## Minutes for Litle Apples AGM ## 10th May 2022 - Committee – Joanne Whatley, Karen Totterdell, Sherri McAra, Kay Fox-Froude - Apologies – Bridie Heslin & Alison McMahon - Chair’s report – by Alison McMahon I have been the Little Apples Chair for more than 5 years and still enjoying my role very much. Once more I am looking forward to a successful year for Little Apples. Throughout the year once again Little Apples and the staff team have stayed strong due to the COVID-19. They have followed government guidelines and opened where they could to provide such a fantastic child care setting for the children who attend Little Apples. It’s so lovely to see them open fully once again. Little Apples numbers have increased which is fantastic to hear and have lots of children on their waiting list. Throughout the year Little Apples has lost and gained new staff who are enjoying their roles at little apples. Once again, I can’t praise Jo and the Little Apples team enough for the support, dedication, hard work they show towards each other, the families and children who attend little Apples. Even though this year has been stressful at times due to COVID they still continued to provide a fantastic, educational and interesting learning environment for the children who attend. Also, for all the support you give to the vulnerable families who qualify for food vouchers which is such a benefit for those families over the holidays. Sadly, this year the Christmas play had to be cancelled due to COVID restrictions which was so disappointing for everyone involved especially due to all the hard work and planning it had taken. The children loved the party entertainer CrazyM at their Christmas party which went ahead. The children also enjoyed their visit from Father Christmas. Little Apples made a small profit in 2020/2021 which is fantastic especially after making a loss due to COVID. Thank you to everyone who have helped maintain the bank balances especially through the uncertain times. Over the year I have seen no reason to refuse any requests. Little Apples have again continued to successfully advertise using posters and in local magazines to gain awareness thus maintaining their very important status in the local community. It’s great to hear that numbers have increase. I would like to say Thank you to all the committee members for all your support throughout the year you have shown for Little Apples. I would also like to thank Kerry Whiffin who is sadly stepping down from the committee for all your support. Finally, once again I would like to say a very big Thank you and a well done to Jo and her amazing team. I am looking forward to seeing and hearing about future plans Little Apples have regarding fundraising events, trips for children and their Christmas play this year. Once again, I am so pleased that Little Apples has remained a very important Pre-School to our local community.  Treasurer / Financial Controller report: by Karen Toterdell o BA £79,180.72 DA £28,317.37 (as of 9[th] May 2022 ) The income and expenditure for the year ended 31 August 2021 have now been finalised and show an income of £146,391.19 and a total expenditure of £144,552.18 resulting in a profit of £1839.01. In comparison, 2020 resulted in a loss of £17,012.58 and 2019 a profit of £1579.04. Income for year ending 31 August 2021 was £146,391.19, considerably higher than the previous year (£119,743.13). This is mainly due to COVID, many parents decided not to send their children back to Little Apples during the pandemic, resulting in a large loss in fees, and a reduction in new children joining, as we have progressed through the pandemic and things have begun to return back to some kind of normality we have seen an increase in new children joining. Fundraising has always played an important role in assisting Little Apples, although this was limited due to COVID, we did make a profit of £248.28, again this is considerably higher than the previous year (£161.87). Our total expenditure for the year was £144,552.18 this was much higher than the previous year (£136,755.71). Considering the impact of COVID, increases in NLW, Work Place Pension and running costs Little Apples expenditure has been kept as low as possible and closely monitored. This current academic year has been phenomenal, our in take of children has increased rapidly and we have a lot of children staying on with us into next academic year. We have continued to keep expenditure low, and continued with reduced adult to child ratios to reduce staff costs. As a result, we are expecting to exceed a profit of £17k, which is fantastic. Our government funding rate increased, effective from April 2022, by 16 pence per hour for 3/4 year olds (last year it was 5 pence) and 20 pence for 2 year olds (last year it was 8 pence). In addition, EYPP has increased from 53 pence per hour to 60 pence and the DAF allowance is now £800, from £615. So, all positive increases. The NLW increased, effective from April 2022 to £9.50 per hour, as a result an increase was applied to all staff members, due to our pay scales: SEN £12.40 Deputy £10.00 Upper level 3 £9.70 Level 3 £9.60 Unqualified £9.50 Little Apples is a charity and therefore aims to be a not for profit organisation. This means that any underlying profit will go towards the reserves policy which will allow Little Apples to continue during a period of unforeseen difficulty, which can occur at any time. ##  Manager report – by Jo Whatley We have been very busy at Little Apples and experienced unprecedented demand with 61 children currently on role. We also already have 61 children enrolled for next year. We have successfully recruited Charlotte and Stacey who are working out really well in the team and Charlotte has begun an apprenticeship to qualify as a level three early years educator. All staff have completed up-to-date safeguarding training although Nadia and Stacey's first aid course has been postponed several times. We currently have two children whose families are working with child services. We have two children with additional needs who receive additional funding and have another two receiving support at setting level who go to school this year. We have one child for whom we will be trying to obtain special-needs funding for next academic year who has been referred to the early years autism team. We continued to see some challenging behaviour in some of the children and I have particularly noted an increase in biting incidents over the last year. We believe this is partly due to Covid and lockdown as children have not had the social interaction they would usually have enjoyed in their very early years. We will be offering Sharon a post as a deputy manager to support Susan in her role given the large number of children enrolled at Little Apples. I continue to volunteer as a trustee for the Village Hall committee and serve as their secretary. The Village Hall committee have arranged a grant to fund solar panels to be installed on the extension roof and are also exploring the refurbishment of the hall floor. (Overview of safeguarding presented to commitee – informaton emailed out to all commitee members). - Fundraising update 21/22 Total so far £235.18 - £68.00 Xmas raffle - £12.00 Xmas jumper day - £111.00 Treasure Hunt - £40.77 Amazon Smile - £3.41 Collection box Date of next meeting TBC for the 31 A(gi*t 2022 282￿25 126fjt&36 Jo 396.65 2￿.(￿) iQ94 EYE 6rnnt Unifom Fun¢*oisin9 ants & E¢*nations Intew Staff Wa9es Tax/NE Pensions Rent Payrvl fees Fundraisirg Equipment R¢f rtthments Food Vouchers 6rtEnts Administration Ad*rtisin9 &fts 95.767.12 733L96 53W. 13535.65 3J6758 123141 iJ70.0) 154.61 IP35.9) 297. 15.0) 2Jo4.n TTh7ini Parties/¢)Jtiws VnifonTh Iwrnn¢e a Annual Fees Hoslin9 Maintenance Stora9e Accounts DBS Che(*s Misc 539.78 I￿3.T Ih43.97 394 3￿a) 381.41 £169IL81 Excess of Income after Expthlitwe OpeniThJ Fmd 8aloKe LLnche$ 2021-22 Fees frLNn prwious ypj Cheques from wevityts yeAf C1￿1￿j F￿d 8akmce as at 31 Awt 2022 £16.911.81 £49,571.09 84.CK) £O.CM) £o.cK) £66.398.90 The currejrt bal¢yKe is made ￿ as foll¢*s: Sant¢mder (Ctrr•rt Acc(xJrt) SantaTh4o* (Dwit Acc