Bedford YMCA nursery parents angry at 250% rise in fees

Friends Adam and Fran have been shocked by the increase in childcare costs

Parents of children attending a nursery run by the YMCA have said price increases of up to 250% meant childcare had become "unaffordable".

The One YMCA Wootton Community Nursery in Bedford said it had been forced to put up prices as it was facing increased bills.

Under new terms and conditions, parents would have to pay all year round, in line with many other private providers.

The charity-run nursery said it would try and help struggling families.

The Wootton site is one of three nurseries run by the YMCA in the town.

Families said they would now have to pay a full year's fees, even if they only used the nursery in term time and not during school holidays.

Adam, whose daughter Abigail attends the Wootton nursery, said the "disproportionate" increase meant his monthly fees would go from £217 to £761, an extra £6,000 a year.

"We were realistic and had expected some degree of change in the pricing within the current [economic] landscape," he said.

Adam said parents had been given four weeks' notice of the price increase and changes to terms and conditions

Fran's children, Henry and Annabel, also attend the nursery in Wootton, but she said only her son would continue as the cost had become "unaffordable".

Her mother would help take care of Annabel, she said.

"If I didn't have my mum, I would either have to quit my job or I suppose get myself into debt paying for childcare until Henry went to school in September," she said.

The YMCA said rising business costs and staff shortages meant it had been forced to change its prices and terms and conditions as it had been facing losses.

Posters were left on one of the three nursery fences run by the YMCA charity in Bedford

Guy Foxell, chief executive of the YMCA nurseries, said it would try to work with families and attempt to help some through "other areas of our charity".

"We're not here to see families enter a significant challenge, and we will work with them as flexibly as we possibly can," he said.

"But we have to recognise there's a significant funding pressure here, and the way that we are able to carry on to deliver the sort of care that we want to... can only be funded by a change to the business model."

The nursery body, Early Years Alliance, said it had seen many members forced to increase prices, and blamed the government for not making more funding available over recent decades.

Chief executive Neil Leitch said the government had effectively "abandoned the sector".

He said nurseries had been losing staff "in droves" because they could not afford to pay them enough money.

"We have never experienced a retention and recruitment crisis like the one we are experiencing now," Mr Leitch said.

He said staff had told him they left the sector as they were "exhausted and undervalued".

In a statement the Department for Education said: "We have spent more than £3.5bn in each of the last three years to deliver the free childcare offers, including the 30 hours per week for working parents - and we will continue to support families with their childcare costs.

"We are increasing the hourly rates that childcare providers will receive, reflecting the costs many employers face, including rising wages for their staff, and have already announced a package of up to £180m to provide better training and support for staff working with pre-school children, as part of our education recovery programme."

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