Last week, Senator Tracey Vallois said that plans were currently being formulated for a new family-focused system overhaul that is ‘highly likely’ to include free nursery hours.
She added that next year’s pre-schoolers would be the last to receive the 20 free hours per week in term time under the existing Nursery Education Fund.
No decisions have yet been made about the details of the new system. However, Senator Vallois said that all possibilities were on the table, including means testing. She has now added further details about when Islanders can expect to find out more.
‘A decision by January is needed at the very latest but I’m hoping for certainty from December,’ she said. ‘The new scheme under the new financial plan and new government will be from 2020 so will have its first airing in
September next year for the financial plan. This may or may not be a phased approach
to an appropriately-transitioned nursery provisional need.’
The current Medium Term Financial Plan, which sets States spending, runs until the end of 2019, when a new one will be debated by the States for future spending. It will be in that new plan that the funding for any new early years scheme will be considered by politicians.
