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2021-08-31-accounts

Overton Community Centre Winchester Street Overton RG25 3HS Tel: 01256 770370 Registered Charity 1075540

ANNUAL REPORT 2020-2021

Legal and Administrative Information

Charity Name Also known as Registered charity no: For the financial year beginning on For the financial year ending on Charity’s principal address

Governing Document

Overton Playgroup Overton Preschool Playgroup 1075540 1[st] September 2020 31[st] August 2021 Community Centre Winchester Street Overton Hampshire RG25 3HS

Early Years Alliance (was Preschool Learning Alliance) Preschool Constitution 2011, approved by the members at a General Meeting held on 19[th] September 2012

Objects of the Charity

To enhance the development and education of children primarily under statutory school age by encouraging parents to understand and provide for the needs of their children through community groups.

Professional Advisers

Georgina Jackson (Accounts Administrator)

1

Introduction to Overton Preschool Playgroup

Overton Playgroup has been in the heart of the village of Overton for 41 years, providing care and education to local children by our qualified and experienced staff. We are registered to care for 26 children from age two at the Community Centre setting and 18 children from age three at the Overton Primary School setting in any one session. Last year we were able to provide places for 69 children at both our Community Centre and School settings (33 and 36 respectively).

Overview

We have had a very successful year at Overton Preschool Playgroup, despite the challenges that working through a pandemic continues to throw at us.

We began the year happy to be returning to some normality after an unexpected summer term. Our finances were in good shape, despite our closure and everyone looked forwards to getting back to normal. As the government grappled with the best way to deal with the continuing Covid-19 challenges, both our settings provided a safe-haven for our children to get back to what they do best: play and learn.

I am very proud to say that we were able to support our children, providing early years’ childcare to our Ofsted Outstanding level, while the government closed schools for the first 3 months of 2021. Everyone remained optimistic and our staff truly shone in difficult circumstances. Difficulties around shared early years care were resolved as best they could be, by working together with the other providers to ensure the children remained everyone’s number one priority.

Our staff worked tirelessly to ensure our children’s time at Playgroup and Preschool were as normal as possible, and the closure of Playgroup due to a positive Coronavirus case, was tough on everyone. Despite worries about our finances due to possible closures, and one actual closure, we finished the year with a profit which we look forward to investing in new equipment for both settings.

The professionalism, hard work and kindness of the staff made this year a positive one despite the situation, and the dedication of the whole team made the year one to remember.

Staffing

We are extremely lucky to have such an experienced, hardworking and well-qualified team at Overton Preschool Playgroup, led since 2000 by Amanda Igo.

We have 4 salaried staff and 5 sessional staff. Leader - Amanda Igo NNEB NVQ4 Room Leaders - Angela Cowperthwaite NVQ3 Linda Shanks NVQ3 Keypersons - Hazel Duncombe NVQ3 Helen Wragg NVQ3 Amanda Phillips NVQ3 Leanne Britton NVQ3 SENCO - Eva Jones NVQ3

Jo Markham did not return to work in September and Katie O’Brien took on regular hours as our bank staff. Amanda Phillips resigned her position at the end of the summer term and will be missed by staff, committee and children alike. Clare Miller starts as keyperson in September 2021.

All staff work as a Keyperson and have assigned a number of children for whom they will have particular responsibility ensuring the children settle quickly, assisting him or her in Playgroup activities and keeping

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the parent or carer informed of the child’s progress. The Keyperson keeps a record of each child’s progress by making regular observations, which are noted in the child's Learning Journey and a play plan is then formulated according to each child’s needs.

Professional Development

Angela Cowperthwaite and Linda Shanks have continued in their roles as Room Leader at the two settings, also acting as the Safeguarding officer in their respective settings.

It has been difficult to maintain the level of training usually completed, due to lockdowns and changes to training opportunities, but the staff has used the Services for Young Children online learning platform to keep up to date with safeguarding and the new reformed EYFS. Amanda has continued to access the provider briefer meetings, Angela has accessed safeguarding meetings, Linda has attended birth to 4 meetings and Eva has attended her SENCO meetings. Inset days continue to be used to reflect Playgroup and Preschool practice and as a result of the pandemic staff have joined lots of social media early years groups where they have been able to share ideas, new information and latest updates.

Quality Assurance

There were no visits from Ofsted, and so we retain our Outstanding rating at both of our settings, as ever working to the highest standards.

Enrolment

The year began strongly, with Preschool more or less full right from the start and a good number of children registered for Playgroup. Flexible start dates and options supported this, and we attracted a good number of newcomers to the village as well as younger siblings from families we have previously known.

