A parliamentary petition against proposals to changes childcare ratios supported by Oldham Labour will be debated in Parliament on the 14^th November.

The petition, launched by Zoe and Lewis Steeper who lost their nine-month-old son Oliver because of a medical emergency while has was at nursery, has had more than 100,000 signatures securing the debate. The petition said that there are better ways of reducing the cost of living rather than by changing childcare ratios and ‘potentially endangering children in trusted care’.

Councillor Leanne Munroe, Oldham Council’s lead on Early Years, has written to the previous Secretary of State for Education calling on him to publish the results of the consultation on the proposals to increase the ratio of children:staff before any decisions are made. Together with Councillor Eddie Moores, Cllr Munroe has contacted Oldham’s childcare providers to keep them up to date with Government proposals and Oldham Council’s response.

Councillor Munroe said ‘Safe and good quality care for our under fives must be a government priority. We are now on our fifth Cabinet Minister for Education this year but the chaos at Westminster should not lead to poor decisions about how children are looked after. I expect the current Secretary of State to reply to my letter and to publish the outcome of the consultation on changing ratios before a decision is made. I have also asked for a commitment to a full consultation with parents and childcare providers before any more changes are put forward. I welcome the debate on the 14th November and hope that these ratio changes will be abandoned.’

Councillor Moores, Cabinet Member for Children, added ‘Parents and providers should also keep an eye out for proposals affecting childcare in the budget statement on the 17^th November. There were newspaper reports and rumours of big changes as part of the Truss government’s ‘supply side reforms’ and I suspect that the desperate search for ways of plugging the Tory financial black hole could lead to more threats to funding for childcare.’

Councillor Munroe joined the March of the Mummies in Manchester at the weekend to support early years education and affordable childcare. She explained ‘We have the second most expensive childcare system in the world due to years of underfunding from our Government, and the third worst ranking maternity pay, and the least generous paternity leave in Europe. On top of that, mothers face a pay penalty of 45% lower earnings in the six years after giving birth. I repeat: it’s time for proper investment in the early years sector and a better deal for working parents.’