The Minister Elizabeth Truss has recently published a highly controversial paper “More Great Childcare”. There are a number of proposed changes but a key issue is her proposal to change the staffing ratios in order to force nurseries to reduce fees to parents. While we agree with the principle of making childcare affordable we do not agree that forcing staff to care for larger groups is the right solution. Government subsidies are the only viable way forward.
The paper proposes that the staffing ratios for children under 2 years of age changes from 1:3 to 1:4 and for children aged 2-3 years the proposal is to move from 1:4 to 1:6. We all know that these young children need a lot of care and attention and while children are learning to walk and run and testing out social skills they need constant attention and care.
We believe that these proposals will undermine the quality of care we provide and threaten the safety of the children. We believe it would be unfair to ask staff to work under these condition and many staff could be made redundant across the country if these proposals become law.
Please sign the petition today. It will only take a moment and you could make a difference.
https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/department-for-education-drop-plans-to-increase-child-to-adult-ratios
