2023-12-31-accounts - Uniformed

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St. 2011

Uniformed

Charity Number: 1199098

Uniformed

Trustees Annual Report and Accounts for the year

31st December 2023.

Uniformed

Charity Number: 1199098

Uniformed

Annual Report for the year 31st December 2023

Charity number: 1199098 Legal Status: Charitable Incorporated Organization

Registered office: 3rd Floor

86-90 Paul Street London EC2A 4NE Contact number: 07946357413.

Website: https: / / www.uniformedcharity.org/

Trustees:

Farrah Barber- Chair 01 April 2022 Crystabel Mbagwu- Member 28 October 2022 Gabor Marton- Member 26 May 2022 Puay Ling Lee - Member 26 May 2022 Alexander Brunner- Member 26 May 2022

Bankers:

Unity Trust Bank PO Box 7193 Planetary Road Willenhall WV19DG

Uniformed

Charity Number: 1199098

Uniformed

Annual Report for the year 31st December 2023

Trustee Report for the year 31st December 2023

The trustees present their report and the accounts for the year ended 31st December 2023. The account has been prepared in accordance with section 133 of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Charities Act”).

Objectives & activities

The trustees review the aims, objectives, and activities of the charity each year.

The trustees have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the charity’s aims and objectives and in planning its future activities. In particular, the trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives that have been set.

The principal objects of Uniformed is to alleviate the impact of poverty on children by providing school. uniformed support to disadvantaged families. We aim to do this through the provision of school uniform vouchers to children from disadvantaged families.

Achievements and performance

2023 was an exciting year for Uniformed as it was our first full year in operation, and we were able to build on the meaningful work done by our organisation.

Charity Structure

Uniformed has not added any additional trustees, despite initial considerations. This is because our team of 10 dedicated volunteers shared equal commitment to our work, and there was no clear justification for adding more people to the trustee board. Our team continues to meet once a fortnight with notes taken at each meeting, with near daily communication via a WhatsApp group chat.

The team is formed of:

1) Founder: Farrah Barber, our founder, grew up in Stoke-on-Trent and has founded companies, has been a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, data & tech governance intern at the UN, and a software engineering intern at Goldman Sachs. She has also got experience working with non-profits, is a National Ambassador for the Foundation for Education Development, is a Fellow of the Aspen Institute and Future Global Leadership Program, as well as a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.

2) Fundraising: Puay Ling Lee, has 2 years of experience in strategy consulting at LEK Consulting and 1.5 years of venture capital experience which involves building partnerships with investors and the knowledge of scaling a new company, which are very handy in her role as Director of Fundraising.

Uniformed

Charity Number: 1199098

3) Fundraising & Partnerships: Alex Grieve works as a product lead at a leading fintech company with multiple years of experience in personal fundraising for cancer research and support charities while also sitting on the Inclusive Change Advisory Board for the charity CoppaFeel! He is co-leading both fundraising to ensure that w e have sufficient funds, and partnerships with schools to ensure a seamless rollout of vouchers to our partnering schools.

4) Partnerships: Parco Cheng is a primary school teacher (PGCE Oxford University) with 7 years of experience working with various charities supporting children, young people and families. He is deeply passionate about supporting the community and helps us build the best implementation strategies with schools, ensuring that our work is best tailored to supporting the unmet needs.

Additional team members include: Bonna Kabir (Research & Policy, analyst at BlackRock), Alexander Brunner (social media & Comms), Isobel Sarbutts (social media & Comms), Crystabel Mbagwu (Treasurer, Trustee), Francis Thomson (Website Design), Gabor Marton (Partnerships).

Website

We have continued to improve the quality of our website, ensuring that it accurately reflects our commitment to supporting the provision of uniform support to socioeconomically disadvantaged families. The website is our principal means of engagement with the public, communicating our vision and raising funds.

Partnerships during the year

The Kemnal AcademyTrust

The Kemnal Academy Trust (TKAT) is one of the UK’s largest and most socio-economically challenged multi-academy trusts (MATs). We initially reached out to TKAT in November 2022, had a working partnership by December 2022, and continue to work closely with them today. We work with David Churchill, their Head of Opportunity, who has been a consistent support for us as an organisation.

