Chair Persons Report 2021
Chair Person’s Report from Sept 2020 to Nov 2021.
We opened our doors again on 7th September 2020 and welcomed families and children back to Little Teapots. Considering the disruption earlier on in the year, the children adapted well to the additional cleaning, alco gel, hand washing and not having their parents enter into the setting. These Covid safe practices have become part of the staff and children's daily routine.
November 2020, with another lockdown looming and the uncertainty that this potentially held, we worked with Suffolk County Council on how to utilise our space in a Covid compliant and safe way. We successfully secured a grant which allowed us to purchase, install and resource our Outdoor Learning Hub. It is fully fitted with lights and heating. We are also very grateful to all of the local Councils and Communities' help in making this project a success; The Learning Hub is used every day and offers another invaluable space for the children and staff.
Once we had survived the four week lockdown in November, we found ourselves fast approaching the festive period. This was then followed by our third national lockdown on January 6th 2021, which did not see restrictions lifted until March 2021. Throughout all of this time Little Teapots has continued to provide support to our children and families. Whether it be for Key worker children, remote activities, learning and play ideas or emotional and wellbeing support. It should also be noted, due to the age of our children, Little Teapots didn't fall into all of the Government's school closure measures. This presented a problem in and of itself, with many of our families having siblings in school, they felt it safer to keep the family together and not return between lockdown 2, Christmas holidays and lockdown 3.
So far to date we have had no major Covid outbreaks in the setting. We continue to be cautious and proactive in our compliance and risk management, the staff continue to lateral flow three times a week and we are constantly reviewing practises to be in line with Government guidelines and advice. This is reflected in our expenditure with increased cleaning and staff hours.
From March 2021 to July, Little Teapots returned to some normality and we welcomed an intake of new children. Other Childcare provisions had been less fortunate than ourselves and locally we had the closure of Barrow preschool. This was a great opportunity for us and we maxed out on all sessions until the end of the academic year. This is reflected in our increased fee income and a rise in staffing expenditure. Sadly, at the end of the term we said goodbye and good luck to 22 school leavers.
We have started this academic year in a strong position with most of our sessions full and the addition of 2 new staff members, Faye and Emma. This currently takes us to 10 members of staff. Staff wages are our biggest expenditure and this will only continue to increase as the national minimum wage is due to increase in April 2022 by 6.7%. The committee is already looking at and reviewing this cost implication. As a rough estimate, our wages will increase by £596 a month, roughly a 5.6 % monthly cost increase. Some actions to mitigate this include but limited to:-
Increasing our fees from January 2022 to £15. We currently charge £14.25 a session compared to other local providers who charge £15 - £16 a session.
And
Driving new families inductions using social media, flyers, and snippets in local publications.
Sadly, in September 2022 Little Teapots shall once again say goodbye to 30 school leavers, our biggest group yet! We need to fill these places, ideally with 2 year olds and young families as these are a stable long term source of income and funding, however, we shall never turn a family away.
As Little Teapots is a charity, fundraising is vital to our success, but unfortuatntly in a Covid world this has been a struggle. The summer fete, coffee mornings, nativity and sports days are all events that have been missed. We did manage to raise some funds throughout the year through Christmas raffles, a book advent and a Christmas cake raffle. We are planning on doing something very similar this year but also to utilise our Outdoor Learning Hub and transform it into a Santa's grotto with a Father Christmas for our children and families. In February 2022 we have planned a Psychic Evening with a modern medium, Ryan Gooding. Greene King have kindly offered us the use of their social club and we are already collecting raffle prizes. This is one of the largest events we have ever organised and we hope it will be extremely successful.
Even without the resource of fund raising Little Teapot’s profit for this year is more than last. The previous year profit was in the region of £2500 and comparatively we have finished this year on £6200, a 148% increase. This has been achieved by ulitisling grants and government schemes, like furloughing staff, but also due the lack of any unnecessary spending on resources. The committee has also had the foresight to plan for the unexpected and build a “buffer” fund to ensure our survival during these very uncertain times. With the current year looming we definitely expect other costs and rates to increase and this buffer allows us to enter into a new year with a little confidence around pending costs.
The previous year has had its challenges but also some key positives. Myself and the committee feel optimism for the year ahead and continue to be grateful for the support of our families, staff, community and wider support/ resource networks.
LITTLE TEAPOTS PLAYGROUP INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 August 2021
| Income Grants Fees Fund Raising Furlough Wage Grants Donation Received Deposit for outings Sale of Clothing Key Practioner Income Miscellaneous Interest Received Expenditure Wages Pension Contributions Staf training Equipment - Toy and Play Materials EYP & SEP Spending Hall Rent & Rates Uniforms Garden repairs Consumable Food And Cleaning Materials Premises Expenses,Cleaning,Refuse Collection and repairs Electric & Water Rates Insurance Telephone Post & Stationery Staf Events Fund Raising Expenses Advertising Professional Fees - Ofsted Ofce Machines & Maintenance Book Keeping and Auditor Magazines Bank Charges |
2019 92,964.37 34,297.62 3,344.66 241.00 1,117.00 195.00 27.17 132,186.82 85,749.79 1,105.39 1,621.54 4,519.54 2,488.25 2,988.03 2,151.22 3,927.45 1,825.25 691.10 712.20 1,067.84 124.45 691.65 546.60 50.00 2,889.40 1,164.00 161.66 120.00 |
2020 100,813.57 23,408.25 890.70 10249.1 2,371.20 260.00 155.00 70 3,000.00 84.41 141,302.23 |
|---|---|---|
| 105,747.20 1,720.00 1,515.09 4,542.97 555.22 2,484.00 553.42 4,553.66 2,669.67 5,678.94 1,629.69 700.93 843.84 569.17 66.26 552.00 130.00 50.00 2,557.67 1,516.00 128.60 120.00 |
114,595.36 138,884.33
Net Expenditure/Profit for the year.
17,591.46 2,417.90
LITTLE TEAPOTS PLAYGROUP BALANCE SHEET FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 August 2021
| Current Assets | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bank Account-CAF Cash Account | 55,731.02 | 32416.03 |
| Bank Account-CAF Card Account | 540.79 | 350.25 |
| Bank Account-CAF Gold Account | 25,094.63 | 50144.04 |
| Petty Cash | 32.57 | 41.12 |
| Prepayments | -20,350.14 | -19691.42 |
| Debtors | 10.00 | 216.75 |
| 61,058.87 | 63476.77 | |
| Represented by | ||
| Opening Balance as at 1 September | 43,467.41 | 61058.87 |
| Proft (Loss) for the year | 17,591.46 | 2417.9 |
| 61,058.87 | 63476.77 |
I confirm the accounts to be true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief
Treasurer
In my opinion these accounts give a true account of the financial position of Little Teapots Pre-School as at 31 August 2021
2021
78,637.22 81,032.34 1,115.26 2,308.07 7,776.27 165.00
4.69 171,038.85
123,053.20 2,019.83 487.91 4,249.40 177.14 2,484.00 3,720.86 3,088.08 15,542.81 2,048.17 672.92 897.39 590.00 31.00 130.00 100.00 3,599.61 1,668.00 69.50 168.50
164,798.32
6240.53
38279.97 686.32 50448.73 28.61 -19952.17 225.84
69,717.30
63,476.77
6,240.53
69,717.30
SUFFOLK, CB8 8PW Section B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of cOnM (see CC32, Independent examination of chanty accounts_. directions and guidan for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose. IER Oct 2018