Nursery cuts 'will force families out of Hackney'

Cuts to nursery subsidies will force families to leave an east London borough, parents have said.

More than 170 parents came together to oppose planned cuts to childcare subsidies funded by Hackney Council, staging a protest outside Hackney Town Hall on Monday evening.

From September, families with a combined income of £55,000 will no longer receive subsidies from the council towards their childcare provision.

Parents are calling on the council to re-think the move, but Hackney Council says the changes have been timed to take place at the same time as the national expansion of government-funded childcare so that the impact on families is as low as possible.

Luisa is a university lecturer and lives with her partner in Hackney. Their daughter Leila attends nursery full-time.

From September, if the planned changes go through, the family will be paying an extra £400 a month, says Luisa.

"We didn't expect this from this council," she says.

"To know when the kids turn three there should be a significant decrease and there will be an increase, we feel a little bit betrayed."

Italian-born Luisa says Hackney is a place with a lot of international people.

"We don't have families to support us so the children's centres need to be in place, to allow us to pay the mortgage and rent as the cost of housing is incredibly high here."

She says it will drive people out of the borough.

It is a sentiment echoed by another parent Paul. He has a child in nursery and his wife is pregnant.

He says: "It makes childcare unaffordable, we're having to drop our daughter down to three times a week as that is all we can afford instead of full-time.

"It is going to mean a real drop in our income which means our kids are losing out."

He adds: "We've been waiting all this time for 30 hours funded, it's pointless, you wait till they are two and you get 30 hours funded childcare and somehow people going to be paying even more than they are already paying."

Hackney announced the change in a letter to parents in April.

In the letter, the authority said it would keep the subsidies in place for families with an income of less than £55,000.

Families in Band 1 who earn up to £34,000 receive up to 64% subsidy.

Families in Band 2 who earn between £34,000 and £55,000 receive a subsidy of up to 58%.

In a change to the banding system, they are withdrawing the subsidies from Children's Centre Fee Bands 3 (£55-69,999), 4 (£70,000 - £99,999) and 5 (£100,000). They also say children in need will continue to receive childcare support.

In a statement to the BBC, Labour Hackney councillor Anya Sizer said: "Supporting all our local families to access the quality childcare they deserve has been one of our long term priorities and we have led the way in providing subsidised childcare.

"Now that the government has followed our lead with the national expansion of government-funded childcare, we can focus on ensuring that families most in need still get extra financial help to afford additional childcare.

"After carefully considering our options, we decided to maintain the council subsidies for families accessing childcare in our maintained children's centres with an annual income below £55,000.

"This will ensure that some of our most disadvantaged children still have access to the support and high quality childcare they deserve."

The council said a 63% subsidy means that the council pays £6 and parents pay £4 for a place that costs £10 per hour.

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