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The Conservatives are saying they will be delivering the largest expansion of childcare in history but give no mention of the early years workforce who are on their knees and extremely worried about their sustainability as this expansion rolls out- with funding rates consistently lower than the cost of providing a high-quality childcare place.

We need to know if the £500 million commitment to increasing funding rates over the next two years will just cover increasing costs or if it will start to address the funding shortfall.

It is good news that they aim to create a Family Hub in every local authority area, but the sceptics among us think that if they hadn’t closed Children’s Centres, this wouldn’t be needed.

We hope their plan to provide wrap around care for school children considers the PVI sector and not expecting children to be in school premises from 8am until 6pm every day. Children need down time to relax, play and not have every minute of each day regulated and planned.

While we welcome the pledge to increase the number of childminder places, this cannot be at the expense of children by relaxing ratios, or removing the requirement of home from home childcare that is unique to childminding and most beneficial to our youngest children.

Read the full manifesto here or scroll down to the ‘Our Plan to Support Families section’ to see how the Conservative manifesto will affect you.