THE VOLUNTARY sector of Clyde Cottage Nursery in Dunoon is facing closure following a crunch meeting on Wednesday night, where the facility’s committee unexpectedly resigned.
The meeting was attended by parents, nursery staff and a member of Argyll and Bute Council’s early years team and a decision was taken to close the voluntary sector of the nursery in a fortnight, as it was ‘no longer financially viable.’
There are two sectors to the nursery, located at St Mun’s Primary School, one private the other council funded, right now staff at Clyde Cottage Nursery’s private sector face redundancy in only two week’s time.
Following Wednesday night’s meeting a letter was sent out to parents and carers detailing the decision and informing them that their section of the childcare facility now faces closure.
The letter read: “You may have been made aware over the last few days that the Voluntary Sector of the nursery [sic] no longer financially viable. The committee have resigned as a consequence and they will close their service on February 14. The Early Years Team are currently working with the Care Inspectorate to expand our local authority service within Clyde Cottage to support the families and children of the voluntary nursery. We will work with parents to ensure that they can access to appropriate childcare within the Dunoon area until the provision has expanded. This may mean that we will be able to offer a fuller service with the option of purchasing wrap around hours to all children in the future.”
This significant development which will seriously impact on the provision of childcare for working families in Dunoon, follows on from the closure of another popular child care service Escape, located on Edward Street, which closed its doors last summer. There is however some hope in that the local authority is now working with the Care Inspectorate to find a way to transition affected families into their childcare provisions.
A statement issued to this newspaper from Argyll and Bute Council read: “There are no plans for the council to take over Clyde Cottage Nursery. As the committee decided to cease delivery of Early Learning and Childcare, (ELC), due to the service not being financially viable, we are looking to increase our registration numbers within the Clyde Cottage local area provision, and enrol staff from the voluntary service on to our supply list, to ensure that families and children can still access their funded entitlement.
“As this has not been a planned closure with the expected three month notice period, we are working closely with Care Inspectorate to minimise disruption, our main aim being to ensure as smooth a transition as possible for families into our local authority provisions. We are extremely saddened to hear of a long-standing partner ceasing to deliver ELC and are working hard to ensure all families continue to be able to access their funded entitlement.”
There will be a full, detailed report on this story in next week’s Observer.
