Campaign to save the last 3 public nurseries in Tower Hamlets
WE need your help! Tower Hamlets Council plans to close the 3 remaining Local Authority nurseries in the borough. These nurseries provide invaluable support to children and families, in particular, children in care, families on low incomes as well as specialist services for special educational needs (SEN).
The closures of these nurseries will be devastating for many families and WE want answers from our local MPs to find out what they are doing to prevent this.
Join us in contacting your local MP using one of the templates and help us save our nurseries.
If you want to make it more personal for your ward https://www.writetothem.com/ is a great resource.
Draft to MP Rushanara Ali (if you are in Bethnal Green and Bow constituency)
To: [email protected]; [email protected]
Bcc: [email protected]
RE: Tower Hamlets Council’s plans to close the three remaining Local Authority Day Nurseries: John Smith, Mary Sambrook and Overland
Dear Rushanara Ali,
I understand that the Mayor has announced plans to close the three remaining council run day nurseries, despite having assured the public last year that he had no plans to do so. The nurseries provide invaluable places for children in care, families on low incomes, and they offer specialist services for SEN. Good quality private nurseries are closing across the country, or massively rising their prices, they have registration fees, and they don't take 'complicated' children, or children whose parents can only afford the free 15 hours that they are entitled to, and that the council should be ensuring access to.
Parents with okay incomes struggle to afford the top up fees, at private nurseries. I have heard there are over a hundred children on the wait lists for these nurseries. How can we abandon the most vulnerable children to the private sector during this crisis?
Can you let me know what actions you are doing to stop these closures, particularly Overland in Bow which has the specialist hearing unit, and which the John Biggs manifesto promised to keep in place.
I know you helped stop the very same closures when they were planned in 2014, and your manifesto in 2017 promised 'to continue to campaign to protect nurseries at risk.'
I’m extremely concerned about this.
Yours,
[Name]
[Full Address]
[Post code]
Draft to MP Jim Fitzpatrick (if you are in Bethnal Green and Bow constituency)
To: [email protected]
Bcc: [email protected]
RE: Tower Hamlets Council’s plans to close the three remaining Local Authority Day Nurseries: John Smiths, Mary Sandbrook and Overland
Dear Jim Fitzpatrick,
I understand that the Mayor has announced plans to close the three remaining council run day nurseries, despite having assured the public last year that he had no plans to do so. The nurseries provide invaluable places for children in care, families on low incomes, and they offer specialist services for SEN. Good quality private nurseries are closing across the country, or massively rising their prices, they have registration fees, and they don't take 'complicated' children, or children whose parents can only afford the free 15 hours that they are entitled to, and that the council should be ensuring access to.
Parents with okay incomes struggle to afford the top up fees, at private nurseries. I have heard there are over a hundred children on the wait lists for these nurseries. How can we abandon the most vulnerable children to the private sector during this crisis?
Mary Sambrook which is in Poplar and Limehouse is set to be closed at the end of the month. Ofsted has spoken highly of the work it does to help children learn English as a second language. You know how important this is in Tower Hamlets.
I know you publicly supported all the nurseries when the very same closures were planned in 2014, so with child poverty increasing, I expect you to continue speaking out about this and doing all you can to protect the most vulnerable youngsters in Tower Hamlets.
Can you let me know what actions you are doing to stop these closures, and oppose the plans, particularly Overland in Bow which has the specialist hearing unit, and which the Labour manifesto this May promised to keep in place. You are my Labour MP and I need an answer to this.
Thank you.
Yours,
[Name]
[Full Address]
[Post code]
Draft to Bow Councillors
To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Bcc: [email protected] [please do this so campaign knows you've done it and see the support from the community]
RE: Tower Hamlets Council’s plans to close the three remaining Local Authority Day Nurseries: John Smith, Mary Sambrook and Overland
Dear Rachel Blake, Amina Ali and Marc Francis,
I have just heard that the Mayor has announced plans to close the local authority day nurseries, including Overland nursery in Bow. I understood from the Labour Party Manifesto that access to the care provided by Overland was to be protected. Additionally you must know that all the nurseries provide invaluable places for children in care, families on low incomes, and they offer specialist services for SEN.
Good quality private nurseries are closing or massively rising their prices, they have registration fees, and they don't take 'complicated' children, or children whose parents can only afford the free hours that they are entitled to, and that the council should be prioritising ensuring access to. Even parents with better incomes struggle to afford the top up fees, registration fees, and rising prices at private nurseries.
I have heard there are over a hundred children on the wait lists for these nurseries, which have capacity for 102 places and that prioritise the most vulnerable. How can we abandon the most vulnerable children during this crisis? I’m extremely concerned about this, and want to know what the thinking behind this is when child poverty is rising - now 54% in Bow.
Can you let me know if you support this decision and why? If you don’t, can you let me know how you plan to oppose it? This is not what you campaigned on, or got my vote for.
Yours,
[Name]
[Full Address]
[Post code]
List of Councillors email addresses
THANK YOU.