A STRUGGLING charity has had to call it quits and enter liquidation after funding cuts meant they couldn’t continue running children’s day care services in the town.

The West Swindon Family Centre ran Panda Day Nursery and Panda Pre-school up until the end of last month but had no choice to close them due to financial woes.

Now, it has been confirmed that the charity behind them has entered liquidation because of spiralling costs and lack of funds since losing its funding from Swindon Borough Council in December.

It is understood the charity’s contract with the council, to deliver flexible childcare and help vulnerable families, was in excess of £105,000.

The sum of money was halved in August last year but business development coordinator at West Swindon Family Centre, Mike Smith, said the team struggled to find alternative funding arrangements resulting in the Board of Trustees unanimously deciding to put the charity into voluntary liquidation.

Mike, who has been involved with the charity for the last three years, said: “It is hard for families to understand the pressures that a charity can be under but we hope they can understand the difficulties we have been through.

“We weren’t surprised that the local authority funding would be withdrawn but it was more about trying to get that other funding model in the running quickly enough but the funding cuts came sooner than we had anticipated.

“We had a transitional plan in place but it sadly meant that time wasn’t on our side and we were struggling to make the plans happen in time of when the funding stopped.

“You have to budget for what you can and cannot deliver so when our funding was halved, the implication was that we had to make members of staff redundant and take cuts to our hours.”

The West Swindon Family Centre was established in 1993 and provides support, guidance and parenting skills. Fifteen staff have been made redundant by the closure of the two day care centres.

Despite all the affected children having places allocated at other organisations, Mike hopes that the charity’s announcement casts a light on the growing childcare placement problem in the town.

In a statement, West Swindon Family Centre said: “Our announcement comes during worrying times, following on from the recent closures of all Swindon Children’s Centres. It is our sincere hope that this trend is quickly reversed and that the depth and breadth of services available for vulnerable children and families is soon restored.”

A Swindon Borough Council spokesman said the nursery and pre-school were set up as an independent business by the charity and it was hoped profits made by the business would support the family support services when the council’s contract ended in March.