Provision
Pre-schools forced to pull out of free entitlement
More than 1,000 funded places for three- and four-year-olds in Buckinghamshire could be lost because a group of pre-schools say they cannot remain sustainable without more funding when the free entitlement is extended to 15 hours in September.
Pre-schools in Buckinghamshire are faced with a difficult decision
Funding is due to rise to £3.75 per child per hour - an increase of just 25 pence. Twelve pre-schools last week set up the South Bucks Nursery Forum and started a petition on the Number Ten website to protest about the way the funding is delivered. They say it will force them to pull out of offering the free entitlement and go completely private.
They have written to Buckinghamshire County Council about their concerns and announced their intention to withdraw from the funding as a group if they are unable to charge the fees they need to continue offering a sustainable service.
The forum's spokesperson Tom Hackwood, who runs Stepping Stones Pre-school in Amersham, told Nursery World that because the council have told them they will be unable to charge parents for extra sessions until they have used all their 15 hours a week, pre-schools will not be able to survive.
He predicted that pre-schools in other counties will be faced with the same difficult decision.
'If we all withdraw from the funding, there will be a dearth of funded places in our area. This will represent a huge failing by the Government on their pledge to provide varied, affordable and sufficient early years provision.'
On average in Buckinghamshire, staffing and overheads cost pre-schools £5-£7 an hour per child, he said.
Every pre-school has written to parents to warn them they may have to pull out of offering the funded places, which would mean a 'significant increase' to fees.
They have asked parents to sign a declaration of support to send to the council, which also asks the council to clarify the position urgently so parents can decide if they need to make alternative plans for September, should their pre-school be forced to opt out.
Mr Hackwood said, 'We will withdraw from the funding unless the new restrictions, which from September 2010 will prevent us from meeting the true cost of providing high-quality early years education, are withdrawn. This will severely restrict parents' choice. The proposed rate of £3.75 per hour, which is the same for all provisions, falls well short of this. We would be in a loss-making situation for every hour of funded education we offer, enough to put many of us out of business. If we wish to continue, we have no option but to withdraw from the funding.'
He added, 'The only opportunity a pre-school has to subsidise the losses the funding imposes is to hope parents will take more than 15 hours per week free entitlement, but we as a group feel that many parents will not even take their full entitlement, free or not, as they wish to spend valuable time with their children during the week.'
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