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2023-03-31-accounts

Registered Charity No. 1154609

HOME-START GUILDFORD

Financial Statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2023

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REPORT CONTENTS

Page Information
3 Legal and Administrative Information
4 Report of the Trustees
4 � Objectives and Activities
5 � Achievements and Performance
7 � Forward Look
8 � Structure, Governance and Management
11 � Financial Review
13 Report of the Independent Examiner
14 Statement of Financial Activities
15 Balance Sheet
16 - 19 Notes forming part of the Financial Statements

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LEGAL & ADMINISTRATION

Registered and Office Address

Home-Start Guildford Astolat Coniers Way Burpham Guildford Surrey GU4 7HL 01483 511181

Email: office@hsguildford.org.uk

Bankers

HSBC 12a North Street Guildford Surrey GU1 4AF

Independent Examiner

Pierre Okusi Vestry Hall 336 London Road Cricket Green Mitcham CR4 3UD

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REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

The Trustees present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2023. The Trustees have adopted the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice known as FRS 102 (SORP).

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

Home-Start Guildford provides support and friendship to help parents give their children the best possible start in life. It is about parents helping other parents. We train volunteers to visit parents who have young families (at least one child under 6), are facing difficulties and live in the Guildford Borough. We deal with a wide range of family difficulties: for example, post-natal depression, isolation, illness of parent or child, disability, or lack of parenting skills and confidence.

The support we provide is tailored to the needs of the family, with regular support offered each week, for as long as the support is needed, which is on average 9-12 months. We carefully review the support provided to each family to ensure that it continues to be effective. When we feel that the family has made sufficient progress and their volunteer could be better deployed with another family, we will sensitively bring the support to a close. It is remarkable how much difference can be made to the lives of children and families by this relatively small amount of time, committed on a regular basis. We also run Family Groups at Pirbright to provide support to army families, and at the Family Centre in Bellfields.

Home-Start Guildford is a local, independent charity which celebrated 25 years of support to vulnerable families in 2022. We are part of a network of over 180 HomeStarts in the UK and the central organisation, Home-Start UK, provides a framework of policies, standards, and Quality Assurance to which we adhere. This central support reduces the need for us to devise these things ourselves, but we get no financial support from the Centre (in fact we pay about £2,600 per annum to HS-UK). We must find all our running costs ourselves.

Expenditure for the year totalled £204,104. Over 87% of expenditure is accounted for by staff salaries and rent. The increase in expenses over 2021/22 was largely due to increasing staff salaries (to match those paid by other Home-Starts and comparable organisations) and by an increase in the hours worked by our part-time professional fundraisers as the most cost-effective way to increase revenue.

We received about 25% of this total expense from two contracts: one with Surrey County Council (SCC) which is delivered in partnership with Surrey Care Trust (SCT) and the second partly funded by the Surrey Heartlands CCG (NHS) and more recently also by SCC. The rest we receive from applications to grant-giving bodies, donations and, normally, from fund-raising events. As in 2020/21 and 2021/22 our fundraising plans were significantly affected by the Covid pandemic as we were unable to run planned fund-raising events. In 2023/24 we will be returning to holding fundraising events, notably a Ball in February 2024 at G Live.

During 2022/23 we had 6 staff for most of the year (4.8 full-time equivalents): the Manager and 2 Co-Ordinators working with families, training and supporting volunteers, matching volunteers to families and monitoring the support; 2 part-time staff supporting families at the Pirbright Family Group and at Hazel Avenue, one of whom also supports recently referred families directly and an administrator in the office. The Trustees and home-visiting volunteers give their time freely which means

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we can run the organisation very cost-efficiently.

Families are generally referred to us by Health Visitors, Family Centre workers, schools, and Social Workers but they can also self-refer. The very significant increase in referrals from the first quarter of 2021/22 onwards was not maintained, unsurprisingly, given the latent demand that had been suppressed by the first year of Covid, but demand levels remain high, and our staff continue to be very busy. About a �h��d �f ��� fa����e� ha�e �e�� �c����e�� �eed� � they may have multiple problems, mental health issues, domestic abuse or the children may be subject to a Child in Need or Child Protection Plan.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

This past year has continued to be influenced by the long tail of the Covid pandemic, but in comparison to the previous year, we have been able to provide support in a much more normal way. The continuing challenges posed by the pandemic have included cases of Covid and required isolation for staff, volunteers, and families. In the latter cases this is clearly difficult for the families concerned and complicates our planning and provision of support. The challenges faced by families have been often compounded by the pressures which the cost-of-living crisis has created, causing severe strains in families' lives.

