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2023-08-31-accounts

Quality of Care

Review September 2022 to August 2023

Overton Playcentre CIO Quality of Care report Sept 2022 - September 2023

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About Us Our Core Values Family:Fun:Happy:Caring:Nurturing:Safe:Inclusive

Evidence

‘Thank you for having Albie for the last 15 months he has thoroughly enjoyed himself and learnt so much. We couldn't of asked for a better Playcentre for our little boy to attend. Thank you!’ Amy and Josh

Overton Playcentre was first established in 1967 by a group of volunteers. It is a non-profit charitable organisation that is led by a committee of parents who employ qualified and experienced staff that run the Playcentre. It has now become Overton Playcentre CIO and as of 2019 incorporates two different settings:

- St Mary’s Out of School Club (referred to as Clwb throughout this report): We are open 730am-9am and 315pm – 545pm term time only; We operate out of St Mary’s School hall. We are registered for 48 children from 4-11 years old; We welcome all children attending St Mary’s School.

Self-Evaluation

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As non-maintained settings we are required to complete a Self-Assessment of Service Statement (SASS) report. The prime purpose of SASS is to improve outcomes for children through self- evaluating the children’s Wellbeing, Care and Development, Environment, Management and Leadership. Self-evaluation is an established part of the improvement planning cycle in the Quality of Care review. As an annual process, self-evaluation informs strategic and improvement plans, which will help our settings to focus on priorities for development. Self-evaluation is a process, not an event. It is the first, essential step in a cyclical process of bringing about change and improvement. It is based on professional reflection, challenge and support among practitioners. Effective self-evaluation involves taking wide-ranging decisions about actions which result in clear benefits for all children that;

Quality of Care Review also fulfils our legal duty under regulation 16 of the Child Minding and Day Care (Wales) Regulations 2010.

At the heart of self-evaluation are three questions:

Overton Playcentre CIO Quality of Care report Sept 2022 - September 2023

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Overview of the Year

Staffing

New Curriculum

● Placed in monitoring in March 2023 due to our environment. This came about as we were waiting for a shed to be built. The old shed had been emptied but the new one took a bit longer to arrive. We had a volunteer day to sort the outside out, many staff and volunteers came to help. Came out of monitoring in June 2023 ● New Curriculum ethos became further embedded in day to day running of centre

Projects

Manager accepted onto:

Overton Playcentre CIO Quality of Care report Sept 2022 - September 2023

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Staff Training

Children and Families

●

Visitors and Visits

Holiday Club

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Leadership and management

● article in Early Years Magazine

fundraising and donations

Community

● art exhibition in church ● joining in with community advent tree ● display of children's mother's day art for Church ● Birthday cards display for church ● entered and won in Village Produce Show ● Part of VIllage Fete ● Went to watch the Tour de

Britain

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Wellbeing

This is about the progress different groups of children are making, taking into account their age, development and needs. It is about how our service is contributing to children’s well-being, helping them to have a voice, develop their skills and become independent and confident.

Evidence

‘thank you for playing with me and teaching me lots of fun stuff

thank you for letting me play on the tyre swing and the superfast red bike

thank you for all the cuddles when I am sad’

Georgie’s voice via parent

Clwb and holiday clwb

‘they always listen to me’

‘they are really fun to play with’

‘i’m very happy because when I need help they come straight away and listen what I need help with’

‘when I have snack and I am still hungry I can have some more’

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How Well are We Doing?

- Good

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stocked with new outdoor equipment. This was highlighted in the latest CIW inspection for the Clwb.

In the Playcentre we take observations and some photos of the children when they are engaged in play that show how the children interact, what interests them and how they respond to materials and activities that they have access to. This information is then used in the planning process to feed into the next steps and towards weekly planning and the invitations to play.

The parent portal for parents, where photos and information are uploaded for parents to see what their children are doing was brought in after the first lockdown for better parent/staff communication. However in the questionnaires this has been highlighted as an area for further improvement on as a number of parents have commented in the past :

‘more pics on the app would be great’

The issue staff have with the portal is that it takes so long to load each child’s photo onto it. for instance staff have commented:

“I press on one child’s photo then go off and clean for 10-15 mins and if I am lucky that photo will have loaded up and I can do another child’s photo.”

“It takes so long to load up, it’s a whole member of staff out for an afternoon. You’re either playing with the children or being on the portal and even then you’re not sure that it has actually loaded up as the number of times the internet crashes and what would the parents prefer?”

