Nursery World - Private providers fear sidelining

Private providers remain apprehensive about their future role in Government initiatives despite ministerial reassurances that they will have a part to play. Speaking at a conference last week about the future of the private sector, minister for children Margaret Hodge spelled out the opportunities that children's centres and extended schools could offer private providers. But delegates, particularly those involved in the Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative, expressed fears that they will be sidelined or ignored.

Speaking at a conference last week about the future of the private sector, minister for children Margaret Hodge spelled out the opportunities that children's centres and extended schools could offer private providers. But delegates, particularly those involved in the Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative, expressed fears that they will be sidelined or ignored.

The initiatives, said Ms Hodge, 'will provide challenges and a lot of opportunities, and we want you to come with us'.

However, Neil Homer, head of corporate development at Oxford, Swindon & Gloucester Co-operative Society, which has four neighbourhood nurseries, said the 'psychological shift' in policy had turned neighbourhood nurseries into 'yesterday's thing' - 'satellites rather than core service' - and he feared they would be 'killed off' by children's centres, a view echoed by other delegates.

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