A PRE-SCHOOL in Sherston will be closing its doors for good, blaming damaging government policy for making it “financially unviable”.

Bush Hands Pre-School has been a home away from home for youngsters in the village since the 1970s.

However, the pre-school’s committee unanimously decided it had to close following an Extraordinary General Meeting last month.

In a statement released by the Busy Hands team they cited financial issues as a major contributor to closure and lambasted government policy that they say is putting rural pre-schools out of business.

Henry Crawford, chairman of the Busy Hands committee, says the decision to close the pre-school was not one taken lightly.

“There are a number of reasons why Busy Hands cannot continue,” he said.

“The main one is that it is not financially viable.

“We realised we had two choices: go until the money ran out in maybe a year, or give the staff and parents proper notice.

“Before the bank balance goes to zero we’re going to close in an organised way so can pay our debts and go through the requirements.”

Henry blames the government’s introduction of 15 hours free childcare per week for three and four-year-olds, which he described as the “death knell” for Busy Hands.

The policy guarantees children 15 hours paid-for childcare for 38 weeks of the year, which the government pays for by giving grants to councils, who in turn pass the funding down to pre-schools.

However, Henry says the funding does not cover how much it costs to look after the increase in number of children, due to laws over the ratio of staff to children that they have to provide.

“The main cost is staff and we can’t reduce staff as there are requirements,” explained Henry.

“We’re in a village hall setting, so can’t increase the hours we offer as the hall is used for other things. In other places they can make good the shortfall for charging a lot of money beyond the 15 hours.

“In addition, the demands on staff have increased enormously over recent years, in particular the amount of paperwork.

“When the government introduced 15 hours free funding for all three and four-year-olds in 2010, it effectively ended the informal playschool nature of the setting.

“[It] ultimately marked the start of expenditure significantly – and increasingly – exceeding income each year.

“It is widely publicised that this funding falls short of the true cost of providing care, an issue that has unfortunately led to the demise of many village pre-schools. Busy Hands is not an isolated case.

“Wiltshire Council has had to accept inadequate funding as the major contributing factor for the closure of many similarly structured pre-schools in the local area.”

Henry says Busy Hands have been working hard to raise funds to keep the pre-school afloat, but efforts have fallen short.

“Fundraising has always been a key priority for the Busy Hands committee,” he said.

“However, since the introduction of the free funding, any fundraising has wholly contributed to the operating costs of the school.

“This year’s fundraising efforts have been particularly successful, drawing in over £5,000.

“Yet this still was not enough, with a forecasted £9,000 operating loss for the end of this school year.

“The fundraising should be for nice things to have, but they’ve just been used to keep us afloat.”

The committee have said they still feel strongly that there is a need for a pre-school in Sherston, but accept it will need to be based on a different structure.

They are appealing to residents to propose ideas for alternative business models for the pre-school.

The committee can be contacted with proposals via Saara Sharman on saara.sharman@gmail.com or by calling 07739 552336.

Busy Hands will shut for good on Friday, July 15, and the committee have insisted that until then it is their “utmost priority to ensure that Busy Hands continues to deliver the best possible care for the children”.

A Department for Education spokesperson said in response to claims that government policy has driven rural pre-schools out of business: “Funding for the early years free entitlements is an important issue - that is why we are making a substantial investment in childcare through a significant increase to the average funding rate.

“We want to make sure that the hourly rates that childcare providers receive are sufficient to enable them to continue delivering good quality childcare and deliver 30 hours, both keeping in mind current costs of provision and the implications of future cost pressures facing the sector.

“To get this right, we conducted a six-month review of the cost of providing childcare.

“We recognise that the current funding system for three and four year olds creates unfair and unjustifiable differences between areas and providers.

“That is why we are going to introduce a national funding formula for early years.

“This will help ensure that funding is transparently and fairly matched to need and fairly distributed between different types of providers and parts of the country, including rural areas.

“The Government will be consulting on detailed proposals on this matter.”