PRE-SCHOOL nurseries are "massively underfunded" by government and are facing a serious shortage of staff, an industry boss has said.

The founder of Bournemouth-based Tops Day Nurseries which has 34 nurseries across the south spoke after reports that parents across the country were being suddenly left without childcare by nursery closures.

The pressure group Pregnant Then Screwed said it had been inundated with messages from parents whose nurseries had shut because of financial pressures and staff shortages.

Cheryl Hadland, founder and managing director of Tops Day Nurseries, said: "The main problem is funding from the government.

"They decided to pay the sector £4 an hour. They decided to price it themselves, but it costs about £7.50 an hour.

"The pay for primary school age children is much more per hour than early years. The differential is the wrong way round. They seem to think when children go to school, they cost more. They don't.

"We're massively underfunded. Providers in most of the rest of the world get paid much more than in the UK."

She said costs were rising and Tops had recently been forced to temporarily close a nursery in Yeovil because of lack of staff.

She said labour was in short supply but it was difficult to pay early years workers much more than the minimum wage.

"If you can earn £15 an hour for Lidl or Iceland, or at home, who wouldn't choose that?" she said.

She said caution over Covid and the end of free movement of labour after Brexit had both had an impact.

"We've lost a lot of staff back to Poland and countries like that. In Covid, we lost a lot of our staff," she said.

"Parents would be coming in with Covid, bringing it into nurseries with their children, and nursery staff were feeling extremely vulnerable. In most areas, we weren't given the jabs early on .

"Some people retired early. There just don't seem to be that many people wanting to work."

She said recent research had shown the value of government subsidising early years education generously.

"In France, Spain, Scandinavia, the government pays a significant amount because it's proven to be a good investment. It's not babysitting, it's the education to help us prepare children for life," she added.

The number of nurseries and pre-schools in England fell by 196 between August 2021 and March this year and is thought to have dropped further since then.

The Department for Education has been approached for comment.