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Drive to reduce the cost of childcare for parents
Author: Chloe Smith, Updated: 04 July 2022 14:39
Today the Government has announced plans to reduce the cost of childcare for parents, boosting the number of childminders and driving up the take up of childcare offers to help parents with rising costs.
Every child deserves a great start in life and that means giving families the support they need, particularly in the face of rising global cost of living pressures.
The UK has some of the highest-quality childcare provision in the world with 96% of early years settings rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding, but it is also one of the biggest costs facing working families today. This means some families, in particular women, feel they are not able to return to the workplace after giving birth due to the high cost of putting their child into paid care.
With the cost of living continuing to rise, the government is committed to doing everything it can to support families with their finances while keeping people in high-wage, secure jobs that help grow the economy. New plans are being set out today to ensure high-quality and affordable childcare is accessible to all.
To drive down costs for providers and parents, a new consultation will look at increasing the number of children that can be looked after by each staff member in early years settings.
It will propose changing staff-to-child ratios from 1:4 to 1:5 for two-year-olds, giving providers more flexibility in how they run their businesses while maintaining safety and quality of care. Childcare for children aged 0-2 is the most expensive for providers to deliver, largely given the need for higher supervision levels.
This could potentially eventually reduce the cost of this form of childcare by up to 15%, or up to £40 per week for a family paying £265 per week for care for their 2-year-old, if providers adopt the changes and pass all the savings on to parents.
This step will give early years setting greater flexibility in how they run their services and support families here in Norwich by easing cost of living pressures for parents.
As MP for Norwich North, ensuring that our young people get the best possible start in life is one of my priorities. To find out more about what action I am taking both in Norwich and Westminster for this work, please visit: https://www.chloesmith.org.uk/myplan/children.
For further information on this announcement, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/drive-to-reduce-the-cost-of-childcare-for-parents
Chloe Smith