Clearly therefore this is still an area we have to look at to ensure that use of the portal is made easier and appropriate staff and time allocated to it. This is still an ongoing issue Action Required

In Clwb staff use their playwork training to observe, step back, suggest, intervene all to move play forward but not annihilate play.

The use of Children’s questionnaires and brainstorming sessions, Planning in the Moment sheets all enable staff at Playcentre and Clwb to listen to the Child’s voice.

‘ Thank you everyone for making breakfast club, after school club and holiday club somewhere that the boys love to go’ Simon and Lauren

Settling children into the setting

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‘ wonderful setting!!

Provides such a peace of mind that Molly is in such attentive and caring hands. Thank you’

Implemented settling in policy to ensure children’s emotional well-being is cared for when the child first joins the setting. This year with all its difficulties children have settled back into Clwb and Playcentre really quickly after the lockdowns. We had prepared parents and children with the changes by sharing photos, videos (the one of the staff dancing in full PPE so children would not be scared if we had to wear it, was very popular!) as well as letters, emails that parents had to sign that they had received and read them and this continued this year with regular information updates being sent out.

At the Playcentre we have not been able to let parents into the premises easily but we have run open Saturdays or evening sessions after 6pm, where parents could book to come with their child/children to look round. These have proved popular with prospective parents. We had a very Popular parents evening at the end of the summer term in July and will be implementing them again next year ACTION NEEDED

As we are getting more 2 year olds arriving this term, we have had to be flexible in our approach to ensure that each child and their feels supported to make their induction as smooth as possible. We do find a minimum of 2 sessions per week is best for the child’s wellbeing enabling them to settle in quicker into the setting and make friends. We have worked with parents to enable this to happen where possible.

However we did have a comment in a parent questionnaire

‘ lovely setting, the staff are very helpful. The only negative would be there always seems to be different staff that arent introduced to parents and can sometimes upset xxx coming into playgroup. She starts getting used to staff then different staff start and she gets upset going in’

ACTION NEEDED

Need permanent parent notice board with staff photos out and new staff added. look at other ways to inform parents of changes occurring in the settings

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Toddler Group

“Lovely group today. Big thanks to Rachel for the great water play. Big hit all round! X” facebook

We started off the year in the Village Hall as during the winter the parents preferred the space in the hall, we ended up in the Playcentre as the hall costs us about £35 per session which we need to cover as well as the snack and a member of staff time if possible and if numbers are low at times we do not cover costs. So it was agreed to bring it back in house.We are currently working on recruiting other volunteers to support as people go back to work or children move up to school.

Children’s voice

‘more toys’

‘dominoes would be good’

‘more instruments’

How do we know?

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How can we improve things ?

Care and development

‘ it is really comforting to see how much you all understand George and see what a loving little boy is and can understand him when he is having an off day or needs that extra cuddle.’

‘Very happy, she loves coming always comes home smiling and skipping’

‘she’s learning and developing much faster attending playgroup’

‘ she is looked after in the best way imaginable’

This is about how responsive practitioners are in meeting children’s needs – how they help children feel emotionally secure and ensuring children are physically, mentally and emotionally healthy. It is also about ensuring that children are being developed and build relationships with other children, become self-aware, confident and are achieving good well-being.

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How well are we doing?

- Good

Implementation of positive behaviour policy, concentrating on helping children to take ownership for their behaviour look for solutions, e.g if two children are struggling to share over a particular toy, practitioners will intervene calmly by asking the children in a gentle tone how the situation can be resolved and offering clear options to the children on how to move forward. Staff also use the 5 minute strategy, modelling this for the children and working towards the children being able to use this strategy themselves. Saying 5 minutes to each other and using the blue sand timers. We do have different length minute timers as well. This helps to develop social and also problem solving skills. Staff training has previously included Solihull and Pivatol Behaviour training. Staff have also made use of the training offered via zoom to get training on Speech and Language and Elklan. We have worked with St Mary’s School to provide consistency across the settings. This year staff have been involved in the Talk Support programme which we have recently been signed off. However we need to ensure that new staff are trained and familiar with these methods as well. ACTION POINT - to put some training for in house such as talk support into the staff induction

Being outside and physical activity has been very important post pandemic. Clwb runs outside most afternoons but the mornings tend to be inside but with plenty of ventilation

For this summer we are again employed summer staff both male and female, one who has a sports coaching qualification. We had Mixed Martial Arts weekly and we had two mornings of archery as well.

