Ministers in the dark about nursery cuts until announcement

Monday 11 April 2016

Ministers had no idea that free nursery classes for three and four years olds for families earning more than £75,000 were going to be cut until the Education Minister announced the change a fortnight ago.

Three ministers have told Bailiwick Express that they had no warning about the change, or the specifics of the proposals until they saw the media release from the Education department and the resulting press coverage.

They had been told that the Nursery Education Fund was being reviewed and that a means test was being considered – but did not see the specific points about the £75,000 threshold, or the start-date the Education have set for September 2017.

One of the three ministers told Bailiwick Express that the reaction to Education Minister rod Bryan’s announcement, and the resulting backlash from parents, has left his ministerial colleagues seriously unimpressed.

Deputy Bryans faces questions about the proposals in the first States sitting since his announcement, which begins tomorrow morning.

Deputy Geoff Southern will ask about why the proposals are not going to the States for debate, and why no consultation was carried out, and Deputy Kevin Lewis will ask about what will be done to mitigate the loss to families of the 20 hours of free care.

A public meeting is being held on Wednesday at the Pomme d’Or Hotel from 7 pm by the Education Scrutiny Panel – they say that the level of public feedback against the changes are unprecedented, and criticised the minister for the way that the proposals were announced last week.

Deputy Bryans refused to withdraw the cuts at the Scrutiny hearing last week, saying that the £250,000 savings were needed by his department, and adding that more cuts might be needed because his department had another £1 million in savings to find to meet its target.