We the undersigned would like to ask that the county council give additional funds to the Fields Children’s Centre Nursery in Abbey, one of the most deprived areas of Cambridge, to help them be able to continue to provide the level of support to the local area, and not to reduce the working hours. The Fields is the only Children's Centre and nursery in Abbey ward, and the proposed changes will hit our vulnerable families the hardest. Working families will have find alternate places for their children if they need to collect them after 4pm, and also during school holidays. Nursery places in Cambridge are hard to find with waiting lists of one year or longer. Children need stability and the county council is removing that stability. Families will have to find nursery places not near their homes which means added stress as they will have to find transport to take their children to nursery. This will have a devastating affect on the fields nursery itself and our families.

The changes proposed by the Governing Body of the Fields Children's Centre including reducing hours from 8am to 6pm to 8am to 4pm from 16 April 2018, and providing only term time care and closing the baby room from September 2018, will effectively close the only nursery and only nursery provider for under 2s currently available in Abbey.