Page **1** of **10** Goring Little Fishes ## Goring ## LITTLE FISHES Registered Charity No.: 1049215 GORING LITTLE FISHES TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT and FINANCIAL STATEMENT Year ending 31[st] August 2023 Page **2** of **10** Goring Little Fishes ## **Aim and Purpose** The aim of Goring Little Fishes (GLF) is to encourage pre-school children to develop emotionally, physically and socially in a loving and caring environment which is based on Christian principles. ## **Objectives and Activities** Goring Little Fishes is a Christian-based Preschool based in Worthing, West Sussex. The Preschool is affiliated to Goring United Reformed Church and we welcome children from all faiths aged from two through to school-age. We are registered with Ofsted and the Charity Commission and follow the guidelines as advised by them. We support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children where English is not their first language. We may sponsor a number of children who may not be able to afford the fees prior to becoming eligible for funding from West Sussex County Council (WSCC). Although the focus of the group is on the children attending, we also take many student placements from the local colleges to pass on our knowledge and skills to enable young people to gain essential work experience. We have also taken on an apprentice. ## **Achievements** Ofsted visited us for an inspection in 2023 which gave a brilliant overall judgement of ‘Good’. Page **3** of **10** Goring Little Fishes ## **Structure and Management** The Management Committee, who are the Trustees, are responsible for overall management of the Goring Little Fishes Charity and usually meet once each term. They give their time freely and receive no remuneration or benefits. The Trustees are made up of: Chairperson, Treasurer, Secretary, two Church Elder Representatives and other members, giving a minimum of six and maximum of eight people. We can also be joined by two non-Trustees, Parent Representatives, as regulated by our Constitution. We regularly review our policies and have done so again this year including our Risk Management document as one of many reviewed and updated in 2023. Current membership is: Mr Paul Redman - Chairman Mrs Susie Thomas – Secretary Mrs Gaynor Anderson-Easey – Treasurer Mrs Rosemary Terry – Church Elder Representative Mrs Valerie Cooper – Church Elder Representative Mrs Elizabeth Swierk – Member Page **4** of **10** Goring Little Fishes The vast majority of the daily running of Goring Little Fishes is delegated to our Manager, Lesley, who works closely with her other staff members. She attends our Committee\Trustee meetings to keep the committee members fully up-to-date with daily life at GLF. The GLF professional staff consist of: Lesley Wake - Manager Val Gill - Business Administrator Ricky Mitchell - Early Years Educator SENCO Amelia Miller – Early Years Educator SENCO Petrina Edwardes - Early Years Educator Cia Del Greco - Early Years Educator Teresa Price – Early Years Educator DBS checks are carried out prior to staff appointments. DBS checks are also carried out on the trustees even though they have no physical interaction with the children (i.e., they usually meet in the evenings). Health and Safety, Risk Assessments and other preschool policies are always under review to be kept up to date with current legislation. Policies are kept on our website at www.goinglittlefishes.co.uk Training by staff is always ongoing including NVQ Level 5 and 6 Childcare courses. Page **5** of **10** Goring Little Fishes ## **Chairperson’s Report 2023** This year has been another busy one at Goring Little Fishes (GLF) with our Manager, Lesley Wake, who has been in post since March 2021. The GLF Trustees, who form a group of six, are made up of volunteers and remains unchanged and they continue to oversee the running of this fantastic Early Years setting. The pre-school comprises of employed (paid) staff, headed by the afore mentioned Manager. The staff are all extremely well qualified, professional and a talented team of people. The staff continue put so much energy and enthusiasm into Little Fishes, this was proven at our most recent Ofsted inspection which was carried out this year (2023). This time we achieved