Good behaviour and discipline are essential to ensure the smooth running of Clwb and the Playcentre. The foundation is provided for the development of morals and values, whilst advocating acceptable behaviour in children. We recognise that building self-esteem and confidence will encourage positive behaviour as well as encouraging mutual respect, sharing and tolerance. We encourage this through rewarding with targeted praise, stickers and award certificates but most of all we discuss with the children what they are being

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rewarded for and make sure that they understand what they are being rewarded for. We are moving away from praise such as ‘well done’, ‘clever boy’ to targeted praise such as ‘well done, you put away the garage in its place” or “clever boy you persevered and solved the problem”. This move aims to build resilience as well as self esteem in a child.

Each child is valued as an individual and their feelings and viewpoints will always be considered when planning and running sessions.

Staff have opportunities to observe children while they are involved in activities within the continuous provision, indoors, outdoors and within the daily routines. Staff will find out how the children’s skills are developing and what they can or cannot do. Staff give children time for reflection and engage in discussions with them as they allow them to develop their natural curiosity and creativity. They are also able to gather information on what the children know and understand, as well as their personal preferences.

As a team, we have worked hard to collect information about children’s stages of development using a selection of different observational methods and techniques, skills that involve looking, seeing, listening and interpreting what the children are doing, learning, practising, sharing, enjoying and many more attributes that have an influence on what level and how the children are learning and developing. Examples of these are shown through photographs, written observations, updates on the parent portal software package. Parents used to receive a keepsake book at the end of the year in the past showing craft, mark making, discussions and photos that illustrate the skills their child has learnt and developed. The parent portal has superseded this though we are still working on how to ensure that parents get something lovely to remember their child’s time with us. (see action above). We are in the process this coming year of changing our recording and reporting for our younger and non EE children to be more in line with the 0-3 strategies and the new curriculum to include more parent evenings as well. Action Needed

Snacks help stabilise energy levels until the next meal. Because children’s eating habits are largely determined by age two, we play an important role in teaching good nutrition to young children. To drink children have a choice between milk or water at Playcentre and water bottles at Clwb. To eat we offer fruit snacks mostly but also a wider range of snacks that include breads, cereal, yoghurts where needed. Recently a member of staff at Playcentre realised that the children are sometimes hungrier at afternoon snack and will then add a carbohydrate too. It has been discussed whether we need a protein snack during the morning snack to aid concentration levels in certain children.

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However Lunch follows on quickly and it is currently felt that this might prevent children eating lunch.

We also think it is important for children to taste different foods that they may not be accustomed to, therefore encouraging children to try different foods from around the world.

At Playcentre they tasted noodles for snack which all the children enjoyed and asked to have noodles for snack again which we continue to do. We celebrated Diwali with our creation of rangoli patterns using spices and dry paint. The children enjoyed watching the story of Rama and Sita on our large screen. They then followed candles to an Indian banquet and tasted samosas, rice, korma curry, Tikka masala, onion bhajees and naan bread. This year the children really enjoyed the Indian food and much was eaten! The children enjoyed getting dressed up in tunics and saris and tried out their indian dancing skills.

As children grow their taste buds change therefore we will continue to give children opportunities to taste new foods as the more variety of foods they are exposed to the more accustomed their taste buds will become.

At the Playcentre our Christmas Meal was extremely popular and good fun with staff and children. Staff and children thoroughly enjoyed the occasion. However having been part of the Early Years Anti-Racist Coaching group across Wales and the New Curriculum for Wales, there has been much discussion regarding the multicultural work that we have carried out in the past and how we encorporate it now. We looked at the need for really understanding Cynefin and bringing that into our practice. Action Needed.

During lunch times children are encouraged by practitioners to eat their main / healthy food, e.g. sandwiches and fruit before they have any treat food that may have been provided.

Lack of sleep can have an impact on children’s mental and physical development therefore we offer a sleep time at 1pm to children who are still used to having a daytime sleep or for children who are tired and need an extra sleep, however if a child is tired before 1pm we will accommodate their sleep time earlier. We are guided at all times by parental wishes.

Practitioners encourage children to develop friendships with each other, recognising where personalities are well suited and then encouraging those children to play together or work together on a particular activity. Staff also feedback such observations to parents so they are aware of friendships as they develop friendships that are formed in playgroup very often remain as children

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move into school, this is particularly apparent in the transition from playgroup into school as these friendships give children security and confidence as they start school and the friendships then continue to grow.

Also children make friends with the children who come over from school which makes the transition to St Mary’s school easier as they are familiar with some of the children who already attend school. It has been brilliant this year to be able to carry out face to face transition and we have taken the children to forest school and look forward to increasing the transitions as we had prior to the pandemic. This year we invited St Mary’s school staff to join us for our end of year celebration with our children when we had Ticky Lowe, an artist, for an extra day from the art project.

