On behalf of Norlin Early Learning & Childcare Centre and Norlin Committee, we are writing to announce the situation the group has been faced with in recent months.

As you will all be aware Norlin was originally based in North Primary School for over 30 years but had to vacate the premises at short notice in March of this year due to the demolition of the school. It was originally promised that Norlin would be able to gain a room in the new Noss Primary School. However, this turned out not to be the case and we then became “homeless” in March leaving children and families without a childcare service.

Despite the situation we were faced with in March, in May of this year we secured new premises at Airport Industrial Estate. Unfortunately, Norlin has found themselves once again in a desperate situation. During our 6 months renting our current premises, the group has become financially unsustainable and faces bankruptcy in the first quarter of 2017, should we remain in these premises. Our Committee has been working ‘around the clock’, over the last couple of months to find a suitable solution for our situation, in order that we can save our service and staff jobs.

On October 4 2016, there was an offer made to Norlin by members of Playbox in which they offered to transfer the Playbox premises to Norlin, in order for the service to continue.

Since this offer Norlin have been working closely with Childcare and Learning Alliance (CALA) and Caithness Voluntary Group (CVG) to ensure that should our group accept the above offer, we will become financially stable once again. We have also been in touch with the Care Inspectorate outlining the groups situation, reiterating the offer from Playbox and to ask what they would expect from us to bring the Playbox property up to current standards and regulations. On 7 December 2016, the Care Inspectorate met with myself, a member of our staff and a member of CALA to walk through the property and highlight immediate works that must be undertaken for Norlin to be registered to operate from the premises. Given that these immediate works are completed, the Care Inspectorate has given the ‘Green Light’ for Norlin to move premises and will continue to work with the group, and a timescale, to complete all other outstanding works.

We are now (very!) happy and excited to announce that after all our research and forward planning we have accepted the offer from Playbox and are now due to vacate our current premises on 31 December 2016 and move into our new home, where we aim to be ready to run our service for 9 January 2016.

As we are a charity organisation and although we have done a huge fundraising push recently, we do still require help from our wider community and local businesses, with regards to donations for materials and manual help.

Norlin has faced a very difficult year with becoming homeless and facing financial unsustainability, however we have full confidence that our move to our new home will make us bigger, better and stronger. We have our business plan in place and ready to execute as soon as our move has been made, however we need help from our local community and businesses to achieve this in the first instance.

Wick is a small town who has one of the highest percentages of poverty within the Highlands, yet we are renowned for our community spirit and helping those in need and right now, our current and future children are in need. They have had so much taken away from them recently, between services being taken away at Caithness General Hospital, as well as our local Youth Club’s funding being cut further to then become non-existent. Please help us prevent a further, vital, service being taken away from them.

We will be keeping our Facebook page and Caithness.org post up-to-date over the next coming weeks with both progress and plans for certain days/times for works etc and appealing for any ‘specialist’ tradesmen. If you can help, no matter how big or small, we would be extremely grateful. Please do not hesitate to contact myself via email: KayleighE-x@hotmail.co.uk, if you wish to discuss how you can help.

We would also like to take this opportunity to firstly thank those who have helped and worked with Norlin in this situation and whom without the group would not be facing a new bright future - The Playbox Committee and Staff; our own Landlord; Caithness Voluntary Group; CALA and The Care Inspectorate. These people have been integral in Norlin’s future and we cannot thank them enough for their support and positivity in our future.

We wish you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year and hope to see some of you over the Holiday Season.


Kayleigh Ewing
Chairperson
Norlin Committee