a standard of ‘Good’. Again this year the GLF Trustees sent out a questionnaire to all parents for vital feedback, ideas and changes that could improve the GLF experience. We had a good response again and shared the results with the GLF staff for both encouragement and action where necessary to make any changes or improvements required. A great deal of time has been spent this year reviewing all of our policies, updating and creating new documents where necessary. This is an ongoing process for which the Trustees are responsible and have been working closely with the GLF Manager to ensure all our policies are correct an up-to-date. GLF have been working alongside the church at Goring, with our GLF Manager helping to lead and run the parent and toddler group, ‘Mini Fishes’, which is open once a week on a Monday morning in the church hall. This group is proving extremely popular with families in our local area. Next term at Christmas, GLF are planning to use the adjacent church premises for their party, singing carols and meeting Santa. Finally, I’d like to thank the rest of the Little Fishes Trustees for their time and input into meetings, with again a special thank you to Gaynor, who does so much work for the GLF group in her own time outside the trustee meetings in her role as treasurer. I do hope and pray that the good work that Goring Little Fishes is doing in and for our local community continues and I wish all here another happy and successful year going forward into 2024. Paul Redman - GLF Chair Page **6** of **10** Goring Little Fishes ## **Financial Review** For our year September 2022 to August 2023, our income has slightly increased from £151.6K last year to £152.2K this year. We managed to keep our costs low which brought our outgoings from £154.8K last year to £152.2K. This has given us just a £5 profit. We had forecasted a loss for this year, but WSCC slightly increased funding during the year and we strove throughout the year to keep our outgoings down. This year we have bought new IT equipment and a fire-resistant filing cabinet in accordance with our policies. At the end of the year, we have £87.9K in the bank. The accounts will be independently examined by J Hoult, who is a chartered Accountant at Evansweir Ltd. ## **Expenses** One trustee was paid expenses of £33.48 for mileage. ## **Reserves Policy** Our Reserves Policy can be viewed on our website www.goringlittlefishes.co.uk The minimum level of Reserves to accommodate unforeseeable events, losses, repairs, redundancy or late payments from WSCC will be a minimum of £57K for 2023/24. Gaynor Anderson-Easey - Treasurer. Page 7 of 10 Goring Little Fishes 2023 2022 R•(•1￿0 wscc Is￿69.5 123,936.49 107.00 737,46 1,550. 152.200.53 ?R.718.55 128.J78.95 247,00 13.fll SJ5.0(J 151.892.51 Inii*i*st DDi)ètJr Total 128. 195.95 5.2 19.86 £ 120.072.83 5,590.30 10,797. 17 Stspplles Eoulpment L•9& ReqlAdrnlnhliotia Prtm*ses&Utlllttes Exppdwx M•rkeilng eonk Sundrl 7,054.02 9.708.45 8. 711 712.31 60.31 347,38 S72.7rfJ 1$2,1•6.15 10.499.J7 536.45 45.72 EYPP Total É IS4,750.90 Balance at beglnnlng of 202212023 8alance at end of 202212023 Profit fvr 202V2023 07,879.83 87.884.21 cw*>*rtt lQll l m•tlert Apycftml bv ihe T￿S1OeS a￿$ siinod ￿ their bd411 Ch•hpersQP O•te 13 li 2023 Page 8 of 10 Goring Little Fishes CHARITY COMMISSION Independent examlnerfs report on the accounts Section A Indeperwjent Examlner's Report c*￿1¥a Lrte PI8ywwp 31hW21Y23 Chwtty no 8•¢ on p•9•8 Tnfjt'l ye¥ end&J 31K4r2023 ot r• rfv Ad-). Hjer 14S Lrf 2011 AL1 (xl rny exTh￿th. I sethjn 14gSMb)d Ad. Indopendont •xarnln•f8 ststerr*nt Charthi . Pltase delrt• th• IxKkets rf[￿y ¢* app*. 24111r2023 N•n*: J￿rter H)uft qu4l*lca¢lor4•1 (Y body FIAAAT Oct 2018 Page 9 of 10 Goring Little Fishes {Kwy): Ev￿8 Ww 2S St Pw•uag The VK4cma Sectson 8 Oisclosure Only C4YfF éle rf t* eiarr *" ne&"s 10 his￿119￿1 ryaieriai rrai'.er5 d concètr) gl*ja￿ lof exmrws). h•rn brt•f •ny Il•ffl• th•1 th• •xthnw wl•he• 10 IER 0¢12018 Page **10** of **10** Goring Little Fishes ## **Contact Details** Address: Goring Little Fishes Goring United Reformed Church Shaftesbury Ave Worthing BN12 4EA Phone: 01903 244453 or 07803 001018 Email: littlefishesfamily@gmail.com Website: www.goringlittlefishes.co.uk Registered Charity No.: 1049215