LITTLE OWLS PRE-SCHOOL PLYMOUTH CIO
Unaudited Statement of Financial Activities
Year ended
31 August 2020
MCas Accounting & Tax Services Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
Contents:
| Page No. | |
|---|---|
| Highlights | 2 |
| Chair’s Foreword | 3 |
| The Board of Trustees | 4 |
| Charity Information | 5 |
| Trustee Report | 6 |
| Strategic Objectives for 2021 | 7 |
| Financial Governance & Financial Accounts | 8 - 15 |
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Highlights
The Board of Trustees of Little Owls Pre-School Plymouth (CIO) are pleased to present their annual report and accounts for the year ending 31st August 2020, and confirm they comply with the requirements of the Charity Commission.
Charitable Objects
To provide high quality childcare for children primarily under statutory school age and to work for the public benefit by having as its objects the development and education of children and young people by:
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Promoting their care and safety.
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Promoting their education and parental involvement.
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Promoting their health and wellbeing.
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Providing services to support them and their families and carers.
Little Owls
Little Owls has been established in the local community for over 30 years. The current setting provides childcare and education for approximately 45 children and employs 10 members of staff on both full-time and part-time contracts. The Trustees are delighted to announce that Little Owls now has a ten year lease for a ‘purpose built’ setting in Compton. The lease is accompanied by both a pre-emption agreement and an option to purchase the property, thus it is our belief, the charity’s future in the community is secure.
Financial Summary:
The financial year to 31 August 2020 produced total revenues of £133,546. The expenditure to deliver the revenues were £129,205 resulting in a small surplus of £4,341 despite a number of unplanned costs relating to the relocation as follows:
£6,902 New equipment and repairs
£2,100 Lease extension at PDA to allow for works at Higher Compton
£1,200 Advanced rent for Higher Compton £2,793 Legal support which comprised the lease, pre-emption and option agreement.
Thus ending with a bank balance of £69,810 on 31 August 2020.
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Chair's Foreword
I provide my report for the year ended 31 August 2020.
During a somewhat challenging year, we are able to report and celebrate a key achievement, having successfully moved to new purpose-built premises ready for the beginning of the academic year.
We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the patience of our parents/carers and children, the hard work of our operational team, the support of an amazing landlord (GMR Building Services Ltd), the professionalism of our legal advisors (Wolferstans) and the responsiveness of OFSTED. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I formally thank everyone for helping us to secure the future of Little Owls and for ensuring we were able to provide continuous care and education for our children and their families.
The setting is performing w ell; allowing investment in new educational resources befitting to the new setting, designed by the operational team with input from our parents/carers and children. The results for the year ended 31 August 2020, saw Little Owls with a bank balance of £69,810. As with 2019, child numbers remain high and many of our children moved with us to our new premises.
We offer flexibility to our parents/carers and believe this is one of our Unique Selling Points as word of mouth recommendation remains a key influencer in our child numbers.
The move to new premises has allowed us to consider working practices and our impact as an organization on the environment. I am pleased to announce we have reviewed and developed our policies to help encourage ‘green’ thinking when travelling to/from our setting and to ensure we have zero impact on the current parking shortage during peak times.
Links with local schools remain strong and the team works well to help ensure school transitions are a positive experience for our children.
Relationships with other educational institutions continued to develop although we were restricted in the number of placements, we were able to offer because of the pandemic. However, we did welcome two students from Discovery College and one from Achievement Training into our setting.
Unfortunately, we were unable to offer placements to our overseas colleagues but hope to do so in the future when circumstances allow.
We remained committed to re-locating the setting, thus our Strategic Objectives carried over from 2018/2019:
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To secure new premises and relocate the operation prior to the expiry of the current lease in May 2020, ready for the new academic year.
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To retain as many of our current children as possible and transfer them to our new location whilst offering continuous provision.
