4Children blog: Jo Swinson MP on how the Liberal Democrats will support childcare

The Liberal Democrats are building a stronger economy and a fairer society: childcare and early years education are central to this to allow parents to return to work and give children the best start in life.

Liberal Democrats recognise that the modern family structure means that often both parents want or have to work. To bring childcare into the 21st century, we have revolutionised the support provided, spending around £5billion a year in the process.

Our most substantial childcare reforms in Government include introducing £2,000 a year per child of tax-free childcare support for parents in work and not in receipt of universal credit. On top of this we have provided 15 hours a week of free early years education for all three and four-year olds, and have extended this to 40% of two-year-olds from poorer households: 260,000 two year-olds will benefit from this.

Despite 13 years in office, Labour only gave 12.5 hours of free childcare to just three- and four-year-olds and only allowed parents to claim back 80% of the costs of childcare through the childcare element of Working Tax Credit. In the Coalition Government, we have increased this to 85% of Universal Credit to ensure that work always pays for low earners. 

The Coalition Government previously announced that Tax-Free Childcare would provide working families with 20 per cent support towards qualifying childcare costs, up to £1,200 per child. However, we recognised that one of the biggest issues that many working families face is the cost of childcare, with average full-time costs across the UK for 40 hours care for a child under two being over £9,000.

This is why the Government has announced that the cost cap in Tax-Free Childcare would be increased to £10,000 in autumn 2015. This means that families will receive up to £2,000 of childcare support per child, two thirds more than originally planned. The plan is to then extend this to around 1.9 million eligible families with children under 12 by autumn 2016. This is significantly faster than previously announced, where children under 12 would have gradually qualified for the scheme over a seven-year period.

Liberal Democrats want to build on these successes in Government and have recently announced plans in our pre-manifesto to go even further with reforms to childcare.

We will start by providing 15 hours a week of free early years education to the parents of all 2 year olds (not just 40%) which would be paid for by cancelling the ineffective Conservative plan to introduce a marriage allowance into the tax system. Following on from this we will then prioritise 15 hours a week free childcare to all working parents with children aged between nine months and two years.

Our long term vision is to make 20 hours of free childcare a week available for all parents with children aged from 2 to 4, and all working parents from the end of paid parental leave (9 months) to two years by 2020.

Over the last four years in government, the Liberal Democrats have shown commitment to helping working families with childcare and one way we have done this is through radical changes we have made to introduce shared parental leave.

Any couple expecting a baby from 5 April next year will now be able, for the first time, to choose to share up to 50 weeks of leave in whatever way they decide. We expect around 285,000 couples will be eligible.

Parents can now choose to spend more time at home as a family in the important early weeks, for example, or the father could decide to take additional leave later on in the first year, perhaps when the mother returns to work.  

With these reforms we can transform the role men play in their child’s upbringing which, as research shows, is so crucial to their development.

Our reforms to childcare are fit for the modern age: genuine financial support, more flexibility for parents and ultimately a fairer balance for both men and women at home and in the workplace. We have plans to go further if returned to government in 2015.

Jo Swinson, Minister for Women and Equalities

Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs

Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire

This is the second in our series of blogs from the main Westminster political parties. Please note the opinions expressed here are the views of the author and do not reflect the views and policies of 4Children.

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