## **Manchester Imagination Library (MIL)** 

## **Trustees Annual Report: 2024 – 2025** 

_Charity No: 1177843 | Address: Gorton North Children’s Centre, Stelling Street, Manchester M18 8LW_ 

## **1. Structure, Governance, and Dedication** 

Manchester Imagination Library (MIL) is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), driven entirely by dedicated volunteers. Our trustees, who are the sole voting members, bring extensive professional experience working with young children and their families, ensuring our governance is informed, strategic, and passionate about early childhood literacy. 

We work in close collaboration with vital local partners, including SureStart, Manchester Libraries, Reform Radio, and various statutory and voluntary organisations. Our volunteer model means that **98% of every donation directly funds the delivery of books** , maximizing the impact of every pound entrusted to us. 

## **Our Vision: Building Foundations for Life** 

MIL’s core purpose is to tackle educational inequality at the earliest possible stage. Our activities are designed to create lasting, positive impacts in our community by: 

- **Fostering a Lifelong Love of Reading:** Ensuring every registered child owns a personal, highquality library of up to 60 books before they start school. 

- **Boosting School Readiness:** Significantly improving early language development and literacy skills to ensure children start school confident and prepared. 

- **Strengthening Family Bonds:** Promoting shared reading experiences to deepen the emotional connection between parents and children. 

- **Empowering Parents:** Building parental confidence in supporting their child's early learning journey. 

- **Enhancing Community Cohesion:** Utilising Family Hubs and SureStart Centres to bring families from diverse backgrounds together through shared literacy goals. 

## **2. A Year of Transformative Activities and Impact** 

Our strategy focuses on reaching the children who need us most. We prioritise areas identified by the **Index of Multiple Deprivation (IDACI)** , ensuring our resources deliver maximum leverage in communities facing significant economic challenges. 

## **Targeting High-Need Areas** 

In the past year, we have concentrated our efforts in the following high-impact areas, working directly through local SureStart Children’s Centres: 

**Manchester Imagination Library (MIL), Charity No 1177843** https://www.manchesterimaginationlibrary.org.uk/ 



## **Local Area IDACI Ranking (Deprivation)** 

Clayton and Openshaw 3rd percentile 

Gorton and Abbey Hey 4th percentile 

Crumpsall and Cheetham 13th and 14th percentiles 

By inviting families to register their child at birth during their first SureStart visit, we are able to provide a child registered from day one with **five years of reading material and support** . 

## **Key Achievement: DfE Family Hub Success** 

Our most significant achievement this year was the success of our bids for **Department for Education (DfE) Family Hub funding** . This crucial funding allowed us to: 

- **Register 125 previously unengaged children** for the Imagination Library, bringing a new wave of readers into the program. 

- **Integrate families** into vital local services, including early literacy sessions and critical two-year-old checks, helping identify learning and family support needs at a key developmental stage. 

This success demonstrates MIL's strength as a trusted, effective partner in the city's strategy to improve foundational outcomes. 

## **The Critical Need** 

Local data confirms the severity of the challenge: Manchester contains some of the UK’s most deprived communities, resulting in poor outcomes at the end of the Foundation Stage - a gap that is rarely closed across a child’s education. The ongoing impact of economic insecurity continues to depress early language development baselines, with our partners noting that families on low incomes often have few books at home and lack the confidence to initiate shared reading. **MIL directly addresses this gap by providing high-quality books and embedding the confidence to use them.** 

## **3. Measurable Results and Voices of Our Community** 

The power of receiving a book addressed personally to a child every month cannot be overstated. Independent research and parental feedback consistently prove the effectiveness of the Imagination Library model. 

## **Independent Research Validation** 

According to the latest ILUK research: 

Parents receiving IL books were **30% more likely to read daily with their child** than parents outside the programme. 

## **Parent Testimonial** 

The feedback from our parents highlights the tangible impact we have: 

**Manchester Imagination Library (MIL), Charity No 1177843** https://www.manchesterimaginationlibrary.org.uk/ 



_“My child gets really excited when her new book arrives in the post. We read the books together, she enjoys turning the pages and looking at the pictures. When we go to the play session at SureStart she will go and sit in the book corner.”_ 

## **4. Financial Review and Future Vision** 

## **Maximizing Investment** 

Our financial model is defined by efficiency and high return on investment (ROI). Because the Dollywood Foundation covers procurement and distribution logistics, and MIL operates with zero staff costs: 

- **Efficiency:** Over 98% of all funds received are directly applied to purchasing books. 

- **Leverage:** It costs MIL just **£26 per child per year** to deliver a service whose true retail cost would exceed £100 per child, providing outstanding value to our sponsors. 

