Osborne to announce free childcare for 2 year olds

[OliviaMumsnet]

In the Autumn Statement the Chancellor will outline a £650 million scheme to provide free early education for about 40 per cent of two year-olds.

Just wondering what MNers think about this....

parenting courses for all?

that seems way over the top and far too nannyish to me.

seriously? primary school teachers/childcare specialists/therapists/parenting course teachers etc sitting through a parenting course?

It wouldn't be much different to antenatal classes. Every little helps I think, but particularly for first time parents.

that's ridiculous. it would be thoroughly superficial: a waste of time for anyone vaguely competent and well intentioned and not even scratching the surface for those with serious issues likely to be of harm to their children.

watered down nothingness.

things have to be targeted where they are needed.

and in my area you get two antenatal classes of an hour and a half each from the nhs. so def not a good analogy.

unless it was compulsory, you would miss your target audience

that is the only analogy I can see with antenatal services

try policing that

can't be done

How do you target though saf - there's no way of knowing whether someone will be a good parent before they have started. Some of the families I've worked with think what they do is completely normal and right. It's not. That's the problem.

Prevention is better than cure and it saves massive amounts of money in the long term. Those children with parents who think they are competent but are not, create a massive demand on society while their children struggle through life, damaged or troubled.

We've had a 'don't get involved' situation for a long time now and it hasn't worked.

It's going in the right direction towards the wlm's demand for 24/7 child care.

so that's why they're taking away my child benefit.

realhousewife
I don't know about that, but when they introduced a compulsory language check in Germany for children aged 3-4yo, there was uproar. "Who do they think they are, do they think I am not capable of telling when my child has a language deficit, they cannot force me..."

It was totally well meant, and done for the reasons stated - that children were going to Kindergarten at 3 yo and speech and language deficits were being found and therapy wasn't started until much later than most effective.

There was a lot of resistance from the better off parents, who felt snubbed.

Another gimmick.

As we all know there are soo many jobs going, if only people could be relieved of their child care duties for 3 hours a day, they could all be filled!

So many employers looking for people who can't work because they're looking after their children... Bollocks.

Mme - I'm not sure anything should be compulsory, but there should be a funded place on a parenting programme for every new parent, or anyone that asks for one. As I said it is about creating a culture of good parenting. You could save so much speech and language therapy time and money if new parents were told for example, that their kids shouldn't sit in front of the telly all day with a dummy in their mouths, that chewing food is important for the development of speech, I could go on. But a little bit of nannying will save the State a whole lot of money in the long run.

So George Osborne has decided that all recipients of Tax Credits are feckless layabouts, even if they have a working parent in the family, so he has decided to take some of their Tax Credits away in order to pay for someone else to look after their dc...

Starting to get the feeling that the Government thinks anyone earning less than £40K pa is a feckless dim-witted oaf who wouldn't know which way up to hold a book.

George Osborne - I resent the implication. All 4 of my DC are either read to every day or are heard reading. I am teaching my dc that education and aspirations matter. I feed my dc as well as my benefits allow. But in cutting my Tax Credits (in real-terms, by not uprating them in line with the CPI), you will leave me with a stark choice - to recover that loss by either:

1. Not buying any food for my family for one day a week.
2. Only putting half a week's worth of electricity on the meter.
3. Only paying my water bill for 3 weeks out of 4.
4. Having a whole week, every month, without turning my Gas for heating and hot water on.

THAT is the choice you will be leaving people in receipt of Tax Credits, George Osborne. Which would YOU chose? Oh yes, you won't have to - because you're all right, Jack.

And I would NOT be sending my DS3 to Nursery at age 2yo. Unless I was working. Which wouldn't be possible on 3 hrs a day. The ONLY reason I would be apart from such a young dc is to earn money. Where are these fabled jobs that can be done while you have 3 hrs a day nursery? In fact, where are all these jobs full stop? In my town, unskilled retail jobs have 300+ applicants for EVERY JOB. And they almost always go to University Graduates. And this is shelf stacking and checkout jobs I am talking about.

we have a midwife and health visitor system whereby checks are made and parents are observed pre and post birth. perhaps that needs improving on or adding to so that parenting problems are identified earlier on and acted upon. makes more sense than telling a professional educator that she has to go on a parenting course to be told children shouldn't sit in front of a telly all day with a dummy in their mouth? no shit sherlock. i'd have walked out if someone had tried to treat me like a complete feckless idiot by virtue of pregnant = potential idiot/child abuser/etc.

and the thing is, whether we like it or not, if someone wants to let their 2yo sit in front of the telly with a dummy much of the day we have absolutely no right to stop them tbh. who are you/we/they to tell people how to raise their babies if they're not abusing them or neglecting them? not every parent will do it to the standards you or i would or think right. it's just fact.

and lets face it we don't even act when we KNOW children are being abused, are in a home with domestic violence, are in a chaotic environment with a drug addict etc etc. worrying that some babies have a dummy in their mouth too long and eat pureed food is a bit....???

and naive to think that that will be dealt with whilst the other is still so prevalent.

