The mass of media findings on the subject don’t really make it much easier, as for every article that is ‘for’ there is an ‘against’. I recently read this interesting article from an American study that claims that a mother returning to work doesn’t adversely affect a baby; http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/01/babies-dont-suffer-working-mothers?dm_i=2MN,7KPX,5SBSA,J2UE,1

From a personal perspective, I welcome such research, if only as it counter-balances the enormous amount of negative press there is about working mums. However, I do remember being told that when it comes to parenting it’s all about being ‘good enough’. The Americans might say ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’, but all we can all do is be the best at the job we can. Fortunately it is a hugely rewarding, very entertaining and generally unbelievable job, so let’s make the most of it and not take too much notice of what other people think.

I have sat on a committee with Dame Claire Tickell, who is heading up the EYFS review, and have always thought her to be an extremely intelligent and fundamentally sensible individual, with a real passion for ensuring children get the best start in life. I hope she will use this approach to tackle the review which Sarah Teather, the Minister, has appointed her to run. Even better, perhaps she will manage to throw into the mix the crucial fact that the EYFS itself is not our major problem in the childcare sector, but that the elephant in the corner is the Single Funding Formula; if this is not resolved properly and swiftly, there will not be many childcare providers left to deliver the EYFS, however it is amended.

For parents, it is less straightforward, with some good news, but also a fair amount of cuts. The Government will uphold the plan to offer 15 years free early education from this September, which we had all been nervous about, as we have been busy recently working out how we would offer this entitlement to all our 3 and 4 year olds. However, family tax credits have been cut, which will hurt many working parents and Child Benefit is frozen for 3 years. Many of the pregnancy-related payments have gone, but at least Employer Childcare Vouchers will continue, after having a last-minute reprieve from the last administration.

We are all expecting it to be another tough year, with the public sector cuts that are inevitable having an impact on communities at large. However, as a business we have tried to look really hard at how we can be more efficient, and to cut our costs wherever possible, so that we can try and peg fees as much as we can. It is likely to be a few months before we all get a clearer picture of where further cuts will fall, but as a sector, we are hoping to carry on providing a great service to all our customers, to allow you to carry on with your busy lives and juggle the demands of family and work. Let’s hope that hard working families really are seen as a priority by this Government, but only time will tell.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/child_health/article7144876.ece?dm_i=2MN,6DMD,5SBSA,FVMD,1

However, yesterday morning the Office for National Statistics published research that showed that the huge investment by the last Government in Early Years has made no impact against their measures of success in improving standards for children. One commentator I read summed it up well really; no one policy was ever going to solve all the problems - getting women back into work, eradicating child poverty, levelling the playing field for children and raising standards. We are now left with a bit of a mess; we have a heavily regulated childcare sector, which has a ‘universal entitlement’ which doesn’t really help children from disadvantaged backgrounds any more than those who have a better start in life, but the entitlement is costing billions of pounds. At present the Government have confirmed that the Early Years Entitlement will rlse, as planned, to 15 hours from September, but in many ways the ONS report could not have come at a worse time. With deep cuts expected from every part of Government, how keen will Local Authorities be to ring fence the EYE? One thing is for sure, if the amount allocated for each session is allowed to decrease, providers will have to make some hard decisions and I predict many will pull out of the scheme all together.

Many of our trade bodies and larger providers had met with the Conservative Shadow Minister, Maria Miller, who seemed to be increasing her knowledge of the issues facing our sector as time went by. Therefore i was rather disappointed to read that she has gone to the Department of Work and Pensions, where her understanding of the issues of the Single Funding Formula for the Early Years Entitlement might be of limited use!

Today’s brefing paper from the coalition Government is interesting, but still fairly vague on some issues. Most people in our sector, and a huge number of parents, will be pleased to see that Sure Start is going to continue, although it seems likely that more efficient methods of running these services will be sought, and rightly so. I will be interested to see how ministers are going to tackle the thorny issue of funding for 3 and 4 year olds; we are currently grappling with the Code of Practice around delivering the sessions and trying to remain sustainable in some locations, where the hourly rate we are given is nowhere near the true cost of delivering the sessions. We do not want to see a 2-tier system, but getting the balance right between parental choice and truly putting the child at the heart of everything is a tricky one.

We all know that future rounds of spending cuts are going to be painful and we are still not sure where the axe will fall. Hopefully the sector will get the best of both worlds; less interference in how we run our settings, combined with recognition that the State can not provide the levels of Early Years Education that they wish to without relying on the private sector. Watch this space……

I read with interest how a female soldier won a tribunal claim against the MOD last week, as they had not provided the childcare she needed to fulfil her duties as a soldier. We operate 4 nurseries, soon to be 5, on MOD bases around the UK, so this will undoubtedly be a much discussed issue with many of the serving parents who use our facilities. As an ex-soldier and working mother, I felt that there were many careers where I could manage to juggle my working responsibilities with that of being a mother, but as I didn’t want to deploy for 6 months at a time on operational tours (whilst my husband was also serving), it was time to leave the Army and look for a different career.

