Only one in 10 parents have been able to obtain government codes that will allow them to access the new ‘free’ childcare hours for two-year-olds.
The figures come from parenting campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed, which has described the new scheme as being “drafted on the back of a fag packet”.
The government announced it would gradually expand free childcare to children between the ages of nine months and two in last year’s Spring budget.
From April 2024, working parents of two-year-olds are eligible to claim 15 hours of free childcare per week, but thousands of parents have been unable to sign up for the scheme, according to Pregnant then Screwed.
Free childcare hours
Budget 2023: Free childcare hours expanded to younger children
It found that only 55% of parents have found a childcare setting that will accept the free hours, while 25% have said the setting they use has given them a deadline to supply the code which is before they will receive it.
Almost a fifth (17%) of parents surveyed by Pregnant then Screwed said they did not understand how the system works.
The government said the codes would be available from 2 Jan this year, but only 11% have been able to obtain one.
A number of nurseries have informed parents that they will not accept the codes because they cannot afford to cover the extra hours.
One mother told the organisation: “On 2 Jan, my nursery dropped the bombshell that they ‘cannot afford to continually take a hit on the deficit between our daily rate and what we are receiving from the government – even with charging parents a consumable (top up)’ so therefore they are opting out of the 15/30 hour government funding from April 2024.
“This means by May, my monthly outgoing on childcare alone will be close to £2,000 a month. For context, our mortgage is £1,300 a month (up from £995 last year). I just do not know how or if we can afford this and it adds insult to injury that there is funding we’re entitled to yet can’t utilise due to not enough provision in the area we live.”
Others have reported being stuck in a loop on the government website where they must apply for a code, or having been given incorrect advice on its childcare helpline.
Joeli Brearley, CEO and founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, said it had been “inundated” with messages from parents.
“Meanwhile, many providers haven’t been given the information they need from their local authority to decipher what their income will be from April onwards. Parents can’t access their codes, providers can’t do their financial forecasting – it’s chaos,” she said.
Brearley added that many parents had been told they could not apply for a code until their ‘reconfirmation window’ in their childcare account opened, but this will not happen until late March.
Sixty-nine per cent of parents said their reconfirmation window was not open yet, the charity found, and 49% said the deadline with their nursery was before this window opened.
Because the scheme begins on 1 April, this will mean thousands of parents are out of pocket. Furthermore, providers themselves are under additional administrative pressure to process codes before the scheme starts.
Brearley said: “With just 1 in 10 parents successfully accessing their code, the majority are still unsure as to whether they will be able to secure the funded hours they so desperately need.
“Why does it often feel as though these schemes are drafted on the back of a fag packet without proper consideration for the end user?
“Parents struggling to understand the system or trying to secure their code are told to call the childcare services helpline, but parents we have spoken to complain of being on call waiting for very long periods, with many saying the line then cuts out.
“Our benefit helpline isn’t able to keep up with demand, and we’re being flooded with messages. We’ve become a childcare helpline for the government overnight.”
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