## **Blackhall Playgroup Scottish Charity Number SC011212 Annual Report Year ended 31 March 2025**
## **Constitution and Purpose**
The founding document, dated May 1980, as updated in 2025 is constituted in terms of the guidelines from Early Years Scotland.
The purpose of the charity is to provide community based early learning and childcare with the emphasis on learning through play. The aim of the group is to support children’s wellbeing, communication, curiosity, inquiry and creativity.
In furtherance of the above aims the group shall seek:
- (a) to provide a safe and healthy environment
- (b) to encourage parents to be involved in the group and community and work with staff to support their child’s learning through play.
Trustees are recruited and appointed in accordance with the constitution at the AGM or by secondment.
## **Reserves Policy**
The desired reserves are an average of 3 months annual expenditure. This would be seen as an appropriate level in order to cover staff salaries and any other expenditure.
## **Activities and Achievements**
Blackhall Playgroup continues to be an important part of the community, and during the year has provided many children with a wide range of play experiences to support and develop their early years learning, social skills and health and wellbeing.
Staff have continued to fulfill their duties to their SSSC registration and have kept up to date with policies with the next update of their mandatory paediatric First Aid training to be undertaken in January 2025.
Blackhall Playgroup continues to be enrolled in The Scottish Government Healthy Fruit and Milk scheme to enable all children to receive milk and fruit daily.
Playgroup registration numbers continue to flux. Due to parent feedback and success, the later Wednesday finish has continued. The later finish has been rolled out to the rest of the week. Increased hours until 12noon continues Monday to Friday from Easter 2024. Due to low intake on a Friday, Playgroup closed Friday sessions from
October 2024, so sessions continue Monday to Thursday 9am-12 noon. Fees and Staff pay reviewed as per annual review April 2024.
Blackhall Playgroup has continued to run, support children and families, and have a strong staff team that have worked together, to keep Playgroup an essential and positive part of the community.
We continue to be a member of Early Years Scotland, and access their support when required for staff recruitment, policy writing, CPL and keeping up to date with developments, guidelines and documents within the early years and education sector.
As a group that runs from community halls run by St Columba’s Church, our relationship with the church has gone from strength to strength, engaging regularly with our Link Church Elder representative and updating them on fundraising activities and events. In December 2024, the children of Playgroup took part in the Church’s annual Christmas tree event. They made decorations and decorated their own tree in the church celebration.
The financial support from North Edinburgh during FY23-24 and received in FY24-25 was used to create a safe garden space with local company Almond Landscaping. The aim of the landscaping was to create a secure space for the children to use on a daily basis. The space is also used by local groups using the church. This assures that we are meeting with the Care Inspectorate requirements and providing a fun and engaging space for the children to enjoy. The children were engaged to tell the staff their opinions about what they wanted to have in the garden and equipment such as a mud kitchen, messy tray, a little bench, storage bench, bird feeder, mirrors, bug hotel and planters for bulbs and flowers were bought.
Our committee (parent rep) continues to run an active parents WhatsApp group. As well as the WhatsApp group allowing our parent rep to communicate with parents for playgroup news and events, it also provides a way for parents to ask each other questions, arrange social meet ups, and seek advice and share parenting issues.
The Parent Committee hosted several successful fundraising events; The first was a baking, books and toys sale for Halloween 2024, where Playgroup families, church members and other early years groups were invited to purchase good quality second hand toy and book donation and baking donated by the committee and playgroup families. The second was a children’s Christmas Ceilidh in December 2024, hosted by Ceilidh Kids, a local dance company where Playgroup children and families were invited to a ticketed event in the Playgroup play room where tea/coffee/refreshments were available for all attendees. Baking was also on sale after this. The feedback for this event was extremely positive and families enjoyed the dancing and the chance to socialise with other families.
In December, there was ‘wear a Christmas jumper’ fundraiser for the children to wear to playgroup.
The last fundraiser for this financial year was a raffle, alongside the Blackhall Nursery, with money from the sale of raffle tickets being evenly split between the Nursery and Playgroup.
Approved by the Trustees on 22/12/2025 and signed on its behalf by;
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……………….
