Parents 'ignored' in closure plans
A decision to close two campus nurseries at a Scottish university has provoked anger from student parents and nursery staff.
The governing body of the University of West of Scotland met last week, with members voting 19 to 1 in favour of closing the nurseries in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, and Paisley, Renfrewshire in August.
A university spokesperson said that the nurseries would be replaced with a new funding scheme which could be used to provide childcare support for double the number of students across all of the university's four campuses, including those in Ayr and Dumfries.
He added, 'The university has developed a detailed action plan to assist nursery staff as well as parents of children currently using the nurseries through the transition to the new arrangement. All staff currently employed in university nurseries will be considered for redeployment and the university will also seek to identify suitable alternative childcare for the children of students currently using the on-site facilities who require nursery facilities for the next academic year.'
Wendy Logan from the Hamilton Students Association, who has campaigned against the closures, said, 'Representatives from the students' association were given five minutes to speak at the meeting, but all the points they raised were ignored. It was a complete whitewash. It's a cost-cutting exercise - there's no other way to describe it.'
Sheila Davies, manager of the Paisley nursery, said, 'How can they redeploy nursery staff in a university? It's a pity that no-one consulted the stakeholders - the students had to ask if they could attend the governors' meeting.
'The university has behaved in a very underhand manner and they do not realise how many lives they are affecting. There were two parents here in tears yesterday, saying they would have to drop out of their courses.'
Paul Manson, whose wife Melissa studies midwifery at the university, and whose three-year-old son attends the Paisley nursery, said, 'My wife is devastated. We are extremely worried as to whether we will be able to find the right wraparound care. It's causing her a lot of stress when she should concentrating on her studies.'
