Lets assume the council do everything correctly this time and get to the point where they feel they can implement the reduction to nursery provision. Main point of contention for stopping it will be on the sufficiency of child care provision at the time of implementation. There are going to be some 3000 children and their families affected. Some will be able to afford private child care, some will be able to rely on their family or friends to fill the gap but the vast majority will have no recourse but to give up their jobs or training and education to look after their children. We need to know with a reasonable degree of certainty how many will fall into each category. When we know this we will then be able to see what the council say is being provided as child care in our county and what, if any, shortfall in provision there is. If for arguments sake there will be 1500 children unable to access childcare facilities due to lack of places will the sufficiency test be met? A subjective test at the moment but if the council argue that the test is met it will at least give us another indication of the mentality of those trying to implement this policy again and hopefully open the window to take their decision back to the courts. We also need to put OUR consultation form together as the last one was at best ambiguous and at worst misleading to allow answers to be interpreted as supporting the nursery cuts.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 08:44:41 +0000
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