Within its submission to the Treasury, the CBI, a membership organisation which supports 190,000 businesses, calls for additional investment and reform to childcare and early years support to create an ‘accessible and affordable system’, helping people to remain, return and progress in employment.
It says this should include:
- Launching an independent review of childcare with the objective of reducing the service cost for parents, while maintaining high-quality provision, creating a sustainable funding and employment model, and increasing parental employment.
- Increasing funding so providers receive funding that ‘reflects the true cost of service provision’, with a clear timeline for when funding will be provided.
- The roll out of existing provision for three and four-year-olds to all one and two-year-olds, taking into account their differing needs.
- Paying childcare support through universal credit upfront rather than in arrears.
The CBI estimates the annual cost of the above three measures to be £8.9bn.
Other measures it recommends are to launch a two-year pilot of turning the Apprenticeship Levy into a ‘Skills Challenge Fund’, allowing firms to spend the fund on a variety of accredited training and skills, and expanding the scope of health support as a non-taxable benefit in kind to muscoskeletal conditions, mental health and ergonomics.
The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) advised that the Government reform the existing childcare system before expanding it to include more children and hours.
Its director of business development Cara Brundle said, 'Parents really need the Government to contribute more towards the high cost of childcare in the UK, currently their contribution is among the lowest in OECD countries.
'Investing in high quality early education and care is the right thing to do for children’s futures and to enable more parents and grandparents to work, therefore also contributing towards the economy.
'But the Government really needs to reform the existing system before expanding it to include more children and more hours.
'Any expansion at existing hourly rates will lead to further nursery closures, particularly in lower income areas where parents most need access to more affordable childcare and children have the most to gain. The hourly rate must enable all nurseries to be sustainable and flourish otherwise this policy is self-defeating.'