Our staff and volunteers have been able to help 188 families, compared with 174 in the previous year, through home visiting support, through our Family Groups on the Army base in Pirbright and in Hazel Avenue and directly by our Home-Start Support Worker.

Contracts with Surrey County Council and Heartlands CCG

From the middle of January 2020, a new contract was awarded to Surrey Care Trust, with Guildford and the other seven Home-Start schemes in Surrey acting as subcontractors with responsibility, within their own boroughs, for providing support to families with at least one child under the age of six.

The income that we received in 2022/23 from this contract was about £26,000. This contract will end in March 2024, and we are already planning for the re-tendering process.

Along with four other Home-Start schemes in Surrey we were awarded a contract by the Heartlands CCG, in our case, for support to families in Guildford borough, also covering children under 6, with an annual value of about £22,000. The contract ran from September 2020 to the end of August 2022. This was extended to June 2023 with funding from SCC.

Home-Start Surrey, which comprises all eight Surrey schemes, continues to look at ways to share best practice and to gain efficiencies through working together, through regular meetings of the Chairs and of the Managers of the eight Home-Starts across Surrey.

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Families supported.

We invested in our staff capacity to meet the increased demand which was emerging during Covid. The opening of the second family group and the recruitment of the new post of Home-Start Support Worker meant that our staff capacity was and remains more than 20% higher than pre-Covid levels. The statistics below show the number of families supported in 2022/23 in diverse ways (Last �ear�s figures are in brackets):

Events

We were delighted to be able to resume normal family activities, including an afternoon in Stoke Park at the end of July, which was attended by 29 adults and 35 children and a trip to Bocketts Farm which was enjoyed by an incredible 95 adults and 118 children, supported by 25 volunteers. Thanks to the continuing support of the Guildford Model Engineering Society, we also held a Steam Train Day which was attended by 61 adults and 75 children.

We were also able to resume holding a New Year Party for families, which was attended by 31 adults and 39 children, including 9 aged over 6.

We are incredibly grateful to all the staff and volunteers who made these events so successful and to Bocketts Farm, Stoke Park and the GMES.

Pirbright Family Group

Our Family Group, which meets on Tuesdays at the Jubilee Community Centre in Pirbright continues to provide unbelievably valuable support to families whose partners are often away from the base for lengthy periods and whose own families may also be a long way away. Our work at Pirbright camp is very highly regarded by Health Visitors, and by the Army Welfare Officers and senior Army staff. In turn, we

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really value the co-operation and support of the Army staff, including Major England.

Over the year 41 families received support from the Group with an average of 16 adults and 17 children attending each week. The Family Group had some informative and exciting sessions over the year with highlights including cooking, soft play, messy play, gardening, crafts, celebrations for Easter and Chinese New Year and the Queen's Jubilee. Families continue to appreciate the supportive group atmosphere and play opportunities for their children and the consistency of support.

Hazel Avenue Family Group

This opened at the end of April 2021 and was immediately busy, confirming the need for this support. Over the course of 2022/23, 29 families attended the group, with an average of 10 adults and 12 children.

The programme of activities was broadly like that provided in Pirbright but with some local variation. There are also differences between the two groups, in particular, the higher proportion of Hazel Avenue families who have additional support from volunteers or staff.

FORWARD LOOK

The context within which we were working in 2022/23 continued to be very challenging. However, we are always aware that whatever difficulties we face as a charity, they are as nothing compared with the challenges faced by most of the families whom we support.

Our Strategy Day in March 2023 focused on our capability to recruit, train, and deploy volunteers, including other ways in which volunteers could be deployed to help vulnerable families.

We continue to challenge ourselves to identify other needs in our borough which we feel we may be best placed to meet and then to work out how to raise the money required, while retaining a prudent level of reserves. We have ended the 2022/23 financial year with slightly less in reserves than our policy. This has been despite our best efforts to increase income. We have an ambitious but well-founded plan for income generation in 2023/24 which should restore reserves to just within the target

range of six to nine months of expenditure.

We appreciate that fundraising is becoming increasingly competitive and, as noted above, we hope to resume a more normal balance between seeking funds from grants and via events in 2023/24.

Our Strategy

Our strategy remains essentially unchanged from previous years but is included here for reference.

We will remain focused on our core mission and will seek to grow in a balanced way. Focusing on the core mission means continuing to do wonderful work through our home visiting volunteers and the family groups. By remaining focused in this way, we believe that we can continue to deliver services of such quality and costeffectiveness that we will be the obvious choice for funding bodies such as SCC. Growing in a balanced way means meeting what we believe is an increasing demand for our support by balancing our resources in terms of volunteers, staff capacity and financial resources.

