The mum of a baby girl who died after choking at nursery has hit out at plans to reduce staff ratios in childcare.
According to reports, the Prime Minister is considering relaxing childcare ratios in a bid to cut costs for parents. The relaxing of health and safety rules would allow nurseries in England to take in more toddlers without employing extra staff.
Current legal requirements say there must be at least one member of staff for every three children aged two and under. For two-year-olds and over, there must be one member of staff for every four children.
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But the proposal - which the government insists is 'not about cutting corners' - has been met with anger by parents and childcare leaders who say the safety of children is paramount. Joanne and Dan Thompson, from Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, know only too well the importance of health and safety in childcare settings.
Their baby daughter Millie was just nine months old when she died after choking on food at nursery in 2012. It left the pair facing every 'parent's worst nightmare'.
Following the tragedy, the couple set up the Millie's Trust charity to help fund first aid courses for parents and carers who might not be able to afford it, and launched the Millie's Mark for nurseries to show they offer the best standard in first aid for children.
Joanne told the Manchester Evening News she is 'fuming' with the plans to cut back on staff and is now using the Trust to campaign against any such move.
In a Facebook post, which has been shared more than 2,000 times in less than 24 hours, she says: "Dear Mr Boris Johnson, No, Just no. We are absolutely disgusted in your comments today regarding wanting to ease health and safety rules in childcare to help ease financial costs - this is not the answer.
"Your government supported Millie’s Mark and helped to form it - a mechanism to help keep children safer in nurseries and now you flippantly make comments like this. The childcare sector needs support, it needs help. Reducing health and safety measures in childcare is not the answer."
She goes to suggest other ways the government could cut back, including ministers taking a pay cut themselves.
"You have children," she says. "Plenty of them, so you know what it likes to leave you children in childcare. It’s nerve wracking, it makes new parents cry, it’s heartbreaking having to do it because we need to go to work.
"Why would you not want your youngest children to be safer in a place where they may spend a good part of their week? Do you not want your babies to go to childcare knowing that they are in the safest hands possible? Or will it never happen to you?
"Funny how we all think that. We didn’t think it would happen to us. Maybe you should take a minute out of your schedule and meet me, talk to me for 5 minutes, a little person that has lost a child whilst they were in a nursery.
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"We will never ever know what happened to our daughter properly, we will never know the ins and outs of that day. What we do know is that the childcare sector needs as many health and safety rules as possible to keep our children safe, yours included. As parents, we need to know that our children are being looked after by efficiently run childcare establishments with specially trained staff."
Joanne, 36, and Dan, 48, have gone on to have two other children - sons Leo, seven, and four-year-old Asher - who have just completed their latest fundraising mission for the Trust, by walking 1k a day for 100 days to raise money in memory of their sister. Donations can be made here. To follow the Millie's Trust campaign against any cuts, see the Facebook page here.
The couple have previously shared an emotional video recalling the events of 2012, when Millie was attending just her third day at nursery. Joanne got a phone call to say Millie wasn't breathing properly and to make her way to hospital. But by the time she got there it was too late.
Dan explained how they hadn't checked with the nursery how many first aiders they had. Since losing Millie they have worked tirelessly to raise awareness of paediatric first aid training.
This is not the first time the government has considered relaxing ratios as a cost-cutting measure. The Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition government attempted to relax child-to-staff ratios in England as part of a package of reforms in 2013.
But the plans, led by then-education minister Liz Truss, were abandoned after being opposed by Nick Clegg, who was deputy prime minister at the time. Neil Leitch, chief executive at the Early Years Alliance, said: “It is absolutely ludicrous to suggest that the relaxation of ratios is any kind of solution to the current cost of living crisis.
“Such a change would be a catastrophic and retrograde step for the early years sector, and it is all the more galling that this suggestion from the Prime Minister comes on the very same day that Ofsted has warned of the damaging impact the pandemic has had on young children's learning and development. Now more than ever, many children attending early years settings need far greater individual care and attention. Relaxing ratios will achieve the exact opposite.
"What’s more, such a policy would do little, if anything, to lower costs for parents. We know that the vast majority providers plan to keep their ratios as they are, regardless of any regulation changes, in order to maintain quality levels - and even if a minority did relax their ratios, any savings would be used to recoup years of historic losses, not lower fees.
"By looking at ratios as a solution to rising early years costs, the government has missed the mark and entirely misunderstood what is driving these increases. What we need isn’t deregulated, cheap childcare, but investment in affordable, quality early education. As such, we urge the Prime Minister to rethink this misguided approach."
The government says ministers are looking 'at all options' to support parents with the availability, choice and cost of childcare and that health and safety, as well as quality of provision, will 'continue to be of paramount importance'. Any significant changes to regulations would require consultation.
A government spokesperson said: “The Education Secretary has been clear that supporting families with access to childcare and early education is a priority for him. We are working with colleagues all over government to look for ways to improve the cost, choice and availability of childcare places.
“We have invested more than £3.5 billion in each of the last three years to deliver our free childcare offers, including the 30 hours per week for working parents which is supporting thousands of families.”
Leo and Asher have so far raised £2,500 with their fundraising walks. Donations can be made here. To follow the Millie's Trust campaign against any cuts, see the Facebook page here.
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