Autumn Budget 2021: £170m for childcare providers

Delivering his Budget speech in Parliament today, Rishi Sunak also reiterated the £500m in funding for children and families which was announced earlier this week.

‘The evidence is compelling – that the first 1,001 days of a child’s life are the most important,’ he said, pledging that £300m of the funding for children and families would be for ‘a start for life offer for families’ and to set up a network of family hubs, in response to Andrea Leadsom’s review.

There would also be funding for tailored services for perinatal health, he said.

On schools, the Chancellor said that there would be an extra £4.7bn by 2024-25, which he said was a cash increase of £1,300 per pupil.

For educational recovery from the pandemic, he said there would be an extra £1.8bn, taking the total to almost £5bn over the next three years.

Regarding the Government's levelling up agenda, Sunak said that today he was announcing the first 100 local projects that would benefit from £1.7bn in the first round of the Levelling Up Fund.

He also promised £3.8bn for funding for skills over this parliament, 'significantly increasing funding for apprenticeships’ to £2.7 bn in 2024-5.

There will also be funding for free Level 3 courses.

For adult learners, to help the ‘millions of people [who] have poor numeracy there will be a new UK-wide numeracy-wide scheme called ‘Multiply’ to improve people’s maths skills.

There will be a real terms rise in overall spending for every single Government department, Sunak said, worth £150 bn.

Families

For families, there will be a reduction to the tapering of Universal Credit, reduced from 63p to 55p in the £1.

'For many of the lowest-paid in society, there is a hidden tax on work,'Sunak said. 'The Universal Credit Taper withdraws support as people work more hours. The rate is currently 63%, so for every extra £1 someone earns, their Universal Credit is reduced by 63p.'

The Chancellor said that 'to make sure work pays and help some of the lowest income families in our country keep more of their hard-earned money', he was cutting this by 8 per cent.

Sunak said that this, with an increase in work allowances by £500, would mean a tax cut next year of £2bn, and that two million families would be around £1,000 a year better off next year.

According to Sunak, 'A single mother of two, renting, and working full-time on the National Living Wage will be better off by around £1,200 and a couple, renting a home with their two children, one working full-time, the other working part-time will be better off, every single year, by £1,800.'

While such changes would usually be implemented at the start of the tax year in April, the Chancellor said the move would be brought in by 1 December to help people now.

Extract from the Chancellor’ Autumn Budget and Spending Review speech on support for children

‘The evidence is compelling that the first 1,001 days of a child’s life are the most important.

‘My Right Honourable Friend, the Member for South Northamptonshire has recognised this with her inspirational report.

‘And we are responding today with £300m for:

‘A Start for Life offer for families;

High-quality parenting programmes; Tailored services to help with perinatal mental health;

‘And, I’m pleased to tell the Member for Congleton, funding to create a network of Family Hubs around the country too.

‘To improve the quality of childcare, we’re going to pay providers more – with today’s Spending Review providing an extra £170m by 2024-25.

‘We’re confirming £150m to support training and development for the entire early years workforce.To help up to 300,000 more families facing multiple needs, we’re investing an extra £200m in the Supporting Families programme. And we will provide over £200m a year to continue the holiday activity and food programme.’

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