Scottish Charity No. SC046201
## **LEAD**
Trustees’ Report and Financial Statements For the year ended 30 June 2025
LEAD
**Contents of the Financial Statements** for the year ended 30 June 2025
||Page|
|---|---|
|Report of the Trustees|1|
|Report of the Independent Examiner|4|
|Receipts and Payments Account|5|
|Statement of Balances|6|
|Notes to the Financial Statements|7|
## LEAD
**Report of the Trustees** for the year ended 30 June 2025
The Trustees present the annual report and accounts for LEAD for the year ended 30 June 2025.
## **Reference and administrative information**
Charity name LEAD Charity registration number SC046201 Principal address Central Hall 2 West Tollcross Edinburgh EH3 9BP Bankers CAF Bank 25 Kings Hill Avenue West Malling ME19 4JQ
## **Constitution and governance**
LEAD (‘the Charity’) was established and is administered in accordance with the terms of its Constitution, approved by OSCR on 11 December 2015.
The Charity is led by a team of Trustees (minimum 3, maximum 7) who are responsible for providing vision and direction, discerning which opportunities should be taken to further the aims of the Charity. The Trustees who served during the year were as follows:
Andrew Harding Acting Chair; Treasurer Samantha Meng Secretary Matthew Cordiner Kristen Huffty Tracey Lowden-Stoole (appointed 9 April 2025) Pamela Lyall (Joint Treasurer; resigned 13 August 2024) Jonathan Dean (resigned 13 August 2024)
They met regularly in the year to discuss programme development, finances and charity direction.
Applications to become a Trustee are submitted to the existing Trustees for consideration and any decision to appoint is made by them. At each AGM, all the Trustees must retire from office, but can then offer themselves for re-election. Practically, a Trustee is deemed to be re-elected unless they advise the Trustees that they do not wish to be reappointed.
## **Charitable purposes and activities**
**The purpose of the Charity is to** advance education and to advance citizenship or community development. The **vision** is to raise up and release leadership in all young people across UK schools to transform their world. The **mission** is to give young people the confidence and skills to better lead in every area of their lives. Our **values** are:
1. Our leaders are self-aware as they understand their identity, individual talents, gifts and personality.
2. Our leaders are transformational and believe everyone can positively change themselves, help others to develop for the better and significantly impact their world.
3. Our leaders have integrity and understand that well rounded growth is essential to effective leadership. The LEAD programme engages every area of the participant’s life including their mind, emotions, spirituality and physical activity.
4. Our leaders are courageous and believe impacting society and communities is brave, open to experimentation and, at times, failure.
Page 1
**Report of the Trustees** for the year ended 30 June 2025
## LEAD
## **Achievements and performance**
Since 2016, LEAD has delivered leadership courses in eight Edinburgh schools, one in Surrey, and three in Northern Ireland. LEAD has engaged over 10,000 young people through 60 tailored courses and more than 20 conference days. Feedback from staff and students has consistently been overwhelmingly positive. Survey data (June 2024) indicated that 99% of young people maintained or increased their confidence through the programme.
From July 2024 - June 2025, we delivered several courses in Edinburgh at Boroughmuir High School. A team of coaches provided mentoring from August until December 2024, working with the entire S5 year group. This was followed by a conference day for senior pupils in June 2025. We did this while training 12 local volunteers.
We also ran our first ‘Leadership Lab’ course - a 10-week programme. Collaborating with a variety of local leaders, from a range of sectors, including education, adoption, business, government, and the arts. In this programme, we worked with seven young people from four different Edinburgh schools, and we saw remarkable growth. We founded a partnership with so many talented leaders, and used tools including 720 Feedback, and 16 Personalities. We also worked with our delegates to organise several projects, including fundraisers and social media work.
We are finding increased demand for our work with young people. Our work continues to bring transformational confidence growth for young people who would otherwise not have access to leadership development. However, delivery capacity is constrained by our finite staff time and finances. We require ongoing financial investment in order to produce materials, train volunteers and subsidise our courses to schools. We remain committed to exploring how we might increase our income streams through fundraising, regular giving and school partnerships.
From May 2025, we launched several fundraising events for one-off and regular donors. As a result, our regular giving significantly increased as we continue to seek sustainable solutions to our long-term financial sustainability.
This year we were delighted to offer an internship opportunity to Jed Calvert, a recent school leaver. This partnership was mutually beneficial, as he gained work experience while also developing the new LEAD website.
