Labour's Bridget Phillipson vows to reform 'free hours' childcare

Bridget Phillipson says the current system is "broken"

Labour says it would overhaul childcare in England to make it work better for families if it wins power.

The party's shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said "extortionate" costs were "pricing parents out of jobs they love".

Labour would "move away" from the current system based on free hours, which was "broken", she said.

The policy details were still being worked out, she added, but she claimed it would reduce costs for parents.

It comes as a report by charity Coram found the average annual cost of a full-time nursery place for a child under two in Great Britain is now £14,836.

• Full-time nursery for under-twos nearly £15k a year

• Who can get free childcare across the UK?

• Full-time nursery for under-twos nearly £15k a year

Labour is attempting to position itself as the "party of the family" ahead of the general election, widely expected next year.

But the government also believes it has a strong offer to working parents.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is reported to be planning to expand subsidised childcare for working parents in next week's Budget.

In her speech, Ms Phillipson said Labour rejected that approach.

"Simply bolting more hours onto a failing system will not tackle the problem of availability and will not tackle the problem of affordability," she said.

Ms Phillipson said the current system of childcare support, delivered through a series of programmes, was "complex and confused".

The government's proposed changes to childcare ratios, she added, had been rejected by industry bodies and would fail to cut costs for parents.

The "modern" system planned by Labour would provide support from the end of parental leave until children leave primary school aged 11, she told a Tory-linked think tank.

Speaking to the BBC after her speech, she said childcare needed to be better integrated into the education system, adding "for to long it's been seen as separate".

In England, all three and four-year-olds are currently entitled to 15 hours of free childcare per week in term time, or 38 weeks a year. Similar schemes are also in place across the rest of the UK.

Two-year-olds can also get up to 15 hours of free childcare under certain circumstances, whilst parents who contribute to a tax free scheme can get up to £2,000 a year in government top-ups.

The government has faced calls, including from Conservative MPs, to increase childcare subsidies.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the UK is among the most expensive countries for childcare in the world.

Ms Phillipson did not give any details of how Labour would fund its future scheme.

But she suggested that developing a new offer to parents would be a priority for Labour, adding that childcare would be a "central" issue at the next election.

She added that she had already visited Estonia and Australia to get inspiration for its future policy, and would also be looking at the models in Singapore and Ireland.

She also said the party would not seek to bring back Sure Start children's centres introduced under New Labour and often cited by the party's MPs as a major achievement.

Ms Phillipson said the centres had "made a massive difference" to children's lives but they had too often failed to prioritise education and healthcare.

She added that they had also proved too easy to be "undone" by future Conservative governments, whereas Labour was now searching for a solution that is "part of our infrastructure".