## **Little Village Annual Report and Accounts** 2020
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**Little Village Annual Report and Accounts, 2020**
**Contents**
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**Welcome**
**About Little Village**
**Achievements of the year**
**Our impact**
**Financial review**
**Structure, governance and 34 management**
**Our plans for the future**
**Thank you**
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**Statement of Trustees’ 44 responsibilities**
**Financial statements**
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**Reference and administrative 73 information**
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**Little Village Annual Report and Accounts, 2020**
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**Welcome**
**Welcome**
## **A word from our Founder**
As I write this, it is almost two months since I stood down from the CEO role at Little Village. Even with a bit of distance, I could not be more proud of our work in 2020. This report shows what a difference we made to thousands of families across London. The Little Village community – our staff, volunteers, donors, and financial supporters – together have shown what love in action looks like; it has been an enormous privilege to lead that journey for five years.
It’s fair to say that 2020 was not the year we expected or planned for. You’ll read here how we had to completely redesign the support we offered to families. I want
to acknowledge the extraordinarily “I’m so excited challenging to watch Little circumstances in which Village continue we were working. Yes, to grow under the logistics were Sophie’s brilliant tough, but really what leadership.” I’m referring to here is the disproportionate
and unfair way in which the pandemic landed on the families we were supporting. These are families who were already living on the edge. The emotional, economic and social toll on them has been profound and we saw that at first hand.
As 2021 unfolds, we need to see a lot more action to protect and build up families with babies and young children. We may be emerging from the worst of the public health crisis, but with unemployment only
due to peak in the autumn, the economic crisis is continuing to diminish the lives of many families in poverty. Of course, Little Village will carry on doing everything we can to support families through providing everything parents need – from cots to socks – for the babies and toddlers. But this work alone will not solve poverty.
I’m so excited to watch Little Village continue to grow under Sophie’s brilliant leadership. She brings so much to the table, but most importantly, she shares our fundamental belief that every child deserves the best possible start in life. There’s no room for compromise here, and you’ll see from our plans for 2021 and beyond that we will be redoubling our work to act as a force for change, as well as continuing to support families across London.
Sophia Parker
## **Welcome from our CEO**
2020 has demonstrated the incredible power of the movement that has grown up around Little Village, through the way that the whole organisation pivoted during the pandemic to a ‘Virtual Village’ delivery model, while supporting more families than ever before.
We are incredibly grateful to all the volunteers, donors and supporters who have been part of reaching a record number of families this year.
We know we’re just a sticking plaster if we only focus on practical help without also looking at the reasons that have led people to us. We believe that child poverty can and must be eradicated.
During 2020, Little Village has also enabled families we’ve supported to make that case powerfully in the media, drawing attention to the fact that Covid-19 has made an already difficult situation much, much worse for so many families with young children.
As we move out of lockdown restrictions, we know that these families will still be facing significant struggles and our work to meet those needs will continue during 2021 and beyond.
I am so honoured to have been given the opportunity to step into Sophia’s (very big) shoes to lead this vital work and I’m really looking forward to working alongside many more supporters, volunteers and donors to grow our Village and deepen our impact.
Sophie Livingstone MBE
**The Trustees present their Annual Report and the audited financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2020. Included within the Trustees’ report is the directors’ report as required by company law.**
**Reference and administrative information set out on page 74 forms part of this report. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, the memorandum and articles of association and the Statement of Recommended Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities: SORP applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS 102 (‘Charities SORP’).**
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**Little Village Annual Report and Accounts, 2020**
**Little Village Annual Report and Accounts, 2020**
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## **About Little Village**
## **Who we are**
## **Our vision**
Our dream is that every child in the capital has the essential things they need to thrive, and that everyone can play a part in achieving that goal.
## **Our mission**
Our mission is to make it as easy as possible for families to help each other to thrive.
## **What we do**
Little Village is like a food bank, but for clothes, toys and equipment for babies and children up to the age of five. We accept donations of excellent condition, pre-loved items, which are passed on to families who need support. The items are a gift, given with love, from one family to another.
We operate out of three main centres in London (in the boroughs of Wandsworth, Camden and Southwark) and are powered by an incredible group of around 500 committed volunteers. We’ve grown to be one of the largest ‘baby banks’ in the UK, supporting over 11,000 children since we launched in 2016 – including 7,281 children in 2020 alone.
The families who come to Little Village are referred to us by a network of 1,825 professionals from more than 500 organisations, such as midwives, social workers, and children’s centres. When families come into one of our centres, they are welcomed with love and kindness and treated with dignity. Volunteers help them choose the items they need from our
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**Little Village Annual Report and Accounts, 2020**
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**About Little Village**
## **About Little Village**
extensive stock of high-quality donated clothes, toys, buggies, beds and more. Families are able to return every three months, as their needs evolve, and are encouraged to donate back to Little Village any items that they have finished using.
Although we call ourselves a ‘baby bank’, we provide so much more than just highquality kit to families – at the core of what we do is a desire to build connections across communities, and to create opportunities for people to thrive.
We’ve always argued that our work should not only serve to support families who are struggling, but should also act as a force for change when it comes to the existence of child poverty. We’re committed to playing our part in ending child poverty and we believe that every child deserves the best possible start in life.
## **The need we respond to**
Little Village recently commissioned research, supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, into the rates, persistence and depth of poverty in families with young children. The analysis revealed that of the 4.2 million children living in poverty in the UK, 1.3 million are under the age of five. This means that 34% of children living in families with at least one child under five now live in poverty – and this rate is even higher in London, where it stands at 43%. Our analysis found that some households with young children are at much higher risk of poverty – with poverty rates of over 50% for children in lone parent families, black and minority
ethnic families and those with parents aged under 25.
Our research also found that London has the deepest poverty rate of anywhere in the UK. The average family income for children in poverty is 66% of the poverty line - this equates to an average weekly income after housing costs of £248 for a couple with two children under five or £173 for a single parent with two children under five.
These levels of poverty translate into parents not being able to afford essentials such as nappies and wipes for their babies. We surveyed over 50 baby banks in 2020 and found that 8 in 10 said that the Covid crisis was leaving families without the basics, with a similar number worrying that children in poverty will go hungry. We know that the early years are critical to a child’s wellbeing and development. Living in this kind of poverty has long-term implications – 88% of our referral partners that we surveyed worry that children in poverty will fall behind in developmental and educational terms.
Yet a feature of London is that alongside deep levels of poverty, there is also vast wealth, with rich and poor families living cheek by jowl. And many people want to find ways of supporting other local families whilst also ensuring that all the baby/toddler items that they have accumulated do not end up in landfill. Little Village was created to respond to this fundamental need.
What started as a ‘baby bank’, collecting and gifting high quality kit to local families experiencing tough times, has become
so much more. People come to us with material needs, but through the Little Village community we’re able to meet an additional set of universal needs: the need for connection, for confidence and for a sense of belonging. Little Village helps alleviate material poverty, but it also builds community and gives people opportunities to thrive. We believe that everyone has times in life when they need help, and times in life when they’re able to offer help. That’s what Little Village is there for.
## **Our Strategic Objectives for 2020-24**
## **Helping more children**
We want to help more children living in poverty by opening more centres (either major hubs or smaller satellites) so that we can serve families right across London.
## **Offering families broader support**
We want to ensure that Little Village offers families more than just ‘kit’ by also providing emotional support and if necessary, referrals to other organisations.
## **Building our volunteer programme**
Volunteers are at the heart of Little Village and our volunteer programme offers people from all backgrounds opportunities to grow and thrive. We have an explicit focus on developing skills and helping people back to the labour market when this is what they want.
## **Being a force for change**
We believe that every child deserves the best possible start in life. Our focus is on
changing unhelpful and damaging attitudes and beliefs towards child poverty as well as campaigning for policy change.
## **Building a resilient organisation**
It is critical that our strategic objectives are supported by a strong and resilient organisation, with sustainable funding, a forward-thinking approach to people management and development and robust financial and operational systems.
## **Our values**
## **Solidarity**
We bring people together across economic and social divides, united in a shared belief that every parent deserves to give their kids the best possible start in life.
## **Love**
Everything we pass on to families is a gift, not a handout. We see love as an action – an act of donating precious baby kit, of volunteering valuable time and of offering solidarity during tough times.
## **Sustainability**
We achieve our mission whilst treading lightly on the planet, joining forces with other parts of the circular economy to reduce waste and promote re-use.
## **Thriving**
This means having a sense of agency, belonging, and hope. And these are the qualities we focus on in how we work as well as what we do.
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**Little Village Annual Report and Accounts, 2020**
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**Achievements of the year**
## **Helping more children**
In a time of increased need, we were proud to be able to help more families than ever before by changing the way we worked. We were unable to work from our Southwark site for much of the year due to social distancing constraints, and in our remaining sites had to work with a much-reduced volunteer team. Our move to a delivery model meant we had to put limits on which boroughs we could support families from; something we had never done before. We were only able to deliver to inner London boroughs and those boroughs bordering our sites. Despite all of these constraints, we answered 3,614 requests for support with kit and clothing (compared to 3,236 in 2019).
In order to still provide support to families in outer London, and help those in inner London who were struggling to access core essentials, we launched a new offer of “Hygiene Essentials”. A box of one month’s supply of hygiene and household products plus nappies, enough for every member of the family, was delivered directly to the family’s door. This enabled us to answer a further 2,151 requests for support.
## **Achievements of the year**
Between these two strands of activity, we responded to 5,765 requests for support, an increase of 78% on 2019. We sent out 7,281 packs to children – of either Hygiene Essentials (toiletries and nappies), or full deliveries of clothing and kit as well as toiletries and nappies.
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**Achievements of the year**
**Achievements of the year**
We had planned to open our first ever satellite site in Roehampton during 2020, co-locating with a children’s centre, but the Covid-19 pandemic forced us to postpone this. This will now open in early 2021.
