Childcare Expansion Plan May Struggle To Hit Targets Watchdog

The rollout of the government's childcare scheme to tens of thousands more families is facing "significant uncertainties" and may struggle to meet its own targets, according to a damning report by Whitehall's spending watchdog.

- Sally Weale

The National Audit Office revealed the Department for Education (DfE) itself assessed the likelihood of being able to deliver the funded childcare places it promised, for September 2024 and 2025, as "amber/red problematic".

Even if the government managed to successfully navigate the multiple difficulties ahead, it was not clear if the policy would achieve its primary aim of getting more parents back into the labour force, the watchdog said.

The NAO report, described as "utterly damning" by the early years sector, paints a picture of a department working at speed to meet ambitious targets without vital input from the sector or pilot studies that would have helped with planning.

The DfE already provides some funding for three- and four-year-olds, alongside disadvantaged two-yearolds, but in March 2023 the chancellor announced what was described as the largest ever expansion of childcare that England has ever seen".

At the start of April the scheme was extended to include 15 hours a week for two-year-olds. In September it will extend to children over nine months, and from September 2025 children that age and above can access 30 hours a week, necessitating an estimated 85,000 additional childcare places and 40,000 additional staff.