What does minimum mean to you?

Sign the petition at 10,000 signatures a response will be given...
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/106123 



Last month I queried my nursery bill because the Early Years funding seemed like such a spit in the ocean.

The nursery showed me a table provided by the Council which told them how much to knock off my bill.

I contacted Newport City Council, who within a day got back to me with a helpful response confirming that each child receives £6.83 for each session attended.

Unfortunately however, this amount does not cover the actual cost.

So I contacted Huw Lewis, Minister for Education to ask whether he was aware of this short all and to raise awareness of the big difference in Early Year funding between England and Wales.

Almost one month later I received an email from someone working in Foundation Phase Policy. The points made were fair, in that she mentioned that Wales and England vary in lots of ways, and that there was additional funding where it was felt it was needed. However she did also confirm and I quote;

In Wales, all 3 and 4 year-old children are entitled to funded early education for a minimum of 10 hours per week over a minimum of 38 weeks in the year – a minimum of 380 hours. 

And this is my key point - due to the shortfall between the funding and actual cost, we are not actually receiving the minimum number of funded hours.

The government is providing funding at a rate of  around £30 a day, when our nursery (and all others in the area) charge £37.50

I replied to the response I received, but 8 days on I have had no response.

I wanted to raise awareness of this shortfall, but it seems Huw Lewis never even saw my email sent to his official email address. I tweeted him twice but was disappointed to get no response.

I also tweeted my AM, Rosemary Butler, to ask whether there was any other path I could take, but again got no response.

So maybe I'll jump down off my soapbox and do something more useful with my time.

Sign the petition...it probably won't change anything but at least it will have been considered again
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/106123