## **The Call to Action** 

Since our seed funding of £5,000 in 2015, we have successfully raised over **£100,000** , ensuring thousands of books have reached children across Manchester. 

However, our sustained success has created an urgent, quantifiable need: **We currently have 849 registered children** . To secure their continued registration until they reach their 5th birthday, we require immediate and sustained fundraising. **Based on the remaining time for the average child in the program, we urgently need to secure over £44,000 to guarantee that every one of these 849 children completes their full five-year journey and receives their full library of 60 books.** Each donation is a critical investment in these children's future, ensuring the foundation we have built for them is not prematurely withdrawn. 

## **5. Strategic Outlook (2025-2026) and Get Involved** 

Building on the momentum of our DfE Family Hub success, our strategic goals for the coming year are focused on stability, expansion, and deepened impact: 

1. **Financial Stability:** Secure sustainable funding to cover the full commitment for all 849 currently registered children (targeting the **£44,000+** shortfall). 

2. **Geographic Expansion:** Identify and successfully launch registration drives in one new, high IDACI-ranked postcode area in Manchester, expanding our reach to 100 new families. 

3. **Community Integration:** Develop a formal volunteer training program to increase capacity for running early literacy workshops in Family Hubs, supporting parents beyond the book delivery. 

## **Invest in a Reader's Future** 

The Manchester Imagination Library offers exceptional value, transforming a **£26 annual donation into a year of literacy and learning** for a child in need. 

**To discuss corporate sponsorship, set up a regular donation, or contribute to our immediate £44,000 funding target, please contact:** 

**[Trustee Name] Email:** [Email Address] **Website:** [Website URL] 

**Manchester Imagination Library (MIL), Charity No 1177843** https://www.manchesterimaginationlibrary.org.uk/ 



## **BANK Donations** 

|**BANK**<br>|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Donatons**|||**Books**||
||### Janet F<br>|10.00|13-May|996.11|
||### Cheryl P<br>|10.00|7-Jun|1,562.21|
||### Insightul<br>|42.00|28-Jun|1,223.05|
||### Easy fundraising<br>|15.90|9-Aug|1,470.50|
||### Janet F<br>|10.00|9-Sep|1,353.70|
||### Cheryl P<br>|10.00|24-Sep|96.20|
||### Insightul<br>|42.00|9-Oct|900.00|
||### Janet F<br>|10.00|28-Oct|30.00|
||### Cheryl P<br>|10.00|28-Oct|675.80|
||### Insightul<br>|42.00|7-Nov|1,501.90|
||### Janet F<br>|10.00|6-Dec|1,563.89|
||### Cheryl P<br>|10.00|7-Jan|1,962.95|
||### Insightul<br>|42.00|7-Jan|**30.00**|
||### Janet F<br>|10.00|7-Feb|1683.57|
||### Cheryl P<br>|10.00|7-Mar|1726.52|
||### Insightul<br>|42.00|||
||### Janet F<br>|10.00|||
||### Joanne H<br>|150.00||**16776.40**|
|1 0ctober 2024|Cheryl P<br>|10.00|||
||### Insightul<br>|42.00|||
||### MCC<br>|7,972.00|||
||### Janet F<br>|20.00|||
||### Cheryl P<br>|10.00|||
||### Insightul<br>|120.00|||
||### Janet F<br>|20.00|||
||### Cheryl P<br>|10.00|||
||### Insightul<br>|120.00|||
||### Janet F<br>|20.00|||
||### Cheryl P<br>|10.00|||
||### Insightul<br>|120.00|||
||### Janet F<br>|20.00|||
||### Cheryl P<br>|10.00|||
||### Insightul<br>|120.00|||
||### Easy fundraising<br>|15.92|||
||### Janet F<br>|20.00|||
||### Cheryl P<br>|10.00|||
|Friday, April 04,|2025 Insightul<br>|120.00|||
||### Insightul<br>|120.00|||
|||**9,395.82**|||
|Non cash|||||
|December|Joanne H insurance<br>|392.00|||





**9,787.82** 

192.40 1,194.57 1,042.05 1,279.76 

**23,925.27** 



|**Service chge**||Other payments|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|30-Jun|18.00|MCC|150||
|30-Sep|18.00|Ben|35||
|31-Oct|5.40|Ben|185||
|30-Nov|6.00||||
|31-Dec|6.00||||
|31-Jan|6.00|||0|
|31-Mar|6.00||||
||**65.40**||**370**||



