The trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2026.
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 Home-Start Ealing's governing document, the Companies Act 2006, FRS 102 "The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland" and the Charities SORP "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)".
To support vulnerable families in Ealing with at least one child aged under 5 by providing practical and emotional support within their own homes through our volunteer-based model.
The aim is that families will be empowered by building their confidence and independence to cope with the stresses and strains of parenting by providing the skills, strategies, and strength they need to nurture their children.
The trustees have paid due regard to guidance issued by the Charity Commission in deciding what activities the Home-Start Ealing should undertake.
Economic Climate
During 2025-2026 families faced severe cost of living pressures and insecure housing challenges. Data from Trust for London showed that 34% of children in Ealing were living in poverty after housing costs. Additionally, pressures on nursery places and closures of children’s centres left parents feeling anxious and isolated, making Home-Start Ealing’s home visiting service more important than ever.
Significant activities during 2025 -26
During this period HSE received 120 referrals for 1:1 and group support and supported 116 families. HSE assessments showed that, of the families we supported, 81% recorded an improvement in self-esteem, 88% recorded an improvement in well-being, and 65% recorded an improvement in Children’s development/early learning/socialisation. Referrals came from multiple sources including from social workers, health visitors, perinatal mental health, midwives, GPs, children’s centres and Early Start.
During this period family events included an Easter egg hunt in Ealing Broadway and a fabulous Christmas party supported by Sunbelt, with gifts arranged by Ealing Broadway’s giving tree activity.
Funding
We are enormously grateful to our supporters and funders, which include Cadent, Connect Ealing, John Lyons, Heathrow Community Fund, Greenford Parochial Charities, City Bridge, Beacon Lodge, Sunbelt, Acton Charities, Tesco, William Hobbayne and Healing Homes.
In additional, are excited and grateful to have secured £85k of funding over 2 years from HS2.
HSE has also worked to broaden its funding base and raise its profile. Ealing Living Magazine published an article on HSE, we held a refugee event in Ealing Broadway. Two supporters ran the Ealing half marathon for HSE.
Volunteers
Volunteers’ recruitment and retention continued to be a priority. HSE held targeted recruitment events in Ealing Broadway, Northolt Community Centre, St Dunstan’s, and Holy Cross Church, and translated recruitment fliers into Punjabi, Arabic, Urdu and Hindi to help build a volunteer team that reflects the community's diversity. Volunteer training has included safeguarding, autism, housing and perinatal mental health. We were grateful to Priscilla Bacon, a parenting coach and child psychotherapist, for running a series of tailormade parenting courses for our volunteers.
There is an active volunteer WhatsApp group for sharing family support information and we held regular volunteer coffee and catchup events in community venues such as The Baby Bank and ActOne Cinema.
The surplus in the year to 31 March 2026 was £18,138, £3,184 of which was restricted against future expenditure.
It is Home-Start Ealing's policy to hold 3 months of operating costs as unrestricted reserves in order to maintain family support by retaining core staff for 3 months, and to meet full notice and redundancy obligations of the scheme, as well as other costs should no alternative source of funding be found. This was estimated to be £34,000 for the year ended March 2027.
As of the end of the 2025/26 fiscal year, our balance of unrestricted reserves was £51,447.
The charity is controlled by its governing document, a deed of trust, and constitutes a limited company, limited by guarantee, as defined by the Companies Act 2006.
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:
Trustees are appointed in accordance with the Articles of Association up to a limit of 12 but no less than 4. Trustees may hold office for up 3 years but may be reappointed for consecutive terms to a maximum of 12 years.
None of the trustees has any beneficial interest in the company. All of the trustees are members of the company and guarantee to contribute £1 in the event of a winding up.
The trustees' report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
I report to the trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Home-Start Ealing (the Home-Start Ealing) for the year ended 31 March 2026.
Having satisfied myself that the financial statements of the Home-Start Ealing are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of the Home-Start Ealing’s financial statements carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011. In carrying out my examination I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act 2011.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
accounting records were not kept in respect of the Home-Start Ealing as required by section 386 of the Companies Act 2006.
the financial statements do not accord with those records; or
the financial statements do not comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the Companies Act 2006 other than any requirement that the financial statements give a true and fair view, which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or
the financial statements have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice for accounting and reporting by charities applicable to charities preparing their financial statements in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the financial statements to be reached.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
Home-Start Ealing is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is Hanwell Children's Centre, 25a Laurel Gardens, Hanwell, London, W7 3JG, United Kingdom.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Home-Start Ealing's governing document, the Companies Act 2006, FRS 102 "The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland" and the Charities SORP "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)". The Home-Start Ealing is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The Home-Start Ealing has taken advantage of the provisions in the SORP for charities not to prepare a statement of cash flows.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the Home-Start Ealing. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the Home-Start Ealing 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.
Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors or grantors 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.
Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the Home-Start Ealing has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement, and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.
Expenditure is classified by activity. The costs of each activity are made up of the total of direct costs and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each activity. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs which contribute to more than one activity and support costs which are not attributable to a single activity are apportioned between those activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Central staff costs are allocated on the basis of time spent, and depreciation charges are allocated on the portion of the asset’s use.
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 the statement of financial activities.
At each reporting end date, the Home-Start Ealing 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.
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 Home-Start Ealing’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 Home-Start Ealing 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 Home-Start Ealing’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.
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes.
The Home-Start Ealing operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the Home-Start Ealing in an independently administered fund.
The restricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used.
The unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.
There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2025 - none).