Families can save £40 a week in childcare under new plans to relax rules over children-to-adult ratios

• Proposals involve changing staff-to-child ratios from 1:4 to 1:5 for two-year-olds
• The Government said that this could ‘potentially eventually’ reduce the cost
• But England’s largest early years organisation has criticised the plan 

Families could save £40 a week under government plans to relax rules around how many youngsters can be looked after by individual childcare providers.

The proposals involve changing staff-to-child ratios from 1:4 to 1:5 for two-year-olds. 

Ministers say that this will give providers more flexibility in how they run their businesses while maintaining safety and quality of care.

The Government said this could ‘potentially eventually’ reduce the cost of this form of childcare by up to 15 per cent – or up to £40 per week for a family paying £265 per week for care – if providers adopt the changes and pass all the savings on to parents.

Families could save £40 a week under government plans to relax rules around how many youngsters can be looked after by individual childcare providers. The proposals involve changing staff-to-child ratios from 1:4 to 1:5 for two-year-olds

But a charity which is England’s largest early years organisation has criticised the plan. 

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said: ‘The Government is wasting its time consulting on relaxing ratios. It will not only fail to lower the cost of early years places, but… will drive down quality and worsen the sector’s already catastrophic recruitment and retention crisis.’

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said: ‘Childcare is an integral part of our economy, and these reforms prove again that this Government is on the side of working families.’

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