Treasurer’s Report
As a charity run by parents, the preschool aims to break even on an annual basis or deliver a small opera7ng profit to enable investment in upda7ng and improving materials and facili7es. Approximately two thirds of our fee income comes from government funded hours, which tradi7onally have been set at a lower rate (around £4.30 per child per hour) than we (or most other providers) are able to provide childcare at, and we have therefore had to charge separately for snacks and ac7vi7es and relied on fundraising and dona7ons from parents to cover some of the shorDall.
Before Covid, this had been achieved with an annual surplus of £5,000 to £10,000. Last year (2020-21) yielded a small deficit of £1,500 due to the impact of preschool closure during lockdowns and limited fundraising. This year (2021-22) we had forecast a further small deficit similar to the previous year. Unfortunately in reality we have ended up with a much larger deficit of £12,700.
The summer has been a 7me of significant change in the preschool, with Rebecca two months into her role as chair, myself having started as treasurer in the last couple of weeks, and the adop7on of a new accountant this week aPer our previous provider stopped their service. We have sufficient emergency reserves to get us through the next year, but it is clearly a priority to get the preschool back to financial stability so that as well as mee7ng costs we can afford to con7nue improving. Our immediate focus therefore is to inves7gate the reasons for the shorDall in depth.
As shown in the budget aUached, the main contribu7ng factors are:
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Increased wage bill – staffing levels have been rela7vely constant as the preschool runs at capacity for most of the year, but 2021-22 is likely to have experienced significant periods of extended staff absence due to Covid isola7on which will hopefully become less frequent in the year coming. We have also introduced a more restric7ve sick pay policy for staff.
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Lower fee income – we have re-chased remaining fee non-payers from last year, and are planning to internally audit our billing processes. We appreciate that most parents pay fees promptly which we are grateful for. We will aim for greater fee transparency to ensure that parents know what they are being charged for and to ensure that we claim all governmentfunded hours that we are eligible for.
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Fundraising – we had a net £3000 gain from fundraising last year which has helped to reduce our loss, but given current government funding rates this is extremely important and will remain and important considera7on going forwards. We will also encourage all parents to con7nue to donate using giPaid.
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Loss of grants for children with addi7onal educa7onal needs as these children leave the preschool – this has in the past acted as a buffer for some staffing costs.
Posi7ves are that we hope the modest increases to fees this year, the 6% upliP in government funding rate, and reduced staff absence from Covid isola7on will enable us to get back on track. We also hope the new accountancy provider will allow greater real 7me monitoring of income and expenditure so that we can make sure we end the next financial year on a more posi7ve note.
Seer Green Pre-School
Actual
| Income | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | |||
| Grant EHCP | 5941.14 | |||||
| Grant EYF | 10,120 | 4,634 | ||||
| Pre-School Education Grant | 60,674 | 56,626 | 57,803 | |||
| Term Fees | 33,366 | 40,091 | 45,788 | |||
| Additional Lunches & Sessions | 2,618 | 218 | 0 | |||
| Consumables (snack fees) | 5012.48 | 7935 | 8698 | |||
| Activities | 4435 | 5210 | ||||
| Fund-raising | 1,505.29 | 1,465 | 6,240 | |||
| Registration fees | 945.00 | 1,540 | 1,610 | |||
| Gift Aid donations | 3,398 | 2,008 | 720 | |||
| Gift Aid tax rebate | 849.57 | 502 | 144 | |||
| Other donations | 1,949 | 420 | 603 | |||
| Interest & banking error adjustments | 124.77 | 184 | 17 | |||
| Miscellaneous | 14,064 | 8,569 | 4,250 | |||
| Total Revenue | 130,447 | 134,114 | 135,717 | |||
| Expense | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | |||
| Grant EHCP | 5,941 | |||||
| Payroll – Salary & Wages | 97,741 | 102,018 | 114,847 | |||
| Extra hours | ||||||
| Payroll Employer Taxes & Deductions | 556 | 60 | ||||
| Payroll – Pension | 635 | 542 | 631 | |||
| Payroll – Bonus | 1,650 | 2,395 | 3,090 | |||
| Training Courses | 1,498 | 4,027 | 2,177 | |||
| Wages Total | 102,080 | 108,981 | 120,804 | |||
| Rent Expense | 4,433 | 3,547 | 6,080 | |||
| Accounting Fees | 2,556 | 2,556 | 2,557 | |||
| Bank Fees | 4 | 32 | ||||
| Pre-School resources | 2,116 | 1,826 | 2,475 | |||
| Fundraising expenses from events | 163 | 0 | 2,851 | |||
| Repairs & Maintenance | 1,793 | 404 | 154 | |||
| Insurance Subscription/DBS | 1,116 | 1,468 | 1,597 | |||
| Subscriptions | 191 | 121 | 20 | |||
| Telephone – Land Line | 732 | 923 | 999 | |||
| IT software and consumables Fruit and snacks Forest School, Other Gifts Miscellaneous Other Gifts Materials Advertising and Marketing Postage & Delivery Grant expenses Cleaning Depreciation Recruitment Total Operating Expenses |
857 1,680 299 |
|---|---|
| 797 1,188 2,127 |
|
| 497 1,320 2,960 |
|
| 100 237 270 |
|
| 66 43 |
|
| 1,354 1,158 296 |
|
| 137 0 |
|
| 81 8 93 |
|
| 10,120 4,634 |
|
| 280 107 |
|
| 130 | |
| 64 | |
| 125,293 135,708 148,421 |
|
| Profit / Loss (before exceptional items) | 5,154 -1,594 -12,704 |
Camus Nimmo, September 2022