Risk to free nursery/pre-school places for 3 and 4 year olds

[Pinky04]

Are you aware that changes to the nursery grant scheme (free nursery/pre-school places for 3 and 4 year olds) means that many nurseries are threatening to withdraw from the scheme, meaning that children will not be able to benefit from free pre-school education at private nurseries, and that there will be a shortage of places at state nurseries/ voluntary pre-schools.

Basically, the government/ local authorities are paying nurseries significantly less than the cost of the 2.5hour sessions that they are required to provide under the scheme. So nurseries either face losses/closure, subsidising the 'free' places by higher fees from under 3s or withdrawing from the scheme.

See www.Saveournurseries.org

My child's nursery has just written saying that unless the rules change, it is likely to withdraw from the scheme from 31 May 07.

This has stemmed from the Government stating that pre-schools are not allowed to charge 'top-up' fees for funded children.

However, if the pre-sch extends their sessions to say, 3 hours they can legally charge the extra 30 minutes at the same rate they charge for non-funded children. So if the non-funded session rate is £9, the funded children can be charged £1.50 per session. (£9 divided by 3hrs = £3 per hour divided by 2 = £1.50).

Lunch clubs are another good way to raise money. We charge £3 for the hour and the child brings a packed lunch.

Pre-schs just need to watch the insurance - ours won't allow children to be on the premises for more than 4 hours per day as we don't have a separate designated rest area.

Some pre-schools may ofcourse, just want to be independent, especially in areas where they can charge what they like and have parents pay it.