Parents of young children could see their nursery costs cut by around £40 a week under new government plans.
Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi is expected to announce this week that rules on the number of children each adult can care for will be relaxed.
It comes after the Trades Union Congress (TUC) warned that childcare costs for parents with young children are “putting enormous pressure on family budgets” as the cost of living crisis continues.
The UK has one of the most expensive childcare systems in the world, and staff-to-child ratio rules in nurseries are stricter in England than in Scotland.
While both England and Scotland currently allow a ratio of one adult to three children under two, this is changing for older children.
Scotland allows a ratio of one adult to five children over the age of two, while England allows a ratio of one adult to four children.
According to The Times, the Department for Education is expected to bring the rules in England in line with those in Scotland.
This has the potential to reduce childcare costs by up to 15 per cent, or up to £40 a week for a family paying £265 a week to care for a two-year-old.
Zahawi is also expected to ease the rules on where babysitters can work, allowing more people to become babysitters.
Current rules mean that childminders must look after children in their own home or at someone else’s property.
However, many potential babysitters do not live in homes that meet these criteria. The changes will allow childminders to spend a lot of time looking after children in other places, such as community centers or village halls.
Last month the TUC published figures showing that nursery fees for children under the age of two have risen by more than £2,000 a year since 2010.
The average annual nursery bill for a family with a young child was £4,992 in 2010, but has risen to more than £7,200 by 2021, the organization said.
More than a dozen organisations, including The Fawcett Society, Maternity Action, The Women’s Budget Group and Mumsnet, said last year that inadequate childcare policies were leaving tens of thousands of working parents financially devastated.
The groups found in a survey of more than 20,000 working parents that the vast majority (97 per cent) say childcare in the UK is too expensive, with a third saying they spend more on childcare than rent or mortgage .
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