The London Borough of Lambeth is due to issue guidance for providers shortly but a decision has not yet been made on whether providers will have to sign up to it.
This follows the findings from a report carried out for Camden council that 1,500 nursery education places were under threat because the majority of PVI providers in the area would have to withdraw from the scheme if they were unable to charge top-up fees (News, 16 November).
Angie West, business support officer at Lambeth Early Years and Sure Start said that 'very few PVI providers' were able to meet the real cost of the nursery education place. She said, 'There's a danger that we are going to lose providers, because some of them are struggling.
'The implication that providers could charge different rates for different services would cause all sets of complexities for the fee structure.' She said that all parents should be offered the same fee tariff regardless of how many hours their child is in nursery.
She added that the voluntary sector had lower fee rates but often had funding through trusts, effectively subsidising the nursery education grant.
Meanwhile, in East Sussex, 150 parents have signed a petition against the changes.
Headteacher Jean McGarrie of Micklefield Nursery School, Seaford, said that since the nursery is no longer able to charge a top-up, it cannot cover costs. The NEG is 8.10 per child per two-and-a-half hour session and two-thirds of the 60 places are for three- and four-year-olds.
Ms McGarrie said, 'Parents have never had a problem with it. We used to bill them less the amount they're entitled to. We want the Government to know it's unworkable. We feel we're being bulldozed into it.'
She said the nursery had received advice from the EYDCP on how to restructure fees to charge more for sessions outside the nursery education entitlement. 'But it makes it look like fees have taken a huge leap forward and it's going to be very difficult to administer.'
