THE SEAVER FOUNDATION Working name: Children’s Voices in Action
Report and Financial Statements
For the year ended 31 January 2023
THE SEAVER FOUNDATION Working name: Children’s Voices in Action
| REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS | |
|---|---|
| FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2023 | |
| CONTENTS | Page |
| LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION | 3 |
| DIRECTORS’ AND TRUSTEES REPORT | 4 |
| NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS | 9 |
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THE SEAVER FOUNDATION Working name: Children’s Voices in Action
LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
TRUSTEES
Dr D. Marshall (Chairman) Mrs C. Gunnell Ms R. Brown
SECRETARY
Mrs C. Gunnell
REGISTERED OFFICE
63 THEYDON PARK RD THEYDON BOIS, ESSEX CM16 7LR
BANKERS
HSBC 191 High Road Loughton Essex IG10 4LN
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THE SEAVER FOUNDATION TRUSTEES REPORT Working Name: Children’s Voices in Action
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2023
The Trustees of The Seaver Foundation (“Foundation”) as defined by section 97 of the Charities Act 1993, present their report and financial statements for the year ended 31 January 2023.
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
The Foundation is a charitable incorporated organisation (“CIO”) and is governed by its constitution. It was established on 19 May 2014 when it achieved charitable status. The Trustees as listed on page 3, serve as trustees of the charity, and are its current members. Trustees are appointed by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity Trustees. Trustees serve for a term of 3 years; after which they may retire or be re-appointed. In selecting a trustee, the Trustees try to ensure that taken together the Trustees have a broad range of specialist skills and experiences that can be used for the benefit of the charity’s objectives. Decisions and policies are formulated in quarterly Trustees meetings held throughout the period. The following Trustees served throughout the period and subsequent to it:
B. Byrne – resigned 10 February 2016
- C. Gunnell – reappointed 4[th] April 2023
S. Gant – resigned 31 January 2017
R. Brown – reappointed 4[th] April 2023
D. Marshall – reappointed 4[th] April 2023
During the reporting period the charity employed the following person as a manager on a part-time basis. Maternity leave was initiated in September 2021 and full pay was issued as per the CIO’s policy until April 2023 of 780.00 GBP (15 hours p/wk @ 12.00 GBP p/hr). Maternity claims from HMRC over the year totaled £5531.10. The Manager returned to work at the end of May 2022, on a reduced contract of 10 hours per week at £12 p/hr. Due to the cost of living and inflation in December 2022, the Trustees reviewed this payment and agreed to increase pay to £13.50 p/hr.
A consultant was brought in May 2021 to support during maternity leave, with a period of 3 months to learn the role. She billed for work completed with a limit of 4 hours per week at 17.50 GBP p/hr. She took leave in April 2022 due to her own maternity, and returned in October 2023 to support the Manager with running the programmes, with a slow reintegration.
Programme Assistant resigned in January 2022, an end of contract interview was conducted by telephone with the Manager and a positive relationship, supporting in a voluntary role has been maintained.
The charity holds policy and procedure accessible and agreed to by all those working alongside them in the following areas. 1 policy was reviewed and circulated to all staff, members and partner organisations.
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! The Seaver Fdtn Policy for Covid-19 (Added 2020)
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! The Seaver Fdtn GDPR policy (Reviewed 2021)
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! The Seaver Fdtn Policy criteria for working with beneficiaries
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! The Seaver Fdtn Expense policy (Reviewed 2023)
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! The Seaver Fdtn Procedure for Advisory Committee Member (Reviewed 2020)
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! The Seaver Fdtn Parental Leave Policy (Reviewed 2021)
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! The Seaver Fdtn Refund & Change to Travel Policy
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! The Seaver Fdtn Code of Conduct for Volunteers
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! The seaver fdtn disciplinary procedure
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! The Seaver Fdtn Health and Safety Policy
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! The Seaver Fdtn Induction Policy
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! The Seaver Fdtn Proper Use of Electronic Resource Policy
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! The Seaver Fdtn
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! The Seaver Fdtn Recruitment Policy
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! The Seaver Fdtn Risk Assessment Policy
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! The Seaver Fdtn Safeguarding Policy (Reviewed 2020)
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! The Seaver Fdtn Sickeness and Absence Policy
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! The Seaver Fdtn. Grievance Poilcy
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! The Seaver Fdtn. Lone Working Policy
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! The Seaver Fdtn. Personnel Development Policy
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! The Seaver Fdtn Voice and tone guidance note (Reviewed 2020)
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! The Seaver Foundation Emergency Repsonse Policy ! The Seaver Fdtn Procedure for Working with Children in Residential Care ! The Seaver Fdtn statement on sustainability and environmental impact (Added 2020)
OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES
Our charity’s purposes as set out in the objects contained in the CIO’s constitution are:
1) 1. The prevention or relief of social exclusion, in particular but not exclusively of persons under the age of 20 years anwhere in the world as the Trusteed may from time to time determine. To meet the objective the main activity is to communicate with staff, beneficiaires and Trustees of the organisations we are seeking to work with to identify long and short term needs of these organisations and meet these needs by:
1a. - Issuing grants to the charitable organisations identified to enable them to meet basic needs or improve the conditions of life of their beneficiaries; that they would otherwise be unable to meet;
1b. - Recruiting people to meet these needs and/or educate community members in meeting these needs by providing volunteers.
