Labour has been urged to set out its childcare plans after shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson appeared to suggest a Labour government would shake up long-awaited Tory plans that come into effect next week.
Ms Phillipson refused to commit to the Government’s plans to expand free childcare when asked about them on Tuesday, insisting the party is reviewing the current system.
However, this risks sowing confusion among parents and childcare providers who are grappling to adapt to the Conservative Government’s latest overhaul.
New parents told i they have already formed financial plans based on the Government’s expanded childcare rollout, and that they could “think twice” before voting Labour in the general election if free childcare support were dropped.
Ms Phillipson refused to say whether Labour would commit to the expansion when asked by BBC’s Newsnight on Tuesday. Questioned as to whether Labour would commit to the expansion, the shadow Education Secretary said it was “just a tacking on of additional commitments that I don’t think is working, either for providers or for parents”.
But i understands Labour is still committed to spending an extra £4bn on the childcare sector, but that it is reviewing how to best target the money.
The party has recruited Sir David Bell, the former chief inspector of Ofsted, to conduct a review of the current childcare system.
Next week, in the first phase of the Government’s childcare expansion plans, working parents of two-year-olds are to be offered 15 hours of free childcare each week.
From September, that will be extended to children aged nine months and older, while the scheme will be doubled to 30 hours a week for eligible parents from September 2025.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced an additional £4bn in last year’s Budget to fund the expansion, but childcare providers have warned they do not have enough staff to meet increased demand from the scheme.
Labour has yet to reveal when Sir David’s review will complete, but i understands the party is keen not to rush its plans for the sector, with childcare set to form a flagship part of its manifesto still being drawn up.
It means the party could wait until near the general election, which is expected this year, to outline its vision for the sector.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, which represents 14,000 childcare settings in England, said he was broadly supportive of the approach.
He told i: “We have long argued that promising parents more and more ‘free childcare’ without tackling the fundamental issues facing the sector would simply exacerbate existing challenges and pile even greater pressure on providers.
“Whichever political party is in power after the next election, we’re clear that a comprehensive review – and wholesale reform – of the entire early years system is desperately needed if we are ever going to be able to deliver the affordable, accessible, quality care and education that families need and deserve.”
Sir Keir Starmer is understood to want to focus the £4bn uplift on childcare “deserts” across the country, where early years providers are closing en masse.
The latest Ofsted data showed the number of registered early years providers in England fell by 20,000 between 2015 and 2022, with many parents now struggling to find childcare.
Labour has already hinted at plans to encourage primary schools to set up new nursery centres in existing schools buildings, though the bulk of Labour’s plans for the sector are yet to be announced.
The Conservatives seized on Labour’s caution on Wednesday, with Education Secretary Gillian Keegan accusing the party of stoking “huge uncertainty for working parents who are set to save £6,900 a year” under the Government’s childcare expansion plans.
The Tories released a social media campaign on Wednesday on the back of Ms Phillipson’s comments, claiming Labour is set on “scrapping our free childcare plans for working parents”. It added that a vote for the party would see Britain “back to square one”.
A Labour spokesman criticised the claims as “utter nonsense from the Conservative Party that still can’t guarantee parents the childcare it promised them with just days to go before the rollout of new funded hours”.
It comes after the Government launched a £6.5m emergency recruitment drive last month in an attempt to salvage its childcare expansion, amid warnings that an extra 50,000 staff will be needed to meet demand.
The Early Education and Childcare Coalition (EECC) said in January that ministers were “delusional” to insist they could meet their pledge to extend free childcare to all two-year-olds from April without a major recruitment drive.
Analysis by the coalition suggested extra demand would require a 12 per cent expansion of the childcare workforce, amounting to around 50,000 new staff once high turnover is taken into account.
A Labour spokesperson said: “Labour will not take away families’ entitlements – we want childcare to be affordable, accessible and available.
“That is why the respected former Ofsted chief inspector Sir David Bell is leading a review of early education and childcare to ensure that all families can access the childcare to which they’re entitled.”