The crisis in Greater Manchester nurseries as fees go up, staff walk out and parents struggle to cope

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Nurseries are at 'breaking point' in Greater Manchester in the cost of living crisis, with owners facing a 'mass exodus'.

Wendy Hartley, 59, runs the Brown Bear nursery chain in Stockport and claims the private childcare sector is facing the biggest crisis of its time, as providers are being forced to pass on mounting costs to parents - and staff are leaving in their droves due to a lack of decent wages.

It comes after the Manchester Evening News reported that many families living in Stockport are being priced out of childcare, and are having to choose between work or sending their child to nursery.

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Some parents said they have been forced to make the difficult decision not have any more children due the cost of childcare, with one woman saying the fees were costing more than her mortgage.

Speaking to the M.E.N, Wendy said she has huge sympathy for her clients, and claims she and other childcare providers in the local area are doing everything they can to keep prices affordable.

But she says a combination of underfunding from the government and local authority, as well as the current cost of living crisis, is forcing her and her colleagues to make some difficult decisions.

"I have been working in the early years sector in Stockport for 40 years and I have never seen the sector in such a crisis. It's on its knees," she said.

"The cost of delivering childcare places in the last year has risen by about seven or nine pc and is still rising. But with energy costs at the moment that true figure is still very much unknown. We are trying to keep costs as low as we can."

Wendy says the main issue is the promise that parents will be