Little Teddies Nursery
Over 40 parents attended a meeting with the management staff at Little Teddies nursery last night to discuss the proposed (sic) changes to the fee structure and the removal of hot lunches for the kids.
The mood was angry, not least as the two representatives had quite clearly been set-up to take the fall for the Management (sic, ad infinitum) Team decision. The total absence of any financial information just served to rub salt in the wound.
Hospital staff are being penalised for being flexible employees. When the nursery was set-up it was used as a way to attract working mothers back into the labour force, and to ensure that children were properly cared for whilst their mothers (and fathers) provided vital hospital services.
Now, if you work a 7am to 1pm shift you will be charged £30 for child care - £4 for the first hour, and £26 for both the 8am to 1pm and 1pm to 6pm sessions. Unless staff are able to leave work 5 minutes early to avoid falling into the second session, they are going to be hugely out of pocket.
Parents are demanding a meeting with senior managment who are prpeared to make decision and take responsibility for these decisions. This is - sadly - symptomatic of what is going on inside NHS Western Isles.
Update 8/4/06: Little Teddies discussion and news forum created here.
The mood was angry, not least as the two representatives had quite clearly been set-up to take the fall for the Management (sic, ad infinitum) Team decision. The total absence of any financial information just served to rub salt in the wound.
Hospital staff are being penalised for being flexible employees. When the nursery was set-up it was used as a way to attract working mothers back into the labour force, and to ensure that children were properly cared for whilst their mothers (and fathers) provided vital hospital services.
Now, if you work a 7am to 1pm shift you will be charged £30 for child care - £4 for the first hour, and £26 for both the 8am to 1pm and 1pm to 6pm sessions. Unless staff are able to leave work 5 minutes early to avoid falling into the second session, they are going to be hugely out of pocket.
Parents are demanding a meeting with senior managment who are prpeared to make decision and take responsibility for these decisions. This is - sadly - symptomatic of what is going on inside NHS Western Isles.
Update 8/4/06: Little Teddies discussion and news forum created here.
23 comments:
I do not necessarily agree with the changes at the nursery, but need to express that it is about time that parents took an interest in the nursery. The parents group has been trying to gain parental interest for some time,funny that it takes a protential bite out of the wallet for people to attend the meetings...
knob-face
Anon(1) I got annoyed about the loss of lunchtime hot meals, and then realised the impact on the nurses, who are likely to be much, much, worse off than I.
Anon(2) Nursery is still open. Please return, before your absence is noted.
its such a shame that there aren't many more fathers taking such a participatory role in the care and well being of their children.
(Anon 1)The nursery has been in financial difficulty for years, I have attended many meetings to try and find a solution,some meetings had no parents at all there.Parental support and intrests from the start could have averted this crisis,but no...what do people expect if previous consultation has been met with the don't give a toss attitude!
a lot of hits to the site, but not many comments displayed. Do you simply remove any comments that you do not agree with? is it only comments that fit in with your way of thinking that get left on??
I agree with the last comment,if comments are welcomed,why are they filtered. objections to what is posted by Mr Nicolson should be displayed also. i feel it is very unfair that only one side has a say. Only when all the facts are known can a fair assessment and debate take place.
I believe that there have been some offensive comments made on this posting which is why Mr Nicolson has removed them. I'm sure that he is happy to have a constructive debate but profanities and offensiveness cannot be tolerated.
Parents have not supported the nursery concerning financial matters for many years, three of my children have attended the nursery, and I have found it increasingly fustrating to gain parental involvment, dispite no issues arrising.
Again I must stress that I do not necessarily agree with the changes but must point out that parents could have helped avert this some time ago by getting involved and attending meetings, it is no surprise to me that consultation did not take place. Solution ideas must come from every corner, as one good idea can make the difference. I feel that it is about time to work on the possitive to find a solution, not just argue about the changes proposed. Make as many suggestions as you will, as one could make the difference, this could be the time for Mr Nicolson to put his finincial thinking in place and turn the situation around.
First question...is parental fundraising ring fenced or can it be used to assist with running costs?
I think that we were all amazed to find out that the nursery was
a. running at such a massive deficit
b. had been reclassified into a "business" that had to break even rather than an incentive to encourage young mothers to return to work in the knowledge that they would be able to benefit from affordable childcare
c. The only area that has been considered for turning the deficit around is income generation rather than cost savings
d. Not a single parent was asked whether they agreed with the new regime or MORE IMPORTANTLY given 2 or 3 options for change which may have been equally unpalatable but would have least have been an option.
I am sure that Mr Nicolson can put his financial skills to use and try to help in this matter BUT we need to be given sight of the figures both past, present and future before we can contribute to the debate.
All I know at the moment is that the numbers thrown at us at the meeting do not make sense.
Nikki,
This question was asked on Monday evening and I think that the answer that came back was that we couldn't allocate any funds raised to pay for salaries but bearing in mind that the budget for 2006/07 apparently just washes Little Teddies face and no extras eg toys are provided for it is still worth trying to arrange some fund raising for these "luxuries".
I agree that we do need to see the figures, but I have been aware of the massive deficit for sometime, in fact Terrie the previous manager tryed to introduce changes to counter act them, with various different options and consultation meetings/letters for parents to contribute.
The nursery does obviously HAVE to work as a business, not as a proffit making organisation, but it needs to break even, or it will be unsustainable then no body gets to work...
As i have said I do not necessarily agree, and think the changes do dramatically discriminate against shift workers, but a solution could be that sessions are still paid for in blocks but more than two session times are introduced to accomodate different shift times or the session block times are extended on either side, this would still introduce a small price increase for everyone, but also accommodate shift workers more fairly. This would generate more income to the nursery, it may be a drop in the ocean but it is a start....if every one makes one then problem solved, again back to parental participation.
