Childcare firm attacks plans for £400,000-a-year House of Commons nursery

MPs' plans for a dedicated House of Commons nursery have been have criticised as an expensive indulgence by one of the childcare companies asked to tender for the contract. The total cost of the creche, being set up in a converted bar in the Palace of Westminster, is understood to be £400,000 a year and it is expected to be open for 51 weeks a year. It will provide places for around 40 children and is intended primarily to help MPs who have to attend debates and work in the Commons. It will offer spaces to children aged up to five. Other Westminster staff will also be able to take advantage of the childcare facilities. On occasions the nursery may remain open until as late as 10.30pm to offer emergency childcare – a proposal that envisages exhausted politicians returning to their London homes late at night, taking home their sleeping infants. Ben Black, managing director of the childcare providers Tinies and My Family Care, told the Guardian that the money would be better spent offering credits to use existing nurseries and employ nannies or childminders at MPs' homes rather than at their place of work. "I am probably not alone in finding the idea of a dedicated nursery in the House of Commons very hypocritical," Black said. "Those children should be tucked up at home in bed late at night." Black said it would be better to allow MPs to use existing nurseries. "Providing credits to MPs to use existing childcare infrastructure may be politically unacceptable and using nannies may sound like it is something only for the middle classes – but it would be better value. "This scheme won't provide flexible back-up care. The House of Commons could give every MP 10 sessions or days of emergency childcare per year anywhere in the UK. The total costs of that would be about £25k per year." Other public sector bodies run successful childcare programmes without setting up a dedicated nursery, he said. "We run an emergency childcare scheme for various private and public sector employers, [including] … various NHS trusts and even some work for the Treasury. We have very successful operations – such as the Westminster holiday play scheme – which organises activities of children who work in 30 government agencies and departments. Those schemes could be used." Many existing nurseries were "crying out" for children to look after, Black added.