Yep Osborne is a cockweasel. My theory is that this govt know that women who have paid employment or are SAHM's are generally knackered. That means they don't really have the resources to fight adverse changes and make a stand so hey - you want to erode child benefit, sure start centres, tax credits, and sure start centres - well hey you just go ahead.

SAF I'm so sorry to hear about your circumstances it is just so bloody tough.
and as AF says people are only one event away from a tough situation like yours.

I am someone who paid for full time childcare while I looked for work. I have a 2 year old.

Huntycat another facepalm for Osborne. I think it is awful that you are going to impacted so.

The part time roles do not exist. Part time roles may exist when generally female employees who work FT apply for working flexibly as they can do this after 6 months service.... oh but wait this govt will move to a 2 year Unfair Dismissal requirement so women won't have any protection from Unfair Dismissal until they have worked for 2 years.

I have written briefly about my job hunt. It took me hours, I'd say I would fill out applications for around 50 hours a week, often more - then do door knocking, attend endless meetings and interviews often to just be rejected.

It was rare that an employer acknowledged my application, even if this application had taken a number of hours to complete. I would then also surf the net job hunting when my toddler was asleep.

It was completely demoralising. Especially the travel and costs involved. There was no part time work that I could find and I looked and looked. I have found a role which I am thrilled about but it is full time. It was very very very tough. For my profession often the networking events were in the evening so that took more money to attend.

I still can't sleep properly as I'm so used to surfing the net late at night for job roles. I never took the unemployment benefit. I think partly because I didn't want the abuse of being on benefits - even though I could have done with the money. I spent most of my savings on childcare to keep my nursery place.

I was fortunate in that I had a lap top and a printer and a supportive DH as otherwise it would have much tougher to find a role.

Now most of my future earnings will pay for childcare.

I worry that I have broken a bond with my little toddler.

Yes I have a 2 year old but George you are such a total utter cockweasel.

Huntycat - do you think you perhaps should have worked out if you could afford 4 children before getting in to such dire straits if your benefits don't rise enough?

We have 2 children. Although I would have loved 4 I knew it would be reckless financially.

huntycat - this is already a scheme that has been in place for a few years. Just because you have low income you have a low chance of gettig it as its so popular and they give it to high need families. You wouldnt come under that, nearly my whle town is on minimum pay/low wages/benefits and we have people ringing all the time trying to get it. SS will say no unless you have very extreme circumstances.

I think a lot on this thread no too little about the scheme. It is important, already in place for a good while, good results as we can monitor children for 10 hours a week whereas ss will see them once a week. Nearly every child that I have worked with that has been removed from family home, in foster care or where the family are now under ss additional help/support have come from ones that we have spotted/observed on pilot scheme. It literally protects children, and I have been involved in a few court cases from this scheme alone in last few years.

Also if you come in to our setting, like most settings in deprived areas we have speech therapists, health visitors, social workers, cc teachers,sencos, psychologists available in setting.

Additionally classes are run where parents come in and the nursery staff show them activities that can be done to improve speech and language this is run by speech therapists but taught to nursery staff. We also have self esteem, confidence and parenting classes. SS also provide lots of additional support on top of just what the nurseries offer. Its important and if you live in a very deprived area, as I do both living in the area and working at the setting, it is essential.

1 more thing - A case study of something we might do with children like this that are already on the scheme is. Parent of 2 year old struggling or in adverse situation for whatever reason they are awarded pilot scheme for 2 year olds. They start attending the setting. Setting can write down what we see are they coming in correctly dressed for weather?, have they had breakfast? How do they seem?, How is mum/dad?, Are they on time?, have they turned up? Has mum or dad asked for help/advice once nursery staff have rapport with them?

If any of these things seem to be a problem then you can talk with the parent/ask if they need help etc. Its brought up in case conferences with SS and SS do their best, in conjunction with the nursery to help/support. How can SS do this job that nursery nurses do? They cant possibly be with the children for 10 hours a week, every week like we do. So our job is to help and support and then if they dont turn up SS can go round their house and say are you ok? Are you struggling?

I think a lot of people dont appreciate just what nursery nurses in deprived areas do and how important a job it is.

Masserrato
That is absolutely out of line. HC's decision to have four children is nothing to do with you. And even having "just" 2 children when you are on benefits is a hard slog - do you really think the extra 2 kids makes such a difference?

As AF and others stated earlier, we are all but an unexpected redundancy away from applying for benefits.¨

Molly
Not doubting that the scheme is a good one, when well implemented. I would welcome more schemes like this, as long as they are painted as being about early intervention and not childcare. And the government would get off their arses and do something for the rest of the UK parents.

Masserato

What a disgusting thing to say

Shame on you

Go lick osborne's arse hole, why dontcha