《经济学人》双语：英国如何解决托儿保育问题？

原文标题：
Employment
Not child’s play
The chancellor hopes more child care will get more parents working
就业
绝非儿戏
大臣希望提供更多的托儿服务来促进家长就业

But will nurseries provide the places?

但是，托儿所是否能提供足够的服务呢？

[Paragraph 1]
SPACE IS TIGHT in Lisa Evans’s office, but there’s enough for the important stuff.
莉萨·埃文斯的办公室空间有限，但足以放置重要物品。

Bags of chocolate eggs are perched on a cardboard box, ready for daily hunts in the run-up to Easter.
一些装有巧克力蛋的袋子平放在纸箱上，准备在复活节的日常搜寻活动中使用。

At Abacus Nursery and Childcare in New Romney, a pebble’s throw from the Kent coast, the rooms where children play and learn are light and airy.
在新罗姆尼，“算盘托管中心”距离肯特郡海岸仅一步之遥，那里的孩子们在宽敞明亮的教室里嬉戏和学习。

But the register is as full as the manager’s cubbyhole. Though Abacus can take 60 children at a time, during the day and in breakfast and after-school clubs, few slots are left for this coming September.
但报名人数已经满了，就像经理办公室的空间一样有限。虽然“算盘托管中心”可以一次性容纳60个儿童，并提供白天托管、早餐和课后俱乐部服务，但今年9月的名额已经所剩无几了。

[Paragraph 2]
Even as Jeremy Hunt presented his budget on March 15th, parents were asking Abacus about more hours.
3月15日，杰里米·亨特提交了预算，与此同时，家长们也在询问“算盘托管中心”是否能提供更多的托管时间。

The chancellor unveiled a big expansion of “free” (ie, government-funded) child care, hoping to coax more parents (especially mothers) back into work.
财政大臣宣布扩大“免费”（即政府资助）儿童保育计划的规模，目的是吸引更多的家长（特别是母亲）回归职场。

The government will, in effect, be setting the price of around 80% of pre-school care, calculates the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), a think-tank, up from just under half now.
智库“财政研究所”（IFS）估算，政府实际上将支付约80%的学前护理价格，目前这个比例不到50%。
But whether nurseries and childminders—who look after small groups, usually in their own homes—can meet the surge is open to doubt.
然而，托儿所和托儿家庭（通常在自己家中照看几个儿童）是否能够满足激增的需求，仍存在疑虑。

[Paragraph 3]
From September 2025 working parents will be entitled to 30 hours’ state-funded child care a week, for the equivalent of 38 weeks a year, once their child reaches just nine months of age.
从2025年9月开始，只要孩子满9个月大，工作父母就有资格获得每周30小时的国家资助儿童保育服务，相当于每年38周。

(Mr Hunt is starting by giving two-year-olds 15 funded hours from April 2024.) Currently only working parents of three- and four-year-olds are eligible for so much.
（从2024年4月开始，亨特将给2岁孩子的父母提供15小时的资助。）目前只有3-4岁孩子的工作父母有资格获得如此多的资助。

All parents of three- and four-year-olds can have 15 paid-for hours, as can the most disadvantaged—roughly 40%—of those with two-year-olds.
所有3-4岁儿童的父母和最贫困的40%的2岁儿童家庭可以享受每周15小时的免费服务。

Parents pay for additional hours, and often for lunches and other extras.
父母仍需支付额外时长服务，以及午餐和其他额外费用。

[Paragraph 4]
The chancellor is also lifting the cap on help for those parents on universal credit, the main working-age benefit, who buy extra hours—from £646 ($780) for one child and £1,108 for two or more, where it has been stuck for years, to £951 and £1,630 respectively.
财政大臣还将提高家长普惠信用（一种社会福利）的额度上限。领取者可用普惠信用购买额外时长，但资助标准已经多年未变。现在分别将1个孩子资助646英镑（780美元），2个及以上孩子资助1108英镑，提高到951英镑和1630英镑。

They will also be able to claim in advance, rather than wait for weeks, which they can ill afford.
家长们还可以提前申请这笔钱，而不必等上几周，因为等不起啊。

[Paragraph 5]
The Office for Budget Responsibility, a watchdog, estimates that of all Mr Hunt’s measures, the extension of 30-hour child care will provide the biggest boost to economic output.
预算责任办公室是一个监管机构，它估计亨特提出的所有措施中，扩大30小时儿童看护将对经济产出提供最大的推动力。

It expects an extra 60,000 people to work an average of 16 hours a week by 2027-28, plus an equivalent effect from those already in jobs putting in more hours.
到2027-2028年，它预计将新增加6万人就业，他们平均每周工作16个小时，加上已工作的人工作时间会更长，这将产生相应的效果。

