It is a year since the headline pledge to extend childcare help was first made (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
Parents of young children have been assured that the ‘free childcare’ rollout is on track, with Jeremy Hunt announcing nurseries will receive ‘guaranteed rates’.
He used his Spring Budget today to give more details on the extension of funded childcare hours for parents, although did not spend much time on the small print.
‘I am today guaranteeing rates for childcare providers to deliver the landmark offer,’ he said.
This would lead to an extra 60,000 parents entering the workforce over the next four years, he claimed.
But he didn’t set out what the rates would be, raising the prospect that some childcare providers could still find the plan unaffordable.
Last March, one of the biggest Budget headlines was that families would soon be getting some much-needed help with childcare.
At that point, only those with children aged three and four were eligible for free hours at nursery, with parents of younger babies and toddlers expected to bodge their way through it with high fees, help from grandparents or quitting the workforce.
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Mr Hunt announced last year that by 2025, children as young as nine months would get 30 hours of free childcare a week, saying it would get ‘one million women back to work’.
‘We’re sticking to our plan,’ he said today, saying it followed representations from the Confederation of British Industry to make sure it would actually work in practice.
His announcement was seen as an attempt to neuter any attempt by Labour to win votes with an expanded childcare offer in their manifesto.
As part of a staggered rollout, working parents of two-year-olds should be able to access 15 hours of free childcare from next month.
This will be extended to working parents of all children older than nine months from September before the full rollout a year later.
But the plans have been met with skepticism by some, who believe they have not been properly thought through.
According to a survey published last month by National Day Nurseries Association, 54% of independent nursery owners were unlikely to offer any additional places to two-year-olds or were still not sure if they could.
Rishi Sunak shows off a painting of a bee he created during a visit to a branch of Busy Bees nursery in Harrogate last summer (Picture: PA)
More than 55% said they could not meet local demand for places, meaning eligible families may miss out on the offer.
Others said that even if the rollout was successful, it still would not go far enough to ease the childcare crisis.
Mr Hunt told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme this weekend that he believed the Government was ‘on track’ with its plans.
‘It may mean that we need to employ 40,000 more people in the sector and that is why we are bringing it in stages,’ he said.
Pressed if he could give a guarantee that the first step would be ready in a matter of weeks as pledged, the Cabinet minister said: ‘You will understand why I don’t want to give an absolute guarantee.
‘But am I confident that we are delivering this programme and it will be on track for this April? Yes, I am.’
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