What would be your thoughts on childcare provision? From September, the government in their wisdom is introducing 30 “free” hours of childcare for 3 year olds with working parents. This of course is not free, nursery providers are given an hourly rate set by the government which means that income is vastly reduced compared to previous years (when most nurseries were just trying to keep their heads above water.) As well as causing confusion and being a pain in the arse for admin staff, nurseries now have 3 options:
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Accept children who are entitled to 30 free hours, try desperately to survive with reduced income whilst attempting to pay newly appraised business rates, minimum wage rises etc. Pack children in and work on the upper limit of the teacher to child ratios so quality inevitably suffers. Nurseries are also not allowed to require payment for lunches or extra curricular activities.
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Refuse to accept eligible children and hope that other nurseries in the area show a similarly united front and don’t just steal all your children in order to attempt option one.
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Close.
I’d be interested to hear how anyone thinks it would be feasible for childcare providers to pay their staff £10 an hour in that scenario unless the government radically altered their funding calculations.
ignore this post - sorry
This is a couple of days old. Could be significant.
Yeah I am aware of the issues in nurseries/child minders. I know this isn’t free provision. I often hear parents complaining about how costly child minding is. One parent works to pay the child minder.
I think the workers should be paid well as they’re looking after children, providing early education, also a safeguarding role. I’d want well paid motivated workers to look after children as I would older people (carers are paid pretty badly too). So yes the government should pay more. Yes that would mean increased taxes.
I absolutely support childcare workers being paid more, it’s a lot more of a difficult job than people realise. Just wanted to point out that it’s not always as simple as commanding businesses to pay their employees more- sometimes their hands are tied through no fault of their own.
If more nurseries had strong and stable leadership, they would be far stronger and much more stable. By paying a stable and strong wage to their employees, they can guarantee that they’ll be capable of providing a strong and stable education to the children under their care.
We’ve just become eligible for this 30 hour a week and there are load of conditions involved, I am not too sure what but the wife says there are.
My point is why is childcare so so expensive? £45 a day, no half days and paying all year for the days they’re closed ie bank holidays, why is in this Country childcare is expensive and that is what gets my goat when I see people on the rock and roll with 3/4/5 kids and a household who work their arse off struggle.
Its simply not right nor fair.
The welfare system was a safety net not a population enhancer in the sense the poorest can have many and the working pay double.
= Higher Taxes, I am very happy to do so and would love to see a higher tax for all, the Scandinavian Countries got it well spot on.
A good article for those that believe the tories are more competent.
£16bn(2015 figure) on a system that is useless apart from causing untold suffering really stands out. Good work, you’ll be sat on the top table when you get to hell.
Tories would spend more money than Labour to impose their ideology and hurt the poor.
Perverse lot aren’t they. Maybe their the ones that have to think about a bloke when in a brothel.
Does that make Claude is a socialist?
I haven’t a clue, he is a shit manager either using or abstaining from a knocking shop though.
Yep seen pretty much all of this quite a lot. Also discovered that when housing benefit was paying for a temporary home it was a certain amount but when our department took over the landlord/agency charged more. More waste of public funds going to private companies.
You really think the Conservative party actively wishes to harm poor people? Out of spite…or…?
If it will line the pockets of themselves or their friends then yes they will harm the poor
Institutionally, I’d say no.
Certain groups and individuals? Totally.
Up until now, the nastiest pieces of their agenda have hit poor or middle income families disproportionately. Cuts to tax credits, raising VAT, the implementation of benefits sanctions, socially cleansing London to make way for foreign oligarchs.
The effects of the sanctions regime have been known for many years. Destitution. Suicide. The numbers that are going through the appeals process clearly indicates that the overall modus operandi is sanction first, ask questions later.
My sister was involved in a car accident when she was 11. It was touch and go whether she’d make it and she’ll tell you herself that she never emerged from that whole. She starts fights with people, will tell people to fuck off if she doesn’t like what she’s hearing. Zero filter. In my view, she just can’t be in the workplace.
That wasn’t the view of the clipboard wielding cunt that stopped her personal independent payments. Fortunately, the appeals process ruled in her favour. Even so, she was without money for 10-11 weeks. She has three kids. We’ve been rallying around for months to keep her afloat.
I’d wonder how she’d have got on without the support of her family, but we already know how bad things can get. People are taking their own lives, and I’m sick to the back teeth with the usual “correlation doesn’t imply causation” lullaby right wingers hum to themselves so they can sleep at night. If someone pens a suicide note blaming the DWP for their untimely demise, that’s causation. If the government cuts all housing benefit for under 25s and we end up seeing a huge spike in homeless youth, that’s causation.
I remember Nick Clegg revealing that he’d tried to get council housing onto the coalition agenda, but was rebuffed by Cameron and Osborne, because council houses “create Labour voters”. Let that sink in for a bit. The PM and the chancellor would rather have people homeless, or paying rents which predlude the saving of a deposit for many, than build homes for people to live in.
Motives are myriad, btw. The war on the poor promotes and perpetuates the “everyone’s taking the piss” myth they sell, as well as provides juicy government contracts for their mates in ATOS or whatever. Whether the government gives people money or not, people still need it to pay bills and buy essentials. That’s a huge boost for their mates in the credit industry (personal debt is a timebomb in this country).
And yes, I do believe that some of these people know that people will die as a result of these policies, or should definitely know by now. No doubt some of the nastier fuckers even think of the permanent savings on the benefit bill. I’m not saying that they set out to kill people. They just don’t care.
You’re sister is given enough incapacity benefit to live off on the basis of being mentally unfit for work on the back of a car crash when she was 11? Does she have any other mental illness? No judgement, I’ve just never heard of something like that.
I only ask because you do hear horror stories knocking around about heavily disabled people living alone told that they’re fit to work as they’re within two hours of so-and-so minimum-wage workplace if they get two buses and a train at 6.15 in the morning and so on.
The problem with lefties is they will not accept that people mean as well as them, want to see a fairer society as much as them, want to help the poor as much as them, but just have different ideas about how to do so. You cannot look into a man (or chicks ) soul, so don’t know why they propose something. Just for once it would be nice if the lefties argument was " I know you want to help x y & z but what you’re proposing won’t do that, in my opinion. Why are they always claiming that Tories want to sell the NHS to “their friends” or they want to line the pockets of the rich. Personally, I belive that Theresa May’s intentions are as good as Steptoes are. I don’t think Steptoe wants to make the country poorer and less safe and wouldn’t dream of accusing him of such. However, I do believe the unintended consequences of his policies will do so. Why can’t lefties accept the same from their opponents instead of smearing them and questioning their motives.