The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) has said nurseries that cancel their membership and close down are increasingly citing underfunding for the flagship government initiative as the cause.
Its records showed 73 settings closed their doors between September 2016 and August 2017. This number rose by 66 per cent to 121 from September 2017 to August 2018 after the scheme was introduced.
Under the government's 30 hours childcare initiative, around 330,000 three- and four-year-olds receive 30 hours of funded childcare a week.
The government provides an hourly funding rate to cover the costs, but NDNA observed that 71 per cent of nurseries that closed in the past year were in areas where the hourly rate was less than £5 an hour. In 44 per cent of cases, the nurseries received the lowest funding rate of £4.30 an hour.
The association said it observed clusters of closures specifically around London, Lancashire and the West Midlands. It said that, overall, the closures left about 5,000 children without an early years setting to attend.
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