COLERAINE_SURE_START_PART - Accounts

The trustees present their report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2020.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the charity's Memorandum and Articles of Association, the Companies Act 2006 and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)".

The principal activity of the company is to work with parents and children to promote the physical, intellectual and social development of pre-school children - particularly those who are disadvantaged - to ensure they are ready to flourish when they get to school.

Coleraine Sure Start Partnership is one of thirty eight Sure Starts operating in Northern Ireland, funded by the Department of Education, to meet the needs of children and families in their early years. All Sure Starts have a number of core aims, however each works in an autonomous way to respond to the local needs of the community in which they are based. These overarching aims are:

-Improve the ability to learn by encouraging stimulating play, improving language skills and the early identification and support of children with learning difficulties.

-Improve health by supporting parents in caring for children and promoting children's health and development.

-Improve social development by supporting the development of early relationships between parents and children, good parenting skills, family functioning and early identification and support of children with emotional, learning or behavioural difficulties.

Sure Start supports families living in the top 25% designated areas of deprivation. Coleraine Sure Start supports families antenatally and with children up to the age of four, in the wards of Ballysally, Cross Glebe, Central, Churchland and Royal Portrush as well as the housing estates of Windy Hall and Millburn.

The main services delivered by Sure Start are:

-Good quality play, learning and childcare experiences for children (both group and home based)

-Speech language and communication support

-Primary and community health care and advice

-Support for all children in the community recognising their different needs

-Family support including befriending, social support and parenting information, both group and home based

-Outreach and home visiting services, to make contact as early as possible in a child's life and draw families into using other services.

At the core of Coleraine Sure Start Partnership is a collaborative approach and a number of organisations work together to ensure that needs are met in the local community.  These include Causeway and Mid-Ulster Women's Aid, Focus on Family, Harpur's Hill Children and Family Centre, Libraries NI, Northern Health and Social Care Trust, West Bann Development and local early years settings such as Ballysally Nursery, Culraith Corner Nursery and Kylemore Nursery.

All targets and activities established in the Business Plan for 2019-20, were met and monitored by the Northern Childcare Partnership and Department of Education. We are currently providing a range of services across the age range that meet the needs of families. This includes Baby Massage, Baby Yoga, Baby and Toddler Swim and Incredible Babies, as well as drop in play sessions at both Coleraine and Portrush. Groups to support parents include the Breastfeeding Support Group and the Women's Group. We also offer a number of parenting programmes such as the Family Links Parenting Programme and Incredible Years School Readiness. For all our services we carry out a number of evaluation methods which help us measure the impact of our work on parents and children, and this includes verbal feedback, case studies and pre and post scoring.

The results for the year are set out on page 7. The company returned net expenditure for the year of £1,027 (2019 £19,074). At 31st March 2020 the total funds of the charity amounted to £135,787 (2019 £136,814) comprising restricted income funds of £37,088 (2019 £30,548) and unrestricted designated funds of £98,699 (2019 £106,266).

Taxation

The company is a charity (Charity No. NI100572) and is recognised as such by HM Revenue and Customs for taxation purposes. As a result there is no liability to taxation on any of its income.

Reserves policy

Each year the Department of Education which provides our funding expects the organisation to spend our full allocation of the budget. Any cash held at the end of the reporting period is factored in to future funding calculations.

Risks

The trustees are aware of their responsibilities and monitor risks regularly.

Implications of Covid 19

During the global pandemic Sure Starts were designated as essential services, due to working in the most deprived areas and with vulnerable children and families.  Our funding continued as normal so all staff remained on their normal salaries and there were no redundancies and no furlough provision. Whilst buildings were closed to the public, a skeleton staff were still coming to work to organise deliveries of packs to families, to access our database and to organise resources and mailings.  All staff worked at home for some or part of the week, and this was resourced with the purchase of additional mobile phones and technology.   Many of our targets were still met although some in new or amended ways.  This included replacing home visits with doorstep visits and face to face groups with online tools such as Zoom.  All activities were fully risk assessed and adapted to changing restrictions.  Our funders were kept fully up to date in relation to expenditure and services with redeployment requests being made to budget headings where lockdown made it impossible to spend.  This meant that headings relating to face to face delivery eg room rental and refreshments were redeployed into ICT resources. 

Plans for the future

Coleraine Sure Start Partnership will continue to carry out services as detailed in our Business Plan. In the forthcoming year we plan to continue to review our governance arrangements to ensure best practice and accountability.

We will also closely monitor the situation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, in the forthcoming year.

The charity is a company limited by guarantee. The company was established under a Memorandum of Association which established the objects and powers of the company and is governed by its Articles of Association. The liability of its members is limited in that every member of the company undertakes to contribute an amount not exceeding £1 in the event of the company being wound up.

The makeup of the Board of Directors follows the Department of Education Guidelines with representatives from Education, Health, Community/Voluntary and Statutory organisations on our Board. Because of the partnership approach and knowledge of the local community, new Board members and trustees are approached by existing Board members to join, usually because they have experience/skills needs on the management group, or because the organisation they represent falls within one of the above organisations.

The trustees leave the day to day running of Coleraine Sure Start to Elaine Donnelly who forms part of the senior management team. Any strategic decisions are made by the board of trustees

The remuneration of key management personnel are benchmarked against NJC scales appropriate to occupational standards.

