Nursery World - Government should admit 30 'free hours fail', sector claims

The 30 free-hours childcare expansion is an unrealisable Tory pledge - the Government should ‘come clean’ and admit it cannot afford to fund it in its current guise, sector leaders have claimed.

As the consultation on the Early Years National Funding Formula closes today (Thurs), professional childcare associations have revealed their stinging rebuke to the Department for Education (DfE), along with a set of radical suggestions for saving the plans.

'It’s time for the Government to come clean on 30 hours,' said Pre-school Learning Alliance chief executive Neil Leitch.

'Either it needs to fund the offer properly, at a rate that ensures that neither parents nor providers have to incur any additional costs, or it needs to admit that the scheme is not "free" at all, but rather subsidised, and promote it to parents accordingly.'

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