Skye Godfrey, MSc, BSc (Hons), MCIPS Chair, Little Owls Pre-School (Plymouth) CIO
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The Board of Trustees
Skye Godfrey, MSc, BSc (Hons}, MCIPS Chair
Skye Godfrey took over as Chair in January 2013 and has led most of the o r g a n i z a t i o n a l changes. Skye enjoys helping charities/not for profit businesses become more commercially aware, competitive and sustainable. She has been instrumental in identifying and implementing key opportunities to improve the care and education of the children. She passionately believes children should have the best start in life and that quality Early Years education plays a key role in this.
Mark Pickersgill, MBA, CEng,
FIMechE. Treasurer
Mark joined the Board in 2017. During his 30-year career in the UK a n d in t e r n a t i o n a l Rail industry, Mark held senior engineering, operations, commercial and customer management roles, including three Board positions for award winning companies within the privatised passenger and freight sectors. Mark ended his Rail career as the UK's senior director with the world's largest transportation company-Bombardier Transportation. He has a proven track record of improving the financial and operational performance of businesses, safely, which has been a common theme throughout his career, and which remains an area of particular interest and enjoyment for him today making him well-placed to act as Treasurer for Little Owls.
Caroline Hellings
Secretary
Caroline Hellings has been Little Owls' secretary for 11 years. Caroline has been instrumental in developing Little Owls into a sustainable business. It was Caroline who first identified the opportunity to develop the Mannamead setting. It was also Caroline's large network of local contacts that enabled us to establish the Mannamead setting at minimal cost with overwhelming support and donations from the local community.
Nick Hellings MBA Trustee
Nick Hellings joined the Board in 2017 to assist with governance. Nick is a local businessman and was the Chair of Governors at a local school so brings with him a huge amount of relevant experience.
Nick also has a wide range of local contacts which we aim to develop into key strategic relationships for Little Owls.
The Board members give their time and expertise freely and no remuneration or expenses are paid to the individuals as Trustees of the Charitable Incorporated Organisation.
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Charity Information
Charity Number: 1159402
Setting information:
Little Owls Pre-School (Plymouth) CIO Blake Lodge Seymour Road Mannamead Plymouth PL3 5AS
Ofsted Number: EY2596605 Bank: Natwest
Registered Charity Address:
Little Owls Pre-School (Plymouth) CIO 82-84 Higher Compton Road Higher Compton Plymouth PL3 5JD
Solicitors:
Wolferstans North Hill Plymouth
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Trustee Report
Trustee Responsibilities
The Board of Trustees is responsible for ensuring the Charity demonstrates financial probity, is compliant with relevant legislation and encourages good practice,
Policies
Little Owls regularly reviews its policies to ensure compliance with legislation and to reflect good practice. Little Owls has a suite of approximately 40 policies including key policies such as Safeguarding and Child Protection, Whistleblowing, Equal Opportunities, SEN Provision, Making a Complaint.
New employees, student placements and volunteers are required to read and accept the policies as part of their induction. New or revised policies are briefed at staff meetings and cascaded appropriately.
Parents/Carers are briefed about the policies during the Child Registration process.
Skye Godfrey has Board responsibility for Safeguarding.
Fees
Fees are set at Board level and consideration is given to operational costs, market sustainability, competition. Fees are reviewed as/when appropriate.
Curriculum
Little Owls is fully compliant with the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum.
Health and Safety
Little Owls has a member of staff dedicated to Health and Safety. The member of staff is responsible for carrying out fire drills, highlighting health and safety issues to the Board and for ensuring records are maintained.
The Little Owls Health and Safety and Fire Safety manuals and documentation were developed by external consultant, Health and Safety Matters.
Employees have received fire safety and fire warden training in accordance with their roles. Skye Godfrey has Board responsibility for Health and Safety.
Insurance
Our insurance is provided by Royal Sun Alliance via the Pre-School Learning Alliance. We hold £5m of Public Liability insurance and £10m Employers Liability insurance.
