KCLSU Annual Report 17/18
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KCLSU Annual Report: 2017/18 King’s College London Students’ Union Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 July 2018 KCLSU Annual Report 17/18 Company Registered Number: 5762196 Registered Charity Number: 1136729 Page: 1 KCLSU Annual Report: 2017/18 We’re KCLSU (King’s College London Students’ Union). Every student at King’s is automatically a member of KCLSU. Together, with our members, we are a union of students where individuals connect, have fun, build communities, share experiences, and make change. We’re here to make sure every King’s student has the best student experience possible. We’re run by students, for students. Our decisions, policies and what we do are decided by our 30,000 student members. As a democratic charity and membership organisation, students lead us at every level to achieve our priorities. Page: 2 KCLSU Annual Report: 2017/18 Contents 04 Introduction from the KCLSU President 05 A note from the Chief Executive 06 Structure, Governance and Management 11 Employees 12 Senior Management Salaries 13 Operational and Financial Review 15 Key successes in 2017 – 18 15 Support, information and advice for student life 15 Building a Students’ Union for all 15 Supporting student-led communities 15 Empowering student change-makers 15 Values in action 17 Statement of Financial Activities and Balance Sheet 23 Consolidated Statements 24 Consolidated statement of financial activity 25 Consolidated balance sheet 26 Consolidated cash flow statement 27 Notes to the Financial Statements 27 Legal and Administrative Information 41 KCLSU Societies 45 KCLSU Sports clubs Page: 3 KCLSU Annual Report: 2017/18 Introduction from the KCLSU President This year was a momentous occasion in KCLSU’s history. We moved into our new home at Bush House, our largest space, and as a result now have increased space for our students and student groups to use. We have started the process for the creation of our new organisational strategy as our ‘Big Plan’ comes to an end and students have been at the heart of our research to inform our plans. We have been working with King’s to increase the involvement of students in delivering ‘Vision 2029’ and have been integral in cementing the voice of students in key areas of KCL’s organisational structures. Particularly due to the creation of the Vice-President Postgraduate position, there has been an increased involvement from our postgraduate communities in the wider King’s community. This year was also the first time we successfully trialled the Welcome Fair app as a proof of concept for our own app to be released in the future. We have also finalised plans for our new KCLSU social space for students in Denmark Hill, due to open in summer 2019. KCLSU are also excited to welcome you to our new Union Shop in Guy’s Campus. We successfully have had King’s spaces open for 2 years in a row during the Christmas break, through Global Lounge, a social space with free food during the December break to address the needs of students who were spending the holidays in London. We proposed the internationalisation of the curriculum and were successful in signing a relationship agreement document with the University, whereby both parties agreed upon their joint priorities for the year. We have fed back into and helped establish a mental health steering group which has resulted in providing a vision and strategy for the mental health of all communities at King’s. This has been a very dynamic year and we were able to develop ourselves in multiple areas. We have no doubt that 2018/2019 will be even better. Ahad Mahmood KCLSU President and Chair of Trustees 2018-2019 Page: 4 KCLSU Annual Report: 2017/18 A note from the Chief Executive I joined KCLSU in May 2018 in KCLSU’s 145th year of existence. Over the 2018/19 academic year, I am excited to be developing our new 6 year strategy that will see us through our 150th anniversary! As we enter the last year of our current Big Plan, I am glad to report on our successes for the academic year 2017/18 in this report. Our highlights included • Moving into our new purpose built home in the historic Bush House spanning 4 floors. With the space available to students based at the Strand more than doubling we’ve made huge inroads into engaging them with our brand new space. • Growing our commercial income by 15.3% putting us on a more sustainable funding position as an organisation • Making great strides in our sector-leading work on digital transformation with the launch of a website designed for mobiles – fast growing our digital reach by 17%. We also developed a proof- of-concept pilot mobile app for our Welcome Fair. • Ensuring we were fully compliant with the new EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and creating a new data promise to our members to make sure we are leading