Opinion

Editor's view

The debate over the place of private, voluntary and independent providers in childcare services rages on this week, following Helen Penn's launch of the International Centre for the Study of the Mixed Economy of Childcare (Nursery World, 30 August) and Purnima Tanuku of the NDNA's response about the need for profit to keep the PVI sector healthy (13 September).

In this issue of Nursery World, Jon Richards of Unison argues that profit is unlikely to find its way into the pay packets of staff ('In my view', page 30), while our news section reports on parents in Haringey, north London, who are protesting at plans to hand over the running of five children's centres to PVI groups (page 4).

The council's justification for considering this course of action is that the Childcare Act requires local authorities to be market managers and not providers of childcare, unless there is no other option. However, in February Newcastle City Council was considering a similar course of action until it was told that the Childcare Act's stipulation referred to future rather than existing provision (Nursery World, 1 February).

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