Annual Report on the work of the Red Kite Family Centre 2020-21
Brief historical context
Following the decision of Oxfordshire County Council to cut funding to the majority of its locality-based children’s centres and to concentrate its statutory services in a few regional hubs, it was decided to establish a local community run charity to continue the work of our local children’s centre.
The Red Kite Family Centre charity was set up in January 2017, trustees were appointed, and the centre opened with its new leader and staff team in place in April 2017. Since then it has been operating very successfully and this report highlights its main achievements and the value it brings to all families with young children in our area.
Trustees
John Hulett (chair) Rosie Pearce Sarah Roberts Mary Stiles Katie English Lottie Curry
The trustees have continued to hold regular meetings during the year and these are fully recorded and notes of outcomes are available on request.
Staff Team
Amy Spicer – Family Centre Leader Catherine Myles – Early Years Family Worker Helen Burton – Early Years Family Worker Assistant Julie Tattersfield - Early Years Family Worker Assistant Emma Spink – Family Centre Administrator
All these posts are part-time and the Early Years Family Worker and Assistants work largely during the school terms. A part-time cleaner is also employed.
The provision offered by the centre
There are two main bases for activities, the main centre in Southern Road, Thame and the satellite centre in rooms at Chinnor Library. Through these bases the centre offers a full programme of universal (open to all parents of under 5s) activities each week and they are also used fully by NHS midwives, health visitors and speech and language therapists. This partnership with health professionals provides a ‘one-stop shop’ of advice, support and activities for all parents with pre-school children from birth to 4yrs old. The centre staff continue to work closely with Oxfordshire Early Help support team and children’s services and the centre is often hired by social services for contact meetings and other case review meetings. Towards the end of the period covered by this report we entered into an agreement with a local landowner in the neighbouring village of Moreton. She offered the Family Centre a plot of land to be used for outdoor learning activities. It was already equipped with a large polytunnel providing some weather protection. Some funding was obtained to provide the necessary equipment and toilet facilities to make this plot of land operational. It was due to be launched during the summer term of
2021 and to be known as our ‘Outdoor Explorers’ site. A three-year rent free lease agreement has been signed for this.
Overview of the year’s activities
The trustees and Family Centre Leader acknowledge that the future sustainability of the Family Centre is dependent on two key factors:
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The local community recognising the positive impact that the work of the centre is having on the lives of all parents and pre-school children in our area.
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Attracting the funding needed to manage the running of the centres in Thame and Chinnor and having effective plans in place to achieve this.
The year covered by this report was dominated by the COVID19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns that were imposed on the nation. These had a severe impact on the Family Centre provision during this time and also on our fundraising capability.
Lockdown 1
From the beginning of the pandemic lockdown on March 25[th] 2020 the Family Centre had to close and cease all activities. Most of the staff were furloughed using the government’s scheme. The leader and one other staff member retained some hours so as to maintain contact with families through phone and email support. The initial easing of lockdown restrictions in June 2020 still did not allow the kind of activities run by the centre to resume. Plans were begun for a commencement of activities in September.
Autumn 2020 and second national lockdown
On-going restrictions meant that Family Centre based sessions would have to be severely restricted in numbers and a rigorous contact tracing regime established. Because of the smaller numbers attending, additional sessions were built into the programme so that more families could benefit. This increased our staffing costs but was offset from savings during the furlough arrangements. All staff were re-instated at the beginning of September. This programme ran successfully during September and October but on 5[th] November a new national lockdown was imposed because of rising case numbers. All staff were furloughed for a proportion of their time with a few ‘skeleton’ hours being retained for essential administration and for maintaining contact with families. During this lockdown the following priorities were agreed by the trustees:
Priority 1: Ensuring the wellbeing of all members of the staff team who were now having to balance support for their families and childcare with work responsibilities.
Priority 2: We agreed that the basic minimum that should be offered was informal support to our known list of ‘vulnerable families’, and this was managed in a different way to lockdown 1 so as not to put undue pressure on the centre leader and family support worker.
Priority 3: Some staff expressed a willingness to support some ‘Zoom’ groups for new mums and also provide activity packs for home use by families. An agreed package of enhanced web-based activities was put in place. Some time was also given to preparing the Forest School site at Moreton.
These priorities were achieved in the following way:
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Each member of the staff team was asked to work for the equivalent of one day’s worth of their normal weekly hours and an absolute maximum of two days’ worth.
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Furlough was therefore offered for up to four-fifths of a staff member’s normal number of hours.
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The exception to this was Emma, our administrator, as the nature of her work meant that it could be more easily achieved through home working. She was invited to work as many of her normal hours as possible.
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Amy, centre leader, was asked to share the known caseload of families being supported amongst all her staff family workers (Catherine, Helen, Mandy and Rebecca). This was seen as a useful upskilling experience for them.
