2023-07-31-accounts

Is o Wlndmllls Opportunlty Playgroup Annual Report FY2023 Windmills Opportunity Playgroup, Sheddingdean Community Centre. Maple Drive, Burgess Hill,West Sussex, RH)5 8LJA •Tel.. [phone] Email.. [e-mail] • Web.. www.windmillsplaygroup.cthuk • Charity No.. 1072977 + Ofsted No.. 113835

Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Period start date

Period end date

From 1 August 2022 To 31 July 2023

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name Windmills Opportunity Playgroup

Registered charity number 1072977

Charity's principal address Sheddingdean Community Centre Maple Drive Burgess Hill Postcode RH15 8UA

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

1 2 3 4 me 1 2	Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole year	Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee(if any)	Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee(if any)
	Paloma King	Chair
	Sue Hastie
	Sam Palmer
	Mike Wigg
	s of persons involved with the charity, but not a member of the board of trustees
	Name	Office (if any)
	Teresa Langley	Business Manager
	Cheryl Jolly	Room Leader

Names of persons involved with the charity, but not a member of the board of trustees

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document Trust Deed

How the charity is constituted Trust

Trustee selection methods Appointed by existing trustees

Section C Objectives and activities

The trustees shall hold the trust fund and its income upon trust to apply them for the following objects

Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document

To advance the education of children from birth to five years some of whom have special educational needs through disability, deprivation or otherwise and without prejudice to the generality thereof in particular

[i] to provide safe and satisfying group play in which parents have the right to take part and ,

[iil to promote and support other charitable activities whereby parents and families may help such children in the Counties of East and West Sussex

Windmills Opportunity Playgroup Annual Report FY2023

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November 2023

Section D Chair’s Report

You will see from the Manager’s report attached that once again we have had a successful and busy academic year. The team have pulled together remarkably through the year despite some difficult personal issues which have arisen for nearly all staff members. Teresa has managed to steer the team through these moments ensuring that the childrens’ experience during their time at Windmills was not compromised. Parents have also been supported during some difficult times and I know that the individual parents have been very grateful for the care and thoughtfulness shown to them by Teresa, Cheryl and their child’s keyworker.

From the point of view of the trustees this has been a year of challenging questions regarding the future development of the playgroup and our role as current trustees to ensure the longevity of the organisation. To that end, after much discussion, research with our peers, including legal advice, the trustees took the decision to change the status of the playgroup to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). Typically, small charities such as Windmills have been unincorporated, which meant that trustees were personally liable if anything went wrong, financially and legal. In the past the only way to have mitigated this risk would have been by registering the charity with Companies House and becoming a corporate company, regulated not only by charity law, but also company law. Additionally, an unincorporated charity cannot enter into its own contracts, but only through the trustees taking on the full responsibility of assets, such as property contracts. By becoming a CIO, we can take advantage of being a corporate body, complying with only charity law and one regulator (i.e., the Charity Commission).

With this in mind and looking to the future stability of the playgroup the Trustees have begun the first phase of this change by applying to Ofsted to be re-registered as a new organisation, with a new Ofsted registration number. The second phase once approved by Ofsted (which will require an Ofsted inspection), will be to apply to the Charity Commission for CIO status.

As part of an ambition to maintain Windmill’s professionalism of the playgroup in early years, the trustees also acknowledged and therefore applied to Ofsted for a change of name to better reflect the level of early learning offered by our skilled team. Provided Ofsted approve our application, we will eventually change our name to Windmill Community Preschool.

I hope the above gives you an indication of the complex and challenging issues the trustees have been grappling with this year. Of course, as things develop, we will keep you informed.

I will end this report by thanking all the staff for their consistent professional teamwork and especially to my fellow trustees for their support and hard work throughout the year.

Thank you.

Paloma King

Chair.

