Perfect storm behind nursery closure, says CEO

Challengers announced last week that its pre-school at Stoke Park, Guildford, was to close in the summer

The chief executive of a charity-run pre-school in Surrey said a "perfect storm" of recruitment issues and funding challenges is to blame for its upcoming closure.

Challengers pre-school based at its play centre in Stoke Park, Guildford, is to close at the end of the 2024 summer term.

Gennie Dearman told BBC Surrey: "Costs are increasing, including real living wage increases. We’re in receipt of the government funded hours and they’re just not covering the costs."

She added that three staff members and 17 children, who are too young to be going to school in September, were affected by the closure.

Ms Dearman said: "It's so sad, we don't want to shut any services so it's with a very heavy heart.

"We’re not seeing enough qualified staff coming into the sector and we lose out on qualified staff to private nurseries and preschools who can afford to pay more. It’s been a perfect storm for the last few years."

She added that Challengers was "doing everything we can" to work with staff and families to find "suitable alternative" settings, including at the charity's Farnham site.

The Early Years Alliance said early years workers were leaving the sector "exhausted, overworked and grossly underpaid"

A report by Ofsted in December found hundreds of early years providers in the south east had closed down.

Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance which represents the pre-school and nursery sector, told BBC Surrey: "In recent years, we've had record closures and a recruitment and retention crisis we've never witnessed before.

"What Gennie is seeing is across the whole country, we've had a decade of neglect for this sector."

Mr Leitch said from the alliance's research the most common reason for colleagues leaving the sector and causing recruitment problems was "feeling undervalued, particularly by government".

"They feel exhausted, overworked and grossly underpaid. I think we should be ashamed that the vast majority of people who educate and shape the lives of our youngest children are only earning minimum wage," he said.

The Department for Education (DfE) has been contacted for comment.

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