Will increasing "free" childcare actually cost working parents?

So as a little background, in Wales, it is the intention that 3 year olds get a minimum 380 hours of free educational childcare a year.
But in reality, it doesn't quite work like this. Children are entitled to attend up to 5 sessions, which are between 2 and 2.5 hours a day, depending on the nursery. They must be taken on separate days.

The issue I am trying to raise, is that the funding for these sessions has not been put up for many years and now falls well below the actual nursery costs. When I first took issue over this, I used the Family Information Service database to work out the average nursery cost in Newport, and found that the there was not a single nursery that cost the same or less than the funding level.

While it could be argued that if you sent your child to nursery at a school, then the free places would genuinely be free - this is not possible for working parents, as school nurseries only provide the free sessions, and this would mean collecting your child at the end of that session, or paying for wrap around care to get them delivered to another childcare location.

Here is the maths...

Newport City Council Funding

£6.83

per session

£34.15

Per week for 38 weeks

If 10 hours is funded, the day rate would be

£34.15

In a year

£1,400.15

At Buzzy Bees, a session is 2 hours 15

£8.55

per session

£25.65

Per week for 38 weeks

The actual daily rate is

£38

To fund 10 hours at Buzzy Bees, the funding is £3.85 short per week

To fund the 2 hour 15 session would be

£8.60

short per week

If a child arrives at 12:30 and is picked up at 2:45, then the parents pay nothing at all, and the nursery is paid £6.83 for the session by NCC

If the child stays for the rest of the day, the parent gets £6.83 knocked off the bill, so the day costs £31.19

This means in reality, the child gets 9 hours of free childcare, below the 10 hour minimum

However, I believe that people who work, like myself had no choice but to use the nursery for the full day. There is very very little chance you could practically work in the 2 hours while you child is at nursery.

The sessions must be taken on separate days, so you can't have a whole day.

Therefore this free funding benefits non-working parents the most.

Additionally, I believe that this "free" funding is actually putting up the costs for paying parents. For each child that goes home immediately after their free session, there is a weekly shortfall of £8.60 at my nursery

This may not seem much, but let's say at our nursery there are 30 children and 20 go home after their sessions, the nursery is £172 short. That's like having 4.5 children at the nursery not paying their fees

Nurseries have costs, they must pay their teams, so let's say this cost is spread between the children who stay all day

So my child who started nursery at 9 months old, and will be eligible for rising 3 funding when he is 3 years 3 months old, will be subsidising other children for 2.5 years

and then in his final year, he will be eligible for funding, but will still stay all day, so will continue to subsidise other children, so

In his final year, Oscar will get

£1,400.15

in government funding

But over the 3.5 years he will have subsidised other children to a tune of

£2287.6

Therefore the government funding will cost me

-£887.45

over the 3.5 years he will be at nursery

Or, If the nursery is able to silently absorb the underfunding without going bust, at very best, my little boy will get

368.465

Hours of free childcare, when this should be a MINIMUM of 380

What does minimum mean to you?

Sign the petition at 10,000 signatures a response will be given...
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/106123 



Last month I queried my nursery bill because the Early Years funding seemed like such a spit in the ocean.

The nursery showed me a table provided by the Council which told them how much to knock off my bill.

I contacted Newport City Council, who within a day got back to me with a helpful response confirming that each child receives £6.83 for each session attended.

Unfortunately however, this amount does not cover the actual cost.

So I contacted Huw Lewis, Minister for Education to ask whether he was aware of this short all and to raise awareness of the big difference in Early Year funding between England and Wales.

Almost one month later I received an email from someone working in Foundation Phase Policy. The points made were fair, in that she mentioned that Wales and England vary in lots of ways, and that there was additional funding where it was felt it was needed. However she did also confirm and I quote;

In Wales, all 3 and 4 year-old children are entitled to funded early education for a minimum of 10 hours per week over a minimum of 38 weeks in the year – a minimum of 380 hours. 

And this is my key point - due to the shortfall between the funding and actual cost, we are not actually receiving the minimum number of funded hours.

The government is providing funding at a rate of  around £30 a day, when our nursery (and all others in the area) charge £37.50

I replied to the response I received, but 8 days on I have had no response.

I wanted to raise awareness of this shortfall, but it seems Huw Lewis never even saw my email sent to his official email address. I tweeted him twice but was disappointed to get no response.

I also tweeted my AM, Rosemary Butler, to ask whether there was any other path I could take, but again got no response.

So maybe I'll jump down off my soapbox and do something more useful with my time.

Sign the petition...it probably won't change anything but at least it will have been considered again
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/106123