 6
25,770 - (196) 2,279 - 27,853
Unrestricted funds
General funds 57,353 23,175 (23,881) (6,069) (766) 49,812
Pension reserve (1,429) - (193) 3,619 11 2,008
55,924 23,175 (24,074) (2,450) (755) 51,820
Total charity funds 87,854 27,096 (28,295) (0) (933) 85,722
Group
Non-charitable trading funds
Trading subsidiaries 434 9,194 (8,713) - - 915
434 9,194 (8,713) - - 915
Total group funds 88,288 36,290 (37,008) (0) (933) 86,637
64

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

19. Fund Balances continued

b. Endowment funds - Consolidated and the Association

Endowment funds include the 1914 Endowment Fund, the King George VI Leadership Fund and 6 (2023: 6) other funds administered by the Association. Income from the 1914 Endowment Fund and two others is unrestricted and credited to the General Fund. Income from the King George VI Leadership Fund and three others is restricted and income from the remaining fund is paid to an external Scouting beneficiary.

c. Restricted funds - Consolidated and the Association

The main restricted funds are shown in note 19 and 19(a), comprising national and local development funds.

The Welcome Centre Fund is the largest individual restricted fund with a balance of £921,612 (2023: £718,002). This is funding to be used to build a Welcome Centre at Gilwell Park.

Further details of the funds available, and the process of applying to them for grants, are to be found at www.scouts.org.uk/grants.

d. Designated funds - Consolidated and the Association

The fixed asset fund represents the value of the Association’s tangible fixed assets, goodwill & licences, and heritage assets.

The Inclusion and Solidarity fund has been agreed to fund the losses incurred on the Jamboree in 2023 (see note 23).

e. Analysis of net assets between funds

e. Analysis of net assets between funds
31 March 2024 Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Intangible fxed assets 5,407 - - 5,407
Heritage assets 3,939 - - 3,939
Tangible fxed assets 21,086 - - 21,086
Investments 30,577 - 2,267 32,844
Current assets 24,497 4,309 - 28,806
Creditors (7,960) - - (7,960)
Provisions for liabilities (4,364) - - (4,364)
Pension asset 2,728 - - 2,728
75,910 4,309 2,267 82,486
31 March 2023 Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Intangible fxed assets 4,056 - - 4,056
Heritage assets 3,939 - - 3,939
Tangible fxed assets 19,226 - - 19,226
Investments 39,432 - 2,105 41,537
Current assets 36,161 14,902 - 51,063
Creditors (20,769) (10,958) - (31,727)
Provisions for liabilities (3,465) - - (3,465)
Pension liability 2,008 - - 2,008
80,588 3,944 2,105 86,637

65

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

20. Other financial commitments and authorised expenditure

2024 2023
£’000 £’000
At 31 March 2024, the Group had the following minimum lease payment obligations under non-cancellable operating leases.
Not later than one year 185 233
Later than oneyear and not later than fveyears 238 422
Total 423 655

The total lease payments, included within the financial statements for the year were £271,063 (2023: £134,956).

At 31 March 2024 there was capital expenditure authorised but not committed of £606,083 (2023: £1,343,689).

21. Events occurring after the reporting period

There have been no material events occurring after the reporting period.

22. Related party transactions

Expenses and remuneration paid to the Trustees are disclosed in notes 6 and 7 respectively.

Transactions with the defined benefit pension scheme are disclosed in note 7a.

Transactions with subsidiaries:

Entity
Sales made by
TSA to
relatedparty
Management
charges to
relatedparty
Purchases
from related
party		 Amounts due
from related
party at
31 March 2024
Amounts due
to related
party at
31 March 2024







£’000
£’000
£’000
Scout Shops Limited
-
70
-
Scout Services Limited
-
-
-
Scout Insurance Services Limited
-
-
110
Scout Products Limited
-
11
470		 £’000
£’000
3,560
-
961
-
1,031
-
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-

23. Jamboree

23. Jamboree
2024 2023
£'000 £'000
Income 14,146 148
Expenditure (15,958) (559)
(1,812) (411)

The total cumulative loss from Jamboree was £2.4 million. 2022: £140k; 2023: £411k and 2024: £1.8 million.

The 25th World Scout Jamboree was held in South Korea in August 2023. It is an international gathering of Scouts and Guides from all around the world, and hosts more than 40,000 young people and volunteers.

