无码天堂

By Rachel Lawler

The Prime Minister is considering relaxing childcare ratios in a bid to cut costs for parents, according to  in the media.

The BBC and the Guardian have both reported the update as the government considers ways to respond to the cost of living crisis.

The Guardian that a spokesperson for the Prime Minister said: "The prime minister said that, whilst our recovery from the global pandemic was faster than anybody previously expected, continued disruptions in the global economy, including in China where widespread lockdowns are still taking place 鈥� coupled with Putin鈥檚 continued crazed malevolence in Ukraine 鈥� meant the public was facing real pressures and that the government would continue to be on their side.

"He said there was more to do, including in areas like childcare, to further ease pressures for those that need it most and to get even more people into high skilled, high-wage jobs."

The news comes shortly after children and families minister Will Quince said that the government was 鈥済oing to look at regulations鈥� in response to the rising cost of childcare.

Rewind on Ratios
This is not the first time the government has considered relaxing ratios as a cost-cutting measure.

In 2013, the 无码天堂 (then called the Pre-school Learning 无码天堂) launched and led the Rewind on Ratios campaign, which successfully overturned government plans to relax early years ratios, led at the time by then-early years minister Liz Truss.

"Ludicrous suggestion"
Commenting, Neil Leitch, chief executive at the 无码天堂, said: 鈥淚t is absolutely ludicrous to suggest that the relaxation of ratios is any kind of solution to the current cost of living crisis.

鈥淪uch a change would be a catastrophic and retrograde step for the early years sector, and it is all the more galling that this suggestion from the prime minister comes on the very same day that Ofsted has warned of the damaging impact the pandemic has had on young children's learning and development. Now more than ever, many children attending early years settings need far greater individual care and attention. Relaxing ratios will achieve the exact opposite.

"What鈥檚 more, such a policy would do little, if anything, to lower costs for parents. We know that the vast majority providers plan to keep their ratios as they are, regardless of any regulation changes, in order to maintain quality levels - and even if a minority did relax their ratios, any savings would be used to recoup years of historic losses, not lower fees.

"By looking at ratios as a solution to rising early years costs, the government has missed the mark and entirely misunderstood what is driving these increases. What we need isn鈥檛 deregulated, cheap childcare, but investment in affordable, quality early education. As such, we urge the prime minister to rethink this misguided approach."