Live webchat about childcare reform with Liz Truss, Education & Childcare Minister, Thursday 7 February, 1pm

[JustineMumsnet]

Hello hello,

We'll be welcoming the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Education and Childcare - Elizabeth Truss MP - for a webchat on Thursday Feb 7th (tomorrow) 1pm - 2pm.

As the Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk, Elizabeth Truss lives in Downham Market with her husband and two daughters. She was brought up in Yorkshire and, before entering Parliament, worked as the Deputy Director at the think-tank Reform. She also worked in the energy and telecommunications industry for 10 years and is a qualified management accountant.

Elizabeth recently wrote a Mumsnet guest blog on the Government's plans for childcare reform, which generated this recent thread - and childcare expert Penelope Leach responded to the proposals here.

Do post your question in advance on this thread, or join us live on Thursday 1pm-2pm.

And, as ever, a gentle reminder to all to stick to our webchat guidelines.

Many thanks.

Whilst somebody is doing that could they ask why wealthy couples on 100k get to keep their CB whilst families with a SAHP on half that lose it-over and over again on a loop.It's another question they repeatedly choose to ignore answering.

I saw Stephen Twigg and Liz Truss go head-to-head about this on BBC Breakfast news a week or two back.
She was as doggedly fixated on her plans then as she is now, and didn't really answer his questions properly, either.....
He is in favour of more qualifications/better pay, and very opposed to any increase in ratios.

it's like a skit from In The Thick Of It. I can just imagine her back at Westminster as we speak. Ole Dave got her to do this as she's a woman and has kids innit and she had no option but to go along with it. That much is clear follwong this web chat. I am very unconvinced that she actually cares in or believes about this policy at all

oops cares about or believes in

Agree jardin. Feel a bit sorry for her in a way.

Still, atleast she is a bit more well known now and people are less likely to confuse her with Lynne Truss the grammar lady.

(Because I was confused about that at the beginning of the week)

Just read through the thread. Wow. Don't know why she bothered turning up frankly.

Just a reflection. There's a couple of posts here about how she's just a mouthpiece for the party leadership. She's a woman, put in to put a 'suitable' face on TV. I'm not sure that's true tbh. From everything I've read in the media and from the thread today, I think she's a proper conviction politician. It does her a disservice to suggest that these aren't her ideas and her beliefs.

I mean don't get me wrong, she's barking, and I'm sure she has the support of Cameron etc, but it feels to me as if she actually believes the shit she's spouting.

well Lime if she really does believe all the shit she is spouting then more fool her!

Good grief.
She didn't say much did she? Is she a two-finger typer? Was she consulting with someone on the answers? Were MNers just a bit too clever for her?

This is how one journalist got on with some 2 year olds (though she cheated and one was in fact three. For a really thorough test of the minimum standard they should all have just turned two and either be in nappies or mid potty training. She admits she ignored two of them.

Presumably no-one has tried four under 1s, because, well that would just be stupid, possibly dangerous and mean (because they would cry a lot, not get their nappies changed enough and not get enough smiles, cuddles etc).

I wonder if I am the only person on MN who has cared for 8 x 2.5 to 3 year olds at once, as a nursery nurse.

1. We used the Montessori system.
2. There were three adults in the room - a Montessori specialist, a Norland graduate, and me (a music graduate).
3. We had most of them for three hour sessions. Some stayed for lunch and did another three hours.
4. The kids seemed to do pretty well.
5. We even took them swimming.

But -

1. No naps, and all in one room.
2. Only calm children applied to join the nursery. Lively boys were tacitly discouraged on their trial days.
3. They all went home at 3.30.
4. It was in Wandsworth and part of the original Tory pilot voucher scheme. It cost £800 a term (mornings) and parents got a nursery voucher for £1100 for four terms.
5. I was on £7500 a year for five mornings in the nursery and two afternoons teaching music to older kids, plus doing staff sickness cover as required. The teacher pay scale started at about £14000 at the time for people with a good degree. I was really broke.

This model does not translate across to daycare nurseries at all, in my opinion. For a start, there are not enough qualified staff. Secondly, it only suits quiet middle class kids. And finally, women still end up working for peanuts in this system (it was 1991 by the way, mid recession, and the only permanent job I could find).

Can anyone get to any Any Questions broadcasts in the next few weeks?

WOW!! power corrupts, doesn't it........

A whole mass of worried, anxious parents and childcare workers V a politician who feels she only needs to address questions in her remit and ignore the worry going on:

this is a prime example

OptimisticPessimist
"I think the ratio issue has been well covered already (and it thankfully won't affect us here in Scotland) so I'd like to ask a different childcare related question.

