A recent New Deal Partnership Board focus meeting on Childcare made no commitment to reverse the decision to end funding for voluntary sector childcare projects in the area.
Despite being seen across the city as a model of good practice for the development of partnership between voluntary sector and mainstream daycare provision, the decision still stands not to renew funding for Ellesmere Children’s Centre, the Black Women’s Resource Centre (BWRC) and the Burngreave Yemeni Centre Childcare Project Crèche.
Michelle Wood of SCCN (Sheffield Community Childcare Network), who co-ordinates the childcare project, told the Messenger:
“The project allows BWRC and Ellesmere to provide subsidised nursery places, while The Yemeni Centre provides free places to parents taking courses. It’s important that childcare is available from these voluntary sector groups, who are well established, trusted and reflective of the community they serve.
“We always made it clear that it would take longer than three years to be independent from New Deal.They are now pressuring the Early Years Department of the Council to find funding. We still don’t know what’s going to happen, but we only have New Deal money until March, there just isn’t enough time.
“These projects are always going to need funding, because the only way to be selfsustaining is to have all parents paying the full cost of their childcare. Many parents in Burngreave can’t afford to do that and the area will always have some parents in that situation.”
Burngreave has only two projects providing childcare for 5–11 year olds. Both have been told by New Deal that after the summer they will get no further funding for the subsidised childcare places they provide.
The Ellesmere Out of School Project, based at Byron Wood School, is particularly worried about its future as they have very few working parents who could pay the full cost of the childcare. The project needs just £24,000 per year from New Deal. Its coordinator Alice Johnson told us:
“We have been asked by New Deal to provide a proposal from the end of March to the end of the summer holidays – although we are looking for funding through other sources such as the National Lottery Fund and Comic Relief. Do I think that New Deal cutting the project’s funding was a bad idea? I think that New Deal stopping all of the childcare funding was a mistake but then they have supported us for many years and for that we are grateful.”
Jill Portman, management committee member for Burngreave Out of School Club, summed up her feeling about the situation:
“This service can’t be provided by the schools – they don’t want to do it anyway, mainly because we can do it better and at less cost. How can New Deal justify funding Sorby House and the Supertruck when for £20,000 a year they could be providing childcare for up to 65 families, enabling them to access employment, education and training?”