Parents promised more free childcare by party leaders

Scots have been promised more free childcare as the country's political leaders made their pitches to voters ahead of May's election.

Parties are offering tax cuts for parents, more funded care for nursery-age children and help to get parents back into work.

Currently, three and four-year-olds in Scotland can get up to 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare a year.

Two-year-olds are also eligible for the cover if they have been in the care system or their parents receive certain benefits. In 2025, 14% of two-year-olds received the childcare offer.

The Scottish government pays councils more than £1bn a year to deliver the funded childcare programme.

In England, all three and four-year-olds are entitled to 570 hours of government-funded early years provision per year, though some with eligible working parents can receive up to 1,140 hours a year.

Eligible children aged between nine months and two-year-old can also claim up to 570 hours a year.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said his party would increase tax breaks for parents through the tax-free childcare scheme.

The UK government programme allows parents to set up an account which both they and the government pay into, to help cover childcare costs.

Under Scottish Labour's plans, for every £80 parents pay in they would get £20 from the UK government and £10 from the Scottish government.

Sarwar said this would deliver an extra top up per child of £1,000 a year, or an extra £2,000 for disabled children.

His party also announced plans to provide two free weeks of summer holiday clubs for all children aged from 5 to 11.

Sarwar said the policies - which he insisted were affordable - would "transform both the cost-of-living crisis, family budgets, but also help more women get into work".

First Minister and SNP leader John Swinney has pledged to offer year-round childcare for every child from nine months to 12 years-old.

He said the policy - which aims to ensure breakfast, afterschool and childminder provision - would require £500m in funding.

The system would be tapered depending on income, with those on the lowest income receiving the support for free.

Swinney, campaigning in Dundee, said that funded childcare for three and four-year-olds had expanded from 412 hours to 1,140 under the SNP government, but that he wanted to go further.

He added: "That's important to make sure that families can access the labour market, they can have support with their childcare costs and we can ensure that childcare is not the significant burden of costs that it is to some families today."

The Scottish Greens have committed to extending 1,140 hours of funded childcare to all two-year-olds, with 570 hours of cover to every child aged from six months to two-years-old.

The party also wants to ensure that the childcare provision kicks in as soon as a child turns two. Currently, some councils apply the cover from the start of a school term rather than from a child's third birthday.

This can mean that parents of a child born in March have to wait until August to access their entitlement.

Co-leader Gillian Mackay, in South Lanarkshire, said: "We need to make sure we are investing in families, making sure that women can get back into the workplace because not doing anything on childcare is just going to increase the pressure on family finances."

Mackay signalled that the party would fund the proposals, including increasing the childcare workforce, by hiking taxes on wealthier Scots.

Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, campaigning in East Dunbartonshire, told BBC Scotland News there was a particular lack of childcare provision for parents outside the labour market and said his party supported help to get them back into work.

Asked how much this would cost, Cole-Hamilton replied: "Ultimately this is an investment that will reap dividends in terms of economic growth.

"People are adrift of the labour market. they are a drain on the economy, we want to give them the power to get back to work."

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said people who choose to have a family should not be discouraged from working.

He told the BBC: "The cost of childcare is so prohibitive that some parents may be better off staying at home and not working. That's completely wrong."

Findlay said his party would set out "costed, credible and deliverable" plans for childcare in its manifesto.

Reform UK, which did not hold a campaign event on Tuesday, did not mention childcare in its party manifesto.

However, the party has pledged a cap on marginal tax rates of more 50% to help ensure that "work always pays".

The party also said that savings made from cutting welfare would be used to fund back-to-work schemes and apprenticeships.

Would you like to be in the audience for BBC Scotland's leaders debate?

The special episode of Debate Night, hosted by Stephen Jardine, will take place between 19:00 and 20:30 on Sunday 12 April in Paisley Town Hall.

The leaders of the Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Greens, Scottish Labour, Scottish Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party, and Reform UK have been invited to take part.

You can apply to be part of the audience at bbc.co.uk/debatenight or by clicking this link.

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