A BID to secure extra funding to enable a higher hourly rate for the provision of nursery care was defeated.
Deputy Inna Gardiner’s Budget amendment was critical of Education Minister Rob Ward for not meeting with the Jersey Early Years Association and being unable to reach an agreement.
The Budget proposed an offer of £11 per hour, per child, for 15 hours of nursery care for two- and three-year-olds, but Deputy Gardiner proposed that this rate should be £11.50, equating to an estimated total increase of £137,500.
The former Education Minister described her figure as a “minimum workable compromise” that would ensure children and parents could benefit from the scheme from January.
“The real question before Members is do we invest £137,000 – a tiny adjustment in a £1.35 billion Budget – to ensure children can access the places promised, parents aren’t forced to pay upfront and reclaim, nurseries can operate sustainably and the entire early years policy does not fail on day one?” she asked.
“Or do we build a reclaim system that costs more, is harder to administer, and risks excluding the very families we are trying to support?”
Deputy Ward said that while he had not met with the association personally, but that he trusted the expertise of officials in his department and their ability to deal with the matter.
Deputy Helen Miles said the amendment offered a policy that would work in reality, rather than one which she thought would only work in theory.
In her closing speech, Deputy Gardiner urged Members to do “everything possible” to support her bid to get the best possible outcome for parents, but when it came to the vote she was defeated by 30 votes to ten.
