We need fully funded public nurseries! Calling all who want a high quality free-at-the-point-of-use public early years service – with decent terms and conditions for early years workers.
Join a meeting to discuss next steps for a national campaign for public childcare.
We will hear from campaigns for Council-run day nurseries and Maintained Nursery Schools under threat across the country.
Public Childcare Now! – General Election 2024 organising meeting
Thursday 27 June, 7pm
Online meeting
Email <postpandemicchildcare@gmail.com> and we will send Zoom link
It would be helpful for organising if you can please include some details – your name, location, nursery, and/or union branch (where appropriate) when you email.
Chaired by the Leeds Little Owls campaign where 15 Council-run nurseries are under threat of closure or privatisation, we will first hear from Kath Owen (Unison) about this campaign, and then from NEU members regarding ongoing industrial action against loss of SEND provision and jobs at Maintained Nursery Schools in Wandsworth.
This campaign plans to build solidarity between different types of public childcare provision, usually pitted against each other.
We also hope to hear from campaigns against planned cuts and closures of nursery provision in Brighton, Hackney, and Tower Hamlets – all invited to share ideas, experiences and the urgency of their situation.
We will then discuss potential demands and strategy for building a campaign from the grassroots – growing chapters across the country, and support through the union branches of both early years workers at public nurseries under threat, and the unions of parents and carers who need public childcare.
We must stop these planned cuts – the loss of vital support for children and knowledge of early years workers.
Demands:
Save and expand public nurseries!
Universal public early years childcare services with national pay scales. 30 hours free childcare and education should be for all children!
End the marketisation of early years through the entitlement system
Increase democratic overview of subsidised nurseries - Shift to direct and conditional funding.
Private and voluntary sector crganisations providing the 30 hours must ensure workers are employed with national pay scales and at real living wage, that additional hours are affordable, and there are no profits to shareholders.
No selling out school classrooms to nursery chains! If public funding is to turn empty school classrooms into nurseries, then local authorities should be supported and fully funded to support community schools to run the provision – integrated with other council early years services and SEND support.
Reinstate and expand Sure Start across the country to create a truly universal, local authority run and integrated service with sessions and support focused on 0-5yr olds and their carers.
Take private chains into public ownership if they collapse!
Please also join us at the NEU demo, on Saturday 29 June, Parliament Sq, 11am. The demo is to raise the dire situation of Maintained Nursery Schools under threat, and need for properly funded nursery places.
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