Thread by @paulrgilbert

On 23 November, staff and parents at Bright Start Council-run Nursery in #Brighton, were suddenly told the nursery was closing, so @BrightonHoveCC could make cuts and 'protect and support the city's most vulnerable'. A🧵on #austerity, local govt & the #SaveBrightStart campaign:

The initial reaction of parents and staff was bewilderment. As the council's own equalities assessment shows, 38% of Bright Start kids have special educational needs or disabilities #SEND. Those kids *are* vulnerable; private nurseries often turn them away because of cost of care

We were too late to get any questions in to @BrightonHoveCC's Policy & Resources Cmttee, but spent the week emailing councillors, some of whom answered by pointing to Tory #austerity impacting council budgets, while others had no idea Bright Start was tabled for closure at all

On 1st Dec, we went to the P&R Meeting, where @brightonland raised our concerns about the equalities impact of Bright Start shutting: in addition to #SEND provision , it is 62% BAME, 25% are in top 10% for index multiple deprivation, & it's a setting of #sanctuary @BrightonSanct

We know that @BrightonHoveCC's newest councillor, @BellaSankey who has been vocal about the importance of affordable childcare

https://twitter.com/BellaSankey/status/1579742996458708992?s=20&t=mInprM2oXeZOdIOf8tEIug

, is also keen to ensure that when we call our city a city of sanctuary it is meaningful

https://twitter.com/bhlabour/status/1603490901862539284?s=20&t=mInprM2oXeZOdIOf8tEIug

Thanks to @BHDemocracyNews for covering @brightonland's comments at the meeting: brightonandhovenews.org/2022/12/03/cou…

It is not, incidentally, the first time Bright Start has been targeted by austerity - in 2010 @CarolineLucas campaigned successfully to prevent the closure, highlighting the importance of the nursery to the city, carolinelucas.com/latest/bright-…

But back to the 2022 campaign to #SaveBrightStart: as soon as we heard about planned cuts, we started a petition, which had reached the threshold to be considered for a council debate by the time of the full @BrightonHoveCC meeting on 9th Dec:

https://twitter.com/DrSudaPerera/status/1596164251898769410?s=20&t=Iv75z0tNOUMkPw6H-oUmqg

On the 9th, there was a Demo outside Hove Town Hall, with @GMBSussexBranch and @unisontheunion there to represent the experienced and dedicated staff whose jobs are at risk. Thanks @DanGreenJourno for covering theargus.co.uk/news/23192321.…

At the meeting, @AnnekeFiner gave a deputation on behalf of families who rely on Bright Start: including those who have kids with #SEND who've been turned away by >6 private nurseries, and those reliant on childcare vouchers which private nurseries will not take without top ups

@DrSudaPerera presented the petition and you can see her speech here:

https://twitter.com/DrSudaPerera/status/1603887901518987267?s=20&t=EtRfMI2adktKHxRMWFNhzw

One of the things @DrSudaPerera raised is that, in the same week, @stellacreasy's amendment on recognising childcare as infrastructure had been passed with cross-party support, offering an avenue to creative sources of funding to keep childcare open: theguardian.com/money/2022/dec…

We were grateful to see that @jacquelquinn tabled a (successful) motion, to scrutinise this decision at the Children's Cmmttee on 9th Jan. There was recognition that like many proposed cuts this has progressed far and fast without scrutiny brightonandhovenews.org/2022/12/16/par… @BHDemocracyNews

We'll be at the Cmttee, & hope the right decision is made. There is a childcare crisis in the UK with far-reaching impact on inequalities. We're not blind to existence of #austerity, but have faith @BrightonHoveCC can be creative in finding alternatives to cuts & #SaveBrightStart

If you want to know more about how you can help the campaign to #SaveBrightStart, protect vulnerable kids, and fight for vital public services, DM me, my DMs are open 🙂✊