## **Baby Bank Herts Trustees’ Annual Report 2024-2025**
## **Objectives and Activities**
Baby Bank Herts exists to relieve child poverty across Hertfordshire by providing essential items to families in need. We support children from birth to teens with clothing, equipment, baby formula, and other necessities. Families are referred to us by professional partners such as health visitors, midwives, social workers, schools, and local charities.
## **Our objectives are to:**
Alleviate hardship and deprivation among families with children. Reuse and recycle quality pre-loved items to benefit the community and environment.
Strengthen collaboration with local referral agencies to ensure help reaches the most vulnerable families.
## **Achievements and Performance**
This year has been a significant period of growth and consolidation for Baby Bank Herts.
**Families supported:** We assisted 3000 families across Hertfordshire, providing essential items including clothing, baby equipment and formula milk.
**Van acquisition:** We acquired a fully electric Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van, donated thanks to the Baby Bank Alliance. The van has transformed our operations, allowing us to deliver larger items, collect donations more efficiently, and reduce our environmental footprint.
**New trustees** : In January 2025, three new trustees joined our board, strengthening governance and bringing skills in fundraising, marketing, HR, finance, and strategic planning. This has broadened our expertise and will help steer the charity into its next phase of growth.
**Community engagement:** We ran successful online fundraising campaigns, strengthened relationships with local donors, and maintained our volunteer numbers.
## **Financial Review**
Income: £9686 (fundraising, grants, and donations) Expenditure: £4002 (supporting families with formula milk and essentials, running costs of the van, drop-in hub costs, and operational expenses). **Reserves:** The charity ended the year with a surplus, providing a modest financial cushion for the next year.
The trustees are satisfied that the charity remains financially sustainable and that funds are being applied effectively to achieve our charitable purposes.
## **Structure, Governance and Management**
Baby Bank Herts is a registered charity governed by a board of trustees who meet regularly to review performance, oversee compliance, and ensure effective delivery of our charitable objectives. Trustees are recruited for their relevant skills and experience, and new trustees are provided with an induction to understand their legal responsibilities.
The charity is run with the support of volunteers, referral partners, and the local community. Day-to-day operations are overseen by the founder and trustees.
## **Plans for the Future**
Looking ahead, Baby Bank Herts is committed to building on this year’s successes. Our priorities for 2025–26 include:
Expanding referral partnerships to reach even more families in need. Growing income streams through grants, community fundraising, and partnerships.
Establishing a new storage hub to better manage donations and improve efficiency.
## **Public Benefit Statement**
The trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in Section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit. Our activities are undertaken to further our charitable purposes and to relieve child poverty in Hertfordshire.
## **Reserves Policy**
The trustees recognise the importance of building unrestricted reserves to ensure the sustainability of the charity and to protect service delivery in the event of unexpected income shortfalls or increases in demand.
The trustees’ aim is to build reserves equivalent to three months of core running costs. This will provide a buffer to cover essential outgoings such as rent, insurance, and basic operational expenses, ensuring continuity of support for families.
Our reserves this financial year are £465 to cover legal costs and van running costs for three months.
Approved by all trustees and signed by the Chair A. Startaite 15th July 2025
||**Charity Name**
**Baby Bank Herts**|**Charity Name**
**Baby Bank Herts**|**Charity Name**
**Baby Bank Herts**|**Charity Name**
**Baby Bank Herts**|**Charity Name**
**Baby Bank Herts**|**No (if any)**
**1197928**|**No (if any)**
**1197928**||**CC16a**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Receipts andpayments accounts**|||||||||
||**For the period**
**from**||02/06/2024
Period start date||**To**||Period end date
01/06/2025|||
|||||||||||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**||||||||||
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**6,571**
**115**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**6,686**
**6,686**||**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**3,000**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**3,000**
**3,000**||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**||**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**||**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|Donations|**6,571**||||||**6,571**||**2,504**|
|Restricted funds|||||||**3,000**||**-**|
|Cash donations|**115**||||||**115**||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|
**6,686**||||||**9,686**||**2,504**|
|**_Total receipts_ **
**A3 Payments**||||||||||
||||||**-**||**9,686**||**2,504**|
|||||||||||
|||||||||||
|||||||||||
|Misc Other Incl Hall Hires|**737**|||||||||
|DropIn Hub Rent|**1,392**|||||||||
|Volunteer ExpIncl Corporate|**150**|||||||||
|Van Charing& Upkeep|**51**|||||||||
|DBS Checks|**80**|||||||||
|Toiletries|**64**|||||||||
|Charitable Activities|**252**||**-**||**-**||**252**||**-**|
|Website|**515**||**-**||**-**||**515**||**-**|
|Microsoftpackage|**85**||**-**||**-**||**85**||**-**|
|Formula|**1,024**||**626**||**-**||**1,650**||**-**|
|Travel Systems,Cots,Gates|||**1,500**||**-**||**1,500**||**-**|
|Insurance
**_Sub total_ **
**_Total payments_ **
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**|**1,795**
**6,145**||**2,126**||**-**|||||
||||||||**4,002**||**-**|
|||||||||||
|||||||||||
||**6,145**||**2,126**||**-**||**4,002**||**-**|
||**541**
**-**
**-**
**541**||||||**-**|||
||**541**||**874**||**-**||**1,415**||**2,504**|
||**-**||**-**|
|**-**||||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||||**-**|
||**541**||**874**||**-**||**1,415**||**2,504**|
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
02/10/2025
1
|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**||
|---|---|---|---|
|**Categories**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B5 Liabilities**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B1 Cash funds**|Signature
A. Startaite
J.OBCENA
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
Last year
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
**Details**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**541**
**874**
**2,504**
**-**
**-**
**3,045**
**874**
Agreement Error
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
Aida Startaite
Jane Obcena|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of
approval|
||A. Startaite|Aida Startaite|15.07.25|
||J.OBCENA|Jane Obcena|15.07.25|
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
02/10/2025
2