The question of whether floor space ratios burden providers unnecessarily and if relaxing the regulations would bring down the cost of childcare was raised at a National Day Nurseries Association focus group on the Childcare Commission on behalf of the Department for Education in September.
Nursery owners had mixed views about whether it would be beneficial to reduce floor space ratios for two-year-olds to allow early years providers to offer more free places without any additional cost.
A survey by the Pre-School Learning Alliance in June of more than 1,000 nurseries and pre-schools found that 79 per cent would not be prepared to invest capital to increase their capacity for two-year-olds.
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