Parent reaction to Budget childcare pledge

The response from parents to last week’s Budget announcement on childcare is mixed, with just a quarter saying they are happy with it, according to a snap workingmums.co.uk poll.

While the Government announced what it says is record investment in funding for childcare in a bid to get more mums back to work in order to meet labour shortages, 50 per cent of parents said the changes announced on extending ‘free’ childcare to one and two year olds don’t apply to them as their children will be too old by the time it is fully implemented in September 2025. And 20 per cent said they are not happy with the announcement. Just 15 per cent said they would be able to work more hours and 14% that they would be able to work as they are not working now as a result.

Eighty three per cent said they are worried about the impact on childcare providers, given the funding announced does not appear to cover the full costs of providing ‘free’ places, with 50% saying they are very worried. Just 17% said they are not worried.

Childcare providers say that extending the ‘free’ childcare – which covers 30 hours a week during term time – if it is not fully funded will have a devastating impact on nurseries’ ability to survive.

The Government has said that it will provide over £4.1 billion by 2027-28 to fund the 30-hours scheme for babies and toddlers. Hunt also announced an additional £204 million to plug funding gaps in the existing “free hours” schemes for 2023-24, rising to £288 million the following year. He claimed that this was the 30% increase childcare providers had asked for. A Full Fact check shows the 30% that he was referring to was the increase in funding for two-year-olds, which is going up from £6 to £8 an hour. However, funding for three- and four-year-olds is only going up from £5.29 to £5.50 an hour – which is about 4%, well below inflation.

Women’s Budget Group research estimates that the government’s existing “free hours” schemes need £1.82bn in additional funding in 2023-24.

The parents who were polled – around two thirds of whom have children under four – were more positive about the childcare changes to Universal Credit – paying for upfront fees and raising the cap on how much money can be claimed back on childcare through UC.  While a quarter of those on Universal Credit said the changes would not make it easier for them to work or work more hours, 32% said they would. The rest didn’t know if they would help them.

When it comes to the plan to increase the hours people will have to work – from 15 to 18 – to claim Universal Credit and avoid benefits sanctions, 26 per cent of parents said they are worried about this while 39% said they aren’t and 35% don’t know what they think about it.

Ratios

Meanwhile, half of parents are worried about the relaxation in the ratios of childcare staff to children compared to 18% who are. The rest didn’t have an opinion. The Government says this could reduce nursery fees, but nurseries are worried more staff will leave at a time when attracting new staff is extremely challenging. Plus they don’t think it will have any significant impact on the fees they will charge parents.

But there was slightly better news for the Government overall. Sixty per cent of parents said the Budget showed the Government doesn’t understand the pressures on parents due to childcare, while 36% said it showed they did. This is a significant improvement on our pre-Budget poll which showed 93 per cent of parents thought the Government didn’t understand the childcare issues they were facing.

The Budget also saw announcements on wraparound care for parents of school-aged children, with concerns from existing providers that the money is being channelled to schools for new provision, without taking into account the problems already being faced by the sector.

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