We were also pleased to appoint Traci Lowden-Stoole to join our board of Trustees. Traci has brought brilliant perspectives on business engagement, fundraising, and marketing.
## **Future plans**
Our goals for the year ahead are to expand our volunteer networks, increase our income, and develop our online presence. This will require many different strategic foci for 2025/26, some of which are:
- Running one volunteer training day, connecting us with our current volunteers, allowing for healthy reflection in our teams, and further development for our volunteer base.
- Using our existing and expanded networks, we aim to have 20 regular donors giving to LEAD.
- Hosting one fundraising event.
- Pursuing and initiating a corporate partnership.
- Becoming part of the Edinburgh Council Framework for external providers.
- Working actively in 4 different schools.
- Completing the development of our new website.
- Increasing our social media following through regular activity on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
- Recruiting a new trustee.
- Enrolling our 2 staff members in professional leadership development opportunities to ensure that we continue to offer the very best coaching to young people.
- Setting up a bi-monthly line management structure for our 2 staff members.
Page 2
## LEAD
**Report of the Trustees** for the year ended 30 June 2025
## **Financial review**
## _**Results for the year**_
The Accounts for the year are set out on pages 5 to 7. The Receipts and Payments Account on page 5 shows a deficit of 7,043 (2024: surplus of £9,224). The funds held at 30 June 2025 were £4,045 (2024: £11,088), of which £4,045 was unrestricted (2024: £6,088) and £nil was restricted (2024: £5,000).
## _**Reserves**_
The Charity has a reserves policy which states that the Trustees aim to hold reserves equal to 3 month’s expenditure at any time. At the year end, this amount was calculated as £3,500. The unrestricted reserves of £4,045 meet this policy.
Approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf on 12 March 2026.
Andrew Harding
## **Andrew Harding Acting Chair**
Page 3
## LEAD
## **Report of the Independent Examiner to the Trustees** for the year ended 30 June 2025
I report on the accounts of the charity for the year ended 30 June 2025 which are set out on pages 5 to 7.
## **Respective responsibilities of Trustees and Examiner**
The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the terms of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended). The charity trustees consider that the audit requirement of Regulation 10(1)(d) of the Accounts Regulations does not apply. It is my responsibility to examine the accounts as required under section 44(1)(c) of the Act and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
## **Basis of Independent Examiner’s statement**
My examination is carried out in accordance with Regulation 11 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended). An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeks explanations from the trustees concerning such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts.
## **Independent Examiner’s Statement**
In the course of my examination, no matter has come to my attention
1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements:
- to keep accounting records in accordance with Section 44(1)(a) of the 2005 Act and Regulation 4 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations (as amended), and
- to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with Regulation 9 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations (as amended)
have not been met, or
2. to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
## Alison Franks
Alison Franks CA 11 Erngath Road Director Bo’ness Cornerstone Accounting EH51 9DP
Date: 12 March 2026
Page 4
## LEAD
## Receipts and Payments Account
For the year ended 30 June 2025
|**Unrestricted**
**fund**
**Restricted**
**fund**
**2025**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**Receipts**
Donations
**7,239**
**-**
**7,239**
Grant income:
Souter Charitable Trust
**3,000**
**-**
**3,000**
New Park Education Grant
**2,000**
**-**
**2,000**
Benefact Trust
**-**
**-**
**-**
Haldane Trust
**-**
**-**
**-**
Dr Guthrie Association
**-**
**-**
**-**
Course delivery income
**4,075**
**-**
**4,075**
Bank interest
**12**
**-**
**12**
**Total receipts**
**16,326**
**-**
**16,326**
**Payments**
Gross salaries
**14,931**
**1,941**
**16,872**
Pensions
**297**
**-**
**297**
Staff expenses and training
**34**
**-**
**34**
Staff entertaining
**32**
**-**
**32**
Insurance
**990**
**-**
**990**
Room rent
**650**
**-**
**650**
LEAD materials (including video productio
**-**
**2,788**
**2,788**
Student resources
**-**
**271**
**271**
Travel and subsistence
**58**
**-**
**58**
Stationery and postage
**8**
**-**
**8**
Paid to Cornerstone Accounting:
Payoll fees
**550**
**-**
**550**
Independent examination fee
**350**
**-**
**350**
Corporation tax fee
**120**
**-**
**120**
Trustee expenses
**289**
**-**
**289**
Bank charges
**60**
**-**
**60**
**Total payments**
**18,369**
**5,000**
**23,369**
**Surplus/(deficit) for year before transfers**
**(2,043)**
**(5,000)**
**(7,043)**
**Transfers between funds**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Surplus/(deficit) for year after transfers**
**(2,043)**
**(5,000)**
**(7,043)**
**Total funds brought forward**
**6,088**
**5,000**
**11,088**
**Total funds carried forward**
**4,045**
**-**
**4,045**|Unrestricted
fund
Restricted
fund
2024
**£**
**£**
**£**
2,280
-
2,280
-
-
-
-
-
-
11,100
-
11,100
-
5,000
5,000
-
840
840
3,990
-
3,990
19
-
19
17,389
5,840
23,229
9,836
840
10,676
156
-
156
119
-
119
86
-
86
1,046
-
1,046
519
-
519
-
-
-
456
-
456
12
-
12
26
-
26
429
-
429
420
-
420
-
-
-
-
-
-
60
-
60
13,165
840
14,005
4,224
5,000
9,224
-
-
-
4,224
5,000
9,224
1,864
-
1,864
6,088
5,000
11,088|
|---|---|
The notes on page 7 form part of these financial statements.
