Nursery World - Nicola Demetriadi: Schools which tap into new two-year-old funding stream is a 'worrying trend'

There appears to be a worrying new trend in the early years sector. In order to access the new funded places for two-year-olds, some primary schools appear to be expanding their nursery provision, to encompass this younger age group.

Although there are strong arguments for funded places for younger children, such as to relieve working parents of overwhelming childcare costs, the funding rate, set by the Government is not sustainable in the maintained sector, by which I mean day nurseries or pre-schools.

Ofsted figures show that the number of childcare providers has been falling steadily since 2015.

In not providing a fair funding rate for three and four-year-olds, and settings not being allowed to ask for additional “top-up” money from parents, the result has been that settings have had to pass that cost onto parents of younger children, in order to keep the doors open.

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