392 



762
2,024.00

**Gorton Imagination Library** 


## **Receipts and payme** 

Period start date **For the period from 4/6/2024** 

## **Section A Receipts and payments** 

## **Unrestricted funds** 

## **Restricted funds** 

**to the nearest £** 

## **to the nearest £** 

## **A1 Receipts** 

|Donations|**9,788**|||
|---|---|---|---|
|Schools Funding||||
||**-**||**-**|
|||||
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_|**9,788**||**-**|



|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**(see table).**||||||||
|||**-**||||**-**||
|||**-**||||**-**||
|**_Sub total_**||**-**||||**-**||
|||||||||
|**_Total receipts_ **||**9,788**||||**-**||



## **A3 Payments** 

|**A3 Payments**||||
|---|---|---|---|
|Books|**16,776**|||
|Other payments|**762**|||
|Bank service charge|**65**|||
||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**17,604**||**-**|





|**A4 Asset and investment**|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**purchases, (see table)**|||||||||
|||**-**|||||**-**||
|||**-**|||||**-**||
|**_Sub total_**||**-**|||||**-**||
||||||||||
|**_Total payments_ **||**17,604**|||||**-**||
||||||||||
|**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ **||**-                7,816**||||**-**|||
|**A5 Transfers between funds**||**-**||||**-**|||
|**A6 Cash funds last year end**||**35,932**|||||||
|**_Cash funds this year end_ **||**28,116**||||**-**|||
||||||||||



## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of** 

**Categories** 

## **Details** 

**B1 Cash funds** 

Cash in bank at year end 

## _**Total cash funds**_ 

(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) 

## **Details** 

**B2 Other monetary assets** 

## **Details** 

## **B3 Investment assets** 

## **Details** 

**B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use** 



## **Details** 

## **B5 Liabilities** 

Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees 

Signature 



## **No (if any)** 

## **ents accounts** 

## **CC16a** 

Period end date **To 4/5/2025** 

## **Endowment funds** 

## **Total funds** 

## **Last year** 

## **to the nearest £** 

## **to the nearest £** 

**to the nearest £** 

||**-**|||||**9,788**||||**27,920**||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**-**|||||**-**||||||
||**-**|||||**-**||||**-**||
|||||||||||||
||**-**|||||**9,788**||||**27,920**||
|||||||||||||
|||**-**||||**-**||||||
|||**-**||||**-**||||**-**||
|||**-**||||**-**||||**-**||
|||||||||||||
|||**-**||||**9,788**||||**27,920**||
|||||||||||||
||**-**|||||**16,776**||||**14,981**||
||**-**|||||**762**||||**1,077**||
||**-**|||||**65**||||**72**||
||**-**|||||**-**||||**-**||
||**-**|||||**-**||||**-**||
||**-**|||||**-**||||**-**||
||**-**|||||**-**||||**-**||
||**-**|||||**-**||||**-**||
||**-**|||||**-**||||**-**||
||**-**|||||**17,604**||||**16,130**||





|||**-**|||||**-**||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**-**|||||**-**||||||
|||**-**|||||**-**||||**-**||
||||||||||||||
|||**-**|||||**17,604**||||**16,130**||
||||||||||||||
||**-**|||||**-**|**7,816**||||**11,790**||
||**-**||||||**-**||||**-**||
||**-**||||||**35,932**||||**24,142**||
||**-**||||||**28,116**||||**35,932**||
||||||||||||||



**the period Unrestricted funds** 

**Restricted funds** 

**Endowment funds** 

|**the period**<br>**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**|**Restricted**<br>**funds**|**Endowment**<br>**funds**|
|---|---|---|
|**to nearest £**<br>**28,116**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**28,116**<br>OK<br>**to nearest £**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**|**to nearest £**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>OK<br>**to nearest £**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**Restricted**<br>**funds**|**to nearest £**|
|||**-**|
|||**-**|
|||**-**|
|||**-**|
|||OK|
|||**to nearest £**<br>**Endowment**<br>**funds**|
|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|**-**|



## **Fund to which asset belongs** 

|**Cost (optional)**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**|**Current value**<br>**(optional)**|
|---|---|
|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|



**Fund to which asset belongs** 

|**Cost (optional)**<br>**-**<br>**-**|**Current value**<br>**(optional)**|
|---|---|
|**-**|**-**|
|**-**|**-**|





|**-**||**-**|
|---|---|---|
|**-**||**-**|
|**-**||**-**|
|**-**||**-**|
|**-**||**-**|
|**-**||**-**|
|**-**||**-**|



**Fund to which liability relates** 

**Amount due (optional) - - - - -** 

**When due (optional)** 

Print Name J S HARVEY J FITZGERALD 

Date of approval 9.1.26 **9.1.26**