– Trustees Annual Report September 2024 August 2025
This year we send less children to school. This being 12 children to 5 local schools around Taunton. This meant that we have had a busier than normal September with fewer spaces to new children. We had a few new children join us in January but not as many as we would have liked. However, due to the expansion of the Working Family funding, all children from 9 months, if they meet the criteria were able to claim 30/22 hours per week of funding. Which has helped our finances as this has brought more babies into the setting, which hopefully means they will stay until they leave for school.
April saw yet another increase in both the national minimum wage and national insurance contributions. However, as a business it means we struggle to find the extra income to cover the increase, along with the higher inflation rate meaning everything is more expensive.
We have not lost any staff this financial year, which is a real positive. We have even managed to find two new apprentices, starting in April 2025 and a level 2 practitioner, who started in October 2024. We continue to have very good staff retention. This is why we are very lucky, as qualified, experienced staff are leaving the childcare sector at a higher rate than ever before. It is also extremely hard to find suitable staff due to the increasing word load in early years.
Even with higher numbers of children, we have been able to take them on some external trips. These have included trips on buses and visits to the local museum, which both the staff and more importantly the children have thoroughly enjoyed, and we will hope to continue doing these going forward. The also children thoroughly enjoy visiting the local library, at least once a week for rhyme time and story.
Over the summer, we continued to build links with the local community, something which is very important to us as a setting. We also like visiting the pride in Priorswood event, that happens every Tuesday during the summer holidays.
Another has passed at Brook Green, we have been more fortunate than others with many settings having to close over the last finical year due to the finical restraint.
Hears to another (hopefully) positive new year at Brook Green.
BROOK GREEN EARLY YEARS ACCOUNTS YEAR ENDED 31 AU(ST 2025
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BROOK GREEN EARLY YEARS INCOME AND EXPENDrnJRE ACCOUNT YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2025 Accumulated Balance brwht forward from 31st August 2024 18.395.79 INCOME Fees (Parents) 2 & 3 year old Funding Grant csc Higher Needs Funding Grants Other Fundraisin9 104.212.87 197,917.59 7.668.87 600.00 2,008.08 Total income for year 312.407.85 EXPENDrruRE staff wa9eS NI/Tax staff Training Pension Contributions Recruitment Rates Premises Costs Phone/Internet Cleaning EXPENDrnJRE (cont'd) 185,696.37 41,032.80 146.00 8.800.00 387.73 3.745.20 5.629.00 706.04 12,325.29 Food 6.763.27
Nursery Equipment Ofsted Fee Nursery Insurance Nursery MISC Off ice Consumables Off ice Equipment Sage/Software 11.557.71 220.00 2.221.00 2.520.11 816.00 557.80 2,931.39 Total expenditure for year 288.796.62
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiners Report Report to the trustses On accounts for the year ended Charity no {if any) S IS, ?01 103034 Sel out on pages oladdhknnal shvf I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charty {"the Trust.) for the year ended Responslbllltles and basis of report As the ch8riVs trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charltl8s Act 2011 (ihe ACY). I report in r8St*ct of my 8xamlnation of the Trust's accounts carried out under sedM)n 145 of the 2011 Ad and in Carying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charrty Commission under section 145(5Kb} of the Act. Independent trhe charity's gross income exceeded £250,000 and l am qualified to examlnarfs ststement undertake the examination by being a qualified member of [insert name of applicable listed bc#Jyll. D610 l J rf not 8pplrAble. I have COMeted my examlnatlon. I confirm that no materlal matters have come lo my 8tt8ntion in nnectIOn wtlh the examination (other than that disclosed below.) Vthh gives me cause to believe that in. any material respect.. the accountiwJ recorts were rKJt kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act: or the accounts did not accord with the acc¢)unting records" or the ac(x)unts did not comply V•ryth the applicable requirem8nls conceming the fonm and content of accounts sel out in the Charities (Accounts and Repts) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a Irue and fair. view lch is not a mattèr considered as part of an independent examination. I have no concems and have come across no other matters in wnnection with the examination to vthich attention should be drawn in this report in order lo enable a proper understanding of the accounls to be reathed. . Please delete the woffjs in the brackets rfthey do not appty. Slgned: Date: 271z 2&Z Name: Relevant profassional quallfiGation(s) or body A4f. IER Oct 2018
(if any): Address." KJL&iL&J -rB w Ltriiq Section B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs lo highlight material matters gf concern (see CC32. Independenl examination of charity accounts.. dlr8ction5 and guidan examiners). Give here brfef details of any items that thé examinor wishes to dls¢loso. IER Oct 2018