Staged CIO
Trustees Report and Financial Statements
Year Ending 31 March 2025
Charity Number: 1197974
Registered Address: 7 Towerhill Road, Brown Lees, Biddulph, ST8 6PD. Venue Address: Biddulph Town Hall, High Street, ST8 6AR
Board of Trustees
Chair: Sharon Allman Vice Chair: James Ede Treasurer: Elizabeth Abbotts Trustee: Paul Thomas
Staged CIO
Report of the trustees for the year ending 31 March 2025
The trustees are pleased to present their annual report together with the consolidated financial statements of the charity.
The financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2022.
Chair’s Report
Staged CIO continues to provide high-quality, inclusive arts provision in Biddulph East, a deprived area within Staffordshire Moorlands, delivering meaningful cultural opportunities that benefit the local community. Based at Biddulph Town Hall, we are fortunate to operate from a well-equipped venue that offers a safe, welcoming, and inspiring environment for participants of all ages.
This year marks our third year with charitable status and has been one of significant growth, recognition, and achievement. We are extremely grateful for the continued support received, particularly local funding from Awards for All, which enabled the second year of funding for our much-valued Theatre for the Ages project. We were also fortunate to receive funding from Councillor Flunder, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, and John Robinson, which enabled the purchase of new moving lights. This investment significantly enhanced the production quality of our performances and provided young people with hands-on experience using professional-standard equipment.
Over the past year, Staged has continued with the weekly sessions; Dance and Drame, Firebirds and Creative Performance Group. These sessions have gone from strength to strength, engaging over 50 young people each week and culminating in vibrant end-of-term showcases that celebrate creativity, confidence, and collaboration.
Theatre for the Ages, our intergenerational project running from January to July, continues to thrive. The project offers participants the opportunity to explore all departments within a theatre, fostering understanding, skills development, and meaningful connections across generations. Alongside this, we have continued to run our established theatre group, Firebirds, based in Astbury. Designed for younger children from the age of four, Firebirds focuses on singing and dancing, providing an early introduction to the performing arts in a fun and nurturing setting.
We also remain committed to extending access to the arts through our holiday provision, delivering a range of workshops including two weeks of Summer Schools. This year saw exciting new partnership work, including collaboration with Biddulph Youth and Community Zone to deliver a Halloween Scaremaze for the local community, and with Ball Green Working Men’s Club to produce a festive Christmas pantomime, Snow White, which was
warmly received. Staged also worked in partnership with Stage Management Services for both the Christmas production and the Inspire Dance performance earlier in the year, supporting high-quality technical delivery and professional learning opportunities.
Young people were encouraged to take an active role in promoting their work and represented Staged on Moorlands Radio, where they advertised their Christmas performances and took part in a guided tour of the radio studio. This experience helped to build confidence, communication skills, and an understanding of media and promotion.
The quality and impact of Staged’s work has been recognised both locally and regionally. At the Biddulph Volunteer Recognition and Civic Awards Night, Staged was proud to receive two awards: Volunteer Recognition and the Civic Award for Youth 2024. In addition, Staged was named Performing Arts Community Group of the Year 2024 – Staffordshire, at the Midlands Enterprise Awards, highlighting the organisation’s growing reputation and commitment to excellence.
Safeguarding and wellbeing remain central to our practice. During the year, staff completed Mental Health Level 2 training, strengthening our ability to support the emotional wellbeing of participants and ensure a safe, inclusive, and supportive environment.
As the year drew to a close, our senior group began rehearsals for our largest and most ambitious production to date: 131 High Street, a time-travelling sketch show developed in preparation for the Biddulph Festival 2025. This production reflects the growing confidence, creativity, and scale of our work and sets an exciting direction for the year ahead.
The trustees are proud of what has been achieved this year and would like to thank our participants, volunteers, staff, partners, funders, and supporters for their continued commitment and belief in the work of Staged CIO.
Sharon Allman Chair, Staged CIO
Purposes and Activities
To advance education in performance arts for public benefit, by providing support and activities which develop skills in theatre studies, for people of all ages, backgrounds and economic circumstances, in Staffordshire Moorlands and surrounding areas.
The vision that shapes our annual activities remains to be to the advancement of education and appreciation of the arts by the provision of facilities and recreation of the public in the fields of drama, dance and technical elements. The charity also has the general aim for contributing to the quality of life of the people in Staffordshire Moorlands by expanding
their horizons through the provision of exciting, challenging and accessible performing arts for ages 4 and above.
