Salisbury nursery boss warns of childcare staffing crisis

There are fears that the Covid-19 pandemic could create a staffing crisis across the childcare sector.

The boss of Tops Day Nurseries, Cheryl Hadland, has been raising her concerns, and is calling on the Government to step up the support for businesses like theirs.

The company runs childcare facilities across Southern England, including the one at Salisbury District Hospital.

Cheryl Hadland wants to see the sector given help to survive the Covid-19 crisis:

"Our staff are very precious people - we've invested a lot of time and effort into their training, their support, their mental health - so if we have to say to people 'I'm sorry we don't need you for a few months', that's going to be tough. I recognise that's the same the entire country or the entire world at the moment.

"Our people are very low paid. Nearly 50% of nursery staff are on benefits as well, so they don't have the reserves that people in well paid jobs have. The reason they're paid so badly is that the funding rates from Government, via the local authorities are also very bad."

Nurseries have seen a big drop in the number of children attending since the pandemic hit.

That's partly due to social distancing measures, but also because some families would rather keep their children at home at this time.

An increase in parents working from home is also having an impact, and the furlough scheme is due to come to an end later this month, which could lead to redundancies across the sector.

Cheryl Hadland from Tops Day Nurseries says there could be a solution:

"Unless something changes, I'm sure we'll see lots of closures. It just depends really on the Government - if they can fund us a proper amount per child that would help significantly, because then we might be able to generate enough that we can stay open through the crisis."