An urgent decision has been made to protect early years childcare provision at the Meadows Family Hub after the current nursery provider gave notice that it intends to stop delivering the service.
Nottingham City Council has approved the use of a direct award route for a new four-year concession contract, valued at £3,375,200, to secure continuity of the nursery from September 2026.
The council says the current provider informed it on May 12 that it intends to close the business and stop delivering the service from August 31, 2026. The report says this was significantly shorter than the contractual notice period and created an immediate risk to continuity in a high-need area.
The decision was taken as a Leader’s Key Decision by Councillor Neghat Khan, leader of Nottingham City Council, rather than through the usual Executive Board route. The report says this was because there was not enough time to complete the normal process before the next scheduled Executive Board meeting and still ensure a new provider could be in place by September.
The decision is not subject to call-in.
The nursery at The Meadows Family Hub is described in the report as an essential part of the local childcare offer. It is the only provision in the area offering more than 38 weeks of childcare a year and places for babies. The council says the service supports children’s early development, family stability and parents’ access to employment.
Nottingham City Council has a statutory duty to secure sufficient childcare for working parents. The report warns that if no action is taken, families could face uncertainty or lose childcare places from September 2026, while the council could face a gap in early years provision in the Meadows area.
The current concession contract was awarded in September 2025 for an initial five years, alongside a matching lease for the building. The tender was split into two lots, one for the Meadows and another for early years provision at Broxtowe Family Hub, which was awarded to a different provider.
Under the concession arrangement, the council does not pay the provider to run the nursery. Instead, the provider generates income directly from childcare fees and funded places while using council-owned premises.
The council has now approved a direct award route for a replacement contract, but the final provider has not yet been confirmed. Authority has been delegated to Sarah Nardone, the corporate director for children’s and education, to determine the provider once further checks have been completed.
The report says the council’s preferred approach is to follow the award criteria from the original tender and first offer the contract to the second-placed compliant bidder. If that provider is unwilling or unable to take on the contract, the council will then approach the third-placed bidder, followed by the provider that won the Broxtowe Family Hub lot.
The proposed contract would run for four years, aligning it with the remaining period of the original five-year arrangement. The report says this length is considered reasonable because a new provider may need to take on existing staff under TUPE arrangements or recruit new staff, build relationships with the Family Hub, and develop trust with local families.
A lease of the Meadows children’s centre to Early Years Community Limited from September 2026 has also been approved for the same period as the concession contract.
The report says the total value of the decision is £3,375,200, but there is no council expenditure attached to the concession contract. It says the arrangement should generate income for the council through projected provider contributions of around £20,000 a year, based on the Meadows nursery using 20 per cent of the building space.
Several other options were considered and rejected. Bringing the service in-house was ruled out because the council said it does not have the capacity to deliver it, while schools generally provide term-time and shorter-hours provision, which would not meet the needs of working parents.
A short-term direct award of up to one year was also considered, but the report says this would only delay the problem and could create further instability for families and staff. A closed tender between previous bidders and a full open tender were also rejected because they would not provide enough certainty that childcare could continue from September 2026.