Chairs’ Report for the Year 2019-2020 (1 September 2019 – 31 August 2020)
Presented to the AGM on 21 October 2020 and submitted to the Charities Commission as part of the Charity’s annual return.
Reference and Administration details
Charity Name: Haslingfield Little Owls Pre-School CIO
Registered Charity No: 1174884
Charity’s Principal Address: Haslingfield Little Owls Pre-School CIO
Haslingfield Methodist Church High Street Haslingfield Cambridge CB23 1JW
Name of the charity trustees who manage the charity:
| Trustee Name | Office (if any) | Dates acted if not for whole year |
|---|---|---|
| Laura Mavely | Chair | (From 7 January 2020 to date) |
| Suzy Offord | Chair | Resigned as Chair 7 January 2020. Continued as Trustee. Resigning 21 October 2020 |
| Ella Pope | Trustee | |
| Helen Brammar | Trustee | Appointed Treasurer 21 October 2020 |
| Lucy Lawson | Vice Treasurer | Resigning 21 October 2020 |
| Heather Duke | Secretary | |
| Aja Hickford | ||
| Ruth Hatfield | ||
| Laura Stringer | Resigned 13 September 2020 | |
| Katie York | ||
| Phillippa (Pippa) Keynes | Treasurer | Retiring as Treasurer 21 October 2020 |
Structure and Governance
The Model CIO Constitution for Childcare Providers 2013 from the Pre-School Alliance (now Early Years Alliance) has been adopted and remains unaltered.
Membership will consist of:
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1) Family Members – family of children
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2) Affiliate Members – anyone interested in furthering the aims of the charity.
Trustees will consist of:
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1) A minimum of three members
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2) A maximum of 12
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3) with at least two thirds members having children at the pre-school.
Trustees are appointed and reappointed annually at the Annual General Meeting. All trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no remuneration or other benefits.
Chair’s introduction
2019 – 2020 has been an academic year of ups and downs for Little Owls. We have experienced huge highs, with our Manager continuing to lead the setting in a way that we can all be proud of, and with wonderful outcomes for the children. Two of our staff commenced their Level 3 qualifications and we have been privileged to see their dedication to the setting, as well as to their courses. This year the staff have really come together in the face of tough times and it has been appreciated by all in the Little Owls community.
Once again the Chair’s report must start with thanks for the incredible support given to Little Owls from many parts of the local community including the Methodist Church, the Parish Council, Haslingfield Primary School and particularly the committee, staff, parents and children.
2020 has truly been a year like no other. We were facing challenges in March with a chronic lack of qualified Early Years Practitioners in the market, and no choice but to rely on expensive agency staff. Our Deputy also resigned in March, meaning that we weren’t sure how we would continue for the remainder of the academic year. As it turned out our staffing issues paled into comparison with what we faced with the pandemic.
Little Owls closed on 18 March and did not reopen until 1 June. During this period we furloughed 5 members of staff, and our Manager remained working, albeit from home, supporting vulnerable children and also running ‘Together Time’ sessions on zoom for those children who wanted to join. This was a huge feat for our manager and also committee, with huge amounts of work relating to the furlough scheme and also adapting to last minute and ever-changing guidance. I am proud of the way that Little Owls continued to serve its community in the most challenging of circumstances, and incredibly grateful for the hard work of our Manager.
We reopened to vulnerable children, key worker children and children in their pre-school year (the Moonbeams). Unfortunately we could not make it work to have more than 1 ‘bubble’ under the government guidelines and so weren’t able to have more children back in the Summer term.
The Summer term at Little Owls was fantastic and really gave us an insight into how Little Owls could run. We had fewer children and were outside almost all of the time. The children had a campfire,
tended to the garden, sewed and built bonds that would carry the pre-schoolers into Primary school with ease.
Our staffing situation has continued to be difficult and as such, we re-opened 15 hours per week (Monday and Tuesday 9:00 -15:00 and Wednesday 09:00 – 12:00). Unfortunately, we did not have the number of qualified staff required to offer more hours.
We are thrilled to have recruited a new Deputy who was an experienced Level 3 practitioner. Our hope is that we will open more hours in the future with her on the team.
We have also recruited an Early Years assistant who has been helping with the additional burdens brought on by the pandemic. This is working well, and will be kept under review due to financial constraints.
The network that has been developed over the past two years has been invaluable in terms of managing through the pandemic. Both the Manager and Committee has been in regular communication with the local Primary School and also the Local Authority. Our relationship with the Methodist Church, our landlord, has been incredibly helpful in terms of us being able to continue to run.
Objectives & Activities
Our objectives continue to be to work for the public benefit with regards the development and education of children, in particular by:
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Promoting their care and safety;
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Promoting their education and promoting parental involvement;
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Promoting their health and wellbeing;
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Providing services to support them and their families and carers;
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Providing services to individuals holding membership of the CIO;
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Furthering the aims of the preschool learning alliance [now the Early Years Alliance].
The Trustees have given careful consideration to the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance.
Our activities have continued to be the provision of Early Years care to children aged 2- 4 (inclusive). We have been able to continue to offer some level of provision to all children who required it for the entire academic term, including when the setting was closed. This demonstrates our commitment to the objectives of the setting, particularly promoting the health and wellbeing of the children and their families.
Achievements and Performance
During a period of such difficulty for the Early Years sector in general, we are proud to have offered a high level of provision for our children, and to have broken even.
Staffing has been a chronic problem during my tenure as a Trustee of Little Owls and we feel that the investment we are making in our staff is now paying dividends. We are on the way to having a full cohort of qualified level 3 Early Years practitioners which will ease the burden on the setting greatly. Our Manager has been in the setting for two full years now and we are seeing her hard work starting to bed in, with process improvements, and better outcomes for children that are easy to see.
