How Will Parents Benefit From 30 Hours Free Childcare for 3 to 4 Year Olds

A new Government scheme is rolling out to parents of three and four year olds to receive 30 hours free childcare per week for 38 weeks of the year.

Parents who work over 16 hours a week over national minimal wage will be able to benefit from this scheme and will have an opportunity to place their children in nursery settings without a financial worry. This is an increase from the original 15 hours of free childcare in recent years for three and four year olds, which also benefited almost 160,000 disadvantaged 2 year olds.

The scheme is part of the Government’s commitment to helping hard working people, as they will be investing more than £1billion into it. The Government are encouraging parents to get back to work after having children, which can be a challenging time for many, offering a scheme to stop the struggle and create opportunities for parents to get back into the workplace. Many parents find balancing the cost of childcare against the benefits of being in work difficult so it’s great to hear that most 5,000 parents will benefit from the new scheme.

On average, “parents spend £116 a week for 25 hours a week for childcare” and parents who are unable to afford the cost of childcare are having to either reduce their hours worked or quit their jobs. The Government are trying to stop this happening with this new scheme, with the new incentive of 30 free hours to encourage parents to work, promoting it as beneficial for their household and children. The Department of Education have said that they are “helping working families with the cost of childcare is at the heart of the government’s agenda – that’s why we are investing a record £1 billion extra per year by 2020”.

30 hours of free funding will have an effect on nurseries as prices may increase for babies and under 2s to subsidise the cost of the free childcare for the older children. Also, nurseries are now at risk as there are concerns that the scheme is “underfunded” and could result in some closures in private day nurseries. A Facebook page has been started by nursery owners called “Champagne Nurseries on a Lemonade Budget” explaining the difficulties and issues they will be facing with the start of the new scheme.

I’m sure we will see over time how beneficial this Government scheme really is, and what else they do to invest in the future of childcare.

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