Nursery World - Editor's View - Report raises hackles

The Government and several of the think tanks that sympathise with its policies are making a lot of noise about the cost of childcare and about how it must be made more affordable to parents.

Very laudable - but the general assumptions that are made, and some of the suggestions for how to improve matters give cause for concern.

We are yet to hear from the Childcare Commission, now under different stewardship after the ministerial reshuffle, but a report last week from the Centre for Social Justice has certainly raised hackles in the early years sector.

The report appears ill-informed about childminding and the way it operates in particular.

It repeats the mantra that ratios could be relaxed and carers could look after more children. This would inevitably lead to a diminishment of quality, and the sector has repeatedly said that it does not want ratios to be relaxed.

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