Child Care (Hansard, 28 November 1997)

§ The Prime Minister

The Government made a manifesto commitment to produce a national child care strategy which will help parents, especially women, to balance family and working life. Since 1 May, important steps have been taken across a number of Departments to carry forward this commitment, including this week's major announcement by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer of a £300 million investment in out-of-school child care over the next five years.

This initiative is intended to deliver an out-of-school club in every community across the UK. We have already announced in the Budget that the disregard for child care costs in Family Credit, Disability Working Allowance, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit will be increased from a maximum of £60 to £100 a week from June 1998, as well as a £4 billion new deal package, including provision of work experience and training for young unemployed people who wish to work in child care and help for lone parents wanting to go back to work.

My right hon. Friend the Chancellor announced this week that, to ensure that work pays for families with children, we will consider a working families tax credit, building on successful elements of family credit and involving better help through the tax system for child care costs.

We are currently working on a range of features of a national child care strategy and will be publishing proposals in the Spring.