Free care for tots is just the job

PRIME Minister Gordon Brown has made an ambitious pledge to introduce free nursery places for all two-year-olds. The £1bn scheme will take several years to introduce, but will make a huge difference to thousands of families by giving mothers the opportunity to go back to work. Currently, it’s only three and four-year-olds who receive up to 15 hours’ free childcare a week. Brown said he wanted to bring the age down to two to help hard-working families climb the ladder. Reporter Marina Berry asked some of Oldham’s young families how they felt about the pledge . . .

Rebecca Lee pays £18 a week for her two-year-old son, Thomas, to go to pre-school nursery three afternoons a week.

She said the cost had risen since her daughter, Maisie, now aged five, was two, when she paid £10 a week for the same level of care.

The former travel agent said the cost of full-time childcare for Thomas was too high to make it worth her while to go to work.

“Nearly all my wage would go on childcare. I’d be left with about £20 a week extra,” she said.

“I know it’s awful to say it, but what is the point of that? I may as well stay at home and look after Thomas myself,” added Rebecca (24), of Assheton Road, High Crompton.

Grandmother Eileen Whitehead’s two daughters have four children between them, ranging from five to 13.

Rely

She puts in many hours of unpaid childcare to help her daughters stay in work.

Eileen (64), of Saddleworth, said: “When my grandchildren were two, their parents had to rely on us grandparents or put them in a nursery.

“There was many a time both our girls came home from work with hardly anything to show for it because nearly all their wages had gone on childcare.”

Jane Orritt, of Chadderton, steps in when needed to look after her grandson Kieran Boothroyd, who has just turned three.

“My daughter-in-law has to work in the evenings and all day Sunday while my son looks after Thomas, but they can’t afford to do in any other way,” said Jane.

“Ideally, they would both work during the day and have family time together in the evenings, but they can’t because of the cost of childcare.”

Hayley Smith (24), of Longfellow Close, Sholver, forks out £25 a week for nursery care for her youngest son, Corey (2).

She doesn’t work and has two other children, Brandon (6) and Lewis (3). She said she can’t even think about getting a job because of the cost of childcare.

“It would be good if childcare was free for two-year-olds,” she said. I would be glad of the opportunity to work, but I just couldn’t afford it now.”

Vicky Blackwell, of Laburnum Road, Limeside, has had to put a college course on hold so she can look after her two-year-old son Lee.

She said: “It would cost £130 a week for childcare, and there’s no way I could afford that. It doesn’t seem fair that care is offered free to children at three but not at two.”

The £1bn cost to the country was enough for mother-of-two Helen Delderfield to say free childcare at two should only be offered to those who can’t afford to pay.

The 35-year-old works full-time hours over four days so she can spend one weekday with Willow (1) and Eleanor (4).

Both have been in childcare for the rest of the working week since they were six months old.

Helen (35), of Arthurs Lane, Greenfield, said: “On a personal level, it would have been brilliant to get free childcare from when Eleanor was two, but we didn’t particularly need it.

“For everyone to get it would cost a lot of money for a country which is not doing so well.”