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2022-08-31-accounts

Colden Common Pre-school AGM

Agenda

Wednesday 7[th] December 2022. 8pm. Via Zoom

Welcome and apologies

Kate Boniface, Chair, welcomed all attendees to the AGM

In attendance: Kate Boniface (Chair), Victoria Streltsova (Treasurer), Lara Webster (Manager), Charlotte White (Business Administrator), Sharon Stevens (SENDCO), Rochelle Baverey (Staff), Natasha Nolan (Staff), Sheila Middleditch (Staff), Ruth Struges (Committee), Amy McNeill (Committee), Damon Draisey (Committee), Kate Bennett (Committee), Ben Beech (parent), Will White

Apologies from : Helen Brown (Committee), Keith and Amanda Pinney(Committee), Kirsty Wilson (Staff), Tash Cater (Staff)

Sign off minutes of last AGM

Attendees agreed to sign off minutes of last AGM as a true representation of the meeting

Chairpersons Report – Kate Boniface

Colden Common Pre-School has charitable status that annually vote in a voluntary committee who are responsible for the overall governance of the pre-school. We work in partnership with the staff offering support and help to direct the on-going future of the pre-school. Up to three additional committee members can be co-opted during the year.

Since our last AGM, the committee has been represented by 8 members, including myself. My thanks extend to Victoria Streltsova, Keith and Amanda Pinney, Damon and Amanda Draisey, Kate Bennett and Helen Brown for their commitment and efforts throughout the past year. We have also warmly welcomed Ruth Sturges and Amy McNeill to the committee in recent months.

After many years of representing the pre-school on the committee, Damon and Amanda Draisey have made the decision to step down. I would like to take the opportunity to recognise the commitment and support they have offered the pre-school throughout some difficult years and to wish them and their family well for the future.

The staffing team at Colden Common Pre-School continue to be a huge asset to our setting. We have appointed two new members of staff since our last AGM, welcoming Rochelle Baverey and Sheila Middleditch to the team. The professionalism and dedication each individual staff member demonstrates is to be noted and celebrated. The role of an Early Years Educator, specifically in nursery and pre-school settings, is grossly undervalued in society, so it is important to take this opportunity to say that all your efforts are recognised and appreciated.

While I extend thanks to all the staff, special mention needs to be given to Lara Webster. Since her appointment as Manager last October, Lara has galvanised the team and has brought about noticeable improvements in the quality of childcare and education offered to our families. We have just experienced our busiest Autumn Term and look to be equally busy throughout both spring and summer terms.

I would also like to personally thank Charlotte White for her ongoing support to the committee -ensuring we are kept on track! She is also largely to thank for the success of our fundraising over the past year, for which we are extremely grateful.

The pre-school has experienced many successes and has grown considerably over the course of the year since our last AGM and I hope that this is translated well in the meeting tonight.

At our last AGM several objectives were set. I will now reflect on these individually:

The Committee’s aims were as follows:

1. To develop a close working partnership with the new manager and to stabilise the staffing team.

Lara’s work ethic and dedication has made her a pleasure to work alongside. She has a deep understanding of Early Years Education and the committee have felt confident that the pre-school has been in safe hands since her appointment.

Lara and I have met at least termly to discuss the pre-school’s ongoing development as well as conducting her annual appraisal. Lara also attends all monthly committee meetings and keeps the committee well informed about the running of the pre-school.

As previously mentioned, we have had new members of staff join the team since the last AGM. They have been fully inducted into the setting. All staff members receive termly supervision meetings with Lara as well as their annual appraisal. Monthly staff meetings are used to share common messages and give all members of staff a voice within the pre-school. It is evident that staff feel valued while working at Colden Common Pre-School. In a recent staff questionnaire, it was evident in all the responses received, that staff are happy to be working under Lara’s guidance and are proud of the direction the preschool has taken under her leadership.

2. To establish roles for Committee Members to support specific aspects of Pre-School e.g. SENCo, Staff Wellbeing, Policies and Procedures.

