Sunshine Nursery: Outpouring of support by 'heartbroken' parents as Sheffield nursery announces closure

Sunshine Nursery, in Lewis Road, Woodthorpe, is one of the Steel City’s few pre-schools that looks after babies as young as three months old. The daycare facility has a top-shelf grading from Ofsted and parents in its community call themselves ‘the Sunshine family’.

But it looks like all that is over. In a letter home to parents, the team at Sunshine has announced it will close its doors for good on April 6, saying gaps in Government funding means they are no longer able to pay wages.

It is heavy blow for many working parents who will have difficulty finding childcare for children under one year old. Further, it serves an area of Sheffield that ranks as one of the most deprived in the whole country.

Today (February 24), The Star has received an outpouring of support in messages from devastated households.

“Sunshine preschool take babies and turn them into unbelievable kind, caring and bright children,” said one parent, Alex James.

“The nursery is an amazing place, you only have to visit to see this. Our son is three, and it has brought his development on leaps and bounds since joining at 10 months.

"We are now being forced to find alternative child care, at nurseries local or far who are all over-allocated and have no room. And none of them have capacity to take on his baby brother at 9/10 months when my partner goes back to work.”

Parent, April Allwood, said losing the nursery puts her at risk of having to quit her university course to become a midwife, and she fears it is costing a better future for her and her family.

She said: “I'm not sure what I can do anymore, I feel lost, hopeless and fearful for the future. Please help us to save Sunshine Pre-school, along with many other nurseries amidst this national crisis.”

Sunshine’s problems mirror how Sheffield’s Ecclesall Pre-school in January announced it would shut in two weeks due to funding issues.

Many parents who have contacted The Star shared they are NHS staff of children under one year old and are struggling to find another nursery that will suit their work schedule. They say most other daycares they ask are already oversubscribed or only take children older than 18 months.

In England, a flagship policy of the Conservative Government has been 30 hours of free childcare a week for children aged between three and four, paid for by subsidizing nurseries.

However, since 2016, more than 4,000 childcare providers have closed. Providers have criticized the Government as the subsidized payments have not risen in line with wages for childcare staff.

Sunshine’s strategic lead, Wendy Kettleborough, said: “We are broken. That’s the only word for it. When we had a meeting with parents to tell them many of them were crying.

“The minimum wages in the early years sector have risen 10 per cent – which they absolutely should, if not more, because childcare is filled with hardworking professionals – but the Government has only increased subsidies by three per cent.

“The Government advertises free childcare but someone has to pay for it. Without childcare the fabric of society breaks down.”