Labour analysis shows growing cost of childcare for parents

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson is delivering a speech at the centre-right think tank Onward on Thursday, on the need to reform the childcare sector and cut the cost of childcare for working families. 

At an event in Westminster Phillipson will say that a Labour government would not continue to throw taxpayers’ money at the Conservatives’ broken, ‘jerry-built’ system of free hours, which has seen struggling providers given less money by government than the Department for Education (DfE) says it costs to deliver them.

In the speech she is expected to highlight the failings of the Conservative model for funding childcare, saying that ‘the government knows how much it costs to fund their model, and yet gives providers less.

‘The Conservatives offer parents so-called free hours then pay providers below the going rate to deliver them.

‘The market that this underfunded hours system has created is one where providers go bust too often, where parents pay extortionate costs for extra hours, where managers cannot find the staff they need, and where staff cannot get either the pay or the progression they deserve.’