Willow Green Trustees Annual Report Period Ending 31[st] August 2025
Our aims
Willow Green is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) registered with the Charities Commission, with Registered Charity Number 1173796. The purpose of the CIO is to “to empower young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities, through the delivery of practical and skill-based programmes, that will enable them to participate fully in society as independent, mature and responsible individuals.”
Currently, to achieve and develop socially, emotionally and economically after age 16, the young people of Warrington with special educational needs and disabilities must move or travel out of the area. This means being away from their surroundings, families and support networks. It can lead to great distress because of the upset to the routine of the young person and those around them as well as often being at great expense to both the local authority and local families.
Willow Green aims to create a familiar, supportive and local environment which will further the lives of young people with SEND through high quality, bespoke development programmes based on their individual needs. The programmes will provide a foundation for lifelong learning and wellbeing. They will focus on essential and transferrable work, economic, social and life skills which will enable increased independence and selfdetermination.
Willow Green puts the individual and their specific requirements at the heart of our provision. We develop our learners by supporting their participation, volunteering and employment possibilities and liaising with partner agencies to offer our learners a place within their organisation. We want to enable our learners to reach their maximum potential.
We provide a nurturing environment where learners feel cared for and respected. Our team encourage our learners to be kind and caring towards each other and role-model this behaviour themselves.
Our staff team inspire our learners to be stronger and more confident young adults. We share our determination to succeed and encourage our learners to be ambitious in their choices. We empower our learners by providing them with the tools needed to pursue these choices and control their own future.
Willow Green is a supportive, encouraging and inclusive college environment where we all share and celebrate in one another's success.
Our ambition
Is for all our learners at Willow Green to develop the skills and knowledge needed to progress towards employment and reach their maximum potential.
Impact
When learners leave Willow Green they will have gained experience, knowledge and skills needed to achieve their goals and succeed in the working world. They will know more, remember more, and be able to
apply more, meaning that they can do and achieve more. We will enable our learners to learn, think and act more independently.
Our Achievements during Academic Year 2024/25
For the academic year 2024/25 we provided 32 places in total, with:
-
1 Learner on the Supported Internships pathway (Education).
-
2 Learners on the Pre-Supported Internships pathway (Education).
-
29 learners on the Adult Social Care programmes.
For the academic year 2024/25 we had 7 leavers who achieved the following qualifications:
-
2 learners achieved a BTEC L1 Introductory Certificate in Vocational Studies (Merit/ Pass)
-
1 Learner completed two BTEC qualifications; a BTEC EL3 Award in Workskills and a BTEC EL3 Award in Entry to Vocational Studies.
-
4 Adult Social Care learners studied and achieved a BTEC EL3 Extended Award in Workskills, 3 of whom left the service to enter paid or voluntary employment.
Those leaving the Pre-Supported Internships pathway have continued with Willow Green into 25/26 and have progressed onto their final Supported Internship year.
Learner feedback indicates that learners feel safe, are supported to develop a sense of belonging and their wellbeing is consistently supported. Attendance has remained high with low level behaviour at a minimum. It is noted that where learners experience barriers to their learning, they are fully supported by staff and therapies.
Through ongoing quality improvement, there is a continued focus on building employer relationships, increasing learner on and off the job realworld experiences and providing opportunities to further improve independence and employability chances.
Staffing
We continued to make changes to our staffing structure for the 2024/25 academic year to support the continued improvement of both our Education and Adult Social Care programmes. We introduced a new Head of Willow Green role to be responsible for the delivery of all of our programmes, as well as recruiting another experienced qualified teacher to further enhance our Education-funded programmes. We have continued to bolster our team by directly employing our Learning Support Assistants to reduce our reliance on Agency staff.
During this period we have continued to invest in Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for our staff to enable them to meet the developing needs of our learners and to improve their own pedagogical practice. A detailed monitoring and quality assurance cycle ensures that highstandard, quality-first teaching is maintained with further development and training being provided for teachers/ tutors where identified.
Trustees
During this period we recruited additional Trustees to provide more expertise in safeguarding, quality of education and learning, and developing relationships and placement opportunities with employers.
Our Finances for Period Ending 31[st] August 2025
Revenues for the period total £1,474,924. The total cost of the provision for the period (i.e. both the education and social care programmes) was £1,376,497 and the net operating surplus for Willow Green was £98,427.
