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| Carline Lucas at Bright Start last year |
Green Councillor Sue Shanks, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People met the nursery advisory group this week to tell them the nursery will stay open, and to hear their views about the future of the nursery.
Cllr Shanks said: “We want the city’s children to be happy, healthy and able make the best of their abilities through good nurseries. While there was a question over the numbers of children attending and the level of subsidy provided, we think we can improve on both these aspects. The uncertainty around Bright Start has not helped it become sustainable."
Bright Start is a city council-funded nursery for six months to five years old children based in North Laine in the city centre. In October last year, the council, then under Conservative Party leadership, proposed the closure of Bright Start in response to cuts in Central Government funding. At the request of Green councillors, and Green MP Caroline Lucas, the Council's Chief Executive agreed to 'call-in' this decision so a scrutiny committee of councillors could review it.
Greens took control of the council after the local elections on 5 May 2011.
A campaign to promote the nursery had an impact with a number of new children starting including children with free places funded by the two-year-old scheme.
Cllr Shanks said: “Good nursery provision is vital as the early years of a child’s life are so important to their future development. Ofsted inspectors said that the nursery provides excellent support for children's learning.
“I also want to ensure that our most disadvantaged children can benefit from the nursery including increasing the number of two year olds with free childcare places.”
Bright Start nursery cares for more than 80 children. The number of 3 and 4 year olds has increased to 39 compared to 31 a year ago. The group are planning a nursery open day and table top sale to help publicise the nursery.
Ofsted inspectors recently praised the work of the nursery. Bright Start was inspected in February 2011 and achieved an overall good judgement, an improvement on its previous inspection.
Inspectors said: “The nursery is well organised with a confident and trained staff team providing good quality childcare to meet children's needs overall. Children enjoy an attractive and highly stimulating play environment, with many well presented resources and play areas. “
Bright Start will be holding an open day for parents interested in the nursery on Friday 1 July. Please contact the nursery on 01273 291570 for more details.
The Green Campaign to save Bright Start was taken up by MP Caroline Lucas last year. Click "More" for copy of Caroline Lucas letter to the Conservative Cabinet Member Councillor Vanessa Brown
To Conservative Cabinet Member Councillor Vanessa Brown:
Dear Councillor Brown,
I am writing to ask you to reject the recommendations in the report before you at your Cabinet Meeting on the 15th October, regarding the consultation on the future of the Bright Start Nursery.
This excellent nursery provides vital child care places in the city centre, not just to Council staff, but to many community users too, in an area of the city that is otherwise poorly served.
It is especially disappointing that the report seems to suggest that the ‘high' running costs of the nursery are points in favour of closure, when in fact these costs are a reflection of the excellent standards that the nursery works to.
Paying staff decent wages, providing them with pensions, and creating a workplace where the staff want to stay is something to be immensely proud of.
The alternative - low paid, unhappy and inexperienced staff - would not provide anything like the standard of care that the children at Bright Start deserve and currently enjoy.
The conclusions your report alludes to are a misinterpretation of the realities of what parents want and expect when they place their children in the care of others.
I note that the stated savings from the potential closure are relatively small, yet the assessment of ways to meet the funding shortfall in other ways is lightweight and inadequate.
I understand that there are some so far unexplored yet simple measures that could be taken to boost occupancy rates, for example through allowing the nursery greater flexibility in the sessions offered to parents, allowing a closer match between the offer and the demand.
Increased occupancy combined with a more modest increase in fees than the extremely high rates suggested in the report, could close that funding gap, thus removing the presumed financial imperative driving this proposal.
The section dealing with Legal Implications refers to the council's responsibility to ensure provision of nursery places, and promises an assessment of ‘the council's capacity to meet the sufficiency requirement of the Children's Act 2006'.
This suggests that it may in fact not be possible to close the nursery without being in breach of requirements placed on the council.
If this is indeed the case, it is callous in the extreme to have started this process with the inevitable distress to parents and children before clarifying this point.
Another sign of the lack of consideration of the people most affected by this - the children themselves - is the timing of the proposed closure.
Even at this young age, children are already affected by the school year, and closing the nursery in April would place the children in an extremely difficult, unsettling and upsetting situation.
Even assuming that the children can find another nursery place, which is by no means certain, those in their final year before starting school would mean have to leave a place they are familiar and comfortable with for a new and unfamiliar settings, only to find that a few short months later they are uprooted again when they start school.
It is hard to conceive of a more disruptive start to a child's education, and would in my view be a failure of your duty of care to the City's children.
With all these points taken into account I am sure that you would agree that the recommendation to move to consultation is at best premature, and at worst misguided.
Please reject the recommendation.
Yours sincerely,
Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA
More on this story: http://www.carolinelucas.com/cl/blog/bright-start-nursery-dropped-into-say-im-backing-them.html
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