We have established roles within the committee. Keith Pinney has made excellent use of his role as Facilities Liaison Officer to support the pre-school in their relationship with the community centre. We will continue to develop these roles within the committee, so we are able to support the pre-school in the best way possible.

3. To streamline our financial procedures and practices and improve budgetary compliance.

As a committee, we have been very conscious of our income and expenditure when making spending decisions over the year. We are acutely aware of the disparity between government grant money and the running costs of a pre-school and, given the general financial strains on businesses country wide, we are careful with our spending. Victoria will go into greater depth in her financial report.

4. To raise the profile of the Pre-School through community and fundraising events, marketing and building relationships with key people and organisations in the village.

With the relaxation of many of the covid restrictions, we have once again been able to hold our community festivals. Our recent Scarecrow Festival was attended by over 100 children, with some families travelling from as far afield as Portsmouth to attend. Steve Brine MP came to judge our craft competition and, as chair of the all-party group for Childcare and Early Education, showed great interest in our setting. Preparations for our Easter Egg Hunt in the spring are already underway.

We have also supported community run events, such as the winter markets and the Common Have a Go in summer.

The Facebook page continues to reflect the rich and varied provision offered to our children, including the forest school sessions at our weekly Allotment School.

The pre-school has resumed weekly music and movement classes held at the Primary School (a pre-covid initiative). We have also funded local groups to come into the setting, including Boogie Mites and Yoga.

5. To introduce a parent fundraising group

We have struggled to raise interest in a fundraising group and volunteers are limited for our fundraising event. This target will continue into the next year.

Over the coming year the Committee’s aims are as follows:

Manager’s report – Lara Webster

This is my managers’ report covering the period September 2021 to December 2022

I would like to start my report by thanking the staffing team including Charlotte our administrator and Wendy the bookkeeper for all their hard work and support over the last year. I would also thank all our wonderful committee members devoting their precious time, without which pre-school would not be able to run. We’ve had a couple of changes to the team in this period, we welcomed Sharon Stevens back to Colden Common Preschool in the role of deputy manager and SENCO. Sharon has embraced her role as SENCO skilfully and the SEN children and team have seen huge improvements in the way we report, record progress and the general outcome for SEN children has improved significantly with better advice and funding. Our SEN children are well catered for, giving them the best opportunities to progress by ensuring suitable resources, staff allocation and stimulating activities.

We also had two new members of the team joining this year, firstly Rochelle, a fully qualified teacher and more recently Shelia, who is studying hard for her Early Years Educator. We also would not be able to successfully run the preschool if it wasn’t for our wonderful bank staff who step in whenever is required of them, Amanda and Marija. We’ve continued with our ever so popular allotment school, which I believe both the parents and children have found hugely beneficial. We have offered this opportunity to our older children in six-week blocks, alternating the day to capture as many of our 3- and 4-year-olds as possible. Allotment School gives the children an opportunity to encounter new experiences such as fire lighting and tool work whilst gaining confidence, resilience, independence, working as a team and being challenged. This is great preparation for “Big school”. The allotment school continues to be USP for the preschool, being the only allotment school locally.

We have implemented the revised EYFS with a reduction of observations and more focus on ‘knowing the child’ and having a firm understanding of their developmental stages, interests and next steps.

We introduced new software into the setting called Famly which has been hugely beneficial as a back office administration system. The software has supported us with speedier and more frequent communication with parents as well as an invoicing system, progress recording, capturing basic child data and modernising registration resulting in us being less paper based as a setting.

With COVID restrictions now passed, we have been able to resume with more visitors and out and abouts. We have had relax yoga, a farm visit, boogie mites and ballet do sessions at the preschool. We have also been able to start up our music and movement sessions at the primary school and start visiting the allotment again on a weekly basis. We celebrated the Queens jubilee with a trip to the park for a picnic with many of our families. We have been able to start our fundraising efforts again with a very successful Easter Egg hunt and Scarecrow festival. We are looking forward to returning with an in person winter concert tomorrow.

