BRITISH_YOUTH_FOR_CHRIST - Accounts

The trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 August 2023.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the charity's memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)" (effective 1 January 2019).

The object of the charity is to promote the Christian faith and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world by:

• promoting and encouraging the Christian evangelisation of young people throughout the world;

• promoting and encouraging standards of behaviour which accord with the doctrines of the Christian faith;

• relieving poverty and sickness; and

• providing or assisting in the provision of education for young people who are in conditions of need, hardship or distress by reason of their social, physical or economic circumstances.

The trustees have paid due regard to guidance issued by the Charity Commission in deciding what activities the charity should undertake.

We can report that Youth for Christ provides a public benefit to young people in Britain; the age range we work with is 7 – 25 years with the majority of the work taking place with 11 – 18 year olds.

The charity carries out its objects using touring teams, creating resources for youth work, writing accredited training programmes for young offenders, outdoor activity holidays and through supporting and equipping 60 Local Centres (who are separate charities) and local projects. The work is generally in schools, churches, youth prisons and youth clubs.

Fundraising standards information

Fundraising policy and practice:

Our approach is to be legal, open, honest and respectful in all our fundraising activities. We do not engage in fundraising that might involve unreasonable intrusion on a person’s privacy or is unreasonably persistent.

Funds raised for a particular activity are used for that activity and our accounting system is designed to provide for this through a system of accounts for restricted funds.

British Youth for Christ (known as and referred to in this report as simply “Youth for Christ”) does not share its contact database with third parties and does not use freelance fundraisers.

Our data protection policy was reviewed and updated in 2022 to ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We aim to comply with the Code of Fundraising Practice issued by the Fundraising Regulator.

There have been no failures complying with the fundraising standards adopted by the charity and there have been no complaints received by the charity about its fundraising activity.

Youth for Christ educates young people in the Christian faith through events, clubs, activities, residential programmes, sports and dance activities and resources. Youth for Christ presents young people with the opportunity to become followers of Jesus Christ. Those that respond are encouraged to grow in the life of faith and step into positive activities that develop character and life skills. This leads to public benefit from our work. We also work with 60 Youth for Christ local centres and projects engaging young people in their geographical area and we provide experience-based volunteer placements which encourage personal development.

We seek to relieve poverty through supporting a number of our Centres that engage in food bank projects and homelessness among young people. Our life skills training is geared to help young people stand on their own two feet and find meaningful employment as well as live a balanced life.

We are committed to supporting both students and teachers with numerous educational resources which includes our online religious education website. Many of our Centres also provide support in the area of mental health and general wellbeing.

Youth for Christ works with young people in custody, those who are not in education, employment or training and those who have disengaged with society through our myLife training. Youth for Christ is involved in the education of young people directly and through the production of resources and the provision of teams that support those in formal, non-formal and informal settings.

Key performance indicators

* numbers affected by change to cookie analytics.

Local Ministries

Throughout the 2022/​23 financial year, we were able to continue to provide support, resources, encouragement and training to our local projects and Centres and this support continued throughout the next phase of the pandemic, requiring a hybrid approach to youth ministry support in line with government restrictions. During the year, 55 independent local Youth for Christ Centres and 5 affiliate projects operated throughout Great Britain under the umbrella governance of our National charity, and each of these independent projects responded to the needs of the young people in their communities and contexts.

Each Centre and project continued to demonstrate God’s love (for example giving out gift bags in schools with content affirming young girls’ self-esteem, acting as chaplains providing a listening ear and constant presence for young people in need, running detached youth work projects in skate parks, and providing gaming-based youth groups via Discord servers); they declared who Jesus is (running face to face summer festivals with talks and seminars, providing pre-recorded assemblies and in person RE lessons in schools across the country); they gave young people the opportunity to make a decision to become a follower of Jesus (gathering young people for hybrid worship services, running smaller in person residential weekends or summer camps); and they continued to disciple young people in their faith (through one to one mentoring and Bible study, through in person youth groups).

We were committed to embodying our “helpful” core value as our local centres and projects negotiated the frequently changing regulations. At the end of this year we officially launched 1 new Centre: Redditch, whilst also seeking to establish Bangor as an emerging centre. Also at the end of this year Bath, left the umbrella governance of the Youth for Christ, choosing to become an independent charity known as LUX.

