A proposal by the Department for Education (DfE) for the state to subsidise free 30-hours-a-week childcare for parents of children aged between nine months and three years is set to be rejected by Chancellor of Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, according to press reports.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is set to reject a proposal from the DfE for the state to subsidise free 30-hours-a-week in the upcoming Spring budget, according to a report by the i newspaper.
A Treasury source is said to have told the i that the DfE’s proposal for free childcare for parents of children aged between nine months and three years, first reported by The Guardian, would cost £6bn, and so was unaffordable.
The i also reported that Hunt is understood to be ‘analysing other options from the DfE’, including more limited increases in the number of free hours.
