Charities and anti-poverty campaigners have come together to call on Aberdeenshire Council to reverse plans to close four nurseries in the county.
A joint letter organised by the Poverty Alliance is being sent to councillors ahead of a crunch meeting tomorrow (Thu 22 May) where – unless they change their mind – they will give the go ahead for the closures of Sandhaven School Nursery, Glass Nursery near Huntly, Crossroads Nursery near Crathes, and Ballogie Nursery near Aboyne.
The letter has been signed by around a dozen groups including Engender, the Scottish Women’s Budget Group, Community Food Initiatives North East (Cfine), and Kincardine and Mearns Citizen’s Advice Bureau. It says that people on low incomes – and especially women – will be hit hardest by the closures, with many simply not having the money to travel to other providers outside their communities.
Poverty Alliance development officer Anne McCormack said: “The Poverty Alliance has been working with a panel of people with lived experience of living on a low income in rural Aberdeenshire over the past 18 months, as part of a project called Taking Action on Rural Poverty.
“It’s part of a drive to address the rural poverty premium – a double whammy of additional costs faced because of living rurally and on a low income. Partly because of this work, we know that it is crucial for rural services like childcare and nurseries to be maintained and strengthened, not removed.”
Lucy Hughes, Policy and Parliamentary Manager of Engender, said: “We must do better for rural women and their children. Women already shoulder the burden of providing the vast majority of unpaid childcare, which entrenches gender inequality. The closure of these nurseries will directly impact mothers on low incomes who are most affected by the loss of affordable, local childcare services. A lack of childcare provision is proven to be one of the biggest barriers to women being able to work, train and study.
“These cuts to vital local services show how women continue to be hit hardest by the impacts of austerity, and risk pushing families deeper into poverty whilst rolling back progress on women’s equality. We need to see better decision-making from public bodies that includes gender budgeting from the start, to ensure that women and their families in our rural communities are not left behind.”
One parent affected by the closures – who wished to remain anonymous – said: “My wee boy was all set to start and had his inductions and met staff, only for us to be told in the Easter holidays that he no longer had a space. We had even bought the nursery jumpers for him!
“As a parent of an older child with complex additional needs, I really needed this space to work for us, so we could have additional family support nearby. Without that it’s going to be really hard to manage with all of our older daughter’s health appointments. It will cost us a lot more to run back and forward to another nursery now. It’s put my head in a complete spin and my wee boy is also really upset.”
The mum said that she also knows other parents will face similar challenges.
The letter says: “Closures of these local services will mean that parents will have to spend more to travel to nurseries further afield, or choose not to take up their free hours, with wider impacts on the ability of families, and particularly women, to work.”
The campaigners highlight how access to affordable childcare is a vital foundation for people looking to build a life beyond poverty, and they raise serious concerns about the way that Aberdeenshire Council has carried out consultation.
The Council says the nurseries are to be ‘mothballed’ but Scottish Government guidance around the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 says that ‘mothballing should not be a way of denying parents access to the statutory consultation process, and that ‘if the majority of parents oppose mothballing, it would be appropriate to move to statutory consultation on closure as soon as possible’.
The guidance says there is a presumption against closure of rural schools or nurseries, It requires the Council to carry out a ‘very thorough’ consideration of why it wishes to close a rural school prior to consulting on a closure proposal, to assess all reasonable alternatives to closure, and only to proceed, following consultation, if the authority is satisfied that the closure proposal is the most appropriate response to the issues identified.
In their letter, campaigners say that: “In our view, these requirements have not been met, and we would ask for a commitment to meaningful consultation that meets the measures set out in the Act 2010.”
Anne McCormack said: “More and more people in Scotland believe the system is rigged against them and their families. And decisions like this show they have a right to be angry.
“They are demanding better from their local councils, and from our governments in Edinburgh and Westminster. It’s time to rebuild our public services and make the big, fundamental changes that will empower households in Aberdeenshire and across the country, so they can build a better life for themselves and a better future for all of us.”
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