We assisted local Centres with residentials and provided support to the Youth for Christ presence at summer festivals and Spring Harvest.

Due to financial constraints less face to face visits were made and making use of online meetings was encouraged, it was also a season where we worked towards transitioning to a new structure of working and beginning to think through recruiting more regional workers to work ‘out of’ centres.

The team also worked closely with the Urban mission team especially in London and Glasgow where there was significant overlap of roles.

Scotland

Over the year we continued our ministry to young people across Scotland. There were 4 Youth for Christ chartered centres based in Scotland, who spent the year delivering online sessions for local schools, working on a detached basis with young people in their communities, and supporting their local churches in youth ministry. Although pandemic restrictions continued to lift, a significant amount of support took place online during the year, not least weekly clusters. Significant support, supervision and training was delivered most notably a youth leaders retreat and a hybrid delivery of ‘Sometimes it hurts’ equipping and training youth leaders in mental health awareness.

Schools Resources

During 2022/​​23, Youth for Christ continued to offer high quality resources to support the delivery of Religious Education. Our online RE resources RE:Quest continued as a vital resource accessed by teachers to support their delivery of Christian RE in classrooms across Britain as well as by students. The schools work team also provided regular online training and networking for Youth for Christ staff across the country and hosted its second in person Schools work conference in September 2022. The team also delivered online and in person training for trainee teachers of RE throughout the year. Once again visits were made to Centres that provided bespoke consultation and support.

Church Resources

Our termly resources continue to be used by local youth workers and Youth for Christ centres throughout Britain. At the end of August 2023, we had 474 subscribers (up from 420 in August 2022) reaching 765 groups. The new Church Resources website launched in January 2023 and all subscribers were fully transferred over by Easter. On the new website, following a fortnight of consultation with 57 of our subscribers, we consolidated our resources from 4 streams to 3 (Kids, Youth Evangelism and Youth Discipleship).

One current subscriber recently fed back ‘WE LOVE the YFC resources. Don’t know where we’d be without them!’ whilst another said ‘YFC tends to be my 'go to' for the groups and sessions I run.’.

The team have enjoyed being involved in festivals and events over the course of this year. Opportunities taken through Spring Harvest, LPO, Limitless Festival and multiple small events saw the team communicating the message of Jesus with over 1,000 young people. There was also a presence at the National Youth Ministry Weekend in November 2022, during which the card game resources ‘Yetti’ was launched and 800 copies given away.

The Church Resources team has changed significantly this year with Thomas Spicer leaving in Autumn 2022, who previously oversaw our resources and work with 7-11s, and who had been with Youth for Christ for around 14 years.

Looking ahead to the next ministry year, we are anticipating further change. The team are working hard to continue to produce termly resources for Rock Solid and Lumen, whilst there are discussions around the future of Go (7-11s). The current resources are also being bolstered with the addition of graphics and assets to further support youth-workers with the resources and a focus on the video content to increase quality. The team are also working on several new projects – including a suite of training videos and a pack for new Christians. They are also due to play a key role in 11-16s work at Spring Harvest once again.

Evangelism

The evangelism team has continued its engagement online through our streams IntroOutro and FIERCE, and maximised on our increasing success of UNDER_GROUND our rap/hip-hop channel. We created fresh content for further engagement with our videos by producing youth group plans, and curriculum based content for schools to utilise which heavily featured our artists and recordings from UNDER_GROUND. These channels had just over 225,000 views across this last year.

The team spent the last year delivering training and material about evangelism. We continued with our work delivering and training youth workers and young people in peer-to-peer evangelism, mainly through online delivery, providing training for 62 leaders and young people.

The missions and evangelism teams presented at events up and down the country, together with speaking at festivals and residentials the total number of young people reached was around 4,500 young people.

This year due to financial constraints we unfortunately had to make our entire missions and evangelism department redundant. Some of the figures do reflect this, although some projects did continue albeit under a different department for the remainder of the year.

Restorative Ministry

Our prisons ministry has focussed upon work within HMYOI Werrington where we have continued our work engaging with young offenders through our Bible Studies, Chapels, and one to ones until April 2023 when this part of our ministry ceased. During the rest of the year, we ministered 1,217 times with 212 young people.

