Yesterday, in the freezing cold, around two hundred campaigners met for a Save Our Salford Nurseries rally outside the Salford Civic Centre where a fun fair was laid on for the kids and characters from Paw Patrol backed the sentiments that Chancellor Philip Hammond can sort out early years funding problems in his budget tomorrow, if the will is there.
Salford's five OFSTED rated outstanding nurseries in Little Hulton, Barton, Winton, Higher Broughton and Belvedere have been under threat since last February when Salford City Council announced that, due to changes in the early years funding formula by the Government and a subsequent £1.5million hole in its nursery funding budget, the centres would have to close.
An angry meeting of parents and trade unions then forced City Mayor, Paul Dennett, into a U-turn, where £1.5million was found to keep the threatened nurseries open until August next year, and the Council joined with campaigners, via a march, rallies and lobbies of the Government, to try and save the centres.*
Since then, the campaign has linked with other nursery campaigns across the country, and yesterday representatives from Tower Hamlet and Nottingham, where local nurseries are under threat, attended and spoke at the rally, while a message of support was read out from campaigners in Birmingham.
Also at the rally was Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner, who spoke of the help she'd received from early years services after she had got pregnant at 16...
"I was given those opportunities through the local authority and through the state maintained nursery that I attended, and I think that every single child deserves that opportunity" she said "And when you do that, and invest in people they get places", she added, using herself as an example.
Meanwhile, Worsley and Eccles South MP, Barbara Keeley, explained that the Government could solve the nurseries funding problem tomorrow...
"At the budget on Monday the Chancellor could save our nurseries" she said "Simply he could just change back the way that early years funding works, or he could put more funding into early years nurseries, and there's been a lot of pressure in Parliament to do that
"...If austerity has ended there is no reason for them to cut or change the funding for early years" she added "We keep hearing that the Prime Minister says that austerity has ended, so let's get back to the funding we used to have...What help have we been offered through all the meetings, the petitions, through all the work we've done? So far, nothing that helps Salford find an answer to this funding problem."
Both Barbara Keeley and Salford and Eccles MP Rebecca Long-Bailey spoke of a cross party Parliamentary group of MPs that has been set up to put pressure on the Government to do the right thing...
"Other MPs know that it's not just Salford affected, that this will be a domino effect" said Rebecca Long-Bailey "And we'll see many other local authority maintained nurseries going under if we don't fight in Salford."
Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett, listed the cuts imposed on the city since the Tories came to power, while UNISON Regional Convenor, Paula Barker, laid out the complete and utter disgrace of having to fight for basic services...
"In 2018, in the fifth richest country in the world, we should really be able to afford to put on good nursery services for everybody who wants and needs them" she said "It's hardly a luxury, it's something that we all benefit from and it's ridiculous that local councils are coming under pressure to close nurseries because the finances are quite frankly rigged to make them look unviable.
"Early Years provision has been one of the core public services that has been cut and cut and cut again by central Government" she added "A 9% cut in Children's Services in England since 2010...What sort of society values its children less and less every year? The same issue is arising up and down the country."
Lee Shannon, whose son goes to Higher Broughton nursery, closed the rally citing two main aims of the campaign...
"We need temporary funding from September 2019 to September 2020, and then for the Government to review all the funding and make sure there's enough money for all these nurseries to operate as they are and not do any backdoor privatisation which is what they are looking to do currently with their funding cuts" he said.
Addressing campaigners he added: "You have keep on and be as noisy as you can because if anyone sits back and lets things happen these nurseries would already be closed. We need to carry on fighting and be as noisy as possible..."
Earlier, Salford City UNISON Branch secretary, Steven North, summed up the current situation with a veiled threat to Salford Council which will announce its intentions towards the nurseries in the near future, should the Chancellor not play ball in his budget tomorrow...
"The Council had a choice back in March as to whether we would be standing together in the way we ended up doing or standing against each other" he said "The Mayor and councillors took the decision to put the funding in to keep the nurseries open for a further year...Since then we have all stood together fighting the Government, and we want to keep that going for as long as possible, that's the hope and the intention.
"We, the union, the workers, the staff, the parents and community will continue to fight for these nurseries" he added "...and I hope we don't get to a place where that breaks, like unfortunately in Tower Hamlets where the people are having to fight the council and the Mayor. We don't need that division...we need to stick together with the unity of saving these nurseries because that's what brought us all out..."
The Save Our Nurseries campaign has put ten demands and 'clear expectations' on Salford City Council which must be met, following its consultation and proposal to link the nurseries with schools...
1. The nurseries must remain in the public sector. The schools they are managed by must therefore not be academies or free schools.
2. The nurseries must be able to continue to offer provision from 0-4 years old.
3. Staffing ratios, structures, access to training and terms and conditions must not be altered.
4. There should be no reduction in support for children with additional needs.
5. The nurseries should remain at their current locations.
6. The nurseries must maintain their existing opening hours and not move to term-time only.
7. The City Council must underwrite any transfer of the nurseries into school management and agree up front to move any nursery back into Council management, should the viability of the nursery or its services be threatened.
8. If the outcome of this consultation is not acceptable to staff and parents, organised through our campaign, the City Council should commit to at least a further twelve month funding to August 2020.
9. That as long as the nurseries do not have an acceptable long-term solution, we expect Salford politicians to support the campaign in demanding additional Government funding.
10. That certainty on the future of the nurseries until at least August 2020 must be given by the final Full Council meeting of 2018.
For full details of the demands see previous Salford Star article click here
* For a full background on the nurseries campaign see previous Salford Star articles...
Nurseries Meeting Votes To Take On Salford Mayor If Closures Proposed click here
Hundreds Demonstrate To Save Our Nurseries click here
Nurseries To Remain Open For At Least 18 Months click here
Salford Council To Consult On Outsourcing Nurseries click here
Photos by Steven Speed
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