2024-03-31-accounts

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT

(for the year ended 31[st] March 2024)

Contents

1. Legal and administrative details

2. Introduction

3. Objectives & Activities

4. Achievements & Performance

5. Financial Review

6. Structure, Governance & Management

1. LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

The Board of Trustees is:

• Tom Conlon (appointed April 2023)

• Nathan Smith (appointed April 2023)

• Nick Ridgway (appointed April 2023)

• Paul Cherry (appointed April 2023)

• Ellis Quinn (appointed April 2023, resigned July 2024)

• Jill Smith (appointed July 2023)

Bankers:

Natwest Bankline (add address)

Registration as a charitable incorporated organisation:

19[th] April 2023

Registered address:

Pro Level Vision, c/o Kyzen Sports, 25 Goodlass Road, Liverpool , L24 9HJ

2. INTRODUCTION

The Trustees present this annual report together with the unaudited financial statements of the CIO for the period 19th April 2023 to 31 March 2024.

The Trustees confirm that the Annual Report and financial statements of the charity comply with the current statutory requirements, the requirements of the charity’s governing document and the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP), applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (second edition October 2019, effective 1 January 2019).

The Trustees confirm that they have had regard to the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance and believe that the Trust complies with guidance.

3. OBJECTIVES & ACTIVITIES

Mission:

“the promotion of community participation in healthy recreation for the benefit of vulnerable children in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire and Cheshire inhabitants of by the provision of facilities for playing football.”

Vision

Pro Level Vision works to grant fund places through Pro Level Academy to offer specialised football coaching to vulnerable children, enabling anybody to access academy standard coaching no matter who you are. We are firm believers that developed is accelerated in a fun, safe and respectful environment. This is the difference to other professional academy coaching organisations. We are giving

everyone the opportunity to receive elite style professional coaching regardless of their skill or ability. We use our own experience as professional footballers and coaches to help children learn mindset and confidence. We value and embrace the power it can have to create positive experiences for young people. These experiences and skills will benefit them as they develop through life and move into further education and employment.

Our Values are:

Young people first: Our priority is the safety and wellbeing of children and young people; they are the main beneficiaries of everything we do. Every action, approach and strategy is aimed at improving their confidence, resilience and life chances.

Inclusivity : We recognise that some young people are more likely to be affected by low confidence, than others, including those from deprived backgrounds and those with a range of protected characteristics, our work seeks to target these children above others, as our programme can provide significant physical, social and emotional gains for children.

Pro-experience : We use our own experience as professional footballers and coaches to help children learn mindset and confidence. We value and embrace the power it can have to create positive experiences for young people.

Empowerment : Our programmes empower children and young people to be the best they can on the pitch and off the pitch. By valuing and recognising everyone’s potential our coaching educates and improves skill through encouragement, fun and inclusion.

Strategies for achieving objectives

Our aims are to:

• To offer inclusive football coaching for players of all abilities and experience

• Increase the number of children taking part in weekly football sessions

• Increase skill and ability of all players

• Increase opportunity for vulnerable children to take part in weekly football sessions

• Increase the proportion of children who can meet the UK Chief Medical Officers physical activity guidelines

• Increase confidence, self-esteem and resilience of PLA players

• To value and recognise everyone’s potential through encouraging, fun and inclusive coaching

• To use our professional football experience to benefit children

• To encourage and develop teamwork and empathy skills

Our Strategic Goals for 2023-2025 are:

1. Raise income to become a financially stable charity offering grant funded places through Pro Level Academy

2. Raise awareness of Pro Level Vision

3. Embed good charity governance

4. Develop a growth plan for Pro Level Vision to 2030

5. Develop Pro Level Vision education offer

ACHIEVEMENTS & PERFORMANCE

Review of activities to-date

This is the first annual report of the CIO in our first year of operations since registration. The focus of our activities to date have been:

Organisational Development

• Strategy development: we have written our strategy and strategic goals to 2025

• Policies and procedures: written and agreed a core set of policies and procedures to ensure compliance with governance standards of a professional CIO

• Governance induction and training: we have one very experienced charity sector Trustee, and all other trustees have been inducted and supported to understand and enact trustee charity duties and responsibilities

• Theory of Change and impact strategy: we have developed our Theory of Change and written our impact strategy to measure the immediate outcomes of our theory. We will pilot this in 2024-25 to demonstrate the impact of our services on our charitable objectives

• Awareness raising: we have established our social media accounts and used those to generate organic awareness of PLV. We have also been interviewed in local media via BBC Radio Stoke and the Sentinel and national media through the Sunday Express media interviews

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/port-vale-stars-launchcharity-8642544

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1855502/tom-conlon-nathan-smith-prolevelacademy

Fundraising

Our core focus of 2023-24 has been on the generation of funding so that PLV can offer grant funded places in 2024-25 to vulnerable children as defined in our charitable objectives.

