CURIOUS MINDS

Registered charity 1130988 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as CURIOUS MINDS LANCASHIRE

Curious Minds is a creative charity delivering a wide range of initiatives for children and young people in the North West. We believe it is everyone's right to have the opportunity to realise their creative potential and we aim to make a difference in children and young people's lives through increasing participation in arts and cultural activities.

Objects

TO ADVANCE FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE WITHIN ENGLAND IN ORDER TO ENABLE THEM TO PARTICIPATE IN SOCIETY ASMATURE AND RESPONSIBLE INDIVIDUALS, IN PARTICULAR BY:A) SUPPORTING THEM TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL LEARNERS AND RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSBY WORKING WITH OTHERS TO EXTEND THE RANGE, AMOUNT, QUALITY AND SCOPEOF FORMAL AND INFORMAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES IN THE AREAS OF CREATIVITY,ARTS, MEDIA, CULTURE, HERITAGE, HUMANITIES AND SCIENCE;B) SUPPORTING TEACHERS, PRACTITIONERS, CARERS, PERFORMERS AND ARTISTS INDEVELOPING THE NECESSARY SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE TO ASSIST THEM IN ENABLINGCHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE BOTH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE FORMAL EDUCATION TODEVELOP AND APPLY THEIR SKILLS AND TALENTS AND TO OPEN UP TO THEMCULTURAL AND CREATIVE ACTIVITY;C) DEVELOPING PROGRAMMES, WHERE APPROPRIATE, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH OTHERSTO DELIVER POSITIVE LEARNING OUTCOMES AND ENCOURAGE THE RECOGNITION,ENJOYMENT AND USE OF CULTURE, MEDIA AND HERITAGE;D) EMPOWERING THEM TO BE INVOLVED IN THE PROMOTION OF CULTURAL ANDLEARNING ACTIVITIES AND ENHANCING THEIR SKILLS, CAPACITIES AND CAPABILITIES;E) ENCOURAGING THEM TO VISIT, EXPERIENCE, PARTICIPATE IN, INITIATE ANDENGAGE IN CULTURAL ACTIVITIES, PLACES AND PERFORMANCES.

Area of benefit: ENGLAND

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 · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Wigan, North West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity maintained free reserves of £500,539, meeting its stated policy target of £500,000, which is designed to cover six months of overhead costs. Per the trustees' report, the charity secured new philanthropic support and grant funding, while also investing in a transformation programme to diversify income and ensure long-term sustainability. The auditor confirmed that the financial statements give a true and fair view and identified no material uncertainties 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 Mitchell Charlesworth (Audit) Limited. 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
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures

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 06775402 · Financial health read from its filings

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Curious Minds (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Derri Burdon — CEO (source)
• Sally Bacon — Co-Chair of the Cultural Learning Alliance (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.

• FUREY-THOMPSON, Bernadette Ellen — director, appointed 22/07/2026on trustee list
• WACHAGA, Linda — director, appointed 29/01/2026on trustee list
• MCCALLUM, Matthew James — director, appointed 22/10/2025on trustee list
• MUTCH, Jennifer Eileen — director, appointed 03/09/2025on trustee list
• MADDEN GOODIER, Janet Mary — director, appointed 12/07/2024not on trustee list
• ORFORD, Kara Jane — director, appointed 12/07/2024on trustee list
• SYMONDS, Abby Erin — director, appointed 12/07/2024on trustee list
• MCARDLE, Kathy — director, appointed 08/11/2023on trustee list
• SMITH, Alicia Carmel — director, appointed 26/01/2022on trustee list
• AL-OBAIDI, Samira Jane — director, appointed 22/07/2020on trustee list
• LANGFELD, Sue — secretary, appointed 14/11/2018

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold); recorded price paid £30k. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

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

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

Reported reserves equal ~5.1 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (95% 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: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Kathy McArdlechair
• Abby Erin Symonds
• Alicia Carmel Smith
• Bernadette Ellen Furey-Thompson
• Janet Mary Madden Goodier
• Jennifer Eileen Mutch
• Kara Jane Orford
• Linda Wachaga
• Matthew James McCallum
• Samira Jane Al-Obaidi

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

Operates in: Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Shared trustees with funders

Register facts shown side by side: a person serves as trustee of both this charity and a funder whose accounts record grants to it. Shared trusteeship is lawful and common; well-run charities manage it through declared-interest procedures.

• Abby Erin Symonds — trustee here and at CURIOUS MINDS
• Alicia Carmel Smith — trustee here and at CURIOUS MINDS
• Bernadette Ellen Furey-Thompson — trustee here and at CURIOUS MINDS
• Janet Mary Madden Goodier — trustee here and at CURIOUS MINDS
• Jennifer Eileen Mutch — trustee here and at CURIOUS MINDS
• Kara Jane Orford — trustee here and at CURIOUS MINDS
• Kathy McArdle — trustee here and at CURIOUS MINDS
• Linda Wachaga — trustee here and at CURIOUS MINDS
• Matthew James McCallum — trustee here and at CURIOUS MINDS
• Samira Jane Al-Obaidi — trustee here and at CURIOUS MINDS

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 ANXIOUS MINDS.

• ANXIOUS MINDS income £477k
• OUR FREE MINDS CIO income £47k
• REFRESHING MINDS income £568k
• MANY MINDS income £108k
• KIDS IN MIND income £4.2m
• BOYS IN MIND GIRLS MIND TOO income £124k

Side by side with its peers

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