AM proposes free childcare
FREE childcare should be available from the age of one, according to the latest entrant to the Welsh Labour leadership contest. Ogmore AM Huw Irranca-Davies, said his party needed to renew itself with a bold vision.
FREE childcare should be available from the age of one, according to the latest entrant to the Welsh Labour leadership contest.
Ogmore AM Huw Irranca-Davies, the Welsh Government’s Minister for Children, Older People and Social Care, said his party needed to renew itself with a bold vision for the future.
He said Wales should aim to have the best package of childcare, preschool education and infant health care in the world. But he acknowledged it would take time to deliver all the elements, and it was likely to be a project for two Assembly terms.
Mr Irranca-Davies’ idea would see the Flying Start programme for two to three-year-olds – currently only available in the deprived communities – rolled out to all children.
Making such a programme available to every child would give all the best chance of developing and reduce the number of problem chil- dren who would later be at risk of getting involved in crime.
Increasing the availability of free childcare firstly to two-year-olds and then one-year-olds would make it easier for their parents to return to the labour market, Mr Irranca-Davies believes.
There would, however, be no obligation to take part in the scheme.
Such an offer would rival provision in the Nordic countries, where taxation is notably higher than in the UK and other western European countries.
Under Welsh Labour’s rules, candidates for the leadership must be AMs and need five nominations from their colleagues before they can get on to the ballot paper.
So far Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford is the only candidate to have gained the necessary support.
Mr Irranca-Davies hopes a series of policy announcements he plans to make in coming weeks will secure him the nominations he needs.
Speaking to the Gazette after the launch of his campaign at the Flying Start Centre in Sarn, near Bridgend, Mr Irranca-Davies said: “I didn’t come into politics simply to tread water. I came into politics because I want to change things.
“If people rightly say to me, ‘This is going to cost’, I’ll say, yes it will. Is it a priority? I’ll say it should be. This has to be a collaboration. Let’s decide first of all what our vision is. Do we agree this is the right thing to do, and if we do, let’s talk about how we do it in steps to get there – how many years it will take to get there. Because even in Nordic countries they did not do this overnight.”
He said he thought Wales was “a small enough, dynamic enough, progressive enough country to grasp this opportunity”.