Early years organisation publishes wishlist ahead of general election
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
The NDNA has called on the next Government to ‘get it right’ for childcare in its new manifesto.
In the run-up to the launch of the political parties’ manifestos, the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) has released its own document urging the next Government to ensure childcare policies work for children, families and providers.
In the document, the NDNA calls for:
- the right funding for childcare places
- zero business rates for nurseries in England
- a single childcare account for parents.
The NDNA is calling on its members to use its online campaign toolkit to inform local candidates and parents of its position, with template letters to send out, a factsheet of sector facts and figures, a poster and some suggested social media posts and images.
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the NDNA, said, ‘It’s a very simple message we are putting across to parliamentary candidates and voters: families and children need affordable, accessible childcare and early education. High quality early education reduces the attainment gap and improves social mobility across the board. It also supports parents into employment, boosting the economy.
‘But successive governments have promised ”free” childcare hours to parents without providing the resources to deliver on that promise. Underfunding means the current universal 15 funded hours and 30 hours for children of working parents are not free to either parents or providers.
‘We need the politicians to step back from an arms race of under-resourced promises towards fully costed policies that can be delivered. Nursery businesses must be able to invest in staff training and resources to maintain high quality provision.
‘Our asks are simple: childcare places should be properly funded, nurseries shouldn’t pay unfair business rates and the whole system needs to be simpler for parents and providers.
‘Parents and nurseries find the whole application process for the different sources of childcare support bewildering and time consuming. It must be simplified, with all funding in one place so that parents can pay their childcare provider directly.’
The Prime Minister has previously said that a Conservative government would carry out a review of business rates.
www.ndna.org.uk/general-election
