To think this idea is wrong

[Rosebel]

I can't seem to link this (it was from The Times) but has anyone heard about Boris's latest idea for reducing childcare costs?
His great idea (and it does sound great in theory) is to put staff to child ratios up
So instead of having 1 adult to 3 under two's it will be 1 to 4. Less staff so less cost but less supervision for the children.
Anyone else think this is ridiculous?
YABU =childcare costs need to come down.
YANBU =I'd rather pay more and ensure my children are properly cared for

It's not great in theory if you have any knowledge or experience of childcare. Quality of care will suffer. Nurseries in more affluent areas will be able to increase fees and advertise that they still have the old better ratios. So it will increase inequality.

I’m sure all the nurseries will pass on the savings to parents…as if!

In theory it would help nursery's as a lot (but not all) are struggling particularly those in deprived areas that largely rely on government funding. But it will put more pressure on staff, impact on quality of care and is unlikely to benefit parents.

www.gov.uk/government/news/drive-to-reduce-the-cost-of-childcare-for-parents

It's looking at increasing the ratio of two year olds from 1:4 to 1:5. Ridiculous and verging on unsafe.

My point was nursery is expensive so having costs cut would help parents but it's an awful idea because of how he wants to do it.
If he were saying government would actually pay the full nursery fee for the free hours this would be better.
I don't think most nurseries will pay attention to his silly ideas but clearly he hasn't got a fucking clue about supervising children.

By the time they’ve paid their increased utility bills and the rising costs of everything else there might not be that much saving to pass on.

There is a petition on the government website about this, sign it!

YANBU, it's unlikely nursery staff wages will go up either so an already underpaid sector will be given more responsibility with no extra benefit.
If they do increase their wages to reflect the extra responsibilities then they wouldn't reduce fees for parents anyway.

Nursery is expensive and definitely something to be looked at but less supervision for babies and young kids is not the answer

And when things inevitably go wrong, and the nursery staff get the blame for it despite having too many children and not enough people to supervise them properly, for the same wage, they'll start leaving, and then we'll be in the same situation we are with elderly care and hospitals - no one wanting to do a job with high expectations and blame and vanishing resources.

Darling, you missed the 3rd option which is where we vote that Boris stick his "opinions" where the sun don't shine...

What were the ratios before the current ones were introduced? I'm asking because I have a hunch they were higher than now but we're just used to the current way of working. Of course, there's probably a lot more paperwork to do now....

Has Boris ever actually looked after 4 or 5 children singlehandedly?

I wouldn't leave him in charge of 4 or 5 plants and expect it to go well tbh.

Ridiculous!

I’ve always thought the current ratios were pushing it, tbh

How is this going to reduce nursery costs? Poorly paid nursery staff aexpected to take on the care of more children with no increase in wages - just wrong!

If you follow PregnantThenScrewed you'll see survey data shows childcare providers have said changing the ratios will not improve costs. Even though Nadhim Zahawi suggests this could reduce costs by up to £40 per week, not sure who they have consulted to bring this up or whether they've just mocked up a business model from their limited understanding of costs involved for providers.

However, an MP has raised this issue with The House of Commons today I believe and received an unsurprising, piss taking waffle of a response.

Neither the Tory party or Nadhim Zahawi have a single care in the world for the impact on parents or their children. Their agenda at the moment is moving schools to be under the full control of DfE. Where the Social Mobility Tsar can tell children from poorer background to lower their expectations for their futures!

Forgot to say in my rant, that it's only going to lead to poorer quality care for children or disgruntled staff. Quite frankly, disgruntled staff don't perform well or stay in their jobs for the right reasons either.

It really just feels like they're happy spaffing money for wine up the wall, asking tax payers to pay for their discounted meals at work, hooking friends up with lovely, underhand and overinflated contract deal but the children of our future do not matter.

He also apparently wants small businesses to cut their marketing budget and pass on the savings to customers and is launching a campaign about it shortly - he has absolutely no clue about childcare, running a business or anything else as far as I can tell!

I'd rather hear the views of qualified childminders on this. I'm not a childminder.

When ds was small we used a lovely and very experienced childminder (28 years exp). She often looked after extra dcs for the odd emergency day and seemed to cope but I'm not sure she could have maintained her quality of care (which was outstanding) if that had been a regular thing.

Check this thread out which has a petition detailing exactly why it's so dangerous.

Stop Childcare Ratios Increasing! www.mumsnet.com/Talk/nurseries/4544012-stop-childcare-ratios-increasing

Thank you for sharing this!

Hopefully we can get to the 100,000 signatures.

I’ve read about this.

I don’t want the ratio of nursery workers to children to change in this way.

I’m concerned about the workload of nursery workers being increased (when I’m sure it’s already stressful and not well paid), as well as the safety of my daughter.

I understand people are under a lot of financial pressure but I don’t think this is the way to fix it.

The government do like to flit between the terms "childcare" and "education" when it suits them.

All professionals working with children care for them, but a job working with small children isn't merely keeping them warm and clean and playing with them. Early Years Educators observe children, guide their learning, set next steps for learning and gather high quality evidence of this personalised for every child. The job is underpaid, long hours and requires being alert and one step ahead of the children at all times.

Yet the government thinks adding 25% to their workload is a good idea. It's ridiculous.