Children's Place Day Nurseries forced to close two settings

Children’s Place Day Nurseries has told the Telegraph & Argus that two of its five Bradford nurseries would be shutting on Friday, July 14.

Both Gateway, in Thackery Road, Ravenscliffe and Summerfield, in The Rockwell Centre, Thorpe Edge – which are just under a mile-and-a-half away from each other – will close at 4pm, as the term comes to an end.

The director of the private, Debbie Burke, criticised the Government’s “inadequate” early years funding just before the Department for Education (DfE) announced last Friday a £204 million cash boost given to nurseries to support the expansion of childcare places.

Children's Place Gateway, in Thackery Road, Ravenscliffe (Image: Google Street View)

A spokesperson for Children’s Place would not mean it could halt its closures though.

They said: “Unfortunately these announcements don’t change this current crisis and the reasoning in the initial statement from ourselves as they aren’t going to help the private sector”.

That initial statement from Ms Burke said: “It is with deep sadness that we have made the difficult decision to close our nursery at the Gateway Community Centre and our nursery at the Rockwell Centre in Bradford due to financial viability.

“We informed our families of this decision on 5th June and the nurseries will close on 14th July at the end of the summer term.

“The totally inadequate early years government funding, which supports families to access nursery places, means many nurseries are having to close their doors.

“This challenging position has been further impacted by the cost-of-living crisis and settings where the majority of families access funded only places are impacted the most.

“We have been delivering early years childcare and education at these 2 wonderful settings for the past 6 years, working in partnership with families, the local community, and partners to give children the best start in life.

“We really understand how upsetting this is for our families but sadly, after exploring all options of delivery, we can no longer remain open.

“We are continuing to work in partnership, and with the help of the local authority, to support positive transitions for children to schools and other early years settings in the area.”

Children's Place Summerfield in based in The Rockwell Centre, Thorpe Edge (Image: Google Street View)

The DfE’s announcement came as part of the Spring Budget and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, described it as “the largest ever expansion of free childcare” and that the reforms would be “transformative”.

The Government said every area across the country will get a share of the funding, which childcare providers can use to ease cost pressures such as staffing costs, training and bills.

Funding rates per child paid from September will increase from an average of £5.29 to £5.62 for three and four-year-olds, and from an average of £6.00 to £7.95 for two-year-olds.

Eligible working parents of two-year-olds will also get a new offer of 15 free hours per week of free childcare from April 2024.

Five months later, parents who fit the criteria will get 15 free hours from nine months until their children start school, and from September 2025, they will get 30 free hours.

An extra £12 million is being handed to local authorities this financial year to support them to effectively roll out the new offer.

Separately, sixteen local authorities have been selected to work with the Government to develop plans for all parents of primary school-aged children to access childcare in their local area between 8am and 6pm.

A pot of £289 million will be made available to these councils from January 2024 but Bradford is not included in the list.

Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, said last Friday: “Today is a great step forward as we deliver on the largest ever expansion of childcare which will be transformational for working families and will help grow our economy.

“I want childcare to be truly affordable and available when and where parents need it.

“This initial investment of over £200 million will go a long way in supporting the fantastic early years sector to prepare for the expansion of free childcare hours available to parents next year.”