FSB urges Minister to avert nursery school crisis

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has written to Beverley Hughes MP, the Minister of State at the Department of Children, Schools and Families to warn of a looming crisis in nursery care.

New conditions that come into force on Sunday April 1 prohibit nurseries from charging parents extra to top up their inadequate government subsidy to cover the cost of free nursery places. Free nursery care for young children could be put at risk.

The UK’s biggest business organisation is calling on the Government to defer the Code of Practice on the provision of free nursery education places for 3 and 4 year old children. The FSB is not calling for more money from central government, but for the Code to be deferred until the funding formula has been evaluated so that nurseries can be properly remunerated for the service they provide. An FSB survey revealed that not a single nursery owner believed that the Code should remain in its current form.

John Wright, FSB National Chairman, said:

“We are in danger of sleepwalking into a major crisis for nursery provision in this country.

“Compensation for free nursery places is already woefully inadequate, the Code of Practice is not working and nursery owners are beginning to suffer.

“We received a legal opinion advising that an impact assessment of the costs of the Code should take place. If the Government does not sort out this mess now, many families could find themselves unable to get the nursery care they need in the future.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. Nurseries signed up to the Code of Practice have to provide 12.5 hours of free nursery care per child per week to any parent who wants it. FSB research shows that the average nursery receives £3.64 per child per hour from their Local Authority to provide the free places. Nursery owners say that if they could charge for those 12.5 hours it would be at an average of £4.70 per hour, a shortfall of £1.06.

2. The FSB is Britain’s biggest business organisation with over 210,000 members. It exists to protect and promote the interests of the self-employed, and all those who run their own business. More information is available at www.fsb.org.uk.

Contacts:

For interviews with FSB Chief Spokesman Stephen Alambritis or other senior FSB personnel please contact the FSB Press Office.

FSB Press Office
Andrew Cave: 020 7592 8113 / 07917 628991
Simon Briault: 020 7592 8128 / 07917 628998
Belinda Webb: 020 7592 8121 / 07825 125 695

For regional FSB contacts please go to www.fsb.org.uk/regions