We now work with the below schools as a result of our partnership with TKAT:

Tangmere Primary Academy
Salmestone Academy
Dame Janet Primary
Newlands Primary
Northdown Primary
Draper Mills Academy
Shenstone Academy
Orchards Primary
East Wickham Academy

We have also worked with several individual schools and charitable organisations:

Glebe Academy
Discovery Academy
Croydon Refugee Day Centre

Uniformed

Charity Number: 1199098

Further to this, we have formally established our Hardship Fund, led by Parco Cheng, which provides individual vouchers to families that are not attendees of our partner schools. The major portion of demand for our Hardship Fund comes from refugees and asylum seekers, who do not have a legal right to work in the UK, do not often have permanent UK addresses, or do not have UK bank accounts.

Our beneficiaries are students ranging from year group R to ten, with a mix of genders, ethnicities, and family backgrounds across the UK.

Voucher provision.

As of December 31st, 2023, we have set aside a total of 666 vouchers. Out of these, 396 vouchers have been redeemed, and 44 vouchers have expired. Among the provisioned vouchers, 265 have been allocated to the Hardship Fund, and approximately 159 of the vouchers have been claimed by families. We have introduced a new operating model with school partners and charities, whereby we issue vouchers to schools and allow them to bulk order uniforms for parents. We had previously relied upon parents to claim vouchers themselves but encountered issues with voucher redemption.

Our major challenge since inception has been voucher utilisation - mainly, getting parents to use the vouchers that have been provided to them. Over the course of 2023, we have seen dramatic improvements in voucher uptake, largely owing to the establishment of our Hardship Fund, which allows parents to reach out despite not having children at our partner schools and our new operating model that allows schools to claim a bulk of vouchers for a uniform bank, who then distribute clothing to students.

Our previous operating model relied upon schools distributing vouchers to parents, and parents then claiming the vouchers independently on Price & Buckland’s website. When consulting with partner schools on their diagnoses of the previous underperforming utilisation, we noticed the following issues:

Certain parents faced limited access to technology.
Some parents encountered significant language barriers.
A portion of parents did not possess bank accounts.
Some parents lacked permanent addresses.
Certain parents displayed greater apathy towards the condition of their children's uniform.

It was these reasons that drove our decision to reform our provision operating model.

Price and Buckland

Our uniform provider during the year was Price & Buckland, and we are set to seek ne w supply partners in 2024 to protect ourselves against supply chain risk. Our service model operates as follows:

We raise money from grant-making bodies.
We buy vouchers at cost from Price & Buckland (£30) and provide vouchers to families at price (£50)
We provide vouchers to schools to distribute to parents in need.
We pay for any vouchers claimed through direct invoices from Price & Buckland

Uniformed

Charity Number: 1199098

Financial Review

Uniformed has a closing balance of £11,664 as at 31[s][t] December 2023, with operating period commencing in January 2023.

The sources of funding have been:

Grants
Individual donors

Grants constitute a substantial portion of our funding for Uniformed.

The income funds the costs of school uniform vouchers and other operating expenses related to running the charity. These costs include (but not limited to) Google Cloud payments, website hosting fees and bank charges.

Our total grant receipts stand at £18,216, from a range of charitable and corporate sources.

Uniformed spend on redeemed voucher provision was £10,050.

In the year, our other operating expenses totalled £1,379. The utilization of technology has been instrumental in significantly reducing our operational costs.

Reserves policy

Our policy is to maintain an operating reserve account and sufficient cash balances to ensure the stability of the charity and day-to-day operations. The operating reserve is intended to provide an internal source of funds for situations such as an unanticipated decline in fundraising. There are no staff costs or contractual commitments to suppliers.

Reserves

At the year-end Uniformed had £1,200 set aside as reserves, to cover the Charity’s financial commitments for 6 months in the event of any shortfall in funding.

Going concern

The trustees are not aware of any uncertainties regarding the charity continuing as a going concern.

Future

As part of our ambitious plan, we intend to work towards the achievement of the following goals:

Future Fundraising Goal for 2023/24 academic year:
Aim to raise an additional £10,000.
Plan to provide uniforms for an additional 300 students.
Expansion Plans:
Expand our geographical reach to assist more schools.
Build partnerships with corporate entities, politicians, and communities.

Uniformed

Charity Number: 1199098

Long-term Student Support Goals:
Support 600 students in the 2023 / 24 academic year
Support 1,000 students in the 2024 / 25 academic year

Structure, governance and management.

Uniformed is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) that obtained charitable registration on May 26, 2022. The objectives and powers of the charity are outlined in its Constitution, also known as the Governing Document.

The charity’s only voting members are its trustees. Four were the founding members of the CIO, and all welcome approaches from anyone with skills that are useful to the charity.

The trustees have no beneficial interest in the charity.

All trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no benefits from the charity. Any expenses reclaimed from the charity are set out in note 3 to the accounts.

The trustees communicate frequently by email, and formal meetings are held via Google meet.

