In this issue of Nursery World, Jon Richards of Unison argues that profit is unlikely to find its way into the pay packets of staff ('In my view', page 30), while our news section reports on parents in Haringey, north London, who are protesting at plans to hand over the running of five children's centres to PVI groups (page 4).
The council's justification for considering this course of action is that the Childcare Act requires local authorities to be market managers and not providers of childcare, unless there is no other option. However, in February Newcastle City Council was considering a similar course of action until it was told that the Childcare Act's stipulation referred to future rather than existing provision (Nursery World, 1 February).
Lack of funds is making this an attractive route for local authorities, but it seems that the mixed economy of childcare is leading to muddle and increasingly to battle lines being drawn.
