Dean Martin’s three-year-old son only started at nursery in September, but has settled in almost immediately. That is not surprising when you hear the phrase his father uses to describes the staff at the maintained nursery in Croydon: “Child whisperers.”
“They’re brilliant, highly qualified and absolutely fantastic with kids,” says Martin, who is 47 and an ecologist. “They’re not in it for the money – they love to help young children flourish.”
So, like many parents of young children in Croydon, Martin was devastated to learn last month that the council had launched a consultation to reduce the number of maintained nurseries in the London borough.
Almost a third of nurseries run by not-for-profit organisations have shut their doors in the poorest areas of England, a Guardian analysis of 18,000 childcare providers in England has revealed. The figures come against a backdrop of experts saying the childcare sector risks becoming a “playground for private equity”, with investment funds more than doubling their stake in the sector within a period of four years.
Meanwhile, the government’s plan to massively expand its free childcare provision has been labelled “undeliverable” by the sector, as hundreds of nurseries across England surveyed this summer said it would lead to a chronic shortage of places and parents having to pay.
Parents told the Guardian about their struggles to find places for their children, as nurseries shut amid funding shortfalls and staff shortages.
