2021-2022 Baby Umbrella Annual Report & Accounts Baby Umbrella Supporting your journey
Welcome from our Chair of Trustees and Founders..................................................................3 What we do............................................................................................................................... 6 Vision, Mission and Values........................................................................................................ 7 Our strategic purposes and priorities............................................................................................................................. 8 Our strategic purposes........................................................................................................ 8 Our priorities to enable our strategy...................................................................................8 Our finances 2021-22: Summary...............................................................................................9 Our year in review................................................................................................................... 10 Stabilising, optimising and deepening our offering...........................................................10 Our team........................................................................................................................... 14 Our services.......................................................................................................................17 Our Impact........................................................................................................................ 23 Fundraising........................................................................................................................ 25 Looking forward to 2022-23.................................................................................................... 29 2022-23 Strategic Priorities............................................................................................... 29 Financial Results...................................................................................................................... 31 Legal and Administrative Information..................................................................................... 33 Objectives................................................................................................................................34 Public Benefit.......................................................................................................................... 34 Governance and Management................................................................................................34 Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of Baby Umbrella........................................ 37 Statement of Financial Activities.............................................................................................38 Balance Sheet..........................................................................................................................39 Notes to the accounts............................................................................................................. 40
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Welcome from our Chair of Trustees and Founders
A lot can be done with a small team of passionate people.
The past two years have seen us build a small but mighty charity from the ground up. We have doubled our income year on year to enable us to serve over 1,000 families with breastfeeding and early parenting support services.
A particular highlight this year has been our winning the Kent Charity Awards ‘Startup Charity of the Year 2022’ which recognises the valuable contribution we make to the local community.
The impact we have on families is only too clear. Imagine being discharged from hospital a few hours after giving birth with a tiny newborn baby. Many parents tell us that this experience is completely overwhelming, and they feel totally alone.
Being able to book for trusted and skilled support delivered within a few days in a safe and welcoming environment can be a game changer, giving parents a lifeline to hold on to as they navigate the challenges of recovery after birth and learning to feed their tiny baby.
Over half of our families make their first booking within 2 weeks of birth, with 60% being referred directly from our local hospital maternity ward. Over a quarter tell us they are feeling overwhelmed, anxious or tearful; 45% are in pain; 36% are worried about their baby’s milk intake;
35% have babies who are not latching at all; and almost half of those we support are facing more than one challenge.
Families tell us of the sense of relief they get from finding our service and spending time with our compassionate and highly experienced practitioners. With our support many of these families are able to meet their feeding goals, as well as find their feet as new parents. From feeling broken and at sea they are able to take a breath and see a way forwards.
At Baby Umbrella we are proud to offer much more than just feeding support. Recognising that feeding is often the urgent presenting issue in the early days, we often start here. However we know that emotional and social support is also extremely important as parents navigate this huge transition in their lives.
In the past year we have invested in significant training for our staff in perinatal mental health and wellbeing support, to enable us to provide a service that not only supports parents to solve urgent presenting problems, but develops their confidence and resilience to meet any challenges ahead.
We provide shelter in the storm of early parenthood and equip parents for the journey ahead. At our heart, this is Baby Umbrella.
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Our impact in numbers 1.186 1.395 639 families supported individual appointments social visits 1.052 1,021 837 individuals subscribed volunteer hours donated In our Facebook community to our newsletter 95/ 93/ 97/ of our visitors hlt of our visttor5 felt of our visitors would more confident less anxious recommend feeding their baby our appolntments Boby Umbrello Ichtsrity Reg.. lI)745)Al1Utr1 Report 0ndAct(nts202l-22
What we do
Our charity was formed in August 2020 to provide early parenting support services across West Kent.
We are passionate about providing evidence-based, compassionate, empowering support for families.
We offer 1-1 and group support for families with highly skilled and experienced Breastfeeding Counsellors and Lactation Consultants as well as Volunteer Peer Supporters. We run support sessions in-person in Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells and online 49 weeks a year as well as email, messenger, Facebook and WhatsApp.
We support families with breastfeeding, bottle feeding, expressing, introducing solids, and adjusting to parenthood, including parental mental wellbeing and infant sleep.
The skills and expertise of our
practitioners and volunteers is at the heart of what we do. We have formed a strong team of skilled practitioners with over 100 years of experience in diverse specialisms. We continue to enhance their knowledge through professional training courses on supplementary topics such as Infant Tongue Tie, Infant Sleep and Perinatal Mental Wellbeing.
We also train and support volunteer Breastfeeding Peer Supporters, many of whom began by visiting us as new mothers themselves. Many go on to use these new skills in future careers working with children or families.
Our charitable aim to provide education has seen us host a range of webinars for both parents and professionals discussing topics such as infant sleep and perinatal mental health.
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Vision, Mission and Values
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Our strategic purposes and priorities
Our strategic purposes
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Provide free of charge, timely access to skilled support on breastfeeding, infant feeding, infant sleep and mental wellbeing across West Kent; and facilitate social connections.
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Improve knowledge and confidence in early parenting among parents, supporters and allied professionals.
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Connect the dots between services for parents in the area through signposting, collaboration and team building.