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Our financial strategy is to balance the funding which we receive from SCC via Surrey Care Trust with money from grants, events, corporate and individual donors. Our aim is not to be over-reliant on one source and to hold sufficient reserves to enable us to continue to operate and provide support even in the event of a significant (but temporary) drop in funding.

We also have an overall risk management plan which attempts to anticipate and evaluate risks and provide mitigation strategies, to further enhance our resilience and ensure, as far as possible, that our support for families will remain constant. At each Management Committee meeting (held every six weeks) we focus on those risks �h�ch �e be��e�e �� be �a���c��a��� �e�e�a�� (�� ����e�) a� �ha� ���e��.

Overall, the Trustees feel positive about the future, but we are having to work much harder to secure funding. We are inspired by the knowledge that the challenges faced by the families that we support are much greater than our own and that if we are not able to support them, in many cases no-one will. We have also taken our case to various representatives of SCC, as part of Home-Start Surrey to try to secure additional funding.

We have a great team of staff who deliver a very professional service, and we have very committed groups of trustees, patrons, volunteers, and supporters. We have an excellent track record of being able to raise the money we need so, despite the shortterm challenges, our optimism about the future is reasonably grounded.

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)

Home-Start Guildford was registered as a CIO in November 2013, and this has been our operational status since 1 April 2014. The objects of the charity can be seen in full on the Charity Commission website under our registration number 1154609.

Trustees: A Management Committee of Trustees runs Home-Start Guildford. We meet every 6 weeks. The Trustees are:

Ruth Jubert, BEM, (former Chair and Vice Chair and now a Patron) continues to play a key role coordinating the activities of the Patrons of Home-Start Guildford.

I would like to thank all my colleagues on the Management Committee for their hard work in support of Home-Start Guildford and their strong commitment to our organisation.

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Our Staff: We are very lucky to have such a great team of staff supporting families, in our office and at Pirbright and Hazel Avenue. The current staff team is:

We can be immensely proud of the support we give to families and of the professional service we run in training volunteers, matching them to families and monitoring our work and in our delivery of incredibly supportive and friendly family groups. Our team has strong links with other care professionals in the borough and we work in partnership with Guildford Family Centre and other charities and services for the benefit of our families.

Volunteers : Our volunteers are at the centre of what Home-Start does. We are extremely grateful to them for putting themselves forward for this work and for the impact they have on the lives of young families. As noted earlier, the amount of time they spend with families may seem small (two-three hours per week) but the fact that it is a regular commitment, allied to the sensitivity and skill of our volunteers makes an enormous, in some cases, life-changing difference. In June 2022, by kind permission of The Lord Lieutenant, we held a 25th anniversary celebration at the Lord Lieutenant's home. Over 60 people attended, including many of our volunteers and some supporters.

Parents supporting other parents is quite a simple idea � but it works. At the end of the year, we had 61 (58) home-visiting volunteers on our books. We ran a Volunteer Preparation course in Autumn 2022 for 5 new recruits. And a second Preparation course was run in Spring 2023, with 9 volunteers.

I am incredibly grateful to Charlotte French and Vicky Roberton on the Management Committee for the programme of on-going training and development for volunteers which they have put together over the past year. The programme of events is balanced between training, peer support and fun and several successful training sessions were delivered including on mental health, first aid, benefits, anxiety in children, healthy eating and with Citizens Advice. We also held a delicious and convivial Christmas lunch party for v�����ee��. The�e �e�e a��� �e�e�a� ��c�ab�e, ���������e �c�ffee a�d ca�ch ��� ������ee� ������� �e������.

Fundraising: As noted above, our focus has continued to be less on events and more on seeking grants from trusts and other charitable organisations.

The 100 Club continues to be a valuable support with over 100 members, who pay a monthly subscription of £5 into a prize fund, of which 40% is paid out and 60% retained by the charity. In addition, the Guildford Community Lottery continues to provide an additional source of regular income from the sale of tickets to our supporters.

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Patrons : We remain immensely grateful for the ongoing support of our Patrons and look forward to being able to involve them more in our profile and fundraising activities going forwards. Our Patrons are:

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FINANCIAL REVIEW

Income for the year totalled £160,723.

We are extremely grateful for all the support we receive to fund our scheme. In October 2022 we were delighted that our Patron, Jane Derbyshire hosted a fundraising event for us at The County Club, at which Anne Milton (also a Patron) and Christopher Critchlow, the High Sheriff of Surrey, spoke.

