Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has said the party will not commit to the government’s proposed £4bn expansion of free childcare. The scheme would provide eligible parents in England with 30 free hours of childcare by 2025. Instead, Philipson has commissioned a review of the plan, citing concerns that the current system could not manage extra demand and calling the system a “total mess.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that the expansion will necessitate doubling last year’s entitlement budget of £4bn to £8bn by 2027-28. The government has announced a phased introduction to the scheme, commencing with 15 hours of free childcare for working parents with two-year-olds from Monday, 1 April, due to be extended to children from nine months up in September 2021. The expansion to 30 free hours per week for eligible parents in England is scheduled for September 2025.
While the government says the expansion is designed to alleviate cost of living pressures, some childcare providers have warned that it will be hard to recruit enough staff in time, and that the eventual public funds that they will receive, via local authorities, will not fully cover costs. Ms. Phillipson argues that the government has failed to prepare the childcare system adequately for the scheme’s changes, citing the need for a review by Sir David Bell, the former chief inspector of Ofsted. Labour has not committed to adopting the government scheme if in power in 2025.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan responded to the criticism stating that the expansion was the “biggest in childcare in our country’s history,” and that it would help working parents and enable more women to return to work after having children. She also claimed that the government had increased the payment it makes to providers and therefore rejected criticism that rate per hour would not cover their costs. Christine Farquharson, Associate Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, urged caution and careful preparation for the expansion
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