York’s childcare pilot project to provide 30 hours of free childcare a week for parents of three and four year olds has been a runaway success and has significantly exceeded the target set for it by the Government, with an extra 900 children taking up this offer.
The Conservative run City of York Council has exceeded the target of 1,036 set by the Department for Education for participation in the pilot and has now registered close to 2,000 children for free additional hours.
The council has benefited from 100% commitment from all of York’s 220 providers of early education places, including private nurseries, playgroups, and childminders and out of school clubs, among others. This overwhelming support has helped hundreds of additional working parents in York to benefit from the programme.
This Conservative Government initiative, which will be available to parents all over the county from September, is designed to save families around £5,000 a year on childcare costs and to help parents back to work.
Conservative Cllr. Stuart Rawlings, Executive Member for Education, Children and Young People said: Parents have told me that they’ve been able to start work again, increase their working hours or even start up their own businesses because of the extra 30 hours childcare. It’s helped to take away some of the financial stress and has offered them the flexibility their families need.
“Thanks to the creativity and dedication of the professionals, parents are getting this huge boost. The hard work of nurseries, preschools, playgroups, clubs and childminders, together with the council’s own dedicated team is opening doors for parents who may previously have felt as if they were working just to pay for childcare.”
For more information on details of all of the childcare support offered by the Government, the new Childcare Choices has just been launched: