A FUNDING crisis has seen more than 120 nurseries and early years providers across Dorset close their doors in the last three years.

One in six in the county council area - a total of 83 - have closed along with 28 nurseries in Bournemouth and 12 in Poole.

Now the Pre-School Learning Alliance has called for “urgent action” to address funding problems.

And it claims up to 40 per cent of existing providers in England are considering closure.

“It’s a difficult job. Why would anyone do it if you’re earning peanuts?” said Chief Executive of the Alliance Neil Leitch.

The figures have been released by Ofsted.

All three and four-year-olds in England are entitled to 15 hours of free childcare per week during term time.

But since September 2017, parents can claim an additional 15 hours if both they and their partner earn less than £100,000 a year but more than the equivalent of 16 hours at the minimum wage.

Cheryl Hadland, Managing Director and founder of Tops Day Nurseries, told the Daily Echo: “The government has announced that these places are free but it is not affordable.

“A lot of us are putting in additional charges for things such as meals or activities like yoga.”

She and other nursery owners have been lobbying MPs to provide more funding if nurseries are to be able to balance the books.

Mr Leitch said the new 30 hours scheme had “further exasperated” funding problems already experienced by providers under the 15 hours scheme.

He added: “There has never been any such thing as free childcare.

“It’s subsidised childcare. Early Years funding is frozen until 2020, and while our costs go up, we’re just told to make it work.”

Research undertaken by the organisation has found that more than four in ten providers are now charging parents for extras such as lunches or nappies to make up the shortfall in funding.

This means providers in poorer areas, where parents are not able to pay more, are struggling the most.

According to Mr Leitch, providers are being forced to take on more children to cope with the funding pressures.

“The providers have told us they can only operate at a higher level of capacity,” he said.

“Smaller nurseries, for example in rural areas where they operate out of a village hall, are having to close because they just don’t get the economies of scale that the larger ones do.”

Nadhim Zahawi, Minister for Children and Families, said it was “normal in a private market” for providers to join and leave the Ofsted register.

He continued: “We want every child to have the best start in life and it is great that more than 340,000 children have benefited from a 30 hours place in its first year.”