Conservatives make 30-hour free childcare promise

At the launch of his party's manifesto, Conservative leader David Cameron said the extension, which doubles the current free universal allocation of 15 hours a week, would save families £5,000 a year.

Labour has already pledged in its manifesto to increase free childcare to 25 hours a week.

Cameron said: “Because of the changes we have made to curb pension relief for the highest earners, we can afford to make the following commitment.

"We are going to take that free childcare – and for working families, we will double it.”

But the Pre-school Learning Alliance has questioned whether the pledge will be properly funded should the Conservatives return to power in May.

Neil Leitch, Pre-school Learning Alliance chief executive said: “Although in theory any steps taken to improve the availability of childcare are positive, we would seriously question how feasible this pledge is in practice.

“At the moment, government funding does not cover the cost of delivering 15 hours of childcare for three- and four-year-olds, and so it has been left to providers and parents to make up the shortfall.

"It is difficult to see, therefore, how plans to double the current offer without addressing this historic underfunding can be implemented without leading to even higher childcare costs, or risking the sustainability of the sector altogether.”

Other commitments that are set to impact on children and young people include a pledge to reduce the benefits cap from £26,000 to £23,000.

Measures to clamp down on benefits and access to social housing for EU migrant families have also been pledged.

EU families will have to have lived in the UK for four years before being able to claim child benefit or be considered for council housing.

The manifesto also makes a commitment to “eliminate child poverty” through “recognising the root causes of poverty; entrenched worklessness, family breakdown, problem debt and drug and alcohol dependency”.

For schools the manifesto pledges to require all secondary school pupils to take GCSEs in English, maths, a science, a language and history or geography.

Ofsted will be instructed not to award its highest ratings to schools that refuse to teach these subjects.

Meanwhile the free school and academy programme will continue should the Conservatives win the general election, with at least 500 new free schools opening in the next parliament.

Schools that are judged by Ofsted to require improvement or failing will be forced to convert to academy status “unless it can demonstrate that it has a plan to improve rapidly.”

Last week the Conservatives also unveiled plans to force children that fail their primary school Sats exams to retake them at secondary school.

The pupil premium, brought in under the coalition government and a key plank of the Liberal Democrats’ 2010 manifesto, will be retained, as will free school meals for infants at primary school.

The Conservatives' have also pledged to continue expansion of the National Citizen Service scheme, providing a guaranteed place for all 16- and 17-year-olds that want one.