The UK government’s just-announced child care reforms could put nurseries at risk because of insufficient funding as providers may not be able to meet parents’ demands, leading voices in the sector say.One of the key measures announced by UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt will see working parents of children under 5 years-old receive up to 30 hours of free child care. Currently only some parents of 3- and 4-year-olds receive this benefit.
(Bloomberg) — The UK government’s just-announced child care reforms could put nurseries at risk because of insufficient funding as providers may not be able to meet parents’ demands, leading voices in the sector say.One of the key measures announced by UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt will see working parents of children under 5 years-old receive up to 30 hours of free child care. Currently only some parents of 3- and 4-year-olds receive this benefit.
Hunt said the package, aimed at encouraging more women to return to work, is worth £6,500 ($7,800) a year on average for a family with a two year-old child using 35 hours of child care a week, a 60% decrease compared to current rates. But the money set aside for the plan is unlikely to meet the cost of adequately rolling out the measures, said Sarah Ronan, who leads on early education and childcare for the Women’s Budget Group, an organization that monitors government policy.While it was encouraging to see Hunt’s focus on the sector, Ronan said in a phone interview that she was concerned about the funding. “Ultimately you can’t promise people the world and not have done the maths to support it,” she said. In addition to the expansion of free hours, Hunt said the government will also provide £204 million in 2023-24, and £288 million in 2024-25 so providers can meet the costs of the current entitlements. This compares with a current shortfall of around £1.8 billion, according to an estimate by the Women’s Budget Group.
“Today I want to reform our childcare system,” Hunt said in his speech to Parliament in London on Wednesday. “I don’t want any parent with a child under five to be prevented from working if they want to,” he said.
Responding to a parental backlash
The announcement was an attempt to assuage the fury of families over an issue which is having social, political and economic ramifications.
Child care costs in the UK — some of the most expensive in the OECD — are pushing women to consider leaving the workforce, and many mothers say it no longer makes financial sense for them to work. That’s a headache for the government, which has been trying to figure out how to address the strain of labor shortages on the economy.
Experts warn that getting the numbers wrong on funding could have ramifications across the sector, worsening the current situation.
“The money announced today is a fraction of what is needed,” said James Bowen, director of policy for school and nursery leaders’ union NAHT.
“Our members are also questioning where they will find the additional staff needed for an extension of the current childcare offer. There is a real danger that this could backfire for the government if it is not properly funded.”
The plan will be implemented in stages to ensure there’s enough supply in the market, said Hunt. The first phase will give working parents of two year-olds access to 15 hours of free child care in April 2024, and the final measures will be implemented in September 2025, when the plan will be rolled out to parents of children under the age of five.
Finding a nursery space
Parents are not only contending with rising prices but a lack of options for looking after their children. Only half of local areas across England say they have enough child care for children under two.
The problems facing the sector is also having a disproportionate effect on disadvantaged families, a report this month by children’s charity Coram found. 82% of local authorities in England don’t have sufficient child care in place for disabled children.
When it comes to providing funded places for children, more than 40% of local areas in Great Britain have seen some providers reduce availability for young children entitled to free hours.
As well as the expansion of the free hours policy, Hunt’s plans include giving providers the option of relaxing their staff to child ratios to a similar level in place in Scotland, as well as ensuring parents claiming Universal Credit benefits receive help on child care costs upfront.
Yet a Deltapoll survey for Bloomberg conducted between 10 and 13 March showed that this policy doesn’t have public support. 56% of adults said the government shouldn’t change the ratios “to help ensure the overall safety and care of the children.”
“On childcare, of course more money in the system is obviously a good thing,” leader of the opposition Labour Party Keir Starmer told the House of Commons in response to Hunt’s statement. “As parents up and down the country know, it’s no use having more free hours if you can’t access them. And it pushes up the costs for parents outside the offer. That’s what we’ve seen before.”
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–With assistance from Emily Ashton.
(Updates with details of polling data showing lack of support for plan to reduce required ratio of staff to children in child care settings. A previous version corrected an estimate from the Women’s Budget Group on the government shortfall for free child care hours after the organization updated a press release.)
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