Charlotte Roles, who runs Dimples Day Nursery near Dartford, has warned early years providers will struggle to survive if the government doesn't rethink changes to its 'free' childcare provision.
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00:00As a sector, we have always been underfunded. That's not a new issue. It's an ongoing issue.
00:06We're actually underfunded by about three pounds an hour. We work out at the moment and the
00:10government are expecting us just to fund that shortfall. And it's just something that we
00:16cannot do. We can't stay sustainable as a business. And that's, I'm talking for all early years
00:21provision. They, unfortunately, if something doesn't change, we're going to either see
00:27settings closing their doors, early years provisions, childminders closing their doors,
00:32et cetera, or we're going to see lots of provision and settings opting out of offering the funded
00:38hours, which is ultimately going to have a negative impact on parents because it's going
00:42to either mean that parents have to pay more for the childcare costs, or they're going to simply
00:48have to pull children out of early years, which is going to have negative effects because they're
00:52probably going to have to reduce their hours or days at work, et cetera. So the government
00:57really need to see that quality and free cannot come in the same statement.