CEO REPORT FEBRUARY Summary 1. 2017-18 finished very strongly in February, with the likely above budget surplus ahead of the estimates previously given to the Board. 2. By contrast, we have had a challenging start to 2018-19, with trading significantly affected by the Beast from the East. Trading, financial and operating performance and guest satisfaction 3. Following the strong finish to last year, with good late sales, we were looking forward to an equally strong March. However The Beast from the East had other ideas and caused a swathe of cancellations, no shows and suppressed demand for the last few days of the month. This gave us a negative impact of roughly 6k overnights and 120k. 4. At the same time we were concerned that despite the Easter weekend straddling into April, we were not seeing the uplift in April volumes that we would like to have seen. 5. We therefore decided to launch a Green Flash sale offering up to 25% of stays in March, April and May. This proved to be a powerful sale and was extended to run for an additional week up until the 27 th March. 6. This sale delivered more than 16,500 overnights and 240k revenue. This means that March finished trading ahead of last year (as it should be given the timing of Easter). We have also seen the April deficit diminish. There is still work to do to achieve our budget for the first few months, but the risk is decreasing. 7. We are about to finalise the year end figures for 2017/18, before handing these over to the auditors who started on site this week. Strong February trading led to income just shy of 0.25m above forecast. We expect to be above the trading surplus forecast shared with the Board in February.. 8. Overall guest satisfaction for February 2018 was 91.3%, roughly in line with trends for the rest of the year. Overall, we have ended the year with guest satisfaction of 91.4%, our highest ever, and 0.3% ahead of 2016-17. 9. The most improved Hostel was YHA Helvellyn with a +6.4% increase on last year. The most improved area was the North West. Overall the Peaks and North West were the best performing regions in YHA (92.1%) with London remaining stubbornly at around 89%-90% over the year. Generally all aspects of guest satisfaction have improved except food, which declined in the first half of the year
before recovering and showing marginal improvements in the last quarter, as managers and teams (supported by the Food Academies) developed the food and food related service. Net Promoter Scores (NPS) performed well over the year and within the target window of 70% - 75%, which remains industry leading in the hospitality sector. Capital projects 10. Despite our best efforts, progress at London Stratford has continued to be slower than we would like. However the planning authority has now finally issued the decision notice formally granting us planning permission for the site. On the back of this, Jake Chalmers, Property Director, has met with the planners to open formal discussion over the changes we are seeking to limit costs and ensure the building design picks up on the lessons from the Grenfell tower disaster. 11. After months of delay we are pleased to report that demolition of the remaining building on site has started. This demolition allows us to build the trench to enable the completion of ground investigations underneath the site. 12. We are nearing completion of the work with our preferred contractors to look at value engineering options and consider alternative construction methods (pre cast concrete), and will be taking the latest figures and options to the April Performance and Audit Committee (PAC) for discussion in advance of the May Board. 13. On other projects, the refurbishment at YHA Swanage has been completed to time and budget. A soft opening event was held at the end of March, attended by the group of young carers who recently stayed in YHA Perranporth, and the hostel has now re-opened. A formal re-opening event is planned for early summer. 14. Likewise the refurbishment of the main building in YHA Bath is on track to complete in the next couple of weeks, and a soft opening event will be held on 12 April. Work is ongoing on the new annex building, which is due to be completed in the winter. 15. Finally the refurbishment at YHA Perranporth is coming along well, to programme and budget. The 40k Coast to Coast Leader external funding is being spent on various aspects, but mainly on the conservatory, offering fantastic views over the bay and the hostel is on track to re-open to guests in early May. 16. On YHA Oxford, our development partners have finalised with Network Rail (NR) the Master Plan proposals to deliver their operational requirements, which importantly include the new YHA. A meeting is being arranged between the
