Features

Nursery Management: Free entitlement - Can it add up?

Reports from authorities piloting the Early Years Single Funding Formula suggest the allocation may fail to level the playing field across PVI and maintained sectors, reports Mary Evans.

Over the next six months nursery managers will learn from their local authorities what they can expect to be paid under the new Early Years Single Funding Formula for providing the free entitlement to nursery education from April 2010.

The hope is that councils will be able to devise formulae which will be fairer and easier to comprehend than the nursery education grant, which left so many private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector providers out of pocket.

Yet the omens are not all good. Guidance issued by the Government last month, drawn from the experience of 11 pilot authorities, recognises PVI managers' anxieties about affordability and whether the rates paid will be set high enough to maintain the sustainability of their settings.

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