According to the union Unison, Broomhall Nursery School and Children’s Centre, Burngreave Children’s Centre and Primrose Children’s Centre in Sheffield could face closure as Sheffield City Council reviews its early years services.
The closure of the centres could affect 50 jobs and hundreds of families who use the centres.
In March, the council announced it would be carrying out a year long review of its early years services to ensure they meet the needs of families.
A council statement said, ‘Early years services in Sheffield are to be redesigned to better suit the needs of local families following a year long review throughout the city.
‘The council wants to make it easier for more families to access high quality services in places that are closer to where they live and alongside other services they need.’
One possibility being considered by Sheffield City Council is a ‘children’s centre area cluster model’, which it says will not mean any reductions to the level of service.
Reacting to Unison’s claims, a council spokesperson said, ‘We announced the findings of the first stage of our early years services review in March. Work is now ongoing to reshape our services to best reflect what parents and carers said was important to them and their children, but I would like to stress that no decisions have been made yet. The review was an open and transparent process involving everyone concerned about services for young children and families. Their views were vital, so we will share our conclusions with them as soon as we can.
‘It is no secret that the amount of funding available to run these services has been cut significantly in recent years and all our services have to offer value for money. But the needs of young children and their parents and carers remain our priority. We want them to have access to quality provision, in the right place and at the right time. We are working to make sure young children and their families receive high quality care so they are ready for school when the time comes.’
Rod Padley, organiser for Unison at Sheffield Council, said, ‘The council may be having to make cuts but there are other areas where they could make savings - and they could reduce the amount of cuts they have to make by using some of the £8 million surplus they achieved last year.’