Charity Registration Number: **1167178** ## S 1 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** ## TABLE OF CONTENTS |**_______________**|| |---|---| |**Introduction**|3| |**Objectives & Activities**|4| |**Achievements & Performance**|6| |**2023 Review & Looking Forward**|
8| |**Structure & Governance**|9| |**Financial Review**|11| 2 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** ## INTRODUCTION ## **Neil Hunt, Chair of the Trustee Board** ## **_______________** **The Kids Network was founded in 2016 with a clear purpose: to help children live the lives they deserve. We exist because children’s mental health is at crisis point due to inequality, minoritisation and isolation.** We provide tailored, early intervention for London’s children aged 8-11-years who are finding life very difficult. Poverty, family stress, racism and other discrimination pose real risks to children's ability to learn, make friends, feel safe and make the transition to secondary school. They lack the support they urgently need both in school or at home. Other services are often unavailable. We reach these children before they reach crisis through partnerships with primary schools in areas of high-disadvantage. We achieve this by tapping into the time, needs and skills of adults from the child’s local community and mobilising, training and extensively supporting them to be committed high-quality volunteer mentors for one year. Since 2016 we have shown that our uniquely child-led, community-based model has an enormous impact on the lives of the children we work with. We have been able to respond to a continuing and increasing demand for our work and in 2023 reached 300 children with our programme. 2023 marked a significant point in our journey. Our founder, Sarah Woodcock, decided that the time was right for her to step down from the charity. Sarah’s vision and tenacity created a wonderful charity, and she developed a programme that has changed the lives of hundreds of children and will change the lives of thousands more in the future. We are so grateful for all that she imagined could be and are determined to build on her work and take The Kids Network into a strong and remarkable future. I was delighted to be appointed Chair of Trustees in January 2024 and to welcome our new Chief Executive, Louise Johns-Shepherd in February 2024. We inherit an organisation that is working through and within very difficult external circumstances. Children in the UK are facing a myriad of challenges that threaten to undermine the potential and happiness of the next generation and we are operating in a time of financial crisis, that will impact London’s children who experience poverty the most. Our work has never been more important, and Louise and I are looking forward to creating a longterm strategy for The Kids Network which is ambitious in its vision to ensure that our programme reaches every primary school child who needs it. We are pleased to present our 2023 report and look forward to sharing our future strategy in the next few months. 3 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** ## OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES ## **Charity purposes as set out in our governing document:** ‘To help children and young people to advance through life providing mentoring support and activities which develop their skills, capacities and capabilities to enable them to participate in society as mature and responsible individuals. The secondary objective, running parallel to the first will create a volunteer hub, encouraging peer to peer support, maximum engagement and community activity.’ Our trustees are aware of the commission’s public benefit guidance and take it into account when making a decision, to which the guidance is relevant. The Kids Network supports children aged 8-11 at a crucial time in their lives - in the lead up to and often during the transition from primary into secondary school. Our programme provides children who have adverse childhood experiences (ACE) with a volunteer mentor, who collaborate in delivering weekly child-led, trauma informed sessions. Through our programme, children build confidence and resilience and developing the tools to manage feelings for a positive future. Our unique mentoring model is built around: - **Children and families** in London who have been affected by systems of oppression, living in cyclical poverty and inequality. They may distrust the other formal sources of support due to bad experiences in the past. ## **Our activities, projects and** ## **services** **We believe that every child should get to live the life that they deserve.** **Our mission is to create meaningful connections in our communities, supporting children through mentoring to feel happy and confident about themselves and their futures.** - **Schools and communities** who often are over burdened with the overwhelming needs of their communities, and under resourced to provided one to one holistic support vital to children’s development. - **Adults** in a disconnected London who may be lacking purpose and meaningful connection in their lives but with the time and motivation to 4 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** give back and become a volunteer mentor. Our aim is to support children early, before crisis point, working with those who could most benefit from a trusted adult in their lives. We do this in partnership with over 50 partner primary schools, local councils, social workers, Family Early Help Teams and local charities. The Kids Network programme has now been established across the following seven London boroughs experiencing high need: Hammersmith and Fulham, Brent, Camden, Islington, Hackney, Southwark