Free childcare - a farce?

[aliatalia]

Does anyone think the government decided to offer free hours of childcare as an election strategy, which they don't care about or will share details on unless they win?
All local nurseries have said they won't offer it, so I'm guess they decided to fund it knowing that no one will be able to take it up!

Its funded hours not free and it won't work unless the government actually pay the correct amount of money to nurseries

Duh!

All local nurseries have said they won't offer it, so I'm guess they decided to fund it knowing that no one will be able to take it up!

No idea why they would say that considering it is just an extension of an existing scheme.
Do they not offer the current provision of 15 and 30 funded hours for those eligible? I can imagine that is very off putting for local parents. Interesting choice from a childcare provider to limit their customers to that degree.

I think it is obvious that it was an election strategy as the full thing will not be implemented until after the general election, but it is a phased start beginning from this April so they can't hold back details until after the GE.

And most of them are losing money offering the funded hours for 3 and 4 year olds and make up that cost with the 0-2 year olds in fees. If they are unable to do this then a lot of setting will close or not offer the funding.

This may also end up effecting the 3 and 4 year olds as setting may turn round and say they accept no funding at all. We are sleepwalking in to a childcare crisis and the government give zero fucks.

I just find it hard to believe all the nurseries local to OP have explicitly said they will not be offering the expansion of the free hours. The details and new funding rates haven't been announced yet, why would a nursery say they won't be offering it?

It’s not free hours, it’s funded hours. It’s just like the 15 and 30 hrs currently, nurseries here offer it but charge parents the difference between what they are paid by the government and what their fees are normally ( for example, I was still paying £270 a month when my dd had 30 funded hours though it would have been around £600 without the funding)
I’ve not heard of any nurseries here saying they won’t offer it and many nurseries here want children there more than one day a week for example so people using the scheme for their young children will still have to pay the difference and pay for the other days they use.

Which expansion OP, the 9 months one?

The two nurseries that do funded places here have said unless the funding is significantly improved they’ll not be offering it. All four of the childminders have said the same.

The 0-2’s and non funded older children subsidise the funded places atm so without that they’d fold.

One of the nurseries locally already doesn’t do funded places. They said it doesn’t allow them to offer a quality service so they don’t participate.

This!!

Everyone keeps making out it won't happen, it is happening.

2 year olds and older gain 15 free hours from Apr 24
9 months and older gain 15 free hours from Sep 24
9 months and older gain 30 free hours from Sep 25

The above is happening. If labor get in at some point between those dates they'll just have to go with it or beat

It

PPs aren't saying the government won't be plugging it, they are saying nurseries/childminders won't be offering it.

You do know settings don't have to take part in the offering of funding don't you?

Unless the government funds it properly, nurseries won’t be able to offer it as it’s not financially viable.

The settings may also know they don't have and won't pursue the capacity, in terms of premises and/or staffing.

It's not free hours, it's funded. And either way, nurseries/childminders do not have to offer this; most won't offer the expansion as it's already not viable for the 3-4 year old funding. There's a reason why the 0-2 years nursery fees are astronomical already - it's to plug the gap in funding.

If childcare settings ARE going to offer the new funding, they're removing other options such as half days, less than 3 days etc., to ensure they get something.

We're already past boiling point in terms of the lack of availability; all that happens is that more and more childminders/nurseries will close if they have to rely on Govt. funding.

I work closely with nurseries and childminders locally and most can't afford to offer the new funded places. The uptake will be very low and I'm in a council area that offers a higher rate than average.

This.

Nursery restrictions are likely due to lack of staff because the staff ratios for little ones are lower.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

It would be better if they just gave parents an allowance rather than claiming it covered certain hours!

Round here the nurseries are already full without funded places. Given the funding doesn't cover costs anyway, why on earth would they start to take in more funded places.

In this scenario, there is zero incentive for them to do so.

@KateyCuckoo but the ones already offering funding to 3 year olds will have to because it is the same scheme it's just being rolled out to a bigger age group.
They wouldn't be able to say "no actually we're just going to offer it to 3 year olds only" because that wouldn't be the scheme anymore. They either have it or they don't. And given that most nurseries have it, I think it's highly unlikely they'll take it all away for their customers.

Mark my words and you will see.

They will just raise the prices around the scheme. Not one business is going to turn down govt funding because the customers won't go near it.

The government can say what it likes but nurseries can refuse to offer the funded hours if it isn’t economically viable for them.

The scheme is massively underfunded so the only way most nurseries would be able afford to make it work is by turning it into a Ponzi scheme - cranking up the prices even further for 0-2s/any unfunded hours. Which clearly isn’t fair, and also wouldn’t work because there comes a point where most people simply can’t pay a bill that high so would withdraw their children which would mean there would be no one to pay the higher fees anyway.

There have been 3 nurseries in my local area that have closed their doors for good as it was not financially viable.
I work in a nursery and we have to fund raise for things such as paint and paper. Good nurseries are closing and great people are leaving the profession, nobody cares though.

How is it not economically viable for them? They take the funded money and charge whatever else they need to on top.

What's the alternative, charge the customers full wack and expect them not to go to the cheaper nurseries.

Everyone's acting like the govt funding is all the nurseries get... don't your nurseries charge top fees on top every month?
Have you thought maybe the top up fees will just increase?

No you're wrong, they can do exactly that!