– this can mean just a cup of tea and a chat or directing families towards other agencies who can offer additional help. The decision to close our centres to external visitors in March 2020 was therefore a devastating one for us to have to make.
We also started planning the opening of a new centre in Wembley which will enable us to support many more families in north west London. A site has been identified and we have begun to develop a strategy for engaging and collaborating with the local community.
Whilst we knew that we would be able to get parcels out to families, we worried that it would be difficult to maintain the connection we have with them. We decided to start offering support over the phone. Over 7,300 calls were made to families in 2020. Having a chat at a time of high anxiety and social isolation proved to be a crucial part of the help we could provide. We made 129 onward referrals to other agencies including other family support organisations, the Citizen’s Advice Bureau and food banks.
## **Offering families broader support**
Our centres are designed to be somewhere that families can come to pick up clothing and kit, but also to act as a place for support
**Above** The Duchess of Cambridge meets our founder Sophia, as part of the Supporting Baby Banks initiative.
## **Building our volunteer programme**
volunteering roles which could accommodate the different circumstances people found themselves in during periods of lockdown - on-site, at home and on the road. We were also very grateful to the volunteers who stepped up to support us with organisational support for communications, design and transport logistics.
What we have achieved this year wouldn’t have been possible without our incredible volunteers. They’re the lifeblood of Little Village and we worked hard to keep our volunteer programme running throughout the pandemic. During the year, 499 volunteers donated over 12,000 hours of their time. We are proud of the fact that we were able to increase volunteer numbers above 2019 and that we didn’t see any real decrease in the number of volunteering hours.
## **Being a force for change**
Alongside our operational work, we’ve done a lot to raise the profile of the disproportionate impact Covid-19 has had on low-income families who were already living on the edge before the pandemic took hold. For example, our survey of referral partners formed the basis of an extended report on Channel 4 News about these issues, and was
In 2020, we weren’t able to develop and deepen our volunteer programme as much as we hoped we might. Nevertheless, we took care to design a wide range of
**Above** An example of hygiene products gifted to families during the height of the pandemic.
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**Little Village Annual Report and Accounts, 2020**
**Little Village Annual Report and Accounts, 2020**
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**Achievements of the year**
**Achievements of the year**
also covered in newspapers such as The Sun, The Guardian and The Sunday Mirror.
At the heart of our advocacy work is a desire to provide an opportunity for the families we’ve helped to tell their own stories. We created an Ambassador group of mums we’ve previously supported and were very proud to be able to introduce two of them, EllaMae and Amy, to the Duchess of Cambridge during a Zoom call also involving our Chief Executive. The conversation covered getting babies to sleep, the challenges of weaning and what it feels like to want the best for your children while struggling to get by on a very low income.
We also conducted a new survey of more than 50 baby banks across the UK which formed the basis of a campaign we worked on with the Duchess of Cambridge and two other baby banks. As well as extensive profile-raising work for the issue of child poverty, this initiative has so far secured well over £100,000 of brand-new donations of essential kit from British brands such as Boden, John Lewis and Marks and Spencer.
**Above** Volunteers from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association delivering emergency supplies to families.
## **Building a resilient organisation**
## **People**
During the third and fourth quarters, we ran a recruitment process to find a replacement for our Chief Executive and Founder, Sophia Parker. We received over 100 high quality applications for the role and conducted a very comprehensive and thorough assessment process. Sophie Livingstone MBE was offered the role and started as Chief Executive in February 2021.
Membership of the senior management team was formalised to include a Chief Executive, a Head of Programmes, a Head of Operations, a Head of Finance and a Head of People - with Heads of Fundraising and Advocacy and Communications being recruited in 2021. All team members have six- and twelve-month objectives with a formal review and development process being developed.
We launched a full programme of work on how to become an anti-racist organisation, including a staff survey, the provision of educational resources and a development workshop led by an external facilitator. We created two working groups focused on reviewing our culture and working practices and these will continue to meet during 2021.
## **Fundraising**
2020 was a highly successful year for Little Village’s fundraising - despite very limited resources, we were able to beat our fundraising target for the year and
successfully diversify our sources of income. Our Chief Executive, supported by an external fundraising consultant, was successful in securing additional Covid emergency funding from The National Lottery Community Fund and also managed to secure donations from new supporters to Little Village. These included a mix of trusts and foundations, corporates and High Net Worth Individuals. We were also successful in securing a large number of individual donations, with over 1,400 individuals donating to our Virtual Village and Merry Little Christmas campaigns. We are enormously grateful to all those who have supported our work in 2020.
At the end of 2020, we launched a successful search for a Head of Fundraising who joined us in March 2021.
## **Processes and technology**
We’ve worked hard to ensure our management processes (for example, project planning, objective setting and review meetings) have kept pace with our organisational growth.
We launched a technology project to ensure our use of the Salesforce system makes our operations as smooth and efficient as possible. It will support fundraising, volunteer management and referral management.
## **Governance**
During the third quarter, we initiated a review of our governance and a project team was created, with members of the Board working alongside staff. The objective of the project was to review Little Village’s governance arrangements to ensure they follow best
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**Little Village Annual Report and Accounts, 2020**
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**Achievements of the year**
**Achievements of the year**
practice and to add strategic and operational decision-making processes. The review has identified the need to increase diversity within the Board, and for Trustees to develop a deeper understanding of the charity. This review underlined an organisational commitment to the involvement of a broader range of stakeholders (such as families supported and volunteers) in the decisionmaking processes. The project team will continue to work on this during 2021.
## **A focus on Covid-19 and Virtual Village**
## **The challenges we faced**
• Increasing need: as the pandemic hit, it was obvious that more families than ever would be relying on our support. The impact on the self-employed or those working in certain sectors of the economy was immediate and many families found themselves requiring our help for the very first time. There was a particular need for nappies and hygiene products, which were either out of stock in supermarkets due to stockpiling in early lockdown, or prohibitively priced in local shops.
- Volunteers and staff: a high proportion of our staff and volunteers are parents of nursery or primary school aged children. When the pandemic started, Little Village was therefore greatly impacted by schools closing and the
need to provide childcare. A number of staff members and volunteers also needed to shield due to their age or preexisting medical conditions.
- Keeping everyone safe: our centres are usually busy, vibrant places filled with families, children, staff and volunteers. The need for social distancing made it impossible to run any sessions with families and severely curtailed the number of staff and volunteers we could have on site at any one time.
- Securing donations: we usually rely on people bringing donations of clothing, toys and kit directly to our centres. This became impossible given lockdown guidance and social distancing requirements. We also initially struggled to secure a stock of essentials such as nappies and wipes given supermarket shortages.
- Offering broad support to families: being more than just a baby bank is key to Little Village’s identity. But when we closed our sites, we lost the ability to interact with families face to face and to offer them wider support.
## **Our response**
Having made the very difficult decision to close our centres to families in March 2020, the Little Village team mobilised to develop an alternative model, and Virtual Village was born. We succeeded in totally reinventing our delivery model whilst meeting increased demand and staying true to our values.
## Key changes included:
- Sorting and preparing parcels for families: we secured pro-bono warehouse space to make it possible to keep operations going while observing social distancing. Across all our sites, we created team bubbles, introduced PPE and increased cleaning to make volunteering with us safe.
- Referrals: we worked closely with our referral partners to prioritise and focus our efforts on families who most urgently needed our support. This narrowed our referral criteria for clothing and kit supplies to newborn babies (women 30 weeks pregnant and babies up to three months old) and those with nothing (often recent migrants or those escaping domestic violence). Due to the move to a delivery model, we also had to limit the boroughs we were able to serve to inner London boroughs plus those neighbouring our sites.
Hygiene Essentials packs: to address the need for essential toiletries and nappies we set up a partnership with Easho, a third-party distributor. This enabled us to support an increased number of families without putting undue pressure on our existing sites, and to continue to provide some level of support to families who either did not meet our tighter referral criteria or who lived outside the boroughs we were able to deliver to. We delivered hygiene packs which included a month’s supply of toiletries and nappies for every member of the immediate family, by Parcelforce direct to the family home.
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- Donations: to avoid people coming into our centres with donations, we created 17 community donation points across London. Volunteers gave up space in their houses to take in donations and took care of cleaning, sorting and organising.
**Above** Our family liaison team have been making 100 phone calls a week, to offer support to families.
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**Achievements of the year**
**Achievements of the year**
could support them through onward referrals to other organisations.
• Deliveries: we built a network of drivers to deliver all our clothing and kit parcels to families and pick up larger donations such as cots. These included bikers at Pedal Me, volunteers from the British Red Cross, companies such as Central Moves who were unable to do their usual removals work, and a network of volunteers driving Zip Vans.
• None of this would have been possible without the determination and hard work of the staff team and the incredible support of our volunteers. Staff roles were completely redesigned to take account of those who needed to be at home and those who had to juggle additional caring responsibilities. Volunteers also demonstrated enormous flexibility by trading in their usual responsibilities for acting as donation hubs, making deliveries or supporting families over the phone.
• Supporting families: we set up a totally new support system for families over the phone - training our at-home team of volunteers to call families, check on what items they needed and see whether we
**Above** Long-standing volunteer Philippa, sorting through stock at our Battersea hub.
## **What we’ve learnt**
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought significant challenges but has also been an opportunity for the organisation to learn. These are some of our initial conclusions:
- There’s very broad support for our work. Little Village started off as a movement of parents against poverty. But since March 2020, we’ve attracted an entirely new demographic of volunteers beyond parents of young children, to include older people and younger workers on furlough. With this new realisation that so many people want to help, we need to focus on removing some of the barriers to their involvement.
- A delivery/pick up service is extremely popular. Families have really valued receiving items at home, particularly bulky ones such as buggies and cots. Being able to collect large items from families who are donating has also been very popular. We’ll be reviewing how we can maintain a cost-effective delivery/ pick-up service after the pandemic.
- Simple interventions work. We worried that complicated digital solutions for communicating with families wouldn’t be inclusive, and so we relied instead on simple phone-calls. This enabled us to reach more families in a straightforward way.
