Debate contribution: Universal, Affordable Child-centred Childcare

Debate contribution by Ms Sinéad McLaughlin on 18 November 2024.

MLA

Ms Sinéad McLaughlin

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

18 November 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Universal, Affordable Child-centred Childcare

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4656521

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Since the Assembly was restored, childcare has been a key focus of many contributions in the Chamber. When we debated the issue in February, there was cross-party agreement on the need for progress. Childcare now features in the Programme for Government as a stand-alone priority, which is no small thanks to the determined organising on the part of parents and providers outside this Building to highlight the scale of the crisis facing the sector. However, merely signalling that childcare is important is not enough if it is not properly addressed. There is a real issue here that we must deal with in an ambitious but realistic way, but neither the DUP amendment nor the People Before Profit amendment seeks to do so. The DUP amendment would water down our motion, whilst, sadly, the People Before Profit proposals are not remotely viable or realistic.

No, sorry. I am pushed for time. While there is no doubt that some progress has been made with the introduction of the childcare subsidy scheme —

Yes, obviously, it is very much welcomed. That cross-party intervention has delivered over £1 million of savings to parents in Northern Ireland and is to be commended. However, we still wait for the early learning and childcare strategy to be published more than nine months into the mandate. As we look ahead to the final month of 2024, families are still being put under immense pressure by eye-watering costs that are much higher than their mortgage. Too often, workers in the sector are still subject to low wages and a lack of professional support. Providers still struggle to keep the lights on and the doors open. Registered childminders still ask themselves when they will receive some long-awaited and hard-earned support from the Government. It is clear that the Government need to step up a gear, as the families and providers suffering from crushing costs are done waiting. A 10-year early learning and childcare strategy must be agreed, published and funded without further delay. We in the SDLP know what we want to see from that strategy. We want to see a transformative, ambitious and child-centred approach that meets both the seriousness of the crisis facing families and the opportunity to get this right. We know that the English standardised hours model of childcare does not work in practice. The childcare sector in England is at breaking point, with fewer than half of childcare providers being able to deliver the expanded model and a quarter of providers having said that they are likely to close. The model's focus on working parents means that it fails to make the biggest difference to the children who may need it most. Early education is a tool for intervening positively in a child's earliest days to alleviate disadvantage and level the playing field. By intervening too late and meeting the needs only of some children, the free hours model fails to meet that test. The new strategy must set a much higher ambition. It should treat early education and childcare as what they are: the most important tools at our disposal to address poverty, reduce disadvantage and boost our economy. If we thought about childcare like that, it would seem only sensible for the strategy to cap costs so that no parent would pay more than they could afford and fees would be at least halved by 2030. Denmark, Finland, France, Norway, Portugal and Sweden apply fee caps for public and, sometimes, private services. We can too. With the right priority, we would design a strategy that invests in providers and raises pay and qualifications for workers through a new public funding scheme. We would also put in place a structure around early education that delivers quality through a new independent body and by accelerating cross-border collaboration. In short, we would want a guarantee of affordability for parents, a guarantee of sustainability for providers and workers and a guarantee of the best start in life for every child. As has been said in the House many times, childcare is not just a cost; it is an investment. The money that we need is on the table to start that investment with some of the biggest interventions. The Executive will receive over £70 million from additional Barnett consequentials as a result of higher childcare spending in Britain. Unlike the DUP in its amendment, we believe that that money should be ring-fenced and invested immediately. Finally, let us demand that the Government move heaven and earth to build the system that parents, providers and children deserve. Nothing is more important than that.

774 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:31 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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