Armed Forces Charities in Scotland: An overview and analysis (2016)

Abstract: This Sector Insight: Armed Forces Charities in Scotland report follows on from Sector Insight, UK Armed Forces Charities: An Overview and Analysis, published in 2014, which provided an overview and analysis of the armed forces charity sector. Both are part of a wider project which also includes a searchable online resource, www.armedforcescharities.org.uk. This resource features details of all the armed forces charities in the UK which are analysed as the basis for our reports. When the initial project was commissioned in 2014, the level of information on Scottish charities was not publicly available to the same extent as for England and Wales. Although the 2014 analytical report continues to be the most comprehensive account of the UK armed forces charity sector, the data presented was unable to provide a detailed account of Scottish charities. The Directory of Social Change (DSC) and the Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) concluded that further research was necessary, and that the Scottish armed forces charity sector should have its own dedicated report, utilising bespoke data gathering and analysis methods to provide a definitive outline of Scottish armed forces charities. This report will help inform Scotland’s policy direction, and inform those working within the charity sector. In turn it is hoped that beneficiaries of such charities, along with those considering the creation or development of an armed forces charity in Scotland, will be assisted. The focus of this report is singularly on armed forces charities registered in Scotland, on how they are categorised and the provision they make for beneficiaries. This also includes crossborder armed forces charities. Presented here is financial information on charities, including an account of longitudinal data which attempts to illuminate trends over recent years. To provide an overview of the size of the sector, charities are categorised through the analysis of income, expenditure, provision and Service affiliation. The data in most of this report is taken from charity accounts relating to the period January 2014 to December 2015. For each charity the most recent annual return and/or annual report including accounts available at the time of data collection and analysis was used. For the longitudinal analysis of the finances, a slightly different methodology was used to be fit for purpose: three consecutive periods corresponding to selected financial years were identified which made a reliable comparison possible. Data on income and expenditure for charities registered in Scotland is inconsistent until 2011, so the first period in the longitudinal investigation of the data is the 2011/12 and 2012 financial years. Only around 78% of armed forces charities had submitted their 2014/15 accounts at the time of writing (July 2016), and an even smaller percentage had submitted accounts for 2015 or later, which means that the data is incomplete. Therefore the period under review in the longitudinal analysis is 2011/12 and 2012 to 2013/14 and 2014.