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A guide to childcare election pledges

On
Jun 6, 2017
An at-a-glance guide to all the chidlcare and early years pledges made by the major parties this election
 
With so many political parties promising 'free' childcare, here is an at-a-glace giude to all the main parties' proposed early years policies:
 
Conservatives
  • All new primary schools to include a nursery
  • New capital fund to help existing schools develop facilities
  • Maintained nurseries to be able to run independently or as academies
  • Assess what more is needed and look at best practice in other European countries
Labour
  • Make 30hrs universal for all two- to four-year-olds
  • Halt cuts to Sure Start services and invest 拢0.5bn
 

Lib Dems

  • Triple EYPP to 拢1,000 per pupil per year
  • Extend 15hr offer to all two-year-olds
  • Aiming to eventually extend 30hrs to all two- to four-year-olds
 
Greens
  • Free and universal childcare for families
  • Delay start of formal education until age seven
 
UKIP
  • Enable non-Ofsted registered providers to offer funded childcare places
  • Launch 拢80m fund to support providers caring for children with SEND

 

          

 

Ahead of the election, the 无码天堂, along with PACEY and NDNA, wrote an open letter to all political parties, asking them not to pledge childcare offers that the sector is unable to deliver, in an attempt to end a 'bidding war'.

The letter read: 鈥淧oliticians rightly recognise that childcare has a dual benefit of educational outcomes for children and support for parents to work and train. However, chronic underfunding remains and per-child investment in under gives is half that of primary school children.鈥