South Tyneside Council To Close 10 Nurseries

Is there any evidence of excess nursery provision in this deprived area?

How much has the pre school population diminished in this area if at all I wonder. I wonder if the children eligible for the council current nursery provision will be able to afford private nursery fees and whether there are sufficient private nursery places available close to home if they can afford the private fees.

If the Reform Council has thought all these issues through and is supportive well and good. Somehow I suspect not.

The child population is diminishing, so many councils are shutting schools. If these are council run nurseries they will be cheaper than private ones, but there may be an excess of spaces all across, so by shutting them, parents will be driven to private spaces.

Jojo1950

I would close every nursery in the country.

Why??

MollyNew

Oldnproud

MollyNew

I hope Jojo1950 comes back to explain.

Obviously, I could be way off, but my guess, based on people I have known in the past, would be that JoJo might be childless.
I have certainly known women in that category who bitterly resent any public money (their money) being spent on children that other people had chosen to have.

Yes, I've worked with women like that.

I can never understand people like that given it will be our children who will be paying the taxes and working in the industries that fund their pensions. Be the medical staff that look after them, the supermarket and agricultural workers that feed them, the workers in the energy industries that keep the fuel available to keep them warm and so on and so on.

I treat such people with the contempt they deserve, especially when they are too cowardly to come back and support their views.

Oldnproud

MollyNew

I hope Jojo1950 comes back to explain.

Obviously, I could be way off, but my guess, based on people I have known in the past, would be that JoJo might be childless.
I have certainly known women in that category who bitterly resent any public money (their money) being spent on children that other people had chosen to have.

Yes, I've worked with women like that.

I think Jojo has just thrown that in as ‘Ragebait’ then done a runner!

MollyNew

I hope Jojo1950 comes back to explain.

Obviously, I could be way off, but my guess, based on people I have known in the past, would be that JoJo might be childless.
I have certainly known women in that category who bitterly resent any public money (their money) being spent on children that other people had chosen to have.

What’s upset me is I’ve lived not far from that area and have seen first hand the distress losing their child’s nursery places will cause. Parents pick a nursery by recommendation and the nearness to where live and work. I have a box full if thank you cards dating back to 2002 when I first started my pay was extremely low and didn’t improve much through the years but the pride I placed in my job was huge bigger than any pay packet. One thank you note said ‘ your devotion and care helped us through covid and you put our children first when you stayed to look after our children so we could go back to work. Priceless! We knew what we were worth. Thank you for reading this.

It's disgraceful, in a disadvantaged area too. 🤬

And stupid - if parents can't work to earn enough to be above benefits level, , they will have to claim partial help and...if its a single mum total benefits.....

not a brain between them.

Mind you, it isnt exactly a vote winner next time round is it?

Jojo1950

I would close every nursery in the country.

Why, how and how would you provide families with the help and support they need.

For example singlemothers with no other income coming into the household and poorly paid workers who need two wage earners to manage.

It is great making statements like yours, but gransnet members are intelligent people who expect such statement s like yours to be supported by the thought process and reasoning that enabled you to reach it.

I hope Jojo1950 comes back to explain.

116 nursery workers will loose their jobs and the nursery children and their parents' ability to work will also be adversely impacted.

Reform responds its aim is only to deliver statutory functions- oh dear 🥱.

This has nothing to do with asylum seekers or migrants and essentially a sign of things to come if Reform were ever elected to serve as government.

Can I ask why jojo? Have you got a problem with dedicated nursery teachers like myself who have loved children and the job? I did it and still do after retiring after 24 years going back because they are over worked and undervalued? I help out with lunch cover now so the staff get their lunch? I do take offence when someone posts and doesn’t explain why?

Don't vote for Reform. Keep him away from No. 10.

???? Jojo

I would close every nursery in the country.

Reap and sow come to mind. Very sorry for those children and families.

It does make sense in the context of wanting women to stay home and have more children, especially white babies to prevent the “great replacement” by brown people that Matt Goodwin keeps banging on about.

The Reform General Election contract said:

The majority of mothers would choose to stay at home more if they could.

Would they? I don’t know.

Reform proposed “front-loading” the Child Benefit system for children aged 1-4 saying it would give parents the choice to spend more time with their children.

The Centre for Social Justice costed this policy and said it would cost £9 billion a year (2024/25) and give a family just under £3,700 for each child.

Am pretty sure Nige doesn’t want to increase welfare for those with small children because there is no available childcare meaning the parents can’t work.
This doesn’t make economic sense.
Our country has a huge workforce already having to give up their full time jobs because childcare isn’t available and taking less well paid part time work that often doesn’t suit their skills. Mainly women. More nurseries/childcare options mean gaps in the workplace can be plugged.
But does Nige really care about this?
Computer says no.

This:

leftfootforward.org/2026/09/outrage-as-reform-run-council-votes-to-shut-10-nurseries/

Labour has started a review in February this year:

Geraldine Kilgour, a Labour councillor for Fellgate and Hedworth ward in South Tyneside, told Left Foot Forward that while the previous Labour administration was reviewing childcare provision, the idea of closing the nurseries “wasn’t even on the lips of anyone on the Labour group”.

“Review of day care centres was, as we were advised, part and parcel of good practice and doing due diligence,” Kilgour said.

The Labour councillor said that “what they [Reform] should have done was review the service, as we said and look to maximising its capabilities”. She said that the decision to close the 10 nurseries was avoidable “without a doubt” and called the move “callous and heartless”.

Actions speak louder than false campaign promises.

MayBee70

They closed care homes in Derby. It’s what they do. But people still vote for them .

I simply just cannot understand why?

Thin end of the wedge.

They closed care homes in Derby. It’s what they do. But people still vote for them .

Absolutely disgraceful! These are the very places which assist parents, single or otherwise, to getting back into work.