Labour pledges 100,000 new childcare places

Daily reminder that all of Labour’s spending plans rests on the (delusional) belief that we will have the highest growth out of all g7 countries, including America.

We have owned and managed a nursery for 30 years.

We have an outstanding rating from ofsted. I have been begging the council monthly for 5 years to let us expand to meet demand, and they’ve said no. I’ve begged the local primary schools for space to open an additional setting to meet demands. They’ve all said no. I check every morning for available locations to expand, and there is nothing.

I’m just taking the news at surface level with what has been said and not trying to get into too deep into arguing the logistics and economics of this.. but

Are all the limitations and restrictions that are currently imposed on early years settings going to be fairly applied to these schools?

Will these classroom nursery’s require separate ofsted assessments? What if they fail an inspection? Will their intake be limited by the size of the room? Will they need separate rooms for the different age groups as other settings are required to do so?

What of the existing early years settings that have been begging for assistance to meet demand? Are they going to be wiped out by schools who will become first choice destinations regardless of quality of care and lack of prior experience?

This seems like it will have the high street effect where independent and local settings get overlooked to favour schools who will cash in and large early year franchises who can offer specialised alternative care options but charge the world because parents have limited options.