The university launched a consultation with trade union representatives over the closure of its Collegiate Nursery last month (April), which is expected to close in June.
An SHU spokesperson said: ‘The university is consulting on the proposed closure of Collegiate Campus Nursery at the end of this Summer Term due to falling demand, ongoing financial challenges, and wider changes across the early years sector.
‘More broadly, smaller nurseries are increasingly facing challenges as larger providers expand, and demand for workplace-based provision has declined across the university sector.’
The nursery, which was rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted in 2023, offers 74 places and currently looks after 39 children – a sharp drop from 50 in under two years.
A petition against the proposed closure now has more than 1,600 signatures with parent campaigners and MPs calling on SHU to reconsider its plan.
Parents have criticised the university’s decision to offer just four hours per day of funded childcare as part of the Government’s roll-out of 30 funded hours per week to children of working parents from nine-months olds.
They claim this makes the nursery ‘one of the most expensive’ in Sheffield and say the waiting list for the setting has gone from two years before the policy was introduced in 2025 to ‘non-existent’.
One parent, whose second child now attends the nursery, told NW: ‘When you compare it with other settings across the city, what they’ve done is they’ve minimised the number of funded hours you can claim, so they’re not claiming a huge amount of funding. On top of that, they’re passing the charge on to parents, so they’re making it much less attractive than other places.
‘Other places are actually cheaper for the same thing, but they will end up with significantly more money, because they’ll claim 30 hours of funding each week for a child, whereas Hallam will claim 12 hours.’
The mother also said that the university no longer actively advertises the setting online or on social media. She said, ‘They don’t do a lot of pushing at all because they never had to when they had a two year waiting list but they haven’t shifted when they’ve changed their fee model to really pushing [the setting online], which I think is the is the problem.’
She added that because funding codes for working parents must be renewed every three months, the proposed closure of the setting at the end of the summer term has left many parents unable to decide whether to find a new setting for their children or to hold out until a decision is made.
She said, ‘We won’t be able to access funding unless we pull the trigger now and say we’re leaving so it does feel like they’re forcing parents to think, “we’re going to have to leave”. Even though they’re saying it’s a consultation, realistically, by announcing it in the way that they did, it’s made it almost a foregone conclusion.
‘We’ll accept that we pay full price for the summer, but that isn’t going to be an option for everybody, and a lot of people won’t even clock that funding point until they try and get funding.
‘Everybody is just really upset, and when we’re going to visit other settings, you just can’t find the same mix of a lovely outdoor space, really fantastic staff, a great indoor space and really lovely resources.’
Another mother, Valentina Caruso, whose 18-month-old attends the nursery, added, ‘The closure is expected on 31 July and this impacts a lot of families, including mine, because in August, we won’t have childcare in place.
‘It’s such a shame because we think that this nursery can survive financially and also thrive with the right policies because it’s always been a successful nursery.’
This is the second time Caruso has dealt with a lack of childcare after her older child’s nursery closed suddenly in February last year.
She said: ‘I was on maternity leave and it was really upsetting for me. Luckily, I found something but for my eldest, it was not easy at the beginning, because they had to get used to another environment.’
Campaigners are urging the university to reconsider its proposal and have also questioned figures published by the university around financial deficits – reported as £600,000 – due to the inclusion of losses made during the Covid pandemic.
They also question the university’s claim that the nursery is only used by five children belonging to students and eight to staff, saying that alumni also use the nusery.
Sheffield Central MP Abtisam Mohamed told the BBC that ‘closing the nursery is the wrong decision as it is still very much needed’.
In response to the consultation, SHU’s branch of trade union UCU has published a report documenting what it describes as ‘mismanagement’ of the nursery.
It claims bosses ‘capped’ the use of funded hours by parents using the nursery and criticises the universities decision not to ‘factor nursery provision into the new multi-million-pound city campus development’.
SHU said: ‘We are engaging with staff, parents and stakeholders, and expect to communicate a final decision in June.
‘If the proposal goes ahead, we will work closely with parents to support them, including signposting to alternative local childcare provision, and we are supporting our staff through this process.’