29th March 2008
Nursery care: 'crisis looms'
Families and small businesses face a crisis in nursery care if government plans go ahead, the Federation of Small Business (FSB) warned yesterday. It said that new conditions which come into force on 1 April could put free nursery provision for three and four-year-olds at risk.
Nurseries currently have to provide 12.5 hours of free nursery care per child per week to any parent who wants it, at a maximum of 2.5 hours a day.
FSB research shows that the average nursery receives £3.64 per child per hour from their local authority to do this. Yet each hour costs nursery owners £4.70, a shortfall of £1.06. As many children stay for four-hour sessions or longer, nurseries often supplement the subsidy by charging parents top-up fees for the remaining time the child is in care.
The new rules, where parents can claim an unlimited amount of free hours in a day, will give nurseries far less flexibility to recover the shortfall by charging top-up fees.
"We are in danger of sleepwalking into a major crisis for nursery provision in this country," said John Wright, FSB national chairman.
He called on Beverley Hughes MP, the Minister of State at the Department of Children, Schools and Families, to defer the changes "until the funding formula has been evaluated so that nurseries can be properly remunerated for the service they provide".
The Conservative MP Maria Miller told the Basingstoke Gazette: "The way the funding works is creating a problem for parents and nursery operators."
Nurseries currently have to provide 12.5 hours of free nursery care per child per week to any parent who wants it, at a maximum of 2.5 hours a day.
FSB research shows that the average nursery receives £3.64 per child per hour from their local authority to do this. Yet each hour costs nursery owners £4.70, a shortfall of £1.06. As many children stay for four-hour sessions or longer, nurseries often supplement the subsidy by charging parents top-up fees for the remaining time the child is in care.
The new rules, where parents can claim an unlimited amount of free hours in a day, will give nurseries far less flexibility to recover the shortfall by charging top-up fees.
"We are in danger of sleepwalking into a major crisis for nursery provision in this country," said John Wright, FSB national chairman.
He called on Beverley Hughes MP, the Minister of State at the Department of Children, Schools and Families, to defer the changes "until the funding formula has been evaluated so that nurseries can be properly remunerated for the service they provide".
The Conservative MP Maria Miller told the Basingstoke Gazette: "The way the funding works is creating a problem for parents and nursery operators."
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