Coronavirus: Small firms need nurseries to reopen to run their businesses

The research shows that 23 percent of the 5,471 small business owners surveyed believe that the reopening of schools and nurseries, as well as the availability of nannies and childminders, has an impact on their ability to run their businesses.

Commenting on the findings, FSB national chairman Mike Cherry said that many of the 16 million people who work in a small business across the UK have childcare responsibilities.

He said, ‘That’s why the safe return of pupils to schools is critical to getting our small firms firing on all cylinders again – running a business during a severe recession with kids at home is no mean feat.’

Many of the millions of people in the small business community have children who are not yet of school age and the FSB is urging the Government to ‘do more’ to protect the futures of vital childcare providers.

Mr Cherry added, ‘Small firms within our childcare sector were already up against a plethora of challenges before coronavirus hit. The pandemic has made a bad situation worse, with cashflow all but evaporating for months at many pre-school providers.  

‘To add insult to injury, there was a huge amount of confusion regarding eligibility for furlough and 30-hour free funding around the time of the initial national lockdown, meaning extra uncertainty for nurseries.