## **KESTREL UNDER FIVES PLAYGROUP** ## **CHARITY REGISTRATION NO: 1024231** ## **REPORT AND UNAUDITED ACCOUNTS** **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 28 FEBRUARY 2022** |**CONTENTS**|**PAGE**| |---|---| |Trustees' Report|1 - 4| |Independent Examiner's Report|5| |Receipts and Payments Account|6| |Statement of Assets and Liabilities|7| **KESTREL UNDER FIVES PLAYGROUP REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES** The trustees are pleased to present their annual report together with the receipts and payments account of the charity for the year ended 28 February 2022. ## ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS |Registered name|Kestrel Under Fives Playgroup|Kestrel Under Fives Playgroup| |---|---|---| |Name by which known|Kestrel Under 5s Playgroup|| |Charity registration number|1024231|| |Principal address|St David's Church|| ||Newton Close, Lordswood|| ||Chatham|| ||Kent, ME5 8TR|| |Contact address|35 Conifer Drive|| ||Chatham|| ||Kent, ME5 8UU|| |Trustees|Ms Hayley Miles
|- Chair| ||Ms Samantha Nurse
|- Treasurer| ||Mrs Kelly Budd
|- Secretary| ||Ms Stacey Brooker|| ||Ms Emma Dosanjh|| ||Ms Sarah Everett|| ||Ms D Holloway|| ||Ashley Oakes|| ||Ms Rebecca Mahoney
|- resigned 22 June 2021| |Independent examiner|R C Abel,FCA, CTA|| ||Aggarwal & Co Ltd|| ||5 London Road|| ||Rainham, Gillingham|| ||Kent, ME8 7RG|| |Bankers|HSBC|| ||1/5 Week Street|| ||Maidstone|| ||Kent, ME14 1QW|| ## GOVERNANCE ## Governing Document The charity is an unincorporated association governed by its constitution adopted 29 October 2014. It follows the 2011 model constitution prepared by the Pre-school Learning Alliance. ## Trustees The trustees who served at any time during the year are set out above. 1 **KESTREL UNDER 5'S PLAYGROUP REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES** ## Appointment of Trustees The trustees, described in the governing document as Committee members, are elected for one year at the annual general meeting. Retiring trustees are eligible for re-election unless they have already served on the Committee in any capacity for ten consecutive years. At least 60 per cent of the Committee members shall at the time of their election be parents or guardians of children who attend any groups run by the charity. ## OBJECTS The objects of the playgroup include the promotion of the care, safety, education, health and wellbeing of children, and the promotion of parental/carer involvement in their early education. These objectives are two-fold: - to put the child first always to ensure that no individual faces barriers to developing skills; and - to empower parents to be involved with the development of their children. and may be summarised as follows: - (a) to provide a child-friendly environment that is safe, secure, caring and stimulating; - (b) to enhance the intellectual development and education of children through play, by providing opportunities to explore literacy and develop verbal skills in their everyday play, to participate and experiment with both large and fine motor skills, to be creative, and to engage with numbers, colours and shapes to stimulate their cognitive skills; - (c) to promote and encourage children to develop self-confidence and self-esteem and to feel valued as an individual; - (d) to promote children’s social, emotional and physical development through individual, parallel and cooperative play and structured activities, and to prepare them for a smooth transition from playgroup to school by encouraging personal skills development, which will help them become more independent; - (e) to observe and plan for each child’s progress regularly; - (f) to honour parents’/carers’ trust that all staff will nurture their children and give them quality care; - (g) to work within the guidelines of the Early Years Foundation stage and to follow the guidelines and requirements of the registering bodies; - (h) to work as partners with parents/carers and offer flexibility that allows each child’s individual needs to be met; and - (i) to make parents/carers feel welcome and provide an atmosphere where both children and adults feel happy and comfortable. ## Public Benefit In accordance with section 17(5) of the Charities Act 2011, the trustees have had due regard to the guidance published by the Charity Commission on the requirement that the objectives and work undertaken by the charity are in line with charitable objects and do provide benefit for the public. ## ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS Once again this year, the playgroup’s key achievement has been weathering the ongoing financial pressures exerted by Covid-19: the significant cost of cover for Covid-related staff absences and increased cleaning and hygiene expenses, this time with no Government assistance whatsoever. We have managed to keep our doors open to children throughout thanks to the dedication, hard work and flexibility of the staff, to whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude. The pandemic also severely disrupted