Windmills Opportunity Playgroup Annual Report FY2023

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November 2023

Section E Manager’s Report

This academic year provided us with the opportunity of offering the full 30-hour week provision for the first time following the inclusion of Mondays from the previous spring term. This was embedded over the remainder of the 21/22 academic year and was then established fully for this year with the uptake of places on a Monday equal to the remainder of the days of the week. Over the academic year we had 41 children registered and we saw a vast range of diversity within the cohort with 17 of the children having English as a second language and 7 children on the child development pathway. As a team we constantly reflect on the provision we offer and are adapting to the needs of the children in our care. l would like to acknowledge the hard work and effort Cheryl Jolly (Room Leader) and the team have put in to make the learning environment inviting for all of the children. In the setting review carried out by our Early Years Advisor the team was praised on the apparent changes implemented and the positive engagement of the children.

We invited ‘Speech and Language Support’ to carry out a visit and audit of our provision in the autumn term. This resulted in them providing resources and suggestions to support children with English as a second language, the main principle being labelling objects with images and words. We have also invested in providing a visual timetable in each learning environment with the intention of delivering consistency for the children. Finally, SALS provided a bespoke training session to the entire team on the delivery of autism attention, bucket time. This is something we had previously provided, however, l felt it was important that all of the team had the first-hand training and understanding of the objectives of providing this activity. This was very positively received by the team, and we very quickly identified 6 children that would benefit from the activity and implemented this into our daily routine. The outcome for the children was very positive and we successfully transitioned 3 of the children to stage 2 to enhance the experience, these children are transitioning to school, and we have provided this information as part of our extensive transition plan.

As you may be aware, l am a keen supporter of the apprenticeship programme. Joseph Langley who completed his apprenticeship with distinction in 2022 left Windmills to head off to university at the end of the last academic year to undertake his Primary Education degree. Millie Hicks completed her apprenticeship in October 2022 and is now a full-time level 3 member of the Windmills team. We were able to successfully recruit Emma Gearing on a part time basis who came to us with extensive experience in early years. We have attempted recruitment on four separate occasions over the year with minimal interest and have been unsuccessful in recruiting a full-time level 3 practitioner. This we understand is not only a local but also a national issue. As l am sure you can appreciate this has presented challenges at times; we have remained absolutely committed to ensuring this does not impact on our offering to the children. The kind words we received from our families at the end of term expressed their level of appreciation and gratitude.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the trustees, volunteers and my team for their hard work, dedication, and professionalism over this year. We are now embarking on our 40[th] year as the current custodians of Windmills, providing early years where every child has the opportunity to flourish and grow!

Thank you

Teresa Langley

Business Manager

Section F Financial review

Windmills Opportunity Playgroup Annual Report FY2023

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November 2023

We closed the year with total assets of around £100k.

Our operational surplus was £12k with an overall surplus of £22k. This was our first full year offering 5 full days/30hours a week. With a high demand for places, we were at capacity all year which resulted in an income of £129k, several of the children came with extra funding. At the same time, we struggled to recruit the staff we needed, consequently our spend on salaries was well under budget.

Cleaning material costs were still negligible as we consumed our stock from the previous year’s acquisition but for most other expenditure, costs were up on the previous year. However, our largest expense by far is the salary bill so this has the greatest impact on the bottom line.

Again, in April we increased the staff’s basic rates to try and maintain some sort of differential above the national living wage and at the same time our Free Entitlement funding rose by 10.5% for the 2 year olds and 5.5% for the 3/4 year olds. We gave notice to our parents that parent fees would rise in the autumn term, which would be by a similar percentage.

We received a £3000 grant from Sussex Community Foundation as contribution towards salary costs and a grant from MSDC for resources to celebrate the coronation.

The Maple Drive Community group made a donation of £350 to be spent to toys and resources for the playgroup. All restricted grants/donations were spent accordingly.

Regular direct gift aided donations yielded £1200, thank you.

