Conservaties to double free childcare to 30 hours a week

maman

It's not as good as it sounds. Actually 30 hours for 38 weeks of the year I believe. And childcare providers are already up in arms as it would leave them out of pocket.


All main parties seem to be offering something but I wouldn't bank on it.

Cyberman60 wrote: »

Yet more encouragement from the Tories to work for a living and pay taxes rather than relying on benefits. :T

So what about the working people who are on benefits? Tories are perfectly happy to subsidise employers that don't pay people enough to live on. And I believe it's in the manifesto that people on minimum wage won't have to pay tax anyway. I think Tories would reintroduce slavery if they could get away with it.

Spendless

It would have been useful to me, but only when the 2nd child was eligible and the eldest in school, because the childcare bill was equivalent to my then wages for one child. It's irrelevant to me, mine will both be in their teens by then, the eldest in sixth form/college/training.

I am suspicious though, if the 30 hours are for (both) working parents, what about households where one doesn't, will they still get the 15 hours or not??? This non-means tested funding is for nursery education not for childcare as such, though many people including me used it for that purpose, so unfair to take it completely away from the child due to their parent/s employment status. It's why it is only funded for so many weeks per year and you only get it with a childminder if they are accredited (or at least that used to be the case, maybe it's changed). Perhaps I am just being very cynical :cool: and this has been addressed??

timbo58

A lovely soundbite, just like buying your HA home.

Both complete nonsense and the tories know it, completely unworkable and unfunded just like their promises of forcing private companies to allow voluntary works extra days off at the companies expense.

The Tories know full well they will be in another coalition, they can now make the sort of ridiculous promises the Liberals used to in the sound knowledge they won't be in any position to supply them even if successfully elected.

GwylimT

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Nurseries aren't going to like this ... the '15 free hours' doesn't pay enough for our son's nursery to support 15 hours of their time. Double that and you'll see more expensive nurseries having financial issues

No they wont, parents just pay for the shortfall.

silvercar

GwylimT wrote: »

No they wont, parents just pay for the shortfall.

That is generally not allowed. Free has to mean free. If a nursery wants to be a provider for free childcare they have to provide it free. The way they balance their books is to charge more for the non-free hours. If the free hours increase to 30, there are less non-free hours.

SailorSam

Where are all the extra child minders and nursery places going to come from
I've heard people saying they already struggle to find decent child care.

brownbabygirl

so annoying it starts in 2017. i need that help now! By 2017 all my 3 will be in school.

silvercar

SailorSam wrote: »

Where are all the extra child minders and nursery places going to come from
I've heard people saying they already struggle to find decent child care.

The hoards of people who have degrees in child development and related courses.

GwylimT

silvercar wrote: »

That is generally not allowed. Free has to mean free. If a nursery wants to be a provider for free childcare they have to provide it free. The way they balance their books is to charge more for the non-free hours. If the free hours increase to 30, there are less non-free hours.

All the private nurseries my daughter attended required a top up on the fees and also charged an extra fee for food, it is a subsidy, therefore if the nursery charges more per hour than the subsidy they can ask for top up fees.

onlyroz

GwylimT wrote: »

All the private nurseries my daughter attended required a top up on the fees and also charged an extra fee for food, it is a subsidy, therefore if the nursery charges more per hour than the subsidy they can ask for top up fees.

At the nurseries I used it was generally the parents of the younger children who made up the shortfall. These sorts of policies are great as long as they don't leave the nurseries and childminders out of pocket. For me, the free 15 hours reduced my bill from £1000 a month down to about £750, also taking into account that the bill dropped anyway for 3-year-olds due to the more favourable child/staff ratios at that age group.