THE SEAVER FOUNDATION Working Name: Children’s Voices in Action
ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE
Since February 2022 the charity has:
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" Undertaken rebranding to begin operating under the working name ‘Children’s Voices in Action,’ with new logo, website, social media and external facing materials. It is hoped this will allow our message to be clearer in reaching a range of people and explaining what we do, enabling generating funds to become easier.
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" Continued to respond to the voices of 10 staff and 140 children aged 4 - 15 li ving in social and economically deprived areas in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Following their requests for educational support and role models, we funded staff for an extracurricular centre ‘La Escuelita’ running 5 days per week throughout the year. This included contributing to salaries for a child psychologist as a manager and to staff health insurance to encourage them to stay in post, as their role was highly valued by children (to the approximate value of £3253.53).
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" Responded to the previous year listening to 18 children aged 13 – 21 years old , living in poverty about what they needed to enable them to break the cycle of poverty and stay in education, by funding educational scholarships to enable young people to stay in further education (to the approximate value of: £2368.23).
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" Worked with 25 children aged 2 – 5 years old at the Village Montessori Nursery in Essex UK, to empower them with various communication tools that would enable them to express their opinions of the services they are receiving and how these can be improved to support them. This was part of a small pilot project, that is aiming to explore more sustainable income generation for the CIO, with a possible future supporting other child-care services to conduct child-centered evaluations as part of improving their service. No payment was received for this service on this occasion (to the approximate value of: £1114.14).
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" Initiated work to support with 80 young people aged 6 – 18 years old in the UK, who experience social exclusion due to a variety of physical and developmental disabilities. Children’s Voices in Action aimed to empower children to communicate, to better understand their experiences of Dance Movement Therapy, and performance, and how their charitable service via I Can Dance UK can be improved for them. Initial research, beneficiary and staff meetings were conducted, and training was undertaken by staff to equip them with new skills (to the approximate value of: £1108.32).
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" Initiated work to listen to the voices of 315 children and young people aged 4 – 20 living in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, and living below the international poverty line. Additionally, 230 of these children are Jews living within Ethiopia and experience further exclusion due to religious prejudice. This project aimed to use a range of communication tools to empower children to use their voices to express their needs, and evaluate the services they are currently receiving from Together We Learn and Meketa that aim to break the cycle of poverty and exclusion through education. Initial research and methodology design was conducted (to the approximate value of: £1038.32). Together We Learn and Meketa supported this work with small contributions equating to £718 of income for the CIO.
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" Undertaken new activities connecting children in the UK with those experiencing exclusion overseas. This took the form of a series of Yoga and Mindfulness fundraiser events, where children were encouraged to express themselves, connect with other cultures, experiences and overcome challenge. 12 children aged 3 – 6 years old in the Essex region of England participated regularly over a 4 month period, this also resulted in fundraising for the CIO of approximately £400 that was contributed to relieving poverty in Mexico (see below). (Estimated cost of activity: £827.41).
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" Continued to support photographer P Gambin to enable 18 children aged 8-15 years old living in the ‘basurero’ region of North West Mexico, to gain new skills and share their experiences of their world, through photographing and narrating it. Children were provided a workshop and feedback session receiving full colour print outs of their work and the chance to feedback on their experiences (to the approximate value of £497.32 GBP).
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" Following a gap in research and acknowledgment of young children’s voices during the pandemic, we responded to our work listening to the voices of children aged 2-7 years old in the UK, who found themselves socially excluded due to lockdown measures. Children stated that they needed age-appropriate information and practical advice to support them out of feeling excluded, and we responded by designing a child friendly book, based on their views. This idea was then elaborated upoin to become a tool in itself for children expressing their voices on challenging and excluding circumstances. This was pitched to Publishers, and held-off self publishing by a lead with DK, which has yet to emerge, meaning the book has yet to reach beneficiaries (to the approximate value of: £496.11).
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" Maintained monthly sponsors to the value of £213, by communicating regularly using the support of volunteers, as well as generated new income from fundraising events with Titans FA equating to £1157, the Hampton Court 10k raising over £200, grants from the Black Heart Foundation £5000 and running our 100 for 100 campaign which although did not meet the target amount, generated £1600. We also took advantage of the Charities Trust employee giving and Amazon Smile bringing in approximately £153.54.
