- Rise in maintained nursery schools facing closure
- Renowned Thomas Coram Nursery School under threat
Five maintained nursery schools in the London borough of Croydon face closure or amalgamation after the council voted to a go ahead with a consultation to decide their fate, which is likely to take place from mid-September.
Meanwhile, as we reported in July, the iconic Thomas Coram Nursery School in London is facing closure because the charity that originally helped to set it up plans to double its rent and cut its provision in half.
As Beatrice Merrick, chief executive of Early Education highlights, nursery schools were once considered by ministers as ‘the jewel in the crown’ of early years for their high quality and inclusiveness, but there are now just 383 maintained nursery schools (MNS) left in England, and there has been a rise in the number under threat recently.
‘The reasons for this are simply that the current funding rates, including the MNS supplementary funding, are in many cases insufficient to cover their costs,’ she said. ‘This is exacerbated by the increasing numbers of children with SEND and the fact that MNS prioritise these children but often receive little or no extra funding.’
In Croydon, Crosfield and Selhurst Nursery Schools are in a federation. The three other maintained nursery schools have close links to primary schools, but no longer run Children's Centre services. Purley is in a federation with a voluntary aided primary school, Tunstall works in partnership with a maintained infant school, and Thornton Heath has an agreement with a primary academy trust.
The nursery schools have a combined deficit of £560,760.
Danny Bissex, acting executive head teacher of Crosfield and Selhurst Nursery Schools and Children's Centres, told Nursery Worldaround 60 children are currently enrolled at each, and many have high levels of special educational needs, and have often been turned away by other early years providers.
The Crosfield and Selhurst federation is ‘unique’ in Croydon in that it also has the contract for Children's Centres in the north and central areas of the borough. However, this is due to end in March 2024.
‘There's a lot of uncertainty where they won't tell us whether they’re going to extend the contract, so that makes it hard for us to plan ahead,’ Bissex said.
Family hubs
Separately, Croydon Council is looking for sites to open three family hubs and has said it could use any vacant premises.
This issue was raised in a June cabinet meeting by the shadow member for children and young people, councillor Amy Foster, who asked whether the possible closure of two nursery schools was linked to the borough's search for two locations to site the new family hubs. Notes from the meeting state that, ‘The Director of Education, Shelley Davies responded… that Family Hubs and [Children's] Centres were different. The service were [sic] reviewing where family hubs would be placed. As for the Maintained Nursery Schools the proposal was to conduct a consultation period to address the future for the schools.’
Foster told Nursery World there were a lot of unanswered questions. ‘What are the models that have been explored? We want a better sense of the financial context and modelling that's been happening,’ she said.
‘Will the council be meeting its statutory duty if we lose nurseries, given families are telling us they’re being turned away? That's the headline question. We want to encourage the mayor and the council to look ahead to the expansion of the early years offer to see what extra can be done with the excellent staff and amazing facilities rather than taking an action now that we can't come back from.’
SEND
Crosfield and Selhurst have a high proportion of children with SEND – 20-30 per cent.
‘We know from colleagues in Croydon's SEND department that not only do the two schools in our federation have the highest number of children with SEND – PVIs, nursery classes in schools or the other maintained nursery schools – but it's also the highest level of need,’ Bissex said.
He does not feel the council has acknowledged this. He said, ‘You can't just say there's plenty of spaces in the borough when those places either aren't accessible, they're not inclusive because they turn children away who often we then have to pick up, or they're unaffordable, because their hourly rate is prohibitive for some families. So, not all places are equal. And that's the argument we need to make in the consultation.’
Funding
Selhurst and Crosfield have the largest deficit of the nursery schools, in part due to a decision by the Schools Forum to change the way supplementary funding was distributed.
Bissex said a decision taken so funding would follow pupils has had ‘a catastrophic effect’ on his nursery schools because of numbers falling due to Covid, and unlike the nursery schools attached to schools, Selhurst and Crosfield are not able to offset any of the costs.
Selhurst and Crosfield had also been dealt ‘a really bad hand’, including Crosfield having to move to a temporary site in October 2021 because of a ‘heating failure when pipes burst following the local authority's installation of a new boiler’. The head teacher and chair of governors also resigned during this time. The nursery was not able to return until the following October, affecting its ability to attract new families. Since then, Bissex said, pupil numbers have been rising again.
Bissex said it wasn't clear how any closures would address the £560,000 historic deficit. ‘It's got to this point. Now we have to act, and this is the only option on the table. But where has the proactive engagement been? Croydon's wait-and-see approach and lack of vision around how best to use its MNS resource has allowed the situation to worsen year on year.’