Thanks to our parents and supporters for the fundraising activities, cake sale, Christmas raffle and a very successful sponsored event. Also worth noting is that purchases made through Easyfundraising all add up, even the pence, we received £132 from Easyfundraising this year. In total over £1000 was raised from fundraising events and activities.

And again, a big thank you to the Three Oaks Trust whose support over the years has been invaluable and very much appreciated.

Thank you

Sue Hastie

Trustee

~~a~~ Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s) Full name(s) Paloma King ~~Oo~~ Position (eg Secretary, Chair, Chair etc) ~~ee~~ Date 1st November 2023

Windmills Opportunity Playgroup Annual Report FY2023

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November 2023

15 0 Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section G Inde endent Examiner's Re ort Reportto the tru5teesl Windmills Opportunity Playgroup members of On a¢¢ounts for the year ended 31# July 2023 Charity no (if any) 1072977 Set out on pages 6t011 Resp¢¢tive The charFVs trustees consider Ihat an independent examination is needed. re$ponsSbilities of It is my responsibility to- trustees and examiner examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Acl 2011, to follow the procedures laid d(ydn in the general Dire¢tions given by the Charity Commission of the 2011 Art. and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention. Basis of independent My examination was G9￿led out in accordance with general Directions given axaminevg statement by the Chartty Commission. An examinalion incfudes a review of the aecounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented wrth those records. It also indudes consideratlon of any unusuaF items or disclosures tn the accounts. and seekn.ng explanalions trom Ihe trustees conceming any such matters. The procedures undertaken wovide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently in my opinion the accounts present a 'true and fair view,. In connection wjth my examinalion, no matter has ￿rne to my attention 1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in. any material resFect, the requirements. to keep accounts'ng records in accordance wtlh section 145 of the 2011 Act: and to prepare accounts which a￿Ord with the accounting records and comply with Ihe accounbng requirements of the 2011 Act have not been m.et. or Independent examiner's ststement 2. to which, in my opinion, attention should k dra.yffl in order to enable proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. SFgned: Date: 2g /21 Name: FAUL, ReA>. Relevant professional qualification($) or body (if any): Address: si G¢xfa£A tr*rrtll5 C¥wtunfy Pl8￿r￿Jp Annual R•Fg)rt Pf2023 Page 6of 11 November 2023 Scanned by Tapscanner

Section H Disclosure

[Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material problems. ]

Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

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November 2023

Section I FY2021 Accounts

Windmills Opportunity Playgroup Financial Activities - Cash Basis

August 2022 - July 2023

Windmills Opportunity Playgroup Annual Report FY2023 Income 4010 Parent Fees 4012 Parent Closure Refund 4110 Funding 4140 Additional Income 4160 Childrens Uniform 4250 Grants restricted purpose accomplished Unapplied Cash Payment Income Total Income Expenditures 6005 Payroll Expenditure 6070 Cleaning costs 6110 Toys 6120 Playgroup equipment 6130 Resources/materials (consumables) 6135 Playgroup Activities (EYPP) 6140 Personal Care -Toilet Consumables 6150 Housekeeping - Kitchen Consumables 6160 Snack Time 6180 Office Equipment 6310 Rent / Lease 6320 Repairs and maintenance 6330 Utilities 6410 Advertising/Promotional/Website 6420 Telephone / Mobile /Internet 6430 Dues and Subscriptions Admin 6440 Dues and subscriptions - playgroup 6450 Insurance 6460 Bank Charges / Professional Fees 6470 Printing Postage and stationery 6610 Staff Uniform 6620 Staff Training 6630 Staff Travel and other misc. costs Total Expenditures Net Operating Income Other Income 4310 Donations and legacies 4318 Donation restricted purpose accomplished 4320 Donations with Gift Aid 4350 Fundraising 4610 Interest income

