5[th ] ANTRIM (ALL SAINTS) SCOUT GROUP CHARITY REG NUMBER: NIC103768
TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 1[st ] APRIL 2022 -31[st ] MARCH 2023
Our organisation is based at:
All Saints Parish Centre, Railway St, Antrim, Co. Antrim, BT41 4AE
• Our current charity trustees since 18[th ] August 2015 are:
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Kristy Melissa Robinson (Group Scout Leader)
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Venerable Dr Stephen Richard McBride (Assistant Group Scout Leader)
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Fiona Patricia Simpson (Group Treasurer)
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Amanda Jayne McClelland (Hon Sec) (since 1[st ] May 2018)
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Raymond McCune (Chairman (since 2[nd] May 2023)
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Our governing document is: The Royal Charter of the Scout Association 4[th ] January 1912, as amended by supplemental charters dated 28/03/1949, 18/02/1959, 05/05/1967 and 19/07/1991
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Purposes of our charity: Promoting 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
• Public and Private Benefit of our charity:
❖ THE TRUSTEES HAVE HAD REGARD TO THE CHARITY COMMISSION’S PUBLIC BENEFIT REQUIREMENT STATUTORY GUIDANCE
1. The benefit which flows from our purpose is that young people are empowered to make a positive contribution to society through being engaged and supported in their personal development, including physically, intellectually, socially and spiritually.
2. This benefit is demonstrated through Scouting making a positive impact in our communities; preparing young people to be active citizens; embracing and contributing to social change; being as diverse as the communities in which we operate. These are evidenced by feedback from our beneficiaries and the wider community.
3. There is no harm arising from our purposes. Scouting operates within a framework of safety to enable young people to take part in adventurous activities safely.
4. Scouting’s beneficiaries are children and young people.
5. The only private benefit from this purpose is that Adult Volunteers are trained to deliver the programme, but this is incidental and necessary because it is needed to operate in today’s society, when working with young people.
• Main activities to further purposes for public benefit:
Scouting actively engages and supports young people in their personal development, empowering them to make a positive contribution to society.
• Main achievements in the year: (Group Scout Leader’s Report)
The past year has seen 5[th] Antrim go back to our normal routines after all the upheaval and uncertainty of the past few years. It has been so nice to just come in every week and get on with the business of Scouting the way we do best.
Membership has decreased since the same period last year. As of April 2022, Scouting enrolment stands at 32 young people over 4 sections; 7 Explorer Scouts, 10 Scouts, 8 Cubs and 7 Beavers. This is down by a total of 8 members since this time last year.
Our current leadership team consists of Abbie and Catherine in Beavers with Young Leaders Jordan and Lauren assisting. This new Beaver team has hit the ground running and settled into their roles with ease. In the Cub Section we have Claire, Amanda and Corey with Young Leader Kai helping and former Scout Troy volunteering as part of his Duke of Edinburgh award. In Scouts and Explorers there are currently 3 uniformed leaders, Stephen, Joe and Nick, supported by Peter and Ian.
As you heard in our Group Treasurer’s report, our bank balance has returned to good health. We made the difficult decision to increase weekly subs as an increase in annual fees to Scout headquarters combined with the cost of basic programme essentials meant we had little choice. This was the first increase in weekly fees since our group started over 10 years ago. I would like to thank Group Treasurer Fiona Simpson for her continual commitment to ensuring our accounts are kept to the highest standards and for filling in countless bureaucratic funding applications.
Badgework continues to be the main focus for most sections. Beavers have been awarded 90 badges in past 12 months. These include Teamwork, Cook, Creative,
Disability Awareness, Gardener, Health & Fitness, Hobbies, International, Explore, Safety, Sports and Hikes.
Members of the Cub section have continued to engage in a full and busy programme of badgework since September earning an impressive 142 badges in the following areas; Outdoors, Team Leader, World, Artist, Book Reader, Collector, Communicator, Environmental Conservation, Fire Safety, International, Local Knowledge, My Faith, Emergency Aid and Time on Water.
In addition, we were delighted to award 7 Cubs with the Chief Scout’s Silver Award which is the top award in the section.
The Scout section also had a successful year of badgework with 106 badges being awarded over the course of the year. Badges earned included Adventure, Creative, Outdoors, Teamwork, Team Leader, Farming, Model Maker, Orienteering, Emergency Aid and Time on Water.
The Explorer section is based on life skills rather than earning badges. On a weekly basis, our Explorers join in with Scout activities and a few of them are going through Young Leader Training. Weekly attendance can be difficult with GCSE study understandably taking priority. On a District level our Explorers have taken part in numerous activities, the most recent being a day at Escaramouche. The highpoint was a weekend camp at Claddagh Glen, Co Fermanagh with a gruelling hike up the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ to the top of Cuilcagh Mountain. Unfortunately, the weather was horrendous and by all accounts it was more of a stairway to Hell, so as GSL I want to express how proud I am of all our Explorers for working as a team to make sure everyone helped each other get to the top and complete the hike safely.
The coming year will see some significant changes to the structure of Scouting throughout the UK. All leader roles will be redefined to reflect the fact that we are all volunteers who work together as a team to provide a positive experience for all our young people. There will be changes to the structure of the Executive Committee which we will attend to in due course.
I would like to thank all our leaders for their commitment over the past year and you, the parents for supporting your children to complete Scouting activities throughout the year. We are fortunate to have such enthusiastic volunteers, parents and young people. We would love to see some new leaders joining the
team in our Beaver and Cub sections so that we can welcome some new members, so if you or someone you know would like to be part of the team, please come and have a chat.
Kristy Robinson 2[nd] May 2023
Group Scout Leader
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REVIEW OF OUR CHARITY’S FINANCIAL POSITION AS OF 31[st] MARCH 2023
Our finances are robust, in spite of a reduction in membership resulting from the pandemic.
Our membership fees and therefore Gift Aid refunds are considerably less than we would have expected pre Covid but they are both anticipated to improve.
(We claimed back £583.90 in Gift Aid for 3 years up to December 2022.) The Education Authority gave out a considerable amount of grant money over the pandemic but we were unable to spend it all so we had to refund £1654 in 2022-3 financial year for unspent monies for the previous year. That completely negated the £1600 grant we received last year.
However, in spite of all that ,we have ended up with more or less the same amount of moneys in the bank that we started with in April 2022.
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Fiona Simpson Hon Treasurer 02/05/2023
AGREED BY ALL TRUSTEES
SIGNED BY TRUSTEE FIONA SIMPSON (5[th] ANTRIM SCOUT GROUP TREASURER) Fiona Simpson 02/05/2023