Northampton nursery bosses ‘heartbroken’ by Government decision not to pay 80 percent of furloughed wages

It is now a real concern that the nursery may have to close soon
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A nursery in Northampton, owned and managed by women who believe it is morally right to stay open, is now days away from having to close due to a change in Government policy.

Omnipresence Nursery in Freehold Street, off Barrack Road, has remained open during the coronavirus pandemic to help key workers.

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Bosses at the nursery made the decision to furlough some members of staff after the Government announced last month that nurseries could access the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme while still accessing funding from the local authority for the free childcare they usually provide.

Omnipresence Nursery fears it will now have to close.Omnipresence Nursery fears it will now have to close.
Omnipresence Nursery fears it will now have to close.

However on Friday (April 17) the Government released a document that says early years educators can only access the job retention scheme to cover the wages that could have been paid from the business’ private income.

Manager Sharon Norrell said: “Furloughed staff expected to receive 80 percent of their wages. That is now not the case. They might get something but it won’t be the 80 per cent that they were promised.

“That means we may have to make redundancies as we can’t afford to keep people on.

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“The Government removing that support has put a lot of nurseries in the same position.”

Last week the Sharon and Dawnlouise Young, the owner of Omnipresence, spoke out about how the current pandemic is highlighting underlying issues with nursery funding that is making it hard for them to staff afloat financially.Now with the additional blow, the nursery is dangerously close to having to shut its doors as it cannot afford to run the premises.

Dawnlouise Young, owner of Omnipresence, added: “We are tortured morally, as we want to stay open. We want to help the key workers.

“More and more nurseries are closing their doors and there will be no childcare left. Where will the children go? And where will the NHS be without any childcare?

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“We have staff saying they will have no wages, but it’s a terrible situation. They have mortgages and rent to pay.

“We can’t afford to keep the nursery running, it’s looking more and more favoured that we will have to shut.”

Although from a business point of view it looks like the nursery will have to close, this is not what the team wants.

Dawnlouise added: “I’m gutted because I don’t want to let the children down or the parents.

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“It’s soul destroying and heart breaking to be put in this position.

“A number of families will be affected by this and we have a number of new enquiries because other nurseries have had to close.

Parents come in on their last legs after a really long shift and now we’re going to have to give them this news.”

The Government has defended its decision to alter the furlough policy for early years educators.

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A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said: “We have already confirmed that we will continue to fund councils for the free childcare entitlements for the duration of these closures, as we ask settings to remain open where needed for children of critical workers and most vulnerable.

“To support them with this we are relieving some of the burdens on staff during these challenging times, temporarily changing some of the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage framework and providing significant financial support, including a business rate holiday for many private providers.

“We have set out further clarity on other support available, including eligibility for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme where an employer receives government funding.”

Sharon and Dawnlouise have set up a petition to get the Government to assess non-coronavirus nursery funding, which they are pushing now so that the ‘bigger picture’ can be looked at.

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