How nurseries, preschools and childminders can make up the shortfall in the loss made by the 30hrs free childcare
With the Governments 30hrs free childcare scheme being introduced in September 2017 many nurseries are beginning to look at how they may be able to offer the increased hours. As funding amounts are beginning to be shared, it has raised concerns by childcare providers on how they are going to become sustainable. The hourly rate of funding being offered to providers does not cover the true costs of offering the childcare place.
To become sustainable many nurseries are looking at raising their fees especially the younger age group to subsidise the 3 and four-year-old fees. Therefore parents of these younger children will be the ones that will lose out.
What has become apparent in recent news is that parents are not allowed to be charged for the care itself but can be charged for additional services, e.g., meals, nappies, etc. Recently Radio 4 shared a clip from a nursery in York that has been piloting the 30hrs free childcare; it explains how they have been offering the 30hrs free childcare.
Using the word free is where this governments scheme is being wrongly portrayed, many parents understand it as being free childcare, but to nurseries, there is a cost for offering these free childcare hours. Therefore nurseries up and down the country will need to find other ways to subsidise the costs, e.g., raising fees, charging parents for additional services.
Many childcare providers would like to see a change in legislation as the scheme being offered is not free at the point of delivery it should be explained as being a contribution towards childcare costs.
How will your childcare setting be offering the 30hrs free childcare scheme?