After six months of doing nothing, Perry sets deadline for nurseries – Inside Croydon

Two of Croydon’s maintained nurseries are to be forced to find a primary school or academy partner by the end of this year, or face closure by the Tory-controlled council.

Very frequented: Crosfield and Selhurst remain under threat, despite Croydon’s five nurseries managing to reduce their overall deficit.

That’s the recommendation for Selhurst Nursery and Crosfield Nursery, following a review of the borough’s five maintained nurseries carried out earlier this year. It becomes the first major local matter to appear in the tray of newly elected Croydon West MP Sarah Jones and new Croydon East MP Natasha Irons (if she can find where Crosfield is).

Croydon Council, under Tory mayor Jason Perry, has deemed the borough’s nurseries not “financially sustainable” and is seeking to offload management at Selhurst and Crosfield, in South Norwood, elsewhere.

After almost six months of relative inaction at Croydon Town Hall due to election season restrictions, the outcome of a review of the borough’s five maintained nurseries, which was carried out in January, will finally go before a meeting of the council’s cabinet next week, where Perry the Poodles will vote on the recommendations accordingly.

The schools – Purley Nursery, Selhurst Nursery, Tunstall Nursery, Crosfield Nursery and Thornton Heath Nursery – provide early years education and care for children aged two to four.

The proposed model involves each of the kindergartens linking to the governing body of a primary school, special schools or academy. “This model is already working for three of the five maintained nurseries in the borough, Purley, Tunstall and Thornton Heath,” the council says.

“The council now aims to work in partnership to develop this model with the other two nurseries, Selhurst and Crosfield, by January 2025.” So there is less than five months for nurseries to come up with a solution after the council sat on its review for four months…

“Working together through this new model will enable nurseries to operate more efficiently and cost-effectively without making significant changes to the services children and families receive,” the council claims.

Official documents going to the cabinet meeting state: “The new operating model recommended by officers is to maintain 5 x MNS (maintained children’s schools) by rapidly implementing viable financial arrangements by connecting each MNS to a mayor.
school trust, special school or academy.

Nursery closures: Tory Mayor Jason Perry is still looking to close two nurseries, even though the overall nursery shortage has been reduced

“Three of the MNS – Thornton Heath, Tunstall and Purley – are already successfully connected to a primary school and have a balanced budget. The rest of the MNS – Crosfield and Selhurst – are in a federation, have a single governing body and are not linked to a school.

“This report therefore strongly recommends that Crosfield and Selhurst Infant Schools establish a ‘soft’ federation with a primary school, special school or academy.
trust through a service level agreement (SLA) until January 2025.”

The council was looking at closing some of its nurseries despite the previous government’s plans to expand free early education provision, with 15 hours a week of free childcare introduced for working parents with two-year-olds from April this year. From September 2025, all eligible working parents of children aged nine months and over will be entitled to 30 hours of free childcare per week until their child starts school.

The report to Perry’s flexible cabinet keeps financial details secret, but admits that the accumulated deficits of the five nurseries, which prompted the original closure proposals, are no longer a problem.

“Since the review, the overall budget deficit position has been reduced,” the board’s report said, “with (three) (of (five)) MNS reporting a provisional cumulative surplus for 2023-24 compared to (one) school in 2022 . -2023.”

The three nurseries making a surplus are Purley, Tunstall and Thornton Heath.

The council wants to go further with offloading its nursery responsibilities: “NMS that are linked to a primary school can work collaboratively to maximize financial benefits and achieve economies of scale.

“The name, character and ethos of the individual schools remain unchanged. The MNS would maintain its own delegated budget but is able to explore the advantages of sharing resources, including facilities and procurement.”

Parents associated with Selhurst and Crosfield describe the Tory council’s proposals as “academicisation from the back”.

They said: “If the problem was that the nurseries were ‘not financially sustainable’ and that is no longer the case, then why is there a need for this move to a ‘federation’, ‘soft’ or otherwise?”

The council, claiming part-time Perry “listened to residents”, says it has “worked closely with nurseries to find alternative options”.

With the summer term coming to an end next week, there is little time left for nurseries in Crosfield or Selhurst to discuss the issue with parents or prospective parents looking for a nursery in September.

Despite the board’s official report admitting that the nursery’s overall budget deficit has been reduced, poor Perry is quoted as saying: “Some of our maintained nurseries are now running a loss which is not sustainable”, apparently ignoring surpluses being built up elsewhere part.

“Doing nothing is not an option,” said Mayor Perry, who has done nothing since March at the latest.

“We listened to our parents, carers and staff and found a model that already works for three of our preschools. Adopting this with all five should make the service financially viable and keep these much-loved local nurseries open,” Perry is reported to have said.

Read more: Hundreds of people turn out to protest against the plan to close nurseries
Read more: Mayor Perry caught in ‘stupid lie’ over Addington golf talks
Read more: Perry’s Facebook page is part of racism’s “scumbag ex.”

Inside Croydon – If you want real journalism, delivering real news, from a publication that is based in the borough, please consider paying for it. Sign up today: Click here for more details

• If you have a story about life in or around Croydon, or want to advertise your residents’ association or business, or have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@ btinternet.com

• As featured on Google News Showcase

• ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s most rotten boroughs for the seventh consecutive year in the annual summary of civic advertising in Private magazine