## **The Magpie Project**
**Trustees Annual Report and Unaudited Financial Statements Year ended 31 August 2025**
Charity registration - 1176267
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
## **Contents**
|**Contents**||
|---|---|
|Legal and administrative information|4|
|Trustees annual report|5|
|Objectives and activities|5|
|Achievements and performance in the year|6|
|Partnerships and collaborations|11|
|Organisational development|13|
|Plans for the future|15|
|Structure, governance & management|17|
|Financial review|17|
|Statement of Board of Trustees’ responsibilities|18|
|Independent examiner’s report|20|
|Statement of fnancial activities|22|
|Balance sheet|23|
|Statement of cash fows|24|
|Notes to the fnancial statements|25|
Charity number 1176267
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
## **Legal and administrative information**
## Charity name
The Magpie Project
## Charity registration no.
1176267
## Registered offce and contact details
Grassroots Centre Memorial Avenue London E15 3DB
## Trustees
Sveta Alladi-Sekidde Therese Bynon Paula Reily Samantha Ward (Interim chair until December 2025) Amy Ross (appointed September 2024, resigned September 2025) Christy Isaac (appointed April 2025) Theodore Harrison (appointed April 2025) Freya Stock Jones (appointed May 2025) Maria Iglesias (appointed December 2025, appointed chair December 2025)
## Chief executive offcer
Jane Williams
## Finance and operations manager
Rosie Harries (resigned September 2025) Director of operations Connie Cullen (appointed October 2025)
## Independent examiner
Enaid Accountancy Ltd Platform 10 Engine Rooms Hood Road Barry CF62 5QL
## Bankers
HSBC Bank plc 15 The Mall Stratford E15 1XL
Charity number 1176267
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**Year ended 31 August 2025**
**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
## **Trustees annual report**
The Board of Trustees submit their annual report and the financial statements of The Magpie Project for the year ended 31 August 2025.
The Board of Trustees confirms that the annual report and financial statements of the Charity comply with current statutory requirements, including the Charity Act 2011, as well as the requirements of the Society’s governing document and the provisions of the ‘Charities SORP (FRS 102) - Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) second edition (effective 1 January 2019)’, and the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).
## Objectives and activities
## Objectives
The objects of the Charity are: The prevention and relief of poverty for families with young children living in temporary accommodation or at threat of homelessness in Newham and adjacent boroughs – in particular, providing a space to play and learn, and for parents to gain professional advice and form social networks in order to alleviate immediate difficulties, seek solutions to address their need and reintegrate into existing universal services.
We support insecurely or temporarily housed women with pre-school children living in Newham and surrounding boroughs, who on entry to our project are subject to the hostile immigration environment. Our mission is to make life better – materially, socially, financially, and emotionally – for the families coming to the project and to ensure that pre-school children do not suffer long-term negative consequences of the poor housing and destitution they are experiencing. We know that we are not able to resolve for each mum and child the structural issues of housing, the hostile immigration environment, the cost of living, and entrenched poverty that form a complex web of barriers to their wellbeing. For each family, we aim to reduce the risk to their immediate wellbeing and mitigate the long-term risks to their health and development that these interconnected issues pose. We do this by offering a continuum of care including practical and material help, peer to peer support, play, joy and celebration, belonging and reassurance – while our family support teams try to advocate and navigate the services to which our mums are entitled. This year, our Reach team built on the launch of a campaign “No Child in a Home without a Kitchen”, empowering mums to advocate for the structural change which their experience makes clear is essential.
Our vision is for happier, healthier children, being positively parented by well-supported and well-informed mums who feel more in control of their situation.
## Activities
Our activities include the provision of services from our building at the Grassroots Centre in West Ham, to families with pre-school children who are subject to the hostile immigration environment on entry, and campaigning on the policy and practical issues which affect them. Our full timetable of regular events can be seen below (see Performance: Service Delivery).
At the centre of the open access sessions is our stay and play session, where mums and minis have space and time to play together, spend time with peers and enjoy the toys and variety of themed activities designed by our play team to ensure bodies and minds can relax and develop.
We offer mums and minis freshly prepared breakfast and lunch alongside our open access sessions every week; making use of fresh food delivered to us by partners City Harvest to create nutritious and delicious meals.
During the play session, mums can talk with our casework team, who connect them with services and provide small grants for emergencies and essential items. Our baby bank provides essential items such as nappies, wipes, clothes and maternity bags for new mums, on site.
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## **The Magpie Project**
Annual report and financial statements
Alongside our regular sessions we are able to offer our mums and minis one-off events either in our workshop sessions or through outings with visiting organisations and partners. We also organise trips to local parks, Discover Story Centre and Westfield’s Christmas grottos. This year we have continued to offer SEND provision on a Thursday and a Maternity Listening Circle for mothers who have recently given birth to talk through their experiences.
Our REACH team campaign, No Child in a Home Without a Kitchen, aims to end the use of hotels without kitchens to house families with children under five.
Fig 1. The Magpie Project Intervention Pyramid
## Public Beneft Statement
The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 4 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit, ‘Charities and Public Benefit’.
## Achievements and performance in the year
## Numbers supported
Over the past year we supported 513 mums and 790 pre-school children (2023-24: 541 and 557. 2022-23: 495 and 537). This slight decrease in the number of families attending over the course of the year was due to several factors, first and most importantly our move to a new building in September 2024. We found our number of visitors from September to December 2024 was significantly lower than it had been the previous year, though since that period the number of families has again increased. The second reason for this slight decrease in numbers is due to the closure of one Home Office hotel housing families in Newham in 2024, and a general decrease in the number of families placed in contingency hotels. We regularly monitor our numbers and review our eligibility criteria.
## Service Delivery
This year we concentrated on embedding our services in our new base, while adding only a few new programmes and partnerships. Our schedule continues to offer a range activities for mums and minis throughout the week during term-time:
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
|**MONDAY**|**TUESDAY**|**WEDNESDAY**|**THURSDAY**|**FRIDAY**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|Drop-in stay-and-
play session with
breakfast, lunch,
play, baby bank,
and casework
Workshops on
accessing housing,
benefts, banking
services|Specialist advice
session in
partnership with
Shelter, Praxis, and
UCL Centre for
Access to Justice|Drop-in stay-and-
play session with
breakfast, lunch,
play, baby bank,
and casework
Workshops on
specifc topics
such as potty
training, safe
sleeping, children’s
development|‘Pathways’ project
for children with
emerging SEN
Form Filling
partnership with
UCL and Clyde and
co.
‘Music,
Motherhood,
and Me’ project
– concluded
December 2024.|Singing and music-
making
Steering committee
meetings
REACH campaign
group fortnightly
meeting|
## Supported stay and play
Our stay-and-play sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays continue to be the keystone of the week. This year 433 families accessed a stay and play session with there being 2,514 individual family visits.
Whereas until September 2024 we were operating out of a single room, our new building has enabled us to offer much more focused and deep play in a dedicated space where food is separate, and we do not have to set up and pack down to enable other meetings, or workshops to take place. This has transformed the quality of our play.
New families come to register with us, and those who are already members of the project enjoy:
- Quality indoor and outdoor directed developmentally aware play
- Healthy breakfast and lunch
- Access to our baby bank of nappies, clothes, toiletries and other essential items
- Casework and family support
- Dance and movement artists supporting child development
- English conversation drop-in
- Togetherness and joy within a safe and familiar space
To make sure that we have understood and mitigated the barriers that families face trying to access help we:
- Run a strictly drop-in service with no appointments
- Give £3.50 towards the cost of travel
- Ensure that there are free breakfast and lunch available at all these sessions
- Offer nappies and clothes where needed
- Provide an interpretation service for all casework
- Create a safe and welcoming space which is trauma-informed, child-centred, and designed to offer
- a safety net for families during their time in crisis
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
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Food offer
Our new building’s kitchen enabled us to extend the quality of our food offer to families – allowing them to access a healthy breakfast all morning in a dedicated café area, as well as enabling a more extensive vegetarian lunch menu cooked on site from scratch. All attending families (513) accessed food at every visit and we estimate that we have provided 9,930 nutritious meals for our mums and minis, staff and volunteers during the year. We have also offered 440 special occasion meals at Christmas, Iftar at Eid and summer parties and estimate that we have been able to provide 1,500 bags of take-home fresh ingredients after sessions.
