. The Government says it is putting an extra £160m into early years this year. But new analysis from the IFS says funding is not keeping up with rising energy bills amid the cost-of-living crisis. It means nurseries will potentially be faced with the choice to either raise their prices or close. Christine Farquharson, a senior research economist at the IFS, told the BBC: "The more that childcare providers struggle to make the free entitlement work for them financially on the funding rate the government gives them, the more they have to look at a menu of quite unpalatable options. "That might include limiting access to the children who can get their free entitlement, it might include raising prices on children in other age groups - particularly one and two-year-olds - or, in the worst cases, it might include going out of business entirely." Geoff Parkes, whose family run two nurseries in West Yorkshire, has already raised prices and is going to have put them up again. He said: "We're looking at the cost of the business absolutely ruthlessly, in terms of how can we save more energy?" He added that some parents have had to stop sending their children, while others have been cutting down on the number of hours they send them in each week. Geoff thinks it is vital that parents know that the prices have to rise to keep up the quality of provision, which inc){kind=link}
PARENTS are facing a massive rise in nursery costs and cuts to free childcare after a dire warning.
It comes as soaring costs and staff shortages have seen childcare provision reach crisis point.
Staff are leaving nurseries at an alarming rate and more than eight in ten early years providers are struggling to recruit sufficient numbers.
And now government spending on free childcare for young children in England is set to fall by 8% in real terms over the next two years, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
The Government says it is putting an extra £160m into early years this year.