CYP Now - Early years providers urged to check for council underspends

Early years providers could secure themselves a base rate increase by probing their council's childcare funding plans for budgetary underspends, the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) has said.

The NDNA issued the advice following the success of its early years network in Sheffield, which secured a 4p funding increase after identifying an £800,000 underspend by the city council for its early years budget for 2018/19.

The surplus money was discovered by the network's chair Karen Simpkin after she downloaded the council's "nursery funded early learning indicative budget", detailing how much money would be given per child in each early years setting, including deprivation supplements.

Simpkin presented her calculations to the council and, as a result, the network's members were awarded the boost, taking their rate from £4.10 to £4.14.

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