States-run nurseries – but not until 2012
Wednesday 13th October 2010, 11:30AM BST.
EDUCATION’S deputy minister is hoping that the department can come up with plans to provide a States-run childcare programme before April 2012.
A needs report this week revealed that 70% of families want help in looking after their children, but are put off by care costs, which work out at more than £4,000 a year for an average family.
The report cites the most popular solutions as States-subsidised places, government-run facilities and tax relief on childcare costs.
In July, Education minister Carol Steere said the department wanted to secure more money for nursery care provision. And yesterday deputy minister Tony Spruce (pictured) confirmed that the whole department was behind States-run nursery facilities.
- Read the full story in the Guernsey Press. See below for subscription details.
- To read Guernsey Press stories in full click here for subscription details. Individual editions are now available online.
Island Life
All about Guernsey
Ambassador of the Year 2011
History & Heritage
Visitor Information
Guernsey's government
Campaigns
Voice For Victims
Voice for Victims is a campaign aimed at promoting the rights of those affected by child sexual abuse.
This is Guernsey
Guernsey Press
Useful Links
When the States set this up your children will also learn a new language; Latvian or Portuguese are on the table I hear.
Report abuse
The speed of States movement is eye watering
They HOPE to have some sort of report prepared by April 2012!
Haven’t they got any Fast Action Response Teams
(FARTs) to carry out this sort of research?
Report abuse
Ray, that IS the fast action team …..
Mr G – racial inclusion is a good thing in my opinion.
especially if it means our children dont grow up to be bigotted jingoistic racists …..
Report abuse
I’m not concerned at all at what language the children speak at nursery. At least the parents of foreign children are likely to be working.
What concerns me more is the idea of non-working families on supplements being given free places at nursery. There are enough wishy-washy socialists in charge to allow this to happen…if it isn’t already.
Report abuse
Toby, there’s a difference between racism and an overcrowded island, I would be scared as a child if some foreigner came up to me and started talking with some funky accent.
The FARTs are extremely slow.
Report abuse
Mr G
Whatever you do dont take your kids (if you have any) to europe they will be frightend out of their wits by the time they get back.
Report abuse
Funny, Mr G – my young daughter isn’t scared of the foreign people she meets at church every Sunday. These include a Dutchman and a number of black Africans with very interesting accents!
In fact I would suggest that, far from being a scary thing for children, the more exposure our children get to other people the less frightened they will be.
Insulating children from the outside world is a hindrance to their social development, not a help.
Report abuse
bdb, why shouldn’t I take my children (although I wouldn’t call them children, they’re nearly in their 30s, I’m 35 myself) into Europe? My point was that the nurseries will be run by those with a foreign accent.
You expect to see those that speak a different language in Europe, as you are the foreigner there.
Report abuse
Mr G – I’m not really following you.
“My point was that the nurseries will be run by those with a foreign accent.”
Yup….and? I have to deal with people with funny accents all the time and think that if children are exposed to this it can only be a good thing. I in fact have a strange accent and often get mistaken for South African or Australian, however I’m from neither country.
“When the States set this up your children will also learn a new language; Latvian or Portuguese are on the table I hear.”
Still not getting your point. Why don’t you actually come and say what you are trying to allude to.
Do you also post as Greg Gregson and GG? I find all three posters whilst having G in their name have a very similar posting style and subject matter.
Report abuse
Time to get over the ‘bloody foreigners’. At our primary school our children mix with Thai speaking, Chinese speaking, Portuguese and Eastern European speaking children. Makes for an interesting mix of people and expands their horizons, often allowing us to present the size of the world with real life experiences.
As a teacher of quite a few years, I can assure you that racial intolerence is taught. It is not wired into children and often comes from exposure to parents’ views. Adults reap what they sow.
Thank you
Report abuse
Mr G
Oh now i get it,
They will be scared if they hear a funny accent at nursery but not if their in europe because they expect to see them there?.
Would they be scared if they heard an english accent in a french nursery, becuse they wouldn`t expect to find them there either?.
your 35 and your children are nearly in there 30s.
thats the best line ever:))))) what a star.
Report abuse
Teacher, yes it’s all nice and jolly to be multicultural, but it just doesn’t work. A mix of race and religion doesn’t work in our modern world, we all want separate things.