and Lambeth, Westminster where we deliver our activities and services. In 2024 we will add one new borough, Tower Hamlets. support their mentee exactly where they are at. ## **3. Create connections** Through new mentoring relationships between people whose paths would not normally cross, we are building more inclusive, equal and just communities for children to flourish. Having strong community connections allows us to understand the context for children better and create sustainable support in the long term. ## **Our programme objectives:** ## **1. Increase wellbeing** Through harnessing existing strengths within communities, we provide support for children before they reach crisis point. For many reasons, the children we support are often struggling socially, emotionally and academically. Our childled, trauma informed mentoring model provides the protective factors and fun required for a happy childhood and bright future. ## **2. Develop tools for the future** We provide individualised support to empower children to develop tools to tackle present and future challenges. Our volunteer mentors are equipped with best in class training, a bank of resources, a peer community and ongoing support from our team so that they are able to 5 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** ## ACHIEVEMENTS & PERFORMANCE ## **_____________** ## **2023 Highlights** ## **The children we worked with in 2023** - **65%** were eligible for free school meals, meaning they are growing up in London in households where the total income is less than £7,400. (Nationwide, 24% of children are eligible for FSM). - **60%** of children had at least one Adverse Childhood Experiences, an increase of 6% from last year - **27%** had special educational needs and or a disability. - **93%** of our children faced at least one barrier either at home, at school or a social and emotional barrier - **70%** of the children we worked with were from the global majority Despite facing complex challenges that had significantly impacted their social and emotional wellbeing, **52%** of the children we worked with had no other services involved in their lives. The high-level of need was reflected in the increase in number and severity of safeguarding concerns amongst the children we worked with. In 2023 we logged and managed 1000 safeguarding cases, with 21 of those cases being a serious concern. ## **Our volunteer mentors in 2023** 307 mentored a child through our programme 32% of our mentors were male 22% aged 18-24, 44% aged 25-34, 17% aged 35-44, 10% aged 45-54, 7% aged 55 48% were from the global majority 89% would recommend being a mentor with The Kids Network ## **The schools we worked with in 2023** 56 referral partners across London Located in: (Camden, Islington, Brent, H&F, Hackney, Southwark, Lambeth, Westminster) 75% of schools who have worked with us for 2+ years ## **Our Impact in 2023** - Reaching 307 children from 56 referral partners living in extremely challenging circumstances 6 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** - Providing almost 9,000 hours of delivery including mentoring sessions, mentor training, workshops, mentor meet ups, and mentor reviews - Our mentors and mentees holding 4,996 sessions, over the course of the year, with cohorts starting at various points - Working in partnership with the NSPCC to continue to strengthen and prioritise safeguarding for children - Facilitating our second child panel, naming themselves ‘The Changers‘, and supporting them to feed into our future strategy - 100% of the children reported an increase in wellbeing - 100% of the children we worked with reported that they enjoyed the time they spent with their mentor - Continued to work in a consortium to deliver capacity building support to grassroots organisations in Hammersmith & Fulham in ‘mentoring best practice’ - Securing multi-year funding from reputable and diverse grant makers - Launching in two new boroughs, Islington and Westminster - Receiving London Youth’s Bronze accreditation, highlighting the quality of our processes and policies for all stakeholders at the charity - Accredited by Open Awards which enables our volunteer mentors to receive a ‘Badge of Excellence’ certificate in Child Led Mentoring. The Kids Network is proud to have produced our 2023 impact report which sits alongside our 2023 Annual Report. You can view this on our website. ## _**“it was fun and i have calmed down so much more and lots of people have told me your mentor has helped you lots and also i think the same” – Mentee after finishing the programme**_ 7 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** ## 2023 REVIEW AND LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE 2023 was a challenging year for many charities including The Kids Network. In 2023, after years of continued growth, we set ourselves the ambitious target of raising £1.2m, reaching 600 new children, and increasing our team to 20 people. We did raise a charity record of £800K but were unable to meet our ambitious target and our increase in headcount resulted in us facing significant cashflow issues in Q4 of 2023. As a result we had to make the difficult decision to reduce the size of the organisation by offering voluntary redundancies to five staff and not recruiting to two vacant posts. We also made significant changes to reduce our costs and improve our efficiency. Having identified economies of scale, we have restructured to a more pan-borough operating model, with Programme Managers being less siloed and covering wider areas, while Team Leaders oversee safeguarding and strategic partnerships. With growing demand for extra pupil support amidst school funding cuts, we have