Certainly, there have been hints aplenty about a relaxation of ratios - and a flurry of invitations from nursery owners to Ms Truss to come into their settings and try working with double the current number of young children!
Various national newspapers reported that what they believed was the current ratio of one staff member to four children would be increased to eight children, unaware that that is already the ratio for three to five-year-olds in daycare, with one to 13 in nursery schools.
And for two-year-olds, where the ratio is one to four, an increase would be disastrous, especially for the disadvantaged two-year-olds, many with special needs. All children of this age have particular needs, of course, as Penny Tassoni's new series beginning in this issue (pages 16-18) sets out to show. They deserve enough well-trained adults to provide the highest quality care.
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