Thought for the week

PARENTS have been left with unexpected bills of up to £800 a month amid confusion over a free childcare scheme, a new Welsh Government report has found.

Parents in employment in Wales with children aged three or four are entitled to 20 hours of free childcare a week, on top of the 10 hours of early education provision normally found in schools. During the school holidays, that increases to 30 hours a week of childcare for up to nine weeks a year - at a rate of three weeks per holiday period - because schools aren’t open to provide nursery education.

But a study for the Welsh Government found that while the Childcare Offer for Wales scheme - introduced in 2017 - is

A FEW weeks ago our daughter gave birth to our fifth grandchild. The waiting is over, a new life is born. Now he is an individual member of the family, even though he is still totally dependant on his mother for food.

A huge change takes place inside a new baby at the moment they are born.

Up until that point, the baby in the womb has received an oxygenated blood supply through saving families money, many are confused about how the scheme works, and have been left with significant unexpected bills as a result.

Some parents told the researchers that they had received bills for several hundred pounds after not realising they had surpassed their entitlement.

One parent said: “We have found the fact you can only use three weeks for holiday period the umbilical chord, and the baby’s heart has pumped this blood around its tiny body, bypassing the lungs as they are not needed at this stage.

But at birth, those by-pass valves in the heart close up and the blood takes a totally different route around the baby’s body as it begins breathing for itself.

A total reversal that happens almost instantaneously, but perfectly naturally, as that is the per term very restricting especially as (the) summer holiday is six weeks long.”

And another added: “I was extremely shocked to get an £800+ day care bill this month as (though I’m sure it was explained in fine print somewhere) I did not realise funding ran out over the summer.”

According to the survey of parents in July 2019, around three-quarters of parents had way the body is designed to function.

The beginning of a new year is often a time when we make decisions to change things, most of which will already have been discarded by the time you read this article!

But opportunities for change do not just occur at new year.

A total reversal, a change of heart, can occur at any time.

The Bible calls that reversal used or were planning on using childcare during the school holidays.

Responding to the report, a Welsh Government spokesman said the scheme was providing “positive benefits for families across Wales”.

He added: “We are considering all the issues raised in the evaluation.

“In the meantime, we would encourage families across Wales to see if they can benefit.” ‘repentance’ – acknowledging that we have been doing things wrong, taking the wrong path in life.

We can then ask God to forgive us and put us on a new track.

This new life, as the Bible calls it, is available for all who call to Jesus for help to change.

Total reversal – a change of heart – all beginning with a moment of prayer.