Burngreave Nursery closes

Story: Lisa Swift | Photo: Rohan Francis

Parents were left shocked, upset and angry at the sudden closure of the nursery at Burngreave Children’s Centre.

Just two weeks notice was given before the closure on 22nd November. Earlier this year, the Council announced plans to close the nursery in 2015, following cuts and changes to early years funding in the city. Since then, the nursery had stopped taking new children but existing users were promised that the nursery would stay open until their children started school.

The Council blamed the early closure on staff leaving but would not explain why new staff could not be recruited. Remaining staff have been transferred to the Firth Park Children’s Centre nursery. One parent, Laura, told us what happened:

“When they told me it would close, I was really upset because my child has been attending since she was 5 months old. They offered me places at Primrose in Walkley, Broomhall or Firth Park, but it’s a long way to travel. I found a local place at Ellesmere in the end. They said they can’t recruit a new manager at Burngreave. There has been no new intake of children so they were always going to run out of children.

“They told us they would carry on until 2015 but really they had no intention of doing that; there was just no chance of it happening. I can understand staff leaving because there is no job security. I feel they’ve whipped the rug from under our feet.”

Another parent, Khadidja, was very upset about what had happened:

“My son was there; he is now at Bright Beginners on the Wicker. I was sad and very angry when they told me Burngreave would close. They said they would find me a place at Pye Bank School but then there were no places available. We only had two weeks notice. If they had told us in September, I could maybe have found a place at Pye Bank, where he will go to school in 2014. I didn’t move him before because I trusted them that he could stay there until he went to school. My son cried last week because he misses his friends at Burngreave Nursery. He really loved the staff and his friends there.”

The closure comes just weeks after parent support groups came to an end at Burngreave Children’s Centre, when all the prevention workers lost their jobs at short notice. The Council ran a flawed tendering process which collapsed when potential redundancy costs were discovered. £375,000 was to be spent this year on the service; this has now been lost in the cuts.

A Sheffield Council spokesperson said:

“Burngreave Children’s Centre is not closing and a range of activities will continue there. However, due to a large number of staff leaving, we have had to stop the childcare provision in the centre sooner that we intended. Fortunately, there are alternative childcare places available in schools and with private and voluntary providers in the local area.

Officers have contacted all providers and parents have been informed of what childcare places are available. Parents have also been supported to secure an alternative place for their child.”