The Comprehensive Spending Review has been announced, but the wait is not over as some of the detail about the plans and cuts have yet to emerge.
It is, of course, good news for families that the free entitlement for threeand four-year-olds is to continue, and it's great that all disadvantaged two-year-olds will have this support. However, the CSR has not answered a fundamental issue, in that funding for free places continues to threaten sustainability and the sector's ability to provide these places. NDNA is continuing to highlight how solving this issue is critical, so that a 'free' entitlement is free to the provider as well as the parent, and also to ensure that nurseries can continue to be able to offer the free sessions sustainably for parents in work or training.
Under the CSR, the contribution to childcare from working tax credits is being reduced from 80 per cent to 70 per cent, and parents must work at least 24 hours between them to qualify. NDNA is concerned that this could hit some of the poorest parents the most, and lead to children being unable to access high-quality nurseries. As part of this, we are saying to Government that the move to a universal welfare credit system is also an opportunity to show how direct payments for tax credits can support families.
It is important that as a sector, we consider what has not been said. We were pleased that there was no mention of any change to the childcare voucher scheme; NDNA pressed for this valuable source of support to continue. However, it remains uncertain what the impact of spending changes may be on workforce development programmes such as Early Years Professional Status.
There is further uncertainty around the fall-out from the CSR.
Many nurseries based in areas where there is a heavy reliance on the public sector for employment will be concerned by news that almost half a million jobs might go. Cuts in local authority budgets may also see some of the local training and support for nurseries start to shrink.
NDNA is also concerned that local authorities' ability to borrow against future rises in business rates could mean that nurseries are penalised again with further increases.
Although the nursery sector appears not to have fallen victim to the worst possible level of cuts, seemingly irrelevant cuts and developments in one way or another have every potential to affect nurseries, as they rely on employment trends and the general state of the economy.
However, nurseries are critical to economic recovery and the ability of families to make work pay. It will take some time to understand what implications the CSR has for all of us. NDNA is continuing to share its message that nurseries are here to stay, and here to make a difference - and the Government absolutely must recognise their critical role as we move towards economic recovery.
We will be supporting our members in sharing their views, and continuing to press for this sector to get the support that it needs so that nurseries can continue to play their vital role in enabling the economy to recover.
Claire Schofield is director of policy membership and communications at the NDNA