Under current proposals from the Education Department, from September 2017 households with a combined income of £75,000 or more will no longer be entitled to 20 hours per week free care at private nurseries for their children in the year before they start school – currently, families of all three- and four-year-olds have the right to the free hours under the Nursery Education Fund.
Since his announcement in March, Education Minister Rod Bryans has suggested there might be some room for manoeuvre on the £75,000 threshold.
In a written submission to the Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel, the Jersey Child Care Trust said the proposal as it currently stands would have a ‘profound effect’ on middle-income Jersey and that it could potentially have ‘a real, negative impact in terms of decisions such as one partner delaying their return to the workplace or a decision not to have another child’.
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