NEWS RELEASE from the Liberal Democrats on Harlow District Council

Lib Dems call for More Child Care Places

Liberal Democrats on Harlow Council are leading a call for more child care places to be made available to help parents get back to work. The call comes in a motion to the council’s next meeting, on Thursday 12 February, proposed by Cllr Lorna Spenceley and seconded by Cllr Su Lawton.

Cllr Spenceley said:

“Good quality, affordable child care is a lifeline to working parents, but there are still too few places to meet local demand.

“With its own budget already stretched, the council cannot afford to expand its own child care provision, especially given the high level of subsidy the council pays for each place it provides. We need to work with the voluntary and private sectors to encourage them to create more places.

“We also need to see better publicity for the new tax credit system, which offers parents a subsidy of up to 70 per cent of their child care costs, and brings care much closer within the reach of working families.”

The council motion calls on the council to review local child care provision, and the council’s own child care strategy, to address these issues.

The Council Motion reads:

CHILD CARE STRATEGY

This Council:

1. believes that access to a diverse range of good quality, affordable child care is an essential component of the wellbeing of our town;
2. acknowledges the range of financial support now available to families to purchase child care; and
3. recognises that there is still significant unmet demand for child care in Harlow.

This Council wishes to work with its partners in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, including through Harlow’s Local Strategic Partnership (Harlow 2020), to:

A. build on existing initiatives such as Surestart;

B. promote awareness of the financial support on offer to parents buying child care; and

C. ensure the expansion, by a range of providers, of the number of good quality, affordable child care places in Harlow to address the unmet needs of local families.

This Council therefore resolves to conduct a review of local child care provision and of its own child care strategy, through its Preview & Best Value Committee, in the forthcoming municipal year, and consequently to develop an action plan to achieve these objectives.

Note: The motion was passed with all-party support at the full council meeting on 12 February 2004.

ENDS