Which nurseries are people trying to close down?

I second the comments about childcare. We currently get tax credits which pay for half of our £15k annual childcare bill ( and thats for three children two days a week and includes sibling discount and subsidised nursery place for a 3 year old. which goes some way towards things but its not enough and anyway its not likely to run into next year. To put it into context, my tax saving from childcare vouchers offered by HMG is around £1k which is only about 3 weeks childcare. It sounds generous but it isnt really. My teacher partner could get them but his employer being a Tory run council puts so many barriers in the way to doing so that its impossible to get access to what should be a universal tax saving benefit. We are keeping people in work by going to work ourselves even though it costs us more than we earn to do so and also by keeping nurseries open and profitable.

I earn a decent wage yet most of it goes on nursery fees. The only reason for us both working is to have an insurance policy for the long term when all our kids go to school and we can both hopefully go back full time. Its also important to keep NI and pensions topped up and careers on track during this period.

So like a lot of people, as I see it, we are subsidising our employers.

I've never really done an analysis of other countries childcare costs but it is undoubtedly extremely expensive here. Clearly if people are paying all this money into nurseries and childminders. My beef has always been that the early years curriculum is a great idea however parents end up paying through the nose for a private education for their children from an early age. This is what its about really and I do think that if that is the case, then it needs to form part of the formal education system and subsidised by the state accordingly. As far as I am aware, there are few childminders out there getting rich quick, so a lot of these fees paid seem to go on running costs, training, insurance and meeting Ofsted requirements. I know of so many childminders giving up due to the pressures.