College Nursery Closures Set To Spiral, Say Unions, UK

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 26 Jun 2009 - 7:00 PDT

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More than 50 further education colleges are set to make redundancies leading to the closure of a huge number of nurseries, according to UNISON, UCU and NUS.

The unions predict that the number of college crèche closures will hit record highs across the 433 colleges in the UK, with reports of cuts being received on a daily basis, including more than ten planned this week alone.

Hundreds of low paid women are being hit the hardest by the round of redundancies and service cuts, which are unjustified, as overall FE funding in England has increased this year.

Lunchtime protests over further education job cuts and training have been planned by both unions to take place on Friday 3 July.

Chris Fabby, Head of Further Education at UNISON, the UK's largest public sector union, said:

"It is crazy to be making job cuts during a recession when colleges are needed so badly by their communities.

"And we believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to nursery closures, as over the last week we have heard of at least 10 colleges announce closures.

"Those facing the biggest hit will be low paid women who may lose their livelihood or suffer a lack of childcare facilities.

"This is completely unjustified and we are concerned that the situation will worsen in 2010/11 when government cuts of over £340 million from the FE and skills sector kick in."

UCU head of further education, Barry Lovejoy, said:

"At a time when vulnerable sections of the community are experiencing economic hardship closing nursery provision can only add salt to the wound.

"We urge employers to rethink these misguided plans. This is the last thing students need and will make it much harder to widen participation in deprived areas."

Ama Uzowuru, NUS Vice President (Welfare) said:

"Being a student and a parent, whilst extremely rewarding, can be a real struggle.

"From ad hoc funding entitlements, to being excluded from student life, student parents are having their student experience short changed.

"These placements are vital to enable parents to up-skill and provide a better future for their children.

"In difficult financial times employers have made a decision that impacts on the underpaid and acerbates an already under-funded and overburdened service that is essential for supporting people and students to get through the recession."

Source
UNISON