parties to review the financial viability of the Master Plan with the aim of reaching an agreed position over key priorities with the City Council (CC). Events and partnerships 17. I have updated the plan with the latest position. Date Event Attending 19 December Peak District hostel tour with Ruth George MP for the High Peak Margaret attending Postponed on the day due to urgent Parliamentary business March 2018 Meeting with LD health spokesperson Norman Lamb MP on our new charitable focus 2-4 March 2018 British and Irish / European hostelling conference, Edinburgh 2-4 May 2018 Snowdonia hostels tour, meeting with National Park and Facebook Live Early Summer 2018 YHA Swanage re-opening event June 2018 Parliamentary reception to include APPG AGM [20] August 2018 Tour of Peaks hostels with Patrick McLoughlin Winter 2018 YHA Bath main building reopening event still to be re-arranged Date still to be confirmed meeting will now take place in Parliament Peter/James to attend James Postponed because of weather now rearranged for 13/14 May in Brussels Trustee to attend Peter/Margaret/James All Board members welcome Date to be confirmed but all Board members welcome Peter and James to attend Date to be confirmed; all Board members welcome 18. Discussions with key partners and supporters in February and early March included: Crispin Truman, CEO of the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE); and Vanessa Griffiths, CEO of the Ramblers. Both Crispin and Vanessa are relatively new in post, and are keen to develop a new modern, positive and outward facing agenda for their organisations. They are keen to work with YHA to find ways of engaging with younger people, and see opportunities for joint partnership and fundraising work, especially
on the health and wellbeing agenda. Anita Kerwin-Nye, who is currently CEO of Every Child Should and AKN Consulting and a leading figure and spokesperson in the outdoor and school based education sector. Anita is a big supporter of YHA, and has advised us in the past on our fundraising strategy. Peter Westgarth and Peter Schooling, CEO and Commercial Director of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. We have a strong and growing partnership with the DofE, focused in particular on providing residential opportunities for youth volunteering, and Joe Lynch, Commercial Director, and I explored how this might develop, as well as opportunities on our sites to host winter expeditions, where DofE are exploring moving beyond traditional camping. Julie Bentley, CEO of Girl Guiding. Julie has led the modernisation and transformation of Girl Guiding, and is a prominent figure in the charity sector more generally. We explored the potential for greater mutual promotion and development of our two organisations, and shared experience on issues such as safeguarding and volunteering Tom Levitt, ex MP for the High Peak. Tom worked for YHA in his youth, and continues to be a customer and supporter. He is involved in celebrating the 50 th anniversary of YHA St Paul s this year, and has linked us to charities and social enterprises that he now chairs and directs, who might be interested in our Breaks programmes. Phil Bale, ex Leader of Cardiff City Council and a keen YHA supporter (he knows members of the ex Wales Council and has attended YHA AGMs in the past). He gave Jake and I a very useful overview of the current policy and funding landscape in Wales, which continues to diverge from that in England, and various leads which we will pursue. 19. Further to my meeting with Ali Oliver, CEO of the Youth Sports Trust (YST), before Christmas, we held a very positive joint workshop with members of our senior teams to develop proposals for a more formal partnership between our two organisations. YST are networked into all schools across the country, and are keen to get young people more active; they see YHA as providing the means to extend that programme out of the classroom. 20. I attended a Fit for the Future meeting of national charity CEOs with an interest in the environment, hosted jointly by Sir Ed Davey MP and Dame Helen Ghosh of
the National Trust. Sir Ed is a keen YHA supporter and could prove a useful advocate in Parliament. 21. We had a busy month of Ambassador communications, with both Alan Hinkes and Alex Staniforth coming to National Office to present to staff and to meet teams to discuss how best we can work together to mutual advantage over the coming year. Engagement and impact 22. The latest year to date slide on our impact is below. These numbers will change again once we have a chance to do the final year end reconciliation. Communications 23. We continue to roll out the communication of our charitable focus externally and in our hostels.. 24. Joe has written a well received blog relating to this: you can see it here https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-lynch-55324019/detail/recent-activity/posts/ Digital communications 25. Did you know that the second biggest search engine in the world is YouTube? As part of our overall engagement strategy we have been trialling the impact of a full time, in house video editor, Josh Wragg. As we seek to engage with more young people we need to be producing compelling video content that will be inspirational to the next generation of youth hostellers. After a trial period in the last six months of last financial year we saw considerable savings by bringing our
