2022-08-31-accounts

Weaverthorpe Pre-School Centre (Registered charity, number 1019457) Financial statements for the year ended 31 August 2022

Page	Contents
2 - 7	Trustees’ annual report
8	Independent examiner’s report
9	Receipts & payments account
10	Statement of assets & liabilities
11 - 12	Notes to the accounts

Weaverthorpe Pre-School Centre Trustees’ annual report for the year ended 31 August 2022

Full name Weaverthorpe Pre-School Centre

Registered charity number 1019457

Principal address

Derwent Crescent, Arnold, Nottingham, NG5 6TA

Trustees

Nampreet Kandola, Treasurer Lydia Allister, Secretary Hannah Parrish Helen Fell Divya Thomas, from 08/03/22 Sabrina Akhtar, from 27/09/22

Gemma Yates, from 02/05/23 Samantha Booth, from 16/05/23 Emma Quero, until 08/03/22 Claire de Motte, until 08/11/22 Robert Parrish, until 10/05/23

Independent examiner

John O’Brien, employee of Community Accounting Plus, Units 1 & 2 North West, 41 Talbot Street, Nottingham, NG1 5GL

Governance and management

The charity is operated under the rules of its constitution adopted on 29[th] October 2014 and most recently amended 17[th] November 2020.

New trustees are appointed at the Annual General Meeting. Up to three members can be co-opted by the committee in between AGMs, or more by agreement with the Early Years Alliance.

Objectives and activities

The principal objects of the charity are:

To enhance the development and education of children primarily under statutory school age by encouraging parents to understand and provide for the needs of their children through community groups and by:

• (a) Offering appropriate play, education and care facilities, family learning and extended hours groups, together with the right of parents to take responsibility for and to become involved in the activities of such groups, ensuring that such groups offer opportunities for all children whatever their race, culture, religion, means or ability;

• (b) Encouraging the study of the needs of such children and their families and promoting public interest in and recognition of such needs in the local areas;

• (c) Instigating and adhering to and furthering the aims and objects of the PreSchool Learning Alliance.

Public benefit statement

The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit, 'Charities and Public Benefit'.

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Weaverthorpe Pre-School Centre

Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit

Weaverthorpe Pre-School provides term-time sessional day care for children aged 2 - 5 years from 9am - 3.30pm Monday to Friday. It is a well-respected pre-school with a waiting list of children that would like a place at the setting in the future. Weaverthorpe provides high quality childcare for the local community and constantly strives to excel in all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage of the curriculum. The setting achieved a 'Good' Ofsted rating in May 2022.

Weaverthorpe Pre-School is committed to making the setting inclusive and accessible to all children and to ensuring that children are able to reach their full potential. All children have the right to the Early Years Foundation Stage and all staff have a duty to meet the needs of all the children attending the setting. With this ethos in mind, Weaverthorpe Pre-School continues to support those children with special educational needs by providing additional support and resources as required.

We offer free Government funded hours to eligible 2, 3 and 4 year olds. We sometimes receive additional payments for eligible children - such as Inclusion Funding and EHCP (both special needs) and also Child Protection Plan. For parents paying for sessions, we offer flexible payment arrangements. Our fee rates are set to cover our running expenses and to ensure an adequate reserve within the parameters of our reserves policy.

Weaverthorpe Pre-School provides education for children from 2 – 5 years old and adheres to Nottinghamshire County Council’s guidelines and Ofsted’s development matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and the statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.

It is the setting’s intention to make Weaverthorpe genuinely accessible to children and families from all sections of the local/wider community. Through policies and practices, it is clear that Weaverthorpe welcomes fathers, mothers, other relations and other carers, including child minders, and people from all cultural, ethnic, religious and social groups with or without disabilities. We make our equal opportunities policy widely known.

Summary of the main achievements during the period

The Pre-School continues to be well supported by parents and the local community. We have good links with the local Infant and Junior Schools which helps the children with their transition to those schools.

During the period we provided education and care to between 38 and 48 different children on roll. This was our first full year getting back to normality following Covid. Child numbers were lower at the beginning of the year but as confidence grew, by July we were close to full. Our staffing levels remained broadly the same with two leavers during the year and two successful appointments. We continue to offer a high staff to child ratio within the setting.

Following a challenging previous year with Covid-19 we gradually returned to most of our usual activities:

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Weaverthorpe Pre-School Centre

• At the beginning of the year, we offered parents the opportunity to come in and look around Pre-School, as many had not been in previously due to Covid restrictions.

• We held face-to-face parent evenings. We have an open door policy and parents are encouraged to come in and speak with their child’s key person to discuss their learning and development.

• We encourage Play and Stay sessions for all new starters. Parents stay to meet staff and interact with our programme of learning.

• Parents came into Pre-School to talk to the children on a variety of topics including oral health, Diwali and also Eid and how they celebrate at home.

