Thursday 25th April 2024
Cwtch Together Annual General Meeting 2024
In attendance:
Sarah Darcy Chelsea Harrington
Apologies: Claire Donoghue Celia Brooks
We would like to welcome you to our AGM.
We have had another busy, successful year thanks to all of our wonderful families, volunteers, and supporters. Please find below a breakdown of our 2023-2024 financial year.
April 2023
Last April we put together a new Cwtch menu and had to change a few prices due to the increase in costs, this menu has worked well all year.
We bought some lovely Eid dolls, Ramadan books, and Arabic alphabet cookie cutters.
Our friends at The GoodGym cut the grass outside the hall.
April was a really wet month however we enjoyed the mud patch outside.
We held our annual Easter party and sold out of spaces for both the morning and afternoon sessions, and teamed up with Cardiff Council to offer free sessions during the Easter half term break.
May 2023
May was a lot warmer - we had fun in the sun playing outside.
We changed our afternoon session time slightly to give us enough time to tidy the hall after the sessions.
We had a coronation party which was funded by The Moondance Foundation and we were on the UK Government's official coronation event map.
Make a smile hosted a Jedi Training Day with us.
We held a surprise party for our volunteer, Chloe.
Our volunteer, Non, ran the Bristol Half Marathon and raised £70 for us. (donated through paypal)
The GoodGym once again came to help us with the gardening at the hall.
We had fun painting rocks and hiding them in various parks around Cardiff.
June 2023
Thursday 25th April 2024
To help our families with the current cost of living crisis, we held a free session where we had donated clothes from 1-12 years that our families were able to have free of charge. This was really appreciated by a lot of our families.
We started a new album on Facebook called ‘Art Gallery’ so we can take pictures of the children's art work and share it with our Facebook audience.
We have a new Lego table which the children are really enjoying.
We have a new notice board at the entrance to our sessions with all of our important information including our certificates, and a reminder that parents need to supervise their children at all times whilst at Cwtch.
We also added signs in the kitchen and on the doors saying that children are not allowed in the kitchen for safety reasons. We also bought an extra large dog safety gate as children were able to climb the child safety gate already installed.
Mike Sweeney, a local carpenter and long time supporter of Cwtch, volunteered his time to fix the kitchen door and add sliding locks to the top of the kitchen, side room, and bathroom doors, so that adults can lock them for safety.
We again teamed up with Cardiff Council during half term to provide free sessions. These sessions, although fully booked, were very quiet with many no-shows. This is something we are seeing more and more when we provide free sessions.
We enjoyed learning important life skills, icing biscuits, and making sandwiches
July 2023
We had a safety talk with South Wales Police about ‘Stranger Danger’ and road safety.
We put wood underneath the gate so dogs aren’t able to get into the garden, and so the children can't try to crawl under.
We bought and built a new wooden sand box, and three water trays.
We were donated many dressing up outfits.
The GoodGym weeded the path and helped us get rid of unwanted soil in the garden.
As we have sole use of the building during the summer holidays we put giant pvc dinosaurs, shower curtains, and other vinyl all along the fence looking into the park to give our children more privacy while playing.
Due to an incident involving one of our children opening the main gate after they had finished their session, we installed a combination lock which only the parents/carers and staff have the code for. The lock code is 02512, with a button at the bottom of the lock to unlock. Please ensure the gate is locked after you.
Thursday 25th April 2024
We deep cleaned the hall.
We participated in Youth Skills Day and also helped families with the cost of living crisis by providing snacks that the children could make themselves and enjoy during the sessions.
Parents Naomi and Louise volunteered their time by helping us empty Unit 2, reorganise, and clean it.
We celebrated National Thank You Day, 4th of July, and National Postal Workers Day.
All memberships ended in July 2023.
August 2023
All memberships needed to be renewed in August.
Our membership package this year consists of:
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£1 reduction for each child per session
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Priority booking for Cardiff Council provided free sessions
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Photography package discount with Claire Doyle Photography
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Party Package 1 (private hire) = Hall hire @ £40, food @ £40 and £2.50 per child
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Party Package 2 (usual Saturday session) = food @ £40 and £3 each per child (Parents/carers to bring cakes for both packages)
Cardiff Council provided play sessions most Fridays.
We greeted so many new families this month.
Our insurance has been renewed and updated to cover the extra equipment we now have.
