Me with Bright Start worker David Jones.

How government cuts are having a devastating impact on frontline community services.

Bright Start is a city council-funded nursery for six months to five years old children based in North Laine in the city centre. 

The nursery takes pride in its staff and the children and is one of the most respected nurseries in Brighton.

Brighton and Hove's Tory-led council are set to close it.

I thought I'd share my letter to Conservative Schools Cabinet Councillor Vanessa Brown. 

It gives a bit more of the picture.  Cuts like these are affecting people incredibly hard - real people - not just faceless officials.

**Stop press**

At the request of Green councillors, on Thursday 14 October the Council's Chief Executive agreed to 'call-in' this decision so a scrutiny committee of councillors can review it. 

More info on the Brighton and Hove Green Party website.

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Dear Councillor Brown,

I am writing to ask you to reject the recommendations in the report before you at your Cabinet Meeting on the 15th October, regarding the consultation on the future of the Bright Start Nursery.

This excellent nursery provides vital child care places in the city centre, not just to Council staff, but to many community users too, in an area of the city that is otherwise poorly served.

It is especially disappointing that the report seems to suggest that the ‘high' running costs of the nursery are points in favour of closure, when in fact these costs are a reflection of the excellent standards that the nursery works to.

Paying staff decent wages, providing them with pensions, and creating a workplace where the staff want to stay is something to be immensely proud of.

The alternative - low paid, unhappy and inexperienced staff - would not provide anything like the standard of care that the children at Bright Start deserve and currently enjoy.

The conclusions your report alludes to are a misinterpretation of the realities of what parents want and expect when they place their children in the care of others.

I note that the stated savings from the potential closure are relatively small, yet the assessment of ways to meet the funding shortfall in other ways is lightweight and inadequate.

I understand that there are some so far unexplored yet simple measures that could be taken to boost occupancy rates, for example through allowing the nursery greater flexibility in the sessions offered to parents, allowing a closer match between the offer and the demand.

Increased occupancy combined with a more modest increase in fees than the extremely high rates suggested in the report, could close that funding gap, thus removing the presumed financial imperative driving this proposal.

The section dealing with Legal Implications refers to the council's responsibility to ensure provision of nursery places, and promises an assessment of ‘the council's capacity to meet the sufficiency requirement of the Children's Act 2006'.

This suggests that it may in fact not be possible to close the nursery without being in breach of requirements placed on the council.

If this is indeed the case, it is callous in the extreme to have started this process with the inevitable distress to parents and children before clarifying this point.

Another sign of the lack of consideration of the people most affected by this - the children themselves - is the timing of the proposed closure.

Even at this young age, children are already affected by the school year, and closing the nursery in April would place the children in an extremely difficult, unsettling and upsetting situation.

Even assuming that the children can find another nursery place, which is by no means certain, those in their final year before starting school would mean have to leave a place they are familiar and comfortable with for a new and unfamiliar settings, only to find that a few short months later they are uprooted again when they start school.

It is hard to conceive of a more disruptive start to a child's education, and would in my view be a failure of your duty of care to the City's children.

With all these points taken into account I am sure that you would agree that the recommendation to move to consultation is at best premature, and at worst misguided.

Please reject the recommendation.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion

House of Commons

London SW1A 0AA