fairer funding campaign

[Rea]

The preschool learning alliance have a campaign at the moment for fairer funding. You can get involved here http://www.pre-school.org.uk/fairfuturefunding

[SueJ]

Thanks Rea - have seen this one.

 

Also yet another consultation is about to be launched regarding nursery schools and how a fairer funding formula could be problematic for them because they and I quote here "led by qualified teachers on higher levels of pay".

 

With absolutely no disrespect to our mainstream colleagues - as an honours degree holder with EYP status - I find that quite insulting.

 

I had no option but to get a degree and EYP status as at the time that was going to be the only way my setting was going to stay open - the goalposts have moved several times since then but there are many settings led by EYPs/EYTs or who employ EYPs/EYTs.

 

Perhaps we can use this consultation to make the point that underfunding is underfunding for all and that we are all struggling to stay sustainable on current funding levels - in most cases in the PVI sector we cannot pay our graduates what they are worth or could earn in the maintained sector.

[Stargrower]

I couldn't agree more, Sue and am in the same position as you, having a degree and EYP status. That was the Holy Grail at the time and was supposed to put us on an equal footing with those with QTS. While I don't regret the higher level of study and the qualifications I now have, those of us in PVI settings are not treated the same way as qualified teachers. As you say, money is money and when there isn't enough of it, it doesn't matter what your qualifications are!

[lashes2508]

I wrote this on Saturday in response to Lucy Powell MP quote AND SHARED WITH Champagne nurseries lemonade funding on FB

 

Extinction I hear you cry !

''Tis surely not the Early Years lot

You must mean the dinosaurs with which the children play

Not the wonderful providers we send our children to every day ?

 

My word is this real ? Or even true , the money we do or don't spend with you but what is paid on our behalf , that's all you get , well that's a laugh !

 

So your telling me that for all you do , the start you give my little one , the support for us and everyone

The letters you write and policies too , the help you gave in helping him to use the loo

 

The patience you showed when he struggled to talk and had difficulty when trying to walk

The expertise you shared with me , the chair you offered when I was pregnant with number 3

 

Oh surely not , this can't be true , that you get so little funding for all you do

 

So you mean to say that for all you provide , the care, the love , the learning too

To ensure my little one develops and grows so well , is not recognised or applauded , Hell !

 

I see , I hear your cry , I apologise too for not knowing how .. much you get to take my child for a session , it's ridiculous , it's a difficult profession

 

Applaud you I will now that I understand more , our support you have , government please listen , I implore

 

Take your head out of the sand , stop throwing it around , these professionals have a right to stand their ground

Pay them what's due and what is needed to survive , in their hands we've put our children's lives

 

Don't refuse them what they deserve , it is so justified

 

Extinct they will surely become , oh look another one died !

 

Author JP

[Pimpernel]

Firstly, let me say I agree that there should be more funding for early years providers - no question there!

However, I do get a little perplexed by the inconsistencies in the Pre School Learning Alliance and their surveys - this being the latest one

In this current one they are asking for LA's to have a statutory duty to review childcare costs annually through some sort of costs audit/analysis. Yet confusingly they do not call for any responsibility on a provider, of any sector, to actually supply the information. Why are they not also saying that if you are a provider in receipt of government funding for free entitlements that you must take part in such a survey/analysis as a condition of that funding?

There have been multiple examples up and down the country where surveys have been undertaken but the responses so low as to be at best unrepresentative or at worst meaningless. As I recall the DfE had the greatest difficulty when they conducted their own survey, which they then had to disregard, due to the low response and differing ways those who did respond reported their costs. There had been numerous threads and posts on here that would exemplify this.

I know that the PSLA would say they have conducted their own surveys that have produced some results, but I don’t know who they consulted or form which sector. What I do know is they didn’t speak with, or get returns from, anyone in my neck of the woods, neither am I sure what their response rate was in relation to requests sent.

If we know that response rates to such surveys are very low, then what is the point of calling for statutory duties for surveys that cannot be met unless providers actually supply the information to inform them?