A nursery attached to Chandag infant school in Keynsham has announced it will be opening up more nursery places. This comes as local parents have been campaigning for adequate nursery provision in Keynsham following the closure of several private nurseries in the area.
Futura Learning Partnership, the multi-academy trust responsible for the local infant school following its creation in 2021, confirmed the expansion of its 3-2-4 playgroup. The exact numbers or whether the new places will be available by September 2023 is set to be finalised in the summer.
It is expected that the expansion will double the number of places available for three and four-year-olds at the campus. Families will be able to select part-time provision of 15 hours a week or full-time of 30 hours. Breakfast club and after-school childcare will also be available.
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Parents in Keynsham spoke to Bristol Live about how the childcare crisis has severely impacted Keynsham with one parent having to change nursery schools for her toddler on four occasions after two of his local nursery schools closed. Helen Philpott who at one point had to drive five miles for her son’s nursery school recently wrote a letter to her local MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg which was signed by over 140 parents.
The trust is working with Bath & North East Somerset Council and the Department for Education on detailed proposals for high quality, teacher led provision. The decision to expand follows a survey carried out by Futura Learning Partnership which established a high level of demand from families for early years provision following the closure of some other local provision.
In a recent statement the Trust announced it was “committed to offering seamless education for children aged two to 19” and that the preschool is already “working closely with Chandag Infant School and wraparound childcare on the site.”
In the Conservative government’s spring budget it was announced that the 30 hours free childcare currently available to working parents of three and four year olds will be extended to younger children in 2024 and 2025. Pregnant then Screwed who are campaigning for national childcare reform estimate that nurseries are currently facing a funding shortfall of £1b in delivering the current free provision and in order to extend that an estimated 38,000 childcare practitioners will need to be trained.
A joint report by Coram and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows the Government’s £4 billion plans to invest in childcare will disproportionately benefit families on higher incomes. The charities note that affordable childcare is essential in ‘making work a route out of poverty’ but many low income families do not qualify for the extension in free childcare provision.
The report is calling for 15 funded hours per week during term time for all two-year-olds and 30 hours for all three- and four-year-olds, regardless of income. Megan Jarvie, head of Coram Family and Childcare, told Nursey World: "Disadvantaged children are falling behind before they even start school, a well designed and functioning childcare system can be a key tool in tackling this disadvantage."
Paul May, spokesperson for children and young people at Bath & North East Somerset Council's Liberal Democrat Administration, said: “Nationally the early years education and childcare sector is experiencing a challenge to recruit and retain staff and so the council has been working with local providers, colleges and employment agencies to encourage people to join or return to the sector.
"Very recently we have been supporting potential providers who have approached us about opening new provision in Keynsham, subject to them being able to find appropriate premises and sufficient staff, so we are hopeful that it will not be long until the gap in provision is filled.
“Legislation regarding who should be a provider states that the market must be able to find a solution first, whether that is private, voluntary, independent, childminding or school run provision. A council can only be a provider as a last resort, subject to sufficient demand, economic viability and without unfair subsidy so it is equitable with the rest of the providers operating within the existing market.”
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