FREE childcare for two- and three-year-olds in the Island risks putting private nurseries and childcare providers out of business, an industry body has warned.
Jersey Early Years Association chair Belinda Lewis said that Education Minister Rob Ward’s plans to widen nursery and childcare provision were “ill-thought-through” and represented an “existential threat” to private and voluntary organisations in the sector.
The 2025-28 Budget, to be debated next month, includes funding for a phased introduction of nursery and childcare provision to children aged two to three years with additional needs, with Deputy Ward expressing support for eventually establishing a universal offering.
The Budget pledges to make comprehensive training and development available for staff in the sector, with the aim of improving the quality of early-years education and the recruitment and retention of staff, as well as setting up a pilot scheme to increase access to unused spaces in primary-school nurseries, and conducting an assessment of nursery capacity in St Helier.
Following confirmation that the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel would be reviewing the Budget, Ms Lewis sent a written submission to panel chair Deputy Catherine Curtis.
The association states: “We believe that the minister’s plans are unworkable and present an existential threat to the very existence of the private, voluntary and independent sector represented by our members.”
Sustainability of day nurseries, the association argues, is largely dependent on the financial benefits from looking after children aged three and four, with a higher number of children for each staff member, while the care of younger children involves a lower staff-to-child ratio and is less profitable.
The government is seeking to fill unused capacity in school nurseries, but the association states that “the minister’s view that the capacity created by moving three- and four-year-olds to the government’s provision can be used to accommodate additional demand [for nursery spaces in the two-three age bracket] is unfounded and contrary to the reality”.
Ms Lewis also expresses concern about the Island’s ability to recruit sufficient staff to work in the sector, and whether spaces currently used for pre-school children would be suitable for those from a younger age group without costly environmental changes.
Summarising the impact that it believes the government’s plans will have, the association states: “The decision to build pre-schools attached to the primary schools was an ill-thought-through policy – the offering is not in line with the needs of modern families in a jurisdiction where there is a high prevalence of working parents who need full-time care 52 weeks a year.
“Whilst we understand that the over-capacity in schools is a concern for government with under-utilisation of both space and resource, [these] policies undermine the viability of the private, voluntary and independent sector.”
A new nursery provision for two- and three-year-olds at d’Auvergne School was unveiled last week and is due to open this month, operated in conjunction with the Jersey Child Care Trust.
Deputy Ward told the JEP that he would respond to the points raised by the association in due course, but that he wanted to allow scope for the Scrutiny review.
“I want to let the pilot schemes, such as the one at d’Auvergne, develop and then we can make further decisions.”
The Budget includes proposals for £1.5 million in funding for extended nursery provision in 2025, rising to £2.3m the following year and then to £3.4m and £4.6m for 2025 and 2026 respectively.
