In September, Hackney City Council launched a consultation on the closure of Hillside and Fernbank children’s centres due to a drop in demand for nursery places. According to the council, the centres are ‘situated in an area where increasing numbers of children are attending independent settings’. The consultation closes on 16 November.
The closure of the children’s centres would result in a loss of 109 childcare places and could see 27 nursery staff face redundancy.
Parents and the local community have launched a petition calling on the Mayor of Hackney, Phillip Glanville, and the cabinet member for families, early years, parks and play, Councillor Caroline Woodley, to keep both children’s centres open and ‘show their commitment to supporting working families, particularly those on lower incomes who are already struggling to pay childcare costs’. The petition has received 414 signatures so far.
They have also organised an emergency demonstration outside Hackney Town Hall on Wednesday (20 October) night.
Spokesperson for the @Save_Farnbank campaign group Natalie Aguilera, whose child attends the nursery within the children’s centre, said, ‘If we allow these children’s centres to close, I believe that more will follow as Hackney Council continue to make cuts to vital services.
‘Parents are angry and emotional about staff redundancies and deeply anxious about the impact on their children, as well as the enormous difficulty of finding affordable childcare elsewhere. We call on Hackney Council to stop these closures, and we will continue to fight for the wonderful, long-serving staff, the young children attending this incredible children’s centre, families being supported by the centre, and for more, not less, quality, affordable childcare in Hackney.’
Tim, a parent with a child at Hillside Nursery, added, ‘Closing these children’s centres will increase inequality and division in an area of the borough that is already struggling with these problems.'
Councillor Caroline Woodley said, ‘We have one of the highest numbers of full offer children's centres of any London borough. Closing any of them is not something we want to do. However, this will allow us to focus our limited resources to ensure they have the biggest impact on those who need them most.
‘We want to reassure residents that, despite the financial pressures we face as a council, we will always do our best to ensure our most vulnerable families have access to the childcare and respite they need.’