THE SEAVER FOUNDATION Working Name: Children’s Voices in Action
FINANCIAL REVIEW AND RESERVES POLICY
The CIO was established on 19 May 2014, and has made satisfactory progress attracting funds in support of the furtherance of its objectives. During this phase, the charity’s policy is to ensure that its assets and reserves are safeguarded in a risk free manner. This includes a minimum of two checks on payments made out; quarterly reporting of finances; forecasting; programme budget reviews and the creation of policies to monitor fundraising and decisions made on use of funds. The expenses policy was reviewed this year.
In March of this year a safeguarding review of all bank accounts and transaction processes was conducted with HSBC. Regular financial checks by the Treasurer also detected charges on PayPal that were not attributable to the CIO and were therefore raised with PayPal and refunded to the value of £180.85 in December 2022.
The charity aims to earn a small return, without exposing the charity to financial risk. It is the charity’s policy to maintain a balance on unrestricted funds (if possible), which equates to at least three months unrestricted payments. This has been calculated as a minimum of £1922.10 (comprising of permanent staff salaries and essential governance costs) to be held in unrestricted funds. This was achieved in 8 of the 12 months of this financial year. The CIO is still feeling the effects of giving platforms BT Donate and Virgin closing, resulting in the loss of monthly donors, as well as the cost of living crises, reducing donations and increasing competition for grants and sponsorship. Positive progress was made receiving grants to the value of £5000, maintaining over £210 per month of monthly donors, achieving fundraising to the value of
Failing to meet financial reserves triggered the review of overseas grants to reduce monthly payments for projects that had significantly developed the poverty status of their children to be less needy, and the exploration of pilot projects that may lead to more sustainable income.
During the course of the year ended 31 January 2023, the Foundation made steady progress obtaining funding of £13234.59 (excluding maternity payments of £5531.10). This was sufficient to maintain the grants and services offered to beneficiaries in line with the charities objectives as well as introduce new projects.
TRUSTEES RESPONSIBILITIES
Charity law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial period which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the CIO as at the end of the financial period and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, for the financial period. In preparing those financial statements, the Trustees are required to:
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select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
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make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
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state whether applicable accounting standards have been followed subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
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prepare the financial statements on a going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the CIO will continue in business.
The Trustees are responsible for maintaining proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the CIO and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Commission. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the CIO and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Approved by the Trustees on 28[th ] November 2023 and signed on behalf of them
Mr D Marshall Chair of the Trustees
THE SEAVER FOUNDATION Working Name: Children’s Voices in Action
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR END 31st JANUARY 2023
| Input January 2023 close Statement of Financial Activities Unrestricted Restricted Total Funds Incoming resources from generating funds Voluntary Income £11,458.44 £0.00 £11,458.44 Activities for generating income £7,307.25 £0.00 £7,307.25 Total Incoming resources £18,765.69 0 £18,765.69 Resources Expended Cost of generating funds £5,917.08 0 £5,917.08 Charitable activities £10,539.04 0 £10,539.04 Governence costs £1,015.22 0 £1,015.22 Total Resources expended £17,471.34 £0.00 £17,471.34 Net Incoming Resources (before transfers) £1,294.35 0 £1,294.35 Transfers between funds £0.00 0 Net movement in funds £1,294.35 0 £1,294.35 Reconciliation of funds Funds brought forward £1,778.56 0 £1,778.56 Total funds carried forward £3,072.91 0 £3,072.91 |
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There have been no recognised gains or losses or movements in funds other than those included in the Statement of Financial activities above. All transactions in the current financial period are attributable to continuing activities.
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THE SEAVER FOUNDATION Working Name: Children’s Voices in Action
BALANCE SHEET AS OF 31ST JANUARY 2023
BALANCE SHEET
| BALANCE SHEET | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| As of Jan 31st 2023 | |||||
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Total Funds | Total Funds 2022 | ||
| Current Assets | |||||
| Debtors | £ 0 | £ 0 | £ 0 | 0.00 | |
| Cash | 1,778.56 | £ 0 | 1,778.56 | ||
| Total Current Assets | 1,778.56 | 0.00 | 1,778.56 | 11,198.87 | |
| Creditors within one year | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | |
| Net current assets | 1,778.56 | 0.00 | 1,778.56 | 11,198.87 | |
| Funds of the Charity | |||||
| Unrestricted (General | 1,778.56 | 0.00 | 1,778.56 | 11,198.87 | |
| Restricted | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | |
| Total Funds | 1,778.56 | 0.00 | 1,778.56 | 11,198.87 |
There were no endowment funds.
The Trustees confirm that they are responsible for:
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Ensuring that the CIO keeps accounting records which comply with the SORP 2005
And
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Preparing financial statements which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the CIO as at the end of the financial year and of its Statement of Financial Activities for that period in accordance with the requirements of the Charity Commission.
These financial statements were approved by the Trustees on 10[th] November 2023 and signed on its behalf.
Ensuring that the CIO keeps accounting records which comply with the SORP 2005 Mr D Marshall And Chair of the Trustees
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THE SEAVER FOUNDATION Working Name: Children’s Voices in Action
INCOME & EXPENDITURE INFOGRAPHIC REPORT Year Ending January 2023