## Taster and information workshops
We use workshop sessions from 1pm to 2pm on Mondays and Wednesdays in three distinct ways. Firstly, to discuss internal organisation – we organize termly ‘mothers’ meetings’ to hear about what mothers want from the project, we also discuss and update our shared behaviour agreements and values. Secondly, we use these sessions to introduce the offers of our own wider programme (e.g., Motherhood listening circles, information sessions on our graduation workshops; or other local organisations local keep fit groups offering taster sessions, partners such as Discover Story showcasing their offer). Thirdly, we use the workshop sessions to discuss and give information and discuss parenting concerns such as dental health, potty training, sleep and safety in the home. A total of 101 unique families have attended one or more postsession workshops.
## Family Support
Every new mum is offered a welcome meeting with our casework team which is intended to make sure the family is plugged into the support services they need and to which they are entitled including; food banks, health GP, midwives, and other local charities. Every year our two-person casework team offers placements to two social work students a year to increase capacity on referrals and recording data. As well as listening, providing navigation, advocacy, and a sense of welcome and belonging our referrals have included:
- 223 food bank referrals
- 104 referrals to our sister project Newham Nurture for ante-natal care
- 92 referrals to our partner Praxis for immigration advice
- 40 referrals to Shelter for housing advice and advocacy
- 78 referrals to health visitors
- 57 to local children’s centres
- 15 to domestic violence
- 18 multi-agency safeguarding hub referrals
Alongside regular referrals our case work team provided benevolent grants for 137 families totalling £29,422 alongside specialist DV funds, emergency moving funds, and on the day micro-grants of £20 a time.
## Specialist advice clinic
The team untangle complex situations around immigration, domestic abuse and housing which can take months of regular check-ins and many referrals to external organisations, legal support, and advocacy charities. These referrals to outside organisations have been challenging as our families struggle to get to external appointments for legal, immigration, and housing advice due to childcare, travel or other issues. For this reason we have worked to create an on site advice clinic so that mums can access these professionals in a familiar, supported environment with travel paid, food available, childcare and interpreters on hand, as well as a familiar caseworker doing a warm handover so that mum does not have to start from scratch telling her story over again.
Tuesdays see our visiting partners Praxis (immigration advice and casework), Shelter (housing advice and casework) and UCL Centre for Access to Justice (legal advice and casework) working with families referred
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
to them by our family support team. In addition to these internal referrals, our family support team refer externally to organisations such as Ashiana Network, Hestia, NHS talking therapies, Project 17, The Unity Project, Together with Migrant Children, Maternity Action, London Black Women’s Project and others.
Our inbound referrals come from health visitors, midwives, social workers and organisations such as Hestia and Care4Calais, who work directly in local Home Office contingency hotels. We are proud to say personal recommendation from current and ex-Magpie mothers continues to be our largest single referral route.
## SEND pathways project
This year, Pathways, our specialist SEND project continued: the project is aimed at supporting our families who have children with emerging needs at the same time as working alongside health, SEND, and early years professionals to unpick the barriers and facilitators to accessing help and support. This two-year project is based around a specialist stay and play provision for families who are identified as having children with emerging needs. Led by our Play Lead and supported by specialist volunteers with SEND, Autism, and psychology training, the stay and play has also welcomed the Flying Seagull Circus who used the sessions to create and test a ‘sensory suitcase’ show to meet the needs of children with emerging needs in their own national and international work.
Alongside this stay and play, five chosen mums and professionals have attended workshops which have resulted in the creation of a report on their and their children’s experience of accessing SEND. The themes that this report addresses are better provision of play for those waiting for a diagnosis or intervention, mapping of existing Newham services, prepared health professionals who are aware of the barriers facing our families, and finally suggestions for changes to service provision, policies or procedures.
We have been happy to work with consultants Just Ideas to facilitate these workshops. As with all our cocreation work, we are careful to create equity and a fair exchange for mothers who share their time and expertise with us – so we also provide one to one support and advocacy for participating mums in their individual journeys to find support for their children. The SEND report written in collaboration with sector specialist Megan Pacey will be published in 2026.
## Advocacy and Voice
Having set out to simply meet the basic needs of families experiencing homelessness or insecure housing, we quickly uncovered recurring and systemic issues faced by successive families which compelled us to address the wider environment in which our families were seeking and being blocked in accessing, or being denied, support.
Our advocacy work is grounded in the relationships of trust built through months and years of being alongside mums on each step of their journey through homelessness and the hostile environment. It is through these relationships that we earn our legitimacy to speak on the issues affecting mums’ lives and - where possible and safe to do so – to support them to tell their stories in spaces where decisions about issues affecting their lives are made.
Our Rights, Experience, Advocacy, Change (REACH) team, which campaigns to end the use of hotels without kitchens to house families with children under five is led by a former Magpie Mum who has graduated from the project. Our REACH Co-ordinator is co-chair of the Newham Temporary Accommodation Action Group (TAAG) and participates in the steering group on Lived Experience for all London TAAGs. We are also invited to share best practice and influence ways of working across a multitude of organisations and sectors including early years, health and housing. We have worked closely with the Trust for London Better TA alliance, and 4 in 10 (child povert group) to take the concerns of our mothers London wide, and address national policy for the provision of food in hotel accommodation. We have contributed to the following committees and reports this year:
- Feeding into the Homelessness Select committee call for evidence
- Monthly meetings with LB Newham Public Health and Housing team on the subject of food access
- for families in hotels and other temporary or emergency accommodation
- Monthly meeting with LB Newham Housing team to address issues arising for our mothers
- Hosting a visit from the European Commissioner for Human Rights resulting in his call to review
- NRPF as a driver for child poverty in the UK
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- Peter Apps’ book ‘Homesick’ which features the stories of three mums from our leadership group
- End Furniture Poverty ‘More than a Roof’ report
- The Childhood Trust report ‘Housed but not Homed’ on furniture poverty
- ‘Debt Trap’ by Katherine Brickell includes interviews with Magpie mums on the role debt plays in
- homelessness
- 4 in 10 ‘Lives on Hold’ report on child poverty
During this year the REACH campaign has hosted Tom Copley Deputy Mayor of London for housing, Joanna McCartney Deputy Mayor of London for families, local MPs James Asser, Uma Kumaran and Sir Stephen Timms, the Mayor of Newham, and the Council of Europe Commissioner, all coming to separate information sessions to hear about our campaign. We have also worked with organisations in Oxford, Redbridge and Westminster as well as national organisations such as Sustain and Migrants Organise to share how we have been making change. The campaign has had press coverage in the Guardian and the Metro newspapers.
Advocacy and campaigning wins during this period have included:
- A writing off of £175,000 of debt incurred through daily service charges being wrongly applied to
- Newham families housed in commercial hotels under Newham’s emergency duty
- A reduction of the number of families placed by Newham in hotels without cooking facilities
- A change in caterer, and the provision of specialist Ramadan and toddler meals in the main
- contingency hotel in Newham housing those seeking asylum
- Involvement of Public Health team and Newham Food Alliance in supporting community kitchen
- offers to families living with cooking facilities
Despite these achievements there have been challenges with our advocacy work. We are permanently recruiting for REACH as the nature of our mums’ lives means that their capacity to contribute can come and go, and the blight of out-of-borough placements means that key members can be moved away with 24 hours’ notice.
## Graduation pathways
Our graduation pathways for mothers who get their refugee status or leave to remain are continuing to evolve. We were running eight-week courses three times a year including workshops on banking, housing entitlement, benefits, budgeting and computer literacy, however, we have found that the extremely difficult housing situation means that mothers are moved out of borough within 28 days of gaining their status, making it impossible for them to undertake the pathway in its original form.
In a further evolution this year we moved towards a rolling session of graduation workshops that mothers can join on gaining their status, and choose from a menu of 8 or 9 workshops including budgeting, financial products and banking, housing entitlement, goal setting, welfare entitlements, and digital skills. We relaunched these sessions in the last term of the reporting period and 7 mums have already graduated from these courses.
