Nursery Places At Jeopardy From Government

One million nursery places are at risk of closure because of Labour’s plans to penalise middle class parents who pay extra for better childcare warn campaigners. Leading nursery care providers say that parents will struggle to find decent preschool childcare as thousands of private nurseries will be forced to shut their doors.

Under the current system, private nurseries receive a state grant and then charge parents a top-up fee to help cover staff and administration costs.

But from April next year, ministers have banned them from taking the extra cash as part of nationwide plans to extend free state nursery care.

The campaign group Save our Nurseries has warned that thousands of private nurseries will be driven out of business, will drop standards or will have to pass on the extra costs to hard-pressed parents.

The organisations says that around 1.5 million children – mostly three to four year olds – are in nurseries at the moment.

But it says official figures show that nearly two thirds of these places could be put at risk by the new plans.

The opposition is being led by the Montessori schools, which pioneered child-centred learning in Britain and are celebrating their 100th anniversary next year.

Save Our Nurseries, which is being backed by 61 MPs, will today meet children’s ministers Beverley Hughes to demand an urgent Government rethink.

Some 94 per cent of nursery care is currently provided by the private sector.

But critics say Labour’s new rules are designed to force every child in Britain to attend a state-run childcare centre, which Gordon Brown wants in every community by 2010.

Opponents warn that the centres are a gigantic project in social engineering reminiscent of Soviet Russia that will give ministers a say over all aspects of a child’s upbringing.

There are also fears that the state-run centres will suffer staff shortages as the remaining private centres will lure over the best-trained staff with larger salaries.

The crisis is over the extension of free nursery places for three and four-year-olds from 33 to 38 weeks per year.

Nurseries charge an average of between £4 and £5 an hour. But when top-up fees are banned and the hours are extended, they will have to offer the same service with the basic Nursery Grant of just £3 an hour.

Many nurseries says this will not be enough to cover the basic costs of teachers’ salaries or overheads. This decision will force them to go entirely private, with parents meeting the full nursery cost, or to close.

Anne-Marie True, from Save Our Nurseries, warned: “Those of us in nursery education are passionate that all children are able to experience the best possible services.

“The present system enables parents to choose the right place for their child and use the Nursery Grant towards whichever service they choose. The Government will now take away that choice.

“This new system means that all nurseries will be expected to run the same standard of service for less money. This will inevitably lead to either a drop in standards or more private provision.

“Surely the Government must realise that this is not the right way forward for ensuring our youngsters have the best possible start in life?

“This plan just doesn’t seem to have been properly thought through and is at odds with this Government’s family-friendly agenda.

“We will be urging Beverley Hughes to think again about this plan which will have a devastating impact on nursery education.”

Ministers claim the new plans will benefit parents as they will put an end to a two tier nursery system where some childcare is free and other parents have to pay top-up fees.

They insist that there is enough money to ensure that providers in both the private and voluntary sectors operate on a level playing field.

But earlier this year, a report by the Centre for Policy Studies warned: “In the guise of a caring, child-centred administration, this Government is nationalising the upbringing of children.

“This agenda is both dangerous and misguided. The nationalisation of childcare is no longer a Marxist dream – it is becoming a British reality.”