Members of the senior management team at the University of Manchester intend to submit to formal contract tender the management and operation of the Dryden Street Nursery. The nursery has been successfully run as a subsidiary company at the university for the past 17 years and is widely recognised as an outstanding centre of excellence in childcare. Many members of the university have placed children at the university over the years and there is a strong attachment to the unique qualities and characteristics offered at Dryden Street.
All this is threatened by the proposed privatisation. The weight of research evidence highlights the deterioration in the efficiency and quality of provision when nursery and care services are contracted out for private profit. The university has pushed these proposals through without due process and consideration and in cavalier disregard for the concerns of the parent association group. We are asking for signatures to support our campaign which requests the university to suspend the process pending more inclusive discussions and the development of a more professional and rigorous review of the available evidence.
We the undersigned ask the University of Management to suspend the decision to put Dryden Street nursery out to tender. We ask that parents and staff are consulted fully in deciding whether or not Dryden Street should remain under university management, and that their strength of opinion and criticism of the decision is fully acknowledged and taken into account in the decision making process.