- The topic of child poverty resonates. The Covid-19 pandemic has opened many people’s eyes to the level of need that exists. However, there are still unhelpful
-
-
perceptions around the causes of child poverty and a huge amount of work needs to be done to dispel them. We believe that we have a strong platform to engage people with these issues.
- We need to have the right spaces to serve high levels of demand. This past year has confirmed the huge levels of need that exist for our service right across London. We need to ensure we have sites that are large enough to service this demand, and flexible enough to accommodate both deliverybased and face-to-face models. We have also learnt that people really care about helping others in their local area and this underlines the need for us to have additional smaller satellite or colocated sites.
We need to pace ourselves. Little Village is lucky to have hugely committed and highly motivated staff members and volunteers. The speed and flexibility demonstrated in the spring of 2020 was impressive and enabled us to support 60% more families in 2020 than we had done in 2019. However, there is no doubt that this left many employees and volunteers exhausted and drained, and it was clear that working at that pace was simply not sustainable. As the pandemic evolved, we have focused on nurturing our staff and ensuring that team members have enough time and space to connect with each other, despite working in different locations.
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## **Our impact**
**ENFIELD OUTSIDE LONDON BARNET HARINGEY WALTHAM FOREST**
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BARNET
HARINGEY
HARROW
HACKNEY
BRENT CAMDEN
ISLINGTON
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**REDBRIDGE**
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TOWER
HAMLETS
CITY OF NEWHAM
LONDON
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WESTMINSTER
HAMMERSMITH
AND FULHAM
KENSINGTON
AND CHELSEA
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**BARKING AND DAGENHAM**
**HILLINGDON**
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EALING
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**GREENWICH SOUTHWARK**
**HOUNSLOW**
**WANDSWORTH LAMBETH LEWISHAM**
**BEXLEY**
**RICHMOND UPON THAMES**
**MERTON**
**KINGSTON UPON THAMES**
**BROMLEY**
**CROYDON**
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SUTTON
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## **Our impact**
**HAVERING**
## **Location of families supported by Little Village in 2020**
The introduction of Hygiene Essentials packs enabled us to support families across every London borough and significantly increase the number of families supported, despite the operational challenges of Covid and our focus on inner London boroughs for deliveries of kit and clothing.
The size of each red circle represents the number of people supported by Little Village in each London borough.
## **Who we supported**
This year we supported more people than ever before – and a diverse cross-section of the community.
##
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Hygiene Essentials packs: 2151
Clothing and Kit deliveries: 3614
Family ethnicity
6000
4000
2000
0
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Mixed heritage
Prefer not to say
5%
Black or
9%
Black British
Other ethnic
35%
group
12%
15%
Asian or
British Asian
25%
White British,
Irish or other
White
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**Our impact**
**Our impact**
## **How we supported them**
about, safe places to sleep and clothes and shoes to keep children warm and dry. Our core offering of essential kit and clothing was augmented by toiletry packs supplied through the Hygiene Essentials programme supporting families with essential toiletry packs.
Families receiving kit and clothing received on average £850 worth of kit (if valued as new) with deliveries including record numbers of buggies to enable families to get out and
**----- Start of picture text -----**
8,183 1,315
2,391
packs of safe places
coats
nappies to sleep
£2,054,983 983 1,642
worth of ways to get pairs of
items gifted* out and about shoes
13,269 3,680 4,733
packs of Christmas packs of
toiletries vouchers clothing
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* This represents the ‘as new’ value of the donated items gifted to families as well as the value of new items bought such as mattresses and hygiene products. This shows what it would have cost families to buy this kit new. The financial statements show the second hand value of donated goods in line with the Charities SORP
## **Why we supported them**
violence as a reason for support and specific economic hardships relating to Covid-19. Those with no access to public funds continued to struggle, particularly as Covid-related unemployment hit sectors such as hospitality.
Whilst many factors stayed consistent year on year (single parent families, proportion homeless or in temporary accommodation), we saw a rise in those citing domestic
## **Reasons for referral**
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%
The percentage of people who mentioned a reason
Single parent
Low or
uncertain wage
Homeless or temp.
accomodation
No access to
public funds
Economic hardship
due to Covid-19
Seeking asylum
Covid-19-related
unemployment
Dealing with
domestic violence
Disabled or family
member disabled
0 10 20 30 40 50
**----- End of picture text -----**
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**Our impact**
**Our impact**
## **Our volunteers**
Whilst the impact of Covid-19 has given us the opportunity to diversify our volunteer pool in some respects, in others we still have a lot of work to do.
## **The impact we have…**
## **…with our families…**
Feedback from families shows there are four key benefits from our services:
that it will be part of our lives for years to come. So I want to thank you for helping us make this Christmas, a very special one. Wishing you and all the other members of Little Village a great year ahead!”
- “I want to say thank you not just for
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Volunteers who have children
%
80
60
40
20
0
Children No children Children No children
2019 2020
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**499 volunteers 12,206 volunteer hours**
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Volunteer profile – gender Volunteer profile – ethnicity
%
100 Black or Black British Other ethnic group
2.5% 1.9%
Asian or British Asian
2.5%
75 Mixed heritage
5.1%
50
25
87.7%
White British,
0 Irish or Other
Female Male Female Male White
2019 2020
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1. The meeting of primary needs – a safe place to sleep, ways to feed hygienically, clothes to stay warm and dry;
2. The meeting of secondary needs – enabling families to get out and about to essential appointments or engage with their community;
3. Reducing difficult budget decisions – provision of these items can temporarily ease the hard choices about how to use limited budgets, for example mums not buying hygiene products for themselves to ensure they have budget for nappies for their children.
4. Creating ‘head space’ – the reduction in anxiety worrying about how to provide for children means parents have the space to think and plan for the future.
“Thanks a million for the Argos vouchers. I was able to buy two board games for my three-year-old that kept him busy and helped us bond together. I wrapped them up and put them under a mini Christmas tree. My son could not wait until Christmas and on Christmas day his first words were: ‘Can I open my gifts, now?’ I had never celebrated Christmas before with gifts under the Christmas tree but the voucher provided me with the impetus to do so and now I know
- (supporting me) but for listening to me. Tonight you listened to me and it’s the first time I’ve spoken to anyone, not even my best friend. I try to be brave and the one who makes people laugh. Thank you for everything you and Little Village has done for me and my family. I am so grateful for everything you have done.”
- “Thank you for helping us give our children the start in life they deserve.”
“My refuge worker told me about Little Village. I was embarrassed to ask for help but I soon realised there was absolutely no need to feel ashamed. They gave me absolutely everything: a pram, clothes, bottles, nappies... The day I came into Little Village was the first time anyone had ever made me a cup of tea. It makes me emotional now to think about it.”
## **…with our referral partners**
**74% of our referral partners told us they wouldn’t be able to obtain the items families receive from us from any other source.**
“Thank you to you and your team for the amazing work you do. I refer to your service much more frequently than I’d like to - particularly this year - it makes such
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**Our impact**
**Our impact**
a difference to vulnerable women and their families to know there is support like this available. Well done to your team for keeping these families supported through all the complications this year. “
“Thank you for everything that Little Village does. Your support has been so helpful for so many of the families we work with (who are destitute and not allowed to access the benefits system due to immigration status). Although it is angering that so many families are let down by the state, the existence of Little Village and similar organisations makes it possible for some families to meet their basic needs - we see so often how much of a difference this can make.”
## **…with our volunteers**
**70% of our volunteers say that volunteering has a positive impact on their mental health**
**71% feel positive that they are making a difference to their local community 48% say they have grown in confidence from volunteering**
**82% say they get to mix with people from different backgrounds, which they would not ordinarily**
**And during Covid specifically:**
**76% said they that it helped that they felt like they were making a difference during the pandemic**
“The volunteering experience (…) makes you put your own life into perspective too and in turn be very grateful for the basic things you take for granted each day e.g., having enough nappies each month or being able to clothe, clean and feed your children adequately.
Additionally it has improved the quality of my life in that it has given me much needed daily adult interaction (with my Little Village colleagues and the families we liaise with) and an opportunity to problem solve in complex situations, learn new skills and improve others (e.g., navigating a new database, finding out about services on offer, communication skills etc.).
And it’s good to be part of a huge team... one of the many cogs in the Little Village machine that can make a world of difference to a family; sometimes the difference between sinking or swimming.”
“When I was made redundant due to the Coronavirus pandemic in June, the opportunity to volunteer with Little Village really helped me cope with that situation. It provided some structure and a sense of purpose that redundancy had taken away from me, and being able to help families with young children, especially as a mother of a young child, really opened my eyes to the difficulties some families in London face, and the stark inequalities, and I am really glad to be able - in a very small way - try and use my skills and time to help.”
## **Our impact in a nutshell**
It costs £266 to answer a request for support, but that money does so much…
## **£266 gives:**
## **• H2O & CO2 savings from the re-use and recycling of clothing and kit**
**• A family liaison call, giving human connection**
- Reduced use of landfill
- - Reduced need for over-production
**• Signposting to additional support services**
**• Delivery of £850 worth of kit (on average – this can rise to £1,100 for a family with a newborn) providing**
**A volunteer placement giving personal growth**
-
- Skills
- - Confidence
- - Network building - Community cohesion
- A safe place to sleep
- - The means to get out and about - Stimulus for play and growth - Warm and practical clothing - Hygienic means to feed - Essential toiletries and nappies
## **• A family’s story the chance to be heard**
- Educating communities on the impact of child poverty - Advocating for change
**• An improvement in mental wellbeing** - **and reduced anxiety as parents** - **feel better about being able to give their children the start in life that they deserve**
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**Our impact**
## **Our impact**
## **Our volunteers**
**Below are some of the roles our volunteers have played for us this year.**
**Family Interpreting eBay Sewing & packer & translation selling mending Stock sorter Advice Transport Christmas signposting co-ordinating campaign packer Home stock sorter Driver Proof reading £ Fundraiser Home Buggy Database donation hub repairs procurement Tip runner Phone-based Cot checking Washing & Team lead family liaison and repairs ironing**
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**Little Village Annual Report and Accounts, 2020**
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**Financial review**
## **Financial review**
## **Review of the year**
given out during the year is
model and began to distribute hygiene packs (whose contents are purchased rather than donated).
also included in these accounts. Specifically, they are recognised in both income and expenditure, at the same amount, when they are distributed to beneficiary families rather than when they are received by Little Village. No balance sheet value is assigned to any items held at the year-end.
