Children who have received the grant for three-year-olds and attended daycare during the autumn term may have the grant funding withdrawn from next term. Warwickshire County Council said it was due to a surge in the uptake of nursery places which left limited Department for Education and Skills funding.
Grants will continue to be allocated to children born between 1 January and 31 March 1999, but from next term not all children born after 1 April 1999 will receive it. Grants will be allocated to younger three-year-olds according to the child poverty index, using the ward in which the nursery is located. This means parents using nurseries in South Warwickshire, regarded as a more affluent area, are unlikely to continue to receive funding.
Linda Findon, principal of Cygnets Education and Childcare, estimated that around 25 children attending her nurseries in Stratford-upon-Avon and Tiddington, South Warwickshire, would be affected. She said, 'The county already knew they had limited funds and they mismanaged it. If they had not got enough money to cover everybody for three terms, then they should not have given the funding for the autumn term - then they could give all three-year-olds funding from the spring term.'
She said withdrawing the grant from some children would cause problems because their parents had taken on commitments, including part-time jobs and courses, and had budgeted around getting the grant.
'Some parents can't afford to pay for the childcare and I am worried about the inappropriate childcare arrangements that some may be forced into. It is also going to be very upsetting and unsettling for children who have settled into nursery, only to be removed,' Ms Findon said.
'The nurseries are classed as being in an affluent area, but there are pockets of deprivation and people who live in those areas suffer with these policies.'
Elizabeth Featherstone, early years lead officer for Warwickshire County Council's Education Department, said, 'The Government does not yet fund us at universal level for three-year-olds, so we have never been able to promise a free term of nursery education for all. This, together with the increased uptake of nursery grant over the last two terms, has led to the potential shortfall. We are doing all we can to rectify the situation.'