General Election 2019

Imagine being someone who works there, getting paid £8.21 an hour and reading that letter pinned to the door.

The country is fucked. I don't trust the conservatives to fix it.

None of this is aimed at @princeperch btw, he doesn't set the wages at the nursery.

Labour manifesto states large investment into childcare, so I doubt anyone is going to pay more and would probably pay less.

I think the issue is wage increases and tax rises can be implemented immediately but systemic changes take time, within 5 years, to happen.

It’s also just words in a pdf - you then actually have to deliver. Wage rises and tax hikes are easy, systemic changes, not so much.

This is just another example of the pickles you can find yourself in if you don't bag it before you rag it.

Jokes aside, we live in a society where millions of people depend on still more millions of people being paid less than they need to meet their basic needs. It's horrible.

maybe this is why nurseries shouldn't be run as a profit making enterprise.

I assume the owner is making a nice living?

Ha ha no.

As far as this election goes, Labour won't win. At best it will be a hung parliament in which any major changes will have to be horse-traded with other parties. If the Tories win it will definitely be bad for everyone. I would say @princeperch can vote to keep the tories out and it will still be the lowest risk of nursery nightmares.

We don't know actually know that, what we do know is the staff pay is terrible.

This is a great point. My son goes to a play group that has charitable status, a parent organising committee, and a professional full time head. The fees are far lower than any nursery in the area and the staff are all highly experienced and paid above the London living wage. It's a model that should be used more broadly.

Nurseries - you don't want loads of 16 - 24 on minimal wages. You want a mix. And the people doing those jobs want to grow and develop.
Otherwise you just end up in situations like school academies - where all the staff are freshly qualified and no experience. But cheap.

The promise of extra childcare was addressed a bit ago -
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/aug/27/uk-nurseries-30-hours-free-childcare-parents-providers-think-again

https://www.eyalliance.org.uk/news/2019/12/all-parties%E2%80%99-manifesto-pledges-will-lead-shortfall-early-years-funding

The main point is small business owners having to meet the increased cost of pensions, PAYE, wage increases, have to pass the costs on to consumers, consumers perhaps not having all the money they need to meet these costs. Isn't it?

Hard to tell. They don't display their company number on their web site.

Search the proprietors name on companies house. They don't show full P&L accounts as they don't have to as a private company.

Found it via an Ofsted search.

The owners took £116k in dividends in 2017

Quite a common name, tried that first. Was easier to look at the Ofsted reports in the end.

Paying minimum wage, paying themselves £116k per year.

EDIT: To be clear, they don't pay themselves that every year. I was incorrect.

That's the Tory way.

One other notable thing is that in the latest accounts filed this year, he claimed to have zero employees so i'm not sure how he'd be paying his staff pensions. Does that mean they're contractors? Perhaps the agencies pay pensions as part of the overall costs.

Maybe all zero hours contracts?

Hah I stand corrected.

One last observation, I have a suspicion that they own the property personally and their company pays themselves rent for it.

Like most company accounts its all a bit smoke and mirrors, but they do seem to be making a good living even if they're not declaring £100k dividends every year.

https://fantasyelection.co.uk/Leagues.php

Where do the nursery staff come from? If they're EU then it's possible that a vote for the Tories is a vote to shut the nursery anyway.

At our old nursery 90%+ of the staff were all local to the area. Very few EU staff members, but I don't know if that is representative of all nurseries or if ours was the outlier.