Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of OutPost Arts
I report on the accounts of the charity for the year ended 31 July 2025 which are set out on pages 1 to 8.
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 2006 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 2006 Accounts Regulations. 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 any 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
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which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements:
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to keep accounting records in accordance with Section 44(1) (a) of the 2005 Act and Regulation 4 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations
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to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with Regulation 9 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations
have not been met, or
- to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
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Relevant Professional qualification/professional body: FCA
Address: Dodd & Co Limited FIFTEEN Rosehill Montgomery Way CARLISLE CA1 2RW
Date: 27 January 2026
OUTPOST ARTS
Scottish Charity No. SC048764
ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS YEAR ENDED 31ST JULY 2025
Trustees' Annual Report
For the year ended 31st July 2025
The Trustees have pleasure in presenting their report together with the financial statements for the year ended 31st July 2025
Reference and Administrative Information
Charity Name
OutPost Arts SCIO
Charity No
SC048764
Address
Buccleuch Mill Glenesk Road Langholm DG13 0ES
Current Trustees
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Chair: Date: 27.11.2025
Trustees' Annual Report 2
Structure, Governance and Management
Constitution
The Charity is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (a SCIO). It was registered in its current legal form on the 16th of October 2018. It is a two-tier structure and as such its members appoint people to serve on the board and take decisions on changes to the constitution. The Trustees are the board and hold regular meetings and generally control
the activities of the organisation and monitor and control the financial position of the organisation.
Appointment of Trustees
The OutPost Arts Board, which normally meets quarterly, are the Charity's Trustees. Membership of the Board is open to all members of OutPost Arts, predominantly drawn from local and regional communities. Trustees are elected at the Annual General Meeting which is held in November or appointed by the Board. There must be a minimum of three and a maximum of eight trustees.
Objectives and Activities
Charitable Purposes
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We aim to advance the education and learning amongst the public in the understanding and appreciation of the arts.
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We aim to advance the health and wellbeing of people through participation in creative arts practices.
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We aim to advance citizenship through using the arts and creativity, contributing to the regeneration of Dumfries & Galloway.
Activities:
1. DG Creative Wellbeing
From 2024-25 we have continued to deliver and embed, the ground-breaking regional programme – DG Creative Wellbeing, which encompasses community, network and healthcare strands. Our continued support from an alliance of funders has allowed us to complete an initial 2-year programme and take forward this work from 2025 onwards.
a. Developing Creative Health - Art in Healthcare Programme
OutPost Arts have continued to work in partnership with NHS D&G to embed a wide-reaching creative health programme across multiple regional healthcare sites (DGRI, Midpark Hospital, Mountainhall Treatment Centre and Galloway Hospital). Through collaborating between the Community & Art in Healthcare programme, we have also developed relationships with healthcare services based in the community, creating impactful space enhancements that support staff and patient wellbeing.
Participatory programmes have supported over 500 NHS D&G staff to directly engage with creative activities. From 2025-28 we will prioritise supporting NHS D&G staff, working in partnership with existing staff support teams and networks to reach teams and individuals, and support their wellbeing and promote positive team cultures.
We have also reached patients and health service users using creative means, coordinating workshops and pop-up engagements.
Permanent exhibition spaces are well established, and our year-round programme has platformed work by professional artists, NHS D&G staff and volunteers, and community groups. From 2023-25 the exhibition programme achieved approximately 30,000 visits. The exhibition programme has created connection points to annual national and global events such as Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, World Mental Health Day and Earth Day.
Enhancements to clinical spaces delivered during 2024-25 include a largescale project focused on creatively improving the Focus Hub in Lochside - a service that supports adults recovering from addiction. The resulting enhancements created a welcoming and uplifting environment for service users, their families/loved ones, and staff - confronting the stigma that often accompanies addiction.
b. Developing Creative Wellbeing - Community Programme
The community programme is split into x4 separate programmes of activities (Art Journal Project, Creative Toolbox, Graduate Programme & Satellite Programme) and an Adult & a Youth Creative Wellbeing Lead work with a range of people and referral partners (e.g. D&G College, D&G Carers Centre, CAMHS, local schools, partner arts organisations).
Art Journal Project & Creative Toolbox: 2023-24 cohorts shared their progress in a final exhibition at DGRI (adults) and showcase at The Stove Café (youth) in October 2024, as part of the annual Scottish Mental health Arts Festival programme. Adults and youth graduates received Peer Mentor training in order to support subsequent participants. Two new cohorts were successfully recruited in April 2025, filling all available places. Extending the 2025-2026 programme from 12-18 months has provided more time for participants to develop their personal arts practice and given the delivery team additional opportunities to evaluate the participant’s progress.
Graduates of both projects continue to access additional opportunities as a result of their participation, including volunteering, work and creative education/training. In 2024 we commissioned a youth graduate to become a Youth Workshop Assistant. We also supported x6 adult graduates to become Adult Workshop Assistants, supporting the delivery of creative wellbeing programmes that support care home residents and mental health hospital in-patients/staff.
Graduate Programme: Over a third of the AJP and CT participants have continued to access the 3-strand graduate programme that focuses on expanding horizons, skills development, empowerment and resilience - creating new pathways towards longer term wellbeing. 2023-24 graduates took part in the Focus Hub Mural Project, a mentoring programme, and received creative enterprise support - selling their work at the Shambellie House Christmas market- donating proceeds to a mental health charity. An adult OPA Arts Collective has emerged as a result of the 2024 graduate programme - a self-initiated legacy of the community programme. The collective is seeking opportunities to exhibit and share their work as a group locally and nationally.
Satellite Programme: From 2024-25, we delivered a pilot project in collaboration with Scottish Care, delivering a range of creative wellbeing engagements in x3 care homes. This has resulted in bids for additional funding to support a longer development project starting in 2026, exploring embedding participatory, exhibition and space enhancement programmes in care homes over 18 months.
c. Developing Creative Health & Wellbeing - Network Programme
In Feb 2025, the network launched OPA’s Manifesto for Creative Wellbeing in D&G at an inaugural symposium at the Theatre Royal, Dumfries. The event was supported by the Regional Cultural Fund and was extremely well attended. A range of cross-sector stakeholders gathered to hear presentations by a diverse mix of x11 speakers, before taking part in break out discussions and a Q&A sessions.
The network has made plans for the 2025 Scottish Mental health Arts Festival programme and is working in partnership with Third Sector D&G to co-host a Mental Health Forum event in October 2025.
Achievements & Performance
OPA has continued to be acknowledged as one of the region’s most significant arts organisations with specialist knowledge and skills in creative health and wellbeing; working in partnership with national initiatives and strategic bodies. We are now a recognised member of NAHN- National Arts in Hospitals Network, a UK-wide initiative to bring together clinical-based arts programmes and share learning. We are also a founding member of a Scotland arts in healthcare group, which meets regularly for peer supportlearning exchange. The group is collaboratively hosting a touring RSA200 exhibition from 2026-27. We have also been invited to take part in the core Healing Arts Scotland programme in June 2026. Our community programme is increasingly recognised as a driver for creative prescribing in D&G and beyond. DG Creative Wellbeing is a key economic driver for D&G’s arts/culture sector - providing significant numbers of commissions, opportunities and partnerships each year for freelancers, emerging creatives and arts/culture/community organisations and groups.
Financial Review
Our main source of funding has been regional and national funding bodies.
Reserves Policy
The trustee’s policy is to retain a minimum of three months of normal running costs in order to meet commitments and to cover any unexpected expenditure. Three months average expenditure stands at approx. £47,332 and our reserves are currently at £114,396. All of the reserves held relate to restricted funds and there are no free reserves within the charity.
Plans for the Future Period
We have successfully achieved support to deliver a 3-year Art in Healthcare programme and have secured match-funding to coordinate community activities for 18 months. To deliver a second 18-month community programme cycle, our aim is to source additional grant-funding to match pledges from NHS D&G Charity and National Lottery Community Fund. We will also increase our efforts to fundraise and create income opportunities.
Having successfully attracted unrestricted funding of £25,000.00 from the People's Postcode Trust for accounts next year ( 01.08.25-31.07.26), we will continue to seek additional financial support for our core team.
We will continue to work in partnership with regional organisations - adding value to existing pieces of work and developing new creative wellbeing-focused initiatives that benefit the wellbeing of D&G-based people/communities. New initiatives include ‘Creative Care D&G’ - which will develop our elderly residential care programme - and ‘The Bright Side’ project which aims to bring in a new community team member to build the capacity required to build stronger volunteer and positive pathways opportunities. The project will support community project graduates to explore and fulfil their wider potential, matching them to internal and external opportunities. ‘The Bright Side’ will allow OPA to centre our participant's lived experience of poverty, trauma and poor mental health in decision-making - providing graduates with direct access to our board of trustees via a graduate steering group.
We also intend to work with Lift D&G to support the wellbeing of Lincluden & Lochside community-members who experience financial and social barriers.
We will work in partnership with regional stakeholders to host a Healing Arts Scotland ‘D&G Day’ in June 2026, showcasing and spotlighting local creative health and wellbeing related initiatives and outcomes.
We will also seek new ways of adapting our current models to reach new audiences, working with library services to bring the Art Journal Project into people’s homes through the council’s book-lending service - accessing community members experiencing barriers, inequality and exclusion.
We will also develop opportunities for youth participants to achieve an accredited Arts Award qualification via Creative Toolbox’s graduate programme.
Date: 27.11.25
Statement of Receipts and Payments for the year ended 31st July 2025
| Receipts Donations Grants Fundraising Bank Interest SMHAF Donation to project Receipts from Charitable Activities Total Receipts Payments Fundraising Costs Costs of Charitable Activities Governance Costs Purchase of Equipment Total Payments Surplus/(Deficit) for the year |
Unrestricted Restricted Funds Funds 550 170,139 0 170,689 0 188,740 588 189,328 0 -18,639 |
Year End 31/07/2025 550 170,139 170,689 0 188,740 588 189,328 -18,639 |
Year End 31/07/2024 200 159,900.00 160,100.00 0 191,096 191,096 -30,996 |
|---|---|---|---|
Chair: Date: 27.11.2025
Statement of Balances for the year end 31st July 2025
| Unrestricted | Restricted | YearEnd | YearEnd | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funds | Funds | 31/07/2025 | 31/07/2024 | ||||
| Opening cash at bank and in hand | 133,035.00 | 133,035.00 | 164,031.00 | ||||
| Surplus/(Deficit) for the year | - | 18,639.00 | - | 18,639.00 | - | 30,996.00 | |
| Closing cash at bank and in hand | Q | 114,396.00 | 114,396.00 | 133,035.00 | |||
| Bank and Cash Balances | |||||||
| Building Society Account | 114,396.00 | 114,396.00 | 133,035.00 | ||||
| O | 114,396.00 | 114,396.00 | 133,035.00 | ||||
| Assets | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Liabilities | 0 | ) | ) | 0 | |||
| Date: | 27.11.2025 |
Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31st July 2025
1 Basis of accounting
These accounts have been prepared on the Receipts and Payments basis in accordance with the Charities & Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended).
2 Nature and purpose of funds
Unrestricted funds are those that may be used at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the objects of the charity. The trustees maintain a single unrestricted fund for the day-to-day running of the club.
Restricted funds may on be used for specific purposes. Restrictions arise when specified by the donor or when funds are raised for specific purposes. During the year the charity received £170,689 of grants and donations.
3 Donations
| 31/07/2025 DG Unlimited-Donation to Symposium 250 The Crichton Trust-Donation to Project 300 SMHAF-Donation to Project 550 4 Grants received Unrestricted Restricted Funds Funds D & G Health Board Endowment Fund 95,000.00 D & G Council (Symposium) 5,000.00 Scottish Care Ltd-Donation to Project 4889 The Robertson Trust The Holywood Trust 30,250.00 National Lottery Community Fund 35,000 170,139 |
31/07/2024 200.00 200.00 95,900.00 9,000.00 30,000.00 25,000.00 159,900 |
|---|---|
5 Cost of charitable activities
| Artists Fees Hire Materials & Project Costs Website/Advertising/Marketing Memberships & Subscriptions Insurance Bank Charges Donations to Charity Training Expense Claims Equipment purchase Stationery Miscellaneous Pension- D Hay Wages - D Hay |
Unrestricted Restricted Funds Funds 145,473 3,213 8,518 138 1,131 313 37 317 30 10,171 1,976 318 745 16,361 0 188,740 |
Total Total 31/07/2025 31/07/2024 145,473 143,651 3,213 4,776 8,518 13,366 138 506 1,131 1,011 313 322 37 29 317 30 620 10,171 5,892 1,976 2,887 318 604 745 759 16,361 16,673 188,740 191,096 |
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Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31st July 2025
| 6 Governance costs Unrestricted Restricted Funds Funds Accountancy 0 588 0 588 7 Comparatives for statement of Financial Activities Unrestricted Restricted Funds Funds Receipts Donations 200 Grants 159,900 Fundraising Bank Interest Website/Advertising/Marketing Sales Receipts from Charitable Activities Hire Total Receipts 0 160,100 Payments Fundraising Costs 0 Costs of Charitable Activities 191,096 Governance Costs 0 Purchase of Equipment 0 0 Total Payments 0 191,096 Surplus/(Deficit) for the year 0 -30,996 Chair: Date: 27.11.2025 |
Total Total 31/07/2025 31/07/2024 588 0 588 0 Year End 31/07/2024 200 15,900 160,100 0 191,096 0 0 191,096 -30,996 |
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