To safeguard the UK 4,500 strong Contingent the decision was made to leave the Jamboree site early and relocate to Seoul (see pages 3, 4, and 24).

The Board agreed to fund part of the loss from the Inclusion and Solidarity Fund (note 19).

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Our members

Census results for the year ending 31 January 2024

Youthmembership Male Female Self- Prefer not Total Notes
identify tosay
SquirrelScouts 11,661 4,917 6 107 16,691
Beaver Scouts 84,595 25,578 43 832 111,048
CubScouts 106,103 35,010 44 762 141,919
Scouts 91,465 36,516 165 529 128,675
ExplorerScouts 29,904 15,812 393 240 46,349
NetworkMembers 4,602 2,723 41 61 7,427 1
Total Youth Membership 328,330 120,556 692 2,531 452,109
Adult membership (listing the main role category for each adultvolunteer)
Section leadership teammembers 42,896 40,577 174 145 83,792
Leadershiproles 4,278 2,238 6 1 6,523 3
Governanceroles 13,818 15,000 4 31 28,853 4
Supportroles 15,111 10,934 23 103 26,171 5
Total Adult Membership 76,103 68,749 207 280 145,339
Total membership 404,443 189,305 899 2,811 597,448
Scouts in the UK is made up of
Squirrel Scout Dreys 1,275
Beaver ScoutColonies 7,017
Cub ScoutPacks 7,495
ScoutTroops 6,903
Explorer Scout Units, including Young Leader Units 2,990
ScoutNetworks 528
Scout Active SupportUnits 1,621
Groups 7,007
Districts 627
Counties, Regions (Scottish), Areas,Islands 90

  1. Of the 7,427 Scout Network members, 5,448 also have another ‘adult’ role (in a Section leadership, Governance, Leadership or Support role). This means the total number of Network members is 12,875.

  2. Explorer Scout Young Leaders (aged 14–17) are included in the Explorer Scout numbers above. However, they’re also counted as members of Section Leadership Teams, so they’re included in the total Section Leadership Teams membership of 98,268.

  3. Leadership roles are responsible for effective operation of their charity (the Scout Group, the Scout District, County, Nations), so we can meet our charitable objectives. They are Group Scout Leaders, District Explorer Scout Commissioners and District Scout Network Commissioners, District Commissioners, County Commissioners, Area Commissioners (Wales), Region Commissioners (Scotland), Island Commissioners, Bailiwick Commissioners and Branch Commissioners (where formally part of our federated structure).

  4. Governance roles form the membership of each charity’s Board of Trustees or Executive Committee, together with any subcommittees. Each Board of Trustees is responsible for making sure the charity achieves its strategic direction. The 28,853 Governance roles don’t include the volunteers who have an Ex-Officio Trustee role (for example Leadership roles described in note 3, Youth Commissioners and others).

  5. Support roles are vital for helping volunteer line managers run Scouts and support Districts, Counties/Areas/Scottish Regions and Nations HQs to operate effectively.

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How we operate

How we operate

The Scout Association exists by authority of a Royal Charter granted by King George V in 1912 and supplemented by further Charters granted by King George VI and HM Queen Elizabeth II. These Charters give authority to the Bye-Laws of The Scout Association, which are approved by His Majesty’s Privy Council.

The Bye Laws, in turn, authorise the making of rules for the regulation of The Scout Association’s affairs. The rules are laid out in the Association’s Policy, Organisation and Rules.

This report and financial statements cover the activities directly controlled by The Scout Association – charity numbers 306101 (England and Wales) and SCO38437 (Scotland). This includes its five wholly owned subsidiary companies – Scout Shops Limited, Scout Insurance Services Limited, Scout Services Limited, Scout Products Limited and World Scout Shop Limited (see note 12 to the financial statements for further information on these companies).

The activities of the Scout Councils of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales together with Scout Counties, Areas, Regions (Scotland), Districts and Groups aren’t reflected in this report and accounts. These bodies are separate organisations affiliated to The Scout Association, which together form the Scout movement in the United Kingdom.

The Board’s responsibility includes policy making and overseeing risk management. It delegates the day-today management of The Scout Association to the Chief Executive and UK Chief Volunteer, who work with the UK Leadership Team, the UK Youth Lead and her team, and the Executive Leadership Team who manage our employed staff.

