There has been plenty of coverage in the media recently about proposals to allow nurseries and childminders in England to raise ratios (e.g. to allow adults to look after more children). Under this proposal, the ratio of babies to adults would move from one adult to three babies to one adult to four babies. For two year-olds, the ratio would change from one adult to four children to one adult to six children! Elizabeth Truss, the Children's Minister, has said that the move will improve the quality and reduce the cost of childcare.  While these are laudable aims, we think the proposal to increase ratios is a backward step and will not deliver what it is intended to.  In our view, having fewer adults in place to care for more, very young, children cannot possibly lead to a higher quality of care and early education for those children - not least because the more children we look after the less time we have with each individual child. We think it unlikely that the government will be able to provide compelling evidence to support their assertion that raising ratios will lead to higher quality provision for babies and two year-olds and we will not, therefore, be raising ratios at Polly's.

As for reducing the cost of childcare we've got some ideas about how to do this without risking quality. For example, how about making the goods and services that nurseries and childminders buy VAT exempt and passing this saving onto parents? Despite how long we've been running Polly's, we're often amazed (not to mention frustrated) at just how much it costs to keep our nurseries well-maintained and nicely presented and equipped. By way of example, we recently completed three very small, simple projects at one of our nurseries which added up to an eye-watering (for what they were) cost of over £1250.00. The VAT element of this expenditure was therefore around £250.00. And that's just the VAT on three tiny projects! Add in the VAT we pay on food, toys, equipment, stationery, heating, telephone etc, etc each year and you reach a pretty big number and one which has to be funded from the childcare fees we receive from our parents.

Or, how about reducing or abolishing business rates for nurseries and reducing fees for parents by the amount saved? We pay around £7500.00 per year on business rates (and for this princely sum we don't even get our bins collected!).

And, while we're at it, how about making 100% of parent's childcare costs tax deductible? Now that really would significantly reduce the costs of childcare for working parents.

Unfortunately, all of these proposals would obviously reduce the amount of revenue collected by the Exchequer and, during these difficult times for our country's economy, we understand that this means they would have limited appeal in Westminster.  Equally, let's hope that Westminster understands that it's proposal to increase ratios has limited appeal in this corner of Stroud!