appointed a dedicated Schools Partnership Manager to support our partnerships and secure school contributions to bolster our income. We have also adapted our mentor training, delivering it all in-house and training larger cohorts at one time, considerably reducing our costs without reducing quality. We have streamlined our recruitment processes, and are achieving a faster time between volunteer application and actively mentoring, meaning we retain more volunteers and can match more children. Our founder decided that the time was right for her to hand TKN over to a new Chief Executive which means that 2023 was a key point of transition for our charity. As part of the Founder’s succession a new Managing Director role was created in September 2023 to provide operational stability for the organisation. Our new Chief Executive took up post in February 2024 and we also appointed a new Chair of Trustees in January 2024. Our new leadership brings considerable experience from the charity and education sectors and our staff have worked to ensure that we are continuing to deliver our high-quality programme and meeting the needs of children in London. With these efforts, we are now in a much stronger financial position, and we are confident of securing our 2024 financial targets. We have already secured significant funding for 2025. We are in the process of expanding our board. We appointed a new trustee in January and aim to recruit three more this year. In the autumn of 2024 we will set out an ambitious new five year strategy which will take The Kids Network from start up to maturity. We are conducting strategic reviews of our fundraising and marketing functions and are continuing to improve and develop our successful child-led programme. 8 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** ## STRUCTURE AND GOVERNANCE **_______________** ## **The Kids Network CIO, registered charity number 1167178** Principal operating address: Hoxton Mix Ltd, 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE Trustees who governed in 2023 are as follows: **Simon Lucey** , Chair (until Sep 23), **Luke Hollander,** Treasurer **Charlotte Foster** , Deputy Chair (term ended Dec 23) **Lucy Halton,** Safeguarding Trustee (from Feb 23) **Naa Acquah,** Interim Chair (Oct-Dec 23) **Janet Ayoola,** Safeguarding Trustee (Resigned March 23) **Andin Fonyonga** (resigned May 23) **Kary van Der Horst Sam Stamp** (term ended Dec 23) ## **Changes going into 2024** At the beginning of 2024 and as some of our long-standing trustees came to the end of their terms, we appointed a new Chair of the Board and an additional new trustee. The Board of Trustees at the time of publication of this Annual Report is: **Neil Hunt** , Chair (Jan 2024) **Naa Acquah,** Deputy Chair (March 2024) **Luke Hollander,** Treasurer **Lucy Halton,** Safeguarding Trustee **Simon Lucey** , Trustee **Kary van Der Horst,** Trustee **Ravi Sharma** , Deputy Safeguarding Trustee (Feb 2024) Over the reporting period, we said goodbye to Andin Fonyonga, and Janet Ayoola. In Q1 2024 we said goodbye to Charlotte Foster who served her full term at the charity and Sam Stamp. All of these trustees made an incredible contribution to The Kids Network and we are grateful for their support and leadership. ## **Governance structure** The Trustees met every six to eight weeks to determine policy, review performance, oversee financial management, and receive the CEO's reports on the work of the Charity. The charity also has a Financial Committee to review finances and funding, and People and Safeguarding Committee to 9 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** provide support and oversight in the management of resources, both committees met every 6-8 weeks. A skills matrix, trustee reviews, and a governance review is carried out annually by the board to maintain excellence, diversity and governance throughout the board and charity. ## **Risk Management** Throughout 2023 Trustees conducted regular review of the risks to which the Charity may be exposed to, and updated the Risk Register every 6-8 weeks, using the template recommended by the NCVO. This assessment identifies the risk across key categories of Governance, Growth, Financial, Operational, safeguarding and people. The likelihood and impact of each risk is rated on a five-point scale. Risk scores are calculated with the formula likelihood score multiplied by impact score. Risks are then classified as low (1—8), medium (9 —16) and high (17 —25), with sets of actions identified to reduce medium and high risks. Risk management is a standing agenda item for all Trustee meetings to ensure they remain alert to potential challenges for the organisation. 10 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** ## FINANCIAL REVIEW ## **____________** ## **Charity position** The year has seen a healthy financial performance. During 2023, income increased to £779,240 (2022: £641,590). This reflects The Kids Network’s success in securing much needed income for our important work. The Trustees consider that it is appropriate to prepare the financial statements on a Going Concern basis. We were able to reduce core costs and staffing headcount during the last quarter of 2023 and combined this with efficiency savings on our operating model. The effect of these actions ensured that the charity began the 2024 financial year with appropriate liabilities for the income already secured. There is a business plan in place to ensure that the charity can continue to deliver its activities at a similar level to 2023 and will continue to do so going forward. The charity began 2024 with 41% of income for the year already secured and had raised 75% of the total year income