THE founder of the Manx language educational charity that has been awarded the contract to run five island pre-schools admits the new venture presents a ‘big risk’.
Education officials announced last week the names of the private operators which will take over once the state withdraws from pre-school provision after the summer.
Mooinjer Veggey that has jointly run the Manx language Bunscoill Ghaelgagh in St John’s together with three nurseries in conjunction with the Department of Education, has won the contract to run five of the pre-schools - Ashley Hill, Ballacottier, Ballasalla, Manor Park and Willaston.
Phil Gawne MHK, chairman of the Mooinjer Veggey, said the five pre-schools would cost £10,000 a week to run. He said: ‘We’ve budgeted fairly tightly to keep the costs down. It’s a fairly big risk to the charity.
‘It’s crucial we get the numbers of people - but we are confident we will get the numbers. We’ve had a good response to the adverts in the newspaper last week so I don’t think there will be a problem.’
Mooinjer Veggey has issued redundancy notices to all 10 of its existing staff. These will have to be re-recruited for the new expanded service. Four to five new staff may need to be taken on - but the charity will have to lose one of its teaching staff.
Mr Gawne explained: ‘Because of the uncertainty that existed up until now we have to have lay off all our staff and issue them with redundancy notices. We are now hoping to re-recruit them ready for September. We will keep most of the staff if they apply but we are going to lose one teacher.’
The Department of Education previously provided an annual grant of £240,000 to cover all Mooinjer Veggey’s cost of teaching and nursery staff and basic administration for the three nurseries it ran.
Those costs will now have to covered by the fees charged to parents for the pre-school sessions but Mr Gawne said the charity had been able to keep costs down by reducing the number of teaching staff. Two full-time and two part-time teachers are currently employed but this number will be reduced to two full-time equivalent.
‘A nursery nurse costs £20,000 less to employ. There is quite a saving that can be made there. But parents want to have teacher input. There’s going to be a week per setting with a nursery nurse and a teacher swapping locations around.’
Mr Gawne said charges had been kept to a minimum. Three-hour morning sessions will cost £12.50 if a child has four or more sessions a week, and £1 extra if less than four.
He insisted he had ‘no involvement whatsoever’ in the decisions to award the contracts to the private operators.
As a Minister, he said he had to respect the decisions of the Council of Minister but he did have concerns about the education department’s plans to withdraw from pre-school provision.