More nurseries 'at risk of closing' in South Yorkshire due to a lack of staff
Staff at the Toy Box nursery in Sheffield tell us the sector has been 'forgotten about' since the coronavirus pandemic
We're told more people are deciding to leave the early years education sector in South Yorkshire for 'better paid' jobs elsewhere.
Jaime Foster runs the Toy Box nursery in Sheffield.
She says it's left many businesses on the brink of going under following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic:
"There's been several nurseries across Sheffield that have closed or have had to limit what rooms they're opening because they've not got the staff to have the children in.
"We're a very small, family run nursery, so we focus a lot more on making it affordable for parents as well, so we don't charge a lot of money and therefore we don't get a great amount of cash that we can then pass down to staff.
"This makes things difficult, as we can't really compete with the pay or holidays that come with primary education.
"A lot of staff members from our sector have gone to work in primary education instead for those reasons."
Meanwhile, Jaime also says less people are looking to build a career in the industry:
"Colleges are struggling to recruit for their early years courses and apprentices as well.
"Therefore, not only is it difficult getting qualified members of staff; it's also hard to find apprentices as well."