Over the past few years, the PPC has undergone many changes. Recently, one of the biggest changes has been our premises. We spent 2018/19 searching for a new home and, once we'd found it, we spent the rest of the year (and some of 2020!) renovating and refurbishing it. While this was all very positive, it did mean we now had to pay commercial rental rates on 188 Pleasance, which are much higher than we've encountered in the past.
In addition, the working practices during and post-pandemic, have resulted in increased operational costs. Despite being a charity, we do still have to cover the essential costs (utilities, increased cleaning/hygiene and admin needs) that allow us to operate.
We have absorbed as many of these cost increases as our reserves can support, but inevitably we have had to review the level of suggested donations that we ask for our groups and sessions. We didn’t want to increase our prices in the middle of the pandemic; in fact, we reduced our suggested donation levels across all groups during the lockdown, in order to support families and pregnant couples enduring such uncertain times. However, now that we are opening up again, it seems a sensible time to implement these changes.
Our lovely office team will write to all individual groups to explain how this might affect you and when we aim to roll out these changes. We believe our new prices are fair and still represent great value. But we do wish to make it really clear that we will never turn anyone away due to financial constraints, and so our sliding donation scale remains available to anyone who needs it. If this still feels unaffordable, please always talk to us - we can and will help you access our groups and sessions.
The proposed schedule is:
PNY - Blocks from 26th October suggested donation: £55
Music with Jackie - Blocks from 1st November suggested donation: £55
Yoga for Pregnancy - Blocks from 1st November suggested donation: £75
Baby Massage - Blocks from 9th November suggested donation: £55
Warmest Regards,
Trustees and Staff of the Pregnancy and Parents Centre