Statement: Islington Play Association, Paradise Park Children’s Centre Nursery and adventure playgrounds

We understand that parents are concerned about the future of services provided by Islington Play Association following information and speculation that is circulating among staff, parents and on social media.

Islington Play Association (IPA) is an independent charity that the council commissions to deliver childcare and adventure play services.

IPA has contracts to run the nursery at Paradise Park Children’s Centre and four of the borough’s adventure playgrounds – Crumbles Castle, Lumpy Hill, Martin Luther King and Timbuktu.

Unfortunately, the charity has informed us it is facing significant financial challenges. We have reluctantly agreed to the trustees’ request to close the Paradise Park nursery provision at the end of the summer term, but this was something we wanted to avoid.

We are extremely disappointed at the way that IPA have handled this situation, causing anxiety to parents and carers who will be rightly worried about nursery provision for their child. We have repeatedly sought assurances of IPA’s plan of action and how it will communicate this to parents, but have not received a satisfactory response.

Our priority is the wellbeing of children and ensuring continuity of high-quality provision for children and families. We understand parents’ concerns about the disruption this will cause and are reaching out to all affected families to support them to find alternative childcare best suited to their individual needs. The borough has sufficient childcare places at other nurseries and schools to cater for children who will need alternative provision. Council staff are here to support families in this process. Anyone directly impacted can contact the Family Information Service at islington.gov.uk/FIS or on 020 7527 5959.

We have also acted quickly to secure the continued running of the adventure playgrounds that were run by IPA, minimising the impact on local children and families. We will confirm these details as soon as we can.

The Paradise Park Children’s Centre building will remain open to continue to deliver Bright Start universal services such as stay and play, antenatal and post-natal health clinics.

We completely understand how worrying this situation will be for families who rely on these services, and we are working as quickly as possible in a difficult situation to provide clarity for parents, carers and children.