Pelicon PorceLs Annual Report April 2021- March 2022 ## Our organisation Pelican Parcels’ vision is a community in which families and carers have the essentials for their children. Pelican Parcels (PP) is a registered charity (no. 1179866) and our charitable objective is the prevention or relief of poverty in local UK communities by providing items to individuals in need and/or charities or other organisations working to prevent or relieve poverty in Sussex. Pelican Parcels accepts donations of new and pre-loved items for babies and children up to age 12 – equipment, clothes, furniture, books and toys – and distributes them to disadvantaged and vulnerable families in Brighton and Hove and some wider areas of Sussex, free of charge. Various factors contribute to a family’s need for help and Pelican Parcels is there to support in that time of need. Child poverty is a growing problem affecting more than 4 million children in the UK and the proportion of the population living in poverty continues to grow. This situation has been worsened by the covid pandemic alongside the cost of living crisis. The impact of poverty on children’s health and educational outcomes is well documented. Lifetime earnings for children raised in poverty are significantly lower, as are their prospects for employment. Children brought up in poverty are more likely to raise their own children in poverty. End Child Poverty estimated in 2018 that between 24% and 33% of children in Brighton and Hove were living in poverty after housing costs. Certain wards in Brighton & Hove are in the top ten per cent most income deprived areas in England. The portion of children receiving free school meals (FSM) varies considerably across the city but reaches over 62% in areas. This has grown over 18% since the pandemic. ## Our work This was the year of emerging from the pandemic and everyone hoping that things would get just a little easier and better for families as the country reopened. It had been an incredibly tough year of restrictions and uncertainties both in terms of health and finance for many people and in particular families. As schools reopened in March and businesses were allowed to operate more fully, Pelican Parcels also began the journey by inviting our volunteers to return in stages and then moving towards to operating more fully. During the pandemic the demand for our charity’s services doubled and we envisaged this would continue as many families were still in crisis. **Our assumptions proved correct as during the 12 months of January to December 2021 we supported 3,966 children and pregnant mums in our community – an increase of 65% compared to those supported in 2020.** This uplift in the number of children and families we could support was achieved by moving premises and having more space in which to operate and deliver our service, but also by improving and broadening the way we work with local organisations to support disadvantaged children. In particular, we developed our connections with schools and children’s centre foodbanks. The result is that PP now has four ‘strands’ to our work: - n **Direct referrals:** whereby a professional refers a family for specific items such as a bed, buggy, highchair, clothing pack etc and we put together an order as requested. - n **Foodbank nappies and formula:** here we work to provide local foodbanks, in particular those operating out of the Council Children’s Centres, with nappies, wipes and baby milk formula to accompany their weekly food parcels. In 2021 we supported 1495 children with a week’s supply of nappies plus gave out 75 tubs of formula. - n **School uniform:** we began a new project to help children with unbranded school uniform. - n **Secret Santa Christmas presents:** this is where we provide brand new Christmas gifts to children and pregnant mums. Through all four strands of our work, we pride ourselves on giving the best quality to our families. Our volunteers check everything and clean items to ensure they are the kind of things we would happily put our own children in or give them to play with. We work hard to develop partnerships with local organisations and key workers; charities, health and social care workers, midwives and hospital staff, in order to be able to support local families needing the basic essential items that we can then look to provide. We are now working with over 50 local partner organisations. We get positive feedback from families and referrers and if ever something isn’t quite right we work hard to fix that immediately to ensure that everyone we’re working with feels that our service is a help. “I received a donation from yourselves, organised by my midwife. I’m a (mostly) single mother, with lots of complex health needs. It was so lovely to get your donation. When the lady turned up with it all, I burst into tears!! I’ve now reached the point where I can give back some of the items you donated.” Mum supported by Pelican Parcels “Thank you so much for the support you give us, you’re all amazing!” Foodbank co-ordinator for nappy support ## Our Volunteers Our team of incredible volunteers help make all this happen. They are an enormously dedicated, good hearted and efficient team who put their heart and soul into sorting donations, checking and rechecking items to ensure that they are happy everything is how it should be, that no small stains sneak through our checking process, or that a buggy is super clean right down to the wheels and ready to make a family feel special when