Keir Starmer has promised to make childcare more accessible with tens of thousands of more places being made available to help parents tackle soaring costs.
Labour’s manifesto today outlined the party will “expand our childcare and early-years system” and offer high-quality early education should it win the upcoming General Election. The manifesto said childcare plan draws from initiatives from all across the world and vows to stretch from the end of parental leave all the way until the end of primary school.
Labour has promised to create more than 3,000 new nursery classes across England which it said would further open access to childcare hours for families. “Supporting children in the early part of their life also means giving parents the flexibility they need to care for their children,” the manifesto said.
In a bid to drive up places, spare school classrooms will be converted into “high quality” spaces for nurseries. The refurbishment will be paid for by ending tax breaks for private fee-paying schools.
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According to DayNurseries, a nursery advisory website, the average cost of putting a child in a nursery part time in the UK was £8,194 in 2024. This has increased from the £7,729 in 2023.
Labour said the move will support some 750,000 parents to re-enter the workforce. The party also promises its childcare support will help 500,000 more children hit Early Learning Goals by 2030.
Breakfast clubs make up a central part of the party’s childcare pledge, which will be funded by ending tax loopholes and clamping down on tax evasion, of which it says advantages include:
- Providing free breakfast clubs in every primary school in England
- Driving up attendance and standards as well as improving behaviour via the breakfast club scheme
- Giving parents choices for an earlier start to the working day
“Breakfast clubs improve behaviour, attendance and learning,” the manifesto said. “Our breakfast clubs will support parents through the cost-of-living crisis.”
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Further Labour school pledges
An additional 6,500 new expert teachers will be recruited to deal with the shortages of qualified educators across the country. Labour said in its manifesto: “We will get more teachers into shortage subjects, support areas that face recruitment challenges, and tackle retention issues. The way bursaries are allocated, and the structure of retention payments, will be reviewed.”
The party said it would raise school standards with early education and further promotion of phonics. The manifesto pledges to deliver a similarly successful scheme for numeracy as well as improving the “quality of maths teaching” across nurseries and primary schools.