Money Box Live: Cheaper Childcare?

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Working parents and carers of children aged 9 months or over are now entitled to 15 hours of funded childcare a week during term time.

50 hours of nursery can cost around £14,000 a year, so it's a welcome relief for many. There had been warnings that parents would struggle to find places but the government says it is confident about meeting demand.

From next September, the offer is set to rise to 30 hours, and include children up to school age too.

Education Minister, Baroness Smith has said it'll be a challenge to meet that level of demand with the Department for Education estimating about 85,000 more childcare places and 40,000 extra staff will be needed by 2025.

On today's programme we will be hearing from parents as well as the CEO of Kids Planet, one of the countries largest providers. Felicity Hannah will also be joined by Jonathan Broadberry, Policy Director at the National Day Nurseries Association and Emma Broome, Chief Executive of children's charity Coram.

We'll also look at the new rules coming in to make childcare cheaper in Northern Ireland.

Presenter: Felicity Hannah Producer: Sarah Rogers Editor: Jess Quayle

(First broadcast at 3pm on Wednesday the 4th of September, 2024)

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.
0:06.5	I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:11.2	I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,
0:16.0	relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life.
0:22.4	So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature,
0:28.3	and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its audience, and maybe that's you.
0:33.6	So if you like this podcast, check out some others on BBC Sounds.
0:39.5	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:43.1	Hello, in today's Moneybox Live podcast, we're talking about childcare, because many parents
0:48.5	are feeling a sense of relief that the kids are back in school.
0:51.8	But that's nothing to the relief of working parents of babies from nine months old in England,
0:56.6	who now get 15 funded hours of childcare a week.
1:00.2	That's in term time at least, and is potentially going to save them thousands of pounds.
1:05.2	After all, early years education costs a lot.
1:08.7	If you've charged less, the environments that you see would not be as they are.
1:13.1	And I think this is not a babysitting sector.
1:16.4	50 hours of nursery a week can cost around £14,000 a year.
1:21.6	Parents have given up their incomes, given up their jobs,
1:24.3	sometimes even given up their dreams of another child
1:26.9	simply to be able to afford
1:28.6	it. So these new funded hours could be a massive help if your provider has space. Now before we meet
1:34.7	today's experts, let's hear what some parents say about what the new hours mean for their pockets.
	...

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