Nursery World - Ministers reaffirm 30-hour childcare pledge, but funding crisis looms

Education secretary Nicky Morgan and childcare minister Sam Gyimah are meeting with employees of Rolls Royce as part of a campaign to raise awareness of the 30-hour childcare offer for parents, which starts from September 2016.

However, early years organisations also warn today that without more funding nurseries will be unable to extend their hours.

They say that they are propping up an under-funded system, which will be exacerbated by policies such as the introduction of the “national living wage”.

Figures from a survey by the Pre-school Learning Alliance and Ceeda, released exclusively by Nursery World on Monday, show that the NLW will create a funding gap of hundreds of millions of pounds, without a serious commitment from the Government to reforming the way free childcare places are funded.

The Government has however pledged to increase hourly funding rates and a consultation with the sector on the funding review closed earlier this month.

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