OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2024-08-31-accounts

DUXFORD PRESCHOOL

REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31[ST] AUGUST 2024

Principal Address: c/o Duxford Primary School St John’s Street Duxford CB22 4RA

Independent Examiner: Rebecca Coles Newton Hall, Town Street, Newton, Cambridge, CB22 7ZE

A charitable incorporated organisation registered in England and Wales Registered Charity no: 1165461 OFSTED Unique Reference no: EY50063

Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Period start date Period start date Period end date Period end date
01 09 2023 31 08 2024
From To

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name Duxford Preschool

Other names charity is known by

Registered charity number (if any) 1165461

Charity's principal address Sunshine Room Duxford C of E Community Primary School St. Johns Street Duxford, Cambridge Postcode CB22 4RA

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

1
2
3
4
5
6
7		 Trustee name Office (if any) Dates acted if not for whole
year		 Name of person (or body)
entitled to appoint trustee
(ifany)
Stephen Burgess Chair 01.10.16 to present day
Natalie Hanlon Treasurer 07.03.19 to 12.09.2024
Catherine Dunn Trustee 21.01.22 to present day
Karla Marwood Trustee 04.07.23 to present day
Alice Thompson Trustee 04.07.23 to present day
Charlotte Tomlinson Trustee 04.07.23 to present day
Kayleigh Orrock Trustee 18.11.24 to present day

Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name Dates acted if not for whole year

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
Type of adviser Name
Address
Local Authority
Early Years
Advisor		 Sienna Carter Cambridge County Council

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Preschool Manager: Katie Draper

2

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document

Pre-School Learning Alliance Model CIO Constitution for Childcare Providers 2013, adopted on 12[th] January 2016

How the charity is constituted

[Trust ]

Trustee selection methods

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

Duxford Preschool is a registered charity that is run by a committee, primarily consisting of parents and carers of children in the setting. It is run as a Charitable Incorporated Organization (CIO). Our constitution requires a minimum of 3 Trustees, who have overall legal responsibility for the preschool.

The AGM often sees committee members stepping down; to ensure consistency for the Preschool, we have implemented a model which sees the majority of the financial and strategic management carried out by the Preschool Management team, with the Committee offering oversight and governance. The Committee therefore meets once a term (or more frequently as required) to discuss any issues, are in regular email contact and work collaboratively with the Preschool Management team. Trustees complete DBS checks in line with statutory requirements and induction and training take place as part of our regular meetings.

The Preschool management structure consists of one Manager, two Deputy Managers, and a Business Manager. The Preschool works regularly with many Cambridge County Council professionals, namely an Early Years Inclusion Advisor and the Local Inclusion Forum Team (consisting of Specialist Teachers, Health Visitors and Social Services representatives). We also attend Early Years Network and Briefing Sessions hosted by the Local Authority. We are additionally supported by an Early Years Improvement Advisor.

Our Preschool is on the site of the Duxford C of E Community Primary School and, although we are a separate body, we regularly meet with the Early Years team at the school to share ideas.

Trustees give their time for free and receive no financial benefit. We are a CIO to reduce the financial liability and risk to trustees. The Preschool policies and procedures are regularly reviewed and amended to reflect changes in best practice as well as statutory guidance. The environment is checked daily for H&S risk, and we use risk assessments in relation to trips, activities, and equipment.

3

Section C Objectives and activities

Summary of the objects of the
charity set out in its
governing document
Summary of the main
activities undertaken for the
public benefit in relation to
these objects (include within
this section the statutory
declaration that trustees have
had regard to the guidance
issued by the Charity
Commission on public
benefit)		 The charity works for the public benefit having as its objects the development
and education of children and young people in particular by:
(1) promoting their care and safety;
(2) promoting their education and promoting parental involvement;
(3) promoting their health and wellbeing;
(4) providing services to support them and their families and carers;
(5) providing services to individuals holding membership of the CIO; and
(6) furthering the aims of the Pre-school Learning Alliance.
In all of our work we (the trustees) have regard to the guidance issued by the
Charity Commission on public benefit.
Our main activity is to deliver, within our fully inclusive setting for 2 ¼ –5-year
olds, the Early Year Foundation Stage. In order to do this, we employ childcare
managers and practitioners who undertake joint daily planning of activities to
meet the needs and interests of the children attending our setting. We deploy a
key person approach to ensure that the progress and well-being of all individual
children is constantly monitored and feeds into future planning.
We ensure that our staff are well trained and hence able to successfully meet
the needs of the children in our care. We promote the importance of the learning
environment and endeavour to make this as stimulating as possible. We listen to
the views of children, parents and staff and use this feedback to inform our
improvement work. We accurately assess our children and provide this
information to Cambridge County Council as requested.
We develop positive relationships with parents and carers and invite them into
our setting as observers or helpers. We value all children as individuals and
celebrate Britain’s diversity of culture of ethnicity. We help the children in our
care to be happy and healthy.
We have policies and procedures in place for all aspects of safeguarding, child
protection and health and safety, and we use staff training days and meetings to
ensure all staff are fluent in these. We follow the recommendations offered by
our Cambridge County Council improvement advisor and the guidance available
from the Early Years Alliance (formally the Preschool Learning Alliance).

