Nurseries and childminders in England who rely on fees from parents may be forced to close or quit the sector, creating a national shortage of childcare places, according to research published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The study found that the coronavirus lockdown caused severe financial pressures for providers that received the bulk of their income from fees rather than through the government’s childcare entitlement, leaving about 25% of private sector nurseries vulnerable:
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Ryanair raised €400m from shareholders via a share placement aimed at strengthening its balance sheet in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Europe’s largest low-cost carrier said on Friday.
The Irish airline issued 35,242,291 shares at a price of €11.35 per share, a discount of approximately 2.6% to its closing price on Thursday, it said in a statement.
Ryanair decided to raise the funds to capitalise on opportunities created by Covid-19 disruption and to “de-risk” its debt repayments over the next 12 months, it said on Thursday.
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A groundbreaking new comedy sketch show based on women’s sex lives during lockdown, starring Aimee Lou Wood and Miriam Margolyes, is designed to “claim the stage” for women, its co-creator, Joanna Scanlan, says.
Sex Lives, believed to be the first interactive comedy backed by the BBC’s commercial wing, BBC Studios, documents stories submitted anonymously by women and has proved a hit online.
Following the #MeToo movement, Scanlan, who acted in The Thick of It, said she had “been thinking for a long time about trying to get a conversation around women’s sexuality into the open, into the mainstream. It always ends up being to the side, to the edge.”
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