Parents have blockaded some 20 pre-schools this morning as Copenhagen Council’s Children and Youth Committee begins discussing cutbacks in the pre-school sector.

“Parents are doing this to send a clear signal to the politicians that they should not touch the compensation arrangement. The child and youth budget has been hit hard enough by savings of 200 million kroner. The (extra) 50 million must simply not be found in the child/youth budget,” says Nina Reffstrup of the Copenhagen Parent Association (KFO).

According to Reffstrup, KFO has only suggested that parents should carry out happenings at pre-schools today, but some 20 institutions have been blockaded.

“There are, of course, some parents who will have difficulties as a result of the blockades. But that is inevitable when the idea is to get so many involved that politicians are in no doubt that we mean this seriously,” Reffstrup says.

The compensation arrangement that parents and staff are demanding should not be cut, is designed to help older pre-schools that need more resources as a result of their location – for example in order to accompany children to remote playgrounds, or because there are many stairwells in their buildings.