The publication of the book comes as author, Helen Penn, reunites with those she campaigned with in the 1970s and 80s to push for a fairer childcare system in light of the expanded offer being rolled out in a matter of weeks. Penn was a founder member of the National Childcare Campaign and has worked as an academic for the last 30 years.
Within her book, ‘Who Needs Nurseries? We do!’, Penn, an academic, argues that increasing Government funding to deliver the extended early years offer alone is not the solution, nor is replying on private nurseries.
Instead, she suggests building on and expanding free local authority nursery provision that already exists, while setting limits on the amount of funding large nursery chains can receive and the number of sites they can operate. She says this would encourage not-for-profit childcare, supporting informal childcare workers, improving regulation and inspection of private nurseries and reinvigorating training for staff.
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