The Guardian view on nurseries: put toddlers before profit

theguardian.com:

The government has responded to the worsening crisis in the early years sector in the most unimaginative way, by suggesting that the ratio of staff to toddlers should be relaxed. The theory is that raising the number of two-year-olds who can be cared for by a single adult from four to five will make nursery places cheaper. But this only works if adults agree to do more work for the same money – and if adding extra children to a setting does not increase costs other than pay.

Given that the early years sector already has some of the lowest pay rates, the proposal is insulting and unjust to the women who make up more than 95% of staff – as well as unlikely to deliver what ministers want. A suggestion from the Conservative leadership contender Liz Truss that parents with caring responsibilities could qualify for a new tax break is concerning for a different reason – namely that it would incentivise mothers to give up paid work.

The fact that ministers can’t come up with anything more original, a decade after Ms Truss first proposed to alter staffing ratios, shows the extent to which the governing party is stuck, with deregulation its only trick. The reality is that policymakers need to get a much firmer grip on what is going on in this crucially important area. Even before Covid pushed some providers out of business, and mothers out of work due to the impossibility of fitting childcare around a job in pandemic conditions, there was a great deal to be worried about.

What has happened over the past 20 years is financialisation. As in some other public services, particularly social care, the nursery sector has been targeted by private equity and is now characterised by debt, lack of transparency, complex tax arrangements in