The four-year trend shown in the table below summarises total income and expenditure, including restricted and unrestricted funds. The value of donated goods that Little Village has passed to families is excluded (refer to ‘Donations in kind’ below for further information).
## **Income and expenditure**
Little Village relies on grants and donations to fund all of our work. The charity’s income during 2020 in the form of grants and monetary donations was £1.6m, representing a very significant increase over the previous year, when the equivalent figure was £391k. The single largest source of grant income in 2020 was The National Lottery Community Fund, from whom Little Village received £493k, of which £22k remained unspent at the end of the year. The majority of the remaining income was received from other grant-making organisations (including trusts and foundations), corporate donors and individuals.
The total value of donated goods given out by Little Village in 2020 was £514k (2019: £471k), which is included in both income and expenditure. To value these donated goods for the purposes of the income and expenditure
## **Donations in kind**
In line with best practice according to the Charities SORP, the value of donated goods
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Analysis of grants and donations
Other (eg faith and educational
organisations, sponsorship, Gift Aid)
6%5
Corporates
15%
The National Lottery
54% Community Fund,
trusts, foundations
and other grants
25%
Individuals
**----- End of picture text -----**
Total expenditure for the year was £914k (2019: £398k), excluding the value of donated goods which were passed on to our beneficiary families. Staff costs were our most significant expense (£437k) and increased as we added to our staff count (with an increase from 7 to 12 on an FTE basis) as our operations expanded. The Covid pandemic also led to an increase in certain operating costs as we shifted to the Virtual Village delivery-only
|**£’000**|**2017**|**2018**|**2019**|**2020**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Income (excluding donated goods)**|96|340|394|1,636|
|**Expenditure (excluding donated goods)**|(43)|(212)|(398)|(914)|
|**Surplus/(defcit)**|53|128|(4)|722|
|**Total reserves (unrestricted and restricted)**|60|188|184|906|
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**Financial review**
## **Financial review**
disclosures, we take a secondseen an outpouring of generosity hand market value estimate of from a range of donors, both each type of item. Baby clothing existing and new. This generosity is valued on the basis of bundles, continued throughout 2020 and reflecting both how they would into 2021, manifesting itself in a typically be sold second hand, and successful Christmas fundraising the way in which we distribute campaign, and in the response bundled clothing to families. to the media coverage that Little Village received.
review takes into account the types of income and the risks and uncertainties associated with each; the level of fixed costs including salaries and property rent; variable costs associated with providing our services; the needs of the families whom we support; the funds required to achieve our strategic goals; and any one-off expenditure planned in the foreseeable future.
## **Significant events affecting financial performance and financial position during the year**
Whilst our plans for 2020 any one-off expenditure planned were significantly altered as in the foreseeable future. we responded to the Covid-19 pandemic, we reached 2021 with The Trustees have agreed to strong finances and a renewed designate a portion of the commitment to our strategy. charity’s unrestricted reserves While we have updated this towards meeting the costs of strategy to reflect the lessons upgrading our premises and IT we have learned from Covid infrastructure. A project to fit out and our experience in operating our Wembley premises is planned Virtual Village, we believe the for 2021, and we are seeking a growth model and associated new site in south London: ensuring priorities are still leading us in that these premises are suitably the right direction. configured and equipped not only enables the charity to function **Reserves** efficiently, but also creates a welcoming environment in which The Trustees continually monitor to receive the families whom we the charity’s financial position and support. A planned enhancement specifically review its required to our IT systems will improve the way in which we manage referrals,
The Covid-19 pandemic and the associated restrictions and lockdowns had a profound effect on all aspects of Little Village’s operations: our staff, volunteers, plans, operational model and, most importantly, the families whom we support. The temporary closure of our sites necessitated a rapid re-design of our operations, switching to a delivery-based model (known as Virtual Village). Recognising the dramatic increase in the need for the type of support that Little Village provides, we have
The Trustees continually monitor the charity’s financial position and specifically review its required level of reserves each year. This
|**£’000**|**Unrestricted**|**Unrestricted**|**Restricted**|**Total**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||**funds**||**funds**||
||General|Designated|||
|**Income (excluding donated goods)**|757||879|1,636|
|**Expenditure (excluding donated goods)**|(76)||(838)|(914)|
|**Surplus/(defcit)**|681||41|722|
|**Brought forward 1 January 2020**|157|-|27|184|
|**Transfer to Designated Fund**|(150)|150|||
|**Carried forward 31 December 2020**|688|150|68|906|
handle larger items of stock and organise our volunteering resources. This new designated reserve represents £150k.
The Trustees have agreed that the minimum level of general unrestricted reserves should be sufficient to cover our fixed and variable costs for a period of between three and six months (amounting to between £270k and £540k). As at 31 December 2020, general unrestricted reserves, excluding the designated fund, stood at £688k. Held within this figure is the target minimum balance described above. The Trustees are comfortable with holding reserves above our minimum level in the context of continued uncertainty in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and a challenging economic and fundraising environment. It is our intention that the surplus amount will enable us to invest in our capacity to support more families over the coming years.
Movements on unrestricted and restricted reserves for the financial year are summarised in the table on page 32. Consistent with the presentation of the income and expenditure analyses shown above, the value of donated goods passed to beneficiary families is excluded from both income and expenditure.
## **Going concern**
The social and economic repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic will continue to be felt for some time to come, meaning that Little Village is operating in a generally uncertain environment. The principal risk that Little Village faces is our ability to sustain the
level of income needed to support
the ever-increasing number of families who seek our help. Taking these factors into account, the Trustees have reviewed the level of reserves currently held, along with the budgeted income and expenditure, and have concluded that the charity’s funds will be sufficient to sustain its activities for a period of at least twelve months from the date of finalising these accounts. Accordingly, the accounts have been prepared on a going concern basis.
## **Investment policy**
In addition to the balance held in the charity’s current accounts, cash is placed in short and medium term interest-bearing deposits with UK incorporated banks, in order to maximise the charity’s interest income while at the same time diversifying its exposure to individual institutions. The maturity of deposits is determined having regard to the charity’s predicted level and timing of outgoings. The Trustees currently do not consider other forms of investment to be appropriate.
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**Structure, governance and management**
## **Structure, governance and management**
## **Governance**
The organisation is a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO), registered as a charity on 18 October 2016.
The charity was established under a Memorandum of Association which established the objects and powers of the charitable company and is governed under its Articles of Association.
In the event of winding-up, members of the charity have no liability to contribute to its assets and no personal responsibility for settling its debts and liabilities. The Trustees are members of the charity but this entitles them only to voting rights. The Trustees have no beneficial interest in the charity.
## **Appointment and induction of Trustees**
Roles are openly advertised and Trustees are recruited through an interview process led by nominated members of the Board. New Trustees receive an induction programme which includes meetings with key members of the management team, a briefing pack and a site visit. All Trustees commit to volunteering with Little Village at least once a quarter so that they have a good understanding of the work that the charity does.
In 2020, the Board decided there was a need to recruit new Trustees with more diverse backgrounds and with lived experience of childhood poverty. A Trustee recruitment process was launched in the first quarter
of 2021, with support from Pari Dhillon of the Social Justice Collective. This has resulted in the successful appointment of three new Trustees, Marcia Holmes, Alan Lally Francis and Katharine Sacks Jones who joined the Board on 21 June 2021.
In 2020, the Chair introduced an annual review and objective setting process for all Board members. Trustees are appointed for a three-year term with the option to renew for one further three-year term.
## **Organisational structure and decision making**
The Board of Trustees has collective responsibility for everything that the charity does, including the legal responsibility to ensure it is controlled and properly managed. The Board delegates responsibility for operational management to the Chief Executive. The Chief Executive leads the senior management team to develop plans, policies and processes following the Board’s advice and approval. As at 31st December 2020, the rest of the senior management team comprised a Head of Programmes, a Head of Operations, a Head of People and a Head of Finance. The charity has since recruited a Head of Fundraising who joined in March 2021 and a Head of Advocacy and Communications who started in June 2021.
The Board of Trustees is responsible for the strategic direction of the charity and meets quarterly together with the Chief Executive and senior management team to review
progress and to ensure the charity is on track to meet its objectives. The Board has one sub-committee, covering Finance and Fundraising, which also meets once a quarter.
During the summer of 2020, the charity’s CEO, Sophia Parker, announced to the Board that she planned to resign. The then Chair of the Board, Sophie Livingstone, notified the board of her intention to apply for the role and she resigned from the Board of Trustees on 4th September 2020. The Board conducted a rigorous, open and transparent recruitment process led by the replacement Chair, Olivia Gillan-Bower. The role was openly advertised, the shortlisting of applications was done on an anonymised basis and two independent parties were involved in the selection process. Sophie Livingstone was found to be the strongest candidate and was offered the role of Chief Executive, starting in February 2021.
## **Remuneration policy**
All Trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no benefits from the charity. Any expenses reclaimed from the charity are set out in note 12 to the accounts.
In setting salaries, Little Village strives to pay at a competitive level within the sector and considers changes in the cost of living/inflation and changes to roles and responsibilities. The charity also takes into account the need to remain prudent so that salary costs are sustainable both at the current time and
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**Structure, governance and management**
**Structure, governance and management**
in the future. All employees are At the end of 2020, Little paid at least the London living Village established two working wage as defined by the Living groups focusing on culture Wage Foundation. During 2020, and organisational practices a salary benchmarking exercise to identify additional changes was conducted and as a result, which can be made to increase most staff received a 5% pay rise diversity and ensure inclusivity to bring salaries more into line at the charity. One area which with relevant benchmarks. is being researched is whether offering only part-time roles is The Board of Trustees reviews impeding our ability to attract and agrees the annual more diverse candidates to remuneration of the Chief Little Village.