Generous donors this year have included the Shere Hill Climb, The Merry Harriers in Hambledon, the Army Training Centre Pirbright, Guildford Cathedral, Maybrook Properties, Pennington Manches Cooper LLP, Charles Russell Speechlys, the Royal Warrant Holders Association, Servium, Waitrose Guildford (Community Matters), West Byfleet Golf Club, the RHS W���e�, S� Ma������ Ch��ch, Ea�� H����e�, JE Fergusson, Margaret Sharp, John Rigg and The David Williamson Trust. We have also benefitted from some generous anonymous donations.

Statutory support was received from Surrey County Council and Surrey Heartlands CCG totalling £50,557. We are also grateful to Guildford Borough Council for a grant of £5,000. We also received significant grants from the Community Foundation for Surrey while vital on-going charitable trust support included The Matthew 25:35 Trust, the A��� Ce���a� F��d, The B������ Cha���ab�e T����, S� Fa��h�� T����, The Beatrice Laing Trust, and Guildford Poyle Charities. We received new grants from Garfield Weston and Awards for All. Fundraising through our 100 Club, Guildford Lottery and Just Giving donations raised over £10,000, including donations to support Oliver Hutley's extraordinary feat in running the Marathon des Sables across the Sahara Desert. The race was in April 2023, but many donations came before the end of the 2022/23 financial year.

Expenditure was £204,104, an increase of £24,750 on 2021/22, largely because of increases in staff salaries and the cost of our part-time professional fund-raiser. This produced an overall deficit for 2022/23 of £43,381.

Reserves Policy and Risk Management

Overall reserves total £94,385 including £29,067 which are restricted funds to cover specific programmes at the charity. The total reserves represent approximately 5.5 months operating expenditure.

The Trustees consider that there are sufficient reserves to maintain service through 2023/24 but acknowledge that there is a considerable challenge in the short term to ensure that reserves do not fall too much further.

The safeguarding of children is also a key risk, given the nature of our work. We follow the strict Safeguarding policies set by Home-Start UK and we have strong links with local safeguarding professionals. Our Safeguarding lead Trustee is Charlotte French. All cases of concern are reported to me by the Manager and to the Management Committee.

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Report of the Independent Examiner

I report on the accounts of the charity for the year to 31 March 2023 which are set out on pages 14 to 19.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

A� �he cha������ �����ee�, ��� a�e �e������b�e f�� �he ��e�a�a���� �f �he acc�����. Y�� consider that the audit requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (the Act) do not apply.

It is my responsibility to state, based on procedures specified in the General Directions given by the Charities Commission under s145(5)(b) of the Act, whether matters have come to my attention.

Basis of the independent examiner's report

My examination was conducted 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 the seeking of 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:

  1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that, in any material respect, the requirements:

a) to keep accounting records in accordance with Section 130 of the Act; and

b) to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and to comply with the accounting requirements of the Act have not been met; or

  1. to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Pierre Okusi Independent Examiner Vestry Hall 336 London Road Cricket Green Mitcham CR4 3UD

S�g�ed: �������������.� Da�e: �����������

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HOME-START GUILDFORD Statement of Financial Activities for Year Ended 31 March 2023

Note Unrestricted Restricted Total Total
£ £ £ £
2023 2023 2023 2022
Income and
Endowments		 2
Statutory Grants 55,557 0 55,557 54,683
Charitable Trusts 0 60,677 60,677 56,250
Fundraising Events 11,762 0 11,762 6,842
Donations, legacies &
other		 32,227 0 32,227 20,421
Bank Interest 590 0 590 390
Total Income 100,046 60,677 160,723 138,587
Resources Expended
Expenditure on raising
funds		 3 12,658 0 12,658 9,240
Expenditure on
Charitable activities		 144,631 47,085 191.446 170,114
Total resources
expended		 157,019 47,085 204,104 179,354
Net incoming/outgoing
resources		 (56,973) 13,592 (43,381) (40,767)
Funds brought forward
at 1 April 2022		 122,291 15,475 137,766 137,766
Prioryearadjustment 0 0 0 0
Funds carried forward
at 31 March 2023		 65,318 29,067 94,385 137,766

The statement of Financial Activities has been prepared on the basis that all operations are continuing operations. The Charity has no gains or losses other than dealt with in the Statement of Financial Activities. The notes on pages 16 -19 form part of these financial statements.