receiving it. Charities can’t function without this goodwill of volunteers giving so much of their time for free and they’re a fun and energetic group too! With the warehouse now being so much bigger than our previous premises, volunteers are slowly returning and confidence in our processes of hand sanitising, wearing masks where required, working in small teams and our larger space are allowing us to get our small team of volunteers back up to around 15. The aim is to grow this number next year. “Supporting PP with volunteering my time and skills ticks all my values boxes. Also we have great team work, lots of laughs, and well supported with copious amounts of tea and biscuits.” Julie, volunteer since November 2021 ## School Uniform When our own children returned to school post-pandemic we realised that they’d outgrown everything and needed head to toe school uniform as well as new school shoes and PE trainers. The cost of this is significant and led to Pelican Parcels offering school uniform parcels to families for the new school year starting in September. It’s so important for children to feel part of a community and to look like everyone else in their uniform as this helps reduce the feeling of being different. They also need to be wearing uniform that fits, with shoes that are comfortable and have a bag to bring their items to and from school in. With all that in mind, we ran a pilot project, working with four schools in the most deprived areas of our city, to provide a preloved and new school uniform pack. The packs included clothing – uniform and PE – brand new shoes and PE trainers and a PE bag filled with some age appropriate phonics books, pre-filled pencil case, notebook and some other ‘goodies’ to make it feel exciting. We have been incredibly supported on this project by a number of funders including major funder Enjoolata Foundation and other local funders East Brighton Trust and CHOMP. We also partnered with two other charities to help deliver this project; Sals Shoes who provided six boxes of brand new school shoes and PE trainers; and Brighton charity Smarter Uniforms who helped supply preloved uniform items. Through the initial trial we supported 199 children from September to December 2021 with uniform packs and learnt a lot – such as 10 year old children can be wearing 14 year old size clothing! Feedback has been incredibly positive and we will look to continue this project next year and explore ways to slowly expand the offer to include more schools given there are 67 primary schools in Brighton & Hove. “Your a star for this. I’ve just started work after being unemployed 6 months so this month’s a low money month. So thank you so much.” Mum helped with uniform “All the families that have received their parcels were completely blown away by the quality of the items and the generosity of Pelican Parcels. We cannot begin to thank you and your team for your amazing gifts.” St Marks CE School Headmistress “Sincerely, your wonderful gifts are not only a godsend to our parents and carers but also strengthens our relationships and communication with them.” Home/School Partnership Manager, St Mark’s CE (Aided) Primary School “I just wanted to email and say how appreciated the pens, pencils, books and art activities were by our families. It made me very emotional to see the children’s faces light up when they opened the bags as they were so excited and grateful. I just wanted to email and say a huge thank to you and your team as they made the world of difference.” Deputy Headteacher, Saltdean ## Secret Santa Campaign This year, despite having moved just four weeks before Christmas, the team worked incredibly hard to deliver a special Christmas campaign for local families. We partnered with local toy shops Daisy Daisy, Meg & Milo, Timeless Toys, Whirligig and Wigwam, to encourage families supporting us to shop locally and support our local economy as we recover from the pandemic. These five local toys shops worked with us giving people a chance to buy in store, online and donating a percentage extra on top of all purchases. Some local companies also supported our campaign, in particular Star Properties whose staff gave generously, plus they helped by offering extra storage for our gifts and collections, whilst we moved premises. Local support for our Secret Santa campaign enabled us to give out 1071 wonderful Christmas parcels of toys, books and games, totalling around 3,000 items with an estimated retail value of at least £35k. “…me and my son would have really struggled but because of the kind donations we had the best Christmas we have ever had. It made our first Christmas alone more special. My son loved his Spiderman glove toy thingy, he wouldn’t take it off!” Family helped via Fresh Start Community Association “I just wanted to say thank you so much for the wonderful Christmas gifts you gave for a young boy I have been working with, including a gift for Mum too. Mum was absolutely delighted when I gave the presents from you to her and wanted me to pass on her thanks. These gifts will have made a real difference to this family and are much appreciated.” School Staff Nurse, Brighton General Hospital ## The Big Move In mid-November 2021 we moved to our new premises and quadrupled our space. It wasn’t without complications (5 days with no power!) and moving so close to our Christmas campaign was challenging, but we made it happen and by the March financial year end although still developing, it has taken shape