Free childcare provision to double a year early
Plans to double free childcare will be brought forward by a year.
The Government's plans to double the amount of free childcare available to working parents are to be introduced a year early.
Parents of three and four-year-olds in England will be granted 30 hours a week, which is double the current entitlement, with a trial rollout beginning in September 2016.
The scheme is open to working parents with a household income of less than £150,000. It’s unclear how many hours they’ll have to work in order to qualify at this point.
The Government says 600,000 families will benefit, saving them £5,000 a year.
The Government has also committed to increasing funding rates (the funding paid to providers for each free place), with a review set to begin before summer.
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‘Grossly underfunded’
The Pre-School Learning Alliance, which represents 14,000 private, voluntary and independent groups, warned that the childcare system is "grossly underfunded" and faces "meltdown" if the Government doesn’t increase the amount it pays providers. It added that councils were already paying providers insufficient hourly rates to provide the current childcare provision.
Research for the Alliance estimated that doubling free childcare hours will cost around £1.95 billion a year, but funding is currently sitting at £1.7 billion, leaving a potential shortfall of £250 million.
What’s more, a number of childcare facilities can’t extend their hours because they’re run in churches and community centres.
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