Overnight closure of Enfield nursery leaves staff and parents ‘in shock’

In a letter handed to parents at the end of the nursery day on Tuesday 28 May, director Leslie Beech announced the permanent closure of the 117-place nursery called Cedar Park – Wolverton, claiming it was due to enter administration.

Concerned parents spoke to Nursery World to express their ‘deep distress’ and ‘shock’ at the abrupt decision to close its doors overnight.

‘We were not aware anything was amiss until we received letter through the parent app at 9pm the night before he was due to go to nursery the next day,’ said parent Chris Wheeler, whose three-year-old son attended the nursery for three days a week over a two year period.

‘He was extremely happy there and he loved his teachers,’ he added.

Parents have formed a WhatsApp group to support each other in finding new childcare and raise awareness of the zero-notice closure in the national press.

‘I’m not a legal expert but it shouldn’t be the case that a nursery can just close down with zero notice. We’ve contacted Ofsted and reported it to them. We’ve also contacted the local council but we’ve had no response from them. Our local MP has spoken to local nurseries to see what availability there is, and most of the children are now in new settings, along with some members of staff who were left jobless,’ Wheeler says.

On Facebook, Enfield North MP Feryal Clark slammed the sudden closure and said, ‘The owners of this nursery clearly knew they were in financial trouble before tonight but chose not to tell or give notice to tens of parents. Loads of kids have no childcare from tomorrow with parents left looking for last minute nursery places! This is disgusting behaviour.’