Nursery World - Market View: Questions around the Budget

Arun Kanwar, managing partner at Cairneagle, on the 30 hours extension

The Budget announcement is pretty seismic for the childcare sector. The Chancellor has stolen a march on what would have been one of Labour's flagship policies, and it will be hard for them to offer anything materially different (in fact, the focus from the opposition on school-age breakfast clubs at the Nursery World Business Summit was very disappointing). On the face of it, these policies sound great for parents and for operators, but as ever, the situation is more nuanced than that.

Starting with the increase in funding for three-year olds, this might just help to match this year's inflation levels and therefore slightly ease some of the serious margin pressure being faced by providers, but it still leaves it well below the cost of delivery. Surely it would have been better to make sure that the current offer was more adequately funded before extending it?

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