The Labour Party has vowed to create 10,000 new childcare places if it wins the election: the party says it will use empty classrooms at existing primary schools , where intakes are shrinking because of falling birth rates, to create 3,000 new nurseries. The extra spaces are badly needed: research published in March by Coram Family and Childcare found that fewer than a third of local councils have enough nursery spaces for children under two, down from 42 per cent last year. Sophie Spence, 32, was made redundant last year, shortly after she discovered she was pregnant with her first baby, due in August.
Having put her child’s name down for four nurseries in her local area — and paid out £1,200 in deposits to do so — she says the earliest they can guarantee a place is September 2026. My husband and I got married in May 2023. We had always said we wanted kids, and I was lucky to fall pregnant by November.
We live in a block of flats in Crystal Palace near three other families. As soon as I announced my pregnancy in January, those women texted me and said, “we’ve heard your lovely news – have you put your name down for nursery ?”. I hadn’t even had my 20-week scan! They said, “no, seriously.
Consider it.” But I was made redundant from my job as a project manager for a baby food company when I was nine weeks pregnant, and I thought I’d be fine until I figured out what I was doing next, so I waited. That’s partly because the deposits for these nurseries �.