They were created with the noblest of intentions - to provide childcare for parents in the most disadvantaged areas and enable them to find a route out of poverty through employment. The Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative (NNI) created 45,000 childcare places in 1,400 new nurseries. And yet their three-year tapered funding was always seen as their Achilles heel.
Would they be able to remain sustainable after the three-year period of funding ended? Well, there is now growing evidence that as the subsidies from Government have dried up, the future of some of these nurseries is in doubt. Local authorities are having to weigh up the cost of continuing to fund their deficits or cut their losses and close them down, or find private sector providers to take them over.
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