82,000 parents miss out in nursery places chaos
MORE than 80,000 parents who are entitled to extra free childcare have yet to secure a nursery place amid a website meltdown and concerns over funding.
From Friday, working parents of three and four-year- olds are to be given 30 hours of taxpayer-funded nursery time – double the 15 they currently get.
The flagship Tory scheme aims to help women back to work and ease the pressure on family finances.
Ministers have promised to invest an additional £1billion a year in childcare for three and four-year-olds by 2019-20.
But there are fears that many parents could lose out on their entitlement because of problems with signing up and funding issues in nurseries.
Yesterday, a letter emerged from the Department for Education to local authorities which revealed that 82,000 parents entitled to the extra childcare have not yet secured a place.
Those wanting to take up the offer must obtain a code from a website run by HM Revenue & Customs, but many have been hindered by technical glitches. Last week, the Daily Mail revealed how HMRC had admitted that 2,600 families are still waiting for applications to be approved.
In a letter to Treasury select committee chairman Nicky Morgan, HMRC also said it had received 1,507 complaints about the website, more than 90 per cent of which were about IT problems.
The Pre- school Learning Alliance, which represents nurseries, estimates there is a 20 per cent shortfall in the Whitehall funding being given to nurseries for the scheme. Under the existing 15 hours scheme, nurseries can make up the shortfall by charging parents more for the rest of the time.
But when the number of free hours is doubled, nurseries that have signed up to the scheme will be unable to charge extra for additional hours since many families do not require more than 30 hours a week of childcare.
One in five providers surveyed by the National Day Nurseries Association, a childcare charity, are not offering the free 30 hours because they cannot afford it. And more than half of those that are participating in the scheme are having to increase parents’ costs or restrict the places on offer.
Some nurseries say they have been forced to close because they could not afford to take part.
Carol Medcalf, owner of Carol Jane Montessori Nursery School in Enfield, north London, said yesterday that the scheme was ‘doomed to failure’.
Yesterday, a survey of 660 childcare providers by Tracy Brabin, Labour’s early years spokesman, showed that three- quarters expect the policy to have a negative impact on their business.
‘I’m deeply concerned that many children won’t have access to the quality childcare they deserve – and that parents were promised,’ she told The Observer.
An HMRC spokesman said: ‘More than 200,000 parents have successfully applied for a childcare account. We know that some parents and childcare providers have experienced difficulties
‘The scheme is doomed to failure’
accessing the service and we are sorry about the inconvenience.
‘We’ve made significant improvements. Nobody need lose out as a result of the technical issues.’
A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘We are determined to support as many families as possible with access to highquality, affordable childcare.
‘We are investing… an additional £1billion per year by 2019-20 to pay for the free offers and to raise the national hourly rate to local authorities for three and four-yearolds to £4.94. This is far higher than the average hourly cost, which research has found to be £3.72.’