Nursery shuts due to lack of staff, leaving parents looking for childcare

A parent has spoken of their anger after a Peterborough nursery has closed – with mums and dads told to take their children to a sister site, which was told it requires improvement by Ofsted this year.

Parents with children who attend the Whiz Kids nursery at the Brightfields Business Hub, (BBH) in Orton Southgate, were given just a few hours notice that the branch was closing last week.

The nursery advised parents to take their children to Whiz Kids’ sister site in Lynchwood - but one parent said they would not do that, as Ofsted had given them a rating of ‘Requires Improvement’ in January.

The parent, who asked not to be named, said: “Our reaction is simply that we are saddened and disappointed that this can happen. We are now left with no childcare arrangements and I return to work from maternity leave next week.”

‘Great deal of stress’

She added: “The effect of the closure has left lots of parents needing childcare in the local area so nurseries and childminders are now full. We are hoping to find a childminder that can accommodate us soon but it has caused a great deal of stress to our family. “

The Ofsted report on the Lynchwood site said: ‘While children are happy and settled at this nursery, they do not receive a good quality education.

‘Staff are not focused enough on individual children's learning needs as they plan, support and deliver activities.’

Liz Debenham, director of Whiz Kids, said: “We are devastated that we have had to close the nursery, especially under the circumstances that it happened.

“It was wholly down to not having enough staff to operate legally. One member of staff left and then another who was just about to start her forest school training with us resigned when BBH cut all the trees down in the area where we were going to have as our forest school.

“Because of this she looked for another setting where she could pursue her passion for forest school. At the same time another member of staff also handed in her notice due to family illness and wanting to spend more time with them.

“With them all leaving within a week or two of each other and being unable to recruit staff to replace them, unfortunately we were always going to have to close which we had planned to do in March when everyone was leaving so we could give everyone suitable notice.

“Unfortunately when our key member of staff called in sick for the week off we were left with no other option but to close immediately.”

She added: “Our Lynchwood site has also suffered from the staffing crisis that is facing all nurseries at the moment. This was reflected in our Ofsted report but our latest report acknowledges we have made good progress and with the small pipeline of extra staff we have been able to recruit – some have been required to give three months’ notice and are only just joining us – we are well on the road to achieving the high level of care and support expected at Whiz Kids so that all our children thrive and flourish.