The island is getting full, and in my opinion is now far over a population that we could sustain ourselves.
Report abuse
Absolutely excellent post, Teacher.
Report abuse
Teacher Teacher…careful what you say and how you say it….the “read a line and jump to hasty conclusion” brigade will read your line
“As a teacher of quite a few years, I can assure you that racial intolerance is taught”
and jump to their hasty conclusion without reading the rest of your post.
Anyway, I hope those people who are worried about the funny accents are including the welsh, scots , geordies et al, we wouldn’t want any inbalance in the angst over people with “funny” accents teaching their kids.
Mr G, I assume was taught maths by someone with a funny accent because by his reckoning he seems to have fathered children when he was between 5 and 10 years old…!!!
Report abuse
I live in Canada where state provided child care is a nightmare. We have problems with the huge government pay cheques the workers demand as government employees and benefits and pension plans. It is much better for the government to pay private companies to do this important job. Please do not follow our bad example!
Report abuse
Lynnie
Mr G is indeed Gregory & GG. The very small minded racist nature of the posts is a giveaway, such a narrow mind he has, he needs to realise the world is becoming evermore multi cultural, eh GG, sorry Gregory, or Mr g, tut.
Report abuse
Intelligent Design. The wisdom of Mr G.
Back to the drawing board.
Report abuse
I’d like to point out that Gregory, GG and Mr G are NOT myself.
Report abuse
Forgetting Mr G/GG’s Petulant comments, have we considered that perhaps Mr Spruce is arranging child workers to build his incinerator?
Report abuse
Mr G, you and me should learn a foreign language at the college of FE, might expand that very narrow mind.
Report abuse
Mr Gregson, you can happily take part in a course at the College of Further Education, I on the other hand already speak fluent French and Spanish.
My point here was that the States will employ foreigners to take care of the children, as they already use them in Frossard House and other public sectors.
Report abuse
Mr G
So what if the States are employing people from other countries to do this type of job. What is wrong with that?? Oh I nearly forgot, you are a xenophobe. You say you are fluent in other languages? I think not. Your childish posts on here will change nothing, get over it.
Report abuse
Well people seem to like Cheryl Cole enough and she’s got an accent ;)
“A needs report this week revealed that 70% of families want help in looking after their children, but are put off by care costs, which work out at more than £4,000 a year for an average family.” – Should have thought about those costs before jumping in and making a baby, they are not an accessory but a precious life-time investment!
I understand there are individuals who need extra financial backing, but at some point in life, you need to stand on your own two feet and show your children a better future.
Perhaps we need a fresh idea? How about a means-tested system? Nursery costs could be subsidised by the amount of hours you work a month? Therefore, the ones who are paying into the tax system benefit? An acknowlegement of the hard work to parents that keep paying for the parents who are too lazy to work?…
Report abuse
Aahhh, yes, the ol ‘parents and their never ending list of multifarious rights’, just because they chose to breed…….
as is their right, of course-!
Note to parents: please save yourselves the trouble of indignantly responding with all the reasons you are ENTITLED to anything and everything because of your status, I know only too well, and pay for it daily.
Thank you.
Report abuse
Peeps like her self righteous highness above us who are so anti kids are usually barren child haters and feminist misfits. You represent no one gal
Report abuse
Oh dear. Have I hit a nerve, ‘Minger’ ? I can’t tell, though I suspect your subtlety belays your angst.
Firstly, it’s Scarlett. As in Pimpernel. The clue’s in the picture, ‘Minger’, so that’s mister, actually, and I never said I was ‘anti kids’, so wrong again.
I am simply suffering from parents rights fatigue. I pay the tab, so I am allowed to have an opinion, and remember a time when society wasn’t expected to pick up the bill for their every need and want, just because they’d decided to reproduce.
You may think you’re ‘defending’ parents, but I’m not so sure the many parents I know would want their views represented by someone who uses such incredibly unpleasant and offensive ways of describing women who are unable to have children (through no fault of their own) or those who feel they should at least have the same rights as their male counterparts.
I’m off for a glass, back to you for more vitriol, ‘Minger’ dearest….;0)
Report abuse