Nurseries in England say new rules have reduced care to ‘crowd control’

The first study into Tory shake-up of childcare shows staff are overwhelmed

The first major study into the Conservatives' controversial shake-up of childcare has revealed that nursery staff are often doing more crowd control" than education, because of the increased number of children they are looking after.

Since September last year, nurseries in England have been allowed to increase child-to-staff ratios, so one adult now looks after five two-year-olds rather than four. The change was intended to help deliver the party's pledge of 15 hours' free childcare a week from this month for working parents of children aged from nine months to three years.