Sheffield '˜sees childcare costs double under Tories'

Parents are paying £1,600 more a year for part-time childcare in 2016 compared to 2010 nationally, with costs of £88 a week for 25 hours of care rising to £118 over the six-year period.

However in Sheffield, families have endured a 117 per cent price rise from £91 a week for 25 hours of care to £198. This means it is now costing £5,564 a year for families to pay for childcare.

Labour say urgent analysis is needed on how Sheffield’s prices have risen so dramatically in such a short space of time.

Jenny Chapman, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Childcare and Children, said: “These figures are yet more evidence that the Tories are just not serious about putting working people first. Their pre-election rhetoric on childcare has failed to match reality and it is children, parents and our economy that is paying the price.”

Labour asked local authorities to detail the childcare available and prices in their area. Of the 100 councils that replied, they provided an average cost to families of local authority care, and those who use child-minders and private nurseries registered with them.

In Yorkshire and Humber 25 hours of nursery care for children under two cost £84 in 2010, and rose to £97 in 2016, which means parents are paying £697 more a year.

For those over two, nursery costs have shot up from £79 a week in 2010 to £93 in 2016. Parents are paying £759 a year more in total.

Cost increases are similar for parents sending their children to childminders, and increases were also seen in Hull, Leeds, Wakefield, Bradford, Doncaster, Rotherham, York, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, Barnsley and Kirklees.

Ms Chapman said: “We think that the reason for this uplift is around availability and that supply and demand has led to this extortionate increase. At the last election there was this big auction around childcare. Every political party was making the best offer it possibly could because we realise what a huge concern it is to parents.”

She said the Conservatives have come unstuck by promising an unrealistic 30 free hours of childcare a week to 630,000 three and four-year-olds during their election campaign. The National Audit Office has since said the plan will help 390,000 children, and Labour say the whole scheme is under-funded by £500m.

York is currently trialling this extension of free care to three-and-four-year olds with a £13m pilot.

There has also been a delay on the Government’s tax free child care plan, which now won’t be rolled out until 2017 due to a legal challenge from the Childcare Vouchers Providers Association.

A Government spokesman said they are investing a record £6bn in childcare to help working families and their tax-free child-care plan will be worth up to £2,000 a year per child for two million families when it is introduced in 2017.

He said: “This means a family with two children can claim childcare support worth up to £40,000 by the time both children are at school.

“Our recent parent survey showed the overall costs had stabilised for the first time in over a decade.

“But there is more to be done, which is why in the Budget last month we announced further funding to expand the number of breakfast clubs and give a quarter of secondary schools increased opportunity to extend their school day. We’re also increasing funding by £300m per year to support nurseries to deliver more free places for parents.”

The Government was also under fire last night over its plans to turn all schools into academies, as Conservative backbenchers raised doubts about the implications for rural schools in places such as Yorkshire.