How are we going to challenge the 15-hour free entitlement? I have rarely seen such a badly thoughtout piece of Government policy. It seems that it pleases no one in the early years sector and is detrimental to all.
If the Government truly believes that the cost of educating a pre-school child is £3.75 an hour (News, 11 February), they have got the calculation very wrong. Even the sum of £5 to £7, also mentioned in the news story, falls short of our calculations of £12 to £15 per hour.
I employ very highly qualified staff. We have four practitioners with early years degrees, including one with EYP status, and the rest of my staff team are qualified to Level 3 or above. My rent for the building, shared with an after-school/holiday play centre, is high. We recently achieved Outstanding in our Ofsted inspection.
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