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Strategic Objectives for 2021
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To carry out financial modelling to see if the charity has sufficient funds to purchase a permanent site to operate from. If this is a financially viable option, it would save the charity money.
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To build on and retain talent within the current team, including consideration of other business structures.
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To continue to improve financial performance and governance.
The Trustees and their staff continuously putting new and reinforcing financial and administrative processes built around the financial management system to further strengthen and improve transparency and promote good governance.
The Board continues to use an independent Accountant/Bookkeeper.
A register containing all 'Declarations of Interests' has been developed and implemented as has a ‘Conflict of Interest Policy’ which apply to all Trustees.
To comply with the new Data Protection Legislation.
The team continues to update and adapt to ensure compliance with the new legislation.
To update the Business Plan 2021
The Trustees hope that the new budget is to be set and agreed by the end of September 2021, this would give a good base to update the business plan.
Skye Godfrey, MSc, BSc (Hons), MCIPS Chair, Little Owls Pre-School (Plymouth) CIO
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Financial Accounting, Procedures and Governance
Legislation requires the Board to prepare financial accounts for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Charity as at the end of the financial year. The Accounts are independently examined as part of this process.
In preparing the accounts, the Board is required to:
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select suitable accounting policies and apply these 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 departure disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
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prepare the financial accounts
The Board is responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Charity and to enable to ensure the accounts comply with the Charities Act 2011. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Approval of financial accounts
The financial accounts were presented at the deferred Annual General Meeting of the Charity held on 29[th] June 2021. The Board agreed to defer the Annual General Meeting due to the current pandemic Covid19 lockdown.
Corporate Governance
During the year the Board consisted of three First Charity Trustees
and one Trustee. Details of these Board members are given on
page 4 of this report.
The Board meets at least four times each year and more frequently as and when required.
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INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT
to the trustees of Little Owls Preschool Plymouth CIO
I report on the accounts of the Trust for the year ended 31August 2020 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 independent examination is needed. The Trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144{2) of the Charities Act 2011 {the 2011Act) and that an independent examination is needed.
It is my responsibility to:
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examine the accounts under section 145 of the 2011Act;
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to follow the procedures laid down in the General Directions given by the Charity Commissioners under section 145{5){b) of the 2011Act; and
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to state whether particular matters that have come to my attention.
My examination was carried out in accordance with the general Directions given by the Charity Commission. 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 no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a 'true and fair view' and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.
Independent examiner's statement
In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:
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which gives me reasonable cause to believe that, in any material respect, the requirements
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(a) to keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the 2011Act and (b) to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and to comply with the accounting requirements of the 2011Act have not been met; or
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to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Mylien Verboom ACCA MCas Accounting & Tax Services 63-66 Hatton Gardens, 5/F suite 23 London, EC1N 8LE
30th June 2021
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LITTLE OWLS PRESCHOOL PLYMOUTH CIO CHARITY NUMBER: 1159402
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2020
