A St Helier nursery has made the “difficult decision” to close two of its rooms for up to a year because it does not have enough staff, it has emerged.
Busy Bees said its Springfield-based Leeward Nursery will shut the toddler and pre-school rooms from 3 October – although the baby room will remain open.
It is the second time this year the site has had to reduce capacity because of staffing pressures.
The annoucement comes amid warnings from an industry body that the island’s childcare sector is “vulnerable” and in need of review.
Divisional Director Steve Goodchild said: “This has been a tough decision however places for all the affected families and their children are available at our Castle Quays and La Providence nurseries and all staff will transition to these nurseries.
“Where possible we will seek to maintain the relationships between children and their key workers at their new settings. Our Under 2 baby room will continue to operate as normal at Jersey Leeward.”
He added: “We see this step as a temporary measure however at this stage we are unable to provide an exact timeline as to when the rooms will re-open but anticipate this will be within 6-12 months.
“We are now working on a plan to re-open at full capacity through a combination of continued investment in our existing team, reviewing our local support structure and exploring solutions to tackle broader sector issues around recruitment challenges.”
The company said the “difficult decision” followed a review of staffing levels, recruitment trends and apprenticeship training.
It apologised to families for the disruption but stressed that safety and compliance with staff-to-child ratios “must come first”.
The closure has left parents scrambling to find childcare, with some taking to social media to raise concerns about the risk of further disruption if children are moved.
One parent wrote they had “heard Castle Quay is no better” and could not afford to risk their child being placed in “another unreliable nursery”.
The repeated closures have added to pressure on Jersey’s childcare system, where providers have long warned of long waiting lists and difficulties recruiting qualified staff.
Last month, the Jersey Early Years Association – which represents nurseries and childcare providers – said the problems at Busy Bees reflected a wider shortage of qualified practitioners and called for a “root and branch” review of early years provision.
JEYA chair Belinda Lewis said that staffing had become the “single biggest challenge” facing the childcare sector following the pandemic.
She pointed to a number of pressures, including new regulations requiring more qualified staff, the rising cost of living, a shrinking workforce, competition for staff from other industries and changes to immigration rules following Brexit.
In response, Education Minister Deputy Rob Ward confirmed last month that a working group set up to tackle staff shortages in Jersey’s childcare sector will be restarted.