Nursery closure plan sees scramble for places

Parents say they have been left scrambling to find alternative childcare after a nursery announced it will close in three months.

United Learning told parents this week that it would shut NOA's Ark nursery in Banbury, Oxfordshire, this summer.

The academy trust said it was "not financially viable" to continue to operate the nursery "without accruing significant financial losses".

One parent told the BBC that they were all "completely shocked" and were now "in a bit of a panic" to find their children places at other nurseries.

Joanna Cozon, who has two children at the nursery, said: "It's had a huge disruption because it's not that easy to get nursery places.

"A lot of them have big waiting lists, some nurseries don't have availability until 2027, 2028 and childminders are the same."

Cozon said finding a place at short notice felt like "an impossible task".

"For all of the parents, it's just a mad scramble for to snap up any nursery places that we can get," she said.

"I don't want to have to send them to a nursery that doesn't feel right, but it feels like you're going to have to take what you can get - which is quite a scary prospect."

In a statement, United Learning said it had "proven increasingly difficult in recent years to balance both excellent quality of care and an affordable rate for families".

The academy trust said it had "exhausted any viable alternative" so had to "take the sad decision to close NOA's Ark this summer".

"In doing so, we will return the nursery site and its facilities back to the local authority for its management going forward, so that it continues to benefit the local community," it added.

Oxfordshire County Council said the closure had been "a decision made by the academy trust", but that any parents looking for new childcare placements could contact it for support.