Free childcare set for April, insists minister, despite reports of delays from IT glitches

RISHI SUNAK’S flagship free childcare plan will go ahead in April, a Cabinet minister insisted yesterday amid fears of delays.

Lucy Frazer, the Culture Secretary, sought to end speculation about the future of the policy, under which working parents of two-year-olds will be offered 15 hours of care a week from the spring. The scheme, first announced by Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, in the Budget last year, will ramp up over time so working families with children aged between nine months and four-yearsold receive 30 hours of free childcare a week. However, it was reported by The Times on Sunday night that delays to funding packages and issues with IT risked jeopardising the rollout.

When asked about the coverage, Ms Frazer told Times Radio: “Yes, it will go ahead and I am pleased you talked about it as a flagship policy because what we are doing is the biggest reform of childcare that we have seen ... And we, the Conservatives and the Government, have a plan to enable parents to go back to work, where they want to, to get free childcare.

“This is really, really important to ensure that women and men and parents as a whole can go back to work if they want to and yes, there have been some issues but my understanding is that those are being resolved by temporary fixes.”

Pressed on whether she could guarantee the scheme would be introduced by April 1, Ms Frazer said: “My understanding is that that is correct.”

The push has been hailed by Mr Hunt as the “biggest transformation in childcare in my lifetime”. Only parents of children ages three and four had previously been eligible for the allowance.

Mr Sunak’s programme has led to concerns about whether staffing levels will be sufficient, as well as criticism from some on the Tory Right who claim that mothers being encouraged to go back to work so soon is not Conservative.

The complete offer of 30 hours for all under-fives is scheduled for September 2025, so will not come into place until after the next general election. The 15 hours for those children nine months and older is expected to take effect a year earlier and so it could be in place by the time of the next national poll.

The Department for Education was forced to admit to nursery providers that it will have to find about an additional £120 million after it miscalculated the number of weeks of funding it would need to provide in the first year of the scheme. Labour has welcomed the programme, suggesting it could remain in place should Sir Keir Starmer’s party take office later this year.