With many settings reliant on funded entitlements, if the rates are not in line with delivery costs they can have a significant impact on sustainability. With rising business costs, the funding regime has created an extremely challenging environment. Working within the national operational guidance and any local authority interpretation of this, settings will need to dedicate time and resources to ensure they are compliant with the requirements while remaining financially viable.
It is advisable to invest time in experimenting with budgets based on different scenarios. For instance, whether changes in opening hours, days, number or ages of children, fee levels and charges for additional services or consumables and other identified opportunities would result in an improved and more viable budget. It is important to understand the impact on costs resulting from such changes, particularly premises and wages.
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