Cardiff Council brought in a new policy regarding their free sessions with us - from now on, if parents don't give 24 hours notice that they will not be attending, they will not be able to book onto the next 2 free sessions. This may not be welcomed but is the only fair solution as we are turning many families away due to being fully booked.
As sunny days have been extremely warm we have had tents outside so the children have somewhere in the shade to play.
We provided suncream for parents to apply if needed.
September 2023
We started September off with a private party booking, and followed that with an end of summer Pirate Party complete with maps and chocolate treasure!
We held an autumn themed session, Wacky Waffle Week and National Teddy Bear’s Day, followed by a party for our 2 year anniversary!
Rebecca Hughes started working for Cwtch Together - many children and parents already know Rebecca from our Cardiff Council sessions.
Thursday 25th April 2024
Our staff attended the Autism Live show hosted by The Autism Directory at the Cardiff City Stadium to network, spread the word about Cwtch Together, and lookout for information and leaflets to bring back to our parents/carers.
We took all of the decorations down from the railings ready for The Scouts to resume their sessions after the summer.
Students from Cardiff University who are studying Autism visited a Saturday session to meet with parents and get an insight into having children with Autism.
October 2023
We worked with Single Parents Wellbeing to offer a free session for single parents.
We now have advertisements in The Primary Times.
We held a ‘bath fizzers and dolls’ session so we could ‘pamper’ dolls, and a messy madness session that was very popular and sold out.
We deep cleaned the back room, hall, and toilets.
Cardiff Council provided a session in half term.
November 2023
After multiple issues with Barclays Bank, and increasing concern for the security of our funds and confidential information, we managed to finally move away from them and open a new account with Lloyds Bank. We have pinned a post on our Facebook page with information to move payments into our new account.
The Primary Times have advertised Cwtch Together once again.
MB-Lec have once again completed our PAT testing for free - big thanks to such a lovely company.
We are officially taking part in World Nursery Rhyme Week with posters, certificates, and free advertisement from the organisation.
We bought a new puppet theatre, did firework paintings, and held a session where we painted poppy stones which Sarah then took to a Remembrance Service.
We used acrylic paint to decorate a dolls house so that we have our very own bespoke house.
December 2023
This month we are breaking up for Christmas on 16th December.
Our Christmas party was held on 2nd December with special guest … Santa bringing presents for the children - we completely sold out for this event.
Thursday 25th April 2024
On 9th December we made Christmas decorations and cards.
On 16th December we held a Breakfast With Santa event which also sold out. We used the festive photography backdrops for each session.
We were donated a giant Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer toy by Catherine Smith which we used as the subject and the prize for a ‘guess the reindeer’s age’ competition, won by Ava.
We made bird friendly reindeer dust.
Metro Bank visited with a donation of arts and crafts supplies.
Gilbee Gonk and Eric Elf’s Facebook page is back up and running with the elves doing good deeds everyday in December.
January 2024
Our 2024 Cwtch Together Ambassadors are announced as Catherine Smith and Kieran Henderson.
We were donated a punching bag and gloves by Teejay Harrington to help develop proprioceptive skills.
We held a ‘yellow week’ session, and another session provided by Cardiff Council.
We took part in The Big Garden Bird Watch with the RSPB. They provided us with a bird hunt, stickers, and certificates. We even made vegan friendly bird food.
We hosted a child-led craft session.
Due to the cold weather, we started to go to the hall 3 hours early to turn on the heating and warm up the hall ready for the sessions.
The GoodGym visited in the rain and wind and cleared the back area of the garden for us and again to help us with the hall set up.
We received a donation of £100 from a generous supporter named Johan.
We started our grant application with The National Lottery Awards For All.
We focused on deep cleaning the kitchen.
Eto, a preloved kids store in Barry agreed to advertise Cwtch Together.
Cardiff Council provided a session on 5th January.
February 2024
Thursday 25th April 2024
We bought some new country music CD’s to play at Saturday sessions as many of the children enjoy it.
We bought a new spinning seat and wheely chair which the children love.
We celebrated Pancake Day, Chinese New Year, and hosted a Valentine’s Day party.
We are now providing regular food tasting during sessions ensuring children are given the opportunity to try different foods even during the cost of living crisis.
March 2024
We started March off with a private party booking and had St. David’s Day fun in the afternoon.
