Opinion: Letters

MONEY KEEPS MEN OUT

At the pre-school and primary school that I work in, we have no problems at all in involving dads and granddads in their children's care and education. Large numbers of them bring and collect their children every day and willingly volunteer to help out during sessions or with extra activities, trips and outings. They are not put off by working alongside female practitioners and teachers.

Many of them say they would have loved to work with young children, especially after becoming parents. When we ask them why they didn't choose childcare, there is only one answer: because they could not afford to support a family on a childcarer's salary.

They are happy with the status and the work involved, but they have to consider the financial situation. And it is true - we only manage on our salaries because we are married to men in higher paying professions.

My children's secondary school is full of excellent male teachers who happily teach all subjects, including needlework and dance, because they are paid reasonable wages. In my area, lack of men in early years is only a money problem.

Debbie Chalmers, Girton, Cambridge

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AFFORDABLE SCHEME

Helen Penn (To the Point, 8 May) is right to highlight the benefits of universal free childcare, such as in France, as a way to get parents back into work. But her remarks about the Childcare Affordability Programme (CAP) run jointly by the London Development Agency and DCSF need clarifying.

The programme is a £33m three-year pilot, due to end at the end of the year, so total spend to date has only been about two- thirds of that total.

While around 500 mothers have taken up the full-time childcare option available on the programme, the success of those taking up the flexible care needs to be highlighted, and not dismissed as Helen Penn has done. Recent studies reveal that many low-income parents return to the jobs market by initially taking up part-time work. That may explain why the flexible option on the CAP scheme has proved to be so popular.

Also, some parents taking flexible care have other childcare arrangements, which means they may be working full-time. And flexible care has allowed many parents to undertake training, giving them the skills necessary to re-enter the jobs market. Recent figures reveal that, to date, some 8,000 parents, and nearly 8,500 children, have benefited from the scheme.

Although there is still much to be done to reduce child poverty in London, the CAP pilot programme has gone some way to increase employment prospects for London's low-income families.

Denise Burke, Head of Childcare, London Development Agency

EXPLOITED STUDENTS

It's about time Ofsted properly upheld standards of childcare and oversaw the training that nurseries provide. Training providers should also thoroughly vet the setting where their students gain placements. This would prevent rogue nurseries from exploiting students as cheap or, as in my daughter's case, unpaid labour while receiving non-existent support to achieve the required qualifications.

My daughter was unable to secure a paid placement for her Level 3 in childcare after obtaining her Level 2. She eventually found a nursery that agreed to take her on for unpaid placement three days a week alongside her college time. She agreed in the hopes the course would last a year, but unfortunately it was extended to two years.

It turned out that the nursery relied on a majority of student placements, far outnumbering the paid staff. The other students received cash in hand for their work. When the owners opened a second nursery my daughter was asked to work there one day a week, 8am to 6pm, for just £30 cash in hand.

Thankfully, my daughter has now found another placement where she will have to repeat a couple of assessments because of the lack of experience and support she received. Meanwhile, these unscrupulous owners plan to open a third nursery.

Brenda Heller, London

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The Editor, Nursery World, 174 Hammersmith Road, London W6 7JP letter.nw@haymarket.com 020 8267 8402.