Free childcare: Wales parents want more financial help

Jade Lily's petition for Wales to match England's pledge has received thousands of signatures

Parents are calling on the Welsh government to offer the same financial support for childcare as England.

In March, it was announced free childcare for working parents in England would be expanded to all children under five by September 2025, to help get parents back to work.

A petition calling for this to be matched in Wales gained 6,000 signatures in 48 hours.

The Welsh government said high-quality childcare was already being rolled out.

Mother-of-two Jade Lily, 30, from Cardiff, started the petition after hearing the experiences of other parents through her Instagram page Mum Life.

• What help is there with childcare costs in Wales?

• Childcare costs put parents off having more children

"I saw that when the UK government announced their childcare policy, a lot of Welsh parents wrongly assumed it would apply to them.

"I have waited since March to find out what the Welsh government plans on doing with the money given to them by the UK government to go towards childcare and there has been no update."

What will parents in England's get?

• Working parents of two-year-olds will get 15 hours of free childcare per week from April 2024

• Children between nine months and two years will get 15 hours from September 2024

• All eligible under-fives will get 30 hours from September 2025

Meanwhile, the Welsh government has two funded childcare schemes for children aged two, three and four.

Under the Childcare Offer, parents and guardians of three and four-year-olds can claim up to 30 hours of free childcare each week, for up to 48 weeks of the year, provided they meet certain criteria.

The second is Flying Start, which provides 12.5 hours of free childcare to some two-year-olds living in more deprived areas of Wales.

This is undergoing a phased expansion and will eventually be available to all two-year-olds as part of a co-operation agreement between the Welsh government and Plaid Cymru.

But Ms Lily said Flying Start was "letting Welsh working parents down".

Kirsty Thomas has signed the petition

Kirsty Thomas, 32, from Bangor, Gwynedd, has two sons, two-year-old Rory and four-month-old Jude.

She signed the petition because "it was nice to see somebody taking charge".

She added: "When I returned to work after having my little boy in 2020, I wanted to return to work full time.

"I worked really hard for a professional career in teaching and ended up paying close to £1,000 a month for childcare, even after the 20% reduction from the government, which was really hard going for us."

The Welsh government said: "We are already rolling out high-quality childcare to two-year-olds across Wales through our Flying Start programme as part of our co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru.

"This is a phased roll-out, taking account of the capacity within the childcare sector across Wales, where we need to see increases in the workforce and the number of settings."

Additional reporting by Danielle Herbert.

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