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2020-12-31-accounts

UNIFORM EXCHANG UNIFORM EXCHANGE ANNUAL TRUSTEE REPORT Ending December 31st 2020 Charity Number: 1177750 Prepared by Kate France & Karen Hobson

Introduction

The trustees are pleased to present their annual report together with the financial statements of the charity for the period ended 31 December 2020.

The financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Memorandum and Articles of Association, and 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) (effective 1 January 2015)

Reference and Administrative Details of the Charity, its Trustees and Advisors

As of 31st December 2020

Charity name: Uniform Exchange
Charity number: 1177750
Principal address: Railway Sawmills
Unit 18
Burbeary Road
Lockwood
Huddersfield
HD1 3UN
Trustees: Mrs Helen Haddon
Mrs Karen Hobson
Mrs Kate France
Mrs Clodagh Page
Leathea Donaldson
Treasurer: Mr David Marsden
Bankers: HSBC
2 Cloth Hall Street
Huddersfield
HD1 2ES
Independent Reviewer: Amanda Eaton
Fidem Business Services
3 Mill Race Fold
Thongsbridge
Holmfirth
HD9 7HN

1

Message from the Chair of Trustees

Uniform Exchange exists so that every child in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, regardless of background can access a school uniform so they can progress into confident young person and adults.

In the UK. 41 million children live in poverty, facing an uphill struggle to live healthy happy lives. The wellbeing of these children, a fundamental human right is compromised. These children can fall into a vicious cycle from an early age, Consequences include poor health and low academic attainment along with a depleted sense of purpose, low aspirations and confidence.

Children growing up in poverty are three times more likely to suffer mental health issues and the necessity to access a school uniform can contribute to increased mental health.

Having the ability to fit in at school is key in helping a child to adjust and learn effectively. School uniforms are a key way of developing a sense of togetherness, reduces the potential of bullying, increases safety and creates cohesion.

Our organisation enables families to overcome the financial inequalities facing many families across Kirklees.

2020 has not only been an unprecedented year for our charity but also the country and the world. The Lockdowns have meant that many families have lost their livelihoods plus being isolated at home as well as learning from home has been challenging for so many. We recognise that this has resulted in an increase in social isolation, anxiety thus affecting mental health and well-being.

Since the pandemic, our service has sought to ensure that once children and young people returned back to school following the lockdown, that they felt able to return to some form of normality. Therefore, we provided additional elements to facilitate a child’s return to school went smoothly. As in previous years, we have seen a tremendous growth in the use of our service and are so proud to have supported more families and extended our reach, particularly during this difficult season.

Our heartfelt appreciation goes to Kate France our Founder and fellow trustee, who is the driving force behind the charity. During the pandemic she has been instrumental in keeping morale up and supporting our amazing team of volunteers. Her continued dedication is immense and during this period she has been an anchor to so many!

An enormous thank you to all our fantastic volunteers, who remain ever faithful to this cause, without your hard work, tenacity and kindness, we would be unable to achieve what we have.

As we proceed into a different season, we hope we can easily pivot in response to the ever-changing landscape that the pandemic presents but one thing is certain; we will continue to reach countless families and people in need of our support. Growing capacity will certainly help us to achieve this, in the coming year.

Chair

Helen Haddon

2

Trustees Annual Report

Background

Child poverty in Kirklees now affects 1 in 4 households in Kirklees, these families are living in poverty and parents are struggling to provide basic necessities. It is now more than ever we need to become a society that actively seeks to support social change and be proactive in helping the environment.

Our founder Kate France challenged by a BBC documentary on ‘Poor Kids’ set up Uniform Exchange.

In 2010, the Councils school uniform grant was cut in Kirklees and no provisions were put in place to help struggling families. In June 2011, the Uniform Exchange initiative was born; providing FREE recycled school uniform to families across Kirklees.

We delivered activity for seven years as an unincorporated association. In 2018, it was decided by the volunteer team that trustees be appointed an to become a Charitable Incorporated Association (CIO) which took place on 28[th] March 2018.

The pandemic saw a 40% increase in the referrals to foodbanks and we initially saw the same up lift in the number of school uniform requests. The charity closed its doors in March 2020 for approx. 8 weeks and has been open ever since. We have been fortunate not to have an outbreak at our sorting unit, Covid-19 health and safety measures were put in place to keep everyone safe and healthy.

Our Key Values

1. To relieve poverty by suppling good recycled school uniform to local families free of charge

2. To protect the environment by encouraging families to recycle outgrown school uniform for it to be reused by other children

We have gained an excellent local reputation for recycling with many families and almost all 181 schools donating school uniform items to us. In 2020 we saw this need rise significantly as families struggled to find the finances to buy school uniform.

