Nursery World - Nursery Management: Funding

Some councils are wrongly withholding thousands of pounds in contingency funding. Jo Parkes speaks to settings who have successfully claimed it back

In January, the National Day Nurseries Association revealed that huge numbers of providers are not receiving funding that is rightfully theirs.

According to the NDNA’s Freedom of Information findings, more than three-quarters of local authorities underspent their childcare funding pot in 2018/19, totalling £63 million.

Most of this money was not passed back to childcare providers, with four in five failing to pass it through – figures which provider and campaigner Ian Morgan describes as ‘shocking’.

Mr Morgan, who brought the issue to the NDNA’s attention, believes the Government system provides a cover for exploitation by councils, with some robbing Peter to pay Paul by using the money to balance the books elsewhere. ‘If there’s a loophole, people will find it,’ he says.

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