Sunnybrook Day Nursery, which provides childcare for Bilborough Children's Centre in Nottingham, and has 113 children registered, is to close in March. The social enterprise nursery had a financial arrangement with Nottingham council whereby its funding would reduce over three years until March 2010, by which time it was hoped that the nursery would be sustainable via fee charging.
David Crooks, director of the Glenbrook Childcare Partnership, the social enterprise that operates Sunnybrook Day Nursery, said, 'The issue is that the number of children taking up the places isn't enough to pay the bills; only seven three- to four-year-olds have taken up wraparound care.
'Bilborough is a highly deprived, inner-city area and there is no alternative local provision for the parents who use Sunnybrook, but if we can't find alternative sources of funding the nursery will have to close,' he added.
Another Nottingham setting, Tiny Toez nursery, which provided daycare for Water Halls Children's Centre, closed on 13 February because of low occupancy, with 80 per cent of its 57 spaces unfilled.
Ranjana Mair, director of the Tiny Toez nursery chain, which has five remaining nurseries, said, 'The nursery was in a deprived ward and there were not enough fee-paying parents. Another problem was that Water Halls primary school has a nursery attached, which doubled its occupancy from 30 to 60.'
The third setting, based at Coquet Children's Centre in Hadston, Northumberland, is to close in July, after Northumberland City Council decided it was no longer 'financially viable'. The centre's after-school club will also close.
A spokesperson from Northumberland City Council said, 'The after-school club at Coquet Children's Centre was supported by a small pot of voluntary funding and the nursery has been subsidised by significant funds from the children's centre grant received from central government. It has become clear that neither of these services would be sustainable without significant subsidies. It is therefore with much regret that the decision has been taken to close the nursery and after school club.'
Parents of children at Coquet have formed an action group to save the nursery.
News of the closures follows Government research published in August, which found that half of daycare providers in children's centres were operating at a loss (News, 12 August 2008).
