Strategic Report
When I wrote to you last year, we expected the external environment for the UK charity sector and Central YMCA to remain extremely challenging. Across our core activities in Education and Training, Health and Wellbeing, and Awards we faced a combination of rising costs and rapidly shifting patterns of demand for our services. We were also acutely aware that the underlying needs of the communities we serve had never been greater.
We have used the past year to reposition ourselves for the future, seeking to maximise the effectiveness of the Charity’s resources and ensure that we can deliver the greatest possible impact. We completed the first year of a three-year business transformation programme designed to achieve financial sustainability and have continued to invest to drive growth and provide new ways of delivering services to the people, organisations and communities we work with.
As part of our programme of change, we restructured our Executive Team and appointed a new CEO from within the organisation as well as bringing in new skills and experience from outside. We have also implemented new digital products and services, expanded partnerships, and reviewed all our systems and processes to drive efficiency and greater effectiveness. This has been done while continuing to deliver and expand our impact, as the following pages will show.
As expected, in the year under review, the Charity remained in deficit and drew further on reserves to deliver our vital impact and accomplish the planned turnaround. The Board of Trustees anticipate that the achievement of the objectives set out in the three-year programme should deliver a more resilient and sustainable financial model for the Charity. Further redeployment of the Charity’s resources is under review to support our impact and financial goals.
I would like to thank my fellow Trustees, co-opted Committee members, and our incredible team of staff, volunteers, partners and donors who together work so hard to support communities across the UK. Over the coming year, we look forward to continuing to advance the education, health, and wellbeing of our communities, creating improved access to life changing opportunities, and enabling everyone to achieve their potential, live a fulfilled life, and contribute positively to society.
After taking on the position of CEO of Central YMCA within 2022-23, I am proud to reflect on the transformative strides the Charity has made in advancing the education, health, and wellbeing of the communities we work with across the country. This past year has been marked by significant achievements, building on our legacy of delivering quality training and education to over 20,000 funded learners over the last decade alongside our impactful Health and Wellbeing provision.
Our strategy is rooted in a purpose that has stood the test of time since 1844. During 2022-23, as with many organisations in the not-for-profit sector, the complexities and challenges highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent cost of living crisis, have required us to undertake a thorough review of our ways of working, operational efficiencies and the services we offer to our communities. This has required us to be more adaptable and innovative and in 2022-2023 the Board of Trustees approved a robust three-year business transformation programme to increase financial sustainability, create organisational resilience, and ensure we have the structures and resources in place to fulfil our charitable objectives. The activities undertaken within this period, including a revised Executive Team structure, investment in digital technology, business process reviews, and expanded partnerships, have built a foundation for growth and supported the expansion of the Charity’s reach and impact.
We continue to align our work with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), viewing these as a powerful framework to amplify our purpose and work with like-minded organisations towards a common purpose. Partnerships and collaboration are integral to this, and we have expanded our theory of change and social impact framework to further align with these goals.
Looking ahead, as we enter the second critical year of our transformation programme, we recognise the evolving nature of opportunities and challenges. As CEO, I am committed to flexibility and the need to adapt the Charity’s business model to manage external pressures and ensure the Charity’s resources are used in a way that maximises charitable impact. Following completion of our transformation programme, our next strategic cycle will be extended to five years, acknowledging that some of our ambitions will take longer to deliver. We will also engage with a broader group of stakeholders as part of this process in order to ensure that our communities and internal staff are given the opportunity to contribute to this. Our future strategy will take into account our ambitions against the SDGs and we will continue to track our impact against these. Core to this will be the opportunities presented by technology and digitisation, including exploring the opportunities and risks presented by artificial intelligence and the use of technology in our education and training provision.
Central YMCA is a national charity that advances the education, health and wellbeing of our learners, customers, members and wider communities. Building on our legacy of care established at our inception back in 1844 we have been breaking down barriers and creating improved access tolife-changing opportunities for almost 180 years.
We build careers through nationwide apprenticeships and education programmes in 20+ centres across England.
We help people get active and stay well in Central London’s largest community gym and a unique Yoga and Pilates studio.
We work to produce outstanding fitness instructors who go the extra mile and inspire people to improve their health and fitness.
We design health, fitness and wellbeing qualifications that support employability and career progression
The last decade alone has seen us deliver training and education to over 20,000 funded learners and welcomed tens of thousands of members and customers into our Health and Wellbeing sites in London in drive to improve physical activity across the capital. We are incredibly proud of this year’s highlights:
*older adults, asylum, concession &GP referral.
With the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic still being felt across society, the significant rises in costs of living and the ongoing realities of marginalisation and discrimination against the perceived alternate groups of society, we are at a critical juncture in time if we are to create a better future.
