The Scottish Executive has declined to pay out 2m to keep the charity afloat. Glasgow City Council, as One Plus's main childcare customer, has put up 700,000 to allow for a change-over of providers to take place.
One Plus provided childcare in 22 after-school centres and seven early years centres around Glasgow, as well as nine centres throughout North Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire. As a lone parent charity, it also provided specialist support and employment training.
Chief executive David Nolan previously denied that One Plus was in financial difficulties when KidCare, which was part of One Plus, closed in December (News, 14 December).
Ian Maxwell, deputy director of One Parent Families Scotland, said he sympathised with the financial situation of One Plus. 'These are areas of low income and high unemployment, so attempting to run nurseries as a commercial business is hard,' he said. 'One contributory factor is that European Structural Fund (formerly European Social Fund) money has been sustaining them in arrears. They've always had to run an overdraft and pay wages ahead of receiving the money, and increasingly a lot of other money is being paid in arrears too.'
The current climate of funding is being blamed for voluntary closures in other areas. Craigmillar Childcare Services faces closure after disagreements over funding with Edinburgh City Council (News, 25 January).
Irene Audain, chief executive of the Scottish Out of School Care Network, said that many smaller voluntary organisations were closing down without making the headlines.
She said, 'There was a huge investment in voluntary childcare from the late 1990s to 2005 from the Big Lottery funding, but now that is running out and it shows. It's created these childcare places and now the question is, who is going to support them? Should local authorities be providing this? This is quite an unstable sector because our organi-sations are creating and supporting parent groups which change every few years as the volunteers move on. I don't think the local authorities need to take it over. Support, investment and resources is what we need.'
However, a spokesperson for Glasgow City Council was confident that a new provider could be found. 'We are delighted that other organisations, both private and voluntary, have offered assistance so quickly, and the vast majority of young people affected should face little or no service disruption. '
A Scottish Executive spokes-person said, 'Earlier this month One Plus put forward a proposal to refinance the company. But the unanimous view of the local authorities was that this just did not stand up. The Executive and local authorities felt that the right thing to do was to focus on ensuring continuity of services through other providers. Ministers will want to know how this situation was allowed to arise.'
A campaign group called Save Our Services has been formed to lobby the Executive and local authorities about One Plus.
and it estimates the liquidation will cost the economy 10m.
Ends Pic The Herald Colin Mearns
