As a mum currently looking into childcare options for my little one, I am obviously interested in new government plans to increase the ratio of children nursery workers and child minders are allowed to look after.
The idea is to try to attract better experienced and educated staff by increasing their salary and ensuring they have certain qualifications such as a C in GCSE Maths and English. They then claw some of the money back by getting them to look after more kids.
The government believes it will eventually bring down the cost of child care. I am sceptical. Everyone knows that once a price goes up it very rarely goes down. Nurseries are not just suddenly going to lower their prices and I doubt it will significantly halt the soaring rise in costs – last year childcare in the UK went up by 6% – with Brits spending 27% of their income on it.
Now, I agree, nursery workers SHOULD get paid more money. I hear the average salary is £13,000 which is unbelievably low and explains why many of those working in child care are often very young without many qualifications. I am in favour of a proposed increase to around £16,000 – they deserve it for looking after our little ones. But I am concerned about increasing the number of children they then look after. I also question whether some nurseries may increase the ratio but keep salaries low with inexperienced staff.
Most mums would admit they struggle with two of their own kids let alone six two year olds (instead of four) and four under ones (rather than three) who they are not related to. I know I would want Mrs T to have as many eyes on her as possible and would worry about the risk of accidents. It is tough enough handing them over to strangers in the first place.
A similar model to the government’s plans already appears to be working in France and other parts of Europe so perhaps we should try pushing the boundaries a little more although feel it should only be done at an experimental level to start with.
Certainly something needs to be done to improve standards of childcare across the board so there are more high quality nurseries giving parents more choice rather than the few which can drive up prices due to demand. Although I am unconvinced this is completely the right way to go about it, it is at least opening the subject up for debate and is an attempt by the government to tackle the spiralling costs families are forced to take on – and that can only be a good thing.
What are your thoughts?