Council presses Welsh Government to provide free childcare

Twm Owen, local democracy reporter

Families have moved to Wales from England without realising they will lose entitlement to free childcare from nine months old, councillors have been told.

Monmouthshire County Council has now agreed to write to the Welsh Government to ask that it also provide free childcare for the youngest children.

Across the border up to 30 hours a week of free childcare has been available, depending on circumstances, since September 1 this year while the offer of the same amount of hours in Wales only applies to three and four-year-olds.

Monmouthshire councillors unanimously backed the call for the Welsh Government to match what’s available in England by providing free childcare from nine months.

Childcare costs

Conservative councillor for Portskewett Lisa Dymock, who asked the council to agree it should write to the government, said childcare costs are “one of the biggest challenges facing families in Monmouthshire.”

The councillor for the village at the foot of the second Severn Crossing told the council’s September meeting: “Some families have moved to Monmouthshire, from England, and have not realised they do not have the same childcare offer available to them.”

Her party colleague, Govilon and Llanfoist councillor Tomos Davies, said: “The saying is it takes a village to raise a child but here in Monmouthshire, and across Wales, many parents have to ask families to do that due to escalating childcare costs that rival a mortgage.”

Labour councillor for the same ward, Ben Callard, said he has a friend who has to pay £1,500 a month in childcare costs for just one child. He also made a light hearted suggestion younger families should move back to Monmouthshire to take advantage of free childcare from their own parents.

‘Cross-party support’

The council’s Labour cabinet member for education Laura Wright said she hoped Cllr Dymock’s motion would get cross-party support and said while the Welsh Government’s childcare offer “has been a real help” she welcomed “the principle” of matching what’s available in England but said it had to funded and shouldn’t “undermine” the sector.

The Abergavenny Grofield councillor said she had already raised the issue with Welsh education secretary, Torfaen MS Lynne Neagle, and said: “I will write to the minister and ask her to review and outline the Welsh Government’s plans to extend childcare and that must be in consultation with providers and funded at a level that reflects the real costs.”

Cllr Wright said providers “deserve the security” of funding that “allows them to remain viable” and also said Monmouthshire is supporting the sector such as King Henry VIII School in Abergavenny offering a level two vocational qualification in childcare.