At a time when tens of thousands of additional places are needed for the full roll-out of the expanded offer, council-run and workplace nurseries, which offer subsidised places, are increasingly closing their doors.
Just last month, King’s College Hospital announced the closure of its two workplace nurseries, while Queen Mary University shut its onsite setting in August.
In Hackney, parents are currently fighting against the decision by the council to close two of its Children’s Centre nurseries next year, taking their case to the High Courts of Justice in the next two weeks (main image and right).
Similarly, a campaign has been set up in Leeds to save the remaining 12 council-run nurseries, after three were shut in August.
The survival of Nursery World’s Pre-school of the Year 2023 award-winner Seedlings in Doncaster is also in doubt.
In some cases, the expanded offer appears to be contributing to community nursery closures. Plans to close council-run nursery Startpoint Sholing Day Nursery in Southampton come after the creation of new childcare places in the city and planned expansions in 2025.
According to the council, the setting, which was opened in 2000, is no longer financially sustainable.
A national campaign is being formed against the closures of council-run and community nurseries. It is being led by the Post-Pandemic Childcare Coalition, which is made up of individuals fighting against local nursery closures and who feel ‘let down’ by the Government’s response to childcare during the Covid-19 pandemic (see box).
Private nurseries are also being impacted. The UK’s second-largest group, Bright Horizons, closed two sites in August in Oxford and Bristol and is due to shut another in Manchester in November, citing difficulties with recruitment and lack of demand.
In response to the closure of the setting in Oxford, a spokesperson for Bright Horizons said, ‘We understand that the news of closing Oxford Business Park nursery is very disappointing. This decision was not made lightly but was influenced by various factors such as a decrease in the number of young families in the area, lower-than-expected enrolment rates, increasing operational costs and the lack of availability of childcare staff in the area.’
The nursery group pointed out it has also opened new settings over the last few years.
Research by the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) last month estimated that 199 nurseries closed between September 2023 and September 2024. Its findings are based on information shared by NDNA’s members and closures captured from media coverage.
It comes at a time when demand for childcare places is on the increase following the roll-out of the second phase of the entitlement policy in September of 15 hours for nine-month-olds, and ahead of the full roll-out in September 2025 of 30 hours for children from working households until they start school.
The Government estimates that 70,000 additional childcare places are needed for the full roll-out. Early years organisations have previously warned that without further action from the Government on funding and staff recruitment and retention, the expanded entitlement is likely to fail.
NHS nurseries
In September, King’s College Hospital and NHS South London and Maudsley Foundation Trust announced the closure of its two nurseries, both based within Mapother House.
The settings, which are due to close in February next year, collectively provide 120 full-time childcare places.
King’s College Hospital Day Nursery is only open to hospital staff, while Cedar House Nursery is open to both hospital staff and the wider community.
According to NHS South London and Maudsley Foundation Trust, the nurseries are currently running at a loss and are therefore no longer sustainable. They say there are just 45 members of staff with children using them.
However, parents, who have launched a petition and have demonstrated against the cuts, claim that the Trust has stopped new parents from enrolling their children at Cedar House Nursery since the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a joint statement, a spokesperson for King’s College Hospital and the Trust said they had to take the ‘difficult decision’ to permanently close the nurseries used by some members of staff.
‘This is not the outcome that we had hoped we could achieve, but we are unable to use Mapother House as a base for the service beyond next year, and despite an exhaustive search, we have sadly not been able to identify a financially sustainable way to continue providing the service going forward.’
Leeds council nurseries
In August, Leeds City Council closed three of its 24 nurseries as part of a cost-saving exercise. The nurseries, two of which are based in Children’s Centres, were originally due to close in May, but parents campaigning against the closures were successful in their campaign to delay the closures until the end of the school term.
The council said it faces a budget shortfall of £273 million over the next five years and claims that the budget for its Little Owls nurseries was overspent by £1.9 million in 2022/23 and £84,000 in 2023/24.
Ahead of the closures, Helen Hayden, the council’s executive member for children and families, said, ‘Moving the staff and making these closures ensures the sustainability of the Little Owls settings.’
Of its remaining 21 nurseries, the council has committed to continuing to operate nine of the sites. The running of the remaining 12 are being put out to schools and private and voluntary providers as part of a ‘market sounding exercise’. It is understood that four settings will be taken over by neighbouring schools.
Parents who launched a campaign to save the nurseries have put forward what they believe are minimum standards that another operator would need to meet to not cause ‘detriment’ to what is currently on offer. They include:
- The nurseries are not run for profit.
- No involvement of private equity firms.
- For fees to remain affordable in line with the median rate for Leeds.
- No additional costs on top of funded hours.
As Nursery World went to press, the outcome of the ‘marketing exercise’ was due to be presented to the council’s executive board.
Campaigner and parent Iain Dalton, whose child attends one of the nine nurseries that the council is planning on retaining, told Nursery World he is worried about what will happen to the setting he uses in the future.
He said, ‘The closure of the three nurseries should have cleared the council’s deficit, but it is continuing to look for other providers to run 12 of its settings. The council says it wants to save money on top of clearing its deficit.
‘We understand the council made this decision before knowing about the funding for nine-month-olds under the expanded offer.
‘We have put forward our terms for the new operator/s, but we do not know what the council’s terms are.’
Startpoint Sholing Day Nursery
As Nursery World went to press, Southampton City Council was consulting on plans to close its setting, which is based in an area of deprivation and cares for a high number of children with SEND.
Within the consultation, it states the ‘early years funding provided by Government does not cover the costs of sustaining the nursery without the need for significant ongoing council subsidies. This is costing the council more and more each year and it has not been possible to identify a financially viable solution for the nursery.
