At the next election childcare will be a key battleground issue. I know from my visits to key seats up and down the country how much of a challenge childcare is to parents. It resonates across the political spectrum and across the age range as parents, grandparents and young people worry about how families can find and afford decent early education and childcare to help parents go to work and give children the best start in life.
Labour is the party of childcare – our time in office was marked by a massive expansion of childcare places and increases in support to help parents pay for childcare. Yet for many parents, and mums particularly, childcare is still a barrier to getting into work and climbing up the ladder. Our childcare system is broken and does not meet the aspirations or realities of family life today.
The Tories just do not get childcare – they started their time in office cutting childcare subsidies, which had a disastrous effect on families and on the childcare market in many areas. They compounded these problems by thinking that unsafe and unwanted deregulation of childcare ratios was the only answer. If fact, childcare costs have soared 30 per cent since 2010; early years childcare places, including childminder numbers, have plummeted 40,000 over the same period. Their latest plan is too little too late. Tax-free childcare offering parents a subsidy on their childcare costs will not come in until after the next election meaning families will have had no help at all with childcare in this parliament.
Labour is on the side of parents. We understand the care crunch that many families face. We also get that families come in all shapes and sizes and when it comes to childcare grandparents, aunts, uncles and other family members often step in to help parents balance their working lives and caring.
That’s why Labour will put tackling David Cameron’s childcare crunch front and centre as part of our general election campaign. Childcare is about more than helping parents go to work. It is a vital part of our economic infrastructure which enables local areas to grow their economies and boost employment rates, particularly among women. If parents cannot balance the family books and work does not pay then families will languish in poverty. Employers will lose valuable employees who will fall out of the labour market, unlikely to return when children grow up to the same pay and status they had before. Childcare is a vital policy solution to tackle these issues facing families, business and the economy.
Our plans will tackle the pressures on work and care faced by parents. We will extend free childcare for three and four year olds with parents in work from 15 to 25 hours per week. Worth £1500 per child and paid for by increasing the bank levy this is a fully costed proposal to deliver for families.
Importantly as well we will help parents deal with the logistical nightmare of before- and after-school care by legislating to guarantee wraparound care for children at their local school or nearby.
Ensuring parents can access family-friendly working including flexible working and parental leave will be key as well. For too long these policies have been seen in isolation. Policymakers must view leave and flexible working as key features alongside childcare provision in getting family policy right so that it reflects family life and the key transition points in parents’ lives – maternity, returning to work and managing work and care. Labour will better join up these initiatives so that parents and children are at the centre of discussions around work and childcare.
Investing in free childcare. Guaranteeing a before- and after-school place. Making work pay and making childcare more affordable and accessible. These are Labour’s plans to build a sustainable recovery that is fair for families and good for business.
The care crunch is real and growing for many. Only Labour can deliver the change parents need so the economy works for them.
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Lucy Powell is member of parliament for Manchester Central and shadow minister for childcare and children
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