Closures leave parents in lurch

The closures of two after-school care businesses in Timaru have left parents scrambling to organise alternative arrangements for their children.

Mash, which ran an after-school programme at Gleniti School, closed last Friday.

Meanwhile, parents with children in the Skids programme at Waimataitai School were told last week that it would close at the end of the month.

An email, which has been seen by The Timaru Herald, was sent to the school community on Monday saying Skids would close on March 29.

The closures would be tricky for many families who relied on the programmes to care for their children in a safe environment, according to one affected parent, who spoke on the condition that she would not be named.

Parents also used the programmes for care during school holidays.

The woman’s 7-year-old son had attended the Mash programme at Gleniti School from age 5. She said the closure, out of the blue, was “super inconvenient”.

“I have some flexibility with my work and have ended up working from home, or he will come to my work.”

However, she said the situation was not ideal, and she would need to find alternative arrangements.

“At the moment, I’m just muddling through. But it’s not a long-term solution, and there will be a lot of people that don’t have the flexibility I’ve had.”

She said the programme had been closed temporarily several times in the lead-up to the announcement.

“The first email we had was on February 12, when we were told Mash would be closed for a week, as the main carer had resigned.”

The following week, another email arrived from the company, informing parents that there would be no after-school care for the week. The company also sent an email asking for people to run the programme.

“Then last Tuesday, we were emailed to say they were closing permanently,” the woman said.

She said she had been reluctant to start looking for other after-school options before the closure was announced, as she was entitled to a subsidy from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), and it would be a “nightmare” to reapply for it.

“I’ve now reached out to other parents asking, ‘What are you doing?’.

“We don’t pay all this money for care because we feel like donating money. We do it because we have to work to pay our bills.”

She said she had paid for several weeks of care in advance, and was not confident of getting a refund.

She was unsure how many children were enrolled in the programme, but said there were always at least 20 other pupils there when she picked up her son.

The two providers, Mash and Skids, have been approached for comment.

Firms in liquidation

On Wednesday, The Press reported that parents owed about $1 million to four companies connected to the Mash and Caspa childcare businesses that went into liquidation last Friday, with parents notified of closures only four days beforehand. Another associated company, Magic Kids, was placed into liquidation on Monday.

The companies ran programmes, some subsidised by MSD, in about 40 locations, mainly in Canterbury. The subsidies were paid to qualifying families, and some grants went to the provider.

Brenton Hunt, who has been appointed liquidator of My After School Headquarters, Caspa NZ, Mash International, Commando M 2017 and Magic Kids Club, told The Press that about 1200 parents owed about $1m in total to those businesses.

Inland Revenue was owed about $600,000 in overdue GST, and each company owed about $50,000 to unsecured creditors.

This week, MSD’s general manager of centralised services, Simone Pringle, told The Timaru Herald that about 60 children in Canterbury were receiving Oscar subsidies from the ministry for Mash, Magic Kids or Caspa Oscar programmes affected by the liquidation announcement.

“We’re getting in touch with those families by phone and with letters, to see if there is another approved Oscar provider they wish to send their children to, so that we can transfer payments to that provider.

“Our employment teams in the regions are on standby awaiting further information from the liquidator about affected staff at these centres, so they can assist anyone who is at risk of losing their job into alternative employment,” Pringle said.