Government-funded nurseries are facing a crisis which is threatening their survival, according to a survey by leading unions and charities
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A third of maintained nurseries, which are financed and controlled by local authorities, are cutting staff and services because of the impact of, and uncertainty over the funding they will receive in the next school year, the survey found. They are losing an average of £70,000 of income, but have to spend an extra £8,000 for additional COVID-related costs, the poll by Early Education, NAHT, NEU and UNISON says.relief schemes which help the private sector. And unions say they've had little or no access to the extra COVID funds provided to schools.
"What has happened is there's been incentives to support schools and to support early years private sector but the maintained sector has fallen in the gap and as a result of that we've been challenged financially by the fact that a lot of our COVID costs haven't been refunded by any incentives," said Cathy Earley, head teacher of Greenacre Community School in Bootle.She said that the work she and her staff did during the pandemic went well beyond the classroom.
"We were a lifeline and we were picking up situations that families were in. So if families were isolating and had no one to get shopping or couldn't get a Tesco delivery we would help with that, sometimes single parents who were isolating with their families were on their own. And we were the only voice at the end of the phone sometimes."