Our graduation and form filling pathways are currently undertaking an learning partnership with the large scale study Healthier Wealthier Families in East London. We are welcoming two volunteer researchers who work alongside our mothers to create a template for a co-designed, community embedded advice service – the template for which can be used elsewhere to ensure that families are getting the advice they need to improve the health outcomes of their children.
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## Partnerships and collaborations
## Form flling partnerships
In the previous year, we were seeing immense need for navigation, support and form filling for mums who at the point of gaining their immigration status suddenly needed to apply for housing, benefits etc. On surveying the advice, support and form-filling capacity in Newham, and its accessibility to our mums (travel costs, food, crèche, interpreters, a safe and understanding space) we realized that there are very few alternatives for our families who face a wall of paperwork on gaining their status.
Although we have a policy of pushing back on local and statutory organisations where they have capacity or a contract to provide a service – rather than duplicating it internally – we believed we had no option but to extend and deepen our Tuesday volunteer form filling sessions through a partnership with UCL Centre for Access to Justice, and Clyde & Co, a City law firm. This reporting year we have trained more than 50 Clyde & Co employees to volunteer to help our mums complete homelessness applications, Universal Credit claims and Child Benefit forms. Families are referred internally to this service held at UCL Centre for Access to Justice’s offices in Stratford.
In November 2024 the partnership won a LAWSTOP award as best new pro bono partnership. The service has helped 122 unique families through 176 appointments, covering Universal Credit applications, homelessness applications, benefit applications such as Housing Benefit, Child Benefit and Child Tax Credits, housing register applications, HC1 form, bank account applications and school or nursery registrations.
## Professional support to deliver our activities
As described above, we start from a position of not wanting to duplicate services that exist within our community. We only look to bring a service in house when those services either do not exist, or where barriers such as travel, or fear of judgement, lack of childcare make them impossible to access. Over the past year we have partnered with the following organisations:
- Shelter, Praxis and UCL Centre for Access to Justice who deliver our weekly advice sessions
- Local health visitors who attend our drop-in sessions once a fortnight to meet families, answer
- questions, and identify children who may need additional support
- Clyde & Co law firm where 50 volunteers have been trained to attend sessions to support with form-
- filling, applications, and to provide advice
**•** University of East London who place social work students with us for placements within our services over a period of five months, during which they support with casework and learn from the way we deliver our work
- The Financial Conduct Authority, Shelter and others who help to deliver our graduation workshops
- Newham Family Navigators who run an information session within our service weekly
Our Praxis worker’s time is covered by funding from The Access to Justice Foundation secured in a joint bid with Praxis, which is led by Praxis.
## Creative collaborations
We believe joy and creativity are vital to the work we do. We find the very best artists, musicians and other professionals to work with our families to improve their resilience, confidence, and sense of community, as well as providing positive and empowering opportunities for voice and storytelling. This year we have worked with the following creative partners:
- London Rhymes musicians have delivered weekly singing and music-making sessions with our
- families, including writing, performing, and recording several new songs which are available on YouTube
- Louise Klarnett has continued to bring her therapeutic dance and movement practice into our
- weekly sessions to work with mums and children whose bodies are impacted by trauma, stress, and housing
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**The Magpie Project**
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Annual report and financial statements
- Breakfast Club Quartet have come to perform for our families
- Music Motherhood and Me team have been working with mums to map their motherhood journeys
- in music
- Nell Hardy Theatre director and Melissa Kitty Jarram on the capturing of stories and creation of a
- mural for our new building
**•** The Discover Story Centre has delivered story time sessions within our play sessions throughout the year, as a taster for families to encourage them to take up the free memberships Discover make available to Magpie families
## Donated items and experiences
Over the past year we have received donations from local businesses and community members which have helped us meet families’ basic needs for food, clothes, toiletries, baby equipment, and other essentials:
- **Food** : We receive twice-weekly deliveries of surplus food from City Harvest that we turn into
- delicious, freshly prepared breakfasts and lunches for our families
**• Clothes** : Donations of new clothes came from Westfield London, Knit for Peace, and Children’s Salon, Phase Eight, 52 Lives and high quality pre-loved clothes from Little Village, Care4Calais, and countless community members, that we distributed to families at our regular ‘Clothes Clubs’. We have given clothes to 342 unique families during our ‘Clothes Clubs’, we have given out around 900 bundles of children’s clothes (a mix of new and second hand) during clothes clubs and 95 in emergency ‘on the day’ support to children attending for the first time. These have an approximate value of £40 each bundle and add up to more than £39,800. Phase Eight’s donation of 120 brand new women’s coats for our families represented a value in excess of £20,000
- **Household** : Christmas gifts and hampers for 250 families were donated by local community members
- – more than £50 per family
**• Toiletries** : Basics and luxury toiletries came from Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Bancroft Rugby Club, West Ham Supporters Foodbank, Clapton Community Football Club, Hygiene Bank, local schools, and community members
**• Mums’ maternity bags** : We put together and distributed 97 bags for mums going into hospital – these included all baby and mother essentials for the first few days with an estimated cost of £50 if bought
**• Hotel toy bags** : Volunteers and staff sourced, sorted and distributed 35 toy bags to give to children living without toys in hotels and B&Bs
**• Toys and books** : Donations came from Westfield Stratford London, Hasbro, Newham Bookstore, local mosques, and community members
**• Nappies** : We provide nappies and wipes to all those attending on a fortnightly basis
**• Experiences** : We were provided with 15 weekly tickets for Magpie families to attend a ‘Story Sandwich’ at Discover Centre Stratford, free tickets for Westfield Stratford’s ‘Breakfast with Santa’ event and tickets for 15 families to see the Christmas pantomime at Stratford Theatre Royal. Our partner Westfield also laid on two afternoon teas for 70 families with an approximate value of £4,900
## Equipping our new home
We are very grateful to Westfield Stratford London, MUF Architecture, local businesses, and a local nursery for donating office equipment, cafe equipment, play equipment, to furnish our new building. Westfield also offered repairs and cleaning services pro bono, and our corporate partner Weil gave us four printers. We have benefited from a generous donation of second-hand items from Taylor Wessing that has included chairs and storage to the value of approximately £6,000. We also worked with Westfield Stratford and Buglife UK to seed a green roof on our premises, as well as Axis UK to help with repairs and improvements.
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
## Partners and supporters
We would like to thank the following organisations and individuals for their pro bono, in-kind support during this reporting period: Active Newham, Alternatives Trust, Peter Apps, Ashiana Network, Axis UK, Bancroft Rugby Club, Beauty Banks, Bonny Downs Community Centre, Buglife UK, Care4Calais, Clapton Community Football Club, Clyde and Co, Compass Wellbeing, Discover Story Centre, Dr Sophie Doswell, Enabled Living, Feed the Streetz, Flying Seagull Circus, Gainsborough Quilters, the GLA, Hadley, James Asser MP, Just Life, Laura Jackson, Lush, Kilnbridge, Knit for Peace, Little Village, London School of Paediatrics, Lush, Maternity Action, Mayor of Newham Rokhsana Fiaz, Museum of Homelessness, Newham Bookshop, Newham Food Alliance, Newham Nurture, Newsteer, Number 8 Emporium, Olia Hercules, Papier, Jessica Paliza at Abra Reiki, Right to Remain, Salvation Army, Shelter, Louise Klarnett and Roselle Gillam at Starling Clinic, St Antony’s, St Bonaventure’s, Sir Stephen Timms MP, Taylor Wessing, The Unity Project, Tower Hamlets Law Centre, Trust for London Funder Plus, Uma Kamaran MP, Wanstead and Forest Gate WIs, Weil, West Ham Supporters Foodbank, Westfield Stratford London, Ziipline.
## Organisational development
## Co-creation and mums’ voice
The project was built through co-production, and we continue to do this through daily, weekly and termly conversations with mums and minis using the service. We formalise this process through the creation of a steering committee of mums who work with our CEO to make key decisions around internal governance. Committee members are offered re-imbursement for their time, and all meetings offer lunch and creche to enable access.