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

4

Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

Overview

During the 2023-2024 period, the Preschool continued to open for 38 weeks of the year, offering up-to 30 hours of early years education and care to children 2 ¼ to 5 years old. We have continued to offer 15/30 hours per week free of charge to eligible children as part of the central government's Early Years Funding program. In addition, we offer private places to those families who do not yet qualify for funding.

Following 3 years of living in temporary accommodation and a very busy summer setting up the new building, we opened our doors in September to the beginning of the first year in our new home. News of the ‘new’ Preschool seemingly spread far and wide with a significant increase in the number of applications for places to attend the setting. We started the year at 80% capacity (2023: 76%), which by the summer term had increased to 100% occupancy (2023: 97%). Of the 39 children on roll, 20 children left to move onto reception at the end of the Summer Term with 19 children remaining for the Autumn Term 2024.

With the new building, our wonderful staff continued to provide the children with first class support and early years education, offering a wide variety of opportunities to extend the children's learning through open—ended activities and encouraging them to become curious and independent learners. This effort was recognised by Ofsted in March 2024 when we were inspected for the first time in 6 years, who awarded us the prestigious ‘Outstanding’ rating. The team worked exceptionally hard to achieve this grading and it was wonderful to receive the recognition for this effort.

It would be easy to relax following this achievement, but the Preschool is determined to make an ongoing effort to improve both the level of care provided to the children and the business practices employed by the Preschool. The senior management team continually seek to further their knowledge through involvement in groups and forums and undertake additional CPL regularly. In addition to listening to staff and Committee members, the families are invited to give feedback using the annual questionnaire, the result of which are incorporated into practice.

With the news of our grading circulating in the community, together with the roll out of funding to children aged 9m and over, the Preschool has seen a steady number of applications for future places over the year. We have noticed that the funding roll-out has changed the dynamic of the applications we are receiving. Parents are applying from outside the local area in an attempt to secure a place due to the national shortage of spaces; children are joining at a younger age as they now are entitled to funding and in many cases are applying in advance of the child being born! As a result of this increased interest, we decided to refine our admissions criteria to ensure that priority is given to local families as well as those who are only entitled to ‘universal’ hours at the age of 3, to ensure we continue to meet our charitable aims.

Staffing

The senior management team for the entirety of the 2023-2024 academic year comprised the Manager, two Deputies and the Business Manager. There were also 4 staff members working as Preschool Practitioners, which brings the total number of staff to 8. Unfortunately, as the end of the year, the Business Manager moved out of the area and as a result resigned. However, it was agreed that she would continue to provide Bookkeeping support, (including the funding claims and invoicing) on a self-employed home-working basis until a new Administrator or Business Manager was recruited. We continue to strongly

5

Section D Achievements and performance

believe in the continuing professional development of our Staff and provided considerable opportunities for them to refresh their knowledge and qualifications in:

The management team also attend termly Leadership & Governance Briefings, and Early Years Foundation Forums provided by the Local Authority.

Fees

We made a small increase to our fee rate during the year (£7.25 for 2-year-olds and £6.75 for 3/4-year-olds) and also received a small increase in our rate of funding from the Local Authority for 3- and 4-year-olds (to £5.40 from £5.14), but there was a decrease in the 2-year rate (to £8.00 from £8.12). Unfortunately. Saw The Fair Funding and Consumables Supplement continued to be paid by 68% of families voluntarily, which was an increase from 44% in 2023.

Fundraising

As the reserves of the Preschool now exceed the reserves policy, the Preschool did not formally undertake any fundraising activities, with the exception of running a small teddy tombola at the village “DuxFest” event in July which raised £58 (£28.90 after expenses). Together with the annual commission from Preschool photographs (£71.26), the sale of unwanted Preschool equipment (£635), and cashback from the purchase of a new printer (£80), we raised a further £786.26 from non-operating activities.