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With priority 1 in mind all staff were asked to put clear boundaries around the hours they gave to Family Centre work and Amy in particular was encouraged to have a mentor/friend to help her to monitor this family-work balance.
Lockdown 3 - January to March 2021
The arrangements described for lockdown 2 were continued during the third lockdown lasting from January 6[th] until 6[th] March 2021. However, the trustees agreed to top-up all furloughed staff salaries to their normal level for this period in recognition of all the extra effort they had given to maintaining service provision through such a challenging and stressful time.
Fundraising and Financial Position
All fundraising events were cancelled because of the pandemic and this had a significant impact on our donation income. Most subscribers to our ‘Friends’ scheme continued their support which was gratifying. Overall financial support for the Family Centre was however sustained during the year with grants being received from the Town Council, local businesses, Covid support grant and other grant making bodies. We were also fortunate in obtaining a National Lotteries Community Fund grant to provide the additional finance needed to run more sessions with smaller numbers.
During the course of the year inter-agency co-operation continued. There was regular liaison with our local Citizens Advice Bureau and Sharing Life Trust, a charity operating a foodbank in the area. Particular attention was given to ensuring that families identified as vulnerable or struggling were given additional support and that signposting to other support agencies was provided. NHS health professionals including midwives, health visitors and speech and language therapists stopped using the centre during the periods of lockdown but we continued to work closely with them particularly in supporting parents with new-born babies and children in their first two years.
J.Hulett, Chair of Trustees.
RED KITE FAMILY CENTRE
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH
| 2021 | 2020 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ |
£ | £ |
£ | ||
| INCOME | |||||
| Donations; | |||||
| Individuals | 10046 | 18815 | |||
| Companies/Trusts etc | 47052 | 70820 | |||
| Gift Aid | -- | 386 | |||
| --------- | 57098 | -------- | 90021 | ||
| Grants | 31157 | 15000 | |||
| Subscriptions[Friends Scheme] | 2672 | 1888 | |||
| Fundraising Events | 2265 | 10686 | |||
| Holiday Club | 860 | ||||
| Off site Activities | 2020 | 2614 | |||
| Room Hire | 3122 | 3117 | |||
| Sundries | 552 | ||||
| Courses | 494 | ||||
| ----------- | --------- | ||||
| Total Income | 98334 | 125232 | |||
| ------------ | ------------ | ||||
| EXPENDITURE | |||||
| Salaries | 57270 | 51799 | |||
| Start up Costs | 2186 | 1079 | |||
| Rent | 5050 | 6600 | |||
| Insurance | 56 | 271 | |||
| Utilities | 2391 | 3464 | |||
| Repairs and Maintenance | 3683 | 24125 | |||
| Courses | 1692 | ||||
| Fundraising Expenses | 3335 | ||||
| Holiday Club Expenses | 705 | ||||
| Off site Expenses | 7450 | 8471 | |||
| DBS Checks | 33 | 10 | |||
| Staff Training | 874 | ||||
| Session Costs | 3030 | 1243 | |||
| Depreciation | 348 | 348 | |||
| Telecom | 1085 | 382 | |||
| --------- | --------- | ||||
| Total Expenditure | 82582 | 104416 | |||
| ----------- | ----------- | ||||
| Surplus for the year | 15752 | 20816 | |||
| ======= | ====== |
RED KITE FAMILY CENTRE BALANCE SHEET AT 31 MARCH
| RED KITE FAMILY CENTRE BALANCE SHEET AT 31 MARCH |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | |||||
| £ |
£ |
£ | £ | |||
| FIXED ASSETS | 348 | |||||
| CURRENT ASSETS | ||||||
| Debtors | 555 | 2938 | ||||
| Bank | 106898 | 91538 | ||||
| -------- | ----------- | |||||
| CURRENT LIABILITIES | 107453 | 94476 | ||||
| Accrued Expenses | -2138 | 985 | ||||
| --------- | ---------- | |||||
| NET CURRENT ASSETS | 109591 | 93491 | ||||
| --------- | ---------- | |||||
| NET ASSETS | 109591 | 93839 | ||||
| ======= | ====== | |||||
| ACCUMULATED FUNDS | ||||||
| Brought Forward | 93839 | 72023 | ||||
| Surplus for the year | 15752 | 20816 | ||||
| ---------- | -------- | |||||
| 109591 | 93839 | |||||
| ====== | ====== |
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF THE RED KITE FAMILY CENTRE
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of The Red Kite Family Centre [The Trust] for the year ended 31st March 2021
RESPONSIBILITIES AND BASIS OF REPORT
As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts.
in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 [The Act]
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under
section 145 of the Actand in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145 [5][b] of the Act
INDEPENDANT EXAMINER'S STATEMENT
I have completed my examination and confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in accordance with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect;
- accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust
as required by Section 130 of the Act;or
- the accountsdo not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the
examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached