Closure of childcare facilities leaves Kingston University parents struggling

Families who used the Kingston University nursery were left without childcare facilities this past Summer.

Samara Blackford, a first-year forensic science student, now has a higher travelling cost of £15 a day to drop her son in his new nursery La Petite Fleur Nursery, Mitcham.

“It just made it a little bit more inconvenient as I had to travel more to find a new nursery. It is about an hour from the university and about half an hour to 40 minutes from my house,” said Ms Blackford,26.

Ms Blackford was hoping to enrol her three-year-old son in the childcare facilities before they closed.

Without the possibility to use the nursery facility provided by the university Ms Backford believes that she has been losing a lot of precious time that she could be using for studying.

“It made my life more difficult when it comes to like studying. It just made it harder by the time I get home, I have picked him up and I have made dinner and etc… it makes me a little more tired,” said Ms Blackford.

Single mother Nadine Milwood believes that the university decided to close the nursery was a bad one, as they were providing a service that was a helping hand for parents who are looking to get back to their studies.

“It is really hard a single parent to go back and to know that you have childcare that has such a good reputation and that you can rely on.

It really takes a weight off your shoulders,” said Ms Milwood.

Parents were announced of the closure of the nursery at the end of March, but parents believe that the university had made the decision to close the childcare facilities as far back as last December.

Parents were extremely upset by this as by the time the closure was announced most nurseries were already filled up and applications were already closed.

“Everyone was running around and scrambling to find places around right at the end of the year, lots of nurseries in the area were already subscribed I think that the way it was done was very under-hand and very unfair,” said Mrs Smith.

The nursery was known to parents and local people has a unique learning centre, with a vital service for students and staff and a place where children learned how to develop themselves and be a part of the community.