Future

We currently have a reasonable number of children on the waiting list to join the Preschool in during the 24-25 academic year which is a great position to be in. However, our rate of growth could be limited if we’re unable to recruit staff as we continue to have very little interest from suitable candidates for Practitioner Roles that have been advertised and have instead had to recruit unqualified staff which has implications on our staffing ratios. This staffing difficulty reflects other settings’ experiences up and down the country, and recruitment is likely to be our biggest challenge during the coming academic year, especially following the roll out of the funding scheme to offer funded hours to the children of families where both parents are working from 9 months old. as anticipated last year, this has resulted in a surge of applications from families of children aged 2 years.

Increasing the number of children in this age bracket presents a number of challenges: children require far more support especially with intimate care and their PSED which in turn affects staff deployment. Additionally, the child:staff ratio is reduced to 4:1 which results in us being able to offer fewer places for the same number of staff. If we are unable to increase our staffing, then we will have difficulty in offering places to families on our waiting list and will be unable to support our local community with their childcare needs.

The funding rates set by central government continue to be at a level lower than the actual running costs of the setting. As more children are accessing funded hours, our income is naturally limited. When combined with the significant increases to the National Minimum Wage that have been made over the past few years, a careful eye must be kept on ensuring the Preschool remains sustainable.

6

Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the Given the increase in the operational costs of the Preschool, the Preschool’s charity’s policy on reserves Reserves Policy has been updated to keep reserves of approximately £45,000; a contingency sum which provides for 1 terms expenditure and redundancy obligations.

Accumulated funds now exceed the Early Years Alliance recommendation to hold 3 months’ running costs in reserve. The Preschool Trustees will now begin measures to re-invest this surplus back into the charity to further its aims (i.e. to benefit the children). However, any decisions made will be mindful of the changing landscape of the Early Years Sector and will ensure that regard is given to the long-term sustainability of the setting.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

None.

Further financial review details (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:

We ended the 2023-2024 year with an unrestricted surplus of income over expenditure of £60,077.51. The balance of reserves brought forward on 01/09/23 was £70,238.85 and the balance carried forward has therefore been increased to £130,316.36 as of 31/08/24.

Over the period, income totalled £191,803.80 (2023: £115,666.13), an increase of £76,137.67. It should be noted however, that during the year we received a payment of £48,922.01 from the Local Authority towards the garden refurbishment that had been undertaken in the prior financial year. Adjusting for this non-recurring income, there would have been a year-on year increase of £27,215.66 in income from operating activities.

The Charity’s principal source of income comes from the local authority for the provision of 15 or 30 hours of funded education for eligible children. This ‘early years funding’ income totalled £106,191.35 (2023: £84,117.21), representing 55.5% of our total income, or 74.3% of our adjusted income. Fees paid for additional sessions and for non—funded places totalled £24,383.00 (2023: £18,445.04) representing 12.7% of income or 17% of adjusted income. The Fair Funding and Consumable supplement raised a further £2,255.71 (2023: £3,351.75) which was an increase of £1,096.04 from the previous year. The remaining 11.33% of income was from a mixture of fundraising, donations, miscellaneous fees, income specifically related to supporting Ukrainian Refugees and a small payout from the removals firm for damage caused during the move.

Over the same period, expenditure totalled £131,726.29 (2023: £147,726.10). Whilst initially this suggests a decrease in operational expenditure, it should be noted that the prior year included one-off costs relating to the garden refurbishment. Excluding this from the prior year comparison would result in a prior year spend of £102,726.10, and therefore an increase in operational expenditure of £29,000.19. £19,869.93 is directly attributable to an increase in the wage and salary costs, £3,922.01 as the final balance of the garden refurbishments, with the remaining increase evenly distributed across the remaining operating expenses. Staffing costs as a percentage of overall expenditure remains consistent at 78.5% (2023: 81.27% of adjusted expenditure). Our next largest expenditure was rent, totalling £6,036.36 (2023: £8,070.00) with all additional running expenses of the preschool accounting for the remaining 8.3% (£22,330.91 2023: £11,167.01).

