The Bell Educational Trust Limited Annual Report and Financial Statements YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2016 Company Number 1048465 Charity Number 311585 CONTENTS The Bell Educational Trust Limited at a glance __________________________________________ 3 Message from the Chair __________________________________________________________ 6 Trustees Annual Report ___________________________________________________________ 8 • Strategic Report • Our objectives for 2016 • Our work in 2016 • Financial review of the year • Principal risks and uncertainties Legal structure and governance Board of Trustees and Committees Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities and corporate governance Independent auditors’ report _____________________________________________________ 29 Consolidated statement of financial activities including the income and expenditure account _______ 31 Consolidated and charity balance sheets _____________________________________________ 32 Consolidated cash flow statement __________________________________________________ 33 Notes forming part of the financial statements _________________________________________ 34 Administrative Information _______________________________________________________ 57 2 THE BELL EDUCATIONAL TRUST LIMITED The Bell Educational Trust at a Glance 2016 The Bell Foundation The Bell Foundation (“the Foundation”) is the operational name for The Bell Educational Trust Limited. HIGHLIGHTS OF 2016 The Foundation’s charitable activity has increased during 2016 with the Foundation’s two programmes reaching an increased number of beneficiaries and with impact being created both at system change and grassroots level. The Foundation conducts its charitable activities through direct delivery with school partners and through grant commitments, which totalled £876,000 in 2016. The Foundation’s key activities in 2016, Influencing policy and practice together with the major outcomes achieved, are set out below. The Foundation launched two research reports with leading universities. 1. The English as an Additional Language (EAL) Programme (including Language for Language development and school Results) achievement: Opportunities and challenges in the education of EAL Changing systems students (University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University) From October 2016 all schools in England were required by the Government to assess Policy, pedagogy and pupil perceptions: EAL learners against a five-stage EAL EAL in Scotland and England (CERES, proficiency scale from New to English through University of Edinburgh) to Fluent. This change has come as a direct result of the Foundation’s research findings The Foundation has submitted evidence to and work. the Government’s review of school funding and to its review of teaching standards. This The Foundation has developed, in partnership has resulted in the inclusion of a reference to with leading academics from King’s College children with EAL in the final set of teaching London and the University of Cambridge, a standards. new Assessment Framework to support the formative assessment of EAL learners. This Framework was launched to all schools in England in January 2017. REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT 3 The Bell Educational Trust at a Glance Extending reach and building capacity The Foundation continues to: l develop the EAL Nexus website, a free The Foundation has: online set of resources for teachers l agreed a long-term strategy for the scaling of the Language for Results programme l deliver a high-quality annual Bell through the planned development of Foundation EAL summer school in Centres of Expertise Cambridge for teachers and teacher trainers l completed the development of the Language for Results interventions l build the capacity of partners such as the National Association for Language l developed a Quality Assurance Framework Development in the Curriculum (NALDIC) that aims to ensure that the standard of to develop the EAL journal and regional delivery is maintained for the Language for groups of practitioners Results interventions l deliver regular lectures to trainee teachers l delivered 44 training workshops in a variety and develop a series of resources for initial of settings in different regions of England teacher education and EAL. l developed three new strategic Measuring impact and evaluating partnerships, including with the approaches Cooperative Academies Trust, and continued existing partnerships with the The Foundation has: British Council, Education Endowment l reviewed an independent interim evaluation Foundation, University of Cambridge on the impact of the EAL programme. It and Anglia Ruskin University, Ormiston showed evidence of high-quality delivery Academies Trust, Unbound Philanthropy, and participant satisfaction, and that the and Luton Borough Authority programme is making a difference to those who directly support EAL learners. It also l delivered the Renaisi Bilingual Advisor provides strong evidence of the rationale EAL Training Programme, which provided for the programme guidance on how to develop language teaching practice and how to differentiate l begun three randomised control trials, support for EAL learners and parents. which test different ways to improve the attainment of learners who speak EAL. These randomised control trials have been funded as part of a £2m grants round launched in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and Unbound Philanthropy and will involve approximately 300 schools. 4 THE BELL EDUCATIONAL TRUST LIMITED The Bell Educational Trust at a Glance 2. The Language for Change Programme Building Capacity The Language for Change programme has five In 2016 the Foundation has helped grantees to large-scale delivery partnerships in place with St build their own capacity and leverage further Giles Trust, Shannon Trust, The Reading Agency, funding. Grantee Hibiscus Initiatives describes Learning and Work Institute and Hibiscus its capacity building funding from the Foundation Initiatives. as ‘instrumental’ in winning a further £5m funding from the Big Lottery Fund, with which l Through these partnerships, the programme Hibiscus Initiatives has set up a ‘one-stop is reaching 121 out of 127 prisons and being shop’ for migrant women in the criminal justice delivered in two thirds of reform prisons system. The Foundation’s funding of St Giles Trust to train prisoners to become NVQ qualified peer advisers has also been funded by HMP l In 2016 the Foundation’s funding contributed to 7500 interventions being delivered with Wandsworth, one of the reform prisons. prisoners, with a significant proportion of those delivered by prisoners for prisoners. 3. Building a Sustainable Future These interventions included prisoners teaching other prisoners to read and peer The Trustees take a long-term view of the mentoring interventions. Some prisoners Foundation’s assets and governance, and benefit from interventions from more than undertook the following activity in 2016. one partnership l The Foundation has agreed a long-term l In 2016 the Foundation contributed funding Assets and Reserves Strategy. Investment to Shannon Trust’s “Turning Pages” managers were appointed and, initially, £18m programme. Under this programme, nearly will be invested. 2000 prisoners started to learn to read, with an estimated 30% having English as a second l Further work has been undertaken on the language. Cambridge site to ensure that it is fit for the future and meets the operating needs of the During 2016, the Foundation has shared wholly-owned trading subsidiary, Bell. evidence from its programme to influence key stakeholders in the criminal justice sector. l The Foundation has completed the disposal The Foundation is an active member of the of the third tranche of its non-operational Prisoner Learning Alliance (PLA), and through it land, receiving around £7m, ensuring greater contributed to the Government’s review of prison financial sustainability of the organisation. education. In 2016 the Foundation became the co-convenor of the Association of Charitable l Three new Trustees have joined the Board Foundation’s Criminal Justice Issue Based to fill planned Trustee retirements. A Network, a grouping of Foundations that work in governance toolkit has been developed, with the criminal justice sector. Board and Chair appraisals conducted during the year. REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT 5 The Bell Educational Trust at a Glance Message from the Chair I am pleased to present the Trustees’ Annual Report for building funding as being ‘instrumental’ in winning 2016. During the year, the Foundation made significant significant further funding. This funding is being used progress in implementing its two programmes, the EAL to set up and run a one-stop shop for marginalised programme, including Language for Results, and the foreign national, migrant and black and minority ethnic Language for Change programme. women affected by the criminal justice and immigration Proficiency in English continues to be one of the systems. most significant barriers to educational achievement In 2016 the Government announced an ambitious for children with EAL. During 2016, the Foundation and far-reaching set of prison reform proposals. The made significant progress both at individual school Foundation, through its membership of the PLA, was and pupil level and nationally to develop a Framework able to contribute its evidence on prison education and for the assessment of children with EAL. In 2016 the the language barrier to rehabilitation. In 2017 we will Department