The MyLife course has continued to be developed with more courses added to its portfolio. The course is being successfully used by groups and organisations nationally, to help marginalised young people develop life skills and character traits. We have continued to provide support and training for those working with young people in both preventative and resettlement contexts and have amended our materials and training to be accessible online.

Residentials

Throughout the summer of 2023 we were privileged to be able to re-engage with festivals led by our partners across the country and had opportunity to share in various ways with young people.  This ranged from detached work and engaging with those who would not ordinarily engage with us, through hosting café venues and seminar streams.

National Volunteer Scheme – The Year Out

The Year Out scheme underwent some significant changes as the team tasked with running the programme was made redundant, which led us to restructure the remainder of the year and to reinvent our offering ahead of the September 2023 cohort joining us. We have now restructured so that British Youth for Christ no longer hold most of the recruitment, mentoring, or holding of applicants throughout the year, but now facilitate training blocks. The number of Year Out volunteers was 16.

Urban Mission

Our focus for Urban ministry has been within 3 deprived communities across London, Glasgow and Birmingham. We now have regular face to face work within Glasgow and Birmingham using a variety of outlets from council run youth centres to local churches, our London work continues to gain momentum through our network, training and partner development.

Our physical reach across 3 cities from our 4 dedicated staff sits at just over 2,000 young people. However, our wider team had an engagement of 64,876 young people. Through our continued intentional work in bringing together partners for shared learning, encouragement and joint ministry we are seeing a wider indirect output which has seen a greater impact on the lives of marginalised young people within some of the more deprived areas of our country.

We have formed stronger links with partners across our three locations, bringing an additional 20 churches into our networks, and enhancing our presence amongst statutory organisations, and with ongoing conversations to increase our reach into over 80 schools across Birmingham with our myLife course.

There has been a real strength in consistently and regularly gathering together individuals, which has greatly benefited the sense of cohesion to the work of the Christian church as a whole. Since the start of this initiative we know that 8,500 young people have directly benefitted from our continued investment into the urban context, as well as indirectly through our equipping and resourcing over 100,000 young people will have benefitted from our investment.

Overview

Youth for Christ continues to fund and develop all our ministry activities. Our overall incoming resources this year were £1,680,103 (2022: £1,614,196). Expenditure was £1,773,551 (2022: £1,893,397) with an overall deficit of £93,448 (2022: deficit of £279,201).

We continued to see a decrease in income at the start of the year, leading us to move ahead with the restructure to reduce our regular expenditure explained below. Following the restructure we have seen a more balanced income and expenditure position. We are always grateful for the efforts our staff make in raising personal support and their family and friends who give so generously. This remains our major source of income.

Reserves Policy

The General Fund comprises unrestricted funds arising from past operating results. The Designated Fund comprises those unrestricted funds set aside by the Board for specific activities or projects. The total Unrestricted Funds of the charity is the sum of the two funds and this represents the reserves of the charity. Due to the nature of the charity, the Trustees believe that for the coming financial year the total of unrestricted funds of £79,787 is sufficient for anticipated expenditure. Close monitoring and control of income and expenditure is being exercised.

During the year, the trustees reviewed the reserves policy and now the charity aims to have reserves covering three months of expenditure less personal support rather than just payroll. After allowing for personal support income, and those posts funded from restricted funds, this equates to approximately £400,000. A plan is being developed to rebuild the reserves to meet the policy. This policy is reviewed annually. Within Designated Funds we are holding £681,001 which represents the net book value of the building and other fixed assets.

Under the Memorandum and Articles of Association, the charity has the power to invest in any way the Trustees see fit in accordance with the charity’s objectives. In view of the nature of the work of Youth for Christ, where monies received are used soon after receipt, no long term investments have been either planned or implemented.

Restructure

At the start of the financial year 2022/23 the trustees took the decision to restructure in order to make the charity more financially robust. This decision was influenced by the unprecedented current financial situation and the need to reduce expenditure to a level which is more sustainable long term. The trustees are focussed on increasing the free reserves, as mentioned in the reserve policy, to a level which will allow the charity, trustees and staff to focus on the objects of the charity.

The significant reduction in expenditure is from reducing the staff levels and approaching all expenditure with a more streamlined approach. With the information on the current levels of expenditure the trustees remodelled the forecasts until May 2024, taking into account the reduced expenditure and income stream (based on current levels of general income and confirmed larger donations), and building the free reserves to a more sustainable level; therefore the trustees still consider the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future.

