More and more nurseries are going bust compared to last year’s figures
According to figures released the number of nurseries going bust have nearly doubled in the last year, the cause of this is down to soaring costs.
Many nurseries have felt the pressure of the increase in the National Living Wage, leaving many nurseries having to increase childcare costs.
As nurseries are governed by strict Ofsted ratios, this means nurseries run at a loss when caring for the younger children as the ratio is 1:3 for 0-2-year-olds. Some nurseries feel that the minimum staff to child ratios can often hinder the quality of care, and often childcare providers look at a healthier balance.
With the introduction of the 30hrs free childcare entitlement, many nurseries are going to struggle to provide this childcare due to the shortfall in funding. More is needed to be done to resource this, and a further look into the qualifications and skills of the professionals working within the workforce is required.
If more isn’t done to help nurseries to provide quality care and education, more and more nurseries will face closing. Some nurseries are operating on small margins, and the possibility of costs rising such as rent, living wage, etc, this could lead to some nurseries joining the list of other nurseries that have gone bust.
It’s only going to get worse. There is a quality staffing crisis that is not being addressed. How can we deliver a quality service, improve the lives of our children if we cannot recruit the right staff with passion and commitment. We need to stop doing what we always do….cope! The politicians have to wake up and realise that they cannot make political promises without being able to deliver. Money needs to be invested in training, the GCSE requirement needs reviewing, and the funding needs to be more realistic.