Trustees’ Annual Report for the period
From 06 Apr 2023 Period start date To 05 Apr 2024 Period end date
Charity name: Moonbeams Playgroup
Charity registration number: 1068848
Reference and Administrative details
| Charity name | Moonbeams Playgroup |
|---|---|
| Other name the charity uses | Moonbeams Pre-School |
| Registered charity number | 1068848 |
| Charity’s principal address | Moonbeams PreSchool |
| Meadows Community Centre | |
| 299 Arbury Road | |
| Cambridge CB4 2JL |
Objectives and Activities
The charity’s purpose is the development and education of children under statutory school age. We do this by:
(a) helping parents to understand and provide for the needs of their children;
(b) identifying and encouraging study of the needs of such children and their families and promoting public interest in and recognition of such needs in our local community;
(c) offering appropriate play, educational and care facilities;
(d) providing opportunities for family learning together with the right of parents to take responsibility for and to become involved in the activities of such groups, ensuring that such groups offer opportunities for all children whatever their race,culture, religion, means or ability;
(e) Instigating, adhering to and furthering the aims and objectives of the Early Years Alliance.
Through play, discovery and meaningful experiences we prepare children not just for school, but for life. We encourage children to be confident, curious, independent and lifelong learners in a safe, welcoming and nurturing environment. We respect the individuality of each child, encouraging curiosity, creativity and a love for learning through play-based exploration.
We prioritise the development of communication and language, personal social and emotional development and physical development in a safe, welcoming, supportive and stimulating environment where all children feel valued and confident to express themselves.
We are committed to building strong relationships with the families and the community, recognising the importance of this for a child’s development.
Guided by compassion, patience, understanding and a broad array of knowledge, we aim to create a foundation that supports life-long learning and deep sense of belonging. Moonbeams embraces diversity and encourages the importance of celebrating, learning and teaching of these for children to appreciate everyone is different.
Achievements and Performance
We continue our conversation parents n the development of the curriculum first introduced in September 2021 with the aim of making sure that the children get the most out of it. We ask parents to engage with us in simple ways; by telling us what their child is showing interest in at home, what books they’ve enjoyed, or places they have visited, films they have seen. Parents are encouraged to chat with staff at morning drop-off or to tell us things via a quick email. In turn, we let parents know what their child is showing interest in and what we have been doing to support their interests.
Communication and language will always be the main factor in supporting the children with areas of learning, activities and interests.
Our curriculum is flexible and is adapted to the individual needs of each child, differentiating and making reasonable adjustment to support all.
The PreSchool produces a monthly newsletter which is distributed to parents/carers. This gives details of events and activities going on at the PreSchool and suggests ways in which parents/carers can support similar activities at home and signposts further resources which parents/carers can use with a variety of ideas for further home learning to complement children’s interests in the setting.
Our year began with the long anticipated move to new premises at the new Meadows Centre; there was much to adapt to as the Preschool is located on the upper floor. There was a lot for staff, children and parents to get used to and to learn about the new building in terms of access and exits, fire escape routes, entrance/exit security codes.
One of our first achievements was to set up a library for the children’s use; we encourage children and routeparents to take books home to share and enjoy. Recognising the problems that some of our families were having in the cost of living crisis, we set up a food stand of basic provisions to help out; we also provided sanitary supplies with the idea that people could help themselves, no questions asked.
In May, we celebrated the King’s Coronation with a stay-and-play session with games, messy play, arts and crafts and garden games and cake as a special coronation afternoon treat.
In September, we introduced a weekly ‘Mystery Reader’ session in which we had a variety of adults coming into the Preschool to read a short story to the children and to talk to them about their jobs and what they were doing. This was a great success and we’re grateful to the many people who volunteered their time to do this; we had staff from the Community Centre, a nurse, a PCSO, a personal traine a gardener and a builder.
Our AGM was held in November at the centre and was accompanied by the annual plea for volunteers to serve on the management committee.
In December, we held a Christmas fundraising bonanza with the help of parents who donated items for a tombola and for sale as Christmas presents. The children’s party was preceded by a visit to Santa’s Grotto which was set up in the Meadows. We thank the Centre for allowing the children to make their vist. This was followed by an end of term buffet unch with party food. Parents contributed £2 each towards the cost of food and provision of a small gift for Santa to give to each child. We also provided a selection of gifts that the children could choose for a family member and wrap it for them.