the administration of Medway Early Years, who provide us with the support, courses and advice previously supplied FOC by Medway Council; they failed to issue an invoice for their annual fee in the previous year, despite our enquiries regarding this, in order to ascertain our financial liabilities at that time. This omission resulted in us paying a double charge this year – a whopping £4,608 out of this year’s income. Although they were obviously unable to provide courses during the lockdown periods, they were hugely instrumental in fighting and overturning Medway Council’s initial decision in January 2021 to pay funding only for those children whose parents/carers chose to send them to sessions during lockdown, which would have really jeopardised the future existence of the playgroup. 2 **KESTREL UNDER FIVES PLAYGROUP REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES** Sincere thanks are due all those parents who support our Voluntary Donations initiative as these funds not only allow the playgroup to continue to supply healthy snacks for the children but also help to offset some of the increased costs of cleaning and hygiene supplies. Income from this initiative has fallen somewhat since the prepandemic level, possibly because parents no longer enter the building when dropping off their children, and/or due to personal financial consequences of the pandemic and the increasing cost of living, but we are hoping to revitalise this scheme in the coming year. It should be said that some parents/carers have continued to donate by making contributions by direct bank transfer rather than in person, for which we are most grateful - **all** children benefit from the donations made by those families who do so. A major part of playgroup’s ethos is that no child should be disadvantaged by their family’s financial circumstances and so we truly appreciate the generosity of all donations received. Following the loss of three staff last year and a re-shuffle of responsibility amongst the remaining staff, we have welcomed five new members of staff this year, two of whom worked for the playgroup previously. We have a new and very experienced co-manager and four new lunch club assistants to help alleviate the pressure on Aunties, who were supervising lunch clubs as well as leading sessions at various times throughout the summer terms of 2021. Omicron had other ideas, however, and we were forced to operate with a severely reduced staff once again for several weeks as staff succumbed to the new variant. As usual, playgroup covered the costs of vital DBS checks for new staff as well as staff cover for those whom we required to undertake a Basic Safeguarding course. We now have a single SEN co-ordinator, who succeeded in securing extra funding for one-to-one support in October 2021 as part of playgroup’s ceaseless efforts to seek out as much additional funding from any source available to enable staff to continue to give our children the developmental support they deserve. Unfortunately, to date we have not yet received the allocated finance despite issuing invoices and repeated requests to transfer the funds to us. Nevertheless, many hours of extra support have been given where needed but we should recoup these costs in the next financial year once the funds are finally received from Medway Council. Our Committee-led staff-implemented fundraising efforts this year have raised the magnificent sum of just over £2,500, which has allowed us to replace and update equipment that was definitely past its best and which we would have really struggled to do otherwise. As well as the usual Easter and Christmas presents, parties, new equipment and craft supplies, some of these funds have been spent on continuing to improve our outdoor space to allow our children to enjoy the benefits of a rich, varied, stimulating and safe play environment despite our urban location, including a gazebo for use in inclement or very sunny weather. Outdoor safety mats were recently replaced, new garden toys and equipment purchased and, in conjunction with St David’s Church, we had a dangerous branch removed from one of the trees. Inside, we have replaced 20+ year old tables and purchased a new laptop as a replacement for the very old, slow and critically compromised hard disk machine used by the managers to submit our headcounts for funding and other essential playgroup administration. With the looming prospect of increased Minimum Wage and NI rates and associated pension costs in April, we already know that we shall continue to face financial challenges in the coming year. We have not yet been informed of the increase in the Council Funded Hours rates for April but, based on previous years, it is very unlikely that they will come close to matching the percentage cost increases we face. Having held our current fee and lunch club rates for two years, we have little choice other than to raise them for the next Academic Year and the Committee will be discussing this in future meetings, and an announcement of our final decision will be made during June’s AGM. ## FINANCIAL REVIEW ## Review of the Financial Position The financial position is set out on pages 6 and 7. Receipts were not dissimilar to last year at £149,457. Payments increased from £140,382 to £163,725, due to the post pandemic re-opening with higher wages and EYPP costs, as mentioned above. The result is net payments of £14,268 and a reduction in cash funds at the end of the year to £68,092. 