For the forthcoming academic year, we have 56 children on our register so far, 28 for each setting, with Preschool full and many children attending 5 days a week. Playgroup is also busier than previous years in September, as some children who turned two in the spring or summer term have already started, rather than waiting for September, which should lead to a more settled start to the new academic year.

We offer a very flexible variety of session times at both the Community Centre and school settings and are well set up to welcome children from the age of two. We accept applications from birth. It is always our intention to provide Early Years’ Education to as many local children as our space and ratios allow and this will continue to be a driving factor when deciding upon session times. We are also pleased to be able to offer the Government 30 hours funding for eligible 3 and 4 year olds.

Playgroup and Preschool settings

Overton Preschool Playgroup benefits from having two distinct classrooms; one in the heart of the village within the Community Centre and the other based within Overton Primary School. We were delighted to return to our usual preschool setting in October, having maintained separate Preschool and Playgroup bubbles at the Playgroup setting when we returned in September. Continuing Covid restrictions have seen some changes to our usual ways of working and routines: Preschool flexing to fit in with the staggered start and finish times at Overton Primary School and entering our Playgroup room via the garden.

Changes due to Covid-19

The coronavirus pandemic had significant impact on all aspects of our operation. We remained open while schools were closed at the beginning of 2021 on Government instruction, which meant some complexity for children who attended more than one early years provider with some unable to attend.

Communicating to parents continues to be key and the individual email addresses set up for staff members last year remain a point of contact. Private Facebook groups share videos and pictures with others who attend the same setting and parent communication is made by email and newsletter. The Chair and

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Amanda worked hard to stay on top of the ever-changing Government guidance, to put into place safe operating procedures and communicate necessary changes to parents.

In May our Playgroup setting had to close due to a positive case of Coronavirus. The staff reacted very professionally, ensuring all parents and professional bodies were informed and the reaction from our parents was supportive. We were able to reopen after the isolation period was up with no further cases reported, children and staff very glad to return. While Playgroup closed, we were able to keep Preschool open thanks to our separate locations and the staff bubbles that were in place.

This was an incredibly challenging time, requiring complex decision-making based on guidance that was not always clear and constantly changing. Everyone involved went above and beyond, and the professionalism and leadership skills of Amanda were vital in making this such a success. There were financial challenges too, as we lost income from fees and fundraising.

Overton Playgroup and the local Community

As we are located at the heart of the village, we feel very central to the community and have missed the level of involvement we have had in previous years, due to social restrictions in place due to Covid-19. We had to cancel a number of planned events this year, as there were restrictions on numbers of people able to meet which made our plans invalid.

To better support working parents, we continued with our extended opening hours, offering breakfast at Preschool from 8am and “after school” club until 3:45pm, with Playgroup open from 8:15am until 3:45pm. This has proved very popular, and has definitely contributed to the high numbers of children attending, as well as helping parents avoid the rush at pick up and drop off at school.

We have continued with our monthly feature in the Test Magazine, broadening our subject range to activities to enjoy with our children during lockdown, our participation in Light Up Overton at Christmas, how to enjoy Spring and the change of a more normal life returning. The best advice given being to enjoy an ice-cream or iced lolly when it gets hot! OPP continue to collect crisp packets for our crisp packetrecycling scheme, with over 60kg of crisp packets returned to Walkers for recycling so far, in conjunction with Plastic Free Overton.

Parent Management Committee

Overton Preschool Playgroup is managed by a voluntary Parent Management Committee, which is an essential part of OPP. They not only manage and organise the fundraising activities throughout the year but they also act as Trustees for Playgroup (which is a Registered Charity) and oversee the staff, finances and administration.

The Committee consists of three officers (Chair, Secretary and Treasurer) and no fewer than two and not more than nine other elected members. Committee members are elected for one year at the Annual General Meeting. The Committee are able to co-opt a further three members, during the course of the year. A list of the charity Trustees for 2020/2021 is detailed at the end of this report.

The Management Committee have continued to meet virtually on a monthly basis through the year to ensure the smooth running of the business carrying out functions including:

Sadly this year additional committee effort was curtailed due to Covid-19 restrictions.

4

Events and fundraising

We successfully ran a number of fundraisers, but only those that could be completed at home which has meant we did not have the usual funds raised by these events. The events and fundraising team worked very hard to ensure our Christmas cards, Christmas Craft boxes, bags and placemats fundraisers raised vital funds to invest back into our settings for our children.

Sadly, we were unable to plan our usual trips due to ever-changing government regulations, as the Covid19 situation evolved.

Funds raised by the charity are spent directly on resources to enrich the learning environment for the children. In addition to the usual events and schemes, we have maximised income from passive fundraising by promoting schemes such as Amazon Smile and Easy Fundraising, as well as looked for innovative ways to raise funds such as registering as a collector for crisp packets, which are returned to Walkers for recycling in exchange for cash, raising £160 so far.