We began the New Year a series of information evenings for parents that covered different areas of the Early Years Foundation Stages. The aim here was to better inform parents about the areas of learning and how they are supported in the setting and to give parents some tips for building on them at home. The series began with ‘Making Maths Meaningful’ on 29[th] January, hosted by a member of staff who is the Maths lead. Subsequent sessions were followed up with other staff leads in areas of Personal, Social and Emotional development (February 26[th] ); Communication and Language (March 11[th] ) and Physical Development (March 25[th)] ).
All staff are up to date on mandatory training including child protection and first aid. A programme of refresher training has been set in place which will benefit children and families as new ideas and practice are brought into the setting from these courses.
A named safeguarding officer has been appointed to the Management Committee in accordance with new regulations which require this.
Financial Review
Financial accounts for the year end April 2024 showed a surplus of £24K.
At last year’s AGM, we reported that the best strategy for supporting the Preschool’s finances would be to keep headcount as close to full capacity as possible for the premises. In keeping with the ethos of accessibility and inclusivity, the Preschool also took on several children with special needs. This approach co-incided with significant increase in the hourly rates paid to to us by local government as funding.
The Government’s announcement about changes to eligibility for funding under the ‘working families’ heading meant that we received applications for places for many 2 year-olds in advance of that funding becoming available after the end of the 2024 financial year. This saw an increase in fees paid to the Preschool for their child’s sessions, up to £34K from last year’s £29K. We held hourly rates for parents who were paying steady at £6.50/hour for 2 year olds and £6/hour for 3 year olds throughout the 2023-2024 financial year.
The combined effect of statutory increases in minimum wage and resulting increase in PAYE/pension payments means that this cost has risen 25% on last year. The increase in hourly funding rates for children in the Preschool’s care is very welcome and long overdue; given current economic forecasts it seems highly unlikely that similar increases will be seen year on year in our funding rates. What seems more probable is a scenario that the Preschool has seen in previous years; funding rates remain static, while staff costs continue to rise in line with statutory requirements of employment law.
These reserves will be needed to support payroll and increases on other operational costs in months/years ahead.
The PreSchool Reserve funds policy provides that sufficient funds must be ringfenced within the Reserves to cover the financial liabilities that would arise should the PreSchool have to wind up.Ringfenced funds therefore need to cover final salary bills (including HMRC/NI), statutory redundancy payments due (not subject to HMRC/NI), pension liabilities, and monies owed for rent and other services (broadband/phone). Currently, the amount ringfenced is around £30K. This figure has to be reviewed annually (as statutory redundancy calculations need to be adjusted for staff service length). This leaves £6K not ringfenced to cover immediate shortfalls in operating costs.
There has been no drawdown of reserve funds to cover operational expenses; funds of £10k were transferred into reserves to replace funds that had been drawndown in 2022 to cover payroll costs. The reserve fund at the financial year end was £56k; the intention is to transfer £20k to a fixed term bond and to retain a balance of £36K in an easy access account. The size of the reserve provides some comfort after years of uncertainty surrounding the Preschool’s finances, but it would be prudent to sound a note of caution here: staff payroll remains our largest cost and we anticipated that cost will rise year on year.
The interest earned on the fixed interest bond is intended to fund the consumables fund in the setting which is used to buy in supplies for children’s breakfasts and cooking activities.
The major uncertainty remains the gap between funding and our operational costs, particualrlyy i whether our funding will continue to cover the major cost of our payroll. Minumum wage increases which came into force are passed on to all staff as a policy to help with retention by maintaining differentials between staff.
Qualfied staff have proven very difficult to recruit as there is simply not enough money to offer all staff pay rates which compete with that offered by employers in other sectors. We are not in a position such that our cost increases can slmply be passed on to parents and families using our service. Most children coming to us are using their ‘free’ hours’ entitlements funded by Government so increasing our fees for additional hours or for non-eligible children has very little impact on our turnover as so few children are fee-payers.
Income derives from NEFs payments from Local Authority for early years childcare provision; this is our main source of income. This is supplemented by fees charged for additional hours and from parents of non-funded children. Given the location of the Pre-School in an area of deprivation, largescale fundraising is unlikely to become a reliable source of revenue for our daily running costs.
The Charity has some limited fund-raising activities which may involve parents/siblings(eg parties for the children) or the wider community (eg participation in fetes/raffles etc). These activities are organised by volunteers on our Management Committee working with our setting Manager (eg, toy sales, cake sales, sponsored activities involving the children).
