AGM MINUTES
Held in the Seashells Office, in Eyemouth Community Centre, Friday 24th November 2017
Present: Laura Chisholm (Chairperson), Miriam Lindsay (Manager), Julie Windram (Office Manager),
Jayne Gibbs, Katie Murray (Trustees)
Apologies:- Rachel Davidson (Vice Chairperson)
1. Introduction
ML opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and thanking everyone for coming, she told everyone that it was really appreciated that they had given up their time to attend as she understands that we all have busy lives. ML explained that unfortunately we were holding our AGM later than expected due to illness, we had previously arranged the AGM 2 times but unfortunately had to cancel due to the high number of children that were ill at the time, meaning that the parents would not have been able to attend.
2. Staffing
ML informed the group that we now have 7 members of staff;
Jane Richardson – Supply staff, as and when required,
Abi Emblen – Supply staff, as and when required,
Gemma Tones – has cut her hours back slightly as she is currently studying for her Level 3, which requires a lot of additional work,
Lynsey Finnie and Miriam Lindsay – full time,
Lisa Slicer – part time,
Julie Windram – now works 3 mornings (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) due to additional paperwork requirements – NAMS/ Policies/ fees/ enrolment etc,
Roxanne Gillie – studying for her Level 3 and is completing her placement hours with us,
Roma Peakman – is here 1 afternoon and 1 morning on High School Work Experience.
3. Progress Report
HMIe – we were given positive feedback during our inspection last year and have introduced observations, next steps and journals. Feedback from parents/ carers has been positive, everyone seems to have liked them.
They make it so much easier to track the progress of each child.
Staff have been trained on the above areas, mainly by ML and has been provided during monthly staff meetings.
Paediatric First Aid Training – all staff have recently completed this, in November.
LF, LS, GT and AE have all booked themselves on training in the coming months.
JW to organise Jane CPD access to allow her to book training.
Our outdoor area has now been extended, allowing free-flow access to the garden area. This has made a huge impact on our children and has been a huge success.
Our nursery room has been re-arranged and the team have spent a lot of time de-cluttering the different areas and it looks so much better for it.
Fundraising is ongoing with the goal of painting the nursery room and blocking in the pipes, it also covers a portion of our running costs as we have endured increasing running costs over the last year due to the requirement to have additional staffing, the increase in the minimum wage and we now legally have to offer our staff a pension.
4. Finance Report
JW presented the 2016-17 Accounts to the meeting, which includes a breakdown of our income and expenditure for the year. The following points were highlighted;
Income – the nursery raised an amazing £1258 through fundraising for this year, which is double the amount we raised in the previous year! ML and JW thanks parents/ carers for their support with this. The fundraising events we held were the Cake Sale, Open Day, Photographs, Nativity Tickets, Christmas Craft Bags and our Family Fun Night.
This money has been put towards our ongoing goal of painting the nursery and covering the pipework/ radiators as well as helping with our running costs.
JW presented the meeting with comparison figures that she has been working on, which details the income and expenditure trends of the nursery over the past 5 years. The main points to note were that you can clearly see that the funding we receive from SBC is increasing, this is due to the numbers of our funded children increasing, and that our income from our 2 year old sessions has nearly doubled since last year which is brilliant as we are becoming very busy in the afternoons as well as the mornings. Also, unfortunately we have been unsuccessful in gaining any grants this financial year, money which we were hoping to put towards our goal of painting and joinery work, we will continue to apply for any grants which we are eligible to apply for in the coming year and hopefully we will be successful! Expenditure – our wages bill has increased since last year, this is due to a number of reasons - the increase in the minimum wage, pension costs and our requirement to hire additional staff as the number of children increases, so do the number of staff we require to ensure that the children are educated and cared for to the highest standard which we have set.
Overall, it has been a successful year for Seashells!
5. Fees
Unfortunately at the time of the AGM JW had calculated that there were an unacceptably high number of fee’s outstanding. Notices had been put up in the foyer to advise parents/ carers of this. ML & JW requested that fees were paid as soon as possible, if anyone had any issues regarding payment of outstanding fees, please get in touch with ML or JW.
