Rosemary Murphy, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, responded to concerns raised at its conference last week by warning that the failure of local authorities to consult with the private sector could lead to "an unintended drop in capacity".
She said it was vital to ensure that existing day nurseries were not undermined as they account for 80 per cent of provision.
One delegate who runs a day nursery in the northeast said she only found out about a proposed new children's centre through a friend, despite her commitment to a multi-agency approach.
She didn't believe there was a need for extra childcare places and accused her local council of wasting money in duplicating provision in order to meet targets. "Locking children's centres to school premises wastes pre-vious investment in day nurseries," she added.
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