33
Toddlers ‘sold out’ to balance books of childcare bill, English nursery providers say
(www.theguardian.com)
Good idea, the toddlers have no way to fight back either
this post was submitted on 28 May 2024
33 points (90.2% liked)
United Kingdom
4109 readers
130 users here now
General community for news/discussion in the UK.
Less serious posts should go in !casualuk@feddit.uk or !andfinally@feddit.uk
More serious politics should go in !uk_politics@feddit.uk.
Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.
Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.
Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.
If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.
Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.
Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
It is laughably easy to decide for toddlers, especially if they are not your toddlers.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The deaths of two babies in nurseries made headlines last week but frontline workers say they are also concerned for the safety of older toddlers after the government relaxed rules on staff ratios.
Neil Leitch, the chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, which represents 14,000 providers of care and education to under-fives in England, told the Guardian that the change was dangerous and one of several recent early-years policies that constituted “a race to the bottom”.
On the staffing ratios, Leitch said: “There’s no question that it’s more dangerous than if we kept it where it was,” adding that it also meant children with additional needs were struggling to find childcare places because managers are concerned about already stretched staff being able to cope.
Rob Fox, the owner and manager of Happy Bunnies nursery school in Shepreth, south Cambridgeshire, said two-year-olds needed more attention than a one-to-five ratio was able to achieve.
Fox said his staff were mature but “if you’ve got a young, inexperienced workforce, then you’re going to have challenges”, adding that this could result in choking incidents at meal times or sleep checks not being recorded.
At a Westminster Hall debate on the issue in November 2022, the shadow minister for children and early years, Helen Hayes, said “relaxing the ratios will increase the risk of a reduction in the quality and safety of provision” and called on the government to abandon the plans.
The original article contains 841 words, the summary contains 238 words. Saved 72%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Not what I thought when I read sold out lol.