FSFRebecca Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 With the conference season well under way it is always interesting to see what the different parties are saying relation to early years and childcare. According to this piece on the BBC website the Labour party are looking to "offer 30 hours of "genuinely free" childcare to all parents of two, three and four-year-olds in England. Mr Corbyn will say Labour will also offer extra, means-tested subsidised hours on top of this allowance. These will be free for the poorest households and cost no more than £4 per hour for higher incomes, Labour says." Whilst this sounds like an effective measure to counter the current '30 hours situation' the NDNA warned recently (at a local member event) that the Labour party 'offer' had many caveats and requirements for providers which would potentially make the offer as challenging as the current Government's one. The Liberal Democrat conference which was held in the last fortnight did not raise the 'funded childcare' issue. instead focusing on their pledges regarding Pupil Premium and the qualifications of staff working in settings: "Investing in high quality early years education has a huge impact on children’s attainment as they enter school. Our most vulnerable children have the most to gain from excellent early years setting, with partnerships with parents a key component. We will: Increase our Early Years Pupil Premium to £1,000 per pupil per year. Raise the quality of early years provision and aim for every formal early years setting to employ at least one person who holds an Early Years Teacher qualification by 2022." [Lib. Dem website] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stargrower Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 Round and round and round we go.... I had a little read yesterday and saw that he has also pledged to raise funding levels to £7.50 per hour. With Labour's record for costing their pledges, I'd love to see how much that is going to cost and where the money would come from. Oh and the groundbreaking idea of a graduate led workforce! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FSFRebecca Posted September 27, 2018 Author Share Posted September 27, 2018 6 minutes ago, Stargrower said: I had a little read yesterday and saw that he has also pledged to raise funding levels to £7.50 per hour. With Labour's record for costing their pledges, I'd love to see how much that is going to cost and where the money would come from. Indeed, the trouble with the current 30 hours under funding is that it was put out as a 'one upmanship' following the Labour announcement of 25 hours. The current Government decided (without costing) to 'beat' the last Labour pledge by 5 hours - having already said that the Labour plan was not financially possible!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 6 hours ago, Rebecca said: "Investing in high quality early years education has a huge impact on children’s attainment as they enter school. Rarely is High Quality given a meaning in any of the political info. It can range from graduate led to ofsted info to amount of level 3 staff. Maybe someone needs to decide what they mean by this based on evidence. Our most vulnerable children have the most to gain from excellent early years setting, with partnerships with parents a key component. If Partnership with parents is so important why are we removing their children from them at every opportunity? If we want 'poor' families to succeed not just in this generation but the next we need to educate them how to parent and teach too. If we remove their children for much of the time how are we going to do this? We will: Increase our Early Years Pupil Premium to £1,000 per pupil per year. Raise the quality of early years provision and aim for every formal early years setting to employ at least one person who holds an Early Years Teacher qualification by 2022 Humm this would need to be backed up by a huge amount of funding and support. £1000 per pupil is significant but if you only have one child in the setting over the year its only £26 a week...what are you supposed to do with that? If we are going to go for graduates we need to look seriously at the wage bill. Why would anyone spend thousands of pounds on getting their EYT (possibly without QTS) to get paid a low wage ….not all of these graduates would be able to be the Head teacher so they may end up on an assistants wage I suspect we are heading for more of the same unless Mr Corbyn actually works WITH the industry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stargrower Posted September 28, 2018 Share Posted September 28, 2018 I graduated in 2009 when the latest was that every setting should be graduate-led by 2015. I don't regret doing a degree for one minute, but the proposal went out the window and now rears it's head again as if it was a new idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mundia Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 It's a bit of a nonsense when it sits against a backdrop of academies frequently not employing qualified teachers any more (and often non graduates in their nursery classes). Of course it does mean that some of those QTS nursery teachers who have lost their jobs will be looking for work..... (Sorry, couldn't resist) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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