This year our steering committee have reviewed their terms of reference, helped to plan our summer, Christmas and Eid celebrations, and reviewed of our behaviour agreement – adding in agreement around privacy and photography. The group has provided feedback on menus for our meals, provision of Clothes Club, and eligibility criteria for the project. We have given our steering committee mums red T shirts to wear to the project so that they are clearly visible for all our community to talk to, and bring complaints and suggestions. The steering committee also made videos in several languages to put on our mums’ WhatsApp group to let mums know that they exist for everyone to bring suggestions or concerns to. On top of this, members of this team were given decisions on how to spend a grant given to mums for our ‘Mums’ Takeover’ during the summer holidays which involved budgeting for, organizing, carrying out and reporting on weekly park meet-ups with mums and minis in parks around Newham while the project took its August break. The takeovers were enormously successful in August 2025 with an average attendance of more than 20 families at each meet up.
Difficulties in training, deepening the skills, and maintaining the numbers in the steering committee arise from the fact that both the Home Office and local authority housing departments frequently place families out of borough with little to no notice. This means that we are constantly having to recruit, inform and train this committee. We also continue to make efforts to ensure that all communities of mums (be it communities of language, religion or culture) are represented on the steering committee.
## Team updates
The year 2024/5 saw significant shifts in our staffing, as we grew and understood the new benefits and challenges of having our own building. At the end of the previous reporting period (August 2024) we said goodbye to our Chief Financial Officer and welcomed a new Finance & Operations Manager who, alongside financial management oversaw the lease and management of our new premises. We also added a standalone part time fundraiser post.
In April 2025 – on realizing that the Finance & Operations role was far too broad, we brought in a standalone finance manager, and hived off our HR and H & S function to an external partner.
In the summer of 2025 we took on three part time staff who had all graduated from being mothers accessing our services, through volunteering routes and into paid employment. These roles have been instrumental in allowing us the flexibility to work safely in our new building with its additional kitchen, café and play-room staffing needs. We were also – with funding from Children in Need – able to recruit a Play Assistant to help our Play Lead create consistent and deep play offer two days a week.
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
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We also continue to prioritise our reflective practice at the end of each drop-in session, where staff and volunteers are supported to process anything particularly challenging that has happened that day to minimise the build-up of residual stress.
## Performance against strategic goals
The project’s six strategic objectives remain a guiding tool for all that we undertake.
**Child-Centred** : We wish to remain child-centred in all that we do – this year we have been able to create a much more welcoming and enriching environment for our children through a clean, safe and well-equipped indoor and outdoor play-space; including children’s toys and spaces in all of our family support rooms, continuing to advocate for children with SEND, and focusing on play as an end in itself.
**Consolidate** : After a period of rapid growth we have consolidated our structure, staffing and services this year. Outsourcing essential functions such as HR and H&S, refining staff roles, recruiting to senior leadership.
**Cocoon** : Moving in to a self-contained building means that we are able to create safety and belonging in a controlled environment for our mums and minis. The stability and opportunities for growth this represents are only just unfolding – including being able to make space available to community partners such as Discover Story Centre, Casework Solidarity Forum and Gainsborough Quilters, as well as offer evening events such as Iftar meals.
**Community** : We are determined to embed ourselves within our community and be led by them through curiosity, and constant listening. Our community-first recruitment policy means that the majority of our staff had previously volunteered at the project, and four of our staff are ex-Magpie Mums.
**Change Work** : The Magpie Project does not rest at service delivery. Our change work involves being alive to the evolving needs of our families through regular case work and advocacy, spotting structural or systemic issues, exploring them with our families and then advocating for change on a wider scale – not just family by family. We do this through our REACH team, but also by regular attendance at Local Authority meetings including with Newham Housing and the Newham CYPS team. Projects such as our SEND Pathways and Maternity Listening Circles create a template through which we offer immediate relief and engagement over certain issues, uncover and record wider issues, and then decide how we will advocate for our families on these issues – through a written report in the case of SEND pathways, and through research and professional development with Maternity Listening Circles.
## Codify our Learning
As we have grown it has become increasingly important to discuss and record our vision, mission and values, our policies and practices and how we seek to meet the needs of our families in an agile and deeply relational way. To that end - in November 2024 we held a whole-project meeting facilitated by Just Ideas in which staff, trustees, volunteers and families honed our goals, beliefs and values. These now form a prominent part of our decision making and success measures. We have also engaged with UCL through the Healthier Wealthier Families in East London research project to capture our practices around co-producing culturally and trauma aware services, and with LSE to rewrite our original theory of change. These reports will be published in 2026.
## Challenges
This year was characterized by staffing and organizational challenges created by our rapid growth. To ameliorate these we took advantage of some Funder Plus money from Trust for London in order to pay for an external consultant to study and recommend staffing structures that would work for us as we grow. This work was undertaken during the year and we are implementing many of the suggestions given including delegating line-management; working towards more self-managing teams with the charity and recruiting for more senior leadership.
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
Our capacity has also been affected by the long-term sickness of two key staff members. In a small organization this can severely affect operations and – while we have been able to cover essential frontline services – our ability to strategise and plan has been adversely affected.
The decrease in accessible face-to-face services from children’s social care, children’s centres, housing, domestic violence services, and problems accessing GP and health visiting services, has continued to be a factor in a significant amount of additional work for our casework staff.
We continue to be affected by reduced capacity among some of our key referral partners, especially immigration services, housing solicitors and children’s centre family support workers. The impact of this is that families end up stuck in crisis for longer, as there is not the capacity in the wider system to take on their casework. We have been working on a panel with Sir Stephen Timms MP and others to address the lack of legal advice in Newham which will result in the creation of a Newham Law Centre in the borough in the coming year.
To mitigate the lack of immigration advice we have worked with Praxis to secure funding for a dedicated immigration advisor to support our families. They have worked well with us since September 2023, seeing an average of three families a week and unlocking complex cases to the benefit of many families. We are concerned that this Access to Justice Foundation funding from the Ministry of Justice was to end in March 2025, and though it has been extended, we will need to find further funding for what has become a vital partnership.
## Plans for the future
We continue to be guided by the following strategic priorities for the year ahead:
**FOCUS ON UNDER FIVES** : Avoid ‘mission creep’ by making sure the day-to-day lived experience of our children is considered first in any undertaking.
**How** : Developmentally-led and trauma-informed play sessions; serving healthy nutritious food; providing essentials via our baby bank and vouchers; offering creche, or play alongside any workshops, form filling or family support, ensuring our casework informs and resources women to thrive as parents; and bringing a sense of joy, celebration and belonging.
**BUILDING A BASE** : Co-create a space alongside the mums, minis, volunteers and staff which works, is welcoming, accessible and promotes shared power and safety.
**How** : We will continue the work we started this year, focusing on the function of spaces within our building, and flow between areas to make sure mums and minis are comfortable. We will allow the building to inform new timetables, working patterns and the possibility for deeper partnerships with community partners and mums.
**COMMUNITY, TRANSPARENCY AND CO-CREATION** : Build the Magpie Project as a co-produced, transparent, sustainable, well-governed, organisation with confident staff alive to the changing needs of the mothers and minis whose needs we are meeting.
**How** : We will work with our steering group of mums to understand what is working well within the project and where we can improve our offering or approach. We will take the next steps in developing our infrastructure, with a particular focus on staff, volunteers, and our finance and HR functions.
**ADVOCATING FOR ACCESS** : Work to bring families into discussion with local authority and health partners to identify and remove structural barriers to accessing and navigating statutory and specialist services. **How** : We will do this by sitting on working groups such as the Temporary Accommodation Action Group and the Anti-poverty Alliance, through our own projects such as Pre-school Pathways which enable conversations between parents and professionals, and by offering training to frontline workers from other areas (London School of Paediatrics, Newham Early Years practitioners).
**POLICY** : Ensure mums’ voices, and experiences are heard in spaces where decisions are being made about their lives.
**How** : We will do this through the REACH team campaigns, by supporting other organisations’ campaigns - where relevant - and by providing evidence to national reports.
**LEARNING** : Work as a test bed for radical and imaginative practice around working with our community and share this with others.
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
**How** : We will do this by recording and codifying our learning around trauma, safety, psychologically informed work, and somatically informed organisations, inviting researchers and external professionals to observe ways of working.
