What would you do?

[SJW58]

The nursery where DS attends has just sent round an email stating the baby room will be closing for the foreseeable future due to staffing shortages. They are hoping to re-open ASAP, and will review weekly, but they cannot guarantee a re-opening date. Whilst this doesn't affect us currently, we are having DS2 in October, with him already signed up to the same nursery from July 2024, he will be 9/10 months, so he would be going into the baby room.

Would you be looking at registering DS2 at a different nursery as well as current one to ensure we definitely have a place somewhere?
I would also feel bad to register with a nursery with the intention of hopefully never needing the space when spaces are so competitive.

Obviously it would be a lot easier to have them both at the same place, but there are large waiting lists for a lot of nurseries in the area, so very much doubt I would be able to sign him up anywhere else at short notice, if this was to happen next year. Especially with all the new funding coming in, places will be even more competitive.

Best to book a place and not need it

Def register elsewhere. There will probably be a nonrefundable deposit but honestly they all have waiting lists so if you do pull out someone (probably in a similar situation) will snap up the space.

Definitely. Our nursery did this and it was managed awfully (telling SAHPs their kid’s room was closed but the parents that ‘needed it’ were told there was just reduced space and their kid could come in; being turned away at the door etc) and eventually the nursery just closed one day. So it’s a bad sign I’m afraid op!

That sounds awful. I'm not too worried about it closing as part of a big group, it's not the first time they have had staffing issues, which I know is not uncommon in this industry.