Page 8 of 11 November 2023 Total Aug 2022 - Jul 2023 Aug 2021 - Jul 2022 (PP) % Change 11,812.10 9,973.45 18% -27.50 -725.00 96% 117,006.72 80,647.28 45% 120.00 90.00 33% 79.00 143.50 -45% 3,175.27 3,644.53 -13% 34.20 0.00 132,199.79 93,773.76 41% 101,177.43 82,789.99 22% 36.91 201.97 -82% 76.85 -100% 1,073.56 656.96 63% 792.30 381.28 108% 1,695.60 567.25 199% 374.42 254.86 47% 91.09 50.44 81% 8.30 -100% 54.11 45.69 18% 6,337.50 5,772.57 10% 934.53 638.30 46% 366.66 557.32 -34% 917.39 366.31 150% 1,224.60 1,118.10 10% 1,174.24 639.27 84% 655.28 608.48 8% 964.31 878.41 10% 60.00 40.00 50% 327.47 327.78 0% 253.80 768.41 182.00 322% 556.94 226.35 146% 119,836.55 96,388.48 24% 12,363.24 -2,614.72 573% 7,200.95 8,277.98 -13% 350.00 180.00 94% 1,200.75 440.00 173% 1,009.14 819.18 23% 645.24 51.08 1163%

Total Other Income

10,406.08

9,768.24

7%

Other Expenditures 4800 Other Types of Expenditures Total Other Expenditures Net Other Income Net Income/(Expenditure)	350.00 180.00 94%
	350.00 180.00 94%
	10,056.08 9,588.24 5%
	22,419.32 6,973.52 221%

Section I FY20212 Accounts cont’d

Windmills Opportunity Playgroup Balance Sheet - Cash Basis As of July 31, 2023

Cash at bank and in hand 1290 HSBC Windmills Op (2556) 1300 HSBC Savings (8262) 1310 Virgin Savings (1439) 1320 Virgin Reserve (1440) Total Cash at bank and in hand Net current assets Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Credit Cards 2020 TL Credit Card Total Credit Cards Total net assets (liabilities) Charity funds 3010 Opening Balance Equity 3110 Retained Earnings Surplus/(Deficit) Total Charity funds	**Total **
	As of Jul 31, 2023 As of Jul 31, 2022(PP) % Change
	2,007.11 1,587.35 26% 60,501.04 38,599.27 57% 34,030.58 33,894.86 0% 3,658.29 3,643.70 0%
	100,197.02 77,725.18 29%
	100,197.02 77,725.18 29%
	1,040.00 987.48 5%
	1,040.00 987.48 5%
	99,157.02 76,737.70 29%
	76,053.73 76,053.73 0% 683.97 -6,289.55 111% 22,419.32 6,973.52 221%
	99,157.02 76,737.70 29%

Windmills Opportunity Playgroup Annual Report FY2023

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November 2023

Section J Grants, Donations and Fundraising

Windmills Opportunity Playgroup Grants, Donations and Fundraising August 2022 to July 2023

Grants (Restricted)

Sussex Community Foundation MSDC – Coronation Grant Total Restricted Grants	3000 175
	3175

Donations (Restricted)

Maple Drive Community Group - To purchase toys and resources Total Restricted Donations Donations (Unrestricted) The Three Oaks Trust Childhelp Hassocks Adhoc donations Regular gift-aided donation Total Unrestricted Donations Fundraising Easyfundraising Cake sale Sponsored event Xmas Raffle Match funding Total Fundraising	350
	350
	6000 1200 1 1201
	8402
	132 74 376 105 322
	1009

Windmills Opportunity Playgroup Annual Report FY2023

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November 2023

Section K Reserves

Windmills Opportunity Playgroup Reserves July 2023

Running Costs

2 years monies needed if no grants, donations and fundraising received Running Cost Total Other Redundancy in case of closure Final months salaries in case of closure Reinstating premises in case of closure Professional fees - lease negotiations Professional fees - CIO Total Other Grand Total	40000
	40000
	23042 10000 5000 2000 1500
	41542
	81542

Windmills Opportunity Playgroup Annual Report FY2023

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November 2023