YMCA, the largest charity provider of childcare in the UK, is closing four nurseries at the end of the month, and warns more could close, as years of underfunding and rates for 2023-24 leave early years providers ‘buckling under the strain’.
YMCA is calling on the Department for Education to reconsider the Early Years National Funding Formula (EYNFF) allocations for 2023/24, which fall well below that of inflation and the National Living Wage.
The charity said that providers are having to make ‘difficult decisions’ about their early years settings amid rising costs and underfunding.
Eight in ten YMCA childcare settings said they were unable to deliver childcare at the funding rate provided by their local authority, prior to the publication of the 2023/24 funding rates.