The Southern Coop chose us to be their charity partner for another year from April, which was great news. Over the last year, we received over £500 from them and they and supported us with goods for a range of activities.

Parent Survey

Responses to the Parent Questionnaire were universally positive, reflecting the understanding and respect that the parents have for the staff and the dedication the staff put into the children’s welfare and enjoyment of their time at OPP. Suggestions for improvements have been reviewed and actioned where practical.

The committee will continue to prioritise open and relevant communication with parents and carers, and actively look for ways to improve this, especially as people other than parents bring an increasing number of children, and Coronavirus restrictions in place make direct communication trickier.

Some examples of comments from the questionnaire:

“Absolutely brilliant from start to finish. So sad I have no more children to send as I really can’t rate these settings and staff highly enough. There is such a wide variety of things for the children to do, they’re learning so much without knowing it, and the communication back about anything is always prompt, helpful and complete. There can be no denying the love and care from the staff to the children, which has always given me such peace of mind as I’ve gone off to work. Thank you all so much.”

We are very grateful to the voluntary commitment of the parents for their time and dedication to OPP. In addition to the committee members, we would also like to thank all the parents who helped in various ways including as parent helpers or supplying fruit for snack time. Without the help and support of the parents, staff and committee, it would be impossible to run our fundraising events.

5

CHARITY TRUSTEES 2019-2020

Name of Trustees Dates during which named trustees acted, if
not during the wholeperiod of this report		 Method of appointment or
election
Susannah Teixeira,Chair Elected at AGM 2020
Sarah Hands,Treasurer Elected at AGM 2020
AmySmith,Secretary Elected at AGM 2020
Chris Shaw Re-elected at AGM 2020
Dawn Finnis Until April 2021 Re-elected at AGM 2020
Zena Luckhurst Re-elected at AGM 2020
Claire Whitlam Elected at AGM 2020
Emma Booth Elected at AGM 2020
Emma Riggs Elected at AGM 2020
HollyScott Until July2021 Elected at AGM 2020
Lucy Quick Elected at AGM 2020

6

Treasurer report, OPP fiscal 20/21

Despite a particularly challenging year I’m pleased to say that we have remained in good financial shape thanks to the fantastic efforts of the staff, committee and parents. Both playgroup and preschool were very busy last year and everyone coped so well with the ever-changing situation involving isolations, closure and general Covid-related requirements.

Summary of finances

As a charitable organisation, our main financial goal is to operate without making either a large profit or a loss within the academic year. Any surplus funds we accumulate should be reinvested into the charity throughout the year to cover running costs, buy new resources, provide experiences and activities for the children, upskilling our staff through appropriate training courses and any business-related changes deemed necessary to improve quality levels at our settings. The uncertainty throughout last year led to a particularly cautious approach to finances.

The attached accounts provide details of our income, expenditure and bank balances for the academic year 2020/2021.

Income

Expenditure

Next year planning and key initiatives / review of topics from last year:

To summarise, despite all the uncertainty that last year brought, we have managed to balance the finances well and even made a small profit, which we intend to use to make some improvements to the settings this

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year. I see this as a real success and is testament to the hard work of the staff, committee and parents. I think it’s a wonderful achievement to have kept the settings working so well in such difficult times and I count our children very lucky indeed to have been able to attend Overton Preschool Playgroup in the past year. I’d just like to thank Susannah in particular who has led us through this year with such commitment and competence, it’s really not been easy at times, I know there have been several late nights or even sleepless nights, along with having to juggle childcare, work and her committee role, but she’s stuck with it and I think we’re all really grateful to her for that.

Moving into this year we need to continue to do what we do well and make improvements where needed. All being well it should be a more stable year and both settings have healthy numbers of children attending. This allows us to plan spending more effectively and create more experiences for the children. Of course, we will continue to monitor spending but we’re currently in a good position, with cash reserves in-line with requirements and, therefore we are able to invest in the charity to ensure our children’s early years education is the best around.

8

Overton Playgroup Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31 August 2021

Note
Incoming Resources
Fees including vouchers
Hampshire County Council - Pre-school vouchers
Fund Raising
3
Grants - HMRC Furlough Grant
Gift Aid
Other income
4
Investment income
5
Total Incoming Resources
Less: cost of generating funds
Fundraising and publicity
6
Net incoming resources available
for charitable application
Resources Expended - Charitable expenditure
Staff Costs
7
Cost of activities in futherance of the charities objectives
8
Catering Costs
9
Managing and administering the charity
10
Total Resources Expended
Net movement in funds
Balances brought forward at 1 September 2019
Balances carried forward at 31 August 2020		 Total year
Total year
to 31.8.21
to 31.8.20
£
£
34,959
53,592
133,452
134,602
2,956
4,322
4,499
62
206
281
62
512
171,635
197,869
1,417
2,363
170,218
195,506
132,597
134,447
27,230
21,047
741
299
3,352
2,600
163,920
158,393
6,297
37,113
171,126
134,013
.
177,423
171,126

