**To**
## **Trustees' Annual Report for the period**
Period start date Period end date 1 Sept 2020 31 August 2021
**From**
## Section A Reference and administration details
**Charity name Other names charity is known by Registered charity number (if any)** 1171626
Flourishing Families Leeds
**Charity's principal address** 12 Helmsley Drive Leeds **Postcode LS16 5HY**
## **Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity**
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20|**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not for whole**
**year **|**Name of person (or body) entitled**
**to appoint trustee (ifany)**|
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||Richard Colbrook|Chair|||
||David Wong|Secretary|||
||Claire Wong||||
||Esther Aguirre Bernal||||
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## **Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)**
|**Name**|**Dates acted if not for whole year**|
|---|---|
|None||
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|**Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**
**Type of adviser**
**Name**
**Address**|**Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**
**Type of adviser**
**Name**
**Address**|**Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**
**Type of adviser**
**Name**
**Address**|
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|**None**|||
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## **Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)**
## **Section B Structure, governance and management**
## **Description of the charity’s trusts**
Constitution Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) Charitable Incorporated Organisation How the charity is constituted (eg. trust, association, company) Appointed by the trustees Trustee selection methods
(eg. appointed by, elected by)
## **Additional governance issues (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant, about:
- policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
- the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
- relationship with any related parties;
- trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
## **Section C Objectives and activities**
The Objects of the CIO are, for the public benefit,
1.1 the promotion of social inclusion in accordance with Christian values among (but without limitation) children, young people and **Summary of the objects of the** families living in Leeds and elsewhere in the UK who are socially **charity set out in its** isolated on the grounds of their social position, economic position **governing document** or communication barriers including by providing:
1.1.1. opportunities to participate in mentoring, recreation, outdoor pursuits, environmental studies, sport, music,
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arts and crafts;
- 1.1.2. emotional, befriending and practical support to parents, guardians, carers and for those isolated by having English as an additional language; and
- 1.1.3. education and training in literacy, numeracy, communication and vocational skills; and
- 1.2 the relief of persons who are in need by reason of financial hardship, ill-health, unemployment and such other economic or social disadvantage.
The trustees of Flourishing Families Leeds have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit when overseeing all of the activities of the charity.
**Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)**
Flourishing Families Leeds is dedicated to helping families flourish by bringing down the barriers which will hinder flourishing. Our vision is to see children growing in confidence and fulfilling their potential, parents well supported and whole families equipped to connect well with each other and the community. We are passionate about helping children and families overcome challenges, painting a brighter horizon for their futures together. We work in areas of the city ranked amongst the most deprived 1% to 5% nationally, partnering with local primary schools, Social Care and other organisations who help us focus on supporting children most at risk from deprivation, inter-generational poverty and social isolation. We ensure that all our beneficiaries play an active part in decision-making and shaping activities so that projects are things that we do together rather than events that are organised ‘for them’. We believe that this approach is an integral part of children and adults growing in confidence and self-esteem. We:
- Address the challenge of poor nutrition, obesity and poor diet and food poverty by running family cookery clubs in partnership with local residents, primary schools and Social Care.
- Take on the challenge of low literacy levels in families through our fun and engaging Story Tellers Clubs.
- Help to tackle the challenges faced by primary school-aged children caused by invisible barriers to educational engagement such as low confidence and poor personal, social and emotional development, though activity-based mentoring.
- Improve low levels of financial literacy through an engaging programme of financial mentoring for children.
- Meet many of the support needs for parents and carers through our Art and Soul groups
- Increase social cohesion and integration by providing free English classes taught by a team of professionally qualified English as an Additional Language teachers.
- Coordinate all the above activities into a holistic approach that tackles these root issues, which can be tailored to the challenges faced by individual children and families.
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Section D Achievements and performance
**Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year**
We reported last year that Flourishing Families Leeds had continued to grow despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown beginning in March 2020. The focus for the remainder of that financial year through to the summer of 2020 moved away from school-based projects which could no longer operate to the feeding of families most in need. The start of our 2020-21 financial year in September 2020 saw schools returning and we were able to resume some in-school mentoring groups but COVID restrictions prevented parents from entering schools so other activities could not restart in a face-to-face format. Adaptability has always been important to us but it has become the essential quality over the last eighteen months. We were able to respond rapidly and flexibly through adjustments and innovations on an ongoing basis and this resulted in us surpassing all of our project targets and continue to grow with more people directly benefiting from our work than ever before. With schools reopening, we redesigned our mentoring groups to meet the needs of children returning after an absence of nearly 6 months. Supporting families through conversations during doorstep deliveries during the first lockdown and liaising with school family support workers meant that we knew parents and children were anxious and, in some cases, refusing to return to school. We responded by designing our Voyagers Mentoring Groups. This was a six-week programme of group mentoring sessions which focussed on helping children specifically at this challenging time. Sessions were craft and activity based and the atmosphere was fun and relaxed. The groups proved to be very popular and we were able to offer these groups to an increasing number of primary schools. Family Cookery Clubs were not able to run in schools as normal, so we adapted them into online clubs which combined the activity with a friendly doorstep visit to each family. Every week we delivered a bag of ingredients for a healthy main meal plus recipe cards. To enable families to easily cook together at home, we then posted video tutorials (initially on Facebook before we then launched our own YouTube channel). We had an extremely positive response from parents, many of whom have told us just what a lifeline it has been for them. One particularly important result from our ongoing monitoring and evaluation was that 100% of families taking part in online cookery clubs said that they were regularly repeating our recipes. This was a particularly encouraging result as it means we are able to help families change their diets in an on-going way to ones which are healthy, nutritious and affordable, meaning that poor diet, childhood obesity and food poverty can all be countered. The online cookery with cooking at home also allows families to adapt and personalise recipes which we believe is one of the reasons for such a high repeat level. Story Tellers normally works in partnership with local Primary schools to support Key Stage 1 children and their parents with their literacy skills. Usually, this takes place with story books, phonics crafts and games and using E-books. However, it was not possible to implement this in schools due to the restrictions. So, we also took Story Tellers online and then, in the warmer months, launched Open Air Story Tellers in local parks. Families participating online received a free Story Bag (with story books and crafts) delivered weekly to their doorstep, with the aim of providing a fun and engaging way for families to enjoy reading and exploring books together at home. We also created online videos, with a weekly ‘Story Time’ and craft tutorial – this guided the families through the Story Bags. We found that this approach not only allowed us to maintain a high level of family support but also provided more space for families to build
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Section D Achievements and erformance p
confidence in their literacy skills. The online Story Tellers groups opened a door for us to build even stronger links with families and learn more about the struggles many are facing with literacy. It led to us piloting an online library project and also beginning to explore how we can offer more focused literacy support for parents and carers. Another highlight in the year was the re-launching Art and Soul, our parent and carer support group. We were then able to meet safely using in-person groups some of the time, with a particular focus on improving well-being and countering anxiety and loneliness. Groups also met successfully on Zoom. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, we have been able to begin to develop ways of coordinating the different parts of our work to enable us to tailor our support to meet the challenges faced by individual children and families. This was primarily achieved by working closely with the family support teams in schools, through talking to families (particularly when delivering to their homes) and by specific team meetings focused on some individual families.
Over the year we saw more than 400 stories read in our family literacy groups and delivered well over 1,000 family meal packs. It was a demanding but hugely rewarding year, as we have witnessed at the sharp end both the devastating effects of the pandemic on the poor and the life-transforming difference that our work has made to hundreds and hundreds of families. The BBC reported in the summer of 2021 that 420,000 more children are on free school meals since the start of the first lockdown, meaning that over 1 in 5 children in England are now on free school meals and effectively facing some level of food poverty. The journey through the pandemic has been much longer and harder than many of us ever imagined. Inequalities have been exposed and amplified by the pandemic and, as we look ahead, we know that the poor are poorer and there is much work to do in our city.
We are so very grateful to all our supporters, staff and army of volunteers as we look back over the last year. We are especially grateful to the growing number of charitable trusts and individuals who have chosen to invest in the work that we do and partner with us. Their vision and generosity have enabled us to grow into one of the significant familyfocused charities in Leeds. We have directly supported more people than ever before, launched and run a successful graduate internship programme, enlarged the geographical spread of our provision to include more of West and the Southwest Leeds, seen our income increase to £150,000 whilst maintaining our low cost, grassroots approach and begun to move to an operational structure which will enable us to grow to become a city-wide charity. There’s also the 100% repeatability result from our online family cookery, the sustainable solution our cookery clubs offer to beat food poverty, the success of Story Tellers, the opportunity to address adult literacy levels, our mentoring meeting such vital needs at present and our growing partnerships across the city. We are therefore very excited about the future. One senior social worker, looking at a snapshot of our work and results, summed it up by saying, “Talk about an organisation doing the right stuff at the right time in the right place!”
Despite all of the challenges, 2020/21 has been a breakthrough gamechanging year for us and we intend to build on it to see similar gamechanging breakthroughs in the lives of an ever-increasing number of Leeds families.
