## - Baby Basics Kent Annual Report 2022 2023 ## Charity’s aims: Baby Basics Kent was founded in Medway, Kent in August 2019 with the aim of supporting vulnerable families with essential baby care items in Kent and Medway. We work with local services who assess need and refer families on to us. We gift Moses baskets, buggies, cots and clothes/nappies/hygiene items as needed. ## Summary 2022-2023: This financial year has been amazing for Baby Basics, Kent, and we are busier than ever! We have been fortunate to celebrate our 4th year in operation this year and we are so proud to have supported 126 babies and their families and gifted over 4800 items to local families during this time. In 2022-23 we have received an income of £5609 and spent £4688. Our amazing community continues to support us with donations of new and nearly-new items to regift, but also with donations of much needed consumables such as nappies and wipes, as well as with their time. ## Our partners and supporters: We continue to be so grateful to the Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Gravesend for the use of their premises for storage. This is also a vital hub in the centre of the community to receive donations. We have enjoyed our annual presence at their festival, meeting members of the community and spreading the word about our work - these interactions have led to much support and many donations over the months. We are also fortunate to be gifted a storage premises by MHS homes, who offer us the free rental of a garage for our larger items. It is very well-used by us! We continue to enjoy working with our many referrers and partners in the community, including the midwives of Medway and Swale, the mother and baby unit in Dartford, social services, Spurgeon's family liaison services and social prescribers and GP surgeries. During this financial year, Morrison’s Supermarket in Maidstone have supported us by including us as one of their chosen charities. Morrison’s customers have generously chosen items to donate to Baby Basics as part of their weekly shop, which has led to may exciting parcel pick-ups of essentials (and sometimes lovely luxuries) to include in our Moses basket gifts. Additionally, we are so grateful to Emma and her team at the Medway Hygiene Bank who support us by supplying toiletries and nappies for us to gift. ## Our families: In the last year of operation, we have supported families in significant financial hardship, refugee families (notably those from Afghanistan and Ukraine), very young mothers, families with a relative in prison, and those suffering from domestic abuse. The need in our local area continues to rise as families face the ongoing fall-out of the cost of living crises. Families tell us that our gifts are a lifeline when the cost of the many items needed for a new baby can seem impossible to meet. In the 2022-23 financial year, of the 126 families we helped, 39 referrals came to us an emergency. These referrals are urgent, often requiring a same-day response or delivery inside 24 hours. Requests for emergency referrals are growing and each one represents a family in immediate need. ## Fundraising: Towards the end of our last financial year, we were thrilled to receive a £9000 grant from the National Lottery Fund towards our charity's goals. This is the second lottery grant we have been privileged to receive and every penny has been spent carefully in the pursuit of our charity's goals - to support vulnerable families in our area with essential items, helping them feel prepared and valued as they welcome their new family member. This year we have been very grateful to Kent Country Council who gave us a grant of £4000. This has been spent on larger cost items such as a gazebo for outdoor fundraising events. Another great success of this financial year was at the Meopham Busy Bees nursery family fun day in the summer. Here we were able to spread the word about our charity and were so fortunate to be given £828.70 as a donation from the proceeds of the day. They ran two events during this financial year with the Spring event providing a further £420 of donations. Thank you Busy Bees nursery! We were also grateful to have our very first volunteer from the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme as a local secondary school student joined us to make up baskets and volunteer at the family day. Thank you Moyo! ## The future: 2023-2024 In our next year of operation, we aim to recruit a charity worker for one day a week, continue our search for more storage as our charity expands, and recruit another trustee. We also aim to raise funds to further future-proof our charity, ensuring we can continue to operate for years to come, as demand grows. We also look forward to celebrating our 5th birthday! We are excited about our future and are committed to meeting the needs of local families. ## BABY BASICS – KENT ## ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023 Registered Charity Number 119302 Registered Office 72 Victoria Road, Chatham, Kent ME4 5EU 1 ## BABY BASICS – KENT BALANCE SHEET ||2022-23|2022-23|2021-22|2021-22| |---|---|---|---|---| |||||| |FIXED ASSETS||0.00||0.00| |||||| |CURRENT ASSETS||||| |Bank Account|9,830||12,909|| |Debtors|-||-|| |Pre-Payments|234||234|| ||---------||---------|| |||10,064||13,143| |||||| |TOTAL ASSETS||10,064||13,143| |||||| |||||| |CURRENT LIABILITIES||||| |Creditors|-||-|| |Grants/LotteryFunding|(5,000)||(9,000)|| |Start-upcosts funded byDS|(530)||(594)|| |Loan from DS|(70)||(70)|| |Accruals|-||-|| ||-------------||-------------|| |TOTAL CURRENT LIABILITIES||(5,600)||(9,600)| |||----------||----------| |CURRENT ASSETS LESS
CURRENT LIABILITIES||4,464||3,543| |||=====||=====| |||||| |GENERAL FUND||3,543||393| |Surplus/(Deficit)||921||3,150| |||--------||---------| |TOTAL FUNDS||4,464||3,543| |||=====||=====| 2 ## BABY BASICS – KENT INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT |INCOME|2022-23|2022-23|2021-22|2021-22| |---|---|---|---|---| |||||| |Donations|360||1,430|| |LotteryFunding/Grants|4,000||6,000|| |FundraisingEvents|1,249||452|| |Sundry|-||954|| ||-------||-------|| |TOTAL INCOME||5,609||8,836| |||||| |EXPENDITURE||||| |||||| |GiftingItems|1,898||2,467|| |Rent|1,497||1,230|| |Insurance|234||234|| |Office/Storage|68||288|| |Subscriptions|-||450|| |FundraisingEvents|294||165|| |Sundries|360||721|| |Volunteers|337||131|| ||-------||-------|| |||4,688||5,686| |||-------||-------| |SURPLUS/(DEFICIT)||921||3,150| |||=====||=====| |||||| |||||| 3