We are good at responding to issues that parents have with the care of their children while they are with us.

One parent was concerned that they did not know all the staff so we responded by creating an outside notice board and put up photos of all the staff and their roles. This is an ongoing issue and the production of a permanent parent board is something we are looking for grants for. Action Needed We work as closely with our parents as possible.

We put into the Welcome pack a ‘This is Me’ Sheet that parents fill in prior to their child attending the setting. This meant that staff can read, and sign that they had read, information for settling the child in when they arrived.

Children that need extra support have been given Targeted Universal Provision - TUP’s and these are reviewed regularly.

How do you know?

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Emails

Facebook

How can we improve things ?

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Environment

This section is how you ensure that the physical environment you provide is of good quality and meets the needs of the children using your service.

How are we doing?

- Good

Clwb operates out of the school hall and school grounds. We have put a loose parts stocked shed in the school grounds for after school clwb play as per CIW inspection suggestion.

Playcentre -

New Curriculum states that:

“The environment we create in our setting, indoors and outdoors, should be central to children’s authentic experiences. For this reason, we should continually monitor and review the effectiveness of the environment and adapt accordingly. During the early years, exploration of the environment is a key driver for development. Through exploration of their environment, children begin to develop a sense of belonging and an appreciation of the world around them.” Curriculum for Non- Maintained Nursery Settings.

We have worked hard this year and have spent a large amount of time and

energy this year changing our environment to be able to fit the new curriculum. We have received grants and resources to enable us to do this.

We were placed in monitoring in March 2023 due to our environment. This came about as we were waiting for a shed to be built. The old shed had been emptied but the new one took a bit longer to arrive. We had a volunteer day to sort the outside out, many staff and volunteers came to help. Came out of monitoring in June 2023. See reports

New Curriculum and assessment ethos became further embedded in day to day running of centre

To ensure the children benefit from playing outdoors we continue to sustain free flow between indoors and outdoor play during EE sessions . The staff rota is devised in a way that all staff can support children’s learning throughout the daily routine and in all areas but also gives the children opportunities to learn and develop skills in a secure safe environment outdoors as well as indoors.

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Children have the opportunity to experiment with their play in natural surroundings. This year they have wanted to turn the Willow Wigloo into a bird hide and have enjoyed the pond with tadpoles and bug hunting. Our rabbit and fish have also given much emotional wellbeing to the children as well. We have created a Pet’s Policy. We have made use of the drive for extended play giving the children more freedom to develop their physical skills riding on trikes and scooters.

We have obtained funding to train one member of staff as a forest school leader. Action to support our staff member to obtain the Forest School qualification and lead sessions in it.

Maintenance of Playcentre buildings outside area ACTION REQUired

We are looking at how we can improve our outside area throughout for the benefit of the whole of Playcentre including Holiday Club

To further develop the outdoor space and to think about how to utilise the whole of the area safely with due regard to safeguarding. EE Self Evaluation

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How do you know?

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How can we improve things ?

ACTION REQUired

Leadership and management

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Evidence

This section is about the effectiveness of your leadership and management. It covers:

How well are we doing?

- Good

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Aim to Deliver High Quality Experiences for all our Children

Business Continuity Planning and Business Plan including market research to ensure long term financial viability.

Management Committee decisions throughout the Pandemic have been to ensure long term Financial viability.

Having a robust staff recruitment policy; staff induction policy that ensures we attract and recruit good quality staff. retain good staff too

How do we know?

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How can we improve things ?

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Overton Playgroup

Funds for the year ended 31st August 2023

August 2022 August 2023
£ £ £ £
Income
Fees & Early Entitlement 134,875 151,703
Furlough 775 0
Fund Raising 1,749 2,753
Donations Received 605 205
Insurance Payout 2,319 0
Milk Refunds 403 621
Grants Received 23,772 9,436
Miscellaneous 2 98
164,500 164,816
Expenditure
Wages 124,063 129,506
Utilities 5,318 12,447
Building Maintenance & Play Equipment 2,848 4,332
Site Improvements (One off works) 2,710 0
Insurance 3,481 4,528
Miscellaneous 11,415 16,355
149,835 167,168
Net Income/(Expenditure) 14,665 -2,352
Other recognised gains/(losses)
Gains/(losses) on revaluation of fixed assets 0 0
0 0
Net movement in funds 14,665 -2,352
August 2022 August 2023
£ £ £ £
Fixed Assets
Property 70000 70000
Furniture & Fittings 0 0
Total Fixed Assets 70,000 70,000
Current Assets
Debtors 1,485 2,021
Barclays Current A/C 20,278 8,376
Barclays Deposit A/C 16,067 24,166
Cash 20 20
Cash at bank and in hand 36,366 32,561
Total Current Assets 37,851 34,582
Current Liabilities
Creditors 917 0
Net Current Assets 36,934 34,582
Net Assets/(liabilities) 106,934 104,582
Capital
Opening Balance 92,269 106,934
Revaluation Reserve 0 0
Profit/(Loss) for Year 14,665 -2,352
Total Charity Funds 106,934 104,582
Prepared By:

