Nursery funding u-turn welcomed

Tuesday 28 November 2017

Controversial plans that would have seen some children lose out on nursery fee subsidies have been shelved by the Minister for Education.

During yesterday’s States Assembly sitting, the Minister, Deputy Rod Bryans, confirmed that he would not be pursuing a decision made last year to introduce means testing for Nursery Education Funding (NEF).

The proposals, which were made in a bid to save the States money, were supported by the Chief Minister. 

Agreed in the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) last October would have seen some children lose out on pre-school subsidies of up to £3,914 across States and private institutions.

But they proved highly controversial among members of the public and attracted criticism from the Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel. 

Pictured: Deputy Rod Bryans announced his intentions to scrap plans to means-test NEF in yesterday's States Assembly.

The Panel - composed of Chairman Deputy Louise Doublet, Vice Chair Deputy Jeremy Macon, and Deputies Tracey Vallois and Sam Mézec – asked for the plans to be withdrawn pending further consultation in a report in June 2016.

They welcomed Deputy Bryans’ U-turn on the plans yesterday.

Commenting that they were “pleased” with the result, the Panel added in a statement: 

“The Panel is concerned that significant savings were attached to this section of the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP), and would reiterate its view that funding for Education should not be reduced, and no savings should be identified from any other areas within Education.”

Following his announcement in the Assembly meeting, Deputy Bryans explained his "rethink" was stimulated he said followed discussions with the Chair of the Early Years Childhood Partnership, Dr Cathy Hamer, and a desire to give parents "clarity so that they can plan ahead."

He commented: "We still have a lot of work to do to get the provision right in this area but, in the meantime, I want to remove some of the uncertainty for families.

"The main message from the report – and it is an extremely strong one – is that all the evidence shows early years education is vitally important. The EYCP wants us to recognise this as a government and to put more effort into supporting early years. Their report shows that children who have good quality early education start school three months ahead in their literacy and language skills. The benefits carry on throughout a child’s life. They are 20% more likely to get five good GCSEs and they earn more as adults. This is hugely significant for our community and for our economy."

Just a reminder of our evidenced based report recommendation on Nursery Funding - which finally the CoM and Education Minister have now adopted! Statement made during question time. @jerseyscrutiny @LouDoublet @TAVallois @ReformJersey @StatesAssembly pic.twitter.com/7QGoJRJDOi

— Deputy Jeremy Maçon (@DeputyMacon) November 27, 2017