THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Company limited by guarantee

Company Registration Number:
09626497 (England and Wales)

Unaudited statutory accounts for the year ended 31 August 2023

Period of accounts

Start date: 1 September 2022

End date: 31 August 2023

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Contents of the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 August 2023

Directors report
Profit and loss
Balance sheet
Additional notes
Balance sheet notes
Community Interest Report

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Directors' report period ended 31 August 2023

The directors present their report with the financial statements of the company for the period ended 31 August 2023

Directors

The directors shown below have held office during the whole of the period from
1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023

Sadie Sharp
Andrew Langley
Jonathan Joyce


The director shown below has held office during the period of
1 September 2022 to 1 February 2023

James Phipps


The director shown below has held office during the period of
5 January 2023 to 31 August 2023

Victoria Parker


The above report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions in part 15 of the Companies Act 2006

This report was approved by the board of directors on
3 March 2024

And signed on behalf of the board by:
Name: Sadie Sharp
Status: Director

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Profit And Loss Account

for the Period Ended 31 August 2023

2023 2022


£

£
Turnover: 218,792 131,542
Cost of sales: ( 127,645 ) ( 77,450 )
Gross profit(or loss): 91,147 54,092
Distribution costs: 0 0
Administrative expenses: ( 91,084 ) ( 43,998 )
Other operating income: 0 22
Operating profit(or loss): 63 10,116
Interest receivable and similar income: 334 0
Profit(or loss) before tax: 397 10,116
Tax: 0 0
Profit(or loss) for the financial year: 397 10,116

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Balance sheet

As at 31 August 2023

Notes 2023 2022


£

£
Fixed assets
Intangible assets:   0 0
Tangible assets:   0 0
Investments:   0 0
Total fixed assets: 0 0
Current assets
Stocks:   0 0
Debtors: 3 1,454 20,229
Cash at bank and in hand: 46,990 53,374
Investments:   0 0
Total current assets: 48,444 73,603
Prepayments and accrued income: 0 0
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year: 4 ( 33,657 ) ( 39,213 )
Net current assets (liabilities): 14,787 34,390
Total assets less current liabilities: 14,787 34,390
Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year: 5 0 ( 20,000 )
Provision for liabilities: 0 0
Accruals and deferred income: 0 0
Total net assets (liabilities): 14,787 14,390
Members' funds
Profit and loss account: 14,787 14,390
Total members' funds: 14,787 14,390

The notes form part of these financial statements

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Balance sheet statements

For the year ending 31 August 2023 the company was entitled to exemption under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

The members have not required the company to obtain an audit in accordance with section 476 of the Companies Act 2006.

The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Act with respect to accounting records and the preparation of accounts.

These accounts have been prepared and delivered in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.

This report was approved by the board of directors on 3 March 2024
and signed on behalf of the board by:

Name: Sadie Sharp
Status: Director

The notes form part of these financial statements

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Notes to the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 August 2023

  • 1. Accounting policies

    Basis of measurement and preparation

    These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions of Section 1A (Small Entities) of Financial Reporting Standard 102

    Turnover policy

    Turnover is measured at the fair value of the consideration received or receivable, net of discounts and value added taxes.

    Other accounting policies

    Grants are recognised in the income and expenditure account in an appropriate manner that matches them with the expenditure towards which they are intended to contribute. Grants for immediate financial support or to cover costs already incurred are recognised immediately in the the income and expenditure account. Grants towards general activities of the entity over a specific period are recognised in the income and expenditure account over that period. Grants toward fixed assets are recognised over the expected useful lives of the related assets and are treated as deferred income and released over the useful life of the asset concerned. All grants in the income and expenditure account are recognised when all conditions for the receipt have been complied with.

