NURSERY EDUCATION VOUCHERS

a CASE fact sheet

What it will mean, What is proposed, What's wrong with vouchers and Taking Action.

WHAT IT WILL MEAN?

Vouchers worth £1,100 will cover a pre-school place for three terms, eventually for every four year in the country. It is estimated that 150,000 places will be needed. About £790,000,000 will be needed - mostly taken from LEA funds - but with £165,000,000 of new money and £20,000,000 for administration and inspection.

• Phase One of the scheme involves four LEAS: Wandsworth, Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, and Norfolk, and starts in April 1996. Introduction in Phase One is costing- £5,000,000 in administrative costs.
• Vouchers will be introduced nationwide in April 1997.
• A private firm, Capita Managed Services, has won the contract to administer the issue and redemption of vouchers.
• Parents will have to apply for vouchers. In Phase One, forms will be sent out by the Child Benefit Centre. The Voucher Agency will check the validity of applications and Phase One parents of children who will be four before the 1996 summer term should get their vouchers by April 1996.
• Vouchers will cover five sessions of nursery education a week for three terms. Institutions which do not offer that number onf sessions will be expected to provide this within two years. Initially institutions will have to offer a minimum of three sessions a week. In Phase One, vouchers will he redeemable in any Phase One area.
• The termly voucher will be a single sheet in five parts each for a minimum half day session per term. Parents will agree with the institution how many sessions they will pay for. Parents will keep the counterfoil signed by the institution and institutions will send the voucher signed by the parent to the agency which will send them to the DfEE for payment.
• Institutions taking vouchers win have either to be registered under the Children Act, as an independent school with the DfEE, or an LEA or GM school or a local authority day nursery. They must confirm that they will work towards satisfying the desirable outcomes recommended b SCAA, agree to inspection and specified published information for parents.
• Staffing, levels will depend on the type of institution which will mean they are not specified for reception classes or independent schools.

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WHAT IS PROPOSED?

If passed the Bill will

• empower the Secretary of State to make grants for nursery provision and delegate this function to others i.e. the private firm administering the scheme
• require OFSTED oversee the inspection of nursery education give the Secretary of State the power to supply the agency with names and addresses from social security data

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WHAT'S WRONG WITH VOUCHERS?

• Although called nursery vouchers they give no guarantee of proper nursery provision. They could be used to fund a place in an overcrowded reception class.
• Authorities with a high level of provision will be penalised while authorities with little provision will have only a small reduction in funding; because LEAs will have £1,100 deducted per full-time four-year-old which they educate and also the total SSA for under-fives.
• Bureaucratic and costly systems of administration will be set up. The cost of printing., collecting and auditing all this paper will be enormous.
• There is no extra money for initial or in-service training for staff
• A "light touch" inspection will allow some institutions to trade for three years without inspection. Monitoring, will initially rely on self-evaluation.
• The focus on three terms up to the fifth birthday will do nothing for three-year-olds and could de-stabilise their current provision.
• £1,100 is not enough to provide education of the highest quality. Some full-time places cost three times this amount.
• An automatic subsidy to parents who pay for private education will mean extra public expenditure producing no extra provision.

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TAKING ACTION

• Contact your MP NOW. The government has a small majority. Organise meetings at your local nursery and primary school to encourage parents to contact their MPs. Many MPs will not know the detailed effects of vouchers.
• On March 16th there will be a march in London against vouchers organised by parents in the areas for Phase One of the scheme (see below). It will take place in the London LEAs in Phase One. Contact CASE for details.

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