Annual Report 2018-2019 Summary version

Our first full year

It is such a pleasure to be presenting this report of the Maple Tree’s first full year as a children’s centre charity. Looking back, it seems quite amazing that we have seen the transition from a County Council funded and run centre to the Maple Tree as we know it today. The Board of Trustees, the governing body for the Maple Tree, has settled well into its task of responsibility for this Centre, and we continue to have exceptional staff running a programme that is the envy of others. Through the Maple Tree, young families in Wheatley and surrounding villages are provided with successful and imaginative programmes tailored to the needs of young minds and bodies. These encourage the newest generation in the first part of their journey to adulthood, and also to give a friendly informal but professional space to support parents in the delightful, but at times lonely and stressful, role of child rearing.

The building itself, now rented from the County Council, is a well-used and much appreciated local resource. We hope to see it increasingly used by all age groups and residents of Wheatley and beyond.

Most importantly, we do not believe in sitting back and thinking that everything has been achieved. Our wish list for the building and garden alone would take a lot of funding, but at the forefront of our minds is our duty to keep the finances buoyant enough to continue the core work of the Maple Tree. I appeal to all of you for help in supporting our fundraising programme.

A previous County Council Chair described this centre as an ‘exemplary’ provision. We are most grateful to all our staff and volunteers for their commitment and energy in making the Centre such a special place. As Trustees we pledge our very best endeavours to the Maple Tree, which we know adds so much to the life of young families in Wheatley and beyond.

Anne Purse, Chair

Who we are

The Maple Tree is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) governed according to its Constitution dated 3 August 2017. It is an independent charity registered with the Charity Commission, number 1174117.

Our trustees We have a board of trustees that and provide governance and manage the centre. The trustees do not receive any renumeration or benefits nor have they had any personal interest in any contract or transaction entered into by the charity during the year. During 2018 -19 our trustees were:

Anne Purse Chris Sewell Jessica Bourne resigned June 2018 Victoria Job resigned August 2018 Claire James Charlie Payne Liz Elsom elected September 2018 Amanda Smith elected September 2018 Rev Nigel Hawkes resigned September 2018 now our patron

Our staff

During 2018-19 we employed two part-time staff to deliver the core programme for a total of 32.5 hours a week, increasing over the year to 34.5 hours. We also employed two part-time administrators for 16 hours a week. Additionally, we used the services of three self-employed individuals to cover weekend activities, staff absences, cleaning and garden maintenance. One member of staff took maternity leave during the year and her sessions were covered by a team of volunteers. We also engaged a self-employed book-keeper from July 2018 to set up new accounting systems and give administrative staff support and training.

Our volunteers

We are fortunate to have a number of volunteers helping us at our play sessions and with fundraising. All our volunteers who help at sessions have undertaken checks with the disclosure and barring service (DBS) and have received first aid and food hygiene training.

For the future

• We want to strengthen our governance and management through recruiting more trustees • We want to increase the number of hours we work directly with families by focusing more of our funds on staff to do this and recruiting more volunteers

What we do

Our aim is to give every child and family in our area the best start in life, especially families with children aged under 5. We do this through providing a growing and expanding programme of activities and services tailored to meet local needs. Our current timetable is always available from the centre or through Facebook.

We provide weekday daily activities for children and their families in our centre and sessions for dads and grandads on the third Saturday of every month. We also offer extra activities according to identified need, such as first aid for families, holiday activities for school-age children and baby massage. In addition our centre is used by other users who provide services for families. These include health visitors who run a well baby clinic every Wednesday, Oxford Sling Library who promote use of slings for babies every alternate Wednesday.

We promote community use and activities through the year by hiring out the facilities to local groups such as yoga, keep fit and for children’s parties. The centre is also used by the local nursery school over lunch times and by Oxfordshire children’s services team to provide supervised contact visits.

We have a core catchment area of Wheatley and surrounding villages but encourage any families with children under 5 to attend the centre . We have 276 families registered as users. Around 100 children together with their parents or carers attend our regular sessions each week. These figures don’t include attendance at our short courses such as the very popular first aid for families, baby massage or any one-off events we put on.Families attend from a wider area than our catchment, including 42 residential areas. Wheatley families make up 41% of our families, which is about 80% of families with under 5’s in the village. Other villages within our catchment area provide 26% of our families, and 33% of our families come from outside our catchment area, with half of these from Oxford.

For the future:

• We intend to focus on those families and areas within our catchment area that do not participate, so that we can develop new strategies and services to meet their needs. • We hope to work with health visitors and local communities to support and facilitate local groups for under fives with the intention of helping them become sustainable. • We intend to develop closer links with other providers of services for under fives in our catchment area to help provide more holistic and complementary services for families

Our finances

Income

Our income for the year was £47,459 with grants providing the largest share of funding.

Maple Tree income 2018/19

Other Fund raising 2% 3% Room hire 6% Donations 28%

Donations Grants Room hire Fund raising Other

Grants 61%

Our principal sources of grant funding were £10,000 from Oxfordshire County Council’s transition fund (the second tranche of grant funding), and a total of £8,950 from Parish Councils. We also received grants from a number of trust funds and charitable organisations and funding of £2,500 from the County Councillor’s priority fund.