If your Government is so committed to helping working families afford childcare, then why in its very first budget did it cut the childcare element of working tax credits from 80% to 70%? This was a change that cost parents of two or more children £30 a week, which is a massive amount for those on low incomes. It had a massive impact on me as a lone parent, and I ended up resigning and now claim income support. The childcare element puts money into the economy by contributing to the employment and income of childcare workers, so what reason did your Government have for cutting this benefit?"

Liz Truss
"I would like to point out that the ratios in Scotland (and Ireland) are higher. Ratios in Scotland for 2 year olds are 1:5, and in Ireland are 1:6."

Yes, that's it folks, I almost burst out laughing after that one!!

I wonder why politicians feel they can dictate to a group of people they have no empathy with? Liz Truss clearly has no childcare/early years experience, barring the fact she is a mother with a nanny. She has spoken to "lots and lots" of people about these changes....I have spoken to "lots and lots" of my childrens' teachers, does this mean I can walk into school on Monday and tell them what to do.......it seems to be plausible to do that , if I'm a politician.

Scary stuff.

Reminds me very much of this idiot person in the news who made his wife take his speeding points, it took him 10 years to admit he was lying but he still made it sound like he was always doing the right thing, whilst his own son's upsetting texts reveal what he thinks of his dad.

How do these people become so patronising and blinkered? I can imagine its a cross party thing, although the conservatives do seem to have a plethora of these types.

And the people who will no doubt suffer in all this are our kids, the ones put into childcare settings with these new ratios, who go without the proper care they'd have received before.

That's IF the childcare provider ups their numbers, don't forget Liz Truss is giving them the choice..... and if they take it, its not her fault, now.

So Mr. Nursery owner, would you like things to stay the same or would you like to increase revenue by allowing, legally and above board, more children through your doors???

Its obvious where this will all go. And benefit claimants, don't say you cant work as you have no childcare, there's a nursery down the road fit to bursting which always has places for your kids, no worries there .

Utterly utterly depressing.

Lost I have to say that the thought that perhaps someone influential owns shares in a nursery chain did cross my mind. But the tories would never be that cynical would they?

This so-called Q&A session was a farce. Just like these proposals.

I can't believe one poster had her comments deleted because she was being "rude". (I think she may have asked this MP if she was "stupid"). Well, in my book, pointedly ignoring perfectly sensible and valid questions over and over again is both stupid and rude. Contemptuous in fact.

lost, I dont believe for one second this is being done to focus on really deprived families, most kids at nursery and at a childminder are there as the parents are at work, earning enough to cover childcare fee's, really deprived families arent in this position at all.

It must be a special kind of stupidity.

Can't imagine she got through Oxford like this:

"So, how did you come up with your conclusion in this essay?"

"I asked lots and lots of people"

"But they all appear to fundamentally disagree with you - could you perhaps explain how your theories would work in practice?"

"Well, obviously I'm not an expert so no, but I can quote some random unrelated statistics and facts that are only tenuously connected to the question...".

"Oh well that's OK then".

Or Management Accounting:

"This looks great, you're going to save us loads of money! - before we go ahead could you possibly show us your workings? Just need to dot the i's and cross the t's to make sure we keep up with the health and safety regs..."

"Well no, I went to France and Denmark and saw somebody doing something a bit similar, I don't actually understand how any of it worked at all, but I picked the bits that seemed cheaper".

Do they expect parents of young children to be extra specially gullible?

merry that made me

I think Elizabeth Truss is cherry picking research to the detriment of what is best for children.

If we're really going to go down the alley of " research" then surely as somebody who supposedly has some kind of responsibility with early years children she should be looking at " research" on this subject as a whole.

I am sure she must be well aware(at least I hope she is) that there have been concerns re nurseries already(I presume that is why her children have a nanny)and various studies etc. The following article summaries a lot if it.

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/02/nurseries-childcare-pre-school-cortisol

Surely raising ratios will make such findings even more worrying.

There is a huge elephant in the room here.The fact is most children and parents would like the choice of parents being able to care for their children themselves in the early years. Nothing is being done what so ever to facilitate that,nothing.Instead the gov want to make an already not ideal situation worse.

We don't live in an ideal world,many parents have to or want to work however surely we should be working hard as a society to ensure we provide the best we can for tiny children whether that be helping parents to juggle some time at home in the early years or providing the childcare that is best for children.

I can't believe this will be brought in.No parents want it,any decent childcare professional won't want it and the little people themselves in the middle if this most certainly won't relish it.

It's yet another Tory policy plucked out of thin air and rushed in with zero thought by people who have very little experience of living in the real world.Said Tories don't care as it will never in a million years be their children experiencing such over stretched ratios.It's the same re hospitals and schools.

I smell yet another U turn here.

Also the French raise their dc very differently.We are talking about British children living in Britain.Why the need to look to Europe to yet again.I thought the Tories wanted to move away from having Europe's shadow over all we do.