Conservatives announce 30 hours free childcare per week - what do you think?

[KateMumsnet]

In a speech this morning, David Cameron is due to announce 600,000 new free childcare places, and a doubling of free childcare hours from 15 to 30 for three- and four-year-olds from 2017, funded by reducing tax relief on pensions contributions.

Labour have promised 25 free hours a week, and to guarantee wraparound childcare from 8am to 6pm for primary school children. The Lib Dems will extend existing provision for three- and four-year-olds to 20 hours a week, and will also offer 15 hours a week to all two-year-olds.

We'd love to know what you think about it all - do share your thoughts below.

I'm glad my youngest is 4 as part time nursery prior to starting school has been perfect for us and I wouldn't have wanted more nursery hours for any of my DC.
However I am in London and have watched friends struggle to find good nurseries. I also wonder where these additional spaces will come from. My DC have attended the school nursery (which offers a morning or afternoon place) if they were to offer 30 hours then they would take half the children they currently do.
In London the current 15 free hour funding doesn't cover the costs of the private nurseries. I can't see the government increasing the price per hour funding.

I would prefer better subsidised provision of childcare instead of administrative headaches like "free hours".

The current system of 15 hours free does not cover the true cost of childcare so is ridiculous.

Stop tinkering around the edges!

30 hours a week would be an amazing financial gain for us - it would cut our childcare cost to zero.

not keen on the idea.

It will be used as a stick to beat single parents back into work.

It doesn't help once children are school age. flexible working and more help with holiday childcare would be of more benefit.

30 hours would be pretty handy as I am a full time working parent, however, I personally would only benefit from this the year before my son goes to school. However, don't trust the Conservatives, and think they have destroyed a lot of good things this country had, in fact the Thatcher government did that and Cameron's government and the Lib Dem puppets are putting the final nails in the coffin

It's only for families where both parents are working.
It does mean that those families that choose part time work or have a SAHP will be subsidising those who work full time.

I can't see how they can fund this. I look forward to seeing the small print if it ever materialises. There is no way it will be for families with one parent at home, I expect therefore it will be somehow linked to taxes. If it is encourage women back to work surely it would make sense to fund childcare from 12 months to 3 years? I don't believe for a minute that this will ever come to anything. Spin spin and more spin. I've never been more disillusioned with the lot of them.

The wraparound care would be great,even if I had to pay for it. But once again I don't think they have thought about the practicalities. My DC go to a small village school. There is no before or afterschool care. If there is little demand for it but the school have to provide it how will this work?

For small schools free school meals has been difficult this is another thing that they will be burdened with.

If only one parent wants it how will that work?

I'm a childminder and am turning away people constantly.....this will only make matters worse.....there just aren't the spaces available.Plus.....the rate the government pay us is less than we charge, so there is no benefit to us offering the funded places in the first place

This is exactly why the whole plan is complete ballswax. There aren't enough childminder/nursery places for it to work and the amount offered isn't enough.

Childminders and nurseries will take people who DON'T qualify for this (and I expect it will only be 2-parent families with both parents in full time work who jointly earn UNDER x-amount-£30k?!-who qualify) in preference to those who qualify, do as they will be better off doing so! It will just make it harder to get a childcare place.

I can't believe the negativity on this thread - probably something to do with the time it has been posted when working parents are at work! I would be delighted to have more free childcare. For many people, even people on quite high incomes, the cost of childcare means it is not worth working until children are in school. For women (and it is usually women) who give up work it is then extremely difficult to get back into work, especially if you want flexible hours. School is paid for by taxes so why shouldn't childcare be? Helping women stay in the workforce will help keep people off benefits too for example if a partner loses their job or buggers off and leaves the woman as a single parent. I agree it will be difficult to deliver though as there is already a shortage but this is a big step in the right direction and hopefully if the government payments are high enough more people will be encouraged to set up nurseries and go into childcare.

If only one parent wants it how will that work

I expect-if it does ever come to fruition-if there aren't enough takers at your school, wraparound care will be offered at another school locally and you'd have to find a childminder to take your child to the other school.