Resources

We have been fortunate to buy some equipment in this time frame, funded by grants and fundraising. We have replace including two 6 drawer storage unit, double sided bookshelves and a mobile shelving and drawers’ unit for our arts and crafts. WE have also purchased play bricks, climbing frame, number games, specialised books for EAL or difficult situations like bereavement, new role play kitchen, quiet cosy pod, trampoline, upper body twist and turn, replacement balance bikes to name just a few.

Training & qualifications

As a team we attended a group prevent training session. We also did oral hygiene training to meet the need of the new EYFS criteria and spent time as a team creating our own curriculum with jigsaw consultancy which is now being embedded into our daily practices.

Sharon completed her Forest School Level 2 qualification this year and has now gone on study for another qualification – NASEN level 3 SENco award.

Lara has started her Level 4 in Early years education after disappointingly Portsmouth University decided not to run their Level 6 qualification.

Tash, Natasha and Kirstie are all very close to completing their level 3 Early years educator course and are just awaiting final markings and tutor visits.

Shelia is currently studying for her Early Years Educator qualification. Lara and Sharon undertook fire safety training and Lara completed a safer recruitment course. Lara attended the managers impact conference in June.

All staff are fully up-to-date with their mandatory training including food hygiene, paediatric first aid and level 3 safeguarding. This is a rolling programme of renewal within the setting. The team have taken over new responsibilities in the past year including Kirstie being deputy safeguarding lead, Tash and Charlotte being well-being coordinators, Rochelle as our English as an additional language co-ordinator and Natasha analysing accidents.

Plans for this year

Training courses undertaken by staff Safeguarding Refresher workshop at Colden Common Primary School. Military matters toolkit training

Safeguarding briefing meetings for Leads – HCC

Fire Safety training Oral hygiene workshop Makaton Refresher Domestic Abuse and Operation Encompass Cluster meetings with Primary School and other local settings Prevent training at the Primary School

Birth to 4 Network Meetings Effective staff management through supervision and appraisals - Early Years Alliance Training Safeguarding Level 3 Training with Jigsaw consultancy Curriculum Training with Jigsaw Consultancy Managers Impact Conference. Prepare for Inspection Prevent Training Paediatric first aid course – Owning the curriculum what does it mean in the Early Years? DSL level 4 training Safer Recruitment training with High speed training through the NSPCC

Treasurers Report - Victoria Streltsova

The Treasurer’s report for this AGM covers the period between 1 September 2021 and 31 August 2022. This is the first time when Pre-school’s accounting period corresponds to the academic year, a change from an accounting year running between April and March, and we have found this change to be very beneficial for our financial planning and control.

Because the last year’s accounts covered the extended 17 months accounting period, where a like for like comparison is made between the accounts for the year 2021/2022 and the accounts for 2020/2021, only the period of September 2020 to August 2021 is taken for comparison.

In the financial year of 2021/2022, the following steps were taken by the Committee and the Pre-school’s management to improve Pre-school’s finances and make Pre-school financially sustainable in the challenging conditions in the Early Years sector:

The Pre-school accounts for this year have been prepared by our bookkeeper Charlotte White and have been submitted for independent verification and auditing. We thank Dean Wasche for undertaking to carry out this independent examination and audit.

The Pre-school’s total income for this period was £117,790 and total expenditure £109,658, leaving a surplus of £8,132. Our closing balance at the end of the year was £33,437, comprising £350 in restricted funds and £33,087 in reserves (and increase of £7,746 from the end result of £25,341 in 2020/2021).

The amount in reserves left at the end of the 2021/2022 financial year for the start of the new financial year is sufficient to cover 3 months of running costs, which is in line with the Pre-school’s updated Reserves Policy and the Charity Commission’s guidelines.

Income

1. Hampshire County Council (“HCC”) Vouchers

Our income from HCC childcare voucher scheme has been £61,625. Comparing this proportionately to the previous financial year, a decrease of £7,589 for the same period in the previous year (or about £690/month). This decrease is partly due to

the reduction of the base rate at which the Pre-school is paid by HCC by 28p per hour between September 2021 and March 2022 and an effective reduction from the 2020/2021 rate by 22p per hour from April 2022.

