Childcare crisis as 'pitiful' numbers sign up for grants

The government’s childcare policy is at risk of failure as figures reveal that a pitiful” number of childminders have signed up for the government’s grant scheme.

- MAYA OPPENHEIM

Information obtained by The Independent via a freedom of information request shows that 1,627 grants were awarded through the government’s childminder start-up grant initiative between the end of November last year and the end of March – with some 1,837 applications during this period.

Meanwhile, the number of childminders has more than halved in the last 10 years, falling from 56,200 in 2013 to 27,900 last year, leaving a huge shortfall in childcare providers.

Providers are facing higher costs including insurance, Ofsted fees, food costs and gas and electricity bills while parents are also having their incomes squeezed.

Campaigners said the grants of up to £1,200 awarded so far are a “drop in the ocean” in a struggling childcare sector grappling with both a staffing and funding crisis.

The childminder start-up grant – £600 for those who register with Ofsted and £1,200 for workers who register with a childminder agency – began last November.

Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said: “This latest childminder numbers debacle is yet more evidence that the Tories offered a pledge without a delivery plan – and families desperately in need of childcare will end up paying the price of broken Conservative promises.”

She said Labour will roll out a “reformed childcare and early years system to better support families to access childcare”.