Funding could lead to an increase in fees for paying parents
The increase to the nursery education funding has been high on the childcare agenda since its proposal was first made. The government have decided to go ahead with the increase in doubling the hours, however there are serious concerns that unless the payments made by local authorities are raised to pay for the funded hours then many early years’ settings will no longer be making financial gains and will have to close their settings. This could mean that many outstanding settings are going to close which could impact on the outcomes for children.
Some are now predicting that for early years settings to balance the books once the 30 hours funding is introduced, childcare providers will be left with little choice but to increase the fees made by other parents or those children that complete additional hours in the setting.
This could put a huge strain on parents who are already struggling to meet the high costs of childcare. Childcare experts are therefore calling to the government and to local authorities to carefully consider the rates of pay they will be providing early year’s settings with for funded children.
They would like to see the funding provided meet the actual costs of providing for these children instead of settings discovering shortfalls in the payments. If other parents see an increase in their childcare costs this could prevent parents continuing to work or returning to work. This could have many negative implications for the UK workforce as many parents choose to stay at home to avoid high childcare fees.
The government is arguing it is offering additional funding for the next 2 years to support early years settings, however many are arguing this short term funding is not going to help fix long term problems in the funding payments.