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Reach a diverse and inclusive population reflective of the community we serve.
Our priorities to enable our strategy
Optimising, broadening, deepening and expanding our offering to better meet families’ needs
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Diversify income stream to improve funding stability.
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Optimise current operations to most effectively meet the needs of local families.
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Broaden and deepen support to better meet client needs.
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Build links for collaboration and signposting.
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Represent and raise local families’ voices; embed diversity in everything we do.
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Our finances 2021-22: Summary
Source of income
Summary of expenditure
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Our in review year
Stabilising, optimising and deepening our offering
Having established Baby Umbrella and our core services in 2020-21, this past financial year has been about stabilising our financial position and reserves, embedding clear management and operational processes, and optimising our charitable services to meet the needs of our beneficiaries.
Coming out of Autumn last year, we faced the twin challenges of rising demand as local families and healthcare practitioners began to recommend our service, and a tight financial position. From December 2021 to July 2022 we were sitting very close to our reserves of three months running costs and we made the difficult decision to restrict our capacity in order to conserve funds.
We introduced a waiting list system to ensure any cancellations could be quickly filled and began asking triage questions to identify bookings that were most urgent. We quickly realised that the vast majority of bookings were urgent - knowing that our service was so busy it seemed that local families were only coming to us in times of urgent need.
As demand rose further, in March and April, we were placing 1 in 5 of our appointment requests onto our waiting list, and between May to August 2022 this figure rose to between 30-50%. During this period this has meant that we have struggled to see people within our target of seven days from booking.
To solve this challenge we maintained a single minded focus on fundraising, developing a predictable monthly cycle of grant applications, and refining our community fundraising
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events so that we can be most effective with our time. In November, we also introduced contactless giving at all our face to face services, to enable families to donate to support our service if they are able. This has been well received as cash use continues to decline.
In August, as we became more confident in the continued removal of COVID social distancing restrictions, we were able to move towards delivering 1-1 specialist support in a group setting, rather than as isolated appointments. Not only does this increase appointment
flexibility and social support for our beneficiaries, over time we hope that it will increase our capacity as our specialists are able to work hand in hand with our Peer Supporters to support more families.
In July, we were successful in winning a major grant from the Postcode Lottery, easing the pressure on our reserves. We were able to cautiously increase our capacity to meet the many appointment requests we were until then unable to serve and it has been gratifying to see our waiting list decrease and our waiting times reduce.
Parents enjoying our social group in 2022
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In terms of our support functions, we have recruited two further part time specialist support staff this year, and put in place several operational processes and systems to manage fundraising and grants, financial reporting, strategic planning, and project prioritisation and management. We have planned and rolled out a clinical supervision function to support our staff and begun to measure how well we reach all parts of our community to form a basis for outreach work to improve inclusion and access.
We have also made good progress towards our ambition of deepening and expanding the support we provide to families, rolling out training on perinatal mental wellbeing to our staff.
2021- 2022 Milestones
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Our team
Our management team
Karen, Laura and Jennie (left to right as pictured) bring together a broad range of skills on our charity management team. This year we have formalised their roles and brought in two specialist contractors to support with finance and bid-writing. We are proud of our family-friendly and flexible working practices and together the team comprises only about half a full time equivalent employee. We are small but mighty!
As Client, Clinical and Community Outreach Lead, Karen spends much of her time embedded within our support services, attending almost all of our face to face weekly groups and delivering our Peer Supporter Training Programmes. She is also at the forefront of our relationships with health services, including the local NHS Maternity and Tongue Tie Division service and the Local Authority Health Visiting service. Karen leads our community outreach, running regular local fundraising events and attending shows and markets on our behalf.
As Finance, Operations and Marketing Lead, Laura ensures our marketing, fundraising, planning, reporting and operational processes are effective and support our work. With this at our core we are able to be a financially stable, cost effective and data driven organisation, remaining flexible to respond to the needs of our beneficiaries and funders.
As Education and Practice Lead, Jennie has built an inhouse clinical supervision function for our practitioners and volunteers, to ensure we offer the same quality of support to our staff as we do to the families we see. She is also responsible for designing and delivering training and has overseen the recent investment in mental health training for our staff and peer supporters. Jennie is working to build relationships with evidence based trainers and speakers to create high quality education programmes for staff and parents alike.
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Our practitioners
Laura, Karen and Jennie are also embedded within our core team of nine practitioners who have over 100 years of combined experience supporting families with breastfeeding and early parenting. All our practitioners are trained and licenced as either "Lactation Consultants" or "Breastfeeding Counsellors" by recognised breastfeeding organisations. Many have additional training in related sectors such as Midwifery, Nutrition, Antenatal Education, Babywearing, Infant Sleep and Perinatal Mental Health.
Practitioner training in Tongue Tie Symptoms and Assessment, March 2022
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Our Peer Supporters and Volunteers
We have 17 active trained Baby Umbrella Breastfeeding Peer Supporters. These are volunteers who have breastfed their own babies and completed 12 weeks of accredited training in Breastfeeding Peer Support.