The Board has six Committees which report to it and delegates certain functions to them (Strategy and Delivery, Finance, People and Culture, Nominations and Governance, Safeguarding, and Safety). The Board appoints Trustees to serve on these Committees annually, with the Committee Chair having a three-year term, subject to performance and their continuation as a Trustee. The Board met nine times formally during 2023–24. In that time, the Board met on a number of occasions to receive briefings on important issues when necessary.

Policies and rules

At The Scout Association, we have a comprehensive set of policies and rules applicable to the movement. These policies and rules are regularly reviewed by senior volunteers, senior management and staff employed across the UK.

We’re committed to giving young people and adult volunteers the best possible experience in Scouts. To help us achieve this, we follow several key policies, so we can make sure Scouts keeps growing in a way that’s safe, accessible, and free from discrimination.

Our key policies include:

The Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees manage The Scout Association’s business. The Board has 20 members:

The Board of Trustees. The percentages indicate the number of eligible Board meetings each member attended. The Board met 10 times formally in the reportable period. Six were extraordinary meetings.

We give an induction for all new Trustees. All Trustees take part in training and development opportunities throughout the year.

In 2023–24, Trustees took part in training and development sessions, which focused on one or more areas related to The Scout Association’s business, including:

  1. Safeguarding

  2. Safety

  3. Finance

  4. Privacy and Data Protection Policy

  5. Religious Policy

  6. Vetting Policy

  7. Youth Member Anti-Bullying Policy

Risk management

The Board of Trustees is responsible for identifying, assessing, and managing the risks of The Scout Association and its subsidiaries. The Board of Trustees and its committees operate a comprehensive risk management process to make sure appropriate steps are taken to manage and mitigate governance, external, operational (including safety and safeguarding), legal/ regulatory and financial risks. Scouts activities require risk identification and its reasonable mitigation to make sure our charitable objectives are achieved.

68

The process involves the identification and grouping of the risks The Scout Association faces, both directly and indirectly, through the activities of the movement more generally. It includes evaluating the risks in terms of their potential impact and likelihood to occur, as well as considering the Association’s appetite for those risks, and identifying means whereby they can be mitigated and managed.

Responsibility for risk management is assigned to members of the Executive Leadership Team, UK Leadership Team (senior volunteers) and Chairs of the Board’s reporting committees, as well as the Boards of its subsidiaries.

The Board reviews its major risks throughout the year. The safety and safeguarding of young people involved in Scouts are our highest priorities.

Other major risks to the organisation include:

Risk Appetite

The Board reviews the risk appetite of each corporate level risk annually to determine the individual tolerance level, and what happens when thresholds are breached, and the appropriate and immediate remedial action to bring any issue back into risk tolerance levels.

While accepting risk in Scouts activities can never be entirely eliminated, we are committed to ensuring that activities are planned and undertaken to the highest levels of quality and safety. Given the nature of the activities undertaken, we seek to continuously minimise the potential for serious harm to be caused to young people and members to the greatest extent feasible, and where incidents or near misses do occur we are committed to learn from such events and develop our approaches through continuous improvement.

However, The Scout Association has a high appetite for opportunities for membership growth and would be comfortable taking more risk in this area.

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Fundraising: our approach

We’re incredibly grateful to the donors and partners who give so generously to Scouts. It’s thanks to their support that we can bring skills for life to so many young people, and it’s vital to our future success.

Following legislation

We’re registered with the Fundraising Regulator and follow its Code of Fundraising Practice, and we’re a member of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising. Our charity lottery launched in December 2023 and is regulated by the Gambling Commission.

We make sure all staff involved in fundraising are aware of the need to follow relevant fundraising legislation and codes of practice. We’re not aware of any failure to comply during the year – by our staff or our Commercial Participators.

Personal data and privacy

We take the protection of our donors’ personal data very seriously.

Corporate partners

We have Commercial Participator Agreements with corporate partners who sponsor some of our programme activities.

We monitor any fundraising activities that our partners do on our behalf, and there’s a provision in all our partnership contracts for doing so. This is usually through regular meetings, feedback and agreeing to give access to more information if it’s needed.

