Company registration number 02918620 (England and Wales)
Educational Competencies Consortium Limited
financial statements
For the year ended 31 July 2024
Educational Competencies Consortium Limited
Contents
Page
Statement of financial position
1
Notes to the financial statements
2 - 9
Educational Competencies Consortium Limited
Statement of financial position
As at 31 July 2024
31 July 2024
- 1 -
2024
2023
Notes
£
£
£
£
Fixed assets
Intangible assets
4
139,650
80,802
Tangible assets
5
5,986
2,481
145,636
83,283
Current assets
Debtors
6
588,835
384,707
Cash at bank and in hand
1,545,200
1,677,713
2,134,035
2,062,420
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
7
(1,348,326)
(1,224,387)
Net current assets
785,709
838,033
Total assets less current liabilities
931,345
921,316
Provisions for liabilities
9
-
0
(576,204)
Net assets
931,345
345,112
Reserves
11
Other reserves
630,000
199,707
Income and expenditure account
301,345
145,405
Members' funds
931,345
345,112

These financial statements have been prepared and delivered in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.

The directors of the company have elected not to include a copy of the income and expenditure account within the financial statements.true

The financial statements were approved by the board of directors and authorised for issue on 14 November 2024 and are signed on its behalf by:
Mrs J M Marshall
Director
Company registration number 02918620 (England and Wales)
Educational Competencies Consortium Limited
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 July 2024
- 2 -
1
Accounting policies
Company information

Educational Competencies Consortium Limited is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is Bates Mill, Colne Road, Huddersfield, United Kingdom, HD1 3AG.

1.1
Accounting convention

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (“FRS 102”) and the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 as applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime. The disclosure requirements of section 1A of FRS 102 have been applied other than where additional disclosure is required to show a true and fair view.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the company. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.

The company has reported a surplus for the year. This includes the release of the pension provision of £576,204 (previously included in the accounts as a result of the 2020 actuarial valuation of the USS scheme). The company has a positive cash position at the year end and no reliance is placed on bank facilities.

 

The directors have reviewed the current position and budgets of the company, and after making appropriate enquiries they have a reasonable expectation that the company has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus they continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.

1.2
Turnover

Subscriptions from members are recognised as income over the period of membership.

 

Consultancy income is recognised when the work is performed.

1.3
Intangible fixed assets other than goodwill

Research expenditure is written off to the profit and loss account in the year in which it is incurred.

 

Development expenditure is written off in the same way unless the directors are satisfied as to the technical, commercial and financial viability of individual projects and can assess the outcome of the project with reasonable certainty. In this situation, the expenditure is capitalised and amortised, once complete and in use, over the period during which the company is expected to benefit.

Development costs
10% on cost, adjusted when end of useful life is known with certainty.

 

1.4
Tangible fixed assets

Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.

Educational Competencies Consortium Limited
Notes to the financial statements (continued)
For the year ended 31 July 2024
1
Accounting policies
(Continued)
- 3 -

Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:

Fixtures and fittings
33% on cost
Computers
33% on cost

The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is credited or charged to surplus or deficit.

1.5
Taxation

The tax expense represents the sum of the tax currently payable.

Current tax

The company is a mutual trading company for tax purposes and only pays tax on investment income and any surplus on non-member related activities.

1.6
Retirement benefits

The institution participates in Universities Superannuation Scheme. The assets of the scheme are held in a separate trustee-administered fund. Because of the mutual nature of the scheme, the assets are not attributed to individual institutions and a scheme-wide contribution rate is set. The institution is therefore exposed to actuarial risks associated with other institutions’ employees and is unable to identify its share of the underlying assets and liabilities of the scheme on a consistent and reasonable basis. As required by Section 28 of FRS 102 “Employee benefits”, the institution therefore accounts for the scheme as if it were a defined contribution scheme. As a result, the amount charged to the profit and loss account represents the contributions payable to the scheme and the deficit recovery contributions payable under the scheme’s Recovery Plan.

 

Where a scheme valuation determines that the scheme is in deficit on a technical provisions basis (as was the case following the 2020 valuation), the trustee of the scheme must agree a Recovery Plan that determines how each employer within the scheme will fund an overall deficit. The institution recognises a liability for the contributions payable that arise from such an agreement (to the extent that they relate to a deficit) with related expenses being recognised through the income statement. Further disclosures relating to the deficit recovery liability can be found in note 9.

