What price universal childcare? As publication of the Government's ten-year plan looms, various lobbying organisations have been coming up with some firm figures for the funding needed to make the vision achievable (see News, page 4 and Special Report, pages 10-11). The cost of opening schools from 8am to 6pm is predicted by children's charity 4Children to be 500m for start-up, then 10bn a year for ten years. The 2020 vision of the Daycare Trust and the Social Market Foundation, costed by PriceWaterhouse Coopers and including extended parental leave, extended free provision for three-and four-year-olds, free provision for two-year-olds and a more highly-trained childcare workforce, comes in at an extra 21bn a year on current funding.
What price universal childcare? As publication of the Government's ten-year plan looms, various lobbying organisations have been coming up with some firm figures for the funding needed to make the vision achievable (see News, page 4 and Special Report, pages 10-11).
The cost of opening schools from 8am to 6pm is predicted by children's charity 4Children to be 500m for start-up, then 10bn a year for ten years. The 2020 vision of the Daycare Trust and the Social Market Foundation, costed by PriceWaterhouse Coopers and including extended parental leave, extended free provision for three-and four-year-olds, free provision for two-year-olds and a more highly-trained childcare workforce, comes in at an extra 21bn a year on current funding.
It is clear that a huge investment is needed, plus some radical changes in the way the early years system operates, if Charles Clarke's brave words about the Government's plans for childcare and nursery education equating with the birth of the National Health Service are to become reality.
The last-minute lobbying from interested parties, adamant that the benefits will outweigh the costs, continues, but next month when the ten-year plan is revealed we will see the shape of things to come.