Page 5
## LEAD
## Statement of Balances
As at 30 June 2025
|Bank and cash
**Total bank and cash**
**Represented by:**
Unrestricted fund
Restricted funds
**Statement of liabilities**
Independent Examiner fee
Payroll fees due
Pension amounts due
Wages/expenses due
HMRC due|**Opening**
**Deficit**
**Closing**
**balance**
**for year**
**balance**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**11,088**
**(7,043)**
**4,045**
**11,088**
**(7,043)**
**4,045**
**4,045**
**-**
**4,045**
**2025**
**£**
**360**
**108**
**26**
**-**
**-**
**494**
**2025**|Opening
Surplus
Closing
balance
for year
balance
£
£
£
1,864
9,224
11,088
1,864
9,224
11,088
6,088
5,000
11,088
2024
£
360
108
24
1,026
260
1,778
2024|
|---|---|---|
The financial statements on pages 5 to 7 were approved by the Trustees on 12 March 2026 and signed on their behalf by the undernoted:
## Andrew Harding
## **Andrew Harding Acting Chair**
Page 6
## LEAD
## Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 30 June 2025
## **1. Accounting policies**
## _**Accounting convention**_
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, and in accordance with the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended).
## _**Basis of financial statements**_
The financial statements have been prepared on a receipts and payments basis.
## _**Receipts and payments account**_
For the purpose of the Receipts and Payments account, funds are defined as follows:
_Unrestricted funds_ comprise income received for the objects of the charity without further specified purpose and are available as general funds.
_Restricted funds_ comprise income received which is subject to specific restrictions of use, as defined by the donor.
## **2. Trustees remuneration and expenses**
During the year, no remuneration was paid to any of the trustees (2024: nil). Expenses of £289 were charged by the Trustees for 2 leaving gifts totalling £121 and for a shared meal totalling £169.
Individual donations totalling £5,208 (2024: £360) were made to the Charity by the Trustees and parties related to the Trustees.
## **3. Donated facilities, goods and services**
The Charity benefits from the help of volunteers with around 4 - 10 supporting each course
## **4. Unrestricted funds**
|General funds
Total unrestricted funds|**Balance at**
**01.07.24**
**£**
6,088
**6,088**|**Receipts**
**£**
16,326
**16,326**|**Payments**
**£**
(18,369)
**(18,369)**|**Transfers**
**£**
-
**-**|**Balance at**
**30.6.25**
**£**
**4,045**
**4,045**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
## _**Explanation of funds**_
_The General Fund_ represents all income and expenditure relating to the primary focus activities of the charity, other than those for which funding is restricted.
## **5. Restricted funds**
|**Restricted funds**
Haldane Trust fund
Total restricted funds|**Balance at**
**01.07.24**
**£**
5,000
**5,000**|**Receipts**
**£**
-
**-**|**Payments**
**£**
(5,000)
**(5,000)**|**Transfers**
**£**
-
**-**|**Balance at**
**30.6.25**
**£**
**-**
**-**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
## _**Explanation of funds**_
The _Haldane Trust fund_ represents a grant received to produce a promotional video, update the website and create a one day LEAD course taster session.
Page 7