The reduced rate of £4.50 continued to be applied until April 2022 when we saw a modest increase of 6p/h to £4.56. The rate of the government free childcare funding that Pre-Schools receives remains inadequately low and does not fully cover the cost of providing the service, and that is despite the additional funding announced by the government at the end of the Covid-19 restrictions in 2021.

To cover the expendable parts of our service, such as snacks, equipment and teaching resources, we have followed the way of a number of other Early Years providers and introduced a so-called Consumables Contribution from January 2022. The Consumables Contribution we ask our parents to pay on voluntary basis is a surcharge of 50p on every government funded hourly session. Given varied degrees of us receiving this voluntary contribution from parents, we estimate the actual income from this measure to be just over £2,500 last year.

2. Fees

Income from session fees has come to £43,403 inclusive of consumables contribution recorded in the accounts as fees. This is considerably higher than in the previous year when the income from fees in the corresponding period was £27,366. The increase in the income from fees is partly due to an increase in attendance by privately funded 2-year-old children and partly due to an increase in fees from September 2021.

As before, the Committee will conduct an annual review of fees to decide whether any further increases should be made, or the current level should be maintained.

3. Fundraising and grants

In the previous financial period, the Pre-school’s income in this area was substantially increased due to pandemic related relief. This year, the Committee rightly did not expect to see the same level of support from the government and planned accordingly. Nevertheless, Pre-school stayed proactive in applying for grants and sponsorships and in conducting its own fundraising. As a result, the Pre-school’s income from grants, donations and fundraising remained high. In particular, the Pre-school received £5,555 in two grants from Hampshire County Council, £350 from Councillor Humby’s fund, a further £347 from Colden Common Parish Council and a donation of £1,000 from a private company Freshwater Building Services Limited.

Of the £5,555 received from Hampshire County Council, £4,999 was received as Sustainability Grant allocated for a sole purpose of assisting the Pre-school with its rental payments, which remain very high. A further £556 received from HCC was spent on staff training.

This year the Pre-school received another generous donation of £1,000 from a private company Freshwater Building Services Limited who donated the same amount to the Pre-school also in the previous year. The two donations from Freshwater allowed us to purchase a specialist management and administration software from Famly, which has been transformative in our effort to run the Pre-school with maximum efficiency, in effect reducing our running costs. We are very grateful for Freshwater for their kind support.

The grant received from Councillor Humby was carried over into the 2022/2023 financial year and was spent in the autumn term of 2022/2023 to purchase suitable play equipment as intended.

We are very grateful to our institutional donors and sponsors, and we are also immensely grateful to our individual supporters, including members of staff and volunteers, who made smaller but no less valuable gifts and donations, and also generously given their time and effort to support the Pre-school. A special mention and thank you goes to Danielle Jones who did a fantastic job as a dedicated fundraising volunteer in 2021/2022.

Going forward, the Committee and management team will continue to dedicate considerable attention to fundraising and sponsorship and grant applications as income from these allows us to invest in areas which income from vouchers and fees does not cover.

Expenditure

1. Staff costs

The cost of staff wages is our biggest article of spending and in 2021/2022 it came to £77,823, which is historically very low for the Pre-school, particularly considering another minimum wage increase that we saw in April 2022.

The decrease in this area of spending came as a result of a concerted drive for efficiency that the whole team maintained throughout the year. In practice, it often meant that our hardworking staff had to work even harder to meet the needs of children and maintain high standards, for which the Committee is immensely grateful. Thanks to their efforts, the Pre-school finished a challenging year with reassuring financial results, at the time when the Early Years sector as a whole is struggling and similar pre-schools have to close.

In the area of staff costs, in the financial year of 2022/2023 we anticipate a challenge of a substantial minimum wage increase in April 2023. As mentioned in the last year’s report, since 2017/2018 , we have seen a nearly 27% increase in the minimum wage . The next increase, if it goes forward, is likely to push this figure up to 37% or higher. The resulting increase in the staffing costs is unlikely to be offset by a corresponding increase in the government funding rate, adding to the financial challenges the Pre-school will face this year.