• We celebrated harvest festival and donated food items to our local food bank. The children made a wreath from autumn leaves for Remembrance Day.

• Christmas festivities began with a craft workshop week for the children, and parents were invited into Pre-School to see all the decorations and our Santa’s workshop. Once again, we were able to go out into the community to the local church to perform our nativity for parents, family and friends.

• Part way through the year, twice weekly PE sessions resumed at the infant school.

• We reintroduced our story book lending library and resumed our ongoing book service from the Education Library Service.

• Sign of the week, and small group sessions with our Language Lead continued to promote speech and language at Weaverthorpe.

• We welcomed staff from the local Children’s Centre to deliver a 6 week course for a small group of children on ‘Dealing with a Feeling’.

• Our show and tell activity restarted with children bringing in items from home linked to our focused Story Book the Week.

• During spring the children enjoyed looking after caterpillars and were fascinated as they turned into butterflies and were released into our garden.

• We held our first summer fair for two years and it was a great success.

All staff attended or undertook a wide variety of training courses including:

• Safer settings for the designated safeguarding lead;

• Prevent duty;

• Safeguarding updates for all staff;

• Safeguarding children today;

• Role of the early years SEND practitioner;

• The new EYFS for September 2021;

• Food hygiene;

• Provider network and manager briefings;

• Provider network meetings for schools and PVI settings;

• Transition meetings;

• Language lead training and networks;

• SENCO networks;

• Online safety;

• Introduction to mental health and wellbeing;

• Safer recruitment;

• Implementing the GDPR;

• Continued professional development for all staff ongoing throughout the school year.

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Weaverthorpe Pre-School Centre

As a setting we continued to be supported by a number of outside agencies including the Early Years Alliance, Early Years Specialist Teachers from Nottinghamshire County Council, SALT (for speech and language), health visitors and the local Children’s Centres.

This is our 16th year of operating from our current premises. A new lease was signed in 2016 which guarantees our use of the premises until 2024.

Financial review

This year the Pre-School has experienced another difficult financial year but all things considered, ended at a small loss of approx. £4k.

There have been some additional expenses this year. An air condioning machine at a cost of £514, tree-cutting service £420, gazebo £80.99 and a garden storage box £160.00. We did not have any major expenses this year.

We have still experienced lower children numbers throughout this school year following on from Covid -19. There has been reduced funding/fees income as a result. New parents have been more hesitant about starting children at Pre-School and there have been far fewer new admission enquiries. Despite the reduced numbers on roll, we have still had the same staff wages and operating expenses to cover.

We are pleased to report that Pre-School continues to hold sufficient funds at the end of the reporting period. The levels in all the reserves accounts have been maintained.

The redundancy reserves fund has been reviewed this year and is still considered adequate.

The charity’s policy on reserves

Weaverthorpe Pre-School has a redundancy provision and it has reserves that would cover the running of the Pre-School for 3 months if necessary.

The committee adopted its reserves policy in November 2016 and it is reviewed annually.

The Reserves Policy states the requirement for reserves for the following purposes:

a) to ensure the continuation of provision to the children attending the pre-school, including 3 months working costs - estimated required reserve £35,500; b) to cover redundancy payments to staff - estimated required reserve £27,341; c) to ensure sufficient funds are available for the maintenance/replacement of the building - estimated required reserve £30,000;

d) to cover unforeseen additional expenses - estimated required reserve £5,000.

There is no longer a reserves requirement for matched funding (used to be required for some grants). So this element was removed from the policy when it was last reviewed in 2021.

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Weaverthorpe Pre-School Centre

Reserves are to be built up from the unrestricted (earned) income. The level of reserves is to be calculated and monitored every 12 months. The Reserves Policy is to be reviewed yearly and whenever there are significant changes in staff hours or numbers.

At the end of the period the balance of accounts met the requirements of the Reserves Policy.

Funding

Our main source of funding received is from Nottinghamshire County Council in respect of Government funding. This includes: 15 hours funding for 3 and 4 year olds (universal entitlement), 15 hours funding for eligible 2 year olds (means tested/linked to qualifying benefits), 30 hours funding for 3 and 4 year olds (extended hours for qualifying working families), Pupil Premium monies and inclusion funding (for special educational needs).

Parents’ fees and monies from a program of fundraising events make up the remainder of our regular income. The Pre-School applies for and receives grants on an ad-hoc basis from local or national funders to meet specific needs such as the replacement of equipment or enhancement of the setting.

Risks

During the school year 2021/2022, parents have continued to be much more hesitant to take up places due to the Covid-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis.

Numbers on the roll for the start of the new academic year 2022/2023 are reasonably strong and can hopefully be built up quickly over the year.

The level of government funding for the childcare sector continues to be a big concern. The current rates are considered widely insufficient across the industry. Organisations such as the Early Years Alliance continue to campaign for better funding for early years providers.

