There are fewer than 400 surviving state preschools across the country, which are considered the pinnacle of early years education but have struggled to survive in the face of budget pressures. Labor plans to expand the state nursery sector as part of wider plans to build a high-quality, affordable childcare system that better meets the needs of modern families and their working lives. As concerns over the cost and availability of childcare increasingly come to a head, Labor is working on an “expanded childcare provision” ahead of the next election and has said it will be one of the issues on the party’s commitment card. This week, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson went to look at childcare and early childhood in the Baltic state of Estonia, where all children are guaranteed a place in state-run nurseries from the age of 18 months until they go to school. at seven, and parents pay just 70 euros a month or less. After announcing plans for fully funded breakfast clubs for every primary school in England, Phillipson wants to develop perimeter care to extend the school day and to that end he went to see some of Estonia’s ‘hobby schools’ – free clubs after schools that support children’s education and offer parents flexibility if they have to work late. “We need a system that better reflects the needs of modern families and the way they live their lives now,” she told the Guardian during her visit to Estonia. “I don’t think you can talk about growing your economy unless you have a childcare system that supports parents. “It is clear to me that we need to see a real transformation in early education and childcare available to parents, brought together in a system that provides seamless support from the end of parental leave to the end of primary school.” Mainly, Labor is seeking to close the gap between the end of parental leave and the start of 30 hours of free childcare, which starts for working parents when a child is three. “For most families there is no support offered, yet most women want to be able to work when they reach the end of their parental leave,” Phillipson said. “Increasingly – and the numbers confirm it – they are retreating in greater numbers because there is no state contribution [during this time]. This has to change. It will be a big priority for me.” He said high-quality early years education was clearly beneficial for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, but stressed he wanted Labour’s offer to “benefit all parents, including many professional parents who find the cost crippling”. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. For now, all policy development comes with a health warning that unless Labor knows the state of the public finances it is impossible to make firm promises. But policymakers are considering repurposing some of the money already in a fragmented and unwieldy child care system. Supported nurseries provide state care for children up to the age of five and often include special provision for special needs or disabilities. They operate like schools and are the closest thing to an Estonian kindergarten in the English system, but only 385 of them survive in England due to high costs. Labour’s plan to grow the sector will remove barriers in current law that prevent local authorities from introducing new childcare provision, except where they can demonstrate there is no other provider that could provide it. “We’d like to expand that element of the sector, but it’s very much ‘direction of travel’ and it won’t happen overnight,” a source said. Beatrice Merrick, the chief executive of the British Association for Early Childhood Education, welcomed Labour’s plans for new state-run nurseries. “We know it is the most effective form of provision, particularly for supporting children with the most complex needs and in the most disadvantaged areas.”
