While Thursday's announcement was a win for many parents - whilst we must pause and celebrate the delivery of much needed, urgent intervention that we've lobbied for - we know it doesn't help everyone and there are still important questions to ask and work to do.
In our proposal we urged the Executive to call on the Treasury for an immediate removal of the cap on tax-free allowance and extension of the government contribution to families’ childcare accounts from 20% to 30%.
Or alternatively, to find a way to ‘top up’ the additional contribution from the block grant – as this would have a significantly positive impact on families who are at crisis point due to their childcare bill.
Recent HMRC data (December 2023) shows that there are 15,385 children aged 0-12 (0-17 if SEN) in Northern Ireland who are within the TFC system.
We proposed modelled options to demonstrate that it is essential that the increase to the TFC threshold is also accompanied by removing the cap as those who rely the most on full-time childcare will not see any change to the support they receive.
We proposed options for all parents eligible for TFC, with children aged 0-12. Due to limited finances, the Education Minister agreed with the executive the changes for 0-4 only.
While this is a win for parents most likely to leave the workforce with younger children, we know that parents of school aged children facing wraparound costs continues to be in crisis and we will continue to lobby for the extension of these interim interventions.
Below, you can read through some of the important points we raised during the meeting with Education Minister, Paul Givan. Worth noting, we had only just received the news ourselves and had only one hour to discuss - we will be raising further questions in our next meeting w/c 27 May.
While it's the Education Minister's role to deliver, as a political priority it needs support from all Executive parties. We will continue to work with all political parties and keep our focus on tangible delivery for parents.
Transitioning all pre-school education places to 22.5 hours a week:
- Pre-school is not childcare: We talked with the Minister about 22.5 hours and while welcomed generally, we discussed the fact that pre-school is not childcare and 22.5 hours of pre-school does not actually financially/practically help full time working parents.
- Queried the £25million budget allocation: We asked if this was for designated for childcare only, or childcare and early learning. The Minister confirmed the budget is for both childcare and early learning.
- Queried delivery, capacity and timescales
- Accessible & affordable wraparound care: We discussed that without accessible, affordable wraparound care, it leaves parents in two camps; either parents can't accept their child's pre-school place or for those that do, childcare costs remain the same because of high fees, snack fees, pick up & drop off fees etc.
Targeted business support scheme for childcare providers:
- Although there’s further detail to come - the announcement means that struggling providers will have support to prevent closures, we all know providers are a key part of our family infrastructure and losing them is devastating.
- While this will benefit providers in crisis, it doesn’t fix the staffing/recruitment crisis, low staff wages and accessibility of childcare.
Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme:
We welcomed the NI subsidy scheme as a good start as urgent intervention within limited funds and time and shared that parents of children ages 0-4 are most likely to leave the workforce. We also discussed the following:- Increasingly, parents are leaving the workforce due to rising costs, not solely due to accessibility: We shared with the Minister that recently our parent stories have transitioned from "I'm worried about childcare costs accessibility" to "I'm leaving my job" - which is a key reason we set up this campaign, to prevent parents, and particularly mothers from leaving the workforce and losing their career.
- This is just the start of measures needed: We know this won't help all parents, particularly those who have already left the workforce or those on Universal Credit - but this is a good step in preventing parents leaving the workforce which is as important as curing it. Both need to happen to deliver for parents.
- Queried delivery & due diligence of scheme: We pushed back on particular queries around the delivery of the childcare subsidy scheme, the delivery via providers and the risks associated (price hikes, no cap on how many rises throughout the year, new fees elsewhere etc).
- Provider pricing regulation: We told parent stories of multiple price rises within 12 months e.g. at Christmas, April and are concerned about a rise later in the year. We also discussed the lack of regulation on this - that parents only option is to check their contracts.
- Recommended clear education & communication to parents: Parents need to fully understand how it will work for them in practice.
- Queried provider consultation: We asked if providers had been consulted on this mode of delivery.
- We were assured there will be due diligence on risks and will continue to ask questions in our meeting with the Childcare Strategy team.
- Students: We discussed the issues around students not being able to access tax free childcare and how this is leading to difficulties as with affording childcare to attend University. We gave the example of nursing students struggling to afford childcare to continue with their degree and the wider impact on the NHS.
- Queried if the NI Childcare Scheme was extended to parents of disabled children who currently access tax-free childcare: The Minister confirmed yes.
- Struggling providers: We also welcomed the fund for struggling providers and shared our devastation for parents when their provider closes.
Next Steps:
As part of our wider strategy and goals as a campaign, we will be engaging with the Executive and MLAs to keep the pressure on ensuring delivery of commitments announced this week and also build momentum on getting the Childcare Strategy off the ground.
We will continue to ensure lived experience and parent representation is a key part of co-design. We will also continue to lobby Westminster and UK Government, with our own manifesto that will make the case for childcare as an economic enabler as well as specific asks to Treasury who implement Tax-Free Childcare.
Our campaign is a marathon, not a sprint. We’ll keep working to ensure no families are left behind.