Dear Parents, Carers and Community Members,

As you may be aware, the tender for the Manly West BASC service is currently underway, with a decision expected on 1 April. Considering the process to date and latest developments, we urgently need your help to voice your concerns to the Minister for Education.

Many families have raised serious concerns about the process followed by the P&C Executive, including limited consultation, cancellation of meetings, and repeated barriers to participation for new members. Despite repeated calls from within the community to pause the tender and allow broader consultation first, these requests have been ignored. More recently, the upcoming SGM and GM have been scheduled in a way that will once again prevent new members, including many of you, from exercising their right to vote.

The Minister for Education can pause the tender and ensure appropriate community consultation before any final decision is made — we need your help to make that happen.

To help you, we have prepared a chronological summary of key events that you may wish to reference. Please use it as a guide, add your own experiences, and send your submission to the Minister as soon as possible.

Individual voices carry more weight than identical submissions, so please write in your own words where you can. A few of us have already written to the Minister and the Department, but broader community voices are needed to ensure these concerns cannot be overlooked.

Time is critical — the decision is just days away and every voice counts.

The Minister's office can be contacted at: londonderry@parliament.nsw.gov.au or by phone on 02 7225 6010.

Warm regards,

Save Manly West BASC 

Chronology of events

• Manly West BASC has been operating for 31 years under the P&C, with currently 200 spots filled across 2 sessions a day - A recent survey in December 2025 indicated strong support and satisfaction for the service.
• Since late 2024, some P&C Executive members have repeatedly advocated for outsourcing the BASC service.
• Prior to the Term 3 2025 General Meeting, the Executive’s internal process determined that BASC should continue to be Community led and P&C-operated.
• At the Term 3 2025 General Meeting, the President reintroduced a motion to privatise the service, citing concerns about the earlier internal process. This proposal was brought forward despite the Executive having previously decided to keep the service P&C-operated, and without prior consultation with the Executive. In parallel, membership increased.
• Prior to the vote, the Executive limited consultation to the minimum 7-day period permitted under the constitution. Requests from members and the BASC sub-committee for a community forum were made and declined by the Executive.
• During this period, parents raising questions about the proposal in good faith were publicly characterised as spreading misinformation. Some posts were removed from school-related forums without explanation, limiting open discussion. In addition, some financial figures presented publicly by Executive members were later shown to be inconsistent with BASC financial documentation. 
• Following the SGM, approximately 120 additional members joined the P&C, increasing overall membership to 2 to 3 times the number at the time of the vote. Some parents publicly stated that they joined in response to concerns about the conduct of the SGM and the consultation process.
• Close to 350 community members have signed a petition expressing support for retaining the current P&C-run BASC.
• Concerns raised regarding the process, proposed privatisation, use of departmental resources, and misconduct by parents on school grounds have been repeatedly raised with the school leadership; responses received have not resolved the issues highlighted by parents.
• Concerns have also been raised with the P&C Federation. The Federation acknowledged that its authority over individual P&Cs is limited. There is no formally adopted code of conduct or single body with clear oversight over the Manly West P&C.
• No later than December. the Federation CEO noted that the procedural requirements had been met but also recommended that a more open and consultative process be undertaken to ensure all members could participate, while also correcting some inaccurate facts shared by the Executives in the privatisation option paper (attached). Without explanation, another senior member of the Federation subsequently contradicted the Federation's CEO’s advice. This letter was shared by the Manly P&C President, as opposed to the one recommending the broader consultation and correcting the facts. 
• Community members with legitimate concerns have been passed from the school principal to the Department of Education, to the Federation, and back again — with no single authority prepared to take responsibility. Multiple independent complainants have followed the same circular path with the same outcome. 
• Despite bylaws stating the Term 4 GM should be held in week 7, The Term 4 General Meeting was scheduled unusually late (4 days before the end of Term), limiting the ability of recently joined members to participate at a critical time, given the impending BASC tender.
• The President then cancelled the Term 4 meeting, with no clear reason quoted, which resulted in all the new members being unable to be entered into the member register and consequently unable to exercise voting rights to participate in governance decisions.
• When clarification was sought from the Federation regarding the cancellation, it referred to extenuating circumstances related to risk. This explanation was surprising to some, given that the meeting was to be held online, and the Federation declined to comment further.
• On 17 February, the BASC subcommittee requested that the Executive hold a GM within 14 days to allow new members to be added to the register to obtain voting rights.
• The Standalone OOSH Licence – Manly West Public School tender closed on 18 February.
• Following a request from P&C community members on 4/3 for an EGM to pause the tender and allow broader community consultation as per the Federation's CEO advice, the Executive has called both an SGM and a GM in such order that it will once again prevent new members from exercising their right to vote. This raises further concerns about the Executive’s commitment to inclusive community participation, especially in light the tender being earmarked to be awarded on 1 April
• Intervention from the Minister is urgently needed to pause the tender and ensure the community can have input before a final decision is made.