Our Committee has come together in a special way in the face of the pandemic, whether than be assessing reams of guidance, liaising with the Local Authority, or going into the setting and removing soft furnishings / preparing the garden.
We have had a successful fundraising year, particularly when considering that we were unable to meet or do any fundraising for half of the year.
We reviewed and approved our reserves policy during the academic year. Whilst the reserves appear higher than some settings may have, we felt that in the current circumstances, with the increased burden the pandemic would impose on Little Owls from an overhead point of view and also the impact on fundraising, this was a prudent approach.
The year ahead
It is difficult to plan the year ahead in the face of such tumultuous times when we cannot guarantee to be open from one week to the next. With this in mind, our aim has to be to continue to care for the children and offer the highest level of provision, and also to remain financially viable.
Thanks, and Gratitude
We remain ever grateful to the committee, staff, parents, children and other stakeholders. As I said at the beginning of this report, this has been a year like no other and at a time when preschools are struggling more than ever, it is true to say that Little Owls wouldn’t be here, let alone functioning at the high level it does without the commitment of all of the people listed above.
Laura Mavely
Chair, Haslingfield Little Owls Pre-School Management Committee
21 October 2020
Haslingfield Little Owls INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT
1st September 2019 to 31st August 2020
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12 months 12 months
2019/20 2018/19
INCOME
Fees 44,628 38,823
Fund raising income 8,339 10,258
Donations 10,245 5,100
Miscellaneous income 0 0
Interest 0 0
Interest 52 54
Total Income 63,264 54,235
EXPENDITURE
Wages and salaries 47,701 37,288
Employers PAYE & NIC
Fund raising expenditure 1,663 2,787
Rent 3,550 5,760
Professional fees 1,310 952
Broadband
Equipment purchases 6,925 2,831
Insurance 451 452
Miscellaneous expenses 327 334
Mobile phone 0
Postage, stationery & photocopying
Staff training
Subscriptions
OFSTED payment
Training 754 707
Subscriptions 12 45
Total Expenditure 62,692 51,157
Surplus (Deficit) 572 3,078
Haslingfield Little Owls
BALANCE SHEET
As at 31st August 2020
2019/20 2018/19
CASH
Cash (bank current account) 14,350 19,627
Deposit account
Cash (bank deposit account) 10,012 9,960
Cash in hand 70 574
Total Cash 24,433 30,161
DEBTORS
Prepayments and accrued income 1,428 287
Interest accrued
Milk refund
Unpaid fees 15
Fund raising income
Fees received late 99
Total Debtors 1,527 302
CREDITORS
Invoices payable (80)
Refund of fees (covid) (261) 0
Holiday pay 0
Expenses Due (82) (32)
Fees paid in advance (3,032)
PAYE (234) (284)
Donation HPC for next fy (2,200)
Fundraising income (25)
Total Creditors (576) (5,652)
Total 25,383 24,811
ACCUMULATED FUND
Balance brought forward 24,811 21,733
Surplus/(Deficit) for the year 572 3,078
Total 25,383 24,811
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CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner'5 Report Report to the tNt¢dIrettotsl momber8 of Haslingfield Littlo Owls PrchOOl ¢10 On a¢¢ounts for th• ymr ended 31 August 2020 ¢harfty no.: 1174884 Company no.: CEO12367 Sat out on pago8 1 to3 I report to the charrty tnJstee$ on my exarninatn of the aceounts olthe Company forthe yeareNJed 3110&12020. RponsIbIlI¢S and ba818 of report A8 the charty'8 trustees of the Company (who are also the directors of the e¢mpany forthe purposes of Company lawl. you are resp)nsible for the pparatiOn of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Companie5 Act 20061.the 2006 Acl'l. Having satlsfied MYSeIhat the ac£ounts of the Company are not required to be audited for this year under Part 16 of the 2006 Act ancl are eligible for independent exarnination. I report in spect of my examination of your Charity's a¢¢ounls as ¢amed out under section 145 of the Charrties Act 2011 I"me 2011 Act"). In carrying out rny examination. I have followed the Directions gwen by the Charity Commission lund8r Section 1495llbl of the 2011 A¢t. Ind•pèndènt examinerf$ $tstsmont I have compteted my examination l ¢onfirm that no material matters hav me to my attention which give5 me cause lo believe that". . accounting record5 We not kept in a¢¢ordan¢e with section 386 of the Companies A¢t 2006,. or . the accounts do not accord wrth Such records." or the account$ do not Comply with r818vant accounting requirements under section 396 of the Companies Act 2006 otherthan any requirement that the account5 give a'lfue and fairf view whi¢h Ls not a matter eon8id8red a5 Part of an ndependent eKamination,' or he accounts havv not en tyepa in accordance with the Chariti8S SORP IFRS1021. IER October 2018
I have no concems and have corne aryDSS no Other matters in COn¢tiOn with the examination lo which attention should be drawn In this rewrt in order to enab a KKoper understanding of the account5 to be rea¢hed. ' Pl&8se IY lh8 btrrrds h? IhÉ¥ brackets iftheydo not 8pply. Sned.. Oato: 11.01.2021 Nqmo.. David J Rowe R•levaTrt profe$$l•nal quallficatlonlsl or body lit anyl-. F¢lloe of CIMA and CGMA Addrem.. 16 Vwerfies Drive Bristol 8S18 1 HX Section B Disclosure Only complete If the examiner neecls to highlight matenal matters of concarn 18ee CC32, Independent examinatson of charity accounts". difyctions and guidance for examiners). Glv8 hero brief detsilB of any Items that the examiner wi$h•* to d18c108e. Nothing to report. IER Oetob•r 2018