Peer Supporter Training in 2022
Peer support is recommended by the World Health Organization and forms part of UK NICE guidance on maternal and child nutrition. Our Peer Supporters have volunteered 660 hours for us during this financial year, offering breastfeeding support and information to families at our social groups.
We also have five additional volunteers who help us host and run our face to face sessions. These volunteers provide a crucial warm welcome when parents walk through the door, sometimes just hours or days after giving birth and at a time which can often feel very vulnerable. They ensure everyone is looked after and offered a hot drink and slice of cake, as well as completing all our paperwork and making sure everything runs smoothly. These generous people have contributed 177 hours of their time this financial year.
Behind the scenes, there are also some special people volunteering their time to our graphic design and marketing. We highly appreciate their generosity!
Last but far from least are our eight fantastic trustees who dedicated their time and expertise to support us - thank you!
Supporting our team
We recognise that the work our team does is not easy. We are working in an environment where maternity and postnatal services are often understaffed, underfunded and burnt out, and breastfeeding rates are some of the lowest in the world. We see many families every week in crisis, and burnout is very common within our line of work.
This year we have implemented a strong system of supervision and support for our practitioners and peer supporters - we are committed to supporting our team to ensure they are able to continue doing this very valuable and impactful work.
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Our services
Individual specialist support for families
We offer individual appointments with our Breastfeeding Counsellors and Lactation Consultants on Zoom and in person at three locations every week, only pausing for Bank Holidays. As COVID restrictions have eased this year, we have brought back together our 1-1 specialist support with our social group, enabling families to make a seamless transition to longer term social support. We also answer emails and messages from families looking for information on breastfeeding and early parenting.
During this financial year, we have completed 1,142 individual face to face appointments with families and 253 individual Zoom appointments.
A Lactation Consultant and Peer Supporter with a parent and baby in 2021
In May 2022, we began asking parents when they book about four key ‘red flag’ areas relating to their current circumstances. Our clinicians together felt that a problem in any one of these areas would suggest a significant and urgent need for support:
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Your baby is not able to latch and breastfeed
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You're worried about your baby's weight gain or not having enough milk
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You're experiencing pain with feeding
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You're feeling overwhelmed/ anxious/ tearful
We were shocked to find that 84% of those booking with us checked at least one of these boxes, and 42% checked more than one. We also learned just how prevalent mental
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wellbeing concerns are for our beneficiaries at the point of booking - with almost 1 in 3 people checking telling us they are feeling overwhelmed/ anxious/ tearful.
Supporting parents with emotional wellbeing has always been a priority for us, and this year we were able to secure funding to roll out specific training in supporting Perinatal Mental Health for our practitioners and a selection of our volunteers.
We have worked closely with leading UK Perinatal Clinical Psychologist, Mia Scotland, to design the training and this has already made a difference to the way we support parents.
In addition, two of our practitioners are undertaking advanced training in supporting parents who have had traumatic
experiences in the perinatal period as we prepare to launch a dedicated listening service for parents who need additional perinatal support in 2023.
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Social support for families
Many of our families really benefit from meeting other families in the area and social support is a key need that came through from our 2021 family needs survey. Our weekly social groups provide a safe space to come with your baby and receive a hot cup of tea and a warm welcome. Our trained Breastfeeding Peer Supporters are embedded in these sessions and support our mums with questions on normal breastfeeding and life with a baby. Our Practitioners are available to answer more complex questions if required.
Parents enjoying our social group in 2022
Alongside the social groups, we also run a public Facebook page sharing relevant information about breastfeeding, early parenting and our services, a closed Facebook group offering a place for local mothers to connect and ask questions, and a WhatsApp group for each of our locations where families can arrange to meet up during the week and ask questions of their peers.
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Parent education
As well as providing breastfeeding and early parenting support to parents through our in person and Zoom sessions, we are also committed to increasing their knowledge and understanding of life with a newborn and early parenting. We firmly believe that education is key to empowering families, and we are committed to using our platform to share compassionate and evidence-based knowledge, based on feedback requested from our families.
If you’ve ever spoken to the parents of a newborn, you’ll know that sleep remains one of the most talked about subjects. Which is why at the end of 2021 we ran a successful crowdfunding campaign with Kent County Council, meaning that in August 2022 we were able to host a free Infant Sleep Zoom Workshop with renowned researcher and author, Lyndsey Hookway. The event was extremely popular, and sold out quickly with 98 bookings. The recording is now available to watch on our website and highlights a need for holistic support for parents during the early years.
In addition to scheduled workshops, in 2021-22 we began to utilise the expertise within our team by providing information through blog posts on our website, which have been promoted on our social channels and email newsletters. These have covered a range of topics, including positioning tips and real life stories focusing on maternal mental health, anxiety, tongue tie and many more.
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Professional education
Alongside our commitment to provide parental education, we are also committed to working with, and providing education and support for professionals, both who work for Baby Umbrella and those within our community.
In line with this ethos, in February 2022 we welcomed Dr Tara George, a former NHS Perinatal Mental Health GP, who, in conversation with our Trustee Nicola Kirkwood, discussed Perinatal Mental Health targeted towards a professional audience - a known concern amongst the community and families we support.
Following the success of this webinar discussion, we are in the process of developing further educational talks and have more to come in the latter part of 2022 through to 2023.
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Our Impact
We request feedback from all our beneficiaries by email after their visit. This financial year we received feedback from 170 of our appointments, representing 16% of the individual families we saw. We are looking at ways to bring feedback methods into our groups to improve this response rate.
Through our appointments, we aim to support parental confidence, emotional wellbeing and also enable parents to socialise and receive peer support within our face to face groups. Our feedback shows unambiguously that we are meeting these aims.
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Fundraising
Fundraising has continued to be a battle in 2021-22. The early parenting phase is a relatively invisible stage of life, and there is a perception that urgent need will be supported through the NHS and government services, however many of our beneficiaries tell us that they have been unable to access support anywhere else. In addition, with continued pressures on charities emerging from COVID the fundraising environment for trusts and foundations has been extremely competitive.
Despite this, we have managed to find a full year of funding to run our services this year. We doubled our income from trusts and foundations and individual donors (inc gift aid), and added £11,000 from our fundraising events. Thank you to all of our supporters this year for their generous contributions.
Almost half of our revenue in 2021-22 was in the form of unrestricted funds, allowing us flexibility within our budgeting to allocate these funds towards services most in need, and those that are harder to obtain specific funding for, such as core administration costs, technology costs and fundraising costs.
Next year brings additional challenges, as we seek to bring in 50% more net income from fundraising events, and 10% more income from individual donations and trusts and foundations. We expect the funding outlook to continue to be difficult and we are also expecting increased demand due to the cost of living crisis.
If you feel you can help us meet this fundraising challenge in whatever way, large or small, we would love to hear from you. Please get in touch at info@babyumbrella.org.uk.
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Grants
Our main source of income is from charitable trusts and foundations and we have been successful in gaining the support of various trusts over the past year.
We would like to extend our thanks to the following trusts that have generously supported us this year:
People's Postcode Lottery Sevenoaks District Society Fund Council Savills Lettings Charity Souter Charitable Trust Fund The Cole Charitable Trust Kent County Council The Royal Tunbridge Comic Relief Community Round Table Charitable Fund Trust Mental Health Sir Thomas Smythe’s Sustainability Fund Charity (Skinners Company) Hendy Foundation Arnold Clark Kent Community Foundation The Albert Hunt Trust
Sevenoaks Town Council The Skinners' Company Lady Neville Charity
Tesco Tunbridge Wells
Paul Stepto - Kent County Councillor for Tonbridge
West Kent Housing Association: Linda Hogan Community Fund
Otford Parish Council
Donations
It has been a difficult landscape for seeking donations, with difficult world events meaning that many of our clients are still facing uncertainty in their daily lives and economic circumstances.
We are very grateful to those families who feel they can give back to us and aim to make it as easy as possible to do so. We have launched contactless donations at face to face services this year as cash use continues to decline, and donations can also be made at booking, in cash at our face to face services, via text, QR code, or online.
We would particularly like to thank Christ Church Tunbridge Wells who gave us a donation in kind, worth £3,000 of rent this year.
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Fundraising events
We run various fundraising events throughout the year and these often serve a dual purpose as a chance for families to get together or try something new while supporting us at the same time.
Christmas is a key time for fundraising for us, and our custom made Christmas Handprint Decorations in collaboration with Eat Pray Print were hugely successful this year, making the charity over £2,000.
We ran two prize draws, one in March and one in June, raising £1,017 and £830 respectively (inc gift aid).
Our second hand clothing sale for maternity, nursing and baby/ toddler clothing generated a huge amount of interest and exchanges of preloved items, as well as raising us over £1,000.
In February we ran a wonderful Parenthood In Verse poetry evening on Zoom, attracting some well known names and culminating in a funny, moving and magical evening together, raising £332.
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We also manned fundraising and awareness stalls at many of the local food and drink fairs, where we often bump into many of the families we have supported in the early days and weeks who are keen to say hello with their growing children. Alongside her famous brownies, we have discovered that Karen has a hidden skill in facepainting and we are putting it to good use!
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Looking forward to 2022-23
Where Year 1 was all about setting up our new charity, Year 2 (2021-22) has seen us settle into more predictable rhythms in our charity operations. COVID restrictions and changes have eased, and we have been able to cement some predictable and stable processes in our young charity. We are starting to bring additional resources in to support us in key areas and free up management time to focus on improving our service and operations.
During the coming year (2022-23) we aim to focus and stabilise our small charity even more, so that things continue to feel even easier and more manageable for our small team. We are focused on the same strategic priorities as last year, but have added a fifth, to bring a bigger focus on Diversity, Equality and Inclusion into our prioritisation and planning process.
2022-23 Strategic Priorities
1. Diversify income stream to improve funding stability
Our highest priority for the year is still to improve our funding stability and drive a higher level of reserves for the charity to weather the unpredictable funding environment. We will be continuing to apply for large and multi-year grants as well as reaching out to funders we have built good relationships with already. We are continuing to optimise and improve individual donor activation; getting smarter at understanding which fundraising events work best; as well as exploring online fundraising and support from corporates.
