Childcare
Families to get 30 minutes of free childcare with school breakfast clubs trial
State primary schools in England can apply to join the trial before the Government’s national rollout of funded breakfast clubs.
DUP’s Gordon Lyons in apology after Alliance MLA Kate Nicholl accuses him of ‘aggressively’ telling her to sit down
The comments were made by the DUP Communities Minister to the Alliance Party’s Kate Nicholl during a debate on childcare funding.
Parents face higher nursery fees due to national insurance hike, charity warns
Two in five senior staff in childcare settings have said changes in the Budget could lead to permanent closures unless the Government takes action.
Two-tier childcare system is ‘stigmatising’ for disadvantaged families – report
It is now ‘common practice’ for early years settings to ask families to pay additional charges on top of Government-funded hours, a study has said.
Government looking at ‘challenge’ of nursery staff shortages ahead of expansion
Primary schools can now apply for a share of £15m capital funding to deliver up to 300 new or expanded nurseries in England.
Funding applications open for primary schools to deliver nurseries in England
It forms the first stage of the Government’s plan to open an additional 3,000 school-based nurseries.
Extra childcare places in new school-based nurseries available from next year
The Education Secretary said early years education and childcare were her ‘first priority’ as she set out the Government’s plans.
Rachel Reeves commits to improving women’s lives by closing gender pay gap
The Chancellor said it is a ‘huge responsibility’ to be the first woman to head the Treasury and she wants to ‘improve life for women’.
Expansion of funded childcare could tackle large disadvantage ‘gap in enrolment’
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the pledge to roll out 30 hours of funded childcare a week for working parents in England ‘won’t be easy’.
UK among nations with lowest spending per child on pre-primary education – OECD
The child-teacher ratio in preschool education in the UK increased by more than 5% per year, according to the study.