ML advised that she had been looking into our fees, for the cost of a 2 year old session, daycare rate, lunch club and snack and craft charges. She has looked into the costs other local nurseries are charging, and in order to bring us in-line with other local businesses she suggested a slight increase to our charges. This is something we do not like to do, however we have incurred a number of additional costs this year as detailed above, which unfortunately we legally have to pay, we have kept our prices as low as we could up until now. ML wished to remind everyone that we are a charity run nursery, almost everything we receive from funding and fees etc is spent on running costs of the nursery.
LC proposed that the price for a 2 year old session be increased by £1, going from £7 to £8. JG agreed.
LC proposed that the price for lunch club be increased from £1.50 to £2.00. JG agreed.
LC proposed that the price of hourly daycare be increased from £3.50 to £4.00. JG agreed.
Discussions were held into when these changes would be implemented, and due to the time of the year it was decided that we would wait until after Christmas.
It was decided that to give parents/ carers fair notice of the increase, we would change the prices from Wednesday 14th February, after the February break.
If any parents/ carers have issues with these changes please get in touch.
6. Going forward 2017-18
ML informed the meeting that Seashells were now going to be able to offer 3 & 4 year olds, and eligible 2’s the full 30 hours funding from August 2018.
We are registered to accept 24 children at the moment, so one of our issues is if we have 24 funded children attending full days – where can we hold our 2 year old sessions?
ML said that she had been in contact with Eyemouth Community Centre Management Committee and has formally requested the use of Room 3 – the room to the right of the entrance foyer, which she hoped if successful, could be made into an age appropriate room for the 2 year olds. The feedback from the committee has been positive so far, we are hoping to know the final decision in January, then plans will be made to the Care Inspectorate to inspect the room for suitability and to assess the number of children we would be able to offer sessions to.
More information on this will follow after Christmas, once we know more we will keep you updated.
Another idea was proposed and discussed, that we open earlier and offer a Breakfast Club – something which had been requested by a number of our working parents. Opening times and prices were discussed, LC proposed the following;
Breakfast Club
Opening times 08:20-08:50 (30 minutes)
Will be staffed from 08:15
Cereal, toast, fruit, milk and water will be offered.
Cost per session; £2.00
Proposed Starting date: 15th January 2018 (to be confirmed once Care Inspectorate have approved the request to alter our opening times)
JG agreed to the proposals.
JW to contact Early Years Scotland who provide our insurance, to alter the opening times and find out the financial implications.
7. Election of Committee
ML explained that since RD’s son had now left Seashells to start school, we were now in a position to allocate a Vice Chairperson.
JW asked LC if she was happy to continue in her role as Chairperson, LC said that she felt like she wasn’t able to offer the time that was probably required for the role due to family circumstances, so would prefer to step down from her role as Chairperson but would be happy to stay on as a signatory and help the nursery in any other way.
We thank LC for her time as Chairperson, for all she has done for the nursery.
The Committee roles were distributed to the meeting, JG informed the meeting that she would be happy to take on the role as Chairperson, LC agreed to the proposal. JW informed JG that the chairperson usually becomes a signatory for the bank account, and asked if Jane was happy to become a signatory as we require 2 to sign cheques, JG agreed to become a signatory. JW to contact RBS for paperwork.
ML advised that KM had offered to take on a committee role, and was happy to become Vice Chairperson, JW informed the meeting that when LC’s child leaves the nursery we would require another signatory on the account, KM had agreed to take on this role when required - JG and LC agreed to the proposal.
JW advised that there was still a role of treasurer to be filled – LC offered to take on this role, JG accepted the proposal.
Trustee’s – JW informed the meeting that although she was not present, Nicola Burgon had expressed an interest in becoming an active member of the committee, and suggested that she take on the trustee’s role. JG & KM agreed to this.
To summarise, new roles are;
Chairperson: Jayne Gibbs
Vice Chair: Katie Murray
Treasurer: Laura Chisholm
Trustee Nicola Burgon