Nursery World - Paul Lindley: Time for a National Children’s Service

The children’s campaigner and author says a National Children’s Service is needed to co-ordinate the work of ‘siloed’ Government departments to support children and guarantee ‘world class, universal childcare’.

Paul Lindley

Childcare policy announcements in England tend to follow a pattern. An eye-catching pledge is made. The offer looks good. Parents begin to plan their families’ lives. Then they find out they can't get what’s been promised.

After warnings from the National Audit Office, parents currently have every reason to wonder if they’ll get to benefit from the Government’s policy of extended free childcare. And every reason to question whether the 85,000 places for children needed by September will really exist.

Governments depend on hard-pressed nurseries and carers facing rising costs to deliver these hours of free care. There’s every chance parents try to access free local childcare and find it simply isn't available, or is complex and confusing to secure.

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