Support nurseries

[Lifeispassingby]

I don’t know how many parents are awake do the current issues nurseries are facing. The DFE have issued guidance to say that they will only fund nurseries for those children attending this term, not for any child who is kept at home by parents due to lockdown//covid concerns etc. Some nurseries have 75% children off at the moment and this means they will get 75% less funding. For some this is thousands of pounds. Many nurseries are going to shut permanently due to this. Please ask your nursery what you can do to support them

I’m confused, threads currently running are bashing us parents that are sending our children in. What do you want from us?

I don’t want anything from you @OnlyFoolsnMothers I am simply making parents aware that due to lack of funding from the DFE their nursery may close down permanently.

My friend works in a nursery. Most of the children have upped their days since the schools have closed. She had almost double the number of under twos she normally has yesterday.
I myself upped my two year old to another day so I could try and concentrate on home schooling my older two when not at work.

I believe that’s why they allowed early years to stay open. As they didn’t want nurseries going out of business.

@Didyousaynutella but nurseries will go out of business without income. I am glad you’re friends nursery appears to be thriving (genuinely not sarcastically) but this isn’t the case for all. The nursery I run has 60% of its children off at the moment and that’s 60% income going to be lost which in our setting equates to about £50,000 shortfall because the government won’t pay funding to keep spaces open for children whose parents are keeping them at home. Even if parents wanted to increase hours or to send children from settings that are closed, we can’t take them because we need to keep spaces for when our current children want to return. I know of several other nurseries in the same position and there are many many others I’m sure.

Hello! I didn't know this. Thank you. Are there any options for furloughing staff this time if fewer staff are needed due to fewer children?
Or would the nursery have to bear the cost of furlough, negating the benefit?

Why can’t you take them? I booked mine in for extra Fridays for 6 weeks. It’s a temporary arrangement. So not taking anyone’s long term space. There are ways and means.

@Didyousaynutella we can’t take additional children on because if our existing children choose to return there won’t be spaces available for them to return to if we have taken new children on. There are limits on how many children we can can have so we can’t take extra children.
@upthewolves furlough isn’t an option for many settings for a variety of reasons. Because nurseries receive government ‘public’ funding you can only furlough to ‘value’ of private income, which isn’t high for settings who have lots of funded children. Also if you furlough ‘surplus’ staff and run with the lowest legal numbers of staff then you hit a problem if/when a staff member can’t work and not hearty then has to close due to staffing issues- which defeats the point! If children attend then the money is available- so it does exist!! The def should be supporting nurseries to keep places open for children to return to surely?!

Updated gov guidance just come out now OP. Hopefully it is good news. It is terrible how early years settings and staff have been treated so far.

I didn’t mean additional children. I meant children that are already there temporarily doing extra days as I am and a lot of people I know are. Just might be something to suggest to parents that are already going.

@Didyousaynutella well that is more likely an option, but our parents always ask if they need it x

So the nurses have to report kids not attending then?

My eldest didn’t go to Pre school last week? Can I tell them to mark him as attended?

They can't mark you as attending if you aren't, It's ok for children to have the odd week off, but if they don't attend for enough time the funding will be withdrawn from the nursery/childminder/pre school.

Hi @lifeispassingby could you please link me to the guidance that says the government will stop funding for children not attending this term please?
My DM runs a nursery and just a bit concerned she's got the wrong end of the stick because last week she told me she wasn't worried about non attendees because she "already had the funding for them". I know it will be a major financial issue for her if she's wrong about that.

She's also got a staff member refusing to come to work due to covid fears. She sympathises but can't afford to furlough her out of the nursery's own pocket because she will need to pay whoever replaces her!

It is such a hard time for nurseries at the moment!

@upthewolves it appears that some local authorities are continuing to fund so she will need to speak with them, this is ever changing too. IM in kent and we are due to claim next week and have no idea what we are allowed to do. The DFE aren’t budging on this but there is a lot of pressure from MPs etc to do so x

Thanks! Hopefully she has already spoken to them and in our LA we are lucky!

If you are keeping the space open for them and they are choosing not to send their child they should be paying you? I would expect to pay my childminder when choosing not to send - in fact I did through the last lockdown. Maybe reduced if furloughed but if they have chosen to keep their child off they should be paying to keep space open at least?

And the govt should be funding the space still as well. CF. They should have a contract with you same as the families.

@Lifeispassingby I have been told the the government has paid the LAs the funding but it is the local authorities (LAs) that are hanging onto the money! I believe this to be the case for lots of LAs

OP is correct for our LA. Any child not attending for headcount day/week will not receive funding for the entire firm. This means either the parents will have to pay if they choose to return before Easter or they will stay off and the setting will lose money. Having less children only helps marginally in staffing as we are a small setting and like a pp said we can’t be furloughed in case we need to be called back for cover if someone is off. It’s a shocking way for the LA’s to treat settings and parents who are choosing to keep kids safe at home. Hoping for a u turn on this!

@MilkItTilITurnItIntoCheese can you not be furloughed and then unfurloughed if needed? I’d assumed that was an option but may have missed something!

@Excitablemuch

If you are keeping the space open for them and they are choosing not to send their child they should be paying you? I would expect to pay my childminder when choosing not to send - in fact I did through the last lockdown. Maybe reduced if furloughed but if they have chosen to keep their child off they should be paying to keep space open at least?

Presumably these parents are using places that are entirely funded, so they don't usually pay anything.

I’m not sure how it works exactly. Can you be furloughed on and off depending on work requirements? Just assumed it was an all or nothing thing.

And yes to pp saying children are using funded spaces so parents not usually paying at all. Obviously the funding is received termly so days off etc wouldn’t be affected. This is funding being removed for the entire term. Could be a costly bill for a parent if they want to take up that space again. We don’t want to fill empty spaces because we are a small setting and want to welcome the children back when their parents feel it is appropriate. Just feels like the LA are forcing parents to send their children in when they don’t want to. That is totally unfair during a lockdown. In my opinion of course.