| INCOMING RESOURCES Note Grants & Donations Charitable Activities: Pre-school fees Other Income Investment Income 2 Total Incoming Resources RESOURCES EXPENDED Charitabel Activities: 3 Governance Costs Audit & Accountancy 5 Legal & Professional fees Total Resources Expended NET INCOMING RESOURCES Transfers between Funds Total Funds Brought Forward TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD |
Unrestricted Income Fund Restricted Income Fund Total Funds Year ended 31 August 2020 Total Funds Year ended 31 August 2019 £ £ £ £ 104,866 104,866 100,295 24,971 24,971 33,086 3,709 3,709 8 |
|---|---|
| 133,546 133,546 133,389 |
|
| 124,464 124,464 112,434 3,468 3,468 4,658 1,273 1,273 5,393 |
|
| 129,205 129,205 122,484 |
|
| 4,341 4,341 10,905 45,867 13,920 59,787 48,882 |
|
| 50,208 13,920 64,128 59,787 |
The notes that follow form part of the financial statements
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LITTLE OWLS PRESCHOOL PLYMOUTH CIO CHARITY NUMBER: 1159402
BALANCE SHEET
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2020
| BALANCE SHEET FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2020 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Note Current Assets Debtors 4 Cash and bank Current Liabilities Creditors Social security & other taxes Other creditors 5 Net Current Assets/(Liabilities) TOTAL ASSETS Represented by Restricted Funds 6 Unrestricted Funds 6 |
2020 £ £ (2,483) 69,810 67,327 607 546 2,046 3,199 64,128 64,128 13,920 50,208 64,128 |
2019 £ £ 1,132 67,105 68,237 5,139 1,236 2,075 8,451 59,787 59,787 13,920 45,867 59,787 |
||
| 67,327 607 546 2,046 |
68,237 5,139 1,236 2,075 |
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| 3,199 | 8,451 | |||
| 64,128 | 59,787 | |||
| 13,920 50,208 |
13,920 45,867 |
|||
| 64,128 | 59,787 |
Signed on behalf of the Trustees
Skye Godfrey, MSc, BSc (Hons), MCIPS Chair, Little Owls Pre-School (Plymouth) CIO
30[th] June 2021
The notes that follow form part of the financial statements
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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST
2020
1 STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTING
POLICIES Basis of accounting
The financial statements have been drawn up in accordance with the Charities Act 2011,
the Statement of Recommended Practice on Accounting and Reporting by Charities, of March 2005, accounting standards and the historic cost basis of accounting.
Incoming resources
All income is recognised once the charity has entitlement to the income, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount of income receivable can be measured reliably.
Donations and grants are recognised when the charity has been notified of both the amount and settlement date.
Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be reliably measured by the charity.
Resources expended
Liabilities are recognised as expenditure as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to that expenditure, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.
All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis.
Fund accounting
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the Charity.
Restricted funds are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by the donor.
2 INVESTMENT INCOME
All of the charity's investment income arises from money held in interest bearing deposits and other bank accounts.
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LITTLE OWLS PRESCHOOL PLYMOUTH CIO CHARITY NUMBER: 1159402
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2020
| 3 CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES Food & Drink Activity suppies Advertising & Marketing Bank Fees Cleaning Services General Expenses Insurance IT Software and Consumables Postage, Freight & Courier Rates Rent Repairs & Maintenance Salaries Staff Training Telephone & Internet Travel - National Light & Heat Uniform Staff Welfare 4 DEBTORS Credits issued due to Covid lockdown |
2,020 £ 713 356 607 4,791 2,585 896 493 897 395 12,200 6,902 86,259 760 501 (2) 5,990 118 124,464 2,020 £ (2,483) (2,483) |
2,019 £ 1,040 1,568 1,170 53 1,374 737 853 526 750 1,325 12,000 621 88,657 434 473 17 836 |
|---|---|---|
| 112,434 | ||
| 2,019 £ 2,628 |
||
| 2,628 |
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LITTLE OWLS PRESCHOOL PLYMOUTH CIO CHARITY NUMBER: 1159402
| STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2020 5 OTHER CREDITORS 2,020 £ Income received in advance Staff costs Pension costs 259 Accruals 1,015 Wages payable 772 2,046 6 FUNDS Unrestricted Fund Restricted Fund £ £ Current Assets 53,407 13,920 Current Liabilities (3,199) 50,208 13,920 |
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2020 5 OTHER CREDITORS 2,020 £ Income received in advance Staff costs Pension costs 259 Accruals 1,015 Wages payable 772 2,046 6 FUNDS Unrestricted Fund Restricted Fund £ £ Current Assets 53,407 13,920 Current Liabilities (3,199) 50,208 13,920 |
2,019 £ 669 391 1,015 |
|---|---|---|
| 2,075 | ||
| Total Fund £ 67,327 (3,199) |
||
| 50,208 13,920 |
64,128 |
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