2. Optimise current operations to most effectively meet the needs of families
We will continue to make modifications and improvements to our core service to ensure it meets the needs of local parents. We will also be continuing to build an operational structure that enables our charity to run cost effectively and predictably, including through investing in systems and people.
3. Broaden and deepen support to better meet client needs
We will continue to roll out and embed our training on infant sleep within our practitioner and peer supporter body, so that we can confidently support the families we see with evidence based and responsive information on infant sleep. Our Perinatal Mental Health training will roll out to all practitioners and become embedded in our Peer Support training programme. We are also planning to trial a new Listening Service for families who need additional support with their experiences of early parenthood.
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4. Build links for collaboration and signposting
Key areas for collaboration include local maternity services and health visiting, especially as Family Hubs roll out in Kent. We are also building strong links with allied services across West Kent, understanding what free, affordable and private sector options exist for parents in areas such as paediatrics, osteopathy, tongue tie division, speech and language therapy, mental health support, physical rehabilitation after birth and much more!
5. Represent and raise local families’ voices; embed diversity in everything we do
Alongside this work, we intend to assess how well we are reaching everyone who needs support within our community and think creatively about changes we can make to improve diversity, equality and inclusion.
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Financial Results
Summary
During our second year of operation the charity raised £86,444 and spent £68,138. After allowing for the allocation of the appropriate expenditure in the year against restricted funds, there was a surplus of £15,030 of reserves; of which £14,216 was available as free reserves (excluding fixed assets).
Unrestricted funds
The charity raised £42,427 of general or unrestricted income. Expenditure of £42,913 was set against this, leaving a deficit of £486.
Reserves Policy
The Board of Trustees has agreed a reserves policy whereby the unrestricted funds not committed or invested in tangible fixed assets (the ‘free reserves’) held by the charity should provide sufficient funds to cover at least 3 months of full-scale operation. We anticipate that 3 months will give the board adequate time to come together and appeal for additional funding from both Trusts and Individual Donors. At 31 August 2021 three months of full-scale operation equates to £15,400, leaving a deficit of £1,184 against total free reserves of £14,216.
Restricted funds
We raised £44,017 of restricted income. Expenditure of £25,225 was set against this leaving an amount of £18,792 to carry forward to fund restricted activities next year.
Sources of income
£48,606 was received from grants and trusts, £26,678 from individual donors and £11,161 from fundraising events.
Expenditure
Our main expenditure is on practitioner fees (see Note 5) to run our client-facing charitable activities; with additional costs in rent for in-person services. We also incurred costs for admin support and fundraising.
Because we received a significant (£19k) restricted grant towards our core services in July 2022, the board is confident that we are able to continue to operate full scale operations by spending this restricted funding and building back our unrestricted reserves over the next few months.
We are hoping to build our unrestricted reserve to enable us to have more flexibility and resilience to manage the uncertain funding environment in 2023.
Investment Policy
Our funds are currently held in a current account at HSBC, with a small amount at PayPal.
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Fundraising Policy
We aim for best practice in fundraising to ensure our donors feel safe, valued and well supported, taking care that our fundraising activities are within the WHO Code for the Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes as well as adhering to the Fundraising Regulator and other professional fundraising bodies.
We never buy or sell people’s personal information and we work hard to respect people’s wishes about how they want us to communicate with them. We have embedded the General Data Protection Regulation into the way we work.
We do not use cold calling or cold mailing to raise funds and do not employ external companies to fundraise on our behalf, with the exception of one individual bid-writer. We are registered with the Fundraising Regulator and we have received no complaints about fundraising in 2021-22.
Donors, funders and fundraisers
The Trustees would like to thank all trusts, organisations and individuals who generously supported the work of Baby Umbrella. With your support we’ve been able to make a huge difference to the lives of families who come to us at one of the most vulnerable times of their lives.
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Legal and Administrative Information
The Trustees present their annual report for Baby Umbrella CIO for the year ended 31 August 2022.
Management Committee
The members of the Management Committee during the year were:
Jennifer Yelverton Karen McCully Laura Shtaingos
Principal Office
51 The Avenue, Tunbridge Wells, TN2 3FJ
The financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011 and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Report Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) issued October 2019 (effective 1 January 2019).
Independent Examiner
DA Coffey & Associates, 2nd Floor, 34 Cambridge Road, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 1DT
Status
Baby Umbrella is a registered charity (CIO), charity number 1190745, registered in England and Wales.
Trustee Board
The members of the Board during the year were:
Ema Saunders - Chair Alissa Brumby Alison Day Bronwen Halfpenny-Ray - Secretary Chloe Gastrell Jane Gerard-Pearse Nicola Kirkwood Hope Maguire - Treasurer
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Objectives
The objectives of the CIO are:
The advancement of health for the public interest by providing easily accessible skilled support for postnatal physical and mental health in and around West Kent.
1) By providing open access community groups with skilled, non-judgemental professionals (including Lactation Consultants and Breastfeeding Counsellors) and trained volunteers in order to support breastfeeding and parenting, reduce postnatal social isolation, and improve postnatal mental health;
2) By providing education, training and volunteering opportunities, building expertise within the sector and supporting parents to increase confidence and return to work;
3) By working in partnership with NHS, Local Authority, Third Sector and Private Sector services to ensure continuity of parent-centred responsive care;
4) By increasing accessibility and inclusivity of support services to address inequality.
