Labour pledges direct funding to providers of 30 hours childcare offer

The party's shadow early years minister Tracy Brabin said the change would be part of efforts to simplify the overly complex childcare funding system, were Labour to get elected.

"We'd shift to supply-side funding so money would go directly to settings," Brabin told CYP Now in an exclusive interview.

"We need to make it simpler - you have tax-free childcare that nobody uses, the hugely popular childcare vouchers and 30 hours where providers need to re-register every three months. The system needs to be streamlined."

Organisations within the early years sector have raised a series of concerns about the way the government's 30 hours offer is funded, both prior to, and since, it was introduced in September 2017.

A study published in April found that small childcare providers are struggling to make ends meet, with some considering closing their doors for good, due to a shortfall in government funding for 30 hours.

The government has introduced requirements on local authorities to pass on more of the money they receive from central government to frontline childcare providers - 93 per cent of the funding they receive from government in 2017/18 and 95 per cent from April 2018, amid concerns they were holding some back.