Mudiad Meithrin makes ‘difficult decisions’ amid funding cuts

Members of Mudiad Meithrin have spoken out about the ‘challenges’ the Welsh language nursery organisation is facing due to rising costs and a reduction in grants.

Mudiad Meithrin (Nursery Movement) is a voluntary movement specialising in the provision of Welsh-medium early years education, including nursery groups.

It aims to give every young child in Wales the opportunity to benefit from early years services and experiences through the medium of Welsh.

These voluntary groups are often crucial in the subsequent establishment of a Welsh-medium primary school in the area.

Recruitment freeze

One of the difficult decisions recently taken has been a recruitment freeze for any vacancies that become vacant naturally, due to staff resigning to pursue a new post or career or retiring.

The organisation will discuss which positions will be filled or frozen, with priority given to posts that are absolutely essential to support Cylchoedd Meithrin (nursery groups) at grassroots level, or posts which are currently funded by specific grant funds.

Mudiad Meithrin’s Chief Executive Dr Gwenllian Lansdown Davies said: “As a charity and an organisation working in the third sector, the coming year is going to be a challenging one for Mudiad Meithrin.

“With costs rising and a reduction in grants, for several months now we’ve been applying a recruitment freeze, following specific guidelines when deciding whether or not we fill a vacant post.

“Our priority is to maintain our standards and services at grassroots level within our Cylchoedd Meithrin and day nurseries.”

Further measures

The recruitment freeze is not the only action designed to protect Mudiad services. According to their Directors, every line of expenditure is being scrutinised.

Dr Catrin Edwards, Chair of Mudiad Meithrin’s Board of Directors, said: “Some of the other savings we’ll be making involve reducing our presence in the national festivals this year; for example, we cannot justify taking a playground to the Urdd Eisteddfod or the National Eisteddfod of Wales, so our stands will be much smaller than they would usually be.”

Dr Edwards added: “By doing this we will make a saving of over £20,000, which corresponds to the cost of a job.

“Despite this, we will extend the same warm welcome to every family visiting us during these festivals, giving them a taste of various activities that will be part of the stands’ experience.”

Loss

Mudiad Meithrin is planning on making a loss in the next financial year, which will be within acceptable margins to funders and the Charities Commission.

Gwenllian added: “In anticipation of these challenging times ahead, we’ve worked hard to obtain grants from other sources to carry out special projects – one of these is our success in obtaining a grant of almost £500,000 from the National Lottery’s Community Fund.

This project has enabled us to appoint 3 members of staff to realise a 3-year project to create and host the Dewin and Doti YouTube channel, creating various videos from different Cylchoedd Meithrin and nurseries across Wales, bringing the Welsh language alive in the homes of children and their families.”