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Free Childcare to be increased.

The Government has announced plans to double the free childcare available for three and four year old's; the present level of 15 hours free childcare will be increased to 30 hours.

It is envisaged this will help over half a million children, however the plan has received criticism from nursery school providers who say the scheme is underfunded and that, as a result, costs will have to be increased elsewhere in the industry to balance the books.

The industry say that the government's payment for the service is twenty percent below the actual cost to provide the care, and that the cost for 'paid for', hours will have to increase to compensate.

The plans were put forward in the governments manifesto and the bill was included in the recent queen's speech, the increase in spending would be financed through reductions in tax relief on pensions, details on how this will work are not available at present.

The logic behind the proposals is to get people back into work after having a child and to ensure that when they are back in work the child care costs are less than their earnings.

The new laws will also include undertakings by local councils to publish information about nursery care and any other child care service in the area.

The Bill only applies to families in England, as responsibility for childcare rests in the hands of each national government, it's interesting how quickly differences appear within the UK, in Scotland the level is 600 hrs per year in, Wales it's 10 hrs per week during school time and in Northern Ireland 12.5 hrs per week during term time. The new level of 30 hours per week for England places it significantly higher than the other countries in the UK.

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