FEBRUARY 2025

Please join us in our Week of Action : 10-14 February

You may have seen coverage in the news about the government's increases in statutory minimum wages and national insurance contributions (NICs). Depending on the age of the employee, National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates are increasing by between 6.7% and 18% from April. At the same time, national insurance contributions, which we pay per employee, will increase by 1.2% and start being paid at a lower threshold from April.

As a result of underfunding and rising costs, NDNA has found that the closures of nurseries have increased nationally. To remain sustainable, nurseries like ours will have to look at our fee structure again.

We know that parents support the view that the government should be reimbursing nurseries to take account of the extra costs they face. Please join our Week of Action between 10-14 February so we can fight for better outcomes for nurseries, because nursery fees will become more expensive.

Just take a photo of yourself and your child in front of one of the Underfunded Childcare Posters at your nursery and upload it to your social media saying why you think it's important that your nursery stays open and support us by contacting your MP.

I hope this information helps you to understand the difficult choices we have to make and the challenges we face as nursery providers.

Thanks for your support!

Sylma

TRIP TO UGANDA

We are excited to confirm that we will be going back to Uganda to spend some time with our special educational needs (SEND) children at 'Our Little Tribe' in Kabale next month.

Last year we saw the great progress the children have made with the help of the physiotherapist that I have employed. The children are now walking and talking a lot more! This means the teachers, Haleema and Joanne, have been able to focus on the children's learning. Myself and Claire were also able to implement a new routine for them and support them with specific ideas and activities for each individual child.

We will continue this journey with the '#One Love Project' Junior School so that we can share education, information and advice with each other, which will enrich the lives of their children and ours. The Playaway logo now features on their wall to show our commitment to the cause!

We look forward to sharing more information and photos of the children when we return from our trip this month.