Minister refuses to withdraw controversial nursery cuts at packed hearing

Thursday 07 April 2016

Scrapping free nursery places for families earning over £75,000 is necessary to offer much-needed support to children with special needs, the Education Minister has told a Scrutiny hearing.

In a hearing packed with parents, some of whom brought their young children along, Deputy Rod Bryans said that he stood by his department’s controversial plans to save £250,000 – and said that he had considered scrapping the funding for all parents, or setting the income threshold at £60,000.

He was criticised by panel chairman Deputy Louise Doublet, who said that making the announcement without consultation or prior warning and then going on holiday for two weeks was “unacceptable” and “falls far short of what the public expect, and what the States expect from a minister”.

The hearing also revealed that:

- The Education department still need to find £1 million worth of cuts by June.

- Education accept that some parents may decide to give up work as a result of the changes.

- There is still a six-month window to finalise the details of how the cuts will work.

- Three extra nursery classes are being considered for Trinity, Springfield and St Mary Primary Schools.

Responding to questions, Deputy Bryans said that the £250,000 saved would be redirected to other parts of the service that needed urgent investment, citing the pupil premium and support for young children with special needs.

He said: “I am not coming here to defend this on the basis that this is something that the Council of Ministers have orchestrated. We knew that it was bad news.

“It’s bad news for everyone in terms of the context. It is very emotional. I would love to be in a position where we didn’t have to make these changes, but we are where we are.”

And Education Chief Officer Justin Donovan agreed, saying that the department had to prioritise spending on families that could not afford to support their children – not those with high incomes.

He said: “Parents on £20-40,000 combined income have a greater need for this money than parents on £75-200,000. We have got an overall budget and we have to balance it out and if we do not make the cut here we cannot afford to put the money into the pupil premium.

“We don’t get our growth if we don’t get our savings. By making these savings, it makes possible investment elsewhere.

“Nobody in the room is thinking this is something that we want to do. But what we are saying is the greater priority is nursery children with very significant special educational needs, children on very low incomes who are vulnerable and struggle with school are a greater priority than this. Actually, the alternative is worse. What we are trying to do is make sure that the overall budget that we have got is focused on the needy children.”