Governance

Here you can find our key governance documentation. This includes the terms of reference for our Board and sub-committees along with our annual report and financial statements.

Overview

As an organisation which receives public funding through Sport England, we are required to comply with A Code for Sports Governance (the "Code").

The Code includes a set of mandatory requirements across five principles of good governance: structure, people, communication, standards and conduct, and policies and processes.

The Code was updated in December 2021 to include seven new requirements.

Following submissions of evidence in 2023, Youth Sport Trust received formal notification from Sport England in February 2025, confirming our compliance with the Code (Tier 3). This encompasses all Requirements, including 2.1-2.3, which were managed separately through the independent Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan ("DIAP") review process.

Achieving good governance is an ongoing commitment, reflected in Tactic 6 of our strategy, “Change from within by increasing our impact on, connection with, and relevance to, a changing world”, under which our governance work sits.

The terms of reference (TOR) for our Board of Trustees/Directors and its two sub-committees are also available to view on the right-hand side of this page along with our Annual Report and Financial Statements, which includes our Annual Governance Statement.

Please click on any of the adjacent links to open the full documents.

Quality Management System

Our Quality Management System has been independently assessed and is compliant with the requirements of ISO 9001:2015, for the following scope of activities: Design and delivery of resources, programmes, training, and support to improve the provision of physical education and sport opportunities.

ISO9001 Quality Management logo

Some of our standard policies are available to view on the right-hand side of this page.

Cyber Essentials certified

How we are funded

The Youth Sport Trust champions investment in physical education and youth sport and we campaign for them to have a prominent place within education and youth policy.

We work to improve the provision of PE and youth sport by using any funding we secure to:

  • Train teachers, coaches and young people
  • Provide opportunities for young people to enjoy high quality, inclusive sport and play
  • Promote the value of PE, sport and play through campaigning and research.

We raise funds from a number of sources in order to deliver our mission: we bid to other charities, trusts and grant giving bodies, we apply to lottery distributors, we tender for government contracts and we work in partnership with businesses through sponsorships and corporate social responsibility projects. We are also lucky enough to benefit from a number of passionate fundraisers who every year take part in numerous challenges to raise funds to support our work.

Like many charities we also have a wholly owned trading subsidiary - Youth Sport Trust Enterprises (formerly known as Youth Sport Direct). Its purpose is to generate unrestricted income for the charity through commercial activity. At the end of each financial year, 100% of the surplus generated by the trading company is gift aided to the charity to support its activities in the following year. 

Our income in 2022/23

In total, the Youth Sport Trust secured funding of £9,983,292 to improve young people’s lives through sport and play in 2022/23. This was made up of:

  • Trusts and Foundations - £560,872
  • Fundraising and donations - £177,548
  • Corporate partnerships - £140,885
  • Membership income - £428,257
  • Commissioned development work - £1,832,730
  • Research - £2,342
  • Central government contracts - £337,520
  • Sport England - £5,871,275
  • Local government contracts - £74,157
  • Home nations - £309,883
  • Commercial events and activities - £68,110
  • Miscellaneous - £179,813

In addition to this, our not-for-profit trading subsidiary Youth Sport Trust Enterprises donated its surplus from commercial trading activity which amounted to £74,887.