Nursery World - Nurseries freeze pay to hold fees

More than half of all nurseries are choosing to freeze staff pay rather than put up fees to cope with the recession, a new survey by the National Day Nurseries Association suggests.

The snapshot research shows how the current economic climate continuesto have a mixed impact on private, voluntary and independentproviders.

More than two-thirds of nurseries said that parents were strugglingfinancially and just under half said that they had seen increasinglevels of bad debt.

Sixty per cent of nurseries said they would freeze staff pay to keep feeincreases down and keep childcare affordable for parents.

Although three in five said they were 'confident' about the future oftheir business, more than half said that it was a challenge to offer thefree entitlement and keep their business sustainable.

Three-quarters said paying staff more for gaining qualifications waschallenging. A number also said that they were cutting staff hours tosave costs.

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