The survey of 3,407 parents conducted by campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed also found that for over a third of respondents their fees have risen by at least 10 per cent in the last two months.
One parent, Charlotte from Rochester, who has two children in nursery full-time and will see her childcare bill rise by an additional £2,893.80 a year from January, said, ‘I might as well quit my job now. I’m going to be going through our budgets to see what we should do, and then if I decide I need to leave the workplace.’
Joeli Brearley, chief executive and founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, said nurseries weren’t to blame for hikes to childcare fees, but the Government for failing to tackle the cost of childcare and making the situation worse by not providing enough support amid a cost-of-living crisis and increase to the national minimum wage from April.
She explained, ‘The UK recently topped the charts as the country with the most expensive early year’s education in the developed world. Instead of taking swift, decisive action to prevent more parents from falling out of the labour market, the Government actually managed to make the problem worse. Nurseries aren’t to blame for these price hikes, we are set to see thousands more close their doors due to underfunding from the Government, and the cost of living crisis. The blame lies firmly at the door of number 10.
‘When is the Government going to start to take early years education seriously? When we invest in childcare, we are investing not only in parents but in the economy. It’s as simple as that. As things stand, we are pushing 870,000 mothers out of the workplace who want to work, forcing 1.7 million parents to drop their hours to accommodate for eye-wateringly expensive childcare costs, and pushing families into poverty. We need an urgent intervention, before things get any worse.’
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said, ‘If the Government values the sector, it must commit to properly funding settings if they are going to survive the next few months.’