Our principal risks remain unchanged: retention of staff and the need to run at a near full headcount in order to be viable. We require a full staff complement in order to meet standards for child ratios.
Structure, Governance and Management
Our constitution was adopted in May 2018 and is the Early Years Alliance model constitution of 2011 as approved by the Charity Commission.
The charity is currently unincorporated.
Trustees are elected from members or associate members annually and any member of the charity may put their name forward for election at the AGM; our constitution allows for a maximum of 12 members at any time. We currently have one members of staff serving on the management committee. All Committee volunteers must obtain an enhanced DBS which is registered with the update service. All Committee volunteers have a ‘suitable person’ status with Ofsted.
Trustees
Trustees and officers during the financial year April 2023 – April 2024 were as follows:
| Heidi Scott | stood down as Chair November 2023 remained as committee |
|---|---|
| member | |
| Stephanie Champion | elected Chair November 2023 |
| Lynne Purchase | Treasurer/Secretary |
| Dora Suberlak | Member |
| Renata Segatto Tessinari | Member elected November 2023 |
| Yi Zhou | Member elected November 2023 |
| Donna Thrower | Member elected November 2023 |
| Resignations | |
| Kerry Ho | resigned from Committee November 2023 |
Declarations
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
On behalf of the charity’s trustees
Stephanie Champion Chairperson Lynne Purchase Secretary Date: 28[th] January 2025
Sheet1
Moonbeams Pre-School Accounts 2023-2024-Year Ending 5th.April 2024
| Restrict Fund General Fund | Restrict Fund General Fund | Totals | 05-Apr-23 | 05-Apr-22 | 05-Apr-21 | 05-Apr-20 | 05-Apr-19 | 05-Apr-18 | 05-Apr-17 | 05-Apr-16 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| b/f from last year | £45,630.66 | £2,271.74 | £47,902.40 | £50,944.65 | £46,157.42 | £29,362.64 | £33,117.16 | £35,966.23 | £14,387.53 | £23,383.26 | £34,868.37 | |
| Income | ||||||||||||
| Fees | £33,919.50 | £33,919.50 | £28,199.50 | £9,886.03 | £4,133.75 | £9,996.95 | £9,754.25 | £9,490.77 | £5,104.90 | £5,148.76 | ||
| Funding | £107,952.87 | £107,952.87 | £69,267.65 | £81,433.93 | £86,341.34 | £80,735.71 | £81,610.85 | £84,561.86 | £56,946.45 | £52,923.38 | ||
| Grants | £0.00 | £0.00 | £275.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £2,000.00 | ||
| Fundraising etc | £288.60 | -£144.30 | £144.30 | £389.36 | £451.50 | £0.00 | £261.54 | £638.87 | £239.47 | £71.53 | £243.26 | |
| Other Sundries | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | ||
| Other Income | £418.74 | -£4.37 | £414.37 | £448.56 | £140.00 | £159.74 | £420.00 | £394.29 | £109.28 | £149.00 | -£175.00 | |
| £142,579.71 | -£148.67 | £142,431.04 | £98,580.07 | £91,911.46 | £90,634.83 | £91,414.20 | £92,398.26 | £94,401.38 | £62,271.88 | £60,140.40 | ||
| Expenditure | £97,467.00 | |||||||||||
| Wages and Training | £97,548.86 | £97,548.86 | £77,867.03 | £63,519.86 | £61,850.13 | £75,348.46 | £71,855.08 | £52,667.61 | £52,633.56 | £51,776.04 | ||
| Subcontract labour | £995.33 | £995.33 | £1,756.09 | £685.50 | £781.56 | £2,673.35 | £1,310.26 | £2,388.81 | 4,162.40 | 6,367.09 | ||
| Rent | £11,781.12 | £11,781.12 | £11,224.08 | £11,920.00 | £5,576.00 | £9,916.94 | £11,252.22 | £9,852.67 | £9,745.86 | £7,859.66 | ||
| Equipment etc | £3,674.98 | £3,674.98 | £3,604.61 | £4,818.75 | £886.64 | £1,262.20 | £4,523.33 | £1,925.12 | £1,735.75 | £2,817.07 | ||
| Insurance | £678.90 | £678.90 | £648.29 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £607.65 | £496.69 | £587.03 | £573.09 | ||
