Working migrant families 'locked out' of funded childcare expansion

Despite meeting the Department for Education’s eligibility criteria around working hours, human rights charity Praxis says that around 20,000 families are missing out on the government’s expanded childcare offer due to visa stipulations.

From 1 April all eligible parents of two-year-olds are entitled to 15 hours funded childcare, which is set to increase to 30 hours for all children aged nine months to four years old from September 2025.

• The Big Debate: How could government-funded childcare be more sustainable?

• Inspections clinic: Early years inspection updates

Parents, including those who have children with special educational needs and disabilities, whose visas state they have No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) are unable to access public services despite living and working in the UK.

This means parents are forced to give up work and children risk falling behind their peers from a young age, campaigners warn.

Anna Berry*, a campaigner with lived-experience of migration policies and member of the NRPF Action Group, said: “Without proper support from an early age, children fall behind in their education, which can have bad, long-term consequences – sometimes they will never catch up.

“We want our children to be free - free to be equal, free to access education.”

Praxis highlights the story of Joy*, the mother of a two-year-old girl.

Joy was forced to flee an abusive relationship with her daughter, becoming a single parent in the process.

Yet, despite working the hours required by the government, she doesn’t qualify for the 15 hours childcare because her visa comes with NRPF condition – meaning that she can’t access public support for herself of her daughter.

After fleeing her partner she had to stop working because she couldn’t afford childcare and she had nowhere to leave her daughter while she was at work – she even borrowed money to keep her daughter in nursery for a while to support her development, but eventually she had to stop.

Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz, policy and public affairs manager at Praxis, said: “If the government is serious and really wants to enable parents to get back to work, free childcare should be extended to all families – not just those holding a blue passport.”

More than 16,000 have signed a petition calling on Education Secretary Gillian Keegan to allow access to funded childcare for those living in the UK under NRPF conditions.

A government spokesperson said: "The government expects migrants coming to the UK to be able to maintain and accommodate themselves without the support of public funds.

“However, there are strong and important safeguards in place to ensure vulnerable individuals can receive support.

“In September 2022, we extended eligibility for the two-year-old entitlement to disadvantaged families who have no recourse to public funds, subject to income thresholds that are broadly equivalent to those for families who can access benefits."