He said school leaders and governors have highlighted the situation for a number of years.
While acknowledging funding was an issue nationally, he said other local authorities were doing more to support nursery schools.
‘Yes, you might have some schools which are running at a loss, but what will be the long-term impact if these schools are not here in the future? How do you calculate this cost?’ He also pointed out that often the nursery schools have had to pay upfront costs to support children and wait months for the council to reimburse them.
He cited the case of one child who has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) at the nursery school, which is waiting for the council to reimburse £8,000 that it has paid for one-to-one specialist support. The child is also staying on at the nursery school for their Reception year.
In another case, the nursery school had to pay out to alter the outdoor area and fencing for a child in order to keep her safe. Bissex said, ‘We support children with a high level of need, often without having the funding to support the staff required to enable them to succeed. It makes it hard for staff to feel valued and supported when there is a constant threat of closure.’
Over 60 per cent of the children at Selhurst don't have English as their first language and 22 languages are spoken.
Sian Philpotts, operational lead at Selhurst, said, ‘We are in an area of huge disadvantage, and our families have multiple disadvantages. We're so lucky here, we have this beautiful outdoor space. We have a Forest School teacher once a week. The Brit School next door come in and offer drama.’
She also highlighted the importance of having the Children's Centre on site, being able to offer parents support with health visiting and the wider team, and a ‘seamless early years experience’ for families.
She added, ‘Many of our children with special needs have been turned away from several different nurseries. If they then don't get a place because there's nowhere who will offer them, then the stress of being at home with a child with a high level of needs, I genuinely worry.’
Sophie became concerned about her son Oscar in lockdown, and he started at the nursery in September 2020 when he was two. ‘It's amazing the way they supported both my children, but even more so Oscar, my youngest, because of his needs – he's non-verbal, autistic. And during lockdown, that's when I first started seeing the signs,’ she said.
She spoke passionately about the impact of the nursery school and asked Nursery World to name the staff who had helped her – Sian, Jo, Jodie, Raxa, Sally, Neha, Louise, Loraine, Taslim and Nikolinka.
She said, ‘The thought of them closing is really upsetting. They know each child very well, the little things that make them happy, or upset. They don't just care for the children, they care for you.
‘They know what they're doing with special needs. I speak on behalf of so many special needs parents. The SENCO came with me to see the specialist schools. They're like a family, like a unit, and I can't believe the council want to break this up.’
‘Community gem’
Alaina Packer, who is a parent governor at Crosfield and Selhurst, and a qualified Early Years Teacher, has a connection with the nursery after attending as a child. Her three-year-old son attends Crosfield and she also wants to send her18-month-old there. ‘We aim to fight for our nursery schools, they are just the gem of the community,’ she said.
She also doesn't believe that family hubs could replace Children's Centres, adding, ‘At the cabinet meeting, specific reference was made to Sutton having “no maintained nurseries”. It's about equity. We need to tailor support to the borough's needs.
‘Promoting equity [means] considering the needs of our unique and diverse borough and investing in the high-quality, inclusive resource that we have in our MNS and Children's Centre.’
A spokesperson for Croydon Council said, ‘Croydon's maintained nursery Schools are a valued part of the borough's early years provision and we want to create a more sustainable model. No decision has been made yet about any of the individual [MNS] but, given the decline in funding over time, doing nothing is not an option.
‘There will be a full consultation. We want to hear the views of families, residents and partners on the proposals.’
CASE STUDY: Samia and Arya
Samia, who has lived in London for 13 years and is originally from Brazil, and her daughter Arya, four.
Samia had tried nine other nurseries (a mix of providers) before Arya was offered a place at Selhurst Nursery School.
She said, ‘They said they could accommodate Arya. They knew that Arya was autistic; they invited her in for a visit, and they after like a week or so they said no, that will happen nine times. At the beginning it was like okay, they must be full, and I was not familiar with the process. I didn't know in the beginning it was because of the autism, but then I realise it was, after the third one, and then that broke my heart a lot.
‘I started having panic attacks. My husband had to come with me because I was stressed because they couldn't explain [to] me why. They were just, “we are too full”, and then some of them said “we cannot deal with her because we are too small. We need to find someone to be one-to-one.” And it was really difficult to hear that. Especially when you just found out she's autistic.’
Eventually, Samia heard about the nursery school through the children's centre, and they created a place for Arya.
She is dismayed at its possible closure.
‘Probably there is a kid with a mother somewhere in London that is going through the same thing. And to think that they will close the only one to help me. So that's so wrong, feels so wrong,’ she said.