In 2023-24 this has meant we have:

• Registered with Charities Aid Foundation in order to collect and process public donations via our website in a GDPR and charity commission compliant manner: https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/24022#!/DonationDetails

• Received individual giving donations from our promotional activities

• Run our first fundraising event the Pro Level Vision inaugural Ball on the 23[rd] March 2024 raising in excess of £20,000 for the CIO

Areas requiring further focus

• Fundraising strategy : we are developing our fundraising capability through a multi-source income strategy with individual giving, events programme and corporate partnerships being our focus

• Impact strategy : we have developed a theory of change and impact measurement for our services which we will pilot in 2024-25 to determine the success of our model of coaching on the immediate outcomes of our theory of change

• Governance : we will seek to increase the number of Trustees in the next financial year conducting a skills gaps analysis and recruiting to the Board to fill those gaps

• Awareness: we will seek to grow awareness of PLV through media and social media engagement to increase support for our charity.

In addition, the trustees review key risks facing the Trust every quarter to ensure that appropriate action is being taken to mitigate them. The key risks facing PLV include:

Risk	Mitigation
Governance and compliance	Trustee skills analysis and trustee recruitment. Experienced charity CEO on the Board of Trustees overseeing governance and compliance
Demand for services	Runing a waiting list for places while funding grows
Income	Fundraising plan and strategy in development
PLA fails to retain coaching staff and professionals	Staff development, Trustees attend PLA sessions to keep contact with PLA coaches. Professionals engaged fully in charity

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Results for the period

The key sources of funds for PLV are:

• Individual giving donations through our website and processed by Charities Aid Foundation online

• Proceeds from the Pro Level Ball after costs deducted. The proceeds came from a mix of corporate sponsorship, individual ticket sales and raffle items on the night.

As this is the first year of the CIO operations, it was essential to generate income before being able to offer services to children. Therefore funds raised in 2023/24 will be spent in 2024/25 on offering our charitable activities to vulnerable children. The Trustees have decided that a minimum sum of £1500 should be retained in the PLV accounts for costs relating to the generating of future funds and as part of building up reserves policy.

Reserves policy

The Trustees have the objective of maintaining sufficient reserves to offset any liabilities that should be incurred in the event that the charity would need to be wound up; as currently the CIO does not employ any staff and have ongoing liabilities we are holding a minimal amount above in order to begin to build up reserves for future liabilities.

Going concern

After making appropriate enquiries, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the CIO has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements. Further details regarding the adoption of the going concern basis can be found in the Accounting Policies.

Grant making policy

The CIO is responsible for awarding grants to a local supplier for football coaching, Pro Level Academy. The Trustees have determined this is the most appropriate, efficient and value for money supplier to meet our charitable objectives and have committed to keep this under review.

The CIO has set up a grant agreement process with Pro Level Academy that sets out the relevant terms and conditions of the grant funding to offer places to children to meet our charitable objectives. Adherence to the grant terms and conditions will be monitored quarterly, along with our impact reporting from beneficiaries as part of our grant making policy and to ensure that Pro Level Academy services meet our expectations for quality.

Volunteers

Other than the Trustees the CIO does not use the services of any volunteers.

Fundraising

Although we actively fundraise from the public and we have not used any professional fundraisers in the year, the public can donate via our website. We are aiming to register with the Fundraising Regulator in 2025

Financial Statements

INCOME

CAF Donations £ 163.88

Charity Ball Ticket Sales & Raffle £31865.87

Total Income £32029.75

EXPENDITURE

Charity Expenses £18684.38

Total expenditure £18684.38

NET INCOME £13345.37

This does not include income from the charity ball that was received after the 31[st] March 2024 when the financial year ended. This income is receipted in the next financial year.

The expenditure is focussed on the cost of running the principle fundraising activity of the charity ball.

The consolidated statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

Funding from 2023-24 financial year will be spent on charitable activities in 2024-25.

6.0 STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE & MANAGEMENT

Constitution

The CIO was incorporated on 19[th] April 2023 and commenced operating on 19th April 2023. The Charity is governed by a constitution which sets out the powers and responsibilities of the Trustees in fulfilling the Charity’s objectives.

Management

Trustees

The management of the CIO is the responsibility of the Trustees who are elected and coopted under the terms of the Constitution. The Trustees manage the affairs of the Trust and determine its general policy.

The Charity is administered by the Board of Trustees, which must have a minimum of three and a maximum of eleven members. The Board meets approximately quarterly.

A list of Trustees is provided on Page 2, and on our website: https://prolevelacademy.com/plv-charity/ . Trustees serve for a term of three years from the date of appointment.

Each Trustee’s term of office may be renewed for two further 3 years term; subsequently the Trustee in question is required to resign but may apply for reappointment after at least one year.

Trustee appointment, induction and training

The proposal to appoint a new Trustee is made at a Trustee meeting for consideration and approval by the existing Trustees. Recruitment is by advertisement followed by shortlisting and interview by the Chair, and another Trustee. Following appointment the successful candidate meets the Chair and ED for an induction, to be briefed on legal obligations under charity law, on the Charity’s constitution, business plan, operations and recent financial performance.

Trustees' responsibilities statement

The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

The law applicable to charities in England & Wales requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the CIO and of the incoming resources and application of resources of the CIO for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

• • observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;

• make judgments and accounting estimates that are reasonable and

• prudent;

• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is

• inappropriate to presume that the CIO will continue in operation.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the CIO's transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the CIO and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Charity (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and the provisions of the trust deed. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the CIO and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

This report was approved by the Trustees, on 15[th] January 2025:

Signed on their behalf by:

Tom Conlon

Chair of Pro Level Vision