Parents Could Be Left "Disappointed" By Free Childcare Expansion

The founder of an influential parenting charity has said that the free childcare expansion promised by Government could leave parents “really disappointed” if they do not see a significant fall in their childcare costs.

On Monday, provision of free childcare will be extended to two-year-olds for 15 hours a week, which will then increase to 30 hours for all under-fives from September 2025.

Joeli Brearley, founder of the charity Pregnant Then Screwed, which advocates for and supports pregnant women and parents, welcomes the expansion but told PoliticsHome she is concerned that without additional measures it might make little difference to struggling families. 

The charity carried out a survey in February which showed only 35 per cent of parents in England believe the changes to childcare schemes will reduce their costs. 37.1 per cent of parents said they had to use credit cards, take out a loan or borrow money from family or friends to afford childcare costs, with the figure considerably higher for single mothers. Further research by Pregnant Then Screwed in March has found that the median saving for families from the new schemes will be between £100 - £120, or up to £1,440 a year – much less than the government’s estimated savings of £6,500 a year once the full rollout of schemes is complete.

While Brearley said that she believed many of the issues around how the childcare expansion would be delivered have been “smoothed out”, many parents could be left feeling “really disappointed” as some childcare providers are raising other costs in order to provide the extra free hours. 

“Providers have put up their costs outside of the funded hours and they're charging quite substantial top-up fees, because the money that's provided by