Parents are left without child care options as nurseries close abruptly owing to financial challenges and staff shortages.
The Pregnant Then Screwed campaign organization reported that it was “inundated” with messages from parents whose local daycare had abruptly closed.
In addition to rising energy, food, and staffing costs, nurseries struggle to recruit.
The government said that it would increase funding for childcare providers.
However, the Early Years Alliance, which represents over 14,000 providers and also operates its nurseries, reported that the sector was suffering its greatest recruitment and cost growth problem in twenty years.
Gabrielle Drake was in a “frantic hurry” to locate a new daycare for her 13-month-old baby when his previous provider abruptly ceased operations overnight.
The parents were notified via email on 5 August that the daycare will be closing permanently at the end of the day because the company was “undergoing a restructuring.”
Gabrielle and her boyfriend both work full-time, and because they were unable to find a new nursery on such short notice, they must rely on Gabrielle’s parents to care for their son for the next month.
The 35-year-old woman from Leeds has found a new daycare for September. She contacted twenty area nurseries, but only four responded that they had openings, two of which are brand-new and so lack Ofsted inspection papers.
Due to her son’s absence from the nursery on the day it closed, they were unable to retrieve his stuff, including his clothing and diapers.
She stated that the closure was especially upsetting for her kid, who had made friends and settled very nicely at the nursery.
The branch’s owner, Welcome Nurseries, filed for bankruptcy earlier this month; six of its 32 locations were liquidated as part of a transaction.
Harriet Butterworth, managing director of Cottontails nursery in Warrington, expressed concern that rising prices would force her to close.
The nursery is operating at a loss and has raised fees twice this year to offset increasing personnel expenses.
Ms. Butterworth stated that she had upped the salary of her lowest-paid employees by 12.5% to attract and retain personnel.
Ms. Butterworth said, “We are competing with the likes of Hermes, Amazon, and even basic retail jobs that pay these extremely high hourly wages and have considerably more flexible hours.”
She stated that the nursery was also experiencing rising food and energy prices, with her gas and electricity bill for the previous quarter reaching £9,000.
To conserve energy, the nursery had to turn off its boiler and reduce its use of the gas oven.
Neil Leitch, the chief executive officer of the Early Years Alliance, stated that in his twenty years of experience in the field, he had “never seen such a crisis in terms of recruitment and retention, as well as cost constraints.”
He cited government underinvestment in the sector as well as rising expenses for electricity, food, and personnel.
In England, parents of children aged three and four are entitled to 15 hours a week of free child care. Families with working parents may also qualify for an additional 15 hours per week of supported early education. However, according to Mr. Leitch, the government did not sufficiently pay this allocation, leaving providers to make up the difference.
As a result, he stated that many providers were forced to increase costs for other parents to cover the cost.
A March study of 2,000 early years providers revealed that 30% were now running at a loss, while 34% anticipated doing so within the next year.
Three years ago, the partnership maintained 132 pre-school settings; today, there are only 65, with more than half having closed due to financial difficulties.
Ofsted reports that the number of nurseries and pre-schools in England decreased by 196 from August 2021 to March of this year.
Jonathan Broadbery of the National Day Businesses Association stated, however, that the situation has deteriorated since March, with nurseries facing increased financial strain.
In England, the minimum wage and National Insurance contributions paid by employers increased in April, while the temporary business rates respite introduced during the pandemic ended.
Mr. Leitch stated that nurseries are also having difficulty recruiting since employees are leaving the industry “in droves” for higher-paying positions because they feel “exhausted and devalued.”
As a result, many companies have increased salaries, but this is not financially sustainable, he continued. Others have been forced to restrict hours or abruptly close due to staffing shortages.
Pregnant Then Screwed reported receiving more than sixty texts from mothers whose child’s nursery had abruptly closed in recent weeks.
The campaign manager of the organization, Lauren Fabianski, stated that many were concerned about their ability to work without daycare.
She said that some nurseries were full until November of next year, making it difficult to find a facility with available spots.
A government spokeswoman stated that over the past five years, the government has spent more than £4 billion annually to assist families with the expense of childcare and that it has not observed a significant number of parents unable to acquire a childcare spot.
She noted that the government has also announced more cash for local governments to boost the hourly rates paid to childcare providers, as well as an increase in funding to assist employers with costs.
