Nursery World - Nurseries have 'third fewer children than normal'

Nurseries have a third fewer children compared to this time last year, a snapshot poll by the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) claims.

Nurseries are currently open to all children, but numbers are much lower than before the coronavirus pandemic

The National Day Nurseries Association asked providers to give their current occupancy as a percentage of what they had last year. The finding was calculated as an average of based on figures provided by respondents to the poll.

The NDNA survey of 605 nurseries who responded over the last five days, also shows that 23 per cent of families are not sending their children to nurseries due to concerns about the virus.

However, the latest attendance figures published by the Department for Education (DfE) suggest this could be closer to half the usual number (52 per cent) across all early years settings.

NDNA says that the situation is now ‘critical’, as 58 percent of nurseries are not confident they will survive until Easter on the current funding arrangements.
The concerns are compounded over the Government’s plans for councils to only pay nurseries for children who attend.

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