2. Rent

Our rent remains our second biggest item of expenditure after staff wages. The cost of £14,494 incurred this year is lower than that in the previous years, but still remains high relative to our competitors. The reduction in comparison with previous years comes on the back of our extensive discussions and negotiations with Colden Common Community Association who agreed to charge a discounted amount, for which we are very grateful. Our cost of rent was also partially offset by the Hampshire County Council Sustainability Grant of £4,999 awarded by the Council on our application and for this particular purpose. We should not anticipate a similar level of financial support from the Council this year and therefore the question of rental cost, which is potentially unsustainable relative to our realistic profitability as a village Pre-school, remains on the Committee’s agenda.

3. Other running costs

On running costs other than rent, the Pre-school spent £13,345. While the total amount is higher than in the previous year, it includes training, software and equipment paid for with funds from grants and donations, and as such is not indicative of the level of spending the Committee will have to maintain in the new financial year. The Committee will continue to focus on keeping running costs to a minimum, particularly in view of the rising costs of all goods and services in the UK.

Next steps

The challenges for the financial year of 2022/2023:

The Pre-school is planning to manage this by taking the following steps:

Standing down of Present Committee

All committee members stepped down

Election of Officers

• Ordinary Committee Members

• Secretary

• Treasurer

• Chair

• Safeguarding

Adopt the Constitution

All in agreement

AOB

No AOB raised

Date of next meeting

12[th] January 2023

COLDEN COMMON PRE-SCHOOL FINAL ACCOUNTS

START END
01/09/2021 31/08/2022
RECEIPTS
CAFCASH
CAFGOLD
FEES
EYE GRANT
£61,625.30
£0.00
FEES
£40,720.82
£0.00
FUNDRAISING & GRANTS
GRANT
£6,750.82
£0.00
DONATION
£25.00
£0.00
FUNDRAISING
£2,246.37
£80.32
GIFT AID
£25.15
£0.00
SPONSORSHIP
£1,450.00
£0.00
HMRC CLAIMS (GROSS WAGES RECOVERY)
SSP REFUND
£96.35
£0.00
SMP RECOVERY
£776.72
£0.00
EVENTS
EVENTS
£163.50
£0.00
OTHER INCOME
SALE OF EQUIPMENT
£50.00
£0.00
SALE OF UNIFORM
£5.50
£0.00
INTEREST
£0.08
£27.14
STAFF GIFTS / ENTERTAINING
£305.50
£0.00
CHARITY DONATION
£8.00
£0.00
CONNECT4COMM FOOD GRANT
£472.50
£0.00
DISCRETIONARY GRANT
£130.00
£0.00
TRANSFER
£93,984.17
£102,156.24		 PETTYCASH
TOTAL
£0.00
£61,625.30
£2,682.15
£43,402.97
£0.00
£6,750.82
£0.00
£25.00
£0.00
£2,326.69
£0.00
£25.15
£0.00
£1,450.00
£0.00
£96.35
£0.00
£776.72
£0.50
£164.00
£10.00
£60.00
£21.00
£26.50
£0.00
£27.22
£100.00
£405.50
£17.70
£25.70
£0.00
£472.50
£0.00
£130.00
£0.00
£196,140.41
£2,831.35
£313,930.83
PETTYCASH
TOTAL
£0.00
£75,767.35
£0.00
£1,561.04
£0.00
£1,491.59
£0.00
-£2,587.21
£0.00
£1,616.85
£0.00
£2,302.57
£0.00
-£2,302.57
£0.00