Where corporate partners are sponsors, but they’re not taking part in any direct public fundraising, access to further information isn’t always necessary.

In all our Commercial Participator Agreements, our partners agree to protect vulnerable people from any intrusion of their privacy, and to not make any unreasonable approaches to, or put pressure on, any vulnerable person to give money. This is included even if they’re not undertaking any direct public fundraising.

We’ve received two complaints about our fundraising activity this year. We responded to the complainants within one week with an explanation of our approach. We’re committed to investigating complaints and resolving them with the complainant.

  1. This year we were awarded £500,000 by Postcode Children Trust as part of a new partnership, thanks to support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

  2. In our first full year of funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Uniformed Youth Fund, we were able to create over 4,300 new places for young people in under-served communities.

  3. As well as sponsoring our Scouts Adventure Challenge Award, our new partner Dacia have provided an Outdoor Adventure Fund, available to all sections looking for financial support for an adventure.

  4. We launched our Scouts Lottery in December, a new way for supporters to donate, with the chance of winning a cash prize.

We welcome legacies, grant funding and donations, which appear in our accounts as ‘voluntary income.’

70

As well as supporting our Scouts Adventure Challenge Award, our new partner Dacia have provided an Outdoor Adventure Fund for all Sections who need financial support for their adventure.

In our first full year of funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Uniformed Youth Fund, we were able to create over 4,300 new places for young people in underserved communities.

Governance structure and Board membership – 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024

Founder

Robert Baden-Powell, OM, First Baron Baden-Powell of Gilwell

Patron

His Majesty The King

Presidents

Her Royal Highness, The Princess of Wales, GCVO

His Royal Highness, The Duke of Kent, KG, GCMG, GCVO

Vice Presidents

Wayne Bulpitt CBE Peter Duncan George Purdy CBE Tim Kidd OBE

Chief Scout

Lt Col (Hon) Bear Grylls RM OBE

The Board of Trustees

The percentages indicate the number of eligible Board meetings each member attended. The Board met 9 times formally in the reportable period. Six were extraordinary meetings.

1 = Finance Committee Member 2 = Strategy and Delivery Committee Member

3 = Nominations and Governance Committee Member 4 = People and Culture Committee Member 5 = Safeguarding Committee Member 6 = Safety Committee Member

Trustees (voting)

Mike Ashley (89 %) 1, Treasurer, Chair of the Finance Committee Nigel Ball (89%) 1 David Branagh (100%) 1, 4 (until September 2023) Craig Dewar-Willox (100%) 3, 5, Vice Chair of the Board from September 2023 Paul Dickson (67%) 4 (from September 2023) Liam Edgely (44%) 3 (from September 2023) Joseph Fletcher (78%) 4 (from September 2023)

Graham Haddock (78%) 2, 3 Carl Hankinson (89%) 2, 3, UK Chief Volunteer Gareth Jones (89%) 3, Vice Chair (until September 2023) Ayesha Karim (67%) 2, 3, UK Youth Lead Sharon Lee (78%) 6, Chair of Safety Committee Ella MacLeod (50%) 4 (until September 2023) Kate Marks (100%) 2, 6 Jake Myatt (67%) 3 Peter Oliver OBE (89%) 2, Chair of Strategy and Delivery Committee Jordan Pidwell (100%) 6 Jennie Price CBE (100%) 3, Chair of the Board David Sandall (78%) 5, Chair of Safeguarding Committee Busola Sodeinde (67%) 4 Liz Walker (89%) 3 Ollie Wood (100%) 1 Matt Hyde OBE (100%) 2, 3, Chief Executive

Right of attendance (non-voting)

The Chief Scout, the Deputy Chief Scout, the International Commissioner, any Country/Regional/County/Area Commissioner or Chair and Chief Commissioner.

Executive Leadership Team and Committee membership

Chloe Kembery 2, Executive Director of Marketing and Fundraising Tim Kidd 2, Interim Executive Director of Operations (until August 2023) Mark Hislop 2, Executive Director of Commercial Services Kris Murali 1, 2, Executive Director of Finance and Resources (until December 2023) Yvonne Smithers, 1, 2, Interim Executive Director of Finance and Resources (until April 2024) Philippa Ward 2, Executive Director of Strategy and Transformation Matthew Killick BEM 2, Executive Director of Operations (from July 2023)

Members of the Executive Leadership Team have rights of attendance at all meetings of the Board and its Committees. Apart from the Nominations and Governance Committee, all Board Committees have appointed the

Trustee members indicated above for their specialist skills, plus one or more non-Trustee members. There’s at least one member under the age of 25 contributing to each Committee.

