2019 Election: Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems locked in 'free' childcare 'arms race'

Prime Minister Boris Johnson promises to give every child ‘a fair chance’ but the early years sector argues nurseries and working parents have no chance and are caught up in an electoral ‘arms race’ of 'free' childcare triggered by political parties.

Boris Johnson, Jo Swinson and Jeremy Corbyn launch their election manifestos

The Conservative government currently offers 15 hours of ‘free’ childcare and education to all three- and four-year-olds, as well as 30 hours for some working families and 15 hours for disadvantaged two-year-olds.

The government has announced it would increase the funding rates paid to nursery providers in 2020/21 – but only by a total of £66 million. In reality, there is a £662 million funding gap.

Boris Johnson’s ‘Get Brexit Done’ manifesto pledges to spend £250 million a year, for at least three years plus a £250 million capital spending boost on wraparound childcare to be used after school or during holidays.

The party has also said it will deliver a £10.50 per hour National Living Wage by 2024. However, as nurseries try to swallow rising costs in wages, pension contributions and business rates, their early years funding levels have stayed at the level they were set at in 2015.

The result is nurseries have struggled to stay open and have grown alarmed by party election promises to deliver ‘free’ childcare.

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of NDNA, said: “Successive governments have promised ‘free’ childcare hours to parents without providing the resources to deliver on that promise. Underfunding means the current universal 15 funded hours and 30 hours for children of working parents are not free to either parents or providers.

“We need the politicians to step back from an arms race of under-resourced promises towards fully costed policies that can be delivered.”

Conservative manifesto hands nurseries ‘loose change’

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said the Conservatives’ promises “mean little to those providers struggling to make ‘free childcare’ work".

“Perhaps it was too much to expect a serious conversation about the future of the sector during this election – but that is what is urgently needed. Instead, we’ve had offers of more ‘free’ hours from the other political parties and this loose change from the Conservatives.”

The Early Years Alliance is calling for funding rates that cover the “true cost of delivering childcare” and a commitment for levels to be reviewed annually.

Sector leaders have also raised concern that the Conservative Party’s spending focus is largely centred around schools, ignoring the fact children’s education starts in their early years.

Labour pledges to extend 30-hours ‘free’ childcare

Labour promises to extend the 30-hours ‘free’ childcare offer to all two, three and four-years-olds in England in its manifesto ‘It’s Time For Real Change’

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also promises to spend £1 billion reversing cuts to the Sure Start programme and open 1,000 new Sure Start early years centres.

The party also said it will help the early years sector transition towards a ‘qualified, graduate-led workforce’.

Labour’s manifesto promises include:

• Free training to the current early years workforce to attain qualifications on the job.

• Raising the minimum wage to £10 an hour for workers aged 16+

• Invest in children’s oral health, tackle childhood obesity and extend the sugar tax to milk drinks.

• A national education service providing all children and adults free education for life

Liberal Democrats promises 35 hours free childcare

The Liberal Democrats leader Jo Swinson is looking to spend £14.6 billion to offer 35 hours of free childcare a week for all two to four-year-olds and children aged between nine and 24-months-old.

The party’s manifesto ‘Stop Brexit Build A Brighter Future’ states ‘With no government support for most families between the end of parental leave and age three, and the average price for 25 hours a week of nursery childcare for a child under two now at £6,600 a year, too many new parents are forced to choose between caring for their child and their careers.’

The Liberal Democrats stated it will increase funding for these free hours ‘to cover the actual cost of nursery provision’.

According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies, the Liberal Democrats' expansion of free childcare would cost an extra £13bn a year - four-and-a-half times higher than the Conservative’s current level of spending.

Neil Leitch of the Early Years Alliance added: "Our fears of this election turning into a game of oneupmanship when it comes to so-called ‘free childcare’ are coming to pass.

"In 2013 Labour pledged 25 hours a week, in 2015 the Conservatives pledged 30 and now we have the Liberal Democrats offering 35."

The Liberal Democrats manifesto pledges include:

• Investment of £1 billion a year in children’s centres to support families and tackle inequalities in children’s health, development and life chances.

• Requirement on all early years settings to have a training programme for staff, with the majority of staff working with children to have a relevant early years qualification or be working towards one.

• In the long term, require each early years setting to have at least one person qualified to graduate level.

• Triple the Early Years Pupil Premium (to £1,000) to give extra help to disadvantaged children who are at risk of falling behind from the very beginning of their education.

• Replace Ofsted with a HM Inspector of Schools with inspections taking place every three years.

The Green Party pledges 35 hours a week of ‘free’ childcare

The Green Party's leader Caroline Lucas is offering working parents 35 hours a week of ‘free’ childcare from the age of nine months old.

In its manifesto 'If Not Now, When? the party also stated it wished to delay all children’s Key Stage One education until they reach the age of six-years-old. A spokesman for the Green Party said: ‘Key stage one education currently starts at five – we would delay it so it starts when children are six.

‘There are no funding implications, as the funding for the year of play based learning would come from the budget used currently to support the year of Key stage one education (from 5 to 6)’.

The party also promised to:

• Abolish OFSTED and replace it with local authority control over education.

Scottish National Party to double 'free childcare'

By the end of 2020, the Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon plans to double 'free' childcare to 30 hours a week for all three and four-year-olds and two-year-olds from low-income families.

Nicola Sturgeon's 'Stronger Scotland' manifesto promises the SNP will expand childcare into the school holidays for primary pupils from the poorest backgrounds.

The SNP has also pledged to roll out a Scottish Child Payment of £10 a week for low-income households by the end of next year and end the two-child cap on tax credits. Every nursery manager is already required to have a degree.

Plaid Cymru offers 'free' childcare for one to three-year-olds

Plaid Cymru's 'Wales, it's Us' manifesto reveals that if the party forms the next Welsh Government, it will introduce 'free' childcare for all children aged one to three-years-old in Wales.

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price will also introduce a new Welsh Child payment for low-income families of £35 a week per child.