Nursery World - Leicestershire delays payment shift following backlash

A local authority is reviewing planned changes to early years funding following a backlash from childminders who fear they will have to stop offering the free entitlement.

Leicestershire County Council told providers it would be halving the frequency of payments from this summer.

The changes would mean providers would be paid once at the end of term for the actual hours provided, rather than in two stages – 70 per cent based on the previous term, and an adjustment.

The council claims it needs to ‘streamline’ to reduce administration costs following Government cuts and also benefit childminders with a simpler, less time-consuming system.

But Samantha Littlejohns, whose business is 90 per cent reliant on the free early education entitlement (FEEE), said that to manage longer gaps between payments, ‘I would need to take out a bank loan.’

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