The childcare and education minister said that more early years settings should move towards the 1:13 ratio and that it was important for them to ‘innovate’ to drive down costs for parents.
While nurseries that employ graduates can operate with one staff member caring for 13 three- to-five-year-olds, he said most favoured a 1:8 ratio.
Nurseries also tended to have spare capacity on Mondays and Fridays when they were less busy than at other times during the week so the minister wondered ‘whether more could be done in terms of innovation’ to save parents money.
Mr Gyimah was giving evidence to the House of Lords Committee on Affordable Childcare.
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