This week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is said to be ‘under fire’ for quietly shelving childcare policy changes proposed by his predecessor Liz Truss, during her 49-day premiership. The proposals promised to cut astronomical childcare costs by easing rules on the ratio of children per staff member in nurseries. Sunak’s own MPs are said to be angry that he is planning to drop the idea, which they believe could help more parents back into work by making childcare more affordable.
But the headlines don’t tell the full story because, while ‘more affordable childcare’ may sound good on paper, most parents did not feel that relaxing the rules around ratios was a price worth paying.
‘The notion that ratios could be relaxed in childcare settings was a completely terrifying prospect for all of us,’ says Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed. ‘As parents, we have seen first-hand the pressure that early years educators are under. We know how hard it can be to effectively care for one child, let alone three or four.’
Joeli explains that many mothers want to get back to work but, although the stress placed on parents by extortionate childcare costs can feel overwhelming, the safety and well-being of our children will always come first. ‘It has been very disappointing to see how far this proposal progressed through parliament despite the backlash from parents and the sector,’ she says, adding: ‘By God, are we relieved it has finally been dropped.’
However, the fact that the Prime Minister doesn’t seem to have an alternative set of proposals to fix the broken childcare sector is clearly not ideal. Dropping a bad idea is a positive move, but not having any other ideas is extremely concerning. Particularly since childcare costs in the UK are the most expensive out of any country in the developed world, rising 29% since 2009, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
‘The worrying news is that Sunak might be considering smaller tweaks to the childcare and early years sector than it desperately needs,’ says Joeli. ‘Clearly, they still don’t have a plan and, as they’ve started to look into it, they’ve realised it is actually quite complicated. The sector needs urgent reform, not tweaks.’ It’s why 15,000 families took to the streets last year in a March of The Mummies protest to demand exactly this.
‘We won't be ignored,’ says Joeli, ‘and we won't stop until the government commits to the provision of affordable, good quality childcare and early years education for all children.’
READ MORE: Why Is Parenting So Much Harder Now Than It Was For Our Parents?