Free childcare places ‘must not mean extra costs for parents’

BBC News | Hannah Richardson education reporter | 24 February 2015 

The next government must ensure that free childcare places in England are delivered without any extra costs to parents, peers have said.

The Lords Committee on Affordable Childcare said the budget for providing free nursery places does not cover the cost of delivering them.

It said parents were often being forced to subsidise the free places.

The Department for Education said any parents being forced to pay should contact their local authority.

The free places scheme was first introduced in the late 1990s and expanded in the mid-2000s to cover more children, but the grant funding it has never kept pace with inflation.

Evidence heard by the committee suggests the funds, distributed by local authorities, do not cover the economic cost of delivering the free hours, particularly in the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) settings.

PVI settings provide 60% of three-year-old places. Article