Daisy Chains IW Charity Number: 1156801 Trustees annual report and end of year accounts For the year ended 5[th] April 2024
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Daisy Chains IW – contents page Year-end 5[th] April 2023
Administration Details………………………………………………………………………. 3 Structure and Governance…………………………………………. ………………………. 3 Objectives and Activities……………………………………………. ………………………. 4 Achievements and Performance………………………………………………………. 5/6,7 Trustee Declaration………………………………………………………. ……………………. 7 Statement of Financial Activity………………………………………………………… 8/9,10 Balance Sheet ………………………………………………………………………………. 11 Independent Examination Report………………………………………. ……….…... 12
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The Trustees have the pleasure of presenting their report and annual accounts for the year end 5[th] April 2024
Administration Details
Charity registration number: 1156801 Principal address: 1 Acre Cottages Chale Green PO38 2HS
Trustees
Clare Plant – Chairperson Pauline Groves Elyse Rose
Structure Governance and Management
Charitable Incorporated Association Foundation Model
Trustee Appointing: Trustees are appointed through the existing trustee members after receiving a nomination and majority vote by the board of trustees. Trustee applications will be subject to suitability checks before nominations are accepted.
Reserves Policy: The Trustees do not have a reserves policy at present
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Objectives and Activities
To support families with children between birth and 18 years of age on the Isle of Wight that suffer long term health problems, life limiting conditions and disabilities that need essential life changing treatment, hospital treatment at mainland hospitals, or long-term care, this also includes preterm infants transferred to mainland units.
Support is provided by way of travel grants to families, we assist with the booking and payment of travel costs to include ferry travel, train, and taxis we can also provide where needed financial support for any accommodation the family may require while tending to their child.
The funding is available for both emergency and general medical appointments for the above children and their families, emergency appointments will however take precedence if funds are low.
Our team offer 24-hour family support as and when it is needed and are available via text, phone, or email anytime. Families are referred to us via local community nurses, health visitors, NICU Staff to name a few and also by way of self-referral.
Financial support is also provided for equipment that will aid or help improve the well-being of a child and for costs of recognised therapies that are not available through the NHS.
We have the flexibility to assess any child between 0-18 years that may need support on the Island and can offer support where needed.
During the year we also run and hold family enrichments events such as our Christmas party, day trips and “wishes” for those who are on our support system. During these events children may receive a gift, be entertained by children’s entertainers or anything which we feel will offer the children some fun with their siblings and parents. This can also include gifts being sent to children who are in hospital for a long time or those who are isolated in their home due to illness.
Our NICU box project is running permanently within Southampton General Hospital. This is where we keep boxes with all the essentials the mum of an unexpected premature baby will need for the first few days after birth, along with info on the support we provide.
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Achievements and Performance
2023-2024
2023 -2024 has been a good year overall for our charity with our highest income to date , however we were affected by the cancellation of some of our bigger events due to poor weather which did lead us to have very low funding available in January but after a plea on our social media this soon turned around and we were able to continue supporting the Daisy Chains Families as normal.
The demand for our services has again risen this year due to more and more services being removed from the Island hospital and patients needing to travel for most appointments to Southampton / Portsmouth and Great Ormand Street. we are receiving more referrals than ever with an big surge in self-referral particularly, we think this is due to people searching for support themselves due to the current financial climate .
We have again this year seen a bug jump in the amount of requests we have for ferries spending over £15,000 on this alone the most we ever have in one year; we have also supported a lot more or of our families with the cost of living and with the help of grant funding been able to fund almost £18,000 of food hampers and items to support them with Heating also.
Food poverty support and the cost of living crisis is something we have really had to embrace within our charity as our families are really struggling with this at the moment , having a poorly child already puts a huge financial strain on the families so with rising costs of food and heating it’s a real problem , we have been able to support them through funding from the Government Household support fund, Cash for Kids and Wight Aid, this is something we are sure will continue and become and even bigger part of what we do.
This year also saw us expand our treats and wishes that we offer our families and as well as the usual Christmas gifts and outings we were able to fund our first large wish for a family who lost their beautiful little girl, we were able to send the siblings and parents on a much-needed holiday together. We would like to build on Daisy’s Wishes over the coming years and hope to be able to support more families this way.
We do as always keep our support just for the families registered on our support system who all have a child with a long term, life limiting/long
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term health condition or disability so we are keeping within our expected support area.
Our Events this year have continued to be well supported and bring in good funding even though our largest event Festival of Heroes was cancelled due to poor weather we were able to still navigate this well as our sponsors covered any costs incurred and pre-sale tickets still gave us an income although these will be honoured at the next event in 2024
Families Supported: The Number of families we have supported this year has increased as it does year on year for travel and equipment support, with 25 new families being referred to us this year.
We continued to support 31 families that were already with us from previous years.
Over 2023-24 we have supported 56 Island families. As mentioned in previous years, the length of time support is given to each family can range from weeks to years.
Usually, the premature babies will be referred to us for the period they are in the NICU on the mainland our longest being 1 year, these families usually have a lot of support over a shorter period, we then close the referral when they go home unless other medical issues are found then they will stay on our system.
Children that have a long-term diagnosis will usually stay with us until their 18[th] birthday or sadly until they are no longer with us, these children can have times when they need us a lot and times when they don’t need us as much.
Each year all our families fill in an update form so we can look at how things are going and if they still need support if not, they will be closed from the system.
