Despite the government’s recent promise of an extra £66m, the funding crisis rumbles on. The sector’s collective coffers have a black hole of ten times that - £662 million - at last count. As we all know, this translates as a lack of quality, lack of affordable places and lack of access for parents.
Campaigns have been waged on this issue for several years now and had some cut through. But if the recent spending review pledge represents the latest ‘win’, it clearly doesn’t go far enough to address the damage when rates have been frozen since 2015.
We need to get parents on board, and saying ‘childcare is underfunded’ doesn’t really grab the gonads. As one practitioner said, ‘even when you tell parents about underfunding, the reply is ‘Yes I know, but we’re entitled to this, and it’ll save us a fortune, so we don’t want to pay anything extra’ and then they shop about for the cheapest deal.’
Register now to continue reading
Thank you for visiting Nursery World and making use of our archive of more than 35,000 expert features, subject guides, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:
What's included
-
Free access to 4 subscriber-only articles per month
-
Unlimited access to news and opinion
-
Email newsletter providing activity ideas, best practice and breaking news
Already have an account? Sign in here
