Parents forced to quit jobs as childcare costs soar to cover ‘free’ funding
Parents forced to quit jobs as childcare costs soar to cover ‘free’ funding
For some parents, the arrival of the new childcare scheme will actually leave them worse off as many childcare providers have hiked childcare costs
This is the shit that happens when you vote in right wing governments... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
They don't vote for this. It's stupid FPTP and people not realizing it's a two party system.
Which is every fucking time because if we ever get a left-wing choice on the ballot the media goes apeshit until they're off it.
November 1997: Blair backs Harman over cut in lone-parent benefit
What would the solution of a left-wing government be?
I was involved in the running of a preschool about 20 years ago, and there was a big shift around that time. Previously, pre-schools had been able to employ (very good and caring but) unqualified staff to run pre-school - quite often mums whose kids had reached 5 and who fancied making some cash and re-enter the workforce in a fairly gentle way.
Around 20 years ago there was a big push to improve the equally of education that kids received in early years. Long standing ‘playgroups’ were ‘strongly encouraged’ to become ‘preschools’. To get a job you had to commit to study for a Level 3 NVQ in early years education.
These changes were made for good reason , but the result was a huge exodus of people who had been very happy looking after kids, reading stories, playing in sandpits who really didn’t want to study for an academy qualification.
This increased professionalisation reduced the size of the workforce and pushed up wages.
What would you do?
I mean generally the solution proposed by progressive countries is: use taxes on the wealthy to fund programs for the poor.
Universal Pre-K is a popular idea and works by just expanding school systems out to younger ages.
Your complaint here seems to be that existing Pre-K went from babysitting to requiring minimal professional qualifications because it received government backing. I'm confused as to where that caused unqualified babysitters to no longer be able to work? A government funded Pre-K does not preclude a paid independent Pre-K any more than normal schools preclude private schools.
What it sounds like is that you're complaining that regulations pushed out unqualified and unvetted people who were previously receiving a publicly paid salary to spend all day in a sand pit. You also seem to claim that this represented an appreciable population of Pre-K workers, so much so that it disrupted the entire pay schedule.
I'm not an expert on the exact situation of 20 years ago that you're claiming and it's possible that you're entirely on the money but it doesn't smell right. It smells like hard economic times and inflation causing prices to go up or more laws with no funding or support. Because if it was just a public sector getting more government funding you'd see an increase in teachers, even if there was an increase in requirements.
If a government was making a push for universal Pre-K and not funding that push then it wasn't progressive. At best it was liberal.
Childcare is £86 a day? That seems extraordinarily high.
The real cost of having kids is the loss of one parent's earnings for about 2-3 years. You lose it either way: work and pay or stay home.
Early years care is more expensive than when kids are older because you need more staff per child so the first couple of years are worst, but even when you get "free hours" it doesn't cover the full cost because the "hours per week" are term time hours, 30hrs/week doesn't cover a full working day, and the extras like food and snacks are on top...
We 'got around it' by essentially having no time together as a family, and even less as a couple.
I work five days and she works the two days I don't work; it sucks but it means we don't have to worry about childcare costs at the moment. The thought of her going back to her minimum wage supermarket job and sending our toddler into nursery is frankly, a non-starter.
We've got a five year old and a two year old. My youngest will be entitled to those funded hours soon, but even then the amount of top up fees nursery have to add on to simply meet costs makes it unaffordable for many.
We got super fortunate with my eldest. She got accepted into the nursery group that was run by (her now) Primary school. We only had to pay for cover at lunch times with cost us about £80 a term. Had that not been the case I think she'd have missed out on all of that pre-school socialising.
It's always been a problem especially for low income homes.
When my kids were young and my wife was looking to return to work we had tob abandon the idea due to the type of jobs available at the time for her were minimum wage, £3.60 per hour at the time. Child care costs would have been around £6 per hour
Idk what £86 is but for a newborn in my area, it's over $300/week per child.
So glad I've not had kids.