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Children’s centre’s survival hinges on legal argument
A LEGAL wrangle is threatening the future of a popular children’s centre.
Morning sessions for parents, carers and youngsters at the One O’Clock Club on Parliament Hill Fields have been earmarked for closure after children’s charity the Pre-School Alliance announced they were no longer able to fund the scheme after October.
The Alliance, which has been involved with the club for nearly 20 years, had provided around £8,000 a year but announced funding has run out and the service would close.
However, it has emerged that the Queen’s Crescent Community Association, along with parents who use the centre, have raised £20,000 and want to run it themselves – but cannot get what they say is vital paperwork to ensure they are not taking on old risks from the previous managers.
The Alliance have been asked to sign a legal form protecting the Association from any potential debts or employment issues – a move the Alliance says is both “unnecessary and impossible”.
Unconfirmed reports say one member of staff is going through the process of taking the Alliance to an industrial tribunal regarding training, pay and conditions, and the QCCA want to be protected from any liability.
Catherine Boyd, the daughter of Hampstead campaigner Peggy Jay who helped establish the club in the 1960s, has helped find other backers to keep the club open, including a £1,500 fund-raising push by pupils at Parliament Hill School, and an anonymous £1,000 donation. She said: “We have been working hard for three months with the Queen’s Crescent Community Association. But though it is all in place, they cannot take on a concern with potential liabilities.”
And parents are furious that after the hard work of raising a massive sum of money in a short time to protect the club, another hurdle has been put in place.
Mrs Boyd added: “We are spitting blood about this.”
Neil Leitch of the Pre-School Learning Alliance said they had had to withdraw their help because of a series of budget problems. Grants from both Camden Council and central government had run out.
He said: “Although we have reasonable levels of income we still struggle to make ends meet and at some point we have take a decision. The reality is there is not the cash out there.”
A Sure Start grant ran out nearly two years ago and the body has been paying for the club from its own coffers while they search for alternative funding. But now they have just three months worth of cash until the popular morning sessions are scrapped.
Mr Leitch added that they were ready to hand over the keys if the demand by the QCCA for an indemnity form was dropped. |
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