‘Due to the significant creation of new childcare places recently opened locally and further planned expansions for 2025, we believe there is a sufficient supply of good quality, inclusive, affordable and flexible childcare choices available in Southampton. Therefore, we are proposing to close the Startpoint Sholing Childcare Nursery.
‘Due to the uncertainty about the nursery’s future, no new children have currently been offered a place for September to avoid any major disruption to a child’s early development.’
The nursery has launched a campaign against the closures, with support from Unison, the GMB and Unite unions, including a petition, which has 200 signatures.
CASE STUDY: Seedlings Pre-school
By Catherine Gaunt
Seedlings in Doncaster is an Ofsted Outstanding nursery awarded Nursery World Pre-School of the Year in 2023. It is the only specialist nursery in Doncaster for children aged two to four with an identified special educational need and/or disability, who can access the specialist provision without an Educational Health and Care Plan or a diagnosis.
It is threatened with closure as the council holds a consultation on the sufficiency of childcare places.
Parent Craig Ravenhill, whose son Archie attends the nursery, has started a petition, which has been signed by more than 1,300 people. He said, ‘My son has shown tremendous progress at Seedlings. Seedlings is not merely a nursery, but a lifeline that enables children to learn, grow, and manoeuvre through life with their unique abilities. Archie is non-verbal and on the autism pathway, with needs that prevent him from attending a mainstream nursery.
‘The dedicated staff at Seedlings are highly trained and experienced in providing specialised care, education and support for children with diverse and complex needs. Their expertise ensures that each child receives tailored care, helping them to thrive in an environment that understands their unique challenges.‘
In a statement Lee Golze, service director of localities and early intervention, said, ‘This consultation is particularly important this year due to the recent changes to the funded early years entitlement and our need to increase capacity in line with demand.
‘As part of this work, we are in the preliminary stages of discussion and consultation with parents/carers whose children attend Seedlings. We want to reassure all parents that we are listening, parent’s voice is very important to us, and the results from all consultations will be at the heart of any decisions we make in the future.’ He added the nursery would not be closing in December.
CASE STUDY: Hackney nurseries
Hackney Council launched a consultation in January inviting alternative providers to take over the running of two of its Children’s Centre nurseries (Fernbank and Seabright), and change the provision at two other centres, Oldhill and Hillside, to term-time only, in a bid to make savings amid a £1 million budget deficit.
The council previously said that if no providers were found by autumn, both nurseries would close next year. It would result in a loss of 129 subsidised places.
Hackney Council says its deficit is a result of a drop in nursery fees and higher operational costs. It said it is roughly costing the council £600,000 a year to fund the nurseries.
Parents and campaigners fighting against the cuts are bringing a case against the council in the High Court on 6 and 7 November as they believe the initial consultation was ‘unlawful’ and ‘unfair’ with a lack of clarity regarding the council’s funding. According to the parents, an Ernst & Young report, commissioned by Hackney Council, ‘clearly’ states that new funding rates from the Government would deliver the savings the council wants.
Beckie Wright, a single mum of a 15-month-old (pictured), who started using the nursery last month, told Nursery World, ‘We’ve been attending classes at the Children’s Centre and the nursery was recommended to me. The fees are much cheaper and means-tested. Because I’m a single mother and work part-time, I’m on the lowest band. My daughter is in the nursery three days a week and we receive the 15 funded hours. I pay just £84 a week and that includes meals, which is much cheaper than other nurseries local to me.
‘I just pray the nursery doesn’t close because even if can increase my hours, the extra money I earn will just go on nursery fees. If I don’t work, then I can’t pay my mortgage.’
Hackney Council is unable to comment on the ‘live’ proceedings.
Post-Pandemic Childcare Coalition: ‘Relying on the market has failed’
The coalition, made up of campaigners fighting to save early years settings across the country, was formed in summer 2020.
It aims to connect and support local campaigns and union branches representing staff and parents fighting cuts to public, workplace and community nurseries.
Behind the coalition are parents Louise O’Hare and Nirupama Naidu from the SEND Crisis Tower Hamlets campaign, Veronica Deutsch from the Nanny Solidarity Network, Caroline Hughes from Salford Unison and parent campaigner Lee Shannon from Fight For the Five campaign, launched in 2018 to save four council nurseries in Salford.
They are currently establishing a new campaign, Public Childcare Now, calling for the protection of high-quality, free at the point of use, public early years services with ‘decent’ terms and conditions for early years staff.
O’Hare said, ‘I came to childcare campaigning through opposing the closure of the three remaining council-run nurseries in Tower Hamlets, one of which had a specialist deaf unit, and then fighting against further local authority cuts to support for learning, with our local SEND Crisis group.
‘The fight for public childcare and early years education is a matter of disabled children’s rights (i.e. children disabled by society). On the eve of the expansion being rolled out, this spring, Coram found just 6 per cent of councils reporting “sufficient childcare for children with disabilities”.
‘The insufficient childcare for children with different needs also makes it clear that relying on the market has failed. Profits appear to be more important than providing additional support and lower staff:child ratios. Yet the Government hasn’t reduced the ratios for two-year-olds back to safer levels, and they are letting public nurseries – that provide all that great and integrated support for children with different learning needs – be shut down. It’s unforgivable – they need to step in and stop these closures.’
More Information
- www.change.org/p/save-little-owls-nurseries/u/32903871
- www.change.org/p/keep-affordable-high-quality-nursery-provisions-open-for-nhs-staff-in-south-london
- www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/save-hackney-s-children-centres
- www.change.org/p/stop-the-closure-of-seedlings-a-special-needs-nursery-in-doncaster
