Reform plans as childcare cost 'rises above inflation'

The government has outlined plans to improve the quality of childcare and make it more affordable to parents as the cost of pre-school care is rising higher than the rate of inflation. The average weekly price of full-time nursery is now £167 and more and more parents are struggling to balance the cost of childcare with full-time work. However in a new report entitled Next Steps for Early Learning and Childcare: Building on the Ten-Year Strategy, the government sets out its intentions to improve flexibility and affordability of childcare.

There are plans to increase the supply of childcare to the country's most deprived children, with the government set to offer free childcare places for 15 per cent of the most disadvantaged two-year-olds across the country.

Childrens' Minister Beverley Hughes said: "With flexible, affordable childcare parents will be able to stay in, or get into employment so we need to ensure that childcare and early learning is a universal public service of the highest standard.

"We want this country to be the best place in the world for children to grow up and in order to ensure that every child gets the best possible start in life; early learning and childcare professionals need to have the same level of professionalism as teachers."