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Trustee & Treasurer
**Blackhall Playgroup Scottish Charity number SC011212 Receipts & Payments Account Year ended 31st March 2025**
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||||
|---|---|---|
|Receipts|2025|2024|
|Fees|39,213.18|39,706.14|
|Donations|168.00 -|
|Fundraising|821.26|3,737.00|
|Grant|5200.00|-|
|Job Retention Scheme|-|-|
|CEC Healthy Snack|500.52|2,141.76|
|______|_____|
|Total Receipts|45,902.96|45,548.90|
|======|======|
|Payments|
|Staff Wages (including HMRC Payments) 35,195.49 36,146.44|
|Staff Training|420.00 18.00|
|Hall Rental|5808.30 6,092.40|
|Other Administration (+ Website)|743.10 557.71|
|Petty Cash|600.00 1,900.00|
|Resources / Social Events (+fundraising|142.71|314.20|
|expenditure)|
|Insurance|633.01 488.85|
|Care Inspectorate Fee|17.00 17.00|
|Payroll Accountant|424.00 420.00|
|CEC Healthy Snack|- -|
|(*expenditure included in petty cash)|
|Grant repayments|2956.20|-|
|Pensions|565.95|-|
|HMRC|313.62|-|
|Total Payments|47,819.38|45,954.60|
|===== =====|
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Deficit (1,916.42) (369.70) Reserves B/F 11,423.42 11,793.12 ------------ ----------Reserves C/F 9,507.00 11,423.42 ======= =======
**Blackhall Playgroup Scottish Charity Number SC011212 Statement of Balances Year ended 31 March 2025**
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|||
|---|---|
|2025.|2024.|
|Cash and bank as at 31st March 2025 9,507.00|11,423.42|
|======= =======|
|Reserves (unrestricted) as at 31st March 2025|9,507.00 11,423.42|
|======= =======|
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## **Other Assets**
None
## **Liabilities**
NIL
Approved by the Management Committee on 22/12/2025 and signed on its behalf
|**BLACKHALL PLAYGROUP**||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Accounts Year**|**2024-2025**|||||||||||||**Accounts**||
|||||||||||||||**2024-2025**||
|**INCOME**||**Apr-24**|**May-24**|**Jun-24**|**Jul-24**|**Aug-24**|**Sep-24**|**Oct-24**|**Nov-24**|**Dec-24**|**Jan-25**|**Feb-25**|**Mar-25**|**Total**||
|**Playgroup Fees**||**8,698.73**|**3,410.35**|**1,017.00**|**322.05**|**4,281.65**|**2,243.60**|**1,833.99**|**6,386.76**|**61.02**
|**9,706.61**|**158.94**|**447.48**|**38,568.18**||
|**Edinburgh Council**||**5,000.00**||||||||||||**5,000.00**||
|**CEC Healthy Snack**||**500.52**||||||||||||**500.52**||
|**Bank Deposit(cash fees)**||||||**500.00**|||||**145.00**|||**645.00**||
|**Fund-raising**||||**365.00**||||**221.04**||**235.22**||||**821.26**||
|**Early Years Scotland**||||||||||||||**-**||
|**Blackhall sports committee**||||**200.00**||||||||||**200.00**||
|**Training Refund**||||||||||||**168.00**||**168.00**||
|||||||||||||||**-**||
|**TOTAL**||**14,199.25**|**3,410.35**
**1,582.00**||**322.05**
**4,781.65**
**2243.60**
**2,055.03**
**6,386.76**
**296.24**||||||**9,851.61**|**326.94**|**447.48**|**45,902.96**||
|||||||||||||||||
|**EXPENDITURE**||||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||||||
|**Staff**|Wages|**3,069.45**|**3,069.45**|**3,058.01**|**3,069.45**|**3,069.45**|**3349.12**|**3,265.56**|**2,649.00**|**2,649.00**|**2,649.00**|**2,649.00**|**2,649.00**|**35,195.49**||
||HMRC||||**313.62**|||||||||**313.62**||
||Training||||||||||**420.00**|||**420.00**||
|**Insurance**||**546.75**||**86.26**||||||||||**633.01**||
|**Care Inspectorate Fee**|||**17.00**|||||||||||**17.00**||
|**Payroll Accountant**||||**33.00**|**193.00**||**66.00**|**33.00**|**33.00**||**66.00**|||**424.00**||
|**Hall Rental**||||**1,560.00**|||**2496.25**||||||**1,752.05**|**5,808.30**||
|**Petty Cash/expenses**||||||||**300.00**||||**300.00**||**600.00**||
|**Pensions**|||||||||||**226.38**|**226.38**|**113.19**|**565.95**||
|**Other**|Independent Examiner Gift|||||||||||||**-**||
