Coronavirus: Small firms need nurseries to reopen to run their businesses

The research shows that 23 percent of the 5,471 small business owners surveyed believe that the reopening of schools and nurseries, as well as the availability of nannies and childminders, has an impact on their ability to run their businesses.

Commenting on the findings, FSB national chairman Mike Cherry said that many of the 16 million people who work in a small business across the UK have childcare responsibilities.

He said, ‘That’s why the safe return of pupils to schools is critical to getting our small firms firing on all cylinders again – running a business during a severe recession with kids at home is no mean feat.’

Many of the millions of people in the small business community have children who are not yet of school age and the FSB is urging the Government to ‘do more’ to protect the futures of vital childcare providers.

Mr Cherry added, ‘Small firms within our childcare sector were already up against a plethora of challenges before coronavirus hit. The pandemic has made a bad situation worse, with cashflow all but evaporating for months at many pre-school providers.  

‘To add insult to injury, there was a huge amount of confusion regarding eligibility for furlough and 30-hour free funding around the time of the initial national lockdown, meaning extra uncertainty for nurseries.

‘Ensuring that funding for the 30-hour free pledge is genuinely adequate and making permanent the current business rates exemption for nurseries – a step already taken in Scotland – would be good places to start.’

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance said that the FSB was ‘absolutely right’ to highlight the vital role that nurseries, pre-schools and childminders play in supporting parents to return to work, and to warn that much more needs to be done to safeguard small businesses within the childcare sector itself.'

He added, ‘While much attention has now turned to the reopening of schools, early years providers - which deliver care and education to over a million children in England - are continuing to struggle. With the increased costs of operating during a pandemic alongside a continued reduced demand for places, our chronically-underfunded sector will not be able to cope for much longer without urgent support.

‘With the Spending Review taking place shortly, we urge the Government to ensure that the early years sector gets the investment it needs to remain viable, both now and in the long term.’

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), said, ‘We know that nurseries and childcare providers deliver quality early learning opportunities which are crucial to a child’s development and life chances. However, they are also vital elements of our national economic infrastructure.

‘Our research echoes the concerns highlighted by the FSB, with 71 per cent of nurseries in our recent survey expecting to make a loss over the coming months. If childcare places are threatened as a result of a lack of support to providers, parents will struggle to get back to work and other businesses will suffer.’

She added, ‘That’s why we have been calling for additional financial support for nurseries through transitional funding to help meet the costs of being Covid-safe. As well as long-term funding reform, we also need to see the temporary business rates holiday become a permanent fixture.’

The survey was carried out between 22 and 30 April.