Free childcare: Plaid Cymru urges Labour to go further

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Adam Price did not say how many free hours of childcare parents of two-year-olds would receive

By James Williams
BBC Politics Wales

Plaid Cymru wants the Welsh Labour government to "go further" on free childcare, according to Adam Price.

Mr Price said his party wants to see ministers "moving as fast as possible" towards offering Plaid's policy of "universal childcare for all children".

As part of the Labour-Plaid Cymru Senedd deal, both parties pledge to expand free childcare to two-year-olds.

The Welsh government said it was committed to supporting "more families accessing funded childcare".

Mr Price did not say how many free hours of childcare parents of two-year-olds would receive.

Speaking on the BBC Politics Wales programme, Mr Price said: "We'll be publishing the detail of that policy and all the other policies in due course."

On free childcare, the current Welsh government policy is to allow working parents of children aged three or four to claim for up to 30 hours of early education and childcare a week for 48 weeks a year.

Under the deal, parents of two-year-olds who are in work and out would benefit from free childcare.

Adam Price said both parties would agree how to "move forward" on changing the council tax system

Asked to clarify if that meant an out-of-work parent would lose the ability to claim free childcare once their child turned three, Mr Price said there would be "some changes in terms of that existing childcare offer as well".

He went on: "And we would want to see them actually moving as fast as possible to a situation, that's Plaid Cymru's policy, of having universal childcare for all children."

The Welsh government's existing Programme for Government for this Senedd term includes a pledge to "fund childcare for more families where parents are in education and training".

On social care, Mr Price said that by the end of 2023, there would be "an implementation plan" based on the recommendations of an independent expert group set up shortly as to how free social care for all will be achieved.

"That's a massive shift in public policy," he said. "The Welsh Labour government have never signed up to that before and we've managed to have this radical shift in position as we have in many other areas."

There is also a pledge to commission independent advice on bringing the net zero emissions target date from 2050 to 2035.

The independent climate change committee has calculated that about 60% of all the reductions required in Wales are in sectors where key powers are mostly the responsibility of the UK government.

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Mr Price: "There's a very important commitment to create a publicly owned energy company"

Questioned how it would be possible to achieve net zero 15 years earlier without a shift in Westminster, Mr Price said: "Well, part of that inevitably does involve ensuring that more of those powers are devolved.

"What we need to ask ourselves is how we can accelerate within the existing powers and that is the reason for setting a more ambitious target.

"There's a very important commitment to create a publicly owned energy company, investing in our own renewable energy potential in wales, which is vast but largely untapped at the moment."

Mr Price said both parties would agree how to "move forward" in terms of changing the council tax system, but the deal contained no concrete proposals as to how that might look.

Asked if he could guarantee the whole programme, including areas where no specific commitments would be delivered, Mr Price replied: "Politics always combines two things which is concrete things that you deliver in the here and now which can make a tangible difference... but, at the same time, it is important that we lay the foundations for the future direction of Wales."

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: "We are committed to supporting more children and families accessing funded childcare and will be working to extend provision, in line with the commitments set out in the Co-operation Agreement.

"We are proud of the high quality childcare we provide through our Flying Start programme, and also our Childcare Offer which is supporting working parents and has been positively received by families across Wales."

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