Nursery World - 9 in 10 childcare providers plan fees hike

Nurseries and childminders across the country are planning on increasing their charges to parents because of upcoming increases to the national living and minimum wage.

The findings comes from a survey of early years providers by the Early Years Alliance, which received 1,600 responses.

Increases to the national minimum wage (NMW) and national living wage (NLW) come into force tomorrow (1 April).

Over two-thirds of respondents (70 per cent) said their funding rate is lower than the cost of delivering the ‘free’ entitlement to three- and four-year olds.

The Alliance said it was 'now inevitable' that, without urgent action on funding, the early years workforce and families would suffer, with parents paying more for childcare and more settings closing.

Of those who answered questions about financial viability and the impact of funding rates, 12 settings confirmed to the Alliance that they were closing.

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