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2026-03-31-accounts

GALLOWAY SCOUTS DISTRICT COUNCIL

TRUSTEES REPORT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31[ST] MARCH 2026 REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER – SCO15674

GALLOWAY DISTRICT SCOUTS TRUSTEE BOARD

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

Scottish Registered Charity Number

SCO 15674

Charity Trustees members of the Trustee Board

Christine Rankin Chair & Support Team Andrew Low President David Shepherd Treasurer Nigel Scott Trustee & Support Team Lead Lesley Adamson Trustee & Development Team Alan Sidaway Trustee Marion Gourley Trustee George Ling District Lead Volunteer Chelsea Wilkinson District Lead Volunteer

Retiring at AGM

Retiring at AGM Retiring at AGM

Retired - February, 2026 Appointed - December 2025

David Adamson Minute Secretary

Ex-officio Members

John Allison Regional Lead Volunteer Margaret Craik Regional Chair Teresa Jaffery Regional Chair

Retired January 2026

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER

Robert Hope Woodlands, Cally Gatehouse of Fleet DG7 2DJ

BANKERS

Bank of Scotland King Street, Castle Douglas

CONTACT ADDRESS

c/o The Treasurer, Auchenlea, Quarry Road, Kippford, DG5 4LL

GALLOWAY DISTRICT SCOUT COUNCIL TRUSTEE BOARD

REPORT TO THE SCOUT COUNCIL

The members of the Trustee Board present their annual report together with financial statements for the year ending 31[st] March, 2026

Structure and Governance

In terms of the Charities and Trustees Investment Act (Scotland) 2006 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006, the Board reports to the Scout Council as follows:-

Constitution and Purpose

Galloway District Scout Council is constituted in terms of the rules of the Scout Association which is a charitable body incorporated by Royal Charter. The District is a registered Scottish Charity and its number is SC015674.

Scouting exists to actively engage and support young people in their personal development, empowering them to make a positive contribution to society

Appointment of Members

Trustees are recruited and appointed in accordance with the Policy, Organisation and Rules (“POR”) of the Scout Association and the Constitution of the Galloway District Scout Council to serve a three year term being re-elected a maximum of three times.

Trustees’ Annual Report Year Ended 31 March 2026

Activities and Achievements

The District Trustee Board whose members are detailed on a preceding page, meets on a quarterly basis and at their Annual General Meeting. Extra meetings are called as and when they are required.

At the AGM on 21[st] May, 2025 the Scout Association Model Constitution, with Scottish variations was formally adopted. The number of Trustees, their length of service and what constituted a quorum were all agreed and minuted. The Trustee Board is responsible for Governance and ensuring the Groups are well supported and advised. A number of Trustees will be stepping down having served three years on the Trustee Board or previously on the Executive Committee. Unfortunately, the usual Leaders Gathering run by the District Support Team was not able to go ahead due to a clash with a Regional Event. However, a Skills Workshop Day was arranged instead and a number of Group Leaders were able to take advantage of this. The Development Team are working on providing Nights Away Training for those Leaders that require it, as well as First Response Training and ensuring the new PVG Guidelines are implemented.

We are grateful to George Ling who took on the District Lead Volunteer Role and we thank him for his support, he has now retired and Chelsea Wilkinson has been appointed to replace him in that position. All Groups now have Trustee Boards and Chelsea has been visiting Groups to offer support where required. John Allison Regional Lead Volunteer, has been advising a group who are planning an overseas trip this year and Chelsea is continuing to help them. The District has pledged £2000 towards the trip. Regional Chair Margaret Craik who regularly attended the Trustee Board meeting to give help and advice has also retired from her Regional Role and she will be greatly missed. The new Regional Chair is Teresa Jaffrey. The Trustees have also been ensuring that all Groups that are registered charities are complying with OSCR requirements and that all Leader and Trustee training is being kept up to date. A recent publication from the Scout Association entitled ‘Regulatory Advice and Guidance to All Trustees of the Scout Movement on Implementation of Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) Report Commitments’ has been discussed and noted. The Risk Register has been updated as required. All District Trustees training is up to date.

The sale of Urr Scout Hall did not conclude as expected due to concerns by the purchaser’s solicitor on the title deeds, this has caused the District considerable additional expense in continuing to insure the building and pay electricity standing charges. However, a Deed of Trust has now been registered and the sale is due to be completed on 27[th] April. As a result of this delay and that the new District Lead Volunteer considers there

is no need for this role, the application for funding to employ a District Growth and Communities Officer for Galloway has not gone ahead.

The District Trustee Board is conscious of the need for Succession Planning and to this aim it is hoped that the new District Lead Volunteer assists in this endeavour.

