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By Rachel Lawler

 

Childcare practitioners could, in theory, be forced to pay staff below the minimum wage due to the 30 hours offer, according to from the New Economics Foundation.

The thinktank suggested that without passing on additional costs to parents, some settings would have to pay staff 拢7.33 per hour 鈥� which is below the national minimum wage for employees aged 25 and over.

 

The government is currently offering some working parents 30 hours of free childcare for 38 weeks of the year. However, some settings say that the level of funding given to providers does not cover their costs.

 

Lucie Stephens, head of co-production at the New Economics Foundation, commented: 鈥淭his research shows that the whole system for funding childcare in this country doesn鈥檛 really work. Nurseries will either pass on the extra cost to parents, cut services, or squeeze their workers鈥� wages. None of that is good news.鈥�

 

The research comes shortly after an found that 74% of childcare providers that their current funding rate was lower that the cost of providing a place. The average shortfall between the funding and childcare cost was 18%.

 

Neil Leitch, chief executive at the Alliance, said: 鈥淚t is vital that all those working in the early years are paid a fair wage for what is a vital job. And yet we know that many childcare providers face a renewed struggle to keep their doors open every time the national living or minimum wage goes up. Clearly this isn鈥檛 a sustainable position and the New Economics Foundation is right to warn that if the government鈥檚 approach to early years funding doesn鈥檛 change, it is parents who will most likely pay the price through higher fees and charges.鈥