Issue - meetings

MAINTAINED NURSERIES TRANSFORMATION

Meeting: 30/11/2022 - Executive (Item 111)

111 MAINTAINED NURSERIES TRANSFORMATION pdf icon PDF 641 KB

Decision:

1.  It be agreed to proceed to formal staff and public consultation on a proposal to close the Council nursery located in Blenheim Children and Family Centre. The proposal would include that the service is decommissioned from 31 March 2023 and that staff currently employed to work at Blenheim Nursery are permanently relocated to the Council nursery at Community Vision, Penge; and,

 

2.  Authority to implement any proposed closure be delegated to the Director of Education in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Children, Education and Families, having considered the outcome of the consultation period.

 

Minutes:

Report CEF22078

 

Identifying efficiencies within service areas was one of the agreed targets under the Transforming Bromley Agenda. The report explored the options for consideration by senior officers with regards to the Council’s directly delivered nursery provision.  The report went on to make recommendations for the next steps for both nursery settings, which if approved would be presented to elected members for consideration. 

 

The Executive noted that the proposals formed part of the Council’s Transformation Programme.  The Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Children, Education and Families emphasised that since the covid pandemic the numbers of children in the nurseries had fallen.  Since the temporary closure of Blenheim, the team had done a good job of supporting parents to secure alternative nursery places.

 

A visiting Member noted that Penge and Cator ward councillors had given qualified support to market testing given the clear need for the Community Vision provision and any closure of that provision was opposed.  The Penge and Cator ward councillors understood the different circumstances for the two nursery provisions.

 

The report had been scrutinised by the Children, Education and Families PDS Committee at its meeting on 17 November and the Committee had supported the recommendations.

 

RESOLVED: That

 

1)  It be agreed to proceed to formal staff and public consultation on a proposal to close the Council nursery located in Blenheim Children and Family Centre. The proposal would include that the service is decommissioned from 31 March 2023 and that staff currently employed to work at Blenheim Nursery are permanently relocated to the Council nursery at Community Vision, Penge; and,

 

2)  Authority to implement any proposed closure be delegated to the Director of Education in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Children, Education and Families, having considered the outcome of the consultation period.