National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) deplores the proposals that would deny parents of young children who don’t attend childcare settings of their child benefit.
Influential Conservative Think Tank Bright Blue made the proposals to encourage parents to send their three and four year olds to nursery – and also eligible two-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds who get 15 funded hours per week.
Purnima Tanuku OBE, NDNA’s Chief Executive, said: “We should be educating parents about the benefits to their child’s development and life chances of attending high quality early education – but not punishing them.
“We need to raise awareness of the benefits to the child, especially the disadvantaged two-year-olds to increase the take-up. Currently 58% of eligible two-year-olds benefit from the funded places so there is still room for improvement.
“But reducing or taking away their child benefit could harm the whole family, at a time when tax credits are being cut.
“Ofsted told our members at our recent member events that they would be looking at patterns of non attendance of children at nursery but as a means of supporting a family which may be having problems.
“It is also very important for young children to spend quality time with their families as well as attending quality childcare settings.”
Figures published by the Department for Education in January showed that 99% of four-year-olds and 94% of three-year-olds are taking up their free education hours.