The SNP is promising more help with childcare costs, from babyhood to secondary, a move that would reduce costs for families and help more parents back into work. But, worryingly, it comes from an electioneering First Minister without any detail on how it would be paid for or delivered, writes Herald columnist Rebecca McQuillan

It’s quite a moment when as a parent you finally reach the point you can stop paying for regular childcare. Costs seem to vary a lot, but for each day in the week when a child is in after-school care (club or childminder), parents will pay £20-£30. So for two children in after-school care three days a week, you’ll be paying at least £4,500 a year and up to £7,000 – and that’s just during term time. Holiday care could be hundreds or even thousands more.

The cost of that care makes the economics of work difficult, particularly for people in low paid jobs. Parents who are keen to work sometimes run the numbers and find it’s not worth it. So John Swinney’s offer of childcare for every child from nine months to the end of primary school, could actually be as “transformational” as Mr Swinney claims – in theory.

Free childcare is currently available for all three- and four-year-olds for 1140 hours (30 hours a week for 38 weeks a year) and there’s further support available for some two-year-olds. Though much better than it used to be, that’s an island of support in a sea of childcare costs. The First Minister promises to contribute more towards those costs starting at the end of a typical maternity leave and continuing until the start of secondary school, promising between £1,400 and £11,000 a year dependent on a family’s need.

“We will deliver a brand-new childcare system that fits around families, rather than expecting families to fit around the system”, declared Mr Swinney, adding that childcare would be year-round and paid for with an investment of half a billion quid.

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Well 10 out of 10 for recognising what’s needed. This is a critically important part of what must be done to tackle child poverty, a mission backed by the whole parliament. It would benefit all families though, enabling more parents to keep a job going and improve the household finances. It’s a thoroughly good idea.

And yet I find myself doubting this promise. Two things trouble me. The first is the “who” of all this extra childcare, and the second is the “how”.

First of all, who is going to provide all this care when there aren’t enough providers or staff to cover existing demand? One thing they don’t tell you at your antenatal appointments is that part of your required new skillset as a parent will be the capacity to hunt down nursery and after-school club places.

I knew people who put their children’s names on nursery waiting lists before they’d even been born. “Ohhh…” one shocked mum said to me when she realised I hadn’t sorted nursery care yet even though my daughter was a practically geriatric six-month-old. “You might struggle to find a place now.” I did.

The scramble for nursery places still goes on, but finding appropriate after-school care can be even harder, with suburban and rural areas often having nowhere near enough of it. I’ve known mums who’ve almost lost out on jobs due to shortages of after-school care and have only been saved by hybrid working. It’s not ideal to be working at home with young kids in the background but sometimes it’s the only option.

The First Minister says parents tell him “the working day doesn’t stop at 3pm”, but not all nurseries cover realistic working hours. Council-run nurseries sometimes only operate only during term time, may offer limited hours and are often only for some two-year-olds or even three-year-olds and up.

It’s independent nurseries that parents often turn to when they need care for children from babyhood to five, running until 6pm all year round. It’s been a long-standing concern that in spite of this, local authorities, which distribute the government’s 1140 hours funding to nurseries, sometimes give their own nurseries more funding per child per hour than independent providers get. This can allow them to pay staff higher wages, which the independents say makes recruitment and retention harder for them.

It’s hard to see how this supports the government’s long-term strategic aim of helping parents work. In England, Labour introduced funded nursery places for children of nine months and up last September, putting England’s childcare offer ahead of Scotland’s, but it hasn’t been tears-free. Many English nurseries are struggling for staff. The UK government has given some grants to schools to set up nurseries, but there have been cases where this has put existing independent providers in an area out of business, inadvertently reducing the amount of childcare available for babies and toddlers (because, once again, it’s private providers who are offering places to the youngest children). The Scottish Government needs to learn the lessons of all this.

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Tim McLachlan, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association Scotland, is all for childcare expansion but says “the system is broken” and wants the Scottish Government to “fix the myriad of existing issues first, otherwise the current problems just become bigger problems”.

“Sufficient funding is the key principle,” he says. “Get the amount of investment right from the beginning, work with the sector on what is deliverable, provide clear statutory guidance that is consistently delivered across different local authorities to support recruitment and, crucially, retention of a quality workforce, make the offer fair to all types of providers and give parents true choice – from this solid bedrock a successful system will flourish.”

So how will it all be paid for? Mr Swinney’s childcare bonanza was presented alongside other expensive promises, including up to £10,000 for first-time buyers towards a deposit on a home. Great. But where’s the cash coming from? Audit Scotland has already warned there will be a funding gap of nearly £5bn by 2029/30, even without these promises.

Prof Graeme Roy, chair of watchdog the Scottish Fiscal Commission, recently said: “Political parties must be realistic and open when making new commitments ahead of the May election,” calling for them to make clear where spending pledges require additional taxes or cuts to other budgets. Mr Swinney declined to do that, so we are left to wonder: is this a genuine pledge or a headline for an SNP leaflet, which could be watered down or shelved? Until there is a proper plan for how to fund and staff it, then it remains a tantalising dream.

Rebecca McQuillan is a journalist specialising in politics and Scottish affairs. She can be found on Bluesky at @becmcq.bsky.social and on X at @BecMcQ

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