In order to access the families who, need the free school uniform, we continue to build and maintain relationships with the local agencies that support and help families and children. We are part of the Poverty Partnership and the Children’s & Young People Partnership lead by Kirklees Council this provides us with excellent connections across key areas including social workers, teachers, key support workers, family workers, charities, school hubs, children’s and community centres, school admissions, school nurses, policing teams, this list keeps growing.

Our Priorities

For 2020 we set out to prioritise:

1. Digital communications with families and support networks to improve our coverage

2. Building a new app to improve access to ordering for parents

3. Actively look for other opportunities to increase the number of referrals

3

Our mission is to provide free school uniform to any child who needs it and to encourage children and families to think of others and the environment. Instead of throwing away old school uniform and filling the landfill sites, we are asking families to donate their uniform to us. We want to continue to make school uniform accessible to all children across our area of Kirklees, especially those who find themselves in poverty.

As volunteers, we are driven to support those in need; providing free school uniform is really important to us to reduce social isolation and poverty led bullying in our local schools allowing children to be ready for learning.

How we delivered on our values and achieved our priorities in

2020

Our Strategic Objectives

All our values and priorities are built on our five strategic objectives, these were set out by the Trustees when the CIO was created in 2016.

Over the next three years, 2019-2022 we aim to focus on 3 objectives to underpin and improve our charity and the service it delivers to the community.

1. Generating a sustainable income

2. Strengthening relationships with schools, parents and partners across Kirklees

3. Identifying and helping those in greatest need

4

Our Achievements in 2020

2020 was an extremely busy year, we helped 35% more children than 2019. It also saw the introduction of the eform, plus the closures due to Covid-19.

We supported over 1,900 children with school uniform, coats and shoes this year. This was mainly achieved via request forms submitted as lockdown didn’t allow us to do our normal activities. 60% of all requests came from parents or guardians asking for direct support, 30% came via the schools, predominantly the pastoral team and 10% were requested via other family support networks.

We experienced large increase in donations from families as they clear out their house during lockdown. We also saw an excellent uptake of the eform, this was largely due to the ever growing strong partnerships we have across the community, parents feeling more comfortable to ask for help and the continued communication with local schools and children’s services.

In February we were part of an ITV report hi-lighting the cost of school uniform and he first steps have been made in a bid to force schools to offer more affordable uniforms after a private member's bill was introduced to the House of Commons.

In November, our Founder Kate France received the daily ‘Points of Light’ award from the Prime Minister recognising outstanding individual volunteers; people who are making a change in their community. In a personal letter to Kate, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “By setting up the Uniform Exchange, you have collected an astonishing 100,000 items of school uniform to be saved from landfill. This is an achievement for the environment and also for the families you help with free uniform.”

In November we launched our ‘Winter Coat Campaign’ and ‘Match it’ funding appeal. Both gained local media attention across social and print media.

Throughout 2020 we had many opportunities to tell our story to a variety of media outlets which gave us amazing coverage locally and nationally. It further confirmed that the work we are doing is something of great significance, particularly for those facing financial hardship, not only in Kirklees but across the country.

5

Feedback

Testimonies received from our families and other service users helps us to gauge if our charity is fulfilling its purpose. They enable us to shape the service and to continually monitor and improve our provision for those that access the service, either directly or on the behalf of others. In 2020, we received many positive comments, which has reinforced what we do and deliver.

6

Uniform Exchange Processes

Uniform Exchange is built exclusively around a recycling ethos. We rely wholly on the generosity of Kirklees families passing on their outgrown uniform items and Kirklees schools passing on their lost property in order to make this service work.

Donations

We promote recycling to parents and schools mainly through PR, social media, emails and communications through schools. We ask the parents to donate items into our many collection boxes across Kirklees.

We ask for donations of any item used for school no matter what the condition. This includes poloshirts, trousers, coats, skirts, shirts, jumpers, tights, cardigans, blazers, shoes, socks, vests, underwear, trainers, pumps, sports kits, dresses, footballs boots, bags and swimwear.

Over the years have collaborated with a number of businesses to hold donation boxes this includes Kirklees libraries and KAL sports centre, Council offices, Sainsbury’s, schools and community hubs.

However, as covid closed many of our collection box sites it was imperative this year we forged new partnerships with local businesses in order to continue delivery of the donations. Our key new relationships were with the Forget Me Not Charity, who have 9 charity shops across the local area and with the Local Co-op where we have established 6 new boxes. Other sites included Shopping Centres, Foodbanks, Tesco, Morrison’s, Asda, Independent shops, Nursery, Café’s, Pubs, and Churches.