2
Judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty

In the application of the company’s accounting policies, the directors are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

 

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.

 

Educational Competencies Consortium Limited
Notes to the financial statements (continued)
For the year ended 31 July 2024
2
Judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty
(Continued)
- 4 -
Key sources of estimation uncertainty

The estimates and assumptions which have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amount of assets and liabilities are as follows.

Pension liability

The value of the pension liability recognised in the financial statements depends on a number of factors and parameters determined by both the actuary and the company and uses a variety of assumptions. Any changes in these assumptions, which are disclosed in the note on pension liability, will impact on the carrying amount.

 

3
Employees

The average monthly number of persons employed by the company during the year was:

2024
2023
Number
Number
Total
9
8

No director received any remuneration from the company or had a beneficial interest in any contract with the company. However, the company has been charged £6,000 (2023 - £4,000) by Jmm & Associates Ltd for the services of Joanna Marshall, chair and director, £4,000 (2023 - £Nil) by Ulster University for the services of Damian McAlister, vice-chair and director and £2,000 (2023 - £Nil) by David Williams for services of David Williams, committee chair and director and £Nil (2023 - £4,000) by Leeds Arts University for the services of Graham Curling, director.

4
Intangible fixed assets
Other
£
Cost
At 1 August 2023
421,587
Additions
115,233
At 31 July 2024
536,820
Amortisation and impairment
At 1 August 2023
340,785
Amortisation charged for the year
56,385
At 31 July 2024
397,170
Carrying amount
At 31 July 2024
139,650
At 31 July 2023
80,802
Educational Competencies Consortium Limited
Notes to the financial statements (continued)
For the year ended 31 July 2024
4
Intangible fixed assets
(Continued)
- 5 -

Intangible fixed assets relate to the costs incurred in the development of the company's main software tools. These costs are capitalised in accordance with the company's accounting policy and are amortised over the period from the completion of the development stage, when the software is brought into use, to the end of the useful life.

 

Included within additions in the year are costs of development of the newest package which is currently in the process of being installed with the completion date set for January 2025. The company is committed to spend of £67,742 in order to complete this project.

5
Tangible fixed assets
Plant and machinery etc
£
Cost
At 1 August 2023
10,709
Additions
5,728
At 31 July 2024
16,437
Depreciation and impairment
At 1 August 2023
8,228
Depreciation charged in the year
2,223
At 31 July 2024
10,451
Carrying amount
At 31 July 2024
5,986
At 31 July 2023
2,481
6
Debtors
2024
2023
Amounts falling due within one year:
£
£
Trade debtors
548,754
358,879
Other debtors
40,081
25,828
588,835
384,707
Educational Competencies Consortium Limited
Notes to the financial statements (continued)
For the year ended 31 July 2024
- 6 -
7
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
2024
2023
£
£
Trade creditors
70,093
37,022
Corporation tax
13,534
13,358
Other taxation and social security
196,352
203,817
Other creditors
2,799
4,054
Accruals and deferred income
1,065,548
966,136
1,348,326
1,224,387
Educational Competencies Consortium Limited
Notes to the financial statements (continued)
For the year ended 31 July 2024
- 7 -
8
Provisions for liabilities
Pension liability
2024
2023
Balance at start of year
576,204
410,261
Charge to pension costs
(587,392)
149,287
Interest charge
11,188
16,656
Balance at end of year
-
576,204

Deficit recovery contributions due within one year for the institution are £Nil (2023 - £39,791).

 

A deficit recovery plan was put in place as part of the 2020 valuation, which required payment of 6.2% of salaries over the period 1 April 2022 until 31 March 2024, at which point the rate would increase to 6.3%. As set out in the pension modeller, no deficit recovery plan was required under the 2023 valuation because the scheme was in surplus on a technical provisions basis. The institution was no longer required to make deficit recovery contributions from 1 January 2024 and accordingly released the outstanding provision to the profit and loss account.

 

The latest available complete actuarial valuation of the Retirement Income Builder is as at 31 March 2023 (the valuation date), which was carried out using the projected unit method.

