2020 has certainly been a year of economic disruption and the global pandemic has caused the UK’s worst recession on record. The UK’s Labour party has warned the economic recovery could be delayed, unless emergency funding is provided to help nurseries and childcare providers hit by the coronavirus crisis.
Shadow education minister Tulip Siddiq has urged the government to provide extra funding to nurseries as she warned mass closures could lead to parents losing their jobs due to a lack of childcare. It comes as warnings that pre-schools, nurseries and childminders could shut their doors permanently as a result of the pandemic.
She 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 were asked to begin welcoming children back from June 1 after months of lockdown. But the latest DfE figures show that, as of July 9, just 414,000 children were attending – around 25% of the usual number.
Without childcare and parents being able to go back to work, it will be a slower recovery back to normal for the UK.
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