Nursery World - Public services, such as early years, should be outside politics

Taking public services such as education and the early years out of politics may be the only way of funding them adequately.

Michael Pettavel, head teacher, Brougham Street Nursery School, Skipton

Another SEND review (DfE 2019), another report pointing out the woeful inadequacies of the current system from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (‘Complaints about SEND at “unprecedented level”’, Nursery World, 4 October). Who to blame? Where can we point the finger?

Local authorities hold up their hands in despair at budgets that have shrunk in real terms by almost 50 per cent in ten years (NAO 2018), just at a time when needs increase exponentially. Schools, despite a settlement, told that their budgets next year will be less than 2015 and this all being played out against a background of almost unregulated advertising and pressure on families to buy, holiday and demand flexibility.

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