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Notes to the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 August 2023

  • 2. Employees

    2023 2022
    Average number of employees during the period 9 15

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Notes to the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 August 2023

3. Debtors

2023 2022
£ £
Trade debtors 1,454 18,550
Other debtors 1,679
Total 1,454 20,229

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Notes to the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 August 2023

4. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year note

2023 2022
£ £
Trade creditors 7,812 389
Taxation and social security 955 1,253
Other creditors 24,890 37,571
Total 33,657 39,213

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Notes to the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 August 2023

5. Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year note

2023 2022
£ £
Bank loans and overdrafts 0 20,000
Total 0 20,000

COMMUNITY INTEREST ANNUAL REPORT

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Company Number: 09626497 (England and Wales)

Year Ending: 31 August 2023

Company activities and impact

The Platform Project is an innovative development organisation that helps young people gain the skills, confidence and experience they need to stay in education and launch their career. We work closely with local authorities, education institutions and local employers in order to bridge the gap between education and employment by providing work ready, capable and confident entry-level talent. Our unique concept of a 'training workplace' provides an accelerated development environment for young people to access real workplace experiences. The live, structured and practical projects help them break down any barriers they may be facing that are preventing them from transitioning into and succeeding in further education, paid work or self-employment. This year our activities and impact have fallen into two main types of projects:1. Our Educational Services: - Our ENGAGE alternative provision programme has worked with 18 schools/local authority departments to support 33 students who are at risk of permanent exclusion due to social, emotional or behavioural challengers. - Participation in our ENGAGE programme has seen student average attendance improve from 22% to 78%, with an 85% success rate of students avoiding exclusion, moving into further education, securing paid work or earning self-employed income. - We have worked with 310 students through our Youth Enterprise Simulation workshop, introducing students to a self-employed and youth-led business career option. - We have also supported a pilot group of 5 young people who have struggled with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) issues to pair them with a therapeutically trained mentor on our CONNECT programme. This helps them open up and develop coping strategies that enable them to re-enter education. All 5 students have reported an improvement in mental health, parents have reported a notable improvement in mood at home and schools have all reported a significant improvement in attendance and behaviour in education, so we will be looking to expand this programme next year.2. Our Employability Programmes for NEETS: - We have run several charitably funded projects for young people who are currently or at risk of becoming Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETS), including a youth publishing project, a couple of STEM-focused projects, a fashion show project and an employability support programme. - On these projects, we have supported 134 young people with an overall success rate of 81% of them moving into employment, education, training or self-employed earnings. - We have continued to grow our employer training services, working more closely with Nationwide to train their managers on how to support entry-level talent starting and staying in work successfully and have trained 84 managers this past year. With each person managing around 5 young people each, our tools and techniques have indirectly supported 420 young people in work. - We have engaged with 36 employers/companies/freelancers this past year, introducing our participants to a number of different career options.

Consultation with stakeholders

Our current key stakeholders are schools, students and young people. For our school customers, we hold termly meetings with all of them to discuss what student challenges they are facing inside their mainstream curriculum delivery and what their observations are about what might engage their challenging students best. It is as a result of these regular consultations that we decided to pilot the 1:1 therapeutic mentoring service to support students with additional SEMH needs For our school students, we hold an end-of-term (3 times an academic year) informal feedback session with our students where they provide us with their thoughts on the strengths and limitations of our programme. As a result of this feedback, we have brought on more 1:1 TA support workers who are available to support the students who need additional help when working on our projects. We have also implemented off-site outdoor wellbeing trips as most students said that they weren't able to access these in mainstream education. We have also introduced enrichment activities that students can optionally participate in when they are not feeling up to doing formal work, such as games stations and DJ equipment. For the NEET young people we work with, we hold a twice-a-year feedback event (once in person and once online) where current and previous participants of the programme are invited to tell us about their experiences on our programmes, and what they have moved on to do since. It was from this feedback that we were told that they often struggle to find freelance work or start conversations with companies to offer their services. So we set up an alumni group of participants who offer freelance services and frequently email out to them opportunities that we are asked about, and we organised a couple of networking events in the office to help them develop confidence speaking to new people. We also had feedback from some participants on the publishing club workshops that some of their friends were too socially anxious to join the workshop programme, so in response, we ran an online publishing competition that attracted 24 young people via remote participation who wouldn't have otherwise engaged with us. The feedback from this was very positive so we will be looking at ways to expand this approach.

Directors' remuneration

The Board of Directors consists of 6 people, 5 of whom are unpaid. The only paid member of the Board is the Managing Director who holds a full-time paid operational role remunerated at the market rate salary of £45,000 FTE. There were no other payments made to members of the Board.

Transfer of assets

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration

This report was approved by the board of directors on
14 February 2024

And signed on behalf of the board by:
Name: Sadie Sharp
Status: Director