Nurseries and pre-schools in Portsmouth set for £2,700 grants for Covid recovery

The city council is set to award early years providers with a one-off payment of £2,700, as well as £500 for childminders, for their ‘continued recovery’ from the coronavirus pandemic.

Some nurseries and pre-schools saw attendance rates drop to less than a quarter this year, once they reopened in June, and others faced rising costs due to essential PPE.

Cheryl Hadland, the founder and owner of Tops Day Nursery – which has several sites around the city, said it had been a ‘hellish year’.

‘We would be delighted to have some extra funding because nurseries are really struggling,’ she said.

‘The numbers at our QA Hospital nursery have been okay but our one at the Lakeside offices where lots of people are now working from home we have seen the number of children go from 4,000 to 800.

‘And we have had no help paying for things like PPE.’

The owner of Rainbow Corner Day Nursery in Southsea, Lucy Whitehead, added: ‘It's been a difficult time.

‘The real concern is how next spring is going to be. Some parents sadly lost their jobs and others have found they've been able to work from home and keep the children at home as well. And others are nervous about letting their children come to nursery.

‘And we've always used PPE for certain things like nappy changes but during the pandemic we’ve found the price of our usual stock has gone up as much as three times.’

Payments are set to cost the council around £300,000. The money will come by directing money from the government’s Dedicated Schools Grant for schools that have already closed for a non-public health reason.

Councillor Suzy Horton, Portsmouth City Council’s education boss, said: ‘Early years is such a crucial part of the development of every single child.

‘We are really proud of the high quality settings we have in the city and anything we can do to support them we will do.’

There are currently 88 group-based providers and 83 childminders in Portsmouth.

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