Gary Lineker

13 years in power, we’ve ‘taken back control’ and the problem is worse than ever, and, apparently, it’s not their fault.
There is no will to address the real issues.
The ‘oven ready’ brexit deal had no ‘return agreements’ and there is a woefully inadequate resource and infrastructure in place to deal with the ‘small boats’ (that contain humans) problem.
It’s not difficult. You have an immigration policy and system. You have safe and legal routes. You have enough staff to ‘process’ arrivals swiftly. You have a robust Anglo French agreement, and you do your fair share.  Asylum seekers and refugees are treated with humanity and kindness and accepted and helped. Economic migrants are a separate group but that needs assessment, and the Tories have got the public using all these terms interchangeably without understanding properly. If you are an asylum seeker, genuinely, arriving anywhere, by any means is NOT ILLEGAL. Fact, Those who are playing the system are returned. Nobody likes the situation as it is - uncontrolled, costing millions, gargantuan backlog, people in genuine need lumped in with others. Criminal gangs promise people in certain countries a better life - work and money and dignity and hope and they tell them they can pay the fee back from their wages. It’s a con and most of the passengers are victims, but it isn’t being seriously tackled. Not strategically, legally, genuinely, charitably. British people are tolerant and kind and empathic - they will always help those in genuine need, but there isn’t a proper structure to manage the whole issue and that, I’m afraid, is deliberate.

Quoted from Marinerdan

Childcare costs in the UK are shocking. We pay £55 a day for our daughter, whenever I’ve said that to people who don’t have young children they assume we send her to the nursery equivalent of Eton, rather than normal nursery.

Hunt is reportedly going to announce something about supporting childcare costs this week. About 6 months before my youngest no longer needs paid childcare, so thanks for that, Tories!

We're actually quite lucky that N.E. Lincs is one of the more affordable places for childcare. The 30 free hours for 3 year olds (for 39 weeks a year) is very helpful and there are no top-ups required around here, unlike in many areas of the country.

Childcare is just another area which is terribly broken in our country and there is no indication that anybody is going to fix it, not the Tories or Labour.

Quoted from Marinerdan

Childcare costs in the UK are shocking. We pay £55 a day for our daughter, whenever I’ve said that to people who don’t have young children they assume we send her to the nursery equivalent of Eton, rather than normal nursery.

Luckily we both have good enough jobs to cover the cost but it made us delay having another child. I know people with 2 under 3 who are paying almost 30k a year in childcare costs.

The cost of under 2s is astronomical but it's not that the nurseries are making vast profits. By law they have to stick to minders/child ratios. In a school you might have 1 teacher to 30 pupils but in a nursery for under 4's it is 2 minders per 6 children and considerably higher for under 2s. The government do not help with rates, rent or the cost of necessary equipment hence the high charges. The above quote of £55 a day sounds unbelievable but is quite correct.

Nurseries in lots of areas are actually going out of business, I believe, as the payment for the 30 hours from the government isn't nearly enough to cover costs. Quite simple, really, more funding required. We've got the highest childcare costs in the world, I believe. Some figures in the following page:

https://www.euronews.com/next/.....west-childcare-costs

When my youngest starts school in September, I'm looking forward to being a bit less skint!

Quoted from Maringer

Nurseries in lots of areas are actually going out of business, I believe, as the payment for the 30 hours from the government isn't nearly enough to cover costs. Quite simple, really, more funding required. We've got the highest childcare costs in the world, I believe. Some figures in the following page:

https://www.euronews.com/next/.....west-childcare-costs

When my youngest starts school in September, I'm looking forward to being a bit less skint!

My partner manages a nursery. The industry is on the brink of a Tory made crisis (if it’s not already in one).

The money nurseries receive from government for funded places has not kept pace with the national minimum wage and every year it gets worse. The big NMW rise next month will have huge consequences. The margins that have been shrinking for years have been destroyed by rising wages, food costs, energy costs & inflation in consumables. It’s virtually impossible to make a profit or should that be not make a loss as things stand.

