Coronavirus: Sector tries to stay positive with uncertain times ahead

 
• Settings cite confusing Government advice and uncertainty over funding
• Some report receiving financial help from parents

Many settings are suffering financial losses, as fewer children have returned since settings were allowed to open more widely. According to official Government statistics, only around a quarter of children were attending early years settings in July than would usually attend in term time.

Learning to cope

‘There’s a sense of uncertainty about what’s coming down the road,’ said David Wright, owner of Paint Pots Nurseries in Southampton. ‘We’re dealing with the impact of the pandemic on children, parents and the team. Within all of that storm, we have to a) respond directly, b) second-guess the Government, c) preserve jobs and keep going.’

The Government had been ‘disingenuous’, he said, and the pandemic has exposed the underfunding of the sector.

Referencing comments made by children and families minister Vicky Ford in an interview with Nursery World last month (that the Government was ‘bulk-buying’ nursery hours), he said, ‘The Government has “bulk-bought” at a price that’s not sustainable.’

Mr Wright has already had to make a few nursery staff across the group redundant. ‘People have been so nice. It’s a very unpleasant activity with people you know and trust,’ he said.

Government guidance for schools, which says year groups should not mix, means Paint Pots will be unable to run its 40-place out-of-school club at a primary school in September.

A further complication is that the club takes place in the dining hall, which would need to be cleaned before and after sessions, and ‘we don’t have the resources,’ said Mr Wright.

He has talked to the head teacher but, he adds, ‘Between the two of us, we can’t see how we could do it. I have had to let the team go. I can’t pay people with no money.’ Fortunately, some work part-time in the nurseries.

All the nurseries we spoke to for this article said they had had no incidences of transmission or positive tests for Covid-19.

Mr Wright criticised the Government guidance, saying there was ‘utter confusion over what you can and cannot do. Very few “musts” and “shouldn’ts”.’

He cited sand and water play and the advice not to use to it ‘because it’s difficult to clean. My watchwords have been, “What’s proportionate and what’s practical?” We all have to live with this and make life liveable.’

Funding

Southampton City Council has been ‘supportive all the way through’ and will fund settings next term as per Government advice, said Mr Wright.

As we reported in July, the Department for Education has confirmed it will fund local authorities for the autumn term based on the January 2020 census data, prior to Covid-19, rather than January 2021.

Local authorities will be funded for the childcare places they would normally have delivered through the Dedicated Schools Grant, which the Government expects them to pass on to providers in order to give nurseries security and time to recover.

Sector organisations have welcomed the announcement, but urged the Government to provide transitional funding, similar to that recently announced in Scotland.

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said, ‘We do need to see local authorities using the flexibility they have to take local factors into consideration, such as increases in numbers through local housing developments, how closures of other childcare settings may affect providers, and cases where a nursery may have just opened and so have no comparison with last year.

‘No nursery or childcare provider should lose out on funding that has already been allocated as a result of this pandemic. The DfE has reassured us that last year’s numbers are a starting point and that local authorities do have the flexibility to increase this if a nursery has increased numbers of children attending compared with last year.’

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said, ‘Providers across the country are working hard in preparing to welcome children back into safe and positive learning environments. Yet the reality is that many providers will be forced to close if the demand for childcare places does not drastically improve and the Government continues to fail to provide the transitional funding the sector desperately needs.’

Ian Morgan, owner of Little Ducklings Day Nursery in Berkshire and Puddleduck Nursery in Oxfordshire, said both his local authorities have confirmed they will fund the autumn term in this way.

‘However, if our autumn 2020 headcount is higher, we will receive that. On the whole, I think this is an equitable solution where headcounts are being affected in the autumn.

‘This does leave us some exposure when we come to spring 2021 – and the Government may need to act when it comes to spring 2021 funding.

‘Spring term is normally a term where our numbers have been building from the lower headcount in September. With the possibility of a winter [infection] spike and then possibly further lockdowns, some action may be required to support providers in the spring.

‘A real concern of mine is the January 2021 census and how this will affect the 2021/2022 funding allocations. My fear is that, with the uncertainty, LAs will act cautiously and take larger contingency budgets in 21/22. As contingency budgets sit outside the 5 per cent compliance formula, they can take as much as they like. This will have a negative effect on the funding rate passed onto providers.’

