More than one in seven nurseries in Worcestershire have closed since 2015, according to data published by Ofsted.

The Pre-school Learning Alliance has called for “urgent action” to address a funding crisis, which it says is caused by a government scheme that sees free hours of childcare for some two-year-olds and most children aged three and four.

They say that the funding from the government does not cover the cost to the nursery of providing the care.

The Alliance says this has left more than 40 per cent of providers in England contemplating closure next year.

In Worcestershire, there were 632 nurseries on the register at the end of March 2018, 115 fewer than in March 2015.

However, Lorraine Deeprose, of Cornmeadow Early Years and Families in Worcester, said the government free childcare scheme shouldn't be blamed for nurseries closing.

“I do not agree that government funding has caused nurseries to close down," she told the Worcester News. “If nurseries are charging a reasonable amount, they shouldn’t be losing out on clients in the first place. Some nurseries charge such a high amount per hour and do not have enough children to afford to keep on running.”

Since September 2017, all three and four-year-olds in England have been entitled to 30 hours of free childcare per week during term time. Parents can claim this help if they earn less than £100,000 a year but more than the equivalent of 16 hours at the minimum wage.