17 December 2025
SDLP Foyle MLA Sinéad McLaughlin has questioned how the Education Minister’s draft Executive Early Learning and Childcare Strategy will be funded.
The Executive agreed to a public consultation on the draft strategy on Wednesday.
Ms McLaughlin also raised concerns about its publication just days before Christmas, despite having been promised in the autumn.
Foyle MLA Ms McLaughlin said:
“Families have been waiting decades for the Executive to deliver a properly resourced childcare strategy that reflects the real experiences of parents, children, providers and the wider economy. When Stormont returned, we were told this would be a top priority. Nearly two years on, all that has been agreed is a draft strategy for consultation without Executive approval or funding in place.
“The SDLP recognises the ambition within the draft strategy, including plans to significantly reduce childcare costs and the longer-term aim of subsidising more than half of costs for working families. This is an approach the SDLP has consistently argued for. Last year, we set out our own proposals through the SDLP Childcare Guarantee, with a clear commitment to halving childcare fees for parents by 2030.
“The Minister has acknowledged that delivering this strategy will require around £500 million over the next four years. That figure exposes the central problem. There is still no agreed multi-year budget and no clarity on how this level of investment will be secured. I am also concerned that there are no immediate mechanisms to support parents as childcare costs continue to rise, having increased sharply over the past five years.
“This strategy has been sitting with the Executive for over a month and was promised in the autumn, yet families are only seeing it now at the very end of the year. Publishing it so close to Christmas will feel far too late for parents who are already struggling with rising childcare costs and mounting financial pressure. Ambition is welcome, but without funding and urgency it risks becoming another missed opportunity.”