UHI Perth nursery set to close at the end of June
Dr Margaret Cook, principal of Perth UHI, says it must close "due to financial unsustainability"
Last updated 13th Jun 2024
Perth UHI nursery will close at the end of the month, its principal has confirmed.
It was announced in April the college was facing a £4 million deficit as the nursery and a number of serveries faced the axe.
Dr Margaret Cook, UHI Perth Principal and Chief Executive confirmed the nursery's closure, saying: "After careful consideration of all available options, we regret to announce that our Nursery will permanently close at the end of June 2024 due to financial unsustainability.
“Throughout the period of collective consultation, we actively engaged with our Trade Unions, staff, students, and parents/carers of the Nursery. We also listened to other stakeholders, including local politicians and Perth & Kinross Council. This decision comes after consideration of various counterproposals.
“We acknowledge that this has been a prolonged and challenging process for our dedicated staff as we explored possible alternative options. We are deeply appreciative of their patience and commitment during this time. For our parents, we are working closely with Perth & Kinross Council's Education and Children’s Services team to support the children and their families in transitioning to other childcare settings.
“We deeply regret being in this position, but this decision is necessary to create financial sustainability and ensure a long-term viable and successful future for our college. We recognise the strength of feeling and upset that this decision causes. However, we wanted to inform our staff and nursery parents/carers as soon as possible to allow them to make alternative arrangements for their children.
“Our difficult financial position, with rising costs and Scottish Government funding pressures, necessitates these changes to ensure we can continue providing our students with the best possible education and support. We reached out to local MSPs and MPs for assistance, but to date, no tangible offers of assistance have been provided."
The principal says they are doing 'everything say can to avoid compulsory redundancies.' She said: “We have concluded our collective consultation and issued a revised UHI Perth Financial Sustainability Project document to all staff today (13 June 2024).
"We will then begin the process of individual consultations. We are continuing to do everything we can to prevent compulsory redundancies using a Voluntary Severance scheme to save on staff costs.
"Our aim is to ensure the long-term sustainability of UHI Perth and deliver quality teaching and support to our students. We will analyse the recommendations from our Workstreams and progress the initiatives and measures which align with our financial sustainability targets.
The closure comes after students, parents and trade unions rallied against cuts and the potential nursery closure with over a thousand people signing a petition to keep it open.
Unison representative Jane Edwards said: "It has become apparent that there are models which would allow the Nursery to remain open and make a modest profit.
"The principal has chosen to shut down the discussion on exploring options to save the Nursery for students and the local community, and to save the jobs of our members.
"It is obvious that college senior management have completely failed in their duty of care and have set off, hell-bent, on a path leading only to the destruction and dismantling of a vital service. They have obstructed trade unions from getting all relevant information and have actively refused to save the Nursery, despite having options to save it."