Just under half of the 127 PVI providers who took part in the online questionnaire offering a combined total of 4,500 childcare places said that they would be forced to opt out of the free entitlement scheme or close their nurseries to comply with the rules of the Code of Practice and cover shortalls in funding.
Out of these nurseries, nine in ten said they would take this action by September.
Dawn Nasser, secretary of Save Our Nurseries, who runs a nursery in Lewisham, told Nursery World that the findings from nurseries in 65 local authorities in England squashed the usual argument that only nurseries in the south and south-east of England were unable to cover their costs.
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