2025-10-03-accounts

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Newborn, Infant and Child Health Education International

Registered Charity Number: 1174977

Trustees’ Report and

Accounts

For the Year Ended 3[rd ] October 2025

tents
Legal and Administrative Information	3
Report of the Trustees	4
Independent Examiner's Report	7
Statement Of Receipts and Payments	8
Statement of Assets and Liabilities	9

LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Charity Name: Newborn, Infant and Child Health Education International also known as NICHE International

Charity Number: 1174977

Principal Address: Lytchett House, 13 Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Poole, Dorset, BH16 6FA

Charity Trustees:

Trustees who served during the year:

Alison Earley Chair Alison Grove Joanna Bruce- Jones John Madar Alistair Morris Sebastian Palmer Julia Thomson Catherine Harrison Also 2 co-opted charity members: Dr Jarlath O’Donohoe and Mrs Grace Ndze Bongban

Independent Examiner:

Alliah Hamid Swan Accountants Studio 208, Embroidery Mill, Abbey Mill Business Centre, Paisley, Scotland. PA1 1TJ

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

Structure, Governance and Management

Newborn, Infant and Child Health Education International (also known as NICHE International) is a Charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales with effect from 4[th] October 2017, with registration number 1174977.

The charity is constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). The charity is governed and administered in accordance with its constitution, which was adopted on 4[th] October 2017 and amended with effect from 12[th] February 2018.

Trustees are appointed for a term of two years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees.

There are 8 trustees, 5 of whom are doctors, and the chair of the trustees rotates. Trustees have experience working for teaching and medical charities in Cameroon, Liberia and other resource poor countries, in project management, post-graduate teaching and business. The charity Trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no remuneration or other benefits in return for their work.

The charity operates a safeguarding policy, an equality and diversity policy, an advocacy policy and a code of conduct to which all trustees and volunteers must adhere.

Partnerships : In Cameroon, the charity works in partnership with the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services (CBCHS). Course candidates come from both the CBCHS health facilities and the government hospitals in all areas of Cameroon. In Uganda the charity works in partnership with Bwindi Community Hospital, and UK based charity Child Health Matters

The charity has a Memorandum of Understanding in place with three other health education charities working in developing countries:

Advanced Life Support Group (ALSG) Registered Charity 1045478
Child Health Matters. Registered Charity 1184421

Risks relate to travelling and working in middle- and low-income countries with poorly resourced health systems and/or political instability. Each trip is risk assessed with reference to in-country advisors and Foreign & Commonwealth Office guidelines.

The charity provides comprehensive travel and medical insurance. A Security and Safety Operating Procedures handbook (SOPS) is provided to all trustees and volunteers.

Objectives and Activities

Charitable Objects

To relieve sickness and to promote and protect the good health of babies and children. To work to reduce mortality rates in low- and middle-income countries, by assisting in the provision of training courses and other healthcare projects.

Main Activities

In planning our activities for the year, we have kept in mind the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit at our trustees’ meetings.

Our focus is to continue to teach the Neonatal Care provider courses to frontline practitioners from all healthcare sectors in Cameroon, Uganda and other poorly resourced areas of the world. These courses have been designed by ALSG and MCAI especially for resource limited settings and we have made further adaptations for our work in Cameroon, Liberia and Uganda. Three of the charity trustees sit on the ALSG Strengthening Emergency Care committee, which oversees the educational content of the Neonatal Care Course.

The course covers resuscitation at birth and problems which occur in the first weeks of life. Simple equipment is used and there is an emphasis on basic care such as breast feeding and skin-to-skin care in line with the World Health Organisation’s ‘Every Newborn Action Plan’.

We aim to promote sustainability by training local staff to become instructors and to teach the Neonatal Care course to others. Training local trainers is done through the ALSG / Resus Council Generic Instructor Course (GIC), which covers educational theory and practical teaching, assessment and feedback skills. There are now trained African instructors who are included in teaching faculties.

We believe that training local instructors is vital for embedding new ways of working and for the sustainability of the project.