||Go DaddyFee Refund||**40.10**|||||||||||**40.10**||
||Sports committee money|||||||||||||**-**||
||website|**348.00**||||||||||||**348.00**||
||Ceilidh Kids|||||||||**35.00**||||**35.00**||
||EarlyYears Scotland|||||||**150.00**||||||**150.00**||
||Fundraisingexpenditure||||||||||**100.00**|||**100.00**||
||Mobile Phone Package|||||||||||**10.00**|**60.00**|**70.00**||
|**Garden work**||**1,108.20**||||||**1,848.00**||||||**2,956.20**||
|**Resources**||||||||||**30.00**|||**112.71**|**142.71**||
|**CEC Healthy Snack**||||||||||||||**-**||
|**Grants**||||||||||||||**-**||
|Edinburgh Council||||||||||||||**-**||
|Adapt and Thrive||||||||||||||**-**||
|||||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||||||
|**TOTAL**||**5,072.40**|**3,126.55**|**4,737.27**|**3,576.07**|**3,069.45**|**5911.37**|**5,596.56**|**2,682.00**|**2,714.00**|**3,461.38**|**3,185.38**|**4,686.95**|**47,819.38**||
|||||||||||||||||
|**Net Income/(Expenditure)**||**9,126.85**|**283.80**|**(3,155.27)**|**(3,254.02)**|**1,712.20**|**-3667.77**|**(3,541.53)**|**3,704.76**|**(2,417.76)**|**6,390.23**|**(2,858.44)**|**(4,239.47)**|**(1,916.42)**||
|||**`**||||||||||||||
|**Cash at Bank**||||||||||||||||
|**Bank Bfwd**||**11,423.42**|**20,550.27**|**20,834.07**|**17,678.80**|**14,424.78**|**16136.98**|**12,469.21**|**8,927.68**|**12,632.44**|**10,214.68**|**16,604.91**|**13,746.47**|||
|||||||||||||||||
|**Net Income/(Expenditure)**||**9,126.85**|**283.80**|**(3,155.27)**|**(3,254.02)**|**1,712.20**|**-3667.77**|**(3,541.53)**|**3,704.76**|**(2,417.76)**|**6,390.23**|**(2,858.44)**|**(4,239.47)**|**(1,916.42)**||
|||**20,550.27**|**20,834.07**|**17,678.80**|**14,424.78**|**16,136.98**|**12469.21**|**8,927.68**|**12,632.44**|**10,214.68**|**16,604.91**|**13,746.47**|**9,507.00**|**(1,916.42)**||
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Blackhall Playgroup
Scottish Charity Number SC011212
Independent Examiner's rert
Ye2r ended 31 March 2025
Indcpcndcnt Examiner's report to the Trustees of the Suggested forniat
I report on the financial staiernents of Blackhall Playgroup for the year ended 31
March 2025 which are set out on previous pages of this document.
Respective resnSibilitieS of Trustees and Exarniner
The Trustees are responsible for the preparation ot the accounts in accordance with
the C.harilies and Trustees Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 ("the Act") and the
Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulalions 2006 {'tthe Regulation.). The Group
Trust¢¢s consider that the audit requiremeni of Regulation l O ( l ) (d) does not apply.
It is my responsibility to examin¢ thc accounts as requir¢d undcr scction 44 (1){¢) of
Ihe Aci and 10 stale wheiher particular matters have come to my aueniion.
Basis of Independent Examiner's Statement
My examination is carried out in accordance with the Regulations. An examination
includes a review of thc accounting records kept b)1 the District and a comparison of
the accounts piesenied with thos¢ records. It also includes consideration of any
unu%ual item.% or di%clo8ur&s in the account.% and explanatinns frnm the Trustees
concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the
evidence that would be r¢quired in an audit and consequently I do not expres5 an audit
opinion on the vicw given by thc accounts.
Independent Examlner's Statement
In connection with my examination, no maiter has come to my attention;
( l ) which gives me reasonable cause tr) believe thai in any material rest. the
requirements
(a) to keep accounting records in accordance with the Regulations. and
(b) to prepare accounLs which agree with accounting records and comply with the
Regulations have not been met: or
(2) to which, in my opinion. attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper
understanding of thL accounls to bc rcachcd.
Date: