Corby: Pen Green Centre may lose nearly £800,000 of funding

Governors at Pen Green said plans to redistribute funding for nurseries in North Northamptonshire would have a catastrophic effect on its services

A children's centre has hit out at a "savage and short-sighted" proposal that could see its funding cut by almost £800,000.

North Northamptonshire Council is set to discuss plans which would see money currently going to Pen Green Centre in Corby redistributed to other providers.

The centre said the move would be "catastrophic for children".

The council said its maintained nursery schools need to be supported "as equitably as possible".

The authority has been allocated £933,309 from the government's Maintained Nursery Supplementary (MNS) grant for 2022/23.

That money must be used to support provision for children at four maintained nursery schools in North Northamptonshire: Pen Green, Ronald Tree Nursery in Kettering, and Croyland and Highfield nurseries in Wellingborough.

A consultation is currently taking place around the way the money is allocated.

Pen Green offers a nursery school, early years places, parent and child groups and support, special educational needs support, a research and development base and a teaching school from its site in Rockingham Road, and says its integrated model is unique.

The plans could see 78% of the centre's core funding redirected, Pen Green said, taking it from £1,027,620 to £228,838.

In a statement on its website, the governors of Pen Green said: "This is a savage and short-sighted act in their first year as a new unitary authority.

"The implications of this proposal will be catastrophic for children and families across Corby.

"Our services for children and families will be decimated."

The council's executive member for children, Scott Edwards, said a report on the plans was discussed at the schools forum "that set out options for how the grant could be utilised as equitably as possible.

"Due to the historic way in which the grant has been used in Northamptonshire, this included mitigation to reduce the impact on individual schools in any one year."

The council's consultation period ends on Thursday, with the results set to be presented at its schools forum (a body made up of schools' and academies' representatives) on 17 March.

The views of that forum will then be considered as part of the overall decision making process.