Nursery World - Kent providers vent fury over funding

Protests are gathering pace among private day nurseries and pre-schools in Kent over the local authority's conditions for nursery education grant funding. So far, around 30 private and voluntary providers in Kent have attended meetings in Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks to express their concerns and have taken up the matter with their MPs.

So far, around 30 private and voluntary providers in Kent have attended meetings in Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks to express their concerns and have taken up the matter with their MPs.

As Nursery World revealed last month (News, 22 June), private and voluntary childcare providers are angry at the 'onerous' new conditions they are required to sign up to in order to qualify for the nursery education grant.

Lynette Blunkett-Evans, owner of the Papillon nursery in Tunbridge Wells, met with shadow education secretary Maria Miller in London on 5 July to voice the concerns of the PVI sector.

She told Nursery World, 'She sympathised and was very concerned that a whole swathe of providers could be lost.' A second meeting with the minister will take place this week, while Ms Miller has written to the DfES.

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