Public Benefit
We have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing our aims and objectives and in planning future activities. In particular, the
Trustees have considered how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives they have set. Our activities are set out in more detail elsewhere in this report but in summary, we provide breastfeeding and early parenting support in three physical locations as well as online and through social media and messages every week, and have provided group social support in person and online to enable parents to meet. These are in the public interest and benefit parents and new parents in particular.
Governance and
Management
Board of Trustees
Members of the Trustee Board who served during the year and up to the date of this report, are set out on the previous page. The total number of Trustees was eight.
The Trustee Board is responsible and accountable for Baby Umbrella’s policies and activities to the Charity Commission, to Funders and beneficiaries, and for compliance with charity law. It is responsible for the financial and strategic affairs of the charity, for the Annual Budget and the Annual Report and Accounts.
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Diversity
We are committed to ensuring our services are accessible to, and accessed by, all parents in need of them. One of our priorities for the coming year is to assess and monitor diversity of the beneficiaries of Baby Umbrella so that if the services are not being accessed equally we can put in place measures to address this.
Trustee Recruitment
Appointment to the board of Trustees continues to be via an open and formal recruitment process. Every trustee must be appointed for a term of between two and five years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees.
Trustee Induction and Training
An induction programme is in place for new Trustees. Any training needs may be identified for both new and established Trustees in collaboration with the Chair of Trustees.
Trustee Meetings
The Trustees meet as a full Board 4 times a year. The Trustees also hold an Annual Strategic Away Day which includes the Management Committee.
Management Committee
The Management Committee is responsible for the day-to-day delivery of the activities and services of Baby Umbrella. It meets formally six times a year as well as working collaboratively on a day-to-day basis. The Management
Committee is accountable to the Board of Trustees and presents regular reports against the charity’s agreed strategic aims and plan.
Risk
The Trustees reviewed the risks to which the charity could be exposed and are satisfied that the charity has taken all reasonable steps to minimise risk and that it has policies and procedures in place to manage risk effectively in all areas of the charity’s work. The key risks were identified as follows:
Principal risks – Financial Solvency/ Fundraising Steps to mitigate:
Monthly review of Reserves and Cash Position
Quarterly review of Management Accounts and Forecasts.
Flexible operating model, few fixed costs Plans in place for continued diversification of funding.
Ongoing liaison with current and potential funders.
Principal risks – Insufficient resourcing Steps to mitigate:
Engage and support a wide bank of trained professionals.
Develop a pipeline of talent. Add admin support resources to ensure professionals are focused on high impact work.
Invest in IT systems to ensure efficiency.
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Principal risks – Inadequate safeguarding Steps to mitigate:
All front line practitioners, Peer Supporters and Volunteers undertake safeguarding training every 2 years. Robust safeguarding policy and procedures in place.
Principal risks – Failure to meet quality standards Steps to mitigate:
Recognised qualifications and/ or training for front line staff. Supervision and support for front line staff. £10million Public Liability Insurance in place. £10million Professional Indemnity Insurance in place.
The Trustees are required by charity law to prepare financial statements for each year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the surplus or deficit of the charity for that year. In preparing these financial statement, the Trustees are required to:-
(a) Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
(b) Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
(c) Prepare the financial statements on a on going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Charity will continue in operation;
(d) State whether the policies adopted are in accordance with the Charities Act 2011 and with applicable accounting standards
and Statements of Recommended Practice, subject to any material departure disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
(e) Observe the methods and principles of the Charities SORP.
The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act.
The Trustees 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.
The Trustees confirm they have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on the public benefit when reviewing the charity's aims and objectives and in planning future activities.
Approved by the Board of Trustees on 06/06/23 and signed on its behalf by
Ema Saunders (Chair)
Hope Maguire (Treasurer)
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Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of Baby Umbrella
I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of Baby Umbrella for the year ended 31 August 2022.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the Charity’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 Examiners 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:
-
the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
-
the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
-
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.