The Board of Trustees reviews and agrees the annual remuneration of the Chief Executive and agrees the remuneration level of senior staff, in conjunction with the Chief Executive.
## **Volunteers**
The Trustees are grateful for the enormous contribution made by Little Village volunteers across a variety of roles (typically collecting donations, sorting and packing them, making deliveries, liaising with families). The charity is truly powered by its incredible volunteers and they are one of Little Village’s most critical and valuable assets. There were 499 active volunteers during 2020.
All the charity’s staff work part-time and Little Village is committed to creating roles that enable people to balance purpose-driven work with other priorities in life.
## **Equity, diversity and inclusion**
We are working towards a goal where our staff team, volunteers and Trustees fully reflect and are representative of the diversity and difference in the lived experiences of the families we support and where individual differences and contributions are truly recognised and valued.
## **Fundraising**
Fundraising was led by the Chief Executive with support from an external fundraising consultant. Little Village understands its duty to protect the public, including vulnerable people, from unreasonably intrusive or persistent fundraising approaches and undue pressure to donate and we ensure we conduct our fundraising in an ethical way. We did not receive any complaints about our fundraising. We keep up to date with changing regulation and ensure we comply with it by changing processes if needed. Heading into 2021 we will be
We reviewed our recruitment practices in 2020 and this led to two commitments being made when recruiting for a new staff role, namely to disclose the salary and not to require a university degree. We are committed to removing bias within the recruitment process and we are trialling new approaches in pursuit of this objective.
a member of the Fundraising Regulator and our new Head of Fundraising will be reviewing our existing fundraising policy for Board approval.
## **Principal risks and uncertainties**
The charity has a risk register in place which sets out key risks (covering governance, financial, operational, external and reputational, legal and compliance risk) and how they are managed. The risk register is formally reviewed annually by the Board but noted on a quarterly basis at each Board meeting.
The Trustees and Chief Executive have identified the following as key risks facing Little Village:
- A breach of the charity’s safeguarding policy. This is mitigated by ensuring that all staff, volunteers and Trustees receive safeguarding training and that a safeguarding briefing is given at the beginning of volunteering sessions;
- A shortfall in income leading to a breach of the reserves policy. This risk is managed by having forward planning around fundraising and diversifying fundraising streams. In addition, there is regular monitoring of financial performance throughout the year so that mitigating measures can be put in place, if needed;
- Loss of key staff or Trustees. This is mitigated by having a clear business continuity plan
for each key area to include deputies for key roles/ areas and by developing a People Strategy which includes performance management and development. A Trustee review programme has also been introduced;
- The impact of any adverse external events which would have an impact on the ability to deliver the service. A disaster and emergencies plan, built on Little Village’s Covid-19 emergency plan, is being developed to mitigate this risk;
- The loss of one of the key sites that Little Village operates from. This is mitigated by ensuring that the charity has sufficient capacity and flexibility at other sites to provide temporary cover if needed.
## **Policies**
Policies for all relevant areas are maintained, including safeguarding (adult and child), health and safety, data protection, conflicts of interest, finance and fraud. Policies are reviewed annually and approved by the board.
## **Public benefit**
The Trustees have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the charity’s aims and objectives and in planning its future activities. In particular, the
Trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives that have been set.
## **Related parties**
We work in partnership with a wide range of organisations, such as Citizen’s Advice, Home-Start and statutory services such as midwifery teams, health visitors and local authorities. We have no related parties or related party transactions.
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## **Our plans for the future**
It is clear that the need for Little Village is not going to diminish as we emerge from Covid-19 restrictions. We will continue to expand our support to families across London and to reflect on what we’ve learned during our Virtual Village Covid operations to continuously improve our model.
That is likely to include retaining direct deliveries to those families unable to travel to us due to distance or circumstances, but we are also keen to start welcoming families back into our hubs, enabling them to receive the warm Little Village interaction that so many have appreciated over the past five years, along with the ability to choose items for their children themselves.
Our new hub in Wembley will open during the second half of 2021, expanding our work to the borough of Brent as well as a new satellite operation opening in a children’s centre based on the Alton Estate in Roehampton. We will be seeking new properties for stand-alone hubs and collaborative partnerships where we can co-locate additional ‘satellites’, with a focus on south and east London.
We will also be building on our work as a ‘force for change’ that has been so successful at highlighting the impact of child poverty during the pandemic, to draw attention, alongside those we’ve supported, to the continuing challenges faced by families with young children living in poverty. Our new Head of Advocacy and Communications will help develop this work. We will also continue to gather evidence from baby banks across the UK, enabling us to collectively tell a national story about the impact of child poverty and the needs baby banks are meeting.
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**Thank you**
## **It takes a village**
It really does take a village to make our work happen – families, volunteers, referral partners, donors of baby kit, financial supporters and our incredible staff – all working together to ensure children have what they need to thrive.
We are so grateful to everyone who has helped us make an incredibly challenging year also our most impactful to date. That has only been possible through an extraordinary collective effort. We look forward to growing our village in 2021 and beyond.
**Our volunteers, all 499 of them, who have donated 12,000 hours to endlessly bundle, sort, package up, clean, drive, and call families. You are all superheroes and the lifeblood of our work. Special thanks to Dee and Sunette.**
**Our 500+ referral partners and collaborators, who make us stronger, and who together with Little Village form a vital ‘first line of defence’ for families who are struggling. Special shout out to Shellie and the Happy Baby team, Debra Kroll, Kirsteen McDonagh, Jackie Reid Rodney, Estera Patrichi, Varsha Baburam, the team at Dad’s House, Brenda Richardson, Keith Preddie, also our foodbank partners at Wandsworth, Norwood and Brixton, Square Mile. TALK Wandsworth, Citizens’ Advice, Parent Champions, City Harvest. So many more, all those of you who have filled in our referral forms at the end of long shifts**
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**Thank you**
**Thank you**
## **and worked closely with us to get support to families who need it most.**
**The consultants and companies that quietly support us with their professional services, often pro-bono or at reduced charge, without whom we couldn’t keep going. Carine Wallace, Sandy Gravette, Nicola Sweeney, Sunette Ramirez-Espain, Ark, Bravand, NannyPaye, Coyote, Big Yellow, Ian Shenstone, Glimpse, Box Move, Easho, ZipVan, PedalMe, Herman’s Green Van, Care and Custody, The Kindness Offensive, the London Dog Walking Company, Onfleet, First Mile, LinkLaters, Third Sector Accounting, Sarah, Cheryl and the Be Good team.**
**Our lovely landlords, building managers, and cleaners. We know we are not the tidiest or most contained of tenants and we are so grateful for your patience and encouragement. Currently STCA and the Living Centre, Marstons, and Southwark Council, and soon to be Uncle.**
**The Trusts and Foundations who have so generously stepped in with core funding, and emergency funding, and project funding, to keep our doors open. Special thanks to The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust, 52 Lives, The Aim Foundation, AKO Foundation, Christopher A. Holder, David Cock Foundation, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Community Match Challenge, The Everest Trust, Global’s Make Some Noise, The Grace Trust, The Hampstead Wells and Campden Trust, The Henhurst Charitable Trust, Lund Trust, a**
**charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, Segelman Trust, South London Opportunity Fund, Southwark Council Common Purpose, Thrale Almshouse and Relief in Need Charity, Two Magpies Fund, True Colours Trust, The National Lottery Community Fund, Wandsworth Grant Fund, The Wimbledon Foundation. We were particularly proud to have been awarded funding by a community panel of residents with experience of Camden’s inequality through Camden Giving’s participatory funding model.**
**The businesses who have volunteered,**
**donated from their own profits, or gifted us beautiful stock so incredibly generously this year. Not everyone wants to be publicly acknowledged, but here are a small handful of our wonderful supporters to whom we are so grateful: the wonderwoman CJ at Sals Shoes, lovely Karen at Pram Depot, Nicky’s Crafting Crew, Wandsworth Dons, Micralite, Silver Cross, JoJo Maman, Bloom and Blossom, Marks and Spencers, Boden, Mamas and Papas, Bramley, Matalan, Green People, My Little Coco, Child’s Farm, Sainsburys, Frugi, Tesco, The White Company, Trotters, Kit and Kin, Kokoso Baby, DHL Express, Auree Jewellery, Regents Place, Footlocker, Soles4Souls, Mackie PR, Recognised Store, Phoenix Court, Raise Your Hands, John Lewis Partnership, Katie’s Pilates, Piccolo, Antipodream, Another Fox, Peas and Pod Boxes, Luca and Luca, Avery Row, Pop My Way, Olivia Rubin, Evolve Gym, Ivy T-shirts, The Hashtag Movement, Jamila at Free the Fro, Philips Avent.**
**The companies who have fundraised and dug deep to help us: 3i Group plc, Ahren Innovation Capital LLP, Bank of America, BlackRock, Blevins Franks Charitable Foundation, CBRE Global Investors Limited, Cedar, Cosmedic Supplies, CVC, Devonshires Solicitors LLP, Euclid Transactional UK Limited, Evolve353, Fabrix, Fortress Investment Group LLC, The Francis Crick Institute, Just Imagine, Kennis Wiser (Ltd), Lionpoint Group (UK) Ltd, Prestbury Investment Holdings Limited, Prinova Europe Ltd, Raise Your Hands, Regent’s Place Community Fund, Revcap, Ruder Finn UK Ltd, SamKnows and Savills Catering Ltd.**
**The schools and faith groups who have encouraged such generosity from within their own communities. Bertrum House, St Christopher’s, The Village Prep School, Fircroft School, UCS, Grimsdell School, Dulwich College and DUCKS, Alleyns, JAGS, Dulwich College, Hornsby House, Harris East Dulwich Primary, Telferscot, St William of York, Dalmain Primary, Cavendish School, Marmalade Schools and Marmalade Cat nursery, St Michael’s Church, Butterfly Lane Nursery, Rocket Productions, St Michael’s Church Cobham Close, Church of St Mary and St John, St Luke’s, BCS Brotherhood.**
**The journalists and media experts who have worked with us to tell the story of the families we’ve supported with respect and care. Katie Razzall, Jackie Long, Amy-Claire Martin, the whole team at On Road and of course our friends Sound Delivery for their tireless championing of this work, and our**
**friends at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation including Grace Hetherington, David Leese and Sarah Campbell.**
**And finally, well over 1,200 individuals have generously supported our work this year, with donations ranging from £5 to £70,000. Every single one of these contributions matters. We can’t share all your names but if you were one of those people, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.**
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**Little Village Annual Report and Accounts, 2020**
**Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities**
The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
Charity law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charity for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:
- Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently
- Observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP
- Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent
- State whether applicable UK Accounting Standards and statements of recommended practice have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements
- Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation
## **Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities**
The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable group and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
In so far as the Trustees are aware:
- There is no relevant audit information of which the charity’s auditors are unaware
- The Trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditors are aware of that information
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**Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities**
**Independent auditor’s report**
The Trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charity’s website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.
