A thousand nurseries close as free childcare scheme falters

[Steve]

Just wanted to draw people's attention to this Observer article about the 30 hours free childcare scheme.

[AnonyMouse_19782]

 doesn't make great reading Steve,  but thank you for linking it.

[AnonyMouse_19762]

Thanks for that Steve......

[FSFRebecca]

We provided some of the statistics for this article through the FSF survey we ran a couple of weeks ago 

[AnonyMouse_19762]

7 hours ago, Rebecca said:

We provided some of the statistics for this article through the FSF survey we ran a couple of weeks ago 

Oh well done you (us)

[AnonyMouse_5970]

I wish we were being paid the £4.27 an hour that is always quoted as the average.  £3.85 for us.  If only the government had 'sold' this to parents as subsidised childcare, not free. We would all be happy.  Parents would still get a massive discount, and we would be able to charge the difference between what the LA pay us, and what it costs to provide the places.

[AnonyMouse_19762]

6 hours ago, Stargrower said:

I wish we were being paid the £4.27 an hour that is always quoted as the average.  £3.85 for us.  If only the government had 'sold' this to parents as subsidised childcare, not free. We would all be happy.  Parents would still get a massive discount, and we would be able to charge the difference between what the LA pay us, and what it costs to provide the places.

Absolutely right

[AnonyMouse_55778]

On 11/21/2017 at 09:26, Stargrower said:

I wish we were being paid the £4.27 an hour that is always quoted as the average.  £3.85 for us.  If only the government had 'sold' this to parents as subsidised childcare, not free. We would all be happy.  Parents would still get a massive discount, and we would be able to charge the difference between what the LA pay us, and what it costs to provide the places.

Absolutely True. Maybe we have a case against the government for giving away something that wasn't theirs to give - i.e. 'Free Childcare'. After all, they wouldn't be allowed to say they are going to give every parent a free loaf of bread and pint of milk every day and then tell the supermarkets they were giving them 10p to provide it ! They should have presented it as a voucher towards their childcare bill based on 30 hours at the average cost across the country and then let parents choose where to use it and decide for themselves whether they could afford to pay the difference.