Editor's view

You would expect a piece of research entitled 'The Childcare Survey of Great Britain 2006' to be wide-ranging, rigorous and maybe even an official Government study. Unfortunately, Discovery Home and Health's survey, commissioned to coincide with the start of its TV series on Norland nannies, is none of these things (see News, page 4). It has, of course, caused a storm of 'nasty nursery' headlines and achieved its prime aim of lots of publicity for Discovery. The problems with the survey include the people surveyed, who are far from a representative sample of the UK's working mothers, and the leading nature of the questions. If you ask whether it is 'fine for babies and young children to spend most of their waking hours in childcare', you will get an overwhelmingly negative response. Ironically, the respondents' main complaint about nursery care was that their child was 'allowed to sleep too long'! Seven out of ten of the mothers said their child was happier with them than at nursery - the only surprise is surely that the proportion isn't higher.