Father, say, was into playgroup, on the face of it (10)
I believe the answer is:
apparently
'on the face of it' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'father say was into playgroup' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'father' could be 'parent' (I have seen 'A father ' mean 'parent' so perhaps 'father' could also mean 'parent') and 'parent' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for apparently that I've seen before include "Clearly" , "Seemingly" , "so it seems" , "On the face of it" .)