We collect from many sites on a regular basis, asking them to contact us when the bin is full. We have a van with our name on, which goes out on a regular basis collecting and delivering.

Stock

In 2020 we collected approx. 25 tonnes of school uniform donations from our collection bins.

Once items enter the warehouse they are checked and sorted to make sure only the acceptable items are put onto our stock shelves. We mend items that are in good condition and we rag all the unacceptable items through Oxfam as they have a sustainable and trackable recycling process.

7

The items that have been identified as good for reuse will then either go for washing or straight onto the shelves. In 2020 we sent almost 2 tonnes of school uniform items to be washed.

We have an efficient stock control system where items are sorted into size and type, are folded and put neatly onto the shelves. Our stock consists of approx. 30,000 items of clothing, this includes plain items such as trousers and shirts plus logo items specific to each school.

Requests

2020 saw us launch our new app based form, this was a huge success as it made accessing school uniform so much easier for parents. Covid meant parents didn’t have access to libraries, schools and charities to fill the forms in this new development came at the right time. We saw a 70% up take however there were a few teething problems.

The referrals this year come predominantly through parents/guardians, Schools, Education Safeguarding and charities. We also used the network of covid anchor support groups set up by the Kirklees Council to identify more families in need of help.

Once requests are received we aim to complete and deliver them within 7 days, if the request is urgent then we respond to that accordingly. We have set parameters for how many items are given dependant on age. We aim to give the best of what we have at the time of each referral and are always strict on checking that only high quality items are sent out.

A note is put into the bag to advise parents that they can request more uniform directly from us once the child out grows what they have been given.

Delivery

Once the request is completed the bag is stickered with the requesters identification number then dropped off at the requested point. When Covid hit all our regular drop off locations closed so we were forced to make alternative arrangements. We decided to deliver every bag of uniform to the requesters home address or local foodbank, as they were willing to delivery on our behalf. We took on a new delivery driver for our van, who volunteered 3 days a week, and another driver who volunteered 2 days a week. These new arrangements allowed us to continue the expected level of service we had always given.

The Team

Uniform Exchange is run day to day by an enthusiastic and dedicated team of 11 part time volunteers, 6 regular volunteers who give 2-4 days a week and 5 ad-hoc volunteers, there are no employees. During Covid we were not able to reply on the extra volunteers from businesses and colleges plus we were also limited to the number of people allowed in the unit at the same time. As ever the team stepped up and gave more time during lockdown, we are very grateful for all the time that they gave.

8

Governance

Our team is governed by our Board of Trustees. Our constitution provides for a minimum of three trustees but to ensure we have all areas covered we have 5 serving members.

Their role includes, but is not limited to, overseeing the financial management of the charity, all policies including our safeguarding practice, managing and mitigating risk and setting our strategic direction.

Fundraising

This year we had sort to engage more corporate partners, new grant funders and to start building on our sustainable income generation projects. Then Covid and Lockdown hit meaning all our planned fundraising efforts were put to one side. Historically our income has predominantly been funded by Kirklees Council and this year was no exception.

The Council were given funds by Central Government to support local families, we were part of their plan to ensure all families had what they needed for their children going back to school. We were apportioned a sizeable amount which meant we could purchase extra items meaning every family received all that they requested.

There was still a small income from other grant providers or businesses with charitable trusts. Our fundraising efforts at the end of 2020 were finishing strong, we were set to raise £12k through a Match It campaign run by our local Community Fund this will come to fruition in early 2021.

The pandemic has impeded our ability to galvanise more support. For security and to keep us sustainable we need to have a diverse spread of funding sources but this will be shaped by our future strategic objectives and will be reviewed in 2021/22.

9

Marketing

Our marketing strategy aims to ensure that our activities help underpin our strategic objectives particularly around raising awareness. Therefore, we target parents, children, businesses, children’s services and the general public to elevate our profile.

Due to covid we put many of our marketing ideas to one side for future years and we focused on digital media as our main source of communication. We spent more time offering our services and new eform on social media than ever before and the combination of the 2 helped to boost our profile and increase the number of families looking for help. We used emails to the schools and comms through Kirklees Council to help us pass on information to families in need plus we also used the Covid anchor groups set up across Kirklees to catch families or grandparents who hadn’t heard of our service.

Key Projects

Summer Exchanges , following on from the success of the ‘Big Exchange Project’ we hoped to do more of these but on a smaller scale, however we have shifted our plans on a year. We hope to do a number of exchanges next year, as it proved to be very popular, helping us improve contact with families we wouldn’t normally meet. We also saw increased awareness with staff, parents and children where schools have been involved. Winter Coat Exchange, we have successfully given away coats throughout the winter months for the last 6 years. This year was more important than ever, we got the backing of local businesses and the Council to provide almost 700 coats with hats gloves and scarves. The PR around the coat exchange really boosted our profile and we have seen a real growth in our followers across the social media platforms.

2021 will be a year of building on the success of this year, as more families accept the need to ask for help the greater impact we can have.

10

Financial Review

During 2020 the charity raised £50,154. Of this income, £31,000 was raised for specific activity related to Covid-19. As a result of the pandemic, fundraising activity was limited, and charitable donations dropped, this totalled £2,962. With the impact of Covid-19, the financial statements show a net surplus for the year of £1,126, this is due to receiving increased grant income from Kirklees Council. Expenditure for the period totalled £49,028 as a result of increased activity in response to the pandemic.

Reserves Policy

The charity has unrestricted reserves at 31st Dec 2020 of £14,237. This represents four months unrestricted fund expenditure on charitable activities. Due to the unprecedented nature of the pandemic and the uncertainty concerning future lockdowns and restrictions. It is difficult to predict how we can grow unrestricted funds but anticipate we can achieve six months’ worth of reserves in the future. Restricted funds are held by the charity for only as long as is necessary to organise the relevant activities. Normally, these funds are spent within twelve months of receipt.

Post balance sheet events

No matters or circumstances have arisen since the end of the financial period which significantly affected or may significantly affect the operations of the charity, the results of these operations or the state of affairs of the charity in the financial year subsequent to the financial period ended 31st December 2020

Future Plans

Following on from the pandemic the next one to two years of activity and growth will inevitably prove challenging. We will put many of our future plans on hold through 2021 as the impact of the pandemic cannot yet be understood.

Future key priorities will include:

Marketing and branding

There is a definite need to increase our visibility, critically outside the school setting in order for the message to implant itself in the brain. We are keen to look at more community based advertising, by having local hubs that parents can visit and recommend to friends.

Small business ideas

We recognise that we need to put in place a more sustainable income stream and with that in mind we have started to investigate possible small business ideas and what their potential income would be. Many of our plans have been deferred due to covid, we hope to readdress them in 2022 after the impact of the pandemic has started defog.

11

We are planning to start an online charity shop in 2021 to sell the items we receive that aren’t suitable for school. This will provide us with an sustainable outlet for the many items donated that have life left in them.

Working with local businesses

We are looking to form partnerships with local businesses to become their charity partner. Our key reasons for partnering with businesses is the opportunity to access and generate resources, including funding, and to potentially secure access to people and networks. Although many new connections were made through the pandemic we have not had opportunities to build financial relationships. Most of the planned work was put on hold and will be picked up in 2022.

Social Franchising

As a charity Uniform Exchanges hopes to operate as a social franchise and be successful in community transformation. We want to replicate UE through a network of outlets in council areas, who will operate under central values, training and resources. Our founder, coming from an entrepreneurial background and with the ambitions to become a social franchiser wants to drive this social action programme forward. This had to be put on hold and will be reviewed and picked up again in 2022.

Staffing and Volunteering

Uniform Exchange is currently volunteer led, as income levels do not allow for us to have paid staff in place. We realise now that unless this changes and we have a small number of paid staff we will not be able to grow or to fulfil our ultimate aim of franchising the idea of UE across the country.

Having paid positions in the key roles so that our capacity and skill level does not suffer is a key objective, but to be realistic these positions in the first instance would be part-time roles. We believe that investing in these plans will assist the project in moving forward and strengthen key relationships to achieve our objectives.

12

Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities

The charity trustees are responsible for preparing a trustees’ annual report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

The charity trustees are required to prepare financial statements for each year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of incoming resources and application of resources. In preparing financial statements, the trustees are required to:

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Signed on behalf of Trustees

Mrs Karen Hobson, Trustee….………………………………….Date 21 0ct 2021

Mrs Kate France, Trustee …………………………………….. Date 21 0ct 2021

Payments & Receipts

See the CC16a below

13

UNIFORM EXCHANGE UNIFORM EXCHANGE UNIFORM EXCHANGE 1177750 1177750 1177750 CC16a
For the period
from
01/01/2020 To 31/12/2020
Section A Receipts and payments
A1 Receipts Unrestricted
funds
to the nearest £
42,756
2,700
262
-
162
74
-
-

