Wales too reliant on family and friends for childcare

The Welsh Government’s statistical bulletin on childcare shows that parents are too reliant on family and friends for childcare. It also showed that too many parents struggle to access appropriate childcare during early mornings, after school and at weekends.

The statistics showed that 76% of parents in Wales utilise free childcare from family and friends. 51% of these parents used between one and ten hours of free childcare from family and friends a week. 23% used between 10 and 20 hours a week.

Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds commented:

Affordable and accessible childcare is essential to building a fairer economy. Too many parents, especially mothers, are unable to go back to work even if they want to due to the exorbitant costs of childcare. This must change.

We all value the huge help friends and family provide in helping care for our children, but we cannot take this help for granted. Our ageing population means that increasing numbers of people will have their own care responsibilities; limiting their ability to help others.

We must expand our childcare coverage. The Welsh Liberal Democrats are fighting for universal childcare for working parents, from 9 months to 4 years, so that parents can access childcare if and when they want it. This will allow us to build a fairer economy and a more equal society, where everyone has

Jeremy Hunt’s Financial Statement Offers Only Uncertainty for Welsh Families

Commenting on Jeremy Hunt’s shock economic intervention Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds MS said: “Hunt’s statement points to the despicable damage that the Conservatives continue to wreck on households, businesses and individuals. All his statement today has done is cause wider uncertainty for households and the businesses sector. “The Conservatives are trashing the economy with every day that passes and creating havoc for peoples’ mortgages. Now they are planning to inflict even more suffering by raising energy bills, hiking taxes and slashing crucial public services. These service cuts will see knock-on effects to the Welsh Government as budgets for key departments like education and health may be squeezed even tighter. “What’s worst is they are still determined to protect oil and gas giants from a proper windfall tax and they are still cutting taxes for the big banks. “Truss and Kwarteng are symptoms of a wider problem. This entire Conservative par

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Welsh Lamb Exports to the US Welcome - But the Conservatives Are Paving Over Other Cracks

Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds MS. "While we will of course always welcome more export opportunities for our fantastic Welsh produce, Liz Truss and the Conservatives are trying to plaster over the cracks regarding the damage they have already done to the Welsh farming sector. "That is that they sold out Welsh farmers for cheap trade deals with Australia and New Zealand for nothing in return. This was spearheaded by Liz Truss despite Australian commentators even being in disbelief about how lopsided the deals were. “Tariff free access by New Zealand in particular poses a direct threat to the survival of the Welsh lamb industry and the communities it supports, including Welsh language communities. "If Liz Truss was supportive of such poor trade deals already, it does beg the question how much more damage she could do to the sector as the UK seeks revised trading arrangements with the likes of the US, Argentina and Brazil. “This is of cou

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