Nursery World - Birmingham Council to review the cost of living wage for nurseries

Birmingham Council has commissioned an independent review into the affordability for early years providers of paying staff the living wage.

It follows campaigning by nursery owners in Birmingham for fairer funding of early education places to make paying the living wage more affordable.

In the spring, Birmingham City Council told private, voluntary and independent (PVI) settings that from September 2015 if they receive funding to deliver the free places, they will have to follow the Birmingham Business Charter for Social Responsibility, which stipulates that employees must be paid the living wage, set at £7.56 per hour.

A number of providers have argued that at the current rate of funding, an average of £3.82 for three- and four-year-olds for PVI settings, paying employees the living wage would be unaffordable and put them out of business.

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