3 **KESTREL UNDER FIVES PLAYGROUP REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES** ## Reserves Policy The trustees have considered the level of reserves appropriate for the charity and concluded that they should have sufficient funds to enable expenses to be met for a normal three months should there be a delay or reduction in receiving income. The amount required is approximately £40,000. Therefore the funds held are adequate at present. ## Risks and Uncertainties The trustees have considered the principal risks and uncertainties facing the charity, which they have assessed as: - loss of income and increased wage and pension costs without any increase in funding from the government; and - loss of income due to unexpected non-availability of rented premises. ## Trustees' Responsibilities The trustees are responsible for preparing the Report of the Trustees and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Charity (Accounts and Reports) Regulations and the provisions of the constitution. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. Approved by the trustees on 14 June 2022 and signed on their behalf S Nurse Trustee 4 ## **INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF KESTREL UNDER FIVES PLAYGROUP** I report to the trustees on my examination of the receipts and payments account of Kestrel Under Fives Playgroup ("the Charity") for the year ended 29 February 2022, which are set out on pages 6 to 7. ## Responsibilities and basis of report As the charity 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 Trustee’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commissioner under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. ## Independent examiner's statement I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect: - accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or - 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. R C Abel, FCA, CTA Aggarwal & Co Chartered Accountants 22 June 2022 5 London Road Rainham Gillingham, ME8 7RG 5 **KESTREL UNDER FIVES PLAYGROUP RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 28 FEBRUARY 2022** |**RECEIPTS**
Receipts from charitable activities
Voucher payments
Fees receivable
Lunch Club fees
SEN income
EYPP
Fundraising
Voluntary donations
Other receipts
Government CJRS grants
TOTAL RECEIPTS
**PAYMENTS**
Charitable activities
Wages and salaries
Social security costs
Employer's contributions to pension scheme
Hall and garage rent
Supplies
Insurance, Ofsted and data fees
Telephone, dongle and photos
Petty cash
Bank charges
Accounting software
Independent examiner's fees
Equipment/special events
EYPP
Miscellaneous expenses
Purchase of fixed assets
TOTAL PAYMENTS
**NET PAYMENTS (2021 : RECEIPTS)**
Cash funds at the beginning of the year
**CASH FUNDS AT THE END OF THE YEAR**|**2022**
**£**
109,791
25,364
10,247
-
953
2,568
520
14
-
149,457
127,670
5,690
4,040
137,400
10,976
2,809
1,422
672
757
77
768
600
362
4,608
201
160,652
3,073
163,725
(14,268)
82,360
68,092|**2021**
**£**
105,397
23,487
8,411
457
1,376
637
499
333
8,737
149,334
118,903
4,277
3,751
126,931
7,005
1,583
1,422
542
434
89
749
600
239
-
445
140,039
343
140,382
8,952
73,408
82,360| |---|---|---| 6 **KESTREL UNDER FIVES PLAYGROUP STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES AT 28 FEBRUARY 2022** |**UNRESTRICTED CASH FUNDS**
Cash at HSBC bank
Cash in hand|**2022**
**£**
68,038
54
68,092|**2021**
**£**
82,183
177
82,360| |---|---|---| **ASSETS RETAINED FOR THE CHARITY'S OWN USE** - Various play equipment **LIABILITIES** - Independent examiner's fee ## **NOTES TO THE ACCOUNT** ## 1 Statutory Information Kestrel Under Fives Playgroup is registered under the Charities Act 2011. The Charity's registered number and registered office address can be found within the Trustees' Report. The presentation currency of the financial statements is the Pound Sterling (£). ## 2 Accounting Policies ## (a) Basis of accounting The accounts have been prepared on the receipts and payments basis under the historical cost convention and in accordance with the Charities Act 2011 and the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (FRS 102). ## (b) Funds structure All funds are unrestricted income funds. ## 3 Trustee Remuneration The charity trustees were not paid or reimbursed expenses during the year and no charity trustee received any emolument or payment for professional or other services. ## 4 Taxation The charity is a registered charity and no provision is considered necessary for taxation. Approved by the trustees on 14 June 2022 and signed on their behalf S Nurse Trustee 7