Trustees Annual Report
For the period 01 April 2022-31 March 2023
Cylch Meithrin Creigiau
Charity No: 1056147
Scout Hall, Castle Close, Creigiau, Cardiff, CF15 9NJ
Charity Committee
Chair: Richard Nelmes Treasurer: Victoria Jones Secretary: Rhiannon Richards Vice Secretary: Holly Davidson
Structure, governance and management
Cylch Meithrin Creigiau is a non-maintained Early Years education provider and playgroup which caters for children aged 2-5 through the medium of Welsh in the small village of Creigiau in Cardiff. It is well received in this area in which Welsh is spoken widely, and where a there is a Welsh stream within the local primary school. Cylch Meithrin Creigiau is governed by a Constitution which was adopted at the inception of the Cylch, and was reviewed by the current Committee in January 2018.
Cylch Meithrin Creigiau is run on a day to day basis by one Leader who is responsible for the smooth running of the playgroup and for the childcare assistants. She is assisted by a Committee who are appointed from the parents of children who currently/previously attended the Cylch, and an administrator who is employed on a part time basis; they organise fundraising events, collect fees, pay staff wages, and provide additional information to families through regular contact and newsletters. Committee Trustees are appointed or reappointed annually at the Annual General Meeting held in the Autumn. Regular meetings of the Committee and Staff are held to discuss matters regarding the Cylch and to make important decisions.
The Committee and Staff are also supported by Mudiad Meithrin and Cardiff County Council who provide advice and guidance.
Disclosure and Barring checks are carried out on all members of staff (including students) prior to commencement of employment, and are renewed in a timely fashion.
We work closely with the local Scout group from whom we rent the hall for the Cylch.
All Committee members give their time voluntarily and received no remuneration or other benefits.
Objectives and activities
Cylch Meithrin Creigiau aims to provide high quality early year’s education and childcare for children aged 2-5 through the medium of Welsh. We continue to offer sessions which work around the local school times, are reasonably priced and which have the best interests of local children and their families at heart.
Our activities are designed to stimulate and engage young children, and encourage them to socialise with their peers. We work within the framework for early year’s education to provide a challenging curriculum with achievable goals. Young children benefit from the immersion into the Welsh language and get used to routines similar to those used in school. Our hours work in tandem with those of the local school, including a wraparound service for the nursery and Meithrin sections, which allows a full day’s childcare for working parents.
Cylch Meithrin Creigiau welcomes all young children regardless of background, faith, language, or disability.
Achievements and performance
2022-2023 has seen a continuation of our success in providing full daycare to children in the area, in particular with the wraparound service with the local school Nursery/Meithrin which remains highly popular with working parents. Providing full daycare for 2 year olds also continued to prove popular with parents, with many children attending for full days. The Wraparound Scheme has further increased in popularity, with notable expansion into the English side of the local primary school, and we now hold a waiting list for wraparound places well in advance of children receiving a part time school place. All of this has stabilised occupancy and ensured that we are full every morning, and have a significant occupancy in the afternoon sessions, which are seeing increased uptake.
Demand for early year’s provision in the area continues to rise and we work hard to meet that demand. We have also found that most children retain their place with us by taking advantage of the wraparound scheme once they have a part time place at school, and therefore they remain with us for at least an extra academic year.
Fundraising has gone back to our normal attendance, including a successful Sports Day and Christmas Concert. Plans to use the funds raised to build a designated external play area for the children in the grounds has been successfully completed with our outdoor classroom, the children have been using in all weathers and love the outdoors. We are still looking to relocate to a larger building once one can be sourced, and funds are instead going to be reallocated to that. Currently, no suitable building has been found, and we are looking into options with the Scout group to extend the current building. This is dependent on permissions from Cardiff County Council from whom the Scouts lease the building under a long term arrangement.
Financial review
2022-2023 has been a very successful year for the Cylch, with an increase in income received. This is largely due to us reaching capacity early on in the year coupled with an increase in our sessional, full day and wraparound fees from September 2023 which were intended to cover the increased staffing costs. There was also an increase in Early Year’s funding received as the local school reached capacity early in the academic year. We have found the 30 Hours child Childcare offer for Wales has helped us this year when it came into force January 2019. Our expenses did not increase by the same amount and therefore a surplus was made for the year. Much of this surplus is expected to be spent during the financial year 2023-2024 as we incur higher staff costs along with planned capital costs on improvements to the building, while income is no longer expected to rise significantly as capacity has been reached.
Cylch continues to fulfil the childcare needs in the local area, providing much needed childcare which coincides with the local state nursery, and its popularity is clear from the increase in fee income
received as we reached capacity, and the increase in children attending from the English side of the school.
Our current reserves policy is to maintain a reserve equivalent to 3 month’s operating costs, along with a designated reserve for redundancy costs should they become necessary. All income through children’s fees, Early Year’s Funding and fundraising/donations is put towards the general running of the Cylch, with general reserves fluctuating depending on occupancy levels.
We aim to hold at least £10,000 cash in bank above the reserves detailed above to cover wages in times of low occupancy.
Public benefit statement
The charity trustees have complied with their duty to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the commission in exercising their powers or duties.
Signed on behalf of the Charity’s Trustees
Signature Richard Nelmes
Full Name Richard Nelmes
Position Chair
Date Jan 2024
Income and Expenditure Account 2022/2023 Financial year 01/04/22-31/03/23
| Income Mudiad Grant Others Grants Children's fees Furlough Scheme Grant Funding 30 Hours free childcare funding Fundraising Training Incentive Educ8 Donations and sundries Total Expenses Salaries Rent and heating costs Registrations and PAYE scheme fees Administration and training costs Equipment, materials and resources Fundraising Other Total Surplus/(deficit) for the year Cash in bank at year end Unallocated cash at year end Allocated cash at year end: Children's play area cash raised: Match funding for children's play area: Total allocated cash Cash held in bank increase 2022/23: Less: surplus |
2022/2023 £ 1,178 52,041 33,930 786 1,000 478 89,413 £ 66,743 6,080 125 391 2,387 0 1,173 76,899 12,514 114,233 114,233 0 0 0 12,514 12,514 |
2021/202 2 £ 0 479 47,413 0 30,582 494 1,000 972 |
|---|---|---|
| 80,940 | ||
| £ 58,753 5,952 0 382 0 126 2,925 |
||
| 68,138 | ||
| 12,802 | ||
| 101,719 | ||
| 100,330 | ||
| 689 700 1,389 12,802 12,802 |
Difference: