Make childcare a universal service
Sarah Ronan of the Women’s Budget Group talked with Solidarity in the run-up to the Budget. (This version includes some amendments sent by Sarah Ronan relative to the printed version.) We know that the current offer of free childcare is not funded at cost. Freedom of Information requests from 2021 show that the government knowingly underfunds the schemes by around £2.60 per hour. That obviously forces providers to cross-subsidise by increasing fees, and means that providers can’t pay the wages that they need to pay to compete in the current labour market and attract and keep staff. It doesn’t...