New budget - I'm excited!

Unregistered childminders and nursery’s who don’t have the correct safeguarding procedures and qualified staff in place will not receive the funding! So no, that won’t be the case!

Probably for similar reasons to destroying all public services. Then again who knows why the Tories keep doing senseless shit that makes life unbearable and unaffordable to us pesants.

"They also said that the DfE had been pushing for the hours to be funded “at cost” rather than the current low rate, which has led to childcare providers struggling and in many cases asking for top-up payments from parents."

From the Guardian

My understanding is they will also increase the funding for the free hours to make it more sustainable

Just as a fun wee anecdote we have no choice but to send our DC to an expensive nursery because there are now ZERO childminders on our side of the city. The nearest one is 6 miles away into the countryside with zero public transport and even if we did drive she only covers the area closest to her.

There used to be four within walking distance and two cheaper day nurseries that the government destroyed financially while partying and having affairs etc etc.

The only people who think this is a good idea is those who don’t understand the childcare sector.

If this goes ahead, especially if it’s administered in the same way the current 30 hours for 3 and 4 year olds, it will be the straw that breaks the back of childcare as we know it!

Genuine question why do they want to destroy the childcare industry? What's the end goal there?

I'd like a balance. I ultimately think for the idea to work you can't just throw money into the pockets of SAHM's.

The reason parents could stay at home when we were younger and our parents were younger was because you didn't need two wages and a Side Hussle each just to break even every month. So the change that would enable a parent to stat at home needs to come from raising wages and lowering ridiculous rent and energy prices. Ain't gonna happen.

As for free childcare this is going to absolutely cripple already fragile settings. The government fucked over childminders and nurseries by giving them scraps, if that, when the pandemic hit then did nothing to help them recover after. They clearly seem to want to destroy the childcare industry entirely and this will definitely do it.

I don't agree for the reason highlighted in your post - women will bear the burden.

Plus why oh why is that something the state should fund? It would cost the state more than childcare hours do, and there would be no benefit to the economy (compared with a parent in work and nursery workers)

I'll go hide with you, I completely agree 😬

No they'll just increase ratios....

Also at the moment the fees the nursery gets for their 1 & 2 year olds effectively subsidise the free hours for their 3 year olds. If all the children have free hours, that gets taken away.

I think 30h for 2yo will only be for those on UC

As much as I’d love cheaper childcare, if they don’t increase the funding it’ll actually make things worse. Nursery’s only survive now because they can charge 1 and 2 year olds more to offset money lost on the funded - absolutely not free - hours. My childminder is £7 an hour, the funding she gets for funded hours is £4.87. Totally unsustainable. If parents can’t pay a voluntary top up she can’t take the child. The current funding is also term time only. Extended the provision exactly as it is now for 3-4yo’s would be a nightmare.

I partly agree with you, in that I don’t think the right approach is encouraging all parents to work more and put their children in childcare.

Not sure encouraging one parent to stay at home is necessarily the right solution though (and inevitably it will be mothers, whilst men progress their careers and the workplace becomes more unequal than ever).

I’d rather see better part-time options for both parents (not just mums) made available and encouraged, as well as better paid parental leave for both parents.

From what I understand (my kids have been out of nursery a little while now), the reason it sort of works with 30h for 3 year olds is because the ratios become easier to manage. Childcare for under 3s requires more staff. So in order to make it work, govt will have to fund care for two year olds at a higher rate and I can’t see that happening. Ultimately we will probably end up with worse childcare provision.

There is also the worry that nurseries will employ the cheapest staff they can get away with who have no qualifications and slip through safeguarding checks and childminders will work unregistered so there will be no safeguarding checks. At the end of the day the children will be put at risk for cheap as chips childcare.

This is how I feel. Financially it would make a massive difference to us but it's no use if the wonderful nursery my DDs are at has to close because of it.

The guardian is reporting that the hourly rate nurseries get for the 30 free hours will go up. But I doubt it will go up enough.

Ok, so I know this won’t be a popular opinion but wouldn’t it be refreshing for the government to actually encourage ( both financially and pension wise ) a parent to stay at home for the first 5 years. No ridiculous childcare costs, little ones have mummy ( or daddy) at home, so no dashing to childminder/nursery every morning, then working all day, then working all night at home catching up. Every mum of pre-schoolers working full time I know, is absolutely run ragged. No time to cook from scratch, no time to play, no time to relax. Make it financially viable to stay at home. Cover pension gaps, and pay a proper wage to do so. Happy parents, happy kids….what’s not to like ? Oh and before anyone says, kids need to be in nursery, yes they do to a point for socialising, learning to play with others. They can still go a couple of sessions a week plus toddler groups etc, but the difference is they don’t have to go purely for childcare. I’m now going to duck !

This would make a big difference to me but I’m worried about how this funding will work for the nurseries that are already struggling, and quality of childcare.

Also there won’t be places available for all
the extra children etc.

I don’t think they will do it.

30h for 2 year olds????
I don't even get 15h for 2-year-olds. not fair.
I have no hope for the new budget.

This will be the final nail in the coffin for childcare providers. The government won't fund it properly and settings will close at a faster rate to they are now. Children will be in school settings from an even earlier age under the disguise of childcare....childminder here for the last 25 years depending on what's actually said tomorrow I might start job hunting