Nursery World - Funded pre-school places are still up in the air

The fate of up to 1,000 funded places for three- and four-year-olds remains uncertain after pre-schools in Buckinghamshire said they still do not know if they will be able to charge for extra services to parents who use less than their 15-hour free entitlement.

As Nursery World revealed last month, pre-schools in the South Bucks Nursery Forum say they cannot remain sustainable without more funding when the free entitlement is extended to 15 hours in September because the rate of £3.75 an hour will not cover the cost of the places (News, 11 February).

Tom Hackwood, who runs Stepping Stones Pre-School in Amersham, said that the group had received a response from Buckinghamshire County Council but the reply was ambiguous.

'We have been told we are allowed to charge for additional services, but we are not sure what this covers,' he said.

'The big question is whether we can charge for additional services within the first 15 hours.'

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