Last week I visited Alconbury pre-school to discuss the challenges they face as an early years provider. There was also time for a quick Show & Tell with the story of how we adopted our dog from Romania.
The pre-school is a key part of the Alconbury community, providing a much-needed resource, supporting local families, and those in temporary accommodation, in a rural village. Without it young families in Alconbury would face a much harder, and more expensive, effort to place children in a pre-school.
As with other settings across the sector the pre-school receives £5.66p/h for 3-4 year olds from Cambridgeshire County Council, which doesn’t match the £7.00p/h fee rate. As such the solution offered by the Council is to limit funded places to families, but the pre-school have highlighted that this is incompatible with a charity community-based model.
The pre-school is also faced with significant challenges posed by its current location. Alconbury Memorial Hall recently raised the rent for the pre-school by 23%, as well as the addition of a monthly utility charge previously included in the rent. They also no longer have access to storage space which was also removed at the same time. This, coupled with the rise in national insurance costs in the last budget, has caused significant financial pressure. I will be writing to the Alconbury Memorial Hall trustees in order to understand the rationale for the rental rise.
I am keen to support the pre-school in order to ensure that current, and future, families are able to rely upon the presence of this crucial resource.
