I have rewritten the letter to Mr Clegg regarding his statement this week about providers extending their hours or face not getting an outstanding grade at inspection
I have also added agencies in the letter and copied it to Vince Cable who is my MP and Business Secretary
Dear Mr Clegg
RE: Longer opening hours for nurseries
I write to express my concerns following your statement this week that you will recommend those nurseries who do not open for longer hours face not achieving an ‘outstanding’ grade at inspection.
I feel you are not aware of the existing childcare provision and I question your knowledge of child development and children’s emotional needs.
You would like to attract women votes at the next General Election but forget that 98% of the EY workforce is made up of women who will, hopefully, remember your possible opportunistic stance in the present childcare reforms.
I would like to clarify a few points
1. Day nurseries do open 10 hrs per day and 51 weeks of the year
2. Childminders, who were not mentioned in your statement, work on average 10 hrs per day, many care for children up to 12 hrs or more, offer overnight care therefore being the most flexible in the workforce.
3. Proposing that providers be denied an 'outstanding' grade because they are not flexible enough, is a threat too far in my view, I find this insulting and immoral.
It gives the clear message that ‘quantity’ matters more than ‘quality’...exactly what the Minister for Childcare proposed in her ratio reforms which you successfully blocked.
The EY workforce is already feeling the negative impact Ofsted has on our morale, we need positive and professional engagement with the inspectorate in order for children’s outcomes to improve even further. This can only be achieved by praising what we do well and encouraging improvement, not by threats and disrespect or by fuelling fear of an inspector knocking on our very door.
4. As an MP we know you work long hours while enjoying long breaks looking after your constituency affairs.
Childminders would be delighted to extend their care to 12 hrs per day if we could take long breaks to do our 'paperwork' which is our business affair and carried out in the evening and weekends without financial reward.
5. Unlike MPs childminders work for little remuneration while you enjoy a rewarding salary which, we believe, MPS want to be increased by £10,000 per annum up to £70,000+
If you were to suggest a comparable increase for childminders we would be delighted to keep the children overnight and allow parents to work any shift they like.
6. Taxpayers subsidise MPs’ salaries and their expenses, Early Years providers also subsidise Free Education for children which is really the duty of the state to provide and the very low rate of funding is really not morally justified in our rich society.
While I applaud your intention to increase free childcare I am concerned as to who will subsidise the extra hours you are to propose?
7. Childcare experts and providers alike have consistently advised the government that unless the Free Entitlement is reviewed the present level will not cover the cost of delivering high quality education. It is the Free Entitlement that causes the cost of childcare to rise as we cannot manage the increase in our costs, therefore, providers have had no option but to pass these on to parents over many years.
With LAs paying varying rates of funding the situation will only get worse. It is financially impossible to make care high quality if the funding received is as low as £3.50 per hour often lower.
8. The coalition government promotes itself as the party of the 'family'.
You envisage parents working all hours so they can contribute to the economy and bring much needed tax to the Treasury.
Providers will be punished unless they respond to your recommendation to increase our working hours but if they were to respond to your request they would in turn be neglecting their children and families.
If you are advocating ‘quantity’ over ‘quality’ this is in contrast to your rethink of the higher ratio issue.
Where is the family in all this and where, may I ask, do you see the benefits for young children being outside of their family for such long hours every day?
Children's emotional needs must come first, what makes them happy or indeed what would make them unhappy little people, be of paramount importance.
Parents should be afforded the right to choose what is best for their children, which you yourself were afforded when you selected the best school for your children because it suited your family.
9. The government believes that introducing childminders agencies will lower costs to parents. There is no evidence of this at all. In fact the Minister for childcare has herself said the agencies will probably pass the cost to parents.
Childminders’ costs will increase too as we see by the initial costs some potential agencies are publishing already. It is very possible that many childminders will lose their small businesses, again you wish women to return to work while expecting others to lose theirs?
The government will respond to this by saying that agencies will recruit new childminders...true but they will not be of the same high quality or calibre as those who may be lost to the workforce.
I would recommend you call for a ‘pause’ in the agency reforms and consult with all the representing associations who are expressing huge concerns and backing childminders in their concerns.
We are aware that the only beneficiary from agencies will be Ofsted as it will save on individual inspections, however, following Sir Michael Wilshaw’s statement last year that ‘childminders are too expensive to register and inspect’ childminders immediately suggested that our registration fee be reviewed as we are willing to contribute rather than lose our individual inspections and registration.
This proposal has to be considered and costed first before agencies are introduced against the overwhelming majority of childminders being against this reform.
Yours sincerely
Simona McKenzie
Ofsted registered childminder
For those who have not seen the article in Nursery World here is the link
Lib Dems call for nurseries to open for longer | Nursery World
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