Risk management

The trustees have a risk management strategy, which comprises:

• an annual review of the risks the charity may face;

• the establishment of systems and procedures to mitigate those risks identified in the plan; and

• the implementation of procedures designed to minimise any potential impact on the charity should those risks materialise.

The main risks and risk management strategies that the trustees have identified are:

• Safeguarding – We manage this risk through safeguarding policies, staff recruitment policies and training.

• Funding – The loss of a major donor. We have a dedicated Income Development team who continue to broaden the donor base and increase the number of regular partners. Our staff also contribute to this through raising personal support from friends and family.

• Financial reporting – Reporting incorrectly. We manage this through attending training courses, receiving regular updates and regular reviews of controls.

• Staff recruitment – The loss of staff which ultimately impacts on the loss of skills, experience and knowledge. We continue to review and develop effective succession planning, review how and where we advertise and are currently developing a management training programme.

Through the risk management processes established, the trustees are satisfied that the major risks identified have been adequately mitigated where necessary. It is recognised that systems can only provide reasonable but not absolute assurance that major risks have been adequately managed.

Complaints

During 2022/23 we received no complaints.

Throughout 2022/23 we worked hard at not only restructuring the entire organisation of British Youth for Christ but working on our new focus of resourcing and empowering the local church to effectively reach and engage with young people. This not only involved writing up to 80% more resources than we have done at any other point, designing a new website for our new approach but also ensuring our new ministry networks (Pulse) are ready to go alongside our fully revised training initiatives. While we have restructured we are building off our existing platforms that have granted us success for many years and will continue to push hard into that which works the most.

In April 2024, we will launch the wide and deep strategy for the next 5 years that seeks to reach 10,000 churches with an important message of why unchurched young people matter through a variety of tools including advocacy.

5,000 teachers will be resourced on effective tools to represent Christianity in an effective, appealing and understandable manner within the classroom in conjunction with the curriculum for key stage 1-3. By Year 1 we hope to have as many as 3,300 by using our existing RE:Quest network.

We seek to partner through resourcing and training with 1,500 churches to help them have the tools they need to reach young people through a subscription service. Providing quality and powerful resources and training that will allow youth leaders paid and voluntary to feel fully equipped and confident with a holistic approach to engagement and provision. Year 1 will build off our existing 500 subscribing churches.

We will launch the start of up to 100 Pulse gatherings which brings together between 3-8 churches in a community to consider the best way to effectively engage with unchurched young people in a manner that is beneficial and helpful to them and the community. Each Pulse gathering belongs to a wider network that is supported by our Team.

We will continue to support our local Youth for Christ Centres by providing them with new additional value added resources unique to their own contexts that allow them to effectively focus on that which they are best at (effective youth provision).

Our Urban strategy in Glasgow, London and Birmingham will continue to engage with under privileged, under resourced and marginalised communities providing them food, life skill accredited training and youth provision.

While this is a 5 year project, in year 1 we would hope to engage with over 1 million young people.

British Youth for Christ is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association dated 15th April 1994. The Memorandum of Association was amended on 26th April 2000, 15th March 2006, 21st November 2007 and 30th March 2022 and the Articles of Association were amended on 12th March 2003 and 30th March 2022. The company is a charity registered with the Charity Commission, Registration number 263446 and the Scottish Charity Register number SC039297.

On the 29 March 2023, Mr K Wright retired as director/​trustee and chair. Mrs S Godden replaced him as the chair.

The trustees, who are also the directors for the purpose of company law, and who served during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were:

Appointment of the Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees of the company (hereafter called the Board) consists totally of the trustees of the charity.

As set out in the Articles of Association both the Chairman and the Treasurer of the Association are elected at the Annual General Meeting by the members to serve for a period of three years and on expiry of this period they may be eligible for reappointment. Similarly, a maximum of twelve and a minimum of three other persons are elected to serve on the Board at the Annual General Meeting and on expiry of this period they may be eligible for reappointment.

There are currently a total of eleven members of the Board.

There are a number of trustees that have been in place for more than 9 years. We are constantly looking for new trustees, however given the purpose and mission of the charity there is a limited market, making new trustees difficult to find.

