Early Education and Childcare

David Chadwick Excerpts

Thursday 4th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Morgan]

As I mentioned earlier, there will be more choice and convenience for parents, helping to cut the double drop-off at school and making daily life easier. More families will save money through funded childcare worth up to £7,500 a year, and more children will start school ready to learn. It is a huge programme of work that I know will make a huge difference in my hon. Friend’s constituency.

[David Chadwick (Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe) (LD)]

I wish to declare that I have two young children under the age of four. While the expansion of free childcare is welcome news for parents in England, does the Minister recognise that families in Wales are being left at a serious disadvantage because his colleagues in Cardiff Bay have refused to match that offer, leaving Welsh families with the least generous childcare provision in Britain? Will he join me in urging the Welsh Labour Government to stop holding Welsh families back, and to commit instead to delivering 30 hours of Government-funded childcare from nine months to four years old, which is something the Welsh Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for?

[Stephen Morgan]

As the hon. Member will know, these are devolved matters and it would therefore be appropriate for him to put his question to Wales Office colleagues. We are a Government who are committed to breaking down the barriers to opportunity, and we will be setting out a UK-wide child poverty strategy later this year, to ensure that every child gets the best start in life.