## **Auditors**
Third Sector Accountancy Limited were appointed as the charity’s auditors during the year and have expressed their willingness to continue in that capacity.
The Trustees’ Annual Report has been approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf by
## **Olivia Gillan-Bower, Chair**
11 / 08 / 2021
## **Financial statements**
**Year ended 31 December 2020 Little Village Charity number 1169735**
**Little Village Annual Report and Accounts, 2020**
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**Independent auditor’s report**
**Independent auditor’s report**
## **Independent auditor’s report to the Trustees of Little Village**
## **Opinion**
We have audited the financial statements of Little Village (the ‘charity’) for the year ended 31 December 2020 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet, the Statement of Cash Flows and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
In our opinion, the financial statements:
- give a true and fair view of the state of the charity’s affairs as at 31 December 2020 and of its incoming resources and application of resources for the year then ended;
- have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and
- have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011.
## **Basis for opinion**
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
## **Conclusions relating to going concern**
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the Trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
## **Other information**
The other information comprises the information included in the Trustees’ Annual Report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The Trustees are responsible for the other information. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.
In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
## **Matters on which we are required to report by exception**
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
- the information given in the financial statements is inconsistent in any material respect with the Trustees’ report; or
- the charity has not kept adequate accounting records; or
- the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
- we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.
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**Independent auditor’s report**
## **Independent auditor’s report**
## **Responsibilities of Trustees**
As explained more fully in the Trustees’ responsibilities statement set out on page 45, the Trustees are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the Trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
In preparing the financial statements, the Trustees are responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Trustees either intend to liquidate the charity or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
## **Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements**
We have been appointed as auditor under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and report in accordance with regulations made under Section 154 of that Act.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below.
considered the extent to which non-compliance might have a material effect on the financial statements. We also considered those laws and regulations that have a direct impact on the preparation of the financial statements such as the reporting requirements under the Charities SORP and FRS102, and the Charities Act 2011.
We evaluated management’s incentives and opportunities for fraudulent manipulation of the financial statements (including the risk of override of controls), and determined that the principle risks were related to the pressure on management to achieve particular results. Audit procedures performed by the engagement team included:
- Review of policies and training records;
- Discussions with management including consideration of known or suspected instances of non-compliance;
- Evaluating management’s controls designed to prevent and detect irregularities;
-
- Identifying and testing journal entries; and
- Challenging assumptions and judgments made by management.
There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures described above and the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely we would become aware of it. Also, the risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery or intentional misrepresentations, or through collusion.
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at www.frc.org.uk/ auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.
## **Capability of the audit in detecting irregularities, including fraud**
Based on our understanding of the group and environment in which it operates, we identified the principal risks of non-compliance with laws and regulations related to pension legislation, tax legislation, employment legislation, health and safety legislation, and other legislation specific to the area in which the charity operates, and we
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**Statement of financial activities**
## **Independent auditor’s report**
## **Use of the audit report**
This report is made solely to the charity’s Trustees, as a body, in accordance with Part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity’s Trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charity’s Trustees as a body for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
Third Sector Accountancy Limited, Statutory Auditor Holyoake House Hanover Street Manchester M60 0AS
Third Sector Accountancy Limited is eligible to act as an auditor in terms of section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.
## 11 / 08 / 2021
**Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure account) for the year ended 31 December 2020**
|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Notes**
**£**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Notes**
**£**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**£**|**Total funds**
**2020**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**£**
**£**|**Total funds**
**2020**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**£**
**£**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**£**|**Total funds**
**2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Income from:**
Donations and
legacies
3
Charitable
activities
4
Other trading
activities
5
Investments
6
**Total income**
**Expenditure on:**
Raising funds
7
Charitable
activities
8
**Total expenditure**
**Net income/**
**(expenditure) for**
**the year**
10
**Net movement in**
**funds for the year**
**Reconciliation of**
**funds**
Total funds brought
forward
**Total funds carried**
**forward**|1,268,716
-
1,650
1,086
1,271,452
8,799
581,616
590,415
681,037
681,037
157,389
838,426|815,612
63,904
-
-
879,516
57,524
780,552
838,076
41,440
41,440
26,604
68,044|2,084,328
63,904
1,650
1,086
2,150,968
66,323
1,362,168
1,428,491
722,477
722,477
183,993
906,470|665,317
-
1,594
1,220
668,131
20,253
605,505
625,758
42,373
42,373
115,016
157,389|196,706
-
-
-
196,706
17,699
225,898
243,597
(46,891)
(46,891)
73,495
26,604|862,023
-
1,594
1,220
864,837
37,952
831,403
869,355
(4,518)
(4,518)
188,511
183,993|
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
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**Statement of cash flows**
## **Balance sheet**
## **Balance sheet as at 31 December 2020**
|**Note**|**2020**
**£**|**2020**
**£**|**2019**
**£**|**2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Fixed assets**
Tangible assets
15
**Total fxed assets**
**Current assets**
Debtors
16
Cash at bank and in hand
17
**Total current assets**
**Liabilities**
Creditors: amounts falling due in less than one year
18
**Net current assets**
**Total assets less current liabilities**
**Net assets**
**The funds of the charity:**
Restricted income funds
20
Unrestricted income funds
21
**Total charity funds**|36,065
1,001,785|720|3,332
189,404|1,957
1,957
182,036
183,993
183,993
26,604
157,389
183,993|
|||720
905,750|||
||1,037,850
(132,100)||192,736
(10,700)||
||||||
|||906,470|||
|||906,470|||
|||68,044
838,426|||
|||906,470|||
||||||
## **Statement of Cash Flows for the year ending 31 December 2020**
|**Note**|**2020**
**£**|**2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|
|**Cash provided by/(used in) operating activities**
23
Cash flows from investing activities:
Dividends, interest, and rents from investments
**Cash provided by/(used in) investing activities**
Increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents in the year
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year
**Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year**|811,295
1,086
1,086
812,381
189,404
1,001,785|(45,793)
1,220
1,220
(44,573)
233,977
189,404|
The notes on pages 56 to 74 form part of these accounts.
Approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf by:
## **Olivia Gillan-Bower (Chair)**
**Geraldine Wright (Treasurer)**
11 / 08 / 2021
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**Notes to the accounts**
**Notes to the accounts**
## **Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 December 2020**
## **1. Accounting policies**
The principal accounting policies adopted, judgments and key sources of estimation uncertainty in the preparation of the financial statements are as follows:
## **a. Basis of preparation**
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) issued in October 2019 - (Charities SORP (FRS 102), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).
Little Village meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note.
The financial statements are presented in sterling which is the functional currency of the charity and rounded to the nearest £ sterling.
## **b. Judgments and estimates**
The Trustees have made no key judgments which have a significant effect on the accounts.
The Trustees do not consider that there are any sources of estimation uncertainty at the reporting date that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amount of assets and liabilities within the next reporting period.
## **c. Preparation of the accounts on a going concern basis**
The Trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern.
The Trustees have considered the level of funds held and the expected level of income and expenditure for 12 months from authorising these financial statements and in particular the potential implications of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Changes have been made to the operations to enable the charity to continue to support and serve the needs of its beneficiaries at an even enhanced level. This is also due to the very positive and generous response of the general public, the charity’s individual, corporate and trust supporters, and local authorities. The budgeted income and expenditure is sufficient with the level of reserves of the charity to be able to continue as a going concern. Please refer to further comments in the Trustees’ Annual Report.
## **d. Income**
Income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the item(s) of income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.
Income from government and other grants, whether ‘capital’ grants or ‘revenue’ grants, is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the grants have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably and is not deferred.
Income received in advance of a provision of a specified service is deferred until the criteria for income recognition are met.
## **e. Donated services, facilities, and goods**
Donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item, any conditions associated with the donated item have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity of the item is probable and that economic benefit can be measured reliably. In accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102), general volunteer time is not recognised; refer to the Trustees’ Annual Report for more information about their contribution.
On receipt, donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt.
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**Notes to the accounts**
**Notes to the accounts**
The charity received a wide range of donations from the general public of second hand baby and children’s clothing, cots, buggies and various other types of goods needed for babies and young children. All these donations are passed on to families in need free of charge. These donations were valued at an estimated second hand value of £514,476 and recorded both as income and expenditure in the accounts. The second hand value of these gifts is recognised in the accounts when they are distributed to the beneficiary. The stock of second hand goods is not recognised in the accounts because it would be impractical to record this information, and the costs of attempting to do so would outweigh any benefit to the users of the accounts or the charity.
## **f. Interest receivable**
Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the bank.
## **g. Fund accounting**
Unrestricted funds are available to spend on activities that further any of the purposes of charity.