Signed: Date:
Leonora Crawley ACIE
DA Coffey & Associates Second Floor, 34 Cambridge Road Hastings East Sussex TN35 4NN
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Statement of Financial Activities
For the period ended 31 August 2022
| Notes Income Donations and legacies 3 Other trading activities Total Expenditure Raising funds Trading activities Charitable activities 5 Total Net income/ (expenditure) and net movement in funds Reconciliation of funds: Total funds brought forward Total funds carried forward |
2021-22 2021-22 2021-22 2020-21 Unrestricted Restricted Total Total £ £ £ £ 31,267 44,017 75,283 34,987 11,161 0 11,161 1,624 |
|---|---|
| 42,427 44,017 86,444 36,611 3,120 120 3,240 900 6,409 0 6,409 0 33,384 25,105 58,489 17,764 |
|
| 42,913 25,225 68,138 18,664 (486) 18,792 18,306 17,947 15,515 2,431 17,947 0 |
|
| 15,030 21,223 36,253 17,947 |
The charity was incorporated and commenced trading on 6 August 2020.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
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Balance Sheet
As at 31 August 2022
| Notes Fixed Assets Tangible assets 7 Intangible assets 8 Total fixed assets Current assets Debtors - accounts receivable Debtors - prepayments Cash at bank and in hand Total current assets Creditors: amounts falling due within one year 9 Net current assets Total assets less current liabilities Total net assets Funds of the Charity Restricted income funds 10 Unrestricted funds 10 Total funds |
2021-22 2021-22 2021-22 2020-21 Unrestricted Restricted Total Total £ £ £ £ 550 - 550 - 264 - 264 296 |
|---|---|
| 814 - 814 296 439 - 439 - 595 - 595 724 13,799 25,925 39,724 20,340 |
|
| 14,833 25,925 40,758 21,064 (617) (4,702) (5,319) (3,413) |
|
| 14,216 21,223 35,439 17,651 |
|
| 15,030 21,223 36,253 17,947 |
|
| 15,030 21,223 36,253 17,947 21,223 21,223 2,431 15,030 15,030 15,515 15,030 21,223 36,253 17,947 |
The notes on pages 40 to 47 form part of these accounts.
Approved by the Trustees on 06/06/23 and signed on their behalf by:
Ema Saunders Hope Maguire (Chair) (Treasurer)
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Notes to the accounts
1. Accounting policies
The principal accounting policies adopted in the preparation of the accounts are as follows:
Basis of preparation and assessment of going concern
The accounts have been prepared under the historical cost convention with items recognised at cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant note to these accounts. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the second edition of the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice issued in October 2019, the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Charities Act 2011.
The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern.
The trust constitutes a public benefit entity as defined by FRS 102.
Funds
Unrestricted income funds comprise those funds which the trustees are free to use for any purpose in furtherance of the charitable objects. Unrestricted funds include designated funds where the trustees, at their discretion, have created a fund for a specific purpose.
Restricted funds are funds which are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by the donor or trust deed.
Further details of each fund are disclosed in note 10.
Income recognition
All income is recognised once the charity has entitlement to the income, it is probable that the income will be received, and the amount of income receivable can be measured reliably.
Donations are recognised when the charity has been notified in writing of both the amount and settlement date. In the event that a donation is subject to conditions that require a level of performance before the charity is entitled to the funds, the income is deferred and not recognised until either those conditions are fully met, or the fulfilment of those conditions is wholly within the control of the charity and it is probable that those conditions will be fulfilled in the reporting period.
Other trading activities comprise income from non-primary purpose activities to raise funds for the charity.
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Expenditure recognition
Liabilities are recognised as expenditure as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to that expenditure, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis. All expenses including support costs and governance costs are allocated or apportioned to the applicable expenditure headings.
Support costs have been allocated between governance costs and other support costs. Governance costs comprise all costs involving the public accountability of the charity and its compliance with regulation and good practice. These costs include costs related to the independent examination and legal fees together with an apportionment of overhead and support costs.
Cost of raising funds
The cost of raising funds comprises costs incurred in generating grant funding.
Expenditure on charitable activities
Expenditure on charitable activities include direct costs of provision of breastfeeding support; governance costs and support costs.
Tangible fixed assets and depreciation
Tangible assets compromise computers used in the charity and are depreciated over 3 years, being their expected useful life.
Intangible fixed assets and amortisation
Intangible fixed assets comprise the cost of trademarking the name of the charity and is amortised over 10 years, being its expected useful life.
2. Related parties and Trustees’ expenses
The trustees give their time and expertise freely, and without any remuneration; benefit in cash or in kind; and the trustees do not claim expenses for personal costs incurred for the charity.
The charity is run by volunteers and non-employee professionals on a non-formal basis, as such there is no remuneration and thus no key management personnel.
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3. Income
The charity offers free breastfeeding and early parenting support as its primary activities. The free provision is supported by voluntary donations from individuals that use the service; trading activities from events and fundraisers and charitable grants from government and other charities.
| 2021-22 | 2021-22 | 2021-22 | 2020-21 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notes Unrestricted | Restricted | Total | Total | ||
| £ | £ | £ | £ | ||
| Donations and gifts | 24,916 | 0 | 24,916 | 12,224 | |
| Gift aid | 1,762 | 0 | 1,762 | 508 | |
| General grants provided | by | ||||
| government/ other charities 4 |
4,589 | 44,017 | 48,606 | 22,256 | |
| Total | 31,267 | 44,017 | 75,283 | 34,987 | |
| 4. Government grants | |||||
| Description | 2021-22 | ||||
| funds | received | ||||
| Kent County Council | Covid regeneration grant | £4,930 | |||
| Kent County Council | Crowdfunder: Infant sleep | education and | £3,455 | ||
| support | |||||
| Sevenoaks District | Sevenoaks District Peer Supporter | £1,900 | |||
| Council | enrichment | and recruitment; Family | |||
| Listening Support | |||||
| Sevenoaks Town Council | Sevenoaks face to face support services | £500 | |||
| Sevenoaks Town Council | Sevenoaks Town Peer Supporter enrichment | £500 | |||
| sessions | |||||
| Otford Parish Council | Otford face | to face services | £400 | ||
| Description | 2020-21 | ||||
| funds | received | ||||
| Sevenoaks District | Sevenoaks face to face support services | £4,307 | |||
| Council |
4. Government grants
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5. Charitable activities – costs
The charity undertakes its charitable activities through use of Lactation Consultants, Breastfeeding Counsellors, qualified volunteer Peer Supporters and volunteers.
