Through several years of providing the free entitlement for four-year-olds, then three-year-olds, often at a financial cost to themselves, private and voluntary settings have voiced their concerns, protested and lobbied at the rate of funding - but the vast majority have stuck with the Government programme.
Even the prospect of the single funding formula and the extension of the free entitlement to 15 hours seemed to have produced little fall-out, until now. After all, early years settings have been caught between a rock and a hard place, losing income by offering the free places, but possibly likely to lose more if they refuse. That might all be about to change as the extension rolls out this year and local authorities delay or become pathfinders for the single funding formula. For some settings, faced with going out of business under the new code of practice, it now looks preferable to pull out of the scheme.
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