Many childcare providers are still waiting to be told the funding rates for three and four-year-olds
Childcare providers up and down the country are still waiting to be informed of the 2106/17 funding rates. For those that have been informed, it has meant a decrease in funding of which this has caused added financial pressure.Many nurseries at present are facing difficulties, the rise in the National Living Wage and the introduction of the 30hrs free entitlement are factors that are putting childcare providers under pressure.
In Southampton, nurseries are receiving 6p less per child per hour than in 2015/16.
David Wright, the owner of Paint Pots Nurseries, said, ‘It has been difficult to plan for the financial year and these figures arrived not long before the end of March. The price at which the Government, via our local authority, dictates it will purchase early years education from us in 2016 as a provider is 6p less per child per hour than we received last year, due to the application of a multiplier, the Minimum Funding Guarantee, which reduces this year’s figure under the single funding formula, to 98.5 per cent of our previous year’s rate.
As funding rates are falling not increasing, where is the Governments promise of providing sufficient and increased funding?
Funding rates are different from county to county which again highlights many challenges for child providers in providing high-quality care. For nurseries who are wanting to employ graduate teachers this is just not possible as nurseries are unable to pay these graduate wages and now more so increase other staff wages due to the rise in the National Living Wage.
The only option many nurseries have is to increase fees, this will however, cause strain on parents and nurseries run the risk of losing parents.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said, ‘While local authorities tend not to advise on rates until March, we would have expected the vast majority of providers to have been informed by now, and so it is concerning that this has not yet happened in so many cases.
‘We know that 2016/17 is going to be a particularly testing year with the introduction of the National Living Wage, which will have a huge impact on many providers. While providers are doing their best to prepare for the additional strain on their finances, for those whose funding rates are still unconfirmed, this is being made all the more difficult.
The government is still to confirm funding rates for those areas that are piloting the 30hrs in September. Without this information how are these areas meant to plan for the delivering of this scheme? Will this mean Government will just come up with a figure for the funding rate for September and this not be a true reflection of the rates?
We would like to hear your views on this and to find out if your nursery has been informed of their funding rates?