Nick Clegg promises to recruit 65 000 new nursery workers - what do you think?

[JustineMumsnet]

Hi I've been asked to comment on an interview Nick Clegg has given in which he promises to take charge of family policy, recruiting 65,000 nursery workers to bring about a massive expansion in nursery places, a vows to tackle the "crippling" cost of childcare and to overhaul parental leave.

The Evening Standard keen to know your thoughts...
Tia

How can they indeed.

My sister has 2 kids with severe autism, the eldest gets mid rate care and low mobility. She's 13 years old, unable to speak, has all her self care needs taken care of by her mum. Washing, teeth cleaning, changing sanitary towels, managing her medication, keeping her safe outside as she has no road sense, managing her behaviour every little thing.

She also has severe epilepsy, her seizures are so strong she's actually managed to snap her bed from having repeated seizures during the night. My sister 'sleeps' with a baby video monitor next to her to make sures she's safe, so when she starts gurgling during a seizure she can go in.....that also means she wakes to every tiny noise as is instinctive ( arguably she's not on the correct rate of DLA anyway but that's a whole of thread )

Yet despite all that she's having over £50 a week taken away as she doesn't need constant care during the night, fortunately her equally disabled brother IS deemed as needing care during the night as he doesn't sleep or it would be even more money lost and she'd have to go out to work as wouldn't be protected, she already has to attend back to work interviews every few months.........anyone willing to pay the £90 an hour (2-1 care) it would cost to pay for my son, niece and nephews childcare so we can get a break by working ??!

I still don't understand how they justify taking away £200 p.m Apocalypse. What is the reasoning behind it? Are they saying that you receive too much? I don't understand how it can be justified.

It's the disability element of child tax credit, we get extra money to cover extra expenses, I don't stand to lose it but my sister definately will.

I don't see the logic in it either, but sadly, that's what's happened.

That is shocking. We all understand that cuts have to be made but to take money away from families with disabled children is sickening.

This just shows how out of touch they all are. It's not the places in nurseries or their availability, it's the astronomical cost plus the difficulty of fitting in work around available free hours that are the problems. Make childcare more valued (yes, financially to begin with), attract more qualified and more suitable applicants for such jobs, subsidise it heavily and you'll see plenty more people prepared to go back to work (if there are any jobs left by the time Nick and his mates have finished with the economy). Also, term time only? How is that of any use to anyone?

15 hours is bugger all use to anyone wanting to work, whether their child is two or three or four or older. The jobs aren't realistically there, anyway - part time jobs want people prepared to work at unpopular times, at night, at the weekends, etc. Not much use to those who are struggling or who want to make use of childcare, anyway.

As for trying to mend the divisions in society that mean that many poorer children are already disadvantaged by the time they start school, I actually think that nothing less than a radical overhaul of society will make a difference. I expect that the coalition's policies with respect to tax credits, housing benefit, caps on benefit received and many others will probably increase division in society, cut more people off from much-needed family support which may help people to parent effectively and give their children a good start in life, stop them from being able to access jobs and generally make this country a worse place to live.

The loss of disability benefits for both adults and children is an absolute disgrace.

I would actually like to spit at Nick Clegg (and I'm not a nasty or fighty person, in general). I expected this from the Tories but I had no idea how low the Lib Dems would stoop to be part of a government. They sicken me.

I think there are far better and fair ways of assisting with childcare.

Scrap help with childcare costs and either make childcare deductible from tax or provide everybody that works with subsidised places. Less paperwork, less room for fraud and the childcare is used by those that need it.

Spending money giving away free places to just some two year olds wont encourage parents back to work. Whilst some will already be working and grateful the costs are reduced, many will simply use the childcare and not work like is the case now with the funding at three years. Why should only some children qualify for it and not others?

I think it misses the point - that the general cost of living is so high the fundamental right to mother your own child is being taken away from more and more mothers, so it is becoming a privilege of the rich to stay at home and look after your baby. The rest of us have to pay to institutionalize our children from under the age of one so mum can be shipped off to work to pay rising bills and petrol costs.