Hospital nursery faces axe

The Roundabout Nursery at Homerton University Hospital in Hackney will shut at the end of August. The NHS Trust says it can no longer afford to subsidise the nursery, which is running at a significant loss. Contributing to this is an increase in rental and overhead costs.

A spokesperson from the hospital trust, said, ‘It is with great regret that Homerton University Hospital NHS Trust has announced plans to close the Roundabout Nursery.   

‘The Nursery is running at a very significant financial loss and NHS funds, allocated for patient treatment, are having to be used to underwrite this cost.  This is not a situation we can allow to continue.

‘We have looked at various ways of reducing the cost of running the nursery as we have at increasing fees. However, the size of the financial gap is such that we do not see this as an option.’

The 48-place nursery, which has an Ofsted rating of good, is open to hospital staff and local parents. Hospital staff have priority over places and pay a reduced fee. Despite this, the NHS Trust says that only 24 out of 3,000 staff use the nursery.

The trust says it will continue to support Homerton Hospital staff by providing information and advice on a range of childcare matters, information and support, which will be increased in the coming months. The offer of flexible working hours and paid carer’s leave will also continue to be made available.

Parents whose children attend the setting have set up a group on Twitter to campaign to save the nursery from closure.

The twitter group @SaveRoundabout claims that the NHS Trust announced the closure without consulting staff or parents and say that the closure of the setting will force parents to quit their jobs.

Sarah Miller, one of the parents behind the group, said, ‘Our eldest child left the nursery to go to pre-school in December and we were going to send our youngest child there, who is on the waiting list.

‘We were sent a letter in January to say the nursery is going to close. Fortunately we have enough time to find our youngest another place somewhere else, but for other parents whose children currently attend the setting they have had little notice to find alternative care from August.

‘Parents have said that all the other high quality settings in the area have a two-year waiting list and have shorter opening hours, which could prove difficult for some, particularly parents who work at the hospital.

Ms Miller said the group are going to start an online petition and have arranged to speak to the trust about contesting their decision to close the nursery and suggesting alternatives such as increasing fees or tendering out the nursery to another provider.