NO HOT MEALS ?
surely as parents we should be responsible for the nutritional requirements of our children, it is not the responsibility of our child care providers .
For years the nursery has run at a loss, which parents were made well aware of, those which were really interested would have taken note of this.The matter of breaking even was never resolved so I believe it has now come to this.If we carry at such a loss we have been told on numerous occasions that the nursery would shut and that would leave us with no childcare, so it is either child care at this price or no childcare at all.As for pack lunches I believe Jamie Oliver has great suggestions maybe you could provide his website address on your site Angus.All else failing I don't think any mother or father would grudge cooking an evening meal for their child (after a long day at nursery)after all, we are their parents.I do believe it comes under our job descripion (depending which job description we are looking at)Good luck LITTLE TEDDIES
For years the nursery has run at a loss, which parents were made well aware of, those which were really interested would have taken note of this.The matter of breaking even was never resolved so I believe it has now come to this.If we carry at such a loss we have been told on numerous occasions that the nursery would shut and that would leave us with no childcare, so it is either child care at this price or no childcare at all.As for pack lunches I believe Jamie Oliver has great suggestions maybe you could provide his website address on your site Angus.All else failing I don't think any mother or father would grudge cooking an evening meal for their child (after a long day at nursery)after all, we are their parents.I do believe it comes under our job descripion (depending which job description we are looking at)Good luck LITTLE TEDDIES
I agree that we are responsible for the nutritional needs of our children which is why the hot meals issue is such an important one. Currently children at Little Teddies are presented with a well balanced, healthy meal. Both my children happily eat vegetables and fruit and shy away from nothing. With pack lunches, parents ,whose time is already stretched, will have to ensure that they are providing all food groups in a cold lunch. What will happen if one child with a healthy pack lunch is sat next to another child who has been sent in with high sugar and high fat food. Surely this will encourage the children to ask why they can't have the same.
With regard to the comment about cooking a hot meal in the evening. For those who haven't realised, these are children UNDER 5 not teenagers. When they get home from a day at Little Teddies they are tired and not at all hungry and all they want is warm milk, a bath, a story, a cuddle and bed.
I am very pleased to note that Support, or lack of it has been recognised as compounding the problems currently faced by the nursery.
It should also be noted that Mr Nicolson did not attend any previous parent group meetings etc.
So why now? Is it the effect the changes are having on his own childrens care? The fight for the nurses plight or good old fashioned publicity?
Let's see the figures so that we can understand how the nursery is making a loss.
My crude estimate for the running costs versus income on the nursery as follows:-
Average 60 children paying nursery £3 per hour for an average 35 hour week = £327,600 income
Average 4 children to one member of staff = 15 full time equivalent staff at an average salary of £15,000 = £225,000
Gross PROFIT = £102,600
The Health Board are telling us that they are £135,000 overspent this year which means that they have spent £237,600 on things other than salaries. Where has this money gone. I realise that they provide a snack to the children twice a day but a dry biscuit and a piece of fruit does not cost £237k.
Let us see the figures, the recovery plan and then maybe we can all sit around a table and discuss options for closing the gap. That's if the Health Board Management bother to turn up.
in response to the previous comment, who i think it can be assumed is the blog authors wife, from her comments from the stornoway gazette. I think it would be fairly safe to assume that most of the parents, who use little teddies, are professionals , and the comments made about children being provided with unhealthy foods simply patronising to say the least
I think that you can assume wrong as I am not scared to show my true identity and comment in my own name and share my opinions.
If you had been at the meeting on Monday evening, you would have heard the concern regarding regarding "junk" food voiced by many parents. The manager of nursery has been asked to provide a list of banned foods.
Secondly, can I say that in the 2 years that we have used Little Teddies, I know of one parent's meeting being called which we intended to attend but we were all struck down with a nasty bug. The meeting I referred to resulted in a rise in prices but as the agenda for the meeting and proposals for various options had been sent out in advance, none of this came as a surprise and was supported by the majority of parents. I believe this is called consultation.
Can we please try not to use this board as a means to personally attack individuals but a forum for constructive debate and idea forming.
In comment to several responses regarding the implementing of pack lunches; as parents we are all capable of making a lunch box for our children containing a variety of healthy food types or specific dietry requirements. Mealtimes in the evening I believe are family time,to get together, sit down and eat enjoying each others company, and relaying the days events regardless how busy we are or stretched for time we may be!
I think it is really naive to try and add up costs for the nursery when you do not have all the facts..how can you know the salary of staff for example, and there are alot more than 15 members of staff, also your not accounting for sickness which if one member of staff is off sick then they have to be replaced by crisis care for example which means paying both wages, with so many staff there can be alot of people off. Also 1 member of staff to 3 children under 2, if there is 4 children you still need 2 members of staff, so you can have 2 members of staff with 4 children and not 6.. so to estimate cost of staff to children is ridiculous. Not all children are in nursery 35 hrs a week, they could be in just a few hrs a day but the staff still need to be there all day!!
We need more parents like nikki to support the nursery and staff not criticize constantly, remember who is looking after your children, and care for them all very much, is that not the most important thing
I agree with the comment above. Should we not be angry at the way collette has been treated by the health board and some of the parents, she has tried to make the nursery work with lack of support from both!! does anyone realise what we are losing when collette leaves? i don't think so. do you think anyone will want to take over as manager after all the bad press the nursery has had recently? if not then the nursery will close and then what? around 30 staff will be out of a job and double that and more children needing childcare, then you won't have to campaign against little teddies because they won't be open much longer. we should all be behind collette and nursery staff to save our nursery.
some people are making matters worse!!!
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