## SWOT Analysis
|Strengths
**•**Experienced and growing staff team
**•**Permanent building now ft for purpose
**•**Positive funding and fnancial position
**•**Strong community engagement (Magpie
mum community and wider community)
**•**Growing policy work
**•**Strong professional partnerships
**•**Skilled board members
**•**Form-flling partnership with Clyde and Co
**•**REACH team campaign gaining support
across London and nationally|Weaknesses
**•**Succession planning – mitigated by
codifying learning and recruiting to senior
leadership
**•**Data and impact measurement through
Salesforce - mitigated by internal training
with external support
**•**Loss of volunteers - mitigated by
recruitment, and training and support
of Magpie mum volunteers, increased
relationships with corporate supporters to
include volunteer days
**•**Increasing requests for collaboration
and sharing learning is a strain resources
- mitigated by codify learning in shareable
format
**•**Staff sickness is high – mitigated by
generous vacations, occupational health
assessments, staff wellbeing focus
**•**Amount of Risk we hold due to the hostile
environment and safeguarding systems that
do not recognize the impact of structural
harm - mitigated by including analysis of Risk
in all training and safeguarding protocols,
advocate with local and national bodies
on potential harms to our children of poor
housing and hostile immigration environment|
|---|---|
|Opportunities
**•**New building
**•**Increasing requests for Corporate
partnerships
**•**Consolidating lived-experience in policy
area through Trust for London funding and
our REACH team
**•**Offering space and opportunities to aligned
organisations in exchange for engagement
with our families
**•**Further embedding in to the new
neighbourhood of Canning Town|Threats
**•**Increasing demand and complexity of need
- mitigated by understanding of the remit of
our work. Continued mapping of the support
network of organisations to be referred on to.
Training on housing law, immigration law etc.
for our family support workers
**•**Movement of families out of borough
- mitigated by continuing to work with
Newham Housing, and the Better TA initiative
from Trust for London to raise the issue of
out of borough placements
**•**Impact of moral injury and vicarious trauma
on staff working with and supporting families
in crisis - mitigated by staff wellbeing,
mental health days, support and supervision,
psychologist on call
**•**High numbers of children with SEN -
mitigated by Pre-school pathways project
supporting those with emerging needs
through specialized play and advocacy
**•**Rise in anti-immigration rhetoric -
mitigated by concentrating on countering
with love, play, moments of joy, belonging
and safety|
Charity number 1176267
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
## Structure, governance & management
The Magpie Project (the “Charity”) was constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation on 13 December 2017, when it was registered with the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales as Charity No. 1176267.
## Organisational Structure
Trustees delegate the day-to-day running of the Charity to the Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”). The operational structure consists of a Founder/CEO, Finance & Operations Manager, Fundraising Lead, Finance Lead, Family Support Manager, Family Support Worker, Play Lead, Play Assistant, Graduation Manager, REACH Coordinator, Administrative Assistant, Kitchen Manager, Donations Assistant. A steering committee of women who use or have used the charity actively participates in discussions and decision-making around internal governance and external advocacy, alongside the CEO.
## Selection and appointment of Trustees
Trustee recruitment is an open process conducted by existing charity trustees through public advertising. Apart from the first charity trustees, each trustee is appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the Trustees. In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees, the Trustees must have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the Charity. The Charity has been working with Reach Volunteering to recruit a permanent Chair.
## Trustee Induction and Training
The Trustees make available to each new charity trustee, on or before his or her first appointment: a) a copy of the current version of the constitution, b) a copy of the Charity’s latest Annual Report and statement of accounts, and c) a copy of the Charity Commission’s trustee welcome pack and guidance (CC3) on the responsibilities of a charity trustee.
## Risk management
The Trustees regularly review the key financial, operational, strategic, reputational, and safeguarding risks facing the Charity in quarterly meetings. A risk register is maintained and updated quarterly – or when a new risk is identified. Our risk register mirrors that weaknesses and threats in the above SWOT analysis. The trustees work with the CEO to put in place plans to address these risks.
## Financial review
## Investment and Reserves policy
The trustees aim to maintain free reserves in unrestricted funds of between three and six months of total expenditure. The trustees consider that this level of reserves will provide sufficient funds to continue delivering the core work of the charity in the case of declining income or increasing expenditure, while alternative funds are sought. The level of reserves held throughout the year is monitored quarterly, and the level of free reserves to be held will be reviewed on an annual basis.
## Financial position
The charity’s growth, enabled by its move into the Grassroots Centre at the beginning of this financial year,
is reflected throughout our financial position for the year ending 31 August 2025.
We saw a 37% increase in total income in the last financial year compared to 2023-24, with increases in both unrestricted and restricted funding, and with a 57% increase in donations from community fundraising, corporate fundraising and benevolent grants.
Our accounts for the year ending 31 August 2025 show unrestricted funds of £168,672 (2024: £118,256) at the year end. The Trustees are pleased that we have increased our reserves in line with our reserves policy: the truly unrestricted element excluding designated funds of £7,019 is £161,653, just above our target of
Charity number 1176267
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
between three and six months of total expenditure (3.43 months compared to 2023-24: 2.96).
We saw a 18% increase in expenditure, primarily driven by continuing to grow our staff team as a result of our move to the Grassroots Centre. As set out in last year’s annual report, the move to Grassroots brought with it increased costs in operating a building of this size, but also in the level of staff and support needed to deliver services safely and to a high standard. The main increase in expenditure was in the direct support we provide to mums and minis, again the result of our increased capacity to deliver services at Grassroots.
The proportion of our funding (in £ value) which is unrestricted increased from just under to 50% of total income in 2023-24 to 52% in 2024-25. Although this is a small increase, maintaining this balance will remain a focus for the year ahead. Grants from trusts and foundations remain our single biggest source of income, at 74% of the total. In order to sustain our position following this period of growth, we intend to continue our focus on developing corporate partnerships and community giving in order to diversify our income streams and ensure our position is robust given the challenges facing the wider sector.
## Funders
We would like to thank the following funders and donors:
52 Lives, Axis Foundation, Beauty Banks, Bancroft Rugby Club, BBC Children in Need, The Charities Trust, City Bridge Trust, the funding arm of The City of London Corporation’s charity, Bridge House Estates (1035628), Clapton CFC, Clapton Punks, Children’s Salon, Discover Story Centre, Dominus, Hollick Family Foundation, KindLink, Ladies in Business 2024 Lady Masters Association, LB Newham, London Paediatrics, London School of Paediatrics, Masonic Charitable Foundation, Much Loved -in memory of Spike Mullings, The National Lottery Community Fund, RC London and South East region, Neil Taylor, Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Pennies, Praxis, Reflect Church, Rosa Fund, SafeLives, Smallwood Trust, St Francis School, St Bonaventure’s School, Laura Jackson, South West Ham Child Welfare Society, Ten London Ltd, The Bromley Trust, The Caerlow Trust, The KPMG Foundation, The Lewin Trust, The Linbury Trust, The Lucille Foundation, The Newby Trust, The Zennor Trust, TK Maxx Homesense Foundation, Treebeard Trust, Trust for London, Tudor Trust, University of East London, Vitol Ltd, Weil, William Kessler Family Charitable Fund, Wanstead WI.
## Statement of Board of Trustees’ responsibilities
The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations. Charity law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law they are required to prepare the financial statements in accordance with UK Accounting Standards and applicable law (UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice), including FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland.
Under charity law the Trustees must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Charity and of the excess of income over expenditure for that year. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:
- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
- make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
- state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material
- departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and,
- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume
- that the Charity will continue its activities.
The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Charity’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011. They have general responsibility for taking such steps as are reasonably open to them to safeguard the assets of the Charity and to prevent and detect fraud and other irregularities.
The Trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the Charity’s website. Legislation in the UK governing the preparation and dissemination of
Charity number 1176267
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**Year ended 31 August 2025**
**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions. In addition, the Trustees confirm that they are happy that content of the annual review in pages 5 to 19 of this document meet the requirements of the Trustees’ Annual Report under charity law.
They also confirm that the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in the notes to the accounts and comply with the Charity’s governing document, the Charities Act 2011 and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS 102, The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland published on 16 July 2014.
This report was approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Trustees on 20 March 2026 and signed on its behalf by:
## **MARIA IGLESIAS CHAIR OF TRUSTEES**
Charity number 1176267
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
## **Independent examiner’s report**
I report to the Trustees on my examination of the accounts of The Magpie Project (Charity number 1176267) for the period ended 31 August 2025 which are set out on pages 22 to 37.
## Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner
The Charity’s Trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (the Charities Act). The Charity’s Trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charities Act and that an independent examination is needed.
It is my responsibility to:
- examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act;
- to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission under
- section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act; and,
- to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
This report, including my statement, has been prepared for and only for the Charity’s Trustees as a body. My work has been undertaken so that I might state to the Charity’s Trustees those matters I am required to state to them in an independent examiner’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, I do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Charity and the Charity’s Trustees as a body for my examination work, for this report, or for the statements I have made.
## Basis of independent examiner’s statement
My examination was carried out in accordance with general directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the Charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the Trustees concerning any such matters.
The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair’ view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.
## Independent examiner’s statement
Since the Company’s gross income exceeded £250,000 your examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 2011 Act. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, which is one of the listed bodies.
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; or
Charity number 1176267
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
- the accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of
- accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair view’ which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
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.
## **ANDREW PHILIP NASH FCA**
## **MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS IN ENGLAND AND WALES – 2461833 DATED: 7 MAY 2026**
Enaid Accountancy Ltd Platform 10 Engine Rooms Hood Road Barry CF62 5QL
Charity number 1176267
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
## **Statement of financial activities**
For the year ended 31 August 2025
|**Notes**
**Income from:**
Donations & legacies
3
Other income
**Total income**
**Expenditure on:**
Raising funds
4 & 5
Charitable activities
Support for mums
4 & 6
Total charitable activities
**Total expenditure**
**Net income/(expenditure)**
**Transfers between funds**
**Net movement in funds**
**Reconciliation of funds:**
Total funds brought forward
10 & 11
Total funds carried forward
10 & 11|**Unrestricted**
**Restricted**
**Total**
Total
**Funds**
**Funds**
**Funds**
Funds
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
**£**
**£**
**£**
£
324,066
299,996
**624,062**
449,802
1,450
-
**1,450**
7,328|
|---|---|
||**325,516**
**299,996**
**625,512**
457,130|
||37,864
4,748
**42,612**
41,836
244,027
277,639
**521,666**
437,341|
||**244,027**
**277,639**
**521,666**
437,341|
||**281,891**
**282,387**
**564,278**
479,177|
|||
||**43,625**
**17,609**
**61,234**
(22,047)
6,791
(6,791)
**-**
-|
||**50,416**
**10,818**
**61,234**
(22,047)
118,256
36,299
**154,555**
176,602|
||**168,672**
**47,117**
**215,789**
154,555|
The notes on pages 25 to 37 form part of the financial statements.
Charity number 1176267
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
## **Balance sheet**
As at 31 August 2025
|**Notes**
**Fixed assets**
Tangible assets
8
**Current assets**
Debtors
9
Cash at bank and in hand
**Total current assets**
**Creditors**
Amounts falling due within
one year
10
**Total net assets**
**Funds of the charity**
Restricted income funds
11 & 12
Unrestricted funds
Designated funds
General funds
Unrestricted funds
11 & 12|5,534
286,934|**Total**
**Funds**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**£**
**7,019**
**292,468**
**(83,698)**|
2,770
206,349|Total
Funds
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
£
869
209,119
(55,433)|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||7,019
161,653||
-
118,256||
|||**215,789**||154,555|
|||**47,117**
**168,672**||36,299
118,256|
||||
||
|||**215,789**||154,555|
The notes on pages 25 to 37 form part of the financial statements.
These financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Trustees on 20 March 2026 and signed on their behalf by:
## **MARIA IGLESIAS CHAIR OF TRUSTEES**
Charity number 1176267
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
## **Statement of cash flows**
For the year ended 31 August 2025
|**Cash fows from operating activities:**
**Net income/(expenditure) for period (as per**
**SOFA)**
Adjustments for
Depreciation charges
(Increase)/decrease in trade debtors
(Increase)/decrease in accrued income
(Increase)/decrease in prepayments and
other debtors
Increase/(decrease) in trade creditors
Increase/(decrease) in accruals
Increase/(decrease) in deferred income
Increase/(decrease) in HMRC and pension
payable
**Net cash used in operating activities**
**Cash fows from investing activities**
Purchase of fxed assets
**Net cash used in investing activities**
**Change in cash and cash equivalents in**
**period**
**Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning**
**of the period**
**Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the**
**period**|
1,395
(1,350)
-
(1,414)
2,687
4,300
10,678
10,600|**Total**
**Funds**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**£**
**61,234**
**26,896**|
670
-
3,333
1,028
-
(3,667)
16,291
-|Total
Funds
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
£
(22,047)
17,655|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||(7,545)||
-||
|||**88,130**
**(7,545)**||(4,392)
-|
||
||
||
|||**80,585**
**206,349**||(4,392)
210,741|
|||**286,934**||206,349|
The notes on pages 25 to 37 form part of the financial statements.
Charity number 1176267
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
## **Notes to the financial statements**
## 1. Accounting policies
## **Basis of preparation of the financial statements**
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with ‘Charities SORP (FRS 102) - Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) second edition (effective 1 January 2019)’, the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102), including Update Bulletin 1, and relevant charities law.
The effect of any event relating to the year ended 31 August 2025, which occurred before the date of approval of the financial statements by the Board of Trustees has been included in the financial statements to the extent required to show a true and fair view of the state of affairs at 31 August 2025 and the results for the year ended on that date.
Under the exemption available to smaller charities the Board of Trustees has chosen not to include a Statement of Cash Flows within the financial statements.
The functional currency of the Charity is sterling and amounts in the financial statements are rounded to the nearest pound.
## **Legal status**
The Magpie Project is a charitable incorporated organisation registered in England & Wales, and meets the definition of a public benefit entity. The registered office is Grassroots Centre, Memorial Avenue, London, E15 3DB.
## **Going concern**
The financial statements have been prepared on the going concern basis as the Board of Trustees is confident that future reserves and future income is more than sufficient to meet current commitments. There are no material uncertainties that impact this assessment, and the wider econcomic environment has had no material impact on this assessment.
## **Fund Accounting**
General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the Charity and which have not been designated for other purposes.
Designated funds comprise of unrestricted funds that have been set aside by the Trustees for particular purposes. The aim and use of each designated fund is set out in note 11 of the financial statements.
Restricted funds are funds that are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by donors or that have been raised by the Charity for particular purposes. The cost of raising and administering such funds are charged against the specific fund. The aim and use of each restricted fund is set out in note 10 of the financial statements.
## **Income**
Income is recognised when the Charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance indicators attached to the item(s) of income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received, and the amount can be measured reliably.
Donations are recognised in full in the Statement of Financial Activities when entitled, receipt is probable and when the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy. Gift aid receivable is included when claimable – i.e. when the eligible donation is received.
Grant income is credited to the Statement of Financial Activities when received or receivable whichever is earlier, unless the grant relates to a future year, in which case it is deferred.
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**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
## 1. Accounting policies (continued from previous page)
## **Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT**
All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been included under expense categories that aggregate all costs for allocation to activities. Indirect costs, including governance costs, which cannot be directly attributed to activities, are allocated between activities proportionate to the direct costs incurred in those activities. Grants payable are charged in the year when the offer is conveyed to the recipient. Irrecoverable VAT is charged against the category of expenditure for which it was incurred.
## **Tangible fixed assets and depreciation**
Any assets costing more than £3,000 are capitalised. Tangible fixed assets are stated at cost less depreciation. Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write off the cost of fixed assets, less their residual value, over their useful life, on the following basis:
Computer equipment 20% reducing balance Fixtures and fittings 4 year straight line
## **Cash at bank and in hand**
Cash at bank and in hand includes cash in hand, deposits with banks and funds that are readily convertible into cash at, or close to, their carrying values, but are not held for investment purposes.
## **Debtors**
Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount after any trade discount is applied.
## **Creditors**
Creditors are recognised where the Charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party, and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably.
## **Financial instruments**
Basic financial instruments are measured at amortised cost other than investments which are measured at fair value.
## **Critical estimates and judgements**
In preparing financial statements it is necessary to make certain judgements, estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts recognised in the financial statements. The treatment of tangible fixed assets is sensitive to changes in useful economic lives and residual values of assets. These are reassessed annually.