Trustees are subject to review and re-election every 3 years. Board performance is periodically reviewed and we ensure that the feedback is used to improve board performance and objectivity.

Organisation

The Board administers the charity and meets at least three times per year. In addition, there is an Operations Sub-Group that meets between these meetings at least three times per year to consider the operational requirements of the charity, including finances. This group consists normally of the Chair, Treasurer and at least one other nominated Board member. All Board members are notified of the meeting dates and invited to attend if they wish.

The Board appoints a National Director to run the charity on a day-to-day basis. The Leadership Team currently consists of:

• National Director                  Neil O’Boyle

• Operations Director                     Lesley Taberer

• Local Ministries Director                     John Hawksworth (Interim)

• National Ministries & Church Resources Director         Laura Hancock

• Communications Director              Pete Hopper

• Evangelism & Missions Director                 Bob Goody

• Urban Missions Director                    Jas Aulkh (Interim)

The Leadership Team may attend the full Board meetings and the National Director and Operations Director attend the Operations Sub-Group meetings.

There is a list of delegated responsibilities specified to the Leadership Team and staff from the Board.

The Board periodically review and compare Youth for Christ pay levels against a range of other organisations and charities of a similar size and settle on a middle ground (i.e. neither aiming for the top quartile nor the bottom quartile, but landing somewhere appropriate in the middle).

Trustee induction and training

There is an induction process for all new trustees, including a job description, a list of key responsibilities and a Trustee Eligibility Declaration. In addition, it is a requirement that all trustees have an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check.

In accordance with the company's articles, a resolution proposing that Dyke Yaxley Limited be reappointed as auditor of the company will be put at the Annual General Meeting.

Each of the trustees has confirmed that there is no information of which they are aware which is relevant to the audit, but of which the auditor is unaware. They have further confirmed that they have taken appropriate steps to identify such relevant information and to establish that the auditor is aware of such information.

The trustees' report was approved by the Board of Trustees.

The trustees, who are also the directors of British Youth for Christ for the purpose of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company Law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year.

In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

- observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;

- make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

- state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and

- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended). They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of British Youth for Christ (the ‘charity’) for the year ended 31 August 2023 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet, the statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company's affairs as at 31 August 2023 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended;

have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulation 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended).

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of our audit:

the information given in the trustees' report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared, which includes the directors' report prepared for the purposes of company law, is consistent with the financial statements; and

the directors' report included within the trustees' report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charity and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the directors' report included within the trustees' report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) require us to report to you if, in our opinion:

adequate and proper accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or

the trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies regime and take advantage of the small companies' exemptions in preparing the trustees' report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.

As explained more fully in the statement of trustees' responsibilities, the trustees, who are also the directors of the charity for the purpose of company law, are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

We have been appointed as auditor under section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and under the Companies Act 2006 and report in accordance with the Acts and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud.

The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

We gained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework applicable to the charity and the industry in which it operates, and considered the risk of acts by the charity that were contrary to applicable laws and regulations, including fraud. These applicable legal and regulatory frameworks included safeguarding.

We designed audit procedures to respond to the risk, recognising that the risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery or intentional misrepresentations, or through collusion.

We focussed on laws and regulations which could give rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements, including, but not limited to, the Charities Act 2011, the Companies Act 2006 and UK tax legislation. Our tests included agreeing the financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting documentation and enquiries with management.

There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures described above and, the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely we would become aware of it.

We did not identify any key audit matters relating to irregularities, including fraud.

As in all our audits, we also addressed the risk of management override of internal controls, including testing journals and evaluating whether there was evidence of bias by the trustees that represented a risk of material misstatement due to fraud.

A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 and to the regulation 10 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members and trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company, the charitable company’s members as a body,and the charitable company’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

designated

Interest income

Loss on disposal of tangible fixed assets

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

designated

Interest income

British Youth for Christ is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales, company registration number 00988200. The charity is registered with the Charities Commission in England and Wales (registration number 263446) and with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (registration number SC039297). In the event of the charity being wound up, the liability in respect of the guarantee is limited to £1 per member of the charity. The registered office is Coombswood Way, Halesowen, West Midlands, B62 8BH.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended), FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (“FRS 102”) and the Charities SORP "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)" (effective 1 January 2019). The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.

At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.