and we can all see the potential. This new space gives us the opportunities to respond to families’ requests more quickly as we will be able to hold more stock – in particular of larger items like beds and buggies and to pre-make more clothing packs. We are looking forward to the possibilities this will offer in 2022. ## Our Award Pelican Parcels trustee and co-founder Shelley Bennett was nominated as a Community Hero at the Sussex Business Awards and won the charity’s first award in December. Having our work celebrated and acknowledged by so many businesses in Sussex was a real highlight and a great way to end 2021. ## Our Organisation The office/warehouse is now based at Unit 9 Industrial House, Conway Street. This is where donations are dropped off, sorted, processed and made into lovely parcels for the families we’re supporting. Pelican Parcels is overseen by 5 Trustees each with a specialism; n Shelley Bennett (Chair and Day-to-Day Management) n James Bennett (Secretary and Governance/Risk) n Carla Pannett (Fundraising) n Sinead Thornley (Treasurer and audit) n Victoria Shead (Marketing) ## Our financial overview Pelican Parcels has had a successful year financially securing a mix of private donations and grant funding and have managed to grow our reserves. We are conscious of the increased costs that come with our larger premises and have budgeted accordingly. In order to remain resilient and grow, we will continue to focus energy on a spread of fundraising including grants, private donations and community events. Key expenditure for the charity includes the premises costs, insurances and new/ replacement items for families which currently are growing line with income. **----- Start of picture text -----**
Receipts and payments Account
01 April 2021 to 31 March 2022
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Total funds – Last year –
– to the nearest £ – to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
Receipts
Trusts and Foundations 23,300 13,650 36,950 4,160
Local Councils 10,000 6,348 16,348 19,000
Corporate supporters 3,902 3,902 1,124
Fundraising events 156 156
Individual donations 10,133 10,133 12,028
Gift aid 4,771 4,771
Rent refund 2,678 2,678
Total receipts 54,940 19,998 74,938 36,312
Payments
Rent 15,805 15,805 12,000
Additional storage 904 904 441
Fundraising 2,833 2,833 1,402
Utilities and insurance 2,468 2,468 1,020
Office expenses 471 471 358
Office maintenance 1,278 1,278 493
and repairs
Packaging (referral bags) 1,188 1,188 922
Moving costs 1,015 1,360 2,375 540
Warehouse equipment and 1,890 1,835 3,725
racking
Volunteer costs 1,032 1,032
Mattresses 1,718 1,640 3,358 1,313
Stairgates and child 854 270 1,124
safety equipment
Toys and books 597 164 761
Clothing and bedding 336 394 731 1,064
Formula 415 104 519 432
Nappies, hygiene and wipes 1,999 4,776 6,775 4,783
School uniform project 6,455 6,455
Total payments 37,767 14,035 51,802 24,768
Net of receipts/(payments) 17,173 5,963 23,135 11,544
Cash funds – last year end 20,897 20,897 9,354
Cash funds – this year end 38,070 5,963 44,033 20,897
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|Statement of assets and liabilities as at 31 March 2022|Statement of assets and liabilities as at 31 March 2022|Statement of assets and liabilities as at 31 March 2022|Statement of assets and liabilities as at 31 March 2022| |---|---|---|---| |**Categories**|**Details**|**Unrestricted funds**
**to nearest £**|**Restricted funds**
**to nearest £**| |**Cash funds**|Bank balance|36,710|7,323| |**Total cash funds**|||| ||**Details**|**Unrestricted funds**
**to nearest £**|**Restricted funds**
**to nearest £**| |**Other monetary**
**assets**|Rental deposit|6,250|6,250| |**Investment assets**|Details – Not applicable||| |**Assets retained for**
**the charity’s own use**|Furniture/ racking/ white
goods/electricalgoods|Fund to which asset
belongs 1,890|Fund to which asset
belongs: 1,835| |**Liabilities**|Details – Not applicable||| **----- Start of picture text -----**
Foodbank
nappy
bundles
Christmas
1495
presents
Packs of
1071 Nappy
Clothing Wipes
bundles
packs 625
543
533
School
uniform
sets Activity
Potties
mats Blankets
199
/ baby
70 and sleeping
baths
bags
Stair
67
164
gates
73
Moses
baskets, cots,
Bouncer/ toddler beds
rocker 142
chairs
56
Breast-
feeding
Towels
pillows
93
43
Weaning Sterilisers
Highchairs Changing packs 52
13
64 bags
51 Baby
carriers
56
Breast
Bottle sets
pumps
54
35
Breast
Book bags Changing pads
134 mats 56
57
Prams/ Formula
Buggies 149
104
Bedding
bundles
200 Shoe sets Toy
216 bundles
284
**----- End of picture text -----**
I ndependent examiner's report to the trustees of Pelican Parcels I report of the accounts of Pelican Parcels for the year ended 31 March 2022. Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity's trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144121 of the Charities Act 2011 Ithe 2011 Act) and that an independent examination is needed. It is my responsibility to.. Examine the accounts under section 145 of the 2011 Act. To follow the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 14515llbl of the Act. To state whether particular matters have come to my attention. Independent examiner's statement I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect.. accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting records I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Signed: Name.. Amanda Foon, 19 November 2022 Relevant professional qualification or body: c k ed ALLoJJ- rt Akj? Address: