Nursery World - Editor’s view

A sluggish start for Tax-Free Childcare with a £600m underspend seems to say you can't give money away! What is going wrong?

What is happening with Tax-Free Childcare? And can it be made to work properly?

The scheme got off to a terrible start, with nightmarish IT problems leading to endless frustration for parents and providers.

Although some of these have been rectified, the system is still prone to tantrums, with the latest glitch meaning that payments were delayed to substantial numbers of providers.

More concerning, however, is the calculation from the Office for Budget Responsibility that government spending on TFC will be £600m lower than projected over the next four years.

Leaving aside the slap in the face for the sector that means this money will go back to the Treasury rather than being spent on our impoverished children's services, this indicates that not many eligible parents are actually getting this help with their childcare costs.

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