Our advisers

Auditors

Crowe U.K. LLP 4th Floor St James House St James Square Cheltenham GL50 3PR

Bankers

Barclays Bank plc 1 Churchill Place London E14 5HP

Investment Managers

Cazenove Capital Management London Wall Place London EC2Y 5AU

Sarasin & Partners UK Sarasin House 37-39 St Andrews Hill London EC4V 5DD

Pension advisers

ENTRUST Ship Canal House 98 King Street Manchester M2 4WU

Communications

Portland Bankside 2 90-100 Southwark St London SE1 0SW

Solicitors

Bates Wells LLP 10 Queen Street Place London EC4R 1BE

Kennedys 25 Fenchurch Avenue London EC3M 5AD

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Our thanks

We’d like to thank all our volunteers and supporters for their commitment and contributions over the last year. Special thanks go to those mentioned here.

Our valued partners

Airfix Cadent, SGN, Northern Gas Networks and Wales & West Utilities – Gas Distribution Networks Dacia Disney Dungeons and Dragons Get Into Teaching GO Outdoors Gravity Gulliver’s Fun Resorts HSBC UK Institute of Electrical Engineering and Technology JD Foundation Lawn Tennis Association Magic the Gathering Nominet UK ODEON Pets at Home Raspberry Pi Foundation Rolls Royce Royal Airforce Royal Navy Royal Marines Speedy Hire The British Army The Green Tree Badge The Rail Industry UK Power Networks UK Space Agency Victorinox Warhammer Zoom

Special thanks to

Odile Granter Marshall and Kimberly Hollis Dr Michael and Mrs Gale Kesseler Charles Wilson and Rowena Olegario We’d also like to thank our Gilwell Fellows, UK Fellows, 1st Gilwell Park and Campfire Circle supporters, London Marathon runners, as well as everybody who generously gives and raises money on our behalf throughout the year.

Our valued funders

Aziz Foundation Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Dudley and Geoffrey Cox Charitable Trust Garfield Weston Foundation Islamic Relief UK Jack Petchey Foundation Leslie Sell Charitable Trust The Mercers’ Company Charity Masonic Charitable Foundation National Lottery Community Fund Pears Foundation Privy Purse Charitable Trust Sir John Fisher Foundation The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award The Worshipful Company of Shipwrights #iWill Fund Community Impact – ‘A Million Hands’ partners The British Red Cross Crisis InspireMind National Autistic Society Save the Children Scottish Association of Mental Health

The Simon Community NI World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Other charity partners British Youth Council Girlguiding UK National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) The Together Coalition Youth United Foundation

Scout Ambassadors

Steve Backshall MBE Julia Bradbury Warwick Davis Chris Evans Dwayne Fields Megan Hine Helen Glover MBE Saray Khumalo Tim Peake CMG Anita Rani Ellie Simmonds OBE Ed Stafford

Scout Adventurers

Darren Clarkson-King Sean Conway Karen Darke MBE Joe Doherty Alastair Humphreys Laura Jones Rhys Jones Poldy van Lynden Mahroof Malik Robert McArthur Sal Montgomery Ben Saunders Phoebe Smith Mark Wood

74

Investors in People

In 2023, we sustained our Investors in People accreditation after being awarded the Gold standard in 2022.

We’re proud that our survey results from our employees are higher than the national average. The assessor congratulated us on strong employee engagement and how high a percentage of our staff team think Scouts is a great place to work. Our line managers were particularly praised for the support they offer their teams through regular one-to-ones.

The survey highlighted that we could improve our reward and recognition offering, and to invest in development for employees seeking to enhance their leadership capabilities. Since the 2023 survey, we’ve taken action to address these recommendations as part of our continued commitment to providing a great workplace experience. Our next full assessment will take place in 2025.

The Scout Association

Charity numbers 306101 (England and Wales) SCO38437 (Scotland)

Registered address Gilwell Park, Chingford London, E4 7QW Contact us info.centre@scouts.org.uk