The UK’s emergence from the coronavirus crisis could be hit by a wave of nursery closures which would prevent many parents from going back to work, Labour is warning.
With a quarter of pre-schools, nurseries and childminders warning that they may not survive the crisis, shadow children’s minister Tulip Siddiq has called for financial support targeted at the sector.
Writing in The Independent, Ms Siddiq said it was “hard to see how our economy can properly recover from Covid-19” without adequate access to childcare.
She pointed to statistics showing that more than 14,000 childcare providers had been lost over the past five years in England alone.
And she said that no specific help had been made available to remaining providers struggling with reduced income and higher costs during the pandemic.
Speaking ahead of a visit to a nursery in London on Thursday, Ms Siddiq said: “Childcare is absolutely essential for working parents and to our economic recovery from coronavirus.
“But it has been ignored by the government in this crisis, with the early years sector consistently excluded from support packages.
“We were already losing hundreds of nurseries and childminders every month before this crisis hit, due to years of underfunding. We can’t afford for any more to close, but that is precisely what will happen unless the government targets support properly on sectors like childcare.
“It’s time for ministers to get serious about supporting families in this pandemic and step in with a proper plan to save the childcare sector.”
Early years providers are unable to get support for “exceptional costs associated with coronavirus” such as additional cleaning or staffing required for safety and they have been excluded from the £1bn of Covid ‘catch-up’ funding announced in June, said Labour.
A survey of 3,000 pre-schools, nurseries and childminders by the Early Years Alliance in April found that 25 per cent thought it “somewhat” or “very” unlikely that they would be operating in 12 months’ time.
