Petition to leave our early years ratios alone!

[sarahnev707]

Thank you to Ruth for giving me permission to post here on Silkysteps about a petition which has been started to raise awareness of the concerns many childminders and early years professionals have regarding the Government's plan to mess with adult child ratios.

While it might look good to start with there are a lot of concerns about where all the extra children are going to come from... how it will affect outcomes, safety, health, wellbeing etc... and the possible damage to our short and long term sustainability if fees wars break out.

The petition is here - http://www.change.org/en-GB/petition...s-ratios-alone

It currently has nearly 15000 signatures in just a few days - which shows the strength of feeling and concern out there!

Thank you

[Gee]

Ive signed and posted all over my facebook. Thanks for the link :)

[Ruthierhyme]

The ratio increase or 'Freeing high quality providers to offer more places' looks to be a feature that a staff members will bring with them if they intend to hold the newly suggested qualification EY teacher and an accompanying assistant position of EY's Educator/modernised NNEB or exisiting EYPs. Practitioners who took up the decomissioned CWDC's quality mark of Early years professional would be best placed to answer if the status has or would enable self mitosis during moments of need.

From page 19 of the Truss Report
These staffing regulations have existed largely unchanged since the 1970s. Even four decades ago they only reflected common practice of the time, rather than firm evidence that they were best at protecting children’s safety and promoting learning and development.

Whilst the report uses evidence of practice & statistics from other EU countries to underpin recommendations that promote a teacher/graduate led EYs workforce, & states it will enforce a change to the age mix of the 6 children a childminder can care for it sadly omits any evidence of EU settings safety records eg. injury reports, formal complaints, criminal proceedings, if there is any equivalent to England's Serious Case Review system, what the cultural differences might be between approach & attitudes towards risk, how this all translates to the UK or England in ways that would otherwise support the notion that higher qualifications enabling greater staff:child ratios = safer more effective or flexible care.

www.childsafetyeurope.org

News article
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Educ...e-30012013.htm

DfE Consultation
http://education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/dep...e-staff-deploy

For minding, I'd be interested to know how this develops

Childminder Agencies. We will enable the creation of childminder agencies to relieve childminders of some of the burdens of setting up their own business, provide training and match childminders with parents. Instead of having to investigate prospective childminders to check they are happy to entrust their children to their care, parents could instead approach a childminder agency to match them with a nearby childminder. There could be many practical benefits too. For instance, agencies could arrange for cover when childminders fall ill, saving parents the hassle of finding someone else at short notice or missing work.
Page 7 Truss Report

and on page 39

We do not intend to be restrictive about the business model for childminder agencies and we see considerable scope for innovation.

　

I do keep losing sight of how this is meant to make childcare cheaper.

from Pg34 Truss Report:

Ofsted will expect providers to justify the staffing structure they use and the way they use the flexibility they have, explaining how it is best for the children in their care and how it helps to deliver better outcomes for those children.

Please add on with any news about settings that choose to offer quality provision in recognition of the benefits that a higher staff to child ratio provides ..

[Lostock Playschool]

I foresee lots of issues with this.

I suspect badly run nurseries will use the proposed ratios to reduce staff and increase profit rather than reduce the cost to parents.

I believe the idea was also to improve the quality of people entering the childcare sector by raising qualification requirements and pay available. I don't see businesses paying staff more but they could be faced with paying for further staff training. It may discourage young people looking to enter childcare if they are going to have to study for longer before they can get a paid position, long term this could drive wages up I suppose.

In my experience no matter how well qualified a member of staff is there is a limit to how many tasks they can do at the same time. Nurseries looking to provide high quality childcare will work to ratios that work but this could put them at a disadvantage to those nurseries who look to max out the ratios.

Any thoughts on this?