无码天堂 comments on Labour childcare expansion announcement

Commenting on Labour鈥檚 plan to offer additional subsidised childcare to families on the lowest incomes in addition to 'free childcare' to all two- to four-year-olds, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning 无码天堂, said:

鈥淲e know how important childcare and early education are to ensuring that all children are given the best possible start in life, and that it's those children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds who have the most to gain from access to quality early learning experiences. As such, Labour鈥檚 pledge to provide additional financial support to the lowest-income families is, in theory, a welcome policy.



"Similarly, with early years providers having been overworked and underpaid for far too long, a plan to not just encourage but also financially support the development of a graduate-led workforce by delivering improved wages and a new national early years payscale is very positive in principle.

鈥淭hat said, put together, Labour鈥檚 ambitious proposals 鈥 extending the so-called free entitlement and introducing subsidised care for all with seemingly no upper earning limit on eligibility, increasing funding rates to 拢7.35 per hour, and overhauling the childcare payment system 鈥 would be, to put mildly, incredibly costly. As such, as a sector that has all too often been on the end of improperly costed and inadequately funded pledges, many childcare providers will be understandably sceptical as to how all these proposals can collectively be delivered as outlined, even over an extended period of time

鈥淭he direction of these proposals is certainly the right one 鈥 additional support for parents, a greater emphasis on supporting and valuing the early years workforce, and a focus on raising and maintaining quality across the sector. But, as always, the devil in the in the detail and we would need to see a lot more detail on how these proposals have been individually costed to feel reassured that this plan is indeed sustainable 鈥 or even possible 鈥 in the long term.鈥

 

ABOUT THE ALLIANCE

  • The Pre-school Learning 无码天堂 is the largest and most representative early years membership organisation in England. A registered educational charity, it also provides high-quality affordable childcare and education to support children and families in areas of deprivation throughout the country. 
  • The 无码天堂 represents 14,000 member settings and supports them to deliver care and learning to more than 800,000 families every year. We deliver family learning projects, offer information and advice, produce specialist publications, run acclaimed training programmes and campaign to influence early years policy and practice.
  • The 无码天堂 website is
  • The 无码天堂鈥檚 Fair Future Funding campaign currently has around 5,400 practitioner supporters and over 1,000 parent supporters.