Roehampton Nursery Staff Strike Due to Cuts

Proposal made for 20 posts to be removed from local provision

Striking Eastwood Nursery staff this Wednesday

March 29, 2024

A protest has being held against proposed cuts to local nursery provision including at Eastwood Nursery in Roehampton.

This Wednesday (27 March) staff went on strike at the Roehampton as well as the Balham Nursery which is also facing cutbacks. Eastwood Nursery has been operating since the sixties and the Balham Nursery opened in 1935. The nurseries are currently managed by the Wandsworth Federation of Maintained Nursery Schools on behalf of Wandsworth Council.

In all 20 posts are to be removed including both schools’ Deputy Heads as well as teachers, teaching assistants, nursery nurses and meal supervisors.

A campaign against the plan is being organised by two unions which represent staff, the National Education Union and NASUWT.

Staff say they don’t want to strike but that they don’t believe the cuts will allow the high quality of care provided by the nurseries to be maintained and that reduced staffing may mean it is impossible to adhere to government regulations potentially compromising safety.

They claim that the cuts at the Eastwood Nursery would remove all local services providing essential intervention for children with special needs on the Alton Estate.

The unions say that management has yet to enter into meaningful discussions with them about the proposals.

The nurseries currently offer full and part-time places for 2,3 and 4 year olds as well as funded specialist places for children with a high level of special educational needs.

The unions say that Nursery Schools in the local Federation have consistently been rated outstanding by Ofsted and provide a community hub in which they provide support for families. There is a linked social worker and they have close contacts with a range of other professionals and health services.

A 38-year-old mother, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) kids will be ‘let down’ if the proposed cuts go ahead. She said she believes her autistic son is thriving now because of the support he was given at Eastwood Nursery School, which he attended in 2013.

She added, “He was unable to speak, he was unable to sit down. I couldn’t get any help for him anywhere else. I was at my wit’s end and then he went here and he completely changed… they taught him how to talk, how to communicate, they introduced a visual timetable for him which honestly changed my life. I might have even had a breakdown if my son didn’t go here.

“I honestly felt like I was just keeping him alive every day. That’s how I felt and I was only young, I was 25 years old. I had a severely autistic son and this place just gave me the light that I needed and the support I really needed at the time and I just think it’s such a shame.”

Paul Robinson, regional officer at the NEU, slammed the proposed cuts as ‘devastating’ and urged the council to hold onto the provision as it is the borough’s ‘premium offer’. He argued the proposals are ‘short-sighted’ as more parents will be able to return to work from April as the government is expanding childcare support in phases, which could see demand for places rise. By September 2025, working parents of kids under five will be entitled to 30 hours free childcare a week.

Mr Robinson raised concerns there would not be enough nursery school places for kids with SEND in Wandsworth in the future if the proposed cuts go ahead. He said,“This will damage Wandsworth provision, not just now but way into the future, and we’re here to resist that.”

Paul Robinson, regional officer at the NEU at Eastwood Nursery

Anita Conradi, local branch officer at the NEU, said parents often go to maintained nursery schools as private nurseries can’t meet their kids’ needs. She stressed the importance of the early specialist intervention provided at nursery schools like Balham and Eastwood, while raising concerns about their future if the proposed cuts go ahead.

Ms Conradi said, “It’s not only those people who are at risk of being made redundant and therefore losing their jobs, but it’s the people who are left behind who will be doing virtually the same work but amongst fewer of them and they’re the ones who are equally angry about these proposals because they know with that reduced staffing, and all the implications that has, they won’t be able to offer the service to the children who attend the nursery and the support to the families that they’re used to doing.”

She added: “The management are almost now embarking on the road to closure. That’s not their aim… but if they run them down, as it were, they will die because there won’t be the provision, the staffing, for them to thrive.”

The unions said further strike dates are scheduled on April 16, 17, 23, 24 and 25 at the nursery schools.

A Wandsworth Council spokesperson said, “Across the country maintained nursery schools are under threat of closure due to structural underfunding and in London this is being compounded by falling birth rates. We are disappointed that there has been industrial action and urge the Government to take swift action to resolve the funding crisis to avoid causing inconvenience to local families.

“We have been lobbying Ministers to improve funding for nurseries and written to the Secretary of State urging her to take swift action to pledge extra funding for nurseries but have not had a response to these requests.”

The Wandsworth Federation of Maintained Nursery Schools has been contacted for comment.

Written with contributions from Charlotte Lilywhite - Local Democracy Reporter