And like every industry there’s a staffing crisis. And high absenteeism too. Nursery staff can’t give the service they would like and that they got into childcare for. Which leads to illness and people deserting the industry.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

My partner manages a nursery. The industry is on the brink of a Tory made crisis (if it’s not already in one).

The money nurseries receive from government for funded places has not kept pace with the national minimum wage and every year it gets worse. The big NMW rise next month will have huge consequences. The margins that have been shrinking for years have been destroyed by rising wages, food costs, energy costs & inflation in consumables. It’s virtually impossible to make a profit or should that be not make a loss as things stand.

And like every industry there’s a staffing crisis. And high absenteeism too. Nursery staff can’t give the service they would like and that they got into childcare for. Which leads to illness and people deserting the industry.

This transcends the entire education sector. Schools can only set a deficit budget once, twice and the ESFA come looking and then you’re under all sorts of scrutiny, regardless of how good your school is.

The strikes recently haven’t been about teachers pay necessarily but about the budgeting and economic and staffing crisis hitting education provisions. Still, because folk refuse to actually do their research, as this thread has shown, people just assume it’s about greedy teachers. I’ve friends who are headteachers and senior leaders like myself who’ve received emails from parents simply having a go.

One recently was quite rude so their responses back went along the lines of ‘the TA in your son’s class is valuable and works hard to ensure your son achieved his outcomes, sadly, it is likely they your son’s class TA along with some others will be made redundant in order for the school to break even…this is why teachers are going on strike’.

Then, you factor in the high needs funding deficit. Recently the government published the green paper response claiming to have invested nearly a billion pounds in to high needs blocks nationally…brilliant, there’s a projected 9bn deficit…LAs are going back to schools to review funding formulas and claw back money for the DSG. Schools have little choice if they’re wanting supporting and funding for the more vulnerable…

Then there’s a serious recruitment crisis, sufficiency issues and everything else to contend with…but none of this is the fault of a few Albanians or refugees…anyone that thinks it is is either stupid or just a bigot…

We’re at a point where almost every Education provision, particularly schools, are likely to have to see deficit budgets…what a flipping mental country we live in…managed to find 37bn overnight for a track and trace system, and hundreds of millions for PPE companies owned by tory mates…

Quoted from GollyGTFC

My partner manages a nursery. The industry is on the brink of a Tory made crisis (if it’s not already in one).

The money nurseries receive from government for funded places has not kept pace with the national minimum wage and every year it gets worse. The big NMW rise next month will have huge consequences. The margins that have been shrinking for years have been destroyed by rising wages, food costs, energy costs & inflation in consumables. It’s virtually impossible to make a profit or should that be not make a loss as things stand.

And like every industry there’s a staffing crisis. And high absenteeism too. Nursery staff can’t give the service they would like and that they got into childcare for. Which leads to illness and people deserting the industry.

The major issue with childcare is the government see it as a cost rather than an investment.

If it was made affordable and the nurseries where adequately compensated it could go a long way to plugging the labour shortages in the market and growing the economy. On top of that it would have a massive improvement in early years development and help children adjust to starting school.

Quoted from Marinerdan

The major issue with childcare is the government see it as a cost rather than an investment.

If it was made affordable and the nurseries where adequately compensated it could go a long way to plugging the labour shortages in the market and growing the economy. On top of that it would have a massive improvement in early years development and help children adjust to starting school.

Exactly. The COVID affected intake into school from nursery largely went in to reception year behind where they should have been both in education terms and social skills. It will take years for those children to catch up and some never will.

There’s a real risk that this will become the norm. Fixing preschool provision will mean less intervention when the children get to primary school. It’s always the best solution to fix the cause of problems rather than constantly having to deal with the consequences.

Quoted from Marinerdan

The major issue with childcare is the government see it as a cost rather than an investment.

If it was made affordable and the nurseries where adequately compensated it could go a long way to plugging the labour shortages in the market and growing the economy. On top of that it would have a massive improvement in early years development and help children adjust to starting school.

Because the Tories know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

BREAKING

Gary Lineker is to return to presenting MOTD with the BBC to issue a public apology to him.