Staff costs continue to rise in line with National Minimum Wage increases. Each annual hike is usually quite significant - in April 2021 the National Minimum Wage for over-23’s jumped up 2.2%. The following year, it rose more significantly at 6.62 % for over-25’s. With the government plans to keep raising, Pre-School tries to give a fair percentage increase across all employees. However, each year it becomes harder to maintain the differentials between the staff pay bands.

We increased our hourly fee rate by 20p this year in order to maintain fair and competitive pricing for local families. So far we have not had to cross-subsidise (charge parents for snacks, materials etc) but we continue to monitor the situation to ensure that the funding we receive is sufficient to meet our running costs.

There are other future considerations that will increase outgoings. These include higher utility charges and the new Health and Social Care Levy (effective from April 2022) which is a 1.25% tax paid by both employer and employee. The expected National Minimum wage increase of 9.7% in April 2023 and predicted rise of 6.3% in April 2024.

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Weaverthorpe Pre-School Centre

Numbers on the waiting list are lower so will have to be quickly built up during the new school year to increase funding/fees income.

There is uncertainty over how the pandemic and cost of living crisis will affect the setting over the longer term. Many pre-schools are closing, or laying-off staff, due to the drop in income and insufficient reserves. Weaverthorpe is fortunate that it currently has sufficient reserves built up from previous years.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:

Signed ______ Date _ Gemma Yates, Trustee

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Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of Weaverthorpe Pre-School Centre for the year ended 31 August 2022

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Weaverthorpe Pre-School Centre (the charity) for the year ended 31 August 2022.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the trustees of the charity you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’).

I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent examiner’s statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or

2. the accounts do not accord with those records.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed ____ Date _______ John O’Brien MSc, FCCA, FCIE Employee of Community Accounting Plus

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Weaverthorpe Pre-School Centre Receipts & payments account for the year ended 31 August 2022

2021			2022
£		Note	£
	Receipts
95886	Grants & donations	2	124762
1433	Fundraising		2921
9605	Fees		8125
11	Bank interest		50
388	Activity contributions		102
170	Rates refund		-
107493	Total receipts		135960
	Payments
115	Activities, garden & trips		295
307	Bank charges		333
1339	Children's books & equipment		1728
1232	Computer expenses		314
1745	Consumables		1288
64	DBS checks		176
41	Equipment, repairs & renewals		555
320	Fundraising expenditure		316
648	Independent examination fee		648
1031	Insurance		1213
49	Marketing		-
886	Payroll service		823
9650	Premises maintenance & cleaning		2182
30	Publications & subscriptions		472
37	Rent & rates		672
559	Staff expenses & uniform		649
450	Staff training & travel		378
151	Sundry payments		89
2147	Telephone, stationery & postage		2421
1872	Utilities		2524
140458	Wages, NI & pension		123176
163131	Total payments		140252
(55638)	Net receipts/(payments)		(4292)
190483	Cash funds at start of this period		134845
134845	Cash funds at end of this period		130553

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Weaverthorpe Pre-School Centre Statement of assets and liabilities at 31 August 2022

2021 £ Cash assets Note 134700 Bank accounts 145 Cash in hand 134845 Other monetary assets 1048 Prepayments 3 1048 Assets retained for the charity’s own use Air conditioner purchased July 2022, cost £515. Laptops x 2 purchased April 2021, cost £1,100. Pram shelter purchased June 2017, cost £2,753. General equipment. (2189) Creditors 4 (11044) Advance receipts - Notts County Council grant (13233)	2022 £ 130540 13
	130553
	1116
	1116
	(1820) (10049)
	(11869)

These financial statements are accepted on behalf of the charity by:

Signed _____ Dated _____ Nampreet Kandola, Trustee

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Weaverthorpe Pre-School Centre Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 August 2022

1. Receipts & payments accounts

Receipts and payments accounts contain a summary of money received and money spent during the period and a list of assets and liabilities at the end of the period. Usually, cash received and cash spent will include transactions through bank accounts and cash in hand.

2. Grants & donations

Nottinghamshire County Council Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme Sundry grants & donations	£ 124127 477 158
	124762

3. Prepayments

Insurance Publications & subscriptions Telephone, stationery & postage Utilities	£ 708 170 118 120
	1116

4. Creditors

Independent examination Premises maintenance Telephone, stationery & postage Utilities Wages, NI & pension	£ 666 366 16 454 318
	1820

5. Premises

There is a lease with Nottinghamshire County Council up until 2024 for the premises on a peppercorn rent. This lease was agreed in July 2016.

6. Trustees’ remuneration

During this period, a total of £26,491 was paid to Helen Fell for her role as Manager of the charity.

7. Related party transactions

There were no related party transactions during the period.

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8. Glossary of terms

Advance receipts: These are amounts received by the charity in the accounting period, for use in a future period.

Creditors: These are amounts owed by the charity, but not paid during the accounting period.

Prepayments: These are services that the charity has paid for in advance, but not used during the accounting period.

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