Dr Martin Bradley told Nursery World that emerging evidence indicated that the extension to 15 hours free provision next April would have a negative effect on settings.
'Montessori schools tend to have a higher proportion of staff fully trained and qualified, especially at Levels 3 and 4, so naturally their salary bill is higher,' he said. 'Additional top-up fees cannot be charged to the parents, so the staffing issue is going to be the crunch as far as schools with higher qualified staff are concerned. It's ironic, when the Government says it wants to improve qualifications.'
The issue came to the fore at MSA's 2009 annual national conference in London this month.
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