'We're being demonised like junior doctors', say practitioners

David Wright, owner of Paintpots nurseries in Southampton, said, ‘We are in danger of being demonised in the same way as junior doctors.

‘It is almost the same process- they think ‘we have made the policy, they are not going to like it’, so they spin against the sector in the media to say we are being unreasonable.’

He was responding to Childcare Minister Sam Gyimah’s comments in Nursery World that the sector should acknowledge the government's record investment in childcare and ‘work with us’, 'rather than taking opportunities to manufacture outcry’.

Mr Wright added, '"Manufacturing outcry" is an inflammatory phrase, but what is it based on? That is somebody’s opinion - that this has been manufactured for the sake of it. We would love to provide the 30 hours if it was properly funded.

'They keep repeating the same figures - £6bn and £300m. But the £300m includes EYPP money and that comes out of an existing pot.'

Junior doctors have undergone a series of strikes in protest at a new contract.

Childminder Simona McKenzie added that public support for junior doctors meant that the government’s ‘demonising’ has 'backfired’. She said, ‘This will not happen in early years unless the campaign changes course and parents realise they were conned with a 30 hours promise.’

Cheryl Hadland, managing director of Hadland Care Group added, ‘I think we are in danger of being demonised by the Government for caring about the bottom line and that is completely unfair. If nurseries don’t make enough money, unlike the NHS, we can’t just declare a deficit. 

'Although we are on the pilot to offer 30 hours, we are most concerned that funding will be insufficient, and if this proves to be the case we will also be unable to offer more hours without going bust.  There is nothing unreasonable about saying we are worried about that, and the government should also be worried if its policies could end up putting nurseries out of business.’

The Government has pledged an 'extra' £300m per year to fund the increase in early years funding rates, which average national rate of £4.88, but this is an average including the early years pupil premium (EYPP) which does not apply to all children.

In this comment piece last month, Mr Gyimah said ‘By 2019-20 we will be spending over £1 billion more per year to fund our extended free childcare offer, as part of a £6 billion a year cross-Government package.

'At a time when we have had to make difficult decisions across Whitehall, we are spending more on childcare than any other Government in our history because we have chosen to support parents.

'It is now time to acknowledge the huge investment we are making in the sector and the significant uplift to the funding rate that providers will get paid. We need the sector to work with us, rather than taking opportunities to manufacture outcry.’

A DfE spokesman added, 'We have had 1700 innovative nurseries and almost 100 councils asking to trial our 30 hour offer, building on the 97 per cent of providers already delivering funded places for three- and four-year-olds – as highlighted in the NDNA’s own survey.

'We want all nurseries to back this approach to support hardworking families and we have shown that we are willing to work with the sector to make sure this important policy for parents is delivered. As the Minister said in his article – the Government will be investing £6 billion per year in childcare by the end of this Parliament to help deliver this.'

• The news comes as over three -quarters of settings (76 per cent) told a Nursery World survey that the underfunded rate received, plus the reduced ability to charge for surplus hours, is a key barrier to them fulfilling the government’s promise to double the free entitlement for 3 and 4 year olds. This came well above structural concerns such as lack of space to expand or lack of staff. The survey is in Nursery Management, which is out on Monday