Dear Parents,

I am writing as I wanted to let you know what the latest position being taken by the Government on early years funding and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme might mean for Snapdragons.

Late on Friday, the Government published new guidance on the scheme which severely limits the eligibility of nursery employees to access that support. There are a lot of reports that this could lead to job losses at nurseries like ours and I wanted to explain why this might be the case.

The Government had previously announced that it will continue to pay funding for three and four year old children to childcare providers like us. However, at least one of our local authorities has indicated that if you had to close because of a lack of key worker children, then you would lose 20% of the summer term funding.

This goes completely against what the Government had initially told the sector. Despite us opening hubs in each local authority and allowing children of key workers from all nurseries to attend these hubs, we are still at risk of losing part of our funding for the “closed” sites.

As you may know, the funding provided by the Government has never met the costs of providing all the care we deliver to children here at Snapdragons, and in particular, those extra things that make us unique. One example is that even during lockdown we have continued to engage with you, kept you up-to-date and provided activities and reassurance during this challenging time.

In addition, we have chosen to keep some of our settings open for the families of key worker children. This decision was made because we felt it was the right thing to do, even though it has incurred significant challenges in respect of staffing and financial loss.

The new policy, which was announced without warning just one working day before the job retention scheme opens on Monday 20th, has left us in a position where we may have to recall a significant number of employees from furlough and pay them, despite there being no work for them to do. Our usual income is not there to pay them and, maybe more importantly, this goes against the Government advice of people going into work if they are not needed.

This could have a serious impact on our nurseries and I believe will be repeated in nurseries across the country. In addition, our insurers, along with the majority of other early years settings, have confirmed that we are not covered for the impact of Coronavirus leaving us to face the majority of the business costs on our own.

Underfunding

Show your support by contacting your local MP with this form

We've been made aware of a new form set up by the Early Years Alliance to support a reversal of the Government decision on funding. The form makes it easy for you to submit your support straight to your local MP.

👉 You can find this form at https://www.eyalliance.org.uk/parent-action-government-u-turn-support-childcare-providers 👈

You can also read more about the confusion nurseries are facing on this recent blog post from the London Early Years Foundation group - https://www.leyf.org.uk/late-night-guidance-suggest-row-back-on-furlough-for-childcare/

Government underfunding has led to an increase in the rate of nurseries going out of business over the last 2 years, something The Department of Education’s own statistics confirm. If this scheme goes ahead with the exclusions outlined on this past Friday night, and with no additional support to Snapdragons, I am worried about how the Coronavirus outbreak will affect us. It could also mean that when people start getting back to business as usual, it will be more difficult for all childcare providers to provide the places for children.

You know what an amazing team of early years practitioners we have and the last thing I want to see is any of the employees lose their job just because the schemes that are supposed to help businesses have actually disadvantaged nurseries. We made the decision not to charge any fees whilst we are closed and this decision was made based on announcements of support, including the fact that the Government had announced we would still receive full funding and that we could furlough all of our non-working employees. Both of these are now seemingly under threat in part.

We remain committed to not charging any fees whilst shut, but it is inevitable that we now face some tough decisions. We are doing our best to support both key workers and those of you who are at home and there are some great stories being shared on our website and social media channels about this.

Next steps

I am writing to our MP to raise all the concerns I have, along with thousands of other providers. I want to assure you that we are doing everything we can to not let the Government’s decision damage our settings. If you also want to contact your MP or the Local Authority, then this would be really appreciated.

We know that everyone is facing difficult decisions and we have received so many supportive messages already. I am absolutely so frustrated at the way that the early years sector is constantly undervalued and underfunded when everyone involved knows that it provides firm foundations for later life and enables parents to go to work knowing their children are being cared for and loved whilst having a great time.

I just felt it was important to make you aware of the challenges we are facing and that we are doing all we can in the face of these.

Hoping you are all well and looking forward to seeing you all back as soon as safely possible.

Kind regards,

Rosemary

Rosemary Collard is the owner of Snapdragons Nursery, setting it up with her husband Paul in 1998.