Designated funds are unrestricted funds of the charity which the Trustees have decided at their discretion to set aside to use for a specific purpose.
Restricted funds are donations which the donor has specified are to be solely used for particular areas of the charity’s work or for specific projects being undertaken by the charity.
## **h. Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT**
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified under the following activity headings:
- Costs of raising funds comprise the costs of a fundraiser, fundraising events, marketing, merchandise and website costs, and their associated support costs.
- Expenditure on charitable activities includes the costs of operating baby and
young children’s clothing banks undertaken to further the purposes of the charity and their associated support costs.
- Other expenditure represents those items not falling into any other heading.
- Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred.
## **i. Allocation of support costs**
Support costs are those functions that assist the work of the charity but do not directly undertake charitable activities. Support costs include back office costs, finance, personnel, payroll and governance costs which support the charity’s programmes and activities. These costs have been allocated between cost of raising funds and expenditure on charitable activities. The bases on which support costs have been allocated are set out in note 9.
## **j. Tangible fixed assets**
Individual fixed assets costing £1,000 or more are capitalised at cost and are depreciated over their estimated useful economic lives on a straight line basis as follows:
Furniture, fixtures and fittings 33% (previously 10%) Computer equipment 33%
## **k. Debtors**
Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.
## **l. Cash at bank and in hand**
Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a range of fixed term deposits up to 12 months only.
## **m. Creditors and provisions**
Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated
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**Notes to the accounts**
**Notes to the accounts**
reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.
## **n. Financial instruments**
The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans which are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
## **o. Pensions**
Employees of the charity are entitled to join a defined contribution ‘money purchase’ scheme. The charity’s contribution is restricted to the contributions disclosed in note 11. Outstanding contributions at the year end were £4,262 which were paid in full by the end of February 2021. The costs of the defined contribution scheme are included within support and governance costs and allocated to the funds of the charity using the methodology set out in note 9.
## **2. Legal status of the charity**
The charity is a charitable incorporated organisation registered with the Charity Commission and has no share capital. The registered office address is disclosed on page 74.
## **3. Income from donations and legacies**
||**Unrestricted**
**£**|**Restricted**
**£**|**Total 2020**
**£**|**Unrestricted**
**£**|**Restricted**
**£**|**Total 2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Donations and grants**
Donated goods for
benefciaries
**Total**|754,240
514,476|815,612
-|1,569,852
514,476|194,094
471,223|196,706
-|390,800
471,223
862,023|
||1,268,716|815,612|2,084,328|665,317|196,706||
||||||||
## **4. Income from charitable activities**
||**Unrestricted**
**£**|**Restricted**
**£**|**Total 2020**
**£**|**Unrestricted**
**£**|**Restricted**
**£**|**Total 2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Ark / Department for Digital,
Culture, Media and Sport
Camden Giving Covid-19
Emergency Fund
The Hampstead Wells &
Campden Trust
**Total**|-
-
-|57,154
6,000
750|57,154
6,000
750|-
-
-|-
-
-|-
-
-
-|
||-|63,904|63,904|-|-||
||||||||
## **5. Income from other trading activities**
||**Unrestricted**
**£**|**Restricted**
**£**|**Total 2020**
**£**|**Unrestricted**
**£**|**Restricted**
**£**|**Total 2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Course fees
Clothes recycling
**Total**|1,368
282|-
-|1,368
282|1,526
68|-
-|1,526
68
1,594|
||1,650|-|1,650|1,594|-||
||||||||
## **6. Investment income**
||**Unrestricted**
**£**|**Restricted**
**£**|**Total 2020**
**£**|**Unrestricted**
**£**|**Restricted**
**£**|**Total 2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Income from bank deposits|1,086|-|1,086|1,220|-|1,220
1,220|
||1,086|-|1,086|1,220|-||
||||||||
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**Notes to the accounts**
**Notes to the accounts**
## **7. Cost of raising funds**
||**Unrestricted**
**£**|**Restricted**
**£**|**Total 2020**
**£**|**Unrestricted**
**£**|**Restricted**
**£**|**Total 2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Staff costs
Fundraiser's fees
Donation/online fees
Sponsored event costs
Marketing
Website costs
Investment management costs
Governance costs (see note 9)
Support costs (see note 9)|-
-
4,967
1,727
897
721
350
-
137|14,599
29,433
627
-
56
10,848
-
488
1,473|14,599
29,433
5,594
1,727
953
11,569
350
488
1,610|12,320
-
2,125
3,124
654
1,461
-
103
466|-
17,500
-
36
-
141
-
22
-|12,320
17,500
2,125
3,160
654
1,602
-
125
466
37,952|
||8,799|57,524|66,323|20,253|17,699||
||||||||
## **8. Analysis of expenditure on charitable activities**
||**Total 2020**
**£**|**Total 2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|
||||
|Staff salary costs
Other staff costs
Volunteer costs
Accommodation
Donated goods for benefciaries
Bought goods for benefciaries
Consumables
Consulting and freelance
Insurance
Delivery and collection costs
Travel
Depreciation
Sundry costs
Governance costs (see note 9)
Support costs (see note 9)
Restricted expenditure
Unrestricted expenditure|383,298
6,133
790
61,594
514,476
247,379
16,719
17,226
2,009
39,230
377
1,237
16,619
12,821
42,260|203,739
4,406
467
41,977
471,223
27,431
7,897
28,147
414
4,957
1,260
1,237
13,500
5,230
19,518
831,403
225,898
605,505
831,403|
||1,362,168||
||780,552
581,616||
||1,362,168||
||||
## **9. Analysis of governance and support costs**
||**Support**|**Governance**|**Total 2020**|**Support**|**Governance**|**Total 2019**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|
|Staff costs|31,660|7,050|38,710|11,417|4,155|15,572|
|Subscriptions|2,038|-|2,038|341|-|341|
|Consulting/Freelance|5,836|1,459|7,295|1,367|-|1,367|
|Database expense|4,096|-|4,096|6,859|-|6,859|
|Independent examination|-|-|-|-|960|960|
|Accountancy services|240|4,800|5,040|-|240|240|
||43,870|13,309|57,179|19,984|5,355|25,339|
Support and governance costs are allocated to cost of raising funds and charitable activities in proportion to the staff time spent in those activities:
|Fundraising
Charitable activities|1,610
42,260|488
12,821|2,098
55,081|466
19,518|125
5,230|591
24,748|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||43,870|13,309|57,179|19,984|5,355|25,339|
## **10. Net income/(expenditure) for the year**
|**This is stated after charging/(crediting):**|**2020**
**£**|**2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|
||||
|Depreciation
Auditor's remuneration - audit fees
Auditor's remuneration - accountancy fees
Independent examiner's fee|1,237
3,800
1,240
-|1,237
-
-
960|
||||
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**Notes to the accounts**
**Notes to the accounts**
## **11. Staff costs**
|**Staff costs during the year were as follows:**|**2020**
**£**|**2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|
||||
|Wages and salaries
Social security costs
Pension costs
**Allocated as follows:**
Cost of raising funds
Charitable activities
Support costs
Governance costs|402,023
26,660
7,924|217,457
10,823
3,351
231,631
12,320
203,739
11,417
4,155
231,631|
||436,607||
||14,599
383,298
31,660
7,050||
||436,607||
||||
No employees received employee benefits in excess of £60,000 (2019: Nil).
The average number of staff employed during the period was 24 (2019: 16).
The average full time equivalent number of staff employed during the period was 12 (2019: 7).
The key management personnel of the charity comprise the Trustees and the Chief Executive Officer, Head of Programmes, Head of Operations, Head of Finance and Head of People. The total employee benefits of the key management personnel of the charity were £149,734 (2019: £76,698).
No Trustee or other person related to the charity had any personal interest in any contract or transaction entered into by the charity, including guarantees, during the year (2019: nil).
## **13. Government grants**
There were no unfulfilled conditions and contingencies attaching to the grants.
|**The government grants recognised in the accounts**
**were as follows:**|**2020**
**£**|**2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|
||||
|The National Lottery Community Fund
HS2 Camden fund
Groundwork
Southwark Borough Council - Common Purpose
Wandsworth Borough Council
Ark / Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Coronavirus Job retention scheme grant|493,125
33,333
-
1,250
4,680
57,154
9,560|133,406
16,667
20,000
3,750
-
-
-
173,823|
||599,102||
||||
## **14. Corporation tax**
The charity is exempt from tax on income and gains falling within Chapter 3 of Part 11 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010 or Section 256 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to the extent that these are applied to its charitable objects. No tax charges have arisen in the charity.
## **12. Trustee remuneration and expenses, and related party transactions**
Neither the management committee nor any persons connected with them received any remuneration or reimbursed expenses during the year (2019: Nil).
Aggregate donations from related parties were £2,500 (2019: £nil).
There are no donations from related parties which are outside the normal course of business and no restricted donations from related parties.
