Childcare Affordability Programme

The Mayor with children at the Harmony Nursery, West London

In November 2005 the Mayor and Beverly Hughes, Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families, announced that the Mayor's Childcare Affordability Programme (CAP) will subsidise 3255 childcare places in nurseries across London as part of the first phase of the programme.

Parents interested in CAP-subsidised childcare places should contact their local Children's Information Service.

This first phase of the CAP has two strands, both aimed at enabling more parents on lower incomes to remain in, or return to, full or part-time work and flexible work:

Full daycare places will be subsidised to keep the cost down to £175 a week, the eligible cost limit for support for childcare costs through the Working Tax Credit.
Incentives to provide more flexible hours of care will be provided to nurseries and National Child Minding Association accredited childminding networks attached to nurseries.

The CAP-funded places are the first of an expected 10,000 places over the three years of the programme. A second round of bidding for places by London boroughs is expected to begin in January 2006.

This three-year programme is funded jointly by the London Development Agency (LDA) and the Department for Education and Skills. It is the largest region-specific childcare programme of its kind in England, providing £33m towards good quality affordable childcare for families in the capital.

The Mayor said:
'I gave a commitment in the election last year to make London a more child- and parent-friendly city, with a bus fleet accessible to parents with buggies and pushchairs, the abolition of child bus and tram fares, and more affordable childcare. The delivery of well over three thousand subsidised childcare places is a key part of that programme. This funding will make a real difference to the lives of thousands of families in London. The Childcare Affordability Programme will provide funding so that high quality childcare can be subsidised and made more accessible to more low-income families in London.'

The Mayor's Childcare Strategy was published in November 2003. Its development was funded by the LDA, which is a major partner in delivering the strategy.