The current climate is not proving too comfortable for the private nursery sector. A recent survey has shown occupancy in nurseries continuing to fall, with dangerously low levels in some parts of the country. Fees are having to rise to meet the cost of this month's increase in the National Minimum Wage, with another hike planned for next year (see Management, pages 26-27), and paying them will be beyond some parents' means. Added to this is the continued lack of a level playing field with the state sector in terms of business rates, VAT and so on, along with some local authorities' unwillingness to involve the private sector in the children's centre programme. And a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research says that co-operative social enterprise childcare models could benefit from the Ten-Year Childcare Strategy at the expense of the private sector (see News, page 4).
The current climate is not proving too comfortable for the private nursery sector. A recent survey has shown occupancy in nurseries continuing to fall, with dangerously low levels in some parts of the country. Fees are having to rise to meet the cost of this month's increase in the National Minimum Wage, with another hike planned for next year (see Management, pages 26-27), and paying them will be beyond some parents' means.
Added to this is the continued lack of a level playing field with the state sector in terms of business rates, VAT and so on, along with some local authorities' unwillingness to involve the private sector in the children's centre programme. And a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research says that co-operative social enterprise childcare models could benefit from the Ten-Year Childcare Strategy at the expense of the private sector (see News, page 4).
A look past the short-term, however, indicates that the fortunes of the private childcare sector should rise again. The scale of the children's centre and extended schools programmes, coupled with limited funding and the need to ensure sustainability, should mean that private nursery providers will find that their services will be needed if Government targets are to be met. Let's hope that not too many have given up the struggle, meanwhile.