Designated funds comprise unrestricted funds that have been set aside by the trustees for particular purposes. The aim and use of each designated fund is set out in the notes to the financial statements.

Restricted funds are funds which are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by donors or which have been raised by the charity for particular purposes. The cost of raising and administering such funds are charged against the specific fund. The aim and use of each restricted fund is set out in the notes to the financial statements.

Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the charity has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.

Donated goods, facilities and professional services are recognised in income at their fair value when their economic benefit is probable, it can be measured reliably and the charity has control over the item. Fair value is determined on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity. For example, the amount the charity would be willing to pay in the open market for such facilities and services. A corresponding amount is recognised in expenditure.

The charity may receive government grants. Income from government and other grants is recognised at fair value when the charity has entitlement after any performance conditions have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably. If entitlement is not met then these amounts are deferred. Revenue grants are credited to restricted funds upon receipt and relevant expenditure is charged against these as incurred. Where grants are for capital expenditure, the capital items purchased are transferred into a designated fund, against which depreciation is charged over the expected useful life of the asset.

Income from trading activities includes income earned from fundraising events and trading activities to raise funds for the charity. Income is received in exchange for supplying goods and services in order to raise funds and is recognised when entitlement has occurred.

All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all costs related to the category. Expenditure is recognised where there is a legal or constructive obligation to make payments to third parties, it is probable that the settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. It is categorised under the following headings:

• Costs of raising funds includes salaries, goods purchased for resale and associated costs;

• Expenditure on charitable activities includes salaries and travel and subsistence costs

• Other expenditure represents those items not falling into the categories above.

Irrecoverable VAT is charged as an expense against the activity for which expenditure arose.

Fundraising costs are those incurred in seeking voluntary contributions.

Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.

Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:

The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the statement of financial activities.

Motor vehicles over 5 years old are written off in the year of purchase.

Land is not depreciated.

At each reporting end date, the charity reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).

Stocks are stated at the lower of cost and estimated selling price less costs to complete and sell. Cost comprises of direct materials. Items held for distribution at no or nominal consideration are measured the lower of replacement cost and cost.

Net realisable value is the estimated selling price less all estimated costs of completion and costs to be incurred in marketing, selling and distribution.

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.

The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.

Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.

Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.

The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.

Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the charity is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.

Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due.

Leases are classified as finance leases whenever the terms of the lease transfer substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership to the lessees. All other leases are classified as operating leases.

Assets held under finance leases are recognised as assets at the lower of the assets fair value at the date of inception and the present value of the minimum lease payments. The related liability is included in the balance sheet as a finance lease obligation. Lease payments are treated as consisting of capital and interest elements. The interest is charged to net income/(expenditure) for the year so as to produce a constant periodic rate of interest on the remaining balance of the liability.

Centres

The charity has a number of independently administered Centres, the accounts of which have not been combined with the accounts of British Youth for Christ as they are independently registered charities. Gifts from these centres are accounted for when received.

Unrestricted funds general

Unrestricted funds general

Events income

Subscriptions

Interest income

Recruitment costs

Staff expenses

Material and research

Motor expenses

Property expenses

Computer costs

Office costs

Donations

Bank and other charges

Legal & professional

Accountancy

None of the trustees (or any persons connected with them) received nor waived any remuneration or benefits from the charity during the year (2022: £Nil).

None of the trustees had any expenses reimbursed during the year (2022: £Nil).

The average headcount monthly number of employees during the year was:

Redundancy payments of £15,373 (2022: £Nil) were made by the charity during the year.

During the year, the charity made ex-gratia payments of £6,155 (2022: £Nil). The board decided to make these voluntary payments to ensure all employees who were leaving received a redundancy of at least £2,000 to help them while they looked for new employment.

All fixed assets are for charity use. The land is held on a 999 year lease at a peppercorn rent. The lease has 983 years to run.

The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity in an independently administered fund.

The charge to profit or loss in respect of defined contribution schemes was £80,819 (2022: £95,674).

At the reporting end date the charity had outstanding commitments for future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases, which fall due as follows:

The remuneration of key management personnel is as follows.

The charity considers its key management personnel comprise the National Director, and the Directors of Operations, Missions & Evangelism, Diversity, National Ministries, Local Ministries and Communications.

During the year the charity entered into the following transactions with related parties: