Providers tell MPs about objections to single funding

Appearing before the cross-party Commons children, schools and families committee, Megan Pacey, chief executive of Early Education, said that the EYSFF is a 'no-win situation for everybody'.

From April next year the EYSFF will be used to calculate funding for the free entitlement across all sectors. However, some maintained nursery schools that have been offering free, full-time provision are facing huge budget cuts once the EYSFF is implemented and will only be funded to provide the 15-hour free entitlement, in line with other sectors (News, 7 October).

Ms Pacey said, 'The feeling I'm getting from my membership is that I have people in the maintained sector who are losing somewhere between 20 and 35 per cent of their budget almost overnight, and that's having a huge impact. At the same time I've got private sector members on the telephone telling me that what has been proposed under the single funding formula might add pennies to their bottom line and they need a lot more than pennies to deliver what the EYSFF is all about. Now that strikes me that's it's not working for anybody. I think it's time to put the brakes on, reassess the whole situation, really look properly at what this is about and take it forward from there.'