 

Since the institution cannot identify its share of USS Retirement Income Builder (defined benefit) assets and liabilities, the following disclosures reflect those relevant for those assets and liabilities as a whole.

 

The 2023 valuation was the seventh valuation for the scheme under the scheme-specific funding regime introduced by the Pensions Act 2004, which requires schemes to have sufficient and appropriate assets to cover their technical provisions (the statutory funding objective). At the valuation date, the value of the assets of the scheme was £73.1 billion and the value of the scheme’s technical provisions was £65.7 billion indicating a surplus of £7.4 billion and a funding ratio of 111%.

 

The key financial assumptions used in the 2023 valuation are described below. More detail is set out in the USS Statement of Funding Principles.

 

CPI assumption

Term dependent rates in line with the difference between the Fixed Interest and

Index Linked yield curves less:

 

1.0% p.a. to 2030, reducing linearly by 0.1% p.a. from 2030

 

Pension increases (subject to a floor of 0%)

Benefits with no cap:

 

CPI assumption plus 3bps

 

Benefits subject to a “soft cap” of 5% (providing inflationary increases up to 5%,

and half of any excess inflation over 5% up to a maximum of 10%):

 

CPI assumption minus 3bps

 

Discount rate (forward rates)
Fixed interest gilt yield curve plus:
Pre-retirement: 2.5% p.a.
Educational Competencies Consortium Limited
Notes to the financial statements (continued)
For the year ended 31 July 2024
8
Provisions for liabilities
(Continued)
- 8 -
Post retirement: 0.9% p.a.
The main demographic assumptions used relate to the mortality assumptions. These assumptions are based on analysis of the scheme's experience carried out as part of the 2023 actuarial valuation. The mortality assumptions used in these figures are as follows:
2023 valuation
Mortality base table
101% of S2PMA “light” for males and 95% of S3PFA for females
Future improvements to mortality
CMI 2021 with a smoothing parameter of 7.5, an initial addition of 0.4% p.a., 10% w2020 and
w2021 parameters, and a long-term improvement rate of 1.8% pa for males and 1.6% pa
for females.
The current life expectancies on retirement at age 65 are:
2024
2023
Males currently aged 65 (years)
23.70
24.00
Females currently aged 65 (years)
25.60
25.60
Males currently aged 45 (years)
25.40
26.00
Females currently aged 45 (years)
27.20
27.40
9
Audit report information

As the income statement has been omitted from the filing copy of the financial statements, the following information in relation to the audit report on the statutory financial statements is provided in accordance with s444(5B) of the Companies Act 2006:

The auditor's report was unqualified.

Senior Statutory Auditor:
Karen Borowski FCA
Statutory Auditor:
DJH Audit Limited
Date of audit report:
21 November 2024
10
Operating lease commitments

At the reporting end date the company had outstanding commitments for future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases, as follows:

2024
2023
£
£
7,440
1,165
Educational Competencies Consortium Limited
Notes to the financial statements (continued)
For the year ended 31 July 2024
- 9 -
11
Reserves

The company keeps the reserves policy under review. This year has seen a significant decrease in pension liability arising from the USS 2023 actuarial valuation, which has removed the mandatory provision for pension liability from the General reserve. However the company feels it is prudent to allocate £180,000 towards a target of £250,000 as a pension reserve provision against potential future volatility.

 

Due to the reduction in pension liability and the surplus for the year the company has achieved the £300,000 target for General reserves but has increased the target to £350,000 to reflect anticipated increases in staffing and potential liabilities (other than pension liabilities) should the company cease operating or face potential income shortfall. The company aims to achieve the target over the next 1-2 years.

 

The company also sets aside development reserves to cover software and other development in accordance with members' needs, company strategy and changes in technology. The target is split into short and long-term elements. Short-term reserves are targeted at £250,000 to cover planned investment in service development and software investment over the next two years. As short-term development requirements are the most pressing the company has been able to fully meet this target due to the surplus. Long-term development reserves will be built up to £250,000 to provide for future IT and digital investment, and it has been possible to allocate £200,000 to this target.

12
Company Status

The company is a private company limited by guarantee and consequently does not have share capital. Clause 5 of the Memorandum of Association provides that every member, as defined in the Articles of Association, is liable to contribute a sum not exceeding £1 in the event of the company being wound up while they are a member or within one year of ceasing to be a member.

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