Staff dismay as three nurseries to close at short notice
Roger Bushby
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Fifteen nursery staff who have learned that their nurseries are closing in a 1.5m cost-cutting measure have turned to the trade union Unison for help.
Workers at three nurseries run by Castle College, a higher educationestablishment in Nottingham, say they were given no warning about theclosures.
Seventy-five nursery places for children will also be lost when the nextcollege term starts in September.
Unison spokesman Mike Scott said, 'This was totally unexpected andeveryone is gobsmacked. Neither staff nor parents were told until nearlythe last day of term. The college is trying to save 1.5m, butclosing the nurseries will save 80,000 at most. This will hitsingle-parent families most and these are the very people the Governmentwants to encourage back into education.'
Castle College is making the cuts ahead of a proposed 'super college'merger with two other Nottingham colleges. A college spokesman said thatit was disappointed to be shutting the nurseries, but could not affordto divert funding from its learning budget to support the nurseries,which he said were making a loss.
The college was hoping to support the nurseries for another year, butwith an 80,000 loss for 2007/08, and a projected loss of morethan that in the coming year, the decision to close now had to be taken,said the spokesman.
Principal Nick Lewis said parents who had applied for nursery places inSeptember were being contacted.
'There are 15 staff employed at the affected nurseries who will beaffected,' he said. 'We hope to redeploy and retain as many staff aspossible. Compulsory redundancies, however, cannot be ruled out.'
