Warning over plan to extend nursery free hours
BBC News | Katherine Sellgren, education and family reporter | 17 Feb 2016
Fewer than half of nurseries will be able to offer extended free childcare planned by the government, the National Day Nurseries Association has warned.
The NDNA said underfunding of the scheme meant many nurseries in England would struggle to provide the extended free care for pre-schoolers.
Early years education for three- and four-year-olds is to be doubled from 15 to 30 hours for each week of term time.
The government says the extra free hours will help support families.
Pilots of the scheme are due to begin in the autumn and a full rollout will follow in 2017, under new legislation covered by the Childcare Bill.
Annual losses
But in its annual survey, the NDNA found only 45% of the 485 nurseries questioned said they were likely to extend the number of free hours on offer.
The NDNA – which represents more than 5,000 nurseries out of a total of about 18,000 in England – said nurseries were currently managing to offer 15 hours of free childcare a week by plugging the shortfall in government funding.
In practice, it said, this meant parents paid a higher rate for the hours their child spent in nursery above 15 hours.