45,954
-
-
-
45,954
17,028
416
105
526
20,629
54
338
20
232
-
1,840
141
2,236
-
43,565
-
-
-
43,565
2,389
-
11,848
14,237
Restricted
funds
to the nearest £
4,200
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
4,200
-
-
-
4,200
-
-
1,382
89
-
1,784
-
105
1,509
594
-
5,463
-
-
-
5,463
- 1,263
-
2,169
906
Endowment
funds
to the nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Total funds
to the nearest £
46,956
2,700
262
-
162
74
-
-
50,154
-
-
-
50,154
17,028
416
1,908
20,718
54
2,122
20
337
3,349
141
2,830
-
-
49,028
-
-
-
49,028
1,126
Last year
to the nearest £
Kirklees 42,756 21,899
Charitable Donations 2,700 4,654
General donations 262 -
Other - 3,248
On line sales 162 -
Refunds 74 -
- -
- -
Sub total(Gross income for
AR)

45,954
29,801
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
-
-
-
~~Sub total~~ - -
Total receipts
A3 Payments
29,801
Propertycosts 17,028 15,127
Insurance costs 416 337
Printing/publicity 105 2,887
Laundry 526 1,690
Clothes & shoes 20,629 795
Refreshments 54 498
Storage bags/boxes 338 374
Stationery/postage 20 160
Cleaning/PPE 232 75
Wifi/'phone/website - 468
Volunteer expenses 1,840 2,873
Computer/office equipment 141 233
Van & transport costs 2,236 2,932
Miscellaneous -
BigExchange costs 911
**Sub total ** 43,565 29,360
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
-
-
**Sub total ** - -
Total payments
Net of receipts/(payments)
A5 Transfers between funds
A6 Cash funds last year end
Cash funds this year end
29,360
2,389 - 1,263 - 1,126 441
- - - - -
11,848 2,169 - 14,017 -
14,237 906 - 15,143 441

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

06/11/2021

1

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Categories
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
B5 Liabilities
B3 Investment assets
B2 Other monetary assets
B4 Assets retained for the
charity’s own use
B1 Cash funds
Details
Details
Total cash funds
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
HSBC Bank
Petty cash held
Details
Details
Citroen Van YP63 received from the former
~~Voluntary Organisation by way of gift.~~
Details
Signature
Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
funds
to nearest £
to nearest £
13,972
906
265
-
-
-
14,237
906
OK
OK
Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
funds
to nearest £
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Fund to which
asset belongs
Cost (optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Fund to which
asset belongs
Cost (optional)
Unrestricted
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Fund to which
liability relates
Amount due
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Print Name
KAREN HOBSON
HELEN HADDON
Endowment
funds
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
OK
Endowment
funds
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
Current value
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Current value
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
When due
(optional)
Date of
approval
KAREN HOBSON 14/10/2020
HELEN HADDON 14/10/2020

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

06/11/2021

2

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examinerfs Report Rèport to the trt￿te￿I meMtr￿ of l Foth ÉkCtlftNknE 2010 On accounts lor the year ended Charity no (tt any) 11 I175c. sot out on page8 I report to the trustees on my examination of the a￿ounts of above charity (Ihe Tru￿ for the year ended 3 i i i Zo Ic Respon8lbllltle8 and As the charity trustees of the Trust, YOU are responsible for the preparation bMI8 of report of tha accounts In a￿ordanCe wtth the r￿U1rem￿ts of th8 Chariti88 Act 2011 Cth• A<•. I report in resrd of my examinall¢)n of the TriBr8 accounts carrled out urKler 88Ction 145 of trje 2011 Act and in carrying out my examlnatlon I have foll(Md the applicablé Dlrectims glven by the Charty Commis81on ur#Jer sethn 145(5){b) of the Acl. I have completed my Wmination. l (x>)fimi that no mateiiaF matters have come to my attention lother than that dis¢lo8ed below") in conn8Ctlon with the examinats'on vthich gi￿ me cause to believe that in, any materral accountiThJ rectrd8 not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or Independent examlnef8 Statement I have no (xx)cem8 arKI havè come attoss no other mattern in connection wth the examination to which att￿tion should be drawn In order to enable proper understandlng of ts accounts to be reathd. . Ple8s8 delete th8 W￿d6 ￿ Ihe brnckets rfthgy () not ap￿. Slgned: O Name: Relevant professlonal quallflG*lon(s) or body (11 any): Address: 3 fflILb £AcE oELC> IER October 2018

Section B Disclosure Only complete rf the examiner needs to h￿hj￿ht matters of con￿rn (see CC32, Independent examination of chartty accwnts: directions and guidance for examiners). Gfve here brlef details of any Items that the examlner wishes to disclose. IER October 2018