The Department for Education and Employment has written to all Early Years Develop-ment and Childcare Partnerships in England telling them to help providers affected by the crisis, following fears voiced by partnerships that some settings could go out of business because exclusion zones kept children and staff from attending.
In the letter dated 15 March the DfEE said, 'The purpose of this message is to confirm that partnerships are able, if they wish, to use some of their childcare grant to give appropriate support to childcare providers in these unusual circumstances. This may, of course, result in the need for a revised bid if you have not put part of your grant aside for sustainability funding. I can also confirm that nursery education grant should continue to be paid in these circumstances.'
The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) welcomed the decision but criticised the DfEE for not letting membership organisations know by writing to them at the same time as it wrote to the partnerships. NDNA chief executive Rosemary Murphy said, 'As a membership organisation we are the first port of call for any members in difficulties, so it would have been useful if we had been given this information at the same time as the Partnerships. However, we are glad to see that the Government shares our concern for providers in rural areas.'
The Playgroup Network said that the longer the crisis went on the more money the Government would have to give to affected providers. Its chair, Liz McDermott, said, 'In all likelihood, partnerships will need additional funding because foot and mouth is not going to be a short-term problem. We will be encouraging our members in difficulties not to struggle on into the summer term but to go straight to their partnerships for financial help.' One affected setting is Highampton Pre-school in Devon in the centre of an epidemic area, which shut for three weeks at the start of the crisis. Leader Debbie Croft said, 'We have lost money as a result of the closure, be-cause we can't charge parents in these circumstances, though we have still got the nursery grant for one funded child. My assistant and I both live on farms and we are taking things day by day.'
