Easter recess may be in full swing, but government ministers aren’t getting a break. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan was sent out on the morning round today, to talk about the Tories’ free childcare expansion package. Eligible working parents of two-year-olds can now receive 15 hours of government-funded childcare a week during term time. From September, this will extend to working parents of all children older than nine months, before all eligible families will be able to receive the full rollout of 30 hours a week a year later.
But the government and its opposition are feuding over the plans. Labour has taken issue with the scheme, querying how the proposals will be enacted given current staffing issues in nurseries. For their part the Tories insist that they will offer incentives, including a £1,000 sign-on bonus currently being trialled, to entice more people into nursery work. When pressed on the plans this morning, Keegan was keen to paint Labour as the villain, insisting that Sir Keir Starmer’s party would drop the policy altogether.
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