Free childcare for two-year-olds
Labour’s manifesto includes extending the free childcare entitlement to every two year old from families who don’t work. The pledge of extending this offer will cost ££5billion a year.
If labour wins the election and this pledge is introduced a further 1.3 million children will be able to access early education. With this pledge being put forward what thought has gone into how this will further affect childcare providers?. As more children will be able to access free early education regardless of parents circumstances surely further investment is needed to support childcare providers.
Currently, provders are offering 15hrs of free childcare and some providers will be doubling this to 30hrs in September for working parents. Many providers will not be offering the 30hrs childcare scheme in September. The idea behind offering the free entitlement to every family with a two-year-old means more children will access early education, according to Jeremy Corbyn this will be phased in over the five-year parliament.
According to the labour party, the pledge has been thought through and details of how this will work will be disclosed later on. They have also said childcare providers will be paid directly by the government rather than money being channelled through parents.
What are peoples thought on this?
As a parent I CHOSE not to send my children to nursery until 3 yrs of age ! Attending mother and toddler groups with social songs and activities was a fun, sociable and learning,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
This is ridiculous I’m all for children going to nursery to learn etc as I work in a nursery myself, however at this rate nurseries will never be earning they will end up at a loss as the government only pay a percentage of the children’s fees.
I’ve always said that 30hours free was too much, 15 hours across the 2and 3 year olds would be more benefical surely!