Related parties and relationships with other organisations

There are no related parties, or relationships with other organisations.

Remuneration policy for key management personnel

As all personnel act voluntarily, there is no remuneration policy.

Funds held by Trustees on behalf of others.

There are no funds currently being held.

Declarations

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. Signed on their behalf by

Full name(s): Farrah Barber Position: Founder, Chair of Trustees Date: 31[s][t] December 2023

	Uniformed Charity	Uniformed Charity	Uniformed Charity	1199098	CC16a
	For the period from	01 / 01 / 2023 Period start date	To	31-Dec-23 Period end date

Section A Receipts and	payments
A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £	Restricted funds to the nearest £	Endowment funds to the nearest £	Total funds to the nearest £	Last year to the nearest £
Grant	17,500	-	-	17,500	-
Individual donations	266	-	-	266	-
Corporate donations	450	-	-	450	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
Sub total (Gross income for AR)	18,216	-	-	18,216	-

A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
None	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
Sub total	-	-	-	-	-
Total receipts
	18,216	-	-	18,216	-
A3 Payments
Uniform Vouchers	10,050	-	-	10,050	-
Google cloud payments	788	-	-	788	-
Google service charges	72	-	-	72	-
Website payment	423	-	-	423	-
Other expenses- Postal	96	-	-	96	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
Sub total	11,429	-	-	11,429	-

A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-
Sub total	-	-	-	-	-

Total payments	11,429	-	-	11,429	-

Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end	6,786	-	-	6,786	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	4,878	-	-	4,878	-
	11,664	-	-	11,664	-

Section B Statement of	assets and liabilities at the end of the period	assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees Farrah Barber Puay Ling Lee B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B1 Cash funds	Details None Details None Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) None Details Cash in Bank Paypal Details Signature December Google cloud payment December Uniform expense	Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ 11,664 - - - - 11,664 - OK 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) Unrestricted 74 Unrestricted 1,260 - - - Print Name Farrah Barber Puay Ling Lee	Endowment funds to nearest £
			-
			-

			-
			-
			OK Endowment funds to nearest £
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			Current value (optional)
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			Current value (optional)
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			When due (optional)
			January
			January




			Date of approval
		Farrah Barber	19th February 2024
		Puay Ling Lee	19th February 2024

Uniformed

Charity Number: 1199098

Appendix:

Driving statistics for our work:

School uniforms are ‘highly recommended’ by the Department of Education, and >90% of high schools and >80% of primary schools in the UK have them.
Schools don’t let children study if they don’t have adequate uniform (in terms of quality, colour, branding), and yet very few provide any resources or funding to support students that don’t have adequate uniform.
Parents now report spending more than ~£400 per student on uniform each year, with only ad hoc support provided by local councils and schools. It is a postcode lottery if you can source support for school uniforms, and over 500,000 school children are excluded from school every year due to having the incorrect uniform (The Children’s Society, ‘The Wrong Blazer’ report 2020).
Children have the least agency to solve this problem: they cannot get a job and pay for it themselves, and they lack the confidence to discuss their hardship with schools. However, they are the ones suffering the most.
Further, we have received significant interest from asylum seekers & refugees, who are legally not allowed to work, and cannot find any uniform banks (very few exist)
Bullying, truancy, and inability to study are all cited as major consequences of inadequate school uniforms.
Uniform costs are now predicted to be ~£420.
More than one in five families from lower-income backgrounds reported cutting back on food and other essentials because of school uniform costs.
One in five parents from low-income households also reported borrowing money from someone else because of high uniform costs, compared with around one in 13 families with higher incomes.
Around half a million parents say the price of school uniform alone had an impact on what school they chose to send their child to.
One in 10 families also reported getting into debt trying to pay for uniform costs.
Overall, 43% of parents said the cost of school uniform alone had affected their families in some way.

Source: Wrong Blazer Report, 2020; BBC News, 2023; Children’s Society.

Testimonials:

“This is a very happy moment which brought a big smile and happiness to us as we received the uniforms this moment for our children and amazed with the quality and very much grateful to you for helping us in this difficult situation to make lines straight.
I thank you so much and promise to be a support to your organisation when good times arrive by grace of God. The generosity of the people of UK is what keeps the needy move on. Thank you very much!”
“I had a dad on the phone the other day and he couldn’t thank you enough, at one point he cried and said least my son can start back school in September with all his uniform”.
“I am very hopeful and looking forward for the voucher. I believe this could fill my child's little heart with happiness”.
“This will be a great help to my daughter education and I'm very grateful for this help”.

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