Raising the universal-credit cap lifts employment by another 15,000.
提高普惠信用上限可以再增加1.5万人就业。

[Paragraph 6]
That may be over-optimistic. It is hard to know how many parents of very young children will simply prefer to look after them. So is predicting whether there will be enough child-care places.
这可能有点过于乐观。很难知道有多少父母愿意亲自照顾他们的幼儿，也难以预测是否有足够的托儿场所。

Although Ofsted, the education regulator, says the total number has been pretty constant in recent years, many childminders, especially, have shut up shop.
虽然教育监管机构Ofsted表示近年来总数量基本稳定，但是许多托儿所，特别是托儿家庭，已经停止营业了。

Providers say the hourly rate for “free” hours falls well short of their costs, as wages (around three-quarters of their expenses) and energy prices have risen.
托儿所称，“免费”时段的每小时费用远远低于他们的成本，因为工资（约为他们开支的3/4）和能源价格已经上涨。

They make up the shortfall by charging more for additional hours: in New Romney, Ms Evans will raise prices after Easter. Extending free hours will reduce the scope for that kind of thing.
他们通过为额外时间收费来弥补这一缺口：在新罗姆尼，埃文斯将在复活节后提高托管价格。扩大免费时长将减少提价的可能性。

[Paragraph 7]
Mr Hunt is trying to woo childminders back, offering them a £600 bounty. He is also raising providers’ hourly rate for 2023-24 and 2024-25.
亨特正在努力吸引托儿家庭回归，向他们提供600英镑的奖励，并提高了2023-24年和2024-25年托儿所的小时费率。

That, estimates Christine Farquharson of the IFS, covers expected rises in wages and other providers’ costs, but not the 13% cut in real funding since 2017-18 (after adjusting by a sector-specific price index).
然而，据IFS的Christine Farquharson估计，这只能覆盖预期的工资上涨和其他成本的上涨，但不能弥补自2017-2018年以来实际资金下降13％（经过部门特定价格指数调整）的情况。

The government is also relaxing the minimum ratio of staff to children, though to some that means cutting corners as well as costs. “Fewer staff means less quality,” says Ms Evans.
政府还放宽了员工与儿童之间的最低比例，但对一些人来说，这意味着节省了成本，也牺牲了质量。埃文斯表示：“员工越少，质量就越低。”

If the measures in the budget do not tempt more providers into the sector, Britain’s child-care squeeze may get even tighter.
如果预算措施不能吸引更多的从业者进入该领域，英国的儿童保育压力可能会变得更大。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量689左右）
原文出自：2023年3月18日《The Economist》Britain版块

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene

本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
为使更多的家庭回归社会促进英国经济发展，Jeremy Hunt将宣布一项为英格兰的1岁和2岁儿童提供免费托儿服务的价值40亿英镑的计划。根据《卫报》的最初报道，该计划将把目前只适用于3岁和4岁孩子的每周30小时的托儿服务范围扩大到1岁和2岁孩子的父母。与此同时，英国的托儿行业将进行更广泛的改革，包括向托儿机构提供补贴，以提高机构向家长提供免费托儿服务的能力，改变员工与孩子的比例，从原来的一名员工照顾4名儿童变为5名儿童。财政大臣改变了最初反对教育部儿童保育提案的立场，因为有预测显示该提案将有助于促进经济增长。

普惠信用Universal Credit是英国的一项社会福利计划，旨在替代多种现有的社会福利计划，例如失业救济、住房救济、残疾人津贴等。该计划于2013年启动，旨在通过提供更简单、更公平的福利计划来改善英国的福利制度，并鼓励更多的人进入就业市场。计划的实施遇到了很多问题和争议，但它仍然是英国社会福利制度中的一个关键组成部分。

【重点句子】（3 个）
But whether nurseries and childminders—who look after small groups, usually in their own homes—can meet the surge is open to doubt.
然而，托儿所和托儿家庭（通常在自己家中照看几个儿童）是否能够满足激增的需求，仍存在疑虑。

All parents of three- and four-year-olds can have 15 paid-for hours, as can the most disadvantaged—roughly 40%—of those with two-year-olds.
所有3-4岁儿童的父母和最贫困的40%的2岁儿童家庭可以享受每周15小时的免费服务。

If the measures in the budget do not tempt more providers into the sector, Britain’s child-care squeeze may get even tighter.
如果预算措施不能吸引更多的从业者进入该领域，英国的儿童保育压力可能会变得更大。