Petition · past parliament

LA’s to open childcare hubs for key workers using their EY’s contingency money

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

Local Authorities must use their contingency funds ( early years entitlement) to organise and reopen children’s centres and nurseries to provide childcare hubs for the children of key workers.
Local Authority providers are paid by the government, they have minimal expenses, pay scales, pensions and job security in comparison to the PVI sector. The government must force LAs to use their contingency funds which they have held onto from the Early Years Entitlement to reopen their council nurseries and children’s centres with a view to creating childcare hubs for the children of Key Workers. They must not put this pressure into the PVI sector.

Why it was rejected

It asked for something that is not the responsibility of the UK Government or Parliament.

Local authorities, not the Government or House of Commons, are responsible for decisions about how to use local authority budgets and fulfill local authority obligations.

We have published a petition calling on the Government to Give financial support to childcare establishments staying open during Covid-19, which you might like to sign: Give financial support to childcare establishments staying open during Covid-19

You could start a new petition calling on the Government to provide additional funding either to local authorities or directly to childcare providers, to increase the availability of childcare to key workers.

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:

www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

The Government has also created an online service to help you out what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus: https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support

You can read NHS tips to help if you are worried about coronavirus here: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/coronavirus-covid-19-anxiety-tips

You can read impartial analysis of the Government response to coronavirus and policy developments here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/coronavirus/

You may also be interested to know that because of the large number of petitions that have been started in relation to coronavirus, the Petitions Committee has been questioning the Government about its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Find out more and watch the Committee put questions suggested by petitioners to Government Ministers and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/news/145767/committee-question-deputy-chief-medical-officer-and-ministers-on-coronavirus-response/

Read letters asking further questions of Government Ministers: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/publications/3/correspondence/

Timeline

31 Mar 2020 Petition opened for signatures
19 May 2020 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 21
Status Rejected
Rejected 19 May 2020

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.