Chair Person Report 2023
Good evening, everyone.
Thank you all for taking the time to attend tonight. Leapfrogs is a community run OFSTED registered nursery with a committee made of parents and local people for the good of the community. It needs your support to continually run.
I will start by thanking the staff at leapfrogs. I realise that its not easy to run a nursery due to the ever-increasing responsibilities and requirements from OFSTED and local authority.
It has been a challenging year starting with an impromptu OSFTED inspection in January. I am pleased to say that thanks to the staff, Leapfrogs retained is “good” rating.
Chloe took the role of manger whilst Lucy was on maternity leave. Lucy decided that being the manager of Leapfrogs at the end of maternity might be to much so decided to not return to the role.
I would like to thank Chloe for the excellent work to date whilst being manager.
Why has the year been challenging. One of the main comments during the inspection from OFSTED was on how the committee help lead Leapfrogs. Whilst we had a number of new committee members at the beginning of the year, unfortunately due to many external commitments we have lost 60% of the committee including secretary and treasurer.
As a committee run charity, we do have a legal obligation to have a minimum set of members and responsibilities. I know the loss of committee members has caused significant workloads on other committee members. I know that Leapfrogs is grateful for the help this year.
We are always looking for new members to help steer and manage how leapfrogs should be run for the community.
There are many benefits to having a nursery such as Leapfrogs in rural villages and especially the school. Originally, Leapfrogs was set up as a get together for local people with young children. Over the last 15 years or more, it has grown into an important resource for Llangrove, the surrounding villages as well as the school.
The other big challenge this year has been the financial situation and the significant cost increases for Leapfrogs. It is a well know fact for how many nurseries have suddenly shut this year due to financial implications and staffing issues. Whilst Leapfrogs is luckier than other nurseries, our costs have significantly increased.
As we don’t currently have a treasurer, I will provide a brief financial overview.
Our costs this year have significantly increased. The main causes are:
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50% increase in rent
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20% increase in snack/food costs
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20% increase in craft and other consumables
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50% increase in insurance costs
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Increased wage costs due to pension, PAYE and other government requirements
This means that Leapfrogs has been running at a loss this year causing us to increase our rates for the first time in almost 18 months to enable Leapfrogs to maintain its incoming vs outgoing costs.
We started the year with £
We finished the year with £
It is unfortunate that the government funded places has only increased by 5% and doesn’t cover costs.
I have been on the Leapfrogs committee for the last 7 years and chairman for the last 3, and I stated at the AGM last year that this year would be my last.
I will be standing down at the end of this AGM as my work commitments do not allow the time needed to oversee Leapfrogs.
It would also be better for someone who has children in the facility to help facilitate the running as well as take responsibility for the OFSTED nominated role.
I do want to thank the staff and the committee members for the support and will help plan the transition to the new committee board who I hope has the time required to help Leapfrogs continue to evolve and grow.
I will be working for the next three months to either transition to a new committee or a new method for the benefit of Leapfrogs and the local community.
I will finish by saying that whilst there are many challenges, Leapfrogs has a exciting future where greater collaboration with the school can create a centre of excellence in learning for the local community from the ages of 9 months to 12 years.
This facility can also be enhanced with the wrap around services that we want to offer for the school and holiday clubs.
Thank you and questions.
Date: 09/09/2024 Time: 11:19:55
Page: 1
Llangrove Leapfrogs Profit and Loss
From: Month 1, September 2022 To: Month 12, August 2023
Chart of Accounts:
| Default Layout of Accounts Chart of Accounts: Period Sales Product Sales 86,331.88 86,331.88 Purchases Purchases 7,666.05 7,666.05 Direct Expenses Sales Promotion 188.77 188.77 Gross Profit/(Loss): 78,477.06 Overheads Gross Wages 82,901.31 Rent and Rates 4,530.00 Telephone and Computer charges 258.40 Professional Fees 4,166.00 General Expenses 804.00 92,659.71 Net Profit/(Loss): (14,182.65) |
Year to Date 86,331.88 7,666.05 188.77 82,901.31 4,530.00 258.40 4,166.00 804.00 |
86,331.88 7,666.05 188.77 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 78,477.06 92,659.71 |
|||
| (14,182.65) |
Llangrove Leapfrogs General Annual Meeting
11[th] October 2023
7.00pm
Llangrove C of E Academy
Present: Andrew Heal, Chloe Williams, Hannah Jones, Sarah Dean, Laura Jones, Gabby Middlecote, Emma Glebocki, Amy Morgan, Alexi Long.