target by the end of Q1. The Kids Network has already secured £281,000 of grant income for 2025 and £50,000 for 2026. The trustees therefore consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charity's ability to continue as a Going Concern. ## **Reserves Policy** Reserves are set bi-annually, according to our budgeted income and against our obligations for continuous funding of all costs associated with the ongoing operations of TKN. Reserves are intended to retain sufficient funds to support the core activities of the organisation if a significant drop in funding were to materialise, as well as ensure an orderly closure of the charity in the event of unplanned insolvency. We have paid due regard to safeguarding and our calculations include notice periods to ensure our safeguarding systems would be able to be wound up effectively. TKN's target reserves is a minimum of three months operating costs. This is currently estimated to be a minimum of £150,000 based on the 2023 budget. We take into consideration that TKN may on occasion fall below target due to fluctuating income cycles throughout the year, timing differences to expected grant bids, as well as other temporary factors that may not need further action. At the end of 2023 our current reserves were below our stated policy, we took appropriate action to improve TKN’s position by reducing costs, restructuring the organisation and increasing the 2024 secured income, particularly in the first financial quarter of the year. 11 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** Reserves are held openly and presented in a transparent way. Reserve levels are evaluated at least quarterly by the Funding and Finance Committee and reported on to the Trustees at least bi-annually each year. The committee is obligated to raise any issues in relation to excessive or depleted reserves directly with the Trustees. The policy will be reviewed at least once each year when budgets and activity for the year is planned. Neil Hunt, Chair 5[th] June 2024 12 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** ## THE KIDS NETWORK CIO ## **Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of The Kids Network CIO** I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of The Kids Network CIO for the year ended 31 December 2023. ## **Responsibilities and basis of report** As the charity trustees of the CIO you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’). I report in respect of my examination of the Charity’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 examiner’s statement** Since the Trust’s gross income exceeded £250,000 I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of the ICAEW, which is one of the listed bodies. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect: 1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act; or 2. the accounts do not accord with those records; or 3. the accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. 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. 5[th] June 2024 Anthony Epton BA FCA CTA FCIE Goldwins Chartered accountants 75 Maygrove Road West Hampstead London NW6 2EG 13 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** ## **Statement of financial activities (Incorporating an income and expenditure account)** ## **For the year ended 31 December 2023** 14 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** ## **Balance sheet** ## **As at 31 December 2023** Approved by the board of trustees on 5[th] June 2024 and signed on their behalf by Neil Hunt, Chair The attached notes form part of these accounts 15 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** ## **Statement of Cash Flow** ## **January - December 2023** 16 Charity Registration Number: **1167178** ## **Notes to the financial statements** ## **For the year ended 31 December 2023** 17 Charlty Reglstration Number.- 1167178 the kids netvnrk pollcfjm le•nllnu•dl Cashat b*thand kn hand Cash at bank and tash Mi hand rey*sentst4sh held in tr*thariWs knk attotht c￿11￿$ prtrdisl￿S are re(OEnised the tharity has a prewt otltvtk* re$￿ti￿ fvom a w e¥ent thai ￿11 regJlt ￿ ihe tratsslet of futtds to a thiid party and the •mo￿t to settle oWiÈatith tah be ff*agJitd •rettNnated rdiaNy. 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Core ALtwit￿9 L411n￿on G£rera. CO￿ Artwftie5 TO￿￿[ Hanlds 154 io.o)o 5,(X)O 99,737 35,084 21,ts)0 41,463 45,084 110,1531 I5,0￿} 3.5611 135,0841 137,4191 146,4501 27,127 53303 16,419 4,093 IiA86 12,671 16300 15,(X)O 19,6171 15,(XX) re5trirtedfutv 65,451 288,667 12635531 90565 Unrestrktedlund&' C¥ignata funds.. [￿loPMent Fund Tot¥ doignatedfunds 150LWI 50,LKKI 01 Gen￿al Core I16.￿2 490.573 7.683 50,(KKJ 49A92 Trta uwtiirted fthls 166,M2 490573 IM7,6831 49A92 Trta 232.053 779,240 1871,2361 140,058 21 Charlty Reglstration Number.- 1167178 the kids netvnrk 12 Movetnent in funds (Continued) Mo*mem infunds I￿orYear1 At31 [lecern￿￿ At lJaryJary 2022 IrKune Experyltwe Tr•$fers 2022 trictd fund5'. Founder Cr￿e[lon 11.865 39n 8,WO 36￿[￿} 50292 225 26586 40￿l¥) 38,0 IS￿ 154 Carnden H*kney Proiert Southwark Proj Hanmer5mtth & Fulham Projert ent Pro1￿t beth I36,0￿) 132A321 185A341 150,1671 143.9571 I28￿(￿)> 12?291 9,668 62,934 40,(K)O 13.037 27,128 16A19 9￿80 12fi71 Torl re5trfcta4 fund5 137.504 275 378 1347,4301 65A52 Unre5trictd futbd5'. t*si8nat* funds.. Hxkney Project [knelopm￿t Fund Total des18nated funds So,￿0 50.(W)O 50J) 50.0 G￿e[al fund5 62,673 366212 I312,2￿) 116,602 Tota unrestdctèd fund4 112.673 356212 166,602 Tota futvjs 250.177 S41￿90 1659.713 232D54 13 Rdated PartyTransactu)n5 Th￿e£re no donation5 frorn re13td p*ie5 which areoutsidethe norma cour5eof bu5ine55 no re5trided don£tionsfrorn rdated ￿rtIeS 22 the kids netV••rk