It is in this context and perspective, that we have elected, alongside many other UK organisations, to align our impact agenda to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As such our impact reporting is to be viewed through this lens, with a strong focus on delivering against those goals wherein we make the most difference, specifically, ‘Good Health & Wellbeing’, ‘Quality Education’ and ‘Decent Work & Economic Growth’. We believe that collaboration and shared vision will be key to achieving the SDGs and effecting meaningful change towards a sustainable future.
To see our full Impact Report visit our website ymca.co.uk
Further information on the SDGs and current UK performance, can be found here: Measuring Up 2.0
We believe that collaboration and shared vision will be key to achieving the sustainable development goals and effecting meaningful change towards a sustainable future."
We work at a local, national and international level, offering services to a diverse range of customers, learners, apprentices, members and partners. Based on our founding principles, our work has a particular focus on holistic wellbeing, providing services to support the health, education and development of our communities. We take a place-based approach, delivering services and partnerships based on local needs.
The issues we face today both as a charity, and in wider society, are complex and interconnected, and this was particularly highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to these pressures, we continue to adapt and evolve our offer, developing flexible and creative solutions. Our ambition has always been to help those we work with, whether through our education or health and wellbeing programmes, to develop new skills and behaviours, empowering our communities to achieve their goals and build lifelong relationships to support sustained health, and professional and personal growth.
In 2022-23 we entered the second year of the Charity’s three-year strategy. However, after a significant period of review, we have now implemented a new three-year business transformation programme to ensure the Charity can continue to deliver its charitable objectives and social impact whilst navigating a challenging financial operating environment.
The following critical outcomes set out in the Charity’s 2021-2024 strategy continue to be delivered:
Significant work has been undertaken to review the Charity’s financial sustainability, create organisational resilience and ensure that the Charity’s resources are used in the best possible way to deliver its public benefit. Our Business Transformation Programme is due to conclude 31st July 2025, upon which a new five-year strategy will be launched.
Through careful and robust analysis of the Charity’s income streams and operating model, we are on a journey to increasing resilience as an organisation. We are now better placed to drive change and make further improvements to our products and services in order to continue meeting the needs of our customers and wider communities.
We continue to align our work with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a deep belief that these can serve as a broader and more impactful framework to deliver our purpose, vision and mission. The SDGs are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. Partnerships and collaboration are core to this, and we choose our partners based on our common drive to achieve these goals and deliver broader social value.
There is recognition that the opportunities and challenges facing the Charity and our communities are complex and long-term and will require more time to address. We are therefore extending our next strategic cycle to five years and will be working with a wider group of stakeholders to build our next strategic plan over the next 12 months. We are cognisant of the continued volatility and uncertainty that continues to impact our sectors and any future strategy will therefore retain a degree of flexibility, allowing the organisation to adapt to new opportunities and challenges, however with a core driver of delivering greater social impact and supporting our ambitions against the SDGs.
One area we know will be core to the Charity’s future delivery model is exploring how current and future technologies can be used to deliver our products and services in new ways to enable greater reach and to meet the changing needs and learning styles of our customers.
As with many businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, Central YMCA had to quickly adapt its delivery model during this period, and this was supported by the technology the Charity had in place. The pandemic has resulted in permanent changes in many areas of society and has led to rapid innovation and behavioural change. Learnings from this have contributed to the Charity’s evolving digitisation strategy, taking into consideration the change in our customer behaviours and their interactions with our productsand services.
Within YMCA Awards, one output of this discovery work was the realisation that we could use technology to better support learner engagement – particularly with the technical content within our qualifications – and to develop the communication skills newly qualified fitness instructors may lack. Education in the health and fitness sector is in need of, and ready for, change.
To meet these challenges and to create a lasting and more sustainable approach to training we’re introducing a new range of next generation exercise and fitness qualifications. Everyone has a different learning style that works for them. The traditional assessment methods can act as barriers to some learners and block them from performing to the best of their ability. We want to allow flexibility that reflects the neurodiversity of our learners and the sector they wish to work in.
We'll continue to offer assessment methods like practical observations, multiple choice, multiple response, and short answer. But we’ll also be introducing additional options:
These will allow each learner to get creative and customise their learning experience to get the most out of their course. The added flexibility will also allow them to complete assessments that better reflect what they’ll do on the job versus in a classroom.
We have partnered with Suada – an established technology company – whose platform has been used to deliver remote training and assessment for companies including the British Standards Institute (BSI).
Working together, over the course of this year, we have developed a new model for learning and assessment that empowers learners to study in their preferred way. This includes providing content in video, audio and written format whilst also providing kinaesthetic activities to consolidate knowledge and skills. We anticipate wide-scale public release early in 2024.
The digitisation of our next generation qualifications – including our Exercise and Fitness suite – has been supported by funding fromUfi VocTech Trust.
