In a letter to PVI providers last week, the council said it was withdrawing the document and that it would be 'inappropriate' to implement the terms until there was 'clarity' about issues of concern. Councillors were due to meet with DfES officials yesterday (19 July).
Kent County Council's cabinet member for education, John Simmonds, told Nursery World, 'We feel the Code of Practice is ambiguous and we are talking to the DfES to see if we can clarify the situation. We recognise the problems faced by a few providers and we are anxious to do all we can to ensure their future. In the meantime we have withdrawn the agreement that we wanted to put in place, pending the outcome of our meeting.'
Shadow education secretary Maria Miller has tabled an Early Day Motion calling for a review of the new funding rules.
Kent nursery school owner Darrell King said a group of Kent providers had written to the DfES to give views on why the Code of Practice is unworkable in advance of the meeting.
She said that she has used the Freedom of Information Act to ask the council to confirm the amount it receives from the Government for the NEG per child, per session.
Liz Norris, who runs St Bart's Pre-School in Sandwich, said, 'We're delighted. It shows that collective action can work.'
Meanwhile, one private nursery has become the first private provider in Richmond, Surrey, to opt out of the NEG. Simon Burman, who with his wife runs The Pre-School Centre in Kingston Upon Thames, said they made the decision because of increased Government 'interference' in the running of the business.
He was told by the council that they are the first PVI provider to opt out.
The centre has 32 childcare places for two- to five-year-olds, with 60 children on the roll. Currently 29 children qualify for funding.
Mr Burman said, 'The main basis for removing ourselves from the NEG is the invasion by stealth of this Government to control every movement, kill off any individual flair, and in my view, to try to wipe out private nursery provision. A lot of providers are losing their three-year-olds much earlier now because the grant can be claimed by nurseries attached to grant-maintained schools. For private providers, what is the benefit of the grant? It only covers one-third of the cost of our fees anyway.'
The level of NEG in Richmond is 7.55 per session.
Mr Burman wrote to parents to canvass opinions before taking the decision to opt out. Only one said they might reduce the number of sessions.
'We don't believe we'll suffer unduly, but this is a decision taken to gain back a resemblance of autonomy, identity and direction for our nursery.
We've taken the option to resign from the NEG and have the single inspection by Ofsted,' he said.