Editor's View - Nurseries find it hard even to be sustainable

The latest survey comes, of course, at a time when there has been sustained debate about the price of childcare and about what government action should be taken to help hard-pressed parents.

The main concern for families is, quite understandably, the fees that they are charged and the proportion of their earnings that is swallowed up. It is very hard for most parents to untangle the complications of how the early years sector's business operates and see that most nurseries are not owned by avaricious tycoons, paying staff the minimum wage and living in the lap of luxury.

A few days ago, I spent half an hour explaining to a journalist from a national newspaper just why the majority of nurseries don't even make a profit. There are the business rates, the commercial rents, the VAT, the long-term under-funding of the 15 hours free entitlement, the low taxation and subsidies compared to countries like Denmark, and so on and on.

On the free entitlement alone, nurseries are losing an average of £500 per child per year, according to the National Day Nurseries Association's latest business survey.

The journalist was amazed - she just hadn't known the conditions under which nurseries operate and how hard it is just to be sustainable, let alone make money.

So why does childcare cost so much in this country? We have to be clear about the difference between what it costs to provide and what parents pay, and why the gap is so much smaller here than in many countries. Then maybe we can begin to talk about what should be done.