“It’s only just staying afloat I don’t think we need anything to help us drown”: Nurseries in Salford worried about Government’s proposal to relax childcare ratios

Salford nurseries are concerned over the proposed changes to staff-to-child ratios as the Government is planning to cut childcare costs.

In England the current staff to child ratio for two-year-olds in nurseries is 1:4 (1 adult for every 4 children) but the Government is proposing to relax this ratio to 1:5 in a bid to cut childcare costs.

Kaomi James is the deputy manager of Kidzrus in Media City, Salford.

She said: “I think it’s quite ludicrous to say it wouldn’t affect anything because in a nursery we pride ourselves on having that personal care with children.

“It’s easy to look at logistics and say that a number is only one extra but when you have that in the physical being, for example, a staff member could be needing to do a nappy, and another could have hurt themselves and then two children could be having an altercation over a toy.

“If you’re expecting that from one person, it’s ridiculous.”

Lynn is a mother-of-three from Salford. Her child at nursery suffers from verbal dyspraxia.

She is worried relaxing the ratios will mean less time spent with her child.

She said: “His communication is very poor, and it takes an adult a lot longer time spent with him to understand what he is trying to communicate.

“If there are fewer adults, then it would be very difficult for them to spend the time with him that he needs.”

The Government has said that changing the ratio for two-year-olds could reduce childcare costs by up to £40 for a family paying £265 per week, if providers adopt the changes and pass all savings on to parents.

Jessica Townsley, the Pre-School room leader at Kidzrus, also said she was concerned about relaxing ratios.

She said: “At the minute I’m already struggling in a 1:8 ratio so if they were to relax it even further, that would mean taking time away from them even more.”

Education Minister, Claire Coutinho, said: “Safety has got to be paramount to what we are trying to do, but I think at the same time thinking about the affordability of childcare, looking at some of those flexibilities for providers, looking at how we can make sure that staff feel that their judgment is being trusted, I think those things are important as well.”

Kaomi also expressed concerns around children who were born during lockdown.

She said: “I think we have noticed now more than ever the effects of lockdown; we are noticing they [the children] are quite behind and understandably so, they were locked in, and they weren’t able to experience the experiences they should from a young age.”