Mr Morgan also pointed out that ‘thousands of providers, mainly pre-schools’, could miss out on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme Bonus because they are predominantly funded by early years funding, rather than parent fees.

‘HMRC have set out in the initial guidance on the CJRS Bonus that to qualify, a staff member will have had to have been claimed for on CJRS between March and June,’ he said. ‘Providers that did the right thing and didn’t claim for employees because their DSG [Dedicated Schools Grant] was at a proportion that the DfE guidance said they shouldn’t will now miss out on the bonus of £1,000 per employee even though those employees were technically furloughed. This is an injustice that needs to be investigated and sorted out before January 2021.’

Occupancy

Donna Puglisi, owner of First Steps Pre-school in Windsor, closed in March and reopened in the second week of June.

‘We thought, leave it another week to give us time to deep-clean the nursery,’ she said. ‘We have one room, so we had eight children for each morning and afternoon four days a week.’

The pre-school usually takes 28-30 children a day. ‘Some children didn’t come back because of the situation, some parents weren’t working, but the vast majority did come back a few weeks later and accepted two sessions a week. Parents were fantastic. They said, “We know you wouldn’t be opening if you couldn’t keep children safe.”’

The term-time-only setting will reopen in September, and most parents who did not send their children back before the end of the summer term are now planning to do so.

‘Parents and carers might have anxiety and we don’t want them to come back to a completely full nursery. We will have a maximum of 20 children to give children time to settle,’ said Ms Puglisi.

New parents

As for new parents and how to deal with them, Mr Wright, at Paint Pots, said, ‘We’ve had an influx of enquiries and we’re getting there. We’ve been doing show-rounds and open evenings when we’re closed.’

Ms Puglisi said, ‘We had concerns about [how we do] settling-in sessions with family. It’s still very difficult. We’re waiting to see if there are any changes. Going into September we could do a settling-in visit in the garden, so children could have that reassurance.’

For prospective parents, the pre-school has sent them photos.

‘We’ve also done show-rounds from outside the nursery, looking in, with social distancing,’ added Ms Puglisi. ‘It reassures the parents and it seems to work quite well. A couple of parents did this and have accepted places from September.’

Positives

Mr Wright said, ‘Children are being very resilient. They feel it’s a safe place to play with their peers. Staff were anxious about coming in and seeing their colleagues, but playing with children is a calming influence for everyone. It’s very reassuring and positive.’

Meanwhile, parents at Ms Puglisi’s pre-school rallied round to raise much-needed funding.

‘The cost of PPE went up, and we’re only a charity-run nursery. Someone suggested we put up a wish list on Amazon,’ she said.

She described the response from parents as ‘out of this world’ and said the money raised was used to buy gloves, aprons, floor cleaner, wipes and masks. ‘The generosity of all our parents was wonderful. We were very, very lucky,’ she said.

CASE STUDY: the expanding nursery group

Cheshire-based The Village Nursery has acquired three settings this year, bringing its total in July to nine. Among its acquisitions was a former Poppy & Jack’s nursery, which has been refurbished and renamed The Schoolhouse.

Director Julie Lightley (pictured) said she expected 15-20 children to start when it reopens in the first week of September. ‘It’s working really well. We’ve been showing families round one at a time. It’s usually just the manager. All the slots are booked up.’

A lot of the show-round is done outdoors, and Ms Lightley said parents seem more interested in outdoor learning than before. ‘Another big difference is with parents dropping off at the door. Children seem less anxious. The baby supervisor thinks it’s because they feel more in control, taking the practitioner’s hand and leaving the parent.’

The few nurseries that stayed open during lockdown ‘found the transition to reopening easier’ as staff coming back from furlough could talk to colleagues who had been working throughout.

The Village Nursery

In September, seven of the settings will have at least the same occupancy as last year, and some 10-20 per cent higher. The only dip in occupancy compared to last September is at Trafford Park, which Ms Lightley attributes to its location in a business park, where many office workers have not yet returned. The local lockdown could also be having an impact. ‘It’s great we have positive numbers. In April and May all our income was wiped out and we still had operating costs. It’s like building a nursery group from scratch, like opening new nurseries. We’re growing and still have these overheads. September looks more promising.’