** IMPORTANT UPDATE: please read all updates below before signing this petition. There will be a scrutiny hearing on Wednesday 6 April 2016 which the public are encouraged to attend. **

Yesterday, it was announced that Universal free nursery places for three and four year olds are being scrapped, and from September 2017, subsidised places will only go to children of families with an income below £75,000. The Jersey Early Years Association says the changes will hit some families hard, estimating a rise in child care costs for working parents of up to £2,000 a month.

Change is clearly needed and money has to be saved from somewhere. Many feel that the argument for means testing for this benefit is very strong however this sudden announcement yesterday with its arbitrary cap of £75,000 is completely wrong. The average person in Jersey now earns £35,000 according to recent surveys. So every single "average" couple in Jersey is going to be effected by this decision, which has been announced out of the blue. A decision like this should only be made after OPEN and THOROUGH consultation with all of the appropriate bodies and with the tax payers of Jersey.

There is no mention of the effect this change will have on the children and the ramifications this will have for their future, and all of our futures. There is passing mention of the effect on the private pre-schools, who have also just had this decision announced to them - apparently purely as a "courtesy" and definitely after the media was told. When this funding cap is introduced the likelihood is that they will close, as countless other pre-schools have closed before them in recent years. Who will bear the cost of these people losing their jobs, of those buildings they operate from losing their tenants? 

Yesterdays announcement will have substantial implications for countless people in the Island. I have seen numerous comments on social media about how people earning £75,000 shouldn't be complaining. But in reality that is an average wage for a couple. Let's look at the figures briefly: £75,000 salary will be subject to around 20% tax, 1% for the new long term care contribution (LTC) (which is only going to increase each year) and 6% social security deductions, so lets say a 25% deduction (which is £18,750 that goes straight to the States of Jersey).

That leaves them with £56,250 per year, which is £4,687 a month. Deduct their mortgage or rent of say £2,000, leaves them with £2,687 disposable income. From this money they pay all of their utilities and food bills, maintain their houses, save for their pension and future education for their children, pay additional child care costs for their other children, pay top of child care costs around the 20 hours their 3-4 child spends at pre-school so that they can work their job and earn that £75,000 in the first place. And now, they are going to be forced to pay additional bills - which could be up to £2,000 a month (the figure the Jersey Early Years Association gave in the press release yesterday). As the figures show, they simply don't have that money to spend. Therefore the obvious conclusion is that one of the couple will be forced to stop working, with adverse effects on their employers and their family as a whole, not to mention wasting their skills and abilities. 

In conclusion, this decision has been made in completely the wrong way, without full proper and open consultation. Please sign this petition to show the Education Department that while we appreciate costs need to be saved, and they have budgets to work to, this is quite simply not the way to treat the tax payers whose money they are spending - and thorough and open consultation MUST be held before any decisions like this are made. 

UPDATE:

It has also been announced that Nursery Education Funding will also ONLY be available for children in states nursery, so it seems even more likely that most if not all of the private pre-schools will close as a result of these proposed changes. Yet the states nurseries are already heavily oversubscribed. This change will also adversely effect working parents - because states nurseries only open for school hours and during school terms, while the private pre-schools all offer wrap around care, which actually enables working parents to go back to or stay in the workplace. 

The Education Department claim this morning that the changes will "only" affect around 100 families. However if that figure is true that is 100 families this year, 100 families next year and the year after that. This petition has received almost 100 signatures in its first hour (on a Saturday morning when most parents are busy with their children) so contrary to the claims it is apparent that well in excess of 100 families feel that this decision adversely affects them. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Since writing this petition additional information has been provided by Deputy Louise Doublet which shows that yesterdays press releases did not accurately depict the proposed changes. This has implications for some of the comments made above. I am not going to amend this original text, because well over 100 people have already signed it and will not be aware of the changes I make. Updates will be posted below, and once you sign the petition these updates will be e-mailed to you so that you can keep up to date as matters progress. If you have not yet signed, please read the updates below before doing so. Thank you