Many of the nurseries have been set up over the past 25 years and offer specialist provision and affordable childcare to low-income families, but have seen local authority funding go elsewhere.
Community nurseries claim Sheffield City Council is forcing them out by building new Sure Start centres near existing community provision and by passing over their applications for funding, such as sustainability grants.
They have started a petition which they will present at a full council meeting next week.
Pat Broadhead, Professor of Playful Learning at Leeds Metropolitan University and spokesperson for the Sheffield Community Childcare Forum, said, 'The community nurseries in Sheffield have come together to share experiences and exchange information, recognising there is strength in numbers. This revealed to them what they saw as inequitable treatment in funding distribution. They were told at a meeting I attended that they would not be put at risk. They are now at risk of closure as funding decreases or disappears for them.'
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