Childcare plans ‘always meant to be phased’, says FMpublished at 14:25 BST
14:25 BST
Now a series of questions on Plaid Cymru’s plans to expand childcare provision.
Kiera Marshall, a Plaid MS, says “universality of this childcare offer is key, so that parents can get back to work, and not a single child slips through that gap of provision”.
But Reform MS Cristiana Emsley asks how Rhun ap Iorwerth’s government can “promise parents a flexible childcare offer when it still cannot tell them, or this Senedd, what the full policy will cost?”
The first minister says his government has “put the money in for the first phase, which is the rollout of the 12.5 hours in every part of Wales within this first financial year, and it’s £55m”.
Ap Iorwerth says that the “end of the rollout in the government term, you’re talking about a significant sum” of £300m to £400m “depending on “uptake and so on”.
“There are lots of different factors, but this was meant to be, and is being done, in a phased way, which is which is the only way that can be done,” he adds.
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