Is Liz Truss going to scrap free childcare?!

[ShrimpingViolet]

This story is worrying:

www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/06/revealed-rightwing-slash-and-burn-ideas-that-could-be-blueprint-for-truss?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I have no idea how we'd cope as a family if this happened, coupled with everything else that's going on at the moment with the cost of living.

I hope to god other MPs speak up about this so it can be stopped. Is it worth writing to local MPs to ask for assurances?

Oh my god she's such a fucking idiot. That'll shrink the workforce and mostly impact mums. Ffs.

Looking at the £60-70 billion new budget hole Truss & Kwarteng have made with their 'mini' budget, plus the inflation costs on existing services, plus the cost of increased borrowing caused by the market drop they caused themselves - perhaps they should just get on with it and shut the country down.

Any reduction in childcare is anti-growth, but Truss herself is anti-growth, so I could see her trying something insane.

I'm so angry we have to put up with two years of this madness before we get an election.

Who voted for this idiot PM?

I don't even have childcare needs, so no personal issue to me, but ANY reduction in childcare provision is hugely damaging to the economy and the educational outcomes nationally. It would weaken us now and in future generations.

Yes, who needs to pay the bills anyway? People should just survive on air.

It will also shrink the economy. She's a massive threat to everyone's living standards.

Likewise. In fact, contributing through our taxes towards access to high quality childcare for all children is one of the things that DH and I agree isn't a waste of our tax money. In terms of life outcomes, the years 0-5 have been shown to be absolutely crucial. Cutting spending here is a complete false economy that will have long-term consequences. We need to massively increase investment in early years and that will save money in the long-run.

There's so many unintended consequences here. She risks more children starting school not developmentally ready. She risks abuse and neglect going undiscovered. She risks female participation in the labour force and with that she risks women being stuck in abusive relationships.

There's even questions about would a September born child get more funding than a May born? They have longer to cover before school starts.

I guess looking after your own children might be an option rather than the state paying or heavily subsidising childcare so mum/dad can work

@FridayTheThirteeth how good are you at logic experiments?

Times are reporting that they will give parents the money to spend how they see fit, including giving it to grandparents. All this means is that the most wealthy will top up for good quality childcare and lovely forest school nursery’s, and the poor probably won’t spend it on a childcare setting because they can’t afford to top up the inevitable gap when nurseries have to increase costs, or end up with sub standard settings. Seems a ridiculous idea. Am I missing something? article copied below.

Liz Truss is drawing up plans to overhaul the “convoluted” subsidised childcare system that could hand money directly to families instead.

Under a system of childcare budgets, parents could pass on grants to grandparents who are helping to look after toddlers and young children.

Changes to childcare are among the key reforms the prime minister wants to announce in the coming weeks as part of her drive for economic growth. Ministers believe the high costs and complexities of childcare cause unnecessary disruption for parents.

At present, parents of all three and four-year-olds in England can claim 15 hours of free care a week for 38 weeks of the year. Some are eligible to claim an extra 15 hours a week.

The money, which typically works out at about £2,000 a child per year, is paid directly to nurseries at present. Under plans being considered by Truss and Kit Malthouse, the education secretary, parents would be handed cash to spend on childcare as they see fit.

Also

The reforms would require legislation, meaning that they would take longer than other plans under consideration, such as removing mandatory ratios of staff to children at nurseries.

The Early Years Alliance, which represents about 14,000 childcare providers in England, said the idea risked creating a “two-tier system”. Neil Leitch, the charity’s chief executive, said: “Wealthier families able to top up their government ‘pot’ could access higher quality care and education far more easily than those on lower incomes who can’t afford to do so.”

Also how much money will parents be given? Because you can bet this will be a budget cut, rather than a ‘reform’.

Fiscally it doesn't make sense. Throwing women onto the scrap heap will cost so much more than it could ever save.

Tory policies have fuck all to do with saving money. Look at the bedroom tax which has cost much more that it was ever claimed to "save".

Their policies are designed to teach you not to be poor. Or disabled. . And bad luck if you are.

DM reports it this way, so not scrapping. Go find the source of the information and go from there.

Free nursery hours 'could be axed' under Liz Truss's radical plans to shakeup childcare provision that will see 'Government cash handed directly to parents' instead of approved childcare or nursery providers
Ministers planning reforms to make childcare more affordable to boost economy
Early years groups expressed concerns that it could result in 'two-tier system'
Parents might be handed Government money directly to spend as they see fit
As it stands, funding is sent straight to approved providers, such as nurseries

Surely nurseries will end up massively upping their fees so parents will be worse off overall despite being given cash? FT nursery fees are 14k a year and i just cant fathom it being any higher 😯

Worst than that she wants online learning for children to be a permanent feature ... I'm sure we know families that don't have 6 laptops for all the children to have their own and unlimited wifi and a parent that will actually enforce logging on.

When the government handed over rent money to tenants didn't landlords ban them??

Brilliant 😂😂😂😂😂

www.lbc.co.uk/news/parents-cash-government-childcare/

If she does this then she won't have to fund nurseries properly. Parents will be forced to pay the difference between the cost to nurseries and the funded amount which we know isn't enough.

Well I'd pay the difference willingly. But will this be abused and misspent I wonder?

I keep reading this and I still don't understand how that is supposed to work.

Will it be like Brexit where we're all supposed to pretend it's not an absolute clusterfuck and a nightmare for everyone involved?

It'll be sold to Tory voters as a consistent message and quality of learning being delivered. Which is of course correct, providing everyone is learning at the same pace, nobody has any questions and the curriculum is factually correct.
It also assumes children will log on.

Sotty but i unerstood she was changing the mechanism o delivery eg straight to parent rather than to registered nursery? so eg you can pay gps. not cutting the child care allowaance per se. removing safety measures eg staffing sounds more problematic

"Alternatively, families could be given near-total freedom on how they spend the cash, potentially passing it on to grandparents helping out with childcare."

I thought the law stated it illegal to pay a non-registered childminder for childcare? So this would mean a change in law?

We benefitted from free 15 hours at age 2, and free 30 hours at age 3, which we used simple because it was free. It was a brilliant scheme, very easy to use too.

I saw on a forum this morning someone earning £600 a month and claiming £1000 childcare costs on Universal credit ? Surely it's never going to pay the government to keep subsidising it to such an extent ?

It could make some sense to pay grandparents. There are a lot of people in their late fifties/ early sixties who struggle to find work for whatever reason or want to work part time to help out their kids with childcare. And I think many parents would prefer kids to be with their grandparents.