Free childcare for three and four-year olds


From September 2017, the amount of childcare working parents of three- and four-year olds are entitled to doubled from 15 to 30 hours a week. Two-year-olds can get also get free early education and childcare if you live in England and get one of the following benefits:


• Income Support (IS) (see Chapter 3);


• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) (see Chapter 3);


• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) (see Chapter 4);


• Universal Credit (UC) (see Chapter 1);


• tax credits and you have an annual income of under £16,190 before tax;


• the guaranteed element of Pension Credit (see Chapter 6)


• support through part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act; or


• the Working Tax Credit (WTC) four-week run on (which you get when you stop qualifying for WTC).


However, according to the results of a new survey by the Pre-school Learning Alliance, parents are being forced to pay for the 30-hour “free” childcare scheme through additional charges and fees as a result of underfunding.


According to the results of an online survey of 1,662 nurseries, pre-schools and childminders in England, published in January 2018, only a third of childcare providers currently rolling out the 30-hour funded childcare scheme are delivering the offer fully free to all parents. Nearly three in 10 providers offering the 30 hours are not currently providing any fully-free places at all. The findings follow repeated warnings from childcare providers that the current funding levels, which the government has frozen until 2020, are too low. Many are being forced to rely on additional charges to parents to fill the funding gap or risk going out of business. The survey found:


• only around a third (35%) of childcare providers are delivering 30 hours places “completely free” to all parents, with a further 36% delivering fully-free places to some, but not all, parents and 28% of providers delivering no fully-free places;


• 37% of respondents have introduced or increased charges for additional goods/services as a result of the 30-hour offer, including for items such as meals and snacks (80%); and


• two-thirds of providers (66%) plan to make changes to how they offer the 30 hours over the next 12 months — most commonly by increasing fees and charges.


The survey also found that more than one in five (21%) of childcare providers do not think their business will be sustainable in a year’s time due to government underfunding.


Over half (55%) of respondents say their funding rate is both less than their hourly parental-fee rate, and less than the hourly cost of delivering a place. More than three-quarters of providers (77%) say that if their funding rate stays the same next year, it will have a negative impact on their provision — 44% of all respondents said it would have a significant negative impact. Thirty eight per cent of providers are uncertain whether or not they will be offering 30 hours places in a year’s time.


Responding to the findings, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, Neil Leitch, said they made clear “the government’s flagship childcare policy is failing both providers and parents”. He said many providers had “no option but to pass the funding shortfall on to parents” leaving “parents to pay the price for government underfunding through often unexpected charges for things like nappies, food and trips”.


He said the childcare sector has been very clear that “without sufficient funding, the scheme simply will not be viable in the long term”.