Donations from users and friends of The Maple Tree included two significant contributions of £2,000 and £2,500 from individual donors. We also collected donations from local employers and via charity tins, SODC lottery funding and shopping cash back schemes, In addition, we raised £2,952 from hiring out The Maple Tree premises and £1,234 from fundraising activities including family learning activities, raffles, sales and seasonal events.

Expenditure

Our expenditure for the year was £47,890. At the end of the year the funds of the charity were £14,299, down from £14,730 in March 2018. However, in the last annual report it was anticipated that 2017/18 funds brought forward would be required to support the budget in 2018/19 as we build up our capacity to access funds and generate income, so the deficit is not unexpected.

Maple Tree expenditure 2018/19

Licences, Insurance Fund Raising Expenses and subscriptions 0% Administration 2% 2% Supplies & Resources Marketing & Comms 3% 2% Supplies & Resources

Staffing costs Premises Costs Premises Costs 31% Marketing & Comms Administration Licences, Insurance and subscriptions Staffing costs Fund Raising Expenses 60%

Staffing related costs made up the most significant part of the expenditure in 2018-19. During the year we continued to employ a part time centre co-ordinator and family support worker and we increased our administrative hours. Additionally, we continued to use skilled family support workers on a sessional basis to provide Saturdads and adhoc cover, and we contracted book- keeping services.

The Maple Tree paid rent of £10,500 to Oxfordshire County Council for the first time, effectively cancelling out our grant funding from them. Other significant premises costs include utility bills and cleaning costs.

Besides staffing and premises, we spent money on the supplies and resources to run sessions, on marketing and communications like producing our annual report, on administrative costs, licences, insurances and subscriptions and a small amount to support fundraising activities.

Building reserves

When the new Charity Commission guidance ‘Charity reserves: building resilience’ was published in February 2019 and it was clear that we still held the majority of the previous year’s carry forward the trustees formulated a reserves policy. This sets out our intention to build reserves over a three-year period to support the longer-term sustainability of the charity.

Trustee remuneration

The trustees did not receive any remuneration for carrying out their trustee responsibilities.

Looking forward

We are looking to build a broad and sustainable base for the future operation of the charity without compromising our fundamental principle of providing high quality, supportive and affordable services for all local families with young children. We recognise both the challenges and possibilities going forward.

Our financial challenges: • We are fortunate in having a well-equipped play space but recognise that we will need to spend more in future on maintaining and replacing our resources and equipment. • There will be costs associated with maintaining the building and increasing the fitness for purpose as we seek to develop family friendly indoor and outdoor space. • Next year there will be a decrease in our grant funding from Oxfordshire County Council to £7,500 and no transition grant funding at all in 2020-21. • As with most small charitable organisations we are dependent on significant amounts of work by trustees, staff and volunteers to generate funding and also the availability of funds to bid for. Our ambition is tempered by our capacity to pursue funding opportunities in addition to managing the charity. • With a small staff group there is limited capacity for flexibility and covering absence.

Our possibilities and opportunities: • There are known grant streams available to be applied to. • We have already begun formulating a robust fundraising plan for 2019/20. • We have a committed group of trustees, staff and volunteers who seek out opportunities for increasing the charity’s finances. • We are part of a group of children’s centres in South Oxfordshire that meet regularly to share opportunities and provide mutual support. • We are well supported by the local community and are planning joint fundraising events in the future.

This is a summary of the main report. Copies of the full report and accounts for 2018-19 are available on request

The Maple Tree is required to produce an annual report and accounts in compliance with the Charities Act 2011, the charity's constitution and the 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.

Our catchment area We serve the villages of Beckley, Cuddesdon, Denton, Drayton, Elsfield, Forest Hill, Garsington, Great Haseley, Great Milton, Holton, Horspath, Little Haseley, Little Milton, Littleworth, Marsh Baldon, Milton Common, Nuneham Courtenay, Rycote, Shotover, Stanton St John, Tiddington, Toot Baldon, Waterperry, Waterstock, Wheatley and Woodeaton.

Acknowledgements The Maple Tree Board of Trustees are grateful to our parents and carers for their financial contributions when attending sessions and to some very generous local individuals for their financial support. We thank the following organisations for financial support in 2018-19:

Oxfordshire County Council Waterperry with Thomley Parish Council Cuddesdon and Denton Parish Council Wheatley Parish Council Forest Hill and Shotover Parish Council ASDA Superstore Garsington Parish Council Mazars UK Great Milton Parish Council Oxford Round Table Holton Parish Council Oxford Isis Rotary Group Horspath Parish Council Pye Charitable Settlement Little Milton Parish Council Wheatley Society

The Maple Tree Registered Charity in England and Wales No. 1174117 Registered Office: 20 Littleworth Road, Wheatley, Oxfordshire OX33 1NW email: [email protected] telephone: 01865 236700 facebook: www.facebook.com/TheMapleTreeWheatley/