Labour would keep the government’s expanded childcare hours, a shadow minister has insisted, after suggestions the party would review the scheme. Nick Thomas-Symonds said Labour would not reduce the number of hours of government-funded childcare that working parents would be entitled to in England. The expanded scheme came into effect on 1 April. Working parents of two-year-olds are now eligible for 15 hours of government-funded childcare a week during term time. This will be extended to working parents of all children older than nine months from September, before the full rollout of 30 hours a week to all eligible families a year later. The plans were announced by Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, in the budget last year.
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, told the BBC’s Newsnight programme at the end of March that Labour was not committed to the £4bn plan. The party commissioned a review of childcare led by former senior Ofsted figure Sir David Bell last October. Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, said in response that a Labour victory at the general election could put the offer “at risk”. Thomas-Symonds said on Monday that Labour backed the expansion. “The entitlement that parents have been promised, we will not reduce if we are privileged to form the next Labour government,” he told Times Radio. “The point that Bridget Phillipson was making, and this is why we are making this point to the government today, is just because you introduce an entitlement doesn’t guarantee that the places are available. That is what we are urging the chancellor of the exchequer who announced this scheme last year to do today: actually make the entitlement a reality.” Labour has said it believes the system will not be able to provide the extra places promised by the government. Nurseries have said they lack the funding and capacity to implement the expansion within the government’s planned timeline. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that the scheme will double the free childcare entitlement budget from £4bn last year to £8bn by 2027-28. Keegan said Labour “still have nothing to offer” on childcare as the scheme was rolled out and claimed the party “would pull out the rug from tens of thousands of hard-working families adding on average £6,900 to the costs of childcare”. Phillipson said: “After 14 years of Tory failure, it will be Labour who get on with the job and finally deliver the much-needed childcare for parents. That is why we have commissioned respected former Ofsted inspector Sir David Bell to lead a review on early education and childcare to guarantee early years entitlements for parents. “Only Labour will reform our childcare system and deliver the accessible, affordable early years education that will give children the best start in life.”