Parents are facing what are effectively “top-up fees” as well as less choice of nurseries in the UK, in spite of government drives to increase free nursery provision, as Katie Razzall reports.
If you ask any working parent what would help them, most, if not all, would probably say free childcare.
So the drive, both by the previous government and the coalition, to offer more free nursery provision to three- and four-year-olds in England should be a vote-winner.
But Channel 4 News has found that in some places, it is leading to less parental choice and higher fees.
At the moment, the term after their third birthday, children in England are entitled to 12 and a half hours’ free at nursery each week for 38 weeks a year.
Local authorities subsidise those hours. In Buckinghamshire, for example, they pay £3.52 an hour, money that comes from the government.
Code of practice
A code of practice says that nurseries should not charge parents for those hours, but Channel 4 News has found that has not been implemented in many cases.
Many nurseries are perfectly happy with the subsidy – if they have lower overheads, for example, it more than covers their costs.
But some claim the subsidy falls far short, and they have been charging parents extra – effectively “top-up fees”.
Patricia Banks, the owner of Piggy Banks nursery in Farnham, Surrey said: “It’s not free education because it’s subsidised by the private sector. We are subsidising the government’s free care.”
Tom Hackwood who runs Stepping Stones nursery in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, said: “The government isn’t meeting the cost of providing it, so it’s not free. Effectively what’s been happening up to now is that nurseries and parents have been subsidising the underfunding.”
From September, the free entitlement rises to 15 hours a week – and the code of practice is being more properly enforced. Which means parents cannot be charged anything until they have used their 15 free hours. It is an attempt to prevent a two-tier system of nursery provision.
Good for parents, you would imagine. But in Buckinghamshire alone, 13 pre-schools have pulled out of the free system, saying they will go bust if they have to offer the free hours in that way.
That means 400 free places that have effectively disappeared.
Parents at Stepping Stones are seeing their fees rise by at least 50 per cent to make up for the loss of the subsidy. Which leaves them a choice: either to leave and find a nursery offering the free places or to come up with substantially more money next term.
Nicky Defries is pulling her son out. She says: “I think it’s a real shame. I think the choice is being taken away, for where we can send our children. We won’t be able to come to our closest pre-school.”
Where does the blame lie?
Before the election, the Conservatives said they thought nurseries should be allowed to charge “supplementary fees”. That is not the coalition’s position now.
All the parents to whom Channel 4 News spoke blamed not the nursery, but the government.
The government, meanwhile, appears to be passing the baton to local authorities.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “We know that some providers are unhappy with early years funding, and we are monitoring the situation carefully.
“The individual levels of funding in each local area are a matter for local authorities to calculate and we expect them to work closely with providers to ensure that sufficient free nursery education is available to meet the needs of local families.
“Any childcare providers who have concerns about their funding should contact their local authorities to discuss this.”
The nurseries we spoke to had done just that. But local authorities say they are hampered by the rules which they have a legal duty to enforce.
These nurseries had hoped for a last-minute reprieve but it appears – for now – the government is standing firm.