Collaborate with private and voluntary sector or risk loss of childcare, councils warned

The call comes after the case of a Montessori nursery in North East Lincolnshire, which is fighting the local authority’s decision to place strict criteria on providers delivering 15 hours of free childcare for three- and four-year-olds.

Manager of the nursery Nathan Archer has lodged an official complaint after North East Lincolnshire Council sent out a revised provider agreement for settings signed up to the free entitlement, to be implemented from September.

Archer voiced concern that nurseries are being asked to change the way they deliver the free hours so that they they have to be offered as a minimum of three five hour sessions a week or five three hour sessions a week. Archer said this will leave him struggling to sustain the business.

“It seems to me that there is a lack of recourse and accountability in that the officers have made these conditions, but not consulted with private and voluntary providers or had any kind of early years reference group,” he said.

“It looks like I will have to concede, but it seriously jeopardises our sustainability and as a consequence we are thinking that we may not engage in the two-year-old offer if they are being so prescriptive about delivery.”

Archer said that as a community nursery, the idea of not being able to participate in the free entitlement is upsetting.

“It doesn’t sit comfortably with me because we started as a neighbourhood nursery in a disadvantaged area, but we have quite a mix of families in terms of those who pay for extra hours and those who just take the funded sessions,” he explained.

“We have an outstanding grading which we are achieving despite the local authority only giving us £3.28 an hour in funding. They are tying our hands even further and it is wrong that they are not brokering any kind of relationships or asking us what they can do to support us to become more flexible, or offering business support.”

North East Lincolnshire Council has said it is unable to comment on the issue as the official complaint is still ongoing.

Denise Burke, director of the Good Care Guide and United for All Ages, said it is essential that councils work closely with the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector otherwise smaller settings will struggle to remain involved in the delivery of the free entitlement.

“We think it is really key that local authorities keep the private and voluntary sector completely on board if they are going to add their own criteria to the funding because the bulk of three and four-year-old places are in the PVI sector,” she said.

“Equally we know there isn’t the capacity out there to fill all the two-year-old places by 2013 and then 2014. Local authorities seem to be quite happily putting on extra criteria without seeing the consequences of them.

“It shows total disregard for the code of practice because it isn’t about all providers having to offer the flexibility of the 15 hours in anyone particular way. If it is not financially viable, which is what it is going to come down to for most providers, or it doesn’t fit in the way they work with their staffing then it is not going to work.”