15 December 1992 Lincoln Council Receptive to Call for More Childcare Places

Lincoln University Council is to look at the need for increasing the number of childcare spaces per student, following a report from the President of the Students' Association, Kristine Potter.

Options identified by Ms Potter were increasing the size of the existing Childcare Centre (which the University shares with other local institutions and the community) or establishing a campus centre solely for the University. She preferred the latter option.

Ms Potter said the childcare issue was one of the things she worried about most during her presidency. She told the Council she was working on a report with the Equal Opportunities co-ordinator and gathering data to go with a case for increasing the capacity of the service.

The really urgent need was for more casual care on a one or two hourly basis, rather than all-day fulltime care, she said. The existing facility appeared to base its operation on offering fulltime care.

Registrar Allan Sargison said that unless a very large pool of clients existed it was difficult to run a centre on an hourly scheme. Other universities effectively had two centres – one for staff which tended to offer fulltime care and one for students which tended to concentrate on care for casual hours.

The Vice-Chancellor agreed with the call for more information and the matter will be looked into in 1993.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.