THOUSANDS of registered childminders are unlikely to receive government support they need to sustain their businesses, leaving families without vital childcare support, a survey has found.

The study, published today by the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY), showed that the Covid-19 outbreak is having a devastating impact on the 40,000 childminders in England and Wales. 

Without the financial support that they need to survive the next few weeks, many are at risk of closure just as families and the economy will need their support to return to work. 

The survey found that 40 per cent of childminders are not confident of their business being able to survive Covid-19.

Newly registered childminders are especially vulnerable, with those who have started starting up in the last three years ineligibe for support.

PACEY is urging the government to provide grants for those not eligible or receiving low levels of financial support, and to reinstate its start-up grants for newly registered childminders.

Former special-needs teaching assistant and single parent Karen Davison from Darlington said she was devastated thinking about what not qualifying for government support means for her work.

“I am fearful for the future,” she said. “I really want to open up my business again — I have so many skills to offer as a childminder but I am not sure how I will keep going.”

Labour’s shadow minister for early years, Tulip Siddiq, said that the “worrying” survey was “further evidence that the childcare sector is on the brink of collapse.”

She warned that hundreds of thousands of childcare places could “be lost forever” unless the government steps in with “a proper funding plan” for early years.