GOLDSMITHS’ NURSERY:
THE FACTS
Time-line
October 2006: Childcare Review Report recommended that College should introduce a childcare voucher system for staff in order that the Nursery could be cost neutral, and that a one-storey purpose-built nursery was to be located inside playground, accommodating 45 places.
July 2008: ‘The Future of Goldsmiths Nursery Provision’. This paper introduced the plan to outsource the Nursery on the grounds that it offered only 23 places and could not be expanded or relocated. Nursery users expressed great concern over this decision to outsource, and there were protests over timescales, poorly formulated tender document, lack of clarity on key issues (i.e. transfer of existing Nursery staff), and, most crucially, lack of consultation with staff and parents.
July-Sept 2008: Tender process undertaken over the summer, and great uncertainty ensued, some parents withdrawing their children from the Nursery, thereby contributing to a higher College subsidy.
September 2008: Outsourcing attempt unsuccessful and College staff notified that Nursery would continue to operate. Two issues still unresolved: capacity of Nursery and the deficit incurred by the Nursery, and staff were assured that these matters would be addressed ‘as a matter of urgency’.
December 2008: Goldsmiths Nursery users contacted SMT to enquire what was going on. Nothing had been communicated about the future of the Nursery and parents sought assurance that Nursery provision would continue, that full consultation would be made with all parties, that the voucher scheme would happen and that the College would release details of the way the subsidy was spent. Response?
May 2009: Working Party formed to determine the Nursery’s future.
November 2009: Childcare Working Party Report, which recommended a strategy to reduce Nursery’s subsidy from £70K to £20K, the formation of a Nursery Management Group to implement further savings, a commitment be made to the Nursery’s future, that were financial targets considered unviable then alternative plans be made for childcare support measures. Response?
May 2010: Letter sent out by SMT rejecting Childcare Working Party’s recommendation. Statement that SMT would meet to discuss Nursery/childcare provision.
June 2010: Announcement that Nursery to be closed in September 2010.
Key issues
Subsidy: The current subsidy is 70K, but this is because of the uncertainty since the outsourcing attempt in 2008, which cost the Nursery approximately 30K. The waiting list was abandoned and some parents withdrew their children from the Nursery, which led to a decrease in occupancy. Without the cost of the outsourcing, the subsidy would be more like 40K, and with creative thinking and proper expertise this could be further reduced towards 0K, as the Working Party found. That their plans didn't measure up is simply false.
Timing: Parents and staff were given three months’ notice. The same short warning of closure was given in the summer of 2008 at the outsourcing attempt. Nursery staff were given eight weeks’ notice as the holiday had already started. It created panic and uncertainty then (see above), and two years’ on, is leaving parents and Nursery staff once again in the lurch. Although the letter sent by SMT via gcinfo states that the College will do ‘what we can to support parents with children in the Nursery who will have to make alternative childcare arrangements’, no support has been offered, no arrangements have been made. Nursery staff have not been given time to consider their options, students who have already started courses will have to take time out from their studies in September, and College staff will be severely compromised for childcare in the coming academic year. The waiting list for a nursery with an equivalent ‘good’ Ofsted rating is at least a year.
One serious discrepancy needs clarification: in the Impact Assessment for Childcare Provision, it is stated that a report on childcare provision will be made in December 2010, yet if the College goes ahead and closes the Nursery there will be no childcare!
Consultation: As is evident from the timeline above, huge concern has been expressed about the lack of consultation since 2008. Both in 2008 and 2010 announcements about meetings have been made at extremely short notice (in 2008 at short notice and outside term time, and this year, with less that 24 hours’) which makes it impossible for full attendance by staff and students. Many people simply did not receive notice of the meetings till it was too late, and this has contributed to deep concern over College’s handling of this matter.
Asset: If College is committed to Equal Opportunities and encouraging the best professional women and men in the workplace, then the issue of childcare provision is highly pertinent. The lack of adequate on-site childcare is a classic barrier to women in terms of career development, but, conversely, the provision of high-quality childcare is a valuable incentive. The public view of Goldsmiths is of a friendly, human institution that takes students and staff seriously, and the fact of the on-site Nursery is an immensely valuable feature of the Goldsmiths’ brand. From an outside perspective, Goldsmiths looks extremely good for having childcare provision for staff and students. In short, it is a selling point for prospective students and staff. It is hugely impressive that the College offers support for this valuable asset, but its support could be minimal. With expertise and imagination, the Working Party has shown that there are ways of sustaining and developing the Nursery.
Where there’s a will there’s a way
We therefore request that College commit to the Nursery and childcare provision at Goldsmiths, and that it reconsiders its decision to close the Nursery in September until the findings of the Working Party can be fully investigated and discussed. The closure of the Nursery in September is not reasonable or just as it does not, with good grounds, leave time for parents to find alternative excellent childcare.
It is not true, as stated in the Quality Impact Assessment, that ‘beyond current users – [no] particular group is going to be disadvantaged from the closure of the Nursery’. Current Nursery provision has support from across the whole of Goldsmiths. It promotes the College’s values and fosters the important idea that we are not just image and brand. We all benefit from being associated with the values listed in the Mission Statement, which include: embracing complexity; respecting the individual; encouraging individuality and nurturing talent; embracing diversity; working beyond the boundaries of preconceptions; being socially aware and socially active; fostering a social and intellectual community within, and beyond Goldsmiths. Closing the Nursery would be a contradiction of these, whereas a commitment to the Nursery would demonstrate that the College practises what it aims to teach.
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