Scout groups#

Scouting (and Guiding to some extent) in the UK is organised as a large number of independent charities.

Subcriptions are paid by individual scouts (or their parents), and a capitation fee is paid upwards to the District / and or County umbrella, who then pass some on to the National Association.

Presumably to avoid inflating the size of the scouting economy, the individual and county groups report their gross rather than net income.

Decision:#

We want net income, and to capture the relationship between the charities, so the GROSS income - i.e including the "minus amounts paid to county" should be included as income from individuals, and the figure paid as expenditure.

For county/district federations, the income should be recorded as income from voluntary groups.

The federal structure of scouting:#

• National Association
• County Associations
• District Associations
• Individual groups

Subcriptions: Voluntary income or income from charitable activities?#

For scout groups, the subcriptions are primarily used to benefit the people paying them, so they should be categorised as "income from charitable activities" rather than "voluntary income" - and ditto for the district / county level.