The Trustees’ Annual Report
The Trustees’ Annual Report
These comments cover both Receipts and Payments and Accruals Accounts
Overview
The trustees are required to produce a report to accompany each set of accounts. The information to be given is outlined in the Specimen Trustees’ Annual Report.
One of the key areas in SORP is the Trustee’s Annual report. In the past there has been significant variety in the level and type of information included within this report. SORP seeks to address this by prescribing standard headings to be included in the Trustee’s Annual report. These are:
- Reference and administration details
- Structure, governance and management
- Objectives and activities
- Achievements and performance
- Financial review
- Plans for future period and other optional information
The Specimen Trustees’ Annual Report uses these headings and it is recommended that these are used by all Scout Group, Districts and Counties/Areas/Regions.
The Specimen Trustees’ Annual Report also includes specimen policies, paragraphs and notes e.g.reserves policy, public benefit statement. Some of these are likely to be common to nearly all Groups, Districts and Counties/Areas/Regions. So long as they are consistent with local circumstance they are considered best practice. However, where local circumstances and policies differ from these specimens, the specimens will need to be replaced by more appropriate policies, paragraphs and notes. (In some instances e.g. Investment Policy, more than one specimen has been drafted. If one of the specimens is suitable to your local circumstance please delete the other.) Please remember to delete the word specimen from your report!
Your Registration Number with The Scout Association should always be shown alongside the charity name. Charities registered with the Charity Commission for England & Wales, OSCR or the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, must also show its charity registration number on all documentation (not just the Annual Report) as well. The charity’s principal address should be given; often this will be the Secretary's address.
The names of all Trustees must be shown and where they have not served throughout the year the date of their appointment or resignation must be given. If any trustees are members of sub-committees this should be noted by their names e.g. Chair of the Fundraising Sub-committee.
Other advisers are people like bankers, scrutineers/external examiners/auditors, surveyors, solicitors.
Many of the paragraphs in this section will be common to nearly all Groups, Districts and Counties/Areas/Regions.
Although the statement about risk and internal control is only a legal requirement for charities with gross income exceeding £250,000 in the year, two specimens are included as examples as it would be best practice to include for all charities.
The paragraph on objects and the public benefit statement should be common to all Groups, Districts and Counties/Areas/Regions.
Many of the activities undertaken to achieve these objects will also be common, although the focus might change from Group to Group, District to District etc and an example of how this may be described is found in Section C of the Specimen Trustees’ Annual Report.
The SORP is asking you to provide summary information on your main activities, including fundraising activities, not on every activity undertaken. Similarly, the SORP expects there to be some correlation between the narrative in this section and the analysis of your receipts and payments or income and expenditure i.e. If you include narrative on bag packing at your local supermarket as one of your main fundraising activities it would be logical to include this as one of the analysis headings in the fundraising section of your receipts and payments account.
If the Group, District or County/Area/Region makes grants, the policy that determines how they are chosen should be set out.
How successful or otherwise were the activities that you have detailed above and why did they succeed or fail i.e. if you had a plan to open a new Beaver Colony and in Section C you have commented on some of the activities in relation to this plan, then in Section D state whether the plan was successful or otherwise and why it succeeded or failed.
This part should be a summary of the Group’s/District’s/County/Area’s activities and not a full blow by blow account of the year for each Section of a Group or each sub-committee that has been formed.
The Charity Commission for England & Wales and OSCR requires every charity to have a Reserves Policy.
A specimen policy has been drafted. This will need to be adapted and appropriate to meet your local circumstance. If the Group, District or County/Area/Region holds investments, the policy that determines how the investments are chosen should be set out.
The plans for the future year are the start of the trustees’ reporting cycle and have a strong link with the information you will report in Sections C and D in a year’s time i.e. if in the coming year you plan to open a new Cub Pack you should include such plans in Section F. Next year in your Trustees’ Annual Report you should include in Section C and Section D the activities you conducted in relation to this plan and how successful or otherwise you were.
In all cases the report must be dated and signed by one or more (preferably two) of the charity Trustees, who must have been authorised to do so by a majority of the Trustees.