Providers are finding the Agreements are more prescriptive than in previous years. I encourage all providers to read their agreement very carefully.
The new Code of Practice gives little room for manoeuvre by the local authority. I recognise that the council officers who have drafted these agreements find themselves between 'a rock and a hard place'. Like ourselves, they would like each child to have access to free, high-quality provision.
However, the level of funding that underpins these agreements is wholly inadequate for many settings, where staffing and premises costs exceed the levels of Government funding being made available to providers.
High-quality early years provision requires high-quality professional leadership, and adequate funding to support the higher levels of hands-on nursery staff, the hours of out-of-rota planning time and effective management and administration. In the private sector, I believe the typical loss of fee income to the medium to large provider, as a result of signing these agreements, will be between £15,000 and £25,000.
The situation will be exacerbated next April if the Government's Standards Fund dries up and any supplements for deprivation, flexibility, quality or premises in the Single Funding Formula will then need to come out of the Dedicated Schools Grant alone.
I have proposed to our local authority that the Provider Agreement is drafted to say, 'The provider agrees to fund the shortfall between the true cost of delivery of high-quality provision and the level of nursery education funding being offered under this agreement'.
Local authorities should go back to the Government and point out that they are unable to support the full cost for many of their providers. High-quality early years provision ought to be paid for fully by the Government. If not, the real losers will be the children in our care.
