THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Company limited by guarantee

Company Registration Number:
09626497 (England and Wales)

Unaudited statutory accounts for the year ended 31 August 2024

Period of accounts

Start date: 1 September 2023

End date: 31 August 2024

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Contents of the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 August 2024

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 2024

The directors present their report with the financial statements of the company for the period ended 31 August 2024

Directors

The directors shown below have held office during the whole of the period from
1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024

Sadie Sharp
Andrew Langley
Jonathan Joyce
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
10 February 2025

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 2024

2024 2023


£

£
Turnover: 280,092 218,792
Cost of sales: ( 177,952 ) ( 127,645 )
Gross profit(or loss): 102,140 91,147
Administrative expenses: ( 102,197 ) ( 91,084 )
Operating profit(or loss): (57) 63
Interest receivable and similar income: 615 334
Profit(or loss) before tax: 558 397
Profit(or loss) for the financial year: 558 397

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Balance sheet

As at 31 August 2024

Notes 2024 2023


£

£
Fixed assets
Tangible assets: 3 712 0
Total fixed assets: 712 0
Current assets
Debtors: 4 808 1,454
Cash at bank and in hand: 44,341 46,990
Total current assets: 45,149 48,444
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year: 5 ( 30,516 ) ( 33,657 )
Net current assets (liabilities): 14,633 14,787
Total assets less current liabilities: 15,345 14,787
Total net assets (liabilities): 15,345 14,787
Members' funds
Profit and loss account: 15,345 14,787
Total members' funds: 15,345 14,787

The notes form part of these financial statements

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Balance sheet statements

For the year ending 31 August 2024 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 10 February 2025
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 2024

  • 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.

    Tangible fixed assets depreciation policy

    Tangible fixed assets are measured at cost less accumulated depreciation and any accumulated impairment losses. Depreciation is provided at rates calculate to write off the cost of the fixed assets, less their estimated residual value, over their expected useful lives on the following basis: Computer equipment 33% straight line basis

    Other accounting policies

    Government grants are recognised in an appropriate manner that matches them with expenditure towards which they are intended to contribute. Grants for immediate financial support or to cover costs already incurred are recognised immediately. Grants towards general activities of the entity over a specific period are recognised 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 receipt have been complied with.

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Notes to the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 August 2024

  • 2. Employees

    2024 2023
    Average number of employees during the period 9 9

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Notes to the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 August 2024

3. Tangible assets

Land & buildings Plant & machinery Fixtures & fittings Office equipment Motor vehicles Total
Cost £ £ £ £ £ £
At 1 September 2023 0 0
Additions 986 986
Disposals
Revaluations
Transfers
At 31 August 2024 986 986
Depreciation
At 1 September 2023 0 0
Charge for year 274 274
On disposals
Other adjustments
At 31 August 2024 274 274
Net book value
At 31 August 2024 712 712
At 31 August 2023 0 0

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Notes to the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 August 2024

4. Debtors

2024 2023
£ £
Trade debtors 660 1,454
Other debtors 148
Total 808 1,454

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Notes to the Financial Statements

for the Period Ended 31 August 2024

5. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year note

2024 2023
£ £
Trade creditors 7,812
Taxation and social security 2,010 955
Other creditors 28,506 24,890
Total 30,516 33,657

COMMUNITY INTEREST ANNUAL REPORT

THE PLATFORM PROJECT CIC

Company Number: 09626497 (England and Wales)

Year Ending: 31 August 2024

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 as 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 This year our activities and impact have fallen into 4 main programmes: Our Educational Services: - Our ENGAGE alternative provision programme has worked with 21 schools/local authority departments to support 36 students who are at risk of permanent exclusion due to social, emotional or behavioural challenges. - Participation in our ENGAGE programme has seen student average attendance improve from 24% to 77%, with an 80% success rate of students avoiding exclusion, moving into further education, securing paid work or earning self-employment income - within an average of 7 months. - We have worked with 200 students through our youth enterprise simulation workshop and inter-schools competition Big Business Day competition, introducing students to a self-employed and youth-led business career option. - We have launched our DISCOVER personalised tutoring services for a pilot group of our students to help them catch up on formal learning and transition back into mainstream education/sit their exams. - We have grown our CONNECT therapeutic mentoring service and have supported a group of 16 highly vulnerable young people who have mental health challenges. Over the year, we have delivered 1900 hours of mentoring, with each student receiving an average of 4 hours each week. This has helped them open up and develop coping strategies that enable them to re-enter education. 82% of the students reported an improvement in mental health, parents have reported a notable improvement in mood at home, and schools have reported a significant improvement in attendance and behaviour in education, so we will be looking to further expand this programme next year. Our Employability programmes for NEETS: - We have secured funding to re-launch a weekly NEETS service helping young people at risk of unemployment. The BOOST programme will be launching in September 2024 and is expected to support approximately 50 young people each year. - In lieu of re-launcing our bigger NEETS programme, we also re-ran several smaller employability support projects this year, including a youth publishing competition (50 young people entered), a publishing club (24 young people supported) and 2 youth enterprise workshops for home educated young people (20 young people per workshop). - Collectively across these projects, we have supported 200 young people with an overall success rate of 80% of them moving into employment, education, training or self-employment 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. This year we have trained 48 managers - with each person managing around 5 young people each. Our tools and techniques have indirectly supported 240 young people in work. - We have engaged with 30 employers/companies/freelancers this past year, introducing our participants to a number of different career options. - We have also engaged with 10 volunteers this year.

Consultation with stakeholders

Our current key stakeholders are schools, students, young people and employers. For our school customers, we hold termly meetings with all of them to discuss what student challenges they are facing inside the 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 at the end of term (3 times per academic year) informal feedback sessions 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 hired more mentors with a range of different skills - including SEND and therapeutic specialisms. We have also broadened the activities in our off-site outdoor wellbeing trips to include things students requested, including climbing and ice-skating. The students have also requested that we try to secure more specialist activities in-house, such as a cooking facility, so we are investigating options to expand our premises to accommodate. 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 our programmes are invited to tell us about their experiences on our programmes, and what they have moved on to do since. It was from these conversations that we realised how difficult it was for young people to get any work experience, let alone a breadth of work experiences to better inform their career choices, so we are looking at options we may have to work more closely with employers to facilitate these links more formally. Our work with Nationwide has shown us that our models have a significant impact in helping managers understand how better to manage entry level talent, and they have seen a reduction in young people leaving the programme in the initial few months due to a mismatch of expectations. From this feedback, we are looking at how we can make this content cost-effective and accessible for SME's.

Directors' remuneration

The Board of Directors consists of 6 people, 5 of whom are unpaid. The only paid member of the Board is the CEO, who holds a full-time paid operational role remunerated at the market rate salary of £50,000 FTE. There are 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
10 February 2025

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