Dale.. 2710612024

Overton Playcentre

School Lane, Overton on Dee, Wrexham, LL13 0SE

Tel: 01978 710688

Email: overtonplaygroup@yahoo.co.uk Registered Charity Number 1182019

Annual General Meeting – 27th June 2024

Treasurer’s report for financial year 1st September 2022 to 31st August 2023

The year-end accounts this year have been completed and presented to the committee by Andy Saunders, the Playcentre Treasurer.

Operating Loss

The financial statement for this year shows an operating loss of £2,352 which was expected due to grant money received in the previous accounting period, spent within this period.

The committee, trustees and staff have worked hard this year to reduce the impact of rapidly rising costs both in terms of utilities and in the general cost of food and supplies for the setting.

We will need to review our utilities provision in the coming year to try and reduce the impact on the setting of a cost that has more than doubled within this period.

Debtors has risen slightly this year, however this is more a reflection of increased charges than an increase in the amount of late payments.

Income

Income has risen and child numbers are holding at a steady level. A review of fees will be undertaken by the trustees and management group to ensure that we cover the ever rising costs of the setting while ensuring that we maintain our position of providing affordable childcare within our local community.

The management team has, again, worked tirelessly to secure as much grant funding as possible and while our grant income has dropped considerably this year, this is due to increased competition for grant allocations and not a reflection on the effort and commitment of the team.

Expenditure

Expenditure for the year was £167,168 – an increase of over £17,000. Table 2 shows the expenditure for this year. As can be seen wages form the majority of the spend figure. Utilities have more than doubled from the previous year and there was an increase in miscellaneous costs which reflects grant money spent on projects within the playcentre and the increased costs of food and supplies.

Fixed Assets

We continue to show the land and building on which the Playcentre is sited within our assets at a valuation of £70k.

Cash Reserves

At 31st August 2023, the current account stood at £8,376. In addition, there was a further £24,166 held in the deposit account. Finally, the cash at hand (not yet banked) was £20 – petty cash held in the Playcentre.

Treasurers Comment

In my opinion the Playcentre is currently in a satisfactory financial position and is looking more than capable of managing ever increasing costs.

I would firstly like to thank the staff team at the Playcentre, without whom there would be no Playcentre, for their dedication and effort. They are a fantastic asset of which the Playcentre and they can be proud.

I would finally like to thank the rest of the volunteer committee for their effort and the time they devote to the Playcentre. It is a pleasure to work with them and the future of the setting, the welfare of the children attending and the staff at the centre is their highest priority.

I look forward to what the next year will bring and feel confident that the staff, volunteer committee and parents will remain committed to fundraising and ensuring that we remain a focal point for the local area.

The building and grounds continue to require upkeep to ensure that we do not incur any unnecessary expenditure. Parent assistance with this in the coming year will be very much appreciated.

I believe the attached accounts to be a true and fair statement of Overton Playcentre’s financial position.

Andy Saunders Treasurer

Table 1

INCOME AUGUST 2022 AUGUST 2023
Fees (including EE and
Childcare Offer)		 £134,875 £151,703
Furlough Scheme £775 £0
Fundraising £1,749 £2,753
Donations Received £605 £205
Insurance £2,319 £0
Milk Refunds £403 £621
Grants Received £23,772 £9,436
Miscellaneous £2 £98
Total
£164,500
£164,816

Table 2

EXPENDITURE AUGUST 2022 AUGUST 2023
Wages £124,063 £129,506
Utilities (rates, water,
gas, electricity,
telephone and
broadband)		 £5,318 £12,447
Building £2,848 £4,332
Site Improvements (One
off works)		 £2,710 £0
Insurance £3,481 £4,528
Miscellaneous (inc. UW
Card, Petty Cash,
Internet, NNS Cheques)		 £11,415 £16,355
Total
£149,835
£167,168