Not affordable for us

We operate two full-daycare nurseries in Southampton, having set up the first one ten years ago with no overdraft and a miniscule profit. Happy days! But then the funding kicked in. Because we could see that a free entitlement would benefit children and families in our area, we made a decision to offer places without a top-up, trusting that the grant paid would cover the cost of providing them. Initially it did, but that was before our operating costs rocketed.