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Portishead Playgroups runs two pre-school sites at Hilltop (St Barnabas Centre) for 2-4 year olds and Brampton for 3-4 year olds. In all the groups have 80 places at any one time.
The mission of Portishead Playgroups is to provide the community with quality Early Years Education and prepare the children for a successful start to their Primary School life.
They were founded in 1964 when the playgroups at St Mary’s Hut and the Congregational Church Hall amalgamated and have developed since then into the 2 settings they now occupy.
They are a member of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, a Charity that represents 14,000 settings across the country.
They are registered and inspected by Ofsted and Hilltop was rated Good at the last inspection, and Brampton was rated Good with some outstanding features. Both settings are highly regarded in the community and demand for spaces is high.
Lisa and Rose explained how the groups are run by a volunteer committee comprised of some of the parents of the children from the playgroups The work of the management committee is challenging as they have responsibility for staff recuitment, health & safety, premises maintenance, budgeting, setting payscales and paying staff wages.
Fundrasing is becoming increasingly important, as although the Government funds 15 hours per week for 3 & 4 year olds, it only pays £3.88 per child per hour whilst the actual cost to break-even is £4.53 per hour. Whilst private nurseries can charge top-up fees to fund the difference, as a charity they have very little scope to do this within their remit.
Lisa & Rose also explained that things are about to become even more challenging as they now have to pay the new minimum wage and in 2016 will have to start paying into staff pension schemes. Then from 2017, current Government plans are to offer 30 hours of free child-care per week. Given that they can only accommodate one group of 20 children at any one time at each setting, and they have 2 sessions a day (morning and afternoon) in order to accommodate the 80 children, they have no capacity to offer the 30 hours unless they accept fewer children in the future
Thanks to Lisa & Rose for their excellent presentation
To find out more about Portishead Playgroups please click here to go to their website
Since visiting us, Portishead Rotary have funded a new Little Tykes play unit for the Centre
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