We work to encourage peer to peer skills practice among local health care staff.

We continue to develop partnerships with our in-country hosts in order to deliver these courses as widely as possible, and also with organisations in the UK which develop and promote healthcare courses and course materials which are designed for middle- and low-income countries.

The volunteers who work for NICHE International are doctors, nurses and resuscitation officers with appropriate clinical backgrounds who have been accredited by the Advanced Life Support Group (ALSG) and/or the Resuscitation Council (RC(UK)) to teach neonatal and other life support courses in the UK. All have considerable experience of instructing, some of them as course directors, and also have knowledge of teaching in low- and middle-income countries. Instructors are recruited through ALSG, and through teaching contacts of current instructors.

These volunteers give their time and expertise to deliver the Neonatal Care course alongside the qualified NICHE trustees.

Achievements and Performance

A partnership has been formed with the charity, Child Health Matters (reg charity no. 1174977) to deliver Newborn Care Courses in Bwindi Community Hospital, South-West Uganda. Contact has been maintained with the hospital, and neonatal care courses for 72 hospital staff and nursing students were taught in January 2025. Local Ugandan instructors also ran a course for nursing students.

Cameroonian Instructors have travelled to various Regions of the country in 2025, and taught 4 Neonatal Care Courses, as well as delivering refresher training. Civil unrest in the country remains a problem.

The NCC was updated in 2025, with online learning modules added. In January 2025 this new course was trialled using volunteer candidates with a variety of backgrounds. It was then taught in Uganda.

Plans for next year:

Uganda : Training in a different area of SW Uganda, Kabale health district, is planned for 2026 in association with another charity Edirisa UK.

Another GIC and NCCs are also planned for Bwindi.

Cameroon : A Cameroonian nurse with training in nurse education has been identified. The plan is to give her some further training to enable her to fulfil the criteria to be an Advanced Life Support Educator for the GIC. This should complete our 10 steps to sustainability, see https://www.nicheinternational.org.uk/front-page/truly-sustainable-training.

Further training and Instructor support is planned for 2026, with facilitation of peer-to-peer learning.

India : Training in neonatal care planned for 2026

Zimbabwe : Training has been requested at Murambinda Mission Hospital Zimbabwe for 2026.

Fuller details of NICHE International’s background, achievements and plans, including costings, are detailed in the charity’s current business plan which may be found on the website. www.nicheinternational.org.uk

Financial Review

Policy on reserves

The charity currently holds no substantial reserves. The funds available have been used for charitable activities.

Should the charity be in the position to build up reserves in unrestricted funds, this would be used in the first instance to provide an emergency fund in case extraction of the charity’s volunteers working overseas were to become necessary.

Review of accounts

During first part of the year, funding came from a mixture of grants and fundraising by the trustees.

The online support of courses and material developed, which is listed above, was carried out by the charity’s volunteers.

Funds currently held will be used to deliver our training courses – Neonatal Care Course (NCC) and Generic Instructor Course (GIC)

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:

Signature(s):

Full name(s): Alison Earley Sebastian Palmer Position: Trustee Trustee Date: 07/06/2026 08/06/2026

INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS REPORT

Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees/Members of NICHE International

I have examined the accounts of NICHE International for the year ended 3rd October 2025, as set out on pages 8 to 9 of this report.

Trustees' Responsibilities

As the trustees of NICHE International, you are responsible for preparing the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (the "Act").

Basis of Independent Examiner’s Report

I report on my examination of the charity’s accounts, conducted under Section 145 of the Charities Act 2011. In carrying out my examination, I have followed the relevant directions issued by the Charity Commission under Section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent Examiner’s Statement

I have completed my examination and can confirm that nothing has come to my attention during the examination that causes me to believe, in any material respect, that:

The accounting records have not been maintained in accordance with Section 130 of the Act; or
The accounts do not accurately reflect the accounting records.

I have no other concerns or issues to raise regarding the accounts that would need to be highlighted to ensure a full understanding of the financial statements.

Signed:

Dated: 5[th] June 2026