Overton Playgroup Balance Sheet as at 31 August 2021

Current Assets
HSBC Savings Account
Nationwide Savings Account
Current a/c
Petty Cash
Debtors - Barclaycard
Creditor - Barclaycard
Reserves
Unrestricted Funds		 £
£
£
£
20,087
20,085
120,001
120,001
37,249
30,857
102
100
177,440
171,043
-
83
177,440
171,126
(17)
177,423
171,126
177,423
171,126
177,423
171,126
2021
2020		 £
£
£
£
20,087
20,085
120,001
120,001
37,249
30,857
102
100
177,440
171,043
-
83
177,440
171,126
(17)
177,423
171,126
177,423
171,126
177,423
171,126
2021
2020
171,126
171,126
171,126
171,126

The financial statements are approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf by:

…………………….. …………………….. Chairman Treasurer

…………………….. Date

Overton Playgroup Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 August 2021

1 Accounting Policies

1.1 Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention and in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice, Accounting and Reporting by Charities (SORP 2005), applicable accounting standards and the Charities Act 1993. The principal accounting policies adopted in the preparation of the financial statements are as follows:

1.2 Funds structure Funds held by the charity are Unrestricted general funds - these are funds which can be used in accordance with the charitable objects at the discretion of the trustees.

1.3 Incoming Resources

Fees

Income is recognised upon receipt.

Donations and grants

Income from donations and grants, including capital grants, is included in incoming resources when these are receivable

Interest is included when received by the charity.

1.5 Resources expended

Expenditure included in the direct charitable expenditure is that relating to the provision of playschool services. Fundraising expenditure is that expenditure directly incurred related to the Charity's fundraising activities. All other expenses relate to managing and administering the charity.

1.6 Irrecoverable VAT The charity does not require to be registered for VAT therefore, irrecoverable VAT is charged against the category of resource expended for which it was incurred

The trustees received no remuneration either during the current or proceeding year.

Out of pocket expenses were not claimed by the trustees in either year, the value of these contributions is not known.

3
Fundraising Income
Events
General
Xmas Cards
Donations
4
Miscellaneous Income
Merchandise
5
Investment Income
Interest on cash deposits
6
Fundraising and Publicity costs
General
Childrens events
Marketing & Advertising
7
Staff costs
Staff Costs including ER's NI
Pension (NEST)
Training
Other Staff Costs
No employee earned more than £50,000 per annum in either year in above accounts.		 2021
2020
£
£
0
2255.12
1901.91
1310.72
538.57
366.62
515.5
389.82
2,955.98
4,322.28
2021
2020
£
£
206
280.5
206.00
280.50
2021
2020
£
£
62
512.4
2021
2020
£
£
1417.33
1668.08
662.86
31.98
1,417.33
2,362.92
2021
2020
£
128,592
127,862
3,782
5,080
147
650
76
855
132,597
134,447.29

8 Direct Charitable Expenditure

Direct Charitable Expenditure
Rent
Resources - Consumables
Resources
Maintenance
Insurance
Cost of Sales
Printing and stationery
Telephone & Internet
Other Costs
Catering Costs
Groceries
Food Vouchers
Management and Administration of the Charity
Audit and Accountancy
Fees & Subscriptions
Miscellaneous
Staff numbers
The average number of employees (including casual and part-time staff) during
the year was as follows:
Full Time
Part Time		 2021
2020
£
£
15,590
13,828.00
3,426
1,860.68
4,916
2,853.93
728
108.34
1,407
1,415.48
-
174.00
-
4.55
760
587.50
403
214.25
27,230.38
21,046.73
2021
2020
£
£
425.68
298.96
315.00
-
740.68
298.96
2021
2020
£
£
2,523
2,499.31
301
85.00
528
15.99
3,351.92
2,600.30
2021
2020
3
7
-
10

10 Management and Administration of the Charity

Audit and Accountancy Fees & Subscriptions Miscellaneous 11 Staff numbers The average number of employees (including casual and part-time staff) during the year was as follows:

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INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS REPORT

Independent examiner's report to the trustees

I report on the accounts of the charity for the year ended 31/8/21, which are set out on the following pages

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity's trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year (under section 145(1) of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act)) and that an independent examination is needed.

It is my responsibility:

Basis of independent examiner's report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commissioners. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts.

Independent examiner's statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

have not been met; or

David Carter

2 May 2022