From September 2017, the government had doubled the entitlement of 15 hours to 30 hours of free childcare for all working parents of three and four-year-olds per week during term-time. However, the government’s flagship program has failed to benefit half of the poorest families amounting to roughly 300,000 family units who require this support according to research conducted by Insurer Royal London. Increasing living costs and an insecurity about jobs at the height of Brexit pushes many of these working couples to rely on these programs especially among first generation of Asian immigrant couples who do not have their grandparents to fall back upon.
But one of the predominant reasons for this scheme’s failure is the lack of resources in maintaining these nurseries wherein, local councils do not receive enough funds from the government.
Niru Naidu is a resident from Tower Hamlets and a works at an IT consultant firm. Her three-year old son is autistic and attends the Overland Nursery in Tower Hamlets- one of the three nurseries due to close down sometime in July this year.
“My son got the help he needed at this nursery and that is why it cannot be stressed how much it is important to have early years childcare,” she said.
Mary Sambrook and John Smith are two other nurseries slated to close down. Over 30,000 petitions have been signed against the council’s proposal to shut down these nurseries which the council claims are not cost-effective.
“The decision to close the three local authority day nurseries is not one that has been taken lightly.
“There is a clear financial challenge facing schools so they can longer support these nurseries and the council simply cannot justify picking up this cost. This has not been an easy decision, and we will we will be looking at how the council can invest in early years provision more widely in ways which will benefit a greater number of children in the borough.” said John Biggs, Mayor of Tower Hamlets.
Over 1000 nurseries close down
According to the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), the hourly rate per child given to the Tower Hamlets council from government to pass to provider is down from £8.96 in 2016-17 to £8.06 in 2019-20. They say, that due to an increase in the business costs the hourly funding rate which the Government gives to providers via their local authority has decreased and three of the inner London council areas seem to be the most affected.
The Official Ofsted figures of 2015, there has been a net loss of over 1000 nurseries and childminders from the Early Years Register and over 15,000 childcare providers have left the register.
Purnima Tanuku OBE, Chief Executive of National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) in a statement said, “We have seen that during that first year, nursery closures increased by 66% - these are just the figures covered by our research, the true figure could be greater.
“We have flagged this issue of underfunding with the Department ofEducation (DfE) for years now but they continue to deny the problems our members see every day.”
Meanwhile, local councillor Rabina Khan from Liberal Democrats has started a campaign on Twitter #SaveOurNurseries where she talks about how “One in three children in Tower Hamlets live in poverty.” In her video message she opposes the Mayor's proposed closure of these nurseries and “demands better” for these families.
“If we are elected in the future as an administration and an opposition, we will fight to make sure that these nurseries are re-opened,” she said.
While these nurseries in London are expected to close down by July this year, the Welsh Government has announced an investment of £60mn in more than 100 new childcare projects as part of the 30 hours of early education every week due to be rolled out across Wales by April.
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“We have flagged this issue of underfunding with the Department of Education (DfE) for years now but they continue to deny the problems our members see every day.”
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