East Sussex County Council
response to Bay Life:
Pevensey and Westham Playgroup
5 January 2018
We have been advised that the committee at Pevensey and Westham playgroup has resigned with immediate effect.
As soon as we became aware of this situation, we were statutorily required in those circumstances to refer the matter to the two regulatory bodies, Ofsted and the Charities Commission, for investigation.
The responsibility for contact with parents sits with the playgroup trustees, however, in order to ensure parents were notified in a timely way, we wrote to individual parents to advise them of the circumstances and provided advice on alternative provision.
We have to follow a statutory process which means that if a playgroup does not have a management committee in place, we cannot continue to provide it with early years funding.
It will be for Ofsted to decide what happens next regarding the playgroup’s registration and its future, and for the Charities Commission to investigate the circumstances around the resignation of the playgroup’s management committee.
We cannot comment any further on the details of this matter while those investigations are ongoing. We will, however, continue to work with parents to support them in finding alternative provision for their children.
East Sussex County Council
5 January 2018