It's not enough until there's affordable universal childcare for all who want it.

But it's good to see all the parties moving towards this.

In Scotland the councils are struggling to provide what is already required because the money isn't ring fenced. They get round it by offering the places in nurseries which are only open school hours and terms and therefore families were both parents work have to pay for the childcare they are entitled to for free. It's a big problem in Glasgow at the moment with parents arguing the money should follow the child. I now get very sceptical every time I hear Nicola Sturgeon (or any politician) talk about childcare as MPs have been useless at sorting this out and know what is happening.

Hope things are better in England.

I can't believe the negativity on this thread

It's probably something to do with this

I agree it will be difficult to deliver though as there is already a shortage

(people are quite rightly wondering whether it won't actually happen)

and this

hopefully if the government payments are high enough

(Under the Tory government over the last 5 years, the payments have not been high enough, so people are assuming that this will continue as the government haven't admitted this is even a problem!)

Yay for the the idea, yes, but people are cynical as they just don't believe it will make one iota of difference! I cannot imagine it will sway many people to vote conservative. The headline of

"30 hours of cheap childcare MAY be provided if you're both working and you earn under £xk, IF you can find a childcare provider that has spaces and will take you on with your 'not nearly enough' payment from the government-with the childcare provider making a loss if they choose you rather than someone else"

Isn't perhaps such a vote winner though.

This would only really benefit better off working parents.

Poorer people already get 70% of their childcare costs reimbursed from tax credits. Why not just increase that to 80% (or 100%) of the cost if you want to make childcare affordable to those who are really struggling? Or remove the limits that the Tories imposed on getting tax credits above a certain income?

But why should the taxes of someone earning less than me go towards making my life easier?

^this. With the addendum "why should I subsidise someone else so they can go and earn more than me?"

I think it's an excellent policy. Well done the Tories.

It's an excellent policy especially for women, given so many family units break up.

I applaud the sentiment.
I sincerely doubt it's veracity.

I'm a childminder, always oversubscribed.
Only wage in my family with 4 children of my own all primary and early secondary school
Funding is £3.30 per hour per child (£4.85 for pupil premium deprivation index): if i work 40 hours per week at my ratios that will give me £396.00 per week less costs of transport, maintaining home, food provided etc plus no income if I am ill (or one of my children is ill) no holiday pay and i am not allowed to charge for extras within the normal week.
Nowhere near enough for me to make ends meet where I live.

I will never offer funded places unless the govt. (whatever colour they are) actually pay me enough to be able to.

That's interesting, foolonthehill.

Do many childminders just turn down or not even bother offer funded places? Does this affect your places available or are you still easily able to fill them?

Do you mind me asking what (approximately) you charge per hour normally?

It doesn't sound like this plan will actually come to fruition-what they're offering and what nurseries and CM need is clearly very different.

To those us being cynical about this proposal.
I am sure that whilst planning this policy as part of their long term plans the Tories have fully consulted childcare providers about how they will meet the demand and be funded sufficiently. It's not like Cameron et al have had a panic meeting and came up with a headline to woo women voters, I mean who'd vote for a party who did that!

foolonthehill - where do you live though?

I used to offer 6 early years places each day; the rate has dropped from £5.06 per hour to a basic rate of £3.31 per hour

I can no longer afford to offer it. This drop has occurred during the last term of office............so they can't meet demand as it is, & they are going to increase it - clever idea.

So even more people will want it and there will be even less availability........whoopee!!

I'm on maternity leave currently but am planning to return to work 22.5 hours a week when DD is 12 months old.

This would be a huge help to me as my wages are less than the nursery fees for DD and DS, however this will only be for 9 months until DS starts school and then I will start taking home a wage again.

A lot of work colleagues/friends have only returned to work because they can afford to do so as they have their parents looking after the children. I try very hard not to be jealous, but I don't think they know how lucky they are to have free childcare.

I am guessing that any change to the existing 15 hours will be phased in so there would be time for people to be trained in childcare etc. first? If childcare providers are struggling already it is hard to see how the government will implement the proposed changes.