AFTER years of campaigning, Jersey parents can now apply for free places in non-States nurseries for the first time.
Following the States’ decision last September to approve increased funding of nursery education in the Island, additional money has now been made available to pay, from this September, for the nursery education of children who are eligible in registered day care centres in both the private and voluntary sectors. Previously only places in States nurseries were funded.
Parents can now apply for a maximum of 20 hours’ free nursery education a week during term time, up to five days a week, 38 weeks a year. Funding for places will go directly from the States to the registered centre, and parents will not be asked to pay in advance.
Education’s business change manager, Keith Posner, said that the feedback the department had received so far indicated that parents in Jersey were pleased to have been given the extra choice.
