Newcastle North MP leads Parliamentary debate on childcare ratios
Newcastle North MP Catherine McKinnell has spoken in Westminster Hall about the issue of staff-child ratios in early years childcare.
Newcastle North MP Catherine McKinnell has spoken in Westminster Hall about the issue of staff-child ratios in early years childcare.
Yesterday Ms McKinnell led a debate in Parliament, on the safety of increasing the child to staff ratio within early years childcare.
The debate comes as earlier this year, the Government announced a proposal to reduce the current statutory minimum staff-child ratios in England for 2-year-olds from 1:4 to 1:5.
Last Wednesday, in response to a question at Prime Minister’s Questions, Rishi Sunak indicated that his Government continues to press ahead with these plans.
The issue has been highlighted by a petition which was started by grieving parents Zoe and Lewis Steeper, after their 9-month-old son Oliver, tragically died after a medical emergency in a nursery, down in Kent.
The petition has been supported by the Early Years Alliance, National Day Nurseries Association, and the Education Policy Institute.
The petition, which has been signed by over 108,000 people, raises concerns about how “increasing how many children an adult can legally be held responsible for risks increasing the danger that those young people, the most vulnerable in society, are being subjected to.”
MP Catherine McKinnell led the debate in Westminster Hall, urging the fact “We need to transform our childcare system to be more modern and flexible to truly deliver for children, parents and the economy, however amending the childcare ratios is not the way to do this.”
“We need to stop thinking of childcare as some sort of luxury, but instead as the fundamental foundation for the best start in life, and the best chance for our economy.
“Quality early education is a key determiner for important life outcomes for children. For parents too, access to childcare can shape their future as parents, allowing them to flexibly to choose if and when they want to work. Yet, when we look at which developed countries have the highest childcare costs, the UK consistently ranks among the highest of that list.
“And parents are certainly feeling it. A recent survey by Pregnant Then Screwed found that these costs have forced 43% of mothers to consider leaving their jobs and 40% to work fewer hours. Is that not just absurd? That during an unprecedented cost of living crisis, our economy bumping along the bottom, families with young children cannot afford to go to work.”
Catherine further highlighted that the proposals concerned parents, adding that
“When parents take their child to nursery, they trust that they will be provided the best possible care. They also have trust that our whole system will always prioritise children and their safety. Parents understandably feel that the proposed changes risk betraying that trust.”
And that “it is not just a child’s wellbeing that deregulating childcare ratios would endanger. It could also jeopardise the quality of early years care for many and create a postcode lottery of early years quality depending on a parent’s ability to pay.
“Early education is vital for our children to the best a fair start in life. It is also important for our children to have a fair start to life, and that this is universal across the board. Evidence consistently proves that a child’s cognitive development and social behavioural outcomes are largely determined by the early years input they receive.
“Quality early years education requires that staff can give each child the right care and attention, whilst identifying and supporting a child’s individual needs. It means children feeling safe, secure, and able to learn with well managed risk-taking, which is inherent in any play-based activities, so that a child can independently play, learn, discover and explore.”
Catherine concluded stating:
“Early years provision is not working. It isn’t working for families, it isn’t working for providers, and It isn’t working for the economy.
“Parents are facing such extraordinary costs they have become unable to work. Providers are being pushed into debt with rising numbers of closures. The overworked and underappreciated workforce are at breaking point. And children are being denied the best possible early education.
“Childcare is a vital social and economic infrastructure, as important for our country as the roads, rail, and our healthcare system. But the sector is crying out for support. We are in desperate need for a system which truly reflects the needs of modern families.
“Yet the only solution the Government has offered misses the point entirely. A pledge to relax childcare ratios which does not address the cause of this crisis and will only make it worse. Deregulation of our childcare ratios will risk the safety of our children, jeopardise their development, and could engender a workforce crisis bigger than that the sector is already facing.
“The proposal is premised on falsehoods and misleading comparisons, and the likelihood that they could even be implemented is doubtful. The Government should be taking every possible opportunity to strengthen our childcare system and improve the quality of early years provision. Instead, it is doing what it can to get rid of standards altogether – a race to the bottom in which our children will be the biggest losers.”