The council says it has abandoned its cost-cutting plans to close or merge the borough’s five maintained nursery schools, after 95% of responses in a public consultation rejected Tory Mayor Jason Perry’s closure proposals.
Reprieve: Selhurst is one of the five nurseries under threat
But parents and campaigners still fear that behind the scenes, the council is looking to hand one of the nursery sites over to a private education business that makes massive profits from contracts with local authorities for special needs provision.
There are 385 grant-maintained nursery schools in the country, serving around 40,000 children. They receive their funding from the Department for Education, administered by the local authority. However, according to teachers’ union data, more than half of them were running a deficit in 2021-2022, compared to only 10% in 2009.
Croydon’s cash-strapped council’s figures show that its nurseries have a combined deficit of £560,760.
Unlike private providers, maintained nurseries must be led by a qualified headteacher and have a minimum number of qualified teaching staff. They must also have a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator, who is a qualified teacher.
Private target: some parents fear that the council want to hand Crosfield over to a private company
“We are doing everything possible to secure their future,” the £84,000 per year part-time Mayor said this week of Croydon’s five nurseries – Purley, Selhurst, Tunstall (in Addiscombe), Crosfield and Thornton Heath.
But Perry is saying this after he raised the possibility of closures earlier this year, shortly after the Conservative Government announced that, by September 2025 it was to expand the current offer of free childcare to include all children of working parents aged over nine months – which will significantly increase the demand for nursery places.
Croydon Council’s U-turn on the nurseries comes ahead of a cabinet meeting next week.
The council announcement of its change of tack failed to mention the overwhelming opposition Perry’s closure plans encountered from the public.
With the Mayor offering no alternative plan, instead the council opted to gas-light Croydon residents. “It was made very clear through the consultation that doing nothing was not an option, as a financially stable solution must be found,” the council said.
“In proposals going to Executive Mayor Jason Perry and cabinet for consideration on December 6, it recommends that the council works in partnership with the nurseries to determine if new options, suggested as part of the consultation, would make them financially viable for the future.” Which is something the council could, and should, have done in the first place.
Campaigners welcomed the apparent withdrawal of closure plans, but said that they “remain gravely concerned” that no guarantees have been given about the future of Croydon’s nurseries.
This, the Our Nursery Schools Matter campaign says, has created “huge and damaging uncertainty for nursery staff”.
It has also hindered pupil recruitment, with parents wanting to know that their child will be able to remain at their nursery school for the duration of their early years education.
“The closure of one or more nursery schools is still a possibility within the next year,” the campaigners said today.
“We are proud of the community response to the consultation on nursery closures: by coming together, families and our community have given a clear message of what these nurseries mean to us and the value they have in our lives.”
And Emma Gardiner, from the South Norwood Community Kitchen which had assisted in launching the nursery school campaign, said, “We cannot allow our community to be continually stripped of its assets to claw back cash.
“Residents of Croydon hold no responsibility for the Council’s bankruptcy yet are once again not only footing the bill but losing the very fabric of their community through the loss of spaces designated for public benefit.
“We won’t let this happen.”
Read more: Charities shocked to find council set to sell their buildings
Read more: Tory Mayor Perry admits: ‘Essentially, we’re insolvent’. Again
Read more: Town Hall staff braced for £31m more cuts and job losses
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It’s rare for the council to listen to the concerns of the majority of people.
95% of your actual customers area little stronger than a majority – more like unanimous. Imagine if they all stopped going to the re-organised businesses? All that investment in changing to find you ahve not got a single kid to look after- how long before you are bankrupt for real not just and S114.
How will the Government feel when all those parents stop working and go onto Universal credit?
Even if a third of parents did that the cost to the public purse would far outweigh the meagre savings Perry might make.
Dont get me wrong this council will still try to get around that, not because its nasty but because they are being given no choice at all by Central Government.
But is Sunak does not realise how far he is turning voters away from Conservatism then he really is out of touch.