Dal quotidiano “THE INDEPENDENT”: The expansion of free childcare is jeopardised by unbelievable promises

The expansion of free childcare is jeopardised by unbelievable promises

When Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, announced 30 hours a week of free childcare for all working parents in the Budget a year ago, the scheme seemed too good to be true. The Independent warned that it was a lot less ambitious than it sounded, in that the expansion of free hours would start modestly next month.
The expansion to the largest number of children would be saved up for September this year, just before the likely date of the general election. And the completion of the “30 hours a week for all” would be a cheque postdated to September 2025.
As the first phase of the expansion approached, however – and it is now only three weeks away – it became increasingly clear that all was not well in the delivery of even his first, modest phase. What is supposed to happen in April is that, in addition to the existing 30 hours of free care for children aged three and four, children aged two will receive 15 hours of free care.
“The joke is on us really for ever thinking there was any help or anything free from this government,” one mother told The Independent. She had hoped that her bill of £1,080 a month would fall; instead, it is going up.
“The new benefit sounded too good to be true,” said Joeli Brearley, a campaigner for better childcare. And so it will turn out, for many – although not all – parents.
The problem is that not only is the expansion starting gradually but the government fully funds neither it nor the existing provision.
That means that childcare providers are having to raise nursery fees for children not covered by the government scheme to pay for those who are. This means that even some parents whose children receive some free childcare will end up paying more, as they often use longer hours than the scheme will pay for, or they have other children who are not yet covered by it.
And these, remember, are the childcare providers who are left, after hundreds have closed down, unable to make the government’s magic arithmetic add up. It is not at all clear that
there will be places available for all working parents who want to take advantage of the expansion of the scheme next month.
Mr Hunt has more than once admitted that his sums did not add up. In December, he announced an extra £400m for the scheme and in the Budget on Wednesday, he announced a further £500m. That is, of course, too late to affect the expansion of the scheme next month, but it is a confirmation of what The Independent has been saying for some time – that the overall scheme, worthy though it is, is not adequately funded.
In a way, the modesty of next month’s expansion may be the scheme’s saving grace, in that the extent to which it is underfunded – and the extent to which it is cross-subsidised by the parents of children who are not covered by it – will become clear.
But the benefits of this “soft launch” – the offer of 15 hours to two-year-olds – will be worth it only if the government learns the lessons and fully funds the next expansion, which will offer 15 hours of care to working parents of all children over the age of nine months from September. As we have said before, if the government cannot get it right by September, the dream of north European standards of childcare support for working parents will turn into the reality of another broken Conservative promise.
That will be the last chance for Mr Hunt to stop making promises that sound too good to be true, and to deliver the flexible childcare that working parents deserve.
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