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**Notes to the accounts**
**Notes to the accounts**
## **15. Fixed assets: tangible assets**
||**Fixtures and**
**fttings**|**Computer**
**equipment**|**Total**|
|---|---|---|---|
|**Cost**|**£**|**£**|**£**|
|At 1 January 2020
At 31 December 2020
**Depreciation**
At 1 January 2020
Charge for the year
At 31 December 2020
**Net book value**
At 31 December 2020
At 31 December 2019|1,027|2,684
2,684
1,326
895
2,221
463
1,358|3,711
3,711
1,754
1,237
2,991
720
1,957|
||1,027|||
||428
342|||
||770|||
||257|||
||599|||
|||||
## **16. Debtors**
||**2020**
**£**|**2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|
||||
|Grants receivable
Other debtors
Prepayments and accrued income|21,527
126
14,412
36,065|-
186
3,146
3,332|
## **18. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year**
||**2020**
**£**|**2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|
||||
|Trade creditors
Other creditors and accruals
Deferred income
Taxation and social security costs|22,771
9,127
91,581
8,621|4,951
2,758
-
2,991
10,700|
||132,100||
||||
## **19. Deferred income**
||**2020**
**£**|**2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|
||||
|Deferred grant brought forward
Grant received
Released to income from charitable activities
Deferred grant carried forward|-
91,581
-|33,352
-
(33,352)
-|
||91,581||
||||
## **17. Cash at bank and in hand**
||**2020**
**£**|**2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|
||||
|Short term deposits
Cash at bank and on hand|404,909
596,876
1,001,785|-
189,404
189,404|
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**Notes to the accounts**
**Notes to the accounts**
## **20. Analysis of movements in restricted funds**
## **Comparative period**
||**Balance at**
**1 January**
**2020**|**Income**|**Exenditure**|**Transfers**|**Balance at**
**31 December**
**2020**|||**Balance at**
**1 January**
**2019**|**Income**|**Exenditure**|**Transfers**|**Balance at**
**31 December**
**2019**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**£**|**£**|**p**
**£**|**£**|**£**|||**£**|**£**|**p**
**£**|**£**|**£**|
||||||||||||||
|**All sites**|||||||**All sites**||||||
|The National Lottery Community Fund
Ark/Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
Global’s Make Some Noise (Global Charities)
Anonymous Donor 1
Anonymous Donor 2
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Tides Foundation/BlackRock
Easho Wishlist
Xmas 2020 Campaign|-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-|493,125
57,154
20,000
68,500
68,500
31,549
8,987
14,933
53,765|(470,808)
(56,453)
(20,000)
(62,802)
(62,802)
(31,549)
(3,157)
(14,933)
(53,765)|-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-|22,317
701
-
5,698
5,698
-
5,830
-
-||The National Lottery Community Fund
Aviva 2018/2019
M&G|44,583
227
-|133,406
5,000
2,501|(177,989)
(5,227)
(2,501)|-
-
-|-
-
-|
||||||||**Camden Site**||||-||
||||||||Camden Delivery
Camden Giving
HWCT
HS2 Camden Fund
Crick Community Chest|131
1,560
5,000
-
-|-
7,597
-
16,667
2,785|(131)
(5,275)
(5,000)
-
(1,730)|-
-
-
-
-|-
3,882
-
16,667
1,055|
|**Camden Site**|-||||||**Wandsworth Site**||||||
|Camden Giving
HS2 Camden Fund
Crick Community Chest, The Francis Crick Institute
Camden Giving Covid 19 Emergency Fund
Two Magpies Fund
The Hampstead Wells & Campden Trust|3,882
16,667
1,055
-
-
-|1,989
33,334
-
6,000
15,000
750|(5,871)
(33,475)
(1,055)
(6,000)
(6,815)
(750)|-
-
-
-
-
-|-
16,526
-
-
8,185
-||QBE
The Co-op
Greggs Foundation
Groundwork
BPST
Groundwork|3,222
4,030
1,965
730
5,000
5,000|-
-
-
-
-
20,000|(3,222)
(4,030)
(1,965)
(730)
(5,000)
(25,000)|-
-
-
-
-
-|-
-
-
-
-
-|
|**Southwark Site**|||||||**HQ**||||||
|London Borough of Southwark – Common Purpose|-|1,250|-|-|1,250||The White Stuff
Big Lottery|22
2,025|-
-|(22)
(2,025)|-|-
-|
|**Eastwood Site**|||||||||||||
|Wimbledon Foundation
Community Fund
London Borough of Wandsworth
Total|-
5,000
-|-
-
4,680|-
(5,000)
(2,841)|-
-
-|-
-
1,839
68,044||**Southwark Site**||||-||
||||||||Common Purpose|-|3,750|(3,750)|-|-|
||||||||**Eastwood Site**||||-||
||||||||Wimbledon FCF
Total|-|5,000|-||5,000
26,604|
||26,604|879,516|(838,076)|-|||||||||
|||||||||73,495|196,706|(243,597)|-||
||||||||||||||
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**Notes to the accounts**
**Notes to the accounts**
## **Name of restricted fund**
Camden Delivery
QBE
The White Stuff
The Co-op Big Lottery Big Lottery Greggs Foundation Groundwork Aviva 2018
Camden Giving Hampstead Wells and Campden Trust
Battersea Power Station Foundation Groundwork Wimbledon Foundation Community Fund
Aviva 2019
M&G
HS2 Camden Fund Southwark Borough Council – Common Purpose Crick Community Chest, The Francis Crick Institute Ark/Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Global’s Make Some Noise (Global Charities)
Easho Wishlist
Xmas 2020 Campaign Anonymous Donor 1 Anonymous Donor 2 The Joseph Rowntree Foundation Tides Foundation/BlackRock Camden Giving Covid-19
Emergency Fund Two Magpies Fund The Hampstead Wells & Campden Trust Wandsworth Borough Council
## **Description, nature and purposes of the fund**
individual donor, to fund delivery costs at Camden site donation for operation at Wandsworth site grant for story telling project at HQ grant for operation at Wandsworth site grant for story telling project at HQ and Wandsworth sites grant for staff costs at all sites and specific other costs at HQ grant for Wandsworth outreach project grant for Wandsworth outreach project grant to fund purchase of new mattresses grant for Camden outreach project (Camden Green Points) grant for fund charity co-ordinator post in Camden
## grant for operation at Wandsworth site
grant for operation at Wandsworth site grant for operation at Wimbledon Eastwood site
grant to fund purchase of new mattresses corporate donation for mattresses and buggy repairs restricted to Camden, supporting communities during HS2 grant for projects which support healthier and more engaged communities
grant to move and expansion or Camden site
support 2500 children – provisions needed to keep them clean, clothed and warm warehouse development, satellite sites and hubs, support core costs/ overheads
family hygiene packs
voucher sheme for families in need over Xmas operation and development of Little Village operation and development of Little Village
to fund post of Head of Media and Communicatioons towards Virtual Village project
towards 300 families in Camden, essential packages project, supplying one months’ worth of essential sanitary supplies for babies and adults towards Volunteer Development Manager post (Camden) 15 hygiene packs for families in Hampstead Wells area
towards costs for Eastwood Satellite operation
## **21. Analysis of movements in unrestricted funds**
||**Balance at**
**1 January**
**2020**|**Income**|**Exenditure**|**Transfers**|**Balance at**
**31 December**
**2020**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**£**|**£**|**p**
**£**|**£**|**£**|
|General fund
Designated fund|157,389
-|1,301,048
-|(620,011)
-|(150,000)
150,000|688,426
150,000
838,426|
||157,389|1,301,048|(620,011)|-||
|||||||
|Comparative period||||||
||**Balance at**
**1 January**
**2019**|**Income**|**Exenditure**|**Transfers**|**Balance at**
**31 December**
**2019**|
||**£**|**£**|**p**
**£**|**£**|**£**|
|General fund|115,016|668,130|(625,757)|-|157,389
157,389|
||115,016|668,130|(625,757)|-||
|||||||
## **Name of unrestricted fund**
## **Description, nature and purposes of the fund**
General fund The free reserves after allowing for all designated funds Designated fund To upgrade premises and IT infrastructure
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## **Notes to the accounts**
## **22. Analysis of net assets between funds**
||**General**
**fund**
**£**|**Designated**
**funds**
**£**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**£**|**Total 2020**
**£**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||
|Tangible fxed assets
Net current assets/(liabilities)
Total|720
687,706|-
150,000|-
68,044|720
905,750
906,470|
||688,426|150,000|68,044||
||||||
## Comparative period
||**General**
**fund**
**£**|**Designated**
**funds**
**£**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**£**|**Total 2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||
|Tangible fixed assets
Net current assets/(liabilities)
Total|1,957
155,432|-
-|-
26,604|1,957
182,036
183,993|
||157,389|-|26,604||
||||||
## **23. Reconciliation of net movement in funds to net cash flow from operating activities**
||**2020**
**£**|**2019**
**£**|
|---|---|---|
|**Net income/(expenditure) for the year**
**Adjustments for:**
Depreciation charge
Dividends, interest and rents from investments
Decrease/(increase) in debtors
Increase/(decrease) in creditors
**Net cash provided by/(used in) operating activities**|722,477
1,237
(1,086)
(32,733)
121,400|(4,518)
1,237
(1,220)
(2,990)
(38,302)
(45,793)|
||811,295||
||||
## **Reference and administrative information**
**Little Village Annual Report and Accounts, 2020**
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## **Reference and administrative information**
## **Charity number**
**Registered office and operational address**
## **Trustees**
1169735
St Mark’s Church, 53 Rowfant Road, London SW17 7AP
The Trustees who served during the year and up to the date of this report were as follows:
Olivia Gillan-Bower, Chair (appointed 04/09/20) Geraldine Wright, Treasurer (appointed 15/04/20) Helen Murphy, Secretary Caley Eldred Marcia Holmes (appointed 21/06/21) Nijma Khan Mary Kuhn (resigned 24/03/21) Alan Lally-Francis (appointed 21/06/21) Sophie Livingstone MBE (resigned 04/09/20) Jennie Lucas Katharine Sacks-Jones (appointed 21/06/21)
## **Key management**
## **Bankers**
## **Auditors**
Sophia Parker, Chief Executive (resigned 08/02/21) Sophie Livingstone MBE, Chief Executive (appointed 08/02/21) Nadine Adamski, Head of Fundraising (appointed 15/03/21) Emily Compston, Head of Operations Clare Hill, Head of People Sophia Moreau, Head of Advocacy and Communications (appointed 21/06/21) Aniq Read, Head of Finance Rebecca Wilson, Head of Programmes
HSBC UK Bank plc, 1 Centenary Square, Birmingham B1 1HQ Santander UK plc, Bridle Road, Bootle, Merseyside L30 4GB
Third Sector Accountancy Limited, Holyoake House, Hanover Street, Manchester M60 0AS.
## **Photo credits**
with thanks to Polly Braden, My London and Emma Gibbs.
## **Design and typesetting**
Tom Hampson, reforma.london
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Little
Village