THE VOLUNTARY sector of the highly popular Clyde Cottage Nursery in Dunoon is facing closure after it was deemed no longer financially viable, bringing an end to a unique and much loved service of local childcare for more than 40 years.
The decision to close the charity side of the nursery was taken during a meeting last week, which was attended by parents, nursery staff and a member of Argyll and Bute Councils early years team, which resulted in the facilitys committee collectively resigning. Its understood that the nurserys deficit stands at around 80,000 for the last financial year.
There are two sectors to Clyde Cottage Nursery, located at St Muns Primary School, one voluntary sector and the other council funded, right now staff at Clyde Cottage Nurserys voluntary sector face redundancy. Last week there was talk that Argyll and Bute Council could take over the running of that side of the facility in only two weeks time but that suggestion was lanced in less than 24 hours after the local authority released an official statement.
It 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.
An emergency meeting was called at the nursery on Wednesday night originally billed as an informal opportunity to discuss the possibility of halting the dissolution of the charity, and continuing to operate with all existing provisions and to soldier on, but the nature of the meeting changed suddenly following the news that the local authority had an expansion plan that would now provide cover for all childcare services previously offered by Clyde Cottage Nursery, including wrap around care.
However existing voluntary staff at Clyde Cottage Nursery would have to reapply for jobs with Argyll and Bute Council and although they will get an interview there is no guarantee that they will be successful. Another marked difference is that some of the nursery jobs which the local authority will be offering may have significantly less hours.
A spokesperson for Argyll and Bute Council said: Clyde Cottage voluntary nursery has informed the council for some time that they are not financially viable. They formally informed the council that they will cease to operate from February 14.
Our Early Years team has worked with the Care Inspectorate to increase the number of children and the operating hours of our own Clyde Cottage ELC. We are pleased to confirm that we can offer parents in Cowal a childcare service that replicates that provided by a voluntary group. Parents are able to register their children in alternative nurseries in the town including Clyde Cottage. We have also supported parents to register with other partner providers and other school ELCs. Our expanded service will start on February 17.
There were some heated and tense exchanges at times during Wednesday nights meeting mainly down to the complex nature of the possibility that nursery committee members, (parents whose children attend the nursery), could be financially liable for staff redundancies out of their own pockets. However that possibility could be lessened, but not eliminated, if members vote to dissolve the charity at their next planned meeting on Friday, February 14, which would allow a seamless transition for the local authority to take over, but the voluntary staff would be effectively redundant.
One parent present during Wednesday nights meeting at the nursery explained how he and many others felt about the facilitys impending closure, he said: We all love the staff, we love our kids and this is so depressing. My parents brought me here but what Im struggling to understand is how could it not have been seen that we were coming to a crash? There have been generations who have come here and now were at this stage and its emotional. I love the staff they are fantastic and I would do anything to keep them but the discussion were having here tonight and the anger thats here tonight is about how we got to this stage.
The current situation Clyde Cottage Nursery faces is a complicated and deeply unfortunate one which could easily become a legal quagmire, if its not already a constitutional one. What is evident though is that staff now stand to lose their jobs, some of them after more than 30 years of service, who have dedicated their working lives to nurture and care for our young in a very special and safe environment. As a parent whose own children attended Clyde Cottage Nursery and have fond memories of them doing so, its utterly tragic to witness this play out.
Next Fridays meeting of staff, parents and carers is crucial and due to the extremely fluid nature of the nurserys situation anything could change from now until then.