| Professional Fees | £750.00 | £750.00 | £1,482.30 | £2,648.22 | £660.00 | £720.00 | £720.00 | £3,079.92 | 600.00 | 480.00 | ||
| Broadband and Phone | £740.00 | £740.00 | £1,197.43 | £1,361.62 | £1,538.86 | £1,346.75 | £1,369.80 | £1,017.62 | 377.09 | 382.06 | ||
| Sundries | £292.72 | £292.72 | £615.13 | £114.64 | £0.00 | £82.78 | £116.63 | £69.77 | £16.82 | £0.00 | ||
| Other | £1,589.02 | £413.92 | £2,002.94 | £3,227.36 | £2,055.64 | £2,546.86 | £3,818.24 | £3,492.36 | £1,324.47 | £1,409.10 | £1,370.50 | |
| Totals | £118,050.93 | £413.92 | £118,464.85 | £101,622.32 | £87,124.23 | £73,840.05 | £95,168.72 | £95,247.33 | £72,822.68 | £71,267.61 | £71,625.51 | |
| c/f to next year | £70,159.44 | £1,709.15 | £71,868.59 | £47,902.40 | £50,944.65 | £46,157.42 | £29,362.64 | £33,117.16 | £35,966.23 | £14,387.53 | £23,383.26 | |
| Represented by: | Bank Reserve Account | 56,318.91 | 30,326.91 | 30,326.91 | 34,326.91 | 23,336.65 | 24,936.65 | 19,899.00 | 10,099.00 | 20,399.00 | ||
| Preschool | 15,065.86 | 16,853.97 | 20,399.42 | 11,517.34 | 6,019.32 | 8,131.32 | 15,916.64 | 4,246.36 | 2,846.58 | |||
| Cash | 483.82 | 721.52 | 218.32 | 313.17 | 6.67 | 49.19 | 150.59 | 42.17 | 137.68 | |||
| £71,868.59 | £47,902.40 | £50,944.65 | £46,157.42 | £29,362.64 | £33,117.16 | £35,966.23 | £14,387.53 | £23,383.26 | ||||
| MOVEMENT IN FUNDS YEAR ON YEAR | £23,966.19 | -£3,042.25 | £4,787.23 | £16,794.78 | -£3,754.52 | -£2,849.07 | £21,578.70 | -£8,995.73 | -£11,485.11 |
Page 1
Sheet1
Moonbeams Bank and Cash Balances as at 5th.April 2024
BANK BALANCES CFWD
Reserves account £56,318.91 Preschool £15,065.86 Cash £483.82 ------------£71,868.59 ------------In accounts £71,868.59 Written off to Other O £0.00
BANK BALANCES BFWD
Reserves account £30,326.91 Preschool £16,853.97 Cash £721.52 ------------£47,902.40
Page 2
The Meadows Community Centre 299 Arbury Road,Cambridge,CB4 2JL Tel: 07780 187003 Website.. v4ww.moonbeams reschool.or email.. moonbeams.preschool@gmail.com Rezistered Charity 1068848 OFSTED Re8iStration EY2711214 Mon-Fri term time only 9am-3pm To whom it may concern: I have prepared the enclosed accounts which I believe to be an accurate record of the finances of Moonbeams Preschool for the year 2023-2024 I have conducted an independent examination of the enclosed accounts of Moonbeams Preschool in accordance with the requirements laid down by the Charities Commission for England and Wales. Original documents have not been seen but have used a spreadsheet prodUd from within Moonbeams. Have seen bank statements for opening and closing balances and payroll records. Comments.. Reserves have increased by £23,966.19 within Financial Year 23124 and at the yearend there were cash reserves of £71,868.59 As per my comment of last year. it would definitely be worth placing some of this in a deposit account, which could earn 3 % to 4% and generate circa £3,000 of additional income.Checks should be made to ensure that that the banking organisation is covered by the government deposit guarantee scheme, which has a maximum limit of £85,000. Monthly payroll reports have been reviewed against receipts and payments and are fully reconciled. No statutory accounts and Corporation Tax return have been prepared for year ending .April 2024, because the HMRC portal has shown accounting periods 5th through to 51h.April 2025 as being exempt from filing. .April 2023 As in previous years the accounts. record keeping, reconciliations. revenue and overhead control continues to be of an exceptionally high standard. Signature Print name MARTIN SMITH (D LLAS AND MARTIN ACCOUNTANCY LTD) Occupation ACCOUNTANT Date 10TH.JULY 2024. Moonbeams Preschool year end declaration