Job losses ‘inevitable’ at children’s museum

Eureka! says it lost out on more than 140,000 visitors during the five month enforced closure.

It only re-opened in August with COVID-secure measures in place, including limits on the number of tickets available to ensure a safe capacity in the museum, and reduced operating days and hours.

Andy Forbes, finance director at Eureka! said: “Our admission income over the period is down about £1m.

“We’ve also lost Gift Aid associated with ticket sales, and contributions from our café, car park and museum shop.”

Leigh-Anne Stradeski, Eureka! chief executive, said: “In light of the significant reduction of visitor income and lack of Government support packages for science centres, the financial situation of the educational charity and UK’s only Children’s Museum is looking extremely challenging.

“We have relied heavily on our financial reserves up until now and have spent £500,000 an amount we expect to rise to over £800,000 by year-end.

“The furlough grant has been very useful in helping us to retain staff and phase reopening, however, this grant finishes at the end of October and the Job Support Scheme recently announced will not help us safeguard the charity going forward.

“Clearly, we need to reduce our costs in order to remain financially sustainable, and this includes a requirement to save 1/3 off our salary bill.

“The trustees of Eureka! have also proposed that Eureka! Nursery, which is an integral part of the museum’s diverse funding streams, will also close at the end of the year after being impacted significantly by an extended period of closure and changes in work patterns, including a reduction in commuters needing a town centre location for childcare alongside increased opportunities for parents to work from home.

“A 30-day consultation process with staff will now begin across all areas and levels of the charity and its trading subsidiary the 1855 Station Building Ltd., with the intention that the new working structure will be in place for December 2020.

“Redundancies are our absolute last resort and, like many other visitor attractions, we’ve tried everything to avoid being in this position.

“This has been a very difficult decision to make. As soon as we closed in March, our resilience team focused on planning how to reopen Eureka! safely for our staff and visitors.

“We were committed to only opening once we were confident in our approach and had put in place all the necessary COVID-secure measures to ensure this.

“We’ve been delighted with the response from visitors but need to be realistic that with reduced opening hours and capacity limits on the number of visitors allowed in the building, we just can’t sustain our current staff team in the longer term.”