To wonder if the free childcare for 1 and 2 year olds will materialise

[Winterday1991]

The first stage roll out of 15 hours free childcare is due to be rolled out from April next year. I asked my nursery manager today on pick-up if they had any information or guidance from the government on how it will work. Her reply was that they had no information about it but the waiting list had grown as people are trying to get their little ones enrolled in time for April.

Aibu to think it might not actually materialise?

Fingers crossed it doesn't!

I hope it does. Would be really useful for us.

Why would you hope it doesn't?

I kinda hope it doesn't as I'm trying to add extra days and worried I won't be able to due to the increase in demand!

I doubt it, there aren't the staff, or potential staff.

🤞🙏 would be so helpful but I do understand the limitations as well but in terms of cost of living atm would be great!

Very highly doubt it will materialise. They will inevitably announce a delay in the timeline in order to have more time to bottom out the details and keep delaying it until there’s a GE and the Conservatives are voted out so it becomes Labour’s problem…

The existing proposal is not going to work unless they give more funding per hour per place to the nurseries. If these changes were brought in without better funding, nurseries will be forced to close and there will be so few “funded” spaces available that most families will not be able to benefit from the funding anyway.

Because I'm a childminder and I hate the whole system.

I hate not getting paid enough,

I hate waiting for my pay until the LA deem it payday.

I hate the additional paperwork.

I hate the rules they impose.

I hate parents thinking it's free when it's a pittance and I'm covering the shortfall.

I hate being treated like an employee with none of the benefits.

The birth rate will fall so fast if it isn’t subsidised in addition to these current mortgage rates

It's putting us off having a 2nd child, luckily we are on a fix for another 3.5 years but we couldn't pay 6% interest and nursery fees together.

It makes me furious that the Government is cynically conning parents into thinking they're going to have free childcare when they're not.

Your nursery is avoiding the question because they know the truth - that the Government can't even honour their free childcare promise for 3&4 year olds right now.

No, I don’t think it will. It will lead to large numbers of nurseries/childminders being forced to close if it does, so it not happening will be a good thing.

The 'extra funding' is from ratios being increased.

I completely feel your pain. It’s not fair that it is affecting working people’s family sizes. That’s why we are continuing to rent for now. We have a deposit to buy but would be paying 6% rates at least, which would mean maternity leave on reduced income and nursery fees would be completely unaffordable. Ironically we are quite comfortable in our rental and there’s space to start our family… we’d have at least £600 more each month continuing to rent than if we buy. Waiting for a crash or rates to return to 3 or even 3.5%!

Yay more work for the same money, thanks!

I note the OP asked why someone would not want this funding to happen and then ignores the answers.

The funding will be so low that many childminders and nurseries will close causing even more strain on the childcare system. And increased ratios which will lead to poor childcare and probably even more staff leaving.

I mean I kind of hope it is delayed. We are due our three year funded place around then and it's causing havoc with trying to take it up, we are stuck on a waitlist. Nurseries have been struggling to recruit for ages, maybe I could understand the 2 year funding but 1 year as well seems like it's going to completely crash the system, I don't see how it could cope unless the government commits to properly fund it.

Have the Tories ever done what they promise? 🤔
Current nurseries can't recruit as it is.
Where are all the extra staff going to materialise from? Same place as all the extra nurses that the government promised? Oh wait... That never happened.

I also hope it doesn’t happen, not until the childcare sector can support it. As it stands places at hard enough to come by at the full daily rate. I registered DS2 for a few nurseries locally at 16 weeks pregnant for September this year, and he still doesn’t have a confirmed place for all the days we need. Add funded hours into the mix and it’ll be a moot point, waitlists will be years long.

To be fair, that wouldn't prevent them from offering it to those who could get spaces. I never thought that was a reasonable reason for why it couldn't be brought in sooner tbh. Why not allow those who can get spaces to have it, while also working on capacity. Not that I think they're actually going to work on capacity at all.

But I don't think it will be good for nurseries if it's brought in, unless it is actually funded properly (unlike the current free hours for 3 year olds). They should fund it properly, or call it "partially funded" hours, rather than free, and allow nurseries to charge top ups.

Good affordable childcare is essential if women are going to work after having children
But it has to be properly funded and I don’t trust the government to do that

I'm child free and in my 30s. I don't mind subsiding free childcare but my colleague uses a nursery that refuses to take it on. She had the choice of using a good nursery for a fee or putting her daughter in another nursery for free. Despite it taking up 3:4 of her salary she went with the better nursery. Apparently it's not uncommon for nurseries to refuse the free placements around here.

Unless they increase funding for colleges to massively increase the number of places on childcare courses, no, it can't happen, simply due to shortage of staff.

DH works in a LA EY team and the DfE's most recent guidance on the upcoming changes leaves a lot to the imagination.