As a company we work really hard to support parents who are in the military and may be away for prolonged periods of time. Children like to talk about where their parents may be and we have had lots of displays up with postcards from around the world and photographs of Mum or Dad in their temporary location, which the children enjoy pointing to and talking about. However, all working parents, whether military or civilian, have demands on their time and will at some time or another have difficulty in juggling work and children. I can’t help but feel that this judgement will only place further strain on an already under-funded military and could be better spent on helping front-line troops. We all have to make choices and ask any working parent if it is easy, particularly as a single parent, and not many will say ‘yes’.

Hopefully some positives will come out of this case and perhaps the MOD will look more closely at the provision of childcare on MOD bases, as in some places it is fairly woeful. However, the responsibility for arranging childcare and being available for work must surely lie firmly with the individual, whichever career path they choose?

Most nurseries are working very hard to ensure that children in their care get a balanced diet. However, it is a major challenge keeping up to date with all the latest recommendations – for example, at which age children should be drinking full-fat or semi-skimmed milk, which has changed several times over recent years. Many nursery providers already offer excellent meals in line with nutritional guidelines, but there are still some who struggle to interpret all the guidance that is out there, or whom assume that children need a low-fat, high fibre diet, which many adults are trying to achieve. At The Old Station Nursery we carried out a new menu trial last year, in association with 2 different groups of students from Oxford Brookes university. They looked at our previous menu cycle and recommended some minor changes, to help us to ensure the children got sufficient calories throughout the day, with the correct nutrients including vitamins and minerals, but without exceeding recommended salt levels. We now have a menu cycle which we use across the company, with some local variations to allow the cooks to exercise a little personal choice. We would welcome any national standards which the Government see fit to recommend, as anything which helps us to ensure the children receive a balanced diet will be beneficial.

Do you think the Government should get involved in standards for pre-school food, or just concentrate on school age children? Are you confident you know what guidelines you should be following at home? Do let us know what you think.

As part of their relocation, there is a great deal of building going on and part of this will be a state-of-the-art, eco build nursery, complete with solar panels and a grass roof.  When I visited on Monday it was still very much a building site, but I am looking forward to watching it develop over the next few weeks, with a planned opening date of 1st September.

The real work now begins, as we look at recruiting staff to run the nursery, which will be overseen by our Operations Manager in the South, Emma Pittam, with a little light interference (I mean help!) from me. We are just starting to publicise the contract award and look forward to talking to lots of  families both in the Innsworth area and further afield in Rheindalen, where it will be really frustrating as they try and plan homes, schools, jobs and nurseries from many miles away. We look forward to talking to everyone who is interested in the new nursery and wants to talk about what will be available. For now, all I can say is, ‘watch this space’!

At the same time, some research has suggested that for children under 2, group settings are not always ideal, but that any disadvantage inherent in the group care environment can be overcome as long as the practice is excellent and staff are well trained. Surely we should be focusing our attention on our youngest children, to give them the start in life that they deserve. When I opened the first ‘Old Station Nursery’ 8 years ago, our aim was to offer ‘home from home’ childcare, and a truly homely feel to the nursery. It was an absolute delight to open the door on Mary’s special baby room, which is furnished like a home, down to dangling ‘chandelier’ type light fittings and an electric flame-effect fire.

The discussions around how to care for babies (and their parents) clearly hit a chord with the staff attending the course as it was fantastic to feel their enthusiasm and the overall ‘buzz’ about what they had started to, and were in the process of changing. I have already been welcomed by some of our baby room staff as I travel around the nurseries, so they can proudly show me what they have been doing to move towards the Barlow school of babyhood! We have a lot more still to do, but it was such a pleasure to join in with such a positive group.

I will post some photos of the day on to our website as soon as possible and I hope you will start to see some differences around the nurseries. Next stop is ‘Fun on the Floor’ - Mary’s next round of training courses looking at 2 year olds and how to delight them; I can’t wait and may even set my alarm….

My favourite is the large wooden dragon sculpture, big enough for at least 2 children to sit on and imagine flying away. Despite the snow and rain we have had over recent weeks, the children have already made themselves at home in the new play area and as usual, it was the adults who were cold and ready to come inside on Friday, long before some of the children would choose to!

It is interesting how the design of children’s play areas has moved away from large fixed play structures, like slides and swings, and back to much more natural materials, wood, willow, bark, rope and grass. We are now trying to incorporate dens and tunnels, slopes and bumps, which the children can use their imagination to play with, rather than having something that is more prescriptive, like a swing.  The Teepee at Gainsborough College nursery will undoubtedly be the centre for many different types of imaginative play and will never run out of ideas. It is good to see that in this day of expensive toys and brightly coloured plastic, that actually an old crate, a bit of tarpaulin and a bit of imaginiation will go even further in your own garden.

A big thank you to the staff team at Gainsborough for making us all so welcome on Friday, and to the Principal of Lincoln College, John Allen, who cut the ribbon so professionally, even if he was aided by a puppet! I hope the children will get a huge amount of enjoyment out of the garden area and that the staff will enjoy the extra space.