video production in house and demonstrated the huge potential for this powerful medium. 26. You can see the results at https://www.youtube.com/user/yhatv 27. Recent projects include: Young Carers video at Perranporth New hostel videos Interviews with YHA s Ambassadors Peter and my Facebook Live broadcasts 28. More videos are planned over coming months, focused both on providing content which encourages people to stay, as well as demonstrating our impact. Membership update 29. Good progress is being made with the roll out of the new simplified membership changes agreed by the Board in September. Key changes include: From 1st March, Groups, Household and Life memberships are no longer available to new members. Affiliate Group Membership ended on 28th February Young Persons Group Pricing has been introduced for all young people under 26 Operations and People 30. There have been various hostel manager appointments this month in readiness for the new season: Mike Barrett the Duty Manager at Llanberis has been promoted to Hostel Manager. Ali Shammat has been appointed to YHA St Pancras. Ali joined from Travelodge and has spent his career in hospitality and hostels. Claire Daniels has been appointed to Hostel Manager at YHA St David s Kirsty George, the caretaker at YHA Blacksail, has been promoted to Hostel Manager at Ennerdale. Ruth Richards has been promoted from Deputy Manager at YHA Cardiff to Hostel Manager at YHA Broadhaven Amy Holman, Deputy Manager at Hartington Hall has been appointed to YHA Hathersage
Jane Barbour was promoted from Duty Manager at YHA Dartmoor to Designate Manager. 31. On a sadder note we have had three deaths in service over the last month. Rachel Ross, who has worked in the marketing team for 15 years, died suddenly and unexpectedly. Alba Lucia Angarita Arboleda, a member of the housekeeping team at YHA Thameside, also passed away in the month, as did Noah Clark in Cardiff, after a short illness. We have been supporting families and colleagues. Volunteering 32. As shown on the Impact slide above, it has been another strong year for youth volunteering. Under 26 volunteers for the full financial year increased from 678 to 735 and will be developed further through the Volunteer Kinetic IT system which has eased volunteer registrations. It currently shows that 54.6% of registered volunteers are under 26 and the average age is 32. Initial interest in Summer Camp Volunteering is very positive and aided by the work our Volunteer and Partnerships Manager has been doing with Universities. Overall there have been 156,000 hours of volunteering this year (worth circa 1.5m of support for YHA). 33. The first Volunteer Focus Group (for Volunteer Managers) was held at YHA York on 24th March 2018 and led by Crewenna Dymond, Head of Volunteering, and Jerry Robinson, Operations and People Director, with support from Neil Baldwin, Operations Manager. These sessions have proved invaluable to developing the YHA experience with partnerships with our volunteers. 34. Volunteer surgeries are also now in the diary to help support and drive local volunteering opportunities. Environmental forum 35. We have begun work to reinvigorate our work on environment and sustainability an issue of concern to many of our teams. In March, representatives from all areas of the organisation attended an Environmental Forum at YHA National Forest. Its purpose was to complete a full review of YHA s position surrounding various environmental issues, including existing good practice, and opportunities and barriers to do more. This will develop into a refreshed environmental plan for YHA. In the meantime we have taken the opportunity for some quick wins, including getting rid of plastic straws and stirrers. Exec succession planning 36. Following conversations within the Executive team, with Heads of Department, the Chairman and RemCo I have been finalising proposals for the future of the Exec team, after Joe leaves in May.
37. In the short term, Joe s Heads of Department will report into other members of the Executive Team, and I am looking to bring in some advisory support around one day/week to help shape and drive forward the Charitable Focus work in the period between Directors. 38. In the longer term I propose to recruit a new Director to replace Joe. While we will continue to want significant commercial nous, I am hoping to recruit someone with senior national charity experience (a current gap on the Exec) to lead our new charitable focus programme and accelerate our drive to become as leading national charity for young people. 39. We will begin the recruitment process in the coming weeks, with a view to having the new Director in post in the autumn. Safeguarding 40. We have been conducting our annual review of our safeguarding framework, including seeking to pick up any emerging best practice from the recent Oxfam case and media coverage. While we continue to believe our overall framework is strong, we are likely to make some recommendations to strengthen it even further. These will be reported to April PAC and May Board. Hostel visits 41. I continue to take the opportunity whenever I can to get around the network to see out hostels and visits the teams. I have now been to around 70 hostels overall. Recent visits include hostels in Yorkshire, Kent, South Wales, Gloucestershire, Dorset and Devon, including fulfilling a lifelong ambition to stay in haunted St Briavel s Castle!