In the view of the Trustees in applying the accounting policies adopted, no judgements were required that have a significant effect on the amounts recognised in the financial statements nor do any estimates or assumptions made carry a significant risk of material adjustment in the next financial year.
## **Pensions**
The Charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme which is administered by an external independent pension provider. Contributions are recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities as they fall due.
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## 2. Comparative statement of fnancial activities
|3. Income from donations and legacies
Income from:
Donations & legacies
Other income
Total income
Expenditure on:
Raising funds
Charitable activities
Support for mums
Total charitable activities
Total expenditure
Net income/(expenditure)
Transfers between funds
Net movement in funds
Reconciliation of funds:
Total funds brought forward
Total funds carried forward
Grants
Donations
Grants
Donations|Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Funds
Funds
Funds
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
£
£
£
221,994
227,808
449,802
5,704
1,624
7,328|
|---|---|
||227,698
229,432
457,130|
||39,933
1,903
41,836
224,061
213,280
437,341|
||224,061
213,280
437,341|
||263,994
215,183
479,177|
|||
||(36,296)
14,249
(22,047)
-
-
-|
||(36,296)
14,249
(22,047)
154,552
22,050
176,602|
||118,256
36,299
154,555|
||Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Funds
Funds
Funds
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
£
£
£
174,208
187,902
362,110
47,786
39,906
87,692
**Unrestricted**
**Restricted**
**Total**
**Funds**
**Funds**
**Funds**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**£**
**£**
**£**
225,899
260,206
**486,105**
98,167
39,790
**137,957**
**324,066**
**299,996**
**624,062**|
||221,994
227,808
449,802|
## 3. Income from donations and legacies
Charity number 1176267
27
**The Magpie Project**
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
Annual report and financial statements
## 4. Total expenditure
|**e Magpie Project**
nual report and fnancial statements
Total expenditure|**Year ended 31 August 2025**|
|---|---|
|Raising funds
Charitable activities
Support for mums
Raising funds
Charitable activities
Support for mums|Direct
Direct
Indirect
Staff
Other
Other
Total
Expenditure
Expenditure
Expenditure
Expenditure
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
£
£
£
£
30,789
3,675
7,372
41,836
241,139
119,134
77,068
437,341
**Direct**
**Direct**
**Indirect**
**Staff**
**Other**
**Other**
**Total**
**Expenditure**
**Expenditure**
**Expenditure**
**Expenditure**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
23,286
10,320
9,006
**42,612**
257,092
154,324
110,250
**521,666**
**280,378**
**164,644**
**119,256**
**564,278**|
||271,928
122,809
84,440
479,177|
Charity number 1176267
28
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
## 4. Total expenditure (continued from previous page)
Direct costs include:
|Benevolent grants
Mums’ travel
Mums’ moving costs
Nappies & wipes
Emergency grants
Essential items for families
Food
Kitchen supplies
Play supplies
Events
Creche
Programme delivery partners and support
Clothing
Translating and interpreting costs
Honorarium
Grassroots (one off expense)
Grassroots (ongoing)
Other family expenses|**Total**
Total
**Funds**
Funds
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
**£**
£
**29,422**
27,665
**18,362**
21,484
**400**
-
**5,562**
9,030
**800**
-
**3,316**
-
**7,333**
6,468
**2,308**
-
**4,927**
2,408
**7,635**
-
**5,424**
-
**46,425**
40,725
**262**
-
**4,930**
-
**3,953**
-
**11,779**
-
**1,486**
-
**-**
11,354|
|---|---|
||**154,324**
119,134|
Benevolent grants are payments made to families in need.
Indirect costs, including governance costs, which cannot be directly attributed to activities, were allocated between cost centres proportionate to the direct staff and other costs allocated to those activities.
An analysis of costs of raising funds split between restricted and unrestricted funds can be found in note 5.
An analysis of charitable activities split between restricted and unrestricted funds can be found in note 6.
An analysis of staff costs can be found in note 7.
Charity number 1176267
29
**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
## 4. Total expenditure (continued from previous page)
Indirect costs includes:
|vernance costs includes:
Indirect staff costs
Other staff costs
Staff travel
Offce costs
Rent
Premises expenses
Professional fees
Other expenses
Governance costs
Accountancy and bookkeeping fees
Independent examination
Insurance|**Total**
Total
**Funds**
Funds
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
**£**
£
**62,439**
28,646
**4,929**
4,000
**243**
896
**10,176**
12,611
**-**
8,860
**21,145**
14,400
**6,004**
1,332
**7,162**
11,410
**7,158**
2,285|
|---|---|
||**119,256**
84,440|
||**Total**
Total
**Funds**
Funds
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
**£**
£
**4,243**
-
**2,200**
2,100
**715**
185|
||**7,158**
2,285|
Governance costs includes:
Charity number 1176267
30
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
5. Expenditure on raising funds
|Expenditure on charitable activities
Direct staff costs
Direct other costs
Indirect other costs
Direct staff costs
Direct other costs
Indirect other costs
Support for Mums
Direct staff costs
Direct other costs
Indirect other costs
Support for Mums
Direct staff costs
Direct other costs
Indirect other costs|Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Funds
Funds
Funds
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
£
£
£
30,789
-
30,789
3,647
28
3,675
5,497
1,875
7,372
**Unrestricted**
**Restricted**
**Total**
**Funds**
**Funds**
**Funds**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**£**
**£**
**£**
23,286
-
**23,286**
8,417
1,903
**10,320**
6,161
2,845
**9,006**
**37,864**
**4,748**
**42,612**|
|---|---|
||39,933
1,903
41,836|
||**Unrestricted**
**Restricted**
**Total**
**Funds**
**Funds**
**Funds**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**£**
**£**
**£**
102,089
155,003
**257,092**
66,517
87,807
**154,324**
75,421
34,829
**110,250**
**244,027**
**277,639**
**521,666**
Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Funds
Funds
Funds
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
£
£
£
116,288
124,851
241,139
50,306
68,828
119,134
57,467
19,601
77,068|
||224,061
213,280
437,341|
## 6. Expenditure on charitable activities
Charity number 1176267
31
**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
## 7. Staff costs
|Gross salaries
Employer’s NIC
Employer’s pension|**Total**
Total
**Funds**
Funds
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
**£**
£
**309,013**
276,328
**26,746**
19,881
**7,058**
4,365|
|---|---|
||**342,817**
300,574|
The average headcount during the period was 13 persons (2024: 11 persons).
No employee received employee benefits above £60,000.
The total employee benefits paid to key management personnel during the period was £90,656 (2024: £93,972).
