Wales' First Minister has repeatedly refused to commit to matching the level of childcare support in England. In his budget last week, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt pledged to offer 30 hours of free childcare to working parents of all children over the age of nine months in England. See more detail on that here.
The Welsh Government will receive money because of the policy in England through the Barnett formula but it is up to the Welsh Government how this money is allocated. Welsh Labour's deal with Plaid in the Senedd in 2021 had included a pledge to extend free childcare here to all two year olds but this has not yet been fulfilled yet and will not benefit parents of children under the age of two.
During First Minister’s Questions in the Senedd the Leader of the Opposition, Andrew RT Davies asked the First Minister three times if he would introduce the expansion of free childcare to one and two-year-olds.
Mr Davies said to Mr Drakeford: "Can you confirm that the Welsh Government will be bringing forward a policy that will have a childcare offer for nine months to two years, and then, obviously, building on what is already the offer here in Wales?"
In response, First Minister claimed that the Chancellor's announcement was "an attempt in England to catch up with services that are already available here in Wales. It's quite certainly not the other way around" adding "the promises—the aspirations, we might say—that the Chancellor set out, all of them carefully calibrated to make sure they land the other side of a general election, are simply attempting to catch up with the services that are already available here in Wales."
He said that families with three and four-year-olds here in Wales get 30 hours of childcare for 48 weeks of the year whereas in England that's 38 weeks of the year. He then pointed to the co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru which has seen more parents of children over the age of two in flying start areas get access to 12.5 hours of free childcare a week. There is however no scheme currently planned or operational in Wales to benefit parents of children under two. For daily analysis of the big issues sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here
Mr Drakeford said: "We already do far more in Wales than they do in England, and they'll be very lucky indeed if they catch up with where we are already."
Still pushing on the point Andrew RT Davies said: "Can we have clarity around this question? Will you deliver childcare for one and two-year-olds?"
In response the First Minister said that in Wales the Welsh Gov were investing, "£70 million in capital investment in this sector, so that it can grow and take more children into childcare. There is not a penny piece, not a single penny piece, in the Chancellor's announcement of capital investment in the childcare sector in England. We will provide 100 per cent rate relief for the sector here in Wales: £10 million in rate relief to support the sector. "
He then added: "I'm not copying anybody else; this is devolved Wales where we make our own decisions. And the decisions we are making will do far, far more for far, far more families, and not on an aspirational basis, not on the basis that this may happen, some time in the distance when you know you won't be in power, we will be doing it in this Senedd term, with the money and the determination that this Senedd provides for it.."
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