The National Primary Childcare Service builds on plans already announced to provide a legal guarantee for parents of primary-age children to wraparound childcare from 8am to 6pm.
More details of how the party would support families were set out in Labour’s election manifesto, launched today by leader Ed Miliband.
‘As well as helping parents, this will provide children with before and after-school clubs and activities, helping to raise their aspirations and attainment. This will be underpinned by a new National Primary Childcare Service, a not-for-profit organisation to promote the voluntary and charitable delivery of quality extracurricular activities,’ the manifesto says.
The document includes plans, already confirmed in the party’s education manifesto published last week.
Labour will also ‘prioritise early years intervention’, increase free childcare for three- and four-year-olds from 15 to 25 hours a week, and Sure Start centres will operate as ‘family hubs’ with an ‘obligation’ to provide families with access to childcare, opening their facilities to charities and local childcare providers. Labour will also 'encourage local services to co-locate, so that they work together to shift from sticking plaster solutions to integrated early help.’
Paternity leave would also be doubled to four weeks, and paternity pay raised from £140 to more than £260 a week.
Although Labour acknowledges that the target to end child poverty by 2020 is now unlikely to be met, it would ‘keep the child poverty targets, and ask the Office for Budget Responsibility to monitor and report on progress.’
Labour also pledges to protect vulnerable children, and will bring in mandatory reporting of child abuse.
