'Free Childcare' - Are your future plans dependent on this?

[KateyCuckoo]

Are you counting down the days until this starts in April?

I'm starting to wonder how this is all going to pan out. Speaking to providers, they are worried and listening to parents, they are unaware and breezy about the whole thing. I can't help but feel that it's going to be lose lose situation when I was always hopeful it would be win win.

I spoke to one mum the day after it was announced back in the Spring and she thought it was starting immediately, that providers just sent off their invoices to the government and got paid, deal complete. When I explained how it actually worked, she was crushed. How and why I don't know.

I've also spoken to many more people in the interim and no one seems to be concerned except for providers. Some parents are making plans based on the funding easing their finances so they can afford to move house, have another child, drop work hours, change careers.

Have you made plans for when you start to receive 'free childcare? funded not free

Knowing friends who work in this system, I think some nurseries will go under. The staff are low paid and struggle to employ people. Years ago these jobs were rare to come up, now people can’t afford to live on these salaries and nurseries cannot staff them like they used to which is a shame. The government only pay a fraction of what’s needed.

I hope I am wrong as it’s the kids who lose out.

@SlightlygrumpyBettyswaitress yes she should get 15 hours in April because she's over 2 at that point. Then 30 in the September x

You can't know that..yes in theory according to the fairy land that the government would like us to live in, she would. However back in the real world, the whole point of this thread, is that nurseries are not in a position right now to know whether or not they will be offering the new funding.

I know! I can’t imagine making such a big life-changing decision based on some spurious claim that a dying government has made! What are these people going to do if the government drop the whole idea or the funding they offer means nurseries close or their local nurseries can only stay open if they don’t take any children with funded hours?

If you couldn’t afford to have another baby until the government announced this, then you probably shouldn’t be having another baby yet.

This will end up like care homes. Certain places will only take the self funding, others will want the self funding to pay more, and everyone else is scratching around for cheap places.

And dentists. Those who can afford to pay will have a private dentist, and those who don’t, will have to travel miles to find one that takes the government funding or will go without.

“Anyone planning another baby/moving house based on the fleeting fancies of a dying government is being very naive.”

THIS!! I don’t know why anyone would believe anything the government say

According to the current plans she should.

However only 17% of providers have said they are considering offering this. This all depends on what funding rate is offered. The current rate for 3 and 4yos won’t be enough.

So technically yes, she’ll get the allowance. However, it absolutely should not be relied on that there will be any providers who will offer funded places (nurseries and childminders are not obliged to offer funded places).

The thing is I will be happy with a saving of £10 a day as I already have a nursery place. I have had a place since my child was a baby and our nursery is very well run. They have said they are not sure what the new funding will look like and are honest it may require some top up.

Fingers crossed it all works out for you. I suspect there will be a lot of people who won’t be able to find a local nursery that accepts the funded places.

'The latest EYFS update is part of the strategy by removing some requirements and dumbing it down for childminders. So again quality of care is not a priority' @ Jannier
Slightly off topic but Jannier in response to your comment about 'dumbing it down for childminders' and implying that choosing a childminder will affect the quality of care - I find this highly offensive.
Childminders follow the same curriculum as nurseries do, we are also required to complete the same paperwork and undertake the same amount of training and we certainly do not provider a lesser quality of care than nurseries.
The difference being that as the majority of us are lone workers, all paperwork (including but not limited to- Observations, Development Plans, Service Improvement Plans, Self Evaluations, Risk Assessments, Medical Care Plans, Policies and Procedures and so on) along with all training, is done in our own time and these hours are all unpaid.
Childminders offer more flexible hours and a broader experience in terms of outings and engagement in community activities etc.
We do not sit and home and watch the children play. We are actively promote the children's learning and development and must meet the same criteria and standards set by governing bodies, be it Ofsted in England or the Care Inspectorate in Scotland.

As a 3 times outstanding childminder I know the current requirements however the latest proposal is to remove some of the suitability requirements and make easier inspections this will totally undermine our position in the sector that we have been fighting for over several decades. Have you taken part in the surveys sent in recent months?

Yes, it definitely seems they are determined to make it considerably easier for anyone to be a childminder.

Yet another aspect of care of society’s most vulnerable people that the government think needs no skill and can be done by every Tom, Dick and Harry (or in this care Mary, Molly or Mandy).

A really interesting listen regarding proposed ‘free’ childcare and the issues caused by the government. Start of the show.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001sds8?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Are you able to share what was said? I don't have an account to listen.

I think anyone banking on childcare in the next few years should listen to that! There simply aren’t enough childcare places and people are leaving the job in their droves

From the ‘blurb’ about the show..

‘The number of childcare providers in England has dropped by 4000 between March 2021 and March 2022. A survey of 2,000 early years providers in March found 30% were currently operating at a loss, while 34% said they expected to be in 12 months' time. Meanwhile a 2020 report from the Social Mobility Commission shows that one in eight nursery workers earned less than £5 an hour. To discuss the challenges facing the sector, we speak to Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance and Jennie Bailey, owner of a nursery in Hampshire.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ddw9

Okay so I just listened to it, they spoke to the head guy of the early years alliance (if I got that right!) and basically he thinks the govt are promising too much given the way childcare has been treated in the past, the fact that funded hours are paid by the govt at a much lower rate per hour than what's required, that staff are barely glorified baby sitters and therefore paid minimum wage, that thousands of settings have closed in the last couple of years, lots of staff are exhausted and left the job etc etc...

What I didn't already know was a national recruitment campaign is being introduced in the new year ahead of April. So I do wonder what that will entail.. will it be just adverts or will there be actual incentives for new recruits? Silly question but what would a recruitment campaign involve?

I wouldn’t be surprised if lots of big nursery chains get involved with this proposed work experience/mandatory work placements thing that was mentioned recently. It popped into my head as soon as it was mentioned.

I know years ago the YMCA were part of such a scheme as my niece did a six month placement with them at a before and after school care setting for job seekers money. It was to give people experience and get them into roles.
Inevitably after 5.5 months of glowing reviews she “wasn’t quite the fit they needed” at the end of the 6 months and they got another free person from the scheme… They then called and offered her a more senior position a month later when someone quit.

If people don’t want to do the job now when it’s long hours, higher adult: child ratios and low pay, the government will have to make some substantial changes to entice staff into it.

If it’s anything like what they try in teaching, it’ll be some crappy one-off payment which people will take and then leave.

They recently introduced a one off payment of £600 to those registering as childminders/ £1200 if registering with an agency.

I'm sure they will have people lining up around the block!