CEY0338

Written evidence submitted by Georgie’s Childcare

I am a childcare provider. I run a small independent setting with an assistant.

I am considering closing my setting towards the end of this year mainly due to the inconsistency’s and unfair way in which we are treated and presented in the educational world along with serious financial strain. I find that the early year is expected to be a highly trained and skilled profession by Ofsted and the government with a lot of guidelines and regulations forced upon them, yet we are treated as third rate citizens at best in terms of funding, advertisement, careers and status in the educational world.

Affordability:

In terms of the clients affording childcare, it isn’t the most affordable part of anyone’s finances. As a parent who paid for childcare not so long ago I struggled to keep on top of our family finances and my second largest bill per month was childcare, however I accepted this as I needed to work and I chose to have a child so this was a cost I made sure I could afford before having a child. However I’ve not gone on to have a second child because of this cost and the effect of having to take maternity leave on my business. I can’t afford to be off work due to the current cost of living and therefor I can’t afford to have a second child. This saddens me terribly and has a huge impact on my mental health but I literally have no choice.

Affordability from my business point of view:

As a business, my setting is open for 11 hours a day Monday to Friday. I work roughly for 14 hours per day Monday to Friday. I employ one person. I am struggling massively. My running costs have increased so much this past year and are still increasing. I had to put my fees up this year and consequently have lost clients due to this. I am finding that new clients are only looking for 2-4 days per week and hardly anyone is looking for full time. This makes it very hard to fill a full time space which means we have gaps in a space which means that we have a lower overall income. It’s not easy to fill a full time space with 3 maybe 4 clients as you need days:hours to all marry up so you are within ratios. So this means my income is slowly decreasing and the outgoings are still increasing exponentially. I am very worried.

Challenges in the Early years;

I am facing a number of challenges as a provider.

Covid really had a huge impact and it’s very hard to get moving again even now. I’ve found that people have found better paid professions during this time or retrained and the childcare profession is not appealing anymore. You have to work very hard in this job, it carries a lot of responsibilities for very little reward financially or otherwise, therefor people do not find this profession attractive and I don’t blame them!

Funded entitlement:

I find the funded hours very misleading for both parents and providers and they come at a cost to the provider whom can not afford to loose income. I run at a £2.13 loss for every hour of funded care provided. I can only afford to offer 3 funded spaces within my setting because of this, but I am considering stopping offering funding completely as of September sure to this. Year to date I’ve lost £7285.60 due to funded spaces. This does not make business sense.

The funded education is falsely advertised and should not state that it is “free”. We are told by our local authorities that the funded care only cover the care nothing else and to charge a top of fee to cover all other amenities that we provide. Having to explain this to parents put our integrity and ethically stance in question I feel and make us look awful. It would be of great benefit if the funded hours were explained as subsidised childcare not free child care. On childcare choices it needs to be clear that the government subsidies up to 30 hours of childcare for up to 38 week of the year. It should have a link to each local authority so they can see how much per hour is subsidised. I feel that honesty and clarity in this profession is one of the main downfalls. I do feel it is a great scheme and it does massively help parents but it needs to be explained correctly and advertised honestly. If it was then people could correctly work out their own financial situations, and make their money work better from both a business and personal front.

I don’t feel the training funding pot that the government is putting forward is worthwhile. Childcare has always had to have trained staff that are constantly training and learning and bettering themselves and there are a lot of ways of doing this and it’s a cost as a company that we have each year regardless. I feel that money could be better spent elsewhere and I feel by promoting this you are again putting the professionalism of the industry into compromise by suggesting that it’s not trained enough when the reality is we are over trained and under funded/Paid.

I think Ofsted is a massive problem. They are inconsistent and force fear on to settings. They carry far too much power and cause an incredibly high level of stress and upset when on site. I appreciate the industry needs to be regulated but I feel Ofsted need to be reformed hugely! There needs to be clear differences in the way different settings are inspected. A way a childminder can run would be very different to a way pre school runs. There should be different division and different guidance for this. They should also be held accountable for their downfalls and inconsistencies. It really does depend on who you have turn up on the day as to how that inspection will go and that should not be the case.

I think early years over prepares children for school. I have had school recently day that the things we do in setting is far more than needed and that they start from zero when a child attends year R and will make their own assessments and judgements on children. I feel we push children to be “school ready”. No other country does this and it shows the lack of understanding in a child’s development.

I see on a day to fay basis how the sure start centre reductions have impacted family’s lives. As a young family people need support and the sure start centres gave this in abundance. We find ourselves as a setting now offering advice and re assurance and help to parents and family’s daily for things that are far outside our professional stance but when you are looking a lost parent who is struggling you have no choice but to help where as in the past we would of suggested they sought some help at a sure start centre.  It’s a real shame they have gone.

January 2023