Editor's View - Speculation continues on relaxation of ratios
Liz Roberts
Friday, January 11, 2013
Still no pronouncement on ratios, regulation and childcare affordability as Nursery World went to press, but by the time you read this, the Government may well have released its response to Nutbrown and the Childcare Commission.
Certainly, there have been hints aplenty about a relaxation of ratios - and a flurry of invitations from nursery owners to Ms Truss to come into their settings and try working with double the current number of young children!
Various national newspapers reported that what they believed was the current ratio of one staff member to four children would be increased to eight children, unaware that that is already the ratio for three to five-year-olds in daycare, with one to 13 in nursery schools.
And for two-year-olds, where the ratio is one to four, an increase would be disastrous, especially for the disadvantaged two-year-olds, many with special needs. All children of this age have particular needs, of course, as Penny Tassoni's new series beginning in this issue (pages 16-18) sets out to show. They deserve enough well-trained adults to provide the highest quality care.
Increasing ratios is unlikely to have a major effect on childcare fees in any case. Paying for better-qualified staff would eradicate much of the potential saving. And so many nurseries are struggling with sustainability and under-funding from the free entitlement that there will be no huge surplus to pass on to parents, as our report on the NDNA's business survey (pages 14-15) shows. The Government cannot set fees for the mostly private and voluntary settings anyway.
One further - and vital - concern is safety. Read our exclusive news story about the lack of data on accidents and deaths in childcare. Do we really want anything that could increase the risks?
