£10,000 a year bill for two children: MSP

Childcare costs in Scotland are increasing more swiftly than the rest of the UK leaving many parents with bills dwarfing what they pay in rent, says a Fife MSP.

Cara Hilton, who represents Dunfermline, said parents of two young children face “staggering” childcare charges of more than £10,000 a year.

“The reality for parents, right across Scotland, is that childcare costs are spiralling, faster than anywhere else in the UK outside London,” she told a Holyrood debate.

Ms Hilton, herself a mother of three, said that while increasing free provision to 600 hours a year was welcome, it has had “very little impact on the childcare costs of the majority of working parents”.

“Once more, the debate in Scotland is being shaped by an endless debate over free hours and is focused just on pre-school children, rather than delivering a childcare system that really meets the needs, not just of parents and children, but of Scotland,” she added.

A parent with two children under the age of five will pay a “staggering”£900 a month for 25 hours of childcare – the equivalent of £10,000 a year, Ms Hilton added.

Parents of three and four-year-olds are entitled to 16 hours of free childcare a week during term-time, which amounts to 600 hours a year. That is to be doubled by 2020 under SNP plans.

SNP MSP George Adam said: “The Scottish Government is delivering for our families.

“The plans are ambitious and the First Minister recently went on record in saying that she sees the biggest capital spend and investment in the future would actually be in childcare.”