7

Section F Other optional information

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:

Signature(s)

Full name(s) Natalie Hanlon Position (e.g. Secretary, Chair, etc)[Treasurer for the period ]

Date 23[rd] May 2025

8

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report Report to the trustees Charity Name Duxford Preschool On accounts for the year 31st August 2024 Charity no 1199768 ended (if any) Set out on pages 1 to 8

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31st A ugust 2 024

Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed: Date: Name: Rebecca Coles Relevant professional ACCA qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: Newton Hall, Town Street, Newton, Cambridge, CB22 7ZE

Date: 09/06/2025

Oct 2018

1

IER

Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).

Give here brief details of n/a any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

10

DUXFORD PRESCHOOL REGISTERED CHARITY NO 1165461 RECIEPTS AND PAYMENTS FOR THE YEAR TO 31 AUGUST 2024

Notes
Unrestricted
£
Income
Early Years Funding
106,191
Invoiced Fees
24,383
Fair Funding & Consumables Fee
3,352
Registration & Late Fee
925
Ukraine Funding
6,550
Uniform Sales
127
Fundraising
844
Donations
48,922
Gift Aid
151
Special Events
-
Insurance Claim Pay-out
358		 Restricted
Total ‘24
£
£
-
106,191
-
24,383		 Total ‘23
£
84,117
18,445
-
3,352		 2,256
-
925		 280
-
6,550		 5,950
-
127		 303
-
844		 658
-
48,922		 3,518
-
151		 -
-
-		 140
-
358		 -
Total Income
191,803		 -
191,803		 115,666
Less Operating Expenses
Wages Pensions PAYE
103,359
Rent
3
6,036
Telephone & Internet
422
Website & Email
169
Toys & Resources
606
Furniture & Equipment
4.105
Art & Craft Consumable
327
Snacks
780
Stationery & Postage
209
Health & Hygiene Equipment
791
Repairs & Maintenance
630
End of Term Gifts
1,108
Special Events
25
Marketing & Advertising
537
Insurance
1099
Professional Fees
419
DBS Checks
102
Subscriptions
365
Uniform & Clothing
73
Payroll & Accountancy Services
444
Staff Training
689
Fundraising Expenses
30
Ukraine Funding Spend
5,476
Fire Refurbishment Expenses
3,922		 -
103,359
-
6,036
-
422
-
169
-
606
-
4.105
-
327
-
780
-
209
-
791
-
630
-
1,108
-
25
-
537
-
1099
-
419
-
102
-
365
-
73
-
444
-
689
-
30
-
5,476
-
3,922
-
131,726
60,078
-
70,239
-
130,316
83,489
8,070
371
250
1,038
2,297
416
643
458
373
146
448
1,259
-
1,047
350
254
225
562
428
474
127
-
45,000
Total Operating Expenses
131,726		 147,726
Surplus/Deficit
60,078		 -32,060
Cash balances b/f
70,239		 102,299
Balances c/f
130,316		 70,239

11

DUXFORD PRESCHOOL REGISTERED CHARITY NO 1165461 STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES AS AT 31 AUGUST 2024

Notes
RESERVES
Balance b/f
Excess income over expenditure
Total reserves
CASH FUNDS
Current Banking Account
Savings Account
Total cash funds
LIABILITIES
Provision for Rent & Utilities
3
Independent Examination
Early Years Funding for 2024-2025
4
PAYE & NI
5
Total liabilities
FUNDS OF THE CHARITY
Restricted funds
Unrestricted funds
Total charity funds		 2024
£
70,239
60,078
130,316
130,316
-
130,316
7,000
180
22,972
90
30,343
-
130,316
130.316		 2023
£
102,299
(32,060)
70,239
70,239
-
70,239
0
180
16,540
16,540
16,720
-
70,239
70,239

Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31[st] August 2024.

1 ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of Accounting

The financial statements have been prepared on the receipts and payments basis.

Income

All income is included at the time of receipt.

Expenses

All expenditure is accounted for at the time of payment.

2 EQUIPMENT

All equipment purchased by the charity is included under these headings as an expense. No items have been capitalised.

3 PROVISION FOR RENT & UTILITIES

Following the move into the new building in September 2023, there has yet to be an agreement reached with respect of the new rent and utilities costs. The Trustees have therefore made a provision of £7,000 for this as a reasonable estimate of the new charges that may be charged in the 2024-2025 year, for 2023-2024.

4 EARLY YEARS FUNDING

£22,972.41 of Early Years Funding relating to Autumn Term 2024 was received on 28th August 2024.

5 PAYE & NI

£90.35 relating to PAYE and NI costs for August 2023 were paid in September 2024.

12