This meant that by the end of this financial year we managed to close 23 referrals due to the child being premature and going home, finishing treatment, recovering, or sadly passing away.
33 families continue to receive support from us into 2024/25.
Brief roundup of support given in 2023-2024
Number of children supported from previous years 31 Newly referred children 25 Total supported this year 56
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Referrals closed during the year 23
Families who will continue to receive support into 2024-25 33 Total number of families support since we began 291
In conclusion the year has been another good one but funding is becoming increasingly hard to find and this seems to be something that won’t change now in the new climate we live in , with this in. mind we are going to be streamlining our events and only moving forward with the most profitable ones and have ideas for new annual ones that will make a more regular income for us in coming years.
Going into the next financial year we are planning to apply for more outside grants that could be available to us and also work on our bigger events to make then even better alongside the new ones we hope to bring such as our Super Hero Sponsored walk and our May Ball , we hope these will become annual and really be well supported.
As in previous years our relationship with Southampton NICU and Portsmouth continue to strengthen. We are now both units “go to” charity as soon as an Island baby is admitted. This ensures no family is missed or left to struggle alone.
We still get many Isle of Wight referrals from Community Nurses and Health Visitors and lots of families finding us themselves and using our self-referral system. We always help where we can, however, there are rare times when the family do not meet our criteria. In these cases, we always signpost them and talk them through who can help and how to apply for alternative support. We are also available to the families 24 hours a day for support with travel and emotional and wellbeing support.
We continue to work closely with Red Funnel, Wightlink and Hover travel, to ensure families are supported and able to get across the Solent with the minimum amount of disruption.
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Funding: Funding and donations have been up this year however a lot of our income was for specific things such as food hampers etc so we need to make sure we are fundraising well for the other things we do into the next year , spending was also up but this was to be expected and we do expect it to rise again next year due to high demand for services.
The Trustees declare they approve the above trustees report Signed on behalf of the charity trustees
Clare Plant
Chairperson 26/01/2025
Daisy Chains IW
Statement of Financial Activities Year-end April 2024
Income. 2023/2024 Donations
Public Donations £9017.51
Public donations over £500 Sandown Fire Cadets £567
Business Donations. £4969.94 Business donations over £500 Charities trust £500 Milford Del £1000 Entertainer pennies Grant £1000 Renodrain £1250
Grants for Specific use. £17,675.00 Grants over £500 Cash for kids Cost of Living £1800 Wight Aid £1900 IW Council Household support fund - £11,675
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JustGiving Donations and sponsored events £7424.88
Donations over £500
Aston Rose- Kirby £827 Jareds Skydive £510 Apex Competition £3107.84
JustGiving Gift Aid £166.00
Events Income
Small Events
£2923.75
Online Events
£1408.30
IW Festival £9,739.05
Festival of Heroes £13,670.97
Gross Income
£66,995.40
Less costs of Events and Sponsored Activities
£22,402.67
Total Net Income
£44,592.73
Expenditure
Family Travel Granting £15,764.70
All Other Family Support Costs £25,009.35 Equipment Grants £0 Treatment, Therapy Wishes and Family Treats £4821.95 Regular family support £10,825.20 NICU Boxes £0
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Food , Heat and Basic Essentials Funding £9362.20
Insurance
£229.08
Rent, Rates and Utilities £2,256.00
Postage and Stationery £343.04
Advertising £90.09
JustGiving Fees £216
Office Equipment £95.88
Volunteer Costs £499.70
Total spending at bank £66,906.51
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Daisy Chains IW Statement of fnancial activities year end April 2024
Opening Balance £1782.03
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Gross Income £66,995.40
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Total Expenditure £66,906.51
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Total Funds Carried Forward £1870.92
Total at Bank £1870.92
The above financial information is approved by the trustees and signed for on their behalf by
Mrs Clare Plant Chair of Trustees
Signed………Clare Plant ………………………………. Date … 26/01/25………………………………….
Daisy Chains IW Balance Sheet Year-end April 2024
(All unrestricted funds)
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Current Assets
Cash at bank £1870.92
Creditors
Amounts falling due within 1 year £0
Net current assets £1870.92
Total assets less current liabilities £1870.92
Total Funds £1870.92
These financial statements are approved by the board and signed on their behalf by
Chairperson …Clare Plant ……………………………Date ……… 26/01/25………………….
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Independent Examiners Report of Daisy Chains IW
I report on the accounts for the charity for the year end April 5[th] , 2024 as set out in this document.
The charity Trustees are responsible for the preparation of accounts. The Trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under the section 144(2) of the charities act 2011 (the 2011 act) but that an independent examination is sufficient.
I can confirm I have examined the accounts and must state if any particular matters have come to my attention, I have examined the accounting records of the charity and made a comparison with the accounts presented with those records.
I have also considered if any items are unusual in any way and would seek explanations if this was the case, the procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequently no opinion can be given as to whether the accounts present a true or fair view, and this report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.
No Matter has come to my attention:
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1) Which gives me reasonable cause to believe that, in any material respect, the requirements:
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To keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the 2011 Act.
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To prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the 2011 Act and principles of statement of recommended practice,
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accounting and reporting by charities have not been met or
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2) To which my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the account’s to be reached.
Examiner: Amy Graham Date: 30/01/2025 Address: 69 Manor Crescent, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 2BJ. Position: Finance Assistant.
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