While on a visit to Cornwall on Thursday, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan announced that almost 200,000 parents had signed up for the first wave of a Government childcare scheme, which gives up to 15 hours a week free childcare for two-year-olds during term time.
However, she denied suggestions by campaigning groups that parents will save a lot less than the Government has suggested.
The minister visited Naturally Learning nursery in Blackwater to publicise the first phase of what the Government says is the biggest ever expansion of childcare, which has started by giving working parents of two-year-olds access to 15 hours a week of Government-funded childcare.
She was joined at the nursery – one of what will soon be six run in mid-Cornwall by mother and son co-directors Mandy and Tom Richardson – by the Conservative’s parliamentary candidate for Camborne and Redruth Connor Donnithorne.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan chats to Naturally Learning\'s Tom Richardson alongside Mandy Richardson and the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Camborne and Redruth, Connor Donnithorne (Pic: Lee Trewhela / LDRS)
After spending a considerable amount of time chatting to the children and staff, Ms Keegan told me: “We’ve just started the largest expansion of childcare in our whole country’s history. As a minister, you want to come to areas like this where it is a bit more rural and there are more challenges with getting skilled workers. Although Mandy has created an amazing business here.
“Connor suggested I visited as not only is he the local candidate but his son’s not long started here. Once this whole programme is fully rolled out it will save families £6,900 a year.”
I stopped her there and asked if that was indeed the case. Some childcare groups have argued that with nursery fees increasing by up to 15 per cent, many parents will be worse off than before despite the 15 hours of free care. A study by campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed found that the average saving from the new childcare offer will be up to £1,440 rather than the £6,900 quoted by the Education Secretary.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan and the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Camborne and Redruth, Connor Donnithorne, at Naturally Learning pre-school in Blackwater (Pic: Lee Trewhela / LDRS)
“Well, we have more data, I would suggest, than Pregnant Then Screwed or any of the campaign groups,” she responded. “Everything we do and calculate has to go through a process that’s accurate. I think £6,900 is a fair estimate.
"I’m confident – this is a very popular policy and it’s popular because families immediately get how much money it saves them. They know that they’re going to get their places largely for free for 38 weeks of the year.
“We’re now buying about 50 per cent of the childcare market. By the time this is complete we’ll be buying around 80 per cent of that market. And it will continue after the next election.”
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan and the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Camborne and Redruth, Connor Donnithorne, at Naturally Learning pre-school in Blackwater (Pic: Lee Trewhela / LDRS)
By September 2025 the full rollout will be completed, with working parents able to access 30 hours from the end of maternity leave to when their child starts school. Following Ms Keegan’s visit to the Cornish nursery, officials admitted that the sector will need 85,000 more places and must hire 40,000 extra staff if ministers are to fulfil their pledge to offer 30 free hours of childcare to all pre-school children.
Mr Donnithorne said during the visit: “Being 27 and raising my young family here, I know the cost of childcare means that people are having to choose between having a family and a career. That’s why I support the Conservative Government’s biggest expansion of funded childcare ever, and the help it’s providing for working families in Cornwall.”
The Education Secretary also visited business and education leaders at Truro and Penwith College in Penzance with local Conservative MP Derek Thomas, before travelling to Bodmin and meeting North Cornwall’s Tory MP Scott Mann.
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