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## **Section E Financial review**
Flourishing Families Leeds was started in February 2017. The trustees **Brief statement of the** aim to hold sufficient reserves in the charity to cover 3 months of typical **charity’s policy on reserves** running costs for the charity.
**Details of any funds materially in deficit**
None
## **Further financial review details (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant about:
- the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
- how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
- investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.
## **Section F Other optional information**
## **Section G Declaration**
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.**
**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
## **Signature(s)**
**Full name(s)** Richard Colbrook Claire Rachel Wong **Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc)**[Chair of Trustees ] Trustee **Date** 13/02/2022
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## **Accounts for Flourishing Families Leeds**
For the year ending 31 August 2021 Registered Charity Number: 1171626
_Page 1 of 2_
## **Receipts and Payments**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Total Restricted Unrestricted Last Year
Opening Balance Sep-21 Sep-21 Sep-21 Sep-20
123,173 112,872 10,301 45,885
Account 2021 2021 2021 2020
Receipts
Donated by Charitable Trusts 138,278 127,278 11,000 142,688
Fees for Cookery Club 444 444 184
Personal giving (unrestricted) and gift aid 917 917 440
Bank Interest 512 512 48
Furlough Grant 18,267 18,267 21,926
Total Receipts for Year 158,418 145,989 12,429 165,286
Total Receipts including opening balance 281,591 258,861 22,730 211,171
Payments
Staff Costs (salaries, Employer NI, pensions) 108,101 108,101 71,829
Staff Travel and Expenses 2,333 2,333 1,367
Staff Training and Development 295 295 20
Volunteer Recruitment and Training 162 162 431
Volunteer Travel Expenses 0 0 49
Material for English Conversation Classes 0 0 85
English meet up 0 0 84
Refreshments for English Conversation Classes 0 0 68
Mentoring Clubs Materials 637 637 1,111
Cookery Club Ingredients 6,363 6,363 1,797
Cookery Club Equipment 441 441 528
Art and Soul 634 634 23
Parent and Family Support 7 7 35
Creators' Clubs 642 642 166
Story Tellers 2,900 2,900 2,318
Parent and Toddler Group 0 0 53
Community Events 368 368 170
Stationery, postage, printing 702 702 350
Publicity and website 245 245 86
Audit, Bank Charges & Accounting Fees 1 1 0
DBS Registration and checks 319 319 343
Hardship Fund 219 219 30
Management, admin, insurance and fundraising 5,374 5,374 4,861
IT Software and Hardware 2,373 2,373 728
Coronavirus response 1,979 1,979 1,466
Total Payments 134,095 124,030 10,065 87,998
Surplus / Closing Balance 147,496 134,831 12,665 123,173
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **Accounts for Flourishing Families Leeds**
For the year ending 31 August 2021 Registered Charity Number: 1171626
_Page 2 of 2_
## **Statement of Assets and Liabilities**
At the end of the accounting period, Flourishing Families Leeds owned the following assets:
**----- Start of picture text -----**
|||
|---|---|
|Assets|Value|
|Cash Funds (Restricted)|134,831|
|Cash Funds (Unrestricted)|12,665|
|3 Laptops|960|
|Cookery Equipment|816|
|Craft and Art Materials and Equipment|210|
|Total Value of Assets|149,482|
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **Liabilities**
Flourishing Families Leeds had no liabilities at the end of the accounting period
In accordance with the Charitable Incorporated Organisations (General) Regulations 2012, the trustees of Flourishing Families Leeds can confirm that:
a) no guarantees have been given by the Flourishing Families Leeds CIO duiring the accounting period and therefore there is no potential liability under any guarantee that is outstanding at the date of the statement of assets and liabilities; and
b) there are no debts outstanding at the date of the statement of assets and liabilities which are owed by the CIO and which are secured by an express charge on any of the assets of the CIO.
Signed on behalf of the trustees of Flourishing Families Leeds:
Dr Richard Colbrook 13 February 2022
Mrs Claire Rachel Wong 13 February 2022
## Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of Flourishing Families Leeds
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Flourishing Families Leeds (the Charity) for the year ended 31 August 2021. Flourishing Families Leeds is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, entered on the Register of Charities on 15 February 2017 (registered charity number: 1171626).
## Responsibilities and Basis of the Report
As the charity trustees of the Charity you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the Act').
I report in respect of my examination of the Charity's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
## Independent Examiner's Statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
- accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or
- the accounts do 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.
Signed:
## Name: Nicola Clare Elizabeth Longmore
Member of the Association of Accounting Technicians Address: 79 Pegasus Road, Oxford, OX4 6DT Date: 22 February 2022