Ending Britain’s Childcare Arms Race

In the UK, childcare has become something of a political football. The two major Parties are locked in a childcare arms race, competing to offer more and more hours of “free” childcare to parents of young children.

In March, the Chancellor of the Exchequer raised the stakes, committing to extend full time state-funded childcare provision to babies from the age of nine months in a considerable expansion of the current offer for over threes. Last week Labour hit back, outlining plans to create thousands of new nursery places as part of a “modernised childcare system” available from the end of parental leave (usually around six months). It seems the consensus political plan for babies is a few short months at home before being handed over to the State so that mummy and daddy can get on with the important national endeavour of generating GDP.

Because let’s be honest, while policymakers sometimes claim that childcare policies are about education — as if toddlers require formal instruction that only someone with official qualifications can be trusted to provide — the truth is that free childcare is all about getting parents back to work.