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 agree that there is huge confusion about whether institutional settings for pre-school children are "childcare" (for the benefit of parents) or "education" (for the benefit of children). If the purpose of the institutional setting is unclear it it hard to make it fulfill a meaningful objective and hence to make it work.

On the subject of child care funding, I believe Labour has pledged to raise an additional £800m-a-year from the bank levy to fund its childcare plans.

The permanent Bank Levy (on top of Corporation Tax) introduced by Osborne in 2010 currently brings in around £2.2 billion a year, with HSBC the largest contributor estimated to pay over £750 million this year and around £ 1 billion next year.

If HSBC does move its HQ and investment banking profits from the UK, this will not only leave a black hole in Labour’s future spending plans, but also any 2015 governments CURRENT spending plans.

But clearly more of a problem for any government planning all spending/growth on extra taxation, rather than private sector investment/growth.

How do the Conservatives propose to fund their promise of 30 free hours?

......when they can't fund effectively the 15 we have now?

Unfortunately its not free. NDNA research shows that 85% of nurseries in England are making losses on the current 15 hours per week free childcare, an average of £809 per year for each funded child. Local authorities set differing rates but NDNA’s research shows nurseries currently receive on average, £3.80 per child, per hour, to deliver the Government’s free places - which simply does not cover the cost of high-quality care, and forces nurseries to push up prices for paying parents. So in summary the parent will pay for it just in another way which will mean higher nursery fees to cover for the shortfall.