The UK’s largest nursery group Busy Bees is among those that has called on the Government to revisit its criteria to protect jobs and the sector as a whole.
Nursery World has also heard that some nurseries will not be able to pay staff they had already put on furlough, based on the original guidance issued a month ago and reassurances from the Department from Education that they would be able to claim under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme(CJRS).
The change means that providers can only access the scheme for the percentage of staff wages that is not usually covered by early education funding.
Providers should initially use the month of February 2020 to represent their usual income in calculating the proportion of its paybill eligible to be covered by the scheme, the Government says.
The new guidance published on Friday (17 April) states, ‘An early years provider can access the CJRS to cover up to the proportion of its paybill which could be considered to have been paid for from that provider’s private income. This would typically be income received from “parent-paid” hours, and excludes all income from the government’s free entitlements (or ‘DSG income’) for all age groups.’
Katie Lamb, who runs Little Lambs Childcare in Newquay, which has been closed since the lockdown and has seven of her staff on furlough, said, ‘It’s a massive shock. I’d budgeted for six months and thought we would be ok. We will be lucky to get through.
She said that she had calculated that the nursery education funding will cover outgoings, such as rent, utilities and council tax, but would then only leave £100 to pay each staff member for the month.
The nursery has 48 children on roll and most parents are working parents.
As Newquay relies heavily on tourism, she said that several parents have said they face redundancy, and others that they might have their hours cut because of the lockdown.
Little Lambs in Newquay on a trip to the beach in early March before the lockdown
Despite this, she said, that parents have offered to set up a Go Fund Me page to help pay staff wages. The nursery is not charging any parents reduced fees while it is closed.
Ms Lamb said her accountant has calculated that 78 per cent of hours typically comes from parental income, which means she will have to pay for 22 per cent of wages.
She added, ‘We need some clearer guidance.
‘It’s a catch-22 for some nurseries - do you pay for premises or staff? A lot of people have promised staff they will pay them and I’ve heard of nurseries now saying that they can’t pay staff [they have already furloughed].’
Sue Poole, owner of Monkton Nursery School in Liverpool, said that she had had to put most of her 29 staff on furlough, leaving one manager, a chef and three practitioners working to keep the nursery open for key worker children.
The nursery has moved to charging parents per day. Normally with 140 children on roll and registered for 80 places there would be 400 attendances a week.
But income is now minimal, and with 39 attendances a week is not sufficient to pay staff wages and furloughed staff, she said.
Ms Poole said she worried about the well-being of those running nurseries. ‘To suffer, to have to make these calculations in order to survive, to push them into a situation where they have to put finances first is deeply unfair,’ she said.
Meanwhile, the UK's largest nursery group Busy Bees said it has kept more than 100 of its 339 nurseries open, despite this not being financially viable, to support key worker families and more than 190 vulnerable children.
The group's co-founder and chief academic officer Marg Randles said that many providers had had to take the difficult decision to close.
‘We wanted to be part of a solution by keeping our doors open, despite it not being commercially viable for many of our centres, and not create further problems for under-pressure key worker parents and the Government by completely shutting up shop.The latest guidance from the Department of Education will no doubt have a devastating impact on childcare settings, both big and small. Preserving jobs was at the very heart of the job retention scheme, for which we were very grateful, but sadly, for some, this will now not be the case.
‘It’s an incredibly challenging time for us all and we hope that the Government revisits its criteria to protect jobs and the sector as a whole, enabling us to continue providing care to our key workers and vulnerable children.’
Leonor Stejpic, chief executive of the Montessori Group, said, ‘The Department for Education’s U-turn on Friday around financial help for furloughed nursery staff is a huge shock for the early years sector. Just as nursery owners and managers have been preparing submissions for financial aid, guidance changed at the last moment and went completely against previous promises.
‘The distress caused to nurseries is intense and extensive. Montessori is calling on the Government to clarify, whether the latest announcement is guidance or legislation, if nursery owners and managers should continue to apply for the reimbursement under the Job Retention Scheme, and if the Government will take action against local authorities that are not following guidance on free early years entitlement.’
