- Working parents to receive double the current amount of free childcare for three- and four-year-olds.
- Staffordshire part of £13million grant for eight councils to start offering this extended free childcare offer a year early.
- Government going further than ever to help working families with childcare costs.
Amanda Milling, Member of Parliament for Cannock Chase has welcomed a government announcement that Staffordshire parents will benefit from the Government’s free 30 hours childcare earlier than the rest of the country.
The government has announced £13 million for eight councils to enable them to implement 30 hours of free childcare for hard working parents of three- and four-year-olds – a year ahead of schedule. As a result, some working parents in Staffordshire will now benefit from the early offer from this September. The extra hours of childcare will make it easier for these parents to work and is another move designed to meet the Government’s commitment to make work pay.
Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, said:
“For too long, rising childcare costs have been a barrier preventing parents and particularly mothers from working. That’s why I’m delighted that in just a few months’ time, we will see the first families benefitting from the government’s offer of 30 hours’ free childcare for working parents. We have made a commitment to help working people, and through this extended offer we will help thousands more parents who want to return to work to do so.”
The government will also be looking at the issues that make it difficult for parents with particular challenges to access childcare, including Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
Amanda Milling said:
“I am delighted that parents in Cannock Chase will benefit earlier than the rest of the country, along with other areas in Staffordshire. I know how important accessing childcare can be for parents and this will help many people, both through making it easier to work and extra help with childcare costs. The government is investing heavily in childcare and helping hard working families and this is great news."
All three- and four-year-olds are already entitled to 15 hours of free childcare a week, and this is also extended to the most disadvantaged two-year-olds. Last year, nationally more than 1 million three- and four-year-olds, and 157,000 two-year-olds benefited from this offer.
The government is now going further than ever before, and will provide an additional 15 free hours to working parents of three- and four-year-olds from the whole country by September 2017 – delivering on a key manifesto pledge. As part of this Government’s commitment to helping hardworking people, they will be investing more than £1bn extra per year by 2019-20 to fund the extension of the free childcare entitlement.