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Most parents believe ratios in graduate-led settings are too high

More than half of parents believe that nurseries should employ more staff to look after nursery age children, research by the Department for Education suggests.

Just over half of parents (51 per cent) did not support the adult to child ratio of 1:8 when a graduate is not present.

Education and childcare minister Elizabeth Truss has said that she wants more nurseries to offer childcare on a 1:13 basis led by degree-level staff.

The survey of 1,000 parents of children under 15 in England was commissioned to inform the Government’s Childcare Commission and reveals the extent to which parents oppose relaxing staff-to-child ratios.

It was carrried out before last month's decision by the Government to ditch plans to relax ratios to allow nurseries and childminders to care for more staff. The early years sector and parenting groups had united to campaign against the proposals.

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