Childcare crisis hits Nailsea

A crisis in trained early years staff has forced a Nailsea nursery to tell the parents of 22 small children they can’t come back after half term.

Golden Valley House Day Nursery sent emails headed ‘termination of nursery place’ to the shocked mums and dads giving just a few days’ notice.

It said: “It is with real sadness that we are writing to terminate your child’s place at Golden Valley House Day Nursery with effect from the end of the week.

“Several of our staff have left the profession recently and it has proved impossible to recruit suitably qualified and experienced staff to meet our needs.

“Covid seems to have had an impact on the Early Years workforce - you may have already heard that other Early Years settings are having similar difficulties.

“We have today been hit with further news necessitating a reduction in the number of children in the setting and the short notice we have been able to provide.

“We realise there is no fair way of deciding who stays and who goes but have had to make our decisions based on ages of children, balancing numbers throughout the week and ensuring sustainability for the future. 

“We will do all we can to be able to offer your place back as soon as we can - but cannot put a timeline on this.

“As nursery owners this is by far the hardest decision we have ever had to make and we have agonised over it – but we know there is no other alternative. 

“We are distraught at the difficulties we know this will cause you, but we can see that if we fail to take this action now the nursery may not survive at all.”

The email was sent by joint owners of the nursery Andrew and Emma McCarthy and ends by offering to refund any overpaid fees.

A Nailsea mum, who did not want to be named said: “The contract requires four weeks’ notice but they did not abide by that giving us just days to make alternative childcare arrangements.

“I’m most concerned about is why 22 children were suddenly removed.

“I am confused and upset.

“The only thing the owners say is that it’s not their fault.

“There are a lot of unhappy parents in Nailsea learning of this bombshell news.”

Former primary school head teacher Emma and Andrew McCarthy have been the owners of Golden Valley House Day Nursery in Nailsea since 2008.

They also have nurseries at Swiss Road, Weston-super-Mare and Knowle in Bristol.

When Golden Valley House Day Nursery was last inspected back in April 2017 it received an ‘outstanding’ rating and looked after 75 children aged two to seven years on part-time and full-time basis.

Ofsted inspector Angela Cogan said at the time: “The quality of the staff’s interaction with children is of an exceptional quality.

“Children investigate and explore continually.

“They are confident and happy and their behaviour is impressive.”

There are strict guidelines on the ratio of staff to children:

• for under two year olds - one carer to three children

• two to three year olds - one carer to four children

• three to five year olds - one carer to eight children.

Charlton Nursery which is on the main road at Flax Bourton provides childcare and early years education for babies and children aged six.

It is currently advertising five vacancies on Nailsea People Job Peeps page and has more staff jobs at its Winterstoke Road branch in Bristol.

Many Golden Valley children have moved here but at a greatly increased cost ‘almost double and treble’ said another parent who preferred not to be named.

A national shortage of quality qualified staff has been widely reported in newspapers up and down the country.

More than eight in 10 early years providers (84 per cent) are finding it difficult to recruit staff, according to a new report from the Alliance.

The new report, Breaking Point: The impact of recruitment and retention challenges in the early years sector in England, also found that 49 per cent of providers have had to limit the number of places at their setting or stop