Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt announced a raft of reforms to England’s childcare system in his latest Budget, including plans to expand access to funded childcare places to children over nine months old by 2025.
The reforms received backlash from childminders and organisations supporting the profession, who said that the funding available fails to account for the actual costs of providing a childcare place, leaving childminders with a shortfall in income.
With the government expanding funded places to include younger children, “childminders risk making a loss on all children’s spaces, which will render it impossible to remain sustainable”, said Claire Kenyon, childminder and founder of the Early Years Equality organisation.
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