You are here :
Home
» About us
» Who we are
» Annual review

Annual review

2006-2007 was an exciting year for the NCT charity, as we have taken the first steps in a major reorganisation which will better fit us to deliver our vision. We want all parents to have a life enhancing experience of pregnancy, birth and early parenthood.

Consequently, this year the charity has made a major investment in new systems and structures designed to increase our capacity for the future. As as result the NCT incurred a deficit of £220K. This deficit was planned, coming after the restoration of the NCT’s reserves to provide a secure base from which to develop and grow.

We extended our charitable work through increased investment in:

Services to parents- commenced rollout of the new areas managed by paid administrators which has already resulted in more parents being reached.
Training record numbers of specialist workers.
Community development in the North East, North West, Scotland and Wales.
Improving our website.
NCT Brand- updated our look to enable us to reach out and help a greater number of new parents from all backgrounds.
New database for the whole charity.
Campaigns: recruited a dedicated team to enable our campaigns to make a bigger impact.
Research into premature babies
Our Breastfeeding and new Pregnancy and Birth Lines – answered around 13% more calls than in the previous year.

We increased our income from £8.6m in 2005/6 to £9.7m in 2006/7

This increase of 12% (£1,033K) in income was due to:·

Course income, mainly antenatal classes, increasing by 21% (£700K)·
Commercial Trading operations, including commercial sponsorship and NCT Sales the retail division, increasing by 6%, £88K.
Fundraising, mainly by the branches in events such as nearly new sales of baby clothes and equipment, increasing by 7%, £83K.

Our expenditure increased from £8.3m in 2005/6 to £9.9m in 2006/7

This increase in expenditure of 20% (£1,627K) was due to:

Services to parents expenditure, mainly antenatal classes, increasing by 24% (£905K)
Information expenditure increasing by 25% (£378K) on wider distribution of NCT Bumps and Babies magazine which is given out by hospitals and GP practices free to pregnant women, and improved website.

The impact of the deficit was that free reserves reduced from £2,376K to £2,137K at 30/09/07

The Board of Trustees has examined its requirement for free reserves (unrestricted funds not designated for a specific purpose) and has determined that given the nature of the charity’s work, the level of free reserves should be equivalent to three months’ expenditure, which at present is £3.2M. The current actual level of free reserves is only £2.1M, because 2006/7 was a year of investment and capacity building.

Over the next 3 years, we will work towards returning to holding 3 months reserves although this is unlikely to be achieved until 2008/9.

Plans for the Future

In 2007/8 we plan to complete three of the major capacity building projects:

Phase 2 of the website redevelopment;
Launch of the new charity corporate image, and
Completion of the roll-out of the new way parent services are organised.

In addition we will progress the governance changes and incorporate the last major separate NCT database into the new NCT database during the year. The period of rapid change is then expected to slow down, so that we can then stabilise and strengthen the charity:

Review financial systems and progress implementation of IT strategy;
Review and replace/build systems and procedures based on policies in line with our strategy, and
Strengthen the staff and volunteer team.

Using our new logo and restructured services and increased capacity, we will start to re-position the charity as supporting the transition to parenthood and being relevant to all parents We will:

Aim to increase involvement in the charity;
Seek more activists to work on campaigning and parent representation;
Build our volunteer base, and
Increase the number of qualified workers.

The major changes the charity has seen have been the result of strategic thinking carried out 5 years ago, and during 2007/8 we will start the process of revising and updating the NCT strategic plan. We will maximise our opportunities for campaigning across the 4 countries of the UK and for the range of issues affecting parents through:

Developing internal advisory groups;
Developing a network of activists, and
Expanding the campaigning program.

We will continue to work wherever possible in coalition and partnership with other organisations to add value to the unique contribution of the NCT.