True cost of care
I want to respond to the remarks made in the article on the free entitlement code of practice (Analysis, 14 May).
Laing & Buisson are consistently reported as saying that the free entitlement fails to meet 62 per cent of nurseries' costs, despite local authorities having carried out cost analysis as part of the Single Funding Formula (SFF) preparation. I suspect this is about covering fees, not costs.
Our analysis, which I know is replicated by other LAs and also admitted in private conversations with providers, indicates that the relatively flat set of fees that nurseries charge for the range of ages of the children they care for means that the high costs of providing for under-threes are subsidised by the fees paid for the care of older children.
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