EMPTY primary school classrooms will be turned into nurseries as ministers try to create 100,000 new childcare places.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is set to unveil her plan in the next few weeks to create 3,300 creches using £140million from Labour’s VAT raid on private schools.
But the Cabinet minister warns in today’s Sun on Sunday that some parents may not get their first choice of nursery.
Labour has promised to stick to the Tory government’s plans for a staged expansion of childcare.
Working parents of two-year-olds can claim 15 hours a week of free care during term time.
Empty classes will be creches
FOR years childcare has been too expensive, impossible to find or more likely both.
Parents will have horror stories of travelling miles to the nearest available place, forking out for nursery bills higher than their mortgage or relying on grandparents for childcare.
Some places in the South East have far more childcare places than areas with lower incomes, such as the North East. That’s unfair. It’s no wonder parents want answers about the September 2025 roll-out of 30 hours of government-funded childcare.
I won’t sugarcoat it. There’s a big shortage of staff and places. In some parts we’ll need to triple capacity.
The roll-out won’t be the sunlit uplands promised by the Tories.
While some parents may receive the hours promised, they might not get their first choice of nursery.
It’s not what parents want to hear. But this government will always be honest.
From September, it will apply to parents with kids over nine months.
Free childcare will then be doubled to 30 hours a week for eligible parents from September 2025.
But Labour is facing questions over where it will get the staff after the Department for Education suggested 40,000 would need to be recruited by September next year.
Writing in the Sun on Sunday, Ms Phillipson said: “Yes, the 2025 childcare roll-out will go ahead — but in some parts of the country parents might not get their first choice of nursery.”
A government source added: “The Tories have left a trail of devastation across education.
“We will need tens of thousands of places and staff to deliver what the Tories promised.
“Parents should be in no doubt who is to blame if they don’t get their first choice — the irresponsible Conservative government which didn’t plan for this expansion.”
