Many of you who visit this site are looking for part time work or are looking to work flexible hours or on a temporary basis. For many people who work part time hours, it is to fit those hours around family and childcare issues.

If you live in the UK then you no doubt watched the recent Budget announcement by Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt. With each announcement made, people of the UK watch to see how they will be affected as the Chancellor makes his way through his speech. 

For some announcements, it’s clear where price increases, freezes or drops are going to affect your household budget. For others, they need a bit more unpicking – especially when some measures are going to be rolled out over a period of time. 

From household bills, to transport fees to energy bills and any financial assistance you might be entitled to in order to make your cost of living more manageable, the Budget announcement is always something that is going to affect us financially in some way – both negatively and positively.

For the March 2023 Budget announcement, Jeremy Hunt announced the biggest ever public investment in childcare in England. 

According to the World Economic Forum, the UK is second only to New Zealand when it comes to childcare costs so this measure is obviously a very welcome move.

If you are a parent, you will know that childcare costs really eat into your financial outgoings. Indeed, that fact that you are doing part time work or looking for part time work might be because you can’t afford to work full time and pay the costs of childcare in your area. 

Part time flexible hours might give you the opportunity to lişterally work around this problem because it means you can avoid the fees of  leaving your child to be cared for five days a week.

Whilst there are of course many men who are the stay at home parent or the primary carer, it is most commonly women who pause – or halt – their career when it is time to start a family. A lot of the time, this decision is made for them, purely because of the costs of childcare.

Many young families are in a situation where a parent simply cannot afford to go to work.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Budget announcement was billed as the ‘Back To Work’ Budget. Its aim is to kickstart the economy following the pandemic and one way to do that is to encourage people back into the workplace. 

Jeremy Hunt says the childcare reforms that he has announced in the Budget will help half a million parents – removing their barriers to work. 

March 2023 Budget Announcement – What Are The Childcare Reforms?

So ,what are the childcare reforms that were announced by the Chancellor in the Budget announcement and will you be able to benefit?

Let’s take a look at some of the key points.

• As a result of the announcement, the current support in place for parents and childcare has more than doubled. 

Who currently receives free childcare support? 

Currently, parents who work more than 16 hours a week and earn less than £100,000 are eligible for 30 hours free childcare per week. 

This has now been expanded so that all children over the age of 9 months can receive free care for up to 30 hours a week.

However, as a parent, don’t expect these measures to come into force immediately. The measures will be rolled out and it will be September 2025 before they are fully in place.

Below is the timeline for when the measures will be rolled out.  

• April 2024: Working parents of 2 year olds will be entitled to 15 hours of free childcare.
• September 2024: The 15 hours of free childcare will be extended to children 9 months old and over.
• September 2025: 30 hours of free childcare will be made available to working parents who have children under the age of 5.

The Chancellor said the roll out must be done at this pace so that more provisions can be made for all the extra children who will be receiving care. Staff and infrastructure will need to be increased. 

Childcare providers will receive an increased hourly rate to help them with the increase in numbers. 

What if I have older children?

If you have older children in school and your hours of work are office hours, for example, the Budget announcements made provisions for this. 

Local authorities and schools are going to be given more funding for ‘wraparound care.’ This means childcare can be accessed by older, school age children from 8am to 6pm. 

By September 2026, it’s expected that primary schools around the country will be offering breakfast clıubs and after school clubs. 

There’s help if you are receiving Universal Credit

There are around 700,000 families currently receiving Universal Credit. 

One very useful change that has been made for those of you on Universal Credit is that, previously, you will have been claiming your childcare fees in arrears. 

This meant you still had the financial strain of finding the fees for childcare before you went to work.

The new change is that these fees will now be available to you upfront. This gives you the peace of mind that your childcare is paid for and you can go out to work to earn money, increase your hours if you want to and make the most of increased cash flow. 

The maximum amount of support for each child has also increased. From £646 to £951 for those of you with one child and £1630 for two children.

Childminder Incentives

One of the childcare provisions which the government hopes to increase is the number of childminders.

Some of you, as working parents, might want to have your children in the care of a childminder. The Budget announcement included £600 incentives for childminders. 

Something to bear in mind is that the carer to child ratio has been increased to be in line with Scotland. Previously, the ratio was one adult to four children. That has now been increased to five children. 

The advantage to this is that it could help you reduce the costs of your childcare. 

However, the Early Years Alliance says it will put extra pressure on the workforce and could sacrifice the quality of care. 

Will You Be Looking For Part Time Work / Longer Hours?

If you are a yoıng family and have felt that you have been excşuded from the workplace because of childcare costs whilst you are at work, do you think the measures announced in the recent Budget will give you the opportunity to look for work? 

Or do you think you could work longer hours than you are currently working because of the new provisions that will come into effect over the next couple of years? 

Critics say that even though parents will be entitled to receive this extra free childcare, those parents looking to get back into the workplace could well find that there are no childcare places available in their area for their child.

All of this extra childcare rests on their being qualified staff and infrastructure in place. As with many other sectors, nurseries are struggling to recruit staff at the moment and, of course, the centres are facing increased energy costs and critics say many nurseries have been forced to close their doors.

So, it remains to be seen how much  the expansion in free childcare will have an effect on working parents. 
If you are currently looking for part time work, take a look at the vacancies currently available in your area to see if there is anything to suit your current requirements.