30 hours childcare

[lindasymons]

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/116917

The government are proposing 30 hours free childcare for most families. However nurseries need the correct and fair level of funding to roll this out. We need parents to support us to support them. At the current level of under funding nurseries will struggle to provide these places. Are parents aware that most local authorities pay as little as half current fees?
If you want nurseries to provide what the government is promising please sign our petition above.

The alternative looks bleak for parents and settings. Withdrawal of places as nurseries find themselves financially unable to provide. Save our nurseries and support our petition.

It's not just nurseries, I know 3 childminders who are going to stop offering funded places. I can't afford to offer the current 15 hours let alone 30.

It is so ill thought out. Our preschool is in a multi use building, it is fairly small, we will struggle to open at different times and there just isn't the space for busier sessions.

If we did have more space, in order to maintain the ratios we would have to take on more staff, or will the government suddenly announce that staff:children ratios should change?

Nursery providers and childminders understand the repercussions of underfunding but parents using these services also need to be informed. If providers of childcare are underpaid for the "free" hours they simply won't be able to offer them. And it would be nurseries subsidising these places - as many do already with 15 hours. Parents need to lobby the government to pay the fees nurseries need.

It would be interesting to hear the views of parents who have young children and have been promised 30 hours of free childcare. It's not even that nurseries are against the principle - they simply can't afford to offer it unless the local authorities pay the fees. And that means central government need to pay authorities more money and LISTEN to what is being said - all over the country!