Shorefield Camp site has been de-commissioned and equipment distributed to groups that required it.

Reserves Policy

The trustees believe that around twelve months of annual expenditure is an appropriate level of unrestricted reserves in order to cover the timing differences between receipts and payments and to allow for any unexpected expenditure. The conclusion of the sale of Haugh of Urr Scout Hall will see the District with a healthy bank balance, even with the funds that will be ‘ring fenced’ for any future Scout Groups that should be set up.

Christine Rankin

Galloway District Trustee Board Chair

Development Team Report

The revised online PVG renewal system is working reasonably well for new and existing adults. The requirement to request disclosures for Young Leaders (aged between 16 and 18) is now mandatory. This is more challenging, but progress is being made.

New leaders have been appointed in Kirkcudbright and Dalbeattie during the year. The required “Welcome Conversation” is easier to organise than the old Appointments Committee system, however, there remains a problem in recording them correctly on the new system.

Training

A recent First Aid course was well attended by leaders from Minnigaff and one from Dalbeattie. Greenfield Nights Away Permits were awarded to Emma Green and Kevin Lesser during the year.

Lesley Adamson Administrator Development Team

District Support Team Report

The District Support Team was morphed from The Galloway Scout Active Support Unit which normally held numbers in the low teens.

With the implementation of The Scout Association’s Transformation our numbers have dwindled to 4 members.

Due to Southwest Region holding an event in January, Galloway District was unable to hold it’s annual Leader’s Gathering. The Leader’s Gathering, an event that had been running annually for some 36 years is where the District’s annual events calendar was always discussed and arrangements put in place for the year ahead. As this event didn’t take place there have been no requests to the Support Team for assistance or support. However the Support Team did arrange and run a “Skills Afternoon” during March which was deemed to be a worthwhile event.

The Scout Active Support Unit account with The Royal Bank of Scotland was closed on 26[th] March 2026 and all funds transferred to Galloway District Scout Council’s account. The amount transferred was £1630:77 which gave a zero (£0) balance at closure. It should be noted that £733:07 of the balance transferred had been “ring fenced” for District Beaver activities. That amount should now be ring fenced in the District account for District Beaver activities.

The Active Support Unit’s accounts have been examined by Robert Hope and found to be in order.

Nigel Scott Support Team Leader

Shorefield Campsite Report

Shorefield Campsite closed permanently at the end of 2025 camping season.

I expect to complete the de-commissioning process at the end of 2026, the decommissioning process included:-

While the Shorefield Campsite bank account, with Bank of Scotland, remains open all funds, which amounted to £3384.98 were transferred to The Galloway District Scout Council account on 28[th] March 2026. The account currently has a zero (£0) balance with no outstanding transactions.

The Shorefield Campsite accounts have been examined by Robert Hope and found to be in order.

Nigel Scott Campsite Warden

Scout Shop Report

The Galloway Scout Shop continues to be available for Scouts Groups to order uniforms and badges. This year Dalbeattie, Kirkcudbright, Minnigaff, Castle Douglas and Glenkens have placed orders.

Orders should be received by Marion by the last day of the month. The Bank balance as of 31/03/2026 was £1825.97.

Marion Gourley Scout Shop

Galloway District Lead Volunteer Report

I took the role as Lead Volunteer in December 2025; I have been around most of the district groups to meet Volunteers and introduce myself.

To start the year, we had a few of us go to Spark 26 up in Troon which saw Agnes get presented with her 15 year service award by UK chief Volunteer Carl Hankinson. We heard the new scout strategy and vision.

We had some of 1[st] Kirkcudbright scout head to Subzero and have a good weekend camping at Auchengillan.

I went to meet everyone at Twynholm Beavers and got to present Lisa with her 10year service award and a Beaver got presented their Chief scout Bronze award.

Gathering this year was cancelled and replaced with a skills day which was well attended and hopefully we will put future events like this on. We had planned to run another day later in the year.

A few of our Young leaders went to complete their young leader training.

We have young people and Adults from Kirkcudbright, Dalbeattie and Minnigaff going to Kandersteg Switzerland this July so there has been plenty of fundraising happening, Kirkcudbright had a bingo night which raised a whopping £484 so well done everyone, they had another sponsored swim to raise more money towards the trip.

What used to be 1[st] Kirkcudbright Explorers is now the District Explorer unit, which we are still looking for leaders for. I want to thank all Volunteers for all the work they have been doing , also I want to extend my thanks to Christine Rankin Chair of the district trustee board , Dave Shepherd our District treasurer and Nigel Scott for all the hard work they have done.

Chelsea Wilkinson District Lead Volunteer