Future Plans
Following the success of our programmes and the recent Ofsted inspection, in which Willow Green achieved the Expected Standard in all areas with safeguarding being met, we are looking to continue to grow to meet the changing needs of the cohort of students into academic year 2026/27 and beyond. There is a national push to increase the number of Supported Interns enrolled on programmes and as such we have amended our provision offer to take account of the increasing support needs of this cohort.
In the longer term we are still in need of larger premises with several options open to us which are being assessed. Plans currently involve the investigation of moving all Willow Green programmes to a newly refurbished site within the town which would become a shared site with the local special 6[th] form college but this will not be ready until late September 2026 at the earliest.
We are also exploring running the provision over 2 separate sites to create greater separation between the Education and Adult Social Care programmes as well as address the issues with lack of space at St Werburghs Development Centre.
| Willow green CIO Profit and Loss Report 04 April, 2024 - 31 August, 2025 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Sales | ||
| 2021 - Income Lunches 4,239.50 |
||
| 4000 - Funding ASC 1,167,084.63 4010 - Funding Ed 295,794.87 4021 - Income Cafe 5,781.32 4900 - Other income 2,024.12 Total Sales £1,474,924.44 |
||
| Direct Expenses | ||
| 5010 - Education costs 622.01 |
||
| 5020 - College materials 17,692.95 5030 - Learner equipment 6,798.75 5031 - Furniture 2,981.10 5040 - Exams & Assessment 7,052.40 5050 - Shared service 118,993.00 5061 - Events and Hospitality 1,910.28 5070 - Service improvement 750.00 5090 - College Meals 17,686.70 5091 - Cafe Expenditure 593.83 5100 - Contracts and leases 888.98 5110 - IT Services 1,279.00 Total Direct Expenses £177,249.00 |
||
| GROSS PROFIT / LOSS £1,297,675.44 | ||
| Overheads | ||
| 6000 - Marketing 402.96 |
||
| 6010 - Supply Staff 226,024.22 6020 - Other staffing costs 11,850.00 7000 - Employee Wages and Salaries 854,296.98 |
| 7095 - Recruitment Expenses 516.60 7100 - Rent 17,096.14 7400 - Travelling 2,012.88 7520 - Office Costs 2,089.82 7530 - Telephone 3,228.01 7540 - Internet Charges 1,609.71 7550 - Computer & Software 13,620.27 7600 - Health and Safety 3,203.89 7620 - Consultancy & Professional Fees 1,103.40 7630 - Business Insurance 15,528.47 7800 - Repairs and Renewals 4,164.18 7810 - Cleaning & Hygiene 1,037.32 7900 - Bank Charges 85.00 8200 - General Expenses 4,919.03 8210 - Subscriptions 25,773.89 8230 - Training Costs 10,171.53 8240 - Refreshments 513.75 Total Overheads |
|
|---|---|
| £1,199,248.05 | |
| NET PROFIT / LOSS | £98,427.39 |
Willow green CIO Balance Sheet Report To: 31 August, 2025 ASSETS Fixed Assets Total Fixed Assets £0.00 Current Assets 1200 - Bank Account 436,580.02 Total Current Assets £436,580.02 TOTAL ASSETS £436,580.02 LIABILITIES Current Liabilities 1220 - Willow Green CIO Credit card 4,242.79 2100 - Trade Creditors 1,268.51 Total Current Liabilities £5,511.30
Future Liabilities
Total Future Liabilities £0.00 TOTAL LIABILITIES £5,511.30 TOTAL NET ASSETS £431,068.72
EQUITY
Net Profit / Loss 431,068.72 Net Profit / Loss (prior year(s)) 634,959.52 Net Profit / Loss (current year) -203,890.80 TOTAL EQUITY £431,068.72
Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report Report to the trustees/ Charity Name members of WillowGreenCIO 31[rd] August 2025 Charity no 1173796 (if any) N/A (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets) On accounts for the year ended Set out on Pages: I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the period ended 31/08/2025 Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation of basis of report the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”). Independent examiner's statement: I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention ~~(other than that disclosed below *)~~ in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: • accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or • the accounts do not accord with the accounting records I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. * Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.
Signed: Date: 17/04/2026 Name: Debbie Monk, Norbreck Ltd
Relevant professional MAAT qualification(s) or body (if any): Address:
107 Norbreck Close, Great Sankey, Warrington, Cheshire, WA5 2SJ
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .
----- Start of picture text -----
N/A
----- End of picture text -----