We planned our Easter Party during a Cardiff Council planned session allowing us to host it as a free event, helping families during the cost of living crisis.
We bought new grass mats and threw away our stained mats. We also bought new sensory toys.
Great news - we were accepted for The National Lottery Awards For All grant of £19,218 which will fund our project for 18 months. We held a celebration!
We were donated photo booth props from Claire Doyle Photography.
We gave each child Mothers Day gifts to gift to their mums.
We held an odd sock day for Down Syndrome awareness.
We hosted a book give-away and officially took part in World Book Day with certificates, colouring sheets, and event ideas from the official site.
The Goodgym volunteered by cleaning all the wooden doors, radiators, and floor in the hall.
Claire Doyle photography held a Sunday session at the hall offering parents a £20 package with no sitting fee.
Looking forward in 2024
We have booked in a visit for a Circus Workshop and Sarah is looking to book animal workshops to visit Cwtch during the sessions.
Our volunteer Chloe is doing an amazing job and is currently smashing her Silver Duke of Edinburgh award.
Learning about how much the cost of living crisis is affecting our families, we are going to provide more food based activities such as food tasting and preparation.
Thursday 25th April 2024
We will continue our Facebook art gallery, aiming to put a calendar together for 2025.
We aim to make a new batch of staff t-shirts, and we’ll make uniforms compulsory for staff for safety and ease of identifying members of the team, ensuring that both children and parents/carers know who is a trusted member of Cwtch Together.
We aim to sell a range of Cwtch Together branded t-shirts by Christmas.
We want to clear the area around the back of the Scout Hall with The GoodGym to make it useable.
During any Cardiff City football matches where trouble may be expected, we will always have a police presence outside the hall ensuring safety for our families. If session times need to change to avoid clashing with kick off or the end of the match we will adjust sessions accordingly.
Finances
In the 2023 - 2024 financial year, we had a total income of £29,856.11, and total outgoings of £19,761.52.
Closing
A big ‘thank you’ to Roy, our friendly Scout Hall neighbour who is always there whenever we need help or for when we inevitably break something.
Thank you to all our supportive families, volunteers, trustees, and the folks at 15th Cardiff Scouts, and The GoodGym for keeping Cwtch Together thriving!
Cwtch Together staff are paid via C3SC, who we have hired to ensure all payroll and HMRC processes are followed correctly.
Trustees, Staff, and Volunteers
All trustees are happy to remain on the board moving into the new year, these include: Chelsea Harrington (Chair) Claire Ann Donoghue (Secretary) Celia Brooks (Treasurer)
Cwtch Together staff members going into the 2024-2025 financial year are the following: Sarah D’Arcy (Manager) Sam Jones (Play Worker) Rebecca Hughes (Play Worker)
Our regular Saturday session volunteers consist of: Chloe Brushett Anastasia Jones
If anyone would like to volunteer or learn more about becoming a Trustee, please talk to Sarah D’Arcy, or WhatsApp her on 07986 553361
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Opening Balance £9,955.55
Month Income Expenditure +/- Balance
April 2023 1367.02 1503.04 -136.02 9819.53
May 2023 1028.23 2069.78 -1041.55 8777.98
June 2023 550.98 1019.83 -468.85 8309.13
July 2023 4.00 1527.09 -1523.09 6786.04
August 2023 454.00 876.90 -422.90 6363.14
September 2023 1513.86 2464.52 -950.66 5412.48
October 2023 258.77 923.46 -664.69 4747.79
November 2023 219.04 2296.78 -2077.74 2670.05
December 2023 35.00 683.48 -648.48 2021.57
January 2024 1447.55 1233.90 213.65 2235.22
February 2024 19958.61 1001.75 18956.86 21192.08
March 2024 359.00 1500.94 -1141.94 20050.14
Total 27196.06 17101.47 10094.59
Closing Balance 20050.14
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Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees Charity Name Cwtch Together On accounts for the year 05 April 2024 Charity no 1182360 ended (if any) Set out on pages (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets) I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 05/04/2024 . Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below *) which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
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the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
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the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
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• the accounts did 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.
- Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.
| Signed: Name: Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: |
J. Barker | 28/01/2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Jackie Barker | ||
| Pension Professional | ||
| 38b Carlisle Street | ||
| Cardiff |
Oct 2018
1
IER
CF24 2DT
Section B Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .
Oct 2018
2
IER