the way in the ethical use of student data. • Ensuring deeper engagement with our 400+ student groups, networks and sports clubs by investing over £1.8m into them. • Putting almost £600,000 back into student pockets by providing decent work with London Living Wage to our student staff. • Recording another successful year for our democracy with turnout growing to 23.47%. Though the year was not without its challenges. We worked hard to enable our student community to host over a thousand external speakers whilst balancing freedom of expression with the freedom to protest. We also had to recognise a one-off historical pensions adjustment that has had an impact on our finances. King’s is a global University at the heart of London and as the oldest student’s Union in the UK we have a proud tradition of ensuring our members are able to have the best possible student experience. Read ahead to see how we delivered this over the academic year 2017/18. Denis Shukur Chief Executive Page: 5 KCLSU Annual Report: 2017/18 Structure, Governance and Management Page: 6 KCLSU Annual Report: 2017/18 KCLSU is governed by a Board of Trustees; the Trustees are also Directors of the charitable company. The Directors will be called Trustees henceforth in this report. Two thirds of the Board are current students of King’s College London who are elected by the members of KCLSU annually. Student Trustees during this time were elected for terms of up to one year. There are also four non-student Trustees on the Board who are appointed for their particular professional knowledge and skills. Appointed Trustees may serve for an initial term of four years, renewable for one further term of four years. Full details of current Trustees and those who served in 2017-18 and who joined or left the board in the period from 31 July 2017 up to the date of this report, together with the organisation’s principal advisors can be found in Legal and Administrative Information on pages 1-4. All Trustees undertake an induction programme and are given briefings on the organisation’s operations and goals. The induction programme covers the role of Trustee, provides an understanding of the legal responsibilities of being a Trustee and Company Director, and through meeting key Board and Management Team members provides an appreciation of KCLSU’s vision, mission and values and the relationship between Trustees and Executive. Newly elected or appointed Trustees are invited to attend one or more Board meetings before taking up their positions. The Trustees are responsible for the overall performance and strategic direction of KCLSU on behalf of its members of over 30,000 students of King’s College London. In this respect the Board undertakes self-assessment and further development initiatives as required, ensuring that they work to high standards. Financial The financial statements comply with the Charity Commission’s Statement of Statements Recommended Practice FRS 102 (Charity SORP FRS 102), the Companies Act (2006), and the Education Act (1994). Charity Status King’s College London Students’ Union is registered charity number 1136729 and a company limited by guarantee, number 5762196. King’s College London Students’ Union is governed by its Articles of Association. King’s College London Students’ Union operates as KCLSU. KCLSU Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of KCLSU, was incorporated on 12 August 2009. The accounts of the subsidiary are consolidated within the annual accounts for the Union. Charity Objects The Charity’s objects are to advance the education of students at King’s College London for the public benefit in particular by providing sporting, social, cultural and recreational opportunities, advancing welfare and physical and mental wellbeing of students, providing representation, advice and assistance to students and promoting contact and co-operation between students. Registered Office KCLSU, Bush House, 300 Strand, London, WC2R 1AE Page: 7 KCLSU Annual Report: 2017/18 Student officers The role of the Student Officers is to represent students at King’s College London and to influence change within KCLSU, at King’s College London and externally via the National Union of Students. The Student Officers, who are also Trustees, are elected by the students of King’s College London and are led by the President. The Student Officer team who served were as follows: During the year During the year 2018/19 2017/18 President Ahad Mahmood Momin Saqib Vice President for Education (Arts and Sciences) Mohamed Salhi Tayyaba Rafiq Vice President for Welfare Robert Liow Imaan Ashraf Vice President Activities and Development Shaurya Vig Rahma Hussein Vice President for Education (Health) Hannan Badar Yousef El-T Vice President for Postgraduates Jessica Oshodin Mahamed Abdullahi A decision was taken to increase the number of Student Officers from 5 to 6 from 2017/18.