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HOht&START GUILDTrY)RD Bllnntr Shrtt is •(JJ Mxrrh 2023 2015 2022 Flxed Tan ￿ jblc A%yds Currnit Assets Lkknc C&+UI * Bank 10.1.611 118.617 LfedJ'tML Am(wnls flllliDg dLK in I 2911 871 Dcfared income 137 766 The F￿d3 of the Charitv Uurcsmaed Reqncied Fun 6q.3j8 29.1)67 1?2?91 TolAI CTh4TlTh, Trundq 137,766 Th¢ llolcs on the fdioM'in8 pages r(Th pwt of th￿¢ finaa¢iAI sthtemenL Ilu¥h Sh awir D4Tt. li- io-lJ 15

HOME-START GUILDFORD

Notes to the Financial Statements as at 31 March 2023

� Basis of Preparation

The financial statements have been prepared under the historic cost convention, following the recommendations of the Statement of Recommended Practice known as FRS 102 introduced in 2014 covering charities with a year-end after January 2015.

2 Accounting Policies

2.1 Income

All income is accounted for on an accrual basis, except for voluntary donations, which are considered when received.

Grants are recognised in full during the year that they are received.

Incoming receipts from tax reclaims are included in the SOFA at the same time as the gift to which they relate.

2.2 Fixed Assets

Fixed assets are stated at cost and depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write off the cost of each asset over its expected useful life.

Computer equipment and office equipment 25% straight line basis. I� �� �he Cha������ ����c� �� ca���a���e f��ed a��e�� �ha� a�e ab��e a deminimus level of £500.

2.3 Pensions

Pension costs charged in the financial statements represent contributions payable by the charity in the year in accordance with FRS 17.

The pension scheme is administered by The Pension Trust.

2.4 Funds held for restricted purposes

Restricted funds represent income received by the Charity for specific purposes or areas.

2.5 Resources expended

Re����ce� a�e acc����ed f�� �� a� acc��a��� ba���. Expenditure is appointed to cost categories based on the amount attributable during the year, including the cost of generating funds and charitable activities.

Governance costs include legal costs and Trustee meetings only.

2.6 Recognition of Liabilities

These financial statements recognise all liabilities that the charity has responsibility for. The charity is not aware of any contingent liabilities.

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3 Costs of Generating Voluntary Income

Our fundraising was focused on on-line activities and grant applications, with support from our freelance fundraisers, Dan Read and Mike Mordecai.

Direct costs of events are charged to fundraising, together with an element of staff time in supporting donor development and the preparation of grant applications.

The cost of raising funds is noted below:

2023 2022
£ £
a) direct costs of the fundraising events 2,530 2,540
b) departmental costs 10,128 6,700
Total 12,658 9,240
Staff Costs and Emoluments
2022 2022
£ £
Wages and salaries 148,640 135,132
Social Security Costs 8,553 7,705
Staff Pension Costs 6,803 6,478
Total
163,996		 149,315

4 Staff Costs and Emoluments

There were no employees with emoluments more than £60,000 per annum.

The average full time equivalent employees during the year were 4.8 heads.

5 Trustee Expenses

Expenses claimed by Trustees were £1,234.

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6 Tangible Fixed Assets

No tangible assets held during the year.

7 Creditors

Comprise general creditors all due for settlement within 12 months.

8 Lease

The charity has an annual lease for premises within the Astolat complex in Guildford, at a cost, inclusive of light, heat, and power of £6,073 pa.

A new lease has been signed until March 2024.

9 Restricted Funds

Restricted Funds
Balance Additions in Charge
Balance
31.3.22 year for year 31.3.23
£
£
£
£
David Williamson 0
937
937
0
Anonymous 0
2,000
2,000
0
Army Central Fund 4,400
5,000
5,000
4,400
Beatrice Laing 4,500
0
4,500
0
Guildford Poyle 0
7,740
3,073
4,667
S� Fa��h�� T���� 3,300
0
3,300
0
Community Foundation 3,275
15,000
10,775
7,500
for Surrey
Awards for All 0
10,000
4,167
5,833
The Borrows Trust 0
10.000
10,000
0
Garfield Weston 0 10,000 3,333 6,667
Balances 15,475 60,677 47,085 29,067

The balance at 31.3.23 will be used within the current financial year.

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10. Analysis of group net assets between funds

Funds on 31 March 2023 are represented by:

Unrestricted Restricted Total funds
funds funds
£
£
£
Tangible fixed assets 0 0
Debtors 0 0
Bank deposits 74,564
29,067
103,631
Current liabilities (9,246) (9,246)
Total Assets 65,318
29,067
94,385

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