Pre-school funding U-turn a blow for working parents

The UK Conservative government are intending to increase the provision up to 30 hours each week, Jersey already provides 20 hours, France and most of Europe have provided full-time preschool/kindergarten for many decades, for very good economic reasons.

So Guernsey, already well behind the times on the benefits of early education for all, not forgetting we are a relatively affluent island by comparison to other economies, is deciding to 'pull the rug' on this promised funding.

In the same week they disclose a £25m. cash gift to Aurigny, which by the way might fill more of their planes seats if they had a fairer price structure (is Gavin St Pier still a director?).

The States continues to give about £5m. annually to the private colleges and receive 'peppercorn rents' for land and buildings, when it is quite obvious most pupils who attend these colleges come from families who can very easily afford school fees. Meanwhile, there is statistical evidence that children from 'disadvantaged social backgrounds' do not get places at any of the colleges.

Pre-school fees for 15 hours term time only means that full-time working parents still have to pay the difference of 25 hours each week.

It is lovely idealism to think that today a couple or single parent can afford to live without working when in Guernsey the rent or mortgage on a two-bedroom home is on average £1,300 a month.

The actual cost of childcare to an average family with two children under five is currently £1,800 a month (for 30 hours per week). There is then very little left for the essentials – heating, food, clothes, shoes, going to see a doctor or dentist.

Most mothers are highly skilled, valuable, tax-paying members of our society who very much support our economy within health, social services, education, finance sector etc. The alternative is to bring in more professionals on housing licences, which is extremely costly – advertising, relocation packages, rent/mortgage subsidies paid on average £700 per month for two to three years. Then surprise, surprise once the rent allowances stop these folk quickly depart Guernsey whether they have 15-year licences or not.

If the States breaks its promise of 15 hours pre-school support from September 2016, I personally know several local families who will feel genuinely let down. They will up and leave their island home, leaving important family ties and creating a very serious population and skills drain. Long-term, I suggest this will have very expensive consequences for us all.

Currently we support and encourage our young people to study through 13 years of education and then maybe three or four years at university. Unfortunately we don't then do a lot to bring them back to Guernsey, to bring their valuable experience and skills.

For families with children or for those planning to have a family, the 15 hours pre-school child care was a bit of a carrot, to bring them back to the island and then maybe to settle down for a lifetime, bringing that much-needed stability within population growth.

I do not believe the States can at this moment in time afford to throw away this opportunity, if they are really thinking about the balance of economy and population in this ever-changing and challenging world.

Finally, as we no longer have a real census, only a sterile statistical computerised one that fails to provide true data about occupations, social needs, home economies and family life, please think about the long-term consequences and people affected by this U-turn. Please speak.

kendug44@gmail.com