Child Care Solicitors

The Department for Education (DfE) has launched a consultation on the government’s 30-hour free childcare offer.

The nine-week consultation sets out plans to broaden the types of hours offered to cover 6am to 8pm – as well as extending the minimum length of childcare sessions, so as to provide greater flexibility to mothers and fathers, giving them the support they need.

The consultation follows the Childcare Act being given Royal Assent, meaning the government is on track to deliver its manifesto commitment, backed-up with the greatest ever investment in childcare – an extra £1 billion funding per year over this Parliament and an increase to the national hourly funding rate.

The consultation is being launched with a review into ways of reducing red tape within the sector, so that childcare providers are freed from burdens on their time and resources – giving them more contact time with the children they look after.

Plans will also get underway to fund provider expansions, so they can offer more childcare places in the areas of greatest need and deliver the government offer of 30 hours of free childcare.

Education and Childcare Minister, Sam Gyimah MP, said:

“As a government, we have put helping families at the heart of our agenda.

“Nothing shows this better than our determination to support more families through childcare than ever before – today is the next step in delivering on that commitment.

“Hard-working parents have all sorts of shift patterns, so childcare needs to be more flexible as well as more affordable.

“Our consultation sets out how we could achieve this – with greater choice over the hours available to parents that better meet the demands of the 21st century, so they can balance raising their children with their working lives.”

Mr Gyimah added that some councils were already carrying out innovative work with childcare providers to give more flexible support to parents –including in Brighton and Hove Council, where four out of five year-round nurseries are offering a stretched entitlement, to provide families with childcare support during the holidays. He added that Swindon Council had been offering weekend early education sessions since January 2016.

Mr Gyimah said the government wanted to deliver greater flexibility across the country – and the consultation would ask for views on how government could provide the free childcare offer between 6am to 8pm, to further support working parents in shift patterns and stretch the entitlement across the full year.

Views are also being sought on making sure children with special education needs or disabilities can access the free entitlement.

The governments says that eight local authorities will lead and deliver the doubling of the current 15-hour free childcare offer a year early, starting in the autumn. The early implementers will help shape the Department for Education’s planning, as it prepares for full rollout of the extended childcare offer from September 2017.

An early implementer is City of York Council – Policy and Planning Manager for the council’s childcare strategy service, Nicola Sawyer, said:

“Being an early implementer for the 30-hours free childcare is fantastic news for York’s parents and carers.

“As the only authority in the country to be asked to deliver across the whole local authority area, we feel we are in a very privileged position, as the rest of the country will be learning from our experiences.

“In York, there is already some flexible provision on offer to cover weekends, shift work and early morning or late evening – and we also deliver two stretched offer models across 48 and 51 weeks of the year; however, we are looking forward to continuing to work closely with our providers and parents and carers, to further develop these models of flexible care to meet local need.”

The government says it will be creating more childcare places by targeting funding to those areas where there is greatest need for additional childcare places.

Duncan Lewis Children Lawyers

Duncan Lewis children lawyers can advise parents on a wide range of child care law and family matters, including parents’ duties under the Education Act 1996, maternity and paternity entitlements, and SEND.

Duncan Lewis can also advise on Section 38 enquiries, pre-proceedings meetings, children taken into Local Authority care and Court of Protection cases.

There are Duncan Lewis offices nationwide – and Duncan Lewis advises on family and child care matters under UK law and Islamic law, as well as being able to advise on cross-border family issues, such as child care arrangements, leave to remove and international parent-child abduction.

For expert legal advice on family and child care matters, call Duncan Lewis children lawyers on 0333 772 0409.