Opinion: To the point - Protecting our money

Recently I spoke with a nursery owner who remonstrated with me about the disproportionate power and advantages major providers have over single owner-operators. Frankly, I was not able to agree with most of what was said, certainly when it came to any possible influence multiple operators might enjoy when discussing matters at government level.

This subject became quite topical, as I heard from my old friend John Woodward that the family was back at the helm of a newly refinanced Busy Bees. The chain's Australian parent company went spectacularly bust last year. Busy Bees, however, is now back where I think it belongs, as the largest nursery chain in the UK.

I have been a very keen advocate of the sector being represented by a fully independent trade organisation for a number of years, the idea being that the requirements and concerns of everyone in the sector, regardless of size, could then be fully articulated at the highest level. Regrettably, being a large provider has not assisted me in carrying this view forward.

The current government has been at great pains to gain maximum support for its position on childcare, and yet, as we all know, the actual top-line figures stated as being pumped into the system rarely seem to flow through in full measure to operators - at least not in a consistent or transparent way.

Given the current cash flow crisis surrounding not only the private sector, but more particularly local government, I fear that more and more of the money earmarked by central government to meet its expanding policy of free entitlement could end up covering other essential debts incurred by a local government hard pressed to make their own books balance. All well within the law, of course, if not within the spirit - rather like MPs' expenses, in a way.

I guess we are back to the old question as to whether or not money declared to be for childcare should be ring-fenced in some way. So far, operators large and small have been unable to challenge the way local authorities distribute these funds, even when their results are palpably absurd. This, I believe, has been one of the problems of not being properly represented.

However, let us hope the new era of government and fiscal transparency we have been promised will extend to how money earmarked for childcare is finally and fairly distributed to us all. If not, perhaps we only have ourselves to blame.