## 8. Tangible fxed assets
|**Cost**
As at 1 September 2024
Additions
As at 31 August 2025
**Accumulated depreciation**
As at 1 September 2024
Charge for year
As at 31 August 2025
**Net book value**
As at 1 September 2024
As at 31 August 2025|**Computer**
**Fixtures**
**Total**
**equipment**
**& Fitings**
**Total**
**£**
**£**
**£**
2,111
-
**2,111**
754
6,791
**7,545**|
|---|---|
||**2,865**
**6,791**
**9,656**|
||1,242
-
**1,242**
472
923
**1,395**|
||**1,714**
**923**
**2,637**|
||**869**
**-**
**869**|
||**1,151**
**5,868**
**7,019**|
Charity number 1176267
32
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
9. Debtors and prepayments
|Trade debtors
Prepayments
Other debtors|**Total**
Total
**Funds**
Funds
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
**£**
£
**1,350**
-
**575**
569
**3,609**
2,201|
|---|---|
||**5,534**
2,770|
## 10. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
|Trade creditors
Accruals
HMRC creditor
Pension creditor
Deferred grant revenue|**Total**
Total
**Funds**
Funds
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
**£**
£
**2,687**
-
**6,400**
2,100
**9,097**
-
**1,503**
-
**64,011**
53,333|
|---|---|
||**83,698**
55,433|
Deferred revenue relates to amounts received in advance for the 2025/26 finacial year from multiple funders and can be analysed as follows:
|Deferred grant revenue brought forward
Released to grant revenue in the period
Grant revenue deferred in the period
Deferred grant revenue carried forward|**Total**
Total
**Funds**
Funds
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
**£**
£
**53,333**
37,042
**(53,333)**
(37,042)
**64,011**
53,333
**64,011**
53,333|
|---|---|
Charity number 1176267
33
**The Magpie Project**
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
Annual report and financial statements
## 11. Analysis of charity funds
|**Unrestricted funds**
General funds
Designated funds
**Total unrestricted funds**
**Restricted funds**
52 Lives
Baby bank
Benevolent grants - Praxis
Benevolent
grants
-
SafeLives Circle Fund
Donations Manager
City Bridge Trust
Family
Support
Worker
salary
Grassroots - Capital
MOPAC
National Lottery 2024-2029
Pre-school SEND Pathways
Play Lead salary
Tudor Trust - staff wellbeing
Southwest Ham Children’s
Fund - Benevolent Grants
Trips and Activities
Masonic
Charitable
Foundation
ROSA
The Newby Trust
Newham Festival of Stories
Axis Foundation
**Total restricted funds**
**Total funds**|**Funds**
**Income**
**Expenditure**
**Transfers**
**Funds**
**brought**
**for the**
**in the**
**in the**
**carried**
**forward**
**forward**
**Year Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**Year Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**Year Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**Year Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**Year Ended**
**31 Aug 2025**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
118,256
325,516
(281,891)
(228)
**161,653**
-
-
-
7,019
**7,019**|
|---|---|
||**118,256**
**325,516**
**(281,891)**
**6,791**
**168,672**|
||183
1,000
(1,183)
-
**-**
751
2,000
(2,751)
-
**-**
-
11,690
(9,526)
-
**2,164**
1,300
2,000
(1,483)
-
**1,817**
-
18,000
(18,000)
-
**-**
-
50,150
(50,150)
-
**-**
-
10,000
(10,000)
-
**-**
3,265
20,000
(16,474)
(6,791)
**-**
7,793
-
(7,793)
-
**-**
4,167
100,000
(83,618)
-
**20,549**
18,422
20,000
(26,850)
-
**11,572**
-
20,000
(16,360)
-
**3,640**
165
-
(165)
-
**-**
100
20,100
(18,500)
-
**1,700**
153
-
(153)
-
**-**
-
5,000
(1,291)
-
**3,709**
-
2,056
(90)
-
**1,966**
-
10,000
(10,000)
-
**-**
-
3,000
(3,000)
-
**-**
-
5,000
(5,000)
-
**-**|
||**36,299**
**299,996**
**(282,387)**
**(6,791)**
**47,117**|
||**154,555**
**625,512**
**(564,278)**
**-**
**215,789**|
**Designated funds** : This fund represents the net book value of fixed assets purchased. Fixed asset purchases will be added to, and depreciation will be charged against the fund.
**52 Lives** : Donations from 52 Lives for gifts and essential items for children.
**Baby bank** : Donations towards our baby bank providing essentials to mums and minis.
**Benevolent grants - Praxis** : Discretionary fund for mums accessing immigration advice from Praxis.
Charity number 1176267
34
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
11. Analysis of charity funds (continued from previous page)
**Benevolent grants - SafeLives Circle Fund** : Discretionary fund providing small grants to mums affected by domestic abuse.
**Discover Centre travel money** : Donations by Discover Story Centre to cover the cost of mums’ travel from the Magpie Project to Discover’s site in Stratford.
**Donations Manager** : Donations from the Smallwood Trust, Women’s Urgent Support Fund towards our Donations Manager salary.
**City Bridge Trust** : Grants from City Bridge Trust, the funding arm of The City of London Corporation’s charity, Bridge House Estates (1035628), towards our Family Support Manager’s salary and related costs.
**Family Support Worker salary** : Grant from the Smallwood Trust’s Uplift Fund’ towards our Family Support Worker salary.
**Grassroots - Capital** : Capital expenditure relating to Grassroots Centre.
**MOPAC** : Discretionary fund for emergency grants to Magpie families affected by domestic abuse.
**National Lottery 2024-2029** : Grant from the National Lottery Community Fund, RC London and South East region towards core costs including salaries.
**Pre-school SEND Pathways** : Grants to support Magpie children with potential special educational needs to access appropriate advice and healthcare.
**Play Lead salary** : Grants towards the salary of our Play Lead.
**Tudor Trust** : Top-up grant to support wellbeing and development of staff and volunteers.
**Southwest Ham Child Welfare Society** : One-off grants for Magpie families living in Newham.
**Trips and activities** : Grants towards providing trips and additional activities for Magpie families.
**Masonic Charitable Foundation** : Donations from The Masonic Charitable Foundation for core costs, specifically to strengthen HR capacity/infrastructure.
**ROSA** : Grants from Voices from the Frontline/Rosa towards our voice and advocacy team REACH.
**The Newby Trust** : Donations from The Newby Trust towards our Family Support Worker salary.
**Newham Festival of Stories** : Activities relating to Newham Festival of Stories.
**Axis Foundation** : Grant from Axis Foundation towards play equipment.
Charity number 1176267
35
**The Magpie Project**
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
Annual report and financial statements
## 11. Analysis of charity funds (continued from previous page)
|Unrestricted funds
General funds
Designated funds
Total unrestricted funds
Restricted funds
52 Lives
Baby bank
Benevolent grants - London
Catalyst
Benevolent grants - Praxis
Benevolent
grants
-
SafeLives Circle Fund
Creative partnerships
Discover
Centre
travel
money
Donations Manager
English Language Sessions
Family
Support
Manager
salary
Graduation Programme
Grassroots - Capital
MOPAC
National Lottery 2024-2029
Pre-school SEND Pathways
Play Lead salary
Tudor Trust - staff wellbeing
Southwest Ham Children’s
Fund - Benevolent Grants
Trips and Activities
Total restricted funds
Total funds|Funds
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
Funds
brought
for the
in the
in the
carried
forward
forward
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
£
£
£
£
£
154,552
227,698
(263,994)
-
118,256
-
-
-
-
-|
|---|---|
||154,552
227,698
(263,994)
-
118,256|
||-
600
(417)
-
183
-
10,859
(10,108)
751
-
1,200
(1,200)
-
-
-
547
(547)
-
-
-
2,000
(700)
-
1,300
-
9,000
(9,000)
-
-
-
224
(224)
-
-
-
18,000
(18,000)
-
-
3,567
-
(3,567)
-
-
-
49,800
(49,800)
-
-
-
7,200
(7,200)
-
-
-
15,000
(11,735)
-
3,265
12,430
-
(4,637)
-
7,793
-
41,667
(37,500)
-
4,167
5,000
28,601
(15,179)
-
18,422
-
23,834
(23,834)
-
-
-
2,000
(1,835)
-
165
900
18,900
(19,700)
-
100
153
-
-
-
153|
||22,050
229,432
(215,183)
-
36,299|
||176,602
457,130
(479,177)
-
154,555|
**Creative Partnerships** : Grants to support our collaborations with artists, musicians, dancers, and other creative professionals.
**English Language Sessions** : Grants to provide English language sessions for Magpie mums.
**Family Support Manager salary** : Grants towards the salary of our Family Support Manager.
Charity number 1176267
36
**Year ended 31 August 2025**
**The Magpie Project** Annual report and financial statements
## 12. Analysis of net assets
|Tangible assets
Current assets
Current liabilities
Tangible assets
Current assets
Current liabilities|**Unrestricted**
**Restricted**
**Total**
**Funds**
**Funds**
**Funds**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2024**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2024**
**Year**
**Ended**
**31 Aug 2024**
**£**
**£**
**£**
7,019
-
**7,019**
232,018
60,450
**292,468**
(70,365)
(13,333)
**(83,698)**|
|---|---|
||**168,672**
**47,117**
**215,789**|
||Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Funds
Funds
Funds
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
Year Ended 31
Aug 2024
£
£
£
869
-
869
159,487
49,632
209,119
(42,100)
(13,333)
(55,433)
118,256
36,299
154,555|
## 13. Trustee remuneration
During the year, no trustee received any remuneration (2024: £Nil). During the year, no trustees received reimbursement for expenses (2024: one trustee for travel expenses of £53).
## 14. Related party transactions
During the year there were no related party transactions (2024: £Nil).
Charity number 1176267
37