| Notes Direct costs - practitioners Direct costs - rent Governance and support costs 6 |
2021-22 2021-22 2021-22 2020-21 Unrestricted Restricted Total Total £ £ £ £ 14,992 16,693 31,685 12,120 6,214 1,176 7,389 2,196 12,178 7,237 19,415 3,449 |
|---|---|
| 33,384 25,105 58,489 17,764 |
6. Governance and support costs
Governance and support costs are allocated across restricted and unrestricted funds on a usage basis. No general apportionment is made across the two funds.
| Bank charges IT costs Printing and stationery Equipment Depreciation Insurance Office administration Accountancy and independent examiner Legal and professional fees Supervision and Training Total expenditure on governance and support costs |
2021-22 2021-22 2021-22 2020-21 Unrestricted Restricted Total Total £ £ £ £ 457 - 457 128 845 - 845 309 32 148 180 364 283 408 691 - 82 - 82 24 352 - 352 165 8,737 2,227 10,964 1,474 610 - 610 430 85 - 85 110 695 4,454 5,149 445 |
|---|---|
| 12,178 7,237 19,415 3,449 |
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7. Tangible assets
| Cost At beginning of the year Additions At end of the year Depreciation At beginning of the year Depreciation At end of year Net book value at the beginning of the year Net book value at the end of the year 8. Intangible fixed assets Cost At beginning of the year Additions At end of the year Amortisation At beginning of the year Amortisation At end of year Net book value at the beginning of the year Net book value at the end of the year |
Fixtures, fittings and equipment Fixtures, fittings and equipment 2021-22 2020-21 £ £ - - 600 - |
|---|---|
| 600 - |
|
| - - 50 - |
|
| 50 - |
|
| 600 - |
|
| 550 - |
|
| Patents and trademarks Patents and trademarks 2021-22 2020-21 £ £ 296 - - 320 |
|
| 296 320 |
|
| 24 - 32 24 |
|
| 56 24 |
|
| 296 - |
|
| 264 296 |
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9. Creditors
| 9. Creditors | |
|---|---|
| Trade creditors Accruals Creditors: due within one year |
2021-22 2021-22 2021-22 2020-21 Unrestricted Restricted Total Total £ £ £ £ 256 4,702 4,959 3,233 360 - 360 180 |
| 617 4,702 5,319 3,413 |
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10. Analysis of funds
10.1. Analysis of funds held in Current Reporting Period (2021-22)
- Key: R - restricted income funds, including special trusts, of the charity; and U - unrestricted funds
| Type Purpose and Restrictions Core services R Core services of breastfeeding support, delivered face to face and online in Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells Mental Wellbeing R Improving our ability to support perinatal mental wellbeing Infant Sleep R Improving our ability to support families with infant sleep Miscellaneous restricted funds R Equipment grant Unrestricted funds U Unrestricted Total Funds as per balance sheet* |
Fund balances brought forward Income Expenditu re Transfers Gains and losses Fund balances carried forward £ £ £ £ £ £ 1,931 33,537 20,228 - - 15,240 500 6,090 2,940 - - 3,650 - 3,455 2,057 - - 1,398 935 - - - 935 15,515 42,427 42,913 - - 15,029 |
|---|---|
| 17,947 86,444 68,138 - 36,253 |
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10.2. Analysis of funds held in Previous Reporting Period (2020-21)
- Key: R - restricted income funds, including special trusts, of the charity; and U - unrestricted funds
| Type Purpose and Restrictions Core services R Core services of breastfeeding support, delivered face to face and online in Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells Mental wellbeing R Listening service project Donations in kind R Specific donations of rent reduction and admin time Unrestricted funds U Unrestricted Total Funds as per balance sheet* |
Fund balances brought forward Income Expenditu re Transfers Gains and losses Fund balances carried forward £ £ £ £ £ £ - 10,260 8,329 - - 1,931 - 500 - - - 500 - 1,205 1,205 - - - - 24,646 9,131 - - 15,515 |
|---|---|
| - 36,611 18,665 - - 17,947 |
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----- Start of picture text -----
Thank you to everyone who has supported the
work of Baby Umbrella this year. With your
support we’ve been able to make a huge
difference to hundreds of families in West Kent at
some of their most vulnerable times.
----- End of picture text -----
www.babyumbrella.org.uk
Baby Umbrella 51 The Avenue Tunbridge Wells TN2 3FJ
Baby Umbrella Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 covers the period 1st September 2021 to 31 August 2022.
Baby Umbrella is a registered charity 1190745. The name “Baby Umbrella” is a registered trade mark. Copyright © Baby Umbrella 2023.
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