Live online chat with The Rt Hon Beverley Hughes MP, Minister for Children, on Thursday 24th May 1-2pm

[carriemumsnet]

Hi all

Ok this is your chance to have your say about what, in an ideal world, you'd like to happen to childcare, nurseries and pre-schools (as well as debate what's happening in the sometimes non ideal world). The Rt Hon Beverley Hughes, Minister for Children and mum of three, will be joining us for a lunchtime chat on Thursday 24th May, so bring your sarnies, get your questions ready and join us then. For those of you who have unavoidable lunchtime commitments (and letters from your mum to prove it) we'll let you post your questions in advance here. For the rest of you, we'll see you on the 24th.

isnt rt hon mp how they have to address each other inhouse of commons?
and on their stationary?
i've had two letters from h of c in two weeks!...am sure it is correct form of address...
can the right hounourable member for brodlington south please blah blah

In the HoC it's "the honourable Member" (no "right") normally -- check out Hansard online .

For example, in that debate Greg Clark MP is "the hon. Gentleman", Natascha Engel is "my hon. Friend", Vincent Cable is "the hon. Gentleman", Oliver Heald is "the hon. Gentleman". None of those is a member of the Privy Council. And when the House as a whole is referred to it's as "hon. Members"

In contrast, David Cameron is "the right hon. Member for Witney", Hilary Armstrong is "The right hon. Lady", John Prescott is "my right hon. Friend" and Gordon Brown is "my right hon. friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer". All of them are members of the Privy Council (the leader of the Opposition gets to be a member too).

Anyone on this list is a Privy Councillor and will get to be "right hon.". Other MPs just get to be "hon."

Would somebody please ask her to confirm whether or not we are actually going to be getting the promised increase in hours for pre-schoolers on that grant thingy, some people say it should come into force from september but our pre school has no plans to change sessions in any way? Was this just a waft of hot air from the labour party? (hmm)

when is affordable childcare going to be available? Yes it is all very well encouraging women to work after having a family but childcare costs are huge and you have to earn a fair whack to make it worthwhile. Whilst there is help available in tax credits etc what about those who just miss out - doesn't me we are all stinking rich and can afford the huge costs you know.

I'd like to re-iterate the question asked above around wraparound care.

I live in Croydon, have a small child and a job in London that demands (at absolute minimum) 9am-5.30pm attendence at the office. That means starting the journey at 8am. Obviously he has to be dropped off before that, which (even allowing for minimal settling in and waving goodbye time) means 7.45am

On the way home, leaving the office on the dot of 5.30pm means not being back in Croydon ready to pick him up until 6.30pm at the absolute earliest.

Whilst he's at nursery, I can make that work, since our nursery offer care from 7.45am to 7pm if required.

But how in practical terms am I supposed to make it work when he starts school?? There's no wraparound care that I know of that will cover those hours?

Julie

How come that in Scandinavian countries only 1 percent of one's income goes to childcare fees whereas in the UK one whole's salary gets eaten up on nursery fees.I had to becoe a childminder in order for our family to stay afloat as we would have to pay 60 pound a day in nursery fees(we have no staterun nurseries in this area).Also,why don't you meake it easier for us mothers to stay at home and look after our children ourselves?Give us a financial incentive,some help to make it easier for us who doesn't want to offload our children onto others to care for them ourselves!

i would like to ask if we can challenge the whole notion of the school day and holidays and propose that the school day and holidays should be harmonised with the standard working day and standard holidays. this would mean a radical restructuring of how we educate our children as well as giving families greater choice.

Welcome to MN Ms Hughes.

Can you tell working parents why this government will not make it compulsory for all employers to offer childcare vouchers if they have say, more than 3 employees to whom they would be appropriate ?

What is the point of having a childcare subsidiary available to some working parents and not others on a random basis ? Why do you let employers deny access to this potential reduction in childcare cost on the grounds of it " being to expensive to administer" without at the very least some independent verification of their calculations of the costs/savings involved.

P.S. "the government does not wish enforce it because that would be adding a layer of red-tape to businesses" doesn't explain or justify the unfairness of it. It was compulsory to offer stakeholder pension schemes if a business had more than a certain number of employees.

Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to be say £1,000 p.a. worse off than another identical working family just because your employer has complete control over access to this help with childcare fees and sees fit to deny it to their employees.

Oh Yes, and there some very large employers who are saying it is too expensive to administer the scheme when they can subcontract the whole thing to an agency and pay the agency fees out of the employer's NI saving. Some smaller employers say they find it too complicated even though they can produce their own documents etc.

to my honourable lemonade..thanks for clearing that up! i knew they were honourable somethings!

i was speaking to belgian father at toddler group who works here and in belgium, who pays a proportion of salary to nursery for childcare when there...
is this being considered here?

nursery fees proportionate to parental income?
when will this be considered way forward in UK?

I would like to ask why is it if I went back to work after maternity leave that virtually all my salary would be needed to pay for childcare for my two DSs (one currently 7 months, the other 22 months). This means I don?t have any real choice other than to stay at home, or take work in the evenings/weekends, which will mean I can't continue with my career or having any sort of family life. My DP earns only a bit more than the national average - but this stops us from getting any help via Working Tax Credit to pay towards childcare. However, the amount of Family Tax Credit we get stays the same whether I work or not. This doesn't seem right.

When will we see investment to offer realistic help to carers? I am a SAHM with a disabled husband (MS). DH is limited in what he can do and all the assistance I can get is to look after my children (dd is 2 and ds is 8 mths) which then frees me up to do the cleaning, ironing, shopping, etc! Whilst I would love to be Wonder Woman (oh to have the figure ) I'm only human and even she gets a break now and again.

Hi there
Just bumping this for anyone who wants to post an advance question ... though I can see there are quite a few already.

Looking forward to seeing everyone here on Thursday around 1pm

I would like to know what she thinks of this

Because it has made me very, very angry indeed.

I would like to know what Bev thinks of self-styled child/baby/parenting gurus, and, in view of some of the (dangerous?) practices and recommendations given out by said 'experts' (Claire Verity, for example) which clearly contradict guidelines from FSIDS, the Government, and the WHO, whether it ought to be a requirement to regulate these 'gurus'?

I would also like to know why baby food companies are still allowed to label food as being suitable for 4-6 month olds, when Government and WHO guidelines recommend not weaning before 6 months? What plans are being made to remedy this glaring contradiction, and shameful marketing?

I would like to find out why this government appears to attach very little value to SAHMs for pre-schoolers. There are incentives to go back to work, but when I had my 1st child my DH and I wanted one of us to stay at home with him but could not afford to do so. It felt like there was no choice but for me to return to the workplace part-tme.Could there not be a real choice for women to make about whether or not to return to work.

I would like to know whether she condones the separating of breastfeeding mothers and their children.

If, like most people, she agrees that separating a mother from her very young children is cruel to both mother and children, then what is she, as Minister for Children doing about the cases reported recently in the Guardian, of mothers being interned at Yarl's Wood Detention Centre without their children?

Why is there no tax incentive for the self employed to help towards childcare? I work full-time for an employer and can claim up to £243.00 per month to purchase childcare vouchers to pay for my nursery costs (which are over half my wages). If my partner was employed by a firm he would also be able to claim the same amount but because he has his own business he cannot claim for anything. Why are we being penalised for that?

As a registered childminder I can accept payment in the form of childcare vouchers, which are tax deductible for the parents of my mindees. My husband is entitled to child care vouchers through work which he could then use to pay any registered childminder he chooses ? apart from one? me. As a self employed person with two of my own children using 50% of my registered capacity I am interested as to why the government feels it best to encourage me to send my children to another childminder/child care facility? There certainly seems to be a message that children/babies are better off away from home coming strongly from this government.

Oooh yes - good and interesting point Alienbump!

if he is self-employed through his own company then he can deduct the £243 at source.

sorry that was to lolly68

Bossycat - can he? He pays his tax once a year and we were told that he does not get any tax relief for childcare.

He won't get a deduction if he pays you direct so he will have to go through a voucher scheme, but for his company the cost of the vouchers will be tax deductible, and he will receive them free of NI and tax.

I'm not sure but I belive this would only work if he does have a limited company though.

lolly68 - the key fact is does he have his own limited company? i can't tell from what you've said.

ladymuck - i think you have elided lolly68's and alienbump's issues.