Nurseries say they are being 'set up to fail' over government's 'underfunded' free childcare extension

KentOnline / KMTV

Charlotte Roles, who runs Dimples Day Nursery near Dartford, has warned early years providers will struggle to survive if the government doesn't rethink changes to its 'free' childcare provision.

Transcript

00:00As a sector, we have always been underfunded. That's not a new issue. It's an ongoing issue.

00:06We're actually underfunded by about three pounds an hour. We work out at the moment and the

00:10government are expecting us just to fund that shortfall. And it's just something that we

00:16cannot do. We can't stay sustainable as a business. And that's, I'm talking for all early years

00:21provision. They, unfortunately, if something doesn't change, we're going to either see

00:27settings closing their doors, early years provisions, childminders closing their doors,

00:32et cetera, or we're going to see lots of provision and settings opting out of offering the funded

00:38hours, which is ultimately going to have a negative impact on parents because it's going

00:42to either mean that parents have to pay more for the childcare costs, or they're going to simply

00:48have to pull children out of early years, which is going to have negative effects because they're

00:52probably going to have to reduce their hours or days at work, et cetera. So the government

00:57really need to see that quality and free cannot come in the same statement.

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