£846.85
£0.00
£14,494.21
£0.00
£619.45
£0.00
£489.52
£0.00
£50.00
£1.05
£3,458.90
£0.00
£2,276.66
£0.00
£349.88
£2.99
£116.91
£53.74
£336.32
£0.00
£581.25
£0.00
£786.00
£0.00
£434.00
£0.00
£337.00
£7.55
£9.05
£0.00
£801.15
£0.00
£1,248.03
£125.00
£440.42
£0.00
£93.00
£0.00
£144.00
£0.00
£386.60
£248.13
£609.91
£0.00
£2,056.02
£0.00
£160.70
£0.00
£472.50
£0.00
£210.00
£2,528.65
£196,140.41
£2,967.11
£305,798.36
-£135.76
£8,132.47
£313.66
£25,340.91
£177.90
£33,473.38		 TOTAL
£105,028.27
£61,625.30
£43,402.97
£10,577.66
£6,750.82
£25.00
£2,326.69
£25.15
£1,450.00
£873.07
£96.35
£776.72
£164.00
£164.00
£1,147.42
£60.00
£26.50
£27.22
£405.50
£25.70
£472.50
£130.00
TOTAL RECEIPTS
£208,835.78
£102,263.70		 £117,790.42
PURCHASES
CAFCASH
CAFGOLD
GROSS WAGES
WAGES
£75,767.35
£0.00
PAYE
£1,561.04
£0.00
NI EMPLOYEE CONT
£1,491.59
£0.00
SMP RECOVERY
-£2,587.21
£0.00
PENSION EMPLOYEE CONT
£1,616.85
£0.00
EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTIONS (PENSION)
NI EMPLOYER CONT
£2,302.57
£0.00
NI EMPLOYMENT ALLOWANCE
-£2,302.57
£0.00
PENSION EMPLOYER CONT
£846.85
£0.00
OVERHEADS
RENT
£14,494.21
£0.00
TELECOMS & INTERNET
£619.45
£0.00
INSURANCE
£489.52
£0.00
OFSTED
£50.00
£0.00
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
£3,457.85
£0.00
TRAINING
£2,276.66
£0.00
STAFF UNIFORM
£349.88
£0.00
H&S CLEANING
£113.92
£0.00
SNACK
£282.58
£0.00
BOOKKEEPING
£581.25
£0.00
PAYROLL
£786.00
£0.00
ADVERTISING & MARKETING
£434.00
£0.00
DBS
£337.00
£0.00
POSTAGE
£1.50
£0.00
PRINTING & STATIONERY
£801.15
£0.00
SOFTWARE / SUBSCRIPTIONS
£1,248.03
£0.00
STAFF GIFTS / ENTERTAINING
£315.42
£0.00
BANK CHARGES
£93.00
£0.00
ADMIN CHARGES
£144.00
£0.00
EVENTS
EVENTS
£386.60
£0.00
FUNDRAISING / GRANTS
FUNDRAISING
£361.78
£0.00
EQUIPMENT / OTHER
EQUIPMENT
£2,056.02
£0.00
CHARITY DONATION
£160.70
£0.00
CONNECT4COMM FOOD GRANT
£472.50
£0.00
DISCRETIONARY GRANT
£210.00
£0.00
TRANSFER
£102,156.24
£91,455.52
TOTAL
£77,849.62
£75,767.35
£1,561.04
£1,491.59
-£2,587.21
£1,616.85
£846.85
£2,302.57
-£2,302.57
£846.85
£27,838.95
£14,494.21
£619.45
£489.52
£50.00
£3,458.90
£2,276.66
£349.88
£116.91
£336.32
£581.25
£786.00
£434.00
£337.00
£9.05
£801.15
£1,248.03
£440.42
£93.00
£144.00
£386.60
£386.60
£609.91
£609.91
£2,899.22
£2,056.02
£160.70
£472.50
£210.00
TOTAL PURCHASES
£211,375.73
£91,455.52		 £109,657.95
SURPLUS/ DEFICIT
-£2,539.95
£10,808.18		 £8,132.47
FINAL SURPLUS/ DEFICIT £8,132.47
OPENING BALANCE AS AT START DATE
£4,052.40
£20,974.85*		 £25,340.91
CLOSING BALANCE AS AT END DATE
£1,512.45
£31,783.03*		 £33,473.38

16 Hack Drive

Colden Common

Winchester Hampshire SO21 1UF

Colden Common Pre-School Playgroup

Registered Charity 1018451

Limited independent examination of accounts

Year ending 31st August 2022

I confirm that I have completed an independent examination on the charity accounts and confirm that everything appears to be in order for the year ending 31[st] August 2022.

Regards,

Dean Wasche 07799 628331