SEVEN STORIES, THE NATIONAL CENTRE FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Registered charity 1056812 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as SEVEN STORIES, THE CENTRE FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS, THE CENTRE FOR THE CHILDREN'S BOOK

Seven Stories' mission is to champion children's books as an intergral part of childhood and Britian's heritage and culture, with the aim of: Preserving and celebrating Britain's rich heritage of children's literature from 1930's to the present day. Encouraging a lively dialogue that brings books and their creators to life and inspires a love of reading across generations.

Objects

TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC IN PARTICULAR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE ARTS AND LITERATURE WITHOUT DISTINCTION OF GENDER, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, RACE OR POLITICAL, RELIGIOUS OR OTHER OPINIONS, THROUGH THE PROMOTION OF BRITAIN'S LITERARY HERITAGE FOR CHILDREN AND IN PARTICULAR, BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY, BY PRESERVING, MAINTAINING AND ADDING TO THE COLLECTION HELD BY THE TRUST AND BY THE PROMOTION OF ACCESS TO THE COLLECTION AND ASSOCIATED ITEMS THROUGH ARTS AND EDUCATION PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Newcastle upon Tyne, North East, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported an overall loss of £16,068 for the year, a significant improvement from the prior year's loss of £213,949, driven by a surplus on unrestricted funds. However, free reserves stood at £63,276, which is substantially below the trustees' stated policy target of between £350,000 and £425,000. The trustees confirmed there is no material uncertainty regarding the charity's ability to continue as a going concern.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by UNW LLP. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 03209411
• Trading subsidiary: SEVEN STORIES TRADING LIMITED Companies House 04177830

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Seven Stories, The National Centre for Centre (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Wendy Elliott — Chief Executive Officer (source)
• Claire Riley — Chair of Trustees (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

• HUNTER, Louise — director, appointed 24/06/2026not on trustee list
• STRACHAN, Paula Jane — director, appointed 10/12/2025not on trustee list
• PRESTON, Neil — director, appointed 10/12/2025not on trustee list
• DAVIS, Kim Louise — director, appointed 26/03/2025not on trustee list
• WATSON, Stephen Terence — director, appointed 26/03/2025not on trustee list
• RILEY, Claire — director, appointed 22/10/2021on trustee list
• LIPPE, Rachel Mary — director, appointed 06/03/2019on trustee list
• MCWHINNIE, Matthew Thomas — director, appointed 07/12/2016on trustee list
• ELLIOTT, Wendy Suzanne — secretary, appointed 03/07/2019

Official officers record.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~0.5 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (57% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 17.5% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Claire Rileychair · trustee of 1 other charity
• Annalei Bartlett
• Ben Butler
• Emma Layfield
• Louise Forster
• Matthew McWhinnie
• NICK KEMP · trustee of 1 other charity
• Rachel Mary Lippe

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Northern Ireland · Scotland · Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with SEVEN STORIES, THE NATIONAL CENTRE FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS COLLECTION TRUST.

• SEVEN STORIES, THE NATIONAL CENTRE FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS COLLECTION TRUST income £140k
• THE STORY MUSEUM income £2.3m
• CHILDREN'S BOOK PROJECT income £583k
• SETTLE STORIES LIMITED income £404k
• WORLD BOOK DAY LIMITED income £1.3m
• 20 STORIES HIGH income £627k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.