Minutes of the last meeting: approved
Chairman’s Report:
Chair Person Report 2023.docx
Managers Report:
Managers report 2023.docx
Treasurers Report:
Due to leapfrogs currently not having a treasurer, it was added as part of the chairpersons report.
The chairman will try and produce a full financial report to understand the current financial status of Leapfrogs as it has been impacted by higher costs in wages, pension, food and rent whilst funding hasn’t tracked inflation or the increase in costs.
Changes to the session times and charges have had a positive benefit to balance sheet for Leapfrogs.
The numbers of children on the leapfrogs register is increasing and Leapfrogs is identifying the efficient use of the sessions to maximise the numbers.
The chairman is trying to complete the charity commission submission but this will be late due to time constraints.
Open Discussion
Andy discussed the difficulty in getting anyone to act as a committee member for Llangrove Leapfrogs. There were a few reasons why Leapfrogs struggles to get committee members. These are
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People don’t have the time with working and family lives to spend time to help.
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People are worried about the legal implications of being on the committee of a charity and of an OFSTED registered nursery. Reading the online guidance for this currently stops many people volunteering.
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DBS and OFSTED checks currently take months to perform.
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People don’t want to volunteer on a nursery and just want to have the best care for their children as cost effective as possible.
Andy reiterated the fact that at the AGM 2022, he said that the year 2022 – 2023 was going to be the last year he was going to be Chairperson.
This has become simply impossible to step down after Leapfrogs losing 3 of its Committee members due to time constraints and personal changes. This included the lose of the treasurer which has meant that all of those requirements are now on the Chairman to complete. This is far from ideal but without volunteers is impossible to change.
Andy also mentioned that due to work commitments, his time is challenging to spend on Leapfrogs. He is also struggling currently to find the time to act for Leapfrogs and now has additional work to continue the financial functions of Leapfrogs.
One change is that the OFSTED nominated role must change to the Leapfrogs manager. This will be performed at a suitable timeframe as to not cause any issues.
Whilst Leapfrogs have asked parents and others to be committee members, it has become impossible to get people dedicated and willing to spend the time required.
This year seemed challenging as committee members who had left inserted their influence on the running of the environment but then left leaving a higher workload on others.
Currently, Leapfrogs does not meet its constitution for running as a charity.
Leapfrogs for the Future
There are many positives that have happened this year at leapfrogs, Chloe has taken over as Manger on a full time basis now and will be working to improve the setting.
The use of the school facilities for before and after school club have already had a positive benefit to the children.
It is seen that Leapfrogs has a bright future and the discussion changed to an idea of Llangrove CoE School taking over the running of Leapfrogs and it becoming part of the primary school.
Changes to the government funding are positive but a greater understanding of the attributed fee levels needs to be understood.
When these are released, Leapfrogs should perform a full affordability and financial plan based on the figures (normally released Feb/March).
Leapfrogs acts as a feed in for new children to the school and is seen as essential for the school to continue to offer the full childcare services from 9 months to 12 years including before and after school care and holiday clubs.
The chairperson and others still fully back the benefit of Leapfrogs.
Sarah Dean spoke about working with the school governors to understand and identify whether Leapfrogs could be transitioned to the school. This is a positive step and Leapfrogs will maintain its close relationship with the school to see if this is possible.
Other ideas due to the lack of committee members help is to change the Constitution of Leapfrogs and have “Leapfrogs Governors” and a “Friends of Leapfrogs” who could help on fundraising and contribute to the “Big Clean” when we usually get lots of help to tidy and clean the gutters, jetwash and environmental covers (Canopy) surrounding Leapfrogs.
The AGM closed with a few actions
Sarah Dean to continue the discussion of Llangrove CoE School taking responsibility for Leapfrogs
Leapfrogs to try and get interested parties for the committee.
Andy to investigate the changes required for the constitution of leapfrogs and legal implications of this.