The trustees, who are also the directors for the purpose of company law, and who served during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were:

The trustees, who are also the directors of Coleraine Sure Start Partnership for the purpose of company law, 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).

Company Law 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 charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year.

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 judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

- state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and

- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The auditor, Moore (N.I.) LLP, is deemed to be reappointed under section 487(2) of the Companies Act 2006.

Each of the trustees has confirmed that there is no information of which they are aware which is relevant to the audit, but of which the auditor is unaware. They have further confirmed that they have taken appropriate steps to identify such relevant information and to establish that the auditor is aware of such information.

The trustees' report was approved by the Board of Trustees.

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Coleraine Sure Start Partnership (the ‘charity’) for the year ended 31 March 2020 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet, the statement of cash flows and the notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company's affairs as at 31 March 2020 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, for the year then ended;

have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is not appropriate; or

the trustees have not disclosed in the financial statements any identified material uncertainties that may cast significant doubt about the charity’s ability to continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting for a period of at least twelve months from the date when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of our audit:

the information given in the trustees' Report, which includes the directors’ report prepared for the purposes of company law, for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

the directors’ report included within the trustees' report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charity and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the directors’ report included within the trustees' report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or

the trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in preparing the trustees' report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.

As explained more fully in the statement of trustees' responsibilities, the trustees, who are also the directors of the charity for the purpose of company law, are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: http://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditors' report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

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

All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.

Coleraine Sure Start Partnership is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in Northern Ireland. The registered office is 34c Society Street, Coleraine, Co Londonderry, BT52 1LA.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity's Memorandum and Articles of Association, the Companies Act 2006 and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)". The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.

The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.

At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.

Designated funds comprise funds which have been set aside at the discretion of the trustees for specific purposes. The purposes and uses of the designated funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.

Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.

All incoming resources are included in the statement of financial activities when the charity is entitled to the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy and there is sufficient certainty that receipt of the income is considered probable. The following specific policies are applied to particular categories of income.

Income from charitable activities includes income recognised as earned (as the related goods or services are provided) under contract or where entitlement to grant funding is subject to specific performance conditions. Grant income included in this category provides funding to support programme activities and is recognised where the entitlement, certainty of receipt and amount can be measured with sufficient reliability.

Expenditure is recognised on an accruals basis as a liability is incurred. Funding provided through contractual agreements and performance related grants are recognised as goods and services are supplied. Other grant payments are recognised when a constructive obligation arises that results in the payment being unavoidable.

Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.

Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:

The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in net income/(expenditure) for the year.

At each reporting end date, the charity reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.

The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.

Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.

Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.

Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.

Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.

Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.

Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

Financial liabilities are derecognised when the charity’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.

The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.

Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the charity is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.

Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due.

In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.

Focus on Family

Ballysally Play Group

Causeway Women's Aid

Harpurs Hill Children and Family Centre

West Bann

Portrush Resources

Health Visitors

Mobile Creche

Visitors Health and Education

Training costs

Rent

Heat and Light

Stat, Advert and Programme Dev

Telephone, postage and travel

General and Subscriptions

Bank fees

Insurance

Repairs and Maintenance

The average monthly number of employees during the year was:

No employee received emoluments in excess of £60,000 during the year.

The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity in an independently administered fund.

The charge to profit or loss in respect of defined contribution schemes was £6,137 (2019 - £5,864).

Designated funds

Restricted funds

Designated funds

Restricted funds

Certain grants received and receivable may become repayable to the funder if the Charity is no longer able to meet the conditions under which they were awarded. Due to the nature of these contingencies, it is not possible to quantify the potential effect or give an indication of timing as to the liabilities that may arise.

On 11th March 2020, the World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic as a result of the outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 virus. Furthermore, the spread of the virus led to the UK government to enter a period of "lockdown" on 23rd March 2020, placing restrictions on non-essential activities. As a result, the Trustees have assessed the financial and operational risks to the charity, taking appropriate actions to mitigate the impact of any negative outcomes.

During the global pandemic Sure Starts were designated as essential services, due to working in the most deprived areas and with vulnerable children and families.  Funding continued as normal so all staff remained on their normal salaries and there were no redundancies and no furlough provision. Whilst buildings were closed to the public, a skeleton staff were still coming to work to organise deliveries of packs to families, to access the database and to organise resources and mailings.  All staff worked at home for some or part of the week, and this was resourced with the purchase of additional mobile phones and technology.   Many of the targets were still met although some in new or amended ways.  This included replacing home visits with doorstep visits and face to face groups with online tools such as Zoom.  All activities were fully risk assessed and adapted to changing restrictions.  Funders were kept fully up to date in relation to expenditure and services with redeployment requests being made to budget headings where lockdown made it impossible to spend.  This meant that headings relating to face to face delivery eg room rental and refreshments were redeployed into ICT resources. 

On this basis, the Trustees consider the outbreak to be a non-adjusting event. Accordingly, the financial statements do not reflect any adjustments as a result of the subsequent increase in economic uncertainty.

There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2019 - none).

The remuneration of key management personnel, who comprise the senior management team, is as follows.

In common with many businesses of our size and nature we use our auditors to assist with the compilation of the statutory financial statements.

The charity had no debt during the year.