’30 free hours’ of childcare is really 22 a week

Many employers assume that '30 free hours' means parents of young children have their childcare covered. Jennifer Liston-Smith of Bright Horizons explained why it does not.

The arithmetic

The funded hours are 30 a week, but only for 38 weeks of the year, in line with school terms. Spread across the year, that is around 22 hours a week. It is also funded childcare rather than free childcare, and demand for places is growing fast.

That leaves a gap of well over a working day a week, plus the school holidays, which lands on working parents and, in turn, on their employers.

What to do this week

• Do not assume parents with funded hours have full-time cover. Ask what they need.
• Check what your benefits offer covers in school holidays and for short-notice gaps.
• Make flexible patterns available around term dates, not just as an exception.

Applies to England's funded childcare entitlement for working parents.

Read the clip transcript

I think employers are getting nervous about the availability of places because there is a huge demand growing because people are thinking free childcare really it's funded childcare but it's really important to remember that that's 30 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year so if you average it across the year that's around 22 hours a week which is not a full-time coverage so again I think there are still employers thinking about how are we going to round that out for people