Corby MP speaks out over proposed Pen Green cuts

MP Tom Pursglove says promised funding for Corby children must be respected and maintained amid proposed cuts which would decimate services at the Pen Green Centre.

The Rockingham Road early years centre, which is lauded for its work with children and their families, is facing losing up to 78 per cent of its core funding with North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) instead allocating thousands of pounds to three other nurseries in a bid to make it 'more equal'.

In a worst-case scenario its core funding level would reduce from £1,027,620 to just £228,838 - a proposal Pen Green say is savage and short-sighted.

They say the Department for Education (DfE) made an implicit arrangement in 2017 to protect the integrated services budget at the centre, which is recognised as unique because it is an intergrated centre and offers many services other maintained nurseries do not.

And Conservative MP Mr Pursglove says the proposed loss of funding is a 'source of great alarm'.

He said: "Over the last few weeks, I have had a number of meetings with the leadership team at the Pen Green Centre in relation to their correspondence with the local authority and the Department for Education around their core funding allocations for the coming years. At this stage, no final decisions have been made by the local authority, but as someone who has long supported Pen Green and proactively assisted them in successfully resolving various funding issues in years gone by, I am again actively supporting them by pursuing the urgent queries that they have relating to their future funding.

"Indeed, when raising these matters with education ministers and with North Northamptonshire Council, I have consistently emphasised as the local Member of Parliament, my view that the Government's intentions - dating right back to the discussions of 2016 that I helped to arrange - around its funding for Corby children, should be respected and maintained, and that what has been allocated nationally for Corby provision, should continue to be spent here. Suffice to say, I have impressed that the uncertainty around this is causing increasing concern amongst my constituents and is a source of great alarm for some.

"As I always have, I will continue to assist in any way that I can in getting to the bottom of this and I can reassure people locally that I know how important this provision is for children and families within our town."

NNC are proposing to distribute the funds more evenly between Pen Green and three other maintained nurseries - Kettering's Ronald Tree and Wellingborough's Croyland and Highfield nurseries - based on part-time nursery places and participation hours.

Pen Green currently gets 85 per cent of the funding but holds 36 per cent of the participation hours across the four nurseries. Pen Green say the decision does not take into account the breath of services they also offer. They say the loss in funding would see more than 50 jobs lost and services decimated.

Other nurseries would see their core budget increase, closer aligning the cash they receive to the share of nursery hours they host.

Ronald Tree Nursery in Kettering say they desperately need the cash to keep going and don't want to be in a situation where they are pitted against Pen Green, but that they are already cut to the bone and extra funding will make a huge difference.