The strategies employed to achieve the charity’s aims and objectives are to:
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Provide a safe, friendly, and inclusive environment for all, by tackling aspiration and exclusion in an area of deprivation and disadvantage to the arts.
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Generate wider benefits for users, supporting them to gain confidence and acquire beneficial skills such as communication, team-working, decision making, social skills and creative thinking.
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Work in partnership with organisations to deliver quality support services to raise the aspirations of the community, through learning new skills and being creative.
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Classes and workshops for young people and parents designed to be active, informative, educational, and fun for the whole family.
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Classes and workshops aimed particularly for vulnerable groups including those with Special Educational needs (SEN) and learning difficulties and disabilities (LDD).
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Classes and workshops for more mature members of the community, to help reduce social isolation and build lasting relationships and connections within the community.
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Inter-generational projects to bridge the gap between generations building positive relationships throughout the ages.
We endeavor to encourage all ages within our community to take part in our activities and sessions. The performances we aim to provide are enjoyed by all for a donation. Affordability and access to our groups is important to us and is reflected in our pricing.
Organisation
The board of trustees, which must be more than 3 trustees, ensure all decisions be made to further the provisions of the Charity.
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Employ and pay staff
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Amendment to the constitution and policies.
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Amalgamation, transfer, dissolution of the Charity.
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Lease, purchase or acquire any asset, property or equipment,
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Work in partnership with other organisations.
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Employ or Pay a Trustee (Dependant of Clause 6*)
All decisions must be made to further the provisions of the Charity. It is the responsibility of the Charity Trustees to ensure that we are compliant to the Charities Act 2022. Decisions must be taken either during a meeting or by resolution in writing, voted on by the majority of trustees.
It is the responsibility of the Charity Trustees to ensure compliance to the Charities Act 2022. The Charity Trustees have no liability or personal responsibility to settling debts of charity. Each Trustee must be appointed for a term of 2 years.
Conflict of interests
Charity trustees must declare any conflict and remove themselves from any discussions or vote of said conflict.
*Section 6, Clause b – The charity trustee or ‘Connected Persons’ may be employed or received benefits:
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Providing that the majority of the trustees do not benefit in this way.
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Must be contracted and agreed upon with remaining trustees.
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The trustee must withdraw from any meetings or vote of proposal or terms.
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Must have an advantage to the charity.
Recruits Trustees:
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(1) Apart from the first charity trustees, every trustee must be appointed for a term of 2 years, by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees.
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(2) In selection individuals for appointment as charity trustees, the charity trustees must have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience need for the effective administration of the CIO.
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STAGED CIO 1197974
Receipts and payments accounts CC16a
For the period 01/04/2024 31/03/2025
To
from
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Total funds Last year
funds funds funds
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
Donations 758 - 758 -
Grants 200 2,000 - 2,200 -
Fundraising - - -
Members Subscriptions 14,101 - 14,101 -
Ticket Sales 1,045 - 1,045 -
Tuck Sales 918 - 918 -
Refunds 14 150 - 164 -
- - - - -
17,036 2,150 - 19,186 -
Sub total (Gross income for AR)
A2 Asset and investment sales, (see
table).
- - - -
- - - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total receipts 17,036 2,150 - 19,186 -
A3 Payments
Wage 9,775 3,000 - 12,775 -
Hire 2,259 1,028 - 3,287 -
Expenses for running Charity e.g. Insurance,
Website 573 - 573 -
Resources for running projects 2,778 2,423 - 5,201 -
Tuck 562 - 562 -
Returns, error payments/ charges 42 - 42 -
Staff Gifts/sundries 170 - 170 -
- - - -
- - - - -
Sub total [ 16,159 ] 6,451 - 22,610 -
A4 Asset and investment purchases,
(see table)
Purchase of fixed assets 480 1,936 - 2,417
- - - -
Sub total [ 480 ] 1,936 - 2,417 -
Total payments 16,639 8,388 - 25,027 -
Net of receipts/(payments) 396 - 6,238 - - 5,841 -
A5 Transfers between funds - - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 2,179 9,366 - 11,545.07 -
Cash funds this year end 2,575 3,128.89 - 5,704 -
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CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
10/01/2026
1
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets |
Signature Details Details Office Equipment Technical Equipment Details Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details |
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - Agreement Error Agreement Error Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) Staged CIO 135 Staged CIO 3,302 - - - - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name |
Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | |||
| OK | |||
| Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - - - - Current value (optional) - - - - - Current value (optional) 86 2,257 - - - - - - - When due (optional) Date of approval |
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
10/01/2026
2