George Osborne is apparently going to announce today that 260,000 2 year olds will be allocated nursery places, especially targetted at deprived areas. This sounds like it will result in children in poorer homes being given great education (a whole extra year at school!) and impoverished parents being able to get back into employment earlier.
But will it work? I can see there’ll be a benefit for parents already back at work – they’ll bear less of their childcare costs. And childcare may look more affordable for someone getting a full time job. But in our parish, I can’t see many full time jobs available and barely any of those part time jobs that someone could do in between dropping a child at nursery and returning to collect them 3 hours later. One friend would love to work during the school day (and year) but very few jobs are that flexible, unless they’re in a school. So perhaps that’s the government’s plan – employ all those unemployed parents in the nurseries that will be expanding.
It’ll be a good break for some knackered (mainly) mums but then it supplies the message that a 2 year old is better off in the hands of a government run nursery than at home and out and about with their family. I think that this was what the communists did. Aren’t we heading for the ultimate Nanny State? Am I missing something, or is this just something that the Chancellor is announcing to deflect attention from the horrors of the economy? I note that it’s been used as the headline in the online Telegraph site and doesn’t seem to be mentioned in the Guardian. Hmmmm.
The Vicar's Wife 
My daughter works or a government funded nursery, she has a room of 16 under 3’s, some of whom are with her from 8 am to 6 pm. Some cry a lot, she does her best to give them the attention that they need. She informs their parents on their development, as they often miss the “firsts”. She is very fond of those in her care ,even the more challenging. But she feels that they would be better off at home,for their emotional and physical development.
What is so wrong with Mothers (or Fathers)being paid the same as a Child Minder, to enable them to stay at home, at least until the child is at School. Why is parenting seen as unimportant these days?Just a few years of nuturing and stability would make all the difference. Do we need so many material things ,surely our childrens’ needs should come first. Can we then castigate Young people for bad behaviour later on?
Our 2.8 year old knows the meanings of ‘Wondering’, ‘Sycamore’, ‘Nocturnal’, ‘Tutu’, ‘Thinking’… to name just a handful, as well as being able to recognise a number of different trees by their leaves. No nursery place here… neither would we want one, we just talk to our children as do all the members of the family expanding their experience and language daily. How can a millionaire cabinet minister (aren’t they all?) know what we need? Certainly not this ‘smoke screen’. Thinks… must teach Ivy the meaning of ‘smoke screen’ (!)
I think it’s a great idea…but then I had no choice to be put into a nursery that young because my father had to work, otherwise we wouldn’t have been provided for. I don’t think it sends the message that a child is better off in a nursery, surely it’s just providing an alternative?
I’ve done the whole range over three kids – gone back full-time using a childminder; staying home; and using sessional nursery/creche/preschool care while working from home. Whatever provision there is, kids still get sick at very short notice, so one parent has to be able to stay home at the drop of a hat. There’s not many places that want you to send a sick child. My first got chicken pox aged 3 when I was working full-time, and was quarantined for two weeks. My work made me use my precious annual leave! Then there’s other things — my son started having knee dislocations at age 14, when I thought he was getting independent. Six dislocations and two operations in the next 3 years meant I was driving him to school and picking him up (while he was on crutches for long spells) — as well as ferrying him to endless physio appointments. I don’t know how anyone could keep working full-time in that sort of scenario?