A proposal to offer 30 hours of free childcare to all pre-school children aged over nine months could be delayed, an education minister has warned.
Jacqui Smith said the Government faced an ‘enormously big job’ in hitting the target to introduce the policy by September next year.
Tory proposals to fund 15 hours per week of free childcare for eligible working parents whose children are between nine months and two years old will go ahead as planned on Monday.
The Government already offers 15 hours of funded care for two-year-olds and 30 hours for children aged three or four.
Proposals to offer 30 hours of free childcare to all pre-school children could be delayed, a minister has warned
Jacqui Smith said the Government faced an ‘enormously big job’ in hitting the target of September next year
Plans for 15 hours of free childcare for eligible working parents of nine months and two years old set out by the previous government will go ahead as planned on Monday
But Baroness Smith warned expansion for the youngest children would require a huge rise in nursery places.
She said ministers would try to ‘make progress’, but added: ‘It may be people don’t get their first choice or it takes a bit longer’.
It comes as research suggested that a quarter of new mothers are returning to work earlier than they would have wanted to access the free hours childcare scheme.
As parents can only sign up for the scheme quarterly, tthose who are due to return to work in October, November or December will need to go back earlier if they want to claim free childcare before January.