You are here: News Many childcare providers face big financial problems as a result of the pandemic

4th September 2020
By Megan Jarvie

New research, funded by the Nuffield Foundation and carried out by a team of researchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the University of Birmingham, Frontier Economics, Coram Family and Childcare, and the University of Surrey, analyses how childcare providers’ finances are likely to have been affected by the lockdown, and how they might look going forward. It finds that more than double the number of private sector nurseries than pre-pandemic would have been running at a significant deficit during lockdown, with less than £4 in income for every £5 of costs. This is despite government support through continued public funding and the substantial furlough and self-employment schemes.

Megan Jarvie, Head of Coram Family and Childcare said:

Childcare is a crucial part of our infrastructure allowing parents to work and helping to boost children’s incomes. Although the pandemic has shown how reliant we are on childcare for a reliable workforce, this analysis also shows the financial knock the already troubled childcare market has faced as a result of lockdown.

While so much is still unknown about what happens next, it is essential that Government make sure that every family are still able to access the childcare they need and that the cost burden of lockdown is not passed on to parents.”

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For more information, please contact Emma Lamberton, Communications Manager, Coram at emma.lamberton@coram.org.uk / 0207 520 0427 /07908 827908 or Bonnie Brimstone, Head of Communications, Institute of Fiscal Studies at bonnie_b@ifs.org.uk. 

Read the report

About Coram Family and Childcare

Coram Family and Childcare works to make the UK a better place for families by bringing together what we learn from our on the ground parent-led programmes and our research to campaign for solutions that parents want and need. We focus on childcare and early years to make a difference to families’ lives now and in the long term.

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