Childcare
The new Childcare Offer, Flying Start, nurseries and childminders, and the early years workforce.
In the Programme for Government this sits under the well-being objective Helping households with the cost of living.
Showing the theme Flying Start and the early years. The Programme commitments are the brief's as a whole.
- Statements and debates
- 2
- Contributions
- 930
- Written questions
- 24
930 contributions in the Sixth Senedd touched on this. The busiest month was Oct 2022, with 75.
- Labour77%
- Plaid13%
- Conservative7%
- Lib Dem3%
On this page
The debate so far
In the Seventh Senedd, childcare has been debated mainly through Plaid Cymru's pledge of a universal offer. Reform UK used its 10 June debate to demand costings and a timetable, and Labour pressed on funding. The Government has put £55 million into giving all two-year-olds 12.5 hours and gave a £375 million midpoint estimate. Flying Start, the workforce and outcomes data have been recurring concerns.
The main arguments
- Reform UK's Dan Thomas and Helen Jenner argued the Government should publish full costings and a timetable. Welsh Labour's Lynne Neagle cited an Institute for Fiscal Studies estimate of about £400 million a year and asked what would be cut.
- Plaid Cymru's Sioned Williams said the offer would be phased. All two-year-olds get 12.5 hours first. At full roll-out it would be 20 hours for 48 weeks for children from nine months to four years old.
